Victorian Romance Emma (英國戀物語エマ) is quite a sweet series, but not really that extraordinary (you see, I like Jane Austen). At just 12 episodes, I believe it covers only about half of the manga (which I haven't read), so a sequel is a possibility. So why didn't I enjoy Emma as much as some other anime fans? As I mentioned, Jane Austen is a factor, as was the strangeness of listening to English people speaking in Japanese (if this is licensed, would they mind using English voice actors to dub it? I never thought I might prefer a dub...). The different levels of politeness should be transferable, but I'm not that familiar with the linguistic rituals (eg. 'Please' and 'Thank you') in English upperclass society in the late 19th century. Speaking of which, I was trying to place the clothes in the right period (or identify what they were), with no luck. I might have to seek out books in their physical form rather than relying on the net. And to be pedantic, the translation annoyed me a little too, because it can't be THAT difficult to realise that ジョーンズ is the katakana for the surname 'Jones', can it?

hm...even though I enjoyed Abeshou, I can't say much about the ending - er...I was half asleep through most of it. It became quite serious, but the ending was weird (no surprises there), not a path one would expect reality to follow. But well, it was a 魔法商店街, wasn't it?

Tactics (タクティクス), to be honest, isn't the best anime I've seen recently. It's one of those typical one (or two) episode = one story tales, without a proper ending - like Vampire Princess Miyu (吸血姫美夕). Nevertheless, I really like the show, mainly because of Kan-chan and Haruka I suppose. I just wanted to see what would happen to the two of them, especially after Raikou et al started interfering (and guess what, the ending doesn't actually tell us!). The manga is meant to be quite different, right down to the characterisation of the two main characters, although the basic premise involving them is the same. I think I'll pick this manga up, if I can find the time

And on another note, Joe Hisaishi was awarded the LAFCA award for Best Music Score this year, for Howl's Moving Castle. It isn't my favourite OST music (although I do like it, a lot), but as SC mentioned, it suits the film perfectly, and IMO, deserves the allocade. As for the rest...I'm embarrassed to admit that I'd only heard of the Best Animation film, which is the latest Wallace & Gromit title...