White Album episode 10 ~ “A one-person fight is hollow because of booing fanboys”

A rather late entry for this episode due to a crappy and stressful week where some people thought it would be a good idea to put all the deadlines on the same day, figures. But nonetheless we have another drama heavy episode from this series and this week it seems like Rina is finally taking fire from all the crap that her brother has been setting up for her. At least she has finally begun to take action but I rather not have it being presented in this painful manner for her. The title for this week’s episode shows Rina fighting a one person fight against her brother, the pressures of stardom and the bitches. The emphasis of this not being loneliness for Rina (as we all know that she is more than enough capable of bitch slapping anyone who puts her down) but rather the pain of being taunted and laughed at…fight on Rina, I will offer you my full support.

Seiyuu Awards Update

I just found out from a post on Animesuki what performance each person supposedly won their respective awards for:

Lead Character Performance
Male – Kamiya Hiroshi (Natsume Yuujincho)
Female – Kugimiya Rie (Toradora, Nabari no Ou)

Supporting Character Performance
Male (1 of 2) – Inoue Kazuhiko (Natsume Yuujincho)
Male (2 of 2) – Sugita Tomokazu (Macross F, Hakushaku to Yousei)
Female (1 of 2) – Endo Aya (Macross F, Neo Angelique Abyss, Sekirei)
Female (2 of 2) – Sawashiro Miyuki (Library Wars, Kannagi, Persona Trinity Soul, Linebarrels of Iron)

Rookie Award
Male (1 of 2) – Okamoto Nobuhiko (Persona Trinity Soul, Kurenai, To Aru Majutsu no Index)
Male (2 of 2) – Kaji Yuuki (Yozakura Quartet, Kuroshitsuji)
Female (1 of 2) – Asumi Kana (Hidamari Sketch x365, Kyou no 5 no 2)
Female (2 of 2) – Tomatsu Haruka (Zettai Karen Children, Kannagi, To LOVEru)

Song/Vocalist Award
Unisex (1 of 1) – Nakajima Megumi (Macross F)

Web Radio Personality Award
Unisex (1 of 1) – Kamiya Hiroshi (Kamiya Hiroshi and Ono Daisuke’s DearGirl~Stories~, Macross F, Sayonara Zetsubou Broadcast)

Meritorious Service Award
Unisex (1 of 1) – Mutou Reiko (Sound of Music, Fushigi na Merumo, Mumin) passed away in 2006

Service Award
Unisex (1 of 3) – Utsumi Kenji (Hokuto no Ken, Dr. Slump Ararechan)
Unisex (2 of 3) – Nagai Ichiro (Sazae-san, Kidou Senshi Gundam, Uchuusenkan Yamato)
Unisex (3 of 3) – Tomita Kousei (Heisei Tensai Bakabon, Jungle Taitei)

Synergy Award (Tetsuwan Atom)
Unisex (group of 3) – Shimizu Mari, Katsuta Hisashi, Mizukaki Youko

Tomiyama Kei Award
Unisex (1 of 1) – Yamadera Kouichi (Ohasuta!, Soreike Anpanman)

Overseas Award
Unisex (1 of 1) – Fukuyama Jun (Code Geass)

Thanks to Mandarb916

Will comment later on tonight, but I have to say that a lot of them are of the “Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?” variety.  And yeah that’s right Kamiya Hiroshi was the actual winner for radio personality and Jun Fukuyama for overseas (thank christ it’s not Aya Hirano) so there’s that mystery solved.  Again more to come.

Update:  Okay all I really wanted to touch upon were the two wins for Macross F in the supporting cast categories.  First of all, no, Sheryl Nome was not a supporting cast member and by god with how rabid her fans are I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some serious griping going on at 2ch and various places around the western anime community that are aware of this.  It’s just as bad as Rie Kugimiya’s “supporting” win for Nagi last year.

And then there’s Sugita Tomokazu for Leon Mishima.  Leon as a character to me was just a guy that popped up every now and then to act sinister and to exude an aura of distrust and I’d honestly barely call him a supporting character.  He was more like a tertiary character until the final arc of the series.  Honestly if that’s all it took for Sugita Tomokazu to win the award then they might as well have given it to Norio Wakamoto for Charles Di Brittania or something.  Same deal, character pops up, exudes menace and acts sinster with his master plan eventually does something big, but ultimately is a surprisingly small player in the series final events.  To me Leon just wasn’t enough to put him ahead of other supporting male reasons this season.  Not even close.

Tales of Abyss episode 22 ~ Sayonara Dist and ten thousand replicas

“Kuro ne?”
“Kuro da…”

So I knew that Jade could be very evil and cold blooded…but what happened here in this episode was a bit too much. “Oi, oi, did you really have to kill him so fast?”

More Awards Of The Seiyuu Variety

These Two Are Inseperable Even In The Awards They’ve Won It Seems

And it also seems like the anime industry has finally graduated to the level of the American media juggernaut because every time I turn around there’s some new set of awards being handed out under a different banner.  This time though I have a particular interest because I had previous mentioned the now revealed 3rd Annual Seiyuu Awards (complete with requisite snarky comments),  how I hoped to see the results turn out, and how I thought they’d turn out (the sarcastic part).  The sarcasm of course came from seeing a number of questionable winners over the past 2 attempts at these award and while I can still sense Kadokawa’s hand in the majority of the actual winners, at least they sort of make sense to me this time around.  Here they are if you don’t already know:

White Album episode 9 ~ “Thought up scenarios never go the way you expect them to”

And with the drama this week further increasing another 100% (oh how I can’t wait to watch Touya cross that final line…to hell), I am rather glad that the metaphoric title this time round isn’t all that hard to decode, whether it is the right or wrong way to look at it is up to you. Basically the title here says two things about the episode and I think they are rather fitting descriptions for Misaki and Touya’s actions this time round. For Misaki, her scenario that she set up for Touya seemed to work like a charm, if not too good and while it seemed all “nonsense” to Touya (or so we are lead to believe), I am pretty sure that he knows fully well how Misaki feels about him…yet the scenario in his mind (where he got Misaki to go out with Akira) utterly failed…to the point where he destroys everything and ends the scene with the cruelest method possible; by kissing her…

車輪の国、向日葵の少女 – Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo – Country of Wheel, Girl of Sunflower

It was quite a chore to have proper good VN to read recently. Aside of Fortune Arterial and G senjou no Maou (and your mandatory Key fix, Little Busters! EX), there wasn’t anything that stellar recently (I’m so stuck in Hoshiuta for some reason… Aoyama Yukari perhaps…? OTZ).
So, thinking back how I enjoyed G Senjou that much, I thought giving a try to its old predecessor might be a nice experience (especially how it is considered as a classic on 2ch, and how Touka gave me an enormous description before).

And certainly, I wasn’t disappointed at all. So here comes a serious wall of text for a gem of the past, 車輪の国、向日葵の少女 (Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo – Country of Wheel, Girl of Sunflower), by Akabeisoft2.

Tales of Abyss episode 21 ~ Asch’s huge sacrifice? (If it ever comes…)

GUHHHHH, heart burn D:

Now that I think about it, I suppose Anise’s actions towards Arietta in the previous episode (with all the provoking and taunting then the fight to the death) may not be as bad as they first seem in that Anise also sacrificed a lot to play the role of the villain. Whether it is true or not, the other way to look at the situation would be that Anise saved Arietta from hating anyone else other than herself since she brought all that rage to herself from the taunts. She may have aimed to get herself targetted by Arietta so that the truth (the unbearable truth for her) may never come to light and if that was the aim then Anise succeeded. Still it wasn’t something I approve of since it did cost the life of poor Arietta…

Gundam 00: My 3 Humble Wishes For The Finale

It’s time for the final four Gundam 00 episodes as we make our way to the finale, and so far I like what I see as we make our way towards the finale which I’m assuming will take place around the location of Veda.  I really don’t have any strict expectations for what I like to see in the final four episodes other then it tie up as many loose ends as possible, but I do have three humble wishes for what I hope to see as well as what I hope not to see as far as a subplot and two classic Gundam finale cliches go.