Weekly Round-Up: July 20th

So anyway, Kabitzin did this “Is Your Blog Good in Bed?” thing the other day (itself based on another post based on a NSFW article), and since I liked the idea of it rather a lot, I decided to shamelessly copy and begin this week’s round-up by seeing how Azure Flame measures up in the STRAIGHT department.

1. Not kissing first, or in blog terms, randomly asking other bloggers for links without introducing yourself. Fortunately, no matter how desperate I was for attention in the early days, I’m just too shy/polite/lazy/whatever to do this.
2. Ignoring the other parts of her body: hopefully everyone gets a ‘complete experience’ here; hell, Tuesday Rumble is like a blog in itself.
3. Stopping for a break: 700 posts in a year answers that question; I know I skipped out on some parodies this week, but it was because I was playing Ratchet and Clank tired.
4. Undressing her awkwardly: I do like to modify stuff a bit, but in fear of breaking my blog and because most add-ons seem pointless, it’s still fairly simple here.
5. Talking dirty: well, practically every parody is packed with innuendo, so I’ll have to plead guilty.
6. Going too fast: guilty, but mitigated by a glossary to help people understand my in-jokes for the parodies. Anyone should be able to read the reviews, and I don’t see super casual readers dropping in since you have to have an interest in anime to come here in the first place.
7. Coming too soon: I get edgy if my posts are under 400 words, so this isn’t a problem.
8. Not coming soon enough: I’ll admit it, often times my posts could be received with a tl;dr, but I just have that much to say. Disgaea needs 2,000 words, dammit!
9. Making her ride on top for ages: So far I haven’t had any guest bloggers, so this isn’t a problem.
10. Taking pictures: Yes, there are posts with up to 100 pictures, but since that’s for the purpose of captioning them they’re not there as an excuse to write.
11. Not being imaginative enough: Well, no one else has Tuesday Rumble…

Reviewed this week: Doujin Work 2, Higurashi Kai 2, ROTK 46, RxJ 14, SaiMono 13-14, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 1-2, Seirei 14, Zombie-Loan 2

…and in manga: Spiral volume 8, Tsubasa 160

ANIME

CURRENT SERIES RANKINGS

1. Dennou Coil (1) – S-class anime
2. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (-) – dark yet random humour = w1n
3. Darker than Black (2) – I love it, but I want answers
4. SaiMono II (3) – the arc surges forward again
5. Seirei no Moribito (5) – Torogai’s adventures
6. Romeo X Juliet (4) – less mush and more action
7. Doujin Work (6) – predictable but amusing
8. Sisters of Wellber (7) – needs more subbing
9. Koutetsu Sangokushi (8) – HARD GAY
10. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (11) – a new arc kicks off
11. El Cazador de la Bruja (9) – in this crazy world, flashbacks are better than the present
12. Zombie Loan (10) – too generic thus far

SLOW RANKINGS

1. Shounen Onmyouji (1)- a new episode after so long
2. Love GetChu! (2)- light entertainment
3. ROTK (3)- it’s almost over

Doujin Work 2: Having decided that she is going to make her fortune from doujinshi, Najimi sets about gathering research materials- but when you’re carrying erotic material around, it is inevitably going to lead to some embarrassing situations. Unsurprisingly, this episode relies on every related joke you could imagine, but even though you can see the laughs coming a mile off it remains amusing.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai 2: After the intense dullness of last episode, we finally get started on a new arc here, which means back to square one in terms of happy days, Satoko’s traps and everyone playing innocent childish games right before the blood begins to flow yet again. The fact that we’ve been through similar events several times before does mean that this feels like a retread of old ground, and so whilst it isn’t a bad episode, the only interesting points are noting the now open acknowledgements that Rika is the one flicking through the possible realities.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 46: We finally reach the battle of Chi Bi in the first half of this two-part series finale (let’s get it over with already), in which Wu finalises their preparations for the fire attack on Wei, and the omnipotent scion of god Zhuge Liang summons the south-eastern wind so that the flames will carry in the right direction. Without much in the way of unintentional hilarity, this episode is a bit of a slog, but I can hardly stop now when the end is in sight.

Romeo X Juliet 14: Romeo plays the typical heroic lead yet again in this episode, which sees him sent to oversee a mine worked by criminals after daring to talk back to his father. Naturally, these harsh conditions aren’t going to dampen Romeo’s optimism as he tries to befriend ‘the lads’, all the while learning about their textbook back stories- in fact, the entire episode is basically an exercise in a realising one of the storylines in the Book of Generic Scenarios. It is at least a little more interesting than certain other recent episodes, but conversely the story has gone so far off course now that the early instalments look almost faithful to the original play in comparison.

Saiunkoku Monogatari II 13-14: I’ve finally compensated for last week’s laxity with a SaiMono double bill, in which we finally get to move away from doctors operating on sick generics to let certain named characters organise a rescue for Eigetsu and Kourin. Whilst poor Seiran is forced to lurk around in the background for screen time, Kourin gets a decent amount of attention this time around, using the skills she once employed to poison Shuurei (or at least attempt to) to get one over on her captors, before having a touching scene with her sweetheart Eigetsu. Although everything is now going so smoothly for the main characters (as a whole) that it seems almost contrived (I still have to wonder how Ryuuren knew to show up), it’s good to get out of the pacing rut that the last few episodes fell into, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Shuurei deals with the cult.

*NEW* Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 1-2: I was a bit wary of starting this series, because whilst I wanted to like it, I was also worried that the humour might just be too Japanese to translate. Happily, my fears were unfounded, with SHAFT’s latest series about a quirky teacher and their oddball students provoking the same feelings of enjoyment that Pani Poni Dash once did. This time around, our lead is a teacher so pessimistic that he tries to kill himself every time the slightest thing goes wrong, whilst his class is anything but normal, containing as it does an overly optimistic and naïve girl, an anal retentive perfectionist, a hikkikomori and an obsessive stalker. The result is a mix of hilariously random and delightfully dark humour that doesn’t fail to disappoint, which, when coupled with a striking art style, makes for a strong series overall. My only complaint is the scary guy that appears as a censor and in other random places- whoever he is, he is more than a little sinister.

Seirei no Moribito 14: After talking with the Water People at the mystical place known as the knot, Torogai learns that the egg within Chagum is actually benign, and that the Founding History of the country is all a lie- but when the Fire People take against her having this knowledge, she finds that she may not be able to leave with it alive. Despite threatening to turn into an educational half-hour with lectures on basic geology and pseudo-history, this episode manages to entertain by relating Torogai’s adventures, which are actually far more interesting than anything Balsa has done recently. This also seems to be the first episode in a while that has actual plot development, which must surely be a good sign.

Zombie Loan 2: After a disappointing and generic first episode, Zombie-Loan is back…with a disappointing and generic second episode in which our leads investigate a zombie attacking people at school. Even though I know I’ll end up regretting it, I’m going to stick with the series for a bit in case, as I am told, it gets better later on; I know I’ve made this mistake before, but I’ve only just stopped watching eroge adaptations that “might be light fun”, so you can’t expect me to become totally reformed and flawless in one go.

MANGA

Spiral volume 8: Whilst drooling over the cover art for this volume, I had high hopes for what lay within, and fortunately, I was not disappointed. As Kanone faces off against his former friends, it becomes increasingly clear that everyone is being played by the hand of ‘god’ Kiyotaka, and that he will stop at nothing to prepare Ayumu for his future. In between enjoying the wonderful artwork and the involving storyline, there is little to complain about from this volume of Spiral, and the next one will be gratefully received whenever it turns up.

Tsubasa Chronicle 160: For those of you who have wondered about Fye’s tattoo all this time, an explanation about it is finally here- since Fye is cursed to kill anyone stronger than himself, the tattoo was there to suppress his powers and prevent their growth, so that more potentially powerful magic users would trigger the curse (effectively making Fye a living weapon against enemy spell casters). Other than that little revelation, this chapter is primarily a flashback about how Fye went from being withdrawn and miserable to adopting his better know carefree personality, prior to setting up a fight between Fye and Kurogane in the present.