On the one hand it's long (50 episodes), somewhat cliched (a boy cursed to grow up as a girl), a bit silly, and relies too heavily at times on Megumi Hayashibara's talents. And Megumi (the one in the story, not Hayashibara-san) is somewhat funny-looking.

On the other hand, the characters definitely grow on you (even Keiko, who starts out as a stock miss-rich-bitch), most of the episodes are enjoyable in themselves, it has some interesting twists and turns, and it all resolves itself in a very satisfying way. Even when you see what's coming (and there's some nice foreshadowing if you know what to look for) what you get isn't quite what you expected.

It hasn't been licensed yet, so right now your only option (assuming you don't speak Japanese) is to download the fansub. Which is, I'll add, very nicely done.

Other reviews: JASCII, AnimeNfo. Some of the reviewers don't like it at all, by the way, often for exactly the reasons I do. I you can get past the unusually un-cute character designs at the start, though, there's a lot there to enjoy.

One thing I'll add: Megumi Hayashibara was in her mid-thirties when she did this part, and at first it was weird to hear her voice coming from a fifteen year old girl. But within a couple of episodes it seemed the most natural thing in the world, and Megu-san is very very good at bringing her roles to life. Be warned, it is her Lina Inverse voice, and if that's going to have you expecting Dragon Slave at least once per episode you'll be disappointed.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:49 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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more...

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:59 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Okay, so a lot of it is crap. Still...

Time, I think, to get my other terabyte of disk working again.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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One such is the Meganeko Gallery.

For the unsubtle, there's also Being Upfront.

As quite a few lucky fellows can attest, the two are not disjoint sets.

(Click on the links if you don't know what the hell I'm talking about.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:37 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Ranma's from Ranma½
Futaba's from Futaba-kun Change
Maze's from Maze: Megaburst Space
Megumi's from Tenshi na Konamaiki

And am I missing any important examples? One-off switchers (Keiichi from OMG), body transfers (Galaxy Angel), technological assists (Dual) and cases of straightforward parental confusion (Ryuunosuke from Urusei Yatsura) need not apply. Just those who are stuck with the problem whether they like it or not.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:07 AM | Comments (25) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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(via Chizumatic (20051026))

Update: Glowing reviews!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:28 AM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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I was looking around for a BitTorrent tracker on the weekend to host my anime video clips, and was annoyed because most of them seem to be written in C, and require compiling and installation rather than just being plonked on the server. This is why. If you have 27,000 people hitting your server at once, your program has to run as fast as possible.

Since I don't have 27,000 people hitting my torrents - or even 27 - this is something of a nuisance, but that's how BitTorrent is designed. The more people downloading, the better it works.

Update: 29,000.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:50 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Well, damn and blast. Rizelmine came out a couple of years ago, so it would be licensed by now for sure, and I'd have to buy it on DVD, rip it, and re-encode it before I could actually make the clip. I'll be doing that soon enough (once I get through the fansubs), but it was a bit annoying that I'd lost a series that I once had. (And a bit disturbing that it had happened at all. I thought I'd juggled the various server switches smoothly enough not to have lost entire directories full of anime.)

Turns out, though, that no-one's bothered to pick up Rizelmine. It's still in fansub. Clicky clicky, download.

In fact, according to my list, it's backed up on DVD #20, but I don't know if that's the full series or just the first half. Just the first half, I think, because it says that Kokoro Library is on there as well, and it wouldn't all fit if it was the full two seasons of Rizelmine.

Downloading is easier, anyway.

(If I was with Telstra on one of their non-capped broadband plans, they'd charge me $510 to download that much data. Yeah. Still. In 2005. Bunch of thieves.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:36 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Watashi kunoichi
I am a female ninja
(watashi I, kunoichi a female ninja)

Ninin ga Shinobu desu
2x2 = Shinobu (ni two, so ninin two-two; Shinobu is her name, and desu meaning is, or in this case, am. I'm not sure precisely what ga means here. Note that the verb comes at the end, so the first line makes no real sense by itself. Or at least is ungrammatical.)

Why the 2x2? Well, Shinobu is a trainee ninja, and when exercising her ninja talents she has a tendency to say nin nin, as in ninja. So nin nin becomes two times two.

I'm sure you wanted to know that.

The video clips for Shinobuden are very cute, particularly the closing sequence, which is done in claymation. (So is the closing sequence for Futakoi Alternative, by the way.) You can download them here; three seeds, no waiting. (Actually, I think the seed count is wrong, but there are at least two.)

Just don't ask me where the -den suffix comes from.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:16 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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As always, downloads will be slow until I get a second seed up and running.

(Tracker page here)

(Warning for diabetics: Contains sugar.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:51 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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