Rizelmine 24 - A Decent Proposal

It feels like it's taken forever, but here is the final episode of Rizelmine. After the insanity of the previous two episodes, it's a short, sweet, and low-key finale. Note that it refers back to certain events and objects from episodes 14-16.

This is actually the fourth DVD version of the second season, following Hono-Bono, AIP, and Retrofit's releases. Still, I think most will agree that this is the best and most definitive version, at least until someone comes along and does a 10-bit encode with the same amount of filtering and manual correction that Desbreko put into this release. And I don't think that's too likely.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT) EDIT:

A patch for episode 07v2 can be found here. That file will be in the complete batch on BakaBT. The only difference is that it adds a font that wasn't included in the .mkv. If you have the Candara font on your system, you won't notice a difference.

Rizelmine 23 - Hetalia: Waifu Powers

What started as an arranged marriage between a middle school boy and a strange girl outside of his preferred age group has morphed into an international incident. And now, we get Rie Kugimiya playing five characters with a variety of foreign accents. And that's something of a rarity. If she's not playing a robot (this show, Hand Maid May), an alien (G-On Riders), a suit of armor (FMA), or a being from another dimension (Shana), Kugimiya usually plays traditional Japanese/super-ojousama characters. (ToraDora, AkaSaka, Hayate the Combat Butler, Idolm@ster, etc.) I guess there is Louise, but that's in an other-world setting. About the only other time I can think of where she plays a human non-Japanese character in an Earth setting is her role as Shannon in Umineko no naku koro ni.

Anyway, the end of this episode shows how Rizelmine can throw tons of ridiculous action and fanservice at you, and then blindside you with an emotional suckerpunch. Look for the final episode sometime after Sunday.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Rizelmine 22 - Welcome to Married Life

Tomonori's in for a rude awakening in Rizelmine 22, as Rizel doesn't seem interested in repeating the in-her-mind-successful attempt at the "Adult C." So he's feeling understandably frustrated and a little, uh, blue. Tensions run high, and they're not the good kind of tensions, either. This sets the stage for the final crisis that will unfold in the last two episodes.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Rizelmine 21 - Why don't we *all* have a seat over there?

It's Christmas at the Iwaki house, and Rizel and Tomonori are alone, confined, and being subjected to all kinds of stimulating stimuli. Despite the post's title, I don't believe the kind of relationship depicted here is wrong, but I had to complete the running gag I had in mind. Of course, since this is the fourth-to-last episode, various forces are sure to prevent the expected outcome from happening so early.


Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

And now it's time for a little bit of "Adventures in 10-bit h264 on an old POS PC."

Rizelmine 20 - Too Hot for TV Tropes

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Rizelmine 20 is out, and I'm going to take this opportunity to soapbox for a moment.

Last weekend, popular/infamous website TVTropes.org got a complaint referred to Google's AdSense (and probably one from some troll, not a concerned citizen) about the content of their "Naughty Tentacles" page, which once documented instances of supernatural tentacles groping and attacking people for erotic, comedic, or horrific purposes. The response of the admins was to wipe that page, all pages specifically referring to pornographic content, remove/lock/limit certain tropes, and perhaps most disturbingly, remove numerous works pages deemed too deviant or sexually offensive. In the anime/manga realm, that includes titles ranging from Kodomo no Jikan to Eiken to Fate/Stay Night (as well as some fairly-respected pieces of literature like Vladmir Nabokov's Lolita), and I wouldn't be surprised if more get the axe in weeks to come.

Rizelmine 19 - Foreplay and Cosplay

We've reached the point where Tomonori and Rizel's relationship needs more experience points to get to the next level, or else Rizel's growth will stay stunted forever. (Come to think of it, I was once told that I erroneously viewed dating and sex like a video game...) But Tomonori, being his usual male tsundere self, will have none of it, so it's up to all the adults in the household to give Rizel the weapons she needs to succeed. Also in episode 19, Rizel's 3 Mamas start to take a larger role in the proceedings. Note that while the Papas use benefits and rewards to influence Tomonori's parents, the Mamas use threats and fear to get their way.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Rizelmine 18 - Mind Control Mayhem

The school trip comes to a conclusion in Rizelmine 18, and with it we get a wide array of fetishes, kinks, and pairings. Everything from yaoi to yuri to shotacon to bestiality is fair game. Aoi tries out for a part in Gantz, and Rizel practices her photobombing skills. Enjoy, and get ready for things to heat up even more when the action returns to the home front in the next episode.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Rizelmine 17 - Why don't *I* have a seat over there?

Sorry for the delay, but random fluctuations to my sleeping patterns have kept me from having energy for subtitle editing. Here's episode 17 of Rizelmine, which is one of my favorites. I can point to the summer evening back in 2007, when I was watching this episode with a drink in hand, as the time I finally fully embraced trashy ecchi anime and (fictional!) loli fanservice. It's just so wrong that it feels right. Perhaps even more right than the height of the trees in Michigan.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Rizelmine 16 - Why don't you have a seat over there?

The epic school trip to Kyoto and Nara has begun, and Tomonori and Rizel wind up on a double-date with another would-be couple. Ryuunosuke Hououin proves that he knows what the cleanest best, pleasure is... until he gets a massive Logic Bomb dropped on him. And not surprisingly, there are some unexpected tagalongs on this journey. This arc will continue over the next two episodes.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Rizelmine 15 - I love you from cradle to flatline

Just three episodes into the second season, things in Rizelmine take a turn for the deadly serious. Among other things, that means a trip down memory lane and some grained-up reused animation. But Rizelmine also shows that it has the power to emotionally blindside viewers who came in expecting nothing but ecchi comedy. Expect some shocking revelations into the origins of Tomonori's attraction to older women, as his relationship with Rizel takes two steps forward and one step back.

But don't worry, there's a school trip arc coming up with plenty of hilarious hijinks, including cosplay and mind-control.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

P.S. Anybody know where I got the post title, without the aid of Google or similar services?

Rizelmine 14 - Secret Agent Girl

Yes, they've given her a number and taken away her name, not that her name didn't sound dubious to begin with. Rizel undertakes a risky commando mission as a preliminary to her date with Tomonori, which was arranged under false pretenses in the previous episode. After the somewhat-depressing aging montage in 13, things take a downright sad turn this time around.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Rizelmine 13 - I'm Getting Older, Too

It's time to get underway with the second season of Rizelmine, which aired in Fall 2002 after a 3-month break between episodes 12 and 13. In ep 12, we caught a brief glimpse of a non-loli Rizel, and we're going to see more of that this time around. There's also some "boobs in your face," and a surprisingly depressing fantasy sequence right after the OP. And just like in Hollywood, fountains in parks always respond to romantic moments. Maybe it's a system similar to the Buffalo Wild Wings button?

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

This episode features the first use of the 2nd ED, so be sure to keep that file in the same folder. Also, marvel at my song-syllable-counting skills.

Rizelmine Season 1 Batch

As a little Thanksgiving present to you all, here's a batch with the first half of Rizelmine. I went ahead with this since nobody pointed out any mistakes that should've been fixed. If there are any, I'll see about fixing them when the show is complete.

Lime-Colored War Tales 13 is at the QC stage, so it'll be out before long as well. EDIT: Please use the complete series batches instead.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Rizelmine 12 - A Test of Island Courage

For me, the last episode of Rizelmine's first season brings to mind countless 80s teen comedy movies, which inevitably ended with some sort of race or contest between the plucky underdog protagonist(s) and their rick jackass oppressors. But in this contest, a kiss and a legend of eternal happiness are on the line, and certain external factions are hell-bent on manipulating the results. I believe this episode also marks the onscreen debut of Rizel's trio of Mamas, who will have more of a role in the second season.

Again, if you've seen mistakes in any of these episodes so far, let me know and I'll see about fixing them for a season 1 batch.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Rizelmine 11 - The Magnificent Six

No beach episode this time; instead, we get the buildup and journey to establishing a beach episode. Or what would've been the first half of an episode, if these episodes had normal lengths. But the next episode is the end of the first season, and I may do a partial batch for eps 1-12. Let me know if you've seen any mistakes so far.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

Rizelmine 10 - Matchmaking Gone Wrong

In this episode of Rizelmine that features barely any lines from the male lead, Rizel tries to help her best female friend win the heart of resident rich-boy Ryuunosuke Hououin. Part of me can't help seeing that relationship from the cynical/Sankaku view of "all Japanese women are gold diggers." But it doesn't matter here, as Ryuunosuke makes clear which age bracket is relevant to his interests.

Batch (Nyaa) || Batch (BakaBT)

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)

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)

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).

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)