Reiko Yoshida is in charge of Chu-Bra!!’s series composition. Among other things, Yoshida was in charge of the series composition of Kaleido Star, a show that I really enjoyed overall. I feel a lot of similarities between Chu-Bra!! and Kaleido Star, which is natural given they share the same series composer. Both shows belong to the heart-warming fight for your dreams school of anime. The similarity I see is more about the series tone and drive, excepting Chu-Bra!!’s fanservice, instead of pointing to any of the other elements that they share.
Sora Kasugano
Sora Kasugano has a pensive air around her. She would be just another character from an eroge, except for the softly contrasted monochromatic colors of her skin, clothing, and hair caught my eye. I find all of the Yosuganosora characters illustrated by Hashimoto Takashi attractive, mainly for how well the line work and color palette match so well.
Figures and Pants
While scrounging the bargain bins at a few online retailers, I came across this MegaHouse figure of Iori Manase, one of those cute IdolMaster characters. It struck me that the figure was odd. Iori was wearing pants, which is quite uncommon for scale figures and to some extent female character designs in anime, or at least among the characters that get made into figures. Just looking at the figures I have, only two are wearing honest to goodness pants, Fate/Zero Saber and Kino. For the rest it’s skirts, dresses, plug-suits, swimwear, and the occasional pair of shorts.
It’s not surprising that most figures don’t wear pants. I was just surprised that so few do. It’s a fan-service thing for sure, but I think designers underestimate that pants can be attractive as well. The Fate/Zero Saber is quite hot in a different way.
Unfortunately for me, Iori seems to be out of print.
Winter ‘10 CR Simulcasts
Over the past few months I was too busy to watch anything new. Now I have the time to actually get some use out of the Crunchyroll subscription I’ve been paying for. Though I’ve not used it in six months, I kept on with the subscription. I knew I’d want to use it later on, so kept supporting it. Anyway, later on is now and this is a good set of shows.
Paprika
In some ways, Paprika is a standard thriller with an unconventional bomb. Something has gotten into the wrong hands and if the protagonists don’t wrest it back to safety, then something catastrophic will damage the world. The thing the protagonists need to reclaim is the DC Mini (DreamCast Mini?), a dream navigator that has been stolen and has gone social or viral over the human network, infecting reality with dreamed chaos.
Black Rock Shooter
Perhaps a three-dimensional representation of the Black Rock Shooter cannot scoop up all of the style of the two dimensional art, but Akeji pretty much rocked this out anyway. The best part of the figure are her blue eyes, giving off a melancholy vibe. They’re really mysterious looking. However, facial expression really only matters up close, like when the figure is on your desk. On the shelf, the rest of the figure is what should speak and keep it interesting for several months or more.
Honey & Clover, After Set 1
I like to indulge in things that remind me of days gone by, even if the memory gets a little fluffed and imagined way better than it really was. Being able to hook into into Honey & Clover like that has made watching it more fun than I expected.
