School Rumble 2nd Term – 6

Huzzah! E3 is distracting me way too much. BTW, Smash Bros. Brawl FTW! Snake? SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKEEEEE!

The Rumble opens with Harima as a prince trying to rescue Tenma-Hime (imagine Tenma in Mai-Hime…heh) from an evil tower. Turns out it's a pitch for a new manga that Harima drew 120 pages of overnight (!) after being inspired by Tenma's words last week. Harima asks Yakumo to look over it and tell him what she thinks, then he wanders off and eventually falls asleep on a conveniently found bed. A few students mingle outside the school theater anxiously awaiting Class 2-C's play to start while going over the cast on a nearby poster. The cast is: Princess – Mikoto, Princes (3 Musketeers style, only 6 and female) – Eri, Madoka, Karen, Megumi, Tenma, and Ayano, with a script by Akira and set design by Mai (minorish characters linked to the Wannabe Wiki. That thing is uber helpful…).

E3 – Unmitigated Awesomeness

The lowdown:

Sony's Press Conference:

Watched this one live on Gamespot…and was totally unimpressed. Save for the FFXIII and MGS4 trailers. Peep the MGS4 trailer below, and check GameVideos.com for FFXIII.

FFXII got datedish (October), Heavenly Sword looks badass (like God of War, but with a hot chick), the PS3 controller looks the same as the PS2's…but it has motion sensing. Way to steal Sony! That's it. Really. Oh, PS3 launches November 17, 2006 here and over the pond, November 11 in Japan. Price? $499 for 20 gig hard drive, no HDMI, no Memory Stick or SD card slot, no WiFi (meaning no PSP conectivity). $599 for all the above missing stuff and a 60 gig (I think) HDD.

Nintendo's Press Conference:

Wii=uber fun. Managed to watch this one too, despite the earliness (11:00 AM here…the world doesn't exsist before noon. Wait, it does? I need to talk to Haruhi to change that. Oh, right, the conference.). Miyamoto-san came on stage at the beginning and conducted a virtual orchestra to play the Zelda theme with the wiimote. No date, but it will be cheaper than the competition and be out Q4 2006. Zelda: Twilight Princess at lauch, both GC and Wii versions. Wii control looks killer awesome. Metroid Prime 3: Contamination (I think that's what it was), Super Mario Galaxy, Wii Sports (a collection of sports minigames), Warioware (not actually announced at the conference, but there was footage from it and Time said they played with it), ExciteTruck, the standard EA fare, Red Steel, even more that I forgot. All look like fun. Some bastard that won that AOL contest got to play tennis with Miyamoto-san against Iwata-san and Reggie in a doubles match, random bastard guy spikes the ball to Reggie and wins. I want a Wii now…the PS3 can wait till MGS4 and FFXIII come out.

Microsoft's Press Conference:

Unfortunately, Microsoft was being retarded and didn't allow live streaming, although GameSpot will have a free taped stream up at 2:30PM PST (4:30 here). There was only one thing I, and everyone else, was waiting for. And it was there. Win. It's purdy. Real purdy. Find it on XBL if you've got a 360, or go here (Note: the Quicktime High-Res is MUCH better, so get that one.) to DL it. Don't know what I'm talking about? Then you loose. Or not.

Image shamlessly stolen from bungie.net

He's back bitch! Notice the tan armour. Notice the old-school assult rifle. Notice the reflection in his visor. Notice that THIS IS FUCKING REAL-TIME! Notice that it's out in 2007, and that I'm already putting away for the special edition. Download the trailer. Do it. DO IT.

Strawberry Panic! – 5 and Fate/Stay Night – 18

Hooray for laziness! I was fresh off of possibly failing my English final, so I was in no mood to blog yesterday…but here's what I ment to blog about. Yeah.

Ah! My Goddess Season 2 – 4

After the Christmas present fiasco last week, Sayoko, in a rather odd fit of niceness, invites Keiichi and Belldandy to her gigantinormus house for a Christmas party. Skuld, Urd, and the rest of the auto club tag along. Sayoko conveniently forgets to tell Keiichi and Co. that they were supposed to dress up (the rest of the party goers were in tuxes and gowns), which immediately alerts Keiichi that something's amiss. Skuld and Urd help themselves to massive amounts of ice cream and booze, while Dai-chan and Dan-chan make asses out of themselves, as usual. Sayoko finally arrives on the scene, floating down from the rafters in a fancy basket. After taking credit for the party that her parents set up, Sayoko challenges Belldandy to a series of "side-shows" to "entertain the guests". Keiichi affirms his suspicions, and Belldandy happily hops up on stage. The first "side-show" is a singing contest. Sayoko butchers some song that no one has ever heard of, and gets perfect 10s from the judges, as they are all her relatives. Belldandy does a fantastic rendition of "Open Your Mind", the Season 1 OP, moves everyone at the party to tears, and gets perfect 100s from the judges.

Ah, nostalgia. AonE and AnY even used the old karaoke style.

Lolis – Not just for Pedos Anymore

Lolis. They're everywhere. In action anime. In harem anime. Even in horror anime. Why are they important? Because the loli can make or break the show. In my Otaku experience, there are 3 types of loli: Shana-Type, Mikuru-Type, and Rena -Type. Why do you need to know this? Because, as they say, Knowledge is Power! That, and you really need to stay away from those Rena-Types…

Strawberry Panic! – 4

We start out at a small pond, with a young blonde girl praying to a statue of Maria-sama (the Japanese name for The Virgin Mary) and asking if she believed in angels.

Do you believe? No? Then they're all dead…

Fate/Stay Night – 17

The episode opens with Emiya and one of those spooky dreams he has about Saber's past. Apparently, she was forced to sacrifice an entire village and it's people to win a battle, a feat that her troops weren't too happy about, as they knew her sheath would guarantee victory either way. Emiya considers the notion that this may have something to do with Saber wanting the Holy Grail, but pushes the thought aside and heads to breakfast.

Saber raises her sword to the heavens in Emiya's dream.

Naruto – Great Clash! The Illusionary Ruins at the Depths of the Earth

Dattebayo released Naruto Movie 2 today, a day after it's DVD release over in Japan. They probably got a copy in advance, but it doesn't stop them from being damn fast…anyway, the movie was pretty good, and it made me wonder why the hell the fillers were utter trash story wise. I mean, the story here was okay, so why didn't they get the people that wrote it to write the filler? The story had to have been finished way before the filler started airing, they most certainly could have used the same writers…ah well, no use complaining now that they're about done. The only gripe I have about the movie is one small continuity issue with some weird red Rasengan that Naruto busts out with near the end. He wasn't in Kyubii mode (in fact, he didn't even attempt to do anything of the sort, no red eyes, no freaky red fox-shaped chakra, nothing), so WTF?

A bunshin helped him make the red one, while random one time use movie character man somehow, without any prior Rasengan training or even knowledge of the existence of chakra, managed to help make the other one.

They also had a few instances where he did a Rasengan without a kage bunshin lending a hand, which he shouldn't be able to do yet (note that you actually don't see him do it with one hand, but he doesn't summon any clones either). That, and the really odd lack of the word "jutsu" throughout…Shikamaru and weird lookin' puppet guy (forgot his name) might have said it once, but Naruto just said "Kage Bunshin!" and that's it. Strange. Gah, I'm turning into a Naruto fanboy…ah well. At least it wasn't as bad as Dragonball Z movies 4-13 (all of which I refuse to watch on grounds that they're sucktacular and have no continuity with the series). Here's lookin to August and movie 3.

Advent Children

Welcome to my Reunion!

Anime Wrap-Up, Pythagoras Switch, FFVII, and Music

Whoo! Uber major History/English project FINNISH! *insert Super Sentai pose here* Now to study for my English exam…enthusiasm GET! Damn, it didn't work. Anywho, it's wrapup time!