The 28th of February 2009 is the first annual Global Shinkai Day. Anime enthusiasts from all over the world are encouraged to take part in the event by watching the noted animation director Shinkai Makoto‘s films and joining the discussions at the fan forum Cherry Blossoms Falling.

To mark the event, Crunchyroll is currently streaming three of Shinkai’s major works: Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days and 5 Centimeters Per Second. A new dub of 5 Centimeters Per Second will be shown for the very first time today, featuring a different cast from that of the English dub commissioned by ADV for its now out-of-print R1 DVD release.

As part of the February Round Robin, I’ll take a serious look at the many nuances of the lolita complex. This post will remain mostly serious in nature and is fairly lengthy. Grab a Cherry Coke and make yourself comfortable. tl;dr territory ahoy!

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In this edition of Anime Impressions we feature the Winter 2009 lineup. Contained within are impressions on Akikan, Asu no Yoichi, Kurokami, Maria Holic, RideBack, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai and Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou. Some may call this post late, nay, very late. I say that I’ve had enough time to adequately gauge these shows because I didn’t rush to do impressions after only one episode. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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With the promise of getting to meet Leopard, Itsuki and Soldier UL join Akiha, Honoka and Imo in infiltrating the St. Artemis Rehabilitation Center on the moon to retrieve the part for Leopard, all the while the aforementioned Leopard hosts a very fabulous radio show dedicated to himself. In response, the ICP leaders send our two favorite bumbling ninjas to the scene to stop Akiha and company.

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I wasn’t originally planning to do a Valentine’s Day post but I figured, “Hey, why not? I could always use an excuse to write a filler post because of my sporadic schedule that doesn’t always allow time to write on the blog”. So here we are, another Valentine’s Day and a post to commemorate it. I also just wanted to post this Taiga picture too. So there’s two excuses for this pointless post. Maybe I’ve been watching too much school romance anime lately, but how nice would it be to get homemade chocolates from a cute (preferably tsundere) girl? Sigh…

Well I finally got some semblance of a free day yesterday, and I’ve been catching up with my anime schedule. My much belated winter impressions should be up soon. Maybe. I’ve also been trying to catch up on Clannad After Story and Toradora after falling behind by 6 episodes for both shows. Perhaps I’ve subconsciously been putting off Clannad After Story because I know it’s going to depress the hell out of me. I was getting teary eyed just from episode 13, and I know it’s going to make me cry a river of manly tears in a couple episodes. Nuuuuuuu! As for falling behind on Toradora, I really don’t know why. I suppose I’ve been losing interest in it ever since the school festival arc.

As tempted as I am to bash Valentine’s Day, I’ll be nice and wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day. In the meantime, I’ll continue to long for some homemade chocolates from a cute (preferably tsundere) girl. Sigh.

Space, the final frontier. The vast unknown, the only realm that still remains mostly unexplored by modern man is a popular subject for various aspects of popular culture. Space is a popular subject, and the setting is ingrained in television and movies from the famous Star Trek and Star Wars franchises to slews of TV shows ranging from obscure to slightly less obscure in today’s popular culture.

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What does it take to turn this . . .

. . . into this?

Watch the 2006 Japanese comedy series Attention Please and find out.

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