Token Asian’s Anime Blog

After Black Friday, the fact that the subs spell Mara as “Marller” is giving me a royal headache… more about the Black Friday chaos later.

Keiichi is running in a black void, fleeing a mysterious figure that reveals itself to be a demonic figure that wishes to bring him misfortune. While it was just a dream, Belldandy has an unusual sensation that something is amiss. The next day, the three misfit roommates are out shopping. Bell asks about Keiichi’s lack of sleep and he says he had a bad dream while Urd taunts Keiichi by saying that he must have had a dream where Bell dumped him.

In an antique shop, Tamiya and Ootaki are browsing around and they pick up a music CD. What can this mysterious item be? Back at their dorm room, they realize that they didn’t have a CD player in the first place, so they color it black and put it on the record player (yes, it makes no sense, but hey, it’s not like they’re engineers, oh wait…). When they “play” the CD, their room fills with smoke and a woman pops out, who introduces herself as the demon known as Marller. Instead of making a wish as a reward for releasing her from the CD as suggested, the two guys want to eject the woman from their room (how they could tell Marller was female is beyond me). She grants their wish and disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving the CD behind. Marller almost goes back for the CD but apparently hates all the good luck charms that the guys keep around in the dorm.

Meanwhile, Urd is kicking Keiichi’s butt in the arcade. Keiichi’s been slacking at KOF lately, or maybe Urd is just that good. Belldandy is standing off to the side looking quite worried. She quickly leads K-1 home and raises a magical force field because she has a bad feeling about things… and that a demon may be coming. Bell explains that demons are the polar opposite of goddesses and they lead people into corruption. She also notes that this was a demon that she had sealed before…

A postal worker calls from the front door and distracts Belldandy. While our lovely goddess answers the door, Marller appears out of a tanuki statue (Google it) and Keiichi realizes that it’s the demon from his dream. At the front door, there actually is no postal worker but a demon’s messenger (a lizard with a megaphone as a head), leading Belldandy to conclude that something is amiss. Anyway, Marller is angry at Keiichi because he has tied a goddess down to the Earth for a long-term stay and thus the level of happiness increases, causing problems for the demons. So to punish Keiichi, she unleashes her magical powers on Keiichi.

Bell runs in and sees Marller sitting on a bike, who tells the surprised goddess that she had intruded into their house before the barrier was raised. When she asks what Marller did to K-1, Marller says that he’s “right here.” Bell embraces the tanuki statue and assumes that it’s Keiichi……….. Marller looks at Bell with disdain and tells her that the bike is a transformed Keiichi.

Urd arrives and sees Marller blow her way out of the house. The two goddesses immediately try to figure out what to do with the now transformed Keiichi. Urd whips up a potion and force feeds it to Keiichi through the gas tank. Unfortunately, the bike goes berserk and suffers some scratches. Bell attempts to us her powers and the bike goes through various transformations, though it’s useless since they don’t have the password to break the curse, so they must track down Marller and force her to free Keiichi.

The two goddesses reveal that Marller is a person that holds grudges and won’t break easily. Urd remembers that they have can get the catalyst for Marller’s seal. When Urd divines the location of the catalyst, Keiichi realizes where it is from the image and takes Urd to find the catalyst while Belldandy races off to find Marller.

Once again, Bell asks the animals where to find her quarry. Back at the temple, Keiichi demands that Urd wear a helmet as they leave in search of the catalyst. They end up driving up the stairs into the men’s dorm and Urd asks the two Auto Club dorks if they’ve seen an odd CD. She coaxes out of them that they bought it at a secondhand store. Tamiya remarks that they need to amend the dorm rules to forbid bikes indoors.

At a nearby playground, Marller is torturing a pair of young children but is distracted by the arrival of Belldandy. We then see at the store that Urd has found the CD but can’t pay for it since she has no money. Belldandy is still talking with Marller about why she’s staying on earth despite the fact that she could break the contract. Marller realizes that Keiichi is what is making Bell stay on Earth, so she wants to erase Keiichi so that Bell will leave. Of course, Bell won’t let that happen, so the two of them begin to fight. Unfortunately, Bell’s power is sealed when on Earth, so she isn’t winning this fight. Thankfully, Urd comes by with a few good luck charms and incapacitates Marller. She has also brought the CD that is the catalyst for sealing Marller and they begin to seal Marller… unless she releases Keiichi form the curse. Marller wonders why a goddess wants such a thing and Bell says that Keiichi is very important to her. Awwww…

Belldandy transforms Keiichi back to normal…. Though he’s not clothed. Whoops. Beet-red goddess! Kind of significant in an odd way since I don’t recall in the manga that Belldandy ever saw Keiichi in the nude. While the two goddesses are distracted by… er, Keiichi, Marller escapes and hightails it out of there…

We then see Marller walking into a bar. She remarks how she can’t win if the goddesses have the catalyst. However, Marller overhears Sayoko drinking it up and yelling about how she hates Belldandy and would sell her soul to the devil rather than lose to her “competitor.”

Oooh, foreshadowing…

Aoshima is still befuddled about Belldandy and how she entrances him with her beauty. He is now determined to steal Bell away from Keiichi. Some time later, NIT is having its club fair, where the Motor Club is recruiting new members. The main reason is probably Tamiya and Ootaki dressed up in scandalous cheerleader outfits scaring away freshmen. You know, if our university anime club put me in a cheerleading outfit, there’d be mass rioting and civil war…

Urd comments on how sad the situation is and K-1 agrees since they’ve had no people signing up. The real reason why they’ve had no luck is discovered when a passerby discusses a “Four Wheels Clubs.” Keiichi and company run to take a look and discover that there’s a competing automobile club, filled with girls in sexy outfits. Schwaa? Last time I checked, most automobile clubs were filled with dorky engineers… Urd says she can compete with that and “strips down” to her swimsuit, much to Megumi’s consternation. Keiichi says he’s more concerned with why there’s a competing club. Aoshima responds to that question by saying that he wants to have the Auto Club destroyed. He proposes that the next club to lose the Intercollegiate Rally with have to disband. Belldandy accepts and asks for a fair fight. Man, she’s pissed at Aoshima now.

With no money and no resources, the Motor Club is forced to work hard at a construction site to come up with a machine to compete against their rivals. One of the construction workers comments that K-1 probably doesn’t get much sleep with a girl like Bell around, causing Keiichi much embarrassment and Bell some amusing confusion. At a junk yard, they salvage parts with help of the goddesses’ divination skills and begin to put together a car. Keiichi says it’s all because Bell helped but she says that it’s all because of the club’s hard work. He asks Bell why she took the challenge with their disadvantageous position. She says that the club is a group who loves old things and have the will to win, so they can’t lose. Recall that Bell previously adored Keiichi’s love of old things despite that the fact they appealed to few other people. Same thing, I guess.

Of course, Aoshima and his thugs wreck their hard-earned vehicle. Considering he puts on the airs of a gentleman, he’s nothing but a jerk. Bell uses her powers and discovers it was Aoshima, not that she needed to really do that to know who did it (who else could it have been, space gophers?). Aoshima comes by and laughs because they have no proof and can’t possibly win now. He gives them the opportunity to not have to lose if Keiichi apologizes to Aoshima, but K-1 has the guts to say that he won’t give in to someone like Aoshima. Belldandy is impressed and stomps up to Aoshima, demanding that he leave. An obviously scared Aoshima retreats with his tail between his legs. Urd says that Bell is really mad at Aoshima, proven by her uncharacteristic anger. Don’t piss off a goddess or you’re regret it…

Um, anyway, I guess they managed to put a car together, though it only has three wheels and seems pretty shoddy. Hasegawa says that it’s suicidal but Keiichi reassures her by saying that he’ll make up for it with his driving and that everyone’s hard work will bring them through the race. Aoshima still has a nefarious plan, where he attempts to trap Bell inside the trailer where she is changing. On the race track, Aoshima has hired a pro to race for him. Gee, not even racing himself… not to mention he hired some crazy American gal (this is elaborated more in the original manga, complete with drivers from the Los Angeles Institute of Technology). Urd says that Aoshima must have done something again. Thankfully, Bell escaped from her prison and the race is on!

With Bell using her goddess abilities to divine the best path to drive on and using a bit of magic for split-second repairs, the Motor Club isn’t doing too shabbily. Urd notices Aoshima scheming again so she decides to act on that… In the desert portion of the race, Bell begins to tire because of all the power she’s using and falls asleep. Another one of Aoshima’s thugs drives up in a black SUV and runs them off the course. Thankfully, Urd comes by and helps out. Urd reveals to K-1 that Bell was using her powers to keep the car from falling apart. He says he won’t give up and Urd starts the car back up for him. Via radio contact, the Motor Club directs Keiichi towards the next part of the race. Apparently Hasegawa found a thin path on the beach protection wall which only a three-wheeled car could drive on. With the rest of the four-wheeled cars bogged down, Keiichi coasts into a win. Aoshima curses his luck and Urd pops by to punish him, Sayoko too, who just happened to be along. Poor Sayoko.

Bell wakes up and K-1 tells her that they won because of how she believed in them but she insists they won because everyone helped out. Of course, Urd has to pop by and encourage Keiichi to “take some action” in the nice atmosphere of victory…

Heh, Urd. Always has to have the last word in on love. And my last word: It wasn’t a bad episode. There was a lot of original material in the episode that wasn’t kosher with the original manga, but it was done well and made for an entertaining watch. Too bad the race was cut short. I wanted to see Bell download from the military GPS satellite too…

Hey, the Flying Tigers movie with John Wayne is on TV. Go and watch it!

Apparently the Slavic Slayer convinced Jordan to quit using Xbox LIVE for Halo 2 for our weekly games because of the extreme lag… for about two hours. Then we’re back to Xbox LIVE. Oh great, now I get to listen to the Turkish guy whine about everything. I suppose there are less n00bs on LIVE, but it still feels laggy. Anyway, at least we didn’t have the short whiny kid on “Tower of Power” this week. Don’t give him the turret, he’ll miss and whack one of our own guys, getting our entire team booted!

Put in another order to TRSI:

Ah! My Goddess TV Vol. 2
Excel Saga Rug: Menchi
Rurouni Kenshin #20
You’re Under Arrest Mini Specials

And Goddess help me, I joined… I paid for the membership.

Got Anime? Membership from TRSI

YES! Beauty contest at Nekomi Tech! First up on deck is Sayoko, who has the nice 85-60-86 statistics going for her. She’s going for the crown once more… though I doubt she’ll get it with the goddesses giving her a run for her money. Megumi and K-1 watch from below as Urd also joins in the fight and begins taunting Sayoko. Who will be Miss Nekomi this year? Looks like Sayoko is going to be dethroned. Keiichi is about to go up and stop Urd’s shenanigans, but everyone’s favorite mechanical engineering major steps up to the plate. *sighs* Of course she’s not a history major…

Despite Belldandy’s scolding, Urd and Sayoko begin their contest once again. When Sayoko attempts to show off her singing skills, the karaoke engineer accidentally starts up an Enka (essentially a type of traditional Japanese music from the Meiji and Taisho eras… I guess it’s folk music) song, causing Urd to fall asleep (her one weakness, apparently). When she wakes up, she uses her magic to destroy the karaoke machine, starting a fire. Belldandy calls for rain and puts the fire out. Instead of causing a religious revival, they call her the goddess of the campus and take it all in stride (engineers, they’ve got to be engineers…). The votes come in and Bell wins… well, quite easily, as you’d expect. Sayoko doesn’t take it well, though.

At the party following the contest, Urd gets thoroughly smashed with the local brew. Outside, we see that Sayoko is rather tipsy and when she steps out into the street, she staggers into the path of Keiichi’s bike. Bell is quick on the draw and saves her from a bloody fate by levitating Sayoko into the air. At her apartment, Sayoko wakes up and realizes that what happened last night wasn’t a dream and that something bizarre has happened.

The next day, Urd and Bell create quite a scene as a beautiful duo, giving Sayoko the jealously fit of a lifetime. Aoshima comes to Sayoko and they discuss how Bell has powers that aren’t human. They conclude that they must investigate Belldandy for the sake of their interests at maintaining social dominance on campus. X-Files… AMG-style! Will they unravel this supernatural mystery in time for the commercial break? Too bad Urd noticed their plotting.

Heir initial plot is to get Bell to show her power by endangering Keiichi at various places on campus, first with an incoming soccer ball at high velocities. Unfortunately, their camera lens is blocked by a flood of papers from a clumsy professor. The next round with a bucket of water dumped from high up ends up being blocked by a convenient flock of birds. When a vicious-looking dog steps up… well, any animal is charmed by Bell. Didn’t need any help from Urd that time, I suppose. Mulder and Scully realize that they can just get the truth out of someone that knows Bell if they can’t get it from her…

At lunch, Urd warns Keiichi of the plot and that he is Bell’s weakness. Despite warning him to be alert, Urd is ambushed with a pair of headphones and falls asleep, and Keiichi is dragged off with the help from some S&M enthusiasts (!). Aoshima comes up and says to Bell and Urd that they have possession of K-1 and that they want to know about Bell’s identity. Aoshima demands to know why he was given the cold shoulder because he has better looks and more money. Bell replies that that’s not what a person’s worth is about. Urd tells Belldandy to leave Aoshima up to her while she should go look for Keiichi.

Bell can’t locate Keiichi so she enlists the help of the dog from before, who tells her some information. Meanwhile, Keiichi’s tied up and shirtless in Sayoko’s clutches. Keiichi tries to convince her that there’s nothing weird going on, but it appears Sayoko is up to no good, possibly torture. Bell’s still on the search, but Urd is fighting Aoshima’s Enka skills. She eventually chases him off. Elsewhere, Belldandy is getting closer on Keiichi’s trail.

Back in Sayoko’s dungeon of pain, she’s torturing poor Keiichi with escargots… um, kinky? Urd, in pursuit of Aoshima, has run into the S&M club and Aoshima’s music skills. When the S&M people use their whips, Urd turns their own weapons against them and makes their life quite miserable. Again, a very silly sort of kinkiness. Well, that’s Urd for you. Makes you wonder what her apartment in Heaven is like (I’ve always imagined Bell to secretly be a slob).

Sayoko trashes some rare toy cars but Keiichi still refuses to give up Bell’s secret. Frustrated with Keiichi’s lack of cooperation, she is about to smash yet another rare car, but Belldandy look sin through a window and sees Sayoko torturing Keiichi. Belldandy transports herself through the window and comes to Keiichi’s aid. Sayoko asks what the heck Bell is, to which she responds that she’s a goddess, and proves it by transforming into her goddess outfit, shocking Sayoko into unconsciousness. Urd comes by with an unconscious Aoshima.

Now, how to solve this situation? Urd invokes Lord Bacchus and makes the two of them rather drunk, with a bottle of booze to complete the scene. It appears that they just have a hangover, but Sayoko isn’t fooled by this.

Boo, lame episode. The Campus Queen contest could have been done a lot better. Urd was seriously un-sexy throughout that entire part. C’mon guys, is it that hard to make Urd sexy? But I suppose they made up for it with the Urd-whip action and the Jack Daniels. Gotta love that Jack Daniels bottle. Great aesthetics that I can enjoy, despite not being a fan of alcohol.

Nov 01, 2005

Despite many months of attempting to locate stock on the item(s) shown
below, we have been unsuccessful. We have contacted the manufacturer and
understand that, at this time, they have no plans to produce any more in
the foreseeable future. As such, we have removed the following item(s)
from your outstanding order.

>ATS34200, Belldandy Goddess Version PVC

If you have any other sources for this, we recommend that you use them as
we doubt we will be able to get additional stock.

Thanks for your patience, and thank you for using HobbyLink Japan.

Tomonori Ozawa
HobbyLink Japan

Anyway, here’s to hoping I see this on eBay sometime. Odds aren’t good, since I’ve seen hide nor hair of this since… um, June?

“Do not want!” - Darth Vader

(bonus points for you if you get that reference)