Two magical girl anime shows having such similar names, and having mentor vs. protege is pretty funny yeah. I'm glad to see magical girl anime on the rise again. For a long while, magical girl anime seemed to me to be all Nanoha and PreCure. Nice to see Madoka Magica breath some new life back into this genre.

Mentor and prodige (assuming it's going to be Shinbo and Shin) going head to head with magical girl animes eh?

This should be interesting.

I don't really know what motivates people's computer purchasing decisions. Maybe it really is about brand and styling; that could explain why everyone was either using Apple or Sony laptops back when I was an undergrad. (Back then - and maybe it's the same now - Sony was the most expensive and offered sub-par hardware in exchange, but their designs were the most unique in the PC world.) I can tell you that my family, my friends, and I buy Apple computers for a very different reason.

I have no doubt that Windows has made major strides in user-friendliness and stability over the years. However, I'm content to stick with Macs because I feel that the overall maintenance is less. There's less to muck around with, and in turn, less to mess up. I understand that for some people that's the fun of computing. That's how it was for me for many years; I'd customize the heck out of my machine, break something, spend a day or weekend fixing it, and be on my way. These days I can't afford that time, and even if I could, I wouldn't want to spend my time doing that. Macs aren't flawless, but they're good enough that I've only ever had to do one major servicing software-side on my system in about six years, and none on my family's computers.

(On the downside, since most people don't encounter problems with their Macs, documentation on some of these issues is pretty scarce. Compare that to Windows or Linux, where you can usually find multiple people talking about the issue, and sometimes even giving steps to resolve it.)

Macs aren't right for everyone, but that's no reason to trash the people who choose to use Apple's devices. Are we really paying more for what we're getting? I don't know, and I don't care, because as far as I'm concerned the stuff works damn near flawlessly, and to me that makes it worth the expense.

For what it's worth, I'm not a huge fan of the Air design, and I also don't like the new Macbook Pro (Retina) redesign. I worry about the cooling abilities of the Air. Plenty of people don't experience problems with them, but I've known some who did. It colored my opinion of the model. I also like having more ports

Manually focusing, especially with a shallow depth of field, is very challenging. Doesn't the NEX-7 have "focus peaking"? That should make focusing much easier. Otherwise, you basically adjust the focus in one direction, overshoot it, go back in the other direction, overshoot it, and by then you should have an idea of what near-perfect focus looks like, so you just focus back, hit it, and then take the shot. If you're stabilized (tripod or solid surface) you can digitally zoom to really nail the focus perfectly, but most people are shooting hand-held. Just stop down a bit to give yourself some room for error, and then practice

I find manual focusing with legacy lenses to be fun, but at the end of the day, I much prefer autofocus...

Life getting in the way, a valid excuse .

Well despite me being thoroughly unimpressed with HSI at the end of the day, I will say it did initially provide me more energy and hook than any of the series this season for which for the most part seemed to start out pretty low key in comparison.

Surprised you're watching Muv-Luv, is it the VN roots? Just don't typically expect you to check into a mecha, especially times like these when you're busier haha. The current melodrama to me is also entertaining, and it is bit layered in the cultural portrayals I find interesting. How Yui represents the more Bushido Code warrior mind set of Imperial Japan (Remember this is Imperial Japan and not our Japan), and how Yuuya represents the more American soldier mindset for piloting. This sort of Japanese nationalism however is part of the reason they didn't want to go for the Muv-Luv trilogy off the bat of course. I do like the setting a lot. Only disappointment to me about it is the production values, which are pretty average if not below average. Could've been the difference between a good and a great series IMO, but still time will tell.

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Hyouka I've gone through a long process of being convinced that what I was watching was really all worth it, and I will now respond with a resounding "yes!" at this point. The visual quality seems to be something more special than we've seen from them in TV series in MANY years (K-ON and Nichijou were fluid but don't quite have the visual oomf! of Hyouka IMO). Also there is just something so charming about the way you describe it as just so natural. The story flows with a grace I haven't seen in a show of this type in a while, maybe as far back as something like True Tears and ~ef (Though I wouldn't put this on the level of ef mind you!).

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Similarly Tari Tari does have a bit of that natural feel I agree, though I will say the general lack of ambition for it seems to hold it bad just a tad. It's executed very well, the latest episode displayed this fully with its understated and more subtle conveying of drama, something I wish HSI used more of. Plus no Okada around to make characters disgrace themselves for me . HSI had some utterly brilliant episodes at times, but probably only like 3-4 of that level to me throughout its run. Tari Tari still has time to make good on giving at least half that amount. They came close to me with episode 2 (I didn't think it was rushed like other people).

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Kokoro Connect I was rather surprised a lot about. It wasn't that I expected to dislike it, I kind of entered with no real investment in it whatsoever, but I really feel this is this season's hidden gem in many ways (Perhaps alongside Jinrui, though I'm not quite on the bandwagon as much as others about Jinrui). I thought it was supposed to be some ecchi harem comedy with its setup but its actually a much more complex, engrossing drama. I found the talks with Iori in particular to be quite interesting as well as it talks a lot about things like identity and the way its framing the story around these sorts of ideas I like a lot. I hope the series doesn't go down a simpler road with a "taichi saves everybody" type of thing and actually tries for the more complex one. The ambition so far is good, but lets see if they go all the way, I hope they do because it could be very special (Otherwise just good).

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I guess this season still following Accel World and am watching Sword Art Online. Both by the same LN author and both contain interesting concepts and are very well put together productions.

As always been an avid follower the Hunter X Hunter series, which continues to deliver. Also following Eureka 7 Ao still, which had a dismal first cour, but a much better second.

And probably worst show I'm following by far is Koi Senkyo Chocolate, which is probably the most cliche thing I have pretty much seen in a while. However, the bullying aspect is something that's getting more interested finally and it's not like I hate the characters, just everything about the introduction episode was so typical and stock VN tropes that made me very squeemish multiple times lol.

Overall still a pretty good time for anime I would say .

So what are you watching this season? Haven't been seeing you too much in discussions lately, which is surprising since it's a more SoL heavy season than typical .

That sounds awesome, really. And then she's blushing hard.

Renji... But... That voice.

Haruka moe, eh? Hmm - maybe. He wouldn't be the first to pop to mind for me, though. Maybe July from DtB? Tarou from Ghost Hound?

Red Data girl seems to have a miko protaganist . Char designs reminded me of a bit of Book Girl actually. But it seems to be a fantasy series. PA seems to be really following this trend of 1 SoL (usually anime original) followed by something not SoL (usually adaptation). Me likes this trend. Too bad it's only the SoL that sells since that's what the industry wants.

Btw, in case you aren't, go watch Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita now? Remember all the Seiji Kishi bashing I was doing? Well I take it all back, because this series like turning out to be my favourite of the year if it keeps up. The satire in this is gold.

Lol, I'm sure Kuroneko can identify with Ririchiyo really well, maybe secretly dress as her.

Sadly... no though I have gotten Ever 17 installed now. I also downloaded Ano Natsu and Inu x Boku - so at least they're in the library to "to watch" (which has about a dozen series in it at the moment O.o). My only defense is all the shinies that glitter like Skyrim, Secret World, and my Rockband obsession. I did start and finish Katawa Shoujo in basically one go but it is fairly short.