Ginme no Majo (Masanori Takumi | Claymore)

This background music track always reminds me Galatea’s deliciously wicked musing as she walked off into the darkness of the forest towards the end of Ep 11. And also when Riful intervened against Jean’s attempt coup de grace against Duff.

The dramatic drum beats right at the start are a great hook, thereafter the strings carried me to the embarking on a new adventure, announced by a triumphant brass section. The stirrings of mystery and conspiracy are heralded by piano keys against a background of bass notes and eerie synthetic animal-like calls. The various sounds come together, moving in and out, building into a crescendo that made such a great background to the above-mentioned scenes.

Yamiyo no Prologue (Kajiura Yuki | Mai HiME)

And BGM that features the pounding of drums. Great big ones. The scene in my mind’s eye when I hear this is from Mai HiME 15 when Mai on Kagutsuchi charging up into the heavens as Artemis’ ray surges downwards.

Salva Nos (Kujiura Yuki | Noir)

"Someone is going to die," says this BGM. The prelude and background for yet another of Kirika’s casually brutally, coarse yet strangely elegant killing sprees. The incongruous combination of doramaz singing in some language that I don’t understand and techno-beats somehow works. Despite all the repetition over the course of the series, this was streets ahead of the watch tune because it heralded action rather than repeated flashbacks.

Foxy Doll (EDISON | Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage)

Fresh from her meeting with Chan of the HK Triads, Balalaika issues orders to the Sergeant. Hotel Moscow goes on the warpath. The rhythm/bass guitar (?) starts off and provides the structure for the whole piece, like Balalaika’s steady, unyielding stride while the drum beats evoke foot falls and the beating of raging hearts. The lead guitar conveys the swagger, an attitude that prevades all that motion. Some serious ass kicking.

M19+20 (Yuki Kujiura | Kara no Kyoukai 3: Remaining Sense of Pain)

I’ve already raved about this previously. Still my favourite piece from the superlative Kara no Kyoukai OSTs that are oh so evilly packaged with the R2 LEs.

Suspense 5 (Tatsuya Nishiwaki | Maria+Holic)

Kiss the yuri girl and make her hive. Bells and choral singing to electric guitars and back but working together as one reflecting Mariya’s Janus-faced nature.

Overall, I’m a bit surprised to find that I do like tunes where there’s a lot going on in the same track. Some might describe this as messy or noisy but I prefer to think of them as moving layers moving in and out of emphasis. Lots of electric guitars and drums help too.

Winamp skin by lildragon07 via The Lunar Abyss.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

I found myself belatedly developing an interest for and liking of Ryoko Asakura after the initial airing of Haruhi. It had been sparked off by the yuri content of Ryoko’s creepy stalker Shizuru-like crush on Yuki in the fourth novel, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya but continued to grow with exposure to Stripey‘s fanboying.

The critical limit of self-awareness was finally breached when I found myself purchasing a few Ryoko doujins and the Ryoko chara-CD (not to mention browsing of numerous Yuki x Ryoko doujins at ComiKet 72).

I suppose some fans are Ryoko fans because she is seen as yandere and/or psycho-moé. Like lolicon, moé and tsundere, the precise definition of the term yandere would also hotly disputed but my yardstick is still Kaede Fuyou of SHUFFLE! whose aspects of being genuinely lovely as well as insanely insecure and violently jealous are in constant conflict.

Initially I had found Ryoko’s cheeriness to be even more chilling precisely because of her veneer of sociability. Her default setting of friendliness with her schoolmates shows just how much appearances and surface impressions can aid one’s popularity despite being psychologically pathological inside. But her confrontation with Kyon shows how little she truly understands human emotions or why people fear death. In contrast, beneath her default expressionlessness, Yuki develops and displays her humanity through how she cares about and takes care of her fellow SOS Brigade members (particularly when she saves everyone from killed by the various Mikuru beams during the filming of what becomes Episode 00).

And it was only while viewing Stripey’s R3 Haruhi DVDs on his magnificient TV did I realize why I had grown to like Ryoko (aside the yuri). Despite my initial horror at her inhumanity and inability to understand the value of human life, I came to appreciate her ‘naughtiness’ and this changed the way I interpreted her character and classic utterances like her request to Kyon to die: 死んで♥ (yes, ‘Die’ with the little heart in abovementioned R3 DVD chapter titles). She knew that she was being insubordinate towards her oneechan Yuki and the faction of the IDSE that created her but she was sure as hell going to enjoy being a bad, bad girl/organic alien-human interface.

In contrast to Ryoko who has never been organically human, the Abyssal One, Riful of the West, was once human but has long since forgotten it due to time and power overwhelming. Again, how she still retains some surface human mannerisms was quite chilling – her childish entreaties to Clare and co to awaken and join her would have been cute if not the utter incongruence of her mannerism and what she was asking of them.

I still haven’t gone over to the Striped Side of Riful fanboydom yet. But still, it would have pretty hilarous if she said something like: ‘After you join me, you can call me Oneechan!’ And being voiced by Nana Mizuki alway helps. So I can meet Stripey halfway on Riful.

Gretel from the second season of Black Lagoon started out and remains organically human but was dehumanised by the inhumanity of the underworld. Like Rock, I was actually happy for her when she was put out of her misery because what Benny said made complete sense. There’s no going back for her, there isn’t a road to redemption only perdition. The only way one can fanboy about her is to concentrate on (1) loli, (2) goth-loli, (3) heeds the motto of S.I.S.C.O.N.. Sorry bro, the Oneesama wing can’t find any common ground with you here.

And for the most heartless harem lead EVAR, who else but Makoto Itou from School Days? The guy remains a Tin Man until his epiphany under the Christmas tree. He gets my ♥ out of pure envy but mostly because his Bad End allows me to describe his fate as:

▼ Show

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

My main dilemma, though, was: Who was my favourite Claymore-oneesama, Miria or Galatea?

Powers. Miria’s Phantom Menace trick was useful in combat and earned her Number Six rank as well as a cool nick, which roused Ophelia’s displeasure about not having a cool nick too. Also plenty of combat experience from being given numerous dangerous missions as a ‘gohobi’ – that’s what you get for being too intelligent, curious, disgruntled and proactive in trying to run her own X-Files-style investigation into The Organization.

Character design. This is where Miria loses points the most with her generic 1980s rocker hairdo. Which Kabitzin has pointed out is so similarly to Isley’s! orz

Personality. Definitely a good leader who has won the admiration of difficult comrades like Deneve, Helen and Clare during their first AO team hunt and then even more after the first battle at Pieta. She’s smart, reliable and a steady hand with her junior Claymores plus I love it when Helen addresses her as Miria-neesan in her typically bad-girl sort of way.

Powers. No doubt that Galatea should be higher ranked at Number Three over Miria. Her yoki manipulation power was uber-cool, as well as her yoki Wide Area Search and how her fighting power rises the most among all 47 warriors with the release of her yoki.

Character design. Long straight hair rather than frazzled mop. Her rather languid-looking eyes were a tad strange to me at first but then I came to feel it was a great fit with her rather languid manner of speaking.

Personality. She’s not much of a leader and doesn’t seem to have many friends (if any) among the other Claymores. Guess it is lonely near the top. It’s not helped by how she’s so sarcastic – but that was a charm point for me when she started to insult Duff about his metabolism and so on. Does she also have a touch of tsundere? Deciding against taking on Jean and Clare after the Riful incident and then seeming to threaten but then help Miria, Deneve and Helen find Clare. So far, the highest ranked (surviving) Claymore in the ‘Live On Clare!’ Fan club.

On the basis of sarcasm and hairdo tipping the scales, my vote goes to Galatea-oneesama for the title of Favourite Claymore.

PS BTW I’m just waiting for some weird fusion parody between Claymore and MariMite: The maidens who assemble in the organization’s garden pass through the tall gate, as always with silver irises in their eyes. Their half-human, half-youma bodies and minds are wrapped in useless armour that makes cool clanky walky noises. The pleats on their skirts should not be disorderly and their shoulder plates should always be tidy. Awakening slowly is preferred here.

PPS If Clare had an ahoge, she might make a good combination with Saber.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.