Bamboo Blade manga v1

by dm00

 

More proof that "it's all about Tamaki"

 

Volume one of the Bamboo Blade manga arrived in the mail the other day.  Despite sharing this blog-space with TheBigN, I was a late-comer to Bamboo Blade, but I’m intent on making up for lost time.

Impressions on a Year 2008: Happy Action Fun Time

By TheBigN

Part 1: Interesting People
Part 2: Awesome OP/EDs
Part 3: Fun Phrases
Part 4: Scintillating Soundtracks

And so I finish with moments that made an impact on me in some way, shape or form. It makes me realize just how much has gone on this year that’s been interesting and fun to keep up with, and it also reminds me about how many moments that I haven’t seen yet. Things keep on moving, so hopefully this next year keeps up with the trend of interesting shows, though I might not be able to keep with them as much as I did this year. Ah well. As always, if you have selections of your own, please say them. :3

Impressions on a Year 2008: Fun Phrases

By TheBigN

Part 1: Interesting People
Part 2: Awesome OP/EDs

There are some phrases said that just stick in my memory long after they’ve been said in anime. Those or phrases that are interesting enough, absurd enough, thought-provoking enough, or awesome enough (the latter makes up the majority of them) that I want to share them with others, but need to write them down before I forget them, or something like that. Either way, what you see are what worked for me, and hopefully why they worked for me. Remember that these are statements that I write down under the mercy of whoever decided to translate them, so if these aren’t the correct results, forgive me. And again, feel free to also add your thoughts on phrases you heard and think are awesome.

Vote for Miyako Redux!

By TheBigN

While I thought that Miyako might be able to get past Rena in the last round of Saimoe, I was surprised when the result actually turned out to be so (lol @Rena taken home). Against Tomoyo, I still have faith that she can come through, but I’m not sure that others believe as well. If you don’t know Hidamari Sketch or don’t care about Miyako, why not continue to make Saimoe interesting and not a bland coronation of CLANNAD characters (I’d say KyoAni, but Kagami’s still there. <3)? Besides, Tomoyo’s indeed awesome, but Miyako’s much more so. In my heart at least. (I do realize that I haven’t really enumerated reasons for why Miyako is better than Tomoyo, but fanatacism is good enough right?) 😛

The roses always know.

And continuing along the original vein, vote for Kirino! You know you want to. 😛

Impressions on Bamboo Blade: A Strange Band of Bravers

Written by TheBigN

It’s funny how a lack of knowledge can help or hurt me, and it also shows how easily I can be swayed. When I first heard of the premise for Bamboo Blade, I thought it wasn’t something that would interest me much compared to what else was shown (Fall 07′ was a pretty strong season, now that I think of it). My last foray into a sports anime focused on a squad of girls coming together was fun (often more unintentionally than intentional), but not something that I was really too much into. Based on how people explained the show , I admit that I had a wrong uninformed opinion of the show, thinking it was harem-related without even doing research or taking a look at the show in the first place. Ignorance is bliss after all. At the same time though, because of people’s glowing mentions of the show, because I didn’t know anything about Bamboo Blade, I decided to check it out. And I’m glad I did, since it’s now one of my favorite series of 2007/08. Everyone has pretty much said what I’m going to say, but I figure more voices of support can be used for it, and because I think more people need to check it out.

Impressions on a Year 2007: Beginning With Interesting People Not Named Manami Amamiya or Miyako from Hidamari Sketch

Written by TheBigN

Hopefully you guys have had a good Christmas and an even better Boxing Day/Start of Kwanzaa. And in case you’re wondering, I’m not Canadian, nor do I actually celebrate Kwanzaa. Now on the actual post. 😀

Even though I’m making a list of what I found to be the most interesting, impressionable, immaterial (and missing power), and impressive things I’ve seen in anime and anime blogs this year, the reader should take everything I write with a grain of salt (</common sense>).  I haven’t seen every anime this year, nor listened to every OST, ED/OP this year, and so on, which is why you won’t see things from shows like Code Geass, Gundam 00 or Idolm@ster: Xenoglossia, for example (erm…). And I certainly don’t think I’m qualified to highlight something as the “best” overall, so I’m just going to go for things that worked (or didn’t) for me.  These are by no means complete lists or completely accurate lists, as I know I’m going to forget some things or others in the process. Also, if you’re expecting quality, be prepared for more of the Musashi stuff than the really good stuff. 😛  Try and enjoy the show… and the snow if things work out correctly. :3

Today, I’m focusing on some of the characters that made anime this year interesting for me. This is limited to one per show to keep this post briefer than it could have been, including the characters in my post’s title (why not Miyako some may ask? Hopefully you’ll see why in a couple of weeks – definitely my favorite character of the year BTW). And I’m not done with the title characters yet, but I feel like I need to pay attention to others; they need love too. :3

She Works Hard For The Boxset…

Written by TheBigN 

In yet another example of parallel of something in anime that reminds me of my life, memories of my part-time job surfaced watching Tama-chan go for broke during her first one in episode 8 of Bamboo Blade. In undergrad, I worked part-time as a computer lab operator for the main IT branch of Cornell. Like Tamaki, my job consisted of really just sitting around for a couple of hours a day; in my case, it involved waiting (not really) to provide basic Cornell computing help for people who needed it.  You know, knowing how the system worked (especially printing); help with printers, scanners, programs on the computers, OSes (not linux, thank goodness), etc; and keeping the labs nice, neat an. all that other good stuff.  That’s all I’ll say about what I had to do. And on a side note, Nomad Otto, who worked at a Cornell IT helpdesk for a while, has “fun”, definitely entertaining stories (about silly people) to tell. Hopefully we’re lucky enough to hear them one day and remember the precious memories they gave us.  Now back to this “regular” blog post.

  

Thankful for Anime, 2007

Written by TheBigN

Granted, this will be bit earlier than usual for some, but why not get that head start in anyways? 😀