So the debut episode of Prisma Illya season 2's 2nd cour came out a few days ago. The 'story' picks up where the 1st cour left off, although to be honest, episode one had no real story. It's summer break for the girls, they went to buy swimsuits, all sorts of crazy shenanigans happen, Shiro is once again blissfully unaware of how popular he is...and next episode is a beach episode. I've watched the episode twice already, and each time I always wonder how on earth Shin Onuma knows exactly what I (and thousands of other otaku, I imagine) want. They have gotten really, really good at pandering to people like me. With a start this strong, 2nd cour is going to be absolutely incredible.

The weird thing is that, I actually consider the Prisma Illya manga to be rather mediocre. Or at least, the manga is nowhere as good as the adaptation. To be sure, the manga also had its heavy dose of yuri and maids and whatnot, but what made the anime adaptation super good was the VAs and the soundtrack, the stuff that the manga cannot provide. Mai Kadowaki has done a superb job (as always) voicing Illya. Her pitch is so cutesy and well-toned, it's almost obscene. And of course, the soundtrack has consistently delivered the right atmosphere, may it be a violent fight or an intimate, flowery moment between Chloe and Illya. The yuri is as wonderful as it is, but the music really turns the knob up to 11, if you get what I mean.

I have a really hard time understand why I love this show so much, when in fact Prisma Illya pretty much represents everything that's wrong about the anime industry. I mean, episode one practically went all out in terms of piling on fanservice (not that I mind). I think the real reason why this show is so great, is that Prisma Illya has always been naughty and slightly erotic, but has never appeared criminal nor perverted. It's hard to think of another show that depicts lesbian, under-aged incest with such purity and good taste. If I watch another Illya x Chloe scene, I swear I am going to go crazy. Not that I'm not kind of screwed-up already, ha!

About a week ago, I said that I bought about 170 dollars worth of stuff. About two years ago, I'd be buying stuff like figures and collectibles from Japan on a monthly basis. But my interest in this kind of stuff had since died down, and I haven't bought this much stuff in around 9 months. Well, I guess you'd know by now, that in the end I gave into my consumerist urges! So today, I'd like to give a review of the stuff I bought: the Key 10th Memorial Box. And yes, my decision to buy this may have something to do with how much I liked Charlotte...

The Key 10th Memorial Box was released sometime in 2009. As the name suggests, this collector's item was released in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Key's founding. I'm a pretty big Key fan myself (for better or worse), and I've wanted to buy this for a very long time. But for a long time, I was also turned off by its hefty price-tag: 14,800 yen, when it was first released. And since it's a limited edition item, it becomes really hard to find this item six years after its release. So when I saw this item finally float up in Mandarake, I bought it immediately. Shipping included, the box cost me 170 dollars, which isn't that bad at all considering the good condition of the box.

As you'd expect from a collector's item of this calibre, the box is packed full of good stuff. First, the box contains all-age versions of every VN Key released up to 2009. This includes Kanon, Air, Clannad, Tomoyo After, Planetarian, and Little Busters. I can see that some people might complain about the removal of H-scenes, although I personally don't care that much. After all, who reads Key VNs for the terrible ero, anyway? My only minor complaint is that the Little Busters case was, perhaps wrongly, labelled as Little Busters Ecstasy (the 18+ version). The VNs also comes with a slim artbook that contains character sketches, commentary and lots of illustrations. Basically, the stuff you'd expect from a typical artbook. 

The box also comes with an assortment of mini-posters, nicely packaged in slim boxes according to the VNs the posters came from. I can't say too much about the posters, since I have no intention of opening them nor putting them up, but they'd probably resemble the mini-posters you can buy from AmiAmi. So nothing out of the ordinary, really, besides the fact that these posters are 'official'. Same goes with the mug, which is really just a standard mug with Key's mascot on it. I rather liked the fact, however, that instead of a boring brown box, the mug's packaging also featured Ayu and Rin (aka Best Key Girl). Nice attention to detail there.

After posters, mugs and the artbook, it's pretty logical that the collector's items should come with a T-shirt as well. Again, nothing too special here, besides the fact that the T-shirt is far, far too big for me. I'm really not sure why they made it so big, especially considering that Japanese T-shirts are usually a size smaller than their Western counterpart. Perhaps this might say something about the real life appearances of the Key fanbase...

The coolest part of the box, in my view, is actually the assortment of alternative covers they provided. For every VN, they've provided about 2-3 covers which you can insert into the DVD cases. Personally, I'm quite impressed with the range of designs and how unique they look. For example, I really liked the alternative designs for Air's cover art. From certain angles, Misuzu's character design can look a bit autistic, but the alternative covers really made Misuzu look a lot prettier. I think that's a general problem with a lot of Key's earlier work, really, since what's considered 'moe' in the early 2000s is borderline autistic by today's standards. But anyway, it was very nice of them to provide the alternative cover art. Really innovative.

So at the end of the day, was the box really worth its price-tag? Well, the instinctive answer is no. Even if you take away the hefty shipping, the items themselves are really just 'official' versions of things you could print off or download yourself. Not to mention that none of these things will most likely get any use - for example, I'll probably never actually wear the T-shirt. But as a collector's item, the box has a lot of value. Almost like how people buy antiques, not to actually use them but rather as an investment. So maybe in forty years, this box might become an antique or something. Would I still be into anime by then? I'm not so sure.

So, the first episode of Charlotte aired a few hours ago. Surprisingly enough, the pilot episode turned out really, really good. A couple things really stood out for me. First, there's the comedy. Jun Maeda's attempts at humour, at least for me, tends to fall flat a lot of the time. But the comedy in Charlotte worked really well - partly because of how surreal it is (it is an anime based on supernatural powers, after all). My guesses are, however, that Charlotte will soon turn on its drama mode. Maeda has done that with just about everything he's ever written. So expect Charlotte to be a lot less funny, very very soon.

The MC also has a lot of character to him. A lot of the 'old' Key MCs (Yukito, Yuuichi, and to an extent Tomoya) are very flat characters that act more like proxies for self-inserting fans. But since Little Busters, Key MCs have gotten much more interesting. So far, Maeda has done an admirable job letting Yuu drive the story, instead of letting the heroines do the job for him. Everyone else also feels very likeable - especially Yuu's little sister. I remember watching the stream last night and was almost about to fall asleep when I heard that high-pitched 'Onii-chan!'. Truly music to my ears. Adding an under-aged, cute, high-pitched imouto to any cast seems to work nowadays. Or at least it works for me.

Being P.A.Works, the background art is absolutely superb as always. They've never failed to disappoint with pretty pictures and hopefully, they can keep up the quality for the next twelve episodes. My only concern, at this point, is that Maeda keeps his story tight and coherent. A problem with Angel Beats (as acknowledged by the man himself) is that it featured too large a cast and there was impossible to squeeze so many stories into 13 episodes. As long as Maeda focuses on what he already has, Charlotte will probably turn out really good (like, 'anime-of-the-year' good). Knowing that this show will eventually turn into a soap opera makes me very happy. In all, episode one is great. Hopefully it stays that way.

The next two seasons of anime look very promising. To start off, there's Aria the Avvenire, a three-episode OVA series which will come out later this year. I had always been a fan of the Aria series - Origination, in particular, is probably one of the best SoL ever made. Aria seems to get the mixture just right: a perfect balance of drama and comedy, with a hint of sentimentality here and there. I was, of course, very excited when Avvenire was announced, even more so when I heard that the show will once again be directed by the capable Junichi Sato. Even though the manga finished in '08, Kozue Amano is handling the story and character designs. The animation quality, as seen from the PV, also looks very high. Overall, I have a lot of hope in Avvenire to live up to the 'Aria standard', so to speak.

In every season, there's always one or two shows that everyone ends up watching. Most KyoAni shows, the Fate franchise and the Monogatari series falls into this category. For the upcoming season, I think Charlotte will be the one show that everyone (for better or worse) is going to watch and hate. For those who don't know already: Jun Maeda is handling the writing. Partnered with P.A.Works, Maeda's latest creation will most probably end up like every other Key anime: plenty of awful drama, unexplainable illnesses, slightly autistic protagonists, and more awful drama. The picture above (props to 4chan) illustrates my point very well. I'd be very shocked if the dots don't line-up by the time Charlotte finishes.

P.A.Works and Maeda had previously partnered on Angel Beats, a show which was moderately enjoyable when it aired but in retrospective was pretty awful. For the most part, I expect the same with Charlotte. I honestly think that Maeda's writing is long past its prime. Now, I'm not saying that Air and Kanon were good by any means - but at least they were entertaining soap dramas while they lasted. However, I feel that upcoming writers like Mari Okada have produced dramas (like Nagi no Asukara) that are just as heart-wrenching as Maeda's best works, without having to fall back on the same plot devices time after time. Granted, I'm still going to watch Charlotte regardless, in the hopes that it ends up being a decent show and not a half-baked effort to make its viewers cry.

Yuru Yuri season 3 is coming soon. While waiting impatiently for season 3 to arrive, I've picked a couple of other series for my daily dose of yuri. First, there's Hibike Euphonium. Every KyoAni show since Nichijou has been disappointing for me, but Hibike Euphonium looks very promising. Its art looks very pretty, and most importantly it has yuri in it. Yuri and KyoAni seems like a mix that just might work. Second, I'm also watching Strawberry Panic, an older series that showcases yuri's ties with its shoujo roots. Lots of fanservice (aka hand-holding), beautiful art, and very relaxing to watch. A different kind of yuri compared to what I usually watch, but enjoyable nonetheless. Sometimes I think that if I watch anymore yuri, I have to go see a psychologist...

I also bought like 170 dollars worth of goods yesterday. They'll get reviewed in a few days time.