I’ve been curious about the buildings that were shown in the opening skit from episode 1 of Taishou Yakyuu Musume but I never felt like I’d know enough information to track them down. (Silly me, this is the internet we’re talking about.) Suguru’s comment about the identity of the building in question from yesterday’s post gave me the push to start investigating.

After looking at the information I could find on-line, I’ll have to respectfully disagree with Suguru, I don’t think it’s Tokyo Station for a couple reasons that I’ll get into later but I wanted to first mention that an additional reason is that I rewatched the song from Baseball Girls and Tokyo Station is mentioned later in the song so I think it’s a bit weird that they’d show Tokyo Station more then once. Here’s a Youtube video of the song in question to refresh everyone’s mind.

I first started by checking the wiki link for Tokyo Station and was surprised that the building is still there after almost a hundred years (WW2 air-raids almost destroyed it but when it was rebuilt, it wasn’t rebuilt exactly how it used to look). I looked at the old pictures on the wiki article but I couldn’t match that with the building in question so I googled Tokyo Station to see if I could find a picture from another angle that would better match when I stumbled upon a very interesting site that went a long why in answering my questions. It’s called The Meiji and Taisho Eras in Photographs and it’s exactly what I was looking for (and the best part is that it’s available in English). I’m going to post some of the photos from that site for comparison purposes but I do suggest people head on over to that site since there’s tons of other interesting stuff there.

Here’s their two pictures of Tokyo Station from the same time period (click to enlarge):

See how the architecture is similar but it just doesn’t look like the same building. I set that aside and started looking at the various other pictures because they were really interesting when I found this picture:

Inadvertently I hit the jackpot, those two building were definitely the same two from Taishou Yakyuu Musume and what cinched it was the title of the picture “Street-scene outside Babasaki-mon” and the song used the word Babasakimon when it was showing those two building. And it got even better, that site also had another picture under the title of Babasakimon:

Which matches to the scene from the song almost perfectly:

At this point I also realized that Babasakimon was referencing an actual street and I then found a map that showed the relationship of Babasaki street to Tokyo Station. It’s modern but I figured it’s probably accurate enough.

Notice how there’s a couple of blocks from the water on top and Tokyo Station and how the first picture of Babasaki-mon shows water across the street from the building in question. Therefore, I concluded that the building can’t be Tokyo Station though, heaven knows, I could still be wrong.

I continued to search the site for the identification of the building but came up empty-handed but I did discover the identity of the building on the left of the above screenshot from Taishou Yakyuu Musume. It’s the Meiji Life and Fire Insurance Company according to the title of this picture:

At this point I looked for some of the building mentioned in the song and found out about most of them. Here’s the Japanese Diet building. I don’t think it’s still standing since a newer building has taken it’s place but I couldn’t discover if war tore it down or just the need for a larger building.

And here’s the Imperial Theatre. The first Western style theater that opened in Japan, according to this site it was torn down in the 60’s and replaced with a more modern, if uglier, theater.

I notice that the pictures hosted on this site seem to have been the inspiration behind how J.C. Staff drew the buildings in question. Which made comparing the two easy but for the Metropolitan Police Department, they drew it in such a way I can’t tell if it’s the same building.

See, it’s hard to tell if they are the same but according the title of the photograph, they are the same.

Going back to my initial point from the last post about how the buildings where the same, seeing how there are at least two buildings that had similar architecture and how the roof copula from the building shown in Blue Literature don’t appear to exactly match the building from the photos and Taishou Yakyuu Musume – I’m no longer sure that they are same building but, at least, I discovered a bunch of interesting historical type stuff.

I finally got around to watching Blue Literature (Aoi Bungaku) once a group I could trust (or mostly trust) got to fansubbing it. The reason I waited was because after the non-subbing of Mouryou no Hako – last year’s fall season high quality Madhouse series – I wasn’t going to get attached to a show unless I felt that I’d be able to finish the series. Seriously, could someone finish subbing Mouryou no Hako already.

Anyways, as I watched the third episode of Blue Literature I was reminded of another anime very unexpectantly. Look at the screenshots below.

First from the serious Aoi Bungaku:

Look familiar? Now a screenshot of the other anime:

Yes, it’s the same building and trolley that were seen in the first episode of Taishou Yakyuu Musume, aka Taishou Baseball Girls.

I know Blue Literature wasn’t trying to slip in something funny since this building must have really existed and is probably well-known to Japanese viewers but I still found myself giggling while watching Blue Literature over the remembered sound-and-dance routine from that first episode from Taishou Yakyuu Musume.

The final part of my look at the spectacular summer season is the countdown of the best titles of the season. This is always a difficult process since I enjoy so many different types of shows and there’s no clear-cut way of comparing a slice-of-life show to a shounen action show to a thought provoking SF drama set in the near future but at the same time, it’s fun because it helps me focus on exactly why I like certain shows.

The first step in the process is to figure out how many places will this season’s top list include. The number changes from season-to-season based on the number of quality shows that I feel deserve to be mentioned. This time I realized that if I included all the titles I thought were “very good”, the list would be much too long so I restricted the list to those shows that I consider “great” shows.

This narrowed the field down to seven shows and now the task turned to ranking these seven shows that I considered great shows. Picking the number one spot was fairly easily but the rest of the list felt like pulling teeth so; whereas, I’ll argue that all seven of these shows belong on the list, I won’t argue to hard over the exact order.

And with that, let’s head to the countdown.

Honorable Mention – Sora no Manimani

Of the shows that almost made it onto the list, Sora no Manimani was the closest and because it was such an enjoyable series, I figured it deserved to at least get an honorable mention.

I’m convinced if this had either had one of the big name studios attached to it or had eye catching animation like a Bakemonogatari then it would have been a popular series. Instead it was done by Studio Comet and outside of the nicely done night sky scenes, the animation was very average. Which makes it sounds like I’m calling anime fans shallow but I understand that with the sheer number of titles (and so many being good) that some way to filter down the number of shows that a person watches needs to be employed.

So, in case you’ve missed this show, Sora no Manimani is a slice-of-school-life show featuring the school’s astronomy club and focuses more on the unique challenges facing a club of this type with a lesser focus on the problems of it’s members. Almost every episode also mixes in a few interesting tidbits of astronomy. I plan on trying the easy method they showed for taking pictures of the night sky with just a normal camera. It’s strength resided in how it stayed entertaining and enjoyable without resorting heavily clichéd characters and became an even stronger series when they introduced some of the neighboring school’s astronomy clubs and their own quirky characters – gotta love the constellation fangirls.

And if the animators get a chance to do a second season (the ending gives that type of feeling), I’d definitely be excited for more Sora no Manimani.

7 – Aoi Hana

The term yuri is such a loaded term for the anime fan because 9.9 times out of 10 a show with yuri is using it for comedic purposes and fan service (think Maria+holic or Kampfer) or the story is so grounded in fantasy that it can’t be taken seriously. Using this term is helpful the vast majority of the time but in that 0.1 times are shows like Aoi Hana that are completely different then the normal yuri show. There’s very little, if any fan service, and the show is a more serious one and yet the story is told in such a way with the right characters that it feels very plausible.

A better way to describe this show is that Aoi Hana is yet another quality slice-of-school-life show from J.C. Staff that will remind the viewer of other J.C. Staff shows like Honey & Clover and Toradora. This show also features the best example of the sheer beauty that J.C. Staff’s watercolor look can lend a show. And speaking of animation, remember how people would talk about the attention to detail the KyoAni would show in their works – I got that same feeling of almost obsessive attention from watching how well Fumi’s hair was animated and how the snow was animated in the last episode. This is another show that if the animators wanted to do a second season, they’re more then welcome since I’d be really happy to see more from these characters.

6 - Kemono no Souja Erin

Erin-sensei!!

Earlier in the season, I talked about finally catching myself on this series and how I felt bad about missing out on such a great show for so long. Since than I’ve patiently and not so patiently waited for the next installment because after every episode I find myself liking the show even more.

The show continues to focus on developing Erin’s character and unfolds in ways that keep the viewer guessing even after 30+ episodes. For example, in the last episode I watched, Erin has become a teacher at the Beastlord school that she schooled in and graduated from. In hindsight, it’s clear that she’s perfect for the job but I wasn’t expecting something like that to happen which just reinforces how all these developments keep the show fresh and exciting to watch. Now we’re moving to the final set of episodes and I can’t wait to see what happens; there’s a very good chance that this’ll be near the top next time.

5 – Cross Game

One of the shows that will get in Kemono no Souja Erin’s way next season will be this show – I just know it. The drop in ranking (from being #1 in the Spring season to #5) might imply some drop off in quality but that’s not the case here. This show is as impressive this season as last.

The original manga author has a real knack at creating good, believable characters and then finding ways to tie these characters together and the animators have done a great job carrying this through into the anime. And if new opening/closing animation is to be believed, we’re in store for another big shack-up among the characters. Another strong point of the show is how the show can be riveting and full of tension without having to resort to cheap tricks and creating bad guys that need defeated. Occasionally, there are people who show up and feel like they should be considered bad guys but so far almost every character like that has been given the chance to redeem themselves. (Azuma is a good example and the spoiled, rich baseball manager is an example in progress.) The only two that haven’t still have time and I won’t be surprised if they see the error of their ways.

And you don’t need to like baseball to enjoy this anime, my younger sister only has a rough understanding of the game and zero interest in it but this is one of her favorite currently airing anime.

4 - Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Season 3

SZS reminds you to troll or be trolled.

Conventional wisdom states that Goodbye, Mr. Despair is either – not funny, too cultural for English speakers to find funny, or that the only decent season was the first season and from there it went down hill rapidly. I disagree with all three; I think that the majority of the comedy is gettable by even a newbie anime fan (if you like the type of comedy present in the show – which is a different matter all-together) and that the second season was the best season so far.

The difference between the second and third season almost wholly stems from Shaft being overtaxed doing this series and Bakemonogatari. The result was while the material of the show held up well to the second season, the animation looked very poor compared to the second season. I normally hate to dock a show for items not related to the actual content of the show but SZS is different, in that, the presentation of the show became a very important part of the show. I still haven’t seen the final two episodes of the series but I’m pretty sure Shaft has left the door open to make more and I think they should because when the world runs out of things to despair over, it’ll be the day the world ends.

3 - Taishou Yakyuu Musume

Real pitchers use the knuckleball.

On one hand, I’m surprised that Taishou Yakyuu Musume ended up this high but on the other hand, I wish I could have ranked it higher. This type of show normally doesn’t garner much praise – that goes to shows like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 or East of Eden or Bakemonogatari so I might have chickened out and put it lower. What stopped me is that of all the summer series I finished this is the only one I’m already re-watching and loving every second of. If anything, I’m enjoying this show more the second time.

The show featured a theme I love to see – the underdog vs. the world. I loved it in Rocky, Karate Kid, Major League (am I showing my age yet??) and I loved it here. I deeply wanted to see the boys put in their place and have to acknowledge the girls as equals which ensured that I’d tune in every week to see what happens next. Taishou Yakyuu Musume also showed how the girls had to work hard to get to level of being able to challenge the boys which is another thing I like to see – hard work paying off. (Not saying they beat the boys because I’m not going to spoil the ending here.) At the same time though, the show was never boring or overly sports anime-esque; it was perpetually entertaining and light-hearted and slice-of-lifeish that I wished it had run 26 episodes. I don’t expect this show to be totally historically accurate but I also liked how the show was set in 1925 and they spent a little time showcasing how in this era the people where really caught between the old customs and the western influences that where invading all aspects of the country and culture; for example, some of the girls wore kimonos to school and others where wearing the new thing – sailor uniforms. So for all that, Taishou Yakyuu Musume earns it’s number 3 spot in the top anime of the season.

2 - Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

With the overlap of the original series finished by the start of this season’s episodes, Full Metal Alchemist had no reason not to shine and has easily proved that remaking the series was the right decision. That part of me that has never stopped believing that shounen shows are the most awesome thing in the world is a very happy camper right now and even the slice-of-life part of me has to grudgingly agree that this show deserves it’s high position.

Watching the show and seeing it’s fights, revelations, twists, and reveals leave me on the edge of my seat and forgetting to breathe until the credits start to roll.

1 - Bakemonogatari

Like I said earlier, picking Bakemonogatari was a fairly easy choice for me. It had the characters, the witty dialogue, the story, the animation, the OP/ED, and it had the single best episode of the season (episode 12). Thankfully, this gem was picked up by much of the anime fan community so I don’t need to go into a long rant as to why this deserves the spot. So, I’ll end it here saying that Shaft better put together a second season quickly – I’m not going to patiently wait 3 years.

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Well, it’s finally done. Now I can fully get to the fall season which I’ve sampled a few shows so far but will get to a full recon now. A couple of the shows, Kampfer and Nyon Koi, have left me really torn about how I should feel about them so they’ll need a couple more episodes before I can write their impression posts. Then there’s Natsu no Arashi season 2, it seems that Shaft has kicked the show up a notch over the first two episodes and that will make it one of the stronger shows this season – I’m sure.

I feel bad that I didn't give Sora no Manimani any awards so this is it's consolation prize.

I’ve never seriously thought of making The Null Set a team blog mainly because doing so, I think, would lessen the personal drive towards becoming a better writer. However, I do wonder sometimes how it would look but until now, there’s been no real why to see. What’s changed is that Janette over at Borderline Hikkomori decided to do a summer seasonal review using the same format as I have here. Which is really cool by itself, but by using the same structure, one could mentally splice the two features together and imagine what a combined piece would look like. The result is very interesting so maybe there’s something to the idea of a team blog.

Enough rambling, let’s head to the next batch of awards.

Best Action

Winner: Phantom ~ Requiem of Phantom ~

Runner-up: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

My dislike of the ending of Phantom won’t get in way of praising it for what it did right which includes it’s action scenes. The show wasn’t overloaded with action scenes; instead, it balanced the quality action scenes with building the plot and characters – never allowing one to overrun the show.

Best Fight

Winner: Mustang vs. Lust from Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Easiest. Decision. This. Season. This fight alone made redoing the series worth it.

Best Comedy

Winner: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S. 3

Runner-up: Taishou Yakyuu Musume

I initially feared that the drop in animation quality (thanks to Shaft doing Bakemonogatari as well) would translate to a weak season of Despair but I wrong. There’s still plenty of laughs to be had as the world continues to serve up things to despair over. And it’s the perfect vehicle to allow Shaft to be Shaft.

Most Entertaining

Winner: Taishou Yakyuu Musume

Another easy pick. If I had to pick one word to describe Taishou Yakyuu Musume it would be “entertaining” because no matter what was going on, the show always left a smile on my face and a feeling of warmth in my heart.

Most Interesting Setting

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

A world where alchemy actually works opens up so many possibilities – both good and bad – and Full Metal Alchemist has done a very good job is showing both. This is further augmented by the addition of different lands (that I don’t remember the first iteration talking about) and different alchemy traditions.

Best Plot

Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Runner-up: Phantom ~ Requiem of Phantom ~

During the spring season, watching Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood felt weird and largely boring because I was familiar with the original series and the compressed storytelling glossed over many of the parts I liked. I knew we’d get to new material but it was still surprising how quickly the show went from ho-hum to awesome. It seems like every episode this season has been chalk full of shocking revelations and unexpected twists which leaves me on the edge-of-my-seat and wanting more.

Best Story

Winner: Aoi Hana

Runner-up: Taishou Yakyuu Musume

I read the review that ANN posted for Aoi Hana and I was liking it until the reviewer started talking about the character’s selfhoods and their sexuality because, while I’m sure the reviewer meant well, I think when the reviewer focuses on issues like that – people will not give the show it’s full due. Chances are the readers will come away with the idea that Aoi Hana is a good show within the yuri genre, much like someone might say that Cross Game’s Aoba is a good baseball player, for a girl. So I wanted to say that Aoi Hana has a great story (period) featuring great characters that feel like real people with real problems (period) and is another example of how few studios can match J.C. Staff when it’s working to it’s full potential (period).

Best Villain

Winner: Sedna from Umi Monogatari

Going into Umi Monogatari, I had no reason to expect anything from the title, it was based on a line of pachinko machines afterall. And it was this lack of preconceived notions that allowed me to enjoy the show for what it did have to offer. So now that I’m mentioning it in places like this, I worry that I’ve poisoned the well for potential viewers because now these viewers will be watching the show and expect it to perform like a Bakemonogatari or Tokyo Magnitude 8.0.

It’s not that type of show, so even though I love Sedna as a villain – if one goes looking for the next Demon King (from last season’s winner, Sengoku Basara), they will be disappointed.

Most in Need of a Sequel

Winner: Bakemonogatari

Runner-up: Spice and Wolf

Both shows need a sequel as quickly as possible. The only thing that comforts me about Bakemonogatari is that Shaft seems to know that striking while the iron’s hot is a good idea. In the case of Spice and Wolf, the company that did this season of it, Brain’s Base, doesn’t do many series and they’re also doing Natsume Yuujinchou and I’m worried one will interfere with the other which would be horrible since both are fabulous shows.

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

What a difference a year makes; last summer I was watching only a handful of shows and thought only a couple were truly great shows – this year there’s so many watchable shows that I’m considering dropping at least a couple B-level titles to free up needed time. I don’t think it’s too early to proclaim this as the best summer season of anime in recent years and there’s a good chance that when it’s over and we look back at it – this could be a golden season like Spring 2006 was.

Below, I collected links to my earlier written impression posts that cover each of the new summer shows that I watched. These were written over the span of many weeks since some shows were easier then others when determining quality and how likely a show could maintain a certain level of quality. I’ve taken this opportunity to rank them by the average score that they earned at the time of the impression post because it provides a quick-n-dirty way to rank the many new shows.

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As you can see, a pretty strong season of new shows and I’d be happy if it was just these shows but there’s also several shows continuing from previous seasons as well that are great as well. So, to get the full picture of how good this season, I want to talk about them before further covering the new shows.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood: The first dozen or so episodes of this redo of the Full Metal series condensed 30+ episodes of the first incarnation and as a result it lacked the narrative punch of the first series. Once over that hurdle, the show shifted to new material and I was quickly reminded how good this show can be. The world was expanded – hinting at very interesting future plot points, new characters where introduced, and existing characters where given an awesomeness injection. The results have been spectacular; Episode 19 contains a fight that easily makes my top 5 anime fights of all time and was so good that I seriously had to remember to take a breathe when it was over because I hadn’t in awhile. Then I was worried that I’d be let down but episode 20 came right back with it’s own shocking revelations showing that this series has plenty of curve balls left to throw it’s viewers.

Kemono no Souja Erin: I’ve recently posted how I’ve finally caught up with this series and the few episodes I’ve watched since then just continue to prove to me that this is a great show. Recently the show has been very character driven with the plot fading into the background which has been okay since this show has good characters. I do think the show is getting ready to swing back towards advancing the plot because in the latest subbed episode, episode 30, another time skip occurred and now Erin is 18. Definitely old enough and with enough experience to the save the kingdom like I think she’ll have too (I like that they’ve worked at making Erin a believable hero).

Cross Game: Cross Game continues to chug along, offering it’s viewers the same level of goodness that we’ve grown to love. This season has seen some characters leave unexpectantly, new characters get introduced, and existing characters develop in surprising ways. Something that I’ve really grown to like about this series is how most of the characters that seem to be the “evil” characters of the series are given a chance to rehabilitate their image (at least the non-adults are).

Hayate the Combat Butler, Season 2: This summer J.C. Staff has really hit it’s stride with Hayate. They’re still focusing on advancing the story of the series but the humor level has increased steadily and I’m finding it as funny as the first season. I wish this was going to run ~52 episodes like the first season and not end at 26 episodes, especially since J.C. Staff is proving that they can do 3 shows at once. I’ll guess I’ll have to console myself with saying that J.C. Staff likes to do sequels so maybe a third season will be coming around soon.

Haruhi, Season 1.5: My thoughts about Haruhi would run a full post so I’ll just include a couple. The first is that from the beginning, I’ve refused to call this season 2 and now that we see how the extended episode count was used – it really does feel like a fleshed out first season. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a true season 2 announcement within a month or two. Also, I do think that the fans put Kodakawa and KyoAni in a bind because whatever they did, the fan’s expectations about Haruhi would not be met and much wailing and grinding of teeth would happen.

Phantom ~Requiem of Phantom~: One last huge plot twist means, even after amazing me for 18 episodes with great plot and character development, the show still hasn’t peaked and that the ending promises to be amazing. There has been one immediate side-effect of watching this show; namely, for being so accomplished at creating a realistic feeling plot even with fantastical elements (super-powered assassins) it makes CANAAN’s storyline and it’s attempt at being serious seem laughably fake.

Tears to Tiara: Yes I ended up continuing to watch this show. While I wouldn’t call this a top-tier show, it’s a solid second-tier show. It’s well animated with pretty decent fight scenes and has a touch of humor to itself. I haven’t really gotten wrapped up into the show’s story so how the good guys will prevail isn’t a big concern to me but there’s still plenty to like about Tears to Tiara to keep watching.

Hetalia – Axis Powers: The second season picked right up where the first season stopped. I really wish it was more consistently funny but there’s enough to love about this show to keep watching.

Further Thoughts on the New Shows

It used to be, I’d be happy if J.C. Staff could turn out something decent since they were so hit-n-miss with their shows – even within a show (I still can’t reconcile how bad the first half of Shana 2 was with how awesome the second half of Shana 2 was). Recently they’ve done superb work with Toradora and Hatsukoi Limited and promising work with Hayate, so when summer season rolled around – I was cautiously optimistic about their two new shows Aoi Hana and Taishou Yakyuu Musume and sitting at the halfway point I’m really glad that both turned out to be hits. Aoi Hana is a love story done right; it doesn’t take the easy way out by throwing in a bunch fan service or by making things absurdly dramatic – instead, there’s a realism about the characters and how they drive the story forward that is refreshing and enjoyable. Of course the gorgeous animation, great music and voice work along with all the attention to detail only enhances the experience. Taishou Yakyuu Musume has done a very good job of separating itself from the other currently running and recent slice-of-school-life shows. The setting, 1920’s Japan, is helpful in this regard and does make for an interesting twist on things. Also, the focus on the characters having a goal and having to actually work towards it provides all the structure and drive to continue watching. I still don’t see how they can beat that boy’s baseball team but hopefully by the end, they’ll be able to do it.

Another huge question mark about this season was how Shaft would be able to do Bakemonogatari and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S. 3 at same time. I’d like to say that Shaft was able to flawlessly execute both shows but that would be stretching the truth. I’m currently re-rewatching season 1 of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and being able to compare the two seasons crystallize my observations on the new third season. Namely, the humor and comedic situations have held up well but the art work has definitely suffered this season. It still does it’s job but it feels like what you’d get when an a third party was asked to ape a particular style. Which is probably the case since Bakemonogatari definitely displays the artistic creativity that you’d expect from the Shaft/Shinbo team. Bakemonogatari also is chalk full of witty dialogue and unexpected plot developments – it really is a good match for Shaft/Shinbo’s talents.It always seems to be able to keep the viewers hungry for more, like the recent week where there was no episode, it was a killer wait to get to see the next episode.

A couple of shows (Sora no Manimani and Umi Monogatari) are performing better then I thought they would. I know I gave both relatively high marks initially but I also thought my liking of these series would wane as I watched more episodes. That’s not the case, however. Sora no Manimani has been able to use the astronomy angle to fullest effect, overcoming it’s very poor animation (though it has very good night sky animation) and somewhat clichéd characters/school situations to be an enjoyable series to watch. The informational tidbits about astronomy have also been interesting. In the one example, they explain how to take pictures of stars with just a normal camera and it’s so easy I want to try. For Umi Monogatari; a combination of animation style, some very nice background music tracks, and characters ranging from watchable to scene-stealing has gotten me to like it. That’s not to say it’s a smashing success, the plot feels very generic, even for someone who is not a fan of the magic girl genre and thusly doesn’t which shows have used this type of plot before. There are little touches to the plot that I do like. In a recent episode, the one human character needed to find a family heirloom that has magical powers because it would allow her to breathe underwater. She eventually finds it – the mom had been using it to make their pickles taste better.

I find it funny that as soon as I started to like the characters in Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, the story would start to threaten my enjoyment of the series. In episode 5, the brother and sister main characters finally stopped being annoying and I was set to like the rest of the series when the next two episodes pushed the story’s shortcomings forward. The one focused on the woman that’s been helping the young brother and sister since the earthquake. She’s been very admirable so far but she turns down the opportunity to quickly check to see if her own child is okay to stay with the brother and sister. (Heck, she could have driven to where the brother and sister live and see if their parents are okay.) I would call her a very bad parent in real life but since this is an anime, this really felt like a not-so-subtle way to extend the episode count of the series. The other episode was a fairly cute episode featuring robots that were helping in finding survivors trapped in the rubble but again, it felt like the series is trying to extend it’s episode count by using another careless parent. In this case the robot nerd’s parents didn’t see the danger of their child running around a bunch of building that are tittering on the verge of collapse. (This episode also kinda felt like a 25 minute commercial created for a company that makes robots.)

And I can’t forget about Spice and Wolf 2, which proves that anything can be made interesting if done the right way. I’m not much of an economist or merchant; the closest I got was after a college economics class that I aced even with a super hard professor – I received a hand signed letter from the dean of the economics program saying that I should consider changing my major to economics. In the end I didn’t because I thought it would be too dull but maybe I was wrong, though there’d be very little chance of a pagan wolf goddess accompanying me while I worked. I can now concur with the general consensus that this season has improved over the first season since I’m now almost done watching the first season but I still don’t understand how so many said the first season was boring.

Dropped Shows

This time there’s not a huge list of dropped shows. The only for sure one at this point is Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! (of which I won’t speak of any more). Needless and Kanamemo are on the borderline right now. I have no real desire to watch any more episodes of either (I’ve seen 7 and 6 episodes, respectively) which is normally the point at which I drop a show but it’s not official yet. The only other show that has the chance of being dropped is CANAAN, though that’s very unlikely. There are some very genuine reasons to continue watching this series which will probably get me to continue watching to the end. At the same time, CANAAN’s attempt at being a serious show has so laughably failed that I wish I hadn’t started watching it in the first place.

Conclusion

Looking over this 2300+ word post I realized there’s a facet to being an anime fan that reminds me of being a science fiction fan. Namely, there’s serious grumblings within the last couple of years about the long-term health of the anime industry, with more then a few voices talking about the death of anime. This type of talk has surrounding print SF for the last couple of decades. People would try to get you to believe that soon, maybe only a few years from now, there’ll be no more science fiction. In both circumstances if one just looks at what’s being done – it certainly doesn’t feel like they’re about to die. There’s still too much vibrancy in both to feel like they’re dieing anytime soon.

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For reference, this was my preview for this season – it’s interesting to compare the two.