Arakawa Under the Bridge 9 - 12

Stella finds out Sister is in love with Maria. Talk about scary.

EPISODE 9 - Stella finds out that Sister is in love with Maria and she is none too happy about it. So much so that she transforms into this hulking, massive, violent man-girl. She decides to charge into Maria's farm in order to get even but before doing so, she first forces Hoshi into eating "starfish sauté," much to Hoshi's consternation. When Stella next turns her rage on Kou, he runs for his life to Maria's farm only to end up being used by Maria literally as a human shield.

How Sister met Maria: A War Story

Kou attempts to get Sister to save him but even the latter is too afraid to interfere. It is revealed in a flashback that upon their first meeting, Maria shaved Sister's head, leaving only a single strand of hair. Maria eventually steps up to the plate and faces the angry Stella, overwhelming her so completely that Stella contemplates committing seppuku. Maria changes her mind and from then on, Stella becomes her loyal follower, to Kou's utter horror.

Hoshi's a bishie!

In a completely separate aside, Hoshi's back story is revealed a bit when Kou sees him (without his mask) returning from buying cigarettes at a convenience store. At first, Kou doesn't believe that Hoshi is that same guy, prompting Hoshi to tell him that he had a #1 album in the Oricon Charts. But Hoshi was disillusioned by the fact that his producer wrote all his songs while he (Hoshi) got all the credit. On his breaks, Hoshi often went to the Arakawa to play his self-written songs and it was there that he met Nino for the first time. Nino claimed to like his songs so Hoshi decided to stay.

Fire Drill under the Bridge

EPISODE 10 - Kou wakes up to a fire drill with real fire! It turns out that Sister does this quite often with everyone expected to work as a team. The Village Chief contributes very little to the entire event but that doesn't stop everyone, with the exception of Kou, from idolizing and admiring him for his "heroism." Even Sister is not above pampering the Village Chief, catering to his every whim.

Scary Daddy is scary

Meanwhile, Kou's Dad finds out about his misadventures under the Arakawa Bridge and decides to put a stop to it. The very next day, Kou receives an eviction notice from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MILT) and discovers that his father had bought up all the land under the Arakawa Bridge for development. A panic-stricken Kou runs towards Sister's church to report the matter but neither Sister nor the Village Chief is too worried about it. The Village Chief especially thinks that having the media all over the place won't be too bad for his image and also marvels at Kou's concern for their group, a fact which surprises Kou.

That Maria can drive her lessons home

The rest of the residents hears about the news and, unlike Sister or the Village Chief, are all kinds of worried. Meanwhile, a grumpy Maria wakes up to the sound of someone knocking at her door. It's the MILT man and he's got the notice of eviction for her. Maria, however, is in no mood to be tolerant and decides to teach the government employee a thing or two about proper decorum and speech, a lesson that becomes self-evident as Kou and the others later meet him in front of the church. After apologizing several times (a side effect of Maria's lessons), the MILT personnel confirms to the group that they really must leave the place. Nino, however, declares that she's never going to leave.

A noble sacrifice

EPISODE 11 - After Nino's declaration to stay, Kou is left with only one noble thing to do: he's going to leave and hope that, with him gone, his father would stop his plans of developing the land. But Nino says that she wants to stay under the bridge with Kou and everybody else and asks Kou if he doesn't want to make her happy. With this vote of confidence from his girlfriend, Kou develops a little spine and decides to use his business head to solve the problem.

Sister in disguise, Whitey in a suit, the Village Chief is serious for once -- what in the world?

Kou leaves the bridge for a few days in order to meet with his company executives and discuss his plan to compete with his father's company in the bidding for the Arakawa under the Bridge project. While he's gone, the residents are left with explicit instructions to lie low in order not to stir up trouble. But, of course, this is impossible and it's only a matter of time before Nino, who is bad at remembering people's faces, mistakes one of the Ichinomiya Group workers for Kou and stuffs his mouth with fish. This is followed by Hoshi who plays an ear-splitting song for him and Stella who gives him a "pressure point rest." It is only after the man is incapacitated that they figure out he's not Kou at all.

Wrong guy, Nino

Kou finally returns to the bridge with Takai, much to Nino's glee. However, she ends up hugging Takai, whom she mistakes for Kou. Later, Kou shows the residents his plans of developing the river bank and assures them that his company would win the bid. But instead of being pleased with his plans, the residents only give him a string of complaints. A frustrated Kou declares that the plans are final. A moment later, the contractor calls to tell him that they're backing out from the project, apparently because they're too afraid to compete directly with the Ichinomiya Group. With this unfortunate development, Kou finds that the only thing left to do is to call his father, a prospect which scares the shit out of him.

Sister says that Maria wakes up as an "S," suggesting that she's sometimes "M" but so far we find no evidence of the latter

EPISODE 12 - Everybody blames Kou for being a coward, with Nino the only one supporting him. Hoshi then takes this opportunity to show off, saying that Nino can make her wish upon a star. Maria, however, has a better idea, saying that wishes can only be made upon a shooting star. So she brings Hoshi up to the top of the bridge and orders him to shoot (jump). Kou is also there to aggravate the matter further but while the two are arguing, Maria takes Hoshi's mask off and puts it on Kou then she kicks both of them off the bridge, figuring that two shooting stars are better than one.

Like father, like son

Unknown to Kou, his own father is getting bad news regarding the project. It seems MILT doesn't want to develop the land under the Arakawa Bridge and despite his threats of withdrawing funding, the department head is unrelenting. Thinking that this is all somehow part of Kou's schemes, he decides to pay him a visit, only to end up much like Kou did on his first day at the bridge: falling victim to a bunch of pants-stealing pranksters. Nino, who happens to be there fishing, tries to give him back his pants but Kou's father refuses to do so, citing his family's motto. Then while talking to Nino, he discovers that Kou doesn't even know about the MILT's change of mind.

At that moment, his phone starts ringing and he recognizes the ring tone for Kou's but to answer it now would be to give up his adherence to his motto so he gives Nino permission to answer it for him. He leaves with the knowledge that Kou has finally developed enough guts to call him. Nino, who doesn't know anything about cellphones, runs to Kou for instructions on how to answer the call but on her way there she accidentally hits the receive button and so hears Kou's declaration of staying with Nino forever. Much later, Shimazaki bails Kou's father out of jail after having been arrested for indecent exposure.

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ROOKiEZ is PUNK'D - Complication (Durarara!! OP2 Single)

RELEASED: 06.02.2010
LABEL: Sony Music
TRACKLIST:
1. Complication
2. Fortune
3. BUMP  ON da STYLE
4. Complication TV SIZE OPENING VER.
5. Complication TV SIZE LONG VER.
BUY: Play-Asia.com | Yesasia.com

This is the second OP single for Durarara!! The anime just aired its last episode and it is awesome. Jute says she'll post her final thoughts on the series as soon as she finds some free time.

In the mean time, enjoy this baby here and if you like, BUY.

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Shiki Anime Trailer

DDL @ MF (avi, 16.08mb)

This is the trailer for the anime adaptation of Fuyumi Ono's horror manga, Shiki. Subs by PhuzySubs. I'm not liking the character designs very well but the fact that this is placed in the Noitamina timeslot tells something about the story's audience appeal.

MORE INFO:

Shiki manga OFFICIAL (JPN)
Shiki manga @ Wikipedia
Shiki manga @ ANN

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Yakushimaru Etsuko - Kami-sama no Iu Toori (The Tatami Galaxy ED Single)

RELEASED: 05.26.2010
LABEL: Sony Music Entertainment
TRACKLIST:
1. Kami-sama no Iu Toori
2. Kami-sama no Iu Toori
3. Kami-sama no Iu Toori
BUY: @ Play-Asia.com

This is the ED single for The Tatami Galaxy, called Kami-sama no Iu Toori (lit. "As God Says It"). It's performed by Yakushimaru Etsuko, the same gal who performed the OP theme for Arakawa Under the Bridge. I don't like the latter but Kami-sama is pretty cute. I especially like the simplicity of the accompanying clip of floor plans showcased in the series' end.

Enjoy sampling this baby and if you like it, buy it.

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Highschool of the Dead Trailer HD

DDL @ MF (avi, 31.04mb)

Trailer's out, thanks to Darksoul-Subs. I've also finally gotten around to reading Highschool of the Dead manga. It's a bit of an escape. Not particularly serious and the violence and gore are all over the top. Just what you would expect from a zombie story. Madhouse is animating the anime version so I have hopes for this show. :) It's gonna be out in July 2010.

MORE INFO:

OFFICIAL (JPN)
Wikipedia
ANN

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Durarara 20-22: Friends and Enemies

EPISODE 20: The Yellow Sky Rises

Kida meets with Kadota's gang at Russia Sushi in order to find out who the leader of Dollars is. But when Kida brings up the Blue Scarves, Walker and Erika both tell him to forget the group or the incident with Saki ever existed. Kadota eventually gives Kida Izaya's number, saying that he (Izaya) knows who the Dollars' boss is. Kida, thus, drops by Izaya's office once more and with little persuasion, Izaya tells him that Mikado is the Dollars' boss. Meanwhile, now that Anri knows Kida's real identity as the General of the Yellow Scarves, she increasingly becomes uneasy around him. Mikado also deals with his own problem as a member of Dollars, his own classmate, is beaten by Yellow Scarves, against Kida's express orders.

EPISODE 21: At A Total Loss

Mikado visits the injured Dollars member (also his classmate) at the hospital. The guy tells him that he's quitting the Dollars, which sentiment is echoed by a lot of the group's members. Anri decides to do something about the beatings that the Yellow Scarves are committing against the Dollars. Through Saika, she controls some of the Yellow Scarves' members into turning against their group. But instead of turning the Yellow Scarves against each other, the group becomes even more convinced now that the Dollars are behind all of it. They also suspect that Anri is involved. Despite Kida's order not to do anything, Horoda has the Yellow Scarves go after Anri.

EPISODE 22: Dissolution Declaration

Mikado learns about Anri's plight through the Dollars' website and orders everyone to help her out. Just like before the Dollars come together in order to do some good. Still, Kida finds Anri and confronts her about her real identity. Anri slaps him and leaves but is later found by Horoda and the other Yellow Scarves. Good thing Shizuo arrives at the place just in time to give Horoda the beating of his life. Celty soon follows and takes Anri back to Shinra's apartment. After that incident, Kida no longer appears at the Yellow Scarves meeting and Horoda becomes the de facto leader. The random attacks against Dollars members get worse, culminating in Shizuo getting shot, and everyone is talking about retaliation by numbers. But Mikado has other ideas: he declares that the Dollars should disappear.

THOUGHTS:

What an interesting turn. With the Dollars disbanded, Izaya's elaborate plan of causing a gang war is all going zilt. Something which he shouldn't appreciate and yet I wonder if he has another ace up his sleeve. He certainly did not seem too concerned when he got Mikado's declaration of dissolution. 

And, oh no! Shizzy-chan is down! Celty, you have to rescue him. Also, does that scene in Episode 22 mean that Anri actually likes Kida? Was that what Kida meant with what he said about Anri and Mikado? Or I'm just fantasizing again. Only, I don't particularly relish a Kida x Anri pairing, although I don't have any real complaints about them. 

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House of Five Leaves 4-7

The first three episodes of House of Five Leaves has Masanosuke acquainting himself with the less than savory life of his new friends. He's not doing so well as he waffles between two world views. On the one hand, his samurai honor and self-righteousness keep him from getting in too deep with Yaichi's gang, whom he suspects to be, if not cutthroat, then hardened criminals. On the other, he needs the money, and the gang members don't treat him too bad either. In the end, Masanosuke doesn't make a conscious decision to join the gang but ends up being absorbed by the group anyway.

With Masanosuke's membership in the gang pretty much set, the series next puts its focus on the backgrounds for each character. As expected, all the members of the House of Five Leaves have checkered pasts. The tavern owner, Ume, used to be a member of a band of thieves, led by the strongman Demon Spider and his charismatic partner, Saint Soji (the mysterious Elder whom Masanosuke meets on one of his trips with Ume to the countryside). But Ume was not fit for that kind of lifestyle and, recognizing this, Saint Soji allowed him to leave their group without consequence. Ume's fellow gang member, Senkichi, did not fair so well and Ume's sense of responsibility for this has him choosing to remain with the House of Five Leaves in order to financially help his former comrade. Later, Ume's past comes back to bite him in the form of Denshichi, another member of his former gang, who extorts money from Senkichi and even tries to go after the retired Saint Soji. Masanosuke proves a loyal friend, despite the fact that he is recuperating from Edo Disease, and protects both Saint Soji and Otake from the murderous outlaw.

The other character on whose background the series decides to shed light is the silent and elusive, Matsu, full name Matsukichi. He's not a former spy, as I fancied, but a former lone thief. Unlike Ume, who doesn't seem to trust Yaichi, Matsu is extremely loyal and faithful to the leader of the House of Five Leaves. The reason is revealed in a flashback of his past. It turns out that Yaichi literally saved his life when the authorities were alerted to his criminal activities and pursued a wounded Matsu all over the city. Since then, Matsu has worked for Yaichi, doing all his biddings without question. The perceived rivalry between him and Ume can be explained by the fact that one is a lone thief and the other is a member of a band of robbers; they inherently distrust each other.

Interspersed with Matsu and Ume's story are details of Yaichi's past, based on his own accounts and other people's accounts, which may or may not be true. Out of all people, Otake and Saint Soji are the only two who seem to know some truth to Yaichi's real identity. From Otake, we learn that she knows more about Yaichi than she lets on and that somehow the name "House of Five Leaves" is intimately connected to its leader. From Saint Soji, we learn something more solid: Yaichi used to be a follower of Kuhei, the leader of a band of robbers. Connect this to the flashback of young Seinoshin taken hostage by a gang of criminals and all evidence seem to point that Yaichi must be that boy Seinoshin and the kidnappers' leader must be the famed Kuhei. Somewhere along the way, Seinoshin must have joined Kuhei's gang and became the present Yaichi.

Aside from the obvious members of the House of Five Leaves, the other interesting character in the series has been introduced early on in the show though his presence was not immediately felt until Episode 7. He is Yagi, a son of a hatamoto who may or may not have an agenda against Masanosuke and his new friends. The interesting thing about it is that Yagi seems genuinely fascinated by Masanosuke, or his personality rather, a reaction that is also mirrored by Yaichi, although I suspect for entirely different reasons.

With all these players firmly in place, I wonder where this series is heading and how the story of Yaichi's past eventually unravels.

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Arakawa Under the Bridge 4-8

So it took me this long to post about this series. It's been what? Four episodes? Considering its slice-of-life format, this series is hard to blog about. It's just a series of random stuff going on and so much of them that it's difficult where to start.

Let's just begin with Episode 4, where Kou and Nino go on their first date ever ("I don't like to be held like a princess, Recruit.") and meet two new characters -- a psychopathic British girl with a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde personality ("Do you want me to teach you the right way to talk to your big brothers?") and Maria, the pink-haired dairy farm manager who delivers unnerving insults with a perfectly straight face . Sister is in love with Maria so much so that the old wound on his right cheek bleeds open whenever she insults him or shows the least bit of preference for another man (which she does quite often).

The result is a fairly hilarious episode with the usual mix of slapstick and witty humor. The best joke, however, is the schtick about the "princess hold," hands down. You'll have to see the whole skit through to properly appreciate it. There were some serious moments, too. Not too heavy but it was enough to give a slightly human glimpse of these otherwise wacky characters.

For episode 5, we get some background on how Sister met Maria. Apparently, they met in Sister's last battle. Maria was a spy for the enemy. For all his military training and the guns in his arsenal, he can't do anything about that mouth of hers. Even Kou is shocked, to put it mildly, by how Maria easily, with a smiling face, more or less suggested that he die. This was followed by a meeting with the vegetable garden girl, a redhead called "P-ko," with a very understandable thing for Nino and a somewhat unhealthy crush on the Village Chief. All of these encounters had the potential to leave me in stitches and one scene managed to accomplish exactly that. It was that one with P-ko slipping on banana peel. *shame* Yeah, slapstick gets me. But the funniest was actually the fish that Nino brought for Kou. That was comedy gold. :)

Episode 6, we have Kou head butting with Hoshi in a manner of speaking. Hoshi is in love with Nino and is jealous of Kou for suddenly becoming Nino's lover. He seeks every opportunity to insult and challenge him. This time, he's come up with the perfect challenge: a musical match. Unfortunately for him, Kou is classically trained with the violin. Kou wins the challenge but Hoshi losing means that he's regressed to repeating the same one-note song over and over, consisting entirely of the word "gigolo," referring to Kou. The song became a hit under the bridge, much to Kou's exasperation. This scene is then followed with the Metal Brothers trying to learn how to swim, to hilarious results, considering that they're wearing metal helmets. Kou solves this by giving them styrofoam floaters, winning Nino's admiration as a result.

In episode 7, Kou tries his new job as a classroom teacher, with the Metal Brothers as his only pupils. Although Nino is also there, saying some bullshit about being his lover and is therefore interested in him. But Kou is PWNED and Hoshi hears the whole thing and calls him a "student fucker." Stella soon shows up to wreak some havoc, Sister too and then P-ko. But the most important development here is the discovery of Kou by two of his subordinates.

Episode 8 started out really interesting and ended up also really interesting. At first, I thought the anime was going for the deep end and show that Kou has snapped under the pressures of his young life and is hallucinating all that's been happening to him all this time. But...no. Kou made up some excuse to his subordinates -- his secretary and his secretary's assistant -- that he's making a new power-generating company using the Arakawa river. But it's hard work convincing his by-the-book subordinates that the people under the bridge are but ordinary company personnel, especially when Maria insists on Kou kowtowing to her and Sister draws out his gun at the slightest infraction. The one who saves the day is the obsessive-compulsive but former salaryman Whitey. Also, the secretary finds out about Kou's relationship with Nino -- he tries to pass her off as his secretary to disastrous results -- and in a fit of jealousy attempts to spoil it by forcing them to kiss right in front of him. Now, Kou has never kissed anyone before and Nino simply doesn't know what a kiss is. Hoshi is also there to make things even worse. But Nino takes a handle on things and kisses Kou herself, sending him into paroxysms of ecstasy to the point where he wonders if she's going to get pregnant. lol. Hoshi, who witnesses the entire thing, degenerates into muttering that he's a starfish. The last clip shows Kou's secretary's assistant reporting to Kou's father about Kou's recent activities. It's all supposed to be ominous.

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Katanagatari 05: Defense vs. Defense

EPISODE 05: Zokutou Yoroi

A man wearing a mask with the character for "Unconcealed" written on it reports to a woman whom he calls "Princess Hitei." He tells her about Sabi Hakuhei's defeat at the hands of Shichika as well as Togame's continuing progress in her sword quest. Hitei does not seem too bothered by Sabi's defeat but expresses some dismay when she learns that Togame and Shichika seem to be heading towards Satsuma without stopping by Owari first. Togame and Shichika arrive in Kyushu just in time to watch a duel between a random warrior and Azekura Kanara, captain of the Yoroi Pirates and the wielder of the Zokutou Yoroi (lit. "Aegis, the Resentment"), the deviant blade modeled after Western armor. While sharing a hot spring bath together, Togame expresses to Shichika her confidence in their mission, which Shichika largely attributes to the fact that he loves her and therefore would never betray her. Togame however finds little sign of this "love." Moving on to their room in the inn, they then discuss the best method to seize the Zokutou Yoroi from Azekura. Their conversation is interrupted, however, by the arrival of Azekura himself, who immediately reveals that he knows their real identities and their purpose in coming to his island. He then proposes a duel with Shichika. If the latter wins, he and Togame would get the Zokutou Yoroi as well as safe passage to Owari. But if they lose, Azekura wants Togame as his woman. The next day, Shichika shows Togame his armor-piercing technique: Ryuuryoku Kakou (lit. "Red Blossom, Green Willow"), which he intends to use against Azekura. After Togame expresses her satisfaction with the technique, Shichika then asks her whether she's going to accept Azekura's proposal. Unknown to her and even to himself, Shichika has an issue against Azekura's being in love with Togame and chooses to show it by childishly and arbitrarily hitting her. It takes Togame a while to catch on but when she does, another visitor arrives, cutting off their conversation. One of the 12 heads of Maniwa Corps, Maniwa Houou, comes to make a proposition: he wants a temporary truce between Togame's camp and their village. Instead of going after the same sword at once, he and his mates intend to go after the other swords that Togame and Shichika are not yet after. Togame agrees and says that the next sword she's after is the Soutou Kanazuchi (lit. "Hammer, The Pair"). For his part, Maniwa Houou promises to steer clear of it and, as a sign of his goodwill, tells her the locations of three other deviant blades. Later, Shichika meets up with Azekura at the Obon arena where he finds, to his shocked dismay, that his armor-piercing technique doesn't work. After Azekura's tauntings, Shichika almost gives up but Togame shouts at him from the sidelines that she doesn't recall giving him permission to lose and that she would never want a man who can't even show his face to the woman he loves. With this wake-up call, Shichika gains some resolve and manages to beat Azekura through brute force. Later, after securing the Zokoutou Yoroi, Togame and Shichika get on a boat, not knowing that the rejected Azekura has directed it to go to Ezo instead of Owari.

THOUGHTS:

Weird episode. Despite being a pirate, Azekura turns out to be less glamorous than, say, Meisai or even Sabi. I still feel cheated by the fact that they didn't show Sabi's fight with Shichika. That would have been something. Then again, I can't really complain about seeing Nanami in action instead. The consensus is that last month's episode had the potential to divide viewers: either they're going to like it or utterly hate it. I'm more along the former, though I can't help but express some regret at missing the other fight.

Now this month's episode seems lackluster by contrast. The villain is a bore. The blade -- another one for defense -- is ridiculous and doesn't even come close to the awesomeness that is the Sentou Tsurugi. The fan service borders on idiotic. Hot springs bath? Really? Although I am quite satisfied by Shichika's realization in the end that he isn't just a sword but a human being as well. This explains his lack of reaction to most of Togame's enticements, though I wonder if this also means we're going to see a blushing Shichika next.

Maniwa Houou's strategy surprised me. We'll see how this temporary truce turns out, considering that Togame and Shichika have been unexpectedly re-routed to Ezo. Also, Princess Hitei seems intriguing, but after getting burned by Sabi Hakuhei, I'm not going to let myself get caught up by the character hype this time. 

Next month, I want more Nanami. :)

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