Summer Anime 2013 – Summaries, PVs, Links and Rants

So it’s not quite the end of the Spring Anime yet, but it’s getting quite close.Out of curiosity, I went off to see what’s on for this Summer, and thought I’d share it here on Manga Weekend (It’s been a long, long while since I’ve done on of these posts!) I’ve pretty much got all the summaries from MyAnimeList, and as usual I’ve got the anime listing from The Fansub Wiki. Both really good websites, so o check them out! =D

I’ll just be splitting it up into anime I’ll definitely be following, anime I might be following, and anime that I’ve already ditched before even giving it a chance (Honestly I think that I’ve put wayyy too much into the first category). If you think that there’s any in the last category that shouldn’t be there, convince me in the comments below!

^_^ ANIME: I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO! ^_^

Gin no Saji: Silver Spoon by A-1 Pictures

Yugo Hachiken dreams of life separated from his family, so he takes the initiative by enrolling in an agriculture school. He thinks, with his talent in studying, no problems will arise no matter what kind of school he attends. He is proven wrong very quickly. Raised as a city boy, he is forced to uncover the inconvenient truth about agricultural life. Enjoy the story of Hachiken, as he tries to keep up with his new friends, farmers’ heirs, who are already accustomed to the harsh world of farming. With no clear goals or understanding of farming life, how will Hachiken survive this new, cruel reality? The story of a sweat, tear, and mud-stained youth begins!

Website

Gin no Saji is an original work by Arakawa Hiromu, the manga-ka for Full Metal Alchemist. From the summary, you’d probably notice that it’s got nothing to do with alchemy or philosopher stones – in fact, it’s got to do with pretty much a high school farm. On top of it being very far from the usual high-school life setting, it’s gives this very warm slice-of-life feeling, but at the same time retaining the fun from a shounen/comedy genre. Definite recommendation!

Kimi ni Mune Kyun! (plus a mini Winter Anime update!)

There’s just something about the exam season where I always end up re-reading Eyeshield 21. Just finished reading my #1 favourite match this morning – Deimon vs. Shinryuuji!! The last 58 seconds of the match…!! @_@

This is not good for studying.

But that’s not why I’m posting today. I am a massive fan of School Food Punishment – if it does/not sound familiar, they’re the geniuses responsible for ‘Futuristic Imagination’ and ‘light prayer’ for Higashi no Eden. Last season, they sang ‘How to Go’ for Un-Go (I KNEW it was them the moment the song started!! XD) and before that, RPG for [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control.

If you haven’t listened to them, do so. Like. NOW.

In any case, a song that I’ve been addicted to lately from their How to Go single is Kimi ni, Mune Kyun -Uwaki no Vacanses-. It’s a really, really cute song with their own blend of the electrical techno thingy they do with a keyboard/guitar/synthesiser/whatever (you may notice I know zilch about music from my description) along with the calming, sweet vocals of Ichimura Yumi .

Curtain Close for The iDOLM@STER

The iDOLM@STER ( アイドルマスター)

Based on the XBOX 360 game The iDOLM@STER 2, The iDOLM@STER follows 13 aspiring idols aiming to reach their goals

Genre: Comedy, Music, Slice-of-life

Status: Completed at 25 episodes

Co-directed by Takao Touko and Nishigori Atsushi. Produced by Aniplex and A-1 Pictures.

———

First of all, we wish you a rather belated MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone as well as a HAPPY NEW YEAR! MW just turned one year old a few months back, and the stark difference in the amount of things going on in our life compare to back then is.. @_@

A year ago we had so much plans with how far we could take MW (or at least Chungky did, while I gave my pessimistic input) but now we’re simply too busy to execute it even when we have the platform to do so. Writing it down in solid form reminds me of the ending of The Idolmaster, actually. That said, this post does contain spoilers, but in general what I think is appealing about this anime isn’t it’s story as much as the characters themselves so go ahead and read on =D

After not writing anything up for so long, I’ve chosen to do a post for The Idolmaster as compared to something else like maybe Mawaru Penguindrum. When I thought about it, I did look forward to Mawaru Penguindrum a lot more and I did enjoy it a lot more, but since I know that there’s a much larger fan base for it, and time constraints are only gonna let me do a single post for now, I’ll leave it to the other fans to do it justice =D Most of all though, I’m hoping this review would encourage those people who were turned off by the whole ‘yet another harem’ label attached to The Idolmaster to see that it’s an anime about the idols rather the male protagonist – after all, it’s not exactly a dating sim.

One-Shot for the Weekend – Aki-iro, Kimi-iro

Aki-iro, Kimi-iro / Autumn’s Colour, Your Colour

Manga-ka: Amano Shinobu

Genre: Romance, Drama, Shoujo

Kanako had always dreamed of falling in love; and when she finally does, things don’t exactly go according to plan. Ihara is cold, aloof and rude – but despite that, she is relentless and refuses to give up. Vibrantly coloured by all the moments they had together, it was the autumn their lives changed forever.

The final chapter in Amano Shinobu’s tankōbon of one-shots, Natsu no Kakera.

———

Both Chungky and I are so busy we had to collaborate. For a one-shot post. Life is sad.

On the bright side, I haven’t had to leave my house for the past 23 hours to go and take care of one thing or the other, which is a new record since term started so BANZAI!!! =D =D =D

…………………………………………………..………Yep, life is sad.

Anyway, with autumn slowly creeping towards a close, we decided to choose something that would leave a warm, sweet feeling in our hearts to keep the cold away. For Chungky and I, this one-shot would have a double meaning as it reflected a period of our life when we had time.

Aki-iro, Kimi-iro is by one of Chungky’s all-time faves, Amano Shinobu. There’s a very slow, gentle pace throughout the whole story that reflects the whole autumn theme of the plotline. I think it’ll really appeal to those looking for the typical shoujo story of love-at-first-sight without the typical princess character and bitching around. It has a really pure, first love feeling that goes past the usual flighty emotions into something that perhaps, really is love.

Have a good weekend =)

(Due to certain emotional attachments, we shall not be giving it a rating)

 

One-Shot for the Weekend – Haru Koi

Haru Koi (ハルコイ)

Manga-ka: Suetsugu Yuki

Genres: Drama, Josei, Slice-of-life, Romance

Introverted, 23-year-old Non-chan and enthusiastic, 50-year-old Ryouko-san have been good friends for a year ever since they met. When Non-chan falls in love, they both work together for her to gain the courage and approach her crush. But just what is the reason for Ryouko-san’s interest with Non-chan’s affairs?

The first chapter in Suetsugu Yuki’s tankōbon of one-shots, ‘Haru Koi’.

———

Okay my weekend started kinda crappy in a very angry and frustrated and DUDE WTF sort of way, so here’s a one-shot that has nothing to do with my life and hence might just banish those Saturday memories for the next 2 hours. Ugh.

So. Haru Koi. Same manga-ka as Chihayafuru, one of my top favourites (plus, the anime just came out this season so PLEASE check that out!) so this was definitely worth a read for me. It’s a josei manga instead of my usual shounen or seinen, but I do prefer it over shoujo most of the time. Anyway, whatever your own preference is – read this.

Haru Koi starts by taking the usual romance route of the girl falling in love, and there’s a nice sort of trickery to it. In the end, the focus of the relationship wasn’t the usual girl and guy-she-likes. Instead, the relationship focused exactly on what it was focusing on right from the start, which is the relationship between the two women. It was really a nice twist, since most stories just go down, girl confesses, girl goes out with guy, initial person who helped soon becomes a forgotten character.

There’s a lot of emotions that that sort of just swamps you towards the second half of the one-shot, but I guarantee you that this really is a beautiful story. It gave a more mature, more realistic sort of take on relationships that I really enjoyed. It’s as if it took a nice detour around the usual storyline, and it was a lovely walk down that lane.

…

Hmm. I already feel better XD

Rating: 4.5/5.0

A Dash of Spring Anime 2012!

Since I just did the Winter Anime post, and I’ve got some free time now I just thought that I’d quickly add a dash of Spring since it’s a pretty short list for now =D I’m sure we’ll live through the next year to be able to watch it since I don’t believe in a 2012 apocalypse, but just in case… everyone pray with me.

As usual, main source is FanSubWiki. Enjoy!

Kimi to Boku Season 2

J.C. Staff, TV Tokyo

The story follows the lives of four teenage boys who have known each other for most of their lives. Their friendship has its ups and downs, but they remain close into high school. A half-Japanese transfer student joins their group and adds a new dynamic to the everyday adolescent friendships depicted in this comedic anime.

Well if any of you are wondering ‘heck, they’ve already prepared a second season?’; the whole series has apparently been split into two seasons with 13 episodes each. If you haven’t watched it yet, it’s a shoujo slice-of-life that has everything but explicitly announced shounen-ai. Or it might pull a No. 6 on me and really turn out to be a kinda sorta partial shounen-ai for shiz. It’s pretty good though so far, worth a watch if you like those everyday life kinda stories =)

Official Source ANN

A Handful of Winter Anime 2011/2012 =)

So from our stats here at MW, it’s pretty much blatantly, in-your-face obvious that most people frequent our blog for all the upcoming anime, so here I’ll give a small dose of what’s to come in Winter this/next year. Enjoy!

Btw, as usual, my main source is from FanSubWiki. Good starting point to look for new anime! =D

December

Kyousogiga

Toei Animation, Web Stream (12/10)

In a world where boundary between human and yokai worlds is no longer distinguishable, 3 different groups pursue for power. What is Count of Reality and Destruction of Negentrophy? Koto, a high school girl who got out of maze of Java Work, chases the shadow of “Kuro Usagi (Black Rabbit)”. This is a story surrounding various people chasing Kuro Usagi in Kyoto, where time has stopped.

Okay everyone, P-L-E-A-S-E watch the PV if you feel that life is worth living. Don’t let the 5 minutes be a total turn-off, from the moment it started I felt like it really captured me. There’s the music, the animation and just the whole atmosphere that just makes it already feel like a wonderful anime. So please watch the PV and share my sentiments XD

Official ANN MAL

The Thing About Blood-C

I have to admit. When I saw the Summer Anime Line-up I just thought it was ok. Most of it didn’t really catch my interest, and ironically it those that I wasn’t so pumped up about that ended up being the ones I loved the most; Mawaru Penguindrum, Kamisama Dolls and – oddly enough – The iDOLM@STER. On the other hand, one of the more anticipated ones turned out to be a huge letdown – namely, Blood-C.

There are a few spoilers in this post, but nothing much contributes to the story since nothing much happens so you probably won’t have to worry.

I was really excited. Blood + was among the first non-childish anime I watched, and it made a pretty big impact on me. There’s also the whole CLAMP production that got my attention – I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of theirs, but I do like their works. That was the driving force behind me grinding my teeth and watching the first few episodes of Blood-C until I finally gave up.

                                Nothing

                                                                                             Happens

STGCC: Singapore Toys, Games and Comics Convention 2011 – Some Cosplay Pics!

Another rare post after some time! Anyway, about two weeks back I actually went over to STGCC at the Suntec Convention Center in Singapore. It lasted for two days (where I watched FMA: Milos no Sei naru Hoshi on the evening of the first!) and I went for both, although honestly speaking it was just so I could just walk around and look at the cosplayers.

What I like about all these anime events is that you get to see all the cosplayers strutting their stuff everywhere. The first ones I saw were TK, Naoi, Otonashi and one other character from Angel Beats! Sure I saw 5 different types of Ichigo (Hollow Ichigo, Bankai Ichigo, Not-So-Tall Ichigo, Round Ichigo etc.) and every other person seemed to be dressed up as Hatsune Miku from Vocaloid. Even the twins(?) Rin and Len sorta multiplied into decaplets instead. I even saw Krad, and as impressive as his wings were I wondered if he’s been recycling his costume ever since D.N. Angel was in its prime. It was really exciting to see more recent characters like Menma from AnoHana, Kotetsu and Barnaby from Tiger and Bunny and Madoka from Madoka Magica.

Anyway it’s a really fun experience – personally I think it takes a lot of courage to dress up in cosplay. Some people brand you as being overly showy, going overboard or just being an attention whore. Some people just don’t have the time to do all the prepping that’s needed. For others, there’s the stigma of being labelled as an ‘otaku’. Whatever it is, events like these give you a really good excuse to just go out and have fun and since everyone’s wearing a neon coloured wig, it doesn’t seem as socially awkward and bizarre. So first of all, I didn’t have much of an intention to take real photos so I just brought my normal camera instead of asking my bro to take along his big guns. As usual, my camera died halfway so some of the photo qualities aren’t that great since we used my bro’s iTouch. I’m also a wuss so I was too shy to ask the nice people to face this way when taking their picture. Anyway, I think most of it turned out okay, so here they are!

May the force be with you

Spoilers – Fullmetal Alchemist: Milos no Sei naru Hoshi (The Sacred Star of Milos)

Fullmetal Alchemist: Milos no Sei naru Hoshi (The Sacred Star of Milos) / 劇場版 鋼の錬金術師 嘆きの丘(ミロス)の聖なる星

 

Criminal Melvin, serving his sentence at the prison in Central City for robbery, escapes from jail, and heads West. Ed and Al chase him to the Milos City, where they meet mysterious girl Julia Criton, member of an organization called “Black Bat”.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Shounen

Aired 2nd July 2011

Directed by Muraya Kazuya and produced by Bones and FUNimation Entertainment

Rate NC16 for blood spamming

Official Website

———

This is quite sad, but on Saturday night – for the first time ever, in my life – I watched an anime on big screen. Fullmetal Alchemist: Milos no Sei naru Hoshi was screened for only two days, and my brother immediately snapped up 3 tickets for us siblings – but even then it was half full. On the day itself, I was so excited to see that tickets were sold out. They even gave us a free FMA poster! Life as an anime fan is pretty sad for me, since there’s only one person in my life (who isn’t related to me) who holds a passion for manga and anime up to my level (hi chungky). Even then, chungky’s a shoujo fan while I’m a shounen one. Whatever it is, it was an unbelievably wonderful experience to be sitting in the cinema watching the movie with other fans, enjoying and laughing the movie together.

Okay, I live such a sad life I’m becoming sappy. Moving on.

I would write a review for this, but I have a feeling that not many out there have watched it. So I’ll be nice and just spit out what happened from A to Z. Bear in mind that I’ve only watched this once, and the highlight for the movie for me were all the alchemy action scenes so some details may be a little blurry. Some of the sequence of events may not be in correct sequence, and I may have omitted some of the happenings but I’m pretty sure I’ve got the gist of it. Also, the pictures in this post are really blurry and are kinda really almost ultra LQ since I just took snapshots from various trailers. So for all that may be wrong and unpretty, I’ll apologize here in advance.

The setting of the movie is at the border of the two countries, Amestris and Creta. Ed and Al go all the way there chasing a fugitive, and they get dragged into the whole political-terrorism whish whash between Creta and the people of Milos who want to take their country back.

If you’re planning on watching the movie sometime soon, you don’t have to worry if you can’t stay until the end of the credits since I assure you there’s nothing there. This was what made my movie experience quite sweet – even when the credits were rolling and the lights had turned on, hardly anybody got up from their seats. And when there was nothing after the credits, there was a disappointed ‘awww…’ from all of us. Ahh, the sweet experience…!

Spoilers start after the break!