Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

I wrote some of the paragraphs below after viewing each episode, so it may not be that accurate at time of publishing. That’s right, this post was actually written in bits and pieces over the course of the week.

Winners

Kaze no Stigma
I finally understood what makes Kaze no Stigma such a great show. It combines the good points of shounen and modern Akiba-style harem. Shounen shows are normally lauded for their fighting sequences and rather cool powers while Akiba moe harem type shows are loved for their character types and fanservice. The former suffers from a never-ending plot, uncool main characters and lack of otaku-connection while the latter never fails to have bad fighting sequences and ridiculously wimpy main characters. Kaze no Stigma has none of these bad points but all the good ones, and truly is a hybrid of the highest order. To top it off, the allegedly-annoying blonde younger brother turns out to have a cool side as well, capable of fighting with big FIRESSS. Yagami Kazuma is a manly dependable hero, which automatically makes the anime series very watchable.

Heroic (and Sexy) Age
Unless you are blind or just poorly informed, the character designer for Heroic Age is the same as Gundam Seed, Scryred, Infinite Ryvius, Giniro no Olynsis and many other shows. Hirai Hikushi is the man behind those broad faces with humongous eyelashes. Much as we hate the fangirling of his characters, it would be foolish and delusional to reject the aesthetics of his designs. Simply put, Age is really cool. His manliness reminds me of Azuma Kazuma from Yakitate Japan - the type of manliness which you can totally rely on in all sorts of difficult situations.

Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou
Possibly the only fighting/action-oriented game besides Gatekeepers to have survived and even thrived in its anime conversion. Where others like Fate/Stay Night have bombed, TMGK the anime’s plot progression is so smooth you would never have guessed it was from the eponymous video game. The similarities to Gatekeepers are numerous both in terms of characters, premise and plot, which isn’t a bad thing for me. Both anime have: a team of high-schoolers with super powers battling monsters threatening the city of Tokyo; a visible mark appearing on the highschoolers’ bodies whenever they channel power; the main female lead having healing powers and conversely super destructive powers desired by the bad guys; that female lead getting captured and brainwashed to attack her former comrades; the use of bokutou, bows and arrow and wrestling; the main antagonist is a guy with some bad childhood experiences, hence getting corrupted by some greater evil; and a ultra-manly main character. I have a soft spot for dependable heroes as I said many times. People like Tatsuma Hiyuu and the above-mentioned Age, Azuma Kazuma, Yagami Kazuma etc, are very likeable compared to stupid retards like Naruto, Ichigo and wimps like Aiba Kouji.

Mihashi the Crybaby Pitcher
Almost all baseball anime pitchers are Super Alpha Males, brimming with self-confidence and most likely packing a ferocious fastball. Oofuri, the new baseball anime, veers away from convention by having a Deathnote-style battle of wits between the catcher Abe and all the batters. The pitcher Mihashi is a weakling who specialises in ball control. I have to say out of Oofuri is pretty much superior to Major, the other ongoing baseball anime. I enjoy both immensely due to a love of sports. Watching sports, that is.

Caro
The only decent character in Nanoha StrikerS. She’s cute, looks like a white mage from old school Final Fantasies, and has a Bahamut.

Monster Princess
Hugely underrated show, no thanks to a lack of English subbing. Treading the age-old Demon-Vampire-Werewolf tripleteam, think of Monster Princess as a less cute but more coherent version of Magical Pokaan. Lisa is so hot I may be starting to like dogs.

Pirates
Final Fantasy Tactics: Shishisensou’s official launch date is 10 May. Hong Kong retailers generally don’t give a damn about release dates unlike Japanese ones, so they start selling off stock when it comes in. Today, 9 May, torrents of the game surface on every major aggregator.

Losers

Erio
He must feel left out and discriminated against, being the only member of the Stars and Lightning Squadron who did not get the chance to show off his panties and strip naked while shouting silly phrases. Poor Erio.

Young Girls
Episode 5 of Claymore was quite good but be honest, how many of you guys saw Clare’s 12 year old nude body and instead of thinking "Wow poor girl got abused badly", thought "HOT SEXY LOLI BOD!!"? 10-20 years ago, a young pre-teen girl naked would have been considered innocent or National Geographic-type nudity. Now it’s all paedophilia.

Kiss DUMB
For the 2nd week in a row, Engage Planet Kissdum appears in the Losers section. Episode 4’s full recap episode was bad enough, but they wasted 4 minutes of episode 5 with yet more recap of the same stuff that was recapped in the previous week. That alone pissed me off. To add insult to injury, the much-vaunted mecha designs have all but disappeared, the world is in a post-apocalyptic stage and the Necrodiver’s new weaponry turns out to be axes, whips and shields named after various gods like Baal and Baldur. And Shu now dates (deceased) Yuno’s younger sister, Noa. Bad bad show.

James Bond
Once known to be the top MI-6 operative known to Mankind, his title has now been usurped by November11 aka Jack Simmons and his team of Contractors from Darker than Black. James Bond’s only superpower is the ability to lure any woman in the universe into bed and impale them onto his meat rod while November11 has elemental (insta-freeze) powers. I know which power I’ll want. But MI-6 apparently prefers the other. Lol.

Bleach Anime
The fear of having to put in large chunks of filler when manga material runs out drives the anime staff to slow down the series’ pace as much as possible. This has directly affected the quality of the show, once acceptable or even enjoyable in certain arcs. Right now, 7 minutes of a 23 minute episode is dedicated to recaps and 10 minutes to poorly stuffed-in filler scenes, leaving about about 7 minutes worth of plot progression. Even Naruto Shippuden isn’t this bad. And before all you high-horse riding nerds start mouthing off about all shounen being rubbish, this is plainly not true and shounen anime/manga should remain high on the watchlist of every proper anime fan. Just don’t start annoucing Bleach as the best thing ever made and you’ll be fine.

Skullman
In this day and age of anime saturation, you would think studios should know better than to start a new series slow, devoid of any intrigue or tension and worst of all, no action. Skullman’s first two episodes has been a pain to sit through.

Seirei no Moribito
Nothing has happened for two episodes. Balza rests in bed and the rest sort of just talk about stuff. Is this the refractory period of awesomeness?