Happy New Year!

*cue cheesy speech*
Wanted to say a big thank you to the following:

- For all my loyal readers who take the trouble to read my blog at all!
- To my friends on MSN and IRC FTW!
- People who try to defend Miyazaki of Ghibli's works and fail completely.
- The hard working anime fansubbers who allow me to watch some great and terrible anime!



Here's to 2006! \o/

2005 In Review

It's that time of year again! 2005 has been memorable in oh so many ways, but unfortunately the crap anime has out numbered the good once again! But do not fear, my list of top 5 (yes that's right top 5! Not top 10 because there wasn't any more good enough!) should put everyone back on the straight and narrow path - with lots of bends along the way!



Top 5 Anime of 2005:

5. Mai Otome
Relatively easily to make fun of and so far, nothing out of the ordinary story-wise. Take Mai-HiME, throw out any decent plot that it may have had and add in lots of shoujo-ai fanservice. Admittely it's fun to watch, if nothing else (Natsuki x Shizuru FTW). Due to this dry year of anime, Mai-Otome sneaks in at number 5 with more uber gay blue roses, swimsuit offings and lesbian CPR than one can shake a fist at!

4. Jigoku Shoujo
Certainly not the best anime I have ever seen, but I am prone to good bit of dark gothy horror. Mamiko Noto is made out of win - as she plays the oh so cool Enma Ai. Who can reisist the lure of the internet in times of depression? Remember boys and girls, revenge is a dish best served cold. ;)

3. The Snow Queen
It was a hard choice but I placed this superior anime in third place. Dezaki has made this charming fairy tale into a drama-fest that certainly deserves a place in everyone's top anime of this year! A likable cast and Gerda's struggle would melt even the snow queen's heart (if that's possible!) Looking forward to seeing more episodes in 2006!

2. Gokujou Seitokai
This wacky all-female school comedy gets a well earned place at number 2. A very fun cast with shoujo-ai hintings - they even put the word of 'Paya-Paya' into normal everyday language for us anime geeks! The humour comes thick and fast, it will make you laugh, it will make you sad but most of all: it has the supreme and elegant beauty that is Kuon! Surely enough for every anime fan to appreciate? :D

1. Glass Mask
Not a surprise here, Glass Mask is the hands down best anime of 2005. It picks up the previous anime and quite literally, 0wns them completely. The drama and OTT music is simply breathtaking in terms of plot and storyline. There are no gimmicks such as fanservice or boring characters that put you to sleep ala Honey & Clover. It's drama in it's finest form and is clearly underrated in the fansub community. So if your looking for something a bit different, a bit shoujo and overall extremely enjoyable - then look no further. The pinnacle of 2005 is Glass Mask.


Worst Anime of 2005:

5. Paradise Kiss
Overrated and the characters designs look like as if they have been hit with the ugly stick! (twice!) This so called drama and romance is about as entertaining as watching paint dry.

4. Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokoro-Chan
Tries to be as zany as Excel Saga and shocking as Puni Puni Poemy and fails both miserably. The characters were extremely irritating and the only thing it had going, was the amount of blood that poured out of everyone's bodies. The humour was crude and puerile but did not manage to crack even a smile out of me. Gokujou Seitokai for the win!

3. Kamichu!
Slice of life that was more of a disappointment than anything after hearing how great it was. Never has an anime been so boring - oh wait that's held for the number one spot ;) Perhaps it was due to the lack of action, lack of any likeable characters and of course, lack of anything interesting at all! Surely the borefest of 2005 - it's so much like Ghibli works that it should die a slow painful death.

2. Ichigo Mashimaro
Another slice of life anime (seeing a pattern anyone?) and people who justify watching this loli-infested trash say it's for the shoujo-ai! What? Even I condone under 10 year olds partaking in that kind of thing - but it doesn't matter - the characters made me want to throttle the anime itself. I was dumbfounded about the lack of anything they did. Some people might think this anime is cute. Correction - it is moe-loli pure and simple and is targeted towards the male otaku who scour around the boards of not4chan!

1. Honey & Clover
Ever had an anime that was so utterly boring, cliche and yet again BORING? I have to say that Honey & Clover made me want to switch it off half way through - but I managed to watch one whole episode of this drivel. It was most sleep inducing as I could feel my eyes rolling back, when the happy campers of the college go on and on about how life is made out of this and that. *gasp* A girl appears as if they never saw one before! Infact this loli looking girl was love at first sight and then out comes the most CHEESY line I have EVER heard in anime.
"So that's what falling in love looks like"
WTF?
Oh how utterly sad. Neon Genesis Evangelion might be my most hated anime but Honey & Clover comes so very close. An anime worthy of getting DAS BOOT!

Best 3 anime characters of 2005:

3. Enma Ai (Jigoku Shoujo)
Mamiko Noto FTW!

2. Maya (Glass Mask)
For triumphing over evil and getting one over her drama friends!

1. Kuon (Gokujou Seitokai)
A Michiru clone who is utterly cool and confident. :D

Worst 3 anime characters of 2005:

3. Anyone out of Paradise Kiss

2. Anyone out of Ichigo Mashimaro

1. Anyone out of Honey & Clover

Enough said! ;)

That's enough rambling from me this year, hopefully anime in 2006 will trumph 2005 as there wasn't alot to choose from!
To infinity and beyond 2006!

Gokujou Seitokai - 22

What do you get if you cross Yu-Gi-Oh! with Gokujou Seitokai team members? A battle between the Covert and Assult Squad for filler reasons!



It's another day and within five minutes, we see a Yu-Gi-Oh! styled craze sweep the school! Just another day then! The Gokujou Seitokai members make up the deck of cards (of course) and have no apparent stats - except that one attack cancels out the other. Not much strategy involved it seems!

Rino and Ayumu are having friendly banter when suddenly Rino finds out her card is practically useless. Ayumu tries to reassure her friend but of course it's more than useless, it is useless! But it's not just Rino that is unhappy about her card, most of the Asault Squad are as well, via Kuon's string pulling on Nanaho! ;)
It seems that Seina's little sister made up the card game and she thinks it's 1337. Well of course she would, she made it! The covert are happy too since their cards are probably made out of win. Nanaho is clearly displeased about the situation - declares a YU-GI-OH! battle against Kuon and co! *gasp* A pink teddy bear was all that needed to start a war!
After an up of animation to show that President Kanade's hair can actually move, the battle against Covert and Assault begins; even with a live audience! Not to be deterred, Nanaho strikes up a cunning plan to use Rino and Puu-chan since apparently, Puu-chan is a dab hand at cards. But of course, the lovely Kuon has a back up on her team. The game's creator!
Blow by blow, the battle heats up. All of Rino's good cards have been used. She only has the crap cards left of herself! As predicted Rino is a very lucky girl and gets the only card made out of win and god - President Kanade!
But alas, Seina's little sister of course has a Seina "Just Kidding" card which can cancel ANYTHING. Hey, that's cheating!



In the end, Rino triumphs over evil by using 5 of her own cards and does a MEGA gay attack with all the cards! The moral of the story is even if you are useless - you are still useless and people will feel sorry for you!

Overall: 7.5/10

Anyone have a Kuon card up for trade? ;)

Gokujou Seitokai - 21

Oh no! Yet another filler episode?? ;)



After recovering from the idol episode, they thought 'let's do another filler' and why not? Even Rein needs a bit of spotlight too! Remicent of Sailor Moon's baby episode and with the same gag as "Zomg! Is that baby hers?" It turns out that this episode is slightly better than the last one.
The student council recover a lost baby and Rein immediately becomes strikingly attached to it. As the rest of the Scooby gang are looking out for the mother, Kaori tells a tale beyond the mists of time about Rein's past. Apparently Rein's father left her for his gambling hobby and she was alone ever since. Oh until Sayuri's family took her in that is! Feeling a tad resentful (or so she pretends to be) Rein would like beat up her father FTW.
Quite predictably as the covert team are out searching for the baby's mother, they find out *drum roll* that Rein's father is in town and in a hotel. Faced with this decision, Rein decides to look after the baby than look for her father. However, Rino won't have any of it! Using her mighty shouting abilities the Gokujou Seitokai team are once again on the look out!
They eventually find the baby's mother via Rino's uber powerz of shouting and then she drops a card. Rein nearly has a heart attack, it's from the same pack as her father's!! And so everything ends happily ever after..or is it?
President Kanade feels a foreboding evil as Seina looks on..what is this dark force? Why does Rino shout so loud and will the Paya-Paya continue??



The Paya-Paya joke and Sayuri's glasses was the LOL moments of this episode. It's better than the last episode and hopefully the trend will continue upwards!

Overall: 6.5/10

I wonder who'll have the best 'Yu-gi-oh!' card in the next episode? *hint* Kuon! :D

Gokujou Seitokai - 20

Sorry I'm a bit late with this episode review. It's nothing in comparison to the amount of Mai Otome I have to catch up with! lol.
"Ayu-chan is so normal, she's special!"



Since they've practically ignored Rino's 'invisible but is really important best-friend' Ayu-chan gets a whole episode focused on her. Not that we didn't know already that she was the oh so secret convert member with 1337 Ninja-abilities! Yes it's one of those fillers.
Ayu gets spotted by a talent agency who thinks she has the X-factor! They immediately nickname her 'Ayu-Ayu' and set about to make her the rough diamond that needs shining..or something!
The school council find out - but are not really bothered because they can just tag along with Ayu to meet some really hawt stars once she is famous. Even President agrees! Rino and Puuchan then attend to Ayu's slight emo mode as she's angsting over her twin brother - who nearly tried to kill her. *gasp* She's really a runaway ninja who needs sorted out! So that's what happened!
Of course once that's all sorted out Ayu makes her debut in the school..or not so debut because she refuses to wear the ninja gimmick costume! And so ends the episode, where we find out that Ayu is a bit of an airhead who is really a Covert member who is really an airhead!



Not a bad episode, but not really the best either. Infact it's just plain average like Ayu herself!

Overall: 6/10

Now where did those Ayu-Ayu pics go to? :o

The Snow Queen - 05

Just in time for the Christmas holidays the fansubbers think! But I think they intentionally delayed some anime fansubs just to say 'Merry Xmas'. Time for my Gerda fix which took as long to get subbed as I did to update this blog!



More drama is in store for our little Gerda, as she has left her Peasant Village (tm) to look for her best friend Kay. But little does she know that Kay is enjoying his holed up holiday with the Ice Queen! I mean who wouldn't? Ice Queen gets my pick anyday!
Determined to overcome her worries, Gerda sets out on her journey and after a few tumbles and scrapes she meets a shifty merchant who would probably get Pedobear's seal of approval! He overcharges her for some bandages and then we all think he'll probably return again. Which is the case as Gerda gets her money stolen and has to resort to begging for a stay in the hotel. The hotel is named the Salt Brice which makes no sense whatsoever but our little heroine is desperate to offer her 'services'.
The merchant takes the word shifty to a new level as he attempts to steal everyone's possesions in the hotel safe - meanwhile Gerda works off her hard earned stay to become the locale slave for a night. As predicted she catches the merchant in the act of stealing and puts on a sobstory, moved to tears he puts it back. Of course he learns the moral of the story, remember everyone: DO NOT STEAL. Yes and that means mp3s and anime fansubs too! *cough* ;)



Not as dramatic and emotional as the last episode, but The Snow Queen has a certain charm to it's story. Yet again Gerda will have to start her journey from where she left off but except she has a MAP.

Overall: 7/10

Now to wait another two months for the next episode and you'd think by that time Gerda would have finished her journey! ;)

Merry Christmas!

There are probably going to be millions of bloggers thinking the same thing but: I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!
Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, I want you to have a good festive period no matter where you live in the world! Live long and prosper lol.

Have a Christmas Elwyn!

Doki Doki School Hours Vol1

Azumanga Daioh seems to be everyone's top choice for High School comedy but I admit, I haven't seen it. *gasp* I don't need to either - because Doki Doki School Hours is my number one choice! Let's delve into Mika-sensei's classroom of hi-jinks mayhem with a whole bunch of strange school kids!

Age Rating: 13+
Company: Geneon
Genre: High School Comedy
Running Time: Approx 100 mins
Region: 1



After extracting the DVD from the quite cute and colourful artbox, I was presented with a mass of PINK. How could Geneon possibly make the cover any more camp? Well, they just did! It's as if they are marketing it especially for girls...how clever ;)
So what exactly is Doki Doki School Hours?
Originally named Sensei no Ojikan (That's Teacher's Time to you and me) is basically a school comedy about a 27 year old teacher who likes to be called Mika-sensei. It doesn't help that this teacher looks about 6 and stands under 5 foot tall even with her shoes on! And let's just add in all of her car-azy students who about as stereotyped as you can get! Funnily enough, it's based on the 4-panel manga that actually predates Azumanga Daioh (which everyone compares it to.) How ironic that the anime was made after!



Let's do a roll call!

Mika-sensei - With her 'kawaii' features and small stature, everyone mistakes her for a child. But in truth she's nearly hit the dreaded old age of 30!
Kobayashi - The kogal who'll do anything for designer good and labels! Is often seen working part-time despite her grades.
Seki - He loves himself the most and doesn't mind dressing in girls clothes. Actually, he approves of it!
Suetake - So dumb, he makes Seki look clever. He's only good at sports and is oblivious to Kudo's crush on him.
Kudo - The yaoi boy who would like nothing better than having Suetake for himself. Often gets nosebleeds.
Iincho - Classroom president and carries the bear of responsibilities until she sees her idol of Koro, then her responsibilities goes right out of the window!
Watabe - The resident Otaku who loves drawing manga. 2-D girls are more his forte.
Oldman - He acts just like an Oldman but at least everyone respects him.
Kitagawa - Loves girls, especially small cute girls like Mika-sensei. She's so gay it hurts!
Tomonaga - She states the cold hard truth. Likes horror films and probably stabbing people too!

The first episode start thick and fast, as we get introduced to Mika-sensei's class of pupils and her homelife. Then come the jokes. They re-use the same jokes in every episode apart from that it's a different situation - not that I mind! The rest of the episodes are just as good - my particular favourite being episode 3 for the OTT swimsuit session - lesbian CPR for the win! I always enjoy a good bit of Kitagawa and thankfully she shows more of her uber gay presence in episodes 3 and 4!



Geneon have done a good translation and their Candian dubbing was better than I thought it would be! It was a bit strange since I watched this series on fansub first, but I think perfer the dub now. I have my suspicions though. Mika-sensei sounds like someone out of the Sailor Moon dub.. all the better I say! The extras are the bog standard affair with a textless opening and some Geneon trailers. It's better than nothing I suppose!

Overall: 8/10

Here's a Kitagawa I scanned in earlier!



Kitagawa should be the Queen of Doki Doki School Hours - not Seki/Kudo! ;)

Apologies..

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of any postage over the last two months, I'm just extremely lazy. I should make a New Year's resolution to update more methinks! :D

Things to do:
- Update Mai Otome blogging
- Do a review for Neo Ranga & R.O.D. TV
- Any other random things that go inbetween all that!

I'll do my best to get the above posted within the next few weeks, if not then feel free to give me DAS BOOT!