+ | N o v a s t o r m | +

Uh-huh, it’s true. Check the news on their website. Naruto has been dropped by Dattebayo due to financial reasons or something like that. In it’s place; Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Do I care about any of this stuff? Not really. Well, this also presents the chance that Bleach will be dropped too, but I wouldn’t really mind that much, since the fillers are ending and I’ve read the manga so yeah…I discovered this news from Retsgip, and he presents an interesting point about whether he will continue blogging it. Well, I will apply this to Bleach. If it does get dropped, I will continue blogging no matter what. But to get back to the subject of Naruto, I’m not sure of the exact reason for the financial issue behind it getting dropped. I wonder if they will resume it if the fillers end. Will the increase in Naruto’s popularity when the fillers end have any impact on this issue? Well anyway, off to watching some more anime!

EDIT: OK OK I just re-read it. It says they won’t be picking it up again even if the fillers end. Oh well.

EDIT 2: Yeah…read the comments below. Yeah, didn’t see the You Have Been Trolled part…Ah well, if anything, at least I managed to put some shock into some of you!

Popularity: 15% [?]

Rating: 6.5/10

Impressions:

Another crap, idiotically executed Bounto destruction episode. It’s a shame how I’ve been negative about Bleach for some time now. The good thing is, with Koga’s death leaves just Kariya, signifying the nearing of the end of the Bounto arc. But I’ll go into that later. First: why this episode is stupid. The main point anyone would’ve picked up is how Koga died. It’s not illogical like Yoshii’s demise, since Toushiro has control over the battle the entire time. However, it is extremely anti-climatic and also brings about the absurdity of the rest of the fight. Toushiro is clearly far quicker than both Koga and Daruku, so why the hell did he not attack Koga from the beginning? Why did he go after Daruku when all he had to do was kill the Bounto to finish things off swiftly? Because once again, the filler script writers weren’t creative enough (or just too lazy) to come up with a decent fight, pitting the captain and Bounto against each other on more balanced terms, so that this idiocy did not have to come forth. It also doesn’t make sense how Koga fought such a shit battle when he is meant to be the second strongest after Kariya. I know Soi Fon was injured, and Mayuri is probably just not that strong, but the problem is I’m against the use of Toushiro in this battle. Another captain could have been utilised to create a more effective bout. What’s more, if you’ve read my previous entry on Bleach episode 103, you’d know why I think this.

Read more

Popularity: 24% [?]

Rating: 7.8/10

Impressions:

All the theories regarding Mizuho’s mother and Ichiko’s senpai are either confirmed or refuted. Mizuho’s mother did indeed stay in her room, and she is Ichiko’s senpai from 22 years ago. It seems that Mizuho’s grandfather put her in that particular room because it belonged to her mother once, meaning it is some sort of special place. However, I wonder why Mizuho was never informed about this fairly important piece of information. With that out of the way though, the show is free to continue on with The Adventures of Mizuho and Company, since there is now no more past dramas to worry about. However, something serious is probably going to happen near the end of the series as well. I hope it doesn’t get darker before then though, since I find Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru does better with comedy rather than drama. Ichiko’s major arc seems to have passed now, and next episode appears to revolve around Mizuho and Takako, but I wonder whether it will be as friends or rivals. There still needs to be a real Mariya-centric episode, since she’s still my favourite girl. Also, neither Kana nor Yukari have gotten their individual episodes yet, so that will be something to anticipate. By looking at the episode titles of the next few episodes, I can already see a Kana and Mariya episode.

Read more

Popularity: 9% [?]

Rating: 8/10 (but it actually fails…)

Impressions:

This episode is freaking hilarious. I mean really, Komui’s sabotaging takes the cake! The best moment: him using the blowpipe to inject the anaesthetic into Allen’s body! Of course, everyone else’s failed attempts at destroying Komrin are also quite humorous. But if I like this episode so much, why didn’t I give it a better rating? Well, although it is good, funny and all, it FAILS when compared to the manga. There is absolutely no impact whatsoever from the little details that the manga gives. Dunno what I’m talking about? Well, firstly, the episode feels way too much like a filler. In fact, it’s about 50% filler. Actually, just go and read chapters 17 and 18. Try MangaRun: chapter 17 | chapter 18. Well, to sum things up, they completely screwed up the development between Linali and Allen. No really, they REALLY SCREWED UP. Linali’s meant to be knocked unconscious by Komrin early on, before Allen returns. He then comes back to find Linali lying on the stairs, looking very…entic- anyway, everyone else is meant to be pretty badly wounded, to increase the tension. Allen then carries the limp Linali away from Komrin with River, meet up with the rest of the group on the floating platform, before confronting Komrin like in the manga. BUT, when Allen gets taken by Komrin, Linali is MEANT TO wake up and worriedly say she’s just heard Allen’s voice, and asks if he’s back. This is a very important point in the development of her and Allen’s friendship, which becomes extremely strong later on. No one’s gonna believe they’re best friends or something if they do nothing to increase their familiarity.

Read more

Popularity: 18% [?]

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

I’m still waiting for Shinsen’s release of Soukou no Strain 3, but I have no idea when it will come since Shinsen has so many active projects at the moment. Anyway, Sara has lost her mimic, changed her last name to Cruise, joined a mobile infantry training battalion, practising in standard mechanical weapons in order to seek out her traitorous brother. Strain pilots, called Reisner(?), are highly regarded in this regiment, and it just so happens that a Reisner decides to become friends with Sara. Well, not really, since Sara is still pretty cold, refusing to talk with anyone. She puts 100% into her training and wishes to advance as fast as possible. I can already see where this is going. Sara probably uses the mimic she finds to pilot a Strain (or something like that) and shows all the poor losers that pressured her how awesome she is, including the midget Reisner. There of course will also be the clashing reunion of Sara and her brother, and the little girl (Emily was it?) that he took will become a major part of the story, probably after being rejoined with her mimic. If it is her mimic, that is. I’m looking forward to the next episode, as despite its mediocre animation, Soukou no Strain still remains as one of my more favoured ones this season (though it is still new and mysterious, and could diverge in many ways).

Read more

Popularity: 9% [?]

Rating: 6/10

Impressions:

Game CG is good. Unfortunately some anime adaptations aren’t. The quality remained quite high for this particular show, until approximately the 11th minute mark, when it suddenly plummeted, resulting in several disgusting scenes such as the one I mentioned just before. Actually no, all the scenes after that are horrible. I have no idea what happened. I really want to study the process of Japanese animation, since I still don’t see how a low budget has to mean shit drawings. I mean, if I tried to draw Yoake on my first try, it WILL be better than some of the scenes this episode. So unless all the guys on the animation team are really shit drawers, then it shouldn’t take that much more money to draw relatively well. Oh well, what can you do? Man I am so drained today. The heatwave doesn’t look like it’ll be passing any time soon, and the humidity is just unbearable…Anyway, aside from the animation quality, the plot movement is much better this episode. Things become a lot more serious, especially with Tatsuya’s confession at the end. However, the bad animation made the serious final section of the episode a complete joke (ok, I’m being a bit harsh, but it did ruin the gravity of the situation somewhat).

Read more

Popularity: 9% [?]

Rating: 7.4/10 & 7.7/10

Impressions:

It’s probably just because it’s not exactly my ideal type of anime, but I find NHK ni Youkoso to be fairly incomparable with some of the other fall season shows. The quality remains at a fair level, and the story is decent enough, though I just don’t find the show stands out enough. I’m not saying it’s not an enjoyable watch because it is, but it’s not something I’d put great priority into viewing. Nevertheless, I will watch it to the end since it’s nearing the final episodes now. So, how did episodes 17 and 18 do? They were alright. I think I’ve seen everything this show can pull now, and frankly the whole pyramid fraud scheme wasn’t all that captivating. NHK ni Youkoso is straying from the main plot, which is meant to be of Satou getting better (which he has). The varying events now are probably just to demonstrate Satou’s progress, and perhaps illustrate a few ups and downs as well. However, I think it was just stupid that Yamazaki, Satou and Misaki all fell for the scam, especially since they have all just planned out how they would confront the former class president with their ‘cooling off’. I guess the subject she lured them on is a bit touchy, but you’d think that if there’s such a wonderful cure for hikikomori, Satou would have heard about it earlier.
Read more

Popularity: 9% [?]

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

This show has just gotten a lot better. I don’t know why, but it’s probably because it was actually quite funny at certain moments, and since a lot of other shows have been gong downhill, Happiness seems to be improving. There were two memorable humorous scenes for me, one involving Ibuki and the other, Takamine. While the overall idea of Ibuki being crap at all the arcade games is generally funny, the biggest moment was of course the racing game. It took only a few seconds into the game before she crashed her car, ended up destroying the simulated world as well as blowing up the racing machine! Even though something like that, a lot of people would’ve seen coming, I had to pause the show to calm down from laughing too hard. Ahh, the stupid little things that crack you up… I was also thinking about how awkward it’d be if Haruhi’s clothe-changing spell backfired and made everyone naked. More specifically, Jun…Anyway, the other scene is when Takamine gets Tama-chan to knock down the pins in bowling. Once again, pure hilarity! I’m not quite sure of the voice in the loudspeaker after that, but I assume it’s some guy telling her that magic isn’t allowed. It’s good to see that the magic isn’t being totally ignored, even though it’s being used in completely irrelevant situations.

Read more

Popularity: 15% [?]