The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls is based on a mobile Game, made by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment. The anime started airing in January 2015, it is a 2 cour anime , in the post which was supposed to be a review, I’ll write about my impressions of both seasons.

https://youtu.be/n-_HcT6eRSI

When it started airing, I watched two episodes and thought “Well, maybe I’ll rather stop here”. The whole Idol hype around that time appeared rather awkward to me. Miette-chan was more excited about it, I noticed that my lack of idol knowledge started upsetting him XD. Since I also wanted to watch a complete anime anyway I decided to continue with the anime.

The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls is labeled as Comedy, Drama and of course Music anime.

The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls game features around 190 different Idols, but of couse not everyone could appear in the anime. It centers around ~14 main idols, but there are some short guest appearance, each character gets their fair amount of screentime.

The anime centers around the big talent agency 346 Production and a newly developed project, called the Cinderella Project! “Normal girls” who are actually not considered as idol material are chosen to be aspiring idols. The first episodes are used as intro of the setting and introducing the Idols, each character gets steadily more fleshed out as the show continues.

The nameless Producer-san is in charge of scouting, managing the Idols and develop their career. He is a dilligent office man, although rather inexperienced. His outer appearance makes him look kind of suspicious, which turned into a running gag now and then.

Comedy is an essential element in the beginning, the excited and impatient Idols obviously create quite a ruckus in the office, but it gets less crazy soon. Producer-san tries his best with preparing each Idols debut, the story slowly goes on and tells more about each Idol. As the Idols and Idol groups are going to be official, each gets a nice episode dedicated to them.

The second season is more about moving on as Idol, parting ways, etc. Also an antagonist is introduced  in shape of the label boss, who strictly uses an authoritarian leadership style, which makes things slightly uncomfortable for everyone. Most episodes center about the weakness or problems of the single Idols and Idol groups some weeks after their debut.  In this aspect it feels more grown up than the other iDOLM@STER anime from 2011.

The anime has an overarching plot, focusing on the three aspiring Idol trio Uzuki, Mio and Rin, together they are New Generations. Surprisingly the happier episodes are dedicated to the more eccentric Idol characters and their struggles and adventures in the Idol industry.

Personally I have a little problem with the Idol industry by default, the Idols only stand there in cute clothes with their created image. The music and text already gets arranged before the Idol does anything or can anything decide by herself. Sure most popular pop songs weren’t written by the performer. Furthermore, I would agree that singing and dancing is already hard work enough for a teenage girl, I can’t demand that they all can write their own songs.

Surprisingly the issue of having only little influence on the music and image is also addressed in one episode, I nodded approvingly. iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls adresses the problems and circumstances of the Idol business rather openly. Although most idols mainly experience smaller hardships. Uzuki, Mio and Rin experience the really bad things.

The members of New Generations are high maintenance, it is a problem group. Their story consists of drama, the last heavy drama, made the audience suffer with a mentally stressed girl, reduced to a pile of bitter tears. I was surprised about such an heartwrenching event.

The reduced amount of happy events concerning the members of New Generations makes them look neglected, as they are ought to be main characters.

In summary

As a whole The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls is a very good anime, as it is portraying the adventures of normal girls with lovely personalities, that are chosen to be sparkling idols.

Most idols are naturally enchanting, some are a bit crazy but that doesn’t make them look bad. The nervousness an anxiousness of inexperienced idols is shown very convincing. Another strong point of it is definetely variety, funny, thoughtful, dramatic or touching episodes, everything is there. The authors did a good job with the setting and making every idol, not only fit in the plot, they wrote great subplots for each girl to make them shine.

I had a few prejudices when I started to watch this show, but I quickly enjoyed this wonderfully made  anime. While a few things, like adding such an antagonist were slightly questionable. Also the main characters except Uzuki couldn’t really convince me, Rin is beautiful, but emotional she is a bit awkward and Mio… she really made things a mess, not only once. Fortunately the other idols make up for the little shortcomings of the anime.

On another point Cinderella Girls is real eye candy, it looks very appealing with it’s mainly great animation works. Music also sounds very good, quite some effort was put into it.

The appeal of animes with so many idols is, that there are guaranteed a few characters the viewer might like or can relate to. While watching the show and the especially nicely directed subplots I liked nearly every Idol in this anime and I also developed supporting feelings.

In the next paragraph let me languish over my favorite idols XD

Kirari Moroboshi was quite a surprise for me, I instantly fell in love. Kirari is extremely kind and brimming with positive energy. Kirari loves all cute things and all cute girls. I liked her great sense of fashion. She is a somehow crazy and upbeat girl, also the tallest idol. She always pitches her voice at the end of the sentence *kyahhh!*. Her size and personality and the fact that she always has a helping hand for others, make her a happy hippie older sister type.

Anastasia is the daughter of a japanese mother and russian father. She often uses russian words in her speech . Her soft, slow paced way of speaking gives me impression that she’s a thoughtful person. When dealing with other people she is very gentle and extraordinary sensitive torwards others feelings. And just look at the gorgeous eyelashes (｡’▽’｡)♡!

As group I really liked Miku Maekawa and Riina Tada. At first Miku is an annoying girl, but she grow on me, she’s actually enchanting. When put together Miku and Riina appear like an impossible combination with their totally polar interests, over time they really grow together as group and also as close friends.

And you… have you already watched The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls?

Do you like a certain Idol?

In this post I want to discuss the reasons why anime themes get exchanged and if it is always a good idea to change them. For examples we will take a look at some opening themes of still ongoing shows like Golden Time, Tokyo Ravens, Strike the Blood, Magi and Yowamushi Pedal.

By default a two cour anime will probably have two different opening and ending themes.
For the music, professional and popular bands, voice actors or cute songstresses are hired.
They support the anime with providing a song that already exists or make a new one.

The Opening Theme is the figurehead of an anime, it is the first thing the viewer experiences. Opening and also Ending themes consist of audio and video, animations from the anime or extra made animations that show the viewer what to expect in the first cour in a compressed, artistic format. The music tries to convey the atmosphere from an anime.

As I started to watch animes, I had the opinion that animes with 24 or more episodes, but one opening theme are lazy, especially when the song is not so good, only when there is a very good song, a change is regretable. For the viewer a changing Opening makes an anime fresher with new animations and music. At best the new theme is as good as the first one or even better.

Financial aspects play an important role in this regard, both music labels and anime studios make extra money with CD sales and will gain attention with the music played in an anime.

An anime profits from a popular band and a band profits from being part in an anime adaption since their songs reach the ears of the anime audience. Without anime I would have missed a number of great japanese artists. From electronic beats to romantic ballads, there is a wide range of genre’s that are used in anime, Higashi no Eden even had a western song.

Now lets listen to a few Songs of several 20 + episode animes and compare them.

Golden Time

 “Golden Time” by Yui Horie

The sweet and clear voice of Yui Horie make this a really romantic happy and enjoyable song.
The cozy and artistic animations focuses on the pretty main heroine in many cute scenes.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqU_JPwig_4

“The♡World’s♡End” by Yui Horie

Yui Horie performs a more dreamy song that gives off a distant, nearly lonely feeling, the noise over her singing is a bit distracting from her angelic voice, but it shows the personal conflitcs of the main heroine very well. A good opening change with a different mood.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN-nTIXLwEQ

Tokyo Ravens

“X-encounter” by Maon Kurosaki

Not a bad song for this one, dynamic song and also good animations.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVTwa-RDOKM
 

“~Outgrow~” by Gero

Well, that throws the first one out of the water, a very powerful song till the end, that’s the kind of song I prefer personally, the animations are really cool.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pje4GXgNNec
 

 Strike the Blood

“Strike the Blood” by Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets

A great opening with it’s rough, energetic speed and the strong female voice, the song reminds me of Highschool of the dead, it is a bit similar and very fitting for an action orientated, shounen anime. It’s one of the songs where I set the volume to maximum, I love songs that make me feel like grabbing a guitar and jumping around like a wild monkey.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAFSVQkavKw
 

“Fight 4 Real” by ALTIMA

That song really is weird choice, that’s a case of bad change, the song doesn’t want to fit.
I’d rather listened to the old one for another dozen of episodes, at least the darker scenes in the animation have a good atmosphereThe fitting for the show.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l6Qar6gXmw
 

Magi

“ANNIVERSARY” by SID

Magi always has nice themes, not something I would get as CD but they are good. A soft male voice is good for a shounen show that has friendship, trust and adventures as main topic.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxxznc1yGOI
 

“Hikari (光-HIKARI-)” by ViViD

I would say that is as good as the previous one, the animations are a bit more interesting, I love the part at 1:19.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3q8Yzp6eGU
 

 Yowamushi Pedal

“Reclimb (リクライム)” by ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D

ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D is a great band and I like this song a lot, it fits very well to the beginning of the anime, where the shy Otaku Onoda lost his club, but found himself a decent hobby where he can grow both mentally and physically, make friends and challenges himself.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyk3dM6qUhU
 

“Yowamushi na Honoo (弱虫な炎)” by Dirty Old Men

I already thought that “Reclimb” was the perfect song for this show, but Dirty Old Men pumped their song with so much power and passion that it is a really great song for this bicycle sport anime . I ordered the single and an album of the band, sorry I can’t find the video in a decent quality.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wl8XaqEoCg

What do you think about the changing of Opening Themes?

Was there a time when you were really dissapointed or relieved by such a change?
Please tell me in the comments.

I decided to get rid of my 9 older Drafts in these next months, Sunabouzu is the first to be published. I found it as I was searching for a “new” finished anime to watch, then a certain cover caught my interest, it was the one from Sunabouzu (Desert Punk). It is an 24 episode long post–apocalyptic sci fi anime, which was produced by Gonzo and aired from 2004 to 2005.

This anime takes place in a distant future where most of Japan turned into a desert, the story is set in the great Kantou desert. The previous civilization with all it’s high technology and social advances perished due to an unknown event, the current civilization uses and copy the things they find through excavations, like weapons and other mainly martial equipment. It’s a simple and tough life, yet It is not the stone age, but a big step backwards from the life we know.

There is a government in the Kantou desert who keeps a basic order in the area, but they can’t and don’t intend to give much support for their citizens who are spread all around the desert. The government forces are mainly present in the several oasis in the Kantou area where the people have a better life. The life of the people is quite tough, they have to make a living somehow to survive in the hostile environment of an empty desert. While many inhabitants of the desert lead an more or less honest life, there are many who make a living as criminals.

httpvh://youtu.be/6v5Ap3suQCI

These difficult circumstances and shortages on water, food and money fuel the bad characteristics of the human nature, everybody is interested in his own advantage without considering the needs of others, there is no place for the famous Japanese politeness or much kindness, the people who are living there are portrayed in a believable way, the tough living turned them into selfish persons, even though there are times where a spark of kindness is ignited. You have to know that these people aren’t evil monsters by default, it are the extreme circumstances that forces them to selfish, greedy and sometimes violent behavior.

One the most remarkable aspects of  Sunabouzu is it’s main character with all these wimpy and soft main characters of today’s anime, the contrast couldn’t be much greater. The name of the lead character is Kanta, a young man of short height who works as handymen, someone who does everything for money. bounty hunter, bodyguard and other tasks are parts of his work.

He has several gadgets and underhanded tricks to fulfill his jobs, he’s nearly as good as Batman. Kanta became quite popular and has a legendary fame as the Sunabouzu. Kanta is very smart and loyal to his paying customers, but aside from that he is a real ass, greedy, short tempered and perverted are the nicest words to describe his character. Woman with big boobs are one of his weaknesses and he is often tricked with the female charm and bouncy physical attributes.

In the first quarter the viewer is introduced to the world Kanta lives in, while following him on his mainly amusing, yet crass adventures in the desert. He randomly meets old acquaintances when doing his jobs, be it as competition or partners for a certain job. The reappearing side characters are quite likable even when they sometimes act morally questionable and get in the way of the main character. Especially Amagumo is a hilarious guy, he’s the arch rival of Kanta.

Later Kanta meets the second main character, Taiko. She’s a small girl who admires the skills of Sunabouzu, after she followed him around Kanta unwillingly agrees to her wish of becoming his students. Well, she actually tricked him by making use of his only weakness. Kanta treats her quite poorly at first, cause she really isn’t very skilled and more of a burden than anything else.

A great job was done with the creation of the setting the hot, empty desert is very convincing.
The anime is a bit like the older adventure animes of the 200x years, it is slightly compareable with Trigun, aside from the more advanced technology level, western theme and the pacifistic main character.

The anime has a number of nice comedy moments that consist of slapstic and dark humor, that made me laugh very hard. The chemistry between the characters is directed very well and brings this anime to life. What I actually liked about this anime was that they didn’t changed Kanta’s personality during these 24 episodes, he alway stayed the greedy bastard who didn’t give a damn about being a good guy. He is an exceptionally well portrayed antihero.

It’s not that easy to tell who is evil and who is not in such an post – apocalyptic setting.

Sunabouzu is a very interesting slice of life, action adventure, that shows us a fictional, but possible change in human society. The wasteland setting is great and the story is full of interesting ideas and surprises. It’s really hilarious to see how the characters trick eachother.

This show has no black and white categories and with this ambivalent characters, Sunabouzu manages to give some more believeable depth to the personalities of it’s characters.

If you want to watch an refreshing old school style adventure  anime Sunabouzu would be the right anime for you. The exceptional main character and the portrayal of the crude and selfish sides of human nature is a nice change from the always so polite and fluffy anime.

Characters   _____________   8/10

Setting   ________________    8/10     

Story   __________________   8/10

Animation   _____________   6/10

Music  __________________  7/10

Enjoyment  _____________  8/10

Overall Score – 7,5 / 10

This second season of  Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai delivers a good continuation with some surprising events, after Yukimura turned out to be girl and the perverted scientist Rika turned into a quite charming girl, Kodaka is in the middle of a difficult bishoujo harem.

In the latest episode 10, there was a great scene between Rika and Kodaka happened on the rooftop, where Rika told him to make up his mind about a cerain thing. She actually said

“I think it’s time you take a step forward. Afterr all, we’re already all …”

Well, I had to think about the words the viewer didn’t receive in that scene, it could be…

1. “in love with you”

2. “friends”

3. “waited long enough”

I would set my bets on the first choice, since it seems obvious that all the girls are in love with him. Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT turned again to be much different from other harem anime, first Kodaka wasn’t the generic, stupid harem lead and now one of the girls tells him to make up his mind.

For the first time we see that Kodaka, actually wasn’t dense about the feelings of these girls, but he didn’t want to face it. He enjoyed to have the Neighbours Club members around him as friends, lets be honest aside that all of them are a little weird and that there sometimes was some fighting, they seemed to had a lot of fun with their activities. Kodaka appears to be scared of the side effects if he decides for one of these lovely girls, he is scared of loosing the bonds which were made up to now and that these times of lighthearted fun will vanish from his life.

I can relate to him a little, once I had a female childhoodfriend (yeah that is not only anime fiction) as things got more serious with the childhood friend I had the same doubts as him, even so I was totally in ove with her I feared that things would change. Well, but I guess it’s even harder if more than one girl is in love with a boy. Kodaka doesn’t appear to be someone who wants to break hearts. I think all the girls of the Neighbours Club are very adorable:

There is the demure Yukimura, who is cute as hell, but since she’s not that talkactive, her chances are rather low. She also doesn’t act very ambitious in getting Kodaka’s attention.

Yozora is a little problematic character and is a little hard to deal with, but recently the number of defeats she gained torwards Sena thinned out her hard shell and made her more vulnerable, her dere dere side is quite lovely I have to say.

It turned out that Sena was also a childhood friend with Kodaka and their parents even set up a arranged marriage for them. Sena’s wins over Yozora, changed her a bit and now she is more self conscious. Well, I don’t have to mention how pretty she is.

What surprised me in this season is that Rika became an important character, I always liked the crazy scientist, but now she turned into a much more charming person and also Kodaka seems to really like her, since he complimented her through this whole season. He never did that with the other girls.

Howeve things will turn out, I love this anime Im looking forward to the next episode even though I doubt that we see any real decision in that season. Go Rika Go Rika!

What where your thoughts about the happenings in the 10th episode and which of these girls are your favorites, please share your opinion in the comments.

httpvh://youtu.be/80_9ReEnV-o

This light hearted sci-fi anime was produced by Production I.G. and Xebec, the first part aired from December 2011 till March 2012 and the second part aired from June till September 2012.

The story is set in the dreamy harbor town of Komogawa, Madoka Kyouno, a very energetic and cheerful girl with a high sense of justice is the main protagonist in this anime. She lives together with her uncle since her mother drowned in the ocean. As student of the Kamogawa Girls’ High School, she is running the Jersey Club where she offers her services. With Madoka as the only member of the club, she is tolerated by the school, but they don’t give her an own clubroom.

Despite Madoka being helpful to everybody she has no friends inside her school. Her classmates are chatting with her but they are just buddies and no real friends. No one from them wants to join the Jersey club, since Madoka spends big parts of her free time with a ridiculous amount of Jersey club tasks, which obviously isn’t everyones cup of tea. Madoka isn’t really bothered with things going this way, she likes to play hero and helps other people without ever complaining.

The framework of Rinne no Lagrange is a interstellar conflict in the Polyhedron, the two planets De Metrio and Le Garite are on a collision course that would lead to the destruction of both if no measures are taken. Le Garite under the command of Dizelmine plans to solve this problem with the help of ancient robots called Vox. The anti Polyhedron rebel group “Kiss” under the lead of Vilajulio believes in the dark ancient legend of the Vox units and wants them to be destroyed.

The Earth organization Novumundus  keeps all three Vox units which where excavated in the past, in an hangar inside the swimming base Pharos near the coast of Kamogawa. In order to prevent a possible invasion from “Kiss”, Pharos desperately tries to activate one of the units, but the only available pilot can’t do it due to mental stress. Only people who have the memoria mark on their body can pilot these Vox units. Pharos know that Madoka also has this memoria and soon she finds herself involved in this interstellar conflict that also endangers her beloved town.

But she isn’t alone in her fight, two comrades from different planets join her in the battles, the first one is Lan. Lan or in full Laffinty Fin E Ld Si is the princess of Le Garite, but she stays on earth to overlook the activities on Pharos. She made Madoka join the Vox project. Despite her revealing outfit Lan has a demure and serious attitude, but on the other hand she is quite uneasy and easily flustered and can be quite clumsy. All these imperfections suit this cute girl very well.
When Muginami, the third pilot arrives Lan is very jealous when Madoka spends her time with her.

Muginami is the third Vox pilot who joins Lan and Madoka, she has a somewhat difficult backstory and is connected with Vilajuliowho saved her from her rotten homeplanet. On first impression she might appear a bit superficial, simple and ignorant, but she’s just a cheerful fun loving person and she really cares for the people close to her. Muginami has a well developed body and a very cute sugar coated voice. Her outer trademark is her fashion-conscious or like I would say she has a quite unique style of fashion she inherited from a person close to her.

With Lan and Muginami, Madoka finally found true friends, at first these two had a few problems with each other, but Madoka could mediate and cleared their differences. Soon they also started to live at her house and transferred to Madoka’s. They also joined the jersey club and so they can always be together.

Rinne no Lagrange portrays the friendship of these three totally different characters from different worlds very well. These girls have a deep bonding,Madoka, Lan and Muginami are a lovely group of friends and the viewer follows them through their happy times and hardships.

Viewers with yuri goggles might have their fun with Lan and Madoka, they seem closer than just good friends and there are definitely some subtle yuri vibes between them. Unfortunately this card wasn’t played, a yuri relationship would have been a nice element in this show, I mean it ^^.

This a anime is a lighthearted and cheerful representative of the mecha genre, it has some comedy and is mainly about friendship, but nevertheless Rinne no Lagrange also shows some good action sequences and mecha fights, especially the first season had some good battles.

Madoka is a pacifistic person who rather wants to solve things with words than violence, but when her enemies are ignorant she turns into a white “White Devil”. She’s quite skilled as a rookie Vox pilot and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

In the second season the amount of action is reduced to a mininum since the relations between the characters comes into the main focus. There are actually no real villains in this show, at least they aren’t as one dimensional like in Sword Art Online for example. The people in this show always act out of good intentions even though the way they are doing things is questionable.

Rinne no Lagrange is actually a good show, but there are a few letdowns in the story that surfaced during the anime. Some questions regarding the origin of the Vox or the Rinne dimension were left unanswered. There also a few supporting characters where it would have been interesting to know more about them, since they were not that relevant for the story they roles appeared a bit cut. I also think they should have added more background informations.

The production values of this show very good, the animation style has an unique and appealing look with nice character designs and as to be expected from Production I.G. the animations were smooth and had pretty backgrounds. Due to Komogawa being a coast town the the blueish cast creates a nice tropical summer atmosphere, but there are also scenes in space.

The second season of Rinne no Lagrange had only a few background themes one for sad, dramatic, action and happy situations, but in this season the opening and ending songs were really nice and captured the atmosphere from the anime very well, I loved all of them.

The opening and the 2nd Ending were performed by Nakajima, Megumi who also voiced Grania, the commander of KISS’s front lines in this anime, I didn’t expected her to have such a beautiful voice. Jersey-Bu Tamashi! was performed by the voice actors of Madoka, Lan and Muginami.

Opening – Marble (マーブル) by Megumi Nakajima

ED 1 – Jersey-Bu Tamashi! (ジャージ部魂!) by Kaori Ishihara, Asami Seto and Ai Kayano

ED 2 – Wasurenai yo. (忘れないよ。) by Megumi Nakajima
http://youtu.be/2DpsVEIPb44

Even it wasn’t as epic and exciting as it could have been, Rinne no Lagrange turned out as a very entertaining anime. The athmosphere and the likeable main characters made this an enjoyable ride for me. If you like anime were cute, pure girls doing cute things, this could be something for you.

Hi and welcome to my review of Sayaka Miki from Good Smile Company

Haha after all the the ecchi figure reviews recently it’s kind of a combo breaker.

This figure of Sayaka is scaled 1/8 and has a height of 20 cm, her release date was in July 11th.
Her origin is the very popular anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica which is considered to be a revolutunary anime inside the magical girl genre. I was happy with the magical animes before, but oh well who asks me anyway. Sayaka Miki is the best friend of Madoka, the main heroine of the show. Sayaka is a very kind and cheerful person, she has a tomboyish personality and likes fooling around. In dangerous situations she protects her small fragile looking friend Madoka.

After the anime ended people wished for cool and dynamic figures of the characters in their fancy costumes, there didn’t pass much time until GSC presented their figure lineup of this anime.

Well, how should I say it all of them appeared rather underwhelming in terms of posing, they could have been adapted from a more interesting illustration than the one which was used.

Nevertheless these figures still had their lovely outfits and a very good quality. Additional to that the Puella Magi Madoka Magica girls also resembled the look of the anime very close.

From the figure line up Sayaka caught my interest the most, I really liked the design and colors. She wasn’t my favorite character, in case you’ve watched the anime you might know why. Her naive thinking of being a magical girl was a bit odd, lets say she wasn’t suited for that job.

I found a nice part of an  Staff discussion where the persons in charge of crucial elements of the anime were talking about the character of Sayaka.

UROBUCHI: And then I answered, “That would be impossible now.” (LOL)

UROBUCHI: Guess I bullied Sayaka a bit too much (LOL). But then the reason why I do not feel that sorry for Sayaka is this thing, that I just do not feel that even if she hooked up with Kyosuke that girl would really be happy ever after. Most likely Kyosuke is a guy who will stand her up in dates and go to practice the violin, I think.

Hair & Face

Ok, sorry for the slightly off topic talk now I’ll start with review part of this Sayaka Miki figure.

The first thing that meets the eye is her hair, look there is no seamline to be found. Her hair is nice and smoothly sculpted with the strands in the right position the hair resembles the look from the anime very well. Nevertheless there was a shirtstorm about the changes which were made to the final figure in terms of haircolor. People were cursing “seagrass“, “too dark“, “GSC betrayed“.

I rewatched some episodes of this show and now I would say that this figure has the right haircolor, a mixture of blue and grey, if at all the prototype had the wrong too bright hair color.

Im really satisfied with the way the face turned the eyes with the partially dotted iris and pupil.  The unique 2D character designs of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica appear to be a bit more difficult to put into 3D shape, but  it wturned out very nice in this case, there is not really an odd angle were Sayaka looks disappointing. Furthermore this figure features all the facial details from the anime character design, like the blush marks and the dark lined mouth.

Well it might be a bit odd, that the face still looks kind and happy, even when she is wielding the two optional cutlass swords. An optional head would have been a great feature to match the look of a girl in a fancy suit with sharp weapons weapons in her hands.

Outfit & Body

From the girls in Puella Magi Madoka Magica I liked the outfit of Sayaka the most I guess it was also the main reason I ordered this figure. The design is a little on the tomboyish side but also has a prominent female appearance. Her outfit looks more suited for close combat than the one of Mami or Madoka for example. Her top is a shoulder free corsage resembling dress, the quillings above and below are kind of cute, the top exposes her belly with the blue C symbol.

The white cape gives Sayaka  the extra  chivalrous touch, I like the flow of it a lot. At her nice skirt there are these impressively detailed creases. Im a big fan of her stockings with the blue belts around her thighs. I really like the color combination of navy blue, white and golden details.
The colors and the golden lines and buckles are applied in a quite accurate way.

Quality wise there is not much to complain about in terms of outfit and painting.

Her weapon looks like a combination of a cutlass, a weapon often used by Naval forces, and a katana. The long straight blade indeed resembles a katana. On the hilt has the typical cutlass look, in case you are wondering about the look of the hilt, no there is no trigger function it’s just a design element. The base is a small transparent diesk with a blue radial gradient effect.

Sayaka is actually captured in a happy situation with her arms and hands stretched out it looks like she imitates a plane, while having a kind smile on her face. GSC decided to give this figure a second hand option, where Sayaka can hold her two cutlass weapons. In this stage the face expression is a bit too friendly I would say but overall she looks nice in both display options.

Typically for the Puella Magi Madoka Magica anime Sayaka has a big wide head, she is 13-14 years old so her body is young and petite. She was crafted with care, there are nice armpits, also the transition from arms to body looks quite nice, her shoulder free outfit slightly reveals one of her collarbones and her budding chest. Sayaka also has nice legs, they are accentuated by her stockings and the crossed pose. In my opinion she has the best pose of the bunch.

Final Words

I’m glad about this purchase and that I didn’t cancel her order, like I intended close before the release. I like her overall design a lot, a pretty head, a nice body and very nice colors. Even though I’m still not a big fan of her character, she is a beautiful figure and that is what counts. She has very nice details and the quality of sculpting  and paintjob are very well done.

I purchased this Sayaka Miki figure for 5,750 Yen at AmiAmi, now she is sold out unfortunately.

Reviews of Madoka Kanami can be found at Figyura and Nopy’s blog who also reviewed Homura Akemi

It’s anime review time again! I didn’t feel the urge to write a review about any anime from the past season, instead I will talk about my impressions of Mirai Nikki, which ended recently. Mirai Nikki is a 26 episode long anime based on a manga written and illustrated by Sakae Esuno.

It was produced by Funanimation and Asread and aired from October 9, 2011 to April 15, 2012.
I jumped a bit later on the Mirai Nikki bandwagon, but thx to that I had the pleasure to watch nearly the first half of the anime without weekly waiting time. The genre is a mix of supernatural, mystery, psychological-thriller and comedy, with a number of lunatic characters in the cast.

Our main character Yukki is an outsider in his class, he is considered as a strange guy, who always writes random stuff into the diary of his mobile. When he’s at home he retreats into his own fantasy world, there lives a huge creature called Deus Ex Machina who is his “friend” and the god of Time & Space. Yukki’s daily life start to backfire when his delusion turns into reality.

The story starts with revealing the fact that Deus will die very soon and needs a successor to prevent the world from being destroyed, in order to find a new god of Time & Space, a deadly game starts where special mobile phones are given to 12 chosen humans. The mobile phones contain a certain feature that somehow predict events from the future and matching the owners personality, Yukki’s diary for example gives him random details about his surrounding.

At first Yukki is unable to cope with the situation and soon is tailed by a lunatic diary owner. Fortunately he receives help from Gasai Yuno, a girl who seems to be obsessively in love with him, for whatever reason, Yukki is not the kind of boy who attracts girls XD. Yuno is a diary owner as well and her device informs her about everything concerning the activities of Yukki.

Their diaries are covering the flaws of each individual device. Yukki isn’t happy about his slightly strange partner, but for the sake of his own survival he makes the best of a bad bargain and forms a team with Yuno so the dangerous adventure of this exceptional couple begins.

One of the interesting aspects of this anime aside from the setting is the twisted main heroine Yuno. Next to all the other characters she really shines in this anime also her relatively new voice actress Murate, Tomosa did a great job in portraying this, insane yet also likeable character.

On first look Yuno is a smart, dilligent and friendly middle school girl, something like a perfect girlfriend. Unfortunately she is something like a Yandere and acts very clingy and possessive torwards Yukki, she doesn’t want him to have friends and gets super jealous when he interacts with other girls. To the extent that she wants to kill everybody which seems to stand between her and Yukki. He really has a hard time with taking care of her yandere outbreaks and prevent her from doing something stupid.

Another little but nice part of Mirai Nikki is the romance which was developed during the first half. It is cute, to see this couple, they kiss, they are holding hands, all these things we rarely see in romantic anime. Well to be honest it appears like Yuno is forcing herself onto Yukki most of the time, but when Yuno is showing her dere side Yukki seems to have feelings her as well.

As team Yukki and Yuno are fighting against the other remaining diary owners. Most of the work is done by Yuno, she is athletic and ruthless so she makes a good job with protecting Yukki and getting rid of his enemies. Of course she also has her limits in one episode she was so exhausted from slaughtering the enemies, that she was taken hostage by the enemy. Coward Yukki had to man up and saved her from being gangraped, how shocking! Mirai Nikki isn’t demure at all, there is a lot of violence, blood, merciless killings, rape and other cruel things throughout the show.

Aside from the two main characters, we also have a third very interesting character called Minene. In her first appearance she was portrayed as an annoying terrorist bomber in an ridiculous dress, but soon she was developed in a much better direction, soon she became my favorite character.

Sidecharacters also play an important part, but they don’t get the same amount of character development as the three main characters during the show nor are they overly likeable, but as supporting characters they put more spice into the story, some just end up as “cannon fodder”.

Aside from it’s dark and violent atmosphere Mirai Nikki actually offers a lot of comedy moments during the show. There are a lot of hilarious comedy reliefs, especially the specials with Mur Mur, Deus assistant that appear a few times after the ending credits are very entertaining.

During the first half it felt as if Mirai Nikki was trying too hard to be cool and creative, with fancy events, lunatic characters, violence and story twists. A few times I was quite a bit annoyed that the common sense played a subsidiary role, just for the sake of being badass, even in a fantasy setting you can’t bend every rule to your liking. Anyway as the story progressed in Mirai Nikki these flaws vanished and the story and the twists got much more interesting and enthralling.

Mirai Nikki is a very cool anime that does a good job in combining all of the genres it makes use of. The main focus of this anime is pure entertainment, but it also has a very good setting and creative storywriters a few times they were a little too creative, I would say but overall a cool show was created; it is thrilling, funny and sometimes even romantic.

The ending could have been a little more satisfying, but the overall impression is still very good. I would even dare to say that it was one of the better new longer run animes I’ve seen in a while.

Its been a few figures since I reviewed a figure of them, so lets give a warm welcome to ALTER’s Kaminagi Ryoko, as I saw the figure for the first time I thought she was boring, but at least I got interested in her origin Zegapain and after watching it I actually fell in love with her character.

Zegapain is from the year 2006 and was made by Studio Sunrise, who are well known for their mecha related anime, like Gundam. Zegapain has a different feel to it than their usual kind of show, since it’s more focused on the characters and their emotions than the mecha fights. In case you are more interested in the Zegapain anime you can check out my review 

Ryoko is a childhood friend archetype character. But nevertheless she is one of the more interesting childhood friends, she is not very hot in terms of looks, but she has an enchanting kind and upbeat personality, her voice actress Hanazawa Kana also gave her a very fitting voice.

Im hard to please when it comes to figures from my favorite anime characters, Im already that picky that if at all I only own very few figures of my favorite anime girls anyway ALTER’s attempt of Kaminagi Ryoko convinced me very quick and the pre-order was set in stone.

Kaminagi Ryoko ~Resurrection~ is actually the second figure of her character, in 2007 ALTER already produced a figure of her. The new figure is scaled 1/8 and has a height of 195mm. Her release date was on 11th January 2012 and I got her for 4,930 yen at Hobbysearch w/o shipping.

Lets start the real review with talking about her head, she has a short frizzy hairstyle in a natural dark brown colortone, really nicely sculpted and with many strands. Her face can’t be described with more than truly adorable. The yellow-greenish eyes are very detailed and radiates a lot of happy energy and in combination with the bright front teeth line smile she is just enchanting. Inagaki Hiroshi, her sculptor really nailed down Ryoko’s look from the anime.

The outfit is straight plain, there is not much to sugarcoat about it, its a bourgeois sand colored slip over with a short sleeved shirt underneath. At least the wrinkles are made very detailed.

A more exciting part about her outfit is the super short skirt, it has a good looking dark blue to dark gradient with a white line around, it also has a very well sculpted flow with realistic wrinkles. The skirt is short but her white pantsu is only visible from behind, at the front she stays modest.

Furthermore she has a red ribbon around her neck and at her legs and feet she is wearing dark socks and the normal brown highschool shoe model which is often used at japanese schools.

The slender body and the normal sized head give Kaminagi Ryoko’s a more realistic touch and also the clothes give her the look of a normal schoolgirl. She has naturally colored fingernails. While the outfit leaves a rather plain impession, her pose bristles with dynamic, she has a very lively body language with one leg in the air and the outstretched arm with the victory sign hand.

Ryoko is an A/V enthusiast and her favorite hobby is filming with her high end videocamera, the detail on it is very well, done. There are detailed buttons and a LCD monitor, ALTER also put clear plastic parts at the lens and into the viewfinder. The camera makes the figure more interesting.

Final Words

Kaminagi Ryoko ~Resurrection~ is a very nice figure and proves that ALTER also is able to make cute figures. Im an enemy of western school uniforms, but I can say that the overall figure makes up for the boring design of her upper outfit, hehe yeah the short skirt is ok ^^. The figure has a lively pose and a cheerful expression if you were a fan of Kaminagi Ryoko in Zegapain, this would be the right choice, it’s not like there would be any alternative figure out there. In case you don’t know her, you would receive a well made figure of a cute and energetic girl holding a camera.

Hi there, todays post is about the anime shows of the winterseason 2012 lineup I recently started and enjoyed so far. Without further ado here are my short impressions about each show.

Another– P.A. Works – 04/12 episodes

Another is a suplimal spooky horror anime, with a deep and slightly scary atmosphere.
Im glad that it is done in a sublime way without *in your face* horror and silly emo faces.

In the spring of 1998, the 14yr old Kouichi transfered from Tokio to the rural town, Yomiyama.
He had the luck to be put in the class of weirdos who seem to hide a creepy secret from him.

One day he meets Misaki, a mysterious girl with an eyepatch, she tells him that it won’t be good for him to get in contact with her. But Kouichi feels attracted by her and uses every chance to talk with her. Because of the suspicious behaviour of his classmates and Misaki, Kouichi tries to gather his own informations his aunt also provides him with informations. As if this was a good idea…
Soon some mysterious deaths occur in the town, even people close to Kouichi will be involved.

The animation quality of Another looks really good only the opening by Ali Project is shitscary.

Amagami SS plus – AIC – 04/12 episodes

It’s the second season of the very popular Amagami SS franchise, it continues where the different arcs from last season left, each arc contains 2 episodes about Junichi and one of the 6 heroines.
Amagami SS plus delivers the same, friendly, cozy and especially romantic atmosphere as its predeseccor while taking the relationships between the couples to the next level. It’s so nice.

Ano Natsu de Matteru – J.C. Staff – 04/12 episodes

Make a figure of her like this, onegai!

The red haired Ichika is an alien and accidently crashes into the life of our male protagonist Kaito and starts living at his house, the fact that Ichika is an alien wasn’t noticed by anyone so far.
She gets easily accepted by Kaito’s lively friends and all spend their summer holidays together.

What might turn out as a bit annoying in the progress of the story are the overlapping love intersts inside the group of friends, that can only go wrong. Shows like Persona 4 show that platonic relationships between both genders work yet it’s so rare in anime :(. There will probably be a romantic development between Kaito and Ichika even though both seem to be a bit dense in that regard. Aside from that the comedy is very good and the animation quality is quite appealing.

Highschool DxD – Genco – 04/12 episodes

Highschool DxD is a straight action anime with lots of (uncensored) fanservice. This kind of anime became really rare over the last few years, UNFORTUNATELY! The main character Issei is an hot blooded, testosterone guided high school boy. He has no luck with girls, but one day a cute girl approaches him to ask him about going out with him. Issei is overjoyed, but on the day of his first date his girlfriend turned out as a sadistic fallen angel and Issei got killed by her. Fortunately Issei got resurrected by the demon Grimore Rias and became her demon servant. He also became a member of Rias demon team family. The story so far is solid and the characters are also likeable.

Inu x Boku SS – Studio David – 04/ —

This is one of my favorites so far, main heroine Ririchiyo is a half breed between human and a supernatural creature, she never received earnest love from someone, not even her parents. Because of her difficult background, Ririchiyo developed a facade to protect her fragile self.
She speaks in an abusive way towards other people, so that they won’t get close to her.

Ririchiyo left her family and moved to Ayakashi Kan, a mansion for half breeds and Youkai.
As special service of this residence the inhabitens get a special agent who takes care of their needs. At first Ririchiyo is irritated by her agent Soushi, who shows dog like admiration torwards her, but because of his kindness and charming personality she keeps him as agent. The show follows their daily life, the ‘s backgound of the girl causes some drama but also good comedy is included, so far the balance of both is very well done. The animation style looks very well-

Nisemonogatari – Shaft – 04/12

Araragi is back, after the great success of the Bakemonogatari anime in 2009, Shaft blesses us with a continuation of the stories. At first it isn’t clear which way the new story will take but the reunion with all the characters we loved in Bakemonogatari is really nice and entertaining.
There is quite an amount of high quality fanservice included, that lucky Araragi is such a player.

During the dynamic dialogs we learn a few things piece by piece that slowly develop the first arc, which is about Araragi’s sisters. Not that I would miss Senjougahara, but so far only had few screentime and in the time she had she did not appear like a girlfriend someone wants to keep. Haha the other girls were way more appealing so far, I would choose Kanbaru with her grown out hair she is quite pretty and she’s a wild one ^^. Nisemonogatari still has lively and fast dialogs, but the fast bombardment of text screens from Bakemonogatari seems to have stopped.

Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai! – Feel – 04/12

Yuta lives his newly started College life. One day Yuta’s visits his big sister, Yuri  and her daughters Sora, Miu and Hina. The main reason of the meeting is that Yuri wants to go on honeymoon with her busband and so her brother should take care of her daughters for a few weeks. On the first day Yuta and the girls have a lot of fun, but destiny strikes and the flight of the parents went missing. It is assumed that they are dead.

After the funeral the relatives want to seperate the girls, because none of them has enough space or don’t want to take care of all three girls, which is just cruel after they lost their parents a few days ago, Yuta doesn’t want this to happen and suggests to take care of all 3 girls, the relatives don’t really agree on that, but in the end Yuta and the girls move in his small appartement without real permission. They start to live in the small apartment, and the reign of chaos begins.

The end of pisode 02 was rather depressing, the mere thought of young children loosing their parents gave me the creeps. I wasn’t able to watch the next episode for some weeks. Nevertheless I picked this show up again. The anime is labeled as comedy but it won’t be overly light hearted I guess. It will be quite difficult to raise the girls with part time jobs and no support from anyone. it keeps me worried. Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai! has a interesting and heart warming story. Its nice how Yuta tries to take care of them and how the three sibliings interact.

Rinne no Lagrange – Production I.G, Xebec – 04/12

This appears as a happy toned mecha anime with enchantingly cute female pilots and very good visual effects. In the calm, placed next to beach, city of Kamogawa the bubbly Madoka likes to play hero and saves people in need whenever she can. One day an unknown girl named Lan takes her along to the hangar of a special agency, because of her abilities she is chosen to activate and pilot a certain robot. Without further ado they put her into cockpit to repress an incoming mech from outer space. It appears that Madoka will get support from Lan and another pilot, called Muginami in fighting against the bishounen aliens who are after the robot called Vox.

So far I really enjoyed this anime, it’s funny and nicely animated, also the characters are interesting and most of all likeable, there might occur a darker development in the future, a 2nd season is already announced.

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes Dai 2 Maku – J.C. Staff – 03/12

The cute yet stupid detectives are back, the season starts where the last one ended, Cordelia, Hercule, Nero and Sherlock still have no Toys and have no privileges in the academy, they have no own rooms, not good food, their treated really badly to sum it up. All the characters from last season are back, Arsene, her silly trio and the incompetent G4. Arsene desperately wants that Milky Holmes gets back to their old selves and triggers certain events. Tantei Opera Milky Holmes is a show from lunatic for lunatic. It has a special kind of humor which won’t be everyones taste.

The animation style is not that appealing, but decent it has the appearance of an anime for kids, even though it is not suited for this audience. Anyway, what I can say for certain is, that the girls are cute. Hopefully the girls will get their tools back this time and keep them eventually.

Zero no Tsukaima F – J.C. Staff – 04/12

Im a big Zero no Tsukaima fan and I like the character of Louise a lot, I also have a huge wallscroll of her over my TV ^^. The fourth and last season of  Zero no Tsukaima finally started. Unlike the final season of Shakugan no Shana, the begining of Zero no Tsukaima was better made. There is something wrong with Shakugan no Shana Final *sob* what have you done to my beloved anime.

It took some time for the fourth season, but its nice to see all the old characters again and hear the nice background music. The 4th season also radiates the essence of the previous seasons and it still has the action, comedy and romance mix. In terms of Saito you’ll notice some development, putting all the bumping in harem girls aside (I think they should stop the harem thing near the end), he sets most of his attention torwards Louise. A letdown is, that Louise always gets interupted by the other girls when she wants to be alone with Saito.

Louise  still freaks out on the next possible ocassion and uses her “explosion” spell on Saito, which is somehow sad after three seasons of Zero no Tsukaima. I finally want my romance.

The setting and story of Zero no Tsukaima had always been good, but the end and also the impression of the whole franchise will depend on Louise and if she will finally fully accepts her feelings torwards Saito. I would be really dissapointed when they’d end this with an open end.

So thats all for now, the anime of this Winterseason 2012 turned out better than expected at first. Shows I would suggest to you giving a try are: Another, Nisemonogatari, Inu x Boku SS, Rinne no Lagrange and Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai!

picture are from Gelbooru, Konachan and shuushuu

Idolm@ster is a 25 episode long anime which aired from July to December 2011 it was produced by A1 Pictures and Aniplex. Idolm@ster is an anime adaption of the popular XBox console game with the same title, I never played any of these games, but I was interested in watching the show.

At first I wasn’t sure if a 25 episode long anime show could do justice to the background and personality of each of the 12 (13) idols. But I must say that it worked surprisingly well.

The anime starts with short introductions of all the aspiring Idols of the Idol agency 765pro through the lens of a cameraman. 765pro appears like a small, family like agency, where the idols and the staff are hanging out and having fun, unfortunately they don’t have many appointments, so they read magazines and do other nonsense. Later the cameraman turned out as the new producer, called Producer-san who should help the Idols to become more successive.

The Idols

An interesting aspect of Idolm@ster are of course the Idols, all the girls are quite unique characters with different personality’s, while sharing the same dream of becoming an idol, everyone of them has different motivations and reasons to take a step into the Idolbusiness.

Despite the number of characters, every girl has a good recognition value. The Idols are Haruka, Ami, Mami, Hibiki, Yukiho, Miki, Makoto, Chihaya, Iori, Azusa, Takane, Yayoi and Ritsuko, who is mainly working as producer at 765pro and only acts as Idol in case 765pro is short on people.
All of the characters can be considered as main characters, but there are certain persons who get more screentime than others. Haruka for example is very present during the whole show.

My favorite characters were Haruka, Iori, Makoto and Azusa. Haruka the main heroine who is also the heart of the 765pro , I liked her since the first second she appeared on Idolm@ster.

Iori, well I have a weak spot for petite anime girls who are voiced by Kagumiya Rie. With her rich girl tsundere attitude Iori is rather enchanting and her even brown hair is just beautiful.

Makoto is cool and athletic, I was able to see her feminine side despite her more tomboyish style.
With her 21 years Azusa is one of the older Idols at 765pro, she has a very pretty appearance, is extremely kind and has a bad sense of direction, she is somehow the motherly and caring type.
All the characters are quite likeable, even though I had a few problems with Miki in the last part.

2DT had more refined descriptions about all the Idolm@ster girls in part 1 – 2 – 3 on his blog.

I also would like to know which were your favorite Idols, so feel free to tell me at the end of this post.

Story

At first Producer-san seems to be quite overextended with taking care of these lively and happy characters and the jobs he gets for them are quite lame, but soon things slowly start to improve, but as they start being successive, a villain appears, the boss of the Idol agency 961 Production, who sabotages the appointments of 765pro by using his influence in the industry.

The main story follows 765pro and the Idols on their journey to success. Most episodes consists of episodic stories which concentrate on a certain Idol dealing with her weaknesses or problems and mentally growing during this process, these episodes still feel connected with the main story because the main goal of becoming an Idol is always present. The relationships between the group of Idols are very well fleshed out what is also noticeable in the character centered episodes, there are always Idols who are supporting the main character of the episode when it is needed.

The anime consists of character centered episodes and episodes where everybody at 765pro plays a role. Idolm@ster feels diversified in regard of storytelling, the personality of each girl is very well reflected in the character centered episodes as well as in the group centered episodes. Even when you don’t like a certain girl you can at least see where they are coming from.

Idolm@ster is mainly light hearted, slice of life comedy, but also makes good use of drama elements. At the beginning of this anime there is a lot of hilarious slapstick comedy, but as the story progresses there is less comedy, especially near the end, the anime gets a darker tone.

I guess I already told you in an older post that Im no fan of the real Idol industry, while I like cute girls and a little Jpop, I don’t like how some of these girls are or have to sell themselves.

The presentation of the Idol industry in Idolm@ster is a bit romantically idealized, but the show at least scratches a bit on the downsides of it, like being exploited in questionable entertainment shows or receiving bad gossip from the media. In episode 4 a few of the Idols appear in a bad game show where the cameramen were trying to peek under the skirts of girls all the time.

technical aspects

The visual presentation of Idolm@ster is very appealing and shows a high quality, the backgrounds are very detailed and the animations, even during the concerts seem very fluid and are very well choreographed. In some episodes they made use of nice lights and shadows which gives certain scenes a cineastic look. Overall the quality leaves a very positive impression.

The idols are voiced by very good voice actors since a few of the idols are younger and there’s quite a number of high-pitched voices. There is a lot of Jpop music inside this anime and the always different ending songs are either performed by one or more of the 765pro Idols. I only liked a few of these ending songs, for me they don’t had the same impact as the opening songs.

“READY!!”

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r53LlIRGG7E&feature=related

“CHANGE!!!!”

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIG4mhLcplo

 Final Words

Idolm@ster delivers a lot of entertainment over the entire 25 episodes. The anime combines cute girls, slice of life, comedy and character development placed inside an Idol business setting. What first appeared as a mere comedy show about a bunch of weird Idols, quickly developed into a very likeable show about all the 13 aspiring Idols of 765pro aiming for their success in the industry.

The miscellaneous kinds of episodes range from lighthearted, slightly cheesy stories to very well executed drama. The very nice character interactions overshadow the one or another not so good part in the storytelling. The character centered episodes are very well interwoven with the main story and every Idol is equipped with an proper amount of screentime. Only Takane seems to received the short end of the stick, she was a rather undeveloped character during the show.

For me Idolm@ster was a highly enjoyable show which I liked to follow in the second half of 2011,
I had a lot of fun with all these likeable characters and the technical presentation of this anime.
My favorite episodes were 7, 12, 15, 17, 18, 20 was very good, 24 and 25.