Poupée Mécanique

Shiki is getting better and better, though I do find the progression a tad slow, especially considering they have a huge story to fit in just 22 episodes…

コワーーーイ女の子！T＿T　でもひめカットがすき。

Sunako’s dresses are always very cute.

I love her eyes.

I also watched the Black Rock Shooter OVA, it was so much better than I expected. I thought it was going to be one of those moe-licious anime for otaku to go crazy over and buy figures without having any real substance. It was really quite nice though, I hope they make more OVA or even a series out of this.

I am not watching much anime this season because I didn’t find much all that interesting. Kuroshitsuji II has gone really overboard with the fanservice, the only reason I kept watching was to see something horrible happen to Alois so if he croaks after the latest episode, I’m done with it.

Shiki however seems pretty interesting so far, apart from the ridiculous hairstyles. They’ll be quite a challenge to cosplay, that’s for sure haha. Apparently Gackt is one of the voice actors.

I’m also downloading Occult academy to give it a try.

A second season has been announced for Kuroshitsuji, apparently featuring entirely new characters. The new butler looks like a less hot and very bored version of Sebastian, there’s no charm to him at all. But at least they got rid of that obnoxious, unlikeable little brat Ciel for this nicer blond boy. I’m curious to see what it will be like, but I was very disappointed with the first season. It was aesthetically gorgeous but the story was terrible. I actually never finished watching it, so I don’t know what happens to Sebastian and Ciel.

You can download a subtitled version here

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IEPPIIH9

Just finished watching this wonderful film from 1973, translated as Belladonna of Sadness. Though created by an anime studio it’s closer to western psychedelic art with a soundtrack to match. The visuals are simply stunning, some of the most beautiful art I’ve ever seen. It’s a combination of still images and animation, and though the swirling flowing hair and smoke were beautifully done, I mostly loved the still watercolour paintings.

The theme song is equally wonderful.
Tachibana Mayumi – Kanashimi no Belladonna

Words can’t express how much I love Gokinjo monogatari, you’d just have to hear me laughing hysterically from start to finish of every episode.

Oh and I finally found the scene my cell if from.

It’s 4 in the afternoon and already dark. I didn’t expect the days to get so short so soon…

I’m dying of excitement as my favourite anime is being fansubbed again. IY-F&oki started it a couple years ago but stopped at episode 6 (out of 50!). Here’s to hoping that Yuurisan will complete it!

http://www.yuurisan-subs.org/Gokinjo_Monogatari

This is my only Gokinjo cel. They’re so hard to find!

Lalabel is one of my favourite anime series from my childhood. We were lucky in Greece to get wonderful vintage anime in the 80s and early 90s. All of my generation has grown up with Candy Candy, Sandybelle, Ribbon no kishi, Igano Kabamaru and more.

I used to rent Lalabel on videotape and was obsessed with her magical abilities, especially the pendant. This was one of my best finds in my last Tokyo trip.

Series like these are hard to find, sometimes even in Japan. Candy Candy for example was never released on DVD and never will be, because of copyright issues. Countries like France, Spain and Italy usually have DVDs of such vintage anime but dubbed. In Greece of course no one cares to release this stuff, so they only come up when someone digs up an old tape, rips it and puts it on the internet. I hope to eventually be able to compile everything.