Here’s what I watched today:

1. Queen’s Blade 12.

I wondered why this was so bad until I realized I was watching it at 1x instead of 2 or 3x as I usually do bad shows like these. Damn this was painful. Gotta love Nowa, though. Anyhoo, I’d celebrate the conclusion of another terrible series, but there’s gonna be another season! I’m a glutton for punishment, as one of my older brother’s coworkers said the other day.

2. Queen’s Blade Special 1.

I jizzed in my pants… for values of “jizz” equal to “vomit” and values of “in my pants” equal to “all over.”

3. Clannad: Another World, Kyou Chapter

Once again, Tomoya is made shallower such that he can hook up with a girl in the space of two minutes’ worth of montage. Once again, teenagers are melodramatic. Once again, there is a happy ending. Though this episode focused on Kyou, I’m sure Captain Miao is seething—her thighs didn’t feature much. All in all, a bit of a waste of time, though you gotta love Kyoto Animation’s signature stumbling rainy tears.

Apologies for the lack of screencaps. I deleted all three of the above abominations from my computer before I decided to blog them.

Briefly, on the topic of what I’ve been watching recently…

- I started both Touka Gettan and Haibane Renmei. I expect to enjoy both, in different ways. I’ll keep you all updated on how that goes.

- Eden of the East I’m at 5/11 on, and will finish once the opportunity arises (I’m waiting for SAKI to get some free time so we can watch it together).

- Sengoku Brosara is proving to be total shit, but it’s been fun to laugh at the ridiculousness. Unfortunately, starting with Azai’s death the fun factor all but disappeared. Kinda lame. I’ll finish this sometime but it’s not a huge priority…

- Haruhi Hog Summer is repulsive beyond belief. I already could barely stand episode two, stating that it was a worse waste of time than watching Queen’s Blade, and then lolikappa gave me the inside scoop on episode three. Seriously, Kyoto Animation? Go die. Now. Whores.

Eventually I’ll make some progress on the shows I’ve had on hold for a long time: Skip Beat, Mouryou no Hako, Michiko to Hatchin, Zettai Shounen, Kurozuka, Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora, and A Certain Magical Index. I’m also going to rewatch more Aria soon; you can expect some feedback on all of the above at some point, even if it’s not in much depth.

Things I’m not looking forward to: A Certain Scientific Railgun, Darker than Black 2. Both are abominations of the mind. Aberrations as it were. Do. Not. Want.

Finally, I’ve got my netbook, a sexy Dell Mini 10 that had some issues running Jaunty initially but is now puttering along just great with stellar battery life and an amazingly usable keyboard. If I get Ren’py onto the thing, I might be able to work on my VN on the go, which would greatly increase the chances of a v0.05 sometime this summer!

I went into episode 10 expecting a disappointment.

Anyway, as was kind of expected, the show let me down.

Aria the Origination episode 11 dealt beautifully with Alice’s doubt and depression. I couldn’t have asked for more, and yet here I am, smiling like an idiot at Akira’s megadere worry for Aika’s spirit. Here I am, basking in yet another wonderful episode of Aria. Here I am, pleased beyond belief by this episode—which was, for all intents and purposes, epic.

Right now, I’m at my screen like this:

Episode 11 left me… not shocked, no, so it wasn’t like episode 9, but it definitely left me speechless. Proof: I’m writing this almost twelve hours after watching the episode. Took a while to recover. Now, it seems like all I have for Aria is praise, and this is true… now more than ever. Halfway through 11, I was thinking to myself, “Aha! They’re addressing this after all! <3 Aria staff! But, uh, pacing and story telling order is off—they should have done this BEFORE the Al business.”

And then Aika took Alice’s hand and said that makenai wa yo!! and I realized that the order things were done in was, in fact, optimal. By throwing in the stuff with Al, the show preps us for Aika’s good spirit and happiness and readiness to become a pro. While it might seem tangential, after some reflection I think that her interlocution with the gnome in 10 was very important for her character development—it enhanced her maturity and made her happy. Aika shines when she’s happy (remember the episode in Natural when she fucked her hair?) and I think that her mood is a significant factor in her performance. Unlike Alice who’s hella down and acts kinda robotic, Aika really gets gloomy, and it interferes with the rest of her life… conversely, well, what I said before. Happiness = fish, or something.

Akari of course took the wonderful power cake this episode with an incredibly sutekiiiiii~~~~ line about how Alice brings Alice to the table and that’s more than enough reason to congregate for dinner. Alright, so the point wasn’t really food (it wasn’t food at all, as it happens) but the line was amazing: you’re you, and we want to chill with you because we like you as a person, and there’s no need for any additional excuses. It’d be so fucking great to see real flesh and blood people be more honest and say these kinds of words to each other more often. I think that friendship would be a much more pure and pleasant thing if appreciation were expressed more often.

So long as, of course, you have a healthy dose of

Everything in moderation, right? Get some objections in, get some IRL trolling in, salt the earth a few times, be an asshole to your buddies… and then, at the end of the day, when you’re standing on your porch watching the moon, say something warranting an objection yourself.

Aria, I love you.

P.S. I’m also pleasured out of my mind by a string of devastating victories in Physics class today. Boring class is boring, awesome card game is awesome. Raped tablemate is… well, completely and utterly destroyed.