It’s already December 23rd (24th in the eastern hemisphere), and Christmas is creeping up. You have to buy a present for an otaku. Being unfamiliar with otaku lifestyle, the normal person is left in the dark and simply gives gift cards or cash. With a little help from yours truly, we will take a peek into the inner workings of what otaku crave. Instead of giving a present that will be exchanged, you will have the knowledge to get something that will be cherised for years to come. This post has content that some readers may find both objectionable and arousing. Curious readers proceed. Take heed that this is your last chance to turn back.

Note from the author: This post is not meant to be taken seriously nor do I condone holiday shopping to line the pockets of greedy corporations. It’s your money so do whatever you want.

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As the strange girl from last time leaves the store, she tosses a charm that she was going to steal back to Tamaki at the counter. She leaves an ominous message that she will return another time to see Miya. Kojirou returns home to his parents’ grocery store and finds out that they are struggling just to get by on a daily basis. His mom gives him some nearly expired food from the store for dinner and also asks that he help out for the night. An unreasonable customer approaches Kojirou’s mom and demands a product that is no longer produced. He is told that the store can’t do anything about the situation and he walks out angry. Kojirou’s mom tells her son that unreasonable situations are just a part of life and have to be accepted.

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Episode 7:

Akari receives a check-up at the Wizard hospital and visits a comatose friend that helped to save the world in the past. She returns to Eris’s apartment and the gang throws a welcoming party since she will also be staying there to protect Eris. Kureha teases Eris for writing letters to her adopted uncle. Renji makes a ruckus outside and Kureha drags him to the bathroom to clean himself. Kirihito shows up on the balcony and checks on the progress of the jewel recovery mission. Kureha returns and Kirihito disappears and mysteriously as he arrived. Naturally bathroom hijinks ensue when Eris unknowingly walks in on Renji in the buff.

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Don’t stay up late playing games all night. Common sense right? Now I remember why I try to not play too many RPGs. With no school obligation to worry about, countless hours are lost trying to “just gain one more level” or “finishing one more quest before calling it quits”. So when I say an anime post will go up, it definitely will once I finish power leveling.

In somewhat related news, the Final Fantasy IV DS trailer looks downright amazing. Now to wait for FFV and FFVI to eventually get their remakes.

The very definition of a sleeper hit, first-person puzzler Portal from Valve’s The Orange Box unexpectedly gained massive critical acclaim and a sizable fan following after the release of the new compilation this year. Though it may just as easily have slipped under the radar, Portal has instead become the pick of the litter, attracting nearly universal praise, including glowing words from notoriously harsh Escapist Magazine reviewer Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, and inspiring discussion not only on its gameplay but even on how it could be a feminist critique of FPSes. With the year in gaming concluding, Portal is finishing strong and getting named on a lot of best-of lists for its strong style, darkly humorous bent, and ingeniously simple mechanics. Pretty outstanding for a puzzle game bundled with hallmark franchises such as Half-Life and Team Fortress and based around the idea that people like cake.

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After being inactive in two different games for quite some time, I’ve come back to play these giant time sinks. No, one of them is not WoW. It’s the text-based browser adventure Kingdom of Loathing. The game has this year’s Christmas themed area up that is just chock full of Christmas parody goodness. The other game that’s been eating my time is Pokemon Diamond. I just finished up the Elite Four battle, so it’s time to get down to EV training for the new areas.

On the anime front, I also watched the Air movie a couple days ago. Toei actually did a pretty good job on their take of the story. There was some interesting art direction for key scenes in the movie too. A recommended watch to all the Air fans out there that haven’t seen it.

I plan to do a batch Night Wizard write up and finish up a couple articles that have been sitting on my wordpad.

As a note - The posts I’ve been making for the series were in general to try out different styles of blogging. I’m still not sure if I’ve got the hang of it, but I’ll just make a close with a bumper spoiler-free review for Dennou Coil.

Dennou Coil - A Circle of Children.

Well, what can I say. First of, this series is directed by the Japanese animator Mitsuo Iso, and is his debut series as a director. He has done several high-profile animations in movies and serieses such as Evangelion and Rahxephon, as well as being known for his unique animation style which focuses on a large number of keyframes while minimizing the use of in-betweeners. This results in a highly-detailed animation with dense and sophisticated movements.

Anyway, on to the show itself. It’s shown in a generally prime-time slot in Japan with a large number of high-profile animators taken in to do the job. To put things simply - This is high-budget stuff. Music, sound effects, heck, this thing is pretty much touted to have the best animation in a series of 2007 outside of Seirei no Morobito.

Character design? It may take awhile to get used to, but once I finished the first episode or so, I was hooked. I simply couldn’t see it working with a more realistic character design - It fits in with the whimsical nuances that the series encircles. It’s also one of those things where they trade detail and realism for ease of animation, I suppose - Remember those old Hanna-Barbara cartoons? They had a ridiculous amount of exagerrated motion, which was thanks to the simplistic designs used at the time.

In terms of plot, now there’s something interesting. Dennou Coil opens with a mostly world-enforcing first half, helping the viewers get a general idea of the world with the multiple facets within, and the few story-based episodes serve as a general teaser of what’s to come and helping to build characterizations of the various characters involved. In the second half, the story kicks into high gear and we’re thrown into a massive roller-coaster ride - A far cry from the pace of the first half. And not only that - The story just keeps ramping higher and higher, upping the ante each time for the final climatic episodes. While several viewers have voiced how they might have preferred the first half for the uniqueness and freshness, I found myself in the camp who greatly appreciated the change of pace in the second half - I found it to be the main reason why I like Dennou Coil so much. Of course, it might also have to do with them suddenly pulling the rug out from under you, and you find yourself realizing that the cozy world you have been introduced to was in fact just the tip of the iceberg. It really wouldn’t be fair for me to say any more about the plot - It really is something to be seen and experienced for oneself as the whole series.

Overall, I think this was probably the most creative series I’ve seen out there. It was able to create a unique world and protray itself and its characters in a convincing manner, as well as showing that it was able to carry out the different types of storytelling with aplomb. As such it has wormed its way into my top 3 list, and will probably stay there for a long time to come.

Final score: 99 out of 105 possible Metatag constructs.

Source: ASOS Brigade website; Link to the trailer

Doesn’t sound too bad for a dub. North American viewers anticipating the TV dub should probably keep their eyes tuned to Adult Swim for the schedule announcement.

We see the first meeting between Hoshi and Kitajima five years ago as the latter is out shopping at a department store with Yonamine. Nanami Hoshi introduces herself as Kitajima’s new subordinate thus starting their supposed friendship. Fast-forwarding to where the previous episode left off, Hoshi radios Garnet, knocks out Kitajima, and takes Album into Gillard custody.

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Kojiro gives his dear old mother a call after receiving the package and decides that it’s time to return home for a visit. He also has an argument about with her about her cooking skills but that’s beside the point. Tamaki keeps herself busy at the part-time job by thinking about club activities and how things are going without her. Satori enters the store and Tama greets her rather awkwardly. With the owner keeping a watchful eye on her, Tama makes the sale and convinces Satori to buy two study charms. Shortly after Satori leaves, Kojiro enters the store to buy a gift for his mom. He tells Tama to come to the club when she has the time.

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