Extremely busy

This week is a freaking nightmare. 3 research papers to complete and not much time left. Yay for me.

Spring anime 2013 (part 2)

*May include spoilers - if you don't ever watch the first episodes of these shows, then I'm not sure it can be spoiled though....
All media credits go to their owners.*

Okay! I don't have a lot of time today so I'm going to make this brief.
I watched Shingeki no Kyojin or Attack on Titan. And you'll probably hear every other anime fan yap on about it, because the beginning was rather memorable. And sad. As you might know, the Titans are back! And they are attacking the wall that people have surrounded themselves with to keep them bloodlusted creatures out. The main character Eren is an anxious boy who wants to go out of the wall and meet the titans out in their natural habitat - obviously when the action comes to him, he gets more than he bargained for. So yeah. Shit hits the fan.
This one will probably receive lots of high rates since it looks to be pretty well made. Did I like it though? I don't even know... I guess. Something about it bothered me, perhaps the overly psyched male lead. I'll definitely check out more before I make up my mind.

I also watched 2 episodes of Mushibugyou which is a pretty serious shounen. Giant bugs keep invading old time Tokyo and the son of a samurai travels there to join the Bug-Elimination-Office on his father's behalf. Yeah. That's about it. They battle bugs. Seems pretty good, not anything special though. The second episode was about one of the members - a female ninja who throws bombs. The third will be about another member - a criminal who looks like a mixture of Kenpachi and Zoro. If you like shounen, you will like this one, I'm sure.

Aha, then there was also the freak-show of the season. Aku no Hana or Flowers of Evil shows us painfully slowly the journey of a young man into "evil". Actually he just steals a pair of gym clothes from a girl in his class whom he has a crush on. Whereas in a romance-comedy anime this would turn out as the start of a beautiful relationship, here things go down a more realistic road and the situation gets really awkward. If you like a good mind fuck, you're in for a treat. A depressive treat, but nonetheless.
I don't. I'll admit that the execution very extraordinary but I just do not watch that type of shows. It's like the part of NGE where Shinji goes mental - just without the epic mechas and a futuristic world.

Just for fun and giggles I checked out Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko or Henneko for short. If you didn't catch that - it's The Pervert Prince and the Stony Cat (stony = never laughs). And. Well. It's a comedy-romance show with a personality swap. So basically if you're into that, go for it. The animation style is really childish and the characters seem like one tsundere after another, but I'm not saying it was bad. There were a few funny moments - if you like boys chasing girls with pornographic pillows attached to their backs. But in general: No. Just No.

The best out of them all was Hataraku Maou-sama or The Devil is a Part-Timer! Which is basically exactly what it says - there is an evil demon lord who is teleported to the real world with a general officer of his and transformed into a human. So, they have no choice but to suck it up and while the Devil Maou works for MgRonalds, his right hand man Alsiel researches a way to bring them back to the magical realm. Things only manage to settle down a little before the Hero Emilia, who followed the demon lord through the portal, discovers him working at the fast-food chain. But all that plot aside - this show is hilarious! At the very least, the first half of the first episode definitely is. Best humor this season, for sure! (I'm saying this without having seen all the new ones though...)
Although the Going-To-America topic may be a rather typical one,  I really thought this one was very well executed and what's most important - lots of fun! I took some pictures for you too.

Rawr mr Demon Lord.

Alsiel in his demon form

The Hero vs the Demon Lord!

A decisive attack!

...aaaand off to the real world we go. Sorry Alsiel, magic doesn't work here.

The resources have been cut down a bit. From a demon castle to one room only.

You cannot escape the hero!

Aaand here's just a treat from episode 3... uuuh!

Helllllo mr hot Demon Lord.

Okay well that's it for today since I have loads of college stuff to finish! But check out this Hataraku Maou-sama, cause it promises to be epic!

Spring anime 2013 (part 1)

*Probably doesn't include spoilers - if you care enough to watch the first episode. 
All media credits go to their owners. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED.*

Aaaaaalrighty. Since nothing really seemed extra interesting this new season, I haven't been too eager with checking it out. But here's what I did see.
Date A Live. Yes, I started it. Yes, I watched the first 4 minutes. Yes, I closed the player as soon as there was a striped-panties shot of the main character's sister. Dude, no. Just no.
Then I watched the first episode of Karneval. I didn't actually expect much, but after watching it I thought it was pretty good. The action scenes were drawn pretty nicely and even though there was lots of jumping from one scene to another, it all came together half way through. I was thrilled to hear some of my favorite voices like Ono Daisuke (Sebastian Michaelis), Kamiya Hiroshi (Orihara Izaya), Suwabe Junichi (Grimmjow Jeagerjaques) and naturally Miyano Mamoru (Yagami Light - here he sounds more like Masaomi Kida), even though the last one only appeared for a few seconds in the end. The plot? Well... not entirely sure. There was a missing person, a white-haired chibi-chan, a huge secret defense organization and a LOADS of characters. I'm sure you'll catch on if you read a summary or watch the first episode yourself. Here's a few pics.

Here's the chibi-chan I was telling you about. They call him Nai.

Then some weird semi-sex scene... he pwns her though.

IIiiizzaaaayaaaaa.... just kiddin'. It's Gareki.

Don't you get the urge to sing "Tetsu to hagane ja magaru..."? Well, it's Tsukumo and Hirato, from Circus.

Hirato demonstrates his magic.

So anyway, the next thing I watched was Arata Kangatari or Arata: The Legend. It had a similar animation style to Karneval, but it seemed to be a bit more depressive. There was this boy, Arata, in modern day Japan, and another Arata in some fantasy land. And apparently the fantasy realm one had to pretend to be a girl in order to succeed a dying princess. However the princess was murdered by her bodyguards and Arata was framed, so he ran for his life and - camboom! The school boy Arata from Japan replaced him - due to some depressive reasons. That's how it gets going. I'd say Karneval was better, but this one doesn't seem too bad either - just way more cliche. I might keep an eye on it - but I sure hope it gets more cheerful. Here, I took a few pictures too.

The normal Arata.

The not-so-normal Arata...

The 60-year-old princess Arata is supposed to replace.

Shit hits the fan.

Now stuck with the loco people chasing you, huh Arata?

And naturally, stupid weak women get captured.

By the way, the abs I was so excited about, were Kannagi's, but turns out there's an even better sight. No idea who he is though.

Rawr!

Now after that one, I checked out Devil Survivor 2: The Animation. Well... it was a mixture of Death Note, Final Destination and Digimon Tamers. The topic was pretty intriguing and you already get a good glimpse of what's going to happen by the tenth minute or so. It had a pretty large scale, which is always a plus (at least for me) and seemed to be pretty well thought through. Is it really though - can't say yet. All I know is that the main character summons an epic kitty that looks like Xuen! I'm definitely going keep watching this one - out of the three it seems to be the most promising. Here's a sneak peek.

Daichi and Hibiki discussing future... before singing up to Dead Face.

Wanna see your friend dead...? Srsly, why would you want that?

Nitta's phone goes loco and starts summoning demons!

Lucky Hibiki got himself a tiger!~!!!

Hmmm, so in the end I took least pics of the one I liked most. Go figure.

My Teen Romantic Comedy is Wrong As I Expected was O-kay. Just okay. I guess there were some deep topics but since I'm not a depressive high schooler - at least not anymore - I really did not care about the topic of friendship/betrayal/keeping-disappointments-out-with-a-wall. There's a boy who has secluded himself, the most popular girl in the school and a cheerful girl who has a crush on the male lead. Not too hard to guess what's coming next, huh? I didn't even take pictures. CBA.

And then I watched all four of the released Red Data Girl episodes. There's a girl with weird powers and every time she touches cell phones or computers or some other electrical devices, they go out of order. She is matched up with a supposed guardian, a young handsome boy who is reluctant to change his current life style for her. So the female lead starts journey to change herself from the coward she is now. Sounds pretty cliché? I thought so too. But it turns out that it was executed rather differently. Just because she was timid, she wasn't entirely excluded from her school community. And she evolved even in the very first episode. Though I have to say that if I had only seen the first one, I probably wouldn't have wanted to watch it on a following week. I found that it gets better over the first few episodes.
I really want to stress that even though it's an anime, it feels way more realistic - the problems, the reactions. It does not feel like a typical anime at all, even though the subject itself doesn't exactly shine with originality. You'll just have to check it out yourself.
 
But yeah, those were the ones I did watch this week. I'll probably watch more further on, but can't be bothered to rush it just to gather them all in one post.

Anime music 2

*May include spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*

I've already written in this blog about how much I love anime music. But this time I really want to tell you about the songs that just get stuck in your head. Like REALLY stuck. You find yourself humming them at a completely random moment and the weirdest things remind you of them.
First comes from Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler. Whoever has seen it knows what I'm talking about. The silly nursery rhyme that will keep looping in your head. And does it help that the handsome Sebastian Michaelis sings it with his blooming voice? No. The answer is no. Unless you need help remembering it <.< 'Cause his face will really be rotating in your head. Kin to gin de tsukure, tsukure, tsukure, Kin to gin de tsukure, my fair lady...

I quite recently watched Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki or Wolf Children which is basically an anime about a wolf-mans children and it was pretty good. I didn't actually rate it 10 points at first but the story kept coming back to me and I decided that it was actually worth it. But another thing that keeps coming back to me is the ending song and even though I only heard it once, it just... seriously it...aahhh... mmm.. you'll need to listen to it yourself. And trust me - even if you don't listen to the entire thing, it will still be stuck in your head by the end of the day.

Uuu-uuu-uuu, donna kao shiteru kana? Uuu-uuu-uuu, donna koe o shiteru no?
Dammit >.< 

Okay, and here comes the worst of them all: the Dango song. As I've already said many times, I didn't really like Clannad, except for the season 2 main story.  But obviously, once you hear this damn bugger, you just can't get it out of your head - even if all you can sing along is the 'dango, dango, dango' part. My boyfriend hasn't even seen Clannad and yet he sometimes hums this song to himself. Though seriously - who markets all the random gadgets that become popular in Japan? Like who thought of that damn dog-bean Mameshiba thing?? Or even Kimmidolls? Or, in this case, who thought of drawing two eyes on the dango and made a song for them??? *shrug*
Anyway, here's my favourite version of dangos :x

 
I'm pretty sure there has been more, but these three are the ones that keep looping in my head. So in the end, all I hear is: "Uuu-uuu-uu, dango, My Fair Lady".

Do you know any other anime songs that get stuck in your head easily?