Anime OTL (cross post)

ANIME Odd Thoughts Lot(week of Dec/30/06-bowl games yay, Rutgers yay)

Many series are on vacation, or so I heard. With the day off on Tuesday, I finally have time to do some catch up on anime series that I'm behind. Disclaimer: this animeOTL will be spoiler filled, since many series are coming to an end. I just can't make it spoiler free in this one, but then the chances are you are not watching these series or have already finished it yourself. Also I didn't have time to watch an episode twice this week, so if I get the plots mixed up, feel free to correct me.

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働きマンHatarakiman 10,11(end)

Like all other episodes in the series, you get a lot to digest for each one. Rather it's the insight of the life in a publisher, the relationship between Matsukata and her colleagues, or Matsukata's love life; I never finish a episode feeling unsatisfied. Most episode are standalone too, that's why I don't have to scramble to catch it everyweek.

Am I glad that I'm watching the two episodes together, the cliffhanger in 10 can certainly make me go nuts for a good week. The two episodes covers the same timeline with different focus, the first one on Kazi while the last episode put the spotlight on our heroine Matsukata.

*MAJOR spoilers*

I'll just discuss the two episodes as a whole, these two covered the Mogi-sensei incident, Matsukata's flooded apartment, and the end of her relationship with Yamashiro Shinji. With that much happening, another episode in Shinji's prospective will be interesting too, I certainly want to explore his thought leading to the breakup.

We see the difference in character between the two editors in the set of the episodes. Kazi is the more experienced female editor in the publisher, she never let the pressure gets to her. Unlike Yumi, she doesn't need to rely on her charm at all to get the work done. Her good looks just happened to make her life easier at the publisher. She's keen to observes others feeling too, perhaps she is the only one to realize Matsukata's breakup. She also handle Yumi's confrontation well.

Would you choose your career over your relationship? I would choose my family every time, but apparently Matsukata is the type to put her career in front of everything. If I recall correctly, she even spend time on work immediately after the split. This demonstrate her dedication to her career. It might be for the better, once they reach certain achievement, I can see them rekindle their relationship. I can write a paper on this, but I'll just leave it like this... onto the next series:

N.H.K.にようこそ
NHK ni youkoso 22-24(end)

The series really picks up in the last few episodes, feels like it has changed gears and suddenly turn on the nitrous boost for full acceleration. We finally got to hear Misaki's story. The author did an excellent job to throw me off. I never thought the ending will be "action packed". I'll check out the novel when I've time. I'll not spoil your fun here.

幕末機関説 いろはにほへと
Irohanihoheto 13 覇者の首入魂(I'll copy RandomRay's translation of the title later, lol) I called it "world war zero"

Plot thickens... is an understatement!

Best Iroha so far, looks like all the studios pull out the big guns for the end of 2006. Worth the build up from the previous few underwhelming(read: boring) episodes. This episode introduce some new characters too, the english "chess pieces". Hopefully we won't have to see much of those "phantom soldiers"(幻影兵士) anymore.

Lesson learned: Don't run behind a open-wheeled vehicle, or suffer the consequences. You might get a cracked windshield, but our friend Kanna-kun...

コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ Code Geass 10,11 (again?)

See last week's OTL... the series is on vacation this week, I have to watch it again to get my mecha fix. Also I have an excuse to watch it again since I finally got the hi-definition(800x560 as well as 1024x708) versions of the episodes. I'll post some nice screen-cap for you later.

Minor spoilers on this one... since I like to discuss mecha more than the plot:

-Cornelia's KMF (Knight Mare Frame, think Mobilu suits) could have been more powerful, she's an ace pilot in my opintion, Why aren't her piloting the best KMF like Lancelot?

-"4 Divine Swords" team (四聖剣) form the "Japan Liberation Front"(日本解放戦線? JLF hereafter) remind me of the Black tri-stars(黒い三連星, they have a english wiki entry!!!) from Gundam (0079). Collective power can certainly overcome the difference in their machine's potency (I always say it's the driver, not the car. But of course 10 Kia's couldn't beat a Ferrari). Now lancelot vs the 4 Samurai Burai (無頼, name of JLF's KMF unit) will be fun to watch.

-KMF Lancelot is not going to get mass produce anytime soon, thanks to C.C. and Lulu's(Lelouch) "mishaps"

-Does the KMF Guren hard/expensive to mass produce? imagine if they can mp it, then the JLF would take over Britannia like Zeon take over the colonies.

-Lulu 's unit makes him more vulerable, by putting a "bullseye" on the forehead (but then the target system might have lock-on to his unit anyway since he has to taunt Cornelia) Can someone smart be a bad KMF pilot? Look, escaping through open space is the worst idea so far (worse than the time he hand his own behind over to Cornelia).

-I will definitely get a fatal nose bleed if C.C. ask me to "say my name"...

-What's that "capsule" for? are they gonna turn orange-kun into a "geass"? Is that the poison gas? C.C. clones?

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I'll edit this post later if I have time, at least put some pictures in it...