Matthew's Anime Blog

As y'all know... or probably don't know since I haven't been blogging that much lately... I'm a huge fan of Shugo Chara!, both the manga and anime. Unlike a certain other anime that Satelite made last year (Kami-chama Karin), Shugo Chara! turned out so well that I knew I was going to get the DVDs only a few episodes in -- so there goes my DVD budget for the next few months with the purchase of the Shugo Chara! Amulet Box 1 last week (though I didn't pay the price that's listed on the box since I got it from Amazon), including 13 episodes plus other extras.

Now let's go through the goodies inside, starting with this:

An almost life-size wallscroll of Amu-chan (much bigger than the Sakura ones I have) -- extremely kawaii as advertised. At first, they were going to include an Amu-chan "big towel," but decided otherwise (I wonder why...).

The box includes 4 DVDs with 13 episodes in total, each with a different shugo chara on it, a DVD with special features, a drama/radio CD, and a soundtrack CD. A 23 page color booklet has summaries and staff comments for each episode, character profiles, and an interview with director Kenji Yasuda (Shugo Chara! is the first show that he's directed). He talks about how he was offered the job to direct and also what he does to make the show interesting and easy to understand for its intended younger audience. The storyboard for Amulet Heart's transformation bank is also in the interview.

The special features DVD includes an interview with the voice of Ran, Kana Asumi (AKA Asumin), who most of you probably know better as Yuno from Hidamari Sketch. It's pretty much the usual questions about her role, what character she likes, so on, but still a watch for her fans (like myself).

The pilot film is rather interesting -- Kenji Yasuda talks about how he made it to show the staff at Satelite what exactly they'd be working on, and also get a idea of the general look and feel of show (such as the textures used for clothing). Some of the cuts were later touched up and reused in the show itself, like the cut above which was used in the OP.

The actual DVDs are pretty bare bones but with excellent picture quality as expected, with the first including some interesting commentary from Kanae Itou (Amu), Kana Asumi (Ran), and director Kenji Yasuda on the first two episodes. Kanae-chan and Asumin seem to be quite big fans of Suzuki-kun, and even Yasuda-kantoku said that Suzuki-kun might be the star of an episode sometime soon. Anything on when we might find out what his name is?

And that's the first of four DVD boxes to come for Shugo Chara!. Yes, buying the individual DVDs would've been a bit cheaper, but I'm glad that they decided to put out a box every 13 episodes to make things easier to manage. We're just about done with the second batch of 13 episodes -- next week's episode about Nadeshiko looks very interesting (I'll keep quiet for those who haven't read the manga) -- and I'm looking forward to seeing where we go the second half of the show.

And, Amu-chan kawaii yo Amu-chan! (of course you'd say that).

And after the Cheetahmen boom now we get this. Last week, somebody uploaded an anime to Nico Nico Douga from a DVD that came with this "First Grade Challenge" material published by Benesse (mostly to promote their own products, of course), where an upcoming first-grader, Yuki, goes through these various challenges to get him ready for school. It seems pretty normal until the second challenge and the はてなようせい hatena yousei -- Question Fairy -- shows up. Check the video after the jump to watch.

The Question Fairy's character design is something you would expect to see in a moe anime -- yaeba (cat tooth), loli, mahou shoujo, some blush on the cheeks, seiyuu Megumi Toyoguchi (Honoka@The Third, Winry@Fullmetal Alchemist) and just plain cute... and haitenai (as in not wearing anything under the dress) as well, apparently. Of course, the people hanging around Nico Nico tend to have a lot of free time so illustrations and videos started popping up there and elsewhere. There are now 900+ hits on pixiv (site for Japanese artists. Fanart and such) and 150+ videos on Nico Nico.

It seems like the boom has slowed down some, so we'll wait for the next one to come along. I would've liked to have joined in on the matsuri (festival), but since all I can do is compose music that sounds like it came straight out of a 16-bit console RPG there wasn't really anything I could do (^^;;

A Merry Christmas (or whatnot) to everybody out there. My brother woke up a bit later than usual, around 8am (it's usually around 6am or earlier, heh). His big present this year was an XBox 360 of all things. My dad had originally planned to get him a Wii, but I convinced him otherwise (there's already a Wii in the house, no need for another). I thought he would get a DS Lite for him, but one day he came home with 2 XBox 360s and asked me which one he should keep (the other to take back). One with HDMI, of course, hoping that the new model won't break too soon (^^;;

Since I've got the only HDTV in the house I'm letting him play in here for a bit. My mom tried to get me to get him one of those licensed movie games, but since he loves RPGs (all he plays on GBA... including the games I've imported) I got Eternal Sonata. Should keep him busy for a while, I think. And Polka kawaii yo Polka :)

Anyways, that's it for now. Maybe, if I stop being so lazy I'll write up some thoughts on the shows that have ended (skipping DC2 since it's not even worth talking about).

Hey, y'all, I know it's been a while since I posted last. Hard to stop being lazy (^^;; Anyways, I finally got around to getting an HDTV as an early Christmas present to replace my aging TV (with the bottom ticker of the Weather Channel burned into it). After trying out a Westinghouse SK-26H240S 26" and returning it because of some issues (buzzing when changing LCD backlight or some picture settings, av sync problems on inputs) I settled on an Olevia 226T 26" and am very much satisfied with it so far.

The only thing I don't like about it is the very annoying blue LED showing that the main power switch is on when the LCD is off. Why does everybody have to use blue LEDs?

  
  
Opening: "Kokoro no Tamago" by Buono! - The new Hello Project (and the fanboys go wild) unit's first songs... not really that great, but I wasn't expecting anything great. Animation is excellent — Satelight got quite a group of animators this time around. Amu-chan kawaii yo Amu-chan!

  
 
Ending: "Honto no Jibun" by Buono! - Better than the OP, lyrics fit the theme of Shugo Chara very well.

Hey everybody, been a while, hasn't it? (^^;;) Thanks to watching most (make that pretty much all) things on Nico Nico Douga these days it's been easy to skip watching things a second time and blogging (even though I'd watch things like Potemayo 2 or 3 times every week), but hopefully I can get myself back into the blogging routine this season.. maybe. So, in order of broadcast, the fall shows I'll be watching (screencaps from this movie with information on all the fall shows). ☆ for shows where I've read the manga/novel/played the game that it's based on:

October 1 (Monday)

Da Capo II (feel.)
I don't know much about it since I haven't played or read much about the game, but I'm hoping that it doesn't turn into Da Capo Second Season...

Sketchbook (HAL Film Maker) Not to be confused with Hidamari Sketch, but it looks to be the same kind of relaxing show.

October 2 (Tuesday)

Mokke (Madhouse)
Looks like a moe anime, actually a youkai show.. is what it seems to be... of course, I'm interested because of character design alone.. if Madhouse can keep the quality up (^^;;)

October 4 (Thursday)

Clannad (Kyoto Animation)
Duh, of course I'm watching this. The OP/ED on the preview DVD were really nice, as expected, but I didn't understand a lot of it since I haven't played the game... And thank you very much TBS for giving us 4:3 pan and scan... guess I'll have to watch it again once it starts on BS-i on the 25th.

Shakugan no Shana II (J.C. Staff)

Uruchaiuruchaiuruchai!. I heard plenty of Shana-tan's voice from Nene@Potemayo, now it's time for the real thing. Though I've read Zero no Tsukaima, I still haven't gotten the Shana novels ＿|￣|○ Hoping that it turns out better than the second season of Zero no Tsukaima.

October 6 (Saturday)

☆ Shugo Chara! (Satelight)
One of the few shows this season where I've read the manga. Amu-chan kawaii yo Amu-chan! (of course, it's always that). Her seiyuu sounds decent for someone I've never heard of. I'm worried about the animation quality after seeing how Kami-chama Karin turned out, though... Satelight, ganbare!

ef - a tale of memories (SHAFT)

Something just a bit different than Zetsbou-sensei for SHAFT this time. The preview looked very, very nice -- can tell they're trying very hard to match Makoto Shinkai's backgrounds from the OP movie for the game. However, as it always is with SHAFT, who knows if they've got their schedule under control. No waiting 'til the last minute to get things done, please (^^;;)

October 7 (Sunday)

Rental Magica (ZEXCS)
Heard that the novels are pretty good... and that's about it.

☆ Minami-ke (Daume)

Kyou no Go no Ni manga-ka Koharu Sakuraba's manga about three sisters with quite different personalities, which leads to all sorts of comic hijinks. Let's not repeat the "cabbage" incident, Daume (^^;;) I like Asreed's character designs better, so I'm looking forward to their one more.

October 10 (Wednesday)

☆ Kodomo no Jikan (Studio Barcelona)

And here's my most anticipated show this season. The OVA was excellent, so I'm expecting the anime to keep the same high level of quality, just like Studio Barcelona did with Nanatsuiro Drops. The script is pretty much finished and faithful to the manga -- the question is whether or not it can be broadcast (^^;;)

Hey, everybody! I (along with friend) have arrived in Baltimore, Maryland for Otakon. Flight was quite uneventful -- no point in having a window seat when it's cloudy the whole way ＿|￣|○ Anyways, I'll be making my way to the convention center shortly to have fun waiting in line to get my badge. Whenever I can find internet access again I'll post an update (and maybe photos... if my friend has a digital camera).

July 21, 12:22am: Well, I'm exhausted after all that walking and going up and down stairs (most of the escalators at the convention center were blocked, and couldn't use elevators), but that's only 'cause I've been lazy :P Anyways, had a good time today meeting up with the people from Japanator and Destructoid -- pretty cool folks. I attended the Mamiko Noto Q&A; session (actually got to ask a question) and will be posting a report on it on Japanator (and here) sometime... not tonight since I'm tired as I said. Got her autograph, too. Yay, even though I forgot to bring Ichigo Mashimaro or something for her to sign :) After that and attending the ADV panel (not much to report there) I went to the dealers' room.. and promptly spent a good bit on manga at Kinokuniya's booth. Bought Lucky Star 1-4, Shugo Chara 1, POP's Akazukin picture book, and the first Moetan book... somehow, I think I'll probably end up getting more stuff tomorrow (^^;;)

Tomorrow I'll probably attend more industry panels (Media Blasters, Bandai, Geneon, I think), then I'll be going to see a screening of Makoto Shinkai's 5cm (35mm... should be veeeery pretty).. and after that, who knows. Anyways, going to watch Potemayo then get some sleep. Good night, y'all :)

1:13am: What!? Funimation licensed Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club and I was stupid enough to not go to their panel (right after the ADV one)... that's a big surprise there. I wonder how many others who were there had watched or even heard of the show. But what's this about only licensing the first season now? The story is only halfway done at the end of the "first season", so it would be rather mean to leave people hanging. I'll see if I can find a Funimation person today and get a better explanation.