One of the great resources in anime fandom of late has been this guy. His charts have become almost indispensable when trying to figure out what to watch in the upcoming anime seasons. Recently, he’s started to compile these charts for previous years and the information that can be gleaned from these charts are extremely interesting and a real eye opener.

Last year, 2008, was the first year of this blog and as a result I watched many shows I probably won’t have otherwise and tried to make sure that I discovered all the “good” anime of a season so I could help other people discover these anime shows. So one of the first things I wanted to figure out was how much of the 2008 anime did I watch in the end.

Percentage of Shows Watched

This is the chart in question that I’m using; you can find it and more here. It lists 130 total anime shows that begun airing in 2008 and looking over these shows I realize there is a handful of shows that are aimed at very young viewers and these shows are never fansubbed, talked about, or licensed so the first step I’m going to do is remove these shows from consideration. I then tabulated how many shows I’ve watched, dropped and completed and I’ll summarize them here.

• 114 total shows (19 from Winter 07/08, 34 from Spring 08, 21 from Summer 08, 37 from Fall 08, 3 from Winter 08/09)
• 50 shows watched (5, 15, 9, 18, 3)
• 19 shows dropped (0, 9, 3, 5, 2)
• 31 shows completed (5, 6, 6, 13, 1)

I should note that the Winter 07/08 season was a season that I essentially took off. I needed the break and the only new show I watched that season while it was airing was Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei s.2. Yes, It is strange that I decided to start a blog during a season I wasn’t actively watching but that just how I like to do things. Because of this, the only shows I watched from this season where ones that I really wanted to see at a later time. This skews some of the results I’ll highlight below.

• Overall watched percentage by season – 26.3% of Winter 07/08, 44.1% of Spring 08, 42.9% of Summer 08, 48.7% of Autumn 08, 100% of Winter 08/09
• Overall watched percentage of 2008 – 43.8%
• Percentage of watched shows that were dropped by season – 0.0%, 60.0%, 33.3%, 28.8%, 66.7%)
• Percentage of watched shows that were dropped in 2008 – 38.0%

While going over the list of shows, I’ve noted that there were a few shows that I still have some interest in catching and could see myself watching at some point in the future, time willing.

• Possible unwatched shows that may be watched in the future by season – 2 from Winter 07/08, 2 from Spring 08, 0 from Summer 08, 4 from Fall 08, 0 from Winter 08/09
• Total unwatched but still interested in shows for 2008 – 8
• 2008 Total of shows watched and possible shows watched in the future – 58 or 50.9% of all 2008 anime shows

This leaves 49.1% of the entire 2008 year of shows as shows that I have not watched nor am I interested in doing so. Just looking at the raw number, it seems like I’m leaving a huge percentage of shows unwatched but looking over the shows the I’ve missed – I don’t think I’m missing much. I wonder how this compares to other anime fans.

Excellent Shows and Strong Seasons

Next, I compiled a list of shows that I consider being the best of 2008 – the titles that I would recommend to other people and would be worthy series to own on DVDs, if possible. I was curious to see how these shows were distributed and if the general thinking about the spring and fall seasons being the strong seasons seemed justified.

• Excellent shows from Winter 07/08 – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S.2 and Spice & Wolf – (2)
• Excellent shows from Spring 08 – Wagaya no Oinarisama, Library Wars, Kaiba, Soul Eater, Kurenai (5)
• Excellent shows from Summer 08 – Natsume Yuujin-chou, Birdy the Mighty Decode, Somedays Dreamer’s S.2, Ryouko’s Case Files (4)
• Excellent shows from Fall 08 – Toradora, Clannad S.2, Shikabane Hime:Aka, Ga-Rei:Zero, Mouryou Hako, Kurozuka, Michiko to Hatchin (7)
• Excellents shows from 2008 – 18

Looking at the pure number totals, it appears that the fall season was the strongest season and that’s definitely on way to look at it but I wanted to see it from another perspective.

• Percentage of overall shows that were excellent by season – 10.5% of Winter 07/08, 14.7% of Spring 08, 19.1% of Summer 08, 18.9% of Autumn 08, 0% of Winter 08/09
• Percentage of overall shows that were excellent for 2008 – 15.8%
• Percentage of watched shows that were excellent by season – 40.0%, 33.3%, 44.4%, 38.9%, 0.0%
• Percentage of watched shows that were excellent for 2008 – 36.0%

Looking at the number of excellent shows in the context of the rest of the season shows, it turns out that the Summer season squeaks in front of the fall season as having the highest percentage of excellent shows. If the saying about how only 10% of anything is worth fighting for and the rest is garbage then one can’t complain about the quality of anime from 2008 since it beat that by a bit.

Why It’s Hard To Be a Fan of Anime Without Resorting to Fansubs

I want to say up front that I’m not writing this to defend fansubs per se nor am I trying to pick a fight – it’s been my observation for a while that oftentimes when an anime is announced as being licensed, I’m disappointed because it’s not one that I felt deserved to get licensed and I want to see if this observation is backed up by the data.

The first thing that needed done was to compile a list of what shows where licensed from 2008. I started with the list that animesuki keeps of shows that are licensed and thus they no longer list and then I checked out the various licensing articles from anime news network and finally I checked crunchyroll. I might have missed a couple but they won’t be enough to change the conclusions that I discovered. Onto some data.

• Total number of anime shows licensed from 2008 – 32
• Total number of licensed shows that I watched from 2008 – 13
• Total number of licensed shows that I completed from 2008 – 9
• Total number of licensed shows that I consider excellent shows from 2008 – 5
• Total number of excellent licensed shows that will come out on DVD – 3
• Total number of excellent licensed shows that will be dubbed on DVD – 2

I’ll note here that of the 19 licensed shows that I have not watched, none are on my list of shows that I might be interested in watching so those figures are final. Without running the exact numbers it’s pretty apparent what can be concluded but let’s run the numbers for completeness sake.

• Percentage of total anime shows that were licensed from 2008 – 28.1%
• Percentage of total anime shows that were not licensed from 2008 – 71.9%
• Percentage of licensed shows that I watched – 40.6%
• Percentage of licensed shows that I completed – 28.1%
• Percentage of licensed shows that I consider excellent – 15.6%
• Percentage of excellent licensed shows that will be released on DVD – 9.4%
• Percentage of excellent licensed shows that will be dubbed and released on DVD – 6.25%

The one glaring conclusion that I have to conclude is that the “anime fan” that the North American companies are going after is not me. If they were, I’d expect to see almost all of my excellent shows as having been licensed. (Afterall they should be picking the best titles to maximize the number of DVDs bought.) That’s not the case, though, and looking over the shows that did get licensed I find a lot of shounen/fighting shows, fan-service shows, and shoujo shows. I can’t help but feel that one of the results of a licensing pattern like this is that once an anime fan has been sated with enough shounen, fan-service, and/or shoujo shows that these fans discover they are no longer anime fans because anime has become either too childish or repetitive.

The reason I took the category down to excellent licensed shows that will dubbed and put on DVD even when I’m not the biggest dub fan is because there’s a segment of anime fandom that are people who like anime but don’t want to read subtitles and also want to watch on a TV. My one sister is like this and in the end she buys almost exclusively manga because she can find so little anime that interests her. When I was starting up my blog she told me that she’d read my site to find shows to buy but she quickly realized that this was not possible. I don’t blame her, of all the shows that I’ve watched and blogged about in 2008 there is a total of two shows – Soul Eater and Spice & Wolf that I could possibly recommend to her to buy and I don’t think she’d like Soul Eater. That leaves Spice & Wolf as the only anime out of the 114 anime that started airing in Japan during 2008 that I could recommend her to buy.

I feel like I should repeat that; for the entire 2008 year of anime, there is only one anime that I could recommend to my sister as being good enough that it’s worth buying on DVD. And these companies complain about the fans – maybe it’s not the fan’s fault.

I realize that 2009 saw a large increase of shows getting quasi-licensed on crunchyroll so by now it’s possible that my title about having to almost having to resort to fansubs may not hold as much water but I’ll leave that to a follow-up article in the future to see how the numbers work out. I want to hold off for a while to see how many of the 2009 shows get physically licensed and which ones will get dubs. Also left for a later article is my thoughts on how exactly to get the North American anime scene going in the right direction; here’s a hint, I don’t think there will be many people who will become fans of anime from having crunchyroll stream subtitled anime.

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As an aside, if you happen to be looking to buy a good anime series on DVD (maybe for a Christmas present) and want a quality show that will get rewatched more than once, let me point out that Bamboo Blade is coming out soon. And there’s Spice & Wolf as well but it’s coming out the week of Christmas.

Posted in anime, anime rants/views

Looking over my scores this week; I realized something, we’re already halfway through the winter season. It won’t be long before spring is upon us, both in anime and in weather. In my neck of the woods, spring is getting ready to start: a few of our crocuses have already broken dormancy, I killed two spiders in the basement today, and my mom spotted a returning robin a couple of days ago.

The scores:

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, episode 7 – 12+/12

Hetalia Axis Powers, episode 4 – 10/12 A

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 16 – 12/12
Michiko to Hatchin, episode 17 – 12+/12
Michiko to Hatchin, episode 18 – 12+/12

Rideback, episode 6 – 12+/12

Minami-Ke: Okaeri, episode 7 – 11/12 A+

Sora o Kakeru Shoujo, episode 7 – 9/12 A-

Toradora!, episode 20 – 12+/12

Clannad S.2, episode 19 – 12++/12

Munto TV, episode 5 – 10/12 A

Maria+Holic, episode 7 – 9/12 A-

Asu no Yoichi, episode 7 – 9/12 A-

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 20 – 12/12

Chrome Shelled Regios, episode 6 – 10/12 A

Shikabane Hime: Kuro, episode 4 – 11/12 A+
Shikabane Hime: Kuro, episode 5 – 10/12 A

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Michiko to Hatchin – The plot’s heating up now that we’re reaching the final episodes

Down – none

Thoughts and Highlights

There’s been many reasons to like Michiko to Hatchin so far but watching this batch of episodes made me realize that character development is yet another reason. It’s been slow and somewhat hidden by the action of the series but it’s been there and it’s felt natural. For example, when Hatchin goes to great lengths to cheer up Michiko in episode 18, it feels like something she’d do at this point for Michiko but as little as 5 or 6 episodes ago, I don’t think she’d do it. There’s still a bunch of things that still need to be revealed about the show included exactly why the guy keeps running away from Michiko and Hatchin and I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds.

Best episode of the week was episode 19 of Clannad. Once again there were many tear inducing scenes, though most of these were happy scenes this time, as well as happy scenes as Ushio and Tomoya settle into their new life together. I thought the baseball scene, at the beginning, was Akki’s way to symbolically hand over the responsibility of raising Ushio back to Tomoya. Also, thinking back to the last time we saw them play baseball together, I took the ease in which Tomoya hit Akki’s pitch as a statement of how mature Tomoya has gotten.

Speaking of Akki, he often is shown acting immature but the scene where he tells Sanae that it’s finally okay to cry over Nagisa showed that can he’s a good husband. I was of the opinion that Tomoya was a bad father for making Sanae and Akki raise Ushio for 5 years but thinking about it now, maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea. Tomoya lost his wife but Sanae and Akki lost their daughter and raising Ushio did help them get through the worst of the pain. I’m really anxious to see how the rest of the series will play out; I’m pretty sure that Tomoya gets a wish from the glowing orb and I wonder if Kyou’s return in the next episode will play into the wish.

What is it about reformed villains that I love so much? The last time I watched a show that had a villain become good was Gurren Lagann and the character Viral became my favorite of the show. This short arc in To Aru Majutsu no Index featured a villain from just a few episodes ago that became the hero and this was, by far and away, the best arc of the series so far. I hope he can come back soon. Looking at the preview and how it appears several new characters will be introduced seems to point to a second season in the future and thus no sort of plot resolution for this season.

Another good episode of Rideback. I was partially right with my guess several weeks ago that Rin’s rowdy brother will be the reason that gets her involved with the terrorists; he wasn’t the first reason but his actions will be the confirming reason that will get her involved. This episode is a good display of why it’s important to follow current events. The GGP run government needed some pretext to bring in Ridebacks for the purposes of security and a rampage by a group of Ridebacks would be the perfect thing. The idiot that was the leader should have realized no one would just give him 4 Ridebacks without a reason and the consequences of his group’s actions will be just what the GGP wanted him to do. I thought for a moment that Rin might be able to defy the military again and get her and her brother to safety but the GGP simply had too much at their disposal. I’m assuming some sort of prison break will happen next episode because I can’t imagine the government allowing either Rin or her brother to go free again.

And now a few short thoughts:

• Shikabane Hime: Kuro has toned down the fan service but it feels like too much time is being spent on getting Oori and Makina ready to fight.
• Once again Maria+Holic shows why Mariya needs to be onscreen often – the show isn’t nearly as good when he’s not.
• I’m still waiting for Hetalia to get offensive. I did have a very good laugh when Japan made models of the U-boat and created 12 different color versions to sell – very stereotypical of what you see in Japan.
• I enjoyed the two part episode from Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou partially because it showed how much Nyanko-sensei and Natsume have changed so far. Nyanko actually had the Book of Friends in his possession and still endeavored to save Natsume and when Natsume temporarily lost his ability to see spirits, he was visibly depressed by this.

Posted in anime, weekly anime review

Let me slip in my weekly anime review before getting back to my top anime picks of 2008.

A relatively light week of anime this week, due in part from not watching any last or first episodes. I still plan on getting to a few more of the winter seasons shows like Genji, Kemono no Souja Erin, and Hetalia Axis Powers but that’ll probably be in a few days.

The scores:

Toradora!, episode 16 – 12++/12

Soul Eater, episode 40 – 12+/12

Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 24 – 12+/12

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 12 – 12+/12
Michiko to Hatchin, episode 13 – 11/12 A+

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 15 – 12/12

Minami-Ke: Okaeri, episode 3 – 12/12

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, episode 3 – 12+/12

Asu no Yoichi, episode 3 – 8/12 B+

Rideback, episode 2 – 11/12 A+

Maria+Holic, episode 3 – 11/12 A+

Chrome Shelled Regios, episode 2 – 8/12 B+

Clannad S.2, episode 14 – 12+++/12
Clannad S.2, episode 15 – 12+++/12

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Michiko to Hatchin – We got a real juicy tidbit of info and it looks like the show is ready to get down to business

Down – none

Thoughts and Highlights

We learn in Michiko to Hatchin that the guy Michiko and Hatchin are looking for is really alive and he appears to be some sort of movie star. It’s still unknown if Michiko will remember she saw him in the newspaper after she recovers from a fever that’s been messing with her mind and causing her to hallucinate. Even if she doesn’t though, Michiko’s old friend, the police officer, saw it and will probably make sure Michiko finds out. I think now that the show has finally tipped it’s hand a bit, we should see this show’s plot advance quickly. Or at least I’m hoping because one of the things that hurt Samurai Champloo was that it waited until the very end of the series to reveal most of the real plot of the series.

Clannad Season 2 had not one, but two shows that scored the absolute highest score I give out to single episodes. This current Nagisa / Tomoya arc has been perfectly perfect; the source material by Key has been the best I’ve seen them do and KyoAni is executing the anime above their previous Key adaptation work. A simple summary like: Episodes 14 and 15 are about Nagisa and Tomoya learning to live together as a married couple and how Nagisa’s pregnancy changes people and relationships – doesn’t do the show justice. If you’ve gotten to like the characters at all, these episodes have been riveting like few anime shows are. And it’s the little touches that have really struck me. For example, in episode 14 we are shown a shot of Tomoya’s dinghy, plain apartment before Nagisa goes to live there and later on in the episode we see all the little things she’s done to make the place look homey. Or in episode 15, right before Nagisa says they should come up with a name for the baby, we see a quick shot of Nagisa looking at Tomoya and the love and happiness she is feeling is so abundantly clear by just looking at her eyes that it’s unnecessary and redundant to see them say they love each other or even kiss.

I don’t want to make this so short but none of the other shows really stuck out in my mind so let’s close with a few quick thoughts.

• I’ll chime in on Toradora being awesome this week. The Taiga/Student President fight was really exciting. I thought the change in style helped emphasize the sharp feelings both girls felt.
• I didn’t quite like this week’s episode of Asu no Yoichi, as much as I did the first two. I don’t know if this is the start of a trend or just because they needed to introduce a few more characters. And  Katsuyuki Konishi aka Kamina’s voice actor alert. He’s playing the shadowy unknown bad guy.
• The latest story arc to To Aru Majutsu no Index has me the most interested in the show since the first couple of episodes, which is a positive sign. The first half wasn’t nearly as bad as Shana 2 but maybe we can hope for a second half bounce like Shana 2 had.
• And I’m sorry, I disagree with the Grim Reaper in Soul Eater. I’d’ve killed Medusa and then just assume the worse case scenario which would be the Demon God was working with Arachnophobia and plan for that.
• Even Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou has an onsen episode and this was it. I really liked this episode because it showed for the first time a spirit that shouldn’t have gotten it’s name back. Natsume should be more careful in the future but I hope he doesn’t start to distrust spirits now. I also like this episode because we got a returning character – the guy that works as an exorcist on the side and can see spirits like Natsume.

Posted in anime, weekly anime review      

If last week had been a light week of anime, this week was the opposite – as you can see below. And I didn’t include my marathoning of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and the first two episodes of OVA over a two day period. I decided it was the last of the 2008 shows that I wanted to get to before getting to my awards for the whole year. In hindsight, watching that much Despair at one time probably wasn’t the best idea since my brain almost turned to mush. Which is actually a complement, it reminded me of watching FLCL in one sitting.

The scores:

Toradora!, episode 15 – 12/12

Soul Eater, episode 38 – 10/12 A
Soul Eater, episode 39 – 12/12

Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 22 – 12/12
Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 23 – 12+/12

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 11 – 12+/12

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 14 – 10/12 A

Somedays Dreamer’s S.2, episode 11 – 12/12
Somedays Dreamer’s S.2, episode 12 – 12+/12 (end)

Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 13 – 11/12 A+ (end)

Minami-Ke: Okaeri, episode 2 – 12++/12

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, episode 2 – 12/12

Asu no Yoichi, episode 2 – 9/12 A-

Sora o Kakeru Shoujo, episode 2 – 9/12 A-

(previously reviewed)

Asu no Yoichi, episode 1 – 6/12 B-

Akikan, episode 1 – 4/12 C
Akikan, episode 2 – 3/12 D

Sora o Kakeru Shoujo, episode 1 – 8/12 B+

Rideback, episode 1 – 12/12

Maria+Holic, episode 1 – 10/12 A
Maria+Holic, episode 2 – 11/12 A+

Chrome Shelled Regios, episode 1 – 7/12 B

Birdy the Mighty Decode 2, episode 1 – 11/12 A+

Shikabane Hime: Kuro, episode 1 – 7/12 B

Munto TV, episode 1 – 12/12

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Minami-Ke: Okaeri – This episode showed that the first episode wasn’t a fluke

Down – Shikabane Hime: Kuro – For specifics as to why this show belongs here, check my impressions post but I’m already wishing that Gainax was still doing this show

Thoughts and Highlights

I already posted a video from Minami-Ke: Okaeri showing one of the awesome clips from episode 2 but the episode was full of really great parts. As a result it was this week’s best episode that I watched. It’s also this week’s momentum gainer since it’s helping to make me quickly forget about the second season and confirm that I can expect the comedy of this season to be on a similar level to the first. One thing that I thought most interesting about the Curry Fairy part was that Hosaka didn’t set off Chiaki’s stupid-idiot radar. I don’t think Hosaka is an idiot but I’m surprised that Chiaki thinks the same way. I also can’t wait for the eventual second meeting between the two when Chiaki realizes Hosaka is not the Curry Fairy.

Xam’D: Lost Memories has now moved to the final arc and, of course, tons of stuff start happening. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed both episodes, it’s starting to feel like Bones was a little too ambitious with this show. In episode 23, it was like the show suddenly developed ADD and couldn’t stop changing the channel between the numerous different stories. Some scenes, like the Haru scene, didn’t leave a deep impression because before we even had the chance to digest what she was saying we were off somewhere else. And some scenes like the Nakiami one still resonated well because her character has had plenty of development over the course of the show and we understood almost immediately the importance of what was happening. I hope the final few episodes are paced a little better because it’ll be a shame to see such a quality show falter at the end. And since this isn’t actually running on television, I don’t understand why it has to be 26 episodes when it could be a few more episodes longer and have enough time for the ending.

Soul Eater episode 39 finally got back to my favorite character, Crona. I’m inclined to think that Crona is a boy because that would mean that Medusa has been messing with his mind from the beginning. In this episode, Crona finally admits to Maka his role in pushing Stein towards insanity. Of course Maka realizes that Crona would only do something like that under duress but it looks like Crona will be kicked out of Soul Society until someone very unexpected appears at Shibusen.

I’ll discuss the shows that ended this week when I write my series review in the future. I have a few more comments I wanted to make but nothing that deserves a full paragraph so I’ll bulletize them.

• I enjoyed the second episode of Asu no Yoichi why more then I should have. Maybe it’s because they constructed a scenario where the male main character is actually a capable human being and has a plausible reason for his problems around people, especially girls. Let’s hope it continues.
• Sora o Kakeru Shoujo or The Girl who Leapt Through Space continues to be odd but I think I might like this series. The comedy has been funny and offbeat so far; for example, in episode 2, an Iron Maiden was used as the means for the characters to change into their battle suits.
• Great episode of Michiko to Hatchin. What Michiko had to do to get Hatchin to forgive her was epic and touched my heart. It would be easy to think Michiko looked at Hatchin as a means to an end but this episode really showed that Michiko cares for Hatchin’s welfare.
• I was wondering if Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou could top the fox spirit from the first season in terms of cuteness and I got my answer this episode – yes. The little snow bunny (like the ones seen in Kanon) that gets possessed by a spirit is quite possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

Posted in anime, weekly anime review      

I’ve been reluctant to post my top 5 shows for the fall season for various reasons but with the first of season’s shows ending – it’s time. One of the reasons for the delay was that this has been a good season for anime and it made it hard to whittle the list down to just five. Another reason stemmed from having to figure out how to rank shows of diverse genres and being comfortable with the resultant picks. And lastly, I’m dependent on the subs so for shows like Mouryou no Hako, that have been released slower, I have less of the show to work with (6 eps. vs 12+ eps of others).

The image above contains the nine shows that had legitimate shots at being in my top 5 for the season. I first grouped shows that where somewhat similar : (Clannad, Toradora, Skip Beat), (Shikabane Hime, Kurozuka, Ga-Rei Zero), (Mouryou no Hako, Chaos;Head), and Michiko to Hatchin. I then figured out what was the best show of the group and compared the winners to determine first place. I looked for how well a show develops it’s characters, my enjoyment of the series, how well the show used the strengths of the show type it is, and if it was able to rise above the constraints of its show type. Then once a pick was made, I continued the same process for each place on the list. I still have the lingering feeling that Mouryou no Hako would have placed in the top 5 if I had seen more of the show. Hopefully when I do my entire year awards in the middle of January, more of the subs will have been released. Now, it’s time to get to the countdown.

5 - Michiko to Hatchin

Coming in at number 5 is the exotic and colorful Michiko to Hatchin - the latest project of Manglobe.

What ensured that this show earned a spot in the top 5 wasn’t the colorful, lush animation or the unique setting of Brazil but the character development of Michiko and Hatchin. The animation and setting definitely helped separate this title from the pack but making Michiko into someone more then just “Generic Gang Girl A” and Hatchin into being more then “Generic Orphan Looking for Parent B” has made this a great show.

This show has also done a very good job of creating interest behind Michiko’s quest to find her supposedly dead lover. The fact that Hatchin is around seems to prove that he is still alive but no one seems to know where he is. I’m of half the mind to think he’s really dead but Hatchin does really look like the daughter of this guy so maybe he’s still alive. Also playing into this is reason why Michiko is trying to find him. I almost can’t believe it’s just because she loves him, it has to be because he owes her money but Michiko has shown to have a very vulnerable, human side so maybe she simply wants to see him again. I don’t know but you can be assured, I’ll keep watching to find out.

4 - Shikabane Hime: Aka

Gainax’s latest show, Shikabane Hime (Corpse Princess), continues to illustrate that this studio likes to take risks. After the wildly successful Gurren Lagann, it could be expected that Gainax would give us more of the same because that would be easy money; instead, they do a show that feels totally opposite. This upset many but I was hoping for something different.

There are many reasons to praise this show. For starters, the animation has been stellar, but instead of being colorful and crazy, it’s been muted and restrained which has created a very atmospheric world – perfect for this show. Another reason has been the uniqueness of the bad guys that the Shikabane Hime have had to fight. We have seen everything from a vampire Corpse to a Corpse in the form of a car; truly evil Corpses to Corpses that are being forced to kill. Also, this show has displayed a strong emphasis on character development and that goes for Corpses, the main characters and many of the side characters. The biggest reason to praise this show is that it has taken the time to logically show why our normal high school student becomes the hero and protagonist of the show.

3 - Ga-Rei Zero

The second most surprisingly good show of the season was Ga-Rei Zero.

I had no plans to watch this show, nothing I could find out about it pointed to this being a good show. The manga was categorized as “average at best” by everyone I found that had read the manga and it’s very rare that the anime is better then the manga. After the first episode aired the chatter raised to such a level that I decided to give the show a chance. The first two episodes shocked me. I kept thinking to myself: “Who decided that killing two complete sets of people that were obviously real cast members was a good idea?” and “What can they possibly do with the rest of the series that can live up to these two episodes?”. They answered both questions: “a genius”, “show how the killer in the first two episodes was corrupted and to make us feel sad for her even while she’s killing characters that we’re gotten to know.”

The animators took a huge chance in revealing that one of the characters that they wanted you to empathize with was going to become a killer because it’s very easy to hate a character when you know what they become. Star Wars failed to make me care about Anakin before he became Darth Vader and as a result the prequel movies lacked the emotional punch that good movies have. In Ga-Rei Zero’s case, though, they slowly and expertly showed how a very good person falls and made you understand why she did what she did and made you wish that the outcome could have been something else.

2 - Clannad ~After Story

I was kinda ambivalent about this show before it started because I thought the first season was less then perfect and I hoping that KyoAni would either do something new or get back to Haruhi or possibly Full Metal Panic. My ambivalence quickly fall away when it became apparent that this second season had none of the problems of the first season and all the positives of being the most polished of the adapted works of Key.

I’m not saying that this title is for everyone, the cynics out there can safely skip this show, but I’m a sucker for any show that can feature great character development, gorgeous animation, the ability to make me laugh one second and cry the next, and can mix a bit of magic and the supernatural into the story and make it feel like it belongs.

Another reason that this season deserves to be ranked so high is that most romantic anime stop the story at the point where the guy and girl have gotten together but this season is showing what happens to Tomoya and Nagisa after they have become a couple. So as we watch Tomoya trying to make his way as an adult so he can become a person that can marry Nagisa and we see Nagisa’s efforts to support Tomoya so he can succeed and having to shoulder the pain of missing Tomoya because he’s always working – it’s a pretty unique experience for an anime and one I hope to see more in anime.

1 - Toradora

To put it simply, Toradora is on a completely different level then everything else this season. In all my thinking and rough countdowns, Toradora was always my top pick for the season.

And the thing that I keep coming back to in my mind is that this show shouldn’t be as good as it is. I’ve watched many other J.C. Staff shows and heard most of the voice actors in other shows, especially Rie Kugimiya, so I thought I had a handle on how good or bad this show could possibly be. Instead the show breaks through the ceiling of what I’ve thought was possible without breaking a sweat. The characters have real complexity to them and feel like real people. The voice actors, especially Rie Kugimiya, have been sublime and the animation has even astonished me at times. The biggest surprise, though, has been the impeccable pacing of the show - every moment of every episode has felt worthwhile and important in some way. This runs counter to almost every show that J.C. Staff has done in recent years including the other J.C. Staff show that’s on right now - To Aru Majutsu no Index.

That’s finally it for my fall picks. Like I said earlier, I’ll be giving my overall picks of 2008 at some point in the middle of January. That’ll give me time to write up my impressions of the winter season and give some of the series that I’m waiting to finish like Daughter of 20 Faces and Somedays Dreamer’s Season 2 a chance to finish.

Posted in anime, awards      

Pushing this back a couple of days changed a couple of the winners and caused a few more categories to be added included one award that is my first award named after an anime - The Gurren Lagann Memorial Body-Count Award. I thought it was appropriate and I did make a comment a few weeks ago essentially promising to make this category.

Best Action

Winner: Soul Eater

Runner-up: Kurozuka, Ga-Rei: Zero

One of the problems with us humans is that we take so many things for granted when we shouldn’t. It happens in real life and it happens with our entertainment; in this case, after two cour (seasons) of Soul Eater – I was taking Soul Eater for granted and I feel bad that I was. I’d become complacent about the show and it took episodes 35 and 36 of Soul Eater to remind me that even Kurozuka and Ga-Rei: Zero can’t match this show in terms of action.

Best Comedy

Winner: Toradora

Runner-up: Clannad

The comedies of the season, like Kemeko DX and Kannagi, have not been nearly as funny as they should have been – Kemeko DX has been more weird then funny and Kannagi has suffered from the director’s desire to prove that he shouldn’t have been fired from doing Lucky Star. This allowed shows that aren’t true comedies like Toradora and Clannad, that only use comedy inside of a larger story, to sneak ahead. Of these two, Toradora’s humor has the slight edge because it’ll make me laugh when I least expect it and the humor has a broader range.

Best Story

Winner: Chaos;Head

This is one category that the slower paced release of subs for Mouryou no Hako makes me worried that I’m passing it over for a lesser anime. From what I’ve seen of Mouryou no Hako (5 episodes worth) it’s has a very intriguing story that still seems to have many mysteries left for us to uncover. But I got to use what I got and the story of Chaos;Head has been a very good one as well. I like a show that can create and maintain a sense of suspense about itself as Chaos;Head has done. I also like the idea of being able to use some sort of electromagnetic wave to make people see things that aren’t there. Throw in a strange string of deaths, strange earthquakes, and a main character with only a vague hold on sanity and Chaos;Head has one of most interesting stories of the year.

Most Interesting Setting

Winner: Michiko to Hatchin

Runner-up: Kurozuka

I’ve always been a fan of post-apocalyptic worlds for some reason but if you’ve seen one, you’ve pretty much seen them all. On the other hand Michiko to Hatchin takes place in a really unique and colorful place – Brazil. I’ve never had the chance to visit Brazil to know if the shows portrayal of the country is even close to reality but it does feel different from the standard Japanese setting. The colorful palette, the people that we’ve met, and the poverty and suffering that’s been seen all work to really set this world apart from other shows.

Best Seiyuu

Male: Hikaru Midorikawa as Lord Edgar from Earl and Fairy

Female: Yui Horie as Minorin and Rie Kugimiya as Taiga from Toradora

I was slightly surprised when I realized that I would give Hikaru Midorikawa best male seiyuu for his role as Lord Edgar from Earl and Fairy. I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve it, he does, but what surprised me when I started trying to separate the voice from the character was that I realized that if he had done a poor job voicing Lord Edgar, then the show wouldn’t be nearly as good as it is. The entire show hinges on Edgar being royalty and Hikaru Midorikawa does a very good job convincing us of this. He also does Yusuke Yoshino’s voice, the electrician from Clannad that Tomoya works with.

The absolute hardest decision of all my picks was deciding between Yui Horie and Rie Kugimiya for best female seiyuu. On one hand, Rie Kugimiya has been one of my favorite voice actors and yet her work as Taiga has easily surpassed all of her other works. She has been able to make Taiga’s wide range of emotions all sound authentic and believable and is one of the reasons why the show has been as good as it’s been. Then on the other hand, Yui Horie has been nothing short of god-like as Minorin. Every moment she’s been onscreen literally makes makes me giddy with pleasure. In the end, I decided that I couldn’t really separate the two so I should just give them both the award.

Best OP

Winner: Clannad

Runner-ups: Index, Michiko no Hatchin, Toradora

For all my liking of KyoAni’s adaptations of Key, I don’t normally like the OP/ED that much – AIR’s opening and Clannad’s first closing being the only ones I really liked. Imagine my surprise then as the opening for the second season of Clannad started and I found myself instantly liking it. The song is my favorite new opening song of the season and because I already know the characters, the animation has more impact for me. It beat out many other good openings including both shows from J.C. Staff (who almost always makes good OP/ED) and Michiko no Hatchin – who had the most visually interesting opening of the season.

Best ED

Winner: Kannagi

Runner-ups: Soul Eater, Chaos;Head

I’ll be honest, I find it harder to enjoy a slower paced song in a language I don’t know then an upbeat one. As a result, I find myself likeing more openings then closings since many anime shows follow the format of having an upbeat opening and a more relaxing ending. Sometimes, though, I find myself instantly liking a slower paced song and that happened with Kannagi’s ending. For all the clamor over it’s opening, there was a something ethereal about the ending that I felt fit the show perfectly.

If Chaos;Head’s ending song had made a little more sense – maybe the Japanese won’t understand how nonsensical it sounds but I do – I would have given this award to it. I like many aspects of the song but the lyrics just kill it. I know the artist that sang it has talent, Seira Kagami, because she also did Kaiba’s opening and closing so I’m going to fault the record people on this one.

Best Overall Music

Winner: Clannad

A show’s background music truly has to be spectacular for me to remember it. If it’s just mediocre, I probably won’t even remember it enough to think it was mediocre. In Clannad’s case, I remember the music clearly. It’s gotten to the point that for some songs all I need is to hear a few bars and I have to start fighting the tears back.

Best Animation

Winner: Mouryou no Hako

Runner-ups: Clannad and Michiko no Hatchin

Like I said earlier, I’ve only seen the first 5 episodes of Mouryou no Hako but even if the animation quality dips later, it would feel wrong to name another show as having the best animation. This show is just drop-dead gorgeous to look at and it needed to be to beat the stiff competition from Clannad and Michiko no Hatchin.

Top Animation Studio

Winner: Madhouse

This was one of the easiest awards to give out. Exhibit A is Mouryou no Hako, Exhibit B is Kurozuka, and Exhibit C is Chaos;Head – case closed.

The Gurren Lagann Memorial Body-Count Award

Winner: Ga-Rei: Zero

I won’t spoil who exactly dies in Gurren Lagann but there was more then one of the main and side characters that die in it over the course of the show. When I decided to give Ga-Rei: Zero an award for the sheer number of characters that they’ve killed off, I wanted to convey that the people killed were not just nobodies – cannon fodder – but real characters so I had the idea to link the popular Gurren Lagann with the award. So, Ga-Rei: Zero is the first seasonal winner of this award and it’s most deserving of it. Even if the show was a dud, it would still be memorial for this aspect.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m always interesting in comments so if you liked or disliked my picks, feel free to post your thoughts. In a week or two, I’ll be posting my top five shows of the fall season. My 2008 overall award posts will come out sometime in the middle to late January so I can have time to write my impression posts of the new season, catch a couple series I missed in 2008, and allow the slower sub releases to hopefully finish up the 2007 series so I can make an accurate list. (Any subbers reading this – I’m not complaining, I realize stuff happens that can slow you down – I just want to give my rationale for waiting since many blogs do theirs at the end of December.)

And to end on a sad note, the sheer number of anime blogs going on hiatus lately almost made me do a ‘Favorite Blog That’s Going on Hiatus Award’. You don’t have to worry about me but if I was paranoid, I might think some sort of conspiracy was afoot.

Posted in anime, awards      

Before anyone begins to think I can’t add probably, there is a reason why eight days are covered in this weekly anime review - I wanted to shift the start of the week by a day, from Sunday to Monday, and had to add that extra day somewhere. I hope this will improve my ability to write this column.

I also wanted to mention here that I decided to drop Hyakko in the end. I just couldn’t bring myself to get the next episode so I figured that meant it was dropped by default. I know some of the people out there are enjoying this show which makes me half wonder why I’m not. It should have been an easy sale on it’s part to get me to like it but it didn’t happen. Onto what I did watch this week.

The scores:

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 8 – 9/12 A-

Kannagi, episode 8 – 11/12 A+

Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 6 – 11/12 A+

Kemeko DX, episode 8 – 10/12 A

Earl and Fairy, episode 6 – 10/12 A
Earl and Fairy, episode 7 – 10/12 A

Ga-Rei Zero, episode 7 – 10/12 A

Kurozuka, episode 7 – 11/12 A+

Chaos;Head, episode 7 – 12/12

Toradora!, episode 8 – 12+/12

Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 16 – 12/12

Clannad S.2, episode 9 – 12+/12

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 5 – 12/12
Michiko to Hatchin, episode 6 – 12+/12

Yozakura Quartet, episode 8 – 9/12 A-

Mouryou no Hako, episode 5 – 10/12 A

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Michiko to Hatchin : Even in this strong season, this show has managed to make itself feel unique

Down – nothing this week

Thoughts and Highlights

The first thing about Michiko to Hatchin that left the impression that this show could be something special and unique was it’s lush animation and it’s setting outside of Japan. The next thing I noticed was that the show seems focused on showing how the two main characters have lived difficult lives and how they where surrounded by other people living difficult lives. A look at the other shows I’m watching right now yields nothing that is similar. I don’t want to make it sound like I enjoy watching people suffer but I have noticed that I am more drawn into this show than I was for Samurai Champloo. I want to find out more about Michiko and Hatchin’s past, how they are related, what their tattoos mean, and will they end up having a happy ending.

Squeaking past episode 6 of Michiko and Clannad as this week’s best episode was episode 8 of Toradora. I think I’ve already said that Toradora is much better then it should be. It’s traveling down a road that’s been worn into a fairly wide boulevard so it shouldn’t feel different or new – yet it does. I think one way that makes it feel so different is that the characters display genuine intelligence at times and this episode has a great example of that. Taiga realized she didn’t have a real shot at winning the swimming contest but an opportunity presented itself. Her opponent, Ami, decided to wear a skimpy two-piece swimsuit – probably to show the superiority of her body against Taiga’s. So when the race started, Taiga tackles Ami underwater, takes Ami’s top and throws it as far away as she could. This allows Taiga to get a huge lead over Ami. My sister and I had a good laugh at this and it wasn’t until later that I started thinking how doing that would be a good idea in real life – if I happen to be in a similar situation – and marveled at Taiga’s flash of brilliance. I realize that I can’t expect anime characters to always act intelligent but it’s a nice change of pace.

Speaking of Clannad, I thought that even though we’re transitioning to the main story now, which will probably include lots of sad parts, the first episode after Yukine’s story would be safe from anything that would illicit tears. But I was wrong, we get smacked for a loop almost immediately. One event, however, made me angry. When Nagisa becomes ill again and misses the last half of her senior year, why couldn’t the school figure out some way to let her graduate instead of forcing her to redo her senior year again? It’s this general lack of caring for the individual student by the school administration that helps ensure that many students will not end up healthy, happy, and productive adults.

And finally, there’s a few brief comments I wanted to make:

• Earl and Fairy seems to have found it’s groove after the horrible end to the sword arc and while it won’t compete against the top shows of the season, it’s been enjoyable.
• I think it’s now safe to say that Kannagi is a good effort but isn’t the homerun it could have been.
• Chaos;Head continues to make the story compelling enough that I’m willing to forgive it for it’s harem elements.
• Xam’d continues to chug on it’s near perfect track. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how good of a show this has been.
• I have been enjoying Index even when I’m complaining about it but I positively hate when I’m watching something and a character does something really, really dumb. In this case, any half intelligent person would know, especially if that person was weak and their only defense was destroyed in episode 1, not to go into that building but Index does and gets captured.

I couldn’t pass up posting this from Earl and Fairy - one of the funniest things I saw this week.

Posted in anime, weekly anime review      

I really really really should be sleeping now orz

Ah well, just a few updates on the anime I’ve watched/ am watching. As usual. No pics I think :\

First of all, I finally completed Hunter x Hunter, TV series and OVAs and all. The manga’s still running, but I hear it’s pretty slow and the mangaka just keeps taking breaks. There was this long hiatus from 2006 to 2007, it seems, and then from then on it just went on and off, but now it’s serialised weekly in Jump. Then again, if this is considered bad, I sorta don’t know what to say to the faithful D.N.Angel manga followers. How is it now, really?

I also picked up this really random old anime called Legend of BASARA. Sure, Sengoku BASARA is the more popular of the BASARAs now, but this anime wasn’t too bad, I hear it’s really similar to Fushigi Yuugi. *And if you’ve realised by now, I haven’t watched that many of the so-called “classic must-watch animes”. I think my reading shoujo manga somewhat helped me tolerate the obvious traditional shoujo manga art style being animated. I’m not sure how hearing somewhat familiar voices such as that of Inoue Kazuhiko or that of Chopper (One Piece) affected my experience, but I think the plot was really quite decent. Another thing I’m really bad at is recommending anime to others, but if you like romance and uh. Epicness? Heroic anime, or other anime similar to Fushigi Yuugi, you might just want to give this a try.

Oh. Just a note, the ending is really unsatisfactory. It just ended really really abruptly and the moment we (the viewers) were all waiting for just didn’t happen. In Japanese, I’d say 悔しいぃい～～！なんでやねん、こんなエンディングなんていらねーぞ or something like that. 

I am currently watching Fullmetal Panic!, and I must say it is pretty interesting. It’s another “classic must-watch”, isn’t it. Sure there’s quite a bit lot of panchira and fanservice, though of course not comparable to the likes of Kemeko Deluxe, but the character dynamics more than make up for that. I’m not a mecha anime person, I suppose, since more than too often they center around a lot of politics due to GOODMAN influence, but sometimes I make exceptions. Like Code Gayass Geass. Darn, I really need to get rid of that bad habit of mine, but KL-chan’s fanart really isn’t helping.

Speaking of GOODMAN, I am transferring a large amount of data to do with the latest GOODMAN #00 first season to my external harddrive at the moment, from unknown sources. I may or may not watch it in the end, but I may just try. If you are wondering why I am doing so when I could so much more easily watch it streamed, I shall reply that I have had enough with this ’streaming’ education system here in this tiny pea nation googling a series with two seasons and a huge market based on mecha otakus just like Sagara and hoping that there are good streamed videos was entirely wishful thinking on my part. Or maybe I just did it on a whim |d I sort of get the feeling that I will not come to like most or any of the Meisters though :\\

&More details here: http://myanimelist.net/animelist/shadowangellz. And yes, I did realise that 86.7% of my Currently Watching anime list comprises of anime that are currently airing.

&! One line (or two, three for rants and rambles) for each other anime I’m watching that I haven’t really mentioned yet: 

Skip Beat! is actually getting interesting! And Kannagi filler episode wasn’t that bad, gaiz. More Nagi needed, though, and Less Over-Obsessed Nagi-Otaku Plz. Casshern SINS is kinda reminding me a lot of Kaiba with the same production studio and uh. story flow? Whaddya call it? I mean they both have some 記憶喪失 (amnesiac) guy getting around and trying to make sense of the world around him and on the way they meet people and stuff. NEED…MORE…EVE NO JIKAN. Haven’t been catching up on Gintama but slow subs are slow, too, even though Tudou would do just fine for me? GSZS is good as usual. Earl and Fairy is cheesy but the sappiness is teh funny. Kemeko was actually kinda funny the last time I watched it, I was quite surprised, but the fanservice and random Kemeko just don’t always work for me. Kuroshitsuji is getting better, some of the previous episodes really didn’t interest me much, I just want the plot to thicken. Michiko e Hatchin is… above-average, but I want a little more ….direction? Nodame is pretty good as usual. I can’t help thinking of Sagara now when I hear Chiaki speak, though. One Piece is pretty darned OMFG-WTFHish these days, but kinda in a good way. Just, someone remind me how many litres the average human has? The whole Strawhat Crew is inhuman, even those without the Devil’s Fruit. Looks like Luke is gonna grow up soon in Tales, but he’s still freaking getting on EVERYONE’s nerves already just about now. Toradora! is funny as usual. Still hate the parrot. I only like Taiga as a Tenori Tiger or when she’s actually violent and/or angry for logical reasons, Ryuuji’s too nice sometimes, and Kawashima is really really annoying.

….

AFA ‘08’s coming real soon, gaiz, but first there’s a 20% off promotion going on at Kinokuniya from tomor today~!

And someone keep me away from pixiv, I could spend ages and ages there going 素敵♥！, followed by a loud wail directed at heaven complaining about how talentless I am, a million times at the billions of great budding artists there. In effect, wasting another few hours of the holidays I already happen to be wasting.

      

The big news in anime this week, at least to me, is that it appears KyoAni’s next series will be a Munto series that expands and retells the OVA. I haven’t seen Munto but I have an excellent AMV downloaded called “Sunlight” by Premonition Studios that uses Munto and makes the show look potentially interesting. It seems that it’s set to run Spring 2009. I can’t help but laugh when I think that I missed this possibility when I ran that poll question a couple months ago asking what KyoAni should do next.

The scores:

Soul Eater, episode 30 – 12/12

Kannagi, episode 5 – 11/12 A+

Kemeko DX, episode 4 – 10/12 A

Ga-Rei Zero, episode 5 – 12/12

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 5 – 11/12 A+

Kurozuka, episode 4 – 12/12

Earl and Fairy, episode 4 – 5/12 C+

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 2 – 10/12 A
Michiko to Hatchin, episode 3 – 11/12 A+

Somedays Dreamer’s S.2, episode 8 – 12/12

Chaos;Head, episode 4 – 11/12 A+

Yozakura Quartet, episode 6 – 9/12 A-

Toradora!, episode 6 – 12+/12

Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 13 – 11/12 A+

Clannad S.2, episode 6 – 12+/12

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Michiko to Hatchin: what’s up with that tattoo

Down – To Aru Majutsu no Index: please stop with the exposition already

Thoughts and Highlights

As you can see, I added a new feature; I wanted some way to call out shows that seem to be getting stronger or weaker over the multi-week period. For this week the two episodes of Michiko to Hatchin have really made me excited about the series. It seems like this series might become one of my favorites of the season. On the other hand, Index has shown a worrisome emphasis on excessive exposition for the past couple of episodes. The new developments dealing with the character Index at the end helped ensure a good score but we will need more fighting soon and less talking for it maintain this level.

The top episode of this week goes to episode 6 of Toradora, narrowly beating out Clannad. Taiga is quickly becoming my favorite Rie Kugimiya role yet. Even though Taiga shares much of the same personality quirks of Shana, Louise, and Nagi, I think the fact that she has a female friend in Minorin and that she’s not romantically interested in the main male character (yet) makes her a more likeable character. And it’s not just Taiga, all 5 main characters refuse to fall into stock character types and, instead, are refreshing different. I’m really excited to see where this series goes.

The most disappointing episode was episode 4 of Earl and Fairy. It starts off on the wrong foot by showing an important fight scene while the opening credits roll and the happy and light opening song plays. It felt very bizarre and frankly, it was incomprehensionable how the people making the show decided this was a good idea. At the very least they could have forgone the opening song, and let us hear the fight and I’d only grumble a little bit about credits rolling while a fight was going on. Sadly, that wasn’t the only problem with this episode. It was very apparent that they tried to cram at least 2-3 episode’s worth of plot into the last 10 minutes of this episode. The result wasn’t pretty, or comprendable. It was obvious that the animators did want to spend anymore episodes on the quest for the super-special sword but if they weren’t going to do it right then they should have streamlined the episode to make it stink less.

Watching Chaos;Head makes me want to move into a shipping container that’s bolted to the roof of a skyscraper, become an 2-D obsessed otaku and then lose my grip on reality. If this anime is to be believed, this would lead to many attractive girls practically throwing themselves at me. Of course, we all know that’s doesn’t happen in real life and it may not occur in this anime either because our unreliable narrator makes it impossible to know how much of this episode actually happened. Right now, the mystery is this show’s strong point and hopefully it won’t disappoint as the show continues.

And finally, in short:

• End of Clannad’s Sanae arc was fairly predictable but still very enjoyable
• Yeah for more Xam’d and it looks like a very interesting fight next time
• This episode of Soul Eater infers that the Grim Reaper is keeping stuff from Death the Kid and the librarian that we see this episode is my favorite bit character now – I hope we get to see him again

Posted in anime, weekly anime review      

A bit late, but I haven’t been posting. That’s an unavoidable, inexplicable fact. I write more often on Lang-8, and that’s in Japanese, mind you. And I update Poupee more than I update this site |D Speaking of poupee, I found some guy who actually posted stuff there and dressed up his poupee and shtuff. *trauma trauma* And then I just LOL’d.

I’ll be talking about games I’ve picked up/ have wanted to pick up, as well as the anime I’ve picked up and dropped.

I figured I should try and use my holidays to play some game that I’d wanted to play, so I did. I’m playing Pi Story now, but I lag up in dungeons/ maps/ whatever you call the places the pi bring you to because the connection’s pretty bad for some reason. I don’t usually like to team up with strangers, so it’s quite horrible for me when all the monsters spawn like crazy (i.e. Petite Forest, with the dang orbs). I’d play Mabinogi, but I don’t live in North America. I tried the bypass thing but uh I kept getting problems. So I gave up. ._.u I considered the Japanese server but I couldn’t be bothered in the end.

RO2 is coming soon. I’m not sure I should join or not with my grades in the gutters already.

I’ve also picked up some new anime, such as Skip Beat! (quite horrible, but oh well the manga was good I heard and I can’t be bothered to read the manga) and Garei Zero (the plot kind of goes nowhere though ep 4 was funny, but I just had to watch each episode to get to the bottom of it but I’m at my limit and gonna drop it damyou). *Edit, I’ve dropped it. Although Kemeko’s not that bad, it’s just not my taste (Fanservice aka ’saggy bwbs’, and Crazy-with-barely-any-logic-nor-meaning?!), so I’m watching it with little enthusiasm. I’ve picked up Tales of the Abyss (just because it’s one of the ‘Tales’ and I liked the cheagles and Luke didn’t irritate me as much at first and I have no means of getting my Tales of Symphonia for my Wii since I’m broke), Kuroshitsuji (the butler’s pretty much the only character who prevents me from dropping this), Clannad After Story (I don’t quite mind KyoAni works), Toradora! (despite whiny tsundere Al-gone-wrong, the duo are funny) and Michiko to Hacchin (this has potential I believe) although none of these shine quite as much as Kannagi does. Do I have to add in a ‘Kya’ or ‘Squee’ to show just how much I love it? Kya~! Squee~! (I don’t normally do this, you know.) I just love the puns, the tsukkomi, most of all the comedy duo themselves, etc., so that might be my weakness, but the bottom line is I just love this anime. Also, Nagi, tsundere as she might be, doesn’t irritate me much since she’s more like Kana from Minamike than a tsundere. Kugyu voices too many tsunderes already, and I don’t even like her that much :\ 

I dropped Hyakko (bad art and bored me despite a Kana-like character, sorry Jazzu), Yozakura (average but boring too), DMC (too vulgar and way too random for me, dropped quite a while ago, although I did enjoy Gag Manga Biyori) and Index (average and reminding me of Mx0 but ohwell, nothing special). 

My gut tells me that at least 99.9999% of the people who bothered to visit this page just went ‘tl;dr’ as usual and to those who actually know me in real life, this post probably wasn’t relevant to your interests (I don’t really post about my life here so please do look somewhere else where I do if you can even find one in English |D). I wrote a lot of run-on sentences today orz. And I probably abused the parentheses a little too much.

In any case, to sum up, please do watch Kannagi if you haven’t/ don’t plan to |D ! Especially if you love funny anime

*Technically, the above image was a highres scan that I had to tweak a little in Photoshop in order for it to look better.

      

I’m pretty sure these two fall anime impressions will be the last two that I will do because I think that I’ve pretty much exhausted my choices (excepting sequels to shows that I haven’t seen yet). If you remember, I was looking forward to this show because it was coming from Manglobe, who was the makers of the stylish Samurai Champloo.

Rating: 6/12 B-

Well, that was definitely underwhelming.

We are first introduced to a woman in the middle of breaking out of a super-max prison The talk of it being inescapable prove false when she gets away with the help of a windmill. Next we are introduced to an orphan that lives in the house of a married priest. It’s not out of kindness that she lives there but because the family can collect welfare for her and keep it for themselves. The prisoner, now on-the-lamb, goes looking for the orphan because she is supposed to be the prisoner’s daughter (or more likely, the girl knows something that’s worth finding her for). The pair meet up and the child decides to go with the prisoner to escape the abusive household.

On the plus side, it appears that the anime will have a funky styling that will remind us of Samurai Champloo while being different. Also in it’s favor is the setting of the show, Mexico, because it’s different from standard shows. On the flip side, outside of establishing the girl lives a very unpleasant life and the female prisoner is tough, nothing much was done in the first episode and that doesn’t give me a big incentive to watch the next episode. I realize that quite possibly there’s a bigger story that they don’t want to spill right now but there have been a few shows this season like Ga-Rei Zero, Kurozuka, Mouryou no Hako that have left me wondering what to expect and really impressed me at the same time. I’ll give this one at least a few episodes more before deciding to keep or not.

Posted in anime, first impressions