Volume two of the Kujibiki Unbalance manga was released in Japan recently, and the extra at the end is a 3-page comic starring Ogiue, Ohno, and Sue. I won’t spoil too much because I know Kujibiki Unbalance is being released in America soon, but I will say that it satisfied my desire for more Ogiue, if temporarily.
You Sue fans will get a kick out of this too.
Also, Ohno fans.
So really, everybody wins.
I am quite pleased with the way Shugo Chara has progressed. It is slated for a long episode count, and so it would be easy for the show to fall into the trap of endless episodic filler, but Shugo Chara manages to make progress with every episode. Either the overall story is advanced, or we learn more about at least one character. The steps are small but steady, and I am personally am a fan of this type of pacing.
The way the show is paced, combined with the overall cute, girlish aesthetics of the show, it makes for an anime I can visit every week with no irritation or desire to see the plot move forward, so when it does happen I am pleasantly surprised.
First off, importing manga in Japanese is really starting to lose its price advantage over buying translated manga. At this point, I’d really only be doing it to keep my Japanese up.
Mousou Shoujo Otaku Kei. Volume 1. It’s basically one of many in a sea of otaku-themed narratives following the success of Densha Otoko, so let’s see how it stacks up.
It’s the tale of a fujoshi, the boy who likes her, and the guy she wants to pair said boy with. The story focuses mainly on the aforementiond fujoshi, Asai Rumi, and it’s basically a harmless high school romance comedy with a few racy scenes because it’s running in an otaku-oriented magazine.
Asai is no Ogiue, but then really, who is? It’d basically be unfair of me to compare the sheer depth of Ogiue through 6 volumes of manga versus just this one for Asai, so I’ll just say that Asai is a delightful fujoshi character and that it has its funny moments, though perhaps her fujocity is overblown.
Yes, I am coining the term “fujocity.”
Also the term “Asai Fujosault.”
1) This con was small. The Jacob Javits Center is huge. There may have been a Magic: The Gathering tournament going alongside it, but I hope to see more panels, more rooms, more everything next year
2) Guests were good, not great, but I enjoyed the panels I went to immensely (except for the cosplay competition)
3) Unicorn Table was awesome. Also I picked up all of Votoms for 66% off. Also I got an Anime World Order T-Shirt from Daryl Surat.
“Check out these pythons!”
I’m not sure if I’ve made it clear previously, but I really like Genshiken, and I really like Ogiue.
I have had all 9 volumes of Genshiken, in Japanese, since last year, and I had been highly anticipating the arrival of the second series ever since it was announced and perhaps even before then. Naturally, I thought about the pace of the series previous, and what they had covered in the OVAs, and I figured that, hey, it might be a bit of a squeeze, but they could probably fit enough of the significant content from Volumes 5-9 and finish it off this season.
However, in Genshiken 2, entire chapters have been extended to the point that they fill the approximately 22 minute space that is a tv episode. They’re up to episode 7 already and they’ve only gotten to the end of Volume 6. Either they don’t intend to finish it off just yet, or they’re gonna cut out a lot of stuff from the manga.
Poor Keiko. I get the feeling most of her scenes are gonna get axed.
Now, you’d think I’d be mad at Studio ARMS for extending the chapters in this manner, but I’m really not, because they’ve managed to pull it off successfully. I am genuinely enjoying the episodes, and the added content only serves to enrich the characters and their thoughts and interactions. The prime example of this is episode 5, “Madarame is a Total Bottom,” an episode which covers the manga chapter which basically turned me from an Ogiue fan to an Ogiue fanatic.
Hell, the image banner I’m using here is taken directly from that chapter.
The episode devoted far more time to Ogiue’s fantasies than Kio Shimoku did in the original manga, but it provides me, the viewer, with such a strong understanding of what’s going on inside the mind of sweet Ogi that I cannot help but appreciate it. I am no fan of yaoi, but that I was pretty much seeing her direct train of thought, (lightly) warped logic, and that I was pretty much in Ogiue’s head provides me with a sort of joy that is both pleasant and visceral.
Keep at it, Studio ARMS! The only thing I worry about is that they probably don’t have enough content for a third season if they keep up this pace. Maybe another OVA series is in the works.
I am glad for the existence of Shugo Chara.
I’d been lamenting the sheer lack of legitimately girly magical girl shows as of late. Ones without that unfortunate veneer of obvious otaku appeal that you see in so much mahou shoujo these days. Not to say appealing to otaku is bad, but I’d simply been getting tired of things like Nanoha or Pretty Cure (granted, Pretty Cure is less guilty of this). The last show I could think of that was legitimately girly was Fushigiboshi no Futagohime Gyu!
In comes Shugo Chara.
Hinamori Amu, a girl whose facade as a rough and tough loner does not match her girly inner self. She wishes she could be more true to herself, and her wish is granted in the form of Guardian Characters, or Shugo Chara. These cute little fairy-type mascots let her do things she would be too hesitant to try normally, and when in danger she can do a more powerful “Character Transformation.”
Even the character transformations are good and cute. Not Futagohime good, but at least the outfits are stylish and girly. The Spade Amulet transformation is particularly good.
Frilly shirt, striped stockings, shorts, big ol’ boots and even a beret. It’s like they read my mind.
Even if this show does attract an otaku audience, at the very least it feels like a clean show. It’s full of joy and wonder, and you almost wouldn’t realize that the manga was created by Peach Pit, creators of Rozen Maiden.
And that is all right.
(Do! Do! Do! Dreaming!)
OGIUE MANIAX 