…Specifically, me doubting that Eden of the East would have a great OP…

Read the rest of this entry »

The first installment of the Spring 09 Impressions will cover the first four shows of the spring season I’ve watched, which would be the vintage Dragonball Kai, moe driven K-ON, action-thriller Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~, and the anime adaptation of hit SRPG, Valkyria Chronicles. First impressions are a fickle thing really. You only get one, and although they really aren’t a true determinant to how good a show is, it’s still important to leave a good impression to keep us coming back. So without further ado, let’s kick off Wolf Hurricane’s first batch o’ impressions.

Read the rest of this entry »

Nobody ever expects… The Gallian Inquisition!

Noirsword:
The first episode of the semi-anticipated Valkyria Chronicles anime was pretty good. So far it’s deviated from the game’s script a bit but remains a faithful adaptation while expanding on some minor points here and there. The majority of this episode consisted of Alicia hounding Welkin, thinking him to be an Imperial spy, and Welkin gradually winning over her trust, all the while Imperial soldiers continued on the warpath towards the small border town of Bruhl. This subplot was drawn out just a bit, but it’s understandable that you can’t trust outsiders in a war, especially when they’re conspicuously scribbling in a notebook. (I mean, it could be some kind of otherworldy killing device, right? – Meultima)

Read the rest of this entry »

Episode 23:
We return to the school life portion of the story, a year before Tomoya and Nagisa met, with Tomoya beginning his junior year and Nagisa her first senior year. The shy Nagisa desires to make some new friends but is tentative about being proactive. Meanwhile our two favorite delinquents, Tomoya and Sunohara, are forced to make welcome signs for the new freshmen with their class rep, Kyou, as punishment for trying to sneak out of class.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, I’m very much a passionate music fanatic. Can’t you tell? I’m also a big animation and image composition fan, and in my opinion, a good OP is one that combines fantastic visuals and a great track, with superb coordination to bring out the best of both worlds. It’s why I feel disappointed if an OP has a great track but subpar animation, though there are exceptions to this little bit of causality. Now let’s have a brief rundown on what’s the best this season has to offer… So far.

Read the rest of this entry »

The epic space opera, Tytania. A tale of the intergalactic power struggle between the mighty Tytania clan and the unassuming yet charismatic rebel, Fan Hyulick, the universe’s sole beacon of hope against the oppressive Tytania regime. There were space battles aplenty, but the real focus was on character motivations and lots of political maneuvering. The readers are already crying out, “Oh no, politics!”, but politics can actually be… Interesting. With the conclusion of Tytania’s first season, I wanted to talk about various aspects of the show from the characters to various plot points.

Read the rest of this entry »

I love American comics. When saying this, I always try to make it clear that this doesn’t mean Spider-Man and Batman. The long-running Marvel and DC superhero series all have their fine moments worth reading, of course (I highly recommend works such as Batman: Year One, Superman: Red Son and the Marvel 1602 miniseries). But their mythologies have never interested me much simply because there’s so much of it! I’m sure it’s not any hurdle to really throw myself in to the comics if I wanted to, but I love a good starting point; I like to read from the beginning to the end or the most recent volume, uninterrupted, without having to do more than pick up a trade paperback. Laziness? Absolutely. But there’s plenty of works for me to sink my teeth into so I feel no guilt over my sloth–I just finished Y: the Last Man, I’ve devoured most of Hellboy, and I plan to start on Image Comics’s Invincible at some point. Which brings me, in a roundabout way, to a comic that matches this profile to a tee–high quality, compact but masterfully crafted mythology, and a series run that’s notable, but not daunting. I speak, of course, of Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo. Quick and Dirty/why it’s not furry after the jump.

Usagi Yojimbo's author prides himself on historical accuracy. Except when awesome.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sengoku Basara and Asuka Cryin’.

Okaaay, that little dance jig number with Basara was Not Expected/10. Also, seems Asuka Cryin’ is made by Nanoha folks. Well, certainly has the whole School People With Special Powers thing which I didn’t really expect from the very sparse initial summaries. Not Sure If Want either of these. Thoughts, guys?

Hmm, at this point, I’m not really sure what OPs I’m looking forward to. I’m not sure Eden of the East will be the sort of thing to have an amazing OP, but you can never be too sure. Shangri-La was pretty much one of the ones which I expected to have the better OP sequences, and it wasn’t too bad, I guess. Well, onto more leaks and whatnot.
Adieu, Meu out!

Details at Moetron here, along with the OP itself.

The song is not bad, though only the full version will tell if it’s anything special. Still, some inconsistencies with the boomerang size worry me. Anywhoo, that’s the first leaked spring OP, though it airs in like three days anyways so it’s a moot point.

So what we can learn from the OP:

1: Lolis run the show. Seriously, there’s a girl with a boomerang, what appears to be a Tian Zi clone, and some chick with a teddy bear who seems to be in charge of some giant mainframe thing. I ‘unno.

2: In the future, we will have lots of mime-tranvestites. Or at least, poorly attempted ones.

3: Tanks blow up when they get their cannons sliced by a boomerang.

Another April Fool’s Day, another day of pranks and outrageous hoaxes, and yet another birthday for me. Since this post has been automated to post at midnight, I don’t have a comprehensive list of this year’s best hoaxes from the US. Maybe I would if I had the ability to leap through time, but I already used all my jumps on other trivial things like oatmeal cookies and parachute pants. As a consolation prize, here’s a small sample of otaku related hoaxes for your enjoyment.

So anyway, happy birthday to me. Old Noirsword is old and broken.

Edit: One more. Have a Star Radish. I also wanted to post a link to the PC-98ish retro Idolmaster prank, but it’s already been taken down. I wish the Japanese otaku hoaxes would be kept up a bit longer, but most of them have been taken down already.