Amagami SS+ 06

One of the better episodes of the series. There was not too much silly shit that would take time away from the sappy love stories we’ve grown to love.

Oh, the humanity!

I didn’t particularly like the excessive use of flashbacks. I doubt there are many viewers who haven’t seen the original SS. What I did like was the fact Junichi is finally getting his Mojo back and acting like a cool guy. He even bought an actually good Christmas present.

Nice choice dude.

The ending of this arc was sweet but it was eclipsed by the wonderful preview of Kaoru’s arc. Sexhair is back and I couldn’t be happier. Too bad we probably won’t get to see a retelling of the “bad friends” story. That was the one of the better arcs in SS.

YEAH!

Halfway through the series and the experience has been quite pleasant so far. 2/3 of the remaining girls are God tier so it will only get better. I have been noticing a certain lack of black humor and despair in my posts. I’ll try to remedy that fact by reading the only book ever written by Rudolf Höss. I think his book Kommandant in Auschwitz: Autobiographische Aufzeichnunge fits really well with the SS theme. It also gives me the possibility to compare if watching Guilty Crown feels worse than reading that book.

Thx bro, you saved Christmas.

Nisemonogatari 05

Damn, being a business student, that speech made by Kaiki Deishu made him a real hero in my eyes. I’m rooting for the bad guy in this series. In all honesty I know about Epicurus and I believe in his hypothesis about money and material giving only so much happiness.

Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It's to see my dividends coming in. - John D. Rockefeller.

What else? Well I never got the idea of wiping the sweat off sick people, especially from siblings. Haruka and Sora know what I’m talking about. Judging from the end of this episode the Araragi family will soon know the downsides of anime healthcare.

This doesn't cure people.

Damn this Bee arc is long. One thing that has bothered me in this “bee” arc is that the “bees” in this anime are clearly wasps. Though, this might be a translation error.

It's a wasp!

Yet another good episode in the books. I have also read that Guilty Crown has somehow turned into a good show, maybe I should catch up.

*The noise when you choose Suuri in RAY's Jokeripokeri and the card is Pieni.

Amagami SS+ 05

I know the Japs have it hard in school but snatching poorly performing students from their home during the night like they were counterrevolutionaries in soviet Russia is a bit extreme. Do you know what else was extreme? The reaction these two lovebirds had on the fact that they can’t spend the Christmas together. When you really like somebody you don’t need some “special” day to make being with that person feel awesome. Well this is anime and the arc needed the drama.

Демократия победит!

Junichi was again caught peeking at the girls swimming team. I think the “ecchi” word has been thrown around too much. Most people don’t even know the real meaning of that word. Luckily we have dudes like Sion Sono who can explain this with a wonderful two minute scene from Love Exposure. If you think part of the reason why I linked that is to show of my (pretentious) knowledge of Asian cinema, you are absolutely correct.

The quintessential ecchi moment.

Well let’s not only talk about the bad things. We finally got to see a “body-part” scene although this time there was no kissing involved. I think probably because Kaoru holds the monopoly on belly kisses. Anyways more of this please.

I wish they had used more than 100¥ to draw this scene...

I haven’t seen the original SS in a while but I remember it being somewhat better than SS+. Maybe the two episodes per girl pace is a bit fast. Luckily they’ve saved the best girls for last so at least we have something to look forward too.

Sad xmas

Nisemonogatari 04

Well this episode just made this show a harder sell outside of Japan. The very long bath scene with some seriously dubious imagery will scare away the mainstream westerner. Well the crazy bastards in the US tried to sell Kodomo no Jikan in the States. Boy would I have wanted to be in that marketing team who was in charge of selling that project. Fortunately, as long as one keeps watching stuff like this episode in his/her safe basement lair there’s no real threat from cars with flashing blue lights.

And someone past surprise at habits or inclinations or turns of events, and who don't confuse himself or sitting in judgment with our lord in fucking heaven.

What else happened in this episode? Oh right, the nekolady (Tsubasa Hanekawa) cut her hair. She also had very long pieces of dialogue but I couldn’t make head or tail what the whole thing was about. If you want an educated opinion about the dialogue go check what Vahvin had to say about Nisemonogatari if you understand the stupidest language on earth, Finnish.

I normally like girls with short hair but cutting it was a mistake in her case.

I wonder how long the Bee arc is going to be? If my deductions are correct there will be five to six episodes per arc depending if this is a eleven or twelve episoder. I have seen both figures around the internet but knowing Shaft there will probably be some “Vitun köyhät” style blu-ray trickery involving post TV run episodes.

This looks like Denpa Onna.

No idea what will happen next week. Hopefully something that involves some fast paced animation. What do I care, I just made this last sorry excuse of a paragraph to make the post look nicer with text around the pictures.

You're lucky that i don't eat fast food. Otherwise I would talk about this shot.

Amagami SS+ 04

I’ll start by addressing the elephant in the room. Why the hell was Junichi flipping through that photo album while Rihoko was in the bath? That’s maybe one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen in an anime series. This won’t happen in real life. The dialog in general was very slow and awkward. I’ve listened to some of the Amagami “radio plays” and I quite liked the faster paced dialog. Fatso is my least favorite girl so it’s not like I care what happens in this arc.  That said I still would have liked to see more grinding in the “reward” scene.

My baby pictures?

One other thing I did not like was the use of the infamous “convenient trip”. This show ain’t To Love-Ru Darkness where the trip is used in the right way to create creative angles. What I’m saying is that the trip should be used as a visual aid and not as a plot device. If you don’t believe me go find a cute girl/handsome guy and fall on top of him/her. I seriously doubt you will advance your relationship in the right direction with that person using this method. Especially, if you are a +100kg neck beard who crushes the girl’s spine turning her into a real life Katawa Shoujo character.

Like magnets.

Damn what’s up with my dark thoughts today? One can really tell that this episode didn’t put that much joy in my life. I really hope next week’s new arc staring Nanasaki Ai will be better.

The situation every time I try to make a move on a girl...

Nisemonogatari 03

We finally get to see a bad guy. Deishu Kaiki didn’t do anything devious but the tense music and grim visual language scream bad with capital letters. See that I.G you don’t have to make your bad guys curb stomp orphans to make them look bad.

Oh he's bad.

Senjougahara is as thorny as ever. Araragi got more viciously verbally assaulted than a black man in Nurmo. We even got back to the first scene of the series where Koyomi was held hostage by a cold Senjougahara. The scene was clever word play until a disturbing text message and a baffling phone call that magically made Senjougahara dere come out.

Tsun

Next week we will probably see some Hanekawa. She’s the only girl from the original series that’s not yet been introduced in the new show. I wait with great anticipation if her character has changed after the Neko shenanigans. Whatever the case more Yui Horie is never a bad thing.

Dere

I really shouldn’t wait this long until I write my thoughts. I’ve damaged my brain with ethanol and hits to the head so my visual memory ain’t that hot.

A picture of my mind. Mostly blank.

Amagami SS+ 03

So much drama, SS+ is really turning into a soap opera. I can’t imagine that rape-kun was featured in the original game. Be that as it may I really liked the more outgoing and brave Junichi of this arc. Also, Rihoko seemed more lovable than in the original SS. She’s still no match for the “better” girls but maybe if she lost a few pounds…

It's funny because in my country boys and girls twice the size of Rihoko are considered average.

I think we also got to hear the first “Nishishi” of the season. I wonder if imoutos will go out of fashion anytime soon? It doesn’t seem very likely when there’s an abundance of girls like Miya (Kana Asumi) on the anime market. Nothing is for certain though, some great minds have declared that Moe is dying and from the ashes of this great genre will rise a new and existing genre called “wonderful girls”. I don’t know if any of that was really said or if I’m projecting my own wishes in order to make them reality.

She's a real gem.

Let’s get back on point.  There’s a faint odor of autopilot that this show emits. I only hope the ending will be different than in SS. Friend zones are more sad than hurt puppies and they also are among the very few drama devices that can make my stone cold heart ache. I bet Rihoko has her greasy fingers crossed that she can escape this sad predicament.

Serious business.

Fuck, I would be pleased with this post only if the title was ” Memoirs of the crackhead” but that is sadly not the case. I’m having a hard time focusing on the writing and Capsule  blasting at ~80 decibels doesn’t help. I hope next week’s episode will have some more shock and awe to make writing something easier.

Way to ruin the awesome and safe mood created by the desolate alley, douche.