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Nijuu Mensou no Musume Episode 2 - Oriental
Sunset

post from Cinnamon Ass on 23 April 2008 06:05:00 PM. © Cinnamon Ass

Nijuu Mensou takes Chiko back to his hideout where he introduces her to the crew, whose names I can’t remember beyond a brash boy named Ken who appears to being to grow up to lose an eye (but that’s not for a while yet, methinks); however, the police have tracked them there, and so they make a nifty getaway YET AGAIN, this time by blowing up their hideout.

The thieves travel to China, where Chiko’s attempts to prove useful are rather minimal and the crew is relatively hostile towards her; however, Ken takes it upon himself to let her try to learn to throw knives. Nijuu Mensou’s latest elaborate heist goes wrong, however, and he ends up badly injured; a Chinese woman takes in Nijuu Mensou and Chiko stays to guard him while the others make preparations to leave, but is haunted by nightmares of her step-parents (who are still after her to gain her inheritance). When the Chinese woman tries to sell them out to the authorities, however, Chiko displays remarkably presence of mind by emptying her gun of bullets beforehand (while Nijuu Mensou steals her spare!), thus allowing them to escape and making the others recognise Chiko as being part of the team.

This show continues to surprise me with the imagination behind it. The setpieces where Nijuu Mensou executes his getaways or ridiculous scams are extremely clever, even if the show doesn’t really take off with them as much as I might like; the show is very retro, and I occasionally feel as though it could be executed with a little more flash at times. Chiko herself continues to grow as a character, although I think I speak for everyone in that I’m looking forward to her kicking a bit more butt; obviously her organic growth into the “Heiress of the Phantom Thief” will be effective, but the OP makes her look so awesome that I can’t help but be a little impatient!

Otherwise, Nijuu Mensou no Musume continues to be a fun little show. It’s not going to make the earth move or anything, but then it doesn’t have to - it’s nicely executed and a bit of a breath of fresh air.

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http://www.ass-no-ryu.com/animeblog/?p=1113

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Vampire Knight Episode 2 - Memories of Blood

post from Cinnamon Ass on 23 April 2008 05:31:00 PM. © Cinnamon Ass

Imagine if there really was a Saint Chocolate. Presumably he’d be some kind of Aztec priest ripping the still-beating hearts out of his victims and then smearing them with cocoa butter or something.

In order to not infringe on reality in any way, the Japanese tradition of giving chocolates to people for Valentines is subverted to having something to do with Saint Chocolate. Crowd control ensues as Yuki and Zero try to stop the Day Class from rioting as they pile their gifts on the Night Class, but Zero has other things to worry about as he continues to refuse to take his blood pills and Yuki’s neck becomes more and more inviting…

This episode wasn’t quite filler, but it felt a lot like padding. I know that doesn’t really make any sense because surely they’re the same thing, but although it wasn’t a totally stand-alone episode it merely re-iterated the first episode all over again with almost the same structure except that Zero was the one in danger from the vampires instead of Yuki this time. We even got shirtless Zero again, but I would presume that Deen will try and shove that in to as many episodes as possible. Vampire Knight’s still good fun (if a little heavy on the comedy for my liking) but this does set off a couple of warning bells when the writers are already procrastinating and the show’s only just started, but I’m sure things will get moving (or a little more exciting, at least) soon.

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http://www.ass-no-ryu.com/animeblog/?p=1112

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Soul Eater Episode 2 - I’m Definitely A
Star!

post from Cinnamon Ass on 23 April 2008 05:01:00 PM. © Cinnamon Ass

What is it with big shounen/shoujo shows airing in tea time slots and ridiculously long titles? Why can’t they think of anything snappy to call these episodes by?

Anyway, this episode introduces Black Star, who is a moron, and Tsubaki, his weapon, who seems to have an awful lot of different forms, and is not. Black Star is a terrible “ninja” who doesn’t understand the art of subtlety and frequently makes a hash of his missions, but of course has a ridiculous sense of honour so as not to negate the plot of the series (you’ll understand at the end of the episode). Sent to wipe out a mob boss that he managed to piss off who is hunting down a witch named Angela, he instead comes across Angela’s bodyguard Mifune, who comes dangerously close to killing Black Star. Of course, he doesn’t win, this being the second episode and all, and it turns out that Angela is about three years old, so ’twas all for naught in the end.

I’m torn on Soul Eater. It’s still fairly obnoxious, and the visual style of this episode wasn’t as immediately awesome as the first; I think fighting with a scythe just lends itself better to awesome fight sequences, whereas Tsubaki’s constant morphing just meant there were a lot of well animated smoke effects! However, despite popular opinion being that Black Star is utterly hateful, I enjoyed this episode a bit more than the first one. It’s hard to quantify why in a series like this where there isn’t really a lot to say about the story as yet, but the lack of Death Scythe plus the fact that Tsubaki is a slightly more interesting character than either Maka or Soul Eater might have had something to do with it.

It IS only the second episode, and I am still going to give it the benefit of the doubt, but as yet nothing’s really very certain about my enjoyment of Soul Eater.

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http://www.ass-no-ryu.com/animeblog/?p=1110

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MyAnimeList

post from Kurogane's Anime Blog on 23 April 2008 03:15:31 PM. © Kurogane's Anime Blog

Finally, after much persuasion by Owen.S, I’ve made the jump and joined MyAnimeList. Now I can stalk read Owen’s miniblog in it.Feel free to add me, my username’s kur0gan3. “Kurogane” got taken up by some UK-fag, while “Kurogane Shiroikaze” was too long T.T. Currently, still need to add OVA titles and movies to my anime [...]

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http://kurogane.animeblogger.net/2008/04/24/myanimelist/

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Da Capo II Second Season 03

post from Kurogane's Anime Blog on 23 April 2008 01:14:15 PM. © Kurogane's Anime Blog

Otome gets the spotlight for this episode. She is earnestly helping Yoshiyuki out to practice for the upcoming puppet play, and we also see a glimpse of her past. Otome used to be more withdrawn and gloomy (wow, I so hear Noe when she’s like that) due to her magical powers, and it’s thanks to [...]

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http://kurogane.animeblogger.net/2008/04/24/da-capo-ii-second-season-03/

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[LianYL] Tutorial DIY! Make Your Own AWESOME Code
Geass R2 C.C. Wallpaper

post from Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts on 23 April 2008 10:25:30 AM. © Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

I don’t know about this, and maybe some (most) of you already know, but I was only just informed by my dorm mate that I am a slow twat for not being able to make my own awesome Code Geass R2 C.C. wallpaper. He guided me through the process but it wasn’t exactly to my [...]

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http://www.riuva.com/?p=1070

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Da Capo II Second Season 02

Yoshiyuki sure is trusted by the girls.Taking a jaunt in to Anzu’s story line in this episode. She’s pretty cute when she lets her hair down. Mmm~ otherwise, nothing much to comment on this episode. I’m surprised she managed to live alone for three years without anyone knowing that, though. Also, Yume’s tsundere play in [...]

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http://kurogane.animeblogger.net/2008/04/23/da-capo-ii-second-season-02/

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Macross Frontier 03

Summary:Ozma manages to intercept the red Vajra before it can harm Ranka, and Mikhail gets a quick headshot on the alien. Unfortunately, the aliens have evolved to deal with campers, and so Alto has to grab the girls and leap into an emergency shelter before everyone gets sucked into space. Things get a [...]

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/seaslugteam/~3/275906798/

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