Kyou no go no ni!

After recently finishing the four OVA episodes I picked up the new TV version of the series and I noticed two things immediately. I’d have screens but when I try to take one my video player crashes >.<; Maybe I need to update who knows.

1) Art style change! The OVA’s had a more… refined (I was going to say ‘realistic’ >.>) looking art style. By that I of course mean it looked very generic when it wasn’t doing either perv moments or reaction shots. The tv series is a little more off kilter but it still has a similar style to the reactions and such.

2)Toned down the ecchi! It’s a shame but they toned it down, so far anyway. I’ve only been through episode one so far and I’ll point out that thus far there’ve been no actual panty shots. There’s been a couple spots where they were “supposed” to happen. (Superball) But they weren’t there… not that I’m complaining I just noticed they weren’t there. You kind of can’t help but notice… But there have been new stories already. One involving Ryouta, Chika, and… whatserface… with the ahoge and umbrellas.

If you’re curious what Kyou no go no ni (more or less ‘Today in class 5-2′) well… it’s a bout a bunch of fifth graders going about normal fifth grade life. I remember grade 5, it was mostly dirty jokes told during math class… but Kyou no go no ni adds a whole extra dimension to it. By that I mean a healthy (or un-healthy depending on your stance) dose of innuendo (which I did mention is toned down in the TV series). Think either Ichigo Mashimaro with a wider cast and taking place mostly at school or… Lucky Star without the conversations about food and anime/videogame references every five minutes.

Or Bottle Fairy with less cutesy and magic flying plushie kittens…

I do mean it when I mention the innuendo. There’s one part where… well I really can’t spoil it. Suffice it to say, frikking hilarious. If you can laugh at that sort of thing. Not all the stories center around stories like (if you click the post to get to the “more” thing I refer to the story…) the one I mentioned. The umbrella story is “clean” as is the air guitaring with brooms. Superball arc is innocent enough in itself… the TV version anyway. >.> Maybe there’s edited frames on the DVD’s I wouldn’t know. (and like I mentioned who cares? Ity’s funny with or without the fanservice)

Spoilers below

The new stuff, about a month late…

Toradora: Starring my favourite voice actress of all time (Kugimiya Rie) as yet another tsuntsun… except for once the… target of all her ‘affection’ isn’t the main character! yet anyway… Takasu Ryuuji is your average guy, for the most part. Except he’s got a face that makes everyone expect him to be a delinquent. So we see someone bump into him and then him and his friend both give Takasu their wallets; Which he then turns in to the lost and found. Enter Takasu’s romantic interest and then Aisaka Taiga, who promptly punches him in the jaw. (Technically not her first appearance but I didn’t count the random sneezing fit at the beginning of the episode. So far I like it, Kugimiya’s doing her tsuntsun voice yet again though not quite as psychotic as Louise, yet… Som epeople have expressed annoyance by the yet again recurring ‘baka’ and ‘inu’ words but meh. I’ll be happier when she spews out a couple “urusei urusei urusei”s. Because we haven’t had enough of that yet. :p Anyway it looks to be a good school life/tsundere/comedy/drama… not sure if the last bit counts… but I’ll know later on tomorrow.

Skip*Beat: I’m not sure exactly why I picked this one up… honestly; but I did. The first episode was a little boring but hey that’s happened before. We meet a few characters, mainly ‘Sho-chan’ the aspiring male idol and his “girlfriend” Kyoko… who’s plain old vanilla ordinary but with no makeup and no fancy cute outfits… and “questionable hair”… Which pretty much means I thought she was great… until Sho-chan turns out to be a prick and Kyoko undergoes a bit of a transformation. I have no idea what it’s supposed to be genre wise. There’s elements of comedy, romance and drama but… it’s not a whole lot of either of those. But I already want them to put Kyoko back the way she was. T-T Don’t turn her into a “pretty” girl please… (too late I know) we have way too many of those. Give us back the normal looking, more than slightly androgynous Kyoko! Prior to the new Kyoko surfacing Sho-chan issues a challenge that made me hope she was going to walk the path of the reverse trap and try to outdo him in the world of male idols… which would have been frikking awesome but noooooo. -.- They have to plaster her up with makeup and… well the new hairs not bad I’ll admit. But seriously who tucks their pants into their cowboy boots?

Kannagi: This show… made me laugh, which isn’t exactly a hard thing to do. But I did like it. It’s kind of taken bits and pieces from several other shows and roled them all into one. You’ve got a god(dess) who breaks out of a wood carving our protagonist was trying to lug to school. SHe is later assaulted by insect like things (not as bad as it sounds. :p) which she has to purify using a variation of a shrine maidens… uh… staff thing and a magical girls wand… She also winds up freeloading at aforementioned guys house. Oh, and she’s got what may prove to be a tsundere streak. I did however notice a bit of predictability at the beginning but it didn’t last through the whole episode. About the only thing I can classify this udner at the moment would have to be … comedy/supernatural nothing else really applies yet…

Anyway, I have to go sleep now because I’ve been up half an hour longer than I intended already.

rage, rage against the dying of the light

Please share a moment of silence with me whilst I mourn the fact that while my computer WILL in fact play Subterranean Animism… it’s at 2fps… which makes it by far not worth it. T^T

Get it here if you haven’t already.

Okawari

Well I finished off Season one a little while ago and have since started in on season two and I’ve got mixed opinions. I’ve only been through three episodes so far but I can say already the art style changed. Not too much, but it’s noticeable and not at all an improvement. You should really only see what I’m talking about during a) scenes with random unimportant people in the background and b) far off shots of characters. It’s not like a certain episode of a certain show *cough*ttgl*wheeze* but it’s still kind of annoying since the art from season one was perfectly fine. But like I said, not crippling by any means.

Apart from that it’s still a great funny show. If you groove on slice of life and comedy anyway. There’s nothing deep about it. No good action shots. Unless perhaps you count an increase in the fan service department. A lot more parts with nekkid people being barely obscured by random bits of scenery/props. Which isn’t too much of a step up since we had all those ‘almost’ panty shots back in season one. Now you just get to feel creepier because they don’t have clothes on at all. Unless towels count…

Plus a really good story arc involving Touma, Mako-chan, whatsisface the ‘banshou’.

I’ll go back to having screen shots soon I swear. >.>