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!
It’s interesting that Bob managed to connect your order to your blog. Likely it’s because you listed what you’d ordered here. And how many orders does he get any given day from Houston, anyway?
I’m looking forward to your reports on Nanoha A’s. And don’t let the lolicon images in ep 4 (I think it was) drive you away from the show, please!
Well, it wasn’t too difficult for him to make the connection, given that the last 3-4 orders, I’ve listed the blog on the “company” line.
And yeah, ep. 4 was multiple full frontal lolicon. It would have blown me out of any lesser show. Or even this one if they’d added nipples. One shouldn’t need to be discussing nipples on 3rd graders /shudder.
Now when we get to StrikerS, and they’re 17, I’m all for the ecchi.
I admit to having a Girl Genius flashback for just a moment during the first episode, when Vita glares at Nanoha after losing her hat.
Update: through Episode 9 now. And I have to say if there’s one transformation I DO approve of, it’s Hayate’s! This predated Rosario+Vampire, right? Guess we know where Moka’s transformation was stolen from, then!
Oh and by the way … Yes, this storytelling kicks ass!
Ok, I kind of expected the first revelation about the masked guy [spoiler]that one was telegraphed during the conversation about how fast he got from A to B.[/spoiler] But at this point, I my guess on the identity looks to be way off base. Or is it?
hmmm de dum… I can’t really speak without spoiling things… hmmm…
But yes, this does predate R+V.
I will say this: the Wolkenritter are a lot better opponents than Fate was, and this time we meet them immediately instead of having to wait a third of the way through the series before the opponent showed up.
I think that the director is cognizant of the weaknesses of the first series, and fixed all of them in the redo.
And having finished it now, I have to say that I was NOWHERE near on my guess as to the identity of the mystery opponents!
One of the major things I like about this series is that, despite having a “friendship and love conquers all” vibe, they don’t let it overwhelm things to the point of sappy ridiculousness. The writers realize that it goes a long way… but there are limits to what caring can do in the end — there will be loss, there will be pain, there will be suffering, and there will be a price to pay.
That’s the kind of thing that sets top-notch Japanese animation apart from even 95% of the best of the American stuff.