You’re probably not going to see another year with so many yaoi, yuri and gender-bending anime series popping out of the fansubbing engines. You might ask: How many series are we talking about? Well, you’ll have to stick till the very end of this post to find out.

In no particular order, we have:
(more…)

Don’t worry, normal summaries and reviews will still continue. The Digest is just a peripheral thing. Make sure you read on though:

ARIA The Animation Episode 12

Another episode involving the mysterious “past” of Aria. This time, Akari gets to visit the very first colonists of Aria, at a time when Aria has yet to be flooded. While it is nice to know about Aria’s past, I much prefer episodes involving the camaraderie of the trios.

Bleach Episode 65

It seems this divergence from the manga is going to stay. For now, I can’t say whether I’m interested in this anime-only arc yet, given the lack of details surrounding the new “bad” guys. But one thing’s for sure, this episode is no different from the previous one. Instead of Inoue being kidnapped, it’s Chad’s turn. Bleh.

Onmyou Taisenki Episode 10

I couldn’t find my disc with the 9th episode, so I skipped straight to the 10th. And this episode is another boring one, with yet another banal battle. But since Riku has finally returned to his “seat of power”, it’s about time we see more exciting stuff.

Kashimashi Episode 2

Yes, Kashimashi is progressing just fine. Hazumu is uber cute, especially with this bra-buying episode! At the moment, I’m enjoying the comedy, but with the appearance of the aliens, I hope to see the more interesting parts the manga readers have been talking about. Anyway, where’s my yuri???

Black Cat Episode 13

Hoho, Black Cat is a cute kid alright. I think it must be this transformation that will trigger his Tao powers, enabling him to fight Creed on equal terms. I wonder what kind of abilities Number 13 will get though.

Even though they’re already a ton of Kashimashi summaries floating out there, I’ll do this anyway, but I’ll keep the summarising short and the comments long. So, why my insistence on blogging Kashimashi (especially with my uh… not so consistent posting this month)? Because this anime is right on track towards making my must-watch anime list. I tend to gravitate towards shoujo-ai, and given the lack of them in recent times, Kashimashi definitely sticks. And based on previews and this episode, I’d say Kashimashi seems to be a little more explicit on the yuri in comparison with recent shoujo-ai like Maria-sama ga Miteru and Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito.

In Kashimashi Episode 1, we see a girlish-looking guy, Hazumu, who falls in love with a schoolmate - Kamiizumi Yasuna - when he helped her gather some plants previously. His friends notice this development, and some of them - Asuta and Tomari - suggest that he confess to her. Of course, Hazumu was warned by another friend - Ayuki - that if his confession should fail, even the original friendship between himself and Yasuna could very well disappear.

But Hazumu confesses anyway and gets rejected. As to be expected, he feels terribly dejected and starts climbing the mountain where he and Yasuna first met. But as time passes, his friends get worried and start searching for him. In the background, we have an alien spaceship crashing towards the Earth, and guess what? We have the spaceship crashing into our lovely Hazumu, only to return an even lovelier female Hazumu back to us. The technologically advanced aliens managed to resurrect Hazumu, but got the gender wrong in the process.

And that’s where the episode ends. I know this isn’t too detailed, so for a detailed summary, visit Random Curiosity - where you’ll find a really detailed and chronologically correct one.

Well, I found the spaceship crashing and failed resurrection thingy pretty wierd (i.e. unrealistic like mad), but other than that, the story looks solid enough. You don’t see male-to-female transformations so often anyway. Some parts of the episode I found pretty funny too, with chibi-parents somehow pulling my funny strings. Hopefully, the animators can maintain a strong comedy-love-drama plot.

But there’s one thing I really hate, and that is the starting scene that depicts some part of the future - where Yasuna kisses the female Hazumu after school, with Tomari catching them in the act. The reason for the hate comes from my wierd scaredness over really twisted storylines where the animators give you a final scene to expect - only to make a really sick twist in the end. But when that happens, I love it. Lol, contradicting personality isn’t it?

Another gripe I have is with the relatively slow subbing, even though there are five subbers on Kashimashi at the moment. I know it’s not my place to criticize, so I really thought of delving into the raws or manga… Must wait… Must…