The Moe and the Biker Chick
Oct. 18th, 2009 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grimorieI seem to be in a Haruhi kick these days especially when I learned a tidbit about one of the voice actors (seiyuu).
Yuko Goto who voices Mikuru is actually a biker chick.
This might not be an extraordinary discovery but it is to me since Yuko Goto's been stereotyped to play helpless, clumsy girls with high pitched voices.
Her role as Mikuru is actually the best example since she's almost always helpless in Haruhi and prone to be bullied by the title character. I have no strong feelings for Mikuru as a character since most of the time she's just there although lately I am feeling a wee bit more suspicious of Mikuru because no one can be that helpless and incompetent especially an operative from a Time Agency.
This is an example of Yuko Goto as Mikuru, the characters are shooting a student film (hence the really amateur 'shooting' and acting):
And then this is Yuko Goto guest starring in Lucky Star parodying herself:
According to wiki people do actually call her Gotouther-sama. Heee.
Then to top it all I found this (c/o TV Tropes), where Yuko Goto plays a Canadian exchange student with surprisingly good English and spectacularly bad Japanese accent.
I cannot stop laughing. SOU NAN DESS KARR!
And this is Gotouther-sama herself:
--
I'm also currently trying to catch-up with K-ON and watching To Aru Kagaku No Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun), a spin-off of A Certain Magical Index.
It follows the story of Mikoto Masaka and Shiroi Kuroko, two powerful ESPers living in Academy City for anyone who knows me, it's would be no surprise that one of the things that caught my attention about this show was the city itself a futuristic styled city whose conceit was that it was a home for both students and scientists and all the students are measured for their ESP abilities. There are five levels, the fifth level being the strongest and in a city of over 2.3 million citizens there are only seven Level 5 people in the city and standing as the third strongest among the seven Level 5 is Mikoto Masaka, a person capable of commanding electricity and lightning in anyway she chooses earning her the nickname the Railgun.
Fortunately for all she's more down to Earth and her favorite hobby seemed to be baiting guys who harass girls and then beating up them up.
I watched the original just to get me up to speed with the Railgun, turned out it was unnecessary since the show itself could stand alone. Also, Index is boring since the main hero, Touma can't seem to go five seconds into a fight without preaching. He's worse than season 7 Buffy.
I then read the manga which Railgun was based on and I enjoyed it a lot more. I liked the plot and the fight scenes, which again unlike Bleach knows how to make a fight both interesting and short.
The second main character is Shiroi Kuroko, a member of Judgment, the security/law enforcement force within the city, she's a Level 4 Teleporter and damned good at her job and wow does she use her teleporting skills to great effect.
Kuroko has one quirk though, while on the job she's at her most professional and badass but when the topic of Mikoto comes up, her roommate and best friend she turns a little... intense. See, she's in love with Mikoto and no, not just friend love. I mean (in Japanese speak) Kuroko is in love-love with Mikoto, she wants to do bad things to Mikoto and Mikoto is uncomfortably aware of it since Kuroko isn't exactly subtle.
It's played to great comedic effect except I thought the second episode of Railgun flanderized that aspect of Kuroko's character to the great detriment of Kuroko's character. I'm glad that by the third episode the animators turned it down and we get to see why despite everything Mikoto likes to hang out with Kuroko, they work well together because despite being a civilian its hard to keep a person as powerful as Mikoto out of cases that pique her interest much to Kuroko's exasperation.
(I like that when it comes to work, it's Mikoto who exasperates Kuroko.)
Mikoto and Kuroko think alike during cases and work off of each other's thoughts they make a great team. The other characters in the series are also engaging and likable and their roles expanded to fit a series that's 24 episode long. The city also continues to be fascinating in a way that Index never showed maybe because Mikoto is more in tune with the city because she knows both aspect of the city the underbelly and the pretty facade the city puts on.
Railgun is slated to be a 24 episode run and the manga currently running only two volumes that are out I have to wonder how they're going to fill the episodes. I wonder if they're going to touch on Mikoto learning about the clones? The clone arcs was one of the major arcs of Index and about the only time it started to get interesting.
Yuko Goto who voices Mikuru is actually a biker chick.
This might not be an extraordinary discovery but it is to me since Yuko Goto's been stereotyped to play helpless, clumsy girls with high pitched voices.
Her role as Mikuru is actually the best example since she's almost always helpless in Haruhi and prone to be bullied by the title character. I have no strong feelings for Mikuru as a character since most of the time she's just there although lately I am feeling a wee bit more suspicious of Mikuru because no one can be that helpless and incompetent especially an operative from a Time Agency.
This is an example of Yuko Goto as Mikuru, the characters are shooting a student film (hence the really amateur 'shooting' and acting):
And then this is Yuko Goto guest starring in Lucky Star parodying herself:
According to wiki people do actually call her Gotouther-sama. Heee.
Then to top it all I found this (c/o TV Tropes), where Yuko Goto plays a Canadian exchange student with surprisingly good English and spectacularly bad Japanese accent.
I cannot stop laughing. SOU NAN DESS KARR!
And this is Gotouther-sama herself:
--
I'm also currently trying to catch-up with K-ON and watching To Aru Kagaku No Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun), a spin-off of A Certain Magical Index.
It follows the story of Mikoto Masaka and Shiroi Kuroko, two powerful ESPers living in Academy City for anyone who knows me, it's would be no surprise that one of the things that caught my attention about this show was the city itself a futuristic styled city whose conceit was that it was a home for both students and scientists and all the students are measured for their ESP abilities. There are five levels, the fifth level being the strongest and in a city of over 2.3 million citizens there are only seven Level 5 people in the city and standing as the third strongest among the seven Level 5 is Mikoto Masaka, a person capable of commanding electricity and lightning in anyway she chooses earning her the nickname the Railgun.
Fortunately for all she's more down to Earth and her favorite hobby seemed to be baiting guys who harass girls and then beating up them up.
I watched the original just to get me up to speed with the Railgun, turned out it was unnecessary since the show itself could stand alone. Also, Index is boring since the main hero, Touma can't seem to go five seconds into a fight without preaching. He's worse than season 7 Buffy.
I then read the manga which Railgun was based on and I enjoyed it a lot more. I liked the plot and the fight scenes, which again unlike Bleach knows how to make a fight both interesting and short.
The second main character is Shiroi Kuroko, a member of Judgment, the security/law enforcement force within the city, she's a Level 4 Teleporter and damned good at her job and wow does she use her teleporting skills to great effect.
Kuroko has one quirk though, while on the job she's at her most professional and badass but when the topic of Mikoto comes up, her roommate and best friend she turns a little... intense. See, she's in love with Mikoto and no, not just friend love. I mean (in Japanese speak) Kuroko is in love-love with Mikoto, she wants to do bad things to Mikoto and Mikoto is uncomfortably aware of it since Kuroko isn't exactly subtle.
It's played to great comedic effect except I thought the second episode of Railgun flanderized that aspect of Kuroko's character to the great detriment of Kuroko's character. I'm glad that by the third episode the animators turned it down and we get to see why despite everything Mikoto likes to hang out with Kuroko, they work well together because despite being a civilian its hard to keep a person as powerful as Mikoto out of cases that pique her interest much to Kuroko's exasperation.
(I like that when it comes to work, it's Mikoto who exasperates Kuroko.)
Mikoto and Kuroko think alike during cases and work off of each other's thoughts they make a great team. The other characters in the series are also engaging and likable and their roles expanded to fit a series that's 24 episode long. The city also continues to be fascinating in a way that Index never showed maybe because Mikoto is more in tune with the city because she knows both aspect of the city the underbelly and the pretty facade the city puts on.
Railgun is slated to be a 24 episode run and the manga currently running only two volumes that are out I have to wonder how they're going to fill the episodes. I wonder if they're going to touch on Mikoto learning about the clones? The clone arcs was one of the major arcs of Index and about the only time it started to get interesting.
