Compulsory viewing for Kokoro-chan fans. See 53RG10′s post for a summary and more representative screencaps. As usual, I’m all about Otome ‘Ponytail so hawt’ Katou and Sekai’s ‘Oneechan ga tabetai’ mom.

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Unfortunately, Otome’s role here is limited mostly to being Zombie Victim. Though a small consolation is that she’s given the most screentime of the four in the victim group.

Sekai’s mom gets a role too, as the Manager/Commander of the fairly useless Radish girls sentai group. LOL

The Kokoro fanservice reminded me of how the ‘With transformation scenes like this, Nanoha is never going to get licensed’ thought that occurred to me when I belatedly watched it in anticipation of StrikerS. Ugh.

But I did like all jokes about the ‘Magical Chainsaw!’ arming and ‘The Bloody Conclusion!’ attack as well as the ‘Nice Boat’ inflatable raft in the river of blood (red, not black this time). Simply quite amazing that an OVA can be so funny and enjoyable but feel like faithful to the original series.

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Just picked up the Magical Heart Kokoro-chan OVA which made me realize that I hadn’t seen the Valentine’s Day OVA. Quick notes on Otome Katou and Sekai’s mom before the MHKC OVA post.

I still find Otome Katou to be plenty hawt, ponytail and all. Her ‘training’ for Kotonoha helped too. ~~

The trembling lips scene was terrific too. Reminded so much of a line from KOTOKO’s Kannazuki no Miko ED – Agony, which refers to trembling lips in the dark that so powerfully conveys strong yet repressed desire.

I’ve been thinking about my previous, very brief entry about Otome; to elaborate, I found her character interesting because, despite her deep and longstanding feelings for Makoto, she was able to make the break, walk away from him and, thus, save herself. It took a certain strength and I envied and admired that in her.

Of course, in the context of this OVA which is absolutely wacky, superfluous and thus great fun, Otome’s main role is as a rival to Sekai and a co-tormenter of Makoto.

As noted by Hinano, one new thing about this OVA of note is Sekai’s mom. She *definitely* goes onto the MILF list.

ONEECHAN GA TABETAIIII~~~~~!!!

Oh yeah, there’s also lots of Oniichaning from Kokoro who also wears a disturbing ‘I am the present’ type of outfit. But I’m not screencapping it. You can ask the forces of Loli-S.I.S.C.O.N. for that if you are so inclined…

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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:

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