intermission : and so the poll has finally spoken

[ click here to learn about the recently closed poll | suggested musical piece for this post : blue skies by stephanie cooke ]

what a fierce competition it is, between fans of midori kanda, himeno shirayuki, uriu and kipi. but still, the winner has finally been decided and we're here to announce that for the upcoming month of november, you'll be seeing plentiful of midori-san's cosplay feature just as promised, coupled with the poll's first runner up himeno-san [ it was so, so close for our team's favorite, uriu-san v.v ]



the team hereby would like to thank all of you who has participated in the poll; you have our greatest credit and gratitude for joining in the activity. and for those of whom their favorite layers didn't get to make it to the winning round, well fret not for there will be more of this poll in times to come^^. so until then, once again, we thank you all !

p/s 01 : our editor zange-chan lost her bet as her personal pick kipi-san falls short behind uriu-san :3
p/s 02 : new post[s] coming up later tonight, so stay tuned !

[ cosplay ] uriu : pina sformklan estor vol. 2

layer : Uriu
character : Pina Sformklan Estor
series : Ladies versus Butlers !
score : *****

here's a few more images from uriu-san's lovely pina hime-get. as for the first volume of the above set, as well as our brief commentary of it well you may wanna drop by the post [ here ]. now with this images out, i still greatly consider this as one of her best cosplay yet. costume wise they seem relatively simple and not quite complex to tackle but what does matter the most is how she could excellently fit herself into the character above; its a talent and a gift that not all layers get to have :3

[ image 01-02, 05 are property of a-chan | image 03-04 are property of muki ]

[ cosplay ] midori kanda : itsuki myoudouin

layer : Midori Kanda
character : Itsuki Myoudouin / Cure Sunshine
series : HeartCatch PreCure !
score : *****

HERE'S A FEW DOSES OF GORGEOUS SUNSHINE~

time for some gorgeous eye candies following our [ recent ] continuous series of text-laden first impression posts. and besides, if i remember correctly there has yet to be any feature on mahou shoujo cosplays here, [ ibara-san's teana lanster-get does not count as its just a single image feature-post ] so hopefully this would be the start for the many others to come soon.

i bet a lot of you out there has already been familiar enough with the long running precure franchise, and here, is a character from one of its many series; to be precise, she's itsuki myoudouin from the ongoing heartcatch precure ! which is still airing by the time this post get submitted. and much to our delight, midori-san has once again shown how flawless she can be with both her craftmanship [ i firmly believe that she made her costumes herself, as recorded on her blog ] and her ability to pull of an excellent match up with any characters of her choice.

albeit her costume were delightfully conceived remarkably close to the image of the original design [ she even managed to secure the color scheme well ], still a [ very, very ] minor off-point are still present here; the flowers on the ribbons which ties her twintails didn't quite match with those of the original design. nevertheless, it still is a good cosplay to boot and said minor off-point aren't critical enough to deal noticeable dent on our rate over her glorious itsuki-get :3

[ all images are property of kimokamehiro ]

ore no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai : first impression

ORE NO IMOUTO GA KONNA NI KAWAII WAKE GA NAI
studio : AIC
director : Keiichiro Kawaguchi
serial run : October 3, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : 13
hime's priority rank : 01

THE TROJAN HORSE OF CAMP MOE

hands down the cream of the crop for 2010's autumn anime block, and the closest rival possible to the slice of life juggernaut k-on !! in regard to the upcoming best 2010 anime title by the end of this season; well, from my personal perspective that is. in fact, oreimo [ surprisingly ] is the series that swiftly unites the two constantly opposing factions within the anifan community; the overly proud camp 'purists' and the free-spirited camp moe. also interesting enough, there's the usual bandwagon jumpers who even bothered to deny oreimo's status as a moe series so to save their faces for both liking the series despite having incessantly hating the so-called-moe-genre prior to its airing [ ironically, aic is one of the primary producers of these so-called 'moe anime' aside from kyoto animation, xebec etc ].

enough with the dramutic rant, and here goes our first impression overview for the series - oreimo is a slice of life series based on a series of light novel by the same name, with its basic premise lies in the interaction of two kousaka siblings, who doesn't seem to get along well at the start of the series [ and even prior, from the story standpoint that is ]. and being an entry within the slice of life genre, oreimo's storytelling will definitely be more character-driven rather than having 'a standard, solid plot' at its very foundation, thus which is why it would fit in well into the very definition once thrown by them haters [ now ironically fans ] at k-on !! and some other moe-series out there [ boring, pointless, service-tastic, uneventful etc ]. that said, character-driven stories are among my favorites, especially when the subject in focus is a female otaku [ cue konata izumi and chika ogiue from genshiken ] fleshed under realistic lights.

as far as the early two episode goes, the storytelling as well as the pacing for oreimo went unfold in such a handsome and neat fashion; i haven't read the light novel to begin with so i do not know how close did the anime went with its relation to the novels, but one thing i can pretty much tell for sure, that this series has a bright and very promising future much like [ also aic-produced ] amagami currently is; as long as aic sticks to the plan and executes everything well without fail, and without rushing much like how they did with mayoi neko overrun ! [ we did enjoy the latter however, still it could be carried out to become slightly much better should aic had enough patience in disposal ] then.

the production aspect of the series for one is very solid and exquisitely impressive from every single aspect [ especially details seen on in-series product packagings etc ], and aic does seem to invest a lot of budget and interest into the series, thus in reward for aic's valiant efforts, oreimo itself has accumulated quite a large fanbase the moment episode 01 gets aired - nowadays a lot of anifan were ultimately adamant in getting a piece of kirino, and you can pretty much tell that by mingling with the anifan crowd on twitter, where users who uses kirino's mugshot for their avatar were on steady rise as of lately. in fact, the impact were so great that it could possibly drown the memories and popularity of k-on !! within the first month of its airing :3



as mentioned in our first paragraph above, oreimo is a walking bag of moe, for it bags in a multitude of known moe archetypes ranging from imouto moe, brocon moe, tsunderekko moe, meganekko moe, osananajimi moe, female otaku moe etc; you can simply find a whole lot more of other present archetypes by either indulging on the original light novel first hand or by just consulting our dear seanver-nii for a quick but thorough outlook into the series [ as of october 2010, he's currently at volume 6 of said light novel, just for the note ]. with that said, it is so crystal clear here that this series definitely is within the scope of the moe niche, and so to those who've been despising the so-called-moe-anime all this while yet has suddenly came to fell in love with what could possibly be one of aic's finest production, well welcome to the minefield, and you're about to blow yourself up in huge shame :E

overall, oreimo is -without a doubt- the strongest entry to date in regard to fall 2010; just like how k-on !! was for spring and amagami ss currently is for summer, which is why we hereby greatly advise and recommend ye peeps [ in case you haven't yet ] to at least have a peek at the first episode and be delighted just as we did 2 weeks back when it first came out :3

motto to love-ru : first impression

MOTTO TO LOVE-RU
studio : Xebec
director : Atsushi Ootsuki
serial run : October 6, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : 12
hime's priority rank : 07

MORE TROUBLE !

let's forget about the filler-tastic first season and savor in the reboot of the series which i believe is giving out a much proper justice for one of the most highly regarded harem franchise ever produced. also, take extreme notice that motto to love-ru is best viewed in its absolute form; meaning, uncensored. the censored variant however is being heavily butchered by the distasteful light beam censoring method, which i personally consider to be the most horrid form of motion censorship i've ever seen in anime. remember how disappointed we were with said light beam in asobi ni iku yo ! ?, well at least your hentai-friendly mosaic is mildly tolerable compared to this current, distasteful method v.v

enough with the censorship issues. so how well does the reboot series goes from the first two episode aired so far ? i'd say it went good, and we at +ophanium were certainly very thankful over the overall direction, and execution carried out for motto to love-ru. one thing that is greatly certain for sure, the new production team has wonderfully injected in a much more fresh, and upbeat feel and look into the sequel without compromising the canon continuity unlike its predecessor. the whole plot / story for now faithfully sticks to its manga counterpart, albeit they were re-arranged differently for the second anime-get.

also, the entirety of our team [ that includes our moralistic editor zange-chan ] highly approves the writer's choice and effort of breaking down a single episode into three sub-chapters; this way the pacing could be made to be more swift and flexible seeing that the series will only run for a decent number of 12 episodes, and there's still too many chapters from the manga needed to be crammed into that limited number of episodes. that said, there will certainly be some chapters that would be left out from future episodes, but since the manga itself is open-ended i guess this won't be quite a great issue here as long as xebec could excellently provide us with a much more satisfying finale than those of the parent season.



the best part of the package though, is the complete revamp of character design carried out by the same designer of the first series, now seemingly matching up with the cute, highly adorable design seen in two of xebec's most recent romantic comedies kanokon and ladies versus butlers !, as well as currently airing fall series mm ! . the entire set / background as well got itself a better touch from the art / visual department this time around, and man it should've been this way to begin with since the very first season. long time fans of the series should've been well familiar enough with the series' [ ensemble cast of ] characters so i will leave that part out for this first impression post here.

sora no otoshimono - forte : early impression

SORA NO OTOSHIMONO : FORTE
studio : AIC
director : Hisashi Satou
serial run : October 1, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : 12
hime's priority rank : 02

RETURN OF THE GLORIOUS NYMPH

...but one must not completely ignore the tsundere sohara, for she had gave out quite an enormous impact with her return to the screen; as witnessed from the first episode that is. anyway, i certainly did not see any valid reason for me not to include this sequel here into my active fall watchlist, especially for something that is as highly entertaining... and perverted as this. well a harem it maybe, but do keep a note in mind that sora no otoshimono is a harem which stood on a class of its own, and i couldn't possibly think of any other series out there that could rival nor outclass this series when it comes to epic perverted comedy.

okay so some may argue that the plot / story itself were mainly repetitive and too predictable, but that won't be the main concern here as the series often cleverly plays itself well within the limited sandbox of the harem genre without being too much typical from how i see and perceive it. and while being deeply rooted in its highly perverted theme, one must not arrogantly look away from the underlying, humanistic theme that is clearly presented and elaborated by each episode, esp. when there's the loli angelroid nymph of who -like konjiki no yami of the to love-ru fame- often seek out the key question regarding her role and her very presence / existence on the world.

as usual, i prefer not to over-analyze things up so i'll continue straight to our next point. now for a sequel -especially one that stem from a remarkably strong parent series such as this- the first episode is critically crucial in giving out the first, strong impression for its fans to either renew or forget their interest into the series. good thing for sora no otoshimono : forte is that the first episode didn't just gave out a solid impact for its debut, instead it busted its way into the fall season with so much bang and glory that one [ its longtime fans, especially ] couldn't help but to shed their manry tears of extreme happiness [ assuming that 97% of its staple audience were male ] over said glorious epicness.



production / execution-wise, everything remains faithfully intact as per the parent series, but one thing that greatly caught my attention off guard were the background music; okay so i wasn't quite sure if sora no otoshimon : forte has brought forth the same set of score from the first season, but those that i've heard from the first episode were so remarkably grand and ultimately well done that i am now super-enthusiastic in obtaining a copy of its original soundtrack once it is made available somewhen later.

p/s : the yonda [ you call ? ] joke thrown in the second episode is definitely made of pure genius. go and experience it for yourself if you haven't yet :3

to aru majutsu no index II : first impression

TO ARU MAJUTSU NO INDEX II
studio : J.C. Staff
director : Hiroshi Nishikiori
serial run : October 8, 2010 - ongoing
total episodes : 24
hime's priority rank : 14

frankly speaking, i wasn't quite delighted with the first season [ esp. since the story went like, all over the places moments before the first season wraps itself up ] yet i am willing to look forward into this solely for one grand reason; KAORIN-NEESAMA. yes, the scantily clad japanese nun oneesama who will not hesitate to unleash her nanasen-move upon insistence, and i for one am more than glad and masochistically happy to be hit and abused by her threads and blade |D

okay so we've seen the first episode a week back, and frankly speaking it went smooth as we've been hoping it would be. the back and forth transition between touma's classic headbutts with index and the ensuing hostage drama which constitutes half of the initial episode were pretty neat, although i was hoping more for the series to start in an entirely peaceful, serene scene before exploding into the usual action on episode 2 onwards. nevertheless, episode 1 still is a good watch, and the second series has now for certain became a mainstay on our active fall 2010 watchlist among the rest.

visually, to aru majutsu no index II still boasts the same breathtaking magnificent look at the futuristic metropolis that is the academy city; among the key appeal of the series for those who's greatly into the visual / setting department the most. while the recent spin-off to aru kagaku no railgun took its impressive art / design from the same jc staff team that gave us toradora and ookami-san to shichinin no nakamatachi, index II otherwise recalls its ties with the same director and production team [ both visually and musically ] from the first season / shakugan no shana, thus retaining the exact same atmosphere and feel from its parent series prior.



there isn't much for me to note down here as everything were as slightly the same as the first season was, but perhaps -judging on how far this series could stretch itself- we'll probably be in for some nice surprises in the episodes to come, and hopefully jc staff won't screw this one as well just like twice they did with index I and the much fan-raged shakugan no shana second v.v

a quick guide to +ophanium's first / early impressions

ENOUGH WITH ACE COMBATS; TIME TO DUST OUR DASHBOARD OFF THEM DRAFTS

first of all, we chose to be as brief as possible with our early impression posts so to preserve the juice for when the obligatory complete reviews were to be posted up later. and since our current lead author rayneholde is extremely limited on creativity as well as experience in writing commentaries / reviews, this is the best and 'most considerate' option we could ever thought of for now. as for synopsis or hints on a series' story / plot however, well we highly encourage our readers to search for and read them at informative sites such as myanimelist or wikipedia, and besides, we do wish for you our dearest readers to exercise more often even with your keyboards. anyway, the usual lack of synopsis are often compensated with a select, single screenshot embedded between the last two paragraphs, although this certainly doesn't provide any much of help at all :D

okay so a standard early impression post submitted for +ophanium will typically consist of the followings; 01. brief, general overview on the series; whether we enjoy it or not and what other trivial aspect[s] of the series that we find to be mentionable / captivating enough to our interest | 02. a quick look at the execution of a series' storytelling / plot delivery; honestly we don't care much about a series' plot whatsoever, but we do have concern on whether we find a series we have interest in to be exciting / entertaining or not, as well as having good enough chemistry with our personal interest / preference | 03. a quick look at the production values of a series; most of the time however we went and paid more attention over the art / animation details while the rest [ such as bgm, op / ed etc ] will usually be left out to be covered in the obligatory complete review much later.

[ gorgeous 'dat arse' screenshot as stolen from seanver-nii so to provide obligatory fanservice for this post ]

on personal ground, we DO NOT aspire to become as big or as highly regarded as others out there, thus which is why we seldom took our entries seriously. but still however we do care to deliver as much sense of satisfaction as we possibly could to our dear readers so that they / you won't find their / your time and / or visit here to be somewhat pointless nor wasted. what we can provide you people here is our passion, and to show just how much we love and enjoy doing and watching whatever we do so at the moment, rather than constantly mumbling over how dead the anime medium is as of present, and how a lot of people nowadays only watch animes for all the glitters and the fuwafuwa moeness instead of the DEEPness *derp* of the story / plot-whatever etc. we are no elitist, and will never choose nor sell our souls to become one even if you guys put a gun to our heads.

p/s : 4 more early impression drafts are currently at work [ two of them were sequels to renowned godly harem franchises, one contains a winning imouto everybody now wants a piece of and the remaining other has my delicious glorious oneesama in it ], and do expect them to be posted as soon as tomorrow. see, we're not slacking off at all haha ←LIES! ho god /strike out/ abuse by our childish editor [ inb4 internal dramu ] :D

otome youkai zakuro : early impression

OTOME YOUKAI ZAKURO
studio : JC Staff
director : Chiaki Kon
serial run : September 25, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : ?
hime's priority rank : 13

chiaki kon; well i am sure that some of you peeps should have already recognize her, but if not, she's the director who has lent her directorial touch for the 'no naku koro ni' series [ both higurashi and umineko ] back then, with the former being one of my favorite thriller series to date. and yes, i do know that a lot of peeps weren't so happy with umineko [ i myself personally was forced to put umineko on hold very early into the series ] but let's give her a chance upon this one, yea ? and see if she could somehow bring forth the awesomeness that was once felt and seen in higurashi no naku koro ni kai, most especially :3

okay so basically the series kicks off with a very promising start, and it didn't take long for me to enlist the series onto my current active fall watchlist. the plot / theme premise, most certainly were the primary driving influence for me to dig and savor into the series [ aside from its cast of seiyuus, definitely :3 ], where at several glimpses into otome youkai zakuro it somewhat reminds me of yozakura quartet; another fantasy / supernatural-esque series that i love yet didn't get to wrap itself up in quite a good / satisfying fashion; thus hopefully this series will instead cure the mild disappointment i had with yozakura quartet back then.

a large percentage of the characters were very likable for me right from the first sight, most apparently the titular female protagonist zakuro of course - a half human, half demon tsundere - who seems to held quite a distaste against the modernization of japan by them humans. both her personality and attitude were tailored much to my personal preference, and what's more, its her apparent tsundere-ism that helps in securing a winning score for her to be listed into my attention list. susukihotaru is yet another character which i fancy from the series, but mostly due to the fact that she's being voiced by kana hanazawa :D

another point of strength that helps in supporting the series is that it is currently produced by the best half of j.c. staff; so that would mean that otome youkai zakuro gets the better execution and treatment most especially on the visual department, which according to my eyes were very well done. the overall character design for one is really heavy on the shoujo taste, most notably in regard to the male characters but can still be very much appealing even to those who may not fancy said style.

and before i forget this, i greatly fancy the song the girls sang at later points of the series; a ceremonial song i believe, from the point of the series that is.

yosuga no sora : first impression

YOSUGA NO SORA
studio : Feel
director : Takeo Takahashi
serial run : October 4, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : 12
hime's priority rank : 04

WINCEST IS IMMINENT. AND RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

who cares if the series contains too many sinful stuff whatever, for i love it best when someone's trying to take a deeper dip into the taboo waters, resulting something as fearful as this in the eyes of the moralist. and besides, i could use more and more wincest stuff ever since akane-iro ni somaru saka almost delivered it well 1-2 years back before blowing up the revelation that the nagase siblings aren't blood related at all. pffft- and there goes my hope smashed flat on the marble floor beneath.

anyway, yosuga no sora is yet another series that is adapted from an eroge like many others which preceded it prior. yes i know there aren't many anifans who are quite fan of eroge adaptations since most of them didn't quite translate well on screen, primarily due to improper planning etc. well let us hope that yosuga no sora won't be suffering from the same syndrome, and let it be among those which will succeed greatly enough for us to remember it for the many years to come.

the series opens well with the usual [ mild ] introduction[s] of its characters, but most prominently is of the two twins of whom were the main focus of the story; even if their introduction can be considered mildly brief since a lot of information can be gathered in regard to them from first episode alone, and this could as well serve well in maintaining the storytelling pace should it stick to this fashion for the rest of the series. by the way, i need to mention a huge caution here as this series contains several explicit scenes which definitely won't go down well with some folks, esp. those of the minor age.

[ above screenshot were stolen from seanver-nii, again :3 ]

the overall visual presentation is splendidly top notch here; from the breathtaking countryside setting / background, the handsome camerawork down to the character design which were tastefully conceived. the animation is wonderful, and the whole production value felt really strong and solid here compared to some other eroge adaptations i've seen.

kami nomi zo shiru sekai : first impression

KAMI NOMI ZO SHIRU SEKAI / THE WORLD GOD ONLY KNOWS
studio : Manglobe
director : Shigehito Takanayagi
serial run : October 6, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : ?
hime's priority rank : 16

so here is one of the fall 2010 series that seems to have been discussed a lot aside from oreimo. to be honest, i am not a regular reader of the manga from which this series is adapted from nor do i am familiar enough with either its plot or character. still however, those reasons won't be stopping me from picking this one up and putting it on my watchlist. that said, i am also so personally that this series had properly reciprocated my interest in it, as it had me entertained enough upon my watch for the first episode that was aired recently.

fall 2010 seems to be the season that is abundant with the funny stuff, and kami nomi [ for short ] are among those which handsomely delivers its payload in the best fashion possible. the comedy is pretty well done although it may not be as dead-on as sora no otoshimono : forte, shinryaku ! ika musume or mm ! yet for the time being, but let's hope that it would grow more potent and better as fall proceeds on. what had me hooked on greatly to kami nomi however is its central plot which revolves on one of my favorite entertainment medium; bishojo-ge, as well as the male protagonist's excellent view on the classic 2D vs 3D subject.

both lead characters were easily likable for me, but my interest lies more in the male protagonist himself of whom i find spot-on easy to relate myself with since i too am an bishojo-ge player, as well as having the same thoughts / ideals as his on the aforementioned 2D vs 3D subject, though i am more forgiving on them 3Ds as apparent from my enthusiasm in stalking splendid cosplayers.



the art for all that matter is nice and very eye friendly, and the animation is among its most solid charm to note. the character design went well with my liking; the females most especially were cute [ i usually doesn't care much for male characters to be frank ] and topped with the fluid animation everything just keep on getting better for the visual department of kami nomi. +also, i especially love the color palette used for both the foreground and the background, although is typically overused in most series i've seen still i find them to be working their best here.

shinryaku ! ika musume : first impression

SHINRYAKU ! IKA MUSUME
studio : Diomedia
director : Tsutomu Mizushima
serial run : October 5, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : ?
hime's priority rank : 03

YOU'RE GONNA GET INVADED-GESO !

one word; lolsome. the first episode is pretty hilarious that i almost sprayed a mouthful of tea i had in my mouth across my screen monitor - nice thing i could hold them all in well. that said, this is the kind of series that is guaranteed to give some serious tickle to your funny bone, much like the kind of quality comedy i get from penguin musume heart, seto no hanayome, bokusatsu tenshi dokuro-chan and haiyoru ! nyaru-ani then; which means that shinryaku ! ika musume is the kind of comedy series that i would usually look forward to by each anime season [ note : i love silly comedies, esp. one as absurd as this :3 ]

the story / plot is simple, yet with a very thoughtful underlying theme beneath it. ika musume, the titular character of the series is a humanoid squid in the form of a sweet, cute loli [ closely reminiscing index from the to aru majutsu no index fame ] who came upon the land in order to conquer teach humanity a lesson for polluting the sea in which she call home. things however doesn't seem to went along well as planned, and ika musume quickly came to be enslaved exploited by the sisters who owned a beach-side eatery upon seeing how [ extremely ] useful she could be with her unique ability as a 'squid'.

the series is broken down to 3 mini-chapters within a single episode, much like the same fashion seen in some 4koma adaptations for example. the whole storytelling pace is really splendid; it's kind of fast-moving but yet feels somewhat natural to me, and nothing felt like it was rushed here - as far as episode 1 is concerned - . also, i might even consider the storytelling style to be slightly synonymous to those of penguin musume. anyway, the comedy were done in splendidly high and organic taste, and its dynamicity were among its most charming point above all, yeap.

[ enjoy your ultra-fresh squid ink spaghetti~bleergh ]

for those who shares the same taste and preference as mine, i highly assure here that it won't take long for you folks to be in love with the titular character ika-musume. plus, anifans who are well familiar with the popular dojin game touhou project will be quick to notice that ika-musume nevertheless mirrors the ice fairy cirno greatly in her personality, attitude as well as character [ they both seems to share the 'i am the strongest' and 'idiot' quality best ], and besides, their overall look / character design aren't that much of a difference in the mildest sense. btw, ika-musume's way of ending her speech / sentences is kinda cute too :3

the art is very pleasantly well done to my greatest delight; it is cute and even the background / setting were nicely well drawn. the character design were very appealing and easy to my eyes, not to mention the animation is praiseworthy-ly fluid with so much energy can be felt from the characters.

to love-ru darkness : first impression

what a splendid timing. just as we were expecting for motto to love-ru to air, it hits us that the much anticipated spin-off to the splendid harem manga to love-ru has begin its run as of recent in the magazine jump square. upon our read of the sequel, we were extremely delighted more than we ever could as not only the spin-off retained the haremic awesomeness of its parent series, but that it now comes served in total explicitness. and yes, it couldn't be any better than this as we all know by now how godly yabuki kentaro-sensei is when it comes to winning ecchiness and his high quality figure / curve art as seen in another one of our favorite mayoi neko overrun ! x3

the spin-off manga continues forth from where the main series left, but instead of focusing over rito x lala's yet-to-be-resolved relationship it now shifted its attention to the younger characters momo and yami, with the former's ultimate goal now is to procure rito the ultimate harem befitting of his 'future role' as the king of deviluke. truly a brilliant idea if i must say, thus which is why we and our associate seanver-san has decided to crown her the ultimate title of 'goddess of haremism' xD



delivered in a mild-introductory fashion, the first chapter also introduces one new female character into the assemble cast, who slightly reminds us of the russian loli suou pavlichenko from darker than black -ryuusei no gemini-; from her looks alone, that is. the usual perverted accidents were still there, and one should highly celebrate the return of rito's unwilling pervertism over kotegawa yui, among other perverted highlights that is to be greatly expected from the series :3 oh, and there's also a little drama inserted before the end of the chapter, which would serve as the staging point to a whole new plot concerning yami and her current dilemma over her current calm and peaceful life / existence on earth.

panty & stocking with garterbelt : first impression

PANTY & STOCKING WITH GARTERBELT
studio : Gainax
director : Hiroyuki Imaishi
serial run : October 1, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : ?
hime's priority rank : 06

WHAT HAVE SCIENCE DONE TO MODERN ANIME ? SUGAR, S- *SHOT*

one thing i greatly love about gainax is that when they get bizarre, they'll get reaaallly bizarre. and glad i'm able to see the bizarreness they once pulled in tengen toppa gurren lagann to be taken to a much more extreme level, extreme enough that it took one or two lucky souls to be able to sit through and comprehend the whole thing that is panty & stocking with garterbelt. and seriously, i heard krauser-san whispering his blessings [ of approval ] for gainax and the series itself as i concluded my watch of the first episode :3

ever since i came to know of nickelodeon and cartoon network, i've always been wanting to see the two brands getting molested and pervertized in a way that any [ morally conscious ] local television network would refuse to accept any of their products for commercial airing. and thank god gainax successfully fulfilled this wish of mine with the production of this series here, and i can now die in peace. although the jokes [ or comedy ] aren't really funny nor remarkable to be exact, yet what makes them so much laughable and worth standing to my interest is that how the production team managed to stretch their absurd exaggeration over some of the already bizarre visual gags; from the disgustingly feces-laden first half to the exhilarating second half [ especially when the speeder ghost enters his third mode; the GAR train ] - gosh i would never ask for anymore bizarre exaggeration that those i had already witnessed from the series.

some may criticize the overall art and design for trying to emulate the childish style of them much shunned american cartoons, but on a personal level [ as well as a designer who personally love highly stylistic work of art with brilliant, lavish use of colors and clever use of visual arrangement + space ], panty & stockings is such a sight to behold, and has remarkably distances itself from the rest other by standing out in its own level; and the closest anyone [ within the anime scene ] could ever get to the series would be the highly ambitious shaft favorite, akiyuki shinbo-sensei :3

[ stocking MAI WAIFU ]

personally i would not recommend this to any of you out there who were reading this as panty & stockings are way, way, way beyond what fans of contemporary nor 'serious' [ *derp* as how them 'elitist' prefer it to be called ] anime could [ or would ] ever comprehend. but if you're just like me who enjoys something that is extremely bizarre such as this then you are highly welcomed to join me by putting this one into your weekly watchlist :3

p/s : despite the post's bold-ed tagline, no... science has done nothing wrong with this series nor anime as we speak. i just felt like borrowing that classic line for novelty's sake :3

mm ! : first impression

MM !
studio : Xebec
director : Tsuyoshi Nagasawa
serial run : October 2, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : ?
hime's priority rank : 05

COME, AWAKEN THE SADIST DEMON IN U NAU-

this series will serve as an appropriate replacement for seitokai yakuindomo on behalf of the fall anime block, seeing as how i had successfully end myself up in great series of maniacal giggles / laughter much like i was then with the aforementioned super-ero summer series. +in fact, both series might come to a serious head to head brawl by the time i am to select for three of the best 2010 comedy series for my best 2010 anime list come february next year :3

moving on, personally i had nothing much to say over mm ! here as the series greatly requires itself to be watched firsthand for you to experience the kind of wild amusement i had with it. but anyway, ayana-san did her voicework really well here, with close quality and performance on par with her remarkable roles as azusa nakano in k-on !!, ako suminoe in kissxsis and most notably kirino kousaka in the currently airing fall heavyweight ore no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai, and it is such a great blessing how she manages to fit really smooth and tightly with the sadistic personality of mio [ initially i also believe that her ( mio ) role could also be given and done well by kugimiya rie ], served in full flavor of how an elegant sadist ojousama would sound like from my expectation.

the masochistic sado [ yeap, the main male lead of the series ] - although somewhat pathetic from a guy's point of view - hilariously served as a splendid comic character in contrast to our loli sadist ojousama. his full expression of extreme pleasure whenever being abused upon magnificently conjured forth great amount of hilarity, and you don't have to be a sadist to be very well entertained and amused by it.

[ screenshot stolen from seanver's anime blog without permission :P ]

coming from xebec, and seemingly from the same production team which gave us ecchi light comedies such as to love-ru, kanakon and ladies versus butlers !, the art and overall design were very well pleasing, but most delightfully are those of the characters. unlike kanokon nor ladybato, the females in this one is less fleshy / plump-y [ not that it's a bad thing however ] and i am very well thankful for that as i would like for this one to stay as close to the design from the original media it is adapted from.

on a closing note, the first episode of mm ! has given me much [ perverted ] entertainment and amusement in place of seitokai yakuindomo for the fall block, and i will certainly be looking forward for this to stand just as strong until fall wrap itself up this december.

iron man : first impression

IRON MAN
studio : Madhouse
director : Yuzo Sato
serial run : October 1, 2010 - ongoing
total episode : 12
hime's priority rank : 19

despite my initial refusal to dig and savor this one up [ due to my bitter memories with madhouse and most western-franchise-turn-anime adaptations ] it seems that iron man did a pretty good job at getting my interest intact from just the first episode. that said, i guess it won't hurt for me to reconsider on enlisting this one up into my watchlist as to fill in the action / superhero slot left by summer's heroman.

character wise, this anime version of tony stark is just as flirty and flamboyant as he is in the marvel comics version, and glad that part of him remained intact rather than being slightly modified / redesigned for the anime market. his screen entrance also went mildly well from my personal point of view, though i was slightly hoping for that he would step in with more bangs and booms from the get go xD

the art, well its pretty old school in style and design, and it certainly look and feels as if this one was produced somewhere in the 90's / early 2000. having grown favored and accustomed of the modern, contemporary style as of current, it took me quite a few moment to adjust and adapt myself into the visual look of iron man. also, it kind of surprises me in the sense that the whole character design wasn't as bad as how some critics had pointed it to be. so now it puzzles me as to which way were they looking at, i wonder, i wonder ?

i am not quite a fan of cgi incorporation into modern animes [ unless they blends in well as seen in 2 of the rebuild of evangelion installments so far ], and there are times when the titular iron man itself seemed a bit out of place from the rest of the traditional 2d surroundings. but that was just a minor aspect of the series which i am not in favor of, and i can easily dismiss that one off for the time being, but maybe not for long :3



overall this one apparently turned out to be very much interesting [ and perhaps, promising ], and for now eventhough it didn't quite match up with the expectation i had still the series wasn't really THAT bad afterall to begin with, so my ultimate decision for now is to sit and watch where it would take me for the upcoming weeks to come :3

intermission : +ophanium's next top cosplayer

[ header image : nadeko sengoku from bakemonogatari by kousaka yun-san ]

so recently i often face some [ sort of ] not-so-serious shortage on idea over which layer for us to feature next on the periodic cosplay section. however thanks to fellow blogger bluedrakon, we've decided to come up with a poll and let you folks [ yourselves ] instead decide over who you peeps would like to see getting featured in weeks to come. well, it is quite an easy way out for us, but at least the team could gather up some intel info on which [ highly recurring ] layer were our readers' top favorite - among those who have been steadily featured over the span of 2 and a half year since our initial existence ;3

now here's the catch for them winning cosplayer [ and their respective fans supporters ]; layer with the most votes + the first runner-up shall receive a series of consecutive feature-get for the upcoming month of november. plus, we might even consider to extend their feature run up until early december, thus as always, you folks knows the drill, and the poll's already been up and running there on the sidebar. oh, and in case there's some of you who were kinda new to this blog, and weren't quite familiar with some of the names nominated on the poll then please do kindly click on this link here for some thorough homework :3

additional note : 01. there will be two layers by the name 'ibara' nominated on the poll; the first one [ aka Ibara 1 ] would refer to this ibara-san while the other [ Ibara 2 ] will refer to this ibara-san v.v | 02. and for those who pondered upon the criteria over which these layers are chosen and nominated for the poll; well we've decided to pick only those layers who has been featured regularly here on this blog since the [ cosplay ] section's inception in 2008, as well as those highly abundant with both portrait and event photo shoots within our safekeep - thus which is why we didn't get to see prominent layers such as saya nor arisa mizuhara listed on the poll - as we rarely post therr stuff here v.v

+ophanium's fall 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 fall 2010 series of which i will be keeping close track on based on summaries / those that i have seen so far. as usual, these lists are subjected to future 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.
- ore no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai
- panty and stocking with garterbelt
- sora no otoshimono : forte
- shinryaku ! ika musume
- yosuga no sora
- mm !
- motto to love-ru
- bakuman
- koe de oshigoto ova
- to aru kagaku no railgun ova
- yozakura quartet -hoshi no umi- ova
- letter bee reverse
- otome yokai zakuro
- to aru majutsu no index 2
- hyakka ryoran samurai girls
- the world god only knows
- mirai nikki oad
- fortune arterial

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
- ironman
- star driver
- megane na kanojo ova
- arakawa under the bridge 2
- soredemo machi wa mawatteiru

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.
- N/A yet

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.
- tantei opera milky holmes

...

FAQ

Q : do you really watch all those listed on your watchlist above ? A : yes. well usually i would break down my aniwatch session into two; the weekly episodic watch and the complete full season marathon by the end of a series' run. at the start of a season block, i would often took my time and give each of these series' first / pilot episodes a try before i decide whether to put them on my weekly watch or the full marathon watch session, depending on their performance as well as the state of balance between the genres offered within a season.