Following this post regarding Aiura, Author from ani-nouto had this to say about Yuyushiki:

I'm wondering if not being being a fan of CGDGT [sic] would still permit one to watch it purely as a connoisseur of anime technicalities. That transparent head was a devastating blow to SHAFT, I thought. It wasn't the most impressive technical achievement, of course, just most trollsome. Aside of that, I am very much puzzled just how they did all the various camera angles. It's the perfect merge of 3D techniques and the 2D aesthetics that I wanted since, dunno, before I saw the chandelier in Disney's Beauty and The Beast.

Not having seen Yuyushiki, I can't comment on its technical merits. However, I don't think I personally would be more likely to enjoy the show for its animation quality alone unless it is absolutely stellar. Although I find animation quality to be a notable factor in my enjoyment of anime, I'm by no means a connoisseur of animation itself or an obsessive fan of animators as individuals (as an increasing number of anime fans now seem to be). I'm still more likely to be swayed by seiyuu or a show's music. It kind of makes me wonder if there are anime fans out there who obsess over such-and-such sound guys and the apparently otherwise largely overlooked work they do? Even in Hollywood sound editing and sound mixing appear to be dark arts. Note, for example, The Matrix beating out The Phantom Menace for the Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing at the 72nd Academy Awards. Were those Oscars appropriately awarded, or did the voters just choose the movie they liked better without regard to the technical and artistic merits involved? It's a mystery to me, and quite a digression from the original Cute Girls Doing Cute Things subject I started out with, to be sure, but still a topic that I'm increasingly curious about.

Original post updated with responses.

Turns out J.C. Staff saves money by just changing the backgrounds.

One might assume Mikoto in To Aru Kagaku no Railgun would use a Yen coin to do her razzmatazz. But inspired to see how much money she was wasting with each shot, I took a closer look (larger PNG screenshot) and it does not appear to be a Japanese coin at all. If you know what this is and can actually verify your claim with some supporting evidence, fax me a picture or something, please.

Update: Mystery solved:

The coin doesn't seem to be a direct copy of real world currency, as the text on the back side seems to be written in engrish. Something to the effect of "Trap of arrest". The crown on the one face looks like the "Queen Victoria Crown", which can be found on some English and Australian coins, but none that I've seen match the coin from the show exactly.
-Richard

Ha ha. Trap of arrest.

Niku explains:

It is a game coin from an arcade. Here is a quote from Volume 1 Prologue: The Tale of the Illusion Killer Boy — The Imagine-Breaker.

"Her hand went into her skirt pocket, and took out a coin- one from an amusement parlour game."

Man, that reads like erotic fan fiction. No wonder the original novels are so popular.

@omonomono concurs:

i thought she used arcade tokens.

IKnight writes:

Puella Magi Madoka Magica has me stumped too (and magica seems redundant in both versions of the title). It does look like either a joke or a mistake, or it really is meant to read 'Magician's Magical Girl Madoka', which might perhaps make sense if Madoka has some kind of male magician-patron, or something.

At this point I'm just going to assume it's the Latin equivalent of Engrish.

Panty is batting a thousand.

One addendum: Panty certainly deserves to join the list of Best Girls of the Year, 2010. It should have been obvious to me all along, but for some reason I didn't fully realize it until I was putting the autumn 2010 season summary together. She doesn't win, but she definitely makes the list. Stocking? Not a chance.

farawaynowhere asks:

What about Manami from Ore no Imouto? The episode where Kyosuke spends the night at her house is the best one of the series.

I didn't watch it.

J.R. writes:

Ever consider having a comments section under each blog entry?

I thought about it. I decided against it.