Today is apparently harvest day for their garden. Kureha starts boasting, and we find out that her father is a war hero of some sort. Noel is off doing her own thing-making a pile of dirt and being amazed by some bug. Figures.

Harvest tiem

They hear Rio playing some jazzy trumpet. It seems Rio is having a hard time dealing with the phone call she received last ep. Something to do with Arkadia, I’m sure.

Cut to pantsu, pantsu, and more pantsu. The way they insert fanservice is genius. It’s like fanservice, but not! Genius. Kanata notices that Rio is acting strange. Apparently she memorized her eating habits-Rio is a picky eater. More of Kureha’s waxing about Kurausu.

I see what you did there...Genius.

Tempura~ I wants

Rio you picky eater

Instead of playing with ojiisan, come play with m-- /shot

Why won't you be mine!? Am I not good enough? *yuri mode on*

Hmm pantsu....*drool*

A typhoon settles in. They get a late night visit from Kurausu, who has a message for Rio from army hq. They invite him inside. Rio retreats to her bedroom to mull over the message. Suddenly Naomi, Yumina, and a third wheel burst in. Gear up, it’s an emergency! One of the orphaned kids are missing!

Rio in yukata

Don't cross the road without looking kids!

They safely rescue the kid. The cliff collapses on the path back, and Kurausu and Kureha are trapped. They retreated back to the abandoned house. Seeing that they are running out of time to save the trapped duo, Rio releases her frustration and curses all the orphans in the world. Filicia reprimands Rio, and Noel comes up with an idea.

I haets all the orphans in the world

As the ground slowly breaks away from around them, Kureha finds out that Kurausu isn’t the war hero via missing tattoo. They suddenly hear a bugle call, and they see that the townspeople have dragged out the tank. Noel targets the two, and shoots off a retractable towing line of sorts. Kurausu grabs the line, and manages to save Kureha as the ground breaks from under her. After they were reeled in, Kurausu tries to tell Kureha that he isn’t the war hero she thinks he is, and she simply tells him that he is her irreplaceable person. After the typhoon, he says that he will continue to live up to Kureha’s image. Ep end.

Why does Kurausu need to stand in front of where the tank is trying to shoot?

Kureha, I am your father.

I really wonder where they are taking this series? I’m not exactly sure what to expect from the upcoming ending. I am starting to think it is going to go for 2 cour, either that, or they will try to cram everything in the last few ep. Hopefully they start on Rio’s backstory, and explain the ever mysterious blonde trumpeter that seems to be connected to everyone. The development in this series is a little slower than I would have liked. O well. Bring on the next ep!

*insert bishoujo/trap here*

‘s pleading eyes on me. It was short, but I hope to be back in action asap. Until next time.

And so it has arrived. Being a big fan of both the anime and the games, this blu-ray release was a must get. And it didn’t disappoint. Read more after the jump.

Having my laptop HD go south, along with my Ixus camera, I was in despair over the last month or so. That being said, I had to take pictures with my phone to compensate… So yeah… I’ll probably upload better quality pictures when I get a new camera.

I pre-ordered both the Ef-a tale of memories blu-ray boxset and the melodies blu-ray disc 1 through Amazon.jp. My packages arrived a mere 4 days after release. I giddily made my way down to the mail room to pick up my package, and I noticed that the box was slightly crushed. Like so.

Oh the nightmare of every importer

I rushed home immediately, fearing the worst. Upon opening, my fears were unfounded. Safe! Good thing too, plans of holding those responsible at gunpoint were filling my mind. Moving along. Here they are in all their pixelated, ambient lighted glory.

I was really quite impressed with the memories boxset. The box was decently sturdy. What stood out the most was the surface texture. It almost feels like high quality, thick art paper with acrylic. The discs came in a 3 flap fold out. The packaging here feels a little flimsy, however, it’s fine as it will just be sitting on the shelf.

The memories boxset also came with 2 booklets. One being an Original Art Works Collection featuring artwork mostly from promos and dvd covers. The other was an Editorial Book featuring episode summaries, character files, interviews, and the like. This was a nice touch, as something like the Air blu-ray boxset had nothing of the sort.

The melodies boxset featured the same textured surface as the memories. Quite a nice box. Definitely going in the forefront of my collection.

Upon opening the cover, I saw 2 discs, one being the blu-ray, and the other being an extras dvd.

All in all an extremely wonderful purchase. This is a must get for every Ef fan. I apologize for the horrid picture quality, and will reupload when I get a new camera… *sob. Look forward to a post with screenshots of ef in all its blu-ray glory.

*edit
I can’t believe it… Upon receiving art boxsets, I usually throw the cardboard inserts away. Isn’t that their purpose? As I was chucking it into the trash, I noticed that there was something inside… Upon further inspection, to my horror, I found a small booklet with a 2 month calender insert. I never realized that there were extra goodies hidden inside those things. It must have been a one time thing, It must have been a one time thing, It must have been a one time thing… Ignorance is bliss.

If you haven’t heard, the translation for the VN by Leaf, Tears to Tiara, has finished and is currently in beta testing. Noticing that Dakkodango Translation group needed beta testers, I went ahead and applied. Having no previous experience in the translation community, I thought for sure they would pass me up for more talented individuals. ~~Lucky~~

Go here for more info.
The OP for your viewing pleasure.

I'm sure everyone has seen Miku-sama at least once somewhere.

So I was surfing the net, and I inevitably stumbled across some videos with Hatsune Miku goodness.  I just can’t get over on how perfect Miku, as a charcter, is.  From her attractive appearance and attire, to her delectable voice, Miku would make a perfect waifu. In hopes of becoming a Vocaloid god Being inspired by Miku’s perfection, I finally got around to messing with Vocaloid; comparable to opening Pandora’s Box.  Read more after the jump.

Vocaloid 2 has been sitting on my hd for ages, and I remember being scared off on using the program once I started it up.  It looked complex. It looked hard. To my dismay, I was right.  First I tried making my own music.  Quickly realising that I have no musical talent, I tried importing midi files so I could focus on inputing the lyrics.  Apparently Miku hates the midis that I inported.  After hours of frustration, I went in search of Vocaloid tutorials.  Navigating my way through the labyrinth of japanese pages and links(I swear, all japanese sites are like mazes), I found some very useful information.  Not wanting to let my findings go to waste on just me, here’s a pretty good beginning tutorial in english that someone was kind enough to translate.  I can easily see now why Hatsune Miku/vocaloid has become a near phenomenon.  Once you get the hang of it, it is so addicting.  Perfectionists should have a field day.  Once you have the basic layout, you have to tweak it hundreds of times to get it to sound half decent.  Now I know the true scope of skill required to synthesize a song.  Not to mention adding the 3d Miku dance choreography as well.

Well it looks like Miku just adds on to my growing list of addictions.  My view on life has broadened.  My life span, however, has probably shortened.  Ah well.  All hail Miku-sama.

For those of you who don’t know what Vocaloid is, go here and here.

The informative vocaloid tutorial for beginners here and here

Example of Miku-sama’s greatness.

Quite the possibly the most kawaii Miku-sama ever. Enjoy.

And lastly, the best of them all, a collection of 4000+ songs that Miku-sama sings. here

If anyone needs help with Vocaloid, go ahead and comment, and I’ll try to help out as best I can.

Someone pinch me.  The day I have been dreaming of has finally arrived.  There will be a doijin made anime Musou Kakyou ( 夢想夏郷) that will be available on dvd at the upcoming Comiket.  I was surprised to see the names of some professional seiyuu such as Miyuki Sawashiro and Mai Nakahara.  Full details are available here (Jap).  Can’t wait.

The title says it all.  The people over at Non-Directional Translations have released a teaser/beta patch recently.  For those of you who have been waiting, it has been a long wait.  You can get the patch here.

And yes, this blog is still alive.  I just need to survive this final wave of exams, and I should be back to updating regularly.

And just for nostalgia, here’s the OP for kanon for your viewing pleasure.  Ah it’s already bringing back the memories and tears.

Fate/stay night translation is fully completed!  The long awaited translation of the route Heaven’s Feel is now open!  My thousand thanks to Mirror Moon who finished the translation.  What are you doing still reading?  Go.

http://mirrormoon.org/news/2008/11/fatestay_night_english_v3_1_released