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Hm ... really hope it's just a bad RAW / CoalGuys being terrible and the first episode of Asu no Yoichi is ... well ... low quality. Plus, having to FORCE Widescreen on it and getting ugly stretching makes me sad. Then again, fanservice is the FIRST THING YOU SEE ... maybe I should just lower expectations.

I need more patience I want to see what of the new season is good but all the SpeedSubbing ones are pretty LQ or poor translations. T.T gg did a good job with Code Geass so ... maybe Maria Holic won't be terrible. That's next I guess.

Highlight so far: The voice of Lelouch being ... well, a perverted bastard in Akikan. The plot and what-not may otherwise lose me but this? I MUST HAVE MORE. Sadly, just Chihiro and CoalGuys so far though I think AniYoshi is on it so ... we'll see.

"As long as it's about money, you would release and spread open your opening for anyone..." -- [s]Lelouch[/s] [s]Kraft[/s] ... oh whatever.

Also, moving on to Vampire Knight I guess to remove it from the backlog (plus Guilty is over now!). That or Minami-ke ... since I've had both of them forever+1 and I suppose I should get those over with for Okaeri. Ooh, maybe Natsume Yuujinchou ... or Tower of Druaga ... man, why's there got to be a lot of sequels in this season? Especially for stuff I never bothered to watch

Edit: ...

...

...

Maria Holic is so not what I thought it would be based on the description. Not. At. All. Then again, I also apparently DIDN'T READ THE WHOLE DESCRIPTION. Yeah ... figure my surprise there.

"Tokimeki Love Simulation, Maria Holic~! Now which girl will you go after?!"

I thought the other Maria series was the yuri one ... oh man, confused ...

...OH WAIT IT'S A TRAP...

So now that I'm waiting for crunchyroll to translate and release the next episodes of Skip Beat (hate... hate...) I decided to try to pick up again from where I left off with the other animes I was watching.

Toradora of course! ^_^ I'm up to episode 6 now. LOL, I love Ami! Awww, Taiga is still the best. :3 I want to make an avvy from the picture of Taiga crying 'cause she thinks Kitamura hates her for what she did to Ami. WAY TOO CUTE!! XD

But, I can't do that unless I make a siggy for Toradora, too, and I don't feel like putting in the energy.

No offense, but Crunchyroll blows >_>

I watched Close the Last Door and both Ikoku Irokoi Romantan OVAs last night.

Close the Last Door:
[spoiler]
The animation was that weird "trying to stick to the original manga but really should have tried better with proportions" mess that tends to happen with yaoi OVAs and the like. Not bad, but the character designs were iffy. Love Mode-ish triangle faces with big lips and long limbs/wide hands... Not quite my style.

Storywise, it's fairly cliche. Nagai is the bestman to his coworker Saitou, whom he loves. After the wedding, he drowns his sorrows at the bar and encounters Honda, who is likewise out of sorts due to his love for the bride, Kaoru.

Two bishi drinking at a bar, so naturally Nagai ends up in Honda's hotel room. Honda cares for the younger man, who has drank too much, which leads to some tasteful lovemaking. The rest of the OVA deals with Nagai torn between Saitou, his crush, and Honda, our seme.

Fairly cute, standard fare. Nothing especially original... the story stays close within the comfort zone of a love triangle. There's a bit of a shake-up when Honda, Saitou and Nagai attend a drinking party -- one of the women used to be involved with Nagai. The characters stay fairly believable and consistant throughout.
[/spoiler]

Ikoku Irokoi Romantan
[spoiler]
A yakuza bocchan and his wife-to-bed are on a Mediterreanean Cruise for their nuptials, although not everything is blissful for the couple. Childhood friends, fiesty Kaoru and stubborn Ranmaru are ill-suited for matrimony, but their arranged marriage is out of their control.

Ranmaru meets the dashing Albert Valentino, known as Al, who us a handsome Italian obsessed with all things Japanese, including Ranmaru. They quickly become involved after Kaoru kicks Ranmaru out from the honeymoon suite. Al sneaks off before morning leaving a goodbye note, in typical Italian woman -- er - manizer way...
Except, at the disembarking, Ranmaru and crew are seen off by a handsome blond Italian -- it's Al!

The second OVA deals with Ranmaru and Kaoru's continued rocky honeymoon, although the wife quickly fades to the background as the action focuses on Al and Ranmaru. I won't spoil anything, but the 2nd OVA was by far my favorite of the three I watched.

The art and animation are crisp and colorful. It's based on a manga, which the art style slightly mimics, but the characters definitely look more standard-anime than in Close the Last Door. The character designs are very good, too. Ranmaru has some uke-feminity, but is still very masculine. He looks handsome stalking around in his half-open kimono like he does. Al is equally handsome, although his shoulders are almost too broad compared to Ranmaru.

The voice acting is fantastic -- neither lead actor is especially well known, although scanning the credits for each reveals some surprises. Ranmaru is voiced by the same seiyuu as Alford from KKM, whereas Al is voiced by Fuuma from X. Interesting!

On the whole, I enjoyed Ikoku Irokoi Romantan.
[/spoiler]

The video quality, though, is terrible I know, it's Youtube so ... whatever ... but I love watching stuff and having it look AWESOME and not ... well, Youtube. The subs don't seem bad though. I'm just picky like that

I have no idea if Ureshii stopped. They're slow though (Episode 7 was their last release on January 1st) ... but they did say they were continuing then even after the crunchyroll announcement though things may have changed. Worth noting though ... I can't find WHERE they released Skip Beat 7 (that is, I can find the torrent but neither Ureshii or Yoroshiku's sites show the release).

Anyway, starting Special A ... why? Because it's "yet-another-love-comedy" and I keep seeming to watch them. Incidentally, the male lead is the voice of Lelouch, Craft, and so-on (Fukuyama Jun) and the female lead is apparently Anya (Code Geass) ... think she was also Mitsuru (Suzumiya) and Kaede (Shuffle!). Though ... she's nothing like the loli knight but still.

...so yeah, Akikan and him being "...wait, did he just ... what ...?!" made me want to watch something of the same genre with a more uh ... normal role. Not this "SPREAD YOUR LEGS" kind of thing...

Edit: Took a break to watch Ga-rei Zero ... <3 Natsuki.
[spoiler]You know ... until she dies in the first episode. Like everyone else. In a bloody mess.

...

...

...

I was drinking coffee too. I may never again in fear of Katana wielding women.[/spoiler]

Also picked up Chihiro's Skip Beat 13 ... THEY ADDED KARAOKE.

I AM CONFUSED.

Scy, could you recommend me anime similar to lucky star? Or some good comedy series?

Sadly ... I have little on that genre Minami-ke for a slice of life comedy (in which I suppose Hidamari Sketch [NEVER SEEN DON'T HURT ME IF IT'S NOT COMEDY!] and Hyakko fit).

Hayate no Gotoku seems to be hit-or-miss for others here but I loved it It is more plot-driven than Lucky Star and the like (in the sense there's an actual underlying plot) but it definitely has a feel of "...this just happened for the sake of comedy." Most the humor is derived from parodies of ... well, anything. Lucky Star focused more on other Kyo-Ani works and Hayate is a pretty broad sweep (notably shounen series and other voice roles of the cast).

To be honest, if you don't know a lot of random serieses to get the references (i.e., mimicking art, character or other names, and maybe some lines / scenes*) then the funny is a lot less there. I mean, it covers a LOT of stuff so it's hard to watch a full episode and not get things unless you've lived in a cave for the past few years. The knowledge helps a lot since the lines are censored for the TV release and I can't seem to find the DVD ones; could've sworn some group had started them but ... oh well.

In the same vein of otaku-dom, Genshiken. I haven't gotten around to this (...and by now, never will >>) so I can't say much about it outside of ... uh ... day in the life of otaku?!?! And not the super-creepy-"Oh my god get help now" Chaos;Head variety.

*For example, there's a Gundam parody of Bright's hitting Amuro and the, "Not even my father ever hit me!" ... so there's quite a few times they'll quote "famous" lines from shows randomly. Or poses as they parody Evangelion and Gendou's ... well, stare ... pretty often. These references are all from big name shows though; nothing obscure and out there.

Edit: Can't believe I forgot Excel Saga (and Azumanga Daioh but Kimiko got that one! And Paniponi DASH). Worth noting it's pretty old and calling it insane is a bit generous. A bit.

Paranoia - Similar to Lucky☆Star I'd say are:
Azumanga Daioh
Minami-ke
Pani Poni Dash!
Hidamari Sketch

You'll probably also want to watch The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya because Lucky☆Star contains a lot of references to it.

Id recommend hidamari sketch most of all thouse mentioned above.

Depends on who you ask for that >> Hidamari is the worst rated of those listed (though, of note, x365 did do a lot better!). Not that you should really have that much stock in those but still. I'll comment more when I finish the series (currently finding the subs now >>).

To be honest, unless time and/or space (or money in the event of dubs ... is there even a Hidamari dub?) is an issue, there's not much stopping you from trying an episode or two of each. I passed on Hidamari due to the art and plot (...ironically, art ... go figure. Plus I wasn't that aware it was a comedy >>) but, hey, if it's getting this much press here I'll give it a try. Nothing to lose really.

And then hide before I get murdered savagely for this post~

Edit: <3 Yoshinoya's squeaking (+ Isumi's voice!!! [Hayate no Gotoku]). Also, Hiro is made of win ^^. Kind of wish my subs didn't have the random commentary though. Oh well.

Anyway, the series is indeed pretty charming ... though, to be honest, it's really not all that funny so far (4 episodes in). Though I did chuckle at the He Is My Master outfit from Episode 3 ... though I don't think she voiced anyone from HIMM (Matsuki Miyu). Hm...probably same animator (SHAFT isn't it for Hidamari?) or something (ala Lucky Star's constant Haruhi references due to KyoAni ... and, well, Hirano Aya). WHO KNOWS.

Though ... Episode 3:
[spoiler]Am I missing a reference with the doll on the cushion? And ... well ... the cushion changing (until it just vanishes out of scene). I kept rewinding over this part wondering if I missed stuff like this before this episode [/spoiler]

Genshiken first episode ...
[spoiler]THEY GOT ME. I stopped and double checked my download and everything until I googled the series name >> They even made up two fansubbing groups for the subbing of Kujibiki Unbalance's intro (Slowlar [Solar] and Anime-Sloth [Anime-Faith]).

T.T

I FAIL HARDCORE.[/spoiler]

Think I spoiled myself hardcore somehow on this series and I don't even know how. Just glancing at the characters I remembered the pairings and other things. Hrm...HOW THAT BE T.T

I picked up Maria+Holic, done by SHAFT. It's basically about a lesbian (or bisexual, I dunno) who transferred to an all-girl's school, but due to unfortunate circumstances she winds up as the 'pet' of a sadistic cross-dresser. It's better than it sounds! >_>;;

Other than that, I'm also watching Nodame Cantabile.