So not too long after I made a tweet about it, I figured, why the hell not start? At least I got to start somewhere. This is the first in a series of posts so far, despite the end of 2009 already approaching, about the current entries in my top picks for 2009 (winter 2008 anime season till fall 2009 season, the latter of which is still going on). Of course, this list will be limited only to the series I have seen and/or complete. This first post will be about the OP and ED theme songs as well as the singers/bands (who are all grouped together).

Of late, or rather, as of 2007 since I started getting into anime rather “aggressively”, a seiyuu back then that just popped up as a small name on the side was Katou Emiri. She was hardly a name I picked up much on at the time for two reasons – the first was that I was not as grateful for the seiyuu scene back then when I was still a newbie to the anime world, and the second was that she was voicing a side character. But as of 2008, Katou moved into quite the high rank for voicing one of my waifus. And right now, in the summer season, she is taking on two roles that might as well be cast as mains in their respective series, and one other minor role, making it a total of 3 series this season I am watching (out of 5) that she is in.

The problem? These three roles seem to conflicting with what I am used to hearing from Katou. Let me attempt to find out why, and whether it may just be me. By the way, the picture above is the best I could do on short notice, I fail at Google it seems, finding a picture of her that does not make her look stupid. The picture comes from her own personal blog, Emiri no Nichijou, and is part of her banner.

Sometimes in IRC, I come across chats or conversations that I feel should be posted up for all to see. Here is the first of such excerpts, taken from a chat on this very day (by the time this gets posted, it will be yesterday) that it happened. Maybe there will be more to come in the future. This is between me and Shin Asuka of Atarashii Prelude, who is almost always in my channel, #BP, on the Rizon server. By the way if you feel interested, do park/chat/interact there. Shameless advertising

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.