What?!? I'm going to have my own OVA?

Good news to all Clannad ~after story~ fans!!! On 1st July 2009, the final release of the anime series’ DVD will come out. Guess what? Kyou Arc episode will be included with the release. The episode will be telling the story about Fujyibashi kyou in an alternate world, similar as its previous OVA, Tomoyo OVA.
Rejoice Kyou fans!!

This blog is going to cover the episode as soon as it is make available on raws or subbed. So stay tune for it =)

(Thanks to Kurogane’s Anime Blog for the picture)

The title above is true. Regretfully, I’m have to halt the updates of this blog. The reason is rather generic one. I’m sure you guys already get sick hearing this but I have to said it here. I have real life commitment as a student. Having for the first time in my life to be active in my extra curriculum doesn’t help either. Extra curriculum is not compulsory in my university but I chose to do them because I don’t want to waste myself at university to study alone. This is the prime of our youths where this is the last chance, we sweat our youth and enjoy the remaining years as a young adult before going to a hectic workforce.  University life is not all about study. But hey, I’m not opposed to those who want to take their studies seriously but actually I admire them for having an objective. This is our choice. There is no right way to achieve a better future. Some people who don’t need to study much can achieve much better in the future by having certain successful factors. But still in my case, in order to retain my life as a student at the same time keep my hobbies around. I have to make sacrifices. This is one of them.

Because of the support from my friends,  I am proud to be an Activity Officer for Monash Animanga Otaku Unity (You can paid the club’s forum a visit and see how our club’s fare.) and also currently taking care another club which I will not name here since its just a small club and its not relevant to this blog.  Playing a healthy balance between the academic and extra stuffs are the key to successful in the present and also for the future.

I’m a different person now from the first time doing blogging last year. This blog directly or indirectly contributes to my changes. I even noticed that my writing skills is improving, this is noticeable when I’m doing my assignment (I could type and get ideas faster than my old me). At least I could brush up my HTML skills. I wish I could do some changes for this site using CSS skills but time doesn’t give me a pleasure doing that.

But fret not, I will come back to this blog someday in the near future. So do not wait for me until then. Before I forget, I want to thank all the visitors especially for those who actually comments my posts. Every time I received a relevant comment (I do received spam once in a while), I felt happy and motivated to post more and more without destroying much of the quality post. Seeing that my view counts rose whenever I’m posting makes me feel excited and feel appreciated. At least I can feel proud that I achieve nearly 1k of views.By the time I publish this post, I’m sure this blog is already achieve its 1000 views. Again I thank everybody for lending support directly or indirectly to this blog. I hope when the times come when this blog will be revived back, you can do the same again w(^ ^)w

“It only takes normal people to see the surface of an item, but it takes extraordinary people to see the good in a seemingly bad item”

My original quote, so don’t steal, ok? if you want, cite it properly =p

I hope you can understand the meaning of this quote. This quote summarizes some of the parts in this post but I doubt people will understand it since my quote is so generic and average  )=

But nevertheless, forgive me if my words in this blog stabs at your heart. I don’t intend for that to happen. But if you still do not want to forgive me, let it all out the anger and frustration at this comment section. ^ ^

Goodbye and let’s hope we meet again!

On another note, thank you for the comments for this blog. I never expect to receive some comments from total strangers in the Internet ^_^. I’am greatly appreciated about it and hope I can try my best in the future.!

So savour them here while you can!

Summary

This show is a recap from the first episode of the first season, Clannad until Clannad ~after story~ of episode 24. This recap is narrated by Tomoya to his daughter, Ushio under a big tree, thus the title’s name. Tomoya narrates his life during highschool days, Nagisa and also his friends to Ushio. Looking at images it will be hard to make sense about it. But trust me, watch this episode and all this will make perfect sense to you =p

Thoughts

This is one of best recap episode that I ever seen. This episode is not just your normal recap show where they simply shows you some highlights on each episode. Presumably, this episode takes place after episode 24. Tomoya even covers the mysterious part in episode 16 and episode 24 despite his inability to remember the details about it which may answer some of the questions to the viewers who are not familiar with the source – Visual Novel.

There will be no so-called certain character OVA for this season. I will certainly miss this show and certainly rewatch this masterpiece at later time if I got bored. This anime series certainly deserved to be one of the best anime of the year. Eventhough some may dissagree with that but it still will be the best in my heart and so in some of yours too…

Here I am doing a weekly dose of Haruhi-chan and Churuya-san. Forgive me for having this post a bit late. BTW, enjoy this weekly dose recommended by me! I’m sure these will liven your weekends =D

Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya #13

Haruhi is bored yet again (If she isn’t, this anime will serve no purpose). So she decided to celebrate Halloween. But she doesn’t know what it is. So, SOS-dan ended up making a cult themselves. To find out more, watch this episode! BTW, there’s still some screentime for Achakura x Nagato the otaku goodness xD

Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya #14

It is war between Kyon and Haruhi. But Mikuru has become a victim in this war. So to commemorate her ‘death’, they decided to make a competition to decorate her ‘grave’. Who’s gonna win this competition? Is Kyon will gonna prevail? or Haruhi for her relentless search to escape boredness? At the end, there’s some good mood between Yuki and Kyon. Will there be romance between both of them? Find out more when you watch this episode!

Nyoron Churuya-san #07

Churuya-san has her own game! But still even in the game, she is still being owned by the player (Kyon). Watch this episode while it is still hot!

Yosh, minna-san. Again and again, I have to apologize for the late posting of this episode. It seems that [SS-Eclipse] release is later than usual and my commitment as a student has catch up on me. My screencaps for Clannad ~after story~ usually come from their release. But anyway, this maybe the last episode I will be reviewing until DVD special Recap episode come out later on. I’m surpised that I make a lot of screen caps for this episode too. So I hope you enjoy this anime series as much as I do. So let’s move on with the summary and review for this episode!

Summary:

This episode revolves around when Nagisa starts her schooling as third-year student. Unfortunate for her, she does not has any acquaintances in her new class . Her friend, Kimura-san reassures her that she will be able to make friends because she is cute. While looking at the notice board, Tomoya bumped into her. Nagisa apologises to him with Tomoya doesn’t care much about it. During this time, both of them didn’t know about each other until later time.

BTW, for those who doesn’t notice. There’s Kotomi lurking among the crowd in this part of episode.

Tomoya and Sunohara had been punished for trying to escape from a class. So they had to make a welcome banner with the supervision of Kyou. At first she was relented to associate with them due to their nature. After Tomoya save Kyou from being hit by the boards (Sunohara being the victim here), Kyou opened up herself to them.

Back at home, Akio was dissapointed at his daughter for not making friends at class. While giving her a bit lecture on being proactive on relationships, he gives an absurd advice for her to follow. Not only that, he ask Nagisa to share Sanae’s bread to her class. He was sure even that was too much to ask for. Hearing that, Sanae’s ran off from the bakery before Akio proceeding to chase after her.

At school, she decided to follow her father’s advice. While, everyone in the class is praising her, she mentioned that she’s make a mistake and sorry for being a clumsy girl. Hearing that, the crowd laughs at her. But all that was a daydream for Nagisa. She embarrasedly do not want to proceed of following her father’s advice. Her behaviour attracts a girl in the class during that time.

Meanwhile, Kyou spotted Tomoya sleeping on the grass. She noticed that Tomoya is not a bad looking person and wondering whether he has a girlfriend or not. While walking, Sunohara caught Kyou in the act. Afraid that her act is being exposed by Sunohara, she punched Sunohara before he can blurt it out to Tomoya.

While on the way out from school, Nagisa was invited by her Kimura to go out shopping for clothes. Kimura managed to convince Nagisa despite Nagisa’s reluctance to do it. While shopping, Kimura and her friend played a trick on Nagisa. They make Nagisa think that the teacher is coming. Thinking that she has been caught by the teacher, she immediately apologise while coming out from the dressing room. On the way home, Nagisa’s friend apologised to her for playing tricks on her. Kimura can’t resist it because Nagisa is such an interesting person.

Back home,  Nagisa still didn’t solved a problem of finding a friend in her class. Akio gave her a lecture before proceeding make a crazy suggestion to her. This upsets Sanae before she ran away from the store with Akio right on her tail.

At Fujibayashi’s household, Ryou was practicing her fortune-telling skill while her sister look on. Ryou predicted that Kyou will get a confession the next day. At Sunohara’s place, Sunohara had created a diabolical plan towards Kyou. The next morning, Kyou received a confession letter saying that they should meet at the reference room. Looking on, the mischevious Sunohara and Tomoya spied on her.

Meanwhile, that day is a day where freshman starts their school session. When one girl pointed out that a one person has similarity with a mascot character. Eventhough, Nagisa knows the mascot character (Dango). Just as Nagisa wants to answer that, their teacher came in thus lose herself to do it. The girl from before looks on at Nagisa’s failed attempt to make friends. In Opening Ceremony, Kyou was still feeling nervous about the confession letter while taking a glance towards Tomoya.

Thus, starts a game between Kyou and supposedly imaginary guy who want to confess his love towards Kyou. Everytime, Kyou reach her destination she was asked to go to another place. Sunohara and Tomoya spied on her while having fun with it. But at long last, their jig was up. When Kyou managed to catch up with them and finally ended up beaten them.

Sunohara has a knack to create pranks. This time they create a prank on freshmens, so when they pull a string something will come out. Sunohara had come out with several crazy message to the victim but most of them are disagreeable by Tomoya. Finally, Tomoya write them down instead.

At first, students were wary since it is obvious that this some kind of a prank. But after waiting, Nagisa stood under the ball before she pulled the string. This made the ball opened up into two and caused a pan to fall out from it. The pan knock her in the head and make her fallen uncoscious. Nagisa ended

Nagisa ended up in the infirmary ward with the earlier girl waited for her. Because of the incident with the pan, Nagisa ended up  making a friend. At Fujibayashi’s place, Kyou complained to Ryou that she had classmates who always making trouble for her but she doesn’t  mine all that as Ryou pointed that out. Meanwhile, Sunohara was up to no good again, devising a new prank with Tomoya with a sigh mentioned that they have a lot of free time to do this.

Meanwhile at Furukawa’s place, Nagisa is thankful that if not of the prank which is pull on her, she wouldn’t able to make friend and gather courage to speak up.

Preview:

Looks our expectation to get an OVA for certain character has been dashed off with this preview. Nevertheless, I will enjoy this to the fullest eventhough this is just a recap episode.

Thoughts

In my opinion, this show is good change from the mood which has been set for the ~after story~. This episode has a similar mood like in Clannad. Eventhough, it is a bit dissapointing that they didn’t any OVA for a certain character(Kyou). But still I will be looking forward to the recap episode. Expect the Recap episode review post will come out late again!

Nyoron Churuya-san #06

Churuya-san is in festive mode! She’s even being bullied by the fish she caught!?! But still a comfortable ending is waiting for her for this episode. So give this a click and see the video!

Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuutsu #11

This is what we called a Valentine’s special episode (too late for that). In this episode, SOS-dan makes chocolate. Another thing to note, Ryoko-tan is tsundere for Yuki….

Click the link above to watch this glorious episode!

Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuutsu #12

Again, Haruhi strikes again for doing unnatural things on Valentine’s day. Kyon and Itsuki have to impress her before they can get their hands on chocolates. But wait? Why Mikuru cried because of that? It seems that Tsuruya will encounter some action herself. Interested to know more in details? Click the link above and see for yourself!

Yosh, minna-san. Here, I am doing coverage on this tournament. So, I’m gonna do some basic analysis on some notable matches.

Furukawa Nagisa vs. Suzumiya Haruhi

Both of these contestants manage to outwit their opponents until now. But that soon change with this match. In Nagisa side, she’s has an advantage of Clannad ~after story~ which just ends two days ago. But Haruhi has her own series, Haruhi-chan to increase her already big popularity. In my opinion without any bias, Haruhi may go home happily while Nagisa has to try her luck next time. Despite that, I had vote Nagisa to show my support!!

Hiiragi Kagami  vs.  Furude Rika

Here’s another match that is worth commenting. Kagamin has an excellent track record last year and remain unbeatable for two matches while Rika has done fairly well in other tournaments and still haven’t lose for the last two matches. Who’s going to win this? I must said that with Lucky Star behind her, Kagamin will trample Rika in this match. My vote goes for her =D

That’s all for my brief description on some matches. I guess its already too late to vote. So will await for the result!

ARENA 01: [Katsura Hinagiku] Holo

ARENA 02: [Tsukimiya Ayu] Hakurei Reimu

ARENA 03: [Chiba Kirino] Kasuga “Ōsaka” Ayumu

ARENA 04: Alice Carroll [Kawasumi Mai]

ARENA 05: Misaka Mikoto [Ibuki Fūko]

ARENA 06: [Kinomoto Sakura] Fate Testarossa

ARENA 07: Anya Alstreim [Mizunashi Akari]

ARENA 08: Izumi Konata [Shana]

ARENA 09: [Hinamori Amu] Shinku

ARENA 10: Remilia Scarlet [Misaka Shiori]

ARENA 11: [Hiiragi Kagami] Furude Rika

ARENA 12: Konjiki no Yami [Abstained] Kirisame Marisa

ARENA 13: [Maria] Vita

ARENA 14: [Saber] Kawazoe Tamaki

ARENA 15: [Kamio Misuzu] Evangeline McDowell

ARENA 16: Ryōgi Shiki [Sawatari Makoto]

ARENA 17: Ryūgū Rena [Sakagami Tomoyo]

ARENA 18: Index Prohibitorum [Kushieda Minori]

ARENA 19: Yagami Hayate [Abstained] Patchouli Knowledge

ARENA 20: Asahina Mikuru [Sunohara Mei]

ARENA 21: Suiseiseki [Hiiragi Tsukasa]

ARENA 22: C.C. [Nagato Yuki]

ARENA 23: [Fujibayashi Kyō] Suigintou

ARENA 24: Kōzuki Kallen [Louise Vallière]

ARENA 25: Kawashima Ami [Aisaka Taiga]

ARENA 26: Nagi [Kurata Sayuri]

ARENA 27: Chii [Minase Nayuki]

ARENA 28: [Tōsaka Rin] Takamachi Nanoha

ARENA 29: [Ichinose Kotomi] Sanzen’in Nagi

ARENA 30: [Furukawa Nagisa] Suzumiya Haruhi

ARENA 31: Shameimaru Aya [Illyasviel von Einzbern]

ARENA 32: Furude Hanyū [Katagiri Yūhi]

Below is female characters that I voted for yesterday. You too can vote by clicking this link

ARENA 01: [Ichinose Kotomi] Hakurei Reimu

ARENA 02: Katsura Hinagiku [Katagiri Yūhi]

ARENA 03: Remilia Scarlet [Evangeline McDowell]

ARENA 04: Anya Alstreim [Hiiragi Tsukasa]

ARENA 05: Alice Carroll [Nagato Yuki]

ARENA 06: [Index Prohibitorum] Holo

ARENA 07: [Suzumiya Haruhi] Kawasumi Mai

ARENA 08: [Hiiragi Kagami] Kasuga “Ōsaka” Ayumu

ARENA 09: Yagami Hayate [Abstained] Suigintou

ARENA 10: Konjiki no Yami [Aisaka Taiga]

ARENA 11: [Chiba Kirino] Louise Vallière

ARENA 12: [Furukawa Nagisa] Sunohara Mei

ARENA 13: Suiseiseki [Kawazoe Tamaki]

ARENA 14: [Tōsaka Rin] Kirisame Marisa

ARENA 15: Izumi Konata [Kawashima Ami]

ARENA 16: [Fujibayashi Kyō] Vita

ARENA 17: Chii [Sanzen'in Nagi]

ARENA 18: Furude Hanyū [Kurata Sayuri]

ARENA 19: Kōzuki Kallen [Abstained] Fate Testarossa

ARENA 20: Nagi [Shana]

ARENA 21: Saber [Kushieda Minori]

ARENA 22: [Kinomoto Sakura] Illyasviel von Einzbern

ARENA 23: Shameimaru Aya [Mizunashi Akari]

ARENA 24: [Ryōgi Shiki] Furude Rika

ARENA 25: [Kamio Misuzu] Takamachi Nanoha

ARENA 26: Hinamori Amu [Minase Nayuki]

ARENA 27: Ryūgū Rena [Misaka Shiori]

ARENA 28: C.C. [Abstained] Shinku

ARENA 29: Misaka Mikoto [Sakagami Tomoyo]

ARENA 30: Asahina Mikuru [Sawatari Makoto]

ARENA 31: Maria [Ibuki Fūko]

ARENA 32: [Tsukimiya Ayu] Patchouli Knowledge

I hope readers of this blog can choose their characters wisely! So stay tune for my next update!

I just noticed that International Saimoe League is already started its run on January as its second running since last year. But the real match just started few days ago which is called Aquamarine Period – Round 1.

Their goal for this tournament to find the one anime character whom the world identifies as the most moe. Last year, the tournament had seen the rise and fall of anime characters. But at the end of the tournament, Fate Testarossa become the champion by beating Yuki Nagato.

International SaiMoe League 2009

Notice that the front page has a video? This video is ISML 2009 PV. Enjoy ^_^

This is the site where you can vote for your favourite anime female characters. Schedules and results from the matches are provided there so you can go search them if you want to find them out more.
Below will be the result for Aquamarine Period – Round 1 match which occur 2 days ago. The characters with colour show that they are the winner from their matches.

Match Cards

You want to schedule of the matches in this tournament? Just view below!

All the informations above are all thanks to the ISML developers for their diligent hard work to keep us fans up-to-date with the results and schedules for this glorious tournament!

I will put a separate post on Aquamarine Period – Match 2 later on. So stay tune!

Finally, I manage to finish this review post before weekend ends for me. This is the final episode for the main story of Clannad ~after story~. I must said this is is the most extensive screencaps that I ever take. Almost all the moments in this episode is worth screen-capping. Don’t believe me? See this post for yourself!

Summary

The robot starts to regret for bringing the girl with him to escape the world they live in. The world is static and sepia for  Tomoya and Nagisa. He  feels that he shouldn’t talk to Nagisa at that moment. Or not, Nagisa will suffer if he did.

Despite the robot’s regret, the robot tries to save the girl. Amidst in the world of stillness , Nagisa starts to move behind her and walk towards Tomoya.   Tomoya ignores her as she passes beside him. Meanwhile, the robot struggles to save the girl but to no avail.

The girl suddenly wake up. She thanks the robot for being her side and telling the robot that she can finally the robot’s thoughts because she is not a human anymore. She then explained that that she knows everything about the robot and herself through a dream. She reveals that both of them are actually from the same world. The robot makes an assumption that they should not stay the in alternate world. Sadly the girl can’t go because she herself is the alternate world. If she leaves, the world will be gone and ball of lights, which contains the people’s feelings from the other world will be miserable.  The girl reveals that the robot is also one of those lights. She explains that the other world and this world is link together. She feeling content that the robot can transcend between two worlds and meet her. She explains that her feelings will become balls of light. Each light may be weak but if join together, it will become a mysterious force. When the girl hums “Dango Daikazoku” song, the robot remembers the song. The girl claims that the robot always sang the song to her. As the light shine in the alternate world, explosion occurs that blast away the robot. The girl bid farewell to the robot, which reveals that the robot is her father before she becomes balls of light.

Suddenly, the world that looks bleak changes its colours. Tomoya gets his act straight and called out Nagisa’s name. When that fails, he run towards Nagisa and give her a loving hug. Nagisa glad that Tomoya manage to stop her because she worried that Tomoya will decide to never met her at all. She adds that she’s glad to meet him and have a wonderful life with him. She hopes that Tomoya will feel the same way as her. Tomoya agrees with that and hug her again.

As the world fast-forwarding through time, Tomoya heard Nagisa’s offer to take him to a place where wishes come true. As the journey goes on, Tomoya and the robot realises that their long journey is over. Suddenly, Tomoya wake up at the cries of his newborn child. Tomoya thought that Nagisa doesn’t make it through the ordeal but as Nagisa opens her eyes smilingly and said that she’s alway together with him. Then, Tomoya give Ushio, her first bath while Nagisa look on. Tomoya reassures Nagisa that Ushio will grow into a strong child. Nagisa notices something beautiful happen outside. As Tomoya take a look, he notices that the ball of lights go upwards as both Nagisa and Tomoya look on.

As time goes by after giving birth to Ushio, life’s turn in a better position for Okazaki’s couple and also for others. The images above shows that without any need of explanation. Okazaki’s couple go to the countryside which still has field of sunflowers to pay a visit to Tomoya’s grandmother. After that, the image of father and son in the sunflower field comes into play on screen as this chapter soon comes to an end.

The scene reverts to Fuuko who lead her normal but not so mature life? She continues to irk her sister with her antics as they walk to the new hospital for Fuuko’s check up. When they arrived there, Fuuko smell something cute and yet makes another scene with her sister.

As she runs towards the forest while asking her sister to come with her, despite not knowing who is she smelling. As she approaches while introduces herself, she sees a glimpse a girl in white. When she gets closer, she discovers Ushio lying under a tree while asking her to be her friend.

Finale

Finally after long last, the episode ends. For those who always skip ending credits, they probably doesn’t notice these changes above. Fuuko and Ushio is added to the credit for this episode!

Preview

Looks like the next episode will be what happened a year before Clannad first season started; the next episode will probably will give some insight on the lifes of Nagisa and Tomoya before they met.

The ending of the anime can make people either like it or don’t like it. I can see the opinions of people who don’t like the ending. The lack of realism and the used of magical things to end things doesn’t appeal to those who prefer their shows more towards real life. While for those who like it, the ending is really sweet seeing how both Tomoya and Nagisa can finally get back together after all the sufferings that happen between them. I as a sucker for this kind of anime felt that this anime series really needs the happy ending after the used of sad elements in its anime. The endings makes me feel happy for them and I’m sure some people may even cried with joy seeing the ending.

But its a matter of opinion and we must be mature to accept them since opinions occur because we humans are each have different in experience and background. But I hope that readers here do enjoy this anime as much as I do and continue on watching this anime till the end. I will talk later on my plans on my blog after I done the next review on Clannad ~after story~ episode 23. BTW, there’s a possiblity that I will make a post dedicated to Fuuko for this episode so stay updated. Have a nice day! ^_^