My neglecting of this site for about a week technically wasn’t a hiatus. That was just me neglecting the site. I did have a reason, but that’s besides the point. Now the real hiatus begins. The reason: vacation! I’ll be gone until next Thursday. I’ll be without a computer, however I’ll try to get access to one so that I can at least check my e-mail and comments. Also, I’ll be attending a con while on my vacation, so I’ll hopefully buy some nice things to show off when I get back.

These came from Hobby Link Japan a couple weeks ago, so I figure I should stop being lazy and take a picture. Obviously, I didn’t get the complete set, but I did get the ones I wanted most. Featured in this picture from left to right is Ringo, Akito, Simca and Ikki. I don’t mind too much that I didn’t get Agito, since the figure is essentially a variant of the Akito but with his eyepatch on the other side. I wanted Croissant Kamen but… oh well.

Anyway, as you can see I have 6 extra capsules on my living room table, which I’ve painted on with photoshop. I’m willing to sell them if anyone is interested. I have one extra of each of the figures above and 3 Simcas. To be fair, since these were pretty cheap, I think I’ll sell them for $2.50 USD. As for shipping, it will depend on where you live. I’m in New York, so obviously I can’t cheaply ship to, for instance, other countries. If you’re interested, email me at Soaker87@aol.com.

Junko and Kyousuke go out to get drinks while discussing whether Junko was too harsh to Hachi. Shouji is coincidentally at the bar as well and tries to hide, but is caught. Kyousuke makes Shouji feel even guiltier and he soon leaves, leaving Kyousuke and Junko to discuss Hahci again. They’re afraid that she’ll commit suicide, at least after she gets to see the concert. That doesn’t seem to be a problem though, because when they do meet up with Hachi again, she’s in a very cheerful mood. She tries to get Junko to go to the Trapnest concert with her, because Nana doesn’t really want to go. Junko isn’t particularly interested either, especially after learning that it’s back in their home town. Hachi is confident that she’ll get Nana to go with her anyway. Junko suggests that she get a boyfriend, but Hachi doesn’t want one. The kind of man she wants is a knight to protect her and she knows she can’t have that. In the meantime, Hachi, Junko and Kyousuke attend a punk show, with various bands. Blast is up next but since they’re unknown, a lot of people leave. Hachi tries to draw the crowds attention and winds up receiving help from Misato. Most of the people come back in time for Blast to get on stage. Misato gives Nana a microphone with a rose and the concert begins. Hachi notices that Misato was crying briefly. After the concert, the band, as well as Misato, Junko and Kyousuke, go back to Hachi and Nana’s apartment. Hachi starts to get jealous of Misato for her relationship with Nana. She wonders if they’re in a relationship. As everyone leaves, Nana invites Misato to stay for the night. While in bed, Hachi worries about what hey could be doing, as well as her past boyfriends. The next morning, she finds a note left by Nana, saying that she and Misato went to the amusement park. This only makes Hachi more jealous. She goes out shopping for the day and sees Sachiko in the supermarket, which makes her feel even worse. When she gets back home, she yells at Nana, angry that everyone is taking things from her.

Great episode, with a lot of funny moments. It was amusing when Junko and Kyousuke decided that Hachi was going to commit suicide. I also found the bit about Hachi getting jealous of Misato and Nana’s relationship funny, especially when she was deciding who would be on top. What made this episode particularly stand out though was that there were a lot of serious things going on beneath the silliness on the surface. Hachi is still having a lot of bad things happen to her. While earlier in the episode she had absolute faith that Nana would go to the concert with her, the person she felt that she could depend on most spent the episode focusing on Misato. It was somewhat selfish of Hachi to think that Nana would devote all of her time to her, but having this happen on top of everything else would obviously be pretty depressing. The very end of the episode was the most interesting part of all. Like Hachi, I expected Nana to be mad when Hachi yelled at her. Nana just looked very hurt though. In Hachi’s usual end of the episode speech, she added even more to the tension, She makes it sound as if something really bad is going to happen to her relationship with Nana. I really hope I misinterpreted it, because I don’t want to see her be screwed further. Oh, and I didn’t caption the pictures. Nana is incredibly difficult to caption.

Choko wakes up Haruma to serve him the breakfast she made. The problem is, she did so wearing only an apron. After they eat, Choko reminds Haruma that he’s going to be late for work, so he heads out, flirting with Ayano on the way. He and Choko both get on the train eventually and it’s very crowded. On the way out, a purple-haired girl, Chitose, drops her bags. Haruma goes to help her with that, but she’s got another problem. She lost her contact lens. Eventually Haruma finds it, pointing out that it’s on her chest and embarrassing her. She winds up losing it again due to this, though Haruma’s already gone so she’s on her own now. She does find it, but accidentally breaks it. That means she’s forced to wear her glasses. She doesn’t really like them because one time she overheard a guy she liked state that glasses girls aren’t his type. Since she can’t see otherwise, Chitose puts on her glasses anyway and gets on the train. When she finally reaches her stop, she has another problem. She can’t find the place she’s looking for. She searches the city while Choko does various cute things. With the help of a police officer, Chitose finds the place, which turns out to be the apartment complex. At about the same time, Choko gets home. She learns that Chitose was hired by the landlady to manage the house. Being full of problems, Chitose now lost the key. Choko helps her look for it, but they can’t find it. Chitose decides to go get them drinks and remembers that she stopped to get coffee earlier at the vending machine. This is where she lost the key. Unfortunately, she trips, dropping them again. A crow swoops down and steals it. Chitose and Choko chase the crow and eventually, Choko decides to throw her notebook at it. The episode cuts to a little bit later, when Haruma gets home. It turns out, to Chitose’s surprise, that he likes meganekkos.

I suspected that Chitose would be the new landlady. Ultimately, I didn’t pay attention to the preview for this episode, so I don’t know whether they said it or not. I was close to guessing anyway. She was at least hired by the landlady. :P Chitose totally wins as my favorite character for the time being. Maybe it’s due to sympathy, since nothing seems to go her way. I think it’s more due to the fact that I can relate to her, being very klutzy, ditzy, and clueless myself. I have a terrible sense of direction and lose things often enough. Chitose’s future looks bright though. She seems to like Haruma and maybe they could get into a relationship. Of course, Haruma likes Ayano. Plus, there’s Choko and Makoto, though I don’t know if either of them have any romantic feelings for him. At the moment, I’m rooting for Chitose though. Just a random thought, but I didn’t know that contact lenses could break. I’ve tried them before and they were soft. Maybe there’s more than one kind. Hmm… I shouldn’t put thought into these things. I’ll just stick with my glasses, even if being a meganekko can be a pain for cosplay.

Female Santa Claus returns to take Choko back. This turns out to be a dream, but Haruma is worried when he can’t find Choko. It turns out that she slept in his futon and not wearing much either. Anyway, it’s New Years and according to Choko’s notebook, things have to go a certain way. As a spur of the moment New Years present, Haruma gives Choco 500 yen. He can’t do the rest of the things in Choko’s notebook, not having the necessary food. After breakfast, they go to a shrine and make wishes. Later, a neighbor from the same apartment, Makoto, comes to visit Haruma. Her apartment was too dirty apparently, so she wanted to celebrate it in a clean one. She brings over some sake. Haruma is happy to have it, but won’t let Makoto give any to Choko. The landlady soon shows up as well to drink with them. She also brings them the news of her retirement. The next day, Haruma has a hangover, so he can’t really do anything with Choko. She goes out on her own and meets two boys playing badminton. She joins them for a bit. Afterwards, she sees a boy and his mother who bought pocky and goes to spend her New Years money on some for herself. She sees a different box though and winds up buying that one instead. She learns the hard way when she tries to offer some to the boys she played with earlier that she bought colored pencils instead. They yell at her for it. When she goes back home, she sees the landlady, who cheers her up about what happened. She suggests to Choko that she should use her new pencils to start a picture diary. Later, Choko does just that with New Years money from the landlady.

Xebec put it better. When I’m totally out-of-it, I simply can’t blog at my max functions. I apologize for taking such a break, especially right before I’m leaving for vacation and have no choice but to go on hiatus. Anyway, this was quite cute. Choko is just an adorable character who does cute things. It was funny how she thought the colored pencils were food… Poki that is. It’s interesting how in anime Pocky often goes through a name change. I’m really not familiar with Japanese copywrite laws, but I expect that has something to do with it. Xebec’s comparison of this series to Mahoraba seems to be pretty accurate. Makoto immediately made me things of Megumi. Makoto’s pretty crazy, coming into Haruma’s apartment in her underwear and offering Choko sake. She could turn out to be a pretty fun character. The landlady’s fairly boring. Hopefully her replacement will be more fun.

It’s about that time of the season where I’m set in a particular schedule for summer watching. At least, I should be in a schedule but I’m not. I’m taking advantage of the fact that it’s the summer to just relax. I suspect this will keep up for most of the season, considering I’ll be going on vacation at the end of the month. What does all of this mean? It means that I won’t be doing so much of an episode by episode blogging format over the summer, I’ll just blog the episodes that I feel like on whatever day I choose. I’ll still feel as if I’m accomplishing something but I’ll get to be lazy. Lazy is good during this season. Here’s the shows I’ll be following.

Air Gear- I’m still enjoying the series, though I still like the manga better. No changes to its blogging status.
Chokotto Sister- The first episode was highly impressive. Hopefully the rest is just as good. If so, than I will be blogging it.
Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z- It’s a fun mahou shoujo so I’m having fun blogging it so far.
Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime! Gyu- Blogging? No. Loving? Yes!
Inukami- This series is near impossible to obtain. I’m attempting to follow it but it’s a struggle to actually find the episodes.
Muteki Kanban Musume- This is quite awful, but I liked the 2nd episode more than the first and enough that I’ll be watching the 3rd. More proof that I’m a glutton for punishment.
Nana- I need my share of shoujo angst and this fills it perfectly. It’s still pretty fun to write about.
Ouran High School Host Club- Still not blogging, but it’s top quality anime.
Otogi-Jushi Akazukin- It’s a great new series that I’ve enjoyed blogging so far. I hope to keep enjoying it.
Pretty Cure Splash Star- Mahou shoujo love! I pray that this doesn’t revert to “monster-of-the-week” again when the Michiru and Kaoru arc ends
Spider Riders- Since Soul Link is over, this now takes the sacred spot in my blogroll. However, It’s highly unlikely that I’ll take as many screenshots, since all the resizing killed me with the former.
Zoids Genesis- As long as the subs keep coming out, I’ll keep watching. No summarizing for this one, since the series is already over

And I’d like to keep following Mamotte Lolipop, but I haven’t been able to find raws past the first episode. Any help with obtaining them would be appreciated.

While Nana, Hachi and Shin wait outside the restaurant in the cold, Shin gets a call from a girl named Mayumi. Shin tells the others that he has to leave right away for business. Nana lets him go, but he can’t do anything to ruin Blast’s name. Hachi and Nana talk secretly for a minute and then Hachi tries to convince him not to go. He does leave though and Nana plans to leave as well. Hachi stops her however. She plans to make Shouji think that she left so that he’ll be surprised that she stayed to wait for him. Nana’s role would just be to keep her company. Although she doesn’t like calculating girls, Nana agrees with this because Hachi loves Shouji. Inside the restaurant, Sachiko tells Shouji that she doesn’t want to see him and runs out, but Shouji follows her and hugs her in front of Nana and Hachi. This scene, as well as hearing Shouji call the girl “Sachiko” shocks Hachi. Nana questions this and Shouji states that Sachiko is his girlfriend. Hachi realizes why Sachiko apologized to her in the restaurant. Nana tries to hit Shouji, but Sachiko tells her to stop, asking to hit her instead. Instead, Nana tells Hachi to fight for Shouji, but Hachi says that she doesn’t want to see Shouji’s face anymore. Hachi is depressed that night though and dreams that Shouji is in bed with her when she wakes up. She also has another dream where she opens the door and sees Ren there. She realizes that this probably occurred because she was listening to Trapnest, but she wonders why it was Ren she saw. In reality, the doorbell rings and it’s Junko at the door. Junko tells Hachi that Shouji is worried about her. Hachi is mad that he can’t even come himself to tell her. Junko thinks that this is also painful for Shouji. Hachi is upset that Junko is siding with him, but Junko reminds her that Shouji is also a friend of hers. Junko also advises that a relationship won’t work if you don’t think about the other person. Hachi thinks about this and begins to regret some of the things that she’s done. When Nana gets back, she gives Hachi another letter from her mother. This time, two tickets to a Trapnest concert that she ordered were inside. Hachi thinks that these tickets were from God.

The Hachi/Shouji breakup has finally occurred and the scene did not disappoint me. It was presented in a unique way and looked great. The slow motion bits were very cool. Even though I wanted to see Hachi and Shouji breakup, I’m still a bit sad. They were destined for a failed relationship from the start, but Hachi did love Shouji a lot. Hopefully throughout the course of the series she’ll find a better person, since the 2nd quarter of Nana has only just begun. I don’t want this to be the last we see of Shouji and Sachiko in the series either. While less significant, I’ll expect them to still be around. With the reappearance of Ren… sort of, Nana’s storyline looks like it will be the focus next. I’d like to see Ren for real and see just how Nana reacts if/when he enters her life again.

You know the drill. Brevity works best sometimes.

Nana 13- Nana and Shouji are getting closer and closer to breaking up. Not much else happened really except for Junko learning about what happened between Shouji and Sachiko. I’m still a week behind on this, so I figure that by now, they have broken up.

Spider Riders 15- Hunter sees a shadow, which Corona believes to be a lady who turns into a monster. It turns out to be Sparkle and Hotarla practicing for a dance party. Also, Ignus and Magma get sick from Corona’s cooking. Pretty funny episode, with Corona getting scared of the ghost. They’re really working with the Hunter x Corona pairing and it seems that will continue next week.

Pretty Cure Splash Star 22- Tension builds as Mai is haunted by the fact that Michiru and Kaoru are evil. Eventually, Michiru and Kaoru reveal their true identities. Mai and Saki try to make them realize that they’re not the Pretty Cure that Michiru and Kaoru have to kill but just Mai and Saki, their friends. However, Michiru and Kaoru declare them enemies and continue beating them up. Awesome! This episode went by so quickly for me. I think this was the first cliffhanger yet. I hope everything works out okay.

Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z 02- Blossom and Bubbles (who’s ridiculously oblivious) are taken to the lab, along with Mojo Jojo. The Professor and Ken figure out that Peach is involved in their transformations (and de-transformations.) Mojo escapes, but Buttercup shows up at the end. More differences, more actual plot. This is really becoming nothing like PPG, but it’s a cute mahout shoujo series.

I’ll have to get a summer schedule post up soon, which will officially list which series I’ll be covering for this season. Oh and I’ve finally caught up with Utawarerumono. The plot’s been amazing lately! I’m dying to learn more about Hakuoro’s past. I’m starting to believe that maybe he really was Rak Shine. Also, the Hakuoro/Eruru romance is coming along very well, with a good balance of cuteness and angst.

Kawagoe Haruma is woken up by Santa Claus on Christmas. The thing is, Santa is a girl and she rides a motorcycle. She gives Haruma a present but makes him sign for it. In the package, he discovers a girl. Apparently, it’s the sister whom he had wished for. He goes up to the girl, who awakens and starts to glow. She asks if he’s her “onii-chan” and at first he isn’t sure what to say, upsetting the girl. He than assures her that she is. She’s glad to hear this and confirms that she’s Haruma’s “imouto.” Haruma suggests that they eat breakfast and his sister volunteers to make it, creating a disaster in the kitchen. They eventually do eat though. During breakfast, Haruma names his sister Choko, since she’s always looking in her anchoko (notebook) that came in the package with her. Next they go out shopping. It’s rather cold in the snow, so Haruma gives Choko his jacket and scarf. While out, they meet Ayano, the girl Haruma likes. She’s rather surprised to hear that Choko is Haruma’s sister. When they get to the store, Choko tries on a few outfits. Haruma winds up buying them all, though he spends more than he would have liked. The have lunch next and Haruma is reminded of when his mother was pregnant. Because of a dream he had, he was sure the new baby would be his little sister. However, he never got to see the baby because it didn’t survive. Also, his mother would be unable to give birth ever again. Haruma prayed for a little sister. In the present, afterwards, he goes to buy a Christmas present for Ayano. The girl working at the store starts chatting with him, leaving Choko by herself and rather bored. She sees a kid with a balloon and follows him, stopping at a display of teddy bears. When Haruma is done and realizes that Choko’s gone, he searches for her. Choko soon realizes she’s lost as well, but apparently, the lost children department finds her, because Haruma hears an announcement calling for Choko-chan’s brother. When he finds her she’s crying, but seeing her brother cheers Choko up. On the way home, Haruma gives Choko the pin he bought for Ayano as a Christmas present. To thank him, Choko gives him a kiss.

I was more impressed than I thought I would be with this first episode. I laughed quite a few times, to my surprise. Sure, this series screams out incest but it may or may not actually follow through with the incest themes. Personally though, I’d rather watch incest than yaoi or yuri. Anyway, the relationship between Haruma and Choko is more innocent than anything at the time being. It’s sugary sweet, which I enjoy watching. An angsty relationship is the best kind, but they can’t all be that way. Than there’s the fact that Haruma likes Ayano, which I suppose will have to develop some more as the series goes on, whether it develops positively or not. Choko is pretty mysterious, with her notebook and the fact that she glows. I wonder what the book’s purpose is. While I like the generic cute imouto character, if they’re more than generic it certainly serves to make the series more interesting. The music in this series is alright. I enjoyed both the OP and ED songs, but the animations are nothing special. I’ll definitely be watching the next episode.

I read this post on Lupus blog the other day and wanted to do my own. Admittedly, I did not steal the idea. I actually had it in my mind to do for a while. I guess I was just beaten to it. ^_^; Anyway, I tried to come up with the top ten scenes in any series that made an impact on me in some way. They may not be the best scenes ever, but they’re moments that really stood out to me. Obviously, there will be spoilers so proceed with caution.

(more…)