Gintama News

Hello everyone!

Here is a synopsis written by our wiki editors: DocHaus, MohsinMan99, HalberdierV2, and Annabanana

Anime Synopsis

Japan has been conquered by aliens from outer space called the Amanto. The city of Edo (Tokyo, before 1868) has been transformed into a weird mish-mash of traditional Japanese culture intermixing with futuristic alien technology, resulting in what mostly resembles modern-day Japan, as the country appears to have mostly accepted the rules of the Amanto. Several samurai rallied to fight them off in a brief rebellion, but in the end they were unsuccessful, and the Amanto ended up banning all swords in public.

Gintama focuses mostly on the "Yorozuya" (the Odd Jobs Trio), consisting largely of the silver-haired ronin Gintoki Sakata, glasses-wearing Shinpachi Shimura, the incredibly strong alien Kagura and her giant pet dog Sadaharu. In this version of Edo, they simply live paycheck to paycheck doing everything from fighting villains to dressing up in costumes, even though some folks occasionally try to use them to rekindle the great war against the Amanto.

Movie

Gintama: Shinyaku Benizakura-hen is scheduled to release until May 29th in North America. This is the first time that Gintama will have a dub cast.

Synopsis by Anime News Network:

The silver-haired samurai Sakata Gintoki investigates the disappearance of a legendary sword named Benizakura while his partners Kagura and Shimura Shinpachi try to find out what has happened to Gintoki's friend, Kotaro Katsura.

Facts

Dub Cast

How Do You Guys Feel About the Dub Cast?

	Ayame Sarutobi Voice: Carli Mosier
Abuto	Voice: Kyle Colby Jones
	Ayumu Tojo Voice: Blake Shepard
	Bansai Kawakami Voice: Andrew Love
Catherine	Voice: Luci Christian
	Elizabeth Voice: Andrew Love
	Gintoki Sakata Voice: Christ Patton
	Henpeita Takechi Voice: George Manley
	Isao Kondo Voice: David Wald
	Kagura Voice: Luci Christian
	Kamui Voice: Chris Ayres
	Katakuriko Matsudaira Voice: Kyle Colby Jones
Jintetsu Mura	Voice: David Wald
	Kotarou Katsura Voice: Illich Guardiola
	Kyubei Yagyu Voice: Brittney Karbowski
	Matako Kijima Voice: Carli Mosier
	Mitsuba Okita Voice: Shelley Calene-Black
Nizo Okada	Voice: Jay Hickman
	Prince Hata Voice: Andrew Love
	Sadaharu Voice: Kyle Colby Jones
	Sagaru Yamazaki Voice: Clint Bickham
	Sogo Okita Voice: Clint Bickham
	Shinpachi Shimura Voice: Mark X. Laskowski
	Shinsuke Takasugi Voice: Kyle Colby Jones
Shoyo Yoshida	Voice: David Wald
	Tae Shimura Voice: Shelley Calene-Black
	Taizou Hasegawa Voice: Chris Ayres
	Tatsuma Sakamoto Voice: Chris Ayres
Tetsuya Murata	Voice: John Swasey
Tetsuko Murata	Voice: Brittney Karbowski
	Toshiro Hijikata Voice: Blake Shepard

Sources

• Crunchyroll
• Gintama Podcast
• Anime News Network

Edit:

Hopefully, the list does not confuse you. I realize that you cannot caption the images if you add a list to a blog. Next time, I'll create a table manually.

Overview

These are the updates for the wiki teams on the Sket Dance, Beelzebub, Fairy Tail, Guilty Crown, and Gintama projects.

Background

Most of my teammates are college students, and we are very busy like everyone else. It's tough to juggle school, work, and doing wiki works at the same time. In Fall 2011, the addition of weekly reports had a lot of time commitment. With new episodes coming each week and a weekly report to cover that episode and its team's wiki progress, it puts a considerable amount of strain on our commitments. For me, three anime reports and wiki work are pretty challenging to keep up. KuroNekoXIII had his hands full with Guilty Crown's wiki and reports while MohsinMan99 is busy with Gintama. My team is always working hard to support the community and getting them active and talking. We always pull through, and luckily, we got each other's back.

When things get busy such as midterm weeks or community service projects, you got to stop your wiki work and focus on school, family, and work. That's the number one priority.

In each section, I include the team members, changes if present, and the wiki vitae list. The wiki vitae lists are lists that keeps track of the team's wiki progress.

Sket Dance and Team W.I.K.I. Nation

Team Members: Annabanana, KuroNekoXIII, MohsinMan99, Takashichea, Halberdierv2, Hibaru, and Piface314.

Ever since the winter watches took place last January or so, Sora_thekey did a winter watch on Sket Dance. Since the news articles do not have a forum thread copy, I figured to keep writing the Sket Dance weekly reports for my team and to back up Sora's articles by providing links.

Changes

With the semester going and anime reports piling up, I am contemplating on stopping the weekly reports for Sket Dance. I believe it's more time effective and manageable to work this way. I provide images to Sora and work on the episode wiki page while Sora writes his winter watch. My team and I will still handle the wiki work for the character pages and other pages.

This way, I have less weekly reports to work on. See projects below.

New Member

Sora_thekey!

Wiki Vitae List

Beelzebub

Team Members: Annabanana, ShadowKnight508, Arrussel, Sreenivas, and Takashichea.

There are no changes. I still keep working on the wiki work and its weekly reports.

Arrussel did the weekly coverage for the Beelzebub chapters. He had too much school, so the chapter coverage is on hiatus.

Wiki Vitae List

Guilty Crown

Team Members: KuroNekoXIII and Takashichea

Changes

KuroNekoXIII will work on the even episodes and its weekly reports while I do the odd episodes and its reports. Mainly, Kuro works on the Guilty Crown pages because I work a lot on the episode pages for the other projects.

Wiki Vitae List

Fairy Tail

Team Members: Annabanana, Newten, Takashichea, and old members who helped out with Fairy Tail last year. They are Wales, Buhssuht, Obscurefan, and Obsidian609.

Possible Changes

I'm still working on Fairy Tail episode and weekly reports. However, Newten may take over the Fairy Tail weekly reports as his winter watch. Right now, Newten has a team working on My Little Pony project with ScarletKittie and BigHeart711. (Please see ScarletKittie's Team Wiki Project). I just keep going until Newten gets back.

Wiki Vitae List

Gintama

Team Members: MohsinMan99 and Takashichea

We're a bit behind in the anime with the reports. Unlike the above projects, we don't do a lot of wiki work because we got too much on our hands with the other projects. We're still doing the weekly reports to get more people involved in the Gintama project. MohsinMan99 and I take turns on Gintama reports on certain arcs.

This is the end of the updates.

Past Team Updates

• Team W.I.K.I. Nation
• Team W.I.K.I. Nation's Mega Updates
• Fairy Tail's Edolas Arc
• Back to the Grind by ShadowKnight508

Go Anime Vice!

Takashichea

Team W.I.K.I. Nation

Overview

Welcome to the Gintama report! It's been a long time that MohsinMan99 and I have written the weekly report for Gintama, but our school had taken a higher priority. Let's catch up on Gintama. Plus, I put Gintama as a lower priority than my other wiki projects. In this report, we talk about episode 237 and 238 and also, the wiki editors who have been working on Gintama.

Please be aware that I'm a new Gintama fan. I might butcher their names or have the wrong impressions, but I have MohsinMan99, an expert on Gintama, as my teammate.

Plot

Please Take Me Skiing

Toshiro and his pals have a mission to babysit the Shogun at the ski resort. Things go wrong when Gintoki and his pals show up. After Kagura rampages, Gintoki accidentally takes the Shogun and rides him like a human ski board. Will Gintoki, Toshiro, and the gang fix their mistake?

A Vacation in Disorientation

After a day of shenanigans, Toshiro and the gang seek shelter only to find ridiculous things from Tae and Kotarou. They finally find the Shogun, but they still have the issue on how to get warm. Will Toshiro, Gintoki, and their gang survive their vacation with the Shogun's reputation intact?

Find out by watching these two crazy episodes!

Verdict

Beware of Spoilers!

Good

• As always, Gintama's humorous episodes have the crudest stuff. Be prepared for convenient censoring and outrageous moments. I share some in the WTF moments section.
• Gintama's characters are interesting. I find Kagura and Sogo to be like opposites. The scene with the snowball is really good.
• There are plenty of references to anime and big myths. See them below. (Thanks MohsinMan99)

Happy to Sad

Bad

• I have no problems with this episodes. The humor is pretty tame.

WTF Moments

Odd Moments

The Penile Brake

• Gintama is known for its lewd moments. Kondo is no exception. He and Shogun get it on.
• The comparison of a igloo to a mother's womb is most disturbing. I don't know why Kagura and Gintoki made that comparison.
• The penile brake is strange, but the idea of a human ski board is even bizarre. To add on, Tae thinks glasses are handlebars.

Thanks

Thank you guys for reading. As a community, we have to get involved and talk about our favorite shows to make this place great. My team and I are busy, and we always appreciate extra help. Wiki editor, Sophronimos, did a good job on providing images and working on Gintama episodes 239 and 240. He helped us in Sket Dance with the Ogress Arc episodes. Give my team and Sophronimos a round of applause for the hard work they did.

Weekly Reports

• Sket Dance 38 and 39 by Taka
• Guilty Crown 12 by Taka

Last Weekly Reports

• Sket Dance 36 and 37 by Taka
• Guilty Crown 10 and 11 by Kuro
• Beelzebub 44 and 45 by Taka
• Fairy Tail 107 and 108 by Taka
• Guilty Crown 9 by Kuro

Takashichea

Team W.I.K.I. Nation

Go Anime Vice!

Overview

Welcome to the third Weekly Gintama's article! I'm Takashichea, a member of Team W.I.K.I. Nation who does work on Sket Dance. My partner on Gintama is MohsinMan99. For this episode: When You Go To a Funeral for the First Time, You're be Surprise by How Happy the People Are, Anna was kind and added the images. Thank her for the images.

In this week's episode, we learn about the Japanese culture's customs at the funeral with a comedic twist.

Plot

After the death of a restaurant owner who is famous for his customized meals (based on customer's preferences), Gintoki with his Odd Jobs gang and Hijikata with the Shinsengumi pay their respects. During the funeral, Gintoki and Hijikata see the owner's ghost and suspects he is making sure everyone properly respects him and sends him off to the afterlife in an honorable way. Will Gintoki and his gang send the owner happy into the afterlife or will their idiocies get them dishonor and cursed?

Tune in and watch Gintama episode 231!

Verdict

Beware of Spoilers!

Warning: This episode is not for children or younger. Contains pix-elated male genitalia.

Good

Owner's Wife fixes the problem!

• Despite the vulgar content in this episode, the latter half of the episode is hysterical. It'll keep you laughing.

• Gintoki and Hijikata's group members, Kagura, Sogo, and Kondo, have spectacular moments where they mess up the funeral.

• The ending is a great surprise.
• The excuse that Gintoki and Hijisaki give is pretty damn funny.
  Real Excuses

  

Bad

Gintoki tells her to choose the right penis

• When Gintoki tells the owner's wife to pick the right dick among the penises on the wagon, that was little too much.

• If you are a person who does not like to see the male genitalia and barf at the sight, don't watch this episode. You'll see a ton of them; there are suggested scenes at the end.

Bizarre

How is that come off?

• Gintoki: "You've seen the owner's dick hundreds, thousands of times. ... Believe in the dick of the owner you believe." What does that even mean. Is that a reference to Star Wars? Believe in the force.

• What's with the owner and penises? Plus, the broken penises or penisclam remind me of dildos. No comment there.
• From MohsinMan99, the monk's bizarre acting is never explained or how he got into the coffin is not explained.

Anime References and Trivia Questions

• DBZ parody: The owner's ghost becomes a Super Saiyan.
• Trivia Question: Gintoki Sakata - See link to answer his question if you have watched the episode.

Overall, the episode gets really hysterical at the end. If you can tolerate penises, you are good with the episode. Otherwise, this episode is vulgar, crude, and hard to bear.

Thanks

I thank you guys for reading this report; I thank my team and MohsinMan99 for all the support. Please get involved in the community. You'll see the dominoes just falling in place when you take the initiative.

Go forth and do some wiki editing, reviews, or weekly reports!

For this episode, Anna did the short plot, added the characters, and the images. I did the big plot, seiyuu, and credits.

• Check out FoxxFireArt's Community Spotlight page for yesterday and comment. We need to support each other in this community.

• For those who are new to making beginner guides, head on down to see Sotyfan16's blog, Guide to Making Guides. He's the CEO in Anime Vice. Don't forget to vote for a stellar community member in Vicer of the Month: October. It ends on Oct. 29th.

This Week's Reports

• Beelzebub 39: His Brother is a Crybaby! by Taka
• Sket Dance 30: Crank up the Nyora! by Taka
• Sket Dance ep. 9 by KuroNekoXIII
• Guilty Crown 3 by KuroNekoXIII
• Rave Master Beginner Guide (Coming on Sunday or next week) by Taka

Last Week's Reports

• Beelzebub 38: The Sibling Rivalry by Taka
• Gintama 230: This Title is a Text Message Subject by MohsinMan99
• Guilty Crown 2: Science Class or Survival of the Fittest by KuroNekoXIII
• Sket Dance 29: The Mistaken Angel and Food Fighter by Taka

Team and Friends' Blogs

• You and Me, ep1: Wiki, Screens, and Impressioms by Auron570 (a teammate of mine on the Gosick project)
• What is your favorite anime animal and why? by EganTheVile1 (a transformer and GI Joe Wiki Editor)
• Weekly Beelzebub: Chapter 130 by Arussel (a fan of Beelzebub)
• Should there be romance in Beelzebub by Sreenivas (Team Beelzebub)
• Anime/Manga Spotlight#1 by ReVamp (I put this down because it was about Blue Exorcist, a former project that Anna and I used to do in summer 2011.)
• Wiki Editing 101: Different Forms of Creation by Taka
• Weird or What? Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei ep. 3 by Superevil225
• How do you Make a Team of Wiki Editors by Taka

Takashichea

A proud member of Team W.I.K.I. Nation

Overview

Purpose: To get people to watch/ or read Sket Dance or Gintama, to reignite wiki passion in both series, and to get some ideas.

Hello guys. I'm Takashichea, a member of Team Wiki Nation and part of other teams on other franchises as well. Recently, due to a request by Piface314, Team Wiki Nation is created to tackle Sket Dance franchise with three partners, Anna, Piface314, and Hibaru. As I watched the show and did research on the web, I noticed Gintama pops out a lot. I learned that Kenta Shinohara was the assistant to Hideaki Sorachi, author of Gintama.

I haven't watch or read Gintama yet, and I have only watched Sket Dance up to episode 15.

Let's brainstorm!

Edit:

Thank Halberdierv2 for this image.

Similarities

Characters

Characters are the important thing in anime and manga. I put this in a separate section.

Sket Dance	Similarities	Gintama
Yusuke "Bossun" Fujisaki	Both are the leader. Both use references to Bleach such as Bankai. Both lost their parents. Both tell people how to live life.	Gintoki Sakata
Hime Onizuka	Both are strong, beautiful women physically as well. Both love to beat their teammates. Both are the only female member on the team.	Kagura
Kazuyoshi "Switch" Usui	Both wear glasses, black hair. Both are handsome without their glasses. Guessing that they are the brains of the team. Both have 1 sibling.	Shinpachi Shimura

Points of Interests

• Both Sket Dan and Gintama have a trio that helps people which are usually odd jobs.
• Both franchises rely on parodies of other franchises such as Shounen series for their humor.
• Both franchises break the 4th wall.

Differences

Characters

Characters are the important thing in anime and manga. I put this in a separate section.

Sket Dance	Differences	Gintama
Yusuke "Bossun" Fujisaki	Bossun is younger than Gintoki. Bossun relies on his slingshot whereas Gintoki relies on his bokuto (similar to a bokken). Bossun has a concentration, artistic, and memorization abilities while Gintoki has excellent swordsmanship. Gintoki is more laidback than Bossun.	Gintoki Sakata
Hime Onizuka	Hime's weapon of choice is her field hockey stick while Kagura's weapon of choice is her parasol. Relationships with the leader: Hime's relationship with Bossun is more of a close friends, and Hime tends to blush sometimes when Bossun compliments her cooking or other things. There is some chemistry between the two. Compared to Kagura, her relationship with Gintoki is said to be a father to daughter relationship. Kagura is more vulgar than Hime because Kagura just picks her nose without any sense of shame.	Kagura
Kazuyoshi "Switch" Usui	Switch communicates by a laptop and speech synthesis software while Shinpachi speaks normally. Switch's sibling is a brother while Shinpachi's sibling is a sister. Switch is smarter than Shinpachi. Shinpachi is the straight man.	Shinpachi Shimura

Total: Bossun to Gintoki = 3, Hime to Kagura = 2, and Switch to Shinpachi = 1. I don't know much about Switch, and Shinpachi's wikia info is vague.

Points of Interests

• Sket Dance is set in a school setting while Gintama is set in a feudal period and futuristic style combo. (sorry guys, I couldn't describe Gintama's setting as well.)

Updates

I will list any changes and suggestions from comments below. I want to see the change and the additions of information.

Changes 9-18-11

Thank Mohsinman99 for his contributions.

• Gintoki is a laidback and a smart guy.
• Shinpachi is a hard worker but not that bright. A straight man.
• Kagura loves to pick fights, insult others, and eats a lot. She''s more vulgar than Hime.

Afterword

I will use these thoughts and comments to write for the similarities to other franchises. I used mostly wikia for Gintama to compare my experiences from watching Sket Dance anime. I have no trouble spoiling myself to Gintama during my quick research, but for Sket Dance, I don't read the wiki or other sources. See example below.

Similarities to other franchises

See Shaman King franchise for an example. I was proud of this work. It's amazing how Zatch bell and Law of Ueki is similar to Shaman King. I could not relate D. Gray Man or Blue Exorcist to Shaman King more than its use of supernatural and demon themes.

Madoka's final 2 episodes were shown last week, and what an EPIC ending that was. I almost mistook it for a Gainax series, except less crazy. Also, a lot of the Spring shows have been quite good, so I'll have a hard time reducing them to a bloggable amount (3 to 5?)... but I'll try anyway!

Finished series

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica 11, 12(*)

After a long wait, Madoka is back to blow our minds! But it doesn't really do that. Those following Anime Weekly would know how much I love this series (and in particular the 10th episode), but the ending here just fails to deliver the same level of excitement and mindfuckery as the previous episodes. However, I really have to commend the director for being able to pace these 2 episodes really well and bring it to a nice conclusion. Without a doubt, episode 11 and 12 has benefited from the delay as they had more time to choose the scenes they want to show and tune the pacing so that it isn't rushed nor outstays its welcome. I'll have a full review of Madoka up within the next 2 weeks.

Most likely blogging

Hanasaku Iroha 2(*), 3, 4(*)

The visuals continue to astound me week after week! Unlike Star Driver, Hanasaku Iroha keeps up the quality by giving us beautiful backgrounds and well-animated CG. I particularly liked the quick zoom from one room of the inn to another, done with well-rendered CG that isn't too in-your-face. Story-wise, this series seems to slow down a little and ease up on the drama for episodes 2 and 3. The novel writer's arc wasn't that interesting, but it did serve as a situation to develop the characters a little. We see Naoko's bravery and strength a little bit and get another person's perspective of Ohana's character. Episode 4 explored more of Minko's personality and hints at her slowly opening up to Ohana. I'm actually starting to like Tohru too ^.^

For Hanasaku Iroha to stay interesting, I think they should stop introducing random characters (like the writer) and focus more on developing the cast. In particular, Nako, Tohru, and grandma still have a lot of potential, and of course the newly introduced Yuina. Oh, and Ko-chan too! I hope they don't drag out the Ohana - Ko-chan situation out too much...

Steins;Gate 2, 3(*), 4

A semi-smart series with quasi-science, but it gets most things right. For one, when trying to hack into SERN (of course not related to CERN), our "super haker" goes the most practical and realistic root; SQL injection and hacking into their email database. Moreover, some jumbled up hexadecimal codes appear on screen and the first thing they do is to reference ASCII tables and other character tables. Smart! A good amount of research must have been put in to get the John Titor story, time travelling theories, and various computing/hacking elements right, and I should salute the writer for that. If not for some awkward dialogue (childishly calling each other hentai), the rest of the script seems fine. Oh and both Feyris Nyan Nyan and Mayushii Nyan Nyan are aweeesome! As usual, Hanazawa-san is unbearably cute in her Mayuri voice, while "super haker's" voice is oddly appropriate and fun to hear. One thing I noticed, which might or might not be deliberate, is the screen flicker in certain scenes. I've confirmed it's not a monitor issue, and it can be consistently reproduced. Either this is a hint at the diverging world theory OR it could just be the fansub groups goofing up. The former is much more interesting.

AnoHana 2, 3(*)

AnoHana likes to take its own sweet time. It isn't till episode 3 when I finally understood the direction the writer was taking this series. But let's start from episode 2. "Anaru's" character is explored a little and we get to see what she is like beneath all that make-up. Honestly, it's the characters that really drive this series. Having a diverse group of friends brings about interesting group dynamics. Just like what Wondering Son did before it, the writer could just create a situation and put the characters in it and it'll still make for a very interesting show. It's how the characters interact with each other and how they deal with a common history and problem that makes them shine. And that was showcased very well in episode 3. This series is aiming to dig deep into the psychology of this group of friends. As each of them begin seeing their own version of Menma, we will uncover the guilt each of them felt for the incident many years ago. I really like where this is going and I hope this lives up to being yet another awesome noitamina series!

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko 2, 3(*)

Surprisingly, Denpa Onna does not suffer a lot from Shaft's usual bad in-between animation. It is generally fluid and beautiful to look at. However, it is also sparse on animation. In that sense, it reminds me of Bakemonogatari but with less focus on typography. Another departure from usual bad Shaft habits is the interesting amount of emotional depth and complexity to the plot. Erio might be a bishoujo with a moe-some voice, but her character has deep dark secrets. The explanations about her past that trickles out each episode slowly fills in the blanks and make you really care about her more and more. By the end of episode 3, I was completely enamored by her character. The combination of interesting back story, emotional depth, great voice acting and of course a nice character design makes her one of my favourite characters this season. This series is becoming a really enjoyable show for me, and I hope people will look past some of it's weirdness to uncover the interesting plot underneath.

Ao no Exorcist 1, 2(*)

This is a true blue hot-blooded shounen series (pun intended). Ao no Exorcist reverses recent trends by focusing solely on a small group of characters and having a simple plot. Rin Okumura is Satan's son. His foster father is a priest that brings him up. I feel like I've heard of a similar tale before... hmm... Anyway, this is as straight forward as it can be. Rin quickly loses his foster father in what seems like a Peter Parker (or any other death-triggered superhero) moment. It doesn't pretend to be what it is not, and for that I respect it. The director did take a bit of time in the first episode to fool around though, so I'm a little worried those moments might creep back in again. If the producers can keep up with this same pacing we saw in episode 2, this should turn into a decent action show.

C 2, 3

First and foremost, let me just say that I HATE the CG in this show. It's not overused yet, but I can see it being a major component for the rest of the series since most things in the Financial District is rendered in CG. But perhaps I'm just being too hard on it. The fights are quite decent to watch, and the mysterious Financial District has definitely piqued my interest. Episode 3 in particular explored this aspect and right now I'm more interested in this than the main character's past. His character just seems a little inconsistent and the people he meets in the real world are just not that important anymore. With 26 episodes to work with, the producers have the time to fully flesh out this world and make it really interesting (especially with how it interacts with the real world).

Deadman Wonderland 2

The producers really pull no punches here. They know how far they can go and proceed to step on that line every time. Certainly not a show for everyone, the blood and gore here can be quite disturbing without being stupidly over-the-top. It treats itself seriously throughout and show the desperation of all the prisoners in it. The only anomaly is Shiro. She just... doesn't really make sense in this story. With the exception of Red Man and her, everything else has been following a rather strict reality so far. What her role is and WHY the prison guards and administration don't talk much about her will definitely be a key plot point later on. For now, I just want them to speed up with the introduction to the systems in place at this Deadman Wonderland.

Not blogging

Nichijou 2(*), 3(*), 4

This is the first time I've seen a character in anime greeting each other with "selamat pagi" or mention "sepak takraw". If the above images and video aren't already obvious enough, Nichijou is an incredibly random show and can get me laughing out loud. But the jokes are just too few. Episodes 2 and 3 are possibly some of the funniest anime I've seen, but episode 0, 1 and 4 are incredibly boring! There's no connection with the characters. We hardly care about them. Many jokes fall flat and they can still drag them out like it even matters anymore. I'm giving this series one more episode. I've episode 5 blows me away, the score would be 3-3 and I would continue watching. A 50% funny rate is not too bad in my opinion, but definitely does not meet up to KyoAni's usual standards. This is possibly KyoAni's worst series since the first few episodes of Lucky Star aired (thankfully that got better over time and after firing a certain director).

A Channel 2, 3, 4

I've come to the point where I watch this series solely for Yuki Aoi (Tooru) and Kotobuki Minako (Yuuko). I really hate the slow moments whenever the insert song comes up. The songs are just not that nice to listen to and the scenes portrayed during those sequences do not get the slice-of-life mood right. Well, this will be a 15 minute show every week as I skip my way through the boring parts.

Astarotte no Omocha 2, 3

I was pleasantly surprised to see the producers cut down on the fan service elements of this show. Lotte is a little more mature than she seems to be at first sight, though a childish side of her still exists. The story progresses slowly though, and it seems quite predictable. Lotte will eventually learn to trust guys and will gain a "father" or "brother" in Naoya. *yawn* Kugimiya Rie needs to be given better roles!

The World God Only Knows S2 2

KamiNomi isn't as slow as the first season's second half, but the situations aren't getting more interesting either. It's unfortunate that I'm already following quite a few series, otherwise I would give this another chance. Besides, a new, persistent, character will be introduced in episode 3, which might change the stale formula somewhat. Well, I'll find some time to watch this, but I definitely won't be blogging it.

Hyouge Mono 1

As interesting as a tea master in the sengoku period sounds, the producers managed to make it weirder than it already is. There are scenes where it feels like they are trying to inject some humour, but the seriousness of the rest of the scenes make you question where they are trying to go with this. This just isn't my cup of tea (ahahahaha.... ok, sorry).

Gintama 203, 204

I can understand why some people simply love this series. There's a huge cast of funny, lovable characters that make the jokes flow constantly. This is something only a long running series can do, as it takes time to build up all the characters and their relationships before we can get to this point of non-stop punchlines. BUT I feel that I'm unable to follow it. It feels like I'm at a party full of people I'm not very familar with and they are laughing and having fun while I stand there thinking "haha... how fun..." feeling left out... Theoretically speaking of course. My life isn't like that at all. I'm a social butterfly. *ahem* Moving on...

Hidan no Aria 2

This isn't what I imagined the Ryuu-Taiga reunion would be like! It reminds me of last season's IS, a harem style show with focus on action, except there's no action this episode... And I really really hate the premise. All those child mercenaries still act like kids and there's no seriousness to it at all. Script Writer, please go watch Gunslinger Girl and then wallow in self-pity (imagine this spoken in Kugimiya Rie's voice).

SKET DANCE 3

The episodic nature of this series and the lack of an over-arcing plot makes it hard to recommend. It has some good timing for its humour and it moves along at a nice pace, but the quality of their weekly cases fail to interest me. Too bad... was expecting this to at least be up to Nurarihyon quality.

Softenni 2, 3

This show just gets more and more WTF moments as it goes on. And it likes to reuse unfunny jokes. Just look at the image above. The randomness is not enjoyable at all and felt more like they did not do a good job with the adaptation.

Moshidora 1

I can't believe how incredibly boring this show is. It has an interesting premise (managing a baseball team using a book on Management by Peter Drucker), but it was so poorly executed. The characters just seem dull and bored. I read on some blogs that this actually gets good later on, so I might try to catch up with it. It's broadcasting a new episode 5 days a week for 2 weeks, so I'll most likely watch it after it's done.

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Among all the series I've written about here, only Nichijou might be promoted to a bloggable series while C, Ao no Exorcist and Deadman Wonderland have to compete for a slot. I generally don't like to blog about shounen series because I find it hard to talk about, but these 3 seem to have a plot that actually moves along at a brisk pace, so I might do them.

(Impressions for: Hanasaku Iroha, TIGER & BUNNY, Gintama, Nichijou, Dog Days, X-Men, Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai)

Finished Star Driver, so I might do some reviews in the coming weeks (in between studying for exams). Anyway, the new season is here, bringing a few interesting new series. The Noitamina timeslot has not broadcast anything yet (should be coming next week), but there are already a few shows that have surprisingly caught my attention. Madoka's last 2 episodes are not out yet, but Shaft is aiming to finish it by the end of this month. Meanwhile, there are still lots of shows to watch (and tons to study!).

Hanasaku Iroha (P.A. Works)

Episodes: 26

Ohana's mother needs to run away from some debt collectors, so she leaves her daughter in the hands of her grandmother. The first show I watched this season, and undoubtedly the best so far. Great background art (very much like Shinkai Makoto's), great animation (P.A. Works, the studio behind Angel Beats), and great characters. Omigawa Chiaki and Toyosaki Aki are almost unrecognizable here as they play roles very different from their usual stuff. Omigawa is a quiet but angry girl, while Toyosaki is an extremely shy girl. Itou Kanae plays Ohana with subtlety, never overdoing any line, always keeping her strong-willed but still likable. The rest of the production staff is also quite amazing; we have the director of Sword of the Stranger, the always amazing Okada Mari on the script, and an animation director with impressive credentials. They even have a "main animator" who has worked on Angel Beats, BECK, Blood+, CANAAN, Darker than Black, Dennou Coil, Ghost in the Shell, Star Driver, Sword of the Stranger, Tekkonkinkreet, etc... And it shows. Seems like the director has been successful in bringing out the best in his team so far, and I'm definitely looking forward to more!

TIGER & BUNNY (Sunrise)

Episodes: ?

Superheroes fighting for sponsors on a TV show. Surprisingly, it has a rather interesting premise that hasn't been wrung dry. The battles are creative, with lots of things happening at the same, several superheroes going in and out of action. However, I absolutely hate the voice acting. It's too over the top sometimes. The only likable character so far is the main character, Tiger. I do see some potential in this, especially with Sunrise animating, so I'll cautiously keep a watch on this.

Gintama (Sunrise)

Episodes: A lot

Gintama is back (and the above image is a good summary of what this series is about). After 201 episodes, I think most people would be, to some degree, familiar with this wacky franchise. There's a ton of humour and lots of anime references (especially One Piece), but it still hasn't floored me... Maybe I just need to give it some time, which I'm willing to do so because of the excellent voice talents of Kugimiya Rie and Tomokazu Sugita. Seriously, this might just be my faourite Kugimiya Rie role, and I'm saying this as a fan of the Tsundere Princess.

Nichijou (Kyoto Animation)

Episodes: 26

A girl with a turnkey on her back, a tiny professor, a guy who rides a goat to school. The much awaited, and much criticized, KyoAni production is here. Well.... it's not as bad as the first episode of Lucky Star, but it does not have the same level of charm either. The animation in certain parts (like the explosion near the beginning before the OP), will make a seasoned animator sweat, but ultimately it feels overdone. You don't need to splurge on that kind of scenes for a slice-of-life comedy. The characters are not immediately likable, but, given that this is a KyoAni production, I'm willing to give it some time. Perhaps till they fire the director.

Dog Days (Seven Arcs)

Episodes: 12

A boy gets transported to a world where war is just a giant Ninja Warrior showdown. This show has A LOT of famous voice talents: Horie Yui, Miyano Mamoru, Taketatsu Ayana, Hikasa Yoko, Hanazawa Kana, Wakamoto Norio and Mizuki Nana. But all these talents are gone to waste with the terrible script and plot, even Miyano can't save them!

X-Men (Madhouse)

Episodes: 12

Jean goes mad and Wolverine is tsundere for Cyclops. After the disappointing Iron Man and Wolverine, Madhouse is back with an adaptation of Marvel's X-Men. This particular production benefits from having a diverse group of characters and an actually interesting plot. They don't pile on the cheese, and the action is quite a feast for the eyes. Definitely worth checking out, if only to see Wolverine being tsundere for Cyclops. Surprise of the season?

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai (Nomad)

Episodes: ?

1 Guy, Several Girls. On the surface this seems like it is yet another visual novel harem anime, but the producers actually did something interesting with the format by introducing some weird narrator and bouncing back and forth between several different characters. I still don't know where this is headed, but I'll give it another try next week and see how it goes.

More impression coming next week (A Channel and Steins;Gate, along with a bunch of stuff I have yet to watch).