After almost 2 years of kicking around the idea of starting an anime blog I decided four years ago today to see if I could write an anime blog and keep up with it. I guess the answer was – yes I could. (With the caveat that my writing style never developed into something that I liked and I haven’t been posting as much as I’d like to .)

Looking over my previous anniversary posts I noticed that they get shorter each year and this trend will probably continue this year though I might start showing my age by reminiscing about the good old days …

… Thinking back, it was a strange decision to make about starting a blog. I was always more math/science attuned and find organizing my thoughts into something coherent on paper a very difficult task. For example, that comment I left in the previous post took me almost two hours to write. Also, during the anime season that I started blogging, Winter 2008, I was feeling burned out over anime and was only watching one series. Why this was a good time to start blogging about anime is beyond me now. …

Sorry about that; reaching four years isn’t even that old compared to many blogs out there.

Before I lose anymore eyeballs to my meandering thoughts, I want to wholeheartedly thank the people who continue to read and comment on my little blog.

I don’t want to promise that I’ll write more in the upcoming year since that hasn’t worked in the previous years but I don’t foresee myself stopping anytime soon. I love anime as much as I did when I started and I still want to see more people watching anime and more people deepening their own love of anime by trying out new genres of anime.

And because someone might actually care, some stats:

• 438 total posts
• 1,096,351 total views
• 1986 total comments and
• 84,471 spam comments

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If I had funny search terms that brought people here I’d include them but looking them over I really don’t have anything that funny .

In spite of only needing to watch and review a single title for the Secret Santa Project, the chance of discovering excellence a second time after Noein convinced me to squeeze a second series in. I chose Noein because it’s staff later did one of my favorite anime, Birdy the Mighty Decode, but I lacked such a clear indicator for the second choice. On one hand I had an anime called Figure 17 – which I’ve never heard of – and on the other was an anime called Simoun – which I remember hearing some positive buzz for. I decided that picking Simoun wasn’t in the spirit of the Secret Santa Project and went with the older and unknown Figure 17 as my second pick.

I popped the first episode in and I thought …

… Wikipedia must be wrong; this is a much older series then a mere 10 years old.

A few months ago I wouldn’t let this bother me and would continue watching but recently I’ve been trying to delve deeper into understanding the influence of the staff on an anime and I couldn’t wait for the end of episode 1. So, I stopped the episode and started reading up on staff and the production.

I won’t bore those reading with everything I found but there were a few things that I found genuinely interesting.

The director of Figure 17, Naohito Takahashi, had previously directed Berserk and been relatively busy in the 90’s but after Figure 17 the only thing he’s directed was Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple in 2004. I don’t know if the director ended up getting kicked higher up into producing or eventually decided to retire or what. Whichever it is, I find it a shame that’s not more recent anime series that he directed. And it reminded me that I should finally get around to watching Berserk before the new movies come out.

Then there was the case of one of the little animation studios that had the in-between animation farmed out to it. It’s name probably meant nothing to even the more hardcore anime fan back in 2001 though in a mere five years after Figure 17 even the most noobish anime fan knew the name of Kyoto Animation with the release of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. With just in-between animation there’s probably no indelible mark that fingerprints their work in Figure 17 but I wonder: did KyoAni do a good job? did this job help convince producers that they could be trusted with animating a series themselves? was there any lasting influence on the animators of KyoAni after working on this project? Maybe if I had the Japanese language competency I’d go all old-fashioned and write them a letter asking this.

A look of  the voice actors and actresses revealed the now very famous Rie Kugimiya voiced a minor character in Figure 17. At the time of Figure 17 she was just starting out as a voice actress and was still 4 years away from the role that would define and immortalize her (as much as anyone can be immortalized in the ever-changing world of anime fandom). The role was, of course, Shana the red-haired hunter. Nowadays she often gets typecasted voicing a Shana-clone character so I was interested to see what type of character she was voicing before Shana. In hindsight, the answer was an obvious one; she plays a loud, short-tempered, abrasive, fourth grade girl or more simply a proto-Shana role (a Shana role from before she was Shana). Once again I got to wondering if this role influenced her later career.

With my intellectual curiosity sated, I popped Figure 17 back in and started watching.

Story

Figure 17 can be broken down into three distinct storylines. The first centers on the main character Tsubasa and her coming-of-age. She starts the series as a shy, introverted girl that hasn’t handled the recent move to the northern island of Japan, Hokkaido, from Tokyo very well. Her life takes a turn when she witnesses a meteor fall near her house and goes to investigate. She walks right into the second storyline, though she doesn’t know this at first. She encounters a humanoid alien, DD, who has to collect several dangerous alien monsters that escaped his crashed star-ship. His job is made much harder because something about the Earth mutates these monsters into creatures much more deadly then he’s prepared to face. Luckily for him and humanity, our main character shows up to help.

I know what your thinking, what can a fourth grader do to help.

One of the cooler pieces of alien tech our friendly alien DD has is sentient armor suits that encase the wearer in a near indestructible shell, when needed, and stored in a handy liquid state, when not needed. Upon initialization these suits scan the wearer’s brain and creates a digital copy of that person consciousness which the suit then uses in conjunction with it’s superior reflexes and senses to augment the wearer’s combat abilities.

Tsubasa stumbles upon a spare armor suit and activates it by accident. Her being human somehow alters the sentient armor suit and the resulting Figure (which is what the person plus the armor suit is called) is much stronger then DD’s Figure (try not to chuckle too much) and she’s able to stop the alien. How altered Tsubasa’s suit is after coming into contact with a human becomes apparent when they go to separate and the suit takes on the appearance Tsubasa instead of returning into a liquid ball. This creates a problem for DD. He’s not supposed to interact with the locals yet he needs the help of  Tsubasa’s Figure and somewhere to put the suit which is now an almost exact copy of Tsubasa without raising suspicions. He decides to use his ability to erase and add memories in people to make Tsubasa’s family think he’s a friend of the family that’s staying with them and that the suit is Hikaru, twin sister of Tsubasa.

The addition of a more outgoing “twin” to Tsubasa’s life gives her the opportunity to slowly blossom into a more self-assured person that her classmates like.

The third storyline is Hokkaido itself. As opposed to so much anime that takes place in big cities, Figure 17 is set in an area of Japan so sparsely populated that it makes even Shiki and Higurashi look like they were set in urban areas. Throughout the show we see the change that the slow cycle of seasons impart on the characters, surroundings, and the story. And we get to see all four seasons because the aliens monsters present a much more insidious challenge then just the quick roundup that DD initially thought.

Thoughts and impressions

Thank you Secret Santa!

How did you know I love intelligent SF series that don’t skimp on characters and story or that that I was depressed over Steins;Gate ending with no anime this Fall season that could really replace it? Both Noein and Figure 17 were perfect picks.

There is, however, one caveat to my praise of Figure 17 that I feel I should mention. The overall 90’s look to the anime was not that difficult to get into and did not slow my enjoyment of the series but I found the character designs of the kids to be downright ugly from certain angles. The worse was the side angle which made the kids look like bullfrogs getting ready to ribbitt. Kids are almost universally cute, it’s an effective survival strategy on their part and one that should be replicated when coming up character designs unless there’s an artistic reason in not doing so. Someone should have said, “You’re doing it wrong,” and had the character designs redone.

Eventually, the shock was no longer that shocking but it took many episodes to get to that point. I want to mention this because in spite of this Figure 17 is still a very excellent anime; don’t get scared away do to this minor issue.

Past that I have nothing but praise for the show.

I most liked how the creators where able to make Figure 17 work as an alien invasion story and a coming-of-age story and a travelogue of Hokkaido and as an introspective thinking story both independently and weaved together.

To make the alien invasion compelling Figure 17 used alien monsters that could adapt and quickly evolve based on information it gathered about the Earth and how their brethren were killed. This escalated each encounter. The heroes never knew if the new weapons and strategies that they came up since the last fight would be able to defeat the latest and more deadlier monster. There were no shortcuts to victory.

To make the coming-of-age story interesting Figure 17 treated the kids as actual characters and not just as a group of cliches and tropes meant to cover all the bases in anime fandom. The result was a refreshing change of pace that helped me actually care about the characters.

To make the location relevant and engaging Figure 17 remembered to include the small things and also to effectively use it’s unorthodox format. For example, the harsh winters of Hokkaido force the people to build their houses differently then those living down south like around Tokyo and these differences, like sloped roofing so the snow slides off, get shown throughout the series. I’ve yet to mention that each episode of Figure 17 runs for a full hour (with commercials or about 45 minutes without) and was originally released once a month. This gave Figure 17 the time to feature the surrounding and do the character building and include at least one alien fight each episode. If this had been split down into 30 minute episodes the creators would have faced the decision to either try to include a fight into each episode at the cost of everything but the alien invasion scenes or to bounce between “action” episodes and “character-building” episodes and somehow keep the show feeling coherent and paced well.

To make the introspective, thinking angle not boring Figure 17 let the characters and story dictate when the viewers were meant to think about the topics presented. It didn’t try to brow beat us into contemplating the ethics of DD in forcing the family of our main character Tsubasa into believing she has a twin sister or the rights that the sentient battle suit deserves after effectively becoming a person with a lifetime of memories or any of the other questions raised because the creators know if it’s done naturally the viewers will do without a second thought. Fans of Dr. Who might have thought that the story behind the sentient battle suits was reminiscent of the recent two-part story dealing with “The Flesh” and you’d be right. However, it was handled much better here.

I could ramble on but it would probably be a case of diminishing returns at this point so I’ll close by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed Figure 17 and would definitely recommend it.

Figure 17

Final Series Score: 11.5/12 Near Perfect
Rewatchablity: 3.5/5 – Medium
Ending: 4.5/5 – Sublime
Animation: 2.5/5 – Average

This was part of Reverse Thieves’ 2011 Secret Santa Project. Go here for links to other reviews by other anime bloggers.

I know what you’re thinking at this point – “He’s still alive? It’s a Christmas miracle!” Actually, probably not and those same readers probably don’t want some long meta explanation as to why I’ve been absent when you’re just here for an anime review. Don’t worry, I feel your pain; my excuse is related . I like to write about anime that excites me in one way or the other and it was difficult to find that spark this season when compared to the two anime series that I watched for the Secret Santa Project.

I can’t tell you how many times I thought, “Gee, I really should write something for my anime blog … Noein was an awesome show … but I have to wait till Christmas eve to post about it … well, ahm … Noein was an awesome show …” repeat to ad nauseam. Of course, what I should have done was taken the time to write my review of Noein during November or any day of December before today but the side of me that demands perfection told me I had plenty of time to figure out how best to convey the sheer epic epicness of Noein. I’m not that surprised that it’s Christmas eve and I’m just starting now without figuring the perfect pitch .

This is the best I’ve come up with.

Noein is ambitious, grand science fiction; wrapped in an emotionally satisfying story of love, redemption, and friendship; executed perfectly and featuring some of the best animated and choreographed action scenes ever.

Story

The multiverse exists and it’s a jungle out there. The continued safety of one parallel universe from on onslaught of giant monster mecha intent upon destroying that universe was on finding and returning with an item of great power. At the start of Noein this universe discovered the item in a potential parallel universe. Potential because until observed by an observer it doesn’t truly exist (quantum physics is a weird and funny science – or at least how SF uses quantum physics). A crack team of soldiers are sent to retrieve the item but are shaken when this universe appears to be a mirror of their own universe from 15 years in the past.

Can these soldiers resist the temptation of going rogue and living in the beautiful world of their childhood before the mecha showed up? How will knowledge of a possible future change the characters in the potential – and now real – parallel universe? Can the plans by another parallel universe known as Shangri-La (the ones the made the large mecha) for the destruction of all other universes be stopped? How much of the story can I tease without dropping spoilers tags over everything?

Thoughts and impressions

Noein hit me like a ton-of-bricks; it’s all-time top 10 level goodness that I probably wasn’t ever going to watch because it’s a few years old.

I’d like to say everyone should watch Noein but realistically there are people that Noein isn’t meant for. So I came up with a short three step questionaire for those reading to see if they should watch Noein or not.

Question 1 – Did you watch and like Steins;Gate? If the answer is yes then drop whatever your’re doing and start watching Noein. If you answered that you haven’t seen Steins;Gate continue reading. If you answered that you watched and hated Steins;Gate then Noein probably isn’t for you. And that’s okay if you think that.

Question 2 – What was your reaction to Kyubey’s explanation about entropy and the heat death of the universe for his actions from Puella Magi Madoka Magica? If it was positive, drop what you’re doing and start watching Noein (and Steins;Gate if you haven’t already). If you thought it was confusing but that didn’t infringe on your ability to enjoy PM3 then watching Noein for it’s characters is worth a shot. If you thought it was confusing or stupid and it caused you to dislike PM3 or stop watching PM3 then Noein probably isn’t for you. And once again that’s okay if you think that.

Question 3 – Do you watch anime just for the fan service? If the answer is yes then Noein isn’t for you and though it’s difficult to say, that’s okay as well. If you answered no then Noein should at least be considered as well as Steins;Gate and PM3.

That’s about all I have to say given the time constraints and my desire not to spoil the show for potential viewers and because my other Secret Santa post in nearly 2000 words long itself. I’ll close with a video detailing the work by one of the key animators that worked on Noein. Yes, I read what Scamp wrote over at The Cart Driver but I wanted in include something that displays what I mean by Noein having some of the best animated and choreographed actions scenes ever.  The key animator in this video goes by the name Ryo-timo or Ryo-chimo and after Noein he worked on Birdy the Mighty Decode and most recently got to direct and largely animate the Yozakura Quartet 3 episode OVA series. The first animation studio that gives him a pile of money and solid source material to work with will make a killing.

Noein

Final Series Score: 12/12 Perfect
Rewatchablity: 4/5 – Medium to High
Ending: 4.5/5 – Sublime
Animation: 4/5 – Excellent

This was part of Reverse Thieves’ 2011 Secret Santa Project. Go here for links to other reviews by other anime bloggers.

There are many ways to measure the success of a blog; any honest blogger would rightly say that numerical standards are not the best judge but that same honest blogger would admit that having good numbers is a nice thing. So, I’d be lying that I’m not psyched that The Null Set reached such a lofty level as getting a million hits (or page views, if you swing that way) because it must mean I’m doing something right but this elation is tempered with the knowledge that I still see much room for improvement before I’m satisfied with my work here.

My most heartfelt thanks goes out to everyone that’s stopped by over the years; I’m glad The Null Set was able to be of some use to you.

And now since I’m making a meta post, I might as well mention a few other items. The first is that I finally broke down and decided to make an account at MyAnimeList. I realize MAL is so 3 years ago but it finally dawned on me that I’ve watched loads of anime and the point is approaching when I won’t remember everything I’ve seen. I’m still getting use to all that I can do with MAL but I have finished my list. The other benefit is now I can add the nifty widget so people can see what I’m currently watching because the world has been desperately curious about what anime I’m watching .

The second starts after I got tired of how limited the Archive widget is. I decided to create my own because I wanted to include a way to pick out my best/favorite/interesting posts so they could be found by newer readers and others that may have missed them. You can click on the link in the top bar to see the result. For each month it states how many posts there were and links to a listing of all the posts for that month. Additionally, within each month’s block is the title and link of my best/favorite/interesting posts that were written in that month.

The third is to mention my new banner. Like the one it replaced, it includes Alpha from Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou – my favorite manga – and it uses a picture I took. I don’t know if I believe what I’ve heard about how the sunsets over Lake Erie are some of the prettiest in the world but they are definitely, at least, beautiful. I can just imagine Alpha sitting, contemplating and enjoying them.

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.

I realize only about a third of the people that read this blog live in the United States but I’m always so energized by July 4th, and this year was no different,  that I wanted to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July.

My favorite part about the Fourth and the reason I think of it as Civil Disobedience Day is that the state I live in, Ohio, has a law that should make it impossible to sit on my front porch to enjoy the fireworks but every year I get to enjoy those dozens of firework displays that my fellow neighbors set off. In Ohio, the only legal fireworks to own and use are sparklers and small novelty fireworks like those Snaps; however, it’s still permissible to buy all the other types of fireworks provided they are transported out of the state within 48 hours. It’s even required the the buyer signs an affidavit stating they will take them out of state and to say where they will taking the fireworks.  Being caught breaking this law could mean 6 months in jail and a $1,000 dollar fine but that doesn’t stop these patriotic Americans.

And the country is better off because of people like that.

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.

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.

xkcd - one of the funniest webcomics ever.

The actual birthday was on January 21st, which makes The Null Set exactly the same age as Hanner’s Anime Blog.

I’d like to thank everyone that’s taken time to read The Null Set over the past three years; it’s been a more successful and gratifying experience then I’d’ve ever imagined and it’s because of you. I would also like to thank those that take the time to comment on The Null Set (except the spammers out there); I oftentimes don’t reply promptly or even at all or leave comments on the blogs run by the commentators (even when I really enjoy their blogs) but I read and cherish each comment made.

The highlight of this year for me was my last minute entry into the Aniblog Tournament and then somehow squeaking into the Top 8 (where I got pounded by one of my favorite blogs – Kurogane’s). Now, I don’t think I’m nowhere near being the eighth best aniblog out there – I could easily pick at least 20 other blogs that I think that are miles better – but it did feel great to see people actually voting for this blog. I’m sure the next time I’ll get paired against someone like Star-Crossed or Baka-Raptor and lose in the first round.

Somewhere along the way this year I realized that I probably will never stop blogging about anime. I might post at a slower rate but I don’t see myself stopping. Anime still has the power to wow me and I like the community that’s been built up around anime blogs. (Where else would I find such a diverse cast of interesting characters from the far corners of the earth?)

Last year I pledged to make the upcoming year the best year yet for The Null Set which didn’t really happen so this year I’m not pledging anything for the upcoming year. However, I do have a big surprise for readers of The Null Set coming soon that might just be the biggest thing that’s ever happened here.

And because there’s probably a few people out there that will find this interesting, let’s do some stats. As of this post I have had:

• 402 total posts
• 818,550 views
  
• 1603 comments and
  
• 12,681 spam comments.
• top day was 2,925 views on December 4, 2010
• and my top week was Dec 6-12 with 12,856 views.

My top ten posts of the last year are:

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And let’s close with a screen-shot of Yuki. Why? Because it’s my party.

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

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Good luck and happy meteor watching

I’m sometimes amazed how disrupting a vacation can be to one’s life but that’s not the reason for this post (though it does help explain where I’ve been for the last 3 weeks) nor is it an excuse to post pictures from my vacation (though I will post some)  but because I had a thought about slice-of-life anime while I was on vacation and I took the above pic to remind myself of this thought so I could share later.

Since the summer vacation of 2008 where I tried out vacationing without a purpose except to relax and the small fall vacation from Fall 2008, I’ve really gotten into the whole renting a house for a week+ somewhere and doing nothing type vacations (see 2009 and now this year). So there I was sitting on the beach, listening to the lapping waves of water, watching the sun set and eating mint chocolate chip ice cream – immensely enjoying myself, far beyond what I should be allowed to feel and it hits me; I’m practically doing a live action slice-of-life anime by myself. Practically because I don’t happen to be a high school girl in a band who likes tea or a high school boy that can see ghosts  and has a fortune cat as a sidekick or a gondolier on a terraformed Mars but it’s still close enough to make me realize that the reason I like slice-of-life anime so much is because I love those small normal goings-on that are the center of these shows. Going to the beach? Awesome, I love the beach. Picking tomatoes, creating a feast and inviting all your friends over? Sweet, wish I doing that right now. Going to a coffee shop run by a android that drinks more coffee then she sells? Bring on the apocalypse, that’s my idea of the perfect day trip. I just wish it was easier to make these shows sound interesting to other people.

Sorry if that wasn’t such a deep philosophical point but it is slice-of-life anime we’re talking about.  Now here’s some other pictures from my vacation and the other reason why I’ve been slow with the posting is that I’m teaching my one younger sister how to drive (this’ll be the fourth sister I’ve taught to drive) and we’re trying to do it in only a month and a half which means I’m going out everyday  for at least an hour and it’s really sapping my strength.  And it’s not like she’s a bad driver but I’m exhausted nonetheless. This would be episodes 8-9 of my life as a slice-of-life anime but sadly, not many Japanese learn to drive (using anime as a judge) and thus this would feel out-of-place in an anime. The only example I could think of was Sunohara from Clannad.

Same sunset as the first picture

Same sunset as the first picture

Same sunset as the first picture

The beach house we rented had a lovely lookout.

The owners overstated their beach access but I wanted to get a picture of this cliff from the beach below and after a climb down the near vertical ravine and across the rickety 2 ft. wide bridge without anything to hold onto to keep balance on, I got this picture.

Time-lapse pic of the nearby road from the 2nd story deck, the stars were pretty as well from here but we only got a couple nights clear enough to go star-gazing.

This butterfly let me run into the house, grab a camera, and come back outside without moving so I could get this picture.

Another sunset pic but from another night

Filed under: anime, meta/office keeping, other wallpapers and pictures

With my defeat in the quarter-finals (which I totally expected and helped along by voting for Kurogane) as well as the end result of this year’s aniblog tournament in sight, I feel this is a good time to reflect on the Aniblog Tournament and post a couple of suggestions for next year’s aniblog tournament (assuming the organizers will run this tournament again).

I’d first like to thank everyone that voted for me throughout the tournament; I appreciate the support. Even in my loss to Kurogane, I couldn’t believe the number of votes I received. I know some of the votes were made in attempt to get the weaker blog to advance but even discounting those, I received far more votes than I thought was possible.

It felt very surreal to make the final 8 and it left me with conflicting feelings. I have no illusions that I’m one of the top eight blogs in the anime blogosphere but to say it was a fluke would belittle my opponents from the first four rounds which would be wrong. I wasn’t very familiar with my second round opponent, Bokutachi no Blog, third round opponent, Unmei Kaihen, or fourth round opponent, Anime Diet, before the start of this tournament but I now know that they (and bad luck party too) are quality blogs and beating them definitely meant something. However, the ease that Kurogane beat me means that I’m still no where near being one of the titans in the anime blogosphere so I won’t let my performance this time go to my head.

General Thoughts About the Aniblog Tournament

The Aniblog Tournament was a complete surprise to the vast majority of the anime blogosphere when it started and I was very curious to see how the bloggers and readers would take it. There were so many different ways it could have turned out; it could have been ignored or it could have generated tons of animosity and bitterness between blogs or it could have turned into a big joke after being swamped by fake voting. Instead, the result was very close to the best case scenario and I think that says something good about everybody involved (from the voters to the organizers).

I wasn’t expecting much from my involvement since this tournament was “just a popularity contest” so I felt blindsided when I realized that my participation would yield great unsolicited feedback about what I was doing right and what I needed to improve upon. Some of the suggestions for improvement where things I was privately thinking that I should do but it took someone else pointing it out and the desire to fix these deficiencies before the next round match up to actually get me to fix them.

I also wasn’t expecting to discover new blogs that I should follow but that happened as well. Upon becoming an anime blogger, my intake of anime increased drastically and as a result I radically cut back my anime blog reading. I had less time to read other blogs and my need to read episodic blogs disappeared because I was now watching all the anime that interested me in the slightest. I also stopped checking out new blogs as they started because I liked the mix of anime blogs I followed and didn’t see the pressing need to find more. The product of this mindset was there was a depressing amount of blogs I was not familiar with and before I voted I wanted to make sure I was voting for the “right” blog. (Never call me an uninformed voter in anything.) This lead to discovering blogs like ghostlightning’s where I had previously read a few posts from but never connected these posts together in my mind to tell me that I needed to follow this blog and established blogs like Behind the Nihon Review that I can’t understand how I missed in the past and newer blogs like Scamp’s that I found having an interesting author/style of writing behind it.

For “just a popularity contest”, I think the Aniblog Tournament did a great deal of good.

Suggestions for the Next Aniblog Tournament

I was very happy with how this tournament was set-up but I thought of a couple tweaks that I think could improve next year’s aniblog tournament (assuming and hoping there is one).

I like the general format of the tournament, how it has 96 spots for blogs and gives a first round bye to the stronger blogs, but using a set number will always mean some blogs are left out or there’ll be not enough blogs to fill the required spots. The best solution, I think, is to have a round zero where all the blogs not getting first round byes are put into different pools  – I was thinking 8 – and the top 8 vote getters in a poll of that pool would be used to seed the first round match-ups.

Another needed change is to publish the tournament bracket early, giving the voters time before the start to review blogs they’re unfamiliar with and to allow bloggers time to prepare their blogs to look and read their best.  (And allow any blogs to opt out if they so desire.) Assuming the my first suggestion is implemented the added time could be used for feedback to ensure no anime blog gets left out. For example, next year around mid-February, the initial bracket with the blogs getting first round byes could be published along with the proposed list of participants in the various pools. People could then mention anime blogs that were not included that they feel should by included and a revised listing of the pools would be published about 7-10 days before the start of March. Then on March 1st, the polling would commence on the pools and by the middle of March the winners would be known and placed into the tournament bracket. From there, people would have a couple of weeks to read and/or prepare for the start of the tournament on April first.

I also thought trimming the matches from 7 days to 5 days was a good idea and wonder if it could be shortened to 4 days.

I have seen the suggestion somewhere else that editorial and episodic blogs be segregated more in their pairing next time. I think the idea is tempting but ultimately not a sound one. Yes, they are completely different types of blogs but one can still measure how much value reading a certain blog gives to oneself independently of the content of the blog. And looking over all the match-ups, I don’t see the editorial blogs doing that badly anyways.

Completely Off the Subject

Though I don't like how the game makers elected to hide Germany's true flag for the game.

The lack of anything new on The Null Set recently can be attributed to my decision to pick up a game called Hearts of Iron 3 and the insane difficulty it’s taking to learn how to play. I didn’t expect this game to be this difficult to get after playing so many games of the same genre but it is and trying to figure it out has been taking up a lot of space in my brain. I’m at the point now that the game is starting to make sense and becoming fun to play. If you’re wondering, it’s a strategy game set between the years 1936 – 1948 and the player can pick any country to play out WW2 or an alternative WW2. In my game, I’m playing one of Chinese political factions and so far I’ve been able to reunite China, push Japan off the Asian continent then invaded and conquered Japan turning myself into the Asian superpower. And in Europe, Germany started the war like normal but then invaded Spain and England. And America finally joins the war in mid-1942 (no Pearl Harbor to bring it in sooner) and invades/frees Norway from Germany. At the present moment, England is trying to convince the Chinese Empire to become an Allied power but I’m being tempted by the largely undefended Allied holdings in Asia (India, Indonesia, etc.) not to join, though, the idea of a European invasion by the Chinese Empire to save England, France, etc. is almost too absurd to pass up.

Completely Off the Subject 2

My younger sister graduated high school this year and for her party, last week, she wanted to rent a farmhouse in Amish country and spend her time shopping and relaxing. At night I marveled, once again, about how awesome the stars look outside of the city and decided to see if I could take a picture of them. A tripod would have been extremely helpful but I did get a couple nice pictures.

If you look at the full size pic you can see it's the Big Dipper

Filed under: meta/office keeping, other wallpapers and pictures

I’ve been rather slow getting to all the various items of this, the spring 2010 season and My Garden was definitely something I’ve been looking forward to since the end of the fall season. Last year’s Garden was a big success and I was hoping to see even more improvement. So without further ado, here’s my impression post about My Garden.

Rating for first couple weeks of gardening – 12/12  Perfect
Anticipation Level: 5/5  Very High

The Story

March and April saw some heat and it made me almost jump the gun and start planting but it’s a good thing I waited. A chilly May saw lows routinely dip below 40 degrees F and forced any thought of planting to the last week of May. Last year’s experiment of trying to grow pumpkins and corn in the same bed together was not repeated this year; instead, the focus will be on growing corn and getting corn shocks to use for Halloween decorating. Peppers made a comeback this year, proving no plant is dropped forever. Also making a surprise return appearance is Dusty Miller. Other than that many of the flowers are well-known returnees, being grown from seeds collected at the end of last year.

The Fine Print

So far everything looks good. The wild animals have behaved themselves. So far there’s been no sign of the groundhog living under my neighbor’s back porch or the rabbits living in the brush a couple of lots over or the deer that wander over from the park or the squirrels that like to dig holes and uproot plants.

The germination rate has been outstanding so far. The home-grown seeds once again prove their superiority to store-bought seeds. Though the store-bought seeds have been doing good themselves. So, it’s a very impressive start to My Garden and it deserves a perfect score. Pictures follow:

One day this'll be a tall stalk of corn.

And this'll be pretty cosmos in a couple of months.

And these tomato plants are already making tomatoes

Top 3 Reasons You Should Be Gardening

1.   Gives You Interesting Tidbits To Talk About Anime

And here’s proof, by gardening I know that cosmos flowers show up a lot in anime.

2.   I Have a Cute Nephew

3.   You Can Get Your Own Pesticide-free Lycopene Cheaply

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So I ended winning my second round match-up against Bokutachi no Blog and advance to the third round and face Unmei Kaihen. Since I won, I will honor my promise to review any one randomly picked show from people that voted for me but so far I don’t have any candidates (I’m not sure if zzeroparticle was serious). Therefore, if you have a show, no matter how bad, that you want me to review and you voted for me then please leave a comment on which show you want.

And if this post seems like an odd one, it was inspired by this post.

As you might have guessed by the title, yesterday marked the start of my match in the second round of the Aniblog Tournament. You may have also guessed that this post is the type of post that at some point, maybe after trying a bit of bribery or trash-talking or arguing for my superior worth, I’ll ask people to please go here to vote for The null set. And you’d be right on both accounts, but I’ll try to keep this interesting for you nonetheless.

Three Reasons Why You Should Vote For The Null Set

1.   I Have a Cute Nephew

And I have the pictures to prove it:

If that’s not a good enough reason to vote for me, I don’t know what is.

2.   I’m From Youngstown and I Know People

Sure some cities have nice sounding nicknames like ‘The City of Brotherly Love’ or ‘The Big Apple’ but my hometown has cooler sounding nicknames:  ‘Mob Town, USA’ and more recently ‘Murder Town, USA’. And don’t think these nicknames are misnomers, in the 90’s, for instance, Youngstown had the highest per capita homicide rate in America for many of the individual years of the 1990’s and we were either #2 or #3 all the other years.

3.   I’m Part Elven

If J.R.R. Tolkien is right about how elves develop a yearning for the sea the first time they get near it then it’s conceivable that I’m part elven because I seem drawn to it. Look how often it’s come up on my blog, here and here and here. In two months I’m going on a week long vacation at a beach house and that’s in addition to the beach trip I just went on (found a bunch of nice sea glass) and another trip sometime in June. Here’s some new pictures I took on the most recent visit.

Isn’t my blog the most awesome, so go here and vote for The null set now.

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Okay, so this list wasn’t a serious one, though, everything said about me true. I do have a cute nephew and I’m proud of being from Youngstown and I do enjoy going to the beach. I included being from Youngstown because it is an important part of who I am. If you look past the nicknames and the murder rate and the inability to park your car on the street because sooner-or-later someone will break the windows in – I still think of it as a great place to live, it’s got the second largest urban park in America behind Central Park in New York City; the people are by and large good, hard-working people; and I’m optimistic the worst of it has past and the future will be a better one for Youngstown.

Now for the serious list as to why I think people should vote for The null set.

Three Reasons Why You Should Vote For The Null Set

1.   Unique Philosophy to The Null Set

I wanted The null set to be a successful anime blog and not wither away after a few short months. To do this, I needed to find something that would separate this blog from other blogs and I needed to believe that whatever this blog did, it had some importance to my potential readers.

What I eventually came up with as The null set’s mission is to get people to watch good anime, even if that means trying something they normally wouldn’t and to steer people away from wasting their time with bad anime. This influences everything I do, even if it’s not apparent. I normally write my anime posts as if the audience reading them has not seen the anime in question which means including as few spoilers as possible, among other things. The types of anime posts I write mainly – impression posts of new anime, series reviews, season previews, and seasonal/yearly anime awards – are designed with this mission in mind. I’d rather have people spending time watching good anime then spending time reading what I have to say about good and bad anime.

2.   Wider Variety of Content

I have only the highest respect for episodic blogs and their ability to cover the same shows week in and week out; I’d probably burn out quickly if I tried. I think the format, however, is very constricting and it would limit the quality of my blog since many of my most read posts and the posts I’m most proud about wouldn’t fit into that format.

For example, there was my rebuttal to Mr. Sherman, president of Bang Zoom, about the impending death of anime in America and from a couple of years ago, my two-part (1, 2) rebuttal to the “documentary” that Otaking put out. There’s also this post where I used the licensing patterns of the anime from 2008 to show that instead of blaming fansubs, maybe studio execs should be looking at the shows they license; the post still holds up well though there’s been some more licensing of 2008 anime shows since I wrote it back in November.

From time-to-time I like to pit two series or two characters against each other to see who would win. The most read one remains the Haruhi vs. Gurren Lagann one I did back in 2008 but the one I had the most fun putting together was the Haruka Minami vs. Ibuki Ikaruga battle because I was surprised by the winner.

I also enjoy dabbling with Photoshop because it exercises my creative side a different way then writing does. The result is often posting wallpapers that I’ve made. The Soul Eater ones (1, 2, 3) have been the most popular; my Toradora ones actually got linked to by a Japanese anime blog which I thought was great. My favorite wallpaper was one I did for Bakemonogatari that splices Araragi and Mayoi onto a picture I took while on vacation at Washington D.C.. I also once tried out vector tracing using Muraski from Kure-nai. And I also sometimes take the time to stitch together those pan-up shots the animators do of a really awesome outfit/character. The latest was one I did the other day after watching episode 5 of Katanagatari and I might as well share it with you know as thanks for reading this far down.

There’s also those posts that are hard to categorize except to say that something about the anime I was watching or manga I was reading at that time interested me and I wanted to share. There was a recent post about fixing a joke I read in the Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei manga, there’s this post where I mention anime songs that make me cry, the post about how animators seem fascinated with the night sky, a post about how anime needs more mature characters, and the post where I talk about When an Anime Becomes a Keeper.

3.   Winning Would Do The Most Good For The Anime Blogosphere

I struggled with how to word this one without sounding presumptuous and I still don’t think I quite got it right. I’m not saying that my anime blog is super important or even more important than my opponent, Bokutachi no Blog, but the feedback I received during the first round and pressure to make my blog competitive for the second round pushed me to improve The null set and winning in this round will push me even harder to improve the quality of The null set to make it competitive for the next round. I have several ideas that I think would make very interesting posts which have been kicking around in my brain for a while now, waiting for a good time to get written, and trying to win in the third round would be a very good reason to get them written. I’m even thinking about bring back my weekly anime review.

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So, hopefully, something I said has convinced you to go here and vote for The null set in the Aniblog Tournament; I’m currently behind by a little bit but with your help, I might just win.

Yes We Can! With your help The null set can win.

I wasn’t going to try the bribery route but I just had an idea that attempts to bribe while still keeping within the parameters of running The null set like normal. If I win my second round match-up, I’ll watch and write a series review of any one randomly selected anime (up to say 40 episodes in length) picked from a list generated of people leaving a comment at this post saying that they voted for me and the name of the anime they’d like me to review. Of course, I can’t verify if the winning person did, in fact, vote for me but I’m willing to trust in my readers. And  no matter the legitimacy of the comment, I’ll still be reviewing a show I haven’t done yet and I’ll only do it when I win so it’s a win-win for everyone involved.

Filed under: anime, general anime interst, meta/office keeping, other wallpapers and pictures

Along with this realization, I think I solved a question I’ve been pondering for years now – namely how can one best differentiate between a kid and an adult. The answer is that a kid thinks time does not go fast enough and an adult thinks time goes too fast. I fall into the latter category; I’m appalled that I haven’t posted anything in slightly over 2 months but it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been 2 months. Where does the time go???

For those that are interested in why it’s been so long since I last wrote something, I’ll get to later down the page. First, let’s do some anime blogging and we might as well start with my thoughts on the new shows that made up the Winter 2010 season.

Sora No Woto

Status – Finished
Final Score –  8/12 B+
In Short – A-1 deserves praise for attempting a show of the caliber but it really needed to be a 24 episode series. It wasn’t, though, and as a result the pacing is too hurky-jerky, the story-telling is too compressed, and the characters are too flat for the viewer to really enjoy Sora no Woto as much as it should have been. Which is a shame because the world that A-1 created was a really interesting one that truly begged to be investigated more.

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Chuu Bra!!

Status – Dropped after 4 episodes
Interim Score –  2/12 F
In Short – I knew I shouldn’t have bothered with this show but there was so few shows this season I figured what was the harm in watching a couple of episodes. Mistake, I could live with a merely poorly constructed fan-service show but I was not ready for this show. It was a poorly constructed fan-service show with a quasi-realistic portrayal of young teenage girls as they grapple with self-image issues. Each episode left me feeling unclean and wondering who exactly thought animating this show was a good idea. Thankfully, I could legitimately drop Chuu Bra after 4 episodes when it became apparent that the show, even without accounting for the creep factor, was a lousy show.

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Katanagatari

Status – Waiting for the next episode
Interim Score –  8/12 B+
In Short – The first 3 episodes of Katanagatari aired this season and while it started off very shaky – each subsequent episode has shown a marked improvement over the previous. I think the key to liking this show is to not create the wrong expectations. This is a NisiOisiN story so even though it’s about sword fighters and medieval Japan – the emphasis is on the characters and their conversations and not on the blood/ gore/ action scenes that one might assume a show like this would focus on.

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Seikon no Qwaser

Status – 12 episodes watched and still reluctantly watching
Interim Score –  3/12 D
In Short – For a show that tries to push the envelope in terms of fan-service, you’d think the animators could come up with something that wasn’t so boring. Scenes that should shock or titillate more-often-then-not leave me yawning, wishing that I could bean some sense into the manga/anime creators that think T&A is all that’s needed to carry a show. Sometimes I think they forget that the internet exists. The sole saving grace to Seikon no Qwaser is that one character is being voiced by Aya Hirano (aka Haruhi) and she’s absolutely awesome – truly one of her best efforts to date. It’s not enough to make this show a worthwhile watch to the vast majority of anime watchers but it is something.

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Omamori Himari

Status – Dropped after 7 episodes
Interim Score –  5/12 C+
In Short – I continue to be weak against anime shows that feature the supernatural/Japanese religious elements so when a show like Omamori Himari comes along with it’s generic blandness and it happens to have a supernatural element to it – I end up watching it longer then it deserves and having a higher opinion of it then it deserves. It wasn’t a horrible show and I’d probably have finished watching it except that I decided one day that I was sick of the all the not-really-horrible but not-really-good shows I was watching and dropped it along with a few others.

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Ladies versus Butlers!

Status – Finished
Final Score –  4/12 C
In Short – And yet somehow I finished this show,  though in my defense this show did have some potential and I found the opening song catchy. If they had skipped the harem of girls with one-dimensional personalities and focused on the triangle of the main guy and the two girls – drill hair and childhood friend it might even had been a good show but this is Xebec were talking about so that was just wishful thinking. This was probably the least painful fan-service show to watch of the season so if you absolutely needed your fix this was your bet.

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Durarara!!

Status – 13 episodes watched and impatient for more
Interim Score –  10.5/12 Strong A
In Short – One of the best new shows of the season. For those that wanted Durarara to be Baccano 2, this first half of the show was probably a big disappointment. The very minimal body count and focus on character/story development was just two ways Durarara felt unBaccano-like. I’ll admit that this desire clouded my feelings for a while but I eventually got over it when I realized that Durarara was going to be 24 episodes long and it had the time to develop it’s characters in ways that Baccano didn’t and because the animators started to reveal parts of the larger plot of Durarara and it became interesting in it’s own way. I totally psyched for the second half.

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Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

Status – Dropped after 7 episodes
Interim Score –  6/12 B-
In Short – Another casualty along with Omamori Himari; I thought it started strong but it began to bog down in the middle and I wasn’t in the mood that day to put up with a show that could obviously being doing much better. Since then I’ve kinda felt bad about dropping it but I’ve yet to feel the urge to pick up where I left off so I guess it’s just best to let sleeping dogs lie.

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Dance In The Vampire Bund

Status – 9 episodes watched and a desire to finish
Interim Score –  6/12 B-
In Short – I really had high hopes for this and I thought the first episode was brilliant but my disappointment grew as I kept waiting for the show to settle down and start telling a story.  since I like the Shaft/Shinbou combo I didn’t want to give up on it so after the sixth episode I decided to put it aside till I had all the episodes and had the ability to watch them together. Some shows, I’ve realized, work better when marathoned and just the other day I watched episodes 7-9 together and I liked it more than I was expecting. I hope this bodes well for the rest of the series.

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Ookami Kakushi

Status – Dropped after 7 episodes
Interim Score –  6/12 B-
In Short – Another not-really-bad but not-really-good show that I decided to drop. In it’s favor was the fact that a competent animation studio was animating this and not Studio Deen who had done the previous Ryuukishi07 shows (Higurashi, Umineko no Naku Koro ni). This positive is negated by the larger problem of the source material recycling so much of the show’s content from those previous Ryuukishi07 shows. Also, I’ve gotten tired of how all these shows are placed 25+ years ago – I’m starting to think Ryuukishi either lacks the will to figure out how to do a mystery/horror series where the characters have access to cell phones, GPS devices, and the internet or lacks the intelligence to write a new story that doesn’t rip off his/her/its one other story idea.

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Hanamaru Youchien

Status – Finished and Wishing for Season 2
Final Score –  12/12 Perfect
In Short – Saved the best for last. I can still remember how utterly stupefied I was when it was announced that Gainax’s next series was going to be Hanamaru Youchien. This series had J.C. Staff written all over it, why was Gainax doing this? I checked the manga out and was decidedly underwhelmed after reading the first 10 chapters. With absolutely no confidence that Hanamaru Youchien was going to be good, imagine my surprise when Gainax cranked this out of the stadium. Who knew the studio known for it’s hot-blooded action series could do such a warm, relaxing, cute, funny series. I think Gainax just became my preferred studio to do the anime for Yotsuba if/when the creator ever allows one to get made. Gainax also deserves tons of praise for having a different ending song/animation for each episode; I loved all the different songs and subjects. (Now if only KyoAni could do the same thing with K-On.)

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I really should add one final show – Hidemari Sketch x ☆☆☆ (aka season 3) – since it aired this season as well but I’ve just seen the first couple of episodes and so I don’t have a firm opinion on it yet. After purging all the bad – mediocre shows of this season, I needed something to fill the space and decided it was time to catch myself up on this series and started with the first series. I plan on making a post about all the series I’ve been watching instead of the current crop of shows so look for my thoughts on this Shaft/Shinbou series soon.

And maybe I’ll even get around to doing my top shows of 2009 already and talking about the new spring 2010 shows as well. Now onto where I was for 2 months.

If it was just up to me, I’d probably just pretend nothing happened and keep blogging but I’m pretty sure there are at least a few people who were wondering what happened to me and so I’ll give a condensed version of the various reasons and we can go from there.

A normal February is a pretty depressing month already but this one was a bit harder to get through than most. The weather was truly atrocious; it wasn’t so much the almost unending amount of snow we got (about 45 inches) but the complete lack of sunlight we had. I checked online and for the entire month of February we had 7 hours of clear skies. It didn’t break down how much of those 7 hours occurred during daylight or at night but even in all 7 hours happened during daylight hours and I happened to be awake – it still essentially meant I went a month without seeing the sun.

Also weighing on my mind was that this February was the one year anniversary of my grandma passing. I’ll get myself wound up in anger if I think about it too much so I’ll just say that I consider my 3 aunts the reason why my grandma isn’t living today. Also, it’s very important for everyone to decide how much or how little medical care they want and get it in writing because you can’t rely on your family to have your best interests at heart – you could get admitted to the hospital for a serious but not life threatening reason and in the course of treatment your family could decide to remove your feeding tube and let you starve to death over the course of 3 weeks.

Factor in a really weak anime season and I just didn’t feel like talking about anime or do much of anything. March rolled around and almost like a switch the weather turned gorgeous. Temperatures shot up into the 60’s and 70’s and it was wall-to-wall sunny. I spent as much time as I could outside and the sight of the first flowers of the season  – crocuses – went a long way to improve my mood. I started to feel the urge to write again but I kept getting blocked.

I volunteered to be the Dungeon Master in a 6 part campaign for my sister, brother-in-law, and friends in Dungeons & Dragons. We were going to use a printed campaign but we were not satisfied with the quality of writing so I further volunteered to write one myself and it takes an amazingly large amount of time to create a halfway decent adventure. I also picked up a temporary job working for the census and it’s been leaving me really tuckered out when I get home at night. And of course to blog about anime I first need to watch anime. And I’ve also been slowly working on my top anime of 2009 posts because I’d like all the parts to be done or almost done when I start posting them. And once it got to be a long time between posts I felt reluctant to explain why it’s been a long time because I started a blog talk about anime and a little SF, not to be a personal blog.

As a result, even though I’ve been meaning to start writing again it’s been almost a month before I had the chance to sit down and write something I could publish. I guess at this point I should just listen to the wise words from Manabi Straight and say, “Forward, Go!!” and get back to blogging.

One guess on what's one of my favorite new shows.

Filed under: anime, anime rants/views, meta/office keeping, series review