I finally had the opportunity to catch Pixar’s latest work – Up. As a fan of Pixar from their very first movie, Toy Story, I had every intention of catching this in the movie theaters but various reasons prevented me at first. When I was ready to go, it had been playing for well over a month and I figured at this point, I should just wait till it hit the cheap movies. So I started waiting and as summer wore on, I continued to wait; sure that if I gave in, it would move to the cheap movies the next week and I’d be out the extra six dollars I would pay to see it in the first run theater. My patience was rewarded and this past weekend Up showed up at the local cheap movies.

Final Series Score: 12/12 – Perfect
Rewatchablity: 5/5 – Very High; After watching Up, I had to restrain myself from buying tickets to the next showing
Ending: 4.5/5 – Sublime; Everything you want in an ending, it had
Animation: 5/5 – Epic; Pixar continues to show why they’re the best American animators
Pros: Epic character development, more epic character development, even more epic character development, engaging storyline, sweet likeable characters, a real bad guy, was able to balance the serious with the funny and not have either feel wrong, a fulfilling ending
Cons: none

Story

As a young kid, Carl Fredricksen fell in love with the idea of being an explorer and going to the far corners of the Earth to discover the unknown that still existed. This love never diminished and lead him to finding the love of his life, Elie, who shared the same passion. They swore that one day they’d go to Angel Falls in South America but life got in way (as it always does) and before Carl realizes it, he’s a widowed and lonely old man. Before his sorrow and old age totally crush him, he decides to go on the trip that Elie and he could never get to and so starts a wonderful and exciting adventure full of surprises.

Thoughts and impressions

I remember reading an interview that John Lasseter of Pixar gave about the success of their movies back many years ago. At the time, CG animated movies where new and Pixar were pretty much the only people that made them in America. In the interview he disagreed with the idea that it was the CG that made Pixar’s movie great – it was their attention to developing memorable characters and the telling of a compelling story with these characters that made them successful.

Every Pixar movie displays this philosophy to a varying degree and I can’t help but notice that the better I like the movie, the better it showcases this philosophy. A movie like Cars ranks at the bottom because of my ambivalence towards the main character and his problems. On the other end of the scale, my favorites, Toy Story (1,2) and The Incredibles, have the memorable characters and compelling story. In the case of Up, I almost immediately got vibes that it could become one of my favorite Pixar movies because the subject matter is so different from the standard that it just had to have something interesting to tell. So, against this stiff competition and big expectations I have of what it means to be a Pixar film, I sat down in the movie theater hoping for a winner.

By the 20 minute mark of Up, I’d witnessed what has to be one of the greatest feats of character development in cinema history. It should not be possible to condense a person’s life into so short a time and leave the viewer with such a deep understanding of that person that when Carl suffered a trying hardship, the viewer cried tears as if it was us that experienced this hardship. If pressed to compare this to some other show, I’d say take all the feelings that one would have over episodes 11-21 of Clannad ~After Story~ and condense them down into 20 minutes. The result wouldn’t be a perfect match but it would give you an idea of the experience.

From there the movie moves onto Carl going on his adventure and I don’t want to spoil what happens but I want to mention that I disagree with some of the critics that would like to dismiss this part of the movie as being poor. They say it’s childish, implausible, shallow, etc. and I say they miss the point. The child-like desire to explore no matter the consequences, to thrill in the sheer wonder of seeing something new and to revel in knowing your alive and being able to appreciate the little things is exactly what Carl needs at this point. The concerns of being an adult have nearly crushed him and it’s only when being around a kid and letting it rub off on him can he return to being human and can find some happiness again.

One of the things that I generally hold against 3D CG animation is that almost no one seems to be able to make it look stylized like hand drawn 2D animation. Pixar, at times, seems like the only one willing to but some style into their animation and change up this style to match the material. Up continues this by stylizing it’s people but at the same time working this stylization into the show so that the viewer has to actually look for it. For example, Carl is drawn as if he’s made of stone, a very square stone with all his corners being perfect 90 degree angles. You’d expect him to say, “It’s clobbering time.” Or they wanted to convey the idea of the lawyers being soulless machines in one scene so they were given a body shape that looked like a 1950’s movie robot that was made up to look streamlined and they didn’t draw the mouths. Their where touches like this all throughout the movie and I’m sure I missed some because Pixar did a good job of getting everything to feel like a cohesive whole.

I’m trying to think of something else to talk about without spoiling things and I think I’m about tapped. If I was in the spoiling mood, I’d talk about how I really enjoyed the plot twist that forced Carl to pick between two options as to what was most important to him or why it’s a good idea not to meet certain people. Instead, I’ll close by saying that if for some reason you haven’t watched Up yet, your missing a truly great movie – easily, one of the best movies of 2009.

I think this will be the last of the winter shows that I’m going to get to. This was another show that really peaked my interest. The author of the source material is the same person who wrote Seirei no Moribito and the animation house is again Production I.G.

Rating: episode 1 – 9/12 A-
Rating: episode 2 – 9/12 A-

Erin is the young daughter of Soyon and she wants to follow in her mom’s footsteps as a dragon doctor. Soyon is regarded by many, even outside of the village, as the best dragon doctor but as an outsider to the village (she married the chief’s son) there are some that would like to see her leave. So far these attempts at getting Soyon kicked out of the village have been thwarted by Soyon and Erin’s intelligence and skill.

I’ll be truthful upfront, I’m weary of picking up this show because of it’s intended episode length, 50 episodes. That’s a lot of time and I’m not sure right now if it’ll be worth it. The last time I watched a series that long, Hayate the Combat Butler, I really only liked the first quarter and the last quarter; I kept losing interest in the middle half and was bored that the story wasn’t advancing. This might not be the case with this show but I don’t want to get 20 episodes in and realize that I don’t feel like continuing.

The main reason that makes me worry is the show seems more solidly geared to kids then Seirei no Moribito as evidenced by the voice-over at the end of the episode explicitly stating things that where obvious in the show and the total lack of subtlety dealing with the guy that wants Soyon and Erin out of the village. I’m worried that the show won’t be engaging enough for someone like me to watch all 50 episodes.

I feel terrible thinking this, though, because I don’t believe in letting preconceived notions dictate what I watch. I want what I watch based on the actual quality of the show and the first two episodes where an enjoyable introduction to the series. The animation was very good, as expected from Production I.G. I can already tell that this show, like Seirei no Moribito, does not throw in any of the current popular anime items. So no tsunderes or otaku jokes or moe characters – not that these are inherently bad but it’s nice to get a break from that every once and while. I’m also getting to like the characters and the world setting already.

What I’m saying is that I have no objective reason to stop watching this show right now, it appears to have everything I want in a series or at least the potential to (where the story goes is unclear right now). Therefore, I’m going to continue watching this until I’m given a reason to stop.

Cool ending animation style

Posted in anime, first impressions      

Because of some presumptive complaining, Hetalia Axis Powers had it’s television run canceled. The bruha-ha helped ensure that when this series was released over the net, even more people would watch. Which is what happened, the website hosting this show crashed from the high demand. I can’t help but think the tv people should have realized that the publicity would ensure a large audience and stuck to airing this, especially if the complaints are unfounded.

The question now is Hetalia Axis Powers any good?

Rating episode 1 – 10/12 A
Rating episode 2 – 10/12 A

After two episodes, I’m going to give Hetalia Axis Powers a preliminary passing score.

The show takes the various countries of the world and anthropomorphizes them into people and gives them a personality that matches the stereotype of that country. For example, Italy likes wine, women, and pasta as well as being artistic. The setting of the show primarily takes place during the time between the world wars of the 20th century but will slide back further in history.

I don’t know how the manga and web comic compare to this anime but I don’t see how anyone could objectively be offended by this. It seems more good-natured then anything else; I certainly wasn’t offended by the US character from episode 1, if anything, he seemed like a pretty good representation of my country.

Given that each episode is only 5 minutes long, the fact that each episode made me laugh several times is a good indication of the show’s quality. The joke that made me laugh the hardest was in the first episode when the countries were discussing how to deal with global warming and France disagreed with America because France always disagrees with America which made America angry. The joke was funny to see and it’s impact was even greater because I wouldn’t expect it in an anime.

The show does have room for improvement and I wonder if the humor will become repetitive over time. How many times will Italy say “Pasta” before I get tired of it? For right now though, it’s better then I thought it would be and definitely funny enough to continue watching.

Now that I finished up with my look back at 2008, it’s time to get back to the current season with a few more anime first impressions. The first is from one of the shows I was looking forward to, Genji. This is based off of the world’s first novel, it’s a thousand years old and considered a classic.

Rating: 10/12 A

Wow. If this first episode is representative of the rest of the show then I’m surprised that this show isn’t being talked about more.

The combination of good looks, smooth personality, and being second-in-line to the throne means Genji can have pretty much any woman he wants as the opening scene shows us. He literally has this one woman on a schedule – every 3 months or so he comes by for a night of romance. The majority of the first episode reveals, however, that he doesn’t always get the girl. When he was nine he meets a beautiful young woman (age 14) in passing within the halls of the palace and instantly falls in love. He tries to find her again but can’t find her anywhere when he is summoned by his father. He goes to see the father and the father introduces the young woman as his new mom. This really messes with Genji’s head, as you may guess and probably contributes to his later playboy mentality.

Genji as a child

Watching this first episode felt weird. On one hand, the historical setting is cool and different and would lead me to expect some sort of period drama. On the other hand, Genji’s back-story sounds like something you’d see in a modern harem or ecchi comedy anime series. It’s like a mashup of two totally different types of anime that don’t belong together but I know the show is based on the actual 1,000 year old novel.

I did like this first episode, though. The animation was very good and the style had a slight antique feel to it and fit the setting well. The voice acting was good and I already said I liked the setting. That’s about it for now, hopefully more of the series will get subbed so I can continue watching.

Imagine if manga came like that today.

Asread animation studio has been raked over the coals by much of the anime fandom for their lackluster second series of Minami-Ke because it couldn’t compete with Studio Doumu’s first season. I think much of the vitriol was uncalled for because the second season was still better then most of the recent comedy series.

So, while I was hoping Studio Doumu would come back to do the third series, I was more then willing to give Asread another shot (especially after their involvement in Ga-Rei: Zero).

Rating: 12/12 Perfect

I haven’t laughed this much at an episode of anime in a long time. Asread nailed this first episode. It’s very hard to describe comedy and still make it sound funny so let me just say that this episode hit many of the recurring themes that make the show so funny. The real surprise was the loser uncle of the Minami sisters has a really cool ability – he can drop a pencil and have it point to anything you want. He found where Kana hid Chiaki’s stuffed bear, who ate Haruka’s really expensive ice cream, and where Kana’s future husband is.

My sister realized almost instantly that this episode picked up where the first season ended and not where the second series ended. This could suggest that this will be considered the true second season of Minami-Ke. I’m just hoping we won’t see that next door neighbor boy again – I think he was almost the entire reason that the second series came up short.

It seems many of the other blogs are focusing on the animation style again, even taking screenshots out of context to prove their points. I say sure, it’s not as good as the first episode of the first season but it’s in the ballpark and even the rest of the first season didn’t match the first episode. It’s good enough and shouldn’t the question be if Asread got the comedy aspect correct this time, anyways.

If, and it might be a big if, the rest of the series is as good as this first episode then we’re in for a real treat.

They're back!!

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.

Diet warriors attack!!

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.

My second favorite bit character of the season

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.

The librarian of Soul Eater

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

I think one of the great things about watching anime is that each season offers different types of shows. I am, personally, surprised by many of the shows that are my favorites of the season. Which just strengthens my conviction that it’s important to keep an open mind when trying to pick anime to watch.

The scores:

Earl and Fairy, episode 3 – 10/12 A

Kannagi, episode 4 – 10/12 A

Somedays Dreamer’s S.2, episode 7– 12/12

Clannad S.2, episode 4 – 12++/12
Clannad S.2, episode 5 – 12+/12

Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 3 – 12/12

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 4 – 10/12 A

Kurozuka, episode 3 – 12+/12

Mouryou no Hako, episode 3 – 11/12
Mouryou no Hako, episode 4 – 12/12

Ga-Rei Zero, episode 3 – 11/12 A+

Ga-Rei Zero, episode 4 – 11/12 A+

Skip Beat, episode 4 – 12/12

Hyakko, episode 4 – 7/12 B

Toradora!, episode 5 – 11/12 A+

Chaos;Head, episode 2 – 12/12
Chaos;Head, episode 3 – 12/12

Yozakura Quartet, episode 5 – 10/12 A

Thoughts and Highlights

The first thing that jumps into my mind when reviewing the scores above is that a pair of shows – Mouryou no Hako, and Ga-Rei Zero – are doing better overall then their episodic scores would indicate. Both have shown very tantalizing hints of being awesome shows but at the same time they both are very ambitious in what they want to accomplish. How this will play out, will they ultimately succeed or come up short, is unknown at this time.

The best episode of the week was episode 4 of Clannad which was the conclusion to the Sunohara/Mei arc. The addition of a second male character and all that he adds to the show is one way that Clannad is superior to the past Key shows. Just look at the fight between Sunohara and Tomoya in this episode. It was emotionally real and different from what we’re used to see in shows like these and my sister and I couldn’t help but be glued to the screen. I will admit that, once the fight started, I wanted to see a Tomoya beating of Sunohara because as an older brother to four sisters, Sunohara’s actions made me very angry – you always protect your family.

On the flipside, Hyakko got put on probation this week, which means that if I don’t think the next episode is good enough and points to the series being good, then I’m going to drop it. I realized while watching this episode that my big problem with this show is that I actively dislike 2 of the 4 main characters and don’t have a good opinion of the other two. I want to compare this show to Manabi Straight since the set-up seems fairly similar and the character types match up almost perfectly and when I do the differences are stark. Just look at Mei from Manabi Straight and the aloof-girl on Hyakko. Mei is likeable and it’s apparent that she does have a nice side whereas the aloof-girl on Hyakko has not be anything but mean and aloof and frankly I wish the other three would just leave her alone.

Toradora has finally introduced the fifth main character and she’s a doozy. She has a real annoying helpless-blond personality around people she likes but a real curt and unfriendly personality around people she dislikes. I’m not sure how these five characters fit together but so far their relationships have been interesting and different and a bit Honey and Clover-esque.

And finally, one show that I’m starting to become slightly optimistic that it will turn out to be a good show is Yozakura Quartet. They’ve been developing the characters through these episodes which is always a plus and the world that this anime inhabits is also starting to intrigue me. I wonder if this will turn out like Wagaya no Oinari-sama where the animation isn’t that great but the story and characters are enough to make the show a success.

One more from Kurozuka. In both pics, he's in a special mode that makes killing easy.

Posted in anime, weekly anime review      

As much as I enjoy watching anime, nothing beats losing oneself in a good book. I’ve been an avid reader since learning how to in first grade and at all times I am reading at least one book. Recently, the anime Earl and Fairy showed the main character leaving a saucer of milk out for the fairies of the area. This act reminded me of one of my absolute favorite books, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and that’s all it took to convince me that it was time to reread the book.

Final Series Score: 12/12
Rereadablity: very high
Pros: the story is both fantastically mythic and utterly believable at the same time, the characters – gods and humans alike – feel like real people that I could meet if I knew where to look, Gaiman’s writing style is meaty yet simple to read and uncluttered with needless writing tricks, many surprises and twists that will keep you reading, stands up well when rereading it
Cons: nothing

Story

Shadow has almost finished doing his time in prison when he starts to feel that a storm is brewing. This storm is not a normal storm and the feeling of dread over some unknown trouble that the storm will bring starts to weigh on Shadow. Stuck in a cell there’s nothing he can do but wait out the final month but his fears are confirmed when he is called to the warden a week before his release date.

Once out of prison, Shadow meets a strange old man that goes by the name of Mr. Wednesday and Shadow is offered the job of being Mr. Wednesday’s bodyguard/errand boy. Shadow decides to take the offer and Shadow quickly learns that Mr. Wednesday is not a normal person but the physical incarnation of Odin for the country of America. It turns out that any time a god is worshiped in a country, the people’s belief will cause a physical incarnation of that god to exist in that country and he/she/it will continue to live in that country as long as someone remembers them.

Over the course of the book, Shadow will meet gods, spirits, and cultural heroes of the Norse, African, Egyptian, Indian, Hindu, and pagan European pantheons among others. These gods are mostly down-on-their-luck because Americans don’t have a lot time to spend on its gods and thus they don’t have much belief to live on. Some like Thor take their own life, some like Mad Sweeney the leprechaun turn to alcohol, and some eke out a life like Anubis and Ibis, who run a funeral parlor.

As people slowly forget these old gods, new ones are constantly being created. These include the gods of media, who looks like television news anchors as well as the fat, socially awkward, god of technology. These new gods are flush with power and want to get rid of these older gods and this desire will lead to all-out war and this is causing the storm that Shadow feels is coming. Some of the older gods realize the trouble that they are in so Mr. Wednesday takes it upon himself to lead the effort to convince them all to unite against the new gods.

Thoughts and impressions

Several years ago, I bought a book that included a novella written by Neil Gaiman that was about Shadow and it was set a couple years after the events of this book. This was my first time reading anything by Neil Gaiman and even though I’m not a huge fan of fantasy, I loved this story and needed more. This lead to buying American Gods then Anansi Boys and so forth until I eventually bought just about everything Neil Gaiman has written. Every book and story of his has had it’s own charm but none of them have been able to displace American Gods as my favorite Neil Gaiman work. And what’s probably the best proof of that love is that I’ve read American Gods eight times now whereas my other favorite books have been read only once or twice. (There are so many books out there that I don’t have enough time to keep rereading books that I’ve already read.)

There are several reasons, though, why this book is worth reading over and over again. The first is the characters. Shadow, our main character, is almost immediately someone that we emphasize with and hope that he will see better days in future. As he is thrown into situations that are way over his head, we silently root that he can make it through them. Then there’s the gods we meet; Gaiman gives each one a full personality that makes them feel real. You feel the world-weariness of the old gods in their speech, mannerisms, and actions. When they talk about the old days, it feels as if they truly have been around a long time. The new gods act like you’d imagine new gods with a lot of power would act.

Another reason that I like this book is the idea that gods can be created when people sacrifice to the idea of a god because in some sense it feels like the truth. For example, I think of all the time people spend in front of the television and how televisions are placed in places of importance throughout the house and if we combined all this “worship” across the country, it makes sense that there is media gods that looks like news anchors with their perfectly coiffed hair, white perfect teeth, and golden tans. This idea also shows up in the anime Natsume’s Book of Friends. If you remember in episode 2 the Dew god was once worshiped by many of the area and thus he was man-size but now there was only one old woman that still tended his shrine and as a consequence, he was only a couple of inches tall.

One of Neil Gaiman’s objectives in writing this book, as I have read, was for this book to be his reflection on America after discovering once he moved to America that it’s different from how it’s portrayed in film,tv, and books. In this, I think he succeeded. His characterization of America being a hard land for gods to live in rings with truth. One of the things that I used to be surprised about was the sheer amount of religion / the supernatural that is in anime. This isn’t something that you see in tv programs over here.

Also, Shadow strikes me as deeply American. Americans have this belief that if they work hard enough, everything will turn out in the end. I always think of the steel mill where my dad works. The guys that retire from there have oftentimes put in 40+ years there and you’d think that they’d be looking forward to retirement but a sizable percentage of them die within the first couple years after retiring. Poor health would be what would be concluded but it’s not like these guys are on death’s door when they retire; instead, these guys seem to say that once they’re done working, there isn’t much to keep them around. Shadow displays this throughout the book; he works with such determination that it surprises the gods around him. He never allows himself to truly relax even when he’s supposed to, he always looks for something to do.

Finally, much like how I enjoy learning about the religion of Japan from anime, I enjoy the chance to learn about the gods seen in this book. Some are familiar like the Norse ones but many are not, like the trickster god from Africa that goes by the name Nancy. I remember the first time reading this book and being surprised when we meet the pagan goddess Easter and see that bunnies and eggs where part of her observance. It’s a shame that more time couldn’t have been spent with the different gods. In Nancy’s case, luckily, he and his two sons are the focus of another book by Gaiman – Anansi Boys.

So, in conclusion, if you’re looking for an interesting, fun, and different book – I highly recommend giving this book a shoot.

Massive amounts of anime was watched this week by me and I still feel like I’ve not watched enough of the series because I’m skipping sequels to shows that I haven’t seen the previous season of. As a side effect of rating so much anime at this concentrated rate, I’m finding it easier to see the gradations of quality that separates a perfect episode and one that’s an A+ or A. Therefore, it’s now harder for an episode to get a perfect score and the ones that do, deserve it.

The scores:

Soul Eater, episode 28 – 12+/12
Soul Eater, episode 29 – 12/12

Ga-Rei Zero, episode 2 – 12/12

Skip Beat, episode 2 – 11/12 A+
Skip Beat, episode 3 – 12/12

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 3 – 12/12

Wagaya no Oinari-sama, episode 24 – 10/12 A (end)

Kannagi, episode 3 – 11/12 A+

Kemeko DX, episode 3 – 10/12 A

Earl and Fairy, episode 2 – 11/12 +

Chaos;Head, episode 2 – 12/12
Chaos;Head, episode 3 – 12/12

Kurozuka, episode 2 – 12/12

Mouryou no Hako, episode 2 – 12+/12

Yozakura Quartet, episode 2 – 10/12 A
Yozakura Quartet, episode 3 – 9/12 A-
Yozakura Quartet, episode 4 – 10/12 A

Hyakko, episode 3 – 9/12 A-

Toradora!, episode 4 – 12+/12

Daughter of 20 Faces, episode 20 – 10/12 A

(previously reviewed)

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 1 – 6/12 B-

Earl and Fairy, episode 1 – 9/12 A-

Thoughts and Highlights

Alas, this amount of shows this week make it impossible to mention them all. Writing in any form has always been difficult and time-consuming for me. If I write an email that’s a paragraph long, you can bet that I spent over an hour composing it. Someday I hope to get better at writing and that desire is one of the personal reasons for doing this blog. With that said, onto my thoughts and highlights.

The best episode this week was from Mouryou no Hako. I was wondering what they where going to do after the first episode and while I still don’t know for sure, it appears that something strange is going on. For instance, they keep talking about how boxes can hold people’s souls. It was done with the girl in episode 1 that was just a living head in a box and the doll-maker and the characters have mentioned it as well. As this makes me wonder about the building-size box that is shown at the end of episode 2. What is it and what is it meant to do? Also, there appears to be reason to suspect that the girl that fell in front of the train at the end of episode 1 was pushed for a reason. Both of the mysteries make me real anxious to watch the future episodes and the stunning animation doesn’t hurt.

Soul Eater continues to impress me on the shounen front. I thought the show was a touch slow in the beginning, even if I liked each individual episode as it aired, but since about episode 18 the show has kicked itself into high gear and the pace hasn’t slacked yet. If this isn’t the top shounen series right now, it’s very close.

Use of eye-catches is always a plus for an anime

I’m finding that I’m warming to both Kannagi and Yozakura Quartet this week but Hyakko is still not winning me over and it was the robot girl that secured the A- for the episode, if she wasn’t there then it would have been scored lower. In Kannagi’s case, it’s probably the combination of successfully forgetting the manga and giving the characters time to be more developed and thus likeable. Yozakura Quartet is still not matching J.C. Staff’s Index but episodes 2-4 where good enough that I want to continue to watching.

And finally, the two shoujo shows that I’m watching, Skip Beat and Earl and Fairy, both where very fun shows to watch this week. The first continues to excel at making us care about the main character, Kyoko, and root that she gets her revenge. The second has a talking cat, always a big plus, and is doing a good job at developing the three main characters.

I forgot to post this pic with the series review. This was a good way to end the series..

Posted in anime, weekly anime review      

This was a title that I decided to watch on a whim, with the thought that I’d probably drop it in a few episodes because it was probably harem-esque, boring, and generic. Give the show all the rope it needs to hang itself, as the saying goes. Since, I’m writing the series review, though, you can probably guess that I got through the whole show.

Final Series Score: 11/12 A+
Rewatchablity: med-high
Pros: solid, well-developed characters that where very likable; every part of the show worked harmoniously to create an atmosphere for the characters to shine; it’s mix of light comedy, light drama, and small character-driven story arcs made the show feel original and pleasantly unpredictable
Cons: animation will not win any awards, people looking for an easily compartmentalized show will be frustrated

Awards given to this show by this blog

• Best Fox Spirit of Spring 2008
• #2 Top Continuing Anime of Summer 2008

Story

A pair of brothers belong to a family that have been caretakers of a shrine for hundreds of years. When the younger brother gets into trouble of the supernatural kind, they visit the family shrine to see if there’s something they can do. Luckily for them, the shrine has a trapped fox spirit and a shrine maiden that has power over water to combat this trouble. The grandma decides that both the fox spirit and the miko would be useful in protecting the brothers and sends them to live with the two brothers. This starts our show, and we get to follow the shrine maiden as she becomes acquainted with living in a city, the fox spirit as she/he/it sees how society has changed in the years since being trapped at the shrine, and the pitfalls that the brothers will fall into as they meet the area’s gods and spirits.

Thoughts and impressions

When I first starting watching this show, I was puzzled by how much I was enjoying it, nothing stuck out that I could point to as being the reason. I don’t think I was alone, judging by the lack of people that blogged about this show. I stuck with it and it slowly became apparent that the reason I liked this show so much was that the animators used every part of the show to develop and showcase the characters of this show.

For example, there’s a bit of action in the show, but not because fight scenes are a good way to pad the series; instead, we have a chance to see how willing the fox spirit, Kuu, is in protecting the two brothers. Also, there’s a bit of comedy in the show and the majority of it involves Kou, the shrine maiden, or Sakura. In Kou’s case, she’s lived in the country and has lived her entire life to fill the role of “Sentinel” at the shrine and thus doesn’t know about modern conveniences or how to act like a normal person. And in Sakura’s case, she has a way with over-analyzing what’s going on to absurd conclusions. In both cases, the comedy is used to reinforce traits of the characters. If your wondering, Kou does slowly learn throughout the show as would be realistic.

The story for the series is split into small arcs that run roughly one to four episodes and each one runs directly into the next. Characters introduced in one arc will almost always appear at some later point so the show does slowly build upon itself. This setup allows each arc to unfold differently and this keeps the show feeling fresh and interesting.

Sakura is one of the great reasons to watch this show

I mentioned in a comment on another blog that this show ascribes to the rule that I first learned in shop class in middle school: KISS – Keep it simple stupid. The show is not pretentious about itself, you won’t see any fancy narrative tricks that some shows use. Instead, it’ll find a simple solution to convey what it wants to. This is something I wish, frankly, other anime producers would take to heart sometimes.

Another thing that I really liked about this show was that it was consistent. So many two season animes have a period in the middle that the animators seem to lose focus and the quality of the show drops a great deal but this wasn’t one of them. This is probably helped by the slice-of-life feel of the show. I’ve noticed that shows that strive for a slice-of-life feel run on a more even keel as opposed to the more classic plot progression of raising tension, climax, and then resolution. But whatever the case, as I watched this show, I could always count on the next episode to be a good one.

There’s one last thing I wanted to comment on before concluding. I have a strong feeling that this show wasn’t given the largest budget to work with and the biggest proof I think is that for the last 5 episodes (of 24 total) was run with a new ending. This ending was done in a much nicer style then the show so I can’t help but think that it was only near the end when they realized that they’d have a bit of cash left that they did a second ending to the show. I have to hope that if a (well-deserved) second season is done then a little more money is spent on it.

So in conclusion, this show was a pleasant surprise and one that I’m sure just about anyone would enjoy watching. Don’t let the lackluster animation quality fool you, the characters and story are top quality and well worth the time.

Essential Information

• 24 episodes
• genre: Supernatural, Slice-of-Life
• animation studio: Zexcs
• director: Yoshiaki Iwasaki
• OP: “KI-ZU-NA ~Haruka Naru Mono e” by Hitomi Sora
• ED:“Kaze ga Nanika wo Iou to Shiteiru” by Saori Hayami and “Shiawase no Kotodama” by Yukana, Hayami Saori, Takahashi Mikako
• Seiyuus of note: Yukana, Yuichi Nakamura, Takahiro Mizushima, Yui Kano

Can one person/character carry a show? The answer is normally no but the possibility exists – look at the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, as an example. I mention this because the series that’s being reviewed, Maid Guy, is reliant on how well one character can shoulder the burden of making this a good show.

Final Series Score: 9/12 A-
Rewatchablity: low-med
Pros: Kogarashi aka Maid Guy
Cons: lackluster animation, comedy becomes repetitive and boring, enjoyment hinges exclusively on when Kogarashi is on screen

Awards given to this show by this blog

• Best Male Character for Spring 2008
• Best Ability/Power of Spring 2008 – Kogarashi
• Best Male Seiyuu of Spring 2008 for Rikiya Koyama (Kogarashi)
• #2 Top Anime of Spring 2008

Story

A teenage brother and sister are the only direct relatives left of a super-super wealthy businessman because members of the family keep dieing, presumably so someone becomes the heir to the fortune. The elderly businessman decides to hire two bodyguards / maids to protect the brother and sister until the elder sister can inherit the money in half a year. Maid Guy has many special powers that will be called upon to protect the two, including the ability to control flocks of crows, the ability to plug a printer’s USB into his ear and print anything his mind imagines, flight, x-ray vision, and unbreakable hair to name but a few.

Thoughts and impressions

Kogarashi is almost awesome enough to carry the entire show on his shoulders. He truly is like a force of nature that transcends being a mere mortal. If this show was given to more capable hands, I might me gushing how this was the best comedy of 2008. Instead, I can’t help but feel this was a near-miss by the people at Madhouse.

And that’s about all I have to say about this title. If you haven’t seen it already and don’t mind fanservice too much then definitely catch a couple of episodes just too see Maid Guy in action.

Essential Information

• 12 episodes
• genre: Comedy, Fanservice
• animation studio: Madhouse
• director: Masayuki Sakoi
• OP: “Special Life!” by KOTOKO
• ED: “Wakugai!!” by Yoshiki Fukuyama
• Seiyuus of note: Rikiya Koyama, Yuka Iguchi, Megumi Toyoguchi

Since my fall anime impressions were spread out over the past few weeks I thought it would be a good idea to combine the scores all in on place (and sort by their score) and link back to the individual entries so in case you missed one you could find it easier. Plus give any final thoughts on the beginning of the fall season.

Episode 1 ratings

To Aru Majutsu no Index, 12+/12

Clannad S.2, 12/12
Kurozuka, 12/12
Shikabane Hime: Aka, 12/12

Chaos;Head, 11/12 A+
Skip Beat, 11/12 A+
Mouryou no Hako, 11/12 A+

Toradora!, 10/12 A
Kemeko DX, 10/12 A

Ga-Rei Zero, 9/12 A-
Hakushaku to Yousei, 9/12 A-

Hyakko, 8/12 B+
Yozakura Quartet, 8/12 B+

Kannagi, 7/12 B

Michiko to Hatchin, 6/12 B-

Akane-iro no Somaru Saka, 5/12 C+

Tales of the Abyss, 04/12 C

This appears to be a rather strong season of anime. If I’m counting this right, that’s a total of 17 shows that I’ve watched the first episode for and so far I’ve only dropped the bottom two. That leaves me with roughly double the maximum number of shows that I want to watch at one time but I think it’ll be impossible to trim more then a few without losing good shows. And since I don’t want to do that, I’ll try to be that idiot that watches to many shows at one time.

Probably the biggest surprise is J.C. Staff’s pair of shows being awesome. I’m a big J.C. Staff fan, don’t get me wrong, but they haven’t exactly been hitting many homeruns lately. If these shows signal a resurgence for them, I hope they get to another season of Shana soon. The Shana series shows flashes of brilliance and when it does, it’s hard to beat it.

I think one of the reasons that I’ve been enjoying the second season of Clannad so much is because I know that Tomoya and Nagisa are a couple and we can really focus on the story now. I wonder when we’ll find out what KyoAni plans to do next. I’d bet it’ll be Haruhi season 2.

It’s a little early to start thinking of my seasonal awards but I can’t help but mention one show’s effort in earning an award. Ga-Rei Zero has impressed me with it’s sheer number of killed characters that seem like real characters, and not just nobodies, that I feel that it has to deserve some sort of award. I’m not sure what yet.

And finally, I wanted to mention that when I started this blog, I shrunk every picture down to a width of 450 pixels to fit inside the column width but starting right before this fall season, I realized that I could upload a full-size screenshot and let wordpress autoshrink it down to the column width but when it’s clicked - the full size version would show up in a separate window. Therefore, in any of these impressions, if you want to see a full-size version of the screenshot, it’s available by clicking on it.

I believe this was one of the first of the season’s anime to air and one of the last to get fansubbed. That probably means something, but I don’t know what. This is another shoujo show but I enjoyed Skip Beat so I popped this one in with only a little trepidation.

Rating: 9/12 A-

Earl and Fairy showed it’s shoujo roots more then Skip Beat during this first episode. The gratuitous amount of eye and smile sparkly pron was absurd but wasn’t enough to really dampen my enjoyment of the episode.

The story takes place in the England during the 19th century. We are introduced to a young woman that has the ability to see fairies and she lives as a fairy doctor, a person that helps people with their fairy problems. This being the enlightened 19th century, not many people actually believe in fairies so she doesn’t get much work. She is on her way to London when she is tricked into following a devilishly handsome aristocrat. This aristocrat claims to be a descendent of the Earl that’s in charge of the fairy nation but needs a special sword to prove it so he needs her help to find it.

Before I go on, I should admit to something – I’ve seen A&E’s 5 hour version of Pride and Prejudice at least four times now and needless to say, really enjoy it. Therefore, I conclude that I might have a weakness to shows that take place during this time period. If that’s the case, your mileage my vary with this title but I found myself being drawn into the world and becoming interested with the characters. Also helping my enjoyment of the show was the talking cat, though I was a little disappointed that the cat didn’t sound like Cary Elwes (The Cat Returns, Princess Bride).

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.