I’m not dead! I’ve just been really busy due to assignments and stuff at my polytechnic. But now that things have calmed down slightly, I return with a brand new idea for this blog: RANDOM STUFF TO DO!(RSTO for short)

What is it? Pretty much a few time killers when you’re waiting for some new anime to air or something like that.

Now that I’ve explained this, here’s today’s random thing to do:

LISTEN TO YOUR SOUNDTRACKS IN REVERSE!

Sure, this isn’t something new, songs that are prone to getting mangled(like banana phone) would have been reversed and released as an mp3 or on Youtube. But what I’m suggesting here is to listen to songs with no lyrics in reverse.

Songs with lyrics tend to sound odd when reversed(unless there’s back-masking, though there aren’t any songs I know of that have the entire lyric back-masked), so this will only work properly with instrumental songs or karaoke tracks. What you’ll need is:

1.  A computer
2. A sound editing software(I recommend Audacity, it’s free)
3. Your music

The process is simple, open your sound editing program, import your song into the program, reverse the entire song, export it into an mp3 file(or any other sound format you want) and finally listen to it. You’ll be surprised how good some of these songs can be!(Can’t guarantee it’ll be good though, I have plenty of failures)

Currently I’m unable to let you guys hear any of my “experiment’s”, but I once I can I’ll make another post for it.

Once you’ve tried it out, you may want to try out the following:

1. Listening to your songs with a higher/lower tempo but no distorted pitch.
2. Listening to 1. in reverse.
3. Reversing only parts of each song and then listening to the result.

And that was today’s RANDOM STUFF TO DO! Until next time~

If you’ve read the blogposts on Lucky Star on another blog, you’d probably noticed that many people were disappointed with Lucky Star. In my opinion, it’s only because this is a 4 koma manga-anime adaptation done by KYOANI. Therefore, people were misleaded to thinking that that there would be plenty of really crazy stuff like what you see on Haruhi. I, for one, found it to be good entertainment since I expected an Azumanga Daioh sort of thing. What makes it better is that the jokes in this episode is something we can relate to. For example:

Why didn’t you join the athletics club when you run very fast?

Because if I join the club, I wouldn’t be able to watch anime at golden time.

They even sight examples such as

when there is one last piece of meat left

and the cleaner takes it away when nobody’s touching it, after which you exclaim “Hey, I haven’t finished yet!” Oh, and the 1st part of the show touches on eating food.

But don’t fret if you really need anime references, there’s Street Fighter 2 reference in this one!

Konata “I saw Tsukasa getting harassed by a weird foreigner and engaged in battle with him, beating him up and finishing him off with a senpuu kyaku.”

Kagami “Why do you keep saying stuff about games!?”

What we also have in this ep is a short “Lucky Channel” segment. I’ll just post screens of it, but it’s quite humorous.

All I need now are speech bubbles.

And to top it all of, the 4 main characters go for karaoke. You only see the door and credits, but the conversation make me chuckle a little.

Yeah, and that’s it for my 1st impression of Lucky Star. I’d like to say that I’ll keep following this series to the very end.

PS: Aya-chan really nailed Konata’s voice. In fact, I could never have guessed it was her if I had not known beforehand!

PS#2: KyoAni pulled off another Hare Hare Yukai on us. The OP rocks!

Last minute PS: Apparently, this anime is still getting famous because of it’s OP, ironic…

Yeah, again. Just when I stopped hearing the 1st one!

muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuUUUuuuuuUUUUuuUU

This CM’s ingenius! I’m gonna turn this into my phone alarm now.

MuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

The spring of CLANNAD! Yes, the famous Key game gets the KyoAni treatment and there’s a commercial already released online.

Check it!

And now for a shot and an animated .gif, the latter instantly bringing this into my watch list.

I haven’t played the game, but this sure is caught my interest. Mainly because:

1. The legendary KyoAni is doing this series.
2. It’s based on a Key game, so I expect a good plot that’ll make me shed at least 1 tear.
3. I heard it has plenty of quirky characters. Tomoyo even got a sequel all for herself!

It’s going to come out October, though, so we’ll have to do with other stuff for now. Maybe KyoAni’s upcoming Lucky Star will keep me entertained.

PS: The song in the trailer’s now stuck in my head, and I like it.

HEY! I’m not dead!

I apologise for the lack of posts, had a lot of distraction. ^^;

So, moving on: I’ve just finished a marathon of watching Elemental Gerade. Why did I watch it? Cos’ I was curious. Why did I marathon it? Cos’ it caught my attention. Believe me, it’s hard for a whole series to catch my attention.

So now that I’ve watched it, should I say I’ve wasted 520+ minutes of my life? Well…read on.

Ok, here’s a rough intro the series.*takes deep breath*

We’ve got a boy for a main character(typical), Coud Van Girete(Cou for short…sounds like coup! XD) and he’s part of a group of sky pirates(futuristic setting) called the Red Lynx. At one of their looting sprees, they found a huge chest thing which, unsurprisingly, contains a girl named Reverie Metherlance(Ren for short).

And when Cou opens it and throws away a seal thing, Ren sits up and scares the heck out of Cou. She walk out of it, passes Cou and says:

“I hate you.”

How’s that for a start! XD

Anyway, she continues on to say: “You smell like a human.” And soon after their airship gets visited by 3 people from an organisation called “Arc Aile”, who want to collect the “Shikouhoujuu”(that’s Ren) and attempts to buy her from them!

Cou, who went to where they were, got pissed off and proceeded to say that she isn’t an object that can be bought over. Soon after that, before the 3-man team(actually, 2 women and 1 man) could resort to force:

they get attacked by a team of ninjas(HUH!?), who also want to capture Ren!

Cou was assigned the duty to protect Ren ,and pretty much sucked at that, until:

BOOM! Ren turns into a nice looking sword for him!(Wait, sword again!? Well, at least it looks cool.)

So the ninjas got PWNED, but the ship went boom too. So Cou, Ren, and the Arc Aile people, Cisqua, Rowen and Kuea, escaped and landed, er….somewhere in a forest. Cou met up with Ren again, introduced themselves(yup, they only knew each other’s names in ep 2) and began their journey to Edel(Eden, depends on the subs) Garden(no, this does not follow a religion, though there are references), cos’ Ren wants to go there.(Don’t ask)

So, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, here are my views, which shall be categorised accordingly:

STORY

This, I feel, is not for everyone. If you’re looking for excellently choreographed battles, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for romance, by all means watch it!

The battles are so…predictable! This is really bad cos’ good battles catch people by surprise or have that something that keeps us at the edge of our seat. In Elemental Gerade, I found myself predicting whatever would happen. Good news, though, there are some elements in the battle that support the another side of it and the last battle had some pretty nice animation.(I’ll get to that later) Furthermore, the “system” this series has for it’s battles is pretty decent. An Edel Raid(like Ren) or Sitting Raid(humans with a stone that gives them powers of an Edel Raid) “Reacts” with a human to become a weapon that the human weilds(or the gets controlled by). They can both do a “song”(that sounds more like casting a spell), which makes…some stuff happen. This is kinda like Shaman King with a living being instead of a ghost.

The romance in this is conveyed rather well. Sure, there’s plenty of things that are pretty much seen anywhere else, but it’s not something that make me smack my head in frustration. Nice and slowly, we see that relationship between Cou and Ren progress, and it kinda makes for a “feel good” sort of show. Furthermore, the whole “fighting together” thing adds on to that, so the battles help rather than drag down the show.

The theme of friendship is also well done out the same way as with the romance aspect. No other comment, though.

And then, the most important part of most series, THE ENDING! That’s where this series shines: a splendid ending! No major question goes unanswered, and alls well that ends well!

SCORE: 8/10 (Mmmmmm, romance story.)

CHARACTERS

Hmmmm, I don’t see any astounding characters. Well, maybe Ren since there’s quite a lot of character growth for her. Cou’s pretty much a typical reckless shonen protagonist, but at least he’s not too annoying. He got plenty of character growth too.(his character’s no match for Asakura Yoh from Shaman King though) I must say, though, they aren’t badly thought out since each of them are rather crucial to the story and non of them take up wasted time. The character designs are not bad either, except IMO a certain pigtailed girl with glasses.(You’ll know when you see her) It’s just my opinion, but I can’t stand the look she has…but hey, she played her part.

SCORE: 7/10(Rather good, but only a few gained my fancy)

ANIMATION(done by XEBEC)

Well, this is a 2005 anime, so it’s not bad for it’s time…but then again, it’s not excellent either. Not many comments except that the “React” scenes have rather nice effects and the last battle was done pretty well…for a few minutes. A complaint of mine is the number of times a few scenes are recycled. But other than that…it’s kinda mehh. Still, the effects are good!

CHECK IT!

SCORE: 6.5/10(I’ve seen better, try Bleach)

SOUNDS

2 words: pretty good. The seiyuu’s did a bang up job, and the voices all sound correct. The soundtrack was not something I would hear over and over, but the use of string instruments is pretty refreshing.

The OP and ED are not bad either, especially the OP. =D

OP ED

SCORE: 7/10(Only OP got my fancy, though the soundtrack itself was nice and suitable)

APPEAL

Hey, my very own thought up category! *ahem*

Personally, I find that Elemental Gerade doesn’t have much you cannot find anywhere else, but still it had enough to keep me watching it till the end. It could possibly be because of a decent to good cast of characters with not enough unique stuff. Fortunately, this anime wins with a good story.

SCORE: 7/10(Good if you’re looking for romance)

And so, I give this anime a score of 71%!

BUT! I must note that this one focuses more on the romance and friendship aspects of the genre. So if that’s not your cup of tea, DO NOT DRINK IT.

Coming soon: Manabi Straight! 6 episode impressions!

Check it here

The show just aired a few weeks ago, so this is FAST! It’s as if the people at GSC got infected with the “MASSUGU GO!” virus!

Anyway, I apologise for the lack of posts. It’s CNY after all. Expect either a “6 episode impression” of Manabi Straight or an “IT’S A POSE” post.

Ok, here at Otaku Poiiii, I’ve thought up something that you most probably wouldn’t find in other blogs, a whole category dedicated to something that can be seen in majority of manga, anime and games: POSES!

Poses can be subtle or plain old obvious. You may not care much about plenty of them, but you can be bewildered by a handful of them too. A really good example is from Jojo’s Bizzare adventure: Just look at the vid of the game based on part 1 of the series!

In this whole category of nonsense , I’ll be doing the following:

1. Attempting to do the hard poses! (Yep, I’m crazy. In fact, I’ve already did one!)

2. Giving a few tips for doing the pose. (In case you guys want to cosplay or something.)

3. Pointing out certain poses and babbling nonsense typing stuff about them. (I need pics. T-T)
So with that, ポス研究、開始！(Pose research, START!)

On a side note: O level results good!

Ok, scrap the previous theory! From what I’ve read and seen, the episodes are going to be in recap format for each of the girls! That’s right, RECAP MODE! This means there’s only stuff that can be seen in the 1st series, so I don’t recommend watching this if you’ve already watched the 1st season. At least…not yet. Since there’s about 6 episodes that’ll be done in recap mode, there’s still room for more episodes, which may have contain a surprise. Other than that, the recap episodes come with a special OP each for each featured girl! You can watch it on Youtube, or you could go to this page and get em!(There’re Raws, though.)

Oh, BTW(spoilers!):

Asa-senpai FTW!

I’ve got the 1st ep of Manabi Straight, but right now I’m still taking screenshots and working out how to do this 1st impression thing. So I’ll leave you all this animated .gif as a teaser: