Right, so this episode...a little bit of a letdown. I guess I was expecting much cooler fightscenes...not that they weren't cool but...*shrug* Anyway, where we left off, Arika was plunging into the ocean. Back at home base, everyone (sans Tomoe the Ho) is worried about her. Sergei gets permission from Nagi to go look for her. He borrows a boat...sees Arika falling off the cliff. The Gay Cyborg sends some sort of monster (I don't think it was a Slave) after them. Blah, blah. Sergei ends up dragging Arika up onto a beach. He's wounded and does the whole "Let's keep her warm with my body heat~" crap and we watch him fight his pedophilic desires. -_- A good portion of the episode was spent on Sergei & Arika, which I really don't care about.

Back at Otome Headquarters, they find Arika's watercan. People report seeing Midori's Sentai. Nina angsts when she finds out her father's also gone missing. Shizuru slaps sense into her. Unfortunately, because of the Council Treaty or something, Natsuki can not order an all out Otome assault. However, Yukino find a conveinent loophole in that if three of the council members say it's okay, they can order. Oh look, there's three council members there. Assault is ordered.

Arika and Sergei are attacked by the Cyborg Sentai. Unfortunately, before they can be killed, Nina and Shizuru show up and save them. Boo. Natsuki shows up and is sexy and hot and questions the cyborgs. Midori mouths off. Haruka materializes and goes to show Midori who's boss but promptly gets her ass kicked. John Smith shows up and steals whatever it was Midori and the Cyborg Sentai were out to get...there's a chase. Midori stalls the Otomes from following with Gakutenou and there's a fight. Haruka gets her ass kicked quickly, Shizuru is hot and awesome and obviously will not be beaten by Midori the Sentai Fangirl. I must say, Evil!Midori is sorta hot.

So yeah, at the end everyone is saved. Yada, yada, yada. My impressions: Natsuki is incredibly hot and sexy and...oh...I mean, great plot driving episode...oh who am I kidding. I only watch this show because of Natsuki and Shizuru.

Well to be honest though, I wish Haruka's fight was a little more than comedic relief before Shizuru cleaned up. I really wanted Natsuki to materialize and was basically waiting the entire episode for it. Alas, didn't happen. The plot is growing. Oh, did I mention Youko is apparently Midori's childhood friend and has a picture of the two of them with Rado!Reito. I suppose that should be interesting in the future. I hope things start to pick up soon. If they go back to fanservicey plot filler episodes, I will scream. Unless of course, the fanservicey plot fillers are Shizuru and Natsuki having sex or something. xD

Nemi out. Review Coming Soon: Kaleido Star : Legend of the Phoenix OAV. :3 I just finished watching it, it's wonderfully fantastic.

Righto, so back to my babbling episode summaries of my current fangirly obsessions. So yes, I've been eagerly waiting this episode since before I saw episode 8 and saw the episode preview screencaps of Shizuru rubbing tanning oil on Natsuki. Was the ten seconds of fanservice worth the wait? Hell yes.

Anyway, the episode was basically about how it's exam time for the Otome in Training. Arika of course sucks at everything that's not fighting or gym related. Then there's a final test. A survival camp-thingy. Of course it's by the ocean. Which means, FANSERVICE! Huzzah. Anyway, of course Mashiro must tag along for the journey, and following her is Nagi.

So the Coral Survival exam is basically they break into pairs and have to get from point a to point b and it should take two days or something. The three top Pearls are along to help judge along with Shizuru, Natsuki and the doctor chick whose name I forget. Er, wait, it's Youko I think. There's also Yukariko-sensei.

Important pairings? The only ones I really cared about were that Arika got paired with Erstin and that Nina was off with Tomoe (AKA Shizuru Fangirl #1). Anyway, while the Corals are hard at work on their survival trip, Mashiro plays beach volleyball with Chie and Yukariko. Shizuru liberally applies oil to Natsuki's body while Youko smirks. Shizuru's fingers start to wander, but alas, our fun is interuppted when Haruka and Yukino make an appearence.

Oh right, there's plot. Midori's evil sentai make an appearence for some reason which my lack of Japanese fails to fill in for me. Ers is really bad at the survivalist part of the journey, gets bitten by a snake and has blisters all over her feet. Arika tries to help by giving her a sponge bath...then holding her while Ers cries on her shoulders about how she's sorry and is a burden and blah, blah, typical angst. The next day, Ers is worse off and is coming down with a fever. It starts to rain.

Apparently Tomoe (or the mysterious masked figure but if it's not Tomoe, I'll eat a spoonful of wasabi) has broken Ers and Arika's navigational equipment though and their special "zomg we need help" bracelets or whatever those were. They are missing and there is a search for them, though no one can find them.

Ers' fever is pretty bad so Arika finds them shelter in a cave and decides to go find help herself, but she runs into one of the masked sentai, who fails really bad in the costume department. The episode ends with Arika plunging into the ocean after falling off a cliff.

Next week: Fighto! Fighto! Fighto! I shall look forward to it.

This isn't really new but I've had the last few episodes on my hard drive forever and haven't finished watching it until just now. It's really a fantastic show. Very well done, I thought. It's basically the story about this boy, Takashiro Kazuna who suddenly starts having these weird attacks and stuff, and finds out that he has this vampirism disease in his blood that his mother and sister suffer through. He's been living with his aunt since after his mother died, his father took his sister with him, since she had already started showing signs of the illness, while Kazuna seemed healthy. Anyway, his sister returns and they start to live together.

I liked it anyway. It has a great seiyuu line up, with Hayashibara as Chizuna (Kazuna's sister) and Kazuna himself is played by Seki Tomokazu. Anyway, it's a four episode OAV. I think each episode came out a few months apart since they were straight to DVD releases from what I know. I liked it a lot anyway, and the ending song Destiny ~Shukumei~ is really beautiful.

It is not a series for one who does not like depressing and angsty stuff though, and there is some blood and also implications of incest so...beware? It's a good watch though. I enjoyed it.

Righto, so it's been a while since I've been regularly posting. However, I intend to change this and get a new layout up. Why? Because I've been watching tons of shows lately and I think I'm annoying the crap out of my friends who don't watch them with my babbling. So suffer with me.

Tonight I shall babble about the Mai HiME media comics. There are three volumes, all listed on the official site, right here (scroll down, they're the last three books listed). Anyway, I just got the second and third in from AmazonJapan, I'd bought the first a while ago, and I want to say that these rock. XD

They're so funny. The books are basically a bunch of parody shorts and stuff based on the anime. They make me wish I could read Japanese because they're funny and I have no bloody clue what they're saying. There's one in the second volume where Natsuki is talking to people and then Shizuru comes and drags Natsuki off to a private room. Chie and Aoi follow and start to listen and apparently there are some *very* interesting noises coming from the room. I don't know what follows but Haruka's screaming, Mikoto's gone nuts, and there's a shot of Natsuki holding a smoking gun, wearing nothing but a bra and a skirt (that's halfway off) with Shizuru likewise clad in the background. XD

I wish I had a scanner.

Book three is even better. There's a really adorable short of Shizuru and Natsuki that seems to take place after Shizuru graduates. It looks adorable. One day I shall get a scanner and scan them. And then I will learn Japanese and translate them. One day.

Highlights:

Book 2: Chibi Natsukis are always welcome; Shizuru taking care of a sick Natsuki; Natsuki sneaking into the restaurant where Mai works to eat a parfait. But she's embarassed and tries several disguises

Book 3: Shizuru force-feeding her valentine's day chocolate to Natsuki...mouth-to-mouth (or so it's implied); There's a short of Shizuru where she turns down a confession from a boy and it shows her watching Natsuki

Anyway, yes, these books made my fangirly heart happy. :3

I did that thing where I forget I have a blog again. No one probably reads this anymore. Which is a good thing. I can rant about what an idiot I am. XD If you are reading this by chance, er, don't. Or skip the next paragraph.

And I am. Quite an idiot. Haha. I should learn to just not open my mouth. Ever. Or you know, let my fingers type or something. You'd think at the age of 21, I'd have learned that wishful thinking never leads anywhere. Ever.

Anyway, I'm at the Airport right now. Going to Ohio to visit Sumi. :3 Hopefully I shall have lots of fun. Even though they changed my connecting flight without telling me. Whee for awesome airport support.

Onna's in two weeks too. That should be fun. I think. I don't know at the moment. Actually part of me just wants to cancel going and spend the week at home sleeping but then the sensible part of me goes "Dumb ass, you paid a lot of money already."

Let's see...anyway, I don't know why I'm blogging. Maybe because I hate my livejournal still and blogging is a vague sort of comfort I like. I don't know. I'm in a funky mood at the moment so I think just randomly babbling is good for me. Yay for random babbling. Anyway, I just noticed someone logged onto AIM who I haven't seen in ages. Ahaha, today of all days to boot. Meh. Meh. Meh. Meh.

Lin Yen was right. I'm in hell.

On the bright side I quit my job and October 31st will be my last day. So I suppose I need to be more frugal about my spendings. -_-; Stupid money. Anyway, my flight should start boarding any minute. Off I go.

Sometimes I really want to smack myself.

Anyway, I started playing DragonRealms again. Probably a mistake. Then again, I've made bigger.

In another note, it's sad that even after eight months of not playing, you can still miss people in the game. *smacks self*