curious eh?

Tora Dora Episode 2: Ryuuji and Taiga

Well then, to be expected. There is an OP (yay), the song is quite up beat, and with a very nice video clip. Moving on. In the very first scene, it is shown Taiga sitting down in Ryuuji’s place, gobbling down food (apparently she can’t cook). Taiga is still bitter at Ryuuji for knowing her secret, but nevertheless took advantage of Ryuuji’s kindness and enslaved him too cook her food and to do other menial stuffs. Taiga and Ryuuji walked to school (enduring Taiga’s constant rudeness). On the way, they meet up with Minorin, Ryuuji, excited about the prospect of walking to school together. However, picking up Ryuuji’s intent, Taiga seized the initiative, leaving the bewildered Ryuuji alone.

Back at school Taiga devised some plans in order to get close. The first plan is to be gym partners, in doing this, Ryuuji and Taiga paired up. And Ryuuji would peg the partner so that they will be replaced (dunno…ah well). Of course the plan backfired, and Ryuuji accidentally threw a bullet ball at Taiga, knocking her down. The second plan, Taiga would bake some cookies and then present it to him. While chasing at the boy, Taiga slipped and fall down the stair, while her small body is caught by Ryuuji, the cookie, on the other hand, fell down the window.

In an effort to console Taiga, Ryuuji gobbled down the spoiled cookie and said it was good. (which we found out later that salt was put in rather than sugar). The next day! Rumors were spread that Taiga and Ryuuji were actually a couple. Much to their surprise, Minorin and Kitamura misunderstood the two and congratulate them.

Later in the evening, Taiga is still in shock by the misunderstanding, and even though Ryuuji tried to console her, Taiga wouldn’t calm down. Instead, she returns her anger by kicking a street lamp pole (destruction of public property, anyone?). Ryuuji, wanted to destroy the taxpayer’s property, opted to join her anger and kicked the lamp pole, making it bend. Taiga then tells Ryuuji not to get too close to her again, because it will cause misunderstanding.

The next day, after Taiga trashed the classroom (stop destroying things, they’re expensive) , the class found out that it was all a misunderstanding. Taiga then….tries to….confess her feeling to Kitamura! In a very tsundere-ish fashion (with the fidgetting and the mispronunciation). But of course, i am not gonna tell the outcome here . But expect more misunderstanding.

Note:

Too bad that the second episode skips a lot of the chapter from the manga, but ah well, it is an effort to catch up to the manga and to speed up the story line. But anyway, the second episode is quite an interesting one. And we’ll be looking forward to the third episode.

-Vandar

In the anime genre nowadays, it is important to see a strong female character. Whether it serves as the main character, to serve as the “assistant” of the main character, or of course as a fan service. And the “attractiveness” of these characters can be differentiated from this 3 classifications.

Beautiful

From the 3 classifications, this, is the simplest to judge. Because it is a traditional view, and most people, has the same idea of beauty.

So, what defines a beautiful character?

-Personality: lady like, strong willed, tough,calm

-Looks: sharp figure [especially in the eyes] rather tall, determined, physical appearance is the womanly figure, balanced.

In simple terms, a beautiful character makes you go “wow…”

Example of beautiful characters:

Moe

Now moe here is a different kind of genre. To be frank, the definition of moe is huge. Just about anything can be moe, depending on your point of view. But the general consensus of moe is based on the character’s defining traits, most of it depends on the character’s innocence.

So, what defines a moe character?

-Personality: cheerful, kind hearted, positive thinking,innocence plays a role, the idea of purity.

-Looks: Often accentuated with large eyes, the thing with moe is, the physical appearance is usually not of the question. But it is always a plus to have a good figure. But most moe character nowadays are loli-looking.

In simple terms, it is a character that makes you go “Awwww….!!!”

Example of moe characters:

Sexy

Now this is universal. I don’t see many people argue about this. If a character is sexy, then it will be sexy.

So, what defines a sexy character?

-Personality: Likes to tease, often playful (in that sense), and some likes to show their physical features.

-Looks: Huge breasts is almost an auto include, minimal clothing to accentuate physical features is also an auto include usually.

In simple terms, it is a character that makes you go “…wow…!!!!!”

Example of a sexy character:

(actually characters…but you get the point)

Note:

Well, it’s not possible to post all characters here, due to the limitation on the image server and probably due to biased reasons . But i’ll add on more characters to this post later on XD. And oh, Jinx, don’t flame me, i already put in Saber-sama there.

-Vandar

-the tiger herself-

So, i’ll give the review to those who haven’t read the manga or the novels yet. At first, the story is stereotypical boy meets girl anime. The boy, Ryuuji Takasu is not your ordinary high school boys. The standard stereotype for this kind of anime would be a usual run of the mill character, without any special qualities, usually a loser in all aspect. But not Ryuuji, even though he is kind, does housework, cooks, and all sorts chores, his appearance hinders him from looking like a normal high school, and a delinquent instead.

Now the girl, Taiga Aisaka, is a whole different story. Known as the palm top tiger, she is the fiercest girl in the whole school. The one that would smack you till you’re down on the ground just because she doesn’t like you, that all despite her short stature, thus the nickname.

Episode 1: Tiger and Dragon

The OP scene is…err…none. Well, the season starts off with a monologue with the two main characters. Giving you a dramatic feel to the whole series, that and accompanied with some background music. Well, i hope the OP would be out in the 2nd episode.

And then the main character is introduced, Ryuuji starts of by waking up his drunken mother (which is, for some people, hot). The scene then shifts into Ryuuji walking to school to begin his new school year ceremony. His delinquent looks, scared off some other students and forces them to give their wallet. (which he promptly returns it to the lost and found section of the school).

In the school, yet, the effect of his looks scarred off many students. At this point, it can be seen that he has two close friends, Kitamura, and another, Kushieda Minori, a bright and cheerful looking girl, which Ryuuji blushes when he sees her (hmm hmm….).

The first encounter of the two is imminent. While walking to the toilet, Ryuuji bumped into her (too small to be noticed eh XD).

And then Taiga proceeds to smack Ryuuji to the ground.

The evening afterwards, Ryuuji is stuck in school to finish his future job career form. And encountering Taiga in a trashed classroom, hiding inside a closet, curling herself into a ball (moe alert). As he approaches for his bag, Taiga strike him again wanting the bag. As Ryuuji forcefully grabbed the bag, Taiga sneezed, loses her momentum, and the bag.

Back at home, curious to see what is wrong with the bag, Ryuuji opened the bag. And guess what, it’s Kitamura’s bag. And inside….a love letter! From Taiga! He found out it was empty, so didn’t bother to read.

A quiet…peaceful night…not! As Ryuuji woke up in the dead of night, he is ambushed by an enraged Taiga wielding a boken on her hand! In the attempt to calm down Taiga, he tells her that the letter was empty.

Later, it is revealed that Ryuuji held a secret crush against Minori (you saw it coming eh) as an effort to share his secret so that they’re in the same boat. In another attempt to soothe Taiga’s rage, Ryuuji submitted himself to be Taiga’s slave, as in letting her command him like a dog…hmm…this early. (well, at this point Ryuuji just wants to help Taiga to get close to Kitamura…but, she has something else in mind).

The next morning, Taiga commanded Ryuuji to cook her breakfast, which is convenient enough because they live next door. And the next scene is dominated by Ryuuji’s effort to clean Taiga’s apartment (which looked like Sato’s room from NHK).And of course, being Taiga, she doesn’t give any thanks or any forms of gratitude to Ryuuji.

Note:

Quite a handful first episode, well, the manga also revolves that fast. Which is a good thing, because it speeds up the phase of the anime. And now, for me, the most interesting factor that the anime has to offer is the leading female character. To break it down, she’s a tsundere (ish) , with long hair, short, loli-ish, and strangely enough violent. Oh, and you might want to pay attention to the seiyuu.

Ring a bell? alrite, remember Taiga’s words especially “Urusai!” “Baka!” and “Inu”

The voice actress is, from Zero no Tsukaima’s Louise. Which explains a lot of her personality. Now now, i don’t want to say she’s Louise Mk II or this anime is Zero no Tsukaima 4, because at the 1st impression, it is looking better than ZnT.

-Vandar

ps: i fail at screencap.

Impression

When I first heard of Kannagi (mostly because of the “Crazy Shrine Maidens” bit) I felt that it was going to be another typical guy-in-shrine-surrounded-by-miko anime. The first few minutes of the anime didn’t help in that perspective either… but it turns out to be an amusing watch, with unexpected good sense in humor (rather than the typical fanservice galore that we had last season). While the art is nothing too special, the animation is pretty well done, as most of the movement seems very natural. The music is reminiscent of True Tears, creating very nice melodies at certain times, and a very nice ED. The story has yet to be developed, but all in all, it looks promising.

First Impression – Excellent

Episode Recap:

The anime starts, like many anime do, in someone’s childhood. A boy caught a spider and held it up high, before putting it into a small plastic cage (I was somewhat disappointed, no spider bite…). And from out of no where, a shrine maiden appeared behind him. After a great big gust of wind, the shrine maiden disappeared.

The story picks up, when the boy is at his teens (middle/high school) finishing up a wooden carving. He carried it out with difficulty, and went to get his bike. When he returned, he found the carving rooted to the ground, which started to react weirdly, and from the carving, a girl burst out. His reaction to the girl was hilarious. Typical, but is done really well. The girl turns out to be the local god who lived in the sacred tree, which, we found out then, had been cut down, due to the temple having some kind of construction works.

In the grounds of the shrine, the girl is then ‘attacked’ by ‘impurities’ in the form of a centipede that crawled up her nice and silky thigh. She then, painfully, warns the boy to not touch the impurities, as normal humans can’t touch it anyway, and that he will be corrupted. Naturally, the boy picked up the impurities and flicked it away. Surprised, she kicked him (what is it with girls and violence…really…).

Back inside the house, she told the boy about the impurities, and how as a god, she needed protection from such things. After some light fanservice shots, the girl received an idea from watching TV, and asked the boy to buy paper and something else. They returned to the shrine, the girl brandishing her new weapon. A Mahou Shoujo Baton. Yes. That’s right. Yes, she did the whole sequence of brandishing it and dancing around with it. After exorcising (yes, it worked) a couple of impurities, the girl introduced herself as Nagi, and the guy introduced himself as Jin, and suddenly, a gust of wind went through.

Back again, Nagi was given a taiyaki. After complaining about it not being a real ‘tai’ fish, she proceeded to eat it, and had a moe sequence (uguu~ anyone?). Then surprisingly, Nagi showed a vulnerable part of her, saying that she’s depending on Jin for protection.

The rest of the episode is a lighthearted sequence of Jin readying the house for Nagi’s stay. This includes packing away all the porn magazine into a box, labeling it as textbooks. Also buying panties and pajamas for the girl without change. A new character is also introduced (though only her voice appeared), a girl that seems pretty close to Jin. Probably the long hair girl from the opening.

-Jinx

Side note: I’m still going -_- on the OP. Mixed feeling. Hated the dance at first. It’s getting to me though .

The name itself comes from a long list of name, after hours of brainstorming, we decided that this name would fit the best for this project that we are doing. Yumei Nikki- The Diary of Dreams.

So then, i will not bore you to death with long introduction. Enjoy the site, and hope we can share you our dreams.

-Yumekki team