Release Date: Jan 25, 2012

Performed by:  Kobayashi Mika, David Whitaker, mpi, Honda Michiyo, Aimee Blackschleger, Leina, Cyua

Score: 4.8 /5.0

Tracklist

01 βίος
02 α
03 Ω
04 Ready to Go
05 friends
06 VOiD
07 ge19
08 θεοί
09 close your eyes
10 Βασιλεύς
11 π
12 Release My Soul
13 κr0nё
14 Hill Of Sorrow
15 Απōκάλυψις
16 Home ~in this corner~
17 Genesi§
18 βίος-δ
19 Rё∀˥

Download

If you enjoy the album and/or wish to obtain it legally, you can do that here.

Review

FINALLY!

I could describe each track on the CD in a great detail, but that would take me forever. There are just so many artists, genres,  atmosphere shuffles that all I need to say is: MASTERPIECE. There were only two songs that I removed from my playlist. The rest.. I simply can’t stop listening to. It could be my love to fast-paced action tracks with occasional beautiful and unrecognisable lyrics. There’s also always the nostalgic factor, I can’t listen to these tracks without the thought of a revolution and fight for freedom. For me, it’s on top of my all-time favourite anime OSTs next to greatest series such as Code Geass, Darker than BLACK, Fullmetal Alchemist, so it’s funny that an average Anime made its way here. And that’s mostly because of the story’s quality in Guilty Crown. Really, for a show that has an epic soundtrack like this to blatantly mix-up stuff from other successful series? That just hurts to watch, but let’s give it credit for releasing something so awesome.

It took shorter than expected, the spots were well deserved and I had only a bit of doubt. This time I’ve included shows that I don’t watch, just to make sure I don’t miss something good!

10. Persona 4 OP 2 – “The way of Memories -Kizuna no Chikara- “

It started well, it ended great, also the idea was nice, yet the whole middle of the opening is just plainly boring. Like a Skrillex fan would say: ‘WHERE’S DROP?!’. The breaking point (aka the moment when it gets exciting) just doesn’t exist and the action scenes aren’t really making much difference when the song feels so empty with occasional good rhytm (that goes for the cool scene when the characters put on/off glasses).

9. Nisemonogatari OP 1.5 -  “Futakotome”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs-cBb6Y7eM

Typical for the series crazy typography plus random paper clips and finally Senjo flying around. Alike the previous nominee it was too lazy and lacked a certain jump in action. In this case we’ve atleast got a quite nice song covering it.

8. Natsume Yuujinchou Shi OP – “Ima, Kono Toki”

Even though this opening successfully delivered the background to the main story, it feels like a step backwards in comparison to its previous ones. This time around we’ve got sadness turning into happiness with a rather weak song. I don’t really feel like going through it more than once, whilst I couldn’t skip through sequences in the prequels.

7. Aquarion Evol OP – “Kimi no Shinwa ~ Aquarion Dai Ni Shou”

I don’t watch it so I’m not sure what feelings it should deliver, but it’s a step ahead with all the action and overall presentation. The music is good and the scenes are fun to watch. It’s not really sparkling with originality but honestly, it’s good enough, especially for an average show.

6. Area no Kishi OP – “Higher Ground”

It starts off like an average sports Anime opening, but the music is somehow addicting and the pace speeds up nicely. Once again, nothing unique here, but the cheerful atmosphere (as usually seen in the first op of a shounen) together with good song makes it the first from the bunch that I just don’t want to skip through.

5. Ano Natsu de Matteru OP – “sign”

And here we reach top five, where without any sign (Heh.) of originality no show shall pass. And my least favourite of these is a slow, yet slightly unique opening that just perfectly describes the show. I like the way it develops all the way through. As someone who’s not all that into romance/drama/comedy kind of series, I couldn’t place it in a better spot though.

4. Mirai Nikki OP 2 – “Dead END”

It just HURTS how much potential this opening killed, it could’ve easily been in the top 3. At first I was really impressed with the fresh look at the show, then it turned to slight excitement and then.. Boom, disappointment. It’s like.. They ran out of ideas middleway and just copy&pasted best Yuno scenes from the previous op just sped up and in different colour. I really enjoy the song, character presentation and overall atmosphere, yet the way they went about the refrain and Yuno makes me sad.

3. Nisemonogatari OP 2 – “marshmallow justice”

I love how well executed this opening is. The whole art, colorful style simply make me want to give Bakemonogatari a second chance..  It’s just a designgasm. I wish the singer would be different though..  A bit too harsh voice for my taste. But then again, I’d rather have that than ‘SO EVERYTHING THAT MAKES ME WHOLE‘ kind of thing.

2. Rinne no Lagrange OP – “TRY! Unite”

It was a hard choice, I wasn’t sure whether it deserve this spot or not because the song is way too feminine for my taste. Eventually I came to conclusion that the art style is so unique and pretty that it puts the previous openings to shame. The colorful nature and great quality of CGI easily made it one of the best.

And finally..

1. Guilty Crown OP 2 – “The Everlasting Guilty Crown”

I’m sure many of you would disagree as there are many strong opponents this season, but for me the song is definitely the most catchy out of all. I just can’t wait for it to come out. Add to it the poetic feeling, Shu who for once acts like a man, Inori being the regular hotness, really cool colouring style and the only thing it lacks in comparison to second and third place: quality boost. I wish the crystals looked better and all the effects aren’t exactly as good as they can be during action scenes. But meh, it’s still easily my favourite.. Even though I’m hating on the serie.

Hopefully you enjoyed these as much as I did. This season is now officialy a visual eye candy.

Just got the cases, I’ve ordered 20 Viva Elite Black DVD x2 14mm. I chose these because they don’t have any logos on the box, they’re completely clean. Also there are two slots for DVDs and finally, 14mm thickness (which is alike to PS3/X360 cases) so on display it’s easy to see each spine.

Above is the picture of my quick print&cut of the Samurai Champloo image in the case. Since my printer isn’t exactly the best and the photo was taken via phone, the quality isn’t too satisfying. Still, I’m honestly surprised how well it looks even though it was printed on ordinary paper!

Still, I want these to get more reflection so that means glossy paper, today I’ll hit printing shop so expect more images of my progress soon!

An ‘Another’ interpretation that takes you through a maddening journey that puts all horror stories to shame.

First of all I’d like to warn you. This post is creepy and quite possibly dangerous for your mental health so browse through it with caution. You’ve been warned.

Shocking truth: Introduction of the main characters during the first episode had ONE MORE character that most of us ignored. Just look closely, it was there the whole time.. Silently watching…

Certainly you know who I am talking about by now, yes, it’s..

…In this screencap aswell. Do you feel it? The rising suspense, the silent scream of a murderer chasing down it’s prey..

No wait! There are TWO! It’s a pack! Or is it..? I’m slowly losing my mind,  It’s just too terrifying!

There! You can’t really see it, but it’s there.. In this darkness it lurks, waiting for the right moment to leap, feeling it yet?

So now you know.. You know what to expect to be there, hidden underneath this whole time.. Now to be revealed..

…

(Pretty sure dots add to the suspense, so there)

…

A BLOODTHIRSTY MONSTER.

They are many, sometimes they’re in packs, they drink blood and it’s not unusual to say ‘another sink’. Gotcha, mystery solved.

.. And yes. before you ask, I did watch the whole second episode looking for sinks in the background. Was fun.

So after seeing a display of custom PS3 cases for various games today, I got this idea to make my own collection of favourite Anime, starting with boxes that I made using PC game’s DVD template, some awesome wallpapers I’ve found + the official logos + eventually the text I added for english translation of the title. Now it’s all a matter of buying a bunch of empty game cases for PS3 or PC (can’t seem to find these..) and then going to a printing shop to get it done on a glossy paper and voilà!

Personally, I won’t feel bad about burning myself the DVDs with preferred subtitle group and quality, but if you consider yourself a rightful person who orders these ridiculously expensive Anime series online – custom cases are a way to go when your old ones get damaged or you simply want a new design for them. Anyhow, if you’re interested in making some of your own, here’s a link to the NeoGAF forums where I got the necessary templates from, plus all the information on how to print them.

I don’t mind sharing my own printable pictures, but atm I’ve got only preview of the boxes. I’ll be sure to provide what I’ve got so far though!

And here’s a preview boxes’ display made for my favourite series (atleast the ones I could find a fitting wallpaper for):

Mushishi

Madoka Magica ver.1

Madoka Magica ver.2

Lucky Star

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Darker than BLACK

Death Note

Code Geass

Samurai Champloo

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Higurashi Naku Koro Ni

Monster

Release date: Dec 22, 2011

Performed by: Kaitou Tatsuya

Score: 3.2/ 5.0

Tracklist

01 Shinri no Tobira Ga Hirakareta
02 Ugokidasu Yokan
03 Tenkai Rhythmination
04 Nounai Trance
05 Gusha e no Sesewarawai
06 Ingaritsu no Michibiki no Mama Ni
07 Zetsubou wa Mousugu Soko Ni
08 Norikoeru Beki wa Satsugai Kyoufu
09 Accelerator mind
10 Konran Culture

Download

If you enjoy the album and/or wish to obtain it legally, you can do that here.

Review

Long awaited soundtrack filled with bloodlust and Mirai Nikki’s murderous atmosphere. Well, the thing with soundtrack CDs is that they contain all the music from the serie, be it a 4-note piano piece that lasts for 15 sec or a great and swift track including many instruments that goes on for 4 minutes. In this case four out of ten landed in my playlist, the rest were simply too short, too simplistic or generally not fun to listen to. So starting with number 3, it’s a bit complex action track with a slight pump-up attitude, it’s nothing great but nevertheless gives the nostalgic feeling. The next piece is much more comfortable, it’s a slightly mysterious and hypnotising action music with a really nice flow.  Next soundtrack on my list is number 8, it’s most likely the most recognisable action piece out of all Mirai Nikki‘s sounds. I really loved it in Anime, but when I listen to it alone, it feels rather out of place and way too heavy. It has massive nostalgic feel to it so I keep listening to it though. The final piece on my playlist is the last track on the CD, even though it’s slower than the rest, it certainly is the one with the strongest Mirai Nikki feeling to it. I wish it wasn’t so repetetive, it could easily be the best piece but it’s pretty much the same thing over and over.

So summing up, the music is just awesome during the show, but as standalone tracks they’re not as powerful anymore and feel above average only because of the nostalgia coming from the show. But that’s to be expected, it’s just a background soundtrack after all, it’s still recommended for all fans of the serie.

Whoa. The season was rather weak at the beginning, but now that I’ve checked rest of the shows, this looks so damn good!

  Another

It’s another mystery horror (Ha ha). So far it’s neither gore or crazy.. It just stinks with death and surely is mysterious to the bone. I must say I like that setting, after all I’d rather have a show with a nasty secret rather than another (…) one with brutal scenes of murder that make no sense until end of the serie. My point is, we had Higurashi, now it’s time for something fresh, and the first episode surely felt like something new, especially with all the creepy dismembered dolls appearing out of nowhere.

A RANDOM CREEPY DOLL OUT OF NOWHERE! THE HORROR

So the plot got me intrigued, I started wondering why is she ‘another’ and what it can mean. Then again, it doesn’t seem like the classmates can see her, which makes the protagonist seem like a special person who did something in the past that he doesn’t remember. But what? And why did they question whether or not he lived in this town before?.. MYSTERY! And I like that, everything so far makes sense, but I expect a supernatural twist.

Then comes the music and animation, both fit perfectly except for the opening sequence.. I can’t help it but think that ALI PROJECT doesn’t suit that type of a show, so that’s the only disappointment I can think of so far. Can’t wait for ANOTHER episode, haha I’m on a(nother) funny streak.

Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

The most popular show of the season is definitely Nisemonogatari, but as far as I’m concerned, Daily Lives of High School Boys takes the cake with a little effort. Why? Because the comedy is just brilliant and it’s like Gintama x High School Show, except it’s completely without any drama. In the first episode they already broke the fourth wall, parodied Gundams, scary stories and even boy-meets-girl-at-the-riverbank scene. So we’ve got a slightly crazy Anime that parodies other shows, it has no borders so we can expect .. Actually we don’t know what the hell to expect from each episode – which is great, and the humour itself doesn’t fail in making me giggle every scene. Not to forget the awesome seiyuu squad, we’ve got Gintoki and Sougo from Gintama and Haku from Spirited Away as the main characters. It’s like a birthday cake with cool people on it.

You know shit is getting serious when it jumps to black and white

It’s rather obvious that the plot doesn’t exist, as for the art – it’s friggin’ good,  the most amazing thing here are the expressions.. You already know how it goes if you watched Gintama, or any other comedy with this unusual style.. Basically it’s all about the shadows that cover eyes when someone’s angry or hurt, ‘just died’ sight when in shock, plus lots of deliquent faces and what-not. These reactions together with swift animation are funny themselves even when parody is not in town.

So that’s definitely my winner of the season, I just love good comedies.

Rinne no Lagrange

Oh and before I start..

Yes, main heroine is also called Madoka, thanks god we're past that now

I expected it to be a comedy with some crazy fights and what-not, but turns out it’s actually serious and it has very faint humour in it. I must say I enjoyed it quite a bit, it felt like Star Driver gone right: Cute female characters, plot that’s simplistic and doesn’t yell ‘LOOK HOW DEEP I AM, CAN YOU FEEL IT’, visually it’s fucking gorgeous, random mecha fights that aren’t really exciting but who cares with this animation and finally – it has this genki and tomodachi atmosphere to it that makes the show easy to watch.

Aw boy, you got beaten by a girl, now that's going to leave some damage

Without a doubt it’s the best serie of the winter when it comes to graphics, everything is so beautifully detailed and the characters’ bodies don’t change their properties in each scene. Music is definitely good, but I’m not quite sure yet if it’s going to get better or not, left me with a good impression though. So summing up: Epic art, yummy main characters, average plot and music and an cheerful atmosphere that you’ve felt in many other shows with faint yet good comedy. Definitely going further with this one, looks like a fun ride.

Ano Natsu De Matteru

A romance piece with a high harem potential, but let’s be honest, the first girl rule never lets us down and with that said he’s so going for the red-haired alien chick. But I doubt he’s the only one who wants a piece of her..

Surprise buttsecks~

I can’t help it but feel the Ano Hi Mita vibe coming from this serie. It must be because of this art, which is very similar and the ‘group of friends’ plus one extraordinary girl theme, but instead of a ghost we’ve got alien and in place of drama there’s comedy. Which for me, is a damn great improvement as I’m getting tired of all the sad shows. Also I’m pretty sure every fan of Onegai Teacher is glad to see the reincarnation of the show. I must say I enjoyed it more than I expected, even though I don’t like the dull main character I definitely want to see more of the red-haired dere alien and her silly actions. The side characters also have some unique traits to them and in combination with the awkward situations caused by the alien chick I expect some decent comedy scenes. No doubt there’ll be some plot twists involved with the relationshippy part of the show, plus the closer look into each person in the film-making team, so that’s also something to look forward to.

So art is very friendly and fits this kind of show just right, the opening and ending sequences do a great job in presenting the atmosphere, plus I really like how unique they are. Story so far is the only thing I’m not excited about, the idea of recording a movie with bunch of high school friends is cool and all, but I’m concerned that love story might take a priority here, and that’s always bad news for a comedy addict like me. Anyhow, definitely going to see more.

Area no Kishi

I picked it up with no idea what to expect, as I always look the other way when sport anime are mentioned, this time I felt like giving it a go (Especially because I loved Hajime no Ippo and it took me a damn long time to convince myself to try Anime about boxing). Turns out it’s an awesome chil-out show. It’s definitely going to triumph Natsume Yuujinchou which I’m getting so fed on, and Area no Kishi seems to do a great job on the ‘getting interested’ part.  But that’s shounen’s influence.. They always have to be addicting in one way or another. In this case, I’m not curious whether or not the main character will become the best soccer player in the world, but I’m simply compelled by the interesting setting where the aniki seems to be concerned with his little brother’s dreams that he already gave up on, but at once he seems to be the ultimate rival for him. Add to that female childhood friend and a leg injury and there goes the story. We all know where this is going from this point on, so no surprises here, just an easy to watch show with some little fresh touch to it.

A relevant picture of Brazil going BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Animation, music and atmosphere are these of a good shounen, so it’s not awesome like in FMA but it’s definitely much better than the average. Story is simplistic with some comedy in it and characters are interesting. No idea how many episodes it’s supposed to have though, so as long as it’s not overextended and doesn’t go bad, I’ll just keep watching it as a bedtime Anime.

Hopefully you’re as excited as me to see more of these!

Finally a glimpse into this winter’s season, nothing shocking here so far, but there’s a bunch of series left so who knows.

Let’s see what we’ve got so far:

Kill Me Baby

When I first saw it on the winter chart I thought it has some comedy potential, that it would have crazy characters, exaggerated and random scenes that I wouldn’t predict resulting in a burst of laughter. And what did I get? An Anime that’s WAY overextended to 20min per episode about the most cliche comedy scenes one could imagine in a show with a student assassin. If there’s anything that actually brought a smile to my face, it’s this part of the opening sequence, I could just sit here and unconciously evaporate my brain while watching it for 10 minutes straight and that still would be better than watching the actual show.

To be more precise, most of the comedy includes assassin instinct and the way she reacts to the sudden greetings etc. (Oh you wouldn’t guess that she actually attacks in that case, now would you), other than that it turns out she’s a scaredy cat, so there’s that. Finally we’ve got a ninja character who’s doing all the fancy stuff we saw in Naruto, but when it comes to showing how to do it, everything turns out to be a scam. So as you can see, very basic, elementary even comedy setting that won’t make you laugh out loud. I’ll keep on going with a high chance of dropping it anytime soon.

BRAVE 10

Normally I’d say that it was surprisingly good, but after seeing the trailer for it, I’m not surprised it turned out well. All the elements are above average: Animation, music, plot, characters and even the comedy. So far as the story goes: Main protagonist meets a girl who’s being hunted, helps her out and then.. Tries to ditch her. Appearently when someone’s chased by a group of assassins it’s better to look the other way, but of course the girl and her pushy attitude makes it so he follows her like a guard dog in no time. So far so typical, but soon after it turns out she has a power to kill everything in an area of effect, so we have that for a unique taste. Okay but what about the ‘brave 10′? One of the lords decided to gather 10 mighty heroes to fight some kind of villain who hunts the girl after finding out her secret.

For the action part, every ‘hero’ has some sort of special abilities and weapons, for example the protagonist has a sword with inscribed runes that light up when he uses techniques. Other than that, we’ve got a ninja guy who’s throwing lots of needles, so I suppose we will find out about him more, unless his special technique is making ramen. Finally the comedy is the relieve-the-heavy-pressure kind that shifts the atmosphere really quick. And it does its job perfectly as two or three comedy scenes in the first episode made me laugh more than the 20 minutes of Kill Me Baby. Definitely following this one.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear

This show surprised me big time. I expected it to be like Macross Frontier: Bad plot, great music, quite good action scenes, but it went in completely different direction. At first it went full MF: a sparkling concert with the two ‘main’ characters, and things went wrong right away, suddenly alien creatures appear out of nowhere and literally slaughter the audience running in panic. The two singers turn into some kind of crazy gear sailor moon and start using their special techniques in an attempt to save people. Now the surprise element didn’t end here, the red chick went a bit too far with her show-off and ran out of battery, so she used THE FINAL SONG to save a random girl and die herself.

So as far as plot is concerned, it’s going all crazy and gore. The first few minutes of the show someone going to the grave of the girl who was saved by the red singer’s suicide! What the hell! Stop dying damnit?! I can’t even figure out who’s the protagonist anymore. It’s like Claymore except Clare dies in the first damn episode. But let’s leave that for now, story is definitely intriguing and interesting, so how about the animation? It’s awesome, no lazy CGI, everything is properly animated and fun to watch. My only issue is the singing part.. It just feels dumb. Other than that, I want to see more.

Mouretsu Pirates

This one turned out as average as i expected it to. Main protagonist is a girl who’s talented in flying ships and she finds out that her family are actually space pirates, so with the passing of her father, she’s the next in the charge of a pirate ship. I wouldn’t mind the plot if she wasn’t so damn dull and trait-less. Okay,  she’s working at the maid cafe and a member of a yacht club in her high school so it’s safe to assume she’s energetic, but that’s as far as her personality goes in the first episode. When two pirates approach her to inform about her soon-to-be-position, the first thing she does is searching for ‘pirates’ in google.

There was a single action scene, but it was so damn lazy that it all went down to a single flash, so I guess space battles won’t be all that much fun to watch. Characters didn’t leave any lasting impression and so did music. The overall style doesn’t fit my taste at all, space pirates in the casual sea pirates clothing? Get the fuck outta room, there’s a reason why Firefly didn’t do that, and the worst part is: you can see her high school skirt under the pirate clothes.  Ughhh.. Going to check it out for one or two more episodes but it’s a 90% drop.

Recorder to Randoseru

It takes some talent to make a 3 minute episode and ruin the single comedy scene in it. That’s pretty much what happened here:  forced comedy. It’s like someone got the idea of parodying the fact that in Anime 18 years old can look exactly the same as 12, but then went for a simplistic pedophile joke that didn’t even play out right. So yeah, it’s for the grown up audience and it’s not even funny. *sigh* I wonder how many 3 minute disappointments it’s going to take so I drop it?

Okay so the conclusion of this season so far: Average. And since I don’t watch anything ‘on the side’ that has an unreasonable amount of episodes, I guess I will have to keep watching all of it until it starts to hurt forcing me to drop. Heh, fun times. Soon next batch of the new Anime’s first impressions.

Okay, the header together with this background might look a bit too flashy so that’ s something to fix in the future, but it should satisfy me for some time. I’ve still got the issue with small content-display space, I wish I could hide widges when reading the full version of a post. Well, I still don’t pay a single cent for this blog so I suppose that’s as far as I can get to make it fit my taste.

Anyhow, hope you like it!

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

Today’s Darker Channel takes a look at the terrifying yet cute Kyubey, and you should be warned that this post might convince you to make a contract with the devil and turn you into mahou shoujo (or something nearly frightening). For more Madoka Magica / QB images check out previous Darker Channel dedicated to the whole serie.

 In different shows

Death Note

Phoenix Wright

Lucky Star

Nichijou

Dragon Ball

Fate/Zero

Gundam

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Lucky Star

Monster Kyubey

(aka I won’t be able to sleep tonight)

Except this one, it’s lovely.

Magical girls don’t like QB

Especially Homu-chan

As if that wasn’t enough..

Kyubey Science

QB.

Gifs