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.

Posted in anime, general anime interst, youtube

Awhile back I posted my top 10 influential anime shows. I was happy with the final list but something nagged me about it and I couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was until just recently. I mentioned maybe putting up my most influential non-anime animation shows but didn’t really see the importance of this list. The moment of insight came as I was reading another blogger’s reason for dropping a show. I realized that I enjoyed the show for the exact same reasons that he was dropping the show and that long before I was an anime fan, what I liked in animation and entertainment in general was already being shaped. Therefore I thought it would be a good idea to create a companion list for non-anime animation and post it.

Once again the list is in roughly chronological order. This list was harder to compose because growing up I wasn’t a fan of animation, it was just entertainment for me. So, it’s somewhat hard to call a certain show influential even though I loved the show to death growing up. In the end, I cut the list down to 5 so I can realistically call all 5 influential to my viewing habits even now.

This left off several shows that deserve some sort of recognition so before I get to the list so let me mention them here:

Watership Down was an animated movie that I watched when I was three or four and all I really remember from it was being disturbed that it showed talking rabbits being hunted and killed. I really should watch this now to get an adult perspective but this movie showed me from an early age that animation could be something more entertainment.

The Rankin Bass’ version of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings left such a strong impression on me that I read the Hobbit in third grade and Lord of the Rings in the fourth grade.

Shows like The Little Prince, Unico, and The Last Unicorn all had intriguing animation styles that made watching them interesting. And technically, all are anime but growing up they were so Americanized that I had no idea they where anime.

Space Ghost: Coast to Coast was funny, unpredictable, and a great example of what you could do with animation, even on a shoe-string budget. It was one of the first shows produced by Cartoon Network and it’s success paved the way for Adult Swim.

Now, onto the list.

1. Thundarr the Barbarian

Back before wide-spread cable television and VCRs, if a child wanted to watch cartoons the only way was to wake up early on Saturday. Any other day of the week and you were out of luck. Scheduling changes, cancellations, and new additions all seemed arbitrary to me at this tender young age and was the primary source of drama for me at that age. I can still remember the anger I would feel when finding out that one of my favorites where being dropped.

Many of these shows I have forgotten, some I still vaguely remember watching but Thundarr the Barbarian is a show I still remember vividly. It was set in a post-apocalyptic America where strange creatures roam, magic is commonplace, and remnants of our half remembered society could be found. Our trio of heroes: buff dude, female sorceress, and a Chewbacca knockoff, journeyed across the country, fought evil and helped those in need. This was a recipe for weird things to happen, for example, an evil magician might make his hideout in a mall or magic would be used to get a still functioning train across a lake.

My young self thought this was the coolest; never thinking the reason a show like this existed was because the adults of the time where worried that the Cold War would end in nuclear holocaust. This was obviously where I first developed my love of science fiction in general and post-apocalyptic stories in particular. Also, because they used a setting that was at the same time familiar and alien, I started to look at the mundane and would imagine the hidden fantastical element or possibilities.

2. Scooby Doo

I must have watched literally hundreds (and probably thousands) of hours of Scooby Doo growing up. I wasn’t deterred even if I had no idea who Sonny and Cher, Don Knots, and Dom Deluise where or that I figured pretty early on that there were no real monsters – it was always a hologram, a person in a costume or something similar.

The problem is that I’m not quite sure how even this amount of Scooby Doo influenced me. Surely, it must have. Maybe it helped cultivate a desire for mimes in the shows I watched. After all, what episode of Scooby Doo was complete without the culprit saying – “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you meddlin’ kids”. So when I watch something like Minami-ke, is it really a complete experience without thinking, “Haruka-neesama is amazing.”? Or maybe this is where I learned that the longer a series is around, the more the creators will monkey with the concept till they ruin the show.

Whatever the reason, I couldn’t imagine not including Scooby Doo on this list.

3. Looney Tunes

There was no question that Looney Tunes belonged on this list and I’d even go so far as saying that Looney Tunes did more to shape what I find entertaining and what it means to be funny then any other show, cartoon or live-action.

This is where I learned to love and appreciate witty physical humor. The eternal struggle by Coyote to catch the Road Runner and Elmer Fudd’s perpetually fruitless pursuit of Bugs Bunny where fertile grounds to showcase how sublime physical humor could be in the right hands. Sadly, not many other shows can match that level but it’s always nice to see some sort of physical humor bit worked into a show, be it a Kyou Dictionary Attack or a Fujioka Teddy Bear to the face.

Speaking of the Coyote, something about his character really resonated with me – maybe my support of Cleveland sports teams had something to do with that – but I was drawn to watching his countless attempts, hoping he’d finally get that Road Runner. It was always a plausible chance that he would and it felt like he just needed a little better luck. Since then, I’ve become very sympathetic towards characters that strive continuously to meet a personal objective and wish to see them finally get what they desire, even if it’s only to get the eldest Minami sister to realize your existence.

I could go on but I’ll just mention one more way that Looney Tunes influenced me. Long before watching and enjoying anime like Maria+holic that feature traps, males impersonating women, and reverse traps, females impersonating men, I learned the comedic value of gender-bending from Bugs Bunny.

4. Animaniacs

This modern attempt (early-mid 90’s) at recapturing some of the magic of Looney Tunes couldn’t match the brilliance of Looney Tunes but was a very strong effort. The adventures of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot (along with Pinky and Brain) where funny with a slightly subversive streak to them. I still have the wheel of morality song burned into my brain – “Wheel of morality, turn turn turn, tell us the lesson we should learn.” – and the lesson was supposed to be something we should have learned based on the show but would often be something really out there like ‘Vote early and often’. The reason why this show was so important stems from the age I was when it aired. I was just starting to get into that teenage mindset that I was grown-up now and didn’t need to watch cartoons along with other childish things. Animaniacs showed me that more mature people could still enjoy animated shows.

5. Toy Story

Toy Story earns the fifth spot not because it was the first full CG animated movie I saw but because it proved to me that an animated show can tell a story just as well as a live action show. This is a vital thing to learn for the continued watching of animated shows, including anime, as an adult. Of course, most anime fans know this already; watch something by Satoshi Kon, for example, if you don’t believe me but for me anime was years in the future. I had to rely on one of few American animation houses, Pixar, that believes an animated show can tell a real story to teach this fact.

Posted in anime rants/views, youtube

I am not a huge fan of the horror genre, especially when it attempts to gross the viewer out. I do enjoy seeing when the characters of a series or movie have their minds messed with, which probably explains why I think The Ring is my favorite horror movie. I figured I’d give Chaos;Head a chance since it was from Madhouse and maybe I could find an anime that could mess with my mind.

Final Series Score: 9/12 A-
Rewatchablity: low
Pros: story remains compelling till the end, does a good job of keeping the viewer guessing as to what’s really happening and what will happen, unique premise helped the show remain interesting
Cons: lackluster animation and very ugly school uniforms, the harem elements intrude on the story at times but never to the point of interfering with it, the ending is a bit of a let down, characters are not very deep nor do they develop much throughout the show

Awards given to this show by this blog

• Best Character Ability / Power for Fall Season 2008
• Best Story for Fall Season 2008
• Runner-up for Best Ending Song for Fall Season 2008

Story

Taku is an otaku nerd living in a converted shipping crate with only a tenuous hold on reality. A series of gruesome murders starts occurring in the area that he lives and it appears that he’s somehow connected these murders.

Thoughts and impressions

Chaos;Head tries to combine a harem type show with a psychological horror show and it’s about as successful as what’s humanly possible. The back story of the show is done in such a way that the harem elements don’t stick out really badly and at times these elements actually help the story along. I’m not a huge fan of harem shows so I was worried this would swamp the horror part of the show but it never did.

The psychological horror side was quite well done throughout the series and is the big draw to the series. It kept the viewer guessing what was actually going on and where the show was heading till the very end. I particularly enjoyed the fact that Taku was an unreliable narrator because as we watched the events unfold we were never quite sure that if what we saw was what really happened or just a figment of Taku’s insanity. I did think the ending was a bit of let down but that might be more from not having any more mysteries then the actual ending.

There were various little things that I enjoyed about this show that others might or might not like. One was the female private investigator because the voice actor, Kujira, was the same woman that did many of the background roles in Lucky Star (for example, the convention in episode 12). I love that voice, and wish she’d do more roles. Another was the ending song. It wasn’t because of the heavy amount of English used because it actually sounded like English but whoever wrote the English lyrics was not a native speaker and the lyrics only kinda make sense. Yes, I find the oddest things funny.

I would recommend giving this show a watch to someone looking for a psychological or suspense anime but with the caveat that it does have it’s flaws and if you have a low tolerance of harem elements, then you might want to look for something else – maybe try Paranoia Agent.

Essential Information

• 12 episodes
• genre: harem, suspense-horror, supernatural
• animation studio: Madhouse
• director: Takaaki Ishiyama
• OP: “F.D.D.” by Kanako Ito
• ED: “Super Special” by Seira Kagami
• Seiyuus of note: Eri Kitamura, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Akira Ishida, Daisuke Ono, Hitomi Nabatame

Here’s the ending:

Posted in anime, series review, youtube

Sturgeon’s Law would dictate that only 10% of AMVs are actually good enough to be worth defending. That’s a bit too pessimistic for me but I definitely think the vast majority are merely decent (including the AMV I made and is currently being blocked by Youtube). However, in the right hands, the anime music video has the potential to be very entertaining and artistically beautiful. The problem is finding them so I thought I’d share some of my recent favorites.

Twilight by Koopiskeva

This video totally and completely blew me away. Along with great editing and a good song to match the video, the real stand-out was the use of live action footage. Koop was able to take the characters from Kanon, stick them into the physical world and make it look like they belong. The effect enhances the emotional impact of the events that transpired in the show.

Running Man by Nostromo

One of my favorite AMV creators is Nostromo because his videos feature truly divine editing, beautiful animation and a song to match. His latest, Running Man, is no different.

A Little Retrospect

I love the concept of this video – a look back at AMVs that show how they have been evolving both in complexity and subjects used. I only recognize about 35% of the videos used and mainly just the most recent ones but it’s still interesting. I also like how it’s framed so we know exactly what we’re watching.

Just for a Day by Funky-kun

U2’s Beautiful Day has probably been used countless times as AMV material but this is one of the best uses of the song. Great editing and matching the animation to the lyrics of the song.

Lovestruck Radiance by Kisanzi

A great example of matching a song to a show and then making a well-done AMV using the two.

The Harassment of Kyon by MysteriousRyder

This is a straight comedy AMV with a good idea behind it – taking Itsuki’s somewhat creepy behavior in Haruhi to the next level. This is done with the perfect song and imaginative editing.

Posted in anime, general anime interst, youtube

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      

Below is a clip from episode 2 of Minami-Ke: Okaeri showing Chiaki’s meeting with Hosaka in the supermarket. My sister and I have been giggling about this for the past two hours. I’m starting to really think that this season might turn out to be a good one.

I’ve noticed lots of people mention that they can’t believe Fujioka still thinks that Touma is a guy but if we assume that the second series is being treated as if it didn’t happen (the third season picks up at the end of the first season) then it would make a lot more sense.

Posted in anime, youtube      

Like the title says, it know appears that KyoAni’s Munto TV series, aka Sora o Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai, will be starting January 14 and not in the spring. Since I haven’t seen many previews, including my own, mention this show and because this will be KyoAni’s first original tv series, I thought I should go more in-depth.

Official Site, Wiki entry

One of the first things that entered my mind when I realized this show was going to air in the winter season was this will mark the first time that KyoAni is doing two television shows at the same time. At this fact might bode well for those fans, including myself, that are waiting for a second season of Haruhi and more Full Metal Panic.

Here’s the staff and seiyuu list

Director, Series Composition, Screenplay: Yoshiji Kigami - directed the Munto OVAs

Music: Satoru Kousaki - music for Haruhi, Lucky Star, and Kannagi

Art Director: Seiki Tamura - art director for Michiko to Hatchin, Lucky Star, Munto, Haruhi

Munto : Daisuke Ono - Yukito (Air), Hosaka (Minami-Ke), Itsuki (Haruhi)

Yumemi Hidaka : Mai Aizawa - Ayame Jinguuji (Ga-Rei: Zero), Ayano Minegishi (Lucky Star)

Shigeru Hidaka : Hirokazu Hiramatsu - Konata’s Dad (Lucky Star), Kohara Michael (Ga-Rei: Zero)

Suzume Imamura : Hiromi Konno - Potato (Air), Akira Kogami (Lucky Star)

Takashi Tobe : Kaoru Mizuhara - Yomi Isayama (Ga-Rei: Zero), Misao Kusakabe (Lucky Star)

Nozomi Hidaka : Kikuko Inoue - Belldandy (Ah! My Goddess), Sanae Furukawa (Clannad), Uraha (Air)

Guridori : Minoru Shiraishi - Taniguchi (Haruhi), Minoru Shiraishi (Lucky Star)

Gntarl : Norio Wakamoto - Nabuu Brothers (Ga-Rei: Zero), Narrator (Hayate the Combat Butler)

Ryueli : Ryouko Tanaka - Mei Isayama ( Ga-Rei: Zero)

The original OVAs are the only thing of Kyoto Animation that I haven’t seen. My only knowledge of the OVAs come from this awesome AMV (follow the link to download it and watch it below).

It seems like it could be a very interesting show and I’d imagine that Kyoto Animation will work hard to make sure that it’s first original TV series will be a success. And lastly the pictures where taken from the official website.

Posted in anime, season preview, youtube      

The fall season continues to wow with even more awesome shows this week. I might be biting off more then I can chew by trying to watch them all but I’m willing to try. Also this week, I was able to finish one my favorites from the spring season.

The scores:

Soul Eater, episode 27 – 12+/12

Toradora!, episode 3 – 12/12

Kemeko DX, episode 2 – 8/12 B+

Clannad S.2, episode 2 – 12++/12
Clannad S.2, episode 3 – 12++/12

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 2 – 12+/12

Kannagi, episode 2 – 9/12 A-

Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 2 – 12/12

Maid Guy, episode 12 – 9/12 A- (end)

(previously reviewed)

Kurozuka, episode 1 – 12/12

Skip Beat, episode 1 – 11/12 A+

Mouryou no Hako, episode 1 – 11/12 A+

Thoughts and Highlights

As you can see in the scores, I was able to finish Maid Guy this week so I’d like to thank the joint effort from [Yakuza T-K] in doing this great series. Expect my series review soon. This final episode was of the type that signaled to the viewers that a second season will be forthcoming if they think it will make money. Therefore, this episode didn’t have any sense of closure and we were even introduced to a maid that looked like a worthy adversary to Maid Guy. I like the idea of someone on Maid Guy’s otherworldly level but I’m really ambivalent about another season. For the episode itself, it contained enough Awesome Kogarashi Moments to keep me happy.

The best episode of the week was actually the pair of episodes from Clannad. It’s like KyoAni was psychic or something – how else can you explain how they knew to start off the season with a baseball episode and then go into an arc about my favorite character – Sunohara and his younger sister, Mei. As an aside, if Mei doesn’t finish in the top 8 for Saimoe next year – I’ll be supremely surprised. So far Clannad has been delivering that perfect blend of comedy and drama that so epitomizes a Key/KyoAni show.

There really wasn’t a disappointing episode this week. The lowest scoring show of the week, Kemeko DX, was because the show took the time to do character introductions and not the comedic craziness that the show is promising. It’s always important to take the time to introduce and flesh out a character but this episode didn’t quite charm me like I was hoping it would. I still have relatively high expectations for this show so I’ll keep watching.

Soul Eater continues to keep me on the edge of my seat. This episode we got to see Justin fight and more of Crona being awesome. Another bad guy (actually a woman with really freaky eyes) appears and Stein continues to battle his temptation to give into the madness. Also, while, I wasn’t really impressed with the seconding ending, this new ending is awesome. The song is perfect – upbeat and snazzy – for the animation and the animation fits the feel of the song and even takes the time to showcase more of the main characters. On a side note, if how Death the Kid’s way of holding his guns bothered you, I was watching a show on History Channel that showcased a few of the great trick shooters living now and it included a guy that held his shotgun like Death the Kid holds his guns – so it is possible.

The pair of J.C. Staff shows, Index and Toradora, continue to be very good. We got character building in Toradora and they were able to make it interesting. Even though Rie Kugimiya’s Taiga is in many ways very similar to her other tsundere roles there is differences that make Taiga a much more likable character. It makes it hard not to root for her. In the case of To Aru Majutsu no Index, we get an awesome fight that shows off Tohma’s null-power right hand as well as his intelligence in finding ways to win. I have the feeling that the guy Tohma fought really isn’t a bad guy but one that has a temper and is more concerned about the safety of magic books then their carrier – Index.

The final show I wanted to talk about was Kannagi. In my impression post for episode 1, I mentioned that a lot of fanservice was added to that episode and I didn’t think it was warranted. This episode once again adds in needless, and definitely implausible, fanservice. Implausible because if the main character is worried about people seeing Nagi’s underwear, why does he walk to the front door, holding them, where she is obviously talking with someone. Needless because I think in an episode that’s meant to be more serious with a mother cat and her two baby kittens dieing – the fanservice cheapens their deaths and frankly I wonder what the director was thinking. I have already seen the next episode and liked it more so maybe I’ll end up liking this anime a lot.

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