Home Sweet Grave

Cheeseburger.

Quite frankly even by the series' own standards, I'd say the latest volume of Date A Live is a bit underwhelming and anticlimactic, but at least I didn't have to pause and bury my face in my hands regularly like I did with the godawful 新世黙示録－Death March－. In any case, let's get this over and done with. The illustrations are here.

The One Who Struggles

Continuing from the last volume, Shidou bumps into Tamae and discovers that he has traveled to the past. Tamae leaves after getting her notebook back, while Shidou tries to make sense of what has happened to him. He understands that time can't be reversed but he knows all too well that there is someone who has control over time. Just as he's thinking about Kurumi, a giggle startles him before he realizes it's Kurumi's voice. Shidou scans his surroundings looking for Kurumi but she tells him that she is in a different "time". Kurumi explains that she has sent Shidou 5 years into the past using the Twelfth Bullet -Yud Bet-, as well as the Ninth Bullet -Teth- which allows her to connect –communicate telepathically and share senses– with people from different times. Shidou says he needs to go back to the present to help Tohka and the others, but Kurumi tells him about how she had sent Spirit Origami to the past before she came back as an Inverse Spirit. Kurumi says she wanted proof that history can be changed. She gets a little sentimental and says she's talked too much. She then urges Shidou to hurry and find out what caused Origami to go Inverse.

Shidou rushes back to his old home and recalls the fire caused by Kotori 5 years ago. Kurumi tells Shidou that she understands his feeling but he should give up on saving Kotori because of the changes it would bring if Kotori didn't become a Spirit. Shidou realizes that had Kotori not become a Spirit, she would have not been recruited into Ratatoskr and Shidou wouldn't have been able to seal the Spirits. Or rather Date A Live would have been a very different story. Shidou apologizes to Kurumi who says she wasn't criticizing him because the possibility of redoing the past is like fine wine in a poisoned glass. Shidou notices Kurumi's words are like warnings to herself, but before he can ask Kurumi for some answers, he's interrupted by his neighbour Suzumoto who's come to share some fresh vegetables with the Itsuka family. Shidou becomes worried as he's just traveled back from the future and looks much older that he should be, but fortunately he's able to use Natsumi's power and change his appearance in time. Kurumi teases Shidou by asking him to stand before a mirror so she can see his cute face. Just then, the sky turns red and the area is swiftly engulfed in flames. Shidou runs to the park where Kotori is and finds his past self, his crying sister, and Phantom. Shidou calls to Phantom but she disappears in a ray of light. He looks up and sees Spirit Origami, clad in a fantastic white dress but her face twisted by anger and hatred. Origami quickly flies away fighting Phantom with Shidou desperately chasing after them. He eventually comes across a couple screaming Origami's name and realizes that they are her parents. Before Shidou can even do anything however, a ray of light rains down and he is blown away by the shock wave. Shidou gets up and is shocked to discover a massive crater where Origami's parents used to be. He sees the young Origami finding and cursing Spirit Origami and realizes that Origami is the person who killed her own parents.

Spirit Origami soon vanishes as the effect of the Twelfth Bullet wears off, while Shidou rushes to the young Origami's aid. Shidou tells the crying Origami that she's not alone and he would gladly take all her sorrow, rage and whatnot, and says to her that by doing so she must not despair. Origami thanks him and asks for his name. She then asks him if everything he has said to her is true, which Shidou confirms. Origami says she will give Shidou her tears, her smiles and happiness. Shidou doesn't expect her to react this way and is surprised. Origami tells him that this is the last time she will cry and the last time she will smile, and that she will keep her anger and kill that Angel no matter how long it takes and what methods she will use. She tells Shidou to keep all her other feelings with him until she kills the Spirit and leaves.

Good Times Bad Times

I miss missing Comiket.

Good kids go home now because the following post contains material that some readers may find arousing, boring, confronting, disturbing, emancipating, etc. and is intended for immature audience only. Viewer discretion is advised but not encouraged.

The new release from Misaki Kurehito (Cradle) and Kuroya Shinobu (Puffsleeve) was really all I wanted to get from the event, but in the end I bought a number of other things with it because I'm just impulsive like that. Well, I guess one can't have a main course without a few entrées after all. Apart from the usual event bag, piece of cradle 11 is bundled with a desk pad, a cleaning cloth and Love Live! plastic coasters, which I will probably never use. The book is fairly light content-wise and contains mostly single pages of Kurehito and Shinobu's NSFW a-r-t. It's all pretty tame but no need to thank me if you got promoted at work.

First Impressions Of Earth

Space reserved for practical reasons.

This may very well be yet another year plagued by various delays, but at least some things are coming through. After the Try to be Brave/Weed Spirit and Little Monster EPs, I wasn't too sure what to expect out of Back-alley Spiders. In the end though it seems that not much has changed, a2c still plays really well and TERRA still can't really sing. On the other hand, Kindred Spirits Guitar Arrange Version is fairly intriguing in terms of how much restraint Godspeed and the others are showing throughout the album.

Eight Days A Week

Another year of flatness. Another year of transistor glamour. Another year of KKE.

Do You Remember Love?

In spite of my reduced activity in Lemuria of phosphorescent, I managed to achieve the title of God Slayer just before the release of 天秤のLa DEA。~戦女神MEMORIA~. There's no connection between the two games whatsoever, but I feel like my life is now complete.

Eriri is going to crash and burn in the next volume, isn't she?

Here I thought 冴えない彼女の育て方 was just going to be fairly uneventful albeit harmlessly fun, but Maruto sure showed me that it's quite not the case. While the latest volume can be seen as a nice gesture from Maruto to fans of Eriri, Megumi distancing herself from Tomoya and the rest of their doujin circle ends the story on a rather solemn note. The worst part is probably the fact that the next volume is going to be a series of short stories, because the editor asked Maruto to buy some time before the anime airs. Really now? It's pretty hard to imagine that they won't butcher Kurehito's fluid art style, which had drawn me in well before I knew of Maruto's involvement. I'm such a sucker.

For those unfamiliar with the series, 冴えない彼女の育て方 is authored by Fumiaki Maruto, a veteran scenario writer who is probably best known for penning White Album 2 these days, and illustrated by Kurehito Misaki. The story follows Tomoya Aki, an otaku whose chance encounter with a beautiful girl during the spring break inspires him to make a doujin game with a heroine based on the girl. A month later, Tomoya finds out that the girl is actually his classmate Megumi Katou, an ordinary girl with no notable features. Joining Tomoya on his project are his childhood friend and doujin artist Eriri Spencer Sawamura, his senior and popular light novel writer Utaha Kasumigaoka, and his cousin Michiru Hyoudou who is the vocalist and guitarist of icy tail. Together they form the doujin circle Blessing Software and youthful shenanigans ensue. Currently they are working hard to finish up their game before the Winter Comiket deadline.