Summer Wars

broderic on November 29, 2009

Brought to you by the people who brought you “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.”

“If you want to build a thermostat that won’t be affected by humidity, try this you dumb bastard.”

broderic on October 1, 2009

The summer anime season has come to an end. Here’s a quick hits on the ones I watched.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Started out awesome, then we got into the Endless Eight loop for fucking six episodes. SIX EPISODES of the same damn thing. NOTHING changing but their clothes. I can’t wait for this on DVD. The final couple of episodes encapsulating The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya was slower than I would’ve liked. But we did get Nagato. C+

Tokyo Magnitude 8. Alright, but I didn’t want to get death, and got it anyway. B-

Taishou Yakyu Musume. Baseball girls of the Taishou period. Awesome. B+

Sora no Manimani. Great astronomy club school comedy. A

So what to watch in the upcoming season?

Nightstand

broderic on August 11, 2009

One of the two books I’m currently reading is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. And because I am not done it yet, I’m lolly-gagging around the internet looking for more information about it. You see, Díaz, sprinkles some spanish into his writing, and it takes me some time to decipher via context what he’s talking about. When I don’t completely pick up the gist of the spanish passage, I skip over them and continue on. But I found a site that annotates some passages of the book for you. So if you ever read it, check this site out.

I picked this book up, because I saw the blurb the author supplied on the back cover of Pluto, a manga by Naoki Urasawa. It’s an adaption and modernization of an Osamu Tezuka Astroboy story. When I read the quote, I thought that this Díaz fellow, a Pulitzer winner, likes manga? How geeky! Then reading Oscar Wao, you see how much of a geek this dude is: Marvel, DC comics, Robotech (Rick Hunter dude, not Rich!), Appleseed and anime. It’s included as well as other geeky tropes such as D&D, Tolkien and the bad luck with the female of the species. But it is a wonderful read, and I do get about 85% of the allusions to the geekdom.

Yakyuu on the mind

broderic on July 6, 2009

It’s a Sunday. It’s a day game. It’s the finale of a series. It’s a loss. With the home team, Orioles, continuing their less than mediocre ways, it’s time to look in to the game around as its played in Japan.

Here’s the NY Times writing about the
atmosphere in the stadiums of Japan. Very much different than the quiet of Camden Yards. If we could only get as rowdy, we wouldn’t have to worry too much about the awful Red Sox fans who visit our lovely park.

Then there is the adopted team of BrowserMetrics, the Hiroshima Toyou Carp. They’re playing better than the O’s but not much better. They too are below .500 in winning, but the distance to respectability is shorter for them than for the hapless O’s. Plus they’ve got a new stadium, Mazda Zoom-Zoom Park.

Finally, about some manga and anime. Mitsura Adachi’s Cross Game is an amazing manga. The anime only slightly less. We’re going to the Koshien! Taishou Yakyuu Musume is just starting up. I’m not sure I like it, but it’s got baseball, anime girls, sailor uniforms, and kimonos. It’s got the game.

For she is kami-sama

broderic on May 22, 2009

It’s been three years since the original showing of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was broadcast in Japan. It has been a long wait for the second season. As you know, I’ve been waiting, then not waiting for the second season.

At first the original season was going to be broadcast, but this time in the chronological order similar to the story path in the light novels. This is when I explain that the original broadcast order was funky with the first four chronological episodes, the literal light novel story, where interspersed with other stories from the SOS Brigade.

It seems like they’ll follow chronologically the story so it will take a while for the second season to be fully released

If you can’t wait like me, and don’t want to get your bit torrent client up and running, then you can follow along as the new episodes of Haruhi are release by reading some anime bloggers.

Tsundere Goodness

broderic on May 21, 2009

Kei-chan bringing the tsundere

Grade S on the zettai ryouki scale: grade A thigh high stockings, twin tails, tsundere goodness. Kei-chan!

Good sixth episode for Hatsukoi Limited. The mangaka, Kawashita-sensei, previously did Ichigo 100%. Whereas Ichigo 100% focuses on harem style, love triangle fun, Hatsukoi Limited focuses on love dodecahdron style. Every girl likes some guy who likes some other girl who likes another guy. It’s a nice short read in manga about 4 volumes or so. The anime is faithful to the story because it is so compact. The animation is faithful to Kawashita-sensei’s style. In fact, I think Kei Enomoto is drawn better in the anime. Yet, Kawashita-sensei still rulez with her trademark curvy girls.