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Moved

I've moved my blog over to http://cenikki.tumblr.com

I've done this mostly because it will make it easier to inform others of new posts (I can have the posts automatically show up in Twitter and Facebook) and I find Tumblr is overall a better blogging tool than Blogger is.

The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi, also a change in format

So I had planned on ranting about how brilliant the Disappearance movie was, but it looks like anything I write will be nothing compared to Eternal's post about it, so I figure I'll just link you here.

So, due to my relative lack of writing skill, I plan on changing up the format of my blog a bit. I'll still be writing short reviews of some new shows each season, in order to counterbalance the absurdly lacking ones at ANN. (Seriously, 90% of the "reviews" there are just ranting about hating one genre or another) In addition, I'm going to be trying to find a show each season that I'm interested in that seems to be given less attention by my fellow anibloggers than maybe it should, and write a bit about each episode as it's released. This is meant more to help me post more regularly, and hopefully get some readers, as to my knowledge, no one really reads my blog. (Seriously. Do me a favor and comment if you read this. Either no one reads my blog at all, or analytics isn't working right.)

Also, tips on improving my blog are always welcome.

Bored at home, or Cen watches shitty anime and doesn't know why

Ever since I moved back into my parents house, I've been unable to play League of Legends at all, so I've been watching a lot more anime, a couple of which aren't bad.

First, I've been keeping up on Nurarihyon no Mago. For the life of me, I can't figure out why I'm still watching this show. It's absurdly generic shonen, involving yokai (demons), swords, etc. I think something about the "high school guy living a double life" thing attracts me, but I can't excuse myself for watching this show. Every episode, I expect something to happen, and nothing ever does.

Next up also has to do with yokai: Yokai Otome Zakuro. I honestly don't think it's bad at all, but it does get rather boring. Character development is barely existent, and pretty much every male character is absurdly pretty, which gets annoying after a while.

After that we have Fortune Arterial, in which there are two things too obvious to miss. 1: It's an adaptation of a H Visual Novel, that wasn't made by Key, and as a result has about the same chance of being good as I do of randomly bursting into flame. 2: Vampires. Not traditional, Hellsing-style vampires either. kinda halfway between Twilight vampires (They have no reaction to sunlight at all), and Chibi Vampire vampires (They really don't seem that threatening).

Next on my plate is Shinrei Tantei Yakumo. While it started out pretty good, and has a pretty good cast, it's just sort of plateaued. While there has been plot development, it hasn't been all that interesting, and twists have been pretty obvious.

It hasn't all been bad though. Thanks to Mefloraine, I avoided giving Milky Holmes a second chance. (It's pretty much K-ON meets Sherlock Holmes from what I could tell)

I've also been watching To Aru Majutsu no Index II, and apart from a lack of Misaka really doing much besides tsundere-ing, it's as good as ever. Accelerator even showed up at one point, still his bat-shit crazy self.

I did finish Katanagatari, and wow. The last episode was an amazing end to a great show. If you haven't watched it yet, I recommend you do so immediately.

On another note, I've yet to watch the Haruhi movie, "Haruhi Suzumiya no Shoushitsu" (The Dissappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya). This is despite the fact that it's based on my favorite of the Haruhi light novels, and entirely due to being unable to find decent internet for more than a couple hours in the past week. Hopefully I can finish that download tomorrow.

Sorry I haven't posted recently. I've been going through a lot lately.

Fall anime season

As I promised, here is my quick review of a few of the shows airing this season. Be aware that this is only my opinion, and that just because I dislike a show doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, just not my thing.

Quick note, I'm watching a few "second seasons" this season, so my recommendation on each of them is to watch the first, then continue.

So here goes:

To Aru Majutsu no Index II (A certain magical Index II): The second season of To Aru Majutsu no Index, it pretty much picks up exactly where it left off. While a lot of season one revolved around events in Academy City, season 2 seems to mostly take place outside of the city, which is new. Lots of new characters being introduced, which is on par for a new season for any show. If you liked the first season, you'll love this one. To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (A certain scientific Railgun) is an offshoot of this show, so if you liked it, I'd highly recommend you watch through the first season, then pick up season 2.

Tegami Bachi REVERSE: I hear a lot of people trash on Tegami Bachi, but for reasons I've never really been able to pin down, I loved it, so I was really excited about the second season. As with Index II, this picks up right where the first season left off. If you liked the first season, go ahead and watch this, as it's pretty much just more of the same.

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru: This show is... interesting. I love the opening animation/song, and the show itself is entertaining enough, there just doesn't seem to be much that really jumps out at me. The animation isn't great, but I've certainly seen worse. I've only watched the first episode, so maybe it picks up in 2 and 3, but I'm not sure about this show.

MM!: It's rare that I dislike a show so much that I can't watch past the first episode. I know a few people I follow on Twitter absolutely love this show, but I really didn't like it. While the voice acting and animation is pretty good, the writing and characters are, in my opinion, abysmal. The characters don't seem to have much of a personality past their personality quirks, so the main character is a masochist, and not much else. Japan's seeming obsession with things like S&M has always struck me as odd. It's like they can't think of any way to show that someone is weird besides either making them obsessed with sex, making them a hardcore otaku, or making them an M. I'd be open to watching more of it if this show actually turns into something besides random S&M humor, but I'm not holding my breath.

Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (My little sister can't be this cute!): As so many others have put it, I'm not going to be telling my siblings I'm watching this show. I actually really like this show so far, and as I understand it, the light novel was quite good, so I'll probably try to find a translation of that. The show's main character is the older, high-school aged brother of a middle-school girl, who is quite popular. She's a model, both in the student and picture-taking variants, but she is also a closet otaku, and plays a lot of 18+ VNs, or "eroge" (short for erotic game). Her brother finds out about this, and helps her to do things like find friends with similar hobbies. Honestly, aside from the sis-con element to the show, as evidenced by the title, this show actually has a much more realistic portrayal of the relationship between like-aged siblings than most anime/manga. If you aren't deeply offended by things like eroge and the siscon relationship, I highly recommend you watch this show. If those things do offend you, I'd honestly suggest you find a hobby besides anime, because anime is rampant with them.

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes: Most season I dislike maybe one show. This is one of the first times I have literally had to turn a show off before I was even halfway through the first episode. Maybe my standards are getting higher, or maybe this show really is that bad, but damn this show bored the hell out of me. From what I saw, this is a sort of a moe detective show, which seems like a really bad idea to me, as a lot of moe involves being, quite frankly, stupid, airheaded, or clumsy. These traits, of course, really don't lend themselves to being a detective. Now, from what I saw, it seems very likely this show is targeted at a fairly young audience. But then, so was Yumeiro Patissiere, and I absolutely loved that show. I can't in good conscience recommend anyone watch this show.

Others: There were a couple other shows I checked out, but chose not to review, nor watch. The reason for that is that I could see merit in them, but they were just not my type of show. Togainu no Chi is the only one that I can actually remember at the moment, and while I know a lot of people like BL, it just doesn't interest me. One of my biggest problems with a lot of reviewers is that they intentionally watch a show/play a game that is a genre they know they don't like, and end up reviewing the genre, rather then the game/show. (IE: every time Yahtzee touches a JRPG).

I'll post a short review of both Bakuman and Kuragehime later, but I can summarize both in one word: Watch.

Well...

So I never made a post of what shows I'd be watching. Sorry about that, I'll put up a list after this post.

That's mostly because I've been somewhat busy with school, finding a job, and preparing to move back to my parents house. A few of my friends might have an open room in their house next month, but they need to talk about whether I can live there without being able to pay rent until I find a job, if not, I get to move back in with my parents. (I love my mom, but that's really not something I'd like to do, for various reasons I won't discuss here.)

See, I was going to try to kinda blog about a show episode-by-episode, and figured I'd do that with To Aru Majutsu no Index II, but I encountered a problem.

You should have noticed a couple things from reading my blog. First, I'm not that great of a writer. Actually, I hate most writing, which is why I hate English classes in all forms, despite how much I love to read. The next thing I hope you noticed is that I try not to spoil shows when I'm reviewing them. Something I doubt you've noticed is that I won't post something unless I am either satisfied with the quality of the post or pissed off about something to the point that quality means nothing to me. That's not to say all of my posts are high quality, just that they were sufficient enough to pass my neurosis-check. (I really do suspect that I'm mildly OCD or Autistic sometimes.)

This brings me to the problem I encountered when trying to write a blog post about the first episode of Index. See, being a second season, a lot of it doesn't make sense unless you've seen the first season (If you haven't you really should, it was great). So I found it difficult, with my limited writing ability, to come up with a post that I liked enough to publish.

I also found that I enjoyed shows less when I was watching them with the intent of blogging about them afterward, kind of like how writing an in-depth book report makes me enjoy reading less. It makes me focus on every negative thing in the book/episode, so it doesn't seem as good to me.

Anyways, that's why I haven't made the promised post, that one will be forthcoming as soon as I get something to eat.

The ACTA and You.

So the ACTA passed. However, thanks in large part to Europe, a lot of what I was worried about was removed (things like ISPs being forced to block "illegal downloading").

What ended up being passed is such a gutted bill, it's more of a stern warning than any sort of action. While technically the government can now seize any computer or iPod they want simply upon the suspicion that it contains pirated material, they never will, as the ACTA is all but unenforceable. They won't do that because any such actions would be deemed unconstitutional so fast their heads would spin. Well, at least I would hope that would happen. Realistically, the ACTA is aimed at distributors and China, not people who download movies.

If you don't know what the ACTA is, you're part of the problem in America right now. Americans need to actually be informed, have their own opinions, and stand up for themselves.

Basically, if they really do start seizing personal property on the suspicion of piracy and counterfeiting without any sort of search warrant, I'm saving up and moving to Sweden.

Edit: It seems this hasn't passed yet, but it's still important to know about.