Let’s Look: Fairy Tail 2nd Series Episode 26:Even Moles Love Lucy and Zeref vs. Mavis

Let’s Look: Fairy Tail 2nd Series Episode 26:Even Moles Love Lucy and Zeref vs. Mavis

I knew Lucy’s sexiness was universal but I didn’t know it crossed species? Also Zeref just threw down the gauntlet and Mavis just said bring it! The battle between Fairies and Demons is about to begin…in one month

Once again heroically double posting. Do I really need to say this? I’ve already done a few posts on AnimeWithSky…Yeah I need to do this until I can finally get an update post out. And with my backlog it will take a few days…

So anyway Episode 26 of Fairy Tail 2nd Series is called ‘Present’.

So now those epically cool mages of Fairy Tail have returned back to Magnolia and greeted by the entirety of the city. Everyone’s living it up and celebrating save one person.

He still remembers what happened when he saw Old Ultear. I still can’t get over it myself. See Ultear was only max in her mid to late twenties. She was still in the prime of her life. Now she has to spend her last days watching all her friends live on. Sure she doesn’t have any regrets but imagine if this was forced on her. The despair would be overwhelming.

On that note Juvia notices that Gray is feeling down and tells him that it’s rude for him to have such a sad look on his face while everyone else is so happy. So Gray puts a smile for her.

Now stuff like this is what makes me think that Gray x Juvia or commonly referred to as Gruvia will be a thing. Out of all the people in the entire crowd, Juvia was the only one to notice that Gray was sad. Now if that wasn’t love or future wife material I don’t know what is.

But getting anyway from the sad parts and to the comedy, so Natsu digs around in his backpack and pulls out this.

He stole the King of Fiore’s crown! He stole the crown….

Then he just puts it back in his pack. Apparently he grabbed the wrong thing. Dude you just stole the freaking crown and now you’re just casually putting it back like a trinket.

Wow the trophy is nice! Still stole a freaking crown! Return it man!

Note: We never see Natsu return it, someone come and get back it, him mail it, or anything. It’s safe to assume that he kept it….What the hell?!

So after that everyone just crying because they finally won but the greatest comedy comes from Makarov. Turns out that townspeople fixed up the guild and payed off their debt! Yay

It’s okay man. Let it out. I will too. Hahahahhaa oh the pain and the comedy. I love this anime!

But after this we see this little thing.

Obra’s Imp? What it doing here?

So at this point I’m at a crossroads. I can continue the review in a linear fashion, reporting things as they happened or break it up into the filler and the canon stuff. I’ll do the second.

So the little imp runs out of the town and into the forest where he goes up to a certain person…

It’s freaking Zeref, the Black Mage! Run! Run! Those of you with weak constitutions may want to leave the review.

Just joking with that last part.

So Mavis appears, you see her walking to this little glade in the middle of the filler, and she starts to talk with Zeref.

Now note while this sounds like a conversation, it isn’t. Zeref can’t see or hear Mavis at all because he lacks a Fairy Tail guild mark. However he can sense her. And this is what surprises you if you really think about it. Mavis asks questions and Zeref’s responses sound like logical answers to her questions. But once again Zeref can’t hear her so that means that he know hers that well where he can anticipate her answers perfectly.

Damn that’s good.

So after experiencing the world for seven years, what do you want to do now, Zeref?

Wow, whenever Zeref appears things get real! I love this dude! Humans keep making the same mistakes over and over again. To someone 400 years old like Zeref, it must be like a parent that watches their kid do the same dumb stuff again and again. Now this parent wants to cut us off…permenantly!

Scary, right.

What’s Mavis’s response?

Oh Zeref throws down the gauntlet and Mavis accepts the challenge! I can’t wait for the epicness!

Wow just the epicness. Now back to the filler.

It’s pretty simple. Natsu, Lucy, and Happy go on a job to stop a mole that’s terrorizing a town. They can’t beat it because it keeps ducking underground. Erza, Gray, and Wendy show up. They help out and the day is saved. All in all, very simple and overwhelmingly boring.

I’m not going to go in depth with it because in a lot of Fairy Tail filler this isn’t good stuff. So I’ll just do a pic spam of moments.

There is some funny stuff in there. Turns out that the mole is looking for a mate so he goes after Lucy. Erza asks since she’s a young attractive woman(yes she is! Thanks Mashima for making her so hot and that’s Sayaka Oohara for giving her a sexy voice) why isn’t it going after her.

Hahaha. Still insanely hot.

Then Wendy asks the same question….

Hahahah oh god the pain and laughs! It hurts!

It’s okay Wendy. Remember your Edolas self. She had huge boobs. Maybe you’ll grow up to be like her. Who know? Every manga and anime needs the token loli for the perverts to drool over and for the normal people to ‘aww’ at their cuteness.

Okay now Picture Spam go!

Ah Miyuki Sawashiro! I miss her Ultear

Can I marry Lucy?

They’re shocked just like me.

And that’s it for the Episode.

Now I believe it’s been announced that this entire month will be filler to give the anime some more distance between the manga. I like a lot of Fairy Tail’s filler mostly because it isn’t technically filler.

Most of what the Fairy Tail anime adapts into filler is Hiro Mashima’s omake chapters. And that guy pumps them out. So there’s rarely something that goes up in the filler part that’s not canon in someway. The next episode is in fact canon that happened right after the Grand Magic Games with Sabertooth and how they’re rebuilting themselves. But of course they’re got to be some shipping there too. There’s some Gray x Juvia shipping and some of my favorite Sting x Yukino and Rogue x Yukino shipping. Poor Yukino. Stuck in an entire guild of guys.

Anyway that’s enough of me rambling. So the next episode is Welcome Home, Frosh. I personally can’t wait for it. It’s chance to see the new Sabertooth.

So until next week,
Later Days

You can ask me as many questions as you want on Ask.fm and you can follow me on Twitter to know when my new reviews are coming out. You’ll know when stuff comes out right when it does! 🙂

Also check out my right hand man, SkyCorps on AnimeWithSky where I’m also a writer. We’ve got some good reviews from all the writers, Speculations, Light Novel Reviews, and Manga Chapters Reviews. What are you waiting for? Come and check us out! You won’t regret it!

Let’s Look: Fairy Tail 2nd Series Episode 25: A Witch’s Sin is Finally Forgiven

Oh Ultear. Oh Gray. They suffer so much in this anime.

So this is my first double post on AnimeThief and AnimeWithSky. I’m going to love this so much!

Side Note: Since I’m on two blogs now, I’m going to mix in more pictures with my normal Fairy Tail reviews. It makes it more interesting and fits in more here

Episode 25 of Fairy Tail 2nd Series is called ‘Drop of Time’.

This episode is all about things returning to normal after the attack of the dragons. Except one thing.

Who is this?

So as we go through the episode first we see that the pace is really slow but it’s not bad slow. It’s good slow. It’s relaxing.

The members of Fairy Tail start heading back to Magnolia while Jellal and Merudy start leaving Crocus.

Now on the Jellal and Merudy side, they search the wrekage of Crocus for Ultear until Doranbolt comes along to fill them in on the situation.

So turns out that Doranbolt modified the memories of all the members of the Magic Council including Lahar so they wouldn’t go after the Royal Family. After all the Royal Family used magic from the Book of Zeref so that would make a major problem in the entire country of Fiore. So it’s best that it stays in the shadows

So after that and this is my favorite part. Cobra returns to prison without a fight but not before saying a few choice things. One, he heard the voice of Cubellios(Kinana). Aw now if you watched the Key of the Starry Night filler arc(which is actually canon) then you know there’s a fair bit of Cobra x Kinana shipping…

Anyway the big thing is that…well let Cobra tell you.

Now I didn’t know this when I downloaded but it’s a suckish translation. Gates of the Underworld should be translated as Gates of Tartarus As in Tartarus, the third part of the Balam Alliance, the only one that hasn’t been taken out yet.

They’re about to make their move!

Now since I’m on AnimeWithSky with this post I can’t really go off on a long tangent but I’ll do a quick one.

So if Cobra heard this while he was fighting that means that a member or members of Tartarus was there during the Grand Magic Games. The only reason that I can think of is that they wanted something…or someone. The only question is did they get it?

For those answers we’ll have to wait until the Tartarus arc begins.

So back to Fairy Tail, they’re in a carriage heading back to Magnolia, relaxing. Erza’s drawing a custom armor(very badly), Natsu’s about to barf, and Lucy and Happy are laughing. However Gray’s just looking out the window. He can’t get that vision of dying out of his head.

He tells Wendy what happened with Ul and the feeling he felt after the fight with the dragons.

So after that we go back to Jellal and Merudy leaving Crocus and passing an old woman on the road who gives them a letter from Ultear.

Now if you’re not well versed in Seiyuu, the old lady is Ultear. Turns out Last Ages aged her down to her last few days alive.

You can even tell at the beginning of the episode when she talks. Miyuki Sawashiro doesn’t really lower her voice at all. She just elongates her words to make her sound a bit older.

As Merudy finishes reading the letter, she cries and Old Ultear disappears as Jellal looks back. Old Ultear walks for a bit until she passes the carriage with Natsu, Gray, Erza, Wendy, and Lucy in it. As Gray looks out of the window he sees Ultear and recognizes her.

As he asks for the carriage to stop, Ultear nods no. She’s had her time. Her part in this battle and in this life is over.

The episode ends with Ultear looking up at the sky, being bathed in the sunlight, saying finally she’s forgiven herself for the things she’s done.

Now this is just the feels episode of Fairy Tail and I’m giving it a 9/10 just for that.

Now the episode is epically awesome but bad because according to Hiro Mashima’s twitter, the entire month of October for the Fairy Tail anime will be filler so to give the manga a chance to get some more distance.

Aww man. I really want to see the Sun Village arc and the Tartorus arcs get animated.

I guess I have to wait.

And you will need to do until next week with Fairy Tail Episode 26, Present.

Until next week,
Later Days

You can ask me as many questions as you want on Ask.fm and you can follow me on Twitter to know when my new reviews are coming out. You’ll also be update on what’s happening.

First Impressions: Trinity Seven

This time it’s a double for the Autumn Season. Give it up for Trinity Seven!

Everyday is a normal day in the small town where Kasuga Arata lives; however, everything changed on the day of the Black Sun, and following it, a magician appears before him. The Black Sun caused the Breakdown Phenomenon which destroyed the town where he lives. Because of this, his normal life was artificially reconstructed by a Grimoire that his childhood friend had left. Just what is the purpose of the magician coming to the town? What will he do with the Grimoire’s keepsake?

 

Now this little gem is unique one in two ways. First it’s going to be my first anime on my side list. Side Listed Animes are anime I’m going to be reviewing on the side…you can tell that from the name. I consider them like the sixth man in basketball except in this case if I drop an anime this one will take the spot. So for example this season if I drop Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works or Shirobako(We all know that it’s more likely to be Shirobako. PA left a bad taste in all our mouths after Glasslip), I’ll post all the reviews I’ve done for Trinity Seven at once and continue on with Trinity Seven.

Now the other piece of news, I’m working with Skycorps as a writer on Animewithsky.wordpress.com! Currently this season I’ll be doing reviews for Fairy Tail the 2nd Series and this anime here, Trinity Seven. Things are pretty much going to remain the same. I’ll just basically be double posting my Fairy Tail and Trinity Seven reviews.

So now that’s out of the way let’s get down to the good stuff.

Anime News Network calls this little gem a ‘romantic comedy but sometimes serious magical school story’. That’s got me in right there. Mostly because it reminds me of Sora no Otoshimono minus the magical school part.

Anyway I’ve got good and bad visions for this one. It could go good like Sora no Otoshimono with the fanservice and comedy being funny and the action being awesome. Or it could be like every failed harem anime out there, too much fanservice and plot murdered and left on the side of the road. No pressure though. 🙂

The cast is pretty good.

Yoshitsugu Matsuoka from SAO II will be the lead, Arata Kasuga.(ironic since SAO II will still be airing when this premieres so he’ll be competing against himself.).

Ayaka Suwa from Akuma no Riddle will have a part. She needs to get some points back with me after Jinsei…

And Aya Uchida from Love Live School Idol Project will be here! Big love for Kotori-chan.

Also Ryoka Yuzuki from Naruto Shippuden will have part! Hmm…Mind Transfer Jutsu. That’s right Ino Yamanaka! Love her!

I think we’ve got something good. Unless the studio screws up. Still no pressure.

Until the first episode,
Later Days

You can ask me as many questions as you want on Ask.fm and you can follow me on Twitter to know when my new reviews are coming out. You’ll also be update on what’s happening.

Rio:Rainbow Gate Full Series Review

Say hello to the …ecchi anime of Winter 2011…Now I know what you’re about to say. It’s ecchi so it doesn’t matter. You’d be surprised. It’s got an all-star cast and has an actual plot other than just boobs and ass.

In an island casino called the Howard Resort, Rio Rollins is a popular casino dealer with the ability to bring good luck to gamblers just by walking past them, earning her the nickname “The Goddess of Victory”. Mint Clark, a young child, comes to the Howard Resort with her grandfather and encounters Rio, and the two become the best of friends.

Rio’s life soon changes when it is revealed that she is a “Gate Holder”, a dealer who holds one of the 13 legendary cards called “Gates”, and whoever collects them all will be named “Most Valuable Casino Dealer” (MVCD). To collect all 13 Gates, Rio must take part in special matches called “Gate Battles” with other Gate Holders and gain their Gates to become the most valuable casino dealer in the world.

See actual plot!

My Opinion
What’s not to like in this ecchi title from the Winter 2011 Anime Season. It’s got boobs, actual plot(rare from anything that has an ecchi tag), and super high level Seiyuu. It actually has something to offer other than just fanservice. I liken it to the Sekirei anime in that regard. It’s got boobs in one hand(I mean this metaphorically) and plot in the other. And they both make something at least worth watching.

This anime is also special to my heart along with Manyuu Hikenchou.

Yeah I went on that one solely by the ecchi and it has little to no plot but once you start looking at the bouncing boobs and the swords flying you forget what you’re doing anyway

It’s the first anime where I started to watch anime regularly again since the days of Toonami. Not just the Narutos, the Bleachs, and the One Pieces but just regular seasonal stuff. It’s the stuff that influences my writing(anime in general not ecchi although the hot springs scenes in Thief King Chronicles and Fairy Freedom look like they came right out of an ecchi anime). So I’m thankful for that.

The Highlights

• The Cast. It’s easier to tell you who I haven’t heard of in someway. However I’ll try to tell everyone I know and what anime I know them from at the time the anime aired:
  1.Marina Inoue from Sekirei(this is two years before the Date A Live anime came out)
  2.Ayana Taketatsu(same thing two years before Date A Live)
  3.Aya Uchida(Before I knew Love Live)
  4.Minori Chihara(The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. This is way before I became a huge fan of hers. In fact, I didn’t know she was in this anime until I started rewatching it for the Full Series Review)
  5.Sayaka Ohara from Sekirei(this was before Fairy Tail and a lot of stuff I watch with her in it.)
  6.Kikuko Inoue from Ah My Goddess(She’s in so much stuff I’ve seen lately but Ah My Goddess was the first time I heard her)
  7.Kazuhiko Inoue from Naruto(This is the first time I heard him where he was Kakashi from Naruto)
• The Plot. Like I said you’d be surprised that this anime has an actual plot. It’s not a super deep anime but it has its plot and its good points
• The Finale Arc(Every episode after Episode 9)

Side Note: I just noticed this while doing the review. There are a lot of Inoues in the anime, Marina Inoue, Kikuko Inoue, and Kazuhiko Inoue. Maybe they’re all related…hahaha. No they aren’t. Inoue is one of the most common last names in the Japanese language. It’s like the Smith of last names over there.

The Downsides

• The plot, while existing, it’s really all that deep but then again were you really expecting something deep from an ecchi anime?

….

I can’t really think of much other stuff that really sucked on this anime. I’m kinda blocked by nostalgia because this anime is quite precious to me. If you can think of something leave it in the comments below

Now after the greatness and tiring experience that was the Love Live Season 2 Full Season Review, I’m going to review this anime based on the arcs and not episode by episode. Why? I try to have a bit of a life outside being an anime blogger and writing something about each episode would take all month.

So there are four arcs in this anime in my opinion. They are the Introduction Arc(Episodes 1-4), the Sky Resort Arc(Episodes 5-8), The Restoration of Confidence Arc(Episodes 9-10), and the Finale Arc(Episodes 11-13). So I’ll be talking about the arcs in general rather that episodes.

The Introduction Arc

So this arc of course introduces Rio(voiced by Marina Inoue) as well as all her co-workers on the Howard Resort. Mint Clark(voiced by Ayana Taketatsu), the secondary female protagonist, goes on holiday with her grandpa and ends up meeting Rio. Howard, the owner of the resort, asks Rio to take care of Mint during her stay. While walking back to her room, they get attack by Orlin Dunhill’s goons but Rio’s apparently got some Tohka’s fighting skills because she owns them all while wearing a super short maid outfit! The next day Rio beats him in poker with a pair of two, the weakest hand in poker.

Rio also trains a new recruit named Anya Helsing but she’s extremely clumsy. However she points out that Rio owns a Gate Card and explains all the stuff about Gates. Later the Gate Holder Elvis arrives at the casino to challenge Rio but loses.

Howard acquires the old Misery Castle as a part of the Resort but now Rio has to contend with the ghost of Misery(voiced by Eri Kitamura) who has possessed her friends Elle and Ille Adams(both voiced by Aya Uchida). Misery challenges Rio to a game of odds vs. evens. However Misery loses when she accidentally hits a super spicy chicken wing(I’m not making this stuff up) delivered by Rio’s childhood friend, Rina Tachibana.

Rina reveals that she’ll be working at the Howard Resort from now on. Rio takes the day off to show her around the island but their day is cut short by Bull Hard(not making this up) challenges Rio to a game vending machine lotto. Still not making this up! After he gets owned, Howard forces Rio and Rina to play a game of clay pigeon shooting where you lose clothes if you miss. However the match ends in a draw.

The Sky Resort Arc

Howard sends Rio, Rina, and Anya to work at Sky Resort casino at the top of the mountain on the island. Once they get there, they meet the Resort’s head dealer Linda who’s revealed to be a robot. Turns out that the actual resort flies in the air but before they really get serious a young boy reprograms Linda to challenge Rio to a Gate Battle on the Sky Resort’s water slide. Linda is defeated and Rio wins but not before Cartia Goltschimidt approached Howard with an offer for another Gate Battle.

During this arc, Rio battles against Jack, Queen, and King in quick succession because Cartia has hacked the Sky Resort’s mainframe and will not allow it to land until Rio is defeated. However Rio managed to defeat them all but is unable to defeat the final opponent, Rina, who is revealed to be a traitor. She hates Rio because Rio’s mother cheated with Rina’s father, forcing Rina’s mother to fall into a coma. This also shows that both girls are half sisters.

Restoration of Confidence Arc

Now Rio has been defeated Cartia takes control over Howard Resort and turns it into Goltschmidt Kingdom. Upon her defeat by Rina, Rio feels as if she’s let everyone down. However both Elvis and Orlin come around to try and cheer up her with a game. However Misery possesses Rosa and explains that Jack manipulated the game so that Rio would win.

Rio gets a call from Cartia for a job as a general manager but refuses, telling Rina she’ll return to defeat her. While walking out Rio’s trapped in a Roll Ruler. She battles against this person known as Joker and managed to win their Gate. Once she escapes it’s revealed that Dana the fortune teller is also Gate Holder of the 8 card. Rio battles against her as well winning her gate and restoring her confidence in herself.

Rio gathers together all her friends and mounts an assault on the Goltschmidt Kingdom, aiming to win enough slots to buy back the Resort.

The Finale Arc

Rio and her friends enter Goltschmidt Kingdom and starts winning big at all the games. However the next day both their winnings and Mint’s bear Choco are missing. Then they get challenged by Yang-Yang and An-An, the keepers of the 10 Gate, to a game of explosive Concentration. Rio and company manage to win only for Rina to arrive and challenge Rio to a Gate Battle for all the gates

After the terms are announced Rio and friends leave the resort to rest up before the battle. After they return the battle is announced to be a 15 game poker match. After taking the first two matches with her Roll Ruler, Rina starts aggressively dominating the match with 14 wins to Rio’s 0. However Rio immediately makes up the difference. And with the final match on the line, Rio wins and becomes one with the gates.

However Cartia and her goons try to use the gates for their power but not before Risa and Rina’s father come around and arrest them for crimes against basically casinos. Go figure. Rio uses her Ulimate Roll Ruler to spread good luck all over the world and life returns to normal until two mysterious figure appear on the roof of the Howard Resort.

So at least back in 2011, with the end showing those two new characters everyone was wondering if they’re was going to be a new season of Rio: Rainbow Gate. However it’s now 2014 and Rio: Rainbow Gate doesn’t have the restrictions that adapdation has since it’s based solely an a character. So if it hasn’t come out by now, it probably isn’t.

Also something I didn’t think of until this point. As we all know Casinos get a lot of money so much they don’t really need to worry about if a few people hit a jackpot in one day simply because they have so much money. However they jump on the back of cheaters but that’s a different problem right there.

However Rio, who’s Roll Ruler gives good luck and perks up the customer, is inherently bad to a casino. So let me get this straight. The woman that gives good luck to the customer is the most popular dealer around? The woman should be blacklisted and kicked out of the casino world.

Just a little logical fallacy that the anime didn’t even think about that I wanted to point out.

Now I give Rio: Rainbow Gate a 9/10 for good plot, great voice actor, and well done art.

So with that it’s the end of this month’s Full Season Review.

So as you know from the Love Live School Idol Project II Full Season Review, the next one on my list for October is the first season of Sword Art Online!

Now for November, I’m going even further to my roots and reviewing the first Funimation title I ever saw. I’ll be reviewing Suzuka! It’s one of my favorite anime and what got me into Fuuka and all of Seo Kouji’s works.

So until the next Full Season Review,
Later Days

Let’s Look:Fairy Tail 2nd Series Episodes 21 & 22 Double Super Mini Reviews:Death of Grey and Ultear

Need to do a double just to catch up with Fairy Tail. Positive side, I just marathoned Rio:Rainbow Gate and OniAi.

Noooooo! Don’t kill off Ultear! Ah Miyuki Sawashiro! I guess it’s okay since I see her as Sinon in Sword Art Online II

Episode 21 of Fairy Tail 2nd Series is called ‘Sin and Sacrifice’. Millianna, Erza’s friend with the cat theme and the stripper/dominatrix theme, confronts Jellal for trapping them in the Tower of Heaven or Tower of Paradise depends on what translation you started with. Then again you could call Jellal Gerard if you have one of those weird translators at the beginning. Also he killed that dude that was Kagura’s brother…Simon I think. Anyway before Jellal tries to take responsibility for his actions but Ultear explains how she manipulated Jellal for her purposes. She tells Millianna to get into the battle and they’d settle their score if they were still alive. Then we see a sight of Kagura resheathing Archenemy as she hears this. Maybe she’s letting her grudge go?

After this Ultear has a flashback where she was about to kill Rogue but then Sting arrives to help our Shadow Dragon Slayer. This makes Rogue remember that even he falls to the darkness he’ll be purified by the light.

This makes Ultear see that she was wrong and she truly hasn’t changed from the person she used to be if she wanted to kill an innocent person so easily.

We get some boring filler about the guild’s fighting the mini dragons but you don’t care about that. You care about the good stuff.

So we go to Gray, Juvia, and Merudy where they’re fighting off some mini dragons. They dodge the first few but when another wave comes up Gray pushes Juvia out of the way, saving her life but dying in the process.

Episode 22 of Fairy Tail 2nd Series is called ‘Time of Life’. Many wizards are killed by the dragons such as Bacchus of Cuatro Cerberus, Droy, Macao, and Wakaba of Fairy Tail as well as some members fighting the full sized such as Lucy, Gajeel, Laxus, and Wendy. As Ultear sits in the courtyard, she remembers her time as a member of Grimoire Heart where she learned of the spell, Last Ages. It’s a spell which in exchange for one’s entire life they can turn back time.

Ultear uses this spell but is only able to turn back time one minute. Now I know this is rather dark but in the original manga this part was tragically funny. One because Ultear’s reaction. Now here in the anime, you’ve got the sad music, Miyuki Sawashiro’s low sensual serious voice, and you see all the pain that Ultear’s going through. I mean in the manga you see that’s her skin’s burned up but her you actually see it.

Anyway Ultear dies thinking she was unable to save anyone. However she was able to save so many of the wizards fighting against the dragons including Gray as well as giving all the wizards a fighting chance against the dragons.

After basically running for two episodes(I assume those huge boobs slowed her down) Lucy finally reaches the palace and explains that if the Eclispe Gate is destroyed in their time it will send the dragons and Future Rogue back to their own times saving the world.

And here we go for the scores. Two good episodes in my opinion.

Scores:
1.For Episode 21, it gets a 7/10 for good art and a big twist at the Grey death. However it loses out for all those fillers with the guild wizards. Have some filler with the actual dragons.
2.For Episode 22, it gets a 8/10 solely for Ultear’s sacrifice as well as some greatly done art.

And with that I’m finally caught up with my reviews. Finally! I’m going to drop a really important post soon. Probably right after this one. Make sure to keep your eyes open for it!

 

Fairy Tail Episode 20 Super Mini Review Version: Ah One of My Goddesses, Miyuki Sawashiro! And Some Stuff About Dragons Killing Folks…

If you’ve read the manga, you know what Ultear’s about to do. It makes me sad. She’s such an awesome character voiced by an awesome Seiyuu. At least I can see her as Sinon in Sword Art Online II. It’s not the same though. Ultear’s so sexy. Sinon’s got just not on Ultear’s level.

So we open with watching Atlas Flame just wreck everything while the Thunder Legion and Laxus prepare to go at him. Unfortunately they didn’t even leave a scratch. Luckly Natsu just drops down from the freaking sky and starts eating Atlas. Just chomping down on the freaking fire dragon!

So Natsu tells Laxus he’s got this and to go to the palace to back up Wendy against Zirconis. So Laxus heads over to the palace while Natsu plays functional piggyback with a freaking flaming dragon! After a few minutes of being unable to knock Natsu Atlas asks how does he know Igneel. To which Natsu responds that he’s his dad. This breaks Future Rogue’s control over Atlas and they fly over to Future Rogue and Motherglare and get into a heavy and powerful battle in the skies.

Meanwhile Rogue’s fighting his dragon it tells him that this attack is led by his future self. Turns out our beautiful sexy Ultear’s watching. She has a flashback after Natsu’s first battle with Future Rogue in which she suggests that they kill present day Rogue to insure that Future Rogue never shows up. However Natsu says that somewhere along the line Future Rogue made the wrong decision but present day Rogue has done nothing wrong. Killing him would make them just as evil as Future Rogue.

After the flashback is over, Ultear looks over all the destruction that both Future Rogue and the dragons have wrecked over Crocus. She plots to kill to save the future. With that the episode ends.

I think this was a pretty good episode especially the part at the end where Ultear’s staring murder at Rogue.

I’ll give this episode 8/10 for all that filler with the guilds fighting Motherglare’s hatchlings. It was good stuff but you could have had stuff with the Dragon Slayers fighting the dragons.

So I can’t wait to see what happens next with the anime. I love Ultear and I can’t wait to see how they animate what’s she going to do. So until next time,
Later Days

Let’s Look: Fairy Tail 2nd Series Episodes 16, 17, 18 Extreme Super Mini Review:Let The Dragons’ Rise!

Hey everyone it’s Deven again. I’m going to stuff all the these Fairy Tail Reviews on one post. Here we go!

This is definitely my favorite part of the Grand Magic Games
arc! Let’s dive in!

Episode 16 of Fairy Tail 2nd series is called ‘Natsu vs. Rogue’.
After Future Rogue kills Future Lucy Natsu steps up to fight him.
Looks like he’s about to own…but Natsu even in Lightning Flame
Dragon Mode gets his ass handed to him by Future Rogue in White
Shadow Dragon Mode. Luckily he got his butt saved by Ultear and
Merudy. Crocus evacuated while Toma E. Fiore, Fiore’s king, asks
all the guilds that participated to help in defeating the dragons
that remain after the Eclipse Cannon fires. As the Eclipse Gate
opens, Lucy moves to close the gate, dooming all of humanity to
the wrath of the oncoming dragons.

Episode 17 of Fairy Tail 2nd series is called ‘For Me, Too’. Lucy
explains to Hisui, so sexy princess! Ah Suzuko Mimori-sama, that
does Eclipse Cannon doesn’t exist. The gate only connects the
past and present. However because of the day and the red moon,
the gate’s connected to 400 years in the past where the dragons
ruled the world. The Gate is opened and dragons start coming
through until Lucy and Yukino seal the gate once again with the
12 Golden Keys. However seven dragons made it through and start
rampaging all over Crocus. The guilds fight the dragons only to
find their magic doesn’t work on the dragons. After Future Rogue
takes to the skies with Motherglare, Natsu returns to fight him
once again.

Episode 18 of Fairy Tail 2nd series is called ‘Seven Dragons’.
Some of the guilds’ strongest wizards fight against the dragons
to no avail. Translation: they’re getting their butts kicked. But
wait we have Sting and Present day Rogue! They’ve killed dragons
before. Wrong! They lied and now they’re just as screwed as they
are. Future Rogue explains his plan overthrow Acnologia and
become the new Dragon King. Natsu realizes something and smacks
down Motherglare to the ground with his Fire Dragon Slayer Magic.
Natsu calls out to all the Dragon Slayers and tells them that
this was what their magic meant for. We end to see that cogwheel
is finally turning in. It’s time for the Dragon Slayers to go
hunting! The episode ends with the seventh and final Dragon
Slayer, Cobra of Oracion Seis, arriving to help.

And here we go! I’ll make sure to have up the review for Episode
19 soon.

Scores:

1.For Episode 16, it gets a good review of 8/10 for good plot and
excellent art. It misses 9 or 10 because they leave us on a
cliffhanger.
2. For Episode 17, it gets 8. For the great part with Yukino and
Lucy opening the twelve gates to reseal the Eclispe Gate. As well
as all the good fights there even though the guilds don’t do crap
to the dragons.
3.For Episode 18, it gets an epic rating of 9 for Natsu’s
declaration to the other Dragon Slayers. It misses out on that
last point because it was kinda a slow getting to the action.

So that’s it for Fairy Tail,

Until the next review,

Later days

You can ask me as many questions as you want on Ask.fm and you can follow me on Twitter to know when my new reviews are coming out. You’ll also be update on what’s happening.

Review: Glasslip EP 2- Premonition

P.A. Works latest anime returns for another ep. This time we’re treated with some plot to go along with the beautiful art.

Here’s my review.

After last week’s ep, I was left with disappointment about how this might proceed. While on a whole I like Glasslip, it was lacking the plot to really get me engaged in ep 1, thus making it not super enjoyable, but more of a filler-ish introductory ep. That being said, as ep 2 rolls around I was hoping the actual anime would start now, given that we pretty much know the characters now.

We start off right where we ended ep 1, back in the cafe as David makes the statement that he saw what Touko saw that one day. Still wondering what that means, but don’t worry, we get the answer in this ep. David also makes arrangements to meet up with Touko tomorrow so the two of them can talk.

Note: This is Deven chiming in. Look at the comments. You’ll see why it isn’t going to be on my Review List much longer.

We cut to the lovely OP before coming back 1:30 later. Now that David has left, everyone starts to pepper Touko with questions about what exactly is going on and why he’s asked her to meet up with him later. Also, notice how annoyed Yuki looks with this conversation. It’s clear that he’s got feelings for Touko, so her going to meet up with this David guy has him on edge. Sensing she might be worried and anxious about going to meet him, Sachi says she’ll go with her as support. Points for coming to her aid.

The next day we see David at home, lounging a chair when he suddenly hears Touko’s voice and wakes up quickly. Okay, weird. He mentions that he was “too careless” about something. We also find out that if David wasn’t weird enough, he’s living in a tent while his room is getting worked on or something. While it’s not actually said what exactly is wrong with his room, I’m guessing it’s being renovated or something. Maybe painted.

Dude you’re asking for a face full of lead if you don’t fuck off.

Anyways that’s not the matter at hand here. David arrives at the location chosen for their meet up, where Sachi gets very protective for Touko. David is still an edgy prick here as he’s yet again shooting his mouth off, asking Sachi what he has to do to earn her trust. Geez, can’t this guy take a hint that no one likes him?

But then he says something that’s slightly interesting, asking Touko if she can see visions at certain times. Hmm? What’s this now? What’s also interesting about this is that Sachi doesn’t really react all that much to that; any normal person would at least wonder what he’s talking about, but she didn’t seem worried about it. That leads me to believe that Sachi must know something here.

Touko asks Sachi to give David and her moment so they can talk, Sachi is a bit nervous about leaving them alone. Assuring her that it’ll be fine, Sachi leaves, but not before saying that there is a no dating policy in their group. Hmm, interesting she’d bring that up at a time like this. David of course has some shitty come back to that, which Sachi gives him a very angry look for. Geez David, you’re on thin ice already, don’t start intentionally breaking it you dumb ass.

Now begins the slight info dump moment. David and Touko chat about this ability of hers, seeing visions of the future, and what it’s all about. Now outside in the sun, David goes on to say that he wasn’t concentrating and heard her voice earlier. Touko is of course confused as to what exactly he’s talking about, so David explains that he was accidentally eavesdropping on something she’d say in the future. Okay… sounds legit. Touko mentions that at the festival the other day, she also heard something too, “fragments of the future” as David calls them. Trust him to coin some cheesy name for them. So what this is boiling down to is that Touko can somehow see the future when she looks at something sparkly, or just glass in general. Being that she’s does glass blowing, making beautiful glass objects, she’s gonna be trippin’ if she starts looking at them too much.

Anyways, David proves this to her as he gets her to look at the necklace she’s wearing, as it’s got glass on it, and concentrate really hard on it. Touko then starts to see the future, something that she’s never seen so clearly before, but this happened because David was with her this time. Hmm, I see where the trouble will arise now, David will have to join their group. Later we see Sachi and Touko talking over ice cream, Sachi asking if everything went alright with David. Touko insists that everything went fine, prompting Sachi to say that she’s not sure what she’d do if anything bad happened to Touko.

She’ll snap one day

Okay that’s weird coming from her. First of all there still is a lot we don’t know about Sachi. She’s got something wrong with her, as it’s mentioned she was at the hospital for regular check ups, but other than that she’s hiding something. She must know about the visions Touko is seeing because she was too calm when that was mentioned; she must also know who David is as she had the most reaction when he walked up to them in the cafe. Couple that with the fact she made mention that she’s not even sure how she’d react should something bad happen to Touko, I’m thinking we should be very worried about Sachi now. Pretty much everything lines up for her to be some absolutely ape shit insane killing machine should something set her off. What do you think about her?

The second half of the ep is a lot of romantic drama. We kick things off with Yuki and David running into each other while out for a jog. Yuki obviously wants nothing to do with David, so that conversation is very short. Once back at his house Yanagi is surprised to see him back so soon, as I guess his runs are longer than that. Also I noticed he was wearing a knee brace, indicating that he must have injured his knee at some point and it now going through the recovery stage.

What furthers this point is that not only does Yanagi make a direct mention that he’s still recovering, but she’s helping him stretch it out. In ep 1 Hiro made mention that running was the only thing on his mind all the time (or something along those lines) so I’m going to say he was injured possibly during a race in the past and he’s still bitter about it somehow. I’m sure we’ll get more info as it goes along. Also I find it interesting Yuki says he won’t lose to him; this is obviously relating to his feelings about Touko, this really gets Yanagi flustered.

The following scene is of Yanagi calling Touko to ask her for some advice on something. This brings into question what exactly the relationship between Yanagi and Yuki is. They act like siblings, they live in the same house, they seem to hang out together a lot, yet they don’t have the same family names. I’m not sailing the wincest ship yet because I don’t think it is, mostly because if they were related and Yanagi is calling Touko to get advice about how to ask someone she likes out (Touko understandings this must be Yuki), I highly doubt that Touko would be so open and encouraging for a brother and sister to start dating. I mean think about it, it really doesn’t make any sense for them to be related because of that reason, but it still doesn’t answer the question of why they live together. Plus, if they are related, when Touko mentions Yuki to her, being the person she wants to ask out, Yanagi showed no sign of Yuki being her brother. But the final thing that happens before this scene makes me wonder if I’ve got it all wrong. Yuki has finished taking a shower and walks into Yanagi’s room (fully clothed of course) to tell her that he’s finished. Only a brother and sister would be that calm about entering each others rooms. To close out that scene, Touko overhears Yuki telling Yanagi that the bath is ready for her, and Touko seems to question if they’d be taking a bath together. Once again it shatters that theory that they’re related, as Touko wouldn’t be so calm about a brother and sister bathing together. So all this is going through my head as I rewatch this scene, and once it’s over I’m still back at square one, and I’ve got no solid answer of what their relationship is. If you’ve got your own theory about this matter, I’d love to discuss this with you, so leave a comment and we can talk!

She’s like “Oh shit….”

RUN YANAGI, RUN!!!

The ep close out with a few key scenes. At the cafe, Hiro talks about their upcoming hiking trip that they’re all going on. Touko also lifts the dating ban, something that gets a reaction form everyone. Once again, going back to the previous paragraph, if Yuki and Yanagi are siblings, Touko wouldn’t be encouraging their forbidden love so eagerly. Later on once they’ve all left, except Hiro who’s still working, Yanagi shows up looking for everyone. Hiro tells her that they’ve all left and also mentions that Touko has lifted the dating ban. Bolting from the cafe, Yanagi fears the worst is about to happen.

Her reaction was kinda cute

Yuki and Touko are about to part ways on their walk home, but Yuki has something he wants to tell Touko. Okay, so I keep having to back to that paragraph, but once again Touko wouldn’t be pulling the strings trying to get a brother and sister to date, so the siblings theory is tested once more. Anyways, Yuki and Touko talk for a bit about things, all the while cutting back to a running Yanagi trying to get there in time, and it finally rolls around for Yuki to confess to Touko. At this point Yanagi has arrived and has overheard all this happen. Touko is very flustered and flees the scene quickly, leaving Yuki a bit depressed about the whole ordeal. Acting natural about everything, Yanagi causally walks up, saying she’s just on her way home. Having enough excitement for one day, Yuki and Yanagi walk home, both unknowing the others feelings now.

Be careful what you wish for Touko, it might just get you.

We end the ep with Touko calling up David and asking to see the future, something that she foresaw earlier! What happens next, well we’ll have to wait till next week to find out the answer to that question.

So as far as episode 2’s go this was pretty good. The plot is actually starting and the romantic drama is already starting off at a high level. Yuki confessing was kinda a big deal to have so soon off the start, but that ending with Touko wanting to see the future, damn girl, sometimes it’s better not to know. The truth can hurt and Touko might just find something out she won’t want to know.

Let’s take a look at some screen shots now.

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So there you go, Glasslip ep 2! I hope you enjoyed this review and subsequent episode as well. Up next I’ll have… hmm, something. I’m not sure what but something will be posted. I’ll see how my new writer is doing as well, I personally want to see some Aldnoah.Zero, Akame ga Kill and Zankyou no Terror reviews posted too, but I can respect the fact things happen.

Here’s what’s gonna happen next week!

I’ll cya in the next post!

Bonus Pic!

Click for full size

Pixiv Link! 

Note:This post belongs to my great friend and fellow anime blogger Nick Corps. He’s just letting me use it because I was so behind. So do me a favor and thank him by following on Twitter and asking him questions on Ask.fm

How Dubbing Works

Hey everyone. It’s Deven to give you the first Meta Post of its kind on this blog. Meta Posts will be stuff like how things in the anime industry work and some occasionally news about voice actors and seiyuu. Now that we’ve gotten this out of the way let’s get down to it!)

So you’re here for how Dubbing works but that’s all I’m doing here. I’m going to explain how an anime goes from the beginning from whatever medium it was first, manga, visual novel, light novel, normal novel, to subbed anime, to dubbed and playing on your TV or computer.

1.Popularity

So first step. Actually choosing which anime get adapted. How this happens is the same way a lot of things happen in business of selling anything:what’s the most popular. Japanese, American, British, it doesn’t matter what your nationality is. If you’re a business type you know that it’s easier to sell food to a starving man than to a full one.

What I mean is that no matter how small the anime it has a fanbase that loves it. Those are your guaranteed viewers and anyone else is just golden. But that’s not the most important. Not all fanbases are equal. No one’s jumping over themselves to give Sekirei another season but they renew Naruto every season.

Getting an anime depends on popularity like I said but there’s different types of popularity and different ways to get it. For example you can have your manga in a big time magazine like Shonen Jump or Weekly Shonen like Rumiko Takanhashi.

This lady is a badass in the manga world and one of the biggest women in the anime world and she’s not even a seiyuu. She is one of the biggest female mangaka and one of the few mangaka period that has had the majority of her works adapted into anime. Now that’s a badass woman and she doesn’t stop! She’s still writing. Most of her work appears in Weekly Shonen.

Other popularities are having an interesting premise like Attack on Titan which is one of the biggest hits that it made the artist rethink the ending. Also it’s the most popular manga in Japan beating One Piece out of the top spot. Others are popular like Date A Live by selling visual novel video games and getting high sells in the Light Novel world.

Finally some get into the anime world just through a businessman wanting to expand an empire. The best example I can think of right now is Love Live School Idol Project.

Love Live was originally just a music group that used both animated characters and real voice actresses. Then someone I assume got the freaking genius idea to make an anime and the entire franchanise exploded out. Now Love Live is even more popular that it was before with two anime season now finished, multiple CDs out, an app out on Android and IOS, and a movie coming out soon. Life is good if you’re at Lantis!

Of course you can just have an mangaka praying to whichever god they signed up for hoping that some anime studio will call and say they want to turn their manga into an anime. Not the most sexy way to get it but I guarantee you it’s probably happened

The point is there are many ways to get the popularity to get an anime. Now on to the next step.

2.Recording and getting the word out.

Now Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is anime. You got to pick your cast for the sub right. Now as sad as it is you’ve got to go to your typecast seiyuu sometimes…okay a lot of time. Why? Because you know they can do the work. Kikuko Inoue for example is known for playing hot moms for example so you’d cast her for your cute youthful mom. However you can also play around like for example Sayaka Oohara. She can play similar roles to Kikuko Inoue but she’s also got that cool and firm Erza Scarlett voice as well as whole lot of others.

The point is the cast is needs to be All-Stars. Why? Because dedicated fans will watch an anime just because one of their favorite actors is it. One of the big reasons for me why I watched OniAi, other than a bet, was that Minori Chihara and Eri Kitamura were in it. You need that draw.

The other part is simple. Get the word out! No one watch an anime that they don’t know is coming out.

3.Send In The Dub Companies.

So now your anime is done, all recorded, which season it’s coming on is done, and your hype is firm. Now what’s next? The Dub companies!

Why? So who can get the streaming rights. See back in the day when I was a kid. You had to wait until the anime was over and the Dubbers already finished the dub to see it in Japanese. Nowadays you can get it a few hours after it comes out in Japan. How cool is that!

Now why are the streaming rights so important? It’s because they go hand and hand with the home video rights ie. the right to dub it.

Now if it’s something low level, it’s not something the companies are fighting over. Now something serious and really popular like Attack on Titan…now I guess there were some boardroom brawls for Funanimation to get that.

The biggest rights fight I guess that’s happened recently would have to be the dub rights to the new Sailor Moon series as well as the rights to redub the old one.

Now if you weren’t born in the 90s Sailor Moon was the stuff. It was the anime that made the Magical Girl saving the world top class. So it had a lot of nostalgia on it. Meaning that a lot of dub studios wanted it.

Personally I wanted Funanimation to have it because a lot of Funanimation voice actresses, particularly the one below, have said they wanted to voice act in it.

Unfortunatly the rights now belong to Viz but there’s a bit of hope since they have Cherami Leigh voicing Sailor Venus. Personally I can’t wait for that to come out.

4.During the Anime

Now that the anime’s got its streaming rights sold and everything all nice and tidy on the hype train, the anime comes out.

Now this is the most important part, how the fans receive it. How the fans receive could determine a few things. One and the most important one, if it gets a second season which is always important.

Two for the dub companies, it will determine how fast they’ll dub it. Now as an anime lover, I’ve watched a few con panels on Youtube and I’ve heard a few Funanimation voice actors and actresses say that it depends on the fans. If you’re watching an anime a lot while it’s streaming it’s a sign to them that you want that dub soon.

So if you want an anime dubbed fast, watch the freaking stream!

5. After the anime is over

So the anime’s season run is over and the hype train’s slowed down but not outright stopped yet. There’s still work to be done. What? Now you’ve got to get those DVDs and Blu-Rays ready for release. Now you’ve got to combine this with step 4. If the studios see that a lot of people are buying and watching they’ll make more seasons. It’s a fact. They want to make money.

Now I’m an author(granted haven’t finished any books yet but I’m getting there). Now I talked to one of my cousin’s and shared the first few chapters of my book with him. He said it was awesome and he couldn’t wait to read the rest. I asked him how many copies would he buy. He said he wanted me to give him the ‘hookup’. Translation:he wanted me to give him a free copy.

No way in hell! I know how my family and people like them work. You buy one copy and share it with everyone and their mother. They all like the book but only one was freaking sold. So I don’t get to keep my book deal. Then you come to me saying why ain’t you writing anymore books.

Because jackass you didn’t buy any books! You shared like an idiot. It’s the same principle with anime. Now being an anime blogger I have to get the anime as fast as possible. So that means that I have to illegally download it. However I try to do that as little as possible and only for things I need to watch. Why? Because if it’s anime that I want dubbed, cutting into the company’s profit isn’t going to help it go faster.

Now I’m not saying anyone’s bad but come on. Buy the official release when it comes out. It’s just better for everyone.

5.Dubbing

So now that you’ve released your anime on DVD and Blu-Ray, it’s time for the final part, dubbing.

Now contrary to popular belief, dubbing is hard. Unlike in the original Japanese, where you say the words and then the animation is made. In dubbing you have to match the lip flaps that the character is making and it’s harder than it sounds.

For example a new Ace on Funanimation’s lineup, Bryn Aprill who currently is the English voice for Kotori Itsuka in Date A Live and Meldy in Fairy Tail. Now she started off in small parts in various anime. Why? So you can master the art of the flaps. It’s one of the main reasons why Funanimation uses a lot of their actors and actresses a lot(other than the fact that most of them live in the area).

But before you get to that you’ve got the biggest job in the anime industry on the English Dub side:Adapting the Japanese script to English.

Now a lot of people whine about how stuff is different when you adapt to English. Hmm…duh!

Japanese culture is far different than ours and some things just don’t translate.

For example in Sekirei Pure Engagement Episode 3, in the original Japanese Kazehana says that Minato is the new love in her life now. However she uses the word Koi which can mean fish. So you get a thought balloon of a fish next to his head.

Now this is word play humor. Japanese speech is full of it and most of it doesn’t translate. So instead of saying something that wouldn’t make sense to American viewers Kazehana says that Minato’s the new big fish in her life now.

It’s still roughly got the same meaning and it works in the scene.

It’s a tough thing and I say awesome to all the script adaptors.

5.1 Getting The Voice Actors.

Now this is the most difficult part of the process and the part that a lot of sub purists hate the most. However there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that you don’t know about.

First of all when the anime is getting ready to be dubbed the director will look over the script and either have a open casting call or just choose someone. Typically it’s a casting call with auditions.

Now before this part even happens the director has to decide on the interpretation they want to bring to the anime and based on that they choose the actors. Now with some anime you can be looser with interpretation like with something like Panty and Stocking. I like to say that was a bit loose. Others that are big timers like One Piece don’t really have much leeway on interpretation.

And interpretation, like I said before, can determine which actors get which parts. I don’t like to use this example but I’ll do it.

For example in the Funanimation Dub of Date A Live Alexis Tipton was cast as Kurumi Tokisaki. Now some people(ie me) thought that she could have done better as Kotori. I think that Colleen Clinkenbeard or Stephanie Young could have done a good Kurumi. However as I watched it for a second time, I realized that it seemed like a different interpretation of Kurumi. Less super sexy seductress with a lust for murder and more teenage girl that likes being sexy and killing. Sounds the same completely different things. If you look at it like that then Alexis Tipton did an awesome job as Kurumi.

So now you’ve got your voice actors on the English side, you record, making sure that you match those flaps, and then you’ve got your finished product on the dub side!

Now that’s it. At the end of the process the dub and the process on either side isn’t really that different. Dub companies still have to market the dub out there just as much as the sub does.

So now that’s really it so until the Meta Post,
Later Days

You can ask me as many questions as you want onAsk.fmand you can follow me onTwitterto know when my new reviews are coming out. You’ll also be update on what’s happening.