Summary:
Enjin arrives with more black feathers than Suigin Tou, but just like that he retreats. Gin’s deep lolicon longings for Ao have put Enjin out of commission, so he allows Shinozuka to go wreck some havoc on the town. Meanwhile, Kotoha is excited to be going on a business trip to the national literature museum in Germany. Unfortunately, during a forced sparring match against Hime, Hime ends up ripping up the ticket and Kotoha goes totally crazy.

Kotoha stays after school to practice her English, and thinks about entering a karaoke contest (first prize is a trip to Germany). Still, she’s depressed, because she used to be a norml human. When she was young, she became influenced and is now half youkai, so it is a constant struggle to keep her powers under control. This is Shinozuka’s cue to come in and try to turn Kotoha to the dark side by saying that humans hate her; however, he didn’t count on Hime and Ao showing up, and Hime is able to calm Kotoha’s mind.

Reaction:
Seriously, if that little racist Rin was able to get over her hatred of humans, was there any doubt that Kotoha would pull through? Besides, we have yet to see any good youkai singers, so if Kotoha wants to get high karaoke scores she has to hang out with human friends. I also can’t help but point out that it is trivial to simply print another ticket, so there is no reason why Kotoha had to get so pissed off.

Hime was a lot better this episode with her “Who the flak do you think I am?!” kick and her loli-Hime counseling to loli-Kotoha. Stupid Shinozuka was like Gundam incarnate with his speech about rebuilding the world and all his flash-stepping. This episode also reinforced my opinion that Ao is the biggest cheater ever. Moreover, it was pretty funny watching Enjin completely overwhelmed by Ao’s neko-mimi-imouto-moe.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
Nagi and Jin had a fight and we see that Jin is besieging Nagi’s stronghold (Jin’s closet). Nagi has stocked up on snacks, raided several drinks, brought her magic stick for light, and opened up Jin’s collection of ero-magazines for entertainment, and even with Tsugumi and Zange’s help Jin cannot break Nagi’s defenses. It seems Jin’s only hope is Meguru, but the otaku is taking his sweet time delivering the mysterious package to Jin’s house. Meanwhile, Takako and Shino drop by because Takako wanted to return the KamaPure eroge that she borrowed from Meguru. “Too-shy-shy girl” Tsugumi then realizes that both Takako and Meguru have been fapping to Tsugumi and Nagi’s likeness all along…

Eventually we find out why Nagi and Jin are fighting. Last night while Nagi was taking a bath, Jin saw Heart-Throbbing Cat-Filled Land airing on TV and figured Nagi would like it. He then inserted a VHS tape to tape it, only to find out later that he recorded over Nagi’s copy of Lolikko Cutie (the climax of the Imposter-Cutie Chapter). Meguru finally arrives with his recorded copies of the episode, but his copies are in BluRay and Beta Max formats. With no other options, Jin sits in front of the closet and gives a heartfelt apology; unfortunately, since Nagi was in another room raiding snacks, she didn’t hear any of it (though she forgives him anyway).

Reaction:
This episode was a little boring at first, but it really ramped up towards the end. And getting to see the highlights from Lolikko Cutie was so awesome! That episode had a presidential assasination, loli fighting against matured loli, toast-in-mouth being defeated by trucks, hair tentacles, talking staff in breast, and lolification. I felt like I was watching Nanoha no Maid Guy Frontier!

It was hard to get adequate time for everyone with so many characters in this episode, but everyone had their moments. Nagi didn’t appear much but she did great in short bursts with her stick and ero-fanning. I can’t believe Jin is still using VHS, especially in Japan. Does he not have a computer at least? I’m also surprised that Nagi didn’t watch the tape yet, considering she doesn’t really have anything to do all day. If Jin had been peeping on Nagi instead of trying to help her tape cats, none of this would have happened.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
While drowning her sorrows at the Rumba night club, Michiko gets in a pseudo-confrontation with popular dancer Pepe Lima. It’s a small world and the next time “Michiko Spicy Cat” sees Pepe again it is while being held at gunpoint by those deadbeat kids from last episode. The kids take orders from Tony (who got his hand stepped on by Michiko) who in turn takes orders from Rico, and Rico wants Michiko to pay for Tony’s medical bills and the TV that Pepe just broke. As Michiko leaves, she finds Hatchin ready to bust in with a cleaver for a suicide rescue.

Naturally Pepe has a story, and it turns out she was a rich girl until her father died and the family drowned in debt. Now Pepe and her chubby little sister Lulu are trying to scrape together enough dollars for a fake ID to get into San Paraiso. During Pepe’s birthday party, Lulu breaks in to steal Michiko and Hatchin’s IDs only to find that they don’t have any. Desperate to get out of Favela, Pepe and Lulu rob Rico, but when Pepe forgets the cute picture they were going to use for Lulu’s ID, Lulu agrees to go back for it. Pepe begs Michiko for help and gets refused, and the last we see of Lulu is her being chased by two of Rico’s goons. Finally, Pepe gets caught by three of Rico’s kids, and they execute her.

Reaction:
Wow, this episode pulled no punches, and I was stunned with how things turned out. I was totally expecting Michiko to storm in and take out all of Rico’s gang, before zipping out unscathed with money and Hatchin’s old shoes. Instead, we see Michiko meekly paying off Rico’s demands and then being angry and frustrated with herself for refusing to help Pepe. We’ve seen Michiko be really brave before, so perhaps she really is shackled by her responsibility of taking care of Hatchin.

I probably should have realized this wouldn’t be a very funny episode when Rico gave Pepe her birthday present. Lulu was surprisingly quick and agile while robbing Michiko, but I worry that she was unable to escape. You’d think that an episode about a lady dancing for dollars (ok, acra) would be fun, but really this episode was quite depressing. BTW, does anyone pay to eat at Ran Yin’s place?

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
The duo books a hotel room at Hotel Venus in Saint Cabal, and Michiko makes a point of visiting an oracle. It seems like a scam, but Michiko still buys a lucky Forsa Fedra stone for Hatchin and some of God’s clipped nails for special powers. The old woman also prophesizes that Hatchin’s right leg would suffer misfortune and then Hatchin would chase someone running up a mountain into a dangerous situation with oceans and gunshots. Hatchin is completely skeptical, but when Hatchin steps in some dog poo, Michiko is convinced that the oracle was right. Michiko then commissions a portrait of Hiroshi and goes around asking if anyone has seen him.

The next day, Michiko steals some shoes for Hatchin, but Hatchin refuses to wear stolen shoes. To pay the 130 arca off, she gets a part time job at Ran Yin’s Chinese restaurant waiting tables. It’s hard work for low pay, but Hatchin lops off her pigtails and gets down to business. Hatchin even ends up chasing some deadbeat customers for Ran Yin, but suddenly the prophecy comes true as Hatchin is cornered by the deadbeat’s homies and held at gunpoint. Suddenly, Michiko zips in to save the day, and reveals she has found Hiroshi on the outskirts of Favela. Unfortunately, while the fellow in Favela looks like the portrait, the portrait didn’t really look like Hiroshi and Michiko rants that the oracle was a total fraud.

Reaction:
I noticed that at the end, Hatchin didn’t really get the money for the food or her old shoes back (which the deadbeat kid stole as well). I liked seeing more of Hatchin’s personality come out, and she seems so world-weary compared to the gullible and energetic Michiko. The scene with Hatchin covering up her drool on the bed was so awesome, even if it hit a little close to home (I, er, have a friend who does that).

I was excited that there were a plethora of outfit changes in the episode. Michiko looked different every time she appeared on screen, and most of her outfits were pretty nice. I did, however, notice that she got especially dolled up for when she thought she was visiting Hiroshi. I almost couldn’t tell that it was her with her hair up like that! I also thought the portrait idea was very funny, since Michiko was relating Hiroshi’s features from memory (and over a decade ago). I wasn’t sure who drew the picture of Hatchin, though, since it looked more like a pig than anything else. Did Michiko draw it herself, or did her description of Hatchin suck that badly?

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
Tsugumi receives a phone call from Jin for a shopping date, but unfortunately it turns out to be a shopping date between Nagi and Tsugumi. Nagi was overjoyed when Jin gave her 10,000 JPY for clothing, but she soon discovers that this amount will barely buy any clothes (it’s only about 100 USD). Even worse, Nagi cannot buy the frilly underwear she wants because she is so underdeveloped. Nagi decides that she will get a secret part-time job to earn her own allowance and is hired at the newly opened Maid Cafe Maidia where Tsugumi joins her one day as a fill-in worker.

Naturally on the day Tsugumi and Nagi are cosplaying as Malon and Arzelede respectively, the whole art club is forced to go to the maid cafe to satisfy Takako’s curiosity about moe and girls in cute frilly outfits. Tsugumi is deeply embarassed and Nagi is afraid Jin will be mad at her for getting a job, but Jin is more concerned about accidentally getting wood while staring at Nagi in cosplay. He ends up making a scene about how Nagi is too hot to handle, and Tsugumi overhears the whole thing. At the end Zange quits her job at the TV station to work at the cafe in hopes of sabotaging Nagi, only to find that Nagi quit the day before and Zange is now under the power of the strangely manly cafe manager.

Reaction:
One small point that really stood out to me was how the snickering viewer was watching the episode on her laptop. I didn’t catch the possible Haruhi sighting this time, but fortunately Totali pointed it out. However, I did catch a lot of the otaku insider jokes, and I really liked how Takako had no idea what Meguru was talking about when he starting throwing around jargon. Zange’s plight at the end was funny, and I find it interesting that she is constantly checking Nagi’s website for updates. Do you think Zange trolls Nagi’s site with controversial comments?

Dang, it stinks to be the childhood friend with short reddish hair. Tsugumi is like Ai all over again, but with less melodrama. As for Jin, one cannot help but wonder if he is being purposely cheap so that Nagi barely has any clothing to wear. I wouldn’t normally suspect it from our Too-Pure-Pure Boy, but the way he stares at Nagi’s underwear in the hamper is rather creepy. This is the second time I have seen a plushie frog beaten up out of love-frustration, and this deeply disturbs me. It also makes me wonder if the person that Nagi likes is already dead…

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

We now get to take a look at the struggles of Chrona trying to continue her life as a student in Shibusen. With Maka and everyone being very accepting and trying to get her to try new things such as basketball and attend social events, Chrona’s life looked to be on the upswing. Unfortunately, Medusa makes her visit back to Death City and runs into Chrona in an alley, and it’s clear that she still has some strong mental control over her daughter as she commands Chrona to go look for the secret vault at Shibusen. Although Mary manages to accidentally catch Chrona searching for the vault and foil Medusa’s plans, Mary now becomes the seed to drive Stein into insanity as Chrona manages to slip a snake into Mary’s drink when Mary invites Chrona over to Stein’s lab for some counsuling. With Mary hanging around Stein with a snake in her body, Medusa now attempts to drive Stein even more insane, and we see that Chrona can’t catch any breaks She doesn’t want to deceive her new found friends, but Medusa is her mother, albeit an evil one…

And just when things were looking bad, guess who’s coming to town in the next episode….

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
12 years ago in Vermelha, Michiko was arrested for supposedly being part of the Fantasma crime syndicate. The sergeant in charge of the capture is Michiko’s childhood rival Atsuko Jackson, whom Michiko calls “Jumbo” (per Atsuko’s huge afro). It seems that Michiko allowed herself to be captured so that handsome Hiroshi could escape, but unfortunately Hiroshi later got blown up while riding the bus. Michiko would later find out that Hiroshi had a daughter, and that’s how she got the picture of young Hana.

Back in the future, the scooter’s out of gas, so Michiko has to walk the vehicle all the way to the small city of Ladrao. Hana reveals that she hates her name, so Michiko renames the youngster as Hatchin. The locals tip off Atsuko’s forces and there is a battle in the streets. Father Pedro’s there too trying to take out Hatchin for an insurance payoff. Of course Michiko gets away by running the Mike Tyson play, and easily saves Hatchin before riding off into the sunset. Viva cassette tapes!

Reaction:
I wonder if the tattoo is a symbol of Preto Monstro, and it seems odd that they would tattoo Hiroshi’s young daughter. Speaking of which… who is the mother? I don’t think Michiko was serious last episode, especially since she didn’t know about Hatchin. Also, Hatchin is not quite 10 yet, and since Hiroshi died 11-12 years ago the time jump is quite mysterious. I wonder if we will eventually find out why Michiko doesn’t like people singing about her dripping poop.

I also thought that it was odd that Father Pedro believed he could collect insurance by offing Hatchin. I was unaware that Hatchin had a job that offered life insurance benefits, but other countries have different customs. Anyway, I’m looking forward to more episodes, with Michiko running away from her stalker Atsuko and reminiscing of the days when Hiroshi would grope her. If Michiko x Atsuko doesn’t work out, Jumbo seems to have Maria lined up as an eventual replacement.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Team Kid is sent out to the desert to hunt down the Berserk Express, a runaway train that’s been choo chooing around without any tracks for 100 years. The BE’s power comes from the Demonic Tool that’s built into the engine, and Kid has been sent out to recover it and keep it from the hands of Arachne. They manage to get to the station station without too much issue (except for Patty’s seemingly out of character complaining about the heat), but thing start getting tricky once the train comes by. The midget that was waiting at the station turns out to be Mizune, and some weird guy called the Fisher King makes it onto the train first and proclaims to steal the Demonic tool for Arachne. I assume that Mizune is there to steal it for Medusa, but she doesn’t do that much except fly around aimlessly and drop bombs once in a while as Kid air-boards himself onto the train and takes care of FK rather easily. Gasping for his last breath, FK makes a bold claim that the creator of the demonic tool, known as Eibon, also happens to be Shinigami-sama! Kid opens up the Demonic Tool and finds the familiar “Death” signature inside next to Eibon, and before FK could say anymore, Sid headshots FK. With his reinforcements, Sid tells Kid and company to go back to Shibusen, but Kid continues to wonder about Eibon and the connection to his father, so like any good student, he goes to the library to do some research, and pulls out his uber library card for level 4 access! Unfortunately, the level 4 book on Eibon is checked out by a mysterious person who initialed the checkout sheet with the letter “M”. Hmm…I wonder who that could be.

Man…I guess there must be more to Shinigami-sama behind that mask of his. Although this episode wasn’t overly exciting, it has me curious about what’s really going on here and what secrets we have yet to learn about Shinigami-sama. Guess we shall see…

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
Hime volunteers everyone for kindergarten care, and the kids terrorize the group until Ao uses her Satori powers to give the kids exactly what they want. However, there is one anti-social emo kid named Junta in the corner, and Ao tries to help the kid out. However, when she reads his mind and finds out that Junta is especially focused on juggling a soccer ball 20 times, Junta gets offended at the mental intrusion and runs off.

Ao reminisces about how Gin once told her that it’s up to the user to love or hate the Satori power. It turns out Junta was pissed off because his dad was on a secret mission to find their mom and didn’t want to alert the mayor. The dad tricked Junta into thinking that by juggling the ball 20 times the family would be reunited. Ao does a little research and with the help of the rest of the YLCO she is able to bring the family back together. Things are going great for Ao until suddenly Enjin and a whole bunch of crows appear to terrorize the town.

Reaction:
What the hell was this crap? This was such a stupid episode that did nothing but show that Ao’s Satori ability is way overpowered. Since it’s not a passive ability, I don’t see what Ao has to angst about. Either she needs to learn to control her impulses or she needs to take acting lessons. It was kinda amusing seeing her looking at those fugly drawings and being forced to use her powers to figure out what the the kids drew.

The story with Junta’s family made no sense either. It sounded more like the mom was cheating on the dad but the YLCO organized some funny coincidences to make the two fall back in love with each other. That’s how it always happens in Disney movies, anyway. It would have been more realistic for Junta to finish up with his 20-hit combo and then be confronted with child social services.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
Zange’s threat of moving in is averted in the ensuing cooking competition. Nagi is actually quite skilled at cooking (although she has a strange sense of taste), but she never cooks because she is lazy as hell. Hakua wants to do the cooking herself, and without Zange’s help her entry is a terrible burnt disaster. Tsugumi valiantly goes to her ougi of fried egg and vegetables, but I think Nagi wins. With that out of the way Nagi continues to go to school and a Nagi-sama Fanclub is started with Takako’s help (woo Nicon D300).

The fanclub is a big hit, and its members keep Nagi from getting caught by the teachers. The devotion of the students increases Nagi’s power, and she gets excited about unlocking new abilities. Eventually, however, Hagashima-sensei (nicknamed Hageshima, or “bald island”) mentions the situation to Hakua’s father Reiri, and Reiri catches Nagi. It looks bad at first, but Reiri knows Nagi’s situation and wants her help in getting Zange out of Hakua’s body. As the Suzushiro family helped found the school, and Reiri is the religious studies teacher, Reiri is able to make Nagi an official student on a religious studies and local history research scholarship.

Reaction:
Psssshhh, who uses hit counters anymore? 16,529 sounds impressive, but if those are hits rather than unique visitors it is not nearly the same thing (we get more hits than that in an hour, and we don’t even have any official Nagi videos or pictures). I was happy to see Nagi get a chance to bounce back with homefield advantage (sporting white home uniform while everyone else had to use an apron), and she really took it to Zange this time. Jin’s guesses about Nagi’s power-up (thinner eyebrows?) were amusing, but that sauce-devil shouldn’t look down on occult freaks!

Although Nagi was awesome this time, her power-ups were pretty tame. She can now take out single spider-impurities on her own, and she can make a star-shaped light beam to use as a flashlight… I guess the power of love is not nearly as impressive as Totali makes it out to be. Maybe Nagi just needs to grind some more faction for the really good rewards. Zange had a good plan to bring the fight to Nagi’s home turf, but the doting-father trump card proved to be too much to overcome. These Nagi-Zange battles really highlight how great the voice work has been so far in the series.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I was on Digg, and I saw this article about a petition to allow marriage to 2D characters.

“I am no longer interested in three dimensions. I would even like to become a resident of the two-dimensional world,” he wrote.

“However, that seems impossible with present-day technology. Therefore, at the very least, would it be possible to legally authorise marriage with a two-dimensional character?”

Most people probably saw this article and thought, “LOLJAPAN.” However, having read enough about ronery otaku, my first thought was, “I wonder who inspired Taichi Takashita to put forth this petition.” It took a little bit of digging, but several sources point to Asahina Mikuru (no info on which version) as the potential waifu. Now it just sounds like an attention ploy and/or a stupid viral marketing scheme for Haruhi 2.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

From Riex:

Any pun related to the anime featured in each banner is WIN.

YES! Oi, Hayaku! is having a friendly competition of sorts where you can match your pun skills against other commenters for a good cause: taglines. You don’t have to use puns, but if you want my blessing you do. Obviously I already entered.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
Several mysteries get explained, and we learn that Enjin has possessed the body of Hime and Akina’s friend Nanami Gin (Ao’s older brother!) for the last two years. Now Enjin is trying to get some strange sprouts to take root on the Nana-Gou, but the sprouts tend to wither quickly. Enjin’s partner Shinozuka seems to possess the same powers as Kotoha, and the two manage to get inside the barrier to taunt Akina and the others before running away. Akina can’t bring himself to tune Enjin because Gin’s spirit is still alive, and Akina orders Kotoha and Ao to keep the encounter a secret from Hime.

We also get a flashback of how Gin, Akina, and Hime used to be great buddies and won some ugly monkey charms from the noodle stand after Gin ate a huge plate of yakisoba. Akina takes the deaf monkey because he never listens, Hime takes the blind monkey because she doesn’t watch what she’s doing, and Gin takes the mute monkey because he lets his game do the talking. Back in the present, Gin’s spirit surprises Enjin by trying to choke-suicide, but it doesn’t work. Gin probably should have waited for a better moment, but perhaps Enjin’s hold was weak from tangling with the Nana-Gou for several episodes.

Reaction:
No wonder Hime was beating the crap out of Silver so badly! At first I thought she had just been watching too much Shakugan no Shana, but now I know she was taking her angst out on her dog. This plot is like something straight out of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. I look forward to Enjin dropping a streamroller on Ao and then screaming WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. With the way the art is going, I figure both Enjin and Ao will both be represented with neko-mimi stick figures by then.

I was confused by Hime singing the Tsun Tsun Dere Dere song and making it the town song. Everyone was giving Hime a hard time about the massive amount of carbs she consumes, but she needs that all that instant energy to beat her pets! Also, what exactly does the Council of Elders do? Yae was cool with her sword skills, but all Yuuhi does is wander around and make Mariabelle play dress-up (which is totally awesome).

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

In the depths of Arachnophobia, Arachne is deviously planning to conquer the world with the construction of the moral manipulator, which as its name points out manipulates the morals of people to the point of insanity. Also joining Arachne’s crew is Mifune from an earlier episode, who’s sort of being held at gunpoint to serve Arachne with Sir Mosquito threatening to harm chibi-witch Angela. But Deathscythe Azusa managed to find Arachne’s hideout, and with Sid and Kniges infiltrating the premise, Azusa helps guide them with her amazing clairvoyance skills. And Black Star decides to tag along without warning to dish out some payback for Maka, but his second round again Mifune wasn’t as fortunate as Mifune brushes off all his attacks and counters with some uber moves of his own. On the other hand, Black Star provided enough distraction for Sid to set up the bomb, destroy the Moral Manipulator, leave the premise undetected, and save Black Star all at the same time by sniping off Sir Mosquito, who had been watching Mifune and Black Star off to the side.

Episode 29 wasn’t as exciting as we watched Medusa return by taking over the body of young Rachel. Although the dual arts lesson was sort of amusing to watch as Black Star received repeated anal electrolysis from Ox, but Black Star returned the favor later with a single punch of fury. Also interesting to note was the tension that was displayed between the two sisters Medusa and Arachne, as Medusa definitely has something up her sleeve for later. What wasn’t as interesting was the phallic nature of Sir Mosquito’s attacks o_O

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
Nowadays Zange isn’t so much concerned about rooting out impurities as she is about securing her godly status by amassing followers. As the hot new idol, Zange’s thing is to go around and hear confessions for 100 yen. One night, during a late night gesso run, Jin spots Zange cornered by some thugs and rescues her. After they escape, the two talk and Jin is charmed by Zange’s words. However, Zange is more than meets the eye.

Nagi reveals that her mega-tree was divided so that both sides of Kannagi (which is split by a river) could have a guardian deity. In time, the deities of both trees became distinct, and that is how Zange developed. Behind Zange’s kind and charming exterior, however, Zange is manipulative and petty. What’s more, she is using a live human girl (Hakua) as her vessel and that is a serious no-no. With that, Zange decides she will move in to Jin’s place to take care of him, and everyone is totally shocked.

Reaction:
Wow, this episode was jam-packed with information! I learned about a new use for jump ropes, gesso and its uses in fending off thugs, and the founder effect. If this episode didn’t convince you that evolution is real, than nothing will! Nagi was more low-key this episode, but I still enjoyed her freaking out at the construction site and I loved watching while she and Jin ate horrible unhealthy food with tons of sauce.

Zange has definitely usurped a ton of Tsugumi’s screentime, and I was amused to find Zange is in a Birdy-esque situation. Although Tsugumi got her time cut, she was still very funny (with her cooking), and Jin’s half-confession to Zange makes it seem like the childhood friend might have a chance. I also wonder what would happen if Zange were to merge back with Nagi, and what the resulting gattai would look like. As for Hakua, I bet she is a creepy Jin-stalker and that is why she agreed to be Zange’s vessel.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

The weather’s getting colder, but at least I have new anime series to warm me up. I didn’t catch too much Xam’d this month, which is a shame because I miss Furuichi and his funny, hateful remarks. There’s still several series I haven’t watched yet, and I’m still slowly making my way through Real Drive.

Top Five This Month:

1. Kannagi: The production team has done a really great job with this adaptation so far, and the light-hearted comedy is even better than in the manga. Zange’s arrival means that Nagi can now display an even wider range of emotions.
2. Gundam 00 Second Season: My favorite subplot is Sumeragi vs. Billy, but the Mister Bushido comments are amusing as well. I really like the time-skip because the incredible power jumps make much more sense. Unfortunately, I am quickly getting the feeling that I will be annoyed by Marina for the rest of the season.
3. Soul Eater: So, what’s happening on the continents that the Deathscythes aren’t watching anymore? Loli-Medusa makes me think that maybe Shinigami should have called in a lawyer too, just to be on the safe side.
4. Shikabane Hime: Aka: Although Ouri continues to be mostly useless, I’m enjoying the episodic stories and beginning to see the foundation that is being built. I figure the plot will be moving fairly slowly, since this one is already set to have a sequel.
5. Yozakura Quartet: Ugh, the production values are sliding already, but the series has been entertaining (though not really original). I’m still in shock over learning that you can ride dogs.

Rising:

• To Aru Majutsu no Index: I thought this show would be completely generic, but so far the series has been entertaining. Too bad more magical clothing hasn’t shown up yet.
• Ga-Rei Zero: The episodes after the first episode have been enjoyable, but mostly because I have already read several volumes of the manga. Now, excuse me while I pedal off on my flaming rollasaur unicycle.

Falling:

• Kamen no Maid Guy: Last two episodes sucked.
• Taiga: I’m not sure what the perfect ratio of Tsun:Dere is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not 100:1.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
Gomez reports to his boss (Christella Revi?) that Shymalan is an overrated angsty loser, but Christella is interested in angst. Natsumi and Keisuke suspect Shymalan and enlist Kaori’s help in gathering info. Meanwhile Play Maker Industrial’s Lost Bird cruise ship pulls up in Japan and Tsutomu asks Sayaka on a date. Chairman Nakasugi has noticed that Sayaka has reverted to being quiet and despondent, and so Tsutomu decides to take her to Odaiba.

While Sayaka makes the moves on Tsutomu (even kissing him), Shymalan explains to Chairman Nakasugi that Sayaka has been chosen, and that is why she is so angsty. Shymalan then murders the old guy for not agreeing to give up custody of Sayaka, so when Sayaka comes home it looks like she murdered her grandfather with her fat man-fingers. Also, some sweat that Birdy stole from Sayaka confirms her suspicions that Sayaka is the host of the parasitic Ryunka, and Birdy isn’t quite sure how to tell lover-boy that agents might be coming to blow up his new girlfriend.

Reaction:
This was actually a decent episode with good pacing and buildup. One thing that confused me was how in the first few flashbacks, young Shymalan was looking up and seeing a black bird circling overhead, but in the very last flashback he looks up and it is a white bird. It’s hilarious how Yoshie came back and immediately suspected Sayaka of using a step-stool and Hulk hands to murder the Chairman. I think this is the first time we saw Sayaka directly change into Ryunka and purposely take someone out, and I like the dilemma that Birdy faces now.

The less Tsutomu we see the better, so the Birdy angst is a welcome addition. I knew immediately what was going on when Birdy took control of a hand and swabbed Sayaka for a sweat sample, but does this mean she could take control at inopportune/opportune date moments? Also, thank goodness the Ryunka can be detected from sweat samples, because it would have been really awkward if Tsutomu used a probe on Sayaka.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Right after I finally finished watching the last two episodes, I was so disappointed in how the series ended. However, then I realized that the fact that I was disappointed meant that KnMG had somehow become a decent anime series in my mind. I had some pretty low expectations of KnMG going in, but the series largely met and occasionally exceeded my expectations.

Story

The plot for this series is pathetic and barely ever shows up. Basically Naeka is trying to survive until her next birthday so she can inherit tons of money. The plot is only there to form a basis for Kogarashi and Fubuki to be in Naeka’s life, and this plot is generally ignored throughout the first season. If you care about a good story, don’t bother watching this series.

With that said, the somewhat stand-alone series are occasionally very funny. KnMG looks like a mediocre fanservice comedy, and many of the episodes start off like a typical mediocre fanservice comedy. However, oftentimes KnMG will suddenly twist the joke in a crazy way that will leave you saying, “OMGWTF?!?!?!” and this is where KnMG’s strength lies. Especially in the middle of the series, the jokes were sometimes so surprising and so funny that I started looking forward to the next crazy thing that Kogarashi would do. Unfortunately, the humor is uneven, and so there are some episodes that just have uninspired breast jokes and little else.

Characters

Kogarashi is clearly the motor that drives this vehicle, but he is at his best when he jumps into the scene and then quickly exits. His various Maid Guy powers are generally amusing, and I especially liked Maid Guy Voice whenever it left the victim forced to watch the fish market guy (Uomatsu Maguro) scrubbing. The draw of most of the episodes was finding out the latest Maid Guy power and watching Kogarashi torment some poor scrub villains.

The rest of the cast generally doesn’t pull weight, with the exception of Fubuki (on occasion). I guess Kousuke does as much as a lower-importance side character can, but Naeka is rather bland. The humor seems to be more situational than character driven, which may be why the series starts to falter towards the end.

Tilt

While the anime art stays true to the manga style, this means that KnMG is quite ugly. The art is consistently bad, but I think it is mostly on purpose. I found the OP annoying but catchy and the ED instrumentally good but vocally bad.

Verdict

This series isn’t for everyone, and it is highly uneven. Most of the episodes are rather cliche with a few zingers thrown in, but there are a few episodes that are surprisingly awesome (e.g. the tennis match, the training episode, and the computer virus episode) and unusual. KnMG definitely fills a certain niche, even if some of the episodes are incredibly skippable. If you like comedies with fanservice (and don’t mind the ugly art), KnMG will probably please you and occasionally wow you.

Kabitzin’s Rating: 3/5

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
Kofujiwara Wabisuke wants to take Naeka and Kousuke out so he can be next in line for the inheritance, and he has his Kogarashi-esque maid Hyochuka plan an attack on Zenjuro’s 70th birthday. For some reason Shizuku and Tsurara are working with Hyochuka, and they are able to snatch Naeka and Kousuke right before the end of the party. Unfortunately, the ninja maids actually captured Nakea and Kousuke’s stunt doubles (Fubuki and Kogarashi), and Kogarashi quickly turns the tables.

Before Kogarashi can question the ninja maids, however, Hyochuka blows on her one-time-use Maid Guy Whistle to neutralize Kogarashi, allowing her dolls to skewer Kogarashi and throw him to the ground. Things look bad, but Fubuki buys time and Naeka manages to get Kogarashi to wake up. Revived, Kogarashi goes berserk, but Hyochuka manages to get away to fight another day.

Reaction:
What the hell, this was such a boring and disappointing finale. Who knew that a return to the overarching storyline would turn out to be so bland. The only part I even smiled at was when Zenjuro wanted to jail and deport the ambassador that was trying to fondle Naeka.

There were very few amusing moments in this episode, but at least Fubuki fans were treated to extended Fubuki fight scenes (and even a Fubuki doppelganger). I’m not sure what else to say about this episode, and I probably should have stopped watching this series after episode 10.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
In a mysterious case, Makina and Minari chase a shikabane, but the shikabane always escapes, leaving behind only women in puddles of purple slime. From the victims’ belongings, Keisei deduces that the shikabane is hanging out at an OB/GYN clinic; Makina is sent to infiltrate Inankan Clinic by posing as a schoolgirl who got knocked up. Of course, wouldn’t you know it but Ouri got a bad “cold” and in a feverish state followed that weird spirit cat to the clinic.

It turns out that the shikabane is a woman who died giving birth to the baby boy in the clinic, and Dr. Rokuoka takes care of the baby in return for the shikabane’s cooperation. Dr. Rokuoka hopes that cells from the shikabane will save his sick wife, but clearly he was put up to the task by some mysterious evil man. The earlier shikabane were really just the victims that had been injected with shikabane cells, and that is why Minari and Makina could never catch any shikabane. Although Makina foils the plan and kills the shikabane, the mysterious evil guy kills Dr. Rokuoka with a vajra before Keisei can get any answers.

Reaction:
This was easily the best episode thus far, and I was left with a lot of questions. The murder weapon seems to suggest the killer was a monk… in the Observatory… with a vajra. We also learned that the Hoshimura family was killed in a fire (supposedly), though we did not learn what makes Makina cling to life. Ouri continues to be completely useless, but I am hopeful that his existence will be some awesome revelation that will explain why he hangs out with that creepy cat.

There was a bit of strange comedy in this episode as well. Of course we had Minari riding a motorcycle, but I managed to keep my hate in check. The part with Makina posing as a pregnant schoolgirl was pretty good too. However, none of this can compare to Rika giving the autopsy results and then suddenly standing up to reveal she is half-naked and recently promoted. BTW, that was totally discrimination how all the shikabane ladies had to stand outside while the male monks had their meeting (except in this case, the girls really did have cooties).

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
We get some flashbacks of how young Hime trained with her grandmother to become the next mayor and protect the Nana-Gou from Hiizumi Enjin. When granny died, Hime was forced to grow up quickly, and faced a lot of doubters who didn’t think a kid could protect the town. But while Hime puts on a tough exterior, inside she just wants to be a child. When she meets a demon-corgi one day, it’s her chance to live vicariously and spoil the little dog. Hime has big plans for Silver, but spoils Silver rotten, allowing the dog to be naughty and undisciplined. The whole thing makes Hime look bad, and Akina has to pull Hime aside to tell her to take her job more seriously.

Of course Silver doesn’t take too kindly to Akina upsetting its sugar-mama, and launches a nightime ambush on the sleeping Akina. Hime detests such cowardly attacks, and slaps the hell out of Silver. The angst rating shoots through the roof as poor Silver waddles away in self-pity while Ao tries to comfort the dog. Even worse, when Silver tries to protect the town by alerting everyone to Enjin, Enjin ups the angst by corrupting Silver and forcing Hime to beat her dog like a drum. Finally, Silver gets Tuned, and Yuuhi and Mariabelle make a report on the sprout that Enjin planted on a Nana-Gou.

Reaction:
The scenes where Hime was slapping Silver silly were so uncomfortable like watching someone beat their kid in public. WTF, who hits their pet like that? As funny as it was watching comet-Silver zipping around, I felt really bad for Silver; I guess the road to hell really is paved with good intentions. That little demon-dog was just trying to help, and Hime never laid down the ground rules. I did like Ao a lot this time, as she got over her fear of dogs and even tried to comfort Silver. Of course she also cheated by reading Silver’s thoughts so that Kyousuke could punch the doggie in the face, but we’ll just let that slide for now.

There were a lot of amusing moments this episode, like when Kotoha told Akina not to bother locking their crappy office shack. I was a little creeped out by how well Kyousuke knew all of Hime’s stats, and I find it odd that V Juri F is both the nurse and the reporter for the town. Anyway, I looked up Enjin’s name, and the last name means that he is related to Akina. But why does Enjin have neko-mimi and electricity powers like Ao (whom he tries to grope in the OP)? I also wonder about Enjin’s dastardly plan and silent buddy; are the two trying to help tons of poor demons hop the border?

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
Kimura Takako and Ookouchi Shino really like the new boys in the art club, and we meet Jin’s art hero Hibiki Daitetsu and manga artist Akiba Meguru. Takako and Shino decide to haze the youngsters by sending them to tidy the “haunted” storeroom, and for some reason Tsugumi tags along. Jin sees ghosts and spirits all the time, and at the storeroom he notices an impurity crawling around. However, a sudden noise from below the floor scares everyone, although it later turns out to just be the club advisor, Dokusasori-sensei.

Unfortunately for Jin, Nagi figures out that there was an impurity at school and manages to convince Tsugumi to give her an old (and too small) uniform. Nagi is pumped up, but when she cannot find the impurity she begins to worry that her spiritual senses are failing. It seems as good a time as any to go ask WWJD, but when Nagi runs into the church, she spots her imouto, Zange. Nagi is not too pleased about this development, and Zange taunts Nagi while crushing the impurity without tools or help.

Reaction:
I was really pleased to see some fangirl service, and Takako ogling too-pure-pure-boy Jin was great. I felt the comedy was really well handled, and even better than the manga. Tsugumi celebrating silently at being bustier than Nagi was hilarious, and the tongue-in-cheek criticism of Deja Vu manga was amusing. Even the fanservice is subtler than usual, and I like the way it’s handled. I don’t understand why Jin hid the magic stick from Nagi, because it just forced the bored girl to look through all his naughty magazines to get her gear back.

Finally the main three girls have been introduced, and I look forward to Zange riling up both Nagi and Tsugumi. Nagi claims to have someone else she loves, and Tsugumi thinks that Nagi is related to Jin so there is not that much friction. Zange, however, is here to compete, and I worry that Tsugumi doesn’t have the firepower to win Jin. I also liked vulnerable Nagi, which reminds me of vulnerable Horo. Still, I’m rooting for Nagi to get her mojo back and start clearing up impurities and greenhouse gases before the series ends.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
On March 9, prisoner #403 (Michiko Malandro) escapes Diamandra Penitentiary and then robs a bank. Meanwhile, Hachi “Hatchin” Morenos is stuck with the horrible Belenbauza Yamada family. Father Pedro and his wife Joanna adopted Hachi (though everyone calls her “Hana”) just to get the welfare checks, and Hachi is responsible for doing all the chores in the house. Meanwhile, the hateful children Maria and Gabriel generally make Hachi’s life a living hell.

One day Joanna tries to get Hachi to dispose of Gabriel’s cat Blanco, which results in Gabriel riding Hachi like a horse and Maria trying to brand Hachi’s face with an iron. Hachi finally fights back and imagines Hiroshi Morenos rescuing her, but in the end she just returns back to the family as if nothing happened. However, on March 16 Michiko pulls out an old baby picture with the words Hana 11.4 and a scrap of paper reading 22-00552. The next day, Michiko drives a motorcycle into the evil family’s living room, grabs Hachi, and drives off while being chased by the police.

Reaction:
What a strange first episode! From the trippy opening with the topless loli to the wacked out LLBDD feather belly tattoos that every girl has, I had no clue what was going on. I’m guessing that the secret of LLBDD will be revealed gradually and explain how Hatchi came to be in such a predicament. Michiko and Hatchi don’t really seem to be related (both in appearance and in last name), so what exactly happened to Hatchi’s real family?

I thought that Hatchi’s foster family was interesting, what with her Debody of the Year step-father actually being such an ass and the children being so horrible. It reminded me of the beginning of Nijuu-Mensou no Musume, but with less poisoned soup. I wasn’t really wowed by this first episode, but I do usually like these kinds of journey series so I’ll keep watching for now.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

With Chrona out of the hands of Medusa, Sid and Maka are doing their best to bring Chrona out of her shell and integrate her into the Shibusen community. Sid’s blue face sends chills down Chrona’s spine, so Maka and Mary end up showing Chrona around Shibusen. Chrona still has some difficulties hanging around with the other students, so Maka suggests that Chrona write a poem to get her feelings out, and Chrona ends up writing the most epically depressing poem of all times. It was so epic that even after Sid reads it, he even feels sorry for coming back to life! Despite the depression, it seemed to bond Chrona with our favorite Shibusen students in a strange way.

After getting past the blues, Chrona, Maka, and Soul Eater go to the city of Loew in the Czech Republic to investigate the sighting of a berserk golem. The trip proves to be quite a handful as they meet up with a Demon Weapon called Giricco, who had been protecting a golem holding the witch soul of Arachne, an all powerful witch responsible for allowing humans to turn into weapons. With Arachne awaken by the demon wavelength, Giricco goes to finish off Chrona and Maka, but Justin comes around justin time to save the day and drive off Giricco and Arachne.

Justin Law shows that he’s no pushover as he protects Maka and Chrona without having to rely on any meister to wield him. Watching Justin in action without a meister also seemed to light a fire with Soul Eater since he was MIA in the fight when Maka got tied up from the golem’s webbing, so we’ll see if that has an effect later. And Stein for whatever reason has been on the edge of mental stability with the Demon God on the loose. I really wanted to see the poem that Chrona wrote though :P

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
A bus of preschoolers blows up, and one of the victims, Hikaru, used to come play at the orphanage. Her friend passes Ouri a drawing to place in Hikaru’s casket at the wake, but unfortunately Hikaru has turned into a shikabane. Makina stops by the wake to investigate, and is spotted by Ouri (whose coworkers appear to also know about shikabane). The initial battle doesn’t go that well for Makina and she gets a shikabane spine thrust into her belly.

Ouri is surprised to find Makina bleeding all over the place, but goes along with the Hikaru-shikabane. Hikaru leads Ouri to a playground with other shikabane from the accident and they all want to play. The three shikabane gattai and try to rip out Makina’s hair, but Ouri distracts them with the drawing from earlier. This allows Makina (with some help from Minari and that scratch-face monk who is not Honda) to kill the shikabane. Ouri is glad that Makina put the children to rest, but is still upset that the shikabane had to be killed.

Reaction:
I had mixed feelings about this episode, as I felt it was a little messy and confusing. I guess since Ouri doesn’t really know Makina very well he would trust Hikaru instead, but didn’t he find it odd that Makina had a gaping bloody hole in her abdomen? I am not sure I understand how all those kids were totally obsessed with going to the playground to the point where they became shikabane. Does that mean that pervy otaku who suddenly die also become shikabane because of their intense will to buy NSFW figurines and dakimakura?

I was disappointed to find that Ouri’s boss and coworker seem to be rival shikabane hunters who respect Keisei. It’s like everyone and the cat all know about shikabane. Only Ouri is kept in the dark so that Keisei won’t have to make his little adopted brother do unpleasant tasks. It will be interesting to actually see Keisei in action one day, since most of the time you just see him doing stupid stuff like mimicking gravure poses. I suspect that Minari is also a shikabane, since it seems like most monks travel with a shikabane girl to do all the dirty work.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I’m suddenly feeling like it’s Blassreiter all over again. When I first watched Blassreiter, I was totally cheesed out by the Demoniac + motorcycle action. Once I was able to get over my bias, however, I was treated to a very enjoyable (and melodramatic) series. Then I watched Ga-Rei Zero and I was totally cheesed out by the horrible bike-fu. Fortunately, all those poor bastards were put out of their misery, and I have reason to suspect that the bike-fu will not reappear (though I still wonder about the retarded flaming rollasaurs).

The second episode of Ga-Rei inspired me to go check out the manga. While the anime now makes a lot less sense to me, the manga was pretty awesome. Ga-Rei has a great mix of humor (those extra chapters are so funny), action, and even fanservice. Both Kensuke and Kagura are great, and the side characters are top-notch. The manga confused me about the timeline of the anime, however.

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©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Summary:
We get a flashback of the time young Akina watched his grandpa deport a phallic demon, and it seems like the tuning process kills the demon before deportation. Oh well, it’s the only way to stop a demon power that has gone out of control. Foxguy roams around town testing out the various Nana-Gou pillars, and when he is unable to break any of them he decides to use his electrical powers to overload demon residents and cause massive destruction.

Meanwhile, Rin is busy with her racist diatribe because some human bitches burned her arm once with a heated umbrella. Akina takes the criticism hard, but he knows the guilt is a burden he has to shoulder to protect Sakurashin. Later that night, Rin gets overloaded, and it looks like Akina will have to deport her. Fortunately, Akina notices the shadowy demon that is biting her ass and overloading her powers; Akina is able to skillfully Tune the ass-biter and not Rin. Realizing that Akina literally saved her ass, Rin perpetuates the immigrant stereotype by taking a low-paying job as a fast food delivery girl/zombie to pay her way through school.