At least I’m assuming there’s a mikan box in the actual show – in perhaps the laziest Mikan Watch post ever, I’ve not actually watched the show at all, rather this was spotted within the Crunchyroll news stories whilst I was looking to see if there was anything new streaming this afternoon. Of course, this means I’ve got absolutely nothing further to say about the show at all.

(P.S – Woooooo! AKB0048!)

From episode 11 of the show whose full title I’m refusing to regurgitate on this occasion, because these unwieldy light-novel titles are a pox upon the world which really must be cleansed. I’m pretty sure there was another mikan box – or at least a fraction of one – in one of the earlier episodes during the school festival preparations, but I neglected to grab a screendump on that occasion.

That being said, I’m pretty sure this is a fake – I mean, look at that large, cartoony writing scrawled over the front of it. I’m pretty sure Rikka just realised the amazing cult powers of the tangerine box and fabricated one to install in the Far Eastern Magic Nap Society of Summer club room.

I only just got around to finishing Chuunibyou today, having delayed on the last couple of episode for various reasons (mostly just waiting for Anime on Demand to get them posted, but also because it’s been a busy few weeks). It’s a cute enough show, I guess. I do appreciate the fact that they realise that a little of the shows main gimmick goes a long way, and don’t overplay the chuunibyou-ness anywhere near as much as they could have, but it’s hard not to think that the show doesn’t really have all that much else going for it. The first few episodes of the series, where they really layered on the more surreal elements the thickest, were the most entertaining, but it really couldn’t have continued on the same path without outstaying its welcome. The shows attempts at serious (melo)drama ended up ringing a bit hollow with me, though, and I came out of it feeling that it’d been strangely empty an experience, and probably not something that’s going to stick with me. I can’t really imagine how thin an experience the original novels were without Dekomori and Kumin to pad things out.

Spotted at this weekends MCM Expo in London, much to my astonishment, an actual, In Real Life Mikan Box. Yes, such things actually exist in the physical, 3D space. I was almost tempted to ask them if they’d sell me the thing, but aside from the fact that I’d have to lug it half-way back across the country, they’d ruined it by taping notices onto it by the time I passed the stand again.

As for MCM Expo, well, it was certainly a MCM Expo. I guess the main things this year were the video game content (both Nintendo and Microsoft had a fair presence, alongside the more nerdy companies which usually show) and the fact that the BBC also showed for pretty much the first time with a big Doctor Who presence (indeed, Matt Smith was there Friday, though I was not). Of course, this just meant that, combined with the cold outside weather pushing those who usually lurk around the front of the ExCel into the main hall, horrific, traffic halting queues broke out in all directions. It was exasperated by some bad, or at least confusing, floor planning which resulted in people who thought they were heading towards an exit were walking towards a wall. Crowded as heck, basically, despite the fact that they had the biggest overall floorspace I can remember.

Generally speaking, though, if you don’t know a bunch of people heading to Expo, aren’t going with a specific shopping agenda (and hopefully know how to spot bootlegs!) or aren’t London-local enough to write the entry off against what you’ll be saving in shipping/product costs, it’s really kind of hard to justify the expense of hitting Expo for the anime crowd. There isn’t really enough anime-related programming going on, and it’s kind of exasperated with annoying scheduling like putting the anime industry panel opposite Hiroshi Maruyama from CyberConnect2 demonstrating the new Naruto game.

Yet I’ll probably be back again in May. Ho-hum!

From episode 12 of Space Brothers, though it actually appears in the next episode preview at the end of the 11th episode as well if I remember correctly – It’s been a while since I saw it.

Which is kind of problem when it comes to writing anything at length regarding this. Had I bothered to post it at the time I watched the episode, I could have thrown out some random speculation about, I dunno, how eating the space food first rather than the food likely to spoil during the incarceration test may have bitten them in the buttocks later on. Of course, at this point, I know that it was, infact, Serikas insatiable appetite as opposed to a box of mouldy tangerines that resulted in them running low in food. Ho-hum.

I should catch up on Space Brothers. I think I’m about three weeks behind at this point…

From episode 4 of Joshiraku, except that it was in the episode preview part which means that it’s technically from episode 5.

This submission, like so many others, came via Author, although he did actually send me this the best part of two weeks ago. Yay for procrastination! I should really get around to clearing out my own queue of these things before I forget about them…