As this year comes to a close, I have been thinking about what shows or works top my “best of” list for 2010. Well, I didn’t think too long when it came to TV shows: The Tatami Galaxy took the title easily. It occurred to me that, in fact, The Tatami Galaxy was not only my pick for 2010, it was the first one to surpass in my eyes 2006′s The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Other shows had come close, including 2007′s Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and 2009/2010′s Bakemonogatari, but The Tatami Galaxy was the first both to match it and to surpass it.

Then it got me really thinking: what was it about these works that had made me hold them in such high regard? One thing that immediately popped out to me was that each one of them had a strong, focused denouement, one that not only provided satisfying closure to the events of the show but also provided a peek into the new beginning of the new beginning of the changed lives of the characters. That last part in particular is quite important; the denouement should not only close out the current story but also acknowledge that life goes on beyond what’s shown on screen. This holds true as well for the show that I see as being greater than any of those mentioned above, FLCL. And for (at least, a classic narrative based show) a show to join the ranks of the elites, to be considered one of the greats, it needs to have such a strong denouement.

(Please note that this post contains spoilers to the endings to Bakemonogatari, The Tatami Galaxy, Strike Witches 2, Angel Beats!, Gunbuster, and various arcs of Amagami SS)

Bakemonogatari was a summer 2009 TV show, but due to delays, its last episode came in the summer of this year. And it was a fine example of a denouement done right. After the climactic encounter between Koyomi and Tsubasa Cat, things return to normal, even if, as Koyomi’s narration stated, things have forever been changed. To drive in the point that this is the end of the story, Meme Oshino leaves, without even saying goodbye, but we’re still treated to the main characters reminiscing about him while exploring his now vacant home. They hardly even exchange words, but their mere actions give that all important sense of closure. And finally, the show ends with the two protagonists, Koyomi and Hitagi, looking to the future to their relationship together. Koyomi’s narration mentions not only this but the fact that he is likely to encounter oddities again – the story of his life is far from over. But he has taken a step forward, and this is a new beginning, where he can face the oddities without Oshino’s help. The show properly ended the threads of the main story while still emphasizing the fact that life goes on.

There were too many great shots in the denouement to Bakemonogatari, but I decided to go with this one. The main characters happily saying goodbye to Oshino in their own way.

The Tatami Galaxy did very much the same thing with its last episode. The climax came, of course, when Watashi leaped to Ozu’s aid, followed behind by a swarm of moths, only to fall into the river. And, just as important, there was him finally returning that doll to Akashi, allowing them to take a step in their relationship. With Watashi having learned his true path to happiness and escaped from the maze of his constantly repeated timelines, he finally gets started on his new, happy life, with Akashi and Ozu both beside him. The show is explicit in that Watashi and Akashi really are in a relationship, but also emphasizes that that relationship is not part of the show (Watashi’s comment that “there is nothing as boring as a story of successful love” both rings true and tells us everything we need to know). Similarly, we see Watashi make peace with Ozu, coming to see him as another human and a friend. Plus, he now gets to turn the tables on Ozu and torment him just as he was tormented. But, importantly, the show only tells us that that’s what is going to happen. The story of the show is over, and the denouement performs its job to show us that what follows is a new beginning.

The final shot of our 3 protagonists, ready to move forward in their lives together. Note Watashi's face, playing the role of Ozu to Ozu.

But it seems to me that this focus on the denouement is something that is all too often ignored by studios that seem happy to build everything up to the climax then call it a day. While a good build up and climax can make a show still be good, not having a proper ending keeps it from being great. There were a few shows this year that confirmed this to me.

Look at this summer’s Strike Witches 2, an otherwise excellent show that was happy with giving us a simple full stop immediately after the climax. The only glimpse at an ending we got was a brief scene of Yoshika taking care of a bird at her clinic back home over the credits. A real ending that showed how the lives of the members of the 501st went on afterward would have left the series on a high note and could have made the show great.

AIC’s other summer show, Amagami SS, had the same problem, but multiplied many times due to its parallel story structure. 2 of the arcs – Kaoru’s and AI’s – ended right after the climax with no closure or even an attempt at trying to show us how this marked the new beginning of their relationship. A couple others – Haruka’s and Tsukasa’s – gave limp attempts with brief “10 years later” scenes that showed the couple only after the real “next story” had occurred. These weren’t real endings; they were either awkwardly placed full stops or lazy failed attempts at providing closure. And though there was certainly a lot more wrong with Amagami SS, its failure to provide a competent denouement to any of its arcs was a major factor in why it is such a poor show.

It's not like this final scene was amazing - certainly not as good as the school gym scene - but it served its purpose and ended the show on a high note.

On the flip side, what about Angel Beats!, a show that was just as full of problems as Amagami SS, but which devoted the entire final episode to the ending, the main characters saying goodbye to each other? Though the show may have been horrible, this final episode gave us some genuinely heartwarming and hilarious moments (I’m thinking Mapo Tofu) between the main characters and an amazing school gym scene as the characters disappeared one by one. And though that last twist involving the shared heart between Kanade and Otonashi was detestable, the very final scene hinting at a new beginning for these 2 main characters left us with hope, instead of the crushing despair that the time we spent watching this horrible show is something we’ll never get back.

It’s commonly said that the ending can ruin or make great a piece of work. At the same time, there’s something to be said for the idea that it’s the journey that matters, not the destination. Of course, the rules of fiction are not set in stone, and this is not a dichotomy. For most works, the rising action, climax, and denouement are all things that matter. But there are works that comfortably break these rules and come out ahead thanks to it. The End of Evangelion and Gunbuster are examples that immediately come to mind. The problem is that such works need to be exceptional in execution to pull this off, and most shows aren’t exceptional. For a narrative based work of fiction to excel, it needs to have a strong denouement, one that provides closure and adequately shows the start of something new. In 2010, The Tatami Galaxy and Bakemonogatari stood as shining examples of just how much a positive impact a strong denouement can have to a show.

Gunbuster didn't NEED no stinking denouement to give us one of the greatest anime endings of all time and induce manly tears across the fandom.

Note:

• Other examples of anime works this past year that were enhanced by good denouements are: Durarara, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.
• Other examples of anime works this past year whose poor denouements took away from the works are: Ookami-san and Seven Companions, Black Rock Shooter, Highschool of the Dead, Kimi ni Todoke, A Certain Scientific Railgun.

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I’m sure you all have had your fair share of sub par gifts. Sure, you may or may not get the new video game console or the newest version of the I-phone, but there is always one thing you can count on, and that is some lame present that you have no use for what so ever. Usually, these types of gifts come from some sort of third aunt, twice removed or cheapskates who are trying to weasel their way out of their holiday obligations, ala George Costanza. The same basic concept applies to the types of characters  found in anime.

Practically the only thing Simon did the entire series

While the list of characters who had no purpose to the actual story of their anime is too long to list, the biggest and most notable lumps of proverbial coal just this year were Majo from Ookami-san, Simon for Durarara!, and Matsushita from Angel Beats. Not only did these characters do nothing in their respective shows, it seemed like they would have more pivotal roles than they actually did. It is like looking forward to Christmas all year round, and then finding out on Christmas day that there is no Santa. Very disappoint.

While I really didn’t have a problem with Majo or Simon’s lack of screen time in their respective series, the excessive amount of minutes that I put into analyzing Angel Beats, and thinking that Matsushita was the one pulling the strings was a waste of my time. I truly thought that the he was the big bad guy given that he just sort of disappeared for several episodes, but in the end, we got some half @ssed explanation saying he was training in the mountains. What’s up with that?

Then again, all of Angel Beats was half @ssed

Call it being trolled, call it grandma giving you socks for Christmas, call it what you will, but misused and misleading characters are a cornerstone of all anime, just like the sucky present is to Christmas.

They say there is no greater love than to give your life on behalf of your friends.  It’s a concept which not only appears in the Bible, but across many great literary works, including The Aeneid.  Really, it’s a bit of a unique trait to have these days as well.  Many look at a spirit of altruism, and by extension self-sacrifice, with disdain.  “I’ve got mine!”  Well, I suppose you do, but did you really get there alone?  Where was I?  Oh yes, self-sacrifice, and perhaps even more selfless is sacrifice on behalf of people you don’t even know.  This, coupled with my penchant for unlikely heroes, has hatched this post.  I warn you, this contains massive spoilers for the game Arc Rise Fantasia.

This post really has nothing to do with the main protagonist of the game.  Instead, it focuses on Niko, the goofy yet lovable sidekick of the game.  Niko is a soldier of the Meridian Empire, but he’s a pretty terrible soldier.  From what the various skits say, his fellow soldiers picked on him constantly.  His superiors disciplined him for his lack of, well, discipline.  In addition, he’s perhaps the biggest coward I’ve seen in an RPG in years.  Half of the boss fights he’s unavailable either because he ran away or got knocked out before the fight even started.  In fact, his continuous retreats cause many problems in the game, including the event that jump-started the game’s conflict.  You could definitely refer to him as a “problem character.”

Yet, despite his continuous shortcomings, L’Arc, our main protagonist, never abandons him.  Sure, he gets miffed about the constant cowardice as well, but they’re friends.  Niko knows this, but he also knows he’s been a burden upon the party since the very beginning.  Eventually he decides to leave and return home, because he just can’t deal with the fighting anymore.  Unfortunately, the fighting just keeps following him.  Since he just can’t get away from it, he joins a resistance sect and acts as a courier.  He gets to stay out of combat, and his successful missions give him a little more confidence.  This leads straight into his first sacrifice.  When the big bad comes to kidnap L’Arc’s mother and use her as bait, he gives himself up instead.

Niko probably figured no one would come to rescue him, and I’m sure he would have been okay with that outcome.  Nope, your party goes after him straight away.  After beating down the head of the resident assassination squad and the patriarch of an entire faith, they finally retrieve him.  Not so fast!  This big bad had a contingency plan.  He activates a weapon to glass the major cities.  To their horror, the party can’t stop the weapon from firing.  Of all people, Niko has a plan.  The party runs after him, and gets as far as the control room.  Wait, is that an engine firing up?

They quickly patch into the communication channels.  There’s Niko in the hangar, jacking a ship and preparing to sortie.  The only way to stop the weapon from firing at this point is to destroy it.  Not a whole lot of options exist, so he’s going to take the largest object he can find and ram it.  Even to the very end, he’s still a coward.  He can barely talk to his friends, and just cuts off the link instead.  He’s sorry he’s always been a burden, even prompting this crazy rescue mission.  For once, he’s running into the fire.  In one action, at the cost of his life, he saves tens of thousands.

What measure is a hero, really?  You could ask a hundred people and every person would give you a different answer.  I think it all boils down to one criterion though.  To be a hero is to give of yourself above and beyond the call of duty.  Arc Rise Fantasia did a lot of things wrong in their storytelling, but they hit this one right on the head.  Anyone can be a hero.  Even if you are the biggest bumbling coward in the universe.

So this is a bit of a cheat, as it’s about something from 2000, not 2010. It’s about something exactly 10 years ago, in fact, as today, December 21, 2010, is still the 10th anniversary of Gainax’s release of the 5th episode of FLCL, Brittle Bullet. This is part of a series of posts I’m making on looking back at FLCL 10 years later. Like all my other posts, I opted not to rewatch the episode for the post and to write based only on memory instead. You can read the other posts here: (1 & 2: Fooly Cooly and Firestarter) (3: Marquis de Carabas) (4: Full Swing).

I see this as a bit of an odd episode. It was right in the middle of the tour de force that was the entire 2nd half of FLCL, yet it didn’t have the same magic of episode 4 or the significance of being the true climax of episode 6. Still, this episode was a major part of the reason that the last half of FLCL was as amazing as it had been, and it provided some of the best action sequences in the show while also pushing the plot along.

What got me about the episode at first was the action. It was full of it, from the opening BB gunfight between Naota and his father, to Amarao’s encounter with Haruko at the barber shop, to the climactic scene in which Haruko, dressed up as Gainax’s old Daicon girl, battled it out against the gigantic gunslinging hand robot.

I remember fondly the John Woo style scene at the barbershop, in which Haruko decimated Amarao’s troops with ease (speaking of John Woo, I loved the reference to him at the beginning of the episode, when the Nandaba family was watching some action movie on TV in which doves suddenly start swarming everyone, eventually escaping from the TV and entering their living room). One shot that stayed with me was when she was shown dodging bullets, not by avoiding them per se, but rather by changing the shape of her body to have holes where the bullets would hit. Or what about the scene just before, when Haruko cleanly sliced in half Amarao’s bullets using nothing but a pair of shaving razors? Talk about fucking badass.

This single take sequence is one of my favorites in any anime.

Of course, if you want badassery, what about taking down a gunslinging hand robot while riding a bass guitar like a hoverboard and using a slingshot as the weapon? Haruko’s devil may care attitude as she performed beautiful acrobatics, flying around and shooting and running on the gunslinger’s gun was a joy to watch. As was her display of more of her unique bullet dodging abilities. There was a great humorous touch of realism as well, as the oversize shells from the robot’s guns fell right into the path of Amarao and Kitsurubami (those shells actually reminded me a lot of Gainax’s earlier masterpiece Neon Genesis Evangelion, in which the gigantic humanoid robots got proportionately sized tools and objects). And of course the climax was distinctly FLCL, featuring Canti pulling out a glowing guitar from his face as both Haruko and Amarao, watching in awe, yelling out in unison, “That’s Atomsk’s Gibson EB Zero, 1961 edition!” And just as the all of The Pillows’s Crazy Sunshine played in the background during the final action sequence of the previous episode, their Blues Drive Monster played through this one, providing upbeat, energetic accompaniment to the equally playful scene taking place.

One of the truly iconic shots from this show. Let it never be said that FLCL was subtle.

I haven’t even mentioned its beautiful use of guns for transitions. Gunshots were used to connect many scenes, from the opening BB gunfight to a flashback of them watching an action movie the night before, from Amarao and Haruko’s initial exchange at the barbershop to Mamimi shooting Naota with the BB Uzi, from Kitsurubami freaking out on Canti back to the completion of Amarao and Haruko’s exchange at the barbershop, and even Ninamori seeing the dumped and depressed Mamimi through the green squirt gun she won via the aforementioned popsicle.

I would be remiss not to mention the famous South Park parody scenes. They were stuff just out of left field and helped add to the crazy, surreal feeling that was so important to the FLCL experience. It didn’t occur to me until a later viewing, but the latter scene, in which Naota played the role of Kenny, unable to produce anything more than muffled sounds when talking to Mamimi, may have been a foreshadowing of how his ego was about to get killed in a couple of gruesome ways in the rest of the episode.

It's funny that now in 2010, 10 years later, Gainax once again parodied South Park with the beach episode of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. Were there any others in between?

But more significant than all the heart pounding  action was the intense character development taking place throughout the episode. One scene that I didn’t fully understand the first time around was the imagery of fellatio created by Ninamori sucking on her popsicle. Of course, it represented the overwhelming praise Naota was receiving from his friends in that scene. But what of when she bit the popsicle off? Did it show how Ninamori was one who had not been taken in by the hype and didn’t see him as some super hero? Or was it a foreshadowing of what would happen later in the episode, when Naota would be taken back down to Earth by learning that, in Mamimi’s eyes, he was still not equal to his brother?

That was the heart of this episode: Naota’s realization that even after everything he did throughout the show, to Mamimi, he was still nothing more than “Ta-kun,” the little brother to the one she really loved, a replaceable substitute. He was brimming with confidence as he forcibly dragged her to the cafe then tried to get a kiss, only to be rejected. But the breaking point was when they were on top of the gunslinger, Mamimi yelling out for help over and over again not to him but to his brother, “Tasuku-senpai,” even though he was right there next to her. His anger blew up then, and it was clear that he was trying to hide the immense pain he felt from Mamimi rejecting him so completely.

This was easily one of my favorite and most powerful moments in the show. It perfectly delivered the anger and confusion that the adolescent Naota must have felt at this rejection.

It was a pretty powerful moment. The episode ended with Naota getting rejected by another female, this time Haruko, who carelessly landed right on top of him to get next to the awakened Canti as she looked on with admiration. What this episode showed both to Naota and to the viewer was that despite everything, Naota was nothing more than a tool to these women whom he liked and thought cared for him. If the ending of Full Swing showed Naota hitting his zenith, the ending to Brittle Bullet showed him on his way to rock bottom.

At the beginning of the episode, Haruko was on top of Naota, wearing nothing but a towel, in bed. Here they are again, but in a very different way.

Looking back now, it’s hard to believe just how chock full of things this episode was. It started with the threads from the previous episode of Naota and his father competing over Haruko and Mamimi’s disappointment at seeing that Naota was one to swing the bat and ended with Naota being dumped by two women whom he thought liked him. In between, we got to learn a little more about Amarao’s past with Haruko – how he had been unceremoniously dumped by her when he was no longer a use to her – we got to see the effects of Atomsk’s manliness in Kitsurubami falling in love with Canti, and we were finally treated to the first glimpse of the “final boss” since the first episode, the red Canti without Naota within.

But more than anything, the nonstop wild action was what I took away from this episode on my first viewing. It was just plain fun, and it was a reminder that, for all the notoriety it gained with the ending to the Evangelion series, Gainax was an action oriented studio, and even if it wouldn’t do it in the most traditional of ways, it could still blow your socks off with its action. And even though, again, this episode didn’t have the power or significance of either of the episodes sandwiching it, it was a key component of what had made the last half of FLCL so special, and the Blues Drive Monster scene is one that easily stands toe to toe with any other action sequence in anime.

I leave you with another one of my all time favorite shots, so cool that Gainax decided to show it twice, from different angles!

Wednesday, December 8.  3:45 AM.  My cell phone goes off.  I groggily turn over to flip it off and try to go back to sleep.

3:46 AM.  My cell phone goes off again.  I resist the urge to throw it across the room.  I set the alarm.  I should probably heed it.  I somehow manage to roll out of bed and walk over to turn on my computer.  After a few restless minutes waiting for it to login, I navigate my way over to Ustream.  Why on earth am I up at this ungodly hour?  Well, Utada Hikaru announced her intention to go on hiatus at the end of this year.  She decided she would go all out on her professional career before that happened.  While it’s morning here, it’s night over there, and the powers that be have decided to stream her farewell concert over the Internet and to theatres all over Japan.  What, you think I would miss this?

Now, if you’ve never attended a live concert before, there’s big difference between being there in person and watching it on a computer screen.  For one, you can’t “feel” the music.  I’m actually serious.  Sound waves do have a force.  I recall at the MELL concert from 2009, even the floor would mildly vibrate on the hard hits of the guitars and drums.  Secondly, you really lack the energy you can get from the crowds.  It’s one thing to sit in a chair by yourself watching a performance, it is quite another to be surrounded by a few thousand people who are also interested.  In addition, you have technical glitches.  I think Ustream did an admirable job of keeping their services going, considering the viewership peaked out at about 100000 viewers.

Enough, let’s get on to the actual concert.  The first portion of her performance was more of a formal affair.  Utada descends from the ceiling on a platform garbed in a poofy dress with a side-skirt.  From my understanding, it’s similar to one she wore on her 2006 tour.  In addition to her techno core, she’s got a string octet backing her for the first eight songs.   Naturally, most of the songs she sings for this set are softer.  She kicks off with one of her new singles, Goodbye Happiness, which seems oddly appropriate for the concert.  She then immediately moves into Traveling, one of my favorite songs, and as upbeat as we get for a while.  Perhaps the best piece is another new single Hymn a Lamour, which she sings with only piano accompaniment.  She then sits at the piano herself to play Sakura Drops, which is also a beautiful song.  Then she and the string section slowly sink into the stage, and the techno crew starts playing Eclipse while we wait for the second half to begin.

When Utada comes back, she’s casualed out a bit into a simpler tip and pants.  She’s also brought two guitarists and a set of drums with her.  It’s time to get more into her rock inspired songs, and she starts off with Passion.  All throughout this set, it feels like she’s got a lot more energy, and the crowd’s gotten more into it to match.  The energy really takes off when she starts playing Show Me Love, which is perhaps the hardest piece I’ve ever heard from her.  A little later she’s got Boku wa Kuma, which is one of the cutest songs I know, and she is acting all upbeat and goofy while singing it.  Immediately after this she goes to play on the piano again, and the audience gets a little laugh when she can’t manage to fix the mic stand for her singing.  Toward the end of her main set, she sings perhaps her best known song, Hikari, and it’s easily the strongest performance of the night.  She finishes off with Nijiiro Basu, and again disappears from the stage.

Of course, this is Hikki, and this is her farewell concert, she’s not going to go away without an encore.  Come back she does, for a three song setlist.  She’s casualed out even more as well.  Now she’s wearing a Kuma shirt and a pair of rolled up jeans.  Tonight is actually the 30^th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, and as tribute she sings Across the Universe.  Honestly, I don’t think she could have picked a better song for the night, and she nails it perfectly.  Then the entire band pops up to play Can’t Wait Til’ Christmas.  She spends a little time introducing everyone who has backed her on this wonderful night.  They finish by playing Time Will Tell, a fitting song to end on in light of her hiatus.  Afterward, she takes a slow lap around the stage to the applause of her adoring fans.  Then she walks across the platform to the theatre exit, stops to give them one last goodbye, then heads right out the door.

I feel like Utada has been a consummate performer throughout her career.  The numbers really speak for themselves.  She has three albums in the Top-10 all time list in Japan, and 12 singles reached number one on the Oricon Singles chart.  She managed to build a massively successful career without having to resort to a lot of sex appeal like some artists.  She even generated interest in the West with her theme song contributions to the Kingdom Hearts series.  Utada never pigeonholed herself into any single genre.  She could perform her slow, moving ballads just as well as her techno and rock influenced pieces.  She even has a goofy side, which is most evident in the video for Goodbye Happiness.  Her music has touched the lives of a lot of people, I’m sure, and now she can take a well deserved rest.  I’m looking forward to whatever work she does in the future, even if it’s no longer music.  Take care, Hikki, we’ll miss you.

Screencaps courtesy of Plastic Candy.  Give them some love. :]

Seeing as how I’m about to finish grad school here in another 5 months, one of the main things that has preoccupied my thoughts is how I will be able to get a job. As a result, it seems like society has certain expectations of me when it comes to things like my hygiene, clothes, and appearance in general. Damn you, society. And at one point in time, I thought that even my sanctuary of anime was in cahoots with society to get me to become more presentable. But due to some recent anime, and (more importantly) general life experience, I see that this isn’t the case.

First,  don’t think that I don’t believe in good hygiene. Being semi presentable on a regular basis isn’t a bad thing, and there have been plenty of anime that have depicted this line of thinking over the past few years. One example that quickly comes to mind is the Genshiken OVA episode that found Madarame so out of his element in a fashionable department store. The rest of the episode was, more or less, devoted to the idea that people could have their “weird” hobbies, but could also put effort into their appearance (an idea that was reiterated throughout the rest of that series). Unfortunately, that episode probably didn’t hit home with me as much as it probably should have for a couple of reasons.

First, it aired over three years ago, so I was understandably in a different stage of my college career with a totally different mindset. Secondly, it seemed that the show was, in a way, making me choose between the things I liked, like anime, and things I didn’t want to waste much time or money on. Now while this is obviously not true, I got that feeling when watching Genshiken. That’s why I’m glad that this past year there have been some really good shows that tackled this issue without tackling anime in the process.

One instance of this was in Psychic Detective Yakumo’s sixth episode. Though there wasn’t anything truly unique about this episode, one of its subplots focused on how Haruka needed to better present herself to others if she wanted to get a boyfriend, and its timing with the circumstances in my life made me take note. Now, you could debate that there is a difference between attracting potential boy/girlfriends and potential employers, but there are a lot of similarities, even if the end goal is markedly different.

I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I can come up with these realizations on my own time, but it is still nice to see that some shows, like Yakumo and Kuragehime, do recognize these issues, and attempt to provide real solutions (forgetting about the ghosts and such in Yakumo). Now, did the lack of an anime centric storyline in these series make me take note of these themes? Or, taking the reverse approach, would I have noticed these shows a few years back when my state of mind was completely different from what it is today? I can’t really say for sure, and I suppose that over time I’ll probably reorganize my thoughts on the stuff in this post, but the message nonetheless is clear. We all change, and hopefully we change for the better.

On that note, I’d recommend catching up on Psychic Detective Yakumo if you haven’t been watching, as it’s a well crafted, fast paced story that is definitely worth your time. Of course, if you haven’t seen Genshiken yet, I would be obligated to question your anime watching credentials.

I’ll start this post off with a confession: I have a thing for side characters. You know, the ones who don’t get as much of a turn in the spotlight as the lucky main few; the ones who aren’t the stars of their series. Maybe they’re the ones who should be or could be, though, and at the very least, they help the stars shine brighter. I love these characters. I’m not sure why, either. Perhaps it’s that the lack of character development allows me to theorise endlessly about potential hidden depths. Or perhaps it’s just the fact that if a character has less screen-time, there’s less potential for them to be irritating. Regardless, this side character fascination is certainly there. Throughout 2010, we were presented with a wealth of delicious flat characters – ‘flat’ in the sense of a lack of character depth, of course – in anime, and I want to take a look at some of them here.

I suppose the girl featuring in my current avatar is as good a place to start as any, eh? Aoi Yamada of Working!! is largely a mystery. What we do know about her is as follows: she’s a klutzy, incredibly blunt, drama-mongering, supposedly sixteen-year-old girl who fancies herself a ‘super waitress’, has a huge collection of disguises and is inexplicably good at bugging people. Aoi is also a fantastic comedic side character. She’s entertaining and charming, and she also brings out the funniest in everyone around her, whether they’re members of the main cast or not. To quote what I said in my final post on Working!!, “I honestly think that her addition [to the cast] directly or indirectly led to each character’s funniest moment of the series”. One more Working!! character who definitely deserves mention is Maya Matsumoto, who only had her first real lines in the last episode of the series. Her obsession with normality was what set her apart from her bizarrely-behaved coworkers… and it was also what makes her fit perfectly among them, as it caused her to act as strangely as the best of them.

Another creator of hilarity and easily one of my favourite side characters of the year was Railgun‘s Mitsuko Kongou. Mitsuko toed both the fanservice character and gag character lines, but got a bit of development as well and a crowning moment of awesome (or two, arguably) to boot. She’s essentially presented as the ojou-sama with the giant ego. She’s confident to the point of boastfulness, and self-assured to the point of narcissism, and I loved her for it. We got hints, though, too, of her private persona being quite different to this – she seemed a lot milder and kinder to her friends, albeit not less boastful, telling them stories about how she single-handedly brought down one of Railgun‘s primary antagonists with ease. I think she’s fantastic, but I don’t at all think she could have carried Railgun. (For the most part, it was too laid-back for all Mitsuko all the time.) She was, however, both an excellent rival to Kuroko and an excellent unknown rival/self-proclaimed friend to Mikoto.

Sometimes, side characters don’t have terribly much to say or do. If we’re lucky, though, whatever they do end up saying or doing is hilarious. Angel Beats! had TK with his nonsensical English backed up by an array of dance moves, Seitokai Yakuindomo had Satomi Arai playing another schoolgirl lesbian in the snarky and slightly depraved Ranko Hata, and B Gata H Kei had the permanently cheerful and cheerfully frank Mami Misato. But perhaps the ultimate scene-stealer of the year was Milky Holmes‘ unforgettable Twenty. Milky Holmes actually had a few characters like this – another notable example being Arsene/Henriette’s chest, which seemed to have a mind of its own - but even in a show full of people with little tethering them to reality, Twenty managed to stand out the most. Whether he was stripping at an alarming pace, showing off his incredibly pointy nipples to the camera, moaning and screaming in Engrish about how beautiful he was, or going on a date with a hug pillow of himself, he demanded attention.

There were the usual side character duos, too. Occult Academy‘s sardonic janitor Smile and cheerful goth JK begged many questions. Why were the two of them always together? How was JK able to consume so much pudding? Why was Smile permanently wearing a smiley face badge, and what the hell was up with his giant spanner? Even more mysterious were Durarara!!‘s Erika Karisawa and Walker Yumasaki. Prone to fast-paced banter and off-the-wall conversations on topics ranging from fandom to philosophy, the two also displayed a wide variety of skills and prominent sadistic streaks. In addition, they made an excellent couple.

Lastly, we had – or should that be ‘have’, given she’s in a still-ongoing show? – Ruri Makina of Star Driver. … Yeah, she’s kind of only here because she reminds me of Utena‘s Wakaba, somehow. I’d love for her to get even comparable character development to Wakaba; I really want there to be more to her than “Her specialty is meat and potatoes!”. Star Driver, I have faith that you’ll deliver. Don’t let me down!

Okay, that concludes day five of Borderline Hikikomori’s twelve days of Christmas. Who were your favourite anime side characters of 2010?

If you pay attention to the little author link at the top of each post, you might have noticed I haven’t been around very much lately.  I started Bakuman, and then… I just stopped.  It’s not that I stopped writing about Bakuman, I stopped watching it, and anime, altogether.  A lot of stuff has gone on in my life.  School started up again, but it in itself has never demanded my time and motivation so heavily.  I also had a job to take, which burned a lot of my energy.  On top of it, I had to juggle a relationship and other personal issues.  To say it’s been a drain on my resources would be a tremendous understatement.  We’ve gotten back to the 12 Days series of posts again, and while I came up with two ideas straight away, I had trouble coming up with the third.  Then I started thinking about the episode 11 of Angel Beats.

The show was pretty popular, both in viewership and the aniblogosphere, so I imagine you have some sense of the plot.  For as long as anyone can remember, the SSS brigade has fought.  Who are they fighting against?  Well, they think they’re fighting against God.  How do they know they’re fighting against God?  In all likelihood, no one else could possibly do these things.  Why do they want to fight against God?  Quite obviously they don’t want to disappear.  How do they know they’ll disappear?  Because other people did!  What’s so bad about disappearing?  Um… Shut up!  And so they go, day in, day out, fighting, dying, and respawning in a vicious cycle of violence.  For what purpose?  So they don’t disappear?  They can’t even definitively answer some basic questions!

Again, they’ve been fighting since they can remember.  They got so wrapped up in their “daily lives” that they never stopped for a second to reflect on what they are doing.  When their friends and allies finally disappeared from the world, they didn’t do it in pain or anguish.  They had finally become satisfied.  They went out with a smile.  Maybe disappearing is a good thing.  Maybe it’s for the best.  Well, they certainly got a kick in the pants when those shadows started to attack them.  Yuri issues an order for everyone to think about what each person really want to do with him or herself.  Do they want to stick around and continue to fight, or can they make peace with themselves and their lives and try to disappear themselves?

The key here is each person had to come up with an answer to the question.  To do this, they had to sit down and really think about what they’ve done in the past and what they want to do in the future.  Each of them takes the time to reflect in their own way.  Noda stares at a photo of the person he admires most.  TK dances the night away on his personal stage.  Fujimaki spends the night in intense prayer.  The list goes on, and in the end, they all come to a decision, perhaps punctuated by Christ publishing his final blog post.

Much of the time, we get swept up by the current of life, much like the members of the SSS.  We have so many aspects we feel like we have to juggle that we end up losing control over our lives.  We don’t take the time to think.  We just keep on reacting.  While you can certainly survive in this manner, is it really living if your life becomes completely reactionary?  For my first contribution to this series, I want to encourage you to take the time to reflect.  Think about everything you have done in the past week, the past month, the past year.  Decide for yourself if you are satisfied with the way your life is shaping up.  And if you’re not satisfied?  Decide what you plan to do to change it.  Don’t get swept away by the current.  Jump in your canoe and start paddling.

As for me?  Well, a lot has happened, some good, some bad.  Some things I wish had ended differently.  Overall though, I’m happy with how things have played out.  During the week that I wrote this post, I’ve been far more productive than I have been in the past three months.  I think that in itself speaks volumes for where I am right now.  I’ve worked out everything for the best in the end, and I’m ready to launch into the final semester of my university studies.  I hope you all determine that things are going well too.

I rarely, if ever, read manga.  However, there is one type of genre that forces me to break this unofficial rule of mine, and that is shoujo-ai/yuri. So for this 12 days of Christmas thing, I thought that I would talk about one of my favorites from this genre, Girl Friends, especially considering that it only ended a couple of months ago (There are spoilers, but I tried to avoid talking about anything too specific).

Now I know some of you must of read that introduction, and then your eyes, as if by some unseen force, were drawn to the word yuri with only one thing in mind. Unfortunately, this post isn’t going to do anything to relieve you of your fix, but suffice it to say that some of the chapters in this series probably would. Instead, Girl Friends truly shines by depicting the relationship of Mari and Akko, from its inception to its angst filled middle to its ultimately satisfying end. The one thing that I love about this manga, when compared to many of its counterparts in this genre, is that neither of these characters has much experience with love when the story starts, nor do they have any idea about what their ultimate preference in gender will be.

Thus, the story is able to combine two coming of age/revelation stories into one. Of course, the standard manga romance issues still arise, and the transitioning of their friendship into one of a romantic nature is chock full of misunderstandings, moping, blushing, and near  misses. However, considering that most teenagers have trouble expressing their feelings, and the fact that this duo needed to overcome a pretty big social norm, I don’t really have a problem with what many may perceive as trolling by the mangaka.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have some drawbacks, especially for the male readers among you. While I wouldn’t say that the series relies on an appreciation for women’s fashion and beauty, many of the character’s conversations seemingly end up focusing on, and educating the reader about, the finer points of women’s fashion and the torture that is dieting. Additionally, the manga probably has far too many characters for its own good. It often seemed that the story drifted away from its main purpose to focus on some of these characters, and while they did provide context for what Mari and Akko were going through, it occasionally crossed the line into annoying.

Then there was one of the things that made this series unique, but also endlessly frustrating. The story utilizes train of thought storytelling(or as Keima would say, an inner voice) as a way for us to understand what Mari and Akko are thinking, but the only problem is that we never get to hear both of their thoughts at the same time. While this concept is endearing, in that it lets the reader identify with the character’s feelings, I almost always found my self, especially in the later chapters, only wanting to know what the other was thinking, which was frustrating to say the least.

So if you haven’t put Girl Friends on your list of things to do over the holiday, I’d recommend it. As for the cell phone batteries part, suffice it to say that one was part of a very good and well-rounded, yet understated ending that I won’t forget anytime soon.

I first came across Supercell the same way I’m sure many people have: the ending theme to 2009′s hit Bakemonogatari, Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari (The Story You Didn’t Know). I remember being captured immediately by the opening guitar melody, then Nagi’s gorgeous singing about 10 seconds in. It was one of those songs that I fell in love with immediately. It was only natural that I immediately looked up just who this “ryo” and “nagi” as mentioned in the ED sequence were. Since then, Suprecell has quickly become one of my favorite bands, and 2010 was a fine year for the band. We’ll look back at some of my favorite songs that it released this year.

Supercell’s Wiki page has plenty of info on it, including the peculiarity that there is actually just one musician and no performers in this band. This peculiarity makes talking about Supercell a bit of a strange endeavor. Do you use the plural pronoun “they” when describing it, as is the standard for bands? Or do you use the singular pronoun “he,” because the actual music is composed and written by just one person? Furthermore, when Ryo does a piece of work, such as the background music to the OVAs Cencoroll and Black Rock Shooter, do you say that Supercell did it, since, for all intents and purposes, it’s equivalent, or not, because the rest of Supercell, the visual artists, weren’t involved?

I don’t know. I’ll refer to Supercell using the pronoun “it,” as it is a single unit, a band, after all, and I guess it makes sense to separate the works that Supercell did, which includes visual art (in the form of nothing more than album covers, really) and the ones that Ryo himself was only involved in. It’s all very confusing and, really, it doesn’t matter. I can’t think of any other musical band with one visual-arts-only member, much less where the vast majority are visual-arts-only.

Then there’s the issue of capitalization. Traditionally, names like Supercell, Ryo, and Nagi are capitalized, but every official text that I’ve seen have been all lowercase. Of course, that’s something that resonates with me, since my screenname lvlln is meant to be in all lowercase. Lvlln just looks weird. So in short, just writing about this band introduces some unique issues. I’ll stick with capitalizing them as expected. It makes the text easier to read.

With 2009 being the year Supercell went professional, 2010 was its sophomore year, and what a year it was! It strengthened its ties to the anime world with another anime ending theme, the opening theme to a PSP game, the ending theme to Type-Moon’s new (now-delayed) visual novel Witch on the Holy Night, and most recently, the theme song to a manga. Not to mention the extremely hyped but ultimately disappointing Black Rock Shooter anime, which was based off its song by the same title, and for which Ryo composed the music.

2 of these songs continued what I think of as Supercell’s “unrequited love” series of songs, which started way back in December of 2008 with its upload of Hajimete no Koi ga Owaru Toki (When the First Love Ends) and continued with the aforementioned Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari.

Anyway, here are 5 of my favorite releases by Supercell from 2010, in chronological order: Sayonara Memories, Kocchi Muite Baby, Utakata Hanabi, This Star Sparkling Night, and Hero.

Sayonara Memories

Sayonara Memories, released in February of this year, was Supercell’s 2nd single, its followup to Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari and also featured nagi on vocals. Though the single had 2 more tracks, the title track really was the only good song among the 3. I consider this to be the 3rd of Supercell’s “unrequited love” series.

Like Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari, Sayonara Memories was accompanied by a music video that showed the story of the song being told. This video was a bit more traditional, though, in that it featured clips of the band actually singing the song interspersed with clips from the story. The thing to note here is that the singer (and main character) in the video is not Nagi, the actual singer! Sony is clearly aware of the mystique of having Supercell’s performers remain semi-anonymous behind their online screennames, and they hired an actor (Sakura Ema) to play the part.

In more ways than just the video, Sayonara Memories felt a lot like Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari part 2. If you read the Wikipedia articles on both songs, you’d be hard pressed to tell them apart:

“Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari” is a J-pop song with instrumentation from electric and bass guitars, drums and piano. According to a book of sheet music published by Yamaha Corporation, it is set in common time, and moves at a quick tempo of 165 beats per minute in the A major key throughout the song. The introduction starts with only piano accompanying Nagi’s vocals, and uses a bridge with added guitars and drums to transition into the first verse. Another bridge is used between the first and second verses; both verses use the same music with different lyrics. After the third verse, a break is employed, followed by the fourth verse. After a short outro, an instrumental coda is used to close the song. … The lyrics tell the story of a girl with an unrequited love who was never able to convey her feelings to the person she loved.
Source

“Sayonara Memories” is a J-pop song with instrumentation from electric and bass guitars, drums, piano and violin. According to a book of sheet music published by Yamaha Corporation, it is set in common time, and moves at a quick tempo of 160 beats per minute in the B major key throughout the song. The introduction starts with only piano accompanying Nagi’s vocals, and uses a bridge with added guitar, drums and violin to transition into the first verse. The song continues with the second and third verses, which also serves as the chorus melody, before employing another bridge. The musical structure used in the first three verses is repeated for the next three with different lyrics. After a short seventh verse, a break is employed, followed by the eighth verse. After a short instrumental outro, the song ends with Nagi singing “Aa, yatto ieta” (ああ　やっと言えた?, “Ah I finally said it”), referring to a love confession at the end of the eighth verse.
…
The lyrics tell the story of a girl with an unrequited love who was never able to convey her feelings to the person she loved.
Source

(emphasis mine)

…yeah. One difference I noticed was that Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari has no chorus, whereas Sayonara Memories has one, a quick shout of “Sayonara Memories!” reminiscent of the short choruses of “Melt!” in Melt and “Arigato, sayonara” in When the First Love Ends. However, in all those songs, no line other than the short 2 or 1 word choruses are repeated, giving them that stream-of-consciousness storytelling feel. Story-wise, the trip to see the shooting stars was replaced with the daily walk to school (fitting for the shift in theme from summer to spring), and middle school was moved to high school, but they’re pretty much the same songs. Not that that’s a bad thing, since they’re both great songs. And though Sayonara Memories has no ties to anime, it is clearly using the same tropes and themes seen in many of today’s high school anime.

Kocchi Muite Baby (Come Over Here Baby)

Supercell’s first Hatsune Miku song since When the First Love Ends was released in July on a collaborative single along with Livetune’s Yellow, as the opening song for the PSP game Hatsune Miku: Project Diva 2nd. Though I don’t like the song that much – it’s decent, not great – I do respect that Ryo was finally exploring a theme other than unrequited love with a major song. Instead, this song has a more aggressive, playful tone, similar to that of Love and Roll, the second track from the Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari single.

Plus, both the game’s opening video and the in-game animation were great. The song is one of the most fun to play in the game, because of the fast, dynamic camera shots and fun choreography. It also has Ryo’s trademark scream, which he’s used in all sorts of songs including Melt, World is Mine, and Oishite Ageru (the only one officially released with Nagi). At 3:30, it’s a more typical pop song length and much shorter than Supercell’s other main songs which tend to run over 5 minutes.

Utakata Hanabi

With this, Supercell returned to the anisong world, as a 90 second cut (just 1/4 of the whole song!) of it was used as the ending theme for a series of episodes of Naruto Shippuden. I’m no fan of Naruto, but the ending sequence accompanying this song was great, literally putting Sakura in the position of the singer and even having her lips mouth the song at parts.

Utakata Hanabi – literally Water Bubble Fireworks but commonly translated as Ephemeral Fireworks or Transient Fireworks – has the singer reminiscing about a summer festival when she spent the evening watching fireworks with her love. Like other songs in Supercell’s unrequited love series of songs, the details aren’t clear, but the singer’s feelings are, as is the importance of this moment in her memory.

The tone a bit of a departure from the other songs in the series, in that this song does not end with hope for the future and letting go of the past. Rather, the singer seems unable to let go of her sorrow, perpetually stuck in that moment that she knows she can never experience again. The overall mood of the song is also much more somber than When the First Love Ends, Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari or Sayonara Memories. The tempo remains a slow burn throughout, never speeding up to the high tempos of the other 3.

Utakata Hanabi also got a music video which you can see above. It was the first not to feature live actors since Supercell’s Nico Nico Douga days. The art and animation style is unique and somewhat psychedelic, and it perfectly complements the song, showing us depictions of both that summer evening that the singer is remembering and how the singer is feeling now as she remembers. It took me a few viewings to warm up to it, but the way it visually represents the lyrics to the song is truly compelling.

Due to the slower pacing and more depressing mood of this song, it’s not quite as enjoyable as the other songs in the unrequited love series, but it’s a great piece of music nonetheless. However, it really got outdone by the second track in the single:

Hoshi ga Mattataku Konna Yoru Ni (This Star Sparkling Night)

Technically, this is the 2nd “side A” to the single, though it is still the 2nd track and wasn’t released to the public until the CD release in late August. You can read the lyrics that I translated. It is the ending theme song to Type-Moon’s new visual novel Witch on the Holy Night, which was delayed from its original 9/30 release date to Christmas Eve of this year.

This was my preferred song from this split single, and I believe it shows Ryo taking a major step away from the “unrequited love” theme that he had been pounding on so hard. Even his early songs, including the hit Melt as well as the less well known That One Second of Slow Motion, played on that theme.

Instead, this song was all about the new beginning of a relationship. The subject material is reminiscent of Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari, in that it’s about the singer looking up at the stars with the boy she has a crush on. Unlike that song, this one is not about looking back to that day with regret, but rather about being there now, at the moment, when the two begin to fall in love. Along with the general theme of the lyrics, the faster, more upbeat tempo contrasts greatly with the depressing mood of Utakata Hanabi and makes it just a more fun song to listen to. Instead of Nagi’s beautiful voice being used to express regret at the first love, we get to hear her express the joy of the first love.

I find it noteworthy that this song actually has a real chorus, the full line, “On this star sparkling night.” The line is always followed by a different line each time, as is the tradition for choruses in Supercell’s songs. Also noteworthy is that at 4:28, it is over a minute shorter than Supercell’s 3 “unrequited love” songs with Nagi, 2 of which are over 6 minutes long and the shortest (Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari) clocking in at 5:41.

Hero

Hero has yet to be released commercially, only being released on the internet at the end of November. Like This Star Sparkling Night, I posted a translation of the lyrics to this.

Also like that song, this is about budding first love. We get to hear Ryo and Nagi expand their horizons further by having the singer be a male this time, with a crush on a girl. Nagi has quite a high voice which is part of her appeal, but somehow she manages to make it sound boyish enough for most of the song, raising it to make the parts when she’s singing the girls’ speech stand out.

Hero is the latest song to be released by Supercell, and that it continues the theme from This Star Sparkling Night gives me hope that Ryo has gotten out of the rut of making the same “unrequited love” song over and over again. All those songs have been excellent and remain in my playlist to this day, but it’s good to see his works evolve. Of course, there’s the risk that this is the new theme he’ll latch onto, but This Star Sparkling Night and Hero have already differentiated themselves a bit with the different perspectives, and I wouldn’t mind hearing what ideas Ryo has to play on this theme.

So all in all, even discounting that horrible Black Rock Shooter OVA, 2010 was a pretty huge year for Supercell. Still no full albums since its first one, but 1 online release plus 3 CD singles (and another song called Kibou no Neiro to be released at Comiket the end of this month) is certainly nothing to sneeze at. More importantly, the releases have continued to impress me. 2 anime from 2009 for which it did the ending themes – Bakemonogatari and Cencoroll – are set to get sequels next year, and I’m hoping that Supercell once again gets that responsibility for the sequels. Either way, Supercell has managed to tie itself to some very powerful and popular companies, including Sony, SEGA, Shaft, Ordet, Good Smile Company, and Type-Moon, and I’m confident we’ll be hearing more hits out of it in the coming years and more.

For the fourth year in a row, the authors of Borderline Hikikomori will write a series of twelve posts for the “Twelve Days of Anime” project. Each day, from today up until Christmas, one of us will share an anime- or manga-related moment or event from 2010 that we found special. Today, I’ll be kicking things off with a post on the Saki manga reaching its national tournament arc. Fair warning: excessive fanboying is involved. Enjoy this, and enjoy the rest of the posts in the series!

In September last year, the anime adaptation of Saki ended on a cliffhanger; we essentially got an extended preview of the series’ national tournament. We saw new characters, new special moves, and, of course, the same Yu-Gi-Oh!-esque tile effects. And then we received an on-screen message that said ‘we’re just getting started, yay~’ and things finished. The wait for the nationals was frustrating. It was made more frustrating by the fact that the Saki anime had gone far ahead of the manga by the time it finished. There were delays to the manga, too, before a series of set-up chapters. The wait stretched out further. And then, finally, earlier this year, the nationals began.

Before that, though, the characters introduced in the first part of the manga – the members of the teams Kiyosumi fought against in the qualifiers – were fleshed out further. The relationships between the various schools’ team members were some of what made the series so much fun (the yuri undertones helped as well, of course), and it was great to see them looked at in greater depth. Particularly lovely were the more subtle friendships that’d developed between characters; you got a sense that the girls had found a sense of belonging outside of their school groups, and that they’d really built solid friendships. It was especially nice to see Koromo, one of the series’ foremost woobies, come into her own and find her place. I also really loved how this was carried over into the nationals, with all the other teams going together to Tokyo to support Kiyosumi High and then Yuuki vowing to do the rest of the girls from Nagano proud when their prefecture was openly called weak.

Speaking of Yuuki, I can confidently say that she irritated me to no end for the vast majority of the qualifiers arc. Sure, she was funny, but her constant hyperactivity was tiring. More than that, the fact that she would melt into a babbling mess whenever things went awry in her matches (and they often did) was facepalm-worthy. It really didn’t help that she was voiced by Rie Kugimiya in the adaptation, either. But, lo and behold, character development happened! The boundless energy was still there come nationals time, but she was able to control it. When things didn’t go to plan, too, Yuuki didn’t break down. She gathered herself and moved on, and continued playing in a style that could definitely be called badass (though it remains to be seen how she’ll deal with the latest thing that’s been thrown at her). And I’ll admit, her turning up to her match wearing a cape and a serious expression was both hilarious and awesome.

No post about Saki would be complete without talk of the ridiculous/ridiculously cheesy/ridiculously entertaining mahjong-related special abilities, and the nationals has offered up a host of new characters and powers. We’re only really one match in, and we’ve already met another of the series’ “monsters”, Eisui Girls’ Komaki Jindai, who is largely a mediocre player… until she goes to sleep during her games and becomes ridiculously strong. Playing against her and Yuuki are the stoic Shiromi from Miyamori High – whose bizarre ability is becoming immensely and very noticeably worried when she has a good hand and then playing better because of her nerves - and Himematsu High’s poor Suzu, who has all the information she needs on her competitors but is struggling nonetheless. Earlier on, we were also treated to a demonstration the skills of Himematsu’s team captain, Hiroe; a match between her and Kiyosumi captain Hisa promises to be a treat. As well as this, we had some fantastic moments pre-nationals with unwittingly goofy ojou-sama Touka finally getting the chance to reveal her talents.

The ‘we’re just getting started, yay~’ note seems like an even more pertinent way to finish off Saki for 2010, with the national tournament in full swing at last. I can’t wait to get to know the new crop of characters better in the coming year – one thing I love about Ritz Kobayashi is her ability to manage an extremely large cast extremely well – and, of course, I can’t wait for more weirdly engrossing games of mahjong to be played.