The Blog of Xbolt

Kanon tells the story of Yuichi Aizawa, a young man who has forgotten much of his childhood past.

It is based on a visual novel of the same name. (Remember those?) There have been two anime adaptions made, done by different studios: one aired in 2002, the other in 2006. I will be talking about the 2006 version, but I’m sure the two are similar, since they are both based on the same thing.

Yuichi often visited the city where the story takes place during his childhood, but after seven years, many of those memories have been forgotten. As the story progresses, he gradually remembers more about what happened during those times.

There are five heroines, each with their own story arc. In the visual novel, the five were separate, but the anime weaves them all together into a continuous story.

Ayu Tsukimiya is a friend of Yuichi from way back during his childhood days in the city. She is a short girl, but very energetic, often pouncing on Yuichi without warning. She loves to eat taiyaki, a fish-shaped cake. Her catchphrase is ‘Uguu~’, which she mutters as an expression of frustration, anger, or fear. Yuichi loves to tease her about it.

Naiyuki Minase is Yuichi’s cousin, with whom he moves in with at the beginning of the story. A heavy sleeper, she collects dozens of alarm clocks that still fail to wake her up, and wake Yuichi instead. (Finally, somebody who’s even worse in the morning than I am!) She loves strawberry sundaes, but don’t mention her mom’s ‘special’ jam. I don’t know what’s in it, but anyone unlucky enough to have some feels sick afterward.

Makoto Sawatari is a young girl who attacked Yuichi early in the story, but he was able to defeat her by simply holding his arm out. She has lost all her memories, and only remembers that she holds a grudge against Yuichi from his childhood days in the city. She has a mischievous personality, leading her to perform various pranks on Yuichi. However, he always manages to turn the pranks back on her, making her even more determined.

Shiori Misaka is a girl with a perpetual cold. Even though she’s always sick, she thinks nothing of waiting around outside the school in order to meet someone she knows. To make matters worse, she insists on eating ice cream. In the middle of winter. (Okay, so maybe I can understand that bit…)

Mai Kawasumi is my favorite character. You gotta love someone whose first appearance is at night, alone, in a dark school building, holding a sword. She takes it upon herself to fight demons that infest the school at night while it is deserted. Due to this, she is often blamed for accidents that happen at the school, and she never denies it. In fact, she never says much of anything at all. Yuichi considers it a triumph to get her to answer a yes-or-no question.

For the funny video of the week, I chose this one:

Imperial Nayuki

It’s just so random. XD

Shaddap You Face

Whassa matta you? You gotta no respect for classic songs? Samuel L. Jackson’ll shaddap yo face.

Samuel L Jackson does Joe Dolce

And now, the second anime in my series: Code Geass.

At its heart, Code Geass is about giant robots fighting each other. There, I bet you’re interested already. :D

Code Geass is set in an alternate universe, where three superpowers control the world: the Holy Britannian Empire, the Euro Universe, and the Chinese Federation. Britannia controls both American continents, the E.U. controls Europe (including Russia) and Africa, and the C.F. controls the rest of Asia. Australia, however, remains an independent state.

In the year 2010, the Britannian army, the greatest military force the world has ever known, invaded the nation of Japan, conquering the country in less than a month. This was in order to secure Japan’s rich supply of Sakuradite, which is a highly powerful explosive. It is used to power almost all machinery, most prominently the Knightmare Frame war machines.

Knightmare Frames are the pride of the Britannian military. The closest thing to them in the real-world military would be a tank. But Knightmares are so much more than mere tanks. Operated by a single pilot, they are bipedal units, equipped with rollerskate-like appendages on their ankles. These allow the Knightmares to achieve high speeds and mobility on most any terrain. They are armed with an array of weapons, most notably the Slash Harkens. Harkens are a kind of rocket-propelled anchor, generally used to smash holes through things. Quite handy.

Anyway, so that’s what the playing field looks like at the start of the series. Enter Lelouch Lamperouge: a brilliant high school student who is a master at chess. He is a student at Ashford Academy, located in the former nation of Japan, now renamed to the cold-sounding Area 11. There are still pockets of resistance in Japan, and Lelouch accidentally boards a truck being used by Japanese (called ‘Elevens’ by Britannia) operatives. Inside the truck is a mysterious girl who calls herself C.C. The truck gets surrounded by Britannian forces trying to recapture her. But before they are able to, C.C. offers Lelouch the “Power of Kings”, or the mythical power of Geass. The Geass manifests itself in Lelouch as the power of absolute obedience, which allows him to make anyone obey his orders without question. He uses the power to order the soldiers to kill each other, allowing him to escape.

With this new power, Lelouch joins the rebellion. He hates the Britannian royal family due to the murder of his mother, and would see the destruction of the Britannian Empire. He forms The Order of the Black Knights, and takes up the identity of Zero to lead them, gaining popular support from the Japanese people. Zero wears a mask at all times, and only a few people are allowed to know that Zero is actually Lelouch. He is an extremely formidable military leader, using his Chessmaster skills to determine what the enemy will do next, and acting accordingly.

My favorite character is Kallen Kouzuki, ace pilot for the Black Knights. Using her super-awesome Guren Mk-II Knightmare Frame, she can take down almost any enemy Knightmare that has the misfortune of coming too close. She is one of the most loyal people to the rebellion, but hates Lelouch because she views him as someone who only knows how to complain and does not take any action, not knowing that he is actually Zero. And she also manages to be one of the only main characters that failed to annoy me at one point or another. :P

And now that the main review is over, I think I’ll indulge in a silly video:

All Your Geass Are Belong To Us

AYB fits Lelouch quite well, actually. XD

Gogol Rush

But why is the RED Demoman trying to push the BLU bombkart?

*gasp* THAT DEMOMAN’S A BLOODY SPY!

Today, I’m going to be starting a new series, wherein I review anime. This may be a short series though, as I haven’t watched all that many. Not as many as I would like, anyway. That said, lets get started.

Lucky Star is a ‘slice-of-life’ anime. Meaning, it tells the everyday story of a group of ordinary high school girls. No big, dramatic, epic battle for world domination or anything like that. Instead, the girls are gifted with more than your average amount of silliness. So it’s a really lighthearted anime with lots of laughs. And since there’s no overall story for me to talk about, I’ll talk about the four main characters:

Konata Izumi is a geek. She’s a big anime fan, with a mischievous sense of humor. She skips studying in order to play on the computer late into the night, then crams the night before a test. And no, that doesn’t remind me of anyone. At all.

Tsukasa Hiiragi is the younger fraternal twin sister of Kagami. She isn’t good at studying, and relies on her sister for help with homework. Tsukasa is very absent-minded, and a late sleeper. She is very good at cooking, though.

Kagami Hiiragi is an excellent student, and doesn’t approve of her sister’s and Konata’s antics. As such, Konata enjoys irritating her. Nevertheless, they remain good friends, and Kagami is always willing to do favors for Konata.

Miyuki Takara comes from a wealthy family, and is very pretty, smart, and well-mannered. Her classmates often rely on her for help with homework, and she gives long, detailed, encyclopedic definitions or explanations on whatever she and her friends may be discussing. No matter how random or obscure it is.

Each episode ends with a ‘Lucky Channel’ segment, which usually discusses certain characters, events, or whatnot from the main show. Lucky Channel is hosted by Akira Kogami, a seemingly cute hostess that becomes quite angry and rather scary when she gets annoyed, and her assistant, Minoru Shiraishi, who often falls under the terrible wrath of Akira.

But my favorite character has to be Meito Anizawa, the Anime Tenchou. He is the manager of Animate, an anime/manga store in the town. He and his staff are totally devoted to their work, as seen in these clips where they try and sell stuff to Konata:

Legendary Girl A!

If only people in real life were this enthusiastic when selling stuff. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy from them.

In conclusion, if you’re not looking for a serious show with an ongoing story, but want silly characters in funny situations, you might want to try Lucky Star. You could do worse.

Silent Myst – A Moment, Please!

A silent Myst movie. Very random. I love it for that.

Toy Food

Like real food, but is toy.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Man stepping for the first time on the Lunar surface. Needless to say, that’s a big event.

First Moon Landing 1969

I hope NASA’s Constellation program takes off (pun entirely intended) soon, and we go back to the Moon, and eventually Mars. Because I like Mars. They make good candy bars over there.

Mine!

The battle at the 7 minute mark is one of the most epic battles ever. XD

GUESS WHAT I JUST DID?