April 11th, 2004 Sunday

Sensei no Ojikan (2)

Held it in for a minute and 20 seconds, better than I could do...

Showing a little too much of your feminine side...

It's still funny. That's a good thing, right? I forgot to mention before that the ED in this show really kicks ass. Easily my favorite ED for this season. It's a cover song of Tom Cat's first single from '84, "Furare Kibun de Rock'n'Roll." The group singing it now is five girl team DROPS. They're not the greatest at singing, but neither was Tom Cat so it works out ok!

Hanaukyou Maid-tai La Verite (2)

The Mariel and Ryuuka show~ I still don't like Ryuuka's voice, but she's a great character!

Keroro Gunsou (2)

Mix Okonomiyaki FX, Tamama's favorite food, eating Momoka's face.

Emotionally unstable Momoka and Keroro's buddy Tamama join the show. Their craziness translates very well to anime form! And their voices rock.

Mahou Shoujo-tai Arusu (1)

Wish I could make rain clouds with MY broom.

First visit to Magical Land and you're already behind bars. Tsk tsk.

Decent show. I didn't think I'd be able to stand the drawing style, but it fits the story nicely. And the eight minute running length made for some very quick and snappy dialogue, which I like. Unfortunately it's set to run for 40 episodes. I don't know if I can sustain interest for that long...

Hikaru to Mizu no Daphne (13)

A badly animated Gloria is better than no Gloria at all.

The dumb brothers from the first half of the show return, this time with their physically adept sister. An "animators take the week off" episode.

April 10th, 2004 Saturday

Midori no Hibi (2)

One of your eyes is bigger than the other~

I really like how they handled Takako and Osamu's rescues. Midori's "unveiling" was good too. The maids chasing him out of the gate was a nice touch. Next week, Rin!

April 8th, 2004 Thursday

Tenjou Tenge (2)

This school must have a lot of money or something.

I seem to recall more happening here in the manga...

Fun, though the second half kind of dragged. Aya's voice was a bit more tolerable in this ep. Maybe she'll be ok after all.

Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai (2)

Showers generate too much steam in Japan.

Shikijo sensei has arrived! This time as gaijin Jennifer Portman. The show just went up a couple notches on my YES! meter.

April 6th, 2004 Tuesday

Bakuretsu Tenshi (1)

Crappy 3D, nice 2D - it's a fair trade-off. And they focus more on the nice 2D, so that's good too. I can see myself really enjoying this show as long as they don't overdo the mecha.

Boukyaku no Senritsu (1)

'Please keep watching. I'll get naked, I promise.'

Mamiko Noto's in this show too! She's popping up in everything! Woo! Anyways, this was alright, just not what I was expecting(supernatural type stuff). I'll give it a few more eps to see where it goes, and to see what role the Hakufu look alike(same VA too, imagine that) will play in it all.

Hikaru to Mizu no Daphne (12)

All these new shows made me forget to upload Daphne! No big deal though, it was just another filler ep to stress that Maia's alone, but really isn't. We know this already guys! Get on with the story!

April 5th, 2004 Monday

Hit wo Nerae! (5)

They spend the whole ep setting up for a promotional live stage show but we don't even get to see it!? Bah!

MADLAXATIVE, I mean MADLAX (1)

She changes into an evening gown to have a gunfight. Works for me.

Once again Bee Train tricks me into watching one of their shows by having a badass female lead. Thankfully I wasn't bored to tears this time like in AVENGER, but I also wasn't very impressed (boring gunfights and more overscored music). I'll wait and see what kind of chemistry the 2nd female lead has with the 1st in the next episode before I decide if I want to watch anymore, but I'm leaning towards no at the moment.

April 4th, 2004 Sunday

Hanaukyou Maid-tai La Verite (1)

This is a remake of the original series. There are a few cosmetic/voice/name changes here and there, but nothing for the worse, except Mariel's new hair style and color(looks like her face is stuck in the jaws of a monster). And the episodes are 24 minutes now instead of 12, so you get double the fanservice! I'm sure they'll use the extra length to put new story elements in too, but the extra service is what matters!

Sensei no Ojikan (1)

I like the crown falling-off-head shock.

This blondie is totally my fav character.

Azumanga Daioh killer? Nah, but it was still very funny and enjoyable(FYI: The manga of this came out before AD). The voice work was excellent as well. Standouts for me being Minami Omi as 27 year old tiny teacher Mika, and of course Tomoko Kawakami(man, she's busy this season) as part-time job loving Kobayashi. Yuuji Ueda's in here too. He's the yaoi student with the serious nose gusher in that screen cap up there.

April 3rd, 2004 Saturday

Midori no Hibi (1)

Dr. Midori, dental hygienist extraordinaire.

Scary women! Their voice change is so drastic!

This first ep was very faithful to the first chapter of the manga(ie: very good). Most of the scenes that were lengthened, added, and/or changed were all for the better imo. As for the voices, both Seiji(Kishou Taniyama) and Midori(Mai Nakahara) were kind of weird at first, but by the end of the episode they had grown on me. I just wasn't expecting Nakahara to use a chibi voice in her Midori portrayal. But I guess it makes sense, since she's technically...chibi.

Keroro Gunsou (1)

I was surprised to find out last week that three of my favorite seiyuu would be cast in this show! Tomoko Kawakami(Rosette in Chrno Crusade) as the main BOY Fuyuki, Chiwa Saitou(Anita in ROD TV) as the main girl Natsumi, and Mamiko Noto(Hazuki in Yamibou) as Angoru Moa(perfect choice!). I can't remember the last time Kawakami did a male's voice in an anime, if she ever did. But she does one here, and it worked well once I got past initial shock. As for the anime itself, there was the usual adaptation mixing and switching, but it still managed to follow the manga pretty closely, and turned out to be as good(and funny) as I expected.

April 2nd, 2004 Friday

Aoi Umi no Tristia (1)

15 years old with an 83 bust. What is this chick eating!?

Vanilla rip-off! But more hungry & talkative.

An all (CUTE) female cast and grade A voice actors automatically equals awesome in my book. Good animation and colors don't hurt either. Studio ufotable(they did Dokkoider) continue to impress!

April 1st, 2004 Thursday

Tenjou Tenge (1)

I've never read up on the manga of this so I was caught off guard by the OP animation, since I was thinking it would be a more darker show. It's actually quite light and fun, for now anyway. I especially like Souichirou, voiced by Souichirou Hoshi(his yelling is second to none!); and Maya, voiced by Aya Hisakawa(voice is kinda suspect, but she's a great character). I'd like Maya's sister Aya too if her voice(relatively new Minori Chihara) wasn't so bad. It just doesn't fit her character at all in my opinion. Other than that, yay for this show!

Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai (1)

Anime chicks don't know the meaning of the word 'lock.'

...but also evil? She looks like a Tsukihime character here.

The story in this doesn't interest me at all. So like Mahoromatic, I'll continue to watch for the characters and fanservice only(Hikari's cute!).

Koikaze (1)

This was pretty nice. Good pacing, good animation, and an interesting enough story so far. Plus Masumi Itou sings the ED! I don't know if I'll keep capping it, but I will definitely keep watching. My only complaint would be the voice of the main girl Nanoka(VA: Yuki Nakamura). She doesn't show enough emotion in her voice! Koushirou(VA: Kenta Miyake) however, is extremely good, as usual. Maybe his talent will rub off on her later.

Fuuka's hot

Yotsubato! 12 is done. Enjoy.