Shikabane Hime Kuro Episode 1

Allright, sorry to spoil you guys by blogging this episode while Aka isn't finished yet, but here comes!

OOohhhh

Kuro starts with the rugged priest and the feisty girl talking with a bald man who wants them to kill Makina.


While we get to see the betrayer priest treated like shit by his non-human comrades. I don't envy him, and AFAIK, he deserves every single bit of it. He tries to ask them about why they want to invade the main temple now.

Then they drop an important fact!

The scene shifts back to the temple, where Keisei's dad and Kamika are talking about Makina's situation. They are talking about this purification thing, and how Makina must undergo it before she turns into a corpse, and how he doesn't want her to die.

Meanwhile, the horribly dressed woman and her midget Hime try to enter Makina's isolation chamber... The priests initially resist until...

Owned, bitches!

They enter the chamber and see Makina slowly being devoured by spirits who feed on the red spots on her body.


Midget decides to attack the ghosts to help Makina but....


However, Kamika crashes the party for a rescue!


They exit safely, but fail to gat Makina. Outside, they discuss this thing called Rune and how it relates to the ghosts that eat her. But there is a strange creature watching them!

Oh no. They are jumping the shark

Meanwhile, somebody is playing boob tease far away...

Back to the temple, Ori is training to become a full-fledged priest.


Here he is, along with other trainees talking about light and bonds to other creatures. In his case, the rabbit which doesn't seem to cooperate with him in any way.

No. Just no.

The nonsense continues for the next 5 minutes or so, until the scene in which the betrayer priest attempts to invade the chamber where Makina lay. However, he gets stuffed by the rugged priest and his rifle-wielding Hime.



But the betrayer priest calls his inhumans as reinforcement

While the guard priests all turn into corpses and mutter something about Makina being impure, and how it taints them.


Despite this,Ouri eventually sees the link, and Makina finally accepts him as her new contractor priest.

Superbabes!

Thoughts:
- The episode started strong. It already had the basic plot established in the first series.
- The moe fanservice bitch single handedly ruined the episode.
- Kamika is not an antagonist.
- The war is not over. In fact, this is just the beginning.
- Heroes aren't disproportionately weak. They are at least as strong as the enemies.

Series picked up. Tune in next episode!

White Album: Episode 1

White album starts off with Yuki unsuccessfully telling Toya that she cant.... with him anymore because of her job as a TV idol. The room was noisy, so he wasn't able to get the entire message. The morning after, Toya sits on his bed watching TV and he sees Yuki being interviewed in a talk show. She has a dry personality and gives off generic answers. Later, Toya sees Yuki at school and is startled because he just saw her on TV. She tells him that the talk show was pre-recorded and they expected her to give such answers anyway. However, before they get to talk more, her manager comes by and she has to go because of her recording session.

That afternoon, Toya meets some classmates while looking for a job, and they talk about Yuki being less and less able to be with them since her idol job is taking away her time. Misaki tells Toya that he needs to hold her so that she won't drift off. Some more chit-chat and an encounter with a bike-chick ensues before the focus shifts to Yuki...

Yuki is portrayed as a weak-minded girl who gets stepped on by the other girls' group. Her dress gets stained while she brought them drinks, and another idol, Rina gets upset with it. However, Rina is also called for business and Yuki tells her that she'll do somethng about it herself.

Meanwhile, Toya spends some time in a bar, talking about the book Misaki gave him and justs wastes scren time there. Later in the evening, he sees Yuki again on TV, while she calls him and tells him that it was pre-taped again. She tells him to wait for next week's episode...while the camera shows Yuki and some girls modifying her good girl costume into a rugged one. Rina sees her on the phone , Yuki blushes and Rina gives her a two thumbs up. She then asks her it's her boyfriend, while Yuki gets surprised when she is told to show him to her.


First impressions:
- The pop idol shit is shallow as hell

- I can predicting the course of the story, and it's cliche as hell

- However, I am interested with the next events.

- The show business saps a lot of time from one's personal life.

- Some nasty shit will occur, but may end up in fireworks.

- Unattractive OP, ED and insert song.

So-so, I'll need to see more episodes to decide if I'll follow it through.

Maria Sama ga Miteru season 4: Episode 1

The fourth series we'be been waiting for has officially started, friends. Episode 1 is about this class presentation for the school fair in which the play is about some people who switched genders. Yuki gets dragged on a ridiculous stunt and is made to wear female attire, which draws admiration of the resident fag. However, Sachiko takes it one step further and decides that every actor must switch genders FOR REAL.

The fag seems to be happy about it, while Drill is also enthusiastic to perform as a male. Meanwhile, Yumi notices some strange behavior from the Androphobe Denpa, and the rose council learns that Drill left her original role at the drama club to participate in their (the roses') play. Sachiko thinks that it is inappropriate for a freshman to do such a thing and decides to take her off the play so Drill can go back to the drama club. Yumi tries to tell Drill the decision, but she keeps dilly-dallying, and Drill tells her to just say it dircetly. Drill tells Yumi the real reason why she left the drama club, and Yumi offers to help Drill get back in.


First Impression:

- They abandoned the trademark song for this series, "Pastel Pure". Marimite is never the same without it as its OP, and I think it's still better than the new one.

- They stuck with the same elegant character design and background drawings. I love it.

- I just realized Touko is good at acting =)

- Denpa "needs an attitude adjustment" (Colonel Burton's line)

Stay tuned for the next episode. I'm picking this up!

Appleseed ex Machina review

Summary

Appleseed ex Machina continues the high-tech, swashbuckling antics of Deunan and her formerly human mate Briaeros. However, this time, a new character is introduced. Tereus is an artificially created bioroid whose likeness is copied from Briaeros. This causes confusion to Deunan, and some distress (and discrod) to Briaeros. Meanwhile, a crisis erupts, a virus causes bioroids to lose control of themselves and Deunan and friends must trace the source of the problem...

Plot
The plot wasn't anything original nor edgy. Hunt the culprit plot devices are standard in any action genre. Yea yeah we get the obligatory breakdown of civil order and the apparently impotent governmnent response to the threat. The fight scenes, while visually exciting are quite predictable. We all knew that not one of our heros will die, thus lessening the excitement factor (plot-wise).

Technical
John Woo's influence in this movie is noticeable early on. His trademark birds flying before gunfights was seen on the first action scene. Compared to the first Appleseed, the CGI used in this film is a nice step-up. Characters are more solid and there is no slimy 2d feel present in the first movie. Animation was detailed, we all got to see fluid gunfights as well as nicely rendered backgrounds. Some scenes, such as the ones from the cloning laboratory looks more and more lifelike which is comparable to modern survival horror surroundings with pre-made renders (Parasite eve 2).

Weapons CG also made a favorable impression to me. Gunfights are detailed, especially the weapons systems. The scene of machine gun rounds firing was not repetetive and the impact of bullets on the walls and grounds made the appropriate dust and sparks effects.

Final Remarks
This is a fairly average sci-fi action film which happens to fall on the anime genre as well. The replay value of this film is quite low though, you don't really need to watch this movie again and again to understand it as the plot is simple. Probably, this movie is better suited for a casual watch with friends. It will give you guys a thrill, because that's the only thing it will leave you with.