SCREEN SHOTS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Bold text within spoiler tags are links.
Slayers ep11-15 (no screens)
More Slayers watching with Shin! Amelia and Phil showed up and shattered Lina's dreams. Phil is no bishi but he is freakin' epic. You can't beat attacks with names like Pacifist Crush and Good Will Towards Men Smash. It's just impossible. Amelia is so very naive and, well, rather not smart during the first series. Out of the main cast, she's the one that's changed the most as the anime has gone on. But it's funny to watch her get on Lina's nerves so much.
Maria Holic ep11
Sugita Tomokazu does the best internal monologues ever. He showed up in this episode voicing Kanae Touichirou, an overly serious, yet perverted, priest who teaches English at Ame no Kiseki. His rapid fire thoughts as he struggled over his attraction to Mariya (lolz) and Matsurika and his concern for Kanako werre absolutely hilarious and were made even moreso after Mariya started messing with him. Ryouchou-sensei (aka the dorm mistress) taking him for everything she could get also made me laugh. She's become my second favorite character after Matsurika.
To Aru Majutsu no Index ep24
Apparently Hyouka is actually pretty badass, she's just frightened of what she is and losing her friends because of it. Which is understandable, but the, "I'm not human so you must hate me!" thing is way overdone. At least she and Index are cute in their cosplay.
So the series is over, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't get a second one. It totally set things up for one and it's obvious that the overarcing plot has only just begun to surface. And since it's done well enough for even the spin-off, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun which features Mikoto as the main character, to get an anime, I imagine it's only a matter of time.
Slayers Evolution-R ep10
Oh wow, we got to see some of Zelgadis's past in this episode, from when he still had his original body and was traveling with Rezo, Rodimus, Zolf, Dilgear, and Noonsa. We also got some big plot revelations regarding Taforashia. And I kind of figured this from the start, but according to Rezo there's no way to return Zelgadis's body to normal. The screams of anguish from Zel over that reminded me just how much Zel's first VA in the English dub sucks. Lina still suspects things are more complicated than they appear, however, and I think Xellos knows the secret.
Hetalia: Axis Powers ep8 (no screens, crappy source)
I like how Italy's first complaint about being captured was that he got fed hamburgers instead of PASTA~. Him getting mailed back to Germany in a box – twice! – also made me laugh.
Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai ep8
This was a rather slow episode and not much happened. Basically, Yumemi just solidified her resolve to do something about the collapse of the worlds and then pulled Ichiko and Suzume into the Heavens before they went splat after falling off a cliff. But at least the music was great as always.
And WTF, this was really the second to last episode? I have no idea how they could possibly wrap everything up in only one more episode, so I get the feeling the ending will not be especially satisfying. Hopefully KyoAni will surprise me and manage to pull it off but I'm not holding my breath.
Cardcaptor Sakura ep12
I can relate to Kero's anguish in this episode at having his saved game erased twice because of the Time card, just before fighting the end boss. I've had that happen to me a few times and it sucks – hard. I applaud his tenacity at replaying the game each day until Sakura and Syaoran finally captured Time and stopped it from resetting things, though. I usually don't have the motivation to replay the game again right away even once.
And wouldn't you know it, just as I was musing that Sakura's shoulder blades weren't drawn while she was wearing her battle costume, Sakura-Sanctuary used this fan art of it as the background for the credits page at the end. Moe overload.
Hetalia: Axis Powers ep9 (crappy source, no screens)
France's laugh is kind of creepy. Lolz at all the other countries poking fun at him, though.
Hayate no Gotoku! ep12-16
It was mostly business as usual for the series, though it finally introduced Ayumu after having teased us with short little scenes of her every now and then. As hinted at in ep1, she's all love-love over Hayate but he's too attached to Nagi and his job and ends up rejecting her. Love triangle gogogo! Speaking of which, Nagi's fantasies and spazzing over Hayate are amusing. And a bit twisted. But still amusing.
And hey, who got their Gurren Lagann in my Hayate no Gotoku?! Kaede there has the same seiyuu as Kamina, too... There were also plenty of intended references. The Haruhi and Moetan ones were especially amusing.
I can't decide who I like better, though, Nagi or Hinagiku. Surprisingly, Hinagiku has turned out to be more of a tsundere than Nagi, but they're both cute in different ways. Nagi has twintails while Hinagiku has pretty pink hair, for example. Before this, Nagi had a firm lead, but as Hinagiku's been getting more screen time I've grown to like her more and more.
Shugo Chara!! Doki ep75
Oh Utau, if only you knew how close you were to the truth. Even if she is warming up to Amu more, I imagine she'd still be totally pissed to find out that Amu really was hiding Ikuto.
I laughed at Utau using her Lunatic Charm trident as a giant fork to combat ramen boy's noodles, as well as Lulu becoming hopping mad over being foiled yet again. Still wondering what's going to happen to Lulu now that the story is moving again. It looks like something big is going down soon.
White Album ep6-7
The show's rapidly becoming an anime soap opera. I find myself bored with most of the characters, their relationships, and the cheesy drama while I turn off my brain and stare at the pretty art. Mana is the only character that I actually like. She's cute and amusing and still interesting at this point. Hopefully that, at least, continues.
Slayers ep16-17
I love the crazy director guy in ep16. He's, well, crazy. And always seems to have explosives on hand. And Zangulus showing up at the play in a magical girl mask is one of those random little things that pops up in Slayers every now and then that's so absurd you can't help but laugh.
Gourry getting done up in drag, complete with Sailor Moon style hair, by Lina and Amelia in ep17 is one of the most hilarious parts of the first series. And then Volun perving over him takes it up yet another notch. But they couldn't stop there. No, they threw in a gay sea dragon for good measure. And, believe it or not, there's actually another episode of Slayers with even more gender bending than this one.
Toradora! ep25
Whenever I get through watching a particularly amazing series it always seems a bit unreal that it's over, which is the case right now. The ending was a little bitter-sweet and not too spectacular but I thought it fit the mood of the series. It even managed to throw in another twist that I wasn't expecting, yet still wrap everything up.
I think it's only a matter of time before this one shows up in Anime Club.
Clannad ~After Story~ ep20
What a huge deluge of Ushio cuteness. And Fuuko cuteness. And Ushio plus Fuuko cuteness – with dangos on top. Words cannot even begin to do justice to such cuteness.
I totally called Kyou being Ushio's kindergarten teacher a couple episodes back. Holy crap at Botan, though; she's certainly grown. And, of course, Ushio hugging and riding on her was freakin' adorable, as well as Botan sitting there and enjoying the "back rub" as Ushio used her as a slide.
Slayers ep18-20
Whoo, Crispin Freeman as Zelgadis! He's so much better than the first guy they had voicing Zel and he does a pretty good job of matching the tone of the Japanese Zel. Ep20 also had my favorite Zel moment in it: I love how he's all smug while Lina is having trouble with the fish guy flying at her before she can cast any spells, and just holds up his sword to slice the thing in half as it flies past. Then he doesn't even say anything afterwards, he just smirks and taps his forehead with a finger.
The chibi fight between the Lina and Gourry copies is also a good scene. Gourry's comment that, "You guys suck!" when his copies get beaten up by Lina's is great.
Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai ep09
I can only hope KyoAni left out a crapload of content in order to have new stuff for the movie retelling of the ending. Because this episode was not much of an ending at all. Gntarl turned out to be a total wuss and failed rather pathetically at stopping Munto and Yumemi. And then connecting the two worlds again turned out to be just the first step in the resolution of the Akuto crisis, which I'm guessing leads into the plot for the movie.
Kurokami the Animation ep7
So Kuro is actually a princess... Okay, whatever. The new glasses girl Riona is kind of cute and her Mototsumitama seems like an interesting guy who can actually fight. Poor Punipuni, having to be caged while on the plane. And I wonder if there was some point to Excel's little kiss or if it was just to stir people up. Oh yeah, and there was some backstory in there that explained the motivations of the baddies, but who watches this for the story?
Tales of the Abyss ep23
Yays, gg(caust) is continuing TotA as well. It's nice to see that some people actually care about finishing it, even if it isn't super fast.
I guess this episode was Natalia's turn to go emo, though I think she actually held up better than any of the others so far. The fight with Largo was pretty predictable but Guy looked incredibly cool while hitting Largo with Severing Wind. It was also kind of amusing that neither Jade's nor Anise's attacks were effective against Mohs but then Tear took him out with one shot.
Ichigo Mashimaro ep1-2 (no screens, Anime Club)
I'd been looking forward to this for weeks now (if you hadn't noticed). It's been quite a while since I watched Ichigo Mashimaro so a lot of the little details have gone foggy in my mind, which makes the humor and cute antics seem a little fresher. And it's already one of those shows I can rewatch and enjoy very nearly as much as the first time. After we finish the TV series in Anime Club I think I'll rewatch the first OAV again as well.
I'm glad the Anime Club's reception of it was pretty good. Though I didn't really except it to, I was a little afraid it would totally bomb and I'd be the only one enjoying it after I pushed it so hard... I suppose I shouldn't expect it to be as widely liked as Lovely Complex was since that had more themes to play off of while Ichigo Mashimaro is simply comedy and cuteness – and lots of it.
Kanon ep1-2 (no screens, Anime Club)
While rewatching this I decided to give the English dub a shot. I agonized over which version to watch since I've already seen it it Japanese but not in English, yet I really love some of the Japanese seiyuu in it. The dub has turned out to be pretty good. Though it's been even longer since I watched Kanon, so I don't remember many scenes clearly enough to directly compare with the Japanese. Other than Ayu and Yuuichi simply not being voiced by Horie Yui and Tomokazu Sugita, my only annoyance so far is that, "Uguu," doesn't quite have the same impact in English.
