U-BOAT WAR EROGE

For no real reason, Makoto (if I remember correctly) from #ndt brought this up, and I had the irrepressible urge to play it. So I did. Do note that 90% of the stuff I’m about to say is mostly guesswork, with some crazy-ass romanization.

Random Night Skyline Pictures

This is technically related.

I had a party some time ago, to celebrate the end of the school year. No, we didn’t have excessive drinking, and no, there were no drugs. I hope.
Anyway, I brought a camera with me, like I always do, and seeing as we were on the roof of a 21-storey building (yes, I spell storey the British way, and I will continue to do so), I could resist taking shots of the night sky, even though I just had a shitty point-and-shoot (since DSLRs have shutter speed control and stuff). Anyway, out of the many I took, only these three were of acceptable quality, so have at them.

JLPT 4…

Passed!

I never bothered studying for it until like, 5 minutes before the exam began, so I ended up totally messing up on the listening and grammar parts. Kanji identification was a breeze though, thanks to pre-existing knowledge from Chinese lol Anyway, here are the results:

Part 1: 96/100 in vocabulary
Part 2: 76/100 in listening
Part 3: 168/200 in reading-grammar
Total: 340/400 = 85%

I can’t really tell whether or not I should be satisfied with these results; however, I passed, so I guess that in itself deserves some merit. This year, I’m not sure if I should take the JLPT3 or not, so I’ll just play it by ear ’til then.

Senko no Ronde Rev. X Image Pack

Filler post again, since I’ve got finals today, tomorrow, and on Wednesday.

For Senko no Ronde fans, I found myself a bunch of scans of a Korean Senko no Ronde fanbook, as well as a whole bunch of wallpaper-sized images (1280px x 720px). Because sharing is caring, or some tripe like that. Anyway, here it is. Hit the jump for a bit of a preview.

UPDATE (Mar. 23, ’09):

Someone asked me to reupload the stuff, so here’s a link to the download:
Download

Stuff I’m Looking Forward to This Spring

Contrary to what I thought beforehand, there are actually a number of pretty interesting shows this coming Spring, the most notable of which (for me) I will list here in descending order, according to interest.

Kanokon
If you can’t tell from the previous post, I just got into the Kanokon manga (not the light novel though, which many claim is better, as elitists (such as I) would). Thanks to that, I am totally looking forward to the anime, even if it’s by XEBEC, with whom I’ve had a rather bad record with. Studio aside, I have no doubt that this will be one of those fanservicey shows which can either branch off into either randomness, or action-y stuff. Either way, I actually enjoy watching this sort of fluff, so it all works out. According to the site, the main three, Kouta, Chizuru, and Nozomu, will be voiced by Noto Mamiko, Kawasumi Ayako, and Takeuchi Miyuu. It seems that it’s Takeuchi’s first role, so no clue on her. However, Kawasumi Ayako and Noto Mamiko are cast as the main characters, and I’ll be damned if that isn’t awesome. Even if the latter is voicing a boy. Combine them with a story involving a fox deity and wolf deity constantly trying to jump a guy, and we ought to have an enjoyable show, or at least, that’s what I will continue to hope for until around the 5th of April.

To LOVEる
Just got into To Love-ru as well (a little earlier than Kanokon, so I’ve got less enthusiasm about it), but I’m pretty much watching the show for the same reason I’m watching Kanokon – delicious fanservice and boobs. The story is kinda stereotypical, which I guess can’t be fully avoided by a love-comedy like the manga. Coincidentally, XEBEC’s animating this too (they seem to have a penchant for this sorta stuff, I’d guess). No idea who the CVs are, because I got lazy to try and find out how to pronounce their names.

Wagaya no O-Inari-sama
This apparently translates into “Our Home’s Fox Deity” or something. I don’t remember who said it (just that he used to rave about it a lot, and that his blog is now dead), but the light novel is apparently really good. Also, Japan seems to have a fetish for fox and wolf deities now. Anyway, I’d probably watch this for kicks. It seems interesting, and I haven’t been spoiled on it in the slightest. No idea who’s doing it, nor who the the CVs are.

バンパイア騎士　～Vampire Knight～
Vampires + pretty girl. Sounds like a rehash of Zombie Loan, sans chokers. And with vampires. Not that it’s a bad thing though, but as with kure-nai and Druaga, this is a bit lower on the priorities. It’s by Studio DEEN too, so it may be good, or absolute shit.

S・A
Seems interesting; looks to be a school drama of sorts with a couple of characters competing to be the number one student in the school, or something. S・A apparently stands for Special・A, so I guess it fits with the theme. Unfortunately, it’s Gonzo X AIC. Which means it could go either way, at this moment.

Kamen no Maid Guy
I’d heard of this a long time ago, though I’ve forgotten the details of it. However, it has a MAID GUY. That is enough incentive to watch it. It is animated by MADHOUSE too, so that’s cool.

Druaga no Tou – The Animation
Looks to be some epic fantasy of sorts. The background and music have already drawn me in to this, though it’s not exactly enough proof that it’s a good show. It’s by GONZO too, so I’ll probably test the waters for a bit before actually dedicating some time to watch it.

Crystal Blaze -クリスタル ブライズ-
It’s an “adult-oriented mystery-story set in New York” so this should be interesting. Notable previous work by Studio Fantasia, the animation studio, would be Soukou no Strain, which, discounting the filler in the middle, was a good series in itself (though I’ve never actually finished it, thanks to data corruption). After a quick look through the staff page, I saw some awesome stuff: “メカニックデザイン／メカ作画監督 ■川原智弘 （『奏光のストレイン』 『ストラトス・フ ォー』）” and “音響監督 ■亀山俊樹 （『さよなら絶望先生』 『ひだまりスケッチ』『魔法少女リリカルなのはStrikerS』）” Judging from this, there may be mecha or anything “mechanical” in the show, which would be interesting. The Mechanics Designer also worked on Soukou no Strain and Stratos 4, the latter of which I rather enjoyed back in my days as a new fan. The other quote states that the sound director worked on Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Hidamari Sketch, and StrikerS. Totally awesome in itself. I’m not sure how the show itself will play out though, so I’ll just wait until it comes out.

紅 kure-nai
The premise goes something like “A mediator gets hired by rich loli to be her bodyguard / spouse and lives together with a bunch of other weirdos in a run-down apartment.” Totally makes no sense. At all. However, there is loli. And it’s done by Brains Base, which also animated the rather well-done Baccano!. I’ll be testing the waters with this one too.

図書館戦争 LIBRARY WAR
Seriously. It’s a fucking war, with fucking libraries. LIBRARIES. This must be awesome. It’s also showing in that Noitamina block (or whatever it’s called) so I can expect it to be at least somewhat educational. Production I.G. is doing this too, so it’s probably awesome already. Of course, you know, unless they throw in crazy philosophical bullshit like GITS or something.

Soul Eater
I dunno, I haven’t seen a Bones show in such a long time now, that I just want to watch one.

Stuff I skipped includes:

Kyou Kara Maou R – no interest.
Alison & Lilia – no interest.
Code Geass Season 2 – I never got to finish the first season.
Nabari no Ou – no interest.
Golgo13 – haha, what. I should try the game in my local arcade though.
Macross Frontier – not a fan.
Junjo Romatica – helloooo yaoi.
xxxHolic Tsugi – never watched the first season; not interested either.
Amatsuki – no interest.
Itazura no Kiss – okay, maybe.
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki – catgirls seem interesting, so maybe.
Telepathy Shoujo Ran – haha, wow. Perhaps.
Nijyuume no Musume – lazy to find info.

By the way, thanks to psgels of Star Crossed Anime Blog for compiling a list; I missed quite a number of series that his entry had.