hontou ni sou omou? » FMP! the 2nd raid

FMP! The Second Raid OVA

Zyl — Thu, 25 May 2006 11:39:16 +0000

Well, while it is a day in the life of COL Teletha Tessarosa, it’s an atypical day as the title literally means "A Day of a Squadron Commander with free time and no assignment".

Tessa has a dream of the TDD1 under attack but her XO and bridge bunnies have all morphed into Sousukes who confess their love for her. Waking up on the bridge but thinking she is still dreaming, Tessa chances upon Sousuke in the hangars and procedes to sexually harass him. (The rest of the screencaps will concentrate on Tessa and Mao-nee. For a more balanced set, please see Omni’s entry.)

While Jason might condemn Sousuke for refusing to dig into the Tessa buffet, he is clearly flustered which implies that he does find her attractive. On the other hand, he still sees her as his superior officer and that she’s not in her normal state of mind. Also Chidori will probably kill him. And no Chidori in this OVA!! Soooo happy is Zyl. And the Arbalest’s comments are simply priceless.

Shower fan service.

Pantsu fan service.

Personal grooming fan service. Generally us guys complain about how long it takes for girls to get ready to go out but it’s actually quite interesting and even sensuous to watch a girl’s routine. Tessa has beautiful long hair so it requires a lot of TLC to maintain. Damaged hair – with loss of lustre, dryness, split ends – doesn’t just spoil the look, it is also positively uncomfortable. To conform the regs that go with her military job, she’ll have to braid it too.

A base of light foundation but no other make up. Again because of regs but also because Tessa is still young and has beautiful light skin anyway (I normally like girls with dark tans but this fits Tessa’s overall image). Mascara not only to give body to the eye lashes but to lift them and thus allow the eyes to sparkle with reflected light. To complement her light skin, a pale rosebud pink gloss lip stick.

I love her uniform too. (It reminds me of Motoko Kusanagi’s formal uniform too.) The earth colours and insignia are formal but neither dull nor vain gloriously over the top. The tie against a crisp white shirt are also a nice contrast to the rest of her crew that sets her apart. In my country, this would probably fit under the No.5J category without headdress. The informal TDD1 cap (rather than peak cap) is also a typically naval touch that speaks of a ship crew’s camaradarie. Navy personnel tend to be close and less formal with each other because of a relatively small number of people serving together in confined spaces for extended periods. This applies doubly to submariners and contrasts starkly with the masses of the army or the individualism of fighter pilots.

The blue hair ribbon is very cute and feminine touch to top off the dressing scene. And we get a lovely reminder of Tessa’s physical clumsiness and her youth.

Tessa confides in Mao-nee about her sleepwalking and sekuhara of Sousuke. Our other lovely slightly crazy, gun-wielding Chinese lass reassures that Sousuke will be discreet. It turns out the events of last night were kicked off by Mao-nee giving an alcoholic beverage (sawa?) to Tessa. Mao-nee then proudly shows off her latest motion experiment for the M-9s:

…which consists of the M9s doing a tango. Tessa is not amused. I bet she would have been happier if the experiment had involved five M9s doing the Haruhi Suzumiya ED dance. For a start, there’s less chance of that going wrong…

Zyl: Ano, Mao-nee, what do you mean "failed again"? (;^_^)

Of course, things go wrong and Mao-nee thinks Tessa is consoling her but, with that beautiful angelic smile, she tells Mao-nee that her salary will be deducted to pay for the mess. Revenge for getting her drunk last night – don’t mess with the ma’am captain!

If you’re so afraid of your subordinates finding out about your anime hobby, why don’t you just give it up? That’s cruel and unusual punishment, ma’am! Cruel and unusual punishment!! Anyway Tessa is looking for something she lost last night but is too embarrassed to say what it is. We are later told it is her Bonta-kun doll.

I had a really good laugh at this scene. You can see where Sousuke gets his military otaku mannerisms straight from. And Kalinin’s extremely mechanistic and precision-styled “cooking” was gut-busting especially when he makes a single stir at every beep. After suffering through his awful borscht (with miso!?), she gets the next piece of the puzzle about what happened last night. Leading to her own father/uncle-type figure, the formidable Richard Mardukas.

We are entertained with a fight between Weber and the new lieutenant. And then a long lim peh kah li kong (grandfather story) type lecture from Mardukas – the island and setting sun recalling Alastor’s predicament in the Shana-tan special. With the XO’s input, Tessa finally remembers how she ended up sleeping on the bridge (though it doesn’t explain how she became undressed). Sousuke is returning to Tokyo (and Chidori) and Tessa let rip with her jealousy.

She rushes to apologize, see Sousuke off and confess her feelings. In classic School Rumble style, Sousuke completely misunderstands her confession – thinking that she is saying that she doesn’t hate alcohol but really loves it. Love her sneakers BTW.

Dress shoes are also nice. More counselling from the source of all this trouble, Mao-nee, and everything is peachy again.

KyoAni and Tessa-dono, Zyl salutes you!

Top 10 Anime Oneesamas

Zyl — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 01:00:32 +0000

Keeping the momentum going, here’s my top 10 list of favourite anime elder sister types [edit: from recent series]. Seems that the hontou ni class of anime blog has captured the siscon niché of the market (;^_^) – with Stripey specialising in girls who like their brothers a bit too much while one area of focus for me is Oneesama types. Pretty big difference still, within this niche. Stripey gets his shivers down the spine from such instances as Nemu’s “Niiiii-san!” or Pacifica’s “Daisuki dayo!” so technically his niché is “cute girls with elder brother complex” (but that’s too wordy so he’ll just stick to "siscon". In contrast, I get my thrills from the girls listed below.

The screencap above says a lot about my criteria. She must be an actual older sister to someone or if not, she is addressed as such or have the term associated with her. Hawtness is an obvious criteria. Significant screentime rules out Suzuka’s elder sis or Motoko Aoyama’s aneeue (both of whose names escape me). Character traits like natural leadership, bossiness, domineering also given high weight. Respect and ownage a big bonus while extra credit is given for oneesamas with imouto admirers who want their “gouhoubi”.

10. Tenma Tsukamoto (School Rumble) barely squeaked in but my sample is skewed towards whatever anime I have on hand right now. What finally got Tenma in for me was her use of “Oneechan power” to arbitrarily win her argument for Yakumo not to talk to Harima during the camping trip.

9. Lunamaria Hawke (Gundam SEED Destiny) gets some points for being an elite combat pilot, giving Meyrin an inferiority complex about her waist size, berating Meyrin for not visiting her in the sickbay and for being blog mascot. Loses points for getting pwned by her little sister’s escape with Athrun and major major point deduction for final choice of boyfriend.

8. Margery Daw (Shakugan no Shana) gets the “Anee-san” honours from Tanaka. Nice character growth, has beaten Shana and Mr Thousand Transformations from the Baal Masqué, drinks like a fish, great comedic double act with Marcocius. Not really sure why she doesn’t float my boat more though.

7. Taiga Fujimura aka “Fuji-nee” (Fate/Stay Night) is one of the reasons why I haven’t gone Yawn/Good Night yet. Love her antics and while she’s been pwned by Saber in combat and Rin in negotiation, she’s clearly respected by Shirou and Saber and well loved by her students.

6. Asa Shigure (SHUFFLE!) is on a bit ambiguous ground since the “oneechan” thing was self-declared. Plus points include getting the guy against all the odds, being cooking instructor to Kaede and Nerine, a very liberal girlfriend and shaping up well to be primus inter pares in a polygamous arrrangement plus having a “best friend” in the gorgeous Kareha. Loses points for her silly reason for not using magic.

5. Nobue Itou, (Ichigo Mashimaro) on the other hand, has no question about her qualifications. Elder sister to Chika and addressed as Oneechan by Miu and Matsuri, Oneesama by Ana. Has her own lolicious harem with one of the girls actually having da hots for her (even though I try not to think of it too much lest I get ridden down and trampled by the RCMP).

4. Juliet Nao Zhang (Mai Otome) gets the “Oneesama” tag from Nina. I know that there are so many others in Otome that could qualify but Shizuru’s fan club is big enough already and her fan worship plentiful enough. Nao gets a lot of points for actually being useful – saving the girls from pinches, providing crucial bits of info and protection – and for being able to wind up Ms Maki Maki effortlessly. Really happy for her when she was chosen as a Pillar or “Colum” but loses points for the awful Spiderwoman robe (I don’t actually mind the French mime outfit that much).

3. Melissa Mao (Full Metal Panic!) gets addressed as elder sister by Weber and what a Master Sergeant to have! Big robot operator, having the guts to challenge TDD captain, the fighting-in-underwear scene in the last episode of FMP!’s first season, the knife fight with half of Twincest and that wig and evening dress followed by rocket launcher and that evening dress in Ep 5 of The Second Raid. Pity she didn’t get more screentime.

2. Natsumi Hinata (Keroro Gunso) may only be 13 but she’s more than just big sis to Fuyuki, being able to pwn the Keroro Platoon’s best fighter, Giroro, with just a leek and her briefcase as well as enslaving Keroro to be housemaid. Utterly hot and as Earth’s Ultimate (and Only) Line of Defence is only really vulnerable on the Aki, Saburo and Slugman fronts. Also has a ninja girlfriend.

1. Sei Satou, (Maria-sama ga Miteru) Rose Gigantea and Oneesama to the elegant Shimako Toudo, is my top yuri girl as well. That she doesn’t have any magical or technological or other powers makes her even more special. Love her range – from honours student mode when dealing with parents and official external Yamayurikai business to dirty old man mode with pretty girls; from tormentor and tease of our lead character, Ordinary Girl Yumi Fukuzama, to being her trusted confidante, advisor and emotional shelter. Loved by girls like Shiori Kubo and Shizuka Kanina. Even Sachiko is jealous of how comfortable her Yumi is with Sei.

Oaths Translated

Zyl — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 02:30:13 +0000

Chigusa: Shaaaana-chan, a kiss between the lips is like a solemn oath.

[Trs: I can help you practise so that you can surprise Yuuji! - after reading Jason's post, I just can't get Chigusa's Shizuru :3 aura out of my head! Chigusa x Shana in this vein might be fun though. Mweheheh.]

Shana: Tiriel, Sorath, what you are doing is wrong.

[Trs: Xia Yu Fan x Xia Yu Lan Twincest pwns Tiriel x Sorath twincest.]

Sergey: Nagi told me to find the real princess and make her our pawn. Seduce her if I have to.

[Trs: Well, whaddaya know, it doesn't actually contravene the primary legislation on this - though I'm sure under 16 is still illegal somewhere in the regs but since I'm doing it for national security, I get off scott free. But the problem is... I am really a lolicon.

Whenever the whole Nina-Arika-Sergey love triangle thing comes up, I just close my eyes, stick my fingers in my ears and sing "~If I ignore it, maybe it will go away!~" -_-;; The only good side-effect to this is that it makes a Nina x Ers-chan pairing all the more desirable!]

Nina Wong, you’ll rue the day you didn’t accept Ers-chan’s hints and advances! Hmmm… now that I think about it, the above scene was played like Nina’s flashback but given Nina was unconscious, I’m guessing it’s more likely to be a product of Nina’s imagination thus the highly unorthodox CPR method and Nina’s subsequent blush and sulk – so she does know about Ers-chan’s hots for her after all. Ungrateful wench.

Hazumu, Yasuna, Tomari: …!!!

[Trs: Hazumu, you can choose one and still keep the other. Like a certain Mr Rin Tsuchimi... ]

Rin: Asa-senpai, I choose you!

[Trs: ... as the head wife. I will still have my Psycho Childhood Friend concubine, my MPD Goddess concubine, my Survivor Guilt Syndrome Demon Concubine and my loli concubine. And maybe also your ditzy blonde best friend who really has the mad yuri hots for you but is only able to express it by wanting a polygamous marrriage with you and me. Oh and since I want you and all my lovelies to get along, loving each other is good too.]

Yamato: Please date with me!
[Trs: I am a dumb fcuk for preferring you over Honoka-chan!]
Suzuka: *slapslapslapslapslap* I hate you!
[Trs: Ok! We're obviously meant for each other!]

And finally, Zyl’s Wish List for Oaths:

Rin x Saber: She is my… master. Purrrr.
Natsuki x Shizuru: Wan! Dhuran dosu… Pera pera pera pera…
Hazumu x Tomari: You shouldn’t do that, Hazumu, cuz we’re both girls. But if it’s you, it’s ok.

And of course….

Saya x Kaori: Bite me!