Bernkastel

Yes, I've been trying to be active here this month. How have you been doing?

Hi, Histoire.

I don't have a favourite game. I'm really bad at picking favourites. All I can do is mention some series I like, such as Danganronpa, Nier, Yakuza, Ace Attorney, Persona and Zero Escape. I have enjoyed Pokemon, but I haven't played enough or recently enough to call that one of my favourite series.

While there were a few anime I watched as a kid, like Pokemon, Cardcaptor Sakura and some others, I found it hard to keep track of when shows aired as a kid. I also knew nothing of anime until I was a teen and only got a chance to both find out more about various anime and watch them around 2013/2014. I still have a lot of anime that I've to get around to watching and that's as someone who's a bit picky and watches considerably less stuff than a lot of people.

I've watched the first two episodes of Violet Evergarden. I intend to watch something else, but I haven't decided what yet.

So, here is my episode 4 review. Let's go! We start with the Principal talking to Mrs Sakurai about discipline and the need to better enforce it. This is the setup for the first half of the episode and is quickly delivered before going to the OP. After that, Mrs Sakurai is motivating herself in regards to new task of enforcing rules. She bumps into Sasahara, who is eating a cooked meal layed out on a tray he has hung from his neck. There's also wine, because eating in the halls is something Sasahara does with sophistication. Naturally, Mrs Sakurai freaks out. But she tries to take Sasahara on. It works, amazingly. This is the first time Mrs Sakurai has done this telling a student off thing successfully and with Sasahara of all people. Of course, Sasahara feels the need to loudly declare that those who prepared his food should be notified that he found it delicious. Instantly, Misato is behind Sasahara with a minigun. So, she too has a special power. Everyone seems to do in this anime, but I guess that's to be expected in this shounen ani...wait, this is slice of life? Whar? Well, I hope Misato has better amunition this time. Mrs Sakurai nervously reprimands Misato on the minigun she has. But a person suddenly calls Misato over, so Mrs Sakurai doesn't have to deal with that. She then asks Sasahara about his cravat, which she calls a frilly thing. He first responds with a random bit about how their ordinary days might be a series of miracles, with Sasahara and Sakurai being shot as though this is some super meaningful moment. Then Mrs Sakurai asks Sasahara aboiut the cravat again, since she doesn't know it's name. He laughs and says he'll tell her it's name. He then leaves without finishing the sentence of “It's name is...” with a actual name. But this is actually better than usual, so Mrs Sakurai is happy. This is very good day for her in terms of accomplishments. Well done! So it has to finish off with Sakurai asking a student about their hair and that student becoming upset, loudly confessing after being pushed by Mrs Sakurai that their hair doesn't grow on the sides. We get a random bit where a student is counting for a game. When he turns around from the wall he was facing, he gets told by another student that the others involved in the game have gone home. Oh, the transition bit for at this point is a shot of a urinal. That's odd. Nano and the Professor are doing food shopping. Nano's dealing with the problem of taking a young child around shopping. The Professor wants snacks and has zero interest in healthy foods. Plus, she already has snacks back home. But Nano does accept that they can get some snacks for Sakamoto. While looking for those, the two notice a snowman on the sehelves and Nano asks a store worker about it. It's actually made of ice and some other people express interest in it. But Nano decides to buy it. You know, because it's cute. Yeah, that makes total sense in regards to buying something that'll melt and that you'll be shaving ice off for shaved ice treats. The Professor uses this brash impulse purchase to leverage some snacks out of Nano. It is understandable when Nano got a snowman for herself. Well, Sakamoto is stunned by this. He doesn't care much, as long as he has his own food. Yeah, Nano forgot that, thanks to the distraction of the snowman. So, your meal is shaved ice, Sakamoto. Enjoy! Hmm, are there actual frozen treats for cats? I wonder. We get the rock paper scissors game between Nano and the Professor again. This time, her hand launches into the air, with a cord attached to it that links to to Nano. It stops extending after a point and pulls Nano up into the air. Come back, Nano! We still need to do the rest of the episode! Okay, next bit. All the students are in class and working. Mrs Sakurai has fallen asleep. Yukko is looked freaked out at something. That turns out to be Mai standing on her desk while no one pays any attention to that, apart from Yukko. Then Mai is suddenly gone, Yukko looks around and then finds Mai behind her, lying on top of the lockers. She then lifts her hand up and has a finger touch a hand drawn behind her with it's own finger extended, like that famous painting with man reaching out to god. Hmm, perhaps it is Mai who is meant to be God. Yes, that makes perfect sense! God is an anime girl who does random stuff to screw with people. Yukko tries to get Mio's attention, but Mio just thinks it's an eraser Yukko's after and hands one over without even looking at Yukko. Then Mai is back at her desk, but is taking off her hair. Yukko freaks out at this. So does the Principal, who we see through the class window. Then the bell rings, stirring Mrs Sakurai and getting her to end to test. We then cut to Mai and Yukko on the rooftop with Mai holding the wig she wore for the whole no hair thing. We get a bit with Mrs Sakurai in the office, musing on thinking about what others want and what you want. It's not a joke, but it's short and nice. We get another bit with that person playing the game from earlier. He is still trying it with no one around playing with him and the person who told him the others had gone just telling him to stop already. Yukko goes up to a window, tired. Then a bird, some sort of exotic bird, appears and tells her that it has gotten used to this form. Yukko freaks out. Nano is cooking umeboshi. Sakamoto tries one, but they aren't cooked yet. The Professor gets a foxtail from the garden and says she can play with Sakamoto with it. Sakamoto isn't pleased with the way he is adressed and the Professor keeps using the undesired form of address while trying to apologise, annoying him further. Nano goes shopping, leaving Sakamoto with the Professor. She annoys him further, though the way she sways the foxtail left and right begins to distract him. Then the Professor leaves him to got to the loo, giving him a moment to think. He thinks about how he is the only adult there in the house and will have to take a parent role, an attempt at being mature which is hard to take seriously when Sakamoto starts playing with an eraser part way through his inner monologue and gets seriously into playing with it. Then the Professor pops back and wonders what he was doing. So save his dignity as the self-proclaimed parent, he says he was sleeping. Then he gets distracted by a fly while trying to explain himself and starts trying to swat it. He then gets distracted again by the foxtail and leaps at it. Yeah, mission accomplished, Sakamoto. The Professor will surely take you seriously now that you've gone full cute kittie in front of her. *sighs* Why won't cats ever go full cute kittie for me in real life? Whyyyy?! After that, we see the hair guy from before at home, trying to arrange his hair to look more normal. It works, but his mum pops in and both of them freak out. Yukko and Mai are outside, after school. Yukko spots Mai reading a book hidden by a book. Yukko says this is likely part of Mai working to her role as the funny man. But she decides to poke fun at 4this anyway. This annoys Mai, who says her good jab effectively overshadows her funny man act. It's amusing in a way, since Mai is the most serious in the way she acts. But I'd say Mio is the straight man of the group, while funny man of the group is potentially applicable to Mai. Anyway, Yukko is actually a bit confused about what Mai is doing. Mai says she doesn't need to explain and thought Yukko would just understand, since she;s quick on the uptake. Then it gets briefly tense with Mai saying they aren't friends. Mai clarifies a moment later that they are best friends and thus don't need words. Yukko says some words are okay and tries to hug Mai. Mai pushes her back and it's tense again, with Mai saying she shouldn't do that. Then it gets odd, with Mai saying she'll fall further in love with Yukko. Yukko thinks this is a best friend sort of love, but Mai tries to clarify. It's the romantic sort of love thaty girls normally have for guys. Yeah, so Yukko freaks out at this. It was a joke. Yukko says she believed it, then tries to lie her way out of that. Mai then says, very seriously, that she hates people who try to lie their way out of situations. Yukko apologises. It was another joke. Yukko is just utterly confused at this point. Also, the comment about Yukko being quick on the uptake was meant to have Yukko respond with “No I'm not” as an alternative setup for a joke than the whole sudden love thing. Well, in my opinion, that was an improvement over episode 3. It was very funny. There was no super animation moment, but all the jokes worked wonderfully.

So, here is my review/reaction post for episode 3 of Nichijou. Now, this episode starts with a black cat in a cage. The cat manages to open up the bottom of cage when a bird appears at the nearbyu window and it decides to get at it. As the cat does that, another bird joins the first one. The Cat tries to get the birds, but accidentaly leaps out of the window instead. It thankfully lands on it's feet, but a box that had been on the window still had been knocked off and lands right on top of the poor kittie. After the OP, we again join Mio and Yukko on the way to school. Yukko ask about Mio's hair pin. Yukko is trying her selamat pagi thing again. Mio ignores it and Mai, when she appears, flat out ignores Yukko when she greets her with it. How cruel! As an aside, there is a different transition bit than usual. It's normally a shot of a building. This time, it was a different street shot, with the box the cat was in moving across. Nano and the Professor walk in the opposite direction, chatting. After that, we return to Yukko and Mai, walking together in awkward silence. Or, as I know it, the general experience of walking with another person. Yukko decides this is because she took some broccoli from Mai's lunch and Mai is angry with her. In fact, she'd feared Mai had been angry with her since then and thus presents some replacement broccoli to Mai in the manner in which a person might propose to marry someone. You know, right at the pedestrian crossing with others around. Naturally. Who doesn't offer apologies for trivial things like that? Mai just walks off. Then Yukko says it isn't that and pulls out some cauliflower, saying that also isn't the problem. That implies that she'd done the same thing with the cauliflower as she'd done with the broccoli. Yeah, perhaps that should have been a clue, Yukko, in regards to the viability of your plan. But I suppose that was easy to miss. I mean, it was such a great plan that I suppose it was worth retrying. Well, Yukko is going to get Mai to forgive her for whatever is making her ignore Yukko, no matter what. So, she offers apologies for all the food items she took and one instance where she left a crap bit of a meal for Mai. No response. Yes, really. I'm amazed too. This is a tough one. But Yukko will not give up in the face of this adversity. She starts thinking going back further through all the things before the horror of what she took yesterday from Mai's lunch. What is her sin? Perhaps it has something to do with a figure of Mai's that she broke and her over the top way of handling it, up to the point of incinerating it to hide the evidence. Wait, you considered taking broccoli as a possible reason for being ignored before that? Well, actually, Mai had earphones in the whole time and only noticed Yukko was even there when she grabs Mai by the shoulder. So, that whole farce was for nothing, as you'd expect. But I think Mai would have been right to ignore you for your stupidity there, Yukko. We then get a Mrs Sakurai confronts a student about his afro, in her usual nervous manner. The student responds by pulling food out of it to offer her. Yeah, I know what the joke is, but I can't help but think of how unhygienic that is and wonder at what food nightmares are within the afro of storage. After that, it's maths time. Yukko forgot about a math print out that she needed to do for homework and only spots it amongst her stuff five minutes before maths class. She'd asked Mio for help yesterday, so instead asks Mai for help. Instead, Mai hands her a short comic she drew, something Yukko finds out as she sat down to copy it while thanking Mai. So, Yukko gets on her knees and begs, offering a juice drink in exchange for help. Instead, Mai gives another comic bit continuing the story of the first bit. A kid is late for school and his dad in dealing with a restructuring. Also, the kid is being chased by a tiger. Of course. It would be odder if there wasn't a tiger. But Mai finally hands her a sheet with math stuff on it after another offer from Yukko. After that, Yukko is concerned about getting the attention of the tough teacher they have for maths, especially after the stress of sorting out her math homework. She nearly fails at this, but some students distract everyone with jokes. The teacher then kills the mood with his own remark. We then get another ad transition rock paper scissors bit with the Professor and Nano. This time, Nano's hand launches off and a replacement hand pops out of her arm with scissors. AS for the sipping bit that accompanies that, Mai is the one for the skipping bit. She handles it fine while reading at the same time. We cut to Nano going home with some food shopping. Then she finds out via overhearing others that eggs are on sale today. She considers going to get eggs, but spots the back cat from earlier. She instantly is enraptured by it's cuteness, as all sane people should. I'm serious. Cats are wonderful. I love cats. If anyone is somehow surprised by this, I'll remind you all that my avatar character has a cat tail and even has a cat form. But the idea of taking it home hits into the problem of the Professor. So, she leaves it. Then it's already there when she gets back. Of course. The Professor says it's hers now because she caught it. Nano points out the need to care for it and that it would be the Professor's responsibility alone. The Professor responds by deciding that Nano can't pet it. Nano tries to backtrack on the whole “leaving it's care to the Professor” thing and both get distracted by the cuteness of the cat. The cat gets out of the Professor's arms and starts meowing. The Professor has a solution to not understanding the cat, a special speech giving scarf that she has just invented. Also, the cat is now called Sakamoto by Decree of the Professor. You know, like always. They are both eager to hear the cat speak. Of course, since this is a comedy, it immediately tells them off for petting it too much. It also complains about the name given to it. It also points out that it is older than either of them, so they should treat it with respect as their elder. Nano decides to take it back to where she found it, which gets it to change it's tune. The Principal spots something drop onto the ground from another Teacher's pocket. It's a straw doll, which freaks the principal out. We get a Helvetica Standard bit, with a person giving another food, in spite of them not even paying rent. The person says people should look out for each other in times of need, which gets the other person to ask them to lend some money. That person tells them not to act like a tengu. Sorry, but that joke flew over my head. Then we return to the the Principal and the straw doll. The Principal queries the teacher about the doll, to which the teacher replies that he should open the doll. It's filled with…. I have no idea what. But this causes the Principal to freak out. So, another joke that didn't work. Yukko and Mai decide to have an arm wrestling contest with the prize of some juice for the winner. Mai wins instantly, though Yukko says she started early and Mio agrees. So, they do it again. Mai wins again, though Yukko says she just wasn't prepared and underestimated Mai. But she is now prepared and will unleash her full power. So, one more time! Yeah, Mai wins instantly again. Of course, this is totally because yukko was up last night and is a bit weak. But now she's serious. Now she will unleash her full power! You know, for real this time. Mai wins again. But Yukko wasn't paying attention. Wow, Yukko really is just unlucky! Yeah, she definitely wasn't beaten by Mai three times in a row. It's just miraculous luck. But now it's time for Mai's beginner's luck to end! Now Yukko is totally serious. She takes off her bow, thus unleashing her true power. But even bowless form Yukko fall prey to random misfortune and thus loses instantly for reasons that have nothing to do with Mai. Now there is only one option left in the face of this inexplicable situation. it's time for her to unleash her ultimate move. The power of Yukko's special technique will overcome fate itself and bring forth Yukko's much deserved victory. Yaaaaay! As these ultimate moves are unleashed, we see Mio's expression. Yeah, she's tired of this shit. Ah, I know the feeling of being stuck dealing with a person who can't just accept reality. I'll note the transition here before the last bit of this episode. It was the Professor walking with Sakamoto on a elevated path, while Nano follow them on the street. It's cute. We then get the end of the arm wrestling contest, with Yukko ranting about Mai's non-existent passion and stubborness over this and her own frustration over Mai's totally horrific stubborness. Also, she has now remembering that she needs the bathroom. Mai then says Yukko owes her the mysterious “that” which Yukko offered her when after homework aid earlier and 23 boxes of juice. Well, this was fun, though it lacked the grand moment of super-over the top animation that the other two episodes had. Also, there were a couple of jokes I didn't get. Thankfully, they were from the short jokes and lasted a couple of minutes combined. So, hardly episode ruining material. It did give us Sakamoto. We'll be seeing more of him. I mean, he's even in the intro. So, that's good. I'd say this episode wasn't quite as good as the other two, but it was still fun and we did get a new character that I think I'll like.

I just remembered one show I rewatched relatively. It was Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable. I've rewatched that quite a few times.

Okay, so here is my review/reaction thing for episode 2 of Nichijou. It starts with a game involving rock paper scissors and then taking turns to go up some stairs. The amount of steps a person can take depends on choosing a word and dividing it based on syllables. Mio does her turn normally, but Yukko adds the word bonus to her word. Her excuse is that she thought everyone did that. Then it's Mai's turn. Her method of winning is to choose a “unique” word, which she calls the spell of revival. It is stupidly long and gets her up all the stairs. After the OP, which I'll repeat is fantastic in terms of animation and music, we cut to Mio in bed. Her alarm clock had stopped in the night. Also, her mum, who she had asked to wake her up, was gone and had left a note. She'd gone to watch sports. So, Mio has to run to school. Stopping to catch her breath, she realises that she'd gone past something freaky. Well, I guess it was something easy to miss. So what was it? It was a fellow school girl with a freaky bear mask. Well, I can see how you'd… wait, what? No time to think about that, because it is now running at Mio and chases her when she runs from it. It catches up to her and starts offering masks to her. In fear of the abominable bear girl, she offers it money in exchange for a gold mask. It takes her money and then rips off it's face. Don't worry, Nichijou isn't a gore type of anime. No, it's just one where bear mask girls run around and wear wrestling masks under their masks. That's much more normal. Anyway, the bear girl, after laughing at Mio's reaction, finally takes off her second mask. It's Mio's sister! Dammit! I was expecting it to be Dio, but instead it was Mio's sister! Anyway, Mio punches her with a fantastic corkscrew punch, as a random gentleman with a cane and a top hat comments as he sees the sight. Yeah, I agree with top hat guy and his random friend, who watch as Mio beats up her sister with a smile of their faces, smiles that show the joy that can only be experienced by seeing wonderfully performed punches in the morning. Ah, I know that feeling well. In Britain, it's common for people to desire the spectacle of well performed combat moves in the morning. Postmen are often badgered into performing fighting moves for passers-by. We briefly cut to Mai, who uses her “revival spell” in a game password entry system. So, her revival spell is an actual thing she memorised. Bah, who cares? Not me. I'm totally not jealous of a cartoon character, you idiot! Now, we go to the Professor, who is looking at clouds. Nano appears and asks her what she is looking at. The Professor says she has just seen a cloud that looks like a shark. She points it out and Nano agree that it does look like a shark. She then remembers to mention the milk to the Professor. Unfortunately for her, the vast time of a few seconds was too long and the Professor was now asleep. We then cut to a Daruma doll, as the Professor is asking Nano about the milk. If Persona 5 has told me anything about Daruma dolls, it's that this is a sign that the Professor is likely planning to become Prime Minister and will need to be stopped to save Japan. Also, this will involve her ripping off her shirt to reveal that she is secretly insanely muscular and then trying to punch her enemies to death. I'm sure you can all see the obvious logic in my deductions! Anyway, the Professor shows why she asked for milk, by having a cake roll pop out of Nano's arm. So, we get more of Nano being horrified at the modifications and weird functions installed in her and the Professor just not getting the issue. Nano at one point uses the example of going to the music store and having a part holding a roll could pop out of her head there if she got knocked on the head. What the Professor gets from this is that perhaps the part could be used as a CD tray. Yeah, this sort of thing just makes me feel sad. The idea of parts of your body that are freakish or not properly under your control or matters of body dysphoria in general, are unpleasant. Thankfully, the Professor is just way too young to comprehend the issue and she is hurting another, unlike Azumanga Daioh's Mrs Yukari, who does her thoughtless acts because she's a massive ass. Well, Nano get's a bit of revenge when the Professor is after the roll she has and Nano just eats it in front of her. But it does get combined with the revelation that the Professor does have a perfectly serviceable fridge and does know to store cake in it. In fact, her back up cake is in it. Nano is understandably upset that she had the cakes put in her, rather than in the fridge. We then get the same ad break bits of the Professor and Nano playing rock paper scissors, this time with a cake roll poping out of Nano's arm, followed up by the skipping rope gag. This time, it's Yukko, who jumps over the rope and slams onto the floor. The second half of this episode starts with Yukko approaching Mio in class with a smile on her face. The reason why is that Yukko forgot her homework and needs to use Mio's notes. Yukko insists that this will be the last time she asks for this when Mio points out that this could lead to exam problems. Again. Well Mio gives in and hands over her notes. But there is a problem. You see, Mio remembers after handing her notebook over that she had drawn something in it. So, what was it? What could dive Mio into despair at the possibility of it being discovered? It'a a sexy picture of goat rider-kun, also known as Sasahara. Well, why would you feel ashamed of that, Mio? It's only an erotic pic of a crazy pompous goat riding ass who you have a crush on for some reason. Now, I just need need to go into another room because I wish to not laugh at that for ages. Yes, I'm definitely not laughing at that. Yeah. Well, I did initially misspell goat as ghost. Now, that would be a lost more impressive. But Sasahara does not ride ghosts. So, Mio throws everything into getting that notebook back. As you might expect, that's hardly impressive. The animation on the other hand is very impressive. If you were only as effective as the animators portraying your anxiety, Mio, you'd have much better luck in getting that notebook back. Screaming that what in it is terrible and then trying to bribe Yukko were definitely not good ideas. Yukko realised that Mio was trying to hide something and just runs off with the notebook. As Mio fails to catch up with Yukko, we get a very typically over the top sequence as Mio reacts to the prospect of her life being over and even has a “my life so far was good” sequence worthy of if Mio was about to die at the hands of a cruel villain. Well, I guess having a friend seeing something like that could be considered death. I wouldn't know. I don't have these things called friends. But there is a solution, one heralded by a intense blaze of yellow light. Yes, Mio is going to tap into the power of the legendary super saiyan and defeat Frieza before Namek explodes! Wait, wrong anime… and anime genre. But I guess the legendary power of the super saiyan… I mean the intensely animated Nichijou character could also work. Yes, break the bounds of normal animation and tap into the great depths of Nichijou level intense animation! We'll go further than before! But no! It's not enough! Yukko is just too fast! But wait, there is still one move that can save the world.. I mean Mio's dignity. Yes, Mio unleashes the power of “No running in the halls!”, which finally halts Yukko's relentless effort to escape. Yes, despite the odds, Mio has won! Now, time for our super happy ending. Oh, Mio forgot to erase her drawing before handing her note book in. Well, fuck. We get some quick jokes. The first is simply the Professor leaving Nano with a room to clean. The second is of a student called Annaka, who has a large ribbon in her hair. It's like she has a pair of ears, like a rabbit. Mrs Sakurai stops her to remark on their size. Well, the rabbit ear thing was intentional and Annaka just responds to the query with “Pyon”, which is supposedly how the sound a rabbit makes is referred to in Japanese. Yeah, as you'd expect, Sakurai is sweating bullets at realising what she has to try and deal with. Then we see Mai going to the shop, passing the Professor and Nano who are eating sweet rolls. Mai tries to get one, but there is only an impractical pack of them. Well, that was a nice batch of small gags. We get one more bit with Sasahara and Misato, the student who shot him in episode 1. They are working together on the cultural festival committee. It is going well, by which I mean Misato shoots Sasahara again. Sadly, as shown by the previous episode, guns cannot stop pretentious assholery. He just has to pause drinking tea from a cup and saucer for a moment to wipe the blood away with a patterned handkerchief he naturally has. Because Sasahara is a slow learner, by which I mean he does not learn from experiences like this at all, he is soon being shot at with a variety of weapons and departs for the toilets at one point with a cloud of smoke coming from his as a result of the missiles fired at him. Sasahara survived that because, as I've said, that level of firepower really is insufficient for an ass like Sasahara. Some might say it's just anime nonsense, but pretentious assholery is an nearly indestructible force. This is just basic science. One day, we might be able to tap into that power for good rather than assholery. One day…. Anyway, that was a lot of fun to watch. I hope you enjoyed reading this. This is a great series. I know I've only watched two episodes, but I would definitely recommend it.

Okay, so we're starting Nichijou. This blog is one of a collection of reaction/review blogs I created for another forum that I made for another forum. I hope you all find them enjoyable to read. It's an anime about a number of girls in a high school who have wacky antics happen around them. It's a standard slice of life anime formula. Azumanga Daioh is an older example and there have been a lot of this sort of anime released, to the point that I've seen that growth get complained about. Now, Nichijou has something to differentiate itself from the others. What this shalll be apparent by the time this review ends. We start with a very short conversation about motivation. This serves as our first intro to the main characters of Mio and Yukko, though they do get a proper introductory scene later. Then we get introduced to a girl with a winder key on her back who is cooking a fish. She yells to a professor that it's done. This professor is another girl. The professor complain about having fish. The girl turns back to find a cat now has the fish. The girl thinks that cat is worried about her winder key when she approaches it and it moves back. She says it's not a robot part. Then the cat runs off. The girl wonders if the cat is just down on it's luck and taking the fish to feed it's family. Then she runs into a person and there's a massive resulting explosion. Naturally. So, there's your first taste of what Nichijou is like. We got a robot girl, who's just there without anything made of it. It's just “Oh, here's a robot girl. Now let's move onto something else”. There's Professor who's very young and yet made a robot and the end of a chase that ends in something insanely over the top. So, here is the intro. Nichijou OP 1 I like the OP music. It's energetic and the animation mostly matches that with, apart from a bit in the middle. There's also plenty of odd imagery, to put forward the tone of this series. So, we return to Mio and Yukko as they meet up on the way to school. This is where we get their names. Yukko greets Mio with “Selamat Pagi” instead of “Good Morning” or something like that. Mio doesn't react to this, instead talking about how she forget her student ID. Mio suddenly wonders if there is a thunder storm, when the two hear the sound of the explosion from the previous scene. Yes, that actually happened. Anyway, a random doll hat was blasted in the air thanks to it hits Yukko on the head. How awful. But Yukko wonders if, since getting his like that doesn't happen to people normally, that perhaps she's lucky in a way. Then she gets hit by another item. No, she's not lucky. But perhaps she still can consider herself lucky. Yes, after all, at least it wasn't raw food. That would have been truly awful. Then a bit of fish lands on her head. We then get a students going to school bit, with a shot of the school sign and some shots, including one of a bunch of students and… wait a minute! Was that a cravat wearing person on a animal which is being lead via rope by a guy in a poofy 18th century aristocrat wig in that crowd shot? Well, the students at school, bit continues and ends with Mio and Yukko entering her class. We are introduced to Mai reading a real estate magazine. Yukko uses her “Selema Pagi” greeting. Mai doesn't react, making Yukko think she'll have to abandon that effort at a catch phrase. Yes, that's why she's using it, in the hops of turning it into a catchphrase. But Mai does call Yukko when she's gone to her desk to offer a return greeting in whatever language Yukko got that from. Yukko is very happy at this. We get introduced to our home room teacher. She has this whole nervousness thing which I assume is something to make her cute. She also has a cute design, like most of the characters. It's very much a slice of life staple to have that these days. I'd say it was less the case with older stuff like Azumanga Daioh. I could imagine Mrs Yukari in a non-slice of life show. This teacher. Nope. Anyway, she asks about the budda statue she found in her shoe locker and if any of the students put it there. Yukko wonders if it was put there by a student with a crush on the teacher. Mio sympathises with the possible hopeless crush, which Yukko compares to Mio's feelings for another student called Sasahara. Then we get a intense reaction shot from Mio. This show, from what I've seen of it, does like to put a lot of effort into animating stuff like reactions in an over the top/energetic way. It gives the show it's own style and I like it. So, we find the robot girl is now on a roof, waking up and wondering where she is. She then decides to go home. But she encounters the tiny problem that she's stuck on a roof. Then she encounters the other tiny problem that she's missing a hand. We then have a very short bit with Mia throwing frisbee while a dog is there. You initially would think it's for the dog, but no. It turns out she's there to do some some shooting and the frisbee is a target. Of course. Mio and Yukko are eating lunch. Yukko saved a sausage, the best bit for her, for last, with the intent to finsh lunch by declaring “Delicious!” after eating the last item. But the sausage is dropped! Oh my god! The effort to get it before it hits the floor is, well, take a look. Link Holy crap, that was amazing. That was so overboard. I love it. We then get two very short bits that I suspect were for an ad break. The first is of the Professor and the robot girl playing rock paper scissors. The robot players her hand, but finds out that she has flowers in place of her hand. Naturally, the robot girl is astonished. This is followed up by Mio trying to play skip rope with random shirtless guys with weird heads handling the rope. It hits Mio on the head immediately. We then move to a scene where the Principal is giving a speech to all students. He talks about the cold, being more likely to catch cold and how he'd go to another school if the students don't try not to catch colds. Yukko asks Mio if the Principal knows his jokes are old. She then wonders if he does know and this is some effort to show the student what hard work means. You're quite the optimist, Yukko. She then sees that Mai is laughing and wonders if Mai somehow found the Principal's jokes funny. Mai is about to say something when Yukko asks about her laughing, but decides to say “Never mind”. It then is shown that Yukko has a squid tentacle in her hair and Mai was laughing at that. Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. I'm serious. The Prinicipal is one of those people who are just awful at jokes. Anyone thinking of telling me something like “It takes one to know one” should consider the possibility of suddenly coincidently ending up dead and buried in the place where I totally do not bury the corpses of people I've killed. The home-room teacher, who we now discover is called Mrs Sakurai, is called up to make a message. She's nervous, especially in front of so many students. But she manages to deliver her message, which is that students should not bring goats to school. One student furiously protests this policy and declares that he'll continue to go to school by goat. Yukko points out this is Sasahara. Sakurai folds before this display and allows goats. Sasahara is happy and flicks his hair dramatically. Then he is shot to death. No one morns his passing, apart from Mio, his servant and his goat. Okay, no, but he is shot at by another student, Misato. Sasahara gets picked up by the wig person while he asks why he must walk on his own legs, since he's the eldest son of his family. Dude, you're making Togami from Danganronpa look better and he was a rich asshole. Misato points ot that his family is farmers. Sasahara says he's still an eldest son. Meanwhile, Mio realises that the goat near the bikes had been Sasahara's and has a fantasy of him riding for her on his goat in a flowery field while a wedding veil is suddenly over her head. She then faints, the action resulting in the octopus tentacle being knocked off Yukko's head. After that, we then return to Sakurai going the rest of her student message and ends it by asking about the Buddha statue. She declares to keep the assembly on this topic until she gets an answer. It turns out it was the Principal, who meant for it to be a birthday gift, He didn't know she didn't like those sort of statues. He then repeats his explanation into the microphone. We then go to Mio and Yukko in front of a fire alarm button. Mio mentions the temptation to push it and Yukko gets an idea. She says that when she pressed it before, it didn't go off, and that Mio should try it. It works. Everyone storms out. Mio and Yukko are stunned. Yeah, that's why you don't press fire alarms when there isn't a fire. We get a random section in which a reaper is asking people what clueless means, while people run away from it. Another reaper appears and the first asks it was clueless means. The second one responds with “You are”. It's a short and effective little sequence. After that, Sasahara gets called to the teachers room and is asked about his goat and why he can't perhaps use a bike instead. Sasahara just responds by telling the teacher to consider calling the goat by a name. The teacher rejects that “proposal”. We go back to the robot and finally get her name, Shinonome Nano. She introduces herself as a robot who lives with the Professor who made her. The Professor is doing research and so stays home all day. The robot spends her time helping the Professor, She takes some milk to the Professor, but hits her toe. She fells pain. The Professor solves this problem by removing the toe. Naturally. Okay, I guess that's less silly a reaction when talking about a robot. She asks the Professor what the key in her back is for. The Professor responds by winding it. The robot''s big toe then launches into the wall. That's it. Also, the key's cute. The robot is annoyed at finding this out and expresses her desire to do normal things, like sleep or go to school, without the hassle that the key causes. Yeah, finding out that your creator added a feature to you that has no purpose and is such a hassle for such a petty reason is quite the gut punch to get. She wishes she wasn't a robot. The Professor is saddened by this and demands that she take her literature prize. I don't think that's really going to help. Then we cut to a guy on a rooftop with headphones. He turns on a song, the ending credit song. That's an interesting way of transitioning to those. By the way, here's the credit song. Link So, this series has a lot of weirdness and energy to it. I'm loving it so far. As I was watching this series, I was also watching Azumanga Daioh. So, how how do they compare? Now, the degree of outlandish stuff definitely is a difference from what I've seen of Azumanga Daioh. There is some weird stuff there at times, but it doesn't detach itself completely from reality apart from in the imagination of characters. Nichijou just has an actual robot be there before we even have the opening. I'd say that Azumanga has some odd characters in a regular world, while Nichijou is very much in a bizarre slice of life version of the world where crazy stuff just happens. There's also the animation. This is definitely an area where Nichijou tried to make itself different from other anime of it's type, via stuff like the over the top sausage scene, while Azumanga didn't have that need and uses well done conventional animation. Personally, I'd say I like Nichijou more. It appeals to my peculiar sensibilities a lot with it's... how should I put it? Pure Nichijou-ness? It's a show that can be very odd, based on what I've seen now and heard about future content. Anyway, I'll work on posting more entries and getting my blog entries for Azumanga Daioh up.

Mostly uneventful. Got some work done where I volunteer, browsed around, watched a few episodes of anime. I've recently gained a cold, which is a bit annoying.

I'm currently watching Darling in the Franxx, Little Witch Academia, Violet Evergarden and Girl's Last Tour.

I personally have an aversion to social network sites like Facebook. Places like forums have more substantive content. Plus, I like old school internet anonymity. It's liberating for someone like me who is afraid to be themselves IRL.

Hmm, if I were to make some suggestions, I'd go for 9 Years, Morphogentic Sorrow or Blue Bird Lamentation, all from the Zero Escape series. The Umineko VN also has plenty of bits of music that could be done as piano covers, like Hope, Thanks for all people and Promise

I'm currently listening to an orchestral cover of Morphogenetic Sorrow from 999.

Rewatching anime is something I do, st least when I'm able to get myself to watch stuff. I desire a particular type of show and I happen to have a anime of that type ready to watch, so why not rewatch it? That's my thinking. As for anime I've rewatched recently, I've been more focused on getting through my pile of stuff to watch. But there is Mrs Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, which makes me feel really happy.

I'm starting Scum's wish today.

Yeah, very. You have my sympathies, Wedgy.

I prefer tea and like trying different types. But I don't have many options in my home town and everyone I know just has basic tea, so it's hard to get recommendations.

I don't really have a preference. I do tend to have hot chocolate more often, though that's simply because cold weather tends to make me go for hot chocolate more often. It's something I have nostalgic feelings for, having hot chocolate in cold weather.

I'll be continuing and, hopefully, finishing Girl's Last Tour.

I'd be totally willing to give it a shot. Though, honestly, there will be times where I won't be able to watch whatever anime you're interested in watching. But watching anime with others, in a way, is something I'm interested in and I'm open to trying other anime.

So, here are some things I wrote elsewhere, observations I made at points while playing Yakuza Kiwami.

Favourite? I like all chocolate, though there are types I prefer from time to time. It does change though. Does "any chocolate that it is given to me right now, now,now!!" count as a type? I guess I could say caramel, mint or that oreo filled version of the large Cadburies bar.