Category Archives: Kyoto Animation

Review: K-ON!! 14

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SURPRISE! :3

From the tone of my last K-ON!! review, you may have thought I despised this show. But it’s quite the contrary; I love K-ON!!. It’s chock full of laugh-out-loud humor and entertaining characters, and this week’s show was a great example of that. After my disappointment from last week’s subpar offering, this episode thoroughly rekindled my love for this series. It was filled with enjoyable humor and charm, and was a sheer delight from beginning to end.

Read more after the jump! Continue reading →

New K-ON!! OP and ED

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The latest episode of K-ON!! has brought with it an entirely new OP and ED, replacing the much-maligned Go! Go! Maniac and Listen!! with fresh songs and animation.

Utau yo Miracle

No, Thank You!

I’m not too keen on the new OP; it strikes me as bland and forgettable. As for the new ED, I think it has promise, but I’d like to hear the full song before passing final judgement. I’ll have to wait, though, since the singles don’t come out until August 4th.

The Melancholy of Aya Hirano

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Editorial Comment

Hysterical Barbie

Fame is a strange bedfellow: some handle it as if it were part of life, and for others it becomes a daunting pillar which they spend their entire life trying to stand upon. Aya Hirano burst on to the world stage a mere four years ago at the age of 18 when she voiced Haruhi. Since that time she’s moved on to a singing career, reprized her Haruhi role several times, was Konata’s voice in Lucky Star and has been searching for her real self in real life.

What is real life you ask? It is that life not on the stage, nor in the studio, those nights sitting in front of a mirror trying desperately to figure out what to do next. There are usually thoughts of “Who am I?” or “How did I manage to get into this dilemma?”

It is the opinion of this writer that Ms. Hirano is suffering a massive identity crisis. Her sudden unexplained illness, canceling of appearances, and hair loss all point to this. Furthermore, the rather garish appearance of her latest album (pictured above) in which she’s adopted yet another unnatural hair color after she promised she would return her hair to its natural color (black), seems to support this conclusion.

More after the jump.

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Review: K-ON!! 13

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Let me say this now: the one real reason I started watching K-ON! at all was because everyone kept talking about it on Twitter. So I thought, “Hey! I wanna look cool, too! I should watch it!”  However, the second season has been a bit of a disappointment. It doesn’t feel like any major plot developments have come along in a while, and that’s reflected in this episode. K-ON!! 13 is doesn’t deviate much from the standard formula we’ve seen thus far.  There are a few different elements shown, but ultimately it’s just eye candy for the fans. I enjoyed it somewhat, but that was mainly because of Azusa in her swimsuit. But let’s cut to the chase, shall we?

Read more after the jump!

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Figma Fever: Young Haruhi by Max Factory

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Have you always wanted that diorama of both young and older version of Haruhi kicking Kyon’s ass? Well, wait no more! Max Factory has added to their Figma lineup by releasing a younger version of Haruhi Suzumiya for your enjoyment. In case you didn’t already know, this loli-Haruhi is from the Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody arc, one of the more pivotal episodes in the the second season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. More after the jump.

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K-ON! is licensed by Bandai

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Are they laughing with Bandai… or at them?

I’m still in shock.

Despite their financial woes, Bandai Entertainment has just announced at Anime Expo that they’ve acquired the rights to K-ON!‘s first season. There’s no word yet if it will be dubbed or released on Blu-ray. Bandai also announced a series of live-action K-ON! marketing videos similar to the ASOS Brigade series for Haruhi. For these, they’ve cast Christina Vee as Mio, Karri Shirou as Yui, “Kix” as Tsumugi and “Briana” as Ritsu.

Hang on a second… Christina Vee as MIO? She’s got a great singing voice, but their personalities couldn’t be more different. This is going to be most interesting…

I think it’s likely that Bandai will give K-ON! a dub, probably recycling many of the cast members from the Haruhi and Lucky Star dubs. However, in my opinion, their English version of “God Knows” was ear-splittingly painful, especially when compared to the original Japanese song. Given how music-oriented K-ON! is, I’m hoping they can track down some voice actors who can actually sing. Of course, I’d also be perfectly happy with a sub-only release.

Oh, and Bandai? If you try to pull the same “no Japanese audio track” crap that you did with Kurokami, I’m not buying it. Period.

[Via ANN]

Trailer for K-ON! PSP game revealed

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The rumors are true! Sega, the makers of the wildy popular PSP rhythm game Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA, are turning their musical talents towards making a K-ON! game. Check out the trailer below!

Like its Vocaloid-themed predecessor, K-ON! After School Live!! is basically a rhythm game set to the music of the hit anime. You can play as any of the five Houkago Tea Time band members, either solo or with up to four other friends. (Dibs on Ritsu!) The game is slated for a September 30th release in Japan, and priced at ¥6090 or approximately $68 USD. Sadly, there’s little chance of it being licensed in the English-speaking world, so us stateside K-ON! fans will have to import it.

This news is certainly exciting, but I’m still holding out hope for a DS K-ON! game. In my opinion, Nintendo’s handheld system is more suited to rhythm-based musical gameplay. Plus, just think of the possibilities with the touchscreen…

Ew, not like that. Perverts. >_<

Bakacast 6 – Robots in Hell

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That’s right, it’s the episode everyone I have been waiting for… we finally review Casshern Sins. But because even we can’t fill up an hour with Casshern discussion, we also review Venus Wars and tackle some important issues with the help of special guest Chris (aka Kagami on Project Haruhi): manga aggregation, absurd Haruhi DVD prices, the “loli bill”, Japan’s search for new creative talent and—of course—beards.

Truly, we are the pinnacle of moe- and beard-related content. And if my script for a new slice-of-life show about lumberjacks gets green-lit, we may finally get to combine our passions!

As always, you can download the episode directly, follow our RSS feed or subscribe to us through iTunes. Head on over to our forums to discuss this episode in detail!

The music at the end is “ROBOTS” by Dan Mangan and is available for digital download on Amazon.

Haruhi Season 2 DVD Details Revealed

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Image unrelated but awesome.

How much would you pay for Endless Eight?

Bandai has just released detailed information about The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 DVD boxset.This release will contain 14 episodes, both dubbed and subbed. Also included are various special features such as “location scouting videos”, “Behind The Scenes of Aya Hirano’s Music Video”, “Endless Eight Prologue”,  and a “special event video”, as well as CD tracks for “Super Driver” and “Tomare.” Oh, and don’t forget the exciting “interactive menus!” Oh boy!

And the best part: this all-frills boxset can be yours for the low, low price of $64.98!

Wait a minute… sixty-five dollars? Bandai wants to charge me sixty-five dollars for fourteen episodes of Haruhi? Worse, eight of those are the same friggin’ episode! GO TO HELL, BANDAI!

Sorry, I know I shouldn’t be so pissed. After all, the Japanese had to pay over five times as much for their Season 2 DVDs. Still, charging sixty-five bucks for less than six hours of anime seems a bit extreme, especially when the anime industry (not to mention the entire economy) is in a state of decline.

So, yeah… I think I’ll wait for the Anime Legends boxset. How about you, dear readers? Are you willing to dish out the big bucks for Haruhi S2? Let us know in the poll below, then discuss the issue further in our forums!

[poll id=”11″]

Bandai Announces English “Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya” DVD Release

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That’s right, True Believers! Bandai has released an English-subtitled trailer for The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya which promises the film will be “Coming soon to DVD.”

Mikuru looks great in that skimpy Santa outfit! *drool*

The DVD will come with both subtitles and a dub. However, if you just can’t wait to see Disappearance, it’s showing for one night only on June 24th at the Laemmel Sunset 5 cinema in Los Angles.

While you’re here, why not check out a sneak preview of the latest Ghibli film The Borrower Arrietty?

Excelsior!