Guess what?

I have another Cross Game ship.

I’m really happy to have this series back on track. It just keeps picking up to the level of awesomeness is had when it first aired.

While I don’t blog Cross Game too terribly often, I still watch it. For awhile I’ve just let it build up for a few weeks and then watch it in one go, but ever since episode 29 it’s been too interesting for me to bear the wait, on top of the fact that there hasn’t been too much else worth watching.

Cross Game threw me a curve ball(pun unintended) with the introduction of Akane, the Wakaba lookalike. Talking about episode 31 is hard; it was just too beautiful to even begin to put into words. I hope it suffices to say that a) that episode made watching the series worth it for me and b) will be remembered as one of my all time favorite anime episodes.

Episode 32 brought us back to the slice of life atmosphere, now with Akane in the mix. I do really like the addition of her, as I felt that the dragged out tension between Aoba and Kou was starting to get stale, and it’s nice to have someone to spice things up. Also, Akane is cute as a button, especially in her plaid school uniform.

 

I wonder if we’ll see a slip-up where the characters start expecting her to be just like Wakaba then encounter an un-Wakaba like action. It seems unlikely as the characters are being rather smart about the whole situation, but you never know.

Akane also seems to have the worst luck.

Despite her addition, I’m still thinking we’re going to have an AobaxKou ending.

You can thank Winamp and it’s non-random random shuffling for this post.

I have a super condensed anime music playlist that I like to listen to; it’s only 230 songs long and there’s a handful of songs on this list that when I’m in the right mood will get me to shed a tear. Last night I wasn’t much in the mood but out-of-the-blue Winamp starts playing every sad song on the list in a row and even repeating some more than once so now I’m in that mood.

It’s probably not a good idea to marathon a Key series right now so instead I’ll write this post.

Oh, and there’s some spoilers so read at your own risk.

Natsukage – from AIR

Let’s start off with an obvious show that could generate a tear inducing song – AIR. This anime holds the personal record for the most tears shed while watching it (Clannad is a close second). See, I was a relatively new anime watcher at the time, mainly subsisting on a diet of shounen shows and wasn’t aware of the emotional depths that could be found in anime. It also didn’t help that I had absolutely no knowledge of what to expect and was lulled into a false sense of security by it’s light-hearted start. Therefore, when the story turned tragic, I wasn’t ready for it and ended up crying for just about every remaining episode.

Natsukage is the name of the instrumental track that KyoAni used for many of the emotional scenes during AIR and thus when I hear it, I’m reminded of those scenes.

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Koikogarete Mita Yume – from Cross Game

The show’s first closing is another song that can bring me to tears and was able to from the very first time I heard it, which was in episode 1.

That episode completely blew me away. I wasn’t expecting to see enough character building and tragedy to fill most series all within those 24 minutes and by playing this song at the saddest scene meant that I’d always link this song to that first episode. Nor has that episode and that song lost it’s power to move the viewer, recently the animators essentially reshowed the first episode in it’s entirety for the episode 30 recap.

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Kanon by Pachebel – from Kanon

The wedding standard got repurposed for another of Key’s works – Kanon. This time, the characters actually referenced the song in the show and provided a strong means for the viewers to attach the often tragic nature of Kanon to the song. At least when I hear this song in public it’ll probably be at a wedding and it’ll be more socially acceptable to cry to it.

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“Libera me” From Hell – from Gurren Lagann

I’m convinced that Gurren Lagann is one of the greatest anime ever made and should be required watching for, not only those who profess to be an anime fan, but also for every single kid that grows up watching the insipid tv shows that pass for kid’s shows these days.

This song was used in many places throughout the show, primarily when it was time for the good guys to kick butt which makes it a strange song to cry over. And it would be but for it’s use during one of the best scenes to Gurren Lagann which happened in episode 26. The hero of the show, Simon, was given the choice between the easy way out and the harder path that true heroism calls for. He chooses the path of heroism and as a result is able to break himself and his comrades out of a devious trap laid by the enemy. The whole scene is very emotional, a testament to Gainax’s stellar character development and story telling ability, and having this track play during the entire scene meant that those emotions come back whenever hear it.

And within the entire scene there’s a small part that absolutely gets to me every single time I see it. The trap that Simon breaks everyone out of gives each person the ability to live in whatever dream world they wish for. One of the people trapped is Viral; he’s a beastman which means he looks human but was created sterile and he has a tough-as-nails personality so one would expect his dream world to be some sort Valhalla battlefield but it’s not – it’s living in a little cottage in a country meadow with a wife and a daughter that calls him “Papa”.

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Dango Daikazoku – from Clannad

Yes, another song from a Key/KyoAni anime, this time it’s from Clannad. This was used as the first season ending but it wasn’t until the second season that this became tear inducing. Though in the case of Dango Daikazoku (or “Big Dango Family”), the song brings tears from being linked to the tragic parts to Clannad and also from the happy parts.

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Love is a Flower, You are a Seed – from Only Yesterday

In many ways Only Yesterday is my favorite Studio Ghibli work so I find it an absolute travesty that it’s the only Studio Ghibli movie not released in America.

This is the only song that exclusively makes me shed tears from happiness alone. It’s the end song to Only Yesterday and the animators had it playing while the movie had it’s climatic scene before going to credits. So, like the others, those emotions got transferred to the song and hearing this song gets to me every time.

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Anyone else want to share? Or is everyone too busy getting in the Halloween mood today?

Posted in anime, anime rants/views, general anime interst

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

The first step in the process is to figure out how many places will this season’s top list include. The number changes from season-to-season based on the number of quality shows that I feel deserve to be mentioned. This time I realized that if I included all the titles I thought were “very good”, the list would be much too long so I restricted the list to those shows that I consider “great” shows.

This narrowed the field down to seven shows and now the task turned to ranking these seven shows that I considered great shows. Picking the number one spot was fairly easily but the rest of the list felt like pulling teeth so; whereas, I’ll argue that all seven of these shows belong on the list, I won’t argue to hard over the exact order.

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

Honorable Mention – Sora no Manimani

Of the shows that almost made it onto the list, Sora no Manimani was the closest and because it was such an enjoyable series, I figured it deserved to at least get an honorable mention.

I’m convinced if this had either had one of the big name studios attached to it or had eye catching animation like a Bakemonogatari then it would have been a popular series. Instead it was done by Studio Comet and outside of the nicely done night sky scenes, the animation was very average. Which makes it sounds like I’m calling anime fans shallow but I understand that with the sheer number of titles (and so many being good) that some way to filter down the number of shows that a person watches needs to be employed.

So, in case you’ve missed this show, Sora no Manimani is a slice-of-school-life show featuring the school’s astronomy club and focuses more on the unique challenges facing a club of this type with a lesser focus on the problems of it’s members. Almost every episode also mixes in a few interesting tidbits of astronomy. I plan on trying the easy method they showed for taking pictures of the night sky with just a normal camera. It’s strength resided in how it stayed entertaining and enjoyable without resorting heavily clichéd characters and became an even stronger series when they introduced some of the neighboring school’s astronomy clubs and their own quirky characters – gotta love the constellation fangirls.

And if the animators get a chance to do a second season (the ending gives that type of feeling), I’d definitely be excited for more Sora no Manimani.

7 – Aoi Hana

The term yuri is such a loaded term for the anime fan because 9.9 times out of 10 a show with yuri is using it for comedic purposes and fan service (think Maria+holic or Kampfer) or the story is so grounded in fantasy that it can’t be taken seriously. Using this term is helpful the vast majority of the time but in that 0.1 times are shows like Aoi Hana that are completely different then the normal yuri show. There’s very little, if any fan service, and the show is a more serious one and yet the story is told in such a way with the right characters that it feels very plausible.

A better way to describe this show is that Aoi Hana is yet another quality slice-of-school-life show from J.C. Staff that will remind the viewer of other J.C. Staff shows like Honey & Clover and Toradora. This show also features the best example of the sheer beauty that J.C. Staff’s watercolor look can lend a show. And speaking of animation, remember how people would talk about the attention to detail the KyoAni would show in their works – I got that same feeling of almost obsessive attention from watching how well Fumi’s hair was animated and how the snow was animated in the last episode. This is another show that if the animators wanted to do a second season, they’re more then welcome since I’d be really happy to see more from these characters.

6 - Kemono no Souja Erin

Earlier in the season, I talked about finally catching myself on this series and how I felt bad about missing out on such a great show for so long. Since than I’ve patiently and not so patiently waited for the next installment because after every episode I find myself liking the show even more.

The show continues to focus on developing Erin’s character and unfolds in ways that keep the viewer guessing even after 30+ episodes. For example, in the last episode I watched, Erin has become a teacher at the Beastlord school that she schooled in and graduated from. In hindsight, it’s clear that she’s perfect for the job but I wasn’t expecting something like that to happen which just reinforces how all these developments keep the show fresh and exciting to watch. Now we’re moving to the final set of episodes and I can’t wait to see what happens; there’s a very good chance that this’ll be near the top next time.

5 – Cross Game

One of the shows that will get in Kemono no Souja Erin’s way next season will be this show – I just know it. The drop in ranking (from being #1 in the Spring season to #5) might imply some drop off in quality but that’s not the case here. This show is as impressive this season as last.

The original manga author has a real knack at creating good, believable characters and then finding ways to tie these characters together and the animators have done a great job carrying this through into the anime. And if new opening/closing animation is to be believed, we’re in store for another big shack-up among the characters. Another strong point of the show is how the show can be riveting and full of tension without having to resort to cheap tricks and creating bad guys that need defeated. Occasionally, there are people who show up and feel like they should be considered bad guys but so far almost every character like that has been given the chance to redeem themselves. (Azuma is a good example and the spoiled, rich baseball manager is an example in progress.) The only two that haven’t still have time and I won’t be surprised if they see the error of their ways.

And you don’t need to like baseball to enjoy this anime, my younger sister only has a rough understanding of the game and zero interest in it but this is one of her favorite currently airing anime.

4 - Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Season 3

Conventional wisdom states that Goodbye, Mr. Despair is either – not funny, too cultural for English speakers to find funny, or that the only decent season was the first season and from there it went down hill rapidly. I disagree with all three; I think that the majority of the comedy is gettable by even a newbie anime fan (if you like the type of comedy present in the show – which is a different matter all-together) and that the second season was the best season so far.

The difference between the second and third season almost wholly stems from Shaft being overtaxed doing this series and Bakemonogatari. The result was while the material of the show held up well to the second season, the animation looked very poor compared to the second season. I normally hate to dock a show for items not related to the actual content of the show but SZS is different, in that, the presentation of the show became a very important part of the show. I still haven’t seen the final two episodes of the series but I’m pretty sure Shaft has left the door open to make more and I think they should because when the world runs out of things to despair over, it’ll be the day the world ends.

3 - Taishou Yakyuu Musume

On one hand, I’m surprised that Taishou Yakyuu Musume ended up this high but on the other hand, I wish I could have ranked it higher. This type of show normally doesn’t garner much praise – that goes to shows like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 or East of Eden or Bakemonogatari so I might have chickened out and put it lower. What stopped me is that of all the summer series I finished this is the only one I’m already re-watching and loving every second of. If anything, I’m enjoying this show more the second time.

The show featured a theme I love to see – the underdog vs. the world. I loved it in Rocky, Karate Kid, Major League (am I showing my age yet??) and I loved it here. I deeply wanted to see the boys put in their place and have to acknowledge the girls as equals which ensured that I’d tune in every week to see what happens next. Taishou Yakyuu Musume also showed how the girls had to work hard to get to level of being able to challenge the boys which is another thing I like to see – hard work paying off. (Not saying they beat the boys because I’m not going to spoil the ending here.) At the same time though, the show was never boring or overly sports anime-esque; it was perpetually entertaining and light-hearted and slice-of-lifeish that I wished it had run 26 episodes. I don’t expect this show to be totally historically accurate but I also liked how the show was set in 1925 and they spent a little time showcasing how in this era the people where really caught between the old customs and the western influences that where invading all aspects of the country and culture; for example, some of the girls wore kimonos to school and others where wearing the new thing – sailor uniforms. So for all that, Taishou Yakyuu Musume earns it’s number 3 spot in the top anime of the season.

2 - Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

With the overlap of the original series finished by the start of this season’s episodes, Full Metal Alchemist had no reason not to shine and has easily proved that remaking the series was the right decision. That part of me that has never stopped believing that shounen shows are the most awesome thing in the world is a very happy camper right now and even the slice-of-life part of me has to grudgingly agree that this show deserves it’s high position.

Watching the show and seeing it’s fights, revelations, twists, and reveals leave me on the edge of my seat and forgetting to breathe until the credits start to roll.

1 - Bakemonogatari

Like I said earlier, picking Bakemonogatari was a fairly easy choice for me. It had the characters, the witty dialogue, the story, the animation, the OP/ED, and it had the single best episode of the season (episode 12). Thankfully, this gem was picked up by much of the anime fan community so I don’t need to go into a long rant as to why this deserves the spot. So, I’ll end it here saying that Shaft better put together a second season quickly – I’m not going to patiently wait 3 years.

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Well, it’s finally done. Now I can fully get to the fall season which I’ve sampled a few shows so far but will get to a full recon now. A couple of the shows, Kampfer and Nyon Koi, have left me really torn about how I should feel about them so they’ll need a couple more episodes before I can write their impression posts. Then there’s Natsu no Arashi season 2, it seems that Shaft has kicked the show up a notch over the first two episodes and that will make it one of the stronger shows this season – I’m sure.

Posted in anime, awards

            I tried to write a part 3 of the awards, but it sounded either bullshity, or like I had no idea what I was talking about. Between voice acting, music, and art, I kinda have an appreciation of music, and a large appreciation of art, but those two just wasn’t enough to make a post. So I’ve skipped ahead to the top seven of the season.

 Without further to do…

 

7. Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Umineko no Naku Koro Ni got off to a slow start, working to flesh out and introduce us to the characters. However, at the end of episode II things truly started to pick up and episode III opened with a bang. We’re only two episodes into episode III, but I’m very excited. While Umineko has a tad too many characters, they’ve introduced a few I’ve become huge fans of, including Beatrice, Battler, and Shannon, who all have won their own awards this season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this show improve vastly over this season.

 

6. Baseball Playing Girls

“There’s no crying in baseball!” One of J.C. Staff’s three shows this season, this was probably their weakest show, although my no means a bad show. Baseball Playing Girls is the light hearted story about girl power, baseball, and 1920’s, and provides many entertaining moments. However, it also provides some wtf? moments and a few episodes that probably could have left out, or better yet, used to flesh out more of the supporting cast. While Akiko and Koume get plenty of screentime, the series fails to expand on the supporting characters. I would have liked to see every character get their own episode. Also, the show simply doesn’t have much depth. Although the show makes it obvious that it knows and accepts this, it doesn’t prevent it from being a weak point.

5. Cross Game

Cross Game is an excellent show with a well-paced story and well developed character. Over the course of the summer season, we did have some very excellent moments, especially with the addition of Azuma as an ally to the team. However, what knocked it down to number five on the list are a couple things. First off, it’s still an ongoing series halfway through its show. Cross Game continues on at a slow and steady pace, and is still in the stage of what would be rising action while other series have a completed story. Second of all, I have a few personal grippes with the series. Basically, the cousin creeps the hell out of me, and my enjoyment drops when he appears on the screen. Secondly, the creators have started indicating romantic interests between Kou and Aoba, but I don’t feel like there’s actual chemistry between the two yet. Hopefully, they’ll fix this as the series continues. Who knows? Maybe I just want Aoba for myself.

4. Pandora Hearts

Pandora Hearts is a kind of sore point for me, because I know people would have been all over this series if the animation had been better. But with the animation as bad as it is, you have to appreciate other parts of Pandora Hearts…and I don’t mean the convoluted story with its loose ends left unsolved. What Pandora Hearts does have going for it are for the most part well done and interesting characters, which it’s been proven many times over that if you can like the characters, it’s makes us for many lacking aspects. What else this series has going for it a better then average soundtrack. The second half of Pandora Hearts brought us the best the show had to offer. The was the development of the characters the show already introduced, especially Break who went from a character I didn’t like in the first half to a character I loved in the second half. We also met other characters, who while they didn’t get the screentime the deserved, still made the most of what they had, such as Elliot and Oliver.

3. Haruhi

I think this says something about the team behind Haruhi. I knocked it down to 3 because of The Endless Eight, but without it, who knows where Haruhi would have been? Haruhi makes it to #3 because of Signs. I loved Signs to death, and found it well done. With Mikuru beams, pigeons changing color, a talking cat, and an episode that brought on the fanwank Haruhi proves to use that it still have the potential to be epically awesome. Unfortunately, the high quality of Sighs only increases the wtf? factor of Endless Eight.

2. Sora no Manimani

Sora no Manimani is one of those show that gives me exactly what I want. Well-done interesting characters and a show that actually made me laugh out loud. The background music is surprisingly really well-done. Sora no Manimani was well executed, and for a show no one really knew what to expect, really outdid itself. However, the animation isn’t top notch, and Sora no Manimani doesn’t have such a strong storyline as our first place winner

1.Aoi Hana

Probably the only flaw I found with this show was the disappointing ending. Great characters, great animation, great plot, and one of my favorite things in the world, yuri. There’s so much I could say I love about this show, I could fangirl on for quite awhile. I think it’s safe to leave it at this show really showcases what makes an excellent anime, and deserves it’s number one spot.

Around this time of the year I like to pretend that it’s still summer because I know when I stop pretending, the coming winter will just depress me. Of course, the falling leaves and cool temperatures make it hard to pretend it’s something other than autumn. This extends to anime as well, just today, I watched two of the new fall shows and I realized that I can’t be dragging my feet anymore – it’s time to award my summer seasonal anime awards.

This season turned out to be a very impressive one. Between the carry-over shows and the new shows, I think just about every genre had at least a couple shows to pick from and at least one of those shows were a winner. Nor was there any shortage of fuel to fan the flames of fandom. KyoAni took the title “Endless Eight” way too literally, at times Shaft/Shinbou couldn’t quite pull off doing two shows at the same time, Bones left some unhappy over the “scientific” Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, and the animators behind Phantom didn’t seem to mind that the ending of their show was rather “nice boaty”. So it was an all-around good season for anime, and now let’s head for the first group of awards the cast and character awards.

Below is a listing of the shows that I watched this season and are the pool from which the picks for all the awards are coming from. There were a few shows that should be listed since I intended to watch them and I still intend to get to them but for various reasons (time, releases suddenly slow, and apathy) they didn’t get watched. They’ll be included during the yearly awards, assuming I finish them up by the end of the year.

Also a reminder, I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum but there’ll be some because of how they’ll relate to specific awards and for the continuing shows, only the part of the series that ran during this season is under consideration for this season’s awards.

Carry-over shows watched this season (8): Phantom ~Requiem of Phantom~, Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Hayate Season 2, Cross Game, Kemono no Souja Erin, Tears to Tiara, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009), Hetalia Axis Powers

New shows watched this season (10): Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Bakemonogatari, Spice and Wolf 2, Taishou Yakyuu Musume, Aoi Hana, Sora no Manimani, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S. 3, CANAAN, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Umi Monogatari

Shows that got dropped (3): Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!!, Needless, Kanamemo

Best Female Main Character

Winner: Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari

Runner-up: Erin from Kemono no Souja Erin, Horo from Spice and Wolf 2

I really, really wanted to award Erin best female main character because she has shown her worthiness multiple times over (and I felt bad that I took so long before catching up with the series which probably cost her the best female main character award in the spring season). I even penciled her into the winners spot but seeing Senjougahara as the runner-up spot just didn’t seem right because Senjougahara is a truly great characcccter that will long be remembered and loved. The Senjougahara fascination movement has reached levels that I really haven’t seen since the Melancholy of Haruhi came out in 2006 and she is certainly worth the fuss. Much like how Araragi’s vocabulary was insufficient to describe the night sky in episode 12, I don’t posses the vocabulary to accurately describe why Senjougahara deserves this award – words like awesome, interesting, unique, intelligent, witty, and strong seem too shallow and my thesaurus isn’t giving me anything better – so instead I’ll just submit episode 12 of Bakemonogatari as the needed proof.

Best Male Main Character

Winner: Kou from Cross Game

Once a character or show has won in a particular category one season, it becomes very hard for that same show to win the same category again in a later season. I think this helps guard against having the past goodness of a show affect it’s chances in the current season. However, if the show continues to make a convincing enough case then I will reward it a second time.

Kou won best male main character for the spring season which makes it much harder to win a second time but there wasn’t another male character that was able to compete against Kou. He continues to display all the attributes – maturity, selflessness, kindness, understanding, being an awesome pitcher but still being humble, and his continued remembrance of Waka – that easily ensured that he’d win this award the first time.

Best Supporting Character

Winner: Roy Mustang from Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

I just have the feeling that I’ll get at least one person who will comment that Mustang is a main character and not just a supporting character. So let me say that while he is an important character to the show, the only characters that I consider main characters are Ed and Al because these are the only two characters that the entire show revolves around and are in the show enough. Nor is there anything wrong with just being a supporting character because this doesn’t lessen the greatness of his character.

In the first incarnation of the anime, the climax of the first season should have prodded Roy Mustang into action and it didn’t – which ultimately lead to the inferior anime-only ending. This time around, with the source material in place, this climax event propels Roy Mustang into action and allows the viewer to get the full measure of his character. His quixotic quest to find justice, along with his fierce loyalty, and being a true bad ass (see episode 19) makes him an easy pick for this award.

Best Screen-grabber

Winner: Shamisen from The Melancholy of Haruhi (2009)

Runner-up: The pitcher on the female baseball team from Cross Game

This award goes to those characters with small roles to play in an anime but are still able to leave a big impression. In the case of Shamisen – the talking cat first seen three years ago in Haruhi’s awful movie – his appearance in the renewed Haruhi series was the answer to a figurative itch I’ve had for these past three years. After all, as everyone knows talking, sarcastic cat = epic win and making us wait for more Shamisen was just cruel. Or to put his epic awesomeness in another way, Shamisen was able to wash the lingering distaste that Endless Eight left right away and made me excited about the eventual true second season of Haruhi.

Best Couple

Winner: Kraft Lawrence and Horo from Spice and Wolf 2

Runner-up: Senjougahara and Araragi from Bakemonogatari

I sometimes wonder if I watch different shows then other people because the talk about this series was that it was a boring show about economics and merchants but I found Spice and Wolf to actually be about the relationship of a normal guy, who happens to be a merchant, and a wolf harvest goddess that takes a nearly human form (add a tail and ears). Each person has their own strengths and this allows their relationship to be a balanced one – which is somewhat rare in anime because one side of a relationship is normally shown as the much more dominant like in Bakemonogatari. One of the things I really liked in this season was the dawning realization by Horo that humans don’t live a long time when compared to gods which is starting to color how she interacts with Lawrence and adds even more complexity to their relationship. Hopefully, a third season will be on it’s way so we can see how the story unfolds and maybe this time they’ll do a 26 episode run – 13 just isn’t enough time.

Best Character Ability/Power

Winner: Haruhi’s ability to alter reality to suit her whims

I have been able to resist the temptation to read further in the light novels so I’m still really in the dark about what exactly is Haruhi. For all I know, Haruhi is within the Matrix and one day she’ll meet Laurence Fishburne and we’ll find out that Haruhi is “The One”.

Whatever the root cause to Haruhi’s powers, the thing that the new episodes really showed is that she does have vast powers and under the right conditions, she’ll use them quite frequently. The only drawback, at least from Haruhi’s standpoint, is that she’s unaware that she has this capability. Maybe it’s a good thing that she has these powers since the world has been largely unaffected and could you imagine if a normal, hormonally driven teenage boy got these powers – I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that the only woman ruined for marriage would be Mikuru.

Best Cast of Characters

Winner: Cross Game

Some shows lose steam as more characters are introduced because the plot quickly bogs down; some shows, however, thrive with a large cast and Cross Game is one such show. Every character is unique and interesting; no cookie-cutter characters here. I get excited whenever a new character gets introduced because there’s always a good reason for that character’s introduction even if it’s not apparent at the beginning and it’s sometimes surprising to see how he/she will interact with the other cast.

Best Character Development for Cast

Winner: Umi Monogatari

Recently I wrote how Umi Monogatari kept itself simple and was able to end up being a good anime. One of the reasons why this show turned out good was, instead of relying on unlikely coincidences and contrived events that force the characters to change and grow, the plot was left to the characters acting according to their own strengths and weaknesses. The result was that we still got to see the cast face challenges that caused them to grow but Umi Monogatari felt natural and more real than many other shows that aired this season.

Best Character Development of a Single Character

Winner: Erin from Kemono no Souja Erin

As much as I’ve love Kemono no Souja Erin, I realize that even after 35 episodes – the animators are still building Erin’s character and getting her ready for the hero role that she’s going to have to play in the future. This has entailed two time skips and enough hardship that many people would have despaired. Erin hasn’t, she resolutely moves forward to face the next problem and to protect those that she feels need protected. When all the plot threads that have been hinted at finally come together and whatever the exact crisis turns out to be, Erin’s going to be ready to face it and overcome it. I really can’t wait to see how the rest of the series will play out.

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That’s the end of part 1; I hope to have the second part up within a day. Comments and feedback are always appreciated – I’d love to see what others would pick.

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Posted in anime, series review

So…oi vey.

I actually do not like this guy at all. He really creeps me out. The whole starting to snap cell phone pictures of Aoba as he tells while he loves was just weird. Aoba’s response seemed weird to me too, the Aoba I know what tell off any guy for taking pictures of her or acting all lovey dovey. Not to mention that they are cousins. Maybe its okay in Japan, but the idea still makes me uncomfortable. The guy also has an obsession with mountains, so he climbs random heights to mimic the feeling, no matter how unnatural.

His presence really made the episode less enjoyable for me. I’d rather see Aoba being courted by Kou or Azuma. I guess I hope he doesn’t stay long, or fades into the background, because I’m sure how much I’ll enjoy the anime if I’m squirming uncomfortably every time he’s on screen. But 20 episodes in is too much of an investment to want to drop a series.