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Majime na Lolikit

I just watched Ouverture, and I gotta say, wow. It was so much better than the two Rozen Maiden shows… in fact, so much so that I was amazed. The fights between Shinku and Souseiseki were fast-paced and high-powered, unlike the weak shit that comprises most of the so-called “fights” in the TV series. There wasn’t much of Suigintou fighting, but what there was was good—her powers are clearly the most awesome, being reminiscent of Nero Chaos in a sense.

Anyway, the OVA had only a few seconds of Kanaria (and she was completely lacking in the second episode) so that’s a major plus. Suiseiseki wasn’t too emo, and had some pleasuredrone moments in the first episode. Shinku smacked Jun around a bit. And finally, the whole bit with Shinku practically raising Suigintou was… well, for lack of better words, touching.

It would be nice if they did more episodes like these two, devoid of crap and full of character background.

I wouldn’t mind two episodes dedicated to Suiseiseki and her brother and their incestuous relationship :3

Also, I hope they do another TV series. Terrible though Kanaria is, I kind of want to meet the real Bara Suishou, and find out more about who Laplace’s demon is, and Shinku needs to bring Souseiseki and Chibi-chibi back to life. Of course, more desu is never a bad thing, either.

Eheh…
And, with that, I head for a bit of studying and then bed. My second AP is tomorrow.

EDIT: tagged this and the last relevant posts with the ‘majime na lolikit’ thingy.

Majime na Lolikit

And in the last week, I happen to have watched quite a bit of it.

Here’re some comments…

NHK ni Youkoso (episodes 5+6)
Eh, I’m really not a fan. Kind of like how Bleach fails at parody and Lucky Star fails at not failing, NHK ni Youkoso fails at not being what it depicts. Sure, it says bad things about hikikomori and NEETs and so on and so forth, but all the while it’s bombarding the viewer with stuff aimed at those in similar positions to Satou. The fanservice is pretty exceptional for a show the summary of which is not “girls blow eachother’s clothes off.” It’s enjoyable, I guess, but I’m not hurrying to finish the show.

Honey & Clover II (all)
For the longest time, I refused to download the first season, calling others “h&cfags” and writing this show off as overrated. And I continue to think that it’s overrated, even as I’ve seen both seasons. That is to say, I don’t think it’s the best show ever. It does amazing things most anime I’ve seen doesn’t, but—and perhaps this is just me—it fails to meet certain aesthetic criteria to be my favorite. That said, it’s fucking amazing. I almost cried at the honey sandwiches at the end, for all they symbolized and all, and it feels like that scene from season one where they searched for the clover has been burned into more pairs of eyes than the characters’ alone. I’m glad I finished this show after so long (almost a year since I was first told to love it).

Rozen Maiden Traumend (all) (because I can’t be assed to find the entity for umlauts)
The second best episode was episode one because it had the funny. The best episode was the last because it was the last episode. Every moment of Kanaria was agony; it was bad enough that she ruin countless minutes of the show’s airtime with her unfunny/unintelligent antics, and then she had to go get the best character killed? Also, I have problems with Souseiseki going down the way he did in episode 8. In season one, he was pretty meh. But in season two, he proved that not only was he an okay person (unlike, say, Jun or Kanaria) but that he was intelligent (unlike… everyone in the show) and that all went down the drain when he died. That actually managed to upset me, so I guess some of the series’ pathetic appeals worked despite Kanaria’s shittiness. Finally, the 10 seconds of fight between Shinku and Bara in which they used all the dolls’ powers were epic. It’s pretty distressing; if the producers can create an intelligent, well-paced fight, why don’t they do something similar for every fight preceeding it?

Mahoraba ~Heartful Days~ (episodes 3-6)
I like how Tamami is Suiseiseki. If you don’t get it, you aren’t worthy of anything good.

Binbou Shimai Monogatari (episodes 5-7)
Oh yes. I did in fact re-GET this, and am in fact attempting to slog through it. It’s really same old, same old, though. You know, cute fluffy happiness with superficial adversity and a hint at yuri undertones.

Galaxy Angel Z (all)
I cannot stress how awesome this show is :3
I was only disappointed by this season once or twice; hell, even season one threw me a few nasty surprises. Milfeuille’s unlucky day was awesome. As was the esper episode. And a number of others (pissed Nomad is piiiiiiiissed).

Sola, Strikers (episode 6)
Still watching these two shows and enjoying them as best I can. Anything I could say about Strikers I’ve said before (and countless others have, and countless times, at that) but I’ll say it again: season one is ult. As for Sola, I’m still waiting for it to burst into awesomeness. Episode 6 did a good job at combining some humor with some plot and not being too slow, and setting the show up for amazing. Also, moving origami and throat-slitting for the win.

I watched more than 30 minutes of anime this week, as it turned out. Those thirty minutes were, as someone in the comments accurately guessed, Lucky Star. I don’t know why I keep coming back to that show—probably out of obligation. Or maybe because I secretly love the ogre. Oh well.

Anyway, I’m also watching Naruto and Bleach on a weekly basis with my older brother who’s a fan of such series. Finally, on my own initiative, I’m watching Sola and Strikers. Sola because I’m a soraphile, Strikers because Kurogane prescribed me Nanoha a few months back and it’s simply become a part of what I do. Apologies to Shirukii for my lack of Sola posts; I’ve been kind of avoiding anime and blogging and such things, and that happens to be a side effect (you know, the whole avoidance of blogging thing). It’s not that I view Sola in the destructive “anti-inferior-things” light that I’m viewing Lucky Star, Kyoto Animation, and the anime blogging community in general in, I’m just really not into this whole notdotq thing right now.

But special things deserve special mention, and I watched more than just the aforementioned episodes this week.

Majime na Lolikit

I downloaded a batch for Venus Versus Virus and watched episodes 4-12 in one go instead of sleeping Saturday night. I figured it had decent theme songs and a decent amount of pseudo-yuri in it, and was thusly worth my time, so I consumed it. And I enjoyed the ending. While not as closing as it could have been, it depicted a very clear image of “what happens” and “why it happens”—two elements missing in great quantities from… oh, shows like Kiddy Grade or Zero no Tsukaima. (And then there’s Lucky Star—”wait, something happened?”)

My other feat was watching Rozen Maiden with my onii-tama. We’ll be tackling Traumend next weekend, and I’m looking forward to it for one reason: rule 41. Onii-tama and I kept gauging our progress by watching snippets of the “desultimate 527 death combo” video on YouT, and from the looks of it Traumend starts off strong. Suiseiseki, you’re a doll of a little girl and you don’t turn me on, but you’re so incredibly adorable~

(Also, Jun is a fucking asshole to the same degree that Maebara Keiichi is a fucking moron. Unbearable in a show with no redeeming values. Note that this makes Keiichi unbearable—Rozen Maiden has desu.)