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The 2008 Year in Anime by the Numbers and Breaking Down Why It’s Hard To Be a Fan of Anime Without Resorting to Fansubs


Bamboo Blade

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

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

Percentage of Shows Watched

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Soul Eater

Excellent Shows and Strong Seasons

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

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

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

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

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

Kaiba

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in anime, anime rants/views

Best in Anime 2008 – Part 2: Cast and Assorted Awards


Can I take him home?

I should make a "Cutest Character of 2008" category so I could give him an award.

Part 2 is somewhat of a mishmash of awards. I started out just having multi-character awards but while figuring out where everything went I realized I needed a spot to place various awards that didn’t fit anywhere else.


Best Couple

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Winner: Tomoya and Nagisa from Clannad

Runner-up: Iku Kasahara and Atsushi Dojo from Library War

Even though I think Taiga and Ryuuji of Toradora make the perfect couple, the show really hasn’t shown them together as a couple so they weren’t as strong of contenders they could have been. On the other hand Tomoya and Nagisa seem to be perfect for each other and from the start the show reinforced this to the viewers. And the second season has really shown how good of a couple they are together and has gotten to the point of them getting married.

Best Cast of Characters

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Winner: Toradora

Runner-up: Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

The cast of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is full of really great characters but they fall short of Toradora mainly because they never evolve as the characters of Toradora do. I like how every character of Toradora is different and not different like each character falls into preset character types; instead, they feel like they could be real people and their problems feel realistic for who they are and not just to fit convenient plot progressions.

Best Dressed Characters

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Winner: Clannad

An easy award to give because KyoAni seems obsessed with having their characters dress in as many different outfits as possible. It is realistic though, how many people do you know that wear the same couple of outfits day after day. And each time something new is worn, it’s genuinely new and tasteful. This might sound shallow but it does add a degree of realism to the show and keeps an element of surprise to itself.

Best Character Development for Cast

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Winner: Toradora

Runner-up: Bamboo Blade

Many shows have good character development for the main character and sometimes even a few of the side characters but it’s rare for a show to have good character development for all of the main characters and principal side characters like Toradora has. It’s really amazing that they’ve been able to fit such a high level of character development of the entire principal cast in only 13 episodes and judging from the first few episodes of the second half, it’s not slowing down in the least.

Best Character Development of a Single Character

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Winner: Yomi from Ga-Rei: Zero

Runner-up: Natsume from Natsume Yuujinchou

Almost the entire show of Ga-Rei: Zero is focused on the character of Yomi and how she is corrupted to become an evil killing machine. Even when I knew what happens in the future, I couldn’t help but like her before she turns evil and I can even understand why she did what she did. That moment of despair that she has while in the hospital was masterfully done and felt very real.

Best Character Ability/Power

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Winner: Kogarashi from Maid Guy

I already mentioned some of powers Kogarashi has earlier but there’s others including Maid Guy Voice that can stun people, Maid Guy Hair Sensor where he uses his hair as mobile sensors, and Maid Guy Levitation. It’s hard to pick a single favorite but the ability to link a printer to your brain using a USB cable and being able to print things by just thinking about them is a very awesome power.

Best Anime Movie Seen in 2008

evangelion

Winner: Evangelion 1.01 You Are (Not) Alone

I’ve mentioned before that even though Evangelion is an important anime work in the historical sense, it stinks as a show due in part to the very poor ending. After Gurren Lagann and it’s superbly crafted ending, though, I have some confidence that this time Gainax will get it right and the first of four movies seems to be a very good first step. My sister, who’s never seen the original series but seen clips of it in AMVs and such, was thoroughly impressed with the movie. I hold little hope of actually seeing this in theaters but would dearly love the chance to do so.

Best Anime OVA Seen in 2008

clannad01

Winner: Clannad Episode 24 OVA

This was a separate story from the series though officially it’s episode 24 of the first season. It still features Tomoya and he’s still best friends with Sunohara but his girlfriend is Tomoyo and we meet no other characters from the main series. I know KyoAni was aided from the fact that we know the characters from the series but they manage to tell a full story in only 21 minutes that was interesting, moving, authentic and in many ways, superior to the first season of Clannad. It showed the full potential that Clannad had and made me excited about the forthcoming second season.

Best Anime Extra

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Winner: Gurren Lagann Parallel Works

These where a series of short pieces done by Gainax employees using music from Gurren Lagann. All but one of them where meant to be separate from the show – hence the name Parallel Works. They featured the characters of Gurren Lagann in alternate settings, like a medieval world, or with alternate circumstances, like having the good guys be bad and Viral be the hero of the resistance. One though acted like a prequel in that it showed how Lord Genome became the ruler of earth and why he imprisoned humanity underground. Each was done by somebody different and thus had wildly different visual style though it was always fun to see some visual element that was done in one of these and remember something similar in the show. They where posted for free viewing on their website on a weekly basis over the summer and early autumn. I thought these showed that more can be done with the characters of Gurren Lagann and the world, in general, and hopefully Gainax will agree and revisit this world at some point in the future.

Most in Need of a Sequel

ryoko24081

Winner: Ryoko’s Case Files

The way the first season ended greatly increased my desire for a second season. How often do you get the chance to see a love triangle form that includes a clone, the original, and the guy they both like? Between that and the chance to see Ryoko and Izumida solve more mysterious cases should make a sequeal a no-brainer. Hopefully, this will be case and more Ryoko’s Case Files will be seen in 2009.

Posted in anime, awards      

Best in Anime 2008 – Part 1: Character Awards


autumn18522

I start with the character awards partly because I feel once a show establishes a great cast of characters then it’s 70% of the way to ensuring that I’ll like it. And it doesn’t matter what type of show, any show can be improved with good character development.

Best Female Main Character

ryoko05544

Winner: Ryoko from Ryoko’s Case Files

Runner-up: Iku Kasahara from Library War

An accurate description of Ryoko would be a cross between an adult Haruhi Suzumiya and the police skill of the Major from GiTS:SAC. A very potent combination and it helped make the show a must watch. My favorite Ryoko-ism was towards the end of the series when she took refuge in an empty underground mall, trying to hide from numerous soldiers trying to kill her. She realizes that her clothes are torn and dirty so she picks a killer outfit out, leaves her charge card, then calmly showers and dresses as if she’s going to a party and not to a firefight. We really need to see more shows like Ryoko’s Case Files that focus on characters that are adults because it’s so refreshing for the change of pace.

Best Male Main Character

autumn04416

Winner: Ryuuji from Toradora

Runner-up: Kogarashi from Maid Guy

Everyone has their little problems that they have to live with. For Ryuuji, it’s the fact that he looks like his Yakuza father – mean and dangerous. This is a problem because Ryuuji is a nice guy and just wishes for people to treat him normally. He happens to be a bit odd though because a sale at the grocery store or having the chance to clean away mold makes his day. What makes him the best male main character is that he’s truly a really nice guy. He’s also fiercely loyal to his friends, willing to go to whatever means necessary to help them with whatever their problems are and he’s also insightful and thoughtful.

Best Female Supporting Character

Toradora

Winner: Minorin from Toradora

Runner-up: Ami from Toradora

I didn’t think Ami would become a character I like when she was introduced but she’s been slowly rising in the ranks. She’s a completely different person then either Taiga or Minorin but she’s shown her own positive qualities. It wasn’t enough to dislodge Minorin from the top spot because Minorin has been awesome since the beginning. Her energetic outbursts and attitude always steel the show when she’s onscreen. However, this spastic personality hides a more serious personality that she doesn’t allow people to see though she seems to be lowering her guard to Ryuuji. So for her screen-stealing personality, sunny disposition, and being a good friend to Taiga, Minorin gets my nod for best female supporting character.

Best Male Supporting Character

bambooblade

Winner: Dan-kun from Bamboo Blade

Runner-up: Sunohara from Clannad

One of the surprising things about Bamboo Blade was Dan-kun, Miya Miya’s boyfriend and friend to Yuuji. He was short, looked very egg shaped, and seemed to be there for comedic purposes. Over the course of the series though, we see him mature as he works hard at learning Kendo. He also is a good boyfriend by providing support to Miya Miya so she can face her inner demons and her external tormentors. He earned a lot of respect from the characters and by the final episode, he is elected the head of the kendo club which was something that would have been unfathomable at the start.

Best Non-human Character

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Winner: Nyanko-sensei from Natsume Yuujinchou

Runner-up: Kuu from Wagaya no Oinari-sama

Nyanko-sensei is a spirit that had been sealed into a Luck Cat statue until Natsume accidentally lets him loose. He makes an agreement with Natsume to be his body guard under the condition that when Natsume dies, Nyanko-sensei takes ownership of the Book of Friends. At the time I thought that Nyanko-sensei would just kill Natsume at the first opportunity but Nyanko-sensei never seemed to even think of doing so. As the show unfolded, I realized that Nyanko-sensei actually likes Natsume as a friend. His gruff, catlike personality with his liking of alcohol is a great counterpoint to the often sad events of the show. And because he’s strong in his original form and also because he’s well-known amoung the spirits – oftentimes he is the one that saves Natsume from being killed.

Strongest Female Character

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Winner: Sora from Someday’s Dreamers Season 2

Runner-up: Nagisa from Clannad

I’m defining strong in a more general sense then just being physically strong and both Sora and Nagisa strike me as being strong women. Neither are particularly physically strong but they both have problems that would make most normal people despair, yet they can smile and live as if nothing is wrong. Sora edged Nagisa out because we still have half a season of Clannad left and much of her story still left to see.

Strongest Male Character

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Winner: Kogarashi from Maid Guy

Runner-up: Natsume from Natsume Yuujinchou

I had to give this award to Kogarashi. I can’t say he’s emotionally strong like Natsume because I’m not sure that Kogarashi has emotions. He’s more like a force of nature that’s not totally explainable to us mere humans. He can control crows, has x-ray vision, can plug a USB printer cord into his ear and print images from his mind, he’s taught at M.I.T., can wrestle with a panda bear, and the list goes on. In the show he works as a maid and strives for perfect service, even if his master disagrees.

Best Female Screen-grabber

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Winner: Sakura from Wagaya no Oinari-sama

Sakura wasn’t in the show much, maybe once every couple episodes, but when she was, she made her persence known. With an imagination almost as outlandish as Hosaka’s, the ability to come to absurd conclusions, and a talent for over-analyzing a situation – she always made the viewer laugh and at the same time hope she would successful in getting Takagami’s attention.

Best Male Screen-grabber

minami-edit

Winner: Hosaka from Minami-ke: Okawari

Hosaka is another person that isn’t in the show too often but his mere presence is enough to get a laugh. The over dramatic posturing and habit of unbuttoning his shirt helps though. He is consumed with getting Haruka Minami’s attention but a combination of personal shortcomings and bad luck have so far stymied him. His overactive imagination is always a source of laughter – just look at my the recently posted clip from episode 2 of the third season. And the sad thing is that he’s genuinely sincere, has his good points, and would probably make a good boyfriend for Haruka.

Best Villian

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Winner: Kazuhiro Mitogawa from Ga-Rei: Zero

I love a villian that’s intelligent and evil and he’s both. As we get through Ga-Rei: Zero, we see that he has this complex plan to eliminate the good guys largely through their own failing and he’s been very sucessful. He’s gotten rid of one of the most powerfullfamilies, reduced another to a single member, and killed or injured to the point of retireing several other very high level people.

Posted in anime, awards      

Ryoko’s Case Files Series Review


I’m always on the lookout for anime shows that are different; partly because I like shows that are different and partly because it becomes harder to get bored of shows that aren’t different since they only make up part of what I watch. This anime was an example of being slightly different, not really different like Kaiba – just slightly different.

Final Series Score: 11/12 A+
Rewatchablity: high
Pros: great chemistry between Ryoko and Izumida, instrumental OP/ED, nice animation, entertaining and fun to watch
Cons: the cases involve creatures found in B-movies – giant animals, undead, killer robots and plants, etc. – which might be too absurd for some, the show feels very unconnected at the beginning

Awards given to this show by this blog

  • Best Female Character for Summer 2008
  • Best Couple for Summer 2008
  • #3 Top Anime of Summer 2008

Story

Ryoko’s father is the current head of JACES, an independent security firm that is used to augment the local police forces of Japan. JACES also has a lot of clout with the police force because many of the high ranking police officers when they retire from public service will take lucrative jobs at JACES. This allows Ryoko, the next head of JACES and current detective, great power within the police force to go after cases she likes and to pursue them in the manner she likes.

By some special trick of fate, Ryoko will often attract “supernatural” cases to herself that test her crime-solving abilities. It’s a good thing that she’s very skilled at her job but she probably couldn’t do it all without her assistant, Izumida. The pair actually remind me a lot of Haruhi and Kyon in how they interact with each other. It’s even clear to almost everyone that Ryoko likes Izumida but all he sees in her is an outstanding boss.

Thoughts and impressions

When I was deciding on a grade scale for this blog I wanted to stay from being too precise because there isn’t really a difference between a score of 7.75 and 7.8. I also wanted a scale to be specific enough that I could accurately separate the measurable differences in quality. So in the end, I came up with this scale and it’s pretty good except it leaves me with a desire to split hairs sometimes, like in this case. I’d really like to give this an 11.5 but I’m going to resist the urge.

The reason that I couldn’t give this a perfect score is that the show felt too disjointed at the beginning which made it difficult to fully enjoy the show. Each episode left me feeling a little lost and it was only after watching 5-6 episodes that I felt that I had a handle of the show. Once that happened though, this became one of my favorite shows of the season. Reading around, I found a fair amount of people has a similar experience with the show’s beginning. Maybe if the show had a longer episode count, they could have done a better job introducing the series. It also didn’t help that I was expecting something like Ghost Hunt where each case had multiple episodes to be introduced, investigated, and solved. Without giving away the ending, the last two cases take up the last five episodes, and it’s really during these episodes that the show really excels.

What made the series slightly different was the characters of our show where adults, not school-aged, and the excellent instrumental OP/ED. I really don’t mind watching series that are set in school or where school plays a role but seeing an occasion series with adults is always nice. The same goes for opening and ending songs; I love Jpop and Jrock songs as much as the next anime fan but getting an occasional big band/jazzy instrumental song is a nice change of pace.

Characterwise, I mentioned the main ones, Ryoko and Izumida, already. They get a lot of screen time which is good because are fun characters to watch. I’d’ve wished if they had had the time that the side characters like the rival investigator to Ryoko, the other people that work at Ryoko’s office, Ryoko’s sister, and a pair of French maids/personal bodyguards would have been fleshed out more.

So, if you’re looking for a slightly different show to watch with good animation, a fair amount of well-executed action and that has entertaining characters and cases then I’d recommend this show. And, finally, lets hope this gets a second season – it deserves one.

Make a second season or else

Essential Information

  • 13 episodes
  • genre: Supernatural, Mystery
  • animation studio: DogaKobo
  • director:Tarou Iwasaki
  • OP: “Thème Principal” by KATSU
  • ED: “La Vie en Rose” by KATSU
  • Seiyuus of note: Hitomi Nabatame, Hidenobu Kiuchi
View Poll Posted in anime, series review      

Weekly Anime Review (Sept 28 – Oct 4)


An exciting week in anime – the summer season is finishing up and the fall season is starting. The last couple of weeks I haven’t really had a lot to write but now I’ve got multiple series reviews to write and first impression posts to write. I’m not complaining, the more I have to write about the better – it means I’m watching shows that I want to talk about. Let’s get to the weekly scores now.

The scores:

Ryoko’s Case Files, episode 12 – 12+/12

Birdy the Mighty Decode, episode 13 – 12+/12 (end)

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

Soul Eater, episode 25 – 11/12 A+

Somedays Dreamer’s S.2, episode 6 – 12++/12

Natsume Yuujinchou, episode 12 – 12+/12

Wagaya no Oinari-sama, episode 19 – 12+/12
Wagaya no Oinari-sama, episode 20 – 12+/12
Wagaya no Oinari-sama, episode 21 – 12+/12
Wagaya no Oinari-sama, episode 22 – 12/12
Wagaya no Oinari-sama, episode 23 – 12+/12

Clannad S.2, episode 1 – 12/12

Toradora!, episode 1 – 10/12 A

Akane-iro no Somaru Saka, episode 1 – 5/12 C+

Hyakko, episode 1 – 8/12 B+

I'm going to miss Wagaya no Oinari-sama when it's done

Thoughts and Highlights

First off, for the in-depth reasons why I scored the new shows how I did, you can refer to the previously posted impression posts.

The biggest surprise, and one that was quite pleasant, was the number of Wagaya no Oinari-sama episodes I was able to watch this week. This show has been one of the most consistently fun shows to watch this year and this group of episodes continue this trend. It’s mix of light comedy, dorama, and loveable characters is a perfect balance – just look at some of these episodes: one episode dealt was a Halloween episode that included the god of poverty showing up, another involved a mystery at an onsen, and yet another involved Sakura trying to stick to a diet. I don’t know how much source material is left but I’d definitely watch a second season of this show.

The best episode of the week comes from Somedays Dreamer’s season 2 but since it’s slice-of-life, it’s difficult to describe why. I’m happy that someone is working on subbing this show – beyond the whole question of if you like the animation style or not, it’s a very solid show.

Everything else pretty much stayed awesome. I did want to mention that this week’s Soul Eater was a transitional episode to gear us up for the second half of the show. The students of Shibusen played basketball and Shinigami-sama called a conference to map out what they should do now that the Demon God is escaped. Anyone else think it’s time to for a new opening? I like it but it’s been the same for the first half of the show and I’d like to see something new, maybe with some hints as to what to expect for the second half of the show.

Be very afaid, Ryoko's smiling.

Posted in anime      




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