mahoromatic ~tadaima◇okaeri~ episode 01

MAHOROMATIC : TADAIMA◇OKAERI
studio : Gainax
director : Shouji Saeki
serial run : Oct 17, 2009 - Oct 24, 2009
total episode : 1 of 2
score : **** [ first episode ]

HIDE YOUR PRONS, MAHORO-SAN'S BACK

[ spoilers ahoy ! ] tadaima◇okaeri took place between the second and third episode of motto utsukushii mono when the [ super dojikko ] minawa-chan were just beginning to live in suguru's house as his personal maid alongside mahoro. the first episode opens with both mahoro and minawa trying to get suguru to rise from his sleep, only for mahoro soon to discover suguru's hidden pron-stash behind the window blinds thanks to minawa's stock klutziness. interestingly, instead of saying her trademark catchprase [ 'perverted things are forbidden' ] she had it scribbled [ by tomato ketchup ] on suguru's omurice for a change. a short family conversation later, suguru's friends dropped by for a visit; he and his friends soon brought upon the idea of opening a service / maid cafe for the upcoming town festival to mahoro's attention, and were collectively insistent on getting her to teach the triomatic the way of the maid.

at first mahoro seemed a bit reluctant but soon she gladly accept their request and begins to groom the triomatic in proper maidhood - from making their own maid costumes to preparing cookies and other sweet treats. of course, the shotacon shikijio-sensei is always around sneaking and waiting for her perverted opportunity against suguru which in turn triggered the usual sense of hostility from mahoro; the first half of the episode basically plays [ albeit briefly ] into this classic mahoro vs. shikijio gag while throwing in a handful of minawa's dojikko moments [ i didn't remember seeing this plentiful of doji-get from her in any of the series / specials before :3 ] for some moe anecdotes.

following the party's trip to the bathhouse; as mahoro finishes her bath, she is then approached by the triomatic who handed her a specifically made custom maid outfit as their thank you gift for her help. she gets herself to wear this and went to meet with suguru who were waiting outside the bathhouse. suguru complimented her in honest and invited her for a visit to the festival, but the intimate moments between the two were soon cut short by a sudden intrusion from shikijio-sensei. it is later revealed that the triomatic has also made a matching costume for minawa which drove shikijio-sensei to mild jealousy for all the attention minawa been getting from the boys. on their way back from the bathhouse, the party decided to drop by their school to retrieve some tableware for their cafe use, but then left with suguru, mahoro and minawa staying behind to attend for some other work in town, dragging along shikijio-sensei so to avoid her from doing anything dirty to suguru. meanwhile, minawa were so taken by the lovely sunset view outside the window, and a realizing mahoro came to her side and shared a thoughtful compliment over the beautiful sight shortly before leaving to catch up with the triomatic and shikijio-sensei.

as both suguru and minawa were about to leave, suguru realized that there are things missing from his bag, and minawa offers her help to go back and look for what is missing. she went back to the class alone and the pursuing feldlance [ who had been keeping tabs on the suguru household since episode 01 of motto utsukushii mono ] saw this as his chance to capture minawa back for the management, thus he sent in a few droids according to his plan. minawa is then ambushed by these droids but she managed to make her escape through them; however, she noticed that the ribbon which was given to her by the triomatic were dropped behind, and just as she were caught in this thought of her the droids successfully surrounded her while maintaining an electric field barrier to prevent her from escaping their catch. away in town, mahoro is quick to sense the coming danger and rushes her way back to the school. a battle soon ensues between mahoro and the droids as she fights her way to the roof while carrying an unconscious minawa in her arms. upon reaching her destination, two aerial bots were waiting for her and the episode soon cuts into a cliffhanger end.

the overall visual execution, namely its art direction and character design remains the same as per the original tv series, but notable improvement can definitely be seen especially with the incorporation of 3DCGI, sleek camerawork and impressive background rendering on most of the scenes. the entire cast returns to reprise their respective roles following years after the airing of mahoromatic : summer special, but the ultimate highlight for me goes to ayako kawasumi; mahoro-san by far is her most outstanding performance as a seiyuu, and it is for this character that i begin to closely following most the series in which she did voice-over for. also, god knows how much i missed the antics of chizuko; the psycho-gourmet who often went bombastic whenever she came to taste mahoro's world class cooking; once you heard of her screaming you'll know for certain that the food was awesome great :3

[ the above wall of text are courtesy of hyperchrome. original text can be found here with handful of accompanying screencaps ]

winter 2010 : the remaining [ not so ] first impressions

HANAMARU YOUCHIEN
studio : Gainax
director : Yuichiro Oguro
serial run : Jan 10, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : 12
hime's priority rank : 04

sorry for the long hiatus we had on the last few weeks; also, i was supposed to write individual entries for these series - however, i had my hands full somewhere else and thus i was forced to postpone some of the pending drafts we had here, and as a result of this much of the idea were lost down the drain [ no thanks to procrastination ]. long story short, i couldn't keep up with the initial drafts so i decided to swap those incomplete ones with these brief overviews here :P

DISCLAIMER : I AM NOT A PEDO, BUT THIS SHOW DEFINITELY IS MADE OF WIN-

at first glimpse one may not be expecting much from hanamaru youchien, especially when it were initially thought to be rehashing the same theme as tasted in the notorious lolicon-favorite kodomo no jikan; turns out however is that hanamaru youchien is far more entertaining [ and thrice more hilarious ] than the former, not to mention that this series here definitely is capable of standing on its own without being overshadowed by the former. aside from baka to test to shoukanjuu and ladies vs. butler below, hanamaru youchien is a potent comedy series that should be given a chance of tasting by anime fans who were primarily interested in the lighter spectrum of winter 2010 block.

LADIES VERSUS BUTLERS !
studio : XEBEC
director :
serial run : December 29, 2009 - ongoing
total episode : ?
hime's priority rank : 09

BERSERK DORIRU-

i've made a mistake prior by enlisting this series here into my lowest priority list, though in actuality i find ladies versus butlers ! to be kinda entertaining for its misunderstandings-tinged comedy of course, while the ecchi comes as a bonus definitely :9 that aside, and my number one favorite seiyuu ayako-san had her role in this one so there's surely be no excuse for me to deny this one a watch. essentially, ladies versus butlers ! may [ greatly ] reeks of the same overused cliches seen in similar series such as itself, but somehow there's something about the series which got me interested into it besides of the stock moe design and mildly dirty jokes; probably because of ayako-san's character who seems to be quite a closet sadist - the kind of character i often came to fancy upon :3

ladies versus butlers also shares the same character design as with its predecessor kanokon, another ecchi comedy series by xebec which was a bit inferior to this one here. the visual style for ladies versus butler ! were pleasant to the eyes and the camera placement is lovely, and i especially love how the camera took certain angle in some of the scenes.

DANCE IN THE VAMPIRE BUND
studio : Shaft
director : Akiyuki Shinbo
serial run : January 7, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : 12
hime's priority rank : 07

LOLI BANPAIA-HIME

one of the most heavily discussed series when it was first announced for winter airing last year - dance in the vampire bund took off well with the faux-japanese variety show-get for the first episode; although not many fans [ of the original work it is adapted from ] were quite approval of the story direction seen in the first episode, i otherwise find it as a stylistically befitting opener to the series; setting up the main dilemma / plot for the episodes to come thanks to its highly engaging discussion on the myths centering upon the vampire lore with some hints of racial sentiment undertone slipped in between.

as often, akiyuki-sensei made very impressive art / visual direction with his series; the camera works were brilliantly magnificent although i was hoping for some instances of the abstract montage he often made use in his other series such as sayonara zetsubou sensei, maria+holic and bakemonogatari just to name a few.

CHU-BRA !!
studio : Zexcs
director : Yukina Hiiro
serial run : January 4, 2010 - ongoing
total episodes : 13
hime's priority rank : 12

PANTIES 101, ANYONE ?

the series had gained quite a notoriety among few anime watchers just from the first episode aired so far; as always i'd love to remain neutral but somehow even i myself were having great deal of mixed feelings when it comes to this one, not to mention i keep getting trolled by zange-chan for having this one listed into my winter watchlist.

anyway, the story premise is quite simple; everything revolves around female undergarments especially panties - well obviously you can pretty much read that one from the series' title itself, and besides, the promotional image [ as seen above ] kinda speaks for itself. that aside, the first episode is decently fun if not thoroughly entertaining for me; the humor thrown every here and there are pretty much nothing extravagant albeit it does tickles a few laugh from me. honestly, there's not much for you to expect from the series yet it wasn't THAT BAD for it to be ignored completely.

[ click here ] for some other series i'm currently watching for this winter 2010.

durarara !! : first impression

DURARARA !!
studio : Brain's Base
director : Takahiro Omori
serial run : January 7, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : ?
hime's priority rank : 02

SLEEPY HOLLOW, IN MY ANIME ? :3

[ note : i'm currently in the middle of another writer's block -really hate it when it comes- but i'll try to force myself to complete the rest of my first impression entries for winter 2010 v.v - /hime/ ]

okay so i haven't seen baccano ! yet, and i am feeling somewhat guilty for that - but thanks to this series here i am now deeply motivated to put the former into a full scale marathon once i get to find a proper time slot somewhen later :3 anyway, moving on to the actual subject in hand, the story of durarara !! were based entirely in the city of ikebukuro - mostly at night, thus giving it some sort of the film noir feel from the first two episodes aired so far. the plot / story premise seems to mainly deal with the psychological aspect of the modern society - in this case the fictional people of ikebukuro [ of the series ], and whatever disturbing events / occurrences that looms within its darkest corners / alleys at night - best setting possible for this kind of series [ see darker than black for another example of neo-noir anime ]. another recurring subplot of the series is the ongoing online conversation [ assumingly ] between the members of an online group known only as dollars.

the first episode basically introduce us, the audience to the series' merry band of characters, which i believe is quite huge of a party [ comparable to those of mahou shoujo lyrical nanoha strikers ] yet all of them looks pretty interesting from just the introduction [ and the OP montage ] given by mikado. i will not go to great length to reintroduce / mention them here but one character which worth the most mention among the rest would be the headless rider [ or dullahan, according to wiki ]; the 'sleepy hollow' of the series who clads herself [ yes, it's a she ] in black bodysuit and a helmet that has a pair of 'cat ears' on it [ that's quite a fancy helmet there for a grim character like herself ], riding the streets of ikebukuro on her bike which actually is her horse. as of the first episode my first assumption over her character is that she might be a no-nonsense, cruel to the heart kind of person - however, truth is that she doesn't seem entirely demonic as often expected from a phantomic character such as her.

aside from dance in the vampire bund, durarara !! took me for quite a pleasant ride into 2010; i was among you peeps who went straight on crossing our fingers with massive expectation when we first came to view the promo trailer, and thank god the expectation i had back then were properly delivered in such a grand package - i went on rolling over the floor with much joy [ in imaginary sense of course, i won't be doing such in reality ] - not to mention being a fan of suzuhito yasuda's art [ following yozakura quartet ] it surely is awesome to witness his design return in another stylish anime. that, and durarara !! elegantly pulls forth splendid overall direction, as well as visual execution much to my extreme delight; the nightlife scenery of ikebukuro especially were impressively recreated with so much life can be felt and witnessed from it. the animation were very fluid and what impresses me the most is the expression shown on the character faces; those were absolutely priceless-

[ screencap credit : random curiosity ]

storytelling-wise, well there might be a bit too much dialogue / talk for those who were expecting loads of mindblowing drama or action straight off the bat, but still that is where durarara !! charm lies in, especially the recurring use of first person narrative from different characters' stand point / perspective for each episode. honestly, the series doesn't have to throw in too much of the sought after crash-bang-boom moments so to gain our attention as its finely crafted plot and the highly engaging interactions between the characters alone were more than strong enough point to get ourselves firmly glued to the series, that's if you do enjoy mild-mindraep series such as this of course.

so ra no wo to : first impression

SO RA NO WO TO
studio : A-1 Pictures
director : Mamoru Kanbe
serial run : January 5, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : ?
hime's priority rank : 01

SO WHAT WILL YOU GET WHEN YOU FORCE THE HAIBANES INTO THE ARMY ?

i don't expect anyone to agree with me on this but sora no woto has firmly secured a safe spot within my list. and instead of highlighting the blatant visual similarities between sora no woto and k-on ! i'd rather point out the one specific thought i had while having my watch over the second episode - that this series here is leaning much closer toward the fantasy-tinged slice of life classic haibane renmei more so than the widely claimed k-on; well both series seems to be echoing the same mood and atmosphere between themselves, from the story right down to their respective settings. not to mention, the rugged base kanata and her party were calling home was actually a war-torn school which itself mirrors the old home seen in haibane renmei, while the town of seize itself is not much different from the latter's walled town of glie; -just my two cents on the table of course.

the primary [ or at this point, only ] roster of the series were made of some pretty interesting characters; kureha the tank gunner is the tsundere of the party who slightly resemble the hyper-maniac lesbian kuroko from the railgun-fame, hinted to be longing for attention from her 'cool' senior rio, kanata otherwise acts and feels a bit like yui but is much lesser of an airhead, and somehow seems to be the one who is quick to learn of her new surrounding compared to the former, and most likely the rest of the platoon. next is noel kannagi, pilot and the only mechanic of the tank they were assigned to, and a chronic sleepyhead who doesn't speak much throughout the entire airtime; i myself particularly enjoys her presence among the party. rio aka 'mio' is the sergeant major and most likely is the primary authoritative figure next to the motherly captain of the platoon - felicia, of whom despite her seemingly mature personality and composure were generally afraid of lightning. as per the second episode of the series the interaction between its main character set looks very promising like how k-on !'s were to my opinion; it doesn't look too one dimensional and i can definitely feel the slowly building chemistry between these fictional characters.

sora no woto has set its course pretty nicely from the first two episodes to my humblest opinion; the series vaguely establish the myth that is lingering in the sideline by giving us a brief glimpse over the ancient 'something' [ what seems to be like some sort of the remains of a winged demon ] that is caught in the sight of the main lead kanata while she were underwater during the first episode; and this very scene here promptly reminds me of the bird-human mythos from macross zero - i will certainly be more delighted if that 'yet to be explained relic' were to play a bigger / apocalypric role in the later episodes to come. plus i kinda favor the underlying concept that surrounds the post-war settings of the series where the pre-war era were alienated from the current time and is considered next to ancient; portions of the knowledge from the past were presumably lost with the war as seen from the widespread of illiteracy, and those who can actually read any records from the past were deemed as rarity - this were [ of course ] primarily based on my hypothesis, and it may not be true in episodes to come [ ironically the haibanes themselves couldn't read any books just like those in sora no woto were ].

[ image credit : dengeki online ]

music, which were to be the spine and backbone of the series has yet to be featured in its fullest, and i am quite interested to see how the writer will inject this one subject here into the premise of sora no woto amidst the mild-war theme and a possible supernatural / mythical [?] twist somewhere later on [ the latter guess is dismiss-able, definitely- ]. being the product of a1 pictures which previously gave us the much favored kannagi -crazy shrine maidens-, one would certainly be expecting nothing less than a finely executed visual and fluid animation in the same air and fashion as kyoto animation - which is what we once again get to have a taste from this series here. and despite the massive fan rage over the visual similarities between sora no woto and k-on ! character design still i personally find sora no woto's to be quite befitting of the desired direction and concept of the series, besides it won't hurt me just to have another treat / dose of moeness so to complement some of the heavier titles aired for this winter :3

baka to test to shoukanjuu : first impression

BAKA TO TEST TO SHOUKANJUU
studio : Silver Link
director : Shin Onuma
serial run : January 7, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : 13
hime's priority rank : 03

WAIT- WEISS SURVIVE ? NOT- | +BEST TRAP EVAR ? [ Y / N ]

baka to test to shoukanjuu is an uberly fun and delicious winter 2010 comedy series with an interesting approach to your usual school test; instead of gambling your fate on pen and paper you are [ collectively as a class ] encouraged to engage in an all out war with any classes of your choice; the winning class will get to swap classroom and luxuries / facilities with the loser while the losing class otherwise get to keep the lower end of the bargain. pretty nice, isn't it ? that, and the school basically divides its students based on a ridiculous caste system in place of proper level-grading; for example, students from the a class get to have extra-luxurious classroom and extravagant treatment while those in the f class were treated very very poorly the ghetto way-

the story [ and comedy ] of baka to test [ for short ] primarily revolves around akihisa yoshii, the ultimate idiot of the series [ who seems nothing more than a mere tool for his party to distract the enemies - that's according to his charismatic friend cum class representative yuuji ] and his merry band of uncanny classmates. the true savior as well as the 'ultimate weapon' of his class however were revealed to be the frail 'princess' mizuki himeji, of whom were actually a true genius and were as well considered to be a likely candidate to be in the highly prestigious a class, though she flunked her score / test by collapsing from a fever during the class placement test - she alone essentially slaughtered the whole e class they were battling with before the end of the first episode - talk about elegant maximum carnage heh-

another interesting concept of the series is that each student were capable of summoning a unique summoned beast of their own which power / health point depends greatly on the student's current test score / grade; the lower your scores are the weaker your summoned being will be, and once you're about to run out of your remaining score points while in battle you are required to take additional tests of your preferred subject so to restore OR increase your avatar's health and attack points, in similar way a potion were used in rpg whenever a character is in need to replenish their ap / hp / mp. teamwork were also a crucial key point in securing one class' victory, and baka to test humorously touch upon this very subject to hilarious end.



a brief glimpse at the promotional art [ prior to its airing ] might lead one to think of the series as nothing more than your typical moe comedy [ i'm fine with such shows, though ], with some of them anti-moe drones being quick to stare and lash their condemns at this one here to their hasty distaste / disgust [ same goes in the case of sora no woto ] - well it turns out however is that baka to test is more than just the tasteless eye candy some may have expected it to be - and were far from forcing itself to be funny as kampfer and akikan ! did back then. that aside, the overall art and design of the series were its most divine charm, being a series that is crafted around the contemporary moe appeal. long post short, baka to test simply is the best [ *hands down* ] comedy for the winter block, though it is still pretty much early for me to be claiming it as such :3

seikon no qwaser : first impression

SEIKON NO QWASER
studio : Taki Corporation
director : Hiraku Kaneko
serial run : January 9, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : 13
hime's priority rank : 11

щ(ﾟДﾟщ) なぜ *MULTIPLE HEAD-DESKS*

correct me if i'm wrong but this one here were supposedly a mature / adult title right ? then i greatly wonder what's with the tasteless censorship ? god knows how i wanted to bang my head hard to the monitor in front of me for what i was forced to experience from the first episode; the frustration, the disappointment, all of it- but lucky for the series that i am forgiving enough to give it another chance and see if the second episode would prove any worthiness to be in my winter watchlist [ at this point i'll just have to abandon my primary interest in the series, that is the *cough*breastfeeding*cough* v.v ]

anyway, i [ greatly ] didn't expect for aki toyosaki to be in the series, voicing over a chara [ tomo yamanobe ] with thrice the chest size she get to have for any of her charas so far; thus her presence in the series is pretty much a bliss in the center of the carnage. and seeing from her current role it is safe for me to assume that aki-san might have gotten stuck being producers' choice for voicing airhead characters, just like how noto-san were often being cast for the mild mannered / timid characters :3

on to the storytelling aspect of the series, honestly said i am mildly clueless over some premise of the story from the get go- well i am partially to blame for this since i have yet to have a further read into the original work it was based from but still the writers themselves should play their part and get everything elaborated well for new audiences such as myself - the story at certain points seems to be having problem in connecting itself to me especially when it comes to plot defining subjects such as soma [ i understand that qwasers need soma to maintain themselves but i am still insistent to learn more specific details on this soma thingy ] and the icon [ i didn't quite get the explanation in regard to the latter ]; aside from the two however i was able to consume the rest especially the past / story which concerns both tomo and mafuyu.

production wise i kinda enjoy the overall visual presentation of the series - everything looks good to the eyes and i especially love the character design. the action scene looks pretty nice to me and that were among the few points which held me from looking away from the series. i didn't pay much attention to the bgm but i'm not really in for the OP as far as i'm concerned; the ED otherwise have caught my attention, especially the stylistic montage that accompanies it; i love the style seen from it and were very fond of it. i wasn't quite sure if seikon no qwaser were to stay within my watchlist judging from the first episode alone; hopefully there'll be something solid thrown in for the second episode or else i'll have to part way with this one here for my own good.

[ screencap credit : random curiosity ]

[ EDIT : hime here. just had my watch on the second episode - although it looks kinda promising still the tasteless censorship has butchered most part of the story so ima gonna put this series on hold until ATX airs the uncensored version (v_v ) ]

zettai shoujo seiiki amnesian

ZETTAI SHOUJO SEIIKI AMNESIAN
author / artist : Kaishaku
status : ongoing

I'D LOVE TO SEE THIS ONE BEING MADE INTO ANIME <3

i rarely read manga these days [ save for ga rei and its spin-off ] but thanks to kurogane i came to notice a spiritual sequel to my favorite yuri series kannazuki no miko - zettai shoujo seiiki amnesian; this would as well mark the third appearance by the yuricious chikane x himeko pair in kaishaku's works - the second being their recurring cameo appearance in the unique mecha series kyoushiro to towa no sora, respectively as their alternate reincarnation with a nice end to their relationship in contrast to the one they had in kannazuki no miko *sobs*

amnesian [ for short ] basically features some of the familiar characters from kannazuki no miko [ i've only read the first chapter of the new manga so far, and aside from the pair i also see oogami-kun ] in a much different universe and setting than the series it was inspired from; himeko is now a nun / sister for a church and chikane seems to have some dark background with the antagonists of the series, not to mention himeko's mention of chikane's bearing close similarity in personality and physical appearance to her deceased big sister [ who also shares the same name as chikane ] were pretty much intriguing for me - that, and i am certainly moved to read more into the series; well even if the story went downhill i will still be reading it for himechika's sake :3

[ yea, our greatest chikane did that to her >3 ]

the series seems to be borrowing the same concept as per its predecessor, whereas kannazuki no miko visits the theme of shinto [ thus the title ] amnesian otherwise ventures into the christian faith; well i did write in the second paragraph above that himeko is now a nun :P also, amnesian's quick to proceed into its brief gurotastic twist [ badass sword wielding chikane is badass ] and the familiar yuri-get by throwing upon us the much anticipated kiss between the two lead female as soon as page 33 of the first chapter [ not to mention chikane nearly gets to 'raep' himeko while inside the church; seriously, how awesome is that ?!? XD ] - this is why i just loved kaishaku and their himechika spin-offs.

i need to stop here or else i'll risk on posting up more spoilers to the dismay of some X3 anyway, the nice people at zefiberyl has come up with the translation, and by the time this post were submitted they had just released their translation for chapter 4 of the manga so feel free to look around their place for the most recent releases on the series :3 i'll be crossing my fingers for an anime-get of this, and if it does i'd be more than hyper-blessed if ayako kawasumi were to reprise her role as chikane X3

+ophanium's winter 2010 watchlist : prelude to first impressions

before i went on with our usual first impression commentaries i would first like to post in a quick compendium list of the winter 2010 series of which i will be keeping close track on based on those that i have seen so far [ by the time i made this post here, katanagatari is the only title left for me to have a taste upon ]. as usual, these lists are subjected to changes.

HIGHEST PRIORITY
description : these are the series of which i'll be following very dearly week after week without fail; a slight miss on one episode will possibly result in multiple head-desks on my behalf.
- so-ra-no-wo-to
- durarara !!
- baka to test to shoukanjuu
- hanamaru kindergarten
- katanagatari
- omamori himari
- dance in the vampire bund

MEDIUM PRIORITY
description : these are the series of which i'll be following week after week without fail just like the priority set above, however i won't be giving myself multiple head-desks should i forgot to get myself updated on the new episodes of those listed here; in fact i'd rather marathon a number of episodes in a go- :3
- ookamikakushi
- ladies versus butlers !
- weiss survive r
- seikon no qwaser [ zange-chan does not approve ! ]

LOWEST PRIORITY
description : being the lowest priority set, these series risks themselves of being deported to the on hold / dropped list based on their respective performance[s]. however, i will still be giving them minor justice by forcing myself to keep on watching them just to fill in the void left in-between the release of new episodes of the two priority set above.
- chu-bra !!

WAITLIST / WISHLIST
description : those listed here were either sequels which i have yet to watch over the previous season they were continued from or just those poor underdog titles which has yet to be picked and subbed upon.
- hidamari sketch [ sequel ]
- yume o kanaeru zou
- gag manga biyori+
- nodame cantabile finale