A Mysterious Package

There is a mysterious package waiting for me at home. I found it left on my doorstep by UPS as I was leaving for work today. I had enough time that I could have opened it up, but if it proved to be something cool I wouldn't have had enough time to properly play with it. So I simply took it inside where it waits for me to return home from work to see what it is, and who sent it to me.

 My behavior of late suggests I'm shifting out of MMORPG mode and into watching anime mode. Which isn't to say I'm in any danger of ceasing to play WoW, I just seem to be spending more time watching anime than I have been in recent months. I suspect it is a result of getting Chipple to 70. It's a nice milestone, and also a good place to rest a bit before getting serious about the grind of improving her gear. 

Misumi Nagisa

As I suspected I would, I've started watching Futari wa Pretty Cure Max Heart. Just like it's predecessor it is good light hearted, magical girl fun. I've noticed one amusing byproduct (amusing to me anyway) of the magical girl powers the main character's possess. Allow me to illustrate. Please note picture of Misumi Nagisa to the left. As an unrelated aside the cutesy teddy bear looking thing is Mepple, most magical girls have some sort of cute companion (often a talking animal) and he is Nagisa's.

Cure Black

Now compare this to the picture of Cure Black. If you can spot what I'm getting at right away, then good for you. However I'm guessing one example isn't probably enough.










So let me move on to example number two. Next please observe the picture of Yukishiro Honoka, and then the picture of Cure White. Again as an aside the cute companion is Mipple. Honestly the cutesy companion is one of my least favorite tropes of the magical girl genre. I probably wouldn't mind Mipple and Mepple that much if they just didn't end every sentence with "mipo" and "mepo" respectively.

Yukishiro Honoka

Cure White

Some of you may be spotting what I'm talking about, but the final example should
really bring it home. In Pretty Cure Max Heart a new heroine is introduced. So please take a look at the pictures of Kūjō Hikari (to the left), and her alter ego Shiny Luminous (on the right). I believe the amusing power should now be quite apparent. If you are guessing their transformation must include the application of magical hair mousse for increased volume, then we are on the same page. Extremely silly? Yes, but it is still what I think of basically every time I watch these characters transform.

Kūjō Hikari

Shiny Luminous

Aside from pondering the hair care regiment of magical girls, I've started in on a few other anime as well. I am just over halfway through Denno Coil (sometimes written as Dennou Coil). This one is extremely engaging - interesting characters and an interesting plot. I imagine I'll be finishing it up pretty soon. I'm sure I'll have more to say about it once I've finished it. For the curious the girl in the picture is Okonogi Yūko one of the main characters from Denno Coil. The strange looking pink things are called Satchii; they are basically antivirus software that patrol the Augmented Reality environment of the city Denno Coil takes place in.

 I've also started in on Rosario + Vampire (the first four episodes). This seems like a pretty fun series. Nothing really new here; it's a harem anime. The male protagonist is a normal first year high school student who gets mistakenly enrolled in a high school for monsters, and wacky shenanigans ensue. Naturally this includes the unintentional collection of a harem of beautiful supernatural female students (thus far a vampire, succubus, and witch). This anime has more fan service (of the panty shot and other sexual eye candy variety) than anything else I've watched in awhile. That fact isn't really anything either good or bad, but was a bit jarring at first.