-Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu, Ep01

Immensely entertaining, just awesome music in the battle scene, a buncha goofballs... what's not to love? 

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 27 words, total size 1 kb.

-Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai 2, Ep01

I find OreImo, as this ridiculously long-titled series is called by anybody who has had to type it more than once, to be something of a mixed bag.  On one hand, I rather enjoy it.  On the other hand, there's Kirino, perhaps the most annoying, spiteful, hateful and nasty teenager ever.  Unfortunately, she's something of a major character.  As in, "the show doesn't occur without her."  

So, yeah, I have some problems with it.  I did finish the first series, though.  And now I've completed Ep01 of Season 2... this screencap is from about 15 seconds into it.  First Duck In Anime since January!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:51 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 122 words, total size 1 kb.

-Tamako Market, Ep01

Well, the first episode of the new KyoAni show debuted today.  Unlike almost everything else they've done, Tamako Market is original to Kyoto Animation, not based on a manga, light novel or video game.  This... may not be a good thing, as KyoAni's previous foray into original work, Munto... let's just say it wasn't worthwhile and leave it at that.

As far as THIS original work goes, jury is still out.  It had some good points (it looks great, as all KyoAni shows do, and Anko is also great) and bad (wtf bird?), but it's anybody's guess as to which will win out. 

Still, they put a duck in it.  That counts for a lot.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:03 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 123 words, total size 1 kb.

-Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!, Ep05

Kyoto Animation doesn't do ducks very often, but when they do, they're usually nothing to write home about.  It's almost as if they didn't give much thought to ducks in everyday life or something.  It does appear, however, that with Ep05 of Chuu2, they've seen the error of their ways.  A lovely shot in a lovely scene.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:02 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 67 words, total size 1 kb.

As if there hasn't been enough duckplay on this site in the past few weeks...

-HidaSketch x Honeycomb Ep11

This weekend was the 12th and final episode of Season 4 of HidaSketch, and I've gotta say that this was easily the best of the bunch.  Indeed, the final minute or two nigh on made me weep, it hit all the right buttons for a good episode of the show.

In fact, looking back at it, it was the perfect way to say goodbye if there isn't a fifth season.  Fortunately, I can't imagine the franchise not getting one more run of episodes; we're too close to the obvious end, the graduation of Sae and Hiro.

Don't be confused, though: I'd be perfectly happy with more.  Actually, I'd really like a spin-off for Nori, the computer girl.  She's become, far and away, my favorite in the show.

Heh.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:24 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 152 words, total size 1 kb.

-Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb, Ep09

Looks like SHAFT discovered the special effects filters in their copy of Premiere.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:31 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 23 words, total size 1 kb.

-Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb Ep07

I'm noting a distinct whiff of "artsy-fartsy" coming from HSxH these days.  I can hear you now: "Wonderduck," you say, "it's an anime about students at an art school... what did you expect?"  And you're right, of course.  You then continue, "Plus, it's animated by SHAFT, the reigning monarchs of artsy-fartsy anime."  And I can't disagree.

What can I say?  I'm a simple duck.  I like my ducks in anime to be simple.  But HSxH has been pulling out the odd camera angles of late and that scares and confuses me. 

The newbies are disappointed.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:13 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 106 words, total size 1 kb.

-Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb, Ep04

I have no ducks that float upsidedown normally.  That's a skilled duckie.

I'm hard at work on the Halloween project.  Thanks to friend GreyDuck and his helpful pointer, I have a chance to get it done in time... if it works out, this will be EPIC.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:01 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 55 words, total size 1 kb.

-Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb, Ep03

!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:17 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 10 words, total size 1 kb.

(subtitled: Yuno's Duck in Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb Ep02)

For the rubber duck fan, the HidaSketch franchise is the gift that just keeps on giving.  Even if they've done a bathhouse episode before, it doesn't matter... this isn't the sort of show where things like that are important.

Just a very nice episode all around.  And Yuno's Duck gets an entire bathhouse to swim around in, which really is rubber duck nirvana.  The only thing better would be a heated olympic-sized pool.

By the time we return to the Hidamari apartments for the traditional "Yuno-in-a-bath" moment, we've gotten three great duckshots, and plenty of HidaSketch "awwwww" moments.  Just what this tired store manager needs after a long day of training sessions.

Well, that and a cookie.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:34 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 133 words, total size 1 kb.

You know, there's probably no way I won't like Little Busters, the most recent Key game to be made into an anime.  While I wasn't fond of AIR, I loved Kanon, Clannad, and the sequel ~After Story~.  There's something about their work that just hits me the right way, y'know?  Even the knowledge that it isn't being animated by KyoAni didn't stifle my enthusiasm much.  So it was with a hint of excitement that I began the first episode... and what to my wondering eyes did appear?

-Little Busters, Ep01
Yep, I'm going to like this show.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:38 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 102 words, total size 1 kb.

Not all that long ago, I said that I hadn't watched a single episode of Nisemonogatari.  That has now changed, and I've watched up to Ep04.  And found a better image of the duckie!

SHAFT draws the best duckies.  Hands down.

Much like Bakemonogatari, this show's predecessor, there's an awful lot of talking going on and not much of it makes a whole heckuvalotta sense.  Stylistically, it's the show of the year.  Content-wise?  Maybe not so good.  Still, it's got a duckie... that's gotta count for something.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:33 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 93 words, total size 1 kb.

-Nisemonogatari Ep04
I haven't watched one episode of this show yet.  I just jumped into the middle of Episode 04, realized the scene I was watching was taking place in a bathroom, and waited.  I knew SHAFT, being SHAFT, couldn't resist adding a duck into the scene.

Since Brickmuppet complained about it, I've put this picture behind the NSFW tag.



For a second, I thought that they had slipped Yuno's duckie into the show... both HidaSketch and this one are by SHAFT, after all... but no, it's a different duck altogether.  Pity they missed that opportunity, I think.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 90 words, total size 1 kb.

-Bodacious Space Pirates, Ep01

I'm... not sure about this show.  On the one hand, everything seems to be perfect.  The characters are believable, or at least they're as believable as a show like this ever gets, the artwork is quite appealing, the animation is acceptable, there seems to be plenty of room for both humor and drama, and there's a bodacious space pirate rubber duckie.  Oh, and "Bodacious Space Pirates" would be a great name for a band.  Like I said, perfect.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:29 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 125 words, total size 1 kb.

-Wakfu, S02E14
Now that, my friends, is one smug looking duckie.  As one would expect from a floating convenient censorship device.  Not that he doesn't have reason to be smug...

...after all, rubber duckies get to hang out in bathtubs with teh hawt chix0rs. 

Yes, he has a reason to be smug.

Interesting show, this Wakfu.  Or, more correctly, interestingly animated show.  From what wikipedia says, it's all Flash-based, yet it's much better than any Flash cartoon coming out of the US.  To be honest, if I didn't know better I'd say it's animated the same way as any anime, just with a more cartoony look.  A look that fits the tone of the series, I might add... though since I've only seen the one episode, I'm hardly an expert on the thing.  A fun way to spend 20 minutes, though.

_{(tip o' le chapeau to Mauser for the pointer!)}

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:58 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 158 words, total size 1 kb.

1 You're very Welcome.  Personally I love the show.

I first ran into one of the artists on DeviantArt, who had done the character designs for a game called Dofus, then the MMORPG Wakfu that followed.  Beautiful stuff.  French artists have a rather distinctive style.

Then I found out there was a cartoon based on it.  I know it's CGI, but I'm not sure if it's flash based.  Probably something more advanced.

The first season is highly recommended.  The Big Bad has one of the most unusual and unique motivations I've ever seen.  And there's some serious badassery in the fight scenes, as well as humor.

The only downside is that each season (of 24 eps) is marred sometime in the middle with a three-episode Arc about some kind of Soccer/Rugby/Calvinball sport in the world.

But all in all, it's brilliantly and cleverly written, and the TL that I have on hand does a pretty good job in dealing with the numerous French puns.  And there are some very sexy secondary characters too.  Although this was the first time I saw a Duck.

(Also, if it helps, a Kama is the name of the gold coin that is the currency of the world.  And Ruel is from a "race" known for ruthless pursuit of wealth.  (But it isn't an ethnic stereotype.)  And Triestepan is from a race known for brave and heroic warriors who are also incredibly dense.).

Posted by: Mauser at November 17, 2011 03:30 AM (cZPoz)

2 I couldn't remember that scene from Wakfu, and I would have - hey, new episodes!  It's been a while.

Have you been watching it or did you just pick up that episode?  The first season of Wakfu started slow but (as Mauser notes) ended up awesome.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at November 17, 2011 10:28 PM (PiXy!)

3 Oh, and if you haven't been following Wakfu, be glad that you didn't come in on the teh hawt chix0rs a couple of episodes ago.  Be very very glad.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at November 17, 2011 10:30 PM (PiXy!)

4 (Reads to the end of the post, answers own question....)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at November 17, 2011 11:54 PM (PiXy!)

5 Hypozeuxis, I've heard of Duck Duck Go, yes.  And thanks to Brickmuppet, I own a copy!

Posted by: Wonderduck at November 18, 2011 02:31 AM (2YMZG)

6 Hmm.  I thought I'd been reading your blog for several years, but since I don't recall either of your posts about Duck Duck Go, maybe I was still only a sporadic reader (just following links to occasional posts).
Glad to hear that you both own and enjoy it! Would you be interested in one of the sequel games?  There are a couple already available.

Posted by: Hypozeuxis at November 18, 2011 10:09 AM (KvnlP)

7 You know, it suddenly occurred to me that he might be an African duck.  More particularly, the Ubangi tribe - the ones who put the plates in their lower lips, er, bills.

Posted by: Mauser at November 19, 2011 01:51 AM (cZPoz)

8 Hypozeuxis' comment that I referred to has been removed because one of the links included gave my computer a virus.  It's reproduced below with the links removed:

Only sort of related, but today I ran into a board game that uses duckies, and in fact has commissioned a lot of custom designs and allows you to choose the ones in your set: (refers to Duck Duck Go)
Even though it is themed as a kid's game, it has been well received among serious board gaming groups - as an example, here's a review from Board Game Geek (which is THE site for board-game related information). (linked to review)

Posted by: Wonderduck at November 19, 2011 10:28 AM (2YMZG)

9 His link about a duck-based board game gave you a virus?  You mean you've been infected with...the bird flu?

Posted by: Siergen at November 19, 2011 03:40 PM (xZ196)

10 I'm ignoring you, Siergen.

Posted by: Wonderduck at November 19, 2011 10:39 PM (2YMZG)

11 I'm really sorry about the bad link... I got the URLs directly from Google, and talked with the website owners (real nice people) at the board game convention I was at last week.

I suspect their sysadmin-fu is significantly weaker than their boardgame-fu (which is mighty) and bad guys deposited crepe on their site.

Posted by: Hypozeuxis at November 21, 2011 11:22 PM (5eWak)

12 Oh, BTW, did you notice the other duck-thing at 4:45?  (I know the Sadida Songstress before that was a little distracting.)

Posted by: Mauser at November 27, 2011 05:24 AM (cZPoz)

13 Coin, coin! (That's "quack, quack" en francais). Hee

Posted by: Colleen at November 28, 2011 11:01 PM (yjcgx)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

-Hidamari Sketch x SP Ep02

I'm a firm believer in the magic of rubber duckies.  Really, there's nothing a rubber duckie can't improve.  I'm glad the folks at SHAFT agree with me, at least as far as HidaSketch goes. 

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:36 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 42 words, total size 1 kb.

-Hidamari Sketch x SP Ep01
It's been a long time since we last got to hang with the gang from the Hidamari Apartments.  The arrival of the first of two Specials for the third series has fixed that, however, and with a vengeance! 

Yes, that's tame.  But in comparison to the rest of HidaSketch, it's flat-out scandalous.  Again, I'm not complaining, just stating a fact.  Of course, I'm also the duck who stitched that picture together, so who am I to judge?  FWIW, I've realized that Nori is far and away my favorite of the girls now... and no, it's not because she looks good in a swimsuit, I came to that decision a while ago.  Now if only she had a thing for rubber ducks...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:09 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 268 words, total size 3 kb.

-Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi ep12

To be honest, after having watched ep12 of ITnKU (or "A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives"), I have no idea what the show's title means.  What I do know is that a) almost everybody in the show can use magic, 2) almost everybody in the show has the hots for the protagonist, and III) the female lead has hair that's longer than she is tall.  And of course, the final episode of the season takes place as a bath house.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:45 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 226 words, total size 2 kb.

-Powerpuff Girls Z, Ep21

The original Powerpuff Girls was an intelligent, engaging, entertaining and funny romp of a show, one that never failed to make me laugh at its aimed-at-adults humor.  The Japanese, seeing it as homage to Super-Sentai style anime, thought it would be a good idea to remake it in their own unique way.  Thus was born Powerpuff Girls Z.  It was a magical girl show, with three normal little girls becoming "Hyper Blossom," "Rolling Bubbles" and "Powered Buttercup."  It was also turned into a kids show.  In short, it was everything the original was not... in particular, it was not funny or clever in the least.  But it did have a rubber duck in one episode.  In fact, the rubber duck was even the main "villain" of Ep21 "Quack Quack Attack".  Given life by the "black light" that created monsters, the duck eventually grew to enormous size.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:08 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 249 words, total size 2 kb.

The bad thing about hunting for rubber ducks in anime is that you can go for months without ever seeing one.  Even shows where a rubber duckie would make the most sense, like one taking place in an onsen, will inexplicably skip the duckie... and yes Hanasaku Iroha, I'm very disappointed in you. 

And then from out of nowhere, in a show you'd never expect to include anything as light-hearted as a duckie, you get rewarded.

-Blood-C, ep08
I mildly enjoyed the first few episodes of Blood-C, but not really enough to keep up with it.  I wasn't a fan of the first two installments (Blood: The Last Vampire, Blood+) and the addition of CLAMP to the team for C did nothing to keep me enthralled.  I found myself wondering just exactly why Saya would do her hair like that, which is probably not what the creators intended.  Then came the censoring of the fight scenes in later episodes, and I just gave up.  But something told me to download this episode today... maybe it was a mystical link I have with duckies, maybe it was fate, maybe it was Doki's preview picture, I don't know.  But there, in the middle of an dark, dark anime about a schoolgirl with a sword killing the bad things that go chomp in the night (and in the day, for that matter)... is a duck.

A nice duckie, too.  Good sized, big eyes, floats well, an all-around attractive duckie.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:04 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 254 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Do you float-test every duck in your collection?  Are there any that don't float at all?

Posted by: Siergen at September 05, 2011 10:28 AM (HfzDP)

2 No, and yes, many.  In fact, I'd say the majority of the flock don't float well, led by Rusty II, the cast-iron duck that weighs about two pounds.

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 05, 2011 11:12 AM (o45Mg)

3 Well, if ever get stumped for a blog topic (after you fully recover from your recent travails), perhaps you could do a full float test of your entire flock (with photos, of course).  does Duck U have an engineering department?  If so, they could help design tests for buoyancy, stability, etc...  

Posted by: Siergen at September 05, 2011 08:59 PM (HfzDP)

Hide Comments | Add Comment