Most Iconic Anime Opening Themes (in order) 1. Cruel Angel’s Thesis: Yoko Takahashi – Neon Genesis Evangelion 2. Pokemon Theme- 1st English opening: Jason Paige 3. Again: Yui – Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood 4. Sorairo Days: Shoko Nakagawa – Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann 5. Colors: Flow – Code Geass 6. Inner Universe/Rise: Origa – Ghost in the Shell SAC 1st/2nd 7. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Eiko Shimamiya 8. Tori no Uta: Lia/Jun Maeda - Air 9. Tank: The Seatbelts – Cowboy Bebop 10. Lilium: Kumiko Noma – Elfen Lied • Honorable Mentions: o Hacking to the Gate: Itou Kanako – Steins;Gate o Brave Shine: Aimer – Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works 2015 o Kuusou Mesorogiwi: Yousei Teikoku – Mirai Nikki o Butter-fly: Wada Kouji – Digimon o Pi piru pirupiru pi piru pi- Saeko Chiba – Dokuro-chan Most Iconic Ending Themes 1. Ride On Shooting Star: The Pillows – FLCL 2. Hare Hare Yukai: Aya Hirano et al – Haruhi Suzumiya 3. Die Hollen Polizei: INFERNO COPPU 4. Lithium Flower + Living Inside The Shell: Scott Matthew, Steve Conte 5. Real Folk Blues: the Seatbelts – Cowboy Bebop 6. The Homework Never Ends (Shukudai ga Owaranai): Matsuko Mawatari – Yu Yu Hakusho 7. Fallen Angel: Aimee Blackschleger – Panty and Stocking 8. Platonic Tsuranuite: Kaori Sakagami – Ranma ½ 9. Shunkan Sentimental: Scandal – Fullmetal Alchemist 10. Paranoid Android: Radiohead – Ergo Proxy • Honorable Mentions: o I Wish: Ai Maeda – Digimon o Last Theater: Noisycell – Death Parade o Ninelie: Aimer – Koutetsujou no Kabaneri o Romantikku Ageru yo: Ushio Hashimoto – Dragonball o Aoi Haru: Angela – Seitokai Yakuindomo o All 26 Ninja Slayer endings: Various Artists o Dishonor On Your Cow Mention: o Roundabout: Yes – Jojo’s Bizarre Adventurer Most Iconic Insert Songs 1. Before My Body Is Dry: Hiroyuki Sawano and Mika Kobayashi – Kill La Kill 2. Libera Me From Hell/Rap Is The Soul Of A Man! – Gurren Lagann 3. Unmei no Yoru: Kenji Kawai – Fate Stay Night 4. Bios δ : Hiroyuki Sawano and Mika Kobayashi – Guilty Crown 5. Stalker: The Pillows – FLCL 6. GET9: Yoko Kanno – Ghost in the Shell SAC 1st 7. Cake Song: Various Artists – Madoka Magica

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Wow... It's honestly pretty crazy how much time FG really does take away from you though... Wow... Just wow. At first, I did kind of have withdrawal symptoms, and blogging and watching anime and combining the two kind of seems lonely (it is lonely) compared to everyone socializing online, but... Now that I realize I feel like I have so much time on my hands it's really... crazy. B-But don't get me wrong!! I love FG... It's precisely because I love FG, I need to get the fuck away from it, because it's so distracting. It's so distracting, it's to the point that it actually distracts me from my favorite distraction (anime). It's so distracting, it distracts me from actually being distracted from what I'm used to being distracted by for the past... forever. It is still kind of lonely though, but I'll get used to it. I have club games to fill this void. And while I'm at it, I thought I should share my favorite FG memories. The first one was when people I knew from clubs started going on FG, and we all kept tagging each other. Aha. That was cool. The other one was... Sickafkona. It's been fun, FG. But for now, I need to lay off playing for a while to focus more on anime (god that just sounded like the otaku equivalent of "I need to stop socializing more often to focus on my studies didn't it.) I'm bad at saying goodbye, sorry.

[center] [size=300]Favorite Anime 1. Clannad After Story 2. Steins Gate 3. Code Geass Hangyaku no Lelouch R2 4. Gintama 5. Full Metal Alchemist

(Rewatch) Wow... I think this is the sort of anime you can only appreciate the second time you watch it. That's my first impression of rewatching this anyway. If it wasn't obvious enough yet, my favorite OTP of all time is and always will be Chitanda x Oreki. I could give you reasons, but there are too many to count, and this blog post would go on forever. But basically they're just perfect for each other and are proof of the whole opposites attract thing. It makes me sad that that Oreki doesn't actually have any romantic feelings for Eru in the light novel though... or in the manga, if I remember properly, but I'll reread those again eventually too. Anyway, maybe because I watched Hibike... Hyouka's art isn't as great as I remember its being the first time I watched it. And I completely forgot about how awesome the side characters are... well, one of them so far. It's crazy fun anticipating the first time they meet, the first time they say their catchphrases... The first time for everything. Yeah. This anime is definitely a lot better once you have the patience to watch it and probably is a lot better once you watch more anime, I guess. It's on a really different pace than I'm used to. I think. But the 27 minutes per episode thing though. Man, I miss that.

Before an episode airs, this 1 week limited preview has been streaming every week. JOJO OFFICIAL SITE I'm glad if it helps you enjoy the anime more. Web Preview #37 Crazy D (Diamond) Is Unbreakable Part 1 Kousaku Kawajiri: That was a pity, brat. The fate is on my side, you know. Hayato Kawajiri: I'll definitely protect my mom! Kousaku Kawajiri: What can you do, you the powerless runt. Hayato Kawajiri: I'm not the one... that person can! Kousaku Kawajiri: Josuke Higashikata... why the hell are you here! Thank you for visiting and reading my Blog! I'd appreciate it if you would let me know my mistakes! My Twitter Account:BUSHIDO @BlackDragonSP

Hey! This is my first ever blog post! Right now I'm sitting in my bed thinking about what i should watch. Can anyone recommend anime? plss it could be anything tho i really like romance and shoujo for example i really liked Ao Haru Ride

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auck fzer

This is the Four-hundredth-nineteenth week of using the "Perfect Anime Girl Sheet". Notice: This Blog may contain Unmarked Spoilers. Welcome back everyone. Last week we looked at Ryouko. : That's me, ufufu. Also Ririchiyo didn't allow me to have any fun. : That's because your form of "fun" makes people chew you out. And also I have to keep this blog clean and appropriate! : That is a good plan. People these days are so i-immodest it embarrasses me just to watch! : And believe me, considering our show it happens quite a bit. : I suppose that this blog is still less perverse than To Love-Ru. Though that isn't saying much. Right, that's like saying we're less perverse than DxD or Okusama. It's not a difficult task, and we even pull it off by being less mamocentric. : Or at least he tries to be. True, sometimes the girls are bad choices. No offense meant. : None taken. But enough about the fanservice of my blog, we need to get to the blog itself! : Certainly, and I do believe that I was coming up next. That's right, as promised last week... *Suddenly a girl with heterochromatic eyes and an unbrella leaps out of the nearby supply closet.* : SURPRISE! And I come with this... *The girl spins her umbrella, seeming proud of herself. The other girls are in shock, with Topaz being alright. Ririchiyo shakes her head, her hair looking beautiful as it goes back and forth.* : That really astonished me! No wonder you all flinched! Though I guess it doesn't have THAT good a chance. : Hey, why didn't it affect you? I'm normal, Ririchiyo. : Curse you type immunities. *As the two are complaining Ryouko and Oshizu regain their senses.* : Who dares to come in and take my blog from me? : They call me "Kogasa", and I'm here to get the yearly Touhou blog! : Oh yeah, that was supposed to be last week wasn't it? Yep. : Apologies for butting in where my fat 90 cm ass didn't belong though. : Don't worry, I wasn't able to get out until now. : Wait, you were trapped inside the whole time? : Not really trapped, but I've waited patiently. Good thing that this blog doesn't have an actual week between them sometimes. : Time is relative. : Please, do not ignore my query! I must know why you have decided to ruin my blog! Don't worry, I'll do it next time. (Good thing this month has five Thursdays-er, I mean...) : See? You'll still get a blog! : Perhaps you should be the one who must be patient! *Oshizu starts getting angry, but the tongue on Kogasa's umbrella licks up her body. She twitches as if paralyzed before fainting.* : Oshizu! What happened? : Seems like Lick was Super Effective, and it likely has STAB too! And she's an Esper too, thus she takes 4x damage from Ghost moves! : Like a Hoopa! : Enough hooplah, I'll go take care of Oshizu. You can do this woman's blog. *Ryouko carries Oshizu away.* : Well, you should do as she says. Don't worry, I plan on doing just that. Now, let's begin... Head Hair: Kogasa has a fairly nice hairstyle. The main appeal is in the color, a lovely light blue. I would have enjoyed a darker color, but it does look really nice especially when contrasted with her dark purple umbrella. Speaking of the umbrella, I'm not sure if that's supposed to count as her headgear which almost every Touhou character is required to wear (otherwise she's one of the few that does not). Kogasa also has wavy bangs that are swept to the left. The sides of Kogasa's hair curls inward slightly, running even with her mouth or so. Sadly not everything is great. The biggest problem is that her hair is very short, not even reaching her shoulders even if it is free. That's likely her biggest problem and makes her seem a little bland (there's quite a few short-haired girls in the series, and it's not like Kogasa has interesting headwear either to help her stand out). Grade: B Eyes: Technically while Kogasa doesn't have headwear she DOES have a unique feature here instead. Yes, Kogasa has heterochromia which means she has two different eye colors. Her right eye is red and her left is blue. This plays up the fact that she's a karakasa obake which tend to only have a single eye. This makes more sense as her blue eye is the same color as her hair, meaning it's a little camouflaged. Sadly the problem is that this is Touhou and the actual games aren't known for having amazing art. As a result this means that Kogasa's eyes are extremely simple, being circles. As I'm not a fan of rounded tarame eyes this does hurt her a little bit. It's possible that they look better in the manga, but Kogasa is fairly new-wait, you mean her game came out in 2009? Man I'm behind as far as Touhou goes... Grade: B- Face: Anyway, getting back to Kogasa we arrive at her face. Sadly the art style of the games doesn't help her here either. She does look somewhat pale, though that may just be the game's palette. As an added plus she does have small features, including a dot nose which helps her a bit. Again she's a lot cuter in the manga, though I can't be sure how much she's featured. She's even usually missing a nose, which I do appreciate. Grade: B- : Did you know I have a brown eye too? Such language! Where did you come up with such a thing? : Some friends I met on the way here told me about it. They also asked for directions to one of your friend's houses. : You pamper Zettai too much. He deserves it though! : Maybe, but hopefully he gets back into blogging. He'd have to get his computer back, and he's planning on returning sometime next year. : Good, I wonder what he's been up to... : You know, maybe I shouldn't have thought about it... : Hey, how did you know all the old ha- I mean delightful and young gals- I met on my adventure? We have our ways. But enough of that-Unless I can have some fanservice? : No. Curses, though I'll try again next week. But for now let's continue onward! Body Build: Sadly Touhou's art style does have a bit of trouble here too. Kogasa really doesn't show too much, and she doesn't stand out either. Her legs and feet are simplistic, even in the manga, and it's not like we get a good shot of her backside either. She's slender too, but I wouldn't consider to be one of the "loli" girls either as she looks pretty similar age-wise to the protagonists. I really wish that she could have better artwork, though not fan art either. Grade: B- Chest: It seems that Kogasa is flat, but it's hard to tell. Not that there would be a problem with her being flat, but Touhou usually doesn't focus on differences too much in official works. Like with her body I wouldn't mind if we could get a few good shots in, but I guess we can't have everything. That said it's likely that Kogasa is still slender, much like a lot of the characters, and if I could verify it better I'd probably give her a better grade. But between holding her arm in front of her chest in the game and wearing a heavy shawl in the manga it's surprisingly hard to estimate. Grade: C+ Clothes: Kogasa only has a single outfit, though it's a fairly nice and unique one. Her main outfit consists of a white blouse with poofy shoulders and long sleeves, a blue vest that matches her hair color, a lighter blue skirt with some designs that reaches far down her thighs (though not to her knees), and geta. The geta are interesting as not only do the karakasa known for them but "Tanara" is a Japanese way of smelting iron and the blacksmiths would wear geta to avoid the heat of the floor. I will also say it's possible that Kogasa is wearing white pantyhose, but I imagine that's just her skin tone. In the manga she also wears a fluffy shawl. I suppose I can count her umbrella here (though it's wondered if Kogasa's human or umbrella form is "her"; the accepted answer being "both"). Anyway the umbrella looks like a fairly classic Japanese one, with a single large red eye in front and a zig-zag mouth with a tongue hanging out of it. It also has a bit of black at the top in the center, giving a somewhat eggplant motif. Grade: B- Mind Personality: Kogasa's main ability is to surprise people, as she's a youkai (or more specifically a " karakasa obake", as mentioned before) that consumes a human's "surprise". Yeah, it sounds sorta odd to me too. I do hope that she doesn't starve though, considering she's somewhat poor at actually surprising people. That said, she does surprise the player as, while she was a stage boss she wasn't important to the plot but she still became the mid-boss to the extra stage. That said, Kogasa is likely one of the friendliest youkais in the Touhou universe as she doesn't try to harm or eat humans, only spook them a little. She even started to read ghost stories to improve her abilities, and come the next game she now lives in a graveyard where humans are already on edge. Her profile even mentions something similar to "She finally did it. Amazing." Before then it was more common for people to play along and act like she scared them as Kogasa has a habit of sulking and being depressed after failing to scare someone. In addition, from the descriptions of some of her spell cards it could be said that she has self-esteem issues as well. She even briefly considers going back to being a normal umbrella as then she'd be of some use, but fortunately she does not. In addition to her surprising hobby (meant in a literal way) Kogasa also has another talent that's explored in the manga. She's actually a skilled blacksmith, getting some of the powers of the One-Eyed Youkai of Kotoyouka. She goes out on that day making needles for people who are throwing theirs away (which includes Reimu, even if Kogasa gets beaten up a few times in the process). As far as attacks, it seems like she's able to rain down bullets and other storm-based powers (she even has a couple named after Bubble Bobble games). I was expecting her to just be about her surprises, but I guess she did actually surprise me by having more depth with her self-esteem problems and skill at blacksmithing. Overall pretty impressive for what basically comes down to a filler boss. : Hey, filler can be awesome. Like with Vegeta being beaten up by a little girl! Grade: B Libido: Sadly Kogasa doesn't seem to show much libido. I don't even know if there's a main pairing for her, considering she's not involved with the story too much. I suppose that she may have some connection with Nue, as they are the mid-boss and boss of the extra level respectively. There's also the fact that Kogasa mentions sadism in Reimu's route, though considering Reimu was saying that Kogasa seemed to enjoy losing it was actually the opposite of that. It's a shame as I like girls who are more aggressive. She's also occasionally bullied by Sanae in fan works, though it may just be due to the wording in their conversations. Still, I would have liked her to have a more concrete pairing or be more dominant or something. Grade: C Age: It's unknown how old Kogasa is, for multiple reasons. For one, she's a karakasa obake which means her umbrella "body" is at least a century old. I don't know if I should count the time she didn't have a consciousness or not, and I don't know how long ago she assumed her youkai form either. She does reference some old stories and the past to the player characters (much to their annoyance), but without a set date I can't be sure. I'll still consider her on the high end of her teens, since that's what she looks like to me. Grade: B Total Grades: 63 Average score: 7 Final Grade: B- And that's the blog for the week. : A shame, that looks fairly average. : Being fair outside of the whole "surprise" thing Topaz doesn't know too much about you. I guess first impressions are everything. Especially if you're a Golisopod! : Exactly! But speaking of him it's time that I made my Emergency Exit! *Kogasa opens the window and leaps out of it. Her umbrella makes her able to float away, though in an upward arc.* Wow, looks like she's Mary Poppins away-ed. *Oshizu returns, opening the door with a stern face. She enters and Ryouko follows.* Oh? Welcome back you two. Feeling better? : That I am, but since you delayed my blog for that umbrella girl I formally request that I be done next time. Of course, I was planning on it. And I'm certain that no one will burst in! : Hopefully he's telling the truth...

A year ago this month, I posted a review of a popular series called Azumanga Daioh, and it while it hasn’t been a huge hit in terms of blog traffic, it did get a few nice comments, and I feel fairly proud of it over-all. It wasn’t the easiest review to write, due to the subjective nature of comedy, but I am glad that I wrote it, and can happily say that it’s an important prestigious title that I was able to add to my list. Having said that, I feel as though there’s another side to the series that I haven’t really touched on yet, and I’m not talking about it’s contributions to meme culture... Although you really should be thanking it for starting the whole “My Waifu” thing. No, the side I’m referring to is the creativity that it’s inspired in it’s viewers, as even in an environment where almost any anime gets a ton of AMVs and parodies, Azumanga Daioh really has taken on a life of it’s own. Hmm, how best to celebrate this show’s history of insane, internet videos and memes? With that out of the way, I’d like to introduce a brand new feature on this blog, A Series of Tubes! This is the feature I’ll be using every nice in a while to explore the multitude of ways that an animated franchise has been represented on youtube, from intentional promo videos made by the official owners to less official fan videos made by you people. We’ll be looking at AMVs, parodies, reviews, abridged series... Well, maybe not that last one today, because no Azumanga related abridged shows have found any real notoriety or success... And more! Keep in mind, I’m not only doing this for anime. I might also do My Little Pony and RWBY at some point in the future, should I decide that I feel like it. 1: Azumanga Web Daioh Before the TV anime ever came out, two short films were released online by JC Staff to see if the series would be worth a full investment. It was due to their overwhelmingly positive reception that the show was green-lit, and the first one was Web Daioh. This first film features a plot that’s entirely unique to the series and manga, as well as a much more high-budget animation style compared to what was officially released. After a catchy opening that features the cast on their way to school, this short features Chiyo-chan, the child prodigy, bringing a video camera into class to film her friends and leave the tape... A VHS tape, ask your parents what that is if you’re too young to know... and Tomo, the class clown, is immediately taken with the opportunity to goof around with it. She steals it from Chiyo, pans around the classroom(getting a hilarious shot of class space cadet Osaka in the meantime) and plays with the zoom settings, leading to some shockingly good visual effects for it’s time. She puts the athlete Kagura on the spot, and gets roundhouse-kicked for her efforts. She then runs away and films the two teachers of the series(thankfully leaving Kimura out of it), including her own teacher Miss Yukari, who’s asleep on her desk. Her response to being woken up is the third big laugh of the episode. Finally, the episode leaves off on a fourth big laugh that I’m not going to spoil here, and that’s Web Daioh, the pilot episode of the series. I fucking love it. The animation is creative and way ahead of it’s time, the shaky cam has an actual purpose(and it disappears in the final moments, which was a nice touch) and despite it’s short length, it’s really funny. It manages to feature the entire main cast in some way or another, and while two or three of them might not have featured heavily, they still feel like they were acting naturally and playing their roles. There’s no music, as the scenario calls for realism more than for a BGM, but you do hear the camera’s noises throughout, and the voice acting is on point. With a pilot like this, showing off the full potential of the material, it’s no wonder the show got picked up. 2: Azumanga Daioh The Very Short movie So, here’s my confession; I didn’t know this existed until after I already decided to go ahead with this project. Even more alarming, I didn’t know it had a dub until a few minutes ago. How crazy is that? Anyway, this is the second short pilot film that JC Staff released, this one a lot closer(but still not quitem atching) the animation style and budget of the TV release. It’s a bit longer than Web Daioh, and while it’s not quite as funny, it does put forth a more accurate representation of what the series would eventually be. Rather than a traditional intro, like Web Daioh had, this film opens with a shot of Chiyo riding on her dog, Mr. Tadakichi, introducing herself and nearly getting thrown off of him. The opening features some of the show’s iconic background music, which is always nice. Splitting it into two halves, the first half is probably the weaker one. It features a couple of minutes of Yukari’s class, squeezing several of the running gags and staples of the series into two minutes. This includes Yukari being a dick, Chiyo getting good grades, the Bonklers(which I’ll always call them because it sounds better than knuckleheads) acting out, Chiyo trying not to be cute, Tomo standing outside, Kaorin being in love, Sakaki musing over a cat bite, and keep in mind, this all takes place in the span of two minutes... Including the opening. The second half, in contrast, plays out one joke on it’s own... Osaka and her pigtail dreams. If you’ve seen the anime or read the manga, you know what I’m talking about, and this goes on for almost 3 minutes. Unlike the first half, this one doesn’t stick to the established material, instead taking full advantage of the surreal situation to try some new jokes, like Chiyo slowly turning her head like an owl(creepy) and the entire class thinking she’s a lost child that doesn’t belong there. I’m not going to give away how this part ends, you kind of just have to experience it for yourselves. It’s weird. The short ends with a thirty second credits, marking the second appearance of Chiyodaddy, and if I’m being honest, I don’t feel as though this one’s as strong as Web Daioh. It suffers in terms of pacing, with so many jokes and in-show references thrown at you in such a short time that it’s hard to process what you’re watching. The Osaka dream is at least new and interesting, especially the way it breaks away from the script. There’s actual music in it, which I definitely like, especially since upon reflection, this is the pilot for the show’s iconic score, too. The dub is phenomenal, and the actors are on point... Save for Mandy Clark and Nancy Novotny, big surprise there... But I’d especially like to give a shout out to Jessica Boone and Kira Vincent Davis, as they play the most prominent characters in the short and absolutely slaughter their roles. All in all, not quite as good as Web Daioh, in terms of story, but a small improvement in the area of production values. AMV1: Little Girls Our first AMV, edited by blindniggasamura1, was the winner of Best comedy at a con called Nekocon X, and yeah, it’s pretty damn funny, even though it attacks the show from the most obvious possible angle. There was a lot of clever editing in this video, so it occasionally looks like the central character, the ephobophile teacher Mr. Kimura, is actually singing during certain parts of the song. This unfortunately results in the video freezing into a still frame at certain times, but the visual direction is still fun and energetic, and doesn’t get stale despite relying on pretty much one joke. I highly recommend checking this one out, if the idea of statutory rape being taken lightly doesn’t trigger you. Although I completely understand if it does. AMV2: 1985 The origins of this video are somewhat cloudy, but it was originally uploaded on AMV.com over ten years ago, and made it’s way to youtube soon after. It’s credited in the video to Suberunker Studiosh, as if that helps. It’s a take on the song 1985 by bowling for soup, casting Miss Yukari in the lead role, and unlike the simple Little girls, this one uses slightly more stylized editing that’s a bit... Dated. There isn’t much cohesion between the music and the actual anime’s footage, but here’s where things get interesting... The chorus uses stills from several other anime in quite humorous fashion. That’s really the only thing that makes this video worth mentioning here... The fact that it’s so obviously a product of it’s time does give it a quirky sense of novelty, but dat chorus do. I don’t know what’s funnier... Evangelion being used for Nirvana(excuse me, NERVana), Mewtwo being used for U2, or Edward Elric as blondie. The mention of MTV does feature a clever little nod to Sakaki’s cat dilemma, with a reference to the song “In the End, too. That Aerith joke, too. The references do get a bit tired towards the middle, culminating in a forced edit of some of her students in Survivor, but overall, it’s a pretty interesting video to look back on after all these years. AMV3: Lord of the Yen Coming only 8 years ago, we have a different kind of AMV... One that pairs footage of Azumanga Daioh with three Lord of the Rings trailers, and this video is fucking insane. Each character is cast as a different Rings character, with Osaka as Frodo and her lucky ten yen piece as the One Yen. Each character is cast appropriately in accordance with how much they actually appear in the show, from major characters like miss Yukari playing Sauron to little kitty Maya playing the dwarf Gimli. The casting also mirrors several jokes from the show, like Kaorin playing Arwen as a complement to Sakaki playing Aragorn and Nyamo playing the Gandalf to Yukari’s dark lord. Even more impressive, though, is how the music matches the footage used and even certain events from the movies. This video was clearly very thoroughly thought out before it was made, and the perfect lip-flapping is only the icing on the cake. I can’t imagine how long it must have taken to complete it, but it must have taken months, like last summer’s Smash God video. The editing, while using all the same techniques as the 1985 video, holds up much better in spite of that fact. Some of the most iconic Azumanga Daioh moments are represented here, and of course there are also the inbetween segments, and the whole experience is bookended by Osaka telling her friends a horror story at Chiyo’s summer home. If this video doesn’t give you chills, then there’s something wrong with you. AMV4: OH MY GAH! Sparta Remix. Hey, remember when Chiyodaddy burst into Osaka’s dream and started talking in heavily accented English, and Osaka responds in such a way that was lame in the dub but epic and totally memorable in the Sub? There are remixed version that are flipping priceless. Check them out. AMV5: Shut Up Tomo!! Kind of a late entry, but Azugirl Productions created a video that presents a pretty smart take on the relationship between Yomi and Tomo, and as the title implies, it’s pretty much the two of them fighting, getting along and yelling at each other to just shut up already. It came out in 2007, a lot more recently than the other videos on this list, and it shows in how well polished the synchronization is, even if the lip flaps are off a bit. It doesn’t sound like much on the surface, but it’s high energy, charming, and a lot of fun to watch. With Chiyo’s cute antics and Osaka’s weird dreams dominating most AMVs and the vast majority of the show’s AMV Hell representation, it’s nice to see someone give just as much attention to the dynamic between Yomi and Tomo, as their childhood friendship is one of the most important elements of the series. It’s also worth mentioning that the creator of this AMV has done a bunch of other Azumanga Daioh videos that somehow escaped my attention until this project was already half-complete, so do yourself a favor and check out her work. Openings Azumanga Daioh has one of the most memorable and unique opening videos in anime history, and there are tons of versions of it on youtube, from different languages to altered artwork that replaces the characters with faces from other franchises, to a really weird one that features a link to a flu conspiracy website on the chalkboard. No, I didn’t make that up, but we’ll be focusing on the second thing I mentioned. There are tons of character-swapped versions of the opening, with a few examples being a vocaloid where both the artwork and music are redone, to a Persona 4 version that doesn’t, although it looks quite a bit better. I know very little about vocaloid, so I can’t really comment on how well it works, but the Persona one is full of jokes from the show, like how Chiyo in the Panda suit is swapped with Nanako in the Teddie outfit, or the three cross-dressing dudes taking the place of the Bonklers, are pretty freaking funny. There’s a CG animated version called Azumadden Daieu, which uses a male robot voice for the song and replaces everyone with animated astronauts, if you’re in the mood for something really weird. Those are about all the noteworthy openings, although there’s also a jawdropping Mario Paint rendition of the ending some Raspberry Heaven that I can’t recommend enough. I really meant it when I said earlier that Azumanga Daioh can inspire some amazing things from people. AMV Hell Contributions! And of course, it wouldn’t be an Azumanga Daioh video if we didn’t also look at the impact it had on AMV Hell. I don’t think I’d be exaggerating if I called it one of the core AMV Hell titles, and the undisputed backbone of the third one. I’ll be skipping a few and only focusing on the interesting or noteworthy entries, so let’s get started. AMV Hell 1: Azumanga Daioh appears a few times here, including a Kill Bill reference in it’s first appearance, as the long awkward silence after the Penguin drops the bucket is filled with colored filters changing in tune to some tense musical stings. It’s second appearance, which would later become insanely important to the series, was Osaka talking in front of a screen of Panda spots for a parody of a Mac commercial. Bleepbleepbleepbleep! This clip was so memorable it made people care about the commercial over a decade later. Finally, it would appear in a clip that’s very similar to the Little girls, as it plays on Kimura’s loli love. AMV Hell 2: Azumanga Daioh features heavily in the cold open, where a bunch of anime characters are gathered for a Battle Royale parody, that shows Chiyo being brutally murdered. Kimura sings Happy birthday to Yukari creepily(like he does everything else), and finally, Osaka opens the trailer for AMV Hell 3. AMV Hell 0: Skipping it, not because it’s porn but because it sucks. As far as Azumanga goes, there’s like, an Adam Sandler reference or something. AMV Hell 3: There’s no gentle way to say this; Azumanga Daioh was the bitch of this video. If you don’t count the numerous “Bleepbleepbleep” variant clips that played throughout it ad nauseum, Azuamanga appeared in around 25 clips... A feat comparable only to Excel Saga, which came close. I wont be getting into all of them, because all I can say for a lot of them is “This happened, and the audio was so-and-so,” but luckily for us, there’s more than a few interesting highlights. Like the first AMV Hell, the first Azumanga clip we see is one of the show’s dark comedy bits set to a Kill Bill tune... This time, it’s Osaka waking Miss Yukari up with a knife while Twisted Nerve plays to accompany her. This isn’t the only clip that seems like a match made in heaven, either. Soon after, the gag of Osaka and Chiyo-chan riding their bike into a light post is used as part of a fake commercial, with audio from a classic Chappelle Show parody. Chappelle would show up again much later in the video as Chiyo getting punched in the stomach from the hiccup storyline was matched up with audio from a Rick James sketch. Getting into some of the bigger material, there’s a lengthy clip where several still images of characters in somewhat suspicious poses are used in what appears to ber a Nazi propaganda video. Yukari looking fired up at her podium, Sakaki wielding a rifle, Osaka giving a Nazi salute... Which she’d give again while shouting “Heil Hitler” in the next clip... It really is both impressive and alarming that someone managed to conceive of this and put it together. Several equally impressive editing jobs would soon follow, such as a romantic tribute to Osaka and CXhiyo in their McDonalds uniforms, Chiyo falling and dying during the opening theme, and I shit you not, the snowball fight from the series being turned into an honest to God Pokemon battle, with Osaka as Bulbasaur and Chiyo as Pikachu. She’d also pose as The Cheat later on. One of my favorite clips, from a creator who’s sadly passed on, is one where the over-the-top expressions from the series are matched with the Doug song Shout Your Lungs Out, which is one of the few clips that I’m halfway convinced the animators had in mind during production. It just fits so perfectly. Comparing Chiyo’s head to a Bananaphone with that exact Raffi song was also a stroke of genius, but much less obvious. In any case, there weren’t as many Azumanga clips in the second half as there were in the first half, but it did start off with what was probably the best one, and the only one that was allowed to exceed a minute in length... Clips of Osaka sleeping and Dreaming were used in a parody of a celebrated Rahxephon AMV set to the haunting tune of “Must Be Dreaming” by Frou Frou, and since you can find it outside of AMV Hell, I highly recommend looking it up solo. There are a few more clips between this and the ending, including an Airplane reference that’s kind of brilliant, but they could have easily ended on this. AMV Hell 4: While it doesn’t appear as often this time around, AMV Hell does manage to pay tribute to Azumanga Daioh by using Osaka in the second of it’s three introductory clips, going over what AMV stands for. It’s cute, but not on par with the previous onslaught of Beepbeepbeep clips. The first official clip compares Osaka and Chiyo at various Sports Fest episodes to the Special Olympics, a theme that would be revisited in later AMV Minis clips with Monty Python audio, but the first clip of note... And one of the most memorable... Is a Guitar Hero parody of Osaka waking Miss Yukari up by banging a pan. The song used is Fear the Reaper by blue Oyster Cult, which is really just an excuse to call the video Cowbell Hero, but it all works together so well. Themes from AMV Hell 3 are revisited, such as Kimura’s perversion, Yukari’s driving and a chorus of acapella cats. A new theme is opened up, however, with a couple of videos highlighting Kaorin’s flanderized crush on Sakaki... The first one uses Centerfold by the J Geil’s Band, and it deals with Kaorin’s shock at seeing a photograph of Sakaki in a bathing suit. The use of the Knuckleheads as back-up singers was a pretty lit touch. Speaking of ‘touch,’ the second clip of this nature takes a bit more of a sexual edge to her crush, with Everytime We touch by Cascada. The highlights of the Azumanga Daioh set, however, would have to be the creatively edited Bark at the Moon segment, which combines the dreamy aspect of the series with Mr. Tadakichi, and an inspired appearance by bodies from Drowning Pool, which centers around Osaka telling a tale of her friends being offed by a serial killer. There’s less to offer here than there was in the first AMV Hell, but sadly, each entry would go on to feature it less than the previous ones. AMV Hell 5-7: Yeah, appearances here are so few that I’m grouping them together. The fifth Hell only featured 8 Azumanga Daioh clips, although it started off really nice with a nod towards Sakaki’s height set to the song and notorious dick joke Big in Japan. It’s after this that several old ideas are recycled, and while some of them are nice... The new Osaka Dream clip is set to a catchy Beatles tune, and the new Kaorin gag fits nicely into the motif of Always by Erasure... The only clip of any note is the final one, Holy Diver, which bookends this video’s heartfelt tribute to Ronnie James Dio. In Amv Hell 6.66, the official release and NOT the original cut, there are two Azumanga Daioh clips, both based on gags that were popular at the time... The first one is of Tomo being FUS-ROH-DA’d by Yomi, and the second is Osaka’s creepy knife scene set to audio from the My Little Pony parody video Shed.mov. Things were a bit bleaker in 7, where Sakaki’s desire to pet a kitty got her compared to a Hey Arnold character, and... I gotta be honest, I have no idea what Franker-Z is, but apparently Chiyo-chan looks like him. It’s kind of a callback to the Bananaphone clip, but with a dog’s head. So yeah, usage of this series sorta tapered off as the AMV Hell movies neared their conclusion, but thankfully, there’s... AMV Minis! Season 1: Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Azumanga Daioh does pop up again here, but it’s mostly in the first two episodes. In the first episode, refreshingly enough, we get a few new ideas in play... Osaka and Chiyo eating fish-shaped takoyaki at the culture fest gets paired with a bizarre Fish Heads song, which is... Interesting... And it’s soon followed up by a pretty funny Homestar Runner gag, and finally, Sakaki’s desire to connect with nature is cleverly sent up to the song Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas. The second episode does some really obvious Monty Python references, and makes fun of Yomi’s singing. The rate of appearances drops off at this point, and while it does appear a few times... Including a really bad clip that takes audio from an equally bad movie... The next noteworthy clip doesn’t come until episode 10, where Kaorin’s love for Sakaki gets it’s funniest parody of all, set to my favorite part of the song Jizz in my Pants. Season 2: Azumanga Daioh appears six times in the season premiere, which had a strict rule that it would only allow musical clips with a maximum length of 7 seconds. This means there were a very large amount of clips to get lost in, and unfortunately, get lost is what about half of them do. The noteworthy clips include the first one, which openly acknowledges Mr. Kimura being the progenitor of the Waifu meme, and Lose It, a hilarious take on Tomo throwing Chiyo’s summer home key into the woods. Azumanga Daioh disappears from episodes 2 and 3, but oddly enough, every episode from 4 to 9 has exactly one. This stream starts off in a good way, because episode 4 contains one of my favorite appearances thus far... Sakaki’s drive to step up her game during the relay race is converted into a Mentos commercial, and it fits the music perfectly. Apparently I’m the only one who loves it so much, because it opens the episode, and a common comment is that it only gets started with clip 2. Whatever, we all have different tastes. Tomo getting paired with an ADHD song is lazy, but effective, and the trippy nature of the ending theme is paired with Lucy in the Sky from The Beatles in episode 7. Tomo also does a song of Charlie Sheen’s Winning, which Dr. Stein did better in 6.66. Challenges... Honestly, the challenge was getting through this season. There are 32 episodes, and the only two that I skipped were 2013 and 2014, which I knew beforehand that Azumanga Daioh came out over a decade too early to be a part of. There are about ten appearances of it throughout all 32 episodes, give or take a few, with only about five worth mentioning. In fact, I can kill three of them in one mention. Tomo asks Nyamo what The Fox Says, in an episode that gets apologized for in another clip as Chiyo acts as a stand-in for South Park’s BP parody, which itself was parodied in a late episode where she apologized again for, of all things, the quality of the challenge series. As far as the actual funny stuff, there’s a pretty decent Animaniacs parody, and a Dora the Explorer Cake-Baking clip that takes a much funnier shot at the series itself... Towards the end, when the critique is a little too late. I’d like to apologize to the creators of The Lost Episodes, because I fully intended to include them in this project as well... They did their own AMV Hell style project, consisting entirely of Azumanga Daioh content, and what little I saw was actually kind of good. The problem is that this post will be uploaded in two days, and after sitting through the entire AMV minis collection in the space of 24 hours, I can’t. I just can’t. Check them out, at least. However, since I want to end this article on a positive note, there’s a certain minis video I’ve been saving. See, there’s a reason season 1 was devoid of Azumanga Daioh clips; Because the series was given it’s own special clip. It was the first theme video of the first season, and it’s 7 minutes of pure Daioh goodness. Saving it for last does kinda wreck the timeline I was originally shooting for, but that idea bit the dust long before this. honestly, this video is so funny that I hesitate to spoil it, but I’d be undermining this entire concept if I didn’t give a FEW highlights, so here they are... There’s a Lord of the Rings clip and a When Harry Met Sally clip, they both had me laughing my Neko-Conekos off, and they both involved the teachers. That’s not all the best material by a long shot, but I highly recommend checking it out for yourself. And that’s it for the first installment of A Series of Tubes! Did what you read about here sound interesting to you? I’d include links, but most of these videos are easy enough to find through a simple title search on youtube. A few of the AMV Hell related videos might be difficult to find, as some of them have been taken down or muted from youtube, but if that’s the case, you can find them through the AMVhell.com website, which includes links to the youtube and Vimeo uploads. In addition, are there any franchises that I should do future installmetns on? Anything that’s taken youtube by storm? I eventually plan to do similar articles on RWBY and MLP;FIM, but it’s gonna be a while before I visit them, so any suggestions inbetween(and that extends to prospective videos as well) are highly encouraged.

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My favorite thing to do atm is take random screenshots that pertain to nothing and post it on here lmao I don't know why either ok, don't ask >.< You've probably seen enough of my desktop as it is lmao

want to spend all of winter break just staying on MAL and watching anime all day... honestly, most likely, I'll just wind up doing things I need to do, like organizing the files on my computer, or recovery for my old computer so I can put in my new desktop... Hopefully I'll still be around enough to still keep playing club games and blogging though. I mean... I hope.