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"Negima!?" starts with a blast; It's funny, witty, and very different from the previous series. Th anime has darker tone overall, focusing more on fighting and an actual story, but it still doesn't take itself too seriously and mocks itself quite often, which I always find refreshing.

But at the finish line the anime drifts more and more away from satire towards fighting some big unexplainable evil, again probably because the creators thought they needed to present some sort of justification, besides the obvious one of young men wanting to sneak a peek of fictional 2D girls. It's really sad, since this anime had a lot going for it. I suggest getting the first 10 episodes, having a blast, and waiting for the new OVAs to come out.

I know I'm pretty late on this one, but the English-speaking scene kind of missed out on this great anime, instead going on and bawwing about a badly made visual novel adaptation, featuring the same boring stock characters we've seen for years. The library girl kinda reminds me of Nodoka though....

Hmmm.......

Suzumiya Haruhi x Lucky Star

Final Fantasy x Lucky Star

Clannad x Lucky Star

y seguro hay muchos más por ahi. URGH, las voces, violan mi mente... ¿Quién soy?, ¿Dónde estoy? WAAAAAAH.

Ami viszont már látszik belőle, hogy talán végre Asuna múltjából is megtudhatunk már valamit, de persze egyelőre még csak a déja-vu beetés megy. De azért nagyon tetszett ahogy Negivel egymás nyakába ugrottak ..szippp..

Ami igazán ütős ebben a sorozatban azt valahogy akárhogy próbálkozom nem tudom megfogalmazni magamnak. Az ok, hogy egy shounen-harem manga túlcsorduló fan-service-el, de biztos nem ez az egyetlen. Nem tudom, valahogy ebben a fajta fan-serviceben vélem meglelni a választ amit a Negima képvisel.

Az a fajta fan-service, amihez nem kellenek indokok és nem is akar semmit. Csak folyamatosan van. Szinte nem telik el rész, hogy valamilyen oknál fogva ne robbanna le ruha vlamelyik csajról, de semmi gond, ez egy ilyen mágikus világ, ahol csak a srácok küzdenek komolyan, a csajok egymást vetkőztetik, ha pedig nem maguk, akkor a környezet (ruha-evő szörny volt a kategória epic-winnerje). Ez e fenti kép is mi már. A lényeg annyi, hogy körözik őket és kell vegyülni a felvonulásban, amire nincs is jobb mód mint feltenni a macsakfüleket, ugye? :D Na hagyjuk, én sem értem, zsírság és kész.

Ja és olvastam Lucky Star-t is > totál meghalás :- D

This is supposed to be an DNAngel post, but I decided to throw a few other things in it too.

She's so cute when she's little

First of all, Asuna FINALLY met with Negi again in chapter 214. But, she's remembering more and more of her memories and mistakes him for Nagi. Again. Ah, i forgot, this is Negima for those of you who don't know.

In the 104th chapter of To-love-ru (yes, there are girls who read that) there's a big twist. But don't worry, there's still no plot whatsoever.

One of the greatest confessions of all time

In Karin chapter 36 (AKA chibi vampire), the long awaited confession is here! And it's every bit of gushy and sweet and dramatic as one can hope for. Anzu also gets a confession from a boy, but she simply brushes it off and just uses the boy as an excuse to follow Karin on her date.

Don't worry, a cute girl like this? She can't hurt a fly..

Onisarashi, one of the mangas for Higurashi no naku koro ni, has finally been translated completely. And having read it, I have to say that the story was simply too sad. Just when you think that everyone will have happiness, something unimaginably bad happens to them and they are torn away from that small shred chance of normal life. However, the story is extremely well written and is to be recommended to anyone who isn't afraid of blood.

Isn't he cute? Who cares if he's filthy rich, deals with crime lords, and made a pack with the devil, he's cute!

In ch.3 of kuroshitsuj, we see more of the butler's bad side, and of course, the main reason for reading this manga, the adorableness of the main character, continues to shine as he is kidnapped by a drug lord.

In the latest chapters of Tsubasa and XXXholic, CLAMP's foreshadowing yet MORE plot twists. Right now it's kind of a calm before the storm, and when they come back from their latest hiatus, we have to be expected to be screwed with giant OMG moments, again.

I like Christina (the blond one) better

In chapters 12 and 13 of Shina Dark, the drama continues to pile on as we see more of Garlet's past and people in the town start to have more and more fights with each other. There's an extremely powerful monster near the town and everyone's going to try and get rid of it. However, the first attack failed. But, Christina finally gets herself together and shows her talent as a strategist. This needs to be turned into an anime, really. Great plot, beautiful art, Anyone should be able to like this series.

For the fangirls

There are sooo many things I can say about this scene....

DNAngel is here! Finally, the hiatus is over. In volume 12 (the latest chapter is stage 3 chapter 20), we finally find out what Dark and Krad are: an incomplete artwork that had absorbed the souls of its creator and its thief. Risa is trying to help her kidnapper come to terms with his love for another incomplete piece of artwork, who happens to be a young girl, frozen in both time and body. Satoshi reveals that he is dying. I have to say that I sorely missed this series, and that the art is as good as ever!

]]> http://kojioe.wordpress.com/?p=808 Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:38:18 +0000 Koji Oe http://kojioe.wordpress.com/?p=808

I have finally returned after a long week of camping in Maine in the cold with no anime or games. I was able to finish volume 18 of Negima on the drive back though. It was overall I good volume. Maybe more on the "filler" side from an action stand point but it had some nice scenes of Nodoka, and Yue so I think that makes up for it.

The Mahora festival is over and Chao goes back home. Things return back to normal for the most part. Negi hears word from Ku Nel that his father is still alive, and his determination to find his father gets his blood flowing again. Once again this gets Asuna a little angry and Negi turns emo for a few chapters.

To be honest, I don't really understand Negi's plight and Asuna's issue here. I think Akamatsu is just doing this to try and make these characters seem "deep". I don't think it's a stretch for Negi to be thinking about life in a serious manner but just some of the things that have happened in the Chao Arc just seemed kinda bogus. I didn't really understand just why Negi was getting so depressed and flustered about right and wrong when it came to taking Chao out. Chao was definitely in the wrong because she wanted to reveal magic to the world and all that stuff. Negi honestly thinks too much.

Then there is Asuna, I am not exactly sure what her problem is when it comes to Negi finding his father. Sure, we all know that Negi will probably find him in the course of the series but in a real life situation it would see kinda slim to nil to find someone with no leads. Asuna is probably just taking that stance and not to mention she is concerned with Negi. It's just that she seems to draw this 'you're thinking about your father too much' card every so often, and it's getting on my nerves. What's wrong with someone having a little hope and determination? It's not like Negi is completely disregarding his responsibilities or anything.

My favorite chapters this volume were 164 and 165 where various girls from 3-A go to the confessional with Misora and Cocone in it and not a priest. It just had a lot of cute shots of Nodoka and Yue blushing. Plus Nodoka's conclusion on how to solve the problem of her and Yue liking Negi was pretty funny. I don't know about others but I think it's impossible to not like Yue and like Nodoka and vice versa. I first liked Nodoka from volume one ever since she fell on top of Negi in the library, but I didn't like Yue until the Kyoto Arc at the latest.

I hope Negi ends up with one of them because if he freaking ends up with Asuna I will be totally pissed off. When Negi is in the confessional, it gives me some hope that perhaps he has feelings for Nodoka when he thinks of girls he has special feelings for. So, who knows. I'm rooting for Yue and Nodoka. Either or or even both would be fine with me. Polygamy for the win.

Work was, mostly, the same old schtik. Because the university signed a contract with a new food service provider, we've been busy. At the end of the semester, way back in May, our old provider was moving stuff out but they did most of it by themselves. Our new provider, however, is using normal UPS/FedEx shipments to get their stuff in - that means I'm responsable for them, since all normal UPS/FedEx packages pass through my hands. It's kind of a pain, but hey, it's to be expected. On top of the new food service provider getting stuff in to get ready to operate, IT has been blowing their leftover budget before the end of the fiscal year happens at the end of this month. So we've been getting a lot of new hardware for them, too.

The biggest event happened between Thursday and today (Friday). Since the postal rates changed back in May, we've been having trouble processing international mail. It's not so much a problem, IMO, but just a few extra steps. Pitney Bowes (yes, the people I railed against in an earlier post) finally released an update to us that was supposed to let us process international mail normally again yesterday morning. Guess what happened? The update completely FUBAR-ed the mail meter. It erased all the rates, it erased all our preset modes, it even stopped the meter from communicating with the computer. So our mail processing ability was absolutely nil until they finally got it fixed around noon today, and by then we had a whole day and a half worth of mail stacked up waiting to get meter stamped. I love Pitney Bowes. <3 In case you didn't know, the meter stamp is the stamp a machine gives an envelope. When you get your junk mail and the postage is in red ink up in the upper right corner? That's the meter stamp.

Lets see here. I'm still reading Negima, I finished two volumes over the week. The Mahora Festival is just crazy, and some of the stuff that happened made me laugh like crazy. Especailly the costume contest. Fanservice FTW. The fight between Mana and Fu was full of win. The fight between Negi and Takamichi was good, but to me it wasn't as good as the fight between Mana and Fu. I'm looking forward to the fight between Asuna and Setsuna, it's always intersting to watch two friends ending up having to fight eachother. You know they're going to have to go all-out and find a way to remain friends while they're at it. I know they will, but I'm sure it'll be fun (and hopefuly with a lot of fanservice too. keh, keh, keh).

I finished watching Full Metal Panic! this week. Stupid Netflix was missing Disc 6, so the major events happening during that disk was pretty lost to me and the people I'm spending my weeknights with. Oh, well, it was still a nice ending. I'm pretty darn tolerant of swearing, but I believe in moderation. Swearing is meant to give oomph and emphisis to a situation, I think, so overuse ends up completely ruining that. Why this tangent? At the last episode, when Sousuke said 'YOU SHITHEAD!", it was a lot more of a 'woah..' moment than if Sousuke was tossing those words left and right. And when the villian said 'I love you~!' right before he exploded, it made me laugh. A lot. He was the most villianous, mess-with-your-head and rub-your-spirit-in-the-ground sort of guy, he was almost awesome. The older son of the family I stay with is kinda wierd, and has chosen him as his role-model.

I watched the first few episodes of Cardcaptors. I was dissapointed because apparently Netflix just has the Americanized version, or the family just had the American version in their queue, or something. I'm kinda ashamed of what American dubbers have done to anime, especailly in earlier animes such as Sailor Moon and CCS.

I've also watched around 20 episodes of Slayers. Lina is pretty cool, heh heh. Gourry is just comic relief as far as I'm concerned, because he's so thick-headed. Amelia is just.. ugh.. she was funny and cute when you first meet her, then it just gets annoying pretty quick. I was somewhat surprised that Zelgadis was actually an ally, just misinformation - as well as Zelgadis's pride not sharing information - kept Lina/Gourry and Zelgadis battling. After the first major fight, after Zelgadis and Lina/Gourry finally get on the same page, I started to get annoyed. Villains don't seem to be going away. They seem to die several times, or might as well be dead, but they keep popping up. It stops being a decent plot twist pretty darn quick. When it's finally explained, it was almost a let-down. I thought it was pretty lame.

A few funny things that happened. Me and the family I stay with were eating at Cheddar's. For simplicity's sake, the mother is Kim, the younger son is Kyle, the older son is Caleb. They were talking about Caleb and another friend's tendancy to get in trouble and Caleb's ability to talk his way out of things. We were supposing that some day they'll wind up in jail.

Kim: With your luck, Caleb, you'll wind up getting off the hook.

Kyle: Yeah, and you'll get her off too.

Me: *snerk*

And we all had a good laugh. Kyle's a pretty pure guy, so he was a little slow in the pervert uptake, but he eventually figured it out. And another thing, me and my boss were out delivering our loads of packages to the new food service provider. Usually they'll keep a front door unlocked so we can easily get in without having to disturb the kitchen crew. However, we found out too late that they didn't have one unlocked. So here we were, getting back in our cart with an armload of packages. I was keeping the packages steady with one arm, while my other hand was steering the cart - trying to pull it around to the kitchen enterance. Needless to say, it was tough..

Me: Ugh! I can't do this with one hand!

Boss: ... That's what she said.

Heheheh.  I almost crashed the cart because I was laughing so hard. Good times, good times.

In the past I've speculated that Akamatsu is stretched too thin because of all the Negi goods and the second manga series which he presumably at least consults on but now it occurs to me that he might have become disaffected from the work now that it has been dragging its heels for quite too long. I would speculate that the main problem with the work is that there are too many characters and the story has gotten dispersed, which has had the result of making any given storyline take exponentially more time to complete. For example during the present "magical world" story arc you will get 1-3 Negi centric chapters and then the focus will divert either to a summary of what the other characters are up to or 1-3 chapters about another character. Most recently there was a little Yue story arc before going back to Negi and the story finally seems to have come to a point where all the characters are at least in the same area even if they aren't all together.

This tends to be the flaw of multi-perspective stories with large casts. I think that multi-perspective stories work best when split between two antagonistic points of view because it balances the story out a bit more. However I think that a single perspective story with minimal exposition lets one "get into" the story more. You know what the protagonist knows, you see what the protagonist sees, what happens to the protagonist you experience, and then like the protagonist you are forced to draw conclusions from that.

Using Negima for an example, we could sympathize more with Negi's extreme stress at being separated from his (he thinks) defenseless and resourceless comrades and students if we weren't made aware of exactly what was happening to most of them and that they were fine. This is of course a shounen manga so its not like any of them are going to get killed off either. There's not even really any tension associated with the 3 who got "enslaved" as seemingly the worst that happens to them is having to wear maid outfits which aren't really any worse than their usual school outfits and clean up.

Well this is just manga after all, it's probably unrealistic to expect a find understanding of drama from someone who constantly makes panty jokes about underaged girls... Yes the only reason I'm still reading Negima is because I've read this much of it. Actually I think it's the only manga I read on a regular basis now, this year, just as Geass R2 is the only anime I watch regularly this season.

My internship can pretty much be described as 'more of the same'. Of course, you don't know what 'the same' is so I'll explain it a little bit... accounting and paperwork. >_> That sums it up. In the morning, after the mail and packages from the post office gets dealt with, I start my paperwork. I file the previous day's work - the register/stamp/deposit sheet, FedEx and UPs reports, and department postage charges - and also enter them into various Excel spreadsheets. At the end of the month, we get a charge report for general charges from the business office (that we work to make sure our accounts balance) and we issue charge reports to all the departments that sent mailings through us so they know how much they spent for their own bookkeeping. Sound boring? It is. >_>;

I'm a little dissapointed that I don't really feel like I'm training to be a manager for this job. I know I am, a lot of managment IS paperwork. I was hoping to be in a little more on the decision-making process. Sometime this summer I'm supposed to be creating (or at least helping to create) a guide to the mailcenter services that'll be disbursed to all the faculty offices, but we'll see if that actually gets done.

Okay, on to the anime! I finished watching Outlaw Star in between the Netflix I was getting. Aisha naked, hah! Too bad it was in the middle of an episode that was more or less a joke - aside from the Caster shells, but even the aquisition of them was a big joke. The end was a little trippy, and I was hoping for a more romantic final scene. Gene just needed to cup Melfina's cheek, mutter something romantic, and lay a long kiss on her lips. But no, he had to pull on her cheek and turn it into a joke. Bah. >_>

For Netflix, I've been watching Full Metal Panic, and and I got through disc 4. I'll be having disc 5 waiting for me on monday and maybe even disk 7. That's right, you read it correctly. For some stupid-ass reason, Netflix isn't carrying disk 6. So I'll be missing three or four episodes. Hopefully it won't be too overly important, but it probably will. The season is starting to approach its close, afterall. Anyway, the whole mecha competition between the ditzy Captian and Melissa was a riot. I knew it was too much to ask to see one of them carry through with the punishment. I would have been right there with Kurz when he got his face stomped on because he requested the punishment to actually happen when it was all over. Come on, they're both hot, though the Captian has a huge cute advantage and I don't like smokers/drunks so much.

The big up-side to my internship is that I'm staying with friends during the work-week. Friends that love their anime and manga. So I've been going through their manga collection whenever there isn't anything else going on. I read the seven volumes they had of Chibi Vampire already. Cute story, some good inter-personal drama toward volumes 6 and 7. Its a little predictable though, because it was easy to tell that the two main characters would hook up at least for a while.

I've also made it into volume 10 of Negima. I'll tell you something! The manga is soo~oo~ooo much better than the anime (at least what I've seen of it). The anime was kinda stupid and silly. Sure, the manga is like that too at times, but the story is a lot better than the anime. In the anime, Negi was like 'Oh, noes! You know my secret! Now I have to kiss you before this retarted frog and this stupid cat fluffball find out that you know it and turn me into a chupacabra.' It was cute for a while, but after the whole class started to find out, I just faceplamed and turned it off. I love how the manga keeps you in touch with Negi's mentality through the process. He's a little kid, but he's carrying a huge load in his shoulders. Sure, he and the classmates get into some comic mischief from time to time, but that weight is always looming over the horizon.

Well, I think that about does it for this week. Thank you for making it this far (if you actually read what I had to say. Lord knows I would have skipped half of it if I was an outside reader. >_>;). If you didn't actually read it.. well.. at least you gave me a pageview or something. Thanks for that, then. *thumbs up* Well, see you next week!

Capítulo pasteloso pero que es en esencia la razón fehaciente por la que amo a Ken Akamatsu *_*

Ahora me carcome la intriga… ¿Qué es lo que sabe Negi?

I've finally had the time to catch up on the last four chapters or so, and the manga is finally being in MQ(for the usual Negima raw, mangaddict scanlations are actually HQ, I think).

Epic fanboying under the cut.

It's just OMGWTFBBQHOYAY! material which I'm just totally going bonkers over. Fist pumping, CHECK. Squealing, CHECK. Setsuna(and Kaede) in a godawesome business suit, CHECK.

Secchan in tinted sunglasses, DIES HAPPY.

It's like a thousand times better than Fate/Zero Suit Saber.

And that's not all, there's more flashbacking and Asuna shows off her tsundere side after having being denied access to Negi for so long.

Ken Akamatsu is GOD.

Anyway, official box art for the Ala Alba OAD is revealed. Yep, they're all in their Ala Alba gear.

Volume 23 will come out on August 12th with episode 1.
Volume 24, November 17th has episode 2.
Volume 25, February 17th has episode 3.

And then it'll be another four months at least before Negima! season 2, probably. Battle of Mahora... so long away...

(I wonder if they'll include the Wilhelm/Demon arc. It'll probably be a good chance to re-introduce the series and insert Kotaro into the story.)

PS: Oh yeah, Akamatsu and his harem of VA's.

Apparently, his assistants worked on the preview. Wow, I guess Akamatsu is really going to supervise this himself.

The school season is here once again, and within the course of the summer vacation, I have not managed to write a single substantial entry. Shame on me.

On the other hand, this would be a really good time to look back at the previous spring season's offerings, as well as anything else of interest.

For starters, let's have a look at the shows from the spring '08 season, plus whatever else I've watched recently:

Do note that spoilers and/or NSFW images may or may not be present.

To-LOVE Ru
Another of those fanservice-filled shows that caters to titillate to many a lonely otaku, this show started mediocre, and as of writing, probably still is. It suffers from a rather boring plot - girl from outer space falls in love with guy, hijinks ensue - though I guess it's enough of a premise to shove breasts in the viewers face. While the animation quality was generally acceptable (I have low standards), the lack of substance in the show itself had me turn away from it after just the first viewing. Assuming it follows the manga, I doubt it will have any significant change in anything else. Perhaps it was just boredom that led me to reading the manga, but now that it's past, I find no real point in watching this show other than having it as a "filler" of sorts.

kurenai
Quite a good show, this one is. I can't really pinpoint the main draw of the series. Be it the above-average production values with generally consistent animation quality (though as LianYL pointed out, Murasaki seems to constantly change height), the intriguing story, the voice acting (yes, Murasaki's voice in unbearably grating, but let's ignore that for now), or any combination of the above-mentioned factors. One thing about the series that keeps me going is how the show decides to do the exposition within episodes. It ever so slowly gives hints on the Kuhouins, on the pasts of the each of the characters (though a certain glasses-wearing girl seems to have been shafted in this area), and all sorts of other things that have to be taken and dissected by the viewer in order to get a fuller understanding of the world they live in. Another draw would be how the show just keeps you watching - you start to sympathize with the characters, and the more you do, the more you need to keep on going - to find out what happens to each of them; "Will Murasaki ever be able to live freely as she wants? What will happen, now that she's been taken back? What COA will each of the characters take?" These sorts of things go through your mind as every episode ends, and sometimes even past that. It's this sort of thought-invoking stuff that makes me keep wanting to watch the show, despite its flaws.

The Tower of Druaga - The Aegis of Uruk
I never actually got past the second episode of this show. I'm guessing what a lot of people liked in the first episode was how GONZO was actually able to deliver some really good parodies and humor with a fantasy RPG setting. However, as the show went on, it delved back into typical GONZO stuff. The first episode, while entertaining, was unfortunately not followed through with subsequent episodes. The second showing was pretty boring, as far as anything went, and even had the main character (whose name I forgot) get framed for killing the king - how cliché. Right now, I've not a clue on what's going on in the show (I don't read episode summaries) so I can't say much on the plot. However, given that the second episode was already enough motivation to get me to drop the series, I doubt it could get any better - this is GONZO after all. On the other hand, scenes like this get me to change my mind.

Kanokon
Softcore porn. That's really the best way to describe this show. Rather than taking the roundabout route that To-LOVE Ru chose, the studio decided to just throw as many naked and risqué scenes as possible. Like To-LOVE Ru, I read the Kanokon manga out of boredom. When the drive I had for the manga disappeared, so did the drive I had for the show, leading me to drop it around episode 2 or 3, if I'm not mistaken. Plot? Action? Cast all pretense to the curb, because really, there is no other reason to watch this show other than the fanservice. That being said, if you like that stuff, then go for it. Unfortunately, I am not. Being already busy with all sorts of stuff (like school, IIDX, trying to get better at drawing, and so on. plus anime), I doubt I'll ever find the time to watch this show again.

Nabari no Ou
One of the most promising shows this season, but unfortunately, I was let down. The show started off well, with lots of ninja action. The premise itself was actually interesting, with ninja clans fighting over control over someone who has the ability to gain infinite wisdom and all that. This clearly set the stage
for lots of awesome fight scenes, but unfortunately degraded into exposition-filled episodes and whiny emo kid crap. Still currently pondering as to whether I should keep going, seeing as I'm already halfway through, or if I should just drop it altogether.

Zettai Karen Children
"PENIS BEAMS FUCK YEAH" were the thoughts I was able to gather from the first episode, but unfortunately, other villains have yet to top this power as of late. The first episode was enough to get my interest, which unfortunately waned away at around the fourth episode or some (whichever had the girls move in with Minamoto). Because this show's pretty low priority, I haven't watched enough right now to form any half-baked thoughts on the series, but given the motivation, I'll get back to watching it.

BLASSREITER
Quickly dropped at the second or third episode, if I'm not mistaken. A lot of factors led me to this decision, but there were two prominent ones: (a) GONZO CG and (b) lack of any subs.
(b) is rather glaringly obvious. If one were to search "BLASSREITER" in a certain torrent directory, one would clearly notice the lack of English-subtitled releases beyond the third episode.
(a) is rather self-explanatory too, with GONZO constantly using CG in everything - the cars, trucks, motorcycles, whatever those things were, and Hermann, which irked me because of the inconsistency with the hand-drawn animation. In other words, they didn't blend in well.
Thanks to the above-mentioned factors, actively following BLASSREITER pretty much became an impossibility (mostly thanks to [b], of course).

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki
What I loved about this series was how it was so much like SHAFT productions without actually having been touched by SHAFT. The insane pace at which the show goes is pretty fun and while not as insane as say, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, it does have a more coherent plot, rather than just randomness. Like with most other shows, I have yet to watch the more recent shows out of lack of motivation. Sometimes, you just can't get the energy to watch anime, weird as it may sound. On the other hand, it seems it gets more and more out of hand when compared to previous episodes, so I'm very much looking forward to it.

Soul Eater
A decent action show, but there are still, of course, flaws to be found. Firstly, while background art is incredibly well-done, lush, and detailed, the foreground - the main area of focus - is rather lacking in visual detail. It doesn't bother me, given my low standards for quality, but it may be an issue for some. Maka's voice acting is still flat as ever, but I think I've gotten used to it, for the most part. However, the biggest problem I have with the show is how it handles itself. Is it more of an action show, or comedy? In just about every single fight scene there is, there seems to be some sort of slapstick between the characters which disrupts the flow of what could be a good, well, fight. Still, it's entertaining enough for something to watch, say, on a Sunday morning (which unfortunately is not an option for me because I have to fulfill Christian obligations or something like that).

Sky Girls TV
Yes, I know, slowpoke.tif, etc. but believe me, I have several days of anime burned onto DVDs which I will probably never touch again - it was on a friend's recommendation that I fished it out of storage and watched it. So far, I've gotten to the halfway point in the series, and as a friend of a friend of mine said, "it's a good anime, but it has serious pacing issues." Right now, it feels that a lot of the things that happened could have been omitted or sped-up so the animators could squeeze in more content or something. Still the inclusion of the Vic Viper was a really funny reference that any idiot could get. If there is some sort of IIDX reference in there, I will seriously laugh. Hard.
Hopefully, the show can pick up the pace and do some plot twists or something. Also, Eika is moe and love.

Monochrome Factor
The gay crap was enough to put me off.
That said, it's not too bad, but.. ugh.

Wagaya no Oinari-sama
The show drags on forever and nothing happens.

Vampire Knight
Lazy to watch.

And now, for stuff I bought:

I actually got the manga a few days ago, with the Byousoku 5cm DVD around 2 Sundays ago, but I never got to writing about it until now. Negima!, as I'm sure everyone knows about, isn't much to write about, considering everyone's probably tens of chapters ahead already anyway (at chapter 213, to be exact). I was actually surprised at how ARIA and AQUA the manga are different from the show. A lot of chapters are in completely different areas, with some characters being present, other absent, and of course, the actual order in which they are presented. Of course, this sense of familiarity, yet unfamiliarity (dare I liken it to a Venn Diagram?) gives me incentive to experience the manga and the anime separately. And.. I guess that's it for now.

-

Given that I'm not very good with putting thoughts into words (this post alone took three days of on-and-off writing), I really can't think of anything else to say now. Of course, that could be because I've been listening to みさおマニア mixes the entire time, but hopefully, I'll find something in school to relate with anime. Or perhaps get some inspiration from said school, or something. Whatever.

PS: more doodles an'stuff.

PPS: Have another wallpaper - by Maya, from IIDX.

Vaya, me deje coger bastante ventaja, PERO eso tiene solución. Escribiré en pocas palabras (¿Categorias?) lo que se me venga a la cabeza de cada capitulo y así todos contentos.

Negima! 207: ¡¿Sin Oportunidades de Victoria?!

Negi, magia negra, deja vu, Rakan idiota, Chisame ftw, lolis, Ku Fei, yay.

Negima! 208: El Limite

Lucha, loli con pocas ropas, Negi Berserker, shadow form.

Negima! 209: Negi Regresa

Descubrimiento, irritación, decisión, despertar, Chisame <3, Fate, organización malévola

Negima! 210: El Diario de "Todos Estamos Bien"

Eva, rezagadas, offtopic, Nodoka, triangulo amoroso, monjas, Kamo.

Negima! 211: La Pelea de las Brujas

Yue, Collet, escuela, memoria, fanáticos, Ostia, competencia, entrenamiento, confesión fallida.

Negima! 212: El Rally de los 100 Km. en Escoba

Carrera, magia (doh), Lencería, atajo, dragón, artefacto, boobs.

Negima! 213: Super Chica Mágica Yue

Plan, cooperación, artefacto, señuelos, victoria, Ostia, Asuna.

y para hacer esta entrada más barata aun, un collage de dudosa calidad.

offtopic: Veamos... también estoy atrasado con Kaiji por lo que un tratamiento similar le espera. (Resumen corto y opinión de los capítulos que me quedan por blogear)

HAHA!

As for when I was home, nothing really special happened today. A friend came by, watched stuff, played stuff, day ended. Just like every other random days I guess.

Anyway~

Third Negima series... seems like they will skip the plot all the way past the school festival arc into the latest manga story arc where everybody tries to help Negi look for his missing father over the summer break. Not sure if they will explain all the crucial bits and pieces of information in between though. Well, all is fine as long as there's Yue and loli Chachamaru~ （＊´Д`＊）

It's a bit lower than what I expected on the visual level, but it is very faithful to the original design. Let's hope, for the last time, this one won't suck.

But let's be honest, it's pretty hard to be bad when all they're doing is taking intermediate material (2nd Summer arc) from between two major arcs (Battle of Mahora and the Magic World). It'll be the actual TV Season 3 where they'll be tested, especially with pacing.

And no, the hilarity of seeing a quip about Negima! above a half-serious entry on snipers is not lost on me.

EDIT: When I look back on it, the Negima!? OP was actually really promising, what with the dramatic music and high-quality visuals. This might be one of the main reasons why so many fans of the original were pissed off when SHAFT fully unveiled its reworks. Ah, well, maybe when they do Season 3 they can bring back this song.

La página oficial de la serie Mahou Sensei Negima!, presentada por Kodansha, ha publicado un vídeo promocional del OVA Mahou Sensei Negima! ~Shiroki Tsubasa Ala Alba~. Su primer capítulo pronto saldrá a la venta el 17 de Julio, además recordemos que dependiendo de las ventas que tenga se considerará en crear una película o una nueva temporada.

Sexy. Vuelve Happy Material y lo que es mas increíble... ¡Aparece Kotaro! Si bien los capítulos del manga que piensan adaptar no son muy emocionantes es agradable saber que tras dos intentos fallidos se harán las cosas bien y eso se agradece. Bien por ellos, y por nosotros.

Copy & Paste desde Itsumo Anime :$

The video also uses the project's theme song, "Happy Material Return," which is pretty nifty, too.

Oh, and there's a wallpaper as well.

A few of my thoughts on the promo and news...

Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Ala Alba Promo Streamed

The Japanese publisher Kodansha has posted a promotional video for the Mahō Sensei Negima! ~Shiroki Tsubasa Ala Alba~ video series that will be shipping with the next three Japanese volumes of Ken Akamatsu's Negima manga. The promotional video for the first volume emphasizes the media crossover aspect of the project and Akamatsu's overall supervision of the production. The manga creator is involved with the anime's planning, story concept, and storyboard supervision. Director Akiyuki Shinbo (Mahou Sensei Negima OAVs, Negima!?, MoonPhase), character designer Minoru Mihara (animation director of Negima!? and episodes of SuperGALS!), music composer Hajime Kikuchi (theme songs from true tears, Noein, Himawari), and the animation studio SHAFT (Negima!?, Hidamari Sketch, MoonPhase) are also working on the project.

The promotional video uses the project's theme song "Happy Material Return" and notes that the characters Kotarō (Marina Inoue) and Ku:nel (Daisuke Ono) have joined the cast. The first DVD volume ships with the 23rd manga volume in Japan in August. The first bundle will include a special box for the entire series as well as a card of the character Kazumi Asakura. The second DVD volume will ship in November, and the third will ship in February of 2009. The "Happy Material Return" song will be released on a CD with the songs "Kagayaku Kimi e" and "A-LY-YA" on August 27.

(1) I hope this OVA doesn't suck the fun out of Mahou Sensei Negima like SHAFT's series did. Zaniness is good, but what's the point if it no longer feels like Negima? "Alternate retelling" or not, take away the feel of the original and it will lack. It's SHAFT and Shinbo Akiyuki again, but hopefully they improved their take on Negima.

(2) Another remix of Happy Material... however, I'm really liked, and still really like, that song (especially the second version that had Kanda Akemi and Itou Shizuka among others). I would have to say I'm most interested in the CD that comes out on August 27 that included Happy Material Returns, along with Kagayaku Kimi e and A-LY-YA. Since 2005, Kagayaku Kimi e has remained my favorite Negima song out of the many, many Negima songs. I hope it's a remix, and I hope it's good!

(3) Inoue Marina as Kotoro and Ono Daisuke as Ku:nel Sanders. Toss Inoue Marina and Ono-D into any cast and my interest level rises immediately.

(4) "The promotional video...emphasizes... Akamatsu's overall supervision of the production. The manga creator is involved with the anime's planning, story concept, and storyboard supervision." Good to know he'll be much more involved. Someone must have slipped him a memo that reminded him that all of his manga's anime adaptations have sucked.

Emocion? claro que si! Es el encuentro esperado entre Negi y Asuna! Finalmente hay raw y finalmente se puede ver lo que trae consigo, además, tomen en consideración que estamos esperando que Asuna recupere sus recuerdos y que en Ostia, tenemos la esperanza de que así sea!

*_* raw ~ Que lindo! Abrazos! pellizcos! y mas! ^^

Por si les interesa, aqui dejo los enlaces para la descarga, cortesía de pr3d1c4d0r ^^
"RAW 214 Negima"

Eso es por ahora ^^ Saludos!

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1 - Hayate the Combat Butler # 15 - Kenjirou Hata -Shogakukan

2 - Negima! Magister Negi Magi # 22 - Ken Akamatsu -Kodansha

3 - Kekkaishi # 20 - Yellow Tanabe - Shogakukan

4 - Diamond's Ace # 10 - Yuji Terajima - Kodansha

5 - Ouran High School Host Club # 12 - Bisco Hatori - Hakusensha

6 - Otomen # 5 - Aya Kanno - Hakusensha

7 - Bleach # 33 - Kubo Tite - Shueisha

8 - Inuyasha # 53 - Rumiko Takahashi - Shogakukan

9 -Detective Conan (Case Closed) # 61 - Gosho Aoyama - Shogakukan

10 - Good Morning Kiss # 2 - Yue Takasuka - Shueisha

So, since the first anime bombed, Negima?! didn't bother following it, and Negima! Live Action spun off into oblivion, Revival Attempt #3 is, finally, going back to the original storyline.

Akamatsu doesn't seem to care much about what others do to his creations these days - and it's not exactly a problem, since he keeps writing the manga and the money keeps coming in regardless. None of the animated adaptations of his works had been good; most were decent on their own, but failed to reach the level of the original. And then, you have oddities such as SHAFT's attempt to turn Negima! into Pani Poni, resulting in the love/hate creation of Negima?!. Let's not enough bother with the Live Action.