Hello from Earth, denizens of Gilese 581d. One of you (or, perhaps, all of you) will have a massugu go! dropped into your SMS inbox a handful of years from now:
If you can decode and transmit this to your peoples in the Earth year 2035, I will have done my job properly.
People around the world are sobbing in joy:
Iwanen de mo wakatteru.
Including Kotozuka, that’s twelve girls in a summer house — twelve being the magic number for Giga galge Colorful Kiss and Colorful Heart.
Colorful Book, anyone?
So now that XNA Community Games have changed their name to Xbox Live Indie Games and introduced the new pricing structure for games (at 80, 240, or 400 points a pop), the XNA game I contributed a bit to, BeatBlox, is now 80 points – a single buck. That’s like impulse-buy territory right there.
Do it. It’s a great game.
So I was reading the Sketchbook Perfect WorkBook last night while drifting off to sleep, and I noticed that the birthday of my favorite character in the series – Kurihara Nagisa – is 7/7.
Sounds familiar, yes?
As of recent, I’ve been doing two things: playing DJ Max Technika (of course!), and playing a card game by the name of Weiβ Schwarz. Pronounced something like “vice scha’wars” and translated into “white black”, the game, like its spiritual predecessor Lycèe, features characters and events from several popular anime/manga/game properties. Players fight to “over-level” their opponent – once an opponent hits level 4, that player loses – but the more you become damaged, the stronger you get.
How did I get wrapped up in all of this, though?
Tsubasa, Rome, and Chun bought booster boxes and starter packs and at first I was interested in the game, but the steep price of booster boxes – $80 after shipping from Hobby Search – made me cringe.
Then came Anime Expo. NIS America stocked the English-language version of the Disgaea starter deck at their booth (featuring the only English-language cards in the entirety of the game), and Tsubasa picked one up for Rome, who refused, because he already had a Japanese Disgaea starter. I made an offer to buy it, because it was $12, but not before Tsubasa decided to keep it instead.
I borrowed it while hanging out at Tapioca Express one night, Chun eagerly offering to teach me the game. Playing against his Persona 4 deck, I successfully managed to learn the ropes of the game and defeat him (or at least make him concede when Tap closed). I wanted more.
According to several anime blogs, Episode 2’s best moment is tied between Hime’s “OH SNAP ☉д☉” moment…
and Roma-buchou dying on his bike:
When subs (and subsequent reviews) for Episode 3 come out, I’m willing to bet a good chunk of posts will feature Roma-buchou in a loincloth thing, below. This is pro stuff; I agree with Bokutachi no Blog when Scamp proclaims “the only reason he’s not in the Ouran Host Club is because they thought he would take all the women for himself“, he’s so good.
![\(￣ ▽ ￣ )\](http://www.nagatocity.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/32_romabuchou.png "\(￣ ▽ ￣ )\")
Real blog posts to come soon…hopefully. If not, more Sora no Manimani, which isn’t a bad thing at all!
It’s out, and it covers chapters 3 and 4, as expected. What I didn’t expect was coverage of chapter 5 – they’re moving really fast! I wouldn’t be surprised if they managed to squish the six available tankoubon into…wait, how many episodes is it supposed to be?!
A quick trip to ANN shows that they’ve got 13 episodes planned, as expected (26 would require some sort of filler, and that’s something I’d rather not have, even if it is 26 episodes of Sora no Manimani!), while MyAnimeList claims 12. AonE has picked up the show for subbing, which is good – quite a number of people trust AonE’s releases.
Also, in this episode: actual astronomy! Learn about curving the Big Dipper to find the Great Spring Triangle! EDUCATION FOR EVERYONE!
I’m almost sorta sad that this blog isn’t an anime blog; otherwise I’d be singing the praises of the show repeatedly and the first three pages of any given anime blog aggregator would be about me hyping up the series…Or something like that.
With Sora no Manimani episode 2 coming up in just a few hours, I went to see what everyone had to say about the first episode (thanks AB Antenna and Anime Nano, anime blog aggregator gods):
Simplicity: “Basically, Sora no Manimani is my kind of anime. It’s the type I don’t get as much with romance a little bit on the backburner but with still steady (but not big) developments almost every episode. That’s where my overactive fangirling comes in and…well it’s just fun.”
Hey, Say, Anime!: “I love to blog a weird combo between romance+drama+comedy and this one may lack the drama, but it sure hit the romance and comedy right on the head. More please!”
Borderline Hikikomori: “What I really like is that the astronomy club is a science club, which is more interesting to me, then a music club or an art club. . .Will definitely be watching.”
Random Curiosity: “I know this may not have sounded like the most full-throated endorsement of the series, especially considering how excited I was about it when I wrote up my season preview a few weeks ago, but I still enjoyed watching the first episode and will be tuning in for more.”
Hashihime: “Itou Kanae did a brilliant job of both the comic and the serious aspects of Mihoshi, the irresistible force. . .I enjoyed ep1 quite a bit. Director Takamatsu Shinji. . .brought the manga to life.”
Hikari to Kage: “Somehow Sora no Manimani delivered enough win to be one of my favorites so far this season. . .Mii-chan is made of epic win.”
Chiaki Project: “Mihoshi’s quirky but lovable personality is just too fun to watch.”
Metanorn: “Some call it “typical school romance anime”, I call it “WIN”. Hence, this turned out to be personally what I liked the most so far this season!”
Hinano @ Minaide! Hitorigoto: “So yes, I am happy, there is now an actual summer show I can watch.”
Open Your Mind: Those students who didn’t join the Astronomy Club “wouldn’t want some girl writing on their shirts or chasing after them and glomping them…WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM!?”
neko’s thinkbox: “…might not be BLOODY BRILLIANT, but it does shine bright enough to make me watch on for now.”
Crusader @ THAT Animeblog: “I hope the comedy picks up because otherwise it will probably get old quick. . .Still I suppose as long as the animation is crisp there is still hope for this. . .If it’s going to stay more on the romantic side that’s fine though I was hoping that I would have busted a gut laughing.”
Tenka Seiha: “This gets a resouding “bleh” in my book. I actively dislike both of the leads and I’m not sure there’s a creative bone anywhere in this show’s production office. They’d have one hell of an uphill battle to redeem either of the two.”
Star Crossed Anime Blog: “This episode had its amusing parts, but it lacked proper build-up: the crying scenes really came from out of nowhere and felt forced and with such an excellent season, I really doubt that I’m going to continue with this one.”
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Ten yes, two maybe, two no, and a lot of them are proclaiming the show to be potentially the best anime this season; I’m liking how this looks. Let’s see Hime-chan in action, shall we?