Yes, dear readers–that’s your duty too!

Because I don’t have time to write full entries tonight and because as of this posting, it’s also my birthday. Whee! Let’s celebrate with some brief thoughts on Rosario + Vampire, Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Persona: Trinity Soul, Clannad 15, and Spice and Wolf thus far.

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From AnimeNfo.com

Anime : School Days ~Magical Heart Kokoro-chan ~

…Kokoro become determined to save everyone from all the hate and destruction in the relationships and to bring back the dead…

Ray’s take: Yeah right. This isn’t even news but just another effort by the studio to milking it all for its worth. Hey, they already had a special, and who knows? They could have a special like what’s described here.

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From ANN -

Funimation Uploads Entire Black Blood Brothers Anime 

…made all 12 episodes of the Black Blood Brothers supernatural adventure series available on its website as “download-to-own” videos…the second complete anime series to be released online, download-to-own, by a major North American anime studio prior to its North American DVD release. Viz Media released Death Note as download-to-own videos via…

Ray’s take: A rather tiring subject for me already since we discussed it countless times, but the key point is anyone who consider themselves being avid fans of an anime series really ought to try very hard to own the title. These companies (the Japanese creators, that is) have worked really hard to bring the stuff to the market. That being said, anyone else wanna tackle the minefield and murky depth of digital rights management? I don’t.

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Can he really be saying that about Makoto?

The final burial of this show is done expertly, and hilariously, by the makers of the anime themselves. Having once suggested in a very serious audio column that the best way to treat this show is unseriously, there’s no better way to take that advice than to watch and enjoy this fine bit of deconstruction.

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Editorial, episode review: it all starts with this.

In an astonishing wildfire meme that has spread throughout the anime blogosphere, and this time without the quota set by Owen’s agricultural collective, people are talking about the merits of episode blogging vs. editorials. Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is and why they’re being treated as mutually exclusive categories at all. I’d like to propose that an episode review can be an editorial just as much as anything else.

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Don’t eat the red snow, Shinichiro

Hi everyone, the blogger that my partner calls “the professional” is back from an enforced academic break, and I’m here to fulfill my duty to talk about romance shows that don’t suck…like this fine episode, which sets up some ordinary and yet emotionally compelling love drama between our principal characters. It also shows real promise in other fields as well.

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…In deep repentance. I humbly implore your forgiveness for my rash and drunken view of this wonderfully artistically masterfully crafted show with animation of Miyazaki caliber and the story as deep as To Heart.

Yeah right. However…

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Yeah, yeah, OK, so it’s better than episode one.

We have Triela reading the story of Pinocchio; we have she being traumatized and wondering about her life, and we have decent gun fighting sequence and fighting sequence.

I’m sure many others said something about this episode already. All I’ve gotta say is - KEEP THIS UP, PLEASE.

But nothing will save the OP and the ED song. And NOTHING will save the seiyuu’s voices. The blushing part of Triela looks so high school anime drama. What, now she’s a tsundere?

Ikari “Mike” Gendo shall drool!

But, thank god the dramatic factor is now up! Now I can kind of looking forward to episode 4. But  cut that moe from Gunslinger Girl!!!!!!

(Crossing my fingers…)

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From ANN -

Montreal’s McGill University Hosts Shōjo Conference

…McGill University will host an academic conference on gender issues in manga and anime in Montreal, Canada, this Friday, January 25 and Saturday, January 26. Entitled “TranscultureELLE: How Girls Cross Cultures…”

…Frenchy Lunning, “Under the Ruffles: Shōjo and the Morphology of Abjection”…

Ray’s take: I wonder if they serve pea soup, stinky cheese and wine at the lecture? Oh wait,  I thought this was Quebec! Yes, I AM a proudly ignorant American. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! Just kidding. Sound interesting, though. I’m all for good wine and cheese. I’ll just pretend I’m REALLY interested in shojo anime and manga like Mike…Yeah…that’s it…I heard that he’s having someone taking extensive notes for him at the lecture so he can study later and go out and impress the girls at the Mega Playboy academy…

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From Anime Corporation News:

Anime Movie Screenings at Anima 2008

…The Anima 2008 International Film Festival will screen Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Tekkonkinkreet…

…will be held in Brussels, Belgium…

Ray’s take:  Oops. Hey, I’m American. What the hell do I know? But anyway these are great choices, so if you happen to be in the area check them out! Oh and, be careful of the “Watashiwa Kira Dess” guy that killed some people in a park in Belgium…Or was it Netherlands?

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