Hagane no Renkin Jutsushi (Fullmetal Alchemist) Ep 01 - Taiyo ni Idonmu Mono (The guy who challenges the sun)

Finally started watching a new anime and this is quite interesting. Much better than I expected although the beginning was bit gory when Edward lost his left leg after that renkin ritual and blood was dripping from the wound. However, as the story progressed, it proved to be very engaging and looks set to hold my attention throughout the entire 51 episodes.

The story begins with 2 brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric aged 11 and 10 respectively in the year 1910 set in Europe. Having lost their mother at a tender age, they decide to attempt the most forbidden renkin ritual of resurrecting the dead even though renkin is a scientific method of creating or changing things to a certain stage by using a combination of materials. In addition, the combination must be of the correct proportion or else the ritual would not succeed. And to attempt the renkin ritual out of nothing, you have to pay a big price which results in Edward losing his left leg and Alphonse losing his entire body. In order to keep Alphonse alive, Edward sacrifices his right arm to conduct a renkin ritual so that Alphonse can continue living in a metal armour.

4 years later, Edward and Alphonse proceed on their trip to find Kenja no Ishi (The stone of the wise) in order to utilise its power. At this time, Edward is already given the title of Tensai Renkin Jutsushi (Genius Alchemist) since he got his alchemist licence from the country in his teens and he's quite frank with his words to the point of hurting others at times. Alphonse, on the other is a kind and gentle guy lying within the heavy armour suit.

They come to a town called Rioru where there is a guy, Corello who calls himself the ambassador of the Sun God and is worshipped by the people since he gave them a lot of things despite them living in the middle of a desert. However, Edward and Alphonse see through the fact that Corello was able to create these so-called miracles because of the possession of Kenja no Ishi but Rose, the girl who is serving the temple so as to resurrect her boyfriend, refuses to believe Edward who tells her that there is a huge price to pay for that forbidden renkin ritual. When Corello tries to eliminate Edward and Alphonse, he and Rose then realise that the reason why they are called the Hagane no Renkin Jutsushi is due to some of their body parts being replaced by metal...

I like the theme song very much, Melissa by Porno Graffiti. Somehow, I tend to like theme songs by so-called established names rather than anime song singers who sometimes tend to be quite squeaky when it comes to especially female vocalists. I believe the target audience of FMA is not mainly kids so the production crew chose Porno Graffiti to come up with this song. I certainly don't mind hearing this throughout the entire series though.

It seems like the plot will thicken and go deeper into its central theme. One of the more memorable parts in this episode would be Edward dissing Rose's belief that her boyfriend will come back to life just by serving the Sun God when he and Alphonse paid the price for their attempt literally with their lives. That look of solitude in him is hard to forget.

Oh, the only familar name I can find in the seiyuu list is Okiayu-san as Scar but his role has not appeared here...I can only wait...

Suzuka Ep 04: Shunran (Spring storm)

There is more progress for Yamato and Asahina in a sense. We start to see Asahina experience some internal turmoil as to how she views Yamato and how she really behaves towards him. The main event in this episode is the physical fitness test where Yamato used to excel in when he was in secondary school except for the 50m shuttle run. However, much as he tries to impress Asahina, he finds that he is soundly beaten by her and Hattori in every segment which makes him lose hope despite Sakurai encouraging him not to give up. When it finally comes to the 50m run, much as Yamato thinks that he's not likely to come up with a good result, he ends up beating the fast runner from the baseball team. And during the race, Asahina is very much shaken by the fact that Yamato looks so similar to that guy who posed with her in the photo displayed in her room. That must be some guy she admires very much and this makes her go into a trance in Yamato's presence. Of course,Yamato doesn't like her attitude but he can't do anything to her anyway.

One day, Yamato forgets his umbrella and intends to wait for Asahina to finish with her training so that they can share her umbrella to go home. Actually, he's undecided whether to wait for her since he's still upset with her cold attitude but he still waits for her. As they go home together, Asahina loses her balance when a car drives past them, causing her to grab Yamato. It's literally a hug but then she pulls away from Yamato after a brief trance and just walks away.

Well, from the way I see it, Asahina does have something to hide with that guy in the photo. Maybe she used to like him and when she saw how similar Yamato looked like that guy, she's stunned and probably confused whenever Yamato appears in front of her. And to Yamato, he won't be able to see why she is behaving this way and of course, attributes it to her attitude problem since Asahina blows hot and cold towards him. The problem is, he just cannot ignore her since he does like her or he could have accepted Sakurai who is very good to him. And by the time Asahina finds out how she feels or even realise that she likes Yamato, I'm not sure whether it's too late.

Promising anime but can they do something about the OP and ED? I always skip through the credits except for the debut episode just to see the seiyuu list and hear the songs for the first time. Surely, the same song is not going to be played for 20 plus episodes? However, it doesn't make sense to change it halfway...I guess I just have to bear with it.

Yakitate Japan Ep 38 - 39

This week's episode is a 1-hr special in line with the anime fest on TV Tokyo and continues the 2nd round of the Monaco Cup. It seems like the challenges facing the Japan team are getting tougher and life-threatening at the same due to Kirisaki's intervention.

The first part of the episode continues from the Japan team being faced with a burning forest and Azuma being separated from Kawachi and Suwabara. Luckily, they meet the Egypt team who save their lives whereby they proceed to make a tai-yaki style bread with sweet potatoes plus the sap from the coconut tree for the filling of the bread. However, this means that there are 5 teams which manage to come up with the bread and there's supposedly 4 slots for the next round only. The chief from the organising committee then decide to rule this round as void in order to ensure that the Japan team has no chance of making it back alive and proceeding to the next round of the competition. And to the guys' surprise, they find that they cannot protest against this development since Yukino agreed to this as the owner of Pantasia. Does this mean that she has managed to grab control of the company in their absence since we have not seen Kanmuri, Tsukino and Matsushiro in the recent episodes?

The later half of the episode begins with the competition being held at Mexico where they are supposed to create a bread using the fish found in the river. However, the chief of the committee have different plans for the Japan team and deliberately arranges for them to be dropped in a deep hole instead of beside the river. Due to Suwabara having a fear for heights, he blacks out halfway and doesn't manage to launch his parachute. Luckily, Pierro comes to his rescue but this means that he is in the same situation as the guys i.e. stuck in that hole. They search for a way out and find that there is a waterfall which connects two rivers. If they swim along the river, they should be able to get help but this requires someone with strong swimming skills. Pierro offers to go and tries to lift the spirits of the guys BUT he doesn't know how to swim...Oh, that spells more trouble for them...

Frankly speaking, I do think that this anime is too exaggerated at times but I think the Monaco arc is very interesting especially since Pierro's appearance where his reactions seem more overdone than Kuroyanagi and he is even more long-winded. However, he's so lovable and one to never admit his mistakes when being confronted. And he's not stupid at all since he noticed that something fishy was going on when deliberate attempts have been made to obstruct the Japan team. There seems to be a budding friendship between him and the guys...

Rumours have it that the anime ends at Ep 46 but we are already at Ep 40 and not even at the finals of the Monaco Cup. Does this mean that they will extend the anime to at least end of the year since the manga is still going on?

Okusama wa Joushikousei Ep 7 - 8

Well, I had thought that things were heading towards more exciting developments with the suspicion Asami has about Ichimaru meeting Iwasaki after school but it looks as if nothing will happen in the meantime since she chose to believe him. Personally, I would like to see a bit of conflict here instead of the lovey-dovey staff about their relationship. The anime lacks depth in discussing the marriage between Asami and Ichimaru and chose to focus on the ecchi-aspect instead. Frankly speaking, I don't like Asami's character i.e. too weak, dependent and Ichimaru just cannot seem to say no to others. I bet Iwasaki will make use of this weak point to woo Ichimaru since she's totally unaware that he's married. And when that happens, will we see an improvement in the quality of the plot?

I'm not too sure whether I want to continue watching this. I feel like I'm just wasting my time trying to watch this which is totally targetted at a group where I obviously don't belong to (the ecchi-scene lovers) and I simply cannot stand a whining girl all the time. I'll rather spend the time on Suzuka which is more emotinally intense and thought-provoking.

Okusama wa Joushikousei (My wife is a senior high school student)

Finished watching 6 episodes of this so far. Content-wise, I still think more can be done to make it more compelling since it seems to be emphasizing on the graphics aspect i.e. the ecchi-ness. I've said before that I don't really like animes where they draw females who are too well-endowed on the top so this anime got me a bit irritated with some of the suggestive scenes. And Asami, the wife in this anime kept harping on the fact that "nothing" has happened between her and her husband, Ichimaru Kyosuke. I know she must be feeling insecure but does she have to depend on that just to prove how much Ichimaru loves her or whether he's being loyal? Oh well, the anime didn't even go into details on why they got married at this point in time. That is why I think they should get down to some of these issues first before dishing out more ecchi scenes.

And we have some troublemakers in the form of the Sakura family of mother and son. The mother is eyeing Ichimaru while the son admires Asami. Maybe there would be some problems but I guess the bigger threat should be Iwasaki-sensei who was caught behaving intimately with another male student by Ichimaru. I have no doubts that this Iwasaki-sensei will make more trouble than the Sakura mother.

The only familiar voice actor is Namikawa Daisuke who played Ootori Choutarou in Tenipuri.

Oh, by the way, that opening line, "Asami desu. Watashi wa 17-sai no joushikousei desu. Minna ni wa naishou dakedo, jitsu wa watashi kekkon shiteimasu." gets on my nerves. All right, we know you are married. You don't have to keep repeating this, right? I might just stop watching this if nothing improves or the suggestive scenes get more explicit.

Suzuka Ep 03 - Mimai (Visiting the sick)

This episode has renewed my interest in this anime now that we see a potential third party between Yamato and Asahina. Sakurai Honoka, who was helped by Yamato when they were in primary school has been holding a torch for him since then and now that they are in the same class, she's going to be on the offensive. Although she misunderstood Yamato's relationship with Asahina initially, she feels that things will be fine if she doesn't give up.

On the other hand, Asahina feels jealous when she sees Yamato with Honoka but as usual, she's not going to attribute it to love unless something threatens her relationship with Yamato. Ever since that night when Yamato dragged Asahina away when he saw her with Hattori, the latter is well aware of what's going on and looking on with interest as to how Yamato handles his feelings for Asahina.

This looks fine so far so I'm probably going to stick with it till its last episode (Ep 26) unless anything happens which makes me drop it.

Link of the official website: http://www.suzuka-tv.com/index.html

Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna

Just finished watching this last night. There were a lot of questions still left unanswered by the end e.g. what was Kiyotaka up to, what is his relationship with Blade Children, how did these children come about, what are they fighting against? The suspense and investigation parts were rather interesting although a bit too simple at the beginning. However, the story seems to be rather unfinished so this affects my view of this anime on the whole. I don't like animes to end with ambiguous endings. Maybe 25 episodes was too short to give a complete explanation?

Some familiar seiyuus in the cast e.g. Ishida Akira who played Mizuki Hajime in Tenipuri is now here as Eyes Ratherford, Onosaka Masaya as Sonobe-sensei who tried to kill Shiranagatani Sayoko, Toriumi Kosuke (Sengoku-san) who acts as one of the hunters. I only found Ishida's voice familar but noticed Onosaka-san and Toriumi-san's voice after watching the credits.

I'm not too interested in the theme song but the BGM especially when they are solving cases or in the thick of the action is great. As for the characters, I think Kanone seems suspiciously close to Fuji Shusuke in terms of mannerisms and looks. Personally, I like Asazuki Kosuke the most among the characters. Ayumu is too weak and constantly in the shadow of Kiyotaka, Hiyono is a bit too noisy at times but I think she's very mature and serious when it comes to the crunch, Rio is clever but a little too childish looking to suit my taste, Ryoko is very cool and I like her interaction with Kosuke very much, Eyes is too dark in terms of his character and I simply don't like his hair covering most of his face, Kanone is cute but evil. I still cannot understand why he wants to set up the final test for Ayumu. What exactly is he trying to prove? Talking about Kosuke, he feels like a realistic person to me among everyone. He has emotions and insecurities and behaves more like a real person as compared to his counterparts who seem detached from the world. And I like his red hair spectacled look. ^__^

On the whole, Spiral is good if you are looking for something which is on the investigative or mystery side but you might end up feeling frustrated at the ending which practically leaves a lot of things unanswered.

Yakitate Japan Ep 37

It's been some time since I wrote a review for Yakitate Japan. I'm still watching it but somehow, I don't have the drive to write a review even though I'm still laughing at the jokes. I'll try to be dilligent with the updating of the blog.

Well, this latest episode is still about the Monaco Cup where Kirisaki from St Pierre goes to Monaco to make trouble. He exerts pressure on the committee chief of the Monaco Cup thus the decision to bring all the teams to a deserted island to make a fruits bread. However, the Japan team is assigned a spot at the tip of the island which will be submerged under water when the tide rises. As a result of this, Azuma is stranded from the rest of the team but he is saved by the Egypt team which is actually taking part in the contest to spot any irregularities or violation of rules. As for Suwabara and Kawachi, they prepare to head towards the France team's camp to get fruits but the France team is told by the committee chief to set the forest on fire once they get their ingredients, thus causing the duo to be caught in a blazing forest...

What exactly does Kirisaki want? I have a strong hunch that he was the one who inspired Azuma to make bread so why does he hate hearing the word "Ja-pan"? And he is going too far to disrupt the contest with those antics and I believe the Egypt team might be the lucky star for the Japan team since they are the inspectors of this contest.

The conditions for the contest are getting tougher and it's getting almost impossible to overcome each new problem.

By the way, that Pierro is really funny as he scares the hell out of Kawachi by referring to the guide book when driving that plane and using his legs to do so while talking to Kawachi.

Suzuka

A new anime in July...I started to watch this because this promises to be a quality love story but I don't really like the pace of the anime and the tinge of ecchi-ness here and there. Personally, I don't like animes where the girls are drawn with extremely prominent bust sizes.

The story is between Asahina Suzuka who is scouted to join a new senior high school because of her high jump abilities and Akatsuki Yamato who wants to change himself and comes to Tokyo to study. Being people with different personalities, the two have their clashes but they feel closer to each other with each happening. I get the idea that Yamato has some feelings towards Suzuka but he's probably not going to make any move unless he's faced with some strong competition.

A familiar face in the seiyuu list...Kaida Yuki who plays Fuji Shusuke in Tenipuri and plays the aunt of Yamato, Fujikawa Ayano but I can't really identify her voice until I saw the ending credits. Maybe it's because Fuji's a guy so the way they speak should be different.

I'm not sure whether I'm going to continue watching this towards the end of the season but I'll give it another few tries.

Marmalade Boy (Continued)

Well, I finished watching this about one month ago but I just kept forgetting to post my review.

I thought this got too draggy especially towards the end where Yu and Miki kept breaking up, patched up, broke up again. I was practically going to blow up while seeing how troublesome the whole affair has become. And I really don't know how they could have come up with the parentage problem.

I think the whole story should be more condensed. The number of episodes spoilt this anime for me although it was a happy ending after all.

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (Kare Kano)

Finished watching this yesterday.

I can't say that I like this anime. Reason being, there are so many flashbacks of what happened in the past and they actually dedicated 2 episodes just to recap what has happened. That is why I ended up forwarding through some of the more boring content.

However, there were a few scenes which I liked:

-Miyazawa holding Arima's hand at the meeting to signify that she likes him too. That was simply so romantic and sweet!

-Tsubaki and Tonami kissing on the tree. From what I see, they do feel something for each other. Tonami is anxious to prove that he has changed to show Tsubaki that he's no longer the chubby kid in the past but Tsubaki doesn't seem to realise who he is. In his haste to attract her attention, I can see romance sparks flying between them.

-Miyazawa and Arima sleeping together. I don't mean it in a bad way but that scene was done in a romantic manner. Nothing offensive about that. It's all up to the viewer's imagination. ^__^

If not for the repetitve content and some of the noisy and a bit nonsensical scenes, I would have rated it higher than 5 out of 10.