Weekly Review

I should be enjoying some anime at the moment but instead I'm taking the time to write my weekly review instead thanks to my HDD at home giving up the ghost. That's right my computer is toast at the moment and honestly it couldn't have happened at the worst possible time since my car has also seen fit to shit the bed as well and even though I was 90% that I diagnosed the problem correctly and fixed it this morning apparently that 10% was actually wrong instead since I still have the same problem after probably spending $150 fixing the 90% probability. As I should be looking at it it's just something I don't have to fix later. Oh yeah and did I mention that currently we are planning to move to a new house on Monday and Tuesday and were supposed to have a trailer all last week to pack up and be able to move on Monday. Yeah we still haven't gotten the trailer so I'm pretty damn close to just curling up in a ball and just freak out and I'm sure my roommate is feeling the same way about the move as well but you have to put on a brave face and just move forward with what ever you can and damn if I'm not going to kick June/July's ass to the curb for handing me such a shitty couple of months.

Of course that means I won't be blogging for some time since I won't be working until Thursday (damn I really should have asked for the full week off instead) and I highly doubt I'll have figured out how to fix the car and the computer this week. Then there is the mad dash rush to get everything packed and ready to move and then the whole moving thing. UGH! What a week it's been and what a week it'll be.

Since I missed the July 4th fireworks happy day holiday you'll just have to enjoy the lovely lady in the flag swimsuit today instead. I also won't be updating the hottie/anime hottie of the day either.

Utawarerumono- Lullaby of the Watch Tower

And now back to the anime reviews. This time around it's an OVA from Utawarerumono called Lullaby of the Watch Tower and even though I only watched an episode of the series that this is from I happened across it while cruising around Sankaku Complex and saw their little blurb about the upcoming OVA. Of course they focused on the Fanservice of the show and I do have to admit that it does indeed have a fair bit of nice fanservice. With that of course it piqued my interest a bit so I decided to check it out.

The OVA focuses on Urutori caring for a lost baby and all is a good light hearted affair until the parents come to take the baby back. All hell breaks lose when Urutori takes off with the kid since she's grown attached to the child and doesn't want to give it up. She goes so far as to even attack her friends who came to get her and the child. She does some serious ass kicking until the baby that she is protecting starts to cry which brings her back to reality. With that she decides that the baby should go back to it's original parents and all is back to happy go lucky time.

In addition to the OVA there is also a picture drama that goes along with it that takes place during the same time but shows Urutori telling about how she and her close friend who she had to fight in the OVA became such close friends after getting in a fight when they were younger.

All in all it was a fun little OVA to watch. Nice little bit of fanservice some cute comedy and at the end a good deal of fightin' action to round it all up into a nice little 30 minute adventure into the series. I didn't even realize after watching it that it's actually a three part OVA but I figured I'd blog about it anyways. Now it's off to Netflix to see if they have the series to rent in the mean time how about you check out the preview for the OVA.

Robo Geisha

Lets take a short little break from the anime reviews to look at another feature film from those guys who made The Machine Girl, Tokyo Gore Police and the upcoming Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl. This time around it's a Sci-fi feature called Robo Geisha an equal part Geisha and transforming, sword swinging Robot. And what is that an entire army of Machine Girls in there too! The trailer looks interesting to say the least and even has bleeding buildings (that has to be a first).

If you're a fan of those Japanese gore B-movies like The Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police I imagine this will be on your to watch list (it's most definitely on mine) and you more than likely know and understand that the movie will be lite in plot and heavy in bloodletting and insanity so it'll be all good. For those that don't they will of course not understand why you have streams of tears running down your face while you laugh so hard at such a gory movie. Sadly I haven't seen one of their trademark awesome movie posters yet for this movie so instead enjoy the flashscreen from the website.

Enjoy the awesome gorefest trailer.

Hatsukoi Limited

What would those who hated K-on! probably watch? One guess would be Hatsukoi Limited. A Romcom with more fanservice than K-on! but then a lot less than Queen's Blade. It's also much more linear than K-on! and the art style is entirely different. Is it better than K-on! well that's just a matter of opinion and here's my opinion. I liked it just as much as K-on! but for entirely different reasons. K-on! was more sweet moe heartwarming with laughs while Hatsukoi Limited was more like reliving your past as a high school kid with all the ups and downs regarding those first tender love moments. Then it tossed in a decent amount of hijinks and humor and a healthy dose of fanservice moments giving you an entirely different but equally enjoyable anime series compared to K-on!

As I mentioned before Hatsukoi Limited deals with high schoolers and middle schoolers as they deal with their first love crushes. Mostly it's about the middle schoolers though. There are a ton of interesting characters so discussing all their little love triangles would take some time to unravel and explain. And I just don't think I can do that here. Even though it's a lot of romance and love triangles the comedic timing helps keep things lite and interesting. I don't think I could of handled it or liked it nearly as much if it just didn't have the gags and humor that are used to break up the overdose of romance.

I would have to recommend (highly) checking it out, at least a couple episodes. I think it's well worth the time. Even though there is a good deal of fanservice in the show it's amazing how little there is in fanmade fanservice material and it was even ignored by fanservice giant Megami as well. I couldn't believe it when I tried finding an image for this blog just how little there was.

Lastly I have to say Hatsukoi Limited is another series that I would like to see getting licensed for the states I believe it would do pretty well and that way more people could enjoy it as much as I did. I tried finding the ending from the show but I could only find static images with the ending song so you'll have to just enjoy the opening instead.

Queen's Blade

Tits, asses and swords is a pretty simple explanation of what Queen's Blade is. Another one would be Ikkitousen in a very small middle ages world...with even less clothing. I mean really there is just SO much fanservice in this series that it's borderline hentai.

For me Queen's Blade has been pretty interesting more for it being the first time I've ever gotten a DMCA Violation notice and having the Internet shut off for a couple hours. Just to bad there are so many other ways to get things when you really want them and getting the notice only wanted me to keep watching it that much more. SUCKERS! The second part is that for something like this I really thought there would be some great subs for it but what the hell it seems like not a single one of the bigger sub groups wanted to touch it with a ten foot pole. So to be honest the subs were not all that great some got a bit better after a couple episodes but then fucking hell the sub groups had to get all territorial and totally screwed the last episode up just for a bitter little battle with another sub group. Really ruined the last episode in my opinion but what can you say for watching it for free. Guess I'll just have to wait for someone smart to license it here in the states. After all it was good enough to get the studios to green light a second season.

To be honest Queen's Blade is heavy in T&A but it's lite in plot and substance. You can see that they occasionally tried to toss in some substance with the main character doing a bit of character building and fighting skills improvement ala most Shonen titles but really it's a travelers getting into fights with the bad guys looking to win the ultimate prize after reaching the Queen's castle. Where it'll be an all out grudge match to see who gets to be the next Queen. There is a bit of humor tossed in as well but mostly it's just glorified fighting that is mostly used as an excuse to tear each other's clothing off each episode.

It's a totally mindless guilty pleasure show that succeeds at doing what it sets out to do. It's not looking to be taken seriously as a great fighting anime it's not looking to be the best buddy adventure anime it's just trying to give the fans of the Queen's Blade franchise something to droll over for 12 episodes and it did that hands down. Could it have been better you bet but really why there just isn't any real need to do so. Like Ikkitousen the DVDs are getting short 3 minute long OVA episode which are just plain total fanservice I just watched the first one and I think they had their cloths on for less than a minute of the episode. Now I just need to get it subbed to see what they were talking about. Here's looking forward to the next season and even more T&A with swords action and hopefully to a good safe release that will make it even that much more enjoyable.

Looked for the OVA on YouTube but couldn't find it but I think you might like the non credit opening that I found. Hopefully it actually stays around for a while.