Finally got around to finishing Another. Typical of the “sinister mysterious thing in this town” genre, the ride to the end, the accumulation of idle thoughts speculating on the details, while waiting on traffic lights to change during my daily commute, wound up far more interesting than the final destination. Having expected as much, a disappointing conclusion wasn’t exactly a disappointment. That said, I loved every minute of the tease and even the over-the-top grand melee that pops the tension bubble. Broad, unspecific spoilers might happen.

Actually, as much as I enjoyed the over-the-top finish. I found it undermined the show a little bit, in that the excessive nature of it contrasted enough with the restrained pacing of the rest of the story, that the foreboding doom of the previous episodes gave way to dark slap-stick comedy. But, then this sort of grand melee ending made the most sense as a release valve given all the setting and stage details of the story.

It becomes a who lives, who dies, and who remains true tallying up, but Another could have done a better job of setting the stakes for the characters throughout the series. Part of the comedy in this grand melee stems from a lack of empathy for any of the characters. It’s fine that most of the characters existed to die. I don’t need to care about all of them, but the principal characters could have offered more reasons to care. If it weren’t for my predisposition for liking twin-tailed rich girl Mary Sue characters, I might not have had any other characters to root for other than the obligatory rooting for the main characters. The violence felt like wasted opportunities for the story to get a “No, not them!” type of reaction out of me, which instead had me giggling at gruesome ends and pondering if they needed to go there with bodily fluids. At least Another didn’t go the opposite end of the spectrum of trying too hard to make me the viewer care.

The story concludes and answers enough questions to end it satisfactorily, even if the status quo of the town hasn’t changed at all. The reveal of the extra person was good, not a cop-out nor cheap and obfuscated well. The students who survived, survived this year’s Calamity, but they didn’t stop it for future generations. It’s enough and I’m glad they didn’t reveal everything about how this Calamity works. We really don’t need to know.

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Redline opens, race in progress and my mouth stretches wide with a wicked grin, eager to sing its praise over the rooftops of the world. My buds need to see this. There hasn’t been something this balls dipped in awesome in years. At last, I have something new I can lend to Mr. Likes anime, but would never wear an anime girl head as their fucking Twitter avatar. And then, the opening Yellowline race ends and that enthusiasm starts to bleed out slowly.

It is a fantastic piece of artwork. I’m in love with the visuals. The pacing, direction, editing, is efficient, lean, and doesn’t waste time on useless or distracting information. It breezes through introducing the racers. It is a tribute to the direction and character designs that all the racers feel distinct with minimal exposition. Redline gives exactly what anyone riding shotgun needs, a destination, a fast car and gorgeous sights to see.

Unfortunately, Redline fails to set the stakes for the main character, Sweet JP. For all the ruthless planning and editing that must have occurred to get Redline into top racing form, that Redline neglects to establish the stakes is like a Ferrari without gas.

Other than winning the race, what happens when JP wins Redline? What happens when JP loses? None of the answers have much consequence nor are they that much different. Either way, it’s not a big deal. There are no stakes, no tension or conflict among the characters. Even for the Robo army trying to blow up the racers, who wins Redline doesn’t matter. Even if the Robos blow up all the racers, nothing changes, no stakes were lost and the Robos don’t even gain anything from it. It’s a tragic flaw.

I really wanted to love Redline in the end as much as I did in the first ten minutes. The opening Yellowline race made anime feel cool again. What could have been one of the great racing movies of all time winds up being just pretty sweet eye-candy. I’d still lend it out when I get the occasional, “I’m in the mood to watch some anime” and K-On won’t do.

English Dub Notes: Reminds me that I really miss hearing Patrick Seitz (JP) and Liam O’Brien (Frisbee) in anime. The director nails a cohesive mood here with all of the various side and incidental characters, which often drag a dub down, but here bring the crowd to life as another character. Setting aside adaptation discussion, the English version works very well as a piece on its own.

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Spice and Wolf is a curious show. At a quick glance through some of the art, it seemed designed for the viewer to fawn over a wolf-girl who doesn’t mind being naked. Anime character designs are usually a decent barometer of what a show aims to do. However, Spice and Wolf proves the rule that one should not judge the book by the cover.

The primary activity of the main characters, Lawrence, a traveling merchant, and Holo, the wise wolf-god is businesses. Buying, selling, trading and talking about it while they’re on the road in between towns in a fictional, vaguely European, world. After each trade, the two postmortem the transaction to find what they can use in the future, one of them usually did something which surprised the other during the deal. It turns Spice and Wolf into be a fine, dialogue driven story about the two drifters, off to see the world — and make some profit. Some of the dialogue runs a little far down the rabbit hole on the minutia of trading silver coins and currency manipulation strategies, but this dialogue builds an interesting relationship between Lawrence and Holo. Through conversations about how to succeed in business, each of them builds a bond of understanding and respect with the other. Neither character treats these lazy conversations idly and it’s through these conversations where the growth in their relationship takes place. They create value in their relationship, to extend the business analogy.

Conflicts in the story arise from the complications of doing business. Justice, saving the world, existential turmoil, freedom, peace, love, war, the standards of stories in a fantasy world don’t make much of an appearance. All conflict in the story stems from money, transactions gone wrong, and refreshingly, avoids any message condemning money. It’s not pro-money either. Money is just a fact and how people and companies deal with that fact builds relationships and creates conflict.

There’s a great scene where Lawrence is begging for money and the fact of money and what it says is thrown back into his face. It’s really an interesting show in how it utilizes spaces most fiction treats as prop and scenery.

All well and good, Spice and Wolf isn’t furry ecchi, is down to earth, plays with economics the same way other stories play with morality, love, etc., but is it fun to watch? Yes. While it’s a lot more sober than a show with a wolf-girl would suggest, the interaction between Lawrence and Holo is entertaining. They go through a subtle change from a sort of you’re there to a you’re important to me. And, they really are important to each other as partners.

The episodes do have a decent amount of tension. A couple of the transactions gone south lead to life and death situations for Lawrence, which as a result become vital to Holo in spite of the fact that she’s under no threat of physical harm.

Now, I’m off to order Season 2.

Dub Notes: One benefit of almost all the dialogue happening through two characters is both actors get into a nice groove. I wasn’t immediately grabbed by Brina Palencia’s take on Holo, but quickly warmed up to it once I began to feel the dynamic between Holo and Lawrence. J. Michael Tatum’s take on Lawrence strikes the right tone for where he is in life and as Holo’s verbal sparring partner. Most support characters sound stock male townsfolk in a fantasy series, which has that odd effect of drawing undue attention to itself for me than just becoming invisible like it’s probably meant to. On the plus side, Leah Clark sounds great as Nora, a young shepherd, one of the prominent side characters.

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Like most years, 2011 was a mixed bag, especially as far as watching anime and blogging goes. Spent much more time this year fiddling with tabletop RPG stuff. I still love anime and figures, which is why I can’t quite kill this blog, no matter how sad it gets.

The Good

On a personal front, something interesting happened to me. If you’re ever near Sydney, Australia, and find yourself at a Japanese restaurant called Sokyo (at The Star), head over to the bar and look up at the ceiling. It’s kind of hard to see the ceiling from the pics in the link (3rd and 6th slides), but if you’re ever there, look up.

Best thing I watched this year? I loved the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. Saw it at Otakon, gaining the benefit of the collective *GASP* of a few hundred people, then I saw it again twice on Blu-Ray. Favorite single episode of anything was Angel Beats Ep. 3, for the funny way that it reminded me how as a teenager that a song saved me once and how now a song can’t have that power for me anymore. As far as streaming, the only things I watched to the last episode were Usagi Drop, Hanasaku Iroha, and Fate/Zero. I liked each of them enough to finish. I also like the much maligned Guilty Crown, but at this point I’m just going to wait for a release to finish it.

Favorite figures were Ritsu with Drum Kit by Alter, Trunk Girl by Native and GSC’s Rin Tohsaka. I was quite happy with almost everything I got this year. Maybe only 2 or 3 out of (20+) that I wouldn’t have ordered if I had the chance to leap back in time, which is better than previous years, where the number was closer to 5 or 6.

The Bad

Blog content has been pretty bad. At best, a post every other month. That’s not likely to change much, so I’ll still be bad there.

And as someone who mostly watches anime via physical media, Bandai shutting down sucks. Probably means less choice when it comes to what gets on Blu-Ray and looking like another set of anime voice actors who I’ll not get to hear anymore.

The Ugly

I have a DVD/BD backlog that would occupy me for the whole year if I didn’t start something new. It’s been out of hand for a while. I mean, I still haven’t cracked open Gurren Lagaan, Summer Wars, or even the Rebuild of Evangelion discs. There’s a lot of good stuff waiting on the pile. I’ve watched shows with less reputation and hype in the meantime, so I guess I’m afraid of being disappointed when I finally do attempt to watch these. On the other hand, it means I still have some good stuff to watch at some point.

Apocalypse

Also might not be a bad thing to assume the Mayans were correct. Don’t hold yourself back in 2012.

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I love Native. They extend the collection experience beyond most companies. Native doesn’t stop at the figure, at least with the three in my collection (Kotone, Shoujo-S, and Trunk Girl). Each of the figures came with an almost designer-like box. I didn’t take photos of the boxes, a) because it’s a pain and b) it might just look like a colored box in a tiny jpeg. Something about that little extra thought in the package design makes Native figures feel like “Special Collector’s Edition” stuff. The box is not just this thing protecting it in transit and then quickly cut open. Trunk Girl’s box was shaped like a suitcase, looking like one of those gift packages that come from a spa or a boutique. Those boutique packages are designed to make you feel special with your little treasure. Native has the right idea with their approach on their boutique items.

(Bare plastic beyond this point).

Since I never did a post on Shoujo-S, I decided to “review” her too and do a Native group shoot, though since Kotone had her own post kept her in the background. Had a spell where I barely updated this blog for a year, so there are huge chunks of my collection un-reviewed, not that I “reviewed” everything I got when I updated almost weekly. Hell, I still have a few EMS boxes that are unopened after a year. There’s a space issue in my apartment. I can’t open a new figure without retiring one, unless I just start putting them in the dining room, the bathroom, the kitchen, the freezer (which I could have Metamo-Haruhi guard my supply of Late Night Snack, Fair Goodness Cake and Imagine Whirled Peace), etc.

So that this feels special mood which Trunk Girl’s packaging imparted inspired me to put a little bit of effort into creating a little backdrop for these pictures. Creating a simple set looks simple, but I knew better than that and educated guessed that it would take at least a weekend of making it while watching football. Even accounting for it taking triple the time I imagined it should, it took even longer than that, even with half the stuff I wanted to put on set removed due to lack of skill in making things like night stands for the bed. Yeah, even easy looking “contemporary” minimalist furniture requires patience and care. It takes trial and error time, and well, sometimes it’s better to just finish something than to wait until every detail comes together.

Thank goodness I decided to move on and not include things that wouldn’t be in the image frame anyway. I tend to be aggressive in my crops when I compose a shot. While I should work on using space in image composition more often, when deciding which images to include the less aggressively cropped images wind up going unprocessed. The way I shot them just isn’t strong.

After spinning my wheels trying to make decent looking night tables, for the “contemporary hotel room” set, the only elements in the set wound up being a wall design that didn’t make any of the final images (the corner of the room has an inverted corner). The headboard looks terrible in person, but kept out of focus it’s good enough. My favorite parts are the wall lamps, which are made with two LEDs, scrapbook paper, and glue. Unfortunately, one of them had a weak battery, so they looked really unbalanced when both were on, but they actually do light up. With tighter lighting, a pretty beam pattern can be achieved; however, that would make the beam pattern the focus of the image and not the figures. Plus, the beam pattern falling on the headboard calls attention to how sloppy the headboard actually is, so there was that as well. Even though the set took a lot of time to assemble, they’re not the point or the focus of the images. If they are, it’s sort of a fail to me. Sure, people looking at the photos and not just quickly scrolling might take time to decipher the background, that’s different. I don’t want the scroll viewer to pay more attention to the background in that .34 seconds they’re looking at the images.

The picture frame is strip wood with ebony stain. Should have included white matting to make it look more like a framed image, since those usually have matting. I was just happy I cut the wood with perfect 45 degree angles where they join. The image is a 5 Centimeters Per Second still if you’re trying to guess.

Trunk Girl comes from this illustration by Nishieda, who has a style that is distinct from other ero artists. There’s like this fusion of anime with a color palette and tone that melts in a little of those old Saturday Evening Post cover illustrations. Nishieda’s coloring style probably won’t translate to a figure at all, so it presents a challenge for Dendobrium, the sculptor, to capture the same feel without benefit of the color rendering which is a significant part of the artist’s style.

For the most part, I’m okay with the sculptor’s interpretation of the image. The lock of hair across the face didn’t quite do it, but given the physics of PVC, probably isn’t going to get much better without abandoning the lock across the face entirely. Positioning of the lock could have been better. The main point of contention would be the face (especially her eyes), which as a figure collector is just something you get used to, as more often than on it doesn’t line up. One reason of course is 2D vs. 3D and foreshortening. Sometimes in the illustration the foreshortening is done in such a way as to be physically impossible. It looks charming on the page, but if you could actually rotate the axis you’ll often find noses ending up in very strange places and a lot of crooked brow ridges. Trunk girl comes with interchangeable breast pieces. The alternates are supposed to be sheer fabric. Default configuration looks better.

I’ve always thought of the ‘S’ in Shoujo-S to stand for ‘strawberry.’ It’s based off this image by Naruko Hanaharu. The mood of the figure differs a little bit from that in the illustration. The sculpt has a more tentative interpretation of her expression, which feels a little more eager in the illustration, even in the body language. The cock of her hip is a bit more aggressive in the illustration, but whoever sculpted this really did fantastic work on her body, the shapes, the curves, all stellar for me. Softer somehow. She comes with a chair, strawberries, a tube of icing and a strawberry for her mouth. Would have been fantastic if they included the desk she’s got her hand resting on.

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Daikichi is a single, never married, thirty-something male who takes the responsibility of raising Rin, a five year old girl who was in the care of his grandfather who passed away. Nobody in the family wanted her, so Daikichi took responsibility. The setup of Usagi Drop sounds close to a Hallmark Hall of Fame type of thing, a family drama produced by a greeting card company.

The premise is convoluted enough to move it a step away from standard family drama. Usagi Drop isn’t describing an emerging social trend or playing with nostalgia for a bygone age. Rin’s birth is unclear during the 11-episodes of Usagi Drop, but it leaves us with 5-year old Rin is 30-something Daikichi’s aunt. It’s a deliberately unusual and obfuscated birth situation, which is a fantasy staple and in a way Usagi Drop plays a bit like a fantasy.

There is just as much attention paid, if not more, to how Daikichi changes than on Rin, but the magic of Usagi Drop happens when both of Rin and Daikichi move at the same time. Early in the series, there is a scene where a tired Daikichi carries a tired Rin on his back as they trudge home long after both of them should have been there already. Rin tells Daikichi that the moon is following them and he runs with it. There’s a lot going on in that scene and I’m not going to ruin it by pondering on it for too long, but Usagi Drop has a handful of these cornerstone moments that move their relationship into new places. The writing pushes movement and scenes, no matter how mundane or meandering, don’t go to waste.

Other than the unusual birth situation, the humor and light drama of Daikichi and Rin’s situation is played straight, as in the humor that arises comes from normal child rearing situations that would occur from a single man who didn’t have the luxury of coming up to speed with the realities of raising a child and taking the responsibility for raising her seriously. The humor is not wacky or creepy comedy. The reality isn’t gritty. It has a hopeful glow.

Now, that’s how these 11 episodes play out. Apparently, the manga takes the story further into territory that some feel wrecks the story. I don’t know what that is, though looking at the pieces I have a pretty good guess, but hey, the eleven episodes we have of Usagi Drop are worthy of a view. Enjoy it.

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The official character illustrations for Mikoto and Kuroko appeal to me due to a distinct art style, a little sharper, a little less soft, a bit more linear than cute girls get drawn. So yeah, I like the characters via the designs and the expressive images I’ve seen floating around. In much of the official looking art I see for this franchise, many of the images tell some kind of story, often with Kuruko as the instigator of something to funk up Mikoto. Kuroko seems awesome like that, at least, that’s what I’m going with based on random images I see.

Before getting fetish outfit figures of Mikoto and Kuroko, I should have gotten figures of them in their standard attire, particularly since these are probably the only ones of the characters I’m likely to get. There really aren’t that many of them. Alter has figures for two of the other characters, but none of Mikoto, which seems odd to me. Weird. So, french maid outfits it wound up being. Not that it really matters. Most figures I buy for how much I like them instead of getting them because I like the character or am a fan of a show.

I like the contrast of personalities and body language between the two. These Kotobukiya figures are decent enough, but nothing all that special other than being 1/6 scale. If these were 1/8 scale, I don’t know if I would have ordered them. They’re screw mounted onto an uninspired bases, which thankfully don’t have a huge footprint and interlock with each other. Kuroko seems a little crooked in how she’s mounted, like the person screwing her onto the base might have needed a work break, rather than completely smashed on toxic fumes.

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Worlds change in an instant, mused Rin Ogata as she danced on stage. She was a rising star in the ballet world, but when her ankle gives way it changes what she had thought would be the rest of her life, following her mother’s path of the prima ballerina. Now that the dream had slipped away, there was a void in her life; something was missing which left her aimless.

An aimless existence carried over into college, where she resigned to coast through life. However one day when Rin was caught in the rain, she found something to love and gained purpose in her life. Rin found a rideback, a motorcycle with arms, a mech on wheels. She hops on it and the rideback sweeps her off her feet. Like falling in love can sometimes be, the first contact was scary, thrilling and transforming. Madhouse’s choreography and animation execution of Rin hanging onto the rideback gave me a taste of that transforming moment. RideBack has a couple of mesmerizing action sequences where the animators took glorious advantage of Rin’s background in ballet to do some coolness with motion, time, and music.

In some ways RideBack’s story and characters belonging to a college racing club feel like an anime from a recently passed era, at least during the first few episodes. It looked like Rin’s story would be a magical rookie story. She would quickly rise above the level of seasoned riders as the journey of self-discovery, but about a third of the way through the series, the plot shifts from what looked like a tournament anime into a story of rebelling against an increasingly dystopic status quo.

The plot shift is telegraphed during the first few minutes of the show and we’re shown news clips throughout the early episodes about the maneuverings of the world military type government, called the GGP. Obviously, this was to come up and be part of the main story. The buildup and transformation of Rin, the eager magical rookie racer, to Rin the reluctant rebel on wheels felt right, rather than coming from right field. However, watching the last leg of RideBack felt a bit like a letdown.

What proved most problematic with RideBack’s political conflict was an incongruent Big Bad Evil Guy. Rin was written and thought out well, but the enemy, the GGP, was not. The GGP seemed less like an oppressive world-wide regime and more like douche-bag foreigners led by an incompetent dick, which might resonate more with a Japanese audience. Still, it relied a little too much on disliking Romanov, the face of the GGP and filling in the blanks by thinking about it and understanding that nobody really wants to be occupied. Even with that understanding, the GGP did not feel like an opponent on par with the care taken by the show to develop their heroine.

That and the story put too much emphasis on the ridebacks as the instrumental technology in the GGP’s rise to power. While the rideback is the perfect vehicle for Rin Ogata, an absolutely beautiful pairing of character and machine, it’s a nonsensical vehicle for explaining how the GGP achieved worldwide dominance.

So while the rebellion against the GGP plot felt under achieved as a result of a poor BBEG, RideBack does resolve Rin’s personal journey in the end with a dance on her RideBack. Each time the animators cut loose to showcase Rin dancing on a Rideback it’s a treat. Rin faces the murderous drones and finishes what she couldn’t finish in the opening minutes of the show. The circle closes. There is satisfaction in watching her story to the end.

Who would I recommend this to? A number of different viewer types, with some sort of asterisk or hedge against a for-sure-man recommendation, but I think RideBack has appeal for anime viewers looking to watch something a little more sober than the more hyper-whatever’s that are currently being blamed for anime’s downfall. RideBack felt more like something I was watching ten years ago than what’s airing today.

The English dub was just okay.

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I’m a little surprised that there haven’t been more Rin figures made over the last few of years. I can see why Saber figures outnumber Rin. Armor. Big sword. A wider variety of costumes and outfits. Plus if you go with the extremes of Rei and Asuka spectrum of anime girls, Saber is closer to Rei, who as it’s been thrown around, is more appealing to otaku. Rin on the other hand, at least as far as the anime goes, is more of a bitch, doesn’t wear armor or carry a big frakking sword. A serious lack of props that a pendant and a dagger can’t compare with. Still, expected more Rin figures than what was released.

As far as sexy goes I think Rin wins hands down, but Saber makes a much better D&D character. So she’s always had that appeal for me, which is why I have way too many Saber figures. On the other hand, trying to stat out a character sheet, Rin doesn’t even work that well as a magic-user — (as a side-note Rider, would rock out with spiked chain cheese in D&D 3.5). But you know if manufacturers actually released more Rin figures I probably would have almost as many as I do of Saber. Those two Fate/Stay Night Rin and Saber figures that Good Smile Company released a few years ago, ordering from Japan for the first time, waiting for them to arrive from overseas, and finally un-boxing them, unboxing an anime figure for the very first time got me hooked on collecting figures. I didn’t even know who they were. They just looked frakking cool and thought those figures were amazing. So yeah, Saber and Rin, have that sentimental appeal.

Of the two summer figures released by Alter, I think Rin wins in the more interesting department. Seated poses score points with me, plus this Saber pose is a straight vanilla line. I think that’s why the small handful of shots that I have here focus on Rin. Love her gaze here. Overall though, the detail isn’t very high, but my soft spot for these two character designs, and camis yay, makes me happy enough to have them.

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Every year since about 2007, I’ve been saying to myself on the drive home from Otakon that I’m getting too old for this shit and this is my last anime convention. Pretty much everyone else I know considers themselves too old for it, or you know, they’re just not into it enough to want to go. This year though, on the drive home, making the usual wrong turn onto 295 South, instead of 95 North, I decided I really didn’t care about being too old for this shit or not. I had fun doing the Japanese Figure Panel with VManofMana and his friend Andy, had the fun of a collective “holy shit!” with several hundred people during a screening of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, and got to go through my silly convention mini-games (buying a Cinnamorrol item, eating at the same place three times, complimenting a nice hat, etc.). The final Otakon weekend ritual includes DMing for my gaming group as soon as I get home, which turned out to be an awesome session.

Loot was light this year. A character design sketch folio for Shangri-la, the art book from the person who draws all of those awesome Persona things, Birth from the Aria artist, a bag of like 20 dice (frosted pink, blue, and colorless), a set of large K-On pins (these are pretty huge), and a dancing Cinnamorrol.

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