Look into my eyes!

Political topics are an area I try to avoid (this one will only be the third post over the 4+ year history of The Null Set) but I’ve had this thought rattling around my brain for the last couple of months and I just can’t seem to forget it. Every time I hear Mitt Romney speak about voting for him all I hear is Kyubey trying to convince another unsuspecting victim to have their fondest wish granted and get the chance to become a magic girl.

Needless to say, when I vote tomorrow in the primaries, it won’t be for Mitt Romney.

I’ve been busy and a bit distracted lately but I didn’t want February to pass without wishing everyone a Merry Christmas in February. Since Christmas in February is a holiday that my family created 16 years ago I don’t expect most of those reading to even realize I was late in the first place .

For those reading that have never heard of Christmas in February, it’s pretty much what you’d guess it would be.  The impetus to start came from the realization that there’s always Christmas cookies left over and normally a turkey (or ham or Cornish hens or some other holiday-type meat) that was bought cheaply during the holiday season still in the freezer and no real good way to finish them. So,  for fun, my family started with picking a day in February and having a Christmas-style dinner but, as things normally go, we slowly increased what we did for Christmas in February – we got a small 2 foot artificial tree and started decorating it then my parents started buying a small, inexpensive gift for us all. Which snowballed into a bigger Christmas tree and the $5 dollar gifts have now gotten to be $15 dollar gifts and now we invite extended family members to come .

One of the nice things about Christmas in February is that we get to pick when in February we want to celebrate it – this year, it was on February 19th but next year might be the second Tuesday or the last Saturday of the month. Another nice thing is that it gives the dreary month of February a holiday that’s fun. There’s also a near 100% chance of having a white Christmas in February though this year was the first time we had a green Christmas in February. Also, since it’s not the official Christmas, it has all the nice parts of the holiday without any of the stress.

This was only about a third of the leftover cookies that needed eating.

And since this is an anime blog here are some Christmas themed anime pictures:

Filed under: anime, general anime interst, other news

Okay, this article doesn’t actually spell out why catgirls are so popular but reading closely would strongly suggest a potential reason. I’m summarize for those who don’t want to read the full article but I strongly recommend checking the article out because it’s such an interesting read.

A Czech scientist, Jaroslav Flegr, has been studying Toxoplasmosis which as some people probably know is a disease that originates in cats and is the reason why pregnant women are not supposed to go near litter boxes. To everyone else this disease was apparently not that big-of-a-deal, something akin to a mild cold/flu that people get over in a couple of days, but this scientist’s studies and the corroborating studies suggest this disease is far more serious.

The protozoa behind Toxoplasmosis looks like it is a cause of Schizophrenia in a sizable percentage of people as well as having the ability to rewrite a person’s behaviors in a set way. The schizophrenia side I’ll leave alone because I’m interested in the behavioral modification properties here.

This protozoa reproduces inside cats and apparently hit upon a novel way to ensure it’s spread to other cats – infect animals that cats eat and then alter their behavior to help ensure that cats will eat the infected animals. This is done in many ways including the lengthening of reaction times (so if you’re a rat and come upon a cat it takes longer to decide to run away thereby allowing the cat a better chance at getting the rat) and reducing the  levels of weariness to open spaces (so if you’re a rat and come upon a situation where a cat might be laying in wait instead of being cautious you walk right in and get pounced upon) and making those infected more physically active (increases the chance of being spotted by cats).

Another way this disease accomplishes it’s goal is to rewire the brain to make the smell of cat pee an attractive smell. This was first shown in male rats but has recently been shown to be the case in male humans as well. The scientist being interviewed confirmed that it might be possible to use cat pee as an aphrodisiac towards infected males. Coupled to that it also alters the pleasure centers of the brain and increases the sex drive.

Now do you see where I’m going with this. If it does all this, I think it’s very possible  that this protozoa is behind at least some of the fascination for catgirls.

I know what you probably thinking, I don’t have a cat so I don’t have to worry. I thought the same thing until I read that the most common vectors of infection is eating undercooked meat and eating vegetables that weren’t properly cleaned. According to the article 10% – 20% of Americans are infected, France has a 55% infection rate with the rest of Europe being somewhere in-between the two rates. It doesn’t mention what the infection rate in Japan was but it probably isn’t much lower than America’s.

Like I said, an interesting and thought-provoking article.

Of all the holidays that inspire anime bloggers to post off-topic about, Halloween wouldn’t be my personal choice as the biggest but I just realized that I haven’t missed a Halloween yet. So for the fourth year running, I hope everyone out there had a great Halloween.

I’ve been trying to work through a bit of writer’s block lately but with the Fall season starting to really hit it’s stride I hope the inspiration will get me writing more often. Anyways, the next picture is of the pumpkins that carved this year, mine is the one second from the right.

Good anime Halloween pics seemed thin is year:

And let’s close with a couple other pictures from around my house for this Halloween season. I’m just glad there’s not snow on the ground at this point .

I was disappointed that a grand total of 3 kids came Trick-or-treating this year; the normal is around 25 to 35 a year. I gave these intrepid kids (it was sprinkling a little bit) double the normal amount of candy .

Mayo Chiki is never going to be considered a great anime, moderately entertaining and amusing – yes, but great – no; however, even for an anime like Mayo Chiki, being aware of classical Japanese literary works can come in handy. My own knowledge of classical Japanese literary works is very, very limited but I happened to have the required knowledge to understand the joke in the final scene of episode 10 and to find it hilarious.

For those that haven’t seen Mayo Chiki, the scene in question starts out with a character named Usami (the one letter difference her name and bunny – usagi – has been used for humorous purposes already) who is playing a video game given to her as a “present”. The game features a chibi version of herself trying to catch a carrot. This appears to be a simple joke until Usami catches the carrot and a pyramid of creepy characters latch onto her as she’s being drawn up. This tickles my memory; I’ve seen this before. My suspicions are confirmed when the “angelic” character cuts the string holding the carrot and Usami falls into a pool of blood straight out of Hell.

Like I said, I’ve seen this before. I wish I could say that I’ve taken to reading classic Japanese literature because it probably would be helpful in understanding Japanese culture but I haven’t.  Instead, I remember an anime that aired a couple of years ago by the name of Blue Literature (Aoi Bungaku). Animated by Madhouse and watched by almost no one, it featured several critically acclaimed, well-known works in 20^th century Japanese literature adapted to anime form. It was a really great anime and one that I wished more people had watched. One of the tales used was a story written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa – The Spider’s Thread which was published in 1918.

The Spider’s Thread was written as a children’s story and the anime version features an evil thief  who finally gets what he deserves. Right before his death, he happened to spare the life of a spider and for that one good deed he is given a chance to leave Hell and enter Heaven. This chance comes in the form of a spider’s thread that is hung down allowing the thief  to climb out of the pits of Hell. Of course, there are many other people in Hell that would like to leave Hell and these people try to climb out as well. The thief, fearing the thread would break and not caring about the others, tries to physically stop these people from climbing up too. This compassionless behavior seals the fate of the thief  and he falls  back down to Hell after the spider cuts the thread to Heaven and walks away.

By the way, the thief was fabulously voiced by Mamoru Miyano who’s now well-known for voicing Okabe Rintarou, the mad scientist from Steins;Gate.

Even though I happened to get the reference this time, I was reminded that anime does, in fact, come from a foreign culture and even relatively well-versed individuals in a foreign culture are lacking in so many of the areas that native viewers just know.

So, that was the joke to that scene in Mayo Chiki. I know a joke is not funny if it needs explained but next time it’ll be funny (especially if you go back and watch Blue Literature or read the original work).

I’m starting to look over the upcoming fall anime series and show I’d most want to see is the one I don’t think will be (at least for right now) – namely, a fourth Lupin the Third series. Scamp, over at The Cart Driver, reminded me that it was announced that this fall’s Lupin project was going to be yet another TV special but I had already decided that the lack of publicity that would surround a new Lupin series meant we still weren’t getting a TV series. They could still surprise us and pull a Kyoto Animation but I’m not sure how fans would take watching Lupin commit the same crime 8 times over with the only difference between the eight being what Fujiko wears.

Which is disappointing but so is the thought that even if we would get a new Lupin TV series, the people creating it would be the same people who do such a sub-par job on the yearly TV specials/movies that we’ve been subjected too over the years. What the Lupin franchise really needs is a reboot and I feel the need to display my limited understanding of how anime operates so here’s my idea . Constructive dissenting opinions are always welcome .

For me, the first step in a Lupin reboot is picking the right animation studio to handle it; every studio has its strengths and weaknesses that would shade the resultant product. For example, a Bones Lupin would bring serious animation quality but they’d also pace the show poorly and make a mess of the ending. A Kyoto Animation Lupin would be even better animated but there’d be no fan service involved which for a womanizer like Lupin would lessen the characters in the anime. A ZEXCS Lupin would be completely average and forgettable. A Sunrise Lupin would somehow involve lots of mecha and pretty much be a train wreck with a slight chance of being awesome anyways. A Shaft Lupin would be an interesting visual exercise but it would only be 90% done when aired on TV and Lupin isn’t the type of character that I think they could get right. Let’s not even imagine what Studio Deen would do with Lupin. A Gainax Lupin would be awesome because they understand the importance of over-the-top absurdness needed for Lupin and there’d be great animation but Gainax seems to only really shine with original material with it’s poor history of adapting material vs. anime like Gurren Lagann, Panty and Stocking, FLCL, etc..

The choice is actually pretty clear, especially with their recent adaptation of Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera – it’s Brain’s Base. They can do a wide variety of series types from the slow, contemplative Natsume Yuujinchou to the bloody, action-packed Baccano to the fast-paced, gleefully fan servicey comedy of Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera. Their stuff always has high production values and picking Brain’s Base means getting their number one director – Takahiro Oomori – to direct.

As for the rest of the staff, I just don’t know enough to make a pick/educated guess at who’d best be writer, animation director, music, series composition, etc. so let’s move on to voice actors. I do think it’s time to get newer, younger seiyuu to voice the main characters in Lupin. For, one, because the current ones that have been doing the voices since the beginning will eventually reach a point where they can’t work anymore and,  two, because if Dr. Who can switch it’s main character every couple of years – anyone can – and, three, new actors would bring new quirks to their characters.

For the role of Lupin I can think of two choices: Daisuke Ono and Mamoru Miyano with Mamoru Miyano being my first choice. He’s currently voicing Okabe aka the Mad Scientist in Steins;Gate and he also recently voiced Takuto in Star Driver. Both of these roles showcase the energy, the Sauvé, and the range of emotions needed to bring Lupin to life. Daisuke Ono would give Lupin an interesting new twist and he’d be convincing as a lady’s magnet but he’d probably end up making Lupin too much of a smarmy basterd (think Itsuki from Haruhi).

Behind Lupin the most important vocal role of Lupin is arguably that of Zenigata, Lupin’s nemesis. Zenigata has to sound like a manly, tough-as-nails police detective, be able to do comedy, must have the ability to make his “LUPIN” scream memorable and needs to be loveable. Best known as voicing Zoro from One Piece, Date from Sengoku Basara, and Mugen from Samurai Champloo –  Kazuya Nakai would be my first choice. My second pick would be Katsuyuki Konishi whose best known as voicing Kamina from Gurren Lagann but also was a treat as the kendo teacher in Bamboo Blade.

Of nearly the same importance as Zenigata is Fujiko – female thief, sometimes ally and sometimes enemy of Lupin and the sole major female role in the franchise. For this role I had two names that instantly jumped out as possible choices. The first was Aya Hirano. I follow seiyuu news enough to know there’s a lot of drama surrounding Aya Hirano but she remains a stellar seiyuu. She’s best known for her role as Haruhi in Haruhi and also probably as Katja, the sadist ojousama in Seikon no Qwaser. She’d be perfect in the role of wrapping Lupin around her finger. The second name I thought of was Chiwa Saito. Her signature roles are Hitagi from Bakemonogatari and Homura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica but she’s done everything from Tama the talking cat from Kamichu to Stella from Arakawa Under the Bridge to Lavie from Last Exile. She really displays a wide range to her vocal talent and could infuse Fujiko with any emotion or wile she needs to the successful female thief.

The final two reoccurring roles, Jigen and Goemon, were tougher picks to nail down since in Jigen’s case I couldn’t get the English dubbed version of Jigen out of my head and Goemon just doesn’t talk enough. It was tough but I eventually decided on Tooru Ookawa as Jigen. He’s currently voicing the only redeeming feature of Sacred Seven – Hellbrick and has voiced Dr. Ozaki from Shiki, Gedächtnis from Fireball (Charming), Brian Roscoe from Gosick, and Arawn from Tears to Tiara. As for Goemon, I had to go with Keiji Fujiwara. He’s voiced the Kappa from Arakawa Under the Bridge, Ladd Russo from Baccano, Maes Hughes from FMA(B), and Jake Martinez from Tiger & Bunny.

Okay, we’ve got the animators, staff and vocal actors, now it’s time to look at the show itself.

I’m not actually familiar with the source manga so I can’t comment on how important it is to stick to source material but there are several things that one can infer upon watching a fair amount of the animated Lupin franchise. For starters, even though the newer Lupin specials appear to take place in modern times, it’s really just a whitewash over the older, original 60’s – 70’s time period. So the question is whether Lupin should be left in 1970’s or should to be fully brought forward to contemporary times.

With Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera Brain’s Base kept the show in the 1970’s and it worked for that anime. Then again, that show seems deeply intertwined with that time period and I’m not sure they could have brought the show forward and kept it’s comedy intact. For a Lupin reboot, keeping the show in the 1970’s would be a possibility as well. It’d have the nostalgia factor and it would easier to explain why Lupin never gets caught in the era before today’s omnipresent security/surveillance state but I think doing that would sell Lupin short. He’s Lupin, the international gentleman thief; I don’t think the Department of Homeland Security would scare him or stop him. So, I definitely think Lupin should fully update itself into contemporary times.

Another point that assuredly starts with the source material of Lupin is it’s fast-paced, over-the-top absurd action. This most definitely needs to be kept in a Lupin reboot since it’s a hallmark to the series but that’s not to say a new TV series should follow the caper-of-the-week setup that was the norm in the older series (at least from what I’ve seen). Assuming a reboot would be 26 episodes long (with future sequels if the sales warrant) the series should focus on maybe 5-8 distinct heists and introduce a wider variance between the arcs. Maybe they could develop a reoccurring criminal nemesis to Lupin or have the various organized crime groups that Lupin has stolen from in the past band together and hire an assassin to kill Lupin or maybe have Zenigata finally capture Lupin and Lupin is employed in cases like freeing hostages from a tin-pot dictator instead of being imprisoned or he can match wits with international secret organizations like Nazi groups still hidden in the jungles of South America or we could get some back-story and deeper characterization on the main characters. It probably would be a blast to see a flashback to Lupin’s first job. The resultant additions need to be carefully done so the overall show isn’t bogged down but it’s entirely possible to balance the two sides with the right group of staff.

I’d also keep the “spirit” of the show the same. I wouldn’t monkey with Lupin and do something drastic like dropping the age of the main characters and shifting the show into a high school setting. Nor would I sanitize the show; that means keeping the smoking, the gun play, and the fan service.

And the final piece to my Lupin reboot would have Lupin wear the red jacket – he just looks the best in red. Now if you’ll excuse me, all this talk of Lupin makes me want to rewatch some Lupin.

The real reason I’m writing this post is so that I have an excuse to post a few pictures from the summer vacation I just got back from; but, I’m going to cover up the off-topic nature of this post by talking about a couple of thoughts I had about anime while on vacation and upon coming back.

Once again I spent my summer vacation relaxing in a beachfront home along the coast of Lake Erie. The location was so perfect, literally spitting distance from the shore, that we didn’t mind that the house lacked air-con.

Just about every house one can rent for vacation nowadays advertises that they have internet service but what they define as “internet service” is always an interesting surprise. This house had no landline phone or any sort of router that I could find but there was a wireless network my laptop found that I was able to connect too. I didn’t feel comfortable feeding this connection any of my various account names and passwords so I wasn’t able to blog or post comments but I did feel comfortable enough to fire Azureus up and continue grabbing anime that I wanted to watch. (I’m not sure what that says about me but I’m sure it means something.)

Very quickly I realized that it was going to be impossible keeping up with the 20 or so anime series I’m watching right now. There was important vacation related activities – like swimming at the beach, watching gorgeous sunsets, looking for beach glass, relaxing on the patio, marveling at all the stars that one can see outside of a city, etc – that limited the time that I was willing to sit down to watch anime. Also, the internet connection was junk; I felt that I time-traveled back to the dial-up days. It took forever for a single episode of anything to download.

Not the most relaxing way to spend time on vacation but it was a very memorable episode.

This naturally forced me to decide which anime I’m watching right now was worth it and the ones I couldn’t live without was sometimes a surprise to me. The anime series continuing from spring that I had to keep up with were three: Steins;Gate, Nichijou, Tiger & Bunny. No surprises there – Steins;Gate is All-Time Top 10 bound if it doesn’t fumble the ending, Nichijou is the best comedy series by KyoAni ever, and Tiger & Bunny has finally gotten serious about showing it’s full potential and it’s been a nail-biting ride (I hope it continues). Hyouge Mono would probably be in this category but it’s been forever since a new episode has been subbed so I don’t know for sure. Of the continuing spring series there was two series that I found that I could wait till after coming back from vacation to watch – Ao no Exorcist and Hanasaku Iroha. I like both of these series a lot but if I’m being critical I know why neither anime got watched. The fight in episode 15 of Ao no Exorcist currently feels like the high point of the series with it treading water since then and I’m not sure if A-1 can make the ending top that episode. As an original work, there is no excuse for pacing issues but Hanasaku Iroha continues to stubbornly stick to being completely random even after 19 episodes and there’s really no compelling reason to why it needs to watched as soon as possible.

Of the new summer series only Natsume Yuujinchou Season 3, Mayo Chiki, and Dantalian no Shoka made the cut. No surprise with Natsume, it’s one of my favorite series of all-time and the location – near the lake with the sound of waves lapping the beach in the background – actually enhanced my viewing experience. Mayo Chiki continues to remain surprisingly engrossing and the best new comedy/fan service series this season. I’m starting to conclude that Dantalian no Shoka will not be among the best series this season but will continue to be an interesting anime to watch.

It definitely was worth the wait though.

Two of the new summer series – Mawaru Penguindrum and Ikoku Meiro no Croisee – I dearly wanted to watch but the former didn’t air that week and my preferred subbers of the latter were slow (which was okay, I understand stuff happens but going through a Yune withdrawal is a painful experience). I initially didn’t think I’d miss either series as much as I did but I guess there’s truth in that saying about absence making the heart grow fonder.

This left a pile of new anime series that I didn’t watch that waited for my return home; including, R-15, Nekogami Yaoyorozu, Sacred Seven, Yuruyuri, Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi, Kamisama no Memo-chou, Blood-C, and Kamisama Dolls. There’s some good stuff on this pile but not good enough to get me to drop all the important vacation stuff I was doing. Speaking of which, while watching an awesome sunset, I got into a discussion about the best type of sunset. I argued that a sunset under partly cloudy conditions was the best type of sunset and clearly superior to a cloudless sunset but I was in the presence of someone who held the opposite. Neither of us was particularly serious but I thought this would make a good poll question that I could ask an impartial audience such as those reading this blog to answer. To help make the decision easier, I’ll include pictures I took of both types of sunsets while on vacation this year and you can vote below.

Cloudless Sunset

Partly Cloudy Sunset(s)

View This Poll

Thanks for the vote. The rest of the vacation was pretty typical vacation stuff. On the clear nights I saw a fair amount of Perseid meteors leading up to the peak night but I got clouded out on the peak night itself. There were a couple of storms that blew through which made for interesting viewing on how the coastline can quickly change and I even got to see several lightning strikes out over Lake Erie at night and was mesmerized at how bright and crisp they looked. However, the most exciting thing that happened during the vacation was when a P-51D Mustang buzzed the house.  In the pictures below you can see how the house sits in relation to the lake. The P-51 flew past at the same level as the first story windows and only about 75-100 feet from shore. It was really bookin’ it; a blink and I would have missed it. Thankfully I was looking outside when I first heard the engine growling towards me, though I almost missed it because I was looking up for it. I never thought I’d actually see a P-51 in-flight. Growing up I went through a phase where I learned everything I could about WWII and, even today, the P-51 has remained my favorite plane of the era.

Picture of the house I stayed at, taken from the beach

The view from the second story balcony

Vacations always end and before I knew it, I was back home and all the anime that I left alone was staring back at me wanting to get watched now. I was tempted to drop many of the lower quality series because I have a hard enough time psyching myself to watch the weekly R-15 or Sacred Seven but for a couple of these series I had two episodes to get too and for the others I knew another episode was just a few days away at best. All without my normal trick of layering together the better series with the poorer series because I’d watched all the really good ones. In the end, I trudged through telling myself that if I got through these series I would get to rate them as low as they deserve. And I was left with a bigger appreciation of how seeking balance is sometimes the right thing to do.

In closing, I’m back home with my high-speed DSL connection and the light pollution that washes out most stars at night and a clear anime backlog.

At the end of every anime season, when the new stuff hasn’t started and the old stuff has ended, there’s a short window of time where a person is often willing to try an older, unwatched anime that he/she wouldn’t otherwise try. Maybe it’s boredom or just the relief from the pressure of keeping up with the latest anime that causes this phenomenon.

Whatever the reason, I found myself drawn to finally watching a series that I’ve had in my possession for over three years – all the while gathering dust and broken promises of intended attention – Fantastic Children. The result of this decision was a mixture of elation that I discovered one of the great SF (science fiction) anime series of the last decade, peaceful contentment from watching an excellent series end well, and anger for letting Fantastic Children sit for so long unwatched.

Before I get to why Fantastic Children should be watched, I want to verbally kick myself a bit.

Even though I should have known better, I let the old-time, simplistic animation style convince me that Fantastic Children was ‘obviously’ lacking in the quality department. I’d forgotten that Kaiba, Cross Game, and Kemono no Soja Erin (to name a few) collectively proved that it was impossible to draw conclusions about an anime from it’s animation style.

My other failing was that, in the couple earlier attempts that I made to watch Fantastic Children, I made a snap decision about the show’s plot potential and decided that it didn’t offer a compelling reason to continue watching. This was the wrong decision as I found out this time because the beginning episodes which I thought were boring were, in reality, the building blocks to a compelling, truly epic SF/love story. To compute how far I undershot my guess about the plot/story of Fantastic Children in terms for someone who hasn’t seen Fantastic Children would understand, it would be like dropping Gurren Lagann after a couple of episodes after deciding nothing interesting, thrilling or epic was going to happen.

Okay, that’s enough self-flagellation .

I can just hear dozens of eyes at this point thinking, “I’m interested,  so tell me, what is Fantastic Children about?”

And I’d reply, Fantastic Children is an epic SF/love story set in the year 2012 and follows a group of white-haired, blue-eyed “children” that have appeared at various times for over 500 years in Europe and now in southeast Asia as they search for someone very important to them. They are named “Befort’s Children” after a town in Belgium where they made their first appearance, their otherworldly maturity and odd appearance has led some to call them devils and vampires. Their paths will cross with Thoma, a young man attempting to spirit two escaped orphans away from an abusive orphanage, and with a secret governmental agency (run by Dumas, who also happens to be white-haired and blue-eyed) that seeks to harness a completely new form of energy.

Saying anything more and I’d spoil too much.

I can now hear the eyes now thinking, “Seriously, what is up with the animation style and just how old is this series?”

And I’d chuckle, saying one shouldn’t judge an anime by how it’s styled (hoping these readers will have forgotten what I wrote a couple of paragraphs above) but to answer the question – Fantastic Children came out in the late 2004 which makes it a contemporary of the first Full Metal Alchemist series. It’s an original creation of the director, Takashi Nakamura, and is animated by Nippon Animation, best known for their longtime work animating series under the World Masterpiece Theater banner (Heidi, A Dog of Flanders, Anne of Green Gables,  etc.) and for employing Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata before they founded Studio Ghibli. (Which probably helps explain the animation style.)

The animation quality itself is pretty good with lots of fluid animation from the beginning of the series to the end and, surprisingly, there is the use of CG. (Never been a huge fan of CG myself but it didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the series which says something.) Truthfully, though, once you get sucked into the story of Fantastic Children, you’ll forget any misgivings about the animation style and will probably even like how the animation doesn’t intrude upon the story.

“I’m almost convinced,” says the eyes out there in the ether, “give me a couple more good reasons why I should watch Fantastic Children.”

Gaguri at Ha Neul Seom called it  “a dazzling concoction of adventure, mystery, sci-fi, romance and drama.” The Nihon Review said, “If even one anime per year had a plot as good as this one [Fantastic Children] I would consider myself a blessed individual.” Psgels at Star Crossed Anime Blog says, “Fantastic Children always kept you guessing at what was going to happen next,” while naming it the Best Story of the 2000-2009 decade and ranking it at #13 on his personal top 20. And finally, the hauntingly beautiful ending song to Fantastic Children was sung by Origa, who you might know from her work with Ghost in the Shell: SAC.

In closing, don’t make the same mistake I made in nearly passing over this hidden gem; watch Fantastic Children, you’ll be happy that you did.

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Yet another mystery of the this series, What is the meaning of this painting?

The non-Japan, non-school setting was different and refreshing.

The use of lighting effects helped keep the show from feeling old.

A still shot doesn't really do the animation quality justice .

During the dreary times of year that is winter in NE Ohio, my one younger sister (henceforth to be known as S.G.) gets bored because she can’t kayak, hike and do other outside stuff. This last winter I had a brilliant idea – see if she’d write some guest posts for my anime blog. She was agreeable to doing so and to my idea for her writings; namely, as a more standard general American anime fan – dub-preferring, DVD-preferring and one who doesn’t read anime blogs or anime forums – what she would think of anime shows that don’t normally get licensed in America (or if they are, it’s an obscure treatment that dubless). I picked several anime that I thought she’d like and gave her four episodes to watch at first and the rest of the series if she wanted to finish.

Of course, right after this RL stuff came up and she was no longer bored and only finished a few pieces and the intro that’s below. I held onto these for the last couple of months waiting for the perfect time to publish them and also to see if she’d write some more. (After-all, one of my aims is to bring her to the dark side .)  I missed the “perfect” time which was when I recently was on vacation for a week and she’s probably too busy now to watch and write until next winter – unless, maybe, she gets lots of nice comments about her posts and gets inspired  . As mentioned, below is an introduction that I asked her to write about herself and I plan to have her first impressions post up within the day.

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Guest Writer: S.G.

S.G. is an anime fan with a background in literature. Unlike the standard anime blog writer, S.G.’s anime history is only moderately long (approximately 8 years) and is comprised solely of a dubbed American-released anime, both modern and classic. Instead, S.G.’s point of review focuses around academic concepts of storytelling and writing. She’s done extensive research and writing on graphic novels as literature, and is particularly interested in how visual media impacts storytelling.

Her favorite anime includes: Rurouni Kenshin, Cowboy Bebop, Berserk, Samurai 7, Azumanga Daioh, and Fullmetal Alchemist (original and Brotherhood). Outside of anime, her favorite works of writing are “Beowulf”, the “Sin City” series by Frank Miller, and “On Walden Pond” by Henry David Thoreau. Favorite movies range from Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile, and Dark Knight to guilty pleasures such as Transformers.

S.G. is looking forward to watch non-imported anime to learn more about Japanese pop culture and modern society. She can be contacted for comments or suggestions at sagartland@yahoo.com.

In Japan, they keep their changing booths very clean:

In Japan, their cows are alien creatures:

In Japan, they take the saying “Eyes are the window of the soul,” literally:

In Japan, shark beats paper, rock, and scissors:

In Japan, they learn a version of English known as Engrish. Seldom correct, it’s still more coherent then Charlie Sheen:

In Japan, they expect physics to apply in their cartoons:

In Japan, all young girls are geniuses and can build robots that can pass the Turing Test:

In Japan, they still like Snoopy:

And finally, in Japan, they believe less skin equals more win. (Not that I really blame them in this case.) :

I quite liked the previous banner; the combination of Yotsuba and a picture of a local steel mill worked liked a perfect opening to an anime does – it looked good and gave the viewer a window into understanding what they were about to watch/read and the people behind it. It fit so well that it’s stayed up the longest of any banner I’ve made (almost a full year) and I started thinking that nothing could replace it. I needed to find an angle that contained a similar level of rightness and awesomeness before I’d consider a switch. (Spoilers ahead for PM3.)

Having Puella Magi Madoka Magica be the genesis behind the new banner probably isn’t a surprise. There’s going to be more than a few people who make room at the top of their personal top anime lists for this anime, myself included, as long as the ending lives up to the rest of the show. I was pondering the exact reason why Kyubey is wrong to create the system of Puella Magi and witches in church today (the organist likes to hear himself sing and I don’t) when the thought came to me as to who Kyubey reminded me of. The more I thought about, the more right it looked and the more I liked the comparison.

The resulting banner is the one you see above. It’s probably not the best idea to mix politics into it but it illuminates a side of me that sets me apart from much of the anime blogosphere and influences how I look at things. If you don’t agree – that’s great; everyone is entitled to their opinion and don’t let tin-pot dictators tell you otherwise. If you don’t care – I’m probably going to change this banner in a month or so and hopefully you’ll like that banner.

That's a picture of my brain in it's current state

Before I get to the awesomeness, I feel the need to get a little meta.

A quick look at the previous post’s title shows that I haven’t written anything for The Null Set in roughly 3 weeks. This was entirely unplanned and was the result of several factors falling into place at exactly the wrong time. The first was a general sapping of enthusiasm towards anime brought on by looking forward and discovering that the next season just looks appallingly abysmal. (The new series by Gainax and Shaft will probably turn out good and that’s probably it.)

Second, many of the series this season, both great and not-so-great, haven’t really played-out in a way that I feel like I have something to blog about. The sequels to Arakawa Under the Bridge and Sora No Otoshimono have gone the way I wanted them to (focus on Nino, explore the story behind Synapse) and I’ve really been satisfied with them. If they had failed or gone in an interesting direction, I’d have something to talk about; instead, all I got is saying that both sequels do justice to their respective franchises. Shows like The World Only God Knows, Amagami SS, Shinryaku! Ika Musume, Yosuga no Sora, Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, Samurai Girls and Otome Yokai Zakuro have ranged from watchable to pretty good but have done so without creating waves. For example, Ika Musume is a decent comedy about a squid girl that shows up with the intent to invade humanity and really sucks at being an invader. This description more then adequately explains all 9 episodes of the show that I’ve seen so far; there’s nothing else I need to add. Soredemo turned into a fairly standard Shaft/Shinbou series and most anime fans already know where they stand in relation to Shaft/Shinbou. (That makes it cool in my book.)

There’s been a few new standouts this season – Milky Holmes (one of the best shows this season and one of the best comedies of the year) and Panty and Stocking (Gainax doing what Gainax does best) – but there is a limit to how often I’m willing to repeat myself. And other awesome shows like Jellyfish Princess that’s already getting tons of coverage. The third reason for the lack of blogging is the ol’ real life excuse, you know the one. In my case, suffice it to say that nothing horrible happened and it mainly dealt with getting ready for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. (For example, my family’s iron-clad tradition to have one’s Christmas tree up and decorated before Thanksgiving, even when it’s near impossible to find a tree farmer/seller that’ll open before Thanksgiving.)

Now onto the tenth episode of Panty and Stocking.

I haven’t been the only person to realize that the really awesome Part B half-episodes seem to be matched with very weak Part A half-episodes. I’m starting to think it’s done on purpose; either Gainax is stuck using the weak ones and figured they’d do the least damage when paired up with a great half-episode or Gainax is purposely making a few poor half-episodes because they just feel like it.

So upon finishing the disappointing Part A to episode 10, I hoped and guessed the pattern was going to hold and it did. Before hitting the pure awesomeness, the show took a detour through a middle mini-episode that was rather odd until I realized what Gainax was doing. The entire 3 part Chuck mini-episode was to set a joke up involving the final scene, namely, a literal mind screwing to cap off a figurative mind screw mini-episode. I got a good laugh at the slyness of Gainax in acknowledging their own often mind screw type endings.

The highlight of the episode was the final mini-episode, the animated music video for one of the insert songs that Gainax has been using in Panty and Stocking. This is a field that Gainax has been exploring over the last couple of years with Gurren Lagann and I’m glad to see Gainax is starting to do the same with this show. It was probably the most awesome 5 minutes of anime this season will see and quickly becomes one of the highlights of the year. Screenshots to follow with a poll at the bottom.

The parodies were awesome and this was just some of them.

The poll question deals with the following screenshots.

American edition

Indian version

Australian version

Russian version

Spanish version

Greek version

Japanese version

And because Stocking is my favorite character:

I think the above screenshot speaks for itself but, since I’ve never believed the whole “a picture is worth a thousand words” saying, I’ll add some of my own and post more screenshots of the best character in Panty and Stocking.

I’m of two minds with this show. I’m completely not surprised that I’m enjoying the fun romp  that is Panty and Stocking because it’s Gainax doing the organized-chaos thing they do best but I’m also completely surprised that I find this show so much fun when I don’t normally find shows that revolve around bodily fluids and comedy funny. Maybe Gainax makes that much of a difference or maybe I just like shows that it’s impossible to know what’s going to happen next time. For example, in the first half of episode 7 …

… we get the story of what happens when two competing factions of sentient robots come to Daten City and our heroes, Stocking and Panty, get turned into robots. A shoujo robot series threatens to break-out during the course of the the story …

… but a ghost shows up and ruins the fun. (And we get yet another variation to the transformation sequence by our heroes. Sadly they only show Panty’ s part   .)

The second half follows what happens when Stocking and Panty need to raise a load of cash in only three days.  They start with those part-time jobs that seem always in need of filling like waitress, traffic cop, car washer, and geriatric nurse.

And finally as hostesses at a bar, (I knew Gainax would work in the bunny-girl suits eventually) when they learn that it’s possible to make loads of money at the casino and change for the occasion.

The only predictable thing about this show is that a ghost will inevitable show up but even then, Gainax keeps showing creativity. I think the ghost inside the casino was my most favorite yet.

Chalk up another great episode of Panty and Stocking by Gainax and I’ll have to wait another week to see what new surprises are in store.

Yes this is one of those totally fluffy anime posts where I wish everyone a Happy Halloween and fill the post up with Halloween anime pics.

So, Happy Halloween to everyone that celebrates Halloween. Last year I also reminded my American readers about having to turn their clocks back an hour since Daylight Saving Time was ending so I’ll mention that this year next Sunday is that week that we have to turn our clocks back. (And to further derail the point of this post, according to what I saw for Europe, this weekend is the end of summer time and it’s time to turn the clocks back an hour.)

Anyways, first here’s a picture of the jack-o-lanterns that my family carved. Mine is on the bottom right.

And here are more Halloween themed anime pictures.

Japanese Engrish 4TW

I noticed something after watching the second episode of Kuragehime that I think might play a part in the future of this show and since I didn’t see anyone already mention it, I’m going to point it out to see what other people think.

In the picture above we see Kuranosuke Koibuchi’s (aka The Male Princess, aka The Cross-Dresser) older brother and father. The father is a member of the Diet (Japanese equivalent to Congress) and the family is very rich. Here’s another picture of the father:

And now from the opening:

The father is Darth Vader and Kuranosuke Koibuchi plays Luke. This is an interesting father/son pair to use outside of just being a cool movie reference.  Is this a comment on the power that the father wields and the relationship between the two?

Next up is the older brother:

And from the opening:

It’s a shame I don’t recognize which movie this is a reference to but it’s definitely the older brother and I think the younger brother/cross-dresser is the groom. I don’t recognize the bride though it’s apparent the older brother is not happy about this marriage.

Is their marriage in the future for the Male Princess? If so, I’m already hoping it’s with Tsukimi.