Although it’s sad to learn that Vampire Knight is taking a summer hiatus after next weeks episode, the jawsomeness of the penultimate episode kinda makes up for it. The fact that I will miss Alice is a positive testament to how much I’ve enjoyed this series so far.

Shizuka’s exit at the hand of Kaname this episode has smatterings of suicide like a lemming with a purpose. Ichirou survives her, as does the body of Maria. I wonder what will happen to both? Perhaps Shizuka will return as a loli version of her formerself ála evangelion. What proved to be Shizuka’s undoing was Zero’s determination which was quite gratifying. So, Kaname killed Shizuka over Yuki.

Why does everyone want have Yuki’s virginity blood anyway?

New OP scenes Again!?

Now that Kurenai Maria’s cover has been blown, making it clear that Lesbian loligoth bloodsucking/sex is going to be an impossibility, the OP scene has been changed again. This time it highlights Zero’s struggles with his enemies. The way he’s surrounded by both Shizuka and Ichirou exhibits his personal dilemmas.

I was reading the VIZ English translation of the Vampire knight manga when I came across a cool box out. The mangaka, Matsuri Hino, has pet names for her characters and she invites her readers to come up with some of their own.

Excerpted from Vampire Knight Vol.1:

Well, it didn’t take much time or effort so here are mine:
Yuki -> Moetard-hime, Snow Rabbit (silly rabbit), Baito-ko.
Zero – ZeMo, Nothing.
Kaname – Gayname, Paedo-name, Kunt-kun.

My reading the manga by-the-way won’t lead to any spoilers because VIZ has only translated the first 4 volumes up to chapter 19 (Just after this episode I think). The anime will have finished the current season by the time Volume 5 is released on September the 2nd, maybe even the second season will have started!

~ Teeif

Another scene from The Place Promised in Our Early Days; a rendition of summer.

Happy Midsummer’s day!

The longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice was 3 days ago on June the 21st and yet summer has barely begun.

It’s that time of the year again and I have been passively avoiding declaring my choices while letting everyone else go ahead and make a Lolicon of themselves (Ha! watching Strike Witches? Imma calling the party van on your ass!).

There are 21 titles this season and no less than 5 of them are sequels. I have 2 slots freeing up for 4-Koma/blogging with the wrapping up of Vampire Knight and Kurenai. Given the seperate need to select some animu from a superfically disappointing line up, I resorted to using Baka Raptor’s guide to selecting animé my tried and tested previewing method.

1. Download first eps. of anything that Looks, Sounds or Tastes (!?) good.
2. Discard anything that is less animated than a postcard.
3. Drop anything that is still rubbish after 2-3 episodes
4. ???
5. Profit!

Green Light… Go, Go, Go!

Hidamari Sketch x365 – I will attempt to prove you can drop in at any point in SOL.
Telepathy Shoujo Ran -A new Magical Girl story with a spin, should be awesome.

Orange Light… Slow starter

Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsuna Koto: Natsu no Sora –  Long title, beautiful show.
Koihime Musou – I might actually watch this just to see how much the Japanese can rape historical Chinese literature. It also has Mai Hime Vibes, expect ShizNat copies.
Natsume Yuujin-chou – Lame, free-the-spirit-every-week story but it could be pretty.

Yellow Light… Caution

Chocolate Underground – Toshokan Sensou had a rubbish plot but decent action/romance. Maybe this is good? Also from production IG.
Strike Witches – Weapon tans? Serious? At least it’s streamed on Crunchyroll.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – Quite possibly a generic high school comedy or hareem
Ultraviolet: code 44 – Genetically engineered vampire hunter plot – even if it DOES directly rip off underworld, this has potential.

Red Light… Fuck you! I’m going home!

Ikkitousen Great Guardians – RAGEEE~! Actually made myself sit through first season.
RoboDz Kagazumo Hen- 3D kiddies show
Blade of the Immortal – Oldskool, CBA
Slayers Revolution – Oldskool, CBA
Yakushiji Ryouko no Ka……. CBA! Title too long.
Antique Bakery – I don’t mind YAOI but I don’t like the part about bakers.
Mission E – This just looks silly. Also another sequel of something I’ve never seen.
Detroit Metal City – Something about a cyberpunk singer? Animation looks shite.
Zero no Tsukaima 3 ~Princess no Rondo~ DO NOT FOLLOW.
World destruction – a game tie-in = bad news
Sekirei – This season’s ecchi hareem, therefore I’m not interested! Here’s hoping the loli wins though.
Birdy the mighty decode – Based on an underwhelming OVA from 10 years ago; no!

Analysis
I am very likely to blog Telepathy Shoujo Ran but not so much Hidamari sketch since SOL blogs have a track record of being pretty dull. I hoping Natsume Yuujin chou or Telepahy Shojou ran will take up the baton left by Kurenai and True Tears before it, becoming the new 12-episode artistic visual treat. Should one of these carry great production values, I’m sure .MKVs will appear from which I can create 4-Komas from.

~ Teeif

Pinky promise – it’s how they do it in China… 

Kurenai 11th night
I think.

I think this was a great episode.

I think the snow and the Kuhouin estate is a cinematic backdrop to Murasaki’s rescue.

I think the fight scenes were beautifully reminiscent of Trust and Betrayal or Kill Bill.

I think Murasaki looks very cute in her Kimono.

I think Murasaki looks refined in her beautifully rendered sanctuary.

I think Murasaki is bird trapped in a cage, singing a song.

I think Murasaki crys even when she sings.

I think Shinkurou is right to go back for his Loli.

I think Mursakai, Murasaki, Murasaki, Murasaki.

Therefore,

I am a Lolicon.

~ Teeif

Naruto Shippuuden 63 (Naruto 263)
The Two Kings.

Studio Pierrot, the animation company responsible for Naruto Shippuuden (No, I never gave a shit who actually made it either!) should give up pretending otherwise and just rename Sora.

Team Kakeshi’s newest member is already Naruto’s personal rival with an arrogant attitude and a talent for hating everything. Given an backstory where he became orphaned as a child, a drive to avenge his family’s death and a crazy amount of power locked away in his persona, doesn’t he sound pretty familiar?

It seems Studio Pierrot have attempted to salvage the fillers by recreating one of the best characters in the franchise, Sasuke. But it’s Sasuke but without the spiky haircut and a cool trick that makes your eyes go red, therefore, he is less than YAOI-tastic than Sasuke. He is Lesser-Sasuke or Lesasa!

It’s another episode of training for Naruto and Lesasa, under the instruction of Asuma-sensei. Then Asuma attempts to buy Lesasa’s loyalty arse by getting him a weapon, probably a gesture he will later regret. Furido shows up in the village and informs Lesser-Sasuke that Asuma was the one who killed his father. Cue anger, hatred, then an-sudden-and-miraculous-improvement-in-power. Yes! Lesasa is following Sasuke down the same path to the darkside. Yadda, Yadda.

No Naruto next week because there’s a special on July the 3rd. Something to look forward to, is finding out what bullshit they come up with to explain how Konoha is powered by electricity.

And Finally
100% bet that the omake at the end does not make it 4-kids release in the English markets because of all the cigarettes and alcohol use. Also, Woody sticks his finger into his drink – dirty bugger!

Drugs are bad – mmmkay?

~ Teeif.

Vampire Knight: The 11th Night
Compensation of Desire.

Horie Yui has some of my favourite moé characters on her C.V. Her first big break as Narusegawa Naru in Love Hina was also my first downloaded animé. For nostalgia’s sake this was back when I was still wasting my youth on 56k. She has since went on to voice Sawachika Eri (School Rumble), Shirakawa Kotori / Asakura Yume(Da Crapo), Furude Hanyuu (Higurashi), Tateishi Ayu (Ultra Manic), Takeuchi Rio (Spiral), Honda Tohru (Fruba) and Amamiya Manami (Manabi Straight!).

Her voice doesn’t really have as much variation as say, Hirano Aya or Tamura Yukari. More recently, I find Horie-san’s voice as somewhat typecast as an Genki Moétard. Her characters have tended to be positive, headstrong, stupid but very, very moé. This has been especially cemented by her performance as my favourite moétard Tsukimiya Ayu.

Her latest role as Yuki Cross is no exception to the trend in Horie-san’s characters. At times I almost expect her say uguu~. Yuki demonstrates her retard credentials nearly every episode and last week she even showcased her academic ineptitude. Life can’t be easy for Yuki though. Maria has dropped her into a jar of crap and dangled Zero’s salvation over her – in exchange for herself or Kaname. As predicted, Yuki challenged Kaname about her memories but it more was interesting to see Yuki’s ego cave-in under a Kaname glomp, damn moé!~ XD

~ Teeif

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 Turn 10.
When the Shenhu Shines.

In a masterclass of how to balance the budget after your lead artist hovers up your resources to design C.C’s cheesy-kuns, heavily complex action sequences were spliced into idiosyncratic ‘tactical’ warfare using coloured blocks on screens to convey the action. The age of pitched battles with columns and lines finished a century ago, yet here two sides fight what looks like a game of Warhammer. Sun Tzu is gonna be rolling in his grave. But it is Zero who is, quite uncharacteristically, made to look like he has the objective focus and judgement of a blind retard.

Surely even a batty old pacifist would understand the objective was to escape China with Tian Zi? So when Gandalf shows up, bringing his ICBM to a knife fight, do you continue running? Do you try to distract or slow down Xing Ke with cannon fodder or maybe Asahina? No, Zero, stopped the whole army and sends out his most powerful weapon on a flat battery. Even using Tian Zi to distract Xing Ke would be a better idea. She could say she has no panties on. Xing Ke would bleed the rest of his blood through his nose and faint, it’s super effective!

Inevitably, Kallen soon gets captured and forced to partake in some mecha tentacle porn. But it’s not over. Zero makes another rubbish decision to go back for Kallen, which he fails at. He stumbles into a trap and must rely on a fricken laaaazer beam so he can escape for one last stand.

Next week, I’d like to know who is impersonating Lelouch at the academy? Could it be Orange-kun’s Geass power?

~ Teeif

Is she wearing a thong!?

Vampire Knight: The 10th Night
Princess of Darkness ~ Prism.

As one of the unwashed ignorant plebs who don’t read the Vampire Knight manga, I confess this week’s package came as a bit of surprise.

Okay, perhaps that description doesn’t do credit to the immense shock… OMG! Zero has a twin brother! OMG! Maria is the pureblood who bite Zero! The twists here were as good as corkscrews on a runaway rollercoaster! I shat brix, twice!

Vampire knight has continued to make some great shojoesque character revelations and infused this into a slightly risque setting. Call me a pleb but honestly, the ample supply of clues laid out during Zero’s dreams just weren’t enough for me. Zero’s subtle hints at not having his entire family killed is blown out to Zero having a surviving adult twin brother. Furthermore, many minutes in flashback mode were used to elaborate that the pair of them were erm… close.

Ichiru is like the weaker feminine half of Zero’s childhood incest YAOI relationship, which gets torn apart by Hiou Shizuka who as a result turns Zero into a emo vampire. Ichiru was taken away to be brainwashed and raised as a bodyguard-toy-boy by Hoiu Shizuka, now Maria Kurenai. Hot wow!

I think in order to celebrate a possible successor to Kaoru x Hikaru cosplay for YAOI fangirls to enjoy, a little updating of a old 4-chan demotivator is needed…

I forgot the classic vampire theme of eternal life could be reworked to give Maria Kurenai a child’s body, or as she deliciously put it, possession of one. The design decision to place a mind with infamous evil into a body of an almost cute doll was underhanded wickedness.

How she got into the academy under a false name is probably a deep plothole, but I’m willing to step around that. Besides, all of Kaname, Zero, the chairman and the Vampire Hunters are aware of her identity. Zero even tries to shoot her, but failed badly due to his rubbish aiming. Not only did he find out he can’t kill his Vampiric master, but he had to walk within Katana range to find out! XP He deserves to get wounded for being so useless. How long Maria gets to play around Cross academy is a mystery to me, but I hope her visit is prolonged.

Next week: Yuki is invited to dance with Kaname but later finds out that Kaname has been blocking her memories – she won’t be pleased when they meet up.

~ Teeif

Naruto Shippuuden 62 (Naruto 262)
Teammate.

Enjoy the views of Konoha because the nothing really happens beyond the paper dry slapstick and the dumbass trolling courtesy of Sora. In the space 10 minutes he manages to insult Asuma, Tsunade, Kiba, Akamaru and Choji (A NEW RECORD!). Needless to say he never finishes his tour of Konoha as the whole thing ends in a orgy followed by a BBQ and training.

At least one member of Konoha took a liking to Sora.

Naruto joins in cos it’s his show, Rock-lee joins in cos he’s gay.

In amongst this there was some hastily constructed back story which probably will open up more plot holes, not that I can’t be arsed to check. The bodies stolen a couple of weeks ago were Heroes protecting Konoha from a failed coup d’etat 10 years ago.

One of the failed revolutionaries was Sora’s father who Asuma admits to knowing. Given that Asuma led the counter-revolutionary forces, it’s possible that it was Asuma who killed Sora’s father. So Asuma knew, Furido from last week knew, it seems everyone knew Sora’s father except Sora himself!

It says ‘fire’ on Asuma’s crotch but it also means ‘hot’! Sora stares at it.

~ Teeif