Minnie: You know what the funny thing is? There has only been a few anime that has been completed at HSA thus far for this Spring Season and all of them belong to me. Is it just me or am I the one with all the finished anime before anyone else? Coincidence? Lucky chance? I was praying that Hatsukoi’s last episode will come out before Anime Expo and it did so here I am with your most likely last blog entry before I go off to that lovely convention in a few more days. Of course, I’ll write posts about it. Now, for Hatsukoi Limited!

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Angel: Yeah, what a nice break. ^x^; Not really, as my house is drowning in drama. Now that the silly peoples have gone to sleep, I can sneak in a review~

Summary

Episode 10:  Overlapping Shadows

Suddenly, Oz subdues Alice’s powers, and so, Oz confronts Phillip’s father. As bitter memories of his own father flood his mind, Oz cries that Phillip’s father should be happy just being by his son’s side. However, this isn’t enough; it’s revealed that Phillip’s father established an illegal contract to erase their tragic past. He kills people for his son’s sake. Despite being emotionally charged, Oz cannot get through the idiocy of Phillip’s father, who is then shot by Vincent and pulled into the Abyss. This rainy scene is a powerful moment because it reveals the turmoil Oz felt as a child, while the rest of the episode has the gang resting at the Reinsworth mention. Later on, there is a warm moment between Oz and Alice (I’m leaning towards OzxAlice now, shh, but I’m always neutral, honest), as they sit back-to-back near the fireplace. Meanwhile, Break discusses Pandora business and he is suspicious of Vincent’s motives.

Episode 11: A Lost Raven

As the gang are resting, Gilbert reveals that Vincent is his younger brother; in addition, Gilbert describes what has happened in the last 10 years. Soon after the “tragedy” (when Oz first fell into the Abyss), little Gil fled in terror and ran into Break. Break suggested that Gil could save Oz from the Abyss if Gil was adopted into the Nightray family and controlled their chain, Raven. Despite being hesitant, as the Bezarius and Nightray families are bitter rivals, and thus marking Gil as a traitor, Gil agreed to returning to the Nightray family (Gil serves as Break’s “missing left eye,” which is creepy because Break’s eye socket is empty.. I wonder why Break doesn’t like Vincent. Vincent strangely has one red eye, hmm.. ). Although he cannot recall Vincent, Gil met his brother and established a contract with Raven (Ok, why the hell was Break walking around the halls with a candelabra balanced on his head? XD).

Episode 12: Welcome to Labyrinth

Upon the boys’ return, Uncle Oscar is eager to reunite with them; however, our trio is entangled in a street scuffle over Gil’s lost hat. Oz, Gil, and Alice agree to an arm wrestle with the perpetrators. Oz wins by “mindscrewing” his enemy (I flipping lol’d here, as Oz is the cutest thing since raisin bread ^-^), Gil loses by facing Uncle Oscar’s “charm” (if you can call it that, hehe ^__^), and Alice wins by unleashing her B-Rabbit power. She has quite a tsundere moment, fyi, check out below. Huzzah.

After the duel, Alice goes shopping while Oscar reunites with the boys. Alice returns to see the guys too close, and even though she feels left out, she runs away. She doesn’t understand her emotions, but Break appears (in a rather silly disguise XD) to tell her that she is being followed. Suddenly, the two are dragged into Cheshire Cat’s dimension. While unconscious, Alice dreams about the Oz-from-the-future clone (err, the young blonde man, aka Jack) and she calls out to him only to be startled awake by Break (they’re in this strange dimension and he’s knitting.. That’s Break for you :3). Break admits to using Alice to enter Cheshire Cat’s dimension to gain information about the Will of Abyss, but Break carries Alice out of more danger (like the gentleman he is~). Unfortunately, Alice runs away when haunted by her memories and Break is dragged into a mirror reflecting his past life. Meanwhile, Oz and Gil seek Sharon for help and she opens a path to the dimension via her own chain.

Episode 13: Keeper of the Secret

I’m sick of typing because Firefox keeps crashing and I’m losing my work and I keep cussing out Ric, SO it’s time to mass upload pictures and have an orgasmic time. Join me, I command thee. >8]

Cheshire Cat is soooooooo friggin hot eeeeee! o_o I don’t think I’ve ever seen a catboy before so this is interesting for me. My hormones are being stimulated. -whistles-

Random licking before a battle, yeahh! Gotta be clean!

Nice claws. >o< So, Oz and Gil are sent into Cheshire Cat’s dimension and they are already confronted by him.. But, before they can fight..

Gil, our once genderly unidentifiable child who hath conquered a mighty chain and is a gunslinger with a badass coat and hat, has a severe phobia of cats. MEOW~

Cheshire is ready to attack. :3

He has the raep face down.

And another beautiful creature graces the stage. Sharon’s chain, Eques, is a black unicorn with the power to create paths within shadows. She uses him to collect information; however, that doesn’t mean that he cannot hold himself in a match.

Unicorns are my favorite fantasy creatures, besides dragons, but those exist. -shot-

Another stellar shot~

Even when you’re away from the battlefield, you’re not safe. Echo is gonna get you, Sharon. :c

It’s a loli! It’s a trap! Shoot it, shoot it!

Kitty is sniffing his enemy. o.o Well, Cheshire finds out that Gil uses Raven to control B-Rabbit’s power. Yay for awesome sniffing powers.

Y-you slashed my Gil! Kitty, you’re going into the microwave now!

Eeee y-yo-you are touching my Oz! Get into the blender, ye cat!

Alice, you’re so pretty.. However, you are the one who tore your own memories in order to forget the tragic events of 100 years ago. Cheshire Cat is revealed to be protecting these memories, because you really do not want to remember but here you are, trying to look for them, lol. The irony of this happening.

She’s secretly in love with him, d’aww. There goes my OzxAlice fantasy.

Meanwhile, Vincent is sleeping in the hallway… -kidnaps him-

And this is Vincent’s chain, which makes him fall asleep. It’s not as cute as bunnies, kitties, and unicorns. :c

What an LOL face. Reim hears of confidential information (mostly that Oz escaped Abyss by himself and established an Illegal Contract). Vincent will not report this news to Pandora under Gil’s request. He’s that obsessed over his brother, hehe.

I thought that this was pretty. ^_^ Gil wakes up in the garden and meets the young, blonde man from before.. Gil mistakes the man for Oz, as they both have blonde hair and green eyes, but no this man is…

Jack Bezarius~

Speculations and Comments

☆ What an interesting turn of events; Alice erased her own memories (and it only took till halfway to find that out, so Pandora is on a nice track). She did so to forgot about losing everything 100 years ago but now, she seeks the truth she once feared. I believe that Cheshire was her pet cat at one point (there was a flashback of little Alice holding a cat, right?), so possibly, can Chains originate from Earthly or mortal creatures? Well, are Chains ever born outside of the Abyss..? Besides that, what does B-Rabbit have to do with any of this? Her power is rarely used. This is mostly about her memories so far, but I guess that they tie in with the whole Will of Abyss.

☆ Are Jack and Oz like, those kind of destined descendants? Oh God, I was about to refer to Yu-Gi-Oh here, as if I could get any more nubby (because the Pharaoh and Yugi look alike but are from waaay different eras and yeah, you don’t understand me because I’ve had 3 glasses of coke and it’s late.. Seriously). Alter egos.

☆ As I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few red eyes going around. Do any belong to Break, hehe? Both Vincent and Cheshire have one red eye… The (possible) eye switching reminds me of Kakashi from Naruto (I just referred to Naruto, Ric, don’t eat meeeee). I’m freaked out in both cases. o__O

☆ The animation was.. Different. Weird. In the beginning of the episode, the jerky movement sort of turned me off, but I adjusted to it. The animators create some pretty images~

I’ve heard that the next episode is juicy, so if I’m not doing anything special for the 4th of July, I’ll defintely blog this early (don’t laugh at me D:<). Pandora Hearts finally picked up, so I’m back into the groove. Till next time, my lovelies~

Angel’s Overall Rating for Episode 13: 9/10

Angel’s Overall Anticipation Meter: 9/10

This Summer 2009 Anime Season doesn’t look too exciting and it doesn’t give enough variety in anime to break down. However, this blog is all about fairness and when it comes to splitting the work evenly, we always manage to do it right before the season. This season is no exception. With the introduction of three new members to replace our two departing members from the anime blogging duties, how will this summer watermelon be divided this time? Let’s not forget our continuing anime people!

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Minnie: Okay. I’m one day late in blogging this episode and I don’t have any excuses really except that I have a chapter to finish that took me about four hours for six pages. I swear my typing speed must have gotten worst. Anyways, I’m here today with the newest episode of Phantom. So far, I am impressed with what I saw from this anime. I am becoming more and more of Bee Train fangirl by the minute. Will this continue with this episode or not?

Minnie’s Overall Rating for Episode: 8/10

Minnie’s Anticipation for Next Episode: 8/10

Thoughts: Cal is one interesting loli. Of all the things she can buy with that money, she buys so  many hamburgers. XD I love it! I think she really is a genius and that she really will be Reiji’s partner in the future. I just want to know who’s the culprit behind the money that was not stolen so badly. Is it Eren or not?! Looks like Eren! Oh and Lizzie is so cool. ^^ I want to know why Cal is so carefree around Reiji though… is it innocence? How cute…

Fangirling:

I love how she just straights out tell him that he’s not that strong. I also love Cal’s adorable face in this shot. Such a cute loli <3 But yeah, her eating her hamburgers are so cute as well. Did she really spent all that money on hamburgers alone? What an interesting and brave little girl…

You know what the ironic thing is? She calls him weak while she carries around that heavy bag and bag of hamburgers and slips into his car within seconds. Either she is very quick on her feet or she’s super strong. Actually, cross that. If this isn’t a plot hole, it’s both. There’s something about Cal than meets the eye… I wonder what it is…

McCunnen is pissed off at whoever is interfering with the transfer. If it’s Eren, I’ll be really happy. ^_^ McCunnen versus Eren for the win!

Again, I am impressed with Cal’s detective skills. She has this feeling that someone used to live with Reiji before. I’m sure it’s not just a feeling. She figured it out by herself because she’s insane like that. Anime has taught me one important lessons- lolis are never what they seem.

Two shower scenes in one episode! Oh boy! Anyways, I don’t find it all that strange (unlike other people) that Cal would just wait at the door for her towel. She is pretty young and young girls don’t usually suspect older males like Reiji of doing anything to them. About Reiji though, he didn’t like Lizzie’s joke about doing anything to Cal either. He has no will remember? I’m sure Eren and the organization are the only two things on his mind anyway…

Another reason to prove that Cal has superhuman strength. How did she manage to hold the heavy bag up with one foot for that long? That’s crazy! So skillful and unexpected Cal!

MONEY!!!!!!!!! =3 The loli was carrying around this much money all this time and Reiji had to treat her to lunch? XD Lmao! Oh well. This is such a cool scene though…

Cal is really an interesting loli. She wants to pay Reiji to kill all those people who killed her adopted sister Judy. I can’t believe so much hatred within a little girl can exist but I guess it can and we will see how the organization may take advantage of that… I wonder…

McCunnen… losing faith in Reiji? What the? I guess they’re not that close after all.

Say what? Nooooooooooo! Not Cal.           Man. Not only can she do all that stuff I mentioned above, she can fix clocks too! I don’t want her to join Reiji’s lifestyle, even though it does mean she’ll stick around longer and she’ll help him get all his old feelings back. He’s already showing more of his normal self around her. I really can’t wait to see whether she’ll become a successful assassin or not!

Preview indicates that Reiji will begin training her. Also, there will most likely be another scene between McCunnen and Reiji again. I want Reiji/Eren… is that so bad?

Ric: Hello everyone and welcome to my new, personal countdown made specifically for your reading pleasure (Sorry it took so long!) For your enjoyment; Welcome to the Top 10 Videogames in need of an Adaptation!

The rules of this Top Ten list were as follows:

1. No videogame can be entered in this list if it has recieved an adaptation that was handled well or at least stuck very close to the source material. (Which means no Tales of the Abyss, for example.)

2. Each franchise can only have one entry, excluding spin offs that are dramatically different from the other games within the franchise.

For example, the list could include one of the main Final Fantasy games, such as VI but couldn’t include another numbered game like IV or IX. While the almost unrelated spin-off; Final Fantasy:Crystal Chronicles could still be added to the list.

3. Franchises that have had OVAs that adapted portions of the series’ canon that were NOT shown in-game (This does not include special unlockables as you didn’t watch them during gameplay, such as the Megaman X OVA, Day of Sigma) can still be included within this list, as it was not the games themselves that were adapted.

Anyway, enough with the formalities, ON WITH THE LIST!

#10:

Disgaea 2
Developer: Nippon – Ichi
Personal Reason for Nomination: Well, with the success (Although I really don’t see HOW) of the first Disgaea anime adaptation, what else could be next for Nippon – Ichi adaptations other than Disgaea 2? With the recognisable quirkiness and oodles of charm, coupled with the well written and entertaining plot, Disgaea 2 cannot do anything but brilliantly…

…As long as they don’t blow the entire animation budget on the promo like the other one did.
Guest Reasoning (A HUGE thanks to Garrick/Koala for this one) : Well, for one, I want to see how they would animate Giga Star into an anime, or was it Tera? Either one. Same with Rozalin’s attacks. Those were sweet. And having a Prinny in an anime is always ALWAYS good, dood!

#9:

Megaman X
Developer: Capcom
Personal Reason for Nomination: You read that right; Megaman X. Honestly, with all the confusion caused by the X series having a plot (Just how many lives does Zero actually HAVE?) it could do with something like an anime adaptation just to tie things together a little more closely (X4 is STILL confusing even now.) as well as to fix up the plot holes inbetween X5 and…everything else. Although to be honest, I would personally just be glad to see Zero’s side of X4 in heavier detail.

Guest Reasoning (Uber thankitude, Oni!): It would work because well, the story was excellent for an action game back then, instead of being simply the typical Stop Wily, it had a much more emotive plot. The setting was apocaliptic and actually it was a nice change from the good robots from the original series. The characters were actually pretty good, especially Zero (at that time atleast) who showed a true sense of friendship when he sacrificed himself to help X defeat Vile. Too bad there were no chicks, though. : [

#8

Zone of the Enders
Developer: Konami
Personal Reason for Nomination: Now, this is one that just squeezed itself in on a technicality, having two (Non-Game adaptation!) OVAs under its belt already in ZoE: Idolo and ZoE: Dolores, but even so, I really believe that this series could do with an adaptation. It takes all the conventions of most mecha anime, but injects storytelling quality on par with other Kojima works, such as the Metal Gear series. But unfortunately, the storytelling is in limited bursts due to the shortness of the games themselves (Unless you’re badass and play Extreme difficulty) and having been broken up by the gameplay. Of course, the games themselves play fantastically, but if you’re like me, you’ll be left wishing to see just a little bit more of the characters and events, to see them as an outsider rather than as a player; And what, you ask, would be the best way to do this? An anime adaptation of course!
Guest Reasoning (Giant bombs of gratitude to Kanada for this): Well, it draws you in to the story and has an in depth plot which would be why anime adaptaion would be a good path for it to take, so that it can expand on both the universe and the story of the games themselves.

Anyway, that’s all for this entry, don’t worry if a game you may have wanted to see here didn’t appear, I may just have not played it.

Finishing up, I would like to tell you all that the next videogame listing shall be a collective listing, so anyone wanting to leave a vote for the next list, please leave the name of the games (Only two per poster, please) and your personal reasoning either in a comment, or on the HSA forums.

Till next time, this was a Citrus Presentation. Good night, and may your God go with you.

-The Lean, Green Tangerine

Minnie: This blog entry is a week late but it’s not my fault this time! The fansub group is behind an episode, but I don’t mind too much. Sure, I want the episodes to be out faster but after meeting and talking to Miken, I know how hard it is to sub episodes for everyone to enjoy. I appreciate you guys for your hard work in subbing Phantom. Lots of us dieheart fans such as myself are patiently awaiting every new episode! Next week, hopefully, Raccoon and I can blog this anime together. For now, since he’s busy, I’m soloing. Sorry to bore you guys to death if I do.

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Katt: I never ended up blogging chapter 50! Whoops~ Honestly, it was just a big let-down for me after all that I was expecting from it. I think I was too depressed to blog it, ha ha. I shouldn’t have expected anything particularly grand since we are just beginning a new arc, thus nothing too dramatic can happen just yet, but still…! Ah well, I think I just got spoiled becuase I started blogging this manga at the most exciting time. I will now settle down and deal with these build-up chapters as best I can. (Notice how I am still posting this pretty late? I am obviously struggling to deal with these build-up chapters, ha ha.)

How things have settled at Cross Academy

This is where most of my interest for this chapter goes, and even then, the whole thing was kind of ‘eh’. But okay! Time to put on an enthusiastic front! Even though I love Chairman Cross and Yagari, I am going to skip over the segment of their conversation about the hunter association because…well, the set-up of the hunter assocation isn’t really something I have much of an opinion on. It’s just kind of there, for now–once it starts having notable consequences on the hunter trio’s (Zero, Kaien, and Yagari) lives, then I’ll talk more about it.

For now, what grabbed my attention were the three students (those are the only ones we see, anyway) who were permitted to keep their memories from Rido’s attack on Cross Academy. Or more specifically, memories of the fact that the night class was made up of vampires. Not that it’s all that surprising, but I am still very happy to see that Yori is one of them! During the Anime North Vampire Knight panel, one of the things briefly discussed was what purpose Yori would have in future of this series, if any purpose at all. Thankfully she hasn’t disappeared from the story now that Yuuki’s ditched her! I want to her role grow, and keeping her memories of the night class is one step towards that possibility. I wonder if the boys’ and girls’ dorm presidents will also have larger roles later on? …Nah, that’s probably pushing it.

My favourite scene in this chapter is when Yori confronts Zero about whether or not he will ever have to hunt Yuuki. He doesn’t answer and gets this very thoughtful look on his face–somewhat sad, something angry. I take this as him letting us readers know that he hasn’t changed his mind about killing Yuuki, though the fact that he’s staying at Cross Academy and away from Yuuki also shows that he is far from eager about seeing her again (and consequently feeling compelled to kill her). Yori isn’t dense. I am sure that she knows that Zero’s status as a hunter and Yuuki’s existence as a vampire are tied in some negative way. If my wishes come true, Yori will get involved in this predicament. Maybe she will be able to get Zero to open up to her, admit the things that he’s holding back from the other students who have kept their memories. With Yuuki gone, Zero needs some kind of friend at Cross Academy, right? And Yori has always treated Zero as a friend, certainly more-so than she ever did to Kaname. I’m just trying to justify something that’s never going to happen, aren’t I? Sigh. I’ll stop speculating and trying to get Yori more involved in the plot now.

Forever–it’s how long Yuuki’s emo phase is lasting

Things seem to be carrying on the same in the Kuran mansion. Yuuki is still struggling with her vampirism, which leads to flashbacks and hallucinations and odd experimentation in what it takes to quench the thirst. Her attempt to drink her own blood in order to satisfy the thirst is actually an interesting idea and something very believeable for someone getting used to their own vampirism to try out. Too bad it was only mentioned in passing for comedy and not actually shown. That sort of raw desperation w0uld be more engaging to me than Yuuki’s dialogue with her young self–as twisted as seeing her younger self being engulfed was, it didn’t appeal to me all that much and the present self talking to past self isn’t a particularly original scenario.

And then coming from that issue of finding out how to quench the thirst: she needs to drink from the one she loves. But Yuuki’s problem is that she loves two men! I love the suggestion that Octavia made to me yesterday: “Why doesn’t she just drink Kaname’s blood, and then Zero’s blood, and find out which one quenches her thirst so that she can goddamn decide who she actually loves!” Ah, wise words. Then we wouldn’t have another arc in the manga, though, which would be sad…unless this arc will just carry on the way it is now. But I’m sure it won’t; I have faith! These are just the down chapters. It will pick up again soon! …P-Please.

By the end of the chapter we are back to the conversation that I swear we’ve seen between Yuuki and Kaname many a time before: I love you. I love you too, but I also love Zero. That’s cool. I’m being selfish. That’s also cool. It’s always worded differently, in this case emphasizing the entire idea of quenching the thirst, but it’s still the same thing. Since I’ve made it clear that I’m a Zero/Yuuki fan, I hope that people don’t assume that my opinion on these scenes is because of that bias. I really do feel that they’re getting excessive, and I would gladly welcome more scenes between them if they were different! From a literary standpoint, I can appreciate Yuuki’s final line to Kaname; “I want to be by your side forever.” It was a lovely way to tie in Yuuki’s childhood difficulty of grasping what forever meant, to show that she has come to some new level of understanding. I just wish that something more dramatic had led to her using ‘forever’. It was a big step, but I don’t know what made her use it all of a sudden since their conversation didn’t seem climactic to me.

This was the most dramatic part of their conversation, and following it up with the ‘f’ word doesn’t seem to make sense at all. Where all my Kaname/Yuuki fans at? Am I really missing something because of my pairing preference? Please tell me if I am!

Okay, so in retrospect this chapter wasn’t as blah as I had made it out to be. There were a few good factors found in it, though admittedly I still think that a few things were dealt with badly. I see some decent possibilities for the future and I would be giddy if Hino Matsuri intended to show these possibilities and plans to do something with them…but who knows? Only her, so us fans will just have to wait. I am really hoping that something exciting will happen in the next chapter, because soon after it is released Octavia and I should be hosting a Vampire Knight panel at Otakuthon! I want us to have something awesome to work with~

Katt has sunk her teeth into Vampire Knight chapter 51…7/10
Katt’s blood craving for Vampire Knight chapter 50 is…9/10

Minnie: A few days ago, our blog has introduced our newest tag team Koalyn which consists of our first blogger Garrick and our new blogger Kaitlyn. Such a union brings joyful tears to my eyes figuratively speaking. However, today, I am pleased to announce that the most optimistic blogger, myself, and the optimistic pessimist (don’t ask) blogger, Taan, will be working together on Umi Monogatari. Our name? Taanie. Yeah. I know it sucks but we’ll deal with it for now. Let’s talk about mermaids shall we?

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TAAN: As many of you know, I am very behind in work. That is because of reasons that keep changing, aka I make up too many excuses too fast. Of course, not all of them are bad excuses, but that’s not important. Anyways, because of that, I’ll be doing a series of multi-episode posts for each of the 3 anime I’m in charge of that still need doing. First up is this: Slap Up Party: Arad Senki Episodes 6-9. I hope you’ll enjoy them and forgive me for being such a bad member of the blog.

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Minnie: Here’s the deal. I’m not the blogger for this anime. I wasn’t even really on the sign up list but since I’m watching it and the real bloggers can’t handle it right now, why not? However, please do not expect this to be thoughtful, meaningful, debateable, etc, of any kind. People who have been following my entry know exactly what I mean! I like to have fun with my posts and that’s what you all will get~ If you want to discuss about the deeper meaning of this episode though, please comment! Comments are welcome and wonderful~ Please do!

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