Triela and Henrietta, members of the Social
Welfare Agency since volume one.

Despite being mostly displeased with the second season of Gunslinger Girl during its initial broadcast four years ago, I bought the Il Teatrino Blu-ray discs anyway. I was much more impressed after this second viewing. Even in Blu-ray form, Il Teatrino suffers from the same problem the TV broadcast did, namely a tragically low animation budget. Curiously, though, I can't claim the production values in general are low, as the locales are still well-researched and the audio is much better than I expected. For example, a short scene showing bullets being loaded into a magazine includes sound effects that realistically duplicate the noise a handful of full metal jacket pistol rounds makes. I have no idea if the sound effect was recorded specifically for Il Teatrino or pulled from a bank of stock noises, but it's a good inclusion considering that some shows can't be bothered to differentiate between the sounds made by wooden baseball bats from those made by aluminum ones.

Petrushka didn't quite make it into Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino, alas.

Possibly my greater appreciation of Il Teatrino also results from the 20/20 hindsight conferred by being up-to-date on the current manga run. As a point of reference, bear in mind the original season of Gunslinger Girl covered approximately one chapter per episode. Il Teatrino went a little further, extending the anime to about the first 30 chapters (ending before properly introducing Petrushka). A great deal more has occurred since then. The manga is now up to chapter 93 and is still ongoing. I could tell you the shit's hit the fan, but that may be an oversimplification of events. However, being caught up with the manga and having the benefit of knowing where the story is going and understanding more of the characters' backgrounds does make Il Teatrino better than watching it in a vacuum.

Rico is a lot better now than in Gunslinger Girl season one.

Additionally, I find the changes to the animation styles and character designs more faithful to the manga, at least in spirit, although I do find Henrietta's glassy-eyed vacant stare a little unsettling. Il Teatrino Rico's new-found personality is a more accurate reflection of her manga personality as the girl who subconsciously marvels at the freedom her cyborg body affords her, leaving her unusually cheerful despite her otherwise poor treatment.

Claes is still the Gunslinger Best Girl.

Oh. I was going to recommend the Gunslinger Girl manga. Volumes one through eight are currently available, and volumes nine and 10 will be released as the fourth omnibus on March 13th. Hopefully Seven Seas will continue to release additional volumes regularly. (When ADV had the English-language rights to the Gunslinger Girl manga, there was a considerable lag between the releases of volumes three and four.) Never known for exactly pulling its punches, the Gunslinger Girl manga has currently reached a rather dark place. The short natural life spans of the cyborgs and the debilitating effects that occur prior to their death have been fixtures of the manga since the first volume and remain recurring themes throughout the story. By the 90s, the degradation has touched all the surviving girls from the manga's original crew. It's a good read, but don't get too attached. [P.S. Spoilers, I guess.]

Shouldn't you be eating at Pizza Hut, Kiko?

Although many people seem to despise Kiko for her TOP FUEL GENKI ways (which admittedly don't fit in too well with the more somber elements in Darker than Black), I couldn't get enough of her and Gai. I never did quite figure out what Kiko's deal was, though. I get that she's a rabid anime fan, but what's with her outfit? Is she cosplaying as a character from another show? It looks vaguely Galaxy Angel-ish, and I feel as if I should recognize it, but I can't quite place it.

Just so you know, that is one awesome phone.

Unfortunately, neither she nor Gai seem especially adept at solving their cases. Well, they don't have the benefit of Kudo Shinichi or Hattori Heiji doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes, even if they are probably well funded by dirty Pizza Hut money. I can't tell if they're more or less successful than the Futaba detective agency, though.

There's also a lot of nudity in Mahoromatic.

I waited too long to buy Mahoromatic DVDs, and by the time I did the beautiful art boxes were out of print and I settled on the Sentai Filmworks six-episode-per disc collection of digital artifacts. (I figured I'd buy Blu-rays eventually anyway.) Even so, I waited over a year before actually re-watching the show.

Just stay down, Minawa.

Unfortunately, I don't care for the second season Mahoromatic as much as I initially did. I always did like the first season better, and Kawasumi Ayako is still wonderful as Mahoro, but I like Minawa no more than I initially did. Actually, I think I like Minawa even less this time around. If I remember right, Minawa is responsible for my intense dislike of dojikko "adorably clumsy" girls. Since I also hate Retard Moe (think Chii from Chobits, Stellar from Gundam SEED Destiny, and Yui from K-On!), this means I basically can't stand any scene Minawa is in. It doesn't help that this time around I'm fully aware of the Minawa-based spoilers from the end of the season. I've never forgiven her.

Either Menma is real or Naruko needed a massage.

I won't address every character in Ano Hana, but I have to mention Menma MacGuffin. Honma Meiko bugs me because she's incredibly immature and really quite dumb. At first I thought she was that way because her mental age was frozen after she died, but I've since determined Menma's just not very smart. Even her still-grieving mother admits that Menma was kinda slow. Lady, slow ain't the word. Anyway, it also bugs me that the show takes painful steps to avoid doing anything that could prove or disprove Menma's existence to the other characters as she avoids directly interacting with any of them except Potato-kun. Since Menma is a ghost that can touch things, eat, and even cook, these convenient omissions and contrivances are just annoying since it would be a cinch for them to determine whether or not Menma is all in Jinta's head.

That's right, Naruko, Jinta is cracking up.

Ano Hana does have good production values, and I can understand why other people enjoy it. If you care about the characters, you'll probably enjoy it as well. It's at least better than the other Haruka Tomatosauce show about a ghost girlfriend, Asura Cryin'. However, neither are as good as the AYAKO DOCTRINE show about a ghost boyfriend and figure skating, Ginban Kaleidoscope. Which brings me to Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream, another show about figure skaters. And while Pretty Rhythm might not have ghosts, crazy shit does occur in the astral plane.

Unlimited Pants Works.

Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream is...not good. It is incredibly low-budget, and essentially every background character is rendered merely as a pastel silhouette, even background characters with speaking roles. Basically every yen budgeted for this show appears to have either gone towards the bad CGI sequences or possibly a massive merchandising effort. There are live-action segments bookending each episode during which grammar school girls shill for the Prism Store and its wall-to-wall crap. Well, it's good for the economy. Japan could use a boost in spending right about now, so I guess it's all right, even if it does involve shamelessly whoring 11-year-old girls to sell "fashionable" junk to six-year-old girls. I've only watched one episode so far, but I have a sinking feeling Pretty Rhythm will run for at least 40. I'll give it like one more episode—two, tops.

Menma hassles Jinta from beyond the grave.

I started watching Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai (Ano Hana or We Still Do Not Know the Name of the Flower we Saw That Day) because of all the hype, and I'm watching Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream because, well, why not? The last show I watched about figure skaters turned out to be pretty good, and I'm already watching three magikal girl shows (Suite Pretty Cure, Sailor Moon, and Cutie Honey), so what's one more? I blame Zero Episode Test.

You have three two guesses as to why Naruko is so popular.

In contrast to popular opinion, I did not enjoy the first episode of Ano Hana. I thought the second episode was a lot better. Nevertheless, after seven episodes, I still don't really enjoy it as a whole. Claims about its purported gut-wrenching emotional content are overwrought, in my opinion, for one pretty important reason: I don't like any of the characters.

There's probably a lot of glare on the TV anyway.

I loathed Potato-kun immediately. Basically, I was horrified that dumb kid from Rozen Maiden ended up in another show. Despite not liking any other character in the show as well, I at least would have found it more interesting with someone else in the lead. Must every anime male lead be so uninterestingly bland, and with such dubious redeeming values? I would even have preferred Anal-chan's fat mom in the lead role.

Stupid Naruko, don't you know this train goes through a tunnel?

Speaking of "Anal," that is, "Anaru," the childhood nickname of Anjou Naruko, she has rocketed in popularity as an otaku fan favorite, thanks to her very aerodynamic figure, suppressed nerd leanings, black underwear, and the copious amount of time she seems to spend lounging in bed. Well, there was a momentary dip when the web preview for episode five suggested she might not be a "pure-pure" girl, but her popularity continued its climb after the show verified her sexual history was a non-threatening, blank slate. Despite an affinity for Haruka Tomatosauce, I don't really like Naruko either, mostly because she's obviously manufactured to be such a harmless character designed to appeal to a certain demographic of young viewers.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!

Reflections appear a lot in this movie.

There is finally a Blu-ray release for The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. As I said earlier, this is an amazing movie. After watching it again, I must say I do enjoy it more than Summer Wars, more than Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works, easily more than Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st, and even more than both of the Rebuild of Evangelion movies that have been released thus far.

It can't be that cold, Kyon. It's not even below freezing.

So what new insights and benefits can one derive from re-watching The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya via a high definition release compared to an amateur cam rip (besides the plainly obvious)? Well, for one thing, it is much more apparent how warm all of the scenes with Disappearance Nagato Yuki are. Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu is very much a winter movie, with a mostly gray palette and bitterly cold scenes. In contrast, Nagato appears to fill the clubroom with warmth. Likewise, although her apartment is spartan—almost barren—it radiates with a glow that one does not typically associate with the quiet and unassuming Nagato.

I gotta say, that is one awesome apartment.

Additionally, it's much more apparent now when Kyon sees himself reflected in Yuki's eyes. I've claimed before that this is very much her movie. I amend that statement now to say it is very much their movie. Without revealing too much about the plot or the movie's secrets, Shoushitsu gives us a privileged look into the mind of a girl we thought we knew—one we've perhaps taken for granted because she has been so reliable. In so doing, the motion Yuki makes with her arm towards the end of the film, when she is doing something almost indistinguishable from magic, seems to both beckon while at the same time waving farewell—an appropriate gesture she arguably makes to herself, to Kyon, and to us.

Summer 2010 wasn't an especially good season of anime:

Major season six > Asobi ni Iku yo! > Strike Witches 2 > Detective Conan (579-590) > Seitokai Yakuin Domo > Shiki (1-11) > Amagami SS (1-13) > Heartcatch Precure! (20-33) > Shukufuku no Campanella.

Dropped: Legend of the Legendary Heroes (1) | Worse than Cosprayers: Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi (5) > Mitsudomoe (1).

Major was easily my favorite show from summer 2010, although I felt the "yips" arc went on too long.

This was my favorite part of the OP.

Asobi ni Iku yo! was a lot better than I was expecting. It stayed fun the whole way through, but I would have liked to see more of the evil-type Momiji. And they never explained what the deal was with her older younger sister.

Not this shit again.

To some degree, I enjoyed the second Strike Witches season more than the first one. Nevertheless, it really did feel like a re-hash of the first season.

Detective Conan is Detective Conan. I continue to enjoy it as I plow through the hundreds of unwatched episodes I have remaining. As you can see, I've long since realized there are no meaningful spoilers in Detective Conan, so I've started watching the currently airing episodes along with my backlog of older ones.

The rules segments with the drum and whistle were my favorite parts.

I really enjoyed Seitokai Yakuin Domo and its relentless stream of sex jokes and short jokes. It was probably funnier to native speakers, though; it's tough to adapt verbal comedy to different languages.

Shiki hit a long skid of tedious episodes, but the recent ones are quite good, especially if you enjoy hollering directions to idiot B-movie characters. E.g., "Don't go in there!"

Amagami SS is pure cheese. That said, I still look forward quite a bit to each new episode as Potato-kun attempts to trophy-love every girl in the school.

Obi-Wan Kenobi supplants Tart as the least annoying Precure mascot.

I'm still not a huge fan of Heartcatch Precure! but it is growing on me.

Shukufuku no Campanella kinda sucked, but all the scenes with the Tortilla sisters or Agnes made it worth it. Also, "ARMAGEDDON JA YO!"

I tried watching Legend of the Legendary Heroes which I figured would be tongue-in-cheek, but it wasn't very interesting. Dropped after one episode.

Now, two shows I not only dropped but considered to be, ahem, WORSE THAN COSPRAYERS: Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi was inexcusably terrible. How J.C. Staff fucked this up, I have no idea. I dragged my way through five episodes. Finally, I realize I'm in the minority in not enjoying Mitsudomoe, but the only thing I saw in the one episode I managed to watch was ugly children doing horrid things.

Hei gives Yin a hat.

I frequently see two complaints about the Darker than Black sequel, Gemini of the Meteor: (1) That it had too much "moe shit," and (2) it didn't have enough Yin. Typically, one encounters these complaints separately, as they would be contradictory if expressed together; Yin is a stereotypical moe character. And how.

Five will get you ten Hei is moe for hats.

Viewed in simplest terms, Yin is a quiet, passive albino of the Ayanami Rei and Nagato Yuki variety. In bridging the first and second season, the Darker than Black: The Black Contractor OVAs take the all-Yin-all-the-time route and play up her moe characteristics quite heavily, even if the plot is ostensibly about building up to Yin-killing-people moments. [P.S. Spoilers.]

Hei gives Yin a shirt.

I generally adopt a neutral attitude towards moe. While I agree there is too much moe-centric anime nowadays, proportionally speaking, I am not opposed to it on principle and I have no objection to its presence in Darker than Black, even when it is layered as heavily as during the first "Darker than Yin" OVA. And oh, it's heavy all right. I suspect one's reaction to the first OVA likely defines the shape of one's attitudes towards moe in general, one way or another.