New License Announcements

• Funimation licenses Hero Tales, Master of Martial Hearts anime series (Jan. 7, 2010)
• Funimation licenses Hetalia – Axis Powers, The Sacred Blacksmith (Jan 8, 2010)
• Media Blasters licenses – and I have no idea why – Kanokon (Jan. 15, 2010)
• Sentai licenses Gintana (and the masses rejoice), Hidimark Sketch x 365, The Living for the Day After Tomorrow (not about blizzards), and Petite Cossette anime (Jan. 21, 2010)
• It’s nice to see anime licesnors start up rather than shut down. A new one is NIS America, and their first licenses are Toradora, Pandora Hearts, Persona -trinity soul-, and Our Home’s Fox Deity (from KadoUSA). (Feb. 11, 2010)
• Media Blasters licenses Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (and the masses rejoice again) (Feb. 18, 2010)
• Media Blasters grabs Record of Lodoss War from bankrupted CPM (Feb. 19, 2010)
• Sentai keeps going wild by grabbing Asu no Yoichi, Eyeshield 21, and Hell Girl 2 (Feb. 26, 2010)
• Funimation licenses Baka & Test and Dance in the Vampire Bund (March 4, 2010)
• Sentai/Section 23 licenses Papillon Rose, La Corda D’Oro, and Brighter than the Dawning Blue (March 19, 2010)

Other Generally Cool and/or Disturbing News

• 450,000 people visited the shrine that appears in the Lucky Star anime/manga.  I’m not sure that it’s cool that there are that many dedicated anime fans in Japan, or disturbing that they’re actually bothering to visit a shrine from an anime during New Years.
• Shockingly, I have not watched the entirety of FLCL. I think I watched one episode, maybe two, on Cartoon Network at some point, and then quit.  However, the fact that it is getting the HD treatment (now that I actually have a Blu-Ray player) may finally convince me to give it another shot.
• The fact that 80% of an Anime Con’s workers threaten to resign, and management don’t seem to think of it as a problem, would seem to show that the problem is with management, and not the workers.
• I thought my hiatus was long
• Finally, the news I’m most stoked about recently – several series, including CLANNAD and – unbelievably – Blue Drop are getting dubbed by Sentai.  It also suggests that Sentai/Section 23 has gotten back on it’s feet enough to actually spend the money on dubbing again.

This was mainly caused by getting more interested in a few other things than I was in anime, and thus doing those things went higher on my priority list, and I basically didn’t have time for anime anymore while I was doing those things.  However, I believe I am back on track as far as doing anime things again so, hopefully, I’ll be back for a while.

Over the next 3 to 4 days, I’ll be catching up on my blogging (10 to 11 episodes of Kobato plus an episode of Shana S), so pardon the slew of posts of old episodes during this week.  As far as blogging series in the Spring season – I haven’t decided yet.  On the one hand, I’m afraid of going straight into blogging something right after coming back from such a long hiatus, but on the other hand, if I don’t blog something…I’m not sure what I’ll write about, and thus possibly risk going back into a hiatus again.  I’ll probably make a decision sometime next week after I investigate what series are airing in April.

Also, as you may have seen, I’ve once again updated the design of the site.  I thought I probably should to help launch me out of a hiatus (and, heck, if I have the time/energy to redesign the site and catchup on 12 or so episodes of blogging, hopefully that’s a sign that I am actually back).  This is version 8.0 of the blog (yes, there have been that many) and I hope people like it.

From the Fall Season, Kimi ni Todoke, Fullmetal Alchemist, Kobato, Railgun, and Letter Bee are all continuing, so I’m looking for 3 to 4 shows to replace the shows that have finished up.  Here are some quick thoughts on some of the series airing in the fall.  I’ll skip anything that looks too kiddie or which is a sequel to something I haven’t seen:

Chu-Bra!!

A show about a middle school student starting an “underwear club” to spread the merits of wearing sexy underwear.  Um, double triple quadruple super duper duper hell no.

Sora no Woto

So basically, this looks like it’s like K-ON!, except worse, because they’re in the middle of a war.

Ladies vs Butlers!

I’m not even sure what to think about this series.  It definitely looks like a harem, and it’s along the “girls go wild over young-looking-boys” type.  I guess that’s better than the young-looking-girls shows. Maybe.

Omamori Himari

Another orphaned-boy-taken-in-by-neighbor-girls-parents story.  Except this time the magical girl who pops up is a cat girl. And the boy is allergic to cats.  This at least sounds mildly interesting.  At least far more interesting than any of the shows so far.

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

This kind of sounds like Special A, except in reverse.  I’m not sure about the summoning creatures part of this show though.

Dance in the Vampire Bund

I’m not really one for Vampire shows, but this show actually looks (visually) interesting, and it’s done by SHAFT, which definitely helps it.

Durarara!!

Basically sounds like gangs looking for a mythical head of a headless motorcycle rider.  Mmmm…not the worst show I’ve seen this season but I still think there are better things to watch.

Ookami Kakushi

This is a show based off of a game made by the people who did Higurashi.  I’ve never seen any of those series, but I’ve been curious about them.

Seikon no Qwaser

A show about people who can manipulate iron and who draw power from breast milk fighting each other.  That sounds like there is too much that can go bad here.

Hanamaru Kindergarten

This is by GAINAX which, of course, means this show won’t have a proper ending.

Katanagatari

An actually somewhat decent looking Edo-era sword fighting show.  I’ll have to see if it ultimately makes my cut or not, though.

So, My Watch List Is…

I wasn’t planning on picking up another series to blog this season unless there was just something that looked fantastic, and there isn’t, so I’ll only add shows to watch.  I think this time, I’ll only add 3 shows.  I felt like I was going to add either 3 or 5, and I didn’t want 5 new shows, so I went with my top 3, and they are:

Dance in the Vampire Bund
Omamori Himari
Ookami Kakushi

10. “Aoi Hana” by Kukikodan - Sweet Blue Flowers OP

This is a nice little song to start off the countdown.

9. “Super Driver” by Aya Hirano – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya OP2

While the ED was the good song from the first season, the OP was the good song from the second season of Haruhi.

8. “Kimi ni Todoke” by Tanizawa Tomofumi – Kimi ni Todoke OP

Another nice soft rock song that I think is pretty good and matches the show pretty well.

7. “Kimi Shinitamō Koto Nakare” by May’n – Shangri-la OP

I wasn’t too sure about this OP to start with, but it kind of grew on me after a while

6. “HANAJI” by Yu Kobayashi – Maria Holic OP

Rather ecchi, but how can one not like this OP?

5. “Karma” by KOKIA – Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom OP1

KOKIA once again makes the list, this time for her excellent, if not eerie, OP for Phantom.

4. “Parallel Hearts” by FictionJunction – Pandora Hearts OP

This OP just stuck on me from the very start.  I think it’s pretty good, anyway

3. “Oyasumi Paradox” by Etsuko Yakushimaru – Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chū OP

I didn’t watch this show, but I love this OP.

2. “Falling Down” by Oasis – Eden of the East OP

One of the very best OPs of the year, if not for the past few years. And being sung in English (being that it’s sung by Oasis) probably doesn’t hurt either.

1. “kiseki” by NIRGILIS – Birdy the Mighty DECODE 02 OP

However, the #1 OP of the year goes to a show from all the way back in the winter season.  It was a tough choice between #1 and #2, but I thought this one just won out.

Ioryogi’s old “pal” Ginsei goes to visit Genko to ask what Ioryogi is doing. Genko tells Ginsei that he shouldn’t ask him, and that, even though both he and Ioryogi have been changed into their current forms, they’re still from the spirit world, He then gives some very important information about the world:

There exists four “worlds”: the Heavenly world which has angels (like Kohaku) and is controlled by God, the Underworld, which has demons and is controlled by the Devil, and Human world, of which the humans living in it are the only ones unaware of the other worlds, and the Spirit World, which has spirits such as Genko and Ioryogi, and is controlled by the King of Spirits.

Genko explains that these three other worlds follow a rule of nonaggression against each other. However, Ioryogi tried to start a war against heaven, because there was something there that “he had to have no matter what,” and that’s why he has had his form changed. Ioryogi’s only chance to regain his normal form and to return to the Spirit World is if Kobato gets her wish granted.

After working at the nursery, Ioryogi once again questions Kobato’s work at the nursery, telling her that she’s not spending enough time healing people’s hearts. Suddenly Ginsei shows up and attacks Kobato and takes her jar.

Ginsei, who we learn from Genko was taken in and even named by Ioryogi, questions what Ioryogi is doing, but Ioryogi just says that he has something he needs to do. All this makes Ginsei almost break Kobato’s bottle, but Ioryogi begs him not to. This shocks Ginsei, as Ioryogi’s “old self” would never have dome something like that, and he just sighs and leaves the bottle, telling Ioryogi to hurry up and do what he needs to do.

Kobato tries to find Ioryogi while Ioryogi tries to return the bottom to Kobato but ends up having to suddenly play as a stuffed animal because he sees Fujimoto approaching. Fujimoto then sees Kobato looking for Ioryogi and returns him to Kobato.

This was an episode I was looking forward to: the start of finding out who Ioryogi is and where he comes from. This episode gives us the base information about the world: namely, there are four worlds, Ioryogi is from the Spirit World, and he violated the nonaggression rule between worlds by going to war with Heaven to get something.

What we don’t know still is what he wanted to get from heaven, what he still wants to accomplish now, nor do we still have any idea of what Kobato’s wish is, and why Kobato getting her wish is Ioryogi’s only chance of getting his true form back.

Meanwhile, Ioryogi and Ginsei’s relationship has come more into focus, as it seems like Ioryogi has basically become the old crafty master who has become mellow and weak in the eyes of his old follower, Ginsei. Ginsei’s anger with Ioryogi seems to stem from the fact that Ioryogi isn’t just acting out of impulse like the “good ole days” and is letting himself get tied down by Kobato.

Back in the human world, I’m wondering how long it will be until Fujimoto “discovers” Ioryogi. I guess he became curious about him in this episode since Kobato always keeps him around, and indeed he asked her why she kept him at the end of the episode. But Fujimoto gave Ioryogi a couple of Toya-like stares in this episode, like he suspects something is still odd with him.