New Theme is Ready... Sort of

After playing around with Blogger for the better part of the last 24 hours, I have managed to put together a new look for this blog. Most of the time was spending on making images and making sure they looked okay on the blog. It's funny that I spent about 3 hours studying for my midterm next week but spent at least double (if not triple) that time working on this makeover. I sure have my priorities straight lol. It's why I call this blog A Product of Wasted Time.

Anyways, my three goals for this makeover were:

1. Move on to Blogger's new batch of themes.
   The main reason for this is because the new themes have more widget areas and I didn't want to code them into my old theme, so might as well start anew. The Template Designer (an interface for customizing the color scheme of the theme) looks sleek, but to get any real customization you still have to dive into the template code.
2. Incorporate mascots into the look of the site.
   I spent so much time drawing that stuff. Might as well put those drawings to some use.
3. Rearrange the widgets to help with the layout/make site easier to navigate.
   Double widget sidebars were a bit cluttered.

I am happy to say that I have accomplished all three, although whether the site is easier to navigate should probably be judged by the visitors. In terms of the layout, the content column is wider than before, and I plan to take advantage with wider pictures. There is now only one (wider) sidebar for widgets, and some of the widgets have been moved to the footer. In terms of the look, images of the red ranger mascot Naomi has been plastered in three locations, and I even made a new picture of her just for the "banner" (see below). Why the broken visor and tears? I dunno. Just kind of felt like drawing something other than a happy face. The random artwork window introduced in the last theme is still around on the right side of the banner area (refresh page to see a different piece of artwork).

(click picture for larger version at DeviantART)

So that's about it for this makeover. Unless Blogger pushes out a really really cool must-use feature in the near future, I'll probably be sticking with this look for a while. There are some small issues to work out in the future, but at least the theme appears to be in a working state right now. Am I 100% satisfied with the new look? Of course not, but it'll suffice for now. Future additions include incorporating the other mascots (rangers/super sentai always come in a team right?), but I have to get around to drawing banners for blue and yellow and designing the other colors, and that's going to be an ongoing effort. In the meantime, Red will be the dominant color.

Oh, and Happy Halloween.

Messing with the Theme

I'm playing around with the theme of the blog, so don't be too surprised if things look a bit weird or different than before. Blogger has released a new batch of standard themes a few months ago that has more features than what I was using before, and I've been meaning to take advantage of these new features. There is nothing majorly wrong with the blue theme that has served this blog for a better part of 2 years, but it's a bit generic looking and it's about time to refresh the look. I'll also move some widgets around to hopefully make this site easier to use. The move to the new theme is a work in progress at this point, but the finished product will probably look similar other than an extra banner and background image(s).

To Aru Majutsu no Index II 04

Touma and company attempt to save Orsola from the Roman Catholics.

Hey Stiyl, where the hell were you when me and Index were attacked by those two crazy nuns?!

Now that the gig is up, time to behave like normal again. And by normal, I mean crazy.

Summary:
Touma, Index, Stiyl and Saiji are walking together after the battle. Saiji plans go rescue his comrades and Orsola and separates from the group. Index and Stiyl tell Touma that he shouldn't interfere with Roman Catholic business, but Touma makes an excuse about having the shop for food and leaves on his own to the nearby church where he knew the battle nuns would gather.

Those shoes are designed for kicking and stomping people.

Touma gave it his best shot, but he didn't get to punch a girl in the face this episode. Maybe next week.

Clearing the way... for a future relationship.

Inside the church, Aniese kicks Orsola around and insults the Touma's group for helping to capture Orsola, but Orsola is happy that complete strangers are willing to help her which pisses Aniese off. At this moment, Touma strolls in after deactivating the barrier around the church, but he finds himself facing a lot of hostile battle nuns. However, Stiyl, Index, Saiji and his comrades (that he has freed) appear to help out with the numbers. Aniese doesn't understand why Necessarius would interfere in the matter, but Stiyl states that Orsola is under their protection because is wearing a Church of England cross (given to her by Touma last episode). Stiyl is also pissed that the battle nuns attacked Index. The fight starts and Touma snatches Orsola and carries her out of the church with dozens of nuns giving chase, while Index, Stiyl, and the Amakusa battle the rest of the nuns. Touma and Orsola are chased up onto the church roof and then find themselves surrounded by a dozen battle nuns.

Get away from me! Can't you see I'm trying to get busy with this hot nun I'm carrying!

Isn't it a crime for nuns to blow up affiliated churches?

Somewhere not far away, Kaori and Motoharu are talking about the battle and Kaori comments that the Amakusa can find their way without her help.

On the grounds outside of the church, Stiyl, Saiji and the Amakusa are hacking/blasting nuns all over the place, while Index sings a special song which stuns people who are devout religious followers. A group of nuns led by Luccia appear on the roof, and the nuns under Luccia's command take out pens and stab into their own ears in order to counter Index's song.

What an absolutely awful sound! Some people should never sing.

Couldn't you ladies use some earplugs instead?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The episode that sets up and starts the decisive battle of this story arc. As expected, Touma, Stiyl and Index now switch sides to join forces with the Amakusa and they go rescue Orsola. Now that the battle nuns are officially the villains of the arc, they all start acting crazy because being nuns and acting crazy at the same time makes them look more evil. Other than stabbing out their own eardrums, the battle nuns didn't do anything too notable. Their combat mostly consisted of launching explosive projectiles and fighting with clunky weapons, neither of which managed to take down any enemies in this episode. In contrast, the Amakusa fighters are all kicking major butt (especially Itsuwa/ the girl with long spear/trident weapon), and it makes me wonder how did they ever lose so easily to the battle nuns last episode.

Anyways, the episode felt a bit off and longer than it should be. The long walk in the beginning was a bit needless, and the action scenes had various issues that made it not very exciting. First of all, Touma and Orsola gets surrounded by nuns on the roof 7 minutes before the end of the episode and they don't appear again. It'd be okay if the two were surrounded just before the end of the episode, but for them to not show up again with a quarter of the show left was a bit of an oversight.They also inserted a long explanation about Index's special song into the middle of the battle. In order to make the exposition more bearable, they had several nuns trying to sneak up on Stiyl and Saiji, but the two just smack the nuns away and continue talking and that was unintentionally hilarious.

So it's not a very good start to the final showdown of the story arc, but hopefully the series will get its act together next episode. A straight forward battle without too much talking would be good, but we all know Touma has to give a hero speech. Given that a number of the battle nuns are now permanently deaf though, maybe Touma will finally keep his mouth shut and stick to punching people out, but I doubt it.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun OVA

The Railgun gang is back in an all new OVA adventure where... Mikoto feels like she's being watched and becomes paranoid.

Mikoto's vigilante-ing ways have finally caught up to her.

Summary:
The OP sequence has the four girls shooting videos of themselves with old school hand held film video cameras. Wasn't Academy City supposed to have futuristic gadgets instead of antiques?

The shot was ruined because Saten was too slow.

Mikoto feels someone is watching her, but she can't find out who or what is causing these feelings. As Mikoto starts to lose sleep and become paranoid about someone spying on her, Kuroko, Uiharu and Saten band together to find the culprit. Through a bit of online sleuthing, Kuroko's group discovers that Mikoto isn't the only person experiencing these episodes and they delve deeper into the mystery.

You know, it's considered courtesy to enter by knocking on the door instead of teleporting straight into the room.

Just to remind us that Railgun has girls who are not flat chested.

On a Sunday morning, Mikoto finally decides she can't take it anymore and goes to find the culprit herself, and Kuroko's group also spring into action. Mikoto finds a side alley near her dorm and gets the feeling again. Using her electromagnetic sense, Mikoto tracks the source of to two Anti-Skills standing in another nearby alley. Mikoto isn't sure if she's found the source, but Kuroko appears and points out that the female Anti-Skill named Jonan Asa is the culprit. Jonan is a researcher from an academy noted for developing ability users, and Kuroko and co have discovered that Jonan wrote a paper about broadcasting signals to make people with high electromagnetic sensitivity uncomfortable. Kuroko then confiscates a transmitter device from Jonan to prove her point. Having been exposed, Jonan sets off a flashbang to escape. Jonan runs to the river, takes over a speedboat and tries to escape from the city, but Mikoto and Kuroko appear on a bridge and Mikoto uses her railgun coin to blast the boat onto the bridge. It turns out Saten (with Uiharu's support) has been following Jonan so that's how Kuroko and Mikoto found out where Jonan was.

That's actually a nice way to travel in narrow metal-abundant alleys.

Kuroko just loves to give people a feel.

Another masterpiece by Miss Collateral Damage.

Back at a lounge somewhere, Mikoto thanks her friends for their help by treating them to fine cakes and giving Kuroko a massage. Kuroko explains that Jonan was dismissed from her job recently and was probably frustrated that she didn't develop a level 5 psychic despite the school's reputation. Jonan then decided to take things out on Mikoto, who is the most famous Level 5 there is. Kuroko, Saten and Uiharu compliment each other on the effort, but Uiharu accidentally reveals that Kuroko was shadowing and spying on Mikoto while she was at school or at the dorms. This leads Mikoto to give Kuroko some shocks as punishment.

So it turns out Kuroko was partially responsible for Mikoto feeling that she's being watched. However, I thought Kuroko stalked Mikoto all the time, so shouldn't Mikoto be used to it?

The ED sequence is just some still pictures of the characters.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not the worst episode of Railgun we've seen, but certainly not the best either. This episode had a little bit of everything Railgun: there was a Touma cameo; Saten going off about urban legends; some 4-koma fun in the OP; a bit fan service here and there; and Mikoto blowing stuff up with her Railgun coin and causing collateral damage. There is no mistaking this OVA for anything other than Railgun.

Amongst all of the "Railgun-ness", there was "find the villain" story where Mikoto is descending into paranoia while her friends put on their sleuthing hats to find the cause. Have to give J.C. Staff some props for going with a "serious" story, but unfortunately it wasn't that well put together. "Mikoto feeling she's being watched" isn't exactly the most compelling crisis, but furthermore the villain was disappointing and the whole process of tracking down the villain and the explanation at the end didn't make much sense. Too much mumbo-jumbo that I was too tired to try to understand. I'll cut them some slack though since this is just one ~30 minute episode, so it might be harder to build a good story. Then again, they could have just gone for something more on the comedic side which might have turned out better.

Overall this was a decent episode of Railgun, but not too impressive.

Queen's Blade Utsukushiki Toushi-tachi OVA 03

Took a while to find a subbed version of this episode. Anyways, in the 3rd installment of the Utsukushiki Toushi-tachi OVAs, Airi leaves Rana's family to return to the swamp, while Melpha is also sent on a mission to the evil swamp.

There are no explicit screenshots, but I still wouldn't read this at work or school.

Summary:
At the evil swamp, the Swamp Witch tortures Melona for the shapeshifter's previous failures. Melona blames her treatment on Airi, and knowing that Airi must return someday because the Swamp Witch's command spell, Melona vows to punish Airi when she returns.

Shotacon alert!

Airi the Ghost Maid actually working as a maid. Who would have thought?

Meanwhile, Airi has been living with Rana, Cattleya and Owen and helps around with chores in the house. Airi has grown accustomed to the lifestyle and her feeling for Rana continues, but she feels obligated to return to the swamp to serve her master, so one day she secretly flies away. Airi returns to the swamp and is met by Melona who quickly puts Airi up for some torturing. During the torture session, Airi reveals that the command spell on her is no longer effective, but she came back on her own volition. Melona is skeptical, but after Airi refuses to break under torture and swears loyalty to the Swamp Witch, Melona let Airi back into the fold and the two starts hanging out together again.

Tickling can be an effective form of torture.

Melpha's Holy Poses aren't much to look at, but you have to be impressed by the effects.

In Gainos, Melpha is alone in the church again after Aldora left with Tomoe on a journey. While praying to the heavens, Melpha hears Nanael's voice ordering her to go to the evil swamp to do something (it's Nanael, so the order isn't exactly specific). Melpha follows the order and journeys to the swamp where she starts putting the green back in the plants with her Holy Poses. Airi and Melona detect the intrusion, and Airi flies in to confront Melpha while Melona chooses to watch from a distance. In the battle, Melpha blasts off Airi's clothes with a Holy Pose, but Airi traps Melpha with her spirits. Airi then goes in for the kill, but Melpha detects that Airi is feeling unsure about something. Airi ignores Melpha's advice and proceeds to ingest some of Melpha's life force, but this gives her a bad stomach ache and she flies away only to fall unconscious on a platform. While unconscious, Airi dreams of Rana but it isn't enough to convince her to return to Rana. Airi wakes up and finds Melona watching over her, and the two decides to go fetch Menace to reform their group once again.

Crush evil indeed.

Melona does have a point: priestess life force gives ghosts bad stomachs.

Sometime later, Melpha has returned to her church and reports to Nanael that she has purified some of the areas of the evil swamp, and Nanael is unsatisfied because Melpha failed to defeat Airi and Melona.

Being the minions of evil has its perks. You are not going to find private hot springs at Rana's house.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Story-wise, this was the worst episode so far in the Utsukushiki Toushi-tachi OVAs. My problem with this episode is that it didn't explain why Airi felt so inclined to ditch Rana and return to the swamp. Since the command spell no longer works on her, why did she want to get away from a life that she appears to enjoy? Maybe Airi didn't want to suck Rana's life force; or maybe she thinks hanging out with Melona is a lot more fun than playing maid for Cattleya; or maybe even she wanted to wait until Rana grew up so they can have some grown-up fun. Whatever the reason was, this episode didn't really explain it other than to say that Airi felt obligated to serve her master, which was entirely unconvincing.

Continuing down the path of negativity, it's pretty obvious that Melpha's mission was just randomly tossed in so that there would be some action in the episode. I guess you can say the same thing to the two previous episodes (Echidna and Nyx's appearances), but Melpha's mission feels more contrived... probably because the order came from Nanael. I also thought that Melona forgave Airi rather easily. Melona herself was sliced and diced by the Swamp Witch, but she was only shown tickling Airi (albeit for three days supposedly). I suppose this whole episode was just some mechanism to get Airi and Melona back together again so they can go fetch Menace next episode. The OVA seems to be trying to reunite the three stooges before the beginning of the next full season, but from the previews it looks Menace won't rejoin the group without a fight. I'm sure it'll be more interesting than this episode.

Now that I'm done complaining about the plot elements (of a Queen's Blade episode... yeah sounds pathetic right?), the only positive thing I can mention is that the 720p version looks really nice. I've been watching the standard aspect ratio AT-X feed for all of the previous Queen's Blade episodes, so this was the first time I saw the show in wide screen hi-def, and it looks much better. Too bad this episode sucked though, but the hi-def did have a positive impact on the watching experience. Still, I'll probably watch whichever version that gets subbed first.

Oh, and there was plenty of boobs courtesy of Melona and Airi (so much so that they didn't need Melpha or Cattleya's help). In term of the amount of boobage, this episode probably trumps the previous two, and that's probably important to quite a few Queen's Blade fans.

Deadman Wonderland 39

Ganta arrives at the scene of the battle and learns of what the Red Man is holding in her hand.

Looks like someone is glad to see Ganta.

Summary:
Sakigami declares that he was playing Tamaki all along and gets ready to finish Tamaki with Senji's blade power, but Tamaki shatters the blades with his pistol and then shoots himself in the head. With Tamaki dead, the Red Man complains that she's sleepy due to the lullaby and wants to go to sleep, but suddenly Ganta stumbles onto the scene. Upon seeing each other, Ganta and the Red Man are ready to blast each other but Makina uses a mech to kick the Red Man away. Makina tells Ganta to retreat, but the Red Man quickly recovers and cripples Makina's mech. Ganta then spots that Red Man is holding Azami's head in her right hand and starts screaming in anguish. Meanwhile, Makina rips off the fuel tank from the mech and shoots it with her pistol, creating an explosion/smoke screen to cover the retreat of herself and her comrades. In the middle of the fire, Ganta wonders what happened to Shiro as Shiro was with Azami, and from above the Red Man answers that "Shiro" is dead and launches her Branch of Sin at Ganta.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We actually have chapter 39 this time instead of say 38-C. Anyways, Ganta and the Red Man are finally face to face again. This chapter is probably the start of the final confrontation, and Ganta should have plenty of motivation to go up against the Red Man. Azami is now officially killed in action, and as expected Ganta was devastated at first, but now Ganta seems to have moved on to worrying about Shiro. All of this will build up to that big moment where Ganta finally learns that Shiro is the Red Man, and I'm really looking forward to seeing that. This battle can end either happily (if Ganta saves the Shiro personality) or very badly (Shiro dies). Given Deadman Wonderland's tendencies towards the dark and violent, I'm not sure we'll be getting a happy ending here.

On another interesting note, Tamaki's pistol rounds were able to shatter Sakigami's Branch of Sin. Maybe the pistol rounds have the anti-worm agent, and perhaps it'll come into play some time during the battle.

One Piece 602

The Straw Hat crew set sail for their next adventure.

... and they are off once again.

Summary:
Luffy, Sanji and Zoro head for their ship while Rayleigh and Perona (who gave Zoro a ride to the archipelago) hold off the Marines. The marines are swarming all over the archipelago, but they are stifled by various people that the Straw Hat members have trained with for the last two years such as the weather wizards, Heracles, and the Newkamas. Luffy, Sanji and Zoro are eventually picked up by Chopper and his giant bird friend and arrive in the Thousand Sunny shortly after. A Marine battleship appears to confront the Straw Hats, but the ship is blocked by the Kuja Pirates led by Boa Hancock. With the Kujas distracting the Marines, the Straw Hats activate the coating system on their ship and set sail underwater for their next destination, Fishman Island.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It looks like the reunion mini-arc is over, and the reunited Straw Hats immediately set off on their next adventure. It's good to see that the crew is together again and acting silly even though the Marines are closing in. I was hoping that the Marines or some other party will put the Straw Hat crew's new abilities to the test on Saobody, but I suppose Oda is saving those for later and we'll see the new powers in due time. With so many people helping them, it'd be impossible for the Straw Hats not to leave the archipelago lol. Let's hope the first real arc after the time skip will be a good one.

Bleach 424

Start of the new arc.

No longer a shinigami, but still a street fighter.

Summary:
It's been 17 months after the big battle with Aizen and Ichigo leads a normal teenage life. The only evidence of Ichigo's stint as shinigami is the shinigami representative badge that he forgot to return. Karin has gotten better at seeing ghosts; Ishida has taken over Ichigo's job of exterminating hollows (since Afro-san is unreliable); and Rukia has not returned even once. Ichigo doesn't really mind (or pretends not to mind) though and carries on his daily activities as a high school senior. One day Ichigo is walking home with Keigo and Mizuiro when a guy runs past them clutching a bag with another guy on his tail wanting the bag back. Ichigo catches the thief who confronts Ichigo with a knife, but Ichigo easily beats up the thief and returns the bag to its owner. The owner offers to treat Ichigo to ramen as thanks, but Ichigo declines are walks away. After Ichigo turns away, the owner proceeds to examine the contents of his bag and he also has a shinigami representative badge. Furthermore, the man also knows who Ichigo is.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And thus a new arc of Bleach begins. After about 100 chapters of continuous battles that became more and more ridiculous coupled with more and more transformations, I'm expecting Bleach to stay low key for a while and slowly work the story back up (until Ichigo gets his shinigami powers back). It'll be a change of pace for sure, and hopefully it'll help the series return to the point where it actually had some decent storytelling. So now we have this new character who also appear to be representative shinigami but is (probably) labeled as a "lost agent". He'll probably cause some sort of ruckus that will lead to Soul Society characters appearing in Karakura Town again or something along those lines. Despite various rumors about Bleach having a new protagonist, it looks like Ichigo is still the focus... at least for now.

I wonder how many chapters until Rukia shows up again. Feel free to start making guesses in the comments.

Motto To Love-Ru 04

Risa and Mio give Yami a makeover; Oshizu, Lala and Rito try to track down Haruna's stalker; and Momo and Nana are back yet again.

Letting Risa and Mio run wild is never a good idea.

Part 1 summary:
Risa, Mio, Lala, Haruna and Rito are walking home when they spot Yami sitting on a street bench. Seeing that Yami is reading fashion magazines, Risa and Mio drag Yami into a clothing store to give her an Earth fashion makeover. While Yami is trying out clothes, Lala pulls the curtains open and this causes Yami to punch Rito in the face. Eventually Risa and Mio settle on buying Yami a casual shirt and short skirt. Shortly after leaving the store, the group is confronted by three punks who want to the girls to party with them. Rito tries to dissolve the situation so those three guys won't be beaten to a pulp, but Yami ends up beating them down anyways. After the fight, Yami notices that she ripped her new skirt and feels a bit disappointed.

It's not like Rito is actually capable of stopping Yami from beating up these three stooges.

The next day, Rito and Lala watch Yami read books in the library. Rito wonders if Yami gave up her interest in Earth fashion, but Risa and Mio demonstrates that's not the case by flipping up Yami's skirt, showing that she's wearing the panties from the store yesterday. This leads to Yami punching Rito in the face once again.

Obligatory cute screen shot of Yami.

I'm a human ghost who works for an alien doctor, which means I'm extra special.

Part 2 summary:
Lala and Rito visit Mikado-sensei's clinic where Oshizu is working as an assistant. Oshizu goes out to buy some medicine and on her way back she runs into Haruna (with her dog Meron) who claims that someone is following her when she walks her dog at night. Haruna goes to the clinic with Oshizu and Lala agrees to help after learning Haruna's plight. Lala pulls out her body-switching machine and switches bodies with Haruna, and then she plans to bait the stalker. The friends return to the park where Lala (in Haruna's body) walks Meron while Oshizu, Rito and Haruna (in Lala's body) secretly follow. Not long after the plan starts, Rito's group spots someone in a trench coat following and closing on Lala. Lala notices the stalker as well and tries to grab the stalker, but the stalker shakes her off. The stalker tries to escape but is stopped by Oshizu's telekinesis. When questioned by the group, the "stalker" reveals herself to be a canine alien who is enamored with Meron. At this moment, Oshizu's irrational fear of dogs kicks in and she pummels the alien with her telekinesis which eventually sends the alien to Mikado's clinic.

Well, more patients means more money right?

Part 3 summary:
Zastin receives a message from King Deviluke telling him to retrieve Nana and Momo, who have sneaked their way on to Earth. Back on Earth, Rito goes to bathroom to drain the bath tub, but to his surprise he finds Nana and Momo, both of whom are naked. After getting dressed, Nana and Momo talk with their older sister Lala while Rito and Mikan watch. Momo asks Lala how are things progressing between her and Rito while Nana complains that Rito looked perversely at their naked bodies while they were in the bathroom. Momo also reveals that she has the ability to communicate with any plants, and Nana has the ability to communicate with animals. At this moment, Zastin and the other two bodyguards arrives in the room looking for the twins. It turns out the twin sisters ran away from home because they are sick of history class. This is a behaviour that Lala can relate to as she ran away from home before for the same reason. As Zastin is busy explaining the importance of learning history, Nana and Momo have already left the house. The Deviluke sisters stop under a bridge and starts arguing with each other. They eventually get into a fight in where they grab each other's tails (the weak spot of Devilukeans). As the sisters struggle, Zastin and the guards arrive to take them back home. Zastin knows that royal children have a lot of power, but he thinks that he can handle the two sisters since they don't have wacky inventions at their disposal like Lala. Unfortunately, both Nana and Momo possess one of those summoning cell phones from Lala, and so Nana summons a giant boar and Momo summons a man-eating tree to their bidding. Rito, Mikan, and Lala arrive on the scene and Rito and Mikan also get caught up in the mayhem. At the end of the day, King Deviluke receives a message from his twin daughters telling him that they will stay on Earth for a while. The annoyed monarch then scolds Zastin for being useless.

Momo and Nana sure know how to have fun together.

At least your daughters are happy and enjoying themselves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another alright episode of To Love-Ru, but the censoring is becoming pretty stupid. I understand the censoring of nipples, but panties? What's even stranger is that they censor panties shots from some angles but show them in plain view in others. If you are going to censor, at least be consistent about it. Still, the beams of decency aren't enough to make me watch the uncensored AT-X broadcast which unfortunately is delayed by one week.

As for the stories covered this week, they were based on three okay chapters from the manga, which meant that none of the segments were especially funny or better than the others. The highlights of the episode were the shot of Yami blushing at the end of the part 1 and Momo and Nana's "tail fight" in part 3. The "tail fight" felt naughtier than the manga version, but it's probably just a benefit/side-effect of the anime form factor. Don't remember if Momo did any licking though in the manga though.

Part 3 also received some minor changes compared to the manga to keep the anime continuity consistent. In the manga, the story actually happens before the appearance of the current form of Celine, but Celine is shown here in the anime. It's not that continuity in To Love-Ru really matter much though, and the anime originally skipped a couple of "significant" segments from the manga such as how Oshizu received her new body or the appearance of the current Celine. I wonder if the anime version will ever get around to covering those chapters.

To Aru Majutsu no Index II 03

Touma, Stiyl and Index help the Roman Catholic nuns battle the Amakusa.

Touma has a penchant for getting into these kinds of situations.

The most likely cause of knocking someone out with a tackle is if their head bangs into ground. Now since Touma held this girl's head up, does that mean he knocked her out with the impact alone? Touma must be a bull.

Really Touma? Was it THAT difficult to put a necklace on someone?

Summary:
The Roman Catholic nuns locate the Amkusa at the amusement park, and the plan is for the battle nuns to attack from the front while Stiyl's group sneak in to rescue Orsola and/or destroy the Amakusa's teleport point. Stiyl, Touma, and Index sneak in the back, but Touma becomes separated from the others when the group is attacked by Amakusas. While on his own, Touma knocks out one female Amakusa by tackling her, but soon after he is tackled by Orsolas who used the chaos of the battle to escape. Touma chats with Orsola and hands her the cross given to him by Stiyl. Touma suggests the two wait out the battle, but the Amakusa leader Saiji appears tossing Stiyl around. Despite Index's warnings, Touma tries his luck against Saiji. After several close calls, Touma manages to punch Saiji in the face with assistance from Stiyl and the two knock out Saiji with yet another tackle.

Touma finally gets to punch someone after waiting two and a half episodes (plus off time between the two seasons).

Another tackle resulting in a KO. This time it looks like the victim's head did hit the ground.

The secret to Touma's strength: shaking off Index is a great way to become stronger.

It doesn't look Kaori will involve herself in the ongoing battle anytime soon... but at least she looks great in the kimono/yukata.

Shortly after, the battle nuns have defeated the rest of the Amakusa, and Saiji is restrained by ropes and some spells from Stiyl. Touma and Index are left alone with Saiji and reveals that the Amakusa didn't steal the Book of the Law and that the Roman Catholics staged the whole thing because they want to capture and kill Orsola. According to Saiji, Orsola initially came to the Amakusa for help, but she didn't trust the Amakusa enough to stay. When asked by Touma about why the Amakusa kidnapped Orsola, Saiji answers that there is no good reason, but their motivation stems from the fact that they want Kaori back as their leader. Suddenly, Touma and Index hear Orsola's scream. Saiji tells Touma that the Roman Catholics can't kill Orsola just yet, but he wants Touma to bring Orsola to a place where she'll be safe from both the Roman Catholics and Amakusa. At this moment, two battle nuns Luccia and Angelene arrive to fetch Saiji. Touma asks if he can see Orsola again but Luccia tells him to give up the thought. Touma shoves Luccia aside to go look for Orsola, but Luccia becomes angry and attacks Touma with her exploding wooden wheel which drives a few splinters into Touma's left arm. Angelene uses her flying magical bags to tie up Index, but Index hijacks the spell and uses the bags to drive the two nuns back. The nuns hear the retreat signal and run off, and Saiji tells Touma that this is the Roman Catholics do things behind the back.

So many flying splinters and Touma only gets hit by two? Maybe he's not so unlucky after all.

Hey look, the wounds on Touma's arm have magically disappeared.

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Not a super exciting episode, but the action made a return and it was certainly better than the previous info + random fan service episode. Touma finally got to punch someone in the face, but it wasn't a knockout punch. However, it seems that tackling people is now an instant KO, especially when Touma does it. Tricking Saiji into standing there to summon a spell was a nice move by Touma though. As for the Amakusa warriors such as Saiji, they didn't show anything too special and mostly just waved their swords around with a bit of pseudo-teleporting and enhanced strength. Nothing Touma and the nuns couldn't handle, and the Amakusas went down rather easily. The weapons used by Luccia and Angelene were more interesting, but they don't appear to be that effective. The wounds on Touma's arm actually disappeared just before the end of the episode, but that's probably just an animation error.

So it turns out that the Roman Catholics are the real "villains" of the story and they want to kill Orsola so that no one can use the Book of the Law against them. Most of us probably saw this coming, so it's not much a surprise. Touma, Index, and whichever Amakusas are left will now have to rescue Orsola back from the battle nuns, and this could potentially end up as Touma beating up a lot of girls which would be... an interesting sight to see. I didn't see Touma punching anybody in next chapter's preview though, so it looks like things will be solved with something other than Touma's right fist.

Naruto 514

Kabuto unveils his true intentions.

Kurotsuchi: I'm prepared for anything!

As we'll find out, that's not actually true.

Summary:
Tsuchikage wants to squash Deidara with his dust technique but is restrained by Akatsuchi in fears that Tsuchikage would blow up the turtle island. This allows Deidara to send a flying bomb at the two, but Akatsuchi blocks the explosion with his golem technique. Inside the turtle, Yamato and Aoba manage to convince Naruto to stick to his mission while the two of them and Motoi go outside to look. Meanwhile, Kabuto has landed on the upside down turtle and gets Manda 2 to strangle the turtle to immobilize it further, but Kurotsuchi, Yamato, Aoba and Motoi soon appear to confront Kabuto. Kurotsuchi traps Kabuto with her quick cement technique, and Yamato sets up an interrogation platform for Aoba. However, before Aoba can get started Kabuto sheds his skin into a snake form and swallows up Yamato. Kabuto then dashes into Manda 2's nostril and Manda 2 disappears into a puff of smoke.

Up in the air, Tsuchikage and Deidara are involved in a high speed chase but Deidara is suddenly put back into his coffin and disappears. Tsuchikage flies back to the turtle to check on the situation. After learning that Yamato has been captured, Tsuchikage fears that Yamato will give up valuable info if he is taken back to Madara.

Back at the hideout, Kabuto hands Yamato over to Madara who has replaced his left eye with Nagato's Rinnegan.

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Not quite the fighting chapter that I was expecting. It's sad that the Kurotsuchi and the Konoha ninjas think that Kabuto can be trapped with quick drying cement, and it seems like something bad happens every time Aoba tries an impromptu interrogation on someone (ex Kisame). They should stop trying to interrogate people on the spot lol. I can't say nabbing Yamato wasn't a smart move, but I thought Kabuto would get a little further before turning back. What happened to the Kabuto's confident promise that he'll capture the eight and nine-tails? I guess Kabuto never did give Madara a solid time frame for getting the job done. We'll just have wait a bit more to see how the new super strong/super fragile Naruto fairs against predominant villains of the times.

It looks like Madara might personally come after Naruto and Killer Bee now that his left eye is "hungry for battle", so maybe Kabuto won't be his own Zetsu. On the other hand, Madara might have more Zetsus thanks to Yamato, so maybe Kabuto will get a Zetsu?

One Piece 601

The Marines clash with the pirates gathered by the fake Straw Hats with the real Luffy caught in the middle.

Destroyed in one hit? They just don't make Pacifistas like they used to.

Summary:
At Grove 33, Brook is picked up by a member of Duval's gang while his fans hold off the Marines. On Grove #41, Sanji is called by Franky to return to the ship at Grove 42, but he and Zoro decide to investigate the commotion at Grove 46 first. On Grove 46, the fake Luffy is trying to make an example of the real Luffy, but suddenly the pirates find themselves surrounded by Marines. Fake Luffy orders the Caribou/Coribou brothers to use the captured Marine scout as a human shield, but Caribou kills the Marines instead, prompting an all out battle between the pirates and Marines. Sentoumaru and his two Pacifistas stroll in and starts blasting pirates left and right. The fake Straw Hats try to run for it, but they are cut off by Sentoumaru. Sentoumaru figures out that he is facing fakes and flattens fake Luffy with his axe. One of the Pacifista then identifies Fake Luffy as a small time pirate with a 26 million bounty.

The fakes have been revealed, but Sentoumaru is still bent on arresting all the pirates. Suddenly, one of the Pacifistas detects the real Luffy and fires a blast at his direction, but Luffy is able jump out of the way and reveals his face to the crowd. Sentoumaru orders the Pacifista to attack, but Luffy destroys the robot with one Gear 2 attack and runs off. While running away, Luffy sees the real Zoro and Sanji running towards him. Zoro and Sanji are confronted by the other Pacifista, but the two of them also destroy the Pacifista in one pass. Zoro and Sanji are ready to scram, but Luffy notices Rayleigh who has come to check on Luffy. Rayleigh is pleased with Luffy's progress and tells Luffy to rejoin his crew, and Luffy declares once again that he is going to become the Pirate King.

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The battle between the pirates, the Marines and Luffy did end up happening, but Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro made surprisingly short work of the two Pacifistas. Before the time skip it took the entire Straw Hat crew a lot of effort to take down one Pacifista, but now the strongest three crew members can kill the robots one shot. This chapter just goes to show how much stronger the crew members have become over the time skip. With the two Pacifistas done for, I don't think the Marines have anyone who can impede the Straw Hats from leaving Saobody and Sentoumaru probably isn't stupid enough to go after the Straw Hats by himself. Actually, it seems that Sentoumaru is smarter than most of the pirates and Marines since he is only one that recognized fake Luffy as a fake. The other pirates and Marine must be feeling pretty stupid for falling for the masquerade. Anyways, I wouldn't be surprised if the Straw Hats just left the archipelago without much further opposition... that is unless if an Admiral or super New World pirate suddenly shows up.

Motto To Love-Ru 03

Rito visits Yui at her home; Rito is stuck with a pair of see-through glasses; and Lala makes Rito (in his female form) go on a date with Saruyama.

That plushie is surprisingly uncute.

Part 1 summary:
Yui is absent from school due to illness, so one of the class committee members asks Rito to deliver some homework to Kotegawa's house. At the Kotegawa residence, Yui is being tended to by her brother Yu, who is using Yui's sickness as an excuse to play hookie. Rito arrives in front of the house and rings the doorbell, and to his surprise it's Yu who answers. Yu tells Rito to go to Yui's room directly, and Rito enters Yui's room just as Yui was washing herself and therefore most of her upper body is exposed. Rito gets a tub of water in the face for his transgression. Afterwards, Rito gives Yui her homework but then the two share a long awkward moment in the room. To start a conversation, Rito picks up a cat stuffed toy and asks if Yui likes cat. Yui becomes very nervous and tries to grab the stuffed toy, but she loses balance and falls out of her bed on to Rito. Rito catches Yui but his left hand end up groping Yui's breasts. Yu enters room to bring Yui some coffee, but he immediately exits after seeing what Yui and Rito are doing. Outside the room, Yu mutters that he is surprised with Yui's progress (in terms of her love life). Back inside the room, Rito is about to leave but Yui remarks that she doesn't seem to be feeling sick anymore. Before Rito can figure out what that really meant, Lala, Haruna, Oshizu, Yami, and Run enter the room to check on Yui. Run is somewhat suspicious of what Rito is doing in Yui's room, while Yui is handed taiyaki by Yami and a bag of strange alien medicine (from Mikado-sensei) by Oshizu.

Just giving Yui a little massage to relieve the discomfort. Nothing strange to see here.

Part 2 summary:
In the morning, Rito opens up his closet (the gateway to Lala's room) to tell Lala to get ready for school. However, he finds that Lala has already left and there is a pair of strange eyeglasses on the ground. Rito picks up the glasses and puts them on, but quickly finds out that he cannot take them off. He also finds out that theses glasses allows the wearer to see through people's clothing, and this goes on for the duration of the chapter. Rito first gets a peek at the underwear of Mikan, Risa, Mio, Haruna, and Run. He then accidentally adjust the settings and now everybody appears to be naked. After he adjusts the settings, Rito runs into Saki and her gang and has to run for his life. After escaping to the roof of the school, Rito finally finds some relief when Lala arrives. As Lala tries to take off the glasses, Run shows up and Rito gets a full glance of Run's naked body. However, Run sneezes and turns into Ren and falls over Rito, and Rito ends up looking up into Ren's crotch with the glasses still on.

I wonder if they'll actually show Ren's crotch in the uncensored version.

Riko looks like she's not enjoying this, but there she is strutting her stuff.

Part 3 summary:
At school both Rito and Lala notice that Saruyama seems to feeling a little down. They find out the Saruyama is actually enamored with Rito's girl form from a few chapters ago. After hearing this, Lala convinces Rito to become a girl once more to cheer up his friend. She uses a newer version of her sex-change invention (now in the form of a ray gun) to change Rito into Riko (the girl form) and sets her on a date with Saruyama and tells Saruyama that Riko is Rito's distant relative. On the date, Saruyama takes Riko to see a romantic movie and tries to hold Riko's hand, but Riko pulls her hand away as expected. After the movie the couple runs into Yui. Yui thinks Riko looks familiar and Saruyama explains that Riko is Rito's relative. On the mention of Rito, Yui gets embarrassed and leaves. Somewhere down the street, Mikan is enjoying some Taiyaki with Yami. The two of them spot Saruyama and Riko and Mikan instantly recognizes Riko as Rito. Without knowing the real situation, Mikan begins to think that Rito is developing a perverted habit of becoming a girl to date guys. Yami also seem to notice this. Riko and Saruyama are sitting on a bench. Saruyama is about to confess his love for Riko, but suddenly Riko transforms back into Rito as the effects of Lala's invention wears off. Thankfully Saruyama had his eyes closed the whole time, which enables Rito to make a clean getaway. However, before Rito gets a chance to take off the girl clothes he runs into Haruna. This causes a big misunderstanding and Haruna runs away.

Yeah you should be worried Mikan. If Rito stays a girl then your brother complex will be for naught.

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This season of To Love-Ru continues to stick with its "3 manga-based segments per episode" formula. Maybe Xebec has really heeded my calls and learned its lesson. The formula is not a bad thing since it makes the episodes at least watchable, but on the other hand it limits what I can say about the episode. Lol it seems now I'm wishing for a really bad episode so I'll have something to rant about. For now, it looks like Xebec is just picking chapters in random order, which is probably okay in the early stages. Once the series move on some actual developments (yes, as strange as it sounds To Love-Ru does have plot development, although very rare), Xebec will probably have to put some material in actual chronological order (according to the manga).

Anyways, this episode was not bad. It's better than the first but not as fun as the second. The middle segment with the see-through glasses was rather uninspired. One could argue that To Love-Ru is a bit of a generic fan service manga, but see through glasses are a cliche even for a fan service show. The other two segments weren't bad since Yui is always cute and Riko is always funny. I loved Mikan's expression when she saw Riko and Taruyama walking around together. Turning into a girl and going on a date with your best pal... I've always said that Rito is a true pervert, and looks like his perverseness isn't limited to just girls.

On a related note, I watched the uncensored version of episode 1. They really did show the naughty spots in the ATX version, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised since the new To Love-Ru manga also shows the naughty spots. Too bad the uncensored episode air one week after the censored broadcast, so I'm not going to wait for them.