Happy New Year!

2010 has come and passed. Another either wasted or well-spent, depending on how you look at it. We got K-ON!!, Disappearance, Squid Girl, and Panty & Stocking. What will 2011 bring us? I dunno, but I can't wait to find out! Can January 4th come any sooner?

Being the year of the rabbit, I think one of my favorite Touhou characters should get some love. As such, here's a few images of everyone's favorite rabbit.

Podcast Appearance

I am appearing on the 12/30 episode of Bakacast, courtesy of Project Haruhi, which I also write for. I will be discussing MM! and the rest of the fall 2010 season with the rest of the PH guys. There's a link to the site on the front page, and the podcast will be embedded into the blog.

Project Haruhi

Fall 2010 Season Review

I won't lie. I had really low expectations for this season after the crapfest known as Summer 2010. As such, I wasn't expecting much from the fall shows. Man, oh man. I would be proven wrong in a heartbeat. I ended up finishing 4 series this fall, out of 7 that I started. Not too bad, if I do say so myself.

It was certainly progressive, but I initially picked up a single show: Shinryaku! Ika Musume. I think I can safely say it was the best show of the season. The mix of gag comedy and heartwarming moments created a unique show, without creating extreme mood whiplash.



The other 2 shows I picked up shortly after starting Ika Musume were MM! and The World God Only Knows. I would be sorely disappointed by MM! in the end, but TWGOK was a unique show with a character-heavy plot. That is, it was divided into "character arcs" of 2 to 3 episodes each.

The last show I picked up, about halfway through the season, and finished was Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. This show was... unique, to say the least. The characters were bizarre, as was the premise: a sex-craving slut and a sugar-addicted goth loli come to the surface world to fight Ghosts. Did I mention that these two are angels?

As great as this season was, there were a few disappointments. One was My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute, or OreImo for short. A mid-season pick up, I enjoyed the show at first, before one of the characters started to get on my nerves. I ended up not finishing OreImo, dropping it after 10 episodes.

Another disappointment was the aforementioned MM!. A show about sadomasochism? Well, I like twisted humor, so sign me up! This was another show I enjoyed at first. Unfortunately, the show started to derail into a cliched romantic comedy, even putting in the Pocky kissing game.



There were 2 other show I started, but did not finish: Star Driver, and Princess Jellyfish. I didn't watch enough to really get interested, so I can't give an honest opinion here.

All in all, a great season. Winter looks to be pretty good. Expect reviews of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica throughout winter season, as well as a review of Dirty Pair Flash, when ever the last tape decides to come.

Review: Shinryaku! Ika Musume 12 + overall thoughts

To be honest, when I started watching Ika Musume, I heard a catchy OP. But I looked at the premise of the show, and immediately thought "Crap, this is gonna be another bland moe show." Boy, was I ever wrong. This show exceeded my expectations by several miles.

The final episode sees Ika doing 3 things, the first of which is entering a beach volleyball tournament. She wanted the shrimp to pop out of the screen, to be fair. Naturally, Ika's squid nature makes things anything but fair. The second part involved Ika not being able to move her tentacles. Shock therapy is needed. Who you gonna call? No, not the Ghostbusters. Sanae, of course! Buut it doesn't work. Ika's solution? Retreat to the sea for the time being. The third part is really just a continuation of the second part. Ika has not returned from the sea, and everyone is starting to worry. Suddenly... we find ourselves back at the opening scene of episode 1, except for a small difference... But in the end, everything went back to normal, as Ika got her squid abilities back.

As always, the comedy felt fresh, and the entire supporting cast was involved, which I greatly appreciated. And when I say "entire", I mean it. Literally all the characters were involved in the entire episode, included the creepy MIT grads. And, of course, the over-the-top finale to the final match was awesome. I felt my heartstrings being tugged at towards the end of the episode, but it was still pretty funny.

Being a gag show, I honestly felt that Ika Musume's comedy would run dry within 5 episodes. It had its issues at first, but it quickly addressed them. The comedy constantly changed, and, as a result, was incredibly fresh. After the first four episodes, the supporting cast was integrated a lot more. All in all, this was an excellent show.


Episode 12:

Plot Advancement/Ending: 4/5
Comedy: 3/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Episode Plot: 5/5

Episode 12 Overall: 4/5


Series Overall:

Plot: 3.5/5
Comedy: 4.5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
Pacing: 4/5

Series Overall: 4/5

Just a quick note/plug

I will be appearing on the December 16th episode of the Otaku in Review podcast. I'll join the regular hosts and discuss MM!, as well as Panty and Stocking. Please tune in, or better yet, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or at www.otakuinreview.com. Also, the MM! review will be a bit late this week, due in part to final exams and late subs.

Review MM! 9

I've been watching MM! for several weeks now, and I am impressed that the show has not gone stale by now. The writers continue to bring in good ideas, which is good for a show with the kind of idea that they're going with, that idea being a show about trying to cure a masochist.

MM! tells us the story of Tarou Sado, a “hella masochist”, Mio Isurugi, a girl with a god complex, and Yuuno Arashiko, an androphobe. It also relates their activies in the Second Volunteering Club, whose sponsor is, amusingly enough, a sadist. The fact that these three are even in the same room together is a bit frightening, because the androphobe might kill the masochist, who'd creep out the god complex girl. No matter, on with the review!

It's finally time for the school festival, filled with fun and games, but with some twists and character development thrown in. Seems the writers decided to switch it up and focus on developing Mio Isurugi a bit, which isn't a bad thing. We have a threatening letter from an unknown entity, which the Second Volunteering Club, namely Tarou and Mio, decide to investigate.

The nice thing about this show is the many different options the writers have. One option, which we've already seen quite a bit, is the mindless comedy centered around Tarou's masochism. Another option, which we've seen a couple times, is the character-centric episodes that provide most of the character development. This time we got a character episode, focused on one of the other girls, Mio Isurugi. I wasn't exactly laughing this time around, but that's expected, given the focus on Mio, rather than the masochist. It was very well-written, as usual, and the interesting plot twist of the threatening letter kept me interested, though it was a bit easy to figure out. The change of pace to a character episode was a welcome relief from the M comedy of the last few episodes Mio's character-centric episode reveals that she is, in fact, afraid of cats, and cannot go to a maid cafè filled with cats as a result of said fear, which I found rather amusing. But aside from Mio, it was a standard-fare school festival episode with nothing special happening, aside from Tarou's incestuous family trying to win a date with him.

Overall, I'd say this one was pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. With no redeeming events other than the character development, it was average for the series. However, this is not an episode to skip, by any means. It's worth watching for the psuedo-date between Tarou and Mio.

Plot Advancement: 3.5/5
Comedy: 2/5
Episode Plot: 4.5/5
Character Development: 5/5

Overall: 4/5

Review: Shinryaku! Ika Musume 5-8

An excellent source of entertainment this fall season has been Shinryaku! Ika Musume (Invasion! Squid Girl). A show with a lot of potential, Ika Musume is finally starting to address its weaknesses, namely making use of the supporting cast. This, among other things, are a few of the things I pointed out in my last review.

As always, this show has no real plot outside of Ika's backstory, so I'm not taking that into consideration. This is, after all, a gag series, so plot isn't exactly a priority. This set of episodes certainly emphasized character development, as we see Ika learning a bit more about the human world, with less emphasis being placed on her "invasion". As mentioned earlier, the supporting cast was integrated into the comedy a bit more than early on. My hopes are that they'll become closer to being main characters while staying supporting.

Despite the use of the supporting cast, the show is still pretty Ika-centric. I'd like for the show to move away from that, but with 4 episodes left, I'm not counting on it. The characters still feel kinda stereotypical, and the episode plots are easily deducted. However, it's getting better. Just a little bit more!



Overall, the show is improving, especially in the character development department, which isn't usually present in a gag anime. Character dev aside, the jokes feel fresh, which is a bit of a surprise, since this is a half-season show. I'm not counting on a second season, but I am finishing this one, no question.

Plot: N/A
Characters: 4/5
Episode story: 3/5
Comedy: 4/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Shinryaku! Ika Musume 1-4 Review

All right, time to take a leap and review Ika Musume. This was the initial fall show that drew me (and many, many others) in. I think 4 episodes is enough to justify a review.



From our perspective, the sea is a huge watery trash can. To the one who calls herself the messenger of the sea, we're polluting her home. Alas, we've pissed off a girl with squid tentacles for hair, Ika Musume, which literally means Squid Girl.


From the minute that I heard the first few "Shinryaku!"s, I thought, "This is gonna be a good show." Thankfully, it's held up for 4 episodes. Shinryaku! Ika Musume! gives off an Azumanga Daioh feel, from the character gags to the splitting the episode up into sections. Each episode is split up into 3 sections, each with a squid pun. While clever, eventually, they'll run out of "janai ka" puns. Though, I may be a bit biased against animal puns.


There were several things I liked. Ika's attempts to conquer even a beach house fall flat, and in some humorous way. Actually, before I get to that, I should explain the backstory. Ika is pissed off at humanity for polluting the sea. Who could blame her? After all, we trashed her home. Anyway, Ika promptly comes ashore, barges into a beach house, and proclaims that it is her base. No one takes her seriously, and the owner of the house, Eiko, pulls Ika out back.

Ika Musume! gives a feel of a classic gag anime: Azumanga Daioh. I really liked Azumanga, so seeing a show that brought me that feel is a welcome relief from a lot of the recent stuff, such as the monotony of K-ON! and similar shows. Ika's inability to adjust to the human world constantly hinders her plans to conquer the beach house.

For everything that was good about this show, there were bad things. A good amount of the humor and comedy in the show revolves around Ika, perhaps a bit too much. Too much emphasis is placed on Ika, effectively leaving the supporting cast as removable parts. Every episode is "Ika has a new plot, Ika tries to execute, Ika fails." The supporting cast has little interaction with Ika, aside for the boke-tsukkomi duo of Ika and Eiko.

There were a few surprises, like seeing that Chizuru, the cute, sweet, peaceful older sister, can knock Ika down to size. Other than that, Ika Musume! needs to develop the supporting cast a bit more, or the gags will wear thin quickly. I like this show, and I want to keep it that way.



Overall, the first 4 episodes impressed me quite a bit. The backstory sets up a cliche plot, but a twist is thrown in. With all the problems the show has ,though, it'll be hard to finish it without fleshing out the cast more. As of episode four, I rate this a 3.75 out of 5. The show is already almost halfway finished, and we have seen little to no development of the supporting cast, instead continuing to focus on Ika.

Fall 2010 mini-preview

Another summer anime season has come and passed. Obviously, next up is Fall 2010. Before I get to the juicy part, though, I'd like to say one thing: I had moderately high expectations for Summer 2010. And the season promptly fell flat on its face and skidded a couple feet. Because of that, I'm not holding my breath for the fall season.

Now that my 2 bits about summer is in, time for the good part: the previews! There's too much to put in a mini-preview, but I'll get quite a bit in here. What caught my eye, looking at the lineup is Ironman. Yes, an anime of a Western comic book. Perhaps payback for the atrocity that is Dragonball: Evolution (which I saw on clearance for $1.19)? Either way, I might watch this just to see how Japan handles the Ironman name.


New seasons of current anime include: A Certain Magical Index 2, Arakawa Under the Bridge 2, and, yes, yet another season of Pokemon. Project Haruhi writer Jon gave me a taste of Index a while back. I may go watch the first season before I check this one out. Index revolves around the story of Kamijou Touma, an ordinary, Kyon-esque guy who gets drawn into the supernatural. That sounds awfully familiar...


Arakawa Under the Bridge tells the story of rich-boy Kou Ichinomiya, who swore never to be indebted to anyone. One day, Kou makes a strange promise: In exchange for having his life saved, he must date the girl that saved him, who just happens to be homeless. Again, I'd have to watch the first season to give a fair opinion.


Okay, now the long-runner: yes, the new season of Pokemon! (How many season are we at now?) Based around the brand-new games, Ash travels the land depicted in the new games. What adventures are in store for Ash? You'll have to tell me, because I have no plans of watching this one.



Planned OVAs and specials for this season will give us Queen's Blade, more ToHeart2, A Certain Scientific Railgun, and a few others. Notably absent is the Negima OVAs, which I expected after 1 in Spring and Summer.

I few other things that I noticed: Kyoto Animation does not appear to be animating any series this season, while SHAFT has a notable presence, animating at least 2 series. Also, there are a few moe series this season, though not quite as many as the past few seasons. Could moe be on the decline?

Overall, the fall season doesn't quite reel me in. The only really big name is Pokemon, which I feel has run its course. There are several new shows, with only a few returning from last season. And lastly, the OVAs seem rather light, with 12 planned for the season.

As always, I welcome comments. Expect a new poll soon!

Just FYI...

I started up a small business on Amazon. I have posted a few links on Twitter, but I imagine some of my readers don't use Twitter. I'm primarily selling unwanted baseball cards, but I do have some unwanted manga, so take a look and see if there's anything you might want.

I'm somewhat disappointed by the lack of responses in the last two polls. I post polls for a reason, and that reason is not for them to sit there and look pretty. I would appreciate it if you vote in the poll and/or fill out the survey before you leave.

Lastly, I'll do a mini-preview of the fall season sometime this week. Look forward to the actual post sometime next week. Who knows, maybe I'll find something interesting!

In case you haven't noticed by now...

If by some weird coincidence you haven't noticed by now, I've done a total overhaul of the blog's design, right down to the header image. I have fellow aniblogger Kei to thank for the image. I also changed the colors around, too.

Another quick note: the new season is starting soon, and that means most blogs will being cranking out episode reviews. Sadly, I am but one person, and a student at that, so I almost certainly will NOT be doing episode reviews for a few seasons.

Lastly, I want to thank everyone who made this blog possible: my readers, the aniblogging community, the Blogger team, myself, and a few others.

If you have an idea on how I might be able to improve the design a bit, or have a complaint, leave a comment on this post!

See you guys later!