Episode 20 of Card Captor Sakura, “Transfer Student vs. Sakura”, introduces probably the most popular anime-original character in CCS, Li Meiling, voiced by one Yukana Nogami, before she decided to change her listed name to simply Yukana, and voiced notables as Teletha Testarossa (Full Metal Panic), Reinforce Zwei (Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS), and Honoka Yukishiro/Cure White (Pretty Cure). This does mean that whenever Meiling opens her mouth, I suddenly hear traces of Rein Zwei in there somewhere.

It makes for some odd mental images.

Not many Tomoyo screenshots this time, but plenty of Meiling ones, since this is her primary debut episode (not counting the cameo in the previous). Also, plenty of comedically super-deformed facial expressions, keeping the overall feel of the episode light-hearted, despite the Kung Fu Action going on.

I don’t have a great deal to say in this summary, because it’s fifteen minutes to midnight on Friday, and I just managed to eke out enough time this week to write this entry. I’m looping Ievann Polkka to keep awake; tomorrow I shall no longer be sane.

So one of the things I’ve been doing recently is trying to convert various anime characters to the HERO System, which has a reputation for extreme customizability. The upside is that you can make anything you want; the downside is that you can make anything you want.

How the system works is that it has a number of actual power effects, and then we tack on all sorts of variations and modifiers to it, then we add in what the power actually is. For example, any ranged attack which isn’t a bullet or something obviously designed to kill is an Energy Blast. (Those which are designed to kill or injure are Ranged Killing Attacks.) It can be an actual blast of energy, it can be fire, or ice, or rubber bullets, it’s all Energy Blast. The specifics are pasted(e on yay) onto the basic Energy Blast, which gives the HERO System the customizability so vaunted.

It also gives the HERO System the Deep Complexity so very much complained about. You will need a calculator for this, as well as several pages of notes on what your newly-designed power does, in great detail, along with how it interacts with other powers. The GM will need to be highly intelligent, level-headed, and quite possibly psychic, both telepathically and precognitively. For the rulebooks themselves place an enormous onus on the GM to veto, ex cathedra, any creative use of the rules which appear to be done for the sole purpose of munchkinning, while simultaneously allowing the very same thing if wielded responsibly by the hands of a dedicated roleplayer.

It is a narrow, some might add microscopically so, line to tread. With great power, etc.

My most recent attempt at converting a known fictional character to the HERO System involved the infamous Nanoha Takamichi of the titular Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha trilogy of anime, a lady who has had her unofficial nickname (not worksafe, since it’s Danbooru) apply as fittingly as a well-worn glove (+5 Enhancement). Those unfamiliar with the character in question have questioned my need for a 600 Active Point Starlight Breaker, since surely no character would have such a powerful attack, would they?

Little do they know.

I’ve already given up on statting Lina Inverse, because I’m not sure what kind of damage is needed to level a mountain. Which, if I remember my Slayers correctly, Lina did. Twice.

Finally, yes, I know that I haven’t had a Card Captor Sakura episode summary for some time. Let’s just say that the more people nag at me to do one, the less motivation I have. Whenever I read a “why aren’t you working on a CCS episode summary?” comment, my desire to actually do so drops to about zero.

One of my (many) failings is that I tend to obsess over things. When I get something new, I immerse myself as deeply into it as I am capable of. Now, this may not last, especially if the work in question is Not To My Tastes, but since I generally pre-filter my entertainment through intense scrutiny of reviews and what few fellows who share my opinions I can muster, I often find that by the time I think to myself “this is pretty fun, but I probably should take a break around now“, the authorities may well have already declared me legally dead.

Right now, the obsession of the moment dictates that I cannot look at a withered, leafless tree without getting the urge to paint a circle around it.

There’s no real reason why I picked this random manga scan. Well, not so random, since I like Negima, I find Sayo pretty cute, and I am quite fascinated by the ability to spin pens (possibly since seeing Momiji Ookura in action, so to speak, in the manga version of Prism Palette). Nevertheless, this is Random in the sense that I found this page posted somewhere for no apparent reason, bereft of its fellow chapter pages, and I have no other Random images handy to go with this off-topic post. Needless to say, I shall be buying the volume whenever Del Rey sees fit to release it in English, as I have done for the seventeen volumes of Negima thus far.

Crunch time over in the set of dimensions known collectively as Real Life means that I’ve been taking what amounts to an enforced break from anime, and indeed all leisure activities. As of this writing, I can see the as yet unopened cases containing the long-sought Playstation 2 game discs of Okami and Final Fantasy XII. The temptation is strong, but I shall resist.

I had expected some sort of withdrawal symptoms, but oddly enough, with a bit of mental jiggling, I can transition to a veneer of Normality with a minimum of fuss, provided I am allowed to keep a small but significant amount of brain runtime to thinking about anime. Not any anime in specific, but just anime in general; tropes, concepts, and example images. The merest thought of an original character in full meganekko mode can settle my mind into hanyaa~n mode, which I seem to be able to do a good job of bottling up inside, seeing as nobody has been creeped out by my vapid expression as of yet.

At least the weekend is near, and with it some vague respite. Although judging from the pile of backlogged Obligations I have to other hobby interests, mostly in the prose-writing field, it might be a while before I can come up with anything substantial for this blog. Not, of course, that anyone might have expected differently.

I’m not entirely sure what I just watched.

Let that be a warning to you all.

Anime News Network gives Combustible Campus Guardress a vintage of “1993 to 1994″, which makes me feel a bit old. Not very old, since I wasn’t even a teen back then (close, though), but old enough to know what they’re talking about when they mention a pokeberu. The last time I watched this anime was about four and a half years ago, and apparently I don’t have any new insights from the intervening years of anime obsession.

Hazumi “Queen of Friendly Fire” Jinno seems cut from the same cloth as Slayers’s Lina Inverse, Goddess of Collateral Damage. I’m not sure what it is about non-angsty, relatively well-adjusted girls with stupid amounts of firepower that intrigues me so, but judging from the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha fandom, I’m not alone.