I had computer problems again, so I haven’t written up any HOTD posts in favor of playing RE5 and Super Street Fighter 4. That said, Fall is now over, so I might as well make a retrospective post about the stuff I’ve been watching…which has really been 4 things so far, one of which is still airing.

Highschool of the Dead

Nia molesting Yoko.jpg

And let’s start of by finishing my HOTD posts. The show’s final few episodes were almost page for page faithful to the manga chapters, with the exception of Takashi and Saeko’s exposition episode taking place before Saya’s house rather than after; understandably, it was done in order to flesh out Saeko’s character before the show ended which was fine by me save for the stupid “Durr, did they kiss/make sex” shot, which, like the scenes where Takashi and Rei get horny enough to pin each other down, annoy me due to Takashi’s characterization being messed up. They also chose not to adapt what happens to Shizuka-sensei’s military friend and her mission, which in itself doesn’t really make you care for her more than the main characters; still, it would’ve been nice to show what exactly she went through before the EMP went down. All in all, Highschool of the Dead did it’s job in adapting the anime as faithfully as it could, and I expected nothing more or less of it.

Nice, Madhouse.

And yet, no Asami. ;_;

Occult Academy

Oh God, what the fuck did I just watch?

Occult Academy started off as just something to kill time with after browsing /a/ and seeing the infamous penis shadow picture from the first episode. From there, the plot snowballed into a formulaic pattern of character exposition and “development” while seemingly advancing the plot by way of a wild goose chase for the Nostradomus Key only to be responded with an “lolnope” ALL the way til the final episode. And let’s not forget about all the fucking supernatural stuff that seemed to have been integrated to the show by throwing darts at a board with the words “Final Fantasy,” “ESP,” “Aliens,” “Mothman,” and “Chupacabras” on it. And yet…I really DID like watching it. Maybe through boredom, maybe because of wanting to see more of Maya’s sweet ass, maybe because of like a trainwreck you just can’t stop watching once it starts.

And the ending…if the whole Nanoha-esque witch battles from last episodes weren’t enough, Fumiaki getting his powers back from his kid self and pulling Imagine Breaker out on the aliens really took this series into deeper ‘what the fuck’ territories than before…and proceeded to break them further when the ending pretty much says that Maya stole shota-Bunmei from his mother, then proceeded to marry him when he got older. And yet, Anime no Chikara didn’t even grant us the pleasure of showing what they look like when they’re older, most likely to sell the BD’s since Sora no Woto and Night Raid haven’t been doing so well. Again, Occult Academy was a really dumb show, but I did look forward to watching it every week. I don’t think I’ll find another show like this in a while.

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi

“Let’s fight, like Gentlemen!”

Another thing I watched just to kill time. As opposed to Occult Academy being an exciting mediocre show, Ookami-san was considerably less prioritized on my watch list, so much so that I dropped the series at episode 3 and only picked it up again after Ookami threads on /a/ comprised of “RAPERAPERAPE.” And so I powered through the boring request/development episodes that I really didn’t care about hoping to see this rape subplot. Lo and behold, it happened and during the final episodes, it was brought up in order to fight the other school and…was not at all mentioned again during the final episode, which was another fucking request episode. Ookami-san wasn’t good, and I don’t think I would ever rewatch it for sane reasons. But hey, there were a lot of seiyuus I liked, so maybe that counts for something?

Best/only good part of the show.

Amagami SS

GET CHANCE AND LUCK

And finally, something that’s not even over yet, Amagami SS. I jumped in around the third episode when everyone was going in about Itou Shizuka making orgasmic noises during Haruka’s knee kissing scene. From there, it’s been pretty interesting to watch, no doubt due to the whole onibus format in which the story is told which I feel is one of the best things about this series; that instead of trying to mesh all routes together into some weird convoluted mess of a plot, it instead gives each girl it’s own arc, and therefore everyone wins. Now the only thing that’s left to argue about is how stupid some of the stuff in one arc is compared to another (I’m looking at you, Haruka). It’s unfortunate that I won’t be able to finish the series before I leave for the Air Force in November, but so far I’ve been enjoying most of it, with my only complaint being that there’s usually a dumb moment in every arc so far, which have been:

-Haruka’s entire arc (“Hey do something interesting!” “Durr hurr okay!” “WOW!/RABURI!/NYAN NYAN!” “OMG why won’t you say “Ai raaaaaab yuuu, frum mai heaart~” ?
-Kaoru’s mom dating another man subplot.
-Sae’s voice and the ending of her arc; WHERE’S MY FUCKING TEEN MOM END!?

Personally, I’m looking forward to Rihoko the most, but of Ai’s arc is anything like her route’s manga adaptation (and it has, so far, with some minor differences), I best prepare my body.

For Fall, aside from continuing Gundam Unicorn, all I’ve really picked up is Index II and The World God Only Knows, so I guess I’ll make some entries in that before I leave. Also, Unlimited Blade Works DVD is released this week, and I intend to watch the raw since anybody who’s read the route really wouldn’t need subs. Expect that up sometime next week.

RHO AIUS!

-Jay