Mahou Meido Meganekko

My order just arrived, but sadly Dr. Heinous (who is in town) has been bombed by a request to log in and spend his vacation time working remotely on a project. In other words, his vacation, isn’t.

However, attached to my order was this note from Bob: “Thanks Ubu, we love the blog!” Well, he used my real name, but of course he has my billing info…. Personally, I think he was just happy I quit being a cheapskate and paid for the shipping, even if it was an accident. Still, makes my day, even if I can’t spend the time on it I used to (I took screencaps from Maria+holic’s OP but I don’t have time to adapt and upload them).

I’m just bummed out that Dr. H is going to be spending every waking hour slaving for his job instead of enjoying his vacation by watching some anime. That or he made it up because he just doesn’t like me any more.

But hey, the bright side is I get to break out Nanoha A first!

“A show with Maria in the title isn’t my cup of tea.”

I really only have two samples to go by and haven’t even watched one of them. Maria Watches Over Us, about girls at a Catholic school, simply has no appeal for me.

On the other hand, Maria+holic sounded like it might be quirky fun. Kanako, a yuri-seeking student, transfers into all girls boarding school, looking for romance. Nosebleeds galore if she sees a cute girl; gets hives if touched by a boy. So, reverse harem, with a yuri twist. Sort of like an Immelman turn, except with a plot instead of an airplane. Otoboku, meet Girls Bravo.

The gag? She finds out that Mariya, her super-kawaii roommate, is actually a boy. There’s just two problems… Kanako is a ditz of a victim, and “Mariya” is a total, reprehensible, utter, sadistic, complete bastard. With, of course, a contrived reason for why she can’t expose him.

When I first read that this series was on the way, it sounded intriguing, so I checked out the scanlation of the first chapter. I decided the guy was too revolting, but color me stupid, I decided to watch the first episode on a whim when the season started. Maybe they portrayed him a little more sympathetically….

Nope. Still a rat bastard. Not even the fourth-wall breaks could save this. Note that the rankings on ANN are sort of U-shaped — folks either loved it or hated it. I think I’m on the bottom end of that U.

A couple of nights ago, I was rather bored, so I went back to the well, one more time (color me really stupid), and watched episode 2. The OP was ready by then I guess… Um. Probably NSFW, but it doesn’t matter because I can’t find it on YouTube. Let’s just say they found a new way to squick me. This description does not do it justice: After some establishing shots of the male and female leads, lines of very lifelike (and well-endowed) nude yellow mannequines(sp?) appear. The female lead has an explosive nosebleed, coating them in red, whereupon the male lead grabs one and proceeds to use it as a life-sized paintbrush, painting everything in bright red while grinning maniaclly.

Doesn’t. Do it. Justice.

Of course, by the end of the second episode, she’s starting to fall for him. Per the narrator anyway.

I confess, I’m tempted to see just how bad this trainwreck can get. It’s sort of like the sick fascination of… well, I can’t think of an example that wouldn’t make me look like a raving psychotic. Even so, I wouldnt want to actually watch the whole thing, even without the OP.

Maybe skip to the last episode…? No, no, no, take the lesson and run. Argh!

Catgirls are dying by the dozen over at Chizumatic. Now if only I could score some of those bailout funds to start a preserve of my very, very own. I’m sure they’d all be very grateful for the safe haven.

It’s been bugging me, how far behind I am on my obligation buys, now that the licensing logjam’s broken. So, an order, even though I’d rather not have put one in, just yet:

Code Geass, part #3 (vol. 5 and 6).
Nanoha, Nanoha A. The latter wasn’t an obligation buy, but it’s my sole treat, a series I haven’t seen.
Familiar of Zero Really should be in the “reject until super cheap” pile with Otoboku and Buso Renkin, but I didn’t want to end up excusing myself until I missed them all. Smart thing would have been to buy Buso Renkin, since I never watched the end of it, but I didn’t for two reasons — one, that would have seemed like cheating; two, it really ticked me off when it jumped the shark, and The Regiment had its own navy. Hard to believe your organization is fighting a shadow war when it can whistle up an entire light task force.

I failed to pay attention and get the super-saver shipping, so I also paid another $17 for priority mail. Bah.

Was fiddling around with the music player over at Brickmuppet’s place (yes, realy, his place this time), and ran across the theme to Vandread. Oh yeah, that was a fun show. Put the first DVD in the drive last night for rewatch. Just as good as ever, but that damn letterboxing really puts me off. I might do like Steven and buy a replacment if it’s anamorphic. Course, that will be the third copy of this show I’ve bought, in that case.

Also decided to catch up on Sora wa, um, whatever. The Girl Who Lept Through Space. It’s a zany show, but when the season started, I had a low tolerance for zany, and got fed up with it after two episodes. Going back to it in a better frame of mind, I’m enjoying it a lot more. I thought it involved the middle of three sisters, but in reality, there were five, and a whole lot of backstory. The missing two are a Badass Martial Artist and a Whiz Kid (with a large, prehensile scarf).

I don’t buy part of it though, theres no way the history of the Brain Colonies could have been suppressed that effectively. There would still be too many people who lived through it.

Another thing that annoyed me at first was how quickly the protagonist got herself involved with stealing stuff to rebuild Leopard. They didn’t do a good job of explaining her motivations; she came across as rebellious; truth is, she was just obscenely rich, and bored to death. She’s the middle sister; eldest is running the family business, second oldest is (unknown to her) investigating a secret cult, next youngest (I think, she might be older, since she’s not in school) has a modeling career, and youngest is off at various labs doing research. So she feels rather left out and has self-esteem problems.

Oh, and there’s no fanservice in this show. Nope. None. Not a b– damn, are the fronts of the skintight outfits transparent, or does it just have a hint of color? Hm, that’s a bellybutton, so it’s not opaque… and I’d swear that the artists forgot and started using skin tone on the pants… all the way up, in that one scene. Plus the cop gets a nice dom outfit for one episode. “Yea-ah, baby!” Don’t even get me started on all the jokes about Leopard’s sexuality.

The policewoman is the same age as the high school student, and generally doesn’t run around any more pantsless than anyone else. And I think the police ninja twins are even younger. Oh, and Everybody Has A Secret.

Enough for now. Don’t think I’ll have time to add any not-fanservice pics tonight.

For anime or blogging. Dropped Kurokami; I’ve gotten tired of watching Kuro get the crap kicked out of her. Sure she wins most of the time, but it’s abuse porn until then. Love the ED though, it’s definitely in my playlist right now.

Still watching Druaga. Broke down and downloaded Nanoha. Sigh, on my obligation list now. It really kicked ass around episodes 6-7, but it slowed down badly just before the final battle, and then I found the “wrap-up” episode to be syrupy and tedious. Might have just been my mood. I’ll wait until I’m able and buy the rest though, it was good enough for that.

I rewatched the episodes of Negima!? I originally downloaded and compared it to the final arc of the original Negima! series. I can see why the second got the kudos it did, but I still have some problems with it. I think it’s partly the opening of the first episode (which looks far more serious and dramatic than the series is) misleading me, and partly the obvious anachronisms and irregularities in the storyline. Too many points where logic got thrown to the winds, and I hate that. We’re supposed to believe Negi’s in fear of being turned into an animal if he screws up and lets the secret of magic out, when a pair of misshapen animals are walking around talking to students? We’re not supposed to notice Chamo playing cards with the girls when the only one that knows he’s special is Asuna? Come on.

Also following Munto. It’s not bad, but the storytelling just isn’t grabbing me, and the characters aren’t pulling me in either. They’re filling in backstory now, which is helping, but not enough. My favorite character so far is one of the relatively minor ones; leader of the battle forces of a small nation that switched sides in the war. Nothing really fazes her and she’s obviously pretty badass, plus has a sense of honor.

Probably going to watch Battle Valkyries in the new season, just to torture Dr. Heinous. He showed me the game last time I was up there; it looked and played pretty good. I kibbitzed his playing for a while — “Maybe if you get a sniper up on the building? You’ve got too many lancers on your team.” It was pretty obvious that you had to put some thought into picking your team members for each mission. No idea if the animé is going to be any good though. And yes, I’ll probably watch that silly show with the girl carrying the cream jug. What the hell, I enjoyed Sekirei. Even went back and rewatched the last episode. It was still hilarious watching Yume fighting while holding one hand over her ponderous breasts. (she’d ah, lost everything but her apparently titanium panties earlier in the fight). Have to wonder if that was animated differently for the DVD release? Quite possible considering episode #8.

Dr. H is rambling about firing up his blog and starting to talk about animé he’s watching. (Neo-Ranga; I loaned it to him on his last trip down here.) I think I know what show he owes us all a paragraph or two on.