Here’s a Japanese to English translation of the article:

Warning: broken English as crappy as Arnold.

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And to the faithful, death the gate of life. - John Milton

WARNING: This spiel contains potential spoilers for Superdimension Fortress Macross, as well as IDEON.

Okay. Fess up time. I love brevity in storytelling. Some creations go on far too long for my taste, despite the public’s often endless rabble-rousing for more. There’s just something to me that speaks greater volumes by leaving the viewer/reader with the faintest hint of more outside the page/frame. More often than not, the delivery of more tends to leave me disapointed, and more convinced that things would have been better off left behind, while new mythologies formed. That said, I am a big fan of when characters exit in the most dramatic way possible. That’s right. I love it when characters die. And die well. Call it sadistic, call it what you will. There’s just no way to describe the value of a good, wrenching character exit to throw the protagonists’ future into greater uncertainty.

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I read the 4-coma and I found it quite funny. Maybe it’s the concept of a wacky family restaurant, maybe it’s just everything is just so out of ordinary when presented in manga form. The characters are interesting and the quick delivery of the punchline really works for me. In other words, short and sweet.

I was mildly amused by the pre-run episode because they set up the atmosphere in such a relaxing way, which made me less in a mood to laugh. Frankly, I got bored. I had a hard time laughing like when I read the manga. Somehow, with so much more detail in front of me, I was unable to laugh out a loud. I’ve seen funnier anime in many places and this one gets a smile out of me but nothing more. Maybe it’s because I know all the punchlines from the manga, but even with that, this one was a mildly amusing experience at best.

Oh, and it’s pace is slow, even for an ordinary-life-based comedy show. The music doesn’t help, after all.

When thinking family as a unit comprised of varying components, functioning as best they can with their respective abilities and personality quirks, it isn’t hard to think of how cool it would be if this were so on a regular basis. Or at least, when the world needs it most. Which is all the more heartening to see a film that not only gives us the ultimate expression of this in anime form, but succinctly embraces its identity as singular 21st century entertainment. The many levels of enjoyment to be had from Mamoru Hosoda’s follow-up to Toki Wo Kakeru Shoujo are wide and plenty, making it not only great reminder of anime’s many wondrous attractions, but also a grand example of family-geared amusement sans pandering, and packed with savvy.

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Sora no Woto, at its three-quarters mark as of episode 8, is fulfilling the promise that was evident from its very first episode, one background detail at a time.

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They were being driven to a prison, through no fault of their own, in all probability for life. In comparison, how much easier it would be to walk to the gallows than to this tomb of living horrors!

-Nellie Bly

Finally strapped myself in, and took a nice deep dive into the hellish wonders of Durarara! And for this reviewer, it can be shared with no uncertain issue, that it is easily one of the most consistently interesting series this year. As much as I’d love to spend the whole of this post to merely puncture myself to incessantly gush at any who’ll gawk about my positive feelings about the series, it only felt right to at first give a smal glimpse into what it is precisely that keeps me transfixed, drawing me further into its surreal comic nightmare.

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better than vending machine to the face. Continue Reading »

Finally, some good stuff. Is the manga even better? If it is, I want to purchase a copy.

Also, finally, the modified Shinboism is working.

(Note: I’ve stopped treating this show as the supposed mega hit of the season. Instead, I now see it as any other show)

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This season seems to be “enriched” by two characters from two different shows. Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu’s Hideyoshi and Daichi from this one. The former is causing a ruckus in the blogsphere that’s making many flocking to the nearby dude that looks like a lady and confessing their love for misandrogyny, and the latter is probably part of the triggering mechanism alongside with Mimina, the resident loli-character in Ladies vs Butler, for pistol salutes.

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Maybe I’m being Mr. Obvious. Maybe it’s a “duh”. But I got a very strong sense after watching 5 episodes. And yes, that means I believe there is only one connection among all these seemingly random people.

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