One must be wondering why I used the plural form of “shoujo” in the title. Quite frankly, I think the story revolves around more than just airheaded Akiha, and that she is not the only Sorakake Girl. This episode certainly seemed to prove that. Skipping both the OP and ED, we dive right into the action that finishes this particular Sunrise series.

Right at the start, Kazane outlines her plan to knock out Leopard’s Proxima Crown and outline the strategy that will be undertaken by all levels under her charge to take down Leopard.

For the loli lovers, here is a nice shot of Sakura and her beloved Yupi-tan, who is also assisting in the outline of the plan. He mentions there is no real possible way to detach the Proxima Crown from Leopard at this point.

Back on the abandoned asteroid or outpost, we see the gathering of most of the major and minor characters, on-screen and off.

Akiha looking, for once, serious. That still does not win her any points in my book. Fail main character is fail.

Not possible that I will let the last episode slip by without any more shots of my beloved Takane.

Shishidou Kagura now turns her attention to her own mission - defeating and bringing Nami back to her senses before Nami uses any more of her powers and in turn destroying herself. The unfortunate part about this entire episode? Nami remains alive. Sunrise you fags. Not letting anyone die in this show eh?

What is with the wolf howl by Nami at this point? Srsly, WTF? As if hanging upside down like Spiderman was not enough.

Their main objective - the Leopard colony, now controlled by Leopard’s dark side, best known as the Prince of Darkness. I am just going to call him Dark Leopard from now on. Also, wallpaper material.

Nerval gets back command of his own colony ship by using a modified form of his Nerval Exclusive Control, in a box. He requires Imoko’s help to contact Benkei and Xanthippe, and in return, he promises not to harm Akiha.

Benkei and Xanthippe are hanging in space being repaired when they are contacted by Nerval.

Tsutsuji and Shigure are, in the meantime, having a lovely chat. Shigure is asking Tsutsuji to return to the Student Council, to which she flatly refuses. And when Shigure blows her a kiss, she instantly whips out her whip (pun intended) and smashes the virtual screen in embarrassment. She also whips Benkei who appears behind her with a pot of soup.

With the attack against him in full force, Dark Leopard musters all his energy to face them.

Leopard is still trapped anxiously inside Dark Leopard’s heart, though he can see whatever Dark Leopard can see. Fukuyama Jun had to switch between Leopard, Dark Leopard (who is more calm and like Lelouch) and Fon in this eipsode. A good piece of work by him.

Kagura faces off against Nami. They could have put this instead in the OP animation. What a letdown. Then again Nami is emo all the time, and this fight was no different.

Akiha, Honoka and EXISTENCE successfully penetrate into Leopard’s interior, but just when they want to try and enter the brain room using what Akiha normally aims at when Leopard engages Soul Shout, he engages a sort of protective barrier normally used in hyperspace jumps to prevent them from reaching his room.

Learning of the bomb being sent to take out Proxima Crown, Dark Leopard shifts the ship’s position and aims his cannon at Kirkwood instead, throwing everyone into a frenzy.

Help comes from an unlikely quarter as Xanthippe suddenly warps in and throws out her tail whip first, catching Leopard’s cannon and moving him out of aim. Benkei and Nerval also warp in one by one, with Nerval blocking Leopard’s way and proclaiming that any further damage will not be tolerated.

In response, Leopard extends all his swords and zaps all of them with bright green laser goodness. Got to love the bling-blings. Oh, and this shot is fuzzy because the whole thing was in motion. Animation remained top-notch throughout the series and the last episode was no exception.

More bling-bling.

Everyone affiliated with the Brain Colony project directly seems to enjoy calling Navi people, especially Imoko, “baked potato”. Awesome.

Half-time shot. I must admit, out of all the brain colony ship designs in Sorakake, Nerval’s final form has got to be the best and most beautifully rendered.

Epic-sized battle between the colony giants continue, with Xanthippe grabbing a hold of one of Leopard’s swords, but gets zapped back in return.

However Dark Leopard soon loses his power as Benkei (and maybe the others) cover up the 7 artificial suns that provide Leopard with the energy he needs.

Flustered, Dark Leopard flies right to Benkei, swords extended. Tsutsuji instantly overrides Benkei’s control and plunges the ship straight into Leopard’s sword, going crazy at this point, complete with shining bikini full of power.

Despite the sword stuck inside Benkei, Tsutsuji charges forward, and the chainsaw connects and cuts off Proxima Crown.

Kannagi, in the meantime, asked by Kazane who has opened a connection to Nerval (and asks for his cooperation), brings Imoko from Nerval to Akiha’s side in battle within Leopard.

Tearful reunion for the two.

Fon has passed Imoko some complex instructions regarding Akiha’s use of QT or something. Basically she can tear a hole in the fabric of space and create a hyperspace warp to go wherever she wants to, though the use of it seems to be temporary. Whatever it is, it requires the current hyperspace barrier set up by Dark Leopard, and Akiha tears a hole through it to move right to Leopard’s heart, with EXISTENCE, Honoka and Itsuki beside her.

Hyperspace, shown for the first time since the series started, in Sorakake.

YES! SNAP THAT BITCH’S MAHOU SHOUJO WEYPUN!

Back to the kitchen woman, and make me a sandwich.

And inside Leopard’s heart, Dark Leopard finally shows himself, gigantic against the smaller forms of Akiha and gang.

Seeing that all hope was gone, Honoka and Itsuki urge Akiha to order EXISTENCE to attack Leopard, which she does. EXISTENCE, combined with Honoka, commences their attack as shown here.

Inside, Leopard of course gets zapped too, and he starts to panick beyond all measure now that he is near death.

As expected, the panic temporarily forces him in control of his own body and he shouts out to Akiha to stop.

Akiha instantly shouts for Honoka to stop, and Dark Leopard immediately warps everyone except Akiha out into normal space, outside of the colony ship.

Dark Leopard once again prepares to fire his cannon, this time at the abandoned outpost, stating that Akiha should stay there and watch. But Akiha and Imoko shout for Leopard to wake instead, and when that fails…MAHOU SHOUJO TIME!

HENSHIN! Seriously, where the hell did that heart sign on her face come from all of a sudden?

I have seen this pose before. I know I have. I just cannot remember where.

The kick lands squarely into Dark Leopard’s eye, and Akiha shatters the eye apart, coming face-to-face with Leopard himself.

Leopard x Akiha doujins complete with docking and “I HAVE CONTROL” coming your way July 2009.

Regaining control of his own body, Leopard realizes Akiha is nowhere to be found, but immediately finds Dark Leopard.

Nerval then comes up beside Leopard’s colony ship, with Fon onboard. No inkling was given as to what he was up to, though Fon asked if he was alright with it. Nerval then takes over Leopard’s systems temporarily with Nerval Exclusive Control, sucking in Dark Leopard in the process and transferring his consciousness to Nerval’s previous human body instead. Dark Leopard then gets dropped after some trash talking, falling into a void.

Nerval then asks Leopard to shoot at him without hesitation, now that the Prince of Darkness is within his colony ship. Destroy both him and the sins that had been committed, Nerval demands.

Dark Leopard enjoys freefall.

Nerval is actually a Decepticon in disguise!

Leopard, without much hesitation, takes aim at Nerval. He says something in Engrish here, like “YOU’RE CONTENT” or “NO CONTENT”. Whatever it was, it still made me laugh hard at Nerval’s reaction.

Priceless. I need the sub for this nao.

And Nerval’s colony ship explodes, taking Dark Leopard with it. Nerval transfers to a copy of his brain colony (he has that ability after all) onboard the ship Fon escapes in (Sakura’s).

And as with any new toy, Sakura plays with Nerval’s brain colony…using a pickaxe, WTF? Nerval admits his mistakes will not go away, but he also asks for a thought for both Benkei and Xanthippe. Uncharacteristic. Nerval, in the end, was never really the big bad guy; the Dark Leopard of 50 years ago was.

Nina gets owned by both Kazane and Elle, being asked for help in rebuilding Kirkwood after the whole thing.

And it turns out Nami did escape after all, in a pod. She is spotted by Tsutsuji. In the meantime, Leopard asks everyone, including Benkei and Xanthippe, for help in searching for Akiha, who is missing.

And the frenzied search starts…

Fon insists at this time that both Kagura and Honoka be treated less they really lose their lives, and Kagura replies that it is fine, as she had already lived quite the life. Honoka then spots Akiha.

It turns out Akiha was warped out the same way the others were, except she was thrown far out, though Imoko is with her. Seriously, how do you survive in space sitting on a QT-arms without any protection except the QT suit, and eating manmaru yaki at that? WTF?

Screw you Sunrise. Spoil a beautiful screenshot of a well-done spiral galaxy with freaking ending credits. By the way, for Akiha to see the galaxy up this close, she was thrown really far out. We are 2 million light-years away from Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest neighbor galaxy to our Milky Way.

The brain colonies also gather at the reunion at the end of the show.

And Leopard is blushing and giving excuses, stating that he just happened to jump into the neighborhood, and was not there to save Akiha.

And the Boumin combination are at their strongest when in danger of losing their jobs with good ol’ Nina Stratoski, who is almost choked to death and worse when she finally agrees to let them stay.

SURPRISE! HATSUNE MIKU GETS A CAMEO!

Nami is saved by Tsutsuji and Benkei, though she says nothing. She actually looks better in this shot. As usual Benkei has no idea of the analogies and metaphors Tsutsuji pours at him, but taking a look at Nami, Tsutsuji turns around and says, “It just means Benkei, that we should create our own paths for ourselves.” A cool quote.

Impressions

And that ends it! Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo turned out, after the initial lulz, to be an entertaining watch indeed. In fact, for its animation, good cast and other good aspects, I gave it an 8/10 on both MAL and ANN. I will probably be giving a full review sometime soon, and quite frankly, the ending was quite good for a show of its type. Not as rushed as one thought it would be, not as bad off as one might expect.

Image thanks to Beat Trend.

This morning when I reached the gym, the first thing I saw on the news was the demise of Michael Jackson. To most of the younger generation nowadays, all they probably remember of him are the court battles he faced as well as the charges brought against him. But to those of us who remember what it was like during his era, to that era and to him and his music, I dedicate this short post.

Back in the 80’s, MJ was all the rage, being touted as the King of Pop. He still lived up to that name all the way to the early 90’s, and most of his hits back then still stay with me today. Songs such as Beat It!, Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal and You Are Not Alone still turn up regularly in my English songs playlist, and others that he did well for that one would remember include Man in the Mirror, Heal The World, Black and White, and arguably his most famous hit single, Thriller.

Still, by the time I could truly appreciate his music, his career was already somewhat on the decline. But, by that time as well, MJ’s legend as a pop star (it is so hard to delineate what is pop and rock, so you can call him a rock star as well) had been cemented. Even today, as the news of his passing spreads, few can believe that the man himself is gone, having lost to a cardiac arrest out of the blue.

I for one, am not in as much shock as I should be. Maybe the reality has yet to sink in. But truly, his songs will be missed for sure, and there will be many that will turn up for his funeral no doubt, mourning the loss of a music legend.

Rest in peace, Michael Jackson. It may not be a nice touch, but like the music in the following piece represents, I hope you have made your way to a better place. “To Zanarkand”, from Final Fantasy X, as a song for your parting. May you find your own Zanarkand in the world that the living shall never see.

Image thanks to Incise-soul.

And the summer is already upon us with full force. I have been feeling the raging heat here for weeks already, so much so that my room temperature has gone up abnormally each day, forcing me to turn on my air-conditioner for short stretches to bring it down so I can survive. But in any case, I was never a fan of summer anime much, and this current list of anime series airing is still not enough to make me feel encouraged. Nevertheless, here are mine and three other guest writers’ impressions of the shows we are or are not watching, and unlike my spring anime watchlist, this is a serious post, because I got others’ opinions written in as well.

My thanks to the following blogs for their summer anime previews which has helped tremendously in the making of this post - T.H.A.T. Anime Blog, Sea Slugs! Anime Blog, j1m0ne’s blog, and hashihime. Hashihime also has an airing schedule for the summer shows here. All summaries and sypnoses are taken from each of these blogs so I would encourage reading theirs for a full rundown, because I will only touch on our impressions in this post.

If shows do not appear here, that is because none of us are watching it.
 

Cobra the Animation

Panther - Not my alley despite it being so old-school. So I am not going to even pick this up despite it being by Madhouse.

Shadro - Haven’t watched the old series, though it does sound like it will be a neat over the top show; that is one thing we don’t see often is crazy over the top stuff and so anything that does that I approve of!

Lelouch - Madhouse is love and badass space pirates with an old school feel makes me embarrassingly fanboyish. Will watch this, though not for the tight-fit red suit.
 

Princess Lover

Panther - I know, I am a sucker for harem anime series like this one, and it is an eroge-to-anime adaptation. I have no high hopes for it, but I will watch this for sure. There are good seiyuu in it as well, as is usual for such shows - Wakamoto Norio, Koyasu Takehito and Toyoguchi Megumi lend their powerful talent to the likes of Katou Emiri and Matsuoka Yuki (Inoue Orihime in Bleach). Charlotte Hazelink, the leftmost girl in the picture above, captures my heart in this particular harem, but is played by a relative unknown for me, Yuzuki Ryoka (latest known role was Cattleya in Queen’s Blade and previously she was in Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula as Chau Yan Li).

Shadro - I was just going to say moving on without really looking into it, but I looked into it and…well it looks nice. I’m not too sure I’m a mixed bag with eroge to anime…though I end up watching most of them >.>

Lelouch - Harem show means more boobs and pantsu-shots. Of course I’m watching it, and you should too. Hmm, those girls look yummy…

YuKi-To - Love the eroge chara designs, the anime designs look so poor in comparison, but will want to know what it is about.
 

Kanamemo

Panther - What in the bloody F? No, I am staying off this. I dislike designs like that, and slice-of-life wut. I prefer real slice-of-life shows.

Shadro - Not my thing…not really much I can do about that. I don’t see any appeal for me on this one. Though it could be good, who knows, not I.

Lelouch - I don’t care about plot or story or literal mumbo-jumbo anymore. One look at Kana and I’m under the loli spell. Give it to me, fast!

YuKi-To - Looks interesting for a light watch.
 

Sora no Manimani

Panther - Lolwut? I am pretty sure this show will be filled with useless astronomical trivia that I already know better than the show’s producers, and it will likely be about relationships anyway the way this show is going. A definite waste of my time, so no.

Shadro - Um…I really don’t have anything to say…it’s a show…about astronomy club and some people and then its standard romance comedy stuff? Yeah I’ll go with that!

Lelouch - Romance with astronomical geekdom? I’ll roll the dice and take a chance on this. It might become something special, but then again, it’s also equally prone to being a childish, cringe-worthy, cliché-loaded torture story.

YuKi-To - Looks interesting, would want to know more about astronomy too.
 

Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou

Panther - Contemporary mahou shoujo FAIL NO

Shadro - Ok, I looked at this and saw a cell phone and magic. Now if anybody watched Battle Programmer Shirase, remember when he went “DOUBLE COMPILE!” and such with his phone, I really want the show to be that, or just like it a little.

Lelouch - Of course every season needs its share of magical, height-challenged, loli with stereotypical all-powerful, often physiologically gifted, counterpart. It happened with To Aru Majutsu no Index (fine, all of the girls there were loli) and it happened with Asura Cryin’. I want to avoid these, but I just can’t…

YuKi-To - Lovely chara designs will give it a try.
 

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

Panther - I have been waiting for this one since I learned about it at the start of the spring anime season. TM8.0 will follow the lives of a brother and sister who flee the reality of a Richter magnitude 8.0 earthquake in Tokyo. There is a huge possibility that a 7.0 or higher could hit Tokyo within the next 30 years, and BONES specifically mentioned they were going to go out and interview actual earthquake survivors and gather data on what would happen in a real earthquake, so the anticipation for this natural disaster show is very high for me. There will be a look into sociological, psychological and geological factors, so the insights I might gain from this show is going to far outweigh anything else this season for me.

A relatively young cast backing up the main unknowns, so I will only touch on the supporting ones - Kaida Yuko, Kitamura Eri, Endou Aya, Inoue Kikuko, Sawashiro Miyuki and Nonaka Ai all make an appearance here. That is not to say, indeed, that the cast is not strong - few would protest the strength of having Inoue, Kaida and Sawashiro on board, and Nonaka and Endou distinguished their teamwork in Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo.

Shadro - Remember that game for the PS2 that was basically the idea this show is doing? I don’t really care for it, but I think it could be interesting.

Lelouch - I like BONES so I’m giving them a chance on this one. Earthquakes are not exactly the most attractive plot devices though, but this seems like dark horse material, so watching this carefully before either dropping it, or worshipping whoever thought up this shit.

YuKi-To - I trust BONES so this is a definite watch.
 

Aoi Hana

Panther - Possibilities of a yuri relationship in this show is not giving me much in terms of support to even begin thinking about watching this. Slice of life fail, shoujo, bla bla. No.

Shadro - So…yuri…that is a plus, I just don’t really care about the plot or anything it seems. To me it feels bland…that is about it.

Lelouch - JC Staff is must watch material for me and it seems they won’t disappoint my cravings for tear-jerking, potential yuri-ness this season. Seriously, the seeds of girl-love can’t be missed.

YuKi-To - I love slice of life though it doesn’t seem very interesting.
 

Needless

Panther - This seems another ridiculous action gag following in the lines of Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, and since I missed that, I definitely am not going to miss this one. At least, it gets a 3-5 episode test for me. Endou Aya, Koyasu Takehito, Kitamura Eri, Toyoguchi Megumi and Katou Emiri are in this one as well, alongside Makino Yui (who was also in Sorakake with Endou), Chihara Minori (most well-known for Minami Chiaki of Minami-ke series) and Gotou Saori (Keiko of Minami-ke series, though she was first made known to me as Sonozaki Karen of Sky Girls). Itou Kentarou (Abarai Renji of Bleach) also appears in this one.

Shadro - I’m just curious how it will go, it can be funny in a good way, it can be very horrible but still funny, or it can just be very horrible. I kind of want the second one. Oh, or the over the top factor is there and that is neat and could help the first two as well.

YuKi-To - Looks like a kid’s show. ^^;
 

Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Panther - Ok, my first thought was this is the same league as Higurashi, and I was right. However the mystery part is not getting itself on to me much; rather, the awesome seiyuu cast is. I am in two minds about picking this up, but most likely will not unless there is nothing else to watch this season (like I have only 2-3 shows on my confirmed list of anime series to finish, for example). Anyway some names to perk you up for this show and the reason why I am interested - Inoue Marina (instant win), Ohara Sayaka (instant win, and interestingly the character she plays has the same name as the character she voiced in Blassreiter - Beatrice), Koshimizu Ami (big <3), Tanaka Atsuko (a good choice), Koyama Rikiya (victory in the male arena), Horie Yui (yep, this is one seiyuu one should never overlook), Ono Daisuke (A HA HA, A HA HA HA), Kosugi Juurouta (win), Kugimiya Rie (ARGH) and Kobayashi Yu (I-CHI-JOU! No she was the Mexican gorilla in that one).

Shadro - Ok the picture where everybody is going “Objection!” is killing it for me. It could be a neat look into the mystery genre, but it just doesn’t do enough for me to want to watch it.

Lelouch - Studio DEEN sucks as a studio (inconsistent art, cheap animation relying on bishie still-shots… ahem, Vampire Knight), but a good mystery story circa 1980s intrigues me. Oh my god, please don’t tear my brains out. Watching with a grain of salt.

YuKi-To - Didn’t like Higurashi series, and this seems the same.
 

Spice & Wolf II

Panther - Horo is back! Need I say more? I am definitely watching the sequel.

Shadro - Now I can ramble on about stuff that is new, but a sequel I can’t say anything because I didn’t have anything to do with the first…so yeah.

Lelouch - I only know Brains Base from watching Kure-nai (which was surprisingly good despite the shitty ending) but didn’t watch the 1st season so ummm… yeah, no wolf chicks for me. Besides, I tend not to watch past shows for fear of engaging myself in further bouts of figure hunting.

YuKi-To - Loved the first series.
 

Bakemonogatari

Panther - Initially I was hardly interested, but this seems like it could be an interesting and funny show, and I heard good notes about the animation quality, so I guess I will be picking this up and seeing if it goes well. It is definitely not lacking in the seiyuu arena either - Kamiya Hiroshi (and I was wondering why his name was so familiar, he voices Natsume Takashi in Natsume Yuujinchou series), Katou Emiri, Saito Chiwa (Lavie in Last Exile, recently Kim of Soul Eater, and probably more known as Senna of the first Bleach movie), Hanazawa Kana (lots of loli roles so expect her to be a loli again. Remember Kusano of Sekirei, Ikaruga Kagome of Asu no Yoichi!, Elea of Blassreiter and Midarezaki Yuka of Kyouran Kazoku Nikki?) Sawashiro Miyuki, Horie Yui, and Sakurai Takahiro (most famous for Spinzaku Gayzaku Suzaku in Code Geass series).

Interestingly, Hanazawa had been in Last Exile, I never knew until I saw the list for her series thanks to this particular post. Also, lookie who has more than 3 roles in a season already.

Shadro - I don’t know that’s it; I cannot think of anything to say.

Lelouch - Not much to say, except the lead female looks hot and it’s SHAFT work (Maria+Holic season 2 please) with mind-twisting undertones so will definitely watch. Hopefully, they don’t use fugly stills with this, but knowing SHAFT, peasant animation is inescapable.

YuKi-To - Love the chara designs and seems interesting.
 

Taishou Yakyuu Musume

Panther - It is an anime about freaking baseball. Not to mention with girls on top of that. No, definitely not watching.

Shadro - So…it’s not One Outs…that is all I got.

Lelouch - I may have difficulty remembering names from JC Staff’s anime this season because of their “dual girl moe overload” offerings this season, but what the hell, I’m still watching this. Besides, vintage baseball with chicks is magnet for fan service. Always a good thing.

YuKi-To - Not really interested in sports anime, but will give it a try.
 

Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Panther - I did not watch the first two series so I am skipping this one for sure.

Shadro - I live under a rock, so I have never seen any of them, I’m sure it will be…what the others were, but different…yeah that sounds right.

Lelouch - You know I enjoyed the 1st season of despair-filled satire, but somehow, I never got around to finishing it. Still have season 2 backlogs so not watching for now. Probably in 5 more years.

YuKi-To - Though I’m not an avid fan of Zetsubou Sensei, I do follow the series for a light watch.
 

Hetalia Axis Powers 2nd Season

Panther - I never bothered with the first season, why should I bother with the second? I wonder if it will stir up another shitstorm though lol.

Shadro - …Moving on…

Lelouch - Hell no. Studio DEEN plus foolish human-personified nations is like watching re-runs of Barney.

YuKi-To - The series was alright for a light watch, will continue to follow.
 

GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class

Panther - What in the flying F?

Shadro - Hey look its K-ON! for the summer season and it has learning!

Lelouch - A schoolgirl group anime again after K-ON! Normally, I dig this moe-fest, but despair over K-ON’s farewell might hate this even more. I can only hope it’s at least 1/4th of K-ON’s greatness. Character designs look Disgaea-esque aka I hate it.

YuKi-To - Reminds me of Hidamari Sketch which I didn’t like.
 

Canaan

Panther - Sigh, it has a slight Darker than Black feel to it thanks to the cat mascot character, but why do I feel as though this will be a no-go for me? In any case, like Umineko, if I have nothing else to watch and if there are very good reviews out for this, then I might pick it up.

Shadro - …I want this to be good. This is something that is right up my alley…so I have a feeling I’m going to be let down, but I really don’t want to. I think it has an interesting idea and could be a good show.

Lelouch - Haven’t I seen this somewhere? Oh yeah, Crystal Blaze, only this time, hot chick becomes detective heroine. Never heard of Synergy SP but potential apocalyptic outcomes I crave, so on to my watch list.

YuKi-To - I’m quite a fan of Type-moon.
 

Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~

Panther - The premise is hardly something that seems to work itself out, and I am not particularly interested in the designs either, so I am not going to give this even a slight chance.

Shadro - …I don’t know…but I think it might be good and worth a look. The idea of it seems neat enough and it looks nice, so hey why not magic girl shows are cool.

Lelouch - Arrghh…another girl heroine show. Not that I’m complaining, but the premise of this one doesn’t seem too enticing. Magic again and some evil force threatening the world. That’s got to be the most overused story in the history of anime. Will watch with caution.

YuKi-To - Sounds interesting and quite like the chara designs.
 

Seitokai no Ichizon

Panther - This has the word “failure” written all over it.

Lelouch - Studio DEEN again!? Damn, they must have a ginormous, Yokozuna-ass, budget this season or they just want to release more crap. Oh well, at least this isn’t another male bishie-fest, but then again, the character design looks like cheap eroge material…

YuKi-To - Looks interesting for a light watch.
 

And that is it folks for our summer anime watchlist. As you can see it is quite likely I am not going to follow a lot of shows. So what is on your watchlist, if you have not already gotten it up?

Delayed for weeks, I bring you the opening theme of Queen’s Blade -Rurou no Senshi- which aired along with the others in Spring 2009. It is sung by Oohashi Rie who seems to have only performed one song so far.

Get The Door tracklist:
01 Get The Door
02 Get The Door (Original Karaoke)

01 Yes, the SINGLE only contains one song with its original karaoke version. Being given the task to write about this song of an anime which I have not seen, I didn’t know what to expect from Get The Door.
At first, I couldn’t quite get myself used to the vocal at certain parts, but after giving the full song another try, I thought it fitted quite well with the melody and rhythm. If you listen to it carefully, you can hear some fine guitar in the background.  A very nice set of traditional instruments and violin are played throughout the song, and if I am not mistaken, there are a few parts with soft techno effects. My favourite parts would be those with drums which sound like those used in wars. The vocal isn’t bad though there were some failed attempts at high-pitches; they are still within the bearable range and is not heard often.

02 The original karaoke version is worth trying out too. The above average background is clear and enjoyable, portraying the same energy and vigour as the one with vocal. As a person who enjoys the instrumentals of most songs, I would give the same scores for both the vocal and the original karaoke version.

Overall, I would suggest Get The Door to fans of almost-mainstream Pop and to those who want something between ligh-hearted and heavy. Do try out the original karaoke too, when you have the time. ^^

Get The Door (imeem) ; Original Karaoke version (youtube) ; lyrics @ gendou

Kona

Alter 1/8 Ryomou Shimei

Now I said before that I don’t plan on becoming another regular figure update blogger, but early breaking news I have received that makes me love and hate Alter (my fave figure company) just compels me to break my Machiavellian rule of conformity and succumb to the societal powers of going with the flow with other “I want to be first to report on figure XXX” web sites.

Alter 1/8 Kakouen Myousai

I love Ikkitousen, and I know every other hot-blooded male out there does too, so hearing news of Ryomou and Kakouen being released (I was surprised as well, since the last Ikkitousen figure by Alter was more than a year ago) was definitely an epiphany of unbridled joy to me, knowing that some where out there, the devious geniuses at Alter are already planning to complete the voluptuous ladies of Ikkitousen (Sonsaku, where  are you? Lelouch is out to hunt you…), much like how they’ve completed the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS line (more on that in a moment). But with childlike wonder and happiness also comes self-loathing at the fact that I cannot afford to buy either of these two figures (Kakouen not a must, but Ryomou’s pushing it) since I’m already tied up to 28000 yen of figure pre-orders for the entirety of 2009’s second half. It seems that despite the happy carefree days of student life, I have to come to terms with the reality of not having the same amount of liberal spending possessed by job-possessing people. Me having a bout of mental insanity? Currently… ummm, yeah…

Alter 1/7 Nanoha Takamachi (Exceed Mode)

Moving on, Alter’s hijacked my budget again with their newly announced Nanoha from the StrikerS line, which obviously has disallowed me to go after the two previously mentioned Ikkitousen babes, since this alone costs as much as the two ecchi wonders above. I mean, seriously, Alter’s marketing strategy is disastrous, seeing as to how they’re releasing their 1/8 Saber Lily, 1/7 Nanoha, 1/8 Ryomou and 1/8 Kakouen at the same month of October 2009. If they want to maximize profits, they’d do better to release them separately, or even at least 2 figures per month would suffice. Sadly, we just have to accept the consequences and admit our powerlessness and budget limitedness at the hands of the powers that be. I need some comforting right now… T_T

Please Alter, if you’re releasing Sonsaku Hakufu as well, make it on January to allow me to recover from my near death experience of financial troubles… as well as to make it on time for my birthday.

Nerval and Imo-chan before he HENSHIN’s.

And so with Leopard having become the Prince of Darkness, and going on a rampage in Kirkwood, Nerval quickly returns to Kirkwood in his new colony form to battle Leopard, Imoko by his side.

The true form of Nerval’s Brain. Now we understand the reasoning behind his Wolverine hairstyle as a human.

The Prince of Darkness, Leopard. He has been taken over by his dark side, as per the last part of the previous episode.

Nerval’s new colony, almost up close and personal. Graphically it is more aesthetic in design than Leopard’s new form.

And Nerval immediately creates ice projectiles, huge icebergs that is, and fires them at Leopard.

Of course, it is pointless against Leopard’s revived weapons, and he promptly zaps them to pieces with his “swords” - the enhanced mirrors.

Then he turns around to prepare a shot of his Leopard Cannon. Animation remains fantastic throughout their short battle.

Nerval blocks the shot with his revolving icebergs, but it appears Leopard has another trick up his sleeve. Nerval thus falls to Leopard’s ace, and Leopard sends his very old robot army against Nerval right after.

Honoka’s first QT-arms, I believe. It looks better than the one that was first shown, and of course, much like an EXISTENCE robot. Behind you see Leopard’s army flying out to crush Nerval, while not shown here are the civiilans’ evacuation from Leopard.

And the fleet hurriedly flees from the now dangerous Leopard colony.

Nerval laments his fate, and reports that his colony is not responding to him, while Imo-chan tries, obviously unsuccessfully, to move him.

Another classic and stupid reunion scene in slow motion interrupted by the entrance of Leopard’s old robot army.

And so Nerval escapes with Imoko, casting Negation in order to safely protect Imoko. Bleach, anyone?

And meanwhile, Nami finally betrays the trust Nerval had in her and destroys the Enigma cafe.

And it appears Enigma was on a floating platform inside Nerval. This vaguely reminds me of Half-Life.

True evil in this show is characterized by the face and its expression. This scene also vaguely reminds me of Sengoku Basara’s Oda Nobunaga. Wait, maybe Sorakake is trying to emulate the current shows it airs or aired alongside. Hmm…

Of course, as the plot must go, Akiha crashes into the same platform where Nami is after escaping from Nerval’s brain room. There follows an emo scene between the two of them and Nami basically pwning Akiha all over the place.

Classic scene again. And we all know what comes after when you see the good character hanging like this off a ledge.

Yep.

This was unthinkable - Nami actually pushed back Aleida with one hit and to such an extent. Wow? Black mahou shoujo powa.

I accuse this show of stealing Bleach’s idea - we see here Shunpo! In fact right before this she disappeared from Honoka’s computer screen exactly the same way as one would disappear from sight using Shunpo.

Making your weapon bigger also means making it stronger…maybe. Anyway Nami enlarges her weapon to take out both Honoka and Itsuki in one shot, and this screenshot reminds me of Soul Eater’s Shinigami and his Kishin Gari (Demon God Hunter) Soul Resonance, where he could also enlarge his weapon (see here).

And the weapon gathers power!

And that forces Akiha to shoot Nami in the back. Damn, finally she dies! I have been waiting long for this!

The shot of course releases Nami’s anti-QT powers, clearing out Honoka’s Nerval control and also Kagura’s in the process.

Goddammit, she did not die but got a new look instead, did they have to make her look more evil? And her blood is purple.

Surprise! EXISTENCE defies your orders and protects Akiha, Nami!

Shishidou Kagura, back in true form and personality, absolved of all Nerval control. She explains that EXISTENCE is originally the power of the Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo and that is why EXISTENCE now protects Akiha.

That of course leaves Nami in further despair and she flies away like a true bitch witch.

Tearful reunion for Honoka. I wonder how many Honoka fans want to be Kagura right now.

And Xanthippe continues floating in space unable to move while repairs are being done on her…and of course, her singing also continues…

…much to the chagrin of her helpers, with Shigure in control. Somehow I find Xanthippe really amusing in this shot, due to the bandage and the upset emoticon.

And Xanthippe also discovers Benkei floating nearby, after he was attacked without warning by the Prince of Darkness.

This is LOL. Tsutsuji in a makeshift bathtub coffin with Benkei laying roses on her.

Benkei mourns for the dead…

…and is almost instantly pwned by an upset and alive Tsutsuji.

Of course, where Tsutsuji and Benkei are concerned, the former always owns the latter with her scathing remarks and questions.

And right after her tirade, Tsutsuji goes back to being unconscious. Another lol.

And those who fled arrived at this place, seems to be an abandoned station or outpost.