Last Week's Anime Roundup, July 2007: Claymore, Devil May Cry, Hayate No Gotoku, Hidamari Sketch, Lucky Star, Nanoha Strikers

 

A short summary of animes I've watched last week from the 2nd to the 8th of July 2007. Top image unrelated (only partly).


CLAYMORE
Current Episode: 14
Subs: Eclipse


Awesome episode filled with moments of true gar, despite the absence of any male characters (Raki sucks, he's excluded). Clare trains rigorously with Irene, strengthening her swordsmanship while attempting to learn Irene's Flash Sword technique. Irene gave (literally) her right arm to Clare, allowing her to use the Flash Sword much easily. After Clare left, Irene encounters Rafaela, ranked Number Five in the Organization, sent to kill Irene after sensing her Yoki (something like power levels in DBZ LOL, only cooler). On her way, Clare encounters an Awakened Ophelia (as seen in episode 13), fought against her and defeated her. Not quite sure what she received from Ophelia (lots of credits, EXPs, cake?) since I didn't read the manga, but I'm assuming that Clare received Ophelia's Rippling Sword technique. At this point, I would say that Claymore's getting more and more interesting. Definitely sticking to this anime till' the end.

FIND CLAYMORE BLU-RAYS AND MERCHANDISES ON AMAZON

DEVIL MAY CRY
Current Episode: 2
Subs: AonE - Conclave


Still nothing much happening: Pointless racing/demon slaying mission with no concrete storyline and also without a main plot at all to begin with. The action scenes are its only redeeming factor. Come on Capcom/Madhouse, throw us another cliched demon or madman wanting to take over the world; that's the kind of plot and story so mundane yet easily evolvable into something so awesome makes the game popular in the first place. I'm still sticking to this anime simply because I love the game, though I'm not anticipating anything that great besides being good enough for DMC fans.

FIND DEVIL MAY CRY GAMES ON AMAZON

HAYATE NO GOTOKU!
Current Episode: 14
Subs: SS - Eclipse


This episode closely follows Chapter 8 of the manga's 4th volume (or Chapter 39 if you count em all) with some minor changes: Nagi is excited about Hayate being qualified for Hakuou Academy and decided to hold an early celebration. However, Katsura-sensei struggles to tell Hayate that he actually failed and that she was the indirect cause, having played pranks on him before the exam. Hayate eventually knew but nonetheless managed to get himself accepted through Maria's recommendation. Not as funny as previous episodes and manga is still better but what the hell, I like random references that makes me wanna Google it.

FIND HAYATE THE COMBAT BUTLER MANGAS AND BLU-RAYS ON AMAZON

HIDAMARI SKETCH
Current Episode: 09
Subs: Shintani


My nutbladder was shattered at an epically blinding instant. Nuff' said.
Note: Bath scene at 20:04 and Miya-chan's knockers jiggled at 21:04. PPPPPPROMOTIONS!
(x '_____' x)

FIND HIDAMARI SKETCH BLU-RAYS AND PVC FIGURES ON AMAZON


LUCKY STAR
Current Episode: 13
Subs: a.f.k


Pointless chit-chat has never been this fun. Massive ROFL at the Animate staff and their attempt coax Konata into buying their stuff, only to find Konata 3 yen short of cash, much to their previous feeling of triumph upon witnessing Konata picking up an item from their store. Minoru's Ore no Wasuremono (My Forgotten Thing) credit song deserves a standing ovation.
Note: D-D-D-Drill, D-D-D-Drill....


FIND LUCKY STAR BLU-RAYS AND FIGURES ON AMAZON

NANOHA STRIKERS
Current Episode: 10
Subs: Yesy


No one's subbing this shit anymore.After countless boring training episodes, barely inspiring Tenga-like gadget drones as enemies, absence of mage-on-mage battle, Teana going Linkin Park, Nanoha cooling Teana off by going OVER NINE THOUSAND, Signum throwing FALCON PUNCH (two memes mentioned in one paragraph!) at Teana to stop her bitching and almost non-stop serving of QUALITY, Nanoha Strikers feels like it hasn't left Kenyan airspace despite flying for so long, yet I'm keeping my vigilance and fingers crossed it will, soon. For the early half, nothing much happened: the rookies got their day off, Subaru lieks ice-cream and Sharii's dating plans for Elio and Caro sounds... oddly suspicious, if you know what I mean.


On the later half, there were signifant events relevant to plot advancement: a mysterious accident involving a lorry and a Gadget drone, Dr. Evil scheming his nefarious plans as usual with the help of Loli Rider (ahem, Lutecia), an obscure introduction to another of Dr. Evil's test subject named NoobNoube and the appearance of a nameless girl chained to a Relic who seemed to have escaped from somewhere via the poo gas tunnels. Their R&R period gets spoiled and its back to work, and you have wait for the next episode to know what really is going on. English subs are always stuck deep in the Atlantic Ocean for months, so expect a lot of waiting (Oh hey, Yesy is being quick!). QUALITY was noticeably reduced to a tolerable 7% according to my Scouter, with the exclusive exception of Lt. General Legius (wide body is WIIIIDE, see here). A significant improvement, but the Koreans responsible for the animation needs to play Starcraft less and concentrate more on quality control.

Top image via Pixiv.

FIND NANOHA BLU-RAYS AND FIGURES ON AMAZON