Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

A brief moment of serious business here. On Friday local time a massive 8.9 earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Japan, causing damage and leading to a tsunami that has caused even more. The situation is still ongoing, and I recommend following your preferred news source for better details than I can provide (Al Jazeera English’s live stream was admirably on top of things as this happened around 2-4am in my timezone.) Our thoughts here at T.H.A.T. are with those affected and their friends and families. If you have friends or family there we also wish you the best in getting in contact with them. While this blog covers a component of modern Japanese popular culture in an often lighthearted way, I would like to take a more sober tone for a moment and ask you, if you are able, to spare what you can to donate to disaster relief efforts there. Please donate what you can to your charity of choice. I donated to Global Giving as I feel they have a good system and were one of the first to have a fund set up. You can also text “REDCROSS” to 90999 to donate $10 USD to the Red Cross (in the US) or the same word to 30333 in Canada. For those in the UK, you can donate to the Red Cross in your country here. Thank you for taking a moment to give this your consideration.

(On a personal note, thankfully everyone I know in Japan has checked in that they’re safe. Everyone I know lives either in the Tokyo or Osaka regions which weren’t directly affected. Twitter, Facebook, and email really helped getting in touch quickly and alleviating my concerns.)

Amagami 17

Oh man, it’s not fair starting the arc this way. I am such a sucker for one-sided crushes. ORZ

In any case, Rihoko is still a very airheaded clumsy dojikko who’s balanced by her sheer enthusiasm for food and innocent outlook on life that makes her very calming to look at. Thankfully, she has a great friend helping her out as well.

 

Man, there’s so many awesome girl friends in this show. Too bad we won’t be getting extra arcs for them. :P
Still, in any case. Rihoko is a very, VERY healthy young woman.

Actually, I don’t really have much else to say about her except for that. Well, this episode wasn’t particularly boring after all, but really, Rihoko isn’t turning on many of my buttons yet. Especially if the only jokes they keep on pulling with her is about how fat she is and how she never succeeds at a diet. 

Okamisan and Seven Companions 12

 

Completing her newspaper run, Machiko Himura spies Ryoshi emerging from his expensive-looking house, walking his expensive-looking dogs and determines to marry him in order to escape her grinding poverty. After a series of contrived attempts in school, she asks the Otogi Bank to loan him to her for a date. Ryoko and Ringo duly trail them but Ryoshi manages to evade her Aaah feeding and Rock the Boat attacks. But Machiko abruptly ends the date, sending Ryoshi away.
She is confronted by gangsters who tell her that her father took the money she earned for this month’s debt payment and now she must assume responsibility for it. Before they can take her away to a horrible fate, Ryoshi intervenes and they manage to flee. But after resting in a park long enough for Machiko to relate the details of her life, for Ryoshi to call on Otogi Bank for her file and for the gangsters to catch up in greater numbers, Ryoko also joins the battle. And their combi truly triggers Machiko’s flag for Ryoshi. Later Liszt has arranged for Machiko’s debt to be settled and for her to move into a boarding home. At the Thank You party, Machiko’s attempt to confess is pre-empted by Ryoshi telling her that he is cool entirely due to Ryoko. And Machiko confronts Ryoko, wanting to know her true feelings, and decides to give up on Ryoshi. Everyone enjoys fireworks together.

Miya arc confirmed!

The official website for the Amagami SS romance anime series has confirmed on Friday that the anime’s 13th Blu-ray Disc/DVD volume will contain the story arcs for the Risa Kamizaki and Miya Tachibana characters from Enterbrain’s original Amagami game.

Mitsudomoe ep 11

Took a break from Recettear to watch Mitsudomoe 11. I lol'd when I found out Kikuko-nee’s guest appearance in the show.

Oh yeah, I would dominate her any moment.

Meanwhile, Mitsuba exposes her true feelings about Sugisaki….

 

Expecting the yuri doujins by the boatload this Comiket!

K-ON!! ep 21

It’s another big-toothed morning for our simple-minded Yui, and like all mornings for our young high school girls, they are spent getting their hair-did… for six hours. “Oh-NAAAYYY-chan!! You’re gonna be late for schooooooool!!” shouted Ui who would also like her hair-did, but her low salary (background-character) would not allow it. At school, the senior K-ONERS contemplate on hairstyles for their senior photos. Being the girly-girls that they are, they prepare for the big day with a pink Pony Camera. It’ll die right after the warranty ends.


“Aren’t my bangs too big?”, thought Ricky Martin Yui, and though the K-ONERS warned her otherwise, she cut her hair with a pair of shoes scissors. As she prepared for the final cut, she sneezed (and cut) a large portion of her bang. “DAYUM GURL U IS UGH-GLAY!!!”, thought the K-ONERS in their mind, but in real life they comforted Yui, saying sweet-nothings in her ear and feeding sweet-somethings in her stomach. Long story short, the senior photos turn out spinning splendid. The End.

Impressions:

You’d think an episode dedicated to girls’ getting their hair-did and being girly-girlies would be terrible, right? WRONG! This episode was The Amazingment! Enter-the-Tainment!! Excel-the-Lante’!! Absolute Stank Beaver, and part of that is through the use of silence (e.g. Yui fixing her hair, Yui’s blank stare, etc.). Like any Jap Studio, it’s only natural to take the laziest, most cost-efficient route, but KyoAni continue to animate through simplicity and style.

Being an avid K-ONER, I was shocked by Yui’s self-consciousness. Heck, I thought she’d be the type to scratch her ass in public and sniff/lick her fingers to test out the funk, but that would be Mugi’s fetish, not Yui’s. I guess Yui can be quite girly when she puts her mind to it.

No nitpicks this time, but I would like to point out what appears to be the pre-evolution of Red-Glasses-Girl: No-Glasses-Girl. This is just like starter Pokemon (or babies for that matter): Cute at the beginning, Fugly at the end. Life is like wearing a different pair of scissors glasses everyday…

Mitsudomoe ep 10

Sluts always start young don’t they?

See. They really start young.

Nympho jokes aside, Mitsudomoe just keeps getting better and better by the episode, in part thanks to the numerous times Mitsuba becomes the butt of the jokes. Usually caused by herself too. Heck, I don’t even remember seeing Yabecchi in the show much anymore. Glad they’ve moved from the unsettling “kids using sexual innuendos on the adults” setting to the “kids doing stupid things to each other, usually with some sexual innuendo thrown in”. Makes a world of difference for me.

I’m actually pretty glad now this show is getting a second season, the triplets are really entertaining.