"K-On!!" 10

We get to see Sawa-chan in her "Death Devil" mode and it's pretty awesome. I smell another single coming out and this time it's metal! The four girls follow Sawa-chan to find out who the mysterious person is who dropped her off at school one morning. Turns out it's a former band mate who wants to reunite for one special occasion. Sawa-chan doesn't want to tarnish her teacher image, but she can't help it when she sees the HTT botching up her song and must correct the situation. I like the above picture of the four former light music club members.

"Tsuki no Koibito"

It's got Takuya Kimura, Shota Matsuda, Keiko Kitagawa, and two actresses new to me, Ryoko Shinohara and Lin Chi Ling. I watched like one episode of "MR. BRAIN" and did not think Takuya Kimura was all that hot. But in this show, he is pretty hot, especially in his scenes with Lin Chi Ling, Taiwanese actress/model. The chemistry is at a ten between these two. Shota (from Japanese F4 fame) is hot with his short hair! Takuya plays a rich badboy, who manipulates the beautiful former Chinese factory worker into becoming the face of his furniture empire. He is a total jerk, so that's probably why he is appealing. (Sigh.)

"K-On!!" episodes 8 and 9

Episode eight should be called "K-On!! Yochien" because of all the flashbacks to kindergarten between Yui and Nodoka. There is even a flashback of Mio and Ritsu in grade school. The type of friendships each pair has was evident even back in the day. Where is the Mugi flashback anyway? Her mysterious past must somehow come up later in the series. (Hopefully.)
Episode nine actually brought a tear to my eye when Oba-san looks so pleased and proud to see Yui up there with Gitah in the newly formed spinoff group YuiAzu. Nice to see the Hokago Tea Time can withstand the tensions of members wanting to do solo work (ha ha).

As for other anime I'm watching, "Durarara!" is officially confusing for me. I wish the leaders of the Dollars and Yellow Scarves, and the Slasher-Mother would finally talk to each other about what's going on. I like Dotachin and the Russian sushi restaurant characters and hope they get some story soon.

I also may start rewatching "Revolutionary Girl Utena." I enjoyed the show, but didn't really understand the end and probably won't again.

"Cross Game" streaming on VIZanime.com

Watch the first five episodes at www.vizanime.com.

Also the first five episodes of "Vampire Knight" (small girly squeal).

"Tatami Galaxy" ED and "House of Five Leaves" OP

New "BECK" teaser

Got this from nipponcinema.

"Sunao ni Narenakute (Hard to Say I Love You)"; New Spring Anime

Just saw the first episode and I am really looking forward to watching this spring jdrama. It's Eita and Ueno Juri again from "Last Friends" and both are really cute and appealing actors. In fact, just about everybody is cute and appealing in this jdrama about Twitter friends who meet in the real world. It actually does remind me of "Last Friends" which is a good thing. I am also looking forward to "Tsuki no Koibito" which includes Keiko Kitagawa which hasn't started yet.
On the anime front, the spring season looks really promising. The Funimation website is streaming "House of Five Leaves" which looks really good. It has a strange but attractive art style. I have to admit to watching "Uragiri wa Boku no Namae o Shitteiru"(aka Uraboku)on Crunchyroll. It's like "Nabari no Ou" (with that suggestion of BL) and "Vampire Knight" combined. "Kaichou was Maid Sama" looks like a great shoujo anime with the pretty and tough heroine attracting the cool, good looking potential boyfriend. If you want something mature and gritty, "RAINBOW" may be something to watch. But it's sort of soul-crushing in the way these teenagers are treated (ie sexual abuse, physical abuse) in their 1950s-youth-authority prison. Not for the squeamish. Looks like I am all over the place with the anime but this season has got an extremely wide range of selection so I am bound to drop half of everything I started. Quite a different season from the last one where almost nothing was appealing. Oh yeah, "Ookiku Furkikabutte" is back for season two and the quality looks just as good as before!

"Sherlock Holmes" Granada TV series

Upon visiting Amazon's Deal of the Day, I found the 12 disc set of the Granada television series "Sherlock Holmes" starring Jeremy Brett. It was a good deal and I always enjoyed catching this on PBS when it is sometimes aired. Right now I am watching "The Solitary Cyclist" for the umpteenth time (every time I catch the show, this episode is on) and thoroughly enjoying it. The remasters are really good and there is no awful VHS graininess as I had feared. Jeremy Brett IS Sherlock. The production values make each show a little BBC period piece. I look forward to many mini-Sherlock Holmes marathons on my days off!

"K-On!!" is back!

It's back and it's delightfully entertaining, sort of relaxing and nostalgic. All five band members are back for another year in the light music club. We can look forward to talks over tea and cakes and the occasional breaking out of improbably mature rock music playing. And of course, moe times ten.

Cast of live-action "Kimi ni Todoke" revealed

I forgot about mention of a live-action "Kimi ni Todoke" movie till I read this. I'm a fan of Haruma Miura (really cute!) and I think that casting is spot on for Kazehaya. Never heard of Mikako Tabe before, but hope there is chemistry between the two. According to the article above, this movie will be released September 2010.