Negima! Another World PV

(Linked.)

Bit late on my part, but the first promotional video for the new Negima! OAD, ‘Another World’ is being streamed on the official website.

Highlights:

* New OP is… hmm. Decent, I suppose, on a ‘Happy Material’ level.

* Every scene seems to be from OAD1, which would mean the episode covers Chapter 184 to at least 187: arrival at Wales, meeting Nekane and visiting Negi’s town, going through the Gate, landing at Megalomesembria…

* From art style alone, it’s a pretty faithful adaptation, just like the first OAD series.

As a reminder: OAD1 will come with the Limited Edition of Volume 27, which is due September 17th.

Suzumiya Haruhi Season 2 Episode 4 : Endless Eight III

ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT
ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT
ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT
ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT
ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT

(Revised schedule here.)

And we waste another fifteen minutes on the last two weeks of August and again finding out that they’re in a time loop. Again. Plus fifteen, and they still can’t solve it. Again.

Okay, four episodes – that’s taking it too far. Endless Eight as a story just doesn’t have enough actual material to warrant that long a stretch. Yes, it drives in the point of the story, and I suppose 16000 is a nice number to finish off at, but the obvious point remains:

This is getting very tiresome, boring, pointless, drab, dull, flat, monotonous, repetitious, routine, spiritless, stale, tedious, trite, unexciting, uninteresting, wearisome, drudging, ho hum, and unvaried. [1]

Last hope is that, Episode 4 really is the damned last one, and the show can bloody well move on from animating essentially the same story four times.

PS: 2chan has pointed out the irony of having an Ending Theme called “止マレ!” Also, apparently every episode had different staff for scenario, storyboard, and screenplay. KyoAni sure is having fun…

PPS: And a Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei CM aired right after, too.

Prototype

Following up on the strange placement of my Dead Space retrospective thing between two anime episodes, now we have Prototype. I saw this being advertised non-stop at my bi-weekly haunt for the past two months now, so I was fairly excited to try this.

Whee~

Suzumiya Haruhi Season 2 Episode 3 : Endless Eight II

(Revised-yet-again schedule here.)

Well, everyone was right that Endless Eight wasn’t over and has a part 2. But I’m guessing not many people thought it would fill three episodes.

Yep – the episode ends with Kyon trying to figure out how to solve the time loop (with Chekhov’s Homework just sitting there, too).

For the detractors who assume that KyoAni would just recycle animation for all three parts, Episode 3 actually used previous scenes drawn from different angles or with changed details – it is the same story essentially, but they definitely didn’t take the easy way.

Anyway, the story continues off Endless Eight I – they run through pretty much the same events again, with Kyon starting to deja his vu. The club sans Haruhi meet and the truth is revealed; they’ve been looping the last two weeks of August (15498 cycles and counting) because Haruhi isn’t completely satisfied by her summer.

With Season 2 having a pretty big focus on Nagato in general, she of course is one point of concern for Kyon, considering that she – being unaffected by time – has literally been through the two weeks 15000+ times.

KyoAni did a fair job contrasting the two episodes. The first was entirely slice-of-life, and the second showed that facade cracking to reveal the serious side of the plot. Overall, Season 2 is shaping up to be exactly what it should be: a continuation of all the comedy, drama, and general wackiness of Season 1. It’s not out to break new grounds, but the plodding of old grounds is doing quite well.

Dead Space

And yet another part of the ship begins to fail.

Dead Space, another game of the ’survival horror’ ilk, was released October of 2008. Late to the party as always, I started going through it about two months ago, and here I am, still… going.

The story’s the usual affair; a repair team including mute engineer Isaac Clarke arrives on a ship that’s hasn’t been communicating, and find that it’s infested with murderous and very resourceful aliens. Now what’s left of your team really wants to get off.

(And yes, I realise the hilarity of having this on after Haruhi.)

Suzumiya Haruhi Season 2 Episode 2 : Endless Eight

New OP : Super Driver

*tap tap*
*stomp stomp*

The second new episode continues the finest Haruhi tradition, mixing a slice-of-life comedy with heavy sci-fi elements, except that’s a lie, as this episode has none of the time issues that make the “Endless” part of the title. My only guess is that it’s a two-parter.

EDIT: The current theory is that the next broadcast of Endless Eight, or the next episode, will basically be an ‘Alternate’ SideB-esque episode where the time-loop will be dealt with.

In any case, it’s Haruhi as you would expect; pretty art, Deadpan Snarking courtesy of Kyon, and the soundtrack is definitely worth a mention.

Perfect size is perfect.

The story is exactly the same – Haruhi assembles a list of “things to do in the two weeks before summer vacation is over” and they get on it: the pool, Obon, fireworks, insect catching, working part-time, stargazing, the batting centre, fishing, test of courage, a movie, the beach, bowling, karaoke, and on it goes… and I have just described the entirety of the episode.

There were several focus shots on Nagato, which is a pretty obvious nudge towards “Endless Eight II” sometime in the future. Hopefully. Like, next week.

69 *dumb snicker*

In any case, this would make the previous airing schedule bogus, or at least misplacing an episode or two.

What I’m heading off to right now.

CLAMP x Miku

Linked. [nico]

Famous female mangaka quartet CLAMP may now be added to the list of Nico Nico casualties – or the Waiting List, at least – creating a PV-style music video to the Hatsune Miku original Mugen no yami – echo of the past (whose creator is probably pretty damn pleased right now).

Even if you’re not interested in Vocaloids (which boggles the mind) there’s still some pretty art to look at.

Entry on CLAMP’s official site here.