(Some year-end hitchhiking, for lack of better pictures)

Series I watched at least 1 full episode of this year (*=continued from 2006, not eligible for awards aside from best finale):
Winter-
*Death Note
*Demashitta! Powerpuff Girls Z
*Kanon
*Pretty Cure Splash Star
*Spider Riders (Canadian broadcast)
Deltora Quest
Kyoushirou to Towa no Sora
Les Miserables- Shojou Cossette
Master of Epic: The Animation Age
Naruto Shippuuden
Shuffle Memories
Yes! Pretty Cure 5

Spring-
Bakugan Battle Brawlers
El Cazador de la Bruja
Hayate the Combat Butler
Heroic Age
Hitohira
Lucky Star
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
Romeo x Juliet
Sola
Spider Riders ~Yomigaeru Taiyou~

Summer-
Doujin Work
Moetan
Mushi Uta
Nanatsuiro Drops
Zombie Loan
Kodomo no Jikan OAV

Fall-
Bamboo Blade
Blue Drop
Clannad
Da Capo II
Dragonaut- The Resonance
Ef- a tale of memories
Genshiken 2
Goushuushousama Ninomiya-kun
Gundam 00
Kodomo no Jikan TV
Minami-ke
Mokke
Night Wizard- the Animation
Prism Ark
Rental Magica
Sketchbook ~Full ColorS~

For the official protection of all other characters, Buguese and Aqune are hereby prevented from winning any awards.

(more…)

Well, I know I hardly update anymore, but I can’t ignore the excuse for a pointless gimmick post. :P

(It seems Miyamiya stuck poor Dan on the tree so she could become a lesbian for Tamaki)

To anyone who still comes by, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

While I haven’t found Kotomi’s story as interesting as Fuuko’s so far, it’s still proved to really surprsie me. I like the whole idea about their being hidden worlds, and I hope they explain more of how these work. I’m guessing that Kotomi somehow can go inside of them, or at least knows how to find them. A lot was explained this week, thankfully, because otherwise I would’ve killed the broadcasters for making me wait until January for the next episode. Still, there’s several things that I’d still like to know, such as what the researchers did to traumatize Kotomi so much.
I don’t know why, but the mysterious man really interested me from just his brief appearance last week. I had a suspicion that he wasn’t as bad as Kotomi seemed to think. He still might turn out crazy, but he does really seem to regret whatever wrong he did. Perhaps he caused the fire.

Fuuko’s back! Seeing her show up the way she did was so cool, and she’s still very much herself. It’s a shame nobody remembers who she is, but I hope she can pop up more often like this.

Episode 11
Reimi has a vendetta against Miyamiya because a boy she liked was interested in her, although Miyamiya had no interest in him. Thinking Yuuji is her current boyfirend, Reimi sends some guys after him, but he manages to scare them away by bluffing. Meanwhile, in order to prepare for the next match, which is against Reimi’s school, the kendo club searches for a new member to recruit, a girl named Azuma. Also, the rain brings back good memories to Tamaki of her mother.

Episode 12
Kirino and Saya manage to find Azuma. She wants to join the team, because she likes kendo, but is more concerned with studying, as her grades are ridiculously bad. They pretty much force her into it though. While attempting to flirt with Yuuji, Reimi discovers that Miyamiya’s current boyfriend is Dan. She’ll be attending the match, as photographer for her school’s newspaper. Mei, a member of the Seimeikoku team, prepares for her fight against Tamaki.

So now, all five girls are present. I wonder if that means actual plot is next. I enjoy this show for the epic crack it is, but it could never hurt. I wouldn’t be surprised if the second half took itself a bit more seriously though. These two episodes were cute. Last week’s was a bit more silly and random, but this one had it’s moments. Reimi is proving to be quite entertaining. I suspect she’ll cause some trouble next week, hanging out during a match. I wonder if it will effect Miyamiya’s performance at all. Azuma is quite strong, so she’ll probably be a useful addition to the team. She beat Kirino and Saya pretty easily, and I have a feeling she would’ve done better against Yuuji if not for the fact that she had other obligations on her mind. Finally, Mei is totally cute. Hopefully Tamaki doesn’t cream her too badly. I wanted to see the fight, so it’s a shame the episode ended where it did.

When a series approaches the end, even if I have no way of predicting the ending, I usually at least have a good idea of who’s intended to be the hero and who the villains are. I don’t necessarily root for the hero, but at least his or her identity is apparent. This time it’s different. I really enjoyed this episode because it was surprising and suspenseful, but also because I was spending most of it trying to figure out who was an ally to Elis and who wasn’t. Obviously, Hiiragi continued trying to protect her, despite the fact that she has Syaimaral living inside of her, but I’m skeptical about any other character. I would’ve expected Akari and Kureha to be allies until the end, so it really came as a surprise to see Akari leading the attack in the end. She always seemed to be the most mysterious and distant of the group, but I thought it was safe to assume she was Elis’ friend. Maybe she has other plans and will turn out to still be on Elis’ side, but I’m not so sure anymore. As for Kureha, it’s still unknown whether she’ll help or not, but even she was set at first on just killing Elis in order to save the world. Hopefully, she won’t turn on them too. Next, is Kirihito. I was quite surprised to see him appear to save Elis, because he’s obviously been up to something. He claims to just be against Anzelotte, but he still has a sense of creepiness to him. I wouldn’t be willing to trust him just yet. He’s certainly powerful, and would make a good ally, so he might be one of Elis’ best chances of survival if he is on her side. Finally, there’s Anzelotte. From the scene where she was speaking to Gazer, she seemed very unsure as to what she was supposed to be doing. I wish I knew exactly what she ordered Akari and Kureha to do. It’s likely that she told them to kill Elis, like Akari was trying to do. However, it would be an interesting twist if she said otherwise and Akari just disobeyed. Based on the preview, it’s probably the former though. I’m definitely very interested now to see how things turn out, but I really hope Elis will be okay.

-So Alice can brawl. Her element seems to be dark, but that just could be because she was being aided by the dark guardian. It’s actually kinda fitting for her, though. She claims to not know herself why she has to fight against Masquerade, but she’s still doing it, and she’s still winning… for now. Masquerade seems to have some kind of strategy. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see much of this brawl, but hopefully it’ll continue next week.
-On his way to fight Shun, Dan meets with Runo, who informs him of Alice’s disappearance. Dan decides to fight Runo before Shun. Just as with the Marucho and Julie battles from last week, Dan wins.
-Wyvern gets some background. Apparently, she’s actually half of Naga. The evil half is essentially her older brother. She also seems to like Drago. They’re just too adorable together, but I doubt it’ll work out, seeing how she’s actually only part of a larger being.

Syusuke and Syuri’s stepmother gets drunk and goes to sleep with another man. Meanwhile, the two go to visit their mother’s grave, and then spend the night out. They reflect on their childhood a bit. In order to cheer Syuri up, Syusuke decides to buy her a bracelet as a present while in the toy store. She decides to get one for him as well. Eventually, they end up holding hands. In school, they’re called to the principal’s offers, and told that the school received a letter saying that they were seen in a love hotel. Though they defend themselves, they have no proof of what they were really doing. Yuzuki-sensei tried to help, and so the principal decides that she won’t pursue the matter further, but she’ll have to tell their parents. When their father finds out, he’s furious, mostly because he doesn’t want his reputation damaged. The next day, the matter only gets worse, as rumors are spreading through the school. Syuri explains the situation to Sana and Asami later, while on the way to the nursing home. She’s glad to be able to come with them, because she doesn’t want to go back home. They first go to see Kaji, who’s recovering from sickness. Syuri tries to peel her an apple, but cuts herself. Seeing the bloody knife scares Sana again, and he has to leave. Asami goes out to see him, leaving Syuri alone with Kaji. Kaji admits that she’s trying to bring Makoto back, and that she sacrificed the bird and the cat, and she now wants to sacrifice Syuri. Asami and Sana return, and Asami protects Syuri, but gets hurt herself. She’s okay after surgery though. When Syuri finally returns home, her father informs her that she was accepted into a public boarding school in London. He knows that his children were innocent, but is still too concerned about the public reaction, because he needs to win an election. Syuri refuses to go and runs to her room. Hearing this, Syusuke comes in and finds her crying. She explains everything to him, and Syusuke offers to take her some place far away.

Okay, I gave her the benefit of the doubt for awhile, but I can officially say that Syuri and Syusuke are right in calling their stepmother a slut. I’d be very willing to believe that she was the one who wrote the letter. She did express hate for the kids, so it’s quite possible. Though doing this would also hurt her husband, by giving him bad publicity, I doubt she’d care about that either. She obviously isn’t that in love with him, if she was fine with going off with that other man she was with in the bar. Regardless of who did it, I felt really bad for Syusuke and Syuri, particularly Syuri. On top of having a letter sent to the school saying she was sleeping with her brother, she also nearly got sacrificed by Kaji, and then had to watch Asami get hurt trying to save her. Even though Asami seems to be okay, having that extra guilt probably made it harder on Syuri. I didn’t much like Syuri for a while, not that there was anything about her to dislike, but just because she seemed like a pointless side character. She was really great in this episode though, and I’m starting to find her and Syusuke’s problems more interesting than the Nanaka/Sana/Asami love triangle. To an extent, it’s because I’m wondering about the validity of the letter. Obviously, they didn’t go to a love hotel, but I’ve been curious about their relationship ever since Syusuke looked at Syuri to decide what his ideal woman would be like. They obviously have a really close bond, so in that case, Syusuke might just respect Syuri very much, and in that case see her as an ideal woman, even if he doesn’t mean that in the sense of a lover. I hope they’re successful in going off together, and getting away from their obnoxious father and stepmother. I also hope Kaji gets put in a mental institution or something, because she’s still creepy.

Wow, I’m actually posting something. Guess that means I broke my slump. ^^

So this week we have:
-The continuing drama of Toraji. Seriously, it looks like he can never catch a break. He even had a pathetic life in the past, as shown in his flashback of being involved in a hold-up when he first got a job at a store.
-Tamaki hears that Miyamiya was saving money to buy Dan a birthday gift, and then realizes that she forgot her father’s birthday. Just as he’d been anticipating, she gets him a present, thus giving up her chance to get the anime boxset she wanted. Poor Tamaki. She’s such a good girl though, that I knew she’d make the right choice at he own expense. She should’ve bought the box though. Those thigns are expensive.
-Miyamiya seems to have a stalker. To make it worse, she’s the daughter of the scary lady that Toraji met when shopping last week. I guess they’re just a scary family, because Miyamiya is pretty terrified of this girl. I look foward to seeing how this works out, because this new girl is rather amusing.
-The meganekko showed up again, but she’s still not a member of the main cast. I’m quite surprised by this.

Here in the US, it’s one of my favorite days, a holiday about eating. Well, that’s not exactly what it’s for, but that’s besides the point.

It was a fitting day to watch episode 8 of Ninomiya-kun, an episode about cooking ramen. Never realized how complicated a process it could be. I can always count on this show for a steady source of crack this season.

*cough*Perhaps this is a gimmick post, but who cares? Happy Thanksgiving. ^_^

Because Nanaka is ignoring him, Sana starts to think she’s mad at him, and inquires her about it. She claims that she’s not mad, and admits that she saw him with Asami. Sana explains that it was an accident, similarly to what happened at the festival with Nanaka. However, hearing that Sana didn’t think anything of that only makes her more upset. Both Sana and Nanaka realize that the other has changed from the person they used to know. Sana reflects on his past with Nanaka, and remembers a secret mailbox they used to use to send messages to each other. Sana had the only two keys, and gave one to Nanaka. They helped solve each other’s problems through their letters. Sana decides to look for the key, leaving his room a mess of porn books in the process. Aoi of course walks in on this.After retunring to the box, Sana is shocked to find it’s full of letters, including one that says “help me” all over it. Needing to know what happened to Nanaka, Sana questions Syusuke. He explains that Nanaka’s parents died in a fire. She was left traumatized for a while. While Sana thinks about his learnings, he’s confronted by Yuzuki-sensei. She gives him more caramel, leading Sana to question why she always does so. She explains to him, and as he’s leaving, realizes that he was the boy she gave caramel to in the past. Later, Sana and Nanaka meet each other by the mailbox by chance, and Sana admits that he knows about the fire. He apologizes for not being able to do anything when she was suffering. Nanaka starts crying, saying that she suffered more because he wasn’t there for her, and running into his arms. Afterwards, during a call with his mother, Sana says that he’s become stronger.

This was definitely an important episode. Nanaka’s past was finally explained. Her vision of fire did turn out to be significant, as it was a fire that killed her parents. I suppose the reason she doesn’t play the violin anymore is because she associates it with the loss of her parents, having it with her when she escaped the fire. I can see how this would’ve been a traumatizing event for her, and I really felt bad for her at the end. Not having an important person to you to help around after losing two other important people must’ve made it even harder on her. It also excuses her behavior towards the beginning more, of going as far as slapping Sana just because he didn’t remember her. It’s clear that she really loves him, so I can see why that would be insulting to her. Syusuke was interesting this week too. I’m surprised by how hurt he was over what happened to Nanaka, mostly because he was unable to do anything for her. That’s the kind of thing I can really relate to, often feeling bad that I can’t do anything for people’s problems. Since Nanaka’s problem was so big, it was probably particularly hard for Syusuke. Anyway, I’m glad Sana and Nanaka have pretty much made up, and hopefully their relationship will work out. Though, I’d be disappointed if there was no more drama between them, and there’s still a few episodes left. Hopefully when Sana’s background is explained, things can become interesting again. Next weeks episode looks like it could be cute, with more Hinako and Syusuke stuff. I thought Hinako would switch harems, but I guess she can still try for him.