http://wwwa.mevio.com/

Go there for more updates. I’d uploaded ep10 and 11 already in case anyone’s wondering about the massive lack of activities lately. I’ll try to work on the blog more once the podcast production is running smoothly. It can be a hassle though with the exam period coming up.

and you guys know about my stance on doing a solo-cast. I will not do a solo.

(I probably spent too much time drawing this than working on the actual episode~)

LISTEN NOW!

We briefly talked about  Kaijou wa Maid sama, Arakawa under the Bridge, Angel Beats!, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimou, B gatta H kei, Senko no Night Raid, Mayoi Neko Overrun!, Heroman, Working!, 2nd half of Durarara!! and more on Angel Beats!. Some shows didn’t have much discussion on them (the shortest being 26seconds only), but I felt like including them just so you know our thoughts.

This episode was recorded on the 15th of April 2010, so we only watched 2 episodes when we had this conversation.

All these while Emir is having fun with his DMC3.

so yeah, enjoy.

TIMESTAMP:

• OP: Complication a.k.a Durarara!! OP2
• Kaichou wa Maid-sama!
• Arakawa under the Bridge
• Angel Beats! 8’34”
• Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou
• B Gata H Kei
• Senkou no Night Raid
• Mayoi Neko Overrun!
• Heroman
• Working!!
• Durarara!!
• more on Angel Beats!~
• insert song: My Soul Your Beats a.k.a Angel Beats! OP
• ED:  You and Beautiful World sung by Megurine Luka, composed by ゆよゆっぺ(Yuyoyuppe)

my computer will not read my recording device (namely iPod)……..which means ep9 will either be re-recorded (one way or another) or I’ll find my way to get this shitty apple device working.

It will probably be at least another week before the 9th ep is released.

Pretty annoying I know

Listen NOW!!

Download straight from mevio~

With Captain Threepwood away, Jeroz managed to grab Emir (who you might remember appearing on a few episodes back) to have a chat.

The talk involves around the current season, plus some of the anime movies each had seen during the break.

the news segment had a reformat as well

The main segment of the show is more like a hybrid. We reviewed/recommended/discussed a few shows which contains the element of  non-linear narration, a.k.a confusing timeline. We mentioned Suzumiya Haruhi no yuutsu, Baccano!, and Kara no Kyoukai

Not the most entertaining episode, but it’s nice to get the ball rolling after such a long hiatus.

Time stamp:

00’25 – OP   (“God Knows”  from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)

02’03 – Status update

12’37  - News

16’25 – Main Segment

54’40 – ED  ( ”no title”, sung by Hatsune Miku)

(Nisshin website, elect the “てれび” link, and then select the links below each video icon for either the full-screen or the 720×405-pixel format.)

Like last time I will preview another 3 shows this season

Starting off with Ookamikakushi:

I was interested in this series because it’s based off a PSP Visual Novel written by Ryukishi 07, the same R07 that’s behind the awesome stories of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Umineko no Naku Koro ni. I was fan of those two VN so naturally I was very excited to see how the mystery in this vn will turn out. This series is produced by AIC, with Peach-Pit as character designer, but I am kind of worried about the fact that Nobuhiro Takamoto is the director. I never seen one show that he directed, but heard sayings that he tend to go berserk as the series end.

Anyway, so the series starts out as you would say “a higurashi clone”. You have a young family moving into a remote, countryside town. You have the main male character, his wheelchair-bound little sister, his over enthusiastic writer father. You have the extremely-friendly-to-the-point-it’s-scary female character, you have also the extremely-friendly-to-the-point-it’s-scary classmates. You have the mysterious girl that seem be an ominous force in the town. You have the taboo in the village of not going to the old side of the town since the people there don’t like the new people. You have the crazy shit happening during the night where a classmate was chased by a group of masked mob, turned berserk and apparently bloody thirsty, and got “killed” by a girl in mask swinging a scythe. Then you have the eerie higurashi-like saying that the classmate “moved”

First thing that strikes me is the unappealing character design and the bad visual quality. The mystery was supposed to be interesting but I found too many similarities with higurashi at the moment. Also when you include the fact that DEEN just completely butched Umineko by making an abridged version as the anime, I am kind of tentative regarding to how the studios would deliver what could’ve been a great mystery by Ryukishi07.

I am currently putting it on a hold. I will check it out again once the season had finished (it’s going to be a short 12ep series anyway), so I can get absorbed in the whole mystery. Not to mention that I simply can’t follow this series week after week after I watched the 2 series I chose to follow this season. You can try to check it out now, but don’t come back crying all disappointed.

_

Seikon no Qwaser, a.k.a. the “nipple sucking” show.

Don’t even bother with this unless you are willing you are a pervert to catch the Director’s Cut edition distributed online. It only caught my interest after I’d heard there are two versions of it, and I had a look at both. Sadly though the way they avoid censorship is quite lame, I didn’t find anything hilarious about it. It’s an adaptation of a manga series by Hiroyuki Yoshino, and the manga apparently is more dangerous than the anime itself.

In Japan, if I remember correctly, it’s only M15+ if the female show their breasts. This series, however, only aired on AT-X which is like the station with the least censorship and they still have to create that Director’s Cut. I am guessing this is a way to boost DVD sales price since you cannot easily watch it on TV, only through prepaid official website to have a glimpse of the DC version.

It’s a power show, with people using alchemy-like superpowers to battle each other. The fight scenes can be said to be decent, but mostly average. It’s a dangerous show that tried to be all serious, starting with the OP and the way they present the medium, but I can’t really comment on that since I personally not interested. Also there’s nipple sucking, in order to either activate the power or to boost mana, (I didn’t really pay attention to the plot), or even to score points with the storage system. I don’t think more information is needed. You either like the show due to the nipple sucking or you get terribly offended by it or you got bored by the censorship.

This series will turn out to be a guilty pleasure to some people. If you think you are perverted enough, only get  the Director’s Cut edition. It’s not really adult-only since it only goes as far as nipple sucking (they even blacked out the other body region in the Director’s Cut), but that act itself is enough to draw the title of hentai onto you if you are caught watching this.

_

_and finally…

Durarararararararararararararararararara!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

omg, if you haven’t yet watch Durarara!! then you should do so RIGHT NOW! It’s so fkin AWESOME! Yes you heard me, it’s bloody AWESOME!! If you don’t like it, then I shall take your mobile phone and make it my new hobby to stomp on it again and again.

This series is produced by the same company that did Baccano!, and is based off the novel series of the same author as well. You would immediately identify the link between the two due to that symbolic way of introducing the characters during the OP. Just like how Baccano is filled with freaks and idiots in the pseudo-1930s America, Durarara!! puts you in Ikebukuro that’s also filled with freaks and idiots, and perverts.

The first episode start out with our lead male character first arriving in Ikebukuro and was lead around by his friend. Quite a lot of characters were introduced throughout the way. In the episode there’s also a kidnapping side plot going on, the discussion on a web chatroom, the demonstration of the best way to take down a man using a motorbike from Selty.

The visuals are clean and fluid (even if some animation felt a bit janky), the characters are appealing and interesting, I love the OP (not much of the ED music), and the city itself just feels awesome. I got the same vibe from the episode like the one I got in that NDS game The World Ends With You, as that the city itself is brilliant. There’s quite a lot of setting up and lots of side plots in the first few episodes, but since it will go for 24 episodes I get the feeling that it would be the front runner for the best anime of 2010.

Watch it NOW!!

————————–

There are 3 shows which could have potential this season that I didn’t watch:

• Chu-Bra!, which is basically another fanservice series, but heard to contain useful knowledge on the topic of lingerie.
• Hanamaru Kindergarten. It’s done by GAINAX about a, you guessed it, kindergarten. Heard it’s decent, but personally not interested.
• Hidamari Sketch×☆☆☆. Also done by SHAFT, a continuation of the Hidamari Sketch series beloved by many. I didn’t watch the previous series, and also personally not interested in this. It’s the most anticipated series this season according to 2ch, but I don’t really care. Check it out if you are a fan of the previous series.

(Hideyoshi = Yummy~ <3)

__

So I’ll start with Dance in the Vampire Bund

Enough said, it’s a SHAFT. The show puts you in the world where it’s like an alteration of our world where vampires had been pulling the strings behind the scene. Now that they are coming out of the existence and will live in a new piece of land in the ocean (at least that’s what it meant by bund).

It’s based off a manga series by Nozomu Tamaki which is currently into  its 7th volume. The anime started off by mocking the typical Japanese variety shows discussing whether the vampires are real. If you had seen those type of shows you’d know that it’s all fake and stuff and just cheap entertainment. This time it’s different, since vampires are real in this world. So the show goes through to investigate the strings of attacks by a mysterious person, with the “queen of the vampires” as the guest, turned out the culprit was lured by his broken arm to the studio, transformed into a giant lizard man and create havoc, got chased down by the loli vampire princess in the picture to the rooftop where she used the power of suggest to kill off the bad rat.

It’s typical shaft, and I wouldn’t call this one episode 1, more like episode aero since apparently the real storyline starts in the next episode (this one spent 18mins on that variety show crap). Some previewers liked the stab, but personally I find it annoying.

I originally tried out this show since it’s a SHAFT but ends up not following this one since it kind of bored me in this episode 0. Also there are other ones that are more worthy of spending my time weekly to torrent and read discussions. If you like either of SHAFT, vampire, dfc loli who’s blond and twin ponytail, then this is a good one for you.

I stopped watching at ep1, and probably will pick it up again if next season wasn’t that good, or if I’m bored.

__

Next up: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

Following on from your typical SHAFT comes a show by Silver Link. The link is quite obvious in the very first scene where you will get the feeling of being severely shaft-ed. The director is Shin Ounuma, and if you go through his works (ef, Negima!?, pani poni dash!) you would know that he comes from SHAFT.

The setting is in a high school, except it’s not a high school you would find anywhere in the world. In this one you take a placement test after the first year and they rank you and put you accordingly from class A to F base on your result, with A having the most luxurious equipments while room 2-F could fall off at any moment. There’s a way to change the equipments, and that’s to challenge other classes (preferably the ones above yours) in the fight that’s similar to a summoner’s war. In this game, you summon a familiar and the strength of the familiar takes directly from you last test score in that particular subject. The mode of the war can be random and be pre-determined before the match. If you win, you get to upgrade your equipment (ie. take from that higher class you just beat), and vice versa.

I am loving this comedy at the moment. The visual production value is quite high, the use of bgm is very nice, the character design…..is just character design, nothing special, the skits are awesome, the characters are interesting, and of course, there’s Hideyoshi, the ultimate trap.

Currently I already watched 4 episodes, and am loving every moment of it. Funny how a couple of previewer didn’t seem to grasp the comedy. I strongly recommend this show to everyone.

(My only concern is the blatant harem buildup, though 3 of them are male~ )

__

Next up, Omamori Himari

The verdict is a simple one: meh…

It’s based off a manga series by Milan Matra (wth, a non-Japanese looking name?!), who previously was an eroge manga artist. I cannot be bothered too much by the show since I hated the male character’s voice so much I stopped watching by the 10th minute.

plot summary taken from ANN:

“The slapstick romantic comedy centers around an ordinary 16-year-old high school boy named Yūto Amakawa who is protected by a spirit — specifically, a beautiful, sword-wielding cat girl spirit named Himari. Yūto is descended from a family that has subjugated demons since time immemorial. The charm that once protected him is now impotent, but fortunately, at that same moment, Himari appears before him as his new guardian.”

I personally don’t see too much potential in this show, and it seems like it will just turn out to be another generic ecchi harem anime that tried to be funny but failed miserably. Apparently judging by the screenshots in the anime discussion board that’s what it is turning to be. Only watch it if you are into this kind of stuff, or are seriously bored to the point where you got no other decent anime to watch.

_

get ready for the 2nd half of the preview article~

But why are you so godamn glitchy!? and why does it take so fkin long to upload an episode!?

oh well, at least it’s something that’s not mediafire~

-Jeroz

P.S. now that I found out podbean only has 100mb free space whereas mevio.com got tonnes, I’m officially switching to mevio for now. I just hope it does not have hidden problems in the future.

EDIT: Currently adding mevio.com links to original articles.

well, can’t say that I have one ready now, but we are in a revamp stage at the moment.

New season will hopefully be recorded in a months time, and will feature a more structured content.

Last season was kind of like testing the water, a learning experience for a novice like me to produce good episodes.

This year, it will be better, meatier, sexier, and featuring more crazy antics (including singing) from club members

In the meantime, I wish to hear from you guys more.

What did you like about our previous episodes? Also, what would you like to see us improve on? I want to know what would you guys like to hear in the new episodes.

Suggestions are greatly appreciated. After all, this podcast is made for you guys

Jeroz

(look at those collarbones, I mean, just look at them)

Download this episode (right click and save)

In this episode, just like we’d promised, we had a chat regarding to musics in anime.

Due to various circumstances we lost CJ and darkpast for this episode, but Jeroz managed to grab a club member in darktruth (not related to darkpast in any way) as guest speaker to help out.

As usual, the incoherent speaker once again is the one handling the news

TIME STAMP:

0’00   Introduction

4’30   News

13’36   Series Review: Darker Than Black

28’55  Main Segment: Musics in Anime

54’42  Off the Agenda & Sign off

OP: “Howling”    (a.k.a OP1 from Darker Than Black)

ED: “Bad Apple” – Gumi version

（Insert song: “celluloid” composed by bakerさん）

lastly, it would be greatly appreciated that you can leave some comments.

This one was recorded more than 2 weeks ago in the last club meeting of the semester. As a club we usually have friday dinner meet-up after the long club session every week, and in that final week I had an idea to bring the ipod voice recorder to see if it’s possible to salvage some good podcast materials for the podcast.

It’s not exactly official since we didn’t really plan the content of the episode, instead we just randomly chat about anime like we used to do before. For now I’ll called it AnimePasta, simply because the restaurant we went to in that setting is an Italian restaurant, I might change it to a better name in the future if this project continues.

In this episode we had a brief discussion regarding to the lineup in this anime season and what to screen to the general club members next semester. Sorry for the slightly louder background noise though in this episode though, will try to rectify it in the next one.

This will be a side project alongside the main podcast, just to give you a taste of what’s to come next year with the full series of main podcast and this side project side by side. This hopefully will provide a shorter alternative to the main podcast as well.  Enjoy, and don’t forget to leave us some comments.

And in case you were wondering, the 4th voice is from Jerome, not Jeroz (I am sorry for choosing an alias so close to another person’s name)

Mediafire Link

(13.7mb/30min)

(By the way, we are sorry for the delay in episode 7. The academic commitment is a bit too much for the majority of the cast. We will be doing another recording shortly within the next 7 days.)