To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t actually going to make a post since it is midterm season and all that, but I figured I will make one last post before I enter hibernation for 2 weeks or so.

And well, having just read Bleach chapter 540, I can’t help but make a post.

Bleach

I love their reaction so much.

Hahaahahahahahhahahahhahahhahahhaha

I can’t help but laugh at this chapter.

Everything in it was so utterly ridiculous.

To begin with, we had those assistants pull off some weird ass moves just to make a hammer that the dude then used to forge a sword.

Did they need to show that silly sequence?

No, of course not.

Was the sequence totally over the top and fitting with the Bleach story style?

Hell yeah, it was.

I can’t help but smile when I see this image.

Was it cool to watch Ichigo be all stoic as his sword was being made?

Hell yeah, it was. Ichigo has seen so much ridiculousness in his life, an elaborate sequence like that is nothing to him!

But really, whether you liked the elaborate sword forging sequence or not, you have to admit the whole “TWIST” with Zangetsu was absolutely hilarious.

“Zangetsu is Juha Bach from a thousand years ago?”

HAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

If I wasn’t too lazy, I’d be on the floor rolling right now.

God dammit, I love you Kubo.

On a more serious note, I am glad that Ichigo’s powers got a bit of clarification.

I still don’t know if Tensa Zangetsu == Regular Zangetsu though. (Some have suggested that Tensa Zangetsu is an even younger Bach. That sounds reasonable to me.)

So, Ichigo’s hollow powers and Shinigami powers were one all along? That makes sense, but at the same time it doesn’t. Like what about all the stuff Whity said back when Ichigo was a noob in Soul Society?

I distinctly remember him telling Zangetsu something along the lines of:

“Look after him for his power will be mine someday.”

What does that even mean? I know he tried to take Ichigo over but it still seems like a nonsensical thing to say given the context we were presented this week.

Then again, Whitey always was incredibly proficient at using Ichigo’s sword (himself).

So, then what is Zangetsu?

Is Zangetsu just a fake name?

Or is that the name of Ichigo’s actual sword (aka Whitey?) that Zangetsu just pretended to be. Or perhaps is the sword we used to know as Ichigo’s Shinigami powers actually just a manifestation of his Quincy powers? (This last option is probably not likely.)

Still, you have to wonder why it was Bach was the one that thought Ichigo Shikai and Bankai. Why wasn’t it Whitey? It is not like it was immediately apparent to Ichigo that the white dude who looked like him was actually his hollow part.

Here is the MangaShare post that has quite a bit of discussion on this topic right now.

But you know what, I don’t care if I am confused.

People might wonder why I still read Bleach and this chapter is pretty much exactly why.

It is not even the ridiculousness of it all that enthralls me.

There is a certain Chunibyou part in all Shonen fans that glees with extreme joy when the prospect of badass powerups and mysterious inner powers lies on the horizon. It is this inner Chunibyou that compels us (or at least me) to keep reading Bleach.

God Dammit, I love you Kubo.

It doesn’t matter who or what he is, Old Man Zangetsu will always be an eternal badass in my eyes.

Naruto

Poor Sai. He ended up being kind of useless, though I guess he gave good advice.

It was nice to see the trio summon their Sanin summons. This was something that I wanted to see for a long, long time. Unfortunately, it felt kind of weak. I blame the fact that for most of the chapter, I was kind of bored.

The Frog is apparently Gamagichi and not Gamabunta. I am cool with this especially since Sasuke also no longer has access to the big snake (he died against Deidara, I believe).

I don’t really care much about the powers of everyone else, though the Ino-Chouji-Shikamura combo was pretty cool as was Hinata’s determination (NARUTO X HINATA ALL THE WAY!!!).

I have nothing else to say.

Bleach did a far better job of appealing to my inner chuunibyou.

One Piece

It is great to see Oda-sensei back.

I hope he remains in good health from now on.

Right when I started reading this chapter, I tweeted

Reading One Piece again for the first time in like 2 weeks. I could spend all night saying nice things about OP and I wouldn't be satisfied.—
Lord Reiseng (@ReisengRath) June 10, 2013

What a great cover this is.

Now, the chapter wasn’t terribly exciting, but these transitional chapters are quite important in their own way, so I don’t mind.

I really like the new Bellamy. Him and Luffy are all buddy buddy now. It is cute.

I also liked how Bartolomeow got scared at the mention of Luffy’s name. He knows that he is no match for Luffy’s haki! Hurrah!

Robin and Law continue to be cool as fudge.

Haha, SPANK!

It was nice seeing Caesar get a chance to fight.

Are these dwarves the same as the fairies mentioned before or a different species all together? And I assume it was the dwarves that captured the fish monster thing earlier.

This is relevant:

Source

Robin is so cool.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say for now.

Good Night.

I probably won’t get to post next weekend due to looming midterms.

Bleach

There is not much to say about this chapter. It was cool to see more of the captains take on their secret training.

Mayuri seems to be up to no good again. I am going to guess that he is making some kind of modification to his bankai or he is making another Shinigami-like thing (similar to his lieutenant). I have probably said this before, but the third seat dude is pretty cool.

Soi Fon’s lieutenant should be doing training of his own instead of moping about being left behind.

Sajin’s background seems quite interesting. It looks like he plans on powering up by fighting his great grand father. I don’t know if we will get to see it, but some more info on Sajin’s background might be nice.  Maybe, we will get a flashback sometime down the line.

As for Ichigo, well I don’t really know what is going on with him and his training anymore.

“Say goodbye to Zangetsu?”

Sheesh, talk about silliness.

I do hope that this ‘goodbye’ is only a ‘goodbye’ to like some version of Zangetsu or something (i.e. Zangetsu gets replaced with Zangetsu v.1.1). Old man Zangetsu has always been close to my heart and I really like Tensa Zangetsu to.

It would be a shame to say goodbye now despite having seen neither (especially old man Zangetsu) for a long, long time.

Naruto

I prefer Sasuke’s reaction.

The 1st Hokage continues to show us why he is considered the strongest ninja of all time. He was willing to challenge Madara with a clone. I was glad to see Madara just shrug it off and chose to wait until the 1st is properly ready.

It would appear that Madara no longer really cares about the 1o tails. He only wants to fight the 1st. I prefer this side of him to the “I WILL BRING PEACE FORCEFULLY TO YOU PLEBS” side of him.

I want Sakura to be strong, but this “sudden powerup” feels cheap. She was weak for so long and now, I am expected to believe that it was because she was just “storing chakra”.

Bleh.

Oh well. I don’t really care much.

Sakura getting saved by Naruto and Sasuke at the end though kind of set her back a little.

Also, why does Naruto keep making that “Sakura-chan is scary! I must not anger her!” joke. It feels quite overused.

Having said all of that, I really did like Sakura’s sassy attitude at the end.

Hello,

Anime North is happening this year!

Well, it happens every year, but par something going horribly wrong, it is happening this year to!

If you are going to Anime North and would like to meet up, leave me a reply or talk to me on Twitter. I have data on my phone so I should still be accessible. I will be there Friday evening (likely sometime after 4), all of Saturday and up to 4 or 5 PM on Sunday.

I am including this image because everyone else seems to have done the same.

This post feels like a waste of time, but hopefully if I get the chance I will update it with pictures and stuff as the convention goes on.

[HOPEFULLY]

I DIDN’T GET TO UPDATE THIS THE WEEKEND OF, BUT THIS POST HAS NOW BEEN UPDATED!

p.s. Despite being called Anime North, Anime North happens in the Southern part of Canada.

{PlaceHolder! Please Don’t get mad at me if this stays here until the end of time…}

Sorry for not updating this post for so long.

Now, let us see if I can remember what I did this Anime North.

Yes, in case it wasn’t totally obvious, I can not provide you full coverage
of the convention, so I am just going to list what I did. I apologize for the diary like format but I kind of want to keep a record for my own use so yeah…

Friday

I had class on Friday so I left for the convention around 12.30 (I still skipped one lecture…)
and only got there at like 3.30 or something.

After some aimless wandering about, I decided to go to the Opening Ceremonies.

Opening Ceremonies

A large part of the Opening Ceremonies was for the most part just introductions to the various guests who would be here giving panels/autographs.

Folk that know me even a little will likely know that I am not very well knowledgeble about the people that create anime.
That is to say, I know nothing about voice acters/actresses, directors, writers, producers, etc, etc.

So, I didn’t find that rather large chunk of the opening ceremonies to be terribly interesting.

There were a few performances during the show though. I really liked the traditional Japanese drum group they had the beginning. Those folk could drum like no ones business.

The 404s

After the opening ceremony ended, the 404s started in the same room. Since I wasn’t able to make any concrete plans with anyone yet, I deciced to stick around and watch for a bit.
The 404s is a Canadian inprov group.

Like most improv things, the skits are likely hit or miss depending on the topic brought up and your own personal preference.

I did not get to stay for the whole show, but I thought this group did it really well. They were quite funny at times. There was one skit where they sang about Pokemon in different musical styles (e.g. Broadway) and I could not help but laugh a good amount.

So, if you are going to Anime North next year, the 404s are likely worth checking out, but if you are a busy otaku, you might not have the luxury of scheduling an hour or so just to watch stage comedy.

Sometime during the middle of the 404s, I learned that Bob was in line for the dealers room. So, I left the 404s and tried to find him. I failed to do so, but I managed to meet up with Fnzna at Swiss Chalet instead.
We ate dinner and then rushed to the “Introduction to Precure” panel.

Introduction to Precure

I did not go to this panel because I like Precure (I don’t dislike it. I have just never seen much of it). I went to this panel because my friend Krizzly was the host of said panel!

I might be bias in saying this, but I thought Krizz did a phenomenol job. I knew very little about Precure, but I never felt lost and I left the panel feeling like I had learned a lot about the franchise.

So yeah, if you ever have the chance to attend a panel by Krizzly, you should definitely attend it.

The rest of Friday night is a blur. Me and Fnza met up with Kevo at the panel and then we tried to track down Eternal. Krizzly had another panel at 11 (on Satoshi Kon, I beleive), so he dropped us off at Sheraton.

As an aside, there are few things in life as amusing as a car ride with Krizzly and Kevo.

We couldn’t find anyone at Sheraton, so me and Fnza left. We encountered Bob next to the TCC, though he had to go so we didn’t hang out.
We then met up with Eternal, 7thwraith and Kurotsuki playing Mahjong in the Toronto Congress Centre.

I left shortly after as it was already pretty damn late.

People singing and dancing at some stage performance thing.

Saturday

We had a large Aniblogger group gathering at Boston Pizza. It took us a while to get a seat, but we somehow got seats (though we were split up). I had met quite a few of them the year before, but this was the first time I got to meet Yerocha, so that was quite cool.

After the lunch, me, Fnzna and Zinfrared went to the Voice Acting in games panel.

I am going to stop the diary like coverage here because for many people, there was really only one thing important at Anime North.

Eriko-Con

For many people this entire con was about Eriko, the actress behind Haruka.
As I alluded earlier, I don’t know much about voice actors, but I like im@s and I like Haruka so I ended up attending 2 of Eriko’s panels and her autograph session.

Video Game Voices

This panel was co-hosted by Chris Cason, John Swasey and Eriko Nakamura and they took questions on voice acting in video games.

I don’t quite remember everything that happened this panel, but it was a pretty good panel.

Some stand out moments :

One of the English VAs said that the only thing you have in the recording room with you is a glass of water. Then as an act of friendship, Erica poured him a glass of water.
After that point the panel involved lots of water exchanges as the VAs tried to outdo one another.

Chris, 7thwraith and a bunch of their friends coerced Exciel (he is Japanese) into asking a question in Japanese. Mr.Swasey immediately said “I will answer that…yes”.
Then Excel repeated the question in English and the VAs were all able to answer the question.

There was one point where the English VAs talked about translating anime. Swasey said something to the effect of: “While they have freedom to express themselves as they wish when voicing characters in new games, it is a lot different when it comes to dubbing anime. In dubs, they need to remain faithful to the original Japanese VAs and must do their utmost best to keep the character the Japanese VAs created.”
I thought that was a very sweet thing to say and I’d like to think that Erica (having voiced Haruka and Hamzou) was somewhat touched by that.

Maybe I am overthinking things and maybe I am just plain wrong (I have a very small sample set after all), but I think NA VAs speak in more practical terms while Japanese VAs are a bit more wishy wishy.
I don’t mean that in an offensive way at all. It is just an interesting difference I observed.
Here in NA, we kind of think of Voice Acting as another job, but to many Japanese, Voice Actors are ideals/idols and in some shape or form, they need to embody the spirit of hardwork, compassion and energy.

Having said that, Eriko had some great answers. You wouldn’t guess it upon first glance, but she is actually a very funny, bubbly and interesting person.

Idols in Anime

(This panel took place on Sunday.)

This was the 2nd and last of Eriko’s panels that I attended.

Once again, Eriko was quite interesting. She has a good sense of humour.

At one point in the panel while her translator was speaking, Eriko noticed someone in the front seat coughing so she paused the panel, went to her bag, found a cough drop and handed it to one lucky sap.

Some hardcore facts (I had to go trudge through the twitter histories of my peers to recall all this):

• Her favorite character from Mahou Shoujo Madoka is Kyouko.
• In terms of idol anime she likes, she likes Idol Densetsu Eriko and Creamy Mami.
• She likes Timbits
• While in Canada, she watched CP24.
• She once caught her dad playing idolM@ster.
• She likes Evangelion.

She has made at least the following observations about Canada:

• Our Traffic Lights are vertical while the Japanese have horizontal ones.
• Canadian washroom stalls have more visible space (e.g. the opening at the bottom of the door) than Japanese ones. Both designs are for security purposes.

So Eriko Nakamura said she watched CP24…so does she know about our mayor Mr. Rob Ford—
yuyucrabs (@fnzna) May 27, 2013

For possible context and your enjoyment here is a picture of some tweets:

Autograph

I got Eriko’s autograph on Sunday along with Bob and Orange. I had nothing for her to sign so I just got her to sign my notebook.

That notebook is now my official autograph notebook since it also has Yuu Asakawa’s signature (from Anime North 2012).

(I handed a slip of paper with my real name on it to Eriko for the dedication part of the signature. She had a pretty difficult time reading my handwriting.)

Apparently you are supposed to Photoshop yourself as Producer-san in these pictures, but Toxic Muffin and all that…..(I also could not find the P everyone else used…)

Eriko Fandom

An hour later, I'm still replaying the moment in my head when Eriko said "Hi, Kurotsuki-san" . I died right there.—
Chris (@Kurotsuki) May 26, 2013

This wasn’t an event or anything, but I found it interesting just how far some folk go for their idols.

Chris flew over from Montreal mostly for Erico. 7thwraith and some others drove from New Jersey (a 9 hour drive) just to meet her.
I really liked the dedication the two had for an idol they genuinely respected. (They are both great guys. If you ever get the chance, be sure to meet up with them!)

There were some other folk in their group who came all the way from Japan! This might seem quite bizarre at first, but there are quite a few people who follow their favorite bands everywhere (e.g. Some Iron Maiden fans go to every one of their concerts), so it is not that unusual to follow your favorite idol halfway across the planet. …I think.

There was one thing that upset my tummy a little though.

At the end of the Idols in Anime panel, shortly after Eriko and her translator had made an exit, some dude went up to the front and drunk from her cup of water.
(My head was turned so I didn’t see it, but Orange, Bob and some other folk did.)

Now I am all up for conservation of water, but I think that was just a taaaaaaad bit too far!

Cosplay

Creep Creep

I really like going to Anime North and just observing/taking pictures of folk in cosplay. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take that many pictures this year because I was busy running around meeting/hanging out with people.

I am not trying to make excuses or anything, but taking good cosplay pictures during a convention is really quite difficult.

Not only do you need the gutso to keep going up to random people and asking them for a photo, but most of the time your photos will end up looking quite bad.

The lighting conditions are horrible.

Outside, the lighting varies by your position and you can’t always ask someone to stand at a different place. You can try to move and make sure the sun is behind you (the camera user), but such foresight is often hard when you are running around and short on time.

Inside, the lighting is even worse. What makes indoor photo taking especially bad is the roof height. You can’t bounce your flash and get an even distribution of light! I often had to resort to high ISOs because using the flash wasn’t an option but when you use a high ISO, you also introduce noise.

On top of all that, switching between indoor and outdoor photos requires a change in settings and no one has the time for that! (Okay, well, if you were smart, you’d have several pre-configured options mapped to the user setting modes or w/e they are called….unfortunately, I didn’t think of that…or you can stick to auto mode…..I should have done that).

Anyway, enough excuse making. Here are some interesting photos:

(If you want the full collection, go here.)

IN CONCLUSION

Anime North 2013 was a lot of fun. In terms of hanging out with others, I felt much more comfortable this time around because I had actually met a good number of them before and I knew several more on twitter.

I hope AN 2014 (which I should hopefully be able to attend) is just as enjoyable if not more so.

If you were one of the folk that I met with, thanks for meeting up with me. If you did come to AN, but did not meet up with me, then I hope we can meet up some other day.

Appendix

(All of this is for my own reference.)

The Anime North 2013 Schedule

Other Posts on Anime North 2013:

• Desu Ex Machina (Kevo)
• Fnzna’s Side Dish (Fnzna)
• Daifuuku! (Orange)
• Metanorn (Overcooled)
• Lunar Cataclysm (Kurotsuki)
• 7thwraith
• Not quite a coverage post, but Krizzly’s announcement (In here for posterity).

Folk I met up with (I might be forgetting people though…):

• Fnzna
• Krizzly
• Kevo
• Zinfrared
• Bob
• MasterOrange
• Yerocha
• Table
• Eternal
• 7thwraith
• Kurotsuki (Chris)
• Exciel (by proxy through 7th and Chris)

Folk I sort of met up with (saw them but didn’t know them so I didn’t really talk to them):

• Friends of Bob, Orange and the Japanese crew hanging out with 7th/Chris.

Folk I did not get the chance to meet but hopefully will next time:

• Lostty
• Neil
• Overcooled (Cool blogger from Metanorn. I don’t know if she actually knows me though. )

There is no One Piece this week because Oda sensei got sick. I hope he gets better soon.

This is a short post because it is currently 3 am and I won’t get time later on, so yeah!

Bleach

I liked how all the swords bowed down to Ichigo. This scene actually was kind of badass.

A good number of folk seem disappoint with the recent Bleach chapters. I am not one of them.

I am enjoying the silliness that is the current Bleach.

I liked how fast Ichigo regained finished his training . Training arc? Psst no need!

Hitsugaya’s decision to improve his swordsmanship was an interesting, humble decision.

I don’t understand why the vaizard dude didn’t just train Hisagi himself. I didn’t expect Hisagi to get angry, but whatever.

Naruto

Great chapter.

The 4th Hokage was a badass. I will be honest, compared to the other Kages during their reunion, he felt kind of weak, but he totally proved himself here.

The 4th did use the 2nd’s technique but he is much better at it.

I guess he was able to quite easily use the Kyuubi’s chakra (he stored half of it in himself). I don’t think it undermines from Naruto because he likely didn’t need to fight off a personality (it is just pure chakra). That is my guess anyway.

Having said that, I didn’t think using it just to show how cool he is was necessary, but w/e.

I love how nonchalant the 1st still is and how he was so casual with Madara despite Madara’s seriousness.

I absolutely loved Sasuke’s declaration.

Is it stupid as hell that he who used to hate the village now wants to save it by becoming Hokage?

YES

Do I care?

NO

IT WAS JUST SO FUNNY.

I don’t know if Sasuke and Naruto will still fight. Some people think Kishi made Sasuke do that declaration so the two would eventually fight but I doubt that is the case. A fight to decide who gets to become Hokage would totally go against the whole “the person everyone acknowledges becomes Hokage” thing.

I will admit that Sasuke becoming Hokage would be a fitting conclusion though as it contrasts with Madara/Hashirama.

The ending was quite badass. I am looking forward to seeing Team Seven do some butt kicking.

I don’t have much to say this week.

Bleach

This was a somewhat confusing chapter. Even though it was kind of made clear that Misaka died because of that Quincy bad guy person, her death wasn’t actually shown. I think what happened was that he took her powers and thus made her too weak to take on Grand Fisher.

(I also thought that Isshin could no longer feel Hollow reiatsu in that form. Maybe he could sort of feel it?)

Everyone was right about Uryuu’s mother, but I don’t think anyone was really expected Quincy bad guy to also be Quincy father of all. I was confused when he called Ichigo his son, but now it is clear! Ichigo is just his descendant. The same is true for Uryuu.

This whole bad guy is Quincy father thing was a pretty smart addition to the plot actually. It kind of makes his overpoweredness, his age, his hate for Shinigami and his holier than thou nature make sense.

I still think he is a boring villain though. Captain Aizen was more entertaining.

I don’t know why Uryuu has gone to meet up with him, but I really, really, really hope it isn’t to join forces. Please don’t betray everyone’s expectations Uryuu. I know that if he does join forces, he will switch sides eventually, but I don’t want to have to go through the drama that that path of execution entails.

Oh and I am glad Ichigo is back to being his resolved self. I hope he can regain Zangetsu and be all boss again.

Naruto

I think I should just copy paste what I said for last chapter.

There were one or two moments where I was sort of touched (a bit more than last chapter) but the rest of it was just a boring cheese fest.

Dear Obito,

You suck.

-Everyone.

Kakashi’s whole speech to Obito was pretty good. It was the same speech that we heard right at the beginning of the manga and it was something Obito originally said. Kakashi though modified it and added the “And those who don’t even have the decency to respect their comrades memories are the worst”. That was a nice addition and one that caught Obito-suck-face off guard.

I honestly don’t care about the Jyuubi and its silly as fudge appearance. It is such an ugly thing, but it is not even ugly in a “euuu, so interesting” way. It is ugly in a “yawn, what a boring design” kind of way.

The Fourth’s appearance right at the end saved this chapter though. It flowed quite well with what Kakashi was saying about comrade’s memories and stuff, but the general unexpectedness of it made it all that much cooler.

I am glad that Naruto was expecting him and their little exchange right at the end was quite awesome to.

As much as I like to rant about this manga, you know you have done something right when the appearance of a single character right at the end of a chapter is enough to change your impression of the chapter.

I predict that the other Hokages are right behind the 4th. Things are finally going to get good.

One Piece

I was under the impression that the old lady knew Caribou wasn’t her grandson, but he looked like him, so she looked after him. I guess I was wrong and she actually had a case of mistaken identity.

As for the chapter itself, well, I am not a big fan of fighting in manga. I am even less of a fan when it involves multiple parties, none of whom belong to the main cast.

So, it should come as no surprise that I did not enjoy most of this chapter as much as I should have. Having said that, it was still a pretty good, quite enjoyable chapter (even more so on the second read).

I was surprised to see Rickey lose this easily, but as others have pointed out, time really does have quite the drastic effect on characters in this manga. It is nice to see a manga that actually acknowledges disadvantages that come with old age.

The betrayal around Dagama was quite funny. Everyone turned on one another like petty little criminals. It was especially hilarious how Dagama eventually decided to turn on Blue Gill only to be defeated and in the process accuse Blue Gill of being a traitor.

You don’t call someone a traitor right before you betray them! That is hilarious.

I wasn’t expecting Bellamy to get overwhelmed so easily. I thought it was really touching that Luffy actually tried to cheer on for Bellamy. Luffy does not hold grudges and he forgives people quite easily to. I love that part of his personality.

The King’s punch was quite badass.

There were a lot of little things that happened leading up and during the punch so it was quite confusing to make out who got hit and keep track of everyone on the field.

None of it really matters though because everyone except for Bartolomeo got knocked out. Bartomolomeo’s barrier (he ate the barrier fruit as I suspected) is really quite strong.

We will get Luffy’s block fighting next and that should be fun.

First though, we might get a little bit of back story and I am always up for some back story in One Piece.

Sorry I have been somewhat inactive for the past bit. School restarted and I got busy. To be honest, I should be working on other stuff right now, but oh well!

Bleach

Uryu’s mother identified. BEGIN SHIPPING PROCESS.

Ah, Bleach.

Chapters like this remind me why I still love this manga despite all of its numerous flaws.

That is not to say that this chapter was exceptionally brilliant or anything, it was just…just Bleach! It had that nice compassionate feeling to it that made Bleach so good at the beginning.  It is hard to explain but I guess you could say that the bond between and the actions of Masaki and Isshin felt right.

There was a nice bit of humor thrown in there and their feelings for one another came through the manga, or well Isshin’s feelings for Masaki anyway. It was quite obvious from the first time Masaki was mentioned more than 500 chapters ago that Isshin really, really loved her and it has become even more apparent now.

I have said it before and I will say it again, but I like learning about the Bleach cast, I really do.

Before, I was quite upset that Kubo had made Ichigo a Shinigami/Hollow/Quincy hybrid and I was under the impression that nothing could gracefully explain that hybrid status. I am glad I was wrong. Kubo’s explanation for how Ichigo came to be is rather silly (but so is everything in this manga), but it works and it works quite well, so I am pleased.

It looks like the next chapter will resolve the plot hole that came up as soon as Masaki’s identity as a Quincy was revealed. “Why was she not able to defeat Grand Fisher?”

I am going to guess that it wasn’t Aizen this time and it probably had something to do with the rogue Quincy folk. I actually really hope it wasn’t Aizen, that seems quite contradictory to something Aizen would do. To be honest, I don’t want it to be the rogue Quincy either because they are quite boring and annoying.

Oh well, you gotta go forward somehow…it is just such a shame that that is the case.

Oh and we got to see totally bare boobies this chapter. Hurrah!

Naruto

Pretty badass pose if I do say so.

Sigh, I don’t know why I still bother reading this weekly. I should just let it pile up for a while and marathon it all at once.

I guess I have to give props to Naruto for keeping everyone alive for so long. The little, once super dependent on others, ninja has really grown up. It has gotten to the point where people are willing to help him not because they pity for him or like him but because they believe in him and are grateful to him.

And well, continuing on wit the bright side, at least this chapter wasn’t as much of a cheeze fest as last time, though Obito and Kakashi’s conversation was quite the snooze.

There was a moment, a small moment though where I felt a bit sad at Obito’s story. For the longest time, this manga has been about the suffering of these poor ninja and while most of Obito’s story is nonsense, it does occasionally resonate.

I kind of felt sad here. I do like how he is telling Kakashi not to feel guilty because Obito doesn’t think Obito is worth caring about.

“Poor guy, this world must really suck for him to have turned out this way” is a thought I had for like a second before his stupidity made me sigh. I agree your world is messed up, but putting everyone to sleep is like the absolute dummest way to fix things.

At least back when Orochimaru was a villain, his motivations (as mysterious as they were) made more sense than this nonsense. Even Akatsuki with their initial plan to get all the tailed beasts and then use them to get money was much better than this.

It just goes to show you how important villains and their motivations really are. Even in Shonen, where the primary draw is battles and a badass hero, a good villain can make all the difference in the world.

As much as I like complex villains, I’d have honestly preferred it if both Obito and Madara were just pure evil and did not have these complex “save the world through dummification” ideologies.

One Piece

I find Caribou’s cover story to be quite interesting. Who was this Gabull and why did everyone like him? The grandma is so sweet. I hope Caribou takes good care of her.

I don’t have much to say about this chapter.

I had no idea that the old man once had a bounty of 500 Million. This guy is a true legend. Judging from what he said, he had the chance to kill Dragon. I kind of want to see their past and well I want to see what this guy and his “adorable” grandchildren are up to in this competition.

Only in One Piece will you see a sword blocking a headbutt….

I am glad that Cavendish lived up to his reputation. He is definitely no pushover.

I also found Luffy’s constant denial of being himself while at the same time admitting to being Luffy hilarious.

What I found most amusing though was Bortolomeo’s pissing action. This guy, this guy is incredible. I can’t believe he pulled out little Bortolomeo (loved the way the commenter phrased that) and pissed in front of everyone else.

Bartolomeo pissing

It looks like he has some shield power or something. He will probably win this round.

It should be quite apparent by now, but I am a sucker for fantasy romances. A pretty princess, a bishie bodyguard, a couple of tragic events and you are all set to make me happy!

Akatsuki no Yona is but another entry in the “princess forced to run away with her bodyguard’ genre, but boy is it a good one.

Description

For the sake of posterity, here is a Manga-Updates Link, but I recommend that you DO NOT read the description there. It doesn’t have any major spoilers, but you might as well avoid it as doing so will make the first chapter or two more powerful.

With that said, it is rather hard to describe this manga, but basically:

Bad things happen. A young princess and her bodyguard have to run away from their home. Then they must learn to survive in the wild.

When you boil it down to its basics, the description really does sound basic and it would probably sound worse if I mentioned that all of her future companions are hot bishies.

Oh, oops.

But, it is the little details of the princess’s journey that this manga does really well.

You can’t help but get sucked into the world with its politics, figureheads and myths. It is not a terribly original world, but a well realized one.

The Characters

The characters in Akatsuki no Yona are very well defined and distinct. Each character has his or her problems and are who they are because of a series of events. That is to say, character personalities don’t feel like they have been moulded out of thin air, but rather sculpted over time.

I am only going to cover three characters here, but the rest of the cast (especially Yoon and Seiryuu) are great as well.

Yona

She is so pretty.

At the beginning of the manga, Yona is supposed to be a spoilt, weak little princess. The idea with characters like hers is that you don’t show an incredibly strong character, but through growth, they become much stronger.

Unfortunately, ideas are good and all, but so many stories fail at that. It is hard to enough to build a base character that is easy to work upon and even harder to actually do the work.

Mizuho Kusanagi definitely succeeds with Yona.

At the beginning, when Yona was a weakling, I liked her because she was adorable, felt endearing and she made some great faces.

But the Yona that comes after that is incredible.

I have a massive crush for fierce princesses and good heavens is Yona fierce. And yet, as fierce as she may be, she isn’t a savage. She doesn’t beat people up or kill in bloodlust, no, when I mean fierce, I mean she posses massive resolve.

She is tired of being weak and thus, she works endlessly trying to become strong. She is tried of always relying on others and thus she works hard so others can rely on her.

Watching her grow is a massive treat and you can’t help but hope that she gets over her phantoms and becomes as strong as she wants to be.

Son Hak

Sassy motherfucker

I’d like to think that I have high standards for male characters, but I probably don’t. You could give me a bishie who isn’t terribly annoying, is good at fighting and I’d be all over him (metaphorically of course).

Son Hak is a bishie who isn’t annoying and is damn good at fighting. So, of course I like him.

But that doesn’t mean he is shallow. He isn’t as developed or as well defined as Yona, but he is far from being a shallow character.

He genuinely cares for Yona. He understands her well and even though as her bodyguard and old friend,  he sometimes wants to be overprotective, he holds himself back because she doesn’t want to be protected. That is to say, if it is something she wants, he will place it above her safety (though grudgingly so).

His loyalty towards Yona and love for her makes it so much fun to watch the two interact.

It is quite obvious that Hak has feelings for Yona and that is A-OK because they are my OTP.

Soo-won

Soo-won is an interesting character to say the least. Without spoiling much, let’s just say that we aren’t supposed to like him too much and yet, I actually really like him.

The circumstances behind his actions are still not totally clear, but he isn’t a bad person. If anything, he is the single most complex character in this manga. There are moments where he has flashbacks and they make you choke because they are so very sad.

The flashbacks of the other characters are sad because you feel sorry for them. They have suffered greatly and are rightfully upset/angry. In the case of Soo-won though, it was his actions that brought about emotional turmoil, both his and the turmoil of others. He feels incredibly guilty and yet, in his mind, he had no choice.

I don’t know if his deeds will ever be forgiven, but Soo-won makes my heart ache in the best of ways.

The Art

The art is quite simply, incredible.

The characters are drawn relatively distinct from one another. The male designs are kind of similar, but fortunately, their clothing and personalities differ enough to differentiate between them (for the most part).

Yona’s character design is excellent. She is very cute and yet, she is elegant enough to be a princess. Her red hair looks really nice. (I think I have a thing for red haired bishojous)

Emotional Moments

Without context this might not seem like much, but moments like this are what make this manga great.

I alluded to this earlier in that section on Soo-won, but this manga is packing in emotional moments. The cast is great, but it is these little moments of sadness, joy, triumph or despair that make this manga shine.

Goodbyes, farewells and forgotten childhood dreams pop up in some shape or form with most characters and they never fail to leave an impression. This manga does such a good job of showing the blissful pasts of characters only to brutally juxtapose it with their present. It is painful, heartbreaking and it really makes you feel for these characters.

You don’t just watch them roll through emotions, you roll along with them.

The emotional moments are not limited to the past dreams though. There are moments where something is said or done and you get hit in the face with an emotion packed espresso. I can’t describe it (at least not without spoilerific examples), but it is these moments that make this manga worthwhile.

I am being serious here. You need to read this manga. You will like the characters. You will like the art. Most importantly though, pretty much every other chapter, you will clutch your chest because you will be subjected to such melancholy and heartfelt heartbreak. Don’t be scared, you want to feel this way. You really do. Trust me.

p.s. The mangaka also made NG Life which is a great manga that I really should finish one of these days.

Unfortunately, there was only so far it could go whilst ignoring or making light jokes at the big fat elephant in the room.

Why the hell is the Demon Overlord so nice?

It would have been a different story if the anime had implied that demons and humans are equally moral beings and their war was not a result of an oppressive regime but rather one more war that started as a misunderstanding. Had that been the case, then both Emilia and the Hero could have come to understand one another and work out their differences.

But, that wasn’t the case. The Demons were shown ravaging humans and supposedly without any cause or reason to.

That was necessary because we couldn’t have had the great contrast between evil overlord and McDonald’s employee that we do have. On top of that, Emilia could not exist in her current, “not terribly moral but absolutely repulsed by the demon lord” form that she is in today.

Top form I say!

So, how do you try and make Maou look like a good person without completely nullifying the past? By playing the blame game of course.

All of the flashbacks that Emilia had involved Lucifer. Maou even confessed to being ignorant of humans back then.

In other words, Lucifer is the bad guy and Maou was just too ignorant of humans to bother stopping him. I guess Maou grew up looking down on humans so while he had no personal vendetta against them, he had nothing against seeing them flicked off the map.

Taking the story in this cliche, but tried and true method means that Maou can be effectively pardoned for his sins in the past. He will still be criminally negligent but he will no longer be the main person responsible for everything and this should hopefully allow him to win Emilia’s trust and friendship.

It is kind of unfortunate that Maou-Sama had to go down this route, but there really was no other way (that I can think of).

As much as folk would have liked for the day to day shenanigans to continue, that would have gotten tiring after a while. There was only so long the show could have evaded the other world stuff.

It is not all doom and gloom though. I am still hopeful that this show will continue to be entertaining.

For starters, Demon General Lucifer is in human form as well. Yeah, he got wings, but he likely only temporarily got them when he fed on Chiho’s despair. He also looks like a little kid. I am really hoping that Maou gives him a whack on the head and forces him to get a part time job here in the human world ( I think he is behind the serial muggings).

I think the goth coffee place down the street would be a good fit for him.

Hopefully the humans who saw him with wings will just think that Maou and company are putting out another stage show. Then again, an entire building blew up…so I don’t know….I really hope he is just accused of stage play (the encounter with the police officer earlier in the episode did sort of foreshadow that possibility).

Emilia’s compatriots are also on there way here. They will hopefully meet up with Emilia and then start part time jobs of their own!

I hear Kyubey is hiring.

I have no idea where the show will go from here on, but I do hope that it keeps the humor up and the drama down for the first few episodes were great and it’d be a shame to see it all go down the drain.

Oh and there is an interesting bit of contrast going on. If my assumption that Lucifer is the serial mugger is correct, then he is the exact opposite of Maou who is earning money through a proper job. That kind of emphasizes the whole “Maou is not evil, but Lucifer is”. It would appear that just like their magical powers, deeds get downscaled in our world to.

A villain in Enta Isle razes villages to the ground. The same villain in our world mugs purses. An ignorant overlord in Enta Isle is a fast food employee and all around good person. A Hero in Enta Isle is a call center employee. A Demon General in Enta Isle is a stay at home housewife.

That is a fierce demon general riding a bike to get medical supplies.

I absolutely love that contrast/downscaling/whatever and I really hope it can find a way to keep it up until the end.

Bleach

I am always fascinated by the kind of BS Kubo pulls out of his ass.

“Oh, when Shinigami turn into hollow, you need to inject the opposite soul type into their soul to reverse the process. That is to say, you need to inject Quincy arrows + human souls to stop the process.”

“For a Quincy turning into a hollow, you need to inject Shinigami soul. If you wish to turn the Quincy back into a human, you must perpetually donate ‘soul’/reiatsu/thing.”

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

This is Bleach logic at its finest. It is so ridiculous and yet it makes total sense.

I am not insulting the chapter or anything, I love Bleach when it gets this silly!

This kind of makes the present make sense. Isshin had his powers sealed because of that doll thing he was occupying and because he was tied to the “hollow soul”, he could only leave the doll when Ichigo’s hollow powers manifested.

I don’t know if Masaki got to keep her Quincy powers after this. I am guessing from her death to a weak hollow that she did not get to keep them or they were limited in some significant way.

I am guessing that Isshin’s decision to help Masaki is what led to the downfall of the Shiba clan. When he doesn’t return for a while, he will probably get marked as a traitor and this in turn will destroy the reputation of the clan. That is my guess anyway.

I do feel sorry for Tōshirō and Matsumoto. They never even got to say goodbye to their captain. I do think Isshin should have taken the time to sent back one last form of communication, though if Soul Society knew exactly what he was about to do, they would have been quite appalled. Maybe a ‘beware of spies’ message to Tōshirō or Matsumoto would have been nice.

Naruto

BORING

is really the only word I can use to describe this chapter.

After the hypefest that was chapter 627 and a one week break, we come back to this??

I don’t care one bit about Naruto right now. His cheesy attitude and friendship loving morals are all annoying. Obito and his blather is just as annoying if not more so. I don’t care if Obito still holds a crush on Kakashi and thus wants to be alone in another dimension with him.

How boring. Really, the only sort of entertaining bit this chapter was Madara’s reaction to Hashirama but he shouldn’t have had that reaction in the first place!

It might be weird of me to point this out now, but this whole chakra sensing business is quite ridiculous. They are ninjas…they should be stealthy. To begin with, chakra was always meant to be an internal thing. The only times other folk could ever sense someone’s chakra was when they were dealing with abnormalities like the 9 Tails.

Then again, I guess the 1st Hokage is an abnormality, but still! I’d rather have the 1st pop up out of nowhere and shock Madara.

Regardless, this chapter was boring.

But man am I hyped to see the 4 Hokage kick some major ass.

One Piece

Dem Legs

I am not even going to bother talking about the new characters introduced. There are just too many at this point.

Not that that’s a bad thing mind you. This is the way One Piece has always been. In a chapter or two, most of these characters will be defeated and forgotten but some will actually become important down the line. So, we just need to wait a bit for the current chaos to calm down.

That Ricky guy seems interesting thing. Some folk suspect he is Kratos, but we will just have to wait and see. I am pretty sure he is going to end up being important though.

The really surprising thing this chapter was seeing Luffy’s identity revealed in such a nonchalant manner.

I love Luffy’s face and Caven’s eccentric hatred for such a shallow reason.

I feel sorry for Caven Dish. The guy he was talking to all along turned out to be his worst enemy. I hope the two can still be friends somehow. I wonder if Luffy’s identity will be revealed for everyone now. I doubt that will be the case. If anything, I hope that isn’t the case.

I bet Luffy and this old man (Don Chin Jao) won’t even get to fight. That will be such a classic Oda thing to do. Or, you know, revealing Luffy’s identity was the form of revenge he was talking about.

I do hope we get to see a bit more of what is happening with everyone else soon, though it might be better to finish one or two stories first. There is way too much going on right now to keep track of.

One Piece always has great covers.

]]> http://toxicmuffin.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/weekly-shonen-bleach-535-naruto-628-one-piece-706/feed/ 0 reiseng Bleach Urahara Ishida Faces bleach_balance bleach_more_nonsense naruto_madara_hype Dem Legs One Piece Luffy Caven One_Piece_revealed One_Piece_cover http://toxicmuffin.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/gj-bu-end-of-season-thoughts/ http://toxicmuffin.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/gj-bu-end-of-season-thoughts/#comments Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:30:19 +0000 Reiseng http://toxicmuffin.wordpress.com/?p=4404 ]]> I know that with Spring well under the way, I really should be talking about currently airing anime, but I really wanted to have at least one post on what I consider to be Winter 13′s most under appreciated anime.

Warning: Like any respectable fanboyistic post on this blog, this post to is 50% picture spam, 40% incoherent text and 30% non-existent math.

It is hard to try and quantify exactly what it is that is so great about Gj-bu. A lot of people often prefaced their “I love Gj-bu” with “I don’t know why, but for some reason….”. I, myself don’t really know exactly what it is that made this show such a joy to watch, but I do know for sure that it was a joy to watch.

(I actually have two draft posts on this anime, but they didn’t go anywhere. That just goes to show that this is actually quite a difficult anime to blog about or you know, just how lazy I am.)

Gj-bu has no overlying plot or story that connects each episode. Even though references to past events are often made in episodes, each episode is stand alone. And that makes sense for this show is slice of life and a large slice at that to. I guess you could think of it as a blend of Haruhi and Minami-ke?

The Characters

Gender Job-bu

Most of the characters in Gj-bu are very loosely based on common anime archetypes (e.g. Tsundere, super smart girl, etc). Note how I sad loose though. This show does a great job of creating characters that are fleshed out enough to stand out from most of their peers.

There was really only one character I didn’t really like in Gj-bu and that was Tamaki. I didn’t dislike her either though. I just found her to be average. I also wasn’t too fond of Kirara, but that is less because her character was lacking, but more so because her base archetype was one that I am not generally fond of.

The fact that the worst character in this anime is only ‘average’ should tell you just how likeable the cast is.

Kyōya Shinomiya

Upon first sight, it might be easy dismiss Kyōya as generic harem lead #343847, but that would be a wrong judgement for two reasons:

1. Kyōya is actually not a bad lead character.
2. Gj-bu is not a harem, or at least not a traditional harem.

It might seem contradictory to suggest that an anime with 1 guy and 9 girls (1 of which is an imouto) is not a harem, but it is kind of true in this case. The girls in Gj-bu like playing with Kyōya, but none of them have ever actually expressed a desire to be romantically involved with him.

Kyōya himself has his Dere Dere moments, but he to doesn’t really see himself as being romantically involved with anyone of these girls.

Going back to the first point for a second, Kyōya is actually a pretty likeable lead.

For the most part, he is incredibly passive and a push-over but I never felt that the mockery he suffers at the hands of his club mates ever enters the bullying or offensive region. Lightly prodding Kyōya is just the Gj-bu members (mainly Mao) do and lightly accepting those prods is just how Kyōya rolls.

Except for Valentines Day Chocolates. He really wants Valentines Day Chocolates.

He is nice, but he isn’t like that for no reason. He is nice to his fellow club mates because he actually does care about their well being and enjoys being around them. This becomes quite apparent when you realize that Kyōya doesn’t spend the entire day thinking ecchi things, nor does he see the girls in this show as walking boobs.

Kyōya actually converses with his friends on a one on level. He actually thinks of them as friends. It might not seem like a big thing, but in the world of bland male leads, it is a pretty big thing (heck, encountering a guy this nice and respectable is probably a rare thing in real life to).

It is this kind, respectful nature that makes Kyōya such an endearing character. He is not a character you will stay up all night thinking about, nor is he one you will hate with passion. He is a character whose moments on screen will be accompanied by peaceful bliss and the occasional chuckle.

Ore-Man

If Kyōya’s regular personality can put you at ease, then Ore-Man can make you laugh quite hard.

Ore-Man was a persona that Kyōya was forced to make to appease Mao and the other club members. The main building block, or rather the only building block, of this persona was manliness, lots of it.

The most remarkable thing about Ore-Man (other than its obvious hilarity) was just how dignified of a persona it actually was.

Normally when folk think of manly things, they think of a chauvinistic, buff, succeed or die trying kind of guy. Kyōya’s interpretation was a bit different. His interpretation is a confident, dignified individual capable of making quick decisions and capable of saying what needs to be said.

It is a nice interpretation and one that I hope I can someday sort of emulate.

Mao Amatsuka

Mao is the president of the Gj-bu club and arguably the most important character in this anime for her decisions pretty much decide what happens each episode.

If I was to categorize Mao as a club leader, she’d fall into the ‘occasionally clumsy, somewhat strange, but excellent leader’ category. Even though she is nowhere near as perfect (in terms of scholastic/athletic achivements), Mao reminds me a little of Haruhi. They are both club leaders that actually do leader like things. Namely, both of them boss everyone around and arrange club activities.

Her biting fetish is a rather interesting personality trait and one that inspired many a watcher to adapt biting as a personal fetish.

Her outlandish behavior is well complimented by her less obvious quirks. Little things like her dislike of orange veins, her fondness of kids meals and her kiss phobia do a good job of rounding her character.

It takes an episode or two to get used to her Genki-tsundere blend nature, but once you get used to her, you never really stop liking her.

Megumi Amatsuka

Megumi was the first Gj-bu girl I liked and my initial candidate for best girl.

At her heart, Megumi is a polite, gentle girl with a weight complex.

It might not seem like much, but her refined, elegant nature is surprisingly well done and never feels overbearing or shallow.

And it is not like Megumi doesn’t have her moments of adorable-ness. She has plenty of them to!

–Source

She also provides a great contrast to her older, far more brash sister, Mao.

Shion Sumeragi

Shion is the ‘smart’ person in this club. Like all ‘smart’ characters, she naturally lacks common sense.

Three things though set her apart from the competition:

1. Her lack of common sense is from a sheltered upbringing not her large cranium.
2. She doesn’t even lack that much common sense. She just isn’t used to ‘normal’ things like vending machines.
3. She actually tries to work hard on improving her common sense.

That last point is particularly important. Shion recognizes her own weakness and works on it. I love a hard working smart person.

Her relationship with Tamaki is also very cute.

Kirara Bernstein

I am normally not too fond of cat like characters, but Kirara was all right. (A lot of people really like her though).

She is the uncontrollable beast of Gj-bu. She does whatever she wants and eats as much meat as she wants.

She didn’t talk much, so I never really got much of  a feel for her character unfortunately. That is probably why I don’t like her as much as I like the others. On the other hand though, she does some very interesting things.

The strange things she does when drunk are hilarious and to top if of, she has some connection to Canada, which obviously makes her 10 times better.

I also loved her texts in the last episode. Here we have a character who almost never speaks and only speaks in shortened sentences, but her text messages are incredibly long and well crafted. It was a neat little twist and throwing it in the final episode right before her graduation was a classy touch.

Tamaki Kannazuki

I mentioned this earlier, but I felt that Tamaki was the weakest character in the show. She joined a bit late and there wasn’t quite enough to distinguish her from everyone else (especially Mao). Then again, maybe Mao got someone similar to her because Mao would be graduating soon.

I also wasn’t too fond of the way she spoke. The frequent ‘des’ at the end combined with the high voice irked me a little.

Tamaki still had her moments though. She was a good enemy for Megumi (what with her constantly eating and never gaining weight) and a great plaything for Shion. She also had some great faces.

Others

I am not going to bother talking much about the remaining 4 characters, but they are all quite likable in their own. The fact that their are two Mori’s and no one knew was hilarious. Kasumi has a massive brother complex like all imoutos, but she is energetic enough to make it work. Seira is scary and quite interesting because of her “inner voice” thing. Geraldine lived in Canada and calls Kyōya “Samurai Master. What is there not to like?

Sexual Tension

Admit it, you have a thing for girl Kyōya.

It is not uncommon to get ecchi scenes or “sexual tension” in anime (especially in anime where almost everyone is a girl), but Gj-bu does sexual tension a bit differently.

There are not many “walked in on girls changing” or “face accidentally implanted in boob” scenes. Instead, Gj-bu has a good amount of implied sexual tension. Or well, that is the impression I get anyway.

For starters, even though Kyōya never acts like a pervert, a lot of the novels he reads are kind of erotic.And he seems to enjoy them on a slightly different level than most porn loving otaku. His lax, almost shame free attitude towards erotica reminds a bit of folk like Kastel and Master 2DT (don’t tell them I said that).

I mentioned Mao’s biting fetish earlier, and while it is a very interesting fetish, a far more prominent fetish would be the infamous “hair combing” fetish.

Hair Combing is probably the number one phrase used to describe this show and for good reason to.

@reisengrath everytime i brush my hair i wonder why HE isn't doing it ;_____;

—
chii (@andrea_chii) March 31, 2013

In the anime, Kyōya often gets roped into brushing someone’s hair and whenever he does so, the facial expressions and sounds emitted are rather….

…orgasmic….I guess

And it doesn’t stop there. Some of the activities the club members engage in have subtle hints thrown in here and there….

Mao likes to use Kyōya as a chair.

They play doctor….

I almost got an imouto bite fetish…almost.

There is some serious hanky panky going on.

…

and some Yuri/Bestiality to….

(Source & Source)

Soundtrack

Unfortunately, there isn’t much of a memorable soundtrack to Gj-bu.That comes with the territory though. This is just slice of life, there aren’t any over the top combat scenes that require epic background music. Some of the background music like the Ore-Man theme was pretty good though.

The opening song isn’t something that you would listen to on its own, but it is a very appropriate song for this anime. I think the visuals in the OP really go well with the anime as a whole. The Opening never failed to hype me up for this anime and at the end of the day, that is all you can really ask for.

There were several different endings, and I don’t remember them terribly well, but the final ending used in episode 12 was pretty great. The graduation theme was also excellent.

Animation

The animation was for the most part not outstanding, but the cartoony, simplistic design worked really well for this show. The character designs and color choices reminded me of Acchi Kocchi and just like Acchi Kocchi, the palette gave the show a nice, comfortable feeling.

Some of the character movements and cute scenes were made all the more cuter because they had neat little tricks like large chibi faces thrown in.

I think there were one or two scenes with some really nice animation though.I think I recall a Cherry Blossom scene having quite nice animation, but my memory might be kind of shoddy.

This is pretty.

All in all, the animation was very consistent and I never really noticed it drop.

Final Episode

I am not going to claim that Gj-bu had the best finale last season. I can’t make that claim because there were many other equally good finales (Tamako, Minami-ke, JoJo and heck even Haganai). Having said that, the ending was great.

I went into the final episode with much apprehension because I did not want Gj-bu to be over. I had enjoyed it a lot more than I had expected and its episodes never failed to bring a little smile to my face.

For once, the ending to a slice of life actually felt like an ending. It didn’t end on a “hey, we are going to keep being cool, so you go watch something else for a few seasons while waiting for us to come back” note. No, the final episode concluded it all. It had a complete graduation and a proper farewell to Mao, Shion and Kirara.

It was wonderful and gave me lots of fuzzy feelings.

(Don’t get me wrong, we might still get a sequel as the LN is still ongoing, but this felt like the perfect way to end an important part of the Gj-bu club’s history.)

As some folk would so eloquently phrase it, the final episode gave me a serious case of the feels.

Conclusion

All in all, Gj-bu was a very fun show. It was something I could watch with little worry and thought. I ended up enjoying pretty much every episode. From it’s delightful cast to its colorful visuals to its lovely character interactions, Gj-bu was really one of the dark knights in Winter 13.

I don’t know how long I will remember this anime, but for now anyway, I am glad that I watched it.

I absolutely love this shot. Everything from the posture to the lighting is perfect. His casual, but melancholy pose really captures the spirit of this show and the emotions involved in saying goodbye.

This shot of lonely Kyōya is shortly succeeded by:

Perfection. There is a reason I ship these two. This is a lovely reminder that even though his senpai have left him, Kyoya isn’t alone.