AlternateSam.com » Anime

Black Rock Shooter Anime Announced!

AlternateSam — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:19:55 +0000

Goodsmile has announced the release of the Black Rock Shooter anime on their website! It is due to be out on 30th September 2009.

Some screenshots:

This short animation will only be out on either DVD + CD for 1,260 Yen or BD (Blu-Ray) + CD for 1,890 Yen. Reservations will be made available starting in the next few days at a few online websites, Amazon.jp being one for starters.

Many other websites have also claimed that this short animation project is more like an OVA to an even bigger project if it proves successful. No idea whether if this is true or not.

Some background/trivia regarding Black Rock Shooter:

* Created by self-declared freeter Huke and made famous by the PV he did of the character. This led to a few artbooks and recording deals, such as the rather popular Supercell album.

* Black Rock Shooter (that’s the character name!) is often marketed as the vocaloid Hatsune Miku twin or clone depending on how you look at it. Most people view it as her being Hatsune Miku darker alter-ego.

* In Huke’s PV, she is shown using a katana (Blade Blade) as well as a big-assed gun called the Rock Cannon to fight off yet another evil character. Cue the kongfu moves and acrobatic kicks.

* In actual fact, Black Rock Shooter was created even before artwork of Hatsune Miku was out. This is not a widely known fact but its true that she was conceptualised even before Miku. However, Miku cornered the twin pig-tails heroine market before Black Rock Shooter was even released. It didn’t help that both characters look remarkably alike.

* She has a long scar on her tummy as well as a blue flamed left eye (don’t ask why ^^)

* Goodsmile has already announced a Black Rock Shooter PVC back in March this year. That’s how popular the character is. Most places had their allocated pre-orders snapped out pretty fast and I booked mine after much deliberation. The paintwork, sculpting and the excellent modelled base was just too tempting not to get. It is slated to be released in October 2009.

Black Rock Shooter – Theme

Animation screenshots via dannychoo.com

Spicy Wolf Manga

AlternateSam — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:51:13 +0000

Damn the wolf ! I have just started on the manga version of Spice and Wolf as the anime version of season II got me hopelessly addicted. The manga is slightly more in-depth with rather lucid economic theories being expressed, in a much clearer way with graphs and tables as compared to the anime. The artwork compared to the anime is also slightly different as well, with the changes probably coming in when it transitions from paper to screen. I guess I will be hunting around for the art books this Friday at Kinokuniya.

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode VI

AlternateSam — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 13:46:36 +0000

Wolf and Trustworthy God

-The price of the pyrite keeps going up and Lawrence believes that Holo is on Amati’s side, not his. He then received news that a town-merchant is interested to sell him his stock of pyrite to avoid profiting too much too obviously, and he then sold all his pyrite stock on hand but this only served to drive the price up as someone snapped them up promptly.

- Deanna’s messenger came and informed him that her negotiations failed so no assistance from her in the form of pyrite is going to come.

- In a last ditch effort, Lawrence sells the remaining pyrite stock he just acquired, and to his amazement, Holo turned out to be the one buying the pyrite from Deanna, and together they crashed the pyrite market by selling all their stock.

- Holo revealed that it was all a ploy to take Amati to the cleaners and she was upset that Lawrence even suspected her when he should trust that she was on his side throughout.

End of this story-arc and it was quite a heartwarming ending, with Holo blaming Lawrence for having insufficient trust in her and him admitting his fault. It turns out that Holo made numerous hints to Lawrence in order to assist him but in his confusion and panic, he over thought stuff and didn’t take note of them at all.

Lawrence proceeds to apologize to her sincerely and made a sorta confession to her about how he feels. It turns out that Holo also figured his plan from the start and was slightly impressed by it. She then searched Deanna out in the Alchemists’ Quarter and talked to her but was then interrupted by the arrival of Lawrence who was interested to purchase pyrite. This meant that she heard everything that he said about her being his ‘precious cargo’ and about his question on whether were there any previous instances of a pagan god taking a human as a mate.

Deanna turned out not to be human after all, but a large bird in human form (one of the pagan gods or animal spirits I guess, like Holo), which accounts for the many white feathers strewn on the floor in her house. Her back-story was that she had a relationship with a travelling priest and they worked a long time to build a church. However, the priest grew suspicious of her as she never did aged and that was the end of their relationship.

Holo declared that she wants to return to her homeland after all, even though it might no longer be existing. Both of them moved on to the town square as a couple to view the end of the festivities.

The last 10 minutes of this episode was sort of moe-overload with Holo presenting her sensitive and soft side, which I guess is the main reason why this anime is rather popular. Can’t complain though as I thought this was the best episode of the season so far, with an equal mix of revelation, thinking and story-line exploration as well as most importantly, character relationship development.

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode V

AlternateSam — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 10:34:21 +0000

Wolf and Hope and Despair

- Bartose helps Lawrence seeks out Deanna with a special passphrase.

- He found out and had a long discussion with her to sell him pyrite, only to find out that her stock of pyrite was already promised to someone else.

- Deanna, sensing his disappointment and his resolve to win, says that she will try to negotiate to get the pyrite back and so Lawrence leave, but not before asking the lorekeeper whether are there cases of pagan gods and humans becoming mates.

- Amati gives him 14 gold coins (the equivalent of 300 silver coins) to complete his part of the contract and its do-or-die for Lawrence now.

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode IV

AlternateSam — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 09:23:56 +0000

The show starts to pick up steam as the pace of the plot increases. Very very engaging.

Wolf and the End of Shallow Knowledge

- Lawrence figures out that the only way to beat Amati is to find a way to crash the iron-hot pyrite market.

- He approaches Amati after he finds out Holo has signed a marriage contract with him pending her guardian’s (Lawrence) permission, and negotiates a credit-trading contract which in effect upped the stakes between them

- Mark, his wheat-seller friend, is unable to help him so conspicuously to purchase enough pyrite to crash the market as it will affect his reputation as a town-stall merchant, as opposed to Lawrence who doesn’t need to care so much as he’s a travel merchant.

- However, Mark gives him a tip that the alchemists have a large stockpile of pyrite and he ought to head to them for help, which he does with great urgency.

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode III

AlternateSam — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:11:20 +0000

Wolf and the Unfilled Gap

- Amati declares in front of the entire merchants’ guild that he will pay off Holo’s ‘debt’ with 1,000 Trenni silver coins by the evening of the following day and make her a free person, who he thinks will then marry him in gratitude.

- Lawrence, having complete faith in Holo that she will remain by his side, accepts the contract, and then finds out that to raise the necessary funds, Amati is planning something that has to do with the pyrites.

- He returns to the inn to find out that Holo can read after all, and has read the letter about how Yoitsu was destroyed.

- Holo was devastated and upset that Lawrence has kept it a secret from her all this while, and started saying some weird stuff like how’s she alone once again, how’s he must be tired of her etc, hence Lawrence left the inn to get some air and give her some space.

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode II

AlternateSam — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:57:24 +0000

Wolf and the Calm Before the Storm

- Lawrence visits the Alchemist quarters, one of the few places they can live unmolested by the Church.

- He meets the Alchemists’ representative, Dian Rubens who confirmed his suspicions that the town of Yoitsu was destroyed long ago by a legendary “Moon-Hunting Bear”, and told him of a pagan story regarding Holo from long ago.

- He became very disturbed over what Holo said to him when he was leaving the inn and was jealous that Amati was spending the day with her.

- In the inn, Holo tells him about this normal rock which was the focus of a fortune-teller’s scam and Lawrence then received some news which made him rushed out of the Inn immediately.

The episode ends on a cliff-hanger and throughout the episode, the focus was on the growing bond between Lawrence and Holo. Lawrence slowly (very slowly) realizes that Holo might be more than a simple friend and how her presence has changed him. He hides the secret of Holo’s hometown being in ruins from her possibly to keep her from worrying, and this weighed down heavily on his conscious. He detests the burden that lying to her brings but decides to do it for the ‘greater good’.

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode I

AlternateSam — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:36:07 +0000

I finally got started with the second season of Spice and Wolf. The OVA or episode 00 was released last week and it was fairly interesting with the usual Spicy Wolf quirks. The animation studio team changed so that might explain the slight drop in animation quality, but however the positive side is that the series got brighter or more ‘lighted’ up in terms of the animation. Overall, I guess I just got to get used to the slightly different artwork.

Wolf and the Sudden Split

- Lawrence and Holo are travelling to a pagan city delivering nails when they meet a young, fairly successful trader called Fermi Amati who was very taken with by Holo and helped them as a result.

- Holo is disturbed when she keeps thinking about how the duration of Lawrence’s lifetime is but a blink of an eye to her.

- Lawrence is disturbed by how his friends are also aging and doing well with their own shops while he’s still a travelling merchant, despite arguably being a better merchant than them.

- This is compounded when he realized that Holo does not have a clear idea how to get back to Yoitsu, her hometown, and hence the journey might be quite long, so he informs her that he might not be able to follow her all the way, a statement which he promptly regrets uttering.

Spice and Wolf II -

OP : Mitsu no Yoake

ED : Perfect World

K-On! Episode 8 Summary

AlternateSam — Mon, 25 May 2009 05:40:58 +0000

K-ON! Episode 8 released. I’m probably starting a brief 4 sentence summary of any anime episodes I highlighted.

- Start of a new school year, and the K-On! girls get into separate classes with Mio all on her own.
- Ui’s friend, Azusa is slightly keen on the K-On! club.
- K-On! members desperately looking around for freshies to join them.
- Mio saved the day with her impromptu singing on stage and Azusa was moved by their reception.

K-On Madness Ahead! The Attack of the Goth-lolis

AlternateSam — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:29:09 +0000

I’m absolutely adoring those Goth-loli attire the K-On girls are wearing in the ED. At the best of times, I’m not really a fan of the goth-loli look but this setup with them on their instruments really took my breath away.

The episode 1 of the anime was out a few days ago and I just got round to watching it. Episode 1 for most anime tend to be rough around the edges due to introduction of characters being slightly dodgy as well as slight plot exposition and this series was no exception. However, I quite liked this series with its idea of 4 high school girls forming a band. Its quite funny and doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is a good thing after you are totally tired from the stuff you are doing IRL.

This light musical comedy series reminds me slightly of Haruhi Suzimiya and Lucky Star, which isn’t that surprising after you discover that the trio were all animated by the same firm – Kyoto Animations. The character designs in K-On is pretty good though, and I pretty much think it can only go up in terms of watchability and entertainment.

The 4 main character: the very enthusiastic Ritsu on drums, the mature and calm Mio on bass, the rich and friendly Tsumugi on keyboard and the definitely ditzy Yui all have a large dose of moe-ness attached to them and they attract their own (and sometimes similar) fangroups already. In fact, the Mio fanboys have the largest population now and they are currently raging around the interweb disputing with regards to their newly-found queen so its pretty entertaining to read about them.

Anyway, K-On looks like it will be a fun ride and at least I have a ‘replacement’ series now that Tora-dora is over. I have finished the first 4 chapters of the manga version of K-On and I can say the fun will continue at least until episode 4, which is where the standard fan service, bathing / onsen / beach episode will occur with the cast in their skimpy gear. Maybe some Queen’s Blade will suffice until then, eh? ^^

Tora-dora Episode 25, The End

AlternateSam — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:00:01 +0000

Slight spoiler ahead!

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End of the road for Tora-dora. It was a really interesting journey, bitter-sweet in retrospect. The series was both touching and amusing and at times left me either exasperated or pensive. I am really glad I came back to the series after I initially dropped it after episode 1.

For the last episode, their teacher Yuri Sensei made a very wise observation when she announced that Taiga was transferring / withdrawing from school. Basically, she said that throughout your life, you will come to many crossroads. Regardless of whether you wish to turn back or stay on your path, you still have to make a decision. Sometimes no matter which path you take, you will let someone down but it�s for the best as no one can get the best of both worlds. Yuri Sensei is their form-teacher who provided some comical relief and yet was grounded in reality throughout the entire series. She has a rather interesting life and philosophy although she is constantly in despair over her single status. Not sure why she�s complaining though. I guess it will be equally interesting if the focus were more on her although I�m not complaining! ^^

It was also interesting to note the casual camaraderie among all the members of the class, as opposed to the beginning where they rarely interact as a group. It is this sort of progression which makes me feel wistful every time I think of the series. Overall, it has been a great anime and makes me feel really glad that I have watched it. The ending had a sense of closure to it unlike some other anime (macross frontier anyone?) and although it was a happy and predictable ending, the journey there was anything but.

I also liked how they alluded that true love is a rare and elusive object and how they stumbled upon it and then refused to let it go despite their many tribulations. Faith in each other pulled them through their last year as it time-skipped at the end. Towards the end, at the graduation ceremony, the audience was treated to a 3rd party perspective of this bunch of people whom we have followed throughout the series as a junior in the school. Kitamura was said to be continuing his studies in America, with his beloved senpai. Minori looked like she received the MVP for the school softball league and continues to head towards her dream of representing Japan in the World Series. Ami stayed on and graduated, receiving many bouquets from her adorers as she was leaving the school for the last time. And then the Ryuji x Taiga ending which brought an end to the entire series.

It�s quite funny when you think that the voice actor for Ryuji is the same one as the �poor� teacher from Kodomo no Jikan. Anyway, I leave you with this from a Tora-dora scene. Goodnight and goodbye for now.

Tora-dora:

OP 1 / OP 2: Pre-parade / Vanilla Salt

ED 1 / ED 2: Silky Heart / Orange

Gonzo merging with GDH

AlternateSam — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 12:42:58 +0000

Just some background info, GDH is the parent company of Gonzo and they just announced that they will be merging with Gonzo after firing around 75% of its staff. The name of the joint company will remain Gonzo and this looked like it has cost saving and reduction in cost written all over it.

GDH was more known for its mobile phone gaming business and I guess the Gonzo name will provide it with better recognition among the general public. Brand strengthening will also be the order of the day for GDH here.

Still, Gonzo always have a place in my heart for their Strike Witches, Kiddy Grade, Burst Angels and most of all, Last Exile, one of my all-time favourite. The studio seemed like slightly schizophrenic with some great/good works (including Welcome to the NHK & Speed Grapher) scattered amongst many mediocre efforts which make you wonder why do they even bother.

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Last Exile OP: Cloud Age Symphony

Last Exile ED: Over the Sky

Picture via otaku.com

Spice and Wolf Season II Episode I

Benjamin Button vs School Rumble

AlternateSam — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:33:37 +0000

Life isn’t measured in minutes, but in moments.

Welcome to AlternateSam.com. I guess I do have to start somewhere so here it goes

I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and it struck me that it was similar to School Rumble. I know that SR ended quite a long time ago but I only picked it up recently. And it was really really good, in the sense that I will remember it for a long time. Its funny and the plot might be illogical at times, but always fun and entertaining.

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The message I took back was that life can never be perfect forever. In some frame of your life, you might be very happy but in times to come, this will certainly end. We are meant to lose the people we love, for this is the only way to know how important they are. Just as in SR, life cannot be purely what you want, but rather what is best for everyone involved. Like Harima, he took the choice of letting someone he loved be happy instead of being selfish and making himself happy at another person�s expense.

Its odd how a comedy like SR can be analyzed for its life�s messages and reasoning. Somehow, you think that it was all based on life experiences. In any case, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was really good and thought-provoking. As what Benjamin said, your life is defined by its opportunities… even the ones you miss.

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School Rumble OPs/EDs -
Season 1 -> Scramble / Onnanoko Otokonoko
Season 2 -> Sentimental Generation / Futari Ha Wasurechau