Showing posts with label Durarara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Durarara. Show all posts

April 09, 2011

Next Propeller Anime Club Meeting on Sunday, April 17th!


The next Propeller Anime Club meeting will be on Sunday, April 9th at 1:00PM in FS3F-112 at Full Sail University in Building 3F. It will be a little shorter, due to our main feature's length. But that's okay because the night before, we're seeing REDLINE!

Planned Schedule

1:00PM - Introduction and News
1:15PM - Record of Lodoss War 3 & 4
2:05PM - Gunbuster 3 & 4
3:10PM - Intermission(This means hang out, get food, etc.)
3:35PM - Durarara! 3 & 4
4:25PM - Kigeki
4:35PM - Legend of Koizumi

Kigeki is a 10 minute animated short from director Kazuto Nakazawa, who has done key animation for Roujin Z and Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture. 

The main feature is the short, but sweet Legend of Koizumi. It's about Junichiro Koizumi's epic mahjong battles against other world leaders while on diplomatic trips throughout the world. Koizumi is a former prime minister of Japan. Both Bush presidents and Vladmir Putin will be in this, and some people(probably not us) will be offended.

In Record of Lodoss War, a party of adventurers have formed: Parn the Knight, Deedlit the elf, Ghim the dwarf, Woodchuck the thief, Slayn the wizard, and Etoh the cleric. In a flashback we learn that Parn and his group have been tasked by King Fahn to find the sage, Wort, to see if he can provide them any information about Karla, the Gray Witch. During their adventure they had to fight and slay a dragon.

In Gunbuster, an all-girl school are training to pilot a new weapon known as the Gunbuster to get ready in case another war with the aliens take place. The main character, Noriko Takaya, is the daughter of a famous space admiral but lacks the skills to be a pilot. Overtime, she has to overcome her problems because another war is coming...

In Durarara!! a ton of characters are introduced and it will take a but to get used to everyone. Unlike Baccano! the story is told in a linear fashion. We discover that Ikebukuro is a dangerous place featuring some of the toughest street thugs, gang members, and even a headless biker.

We look forward to seeing you at the next meeting!

April 02, 2011

Top Ten Pairings

Next up was going to be the top ten moments that have made me cry, but then I had a serious urge to write about my favorite pairings, so that won out. Totally normal for me—I really have a thing for romance.


Contrary to how I may seem, this list is not comprised totally of yaoi pairs. It's actually half-and-half between yaoi and straight, which amused me a bit when I was done making the list and counted. My experience with yuri is basically non-existent, so there aren't any of those included—sorry yuri fans!


Number Ten: Tamaki Suoh / Haruhi Fujioka (Ouran High School Host Club)




You know, this was a pairing that I only supported occasionally. It was a very on/off thing for me as I watched Ouran. I loved each character individually, but for the most part I was sitting there shipping the yaoi wholeheartedly (as will be seen in just a minute) throughout. Still, there were a few different times throughout episodes where I absolutely 100% had to want Haruhi and Tamaki as a couple.


It was especially when he was being ridiculously protective (as in the beach episode) and at the end...the very end of the anime when he was about to leave (because he was a giant dumbass) and she was going after him...at those sorta points, I definitely wanted them together. Besides, it'd be pretty cute, I imagine.


Number Nine: Tamaki Suoh / Kyouya Ootori (Ouran High School Host Club)




And here is the yaoi that I supported for 90% of the series. Yes, I also went for Hitachiin brothers twincest as well as Honey/Mori, but on the whole...Tamaki and Kyouya were my favorites and therefore I ship them the most. Besides, according to Tamaki they're the parents of the Host Club and they are best friends and...come on. I have to support them being together.


That's all there is to say for this one. Romance wasn't something I focused on much during Ouran, so my pairings are just vague things that I sorta love on the side, behind the excellent humor.


Number Eight: Mai Taniyama / Kazuya “Naru” Shibuya (Ghost Hunt)




These two have a great connection, a lot chemistry. In the first episode of the series, Mai breaks a camera and Naru says she has to work for him to pay it off, so she starts assisting at Shibuya Psychic Research. The two butt heads constantly, in basically every case, when Naru wants to do something that Mai doesn't consider appropriate (usually these things are dangerous for someone).


But really, inside, Mai is in love with him—no, she is not a tsundere. She's not all 'I hate boys', 'I hate you' angry person and then gushy lovey-dovey in the next minute. It's more that she stands up for herself and what she feels and if he doesn't like it, too damn bad.


I'm positive he had feelings for her as well, but sadly nothing is ever said in the anime regarding this romance other than Mai's thoughts. Very disappointing.


Number Seven: Yuzuru Otonashi / Hideki Hinata / Ayato Naoi (Angel Beats!)




And yes, a threesome. When the series started up I was leaning toward purely Yuzuru/Hideki, and then Ayato came in on the good side and it was like...well. I want him (Yuzuru) to be with both. Heck, all three of them can be together! It was kind of a first for me—I've never been much of a threesome person. If it's just for sex, then sure, why the heck not? But in a relationship, I want just the two people. This one on the other hand...well, I like the three of them together.


I think putting all of them in one relationship would create a really cool dynamic. Ayato is a little brat to Hideki, but he's all over Yuzuru. Hideki doesn't seem to dislike Ayato outright, but he's definitely into Yuzuru. And Yuzuru is perfectly great to both of them. So yeah, I'm keeping this one.


Number Six: Natsuno Yuuki / Tohru Mutou (Shiki)




Do I even have to justify this to anyone who watched the anime? Look, they're best friends in this town. In fact, Natsuno is an anti-social little asshole and yet he's always hanging out with Tohru because Tohru refused to leave him be. They're hanging out in Tohru's bedroom. Sometimes sitting on his bed. Natsuno spends the night at his house.


And after Tohru became a Shiki? He was fighting against biting Natsuno for awhile. They're so clearly gay it isn't even funny. But this, this is funny:




So yeah...Tohru/Natsuno all the way. (Which definitely explains why I'm cosplaying Natsuno and my personal flea is doing Tohru.)


Number Five: Shinra Kishitani / Celty Sturluson (Durarara!!)




Again, I shouldn't have to justify this. These two were actually together. As I said in my Top Ten Females post, I really love Celty because even though she's a supernatural creature who can't get hurt, she still acts like a normal woman—she feels fear, she feels caring, she has morals, and so on. And when she's scared, who does she go to? Shinra, of course. The guy she's known since he was a little kid.


It's made very clear throughout the series that Shinra is in love with her—which is pretty awesome, that he's in love with a woman who doesn't have a head. Still, it seems for a long part of the series as if she doesn't share his feelings. It's pretty clear by the end though, that she does, and they're 100% a couple.


I love them together—so much fanart to make me smile.


Number Four: Sakura Kinomoto / Li Syaoran (Card Captor Sakura)




I'm pretty sure I read Card Captor Sakura in sixth or seventh grade, and not only did I fall in love with Sakura as a character, and Li as a character, but I also love them as a couple. This one is no secret in the series—they very much have feelings for each other. It takes both of them a long time to realize it, but once they do...they're just so freaking cute!


One of my favorite scenes will always be when Sakura is rushing to follow the bus he's on (as he's going back to Hong Kong) and she gives him the bear she made for him and they make their promise. God it's adorable. And much as I don't really like when they change things for an anime, I also have to admit that I like the way they did the end of the second movie—how he remembered his feelings and they were together and against it was adorable.


Their romance is so innocent, so yeah, I love it.


Number Three: Tomoya Okazaki / Nagisa Furukawa (Clannad)




Another innocent one! I've acknowledged my love of both of these characters in the past. And when they're together...of course I'll love them all the more. I can't say much, because it's one of those things I can't explain too well. Prettymuch, I spent the series repeatedly wishing Tomoya would just ask her out and be done with it—obviously she'd say yes.


So when he finally—finally—asked her out at the end of the anime, I cried. I really, really cried. Not very hard, it was more just a gasp and some tearing up, but uh...both of them were crying as well, so I can honestly say I was crying along with some of my favorite characters.


And then they get married and have the most adorable little daughter in the world. Nothing not to love here.


Number Two: Yuuri Shibuya / Wolfram von Bielefeld (Kyou Kara Maou!)




These two have one of my favorite relationships ever in a series. The yaoi is canon—I love it when the yaoi is canon! And yet, unlike most actual yaoi, the series isn't focused on the relationship without having an actual plot. But anyway. These two get together through a huge accident—Yuuri was just transported to this world and he doesn't know their customs. So when Wolfram starts being a little brat (this is typical) and insults Yuuri's mom...well, the new guy gets up and slaps him across the face. Everyone tells him to take it back, but he won't and it turns out that he just proposed!


Wolfram is understandably pissed, but says it would dishonor him to turn it down. So they are a couple after that. What's hilarious is that despite Wolfram's initial anger, he starts getting jealous and going to sleep in Yuuri's bed and whatnot. So it's great. Plus, Wolf really does come to love the idiot king, and it's just so adorable. I really can't help but love them together.


Now if only they'd kissed on-screen...


Number One: Shizuo Heiwajima / Izaya Orihara (Durarara!!)




Anyone surprised by this does not know anything about me. I worship these two as a couple. I hold the right to not get into why other than...well come on! They have to be together. Especially when you look at a few facts:


1) Tsugaru (cover song Shizuo) and Psyche (OST cover Izaya) are basically a canon pairing. This is undeniable.


2) Hibiya (cover song Izaya) and Delic (OST cover Shizuo) are just as much of a canon pairing. Equally undeniable.


3) The creator of the Durarara!! light novels penned a Shizaya sex scene. (Anyone who wants the link, just ask.) And that, my friends, make it impossible to avoid—they became canon the minute that thing came into being. And I am not going to complain.


My current total for Shizaya pictures is settled at over 1000. I'm not done yet. (I refuse to be done.) I cosplay Shizuo, it got me my personal flea/husband, and I can't complain about that under any circumstances.


So yeah. That's all.

March 29, 2011

First Spring PAC meeting Sunday, April 3rd at 1:00PM!


Hey anime fans! Did you like how we rolled at MegaCon!? We hope you had fun! We have a bunch to wrap up in regards to that but we do want to get back to showing off some cool anime! Our first meeting of the Spring quarter will be on Sunday, April 3rd at 1PM at Full Sail University in FS3F-112 in Building 3F! (Near Wendy's)

For those who've never been to a PAC meeting, it's free and we watch a bunch of anime and have some lively discussions about what we watch. Since MegaCon just finished, there will be much to discuss about the weekend. We show several on-going series, followed by a feature to wrap up the meeting in an awesome way!

Speaking of features, we will be showing the first movie Hayao Miyazaki ever directed, and that will be Castle of Cagliostro! It stars the cast of Lupin III going for another caper that deals with an evil baron and his plans to produce high quality counterfeit bills from all the major nations, all while forcefully marrying a girl that has caught Lupin's eye!

But that is not all! We start watching three series this meeting! We have the fantasy classic, Record of Lodoss War, which is essentially a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Then there is Gainax's stylish mecha classic Gunbuster, and then we have a newer series that fans of Baccano! should like in Durarara!!


Created by Baccano's Ryohgo Barita, Durarara!! is about a dullahan working as an underworld courier in Ikebukuro, Japan, an internet-based anonymous gang called Dollars, and the chaos that unfolds around the most dangerous people in Ikebukuro.

Planned Schedule
1:00PM - Introductions and MegaCon discussion
1:15PM - Record of Lodoss War 1 & 2
2:05PM - Gunbuster 1 & 2
3:10PM - Intermission (This means hang out, get food, etc.)
3:35PM - Durarara!! 1 & 2
4:25PM - Castle of Cagliostro

As always, feel free to come in forever you want to see! We have a lot of great stuff lined up! Also, check out our next Anime Nite @ The Geek Easy!

March 28, 2011

Top Ten Most Hated Characters

Well, I was going to do my review of Sister Princess today, but then I realized I took it off my laptop and need to put it back on in order to get my screenshots, so that gets to wait until at least tomorrow. What to replace it with? After skimming my top 10 lists, I figured why not talk about those people I hate more than anyone else from anime?


Seriously, I cannot guarantee a lack of spoilers in this post by any means, so if you haven't seen something and you plan to, I suggest skipping over my reasons for hating that character


Number Ten: Kadota Kyouhei/Dotachin (Durarara!!)




Kadota is an ex-Blue Square, currently a member of the Dollars. He's actually kind of cool.


Look. It is not Kadota's fault that I hate him. Throughout the course of the series, he didn't do a damn thing to me or anyone I cared about, which is why he's my least-hated of my most-hated. So if he didn't do anything to bring on my hatred, why the heck do I hate him enough to put him on this list at all?


For this, blame the other Durarara!! fans, the ones who decided that art of Kadota/Izaya was a good idea. It is not, in any way, a good idea. Especially when it's Izaya and Kadota kissing in a classroom with Shizuo sitting on the floor outside looking depressed as all hell. No, this is not okay. It's only a result of that piece of art and some others that I hate Kadota.


In fact, as a result of that, I hate basically any given couple if he is a part of it. I have lately come to accept (even love!) him and Chikage, a character who wasn't in the anime. But really...well my husband and I (or should I say my flea and I?) blame Kadota for everything.


Number Nine: Saki Mikajima (Durarara!!)




Saki is...Masaomi's ex-girlfriend re-girlfriend who is in the hospital for the duration of the series.


I don't even feel like justifying my hatred for this bitch. Prettymuch, all her crap with Masaomi? I dislike it. Intensely. The way she said he would always come back to her with that little smiley-smirk that kinda resembles Izaya's but is not nearly as sexy? I hate it. I hate her. I hate that Kida left with her at the end of the anime.


Fuck Saki.


Number Eight: Ash/Angela (Kuroshitsuji)


(As an incredibly random note, it's really hard to write about hating people when there is 'I Can Love You Like That' coming from my media player.)




Okay. First in the anime we got to experience Angela, who was supposed to be this rich dude's maid except she was really creepy and kinda powerful. Then we got Ash, who worked for the queen. I disliked Angela from the beginning, and I thought Ash was pretty hot. Well, then it turned out they were the same damn person and ugh.


I'm pretty sure my reasons for hating him/her/it are pretty obvious to anyone who has seen the series. It was its fault that Ciel's life went how it did, with his parents dying and the original house burning down and all. It was responsible for all of the shit everywhere, basically, minus the Jack the Ripper stuff. It kept switching genders and hitting on Sebastian, and that was probably one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen in my anime-watching existence, which is saying something, considering...well, anime. And also, at the end, it was its fault Pluto died.


Plenty of logical hatred there, I think.


Number Seven: Irato (Ghost Hunt)


First of all: 
 


Enough said, I think.


But okay, heard of Elizabeth Bathory, the crazy Hungarian countess from the 15-1600s, who thought that bathing herself in the blood of young virgin girls would keep her young forever? Well Irato is basically the anime version of that chick. He's actually dead at the time of the series, but he's like...refusing to actually go be a normal dead guy and pass on, instead having his two (also dead) servanty guys kidnap young people who come into his creepy-ass house (think Winchest Mansion) and kill them because, as he likes to say in his creepy dead voice, I don't want to die.


Lovely, isn't it?


Yeah, so, I hate him.


Number Six: Megumi Shimizu (Shiki)




For anyone who hasn't seen Shiki, Megumi is a girl who dies right away. I mean really, her corpse is the first thing you see, pre-OP and all. It's pretty awesome. Well, first it seems sad because you don't know anything about her. Then it goes back in time for a minute to before she died and you discover that she was really just a huge bitch. So her death is like woooooooo!!!!. Then Shiki decides to be an asshole, and she rises back to life as a Shiki herself.


So she can keep being a bitch.


And being in love with Natsuno. She kills Tohru because Natsuno is hanging out with him and how dare he be closer to Natsuno than I am. That about sums her up, right there. She spends the entire series being a bitch to quite literally everyone, until the end where she dies a glorious, painful-looking death that personally made me grin demonically.


Number Five: Sunako Kirishikiri (Shiki)




Sunako is the lead little vampire girl (as it is said, she has a mother-daughter relationship with Chizuru and Sunako is the mother) and she's the one who moves her little group to the tiny town and decides to start killing the people and whoever becomes a Shiki, so be it.


I get questioned about this a lot. Why hate Sunako? Well here's why I hate Sunako.


She moves her little group to the tiny town and decides to start killing the people and whoever becomes a Shiki, so be it. Yeah—okay, so you're going to kill the entire population of this town, 1300 people, destroy lives again and again, just so you can have a place to be yourself? Man, fuck you little girl, get a sense of perspective.


Now some people may use my own logic for other things against me—I refuse to hate characters like Kyubey (Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica) and Claude Faustus (Kuroshitsuji II) because I look at them as having a different set of morals, and doing the logical thing for their own kind. So wouldn't it be logical to think that a Shiki should know no other morals than doing what benefits herself? No, because she was a human before she was a Shiki.


So ha.


Number Four: Seishin Muroi (Shiki)




Muroi is the town priest in the series. He starts out as a pretty cool guy—in fact he was my favorite character for a little bit. Then he started socializing with the little girl and I sorta just expected him to die (I expected everyone to die).


Know what he did instead? Betrayed his best friend (the incredibly bad-ass town doctor, Ozaki) and fucking joined with the Shiki. And protected Sunako. And stopped Ookawa from killing the hell out of her. Then he went and lived.


God, I hated him so much at the end of the series.


Number Three: Soushu (Kyou Kara Maou!)




(Note: I couldn't find a picture of Soushu so this is just the Original King, who Soushu possesses. So just picture this being more purple, for some reason.)


The ultimate villain of the first two seasons (season three went an entirely different route and was not as good), Soushu. He'd been sealed in some boxes but he infected the Original King and there was this entire long situation that I'm not even going to try explaining here—if you want to know, go watch the series.


Suffice it to say, he caused some seriously bad stuff to go down at the end of season two, and it was really intense when you're as attached to the characters as I am, and as such I raged at him. I raged hard.


Number Two: Miyo Takano (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni/Kai)




Takano is the ultimate bitch. For the entirety of the first season, and part of the second, she seems like a normal nice, somewhat creepy (“you'll have to bury the body deeper than that” excuse me, what?) woman who just happens to die a lot. And everyone in Higurashi seems to die a lot, so it's not like it's anything exceptionally odd. Just happens.


So then you get to the truth and it turns out—this whole thing where everything in the town is repeating and poor like Rika has to suffer through it again and again, always dying, the entire town being wiped out? Oh yeah, that's Takano's fault, because she's a crazy evil bitch. It is not possible to like her. And I mean that—I ran a Higurasih panel at Ohayocon and did a show of hands for 'who hates Takano' and every single hand in that room went up. (Okay, one stayed down, but it was my friend who hasn't seen the series so it doesn't count.)


So for being a crazy, evil, causing-all-of-this-crap bitch, I honestly hate Takano with a horrible, powerful passion.


Number One: Near (Death Note)




Near is the detective (and I use that word in the loosest of ways) who takes up the task of hunting for Kira after L is killed. I've tried explaining my hatred of him to friends in the past and it never seems to go very well, because really, I hated him before I even knew much about him. Like—he showed up on the screen, with his stupid little toys and his stupid voice (watched the dub, for the record) and I was immediately all over that hatred.


Then he kept investigating, playing with those toys the entire time and generally being an annoying little brat, and by the way he hated L, whom I of course adore, and urgh. Probably the action I hated most was that he solved the case. Screw that—if L couldn't capture Light, this little bastard shouldn't have been able to capture Light. (And Mikumi was incredibly close to making this list for being a dumbasss and switching the Death Notes out when Light didn't tell him to do that.)


Seriously, Near...there is no one in the anime universe I hate more.


That's all.

March 25, 2011

Durarara!!: Episode 2

Here is issue #2 of Arianna's Insane Durarara!! ramblings. This one was just as much fun as the first. Not as many yaoi comments in this one, but still fun.



Enjoy.



Episode Two: Highly Unpredictable


No. The “reality” I see is not real. I've been in a coma for the last five years. In fact, it isn't even me writing this.


Oh hey, Anri, zoom in on the chest because of...


Another Pedobear!


In my reality there is Pyramidhead. And he kills Anri. You figure out if I'm kidding or not.


Kida, no one thinks you look mature. Don't kid yourself. You look like a moron. Which you are. But we love you.


Hi Seiji, welcome to the classroom and WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU AREN'T STAYING? ...Wait, no one likes you anyway, go ahead and leave. We won't miss you.


Though confusing the old man isn't really cool. Nice going, asshat.


Would anyone have minded if Rio died? I wouldn't have. No attachment here. Emo girl is emo.


See, she even changed her hair like an emo girl! Not the normal kinda change, but STILL. (Yes, above is her original hair, I know.)


Hiding the evidence solves EVERYTHING. Remember that when you have to kill someone.


Happy family. This is like....boring. See, this is why we don't get functional families in anime. They're lame.


I'm getting sick of Emo Girl. She's annoying.


Determination makes things better. Including killing yourself. Go for it. (Note: Please don't take that seriously. I do not in any way encourage suicide.)


Pedobear!


Chloroform is the best pick-up line.


-fangirls-


As opposed to, you know, time stopping.


Hey, Shinra! Shinra is the shit and everyone knows it. If anyone does NOT like Shinra they're going to get slapped by yours truly.


Shizuo. Another lovable man.


Because after that he has to go find Izaya and—I'm sorry. I can't help myself.


I cosplay Shizuo. If only the super-strength came with the outfit. I want to pick up and throw a vending machine!


The sad thing I have to admit is, I would happily become Izaya's servant just to be able to look at him all the time. Or slave. He doesn't have to pay me.


She's CELTY STURLUSON. I am supremely disappointed that I didn't get to see her walking away from any explosions in the series.


She's on the roof! They do that a lot in anime. Is it just easier to get to roofs in Japan?


Your name isn't Nakura you lying dickwad. But you're like sex on legs, so it's forgivable.


At least he's being honest there.


 
 
Watching him list her emotions should NOT amuse me the way it does. But oh god, it really, really does. He and I would get along, I think. And to be perfectly honest. If I lived in that world, I would no longer want Izaya/Shizuo, because I'd want him for myself.


Possibly my favorite line of the episode. The way he delivers it, it doesn't sound directly cold, but you can tell it is. He feels nothing for this girl.


Blood spatter! Exciting stuff.


LOOK AT IT. IZAYA TOLD YOU TO NOW DO IT.


His balancing act is a lot sexier than it should be.


But the sexiest stance of the episode by far is this.



Or is this the best line of the episode?


His gleeful walk-dancing away. God I love this man.


YES. Kill yourself! Make Izaya smile and—


GODAMMIT CELTY WHY DID YOU DO THAT? You and your freaking morals.


Celty, I love you, but I cannot bring myself to care about what you're saying right now.


Kida and Mikado are clearly going on a date. That's what this is.


And here we have Anri interrupting. Stupid Anri.


See? He's not THAT bad.