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

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

Filed under: anime, general anime interst, off-topic

Did you feel your ears pop just now? I know I did. We’ve finally here – the rarefied air were this year’s best anime titles inhabit.

Before getting to the final countdown here’s some stats that the numerical-minded might find interesting. Using just the top 6 anime series:

• This year has three anime original series, 2010 saw 2, 2009 had none, 2008 included 2, and 2007 also had 2.
• This year marks the fourth year that a Shaft series appeared and the third year that KyoAni has appear as well.
• This year Brain’s Base joins Shaft from 2010, AIC from 2008 and KyoAni from 2007 by placing two anime in the top 6 in one year.

6  -  Natsume Yuujin-chou San

That part of human nature that seeks out the new works against a show like Natsume Yuujin-chou. We get more excited over a new anime series that’s merely good then over an exceptional series like Natsume Yuujin-chou just because it’s in it’s third season and it’s “old”. I’m no different and it took a concerted effort to keep Natsume at the level it deserves. And it definitely belongs this high because, even though it felt like the same old Natsume, the show had a new script writer and that helped explain why the episodes felt sharper and more accomplished this time. This season also started to really display the slowly deepening character development of Natsume and those around him. One of the things I remember thinking about the first season was how sparse the cast was and now in the third season there’s this large cast of youkai and humans that has slowly congealed around Natsume.

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5  -  Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai

Better known under the much-needed shorter name of AnoHana, this anime original found on the noitaminA programming block picked up the anime original banner from Madoka’s hand and continued to proudly show why they are needed for displaying anime at the top of it’s craft. The most interesting point related to AnoHana I can add at this point is the observation I noticed about how this title is handled by anime fandom during it’s run and after it’s run. While airing, I saw a near universal positive consensus towards AnoHana but after it’s conclusion I started seeing more and more of a negative consensus forming. I don’t know if it’s because the people who didn’t like it kept quiet during it’s broadcast or if it was a belated desire by some to look like a critic (and not just a “fanboy” or “fangirl”) or maybe it comes from trying to cover-up how on several occasions AnoHana, a mere anime, brought these people to tears. Who knows?

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4  -  Nichijou

The newest comedy series by KyoAni, Nichijou, was definitely a polarizing force amongst anime fans this year; then again, KyoAni has been polarizing since it rocketed to prominence with Haruhi over 5 years ago. Comedies are always difficult to get everyone on board because people’s sense of humor are so unique. Which is why I don’t begrudge the people who didn’t find Nichijou funny. The people who gleefully crowed about it’s apparent failure rubbed me the wrong way, however. There were the people who always complain that KyoAni only makes one type of anime but when KyoAni does something different they complain that it’s different. Then there was that animator from Gainax that was gloating over the low sales numbers for Nichijou and I love Gainax but I wanted to ask him how long before Gainax produces another hit anime – the guy that directed their last hit left Gainax with several other veterans to create a new studio. I think I even remember Mr. Fractale, Yamakan, crowing about Nichijou’s low sales numbers. Sorry, seems I’ve fallen into brooding rant mode; I just wanted to fill a paragraph and I was stuck when I started with ‘Nichijou is a funny anime, you should try it.’

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3  -  Mawaru Penguin Drum

Moving on, early during Penguins’ run I realized that the ending was needed to explain this anime and by extension allow the viewers to figure out how good Penguins truly was. It was like a mantra I chanted after every episode, “This will make sense eventually,” and I’m pleased that my faith was rewarded with an ending that made sense and cast the whole series in the best possible light. I’m looking forward to rewatching Penguins now that it basically all makes sense. One of the interesting aspects related to watching Penguins was reading what the blogosphere wrote about it. The examination of how this anime and Shaft/Shinbou were connected was a highlight so to was reading the episode posts written by the one fan translators. This anime was the type of anime that needs careful attention to it’s translation even down to picking the best word among synonyms and reading why things got translated the way they did was enlightening and fun. I hope the director of Penguins and Utena, Kunihiko Ikuhara, won’t wait another decade+ to create another anime.

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2  -  Steins;Gate

At this point what is left to say about Steins;Gate that hasn’t already been said? Not much but I’ll try anyways. There’s the remark that it’s quite possibly the best visual novel adaptation anime has ever had or that I’ve decided that I might just try the Steins;Gate visual novel to see all the stuff that didn’t make it into the anime. (A dangerous and slippery slope I know but that’s how much I liked Steins;Gate.) Or there’s the observation that Steins;Gate would have been number 1 in 2010, 2009, or 2008.

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1  -  Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Because I like to repeat myself, at this point what is left to say about Puella Magi Madoka Magica that hasn’t already been said? Instead of trying let me share my favorite scene of Madoka. It’s the scene between Madoka and her Mom, in episode 11, on the stairs of the shelter. Throughout the series we’ve had the chance to see the beautiful relationship the two of them share, something so rare in anime, and that makes Madoka’s decision all the more painful. It’s an adult decision – Madoka’s first and last – and when Madoka’s Mom realizes Madoka has made an adult decision she makes the equally hard decision to let Madoka go with her blessing even when every fiber of her being is screaming to keep Madoka safe in the shelter. It’s a powerful scene. The type of scene that pushed Madoka into the top spot as my favorite all-time anime past Gurren Lagann which has been my favorite anime for the past 4 years. I was starting to think that I’d never see an anime series surpass Gurren Lagann and now I’m wondering how long it’s going to be before something surpasses Madoka.

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I’d like to thank all the people who read my 10000+ word review of the 2011 year in anime; I hope you enjoyed it and maybe discovered an anime or two that you want to watch now.

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Top anime 2011 Awards Part 0: Introduction and Anti-Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 1: Cast and Character Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 2: Genre and General Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 3: VMA Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 4: The Misfit Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards: Top 13 Anime – #13 – #7
Top anime 2011 Awards: Top 13 Anime – #6 – #1 <- you are here

Filed under: anime, awards

I’m sure I’m not the only person that after building something will sometimes find a small pile of odds’n’ends that one hopes does not belong in the completed product. This part of the awards is like that pile of parts; as I was arranging awards into the various groups I started accumulating awards that didn’t really fit with the others. Instead of putting these categories in a little bag and forgetting about them until something goes wrong, I decided to add this fourth part to be able to cover them as well.

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

 

Best Villain

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Kyubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Heaven from Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera

Summer – CERN from Steins;Gate

Autumn – Ades Federation from Last Exile — Ginyoku no Fam

Wildcard –  Ouroboros from Tiger and Bunny

Overall Winner: Kyubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Kyubey is insidious and dangerous – the truer portrait of evil in the world; without him PM3 would not have been nearly as good. I read in an interview that Shinbou had wanted Kyubey to be animated like a normal cute magic girls mascot but the animators knew too much about Kyubey and could not draw him anyway but creepy.

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Best Dressed Characters

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Star Driver

Spring – Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Summer – Nichijou

Autumn – Chihayafuru

Wildcard – Hyouge Mono

Overall Winner: Nichijou

I really should just name this the “KyoAni Production Values and Fashion Sense Award” and be done with it but I hold the hope that someday, someone will outmaneuver KyoAni. In all honesty, though, it is slowly becoming more of a competition.

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Best Fight

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Episode 7 from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Episode 12 of Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera

Summer – Episode 16 of Ao no Exorcist

Autumn –Episode 2 of Ben-To

Wildcard –  Episode 10 of Ben-To

Overall Winner: Episode 2 of Ben-To

Ben-to should be required watching for most animators before they try their hand at animating a fight scene. I’m looking at you J.C. Staff and Bones and AIC for starters; Shana and Star Driver and Persona could really be helped by including fights that are actually well done. I’m also going to throw Fate/Zero in as needing help; all the posing and monologuing gets old – spend a little less on the backgrounds and more on animating fights.

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Most Unexpectedly Good Show

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Level E

Spring – Hyouge Mono

Summer – Mayo Chiki

Autumn – Ben-To

Wildcard –  Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera

Overall Winner: Ben-To

Episode 2 of Ben-to won best fight in part because it helped sale the anime to the viewer because the premise behind Ben-To did not seem like the recipe to create a great anime and we needed the convincing. While Ben-to was the clear winner, it seems like every season of anime includes at least one anime that is shockingly good, the proverbial diamond-in-the-rough, which is why one needs to have an open mind when deciding which anime to try.

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Best Show No One Saw

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Level E

Spring – Hyouge Mono

Summer – Ikoku Meiro no Croisee

Autumn – Tamayura – Hitotose

Wildcard –  Rio – Rainbow Gate

Overall Winner: Hyouge Mono

Saying that no one watched these shows is stretching the truth since each title had it’s fans but in each case the anime failed to really catch fire on a large-scale (at least initially). Hyouge Mono won because it’s a great show and it’s been basically ignored by the subbing community. I’m thankful that there is at least one group subbing it but the slow speed probably implies a single person is doing everything himself/herself and that makes me worried because something might come up and it’ll never get finished.

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Most in Need of a Sequel

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Summer – Kamisama Dolls

Autumn – Un-Go

Wildcard –  Hanasaku Iroha, Ikoku Meiro no Croisee

Overall Winner: Kamisama Dolls

There were flaws with Kamisama Dolls but the first season (see how I’m hoping) accomplished much between the introduction of an interesting setting and the promise of more surprises just waiting to be discovered. It’s also the title that most gains from a sequel. In the case of PM3, the series was perfect by itself but, much like Toy Story, if a story can be created that can equal/surpass the original then it should get made. Un-Go might be better served by redoing it’s 11 episode run into something longer where the defects of the short episode count could be addressed.

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Best Anime Extra

Nominees:

Young Animators Training Program

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée Episode 4.5

Shiki Episodes 20.5 and 21.5

Umi Kara no Shisha

Overall Winner: Young Animators Training Program

The four shorts that comprise the Young Animators Training Program are the result of a Japanese government program to help ensure the continued health of the local animation industry. How successful such an idea will ultimately be is open to debate but judging by the end result, there’s definitely much worse ways to spend other people’s money. An even more obscure nominee is Umi Kara no Shisha (trailer seen here). I happened to come across it, decided to watch it sight unseen, and was blown away by equal measures of WTF?! and awesome. At only 8.5 minutes long it’s well worth a watch or three.

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Best Anime OVA Seen in 2011

Nominees:

Yozakura Quartet OVA

Hidamari Sketch SP

Kara no Kyoukai – Epilogue

Katte ni Kaizo

Carnival Phantasm

Toradora OVA

Overall Winner: Yozakura Quartet OVA

A dim memory of watching the Yozakura Quartet anime series – released several years ago – and finding it completely boring, generic, and forgettable stopped me from bothering with the Yozakura Quartet OVA. That is until I read a review of the third episode and it was mentioned that Ryo-timo was animating and directing this OVA series. That name had recently became meaningful when I realized some of my favorite animation scenes from Noein and Birdy: The Mighty Decode had their key animation done by Ryo-timo. I decided that I had to watch it and was pleasantly surprised to find the OVA turned the boring, generic, and forgettable anime into a pretty good anime. The animation was the big draw but the story and plot were given a boost at well.

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Best Anime Movie Seen in 2011

Nominees:

Redline

Evangelion 2.22

Summer Wars (English Dub)

Sengoku Basara: The Last Party

Lupin III: Blood Seal – Eternal Mermaid

Overall Winner: Redline

There are a few anime movies that I didn’t see this year that appear to be worth a nomination from what I’ve been reading . One such movie, The World of Arriety, I’m purposely waiting on the chance to see it in theaters. As such those movies will most likely show up on next year’s nominee list but it’s not like I’m left to pick from a list of second-tier movies. The winner, Redline, is a feast for the eyes and a feast for the little kid inside that thinks driving a fast car is the most awesome thing in the world. It’s a memorable experience; the type that comes only once in a blue moon.

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That’s part 4 of my retrospective look at the 2011 year in anime. Next will see a shift from award categories to counting down the top anime of the year.

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Top anime 2011 Awards Part 0: Introduction and Anti-Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 1: Cast and Character Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 2: Genre and General Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 3: VMA Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 4: The Misfit Awards <- you are here
Top anime 2011 Awards: Top 13 Anime – #13 – #7
Top anime 2011 Awards: Top 13 Anime – #6 – #1

Filed under: anime, awards

Step three for awesome anime – after creating memorable characters and giving them a worthy stage – is to use every part of the production process to bring-out/enhance the positive aspects of the anime and hide the negative aspects. Getting the right seiyuu can be the difference between a character being a success or failure. Inappropriate music can ruin the climax of a series and nothing can make a whole anime series fail as assuredly as poor animation quality. Conversely, in the right hands, a small budget can be overcome through creating the right animation style. Stellar OP/ED with it’s combination of music and animation can build excitement and anticipation for the anime and ensure viewers come back next week.

There’s other parts to an anime’s production – like script writing, cinematography, sound editing, etc. – that won’t gets awards here because I’m not knowledgeable enough in these areas to put any confidence in picking winners. Which is why I call this set of awards the Voice, Music, and Audio awards. I’m hoping next year I’ll be able to include a few more areas of the production to these awards.

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

 

Top Seiyuu “Discovered”

Nominees:

Aoi Yuuki as Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Kanae Itou as Ohana from Hanasaku Iroha

Mamoru Miyano as Takuto from Star Driver

Overall Winner: Aoi Yuuki

Very rarely does a new voice actor/actress get the chance to start their career with voicing a main character or even a memorable supporting character; instead they work on small parts, improving their skills, and waiting for their chance. Therefore, it might take a while for these seiyuu to come to the attention of a moderately well-versed anime fan like myself but when they do, it’s always like a bolt of lightning – where has this person been hiding, I ask myself. This year saw three such seiyuu appear. All three display a wide range of ability that served them well for these break-out roles and newer roles as well but the winner just had to be Aoi Yuuki.

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Best Performance by a Seiyuu

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Chiwa Saitou as Homura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Kanae Itou as Ohana from Hanasaku Iroha

Summer – Mamoru Miyano as Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Autumn – Akio Ohtsuka as Rider aka Iskander from Fate/Zero

Wildcard –  Hiroaki Hirata as Tiger from Tiger and Bunny

Overall Winner: Mamoru Miyano as Rintarou Okabe

Instrumental in making Okabe the epic character he became was the talent of Mamoru Miyano. The role required being able to do positively everything and he was able to do it and make it look easy. Right behind him was Chiwa Saitou. Her performance as Homura going from doe-eyed innocent into the brittle, empty killer in the span of one episode allowed episode 10 of PM3 to be the single best episode of anime in 2011. I sometimes forget how versatile she can be.

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Best Male Seiyuu

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Mamoru Miyano as Takuto from Star Driver

Spring – Mamoru Miyano as Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Summer – Mamoru Miyano as Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Autumn - Hiro Shimono as You Satou from Ben-To

Wildcard –  Hiroshi Kamiya as Natsume from Natsume Yuujinchou 3

Overall Winner: Mamoru Miyano

There were plenty of great roles that Mamoru Miyano played in 2011; the ones listed above were just his best. He also starred in Dog Days (and was one of principal draws to that anime) as well as in Chihayafuru – to name but two more. While no danger to Mamoru Miyano here, both Hiroshi Kamiya and Hiro Shimono are no slouches themselves.  Hiroshi Kamiya was even my 2008 best male seiyuu pick after his roles in the first season of Natsume Yuujinchou and Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei and continues to be one of my favorites.

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Best Female Seiyuu

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Aoi Yuuki  as Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Victorique from Gosick

Spring – Aoi Yuuki  as Victorique from Gosick and Tooru from A Channel

Summer – Kanae Itou as Ohana from Hanasaku Iroha

Autumn – Miyuki Sawashiro as Kuripaka from Hunter × Hunter and Fujiko from Lupin III

Wildcard –  Asami Imai as Christina from Steins;Gate, Marina Inoue as Rio from Rio – Rainbow Gate and Yozora from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai and Matsurika from Maria+holic Alive

Overall Winner: Aoi Yuuki  

I fear that I’m starting to sound like a broken record with my seiyuu winning picks but putting anything else would be dishonest. On the other hand voice acting seems like a volatile profession with who gets roles and who doesn’t being arbitrary (or more likely it’s a very political process and to this outsider it appears arbitrary) so I don’t feel bad about celebrating the stellar work of Aoi Yuuki this year. This year also saw Marina Inoue getting more roles than she’d been getting  – or, at least, more roles in anime that I watch – which was another good thing that happened in 2011 because she’s very talented.

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Best Seiyuu Cast

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Tiger and Bunny

Summer – Hanasaku Iroha

Autumn – Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

Wildcard –  Mawaru Penguin Drum

Overall Winner: Hanasaku Iroha

This is another category that was tough to pick and in the end I handed the award to the anime with a larger cast – Hanasaku Iroha – on the idea that it was more difficult to cast a large number of people versus a smaller cast. Shaft/Shinbou has for a long time reused voice actors from one anime to the next (PM3 is no different) and I think this is a practice more animation studios should adopt because Shaft/Shinbou seems to get a better performance from their seiyuu.

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Best OP

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Level E

Spring – Maria+Holic Alive

Summer – Nichijou OP2

Autumn – Shakugan no Shana III

Wildcard – Kamisama Dolls, Mawaru Penguin Drum OP2

Overall Winner: Nichijou OP2

Some awards are more subjective than others and this category definitely falls hard into the subjective pile. Deciding on how to balance the mix of music and the animation sequence plus accounting for what “best OP” actually means makes it tough to be subjective. To make this even more subjective I’ll add that I think Nichijou OP2 is probably the best OP that KyoAni ever made.

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Best ED

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – AnoHana

Summer – Episode 7 of Nekogami Yaoyorozu

Autumn – Un-Go

Wildcard –  Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, Hidamari Sketch SP

Overall Winner: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Ditto that idea for this award. One time I played with the idea of splitting this award and the last into two separate like this “Best ED – Music” and “Best ED – Visuals” but decided I was making too many awards as is. So, instead, I balance it all out beforehand and hope no one asks to see the rubric I used . For this award both Un-Go and Denpa Onma to Seishun Otoko had stronger visuals than the eventual winner but the song for PM3 made up more than enough to win.

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Best Background Music

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Nichijou

Summer – Nichijou

Autumn – Ben-Tou

Wildcard –  Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, Ao no Exorcist

Overall Winner: Nichijou

If those reading could see me at this moment of writing they’d see someone grimacing over the dread that a person with actual expertise in the area of anime background music won’t come along and explain why Nichijou was the wrong choice. Actually, I’ve been trying to listen to the background music more this year and I have slightly more confidence with this pick this year then I have had in the past. I thought Nichijou’s BGM perfectly complemented the show and helped heighten the enjoyment of the series as a whole.

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Best Animation Style

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Summer – Mawaru Penguin Drum

Autumn – Chihayafuru

Wildcard –  Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, Steins;Gate

Overall Winner: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Puella Magi Madoka Magica was the culmination and perfection of the Shaftian anime style. (Of course the Shaft/Shinbou style was an outgrowth of older animators but since they’ve been the ones pumping out the series of late they get credit for the Shaftian style of animation. How Penguins is connected to Shaft/Shinbou and vice versa is a fascinating topic to anyone that noticed the similarities.) Scholars and fans alike in future will probably point to this anime as influencing the growth of anime over the coming years and the proof will be seen in the adoption of elements of Shaft’s animation style, which we’re already seeing.

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Best Animation

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Star Driver

Spring – Nichijou

Summer – Nichijou

Autumn – Fate/Zero

Wildcard –  Hanasaku Iroha, Tiger and Bunny

Overall Winner: Nichijou

I remember reading an interview given by someone at KyoAni saying that Nichijou contains the most animation cuts (I think that was the technical term) of any series that KyoAni has worked on. I believe it, the proof of this appears in Nichijou winning an award like best action. The other contenders all fielded efforts that 5-6 years ago would have made an anime fan salivate but in 2011 they all came up a little short. Hanasaku Iroha comes in second and might have beaten Nichijou had it been given a slightly larger budget to work with.

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Top Animation Studio

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Shaft

Spring – A-1 Pictures

Summer – Brain’s Base

Autumn – David Production

Wildcard –  Kyoto Animation, P.A. Works

Overall Winner: Brain’s Base

This year marked a big step for Brain’s Base when it animated not one, not two, but three series at once during the Summer season and having two become top titles of the year and the third being above average. Before this point they’d only handle one series at a time and this limited the number of series that they could get too – to the mumbling of fans that want various sequels like Baccano 2 or Spice and Wolf 3. I can’t wait to see what 2012 holds for Brain’s Base.

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That’s it for part 3 of my 2011 anime awards. Stay tuned for part 4: The Misfit Awards.

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Top anime 2011 Awards Part 0: Introduction and Anti-Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 1: Cast and Character Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 2: Genre and General Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 3: VMA Awards <- you are here
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 4: The Misfit Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards: Top 13 Anime – #13 – #7
Top anime 2011 Awards: Top 13 Anime – #6 – #1

Filed under: anime, awards

Step 2 in making extraordinary anime is to take your cast of memorable characters and give them a stage that lets them shine.

I’m not fussy about which stage is chosen nor do I think one type is inherently superior to another. A well-done comedy is as difficult to make as a well-done drama and both deserve the same level of praise for succeeding in their respective spheres of influence. With a competent execution, a shoujo anime is as good as a shounen anime and/or a slice-of-life anime and/or a sports anime and/or a science fiction anime and/or romantic comedy anime and so on and so forth.

This bit of enlightenment was something I learned after starting my anime blogging and pushing myself to watch a wider variety of anime. Which is one of the reasons I’d suggest giving anime blogging a chance to people that want to deepen their appreciation of the art form.

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

 

Best Action

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Nichijou

Summer – Nichijou

Autumn – Ben-To

Wildcard –  Tiger and Bunny, Last Exile — Ginyoku no Fam

Overall Winner: Nichijou

Yes Nichijou is a comedy but no other anime of 2011 could match KyoAni’s level of talent and commitment that made Nichijou’s numerous action segments attention-grabbing, entertaining, and pleasing to the eye. It’s closest competitor was Ben-to and with a little larger budget it might have been able to make this award competitive.

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Most Entertaining

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Rio – Rainbow Gate

Spring – Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera

Summer – Mayo Chiki

Autumn – Ben-To

Wildcard –  Hyouge Mono

Overall Winner: Ben-To

What Ben-to lacked in budget didn’t stop it from being supremely entertaining. It started with a quirky idea – people willing to trade blows over the chance to snag a half-priced meal – and just kept running with it. Ben-to’s toughest competitor was Rio – Rainbow Gate. This was another show that stuck (some might say courageously) to it’s silly premise and never stopped offering something new/bizarre/absurd.

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Most Interesting Setting

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Rio – Rainbow Gate

Spring – Hyouge Mono

Summer – Ikoku Meiro no Croisee

Autumn – Last Exile — Ginyoku no Fam

Wildcard –  Ben-to

Overall Winner: Ikoku Meiro no Croisee

I love anime (and basically any type of TV/movie) set in a historical time period because I find the differences between then and now interesting to see. This probably makes me a bit bias towards picking Ikoku Meiro no Croisee but, even so, late 19th century Paris is not a common subject in anime and makes a great change of pace from the usual.

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Best Plot

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Steins;Gate

Summer – Steins;Gate

Autumn – Mawaru Penguin Drum

Wildcard –  Hyouge Mono

Overall Winner: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

This turned out to be a very close thing for PM3 in the end; back last winter I thought for sure that it had this award sewed up but then came Steins;Gate and then Penguins. Up until the beginning of PM3 I respected Shaft/Shinbou for the ability to tell a good story but being able to handle a show that was plot heavy seemed beyond their grasp. (Look at Vampire Bund, for example.) Then PM3 comes along and suddenly Shaft/Shinbou is handling the plot to perfection and not skimping on the storytelling. I know the credit largely goes to Gen Urobuchi who was behind the script but it still was a shocking thing to see.

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Best Story

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – AnoHana

Summer – Ikoku Meiro no Croisee

Autumn – Ben-to

Wildcard –  Hanasaku Iroha, Steins;Gate

Overall Winner: AnoHana

AnoHana’s win in this category is closely tied to their win in the Best Character Development for Cast category. I actually thought PM3 would win this award as well back last winter but AnoHana was too built from the ground up to win this award to not win this award.

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Best Final Episode

Seasonal Winners:

Winter - Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera

Summer – Nichijou

Autumn – Ben-to

Wildcard –  Hanasaku Iroha, Natsume Yuujinchou 3

Overall Winner: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

PM3 had the plotting and the storytelling that assured the epic awesomeness of the final episode. The most interesting nominee in this category is Natsume Yuujinchou 3. As a slice-of-life series it seems counter-intuitive to expect a good final episode from a series that doesn’t have a clearly defined structure but somehow Natsume finishes another season with an episode that manages to give a sense of accomplishment and completeness. (And conversely makes one yearn for just “one more season”.)

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Best Ending

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – AnoHana

Summer – Steins;Gate

Autumn – Mawaru Penguin Drum

Wildcard –  Tiger and Bunny

Overall Winner: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Getting the ending right is a tricky thing and is where so many anime (and other forms of media) fail. This year, with so many quality original anime series, we had many series that actually got it right. PM3 did it the best and so they win this category.

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Best Slice-of-Life

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – nothing I watched qualified

Spring – Hanasaku Iroha

Summer – Natsume Yuujinchou 3

Autumn – Tamayura – Hitotose

Wildcard –  Ikoku Meiro no Croisee

Overall Winner: Natsume Yuujinchou 3

Hanasaku Iroha finally clicked with me when I realized it wasn’t a drama but a slice-of-life series about a dramatic girl with an interesting family. Even so, nothing could really compete with Natsume. I would have argued that the first two seasons was a display of probably the absolute very best of the slice-of-life genre but the third season came along and somehow found the room to improve upon the first two seasons.

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Best Science Fiction

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Steins;Gate

Summer – Steins;Gate

Autumn – Last Exile — Ginyoku no Fam

Wildcard –  Tiger and Bunny

Overall Winner: Steins;Gate

This was a very tight race between PM3 and Steins;Gate which would have surprised me more then a year ago, before the start of PM3. On one side there’s a magic girl anime and on the other there’s a visual novel adaptation. However, PM3 impressed me with it’s meditation on the three laws of thermodynamics and Steins;Gate was able to feel fresh and new in the crowded sub-genres of time travel and parallel time lines. It was a tough decision but I finally chose Steins;Gate for feeling more like a SF series and because it showed that there’s still room for new ideas in time travel and parallel time lines.

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Best Comedy

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Level E

Spring – Nichijou

Summer – Nichijou

Autumn – Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

Wildcard –  Fireball Charming, gg’s fansub of Hidan no Aria

Overall Winner: Nichijou

Nothing in 2011 made me laugh louder, longer and more often then Nichijou. I’m surprised not more people found it funny but I understand that comedy is a tough business. Second was gg’s fansub of Hidan no Aria; this is how you take a very mediocre anime and make it enjoyable.

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Best Drama

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – AnoHana

Summer – Steins;Gate

Autumn – Mawaru Penguin Drum

Wildcard –  Un-Go

Overall Winner: AnoHana

Some people might say that AnoHana was the best (worse?) melodrama this year but I never felt it crossed the line into melodrama and, instead, was the best drama of the year. (Though, I also like the Key/KyoAni anime series so these same people might find my judgment impaired .) Not that it had a chance but Un-Go earned the wildcard spot for turning out to be a pretty interesting drama series which is somewhat surprising when the series was billed as a mystery/SF series and the mysteries were poorly done and the SF was shallow and generic. I’m glad that I decided not to drop Un-Go early on.

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That’s it for part 2, the next part is the VMA awards.

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Top anime 2011 Awards Part 0: Introduction and Anti-Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 1: Cast and Character Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 2: Genre and General Awards <- you are here
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 3: VMA Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 4: The Misfit Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards: Top 13 Anime – #13 – #7
Top anime 2011 Awards: Top 13 Anime – #6 – #1

Filed under: anime, awards

The first step to making extraordinary anime (at least to me) is to populate the anime with a stellar cast of memorable characters and 2011 was full of anime that took this idea to heart.

One general trend that seems to be really gathering steam of late is creating male main characters who have an actual backbone. There are still shows that cling to the tired character type of the lame/weak male main character but, on balance, they are mainly the cheaper, lower-tier anime series. For this I think we have to thank Tomokazu Sugita and his performance as Kyon from The Melancholy of Haruhi. He might not have been first one to staunch the tide of wet noodle “guys” but with every snarky remark (and DVD sale) he created a counter-image of what a male main character could be.

Another trend, albeit a bit on the meta side, among characters I noticed this year was during the Saimoe competition. I didn’t cover this annual net competition of Japanese (and whoever else could sneak in) anime fans for the most popular female “moe” character but I lurked on an almost daily basis at the places that covered Saimoe. What I was surprised by was the near-total failure of the incumbent franchises to win against the new anime series. I don’t know if this anti-establishment fervor was merely a display of fatigue towards the older anime franchises or was this a signal of a shift in anime fandom. Maybe it’s a sign that 2012 will be the end of the world .

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

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Best Female Main Character

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Nano and The Professor from Nichijou

Summer – Christina from Steins;Gate

Autumn – Chihaya from Chihayafuru

Wildcard –  Ohana from Hanasaku Iroha, Homura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Overall Winner: Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

I confess that I have weakness for characters that are heroes and those that are willing to sacrifice for someone else or for some “greater” good. Madoka is both all while being a normal kid so it was a forgone conclusion that she was winning this award the moment PM3 finished airing last spring. The race for second, meanwhile, would not have been clear cut if I had to pick.

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Best Male Main Character

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Prince Baka  from Level E

Spring – Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Summer -Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Autumn – You Satou from Ben-to

Wildcard –  Tiger from Tiger & Bunny, Furuta Sasuke from Hyouge Mono

Overall Winner: Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

This was another easy pick to make. From episode 1 I could tell Okabe – the Mad Scientist of Tokyo – was special; he is the type of character that seems almost supernatural in comparison to even the best male characters from the other anime series. The only problem was that after Chaos;Head I feared the story for Steins;Gate would ruin any chance for Okabe to shine (or maybe even sparkle). Thankfully, that fear proved unfounded and Okabe takes his place among the great anime characters of all-time.

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Best Supporting Character(s)

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Mami from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Grandma Sui from Hanasaku Iroha

Summer – Nyanko-sensei from Natsume Yuujinchou 3

Autumn – Rider aka Iskander from Fate/Zero

Wildcard – Oda Nobunaga from Hyouge Mono, Dio from Last Exile — Ginyoku no Fam

Overall Winner: Grandma Sui from Hanasaku Iroha

A couple years ago I lamented the lack of old people in anime. I pointed out that when an anime does include an old person, he or she is often the most awesome character in the entire cast. Hanasaku Iroha is but the latest example of why there needs to be more old people in anime. Grandma Sui beat a roster of very tough opponents, most particularly Rider from Fate/Zero. He is literally 75% of the reason to keep watching Fate/Zero and makes a strong argument for cutting everyone else out of the show and just focus on Rider and his master Weaver.

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Best Screen-grabber

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Madoka’s Mom from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Meme from Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Summer – The Penguins from Mawaru Penguin Drum

Autumn – Matsukaze from Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!

Wildcard –  Momoka from Mawaru Penguin Drum

Overall Winner: The Penguins from Mawaru Penguin Drum

This award is for the character(s) that best maximizes the small amount of screen time given them to leave an indelible mark on the show and on the viewers. Mom’s are a rare commodity in anime due, in part, to their ability to stop wacky hi-jinks and shenanigans. Madoka’s Mom and how she interacted with the plot was one of the reasons PM3 reached such a height of greatness as it did. It was difficult to pick someone else but the Penguins just deserved this award too much. Without them I don’t think Mawaru Penguin Drum would have been nearly as good or as entertaining or as comprehensible.

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Best Couple

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Takuto and Wako from Star Driver

Spring – Prince Enma and Princess Yukiko from Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera

Summer – Christina and Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Autumn – Shouma and Ringo from Mawaru Penguin Drum

Wildcard –  Aunt Touko and Uncle Shigeru from Natsume Yuujinchou 3, Madoka’s Mom and Dad from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Overall Winner: Christina and Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate

With everything else that happens in Steins;Gate it’s kinda surprising that the animators where able to fit the development of Chistina’s and Okabe’s relationship into the show as well, even finding the space to make it feel so natural and heartwarming to see. This component also played an important role in making the viewers care about what happened with the plot of the show.

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Best Character Ability/Power

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – The ability to beat entropy from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Rintarou Okabe’s ability to remember past world lines from Steins;Gate

Summer – The scarf that can make animals talk from Nichijou

Autumn – The ability to make a person answer one question truthfully and completely from Un-Go

Wildcard –  Seeing ghosts and spirits from Natsume Yuujinchou 3

Overall Winner: The ability to beat entropy from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

I think I was first introduced to entropy and how the universe will eventually wind-down many years ago with a story by Isaac Asimov called “The Last Question”. Personally, I don’t often think about the need to reverse entropy because I probably won’t be around to care but it is a problem that will eventually need addressing by someone. Beating entropy as Kyubey’s motivation made sense for an emotionless alien species and was another facet that showed the quality of thought put into PM3.

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Best Cast of Characters

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – AnoHana

Summer – Natsume Yuujinchou 3

Autumn – Mawaru Penguin Drum

Wildcard –  Hanasaku Iroha, Tiger and Bunny

Overall Winner: Mawaru Penguin Drum

This was the toughest category to pick in this section of awards because each of these series had such great casts of characters. Even when I decided that Penguins was a hair above the other choices due to the high quality of even it’s very minor characters in a cast as large as Penguins had – I still feels like I’m slighting the other choices.

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Best Character Development for Cast

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Star Driver

Spring – AnoHana

Summer – Ikoku Meiro no Croisee

Autumn – Mawaru Penguin Drum

Wildcard –  Hanasaku Iroha

Overall Winner: AnoHana

AnoHana was built to win this award and it’s not really a shocker that it did so. The most surprising nominee was Ikoku Meiro no Croisee because on the surface it looked like a mere “cute girls doing cute things” anime but a great deal of character development was tucked into the show. A sequel that further explores the cast would be something I’d love to see.

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Best Character Development of a Single Character

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Summer – Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Autumn – Maon Sakurada from Tamayura – Hitotose

Wildcard –  Ringo from Mawaru Penguin Drum

Overall Winner: Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate

After going through the level of tragedy and pain that forced him to change from the wannabe mad scientist punk with delusions of grandeur to an emotionally scarred adult that’s been forced to make tough decisions and then had to watch those decisions hurt his family and friends over’n’over – I do not begrudge Okabe the happy ending he got at the end of Steins;Gate. This helped push Steins;Gate from being just a generic SF series about time travel into something exceptional.

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

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Top anime 2011 Awards Part 0: Introduction and Anti-Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 1: Cast and Character Awards <- you are here
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 2: Genre and General Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 3: VMA Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 4: The Misfit Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards: Top 13 Anime – #13 – #7
Top anime 2011 Awards: Top 13 Anime – #6 – #1

Filed under: anime, awards

The recent news concerning the demise of Bandai in the United States should sadden anime fans living in Region 1 but it was hardly unexpected news. Instead, the reason why Bandai is shutting down now is the surprising part. The Japanese puppet masters behind the American subsidiary decided that if the American consumer would not adhere to a similar model as the Japanese consumer then they would just close the American subsidiary down and try to entice the American hard-core anime fans into importing Japanese media at Japanese market prices because the alternative – anime at a reasonable price that could be reverse imported – would threaten the stability of the Japanese market.

While perusing the articles about Bandai I had a light bulb moment concerning the impending English adaptation of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Those reading can probably guess where this is heading but before I get to discussing the recently released English trailer I have to establish something first.

I am not an elitist anime fan who only watches anime subtitled since it’s the “purer”, innately “better” way to do it – I mainly watch anime subtitled because, in general, the quality of vocal acting is higher from the Japanese.  That’s not say there are no good English dubs; for example: FLCL, Ghost in the Shell:SAC, all Studio Ghibli movies, Baccano, Yu Yu Hakusho all come quickly to mind. To hear what a good dub sounds like here’s a few videos.

This one’s a bit old-school

This one’s a bit NSFW

This one’s a bit violent

This one’s a bit awesome

The plan that Aniplex is using for the Region 1 (aka Canada and the United States aka R1) release of Puella Magi Madoka Magica (PM3) is three volumes of 4 episodes each in 3 different options – bare-bones DVD, bare-bones Blu-Ray, special edition DVD/Blu-Ray combo. Assuming an actual price of $25/volume, $35/volume, and $65/volume, respectively, for the three options that works out to $75, $105, $195 to purchase PM3.

From a personal standpoint it doesn’t bother me much that Aniplex is using an outdated and pricier sales plan for PM3 in view of the fact that I’ve already seen PM3 and know if there is one show that is theoretically worth paying that much more for, it’s this one. The problem comes from the personal desire to see PM3 do well over here and realizing that it probably won’t.

Oh sure, PM3 will sell well for a “niche” title (fans who watched it already through non-official means will see to that) but it’s the type of anime that could take the entire R1 anime fandom by storm and be talked about and watched in the future like Cowboy Bebop or Evangelion or FLCL are now. Which is what I mean when I say PM3 will fail in America; it will never remotely approach the impact in R1 it could have and the anime industry will have missed yet another the chance to reinvigorate and grow the market here.

The first step in this failure is the higher price point. To pretend that offering a series at a much higher cost won’t present a significant hurdle in selling PM3 to the large base of casual anime fans is to live in a fantasy world. How many people unfamiliar with PM3 will jump at the chance to pay a minimum of $75 dollars for a 12 episode series when for $8 they could buy AIR, $18 to purchase Bamboo Blade, and $35 to get both seasons of Birdy the Mighty Decode in one box set?  This is just a first step; it’s still possible to overcome this pricing structure and convince the multitudes to watch and buy PM3 if Aniplex is sufficiently savvy. However, judging from the English trailer this does not seem to be the case; I count three big problems of this trailer whose job is to convince people unfamiliar with Puella Magi Madoka Magica into buying it.

The first problem is that the English dub is atrocious and will actively turn off potential viewers. How will someone who has grown up surrounded by books, magazines, television shows, movies, and music that – no matter how vapid or deep – are all well-produced react to a trailer that contains so many cringe-worthy moments? Here’s a hint, it’s not going to be rushing out to purchase PM3. I’d be surprised if these potential buyers even get to the point when they see how much it’s going to cost to buy the series and compare it what could be bought for the same price.  There was one comment I saw at Anime News Network that I loved. The person wrote saying that after listening to the trailer for a third time he thought the dub sounded good. Think about that. Here’s someone who actively wants to like the dub and it still took three tries for him/her/it to succeed in drinking the kool-aid. This was an easy task to complete for this viewer and the trailer almost failed at it. Imagine a normal consumer; this dub won’t get do-overs and mulligans to convince that person into buying Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

(As an aside, the argument that the dub is good in the actual show is not a valid counter argument. If the trailer fails to convince a potential buyer into purchasing PM3 then there’s nothing to watch and discover that the “dub wasn’t that bad after-all”. )

Before moving on, I wanted to post a clip that does a much better job with it’s English dub so one could do a bit of comparing and contrasting. The clip in question is for the excellent series Bamboo Blade, another anime full of teenage girls (which normally seem like the English dubbers kryptonite).

The second problem is the reliance on the assumption that anime fandom in R1 is on a similar page as Japanese fandom. This a bad assumption to make and yet another nail in the coffin for PM3.  Even in this age of streaming anime, the R1 anime fan that sticks to official sources to watch anime is still only getting a skewed, partial picture of what “anime” encompasses. In Japan PM3 proves it’s possible to successfully sell a series just by saying that Shaft will be animating, Akiyuki Shinbou will be directing, Ume Aoki will design the characters, and Gen Urobuchi will be writing the script. These names mean something over there but that’s not really the case over here (exceptions include well-informed fans and fans that pick stuff up from fansub-watching friends). For these names to mean something, numerous anime in various genres over the past decade would have needed to get licensed and dubbed first to build up the needed groups of fans to mirror their Japanese counterparts.

By relying on the star power of the staff to sell PM3 and hiding the true nature of the series, the second problem of the trailer gives rise to the third problem; namely, it does not explain, excite, and entice prospective buyers. On a fundamental level people expect a trailer to be representative of the show and the trailer of PM3 is for a completely different show then what PM3 actually is. This bait-n-switch was very similar to the Japanese trailer but does anyone at Aniplex realize that there’s a difference between tricking people who are watching a TV program and tricking people paying a not insignificant amount of money for a DVD or Blu-Ray? There are going to be people who won’t get turned off by the high prices or the bad acting and actually found the trailer convincing enough to buy Puella Magi Madoka Magica who will then feel betrayed when what looked like a cute magic-girl anime turns out to be everything but cute. Will this turn these people into bigger anime fans or will this turn them into more cautious fans? Perhaps, the types of fans that won’t mind going through not-official channels to ensure they never get duped out of their money again?

And don’t think this won’t happen. Who else is going to buy PM3 – remember, we’re not talking about those fans that have already seen it but the large number of more casual anime fans – when those who’d enjoy where the story goes have no clue that PM3 has higher aspirations? I’m not saying the trailer should spoil the series but there were several scenes early in the show that made Kyubey’s offer seem a bit suspicious and signaled to the viewers that something more was going on. These scenes would draw potential buyers in because they’d want to unravel the mystery of Kyubey and to find out what happens when you “make a contract” with Kyubey. Of course, decent acting would help; for starters, Kyubey’s English voice has none of that slightly creepy edge his Japanese voice had.

To see a trailer that successfully explains, excites, and entices check out this trailer for Jellyfish Princess.

This trailer does the near-Herculean task of getting my hyped for an anime I’ve already seen twice and has an ending I find less-then satisfying. I’m definitely buying this anime when it comes out.

Here’s another example:

I realize I’ve written near 1600 words when I could have just said the trailer “sucks” and used the hours I spent over the last week writing this to instead cover the new Winter season anime (which pretty much rocks in comparison to the Fall season) but Puella Magi Madoka Magica deserves better and the anime fans in Region 1 deserve better as well. Which leads me back to why Bandai’s demise reminded me of Aniplex’s R1 plan Puella Magi Madoka Magica – it truly does take a R1 company to understand how to sell anime to those fans living in Region 1.

Almost forget here’s a the trailer in question:

Filed under: anime, anime rants/views

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

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

Good anime Halloween pics seemed thin is year:

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

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

Filed under: anime, general anime interst, other wallpapers and pictures

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.

Filed under: anime, general anime interst, meta/office keeping, rant

Even thought we’re barely past the halfway point, I can already see Puella Magi Madoka Magica (PM3) easily winning best anime of the season and almost assuredly winning best anime of 2011 – though, Brain’s Base recently brought out their big guns by announcing the third season of Natsume’s Book of Friends – mainly because I have faith Shaft/Shinbou won’t pooch the ending in light of past series like Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, Bakemonogatari and even Hidamari Sketch S.3. That hasn’t stopped me wondering how PM3 will end nor has it stopped many in the anime blogosphere either.

I’m seeing certain assumptions being made by some people about the ending that I think are premature at this point and could lead to disappointment when the ending doesn’t go the way it appears to be going. It certainly could go that way but I still see room for PM3 to end happily (or moderately happily).

(Note: I tried to get this done before episode 8 but it looks like I came up a bit short. Since I took so much time writing this I didn’t want to not post it in light of whatever happens in episode 8 but there’s probably more than one idea that no longer is possible. Either way, I’m pretty sure I want Kyubey Barbeque.)

In school, and even now, my talents lay more in the science/math direction so I never really studied the concepts behind creative writing creation and formal critic techniques but the Internet means I can learn just enough to be dangerous. One such item I’ve learned is something known as Chekhov’s Gun which is a concept in writing that basically says that if you mention a gun in the beginning of a story, it must go off before the end of the story. This maxim makes sense to me, especially if you flip it around and think of a story where a character uses a gun at the end of a story when no mention of that gun’s existence occurred before that point – that’s where your deus ex machina endings come from and everyone hates those endings. The ending of the Avatar animated series is a very egregious example of this.

The gun – or more accurately, a BFG – that’s introduced in PM3 during episode 1 was the concept of someone gaining a wish in return for becoming a Puella Magi (magic girl). This BFG will get fired before the end of the series. We know it, Kyubey knows it, Madoka knows it and Homura knows it as well. And that’s okay because Sayaka’s wish shows that Kyubey, for all his creepiness, will legitimately grant a person’s wish without twisting it around. If Madoka picks the correct thing to wish for, as I think she will eventually figure out, than we can get the happy ending that seems nearly impossible at this point. As far as we know, she already has more knowledge of what she’s getting into then any of the other Puella Magi we’ve met so far and not needing anything for herself will allow her a greater degree of freedom in making that wish. (What Homura knew before making her wish and what her wish is unknown at this point.)

I’d love to see what Kyubey would do if Madoka wished for him to kill himself and turn himself into a tasty, slow-roasted barbecue meal. I bet Madoka would learn loads of interesting information about what’s really going on. Like if there’s other Kyubey’s to complete the contract when this Kyubey is dead and what Kyubey actually does with those full grief seeds (i.e. why he needs to live).

Going back to Homura, initially I thought she was just a jaded Puella Magi that made a wish that she regretted later and merely wanted to stop Madoka from making the same mistake. That idea no longer fits and the more I think about, the more I think Homura is the key to everything. What if Homura knew another Puella Magi that was killed before becoming one herself and so she wished that when she was about to get killed as a Puella Magi that a message would get sent back in time for Kyubey to find the person that could/would save her and for her past self to know who this person is and for Kyubey to forget about her since everyone finds this guy creepy.

That’s probably not it but I keep going back to the dream Madoka has in the first episode. It felt like a prophetic dream, even down to the color of ribbons, but it was also instrumental in getting Madoka to accept Homura; Sayaka never had that dream and continues to be suspicious of Homura. Also, watching Homura fight leads me to think that Kyubey wouldn’t stand a chance against her. She could have made road kill Kyubey delight before Madoka/Sayaka had the chance to intervene if she wanted to but didn’t. Then there’s the strategy of Homura’s to keep Madoka from becoming a Puella Magi, it’s really a lousy one because by befriending Madoka it gives Madoka twice the reasons to decide she needs to become a Puella Magi. It’s more like Homura is managing the point when Madoka makes the contract with Kyubey.

The introduction of grief seeds and how they worked is probably the most unsettling idea that PM3 introduced (I’ll get to why shortly). It also reminded me of another anime – Umi Monogatari (Sea Story).  In this anime an island is threatened to be swallowed into darkness by an evil entity known as Sedna that was reawakened when a magic seal was broken by accident. Towards the end of the show it was revealed that the islander’s tradition of “infusing” a pebble with one’s pain, suffering and despair and then tossing it into the ocean at a seaside shrine caused that spot of the ocean to eventually physically manifest the amalgamation of all those sorrows and troubles into the being Sedna. Once our heroes figure this out they realize that if the islanders accept their small pieces of darkness back then Sedna would dissipate and the crisis would be averted.

I’m reminded of Umi Monogatari because of the similarities between it and how grief seeds work which also leads to why I find grief seeds so unsettling; namely, that being a Puella Magi is implied to be evil.

When Kyubey takes the full grief seed from Sayaka he mentions that adding anymore darkness to it might make a witch appear yet when a witch is defeated there’s a certain level of clearness left to it’s grief seed for the use of the Puella Magi. It’s like, as the witch uses it’s powers to spread despair, it’s own soul is being cleansed. I wonder then, if a witches’ grief was split up into small enough pieces and parceled out to many people, would this end the problem of familiars and witches causing people to kill themselves and other such large-scale acts of despair. This by itself doesn’t make Puella Magi evil but when we add in that using one’s powers as a Puella Magi to defeat familiars and witches causes one’s Soul Gem to darken, we’re getting somewhere. This shouldn’t cause a Soul Gem to darken if what the Puella Magi is doing is good. Unless one wants to argue that the ends justify the means.

Speaking of Kyubey, it would be very easy to dismiss him as an evil being at this point but I think it’s a little more complicated than that. If/When we finally meet sentient aliens the chances that we both look at the world the same way is extremely slim. This will make communication and understanding each other quite difficult and the probability of accidentally creating an interstellar incident is frightfully high. Kyubey is an alien in the truest sense of the word and so it’s difficult to use human standards to judge him without some consideration. I’m willing to let some things slide with Kyubey; however, I fault Kyubey for his apparent lack of effort to understand humans and his choice of prying upon young girls who generally lack the cynicism of adults, the ability to understand consequences like adults and having an emotional delicacy that makes it easy for someone to manipulate them. I can just imagine Madoka’s mom bringing a 200 page legal document to Kyubey outlining her terms and conditions upon becoming a Puella Magi.

I also fault him for not mentioning at least something about the importance of a Soul Gem to the Puella Magi. He wouldn’t necessarily have to say they are now essentially the Soul Gem but just that it’s very important nothing happens to their Soul Gem. Mami might not have put her Soul Gem in such a conspicuous location if she had known.

I wonder if Kyubey has a Soul Gem and if he does, where is it?

Before Madoka makes her wish she needs to find out Kyubey’s motivation for finding Puella Magi to hunt witches. I’d be willing to bet that his reasons aren’t that high on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maybe he’s a pedophile that likes to grope young girls or maybe it’s because Kyubey eats the full grief seeds that the Puella Magi have topped off with their own darkness. In either case, Kyubey would prefer a continuation of the current situation with no interest in finding a final solution about the witches and familiars. He might even be instrumental in insuring the next generation of familiars and witches are set in motion after feeding on a grief seed.

Or maybe it’s the wish granting that creates witches and familiars. Kyouko mentions that an equivalent amount of despair is created when a person wishes for hope but looking at what happened with her, it seems like the hope was repaid with a steep percentage of despair as interest. This would explain why there only appears to be a single Kyubey; as evidenced by Kyouko assuming Homura makes her contract with Kyubey and Kyubey seems unconcerned about finding Puella Magi for the rest of the world. If this idea is correct and Madoka remembers Kyubey’s statement that one’s wish influences the power of the Puella Magi – maybe Madoka has to flip the wish around. If she’d wish for a great amount despair to shoulder herself then she could become the ultimate Puella Magi and an even greater amount of hope is created from her despair.

In closing, if we step back and consider the show I’m curious what people think are the chances of Puella Magi Madoka Magica will outsell Bakemonogatari on a per volume basis and K-On! on an overall sales amount in Japan and will PM3 (or Bakemonogatari) ever get licensed for North America.

Filed under: anime, anime news, anime rants/views

It’s been almost five years since I’ve last seen the anime blogosphere go so completely head-over-heals for an anime like what’s currently happening for Puella Magi Madoka Magica. That last time was for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya and it pole vaulted everything from it’s voice actors to it’s animation studio into instant super-stardom. This time it’s the well-known combination of the Shaft animation studio and it’s super-director Akiyuki Shinbou. Which is a bit surprising, given the prolific nature of Shaft/Shinbou; there isn’t that blank slate to work their magic on which KyoAni had with Haruhi.

And much like Haruhi, the PM3 fascination is well warranted; even for this long time Shaft/Shinbou fan, I was astonished how quickly this anime become special. The logical next step for a blogger would to blog about it but did I really want to be the 89th person that pointed how just how creepy Kyubey is or how dark and twisted this world is or how Shinbou was deconstructing the magical girl genre. The answer probably should have been yes since the alternative – coming up with something slightly more unique – took more work.

I eventually thought of something and all I needed was to call on the power of graphing and Gurren Lagann and an idea that’s been bouncing around in my brain for awhile.

The idea started out awhile ago when I realized, when doing my weekly anime review posts, that splitting an anime series into smaller intervals (individual episodes) and focusing only on those smaller intervals it gave an incomplete picture of the series as a whole. I needed the equivalent of calculus to find the area under a curve when all I had was a handful of rectangles to use.

Conversely, looking at just the final grade for an anime series was helpful in a different way but so much was hidden behind that number. A series that started out great but then coasted could get the same grade as a series that tried to be ambitious and missed the mark by just a little or a series that was mediocre at the start but built up to a thrilling conclusion.

I had a half-formed thought about using some sort of graphing but when my weekly anime posts stopped, I stopped really worrying about implementing a new system. For Puella Magi Madoka Magica, I dusted off these ideas with the view of that I needed a good way to quantify how good I thought PM3 was and how quickly it had gotten good.

The result is the graph below. It’s still not perfect but it’s much closer to what I want then just saying the first four episodes of PM3 have all been 12/12 perfect episodes. Basically, the colored areas overlay my numeric grading system and correspond to levels of achievement that are possible once an anime displays a certain level of quality. These levels are progressively harder to attain and are a reflection of watching enough anime that I can accurately grade an anime. A note for clarification, the stripped triangles for each anime series shows my guess at the future potential of the show.

 

I used Gurren Lagann to compare the new series to because it is my number 1 show and the yard stick to compare all other anime series; though, the path Gurren Lagann took to reach number 1 is very interesting by itself. For instance, the big jump it took at the very end where it goes from being a fringe Top 10 anime to being my favorite anime corresponds to episode 26, aka the best episode of anime ever.

I put Puella Magi Madoka Magica into the “High Quality” level right away. It was during episode 1’s conversation between Madoka and her mom in the bathroom that I just knew. When the second episode showed no signs of letdown but only continued to impress me, it was upgraded to probably one of the best shows of the season (as measured against a “normal” season). The surprise at the end of episode 3 pushed the show into most likely earning the top spot for the winter season, assuming the rest of the series didn’t see a decline in quality, and moved it very close into earning a spot as one of the best series of 2011. (Again assuming a “normal” year, with this being just the beginning of the year, I’m using the past seasons and years as a guide in estimating.) The fourth episode didn’t disappoint either and Shaft/Shinbou made it clear that it had plenty of tricks left to play; meaning, PM3 is now all but guaranteed a spot on my top anime of 2011 list.

In picking the upper and lower bounds for how PM3 potentially turns out I decided even though it’s currently far surpassing where Gurren Lagann was at this point in time – it probably doesn’t have the spiral power to beat out Gurren Lagann in the end. Instead, I used the highest position of a Shaft/Shinbou anime series (Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei) as the probable cap. I could be wrong and it could go higher but I think PM3’s episode count being only half will limit it. For the low end, I just don’t see the show imploding and finishing any lower then maybe #3 for the winter season. My guess as to it’s most probably course would be for Puella Magi Madoka Magica to land in the top 5 – maybe 3 – of 2011 and just outside of my top 10.

I could have stopped here but there was plenty of space to graph several other new shows of the winter season.

The most talked about show behind PM3 is Fractale, the latest creation from disgraced anime director, Yutaka Yamamoto. Some have loved it, some have panned it, some just note the high degree of similarities it has with other well-known anime works. I see it’s potential but it hasn’t impressed me in the slightest, especially since I don’t think Mr. Yamamoto has learned from his previous disappointing efforts. I don’t mind the recycling of ideas used elsewhere if Fractale was going to do something interesting with them. And I don’t mean – “hey lets do a Miyazaki movie but add in fan-service and potty humor”. Better story-telling would help it’s chances, like getting us to like a character before the director kills him off. The result is, unsurprisingly, that it’s been hovering around my drop line (anything below a 6/12 B- is in real danger of getting dropped) and I don’t see Fractale ending that high. Maybe if it does everything right then it might just creep up to around a 9/12 A- level but I don’t think so. It’s more likely to finish in the 5/12 C+ to 6/12 B- range.

Currently keeping Fractale company is the “comedy” Rio –Rainbow Gate– from Xebec. The mere possibility that Rio could finish higher then Fractale is mind-boggling. I don’t think that’s going to happen; I thought the latest episode of Rio signaled that the creators were fast running out of entertaining ideas (the gate battle in this episode was so boring) but the possibility still exists. The problem is that it’s too difficult being unintentionally hilarious week-in and week-out; eventually the animators figure out how to just be generic and that ruins all the fun. Which is a shame because having visited Las Vegas twice, I sort of wanted this anime to be a success.

Another show I wanted to succeed was Mitsudomoe 2. The first season was inconsistent but ended strongly and I had a feeling that a second season would be awesome. So far that’s been pretty much the case but it has a problem as well – it’s only going to be 8 episodes long and I’ve already seen half of them. That makes Mitsudomoe have to work much harder just to keep up with shows like PM3 and Level E when there’s such a difference in episode count. The last episode, in particular, seemed to display the animators at the top of their game and it reminded me of the splendid work they did on Minami-ke S1. If the remaining four episode can stay at that level, Mitsudomoe 2 might just land near the top this season.

The final show I graphed was the anime that most astounded me this season for being actually good – Level E – and the only anime that I think that has a shot at beating PM3. Not a great chance but it’s not zero, which would be enough for Simon from Gurren Lagann.  It should be mentioned that it bears no connection to any other anime that has “something E” in the title, which was why I initially passed it over – I thought it was a sequel. Nor does it rip-off the central idea to Men in Black because the manga actually predates the movie by a couple of years. It’s a SF/comedy series from the pen of the author that wrote Yu Yu Hakusho (which really deserves a new adaptation itself) and it’s refreshingly entertaining. Level E also has the largest potential range because I’m torn between how good it’s been so far and worrying about things that could drag it down. I wonder why this hasn’t been adapted in the 13+ years since it originally came out and if it’s short length (only 16 chapters) means that it doesn’t have a good ending and will the comedy hold up.

At this point, I figure putting any more series on this graph would just be overly messy looking so this is were I’m going to stop for now. I might revisit this graph with different series in the future but we’ll have to see. And in closing, I’ll say it again – Kyubey is freakishly creepy; though, I wonder if Kyubey barbecue tastes good.

Filed under: anime, anime rants/views, first impressions