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Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th Season ep12-13
The ending was so sweet. Touko is just too incredibly cute when she opens up her deredere side. I can't wait for a 5th season.
On another note, I switched to Chihiro's releases after reading comments on BoxTorrents comparing them with Doremi's/Gokigenyou's. When I originally did comparisons between Doremi's and Chihiro's high quality versions of ep1, Chihiro's didn't look too hot. But it seems like once Doremi switched to Gokigenyou the quality dropped off, whereas Chihiro's releases look to have improved. (Even if they are littered with one frame scene bleeds. Learn to use Aegisub's timing post-processor plz.) Also, I prefer Chihiro's soft-subbed OP and ED to Doremi's/Gokigenyou's hard-subbed karaoke effects.
Actually, forget that. I downloaded the batch from Chihiro and too many of their episodes have too much eye cancer in them. There's tons of interlacing at scene changes and chroma ghosting during fast motion scenes. I will stick with Doremi/Gokigenyou, even if a line here and there is not perfectly translated, and save myself from clawing my eyes out.
Genji Monogatari Sennenki ep2 (no screens)
I finally got around to watching this after letting it sit for weeks. Not that it matters, since Live-eviL is incredibly slow (Menclave has nothing on them) and still hasn't released ep3. (Also, Nijuu Mensou no Musume ep22 WHERE?!) So far it seems to be about Genji getting it on with every beautiful woman he can woo.
Clannad ~After Story~ ep21
Whenever I rewatch this series I will have to remember to keep a box of tissues at hand. Because the number of times it's made me cry is just getting ridiculous. And this time was considerably harder than all the others. Oh my God, why?!
Saki ep01
I can't believe I watched this first out of all the new spring season series, but I needed something cute and brainless after Clannad. It delivered on the cute and somewhat on the brainless – I had absolutely no previous knowledge of mahjong so, even with the terminology notes, I could only half follow what was going on in the games. This will most likely end up being my shameless pleasure of the season, much like Strike Witches (another GONZO show filled with lolis) was.
So, yeah, Nodoka is too pretty. Pink hair. In twin-tails. Tied with big ribbons. Any time she's on screen is a good time. And, hey, we also get Kugumiya Rie voicing a loli who isn't a tsundere; Yuuki is bubbly and playful, which is a nice change of pace. Mako looks like the weird one of the bunch so hopefully she'll be amusing. Saki herself and the mahjong club president seemed pretty generic and uninteresting though.
Shugo Chara!! Doki ep77
Ooh, the cat's out of the bag now. Just when Amu and Tadase were getting even more love-love, Midori (Amu's mom) discovered Ikuto. I think she handled the situation really well and my liking of her has increased even more. Not only is she hot, she's very sharp and caring, too.
So Ikuto is finally leaving Amu's place and being forced to deal with Easter. And I know it's horrible, but I couldn't help but smirk along with Ikuto when it looked like Tadase was about to cry after finding out Ikuto had been staying there. Emo tiems nao for the little king. In keeping with his love/hate relationship with Amu, Ikuto left quite a scene behind.
Slayers Evolution-R ep12
As I thought, the fragment of Shabranigdo's soul got sealed away along with Rezo's. But wow, maybe Rezo is actually a complete douche after all. He opened his eyes and awakened Shabranigdo just so he could have sight for a few moments. Again. Sure, maybe he did it right there next to Lina's group with the intent that they kill the piece Shabranigdo along with him (again), but damn. At least the first time he did it he wasn't expecting Shabranigdo to be resurrected in his own body and came prepared to fight. But this time he did it with full knowledge of what would happen.
On the other hand, I am totally stoked to see the fight between Lina and Shabranigdo. Lina is a lot more powerful this time around than when she fought Shabranigdo in the first series so I think it will be quite the awesome battle. Though I'm curious which side Xellos will be on. He is a mazoku, so Shabranigdo destroying the world seems like it would be his ultimate goal. But he's also acted in defense of the world at times, so who knows.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood ep1
They really threw us into the middle of the action right from the beginning. Though I barely remember ep1 of the first anime and I've never read the manga so maybe that's normal. Regardless, it was pretty cool to see a bunch of the characters (and try to remember stuff about them from the first series) again, now in GLORIOUS HD. A bit of Ed and Al's situation was explained but it looks like all the back story and introductions and whatnot will happen in the next episode.
Tears to Tiara ep1
Mmm, Goto Yuko as Riannon. The first episode here was entirely setup for the plot and a little character introduction, so I can't say much yet. But it looks like it'll be another enjoyable fantasy anime. It seems that after only having maybe one or two new, good fantasy series per season for the last year or so, we suddenly got a deluge of them this season. Which is perfectly fine by me.
Sengoku Basara ep1
So it's... It's Gurren Lagann but with samurai? I suppose not quite, but both the fighting and the dramatic moments are totally over the top. It looks like it should provide some good action if nothing else.
Chi's New Address ep5-8
Watching Chi freak out over moving was really cute and funny. Apparently she will forever associate that basket they carry her in with the thermometer at the vet.
Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ ep1
Oh man, they put a long backstory/character introduction section right in the middle of the big action scene. And they made it work. Like I did Noir, I think I'm going to love this.
Ichigo Mashimaro ep5-6 (no screens, Anime Club)
These episodes had some of my favorite moments from the series in them. In particular, the bit where Nobue is sleeping and the girls are being quite and writing stuff to communicate instead of speaking. No matter how many times I see that, in either the anime or manga, I totally crack up through the entire section.
Kanon ep5-6 (no screens, Anime Club)
I switched back and forth between English and Japanese a few times but mostly watched these two episodes in English. The dub is growing on me, especially for Makoto. It's hilarious to hear her call Yuuchi a jerkface, among other things, after hearing Japanese insults for so long. And sleepy Nayuki is awesome (and sleepy) either way.
Hetalia: Axis Powers ep11
Hungary is too cute~ It makes me sad that she doesn't appear more often.
Minami-ke: Okaeri ep9
I grabbed the Chihiro-Sprocket releases for ep9-13 since Ayako is being slow. It looks like they did a good job on the subs, but I still don't get why Sprocket clings to the AC3 audio format. They used 160 kbps AC3 and it sounds worse than Ayako's 129 kbps AAC. Their video also had a ton of grain in it, which looked pretty bad in areas that should've been a solid color.
Chiaki with her mittens was cute. Hosaka in a Santa suit – the front partially open, of course – was wonderfully disgusting. And the other Minami family continues to be odd and amusing. It's been fun to see more of Touma and her older brothers this season.
