Awesome.

This:

Reminded me of this:

Shizuo is stuck in the wrong era!

Oh and Celty continues her moeblobbery

Check out some more reading here:

• "I think I might cre­ate an folder called ‘Shizuo des­troy­ing shit’. The amount of screen­caps I take of Shziuo spawned carnage is ridiculous." – The Cart Driver
• "This episode wasn’t as fun and riotous as last week’s was, but that’s not really a bad thing because that was my favorite installment so far!" – Wakaranai
• "One thing that I also love about these flashbacks is that they show not just one part of a character’s background, they show all of it through all kinds of ages." – psgels

If Celty intently "watching" TV…

…about a special on aliens isn’t moe, I don’t know what is (so cute!).

Sora no Woto’s been pretty interesting so far. But the one thing I hadn’t been able to do was glom onto one character. Sort of surprising, since Kanata is like a mix between Aria’s Akari and K-ON’s Yui, and that kind of combo should be right up my alley. But in a surprise showing, I’ve fallen for the silent girl, Noel Kannagi, or basically Sanya v. Litvyak + Nagato Yuki. She’s just so cute when she’s being all narcoleptic (although I don’t think she should be allowed to operate any heavy machinery – that includes driving, as well as handling the Takemikazuchi in battle).

For what plays off like a slice of life, I keep thinking Sora no Woto is going to take a much more dramatic or darker turn later in the show. I wondered why, and then I realized that I couldn’t remember Sora no Woto using one instance of chibi faces or any sort of comic distortion. Everything’s been really, really straight laced, which is shocking for a show that features cute girls with yuri undertones. And then the world they live in reminds me of Haibane Renmei’s Old Home – mysterious but quaint, traditional but crumbling, a dying world filled with hopeful people. But the neo-mecha Takemikazuchi stands out so much compared to this steampunk world that I can’t help but think that Seize was once the neutral battlefield of a massive Gundam battle, and the Takemikazuchi was the one piece that got left behind once the battle was over and everyone left. Heck, if this was a Sunrise or GAINAX show, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if it took a mecha turn.

Overall, Sora no Woto’s been a good show thus far. The MAL rating seems surprisingly low right now (7.39), but I’ll admit that watching it does require a little patience.

…or Graham Specter. The second episode of DRRR was much better. More interesting main story, and more interesting methods of introducing characters. And while Hiroshi Kamiya’s Izaya seems like a good conniving type of villain, all I really want to know is that there’s going to be someone on Durarara that can reach Ladd Russo or Graham Specter levels of no-holds-barre ridiculousness. I may have found that guy. Shizuo Heikwajima, you are the man. Three lines of dialogue steals the show. Someone get a camera on him full time. STAT!

I was a little worried that Shinbo would be a little too… well… Shinbo in directing Dance in the Vampire Bund. But thankfully the episode was mostly free from the various Shinbo-isms, like the random real-life photos and massive blocks of text. On the other hand, the whole talk show routine wasn’t terribly interesting. I didn’t think it was particularly bad either, it just seemed mostly irrelevant to the eventual show. They could’ve condensed all that into a couple minutes and revealed Mina Tepes and the vampires. For a 12-episode show, it seems like an odd waste of an episode. But Vampire Bund isn’t alone. In fact, it’s just one of the many winter shows that had oddly poor starts. Still, there was enough there to interest me. And hopefully things get back on track next episode.

GAINAX’s big epic is out! And it’s everything I thought it would be.

Unless Nodame’s Finale kicks off with a rousing start, I’ll go on record by saying that Hanamaru Kindergarten’s first episode was the best of the winter bunch so far. Cute, funny, totally enjoyable.

Basically, the story follows Tsuchida’s first day at his first job as a kindergarten teacher. He meets Anzu, a cute, little kindergartener, who probably has been watching too many doramas and thinks he’s hitting on her. He arrives at the school to find that he’s the only guy teacher (apparently male kindergarten teachers are very rare in Japan) amongst the all-female staff, including the especially pretty Yamamoto – a co-worker he instantly takes a liking too. And also happens meets his old high school senpai, who just happens to be Anzu’s 23 year old MILF. Oh, and Anzu proposes marriage to Tsuchi while her mother approves. You know, all in the days work of a kindergarten teacher.

There’s really not a whole lot too say about the show. I expect the show will pretty much follow a formula that involves Anzu and friends being cute, Anzu trying to get Tsuchi’s attention in cute ways, and Tsuchi botching things at getting close to Yamamoto. But I can live with that. It sounds like a good formula to me. I mean it’s not Hanamaru Evangelion, so I don’t need it to be anything more.

The surprising part about the show (in a good way) is that there’s nothing creepy about the show. There’s no ecchi or seductive kids like Kodomo no Jikan. All the kids seem to have well-adjusted parents. Tsuchi looks terribly generic, but is otherwise pretty likeable. Anzu’s mom seemed to be a little young to get married and have a kid (what’s the marriage age in Japan, 17?), and I thought she might go cougar on Tsuchi, but even that was defused when I saw that her marriage was still going strong. I feel confident in saying that Hanamaru Kindergarten is probably fun for the whole family.

The show looked pretty good. Light on details, but nice bright colors. Attractive and cute character designs (except for Tsuchi, who got hit by the generic stick). No OP in this episode, but the ED looked very cool. The song itself is too cutesy for me to ever listen too, but the ED screens had sort of a Alice in Wonderland meets Yellow Submarine trippy 70′s style vibe going for it.

This show may be the definition of a moeblob show (whatever that supposedly is), but if you don’t have a problem with that, I think it’s going to be a fun ride.

The season’s most anticipated show has arrived, does it live up to the brilliance of Baccano?

In a word, from the first episode, no. It doesn’t even come close. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure this show will be fan-fricking-tasting. But this first episode? Was yawn-inducingly boring. I suppose that’s the problem when the whole episode is mostly about introducing tons of characters that I still couldn’t pick out in a police lineup. Oh, they’ll probably be interesting. Like the tall, black Russian sushi chef, or the girl with the neck surgery scar, or the headless horseman, or the guy we never see that tosses vending machines in the background. But for this episode, they were all pretty boring. The problem was the two guys driving the episode, the Firo Prochainezo lookalike, and the newbie who looks like he stepped out of Yozakura Quartet, didn’t have that instant attraction like say… Miria and Isaac-ku had. So it was hard to really care what they were talking about, since all they did was reference characters that we either saw for three seconds, or were referenced as bad-asses. We’ll learn those characters eventually, no need to overload the first episode with meaningless introductions. Plus, nothing really happened, except that a couple hooligans kidnapped Horo, and a headless biker may or may not have saved her.

The colors looked a little too dark and washed out, but the show looked pretty good otherwise. The Yozakura Quartet-like art style isn’t bad, but it’s just going to take me a little time to get used to it and wipe the bad taste of that terrible show out of my mouth. The background music is excellent, with some good eclectic tunes, while the OP and EDs are pretty good. The OP is nowhere near as good as Guns and Roses’, but I like the rap/pop ED much more than Baccano’s ED.

I’m being a little harsh, because I expected much more out of Durarara. I’ll definitely keep watching, as I mentioned, there should be an interesting backstory at play, and a lot of crazy characters (although I’m guessing it’ll be unlikely that any of them will reach Ladd Russo or Graham Specter levels) doing what crazy characters do. But hopefully they pick up the pace in the next episode.

Ryukishi07′s back! And this time his murderous (probably) characters are cuter than ever!

I have to admit, it seems like a lot of people disliked Isuzu, but I liked her a lot. She was obviously cute, and I have a soft spot for expressive and affectionate girls. Hiroshi on the other hand, I’m not terribly thrilled with. Clearly he’s a lot more trappy than the undeniably GAR Keiichi and Battler, so getting Yuu Kobayashi to voice him does make some sense. She does that feminine boy voice well. But it doesn’t exactly raise my hopes that he’ll be a good enough lead. For all of Keiichi and Battler’s faults, their GAR-ness and willingness to "be the man" (well, moreso with Keiichi), helped drive the story forward. And Souchirou Hoshi and Daisuke Ono were two excellent choices to exemplify that spirit. But I doubt Yuu Kobayashi will ever be able to reach their levels, which leaves me zetsuboushta for the fate of Hiroshi.

But despite all that, I think this is going to be a fun ride. Ookami Kakushi follows the typical Ryukishi pattern. Silly, slice of life moments in the initial episode, with just enough things slightly off-kilter – whether it’s the welcome fitting for a war hero, or the instantly deredere Isuzu – making you think that something’s not quite right. The start of Ookami Kakushi feels even more like the typical eroge/VN start than either Higurashi or Umineko. Heck, with the little tinkling bell (what is up with the popularity of those bells lately?) and the deredere love interest, it’s very 11eyes-esque. But here’s where I’d say, keep faith. These clichés are merely lulls that will eventually suck you into some terrible, terrible tragedies… that will be addicting to watch. Through trial and error, I’ve decided that Ryukishi is the only one who earns that benefit of the doubt from me.

On the production side, I wasn’t very familiar with the Peach Pit designs, but they are very, very cute (especially the chibi-Senjougahara lookalike). Although the show doesn’t look quite as good as Sora no Otoshimono or Nyan Koi did last season, AIC does a solid job with the animation. At the very least, it didn’t have DEEN’s tendency to devolve into off-model shots.

With my completely unfamiliarity with the source material (and almost no existing fanbase to get an idea from), I’m looking forward to seeing how Ookami Kakushi unfolds. Hopefully Ryukishi07′s got another gem in the bag.

It’s the show I know nothing about from the studio that I nothing about! This can’t possibly go well, could it?

Japan’s got it all wrong. Stupid babies need the most love! I have to admit, Silver Link did a good job. Liberal use of chibis and some pretty solid artwork sooths an otherwise ok story. But for a first episode, Baka to Test wasn’t all that bad. I got a chuckle from the random "zetsuboushta!" as well as the so very wrong, but so very funny trap transformation scene. Why must they tempt us with such terribly awkward trapness! Otherwise, all the characters – sans Akihisa, the main lead guy – were pretty likeable. I’m sure Akihisa will end up being a strong baka trainer, but he lacked the charisma of his E class representative friend. I’m not sure why he’s considered the male lead in this show. On the flip side, even though we didn’t get to see too much of Mizuki’s personality, I was instantly smitted by her Louise de Valliere looks and the very classy hairpin she sported. I knew then that she had strength of heart beyond her frail countenance.

The idea of using test scores as the basis for the battles themselves was somewhat interesting, but clearly, the highlight was mass use of chibis. Still, I’m not sure I’d want to see extended battles each episode. The battle scheme seems much too simple and the 2D game look while amusing, probably won’t hold my interest as well for each subsequent fight.

All in all, it was a pretty good start for a show I had no expectations for. I’m not sure the story will be interesting enough to keep my attention for long, but I’ll continue watching to see how it goes.

I am not typing out all those dashes. But this is a damn good show.

So if you’re wondering, or actually you’ve probably already heard. Yes, there is a bit of a K-ON influence on the art, and yeah the girls at first glance do seem to resemble some of the K-ON members (who btw were pretty standard character archetypes themselves). The only difference is they seem to have replaced Ritsu with a Sanya V Litvyak clone. I think the K-ON design influence is a bit overplayed, and is mostly limited to the eyes. Actually, the loose and flowing lines reminded me more of Kannagi’s style, which makes sense since both are A-1 shows. A quick look at ANN shows that Sora no Woto’s character designer, Toshifumi Akai, also worked on Kannagi as an animation director, which is explains a lot. The only problem is that Sora no Woto’s foreground characters lack the details and polish that Kannagi had. They look overly simplified, so the animation looks cheap and stilted. But I may have only noticed this because in contrast the backgrounds are gorgeously detailed, and brilliantly colored. It’s pretty rare that I do this, but more than a handful of times I caught myself admiring the details in the background instead of checking out the comparatively crude characters.

Meanwhile, the music is very, very nice. I especially liked the insert song that played during retelling of the town’s myth. The OP mixes in what sounds similar to an old-style asian-pop melody over a nice thumping percussion. It’s quite fantastic actually. It’s too early to say, but I can see it easily ending up as my favorite OP of the season. The ED’s not bad, it’s catchy, but felt a little too poppy for the show. Juri Aikawa in what is perhaps her first role does a good job as Kanata, the new kid on the block. Cute, perky and full of wonder. On the other hand, I wish Yuu Kobayashi left her Kanon voice at home. Between hearing Kanon talk, and hearing the 11eyes-esque bell tinkling, I occasionally wondered if strange monsters or mysterious murders would break out.

Bah, anyway, what about the story you might be wondering? Is it any good? It seems like it’ll play like I guessed it would in my winter preview post, K-ON more-or-less with a plot. Kanata is a new recruit, as the trumpeteer for a nation that has just recently gone to war. Soon she meets her brigade (actually only the Mio character so far), and will trumpet the trumpets that will sound retreat for their troops. ORZ. When not sounding cowardly retreat, she may do things like play for festivals or wake the town by sounding the morning call, and perhaps other magical things. Actually, the war and surprise mythology aspect of the show gives it a really interesting background. While I imagine it’ll stay pretty fuwa fuwa most of the time, there’s seeds in place to take a more dramatic or fantasy route if they want. All in all, there’s a lot of things to like about the show.

On a completely separate note, there’s been a lot of comparisons between Yui and Kanata, and while they’re pretty similar. I will say you will never see Yui doing something as dumb as taking a leap over a 10 foot gap over a cliff that seems to be about 80 feet high just to retrieve a bell. I mean, I like both of them, but come on! Yui was the deserved winner of Saimoe, not that false-tsundere-lolicon-bait Taiga! Ok, now I’m grandstanding. :-p

If you were waffling on Sora no Woto, definitely give it a shot, I think it’ll be a really good show.