Buguese finds out that somebody broke into the fortress and isn’t happy about that. He tries to figure out who it might’ve been. Meanwhile, Corona’s light and dark sides, materialized in the form of pixies, argue with each other over what she should do about her feelings for Hunter. Hunter interrupts the mess going on in Corona’s mind when he calls her to tell her that the sun seems to be fading. He asks her if she knows what it means, since she’s a handmaiden, but Corona doesn’t know either. Back at the fortress, Beerain searches for Buguese, to tell him about what happened with Mantid. However, Mantid sends Buguese out with several soldiers. Beerain witnesses his ship flying away and is upset that she lost her opportunity. However, Aqune then shows up to confront her. She’s angry at Beerain for being a traitor. They both prepare their weapons. Hunter discusses with the others his plans to go to Mantid’s main castle. He wants to try and negotiate with Mantid. (Yeah, like that’ll work.) Shadow thinks his plan is crazy. To get there, they will first have to cross the field of fog, which contains mists that are poisonous to humans. Hunter is determined to do something though. He’s bothered by the fact that they were able to save Nuuma, but can’t do anything for Arachna. Corona is very unsure of herself, due to still not remembering her past, and suggests that they talk it over with the other Spider Riders first. Back at the fortress, Aqune fights with Beerain. Aqune hurts Beerain badly. She prepares to finish Beerain off by clipping her wings, but she’s stopped by the Oracle and so Beerain escapes. Aqune is upset that the Oracle abandoned her, but wonders if maybe she was the one who abandoned the Oracle. Corona goes to make some dinner, while Hunter talks with Shadow. Hunter wonders if he’s a fool, but Shadow tries to explain to him that Hunter has a lot of good qualities but nobody can be perfect (except him of course. XD) Hunter just has to do what’s best now. This is eating Corona’s cooking. That will surely be an act of bravery. Then Buguese shows up and releases his soldiers on Hunter. Hunter is having trouble, because he can’t release the Oracle Key’s power. Buguese is happy about this because the Oracle now must’ve abandoned the Spider Riders. Corona goes to help Hunter and Lumen, Mamga and Igneous also show up. However, they’re still losing. Buguese retreats though, because he’s content with the fact that the Spider Riders will soon be in despair, so it’s like he’s won already. Still, he wonders if maybe there’s another reason that the Oracle’s power was cut off. Mantid now believes that he’s lost Aqune’s loyalty, due to the Oracle. Still, he doesn’t seem too concerned about it. As Buguese flies back to the fortress, Beerain watches his ship and is upset that she can’t fly to him, due to her wings being too damaged. She starts to cry.

ZOMG! That was so unintentionally funny. Also, Aqune got to do something for the first time in several weeks. What was even better to me is that she pwned Beerain. I always thought it would be an amusing thing if those two fought, but I never actually expected to happen. It would be funnier if they fought over Buguese though. Actually, I’m not quite sure why they were fighting, but I thought it was funny how Beerain claimed she didn’t want to fight Aqune, yet had a weapon out before that and she said it in a tone of voice which makes me think she actually did. This was just fine though, especially because Aqune won. It’s a shame she couldn’t finish Beerain off completely. From the start, Beerain was my least favorite character. I had thought that after episode 35 though, my respect points for her couldn’t go down any lower. I was wrong. She even got to the point where she was crying. I know I was supposed to feel bad for her, but I was secretly thinking “Ha ha! You can’t fly anymore. I hope your wing damage is permanent.” I’m a prick sometimes, I guess. Actaully, I was kind of mad at myself for thinking that. Many apologies, but I try to post my honest opinion here on my blog and that really was what crossed my mind. The other part that was completely funny to me was Buguese’s reaction to seeing that Hunter lost the Oracle’s power. He was super happy over that. He’s wrong though that the Oracle abandoned the Spider Riders. Actually, it was all Mantid’s fault. Plus, they used Buguese’s constant “why?”in this episode. That made the Japanese version amusing, especially in episode 23. It’s a shame it was changed in the dub. Oh and Hunter/Corona fans, you’ll like this episode.

Edit: And I was thinking, since I never got a chance to mention it here, it was reported like two weeks ago that the Japanese version of Spider Riders will continue. It will apparently be premering in April.

-Kyoushirou pushes Kuu away from him and doesn’t have sex with her
-Kuu angsts a lot and nearly commits suicide
-Kyoushirou angsts and thinks to himself about how the Absolute Angels absolutely need to be destroyed (and he did word it like that and I found it to be a very funny line.)
-Kyouhirou has a talk with Kuu about how she changed him, which eventually leads to Kyoushirou confessing his love for Kuu. Pretty fireworks go off to create dramatic effect. Soujirou and Tarurotte also happen to be watching the fireworks (and look so darned cute while doing so.)
-Himiko goes to talk with Kaon while she’s sleeping. Because she’s a bit obsessed I suppose, she takes some of Kaon’s hair, but leaves her notebook. After kissing Kaon on the cheek, Himiko goes to leave, but Kaon grabs onto her skirt in her sleep. Himiko then kisses her on the lips. This changes Kaon’s symbol back to normal.
-The 5th Absolute Angel prepares herself for something.
-Kyoushirou wants to inform Setsuna of his decision. Then Setsuna appears much to Kyoushirou’s surprise. She overheard them.
-Setsuna questions Kyoushirou’s feelings for Kuu.. She’s very upset to hear this and summons her mech.
-Suddenly, a tower lights up somewhere, causing all the Absolute Angels to react (minus Kuu and the 5th one.) Feathers fall from the sky around Kuu and she starts to glow
-From the sky, Kazuya and the 5th angel appear. Kyoushirou is convinced that it’s a dream, but is overjoyed to see his brother again.
-Kazuya attacks Kyoushirou, and then calls to Kuu to come with him.

What is with this show and shocking plot twists? Okay, I’ll admit that I never believed Kazuya was dead. He’s shown too much to be a dead guy. Plus, characters always live supposedly fatal lab explosions. I did not expect him to be a bad guy though. I wonder why he attacked Kyoushirou. It was especially surprising considering how happy Kyoushirou was to see him. Now what I’m wondering is whether Kazuya and the 5th Absolute angel are the main villains of this show or Mika is. Mika is definitely still going to be a problem, because she seemed to be up to something this week. She juts didn’t get enough screentime for me to have a clue what. I also don’t think she’s going to be happy to learn about what happened to Kaon. I wonder if Himiko knew all along that kissing Kaon on the lips would restore her symbol. She seemed hesitant to kiss her at first and only kissed her on the cheek. However, she gave in eventually. I also wonder if Kaon was really asleep. Not that subconscious grabbing hasn’t been done before (and it make for a cute, although illogical plot device) but it is possible that Kaon heard Himiko’s words. The best part of the episode was Kyoushirou confessing to Kuu. I had hoped all along that he really did have feeling for her. I just feel bad for Setsuna now. I wonder what she would’ve done, if not for the 5th angel’s interference (and I must look up her name.) I’m not sure if she really would’ve attacked, but she was pretty upset at the time. I can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen, because so many more questions were thrown out now.

It’s fun to show off shopping hauls, even if I’m totally cheap and can never go on a real otaku spending spree (unless I’m at a con, which is different.) Anyway, I went to Kinokuniya today and picked up a few goodies. Maybe I can get even more stuff when I go to New York Comic Con this weekend.

Pretty Cure Splash Star manga vol. 1

I’ve only skimmed through it so far, but I’ll attempt to read this later. It surprises me how much was covered in this volume though. It went all the way up to the ending of the Michiru and Kaoru arc. They can probably finish the story in just one more volume. I guess that’s because most of the filler is gone. Still, It contains so much awesome. I especially loved the chibi Dark Fall characters on the back. They’ve made Akudaikaan-sama look so cute.

Best of all, there’s a bonus chapter featuring the awesomeness of Minori. She adores Kaoru. ^_^

Next, I’ve been watching the original Pretty Cure. It’s quite good too. I got myself a trading figure, and recieved Nagisa and Mepple.

Finally, I purchased an issue of Megami. It’s the February one, I believe. I’ve never bought a Megami before, but certainly wouldn’t be adverse to getting more. It coems with a lot of nice stuff. If my walls weren’t so crowded already, I’d hang up more of the posters it came with. For now, I just hung up the Shuffle, KyouSora and Kanon posters. Now I have to find a use for the pretty Haruhi sticker set.

Rin and Nozomi have decided to keep the whole being Precure thing a secret now (darn!) but there still exists the fact that Urara knows at least something about them. She eventually confronts the two and asks them what they mean by “Precure” but the girls (Rin in particular) are of course reluctant to fill her in. While in a school auditorium, Nozomi and Uraha later get to talk about their dreams for the future. Urara enjoys performing and making people smile, but she’s not happy because she doesn’t have any friends. Therefore, Nozomi decides to be her friend. She also explains the concept of the Precure to Urara, as it’s now become her purpose in life. They’re interrupted though when Rin and Coco show up, as well as a new member of Nightmare, who was spying on them. This one looks kind of like a frog. Of course, he’s trying to steal the Dream Collette, so he transforms the stage curtain into a Kowainaa. Nozomi and Rin transform to fight it as they have Coco take Urara to safety. Meanwhile, Karen and Komachi are in class and can sense that something is again happening in the school. Back at the auditorium, Urara is told to run away, but she refuses. Coco gets hurt trying to protect her. After this, Nozomi is able to convince her to flee. However, she still feels the shockwaves from battle and can hear Nozomi scream Concerned about her new friend, Urara returns. A yellow butterfly comes to her and so she’s now able to transform into Cure Lemonade. She attacks with Precure Lemonade Flash. Rin and Nozomi are able to escape the Kowainaa’s hold. They finish it off and the frog Nightmare flees. Afterwards, Urara is welcomed as the third Precure member.

Alright, so now we have Cure Lemonade. I personally think she’s got a ridiculous name, but I can get used to it. Speaking of names, the bug Nightmare is Girinma and the boss is Bunbii. Now I just have to figure out the frogs name. His character design kind of creeps me out. I think Girinma’s kinda cute for a mutant bug (although after Spider Riders, I have new respect for mutant bug people) but I don’t like this guy much. I find it interesting that although Girinma wasn’t defeated yet, the next villain has already shown up. It’s not that I wanted this show to be exactly the same as Splash Star, except with more magical girls, but I half expected it. Differences like this will make it interesting. It would be neat if maybe Girinma turned out to be a Gooyan-like character though. Perhaps I should shut up about him now. Fangirling over the villains seems to be what I do on this blog though, as of late. The Precure girls (or should I call them Pretty Cure. My usage of both terms probably gets confusing) are the central focus and also cool characters. Then again, it was Minori, Saki’s little sister, whom I was obsessing over in Splash Star. I wonder if the families of these girls will be developed. Nozomi’s father appeared in this episode, but that’s the only sign we’ve gotten of them. I must remind myself once again that this is not Splash Star. My goal between now and the airing of the next episode (which is only in a few days. Darn my vacation brain.) is to drill that factor into my mind. Next time, Komachi becomes Cure Mint.

I didn’t notice anything new this time.
Why on Earth do I still bother to watch this show?

*shrugs* Probably because psycho Kaede is awesome. I love characters who are emotional train wrecks and eventually snap. Now the best part is over, so I don’t know how interesting the rest of this pointless show is going to be. However, I’ll probably keep watching it because I have no life.

Oh no, look out Asa! You’re going to die.

Whenever I’m on vacation from school, my brain also goes on vacation, and thus I can’t find the time to write real entries. But hey, it’s been a while since I did a big quickie post, so I think I’m allowed to do one again. ^_^;

Kanon 20
I had to write about this one (and the last arc in general), because it’s done nothing but surprise me. The Yuichi/Ayu kiss scene was pretty, but it did seem a bit sudden. Earlier on in the series, I really liked their relationship and I still do. It just seems a bit strange to me now. I’m going to blame the pacing again, because I remember they did go on a date many episodes ago. It just seems like a long time, because after that there were huge arcs involving Yuichi’s relationships with three other girls. Giving them all that time was distracting from the main purpose of the series, I think. I’m not really sure what the point of Kanon is though, actually. Anyway, now Ayu’s school disappeared, her tree was cut down, and she’s mysteriously vanished herself. It was obvious from the start that there was something different about Ayu, but now I’m even more convinced that she’s supernatural. Well, it looks from the preview that she’ll be back by next week, so I hope to get some explanations.

Kyoushirou to Towa no Sora 07
I love how Mika is getting progressively more psychotic. She’s having Kaon get tortured again and it seems even harsher this time. Why do I like the crazy character so much? Setsuna surprised me in this episode. She’s still such a tragic character, but rather than going psycho like she seemed to be, she actually comforted Kuu in this episode. Also, she didn’t destroy the note like I thought, but instead just closed Kuu’s notebook. Although I’m rooting for Kyoushirou/Kuu, I just know I’m going to feel really bad for Setsuna in the end if they get together. It would be nice if Kyoushirou payed more notice to her. As of now though, it looks like Kyoushirou might have sex with Kuu. He did think that Kuu was being stupid for going into his room and stripping in front of him (I thought that was pretty stupid of her too, admittedly) but we never got to see what resulted in that. My theory is that they did nothing, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if they did have sex. Kuu was in a really awful state for the whole episode though, so I can see why she’d go into rash desperation like that. It was quite painful to watch her attempt to activate her Absolute Angel powers. Speaking of which, I wonder just what Kuu’s powers are. I’d also like to learn about the final AA, who was introduced this week. She didn’t do much at all.

Spider Riders 42
Mantid has gone way too far now. It’s finally been revealed that he never had the intention of restoring the Invectid world. Instead, all he wanted was the take the power for himself. I figured that out a long time ago, but now that it’s been explored in the show, I’d love to see how the other Invectids react to it. So far, only Beerain knows about it. She’s returned back to Mantid, but I doubt it’s going to be a very long stay, especially since Mantid’s threatened her now for finding out the truth. He hasn’t said quite what he plans to do to her yet, and I guess it’s wrong of me to hope it’s bloody. He did slash at her this week, but all he managed to do was cut off a few strands of her hair. Anyway, Mantid’s plan is causing a lot of problems. He’s attempting to take all of the Oracle’s power, which has led to the sun’s light disappearing almost completely. This in turn is taking power away from the Oracle Keys and hurting Corona and Aqune. And that creates some Hunter/Corona, just so you know. Hunter did seem to be concerned and Corona, despite her lack of power, forced herself to find the energy to give Hunter more power. And… there’s even a tiny bit of Buguese/Aqune too depending on how much you read into it, but this is me we’re talking about. Because Buguese seems to be concerned about Aqune. ^^ Anyway, there were some pretty funny things this week despite all the dark aspects. Hunter and Corona snuck into Mantid’s fortress by disguising themselves as a ghost. It was cute when they were trying to convince a random Invectid soldier that they were sick. I’m also amused by the fact that Mantid uses a podium and microphone-looking things to blatantly lie make speeches to his people.

So let’s see. Yes, I’m a closet Naruto fan (not to be mistaken with Narutards, but expose me to the series enough and I might become one again.) I ignored the entire filler mess, but I’m quite happy to see that the series is back on track. There’s been a bit of a time jump, during which Naruto trained with Jiraiya, Sakura trained with Tsunade, Gaara became kazekage, Tsunade’s face got carved into the mountain, etc. Anyway, Despite the fact that the Sasuke mission was a failure and there’s a lot to be concerned about, everyone seems fairly optimistic about the present (or are at least temporarily satisfied about the fact that Naruto has returned from his training.). However, there’s something secret and evil going on, involving an organization called Akatsuki. And that’s as much as I’m going to say. I don’t really feel like summarizing, as I’m just trying to get used to the swing of things in the series again. I kept myself *gasp* relatively unspoiled about anything that occurred after the time jump (not much of a manga reader anymore), so I really don’t know what’s going to happen yet. I suspect most people who are watching this have read the manga and have kept up to date, so there’s no real point in summarizing what’s been known for years. ^_^; Anyway, I hope this turns out to be an enjoyable arc and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next. I’m also looking forward to the OP and ED changing, because this set is fairly disappointing. The ED at least has a decent song.

And now… pic spam!

So this week, Rin joins the Precure as Cure Rouge. I have major love for the fact that Nozomi doesn’t have Saki and Mai’s behavior of keeping their secret from the world. Yeah, just a silly pet peeve of mine. She actually tried to recruit Rin to help her. Of course, not knowing the details, Rin turned it down at first. In the end though, she faced her fears and gained the power to save Nozomi from the Kowaina-of-the-week’s bondage. Anyway, a lot of interesting things happened this week besides that. I’m surprised by how chock full of details and character development this episode was, considering this is only episode two. We got to learn about just how close Rin and Nozomi are. They’ve been friends for a long time and each is very important to the other. When they were little, Rin would help Nozomi feel better whenever she got hurt and in turn, Nozomi would help Rin when she got scared of things. Next, it was revealed why Coco needed the Dream Collette. Apparently, a close friend of his is sleeping inside it. I wonder how he’s going to get him out. Perhaps capturing the Pinkys will help. That’s another thing that was explained. I was totally lost last week by the concept of the Pinky Catch. I thought the watches were just for transformation, but I guess not. The final interesting thing was that we got to see the big boss. Or at least, I think he’s the boss. I didn’t catch his name though. What’s interesting enough is that he seems to be human. I’m a bit disappointed, because I hoped he’d be cool-looking like Akudaikaan-sama. Although, I guess it’s possible that he could transform into something else like that bug guy who’s been the main enemy so far. Another thing I got out of this episode is that the Nightmares seem to be an organization, rather than a species. I wasn’t sure just what they were last week (thought it could’ve even been the bug’s name) and I’m actually still not sure. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll pick up on things eventually as I watch this. Speaking of which, I’m not certain as to whether I’ll blog weekly. If anyone wants me to then I definitely will, but if not I’ll just keep this on the side for a while like I originally did with Splash Star. Then when I get more into it I’ll have more to say about it. If this keeps up with it’s fast pace though, then it might turn out to be exciting all throughout and require to be talked about more. I don’t know though and I don’t have my hopes up, despite liking the show so far. Next week, Urara joins the precure. She already knows about it, due to watching Nozomi and Rin this week, after chasing a butterfly to their location.

Bullety list today (and yes, this typo was intended.) The episode was just a cleverly done pseudo-recap episode. Most of the footage was new, but a lot of the episode just involved the Spider Riders explaining what happened while at Nuuma to those left behind. I don’t feel like writing a complete play-by-ply, so it’ll just be some highlights.

-Invectids are making no delay in attacking Arachna. The Spider Riders arrive to save Grey and the other soldiers in the nick of time. (Or Slate. Sorry, I’m too used to calling him Grey.)
-Mantid’s disco fortress! <3 Now having the power of two Oracle Keys activated, Mantid’s fortress has gained flashy strobe lights. I’m simply positive he’s going to throw some wild disco parties in the near future.
-Lily hiding from Grasshop was amusing
-Quint’s not going to kill them for destroying his boat, on the condition that they tell him there tales they gained from sea travel. The Lost Mariner was revealed to be his great-great-grandfather, further proving that he’s a ghost. (So just how old is Quake if he’s alive?)
-All the girls in Igneous’ fanclub got boyfriends while he was gone.
-With the Oracle Key’s power, Mantid has created a new type of super-strong Invectid. He’s got some kind of lab in his fortress which is mass producing them.

So in other words, it was kinda boring. I want the old version of Spider Riders from the spoilers back. It’s more awesome than this, even if that one didn’t involve disco lights. Oh, and to anyone who still cares, there was really no backing for any shipping of any kind… unless Igneous/Grey(Slate) is your thing, but I don’t know of anyone outside of the Japanese fans who ships that and I still say they’re just really good friends.

And now we reach Primula’s episode, finally putting an end to the first segment of recap shows. I have no idea what’s next, but I hope it’s something new. I was reminded of the fact that Primula is adorable, so even though her story-arc got quite boring after a while, I still like her. Covered this week was Rin meeting Primula, Primula coming to Rin’s school when her cat plushie rips, Everyone going lingerie shopping for Primula and Rin getting Primula a new cat plushie. For some reason, they also included the beach episode. I don’t really get that, because it had no significance to Primula’s storyline except to show that she makes really good sandcastles. It would probably be a good idea for her to make them a little further away from where the waves hit though. I had forgotten how funny the lingerie shopping part was, but then again, I’m easily amused. I hope they got Primula something modest to wear, since she’s only a little girl. The OP this time looked nice visually, but I’m not sure whether I liked the song or not. It was kinda hypnotic, but painfully slow. The ED, on the other hand was adorable with its SD Alice in Wonderland parody. I wonder where chibi Rin was though.