Well then they somehow emerge from the forest back at the top of the cliff, as evidenced by the fact that they’re pushing his motorcycle when they are met by her butler and servants. Who, I should point out, do NOT offer him a ride in return for saving Charlotte from the attackers. Seems a bit rude. (I also think it’s bizarre that her chosen mode of transport is a carriage pulled by horses, when there’s obviously a limo available.) But that’s ok, because as soon as she was gone, the motorcycle worked again. (Groan.) The intelligence never gets much better, but hey, I already said why I was watching this animé!

Later, I thought that there was something unusual about how embarrassed Teppei got when he tried to follow Sophie through the curtain into the dressing room. The girls were entirely too well dressed for him to react that strongly. Note, he did not get a nosebleed, he was just embarrassed and apologized loudly. Well, it seems that scene was significantly edited for the TV version. (NSFW!) Excuse me while I go download the DVD rips… (It’s not available in R1…. I checked.)

One thing I found out though.. there is going to be a 2-ep OVA with the first episode released on 9/17/10, focusing on Sylvie (and somewhat on Yuu, the maid). It’s definitely hentai, per the PV I found on Tokyo Toshan. ANN lists it as an alternate retelling, which might explain that while Seika appears in it as well, I didn’t see Charlotte at all. Here’s hoping it gets subbed. (Why is it the best games, the ones that spawn animés, never get imported to the U.S.? We only get the sausage-fests.)

Strictly as a matter of evaluating haremettes, Sylvie was top tier, with Charlotte failing simply on the simple-minded score…I don’t think she was really dumb, but she came across as an airhead, which I find annoying in more than small doses. Seika was the violent tsundere, which automatically DQ’d her, although in terms of business leadership, she was Teppei’s best match. As for Yuu… I just never warmed to her. She wasn’t exactly a doormat, but I always got the feeling from her that she’d hop in bed with a hearty “Yes, Master!” anytime she was asked. I thought it was interesting, if a bit unbelievable, that the other girls accorded her an equal status in the “maidens’ promise” just because she had the advantage from proximity. I don’t know why it bothered me; I’m not a monarchist at heart. Yet the name of the show is Princess Lover, and here you have three “princesses” (two actual, one virtual)….and a maid. Hmmmm.

So, evaluating from personal taste, the order is Sylvie, Charlotte, Seika, Yuu.
From “best match for Teppei’s future” I see it as Seika, Sylvie, Charlotte, Yuu.

Enh. Who am I kidding? Go for the GXP ending and take ‘em all.

Update: ah, the joys of an 18mbit connection from AT&T. The entire DVD series, plus both sets of shorts in only a half-hour. I’d stopped watching after episode 9, so this let me get caught back up. It never got any more intelligent. “Hey, they’re on the Hazelrink Express, which is like a mobile embassy–we can’t stop it without causing an international incident. So let’s attack it with artillery and cavalry!”

And I got the picture file from the game too. Some observations, and bear in mind it’s a hentai game before you go clicking: Show ▼

Most of the picture dramas were just silly excuses to show the girls semi-or completely undressed, but the third one gave some background to Yuu; in the animé continuity, she met Teppei as a child, but he didn’t remember it. We knew she was an orphan, but it seems Teppei’s dad was a major contributor to her orphanage; this being after he left Arima Issen’s service. It seems he had been the old geezer’s head chef, and Arima’s daughter must have really liked his yakisoba, so he’d severed all ties (or vice versa) after running off to marry her. How that led to Yuu being adopted by Arima is anyone’s guess; the timeline doesn’t make much sense.

Update 2: I see Steven noted the H-OVA back in June. After looking at the PV, I can say “No, it’s not censored out the wazoo.” Not sure about part 2, but part 1 appears to have been moved up to September 17

Curiously, there are also a series of light novels that are attempting to write a history around the war. The anime does not seem to be following it closely, thanks to the ending of the first series; but the same characters are there, as well as many others. Most of the stories follow other IJN Strike Witches sent to the European theater; most from the army are working on the Orussian front. There’s also the Suomus Misfit Squadron (officially the Suomus Volunteer Air Squadron), where everyone dumped their worst problem cases (including the Japanese). They’re fighting out of what we know as Finland. In warmer climes, the Afrika Korps (mostly Karlslanders) fighting against a secondary invasion in Egypt/Lybia; the line’s currently in Tobruk, but facing east, not west. All these stories are set before the animé; there’s talk of setting up a joint fighter squadron of all aces in Brittania, but it hasn’t been confirmed yet.

At least one set of stories does follow the 501st, though it’s not translated yet. In fact, Baka-Tsukai hasn’t completed the translation of any of them yet; as is typical of their volunteer status.

In the light novel history, Neuroi were seen singly for mabye a century or two, but the Great War started in 1939, with the mass invasion of Ostmark (Austria/Hungary area). Although, there is a note about a war in 1917, which may or may not have been the Neuroi. In 1941, a second front was opened with the invasion of Egypt, which is why the Akagi had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope in ‘43. There are other incursions that come and go; there’s mention of a “Fuso Incident” in which Japan was attacked, but the Navy repelled the invaders.

While most of the novels are apparently set earlier in the war, it’s mentioned that the reason Karlsland fell is because they sent so much aid to other countries; Gallia wasn’t anywhere near as strong and thus fell immediately afterward. Liberion, as of 1941, is training up its military, and looks to be abandoning its isolationist stance; it sends one terrible screw-up to Suomus. She’s a southerner (from Texas no less) and written as a sweet-but-dumb hick, so I’m wondering if, it were ever animated, would they give her a Kansai accent? Seems likely.

The Suomus stories (3 novels) follow two Japanese girls sent to fight in the frozen north. Tomoko is a tough, dour, highly capable ace from the Fuso incident, but she wont give up her older style Striker unit, is haughty, sees everything as a slight, and a bit paranoid; she comes off like Sakamoto Mio in the original short, only worse. Her ever-so-willing partner, Haruka, is a terrible klutz who has a crush that goes way beyond Perrine’s for Mio. So this is another multi-national squadron, but far less elite, at least to start with; their squadron is full of head-cases and, to put it bluntly, fuck-ups. The American has over sixty kills — all of other Striker units, thanks to landing accidents. The Brit is an insolent head-case who has been arrested 54 times (”no, it was 55.”), and court-martialed eight times (I suspect combat stress–she’s actually pretty good). Their Finnish commander isn’t competent to be an officer, let alone a wing commander. Imagine the timid SOS-dan Mikuru being put in charge of this squadron, and you’re about there. I know Strike Witches are rare, but damn.

The Afrika Korps story (also 3 novels) follows an ex-witch who turned 20 while laid up in the hospital after a training accident and had to resign; she now works as a civilian reporter/photographer. Inspired by her interview with a German ace in Tobruk, she decides to re-enlist, thinking there may be some way she can be of use to the IJN. Much to her surprise, it’s as commander of a Japanese squadron of pilots and support troops dispatched to Tobruk. The translation hasn’t gotten far enough for me to see where it’s going, but I suspect her group will become some kind of reconnaissance force. Interestingly, the African front is noted as the only one where men are the predominant warriors, because the range of their artillery (esp. the Karlslander 88’s) is unimpeded by terrain, and exceeds that of the wildly inaccurate Neuroi.

Back to the 501st group, there’s also 3 novels and nothing translated but the chapter titles. These make me suspect that the episodes from both the first and second series (or at least the better ones) are adapted from the novels. Consider:

Special Operation Riceball!―or, the Maiden’s Waistline
Forget You Not―or, a Red Dress and Lili Marleen

Some differences: the Neuroi aren’t as tough, and attack en masse, instead of individually. They have standardized models recognizable as fighters and bombers, and they use bombs instead of beams for the most part. But hey, bombs aren’t as much fun as beam spam, right?

There is a hint that the break after the first series might not be due to Gonzo: The last chapter title is “Epilogue - Or Prologue?” But given publication dates, it might also be a retcon to keep the anime and novels in line. It will be interesting to find out, as the translations come in, slowly.

Update: forgot to mention, the primary author is Yamaguchi Noboru, who also did Zero no Tsukaima, though the only ones translated so far are parts of the Suomus and Afrika Korps stories, which have different authors. Some semi-official manga have also been produced.

Update 2: Of course, I could always go read the Wiki entry.

She’s also wearing the same white dress through the whole show, despite getting green ichor all over it in the first episode. Damn, that Japanese bleach is good!

The primary male, unfortunately, is the major failure point of the show — but far from the only one. I thought we had a cocky braggart who was also finding himself over his head. You know the story; the trope is that they’re the Cocky Arrogant Hero; over-confident in the extreme, and you, as the viewer, just can’t wait for him to get his comeuppance. Once the CAH gets the stuffing beaten out of him, he loses confidence, mopes around, and all appears lost. At the last minute, he gets his mojo back, or maybe really starts trying for the first time. He ends up saving the day with some real bad-assery, maybe a CMoA or two, because he’s a Big Damn Hero. It turns out he really is as good as he thinks he is. All is well, and he smooches the love interest before the final curtain.

That isn’t what is happening here.

After the first two excellent episodes, the show got handed to a different director and writer for some reason. Maybe it was just for an episode or two, but that was enough, because they reversed all the good things from the beginning. Let me point out something Very Damn Important:

You can have a lead male who is stupid, but succeeds anyway.
You can have a lead male who is a liar, but make the audience like him.
You can have a lead male who is a coward, but still saves the day.

What you absolutely cannot do is have a cowardly stupid liar as the lead male. Is Abe really Bunmei the spoon-bending boy, or not? Is he a crack secret agent sent from the future to stop the world from ending, or is he a pathetic con artist? The writers can’t seem to decide.

Abe talks to himself like he is Bunmei, and even tries to make contact with his old family. Yet he turns around and says to Maya that he lied. He needs her help to save the world so he goes and destroys what little trust she had in him? He lies to the girl he likes about rescuing a missing student. Abe confesses to lying to Maya about how he came to be sent back to 1999: he’s not the cocksure, arrogant, highly trained secret agent we saw in the second episode, that was just his version of the story. In reality, he’s just a sniveling loser that was pulled out of refugee camp to become the sixth agent sent back in time.

And not only is he an idiot, the primary villain, who is vice principal of the school, also has an attack of the stupids, falls in insta-love with him because he complemented her hair, and starts writing bad love poetry. On screen.

No, I’m not making that up.

Stupid Missed Clue #1: The world’s going to end soon. Abe/Bunmei has a cell phone which shows what a person or object will look like in 2012. It’s to find the item or person that is central to the world’s end, so he constantly takes pictures of everything. When the vice principle declares her love for him and starts aggressively trying to kiss him, he snaps a picture: He sees her, alive with two kids; he’s a corpse in the background. He wasn’t in the camera’s view when he took the picture, so why is it showing him? BIG FREAKING CLUE.

Stupid Missed Clues #2 and #3 The cute young thing at the curry shop takes an interest him, but even when they date, he does not snap a picture of her. Why? He snapped one the instant the vice principal tried to kiss him. This chick is much more photogenic. Also… she works in a curry shop and owns an expensive sports car? (Jag or Porsche, I forget which). Searching for missing people, she leads him into a shrine and they “accidentally” find a maze of caves, then get separated because he’s a big chicken and panicked. She finds her way out without a problem; he nearly dies from Mothra, Jr. — during which time he panics again, this time abandoning Maya to what should be certain death. And once he runs into (not finds, because he wasn’t looking) the curry girl (I just don’t care enough to go look up her name), he spins a bunch of lies to make himself look the hero. Oh, and how is he so clean when he was covered in moth shit just a few minutes ago? Sunlight is apparently as good as Japanese bleach.

Finally, why did the vice principal order all the tunnels blown up, and why does no one go “hey, those tunnels we barely escaped from just blew up… WTF?”

Everyone’s just full on stupid at this point, and I’m outta here.

First though, what I originally wrote, from the viewpoint of having watched only the first episode and catching up on the manga.

I caught the 2nd season preview for Seikirei the other day. I expected a recap episode, and while there was some of that, it was more stage-setting for the next series than anything else. [edit: turned out the "preview/recap" was the first episode] It’s made evident that Honmura is starting to react to Minato, and that Kazehana is also. Of course, in Honmura’s case, that reaction is a bit icky, given that he’s Show ▼

nominally a guy…for now.

More of the background behind the disciplinary squad is shown; especially how they took down the army that invaded MBI’s island base. Also, “the capital” is given an explicit name, and it’s not Tokyo. One thing they did a good thing in establishing was that certain sekirei powers are reactive with each other; for instance if Tsku combines her water powers with Kuu’s plant-growth, the result is an even greater acceleration. Given that she’s covered city blocks from a single potted plant, that’s a boost she probably doesn’t need, but establishing the principle now means it’s less of a “pulled out of thin air” bit later when it gets used in combat.

I’m moderately optimistic about this series; the anime preview makes it clear that he’s highly motivated by fear of what will happen to the women if they lose. Minato, the guy in the middle, has gotten a grip in the manga and may be the only one of the Ashikabi who is actually planning on both the tactical and strategic scales. The rest are all, “Oh, i’ve got my Pokegirls, and if I’m sneakier or less scrupulous than anyone else, I’ll win.” If this positive trait of the protagonist carries over into the anime (unlike in the disappointment that was Omimori Himari), we could have a surprise winner. Or at least something worth watching on a slow day, without cursing the computer monitor.

Well, as it happens, the show is exceeding even those modest expectations. While the first two episodes were a bit off the manga, it appears that their main use was to “re-rail” it back onto track. In the manga; Minato ends up in the hospital for a few days due to the battle at the bridge; in the anime, a kidnapping attempt by the broken sekirei and Benitsubana (or “Bennihana” as I think of her) resulted in the injuries. As a result, Minato ends up in the hospital and the same discoveries proceed from there. Said discovery being that Show ▼

Now aside from all the jiggle and family issues, the show is pretty entertaining. The comedy is reasonably intelligent, although Kazehana goes a bit overboard Show ▼

. Even the action scenes aren’t half bad; although the major battle in episode 3 had the bad guys standing around anytime Kazehana or Minato had excessive lines.

The often comedic violence during that fight was ok, but a later scene involving another member of the Disciplinary Squad running a sword through the chest of an opponent was a jarring contrast. It’s bloody, it’s violent, and it’s deadly serious. Note however, that the target isn’t killed even then; it’s explained later that when sekirei are defeated, the wounds they’ve taken are reported to the pickup team; level five isn’t explained but I presume fatal. The girl in question was level four, critically injured. Minato’s mother had to be dispatched for that one.

Musubi’s simple-mindedness is a bit annoying at times, but what makes the show work is the guy in the middle. Minato genuinely cares for all the sekirei, and is willing to risk life and limb for them. He’s not a wuss, not a coward, not indecisive. He’s coming across as a nice guy, but not an idealistic milksop. He’s not the only one to care for his sekirei, but he is rising to the challenge, and not shirking the danger. Especially in the manga, as I’ve pointed out, he is taking the initiative and working to improve his position off the battlefield as well as on it.

All in all, I came for the fanservice and I got a decent action/adventure comedy.

“Have I mentioned I’m part space alien?”

It pains me to announce that this is the last week of manga reading on One Manga (!!). Manga publishers have recently changed their stance on manga scanlations and made it clear that they no longer approve of it. We have decided to abide by their wishes, and remove all manga content (regardless of licensing status) from the site. The removal of content will happen gradually (so you can at least finish some of the outstanding reading you have), but we expect all content to be gone by early next week (RIP OM July ‘10).

So what next? We’re not really sure at this point, but we have some ideas we would like to try out. Until then, the One Manga forums will remain active and we encourage all of you to continue using them. OMF has developed into a great community and it would be a shame to see that disappear.

Regardless of whether you stay with us or not, on behalf of the One Manga team, I would like to thank you all for your unwavering support over the years. Through the ups and downs you have stuck with us, and that is what kept us going.

As a certain Porky was fond of saying… That’s all folks!

Time for me to go lay down and let this all sink in.

- Zabi

In the forums, he also explains that 1000Manga, which they created for the more mature stuff, is also going away.

I can’t say as I’m surprised; I’m sure that manga scanlations are eating into the corporate profits. Unfortunately, in my case that pretty much means I’m out of the manga reading gig (assuming MangaFox and others are also forced to shut down). Short of torrents, I won’t have access, and I can’t support the Manga industry in the US.

It’s not that I don’t want to; in particular, I’ve felt bad about not buying Negima books just to support the author and industry. Unfortunately, I will not buy something I cannot use, and the text in the small-book format used by American manga importers is too damn tiny for me to read without a magnifying glass, something I just refuse to do. Gasses aren’t enough. Negima is a particularly bad offender, even on a large monitor I find myself having to load pages into a graphics program and zoom in to catch some of the text.

I was hoping that OM might be able to ride the storm by doing a CrunchyRoll type deal, especially to carry the stuff that doesn’t get released commercially in the US. Sure, they’d be forced to lose the big three (OP, Naruto, Bleach), and probably other highly popular titles, like Negima, but there’s a lot of marginal stuff that isn’t commercially viable for printing that they could work with. Either the site owners weren’t allowed that route, couldn’t take advantage of it, or didn’t want to.

Given the amount of anime that comes from manga (Sekirei, Negima, OP, Naruto, FMA, Bleach, etc.), this is also going to have a negative effect on the anime market. Some very popular series will still break through, but for most, there will be far less word of mouth ahead of time. Who would have cared about HOTD ahead of time, if not for the manga scanlations?

I’m not going to rant about corporate greed, or try to excuse getting something for nothing. It’s just the way things are, and I’m sad to see OM bite the dust, if for no other reason than my ability to get timely Negima updates.

Update: 91,000 Facebook “likes” and 77 pages of comments and counting. Publishers take note.

BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BREASTS BRAIN BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS

Well, I’d have added “BLOOD” at least once, and the ratio is off a bit, but still, you get the picture, I’m sure.

I have to say that this season has turned into a stunning winner to make up for the last two crappy quarters we’ve had to endure. Strike Witches 2 and Sekirei 2 have both turned up the quality. HOTD has just about the perfect mix of horror, blood, and breasts. Asobi ni Ikuyo is keeping me in stitches with its zany Illuminati hijinks, and Occult Academy had a good first pair of episodes to start before the reportedly atrocious third episode.

Losers: Mitsudamoe (too-perverted kids); Seitokai Yakuindomo (too-perverted teens, and derivative of recent series); Shukufuku no Campanella (too boring, wake me if anything happens).

Edit: I don’t know what happened to the 2nd half of this article; it was there when I opened the edit screen but not displaying until I re-saved it. Weird.