I have to admit that blogging hasn't been on my mind much recently.  Between my mother's health woes (she's getting a CT scan done on Monday in an attempt to figure out why she's in so much pain) and the time of year at the Duck U. Bookstore, I've been too busy to really do much of anything.

Duck U's Fall semester starts up in just under two weeks, and the new crop of freshmen First Year Students arrive on campus in a week.  We're up to our necks in customers looking for books, in other words. 

So, yeah, a little busy.  One bright spot actually occurred this evening, when longtime friend Vaucaunson's Duck, fresh in from San Francisco, dropped by Pond Central for a few hours of conversation, sushi, and Top Gear. 

Trying to carve some time to write something akin to a blog post.  We'll see what happens on that front.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So a few days ago, I asked you, the reader, for topic ideas.  Toad, bless his heart, came up with "Anything below the fold NSFW."

Without further ado, I bring you...

ANYTHING BELOW THE FOLD NSFW!!!


more...

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-Hatsukoi Limited, ep05

Rowr.

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-Air, ep02

The mere fact that I've now found four sloths in anime just blows my mind.  I mean, rubber ducks you can understand.  Everybody's got a bathtub in their abode, and rubber ducks and bathtubs just naturally go together.

But sloths?  I mean, come on, really?  Heaven knows I'm not opposed to randomness in my life, considering the rubber aardvark and cuttlefish I have sitting on my computer desk, but a sloth just seems a little too... out there.  Even for me. 

Moesloth.  Who would have thought?  Still, there's been twice THREE TIMES as many rubber duckies in KyoAni shows (K-On! here, Kanon '06 here, Clannad here), so I won't complain.

Yet.

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-Chrome-shelled Regios, ep06

How not to open a letter.

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It was just over a year ago that I had a trivia question regarding "fast sloths" in Card Captor Sakura and Special A (the link is broken; look at April 10th, 2008 if you're curious).

Tonight, I have found another sloth in anime.

-Bubblegum Crisis 2040, ep 26.

I have no idea why this pleased me so.

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-Hidamari x365, ep11

That just about says it all.

Still have lingering knee pain, though I've (mostly) been able to do away with the cane.  Biggest problem is hills and stairs.

My boss has come back from maternity leave, but now we're in our busy season as we get ready for both Summer and Fall semesters, and the buyback for Spring.  Oh, and I have to be in the Duck U. Bookstore before 7am on Friday morning for a computer network upgrade.  Yarrrrgh.

Anime viewing hasn't so much slowed as cratered, not from lack of interest but lack of time... and my brain isn't coming up with much in the way of pithy comments to blog on anyway.  Well, at least there's still my ducks...

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-Air TV, ep01

Say what you want about KyoAni and their habit of doing Key renai visual novel adaptations, they sure do make 'em purty.

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-The Melancholy of Haruhi-Chan Suzumiya, ep02

Yes, Yuki with bunny headphones.  I weep for my soul.

It's inventory time at the Duck U. Bookstore... textbooks on Thursday, everything else on Friday.  If you look in the dictionary under "busy" and "stressed", you'll find a picture of a little yellow duck.

How stressed?  When I got home tonight, I put in the Bonus DVD for ARIA the Natural, and watched the little interview with Yui Makino, the singer of "Euforia", the opening song.  Just hearing it made me start to cry.  Nothing on screen, just the song. 

Eeesh.  I'll be glad when Friday is over.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get lost in the world of Fallout 3... it's amazing how good a game that is.

UPDATE: I guess that nearly dying on the way home didn't help my emotional state, either.  It was just warm enough outside today for it to rain... and then the sun went down, the wind started to blow, and all the rain turned to ice.  Then it started snowing.  When I crossed the overpass near The Pond, I wound up heading straight ahead whilst the car was pointed at a 45-degree angle to the direction of travel.  How I kept it off the railings, out of the ditches, and not embedded in another car is entirely beyond me.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:27 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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-Clannad ~After Story~, ep14

I'll just let you try and figure out what's going on here.

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-RideBack, ep02

I didn't expect to like this show.  Girls on motorcycle-like things?  With an evil dictator-level government dominating the world?  Feh... I've seen it already, when it was called Bubblegum Crisis (or BGC2040 for that matter).  It was good then, but RideBack ain't no BGC.

It might be better.  It's hard to say after just two episodes, of course.  Rin, our heroine, is less Priss and more Linna, which is a good thing... I didn't much like Priss in either version of BGC, to be frank.

Here's the kicker: Rin is the talented daughter of a prima ballerina, but she retires from ballet after tearing the ligaments in one of her ankles.  Tah-dah, she discovers the world of RideBacks: half-motorcycle, half-mecha, that she can make DANCE.  Literally.  The screenshot above is as she finishes a pirouetting leap off the wall of the building behind her... at 70mph. 

Yeah, the concept sounded lame to me, too.  But I'll admit it: I like it more than Kurokami right now.

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-Kurokami the Animation, ep01

Too much pre-fight chili, I guess.

Writeup on this interesting show coming soon...

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-Clannad ~After Story~, ep03

"The strawberry!  Onii-chan ate the strawberry!  Mean Onii-chan!"

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-KimiKiss, DVD Special

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-Clannad ~After Story~ ep02

Yes, that IS a book sticking out of Sunohara's face, why do you ask? 

Okay, I know that the lightheartedness of these episodes is going to go away.  Just the title of ~After Story~ implies to anybody who's played the game (or knows what happens) what's heading towards us like a freight train.

But I'll be damned if this doesn't feel exactly right, exactly like the game.  If it stays this way, and I can't imagine it won't (it's not like KyoAni doesn't have experience with Key games after all), the two Clannad series just might force themselves into the rarified air of my "Holy Triumvirate": Azumanga Daioh, Kanon, and the ARIA series.

Besides, how can you NOT like a show that gives us this:

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:02 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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-Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka, ep05

...it's time for some tentacles!!!!

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-Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, ep08

Considering what happens later in the episode (Nanoha befriends the hell out of her), this might have been Tea's best option.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:24 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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-Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, ep06

The whole Nanoha franchise is pretty darn fantastic (yes, even StrikerS... I don't care if it was more or less universally panned), but A's might be the best of the three series.  This is the first time I've seen it, and it's just blowing me away at every turn.

Nanoha's and Fate's transformations are a little creepy, though...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:23 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 I guess you could say that the transformations are better in StrikerS.

Contrary to apparently everyone else, I actually prefer StrikerS over the first two seasons. But Hayate is awesome regardless. :3

Posted by: TheBigN at October 27, 2008 09:58 AM (tk/Qv)

2 Yeah, their powered-up transformation sequences are at least 100% more lolicon than anything in the first season.  Thankfully, they only play that one time, IIRC.  Glad you're enjoying the show otherwise.  I'm one of those that didn't much care for StrikerS, but the first two seasons are two of my favorite shows.

Posted by: Griffin at October 29, 2008 09:18 AM (KU1tS)

3 Am I the only one bothered by the fact that anime eye-spirals always have the same handedness, rather being mirror-images?

Posted by: refugee at October 29, 2008 11:51 PM (9zhVZ)

4 Refugee, please don't take this the wrong way, but I think I'm on fairly safe ground when I say "yep, it's just you." 

If you think about it, though, why would contra-rotating eye-spirals (there's a phrase I never imagined I'd type) be any better?  It's not like there's real-life source material to draw from. 

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 30, 2008 01:00 AM (AW3EJ)

5 Refugee may be on to something....do eye spirals change their handedness south of the equator?

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at October 30, 2008 03:50 AM (yJXq1)

6 Eyes themselves have handedness, why shouldn't the spirals?

I think I'm bothered because the contrast with anime's usually faithful adherence to real-life anatomy and physics is so striking....

Posted by: refugee at October 30, 2008 04:03 PM (9zhVZ)

7 heh heh heh... yeah, right!

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 30, 2008 04:26 PM (+rSRq)

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-Lucky Star OVA

Don't ask how or why she's dressed like this.  In fact, don't even watch the Lucky Star OVA... unless you're into fever dreams.  But somewhere, Brickmuppet is in his bunk...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:16 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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