New Buono! Comeback Single Flops Hardcore

You want to enjoy the newest Buono! double-a-side, after nearly a year of waiting for one of H!P's best subgroups to come back?

Press play, and mute. Put another, better, Buono! song in the background, and enjoy.





And you know what the worst thing is? Tsunku didn't even write these songs!! What is wrong with this world!?!

Sorry these recent posts are so short and caffeine-fueled-anger-filled. But I think if I gave these songs any more words than I already am, that would be giving them too much credit.

Thanks for reading.

These things need to be said. *ANGER POST*

I had kind of a shitty day today, and since I'm in the mood, there's a few things that H!P fans have been saying that have literally boggled my mind and I would like to address them.


#1 "Dawa is a good singer" or even, "Dawa is the best singer in S/mileage"
To anyone who says this: do you have ears? Have you ever heard another person sing before? Dawa is not only the worst singer in S/mileage, debatably she's the worst singer in H!P (Eggs not included, I have no idea whose good or not). Remember in a Bijo Gaku episode, and she could barely get through a 5-SECOND LINE in the RECORDING? So that alone should be used to judge how she sounds while dancing. Spoiler alert: even suckier.

#2 Mano Erina is a good singer.
No. No, absolutely not. She's not in the recordings, she's not good live, she hasn't improved since she started her solo career. She has a whiny voice with no vibrato whatsoever. I will say this for her, though, her personality is very sweet and she's stunning, I won't deny it. But her singing is BAD. If you think she deserves to be a soloist based on her talent, I don't know what's wrong with you.

#3 "Ohh, Ai-chan is graduating too soon."
Uh, no she's not. She's been the group a decade, and been the center of MM for at least the last few years. And although I think she is the most talented girl in MM, I am getting bored of her in the spotlight. I'm sick of seeing her touch her face and getting all the lines. She has been a crucial member for a long time, and she's earned her place at the center, but it's time for MM to be shaken up. I could have dealt with this earlier, even. If she had graduated a year ago, I would have been cool with it. It's time.

#4 "It's sad that Mano is getting passed over because of Kikka's new solo career".
I'll admit I've only seen this once or twice, but guess what? IT MAKES SENSE that Kikka as a more talented person would get the spotlight more than a less talented person (see #2). I could not be happier that Mano Erina will no longer be the only H!P soloist.

I apologize for the extreme judgmental attitude, but it really has been a shit day and I just was over at H!O and saw some comments like these and they made me mad as fuck.

FFFFFUUUUUUU!!!!

Thanks for reading.

Anime Review! "Hourou Musuko"

Sorry, not too many screenshots this time. But this show's review doesn't really lend itself to them, so...

My favorite show so far this season is hands down this one, Hourou Musuko ("Wandering Son"). The main element of the anime is dealing with gender issues at a young age, which off the bat, is quite an ambitious topic to take on, no matter what medium of entertainment. Since there's only been one episode, it's hard for me to judge how well it handles such a big problem, but I can say that so far, the show has a lot of promise.

Our main character is Nitori, a boy entering middle school who prefers to dress up as a girl.


And the other main character is his friend from middle school, Yoshino, who also prefers to cross-dress.


As you can see, the art style for this anime is quite different. It has that "not quite finished" sketchy look to it, but still has fluid, modern animation. It's a unique look that is very easy on the eyes, and I like it a lot. Except their hair seems to be exceptionally shiny, even by anime standards...

The main character, Nitori, obviously struggles most with his desire to dress like a girl, and only does it occasionally. So we do get to see him in a seifuku, and my GOD is he cute.


The pivotal scene in the episode is when his sister catches him trying on some of her clothes. She tries to get the clothes off of him, but he hits her and runs away. He happens to run into Yoshino, who walks him home and encourages him in a very sweet scene that has some of the best music in anime I've ever heard. (Although, I swear it's the same song that's at the end of Ocean's Eleven.)

But, personally, I find Yoshino to be a more interesting character. She meets a girl on her first day of class who is tall, cool, and spontaneous: everything Yoshino wants to be. Her name is Chizuru.


Yoshino asks her about why she wears a boy's uniform, and she tells her it's just because she felt like it that day. Yoshino is envious of her attitude, and later in the episode she cries out that she is going to try to be like her. I find that sub-plot most fascinating, and I love characters who are so awesome they inspire other characters.

While there are some somewhat heavy emotional things going on in the show, it doesn't over-do the crying or fights like many anime tend to do. It's all done in a subtle way that makes it an easy watch, despite the somewhat serious subject material.

The biggest challenge with this show is actually keeping every character straight-- many look the same, and they sometimes look like boys and sometimes look like girls, so it's hard to tell them apart at times. But other than that, I look forward to seeing how this show handles itself, and I'm sure they'll be some teary moments to fuck up my day in the future.

Grade: A-. Highly recommended.

Sorry for the short review ~

"Kore wa Zomie desu ka?" Anime Review... uh.

What a peaceful beginning. Here we have our protagonist, Ayumu, who loves cloudy weather...


...and hates the sun...


...who lives with a girl who wears armor...


...but the truth is, he thinks it's all fake. All this peaceful scenery, and his close friends, and the useless conversations at school, they're all fake. He is sure that these pointless days at school will last forever. Then this happens.

A cat runs into the road!


Ayumu runs to save it!


He is struck!


Oh, yeah, he's a zombie!


He spins through the air!


He passes by nude by two girls with uselessly short skirts who are never mentioned again!



And he survives! Because he's a zombie!

While this turn of events does comes out of nowhere with barely any explanation for the first minute and a half of the show, I was laughing the whole time. It made me think that this show had some potential right off the bat, if only potential to be randomly funny despite it's (obvious) anime cliches.

Buuuuut after that it sinks into relative mediocrity.

A supporting character that it introduced is Eucliwood, a necromancer who lives with Ayumu, who was the one responsible for turning him into a zombie. Ayumu chose to remain in a living dead state so that he could find the person who murdered him, who he is out looking for every night. Not a bad premise, right?

But here we find Ayumu in a graveyard in one of his usual nightly wanderings, and he is unexpectedly attacked by a young girl wielding a chainsaw who is after another creature. Sound familiar? Sound exactly like Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan? Well, that's where you're wrong. You see, Dokuro-chan is uselessly bloody, which this show isn't.




Oh. Well, okay, maybe this show did kind of borrow some ideas from Dokuro-chan. But what about panty shots of girls who look like they're 12? You don't see any of that in this show right? You're just fishing to find reasons to criticize such an original piece of anime.


Oh. Nevermind, this show is an uninspired rip-off. I guess the "extremely bloody cute girl shonen romance" genre was under-serviced or something.

Maybe the most annoying moment in this episode was here, where Haruna, not knowing that Ayumu is a zombie, is trying to erase his memories so that he forgets about being cut in half.

But I guess she messes up, cause she ends up erasing something else.


That's gotta be one of the stupidest things I've seen. God, what a dumb "joke". She ends up erasing her clothes, get it? Not his memories? I think I just threw up a little explaining that.

What else does this show have to offer? Well, later on, a creepy man visits Ayumu alone after school and makes this proclamation.


To which Ayumu responds by protecting himself in the only way he can...


Oh, and the pedophile rapist also turns into a lobster.


Yeah.

There's also some magical girl transformation scenes in there, I guess just because they had to cover every base of anime cliche.





Wait, her clothes come off again? Great. Wonderful. I have a feeling this will be a running joke.

So, then Ayumu has to fight the lobster monster. Although he is already more powerful as a zombie, Haruna tells him that he now has all of her magical powers, so he can transform if he wants to. So he does.


Ha ha, I gotta admit, that's pretty funny.

So, I guess to throw a bone to all the women sitting through this garbage pile of otaku baiting, they gave us some panty shots of Ayumu in his new costume. Which, coincidentally, are indistinguishable from the panty shots of the women in this show.


Nothing about this indicates that this is a man.

So, what do I think all-in-all of this show? It's good for a few laughs and the over-the-top randomness of the show is enjoyable for what it's worth. But you'll have to overlook some of the stupider aspects of the show if you're planning to watch the whole show.

The best part of the show? Probably that the monster looks like Pedobear.


They must be brothers or something.

Grade: B-

9th Gen Evaluation - "False Hopes about Golden Era II"

So, MM recently became 9nin again. Who are those 4nin who were added to the 5nin? Well, thesenin.


+ two others. PS, why the hell is Ai crying?

I'll be honest with you: I don't know almost anything about these girls. But I know their names!

Ikuta Erina


She seems cool, I guess.


Suzuki Kanon


I mean, the one that's not Nakky.


Fukumura Mizuki (the former Egg)

(aka the one that SHOULD be crying in that first picture.)

But no, really, she's very beautiful.


Once again, the one that's not Nakky.


And then there's THIS GIRL:




Meet Sayashi Riho, aka "Mk's New Favorite Probably in Morning Musume", aka "Thank the Lord Tsunku Thought About Talent This Time". Pretty sure she's gonna kick my ass like we wouldn't believe once she gets active in MM. Whoo!!

Sorry that this post is really uninspired. But I know nothing about these girls except that Riho seems like a grade-A badass.

But regardless, congratulations to all the winners, and I really think that MM can have another Golden Era with these capable girls! (Ha ha, no.)

2011 Winter Anime Reviews Begin!! First, "Rio: Rainbow Gate!"

"Rio: Rainbow Gate!" is the first new show to come out of Japan this year.

Aaaand.. there's no particular reason why.

The show seems to be mostly about casinos and the dealers in the casinos. Who, of course all look like this:


(Not the little one)

The main character of the show is a girl named Mint. (I mean, I guess she's the main character; they introduced her first, but she isn't really a part of the plot at all). She has a cute plush named Choco.


Maybe the director likes Mint Chocolate. A ha haah, good one, Mk.

She meets a dealer who works at the casino, named Rio, with big boobs and magical powers or something to make everyone win around her and people call her the "Goddess of Victory". Okay, fine, whatever. But when I see these things...


...and this, which literally occurs within the first 30 seconds of the show for pretty much no reason...


...I pretty much can figure out the gist of the show. Yeah, its a fanservice-type, this time with a casino theme! Brilliant.

The biggest problem is that I can't write off this show as hopelessly average, even though I'd like to. The production values actually seem quite high: the boobs are bouncing away, but they're animated quite well (felt weird writing that) and the background scenery is very pretty.


Aaah....


It also has one fighting scene, which is surprisingly fluid and well-choreographed.


...but who cares! Boobs!

Once we get down to the inevitable "showdown" of gambling, the show gets a bit different. My first clue is that I started hearing dialog like this:


Great, now it sounds like average shonen tournament-style exposition to make the show seem more intense.

When the card playing actually begins, though, it turns into a Loveless-style CGI'd battle scene that at first looks like a Sailor Moon transformation but ends up in Card World which looks like a dirtier Alice in Wonderland. Seriously, when it started I didn't even know what was happening. I actually thought the ending theme song was starting. But, nope, time to get Yu-gi-oh! on this bitch.



So, okay. The Goddess of Victory ends up winning (shocker) and everyone cheers. But how did she even win during all this animated stuff? It's not like the show really explains it. All that happened was that Rio said she didn't sense that her opponent would get the cards he wanted. Okay, fine, but was all that colorful floaty stuff really necessary to have in there? They could have really stuck with the shonen theme and just had an inner monologue where Rio talks seriously to herself and weighs her options at length.

If you're reading this and perhaps think that this show actually may have kind of an interesting addition to the whole blatant fanservice deal, let me close with this last scene. It's a winner.

I'll let you predict the last panel.

*Trip*


*Fall*


*Grab*



Guess what happens! The answer will be in the next blog post for those of you who have never set eyes on anime before.

Overall, I normally detest things like this, but it looks too nice for me to call it absolute crap. Plus the ending theme sucks.

Grade: C

Keep reading for more updates! We're wading through every show, which means I'm sure I'll have plenty more fan-service griping to share with all of you.

読んでありがとう !