The first streaming episode of Bakemonogatari, perhaps the strongest title of a marquee of solid shows the past two seasons, was released recently. It is really great to see that after the TV airing concluded, Bakemonogatari doesn’t miss a single beat and continues its sublime, distinctive storytelling style at and at the high quality of art and animation that we have come to expect for 12 episodes previous. Arararagi (sorry, I stuttered) is also one of the coolest male leads in anime. His subtle character change and outward attitude both keep him honest and make watching the show fun. If Araragi were different, Bakemonogatari’s dialogue driven structure could easily have collapsed. Oh and he also molests Mayoi-chan at the start of the episode, which is also plus points.

Bakemonogatari is pretty cool guy, eh molest little girls doesn't afraid of anything

Now remember, this episode was a STREAM. so excuse the 360p or whatever. DVD will be out in like 2010

After a near perfect episode 12, we pick up where we left off with Tsubasa Cat part 3. Horie Yui is one of my favorite voice actors and Bakemonogatari is hocchan at her best. The way she renders Tsubasa is both distinctive and compelling; combined with the masterfully written dialogue, it is hard for this episode to be anything but amazing. After a load of dialogue, they go see Oshino and that’s basically the episode. It’s hard to summarize episodes of this show because the show is about the dialogue, not the plot. It’s not about what happened, it’s about the process by which it was presented to have happened. It’s about the the characters say, the way they say it, the reactions. This is why a good seiyuu corps is needed. If you want to find out what happened, go watch the episode yourself.

2009 is the year nekomimi makes a comeback

I particularly enjoyed the scene where Araragi encounters Hitagi in the bike-lot. Araragi’s relationship with Hitagi is unconventional in an anime sense because there is almost no romantic tension. Hitagi is smart and very rarely misunderstands her boyfriend, which is a fresh breath of air compared to many other anime with romance. Also present is some fourth wall breakage, which never goes over too badly if used in moderation.

Oh Saito Chiwa, Aika-chan would have taken offense to all those hazukashii serifu in episode 12

Oh Saito Chiwa, Aika-chan would have taken offense to all those hazukashii serifu in episode 12

The end of the episode, however, left me most excited. Well, besides this…

Oh god neko-Tsubasa

if you got gg’s release of the stream, they left in the commercials for the singles of the OPs. They are taking painfully long to come out, especially since they are so fucking good, but after the end credits we get a sneak peek of Horie Yui’s OP for Tsubasa Cat! The little clip I’ve heard sounds fucking amazing and I can’t wait until we get to see the OP, and ultimately (in like January) get the single. It’s called sugar sweet nightmare and sounds great. Definitely check out the commercial after the credits of gg’s release if you haven’t already.

I cannot wait. Horie Yui BANZAIIII

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*ding dong*

Oh, hi there. Thanks for coming to Desu ex Machina in your annual costumed pagan inspired candy run. Dasaku is a decent neighborhood of trick-or-treating, but only if you know what the good houses are. The old man at Mega Megane Moe, the house down the street, never answers his doorbell. Cokematic gives out cans of soda, he’s that strange man in every neighborhood that thinks soda-pop constitutes as a treat, and that house around the corner is kinda scary. Definitely wanna hit up the house across the street, however. Xephfyre gives out extra candy to Fate/Stay night cosplayers and even copies of Together with House-Husband. Yes, books on Halloween. How many times have you seen that. The dude at the house all the way at the end of the street is psyched for Halloween, with decorations and everything. He’s handing out eroge, so I’m not sure parents want their kids heading over there.

Before I continue, excuse me. This is obligatory.

I am actually tempted to watch Umineko for Maria. Horie Yui voicing a crazed loli? Whom I happened to be 100% pedo for? Perhaps sometime down the road after the whole show has aired and after a night of drinking. Maybe.

What has kevo done for Halloween weekend so far? Well, given that it’s Saturday night Halloween and I’m at home blogging, I’m not exactly going crazy. I did get to go see Tiesto last night. It was intense. I live in Minneapolis, not somewhere cool like Malaysia where I can go to see Chihara Minori and steal her water bottle. Regardless, I like electronica and Tiesto is the best in the business. Imagine like 1000 people squeezed into a cramped nightclub jumping to the beat of Escape Me and I am still trying to figure out how my limbs are all in tact. My ears are still ringing, however.

Imagine trying to take a picture with a shitty cellphone camera while shoving 10 other people away. This is like the best photo ever.

Watched the new episode of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun today. Ever since K-ON, I’ve slowly begun to really like Toyosaki Aki’s voice work. She has that cute, sweet, airheaded vibe. Railgun is doing around 200 times better than Index so far. The episodic, scenario-based structure is working well to explore the wonderfully interesting characters in the Indexverse. The problem with Index was how it focused on characters no one cared about and threw it’s main cast almost to the curb. Plus, the pacing was terrible for a show that wanted to convey some kind of plot. Railgun will do well to just keep it up at this pace and it will be one of the most solid shows of the season.

Second Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann movie is gonna premiere in San Francisco in November. In English subtitles, no less! I like the movies as supplements to the series, as you can never get enough TTGL and the little changes they make are cool. It’s like a quick rewatch of the whole series. I’m excited to see what they changed in the second movie, as the second half of the series was fucking epicsauce. Oh right, no candy for you if you don’t like TTGL. I hope the DVD will be on sale soon. Unfortunately I won’t be able to get to San Fran because I have neither time or money for a pilgrimage. Regardless, Gurren Lagann the Movie 2: The Lights in the Sky are Stars, opening at Viz Cinema on November 17. If you’re in Cali, go for it. (sauce)

What? You want candy? Fine, here have some. Kids these days…

Desu ex Machina is handing out lolis! Quick tell your friends while I still have some left.

Art courtesy kohaku (pixiv)

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Dammit, I had this marked on my calendar. Now I am in despair. I even had this post set aside to write about the new episode. Now it’s all ruined and the flow of my blog is all messed up. SHAFT, if my blog goes down in flames because of the lack of a post about how pumped  I am for Bakemonogatari and all five of my readers abandon me on the cold dark streets of the internet, I’m holding you guys responsible. Also, with an extra week episode 13 better make me cream rainbows or something. I’m also looking forward to Horie Yui singing an OP and the singles releases of the other openings.

Also, Nadeko with green hair is the best, yeah I said it. 3AM going to sleep.

[2] Comments 
Slice of Life Sign - Border Between Funny and Trying Too Hard

Slice of Life Sign - Border Between Funny and Trying Too Hard

Our fourth episode of Seitokai no Ichizon was finally released earlier today. I had a midterm in a few hours, so what better way to get in the mood than some anime? Sankaku Complex’s article spoiled it for me that there would be epic Strike Witches parody, so you can imagine how upset I was when Eclipse released a day after they usually do.

In my first post about this show, I said that I was impressed that there was decent pacing and room for this show to grow. As of episode 4, the latter has not really been taken advantage of. It seems that this show is just going to constantly just parody anime. If people are going to start complaining on episode 4, might want to sound some kind of alarm in the animation studio. Lucky Star worked because characters were constantly doing stuff like going to restaurants and the manga shop and stuff. Also the inane smalltalk in the show actually bore some surprising depth occasionally. Seitokai no Ichizon, while entertaining regardless, seems to pander to us, like some kind of ADD child who wants its mommy to pay attention to what they are doing. Parody this, parody that, talk fast this, talk fast there, hey look Kurimu is moe. While entertaining, I am starting to feel the occasional pangs of *groan* as I watch this show. The first half of each episode is always fun and enjoyable, but then I crave some kind of change in pace. I know I am not alone in this sentiment. I want this show to be good. You can’t have cake without sugar, but adding too much sugar makes it nasty. You can’t have fun slice of life without parody and jokes, and it works the same way. There needs to be some kind of reasoning behind the madness. The characters are overcooked and the dialogue is underdone. I’ve been making cooking metaphors for a while but note I still find the show rather enjoyable. I just think so much more can be done with Seitokai no Ichizon and DEEN is letting a potentially game-breaking show go to waste.

Oh by the way, I’ve started using my Twitter account again and I’m going to dedicate it to this blog instead of real life (I’ll have another account for that). So yeah links to it are abound if you feel like stalking your favorite anime blogger, me.

Image source: Fukanaga Kazuhiro (pixiv)

[4] Comments 

I had a discussion with a friend today about anime in Blu-ray. He argued that anime in Blu-ray is totally not worth it. I mean, it’s just color and lines right? There is only so much absolute detail in anime. No matter what, an animated image will never have the absolute detail of Matt Damon blowing things up. While this may be true, anime in Blu-ray provides quality in another field. TV stations compress and recode anime in various ways to put on air. As raws come out, fansubbing groups, what you guys usually watch, take the raws and encode them again. If the group is competent the loss is usually not noticeable, however Blu-ray discs offer anime in a quality and resolution that simply cannot be matched. (All images in this post can be clicked on for awesome 1920×1080 full size)

"Sure I don't mind"

I recently checked out episode 7 from the new K-ON! Blu-ray release. Besides the quality and stuff, there is seiyuu commentary on the alternate audio track. I liked episode 7 (it’s the one where they have Christmas as Yui’s house) and to see it in eye candy 1080p was a great treat. From what I infer the seiyuu basically just say things like “awww…. Chibi Yui-chan is sew kawaiii” but I’m sure enthusiasts will find it really interesting. The rest is basically them having a conversation about random stuff.

This looks so amazing animated Blu-ray

Besides 1080p Blu-ray goodness, there is lossless sound, making the ED both eargasm and eyegasm. My laptop cost $1,000 and I bought it this autumn, but when I doubleclick to open this video the fan immediately goes off on max speed. Some parts of the ending theme, like when it zooms out from Mio and does that alpha motion blur effect, my video decoder just goes “nope, not today, kevo” and drops all those frames. Occasionally the video desyncs with the audio and subs because it’s just too much to handle. Technology evolving will make Blu-ray more accessible to everyone eventually. My old laptop (which would have been 2 years old) would not have been able to play this video correctly. For now it’s a luxury for most people to decode Blu-ray.

Alpha blending, color glow, lighting effects yummm. My CPU is on the verge of collapse.

I pay attention to the soft glow and little tiny details about color and line quality. For people who are not enthusiasts like me, well maybe this is not worth your time. For me, however, this was a super fun watch. It’s just around 2,421,772,331.22 MB but I recommend checking out some Blu-ray releases if you have not already. It’s a fun, novel way to watch your anime.

Enjoy screencaps.

[4] Comments 

Correlation implies causation

You guys know it’s true. The Pretty Girl Squad showing up was the only reason I kept watching this show. Episode 5 was awesome because of the cool fight scenes and the pretty girl squad being badass. It was followed up with episode six was one of the best fanservice episodes ever. Madhouse knows what its fans want.

I am 100% pedo for all three. Setsuna is maiwaifu tho

All good things must come to the end so there is no Pretty Girl Squad in the new episode of Needless. Instead, we have an animated lecture on the Laws of Thermodynamics. We could all use a little physics in our action anime.

I am so happy I never have to use PV=nRT ever again

Physics lecture part 2

Physics lecture part 3

They didn’t do a good job concealing the plot twist that Cruz’s sister is alive and one of the four strongest. I totally already saw this from like 6 episodes back, but then again maybe they didn’t really want to. This episode was essentially intro, OP, physics lesson, Cruz crying, another physics lesson, ED. By the way, I want the old OP and ED back. modern strange cowboy and the OP animation is one of the most gar things in existence. I don’t even need to say why the old ED was good.

[6] Comments 

Taiga Pics are so hard to find

It’s finally over, and in the end, Taiga stands alone as the undisputed queen of moe. A feat that has been dubbed impossible since last achieved by Suiseiseki, Aisaka Taiga stands supreme and holds both Korea and Japan’s title of moe. It was close all match, with Hirasawa Yui getting off to a fast start but Taiga catching up and wearing her down as the match progressed. After 7 wins, it is all over now. The predictions, speculation, trolling, and crazed fanboy fanaticism are all at an end, for a champion has been declared. frustra will write about the main story (eventually) and you can read it here. For now, though, here are my 10 ten moments from Saimoe 2009.

10. Lucky Star Collapses

The status of Lucky Star in this year’s Saimoe can be summed up with defending champion Hiiragi Kagami’s first round exit to, of all people, Asahina Mikuru. Other characters fared little better, with Takara Miyuki going down in the second round after barely being able to finish off her weak starting group. Iwasaki Minami lost to cannon fodder and Patricia Martin accumulated only 92 votes in their first round matches. No Lucky Star character managed to get past the second round, and with no new anime material in sight, one may believe that this is it for the once dominant series.

9. Maria Finally Wins a Match

Absolute terrible luck has kept Hayate no Gotoku’s starlet Maria with an 0-2 career Saimoe record. In 2007 she lost for Hiiragi Kagami 1161-1356 in the first round, vote totals worthy of being a Saimoe finals. Bad luck struck again when she was paired with Ryuuguu Rena in 2008 and lost again. This year in her opening group was Ryuumonbuchi Touka, again an opponent from a powerful faction with the ability to go deep in the bracket. However, Maria overcame her curse and moved on to the second round for the first time in her career.

ハッピー・ハロウィン MARIA oh wait wrong show.

8. Hirasawa Yui def. Katsura Hinagiku 953-935

Katsura Hinagiku was on a mission in 2009. With the airing of an acclaimed sequel for Hayate no Gotoku, characters from the show received a much needed power boost for the tournament. After absolutely slaying all competition in the first two rounds, she matched up to Hirasawa Yui. Yui’s 951-935 win over Hina marked the first important win for the fledgling K-ON! series and the close, exciting match showed the world that Group E is serious business.

7. Two Ties in Group G

In an absolutely bizarre turn of events, two of the four round 2 matches in Group G ended in a tie. Haruhi Suzumiya and Eruru tied their match and two days later, Okazaki Ushio and Tainaka Ritsu finished all square. The tie allowed Eruru to navigate the vote split and move into the top 16 at the expense of Haruhi and Yuki, while Mihoko licked her chops and dispatched Ushio and Ritsu in a 3-way match made considerably easier for her. This kind of statistical oddity never happened before and may never happen again.

6. Haramura Nodoka

Haramura Nodoka stunned the world when she beat Sanzenin Nagi 890-874 to win Group H. The epic upset denied Nagi (the author’s favorite character to win) a chance to beat Saki and Nodoka back to back. Nodoka somehow managed to make it all the way to the top 4, after beating Louise.

5. Akiyama Mio’s First Round Exit

When the brackets were released, everyone expected K-ON!’s Akiyama Mio to eat Group B for breakfast. Yours truly even bet his Saimoe writing career on it. Mio’s loss to Minami Kana sent the entire K-ON! series into a tailspin, as Kotobuki Tsumugi and Hirasawa Ui proceeded to lose their first round matches as well. Nakano Azusa barely got by Index and Tainaka Ritsu had trouble with Kijima Saki. It was an upset no one could see coming, accumulated by backlash from Mio-fagging. Apparently, the people who bought 24 Mio figurines could not vote for her 24 times.

4. Group F

The Group F2 finals was a fiery match between Nakano Azusa and Furukawa Nagisa. Nagisa represented the best hope for Clannad this year and her valiant fight was not enought to get by Azunyan. In Group F1, however, Taiga and Ami were in a pinch. They both faced Asahina Mikuru in a round 2 three way match. The setting was nearly perfect for a devastating votesplit giving Mikuru the win. It didn’t happen. Ami and Taiga each amassed more than twice the number of votes as Mikuru as the Toradora girls devastated Mikuru 1413-297. Taiga came out on top by more than 100 votes and would keep running until the show was over.

3. Saki’s Top 16 Record

Saki smashed the record previously set by Rozen Maiden in 2005 and later tied by Clannad in 2008 of 4 girls in the top 16. Saki sent an incredible six girls into the sweet sixteen as the mahjong crew dominated their groups. The powerful faction advanced four girls into the quarterfinals and eventually two more into the semifinals.

2. K-ON!’s Recovery

Word plays etc.

After Mio’s collapse, K-ON! slowly but steadily got back on its feet. Azusa managed to get into the top 16, but it was the lead characters, the ever-lovable Hirasawa Yui that drove deep into the bracket. Taking down Hinagiku and Minori, she dispatched Amae Koromo and Fukuji Mihoko, two Saki characters in a row (the only girl to ever do so), to reach the finals. After the first round, many thought K-ON! would be the biggest collapse in Saimoe history. In the end, thanks to Yui’s gritty and gutsy run, the series made a great showing the the contest. K-ON! is back next year, so who knows what will happen then.

1. Aisaka Taiga Makes Saimoe History

To claim her title, Taiga had to overcome a vote split from her own series, then beat Maria, then beat Azusa from a resurrected K-ON! faction, then Isumi from the powerful Hayate no Gotoku, then the completely unpredictable Haramura Nodoka. Finally, on October 17th she defeated K-ON! ace Hirasawa Yui to claim her second major saimoe title of the year.

Yui got off to a good start but Taiga caught up and never relented.

For those who can't read: Red line is Taiga, blue line is Yui

Kugimiya Rie finally wins her first Saimoe title, as does J.C. Staff. Taiga is the first girl to hold both Korea Best Moe and Saimoe Japan since 2006, when Korea Best Moe was first founded. Suiseiseki’s “Saimoe Slam” might be more feasible as KBM was not considered a huge deal in its inaugural year. Now, Korea Best Moe is undoubtedly a major saimoe title, and for Taiga to carry such prestige into Japan and still win is unprecedented.

That concludes Desu Ex Machina’s coverage of the 2009 Anime Saimoe Tournament. Thanks everybody for reading! I’ll see you all next year.

(fanart courtesy fictional sister and nanakiro)

[7] Comments 

Today I just feel like posting something so here are random thoughts about stuff.

kevo at work

kevo at work

Finished Sora no Manimani last night, and I liked it. Koharubi final released the last episode after a few years of waiting. I wanted to review it but I didn’t really feel that I had any opinions on the show that others didn’t already state. If you want to read a review on it, I recommend checking out Kholdstare’s review of the show. It’s well written and basically tells you everything you need to know. Definitely not for everyone, but a good anime none the less.

Somehow I have not been forced to watch Needless when it aired and I blame all of you for it. I started like last night and got up to 4 episodes and I loved it. The first two or three episodes were kinda slow but the show for me is getting good quick. From what I see it’s a great sublime blend of parody with good pacing. I’ll try my best to catch up with the show before it finishes airing.

I’m slow in picking up shows this season, but I might take a look at Yumeiro no Patissiere if I have time because it has cooking and the synopsis of the show contains “spirit of the sweets”. Taiga vs. Yui in Saimoe Japan finals; exactly what I wanted. I’ll be posting again once the winner is decided. But if you don’t want to wait, check out Lunatic Antics or Micchi’s blog for some more info about the match itself.

I’ve started watching Hajime no Ippo again recently. It’s great stuff, well paced despite being like ten million episodes. It’s fun to watch, but it’s such a marathon. I want to get to the 50th episode soon, however. Watched the first episode of GA Art Design Class the other day and it reminds me of Lucky Star x Sketchbook ~full color’S~. I’ll keep watching, but it had better excite me soon.

Bakemonogatari continues to make bank with DVD sales which it deserves. I can’t wait for the series to continue and I’m looking forward to the stream later this month. The show has done nothing but impress me, especially after a near perfect episode 12. God it sucks writing on writers block. These aren’t paragraphs! I better stop now before my blog post hurts someone. In conclusion here is another picture of Sumomo.

52a94813b3ed8daf8ec12a36399c7b71

[3] Comments 

Order your subscription today!

by kevo

for Saimoe Illustrated

SEOUL, Korea — the crowd was deafening and excitement could be felt in every molecule of air on midnight Sunday as Aisaka Taiga triumphed with a razor-thin three vote margin. As Taiga raised the trophy in victory, the roars from the crowd echoed into the Korean night. In the past few years, KBM has effectively established itself as a major, sucessfully run saimoe contestThis was Korea Best Moe, where close matches are the norm, the action is intense, and the votes flow from all corners of the globe. Aisaka Taiga, the tsundere loli from last Fall’s wildly successful Toradora!, has left her mark in saimoe history, but the question is: can she achieve saimoe immorality?

There is little argument that Korea Best Moe is a major saimoe title, with a parade of worthy winners and thousands of voters, KBM is the pride of past champions such as Horo and Hinagiku Katsura. However there is even less argument that Korea Best Moe is second only the very tournament that is synonymous with the word saimoe itself. The tournament that started the saimoe movement. Of course, I am talking about the Anime Saimoe Tournament of Japan, or Saimoe Japan, organized in 2002 held on 2ch every year. Ever since Saimoe Japan started blocking foreign ISPs, Korea Best moe has become a popular alternative. Regardless, Saimoe Japan remains the undisputed king of saimoe contests.

The last and only girl to win both Korea Best Moe and Saimoe Japan in the same year was Suiseiseki in 2006 (no one has won in different years). Many have stated that such a feat would be impossible in the future, given the Saimoe community’s disdain for repeat winners. In fact, Saimoe and KBM champions have seldom come remotely close in Saimoe Japan the past few years –with Horo, last year’s KBM winner, excused in the second round and the defending champion Kagami Hiiragi failing to win her first match. The newly crowned Aisaka Taiga, however, is through to the top four after solidly handling Hayate no Gotoku’s Saginomiya Isumi 812-736 in the round of eight. Does Taiga’s clout carry over from Korea onto moe’s biggest stage? Is enough left in the tank for just two more wins? We shall see in the upcoming week.

Ladies and gentlemen, your KBM champion

Taiga will most likely encounter a lot of Saki for the remainder of her Saimoe campaign. Though KushiedaSaki characters are Taiga's biggest threat, but don't over look Yui's chances if she makes it to the finals Minori has done well, I don’t put much weight on Toradora’s faction. I consider her riding solo from her series and taking down factions by herself, Shana style. If wins over Maria and Isumi say anything, I’d say she’s doing pretty well. Despite her success, she has not faced a character from Saki as of yet.  Taiga’s Saki-filled road to the title is a double edged sword. On one hand, Saki is strong as hell, with title hunters like Amae Koromo and Kataoka Yuuki in the field, not to mention a surprisingly strong Haramura Nodoka in the immanent match. But on the other hand is history and huburis. Though the franchise stunned the saimoe world and sent a record six girls into this year’s top 16, this has historically not been a formula for success. The previous holders of this record, Clannad in 2008 and Rozen Maiden in 2005 with 4 of the 16, have both failed to win the title. Many have already noted the potential crippling effect Yuuki and Mihoko’s match could have on Amae’s match against K-ON!’s Hirasawa Yui. Amae winning would mean three of the top four being from Saki. Surely the voters would not want that. Every fanbase in the world would be countervoting Saki. I never thought Kyoto Animation would ever benefit from vote hate, but here it is potentially going to happen.

I believe Taiga’s chances at Saimoe are very good. Haramura Nodoka is probably Saki’s weakest character right now, so Taiga must absolutely take care of business on the 14th, and I predict that she will. If she faces another Saki character in the finals, she must feed off the Saki counter votes combined with her own support. If it turns out to be Yui, which is very likely, than all bets are off and we will have an all-out Saimoe brawl. Regardless, Taiga must nullify or minimize the counter-effect of her Korea title. I predict that if somehow she can make her Korea title work for her instead of against her, Saimoe Japan will be hers for the taking. Much is at stake here. Taiga represents the best chance voice actor Kugimiya Rie has for her first Saimoe title. If she can use everything that is going for her, with a little bit of luck and a lot of support, Aisaka Taiga will become stuff of saimoe legends.

Note: Official art used (as edited) as images except the one of Yui. That one is by 茨乃, whose pixiv account can be found here.

[2] Comments 

I know you instantaneously clicked in as soon as your read the title. Who wouldn’t? It’s the divine combination of Naruto and hardcore rap, dawg. It’s a tad old (a few months ago) and I found this on a forum and I thought I would share. Did I mention this is a combination of Naruto and rap?

Shit son, these tracks are tite, yo!

I love how the track is not processed or mastered in any way so the “s” sound and other sharp sounds literally hurts your ears. Definitely exacerbated on my performance headphones. I know, I know, I shouldn’t make fun of this. This is technically doujin music! The doujin community is the crux of the anime community. But I can’t resist pointing out that the in footage in the “music video” you can see fansubs. This person didn’t even bother finding raws.

This, however, is legitimately funny good (embedding disabled, sorry). Soulja Boy Naruto parodies by law cannot be bad. Now, I complement Eddie Rath on his… creativity and his dedication to umm… anime. I can choose to make fun of him a bit more but I’m not that much of a jerk, so and if a picture is worth a thousand words, then three YouTube videos should be worth over nine thou- *ahem* a million. If your eyes ever lay upon these words, Eddie, may your Naruto inspired musical drive prove fruitful.

Support the artist! Buy his album!

[2] Comments 

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