Boring Summary Post

Yeah, so I'm bored, sick, and I've been meaning to do this for a while. Basically, the purpose of today's topic are my thoughts on the past season and what I've been watching; at least my top three picks. I have been watching, at least, two other shows, but just for the lulz. I mean Dragonaut and Rental Magica. The former tends to get annoying sometimes (Kazuki and Toa, I'm looking at you!), and the latter is so out of order. But they're fun, in their own ways. I might expand on those two when they end. Anyhow, to my top three of the fall season!

1. Gundam 00-It's not surprising that I picked this one, being the mech junkie that I am. I will admit that I feel it's still kind of cold right now, but I can feel that there's something building up. The cast is pretty good, with eyecandy for both genders. My personal favorites are, in random order: Lockon (Who doesn't?), H/Allelujah (I thought he was boring, but proved me wrong; and he's cute!), Katagiri (How could I not? And yeah, I think he's gay for Graham...at least bi.), Soma (I just like her for some reason), Kinue (Shares my thoughts on Louise. That alone makes me like her!), Shirin (Could be a better leader than Marina, anyday), and Hong Long (Mostly because he's good to look at, and has a really nice outfit.) Shallow reasoning, I know. I'm still kind of on the fence about most of the others; mainly Sumeragi, Setsuna, Graham, and Tieria. I think the only character that I want dead is Louise. I'll be expanding on this at a later date, be sure of it! (And why the hell hasn't her mother taken her back to Spain yet?!) In general though, I'm enjoying this one; and I'm keeping positive about it. And when the first season ends, I have that other mech series to watch during the hiatus.

2. CLANNAD-Now this is surprising. I mostly decided to watch this one just because I haven't watched a harem series in a really long time. I am actually really liking it, too. It's kind of depressing, but it has a warm feeling to it at the same time. Character-wise, I really like Tomoya (His father is worse than mine; and I like his sarcasm.), Nagisa (She had me when she sang the Dango Dai Kazoku song in episode 2.), Sunohara (Comedic side characters FTW!), and Akio and Sanae (Sanae gets extra points for being a nice lady who experiments with cooking, and is voiced by Kikuko Inoue.) I'm sticking with this one.

3. Shugo Chara!-I originally overlooked this series, for some reason or another. However, I started watching it, and now I'm addicted. We all need some super-cheesy mahou shoujo every now and then, right? Plus, the series is done by Peach-Pit; who I've come to love from Rozen Maiden and Zombie-Loan. And the characters are so cute! I demand plushies of all the Shugo Charas and their human partners! I'm really partial to Miki (I consider her to be Souseiseki's successor.), Daichi (I think he's overlooked, but I find him absolutely adorable!), Kiseki (Call me "King"! His world domination complex cracks me up every time.), and Yoru (Chibi cat-boy!) for the Shugo Charas. For the humans: Ikuto (What fangirl would ever deny that they like him? He's walking sex with cat ears and a tail!), Kukai (I just find him to be a lot of fun.), and Yaya (She makes me think of a super-energetic Hina-Ichigo!). Also, I'm a firm supporter of Ikuto x Amu and Kukai x Yaya; even though the former has more hints than the latter.

Special Mention-Ghost Hound. While typing this, I totally forgot about Ghost Hound! I didn't really think much of the first episode, but I got hooked pretty quickly after that. It's got a really creepy atsmosphere, and I'm learning some psychology and information on the human brain at the same time. And I adore all of the main protagonists. Tarou and Miyako are so cute. I'm enjoying Makoto, as well. My favorite has to be Masayuki, though. I should really hate the guy for causing the suicide of a former classmate, but for some reason I can't. Plus, like with Tomoya, I can understand his home situation. Still, I see him as one of those characters with the foolish personality that really hurts inside. That's the main reason why I like him. Also, Hirata-sensei...*heh* After finding out that he has the same seiyuu as Kaoru from Ouran, I can never look at the guy and not be amused. With that said, I'm really interested in seeing where this series is going.

Anyways, the fall season was a lot better than I expected. However, I'm not so sure about the winter season. I've always found the winter and summer seasons to be lacking. I'll need to go back and check what's starting, but all I really remember are a bunch of fanservice shows. If that's the case, then I'll really be looking forward to spring more than ever.

Well, if I don't post before the 31st, I'll see you in the new year!

I Got Lucky, Today!

As the title suggests, I got super-lucky at Anime Pop today. Everything I got was Code Geass-related, of course. I did see a Candidate for Goddess pencil board, but I completely forgot to ask about it. But oh well; it's okay. Anyway, I got the Graphics Ashford mook, which is an okay one. Too much Shirley, though. But to make up for that, I got two sets of the cells from the cellDX series. I got Lloyd and Clovis! Despite not really liking Clovis, it is a nice picture of him. He's such a Tamaki! But I'm really happy that I got the Lloyd set! And I also found that two-sided phone strap with Lloyd and Schneizel, so I got that too. I thought I'd never find that, being an Animate-exclusive gashapon item and all. So, I now have that one on my cell phone, but I hooked my Chara Fortune Lloyd onto it as well.

That should keep me satisfied for a while.

Miscellanious Ramblings

Ah, thank God things went okay over the past two days! My grandma was actually acting better than I thought she would; until the Sundowner's Syndrome kicked in. But she was fine for the most part. Dad and I are on better terms than we were. I don't really know how long that will last, though.

The only real problem we had was that Mom's car broke down. Aly was going over to her boyfriend's house, and the battery died. It's in the process of getting fixed, but they won't be able to fix it until Friday. It'll be alright, though. It had better, because that's the car I drive around in.

I won't really talk about what I got, except for a few things. My favorite gift was The Office season 2 box set, by far. I also got a really nice light blue sweater. Unfortunately, I need to exchange it for a bigger size. I don't get it, I got another shirt in the same size and it fit. I guess sweaters fit differently than normal shirts. -rolls eyes-

Anyhow, they still want to get me one more thing, since they got Aly a digital camera and Jake a new cell phone. So, we're going on a joint-otaku trip to Addison tomorrow. Dad wants to get some more stuff for his train table (that he only works on for three months a year!), and I get to go to the anime store. This time, however, we had better stop for lunch. Last time, we we're out until after 2:00 and didn't eat anything! If I don't find anything interesting, we decided to put my gift on hold until I do find something. Pre-order something, perhaps?

Getting off the post-holiday talk, I found out about something really interesting this morning. Apparently, they're making a Code Geass visual novel/dating sim game! XD Ah, my wish has been granted! It's unknown who you could end up with, but the majority of the cast will appear. I remember a rumor that Lloyd would be a teacher in an upcoming game, and I'm guessing this is it. -starts foaming at the mouth- He'd better be a potential candidate! I mean, don't a lot of dating sim games include some sort of teacher-student relationship? Nonetheless, I need more details about this!

Family-Related Frustration

Ugh! I'm not ready for Christmas at all! >_<>

First of all, I'm really stressed about having my grandparents come for our Christmas Eve appetizers, as usual. Mainly because we still haven't been able to put grandma in a nursing home yet; and she's gotten even worse. I know that we don't have any money to do it, and if we did, grandpa doesn't want to let her go yet. I understand this, but on the other hand (and I know I sound cold saying this) is there really anyone to part with anymore? Because the way how I see it, she's already gone. I feel like such a bitch for saying that, but that's the way how I see it.

Continuing on with that, I'm worried about what could happen on Christmas Day, at their house. From my understanding, my uncle and grandpa haven't been getting along very much, lately. This is the same uncle who arranged for that public humiliation thing that happened a few months ago, by the way. I understand his frustration with my grandpa not handing over the house to him and my aunt, but threatening to leave his wife and kids? Quite personally, even if they did get ownership of the house, they won't be able to sell it for much. They think that they can get so much for it, but to be honest, it's beyond repair. But I digress. I'm just really not looking forward to being trapped in a house full of chaos for a day.

Along with that, my dad and I aren't really on good terms, right now. Due to miscommunication and pure stupidity on my part, I got locked out of the house for a while on Thursday. Of course I was frustrated about it and got bitchy with him. I wasn't exactly angry with him, but he thought I was. But for God's sake! He'd act the same way if he were in my shoes! The other reason is that he's been home all week, and he'll be home until some time after New Years, I'm not sure when. But, like with my grandma's Alzheimer's, his drinking has been getting progressively worse. If I couldn't stand to be around him before, I sure as hell can't now. Man, I really hope he ends up going on that trip to Australia, soon; because I really need a break from him!

*Sigh* Let's just get this over with already!

Randomness

I'm officially on my winter break, now. Ah, it felt so good when I finished my exams! I have to rant about my economics exam, though. First off, that woman was 17 minutes late. Then, the exam itself was pretty much a copy and paste of the other tests we had done, but with the really hard questions. Too much mathwork! But the thing that really annoyed me was this. She said that we needed to mark our answers on Scantrons. Well, about 45 minutes into the exam, she tells us that we shouldn't be using the Scantrons and to mark the answers on the paper. I'm probably not the only one who was thinking, "Ya think you could tell us before we start the test?!?" But I no longer have to deal with that bitch, thank God!

I found something really interesting, yesterday. We're getting a teriyaki/sushi place out here! A place...with sushi...in Wylie?! I used to think that was only a pipe dream. I'm going to assume it's something like Samurai Sam's, but that will do just fine. Hey, if it has sushi, I'm good.

Also, a trailer for Code Geass was leaked, yesterday. I have to say that the voices are better than I thought they would be. C.C sounded pretty much like I thought she would. I'm actually surprised that I liked JYB's version of Lelouch. He only got two words, but I think he can pull it off. I'll need to listen to more of Suzaku, though. And I'm really impressed with Clovis, too. Heh! Too bad we won't be seeing much of him, though. *smirk* I only had a few problems with it, though. The main thing was the trailer itself. Let me put it this way: it was cheesier than the cheese on a Pizza Hut pizza! XD At any rate, I'm staying positive with the dub. Dubs don't really bother me for the most part, unless they're really half-assed. And I doubt that'll be the case, here.

Okay, So They Did Have A Cast List

A while after I posted, Bandai came out with a cast list for some of the characters. Here's what we have so far.

Lelouch: Johnny Yong Bosch
C2 (CC): Kate Higgins
Kallen: Karen Strassman
Suzaku Kururugi: Yuri Lowenthal
Lloyd: Liam O'Brien
Tohdoh: Steve Blum
Bartley: Peter Spellos
Clovis: Dave Wittenberg
Emperor: Michael McConnohie
Shirley: Amy Kincaid
Milly: Julie Ann Taylor
Nina & Sayoko: Kim Mai Guest

I'll be honest, I'd rather have Johnny and Yuri switch their roles. I can't really picture Lelouch sounding like Vash or Ichigo. But he has played his share of angsty characters, so I'll wait and see on that later. But still, I had him pegged to play Suzaku.

On another note, I'm highly interested/amused in that Liam O'Brien doing Lloyd's voice. I had Dave Wittenberg pegged for Lloyd, but Liam was one of my other choices. Besides, I can picture his voice coming out of Lloyd's mouth when he makes the "obligatory sarcastic side comment".

But what really amuses me is that it coincedentally fits with a strange parallell that I've made. It's one of my "far-fetched fangirl theories", to say the least. Remember a long time ago, when I officially announced my decent to Geass-ism, and I mentioned that Schneizel gave off Akio Ohtori vibes? Continuing with the Utena parallels, I thought to myself: if Schneizel is Akio, would that make Lloyd his Touga or his Anthy? I ended up choosing the latter, due to Lloyd somewhat resembling Mamiya, who was actually Anthy in the end. (I say "somewhat", but the only physical similarity is the lavendar hair.)

The really funny thing in all of this is that Liam O'Brien played Mamiya in the Utena dub! It was also because of Liam's voice that I really liked Mamiya, even though he didn't do much. Now I'm waiting for Crispin Freeman to play Schneizel, who played Touga in the Utena dub. Akio's English VA is on the other coast, right? (Does he even dub anymore?) All I know is that Lloyd's got the potential to sound sexy in dub.

Also, Bandai's going to translate the three manga series and the light novel series. Not to mention that it sounds like their going all out on the merchandising front. Argh! As if this series isn't burning up my bank account already! XD I seriously need to consider getting a good part-time job, now!

This Ends My Week On A Good Note

So, the Code Geass dub is going to air on Adult Swim. Honestly, who didn't see that coming? I really couldn't see it going anywhere else, you know. I'm not too worried about edits being made. I'm sure they'll have to edit the infamous table scene and some of the other fanservice, but no big deal. Though, I was hoping that they would reveal the cast list, but that didn't happen. I'm sure they will, soon.

Meanwhile, Sunrise announced the second season a few days ago. According to the scan, it seems as though Suzaku got promoted. A position of power, perhaps? I really like his new outfit, to say the least. Apparently, Lancelot got an upgrade, too. I couldn't see it very well, though.

Zero, on the other hand, may not be Lelouch. People are already thinking that he could be dead. My thought on the matter is this: Lelouch is alive. He's the main character, and you don't kill off the main character in the middle of a series. I'm sure he's just MIA, like Kazuma from s-cry-ed. But about the new Zero? I'm not quite sure, but I think I saw breasts on Zero. I couldn't quite tell, since his cape was covering part of his chest. If a girl is posing as Zero, I'm guessing it's Kallen. If she's managed to pull herself together, that is. -_-'

The new character, Rollo, I'm not sure about. I'm going to wait and watch him in action before I make my judgement on him. However, he's not really grabbing me at the moment. He seems boring, but I'm not going to write him off yet.

Ergh! I wish spring would hurry up and get here!

Thoughts on Ryvius

So, I ended up marathoning Infinite Ryvius over two days. I watched the first disc on Thursday and the rest yesterday. It was one of those series that I couldn't stop until I got to the end. For my general opinion, it was definately a Taniguchi series. (It was actually the first that he directed, right?) I could see some of the influences that he used in his other series, mainly Geass of course.

For the characters, I thought they were great. I think the only character that I really wanted dead by the end was Faina, but that sure didn't happen! Naturally, I liked Kouji. While he was a wimp for the most part, I really enjoyed watching him and his interactions. Yuki, I was mostly on the fence about, but I can understand his frustration with Kouji's spinelessness. Still, you don't have to beat the hell out of him all the time! I liked Ikumi for the most part, until he went all "Berserker Suzaku". He really reminded me of Suzaku in his way of "contradictory justification". Not that I minded Suzaku all that much, it just got really annoying after a while. I also really liked Aoi and Kozue. I'm really glad that Aoi ended up with Kouji at the end, even though we knew they would. She's far more better for him than Faina. Now that I think about it, they kind of remind me of Lloyd and Cecile, in terms of cuteness anyway. (If only the latter could happen!) And while Kozue was supposed to be the annoying Shirley-like girl, I couldn't bring myself to hate her. She was so cute!

Despite not really liking hip-hop, I really liked the soundtrack. I might have to order the soundtracks and drama cds, when I get more income.

I need to watch more of the Ryvius Illusions extras on the dvds. However, I'm rather amused by the audio dramas they did to promote the dvds. I think my favorite was when Kouji couldn't get one of the dvds for Aoi, and she had him act out episode 16. His less-than enthusiastic chant of "Ryvius~...Ryvius~" and "acting" out the other characters roles amused me greatly. Also, I think that his cry of "Nan-nandayo?!? Mattaku~!" is going on my list of favorite anime phrases.

In any case, I really enjoyed Ryvius. I don't think I'll be marathoning it again, though. I can only take so much depression in my anime. It's one of those that I'll need to see a little of at a time, I think.