Author Archives: Halfey Halphstein

[Review] Being ghost is suffering (Tasogare Otome x Amnesia ep. 03)

  By Halfey Halphstein | April 24, 2012 - 9:51 pm | ,
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Remember the other girl in the paranormal investigation club in the first episode? Other than Momoe there’s this one girl with ‘cold’ appearance and she is what I’m talking (or going to talk) about. Just like the last episode, this episode 03 also acts like another prequel, which is to introduce us to the 3rd member of the paranormal investigation club (or the 4th member if we count the “club president” too). :P

One day Teiichi received a “love letter” in his shoe locker. Probably excited from receiving such letter he seemed completely forgot about going to meet Yuuko at the club room but went to meet the sender instead. He met the sender, only to get warned about being possessed/followed by an evil spirit (or evil ghost). Teiichi didn’t really believe her but the girl’s statement already made what he believed shaking.

The girl introduced herself as Kirie Kanoe. Yes, she is technically “Yuuko’s granddaughter” for Yuuko is her grandmother’s late sister. She seems to be able to see Yuuko but instead of being a cute girl like the one she saw in her grandmother’s album, Yuuko appears to be a scary walking corpse to her.

That is what led her to believe that Yuuko is an evil spirit so she tries to save Teeichi from ‘it’. This is when one’s perception towards Yuuko plays an important role. People who doesn’t aware of her existence can’t see her but Kirie, her “grandchild” sees her as a scary ghost. This made Teiichi changed his perception for a while but quickly he overcame his fear and began to see Yuuko in the form he originally saw again.

The truth is what Kirie had seen back then probably is not Yuuko but some other, “real” evil spirit. It’s not impossible though because if “good” ghost like Yuuko can exist why not the “evil” one too, right? Following that logic and having decided to solve the mystery Kirie became the latest member of the paranormal investigation club.

After 3 episodes I’ve come to realize that what I really like about this series is no matter what they still managed to put humor elements inside, effectively made me laugh. Now I wouldn’t mind to recommend this series to other people because it is not only about mystery but the funny moments are worth watching too. One only need to be compatible with the amount of ecchi elements inside though (of which I don’t have any problem with) :P

[Early Impression] Hyouka

  By Halfey Halphstein | April 23, 2012 - 11:08 pm | , ,
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Let there be romance! (I'm hoping for it). They better do or I'll deduct some points from it!

Title: Hyouka
English title: -
Genre: Mystery
Sub-genre: Shounen/Seinen
Flavor/Theme: School
Character design/Original artist: Task Ohna (manga-ka), Honobu Yonezawa (writer, original creator)
Source media: Novel and manga adaptation
Seriousness factor: Medium
Studio: KyoAni
Episodes: 12, “half-season”
OP: “Yasashisa no Riyuu (優しさの理由)” by Chouchou (I like this OP, just the kind of music that I love)
ED: ? (not available as of now)
Airing status: Currently airing
Aired by: Sun TV, TV Kanagawa, KBS Kyoto, Tokyo MX
Watchability factor: Medium
Rewatchability factor: Medium
Hateability factor: Medium
Recommendability factor: Medium
Characters: Houtaro Oreki (male lead), Eru Chitanda (female lead), Satoshi Fukube
Characters I like: -
Characters I’d like to beat to a pulp using a spiky baseball bat: (read below)
What I’m in for: nothing in particular
What I hate about it: -
Other noteworthy remarks: “If I don’t have to do it, I won’t. If I have to do it, make it quick.”

Right from the start we’re welcomed with a monologue that reminds me of Kyon in the original Haruhi anime (the first season). In fact I almost mistook the voice being Tomokazu Sugita (Kyon’s voice actor), though it actually belongs to Yuichi Nakamura. I’m not sure if this is KyoAni’s style/identity or what but other than the voice, the characters look keion-ish, a far cry from the original illustrated by Task Ohna, though I don’t think it’s bad.

When I said keion, I felt something related to that series when ‘music’ was mentioned right from the start. But then a mystery event took place though not too significant but might be a little disturbing if it left unsolved. So is music and mystery related in this series? Not really but there seems to be some connections. Anyway let’s get to know the characters first.

Meet Houtaro the main character and his life being the focus of this series. Although Houtaro is seen as having inferiority complex by many including his close friend (Satoshi), for me he is just an introvert or anti-social (not in a bad way). Yes, I share/understand his opinions and sentiment and agree with him. Houtaro was ‘forced’ to join the classics club by her sister. Houtaro usually don’t give a damn about things but when he pays attention and gets serious he’d show some impressive deduction ‘power’ like a detective. That said, the classics club might turn into an investigation club soon.

It’s because of joining the club that Houtaro got to meet the school beauty, Eru Chitanda. Even if there’s no mystery in this series, for me Chitanda herself is mysterious enough of a person already. She maybe cute but for me she is not as charming as a few other cute characters in this season. This is perhaps from the sentiment I have towards keion and KyoAni in general. Putting that aside, she has this “ojousama” aura with her and might become annoyingly curious at times because she seems to love “mysterious” stuff, with passion (emphasis on the word ‘passion’).

The least character I’d like to introduce is Satoshi, despite being an important character and a close friend to Houtaro. It’s because he speaks too much (mostly pointless stuff) and non-stop and speaks like he knows everything and also keeps judging Houtaro as he pleases as if he is right. I’m surprised how people like Houtaro could become friends with him because I personally hate people like that. If it was me I might have killed him the moment I know him.

The story so far seems not too interesting but not bad either. It’s just that it leaves little impact to me and not as awesome as I thought it would be. However I’m sticking on it because I have a feeling that there might be one or two things I could learn from it. And I’m waiting for a possible romance too, because for me anime like this would taste better with vanilla flavor :)

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[Review] No panties bread

  By Halfey Halphstein | April 22, 2012 - 10:03 pm | ,
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Title: Shining Hearts – Shiawase no Pan
English title: Shining Hearts – Bread of Happiness (?)
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Harem
Sub-genre: Action (but looks like “happy-fun” and slice of laifu so far)
Flavor/Theme: Bread-making
Character design/Original artist: Tony Taka (character designer), SEGA (game maker/developer/creator)
Source media: Game
Seriousness factor: Medium
Studio: Production IG
Episodes: 12, “half-season”
OP: “Jisei-kai ~Toki Sekai~ (時世界～トキセカイ～)” by Kanae Itō, Mai Aizawa and Shiori Mikami
ED: “Fuwaffuwa no Mahou (ふわっふわのまほう)” by Kanae Itō, Mai Aizawa and Shiori Mikami
Airing status: Currently airing
Aired by: CBC, MBS, Tokyo MX
Watchability factor: Medium
Rewatchability factor: Medium
Hateability factor: Medium
Recommendability factor: Medium
Characters: Rick, Amil, Neris, Airy
Characters I like: -
Characters I’d like to beat to a pulp using a spiky baseball bat: -
What I’m in for: ….. bread-making?
What I hate about it: -
Other noteworthy remarks: -

So what is this anime is all about? I can’t really tell. What I know is it does have some sort of harem element. However at this point it still feels like a slice of laifu. Although I could still sense a crisis is coming but for now everybody seems so happy. At least the characters are designed by Tony Taka (now I’m waiting for Kantoku to design anime character too).

My first impression on the first episode was this series is a slice of life anime with people waking up in the morning, work their asses of throughout the day and then back to sleep again at night. Sounds boring? I couldn’t tell that either, possibly because as Tony Taka’s fan, seeing his artworks being animated would easily make me forget about any flaw that comes with it. Sorry for being unprofessional here.

It’s been years since the last time I saw a bread-themed anime (the last one being Yakitate! Ja-pan. I didn’t take Yumeiro Patissiere into account since it’s more about cakes and sweets and candies). If compared to Yakitate Japan, this one didn’t really teach the audience about bread-making except occasional moments where Madera taught Rick some dos and don’ts. It’s a sign that this is more about the story than the bread-making itself, though bread-making still plays a major part in the plot.

Oh yeah it’s Shining Hearts series, set in a fantasy world so of course you’d see elves and monsters and weird animals inside. I never liked elves to begin with, even if the have hot bodies and oppai. I can’t help but to see them equal to that of monster girls (that I don’t like either). However they are still more acceptable to me than some girls with horns or tails or tentacles (or even wings. Yes, “Angels” are also monsters to me). Now I have to say sorry to some Touhou girls.

Before I end this I think it’s important for me to tell you that it’s still hard for me to recommend it that this point. Not that it’s bad or anything but it’s still impossible for me to see where is this series going.

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