Newsletter #167, May 28th

Three days at a huge con= tons of pictures. It also means Dave dragging the guys around town at times when they were boiling...

Claymore
Lucky Star
Fate/Stay Night
Mai-Otome

On a side note, for those who weren’t at the meeting are wondering why the list is rather small… no, the episodes weren’t longer than normal. Rather, we spent an hour or so going over the many pictures that were taken by the ones who went to AnimeCentral, and trying to identify as many cosplay characters as possible, among other things.

Claymore 20- We start out with Raki travelling with Priscilla (yes, that Priscilla) and Isley, and wanting to learn swordsmanship… which Isley starts to teach him. Back at the village, the Claymores are enjoying the moment of peace, and it is during this time that we find one of the more muscular looking Claymores (Undine) has actually been using her yoma power constantly to wield two swords… one of which belonged to a friend that she felt she was too weak to protect (and this Claymore without the bulging muscles actually looks feminine). A fellow Claymore, who had merely guessed the situation, tells her that everyone has their moments of weakness. Meanwhile, the leader of the group Clare is in wants to test out her power against the power of the Clare’s acquired arm; before anything happens, Jean steps in to defend Clare, and the resolution is that it would be pointless to waste any energy in this battle. Things finish off back with Raki and company, and Isley meets with a man who seems to be yet another Claymore of sorts, and gives the order for every last piece of Pieta (the village where everyone is gathered) to be annihilated.

Lucky Star 8- This time around, it’s time for the sports festival, which all the girls participate in, and they show that they shouldn’t be underestimated… as Konata’s dad goes around, taking pictures before he’s hauled away. After the festival, we have Tsukasa practicing on the recorder, which Kagami decides to give her help on (since Tsukasa doesn’t seem to be able to actually play a melody on her own). And then to finish things off, Konata goes shopping for some manga, and runs into a slight dilemma

F/s N 17- Gas leaks have been occurring around town, but Rin knows the real explanation: the witch in the temple is behind this, apparently draining just about all the life force from people. It also seems that the witch (I guess she’s called Caster) has killed the master that she was originally summoned by, and her new master has no magic power at all. The objective therefore is to take out Caster and stop the attacks, and the master shouldn’t be too big a deal. The plan gets put into action… but before Rin can take out the master, Caster shows up to save him. Then another problem is revealed: usually the master is the one backing up the Servant, but in this case it’s the opposite: the master knows hand to hand combat, and Caster back him up. Thus, Rin, Shirou and Saber find themselves on the losing side of the battle. Caster questions why they’re fighting when they have the same goal, and the reason is that the method which Caster is using to summon the Holy Grail is wrong. Caster then reveals the next part of her plan: she needs someone with great amounts of mana, and the only one who should be capable of that… is none other than Ilya. However, when they get back home to protect Ilya, they find that Caster has instead captured Sakura, and says if they want her back, come to the temple…

Mai-Otome 14- With the war having broke out between two countries, its effect is starting to affect quite a few people… in particular, two otomes in training who are virtually best friends but from the two sides at war. Thus we have some accusing Arika of “what happened to you saying you would end all war?”, and wondering if Arika can really uphold them. Arika, on the other hand, has problems of her own, considering that to be an Otome, she mustn’t fall in love, yet finds herself thinking of Sergay is just that kind of way… and to make matters worse, there’s an otome around who seems to have very dark intentions. Shizuru is also off investigating the site where some disaster seems to have taken place long ago, and gets snuck up on by Miyu, who seems to know something about this. But Miyu quickly gets away before Shizuru can catch her. And to top off the episode, one of Arika’s friends knows something about the Blue Sapphire and the story of the otome to whom it originally belonged, as Sergay gets all but pure confirmation that Arika is actually the missing daughter of that Otome.

Rollcall:
Jeff
Dave
Nick
Steve
Tom
Andy