The top anime news in the tanuki realm last week (due to belated Nisemonogatari marathoning) were:

1) Nadekomonogatari is not a fable but known as Otorimonogatari.

2) Sengoku Nadeko is the Monogatari series' final boss.

When the news broke, I was both ecstatic and apprehensive. Ecstatic with the prospect of more Nadeko in spaghetti-straps and Twister-esque games. Apprehensive with a possible Nadeko bad-end. My googling of Otorimonogatari unveiled the inevitable...

Spoiler for Otorimonogari

Back in 2009, I made a list of anime's most worthy harems which I really need to revisit and crown the list with Bakemonogatari. The assertion that Bake's girls are out of this world, is surely not exaggerated and can even be taken literally for almost all of them. Of the girls, there was special love for Sengoku not only because she was imouto-esque but also because she is the most 'human' of the harem - Given that her 'Kai-i' afflicted her exterior and altered none of her human attributes (weight included). (I've always believed that being human as well as being 14 yrs old and goes "onii-chan" in any harem should have its privileges).  While is why Otorimonogatari devastated me. My top bishoujo in Bake turned into a yandere Kai-i. My wife often tells me harem is evil - "One girl gets the guy. The rest (very worthy girls) are heartbroken." I agree and would like the champion the cause of polygamy. Even bigamy would reduce world's heartaches by half. Anyhow, I digress.

Back to Nadeko. Given that the tale of Otorimonogatari is not quite done, there is still hope. Nisi Oisin sensei could still turn this around via:

1) The Nanoha way - Starlight breaker the evil part of Nadeko out (ala Reinforce). Nadeko reverts to being the Stripey's top anime 14 yr old and continues to snipe from the fringes at Senjougahara's stranglehold on Koyomi.

2) Araragi's eternal harem - Koyomi should heed Shinobu's advice and start working on his eternal harem given his immortality. Shinobu, Nadeko and Tsukihi comes to mind for now.

3) NisOsin's bishoujo love - One thing that comes across so far ni Nise and Bake is that NisiOisin sensei loves his bishoujos. Despite their tragic past/challenging present, they grow to become stronger people and I hope that Nadekomonogatari will end in the same spirit.

End spoiler for Otorimonogatari

I'll confess that in my terrible anguish, I almost replace Nadeko with Tsukihi as my top anime 14 yr old. But when dust settled after a near complete destruction of the Nadeko shrines in tanuki-land, I realised Nadeko needs tanuki love more than ever in her darkest hours. Yes, Stripey-oniichan <strike>would not have dirty thoughts looking at Sengoku's body </strike> will pray for a Nadeko good end; even pay/kidnap/blackmail to have a good-end Sengoku OVA animated.

Meanwhile, it's back to watching Renai Circulation for this tanuki.

©2012 hontou ni. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. All of Sengoku Nadeko’s charms in a screencap
2. [Stripey] BakeMono Tribute – 5 favourite anime romances
3. [Dark Stripey] Beware! Senjougahara nullifies loli-tendencies ~ MOAR BLACK needed!

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.

If you’ve been following my Twitter feed at all, you know that I was at New York Anime Festival (combined with New York Comic Convention) this past weekend. I’m working on a proper writeup of the convention overall, but in the meanwhile, enjoy some photos of the great cosplayers I took over the weekend. You can find all the cosplay photos I took in my Picasa web albums: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3. The resolutions have been reduced from their original 12MP so that they don’t take up insane amounts of space, but if you’d like the full-res version of any of them, just ask. And to all the cosplayers during the convention, thank you!

Day 1

Friday was a short day, starting from 1PM. I also wanted to attend a lot of panels that day, so I didn’t manage to take a lot of pictures. Still, I got some good ones, including Alex Leavitt and his girlfriend as the pair from Toradora! – if you’ll recall, Leavitt is the guy who ran panels at both PAX East and Anime Boston earlier this year. He ran a discussion panel called “Anime in Academia” which I attended most of.

That's them. Leavitt is a tall dude, but there's still not enough of a height differential.

The only Working!! cosplayers I saw all weekend.

I like the reflection in this one. Don't know what song they're from, but I'm pretty sure they're Miku and Luka.

Some Haruhi cosplayers before the screening of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. The one in the middle is wearing the costume from the movie.

Day 2

Saturday was absolutely insane. I wish I had taken more, but most of the time, the area was so packed that a good photo just wasn’t possible. It was on this day that I noticed that Durarara!! seemed to be one of the more popular shows to cosplay. Makes sense, I guess, since it’s mostly pretty easy, there are some unique designs, and the guys are perfect yaoi material. Some good Shizuos that I unfortunately couldn’t get pictures of.

Also, there were a lot of Vocaloid cosplayers, just like at Anime Boston, somewhat expected because there was a Miku “concert” that day with a couple of the creators of Vocaloid, including the CEO of Crypton (the company that produces the software). Among those, Kagamine Rin seemed to be a close 2nd to Miku.

These were actually official cosplayers at Bandai's booth.

The Kagamine twins or couple, depending on your interpretation. They were in line for the Miku "concert," which was filled very quickly. It prompted an "encore performance" later that evening so that everyone who missed out could go.

The only Bakemonogatari cosplayers I - or they - saw in the con. I tried to get them to re-enact the scene from the end of the Suruga Monkey arc, but they didn't remember it. Notice Suruga's shoes - great attention to detail there.

The Laughing Man. Simple, easy, clever.

Day 3

Sunday might have been a short day just like Friday, but it was almost as busy as on Saturday. Again, not a lot of chances to snap pictures, but two really stood out to me. One was Tissue-hime, the Nico Nico Douga celebrity known for dressing up as Yuki Nagato, wearing a cough mask to cover his face, and playing the guitar. The other was a near-perfect replica of the Old Spice guy.

There was also a K-On cosplay event at the Bandai booth, to which I arrived too late to get any good pictures.

Now, was this a crossplayer like Tissue-hime, or actually a woman? If the latter, would that make HER a crossplayer? I didn't ask.

One of many blind shots I took from overhead, behind the crowd of people who got here before me. I believe the Mio on the way right might be one of the dub VAs as well.

A large portion of the cast of Durarara!! I like that Shizuo's brother is there, too.

In retrospect, I should've asked her to hold the gun sideways. It really was a thing of beauty.

Well, those are some of the highlights. Again, plenty more in my Picasa albums, links to which I have at the top or as the headers for each section. I probably didn’t get even half the pictures I would’ve liked to just due to how crowded and busy it was, but, well, there’s always next year.

The time to watch one of nature’s most awesome and reliable light show has come around again – it’s Perseid Meteor Shower time.

So round up your friend(s) and family,

find a good spot

get comfortable, look up

and enjoy.

Perseid Meteor Shower

When

I’ve read two different things on the various websites. Most say that the peak viewing will occur the night between Thursday, August 12 and Friday, August 13 but a couple have said that the night between Wednesday, August 11 and Thursday, August 12 will be the best night. With the projected peak occurring around 8PM Eastern, I’m inclined to think the night of 12-13 will be the best night, at least for those living in North America; however, the Perseids have a wide peak so either night will probably be good viewing, no matter where you live. It’s also possible to see a smaller amount (25% to 50% of peak values) during the couple of nights before and after these nights. Last year, I had the time and the viewing conditions to check out the night before and the night after the peak night and found it was well worth the time.

Where

The meteors originate from the northeast area of the sky and while many can be seen in this area, they will appear anywhere in the sky.

Factors

The number and frequency of meteors that the viewer will see will depend on several factors.

• Most meteors, including the Perseids, are in reality debris from comets that the Earth runs through and this debris is normally the size of grains of rice. Some years the Earth goes through denser or lighter debris areas and this makes for a varying amount of meteors. In the case of the Perseids, perfect viewing conditions mean roughly ~100 meteors are seen per hour in an average year but past rates do not guarantee a certain level this year.
• The darker the sky and the darker the area surrounding the viewer, the more meteors will be seen. Heading to the country is best but finding a place to go might be difficult unless you know someone out there. Finding a spot that no lights shine on you and that allows you to see a large percentage of the sky is all that’s really needed.
• This year the moon will not be a problem like it has been the last couple of years!
• The spacing between seeing meteors will vary greatly; I’ve waited as little as 30 seconds and as long as 20 minutes to see the next meteor.
• While anytime during this night will yield a multitude of meteors, the rate does increase the closer to dawn you watch but the best quality meteors (with the brightest, longest tails) occur more frequently right after it gets dark.

Things You’ll Need

• To view the meteors I have used two methods: laying on a blanket and sitting in a reclining lawn chair. Both work and remain comfortable after long periods of time so I’d suggest whichever is easier to set up. You might want to bring a pillow or two, just in case.
• I’ve never had problems with insects but it might be a good idea to bring along some insect repellent.
• Nights outside get surprisingly cool. Even if the low is going to be in the upper 60’s, there’s a good chance that you’ll get cold. I always like to bring at least a second cover but will also bring a hoodie or light jacket as well.
• A little patience. Seeing a meteor before your eyes have adjusted to the darkness is nearly impossible and it takes roughly 10-15 minutes for your eyes to completely adapt. So, don’t get quickly discouraged and try to limit exposing your eyes to bright lights once you’re outside.
• Clear skies.
• Not really a requirement but having a few people with you (family, friends) does make the experience more fun. Scanning the entire sky is nearly impossible for one person so having more eyes might mean more meteors seen and if the meteors aren’t cooperating then you have someone to talk to while you watch for the next meteor.

Tip for City-dwellers

Light pollution will be a problem no matter what but by looking straight up you can minimize the interference. If you can imagine straight up as making a 90 degree angle with the ground, keep between 45 and 90 degrees when looking for meteors, any lower and they will most likely be obscured.

Other links: Wiki, A Darker View, Sky and Telescope, Space.com

Planetary Conjunction

Also going on in the nighttime sky is a planetary conjunction of Mars, Venus, and Saturn. This one has been going on for about a month now but a new addition is the inclusion of Mercury (Mercury isn’t close enough to be technically in conjunction with the others) and allows one to look at half of the planets in the solar system at one time along with the moon while standing on a fifth planet. The above picture is taken from Sky and Telescope and shows a simulated look of how this conjunction will look.

Other links: Sky and Telescope, A Darker View

-

Good luck and happy meteor watching

Today is July 7, which means it’s Hitagi Senjougahara’s birthday and also Tanabata in Japan, both of which the Bakemonogatari.com official site is celebrating. Besides offering a happy birthday picture for Hitagi, Shaft offers us what each of the main characters wished for on their tanzakus this Tanabata. I thought it would be neat to share them with you all.

Koyomi Araragi

To be pitied.

To be pitied!? That’s not much of a wish now, is it? Why would you wish for that?

Hitagi Senjougahara

To get a wonderful boyfriend

Oh. Well, Koyomi certainly deserves our pity (as well as jealousy) for having a girlfriend like Hitagi.

Mayoi Hachikuji

To live for a long time

Oh, poor, poor Mayoi. Surely she deserves our pity. ;_;

Suruga Kanbaru

World peace. Also, something lewd

I would expect nothing less from my favorite spats wearing lesbian pervert.

Nadeko Sengoku

Koyomi-onii-ch... No, nothing

I’m sure Koyomi would be more than willing to oblige, especially if Hitagi’s wish comes true.

Tsubasa Hanekawa

To be friends with everyone forever

How sweet. Let’s just hope that she doesn’t kill all of them first.

Karen & Tsukihi Araragi, aka The Fire Sisters

Nisemonogatari* Anime

Girls after my own heart. That’s exactly what I would wish for!

*Nisemonogatari is the 2nd sequel to Bakemonogatari in the original light novel series. It features 2 stories, Karen Bee and Tsukihi Phoenix, presumably starring Koyomi’s younger sisters. Here’s to hoping that Shaft is working on making their wish come true!

All images came from Bakemonogatari.com front page. Credit for original Japanese to Korean translations go to Kyou of Sub by Kyou.

Note

• Here‘s a nice little Tanabata-themed MAD featuring Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari, the Bakemonogatari ending theme by supercell. (via mangajet.com)

This is it. It’s finally here. The wait is over. On Friday, 6/25/2010, the final episode of Bakemonogatari was released as a streaming video on Shaft’s website. The 15 episode series took just 1 week shy of a full year to complete. The final episode was released 122 days, or just over 1/3 of a year, after the previous one.

Let us bask in this moment just a little more.

It's finally the last episode!

Okay, that’s enough. Part of the big deal of having a new episode released is that there new content to watch, after all. And as the finale to perhaps the most popular series in the last year, there was plenty to look forward to. The conflict between Tsubasa’s Cat and Koyomi finally came to a head, creating some excellent tension-filled moments that were finally released by Shinobu’s triumphant return. And the denouement following provided a hopeful conclusion to this cynical series, a conclusion that I found to be both touching and enjoyable.

The conversation in the 1st part of the episode between the Cat and Koyomi was the real “meat” of the episode, with it providing us with the climax and conclusion of the Tsubasa Cat story arc. If you’ve watched this far, you know that there’s far more to these character interactions than just the conversation, and this one was no different, filled with the visual treats that have pretty much defined what Bakemonogatari is. I especially loved the shift to the more malicious facial expressions by the Cat, which helped to shift the mood in a much darker and more serious direction. The typical Shinbo/Shaft cinematography was used very well here, with the zoomed out shots and the contrast between light and shadow also adding to the more stark atmosphere.

We get to see a bit deeper into how Tsubasa truly feels.

In terms of the content, the conversation picked up right where it ended the last episode, with the Cat repeating her line that Tsubasa was in love with Koyomi and that if he fell in love with her, she could disappear. It immediately darkened the mood, seeming to send a shock to Koyomi. It came to no surprise to me that he tried so strongly to deny this, first laughing it off as a joke, and then trying to pass it off as a misunderstanding before finally facing the fact. Koyomi’s inability or unwillingness to accept the stark, cynical facts about others had been in full display in the Suruga Monkey arc, after all.

And like in that arc, we got a heroine who felt malice towards Koyomi, actively wanted to hurt him. I loved seeing the Cat play around with Koyomi, trying to manipulate his feelings by putting doubts in his mind about why he was with Hitagi. And the imagery of the real Tsubasa going to gently caress Koyomi during some of it was a nice touch.

I also liked the return of the paper cutout art.

It was satisfying to see Koyomi start to push back against the Cat. That’s the episode became just as much about Hitagi as Tsubasa. One of the oddities about the Tsubasa Cat arc was that Part 2 had felt completely out of place in the sequence, being purely about Hitagi. I had excused it with the reasoning that they wanted to put an ending into the last TV released episode, but this episode brought it back, with the repeat of Koyomi’s line about liking Hitagi (“All of it. There is nothing about [her] that I don’t like.”). It was great that this was one of the 1st things that came to his mind when confronted by the Cat regarding his feelings for her. Tsubasa Cat Part 2 had been an excellent episode and ending to the TV run by itself, but it was made all the better by being put into the proper context by this episode.

And there was something fitting about the intermixing of the cuts of Hitagi back at the school, preparing for the culture festival – in Tsubasa’s place. I guess it was seeing her involved in and taking care of what was ostensibly something that belonged to Tsubasa, a metaphor for Koyomi and the Tsubasa Cat episodes in general.

Remember this? It was in the 1st episode, almost a year ago!

I loved the call back to that scene in the beginning of the 1st episode, in which Tsubasa and Koyomi were working on the culture festival together. Even as the argumentative dialogue continued – syncing up to the characters’ mouths in the flashback – it brought back memories of a seemingly more innocent time, before we knew of this intense conflict brewing within Tsubasa, before even Hitagi had entered the picture. It served as a reminder that the Cat was just one aspect of this kind girl who was very good friends with our hero.

The Cat was that jealous, selfish side of Tsubasa, and she decided that if she couldn’t have Koyomi, no one could; i.e. to kill him. I had pretty much forgotten the violent, problematic part of the Cat when she latched onto Koyomi and sucked his energy in a flash of lightning. In a way, the Cat’s actions felt more cruel than Suruga’s, despite the fight being less violent (though there was plenty of gore this time around as well). In Suruga’s case, at least she wanted to kill Koyomi out of self interest, but in the Cat’s case, it was purely out of spite.

Yes, the Cat was the antagonist from the beginning, after all.

Suruga Monkey had had a pretty clever ending, with Hitagi coming to save Koyomi and to negate Suruga’s incentive for killing Koyomi. I found it interesting that, at the moment of truth, Koyomi once again thought of Hitagi’s promise to kill whomever killed him, and that was what convinced him that he wanted to live. And this time, it was Shinobu who came to save him.

What an entrance! And what a twist; she was there all along, lurking literally in the shadows, just waiting for Koyomi to call out to her for help. Because we didn’t get to see the beginning of this story – i.e. the events of Golden Week that had Koyomi turn into a vampire – we were left in the dark as to why or how Shinobu is in Koyomi’s shadow and why she came out only when he called her. There were more allusions to the Koyomi Vamp story, including showing pieces of the flashback montage that opened the show, but not enough to shed any light on these issues. Still, it was great to see Shinobu come back and to reach some sort of understanding with Koyomi, even if I had no idea what it was.

And she never spoke! I’m not sure if she even had any groans or other such non-verbal noises. It seems like it was just a troll to have Aya Hirano listed as Shinobu’s voice actor from the beginning.

I didn't notice that band aid until I went back to take this screen shot. Fanservice to the very end.

The conclusion of the Tsubasa Cat story did feel a bit incomplete. The Cat was dispatched, but the source of Tsubasa’s stress – her unrequited love for Koyomi – was not taken care of and remains a possible problem. Then again, none of the other stories had neat or tidy little endings. Koyomi’s wondering of how much Tsubasa knows about the incident and acknowledging that she needs time to organize her thoughts was as much as was needed.

How much does she know, really? As long as things are back to normal, she has all the time she needs to answer that.

The Tsubasa Cat ending – with the Fire Sisters morning wake up sequence – flowed right into the series ending. After the beautiful ending to the TV broadcast run provided by Tsubasa Cat Part 2, I wondered what the “true ending” to the series would be like.

Well, it wasn’t quite as beautiful and certainly not as romantic, but it was a proper and satisfying conclusion to the whole series. Perhaps Shinbo went a little overboard with his trademark shots here, but the final montage was just a joy to watch. I don’t know, just seeing the 4 main high schoolers of this show – Koyomi, Hitagi, Tsubasa, and Suruga – exploring Oshino’s empty home together was pretty cool. The music was excellent as well, working with the imagery of that empty school building to give us the feeling of a breath of fresh air, or of the dawn after a dark night. And even though it all felt a bit bittersweet with Oshino’s leaving, the overarching feeling was one of hope for the future, of moving on. When the 4 gathered to talk one last time about Oshino being a good person, they were laughing and smiling, celebrating his memory instead of mourning their loss.

They looked awesome together at the end. This may be the first time the 4 were in the same shot.

That sense of hope was perfectly represented by the final scene, of Koyomi taking Hitagi out on their 2nd date, her riding on the back of his bike. It was the image of 2 young lovers just starting on their journey, much like the TV ending in Tsubasa Cat Part 2. And Koyomi got to give us a final bit of narration:

I’ll probably run into more oddities in the future. But that’s okay. I know the truth. There are dark areas in this world, and there are people living in those places. For example, there’s even someone living inside my shadow. Tomorrow is the culture festival. Our class’s project is… the haunted house.

When you get down to it, the most significant part of Bakemonogatari's story was the budding relationship between these 2. This is just the beginning to their story.

I feel that it summed up the series well. It was about acknowledging the dark, ugly side of everyone that they try to hide from others. As sad or as cynical as these things may be, the person holding these things is still a person. There is still hope in that darkness, like the all-white, pure image of Shinobu living inside the shadow of Koyomi. It was a line that represented the theme that tied together all 5 different stories in this series, and a wonderful way to close it out.

Note Koyomi, Hitagi, and Tsubasa at the right, in their uniforms from the drama CD cover.

Series End

So, after 15 episodes and 358 days, Bakemonogatari is over. So what was Bakemonogatari? Was it worth the time? To be honest, I’m a little sad to see it end, partly because now it means I have no excuse to avoid answering these questions. Due to having such a big gap between watching the last 2 episodes, I feel like I need to watch it again with less time between episodes before I can have anything to say about the series as a whole. I don’t feel like I can add anything right now to what I already wrote in this post. That is, it is a series of 5 fantastical stories that Koyomi Araragi experiences in the span of just a few months, each with its own heroine, tied together by the common theme of the darkness that people hide from others.

But the show was certainly much more than that. There was something about it that resonated with viewers, including me. I’m not sure yet what that is. At the very least, it was a unique ride, filled with stunning visuals and excellent music. It provided a couple of the most touching and heartfelt scenes I’ve seen in anime while still remaining true to its cynical theme. And even if that was all it was, it was enough to make the series my favorite in recent memory.

Notes

• The online stream’s video quality was rather low, which is why the screenshots look so crappy. The Blu-ray release is on July 28.
• As most of you know, Bakemonogatari is based off of a novel by the same name. There are 2 more novels that follow it in the series: Kizumonogatari, which contains the Koyomi Vamp story, the prequel that explains the events of Golden Week; and Nisemonogatari, which contains 2 sequels, Karen Bee and Tsukihi Phoenix, presumably about Koyomi’s little sisters. According to the article on Wikipedia (with no citations), 2 more sequels are in the works.
• The Blu-ray and DVD releases had audio commentary by the voice actors, in character. Each release had 2 of the heroines speaking to each other through the episodes (e.g. Volume 1 featured Hitagi and Tsubasa, Volume 2 featured Mayoi and Tsubasa, Volume 3 featured Suruga and Hitagi). Unfortunately, no one has subbed these in English yet, as far as I know.
• At 15 episodes in 358 days, the series had a mean of about 25.6 days between episodes. I’m guessing that that’s some sort of record.
• With its sudden release on the 25th, Bakemonogatari’s finale joins the finale of 4 other series ending in the 4 day period between 6/24 and 6/27 that have Hideki Hiroshi Kamiya playing starring roles (update 7/1/2010 0843: Thank you Son Gohan for pointing out the mistake – Bayonetta must’ve been on my mind). The others are: Durarara!! (Izaya Orihara), Angel Beats! (Yuzuru Otonashi), Working!! (Hiroomi Souma), and Arakawa Under the Bridge (Kou “Recruit” Ichinomiya). Of those 5, Bakemonogatari, Angel Beats!, and Arakawa Under the Bridge had him playing the main protagonist.

It’s hard to believe, but over 320 days since the first episode of Bakemonogatari aired on July 3, 2009, the show is still not complete. It has been almost 3 months since the latest episode was released. It was easily the most popular show of 2009, dominating the chatter in anime fandom both in Japan and out. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at this incredible – unprecedented? – delay from a couple different perspectives.

Wait Between Episodes:

Usually, series will be aired on a set schedule weekly, leading to a predictable wait from episode to episode. Some will have recap episodes or skip a week for special occasions, leading to a 2 week wait. Bakemonogatari followed this for its 12 on-air episodes, but its online releases has failed to do so. Its BD/DVD releases have failed to follow schedule as well, as Volume 4: Nadeko Snake was delayed by a month, from December 23 to January 27. Note (5/25/2010): This chart was updated to reflect the news from 5/21/2010 – 1 day after I made this post – that the final volume was delayed to July 28.

What’s Happened Since the Last Episode:

The last episode of Bakemonogatari to be released was 14, titled Tsubasa Cat: Part 4. It was streamed on Shaft’s website on February 23, 2010. Here’s a look at what the main cast and its director, Akiyuki Shinbo, have done since then.

Money Left on the Table:

For a time in 2009, Bakemonogatari dominated the mindshare of anime fans in the East and West alike. The sales of its BD and DVD releases in 2009 are proof enough. But it’s difficult to keep a franchise relevant when there is literally nothing new happening in it. You gotta wonder, with new shows coming out and gaining popularity, how much in potential revenue are Shaft and its sponsors losing out on due to this interminable delay?

Data was collected from Anime News Network and Tokyo Toshokan. Images are from official art released by Shaft or screens from episodes themselves.

Of course, my research could have some holes in it; I had to rely heavily on 2nd hand sources because I do not understand Japanese. If you see any errors or omissions, please let me know in the comments.

About a week ago, 2-D Teleidoscope made a post titled The Sexy Otaku Manifesto, in which he wrote about “getting back into shape” and called out to other “geeks” and “otaku” to do the same. 21stcenturydigitalboy wrote a response on Fuzakenna, The Inauthenticity of Nerd Appearances – All of Us Are Slaves, And Most of Us Are Liars that elaborated on the idea further, going also into the mindset that leads otaku to be unfit. He also told a bit of his own story and that of his friends/relatives regarding fitness.

These posts piqued my interest because personal fitness is a (dare I use the term?) passion of mine. I understand their sentiment, more than you can imagine, as I’ll try to show in this post. But something about the posts bothered me. They rubbed me the wrong way. I believe that they got their message all wrong. If you want to engender change in behavior relative to fitness, if you really believe in some “Sexy Otaku Manifesto,” you don’t do it by telling others that they need to change or by calling them liars.

Let me back up. Each of those posters said something about their own personal fitness history or goals, so I think it’s appropriate that I share mine. I’ll start almost 2 years ago in July of 2008. I’m 5 feet, 9 inches (175cm) tall and have been for about a decade now. At that point, I weighed 217 pounds (98.4Kg). For those of you without a BMI calculator handy, that’s a 32.1 BMI, or well into the “obese” range. And even though BMI isn’t the best measure of fitness, believe me, “obese” was the right word to describe me. I was the very image of the fat otaku.

OK, so I wasn't THAT far gone. But believe me, it was pretty bad. I didn't even get Persona 3 until 2009.

I can’t tell you what or if anything even clicked in me at that point. But I decided that I had had enough. I set what I felt then was a reasonable goal: lose 50 pounds in 2 years. By the end, I would weigh 167 pounds (75.7Kg), right under the 25 BMI boundary between “normal” and “overweight,” and that wasn’t even 1/2 pound a week! Piece of cake, right?

I started to eat right. And I started running. At first, I could barely make it to 100m before I had to walk. But if I had to walk, I kept walking until I could run again. I got my running endurance from 30 seconds to a minute. Then to 2 minutes, then 5, then 10. I still remember the first time I ran for 30 minutes. I had just passed the 3 mile marker when my watch finally read “30:00.” I was so busy looking at the watch, I tripped on my own feet and landed face first. Fortunately, I had maintained enough control to fall to the side, onto the grass. The dirt was sweet, and it was September.

Then from 30 to 40. I leveled off at that, spiking upwards only when I really felt good. It was a cold, snowy winter that year, but it only made me more excited. By the time the calendar had rolled around to 2009, I had run more than 50 minutes exactly once, covering 6 miles in 54. And I weighed 169 pounds (76.7Kg). My BMI was pretty much right on that 25 line that I had shot for.

Then came the strength training. I won’t bore you any further with the numbers regarding that. Right now, 1 year 10 months after I had made my choice, I weigh 144 pounds (65.3Kg). That’s a BMI of 21.3, right around the middle of the “normal” range. I can squat 3/4 of my body weight, do 14 pull ups, run a 10K in 42:44 (6:53/mile). I’ve become fit.

What am I trying to say here? Am I trying to brag? Maybe. I do feel proud. But on the Internets, everyone is a tough guy. Everyone is a man’s man and everyone looks like someone from 300 (I wonder how many times that movie has been referenced in relation to fitness?). There is no reason for you to believe me, so I don’t think I’d be accomplishing anything by bragging. Maybe I just wanted to write it down to make me feel good.

On the Internets, everyone's a tough guy.

But the purpose with which I wrote this is to put a proper context to what I’m about to say. When it comes to fitness and weight loss, I’ve been to hell and back (That’s not to say that I’m done. I’ll continually be reaching for more for for the rest of my life). And I did it effortlessly. I never once looked at my plate with dread or despair over the contents. My heart only pumped harder with excitement when it was 20 degrees outside and I had a date with 4.5 miles of road. I got the gain with no pain (well, except for that knee injury I had in spring 2009). I believe that my message holds true even if you ignore my history with fitness, but I believe having it in mind strengthens it. Take it for what you will.

Maybe the ease with which I had achieved my goals fills me with guilt, which is why my sensibilities were offended by some of the content in 2DT’s and 21stcenturydigitalboy’s posts. They have the right idea, at the high level: put your mind to it, and your body can be what you want it to be. And if you don’t care how your body looks, think very deeply about why that is. Are you being honest to yourself? Are you being fair to yourself? I don’t pretend to know the answer for anyone; I can barely answer the question for myself. But if you can say yes, you’ve reached a state of mind that few of us can ever hope to reach.

But it’s wrong to think you can cause behavioral change by simply telling them to change or by calling them liars. At best you’re just insulting them. At worst, you’re only contributing to the cycle of low self esteem that can lead to bad fitness in the first place. Real change comes from within. And no one can control that but the person himself.

And that’s what I’m really trying to get at here. It’s not anyone’s place to tell others that they should look a certain way. We choose to be who we are. Some of don’t prioritize our fitness as highly as others. Some – most – no, probably all – of us lie to ourselves to make ourselves feel better. But that’s our choice. It was my choice to become healthy, to become fit, and that’s why it worked and has lasted. Change not of our own choosing is meaningless and cannot survive.

If you really want to see others change, give them the tools, the encouragement, the ideas of change. First, let them understand that it’s possible. Then, give them the choice. Maybe give them a nudge, but don’t push, because they’ll only push back. 2DT himself seems to understand this when he writes, “The people I’d really like to reach with this message will likely never read it, or simply ignore it.”

I had said that getting fit had been easy for me. It’s true. But what allowed that was the biggest change in me, which was in my mind. As my mindset changed, I learned to like – to love – the things that would naturally cause my body to become fit. It was gradual, and I only realized it after the fact.

But I’m not naive or arrogant enough to think that just because I found the change to be easy, it should or will be for others. It was only in looking back that I realized just how much my mind had changed. I had become a different person, and I had barely realized it in the process. It’s pretty daunting to think of at times. I refuse to trivialize it by telling others to simply go do it.

So what really can I contribute? What can I do if I want people to change? If I want others to make the same kinds of decisions regarding their bodies as I made regarding my body? There’s no knowledge I can offer that you can’t find in a million other places. (except maybe this: People on /fit/ are assholes, but they know what they’re talking about. If you can stand the heat, take a gander over there and read some threads, even start one. I take no responsibility for the consequences).

To paraphrase Hitagi from Bakemonogatari episode 12, “What I can offer is my body.” It is yet another example of people changing their fitness for the better. There’s no reason why your body can’t be one too. I’m going to invoke Kamina here, just like 21stcenturydigitalboy did with his post. Not for his perfect body, but rather for his message. Believe in yourself. If you can’t, believe in me, because I’ve been down the same path, and I believe that you can do it too.

What do Archer, Shizuo, and Kamina have in common besides being perfect physical specimen? They got to where they are by doing what they believed in. (OK, fine, Shizuo kinda had an unfair advantage. But you know what I mean).

If you get nothing else out of this post, if this is tl;dr, let me just try to get this one message out: don’t judge. Just think about what it means to be an otaku. Like, how they use the word over in Japan. It’s a term used not only for anime fans, but for hardcore fans of anything particularly niche. It means liking something that few others care about to an extent few others care to understand. And that’s why in order for a community to form among otaku, judgments need to be held at the door. Let others be who they are.

The next anime in the spotlight comes from one of the hardest working directors in anime today, Akiyuki Shinbou, and his cohorts-in-crime, Shaft animation studio. Since coming off last summer’s monster hit, Bakemonogatari, anime fans have been eagerly waiting for the next big thing from the Shinbou/Shaft team. Which leads us to the $64,000 dollar question; is Arakawa Under the Bridge the next hit or the next miss from Shinbou/Shaft?

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 11/12  A+
Anticipation Level: 4/5  Medium to High

The Story

Kou Ichinomiya is the heir and chairmen-in-training to his father’s vast fortune and ginormous multi-national conglomerate company. Ichinomiya has been the eager sponge and is all set to step into this wonderful life when something unexpected happens; a woman saves his life and, when asked what she would like in return, she asks for him to live with her under the bridge as her lover. She didn’t want the offered money, car, or mansion and as crazy as the it sounds, Ichinomiya can’t simply blow her desire off. Every fiber of his being has been imprinted with his father’s creed to live wholly independent of everyone which includes paying off any debts incurred to other people; if he doesn’t follow this creed then he’ll get violently ill and will probably die. The debt of one’s life is so large that Ichinomiya can’t do anything else but accept her wish and his life, as they say, will never be the same.

The Fine Print

I think I got Shinbou pegged now. He’s normally weakest when doing a plot-driven show like Dance in the Vampire Bund and normally strongest when doing a character-driven show like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei or Hidamari Sketch. There are exceptions, Maria+holic should have been awesome but never quite made it and Natsu no Arashi was strongest when he focused on the plot, but it’s a useful generalization and Arakawa Under the Bridge fits the pattern: character-driven = awesome.

The most important thing for a character-driven show is it’s characters and it turns out setting the show under a bridge full of homeless people is a stroke of genius because you can populate the show with very interesting and very odd characters and it doesn’t stretch believability since these are the supposed rejects of society. If they were normal they wouldn’t be here. There’s the mayor of this community, he is a guy that dresses up as a kappa and wants everyone to treat him as if he really was one of those mystical Japanese creatures. And pointing out the zippers on his suit doesn’t do any good since he acts as if they’re supposed to be there. Nino, the woman that takes Ichinomiya (now named Recruit) as her lover, proclaims that she’s from Venus and seems unaware of many societal norms so we’re left wondering if somehow she’s really an alien or just “crazy” like the rest of the inhabitants. Either way she has a heart of gold and a sweet personality so I can’t help but think that Ichinomiya aka Recruit is giving up very little by leaving his former lifestyle and gaining so much. My favorite character, though, is the seven foot tall gun-toting ex-mercenary that goes by the name of Sister since he’s dresses as a nun and is responsible for the spiritual welfare of the community.

One of the important things to figure out for a Shinbou anime is will the “Shaft being Shaft” moments help or hinder the show. In the right amount and used correctly, these Shaft moments help make a show memorably and so far it seems that Arakawa Under the Bridge is hitting it about perfect. The animation is stylized  but not overly so, if I’d have to describe it I’d call it Bakemonogatari lite. There’s been no abstract backgrounds and no real objects inserted into the anime that I remember, which I think fits the show well since it allows the characters and story to take center stage.

Speaking of the story, one of the parts of Arakawa Under the Bridge that has pleasantly surprised me is that underneath the crazy characters and silly comedy, there’s a couple messages it’s trying to convey and this lends a depth to the show that I really like. The one message is about how the truly important things in life are free and a lot more satisfying then the stuff money can buy. Corny, I know, but that doesn’t lessen the truth behind it. The second message is about the intrinsic worth and goodness all people have, even those people that society tries to forget about. Some part of me enjoys seeing Recruit humbled by life under the bridge where he meets truly happy people and discovers how much of a loser he is.

And I’d be loser if I didn’t mention the other good stuff about Arakawa Under the Bridge before finishing. I already praised Nino’s voice actress in my Tatami Galaxy impression post and she’s really good as Nino here. I also love that Chiaki Omigawa is doing the voice of P-Ko, she hasn’t done much work but enjoyed her as Maka in Soul Eater and Jun from Natsu no Arashi. Sister’s voice is perfect and so is Maria’s and Stella’s; in fact, the entire cast is a great cast. The only slightly sour note is Recruit’s voice, not because it’s a bad performance, but because Hiroshi Kamiya is everywhere this season and this performance really sounds like he’s doing Goodbye, Mr. Despair season 4. There has to be some equally capable male voice actors out there that could have done this role. Also a plus, it appears that Shinbou/Shaft is going the route they did with Bakemonogatari and are having multiple opening songs. I’ve liked the two done so far a lot and hope the others will be as well done.

I should explicitly mention, since I might have made the impression that this was a slice-of-life type show, that this show is full of comedy and it’s really good comedy. The merry band of misfits is the cause of much of the humor but there’s also the fish-out-of-water comedy from Recruit learning to live under the bridge and there’s the gag contest at the end of some of the episodes.

To review, Arakawa Under the Bridge follows a pattern that I think I see with Shinbou/Shaft shows which is plot driven shows = meh and character-driven shows = win and Arakawa Under the Bridge is definitely win. It has great characters and an abundance of comedy but it’s the subtly done deeper messages that really make me adore this anime. I highly recommend giving this show a chance, if you haven’t already done so.

Well, Boston was blessed enough to have a gaming convention then an anime convention on back to back weekends, both at Hynes Convention Center, conveniently enough. Naturally I took the day off work to attend day 1.

That's dedication!

First of all, there were a LOT more cosplayers in this con than at PAX East. You can see that in my Picasa Web Album. Expected, I guess, since PAX East is a more professional con with a lot of journalists and media, where as Anime Boston is more fan-oriented. I’d guess a good 75-80% were cosplayers. I was not one of them, though I did take photos of them.

Some of my favorites were:

• Master Roshi from Dragon Ball, who did 2 great poses.
• Lots and lots of Vocaloids. I’m probably a little behind, but I’m getting into Hatsune Miku, so I was happy to see that.
• A real gender-bending Senou Natsuru from Kampfer.
• A bare- and hairy-chested Sora from Kingdom Hearts Tidus from Final Fantasy X (thank you, Marx-Taich0u).
• The sole Bakemonogatari cosplayer that I could find, Hitagi Senjougahara. She had unfortunately forgotten her stapler, but she did have 2 pairs of scissors.
• Everyone posted on this very page.

There are plenty of other very good ones, so, again, just go to my Picasa Album.

Spoilers!

I did go to some panels, but most of them were pretty uneventful. I did go to one run by Alex Leavitt, the MIT researcher who had the talk on memes at PAX East last weekend (he’s running a total of 8 at Anime Boston – check out his blog), on anime OPs and EDs, which was pretty fun. He did a good job summing up the various styles of OPs depending on the anime genre, showing off some interesting, more out-there ones (nothing by Shaft, I’m sorry to say), and some ones that the US really butchered.

A real beauty, I'd say

But the rest were pretty meh. There was a talk titled “Vile Spectre of Moe,” which amounted to little more than one guy ranting against moe and calling its fans losers, without going into much detail as to why moe was so abhorrent or how the phenomenon had seeped into the otaku/anime culture. Half the talk was him talking about the glory days of the 60s-80s when anime was good.

The Life and Times of Akiyuki Shinbo was one that I had high hopes for, because Shinbo is one of my current favorite directors. If you don’t know him, he’s directed virtually everything by Shaft in the past few years, excepting the Ef series and the latest season of Hidamari Sketch. That means things like Pani Poni Dash!, all 3 seasons and various OVAs of Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei, the still-unfinished Bakemonogatari, and, of course, the recently completed Dance in the Vampire Bund that I’m blogging.

This guy was an old-school fan, tracking his works all the way back to the 80s. And he did manage to show us a certain continuity of Shinbo’s style throughout his shows. And there were several clips of Bakemonogatari as well, which is always welcome. But the problem was that it was too evident that he was not film or art expert – a fact he admitted a couple times in the talk. He did little to show how Shinbo’s distinct artistic style contributed to his works further than being “interesting” (a word he used too much). He and I also seem to be fans of Shinbo in completely different ways, as I like the latter half of Dance in the Vampire Bund, whereas he thinks it went downhill after the first half. So a mixed bag.

I also went to a panel on yuri, which was not safe for this blog. I did get to see some awesome scenes from the Utena movie. I never had any interest in Utena before, but after seeing some of the downright psychedelic scenes from that, I might have to seek it out.

Besides that, I ended up waiting in line for the Video Game Orchestra once again, and I was rather disappointed. I figured that they would play some of the same pieces from last week, but they literally played ONLY the pieces from last week. Not worth the 1.5 hours in line I waited for that.

I’ll be attending tomorrow as well, when even more cosplayers should come out. And more interesting panels, including one on hentai manga by Alex Leavitt.

Josh’s Anime Blog is going to have a special announcement tomorrow, so be on the look out!

In the meantime, here is a video to tide you over: