All right well, since this is toward the end of the convention anyway, this meetup will just be a very very late lunch or a very very early dinner, depending on how you look at it. We’ll be heading to Lawry’s Carvery or California Pizza Kitchen at about 4pm on Day 3 (Saturday). I’m not sure how crowded it will be, but I think we’ll be able to meet OUTSIDE the convention center, outside the entrance toward Petree Hall, before we head over to wherever we’re going. If they follow last year’s layout, Petree Hall and West Hall housed the registration area and some of the panel rooms.

This will probably take… an hour or two, depending on how long you want to stay, how long it takes to get food, etc. It’ll just be a time to meet these other bloggers in person and eat and talk about the con and such. Nothing particularly amazing.

Lawry’s is actually on the pricey side, so we’ll just take a vote of where we want to go for sure at the actual thing.

http://www.lacclink.com/pages/shared/meetingSpace/default.aspx <- layout of the place

My phone number is [withheld], and feel free to call me. It’s probably better if you actually give your number before the con. You can always email me or use Twitter to keep in touch as well. Hope to see you there (although if everyone does come, it’ll be quite a large crowd @_@).

Again, if you can’t make it, let me know via Twitter or through email.

If you still want to join us, you can ~ just drop an email at jason @ a certain obvious domain name. Or mention me on Twitter and I’ll DM you.

Perfect Blue
I had not heard of this film prior to the showing in the wee hours of FanimeCon 2009 day two, but some of lolikitsune’s friends said the film was amazing. Going on that recommendation, we hit up the screening room that was showing this. They said that the film was some sort of psychological mindfuck, and indeed what I watched was some sort of psychological mindfuck.

Perfect Blue deals with a pop idol by the name of Mima who leaves her idol group to, on an agent’s advice, pursue a career in acting. Some of her fans are dismayed by her decision, including one rather obsessed fan who sends her a death threat. As the story goes on, she deals with the increasing pressure caused by this particular fan and a series of gruesome murders.

There is incredible detail in both the artwork and animation, and the direction and storytelling are extremely well done. I really don’t wish to give away any more than that because this is simply a film you have to see. It’s not absolutely perfect – the story begins rather slowly – but the film easily develops into something gripping and and mesmerizing. Definitely recommended if you haven’t seen it already.

Ninja Scroll
This film I had heard of, and played immediately after Perfect Blue in the same screening room (note that at this point, it was like 3 or 4AM -_-). lolikitsune and I decided to watch it.

I fell asleep about thirty or so minutes into the movie. I remember dozing on and off as I struggled to remain interested in the title. I woke up before the last thirty or forty minutes of the movie. Unfortunately, Ninja Scroll wasn’t compelling enough to keep me awake through the night.

Ninja Scroll is in no way bad; my impression of it is just rather flawed given the fact that I slept through a chunk of it. The plot’s fairly straightforward (super crazy solo sword fighting dude takes on evil bad demon guys and also falls in love with some ninja princess lady) but seems cliche or boring. The fighting bits are kinda cool and entertaining. The art’s great, animation’s fluid, etc. etc., but I just don’t think I’m into this type of action enough to really enjoy it.

Perhaps what I had read about this film set my expectations too high. Perhaps it was the sleep that prevented me from fully appreciating the film. Whatever the case, I don’t think I’d ever watch this again, even to see what I missed during my short nap.

Spring and Chaos
So only after the OVA ended did lolikitsune reveal that Spring and Chaos was about some dead poet. Even so, I can’t say I liked the film. There’s cat people in the film. Something about some dude with a dream and he wants to help people, and he tries but his plans fail. The villagers hate him and… something happens.

I slept through a lot (maybe half) of this because… it was just so boring. So slow and… boring.

However, unlike Ninja Scroll, I would give Spring and Chaos another chance when I’m fully awake. Now that I know it’s a tribute to some famous poet dude, I can actually perhaps understand why this movie was so bizarre.

Comment here if you’re going to AX and want to meet up (I’ll contact you all through Twitter or something until AX) ~

You don’t have to be an anime blogger or something to join, but it’d be nice if we were kinda familiar with you through the blogosphere, MAL, or Twitter.

Confirmed:
CCY (of Mega Megane Moe)
cowboybibimbop
0rion (of Epic Win Blog)
tekky99 (of Psychedelic SoulJam)
digiwombat (of ikimashou/dasaku/Onii-chan no Ecchi)
nyoronyolo (of his blog of which I don’t know the name of, admittedly)

Maybes (for either AX or the meetup):
pKjd (of moetron)
gendomike (of Anime Diet)
sabas
fangzhao (of mikotoism)
Benu (of Anime Genesis)

Faggots:
ghostlightning (of We Remember Love)

So I didn’t do metablogging for Eden of the East and K-ON! as intended. Even though I could use school as an excuse, I admit that it was laziness and procrastination that prevented any posts from being published.

Since I’m graduating high school in a couple of weeks, perhaps I’ll have the time to actually anime blog. But who knows, I have said I’d blog plenty of times before and I’ve never followed through. Not to mention I do have a webcomic project (luckily others are working on the actual webcomic, ‘cuz otherwise nothing would get done) in the works, and I’m writing for Spawn Kill. I also promised gia an editorial or two at Anime Vice, and I still have to finish a guest post for otou-san, unless he’s given up on it already.

I put too much on my plate and never pull through with anything. Bleh.

I did finally get to meet lolikitsune and CCY at FanimeCon 2009. It was nice seeing CalAggie again and meeting nyoroyolo too. It was fun. That’s my con report.

My anime watching has returned to its normal levels. I plowed through Kanokon and Kamen no Maid Guy last week, and I want to finish Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex sometime this week.

lol @ FUNimation debacle

lol @ HFP’s response

I hate you all.

To Aru Majutsu no Index

Toradora!

White Album

Maria+Holic

What a disappointment. The show went nowhere after seeming so promising. The two best characters of the show, Mariya and Matsurika, were shafted as side characters as we watched this dumbass girl named Kanako run around the school being a total moron as she is worse at controlling her sexual urges than Brock of Pokemon or Makoto of School Days. Jokes were constantly recycled, and the endless onslaught of references was not very funny. Still, I laughed many times in every episode, often at those recycled jokes >_>

Come on, we needed more Mariya, Matsurika, and Shizu. None of this stupid priest giving Kanako hives crap.

Minami-ke Okaeri

Huge step up from the disasterous (yet enjoyable) Okaeri in terms of writing and humor. On the downside, the art and animation suffered tremendously. Oh, and two more things: needs moar Hosaka and needs moar Mako-chan. Totali can go die.

The writers also needed to balance the minor characters better. Many of the characters introduced were used in only one episode and never seen again, leading me to wonder if they were even necessary at all.

Overall, it was still a fun ride. But no more unless the original staff takes on a fourth season. Please. I don’t want to see more art fail.

Skip Beat!

Absolute love love love UNTIL THE ENDING RUINED EVERYTHING BECAUSE IT’S A DAMN CLIFFHANGER SO UNTIL A SECOND SEASON GETS GREEN LIT I’M GOING TO RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE.

But Kyoko pretty much is my favorite anime heroine <3

On that note, I hate what my posts turn out to be when I get sick of writing. I could come back to this and write about it later… but I’m lazy. Maybe I’ll rewrite this post later… just for ghostlightning.

Haven’t done this in a while. Thought I may start metareviewing again, so here’s Eden of the East 01.

From Minimum Tempo…

I have to admit, I really, really liked this episode. From the OP to the actual English used by the American characters, this show is full of little surprises. The animation and art are fluid and well-done, and the story seems to be moving along at a good pace (although it’s the first episode). There’s some kind of magic involved here that enchants the viewer, but we’ll see if it holds up.

From Tenka Seiha…

The writing in general was a bit painful all around. There’s a naked guy waving a gun outside of the White House, a girl throwing things at it, and abandoning her luggage in front of it. … Your opinion on the production will largely depend on how immune you are to seeing an endless parade of prerendered buildings, cars, doors, walls, people, etc. I was rather underimpressed. Like I said, I’ve seen much better writing as well. Seriously… a cop deciding to identify a suspect by their penis? And the ID failing because of shrinkage? Are you kidding me? … So, in short, there was absolutely nothing that interested me here. I don’t really know what they’re building this as.

From 見ないで! ひとり言…

Eden of the East was the most amazing show I’ve seen all season. … There was just something amazingly captivating about it without all the annoyances of the other shows that I dropped. … I think the most exciting thing for me was the fact that the whole episode took place in America. I mean this is what Japanese must feel like when they watch an anime. They go “oh this is in my hometown” or “oh I’ve been here once!” … Overall this was a great start to the show. No other anime this season has hooked me so quickly to make me want to watch more of the series. I’m definitely looking forward to watching and possibly blogging the rest of it.

From Random Curiosity…

As for the episode, it was very impressive, exceeding even my high expectations. Eden of the East is a ton of fun to watch, has some great characters, and it even manages to be hilarious a few times (the whole penis shrinkage thing and Saki’s reactions). … The story is also intriguing, though it’s harder to comment on that since this is only the first episode. They did a good job setting things up though. … Even if that is what ends up happening, this first episode makes me want to watch more, and I’m going to keep blogging this as well.

From Psychedelic SoulJam…

Eden of the East really was on a level of its own from everything else this season. Even the next best show I saw this season, Phantom, really couldn’t compare. The first episode did almost everything right. It was engaging, interesting, and most critically, it made me want more… a whole lot more. … There’s one thing that I’m praising Eden of the East on, and it’s something that I normally reserve for movies, not TV Shows… the direction. Looking back, the first episode was a collision of contrasts that managed to fit soo well together. … The episode does a masterful job of setting up the mystery.

From Subculture Anime Blog…

I would complain that things feel as if they are being forced, especially with so many ridiculously unrealistic situations happening at once, but we have to keep in mind that a movie will be following this 11 episode run. I certainly felt that this episode had the pacing of a film, and with that in mind, I put my minor complaints to the side. … I do love the attention to detail in that aspect as well, though it was awkward to see the Americans respond so readily to the Japanese being spoken to them. … I am liking the chemistry between Saki and Akira. I’m already expecting this to be one of the stronger series of 2009, so I can’t wait to see more.

From Sea Slugs! Anime Blog…

This show feels like Phantom sans Bee Train, and that is a very good thing. Saki and Akira have a really nice chemistry, and Akira’s past has already been infused with some heavy mystery. The fact that the show starts in media res makes it sound like Akira eventually had to sacrifice himself, but I bet he will pop up unharmed later as Saki cries happy tears. … The OP was alright, but I felt like I was watching the Zune software on my desktop more than anything. The paper ED was very clever, and I liked the stop motion idea a lot, even if I was afraid that a creepy paper shrimp hand could bust out at any moment. The series also had surprisingly good English, although I was confounded when Akira was speaking Japanese and various Americans could understand him. Also, did he use all of Saki’s money to buy the pants off that happy man in front of the CVS?

From Atarashii Prelude…

There is that resemblance, but I’m going to stop short of comparing this anime to Robert Ludlum’s masterpiece as it is unfair to Eden of the East, which has proved to be quite the surprise hit for me this Spring. The whole mysterious person with amnesia theme has been done ad nauseam, and it stays rather true here. However, Akira’s a pretty happy-go-lucky dude for someone whom I assume is an agent cum test subject for a clandestine organization; Flaunting his compact, yet efficient Asian penis and all. The fact it has Honey & Clover character designs(why? ?(????)) makes it somewhat harder for me to take this show seriously. … I also wish to see more of Akira’s penis which been literally cockblocked by censors. I expect this to change in the DVD release, yes?

From Hanners’ Anime Blog…

So goes the first episode of Eden of the East, and I have to admit that it seems quite strangely compelling from this opener. Production values of the series seem high from this first glimpse (well, it is a Production I.G. show) from the use of Oasis on the opening theme through to the employment of proper American voice actors to portray the Americans within this episode. That aside, the story itself has plenty of room to be intriguing thanks to our mystery man, as we’re already thick with questions surrounding who he is and who he was working for. Despite all the questions, this episode doesn’t lose its light-hearted touch either though, with some nice little set pieces to give you a laugh away from the pure, simple absurdity of it all.

From GAR GAR Stegosaurus…

Eden of the East stands out from any other show this season simply by dint of being completely different from anything both this season and any season I’ve seen before, something which certainly owes a quite a bit to the bizarre premise – Japanese girl meets Japanese guy in Washington, D.C…. and he’s naked. And carrying a gun. And has amnesia. And at least four passports. … I was impressed by the faithfulness they took with the set designs … One of the things I find interesting about the set-up, though, is the premise of nuclear threats – missiles land on Tokyo at the end of the episode. Currently, there’s quite a bit of fear in Japan about nuclear missiles, given the recent North Korean missile tests and posturing on the issue. … I’d say Eden of the East has some potential for some intriguing commentary, and I look forward to seeing how it plays out.

From Anime Diet…

It wasn’t just a surprisingly hilarious and entertaining espionage thriller, with likable characters immediately reminiscent of Morita and Ayumi and Hagu. It was a show that cared enough to pay attention to little details so that its depiction of Washington DC was, by far, the most accurate I’ve ever seen in anime. … Actually, the story seems rather flimsy at this point. Both Saki and Akira, the Morita-like character, get away with doing really outrageous things that clashes with the backdrop’s utter realism. … What was much more interesting and effective were the character interactions. Both Saki and Akira are pretty winsome characters, especially Akira, whose playfulness and whimsy really is reminiscent of Morita’s best moments.

More blogs about Eden of the East 01:

Kurogane’s Anime Blog – Eden of the East is…
Cardcaptor’s Blog – Eden of the East #01
Kita ze Inbou! – Eden of the East ep. 1
The Scrumptious Anime Blog – First Taste of Spring Anime 2009
Asperger’s Anime Blog – Eden of the East – 01: Important Member of Society
wat u say – Tayutama & Eden of the East – 01
METANORN – Eden of the East: 01 – Johnny Exposed.
Hey, Say, Anime! -  Eden of the East Ep1: Naked Guys in Washington D.C.
Hikari to Hotaru – First Impressions: Eden of the East
Calamitous Intent – First Impressions: Eden of the East, Shangri-La, Basquash
Kritik der Animationskraft – Eden of the East, Valkyria Chronicles (It’s not You)
Crazyanimegyrl – Higashi no Eden
Rabbit Poets: Blogging about Anime – Spring 2009 First Impressions: Eden of the East
Undercover – Anime Preview: Spring 2009 First Impressions – Batch 2
Chan-Chan’s Anime Blog – Eden of the East Episode 1
Bokutachi no BLOG – First Impressions: Ristorante Paradiso, Eden of the East, Hatsukoi Limited + Final Roundup
Open Your Mind – Eden of the East – The Ladies Love Johnny
notdotq – I Endorse Eden of the East
The Banzai Effect – Eden of the East- Where indecent exposure is fine too
Wolf Hurricane – So, about my previous thoughts regarding Eden of the East…
Anime Princess – Eden of the East and 07-Ghost ~First Impressions~
Can you Moe? – Eden of the East ep01: Let me check your “Johnny”

You know, I don’t think I’ll link to every blog post I see about a show anymore. It takes way too long…

Since I haven’t written anything anime-focused in a couple of months, here we go with brief thoughts on two of the eight winter 2009 shows that I completed.

Clannad ~After Story~

After Story continues with its prequel’s structure by going through Sunohara’s arc, then Misae’s arc, and so on. Despite what notdotq’s lolikitsune thinks, I think the show does a superb job of conveying what he perceives as the story’s primary message: hope never dies (I cannot comment on the movie’s ability because I have not watched it). Some claim that KyoAni’s method of linearizing Key’s multi-path visual novels just doesn’t work. This is a challenge for adaptations of visual novels of course; Riuva’s Ascaloth highlights this issue in his review. I agree with his opinion that KyoAni has excelled at bringing these different paths together into one solid narrative that demonstrates how these different situations helped Tomoya develop into a mature adult. Perhaps the only real flaws that I find in the story content of the show are Misae’s arc and the rushed ending. I feel that Misae’s arc was oddly placed because it has no real place in the show. It doesn’t involve Tomoya and Nagisa at all, and despite somewhat adding onto the themes of the show, it didn’t do much to advance the plot.

Touching on the ending… perhaps I didn’t feel as disappointed by it because I already knew what was going to happen. As Tomoya collected light orbs throughout the show, it began to be quite obvious what they would all lead to: reset ending in which Nagisa survives. Watching the ending wasn’t particularly frustrating, because I felt Tomoya was getting what he deserves. He already crumbled under the death of Nagisa, and even after completely turning himself around and even making amends with his father, Ushio was to suffer the same fate as her mother. Tomoya, who helped and tried his hardest for his friends and family, needed a happy ending. While I didn’t think Nagisa’s survival was necessary (Ushio living on would have been enough), it’s incredibly satisfying to see a hard-working, good-natured guy rewarded for being kind.

I liked how eternal put it: Clannad is a fairy tale. I don’t consider the realistic plausibility of the story if it never aimed for realism in the first place. From Fuuko’s arc in the first season, it’s clearly obvious that magic will occur. From the beginning, and if you have watched or played Air and Kanon, you very well know that Key stories are full of fantasy and wonder. Sure, the reset ending may have made our tears for Tomoya all for naught, but isn’t it nice to see him genuinely happy?

Maria-sama ga Miteru (4th season)

It was no surprise that I watched this; Marimite is my second most favorite series, just behind Aria. There’s nothing like seeing a bunch of Catholic schoolgirls prance about while engaging in pointless drama. The fourth season brought more of this, but a minor character was suddenly put into the spotlight: Touko. I quickly grew to love her tsundere ways.

With that, all I have to say is:

TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS TWIN DRILLS

(Main page/archive image taken from Danbooru)

Upcoming posts
I’m gonna do a guest post on Shameful Otaku Secret! soon. Metareviews will start again for K-ON!, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and maybe a couple of other shows. I have some ideas for meta posts (i.e. the anime blogosphere, not anime) too.

Anime
I had a huge hiatus in February and March. I finished up Toradora!, After Story, Okaeri, White Album, Maria+Holic, Skip Beat!, and Marimite s4. Currently aiming to finish Akikan!, Index, and Ride Back. I need to catch up on Haruhi-chan and Churuya-san, continue Ghost in the Shell: SAC, Escaflowne, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes. The only spring show I’ve started watching is K-ON!. I’ll probably add quite a few more to my list soon though.

Gaming
Playing my 360 almost every day now. Most future gaming posts will now be published on Spawn Kill and Nidzumi.

Projects
Maybe someday.

Mizunashi Mode
New Mizunashi Mode attempt? Maybe. Thinking about it for May or June.

Looking for writers
As always, Minimum Tempo is looking for new writers, whether they are episodic bloggers or editorial bloggers. Writing experience is NOT required; I will work with unskilled writers to improve their writing. The only criteria are the following:

1. Image Editing: Able to resize and crop images using an image editing program such as Photoshop, Paint.NET, or GIMP
2. Timeliness: On time with his or her posts, and posts at least once a week
3. Cooperation: Willing to learn from, help, and work with fellow staff with writing or technical issues
4. Respect: Respectful and friendly toward staff and visitor

If you can fulfill the above, then you are welcome to join the Minimum Tempo team. Please head to the contact page and drop off a writing sample and an email address.

An Anime Nano search for K-ON! produced a whopping twenty-nine or so results for the second episode alone. I didn’t bother to count the amount of posts for the first episode and impressions posts. Some of these second episode posts were useful in pointing out errors, one was delightfully informative, and the others were boring repeats of each other (although one mixed it up, and I actually enjoyed reading hers).

This overwhelming response to K-ON! almost deterred me from posting at all; the blogosphere doesn’t need another post on this moefest. But hey, it’s interesting to note the increasing number of anime blogs in the past six months. Unfortunately, they’re more or less all episodic summary blogs. Despite the arrogance that Owen oozes, at least he doesn’t straight up regurgitate the show into text form. It’s nice to hear what an episode is about, but not twenty or so times.

I suppose this isn’t really their fault as new anime bloggers. Perhaps it’s just a hint to finally use an RSS aggregator for anime blogs again instead of relying on Anime Nano (I could log into Anime Nano and subscribe to blogs, but I’m far too lazy). It’d be nice to see these newer blogs offer something new or a different perspective on a show. Episodic summary blogging isn’t bad, it’s just kinda repetitive and boring after the first few posts (unless you’re hilarious, like Shin or something). I’m not asking for an analysis of how time and aging work (when it’s clear that the author somewhat overlooked it), but something like this is nice.

Hm, I originally planned to write about K-ON! itself… now I’m talking about anime blogs. Well the show itself can be a topic for another day.

(Home page/archive image taken from Pixiv via Danbooru)