Favourite series of the season: Panty and Stocking. The end part of the series wasn’t quite as good as the start, but it was crude, at times stupid but very entertaining. Some elements made me laugh quite a bit, and the animation style was enjoyable. I initially worried I wouldn’t like it, but soon enough that fear passed.

Favourite Opening of the season: Shinryaku shinryaku shinryaku shinryaku. Catchy song, with some interesting scenes to go with it. I also enjoy the homage to games from the past.

Favourite ending of the season: P&S ending. Quite simple, with far less dynamic animation then Ika Musume, but it’s been stuck in my head for weeks. I enjoy listening to it and sometimes hum along with it.

Pleasant surprise of the season: Ika Musume. I thought I’d probably enjoy it, but luckily it didn’t turn out to be as generic as I feared it would be. Quite amusing with a quirky cast and some funny moments.

The better then I expected it to be series: Otome youkai Zakuro. Again a series I thought could be generic but actually has an interesting cast of characters. The story isn’t truly amazing, but I was expecting something cookie cutter and it turned out to be interesting.

The Hanamaru/Mitsudomoe award for I’m glad it wasn’t what I thought it could be: My little sister can’t be this cute. Even after the first couple of episodes I wasn’t quite certain if this was going for an ick ending. Luckily while it covered such games, it was a cute, amusing and at times heart warming series.

Favourite character of the season: Squid girl \o/ Honourable mentions also to Panty, Stocking, Garterbelt and Scanty and Kneesocks :p

Favourite transformation sequence: Scanty and Kneesocks :teeth:

Ika Musume

This was quite a fun series. Adorable and amusing, made more so by the fact some people I talk to online referred to the show as moethulu. The “plot” was only really there to give a chance to put a stranger into the human world and go through various episodes being surprised and scared/overjoyed by seemingly everyday things. However a look through my list of anime would suggest I don’t have a problem in which characters matter more then plot :p

Towards the end I was worried the usually upbeat and cheerful show was going to take a sad ending path, but I guess it all worked out in the end, restoring the status quo and most likely leading into a new series at some point. And if it’s as good as this series that won’t be a good thing.

Oh and I’ve had the opening stuck in my head for about a week straight now.

The second show I completed was Panty and stocking.

This was a bit odd as for most of the season I was only up to date with P&S and then fell behind. Again as with Ika Musume this wasn’t a show for which plot was of key importance. During the first six weeks or so it was my clear favourite of the season, with funny quirky if completely flawed characters, some amusing scenarios and quite a bit of fanservice even outside of the transformation scenes. However towards the end of the middle it did start to drag a tiny bit, but did have an interesting and crazy ending episode, even if it had been preceded by 9 minutes of recap in episode 12. Oh and the ending theme and transformation music for both P&S and S&K have been stuck in my head for quite a while now.

Scanty :teeth:

Initially I had only been planning on getting the Inami figure, but after I saw one of the figures I had been hoping to get was out of stock, I decided to get Poplar as well. These were at quite a low price considering some of the prices out there, but they’re quite nice and detailed figures. Also not very fanservicey, unlike…

I found the picture on the site I use to be quite adorable. I had also planned to get the Asuka one, but when I went to make my order, about four days after their release, it was out of stock :< However having turned up now, it is quite fanservicey in nature, but again given the price far more detailed then I had expected it to be. The yellow translucent plastic is a strange dress/boot outfit that reminds me of a scene from Austin Powers.

Finally there was also:

I took about five pictures of these figure, and all turned out crappy. Here was the least terrible. Ended up picking this up, as about 20 euros were shaved off the price due to an offer on some figures. In the end the fact it came with the cat ears and the guitar case sealed the deal, as it was cute ^_^

Yes I’m bored :smug:

Number 5: Shunkan Sentimental (Scandal) FMA: B ending 4

Again this is one for which I both enjoy the animation and the music. The song has found itself on my “I have to walk somewhere” playlist, and the tune always helps to give a burst of energy when it comes on. However it is something to avoid showing at anime societies etc as it of course at this late stage reveals a few spoileristic antagonists. My favourite part of the opening is when the scene basically goes through every protagonist character jumping and fighting one after another, with even Yoki getting an appearance.

Number 4: Maria Holic ending theme

This one was an ever present on my “walking up to campus/into town” playlist(s) for at least a year, possibly a bit longer. Prone to getting stuck in my head at times, quite often at University I’d find myself singing “kimi ni mune kyun” (sic) to myself, and I like the old styled pixelated design of the animation, which also featured a lot going on. Watching the ending animation is just as fun as listening to the song.

Number 3: Pretty cure (first season) ending

The ending theme I was exposed to most recently in this top ten, this is just a really over the top, enthusiastic super happy theme that always helps give me a lift when out and about (this too is on my “walking playlist”). My favourite part of the animation is the adorable cheerleader opening part, but in the style of much of the series it maintains a cute and playful nature, with even the villains getting to show off their (limited) dance moves. Cute and fun to listen to.

Number 2: My Omelette (Dragon half ending)

A truly, truly crazy but catchy song, and possibly the most famous part of the short lived series. Mixing Beethoven’s symphony number 7 with the character of Mink singing about…stuff, the moderately limited animation and dancing adds to the charm. And it is just so…crazy.

Number 1:

This was the one position I was able to choose without any thought, if purely down to the number of times I’ve listened to the song. My first place ending theme position goes to:

Slayers Revolution

The animation isn’t much to talk about, but from the first episode I fell in love with the energetic ending theme, a true highlight for what I considered a slightly meh-ish return of The Slayers. Generally an ever present on most of the playlists I’ve had at university, I think I’ve been listening to it longer then I’ve owned the laptop I’m writing on. The numbers can help show off my love of the song:

Tv size edition play count: 95

Full length version play count: 354

Number 10: Soul eater ending three

This is my favourite ending theme/video combination (though 2.5 is the cutest). I just find it cool. From the theme playing in the background, to animation style with various zooming techniques and the names appearing for all of the main characters. The scene of Maka (being revealed) to be fallen down towards an enemy who blocks her attacks with his own chainsaw weapons is probably my favourite action moment within an ending.

Number 9: Hanamaru Kindergarten ending 2

I can remember writing about this ending during my preview of Hanamura many months ago. Even now it is still one of my favourite moments of the show, the various cutesy characters suddenly thrown out to make a space opera type ending. The animation and story by itself is enough to make the list, crazy, funny and an amusing homage all at the same time, while ending on a truly lolwut note.

But even now I still find myself listening to the song on my ipod. Even without the video accompanying it, it is still a catchy song, changing from piano to a more ‘emotive’ tone halfway through. Even now listening to it I can still visualise the ending in my head

Number 8: FMA Ending 1

The animation for this ending certainly isn’t the most dynamic out there, and at times can be very minimalistic, but still helps to convey the mood of the series, ending on a note of hope. I enjoyed listening to the ending at the end of every episode while watching on DVD, with a very catching intro before seguing into the panning sequence.

Overall it’s just a very catchy and memorable ending theme and one that I really enjoy ^_^

Number 7: Hanamaru sensation (Kodomo no Jikan)

This was the one ending theme I was hesitant to include in this list, purely due to the show it was an ending to. There are parts of the video section of the ending that are a bit dodgy and obvious fetish fuel (this is not an ending to show at a general animesoc meeting) but the song that accompanies it is so catchy that I would be lying to myself not to include this as one of my favourite ending themes. Of course I don’t speak Japanese, so I have very little idea about what is being sung during the ending theme, which may be a plus for this series. But the catchy music in combination with the adorable and upbeat dancing parts (see the pic) just make this a really cute and happy ending theme. Plus it seems to be quite popular to parody on youtube.

Number 6: Don’t say lazy (K-on)

Yes, in a very predictable move, I too fell for the ending theme to the first season of K-on. Initially it was ignored, with my greater focus on the energetic opening theme, but soon enough I came to like the ending. The video itself doesn’t really contribute too much to my enjoyment (in fact I find it a bit pretentious given the content of the actual series) but the song itself is both a catchy and memorable one. And hey better people then me have probably rated it higher in their line-up too…I’ve even seen someone who doesn’t think much at all of the series admit to really liking this song.

5-1 will be coming at some point soon!

:3

But I have to admit, the petit nendoroids are the first time I’ve ever bought a figure and thought “is that it?” I knew they would be small, but I wasn’t expecting them to be as small as there were. Plus trying to set up the stands and put them in place was a right bastard, the tip of my index finger is still sore over 24 hours later, after being used to try and push thin pieces of plastic into place.

First up is the stuff I actually ordered…

Some adorable Bakemonogatari petit nendoroids. Like their bigger sisters they also have a few accessories. These will be my first petit nendoroids, so it’ll be interesting to see the quality.

As well as them I also ordered another figure…

I had almost bought this a few months ago, but decided against it. However after watching 35 episodes of Urusei Yatsura (so far!) I just had to get it.

I also put in two preorders for late in the year, and one for January (hopefully)

:3

Soredemo machi wa mawatteiru

Bakuman

Shinryaku ika musume

Otome youkai zakuro

Sore no otoshimono forte

My little sister can’t be this cute

MM!

You are delicious (it has dinosaurs!)

Milky Holmes

Panty and stocking

Just need to finish off the previous season now /o\

200^th anime series/movie etc completed!

Well a few days ago I finally completed Highschool of the dead, and in doing completed my 200^th anime series/movie etc according to MAL. Anime planet had one or two missing or differently arranged. I had initially planned for Bakemonogatari to be my 200^th series, but it didn’t catch me as much as I thought, and given my viewing history surely T&A plus violence should be my 200^th choice? :p

(Also the rest of bakemonogatari was on my hard drive, which required effort to watch)

As I’ve said before, January 2007 is roughly when I consider myself to have become a proper anime fan. The previous summer I’d watched some of the Studio Ghibli films on Film4 and in January a combination of manga and AMVs led me into watching more anime. I’ve moved on from being the nerd with a few Ghibli films, pokemon and Excel saga to being a nerd with many more series, a lot more useless information, Hanyuu fanboyism and a lighter wallet.

As well as being a fun hobby pastime, given plenty of memorable moments, things to collect and panty shots beyond measure, anime has been good to me in other ways. The anime society at University allowed me to venture out (a little) more, and eventually led to finding a group of friends. And the last few years have allowed me to talk with two or three different groups online as well, initially united by anime but staying together as a community :3

Completed series Stats:

TV: 139

OVA: 28

Movies: 27

Specials: 5

ONA: 3

(since completing HSoTD I’ve finished two other shows)

Hauu~