Yup, you heard me right, I’m moving to Kokidokom, you can get to my site by clicking the link here or by clicking on the picture of Ayu (I chose that image because I wanted to be comforted with the thought that someone out there is enjoying some heat and some good rest).

It’s been a long 14 months and a half at this location, but change is good and I hope to see you all again at my new site!

http://animeprincess.kokidokom.net/

Drunk Nagisa FTW!

Being back at school has really effected my blogging time, so I’m sorry for all the late posts. I’ve decided to make this post short though, considering it has been awhile since the episode was released and thus, retelling the events in the episode in specific would prove useless. Anyway, on to the adorableness of this episode! The main events in this episode is that Tomoya wanted to get the approval from Akio to marry Nagisa, but before Tomoya could even ask him anything, Akio simply said that he would only agree with whatever Tomoya said if he would be able to hit one of Akio’s pitch. Except, that task is harder for Tomoya with his messed up arm and such. Though, with enough determination and practice, he accomplishes the task and does get Nagisa’s hand in marriage. In other events in the episode, in the third term of Nagisa’s school year, she gets sick again, but she doesn’t have to repeat again considering she had an almost perfect attendance record throughout the time before. Though, when she is sick, the only thing that she really misses that makes an impact on her, is her graduation.

Yet, the dedicated Tomoya decides to find a solution to this, which is by calling all his friends up and organizing a date where they can all meet back at the school when Nagisa is better to give her the graduation that she deserves. Nagisa’s graduation scene was really touching, she gave a whole speech that simply filled you with good feelings! Though, we then get an unexpected ending that I guess was more abrupt over anything, which is that Nagisa and Tomoya are now married! We didn’t get to see any ceremony or anything! I never really liked the whole wedding episode in series, but I at least wanted to see the kiss! All we really got was an adorable holding hand moment, but it wasn’t anything new! As much as I was disappointed at least the rest of the episode was really cute. Also, as I mentioned in the above image, one of the best parts of the episode was without a doubt the scene where Nagisa gets drunk. She got drunk extremely fast though, but when she, she started demanding to be closer to Tomoya, which is when she started asking Tomoya if he was in love with her mother.

Although, when Tomoya turned to Sanae for help, he was disappointed to discover that she got drunk as well. It really was an extremely comical moment, that could really only be seen to “believe”. In general, besides the fact that no kiss is apparently in site, it was another really emotional and touching episode. All the characters really seem more mature now and this episode showed this best.. For example, Tomoya seems older, especially at the begins of the episode when he was wearing that very fancy outfit. Also, at the graduation, when we got to see all the characters again, we realized that within a year, everyone has changed dramatically, the biggest change for a character is without a doubt Youhei’s. Much like in the Tomoyo chapter, he has now dyed his hair black and is working at a very strict company. I really think that the second season of Clannad may be better than the first, either way it really is delivering the same hits that the first season did, which I say in a positive way. I have an idea where the series is going, but no matter what happens, I just want to see the kiss!

Maria†Holic

I was actually really surprised by how much I enjoyed it! After reading the premise, I was expecting something stupider but it turned out to be surprisingly funny. The animation was pretty good and the soundtrack was just average. The characters are definitely the best part and after the first episode, you already get a pretty good impression on how they are going to be like for the rest of the series. Also, I’m glad to hear that Shinbou Akiyuki (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Hidamari Sketch) is the director behind it all, which basically means that the craziness has truly only begun! I’m still a bit nervous for future episodes and if they will keep my interest, but I do have hope, considering this really seems to be a promising series!

White Album

Our main character Fujii is pretty boring, but we’re all watching this for Aya Hirano and Nana Mizuki anyway! I was originally excited for this series, until I heard from many that it was actually boring, but after seeing it for myself, I actually enjoyed it. The animation is great and naturally, the soundtrack already seems fantastic! The story looks slow and in a way very realistic, but when it comes to a romance, that could really be a positive if they play it out right. The series has a lot of potential and I think I might blog because I want to see what will happen to this series because I really have high hopes.

Another random image to start off this post

This is the day everyone finds out that I have a hair fetish…

10.Yoite (Nabari no Ou)

What more can I say besides the fact that he is really just one cool guy? He had some great development in the series, at first he’s the supper strong guy with the whole Kira technique, but soon enough you find yourself feeling badly for him. He always intrigued me because he really was the “mystery man” of Nabari no Ou.

9. Sebastian Michaelis (Kuroshitsuji)

This year, was truly a year for the butlers, and Sebastien proved himself worthy of not only my list, but to why butlers rock in the first place! Though, his outstanding butler abilities aren’t only limited to common chores, but he can dodge bullets and win fights within seconds, he can even avoid death altogether with. He truly is the best demon butler you can ever have!

8. Raven (Hakushaku to Yousei)

Raven is really the only reason I keep watching Earl and Fairy, besides himself the series is kind of boring. He also shows how cool servants can really be. He has the awesome glowing eyes and the mature attitude that somehow always manages to draw you in rather than away. Yay to more Butlers!

7. Casshern (Casshern)

Besides the fact that I am absolutely in love with his head of hair, I also think he has some other great qualities. For example, he has that whole mystery-man feel to him. He also can fight like nobody else, even though he doesn’t really want to, which shows that he also has a sensitive side. He also has some amazing arm muscles! In all, he’s just one cool guy…robot, cyborg thing.

6.  Kuukai Souma (Shugo Chara!)

When he graduated and left the guardians, I was absolutely torn! Not only does his character always bring a small to my face, but his transformation is also pretty cool (unlike Tadase). He is really underrated, but I consider that a good case because when it comes to Shugo Chara, some of the fans can be very annoying… He has a lot of very good qualities, he’s cute, energetic and athletic! Even if he doesn’t appear often anymore, I still don’t forget him and I don’t think I will anytime soon.

5. Death the Kid (Soul Eater)

Death the Kid truly is Awesomeness! By his first appearance in the series, I knew he was going to be my favourite character in Soul Eater. Even though his symmetry obsession gets annoying, I don’t see how anyone could just strait out say it wasn’t somewhat amusing. He also has some great hair and his weapons are all just so great! He can use his guns upside down, while pulling on the triggers with his pinkie fingers, which is very impressive when you think about it; my fingers would be too weak and short…

4. Senri Shiki (Vampire Knight)

Shiki is amazing! He has that whole bed-head thing going for him. Although I appreciate him more in the manga, I’m at least happy that he gets more screen time in the anime. This has really been his year to shine and even if he still isn’t getting all the attention he deserves, he is much more noticed than before. He may be just a side character, but his aloof attitude and looks have brought him to the top! I was originally not a fan of him, until I really realized that he was the only one who never managed to annoy me and after that, I slowly started to realize more things about him that I loved until I really became fan!

3. Ikuto Tsukiyomi (Shugo Chara!)

Ikuto is the best thing about Shugo Chara! I don’t think I would ever be as big of a fan if he didn’t appear in it. He may technically be on the “bad side”, but it’s evident that he has morals. Also, I originally liked that quality about him (where is the villain appreciation these days?), but afterward we learned that he evidently didn’t really want to be with anyone from Easter at all. Not only do I have a hair-fetish, but I also love my Cat-Boys and naturally Ikuto would fall in this category. Though, in general he is such an appealing character, I would imagine it would be very hard to dislike him.

2. Tomoya Okazaki (Clannad)

If anyone reads my posts on Clannad, I’m sure they have noticed that I am always bound to mention something about Tomoya. On the superficial aspect, he’s completely gorgeous! He has everything going for him, but also when it comes to personality, I love him just as much! His character has developed so much, he used to be that sexy delinquent and now he’s a caring and emotional hard working guy. What more could I ask for? He really is one of my favourite leads from a series in a while!

1. Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass)

I know this is probably expected, but it’s kind of hard not to love Lelouch. He can be totally evil, but you can without a doubt, tell he at least has good intentions and he would basically sacrifice himself for the good of the world! Something about devious and intelligent people has always been a turn on and his nice hair and purple eyes are also very appealing! In this year of Code Geass, he proved how awesome he really can be and how worthy he is of this list, I’m sure anyone who has seen the series would agree. I miss you Lelouch!!!

Vampire Knight Guilty is finally over, though I think I may have actually enjoyed it?

Well, when I finished watching this episode, I wanted to see what others though of it and I was surprised to see how many people were ranting about how bad it was! This came as such a surprise to me because I notice a few problems, but the ending, even though a bit unoriginal was not that bad, well at least for my standards of an usual episode of Vampire Knight. Anyway, I’ll go into more details when I get to my final impression. So, what happens in this episode is that Zero is now super strong and with this power he basically kills off Rido in one blow, which was pretty pathetic on Rido’s part. The fight was without a doubt the lamest part of the episode, Rido was meant to be this super strong guy, but judging by how easily he was killed, I just get the impression that his frightening appearance doesn’t match his strength at all. Though, that whole idea really makes Juuri and Haruka seem pathetic and from what we’ve from flashbacks, they were pretty good fighters, but apparently no match for the wimpy Rido who was killed with only one bullet. Anyway, so after Rido’s death everything is now okay and all fine and dandy.Except Kaname decides to go tell his friends from the Night Class who have been helping him all this time that they were simply pawns and they were only there really to keep Yuki safe, but now they can do whatever they want.

When he left, Aido started telling the rest of the Night Class that what Kaname said wasn’t really true because if he really thought of them in that way then he would have just let them die, but I disagree with Aido on that, Kaname really did only care for Yuki and it’s not like he showed any kindness towards anyone else. Though, the Nigh Class was then in the predicament of having too much freedom without knowing what to do with it, Shiki trailed off being so poetic about how he’ll go to break off his curse, while Aido believes that Kaname will just accept him anyway again even if he was rejected. Though, I felt the scene involving the Night Class debating what they would do with their lives was kind of cute. So, the rest of the episode was primarily divided into two parts, the scene between Yuki and Zero and the scene between Kaname and Yuki. Zero and Yuki make the better couple, which is why I preferred their scene over Kaname’s, but they both turned out to be very romantic in their own ways and they were filled with those speeches we tend to get at the end of a series. Though, it was kind of disappointing that the love triangle only lead to a few bites of the neck and some hugs, they were intimate hugs, but they still didn’t manage to beat out the most romantic holding hands moment won by Clannad. Yuki technically decided to leave to school and head off with Kaname, who are shortly followed by other Night Class members, but it is still evident that she is torn between Kaname and Zero.

Zero even told her that they would meet again when he would have to kill her and she realized this fact too, but instead of being upset, she just said I’ll be waiting, which proves that she wants to see Zero again, even if it might mean the end of her life. Shiki and Rima decide to look through the rummage, which is when he finds Ichijou’s sword and decides it would be only right to return and with a box of Pocky in hand, Rima decides to follow his as well.

In general, it turned out to be pretty conclusive except for the fact that Zero is now all alone at the school and Yuki’s friend Yori is also alone. Though, I’m glad that for the most part they managed to close off any gaps their might have been, but with Yuki ending the series by saying “I’ll be waiting Zero” also leaves us with the possibility of another sequel. I personally don’t think there is much chance for another sequel, but anything is possible. Anyway, as much as the classic “I’ll be waiting” ending has been done before, I really didn’t mind it all that much. I wasn’t really expecting her to choose a lover anyway. My only really big problem with this episode was the fight with Rido, it could have at least been longer. Though, everything else was at least entertaining.

Final Impression

The first season of Vampire Knight was already nothing really to rave about and with the second season, there wasn’t much change from the first. Though, my main problem with this season was that nobody took any chances! It’s not like the writer couldn’t have let Yuki actually choose someone, I would imagine that they were just afraid that some people would be upset. Personally, even if Yuki didn’t end up with the person I wanted, at least it would be better than just staying undecided and leaving us at that. The animation is pretty much exactly the same as the first season, though I guess there were less moments with bad facial expressions. Though, unlike what most have been saying, I did enjoy this season more than the last. At one point at roughly episode 8, the story started to get more interesting and they had a lot more action scenes, which turned out to be well done (besides the one in the last episode). Though in the end, Vampire Knight Guilty is still Vampire Knight, which isn’t a very good thing. It never lived up the manga and even thinking back on the manga now, I realize that the manga wasn’t any diamond in the ruff itself. I don’t think this is really a series worth watching, honestly the series really only managed to disappoint. There were moments where the series was good, but not enough actually to make a difference. Shiki was always good though!

Completely irrevelent picture to start off this post -Gao!

10. Murasaki Kuhouin (Kurenai)

Her cuteness alone is reason enough to be on this list, but the fact that she is stubborn, spoiled and to some degree mature has in some bizarre way captured my heart! Though, even as the series drags on, we get to see her softer side, which really demonstrates how human she can be.

9. Hana “Hatchin” Morenos (Michiko to Hatchin)

My like for Hatchin is weird you could say, she isn’t the type of character I usually like. She is always wanting to do what is right, no matter how hard the task is. She is such a strong character and her development is always apparent as we slowly learn her struggles from both her past life and even her life with Michiko. It also helps that I like her mop-hair!

8. Chiaki (Shigofumi)

Chiaki was my favourite part of Shigofumi! She is always filled with emotions and was always used as comic relief throughout the series. She was also another character who had a hard past, but her presence was always appreciated by me and she never failed to bring a smile to my face!

7. Yuuka Midarezaki (Kyouran Kazoku Nikki)

Wow, I’m starting to see a similarity among all my characters and their pasts… Well, Yuuka always sort of disturbs me, she is adorable and always appears to be happy, but then she gets these moments where she just acts extremely depressed. Though, the reason why I love her is because she is such a kind person in a wacky family. She always wants to help everyone out even if nobody really does the same for her. She really is an underrated character!

6. Horo (Spice and Wolf)

Horo hasn’t received enough appreciation this year, but she really is such an awesome character! Her demands and apple obsession always amuse me and whenever it is needed, she really shows off the true meaning of being a wolf. Her selfish attitude is enough to make anyone laugh. Though, even if for the most part she appears to be useless for Lawrence, she proves to be very useful in her persuasive skills! She truly has it all!

5. Nagisa Furukawa (Clannad)

Nagisa is cute, naive, kind and so much more. She really is a fighter, even though she needs encouragement every now and then, she still always wants to achieve her goals and help other along the way. Where would Tomoya be without her anyway? When I was originally watching the first season, the moment Nagisa spoke about her love for the Dango Family, I was sold! Ever since then, she has proved herself to be nothing short from amazing!

4. Nagi (Kannagi)

What can’t Nagi do? She sings, dances and watches anime all while being a Goddess who cleanses the world from impurities. She has a hilarious personality and is the best thing about Kannagi. She is the best thing to have ever came out of a piece of wood!

3. Utau Hoshina (Shugo Chara!)

I love Amu, I really do, but something about Utau is just so much more interesting to me. She is the perfect example of good girl gone bad gone good (which probably makes no sense in written form). She is one of my favourite parts about the series, besides Ikuto of course. She grows as a character so much and you can really see how she can be both an innocent person and someone who is devious judging from her Guardian Characters. Her singing ability is also obviously awesome! I only wish she appeared in more episodes!

2. Yoshinoya (Hidamari Sketch x 365)

The biggest surprise for me was how much I loved Yoshinoya-sensei! She is the teacher I always wish I had, even though when I think about it, I have a feeling that she would probably annoy me… Anyway, at least in the anime I can rant about my love for her forever! She is trapped in the mind of a teenager and never seems to act anywhere near mature. She wears slipper instead of shoes and loves cosplaying! Though, she also is able to show dedication to her school life because she does love her students, she even makes them Christmas cards every year!

1. Fuko Ibuki (Clannad)

Yes, this may appear as a weird choice for many, but I love Fuko so much! She is my Makoto from Kanon for Clannad. I react at every mention of her name with uncontrollable joy! Rather than Dangos, she loves Starfish, which is simply hilarious! Though, her arc has brought tears to my eyes and even if she is forgotten, she still tries to help out in situation, even if her help never turns out to be very useful. The fact that she hasn’t appeared in After Story has pained me, but having seen her in the opening for barely a second, I know she will return! Fuko is by some weird fate…my true happiness!

The New Year has finally arrived! Well, technically for me it will only be official in a hour. I just wanted to wish everyone a great new year and I hope you all get to spend it happily and healthy (that line is probably said too often, but I couldn’t come up with anything better). Anyway, unlike like usually, I haven’t given any thought to my “new year resolutions”, but it’s not like I ever follow them much anyway. 2008 was a great year for anime and you’ll be seeing more on my reflection of the year through anime when I get all my “late end of year lists posts” up. It’ll be great to see what the new year brings, but I guess we really can only take it one day at a time. In the meantime, have a great 2009!

And a picture of Fuko because it has already become a one year tradition to mention her somewhere in my post

This list is late and so will all my other lists be, but I hope nobody will mind. Well, I’ve actually written out all my planned lists, I’m just in the presentation process, but I’ve managed to finish this list completely and I’m pretty happy with my choices. To save myself some time though, I decided not to comment about each opening and ending, but I will say a thing or two in other lists. So enjoy!

TOP 5 OPENINGS OF 2008:

5. Soul Eater Opening 2 - “PAPERMOON” by Tommy heavenly6

4. Spice and Wolf – “Tabi no Tochuu” by Natsumi Kiyoura

3. Michiko to Hatchin - “Paraiso” by SOIL & “PIMP” SESSIONS

2. Persona Trinity soul Opening 1 – “Breakin’ Through” by Shūhei Kita

1. Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - “Kuusou Runba” by Kenji Otsuki and Zetsubou Shoujo-tachi

TOP 5 ENDINGS OF 2008:

5. Kuroshitsuji - “I’m ALIVE!” by BECCA

4. Vampire Knight – “still doll” by Wakeshima Kanon

3. Itazura na Kiss ending 1 – “Kataomoi Fighter” by GO!GO!7188

2. Spice and Wolf - “Ringo Hiyori” by Rocky Chack

1. Clannad – “Dango Daikazoku” by Chata

I can recognize the faults this series may have, but sometimes when I watch something that becomes so amusing, these faults don’t really matter anymore and Kannagi is one of those cases. So, now that I’ve finished the 13 episode series, I decided that it would be worth the time to write a short review about it. The story is about a boy name Jin who is giving a piece of a sacred tree from a friend to carve. Little does he know, that after he carves it, it turns into a real girl. Naturally, no normal human would originate out of a piece of wood, and this girl known as Nagi claims to be none other than a Goddess. Though it doesn’t end at that either, she also fights off impurities, which is only the beginning of the wackiness!

With a simple plot as I’ve basically described it as, you would expect Kannagi to be like another other series, but after just the first episode, you can already see how it sets itself apart from anything else. The plot is strongest at the beginning and end considering the middle had some unneeded, yet amusing episodes. The characters are some of the best from any series. I find that the relationship between the people in the art club to be actually relatively realistic. Naturally, it is exaggerated in scenarios and such, but the way some of them act with one another is a pretty good depiction to real life. Though, when the characters are just over the top and outrageous there a joy to watch as well. Within 13 episodes, you were really able to depict each of their separate personalities, even if there wasn’t much development between them besides our main characters.

The animation is very consistent and smooth; it has some nice details that go well with the setting. The character design itself is pretty simple, but I liked it just the same. The soundtrack for the series isn’t really anything to rave about, most of the only music used throughout the series was in the last episode and it wasn’t really anything amazing anyway. The only thing that really stands out when it comes to the soundtrack would be both the opening and ending themes, which are fantastic!

The series manages to incorporate a bit of everything, although mostly comedy, except this is probably where the main fault is. Kannagi is just a bit all over the place when it comes to genres and transitions from one story to the next. Though, even if there isn’t much consistency, at least each thing it tries to be is done well. When it comes to the enjoyment factor of the series, I can without a doubt say that there is plenty of it! I’m not sure how others feel about this anime, but while I was watching it, I was always so amused and even now as I look back on it all, I still will keep to the statement that this series is indeed one of the most entertaining of the year. When it all comes down, a series has to entertain me above all things, which is exactly what Kannagi did, which is why I enjoyed the series so much. I would really recommend this series to almost anyone considering its genre, which isn’t really one thing, can be enjoyed by most. I’m actually surprised that this series hasn’t been licensed yet, but I can imagine Bandai Entertainment licensing this in a few months (don’t ask why I think Bandai). Well, in the meantime, I will be hoping for a second season!

Pocky is the food of Love!

Well, as a before note, I briefly want to mention that I will not be continuing to blog Skip Beat, this is really only because it now seems to be confirmed that it will be a 25 episode series and I don’t really want to have to carry the series on through the next season because I already have Clannad. I’m enjoying the series even if it isn’t as great as I want it to be, so it’s not like I’m dropping it or anything. This way though, I’ll get to blog more of the winter season, which has barely any animes worth watching anyway, but for the few that look good it has got me excited. Some other big news is that I have finally completely caught up with blogging! Knowing that Clannad is on a mini hiatus and such, I can now finally finish some posts that I’ve been planning out for a while! I won’t be going into details on them yet, but I guess you’ll be seeing them soon anyway!

For episode 11, the main point that we just need to understand is that Ichiru and Zero both became injured and through love, Zero sucked out all of Ichiru’s power to make himself whole. There were a few other details, but really nothing that served too much of a purpose. Basically, Shiki now back as himself goes to apologize to Rima and they have there own little moment with a box of Pocky. Sadly, I can already tell that this is the most we’ll get from them, but at least it was cute. The episode also consisted of many moments of younger Zero and Ichiru having their little bonding times as twins. I don’t really see why they have to sleep in the same bed together, I’ve never liked the whole aspect having twins being the same, though my main problem is that they chose to be together because of Ichiru, but they have their separate beds! It just sort of annoys me to see twins who have their parents dress them the same or whatever because why would anyone want to look the same as someone else? I also consider these moments between Ichiru and Zero to sadly be the most romantic thing that I’ve seen all season. Also, on the romantic page, I think that Kaname would win the prize of being the least romantic this season. The only thing he has really done is force Yuki into a relationship and then let her discover that they were really brother and sister. After that, he basically wants to keep her locked in his room so that she’s “safe”, but considering Yuki still has some proud, she evidently disagreed with him and left without permission. As much as it sounds like I am this complete Kaname hater, that isn’t really the case, I believe he has the looks, but just not the personality.

In season one he was at least a little more sensitive and emotional towards Yuki, rather than now, which just seems more like a love that is forced on. One of the problems I have with this series in the big pile of many is that they always use the same camera angles. One episode they decided to do rack shots, but one is a suitable amount in an episode, yet used the effect at least 5 times! In most episodes, they basically only shot face angles, which isn’t bad for every series, but for Vampire Knight, it gradually just becomes boring. It also seems like every single character in this series now has long hair, Shiki’s hair is even seeming particularly longer and I personally find that Yuki looked better in the shorter look… The direction that the ending of this anime will take is becoming pretty clear now, in the sense that the main obstacle is going to be defeating Rido. Was I the only one who felt disturbed by the bunch of vampire girls wearing barely anything getting the blood sucked dry, but the weird part was that they weren’t really trying to save themselves, but rather accepting their fate?

So in episode 12, Rido continues to prove how he has a giant appetite. He has a whole pile of bodies wherever he goes to feed on, I’d imagine that he would eventually get full? I guess it must be some sort of Vampire Power that we don’t know about yet. All his followers that are vampires that have fallen to Level E were actually creeping me out in this episode, but it can be easily explained as I was playing “Left 4 Dead” at a friend’s today and now anything that remotely shares the characters and movements to a zombie freaks me out so much! The mixture between this game and Vampire Knight is not a good match! As the episode develops, Rido and Yuki with her gang meets up with him and try to defeat him, but fail for the time being and he tries to start some sort of feeding frenzy, but right on cue, Yuki’s Artemis transforms into a much cooler weapon that she can now handle. Zero also makes an appearance with his super power thing going on as well. Though, before he manages to do anything effective his arm starts acting up and gets all bulgy and ugly. I admit to chuckling in this scene, how could anyone not believe that his arm looked absolutely ridiculous? His arm eventually went back to its original shape, but now Zero gets a level up on his weapon too, but Kaname claims at the end that flashing lights coming from guns is not a good sign, which I would agree makes sense.

It seems the series has detached itself slightly more than usual from the mangas story, which gives me hope that we might get an anime original ending, but even if we don’t I don’t mind too much, I’ve already long lost any positive expectations for this series. Well, not keeping so religiously to the manga, did make the episode more enjoyable because that way it becomes more unexpected, but I think the original author should be worried considering if they don’t follow her ideas, the director will go right ahead and almost blow up Zero’s arm! In the end, the episode did have a good build-up, that sets us up well for the finale. The only thing I really want is for Yuki to actually choose someone, but somehow I can already predict that it won’t be happening.

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