NHK falls and Black Lagoon returns with balls

A Word From Some Jabroni

So there's a live-action of Mushishi playing at the Venice film festival around now. That kinda came out of the blue. Hopefully they haven't screwed it up with bad CGI or some emo looking teen idol playing Ginko-san.

Speaking of that, I saw Basilisk's live-action movie the other day; "Shinobi: Heart Under Bore." As you may tell from my witty play of words, I was fond of it none too much. And it's not because Basilisk: The Anime was so awesome, it was just because it clearly sucked ass.

The fighting was zzzz, and the drama was too poorly staged to allow for the copious amounts of overacting (I can handle melodrama but this felt way off). And the casting—oh, the casting!

Gennosuke just came off as an emo crybaby punk who should be updating his myspace instead of fighting ninjas. And Yukie Nakama; I love you as Yankumi, but you were quite awful as Oboro-dono. Save the cartoon expressions for Gokusen season 3.

But forget that. Onto the stocks. Black Lagoon is back bitches!

Crayotic Rockwell

The Week In Recap

AIR GEAR 13

This was a truly piss poor week for Air Gear. It was truly embarressing. Story was weak, messed up facials was at an all time high, animation was awful, and they cut more corners than a seemstress. The most insulting part of it was being slapped in the face with a wrestling match from out of nowhere that took up several minutes of screentime mid-episode.

And let me just make this clear right now:
I do not need—nor want—to see a team of AT riders in wheelchairs.

AIRG got crossbody blocked with a wicked 1 3/4 drop.

BLACK LAGOON 10

Wednesday was it's return to the index, and Black Lagoon showed it's pedigree and further widened the gap between itself and the other gold ranking stocks, with the closure of the Roberta Patrick arc. And what better way to end it than with a teary eyed reuinion between meido and Master... the bollocks!

Notes:

Rebby looked like one of the Higurashi girls this week.

Isn't there still 4 episodes left? Swimsuit and matsuri filler?

Young Balalaika looked kinda hot. It's not the scar which puts me off nowdays; it's that suit with those giant shoulder pads.

BLAGN's full point rise saw it standing tall above the competition.

BLOOD+ 36

BLDP saw a small increase as David got serious this week, and did his best Clark Kent impersonation. Haji and Saya made out much to Kai's dismay, but polling proves that Kai is a poor sack of meat that is still trying to kill vampires with guns anyway.

With a little under twenty episodes to go, consumers hope that Saya breaks out of her lame streak sooner than later, lest this turn into a case of ROD The TV where Nancy only goes into Miss Deep mode in the last 2 minutes of the series.

A 1/4 share increase keeps investors looking up optimistically for BLDP.

COYOTE RAGTIME SHOW 3

Coyote Ragtime refused to let up on the action, but it lacked punch this week, with it's bouts being incoherant and without focus. An effort of downtime was made in the middle segment, but a Don King looking preacher singing like a j-pop idol is just plain disturbing.

The biggest problem this company seems to have in front of it right now is a desperate need to get it's characters and problems across. Mister and the crew aboard Serenity lack connection with the audience; Angelica and doujikko are reduced to cameos; and despite a looming character death, the 12 sisters got only bare minimum face time. (and in regards to their conversation, I don't blame them. I've seen those Gothic Lolita outfits, and they ain't cheap)

One has to wonder what the episode count is on this, because this looks to be a classic example of the creative staff trying to get a 26 episode series into a 13 count.

Mister is eyeballing a top spot on the index, but a point drop for RAGT is not the way to go about it.

HIGURASHI NO NAKU KORO NI 16

Moving into a Shion arc, it looks like Higurashi is finally willing to start offering up some morsels of information that people have been waiting for; "who is Keyser Satoshi?" for one.

Still, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni has managed to jumble itself up so royally in the last two financial quarterlys that analysts expect it to take a lot more answers until HIGU stock starts moving significantly again.

The writers are far from letting everything out the bag, but as long as it continues like this, HIGU should see more gains.

OURAN HIGHSCHOOL HOST CLUB 16

This week was the real goods for OURAN. The drama was on form, comedy was top notch, and the twin meidos made a guest cameo also; always a recipe for success.

Notes:

Where exactly does Haruhi's hair come from for these girly scenes? Is it retractable?

Arai-kun is a young punk. Talk about pressing your luck at the end. He's lucky he didn't get it in his grill.

OURAN's 3/4 rise surprised many people this week.

MUSHISHI 20

Tuesday was a flashback to Mushishi's first day when mushi made pictures come to life and animation budgets break a sweat. This time it was not a young boy, but a woman who had the 9-tails demon fox sealed within her body could catch text out of thin air like Mr Miyagi.

The difference was clear between the episodes though, because Ginko loves the ladies and instead moved into full pimp mode, wearing a turtleneck sweater like Shaft.

The writing was on the wall (face) for MUSHi which saw a 1/4 rise in it's floor price.

PANI PONI DASH 26 (HECHOI)

The premiere otaku comedy wrapped up business after an extended release period this Thursday, and the exchange said it's goodbyes to Becky-sensei, twins, and the rest of the school in an episode that was complete and utter fluff, but also a somewhat fitting send off too.

PPD was an interesting stock to track, because while it didn't get out to a terrible start, it's first episodes couldn't be considered good either. It continued to stumble as they poured more and more characters into the soup, until it had probably had the largest active roster of the year.

But then, before investors knew it, Pani Poni Dash! and it's purposely cliched characters had managed to win them over, despite an overreliance on gags referential to fandom that is 97% off our radar.

A large part of this was due to the great character performance of the baka Himeko, depressed rabbit Mesousa, and one of the best fringe female characters this season; a-typical class president, Ichijou-san. This troupe ended up being PPD's three main comedy anchors.

It's recently been licenced, so those who missed their product offering will get a second chance on DVD. Hopefully for ADV's sake, the first bunch of episodes play better than they did the first time around.

PPD proved that comedy is not always as easy as clicking your fingers, but the results do come to those who persevere.

ROZEN MAIDEN TRAUMEND 7

Regardless of cosplay service, RZNT stocks faltered slightly this week as a number of serious questions were raised with investors.

Among them:

How did Suigintou get reduced to a walk-on extra after such fanfare was made to her return last week?

Is the increase of low detail SD a case of saving money for an upcoming closed space or concert scene, or is it just a case of being cheap for cheap's sake?

How can the most inept doll of the bunch also have the best weapon?

How did Suigintou manage to turn Shinku into such a pussy?

What is with all the bishis in that doll shop anyway? They planning on starting a host club up in here?

Kanaria ph34red the 1/4 point fall in RZNT's hot streak.

WELCOME TO THE NHK! 2

It's no secret by now that NHK is taking a less humorous tact than it's manga counterpart and on Friday it took a hit because of this very fact.

Which is not to say that the product being offered is subpar, but it is in no way destination viewing and many are already finding that a concious effort needs to be made to put aside time to watch NHK ni Youkoso! each week.

Analysts predict that added eroge will see stocks pick up next week.

Investors hope they chose the right path after they watched NHK take a 2 3/4 dive.

XXXHOLIC 13

XHOLC stock rose as Himawari's arms grew to orangutan proportions. This Tuesday the supernatural company delivered one of it's best tales since Spooky Monkey Paw, and the return of the pipe fox ensured it's success with investors.

XHOLC took flight with a single point increase.