Girls and mecha

Gemuste has done a poll on favourite anime series and has put up results by gender. When taking a look at the results:

Males
1) K-On!
2) The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi
3) Lucky Star
4) Gundam (all series)
5) Saki
6) Evangelion
7) Nanoha
8) Hetalia
9) Clannad
10)Toradora!

Females
1) Gundam (all series)
2) K-On!
3) Code Geass
4) Macross Frontier
5) Evangelion / Toradora! (tie)
6) The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi
7) Lucky Star
8) Clannad
9) Guren Lagan
10)Minami-ke

Seeing the amount of mecha series in the girls top 10 (or top 5 even), makes it looks like there are quite some girls that like mecha series. It looks like the new approach of putting bishounen in mechas pays off. I'm not sure about the accuracy as there were 923 males compared with only 360 females who answered. But it does look like the target audience is evolving.

via altjapan via gemuste

image via gelbooru

化物語 Bakemonogatari Full ED: 君の知らない物語 kimi no shiranai monogatari

It looks like the full version of the ending theme of Bakemonogatari has leaked onto nicovideo. I very much like the song and it was a nice surprise as the single was planned to release in a couple of days on the 12th of August. The song 君の知らない物語(kimi no shiranai monogatari) is composed by Supercell, the group Ryo belongs to. Ryo is famous on Nicovideo for the songs he has made using Vocaloid Hatsune Miku. This has lead to many covers (歌ってみた) of his songs with the most famous one being Melt（メルト）. His songs have a certain style which was somewhat recognizable when hearing the ED for the first time. The singer is Nagi (previously known as ガゼル) who is also very much known on Nicovideo for her songs. Before as Gazelle she also made a cover of Melt with Ryo. I've been looking forward the ED to be released. This is a nice surprise indeed.


nicosound link

Because I couldn't decide on the image, heres some more.


images via konachan

萌え萌えキュン♡

While browsing through nicovideo I came across a very well made 3D animation of 萌え萌えキュン♡　



Heres another short moe moe kyun animation made in MikuMikuDance


image via pixiv.net

New Haruhi Eps

It was leaked earlier by some broadcasting station and got subsequently removed as reported by zepy. But it seems it is confirmed. The eight ep of the re-airing will be an new ep. This is because the re-airing is in chronological order and the 笹の葉ラプソディ(bamboo leaf rhapsody) arc was not in the first season. Looking at the storyline in chronological order after this ep the upcoming eps will be a mix of new eps and old eps.

Sooo..... woohooo new haruhi~

image via konachan

K1-Max Cosplay Fighter

You'd never think K-1 and cosplay would be related in any way. But now there is Yuuichiro "Jienotsu" Nakajima. He's not just any K1 fighter. He is an anime-otaku K1 fighter.
His love for anime is shown in his K1 ring entrances and appearances at press conferences. In his latest fight he entered in Ranka cosplay and doing her dance from her song Seikan Hikou. He also won that fight with a KO, though in later rounds he got TKOed himself. Too bad he can't fight in cosplay. Would be funny seeing Ranka punching a K1 fighter knockout. Previously he has cosplayed as various anime characters including Hatsune Miku and Haruhi. It is hilarious when all other K1 fighters get pictures taken in fighting pose in a suit while he does a pose in cosplay. I also got quite some laughs with his ring entrances. It seems he has gained quite some support from the akiba-kei. If more people would do this we could get a K1 fight between anime characters~
But still.. cosplay would be preferred over crossplay. Seeing good female cosplayers in the ring would be nice wouldn't it?

Here's a video of his latest appearance:

more videos here
and his blog
image from gelbooru

Anime Sping Season 2009

Winter season is coming to an end so its time to take a look what the spring season is offering.
After a first glance and preliminary filtering the following remains(with respective links to their anidb page):
Shangri-La (like the cover image),
K-on (kyoani of the season),
Sengoku Basara (wondering how they change japanese history),
Senjou no Valkyria(heard good things about the game),
Pandora Hearts(shounen series of the season),
Saki(yeah Mahjong Anime~),
Queens Blade(images in the megami creators makes me wonder what it is about),
Hayate no Gotoku 2(Hinagiku~),
Tears to Tiara(enjoyed the game),
Tayutama (ecchi harem serie of the season),
Polyphonica s2(s1 was reasonable).

Ovas:
Denpa Teki Kanojo(biribiri~?),
To love Ru(because I watched the anime),
Koihime Musou(I don't know why...),
Yurumates(like the art),
To Heart 2adplus(Tama-nee~),
Hayate no Gotoku2 OVA (More Hinagiku~),
Spice & Wolf 2(more economy lessons for current recession),
Higurashi Rei(higurashii~).

Still a large amount of titles -.- I guess the amount will drop after some eps or prioritizing.

image again via 4chan

edit: found a nicovideo of anime in the spring season, ranking of winter season and some previews of the summer season:

Anime Winter Season 2008/2009

With the end of the year ending, the start of a new anime season is nearing. Here's an image I found with thumbnails and descriptions. Not many titles that I heard of before except the second seasons of Druaga and Shikabane Hime and third of Minami Ke. Furthermore an interesting OVAs like Higurashi. Not many must watch titles atm. Probably gonna check the first ep of most of them before deciding what to watch. Anyone got some recommendations?

Anime Backgrounds

As some already know, the setting and backgrounds of anime are sometimes based on real places. A well known one is Lucky Star. There they used the town Washimiya as setting. The shrines the Hiiragi sisters work at is an actual shrine there. This has led to large amount of fans and even the voice actors to visit the town and shrine.
Now I found a site where many of such anime/game are listed with pictures for comparison. Check it here. It seems more anime/games have real-life settings that I thought. It looks like the type moon and key games all have real-life settings. I guess the artists like some places so much they put it in the game/anime. For Haruhi, the area where the writer of the novel studied in his university times was used. Some way to pay tribute to the original author I guess. So anyone feel like visiting the area of your favorite anime/game when you're in Japan?

link via dannychoo.com

International Saimoe *Update*

The results were in and I was disappointed, very disappointed...
So disappointed I didn't feel like writing until now.

Hinagiku lost...
Haruhi lost by 1 vote...
Kyou lost...
Ni~paah~ lost...

So a new round has started with the following contestants:

Tomoyo vs Konata
C.C. vs Kotomi

Too disappointed to add images now...

vote if you still feel like voting...

International Saimoe *Update*

The results were in some days ago, I was just too lazy to update.

Tsukasa Hiiragi (LS) vs. Hinagiku Katsura (HnG)
504 --> 514
Konata Izumi (LS) vs. Suigintou (RM)
626 <-- 456
Mai Kawasumi (KN) vs. C.C. (CG)
493 --> 520
Nanoha Takamachi (NA) vs. Rika Furude (HNKN)
468 -->483

When voting I decided Hinagiku should win from Tsukasa as there is still another Hiiragi in the tournament. This means all the girls I voted for won ^^

So the contestants of next voting round will be:


(#9) Hinagiku Katsura vs. Tomoyo Sakagami (#2)
Hinagiku ftw~

(#12) Konata Izumi vs. Haruhi Suzumiya (#3)
The real haruhi should win from the cosplayer.

(#11) C.C. vs. Kyou Fujibayashi (#5)
Kyou~

(#15) Rika Furude vs. Kotomi Ichinose (#8)
ni-paah~

No doubts with voting this time :)

Voting starts pretty soon now, so go vote

International Saimoe *Update*

First winners bracket results are in:

(#1) Fate Testarossa vs. Kotomi Ichinose (#8)
631 <-- 520 (#5)
Kyou Fujibayashi vs. Shana (#4)
562 --> 614
(#3) Haruhi Suzumiya vs. Yuki Nagato (#6)
562 --> 593
(#7) Kagami Hiiragi vs. Tomoyo Sakagami (#2)
608 <-- 584
my votes only won in the last match ;_;
This means some very close(imo) matches in the next round

Next matches for the losers bracket looks like this:


Tsukasa Hiiragi (LS) vs. Hinagiku Katsura (HnG)
can't decide on this one ><

Konata Izumi (LS) vs. Suigintou (RM)
Konata~

Mai Kawasumi (KN) vs. C.C. (CG)
C.C. with cheese-kun~

Nanoha Takamachi (NA) vs. Rika Furude (HNKN)
the ni-paah~ should win

don't forget to vote!

International Saimoe Update

The first round is over. Here are the results:

(#1) Fate Testarossa vs. Tsukasa Hiiragi (#16)
673 <-- 588
(#8) Kotomi Ichinose vs. Hinagiku Katsura (#9)
632 <-- 566
(#5) Kyou Fujibayashi vs. Konata Izumi (#12)
627 <-- 616
(#4) Shana vs. Suigintou (#13)
722 <-- 535
(#3) Haruhi Suzumiya vs. Mai Kawasumi (#14)
753 <-- 473
(#6) Yuki Nagato vs. C.C. (#11)
661 <-- 583
(#7) Kagami Hiiragi vs. Nanoha Takamachi (#10)
740 <-- 505
(#2) Tomoyo Sakagami vs. Rika Furude (#15)
703 <-- 510

The results were not that surprising. It was a close one between kyou and konata though.

The tournament tree looks like this now:

The winners of round 1 will face eachother on Friday, October 3 @ 0200 GMT - 2600 GMT
The losers of round 1 will face eachother on Tuesday, October 7 @ 0200 GMT - 2600 GMT

International Saimoe

Saimoe the japanese tournament where fans can vote for the most moe character has spawned an international version. After the 64 contestants were nominated from the top of the other saimoe of previous years preliminary rounds were held. Now those rounds have ended and only 16 are left.
The matches are:









Now vote for the character you think is most moe

New season of anime *updated*

The chart with the anime in the new anime season has been updated. Now with more release dates and sorted on release date for your pleasure. Hope it helps with your selection. Most of the interesting titles start airing from 1 October on. Also the Lucky star OVA will be released on the 26th of September. Also something to forward to ;)



Found via 4chan/a/

Pantsu Shots

You know pantyshot moments are not very rare in anime. Depending on the genre you usually get at least a few in a series. So far so good for the anime realm. Now it seems panty shots also appear on the news, or the weather program to be exact. It seems that typhoons and weather news can provide some interesting shots.

Link via dannychoo

Lucky Star Festival

We all know that the locations of the lucky star anime are based on real locations. Washinomiya shrine, the shrine where the shrine in Lucky Star was based on was already being visited by many fans of Lucky Star. Now they have held a festival at the shrine. A Lucky Star portable shrine was carried around by 120 fans. I guess the Lucky Star chars have become gods.

more info here

New anime season

A new anime season is starting soon. It got some great titles amongst it. Already know what you are going to watch? Here's a chart with some images.

Not sure what I'm going to watch. There are some second seasons like Gundam 00 s2, Rosario x Vampire capu 2 and Clannad After Story. Also some promising manga/light novel adaptations like Tora Dora, Kemeko DX and Kannagi. One sure watch is TV adaptation of Kyou no 5 no 2. There are still more interesting titles out there. Guess I will have to look at the first eps before I can decide.

Typing Mania 4

Remember Typing Mania? A while ago the Typing Mania 4 was released. Looks like someone set it up with some anime songs. Easy mode is doable. Normal is quite a challenge. Didn't tried hard or nightmare. It also has a different romanisation as in shi->si and tsu->tu.

Go here to play.

Found via dc

The anime business model

Zepy made a nice post about the anime industry.

Knew production of anime isn't cheap but not that expensive. It does explain the high prices for anime DVDs in Japan though. Makes me wonder how much pizza hut paid for the in-anime ads in Code Geass