I figured this episode would introduce the last haremette, but they had something else in mind. They're trying to develop the existing characters, so it ended up with Ikki, Stella, Kid Sister, and Kid Sister's roommate on a fourple date. Going shopping.

Needless to say, the shopping mall is attacked by terrorists, and all our kids fight back.

The terrorists threaten to kill a boy, and Stella interferes, and they tell her they won't kill the boy if she takes off her clothes.

Been there, done that. Princess Sylvia (in Seikoku no Dragonar) did that, too.

I think the point of this episode was to let us see Kid Sister and Roommate in action (and they were impressive), plus to meet the asshole that is Ikki's first opponent in the upcoming tournament (which Ikki has to win or he'll be expelled and return to his family in shame).

But it was really a very ordinary episode, in general.

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UPDATE: This is what she's up against:

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This was a lot better than I thought it would be. I figured it would be yet another harem comedy, but I was wrong. First of all, it isn't a comedy. In two episodes, there was only one scene which might even get a grin, and it didn't harm the viewing experience that I didn't smile.

(Why is Usagi in a bunny-girl costume? Well, you see...)

I'm not even sure it's a harem show. It's one guy and three girls, and all the girls have nice figures, but there aren't any romantic vibes between the guy and two of the girls. As to the third one, its possible but not certain as of the end of episode 2.

There is an academy that trains inquisitors, whose job is to hunt down and capture (or if necessary kill) witches and other magic users. There was a war mumble years in the past between the forces of magic and the forces of technology which was won by technologists, mainly because they were using guns. Since then the magic users have been driven underground and generally are seen to be a danger or a nuisance. It is the job of the Inquisition to fight them when necessary and to try to win a war of attrition against them.

Students at the school are assigned to "test platoons" (actually squad size) in order to fight against lower level opponents and eventually to graduate to the big leagues. The 35th Test Platoon has the nickname zako shoutai ("small fry platoon") because all three of its members are seen as being complete losers.

The reason Takeru is there is because his weapon is a sword, while nearly everyone else is using guns. However, he is really good with it. For instance, he can go into bullet time when he needs to and deflect bullets with his blade. So the people laughing at him are doing so because of prejudice, not because they actually know anything about him.

The teaser of the first episode is a quick look-ahead at something that happens in the middle of episode 2, and then we get introduced to the 35th Platoon. Takeru is the commander; Usagi is a sniper who uses a Barrett Long Rifle, and Kusanagi is a support person who stays back at base in front of a lot of computer screens to provide information (like "which way did they go?") via radio.

A new member gets assigned named Ouka. As soon as I saw her art I figured she'd be a tsundere, but so far no sign of that. In fact the only case of anyone trying to beat up Takeru was Usagi at the beginning of ep 1. (That was the unfunny comedy scene.)

At the end of the second episode a necromancer unleashes a very powerful attacker who goes after the academy, and the head of the academy sends out a call for every student to fight it. Most of the ones who try get creamed, and then Ouka goes after it, and she too is nearly killed. Takeru shows up just in the nick of time and takes it on -- and then it got surprisingly interesting. I won't say why.

And now I'm wondering how it's going to develop.

By the way, it's nice to finally run into a Japanese author who knows what the word necromancer means. It's a magic user who gains power via ritual murders, and this one tends to leave a lot of bodies behind. He might be the series big-bad but I bet he isn't.

UPDATE: Takeru's seiyuu also did the voice of Koujo in Strike the Blood and I kept expecting Takeru to shout ki agare Regulus Aurum!

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 05:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The anime runs up through about chapter 30 in the manga, but the manga goes a lot further than that, especially in raw. Chapter 69 has this image:

And it bothers me a lot. Explaining the situation would involve lots of huge spoilers, so I'll skip it. For the moment, leave it that the blonde chick with the sword is a brat living at a dojo for the "Fist of the Spring Sunlight" style of martial arts, which has been taught by Rio's family for generations. (It's also the main fighting style Rio has been trained in.) That sword belongs to Micayah, and it's a katana. Worse, it's also her magical device. The brat took the sword from Micayah's luggage without permission and has been playing with it while eating greasy food, and getting greasy fingerprints all over it. Micayah (in the foreground with her back to us) is not happy about this, and has challenged the brat.

What bothers me about the image is the brat's stance. That's French; it's a fencing stance. Fist of the Spring Sunlight is clearly intended to be taken by us to be an advanced form of Kung Fu, so where the hell did the brat learn French fighting style?

She didn't learn it well. When she does her lunge, her left hand should have dropped down almost to her leg.

Midchild is a real strange place; it's too much like Earth, or rather it's too much like Japan and China. The Wesley dojo is like something out of China, and the city Vivio lives in is like a clone of Tokyo, except with magic and high tech. It doesn't look alien enough. But except for the fact that all the magic devices speak English or German, it doesn't borrow hardly anything from Europe or the United States; it's all Far East. So what in hell is French fencing doing there?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Engineer's Disease at 01:52 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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The BD rip of episode 8 of Gochuman wa Usagi Desu Ka just showed up, so I thought I'd visit Rize again

Swimsuit pictures below the fold.

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"Oops!"

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Microsoft has taken the push for Win10 to the next level. As of today, if you run Windows Update, it will show you a frame which seems to be the beginning of the Win10 upgrade. There isn't any "No, don't do it" button, either.

To escape, look for "Show other updates" and click it. That shows you all the optional updates, with Win10 being selected. Deselect it, highlight it, and click "Don't show me this update" and it will gray-out and you'll never have to deal with it again, at least until they pull their next trick.

Are people with automatic update enabled getting the Win10 update without being asked?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Computers at 06:34 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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And now for something completely different. Robot on the Road is the 24th entry in the "Japan Animator Expo". It has its own page here, where you can watch it either with or without subtitles.

The art is really beautiful; it looks like something out of Studio Ghibli.

But Studio Ghibli would never, ever do anything like this: it's very, very ecchi!

In some ways it feels like the inverse of Yokohama Shopping Trip. This is what happens when robots get pervy.

I learned about it from Fapservice, which has become a daily stop for me. They have a long post about it featuring dozens of frame grabs and short animations here (NSFW!) along with lots of links.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 12:23 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Another loser, but I didn't expect otherwise. They're doing Isshoni Training but in small bites (4 minutes), without Hinako or anyone like her, at least so far.

The original show teaser said there were going to be several different girls, and here's this week's girl:

She's probably got a name but I don't know what it is. And it hardly matters.

This weeks episode is pushups. They're good for the pectoral muscles, you know.

Yeah, those pectoral muscles! Sheesh...

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Ao is still my favorite character in Yozakura Quartet, but Kotoha is a close second. She's also interesting for a different reason: she effectively is a superhero. Struck by black lightning she has acquired what can only be described as a superpower, which she uses to defend the weak as opportunity arises.

Her Powerspeaker ability is tremendously versatile and potentially extremely dangerous to her enemies, not to mention being very useful in everyday life. Of course, we completely ignore the question of "where is it all coming from?" because that's no fun. Either she's stealing it all from someone, or she's actually creating it; if the former there are sticky ethical issues involved, and if the latter there are even stickier problems with physics.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Cheesecake at 08:22 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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