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

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

Percentage of Shows Watched

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Excellent Shows and Strong Seasons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in anime, anime rants/views

A slowly increasing pile of shows awaiting their series review has been on my mind lately. I’m tempted to brush them under the carpet since I could rightly reason that hardily anyone will care (and click on) what I thought of Toradora or the third season of Minami-ke or Rideback at this late date and my time could be better spent on other, more relevant posts. However, I remember that I enjoy when other bloggers review non-current series and remind me of past experiences – just the other day, I got the warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia when I read someone’s review of Dennou Coil. And since I’d like to think that I’m not an extreme oddity, I figure other people think the same way.

So, here’s my review of J.C. Staff’s Toradora and hopefully I’ll be following this up with other reviews.

Final Series Score: 11/12 A+
Rewatchablity: 3/5 – Average – Medium; The characters will ensure it will be rewatched but nothing really stands out as needing an immediate rewatch.
Ending: 3/5 – Good; Pacing problems rob the ending of some of it’s goodness but it still satisfies
Animation: 4/5 – Excellent; J.C. Staff does not disappoint in this department, while it may lack the latest bells and whistles, Toradora is animated quite well and is also pretty to look at
Pros: Characters are non-cliched, likeable, and given much depth from the superbly done character development, story is well-plotted out and always remains relevant, great voice work, J.C. Staff shows that it’s possible to create magic even with a show that should feel generic and cliched
Cons: The flow of the second half feels like too much material was stuffed in the given episode count

Awards given to this show by this blog

• #3 Top Overall Anime of 2008
• Best Male Main Character of 2008 for Ryuuji
• Best Female Supporting Character of 2008 for Minorin
• Runner-up Best Female Supporting Character of 2008 for Ami
• Best Cast of Characters of 2008
• Best Character Development for Cast in 2008
• Best Female Seiyuu Performance of 2008 by Rie Kugimiya as Taiga
• Runner-up Best Seiyuu Cast of 2008
• #5 Top Anime of Winter Season 2009
• Best Supporting Character of Winter 2009 for Ami
• Runner-up Best Couple of Winter 2009
• Best Character Development of a Single Character of Winter 2009 for Taiga
• Best Fight of Winter 2009 for Episode 21

Story

Ryuuji is your standard male high school student with an extreme neat freak streak and a mom that works as a hostess at a upscale club that caters to the likes of the yakuza. He’s also a very nice guy but everyone is scared of him because he received his unknown yakuza father’s facial features so he looks like a dangerous juvenile. On the first day of school he meets Taiga, a girl rightly feared by almost everyone because of her explosive temper. Taiga is fearsome but she also has someone she likes – Ryuuji’s friend – and it turns out Ryuuji also has some he likes – Taiga’s friend. A plan is hatched by the two but sometimes even the best laid plans go awry.

Thoughts and impressions

When I think about Toradora I split the show into halves, the first 13 episodes and the final 12 episodes. I do this because the show’s plot structure feels like it was conceived to run as two separate blocks as more and more shows today are but in-the-end they ran together. This is why, even though it ran during the fall 2008 and winter 2009 seasons, it was able to earn so many awards in my 2008 yearly awards. (And FYI, for space considerations and because the yearly awards is a bigger award then seasonal awards, I didn’t include the Fall 2008 seasonal awards.)

This split also helps me explain my feelings for this show. I’m convinced that if this show had run another 13 episodes (for a total of 37 episodes) I would be writing right now that Toradora was the best thing J.C. Staff has ever done, even better than Honey and Clover and Azumanga Daioh. Instead, I’ll say that the first half of Toradora displays J.C. Staff at it’s absolute best – a level few studios can match – and the second half is still a very great show but the storytelling felt constrained due to time and it just couldn’t match the first half.

So what makes this show so good?

To answer my own question, it’s the characters and how well the story naturally unfolded, with it’s emphasis towards character development and finding ways to take even well-used plot devices and making them feel new again.

And I don’t want to gloss over that fact since I know there where many people who didn’t initially watch this show because it looked like every other school-based relationship type anime with all the cliches and plot tropes that we all know and love (or hate). Yes, it had a tsundere, a hyper-energetic girl, a spoiled rich brat (or two); yes, it had a beach episode, a Christmas episode, and a valentine’s day episode. That’s not what’s important, what is important is how well the show is executed and how content it was to stick with the stock scenes and characters. Toradora definitely worked at infusing vibrancy and newness to even the most basic and well-used parts of the show.

An example of this is the main character Taiga, voiced by Rie Kugimiya – well known for voicing short tsunderes like Nagi from Hayate, Shana from Shakugan no Shana, Zero from Zero’s Familiar, etc. Taiga is another short tsundere so most people, even myself, figured we had Taiga’s character pegged before the season started but we were wrong. Taiga’s emotions came off as being genuine, her harshness came from her frustration at always being around people who didn’t understand her and her syrupy lovey-doveyness came from finally finding some happiness; as a result, she was able to transcend her character type and became an engaging, real person. Nor should it be forgotten that this would have not been possible if the story didn’t allow her to display how she was different or allow her character to grow and become a better person. It’s like two sides of a single coin – good characters make the story better and a good story helps make the characters more interesting.

Another thing that I liked about this show was how the storytelling wasn’t just about a single character but all five major characters. Not only did this allow for great character development of many characters but it also allowed for better storytelling. We don’t get the contrived stretching of the story to fill space we see in harem style shows nor do we have to suspend belief over characters that conveniently can’t make up their minds for episodes and episodes on end.

So, in conclusion, I would highly recommend Toradora to anyone looking for a character driven show that knows when to be funny, when to be serious, when to be contemplative, and when to be silly.

Essential Information

• 25 episodes
• genre: drama, romantic comedy
• animation studio: J.C. Staff
• director: Tatsuyuki Nagai
• OP: “Pre-Parade” by Rie Kugimiya, Eri Kitamura, and Yui Horie, “silky heart” by Yui Horie
• ED: “Vanilla Salt” by Yui Horie, “Orange” by Rie Kugimiya, Eri Kitamura and Yui Horie
• Seiyuus of note: Junji Majima, Rie Kugimiya, Yui Horie, Eri Kitamura, Hirofumi Nojima, Sayaka Ohara

Posted in anime, series review

You probably didn’t know today is “Christmas in February” because it’s a holiday my family made up 11 years ago.

It started when we decided to have a Christmas-style dinner and serve up the rest of the Christmas cookies that were left over from Christmas and had been sitting in the freezer. As things normally go, we slowly increased what we did for Christmas in February - we got a small 2 foot artificial tree and started decorating it then my parents started buying a small, inexpensive gift for us all. Last year, my mom found a cute artificial 5 ft tree so the little tree got replaced with a bigger one and the $5 dollar gifts have now gotten to be $15 dollar gifts.

One of the nice things about Christmas in February is that we get to pick when in February we want to celebrate it - this year, it’s the last Sunday of the month but next year might be the second Tuesday of the month. Another nice thing is that it gives the dreary month of February a holiday that’s fun. Also, since it’s not the official Christmas, it has all the nice parts of the holiday without any of the stress.

And some more Christmas themed anime pictures:

Posted in anime, general anime interst, other news

I’m sorry for the relatively short weekly review, I’m not really feeling up to writing right now. I’m not about to quit my blog or anything like that, I had a death in the family. Since my weekly anime review is weekly, I still wanted to write it but this will probably be the only thing I write for a few days.

The scores:

Birdy the Mighty Decode 2, episode 4 – 12+/12

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, episode 5 – 12+/12
Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, episode 6 – 12+/12

Hetalia Axis Powers, episode 3 – 10/12 A

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 15 – 12/12

Rideback, episode 4 – 12++/12
Rideback, episode 5 – 12/12

Minami-Ke: Okaeri, episode 6 – 10/12 A

Sora o Kakeru Shoujo, episode 6 – 10/12 A

Toradora!, episode 19 – 12+++/12

Clannad S.2, episode 18 – 12+++/12

Munto TV, episode 4 – 10/12 A

Maria+Holic, episode 6 – 12/12

Asu no Yoichi, episode 6 – 10/12 A

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 19 – 11/12 A+

Kemono no Soja Erin, episode 2 – 8/12 B+

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Rideback – Hello!! This show just got very interesting.

Down – Minami-Ke: Okaeri – I’ve noticed a slow downward spiral after the first couple of episodes, nothing major yet but it’s starting to get troublesome.

Thoughts and Highlights

I’ve been thinking about Rideback a bunch since watching episodes 4 and 5. Up to the start of episode 4, it felt like it could be a somewhat conventional sports anime. We would see the former ballerina learn through Rideback racing how to recapture what she lost from the injury that made her quit. Sure it took place in a world where a shadowy organization runs the world but that fact didn’t seem to really intrude much on normal society. What happens in episode 4 is sudden, jarring, and shatters what the show is and when we put the pieces back together – it’s a totally different show now. I think this was done on purpose by the creators; they wanted to show how a single event can change the entire direction of a person’s life. I’m really excited to see where the rest of the series goes now.

Once again, when I’m trying to decide what was the best episode of the week, I have to make a tough choice between Toradora and Clannad. Both where absolutely marvelous and the more I think about it, the harder it is to pick one so I’m going to call it a tie. With Toradora, I knew to expect disappointments for Ryuuji and Taiga because the teacher kept saying that they will be rewarded for all their effort in making the Christmas party a success and I was mostly right. Ryuuji obviously didn’t get the ending he was hoping for with Minorin but Taiga definitely got a better Christmas then she was hoping for. I wonder if Taiga is now going to pursue Ryuuji or will she realize her friendship with Minorin is the reason for Minorin’s rejection and feel guilty. On the flip side, the episode of Clannad was a much more positive one – though just as emotional. We learned that Tomoya’s hate for his Dad lead him to forget all the good things his father did for Tomoya while growing up and that Tomoya’s been a worse dad then his father. This realization by Tomoya, along with Ushio’s innate cuteness, allowed Tomoya’s heart to be mended and has given him the strength to forgive his father, act as Ushio’s father and allowed him to remember his relationship with Nagisa in a good way. The scene at the end where he’s talking to Ushio about Nagisa was so incredibly touching and heartfelt.

This week’s episode of Maria+holic was the best so far and little surprise – it happened to be the most air time that Maria has gotten so far. The addition of Maria’s sister adds a very interesting dynamic to the show. The main character has been wishing that Maria was an actual girl and now that possibility is a reality. It finally felt like the show was reaching it’s potential; I hope Maria+holic can continue at this leavel.

And finally, some thoughts in short:

• Birdy and Natsume continue to impress
• Index continues to talk to much, flub it’s potential, and remain mildly interesting
• Munto leaves me feeling good but wishing it would explain itself better
• Hetalia has it’s most coherent and best episode so far – I’m still waiting to see something that’s actually offensive.

Posted in anime, weekly anime review

There goes that New Year’s resolution for The Null Set – no more missing a week and having to do a biweekly anime review. On the plus side, I should have plenty to talk about.

As a total aside, as I’m typing this up I wonder if other people have specific music they listen to when they have to write. For myself, I’m listening to a 44 track playlist of my favorite Weird Al Yankovic songs right now – I found that I write faster and better when I’m listening to him.

The scores:
Munto TV, episode 2 – 10/12 A
Munto TV, episode 3 – 10/12 A

Soul Eater, episode 41 – 12/12
Soul Eater, episode 42 – 10/12 A
Soul Eater, episode 43 – 11/12 A+

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 16 – 12/12
To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 17 – 10/12 A
To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 18 – 11/12 A+

Chrome Shelled Regios, episode 3 – 8/12 B+
Chrome Shelled Regios, episode 4 – 9/12 A-
Chrome Shelled Regios, episode 5 – 9/12 A-

Birdy the Mighty Decode 2, episode 2 – 12+/12
Birdy the Mighty Decode 2, episode 3 – 12+/12

Rideback, episode 3 – 11/12 A+

Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 25 – 11/12 A+
Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 26 – 12+/12 (end)

Minami-Ke: Okaeri, episode 4 – 11/12 A+
Minami-Ke: Okaeri, episode 5 – 11/12 A+

Maria+Holic, episode 4 – 9/12 A-
Maria+Holic, episode 5 – 11/12 A+

Asu no Yoichi, episode 4 – 11/12 A+
Asu no Yoichi, episode 5 – 10/12 A

Sora o Kakeru Shoujo, episode 3 – 10/12 A
Sora o Kakeru Shoujo, episode 4 – 10/12 A
Sora o Kakeru Shoujo, episode 5 – 9/12 A-

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 14 – 12/12

Clannad S.2, episode 16 – 12+++/12
Clannad S.2, episode 17 – 12++/12

Toradora!, episode 17 – 12+/12
Toradora!, episode 18 – 12++/12

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, episode 4 – 12+/12

Shikabane Hime: Kuro, episode 3 – 10/12 A

(previously reviewed)

Hetalia Axis Powers, episode 1 – 10/12 A
Hetalia Axis Powers, episode 2 – 10/12 A
A Tale of Genji, episode 1 – 10/12 A
Kemono no Soja Erin, episode 1 – 9/12 A-
Kemono no Soja Erin, episode 2 – 9/12 A-

Which shows have momentum this week
Up – Birdy the Mighty Decode 2 – The second season of Birdy received a big level-up
Down – none

Thoughts and Highlights

I just mentioned Birdy the Mighty Decode 2 in my winter impressions meta post but I didn’t really go into details because I knew I would talk about the show here as well. I complained in my review of the first season that the ending was a cop out because it allowed a complete reboot for the second season. Turns out I was wrong. The story logically picks up where the first season ends and even the new characters of the second season were impacted by the events of the first season. Also praiseworthy is how the show doesn’t reset the world, all the buildings that where destroyed in the first season are still destroyed. The characters, especially Birdy and Senekawa, come off as more realistic this season and much more likable. And speaking of realistic or maybe a better word is unflinching, the action scenes have been really good and haven’t shied away from showing blood. In episode 4, we watch one character rip the arms off an alien disguised as a human kid who was connected with the group that killed his father. All without any sort of censoring. It wasn’t gratuitous because it fit the circumstances but I can’t imagine seeing a similar scene done on American TV.

The best episode of the biweekly period came from Clannad Season 2, episode 16. The dastardly duo of Key and Kyoto Animation, bent on world domination, strike again with quite possibly the saddest episode of anime I’ve ever seen. I’ve been trying to prepare myself since early in the first season when I accidentally read some spoils but it didn’t help and probably made it worse. The scary thing that I realized as I watched this scene is that Kyoto Animation is still improving it’s ability to turn the viewers into weeping lumps of blubber. Of special note was Yuuichi Nakamura for his vocal work as Tomoya. He really sounded like someone very important to him was dying in front of him. The only consolation I took from this episode is that the show probably won’t get any sadder.

Not nearly as sad but still motoring along at it’s own epic pace is Toradora!. At some point this show should stop surprising me but even after 18 episodes, it still amazes me. For example, we had plenty of signs that pointed to an eventual Minorin emotional meltdown beforehand but it’s still unsettling to see Minorin fall apart like she is. Also a surprise was Taiga’s love of Christmas and how positively infectious it is. It gets me in the correct state of mind for my family’s “Christmas in February” celebration coming up. I also like how some of the bit characters are getting some air time finally; it probably only makes sense as Taiga and Ryuuji have become accepted by their classmates as normal people and not as scary monsters.

Going back to Clannad Season 2, episode 17. Kyoto Animation is really good at details and slipping stuff in the show without us realizing it. It’s pretty obvious that Tomoya hasn’t been feeling up to keeping the apartment clean but the most telling evidence of his long-term mental state is the 3 flower pots on the back porch. They where something that Nagisa added to the apartment when she moved in. In episode 17 I was surprised to see they were still there 5 years later but then I realized all they contained was long dead remnants of some type of flower, probably from the flowers that Nagisa planted. On a lighter note, Ushio is just about the cutest person I’ve seen in anime. I’m positive that she’ll fix Tomoya because he’s still not a bad person like his dad but needs to realize that he disrespects Nagisa and her wishes by thinking that he should never have met her. And the way KyoAni ended this episode revealed to us that we’ve been looking at Ushio at the beginning of the ending this whole time and not Nagisa like everyone thought.

And now for some shorter thoughts:

• When I try to objectively look at Munto TV, I can’t help but pick it apart. For example, to much stuff is being crammed into the show and it’s not making a lot of sense. This is being balanced so far by how the show makes me feel. I hope as the show gets further along, the storytelling aspect improves.
• I realized while watching this group of episodes from To Aru Majutsu no Index that there’s totally going to be a second season. And as the show gets further, I start asking myself even more, why is Index even in this show and why did he have to lose is memory. I don’t see the point one way or the other.
• On second seasons – so far with Rideback, it’s being paced awful slow for just a 13 episode show – I wonder if they’re planning on doing a second season.
• I have to thank Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, episode 4. I watched it right after watching Clannad 16 and it’s combination of a super-cute spirit and happy ending made me feel better.
• The fanservice continues with Shikabane Hime: Kuro but at least the story is improving.
• And finally, I was a bit disappointed with the ending of Xam’D: Lost Memories; it was very good but I couldn’t help but think they could have done better. I hope I won’t be saying the same thing about Soul Eater. I know it’s tough to figure out an ending for a show that continues like Soul Eater without violating the continuity of the source material but it should be possible.

Posted in anime, weekly anime review

We’re finally here, the last part of my reflection on the best anime of 2008 – the top 5 anime. If you’ve looked at the other parts then this list probably won’t be much of a shock so let’s not waste anymore time and get to the list.

5 Ga-rei: Zero

The show I called the second most surprising show of the fall season starts this half of the countdown.

I like to see animators willing to take chances with a series because that means creativity isn’t dead. The creators of Ga-rei: Zero could have just done a straight adaptation of the Ga-Rei source material; instead, they decided to create a prequel that would fill in the scant information given in the manga and explain how things got the way they did. Since this would involve a lot of character development and not action, they had to make sure to hook action-philes that might grow bored of the character development and they came up with a doozie. It was probably the best first episode hook since Haruhi and left me completely mystified and wanting to know more.

Overall the show kinda felt like watching the Star Wars prequels because you knew what was going to happen but Ga-Rei: Zero differed in that this show was actually good. I loved the character development, the animation was very well done, top-notch seiyuu work, action scenes where well done and cool weapons. All that and the animators gutsy-ness propelled this show to #5.

4 Bamboo Blade

I absolutely loved Kamina’s voice - Katsuyuki Konishi - and after Gurren Lagann, I wanted to hear more so when I saw that Bamboo Blade was going to feature him as the kendo teacher, I had to watch. After enjoying a few episodes of listening to Kamina’s voice I realized that I actually liked the show itself. It wasn’t a kendo sports show but a show about a group of characters that happened to all belong to the school’s kendo club.

In a lot of ways it’s similar to Wagaya no Oinari-sama. It let the characters drive where the story went, it blended a bit of comedy and drama into itself, and it never tried to be overly complex or forget to be entertaining. Where this show had an edge over Wagaya no Oinari-sama was the kendo actions scenes were suspenseful and generally very well done. I was really sad to see this show end and I hope when there’s enough source material to do a second season that a second season is made.

3 Toradora

I just adore Toradora.

Last year I mentioned that I could believe if someone told me that Gainax sold their souls to the devil in return for Gurren Lagann because it didn’t seem possible that Gainax could do something that great anymore. This year, I could almost believe that J.C. Staff sold their souls over Toradora because they haven’t shown this level of ability for quite a long time and their other show right now, Index, is no match for Toradora either. Is this really the same group of people that mutilated the first half of Shana 2?

I could spend 2000 words praising the different parts of this show that deserve praise like how the characters feel like real people and not clichéd character types or how they never act intentionally dumb to force the story to go in a certain direction or how well the individual episodes flow together or … you get the idea. This is one of the few shows that I think that any anime fan could watch and like a lot, even those fans that hate school-based anime shows. As an aside, I was just reading that the author plans to end the light novels series at 10 volumes so with like 6 episodes left and 7 volumes already covered, we might get a real ending to this anime series.

2 Natsume Yuujinchou

Natsume Yuujinchou, aka Natsume’s Book of Friends, was the best slice-of-life show of 2008 and definitely one of the best of all-time. Watching it felt akin to watching a world class orchestra perform – every note was struck perfectly and nothing felt out-of-place. Even when the show ran, late summer into early fall, helped contribute to giving the show a bit of a melancholic, reflective mood which I associate with good slice-of-life shows.

One aspect I thought real different about this show is that the spirits that appear are mostly very lonely creatures. If they want to harm humans, it’s often because of cruel things that humans have done in the past or because they’ve been lonely so long, they get all twisted up inside. This loneliness reminds Natsume of his own loneliness that being able to see spirits has caused in his life and this pushes Natsume to help these lonely spirits with their problems.

If the second season wasn’t already airing, I’d take this opportunity to complain about how it was only 13 episodes long but it’s running, so I’m happy right now.

1 Kaiba

No other show was discussed more on The Null Set this year then Kaiba and with good reason because it was the best show of the year. The story was definitely intellectual but at the same time it focused that on the individual characters and was able to remain compelling and entertaining. I was surprised on a couple of occasions that this show was able to get me to shed a few tears. The animation was artistic and unique but it never forgot that it needed to tell the story and impress the viewer. I remember there were several sequences that literally made my jaw drop.

I don’t know what else I can say that I already haven’t repeated several times by this point about Kaiba so I’ll just end now saying this show was awesome and one I’d really like to buy on DVD but probably will never see licensed.

Well, that’s it. I hope everyone that took the time to read this look back at the 2008 year of anime found it worthwhile. I tried my hardest to make it so. This year, I’m kinda sad that two of my favorite bloggers, Jason from Derailed by Darry and Jeff Lawson from Hop Step Jump, are taking a break from anime blogging and thus haven’t written their look back at the year. I wouldn’t want to see them forcing themselves to write when they didn’t feel like it but I do miss their writing.

Posted in anime, awards      

Last year I had a single award given to the most memorable moment of 2007. It went to episode 10 of Manabi Straight when it’s revealed that the school festival will be held. This year, I wanted to go a little further in depth to spotlight my favorite episodes and memorable moments. Since I don’t want to spoil a bunch of shows for those readers that haven’t seen them yet, I’m going to just list these without explaining why. First though, there’s a couple final awards that felt like they belonged in this part.

Best Final Episode

Winner: Natsume Yuujinchou

How do you end a slice-of-life show and still give the show a bit of closure that non-structured shows normally don’t have? You do what Natsume Yuujinchou did and bring back several of the characters from the series and reflect upon how Natsume has changed over the course of the series. It simply was perfect.

Best Ending

Winner: Bamboo Blade

The ending of Bamboo Blade was able to walk the fine line that shows based on source material that continues past the end of the anime series has. It was able to give an actual ending that tied up the plot threads introduced in the first season. As well as slipping in a few tantalizing hints at possible plot points if there is a second season without these new characters and stories interfering with the feeling of a satisfying ending.

Best Show No One Saw

Winner: Kaiba

Runner-up: Wagaya no Oinari-sama

If this award was based solely on the number of people that talked about the show then Wagaya no Oinari-sama would have won because I saw far fewer people mentioning this show. Wagaya was a good show and if the animation had looked a little better or if it had come from a more popular studio then it would been a huge hit. Kaiba did get talked about more often but I could tell that outside of the more adventurous viewers and the SF viewers, almost no one watched it. In the end, I gave Kaiba the award because they were both relatively unwatched but Kaiba was a better show.

Memorable Moments

• Ending of episode 1 of Ga-rei: Zero
• Tennis match from episode 18 of Clannad
• The play from episode 22 of Clannad
• Tomoya’s marriage proposal from episode 12 of Clannad season 2
• Iku Kasahara’s media interview from episode 12 of Library War
• Air reference from episode 11 of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
• The race from episode 13 of Toradora
• The Soul Ascension ceremony from episode 5 of Wagaya no Oinari-sama
• Sora’s first official job as a mage from episode 12 of Someday’s Dreamers Season 2

Favorite Episodes

• Episode 26 of Bamboo Blade
• Episode 3 of Kaiba
• Episode 7 of Kaiba
• Episode 52 of Hayate the Combat Butler
• Episode 2 of Natsume Yuujinchou
• Episode 7 of Natsume Yuujinchou
• Episode 9 of Ga-Rei: Zero
• Episode 2 of Toradora
• Episode 4 of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Next part of my 2008 anime year in review is the first half of my top 10 anime of 2008 and should be posted within the day.

Posted in anime, awards      

Or if I rearranged the words, the VMA Awards or the AMV Awards .

It is certainly possible for an anime show to be good or at least watchable without stellar music, voice acting, or animation; however, it does definitely help. For example, for the first half of Shana 2, the only redeeming features of the show was the well-done OP/ED, Rie Kugimiya as Shana, and the good animation. So this part celebrates those components of an anime that aren’t vital but significantly help it along.

Before I get to the awards I wanted to mention that I’ve been having computer troubles with the computer that’s connected to the internet. Between spending a day trying to fix it so it wouldn’t need a reformat, moving all the important files off so we can reformat and taking this opportunity to finally back up our digital pics onto dvd discs, I haven’t had the time to finish writing these or watch much anime. Luckily, I have an old laptop (it has a Pentium 3 chip in it ) that I can use to keep connected to the internet until it’s fixed.

Top Seiyuu “Discovered”

Winner: Marina Inoue

Yes, Marina Inoue is not a new seiyuu and I’ve liked characters she’s done in the past like Yoko from Gurren Lagann. What’s different is that before this year I never really paid attention to how well she voices her roles and recognizing when it’s her. It was the perfect match of her voice to the character of Kana in Minami-ke that really started my deeper appreciation of her work. From that point, I started to look for her roles and I continued to be impressed with how well she can match her voice with the character’s thoughts and actions.

Best Performance by a Seiyuu

Winner: Rie Kugimiya as Taiga from Toradora

Runner-up: Rikiya Koyama as Kogarashi from Maid Guy

Rie Kugimiya often will play the short tsundere with violent tendencies character in a show. It’s a combination that always will spice a show up and is one of the reasons why she’s one of my favorite voice actors. I figured before Toradora started that she really couldn’t surprise me by doing another short tsundere with violent tendencies role but it became readily apparent that I was wrong. While it’s still obviously her doing Taiga, she’s never been this good before. Some of excellence with Taiga is due to the great story but she’s definitely been a huge factor in taking a well-worn character type and making it feel authentic. When she’s tsun-tsun, her anger fits the situation and when she’s dere-dere, her love-sick attitude is realistic as opposed to when she was Louise in Zero’s Familiar where her personality was artificial and lacked vivacity.

Best Seiyuu

Male: Hiroshi Kamiya

Since no single male voice actor really stood out from the crowd this year, I decided to prepare of a list of favorite performances to see if I could find any overlapping names. Two roles on this list were Natsume from Natsume Yuujinchou and the Sensei from Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. I was surprised when I found that Hiroshi Kamiya did both roles. The pair of characters are polar opposites; one’s theatrical, loud, likes to over-react and is prone to huge emotional swings whereas the other is calm, cool under pressure, mature, and considerate of other people. The fact that I didn’t realize or even think to myself that either performance sounded familiar speaks highly of his ability. As does the way he was able to fit his performance and delivery to impeccably match the type of character he’s playing.

Female: Marina Inoue

Marina Inoue kept appearing in shows I watched and kept impressing me with her voice work this year. Often the characters that Marina Inoue voices have to have a very scary and imposing “I’m ticked off” voice in their repertoire. Marina has one of the best angry voices around. When you hear it it’s easy to understand why the other characters wither when being subjected to it. And yet when these same characters are supposed to be happy, Marina can infuse their demeanor with such boisterous happiness that it’s contagious to the viewer. What really impressed me and helped her earn this award is that, even though it’s relatively easy to recognize a Marina Inoue role, each character is distinctly different from each other. For example, Kana from Minami-ke is the sneaky middle sister but Iku Kasahara is the energetic idiot in Library War and Chiri Kitsu is the angry perfectionist in Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

Best Seiyuu Cast

Winner: Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Runner-up: Toradora

Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei inherited a large number of characters from the first season and added even more characters during it’s run. One of the things that is needed for shows with big casts like this is many distinct voices so it’s easy to pick out who’s saying what. With every additional voice used, though, the chance of duplicating a voice or picking a bad one increases. This problem didn’t plague this show though; in truth, almost every single voice used was unique and well done. I already mentioned Hiroshi Kamiya’s Mr. Despair and Marina Inoue’s character but the list goes on. Of particular note is the illegal immigrant Maria and the student that’s known as Kafuka.

Best Overall Opening

Winner: Kaiba

Runner-up: Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Tastes in music are really subjective to begin with and for me this is compounded even more in regards to anime because I don’t know Japanese. Therefore any category that relates to music is going to subjective.

Kaiba’s opening was great on many levels. It had a song that was good all by itself and it helped get the viewer ready for the show by getting them in the proper state of mind. The animation used showcased many of the characters of the series and helped reinforce some of the core concepts of the series. It was also pretty to look at, which always helps as well.

Best Overall Ending

Winner: Kaiba

Runner-up: Someday’s Dreamers Season 2

The ending got picked for essentially the same reasons that the opening got picked. I do think it’s a bit funny that the same singer of the OP/ED also did the ending to Chaos;Head and just about no one liked that song.

Best Overall Music

Winner: Kaiba

Runner-up: Clannad

If the music in the series is average then I’ll not even notice it enough to form an opinion about it. Therefore, any show that I can remember some of the background music after the fact means it’s above average. The music to both Kaiba and Clannad are used to good effect but it was only Kaiba that had music that actively wowed me while I watched it.

Best Music Soundtrack

Winner: Somedays Dreamer’s Season 2

I often don’t like anime soundtracks even to shows that I liked the music because the full versions of the songs aren’t as good as the parts used in the show. However, I found that I liked the soundtrack to Somedays Dreamer’s Season 2 better then when the pieces where used in the show. One reason why I like this soundtrack is the wide variety of instrumental music genres on it. There’s a couple Celtic songs, a blues rock one and a synth-pop track to name but a few. I also think it’s entirely possible to like this album without ever watching the anime which is another way it’s different from most albums.

Best Animation Style

Winner: Kaiba

Runner-up: Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

I think the reason most people thought Kaiba was an experimental anime was because of the odd animation style employed. It certainly does appear odd when looking at screenshots but it’s a totally different story when watching it in motion. I found that the style of the animation works very well with the story, it’s ideas and the overall tone. If the creators had decided on a more realistic or detailed animation style then I really think that it would have been an impediment to the show.

Best Animation

Winner: Kurozuka

Runner-up: Xam’d: Lost Memories

I mentioned earlier that I liked Kurozuka even though it was almost a purely action show. To successfully pull off that type of show and not rely on character development and plot, the action needs to wow us almost continuously. In anime, that also means the animation needs to impress and Madhouse’s Kurozuka impressed. It looked good, it moved good and it was artistic, detailed and imaginative.

Top Animation Studio

Winner: Madhouse

There’s no question that Madhouse deserves this award. No other animation studio had the sheer number of quality shows this year that Madhouse had. Some of there shows included Kaiba, Maid Guy, Kurozuka, Mouryou no Hako, and Chaos;Head. I’m surprised how infrequently their name comes up in the anime community when talking about great animation studios. And I hope 2009 sees more great shows from Madhouse.

Posted in anime, awards, youtube      

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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      

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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      

A very light week of anime this week for me. I pushed my watching of many of the new winter shows into the current week so I could try to finish a few lingering shows of 2008 I wanted to get too before 2009 started. I was only partially successful, Shigofumi got watched finally but I still want to get to true tears and the second season of Goodbye, Mr. Despair.

The scores:

Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 12 – 12+++/12

Earl and Fairy, episode 12 – 9/12 A- (end)

Toradora!, episode 14 – 12++/12

Clannad S.2, episode 13 – 12++/12

Soul Eater, episode 37 – 10/12 A

(previously reviewed)

Minami-Ke: Okaeri, episode 1 – 12/12

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, episode 1 – 12/12

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Toradora and Clannad – It’s almost like the two shows are trying to top each other right now (I’ll see your sensitive Ami and raise you a drunk Nagisa … ).

Down – nothing

Thoughts and Highlights

It might have been a light week of anime but what I watched was very good. Both Toradora and Clannad took a week break because of the new year and they were deeply missed. In my mind the week off acted almost exactly like a reset switch for the two shows and now that they’re back they have to reprove why their the best, especially with the new contenders of the season. I’m not saying that I’ve forgotten how good either show is but Natsume and Minami-Ke both had really good first episodes and have the potential to be the top shows of the season.

Clannad disappointed me a little because I was really hoping to see a wedding but there was plenty to enjoy from this episode – drunk Nagisa, Nagisa’s graduation ceremony, and seeing Nagisa wearing a wedding band being just three. Nagisa’s dad forcing Tomoya to work so hard before he’d listen to Tomoya’s request for Nagisa’s hand in marriage was epic and touching at the same time. I always thought asking the father before marrying the daughter was silly but seeing how much Nagisa’s parents have had to give up for her, the pain and trials of raising Nagisa, and the amount of love they have Nagisa has really made me understand the importance and the correctness of doing so. And I think I finally figured out why we keep seeing that girl and robot – the girl is connected somehow to Nagisa. I remembered the robot said that the girl goes to sleep in the winter and in this episode Nagisa comments how she always gets sick in the winter. But don’t tell me if I’m correct or wrong since I’m trying to stay spoil-free as possible.

A rumor seems to have swept the school after the last episode of Toradora – if you touch Taiga then you’ll become lucky. Hilarious hijinks ensue but once again the characters themselves are the most memorable part of the show. I loved how everyone tells Ami how she’s so mature, sophisticated, and able to get any guy she wants but when she sees Ryuuji (who she almost assuredly likes) in the supermarket and he remarks how she’s childish because all she eats is fast food. I love this scene not because I think Ami is actually childish but after the spectacular miscalculation about Taiga’s dad, it’s good to see Ryuuji back to his normal perceptive self and understanding Ami better then everyone else around her. Ami even looked happy when Ryuuji called her childish. The other really memorable scene was Minorin’s, when it appears that she realizes that she might have some sort of deeper ‘not just friends’ feelings for Ryuuji. She looked deathly scared like she was standing on a very narrow precipice over a very large abyss instead of a more expected reaction of being shocked or happy. And the thing is, if all three girls fall for Ryuuji, Ryuuji’s such a nice guy that he’ll probably feel really bad about hurting their feelings.

Best episode of the week, though, comes from Shikabane Hime: Aka. I mentioned awhile ago how being able to alter a person’s sense of time is the mark of a really good show because that means the person is so totally sucked into the show that they lose awareness of their surroundings. This episode so thoroughly did this that I was sure that it was twice as long as normal. We finally get to the part that I knew we were working up to but I was still enthralled by the exact circumstances. I really have to applaud Gainax for taking the time to do something that most shounen shows don’t bother – give us a concrete reason why one normal person is called upon to become the hero. I don’t even think I’ll mind if the second season is just Oori and Makina fighting Corpses with little additional character development; though, showing Oori and Makina having to learn to fight together will probably take some time in the next season.

Earl and Fairy ended about how I thought it would and thus I don’t really have anything to say that couldn’t wait for the series review that’ll get written hopefully soon.

And lastly, my sister and I got around to watching a new episode Soul Eater this week. Since about episode 20, Soul Eater has been excellent and I really shouldn’t worry about how it ends but now that we’re approaching the end, I’m starting to get antsy. Both Full Metal Alchemist and Eureka 7 came from Bones (like Soul Eater) and while I liked both, I didn’t really care for the endings of either – I remember thinking they got too weird. I’m awfully curious to see where this show goes. One aspect I’m particularly liking right now is how Death the Kid has started to investigate the truth around the Grim Reaper’s connection to Ebon. I’ve never thought of the Grim Reaper and his organization as being innately good (though the students appear to be good) or the witches as being innately bad. Therefore, I wonder if the Grim Reaper has a bunch of skeletons in the closet that will cause a falling out with the students if they get revealed. Also, I’m getting really curious about Maka’s mother. I don’t think she’s dead but why hasn’t Maka gone to see her even when finding out that she has a power that only her mom had. Wouldn’t it make sense to visit the one person that could give answers about a new power and how to work it?

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And just like that, the book closes on the fall season and 2008.

Back at the start of the fall season, early October, the trees where just starting to change colors and it was still possible to walk around outside in shorts. Now at the end of the season, coats are required and the faded landscape speaks of many more months of cold. Hopefully at the end of the winter anime season, the early crocuses will be blooming and we’ll finally know when the second season of Haruhi is airing.

The scores:

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 12 – 9/12 A-
To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 13 – 11/12 A+

Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 9 – 11/12 A+
Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 10 – 12/12
Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 11 – 12+/12

Kannagi, episode 12 – 10/12 A
Kannagi, episode 13 – 12/12 (end)

Chaos;Head, episode 11 – 10/12 A
Chaos;Head, episode 12 – 11/12 A+ (end)

Kurozuka, episode 11 – 12/12
Kurozuka, episode 12 – 12+/12 (end)

Ga-Rei Zero, episode 11 – 12+/12
Ga-Rei Zero, episode 12 – 12+/12 (end)

Earl and Fairy, episode 11 – 11/12 A+

Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 20 – 12/12
Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 21 – 12+/12

Toradora!, episode 13 – 12++/12

Kemeko DX, episode 12 – 10/12 A (end)

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 10 – 12/12

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

Yozakura Quartet, episode 12 – 10/12 A (end)

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Shikabane Hime: Aka – If I had to graph this show’s momentum, it would look like an exponential growth curve.

Down – Chaos;Head – Technically, since this ended, it shouldn’t be here but this show definitely lost a lot of the momentum that it had built up earlier in the series.

Thoughts and Highlights

Shikabane Hime: Aka is the momentum gainer of the week again and came very close to having it’s episode 11 be the best episode of the bi-week. This show and Ga-Rei: Zero actually are very similar shows in that they’ve been season long examinations of a character. Ga-Rei: Zero was to show how a hero despairs, gets corrupted, and falls; whereas, Shikabane Hime: Aka was to show how a normal high school boy is called upon to become the hero. The difference between the two was that Ga-Rei told you by the end of episode 3 what it was doing but Shikabane Hime didn’t make it clear till much later.

Episode 11 of Shikabane Hime: Aka had a really awesome flashback sequence in it – very Millenium Actress-esque. This sequence would have wowed me no-matter-what; but, the fact that Gainax did it, wowed me even more because Gainax isn’t known for it’s subtleness and small moments.

Squeaking past for this bi-week’s best episode is Toradora’s episode 13. As epic as the race was, the moment that really stuck out in my mind was the comment Minorin made at the end when she was talking with Ryuuji. She said something to effect ‘I’m talking normal’. A simple sentence might seem insignificant but oftentimes it’s the small things that speak volumes. We were clued into the possibility that Minorin uses her hyper personality as a way to cope with her fears back in episode 3 and this single sentence seems to confirm this idea. What we also learn is that Kitamura seems to have a thing for the student council president and she doesn’t feel the same way about him. I can’t help but think that, because Taiga’s personality is similar to the student council president’s, Kitamura sees Taiga as a replacement for the president and that makes him a jerk.

I’ve already put up my thoughts to 3 of the show’s that have ended and will get to the other three – Kannagi, Kurozuka, and Chaos;Head – soon so I don’t have anything to say about those six shows right now. So, I’ll close with just a few more short thoughts.

• To Aru Majutsu no Index is now at it’s halfway point. It’s been infinitely better then the first half of Shana 2 but it’s suffered from having way to much exposition and the apparently pointless amnesia of the main character. Shana 2 was able to have a near flawless second half and lets hope Index can too.
• Xam’D: Lost Memories is nearly done setting the stage for the show’s finale and I’m pumped and primed to see what happens.

• Have I mentioned how the casting in Skip Beat has helped make the show so enjoyable. Marina Inoue infuses Kyoko’s character with the perfect edge that really makes the character feel real. Then there’s the smooth-as-butter Katsuyuki Konishi as Ren that makes Ren’s ability to make all women swoon over him so believable and makes Kyoko’s interest in him genuine.

Posted in anime, weekly anime review