CJ and Rakuen rocked Columbus! Well, CJ only rocked Friday night, but she made the most of what time she had there with the first ever Borderline Hikikomori Aniblogging Panel. After her and Rakuen babbled their way through that, there was lots of time for Brawl, the dealers’ room, crazy fangirls in Artist Alley and… Caramelldansening with Rakuen’s hijacked cell phone. Yes, we did get a group Caramelldansen going. And yes, CJ looked like an idiot.

Even after the beloved admin’s departure, though, there was plenty left for Rakuen to do. Between panels and gaming and tons of other stuff, Matsuricon was a blast all three days. It continues to rival larger cons’ quality, especially with its atmosphere and teen-friendliness.

CJ

My third year at Matsuricon opened smoothly, with my Lou Fa (D.Gray-man) cosplay working fine and the registration line being rather short. Despite a pair of hiccups while registering (lack of clear registration directions and the badge being more expensive than I though) Rakuen and I got me checked in and headed off to run around AA before the panel started.

Unfortunately, the panel began with a hiccup too: the projector was giving us grief. Sigh. But a nice con tech guy came in and fixed it for us quickly enough (thank you! <3) and we got started once people showed up around 5:15. That’s the only problem with going to a small con and having a Friday timeslot: your panel room might be empty for the first 5-15 minutes. Consider yourselves warned, future M-con panelists. :)

Still, once the panel got started, we had lots of fun with the guys from Ending B and a couple other people, and got some fabulous feedback. Since things went so well, we do plan on doing the panel (and perhaps a more in-depth, advanced ’sequel’) at Ohayocon this year!

Afterwards, I cranked up the Caramelldansen on my cell phone (which eventually died, so then stuffed the memory card in Rakuen’s phone and used IT) and ran around AA and the game room before getting tranquilized by Rakuen distracted by the shiny objects in the dealer’s room. There was slightly better swag in there than last year, though not enough Soul Eater stuff. Still, I got a “WEAPON” t-shirt with the Soul Eater logo on it (partly thanks to mooching off Rakuen) and some other cool stuff, which I may review later. <3

Then I got distracted by more shiny objects Higurashi cosplayers! And then there were MORE awesome cosplayers! So I stopped shopping and took some pictures, like any sensible fangirl.

AND THEN THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD HAPPENED. I started it. Therefore I WIN. (Can you tell my arms were already quite exhausted? XD)

All in all, a great night with lots of fun people met. Aside from the aforementioned minor issues and a small cosplay hiccup (I got mistaken for Emma from Phoenix Wright… understandably so, but still XD) everything went FABULOUS. (and even getting mistaken for Emma was really fun. <3) Matsuricon continues to be a stunner of a small con, though it won’t be small much longer – Rakuen noted that almost 900 badges were sold, not including staff and dealers. A very minor- and parent-friendly con with a friendly enough atmosphere that even if you can’t find programming to attend, you can always just chill and make new friends. Convention score: 8 out of 10.

Rakuen:

Well, Matsuricon has come and passed, so I guess it’s time for a bit of reflection on it. Overall, I think this year is much improved over last and I’m hoping for good things in the coming years from the convention.

I arrived pretty early on Friday, just after 1 PM, and attended the Sailor Moon fan panel. I thought it was pretty informative, and even managed to stay relevant with more updated information, not something you’d expect from a series that’s been finished for a dozen years. After that was a bit of idling around until the Aniblogging 101 panel I ran with CJ at 5. Not many people showed up, unfortunately, the timeslot obviously isn’t the greatest, but I’m pleased that some did attend and I think it was a good first run for it. The next few hours was spent pretty much socializing until the late night Whose Line show, which I think went well given it was our first time officially running it.

Saturday started at 9:30, mostly because the people in the room I stayed in couldn’t keep quiet. At noon I went to the Voice Actor Roundtable, I was pretty pleased with it overall. The guests seemed to be having a good time, and the room was surprisingly full, I’ve been used to seeing the room pretty empty for this kind of event. That immediately went into Whose Line is it Anime, which again, went well. I had a bit of downtime between that and the Masquerade. Since this is still and young and small convention, the Masquerade wasn’t tremendously large, however, it was extremely well attended. Some good friends of mine managed to bring home Best Journeyman, Best Performance, and Best in Show, so I was pretty excited about all that. The rave was also well attended, and while I didn’t spend much time in there, several friends of mine assured me it was good, so I’ll take their word for it.

Now for some general points on the convention and its performance. First of all, I was pretty impressed with the guest list. Matsuricon managed to bring in a lot of guests that aren’t normally seen in this area, which is always a plus in attracting attendees. They also had a pretty ambitious advertising campaign, partnering off with about a half dozen conventions. This must have paid off somewhere, because paid attendance was at almost 900 this year. The game room was pretty decent given the size of the room available for it. The Dealer’s Room was almost exactly the same as it was last year, from what I can remember, which isn’t really a bad thing. I believe the Artist’s Alley, on the other hand, had several more participants this year, which is always good. A new panel room was added, further expanding the programming available.

The two gripes I personally had with the convention were brought up at the feedback session, and they assured us that they’re working on it for next year, so I’m pleased with the way things are progressing. Hopefully, next year will be even better. Convention score: 8 out of 10.

Our forum provider (and also owner of bot GP|Kenichi) just told me that he can’t afford the server anymore cause he needs the money for something else. So we are now looking for someone that can host our forum on a server. We have the necessary files to continue with the old one.

Please contact us if you can provide one.

Thanx in advance.

Regards.

- The_Soulforged

I really liked Alice’s outfit in this episode. I thought it was cute.

Nice little expression there too...

This episode pretty much consisted of two halves. One was a recap of sorts where it’s pointed out that Oz and Alice has changed.

And no one likes a recapper

The other was revelation of more of Break’s past where we finally meet the Will of the Abyss, a seemingly naive but brutal girl who bears a strong resemblance to Alice. The Will of the Abyss is also named Alice. I don’t think the resemblance between the two is accidental, but I do wonder what their connection is.

The anti-Alice.

Oh, and while I’d figured this out a long time ago, this episode confirmed that chains come from humans that were dragged into the Abyss.

He makes me think of a fatter version of the Monopoly mascot.

Four episodes to wrap everything up. I’m thinking we’re going to see a second season of this. Would better animation in the 2^nd season be too much to ask for Santa Claus?

When a mommy B. Rabbit and a Daddy B. Rabbit love each other very much...

New stuff released this week:

• Towards the Terra episode 16
• Tekkaman Blade episode 30
• GaoGaiGar episode 32

Enjoy.

Regards.

- The_Soulforged

So when a show’s not working out so well, what should one do? Make it dark and depressing!

Honestly, this seems to work. As upset as I was about this episode, I also have to say, this was the strongest episode I’ve seen yet out of Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. While we don’t really know yet, it seems that Yuuki most likely is dead. I’ve been reading a lot of commentary and have gathered the following hints that indicate that he’s dead and Marai’s in denial.

1. The bag and the fact that Marai is carrying it instead of Yuuki.
2. Mari never once really looks at Yuuki, or has a conversation with him.
3. Mari’s facial expressions in the conversation with Marai. I don’t think she’d be so upset if Yuuki had survived.
4. In the final screenshot, you see Marai and Mari, but no Yuuki.
5. This is getting picky, but I actually just had the introvirus, which imitates the symptoms of mono and last for 5-7 days. Yuuki would not be better already.

I’m not quite sure what would have done him in, but by my guess would be meningitis. By the time they got him to the hospital, it would have been too late to save him.

I’m not feeling too optimistic about Mari’s family. I’m expecting one of two scenarios, one is where Mari’s family is dead, the other is Mari’s family is fine, and seeing Mari’s reunion will make Marai realize Yuuki is dead.

I’ve also tossed around the idea of Mari and Marai only having each other left in the world.

Nonetheless, the change in the show is enormous, and I am now engaged when I was originally barely interested. The next few episodes will be interested. Maybe I’m wrong, and maybe he’s alive.

But if I’m not, let’s have a moment of silence for the small guy. He may have been fictional, but he still was too young to die.

Compared to the drama of previous episodes, this one was pretty quiet.

Akira is so cute

What a difference a year makes; last summer I was watching only a handful of shows and thought only a couple were truly great shows – this year there’s so many watchable shows that I’m considering dropping at least a couple B-level titles to free up needed time. I don’t think it’s too early to proclaim this as the best summer season of anime in recent years and there’s a good chance that when it’s over and we look back at it – this could be a golden season like Spring 2006 was.

Below, I collected links to my earlier written impression posts that cover each of the new summer shows that I watched. These were written over the span of many weeks since some shows were easier then others when determining quality and how likely a show could maintain a certain level of quality. I’ve taken this opportunity to rank them by the average score that they earned at the time of the impression post because it provides a quick-n-dirty way to rank the many new shows.

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As you can see, a pretty strong season of new shows and I’d be happy if it was just these shows but there’s also several shows continuing from previous seasons as well that are great as well. So, to get the full picture of how good this season, I want to talk about them before further covering the new shows.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood: The first dozen or so episodes of this redo of the Full Metal series condensed 30+ episodes of the first incarnation and as a result it lacked the narrative punch of the first series. Once over that hurdle, the show shifted to new material and I was quickly reminded how good this show can be. The world was expanded – hinting at very interesting future plot points, new characters where introduced, and existing characters where given an awesomeness injection. The results have been spectacular; Episode 19 contains a fight that easily makes my top 5 anime fights of all time and was so good that I seriously had to remember to take a breathe when it was over because I hadn’t in awhile. Then I was worried that I’d be let down but episode 20 came right back with it’s own shocking revelations showing that this series has plenty of curve balls left to throw it’s viewers.

Kemono no Souja Erin: I’ve recently posted how I’ve finally caught up with this series and the few episodes I’ve watched since then just continue to prove to me that this is a great show. Recently the show has been very character driven with the plot fading into the background which has been okay since this show has good characters. I do think the show is getting ready to swing back towards advancing the plot because in the latest subbed episode, episode 30, another time skip occurred and now Erin is 18. Definitely old enough and with enough experience to the save the kingdom like I think she’ll have too (I like that they’ve worked at making Erin a believable hero).

Cross Game: Cross Game continues to chug along, offering it’s viewers the same level of goodness that we’ve grown to love. This season has seen some characters leave unexpectantly, new characters get introduced, and existing characters develop in surprising ways. Something that I’ve really grown to like about this series is how most of the characters that seem to be the “evil” characters of the series are given a chance to rehabilitate their image (at least the non-adults are).

Hayate the Combat Butler, Season 2: This summer J.C. Staff has really hit it’s stride with Hayate. They’re still focusing on advancing the story of the series but the humor level has increased steadily and I’m finding it as funny as the first season. I wish this was going to run ~52 episodes like the first season and not end at 26 episodes, especially since J.C. Staff is proving that they can do 3 shows at once. I’ll guess I’ll have to console myself with saying that J.C. Staff likes to do sequels so maybe a third season will be coming around soon.

Haruhi, Season 1.5: My thoughts about Haruhi would run a full post so I’ll just include a couple. The first is that from the beginning, I’ve refused to call this season 2 and now that we see how the extended episode count was used – it really does feel like a fleshed out first season. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a true season 2 announcement within a month or two. Also, I do think that the fans put Kodakawa and KyoAni in a bind because whatever they did, the fan’s expectations about Haruhi would not be met and much wailing and grinding of teeth would happen.

Phantom ~Requiem of Phantom~: One last huge plot twist means, even after amazing me for 18 episodes with great plot and character development, the show still hasn’t peaked and that the ending promises to be amazing. There has been one immediate side-effect of watching this show; namely, for being so accomplished at creating a realistic feeling plot even with fantastical elements (super-powered assassins) it makes CANAAN’s storyline and it’s attempt at being serious seem laughably fake.

Tears to Tiara: Yes I ended up continuing to watch this show. While I wouldn’t call this a top-tier show, it’s a solid second-tier show. It’s well animated with pretty decent fight scenes and has a touch of humor to itself. I haven’t really gotten wrapped up into the show’s story so how the good guys will prevail isn’t a big concern to me but there’s still plenty to like about Tears to Tiara to keep watching.

Hetalia – Axis Powers: The second season picked right up where the first season stopped. I really wish it was more consistently funny but there’s enough to love about this show to keep watching.

Further Thoughts on the New Shows

It used to be, I’d be happy if J.C. Staff could turn out something decent since they were so hit-n-miss with their shows – even within a show (I still can’t reconcile how bad the first half of Shana 2 was with how awesome the second half of Shana 2 was). Recently they’ve done superb work with Toradora and Hatsukoi Limited and promising work with Hayate, so when summer season rolled around – I was cautiously optimistic about their two new shows Aoi Hana and Taishou Yakyuu Musume and sitting at the halfway point I’m really glad that both turned out to be hits. Aoi Hana is a love story done right; it doesn’t take the easy way out by throwing in a bunch fan service or by making things absurdly dramatic – instead, there’s a realism about the characters and how they drive the story forward that is refreshing and enjoyable. Of course the gorgeous animation, great music and voice work along with all the attention to detail only enhances the experience. Taishou Yakyuu Musume has done a very good job of separating itself from the other currently running and recent slice-of-school-life shows. The setting, 1920’s Japan, is helpful in this regard and does make for an interesting twist on things. Also, the focus on the characters having a goal and having to actually work towards it provides all the structure and drive to continue watching. I still don’t see how they can beat that boy’s baseball team but hopefully by the end, they’ll be able to do it.

Another huge question mark about this season was how Shaft would be able to do Bakemonogatari and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S. 3 at same time. I’d like to say that Shaft was able to flawlessly execute both shows but that would be stretching the truth. I’m currently re-rewatching season 1 of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and being able to compare the two seasons crystallize my observations on the new third season. Namely, the humor and comedic situations have held up well but the art work has definitely suffered this season. It still does it’s job but it feels like what you’d get when an a third party was asked to ape a particular style. Which is probably the case since Bakemonogatari definitely displays the artistic creativity that you’d expect from the Shaft/Shinbo team. Bakemonogatari also is chalk full of witty dialogue and unexpected plot developments – it really is a good match for Shaft/Shinbo’s talents.It always seems to be able to keep the viewers hungry for more, like the recent week where there was no episode, it was a killer wait to get to see the next episode.

A couple of shows (Sora no Manimani and Umi Monogatari) are performing better then I thought they would. I know I gave both relatively high marks initially but I also thought my liking of these series would wane as I watched more episodes. That’s not the case, however. Sora no Manimani has been able to use the astronomy angle to fullest effect, overcoming it’s very poor animation (though it has very good night sky animation) and somewhat clichéd characters/school situations to be an enjoyable series to watch. The informational tidbits about astronomy have also been interesting. In the one example, they explain how to take pictures of stars with just a normal camera and it’s so easy I want to try. For Umi Monogatari; a combination of animation style, some very nice background music tracks, and characters ranging from watchable to scene-stealing has gotten me to like it. That’s not to say it’s a smashing success, the plot feels very generic, even for someone who is not a fan of the magic girl genre and thusly doesn’t which shows have used this type of plot before. There are little touches to the plot that I do like. In a recent episode, the one human character needed to find a family heirloom that has magical powers because it would allow her to breathe underwater. She eventually finds it – the mom had been using it to make their pickles taste better.

I find it funny that as soon as I started to like the characters in Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, the story would start to threaten my enjoyment of the series. In episode 5, the brother and sister main characters finally stopped being annoying and I was set to like the rest of the series when the next two episodes pushed the story’s shortcomings forward. The one focused on the woman that’s been helping the young brother and sister since the earthquake. She’s been very admirable so far but she turns down the opportunity to quickly check to see if her own child is okay to stay with the brother and sister. (Heck, she could have driven to where the brother and sister live and see if their parents are okay.) I would call her a very bad parent in real life but since this is an anime, this really felt like a not-so-subtle way to extend the episode count of the series. The other episode was a fairly cute episode featuring robots that were helping in finding survivors trapped in the rubble but again, it felt like the series is trying to extend it’s episode count by using another careless parent. In this case the robot nerd’s parents didn’t see the danger of their child running around a bunch of building that are tittering on the verge of collapse. (This episode also kinda felt like a 25 minute commercial created for a company that makes robots.)

And I can’t forget about Spice and Wolf 2, which proves that anything can be made interesting if done the right way. I’m not much of an economist or merchant; the closest I got was after a college economics class that I aced even with a super hard professor – I received a hand signed letter from the dean of the economics program saying that I should consider changing my major to economics. In the end I didn’t because I thought it would be too dull but maybe I was wrong, though there’d be very little chance of a pagan wolf goddess accompanying me while I worked. I can now concur with the general consensus that this season has improved over the first season since I’m now almost done watching the first season but I still don’t understand how so many said the first season was boring.

Dropped Shows

This time there’s not a huge list of dropped shows. The only for sure one at this point is Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! (of which I won’t speak of any more). Needless and Kanamemo are on the borderline right now. I have no real desire to watch any more episodes of either (I’ve seen 7 and 6 episodes, respectively) which is normally the point at which I drop a show but it’s not official yet. The only other show that has the chance of being dropped is CANAAN, though that’s very unlikely. There are some very genuine reasons to continue watching this series which will probably get me to continue watching to the end. At the same time, CANAAN’s attempt at being a serious show has so laughably failed that I wish I hadn’t started watching it in the first place.

Conclusion

Looking over this 2300+ word post I realized there’s a facet to being an anime fan that reminds me of being a science fiction fan. Namely, there’s serious grumblings within the last couple of years about the long-term health of the anime industry, with more then a few voices talking about the death of anime. This type of talk has surrounding print SF for the last couple of decades. People would try to get you to believe that soon, maybe only a few years from now, there’ll be no more science fiction. In both circumstances if one just looks at what’s being done – it certainly doesn’t feel like they’re about to die. There’s still too much vibrancy in both to feel like they’re dieing anytime soon.

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For reference, this was my preview for this season – it’s interesting to compare the two.

Oh wow, so many thoughts. Were to begin?

Aww...

Let’s start with Canaan. I’m not exactly sure why she can’t see colors anymore, it just seems she woke up and just happened to lose them for the sake of causing drama in the plot. We’ve watched the confident and capable Canaan turn into a pile of emo soup.

Talking about Canaan, am I the only one who thinks there’s a ridiculous amount of sexual tension between Canaan and Maria? At the start of the series, it just seemed like a close friendship, but in this episode, it really felt like they crossed that line.

Oh just kiss already!

Hakko. As she can’t talk, it’s hard to tell what’s going on her head. She obviously has some serious rage and resentment issues. I do feel sorry for her though, she’s lost her voice and still has it at the same time. It’s just whenever she uses it, she hurts people. It’s revealed that she did have an amazing singing voice, so that’s pretty harsh

Poor thing...

Oh yeah, America being the bad guys did piss me off. Although I hate to say it, I have to admit, we haven’t really given off the best image, and I can see where they’re coming from. Blargh.

It still makes me kinda sad.