I tried to create a Powerthirst parody using Toradora
But sadly, I never got further than this paragraph:
Tsundere, genki, tsundere, genki, cool characters, dense characters, mysterious characters, racked characters, more characters than YOUR AVERAGE ANIME HAS ROOM FOR. The plot'll move so fast, the manga readers will be like "Slooooooooowwwwwwwww dowwwwwwwwn" and you'll be like "F*** YOU!" and tickle them in the stomach with your ENERGY HANDS.
Source:
http://www.videosundry.com/funny-spoof-videos/power-thirst-energy-drink/
Uh, yeah.
-CCY
Final Destination: SaiMoe 2008, Tsukasa vs. Kagami
So yeah, Saimoe finals are today. It's a double Hiiragi final after all, which means that all the Lucky Star, KyoAni, and moeblob haters are up in arms, so this probably won't be as intense a match as previous ones - but I can hope.
And that's why I'm asking you to care about Saimoe, one more time, in the match that counts. I'm sure you have an opinion, one way or the other, whether you love Tsukasa or hate Kagami (or, perhaps, the other way around), and so that's why I hope that you can help end this tournament on an exciting note, even after all your favorites are gone.
Remember, your vote counts - if I had watched Higurashi one week earlier, the face of this tournament would likely be so much different right now... so that's why, even if you don't feel a lot of love toward these two girls, you can at least pick the better choice for SaiMoe 2008. Because apathy helps no one.
Voting instructions:
http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=1735112&postcount=1460
Polls close 7 AM PST tommorow.
-CCY
Ara Ara: Suddenly, Bracket Broken in Saimoe
1位 1049票 柊つかさ＠らき☆すた (Tsukasa Hiiragi @ ｢Lucky☆Star｣)
2位 894票 伊吹風子＠CLANNAD (Fuuko Ibuki @ ｢CLANNAD｣)
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.
Although I am happy for Tsukasa, I still don't understand how all the fans suddenly abandoned Fuuko and went to Tsukasa. Maybe I got the priority backwards in predicting the 'moe of a same feather' complication to the battle, in thinking fans would prefer Fuuko's duncery to Tsukasa's.
It's a pleasant surprise although now I'm very worried about a double Lucky Star final; Kagami fans will add to the Tsukasa vote since the former should topple the latter easily. Then again, this might make Hinagiku's vote much stronger (or Kirino's if she pulls it off somehow), just out of sheer My God Guys There Are Three KyoAni Girls in The Final Four What Have We Done factor, for the haters.
A Kagami vs. Hina showdown is becoming much more likely by the moment...
-CCY
I think I'm not being fair to Kannagi
<me> Heyo
<me> Just figured I'd check in and see how you're doing
<friend> Hi
<me> Because I'm watching a meh anime and can't be arsed to pay attention only to it, so I'm bored
<friend> Yeah, a lot of this season isn't that good
<friend> Some of the things I've liked though, were Gundam 00
<friend> Index
<me> Agree with you on that one.
<me> What about the sequels though?
<friend> Kannagi
<me> Oh
<me> Well, while I'm watching Kannagi, maybe you could tell me why it's supposed to be good
<friend> Damn you
Positive blog feedback earns it a second episode, this time without me trying to only pay half-attention to it after it starts looking uninteresting.
-CCY
Hype Machine: Clannad ~After Story~ 02
Man, I don't care how uncool I am for liking a popular KeyAni sequel. Call me the most hopeless of the hopeless otaku, clinging to their dream world of 2D girls, a sell-out, popularity whore, someone who can't think for themsevles, whatever.
Clannad is still really, really something to me.
It's not the tearjerker of Key past. Rather, it functions well as a balanced, self-contained universe. Something that you think you could sit down and watch people go around their daily lives (as in episode 2) and still enjoy. It puts the slice-of-life back in visual novel conversions.
And yet, it seems like it could fluidly get dramatic too. I'm sitting there thinking, "Wow, it's a Sunohara arc," and I'm enjoying it, legitimately.
That said, I think I'll go back to incoherently raving in some order: Sanae for megane power rankings 2.0, Tomoya and Nagisa combo ticket for maximum hopes, dreams, and blushing, Mecha Kyou anime would work just as well as Magical Girl Kyou with that sort of animation, this can only end poorly (yet amusingly, yet dramatically, according to the preview), and how could Sunohara pass up Kotomi with that cute expression on her face!?
I'm hoping with that look plus the Nagato-parody from episode 1, someone from KyoAni is pushing Kotomi for SaiMoe 2009 already. Although, since we didn't get Kotomi as the assist character (much sadness ensued), maybe not.
Man, I feel like Jason Miao with that second-to-last paragraph.
-CCY
Test Drive: Akane-iro ni Somaku Saka
One of my few real 'new' autumn anime; Clannad, ef, and Nodame shouldn't count, although I look forward to a great time with all of them.
If I'm going to extend the metaphor of automobiles from the title to the anime, ANSS (I really have no idea how to shorten the title, as well) feels like it would be something akin to a low-end European 'luxury' car.
Yes, they drive well. There have been very great examples of them, and if you pick the right one, like an BMW M5 or a Lotus Elise (note the difference in style between the two as well), you'll have your pants knocked off you. (Note: I speak with only virtual experience in mind.)
Kanon was great. ef, amazing. Sometimes you even grow to like the quirks of a H2O, something with a real kick in the higher gears.
But on the other hand, there's a lot of them which you could really care less about, the ones that are cheaply made to scam money off customers who want to buy into the dream of driving such a car. They're carbon copies, the same framework and design, with no feeling.
In that sense, Akane-iro feels like someone reached into the great parts bin of visual novel anime and haphazardly stuck things together without paying attention to the flow. Ojou-sama, check. "Blood-related" sister, check. Strict class rep? Check. Random action elements that will probably tie in in some ridiculous way? Check. And it's not always about how many horses you can stuff under the hood, or girls you can stuff in one house, for crying out loud.
Maybe it's the hype as well - I don't want to buy into any 'ultimate driving experience'. I'm not buying a car to compensate for any lack of self-worth or self-confidence, and I don't need to watch an anime to do the same. I just want something that works, that doesn't mess around with all this hopes and dreams stuff. I want the real world, not a fabricated reality.
And it's all slapped together with a sort of build quality reminiscent of the U.K. automotive industry at its "finest", with obvious cheapening of material (hello, knee shots) and a weak glue holding it all together.
In the end you can have all the winning pieces put together, have a 10,000 horsepower mid-engine lightweight supercomputer-based carbon fiber machine and that still doesn't guarantee success. You can't just assemble something based on a formula of awesome and guarantee that it works. There's no feeling. No soul. No individuality.
Maybe it's my fault for looking at Akane-iro in a frame like this. To take it not as a work on its own, to let it speak for itself, but rather to judge it up against the standard of all the other visual novels.
Maybe it's cliche now, but hey, I've only given it a spin on a purpose-built circuit. Perhaps the winding country road, or riding along the coast with the top down, or just out for a Sunday drive, suits this work better.
It's all subjective in the end, and despite all the poetry and dramatization my only though on Akane-iro is that I've seen a lot of it before and I can't find a reason to get enthused about this one yet. Maybe I'm just jaded in the visual novel area, or maybe I just hate first episodes.
It seems to have gotten pretty positive reviews so far. It's probably just later that the gears churn into motion - after all, I could barely sit through the first episode of Higurashi ...
-CCY
