For the month of March as a whole, I won’t be able to blog frequently. Due to traveling with Robotics, I won’t be home and will lack th free time. I’ll blog what I can but things will probably be boring around here. Anyway, since I won’t have the time later, I’ve made my list of potential shows to watch this Spring.

Very interesting:
Air Gear - I’ve heard enough good things about the manga
Fushigiboshi no Futagohime Gyu! - I love the original
Makai Senki Disgaea -The hype makes me curious
Sasami -Mahou Shoujo Club- More Tenchi=good

Somewhat interesting:
Ah! My Goddess 2nd season - First season was good, but the manga is still better
Hack//GU -I like .hack stuff
Hime-sama Goyoujin -Supposedly similar to Rozen Maiden
Himawari! - Sounds very cute
Kamisama Kazoku - Very interesting sounding story
Utawarerumono -The plot sounds weird, but it’s by the creators of To Heart

I spent the day down at Comic Con in New York City, which was a blast! I wound up purchasing some more To Heart and Fate/Stay Night merchandise too. Anyway, at the con, ADV films announced that they have the license to Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai (This Ugly and Beautiful World.) I watched this show when it first aired, before I had a blog, and found it really enjoyable. It’s definitely a series I can recommend, expecailly for fans of cute stuff and Gainax’s craziness. I didn’t expect it to be licensed, considering it’s lack of popularity, but that’s pretty cool that it’ll be seeing an English release.

Shinji tries to convince Shirou that while he is Rider’s master, he was innocent. He did nothing to Ayako and the barrier was just for personal defense. Right. Shinji also explains that his family comes from a line of mages. Shirou wonders if Sakura has magic but Shinji doesn’t know. He was just chosen because he was the oldest in the family. He thinks that if children in his family aren’t chosen to be successors then they’re left unaware of their magic potential. Shinji also claims that he can’t use magic and because Shirou isn’t knowledgeable of it, they should team up against Rin. Shirou rejects. Before leaving, Shirou asks Rider to protect Shinji. Rider comments that Shirou is kind. When Shirou gets home, both Saber and Rin are mad at him for being late. While they discuss masters and servants, someone is watching them. Next, Saber wants to go to the temple to fight the nearby servant that Shirou learned of. Shirou and Rin don’t think that’s a good idea though. That’s only a small concern though, because Rin soon announces that she’s moving in. Saber seems to be a bit jealous and wants to room with Shirou. Soon enough, Taiga and Sakura come into the picture. After more craziness, Rin is eventually allowed to stay. Later, Saber wants to go out again but Shirou’s still too worried about her getting hurt. Therefore, Saber waits until he’s asleep to head out. Assassin is awaiting her arrival.

That was pretty fun. Shinji is a complete jerk! I’m not too surprised that Shirou seems to believe his lies, but I don’t like seeing Shinji play innocent. Hopefully, somebody will figure out the truth soon enough and take him on. I’m beginning to wonder if Sakura does have any magical capabilities. I’ve seen some spoilers on her, by I didn’t really fully understand them and I don’t know which of the three scenarios they’ll use for the ending. If she is from a magic family, then it’s quite possible that she does have some sort of power. While the first part of the episode provided some interesting plot-based questions, I can’t deny that the second part was more fun. Shirou’s now up to four females living in his house. I doubt he’ll get anymore, but that would certainly be interesting. How is he going to survive this? I think for one, he should be nicer to Saber. Honestly, it’s getting rather annoying that he’s still caught up on the fact that Berserker hurt Saber. Saber is a Servant who’s job is to fight. She’s not someone who Shirou has to be so worried about protecting. I’m surprised Saber’s not too annoyed at him. She’s mad, but she still wants to sleep in his room.

Rika came out of the surgery fine, but Natsume says this is still the worst result for Yuuichi. While Rika is eventually able to return to her room, Yuuichi still can’t visit her because her mother is too worried. Yuuichi gets rather depressed. One night, Natsume tells Akiko that his wife had the same heart condition as Rika. She was able to survive because of the surgery, but it was still likely that she would die within five years. Of course, she did die. Yuuichi overhears this and understands why things are bad. He reads the note Rika left him again and gets an idea. He calls all his friends over and has them help. His plan is to swing on a rope to Rika’s room so he can see her. They’re initially shocked by the idea, but they agree to help. Yuuichi keeps missing and eventually the rope comes loose. Tsukasa catches it and his brother, who also wears Zebra masks, comes to help. Yuuichi, remembering the words of the old man, his father, and Natsume is able to make it now. Rika’s mother scolds him, but Rika says that it’s fine and Yuuichi can come in. The two decide to stay together for as long as they can. Natsume thinks that Yuuichi is still destined for misery, but Akiko says that things are okay because both Yuuichi and Rika are happy now. One day, Yuuichi takes Rika out and confesses to her for the second time.

I’m highly disappointed that nobody dies, but at the same time, my sappy side made me love this episode. It wasn’t the ending I’d expected or hoped for and had I known it would end like this beforehand, chances are I wouldn’t have even bothered to watch this. However, I’ve never read the novels so I hadn’t a clue. It was still a satisfying little series. While Rika will probably die in a few years, she’s still around now and it was truly touching to see her together with Yuuichi in the end. They’re a very cute couple and now the thought of Rika dying actually upsets me a bit. One point in this series that I feel the need to discuss now that it’s over is the behavior of Natsume. I admittedly despised Natsume at first. I thought of him as a pedophile for trying to get with Rika. After seeing his past though, I began to feel bad for him. He’s still a jerk in respects, but I guess losing someone he loved is a good reason for him to have such a negative attitude. I’ve come to respect him rather than hate him. When my feelings for a character drastically change like that, I call that great character development. Natsume’s development was one of my favorite elements of this series.

Everyone survived the explosion, but they’re not safe yet. They’ve been separated and many members of the Apostles of the Stars are attacking. Some are already being handled by several Chronos numbers. Train’s group and Sven’s group each take on their share of enemies while Eve is faced with Leon. She tries to convince him that he should be with his old friends and not a member of the apostles of the stars. She’s eventually able to defeat him. Leon explains that he joined the Apostles because he needed the power. He finds it kind of strange that Eve is trying to help him, but she says it’s because she’s Rera’s friend. Sven finds Eve and before they leave, Leon warns them about Creed. Soon they’re both reunited with Train. Sephiria goes to fight Creed.

I know, this was pathetically short. That’s because it’s pretty difficult to write about an episode that was almost entirely fighting. That’s not to say I disliked the episode though. While I’m not a fan of fighting shows, I don’t mind the occasional huge scale brawl if it’s well done like this. As expected, the Eve vs. Leon part was the best. It was particularly amusing when Eve became a mermaid. Leon’s expression was priceless. Mermaid Eve kicks butt too. Since I’m a Leon fan, I’m very pleased that he was prominent this week. While I’m personally a bit annoyed at him for abandoning his friends, I do feel bad for him having to work for Creed. I think he’d be a lot happier if he returned and so would the other kids back at his home town. It was cool to see Sephiria in action again this week. Next week she’ll be fighting Creed so we’ll be seeing a lot of action from her. It doesn’t look like she’s doing to well from the preview though.

Midori decides to forget about Arika and Mashiro for now. Meanwhile, Nina gets annoyed at Sergey for treating her like a kid. She then has a flashback about when Sergey first met her and received his scar. She wants more affection from him. Inside the Jabal, Arika states that everything is her fault. Mashiro says that she blames herself for Aoi’s death but now has the will to live. Mahiro tries to force Arika to use her powers but is unsuccessful. Then, the Jabal starts to digest… by filling with lava?! Oddness aside, They’ve got to escape. Mashiro tells Arika to fly, which surprises her, but she jumps over to Mashiro, who tries to pull her up. Mashiro activates Arika’s power and they escape. They’re temporarily happy until they see smoke. They learn that an Otome is attacking Aswald. The attacker turns out to be Fia, who’s following her master’s orders. Arika tells Mashiro to save the people and the two do that, though Mashiro’s not particularly sure what to do at first. Midori helps too and also tries to help with Arika’s conflict. Back at the school. Tomoe and some girls sign up to be Artai Otome. They go to rescue Shizuru and Tomoe takes her home to have sex with. Nagi take’s Nina to see the Harmonium and they summon the Mikoto shadow.

Every week I think from the previews that the episode will probably be terrible and every week I wind up loving it. This one was a particularly interesting episode plus it was an easy one to understand with my pathetic Japanese. It was nice to get some background on Nina and Sergey. One particular thing about that flashback interested me. One of the three other kids really resembled Midori and the boy could’ve easily been Reito. I wonder if that’s so, but it’s probably just a coincidence due to similar character designs. My next question has to do with Natsuki. She was seen walking by during the interesting little scene with Tomoe and Shizuru. I wonder if she saw it. If she did, that would make things even more interesting. The fact that Shizuru didn’t try and stop Tomoe makes me wonder just how strong her relationship with Natsuki is in this series. Then again, since Shizuru is a lesbian stalker, it’s probably natural that she would be pleased with Tomoe’s interest in her. I want my answers here! Next, that Mikoto shadow thing is back again. I’d really want to know what it does and what connection it has with the Mikoto cat, if any. Aren’t’ my Mai Otome post’s so wonderful. -_-;They’re basically… nothing but questions!

Esper Watanabe’s boss has him humiliated when she brings a boy named Jill with real psychic powers onto his show. Jill causes Watanabe to hallucinate that he’s in hell. Hajime and Tsugumi were watching this on TV and discuss Ai. Hajime thinks that if Tsugumi can see what Ai sees, maybe Ai can see what Tsugumi sees. Ai’s associates are listening in and are upset by this thought. They speak to Ai about it and she says that this isn’t so. Meanwhile, Jill plans to have a fight with Ai, so he tortures Watanabe some more until he summons Ai. When Ai shows up, Jill has a TV crew out so Ai has to summon Hone-Onna and Ren to scare them off. They do so, but then Jill binds them both. While playing with Ai’s face, Jill explains that his parents killed him, but he escaped hell and sent his parent there. Ai then has a memory of falling. Jill throws Ai around a bit, traps her, magically changes her clothes and then sets her on fire. Ai comes out just fine though in her original outfit. Watanabe then pulls the string and sends Jill back to hell, though he says that he’ll return. Later, Ai’s grandmother informs her of a new request. Ai sees a little boy and drops her flute from shock.

This was a particularly amazing episode. Ai’s past is finally starting to be revealed. I wonder if she became the hell girl due to similar circumstances to Jill. When he explained his past, it triggered Ai’s memories. This also leads me to believe that Ai probably doesn’t even remember her own past. Since there’s six episodes left, there’s still plenty of time to answer my questions about her past, so I’m not worried about that. Though it’s not as intriguing as Ai’s past, I find it interesting that Hajime thought of Ai seeing things through Tsugumi. I never thought that was a possibility, so it didn’t surprise me that Ai couldn’t get visions. I wonder now if maybe she will get Tsugumi’s visions eventually. It’s quite an interesting idea. I’m betting that Tsugumi will be the key or at least play a major part in discovering AI’s past, so I hope they have some real interactions in the future.

Kiraha has a dream about being in a relationship with Aruto. An Alice historian, Asuka, overhears her afterwards. One day she decides to take an alternate route to speak with Kiraha in private. She says that there’s nothing strange about Kiraha’s feelings for Aruto and gives her some advice. Later, everyone called to face an Alice Historian named Rika. Seeing Aruto, she becomes furious because he’s a man. The group begins to fight her, but Rika is defeated by Asuka. Her story is revealed in part. Her hatred for men had something to do with her father. Asuka is pleased to hear her ugly, painful story. Arisu gets annoyed and tries to confort Rika, asking for her story. Aruto is prepared to write it, but Rika says she doesn’t want that and vanishes. When they leave, Aruto says this is his fault, but Arisu says it was hers too and Kiraha’s. She yells at Kiraha, who runs off. She goes to Asuka to give her story. Arisu goes to save her, but Kiraha tells her to stop, saying that she’s doing this willingly and she doesn’t need her help. The others fight Asuka though. Eventually, Kiraha confesses her love to Aruto. Aruto protects her, but gets hurt doing so. Asuka is able to leave. Later, Aruto tells Kiraha that he doesn’t share her feelings but Kiraha is more important to him than anyone.

That was interesting. It was always pretty clear that Kiraha was destined to have a sad ending, since Aruto doesn’t share her feelings, but I still sympathize with her. Arisu was a bit meaner than necessary in this episode, so that didn’t help. She did, however, try to save Kiraha afterwards at least. Now that Aruto’s told Kiraha that he doesn’t have feelings for her, I hope she’ll be able to get over it, though that doesn’t seem too likely from the preview. I’m looking forward to next week’s, because one of the cuter looking Alice Historians will appear. I’m sure she’ll be short lived though, because all the best designed ones are. Asuka, who’s just super creepy, is still alive and well. I expect we’ll be seeing her again. Hopefully the next time she’ll get beaten though. I’m rooting for more Kisa screen time next week too. She wasn’t in much this episode, but it looked as if she hit some of the high points of her life during her sleepover with Kiraha. ^_^

I’m impatiently waiting for Eikyuu Alice Rondo episode 8 to finish downloading, so I decided to take Jason’s Anime Blog Quality Rating Test. I scored a pitiful 23! -_-;

Blog Itself
+1 point for WordPress. Favortism. Plain and simple. Word Press is good. Yay!

Look and Feel
+1 point for quick loading (i.e. should be zero wait when viewed through broadband). Loads fast for me
+1 point for using good HTML techniques, i.e. specifying width and height tags for images and description tags for links. I always keep my images the same height and use proper link tags

Blogger
+1 point for over one year of anime blogging. Over a year and a half… barely
+1 point for at least ten posts a month. 10… easy!
+1 point for having purchased anime goods in the past month. Loves her new Karin-chan gashie

Community
+1 point for keeping a blogroll. Blogrolls are important for community building.
+1 point for keeping a blogroll up-to-date. I still see a lot of blogs pointing to this “toybox” thing. By keeping the blogroll up-to-date, it shows that the blogger actually visits blogs on their blogroll and not just put up links for trade. Visiting other blogs is also a big part of community building.
+1 point for referencing other blogs once in a while. Again, under this “visiting other blogs is good for community building” canopy. I try to do so from time to time

Posts
+1 point if posts are categorized by series or some other system that makes some sense.
+1 point for screenshots. I like screenshots.
+1 point for occasional fanservice. Occasional. I try to post varied types of screenshots
+1 point for reviews averaging over 200 words long. I like words.
+1 point for punctuation. I like commas. Semicolons are good too. Indifferent about exclaimation marks. Commas rock!

Content
+3 points for not being afraid to go against popular opinion. I can’t seem to find non-sarcastic/cynical/joking versions for “Top Ten Reasons Why I’m Haardo Gay for Shinn Asuka” and “Final Fantasy Unlimited Is an Action and Emotional Tour-de-Force” in the blogosphere… but if I did, I’d definitely read them. Eikyuu Alice Rondo is a great show
+3 points for blogging about shows no one else is at the moment. Nadesico in a sea of Mai Otome 4tw. The only one doing Black Cat raw is me! Last season I was the sole Happy Seven blogger.
+3 points for non-generic tone. After reading someone’s blog, one should get a sense of, “That’s one angry person,” “That’s one cheerful person,” or “That’s one witty person.” If the blog fails to convey some sort of emotion through the tone of the writing, it’s generic. I think I use emotion… I hope

While Mamoru and Yuuna are trying to study, Airi is looking through old photo albums and distracting them. Meanwhile, Hotaru has come to bring a bento to Mamoru but is intercepted by Yamame, who gets into a fight with her. Tsubaki eventually shows up, also with a bento. The three girls join in and with lots of food, it’s time for a lunch break. Still looking through photos, Airi questions if Mamoru stalked Yuuna when she was little. Yuuna says that’s not true. Their fathers were close and so she was always with Mamoru since she was little. Mamoru then has a flashback. One day before school, he’s told by his mom to protect Yuuna. In school, Yuuna forgot her homework, so Mamoru is forced to go get it. He gets in trouble for being late though and has to stand outside. Yuuna tells the teacher that she forgot her homework but is surprised to find it on her desk. Later, in gym class, the kids are all out playing dodgeball and Mamoru is forced to protect Yuuna from being hit in the head. He winds up bleeding, which Yuuna is resentful for. Mamoru has detention and has to clean some room and Yuuna decides to help, causing a statue to break. Mamoru gets in even more trouble for this and runs off, angry at Yuuna. Later, he sees the police at Yuuna’s house and finds out that she’s missing. He and Burumaru fight off a vicious dog, thinking that it may be after Yuuna, but the person it was attacking was Yuuna’s friend Ami. She gives Mamoru a present from Yuuna, which turns out to be a Burumaru plushie(to go with the Mamoru plushie she made him in the past.) Ami also informs him that he has to save Yuuna, who got taken away in a sports car. Mamoru goes looking and after having a bit of self doubt eventually realizes his duty and finds Yuuna. Of course he’s not yet strong enough to fight her captors and so his parents help him out. Back in the present is a mass amount of fighting between the girls with poor Mamoru and Yuuna caught in the middle of it.

Eep! I wrote entirely too much. However, I just loved this episode. It was totally cute to see how things haven’t changed a bit. Yuuna gets herself into endless amounts of trouble and Mamoru has to bail her out. It was interesting to see Mamoru really frustrated at Yuuna though. She’s obviously not an easy person to deal with. The fact that Mamoru could deal with her though, regardless of how much trouble she caused for him, makes me change my perspective on some things here. I didn’t care too much for the Mamoru/Yuuna pairing until now. The thing is, because Yuuna is such a moron, I really didn’t want to make Mamoru’s life an endless torture. However, it seems to me that Mamoru really does care about her no matter how stupid a move she pulls. It’s already been obvious that Yuuna cares a lot about Mamoru. I suppose I’ve just been way too hard on Yuuna. To credit her, she always does try her best to please Mamoru. It isn’t really her fault that she fails at that. It’s the writer’s fault. ^_^ Also, while she may not be a genius she’s certainly does have her talents. She’s a good singer and she makes adorable plushies. They should really release a Mamoru plushie, because I’d buy it if the price was reasonable. Next week is an Airi episode, which is good because she’s the character whom we know least about.