The Ubiquitous What Are You Watching Thread?

Monday saw FLCL episode 4 subbed. This is the baseball episode. And as per usual for it, it gets
weird. Of course we can't leave it without the well known comment: " Those eyebrows!"



Tuesday watched episode 7 of Aria:The Animation. Akira Ferrari (aka The Other Akira) takes
Akira, Aika and Alice on a training run. They pick up newlyweds for passengers. At one point Akira
gets pissed because the husband is reading a brochure and not paying attention.
At the end of the tour the wife says she wants to see more and they continue on the tour.

Wednesday episode 2 of xxxHOLIC. This one had Yuko dealing with a chronic liar by giving her a special ring.

Thursday since it was Christmas Eve I watched episode 33 of Gundam Wing. Not a Christmas
episode but still the way Relena handled that meeting...

Friday Sailor Moon episode 35. Usagi begins to remember the past but Mamoru is kidnapped
by Kunzite.

A new season is starting but I have no plans on any particular show yet other than the continuation of certain shows (Gundam, Utawarerumono)
I guess I will be watch some more live action and or dramas. Hmm, frankly the best often come around winter season.

I finally got Umi Monogatari and Magic Witch Puni-Chan today.
From what I understand the former gets pretty dark toward the end.

Saturday:Please Teacher! episode 5, Kei and Mizuho's honeymoon is interrupted by the gang
showing up and of course they have to do some quick covering up. Next week looks interesting as
Mizuho's mother and little sister finally show up!

Sunday:Nanoha episode 12, the final confrontation with Fate's 'mother'.

Monday saw the dub of episode 33 of Sailor Moon SuperS. I give it basically a B-/C+ .
Some of the VAs were pretty good (Queen Nehelenia, Amy, Raye and Mina especially).
But I think the Wedding Peach dub was over all better.

Just looked up the dub cast for SuperS at ANN. They listed both the original dub cast and the
ViZ cast. So Michelle Ruff is playing Luna and Stephanie Sheh Usagi?!
I think the latter would make a good Sailor Moon.

Tuesday saw episode 8 of Aria:The Animation this one was basically about a day in the life
of Aria. In the first part he gets discouraged and runs off because he wants to help the girls clean
house but can't do anything right, or so it seems.
In the second he decides to play superhero with at what first seems to be another fail. Though he
does end up reuniting a little girl with her favorite doll.

Also saw the extra featuring the three seiyuus who did the Legendary Water Fairies: Alicia, Akira Ferrari and Athena. All throughout it they kept cracking each other up! At one point the others
teased Ohara Sayaka about being drunk because she was having trouble answering a question.
Also the seiyuu for Athena apparently is just as clumsy in real life as they kept talking about how
she did things like dropping the script during recordings...

Wednesday episode 3 of xxxHOLIC, Himawari comes for Yuko's help and she sends
Watanuki to investigate a haunting at the school.

There were two in jokes/references to Chobits in this one: 1.Maru and Moro are seen reading
Chi's picture storybook A City With No-One and 2. Yuko, Watanuki and Black Mokona
are all seen wearing Chi's ears.

Thursday episode 1 of Ikki-tousen. Hakufu arrives at her new school. It seems so
odd when you watch this first episode that Ryomou would become so popular since when we first
meet her she's so sadistic and cruel. I think it has to do with the fact that she's one of those characters that takes time to get to know and when you do you just have to either like or hate her.

Ryomou = Rei that's the reason.

MS Gundam Iron blooded orphans ep13
The battle with the pirates ends, we get to see a bit of the Earth side (just relationships stuff), our mercs set sail for the colonies as planned. Turbine starts doing this and that with his women in front of the mercs which puzzles them. He tells them in times of many deaths there's a baby boom....

Perhaps. She certainly has the hair.

Friday episode 36 of Sailor Moon, Minako shows her leadership by first trying to get Usagi's
attention off of the disappeared Mamour by taking her to have her hair done and then by warning
Rei away from the brainwashed Tuxedo Kamen.

Saturday episode 6 of Ah! My Teacher
Kidding.
I mean of course Please Teacher! though this episode did have a certain Ah! My Goddess ! vibe to it. I mean Misuho's mother is pretty much in the Urd pattern and her little sister acts very much like Skuld down to the "I-wanna-kill-the-boy-in-love-with-my-big-sister!" 'tude.

Sunday episode 13 of Nanoha after rescuing Fate the rest of the episode is pretty much anti-climatic.
so next week I start Umi Monogatari.

P.S. "Aeka" is "Belldandy's" mother...or at least that's what I kept thinking after watching episode 6
of Please Teacher!

Thinking of crying "Blasphemy" but somehow won't.

Mobile Suit Gundam-Thunderbolt
The most awaited Gundam show of the year has already started!
The fires of WAR are lit!!! A new dance of zeek scums and feddie bastards! *all kinds of feddie and zeeks slurs over the radio*
Side 4 "Moore" colony, Thunderbolt sector, the feds have balls trying to attack a group of entrenched ace snipers with regular GMs : 24 sorties 2 survivors.

FA-78 Full Armor Gundam

MS-09R Rick Dom with sniper beam cannon emplacement
Based on the novel the show is more mature. People are shown with prosthetic, lots of kissing et. All technological designs are updated...far more than should be. Oh well.

• Io Fleming (typo?) vs Daryl Lorenz
  
• Moore brotherhood
  

Looks like they're releasing a new Gundam every other year or so now.

Monday watched the sub of Princess Tutu episode 5. This is the one with the Lamp Spirit
in it.
Ahiru keeps saying: "But I am a duck!" to herself.
Rue pretty cool in that costume for the dance.

Tuesday episode 9 of Aria:The Animation in this one Akira, Alice and Aika go to the country
to visit Alicia's mentor.Aika gets very competitive.

Actually, it's two Gundam show per year. Bandai & Sunrise are just milking. Especially since they trimmed down the basic skeletal design. Now they can reconfigure the outer appearance anyway they want. There's no end to possible model-kits to sell.
Right now three Gundam shows are on-going:
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin
And I'm pretty sure at least another one will start this year just don't remember the name right now.

Utawarerumono-Itsuwari no Kamen ep13
Haku meets the emperor again who explains about the 8 pillar generals.
I have the impression they are a collection of various myths, folk tale heroes, concepts, etc. although can't pin point with certainty.
3 of the generals are stand-in rulers
3 of the generals are major vassals (~dukes) (the lesser princess' houses (Ruru, Atui))
Munechika's the shield (like Athena)
Vurai, the ultimate speer
Hmm, the General of the Left and Right aren't counted here. Seems they are called Royal Generals.
So it's actually ten! but the number of people shown don't match up either. Arg don't wanna check one by one...
They decide on the deployment strategy but Dekoponpo is left out.
Dekoponpo rushes with his men to grab glory forcing the Royal Generals to chase & save him. You can guess what will happen next episode.
Entua is introduced.

Space Sheriff Shaider Episode 39 - Dance of the Masked Choir (Christmas Episode)
Just happened to see so I watched it out of curiosity. An early 90's show.
Taihen! Black Santa has replaced the children's presents with monsters. Save the kids!
Kind of funny like most Sentai shows.
Shaider is your typical Sentai. It appears they explain in every episode how he transforms. Using blue plasma from his ship he transforms in milliseconds (sounds like some anime). His partner is Annie, dressed like modern Pocahontas.
Shaider has a "video beam gun" (!) and a blade that changes into a "laser blade"; his move "Shaider Blade Flash"!
Sky Shaian (fighter for Annie)
Blue Hawk (Street Hawk), Battle Shaian (basic tank, that can carry Sky Shaian; can drill into the ground)
Vavilos, the ship that can transform into a handgun to shoot monsters

Meaning the Disnified Pocahontas as opposed to the Real Historical one.

Wed. ended what I have of xxxHOLIC with episode 4. This is the one where Yuko takes
Watanuki to the two fortunetellers. Cool the way she saw through the first one as a fake and then
used the charm to find the real one.

Should add it to my list and order the complete series from Rightstuf.

Thursday saw episode 2 of Ikki-tousen Epic battle between Ryomou and Hakufu.
Also never piss Hakufu off! Poor Ryomou thought she won and then she only awakened the Dragon inside her. Very cool scene when they pass each other in the hall.
And Ryomou's cousin also proves he can do the badass bit.

and next week the Second Idiot appears!

Yes, it's Disnified. The new Annie looks even better! Ah, she's called Tammy!


Kouki will see more action but he's only better than the minions.

Utawarerumono-Itsuwari no Kamen ep14
The girls go to war and Haku, apathetically, tags along. When they realize their citizen are forced to fight using hostages the girls jump in to save them and kill the enemies. Haku & Ruru run off...into the enemy camp and end up saving the hostages. Meanwhile the girls meet the Sword Master who turns against the enemy when his daughter is freed. Cornered, Dekoponpo tries to flee and runs into the Royal Generals...next episode.

Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans ep14
Kudelia couldn't sleep because of Mikazuki's kiss last time.
They arrive at Dort 2 (German for "there"), Dort colony cluster, African Union. These are run by the Dort company.
The mercs deliver cargos, their first work from GN Trading, but it's a trap set up by the Earth's Gjallarhorn.
Unknowingly, they actually deliver weapons to sympathizers, then Gjallarhorn troops show up for a surprise armed inspection. Things go bad.
As suspected, Kudelia's maid, Fumi-tan, works for Gjallarhorn. The plan was to assassinated her. However, without intervening she lets Kudelia go shopping at Dort 3. Looks like today's warehouse supermarkets (more American than Japanese).
Meanwhile our Gjallarhorn antagonists use a drill as a pretense to deploy their ship.
The girls are buying detergents since the mercs don't clean themselves often enough. Uhm, well, it's too down to Earth things in space are different...recycling works different.
next episode: white haired Masked Guy... Meh... I guess his story is going to be more like Code Geass.

And speaking of Gjallarhorns the one in Minnesota was said to not be working right before the game..
signs of things to come?

And it sounds like Haku is a rather pathetic protagonist. Is there any real reason not to skip this
season and watch the OVAs instead? At least the OVAs have the original cast.

Friday episode 37 of Sailor Moon. Usagi decides to attend Princess School(tm) but fouls
everything up as usual. Later on there's a ball and all the Sailor Senshi appear but oddly enough only
bookworm Ami and tomboyish Makoto actually are good at it. The others...well...let's just say their dance partners are gonna need plenty of epsom salts!
However it turns out to be a trap set by Kunzite and Ami and Makoto and the rest of the girls that are tagged are turned into stone.
Moon, Venus and Mars end up fighting the Youma until Douchebag Tuxedo Kamen appears.
It apppears that he's about to return to normal when Kunzite appears and they argue. Sailor Moon
uses the time to use her Moon Escalation Healing on the Youma but when she tries to same on
DTM(tm) he vanishes.

Saturday episode 7 of Please Teacher!. This episode is just one big misunderstanding after another as Kei wants to get some peace and quiet and escape the apartment. The first misunderstanding occurs when Mizuho finds him innocently talking to Kioyoshi, and then a pissed
off Maho sends him to her ship where she begins to torture him.
Mizuho comes to his rescue and tries to explain to Maho while calling her an idiot!
The final misunderstanding is just before Maho leaves with their mother and tries to kiss Kei.
Mizuho walks in on them and bursts out in tears.
Then when Kei tries to comfort her by kissing her,she cries some more.

Sunday episode 1 of Umi Monogatari. Marin and Urin are two peaceful sea people who are innocent of the surface world. When they find a ring that has just been thrown into the sea they
decide to take it back to the owner. However when they do find the owner in the form of schoolgirl
Kanon(tsundere alert! ) she gets pissed off because she threw the ring in the water after her
boyfriend broke off with her.
She takes the ring and throws it into the woods that surrounds the village.
Urin and Marin go after it and they get separated. Urin wonders into the area of the woods near
an ancient abandoned shrine and finds the ring under a stone saracophagus. While retrieving it
she accidentally loosens the seal on it.
After getting the ring she is curious and starts to try open the heavy lid by herself( Pandora Box
much?) accidentally releasing the evil within...again Pandora much?

I enjoyed the first episode as well as the Marin's "What Is This?" and the web promo.
Looks like it will be an interesting watch. Just glad I got it before Rightstuf's special.

Nah, just the freezing temperature problem....so only in winters.

Well, Haku lives from day to day. He's a hard worker when given work but doesn't initiate anything. He's good at math and somewhat bright with common sense. Nothing else to expect yet. I guess he should get into the center in the later half of 2nd season. The show is basically about the moe of the girls...in ep5/6/7? they are more exposed. Any other reason? -_-; I dunno. There are "good" scenes but they are short and rather rare. It's not like you haven't seen these somewhere before either.

Meh....doesn't sound as interesting as the original then.

Monday watched the dub of Armitage III: Dual Matrix. Not bad especially on the part of
Juliette Lewis as Armitage.

Tuesday episode 10 of Aria:The Animation Fall and the weather gets cold. The girls take a
trip to a local hot springs to warm up. Athena and Akira Ferrari (much to Aika's chagrin) show up
later on.

Tonight start Magical Witch Puni-chan.

Wednesday episodes 1 & 2 of Magical Witch Puni-chan. Well...umm... that makes
Excel Saga look Shakespearean by comparison!
Though I have to say a lot of fun as well.

Thursday episode 3 of Ikki tousen and introduction of both Ukitsu aka 'the other idiot'
and Ryofu.

Friday Sailor Moon episode 38 on a ski trip Rei and Usagi are trapped when they enter a Princess
Ski Contest and the Youma mistakes Rei for Sailor Moon!

Saturday Please Teacher! episode 8 Kioshi confesses her feelings to Kei at night.

Sunday Umi Monogatari episode 2 the Turtle God is awakened by Kanon and she and
Marin become the Priestess of Water and Land.

Monday: Momo, Girl God of Death episode 1 subbed ( evidently it also has been dubbed).
This is the one about the two kids who adopt an orphan kitten. When the girl dies the boy blames the
kitten. Momo and Daniel step in and remind him that he's actually at fault for not being there when
she needed him.
Then Momo allows him to see her one last time.

Tuesday: Aria:The Animation episode 11. This was basically a background story on how
Alicia, Akira Ferrari and Athena all met and became friends. The high point is Athena singing.
Later walking Alice and Aika home Akira realizes how much they mean to her as friends.

Phantasy Star Online 2 the animation ep1-2
PSO2 is a high level game with a greater scope than previous online-game-animes but the way they turn it to be: near future ordinary high school show + gaming. Meh!
It's full 3D CGI for the game part. What a waste of the brand.


Mobile Suit Gundam-Iron Blooded Orphans ep15
every two episodes a filler episode: The separated mercs try to meet up. Masked guy shows up. Meh. He reveals Kudelia's being a spy. Kudelia goes to search (for the mercs/maid?) on her own.


Utawarerumono - Itsuwari no Kamen ep15
Finally, the battle which lasts uhm 10 min. We get to see the true monstrous power of the generals crushing the enemy. Haku doesn't like seeing how ruthless some follow their orders.

Hmmm....doesn't sound like the original where a battle could last 2 episodes.

Wednesday episodes 3 & 4 of Magical Witch Puni-chan, seems everyone is out to get our
poor heroine!
First a girl claiming to be the true heir of the kingdom and then Puni's own two younger sisters
with their pet genie.

Thursday episode 4 of Ikki-tousen Hakufu has to rescue her cousin from a gang but of course it's all a trap so that the leader can duel her. At first it looks like he has the upper hand but she comes out after her cousin argues some sense into her. Also Saiji versus Ryofu! And Ryofu comes out on top in that one.

This is also the first time we see Goei spank Hakufu!

Next week ought to be epic- Ryofu vs. Ryomou!

Utawarerumono - Itsuwari no Kamen
Well, only one of three/four battles was anywhere near like the original. Lots of in between (regular) stuff. Haku didn't do anything. You got to wait until the royal generals die...
Ep16
Victory parade. The guys are having a banquet. It's a fan service episode for female fans.

Mobile Suit Gundam - Iron Blooded Orphans ep16
The worker class rebellion starts with a (media) stand-off before it gets violent. The rebels gets put off quickly. Kudelia finds Fumitan...but she ends up getting shot while protecting Kudelia. Kudelia is found by the mercs. Fumitan's presumed dead.

Sanada Maru jdrama
this 50 episode show aired a while ago...until December. -_- I wonder if I had something to do with it since I did fight for saving historical articles at WP the year before last and it was among those. Maybe they realized that other than anime and some books there's nothing about it.

Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry
Of all the recent sword & magic shows this one is slightly different, imho better.
Not only does relationship develop but you get to see all your favorite type of girls wielding swords. Forget the guys since the ratio is actually 3:1 (includes sidekick) or rather 6:1 practically.

Angleic Layer arrived today. Good thing since I have it penciled in to begin watching starting on
February 27. And so more CLAMP. IIRC this is sorta prelude to Chobits because isn't one of the main characters supposed to be Chitose's husband?

I was also going to comment in the Seikai boards how I can't look at Spoor the same way now that I know her seiyuu is also the original Japanese voice of Sailor Venus (and also IIRC Aquelda from
Wedding Peach).

And speaking of Sailor Moon: Friday episode 39 in which Makoto shows her figure skating skills. Poor Usagi the Youma-of-the-day don't respect her at all because on the computer screen where they're showing candidates for Sailor Moon they just skip her and put a big ol' X on her.
Usagi don't get no respect from the baddies!

Saturday was a bit bittersweet on Please Teacher! episode 9 as after a long talk with Ichigo,
Kei decides to break up with Mizuho. Though you can tell it hurt both of them.

Sunday episode 3 of Umi Monogatari. Kanon is really in tsundere mood in this episode.
The funniest scene was when Urin and Marin perk up when they hear the bathwater being run and
jump in. This disgusts Kanon and she attempts to get them with a shampoo attack...which they
enjoy btw.
More seriously this introduces Suzuki, Kanon's friend and a bit of background on their friendship.

You mean imagining she's the mature Venus.


Koukaku no Pandora ep1-2
It's a Techno Girl show!!!! We got a (evil) Technomage who coincidentally befriends the heroine and made her have her cuckoo's egg.
Well, this Masamune Shirow show is like any other anime except with some Gits features like the Gertsekoma and holographic UIs. It's rather so-so and on the fun/giant-robot parody side.

Is Minako ever mature?

Monday episode 6 of Grenadier dubbed with the great Wendee Lee as Rushuna. Yeah, this is the one with the running (literally) gag of Rushuna getting her panties shot out from under her. Though
the main part was giving Mikan's backstory.

Tuesday episode 12 of Aria:The Animation only the season finale left. I had to read up on the synopsis at Wiki because at the end I was confused if it was supposed to be a Ghost Story or what?
Turns out it's a Time Travel Story with Akira and Aria wondering into the past via a covered bridge
full of cats.

And this episode of Sato Jun's " I'm Sorry Venice" was the last about their stay in Venice. The
co-host was Chiwa Saito. (And I keep thinking of Homura for some odd reason! )