New fall anime

So, fall is here, and it's cold outside. Perfect time for anime watching, and there's a few new ones out this season so far that seem promising. So there's a few new offerings: A yuri-gender swap action called Kampfer; a fantasy show about swords called Sacred Blacksmith, and one about cat curses called Nyan Koi, and finally a side story of A Certain Magical Index called A Certain Scientific Railgun. Well, those are the ones I feel like writing about anyway. Otherwise, Full Metal Alchemist and Cross Game continue, and we have some new-comers to watch until Winter.

So far, nothing from this season seems to be on the same level as Guin Saga or Canaan, however, these newer shows seem a bit more lighthearted and funny, focusing more on the comedy side of things instead of the dramatic side that we saw with the Summer anime.

I'll write about A Certain Scientific Railgun first since I just finished watching Index the other day. Index seemed a little strange, all kinds of random story arcs that didn't seem to tie into eachother. So far Railgun just focuses on two of the more minor Index characters, Biribiri and her insane sister and their two friends. This show is loaded with yuri overtones, but I'm not sure how it's supposed to fit into the Index storyline. Some day I'll stop being lazy and read the Manga and figure out what's going on. So, in Academy City, almost everyone has all kinds of crazy superpowers, and Biribiri's is the ability to control electricity. Her signature move is flicking coins at people at Mach 3 (since the only weapons on earth capable of firing a projectile that fast are Rail Guns, she's earned herself that nickname. So far, however, she's only gotten into trouble because of her perverted sister that is madly in love with her for some reason. Biribiri has a thing for Kamijyo Touma (the main character in Index), however, this supposedly takes place before Index, so who knows where that will go.

Sacred Blacksmith is about a young, inexperienced and clumsy knight named Cecily, who wants disparately to become a warrior. Unfortunately for her, however, she's neither strong nor fast, and doesn't seem to have the finesse for combat. She picks a fight with an insane warrior and would have been killed if a cloaked stranger hadn't intervened and saved her. Turns out, this cloaked man is a skilled blacksmith named Luke, who fights with a thin, curved sword called a katana instead of the standard broad sword everyone else uses. Apparently, long ago there was a crazy war involving demons and monsters, and it appears that their return is rather likely. It remains to be seen if Luke helps out Cecily or not.

Kampfer is definitely one of the stranger shows I've seen. It's about a guy, Natsuru, who is chosen to be a Kampfer for some reason. He has to fight other Kampfers, and is given special powers: the ability to use fire magic. His friend is also a Kampfer, though they start off fighting one-another, and she uses guns. The only catch to being a Kampfer is that you have to be a woman. If you're not already, you'll transform into one when another enemy Kampfer approaches. It also happens that the Natsuru's love interest falls for the female version of himself, much to his chagrin. This show is bound to be full of all kinds of ridiculous nonsense.

Nyan Koi is about a boy named Junpei who angers the spiteful cat god. Because of this, he's been cursed with the ability to converse with cats. Now, to appease the cat god he must perform good deeds for the city cats and juggle his love life. If he fails to appease the cat god, he'll be turned into a cat (and subsequently die because he's allergic to them). If you like cats, this show is likely to entertain you.

Now to finish off Guin Saga and maybe pick up Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle again while I wait for more episodes. There's a few other shows that might be neat too: 11eyes, Kobato, and maybe Seitokai no Ichizon. Time will tell!

What's new?

No updates lately because I'm lazy. Anyway, Canaan and Phantom are both coming to a close, which makes me a little sad. Updates soon when they're subbed and I've had a chance to watch them. I may pick up Umineko no Koro ni while I wait for the next season's shows, but I still haven't decided. Murder mystery generally isn't my thing, and I can't say that I have any interest in the characters, but the show seems interesting enough regardless.

Cross Game and Full Metal Alchemist are still going, and it seems like Guin Saga is being subbed again, so it'll be back to that until the fall Anime starts airing. Hopefully there will be something good.

Also, looks like there's some new Kalafina music to look forward to at the end of October. If you haven't heard it, listen to Storia, it's amazing.

In any event, Aion is kind of meh, but something to do for now. Come say 'Hi' to Beldd on the Sariel server if you're playing.

And then...

It's been a while. Yeah, I know I'm lazy. So, what's going on then for our favorite animus this season?

Sadly, no one seems to be subbing Guin Saga anymore, so I'll have to wait for a domestic release of that it seems. Or maybe I'll quit being a dork and actually go learn Japanese. That sounds fun. Right?

On the subject of Guin Saga, the ending song single has finally been released: "Saga - This is my Road" by Kanon. What a piece of music. It's like Enya only better (because it has lyrics I can't understand which automatically makes it cool). There's an English version of the song on the CD too, which is just as good. Anyway, enough of that.

Cross Game is continuing, but Ko and Aoba still don't like each other. Well, I guess they have some more story arc for Aoba. I guess it's good that she taught Ko a new pitch, too. Because he wasn't god-like enough already!

And then, Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. I haven't written about this series yet, but it's a remake that apparently is much closer to the manga than its predecessor. The original series was pretty awesome, and so far the remake has not failed to deliver. It seems that a lot of the story is the same for the first part, but there's a whole new cast of characters (and one that was actually made exclusively for Brotherhood that did not appear in either the manga or the original series). We'll see how Ed and Al do against Scar this time. So far episode 21 was just released.

Wait, so what's it about you ask? Oh yea. For those that might not know, it's about two brothers that become alchemists, like their father before them. The aforementioned father decides to leave their family when they were young, leaving Edward and Alfonse to be raised by their mother. Ed and Al begin studying their father's research and become alchemists themselves. After their mother passes away, they attempt to use alchemy to resurrect her. Their plan goes horribly wrong, and not only do they fail to bring her back to life, Al's body is destroyed, along with Ed's leg. In an effort to save his brother's existence, Ed affixes Al's soul to a suit of armor in exchange for his right arm. The story revolves around the brothers' quest to restore Al's body; which the primary focus is the Philosopher's stone.

The remake is well animated by Bones and is definitely worth watching.

And then, there's Phantom, Requiem for Phantom. I can't remember if I wrote about this or not. I think I did. Anyway, it's by Beetrain, so expect chicks with guns killing everyone. Awesome, right? So far, I think this is Beetrain's finest work, even though Yuki Kajiura (who normally scores their shows) is not providing the soundtrack. It's interesting to see Cal turn into bat-shit-crazy murderer after being separated from Reiji. Hilarity will undoubtedly ensue when those two confront one-another and have to deal with Elen/Ein. Also: God damn you Ali Project. Why are some of your songs good and others make my ears bleed?

Ok, I'm done for now. No more and then!

Nope, still here! How about some commentary on old news?

So, it has been a while since I've posted my random thoughts. I figured I'd post some now, though!

Earlier this month it was announced that there would be a Fate/stay night anime movie released some time in the foreseeable future. I was hoping that some how the project would be taken over by a more competent animation studio like ufotable (Kara no Kyoukai), but unfortunately my hopes were dashed when studio DEEN was confirmed as the animation studio to continue the Fate project.

Oddly enough, I had actually enjoyed Fate/stay night the first time I watched it (when it first aired as an anime). Having never read the visual novel, I had nothing to compare it to. I already liked the character design and decided Saber was awesome long before I knew anything about the character. All I knew was that the characters had sex to recover their mana. As ridiculous as that might sound at first, it's not all that far-fetched.

According to everyone's favorite work of fiction, the bible, the Israelites were given manna by god to sustain them out in the wilderness. As everyone over the age of eight knows, sex creates life, so the two concepts are not entirely unrelated. Anyway, enough of that.

Needless to say, I was quite surprised to see a absurd CG dragon rather than a sex scene between Shirou and Saber. Back then, however, MirrorMoon had not even become close to finishing the translation of Fate, and all that had been translated was a demo of the prologue.

Fast forward 3 years to 2009 and Mirror Moon has finished translating Fate, and holy shit, did they change that story line. I haven't quite finished Heaven's Feel yet, however, after reading through Fate and Unlimited Blade Works, it pains me to look back on what Studio DEEN did with the Fate/stay night anime. It's almost as bad as the Tsukihime anime (which is so bad most Tsukihime fans refuse to acknowledge that it even exists, which I can't blame them for).

Regardless, one can hope that the upcoming Unlimited Blade Works movie will deliver where the Fate/stay night anime failed to do so. After all, it's about time we see Shirou turn into a fucking badass.

Of the three arcs (Fate (Saber), Unlimited Blade Works (Rin), and Heaven's Feel (Sakura)), Unlimited Blade Works would, without a doubt, make for the most entertaining story. Although I really like Saber, Rin is just as great a lead heroine, and Archer is pretty awesome too.

I would hate to have to start watching the UBW movie expecting crap, but that's all I can realistically expect from Studio DEEN, unless they are allowed to go all out on the movie instead of having to cater to general audiences for TV broadcasts.

Think positive. It is possible it can be awesome. And if it is, we might see a Heaven's Feel movie and maybe a Fate remake! Think positive!

Oblivion Recorder

So, through out watching the Kara no Kyoukai series, I can only wonder if God appeared before the producers at Aniplex and ufotable with Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi in hand and said, "Turn these guys' bat-shit crazy story into a badass anime, or seven."

And then it was so.

So, Kara no Kyoukai: Oblivion Recorder is out and about thanks to Taka-Jun and gg Fansubs. It was worth the wait. We get to see a little more about Mikiya's younger sister, Azaka, and how odd she is. (Though when compared to other animu, she seems pretty normal.) She and Shiki definitely have an interesting relationship. I imagine if they weren't both in love with Mikiya, they'd get along great.

Turns out Azaka can kick some ass and take names too. She's not as awesome as Shiki, obviously, however, she still knows how to blow shit up. The two antagonists aren't quite as cool as the others in the previous episodes, (dinner knives are serious business) but it's good to see Shiki every once in a while where she's not grumpy and wanting to kill everything.

I'm curious to see how the last chapter of the story ends up. I have a general idea of what happens, but it'll be good to see it all play out. Needless to say, the dude in question is freakin' crazy.

I guess I'll have to wait until the last DVD comes out, since I doubt it'll still be in theaters when I'm in Japan in November.

Seven days and counting...

Kara no Kyoukai DVD 6 releases in 7 days. Oh the wait...

Well, in the meantime there's Cross Game. What's that you ask? An anime I was very pleasantly surprised with. It's about baseball and how it brings some friends into an unlikely relationship. I went in to it half-expecting a Suzuka rage-fest, but it turns out that Cross Game is far more interesting and the characters are a lot of fun.

Cross Game is about a boy named Ko, whose family owns a sporting goods store. Ko shares a birthday with his best friend Wakaba, the second of four sisters that are friends of Ko's family. They also run a batting-cage and coffee shop, so Ko visits them often to deliver product. Ko and Wakaba are the very best of friends, and plan to get married when they get older.

Unfortunately, Wakaba drowns while away at summer camp. Before she left for camp, however, she tells Ko and their other friends of a dream she had of all of them participating in the Koshien (a major High School Baseball Tournament in Japan). Ko doesn't think much of this, but his friends are very much inspired by Wakaba's dream.

Ko happens to be a baseball prodigy, however, he doesn't particularly care for organized sports. Ko's disinterest in baseball is a contributing factor to Aoba's (the 3rd sister) disdain for him. The two of them have a very awkward relationship.

After graduating middle school, Ko is recruited by his childhood friends to join the high school baseball team. The story revolves around Ko's team of underdogs as the 'farm' team and the "first stringer's" that the acting principle of the school has recruited to make himself famous. Another part of the story is the slow relationship building up between Ko and Aoba. Aoba has spent a long time trying to figure out what her sister saw in Ko to make her love him so much. It should be noted that Aoba absolutely loves baseball, and Ko holds her in very high regard when it comes to knowledge and ability.

The animation on the show is well done, and the characters are fun and interesting. Some of the more minor characters are a little flat or cliche, but that's to be expected. The show is at its best when it's not focusing on baseball, but when it focuses on the lives of the characters and how the interact with each other off the field.

If you've seen Code Geass, you could say that Ko is to baseball as Suzaku is to Knightmare combat (and ass-kicking in general).

Needless to say, Ko is a god among baseball players. From a suspension of disbelief standpoint, his feats are rather ridiculous. However, it's nice to have a truly badass protagonist from time to time.

Cross Game is definitely one of the better shows aired last season in Japan (though it's still ongoing).

Guin Saga

Guin Saga, an epic fantasy adventure that apparently has 129 volumes written by the late Kaoru Kurimoto. Unfortunately, Ms Kurimoto passed away a few months ago, however, with that many volumes published so far (plus whatever notes she had that can be used to finish off the story posthumously) should be enough to keep us all entertained for a while. So far the anime has been down-right incredible, and has not failed to keep me entertained through the 15 episodes currently subbed.

The story revolves around a mysterious warrior, Guin, who has a leopard mask magically attached to his head. Guin has no recollection of who or what he is. He knows only his name, Guin, and another word: Aura. Guin meets two twins of the Royal Kingdom of Parros, Remus and Linda, as they are mistakenly teleported to a demon-infested forest instead of the safety of their uncle's kingdom.

The Mongual Army, which is pursuing the twins, decides that Guin is now their enemy for protecting Remus and Linda. Big mistake for them. It turns out that Guin is a bad-ass warrior and can wreck everyone. In addition to being super-humanly strong, Guin is also very charismatic, and raises an army of barbarians and monkey-people (called the Lagon and Sems respectively) to fight the Mongual army that is invading their lands.

Guin is also a tactical genius and wrecks the invading army and sends their general, Amnelis back home with a sore rear and wounded pride, telling her she's better off at a dance wearing a dress, then at war wearing armor.

Now that Guin has kicked the shit out of the Mongaul army, the story is changing gears slightly, focusing on political intrigue and sorcerers and omens of war. The next story arc should be interesting. It's almost as good as reading the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series. To be honest, if George R. R. Martin's epic were to be animated, this is what I would expect it to look like at the very least (HINT HINT ANIMU PRODUCERS WHO AREN'T READING THIS).

So, this series is also blessed by Junichi Higashi, the art director that worked on RahXephon, among two-dozen other titles, so of course the artwork for this series is freakin' incredible. The animation is fluid and the scenes are detailed and colorful. They've really pulled out all the stops for this series. This guy knows how to make anime look good.

As if having Junichi Higashi as art director wasn't enough, they have Nobou Uematsu composing the music. You might have heard of this guy. I got to see him last week at Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds. That's right, he's the composer of the music for most of the Final Fantasy series. Because clearly this series needed to be more awesome.

Apparently, Guin Saga has been called the Japanese answer to Lord of the Rings, and it certainly has lived up to the hype. Sadly, there aren't many groups subbing this show, though apparently it's been licensed so maybe we'll see a professional translation here soon. I've you've read or watched Berserk, imagine Guts, then make him more awesome. Then you have Guin.

Tsukihime

So, I finally got around to playing this game (thanks to Mirror-Moon for translating it!).

I have to say, it really wasn't what I expected. I thought for sure I was going to be reading all about various kinds of food like I did in Fate/stay Night, but so far (I've only played through the Arcueid part so far) it's more or less stuck to the important parts of the story and hasn't gone into random nonsense about food and what Shiki should be making for dinner. I'm quite impressed.

I think Shiki is a much more interesting character than Shiro, though I have to wonder what Kinoko Nasu's fascination with the name Shiki is (since there's two Shiki's in Tsukihime and one(two) in Kara no Kyoukai, and of course they all have the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception).

I shall continue playing for now, and then I shall report the results when I have fully completed the game. (Must... get... good... endings... too!)

It seems like now is a good time to be into the Nasu-verse; Canaan is airing, Kara no Kyoukai DVD 6 and movie 7 are out soon.

Distant Worlds

So yesterday I attended my second Final Fantasy Concert, Distant Worlds. Performed by the Seattle Symphony and conducted by Arnie Roth. It was pretty awesome.

The music selection was mostly from Final Fantasy VIII, which wasn't surprising. As I recall, the first concert I went to featured a lot of FFVIII content as well (Dear Friends). Luckily for me they played my favorite Final Fantasy song, 'Terra's Theme'.

Also in attendance was the Maestro himself, Nobou Uematsu. Much applause happened, however, the introductions too a little too long and they had to cut one of the songs (Theme of Love, Final Fantasy IV) from the concert. It's not my favorite FFIV song, but it's a good one and I would have liked to have heard it. In fact, it was the only song from FFIV on the play list, which makes it even more of a shame.

One song on their play list which surprised me was the opera scene from Final Fantasy VI. I like this piece a lot, though I would have preferred Dancing Mad instead. The Symphony's performance was wonderful, however, the mezzo-soprano singing the part of Maria/Celes messed up a few times. I think if no one else was watching, Mr. Roth would have wacked her up side the head.

All in all it was an enjoyable show. I wish they didn't have to rush through the set, however, I understand how all that stuff works. I enjoyed this show a bit better than Dear Friends, but I think that's mainly because Dear Friends was out doors in San Diego and the Navy decided the fly a helicopter over head to interrupt our show during Terra's Theme.

Benaroya Hall is quite a place. Rumor has it that the auditorium is actually floating inside the main building. Whatever the case may be, the acustics were incredible, and the music was exceptional, which is why these concerts never disappoint.

El Dorado Musical Theatre's Les Miserables

Note: this has nothing to do with anime, but those who appreciate theatre and the arts might find it interesting.

So, this past weekend I had the opportunity to see the school edition of Les Miserables, performed by the El Dorado Musical Theatre. Knowing absolutely nothing about the school edition and the El Dorado group, my first thought was that it would be a bunch of kids hacking apart an abridged version of Les Miserables. Luckily for me, I could not have possibly been more wrong.

The school edition of Les Miserables may have been slightly abridged, however, it ran a good two and a half hours! Not only that, but the young adults playing the characters did a fantastic job. My favorites were Katherine Sorgea (Eponine), SavannahArgyle (Fantine), Heather Clark (Cosette), and Matt Surges (Bishop). That is not to say the the other cast members were not good; quite the contrary actually. All of them were excellent, but those previously mentioned really stood out for me.

Their performance did not cease to amaze me. From what I remember (and it has been a while since I've actually seen Les Mis, unfortunately) the scenes were not necessairily shorted, but rather the pacing and tempo of the music was quicker. The music was also not performed by a live orchestra, however, this is not terribly surprising. The music for the school edition was remixed and included more modern insturments, such as an electric rythmn guitar. It sounded really good.

The songs that normally make me cry when I hear them (On my own, Epilogue) still got me with this performance. It was quite a show, and I'm glad I went to see it. Those of you that read this for whatever reason, if you have the opportunity to see it; go. You will not regret it.

Kira Yamato vs Suzaku Kururugi

So, ever since I marathon watched Code Geass a few months ago, I couldn't help but think that this Suzaku Kururugi guy had a lot in common with Kira Yamato from Gundam SEED. Because of this, they are clearly destined to fight to the death in my arena.

As a preface, I will note that I like both of these characters (given that they are more or less the same character in two different worlds). I'll go over some background for each characters. Note, this will contain major spoilers, so if you haven't seen Gundam Seed/Destiny or Code Geass/R2, you might want to wait and come back to this later.


Kira Yamato:
A coordinator boy that started out as a college student, and slowly becomes a soldier, then killing machine throughout Gundam SEED. We notice early on that he has a weakness for red (Fllay) and pink (Lacus) haired girls. Kira is stubbornly loyal to his friends, but also easily manipulated by others.

Because Kira couldn't bring himself to murder his friend Athrun, an enemy pilot that stole Earth's other Gundam Weapons, Fllay convinces Kira to fight seriously and to kick-ass and forget names. Fllay, for as much as I couldn't stand her character, turned Kira into a ZAFT killing machine.

Finally, Kira and Athrun have their show-down, and Kira nearly dies. After ending up in the care of Lacus Clyne, the pink-haired princess he had rescued previously in the series, Kira is given, at the time, the ultimate weapon: X10A Freedom. Later, Kira learns that he is actually the Ultimate Coordinator, the only living child born from the artifical womb that his father created. He also has a twin sister that was born naturally.

Kira's character more or less remains the same throughout Gundam Seed Destiny, except that he let his Freedom gundam get destroyed, so Lacus has to get him the X20A Strike-Freedom instead. At the end of the series, Kira is probably the commander in chief of the Zaft Millitary, and was previously an Admiral for Orb.

Suzaku Kururugi:
An honorary Britianian in Area 11 (Japan), Suzaku is Japanese boy seeking redemption through action. In his earlier years, he was the best friend of Lelouch and his sister Nunally, and the two often spent much time together.

After Lelouch has a falling out with this father (the Emporer of Britannia), the two lose track of eachother and Suzaku ends up joining the Britannian Army. The two meet again on the battle field (simiarly to how Kira and Athrun reuinte in the first episode of Gundam Seed).

Suzaku is nearly killed by a Britannian soldier that determines Suzaku has betrayed the army. No one ever finds out about this however, as those soliders all obey a 'kill yourself' Geass command, and they die.

Suzaku is later returned to headquarters and is given the opportunity to pilot the Lancelot, a prototype Knightmare Frame that is all kinds of badass. Suzaku then reveals the fact that he too is badass.

Later, Suzaku meets Euphemia, a pink-haired princess that decides Suzaku is all kinds of awesome. She decides to make Suzaku her Knight, but unfortunately for her, she is no Lacus Clyne, and ends up dying in Suzaku's arms.

Suzaku also has several run-ins with Kallen, another pink-haired girl (but no princess). It should be noted that Kallan almost always beats him in Mech to Mech Combat, but Suzaku has the upperhand in person.

Throughout Code Geass Suzaku tries to get himself killed, because he thinks that's the only way he can find redemption for killing his father. Lelouch uses his Geass on Suzaku and commands him that he must live, so no matter what Sazuku tries to do to kill himself, Lelouch's Geass forces him to live. Code Geass ends after Suzaku, as Zero, 'kills' Lelouch vi Britannia, and assumes the role of Zero, which was previously Lelouch's.

Now, here's what we know:

Kira Yamato:
Able to adapt to any situation
Inhuman reflexes, strength, agility, stamina
Can survive extreme convection/explosions
New-Type Superhuman perception
Able to protect his pink-haired princess
Dislikes non-mecha weapons
Refuses to kill people if he can help it
Can go into seed mode and fuck everyone's shit up

Suzaku Kururugi
Must live
Inhuman speed, agility, strength
Prodigy at the use of all weapons, both Mecha and non Mecha
Unable to protect his pink-haired princess
Cold Blooded killer


So, if these two super heroes had a fight, which one would win?

In terms of Mecha vs Mecha, the X20A Strike-Freedom has a lot of advantages on the Lancelot. It can go into space, has a more or less infinite supply of power, and is armed to the teeth. While the Lancelot can fly, it's never gone into space. Assuming these two would be fighting on Earth, we'll omit space, which will prevent Kira from using the Strike-Freedom's Dragoon system.

In hand-to-hand Combat, Suzaku would probably be the victor here. While Kira is extremely fast and strong, it will take him time to adapt to Suzaku's fighting styles before he could beat him. Suzaku is also a skilled enough fighter that he could keep changing his tactics, making it harder for Kira to read his movements. Suzaku is just as fast, if not faster than Kira and will be able to use this to his advantage. Additionally, Lelouch's Geass will keep Suzaku alive even under the most strenuous conditions.

If weapons were involved, Suzaku has demonstrated skill with blades; both knife and sword. In the case of fire-arms, both heroes have demonstrated the ability to dodge bullets, so melee weapons or martial arts tests would be the only way to settle the match.

When it comes down to it, Kira refuses to kill if he can possibly help it, and Suzaku must live. However, Kira also seems to be unable to die, and is for all intents and purposes, a superior being to Suzaku. I think ultimately the match would end in a draw: neither would be able to kill eachother.

In a test of Mecha, Strike-Freedom would destroy the Lancelot, no question. However, that would not stop Suzaku. He'd just climb up the Gundam and force Kira out of the cockpit by hand, and they'd settle the score in hand to hand combat. Suzaku would have the upper hand on Kira at first, but eventually Kira will figure him out or just simply outlast Suzaku's stamina. Because Kira will not kill Suzaku and Suzaku must live, Kira cannot defeat Suzaku by killing him.

However, even though Kira is unable to kill Suzaku, he's no pushover himself. If nothing else, Kira's ability to protect what he cares about, and his instict for self-preservation easily matches that of Lelouch's Geass' live command in Suzaku.

After a while both would realize that they cannot kill eachother, and they instead would call it a draw, because the fight would never end.

Stay tuned for more!

Music Time!

I feel like writing about music now. Well, anime music for now anyway.

Firstly, you should know about a composer named Yuki Kajiura. I mentioned her in my previous post about Canaan, and she is by far my favorite composer. Her music is incredible, it's like an orgasm for your ears. I have been known to watch a series for which she has composed the soundtrack for no other reason. And most of the time, the series wasn't too bad!

You might know her style of music from various shows. The first time I heard her was when I started watching .hack//sign. The opening song for that show, Obsession, is by a group she started called See-Saw. This is one of her many projects, but it's definitely an example of what she's capable of. My favorite See-Saw song, 'Kimi wa boku ni niteiru' (which means 'You are similar to me"), is the final ED song of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.

Yuki's latest project is a group known as 'Kalafina', which she organized with the help of Sony Music to compose the soundtrack and Ending themese of the Kara no Kyoukai movies. The final KnK movie is due out in theatres in Japan in August, and the 6th movie to be released on DVD at the end of the month (yes!). My favorite Kalafina song is currently Aria, with Serenato a close second. Both songs can be found on Kalafina's album, Seventh Heaven.

Besides See-Saw and Kalafina, Yuki's other major project is with Yuuka Nanri, who has sung on various projects, including Madlax, Gundam Seed/Destiny, and more. The duo's group is called FictionJunction YUUKA, and their best song I think is Akatsuki no Kuruma (Dawn's Charriot) from Gundam SEED.

It seems to me that Yuki's music has a lot of Celtic influance, and she likes to use the violin in her songs quite often. She does an excellent job of including it into her pieces.

So, enough about my favorite composer for now. Onto my favorite anime singer and voice actress: Maaya Sakamoto.

If you've seen Vision of Escaflowne (in Japanese) you've heard her both as a voice actress and her singing (she sung for both the opening and ending songs). Vision of Escaflowne was her debute performance as well.

Maaya plays quite a few major characters. Her most recent lead role is Shiki Ryouji from Kara no Kyoukai. I think I like her voice work so much because the characters she portrays tend to not be the cliche cute anime characters that speak in high pitch tones and go out of their way to sound cute. She also plays a major character in Canaan, but so far I don't think her character has gotten much screen time.

I had the opportunity to see Maaya perform live at AnimeExpo in 2005, which was really something. To my disappointment, she didn't sing Hemisphere (from the RahXephon soundtrack), but I did take the opportunity to pick on the domestic release of her single collection, 'Hotchpotch'.

Maaya has also played the role of Eponine in a Japanse production of Les Miserables, one of my favorite musicals. As far as I can tell, however, no recordings of her performance of Eponine exist. I hope that this isn't true, or that she'll release another album some day which includes some of Eponine's songs.

Maaya is also the voice of Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII and its spin-off games and movies.

Oddly enough, one of the whole reasons I started watching Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny is because Maaya was the voice of Lunamaria Hawke, one of the pilots from Destiny. Her role is fairly minor, and I was hoping that Maaya might be singing a song for the soundtrack. In that respect, I was out of luck, however, I did get Kimi wa Boku ni Niteiru instead, so it was still good.

A lot of Maaya's singles were composed by Yoko Kanno, whom you know if you've seen Cowboy Bebop or Wolf's Rain. She, like Yuki Kajiura, is also incredibly talented. I prefer Yuki's music, however.

What to do...?

So, I'm currently waiting for my download of Canaan to complete. It's raw, unfortunately, and while my knowledge of Japanese is less than elementary, for the most part I find that I can figure out at least some of what is going on by context or tone. I may decide to write reviews about various shows, but probably not until I've completed them.

What is Canaan, you might ask? No, not Ari Ben Canaan from Exodus (though he is definitely badass). This is an anime adaptation of a visual novel for the Wii, written by Kinoko Nasu, the guy that co-created Type-Moon, and other interesting stories/visual novels such as Fate/stay Night, Kara no Kyoukai, and Tsukihime. So far I have enjoyed his previous offerings, so I expect Canaan to be enjoyable. From what I've seen so far, it looks a lot like Bee-Train's themes of bad-ass girls kicking the shit out of everyone (Noir, Madlax, El Cazador de la Bruja, etc).

Sadly, the series' soundtrack is not composed by Yuki Kajiura, but we'll see how Hikaru Nanase does soon enough! Anyway, the download is done. Be back in 24 minutes! (or more)

Welcome

So, you're probably wondering what this is all about. Well, let's just say that I'm a nerd and I like nerdy things. I'm also very bored, so I thought I'd write about the things I like. This blog will contain various rambling, most of which will probably be anime/animation related, since that is what I like and care about. You may also find various other things on this blog, such as but not limited to: Games, Comics/Manga, Music, Current Events, Pets, and delicious cake.

That being said, something I've always liked to do is have a 'What if this happened' kind of scenario. Of course, 'this' happening is absolutely out of the question: It's all based on fictional characters (at least for now). Something like, what would happen if protagonist from story A got into a fight with protagonist from story b. Who would win? What would happen?

This all started when I used to read an old magazine called InQuest, a trading card game-based magazine published by Wizard; which is no longer in production. Every once in a while they would have ultimate mismatch up fights from various characters, such as Cthulu vs Sauron, Smaug vs Puff the Magic Dragon, etc.

Those little showdown articles were fun to read, and I thought it would be neat to make up some of my own. I'm sure this has been done by others (aside from InQuest), but I'm too lazy to search for those and it would be somewhat entertaining to make them myself. Hence the name, Beldd's Anime Arena.

However, because it's impossible to disregard personal bias, it should be noted that I will attempt to be as far as possible, so please don't complain too much!