Don’t worry, she won’t bite. But a hard jab in the solar plexus can’t be ruled out entirely . . .

From Wolf Hurricane, our very best wishes to all in the new year.

Diego adds to the festive cheer by opening the covers of a splendid stocking stuffer: ARIA the Illustration – Avvenire, a compilation of artwork related to the ARIA anime series.

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Diego briefly escapes from the drudgery of the white-collar salt mines to bring you another review. Today, the spotlight falls on Cielo – the last in a three-volume series of hardbound books featuring the manga art of ARIA author and illustrator Amano Kozue.

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Put ya Nekomimi Modo on!

Two episode impression

When the words ‘cat’ and ‘anime’ usually cross paths, the result is more often than not a cat girl of some sort. I’m the odd man out when I say they’ve always weirded me out, even before furry awareness hit our stream of consciousness. Ugh… Creepy… Disgusting… Cat girls. At any rate, anime do feature cats in some way or another with regularity, but very few have actually put them in a starring role. There’s Chi’s Sweet Home and Nyan Koi… And that’s it. Before I get distracted even more, let’s move on to the Nyan Koi impressions.

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This isn’t the real title screen, but this one is more interesting.

Two episode impression

I’ve been craving a good reference-laden comedy for a while. Hayate S2 and Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei are still fresh in my memory, but neither really satisfied the craving. Hayate S2 had small flashes of reference-comedy but was otherwise a shadow of the first season with regards to referential humor. Zetsubou Sensei has been slipping since the second season and just doesn’t have the same impact it used to. Seitokai no Ichizon (The Student Council’s Judgment) bills itself as a reference-comedy series, but is it a contender or a pretender?

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Kobato, Dobato, Kobato, Dobato.

Two episode impression

I’ve never liked anything CLAMP, and it doesn’t look like Kobato is going to change that opinion.

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Mamiko Noto plays a shy, submissive girl? What a twist.

Two episode impression

School-life romance shoujo aren’t my thing. I don’t know what compelled me to pick up Kimi ni Todoke, seeing as it falls precisely into that genre, but I’m glad I did because this is a bloody brilliant show. Wow, just wow.

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Come for the boob armor, stay for the Mugi Elf.

Two episode impression

Umm, I wanted to write something about Seiken no Blacksmith (The Sacred Blacksmith), but Cecily’s boob armor distracted me and made me lose my train of thought. Boob armor. Boob armor. Boob armor…

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I’m more of a Gouf man, but a Kampfer is fine too.

Two episode impression

Oh Japan, you’re so silly with your various fascinations and strange fetishes, though the blatant obsession with all things German still mystifies me. I’m convinced everyone in Japan is a closet Germanophile at heart. In their defense, Germany is a pretty cool country though. Any country that can give us apple strudel and the most dangerous racetrack known to man gets a thumbs up in my book. This brings us to Kampfer, one of the latest anime to throw around German words like no one’s business without having anything else remotely German in it.

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Railgun go boom.

Two Episode Impression

So… Toaru Kagaku no Railgun is a spin-off of Toaru Majutsu no Index focusing on the less interesting members of the cast er… The scientific side of Academy City. As much as I loved Biribiri-chan in Index, an entire spin-off revolving around her and the super annoying Kuroko is suspect. Index itself was a snooze fest at times, which doesn’t bode well for the spin-off. I want to like it. There’s plenty of silliness, shoujo-ai elements and Large Hadron Collider Tsundere Rail Gun action, but the show’s been fairly blah in the first two episodes. Newcomers Saten and Uihara don’t help matters much as they don’t have much personality so far either.

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