The story in this takes place between episodes 10 and 11. It's about Nana pulling her weight around the Kouta household while dealing with her Lucy bias. But all that's just an excuse to show the diclonius duo, especially Nana, in as many cute and amusing ways as possible. So basically a service episode. Of course to appease the fans who give two shits about service, they also add in a small flashback, which shows how Lucy was caught by Kurama and further explains her grudge against him.

Though clearly made for the Nana fans, I still found this episode to be quite enjoyable. And the art quality was terrific. Definitely a worthy addition to the series.

The Momoi twins are pretty bad off in the Alternative world. I'm sure this was supposed to be a sad story, but to me it came off as more mysterious than anything else. At times I even felt like I was watching a thriller.

A unique episode, to say the least. I enjoyed it. Wouldn't mind seeing more of the crazy stuff from the first episode, though. *hint hint*

They're already busting out Rino's past. Whether or not any of the contents are true remain to be seen, but still. Fast!

Despite the budget running out this week (read: the ep looked like crap), there were many funny moments to be had. Much better than last week's effort. Implied yuri is also a plus.

They had Natsume moving quick as the wind in the previous episode, but here she's slow as a turtle. What gives? Keeping her fast would have worked better in my opinion.

They also completely ditched the ladder scene in the manga and replaced it with card tricks. I really liked the ladder scene and was looking forward to seeing it animated, but the card stuff worked surprisingly well too, so I'll let it slide.

Other than that, great episode. The Super Bloom 100 Special was too cute for words.

This was better than the first episode thanks to Yoshitaka. There's something not quite right about a skin anime when I like the fully clothed obnoxious male more than the scantily clad loli maids. The loli maids definitely make better screen shot material, though.

This entire episode could have EASILY been chopped to seven minutes and been just as effective. Stop trying to be serious, GIRLS Bravo; you can't do it!

Initially I wrote this show off because of my disinterest in the Victorian setting, but after reading comments from other folks, and hearing Sayaka Oohara's (voice of Grace) and Akiko Tsunetou's first episode thoughts (or more like giggling praise) on this Emma radio program, I decided to check it out.

Two episodes later and I'm hooked. It's no doubt a common love story, but the way it's being handled here feels very fresh to me. The cast of instantly likeable characters and exceptional production values only serve to make it better. Despite my non-Victorian bias, I found the artwork, particularly the backgrounds, to be beautiful. And the animation, music, and voices were all equally of high quality (Yumi Touma as Emma!).

I'm really looking forward to the rest of this show, and will continue to cap and comment on it as long as it doesn't exceed a six month schedule. Since I enjoy my anime on a more simpler level, naturally my comments won't include any deep plot or character analysis. So if you're interested in reading well written thoughts on those aspects, check out the blogs run by Jeff, BluWacky, Satoshi, Ten, Reika, and Tempy. They're all watching Emma too, I think.

Well that was...different. A little weird in the direction, but otherwise a nice breather episode. There was a neat flashback sequence with Rentarou and his dad taking on a giant squid that felt very Gainax. In fact, I'm fairly certain it -was- Gainax. Ufotable has good friends.

These characters continue to amuse me, but they couldn't save the latter half of this episode from being lame. Come on, a cannon in the mountain!?

Too much time spent on Shiratori's story ideas, not enough time spent on Kozue being adorable! I didn't like how they changed the events that trigger Natsume's personality either, though I suppose it's better like this for the direction the anime is going. As for Natsume herself: very cool. I loved the music they used when she appeared.

I've seen very little promotional material for Trinity Blood floating around the web (if there's a trailer I'm completely oblivious to it), so when I came across this I figured I'd share some pics, however bland they are.

This was a segment from volume 15 of Gekkan Animage TV. It's basically an interview with the two lead seiyuu in the show, Hiroki Touchi and Mamiko Noto, mixed in with quick shots of the anime itself. Unfortunately the anime shots consisted mostly of talking heads that weren't animated very well and brief glimpses of that wonderful Gonzo CG. Not a very good way to sell us on the show, guys. But hey, it's got my Mamiko! In a role that looks to suit her much better than her miscast in Ichigo (sorry Mami, it's true).

Masumi Asano's voice doesn't match Izumi's look at all. And Ai Shimizu uses her nasal voice for Mitsuki. Granted it fits perfectly - I'm just not a big fan. With these two nitpicks alone, I wasn't able to comfortably absorb this first episode. Which is a shame, because everything else - from the art to the snail pacing - I had no problems with.

This doesn't mean I'll quit watching, though. I'll keep on at least until Anna is introduced. If she's cool, then tolerating the faults of the other two girls will be a piece of cake.

Yukinari is cured and Miharu gets taken back to Seiren. Yes! It's Kirie's time to shine.

*Looks at next episode subtitle.*

Sigh.

I'm not exactly sure why I enjoyed this show. Maybe it's the vocal cast (Konami's really flexing their seiyuu muscle). Maybe because it's male free. Maybe it's my interest in the origin of Pucchan. Maybe it's the great ED song. Maybe it's the vocal cast. Oops, already said that one.

Ok, so I do know why I enjoyed the show. My only fear is how long that enjoyment will last before boredom sets in, especially with 26 episodes. I say this because of the director, Yoshiaki Iwasaki. My track record with his anime has been shaky at best.

• Love Hina - Eh.
• Love Hina Again - Blah.
• Mao-chan - Became a chore at halfway point.
• Bindume Yousei (dot fetish sets in) - Became a chore towards the end.
• Sensei no Ojikan - Quickly became a chore at halfway point.
• Gokujou Seitokai - 25 weeks left. Good luck!

[ Insert three paragraphs full of cliche phrases that do nothing but praise this show. ]

It rocks, plain and simple. Let's forget the other one ever existed.

Mamiko's got some nasty in her.

I'll be skipping this one. The old school OP and the chibis in the ED were the only things I enjoyed. Everything else was just a downgraded version of last year's Jump Festa special. That BGM! My god, what were they thinking?

A four episode OVA series will be starting in June. I will patiently wait for that to get my Ichigo fix. Hopefully the Jump Festa staff is handling it.

This series will be comprised of the four OVAs, followed by nine TV only episodes made by a new staff. The OVA episodes each have around four minutes edited out to make them fit into the TV block. Boo.

As for the show itself, it's clearly made for fans of the game, and I'll leave it at that. Personally I've never played through the game but enjoy the show regardless, especially the rockin' OP song, which is finally coming out on May 25th~

Narutaki-sou gets some character development. I was really liking this up until the point where they showed the picture of the previous residents. Having Shiratori and Kozue look-alikes is fine, but did they have to put in look-alikes for everyone else too? That's just weird.

Yay for quality time with Sumire. The focus went back to friendship, so all is well again.

リオーネ萌えすぎだ〜 Leone should be the heroine. The twins should be the mascots.

Seriously though, I enjoyed this. The twins have great personalities and weren't nearly as annoying as I feared. Same goes for the mascot, who has that nasal thing going on in his voice like Nomad from Galaxy Angel. I really like that for some reason.

Not many details about the main plot were given out in this first episode, but what we got sounds like it'll make a pretty good adventure, if the villains don't completely suck. Everything else: the setting, music, voices, art, animation (go Hal Film Maker) - it's all quality. Perhaps the only thing I didn't like was the OP, sung by female duet FLIP-FLAP. Fortunately the ED more than makes up for it, with its cool (and obviously cute) animation.

Since this is scheduled to run for a year (52 episodes), I'm not sure if I'm going to keep capping it every week. But I will most definitely keep watching. Good sugar coated anime is an excellent way to start my Saturday mornings.

I should've lowered my expectations more than they already were. Boring art, boring voices (sans Nana Mizuki), and boring (read: very mediocre) animation. Everything in this show is boring except Nana's character. Even the fanservice is boring. That's just not right!

But yet I still feel compelled to watch it because of the sentai effect. I swear, sentai will be the death of me.