As the blog software publishes this post, I am likely at Ohayocon, presenting one of our blogging panels.  However, I realize that a lot (if not all) of our readers may not actually attend the convention.  Therefore, I put this little post together to give you a little view into how I go about writing an episode post and to have a little metablogging fun.

First, I have to get a copy of the episode I’m going to watch.  Unbelievably, this is actually the hardest part for me, for two reasons.  One, sometimes the subbed episodes aren’t available when I need them, due to technical issues or slowness.  No, I don’t know Japanese, and every passing day further decreases any chance of that changing.  I’m not complaining, and I completely realize they work hard to give us this service.  I’m just stating fact that sometimes things don’t work out like you want.

The other problem is my motivation.  I’m the kind of guy who likes to watch an entire series in a marathon style format.  Waiting for a new episode from week to week and then having to write about it is a chore sometimes.  This is what killed me in the past: I just ran out of steam to do it weekly.  However, this season, I’m determined to cover not one, but two anime all the way through.  So far, so good, as you can see in the posting log.

Next, I have the easiest task on the list, actually watching the episode.  My first watch of an episode is always on normal speed, and if I feel the need to watch it again, I’ll kick it up to 2x or 3x.  I make mental notes for important scenes I might need later, but I don’t take any physical notes while I’m watching. I should probably change that because I spend a lot of time referencing material.

After watching logically comes writing.  You’ve probably picked up on the pattern I’ve settled upon for now.  My first paragraph is a very brief summary of the highlights of the previous week’s episode.  This is partly for my benefit to make sure I remember everything, and for yours so that we’re all on the same page going into this.  Maybe you missed last week’s episode, or forgot what happened.

The next few paragraphs are the actual summary of the episode.  For those of you wondering, there is no “magic” amount of text, you write as much as you feel you need and whatever that is, is the summary.  That said, I try to aim for 2-3 paragraphs and 200-300 words.  If I do less, it feels like I just skimmed the episode, but if I do more it feels like I’m saying too much.

The last paragraph is my personal impressions.  I tell you what I feel was good and bad about the episode and what I might hope to see in the next episode(s).  I don’t assign an individual score to episodes like I used to, because it feels like it makes everything incredibly arbitrary.  After this, I do a quick word count and edit check of the document.

I’m almost done making the post, now I need to find images.  Reading a long block of text is, frankly, boring, especially when pictures are clearly available.  I try to find parts of the episode that coincide with my paragraphs.  Then I have to convert them to a reasonable size and upload.  Sometimes the caption I add is a quick joke to lighten the mood.  Other times, it’s insightful or poignant.  Finally, I put all of it together in WordPress, do another edit check, and publish.

The total time this takes from the moment I hit play to the moment I hit publish is usually between 1.5 and 2 hours.  Yes, anime blogging is a fair time commitment, which is why I’m currently not blogging everything I watch.  It takes 20-25 hours to cover an entire 12 episode series, plus a review post at the end.  So, for those of you thinking about getting into this, keep that commitment in mind.

That covers my posting process.  If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll read it once I return.  Enjoy your weekend everyone!

~Rakuen

We’ve almost reached the end of the Winter season launches with the airing of Katanagatari.  However, this is a nonstandard series.  The plan is to be a sweeping epic series that is aired as one 45-minute episode every month for the rest of the year.  I don’t have a lot of time before shipping out for Ohayocon, so let’s jump right into this.

The anime starts on an isolated island where our protagonist Shichika and his sister Nanami live.  They came to this island with their father when the empire banished him.  Shichika has inherited the no sword style, called Kyotouryuu, from his father, who died a year before our story.  Togame, the shogun’s “strategian,” has come to this island to seek out the head of the Kyotouryuu style, which means her aim is to recruit Shichika.

Togame lays out most of the plot for us.  An infamous swordsmith by the name of Shikizaki Kiki made a series of 1000 swords.  Of these, the last 12 are especially dangerous, and have special properties.  The shogun sent ninjas and swordsmen to retrieve the weapons, but to no avail, as once obtained the hires disappeared.  She needs Shichika to aid her in her task, since he’s the only person in the world with the skills necessary who wouldn’t be swayed by love or honor.  She also wants him to love her.

An assassin, Koumori, interrupts their conversation with a hail of kunai.  Our hero gives chase and the two stop at the beach.  It turns out this guy has the first legendary sword, which he keeps in an… unorthodox place.  The Zettou Kanna’s special ability is its extreme durability, rendering it mostly unbreakable.  After a lot of talking and a small amount of combat, the assassin escapes with Togame.

Koumori takes on Togame’s appearance using his ninja skill, and goes to kill Shichika.  Unfortunately for him, our hero has quick reflexes and immediately lashes out when surprised.  Koumori reveals the strategian’s true intentions to  try to convert the martial artist.  It turns out she’s actually the daughter of the rebel leader, and Shichika’s father killed her father.  However, hearing that she decided to turn to her enemy for help actually moves the young man to commit to aiding her.  He dispatches Koumori, takes the sword, and the two then set off on their quest.

This first episode serves as a prologue, and because it must set the stage for the rest of the plot, there is an incredible amount of dialogue.  Shichika lampshades this halfway through when he asks if ALL mainlanders talk this much.  However, the plot is interesting, and hopefully we’ll get more action in later episodes.  Shichika plays the role of the rather quiet, dumb protagonist, while Togame serves as the plot force and comic relief.  Foremost, the art style alone makes this series worth watching in my opinion.  The colors are vibrant and appealing and the art direction is a lot more fluid then what you might be used to.  It reminds me of Kaiba.  I am extremely interested in seeing more, unfortunately, we’ll have to wait a month for the next episode.

The final part of my look at the surprisingly decent fall season is the countdown of the best titles of the season. This is always a difficult process since I enjoy so many different types of shows and there’s no clear-cut way of comparing a slice-of-life show to a shounen action show to a thought-provoking SF drama set in the near future but at the same time, it’s fun because it helps me focus on exactly why I like certain shows.

The first step in the process is to figure out how many places will this season’s top list include. The number changes from season-to-season based on the number of quality shows that I feel deserve to be mentioned. This narrowed the field down to eight shows and now the task turned to ranking these shows that I considered great shows of the season. Picking the number one spot was fairly easily but the rest of the list felt like pulling teeth so; whereas, I’ll argue that all eight of these shows belong on the list, I won’t argue to hard over the exact order.

And with that, let’s head to the countdown.

8 – Blue Literature

The use of classic modern Japanese literature as source material pretty much assured that Blue Literature was going to be this season’s most unique and thought-provoking anime. And because it was Madhouse animating this, Blue Literature also had this season’s best production values as well as high quality storytelling. So, with all that going for it, it might seem strange why this isn’t ranked higher; I’m even a bit shocked why I just couldn’t place this higher and believe me, I kept trying. In the end, I realized what stopped this from going even higher is that, while it’s obvious the stories picked are very well written, only one of the five stories used ended happily and it’s much harder to really get swept away by sad or depressing stories. I know that sounds shallow, and maybe it is, but I read plenty of depressing books and it’s not like current events have looked positive in a long time so is it so bad to gravitate towards those anime that make me laugh or feature characters that are just a bit better/heroic then the vast majority of people walking this planet, myself included.

7 – Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

I continue to deeply love where the story of Full Metal goes; the conspiracies get deeper and more insidious, the dangers get more threatening, and the world of FMA gets more complex as new characters and their ambitions get introduced. The majority of this season, however, had the show in build-up mode with very little pay-off which explains why this didn’t get ranked higher; I expect next season to contain much more pay-off in the form of super-awesome confrontations/fights and resolutions to at least some of the plot threads that have been introduced and will probably rank much higher.

6 – Sasameki Koto

At first, I wasn’t expecting too much from Sasameki Koto but I was quickly won over by the quality of the characters and the show became one of my favorites that just happened to be a yuri show. The main character, Murasame Sumika, was dealt a very tough hand – she likes her best friend, Ushio, in that way and Ushio likes girls as well, just not tall athletic girls like Sumika so Sumika has to bite her tongue and be the caring best friend after Ushio gets rejected by the cute girls – and her struggle to do the right thing over what she wants to do help made Sasameki Koto a great show. Other memorable characters included the boy who fell for Sumika and started cross-dressing (and became a female model) because he knew she liked girls or the girl who always, and I mean always, had some sort of food in her hands. Sasameki Koto could have finished higher if the ending had been better.

5 – Sora No Otoshimono

The biggest surprise on this countdown is the presence of Sora no Otoshiomono on it; not because it’s a terrible show but because it wasn’t a terrible show. It should have been just like almost every other ecchi comedy series – generic and not very good or funny. Instead, Sora no Otoshiomono expertly cultivated an absurdist, over-the-top feel that repeatedly surprised and delighted.

4 – Cross Game

What can I say, Cross Game just continues to chug along making awesome look easy. The highlight of this season was to see how a new character shook the show and it’s characters up but that was hardly the only thing that made this cour of Cross Game good. We got a marriage proposal whose answer depends on if Kou’s team can make it to Koshien, new possible pairings like Azuma x Aoba, general Kou coolness, and new storylines like Aoba trying out for Japan’s national female baseball team.

3 – To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

After the second episode of Railgun I was ready to drop it because I was sure that the manga author had once again screwed up; this time focusing on shoe-horning as much Kuroko antics as possible into a manga and disregarding such important items as plot, characters, and story. Then a funny thing happened, the show started to actually work. The four main characters were fleshed out and developed a great chemistry between them, a deeper story was first hinted at and then expertly told, and let’s not forget how cool Misaka’s rail gun ability is (especially when J.C. Staff has the budget). I think I actually squealed in joy when I realized that Railgun was going to run past the fall season into the winter season.

2 – Astro Fighter Sunred Season 2

Okay, I admit to holding this list up so I could watch enough of this season of Sunred that I could place it on this list and feel justified in doing so. I just love this show to bits. I was a little worried that the second season would start to feel a little stale but each episode seems to offer a different reason why this show is so awesome. For example, one episode featured the leader of evil organization explain how they have to itemize all their expenses so the worldwide headquarters will reimburse them, another episode featured both the hero and evil leader attending the neighborhood meeting and the hero get called to task for not properly sorting his garbage like the evil leader, another episode featured a gadget the evil organization created that allowed them to pinpoint where the hero is but all this did was force them to attend a funeral, go to a very high-end restaurant, and almost receive a very serious beat down by two other heroes when they finally realized that they could just call the girlfriend of the hero (who has made friends with the evil organization) when they wanted to know where he was located. I’d go so far to say that once I get around to rewatching this show, I think there’s a good chance that Astro Fighter Sunred would earn a spot on my top 5 comedies list.

1 – Kemono no Souja Erin

And as much as I loved Sunred, it still didn’t get real close to unseating Erin from this season’s top spot. Once I realized how good this series was, I just knew that this last cour of episodes when all the various stories were threaded together would seriously rock and it did. What I didn’t expect was the little tease they did at the very end for the next two books of the source material that’s coming out this summer. It’s a great scene by itself but I’m already salivating over the idea of Kemono no Souja Erin getting a sequel. One of the ways this show really sets itself apart from a lot of other anime is the process in which the show’s hero is tried and tempered before stepping into the role as hero; it made her an especially memorable character and made her convictions that she fought for all that more real and worthy to fight for. I’ll say right now that Kemono no Souja Erin has better than a 50% chance of getting named my top anime of 2009 when I get to that list.

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Links to the other parts of my Fall 2009 Season Awards

Part 1 – Cast and Character Awards
Part 2 – Genre and Misfit Awards
Part 3 – VMA Awards

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So this fall season turned out better then I initially thought it would but I don’t see myself saying the same thing for the winter season. There’s a couple of good shows but it’s just a couple and I’m be talking about them soon.

Filed under: anime, awards

OH MAH GAWD!!!!! MINAMI HAS A LITTLE SISTER! AND SHE LOOKS LIKE MINAMI TO BOOT!! Baka test is offically the BEST ANIME EVAR! XD [Fanboy speaking here...pay no heed.] A miniature Minami is all well and good, but my love goes to Minami! Damn, just love that tsundere nature! Being tsundere is double edged though. [...]

Akiharu sure has massive amount of luck! You know what I like about Akiharu? That he doesn’t really seem to have an interest in these very voluptuous girls he’s always running into. He’s just there to study and plan for the future and no tits is gonna make him waver! I guess it all has to [...]

Akiharu sure has massive amount of luck! You know what I like about Akiharu? That he doesn’t really seem to have an interest in these very voluptuous girls he’s always running into. He’s just there to study and plan for the future and no tits is gonna make him waver! I guess it all has to [...]

Last week on Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, the writers put the battle system on the bus to the middle of nowhere to focus more on the relationship aspects of the characters.  We saw Yoshii, Himeji, and Minami’s love triangle develop, as well as the start of Yuuji’s relationship.  This week continues building on the relationship triangle while returning to better comedic form.

The episode opens during a session for remedial lessons mentioned in last week’s episode.  The teachers have pushed Yoshii quite hard to take care of chores around the school.  He also still suffers from monetary problems, as his lunch consists of 1/64 of a cup of ramen.  Obviously, this is nowhere near healthy, so Minami conveniently offers to share her lunch with him… except she forgot it.

Hazuki, Minami’s younger sister, has come to visit today.  Apparently she’s met Yoshii before, but we don’t get to know the details of that.  She brought Minami’s lunch, but now she can’t bring herself to share it.  Himeji, uncharacteristically forward about it, offers her lunch instead.  This gets Yoshii tortured by the FFF anti-female faction in the class.  Unfortunately, it seems with all that intelligence she just can’t manage to read a cookbook.  Her food manages to take out all of our main characters single-handedly.

The remainder of the episode focuses on Minami.  She really does like Yoshii, so she runs all over the school looking for him.  She finds him just in time for him for the FFF to lynch him again.  She finds him again outside of the school, and yet again she chokes on offering it.  Kubo appears and takes him away.  Minami is frustrated, both with herself, and the guy she likes.  However, in the end Yoshii’s common sense stupidity manages to save the day for her.

I think the writer’s did a better job handling the comedy aspects this week, potentially better than the series has seen so far.  The cast’s abuse of Yoshii throughout the episode hits the comedy gold mine.  On the other hand, I’m worried about this series straying too far away from the school battling.  The relationship aspects are nice, and this series’ major selling point is comedy over action, but I feel like we’re losing the overarching plot.  They set out to conquer the school, remember.  At this point, I’m predicting a season two to air during the Summer or Fall season, but we’ll just have to wait and see.  Hopefully, next week we’ll get a some more action.

This week it’s Haruka turn to accept and feel better of herself. She’s feeling a bit self conscious because all the boys are gawking and snickering at her breasts. They went as far as to make a BIGGEST TITTIES AT SCHOOL list…And to make things more complicated, here comes Nayu with her idea to get [...]

Last week on Sora no Woto, Kanata fell ill with malaria, resulting in an experience that strengthened the relationship she has with Rio.  We were introduced to the church, which Rio distrusts.  The episode also confirmed that the mentor for the two girls was the same person.  This week, the anime focuses a bit on fleshing out Noël, who has been in desperate need of the treatment since the start.

The episode starts with Noël once again failing to boot up the sniping system on the tank.  Filicia sends her and Kanata into town for supplies and a new lens.  On the way, Noël displays an incredible level of knowledge about the town.  The glass shop is their first stop, and Kanata once again affirms her perfect pitch ability by identifying the tone the glass makes.  This will prove important in a few minutes.

We get a short montage of supply collection around the town, and finally the two girls are loading the last of the crates into their jeep.  Suddenly, a young boy runs into Noël, followed by Yumina.  The boy yells at them before running off, and Yumina explains he lost his parents in the war.  This drives home that the military isn’t all fun and games, and not all the townspeople may appreciate the outpost.

Finally, we get to the glass maker, Carl, who makes the lenses that Noël has tested in the tank.  The lenses use a material combination that he finds difficult to reproduce.  While he works, Noël talks about her misgivings about the military.  After she passes out, Kanata talks to Carl and has an epiphany of how to play the trumpet.  Her playing wakes Noël up, who remembers her perfect pitch ability.  She can use it to compare the new lenses to the original by the sound they make.

I think this episode was exactly what we needed out of the series.  It expanded the town a little more, and gave Noël’s character a good shot in the arm.  It seems she doesn’t like being around people in general, and I’m curious what made her that way.  In addition, I think it’s good that Kanata can move on a bit after learning how to play better.  The next episode title implies an exploration mission, which I think will reveal a little more of the town’s legend.

Ritalin prescribed Ritsu, who dyed her hair and let her bangs down, along with ever curious Yui go into town for a few supplies for some of the equipment from their K-ON club. Along the way they meet a few of the townsfolk, including one small kid who doesn’t like their music, says it killed [...]

Anzu-chan learns the complexity of love! I can’t get enough of this anime. This anime is pretty simple and laid back, it’s just about kids being kids and the life of a male kindergarten teacher. Sounds boring, but it’s really entertaining and funny. And who can’t love Yamamoto-sensei~!? Her carefree and clueless nature is love~ Kinda wonder what [...]

You guys know I pretty much hate shoujo. The genre’s various mechanisms and archetypes never really captured my attention as much as, say, a well-drawn fight scene in a shounen manga. (I’m a tomboy like that.) But several romance-laden shoujo titles have won my heart over the years, and fortunately, there’s now another one to add to that list. The adorable but realistic 7th Period is a Secret is a hidden gem of the shoujo world, and while it’s no masterpiece, it’s darn good for a three-chapter miniseries. Its art is better than most series of its genre as well, making it a real treat for aesthetic-minded readers.

The school setting is typical enough, but the premise is not: Shun, a fairly normal high school girl, only transferred to her school three months ago but is already well-liked. Underneath all her smiles and laughs, though, she’s pretty worried about people not liking her. Her young and attractive teacher sees right through her after a little while, but can he make things right?

The answer is, of course, yes, because this is a shoujo manga and that’s kinda a given. The series earns cookies from me, though, when it takes the characters on a rollercoaster of misunderstandings, awkwardness, and open-endedness – and yes, that’s in reference to the ending. It’s incredibly vague, but it serves the overall atmosphere of the manga well, especially when one considers the relative abstractness of the characters’ dilemmas and feelings.

Of course, it’s that same abstractness that gets the series into some trouble. A few minor believability issues mar the plot’s otherwise awesome journey, and the length of the miniseries also causes problems. Bits of drama that could’ve been expanded on are swept aside as soon as they’re introduced, and it leaves some questions unanswered – do Shun’s other classmates forgive her? Does Yui find out about her relationship with Jun? Does Jun ever get found out for sneaking to the roof during 7th period?

Well, that last one doesn’t really matter (because the 3rd rule of shoujo is THE SENSEI NEVER GETS IN TORABURU,) and the series’ other minor d0rama flaws are easily overlooked by character-minded readers. Shun, Jun and their relatively unimportant compatriots are capable of making an impact on one’s outlook on shoujo. If read fairly carefully, the manga makes its charms apparent to readers. It appeals to mature fans, both shoujo-loving and not, with original characters with unique dilemmas and worries. It’s too short to be truly awesome, but it’s well worth reading on a rainy day.

CJ’s Rating: 8 out of 10 California rolls

How she hasn’t been fired yet is beyond me! Maybe the principal is being tsun tsun and actually liking Yoshinoya’s SEXY antics! XD This episode [03] we get a more colorful and lively opening sequence. The first two ep just had stars flying across the screen, was a bit bland. The song had it’s cheerfulness, but [...]

That screenshot show my face as I watched this special OVA! It was both entertaining and DELICIOUS~ How long has it been since K-ON! ended? A season? I didn’t expect to miss the antics of the K-ON Club this much. Simply hearing Yui speak and being as carefree as always made me remember how much I [...]

Happens to me all the time. I wake up in the morning, scratch my ass, dash out of the door, and make males fall in love with me by ACCIDENTALLY landing face flat into their crotch. [/total lie] This episode was a bit yaoi. Yaoi alart was in high gear early into the episode, probably scaring [...]