Apparently, forgetting to check the anime blog community frequently…

Also means forgetting guest posts that you write up for other blogs.

By TheBigN

I wrote a guest post over at Listless Ink which notes more openly one of those “extra” areas that gets and keeps me interested in anime – my yuri goggles. Reminds me that I probably need to do posts like this more often. Or probably just more posts (guest and otherwise) in general. I thank Yi very much for letting me post on her blog, and I hope to do it again in the future. :3

Kyousogiga — Chaos Capital Cartoon

by dm00

High above Not-Kyoto

I haven’t had so much fun since I first saw Noiseman Sound Insect. It’s like all the madness of FLCL compressed into one caffeine-maddened episode (no Pillows, though).

Poor Koto and her brothers seem to have been sucked into the world of gods and yokai, where they have special chaotic powers of their own. There’s a rabbit involved, and the episode begins with an extended quotation from Lewis Carroll, just in case you didn’t get the message. But this is no slavish adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

Apparently it’s a one-shot ONA, though the end holds out hope for more.

UK gets Tatami Galaxy on DVD

by dm00

If you have a multi-region DVD player, you, too, can seek the raven-haired beauty

For years British anime fans have been importing US anime DVDs. Now we in the US can return the favor.

When I ordered my copy from Amazon.co.uk they didn’t charge this gaibrit value-added-tax, so, even with shipping, it was a little cheaper than the £25.99 list price.

In last Friday’s ANNCast, Funimation representatives Marketing manager Adam Sheehan and Director of Corporate Strategy Lance Heiskell talked about the prospects of titles they’d streamed, and it didn’t sound to me as though there’s any hope of a home-video release in the US.

I will be terribly embarassed if this turns out to be a boot-leg. However, none of the tell-tale signs are there: it’s not a region-free disk, the episodes are on three disks and not crowded onto two (or one).

Mardock Scramble GN2 — Caster moonlights in Mardock City

by dm00

If Fate/Zero’s Castor is the kind of villain you like, have I got a manga for you. Remember those juvenile/loli assassin twins in Black Lagoon? Mardock Scramble‘s Balot took the advanced course.

Volume two picks up right where volume one left off, facing Boiled, Oefcocque’s former partner, Oefcocque’s nightmare.

Balot, using her powers (perhaps inadvertently), catches a glimpse of Oefcocque’s memories, and the fight with Boiled awaken something in Balot, giving her a reason to live, and a reason to surprise Boiled with her capabilities.

Balot decides to partner with Oefcocque.

The story is grim: Balot’s life, before Oefcocque and Easter rescued her, was not a happy one. Flashbacks in this volume tell us why she had no desire to survive in the preceding volume, but seem more humanizing than dehumanizing: with the help of Oefcocque, Balot is learning to be human again. We learn a bit more about the madness behind Shell’s method, and we see him unleash four horrors to track down Balot and kill her.

She’s prepared.

There’s some truly creepy stuff implied here. The art is reminiscent of Mohiro Kitoh’s (Narutaru, Bokurano),especially when she draws Balot. Her action scenes are dynamic without turning into a muddle of speed-lines. Some of the brutality is horrific, but fortunately not dwelled upon nor drenched in blood — a good deal of it is left to your imagination.

I have not read the novel. This manga version stands on its own, and is excellent story-telling, and excellent art. I look forward to the next volume. Fortunately, Kodansha is bringing the volumes out every two months, and the next one will be released in early December (this coming Tuesday, as it happens).

The wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya

by dm00

Hard cover edition

I just finished The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya, a title that makes me think of Alexander the Great for some reason.

Book six of the Haruhi Suzumiya series is a collection of short stories. The first two stories, “Live alive” and “The adventures of Mikuru Asahina episode 00″, were among the highlights of the first animated season (which I think appeared shortly after this book was originally published in Japan).

In the new stories in this volume, Yuki is on the receiving end of a confession of love, Mikuru asks Kyon out on a Sunday afternoon (“The melancholy of Mikuru Asahina”), and the cat Shamisen is a key witness in the murder mystery that got derailed in “Snowy mountain syndrome”.