Oh, Mao. You were my favorite girl in this show. How could you have become so dislikable?

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This is a show, in the end, that doesn’t fail to surprise–even if not all the surprises are (in my opinion) welcome. As the mystery of Fumika’s identity continues to deepen, the twists and turns get stranger and the potential for this show to shine–or go off the rails–becomes more evident.

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This is the first in a series of aggregate episode reviews to make up for not having blogged regularly for such a long time…first up is True Tears, the show that more and more is becoming what Myself; Yourself should have been. It’s got the emotional drama and the character conflict, and manages to have sharp plot turns without quite making it seem as groan-worthy.

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…it is not.

“By destroying the Otaku’s perceptions of tsundere and making them disappointed, we shall bring Chaos to Akiba! [Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha, o ho ho ho ho ho ho] Don’t know our great strategy?”

Yeah right. But it might work on one of our crack staff members.

Mike (in Gendo outfit): “What? Destroying the tsundere? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Oh boy. But Aya-chan’s (gosh, she’s going to permanently look like “chan”. Neesan-does not apply) English is actually a lot better and she’s still looking deliciously cute, speaking of delicious…

(Sees Aya-chan feeding the boy a strawberry)

Ray (in Rei Ayanami outfit): “Why not me! Why God, why? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

A scandal in the making?

Show ▼

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Mike Huang also contributed to this story in spirit.

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From ANN -

Halko Momoi to Perform at Honolulu Festival in March

…14th Annual Honolulu Festival has announced that…14th Annual Honolulu Festival has announced that…irst performed in the western hemisphere at Anime Expo 2007…

Ray’s take: Please, please treat her right and at least arrange her a hotel room! The people at AX fucked up so bad that it’s a miracle that she’s coming to US again. Seriously, please just show her the American hospitality, Hawaiian style.

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 Anime Diet Radio Episode 18: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (471)

 

 Anime Diet Radio Episode 18: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (266)

Anime Diet Radio finally graduates and comes into its maturity in this, our 18th and our first Jeremy-less episode in a while. (He had a toothache.) We’re doing DANGEROUS things that you shouldn’t try at home: like the Indonesian boy who imitated Naruto too much and spreading the Clannad virus! And we also talk about this season’s anime like Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino, Rosario + Vampire, True Tears, Shigofumi, and They are My Noble Masters.

This was, as you will hear, recorded two weeks ago on Super Bowl Sunday. It is actually Take 2 of Episode 18, which because of computer problems described in the Introduction, we had to scrap. I still think this was a good episode, though, and I hope you’ll agree!

Erratum: the drink referred to that had a commercial in the Superbowl is not called Volt, but Amp. As you can see I did not do well in the electricity unit of high school physics. :) You can see the original Super Bowl commercial here (1). Note the warning at the bottom!

Show Order

• –(00:00–03:36) Introduction
• –(03:37–12:37) News 1: Indonesian Naruto Fan Strangles Self; Legislation Called For
• –(12:38–19:47) News 2: The Clannad Virus
• –(19:48–39:02) Mailbag
• –(39:03–67:28) Roundtable
• –(67:29–end) Conclusion

Show Notes

• –OP: “Breakin’ Through” by Shūhei Kita (OP to Persona: Trinity Soul)
• –ED: “COSMIC LOVE” by Nana Mizuki (OP to Rosario + Vampire)
• –The original news piece about the Naruto Indonesian victim is at Anime News Network here (2).
• –The original news piece about the Clannad virus and other Japanese prosecuted for illegal uploads is at ANN here (3).
• –The comments for the previous episode are here.

References

• (1)http://sports.aol.com/nfl/superbowlads?videoId=2065948
• (2)http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-01-21/indonesian-child-dies-after-imitating-anime-character
• (3)http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-01-24/3-japanese-men-arrested-charged-with-uploading-anime
• (4)http://animediet.net/archives/3162#comments

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From ANN -

Wal-Mart Chooses Blu-ray Disc over HD DVD

…announced that it “will offer only Blu-ray [Disc] movies and hardware machines, as well as standard definition movies and DVD players, and up converts.” It will begin phasing out HD DVD, Blu-ray’s high-definition disc format competitor…

Ray’s take: I’m not in the high tech industry hence I have no idea why people rather choose Blu-ray. But it looks like this version of the battle between of VHS and Beta is coming to an end.

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From ANN -

Funimation Licenses Claymore Anime Series (Update 2)

…has announced its license of the Claymore anime series at noon CST today [15th]…

Ray’s take:  Having read comments that Funimation releases high quality DVD these days I’m actually looking forward to their effort. I’m a big Claymore fan and I sincerely hope they do an excellent job with this one. This show has been huge with the English speaking blogger fans and I think it deserves a great release. I was hoping Bandai would pick it up but that’s moot now. I think if Funimation does a bad job our very own Jeremy would definitely awaken and possibly become an Abyssal One/Dweller of the Deep…I wonder what he would look like if he were to awaken…

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Ass, ass, ass. No, I’m not talking about a donkey-like creature that the savior of the world sat on, and I’m not really talking about anyone’s shiny behind. But This episode accomplishes two different types of asses:

The humor kicks ass, but as in many other shows where a purely Japanese seiyuu trying to speak English and pretending to be a real English speaker, in this case a supposedly NATIVE Californian, the English sucks asssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. No, it’s not the sound of a hissing snake - it’s the sound of something that sucks a certain part of the body non-stop.

Enough with that. I think I’ve finally got this show figured out a little. With the right mixture of barefoot high school girls, sweat, youth, exaggerated but still kept in check tongue in cheek humor, a super talented kendo Otaku heroine, and a section of touching violin music playing when something emotional happens, we have a winning formula. Oh, the characters are fun, especially Miya-Miya.

But with her seiyuu being in Claymore, I kept telling her: “Use the Flash Blade against this Undine! You’ll win!”

But damn, she loses. It’s time to ask for more power and starting awaking parts of your body, Clare, I mean, Miya-Miya.

I do get the feeling that the Armadillo Boy has balls as opposed to Raki, who doesn’t.

As for Undine, I mean Kerry, I can’t tell you how suck ass her fake English is, because it’s indescribably bad…OK, well, maybe compare with other’s, she’s not worse, but she’s not better either.

But ni dao ryu is cool. Except I didn’t think anyone was allowed to do that in a kendo match in real life.

But Miya-Miya failed to channel Clare and lost. She’s all gas but no steam. She’s all attitude but no power. Eh. Oh well.

Seriously though, it’s a great episode and very enjoyable. I loved it.

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From ANN -

UK’s Bootleg Novel Animated for Mobile Phones in Japan

…the misadventures of two English boys who run a bootleg chocolate factory after their country bans chocolate. Appropriately enough, the latest anime update was announced on Valentine’s Day…

Ray’s take: My God! The Empire is on the strike again! This time trying to take over Asia with a novel about chocolate! Take some notes, the French! Because Chocolat isn’t going to take over any country.

I hope everyone who reads this web site got something on Valentine’s Day, but if you didn’t, remember that life is too short to worry about that.

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