Here are lyrics to sola’s episode 1 opening. Soooo soothing.

BTW, if you haven’t noticed Desu Noto OST3 gets released in June. More kyrie eleison versions? :P There’s more after the jump~

Code Gayass. Yuki Kajiura. Secks @ youtube. Props to whoever made this (and chupa for pointing it out :P).

What a promising season this turns out to be! Below are some comments on the shows I started watching - quite a few compared to the last 6 months when I only finished RED GARDEN (and am still waiting for subs of another 3…).

Still waiting for subs of Terra e…, Seto no Hanayome and Romeo x Juliet. Triad’s Bokurano #01 is still leeching…

Darker than Black
Seen: 01(sub by sudo);
Continue? Oh yes.
Comment: Quality.

Read Cinamon Ass as that post pretty much nailed what I feel about this first episode.

Claymore
Seen: 01-02(sub by Eclipse)
Continue? When I’m bored.
Comment: Even music got better in the 2nd episode. 0_0

I was ready to ditch this after the first episode (those Yomas look like first season Sailor Moon enemies), but I enjoyed the 2nd one more… The art and animation are still nothing to write about, but learning more about Claymores was good. Surprisingly, even the music got better, but I still hate that weird BGM they play around the 14th minute mark. I still hate Raki, too.

El Cazador de la Bruja
Seen: 01(sub by B-I), 02(raw);
Continue? Of course.
Comment: El Noirlax.

I liked NOIR, I loved MADLAX. El Cazador has the best animation of that bunch ATM, it has that ‘classic’ BeeTrain storytelling (like it or not) and I’m loving it so far. The characters seem to have different personalities than the other 2 shows and I can’t wait to see how they are all connected, what their goals are, etc… The thing I don’t like is Moondoggie/Tamaki/Light as the butler following Ellis around…

Yuki Kajiura’s score is a mix of old and new that satisfies my apetite greatly - I’m also quite happy that Yuriko Kaida (at least I think it’s her from ep2 vocals :P) returns for vocal BGMs and Yuuka Nanri - for songs.

Gurren-Lagann
Seen: 01(sub by AiA I-Z);
Continue? OH YES.
Comment: “The drill is your soul!”

A fantastic cross of Abenobashi and Dead Leaves art styles. Great animation. Great Taku Iwasaki music. Great (cliche) characters and voice acting. GREAT FUN. Oh yea, the mech design is awesome, too. Wonder when SimonxKamina yaoi appear? What about Yoko doujinshi? “Penetrate the heavens with your drill!”

Hayate no Gotoku
Seen: 01-02(by Eclipse);
Continue? OH HELL NO.
Comment: A comedy? I don’t think so.

Shakugan no Shana III is IMHO the most overrated show of the season. Of course part of my dislike for the show comes from my dislike for Shana, but that’s not really why I will not bother with more.

The reason is much more simple - it didn’t make me laugh out loud even once - I smiled 3 times in the first episode and twice in the second. Pretty pathetic for a comedy when it’s unbelievably easy to make me laugh.

I’m also against the “we’re only anime” tone of this show. “Hey, we’re not even half done yet!”, “Hey, it’s not the end of the second part yet!”, “We can’t show such things on air.”, “Hey, narrator, you’re talking too fast!”. FUCK NO! Not even Rie Tanaka and Norio Wakamoto can make me sit through more of this. The characters look like they all share the same head with different wigs.

Note: I did like the (overdramatic for this show) music though.

Kami-chama Karin
Seen: 01(sub by HnK);
Continue? Probably not.
Comment: If only it wasn’t a mahou shoujo show…

Even Sailor Moon had better sense of style and direction than the first 3 minutes of this show. As retarded as it was, after those 3 minutes we get to the real meat of the episode… and it was a really good shoujo show until the last 30 seconds. I’d kind of like to watch more, but there’s really no guarantee that it won’t return to being as shitty as the first 3 minutes…

Lucky Star
Seen: 01(sub by SF-S);
Continue? Yes, for now.
Comment: Shoot me, I liked it.

After the incredibly annoying OP seeing the girls talk about food somehow kept a smile on my face for those 10 minutes. The moe explanation was a stupid and unenjoyable bit again, but then the visit at Hiiragi’s household was cool and I swear I heard Kikuko Inoue as the girls’ mother(?). When I got to the gaming part I kept smiling while thinking of a certain gamer and then at the idol bit I finally cracked and laughed out loud. Great? NO. Enjoyable? Bring on episode 2, I say.

Murder Princess OVA
Seen: 01(sub by Ayako);
Continue? Yes, for now.
Comment: Murder Princess.

Seriously, I knew there was a twist coming, but I didn’t expect it to be like this! The idea is unoriginal, yes, but the execution is quite cool and I am very curious to see how the next episodes work with it. -I- do have two problems with the show though - rock music is not my cup of tea and the characters change of voices makes no sense. But still, highly enjoyable and I like the ending theme, too. ;)

Nagasarete Airantou
Seen: 01(sub by Illusion);
Continue? Oh yes.
Comment: A funny comedy!

The opening 6 minutes had me thinking how generic the main character looks, but then few moments later I realized that I’ve not seen such shameless fanservice since Girls Bravo and that I was laughing out loud at those faces they kept making! Not to mention Yui Horie, Saeko Chiba and few more known seiyuus appear… To sum ep1 up: hilarious face deformations, fanservice. I wonder how much of the budget they have left for the next episodes…

Seirei no Moribito
Seen: 01(sub by A-Kraze);
Continue? Certainly.
Comment: Quality.

I’m not very much into period features, but episode 1 of Moribito got me hooked with its quality of art and animation - EVERY single background character I noticed (and there was a lot of them) was moving here. It’s great to have a mature show once in a while - zero ‘moe’ visuals, no super deformed faces, mature themes, mature seiyuus (with some obvious exceptions :P).

With Kenji Kawai composing, Kamiyama and other GITS SAC writers behind this show I am seriously expecting great things to come.

sola
Seen: 01(by Lunar);
Continue? Yes.
Comment: Slice of life with vampires…? Loli in a box? I’ve no idea…

The art is annoyingly inconsistent for the guy’s head shape, while the animation itself is nice - they should pay more attention to consistency than animation IMHO. I enjoyed this whole episode quite a bit (not just the WTF ending) and do want to know what’s going on… so one more episode at the very least…

According to the official site:

　　　『笑顔の色は虹の色』
　　　作詞：畑　亜貴
　　　作曲：梶浦　由記
　　　編曲：安瀬　聖
　　　ボーカル：マシロ・ブラン（ゆかな）

Composed by Yuki Kajiura. Lyrics and arrangement by other people and vocals by yukana - thank god for karaoke versions. The CD will be bundled with the limited edition 3rd DVD on May 25, 2007.

Related: for most of the new songs lyrics search for ‘kukui lyrics’ on the right (or browse through the lyrics category).

Bump 2. Official tracklisting and cover added. 2 new tracks + full ouverture ED. Of course if you haven’t heard the character drama songs, you have more new tracks. Can’t wait!

Bump. The official kukui site updated with the album and it does indeed include the full ouverture ED theme 『空蝉ノ影』! From what I understand all other kukui songs from Rozen Maiden are included as well, which would mean both seasons ending themes and character songs from drama discs. The official title is 「Leer Lied」.

Old unofficial comments removed. April 25, 2007 release.

「 Leer Lied 」 ローゼンメイデンベストアルバム Leer Lied - Rozen Maiden Best Album   kukui(Haruka Shimotsuki & myu) 2007.04.25 : LHCA-5072

I see mecha in promo pic on new OVA site. Does GONTZO want to ruin what IMHO was the best series they had since Gankutsuou (and IMHO the best series at least since October) ?

Dead Girls DVD gets released on August 8.

As it turns out the b-side on El Cazador “romanesque” single is NOT the insert track from episode 1. Guess that one won’t be available before the OST. Anyways, more YUUKA songs for us!

OP and ED. Here’s YUUKA’s insert song, too, but be aware - as it’s a direct rip from the video there is dialogue/sfx running over it.

Some of the BGMs in the show are quite different for Kajiura. I’m lovin’ it. The break sure was worth it.