Friday, September 30, 2011

Lime-Colored War Tales 10 - Take Your Place Inside the Fire with Her



The attacks on the Amanohara intensify, and there's plenty of physical damage to the ship and mental damage to one of its residents. Specifically, Rinzu Kuroda, who finds herself reliving some of the traumatic events of her cloistered past. The jury's still out on whether the drama works in this episode; it seemed good in text when I was transcribing it, but some of the acting is a little over the top. But it makes for a decent evolution in Rinzu's character arc.

TV Series & OVA Batch (Nyaa) || TV Series Batch (BakaBT)

New Scenes: None
Enhanced Scene: 6:23~7:25 (Momen's wearing even less than she did on TV)

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Rizelmine 09 - Hot For Teacher


I'm not going to lie; I listened to the above line many more times than was necessary for retiming and editing purposes. But anyway, in this episode Tomonori shows he's got the balls to walk up to an older woman's residence, grab her by the hand, and lead her... somewhere. Even so, he's still not below trying to take advantage of relationship discord to try and steal the heart of the woman of his dreams. And for once, Rizel shows genuine fear and concern over the stability of her marriage.

You may notice some video issues at 10:26. Unfortunately, it's an unfixable issue from the source, and it exists in all other releases, except the AC TV-rip.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Lime-Colored War Tales 09 - Formal Wear for Formal War



A random, invented crisis demands a random, invented solution. And on that logic, the ninth episode of Lime-Colored War Tales has our crew stopping in at port and organizing a formal ball. And actually, I wish more of these "female characters go to certain place and dress in certain outfit" episodes did formal dresses, as it's something we don't get to see in anime or real life that much. But I suppose that means more complicated character designs and more involved animation work, compared to the good old standby outfits like school swimsuits.

Anyway, this is another Asa focus episode, despite her non-appearance in the screenshot. As you might expect, her feelings about Lt. Commander Date and her femininity inferiority complex are involved.

TV Series & OVA Batch (Nyaa) || TV Series Batch (BakaBT)

New Scene: 02:56~4:17 (Sea bears foam, sleep bears dreams. Both end in the same way - CRASH!)
Enhanced Scene: 04:39~04:43 (Shintarou's not blocking the view anymore)

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Rizelmine 08 - There's no getting offa this kite we're on!



Rizelmine 08 continues to develop its love polygon, which now looks something like:

Aoi Seimoto -> likes Ryuunosuke Hououin -> likes Rizel -> likes Tomonori Iwaki-> likes Kyouko Yachigusa -> likes Tomonori Iwaki

This time, it's a date at a strangely-deserted amusement park, which Rizel attempts to make into a threesome. And it seems like the Papas have some connection with Kyouko the homewrecker, as well.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Lime-Colred War Tales 08 - What.


Y'know, I've been watching anime and reading manga for close to 9 years now, and I've seen and read some pretty crazy stuff. But every once in a while, something comes along that's so absurd and mind-breaking, it just makes you go "What." Like the above scene. Yes, that happened, but it's nothing compared to what we see in the added scene just before it. And as you may have guessed, episode 9 of Lime-Colored War Tales is a Kinu-centric episode, where we learn about her mysterious spiritual powers and her... rather unique connections to the Hell-Girl-style straw dolls she carries around.

Also, has anybody else noticed that many of the sound effects in this and many other series can be traced back to Love Hina, if not earlier? Listen for the "quack" at 03:35 after the new scene, and tell me you haven't heard that exact same effect before.

TV Series & OVA Batch (Nyaa) || TV Series Batch (BakaBT)
New Scene: 02:20 ~ 03:35 (immediately after OP)
Enhanced Scene: Slightly more "items" are visible in the last group scene before the ED. Thanks to Anon for pointing that out.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Rizelmine 07 - A Bust From the Past



If you think Tomonori's interactions with older women are limited to him lusting after his engaged teacher, you'd be wrong. Here we meet Kyouko Yachigusa, a highschool girl with a thing for younger boys with slightly-ripped shorts. This is also one of the two largest files in the series (other one being 04), due to the grainy-film flashback sequences. Although according to Desbreko, "the whole show is larger than it needs to be thanks to all the DVD compression artifacts." And you know what's really bad? Like many ~24 episode series, Rizelmine was released on 8 volumes with 3 eps per disc for the R2J DVD release. But as you know, it has half-length episodes, meaning those discs had effectively 1.5 episodes apiece. And they still suffer from overcompression. Even on DVD5, there should've been plenty of room to work with, though I don't know what they had in the way of extras. EDIT: I was being too charitable, see comments.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT).

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Lime-Colored War Tales 07 - There's no Mental Age of Consent



In keeping with ecchi anime traditions, LCWT 07 features a Sudden Girlfriend Appearance. Only instead of a mysterious unknown girl appearing and becoming the guy's girlfriend, it's literally an appearance of a former girlfriend. However, she's no longer the woman he once knew... let's just say she's a little more playful and spontaneous. But that sure doesn't stop the students from feeling a little jealous.

And I have to admit, I like this show's OP. It's driving, it's dramatic, it's sung by the characters' VAs, and its lyrics are relevant to the show, rather than being plucked from the grab-bag of Jpop clichés. (As in "I want to become your sky and grant your dream in this sparkling season.") And I've said it before, but I don't care for re-releases that omit song subs entirely, thus showing that the groups/individuals care more about pushing their anti-song agenda on viewers than about presenting the show as well as possible. That's the beauty of softsubbed karaoke -- if you decide you don't want the song lyrics onscreen for whatever reason, you can turn them off. And I believe in letting the viewers make that decision, rather than deciding for them.

TV Series & OVA Batch (Nyaa) || TV Series Batch (BakaBT)

New Scene: 14:57~16:01 -- I have to say, it's wrong on at least one level.
Enhanced Scenes: None that I know of, but keep in mind I never actually watched the TV-rips.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Rizelmine 06 - Why doesn't he have a seat over there?



In the 6th episode of hotwife anime Rizelmine, we encounter one of the first major complications: Ryuunosuke Hououin, who shows far more interest in Rizel than her husband has until this point. And as we've seen in previous episodes, Tomonori's childhood friend Aoi Seimoto has a certain amount of interest in Ryuunosuke. And once again, this is an angle of Rizelmine that I like -- unlike many similar shows, the childhood friend character is not hopelessly competing for the main character's attention against a bevy of robot/dragon/winged/witch/magical/vampire/blood-related/succubus/whatever girls. Of course, she's competing for someone else's attention. But the point is, she has a love interest who's not the main character, thus cutting back the harem vibe a bit.

I will be away and without Internet access until Monday or Tuesday, so I won't be able to do any releases/shoutbox posts until then.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)