Monday, July 17, 2006
	| First| Prev | Next |Last | Experimental Comic Kotone #476 "Laika 41" (Story Arc: Laika story arc) | First| Prev | Next |Last | "Laika 41" by Akira (2006-07-17) Flashback continues. I'm still busy with my work. I spend this weekend working on coding program. I barely had time to finish this page -_-; Please write your comment to this strip at pOnju forum

	Tuesday, July 18, 2006
	"More Summer Previews" by Konstantin (2006-07-18) The new season's turning out better than I expected, with at least four more shows to add to my to-watch list. I guess there won't be much of a chance to take it easy anime-wise this summer after all, at least until Disgaea 2 and Xenosaga 3 hit the stores stateside. NHK ni Youkoso! - All I can say is, wow. I've seen bits and pieces of the manga posted to image boards now and again but never actually read it, so I was unprepared for just how thoroughly nuts the protagonist of this show really is. I knew he was a a hikikomori and a NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training), but he's also delusional and paranoid, making him one of the more unique and memorable protagonists in recent anime. Since the show is presented from his perspective, the animators get to go wild in showing his altered mental states, floating singing puddings and all, producing some of the trippiest animation since Lain. Of course it also helps that the show still manages to make him sympathetic even in his weirdness and creepiness, and finds plenty of dark humor in the situation. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of this, and will try tracking down the manga while I'm at it. Coyote Ragtime Show - I could go into details of the plot and characters of this show, but Totaku's already done a great job on that, and in the end that's not really what managed to catch my interest. What made the show for me was the fact that there were twelve goth loli cyborg assassins, armed to the teeth and ready for some ultraviolence. They say a great villain can make a show, this one just happens to have twelve of them. So if they keep the 12 Sisters throughout, they've got my complete and undivided attention. Of course, since these are the same guys who made Futakoi Alternative, there's always the chance that they'll completely shift gears after the first episode, but so far it's looking very promising. Le Chevalier D'Eon - Occult conspiracies and court intrigue in pre-Revolutionary France. The title character is a young nobleman investigating the death of his sister, uncovering a lot more than he'd expect. Production I.G has really outdone itself on the animation, which looks breathtaking, particularly in the HDTV version. The plot is dark and complex, and should fill out the show's 26-ep run nicely. So far I'm extremely impressed and can't wait for the next episode to come out. Muteki Kanban Musume - This season's wacky comedy, filled to the brim with gags, some dumb, some silly, some mildly amusing, and some utterly hilarious. The plot, such as it is, focuses on the misadventures of a cute, violent, and none-too-bright girl trying to attract customers to her family's Chinese restaurant, and acts primarily as a platform for the gags, which are plentiful and fall flat about as often as they hit their mark. Still, with the sheer amount this show throws out, it manages to remain fun, and the animation is better than you'd expect in this sort of anime. While not quite up to the levels of Excel Saga or Pani Poni Dash, it's a decent entry in the genre and is worth a look.

	Thursday, July 20, 2006
	"The Analysis of Suzumiya Haruhi Part 1" by Totaku (2006-07-20) Well, first off I need to apologize for my delay I've been rather tied up with multipule issues in life that are I need to take care of which is why my rant was delayed till now. Anyways, today I thought I give you my impression about Suzumiya Haruhi since I just recently finshed looking at the anime as of not too long ago. This rant will be a rather deep analysis about my views about the anime as well as my thoughts regarding about it. Because as everyone probably know....this anime has achived a legendary status in Japan and the internet so it'll be a matter of time before it'll come here. Of course for now...the one thing I will say is that if you have not seen the anime or have not finshed watching it then you might want to avoid this rant since it has some spoiler here and there. It won't ruin the whole story, but it may reveal things you may not want to know. ^^; So anyways, let me start.... Warning: Just to repeat, this next part of the rant, may contain spoilers to Suzumiya Haruhi so proceed with caution! Suzumiya Haruhi no Yutsuu Beginning thoughts: When I first heard of this anime, it was from 4chan during th beginning of the Spring anime season..no one had no idea what was going to be good this season alot of people put thier bets on Disgaea but sadly, the show sort of plummeted fairly quickly after the first few episodes, but during one visit I heard people talking about this anime that they said that the beginnig was unlike anything they have seen before,,,,and to top it off the main charater was almost nt even in the first part of the anime, plus the fact that it was playing off bad special effect jokes and student filming grabed alot of attention of the people of the board. We were all curious what this anime was we were looking at, and eventually we found out it was call Suzumiya Haruhi. While the show left people competely confused on what to expect of this show...it wouldn;t be till the second episode (Epsidoe 1) when the show would begin to show it's true color....and that was only the icing on the cake. Soon the board went into Haruhi fever and I realized that there must be something important about this anime...so I went ahead and checked it out....I was impressed with what I saw and realize this anime may have some strong potential....so I continued watching it...and before long, I was hooked....I waited each week as the anime came out so I could continue to watch (until near the end when I had to do lots of school work which dealyed me for a few weeks) Eventually I would finish it and I realized that it has been a long time since I seen an anime that even came close to the level and magnatude of some of the legendary animes out there (like EVA, FLCL, ect) and this one just some how makes it...it's formula was so unique and clever that it pretty much got what it deserved. From this point on I'll contiune with a deeper thought on the show... First impression: Among watching episode 1 (AKA epiosode 11), my first thoughts were (WTF?!) I was sorta surprised with the events that were unfolding on this amature video....I begin to question about the complete silliness of the show and begin to think that this might be an interesting anime to see...but what really kicked me off by surprised while watching the film was the laser flash that came from Mikuru's eye, the talking cat, and Itsuki Psychic ablities which were vastly different from the other effect on the show...as if they were...high budget....(not to mention watching the low budget eye beam was plain halarious. XD) But I sort of knew I was setting forth for something different....how different I wouldn't know till the follwing episode when we learn all about how Kyon and Haruhi met and how the SOS-dan got started up as well as the recuitment of Mikuru and Yuki. From there we I knew this was not your typical anime. And by the time Kyon went to Yuki to explain that she was a data life-form I begun to know this was not a school comdedy...Follow that event.....things would change.... Midpoint Impression:After seeing the beginning, I got hooked into this show hoping to learn more about Kyon, Haruhi, Mikuru and Yuki, but before that happend....I realized very unusal things were happening in the episodes that would come....time skipping in a format simalar to Pulp Fiction. At first I wasn't sure if the time skips of jumping back and forth between episodes would work since it felt so out of place....but over time and while watching some of the events that occured in the story...I noticed there were lots of interesting things I learned though the time skips and also it turned out to be a nice way in developing the charaters. As each episode aired in an out of order sequence....I learned more about each of the charaters which was an important step to me in helping me understand them I would become rather attached to them over time and the show format would continue to please me as I watched it. The only time the show even began to feel a little slow was when they showed the Chornological final episode around the half way point for the season....but follwing that, the anime would soon kick up the speed..in full gear. Final Impression Around during the last few episodes is where everything started to jump to full speed. episodes 10-12 and 14(ep 4,13,12, and 6) was prehaps one of the most mind blowing parts of the whole season it seemed that's when they pulled out every possible thing in thier arsenal to make the last episodes worth thier time. From the battle with Asakura vs Yuki, to the rock concert, all the way to the finale where Kyon and Haruhi would have to deal with being stuck in closed space. Everything about the finale was done with such prefect execution that it made me bring tear of joy, happieness, and sorrow since I knew that the ride was going to be over. But in the end....it was well worth every moment to check out this anime. Characters One of the most notiable things about Suzumiya Haruhi was the charaters each of them was very clever and unique in there own special way and I fell in love with each of them, in fact..it's hard for me to have a favorite since I loved each of them. ^^; But I'll go ahead and explain to you my thoughts about what I thought of them. ^^ Kyon Being the main male lead and the narrator of the show. Kyon earned a special place as begining a very unique charater. Cause even though sometimes he would appear as bland in his charater...his narroation of his inner thoughs is where he truely wins at. Cause most of his point of view comments he make through the whole show are interesting as well as compeltely halarious at time. (Like how he thinks about Mikuru or the time he decided to hide the picture Haruhi put up of Mikuru. XD.) Kyon is very unique and special in his own way and I personally beleive he deserve it very much for hispoint of view prespective. Haruhi Haruhi was a very interesting main charater. Unlike most Tsundere types, Haruhi is much more than any typical Tsundere. In the beginnig I found Haruhi to be very halarious epecially how she would treat Kyon during the ealry episodes. But the one thing I liked about Haruhi was her unperdicablity at that time as well such as like how she got the computer president to give them a computer. As time continued on though Haruhi's charater begin to grow and along with the information form the other charaters we would realize Haruhi was no ordinary girl, but rather..a girl with a god-like complex. It was from there we would learn about Haruhi and I personally kept finding her interesting cause I now knew that as long as her mind was kept stable the world would remain balanced....other wise.... Plus on of the few other things that made Haruhi so special was her massive detication to what she did (even though some of the other were not prepared) and her developing relationship with Kyon. Hopefully I'll learn more about her over time. Mikuru Mikuru was probably one of few charaters I enjoied in more ways than one. Everyone pretty much know of her "moe" features (which is why Haruhi took her into the club) and we all know how Haruhi keep messing with Mikuru at various times. But another thing that made Mikuru special was not just goofy situations she was in with Haruhi, but also the times she spent talking to Kyon. On my personal view...while Mikuru mainly servered tool of humor and pleasure over most of the series, she also served as a messanger to Kyon and support to him as well. This of course also emplies to her future adult self which served as a key to Kyon that would help him when he would be stuck in the closed space incident. Besides that, Mikuru was cute as well. ^^ Yuki Yuki is probably one of the charaters that took the longest to develop for me. She at first seemed like the silent Rei-ish look alike that spent her time reading books, but it wouldn't be till the base ball episode I would begin ti show interest in her when she "modified" the bat. Eventually when it came time to see her in battle against Asakura I was totally convinced of her coolness under that silent like personality. For a digital alien, Yuki seem to know how to be both awsome and amussing at the same time. and then follow it up with her hacking skills and the gituar skills she won in so many possible ways. Yuki may not seem very normal in her natural apperance....epecially when she give out her long statements to Kyon about certain event....or when she gives out really short staments in general occasions....but on special occasions like the event I mentioned about that is when she truely shine. Yuki is of unexpected and cool all at the same time. Itsuki Itsuki is another wild card in the group from my view. Being a man with sort of a mystery behind him makes him rather interesiting. Always carrying a smile on his face most of the time. But also like Mikuru he servered sort of a messanger for most of the show, but he also is to my view very clever. Especially during the the vacation episode when they went to the mansion on the island. Besides that, his Psychic talents are also whant make him interesting like in the Blue Giant and Cave Cricket episode. There is probably more to him than this, but really he does make me curious about him. Kyon's little sis While probably not much can be said about her, I do have to say Kyon's little sis is cute and is quite funny at times the biggest highlight for her was definetely in the early part of the Summer vacation episode. Tsuruya She was prehaps one of the most unsual charaters I've seen. I wasn't sure what to make of her at first but she grew on me over time. Tsuruya's unusal personality and her laugh really make her cleverly unique....no wonder why the internet loves her so much. XD Asakura This girl deserved to be mentioned because she was complete unperdicatable. Upon first glance I sense she would play a key role...I orginally thought she would play a role sort of simalar to Tomoyo from Card Captor Sakura....but by episode 10 (AKA 4) when we learn her ture nature of who she is and she attempts to kill Kyon to experiment with Haruhi's reactions I was rather surprised....she was prehaps one of the most unperdicatble antagonist I've seen in anime so far. And the battle she had with Yuki that followed was turely epic. Even though she is no more....she was definetely note worthy that is for sure. Computer Club President He deserves a note of mention as well. He always seems to be picked on by Haruhi one way or another during the time he appearce. But at the same time you gotta feel sorry for him, he has to put up with so much since he lost some computer from Haruhi not once but twice...but still very note worthy. Judging by how long this is taking me...I may need to split this rant up for next week. So I'm going to have to postpone the rest for now. ^^; Until next time. ^^ Ja Matta. ^_^ -Totaku