Haruka invites Yuuto to her house to study for the upcoming final exams. He gets lost following a crudely drawn map to her house but fortunately receives help from a random loli who gives him directions. The girl runs off saying she’ll see Yuuto later, leaving our protagonist a bit dumbfounded.

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Oh Goodsmile Company, why must you tempt me with the first Nendoroid I actually kind of want. I try to get out but keep getting dragged back in. Looking at new figures is definitely not healthy for a recovering figure addict… GSC will let you create your own Shanatan adventures (complete with interchangeable parts, extra accessories, and melonpan) this November for a cool 3500 yen.

Super Robots are one of the oldest and most well-loved genres in anime and manga. You’ll be hard pressed to find a serious anime fan who doesn’t have a favorite super robot or someone who didn’t grow up as a child cheering on their favorite bot as he wrecked the aspirations of some evil king every afternoon. You might a super robot fan and not even know it as many of the old Japanese shows made their way to the U.S. under different names such as the Force Five cartoon anthology which featured the American versions of Getter Robo G, Gaiking, UFO Robot Grendizer and Dangard Ace, and of course there’s the American classic Voltron which has just been released in its original form of Beast King Golion. The novelty even spread to other shows like Transformers as the idea of “combining” into a greater force became a mainstay of the toy line and eventually the show as kids had to hunt down every Constructicon, Stunticon, Aerialbot, etc. to make giant Transformers that towered over the rest of their collection. Even now, the super robot genre is alive and well as some of the most popular shows of the day feature hot-blooded protagonists and their mecha and hardly a season of anime goes by without a TV or OVA remake of an old classic. But what about this genre makes it so popular?

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While browsing the early list of fall shows, nothing pops out at me besides Clannad: After Story, Toradora!, and maybe ef - a tale of melodies. Anticipation for Clannad is very high. Toradora is yet another light novel with the tired ‘guy meets girl/s’ premise (Haruhi, Shana, Zero no Tsukaima, Haruka Nogizaka) but hey, I’m a sucker for these. I may check out the next iteration of ef if Miyako Miyamura either gets no screen time or drops dead. Ugh. Damn Miyako.

I see a bunch of sequels to shows I didn’t watch or dropped, so those are automatically off my list. Let’s cross off Jigoku Shoujo, Gundam 00, Rosario to Vampire, Junjou Romantica, Nodame Cantabile, and Vampire Knight. I may pick up and finish the first season of Nodame Cantabile in time to see the sequel, so that omission isn’t set in stone. The rest still get a very apathetic shrug. So what else does that leave us with? Not much. Aside from all the sequels that loyal fans will watch no matter what, the new shows aren’t exactly awe inspiring. Fall season is supposed to be, you know, more exciting than this.

This week we feature the lovely Kotori Shirakawa from the Da Capo franchise. While plain by current eroge standards, any otaku worth their beans should still know who Kotori is. I don’t care what the canon story says, because she was obviously the correct choice. Well whatever. I won’t turn this into a Nemu Asakura rant. Pics after the jump.

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The sidebar is getting dangerously long, so it’s time to dedicate a page exclusively for the blogroll and other links. The very thought of annotations gives me horrible flashbacks to many English classes that I mostly slept through or skipped altogether. Writing the annotated blogroll isn’t as easy as it looks and will take some time to finish. Episode blogging will commence as usual but articles will be pushed back while I hammer this out.

If you want a blogroll spot then tell me now. You can still ask any time you want, but I’m only going to add links in bunches after this is done.

Haruka invites Yuuto to accompany her to Akihabara on Sunday. After thinking it over and remembering a prior bad experience with Nobunaga, Yuuto obliges since it’s Haruka after all. Yuuto and Haruka follow a route she planned to take them around the entire district with the objective of buying a Portable Dream Station console at the end of the day.

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Kara no Kyoukai’s third chapter takes the story to July 1998. As is the norm in this series, more bizarre murders are happening in the city. On his way home one rainy evening Mikiya happens upon a girl named Fujino Asagami, and being the naive guy he is, he brings her home for the night. Meanwhile, Tohko and Shiki undertake a job to find the murderer and bring her back dead or alive.

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A very wealthy woman and her pet poodle, Sebastian, seem to be going for an early morning stroll by a lake only for the dog to become very irritated at something in the lake. He dives into the lake only to disappear while the owner screams for her pet as an eerie island hovers in the distance.

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Macross Frontier’s Ranka Lee has taken the entire otaku population by storm with the now infamous (ﾉゝ∀･)~キラ☆, which I will interchangeably replace with \m/. Two friends of Wolf Hurricane struck especially hard by this moe hurricane include Shin and C.I. If you can, please wish well for these two and everyone affected by Hurricane Ranka. All other otaku are advised to buckle down and wait for the storm to pass. And now Meu with sports…

Supporters of \m/ have been very vocal in expressing their love for this latest anime craze. All the naysayers, if there are any, are keeping quiet for fear of being lynched by mobs of Ranka fanboys. Even I’ll admit to liking this craze too. But I must ask, how long will \m/ hold up in this world of passing fads and internet memes? Does it have the lasting power to be remembered years after the show’s run (ie. Hare Hare Yukai), or is it destined to be forgotten and fade into obscurity as a moe gimmick?

The wager: (ﾉゝ∀･)~キラ☆ - \m/ will be forgotten a year from now.
The stakes: Absolutely nothing.