A few quick comments because I'm not ready to start blogging again. I want to finalize the site layout first, which will make my posting easier as well.


First things first, I am finally able to consistently watch anime on weekdays, so I will post airing anime as I watch them, with almost no exceptions. I am currently planning on doing 2 shows (possibly more with exceptions) per season, so a total of 4 anime. If I find a cowriter, we will be able to cover more aired shows (email me at meonlyme.web@gmail.com if you're interested). My thoughts on the current seasons are Clannad ~After Story~ and Gundam 00 s2 for Fall 2008 and Ride Back and Maria+Holic for Winter 2008. Additionally, I will probably post weekly updates for the rest of the shows I am watching. These weekly updates will be short and concise unless something really interesting happens for a certain week. My other currently airing anime for the time being are: Kurokami, Munto TV, Toradora, Kuroshitsuji (kinda on hold but I'm interested in starting up again due to the new Kalafina ED <- Kara no Kyoukai band), To Aru Majutsu no Index, Axis Powers Hetalia, and Kemono no Souja Erin.

Next, an announcement that my anime list on MAL has been updated to more accurately reflect my feelings. I have changed around many of my scores, usually to a more picky standard. Some changes to note are that I have removed 1/4 of my 10's and 9's. There are also noticeably more 7's. To see all my scores so far, go to http://myanimelist.net/animelist/meonlyme775. Some important changes are a drop from 9 to 8 for Haruhi and FLCL. A drop from 10 to 9 for Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiohuken and The Place Promised in Our Early Days. In ongoing anime, all 9's have been dropped to 8's (with Toradora! as an exception) and several 8's have been dropped to 7's. There is also one 6 in the mix (Kemono no Souja Erin). Clannad and Gundam are still too good, so they have 10's for the time being. Gundam will (probably) be dropped down to a 9, but we'll see.

Finally, I have a few comments about anime I recently finished.

1. Spice and Wolf edit: this post somehow got cut up. I'll try to repost as much as possible.
I <3 Horo so much. I was sucked into the story so much, although ~95% of it was dialogue. Learning about medieval merchant trading has never been so interesting :D. The character development and facial expressions (again <3 Horo) were excellent and I almost gave this a 10. The only thing holding it back were the animation and production quality. Still a solid 9.5/10 and I will definitely be watching the second season :P

2. Ghost in the Shell (1995)
My computer somehow lagged with the THORA version of this (and here I thought my graphics card was good enough) so I had to change the video renderer back to the Overlay Mixer. As a result, I didn't exactly get the most out of the movie, but it was still excellent. The only complaint I have was the animation and artwork, but that's mostly because of how old the movie is. A solid 8/10, which is incredibly good for how old it is. Some serious thinking is needed to get the most out of this. You never know how far technology can go... or to quote the words of Kusanagi Motoko: “If a technological feat is possible, man will do it. Almost as if it’s wired into the core of our being.”

3. Kara no Kyoukai 4
Well, I finally got around to watching this, seeing as the 5th movie got subbed. Although this one was short (only 46 minutes), I thought it was the best so far (although MAL seems to think that 5 is the best so far. I'm excited). The music and animation were once again top par, and I got to see into the mind of Shiki in a way that wasn't apparent before. Some interesting psychological questions and Toukou being badass as a magician. Not bad at all. The ending was amazing (it's Kalafina, c'mon) and I was tempted to give this a 10 on MAL. However, the fight was lacking and it didn't give true 10 vibes, so I'll give it a 9.4/10. Still not a bad performance.

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Ok, so I bought a book on html and css. It'll probably take me around a month on and off to read (it's over 800 pages). By the time the new site is up, I should have a much better layout ;D. Changes to this site may be due to experimentation.

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NO POSTS FOR A WEEK:
POSSIBLY MOVING SITE LOCATION

*Update: This may take more than a month. Hopefully I'll be able to start up before spring season rolls around.

OK, so this may sound retarded, but I am moving again (or at least trying to). I submitted a request to animeblogger.net and hope to get started up again. I know this is really sudden and I don't have very many posts to back this up, but note that the format will be different on the other site, so I don't want to post anything extra in the case that I can move.

I am finalizing my schedule to fit into my time, and this blog can be considered a "beta." I will definitely make the template more friendly (probably with a white-type bg) and create a legit banner (or banners). There is the possibility that I cannot move, and may have to start over completely.

That being said, finals week is pissing me off, and I need some time to relax. There will be NO posts this week and posting will resume when the time is right (probably next week). Hopefully by then I'll be on the other website.

Final Grades so far:
AP English: 97.7% A (82.8% on final)
AP Calculus: 103% A+ (92% on final) [105.5% test average. Boo-ya.]
AP Physics: 100.1% A+ (101.6% on final)
AP US History: 91.0% A- (80.0% on final)
AP Spanish 4: ?
Advanced Journalism: ? (meh)
Health: 98.1% A (98.0% on final)

Some changes that I have considered and that you should probably know:

• Posts will be on an as-watched basis, not post-weekend for airing anime (although they will still be posted on weekends probably because that's when I watch stuff).

• 7 tracks for 7 days is now A Track a Day Keeps the Boredom Away. This means that I will be posting 1 song a day. (which is funny because I haven't posted 7tf7d yet.

• *Update 1/25/09: I will be doing 2 shows per season with exceptions. This means 4 shows of continuous blogging at one time. When single-season anime end, I will pick up from where I am at with a double-season anime from the same starting season*
• A final blogging schedule for winter 2008 will be set by the time I move. That means no winter previews for a quite a few shows. My apologies, but this is easier for me. So far, it looks like Gundam 00 s2, Clannad ~After Story~, Ride Back, Maria+Holic, and Toradora!. However, this is subject to change and I may post snippets of other shows that I am watching at times such as To Aru Majutsu no Index. Additionally, I have some shows that I have yet to watch, such as Munto TV and Kemeno no Souja Erin, so those may very well kick some of the shows out of the blogging list (I'm keeping it down to 5 at a time now).

• A Slice of Me(onlyme) will be on Fridays instead of Thursdays from now on. This is because the music is being moved from Thursdays to all days. Remember, there will be no posts this week. Anticipate a large series of posts. The Best of Anime... posts will be extremely useful. Basically me saying what I use to watch anime.

• Final Thoughts posts will be the same.

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I finally got the Full Post... code to work. I had to switch over to IE because FFox wouldn't let me edit the html code of my template for some reason. Anyways... The summary will be on the home page and the full post is in the article's own page (this will usually be screenshots). I will now be implementing this into the past posts as well, so be patient as those are cleared up.

Also, the home page is down to 5 posts. That means you'll have to dig into the archives or search for anything other than the last five posts. I apologize for all the announcement posts and lack of content. I'm still trying to figure out how to do this so bear with me.

Note that the page should load faster now. I am in the middle of removing the about and scoring from the bottom and making them separate posts so that the site is more navigatable. TY for your consideration. Hopefully i can finish this up.

Unfortunately, the Full Post... will appear in every post. Be patient and don't get mad if you click on it and it gives you no additional information.

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*note: new image sizes and now I'm justifying. Changed from imageshack to photobucket. Changing order of posts around. Since I'm on photobucket, some of my older posts may not have links and I will not update them. Sorry :'( I also apologize for the possible out-of-orderness of pictures in this post. I am using a new program and still becoming familiar with it. Also added a "back to top" button at the end of the post. Please note that this goes back to the top of the homepage (which you might or might not want).

One word: Epic.

Title: Ride Back
Fansub: [I-Z]
Season: Winter 2008
Episode: 01
Score: 8.7/10 Possibly the best anime of winter '08.

Ride Back is strange mash-up, but in a way that I love. It mixes dancing with motorcycle mecha to produce an anime unlike anything I've ever seen. The closest I can compare it to is Macross Frontier, which is doing neither show justice. Just imagine Macross F with dancing instead of singing... well not really but you get my point.

Aside from that, Ride Back has some truly astounding visuals that reminded me of Byousoku 5 cm at times (If you haven't watched Byousoku 5 cm, go NOW. It is one of the most moving movies of all time, anime or not. Makoto Shinkai + Tenmon = win). The only true problem I have with it is the use of CGI, but it is fluid and I don't mind... much. If you didn't know, I hate cgi. More after the jump.

New OP/ED:

OP: Ride Back by MELL


ED: Kioku by Younha feat. GOKU

I personally actually don't remember the OP and ED songs... Might be from studying for finals. If you want to check them out, youtube or something. From what I remember, they weren't bad, but I guess they didn't stick out.

Screenshots:

Oh noes!


5 cm per second, anyone?


Wow. Just wow. Resembles Byousoku 5 cm so much, and I love it.

Go see Nagisa...

Gasp! Actual faces for no-name characters. Maria+Holic could learn from this.

The Ride Back in all its cgi glory.

Got a nice view there?

Of course futuristic mecha are always handled easily without training. Go figure.

One of the few meh moments in which the cgi didn't click. Haruki looks 2D.

My thoughts exactly.

Fox! Do a barrel roll!

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time 2?

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ISML Prelim Round 1 Results are IN

It would appear that 2 of the Touhou contestants and Taiga made it into the candidate list. All I can say is wtf... It's late now, and I'll probably edit this later but the fanbase for Touhou is too large, to say the least. Something needs to be done about this or I have a feeling that the whole ISML system is going to be rigged.

Some final notes:
-All my precious ef characters didn't make it :'(
-Shiki didn't make the cut (yet) either :'( x2
-Taiga isn't too bad of a candidate, but the Touhou chars are really getting on my nerves...

Also, don't forget to check out the ISML News column on the bottom right-ish area for my personal picks and (almost) up-to-date results.

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Very sorry, but as I learn html and try to increase my viewer base, I have not left enough time for the rest of the Post-weekend Review. Expect a large delay. I may be able to finish by Thursday but don't count on it.

Currently, I am submitting this blog to various search engines and blog directories, as you may have been able to tell thanks to the growing blog directory bar on the right. Don't forget to rate/favorite me!

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It seems I may have bitten of more than I can chew thanks to the winter season just coming around and me still learning html code, etc. Tomorrow, the second half of Post-weekend Review 01 will be posted regarding the remaining episodes in the right column. I may have to consider not blogging of about half of what I have lined up right now and limiting it to 5 shows at a time (even when seasons overlap). That being said, I will probably still do first impression reviews of all my winter anime unless I change my mind in the future.

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So I'm slowly learning as I go how to most efficiently host pics. Bear with me and the changing image sizes.

Good vs. Evil

Title: Maria+Holic
Fansub: [gg]
Season: Winter 2008
Episode: 02
Score: 8.2/10 Absolutely brilliant but looks like it might become repetitive.

Maria+Holic basically shamelessly makes fun of the harem genre with the introduction of a trap, a boy dressed as a girl. Through gushing nosebleeds from our other main character, a large (or so it would seem to the characters of Maria+Holic world) yuri female, we begin to see a possible repetitive trend of Kanako getting mad and then having a large nosebleed as Mariya becomes too kawaii to handle(?).

Nevertheless, the comedy is still enjoyable and Mariya's motives/purposely split personality keep me interested.

New OP/ED:

OP: HANAJI by Yu Kobayashi

The OP is... interesting. It's got nosebleeds and multi-colored nude(?) mannequins. I guess it's fitting for such a ridiculous anime. The feeling I get is almost like watching the Lucky Star OP.

Screenshots:

Not exactly the greatest servant-master relationship.


Euglena? Anyone care to fill me in?


Ah! Manga Style! What? Furi Kuri?


So straightforward it's almost refreshing.

Once again, case in point.



Wow her mom was pretty sexually active for a member of an all-girls school.


Just look at the pillar and contemplate the meaning of life (42).


Nice to see some generic sketched students.


You should go meet Taiga sometime.


Enter: Legendary Glasses Girl A


More blood - this time in mustache form.


Nice to see that they're being so willing to break down the fourth wall. Touma seems to be having some flag-tripping issues too, so they'd go well together.


Manga style reappearance.


It's random shit like this that makes Maria+Holic so good. Look closely. Are they having sex?


Again, random placement at a serious time = lol?


Go see Nagisa for applications.


Soooo straightforward. They are making it very clear how serious this show actually is.


Seafood came out of nowhere. I still don't know what the hell happened in this scene. Possible bad cooking moe? (go see Taiga again)


*Attempt to keep a straight face*


Some ef-type visuals. Except...... is that even possible?


Keep breaking down that fourth wall. Don't worry Kanako, I felt the same way about the narrator.

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Yes, Ami-chan did take that big...

Title: Toradora!
Fansub: [Coalguys]
Season: Spring 2008
Episode: 15

Score: 8.4/10 Still funny and has good character development.

Amid funny faces and super-saiyan power-ups, this was quite an impressive episode. What will become of Kitamura-kun? Will he keep his god-like super-saiyan hair? Funny facial expressions aside, this was actually a pretty serious episode. Some serious character development with Taiga, and a T_T scene. Will Taiga's attempt to get Kitamura back in the action prevail? I don't know and that's why I'm still watching this goddamn show.

Screenshots:

SSJ4 Kitamura-kun has nothing to fear. Even he knows that yelling makes you stronger.

Yes. Get on your knees and start begging Haruta.

Karate Chop: 50 pow

Nooooo!!! Don't degrade yourself Minorin. Be strong like Joe....er inside joke.


Good old fashion bad cooking moe points for Taiga.

Good to see ol' Inko-chan as healthy as usual.

A little bit of old-fashioned gaming here. A little bit of late-night fun there. Static electricity is in the air!

Classic stalker action 1: watch someone sleep.

Taiga is so chibi!!! Even more so than usual.

Awwww. T_T Taiga is sneezing.

It's OK Taiga. We don't mind when you stammer.

Er wait... Maybe we do.

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