puchi

Coming out in April? I want this Bakemonogatari Puchi Nendoroid.

Aoi Bungaku 5-6! This starts off with a refreshing change of pace and tone than the previous story. You see a guy running from a boar who seems to be running from a larger guy, but then find out the large guy just wanted to mug the first guy, but also ends up making the boar a pet. 'In the Woods Beneath the Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom' by Ango Sakaguchi is the story told in this arc. Kubo Tite designed the characters in this one. There's a jazzy opening with tons of nice visuals. Shigemaru lives in the mountains with a harem of wives until he meets another woman, Akiko, who convinces him to do some horrible things. Finally, it ends under a grove of cherry blossoms; I think this tops the cherry blossoms in Kimi ni Todoke. Very beautifully animated, fun, but mysterious. Nana Mizuki sings nicely in the episode.

Letter Bee 10! Aria tells Lag about Gauche's first bout of memory loss; apparently he was staring at the fake sun one day while his mother was giving birth.

brainy vs. muscle-y

Aoi Bungaku 7-8! Kokoro by Natsume Souseki with character design by Takeshi Obata (the huge guy looks a bit 'Bleach'-like though) is the story in this arc. The story is told by the viewpoint of two characters, a typical studious-looking student called 'Sensei' in the story, and a large, rough-looking Buddhist(?) student, K. Sensei invites K to live with him at a house where an older woman and her daughter are providing his lodging and meals. Sensei finds K's actions suspicious and eventually, becomes jealous of the daughter's interest in K. When the story is told from K's point of view, you see that he is confused by the daughter's actions. I get the trend that well, females weren't portrayed as positive influences in classical literature (they cause men to go a bit coo-coo)...or maybe the producers like that aspect of these choice stories. Anyway, these stories are produced and told quite well. The animation and background music has been distinct and memorable for each arc, too.

Inuyasha: The Final Act 10! A filler monster to help Inuyasha recover. New ending song and winter visuals....blah.