The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 – Catch Up Review

Posted on July 18, 2009 by C. A. Brown

So, I was late in finding out that one of my most favorite anime shows of a few years ago, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya had finally, finally, started it’s second season. It’s been a little more than three years since first season aired in Japan, and it was one of the first animes I checked out on pure reccomendation after becoming a FMA fan.

For those who don’t know, the series is based on a series of light novels, some of which I’ve read, though I haven’t had a chance to read all of them yet. For the new season, they are reshowing the season one episode, mixed in, cronologically, with the new season 2 episodes. The first new episode was “Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody,” which aired sometime around the end of May. It was one of the stories in the light novels I had actually read and was looking forwards to seeing animated, and so was very happy when I discovered the new season had already started and that story was animated and already out when I went looking for it.

The next new episodes that had already aired by the time I discovered the new season were two called “Endless Eight.” Now, I had not read all of the light novel that included this story, but by the time the third episode called “Endless Eight” had finished airing, I sought the chapter out and read it. And it’s a good thing I did because I think if I hadn’t, I’d be really annoyed at this point – more than I kinda am now.

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Quick Review (No spoilers)

Posted on July 18, 2009 by C. A. Brown

So yeah. I think I’m starting to get bored now.

Not that Half-Blood Prince is a terrible movie per-se. In fact, I quite liked parts of it.

But it’s not great. It’s rather below-average really. And I don’t think I’ll be watching the movie again until it’s out on DVD. That’s how uninterested I felt in watching it again after it was over. Going to see it, while fun, didn’t leave me anticipating more, or wanting to turn right back and watch it again, like the way the new Star Trek movie did.

Part of me, I think, just can’t wait for it all to be over. As much as I truly love Harry Potter, the fannish obsession I had with it just isn’t there anymore I think.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Season 2 Has Started – Episode 15 Review

Posted on July 13, 2009 by C. A. Brown

So, I didn’t blog much at all about the first season of the new FMA series. Part of if was from just real life business getting in the way, but it was also because the first 14 episode were mostly just a rehash of the first 25 episode from the first series. So I didn’t really have much of anything new to say about it.

However, this weekend marked the beginning of season 2 of the series. And so now I’m going to try and start blogging regular review post about the episodes, as they are now fully moving into material that hasn’t been animated previously. Their will be spoilers, of course, but I will make a spoiler cut before I get into them.

So, first of all, the new OP and ED for the season:

OP2: Hologram – NICO Touches the Walls

Now, I don’t think the new OP is as cool as the first OP for the new series. The first OP had me catching my breath the first time I saw it, and I had already started falling in love the song used for it (called again if you didn’t know by now) before I saw the OP, having obtained and MP3 of the song a few days before the premiere.

OP1 song: again PV – YUI

As a song, Hologram is growing on me, whereas again I loved right away. And, while I don’t think the new OP has the gorgeousness of the first OP, it’s animated very nicely, with some cool things in it. Frankly, seeing some of the magna characters who wern’t in the original series finally animated in it is enough to satisfy me on some levels anyway.

With that said however, I don’t like the new ED much at all:

ED2: Let it out – Miho Fukuhara

Now, I don’t have a problem with the animation for the new ED. It’s quite emotive and lovely actually. It’s the song used with it I’m not crazy about. It just feels too generic and rather boring. Maybe it will grow on me, I don’t know, but right now I’m not feeling it much. Also, I think the first ED has a leg-up for me because I heard the song used in it (called Uso if you didn’t already know) used in one of the ads for the new series before it started airing, and immediately latched onto the song then and there.

Now, onto the episode itself – FMAB Episode 15: Envoy from the East

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La Corda D’Oro ~secondo passo~ – Review

Posted on July 2, 2009 by C. A. Brown

So, after a month, I finally got around to watching the second part of the La Corda D’Oro second season today.

And, sadly, I wasn’t all that impressed.

What I really loved about the first La Corda D’Oro was the main character, Kahoko Hino’s interaction with all the characters surrounding her, especially four of the five major guys characters. When I first started watching the first series/season, I didn’t know the anime (and subsequent manga) were all based on a dating sim game (that’s only out in Japan sadly). So I didn’t realize that the premise of the series was not just a high school comedy/drama, but was actually what’s known as a reverse harem anime. This was the series that first introduced me to, and falling for, the concept of such a series; one girl, surrounded by cute, good-looking guys of various types who are all interested in the one girl at some level.

Standard harem anime is a boy surrounded by many girls – which as a genre in anime actually doesn’t appeal to me at all. Maybe it’s because I’m female that it doesn’t, but so far I find that the characterization found in reverse harem animes are better than in standard harem ones.

Anyway, as a harem anime, La Corda D’Oro had me supporting at least two possible couples: Kahoko Hino/Ryotaro Tsuchiura and Kahoko Hino/Len Tsukimori.

Kahoko Hino & Ryotaro Tsuchiura

Kahoko Hino & Len Tsukimori

What I also didn’t know about harem animes is that, especially if they are based on a video game as La Corda D’Oro is, they usually end with the person who is surrounded by a harem not choosing any of their would-be love interests. The first series/season ended with Kahoko not choosing anyone, much to my disapointment, and she hasn’t chosen anyone in the manga yet either. The manga and the anime deviate in their story telling, so it’s still not out of the question that Kahoko will end up with one of the guys by the end of the manga, whenever that will be (I just got volume 10 a few weeks ago).

When I heard they were going to do a second series/season of the anime, I was ecstatic, as you can read about in one of my previous posts on the subject. However, part one left me more than a little underwhelmed. And the second (and final, so far) part left me even more so. And, to put it frankly, it was because of this:

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