Wakaranai

Chu-bra!! is a fast-approaching TV anime adaptation of a popular and unabashedly erotic manga published in the renowned Comic High! Serialization. Comic High! is known for producing high-quality manga with a strong fanservice bent, including the controversial Kodomo no Jikan, and seriously ecchi High School Girls. Like those two manga, this one is interestingly also written by a woman, Nakata Yumi. It would seem that these days the men in the manga industry either don’t have the balls or the experience to pen a decent ecchi manga! Several volumes of the manga have been released, and the first two chapters have been translated, and it is solely through my exposure to the source manga that I am at all interested in the upcoming anime version. I’m not usually one to get enthusiastic about a series that blatantly flaunts fanservice without any attempt at plot or characterization. That’s essentially what this is, but the key component is that it’s GOOD fanservice, unlike the Queen’s Blade or Ikkitousen. You could say that this H-toned manga offers tasteful fanservice with its focus on cute characters and nice art. As the title suggests, the theme to the ecchi is underwear, so expect to be overloaded with panty-shots and a huge variety of underwear. The premise makes no attempt to mask this focus:

The story centers on Nayu, a middle school girl who shocks her schoolmates on the first day of school by wearing black lace panties. She likes this kind of underwear, and she tries to “spread the word on the merits of [these kinds of] underwear” via an underwear club with her schoolmates, who are worried about their bodies’ development and which underwear to choose.

The protagonist and perpetrator behind much of the fanservice, Nayu, makes her fondness for underwear a way of life! The origins of her passion and wisdom on the topic of braziers and panties lie with her casual career as underwear-tester for her friend who designs them. But the pantsu-mania extends from her bedroom into her middle-school when she earns reputation for keen advice on styles and sizes! Yep … the plot, if you care to call it that, is about as thin as they come. But that doesn’t matter when we’re barraged by images of cute, half-dressed. And they really are cute; the characters designs are very easy on the eye, and they come in all shapes and sizes to maximize the fanbase. There’s the flat-chested girls, the one girl with the gigantic bust size, and the even more voluptuous teacher. All bases are covered. So the source manga is good (shallow, but good). The anime being good is a different matter. Fortunately, a trailer was screened at Comiket 76 which shows plenty if promise:

You can see that the art quality looks very high, especially for this kind of series. There’s lots of detail and the colour palette is good. Visually this looks like a pretty flawless transition from manga designs to anime ones. The series is being produced by ZEXCS, who have created some other fine works, including Umi Monogatari and a personal favourite of mine, Macademi Wasshoi. Things are looking all-green in this area. The other thing the trailer shows is that full-colour panties are far more exciting than black and white ones! So it’s therefore important to know that the series will be airing on satellite/cable TV channel, AT-X. This of course means it should be completely uncensored! If everything goes according to plan (keikaku doori!), then this should turn out to be the ultimate pantsu-fetish anime ever to have been created! There’s still an important factor to consider though: will the seiyuus be up to the task of making the characters fun and likeable? Here’s the cast list:

Nayu Hayama: Minori Chihara
Yako Jinguuji: Minako Kotobuki
Haruka Shiraishi: Sayuri Yahagi

Minori Chihara has played a wide variety of roles and, I think, has proven herself more than able to take on a character like Nayu. I especially liked her as Coopa from Druaga and Chiaki-sama from Minami-ke. I honestly haven’t heard much of Sayuri Yahagi. I must be subconsciously avoiding her anime or something. But I have heard her play the very sweet Rima from Shugo Chara. Rima had a lovely voice, so I’m hoping that’ll apply here too. I’ve gotta be least excited about Minori Chihara though, who hasn’t really pulled off anything memorable yet. I guess she wasn’t half bad at playing the soft-spoken Tsumugi from K-ON! Overall, the main cast looks fine, no risky newcomers but no really big names either.

In fact, on the whole, this is shaping up to be as good as I could’ve hoped. It’ll certainly fill my fanservice quota for the coming season!

➡ ANN Page
➡ Anime Suki Thread
➡ AkibaBlog
➡ Official Website

Rating:    

‘The flock of panties have returned!’ sums up this bizarre but frivolously fun episode of Sora no Otoshimono. They’re back by popular demand! Well, maybe not, but I have to say I didn’t expect them to make a comeback after their teary departure only a few episodes ago. When peace-loving Tomoki opens his window to take in the tranquil morning, he is soon mobbed by the returning panties. And that pretty much sets the tone for the remainder of the episode; much like their departure their arrival heralds an episode overloaded with underwear and pantsu-related humour. Only this time they stretched the ridiculousness to a new peak of absurdity - including exploding panties, and porn magazine defence pantsu-robot. As a self-prescribed pantsu-fanatic I am always delighted with the prospect of such an episode. Unfortunately, I was let down in a couple of ways. The main problem was that, despite being drenched in epic quantities of panties, there was very little in the way of girls wearing any. You know, actual fanservice, like panty-shots and girls undressing. Somehow pantsu strategically distributed around a house just isn’t as exciting. There was enough hotness for the episode to pass, but for an episode with a premise like this in a show that relishes its ecchi status, I expect a little more.

The other problem I had was a shortcoming in the humour department. I can’t really put my finger on why I found the previous pantsu-saturation episode more entertaining (and titillating) than this one, but it lacked that usual oomph that Sora no Otoshimono had. The jokes kind of fell flat. The episode was still fun from a fanboy perspective, but it didn’t have that Seto no Hanayome-esque edge of riotousness. By the time Tomoki was fighting his way through the projectile-pantsu onslaught of his own robot creation I was leaning more towards cringing rather than laughing. I think my issue with the episode boils down to it just being a bit too silly without having the sharp humour or self-ridicule to pull it off right. On the upside, the production on the show remains consistently great, and it was still pretty enjoyable even if it wasn’t as funny or fapworthy as it could’ve been. As a bonus, the long-awaited Nymph finally made her entrance (although it was a fleeting cameo in the epilogue).

✘ I felt they kind of undermined their own plot, thing though it is, by having Icarus spend the day with Mitsuki while her master, Tomoki, was delegated the punishing task of fighting his way out of his explosive house. It calls into question whether her loyalty to her master is conditional or by her own choice. Anyway, I thought she was connected to Tomoki by her chain (even though it’s invisible), so he surely could summon her and use her powers to get out of the situation. Unless I missed something it just seems like a bit of a lazy way to write this little sidestory. I mean, they don’t have all that much of a plot, it couldn’t be too hard to stick to what they’ve established..

♡ The best fanservice moment came when Mitsuki took Icarus underwear shopping. The underwear she picked out for Iacrus really WAS super-cute and fitted her angel status perfectly. The wings on the bra and panties are lovely!. I thought that scene was cut a bit too short (extension saved for DVD releases perhaps). I wanted a good look at Iacrus wearing them! Well, that might come later in the series. Mitsuki is good at picking underwear for others, she should refine her own choices a bit. Her striped panties this episode were and improvement, especially the pink-striped ones (sadly now-deceased ;_;). Lucky Tomoki got a mouthful of them..

♡ Mitsuki ended up in a nopan predicament yet again! Poor girl ^^ We don’t get any good flashes, sadly. For those who’ve seen how GAINAX played the nopan episode of Abenobashi for maximum eyecandy should agree.

✔ Finally! Nymph! And her role is kind of interesting. She might mix things up even more than I thought. I wonder if she will be an addition to Tomoki’s pet angel collection, or perhaps she has a different master? I’m intrigued. And the scene where she appeared definitely had an air of mystery to it.

✔ Have to admit I loved the boner gag at the end. Something had to ruin his hero status. Poor Tomoki got a crushing Mitsuki-chop. His body is just being honest!

✔ I really appreciate the fact that each episode has its own ED relevant to the episode. It’s something anime should do more often as it’s a last bit of fun to finish the episode off with instead of the same old song. Also, I have to say Tomoki has an enviable dirty magazine collection.

 

Rating:    

I probably shouldn’t have watched this episode right after the recent Darker than Black episode; the season’s biggest success pitted against it’s most disappointing - I just hope my judgement hasn’t been clouded. It’s worth noting that although I say this is the most disappointing show of the season doesn’t mean I think it’s the worst - it definitely isn’t. it’s just that, once again I finished this episode with that sad feeling that the truly excellent seinen manga has not nearly been done justice by this anime adaptation. I’m not about to jump ship though. By not being nearly as shit as last episode this episode has pulled me back from the doomsaying stage. Rather than being a disposable waste of time about a story-of-the-week, the episode traded story instead for some appreciable character development and some fleshing out of strange and interesting the Misaka/Touma relationship. Maybe one day an episode of Railgun will be able to deliver story AND character development.

So, although not much happened again, what did happen was at least entertaining enough to be called worthwhile. For Misaka fans it was good seeing her in full-throttle Biri-biri mode. If you look at her character from two perspectives you could say her Railgun side is her cool, composed and sassy, and her Biri-biri side is her tsundere mode. Her crush on Touma brings out her fragile emotions, causing her to flicker between a dangerous bully and a stuttering, blushing young maiden. Her dialogue with Touma is always lots of fun, and accounted for all of the best moments of the episode. I admit I really cracked up during the flashback to their first meeting, when Touma showed up to save her from the forceful advances of a gang of delinquents, only to have his plan of pretending to be her boyfriend thwarted. That and his subsequent humiliation of Misaka by calling her childish is classic Touma/Biri-biri material. Their later moonlit duel was well-animated and featured some interesting tactical use of Biri-biri’s abilities. One consistent plus for Railgun is that, when it does have an action scene, there is little risk of it being choked by a spiel of invasive exposition.

On the other hand, these highlights are kind of worrisome because those scenes are essentially lifted from the manga intact. The original content of the series remains comparatively mediocre. I’m already wishing this had been a 12 episode series - the less stuff these writers have to slip in the better. The introduction of Academy City researcher, Harumi, was taken from the manga and altered a bit to fit it into this episode. Harumi’s character is suitably mysterious and quirky, but this seemed like a really odd way to introduce her - just an arbitrary coincidence. In the manga, they met her while investigating a Judgement matter relevant to the Level Upper case .. not just because she was wondering around trying to find a car park. It seems that’s consistent with the more comical tone of the anime over the manga :\

And while I’m on a downhill rant, I have to bring up the portrayal of Kuroko’s character again. For all the cute, moe fun we got with Biri-biri this episode, Kuroko’s was pushed further done the route of a shallow gag-character. Her extreme reactions to Saten’s urban legend murmurs were just .. inexplicable. Believe me when I say that Kuroko from the manga would never have reacted like that. She may have strong perversions when it comes to Misaka, but she also has a sharp wit that would lend her the ability to delineate fact from fiction. And I don’t think Misaka would ever have had to tie up the manga Kuroko (maybe coming close to though XD).

This was an enjoyable episode because there was a hefty amount of Misaka goodness to be had, and because the interactions between her and Touma are great fun. There were a few brief smatterings of fanservice as well.

● Harumi’s public stripping was not quite as good because Kuroko wasn’t there to react by lecturing her on being more lady-like XD. That was definitely a lot more fun in the manga. But if she managed to get an urban legend started about her, maybe we’ll get more regular Harumi strippings?

● Her taste in drinks is truly terrible. But I bet that was a drink Yue would love!

♡ Wasn’t that a fantastic episode for Misaka fanboys? We haven’t had a hit of cute Biri-biri in anime form for far too long! She’s just so moe when she blushes and gets flustered! I especially loved when harumi was trying to call her a tsundere this episode. Come on, Biri-biri, admitting you’ve got a problem is the first step!

 

Rating:    

Sora no Otoshimono is one of those anime that has nudged its way into an already overcrowded genre but which effortlessly stands out and pleasantly surprises by reaching past people’s expectations. I think everyone had reservations that this would be another mind-numbingly generic ecchi anime, but with every episode it has proven its ability to entertain. Last week, with the all the panties and, well, all the no-panties, I thought the best thing abut the show WAS the fanservice. It delivered copious amounts of droolworthy fanservice scenes and, most importantly, delivered it in a fun way and with top-notch production values. But this episode shows it has strength beyond maneoucering its cute girls into embarrassing/sexy situations. There was practically no fanservice at all and yet it was still really enjoyable. I can’t even really explain why anymore, except to say that this episode demonstrated the show’s ability to do comedy more than the others have so far. There’s a surreal element to the series that stops it from feeling too generic. The manliness factor also increased in the form of Eishirou, as did the moe levels with some dramatic development for the stoic but earnest Icarus herself.

♡ I definitely gained a strong moe attraction for Icarus this episode! Before she seemed like a pretty empty, large-breasted vessel for fanservice, but now she has definitely developed some cute character traits. I certainly wouldn’t say she’d a deep or complex character, and her personality is largely defined by the typical moe palette: submissive, childish, pure of heart, wants to please, etc. But, as someone easily ensnared by the trappings of moe, I find her utterly adorable! I want one! A pet-class angel in chains .. it’s the ultimate fetishism! SUGOI SUGOI!

♡ Tomoki patting her head was just too cute. She just loves it <3 <3 HHNNNNNNNNNGGG.

● Still waiting for Nymph to show up. Is she going to be Tomoki’s servant as well? I ask because this guy doesn’t even deserve one, let alone two. He hasn’t been abusing his powers nearly enough (although he still gets fanboy kudos from me for handcuffing Mitsuki!).

✔ And every series needs a bit of arbitrary GAR. I’d previously pinned Eishirou as a freaky nerd type of character but apparently he is a badass outdoor dude, a highly intelligent scientist and an all-round man of win. I cracked up when I saw his ‘house’. Sorry Eishirou, I misjudged you! Not sure about you’re taste in Pretty the 2nd though. You can use one of my figures if you want!

● That watermelon is creeping me out.

✔ Why are the productions values so fucking awesome? The soft-style shading, which reminds me of parts of Macross Frontier, just gives the show such a unqiue and attractive finish. But the animation is great, the backgrounds are well-done, and details like the sunlight gleaming of the water - it all adds up to a very well produced series. The studio, AIC A.S.T.A., really surprised me with this one. I assume they’re betting on some good DVD sales for this one, and I hope they get them!

✘ I have to admit to being a BIT disappointed by the lack of ero content in this episode. A shot of Mitsuki in wet and transparent clothing is nice (especially as she had some nice underwear on this week), but it doesn’t compare to last week!

 

Because I’m so excited about this particular series, I’d thought I’d piece together a handful of new Railgun related material that’s surfaced over the last few days. Naturally, I updated the main Railgun page, but I’m making a sperate post so no one misses out on this Railgun goodness. This time the goodness comes in the form of scans of two new promotional features in anime magazines. These two images are shown above, and are linked to their higher-quality forms hosted on moe.imouto.org. I really like these two pictures. They really represent the two greatest facets of the show - Railgun in her cool “I’ll blow you away” mode in the first image, and in a more fanboy-dream pose in the second. The fanservicey official art that has been coming out for Railgun has been really great - gives me hope that the anime will be able to balance great story and Railgun-badassery with ample fanservice for Biri-biri lovers.

This particular image is really sexy -only topped by the sheer hawtness of the Biri-biri/Misaka ero hug-pillow sold at C76. Biri-biri is so stunning in a loose shirt, plus the pose of her pulling her shorts down is shockingly erotic. *holds nose*. Kuroko also looks surprisingly lovely with her hair let down - it’s a sight we should see more often! There is a problem with this picture though - Kuroko is not drooling over Biri-biri’s exposure like the rest of us! She doesn’t look nearly aroused enough. Also, her bra seems too plain. I’m sure she wears sexier, more adult underwear! I’ve seen it in the doujins! But moving on, and there is also a musical treat to be had with a TV-size preview release of the OP, “only my railgun” by Fripside.
 
 

The OP has a heavy-techno tinge to it, with typical but really nice jpop vocals over the top. It’s got a similar tone to the Index OPs but it’s actually a bit more catchy. I initially thought I recognised the singer, and then I read that it’s Yoshino Nanjou, the seiyuu for current series, CANAAN. That was kind of surprising, but she has a really great singing voice!

Rating:    

Even though my watch list has been totally inflated by the new season, there was originally only a modest handful of anime that I was excited about; Bakemonogatari was one of them. Rather than excitement, I suppose it was more of a cautious curiosity. I wanted to see what a show would turn out like with a collaborative directing role shared between the usual SHAFT dude Akiyuki Shinbou, and Tatsuya Oishi, who hasn’t yet had a full-fledged directing position. The character designs and animation direction being handled popular artist Akio Watanabe was also an alluring prospect. Two episodes in, my hopes for the series have been diminished to an extent. While it is as interesting and intriguing as I expected, both visually and by way of its unorthodox storytelling, it is not as entertaining as I’d hoped.

Episode 2 is the main culprit here. While it often retains the same striking and stylised animation of the first episode, it is victim to the usual abstractions that a SHAFT anime inevitably suffers under the guidance of Akiyuki Shinbou. Shinbo has a unique but highly distinctive style of direction. In other words, he knows how to make something strange and experimental, but he always tends to do it in much the same way. And so, Bakemonogatari is saturated with unnecessary flashes of text, spliced with pointless live-action shots or backgrounds, and burdened with bizarre diagrams, all of which serve to disrupt the atmosphere and visual gravitas that the show otherwise manages to achieve. Does SHAFT simply not have faith in the attention span of its viewers? Instead of delivering exposition through dialogue while remaining in-scene we’re pulled into a tedious slideshow monologue while Hitagi explains her sad backstory. I actually found her story really compelling as a piece of character drama, and her confronting her feelings and despair was a strong scene. But it could have had a lot more impact without the art-craft delivery.

On the positive side, the series isn’t a timid one. On top of dealing with confronting issues like sexual assault it also has a generous approach to fanservice. Going a long way toward making up for the meaningless dialogue that constituted the first half of the episode, was Hitagi flaunting her splendid body in a state of undress. I didn’t expect Bakemonogatari to be such a prime fanservice series! It’s sad that it’s missing a certain energy, which may stem from the meandering script or the way it indulges in needless abstractness and strangeness. Playing with font, text and the boundaries of practical animation is better left to an innately incoherent show like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. This series would be better served by a more grounded approach. When it isn’t led astray, the aesthetics of the series are impressive - strong colouring and fantastic use of lighting is especially notable.
 
 

。。 <3 Hitagi starred in a nice steam-free shower scene followed by an extensive period of time spent in lovely light-blue bra and panties (with stationary-themed patterns!). I’m not sure if it’s much of an achievement, but that certainly the longest ‘getting dressed’ scene I’ve seen. Splendid! Pity the accompanying interchange between the characters wasn’t very compelling. She’s certainly confident with her body though, and it was kind of amusing seeing Koyomi squirm (and thankfully there were no incidences of nosebleeds).

。。 Koyomi is a pretty disappointing male lead, but his contact, the supernatural go-to guy, Meme, fulfils the badass quota. He’s very cool.

。。 Hurry up and reach Suruga’s arc (the admitted lesbian, fujoshi, lolicon and masochist)!

。。 Hitagi’s warm gesture of friendship to Koyomi at the end of the episode was as cute as it was surprising. I guess she did describe herself as a tsundere last episode, but I didn’t think she really meant it. Her amiable side is much nicer. I hope to watch their friendship develop.

Nagi-sama    

I’ve fan-raved over an electrically-powered psychic and a half-demon sword-wielder, so what better way to add to the list of preternatural girls than a goddess in pure bishoujo form? No, I’m not talking about Haruhi, Horo, or Yurie, but the arguably more moe, Nagi-sama, from the recent otaku hit from a once-scorned ex-KyoAni director: Kannagi. And she’s a bit of a departure from my previous picks - she’s not a powerful warrior with a tough temperament and a cute maiden heart. Nagi-sama, affectionately referred to by some as the AA-cup goddess, was a definite hit across the otakusphere, with a hefty share in Megami’s poster lineup, and strongly-selling character goods. I personally own a particularly fetching 1/7 figure of her in nekomimi mode, as well as several doujinshi and, just recently, an official artbook all of her own was released. Her soft tsundere style and childishness captured many hearts, as did her unique and charming character design. She was so beloved that she earned her own extremist nerdrage campaign when it was vaguely revealed that she’d had a past relationship, sullying her purity in the eyes of several fanatical fanboys. But controversy aside, she’s a popular girl (inside and outside of the show), and with good reason.

Nagi is a goddess who inhabited an ancient tree near a local shrine until that tree was felled, and she was given a mortal life with a human body - the form of a young girl that Jin carved into a remnant part of the tree. Reawakened by Jin, she, in the absence of her own home, takes the next step required by anime - starts living with him in his parental-free house. While vaguely pursuing a quest to banish impure spirits, using a magical girl staff which she adopted from a children’s anime programme, she gradually slides into an irregular high school life. She covertly joins Jin’s school, gains a widespread fan-following, and eventually befriends the colourful members of his art club. Her goddess powers are seriously diminished and only occasionally shine through, like when she is able to imbue her magical staff with a torch-light function. Her character is obstinate, and, especially at first, a bit haughty. She speaks in an archaic, imperious-sounding manner (like Horo), and incorporates this into her cover story for living with Jin: a rich-girl run-away. But her selfish side is complimented by her incalculable sense of humour and fun-seeking personality. At times, playful and irrepressible, and other times sulky and inconsolable, Nagi truly is an aberrant amalgamation of different personalities. But her cuteness and indefinableness make her a warm and oddly seductive girl. Her personality has great range, and it’s fun being able to go from hating her one minute to fawning over her the next. I also attribute a lot of this to the stand-out performance from her seiyuu.