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.

In an effort to ingrain regular posting habits, I’ll be posting daily anime digests - very concise (or rather, terse) summaries of the various anime I watch on that particular day. And today, we have:

Law of Ueki Episode 33

The transition to Dragonball status isn’t sitting well with me, even though I’m still interested in seeing how Ueki develops.

Mar Episode 27

Finally, another loss for Mar. It’s always boring to see continuous wins for the good guys, ya know. But with Ginta fighting the next one though, I doubt we’ll see another loss. Actually, I was surprised with the preview of ep. 28. I had really expected Rolan to fight Ginta.

Onmyou Taisenki Episode 8

I’m not sure why I started on Taisenki anymore. The novelty of the special effects has already worn off. This episode is the 8th episode and the 8th battle our protagonist is subjected to. Far too predictable.

Yakitate Japan Episode 53

Arghh! And I thought the reactions had reached their supernatural limits when Cannabis Japan changed history. The new Yakitate 9 competition is clearly an attempt to extend the show.

Rozen Maiden Traumend Episode 11

Another strong episode from Traumend. How will Shinku and Jun react? I’d hoped to see Jun weave some miracles with his ability the ability we saw at the end of Season 1 around this stage. Hopefully, we’ll see something like that in the next and final episode.

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…

Gah, another super late post from mua. But I’m back with more mahou shoujo and yes, my poor opinion of it has yet to change. In this episode, we welcome the appearance of the trusty sidekicks (or more accurately, familiars) of our two girl witches. For the demure and submissive Vanilla, we have a cutesy mouse, Blanca - who happens to dislike being called a rat. Do not let the cutesy appearance fool you though; this mouse is confident (or rather, arrogant) and aggresive. A pretty wierd master-familiar combination I would say.

For the spunky Chocolat, we have da frog. Yes, a frog. And this frog even has the spunk to arrive late (late after their summoning I mean) and reveals himself to Chocolat much later than the rat. This is a more matching pair I’d say. And that’s almost the first half of the episode. Just before we see the episodic competition between Vanilla and Chocolat for “hearts”, we see The Prince entering the scene proper. The handsome, egoistic and mysterious older student who picked up Chocolat’s yellow “heart” for her in the previous episode actually says good morning to Chocolat. Given Chocolat’s rude spunky personality (that happens to not return The Prince’s greeting), The Prince’s fan club becomes Chocolat’s next enemy. And what of The Prince’s agenda, greeting Chocolat and all? See the screenshot below (with subtitles).

The next half begins the battle for hearts, with each familar giving “expert” advice to their masters - with differing results. While both familiars give respectable advice, the results primarily differ due to their masters. Chocolat’s excellent performance - in gymnastics - merely gets her called a “monkey”, while Vanilla’s cute failure in executing even a proper jump (well, she does fall on her bum) gets the pity of her male classmates + of course, their love.

And expectedly, we are treated to another heart gathering scene (something I think we’ll most definitely see in every episode), but this time, it’s a massive haul for Vanilla. Not surprisingly, Chocolat ends up with nil for the day.

Well, so far, I’m not very impressed with Sugar Sugar Rune. It’s mahou shoujo with nothing really new to bring to the mix. While there are a few good moments to SSR, it doesn’t have the cute factor of other mahou shoujo like Pretty Pretty Cure (not that I found that very good - plot-wise - either). Mipple, Mepple and Porun were really cute and had distinctive, though not very fleshed out, personalities. In comparison, our dear rat and frog doesn’t seem cut it. But I suppose with just 1 episode with them, it is still too early to tell.

And to wrap this summary up… here it goes: The Daily Heart Count, yay! 1500 ecure (the points scheme for calculating the value of hearts) for Vanilla, and zilch for Chocolat.

And the suspense continues with this episode. I may be a sucker for anime involving the development of some tensai (genius), but the objective side of my brain still finds Akagi pretty good so far. In this episode, Akagi’s very first Mahjong session against the Yakuza continues (at the 5th game, I think) - with the detective that barged in earlier watching that is.

In the last episode, we saw Akagi simultaneously handle the police (with an excellently executed alibi) and the Yakuza Mahjong players (by stealing tiles with the police watching). In this episode, however, we see no more of that hanky-panky Akagi is capable of. Instead, we witness the Awakening of the Genius, which happens to be the title of the episode too. With super-risky move after super-risky move, Akagi wins the next Mahjong games hands down, to the extent that the Yakuza ends up calling their rep player (pro player), Yagi.

Yagi is no slouch either. He immediately recognizes Akagi’s talent in Mahjong and prefers to sit out and observe Akagi’s games rather than rush in with zero prep like overly arrogant pros tend to do. When Yagi starts playing, his first super-move is a full-blown psychological attack on Akagi by attempting to cause Akagi to lose trust in his judgment. And, of course, we not only see Akagi standing tall against that pressure, but deflecting the same tactic back at Yagi. With that ends the 2nd subbed episode of Akagi.

Conclusion:
Like all anime series of this kind, detailed explanation of every wonder-move that the genius (and his opponents) makes is given to allow appreciation of the skill involved. But unlike series like Prince of Tennis - where a super-move can easily be recognized as one (well, a ball that never bounces and a ball that changes spin in mid-air are clearly super-moves) - the super-moves in Akagi are far more difficult to understand, especially for a Mahjong newbie like me. This does turn me off a little.

But I suppose the converse is also true. Those who are proficient in Mahjong should appreciate the super-moves even more. The greater problem at hand is probably the slow subbing for Akagi. I can’t blame Triad (they have relatively few staff), but being at episode 2 with the epiosde 13 raw already out is pretty sucky. Now, this is when I wish my Japanese studies were more advanced.

anime, animation, summaries, akagi

I promised myself I would never ever watch any anime series of this type (i.e. witch-based + school girls transforming into supergirls-style). Oh, the pain involved: Corny transformation sequences and really akward spell names. But here I am blogging about Sugar Sugar Rune. I’ve failed myself, haven’t I?

Don’t take me wrong. I’ve watch witch-based anime. Take Mahou Shoujo Tai - a relatively undiscovered gem. Read PSGels’ summary of Mahou Shoujo Tai’s 36th episode at Star Crossed, which echo exactly my sentiments. I’ve watched school girls transforming into supergirls-style anime too, with Pretear and Pretty Cure as examples. But Sugar Sugar Rune brings these genres to new “heights”.

The series begins with an introduction of our cast, with the main characters being the two witches Chocolat and Vanilla (hmm…). Both have been selected as Queen Candidates and are tasked with collecting “hearts” in the human world. The one with the most hearts will thus become the new Queen.

Now, what are “hearts” you might ask? Well, these are the elusive crystals that can be collected by witches from humans who are either surprised or in love with the witches in question. So it seems that the “goal” of our dear witches is to make as many people in love with them as possible.

After the girls are sent to the Human World, Rockin’ Robin - a veteran guy witch (not sure what they are called in the series yet) - welcomes the girls and later, shows off his talent in collecting hearts (especially from females) at the school where both of the girls are posted to. But the most monumental scene in the episode was when Chocolat realised that the Human World was the opposite of the Magic World. While we value politeness in the human world (i.e. Vanilla-style), witches in the Magic World made great friends if they were nasty and scary (i.e. Chocolat-style). That’s different all right.

To make things clear, the guy in the screenshot above is a character introduced at the final parts of the first episode (not Rockin’ Robin). He’s the standard mysterious, handsome, classy and super-egoistic guy. We know nothing about him yet, but I have a funny feeling he’s the bad guy or something like that.

So, the story does seem to be original to some extent (to the credit of the anime creators). But, did I tell you that you use a heart-shaped “heart-holder” to store your hearts and that the number of hearts collected at the end of each episode are weighed and calculated? Oh yeah, at the end of episode 1, Chocolat scores with 1 yellow heart (a.k.a. “piss” and trust me, I didn’t come up with this) while Vanilla ends up with 0 hearts. Moreover, there isn’t even any moral to the “story” (well, most of these type of series have them).

Since I’m the type that completely watches any anime I start, no matter how bad it gets, I’ll probably finish this one too (if it gets completely subbed that is). Arghh, so far, it just seems as if I never blog anything good. (Note to myself: Is this why no one else blogs about Sugar Sugar Rune and Itsudatte My Santa?) It’s either that, or I’m a real pessimist.

anime, animation, summaries, sugar+sugar+rune

The second out of three episodes of Itsudatte My Santa continues the slapstick comedy begun by the first episode.

The episode begins with the “revelation” that Mai is stuck in the human world for at least a year (until the next Christmas) as a result of overusing her magical powers. Not too long after that, the story shifts to the beach, where Mai meets her sister, who is named Maimai…ahmm.

Well, Maimai’s role here is to be the harbinger of doom, or rather the person who announces the arrival of Mai’s childhood friend, Shirley. Like all childhood friends of course, they are hugely competitive (with each other) and when Shirley tells Mai that she (Mai) has to return to “Santa-land”, Mai refuses.

Not for long though. Mai meets up with one of her teachers at Santa-land, who happens to be selling food at the beach (well, what’s new?) and is talked into returning. The actual conversation is in fact rather vague (and you will know why in the next episode’s preview).

So, the seriousness returns as Shirley (with the help of Maimai, I think) tries to arrange some sort of farewell party for Mai and Santa - which meets many obstacles as Mai herself doesn’t seem to want to say goodbye. But a farewell party does occur as Shirley stops time just for Mai and Santa at the very last minutes of the day.

And there’s the end of the second episode. I’m not sure if you share my observations, but I seem to see some sort of pattern in this series: The plot goes something like “serious-slapstick-serious”. We’ll have to see about the next and final episode.

anime, animation, christmas, itsudatte my santa

Arghh, I just cannot resist these kind of anime series. Here, I am referring to series that focus on the growth of an already tensai (genius) main character, e.g. Prince of Tennis, or those that have initially pathetic main characters that somehow contain ridiculous levels of potential, e.g. Bleach.

Akagi, a mahjong-based anime, is a mixture of both. Our main character, Akagi Shigeru, is the ultimate daredevil - a genius when it comes down to risk-taking endeavours. But when it comes down to Mahjong, he is a total newbie.

That’s where the series starts. The first episode is the description of Akagi’s entering of the yakuza-sponsored Mahjong world. Narration is primarily done by another character (which I thought was the main character at first), XXX, who is down on his luck and is about to be killed unless he happens to win.

Then comes Akagi, who has just survived a “chicken” game (I’ll leave it to you to find out what this means if you don’t already know). With the police hot on his trails, Akagi is spotted by XXX, who believes that Akagi has all the necessary qualities to win at Mahjong. With 5 minutes worth of Mahjong rules, Akagi begins playing. Right after that, the police barge in and we are treated to what is probably going to be the type of situations that will occur throughout the series - a super risky situation that Akagi handles like a pro.

Interestingly, the art in Akagi is rather different from the norm. See the screenshots for yourselves. In any case, based on this episode, I’ll most probably be watching the next one.

anime, animation, mahjong, akagi