the nayuki ending all-stars
It’s time to welcome Maria into the Nayuki Ending All-Stars, where melonpan gets passed up for DFC.
(If that teaser sentence actually makes sense to me five years from now, I’ll be amazed. But it makes sense to me today, so I guess that’s what matters…)
I was watching Hayate the Combat Butler 8 and was fairly giddy whenever Hayate mentioned “the Maria ending” as maybe we’ll get more than just a tease. Yes, I should know better than get my hopes up, but… it’s very tantalizing but ultimately crushing… much like Houston Texans fans over a year ago when they thought they were going to get Reggie Bush but ended up with Mario Williams.
Nonetheless, it got me thinking: Maria is the new Nayuki! Like how if Hayate picks Nagi, Izumi, or any other of the flawed loli haremettes, that would just be as big of a mistake as Yuuichi picking the flat tomboy over the supple Nayuki (or Mai). So I’m inducting Maria into the Nayuki Ending All-Stars, along with Priscilla from Gun x Sword, Jessica and Tiffania from Zero no Tsukaima, and Yoriko from Da Capo.
A few other notes from that episode:
I don’t care anymore. Just shoot me. No way there’s a penis on this. None. I won’t accept it. But I’d still love to see this outfit on Maria.
It’s no surprise that Hayate would ask Maria for something so lame like forgiving about the coat. He’s really either just a nice, sweet guy or a twit. I’m going for twit– I mean– Maria gave him the go signal by throwing the match. So, basically, in this episode, we had Hayate tease us and not give us Maria fanservice. I think this makes him public enemy #1 for this week at least. (Yes, I did rewind to, uh, closely examine Maria’s pool playing form for, uh, pointers… yeah… pointers…)
Moving onto Gurren Lagann 9, I am disappointed that the net effect of the last two episodes was trading Kamina for Nia. Just a horrible trade. It’s like trading a Jello pudding cup for some celery sticks. Kamina was a rare bombastic, entertaining pimp. What other recent anime character has the balls to kiss the hottest girl in the show and then claim, “I’ll do ten times better later” and you knew he could back it up? Nia is less interesting, and from once we saw loli-in-a-box, I kinda had a feeling that she’s going to be the spoiled/sheltered daughter of the Monster/Spiral King, and I hope this doesn’t signal Gurren‘s descent into mediocrity. I’m giving Nia a best case scenario of turning into the next Eureka (E7). Probably not a good thing. And, of course, I’m hoping that Kamina does not come back, even as a monster. R.I.P… R.I.P…
Though I did enjoy Simon’s new look for this episode– the one where he looks like and acts like a druggie. In fact, I think I’ll start calling him Cokefiend Simon for the time being. Anyway, Cokefiend Simon had some major breakdowns that were entertaining to watch. It’s always entertaining watching people and characters just self-destruct like that… I’d be giddier except Yoko has gone loco as well. I can’t blame her for being devastated by Kamina’s loss and seeing her consolation prize (Cokefiend Simon) get stolen away by the new girl. She deserves better, and if Simon does pick Nia over Yoko, Yoko’s getting instant membership into the Nayuki Ending All-Stars. Move over Maria!
Yes, I did enjoy her shower scene, but it’s still not as good as the epic Karen one from earlier.
Lastly, I finally received my Haruhi DVD and was horrified by the dub. It’s been a long time since I enjoyed a dub, I’ll say that much. And anytime you can cast a fifty year old English voice actress to take the place of a nineteen year old Japanese one, you gotta do it. I think. The worst part of the dub has to be that it mocks me in DD5.1 while only a stereo track is available for the Japanese. The episodes are also disturbingly in order; it feels so foreign. I’ve only had time to plow through one episode, so more thoughts coming… maybe.
30 Responses to “the nayuki ending all-stars”
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hayate: i’m finding the loli side characters more interesting then the main characters.
gurren lagann: NIA HIJACK LOL
haruhi: yeah….
Nia’s gonna die. This part of the series is supposedly the Ode to the ’80s mecha. Meaning Nia will undoubtedly die (and later come by as a floating spirit/ghost whatever while Simon has his newtype moment) and Yoko and Simon will have wild unprotected sympathy sex. I wonder what they’re going to do for the 90s theme? Not being much of a mecha buff myself, the only ’90s mechas I’ve seen are G Gundam, Gundam Wing, and Evangelion.. and there’s not really a unified theme there.
Gainax should have taken the Outlaw Star/Firefly route with Nia’s entry and had her emerge from cryogenic freezing nude… would have loved to have seen Simon try to handle that(would he stand his ground or run away like every other wimpy anime male?), especially if she didn’t clue in on the fact at fist.
Haruhi’s voice overs were for the most part stomach churning. It just felt so…wrong…on so many levels… On the other hand, I have to give Mikuru-chan’s voice actress some credit. It fit her character pretty damn well.
Alright, here goes nothing
Take This!
and This!
and This!
and This!
Err…. wait the last one is a little bit strange…
Heaven or Hell Here I come!
sorry for double post, the first image url is wrong
Here!
Wendee Lee you killed Haruhi.
52 year old ugly woman should not play a 15 year old anime goddess! I watched all 4 episodes despite my ears bleeding.
Admittidly Stephanie Sheh as Mikuru Asahina and Crispin Freeman as Kyon worked for me. I enjoyed their parts.
Infact, so far, Wendee Lee is the only really bad choice. Everyone else, though a little off, did suprisingly well and seemed to fit the characters.
WENDEE LEE DIE NOW!
You are just seeeing things. Hayate has obviously a crush on Maria from the moment they met, it´s just a subtile matter overshadowed by the comedy aspect of the show.
Nia is not going to die, all the shows you mention are Gundam except NGE … Gaimax is not Sunrise.
Nia is the replacement of Kamina in the sense she will push Simon to move, the whole scene were it stops raining and the sun starts to shine again is very symbolic of her role in Simon life.
Indeed, I think the Haruhi dub was actually done well enough that I enjoyed watching it…except for the Wendee Lee part. She’s annoyed me from the very beginning. It could be the fact that no one can replace Aya Hirano, but anyway she really didn’t fit.
After a while she sorta grew on me, but she does give a very different impression of Haruhi, whereas all the other characters seem to have retained themselves.
Am I the only one that thinks nia reminds me of lacus in terms of the role that she plays.
First off, long time reader, first time poster. Wtiht hat in mind, gotta agree on teh whole Nayuki-Syndrome a lot of shows have. Its what sorta made me start banging my head ont he desk when I tried to watch Zermo no Tsukaima (Siesta!!!!)
On the Haruhi DVD, I really didn’t even try the dub myself. I know its worth alook into, but when you hear the Japanese cast like a bajilllion times in rewatches of episodes, I don’t think anything would make it sensible myself. Few shows i htink make the “dub transition” well there (I think the only one that did that for me were FLCL and Samurai Champloo). Full agreement on the Wnedy Lee thing though. There are a lot of good younger sounding voice actresses out there,a nd if anything htis would of been the best place to do that with. Se la vi.
Though, I do like the little “extra bits” thrown in throughout the episodes I watched (the first two on the disk). Those little thirty-second things about added a neat amount of depth to things. Good tiems I think.
And smexy artbox. I approve of that fully. Though, I have no use for a headband. Ah well.
And stuff. Keep up the good work on the blog and such much.
I second what everybody’s saying on Wendee Lee. She’s not horrible, but she seriously doesn’t deliver like the rest of the cast. Crispin Freeman is excellent as Kyon, and the others are far above average, but Lee brings the whole thing down a notch.
I’m with you Jason…
I was i nSunnyvale on Tuesday, so I got my BoxSet in Best Buy (10 dollars more expensive than Fry’s… but that was my last chance). So, yesterday at Miami’s International Airpot I had planty of time to see it (13 damn hours). They killed Kyon’s personality… Nagato was ok…. no more than that.
Wendee Lee’s been in so many roles that I have unpleasant mental images of certain characters when I hear her voice.
Oh god… when I saw the DVD at Anime North and saw the episodes listing on the back said: “The Adventure of Asahina Mikuru” “Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi 1” “Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi 2” “Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi 3”, I knew something was wrong… I didn’t know they’d REALLY put it all in order.
Thankfully the other limited edition sets come with the extra Kyon Order DVDs(I think they are only subs though).
…. 50 year old Haruhi. lol well it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be but Milky Cabbage does better! (Good fandubs ftw)Heh and they even put it in order. Not sounding too good but I’ll probley check it out anyway x.x
Yeah Ayu isn’t bad but Yuuichi passed up Mai with her Epic ponytail + ample Melonpan and Nayuki for Ayu? I was ok with it at first but then I thought about it and realized how much of a mistake it was
Hayate however, has to pay off his debt first heh
The DVDs having the episodes in order isn’t too much a surprise though if people kept up on the stuff over in Japan.
In fact, that we get a special “Broadcast order” choice is something the Japanese fans didn’t get at all. So umm, yeah. Stuff.
Well, I think I’ll speak as a dissenting voice for Wendee Lee’s performance. While not the VA I write home about for the Haruhi dub, I think she’s done a better job than you all give her credit for. I guess it all comes down to what we’re used to for dubs. Wrote a review on my own blog for it (linked through my name). In short, I happened to like it.
As for the ordering on the DVDs… as I remember, they fought to try and get things shown in broadcast order… but the licensing agreement didn’t allow for that. Hence, the bonus, Broadcast Order DVDs in the LEs following this release. They can’t do the regular DVDs in broadcast order, but they can certainly give them as a bonus.
As for Nia… I’ll just say I’m giving her a chance to prove herself not as a replacement for Kamina but as her own character. No, I still think the replacement for Kamina will be Simon… once he stops being all druggie emo like you described.
I just have one thing to say about the Dub for Haruhi. WHY IS OVER HALF THE CAST FROM .HACK!!!!!!!!
It was the wierdest sensation hearing Blackrose’s voice as Haruhi, and then Tsukasa/Elk is one of Kyon’s friends, and lets not forget the Kyon himself is Balmung. And poor Asakura has Atoli’s voice. -_- I feel so sorry for her, but at least I’m no longer going “AHHHH!!! Atoli has Miaka’s voice”.
The only one breaking the .hack feeling was the Itsuki who sounded strangly like Vash…….
Even so, I was rather happy with the dub. And can’t wait for July ^_^
Until then I have this “cosplay headband” I can’t actually do anything with since all that testosterone in me won’t let the thing get within 5 feet of my hair.
They shouldn`t do any dubs at all.Most of english dubs i`ve heard are awful.If people is not capable to read subs fast enough,they can stop watching anime,or learn to understand japanese.Japanese seiyuus are outstanding compared to all other actors in whole movie/TV history.
God, just hire normal actors to do the voices! All the American animated movies are VA’ed well, and they don’t really use these so-called anime VA regulars. I can’t stand most of the dubs in English because they try so hard to emulate the voices and attitudes of the Japanese, and that just doesn’t work with English.
>>They shouldn`t do any dubs at all.Most of english dubs i`ve heard are awful.If people is not capable to read subs fast enough,they can stop watching anime,or learn to understand japanese.Japanese seiyuus are outstanding compared to all other actors in whole movie/TV history.
Actually, that would only be because you are used to listening to the original in JP, thus everything else sounds abit odd. If you watch a JP version of an American show/movie, yeah, the voices just don’t fit the faces either.
Oh btw, the link for the UBER MEIDO back ground in the last post is still misdirecting =(
Detroit/Cleveland went into overtime, thus delaying the post I had planned for tonight. Instead, I present some Gurren Lagann spoilers that basically breakdown as “Simon fails. Another character gets screwed over.”
And, Yen, thanks for all the pics. Keep ’em coming. :)
>The only one breaking the .hack feeling was the Itsuki who sounded strangly like Vash…….
Johnny Bosch played Kuhn in G.U. ;).
>>The only one breaking the .hack feeling was the Itsuki who sounded strangly like Vash…….
>Johnny Bosch played Kuhn in G.U. ;) .
Shoot, really? How did I miss that one.
I fail as a .hack Fanboy -_-
The excessive Hayate manservice makes me want to drop an anvil on his head…or the conventional cardboard method will also work.
In Hayate, Maria’s not interested in Hayate – or at least is so deep in denial that she doesn’t think of him ‘that way’.. and is more worried about what’ll happen if Nagi discovers Hayate’s not ‘into’ her.
However, for the Haruhi dub… that’s what you get for buying the regular edition instead of the Special Edition. :P
Actually Hayate only stop because of the “demon behind him” (Nagi) in the manga, he was certain going to ask for some meido melopan.
Also there was hints of Maria developing interest during the “tiger in the bath” chapter, the anime just sucks.