Macross Frontier ~Itsuwari No Utahime~ ED and insert songs album - CM Ranka

Having lavished plenty of attention on Sherly Nome (aka May'n) and her insert album for the Macross Frontier movie Itsuwari No Utahime, it would be wrong of me not to do likewise to Megumi Nakajima's turn as Ranka Lee in her own CM Ranka ED and insert song album - Not least because Ranka is far more awesome than Sheryl. Fact.

Anyhow, compared to the magnificence of Universal Bunny, CM Ranka immediately looks a little on the light side, with only one track of any decent length with the rest of the mini-album made up of the insert songs referred to already. Still, it's better than nothing, right?


Of course it is, especially given that the full-length track in question is Sou da yo. I've never been too hot on Ranka/Megumi Nakajima doing ballads and slower songs, but this really is quite beautiful, with a very obvious Yoko Kanno feel to it that keeps the track moving without ever losing its pace or underlying emotion. It's exactly the kind of track you might expect to hear at the end of an anime movie, so it certainly seems to fit its purpose.

From here, we jump into a series of short but sweet little efforts - Starlight Nattou is a rather sparse and childish little track (deliberately so, I'm sure) that doesn't particularly do much for me. Dynam Chougoukin on the other hand is a wonderful example of what you can do with just ninety seconds musically - It's upbeat, it's fun, it's funky, and to be quite honest this track should be the opening or ending theme of an anime produced by SHAFT... You just know they'd love to use this tune on Natsu no Arashi or Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

Kaitaku Juuki on the other hand is the kind of military sing-along that I suppose was inevitable, although talking of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei I did find myself wanting to sing the lyrics to that particular series' drawing song to it. Kaminari... pikari! Then there's Daruma Seminar, which feels more like a football chant with added Casio keyboard effects and a girl with a great voice to sex it up - God knows where that one will fit into the movie.

No Ranka Lee album is complete without Ninjin Loves you yeah!, and of course this track is present here in what sounds like an identical form to that found on the original Macross Frontier OSTs unless I'm missing something. Is it wrong that I know all of the lyrics to this song?

Family Mart Cosmos is, of course, a cheesy advertisement offering which plays up Megumi Nakajima's sexy yet innocent voice to the full - Not the kind of thing you'll be listening to on repeat (unless there's something rather wrong with you), but again I imagine it does the job which it is intended for in terms of the film.

Last but certainly not least for this mini-album Koi no Dogfight (Chotto dake) - Another fantastic and upbeat effort that could easily claim a place as the opening theme to any anime series it put its mind to. Okay, maybe the vocoder use was a little gratuitous (while also making me think of Toradora's Pre-Parade, in a good way) but I can live with that, and I'm expecting... nay, hoping... that this appears as a full track at some point, as it's clearly be crafted with more than a place as an insert song in mind given the way it fades out.

Overall, I have to hold my hands up and say that this is no Universal Bunny as its track listing and track lengths suggest, but it's still a must for Macross Frontier and Ranka Lee fans - The three new stand-out tracks (no matter how short) are worth plenty in my book in their own right.

Hetalia Axis Powers - Episode 47

The latest episode of Hetalia: Axis Powers begins with a brief reappearance for Chibitalia, for reasons that I can't quite fathom - Indeed, this instalment is book-ended by her, although at least in terms of the episode's closing few seconds there is a little more entertainment to be had.

Sandwiched between those appearances is England and France's attempts to get Poland onside with them prior to World War II kicking off, something which Poland is completely disinterested in - In Hetalia terms, this means that Poland is more interested in pink things and ponies, which I would imagine is a slightly offensive depiction if you're actually Polish. There's also a brief segment showing America's growth while left alone by England for a while, which I think has already been pretty well-covered already in all honesty (but maybe I'm just a bitter and twisted Englishman).


Still, not being Polish means I did get a bit of a laugh out of said country's depiction, which made for a mildly entertaining episode of Hetalia: Axis Powers - Which is pretty much all you can ask of an episode of this series, truth be told.

White Album - Episode 24

Poor old Akira - It seems that even being hit by a truck can't give him more than a fleeting appearance in this series. Instead, this twenty-fourth instalment of White Album focuses almost exclusively on the revelations dished out by Menou at the end of the last episode, namely that she's never sung on any of her records, instead merely lip-syncing over tracks written and recorded by others. Rumours that Menou is currently looking to join Milli Vanilli are currently unconfirmed.


Needless to say, such a large-scale scandal leaves fallout and debris everywhere, but most squarely at the door of Eiji Ogata, as the revelation that his newly hired star can't actually sing twists and turns into stories of fraud, theft and the fabrication of stories published about Rina in the past. In short, Eiji's career appears to be finished, as he goes into hiding for most of the episode.

Of course, things aren't all that much better for M3 Productions, Menou's former employer and a company presided over by her mother. With Menou also due to take part in the Venus festival, this also looks like a dead end until Rina steps up to the plate and offers to take her place despite the cold reception she's likely to get. Similarly, Yuki remains determined to take part too, setting her up for a reunion with her former stablemate at long last.

There's plenty of other drama swirling around this episode of course, from some potential peril for Rina (who shows her intellect this episode by proving to have figured out everything going on after doing a little research) through to Eiji having a bit of a "Touya moment" with Yuki, albeit one that fails miserably.

Probably the best news for this episode however is the relative lack of Touya himself, leaving this episode to get on with things without spending too much time worrying about whether he's managing to keep his pants on. While he finds himself with quite a lot of explaining to do come the end of the episode, it was refreshing to see Yuki and Rina taking the lead without deferring to the show's equivalent of a village idiot at all for most of it - It's enough to make you wonder; what would White Album have been like without a male protagonist at all?

Kūchū Buranko - Episode 9

Kūchū Buranko time means it's time to check another "freak of the week" into Doctor Irabu's surgery, and this time around the star of the show is quite literally that - Hiromi Yasukawa, a former child star known for one thing and one thing alone, who continues to live (or at least, try to live) off that "image" even into his adult career.

Hiromi's core issue is Narcissistic Personality Disorder, an over-bearing sense of self love and worth brought about by his fame at a young age. It's this early stardom that has convinced Hiromi that he has to protect his image at all costs, which for him seems to involve dressing like Michael Jackson (seriously, was that a knowing nod at said sadly deceased former child star?) and grinning like an idiot at all times in line with his child star persona. Of course, this façade is no help at all when it comes to getting serious acting jobs, which is why eventually Hiromi is dragged along to see Doctor Irabu for his help.


As per usual, Irabu's form of "help" seems to be anything but, as he spends much of his time flirting with Hiromi's manager and generally making life tougher for him rather than easier, but then again (and as always with this series) I suppose that's kind of the point. Eventually, Hiromi manages to "find himself" and carve out a niche that suits him after some decidedly desperate attempts to change his image with the use of clothes pegs (you have to watch it to understand), and all is well.... until Hiromi's limited persona is found out again, I would imagine.

Truth be told, this was probably one of the weaker instalments of Kūchū Buranko thus far, possibly on account of its use of a protagonist who you couldn't really feel sorry for, or indeed any similarity to, like some of the other characters depicted by this show. This might not have been such a big deal had the story itself felt as smart and well-written as previous episodes, but even this seemed to go through the motions aside from one or two genuinely funny moments, with even the ending feeling like a bit of a cop-out (which reminded me of that episode of The Simpsons, Bart Gets Famous). Still, this is but a small blemish on what has been a largely fascinating series so far, and the next episode looks really interesting to me, so I don't want to go too hard on Kūchū Buranko lest it develop an image problem.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Episode 36

Episode thirty-six of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood kicks off with a flashback to the days of the Elric brother's childhood - Don't worry though, it's a hugely important one, which reveals a big secret about Ed and Al's father and the life he's lead up until that point, as well as the reason for him abandoning his children at such a young age never to properly return. If you've been thinking of Hoenheim as purely a bad guy up to this point, this may well skew your perspective at least a little.


From here however we return to the present, as Major General Armstrong continues in her attempt to pull the wool over Lieutenant General Raven's eyes by pretending to aid him in the military's top secret mission involving the Homunculus, an act she manages to keep up even as news comes in that the party sent out to investigate the tunnel dug underneath Fort Briggs are missing and most likely in peril, if not worse.

Armstrong's devious plan ends in a shockingly bloody way once her immediate mission is accomplished, but to assume that everything will be smooth sailing from here is to reckon without both Kimblee and the military as a whole, and needless to say a new joker is smuggled into the pack of cards which threatens to undermine all of those efforts, while proving to be a card that both Ed and Al understandably greet the appearance of with horror. What twists and turns remain at Fort Briggs? There's certainly plenty of story left to tell here.

As per usual, this is an episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood par excellence, from its opening which basically acts as an example of "flashbacks done right" (in other words, adding important information in a compelling way rather than filling time and being lazy) through to Major General Armstrong's fantastic display of cold, calculating ruthlessness which was both terrifyingly evil and a joy to behold at the same time. Things certainly show little sign of abating at this point either, which as per usual leaves me waiting impatiently to see how the story progresses. Chances are I won't be disappointed if this instalment is anything to go by.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu - Purezza - Episode 11

Despite having been confronted by an ultimatum from Haruka's production company as they look to make her into their next big idol, surely Yuuto isn't daft enough to just agree to their terms and walk away from the one he loves?

On seconds thoughts, this is Yuuto we're talking about, so of course he heeds their words and decides to stay as far away as possible from Haruka for what he believes to be her own good despite hating every second of it, a decision that isn't helped by Haruka admitting that she's enjoying her practice sessions for the audience.

Ultimately it takes Milan Himemiya of all people to (repeatedly) remind Yuuto that he's being an idiot, going as far as making some long and quite frankly rambling monologue at her live concert which she attends urging him to think twice - Something he does just in the nick of time to prevent Haruka winning her audition and thus save the day. His efforts are helped by the rest of the Nogizaka family from the maids right down to Haruka's parents, with Gento in particular doing a fantastic imitation of Gendo Ikari that had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion, particularly when his very best Gendo hands were accompanied by Beethoven's Ode to Joy.


So, all's well that ends well, but we're still waiting for that all-important kiss between Haruka and Yuuto... in fact, even a proper confession would be nice by this point in the game. Still, we have a couple of episodes left to "make things right", so let's hope this series finally bites the bullet and does just that - It knows we're all rooting for the pair of them at the end of the day, so after throwing this relatively entertaining storyline at us it's about time they put us out of our misery.

Natsu no Arashi - Episode 24

After pretty much resolving the issues between Hajime and Arashi over the last couple of episodes, I suppose it was perhaps inevitable that Natsu no Arashi would return to focusing on Jun for this latest instalment of the series.

Indeed, this particular episode depicts a decidedly bizarre day for Jun - After seeing Kaya sneak into her room to mess with her alarm clock, Jun awakes late only to find that she's changed in some decidedly... err, "womanly" ways. What on Earth is going on? Nothing that makes any sense of course, this is Natsu no Arashi after all, but regardless Jun panics and rushes to Hakobune to seek the help of Kaya.


The trouble is, before she can find Kaya she runs into Arashi and the rest of the gang, and so once again Jun decides to hide the truth by instead pretending to be Jun's older sister, Ryoko. From her, she ends up getting roped into planning her own surprise birthday party (the reason for Kaya altering Jun's alarm clock in the first place), a state of affairs which has both its positives and negatives. All's well that ends well however, with Jun's body returning to normal just in time for her to attend the party and act suitably surprised.

Despite this episode having plot holes you could drive a bus through from beginning to end, I can't really fault this episode for at least being quite fun and at least taking a different path down the otherwise tired route of Jun's gender confusion shenanigans. That said, there really isn't much else noteworthy to say about the instalment (aside from a cursory mention of fully developed Jun's allure, maybe), and it does seem as though we're just going to be churning through the motions for the remainder of this series now, which is a real shame given the promise that Natsu no Arashi has occasionally demonstrated.