Rubénerd!

I really need to spin these anime posts off into a separate blog again.

There's some debate that not only Sorami Kanata and Hirasawa Yui are the same character but they're comparable in awesomeness.

I'm going to get into trouble from the increasingly vocal anti-moe taskforce for saying this, but while I enjoyed the few So-Ra-No-Wo-To episodes I saw and while I do think the trumpet is an awesome instrument (especially if used in jazz), Yui is still the Queen. I'm right... right?

In case you needed another reason to obsess over the up and coming second season of the moe-blob-but-still-awesome music anime K-On, there's going to be a new character called Miura Akane-chan.

She's going to be 172cm tall which would make her tower even over Mio, and get this: she's going to play the tuba! I'm really interested to see how they fit a tuba into a pop band, I mean, it's a gigantic tuba! A... tuba!? It probably weighs more than she does! Wait, hold on, let me see if I've got this straight: a... tuba!?

To tell the truth, if they were going to introduce a new character I would have been more excited if he was a guy, someone like Kyon to be mock horrified at their afternoon tea and complain they never get any work done. ;).

Wait, what? A... tuba!?

That reminds me, I only got up to watching episode 08, and I only blogged up to episode 06. I'd better rectify this before someone with a tuba comes along. A... tuba!?

While I think of it, she also reminds me of someone, but I can't quite put my finger on who. Well I suppose that's a good thing, otherwise I'd be arrested.

What does Mugi do after a tiring day of playing keyboards on the set of a wildly successful anime series? She endorses pickled radish!

If I saw this in a store I would definitely buy it, the only reason being that I tried this food once before and really liked it. Yeah, that's the only reason. Judge me however you want.

Smalluswallpaperusphobia noun
The fear of finding an epic picture you want to use it as your desktop background but can't because of its diminutive size.

Get it? Hey, I thought it was funny.

<(^_^<) (>^_^)>

Hard hitting reporting I can assure you ^_^.

Hey, I wasn't able to go to the Anime Festival Asia 2009 convention in Singapore that I so gleefully reported on and see the K-On! seiyuus because I was still taking exams, cut me some slack! Or perhaps in this case some stockings. Wait, that didn't sound right. Never mind.

"Woooooo... you will be the lead singer! Wooooo..."

So after all this preparation spanned over the course of five K-On episodes the light music club feel as though they're ready to perform at the school festival thingy. With this series I'm now up to where I was when my anime blog was wiped!

First of all I have to say right off the bat or other athletic instrument (hah, pun) that Yui's ability to learn guitar and play it smashingly having started that same year when she couldn't even read music is nothing short of miraculous. People seem to have this impression online that Yui is a few modules short of a kernel (Aussie FreeBSD joke), but learning that quick would take skill! If I could learn keyboards and drums that quickly I'd go ahead and do it.

"I am the pride of Japan! Ha! National sport! Ha!"

One of the things I never quite understood with Japanese school festivals is if most of the people attending are also the people putting all the cafes and plays and other events on, who's left to actually go to the events themselves? Turns out (and it's obvious really!) people aren't attending to their own stalls and whatnot the whole time, they attend in shifts. Makes sense, my keyboard has two shifts. Feel free to laugh at that joke.

So in this episode the girls are all off taking care of various different events much to the dismay of Her Mioness who wants to... oh I don't know... practise before they perform! Yui is cooking and still hasn't got her voice back and Ritsu and Tsumugi are taking care of a spook house. Yes, a spook house, with a character like Mio it seems the writers didn't have a choice in the matter ;). *Squeak, duck, shudder, cry, aaaaa*!

Before their first performance in front of a Live Studio Audience though, their supervisor and former super rock star pops out from out of nowhere with cute outfits she made for them that (surprise!) Mio is also terrified of and even Ritsu even questions. Of course Tsumugi thinks they're fabulous (she things everything is fabulous!) and Yui's face lights up like a lit up face (sorry I got to bed really late last night, best I could do), even if her costume is somewhat surreal compared to the others.

Of course they also have that they have to carry all the instruments to the stage which Yui has nothing but trouble with and Tsumigi comically does with ease. That's what I love about K-On, the timing and sound effects in these hilarious scenes are hilarious. And hilarious!

Eventually with much trepidation and Mio trembling they finally assemble on stage and perform their bubbly marshmallow song complete with a whimsical music video. When the song is over the crowd erupts into applause and the girls smile knowing that nothing bad or embarrassing had happened as they feared it'd happen beforehand.

Then of course Mio has her fanclub catalyst moment when she turns around to walk off stage and trips on a speaker cable, you know, the one that revealed she was in the same league as Shigure Asa from Shuffle, Francesca Lucchini from Strike Witches and Hatuse Miku in a *certain* way. A particular class of people were expecting to be presented slightly different version in the Blu Ray release, but having watched the Blu Ray release I can say I saw a 1080p image of a certain shima-rice bowl. Speaking of which I saw such a thing at Ikea recently and couldn't stop laughing :).

When I watched K-On the first time, this was the episode I got up to before my first anime blog was wiped so next episode I'll be seeing stuff I've never seen before. If I didn't have any self control I'd put aside all my studying and current family troubles and watch all of them in an afternoon. It's happened before.

Hey, now I have something to show Mio!

It's ironic that I often blog about nonsense and fun stuff when I'm madly studying; perhaps its a coping mechanism or something of that nature. Whatever it is, it works!

Having given K-On a break for a month or so I especially felt the need for some light hearted silliness this evening, so I started up again from episode 5. The Blu Ray versions are pretty spectacular, my aging 2006 era MacBook Pro can barely run them without dropping a few frames a second but they're still worth it! Now if only I had time to track down a scaling algorithm that didn't suck since I moved up to Snow Leopard...

We're not a club, and we're out of cake!

Having come back from their weekend training camp whatsit, in this episode the girls continue to prepare for the school festival while dealing with a few teeny small little insignificant problems such as not having a supervisor, not being a legitimate club, not having any lyrics in their songs and not having a lead vocalist! Yeah I'm going to start a SQLite club, we have no computers, no source code and our lead programmer only does COBOL. We're set!

This is why I unabashedly love this show so much, the characters are real human beings that get distracted and worried about regular stuff. Say for example a certain light music club member who forgot to lodge the form to start the light music club even after getting four members because... she was distracted by eating cake. Happens to the best of us, don't sweat it. Anyone feel like making me a cake? Anyone?

I can tell you're all fascinated by my epic story, right?

What is particularly shocking and shocking (did I say that twice?) in this entire episode though is we learn our beloved sensei who's so sweet and nice turns out to have been... a guitarist for a rock band! I know, crazy and intense stuff! To appeal to a guy she liked who claimed she was too quiet (a quality I'm actually looking for not trying to discourage!) she became a wild, loud musician with crazy makeup and clothes; unfortunately she was photographed as such and the K-On girls find the evidence. Oh no, her cover has been blown!

Any other volunteers...? Come on... anyone...?

This is an especially cute episode, there seemed to be a disproportionately (what a verbose term) higher number of stills and frames existing just to show the characters in various teardrop uh-oh and whoops moments. If my sis watched it no doubt she would have said "awwwww!" a few times.

What I love is the... timing. Get it? Ah never mind. I love the timing because we get epic shots of Yui for example, then the camera pans to someone else who mutters something disparaging, and a humorous scuffle ensues! People claim K-On is just a moe-blob show which it may be, but at least it doesn't take itself too seriously; there are plenty of shows that would do such scenes on purpose without any sarcasm. Not that I would admit to watching such things mind ;)

Consumerist otaku fools! Mua har har!

This is also the episode with that infamous scene with Mio attempting to write lyrics as she listens through her expensive audiophile headphones that otaku across Japan rushed out to buy as soon as they saw her using them. I had no idea anime had that much of an impact; did people who watched Code Geass end up eating pizza as much?

And now if you'd excuse me, I have to go and drink several litres of black coffee because this episode was just too sweet ^_^.

Heh whoops, our bad!

"Worried"

I've had such wild, runaway success with my Know Your Anime Moods blog post series with so much overwhelmingly positive feedback (hack cough splutter) I figure Friday is as good a day as any to compile another. I present to you Know your Akiyama Mio moods II, taken from episode 04 of K-On. Feel free to take notes, and refer to Know your Akiyama Mio Moods I if you missed it. Arigato and all that.

This post is not intended as a replacement for legal counsel and comes with no warranty expressed or implied.

"Worried (and... worried)"

"Intrigued (and worried)"

"Scheming (and worried)"

"Eh, probably more worried again"