If you've read my Aria reviews, you've probably figured out that I'm rather sweet on the Ariaverse (in any of its incarnations, really), so the fact that Rightstuf announced the license of the show really made my day.

September can't come fast enough for me.

- Stig Høgset.

Brad starts us off with a nice little slice of life that goes under the name of Minami-ke. It's a decent little show that reminds the audience not to "expect too much" from it, so he doesn't. It's a nice time-waster all the same, though, for those into these kinds of shows.

Answering a request, I finally get around to giving the site a review of Midori Days. It's a nice little show as long as you, like with Minami-ke, don't expect too much from it.

While Tim generally enjoys magical girl shows, he's not all that impressed with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, finding it almost laughably generic for the entire first half. Still, it pulls itself up by its metaphorical bootstraps in the last half, making it at least somewhat worthwhile.

Who knew we'd finally strike gold with a show starring an occasionally naked girl with animal ears, though? Not me, that's for sure, and yet, Spice and Wolf turns into something really interesting and compelling. All hail the tail.

I just wish that the next show, Rosario + Vampire could have kept up, what with the monster school theme. Sadly, the show chooses to dispense with ANY formalities and just commence with the boobs-and-panties bombardment, all targeted at our lovable male protagonist.

Well, that's it for now. I predict pain for the future, though I guess that's mostly for us, as we've got a few really bad shows in our target scope. Until next time...

- Stig Høgset

So seeing as I'm on vacation anyway, how about a few new reviews?

Brad's been quite the industrial reviewer these last few weeks. He's got four new reviews for us lined up (with a fifth one getting the final touches done in preparation for the site submission).

First off, he grants Origin: Spirits of the Past a ... recommendation. I guess the story was better when it was called "Nausicaa". Incidentally, this is one of the last reviews that was lost in the great time theft that happened in October last year.

Anyway, he moves on to Neko Rahmen, a somewhat absurd yet entertaining anime based on a four panel comic strip. Apparently, it works well for the show.

Next up on the list is the sequel to one of the most famous works of Gainax. Well, one of them anyway. The title in question is Gunbuster 2: Diebuster, a rather entertaining show in its own right. Incidentally, is there ANY works of Gainax that AREN'T famous? I mean... even He is My Master has its aspects of infamy, come to think of it.

But I digress, which is a bit of a reflexive and defensive mechanism of mine when I start remembering shows I'd rather forget, so let's move on to Brad's last offer for today. It's Akagi, a balls-to-the-wall anime about... Mahjong? Oh dear. I guess this one goes into the "special interest" pile.

We've still got two reviews left for this update. One of them has Tim checking out the Clannad movie, keenly dubbed "Clannad Reduced", since the movie chooses to focus on the main cast only. Personally, I can't wait until Clannad: Reloaded and Clannad: Revoluti-... what? There's no such thing? Bah! And here I was looking forward to some bullet dodging scenes.

...what do you mean "Clannad's not that kind of show"?

*hrmph* Anyway, on my last update, I presented our readers to a new axis of evil in anime, and I promised you I'd watch something good this time. With that in mind, including the recent license announcement, I have the pleasure to introduce Maria Watches Over Us, the third season of a rather nice drama show starring Catholic schoolgirls. What do you know; the Red Hot Chili Peppers were right after all.

Well, back to enjoying my vacation, I guess. A happy Easter to all our readers.

- Stig Høgset.

Edit: Rushing in right before the deadline, Brad brings you the remaining review, which is for a show called Witchblade. He isn't all that impressed with it, but it still gets the "nice try" award.

With the delightful announcement made only minutes ago, I went and made the necessary edits to reflect this, including changing the titles of the reviews to reflect the eventual DVD release; Maria Watches Over Us.

- Stig H.

And just in the nick of time before the change of the month.

Diane starts us off with Paprika, a rather magnificent piece from Satoshi Kon and a visual feast in many ways.

The last update covered the ninja, so this time, Bradley takes the time to introduce us to a samurai drama. And not just any samurai drama, but Samurai 7, a take on the old Kurosawa epic "Seven Samurai", only now with mecha. Hey, it actually works out.

As for me, I'm pretty much saddled with Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun, which just fails in so many ways. That's three one-star anime in three updates from me. I'll watch something good for the next one, I promise. In the mean time, enjoy the final part of the update, and I'll see you again later with more reviews.

- Stig Høgset

I think it's safe to say that the pop industry is big in Japan, so it's only natural that something like LoveDol ~Lovely Idol~ rolls around. It's hardly the first idol show ever made, of course, but I'm pretty sure it's one of the worst. It did, at least, cause me considerable pain as I sludged through it.

As for Brad, at least he's having a LITTLE bit of a better time with The Enemy's the Pirates, which involves... well, actually, it doesn't really involve as much pirates and swashbucklery as you might hope. And here I was hoping someone would go "ARRRH" in Japanese. Oh well.

Jake, however, is having a swell time with Pia Carrot: Sayaka's love story, which sounds strangely familiar to me for some reason. Hmmm. Oh well, at least he's enjoying himself, which makes at least one out of the four of us....

...because rounding off this update is Robert Nelson making a welcome return with a show that should also have made a welcome return as well. Sadly, Ninja Scroll TV only manages to muster a halfassed return, which just won't do. Here's hoping the second Ninja Scroll movie can rectify this in the future.

And that's that. Join us this upcoming Friday for the remaining three reviews. There should have been four, but I seem to already have updated Tim's Ultimate Girls review, and there's no sense in doing the same work twice over. Well, not counting our little time warp back in October, that is, and the extra work that incident heaped upon me.

But I digress. See you next time.

- Stig Høgset.