As you might have known already, I graduated yesterday, which marks the end of my undergraduate college career. However, my college studies isn’t done yet as I’m going for my master’s degree in Information Technology Administration.

With that, in this episode, I’m going to discuss about a new streaming site on the block named Daisuki along with Anime impressions for last week.

Contents

• 00:00-00:18 – Introduction
• 00:28-02:10 – New Streaming Site
• 02:13-03:14 – Photo Kano Episode 7
• 03:15-04:17 – Ore no Imouto 2 Episode 7
• 04:18-04:47 – Anime Power Rankings and End

 ¶

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Post tags: episodic reviews, opinion, podcast

The last few episodes was a red herring… This is where the drama gets real!

From watching Ledo shamelessly killing a harmless Squidwhale, it reveals a twist that Urobuchi has been planning all along. Besides Bellows becoming furious towards his actions, now people are living in a state of fear. Not only that, the commander seems to have heart problems because of stress. Because of that, I disliked Ledo because he is not necessarily right in killing these creatures even though they don’t harm anyone unless you provoke them. His inability to listen to Bellows, Amy and Ridget that Squidwhales is not harmful creatures just shows that he is brainwashed by the Alliance.  It even took guns to stop him from attacking them while they pass by. From the look of it, he is beyond helpless, but it gets worse.

On the other hand, Ledo simply doesn’t understand that Gargantia is not space and he can’t simply use excess force as he pleases. Before he arrived, the place was peaceful and never faced any conflict. Now with Ledo in the picture, he messes everything up by first killing pirates and now Squidwhales. Because of this, I think the Alliance is one messed tyranny as they kill these creatures in the name of revenge and justice without realizing the repercussions. I think we are seeing that with Pinion wanting to kill all those Squidwhales in the name of vengeance for killing his brother and treasure. Of course, that is wrong since the same result will happen with the first episode and Gargantia will cease to exist.

With the manufactured chaos coming into play, I feel that Pinion will become the antagonist of the show. He is already motivated to kill creatures for his own gain without any regard to the people’s safety or disruption of peace. Not only that, he is using Ledo just to carry out his own interests. I hope that someone talks him out of doing something this dangerous. Sadly, I have little hope as he still insists of eliminating them rather than living a peaceful life. ¶

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Post tags: drama, Production I.G, science fiction

Just recently, Yumeka and Kai reflected on how their writing changed over time. When I saw their posts, I became interested to share my experiences of writing about Anime since mine has changed quite a bit since I started blogging back in my freshmen year of college. (Image Source)

When I started, my blog was a big mess. I admit that my writing skills are not the greatest compared to my technology skills despite improving from all these years. However, in my earlier posts, my writing was filled with grammar errors because I don’t read over my posts and proofread them twice like I do now. In addition, my episodic posts consist of mainly synopsis and lots of screenshots, which is pointless nowadays with availability of broadband Internet and now legal streams.  In addition to generic episodic posts, I made some pretty childish posts, which is kind of embarrassing.

Thankfully, with the feedback I received from the first Anime Blog Tourney, I took the constructive criticism to improve my writing. First, I read over my posts to check for grammatical or spelling mistakes before I actually publish them. In addition, I started to write more editorials since I have fun writing them along with the ability to think outside the box compared to episodic reviews where you can only talk about a specific episode. I feel that writing more editorials and other unique content (such as Video Game reviews, podcasts, etc.) can make one’s blog stand out a bit a bit more in a blogosphere filled with posts about X show and n Episode with similar opinions.

Another thing I learned from the first Anime Blog Tourney is that social interactions with other blogs and bloggers are important. Sure, we can write a bunch of posts and call it a day, but there are benefits of commenting on other blogs and interacting with other bloggers on social media sites like Twitter or Anime forums. Besides generating comments, you get to see other people’s thoughts or opinions on a certain topic. Not only that, reading other posts or comments can give you new ideas to write about. This is one of the ways I find topics to write about as I lurk around in the blogosphere or on Anime forums like AnimeSuki. Clearly, I don’t use just Anime to spark ideas for editorials, but in some cases, I also use real life events and personal experiences if I can relate it to a certain Anime.  Some of these examples include Censorship in Anime, Violence in the Media, and Tiger Moms along with more specific focusing on one series such as discrimination of transgendered girls in Hourou Musuko. While the possibilities are endless with editorial writing, there are still some instances of writer’s block where a person loses ability to produce new works. While I haven’t experienced this yet, it’s best to take a break once in a while.

During late 2010 to mid 2011, I contributed a few guest music reviews for Anime Instrumentality Blog. From my experience, although writing about Anime music is fun since I enjoy and listen to a lot of Japanese music, it’s difficult compared to writing a review for an Anime series. Instead of reviewing the story, characters and other things, you are focusing more on the singer’s performance of the song, instrumentals and the lyrics. Since I didn’t understand Japanese back then before I started studying it, I focused only on the singer and the instrumentals. Through editing process, I understood and appreciate the writing process of writing music reviews.

In short, I felt that my writing has changed significantly from my messy and childish writing to become more polished and mature. My motivation to share my passion for Anime wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t interact with others.  Blogging for me takes a good amount of time and dedication to maintain the web server that is hosting this blog, designing a good theme, etc. Despite the challenges ahead, I still enjoy writing about Anime and won’t be giving up anytime soon unless all the studios suddenly stop producing it. ¶

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Post tags: essay, personal experiences, writing

Apparently, Manatsu cares more about his horse than how his sister feels.

I don’t know, but the thing between Manatsu and Masumi is getting a bit strange. Perhaps he might be concerned about Mayura as he fears separation if Masumi replaces him. We already saw her intentions of taking down Takayanagi for Musumi’s sake. Of course, it all goes downhill from here as Tabi, the horse the three took care since their childhood is dying, took over Manatsu’s place and of course, warming up to Mayura.

Compared to Manatsu, I find that Masumi is really cheerful. Even with Izumiko running away into the woods and talked to him, he manages to cheer her up revealing that Mayura was just testing Miyuki. Also, he looked hyper when he stayed at the inn and played a nasty trick by pretending the lights went out. However, it’s clear that Mayura is worried about the effect of Tabi’s sickness has on Manatsu that she goes to the ranch. The thing that surprises me is that he shrugs her off saying that she doesn’t care about him anymore. While it’s one thing to be sad about the passing of beloved pets, but what I get out of Manatsu summoning a spirit of Tabi and running away is jealousy and despair for reasons I mentioned earlier.

As the drama deepens between Manatsu losing to Matsumi, I wonder if he is ever get over it. Also, will Masumi accept his fate of not being with them anymore as he is only a spirit of some sort or maybe merge with Manatsu? Either way, it’s very difficult to convey Manatsu;’s feelings since Tabi’s death probably reminded of him of Masumi’s death when they were young. Either way, we are going to see some kind of resolution sooner or later. ¶

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Post tags: drama, PA Works, supernatural

Also, this is the last episode I’m recording on my 2010 Macbook Pro, Takamachi Nanoha. Future Anime Weeklies will be done on the new computer.

Episode Content

• Intro – 00:00 to 00:30
• New Computer – 00:31 to 1:34
• Photo Kano (Haruka Niimi’s arc) – 1:37 to 2:40
• Ore no Imouto 2 Episodes 5 and 6 – 2:41 – 4:05
• Anime Power Rankings for Week of May 7 – 4.07 – 4:35
• End – 4:37 to 5:00

 ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: episodic reviews, opinion, podcast

While Ledo continues to get used to Earth, we get some belly dancing…

From last time, I have mentioned the critiquing of the Alliance. Apparently, Ledo had a horrible life without any freedom before he landed on Earth. While he knows how to speak their language well, he doesn’t have the idea what money is and how to use it. I suppose that people who serve the Alliance not only lack a culture, but probably given crap to eat. Thankfully, some of his peers took him to eat actual food to show him how to use the money for good food.

On the other hand, Ledo still have some difficulties adjusting, but he is getting better. As shown with him pointing a gun at a harmless cooked octopus, he is still in his war mentality. Not only that, he doesn’t know how to swim, which is a reason why he can’t use a regular robot. This just shows that people in the Alliance is only trained for war and don’t take any hobbies during their free time. Thankfully, I was happy that Bellows and that other guy help him feel at home and suggested salvaging, which Ledo is a natural at. It’s a step in the right direction.

Despite the hilarious moments with Chamber turning the fish to mush, Ledo’s inability to swim was hilarious along with his attempts to fit in. But aside from that, this show got some unfounded criticism because it’s not a traditional Urobuchi story. I don’t know, but maybe this is a breath of fresh air as this show a somewhat happy slice of life show with robots and a flooded Earth. Then again, who would deny that Amy’s dancing is amazing? Nobody! ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: belly dancing, fanservice, Production I.G, science fiction

Several weeks ago, Kai shared his thoughts about the anime he put on his backlog. During my anime blogging career, I have picked up shows and on some occasions, get pushed to the backlog. There are many reasons I end up doing this, which I will share along with some notable Anime I backlogged. (Image Source)

Why I Backlog Anime?

There are some reasons why I backlog Anime. Besides poor time management, time constraints and in some instances, lack of motivation caused me to backlog shows. Because I don’t drop any show unless it becomes unwatchable, I just place the show in my backlog so I can watch at a later date.  While I only backlogged one show, most of them happened in 2011 and 2010.

Notable Backlogged Anime

Ano Hana

Stopped at Episode 4

When I started this show back when I was on vacation in Wisconsin. For me, it difficult to watch it all at once since this show was very drama heavy. However, I liked the story with the characters reunited several years later and try to find out who killed Menma. Not only that, it even had a crossdresser that dressed like Menma because Mari Okada’s weird fetishes she puts in some of her recent shows.

Tamayura ~hitotose~

Stopped at Episode 3

While I have completed the original animation, it’s basically a show similar to the Aria series as this show feels like a peaceful slice of life show, but focuses on photography and other pastimes. While the lack of quality subs is one of the reasons I stopped, I had a lot of shows going on in Fall 2011 such as Idolmaster, Working, Ika Musume and Fate/zero. Since I limit myself to about 4 series a season, this show had to go in the backlog.

Given that there will be a second season of this airing this summer, maybe I should motivate myself to finish this.

Ef – a tale of memories

Stopped at Episode 2

While I watch a lot of visual novel adaptations, I tried to blog about this and then I completely forgot about this show after I came back from vacation. Apparently, this show has two different male leads. Somehow, I lost the post for the second episode since I accidently messed up my database, which is why I lost motivation to continue blogging about this series. Maybe someday, I will complete it and write a full review.

Otome Youkai Zakuro

Stopped at Episode 9

Somehow, I almost came close to finishing this show, but never completed it. When it was airing back in 2010, it was a really good JC Staff show, mostly because Mari Okada worked on the production.  This show focused on some fox girls and some military men accompanying them in a period where Japan was becoming westernized.

Simoun

Stopped at Unknown Episode

After the second Aniblog Tourney, a fellow blogger named Draggle invited me to a live watch session. While it didn’t last long, I admit that this show was interesting. Sadly, it went into the backlog because I was busy watching other shows. Maybe someday, I will complete it and see how this show ends.

With that, this wraps up notable Anime I pushed into the backlog. I wonder, what shows do you put in your backlog and why? Feel free to share. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 6 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: backlogging, essay, personal experiences

You might be asking, “if you have the English version of Atelier Meruru, why would you buy it again on the Vita, but in Japanese?” The answer is that I find the game addictive, but I want to play it on the go. This is where the Plus version comes in as it brings the full game with the DLC included, costumes and extra scenes. Since I use my Vita mainly to practice my Japanese skills, it’s one of the main reasons I bought this game. (Image Source)

The story for the game is pretty simple. Apparently, the small kingdom named Arls (アルーズ) will be merged into the Arland Republic. It’s your job to develop the kingdom into a big city using alchemy.

Just like the previous Arland games, you spend most of the time making other stuff.

Compared to Totori Plus, Meruru Plus didn’t have too many bugs outside of the inability to build the archives because the event won’t trigger in a New Game Plus. In addition, I had the game crash after I installed the recent patch when I try to make something. Otherwise, from a gameplay perspective, Meruru improves a lot. Now, new items are a lot easier to make as they are now organized in separate categories instead of being bunched up in 4 categories in Totori. In addition, it’s easier to find the right ingredients with the right characteristics using the filter menu. This is one the aspects that reduces the frustrations of getting the right effects for the end product.

Building various facilities will do different things. For instance, if you build a factory, you can earn cole every 28 days.

Instead of doing tasks to earn points for your Adventurer License, you have to make items, beat bosses, etc. to earn development points. From these points, you can build facilities, each one does different things. In addition, you have to do Front Quests to keep your popularity up so the population grows. It’s pretty simple unless you really neglect it that badly that you bring it down to 0, which will give you an automatic Game Over. Otherwise, the tasks are the same, but for a different purpose.

Unlike the last game, you can now filter items by quality, characteristics, etc.

The game lasts for 5 in-game years just like Totori, which means you have to manage your time carefully. After 5 years are up, the ending is determined by what you did in the game and if you fail to meet those requirements, you will get the bad ending. When you beat the game, all your equipped weapons and development items will be carried over, thus making the second play through a lot easier.

You can now power up items using Assists.

As for the battle system, not much has changed except the assist system and skills. Instead of separate higher-level and stronger counterparts of certain items like a bomb or globe, the assist system now allows Meruru to power up attack items to deal more damage as long you have enough assists for each character and the item. Also, there are now four skills for each character instead of the two in the previous game. But aside from that, the later bosses can get really difficult such as the Airshafter, which can be just as hard as Evil Face in the previous games.

Pamela returns as a ghost only and recruitable in the Plus version. She also has her own events in addition to the ones she had orginally.

Lastly, there are some changes on how registered items and weapons are handled. For starters, Pamela’s shop is the only place you can register items compared to various shops in Totori. While you can’t register development items, you can now register ingots and cloths. This will basically make weapon and armor creation easier as they require two ingredients in order to make them. The advantage to this is that you can add the desired characteristics a lot easier.

On the other hand, Homs replaces the Chims from Totori. This means that you cannot duplicate any item such as an ingredient. However, you can use them to make items and gather ingredients, which makes it slightly more useful as you don’t have to keep duplicating pies to make them work.

Meruru Plus Additional Features

Unlike the last game where you can only change the close for the main character, you can also change the costumes for Totori and Rorona.

In Totori Plus, you could now change the outfits that Totori wore such as a nurse or maid’s outfit. Now, this feature is expanded to all three main alchemists (Meruru, Totori and Rorona) in the game. In addition, there is also an option to add accessories to the character’s face. From the start, you can change Meruru’s costume to Rorona’s or Totori’s clothes, but you can expand the selection by building the Boutique and beating the game for the first time or get other endings.

Extra characters are included in the plus version and they have their own recruitment event just like this one.

In addition to the costumes, there is the DLC, which features music from other Gust games, additional characters and an after game dungeon, which you should already be familiar with. Of course, the additional characters are the best part of the DLC as you can have Rufus, Fwana and Pamela to join your team. Out of the three, I use Pamela a lot because she is funny and really powerful when equipped with her third weapon. In addition, she can revive herself automatically when she is knocked out, which means that you don’t have to waste nectar on her. It makes sense she is a ghost after all. Still, I don’t really use Rufus as I prefer female characters and there are already a lot of male characters hogging the spotlight in JRPGs.

Also, the Plus version comes with all the music DLC. Now you can use music from other Gust games, one Idea Factory and Compile Heart game.

Lastly, there are some adjustments and balancing in the Vita version to make the game easier. This includes new special effects, a bit more defense, less development points needed to build stuff and so on. In addition, there is one additional event, which I won’t spoil and changes to one ending scene.

Conclusion

Overall, I thought Meruru was an improvement over Totori in terms of gameplay. Story wise, it’s more lighthearted compared to the last game, which had a good amount of melodrama when Totori finds out that her mother died when she fought against Evil Face (although, her mother was alive all along in the true ending). Still, I still hear some complaints over turning Rorona into an 8-year-old child. To me, I don’t see it as a big deal since it’s something really minor.

Aside from that, the port of this game and Totori shows how capable the Vita actually is. Both games have gorgeous looking graphics and on par with the Playstation 3 versions despite having some lag in some instances.  Still, the music in this game is probably one of the best I heard from any RPG. So, if this kind of game interests you and you know some Japanese, just get the Vita version since there is a good possibility that they won’t localize this and you will get more content for your money compared to buying the DLC separately. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: final impressions, Gust, moe, Video Games

Izumiko definitely went overboard with the fruit punch.

In the last episode, Masumi’s sudden appearance was very intriguing not because he was dressed like a girl, but Manatsu and Mayura said that he died a long time ago. However, it’s not the case as he appears again after Izumiko woke up from drinking too much punch. She flew down to meet him.  A part of me thinks that his soul is still alive or that he holds special powers to exist and even remember Izumiko. Either way, I would like to see how he could still interact with others without anyone knowing.

On the other hand, Mayura is apparently getting some flak. She is accused for using the Student Council for her own interests to topple down Takayanagi. Apparently, the Student Council wants to stay neutral since they are the judges. After she revealed that the school is designed to train one’s skills and that there are judges everywhere, it just explains the tricks that Takayanagi played on them in effort to win some collection.  I wonder why he wants it so badly. I think we will learn eventually.

Overall, it looks that things will get a bit more exciting as Mayura concentrates on beating Takayanagi at his game. This means that things will become more dangerous (probably more grave than the exploding computer monitor).  Still, I’m surprised that Izumiko still doesn’t know what is doing on at the academy, especially when the former student council member admit that he is a judge. They probably didn’t want tell her so they can use her to their advantage or something. Either way, I hope Mayura will beat Takayanagi at his game like Manatsu did in the last episode because he is bad news. ¶

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Post tags: PA Works

On the other hand, I like how Amy and her friends are making an effort to help Ledo fit in. He is gradually transitioning from his life of war to something more peaceful. He shows this when he wants to get a job but has a hard time doing so even with Amy’s help.  Furthermore, I felt that they threw a barbecue party and have him get the sauce to make him more at home and enjoy the food people eat at Gargantia. From the look of it, I think he will be less reliant on Chamber and probably end up staying if he is ever found.  It will be interesting if he decides to do that in the finale or not. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: fanservice, Production I.G, science fiction, swimsuits

For this year, I decided to take a look back at Madoka Magica since two movies has already released for the franchise. When I watched this back in 2011 with a group of people online when it was airing, it felt like a different magical girl show filled with despair. This is mostly contributed to Gen Urobuchi’s writing, the person who is also behind Fate/zero and Gargantia. His stories are filled with tragedy and a lot of character deaths. While shows like Lyrical Nanoha have girls fighting for survival to maintain peace, Madoka completely deconstructs the genre, which is already a good reason to take a look back. (Image Source)

When I watched the first episode, it looked like an innocent show. Madoka seems to be the nicest girl in the show, which supposedly had a lot of potential. She was a friend with Sayaka and Hitomi. However, Kyubey ruins their cheerful lives by trying to persuade Madoka and Sayaka to become magical girls for his own enjoyment and goals.

By now, everyone knows that Kyubey is bad news already because of the later episodes. To me, he feels like a creeper who wants to create as many deceptive contracts with a girl as possible without telling them the consequences. As you see later, it gets worse after he reveals his radical ideals. Basically, this is the reason why almost everyone loves to hate him because of how unsympathetic he is when something bad happens to the girls. In fact, there is a lot of fan art depicting the girls beating the crap out of him.

On the other hand, the interesting part about Madoka Magica  in the first three episodes is that becoming a magical girl is basically hell. They have to fight witches, which are basically magical girls completely consumed by despair. The only way to prevent the transformation is to collect grief seeds so you can purify your soul gem. At the same time, most magical girls face horrible lives after they get their wishes granted. As shown with Mami, she still faced loneliness after getting saved from a car crash thanks to a wish. Because of this, she wanted Madoka to become a magical girl so she would have a friend. Sadly, you know how that went as she ultimately dies in a gruesome death.

While I see Mami’s death as a warning that no one should make a contract with Kyubey, Sayaka ignores it and does it anyway just to save her childhood friend. Sadly, she didn’t get the warning about being careful what you wish for since most of the wishes granted in this show are usually selfless, thus leading to tragedy and despair. Of course, this aspect of becoming a magical girl since it makes the story interesting. As shown by a certain girl who experiences a lot of sad moments over and over, she gets a happy ending after a wish that changes the system.

Next Time: Sayaka and Kyoko join the fray… ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: analysis, magical girl, opinion, rewatch

But, they don’t look like doughnuts!

When Idolmaster Shiny Festa got released in the United States, it’s apparent that they have removed swimsuits scenes from the game. When I heard about this, I got the idea to write about censorship in Anime since I knew about some pointless changes in the Pokémon anime. Besides the awkwardness, there are some reasons why they do this such as the differences in cultural values. However, some of the reasons why changing or censor some things is not acceptable in my opinion.

Cultural Issues and Reasons for Censorship

While I am against censorship, there are obvious reasons why localization companies change things around, especially in the 90s. There is a big cultural difference between the West and the East. For example, in America and Europe, most people view nudity as something taboo compared to Asian countries where it’s accepted or tolerated. This continues to be the case, which is why these scenes like the magical girl transformations in Sailor Moon have their nudity censored. This is done so people don’t get offended and/or protect the child’s innocence from nasty things like violence.

On the other hand, this alienates adults because Anime is something that people of all ages enjoys. Not only that, its proven in history that censorship doesn’t work. Comic books are a good example of this as a Comics Magazine Association of America tried to pass a set of guidelines that all comic book makers have to follow by such as limiting certain immoral things like crime, violence and sexual activities during the 1950s. However, it created an underground market of comics free from censorship, which basically defeats the purpose for having a set of guidelines. Eventually, Comic book makers backed out away the set of guidelines, thus making the effort to censor comic books a complete failure.

Homosexuality

Since we are talking about Sailor Moon, there is one thing that surprised me.  DIC also censored the homosexual relationship between Haruka and Michiru. I haven’t realized that she was actually a girl until several years later. It just doesn’t make any sense to depict her a boy in a magical girl anime. However, this was the case since in the 90s because homosexuality wasn’t accepted in American society compared to today with Gay marriage and rights becoming accepted in the main stream. I feel that this difference has to do with religion because Japan doesn’t have any laws against homosexuals compared to the West. This is probably why there are still homosexual relations in Anime such as Yaoi and Yuri, which aren’t censored at all in localized releases.

Drugs and Weapons

Clearly, parents don’t want to have their children see cartoons that show drugs and weapons as they feel that they can have a bad influence. However, it’s hypocritical since media doesn’t necessarily make a person become violent. Because of this, some studios completely removed guns, swords, etc. with something else or remove it completely. 4Kids have done this with some episodes of Yugioh. Also, in the Pokémon Anime, they completely banned the 35^th episode because a person used handguns. I can understand these changes as parents didn’t want to have their child to see guns besides FCC regulations, but they could have released it as a DVD special or something as we never knew how Ash caught all those Tauros. At least with some shows like Naruto, they release an uncut version with all the blood and stuff so a person can make an informed decision.

On the other hand, censoring drugs are an understandable issue as the FCC doesn’t allow characters using alcohol and tobacco in shows rated for children. However, a person should already know that smoking and/or drinking is bad.

Unnecessary Changes (Americanization)

While censoring out drugs, weapons and culturally sensitive is understandable, some changes are just not acceptable. Most of this has to deal with the now bankrupted 4Kids Entertainment butchering every show they get a hold on in the name of Americanization. One of these instances is the infamous jelly filled doughnut scene in Pokémon where Brock said, “nothing beats a jelly filled doughnut” even though he refers them to rice balls (御握り) a few episodes later! In later episodes, 4Kids started replacing rice balls with a sandwich, which gave awkward and hilarious results for 4Kids critics.  Of course, this is the least of our worries as other localization companies in the 90s made cultural changes that enraged fans of Anime. Thankfully, these changes don’t exist in current releases, except for dubs as they can change some stuff around. Also, Nintendo has taken away the localization rights of Pokémon from 4Kids to do it in-house without any edits.

After Thoughts

During my childhood, I wasn’t aware that localization companies were censoring Anime until I gotten older. However, I’m glad that all the releases we get in the United States are free from censorship. Even so, we still get some instances of censorship such as censor steam when a character is taking a bath or is naked to persuade people to buy the Blu-ray! On the other hand, the only recent instance of censorship is FUNimation censoring Dance in the Vampire Bund because of its sexual content regarding children, which is banned under the current US law. However, there are studies that media doesn’t necessarily influence people to do bad things. Furthermore, almost anyone can download or import the Japanese release, which is free from censorship, although processing some sexual content involving children is prohibited by law.

So, what are your views on censorship in Anime? Do you think it’s acceptable or not? Feel free to share additional examples that I haven’t mentioned.

Further Reading

Thoughts on Violence in Anime and Video Games

MarzGurl on Censoring in Anime ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: anime industry, censorship, controversy, essay, opinion

This show gets stranger…

From the look of the last episode, things are just not going well for Izumiko. Besides Manatsu beating the crap out of Takayanagi out of revenge, which I find satisfying, there is something that surprised me. It seems that Masumi is still alive and crossdressed as a girl. I don’t know why he does this, but maybe he likes dressing like a girl because it looks cute. Still, it’s strange why Mayura and Manatsu say that he is dead, unless they are hiding something.

On the other hand, I find it strange how Miyuki doesn’t want to act like he is a friend of Izumiko. Maybe Yukimasa becoming a lecturer has to do with this? Then again, he looks very suspicious since he wants to recruit people so that they can talk with sprits or the world will end. But, this causes more trouble as Izumiko almost got into big trouble before Miyuki saved her. At the same time, Suzuhara takes over her body and said not to wake up the spirit in Izumiko or the world will end. This basically contradicts everything Yukimasa said, but I think we will see why once Izumiko regains her memories. But if it actually happened, it will make the Mayan Apocalypse a complete joke.

While Izumiko begins to make friends, this story gets more mysterious with every episode. This is because we don’t know anything about the goddess inside her and what powers she have. Hopefully, this won’t be a big problem because Mayura, Manatsu. Masumi and Miyuki will be protecting her from people like Takayanagi who wants the powers of Suzuhaa.

But I admit, Izumiko looks better without makeup. :p ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: PA Workers, supernatural

I apologize for the delay since the Spring semester is finally winding down. However, I have lots of updates to share in the second episode. In addition, Ore no Imouto 2 will replace Suisei no Gargantia in the podcast. This means that I will be writing about Gargantia starting next week.

Content

• Introduction – 00:00 to 00:22
• Kyoto Animation Announces Free! – 00:28 to 00:55
• Shiny Festa on iOS – 1:00 to 2:30
• Site Updates – 2:35 to 3:32
• Photo Kano Episode 4 – 3:40 to 3:48
• Suisei no Gargantia – Episode 4 3:50 to 4:55
• Anime Power Rankings – 4:58 to 5:28
• Conclusion 5:30 – 5:40

Transcript

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: episodic reviews, kyoani, opinion, podcast

I can’t believe that Kirino’s friend can be this annoying… Then again, why does this feel like the fourth episode from the first season?

While I enjoyed some parts of this episode, Ria, Kirino’s American friend annoyed me slightly. She is just out of control when she stood near the door naked. I don’t recall this show having a lot of fanservice, except for the same numbered episode in the prequel, but they gone a bit overboard this time. Of course, I blame Kirino for being careless for letting her towel slip and of course, letting her panty show while she spews insults. Calling Kyousuke a lolicon and a pervert was uncalled for. It’s just a big misunderstanding.  Because of that, I don’t enjoy this aspect of her compared to her nicer side where she gets obsessed over her hobbies.

Despite the troubles I had with the first half, the second part reveals one thing that the girls have in common: they really enjoy their hobbies with a few differences.  The only thing Ria cares about is running and nothing else. In an editorial, which I covered on hobbies, not all of them have a social aspect. Besides culture shock and missing her older brother, I think Kirino became depressed because she couldn’t continue her Otaku hobbies in America and share that passion with people who can understand it. Moreover, it’s difficult to buy anime merchandise, video games or eroge (and play with them).  I can understand this since it’s harder to buy merchandise without having to import it compared to watching it since there is a lot of legal streaming sites such as Crunchyroll. In contrast, Ria doesn’t have this problem since she can run anywhere.

In the end, it was a mixed bag. I’m still perplexed by the lack of screen time for Kuroneko. Didn’t she have feelings for Kyousuke, which is why she is blushing? So far, Ayase and Saori had dedicated episode so far while she gets left in the dust. Even though Kyousuke’s confession that he is a siscon does not make things any better, it’s not end of the world! Of course, I feel the same way for Manami, who is getting neglected like any other childhood friend. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: A1 Pictures, comedy, fanservice, moe

Last week, I focused on how females are being more capable. Some may be asking, what about male characters? While I have seen a few shows with strong males such as Kritsugu Emiya from Fate Zero or even Ledo from Gargantia, most of the romantic harem comedies or slice of life have weak beta male characters. I blame myself for watching a lot of these shows, but there are some things that really bother me a lot about them. (Image Source)

Compared to the tough and even hot-blooded males in shouen or mecha anime, most of these harems have pretty generic male leads (although there are some exceptions). Males in harem anime are mostly kind and interested in getting a girlfriend of some sort. They look pain and have a dull personality. I think the reason they are like this because it supposed to represent the viewer, mostly an Otaku audience so they can relate to him. Not only that, it seems that the producers or even the author want to place more emphasis on the girls, not on the male lead. If you place more importance on the main lead, it won’t be that interesting depending on the story.  Of course, this leads to bad results because there are only some I liked because of their personality. However, a good amount of them have the pervert dial turned to 11 or lack a backbone.

The main problem with male leads in harem shows these days are their indecisiveness, or they don’t know what to do. These are the type of male leads that annoy me. They are too afraid to do something when it’s obvious that he loves that girl or the girl loves him. They just make excuses or mope around.  Some of these examples are Tamako Market’s Mochizou, Yuuto from Nogizaka Haruka and the weakest male lead in the world, Takashi Haneda from Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai whom annoyed the heck out of me since he didn’t answer when a girl asked him out. Of course, if this is real life, no girl will go out with them since most do not like indecisiveness. But overall, most guys are not like this in real life, unless they are beta males.

To make matters worse, most male leads have bland or unpleasant personalities. You can compare all the typical male leads and they will have something in common. A good amount of them are weak, don’t fight or just plain stupid for the sake of comedy. However, the pervert aspect depending how it’s done can become really annoying. Lets take Oniichan no Koto, which is probably the worst romantic comedy I have seen before I dropped. it The main lead, Shuusuke is not only a big pervert, but also really stupid. While I can stand some level of perverseness, too much of it can make the show completely unwatchable.

On the other hand, while I detest most male leads because of Sturgeon’s Law, it doesn’t mean that all male leads in slice of life or romantic comedies are bad. Here are a few examples of male leads I liked:

• Any Lead from Key – Well I can ramble on this all day, their male leads tend to be cynical, but there is something I like about them as they come from a difficult situation, but come out strong as they figure out solutions to problems. For instance, Tomoya from Clannad is a good instance of this. He still gets a job after he graduate even though he can’t lift one of his arms. Also, he tries to save Ushio from the same fate after he started taking care of her.
• Kyon from Haruhi Suzumiya
• Oreki from Hyouka – While he wants to lead a low-energy life, his problem solving skills is one of his interesting aspects.
• Kodaka from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai – While people complained about shoving Sena’s awkward confession as he still faced some psychological problems, at least he has a spine and know how to deal with the girls. Also, he looks manly compared to other male leads.

Overall, I think that there is still a good amount of interesting male leads, but they are pretty rare these days. It’s obvious that male leads receive one of the most generic personalities not just to make the girls look better, but have them come to him. At the end of the day, I would like to have a male lead that has a good personality in a harem/romance/slice of life anime with some flaws rather than an indecisive, stupid and/or overly perverted male lead.  While it can work in a few instances depending how the comedy is carried out, it just doesn’t work for me. After all, nobody wants to see the same thing over and over. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | One comment | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: essay, male leads, opinion, themes in anime

While Izumiko settles at her new school, trouble arises yet again.

While some people find this show boring, I think this episode is a game changer. One reason has to do with Takayanagi Ichijou’s appearance. He looks awfully like Wamiya. That is already a bad sign since he going after Izumiko even though he barely knows her. To make matters worse, he used a familiar or something that disguised itself as an international student just to get answers from her. On top of that, he also set up a booby-trapped website to have the monitor explode. Didn’t he know that she breaks every piece of electronic she touches? While I don’t think he is smart from what he did, he might be after her powers. I would like to see the reason why he is doing this after Mayura goes after him for hurting his sister.

On the other hand, I liked how Izumiko’s life is changing socially. While she was shy in the past, she is now opening up a bit and even took off her glasses. Besides Mayura, she also became friends with her brother, Manatsu. However, the scene where she becomes afraid of a foreign student makes me want to say it’s kind of racist. At the same time, it’s understandable since he wasn’t a human.

In the end, I’m not surprised by the trouble Izumiko still faces. While most of the students don’t know that she is a vessel for a princess spirit, it seems that the people who knows already are after Suzuhara’s powers that resides with her. Since Mayura and Manatsu also have similar powers that Miyuki has, she shouldn’t worry too much.

Despite the trouble, the school that she is now attending is basically a huge different. Compared to the last school, it has an upscale cafeteria, a lot of classrooms and of course, computers with big flat screens! Too bad they are still running Windows XP. At least they aren’t using Internet Explorer 6! ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: drama, PA Works, supernatural

In attempt to generate more discussion, I decided to take two series and make episodic reviews in form of a podcast where I share my casual thoughts about what I watch and some Anime related news. Hopefully this will make things a bit more unique and reduce the time I need to write individual episodic review posts. Since I don’t usually use podcast, please share your feedback so I can improve in the next episode.

Content

• Introduction – 0:00 to 0:45
• CISPA is back – 0:45 to 2:24
• Photo Kano Episode 3 – 2:25 to 3:25
• Suisei no Gargantia Episode 3 – 3:27 to 4:43
• Conclusion 4:45 – 5:00

Transcript

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: CISPA, episodic reviews, podcast

From the look of a timid Saori to the one we know already, this episode shows the hobbies’ everlasting effects on people as it enables them to know other people with the same interests and even become friends. (Image Source)

While we already knew that Saori came from a rich family, but not the girl before she got introduced to Anime and stuff. During the flashback, it seems that she was a very shy girl with no friends. In comparison to her, Kaori seems to live life to the fullest and take on every hobby she can get a hold on. It’s a person that you can look up to because she seems popular. I think she is concerned about Saori becoming a loner, which is why she decided to take her along.

On the other hand, I was fascinated on how Saori opened up quite a bit after being introduced to a hobby. It’s true that hobbies can change someone’s life since they will meet other people with the same interests. Let’s take gaming for an example. While people have different tastes since not all people like playing first player shooting games or Japanese role-playing games, there is always some kind of interaction such as tournaments, competitive playing, multiplayer games, online play and Let’s Plays that allows people to socialize and even make friends.

Basically from this, Kanata basically became friends with Saori as they started to have fun with each other by introducing her to new series, playing video games and other things. While the circle ends fell apart by reality, not only her passion for Otaku subculture kept going, but she also made new friends. While having an interest in Otaku subculture is not widely accepted in Japan since Otaku has a negative meaning behind it, at least it has a positive effect on her overall.

As for me, when I started getting back into Anime back in 2009 when I entered college for the first time, I started a blog and participating on forums on a daily basis until late 2011. This is when I started to socialize with other people on twitter, other blogs and voice conversations. Although I don’t talk to many people in real life besides my sister since I commute to college, reigniting my passion for Anime basically changed my life.

After Saori shreds her otaku identity and takes off the glasses that Kanata gave her, this shows that she might be willing to use her own personality to make friends by using her interests rather than hiding behind a different identity. Of course, this wouldn’t have happened if Kaori didn’t bring her to the apartment to gain interest in Otaku interests and make friends. Although not all hobbies are created equal, it allows people to share a passion for something they enjoy doing. This feeling is not just limited to Anime, but it can extend to sports, music, art, computers, etc.

With that, I leave you some questions to think about: Do you think that hobbies can have a positive change on one life? Feel free to share what hobbies did this change. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: essay, hobbies, opinion, personal experiences

Last weekend, I have watched Nostalgia Critic’s video on the princess hate. After watching it, I think he has a point since this trope exists in all types of media. The problem lies with Damsel in distress, which became a negative stereotype for females because it’s over usage. In particular, Disney Princesses tend to play this trope a lot, which is a bad representation of how women are portrayed in real life.

In Anime, it’s the opposite most of the time since some female characters take a bigger role. This is the main difference compared to Disney Princesses. (Image Source)

What is Damsel in distress and why it’s bad?

Damsel in distress is a trope where a character, usually female and young is portrayed helpless in a bad situation like getting captured by the bad guys. Then, the good guys, usually male have to save the day. The most famous example of this is the Super Mario series as Princess Peach getting captured by Bowser in every game in the series.

While it seems clichéd because a lot of shows use this trope, it caused a lot of controversy with females since it’s demeaning and it always happens to female characters and not male ones. There is where I have a problem with Disney Princesses.

While young girls tend to look up to Disney Princesses since they look innocent and pretty, the problem is that they are highly dependent on males. The power lies with empowerment and its important in all genders, which these princesses lack. Then again, would you like a capable woman who chooses which man she likes or one that marries a handsome man because he saved her? I think they should make their own choices because I believe in gender equality that no gender is better than the other.

What about Anime?

Compared to Disney Princesses, Anime shows a more positive viewing towards females not because of their stronger character development, but they look just as capable as males or even surpass them. Here are a few examples of this:

Bodacious Space Pirates – While this show has its flaws, Marika is a good example where she became a very capable Space Pirate that accomplished a lot such as recovering a royal ship and destroy a high-tech ship that decimated pirate ships. Not only that, there are princesses that are actually doing stuff!

Fate/zero – There are a few instances of badass females that are capable of fighting besides Saber. There is Natalia, which manages to save Kiritsugu and take down people who are creating vampires, In addition, Maiya, Kiritsugu’s sidekick is another example as she shoots down some people in the Grail War.

Most Magical Girl shows – This is pretty obvious as these are girls with magical powers that allow them to fight evil and their rivals. Some are more action orientated, which includes Sailor Moon, Nanoha, Madoka and the Cure series.

On the other hand, I feel that most of this has to do with male characters being indecisive or weak-minded in most slice of life or romantic comedies as shows want to place more emphasis on female characters. However, for other shows, both genders have equal standing

Conclusion

While Damsel in distress exists in Anime, it’s not used that often, gets subverted or the genders get swapped for the distress position. It’s just interesting that Anime treats its female characters better compared to past Disney animations. More females are taking on roles that are traditionally reserved to males, including piloting mecha. Ironically, Japan still faces gender inequality, especially with the infamous dating ban in AKB48 that caused much controversy after Minami Minegishi broke it.

With that, I leave some questions to think about: Do you think that Damsel in distress creates a harmful stereotype for females in general?  Also, do you think that Anime does enough to show capable female characters? Feel free to share more examples of female characters from other shows. ¶

© chikorita157 for Chikorita157's Anime Blog, 2013. | Permalink | 7 comments | All text in this post is covered under Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license.

Post tags: analysis, Damsel in Distress, Disney, essay