” Eden of the East is a bit of a strange show. We get to see our main female protagonist Saki visiting the United States, as she later on encounter a naked man (later known as Akira) with no recollection of his past, with the exception of a really capable cell phone which can do whatever he asks for. Throw in an overall plot of him being part of a dozen of messiahs who are supposed to save a now-nuked Japan and the questions get frequent after watching every episode. The characters seem to be developing fairly well as we delve further into the plot, but a series like this is hard to judge without getting the entire picture in the end. Outside of that, the Chika Umino (Honey and Clover) designs are of her typical fare; while I find the opening theme by British band Oasis is rather solid and one of my favorite OPs of this season.

” Guin Saga is a large scale fantasy novel series which has finally been adapted into an anime series; and which explores the quest of Guin, the man with the apparent permanently affixed leopard head, tagged along by the twins Linda and Remus, whom lost their kingdom and family. The story seem to fit the fantasy action bill rather well; the action sequences and the elements are pretty good (with the exception of a strange outcome from a battle somewhere in episode 3) as is the score created by Nobou Uematsu of Final Fantasy fame. While I’d expect this to last for more than a regular 26 episodes, I’d hope it covers enough content which gives the novels justice and explores the character of Guin with his mysterious origin.

” Chi’s New Address is pretty much in the same vein of the 1st season, Chi’s Sweet Home, in delivering a 2 minute dose of the antics of Chi, a rather outgoing and always excited kitten and her life with her human family, the Yamadas. This season seems to introduce some sort of plot advancement (if you call that one), by letting the family move to a newer apartment and the introduction of several characters (and their pets) whom will likely bring in a more varied dimension in the series. If you’re ever tired of manly macho shows or angsty teenage drama, this might be one of the quickest series to just plain relax and smile when watching.

” What do you do when you take the usual series of a girl surrounded by bishounen such as Ouran or The Wallflower and age the guys up for about 40 years or so? You get Ristorante Paradiso, a slice of life series which explores the life of Nicoletta as she works in her step-father’s restaurant, surrounded by a staff of elderly men, each with their varied personalities. The series is no slouch when it comes to covering the Italian aspect of the series; from even the simple greetings to the atmosphere, to even the exquisite usage of the accordion for the soundtrack; which I think is one of the more stronger aspects of the show. In general, though, this is more or less a standard slice-of-life series through and through – and a rather change of pace from the norm.

Anyhow, a month has passed from the Spring ’09 anime season – and after 4 episodes or so of each series, I thought it might be suitable enough to toss in my 2 cents for the series I’ve been following so far. This 1st post will cover Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Sengoku Basara, K-ON and Valkryia Chronicles.

• Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood is pretty much another retelling of the popular manga series; though compared to the last time around, this is apparently more inclined with the manga events more than anything, with the exception of the excellently done 1st episode. For me, the 1st series remains one of my most favorite shounen series that I’ve watched in animated form, despite some of the hardcore manga fans’ disdain at the plot that was altered compared to the original halfway through – though you can’t blame BONES for doing so, seeing as to how they caught up to the manga rather quickly. So hearing of this 2nd series revitalized my interest – and for the 4 episodes shown so far, it hasn’t lost any of its charm whatsoever. Some events may have been condensed (Lior) and some have been removed (Yoki and the train incident), but the more important plot points have been covered and with even more emotional impact than it was presented in the 1st season; a good example of this is the flashback events in episode 2 explaining the Elric brothers’ deal with alchemy. Despite the mostly apparent changes of the voice cast, everyone seems fine, though Mustang may still get some time to used to with that tone of his. Regardless, it can only get better from there.

• Sengoku Basara is the 1st of the game adaptations this entry will cover; and as you’ve come to expect – it retains the complete insanity which made the hack-and-slash game series shine. As evident of the title; it warps a number of Japanese historical characters and events into a more modern or even futuristic outlook – a good example of this is Honda Tadakatsu being a massive hulking mech of destruction, while protagonist Masamune Date, speaks in Engrish and essentially has a “Horsecycle” – which is basically a horse with a motorcycle exhaust. For those of you who haven’t played the game and are freaked out by this – don’t worry, there’s a lot more where that came from. The anime seems to cover the events of the games rather well, alongside the character’s apparent personality traits that players have come to know and love; even comedic related happenings such as Yukimura and Shingen’s violent and hot-blooded violent punch arguing has been dealt with several times. The only issue with the series so far is that the animation isn’t up to par with Production I.G’s other works, which could use a bit improvement here or there.

• K-ON is the latest slice-of-life series covered by Kyoto Animation, which again gives us the focus on 4 friends and their lives – this time in regards to their school’s light music club. Mostly it manages to develop the quartet and their interaction with each other – while we haven’t got to get much into their improvement in their musical skills, the episodes so far give us a good idea on how varied their personalities are. Though, I could say that Tsumugi might’ve gotten the short end of the stick, but it’s still a bit early to decide that. A few people have been giving rather telling remarks in regards to Yui’s mentality from the attitude and thoughts that she’s been exhibiting, but in regards to that – it may either be an purposeful exaggeration or there may be a possibility of improvement, outside of the surprising display of guitar skills in episode 4, in terms of her character. It’s a fun and charming series to watch, in general.

• The 2nd of the video game to anime adaptations come in the form of Valkryia Chronicles; based on the action/military strategy game developed by Sega on the PS3. While I may not have enough background information about the game compared to Basara, as a standalone series, I’m enjoying it quite a bit. It seems to be slowly setting the story into place – alongside developing the characters and their faction, Unit #7, while trying to set up the possible relationship between main characters Alicia and Welkin. The story and military events/occurrences may seem a bit contrived (but it’s nothing compared to the sheer bizarreness of Library War, as good as that series may be) but it’s nothing to be seriously alarmed or critical about. I’m sure we’ll get into the good stuff in the later episodes and when it covers more of the game’s critical plot points, if they could in their targeted span of 13 episodes.

Coming next: Eden of the East, Guin Saga, Chi’s New Address and Ristorante Paradiso.

Plus, a couple of summary posts for both Hayate the Combat Butler!!/2nd Season and Hetalia.

A little bit of a note before reading on – there’s a few spoilers abound, so if you haven’t watched the end of these series yet, then don’t spoil yourself reading the rest of this entry.

• I understand I could’ve went into a full single entry about Toradora like I did for a number of other episodes, but it was already too late to do so. Regardless, despite the haphazard events which went on episode 24, episode 25 manages to brings a good closure to the series. Toradora‘s strength has always been about the characters; and it has seemingly kept that right up until the end. Each one of them have went through a noticeable amount of emotional turmoil that caused them to have a better focus and outlook on life and how they each and bring their own happiness by their own selves. It’s pretty much evident the only flaw the series had is how rushed the last two episodes seem compared to the rest, considering how they have a lot of novel content they had to cram in both. Still, it was rather enjoyable in general.

• Now, everybody knows how Minami-ke Okawari fared compared to the first season. Filled with unecessary drama, a terrible anime only character whom nobody can empthaize with and a skewed focus when it comes to the characters (Why not call it the Mako-chan Show?), it was very much a big dissapointment. So when people first heard of Asread, the same studio who worked on Okawari, picking up the 3rd season of the series, it was already hailed as a doomed project from the start. Fortunately, that was not the case, since Asread went back to the manga content for Okaeri and decided to give the characters their season 1 look. Okaeri essentially went back and brought us more of the amazing Hosaka, with the curry fairy skit in episode 2 being the highlight and the Minami brothers, with Natsuki’s ever brash attitude being the highlight of that. It helped that the show did have a lot of funnier moments than season 2, even almost as funny as the 1st. If there was one thing that was wrong with Okaeri, is how the animation felt a bit wonky in a number of the episodes. But that’s not so important when the series still manages to give the laughs, despite the tiny bit of unexpected drama we seen in the last episode.

• Natsume Yuujinchou was lauded as one of the more sublime slice of life series which emhpazises on a more supernatural aspect, namely the Japanese mythlogical phonemena known as the youkai. Zoku managed to continue the tradition, by giving us more stories which feature our timid yet likeable main character Natsume and his youkai-disguised-as-a-cat guardian Nyanko-sensei – while introducing a new character to the ensemble cast, Taki Tooru, the shy girl who seemed to had a run in with a cursed youkai and was the focus of one of the two-part episodes that the series had to offer. The ending arc seemed to bring in one of the more emotional moments of the series – as it brings in a conflict of whether Natsume should care more for humans or for the youkai whom he (and a few others) could only see. Intrestingly enough, while the season seemed more incline with the 1st, Natsume gains a gradual improvemnt over being more sociable with the rest of the people around him; as well as Nyanko’s general acknowledgement of Natsume’s companionship. Overall, this is one of the more highly reccomendable slice-of-life series that people should watch.

• Clannad After Story seemed to have started a bit slowly than I expected; instead of going onwards with Nagisa and Tomoya’s relationship, Kyoani gave us several sidestories featuring a number of the cast whom we have yet to see or have rarely seen before. The result? We get a rather dramatic arc regarding Sunohara and sister, but the Misae and Yukine arcs felt rather unwanted and unexpected at the same time. We hardly got to know those two characters and they hardly make an impact to the entire concept of the series in general, so to me, that felt like a wasted effort. Fortunately, it picks up later on as we delve into Tomoya and Nagisa again, as we see Tomoya acquring an occupation and sooner or later, marries to the one he loves the most. But that’s not where the best episodes of the series lies; that comes when Tomoya and his daughter Ushio manage to take a trip to the countryside and how Tomoya managed to acknlowdge that he needs to grow out of the shadow of Nagisa’s death, that he should care for his only daughter and the sacrifices that his father went through during his younger years. The ending manages to pull off yet another Key style reset that they’ve used before in Kanon but I didn’t really mind it that much. After all, Tomoya’s deveoplment and growth as a character and the emotions that went through the entire arc made the show worth it.

The episode starts off with America deciding on each countries’ roles during the upcoming war, with America simply deciding that everyone’s on support and that he’s the hero – much to the dismay of everyone else, sans the constantly smiling Russia.

A true hero!

Britain then argues with America on the latter’s lust for leadership, as the former tries to rub it in at how they helped America to be an independent nation. America on the other hand is just disgusted with the scones that Britain gave to him once.

Guess he loves burgers more.

France tries to break up the fight and wants to let the meeting take place, while telling them to change their currenly uncool clothes with a rather uncool pose.

France with the flashiness.

China gets into the mix and tries to decide on how the spoils should be split between each country.

China takes over everything!

And resulted in a prompt response from America.

JUDO CHOP!

Later on, Britain decides to choose Japan as their first target, with America trying to look for Japan on the map…which only has America in it.

Chibiatlia gave us another moment between Italy and the Holy Roman Empire, this time where Italy helps the HRE on how to draw. As usual, the HRE leaves embarrassingly during when Italy helps him out in handling the paintbrush.

The segment after the credits tells us a bit more on why Russia is rather calm and would rather be an observer of everything that goes wrong with the allies’ meetings. He then tells France at how he’ll probably won’t see everyone again…as he is anxious to see everyone beg for their lives.

Be weary of the silent, smiling types. Always.

Continung the events from the last episode, Minori and Ryuuji look for Taiga, as Minori declares her like for Ryuuji and her wish to see her friend achieve her own happiness.

Ryuuji then sits down with Minori and have a one-to-one talk about Minori’s ambitions at being a major softball player and how it’s their “goodbye” in terms of her liking Ryuuji. Ryuuji then waits up at the cake stand, expectedly seeing Taiga coming over to the location and talk about something important after work, but not after Yasuko and Taiga’s mother meet them in the way.

The former is angered at how Ryuuji lied to her about taking a part time job instead of studying, with him responding about his mother’s failure to achieve what she wanted, while the latter wants to take Taiga back home, with Taiga refusing to stay with her husband and child. These reactions later force them to hold each other’s hands and run off.

Turns out that Taiga’s father has lost his job and told his first wife to take care of Taiga, but Taiga’s mother herself got married to someone else and expecting a baby. Ryuuji then mentions how he wishes he wasn’t born, as Taiga scolds him for the rather stupid remark.

Later on, he yells about how he’ll be 18 soon, and suddenly pulls off a marriage proposal to Taiga out of nowhere. Taiga being surprised then tells Ryuuji that she had also something to say at first, until a phone call from Kitamura interrupts them, telling him how both Ryuuji and Taiga’s mothers are looking for them.

Instead, Ryuuji and Taiga crash into Ami’s place, where Kitamura and Minori were at as well. The newly admitted lovebirds then admit to them that they want to run away from it all, giving everyone else an expression of shock and disbelief. Minori then decided to help by giving them her life savings, while Ami gives them the key to her villa and Kitamura a few train tickets.

Ryuuji and Taiga leave and gave everyone their goodbyes, as Minori breaks down into tears and Ami, who now doesn’t seem to detest her that much, consoles her. Ryuuji then decides to go back to his home one more time to get a few clothes and baggage, as he sees a letter left by his mom, telling him to go to his grandparents place and show them a watch she left behind. They then pack their stuff and leave, as they think about what will happen to everyone else because of their leave, and meet up with Ryuuji’s grandparents.

Aside from Ryuuji’s oddly timed marriage proposal, it’s nice to see Ami and Minori tolerate each other a lot more better than before. I was sort of suprised to see how Ryuuji manage to call his mother a failure, when she was just doing all of this now for his sake.

Because Italy's in trouble for almost all of this episode.

Basically, yet another one-joke episode, which features Italy getting captured by the trio of America, Britain and France and calls Germany to aid him.

The first time around, America and co. try to let Italy spill the beans by making him do some chores (since Italy giving in so easily sounded so boring) but unfortunately, he failed at that. Britain sends a letter to Germany about the hostage situation, but tells them to provide good meals, soccer and women for Italy instead – which forces them to send Italy back to Germany via a package.

...Does this package say what I think it says?

Second time around, France manages to capture Italy and sends him to the doghouse, literally. Britain then provides him some sort of food, which Italy detests and leads him to crying on how he’d rather eat potatoes. After which, he’s sent again via the same package.

Good boy.

3rd time around, Italy calls in to ask for help tying his shoe in North Africe, where England is also staying. It then turns out to be a trap, as England successfully captures Germany. Germany refuses to talk, as Italy is held and gunpoint and is scared for life, while eventually admitting to some rather disturbing private stuff regarding Germany, including his love for bondage and having “strange magazines and DVDs” (which weren’t even invented at the time!)

Chibitalia shows us some of Italy’s gluttony, in the fact that he’s still hungry even after a staff meal. This lets a passing by Britain feel sorry for him and gave Italy his meal. Which he hardly liked that much.

Fission Mailed.

Austria then sent Italy into a holding cell for apparently stealing the food, whereas Britan takes pity towards him and tries provides him yet another, but that scary gaze isn’t really helping much.

Our last telephone related joke comes from Italy attempting to call Japan for help, with the latter just cooly replying that he’ll take the necessary action to do so.

Not like you haven't seen it coming.

The first season of Hayate the Combat Butler was a rather enjoyable experience. It has a lot of funny moments, either related to the characters or the multitiude of parodies sprinkled in each episode. It’s got a good ensemble cast, with the exception of the highly generic tsundere Nagi, each with their quirks and their episodes of development; though I heard from a number of people that the manga had much more than that (especially related to Hinagiku and Ayumu). It even had the ever so excellent Norio Wakamoto as the narrator, being one of the funniest yet. If there’s one flaw that the series had, is that a couple of it’s filler episodes which centered completely on parodies were not funny, since the focus shifted away from what made the show work – it’s characters.

The recently released OVA, which is regarded as the episode 0 of the 2nd season, fits in line with a typical Hayate episode.

The episode starts off with Hayate and Maria overlooking a private beach resort owned by Nagi’s family, while Nagi shrugs it off. Hayate tries to cheer her up by teaching her to swim, but she refuses and acts as if she’s disinterested, but actually isn’t because the thought of being with Hayate alone makes her all shy and embarassed.

Maria then tries to find a way to help Nagi to get out and have fun, so with the help of everyone’s favorite slacker teacher, Yukiji, she manages to invite everyone over to the private beach. Of course, Yukiji didn’t do it without something in exchange, as she later on got into a free drinking binge.

Yes, she's pretty hopeless.

After a few moments of the cast doing their thing (and Izumi losing her swimsuit), Hayate notices that Nagi is gone and looks for her. He doesn’t find her yet, but does into the changing rooms with Hinagiku and Ayumu by mistake.

Hayate finally finds Nagi as she apparently seemed to have a change of heart and is wearing a swimsuit, but not without the other two girls coming in and apoligizing for acting angrily towards Hayate’s mistaken intrusion. Nagi gets mad and runs off, only to be later possesed by a vengeful spirit, who too has been ignored and hates the beach.

Now 100 times more bitchier.

With Isumi being lost at sea again, Hayate’s only chance to save Nagi was to go into full DBZ mode and charges at Nagi.

It's over 9000 etc etc

As he embraces Nagi and apologizes for ignoring her, the spirit leaves Nagi’s posession as she and Hayate crash into the sea. They’re then lost in a remote island, but it turns out that it was also in the area of the privately owned beach.

Nothing too remarkable, but was an interesting way in re-introducing the cast to the audience, while ramping the fanservice just a little bit (considering how this is an OVA series, they got no TV restrictions to show whatever they want to). The parodies have gone a little bit less this time around, which isn’t a biggie, but still better than the aforementioned parody-only fillers.

Bring on the 2nd season!

But before that, we get back to America and his allies, trying to work out a plan to defeat the Axis Powers trio. Unfortunately, nobody’s been able to understand what the plan is.

Since he's busy stuffing his face with burgers.

And then with lots of cola.

Italy introduces to Germany his brother Romano. He doesn’t seem to be as silly or easy-going as his brother, but the complete opposite. Angry at Germany tricking his brother into becoming his ally and letting him love Wurst more than he likes Pasta, his reign of raging terror comes to an end when a spying France pops out of a nearby manhole. Apparently France was planning a surprise attack on Germany, but it looks like it got foiled.

Better luck next time, France.

Romano tries yet again to taunt Germany by ‘giving’ him a fake mustache. Unfortunately, he’s too busy imagning the thought of giving him such a silly mustache that he wore it himself. Not quite funny of a scene, really. Romano gets embarassed and his brother comforts him by praising Germany’s good qualities, but doesn’t do it to his brother, much to the latter’s dissapointment.

It ends with another segment of Chibitalia, which is mostly about Chibi Italy helping out around one of the allies homes and gains another person fear (probably) aside from Austria.

A rather uneventful episode this week. Though, it seems Ryuuji has gotten more shy in front of Taiga when he came back to visit his place, when earlier on, she was with her (true) mother after the rescue operation.

Ami and Minori did have a face to face talk (but not before a well placed prank), but it doesn’t seem like Ami’s going well with her. Minori tries to prove to her that she still has the guts, despite what went on , and mentions that she will look on forwards to the future.

We finally get to see a bit more interaction between Ryuuji and his mother Yasuko. Despite the airheaded exterior, she really does know what’s best for son and tries hard to help him succeed in his future carrer, in which he has yet to decide which to go with.

Concluding this week’s Toradora post is a couple of pics that might be worth a laugh or two.

3 poke combo!

Minori sure has the best shocked expressions in this series, even if it was a prank she pulled off.

First, we get to know of Austria’s discontent of Italy allying with Germany, to the point of actually getting mad.

And how does he get mad?

By playing the piano.

Look at that rage!

After that, we get a little cutscene featuring the axis powers trio near the campfire again, with Japan trying his newfound delicacy – graham crackers and marshmallows. It’s so successful, that the spying group consisting of America and the rest of the countries want to try that too.

Next, Chibitalia, with more on Austria’s abuse of little Italy. Of course, the abuse stops when the little guy gets impressed by Austria’s piano skills.

Despite the abuse, little Italy still recognizes talent.

We move into yet another scene featuring Austria, this time complaining to Germany how he shouldn’t throw his underwear when it’s still wearable. Now we get to see the fellow’s tailoring skills, with the results hardly impressing Germany.

Finally, the Axis Powers have a minor discussion, again related to Austria’s whereabouts. Turns out he’s been there all along, playing the piano on top the ocean.

Don't tell me how the piano managed to float.

Keep on playing, Austria. Keep on playing.