Ok, I just have to admit it. I like so much “Chobits”. Not a “guilty pleasure”. If you like it , you like it, no excuses.

I like the song by the way. Round table featuring Nino – “Let me be with you”.

Kanji: 抱きしめたいの

Do Persocoms dream of electric pantsu?

Blade Runner asks one of the premiere existential sci-fi questions: What properties consist of “humanity” and can an artificial life form attain these properties? The question had been asked before Blade Runner, and it’s been run into the ground afterwards. Most people think this question is still up in the air, but based on certain trends I think a decision has already been made. We’re slowly seeing forms of media where this question is completely circumvented. In these stories, be they movies, anime, or video games, there’s an assumption that artificial life can be judged to be human.

One such anime is Chobits.

The Persocoms in Chobits might not be treated as exact equals by most humans, but they’re definitely accepted by society. People grow fond of their Persocoms and look at them as pets or friends. By being integrated into society and treated with much of the same respect one would give another human, the quandary presented by Blade Runner and similar sci-fi shows is ignored in favor of a new one: Now that artificial life is “human,” can one “love” artificial life?

This is the natural “evolution” of the artificial life question. Once we treat it as an equal according to these other terms, should artificial life be treated as the object of one’s adoration? Chobits answers this question with a resounding yes. Hideki and Chii end up together and live happily ever after. Much like how Blade Runner presents the Replicants as having ambitions and emotions like humans, thus showing that they are “human, there isn’t a single shred of doubt cast by Chobits that Hideki’s love for Chii is wrong.

“Yes, it is OK to love your computer if it looks like a cute girl.”

And this is why Chobits is the Blade Runner of the new Millenium. Unlike Blade Runner, Chobits’ question about artificial life has been mirrored in real life, making it all the more relevant to reality. As y’all already know, a dude literally married his in-game dating-sim girlfriend. By doing so, he’s made a CLAMP anime other than X prophetic. He’s single-handedly made a nearly ten year old anime socially relevant,which is a shocking development since even the handful of series that intentionally aim for relevance are usually off-mark.

Even if this is all some elaborate performance piece, this is all pathetically awesomely, bizarrely absurd. We’ve had real life dating-sim birthday parties. We’ve had Klingon weddings. We’ve had all manners of strange fictional-to-reality crossovers, but we haven’t had this. Maybe we’ll soon see otaku taking their girlfriends and having them deprogrammed to think they’re a dating-sim character.

Yeah, the world has grown just a little stranger. Just by a pinch.

Continuing my TL;DR of anime I have seen according to classic charts put out by the man himself, 2002 had some real gems for me, even if I wound up seeing them in 2003, I think. I’m pretty sure I jumped on Gundam SEED somewhat midway through it’s air.

Gonna warn you, there is a ton of shit in here I’ve seen, so you might want to get yourself a snack.

IN THE YEAR NINETY-FIVE NINETY-FIVE…

Full Metal Panic

This is probably one of my favorite slightly-related mecha series, in what probably paved the way for Code Geass to be moderately successful among the non-mecha crowd, FMP employed not only mostly real robot mechanics (save for the Lambda Driver) but had an array of awesome characters and managed to merge mecha and school-comedy into something awesome. Tessa is still one of my favorite characters to date, scene with the bloody nose and the “fuck you” face? Priceless.

tl;dr: It’s like Top Gun, The Hunt for Red October, Full Metal Jacket, and In the Army Now, made into an anime, and without Pauly Shore.

RahXephon

Many friends told me this would be some kinda mindfuckery ala Eva. Frankly, it is, but it isn’t. I don’t quite remember much considering I’ve only given it one run, which I should give it a second one of these days, but as I recall it was a lot of HEAD GAMES, YOU AND ME BABY between the kid and his mother. Oh, and some giant robots, and that hot chick with tits.

tl;dr: GREEN BLOODED

Kanon (2002)

Since I was still a Megatokyo nerd back then (Don’t ask. I was to anime like music nerds were to emo back then) I tried to watch all the shit Fred Gallagher liked. Sadly to this day everything he likes is shit with the exception of Mahoromatic. Kanon was so stagnant that I simply could not take it after awhile and sort of panned my whole way through. It’s not that I can’t watch that genre of anime, I can, but it failed to make anything interesting beyond some magic and a lot of “uguuu~” which seems just plain silly now. Considering they took this format and evolved it into basically Lucky Star et. all random comedy, at least the latter gives you something to watch.

tl;dr: Megatokyo post-Largo in a nutshell. At least when Rodney was in the comic, it played out more like Kanon + GTO, and GTO was badass.

Galaxy Angel Z

tl;dr: see Galaxy Angel

Tokyo Underground

This was one of those rare-gem series you never hear about anymore that was actually good. The premise is probably nothing exciting, in fact it’s probably been covered by other series like it, but it’s a guy with a sword and some magic ability teaming with a girl who can fight with magic and essentially a goddess, along with his random friend. Besides the OP song being catchy as hell, it was a pretty decent series to watch, and definitely in my recommendations for anyone looking for a classic series to watch.

tl;dr: You can’t go wrong when at least one of the character’s names is Ruri, right?

Chobits

Ergh. See, when Chobits first came out, I followed it on fansubs, it was cool, and then the fandom ruined it. Chobits was sort of the slightly-canon sequel to Angelic Layer, as far as the manga is concerned, where Icchan basically developed what became the Persocom series before some crazy accident or something. It was cute, it was risque (the on/off switch goes where?) but ultimately the story was kinda bland towards the end and fandom killed it by basically declaring their undying love for wanting to have sex with androids. Yep, anime fandom ruins everything good, this is why most of them need to be shot.

tl;dr: Sumomo. That is all.

Rizelmine

tl;dr: Android girl. Awkward teenage boy. Hillarity. Explosions. Sexual innuendos. Short but sweet.

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

fairly accurate representation

Like most GAINAX stuff, it is weird. Two kids traveling through parallel dimensions and time to basically understand how their home came to be and why they shouldn’t move away from either other or something, fuck, it doesn’t matter, JAPANESE AND AMERICAN POP-CULTURES FUCK YEAH!!!

tl;dr: Watch it. No seriously. All of it. Might even be better stoned though I’ll take your word for it.

..hack//SIGN

I’ve never played any of the .hack games, but I liked the music in SIGN and it was semi-interesting. However it got boring pretty quickly and I can’t recall anything relevant for this.

tl;dr: What happens to kids when they spend way too much time in World of Warcraft. Also, IT’S A TRAP.

Tenshi na Konamaki

I actually liked this one, though I haven’t finished it all quite yet, it’s gender-bending, but it’s fairly interesting and revolves around a kid who was turned into a girl by a curse and is trying to turn back, but ends up gaining a male fanclub around him/her instead. The animation is a bit dated in the beginning for some reason, but definitely worth a watch.

tl;dr: Tsundere. Seriously.

Pita-Ten

I loved Pita-Ten, though sadly these days it tends to remind me of my ex-girlfriend, so I don’t think of it much, but it was cute and cuddly and… oh fuck you, I like this sort of thing, don’t judge me! Besides, the manga author is Koge-Donbo, one of my favorites ~su.

tl;dr: an Angel, a Devil, a cat, and one poor soul. Story of my life.

Azumanga Daioh

It has been argued many times since 100 years ago last Thursday that Azumanga Daioh pretty much set the stage for what we call the “slice-of-life” genre in anime, the theme in which nearly everything is based off of now. All I know is Azumanga was awesome, Saki > Osaka > * and cats!

tl;dr: WHAT THE HELL?

Ai Yori Aoishi

Sadly when I think of this series now I tend to think of Hayate the Combat Butler, as if Aoishi reminds me of Isumi, except less lost. Still, it’s mixed-mode comedy and romance, though probably more comedy, which puts it along the lines of Hayate with a serious story.

tl;dr: You only wish you were Japanese like this.

Bandit King Jing

Every once and awhile one of those weird sort of edgy series comes along, and they’re always Wild West themed for some reason, so much like how Trigun sort of defined the genre, Jing comes along and takes weird to strange levels. Fortunately, it succeeds and is pretty badass.

tl;dr: KEEL ROYALE

Witch Hunter Robin

I ended up being kinda mixed on this one. On one hand it was pretty cool, pretty edgy, good characters, good story, but then it felt rather emo, like someone in Japan decided that they needed to make a series featuring a witch to the tune of Linkin Park. Regardless the series itself was pretty good, though I don’t recall seeing the end for some reason, I think I dropped it on the third from last episode, or something. Someday maybe I’ll have to rewatch it.

tl;dr: A duck.

Overman King Gainer

I actually just saw this series this past year, and while it was good, it lacked any real… coherency. I think I understood the story by the end of it, but it seemed so disjointed and out of place that by the end you weren’t sure exactly what they were doing, much like the beginning. It could have been because the subtitles I had were weird, but I’m pretty sure without them they were just as bad.

tl;dr: KIIIIIIIIIIING~ KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING~ KIIIIIIING GAAAAAAAINER, MEEEEET-AL OVERRRRR-MAN, KING GAINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER~ /dance

Ghost in the Shell: The Stand Alone Complex

GitS was awesome. SAC was awesome. The Laughing Man is essentially Anonymous’ first form before the creation of 4chan. Tachikomas are awesome. Need I go on?

tl;dr: ~/o HOW, DOES SHE SO PERFECTLY SURF? (perfectly surf?) ~/o

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

I’ll admit, SEED opened up a door of nearly infinite wonder in the Gundam universe for me, something that can never be closed. Argue all you want about how it was a remake of the original Gundam, how DESTINY sucked, or whatnot, but Jesus Fucking Yamato and Mary-Sue Clyne are still among my top-tier favorite characters in anime and Freedom Gundam is also one of my favorite mobile suits of all time. OF ALL TIME! Not to mention Cagalli before her character was raped in Destiny.

tl;dr: FUCK YES FREEDOM YOU ARE ALMOST THE BEST MOBILE SUIT EVER

Galaxy Angel A

tl;dr: see Galaxy Angel

Haibane Renmei

Like I’ve said before, ABe series are weird, Haibane is no exception. Pretty much based on angels in somewhere, it’s by no means AOTY or anything, but it’s probably the only ABe series you’ll actually understand with only one pass as opposed to Lain or Niea which took two or three.

tl;dr: Wat?

Wow that was a lot. This should beef up the tag list somemore. I didn’t list a few that I watched the first ep or so of but never completed, such as GXP, Tokyo Mew Mew, Getbackers, and Kiddy Grade.

Chart has a 2008 chart up, but I’ll wait until he does 03-07. I have a feeling those will take even longer than this one.

Quick info: Produced by Madhouse. Directed by Morio Asaka. Based on a manga by CLAMP.

Expectations: I know there’s going to be this robot girl, but other than that the only thing I know is the fact that I’m not the target audience.

Is that a castle? Because it looks like a castle to me.

Impressions: On one hand the main character being voiced by Tomokazu Sugita is distracting because when I hear his voice Gintoki instantly pops up in my head, but on the other hand, his briliant voice acting makes the show much better than it would have been without him. Really, the humour wouldn’t have been even half as funny without him *goes to sacrifice some sheep at her Tomokazu Sugita shrine*.

And humour here is important, because so far, this show looks like nothing more but a magical girlfriend story. Even though in this case the “girlfriend” is actually cute instead of the usual annoying. And even though the main character is neither the prince of Bishounenia nor a testosterone volcano, he does not give off an air of a hopelessly lame protagonist, which is the usual thing with these kinds of stories.

Now that I think about it, this episode was actually quite good, very unexpectedly good, but I’m not really sure whether it’s really worth to watch on, maybe I should just read the manga this anime is based on. I’m not really a fan of CLAMP but now that I think about it, I never read any of their manga from beginning to the end, so maybe its about time I did that.

Rating: 7.8/10

DATOS DEL ANIME

Género: Comedia, Drama, Romance, Ciencia ficción
Año: 2002
Fansub: MangaLords
Episodios: 27
Peso Episodio: 80mb
Formato: mp4

SINOPSIS

Hideki Motosuwa, quien decide abandonar el campo e irse a estudiar en Tokio para luego ir a la universidad, vive en un tiempo en el que las computadoras personales han sido desarrolladas para parecer y desempeñar funciones humanas, siendo llamadas como “Persocon”. En su primer día, encuentra una de ellas tirada en la basura, tras lo cual se la lleva a su apartamento. Tras descubrir que es un modelo ‘especial’, denominado como Chobit, tiene descubrir su naturaleza a medida que se enfrenta a problemas comunes de adolescentes.

DESCARGA

Episodio 01

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SDPSS1UQ

Episodio 02

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7P7ADV67

Episodio 03

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Z6Z9R2H0

Episodio 04

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7302SEX0

Episodio 05

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JS8DFKEO

Episodio 06

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H3AK3ESR

Episodio 07

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CB778774

Episodio 08

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GQO75KVJ

Episodio 09

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L84D9Q89

Episodio 10

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JD9W0TYM

Episodio 11

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GCL5Q8K4

Episodio 12

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IMTDG0P3

Episodio 13

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7FS23DUC

Episodio 14

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9K9HA9IE

Episodio 15

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5FDYYDBD

Episodio 16

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JSR8BVFF

Episodio 17

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q2W1XX2O

Episodio 18

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QP1OTTMC

Episodio 19

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5367EHFW

Episodio 20

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OVQRSNWB

Episodio 21

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8K79GKT4

Episodio 22

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FDCCXEZV

Episodio 23

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FRBECRTY

Episodio 24

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UXEGYFRH

Episodio 25

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XJOHHJGW

Episodio 26

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QRDMWYKO

Episodio 27

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L0OVD8OP

Gestern habe ich die letzten Folgen von Chobits geschaut. Nachdem ich den Manga einfach nur genial fand, musste ich den Anime auch mal testen. Und ehrlich gesagt war ich ein bisschen enttäuscht.

Denn der Anime kann einfach nicht mit dem Manga mithalten. Ich muss auch noch sagen, dass ich mir die Serie mit der deutschen Syncho angetan habe, was ich nicht hätte tun sollen. Die meisten Sprecher fand ich ziemlich unpassend. Manche klangen immer ziemlich gelangweilt, Chis Stimme fand ich sowieso seltsam und Hideki war mir generell unsymphatisch mit seinem ständigen Rumgeschreie -.- Ich kann mich nicht erinnern, dass das im Manga auch so auffällig war. Die ganze Geschichte kam im Manga auch emotionaler rüber. Die einzige Folge die ich richtig gut fand, war als Ueda von seiner Ehe mit einem Persocom erzählt hat. Die Musik dabei war einfach toll und hat die melancholische Stimmung richtig unterstrichen. Ansonsten war noch Sumomo ein Lichtblick mit ihren Tänzen^^

Mein Fazit: Solltet ihr Interesse an Chobits haben, nehmt den Manga. Der ist wirklich super. Der Anime ist nur eine durchschnittliche Ecchi-Romance-Comedy, von denen es durchaus bessere gibt.

Zum Schluss noch ein paar Bilder, der Grafikstyle hat mir nämlich sehr gut gefallen:

Exhibition matches featured characters that participated in previous Saimoe tournaments (very early ones or those who lost round 1) from not-so-well-known anime. There were even some from hentai.

Aside from that, the relegation matches should end now. Congratulations to Mikoto, Louise, Mai, Sayuri, and Ayu for being eligible for the prelims. Too bad for Reimu.

Source: ISML

Finally, I manage to update! ^^; Anyways, I added some of my old work, since I’m currently too busy to make anything new…soz…if you are going to blame some one…blame the person who invented school and homework!

It’s all under wallpaper. There is quite a few so I won’t bother to put up a little preview, I will just give you the link

Super Junior-Ryeowook

BigBang

That’s K-pop, now manga

Card Capture Sakura

Chobits

Le Chevalier D’eon

Shugo Chara

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle

Vampire Knight

Since they are VERY old, some might actually be in wallpaper formate, but I will make sure the ones in the future will be

I will update the orignal version of the wallpaper when i finish my homework *sigh*, before that, please enjoy the previews ^^

x

Kpopmanga

ARENA 01: Chii [Hakurei Reimu]

ARENA 02: [Evangeline McDowell] Index Prohibitorum

ARENA 03: [Hakurei Reimu] Kamio Misuzu

ARENA 04: Index Prohibitorum [Misaka Mikoto]

ARENA 05: Kamio Misuzu [Kurata Sayuri]

ARENA 06: Katagiri Yūhi [Chii]

ARENA 07: [Kawasumi Mai] Minase Nayuki

ARENA 08: [Kurata Sayuri] Vita

ARENA 09: [Louise Vallière] Yagami Hayate

ARENA 10: [Minase Nayuki] Louise Vallière

ARENA 11: [Misaka Mikoto] Katagiri Yūhi

ARENA 12: Tsukimiya Ayu [Evangeline McDowell]

ARENA 13: Vita [Tsukimiya Ayu]

ARENA 14: Yagami Hayate [Kawasumi Mai]

ARENA 15: Contestant 1A [Abstained] Contestant 1B

ARENA 16: Contestant 2A [Abstained] Contestant 2B

ARENA 17: Contestant 3A [Abstained] Contestant 3B

ARENA 18: Contestant 4A [Abstained] Contestant 4B

ARENA 19: Contestant 5A [Abstained] Contestant 5B

ARENA 20: Contestant 6A [Abstained] Contestant 6B

-

Not much to say here. Hoping Mikoto and Reimu get into the prelims. Kanon girls are good too. I accepted the fact Louise will be in.

Exhibition matches are a complete mystery. I am only shown the pictures of the contestant, but their names and anime are not given. I only tracked down one of them seeing the animation before. Point is, I do not know any of them, so I abstained from all matches. More on this when they are revealed.

Source: ISML

ISML 2009 ends today (at least the main tournament). Hinagiku has beaten Shana by 11 points once again upsetting the top seed. With that, Hinagiku is crowned the champion of ISML 2009. Congratulation Hinagiku! Shana had a good run here with this being her third loss for the entire year, but she couldn’t win where it mattered most.

Here are the overall results of the top 16:

Champion: #11 Hinagiku Katsura (HnG) (51-12, 5-0; Ruby)

Runner-up: #1 Shana (SnS) (62-1, 4-2; Sapphire)

3rd: #3 Tomoyo Sakagami (Clannad) (58-5, 5-2; Aquamarine)

4th: #7 Yuki Nagato (SHnY) (53-10, 3-2; Topaz)

5th: #4 Kyou Fujibayashi (Clannad) (57-6, 3-2)

6th: #6 Fate Testerossa (MSLN) (55-8, 3-3)

7th: #10 Taiga Aisaka (TD) (52-11, 3-2)

8th: #9 Kagami Hiiragi (LS) (52-11, 2-3)

9th: #2 Haruhi Suzumiya (SHnY) (59-4, 3-2)

10th: #8 Rin Tohsaka (FSN) (53-10, 2-3)

11th: #12 Mikuru Asahina (SHnY) (50-13, 2-3)

12th: #5 Suigintou (RM) (56-7, 1-4; Amethyst)

13th: #16 Horo (SaW) (47-16, 2-2)

14th: #14 Nanoha Takamichi (MSLN) (49-14, 1-3)

15th: #13 Suiseiseki (RM) (49-14, 1-3; Emerald)

16th: #15 Shinku (RM) (48-15, 0-4; Diamond)

-

Again, congratulations to Hinagiku! Next year, I will be going for Mio Akiyama all the way. Nominations are set for New Year’s Day, so I’ll see what happens then. I’m interested to see how it works since I didn’t start paying attention to ISML until it actually began this year.

We cannot forget about the other matches that took place. Here are the characters who would advance if the relegation matches ended today:

• #42 Mikoto Misaka (Index) (23-40, 10-1)
• #37 Louise Valliere (ZnT) (27-36, 10-1)
• #35 Mai Kawasumi (Kanon) (31-32, 9-2)
• #36 Sayuri Kurata (Kanon) (27-36, 7-1-3)
• #43 Reimu Hakurei (Touhou) (23-40, 7-4)

Finally, I would also like to congratulate Haruka in this round’s exhibition matchup. She accumulated the highest vote total in this final match at 2766. It seems that this was because she was facing a weak character (she got over twice the amount of votes than her opponent) at the same time  as the championship match which drew a lot of votes. This might actually be a record for ISML not that it matters much.

Well, it’s not over yet. Another round for the relegation matches will occur this Thursday (rounds 12 and 13). It appears that each character will have 2 matches at once, so it may be confusing a bit. There will also be 6 exhibition matchups featuring 12 characters which are unknown at the moment. I hope for this to be interesting. I’m expecting a lower turnout for the next matches.

Otherwise, until ISML 2010 in a few months…

Source: ISML

ARENA 01: Katsura Hinagiku [Shana]

ARENA 02: [Chii] Index Prohibitorum

ARENA 03: Minase Nayuki [Kurata Sayuri]

ARENA 04: [Evangeline McDowell] Katagiri Yūhi

ARENA 05: [Hakurei Reimu] Kawasumi Mai

ARENA 06: [Vita] Yagami Hayate

ARENA 07: Kamio Misuzu [Misaka Mikoto]

ARENA 08: [Tsukimiya Ayu] Louise Vallière

ARENA 09: [Nogizaka Haruka] Yin

This matchup will go on for an additional 4 hours because of the downtime of the site earlier, so results may be delayed.

We have Shana going up against Hinagiku again, but she’s back more powerful than before after a fresh OVA is released (it was good too) and after destroying Tomoyo last time. Here are statistics of the characters in the matchup:

Shana (SnS)

• Anime Saimoe: 3rd place 2006 (Lost to champion Suiseiseki (RM)), 11th place 2007 (Lost to runner-up Nagi Sanzenin (HnG)), 14th place 2008 (Lost to Tamaki Kawazoe (BB))
• Best Moe: 4th place 2006 (Lost to champion Suiseiseki (RM)), runner-up 2007 (Lost to champion Hinagiku Katsura (HnG)), 4th place 2008 (Lost to champion Horo (SaW))
• Champion of Super Best Moe 2006-07
• ISML: 6th place 2008 (59-4, 2-2), 2008 Aquamarine necklace winner
• 2009: Ranked #1 (62-1, 4-1), losses: Tomoyo (regulation), Hinagiku; Sapphire necklace winner

Hinagiku Katsura (HnG)

• Anime Saimoe: Second Round loss to Runa Edomae (SnH) 2007, 3rd place 2008 (Lost to runner-up Tsukasa Hiiragi (LS)), Third round loss to runner-up Yui Hirasawa (K-ON!) 2009
• Best Moe: 2007 Champion, 3rd place 2008 (lost to runner-up Kyou Fujibayashi), 5th place 2009 (lost to champion Taiga Aisaka)
• 5th Place Korea Super Best Moe 2006-2007
• ISML: 11th place 2008 (54-9, 1-2)
• 2009: Ranked #11 (51-12, 4-0), losses: Mikuru, Fate, Kyou, Rika, Nagisa, Yuki, Saber, Shana, Shinku, Suigintou, Suiseiseki, Haruhi; Ruby necklace winner

Match History:

• Best Moe 2007 Final Match (10/26-27): Shana 2013, Hinagiku 2015
• Korean Super Best Moe 2006-07: Shana 1304, Hinagiku 1230
• ISML 2008 Aquamarine 1 (4/1-ISML’s debut): Shana 144, Hinagiku 104
• ISML 2009 Diamond 9 (8/28): Shana 2107, Hinagiku 1438
• ISML 2009 3rd Round of Revelation (10/22): Shana 1395, Hinagiku 1677

Again, Shana has more successes in tournaments, although Hinagiku did beat her in Best Moe 2007 to take the crown. Shana also has been doing well here in ISML as well going in ranked #1. Hinagiku has been really impressive being in the finals ranked #11. She has had a lot of losses for a possible champion in making.

Looking at the past records, Shana has the advantage with a 3-2 record over her. She could have been Best Moe Champion if Hinagiku hadn’t beat her by only 2 points (closer than even this year’s close match with Taiga and Kagami).

My final predictions say that Shana will pull an upset. Hinagiku has done really well in tournament play beating #6, #3, #7, and #1, but she’s still #11 and beating #1 again is a difficult task. Shana appears to be even more powerful than before because of the recent OVA (which came a tad too late last time). This is shown with her recent victory against Tomoyo.

Hinagiku only has to win one more time to win the tiara while Shana needs to win twice. Could Shana pull this off, or will Hinagiku triumph over her again? Again, one win for Hinagiku and it’s over.

This may also be the last of the relegation matches. I don’t think Reimu will be able to beat Mai, so Louise, Mikoto, Mai, Ayu, and Sayuri should be eligible for next year’s ISML. I’m not 100% sure though.

In exhibition, once again it’s a character I know vs. a character I don’t know. This does not make things too interesting. In this case, I only know Haruka, so I’ll go for her. I never really saw Darker than Black, but I do plan on watching both seasons. This matchup just came too early for me to go for Yin. I would’ve probably go for Haruka anyways. Maybe.

Good luck Shana!

Source: ISML

Saiba como fazer as orelinhas da Chii do Chobits!

1. Você vai precisar cortar a espuma como mostra a figura abaixo, os desenhos em cinza represantam a espuma branca e a rosa, a rosa mesmo.  A quantidade é 4, 2 e 2, respectivamente.

Ps: Essa é apenas a forma geral, talvez precise de um recorte aqui e ali.

2. Dobre o recorte branco, como mostra a figura.

3. Dobre o rosa, bem como está na figura.

4. Junte as duas formas. Use a sua pistola de cola quente para anexá-los e use também a pistola  para fixar o círculo branco (fazer isso em ambos os lados)

5. Agora cole as orelinhas no final do diadema e pronto!

Elimination Match. Shana exacts revenge on Tomoyo for beating her 2 times by over 500 votes eliminating my favorite Clannad character. She earns a rematch against Hinagiku that has a potential to go differently from last time thanks to the OVA maybe. Once again, Shana is my favorite to win. Tomoyo settles for 3rd place.

5th Place Match. Another upset here. Although Tomoyo fell hard, Kyou picks up a win against last year’s champion Fate. Kyou settles for 5th place while Fate is 6th.

Relegation. Since the tournament is almost over, I thought I should give some thoughts to this. With 9 wins, it looks like Louise, Mai, and Mikoto will be in the nominations for ISML 2010 for sure. Reimu, Ayu, and Sayuri are in the running with 6 wins each (the latter 2 had ties meaning less losses). The rest are pretty much out, although Hayate and Misuzu Kamio have 5 wins each.

I think out of these Mikoto has the best chance of actually being in ISML. My guess is that Ayu and Sayuri will be the other two characters to be eligible for nomination unless they lose and Reimu wins. I won’t know who they’re up against until the match gets closer.

Exhibition. It was close, but Misuzu Kusakabe wins. Hopefully the next exhibition matchup will be between characters I know.

Next: Championship match: Shana vs. Hinagiku (last match if Hinagiku wins), Relegation, possible exhibition

Source: ISML

ARENA 01: [Sakagami Tomoyo] Shana

ARENA 02: Fujibayashi Kyō [Fate Testarossa]

ARENA 03: Chii [Vita]

ARENA 04: Minase Nayuki [Evangeline McDowell]

ARENA 05: Kurata Sayuri [Kawasumi Mai]

ARENA 06: Index Prohibitorum [Hakurei Reimu]

ARENA 07: Katagiri Yūhi [Louise Vallière]

ARENA 08: [Misaka Mikoto] Yagami Hayate

ARENA 09: [Tsukimiya Ayu] Kamio Misuzu

ARENA 10: Kusakabe Misuzu [Abstained] Ikaros

Elimination match. Today will be the last matchup before the championship match. We have Shana against Tomoyo. Let’s have a look back on their past tournament history:

Shana (SnS)

• Anime Saimoe: 3rd place 2006 (Lost to champion Suiseiseki), 11th place 2007 (Lost to runner-up Nagi Sanzenin), 14th place 2008 (Lost to Tamaki Kawazoe)
• Best Moe: 4th place 2006 (Lost to champion Suiseiseki), runner-up 2007 (Lost to champion Hinagiku Katsura), 4th place 2008 (Lost to champion Horo)
• Champion of Super Best Moe 2006-07
• ISML: 6th place 2008 (59-4, 2-2), 2008 Aquamarine necklace winner
• 2009: Ranked #1 (62-1, 3-1), losses: Tomoyo, Hinagiku; Sapphire necklace winner

Tomoyo Sakagami (Clannad)

• Anime Saimoe: 7th place 2008 (Lost to champion Kagami Hiiragi), Round 2 loss to Ayumi Nishizawa 2009
• Best Moe: 7th place 2008 (Lost to Kyou Fujibayashi), 36th place 2009 (lost to Horo)
• ISML: 7th place 2008 (60-3)
• 2009: Ranked #3 (58-5, 5-1), losses: Kyou (reg.), Nagisa, Kotomi, Hinagiku (reg.), Yuki (reg.), Hinagiku (Championship); Aquamarine necklace winner

Past Matches:

• ISML 2008 Topaz 3 (4/26/2008)- Tomoyo 263, Shana 254
• ISML 2009 Aquamarine 9 (4/3/2009)- Tomoyo 1411, Shana 1306

Seems to me that Shana has more successes than Tomoyo, but Tomoyo has beaten Shana before. She’s one of only two characters to beat her this year (the other being Hinagiku). I say that Shana has the advantage here with the new OVA and the fact she has a better record, but Tomoyo can very well beat her again for the third straight time.

Although I said I would go for Shana all the way, I’m probably going for Tomoyo, my favorite from Clannad. This could also be because there’s no winning streak for Shana to extend now. Anyways, I’ll be satisfied with whoever wins. Either way, I think Hinagiku will win no matter who wins this one seeing how she has already beaten both of them (Shana once, Tomoyo twice).

-

5th place match: Kyou vs. Fate. Fate is win. I’m going for her over Kyou, but either way, they are already out.

Others: Relegation matches are still going. I will post the final results as the last round finishes. For once, I’m going for Louise. Glad Mikoto’s doing well.

For the exhibition match, I am going to abstain from that since I do not know Misuzu nor Ikaros since I do not watch or plan to watch 11eyes and Sora no Otoshimono. The past matches have been a character I don’t know vs. one I do know. Now I don’t know both of them.

Source: ISML

C’est assez difficile à faire comme liste, étant donné que beaucoup n’ont qu’un grand manga à leur actif. Voilà pourquoi je limite cette liste à 5 noms, qui représentent une sorte de best of.

Le détail des noms sera bien moins détaillé que mes autres listes, étant donné que les informations manquent, mais je mettrai au moins leur plus grands hits. Ne vous attendez pas à de monstrueuses surprises mais je suis sûr que vous connaissez tous les noms ou presque

Sans plus attendre, les gagnants sont:

- Kei Toume: ca vous étonne, n’est-ce pas? ^^ Je ne la présente plus et si vous voulez une liste de ses mangas, je vous renvoie à l’article consacré à cette mangaka de génie.

- Tsukasa Hojo: la non plus pas de surprise. Le maitre des maitres, au dessin parfait. Je vous renvoie aussi à son article.

- Clamp: un groupe de 4 femmes, aux mangas touchants, enfantin et sérieux à la fois. Leurs plus grands titres sont: Chobits, XXXHolic, Tsubasa Réservoir Chronicle, Card Captor Sakura, X.

- Yua Kotegawa: manga méconnu en France mais d’un talent certain comme le prouve Détenu 042, l’excellent Arcana ou encore Anne Freaks. Je vous encourage à découvre ses oeuvres.

- Tetsuya Tsutsui: habitué aux one-shot, c’est un grand déjà.. Je citerai les très bons Duds Hunt, Reset ou encore Manhole.

Il y a d’autres mangakas de talent comme Kentaro Miura (Berserk), Shin Takahashi (Larme Ultime) mais ils n’ont qu’un seul hit à leur actif pour le moment. Si par un miracle ils parviennent à refaire un manga aussi bon, je gage qu’ils feront partis de mon top 5.

The runner-up of last year is eliminated. Tomoyo defeats Yuki limiting her only to 4th place. Next, she gets to take on Shana. Three characters remain in the tournament.

Taiga beats Kagami again. After a 3 point win in Best Moe, Taiga beats 3rd place of last year Kagami by less than 50. She finishes with 7th place while Kagami gets 8th.

Kurimu pounds that Kampfer girl by over 500 votes. In the exhibition match, Seno was no match for Kurimu. Can Kurimu become a contestant of ISML 2010? Looks possible, even with the reduction to 50 characters.

Next up: Elimination Round 6: Shana vs. Tomoyo, 5th place match: Fate vs. Kyou, other matches.

Source: ISML

Not exactly what I would have expected. I think this episode showcase too much service which made me feel uncomfortable on how Shinbo manages to have sex with Shimizu in the end.

They should have cut out that scene, it’s too suggestive and doesn’t imply anything. To get married doesn’t necessarily mean sex.

Shana’s winning streak has ended at 57. Hinagiku upsets Shana sending her to the loser’s bracket. I’m disappointed, but I gotta hand it to Hinagiku who ranks 11th. Hinagiku may be favored to take the tiara now that she secured her spot in the finals. I think the only way for her to lose is for her to lose the championship match twice.

However, Shana’s not out yet. If she can win in the loser’s bracket against Yuki or Tomoyo (the only other character to beat her in the entire tournament), she can earn a rematch against Hinagiku. Shana is my favorite to win by the way. She has also been sparked just now because of the recent OVA.

As of now, there are only 4 characters left fighting for the tiara with Hina most favored. How will this finish?

Picks: Shana > Hinagiku > Tomoyo > Yuki (sorry.)

Predictions: Hinagiku > Shana > Yuki > Tomoyo

Haruhi takes 9th place as she defeats Rin by a large amount. Go Haruhi! So Rin takes 10th, Mikuru takes 11th, and Suigintou takes 12th.

Finally, Kobato wins the exhibition matchup. That’s all good. I originally voted for Kuroko, but recently I started watching Kobato, and I liked what I saw. Actually, I would have voted for Kobato if I watched earlier.

Next up: Yuki vs. Tomoyo in elimination, Taiga vs. Kagami for 7th (rematch of Best Moe finals?), and others

Source: ISML

ARENA 01: [Shana] Katsura Hinagiku

ARENA 02: [Suzumiya Haruhi] Tōsaka Rin

ARENA 03: Suigintou [Asahina Mikuru]

ARENA 04: [Misaka Mikoto] Louise Vallière

ARENA 05: [Index Prohibitorum] Minase Nayuki

ARENA 06: Evangeline McDowell [Kurata Sayuri]

ARENA 07: Chii [Kawasumi Mai]

ARENA 08: [Hakurei Reimu] Vita

ARENA 09: Yagami Hayate [Kamio Misuzu]

ARENA 10: Katagiri Yūhi [Tsukimiya Ayu]

ARENA 11: Hanato Kobato [Shirai Kuroko]

Not many matches today now that where heading towards the final matches. Today, the main focus is on Shana vs. Hinagiku. I heard they met before in the finals of Best Moe 2007 with Hinagiku winning by 2. I’ll be cheering for Shana here to continue her winning streak. It’s been six months since she lost!

Other than that, we have our 9th place match. I hope Haruhi will win here, but I bet Rin will grab 9th. Thanks again to Taiga for eliminating her. Also cheering for Mikuru for 11th place.

Lastly, we have our exhibition match between two characters from the current season. I’ve only seen Railgun so far, but not Kobato. However, I may choose to watch soon since it may have potential. Probably very soon. For now, I’ll have to go with Kuroko on this one, but I think she’ll lose here.

Again, go Shana! And sorry Hinagiku…still love you though.

Source: ISML

BREAKING: Fate is eliminated from the tournament. Yuki defeats Fate this time around, and now it is guaranteed that there will be a new champion this year. The best Fate can do now is get 5th place.

Also, Tomoyo advances after eliminating Kyou who will be fighting Fate for 5th. In the 9th place match, I’ll just say that it is going as expected, unfortunately.

Don’t have much to say about the later rounds. This exhibition match wasn’t interesting to me at all, although Sango lost. She may be my favorite Inuyasha female character, but she pales in comparison to a lot of characters.

Source: ISML

More consistent watching of Chobits, I hope. Let’s pray this is one of the older animes that I actually will complete these past few months. I have been purchasing or downloading animes that I do not watch eventually. Crest of the Stars series and Irresponsible Captain Tylor are all considered dropped. The reason why I download them was because they resembled the plot for Macross and Gundam. Two of the best romance and mecha shows ever that I have watched are SDF Macross and Gundam SEED Trilogy. Deep down, I hope to watch something similar but my stinge on finding one similar has been pretty much fruitless. However, there’s Gundam unicorn coming soon although it is going to be released as animated films.

Anyway, for Chobits, it is a 2002 anime. I am not very impressed with the show because the artwork, even though it’s by Clamp, isn’t as beautiful as I thought. In contrast, Ai Yori Aoshi features more superior artwork many times better. The plot is also superior to Chobits. But, I can’t deny the fact that Chobits has originality and the show has received numerous praises for it’s issues regarding humans and persocomns. I will keep persisting on to follow the show till the end. I should also force myself, some of this day, to actually complete Aishiteruze Baby. This show has been the longest show I have spent on to day. It’s been spanning for more than 6 months, and I can’t even remember which episode I stopped at. I feel guilty as Gundam SEED and Destiny with a combined 100 episodes saw me finishing it within a month. Well, talk about a poorly organised watching schedule.

Chobits 14 deals with more revelations about Chi’s identity and her uniqueness as compared to other persocomns. The fact that she doesn’t get water inside her after going for a dive in the sea is certainly not normal. But well, i’m sure more will be revealed soon. In other areas, episode 14 is the beach episode which every typical anime must have. It must have started the trend since 2002 and is even continuing till now. But this does not mean Onsen and Beach episodes originate and become popular fan service plots in 2002. Other older animes like Kimagure and Ranma 1/2 have already had these fan service.

There is no way I like this girl!
You got it all wrong!

OMG. The character interactions between Kobato and Fujimoto have been so cute so far. I can’t help but remember my days of watching Cardcaptor Sakura in November 2004. I’m rather disappointed that I didn’t have much to say about it then. Regardless, I loved it and found it a solid show. I loved the character interactions and among my favorites were those between Sakura and Shaoran. It is just cute how Shaoran starts out so combative towards Sakura thinking nothing of her. She is only competition for him. At school he’s always degrading Sakura and making fun of her. But by the end of the series they get together in one of my favorite scenes in anime.

Absolutely cute.

CLAMP should really just disband and do character designs or whatever they’ve been doing lately with their involvement with Code Geass and other anime. CLAMP used to make some awesome stuff.

I said that back in May 2008 with my disgusted reactions to watching Tsubasa Chronicles. This has changed watching Kobato. I can’t help but feel nostalgia watching Kobato. Honestly, it is the first CLAMP work since CCS that I’ve really taken a liking to. Chobits was decent and I absolutely hated Tsubasa Chronicles which was in part due to Bee Train producing it.

Regardless, I just couldn’t like the meek and humble Shaoran. He was horrible. Sakura was flat. What was with those two guys, and the talking Mokona…? Don’t get me started. Just read my rants about the show if you’re interested.

Watching Kobato and Fujimoto interact I’m remind of Sakura and Shaoran. Sure they don’t fight and argue as much as those kids, but they’re older. Still it’s absolutely cute! Kobato is just this amazingly cheerful and a stylish dresser while Fujimoto is this Suzaku Kurugi clone with long hair and glasses. Don’t be fooled because he is just as aloof and female lead degrading as Shaoran. I can’t wait to see the romance kick into gear and the H doujins between these two. These two are the pair I wanted to see in Tsubasa Chronicles but didn’t.

CLAMP brought the girl in me out 5+ years ago with stuff like Rayearth, and Cardcaptor Sakura. During the times characters got together, I couldn’t help but KYAA over and over while watching such shows. It was cute then and it’s cute now with Kobato. I am happy that I don’t have to degrade CLAMP anymore. Now get to finishing X already! …please.