Anime DVDs

March 30, 2010
Aquarion – Box Set
Kanon – Box Set
Neo Angelique Abyss: Second Age – Box Set (S)
Ouran High School Host Club – Box Set (DVD & Blu-Ray)

Manga

March 31, 2010

07-Ghost – Volume 7
Bamboo Blade – Volume 4
Bunny Drop – Volume 1
Nabari no Ou – Volume 3
Sumomomo Momomo – Volume 3
With the Light – Volume 6

A second season is scheduled to start airing in July.

Angel Beats – It’s an interesting synopsis, anyway.  And given that it’s based off of a Key visual novel (Air, Kanon, CLANNAD) makes this one even more promising.  Add to that the studio who did True Tears and CANAAN, and the fact that it has girls with guns, and it’s hard to see where this one can go wrong.  Judgment: Blogging

Arakawa Under the Bridge – The synopsis of this makes no sense.  If the pair hooked up, why would the rich guy go to live with the girl under a bridge and not vice versa? Who knows.  Judgment: Not Watching

B Gata H Kei – Oh for the love of all that is holy, who came up with this concept? No, No, and No! Judgment: Do I even need to say it? NOT WATCHING

Giant Killing – If I were into sports anime, this would sound interesting. But I’m not. Judgment: Not Watching

Hakuouki - That’s a lot of bishis. Judgment: Not Watching

Heroman – If I were into superhear stuff, this might sound interesting. But I’m not. Judgment: Not Watching

House of Five Leaves – I’m not really into samurai anime very much, but the synopsis part of this sounds really interesting. Judgment: Watching

Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou – This sounds like every anime ever done x 10. Judgment: Not Watching

Iron Man – Shouldn’t people be making movies from anime, not the other way around? And I haven’t even seen the movie. Judgment: Not Watching

Kaichou wa Maid Sama – Yet another “Perfect Proper Girl with a sexy/naughty/nerdy/dorky/magical/alien/other secret” show.  On the plus side, J.C. Staff is doing it, who I would probably hold as my highest regarded anime producer.  Even then, it seems like this theme has been run into the ground. Judgment: Not Watching

Kiss X Sis – Shows about incest (even if only step-siblings) only really work well as dramas.  Once they’re turned into comedies, they just get weird. Judgment: Not Watching

K-ON season 2 – Are things so bad this season that I may watch the could-have-been-much-better K-ON? Yes they are. Judgment: Watching

Mayoi Neko Overrun – It’s AIC. Enough said. Judgment: Not Watching

RAINBOW – Haven’t I seen this on preview lists 2 or 3 times already only to be pushed back? In any case, I’m not sure…sounds too depressing right off the bat. Judgment: Not Watching

Senko no Night Raid – I sometimes like shows like this one, but this one doesn’t quite…feel right. Judgment: Not Watching

Uragiri no Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – This might sound interesting if the guy didn’t have such a lame ability. Judgment: Not Watching

Working – This one sounds like it might have some potential. Judgment: Watching

Yojo-han Shinwa Taikei - I’m trying to figure out the point of this show based on it’s synopsis.  Judgment: Not Watching

Blogging
Angel Beats

I decided I should pick something up, and this was easily the most appealing looking series to me to blog this season.

Watching
House of Five Leaves
K-ON season 2
Working

After Kobato disappears, Ushagi erases Kobato from the world, including from everyone’s memories and even from pictures. However, Even after a couple months have passed, Fujimoto keeps having a nagging feeling that something isn’t right, and has flashbacks to memories where children are playing with someone who isn’t there.

Back in his apartment, Fujimoto organizes his closet when he finds a candy on one of his jackets. The candy then causes him to completely remember Kobato. Fujimoto grabs a picture which clearly seems to show someone missing and shows it to Sayaka amd various other people, but they don’t know what he’s talking about.

He then suddenly remembers about Kohaku, and she does remember Kobato. Fujimoto asks Kohaku what Kobato meant when she said she’s going to the place she should be at. Kohaku then tells him: A long time ago, there was an incident that involved the human world, and Kobato was killed. Her wish was to return back to that time.

Kohaku further explains that she and Shuichiro have had several sad partings, but every time that he is reborn, their hearts call to each other and they eventually find each other again, and this is because they share the same soul.

Several more years pass, and Fujimoto is now working at a law firm, and he is assigned a case to clear up an inheritance issue with someone’s will, but they need to asses the true boundaries of the person’s property first. Fujimoto arrives, and finds a piano and starts playing on it. When he’s done, he hears a girl singing the same song outside. When the girl arrives it’s…the reborn Kobato. After Fujimoto finishes his work, he gives the candy to Kobato, and it returns all of the memories from the Kobato Fujimoto knew to the new reborn Kobato, and Ushagi returns the memories of Kobato to everyone else.

Whaaaaaa! Gotta love endings that have you reaching for the tissues.

So Kobato left behind her own candy (either incidentally or perhaps by design by Ushagi as a way to “make things OK” without breaking the contract). I have to admit, this series ended a lot differently than I was expecting, but it was still a great ending.

So we find out where Kobato wanted to go – back into the past where she apparently lived with the prior carnation of Fujimoto (thus, her memories of a Fujimoto-like person) and why she was so drawn to him in the first place.

We never do really find out precisely what the ‘incident’ was that caused all this. From what I recall, Ioryogi, Genko, etc. from the Spirit World attacked the Heavenly World to get…something. The resulting battle somehow affected the Human World, killing Kobato, leaving her in some sort of state of limbo. To make up for this, Ioryogi took it upon himself to help Kobato return, but she had to fulfill her contract with God, which is, of course, what much of the series was about.

Having fulfilled this contract with Fujimoto’s candy (and the fact that the two are soul-mates may be why his was so powerful) sent her back, where that Kobato of course lived and died, and as born again as the new Kobato.

We also got to see a glimpse of everyone else too. Ioryogi apparently figured out what was going on (or knew all along) and found the reborn Kobato and watched her from the shadows. Meanwhile, Sayaka reopened the nursery once again.

In any case, I thought this was a very nice ending to a pretty good series.

Kobato wakes up Fujimoto early in the morning, asking if she can help him out that day (and apparently this has now been occurring for a while). While they’re talking, Chihiro shows up and tells Kobato to keep helping Fujimoto out or else he’d overwork himself. Kobato decides to drag Fujimoto around for a walk, saying that she wants him to enjoy himself. All of this agitates Fujimoto, because he’s annoyed by being followed around, and Ioryogi because Kobato isn’t filling her jar.

Finally, Fujimoto just tells her to leave him alone, since he can’t calm down whenever she’s around, and walks off. Soon he finds that he’s walked to where the nursery was, but Kobato catches back up to him. Fujimoto asks her why she keeps concerning herself with him, and so Kobato tells him it’s because he’s an important person to her. When the pair arrive back at the apartment, Ushagi sends Kobato a flower signaling that she has one day left, and Kobato tells Fujimoto that she won’t be able to see him tomorrow. The next day, Kobato moves out of Chihiro’s apartment.

When Fujimoto finally returns, Chihiro tells him that Kobato has moved out, which alarms him, and he runs out to chase after her. Meanwhile, Kobato is waiting in the playground where she arrived, where Ushagi comes for them. Ushagi is about to take Kobato away, but he has to hide himself because Fujimoto has arrived to demand from Kobato what she’s doing. Kobato can’t really explain why she’s going away so finally….Ioryogi speaks up.

He tells Fujimoto (who is obviously alarmed at seeing a stuffed animal speak) that Kobato has to leave because of her contract. Ioryogi tells Kobato to take off her hat, so Kobato does, revealing a ghostly crown above her head. Ioryogi explains that Kobato is dead, and her soul doesn’t belong to any world. However, she made a contract with someone in heaven (presumably God) that gave her a chance to relive her life. However, Kobato decided to spend her time with Fujimoto instead, and thus broke her contract.

At that point, Ushagi arrives and puts up a barrier around Kobato to prepare to take her away, and Kobato tells Fujimoto that she loves him. Then, something activates within Fujimoto, and he unwittingly breaks Ushagi’s barrier. That something turns into a candy that enters Kobato’s jar, but is powerful enough to fill the jar and complete her contract.

However, now there is a new problem: the contract calls for Kobato to be taken to “the place she wants to go” as specified in her contract, not stay on earth. Kobato disappears, leaving Ioryogi and Fujimoto.

Wow…just wow. I’m not sure what to make of Fujimoto breaking Ushagi’s barrier. I don’t know if it was the fact that his candy was so powerful that it filled her bottle (and why was it so powerful?) or if he has some sort of power that he doesn’t know about (there has been some suggestion that he knew Kobato in the past too).

Also, I guess this explains why Kobato is always wearing a hat.  I didn’t even really notice until a few episodes ago when Ioryogi warned Kobato when her hat was about to fly off.

So we have one more episode to go. Kobato is gone to…wherever. Ioryogi is still left behind, as far as I can tell, so I guess we may get to hear more from him, explaining to Fujimoto, what exactly is going on. And, of course, we have to see if Fujimoto and Kobato can be reunited at the end.