Because I Can't Contain My Excitement...

Lookie lookie what my lovely lady-friend made me for Christmas!

Since, as you all can deduce, I'm more than a little obsessed with Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta, and making a full-length Hime scarf would be ten different types of impractical, I've got my own pair of Akina wristbands!  They're so great!

[disclaimer: that photo was taken in natural sunlight, I promise I'm not that pale...or a corpse]

P.S. - Merry Christmas, friends.  I love all of you! :D

P.P.S - anyone else notice how alike Kotoha and Mari from Evangelion look?

Only About 3/8 Bullshit

I'd like to take a minute to make a quick public service announcement.

For those of you who are keeping up with Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta (and if you're not, you should start...what's wrong with you?) you may have noticed a slight...hiccup in the story.

All of a sudden there's a new character and not a lot of backstory to go with her.  It's a little jarring, to say the least.

Rest assured, this is only about 3/8 bullshit.

As it turns out, the team that does YZQ: HU put together 3 OVAs in 2010 called Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi no Umi (coincidentally, ALSO YZQ: HU).  These OVAs cover all of the missing information and serve as the unofficial episodes 9, 10, and 11 (or 8.25, 8.5, and 8.75 if you prefer).

In fact, they fit so perfectly into the hole in the plot, that I'm even willing to subscribe to the theory that the creators of Hana no Uta were saying to each other "Hey, do you remember those OVAs we did that were so popular?  Why don't we just work that into the show.  It'll save us from having to do that whole arc again."

To be completely honest, I don't think any amount of exposition or flashback sequences can do Hoshi no Umi justice.  So...just do yourselves a favor and watch it, there's no reason not to.

Blazblue: Alter Memory

Alright friends, I can't avoid this any more.  It's time to talk about Blazblue: Alter Memory.

Now, you may remember me being really excited about this show back in September.  In fact, it was maybe my #2 most anticipated show for the season (right behind Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta).  I've been watching the episodes semi-regularly as they air and I'm saddened to say that I'm left...unfulfilled.

And now I will make my customary disclaimer and say that the show is not bad per se, but it's really not great.  I think that making Blazblue into a coherent anime was a very ambitious goal from the start.  From what I understand, and from what I've seen in the show, the world of Blazblue has a complex and convoluted lore that we, the players/viewers are just supposed to kinda roll with, and it gets really confusing, really quickly.

Sometimes it reminds me of those scenes in Evangelion where Gendo gets together with the guys from Seele and they talk about what's really going on in the show, but they throw around a bunch of confusing jargon that only they understand (which makes sense, because if they all get it, than why explain it?)  In fact, there happens to be a scene in the third episode that's almost exactly like that.

This one, to be exact

Despite all of this, however, I have stuck with the show and am piecing together a rough idea of what the fresh hell is going on.  It's not fully comprehensive, but it's enough to go on, and I will continue to stick with Blazblue: Alter Memory for 2 reasons:

Does anyone else see the...irony(?) of a cat with all the powers of the internet?

1- It's cool, if absolutely nothing else.  The fighting is really cool to watch (I should hope so, considering it's based off of a fighting game), and I've always liked the flavor of magic-punk feudal/futury aesthetic that Blazblue employs.  I also find myself enjoying a lot of the characters--even the ones I didn't really care for in the game).

2- I feel that this show suffers from what I like to call "Guy Ritchie Syndrome".  It's got a bunch of characters running around doing a bunch of different things, which is very confusing to watch, but then it gets to the end and everything clicks together and...is...awesome.
(So...fingers crossed there!)

Also, for the love of GOD, Hazama...please never take your hat off again, you look like an idiot.