Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by ur mum)

Original Post

Here is the Anime Boston con comic, which puts a lid on my Anime Boston 2008 coverage. Like last year, most of this stuff only really made sense in context, but whatever. I should also note these kinds of comics aren’t really what people said word-for-word– if you want that, listen to the podcasts. Expect a comic about noses next week.

Lots of stuff from the TAF, which actually took me by surprise for some reason. Unfortunately, I can’t be all too excited about much of it since I’m not all that pumped about this next season, even after seeing these trailers. I guess I’ll just bullet-point this stuff.

• The Golgo 13 trailer is good, but it has too many still images, which makes me worry for its budget.
• Crystal Blaze looked fine for the first minute, then in the last minute it took a nosedive– I’m afraid it’ll take itself seriously.
• DMC looks like it could be fun.
• Jigoku Shoujo is the same old thing, which means it should be moderately entertaining.
• Michiko to Hatchin is Manglobe’s new offering, and certainly looks more fun than Ergo Proxy. Approaching with some degree of caution, but I have high hopes for this one.
• I’m guessing this new Gurren Lagann footage is from the new music video project, and not from the new movie. Some of it looks quite interesting.
• I certainly hope the people in this video are cheering for something else going on in the hall, and not for Kanokon.

Reading that Ballad of a Shinigami novel that Seven Seas sent me. I’m about 1/3 of the way through, and should be done in a week or so. It’s a good light read, but doesn’t really have a distinct writing style that inspires me or anything. It’s not bad, but it kind of just makes me want to watch the anime again. Maybe I’m just not used to reading books that aren’t written by Patrick Macias.

So I guess Hayate is getting a second season, which is good news. It’s managed to keep my attention for 50 episodes, which is quite impressive. Let’s hope they don’t drop the ball with this next one!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand that’s a wrap.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/…ime-second-season-leaked

TELL YOUR FRIENDS. TELL YOUR FAMILY.

Maybe I should elaborate more on that last post…

I have nothing against Clannad. It’s a good show! It has nice animation, good acting, decent direction and the writing isn’t totally horrible! And yes, considering the ending we got, I too felt a bit shortchanged! I do want to see the rest of the story, if only just to make sense of those few unexplained images in the opening, but– and this is a rather large but– can we please have Haruhi 2 first? I’m not even that much of a Haruhi-ist, but after Kanon and Clannad (I suppose KyoAni did take 6 months off for that Lucky Star thing…) I want some crazy SF adventures again!

I’ve noticed that Key shows are good for me in small doses. I love Air, even if it doesn’t make any sense at all; think Kanon is good solid entertainment; and even find Clannad to be an ok use of 23 minutes each week but… seriously. After a while one just grows tired of Key’s brand of writing and just wants something more off-beat and less vanilla. Sure, by Clannad Key’s writing is in its most matured state, but as a result it’s actually a little boring. Thusly, I’m growing rather pissed that KyoAni is wasting their talents on this sub-par story. That second half best be damn good stuff to make up for shit like Kyou’s EXISTENCE.

Conversely, I’ve heard reports from Haruhi novel nerds that the books skew in favour of Yuki, especially book 4 (the one suspected to be animated next.) I don’t like Yuki (but that’s another post entirely) so naturally I’m also approaching the rest of Haruhi with some degree caution, too. Instead of boring old Yuki, let’s focus on the adventures of Mikuru, guys! She’s clearly the best character! Give the girl some love!

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with Japan. /me grumbles and watches Kodomo no Jikan DVD rips

Guys, remember this?

Well, I’ve finally coloured it. Woop woop.

Yeah Clannad’s a nice show and all, but jeeze KyoAni, I’m growing awfully tired of these Key adaptations. Air was awesome, Kanon was great if not a bit dumb and Clannad is fine but… kind of boring. Moar lite SF plz, less lukewarm teen romance. Shuffle! already does that a lot better than every Key thing ever, probably.

So, today I was bored during my New Media New Markets class. While teach was spouting off nothing in particular, I was googling for things. One of the things I googled for was Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Under “images”, I came across this curious screencap.  I’ve recapped it since the original had a watermark.

This is from episode 4 of the first series. Just fresh off skimming episodes of Shuffle! Memories, I noticed an interesting parallel…

I wouldn’t put it past Shaft. It’s just such a good seiyuu_joke. And subtle, too. I didn’t even notice it when watching the episode.

Or maybe I’m thinking too hard.

My con experiences aren’t defined by events, but more by general emotions and feelings. As such, I can’t really write proper con reports, since I can barely remember what even happens event by event. I can however give you a general rundown of the kinds of things that went on in the Hynes on that cold weekend in March.

It’s not a mystery by now that the con was sub-par. I mean, Anime Boston isn’t exactly known for its stellar guest list, which is part of the reason why I go to cons. I couldn’t care less for the guests this year, except for maybe The Pillows (who I ended up missing, anyway.) So before the con even started, I had nothing to be excited about (at least they had Imagawa last year!) However, even with my low expectations going in, I still got disappointed. The only thing that really made me sour was the lines though, but this sour feeling permeated throughout con by way of the various con goers, thusly putting something of a damper on things. Other than the line issue, the con didn’t have much in the way of interesting panels either, which I kind of expected. The only good panel was Mike Toole’s black and white anime panel, and the rest ranged from serviceable to garbage. The two industry panels I hit up, FUNi and ADV, were fine but nothing of note happened. There was a doujinshi panel which was almost horrible, but I kind of liked it since it was about doujinshi. Note to those panelists, though: when your attendance knows more than you do, there is a problem. It’s not all death and destruction, though. The Dealer’s Room managed to put a big ol’ hole in my wallet, and I hung out with various fun internet personalities, so that stuff almost made up for the crappiness of the con itself.

Seems interest in mainstream fandom has shifted towards Death Note, and for some reason I’m noticing more yaoi appreciation than ever before. Let’s hope it’s just a fad. Nothing wrong with Death Note, mind you. I just don’t see how people can make countless AMVs from the show given it consists entirely of talking, thinking and staring. Oh well, better than Naruto, I suppose. Or, god forbid, Bleach. But why is Kingdom Hearts so popular? That’s not even an anime! Oh, silly US fandom.

Overall I had a good time, despite the organization mishaps. That stuff did bleed into my enjoyment of the con, but not by much. By Sunday, I didn’t care anymore. I won’t be going back next year, but hopefully that’ll be because I’m in Japan studying abroad~

Loot

Podcasts

• Friday
• Saturday
• Sunday

Photos

• Friday
• Saturday
• Sunday

This is almost the last of my Anime Boston coverage. A comic, which has already been completed, will go up on Saturday, finishing off this series of madness.

Download

Cast of Characters (in order of appearance)

• Me
• Seiya

Seiya and I geek out on the Final Day. Topics of discussion include second-hand towels, old magazines and trading figures.

Download

Cast of Characters (in order of appearance)

• Me
• Zonaxx
• DS
• Zonaxx’s brother
• Zonaxx’s friend
• Magusman
• Random Wanderer
• Booth Guy A (Asian Hen Da Ne guy)
• Booth Guy B
• Booth Guy C
• Hinano
• jpmeyer
• Seiya
• Centimetre

A lot of random Dealers’ Room chatter in this one. Most of what I got with RW and Magus in there was unusable, so a bunch of it comes off as random one-off-exchanges. Oh yeah, I started to use my Navel bag on Saturday, and people kept asking me about it. Hinano and JP’s interview didn’t come out as audible as I had hoped, but you can mostly hear them…

Sunday coming next, and after that pictures + general evaluation + comic in the next week.

Only referring to Zonaxx’s bro and friend as such because I’m not sure if they want their names on the interwebz and I don’t know their net handles :x

It seems upon further investigation Big X isn’t really about fighting for the Nazis. But Big X is still a Nazi super weapon.

Download

Cast of Characters (in order of appearance) 

• Me
• FUNimation guy
• Magusman (MAGOOS)
• jpmeyer
• ADV guy
• Bandai guy
• Seiya
• With a special guest appearance by Trinora

That first question was at the FUNimation panel. I was also going to record something at Mike Toole’s panel, but lacked the balls to turn on the recorder around his godly presence.

Saturday’s going to be a nightmare to edit, but I’ll try to get it done today or tomorrow. Comic + general con evaluation to follow in the next week.

People emailed me to mention these things

Thing 1 is almost over, oops.

Thing 2 has just begun!

Yay

Original Post

Here is a comic. I forget if it’s good or not at this point. Pretty much speaks for itself.

Anyway, Anime Boston. First day sucked because 3.5 hours of it were spent in line. After that I met up with a few people, talked and bought some stuff. Went to a couple panels, too– FUNi’s industry thing and Mike Toole’s black ‘n’ white anime panel. Other than that, nothing of interest happened. Quite an underwhelming day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Oh yeah, the lines were crazy. My friend was in the normal reg line for 6 hours, and got to skip parts of it. Yeah. Anyway, hopefully a podcast of this madness will materialize in the near future.

Going to watch some bad anime (DRAGONZO) then go to bed. Later.

Oh, I guess they really did send me a book. I guess I’ll have to read/review it. May take a while, but I’ll hold up my end of the bargain.

I wrote a very sad song
when I woke up this morning
but I won’t let you listen to it
because it’s too sad a song

It’s a very sad story
maybe you noticed it too
it’s really very sad
but our love is over

like this
we held each other
we saw the same sunrise

I had a very sad dream
this morning before I woke up
I dreamt that I was singing a sad song
and you just kissed me

I’m really sorry
I’ve loved you so
but…

I’m really sorry
you’ve believed only me
but…

I’m really sorry
I’ve loved you so
but…

I’m really sorry
but in the end
we can forget everything

P5 Version
Alternate Version by Akiko Wada
YouTube

——

Lyrics taken from P5 Lyrics Database.

I heard the alternate version of this song first in a mix-tape-thing by Patrick Macias, and only heard P5’s when I was going through a torrent of their music later on (which I really should buy…) I have no idea who does the alternate version– if anyone knows, drop a comment.

…for freezing while I was in the middle of shading. And I didn’t save. Ugh. So I had to do the comic shading again. Man, like I said, I really need some upgradez. But such things cost money. Sigh.

I’ll make a real post soon, I promise. In the middle of spring break, and trying my best to relax (most attempts have been thwarted by The Family, lol.) Anyway, since I literally have nothing to do today I’ll just lay down and do nothing. Or fill out some job applications. Maybe both!

Here’s a picture

• Spring break is NOW.
• Will try my best to make a comic this week. It’s really just a matter of scanning and colouring… on this slow-as-hell laptop, even slower than my normal machine. I seriously need some upgradez.
• Hitting up Anime Boston next weekend. No table, I’ll just be running about like mad.
• I’ve started updating my Live Journal again, after about 3 years of hardly touching it… not sure if I’ll keep that up.
• I have a job interview this week!

Too tired and got a paper to write.

Going home for spring break, but not bringing the lightbox. If I can draw/clean some lineart here in Boston, then I’ll try and punch out a comic during spring break. If I don’t then, well, no comics for 2 weeks I guess.

Three blog entries for the price of one! While reading off these titles, I want you to imagine them on Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei styled title-card illustrations. Hell, here’s some BGM while you’re at it!

———-

Dear Japan please be like normal people and write “HOW TO USE” guides for things that aren’t notebooks of doom, thanks

Unless you’re a totally new reader to this silly and horrible internet journal of terrors (hi!) then you’ll know that I have something of an affinity for bishoujo dakimakura covers. They’re wonderful little things in that they allow us lonely geeks to feel loved by girls, who in our mind, CARE, unlike the cold-hearted-serpent-women of the real world. Due to the nature of these things and how often they’re used, chances are they should be washed almost as often as your normal bedsheets and the like. Most commercial pillowcases come with an info-card, usually giving you the material it’s made out of and sometimes even washing instructions. For the most part, these can all be dumped into the washing machine and be taken care of on the delicate settings. Limited, event-only covers are another story, though.

It’s a psychological problem more than anything else. My two Kaede pillows, both event-limited items won through heated battles on Yahoo auctions don’t come with these handy info-cards. Sure, if you put them in the wash they’d probably come out just fine (and they’d probably stop smelling just like me) but they could also come out as white sheets like what happened to one of the guys in this thread.

The Internet Itself (read: Cortana) has told me that hand-washing is the safest bet, and I’m inclined to agree with him. I’ll probably do just that today! But seriously Japan– INSTRUCTIONS. You, better than anyone else, should know just how passionately us otaku use these things.

Edit: I looked on the inside of this one after hand-washing it and noticed there was a little tag on the inside that said it was 100% polyester and machine washable. lol. I’ll throw it in the machine next time, then. Not sure about the other one, but I’m sure the machine wouldn’t hurt it either… I guess I’ll actually wash these often then woo!

———-

I think child porn is horrible but don’t take away my LO

You’ve heard this all before, but news makes it worth mentioning again. Ok, so Japan has no law against the possession of child porn. Yeah, that’s pretty bad. I’m totally cool with all that shit getting hit with the ban-hammer. Though, this certain quote from the article worried me quite a bit. You know which bit it is, but I’ll quote it anyway.

” But the Japan branch of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) urged Tokyo to beef up its laws by banning child pornography in manga comics, animated films and computer games as well as individual possession.”

Insert argument about how fake loli porn steers pedos off real children and how outlawing it would only make things worse here. I would also insert an argument about artistic freedom, but for the most part this stuff is straight up porn. The most artistic loli-porn I’ve seen would probably be Hizashi no Naka no REAL or any loli Naruko Hanaharu draws.

But yeah, don’t outlaw our cartoon-lolis, please? It’s not really hurting anybody when some guy jacks off to an Inuboshi tankoubon.

———-

Freak out freak out it’s Kotono Mitsuishi

Kotono Mitsuihsi is going to Animazment! Unfortunately I won’t be going since I don’t really go out of state for cons. However, I’ll probably get a buddy of mine to get an Eva DVD or something signed. Shame I won’t be able to meet her, though! C’mon Otakon, get some guests like these! A Yuuko Goto would be nice.

(In retrospect, this is the most meaningless blog entry ever)

To be honest, I was quite worried about watching Shuffle! again for the first time in almost three years. If you’re not already aware, I have something of an adamant fanaticism towards the franchise, but since the show’s conclusion back in early 2006, my passion for it has been kept alive through buying merch of questionable taste, playing the games with little knowledge of Japanese, and generally fanboying over it. Shuffle! Memories, a short recap of the show which aired in 2007 brought it all back to me in digest form, but I actually stopped watching that because I wasn’t a fan of how it was cut together. That, and I also called into question whether or not I still liked the series. Thankfully, upon completing this first disc, I can gladly say this show is just as wonderful as a I remember it being.

Story is, Rin Tsuchimi is the object of many a girl’s affection. His adoring childhood friend Kaede pampers him daily; his senior Asa teases him lovingly at every turn; the princesses of the World of Gods and World of Demons, Sia and Nerine, want to be his bride and a certain deadpan loli called Primula is inexplicably attached to him. In other words, he has quite the harem on his hands. These early episodes focus on introducing the cast, the world in which they inhabit and then they get started on fleshing out each girl one-by-one come episode three. It’s pretty standard harem/bishoujo game adaptation fare, but its beauty lies in the execution.

(more…)

The first episode is as good as I remember it, which is to say it’s just that– good. See, I wasn’t completely taken with the show until they got to the episode where Kaede gets sick (SO MOE.) The first episode doesn’t really need to be much more than that though, as it does a good job of easing you into the world and the characters. Asread’s animation is very good here– nice and fluid, but as usual in some cuts you can tell they really are green behind the ears. It does however move a lot better than Minami-ke ~Okawari~.

Funimation’s work on the DVD is a mix of QUALITY and quality. The first sign of QUALITY is when you see KyoAni’s name pop up in the opening logos. Looks like Kadokawa sent them the same sequence of logos Bandai uses on the Haruhi DVDs, but they forgot to cut out the KyoAni logo! Aside from that, the sub work is fine, if not a bit robotic. It seems there were more than a couple of occasions where things like “it is” and “this is” could have stood to be contracted for the sake of flow. Also, for the first time, Funi overlayed the Japanese credits and titles with English ones. They usually do a multi-angel thing, so that when you watch it in Japanese, you get the Japanese text and vice-versa. This could just be because Power DVD may not like multi-angle things? I don’t know. Then again, my Tsukuyomi DVDs work fine on PDVD… I should test this on a real DVD player. The extras are minimal– trailers and textless opening/ending. Menus work well. Besides the QUALITY subs and the bit with the logos, the DVD is fine.

A better review will follow. This is just a first impressions of sorts. Will end this post with a digest version of the best scene in the episode. Incidentally, it’s also the opening scene.

WHY IS SHE SO PERFECT?!

For those who haven’t seen it, there’s a taste. Me? I really need to watch this again.

Original Post

I don’t know how to feel about this one. The biggest problem was that I forgot to draw Rets in panel 2, so I had to hastily sketch him in Photoshop. Though, looking at it now, I kind of like that. Tina’s face also looks too long in some planels. Bleh. I guess I like it more than others. And yes, I know that messy little scribble on the sketch pad doesn’t really look like Roro– I didn’t wanna put to much time into drawing man porn. The joke seems solid enough to me.

Anime Boston is in something like two weeks. I’ll be there, but I won’t have a table or anything. I’ll just be walking around with some dudes. Most likely my server admin and Seiya (gotta get back in contact with him!) and will probably meet up with DS and Hinano.

About half-way through Dennou Coil, and it’s finally starting to show its stuff. The fish episode and the beard episode do a good job of playing with the setting they’ve created far better than the opening episodes. Also, a lot of interesting plot developments are starting to take shape. I actually want to see the next episode, now!

Finished Diebuster again. I almost forgot how incredibly epic the ending was. I almost want to buy those Bandai Visual DVDs, now. Almost.

Anyway, cutting it short today for whatever reason. Got some raws/subs to dig into and a Shuffle! DVD. Later.

“OOC FANART BANZAI”, by the way.

• Yuri out of the blue is quite surprising, but not unwelcome.
• Convoluted plots are convoluted (that or Doremi’s subs just suck.)
• This show has an incredibly gross guro fetish that rubs me in entirely the wrong way.
• Even though Rie Kugimiya isn’t playing a tsundere loli they made her say BAKA and URUSAI anyway.
• Why is anime filled with retarded women who say shit like “I’M LOOKIN’ FOR AN ANGEL. I FIGURE SINCE THIS BUILDING IS TALL I’D BE ABLE TO LOOK FOR ANGELS.”

You know, if you didn’t know any better, you’d think Mnemosyne would be a pretentious piece of crap just from the name and the few bits of promotional material that surfaced originally. Thankfully, the show is anything but. I wouldn’t call it lighthearted, but it doesn’t take itself any more seriously than it needs too, and actually just loves being as trashy as possible. My problem with it is how it obsesses over its trashiness, by pilling on layer upon layer of shock in the form of gratuitous gore and blood spray. Making some of these gory scenes sexual doesn’t sit right with me either, but I suppose it’s all a matter of preference.

The imagery put on by the opening, ending and in the episodes themselves throw the viewer some mysteries, but I can’t be arsed to care about them. On top of that, while the characters do what they do well, I can’t really care for them that much either. They’re probably not moe enough, or something.

Basically what I’m saying is Menmosyne is pretty ok, but I don’t especially care about it. I’ll probably see it through to the end, but I’m not expecting much.

Probably going to watch it on the weekend, with a fanboi review soon to follow. Maybe.

Also, I don’t know who to throw the “fuck you” to, but the DVD case is a little fucked. Not like I really care, but still.

And yes, my Kaede figures is leaning. It was one of my first figures, thusly I didn’t know how to take care of it and left it in the sun. I’ve since straightened it a bit more, but it’s not completely fixed.

Three years ago Nono Nekomiya and her friends Makoto Yuuki, Iori Yuzuki and Matsuri Amachi all buried a time capsule at their old school and promised to meet back on the same day three years later. Fast forward those three years, they all meet up again, then scriptwriter/director Hiroshi Nishikiori whips out his checklist of boring harem cliches and applies them with little effort or thought for about 30+ minutes. He tops it all off with the classic “main girl walks in on main guy hugging another girl but not out of love but it’s misunderstood since anime characters love jumping to conclusions” bit ending episode 1 on a thrilling cliffhanger, leaving its viewers waiting with bated breath for the next and final 40-minute masterpiece.

This show is so incredibly bland. I have nothing against harem shows, but if you’re going to give me one, it needs to have some teeth. Tenchi has spaceships, Key things have KyoAni and Shuffle! has MAGIC. Hell, even craptastic shows like They Are My Noble Masters still get by on the odd G-Gundam reference. As far as writing goes, this show has absolutely nothing going for it. You’ve seen all this shit before, and probably done better.

I’m not one to totally shit on a show though (no wait who am I kidding) so I’ll give credit where credit’s due. This show looks good. It’s apparently by Hal Film Maker, a studio I’ve never heard about since all they make is crap. As such, I’ve not really seen their stuff, but this is fucking beautiful from the backgrounds to the character animation. I only remember a few QUALITY shots here and there, but for the most part it’s solid work. It also has Yuuko Goto in it. She plays the blissful nee-san. It’s cute.

What is not cute is Nono’s voice. I remember hearing her give me a Valentine’s Day greeting last year, and pretended to like her voice so I could get lost in the sensation of a girl speaking to me at all, but after listening to this kid go on and on for nearly 40 minutes, I wanted to throw myself into the Charles River. GUYS. HER VOICE ISN’T CUTE. With each breath she sounds like she’s about to die, or something. I mean, I like weak girls a lot but… this NHK level moe-girl. Put her in a wheelchair or something.

Uh, so yeah. I guess if you like formulaic harem stuff with good production values, this’ll be up your alley. Otherwise, give it a miss.

Anime World Order may not want to admit it, but lolita characters and the exploitation of said characters have been part of Japanese cartoons and comics since the 1970s, and probably even further back than that. What we can all probably agree on is that at the turn of the century this exploitation became a lot more shameless and rampant– and right now in 2008, such shows have become par for the course when it comes to a season’s anime offerings.

I can’t really talk much about the manga side of things, but when it comes to modern anime, the types of lolita fanservice you get can be divided into roughly two groups: 1) Older characters who look younger than they are (your Manabi Straights and your Lucky Stars) or 2) Characters who are actually proper children and look it (your Kyou no Go No Nis and your Kodomo no Jikans). There are various ideas and thought processes that go behind the exploitation of these characters as sexual objects– in the case of number 1, the fact that they’re actually older is meant to lift that latent feeling of guilt. It almost makes it ok for one to be attracted to them, since after all, they’re 18! Number 2 is meant to cater to the more hardcore lolicon, the guys that want as close to the real thing as possible without sharing a cell with the other Miyazaki. But this entry isn’t really about that kind of stuff at all– what I want to talk about is the honesty lolita/pedo fanservice.

When I say honest loli fanservice, I mean stuff that’s true to life. In the case of number 1, this doesn’t exist at all. It’s meant to pander– pure, simple and guilt free. However, in the case of number 2, there is a degree of honesty. Not just in the fact that the characters are proper kids, but in that kids actually do talk about sex a lot.

The kinds of discussions found in Kodomo no Jikan and 5-2 are played up as lead up and/or accessories to the fanservice, but I don’t think anyone can really deny being at least interested in such things when they were younger. I remember being as young as 7-years-old when the word “sex” first made its rounds throughout the classrooms. In grades 3 through 6 we would often ponder this mysterious act and its ramifications with a great amount of interest. Shows such as KnJ and 5-2 really do a good job of bringing back this feeling of wonder and interest in things such as the idea of sex to a young kid. Probably more so with 5-2, since the sexual element in KnJ is played up more for the boners than anything else.

I’m not really saying normal people shouldn’t find such fanservice any less reprehensible, but there is something to be said in the honesty in shows such as KnJ and 5-2. Sure it’s for perverts, but it’s true! And that’s part of what I like about it.

Via pKjd

I must say, this is something of a surprise. I mean, I think there were rumours going about around when the series ended, but I figured nothing would come of them. I’m quite excited, though I have no idea what it’ll be about. Let’s hope it doesn’t suck!

edit: Putting hype aside for a moment, Shingo sez Mr. MoonPhase reckons it’ll be a recap sort of deal like Death & Rebirth and the new Top wo Nerae film. Thinking logically, he’s probably right, but the dreamer in me hopes for some original material.

Current
Clannad: Fine. Last arc killed two birds with one stone, I guess, so now we’re on to Nagisa.
Dragonaut: Yes, I’m still watching this, 21 episodes in. It’s so horrible, but it’s so bad it goes full circle and becomes good again.
Ghost Hound: Each episode is well done, but as a whole it leaves a lot to be desired.
Hakaba Kitarou: Carries itself on art direction, but is still enjoyably dark and mischievous. Makes me want a US release of the Gegege no Kitarou manga.
Hayate no Gotoku: Coming to a close. I wouldn’t mind a second season after something of a break. This last batch of episodes is pretty strong.
Kaiji: Working off shock value now. About six more episodes to go.
Minami-ke ~Okawari~: Not really funny, but an enjoyable watch. Asread’s animation doesn’t seem as good this time around, but I don’t remember much of what Shuffle! looked like past that one Memories episode I skimmed through for screencaps.
Rosario + Vampire: I should drop this crap, but I guess eight episodes is past the point of no return?
Shakugan no Shana II: Stuff is finally happening… four episodes until the end!
Spicy Wulf: Boring but watchable.
They Are My Noble Masters: Kind of want to drop this one too, but it’s not as bad as Rosario + Vampire. Carries itself of references.
Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: Only good winter season show that’s not Hakaba Kitarou (and I guess Okawari). For serious. ZETSUBOU FAITO.

Not So Current
Dennou Coil: Watching this again for some reason. Still pretty boring, but I’ve gotten past the point where I dropped it last time.

Reading
Trying to get through back issues of OTAKU USA. Have stacks up unread manga sitting about. Should read those Macias books I got months ago.