One Minute Of Dusk | Anime Blog

Dafuq? Nisemonogatari Ep8 (+comic)

2012-02-27T22:34:00.000+08:00

...that was all that was left in my head at the end of the episode. (Seriously, I don't know why everyone has so much to talk about)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Araragi just bang Senjougahara last episode? Now he's having ~~incest sex~~ while thinking of Tsubasa as the ideal women.

Damn Araragi. I don't know if I love you or hate you.

P.S.
I'm now totally convinced that ANYTHING + SHAFT = PROFIT. They might as well make the Daily life of Araragi Koyomi. It will sell. I guarantee it.

Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam ep17 (ep15.5), First season recap

2012-02-18T00:12:00.000+08:00

Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam hasn't been very exciting lately. The charm that came with the famous title wore off long ago, and I find myself lacking the enthusiasm to follow up on the latest episodes. But just as I was anticipating another mildly depressing 23 mins, Cloud Age Symphony played as the OP of that episode. Immediately, my eyes lit up. For the unenlightened, Cloud Age Symphony is the signature opening theme for the original Last Exile. That's Claus in the screenshot above all right, yet the title reads Ginyoku no Fam. What the hell?

It turns out to be a recap of the first season. Of course, what did I expect? It should have been really obvious, but the part of me that longs for the glory of the original Last Exile made me wanted something more.

I usually find recap episodes, like the shitty Gundam ones, a waste of time and a lousy way to sell off an episode. But this was not the case. I found this recap episode way more interesting than every episode after the trio left the Sylvius. It reminds me, with a touch of nostalgia, of how awesome the original Last Exile was. Now that I look back, I think I never fully understood how good it was when I watched it many years ago, but this episode made me see all that so much better.

They reused the ED Over the Sky to end the episode too. It sure brings back memories... shit, I think I'm crying.

The recent events of Last Exile: Fam really pales in what the original has to offer. It so happens that the story is moving along rather quickly, but why is so much of it happening off screen? The betrayal against Luscinia, the joined forces from many countries, the fall of Glacies, liberation of the Turan people, and Millia regaining her position as head of the Turan people... all of these happened off screen! All of these event "happened" because someone talks about it! What the hell? It might have been a good idea to tell the story from the important characters' perspective, but all of these huge event that could have been used to create many exciting scenes was reduced to mere talk. All of a sudden, the storytelling went all the way to hell.

And focusing the screen time on the main three girls turned out to be a pretty bad idea. While I've always been fond of "genki" girls and Fam was one of the reasons I liked Last Exile: Fam in the early episodes, she's really getting on my nerves now. Being energetic and cheerful is one thing; but there's nothing I hate more than her senseless and inappropriate actions that led to huge awkward moments, and blind optimism that somehow manages to affect people around her. It not only makes her look dumb (which is kinda true, anyway), but it also paints her as a very shallow character (which is kinda true, if you think about it).

Finally, what we've all been waiting for; Claus and Lavie to enter the story. Hopefully, things would get a lot more interesting around here. I'm not too optimistic, but getting these two in the story is a good start.

Her eyes have gotten much bigger, no?

Anime-Source.com Season Preview (First Impressions)

2012-02-07T13:52:00.000+08:00

The staff of Anime-Source.com (me included) has written up a Preview Guide for this season again. My input is essentially the same as my January Summary/First Impressions, but go check out the other writers's input too.

(Click image to go to article)

Many thanks to Himitsu, eisenmeteor, Crawen, AJtheFourth and Chikage_Shampoo.

Series Review: Blood-C (4/10)

2012-02-05T18:27:00.001+08:00

At first, Blood-C shows a lot of promise. Being the successor to a rather good anime, Blood+, together with awesome production values from Production I.G., CLAMP designs and Nana Mizuki at the helm, the show easily piqued my interest. I imagined that the anime must have quite a substantial amount of budget to be able to afford the highly prolific Nana Mizuki, or at least the producer know what he's doing.

And indeed, the production values are the main positives for the anime. The colors are strong and vibrant, the action scenes are well-animated, the songs are awesome, and there's Nana Mizuki. Though, I can't give the animation too much credit because there's so little happening in every scene.

Practically everything else is a wreck. The problem lies with the concept of Blood-C itself. Not the story, mind you, but the concept of its production. The TV series is set to sell a story with a giant plot twist that's meant to be concluded in the movie that would be released sometime in 2012. That's all that is to it; One giant plot twist. Effectively, the entirety of the Blood-C TV series had only enough material for an episode, or 1 hour at most. Someone somehow thought it's a good idea to pull off 12 episodes anyway.

And thus, it killed the show. The first 3/4 of the series is simply a repeat of the same events happening again and again, and each cycle leaves only a tiny bit of clue that keeps the audience guessing. That tiny bit of information that barely reveals anything is hardly worth the "incidents" that got old the third time we saw it. And it's not like Saya learned or used any new moves at all; she would always get thrown around like a rag doll, then goes into "demon mode" and proceed to decimate her foe. It's the same thing. Every. Fucking. Time.

And not only is the plot moving at an excruciatingly slow pace, the anime has so little content that they end up showing a lot of WALKING. I mean, they spent huge amounts of screen time simply showing characters WALKING and nothing else, because they don't have any more story to fill in that 23 mins.

Blood-C is also plagued with tons of continuity errors. With all the blood spilling in the public, you'd think that someone would have noticed what's going on anyway? Doesn't the guy that cleans up all the mess would have suspected something? And there's also the scene where Saya (calmly, probably) watches her classmates being ripped apart by a monster, doing nothing else until the monster finish digesting his first course. What the hell?

And finally, the supporting characters turned out to be pretty redundant in the end. While they contributed to the shock value, the ending doesn't seem to justify any of their expected developments. The story trolled the audience by dumping all of the supporting characters into the exact same situation, then made them all irrelevant.

In hindsight, the plot of Blood-C might have made a pretty good movie. The idea to stretch it into a ~5hr long show by filling it with repeats of pretty much the same battle, WALKING cycles and bad decisions makes it one of the biggest disappointments in 2011.

Plot/Concept: Fail
Story Style: Fail
Audio/Visual: Very Good!
Value: 4

January Summary/First Impressions Part 3 (Mouretsu Pirates, Rinne no Lagrange, Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai!, Senki Zesshou Symphogear, Nisemonogatari)

2012-02-03T06:20:00.002+08:00

Mouretsu Pirates

3 Episodes

I'm not sure about this one. We're supposed to see our cute main lead commandeer the pirate ship Bentenmaru, but we have yet to even see the said ship. Hell, we haven't seen most of the crew yet, unless "most of the crew" are all the supporting characters that has already appeared. Hell, we don't even know what "pirating" actually means in this universe. Hell, we haven't even seen the main character taking any initiation towards anything. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that Mouretsu Pirates is getting off a really slow start.

Unless this space opera is all about the exploration of this space pirates concept, I'll have to wait for the first real conflict to arrive before I make further judgements. Not that I've not been entertained so far; the animation is good, the characters are cute, but there's nothing as of yet that I would consider really interesting or funny. Let's see what they've got after they're done with the opening act.

Outlook: Neutral

Rinne no Lagrange

3 episodes

I'm surprised that Xebec, of all studios, could produce one of my favourite titles this season. And decent animaion, on top of that. Perhaps it's the help from Production I.G that made things works out so well.

I might be a little bias, but most of fun comes from the main three characters, especially protagonist Madoka herself. I've always had a soft spot for energetic, genki girls, and I feel that Madoka's energy is what brings the anime to life. Her VA, Ishihara Kaori, is a newbie seiyuu, but she already fits her role as Madoka exceedingly well. Lan (Laffinty, Fin E Ld Si), our other star, has the charm alike Yuki Nagato. The moments where she breaks her icy exterior and shows her very human emotions, despite not being one, makes her very likable. We haven't seen much of Muginami, but she's voiced by Kayano Ai, so there.

For the plot itself, it's yet another "teen becomes a mech pilot in a twist of fate" setup, but at least it's not an angsty male lead. I'm no fan of mecha anime nor I have any idea where this will lead to, but I'm fairly sure the lead characters would be quite enough to make this worthwhile.

Outlook: Positive

Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai!

3 Episodes

If you're thinking what I'm thinking, you're afraid that this would venture into the forbidden territory. Some might say, hey, technically they're not blood related right? Well... That's not the issue.

When I first checked out the manga before the start of the season, Papakiki was nothing like the harem the anime suggests. I'll say it's a bit closer to Usagi drop; a older guy taking care of much younger relatives, how they go from strangers to kins (and possible something more?), a lot of emphasis on family values, duties as a guardian, growth of the kids and cohabiting problems. There's a lot of love, but not the romance kind (yet). I think I'd prefer it that way. It's much more unique in the industry, and it'll stop people from thinking that it's yet another harem anime, only one that features an age gap.

Unfortunately, the anime seems to have different ideas. The first two episodes leaves an impression that the various girls simply appears in the protagonist's life out of nowhere, a scenario much like a stereotypical harem show. The fact that the anime highlighted the various attributes, like school beauty and tsundere, places the female characters into bishoujo archetypes and made things worse.

While I have little doubt about the Yuuta x Sora pairing in the end, I think selling the title with that kind of image is a pretty bad decision, judging by the number of people who dropped it already. I haven't read much into the manga yet, but I do hope that they dive deep into the family theme for now. Besides, they couldn't conclude a romance angle if they tried; the manga isn't even complete yet, and I doubt that they want the anime go ahead and stray from the mangaka's direction.

Outlook: Neutral

Senki Zesshou Symphogear

3 episodes

Senki Zesshou Symphogear is a poor man's MSLN. But other than the two big name seiyuus that voices the main characters of the series, Nana Mizuki and Aoi Yuuki, there is little I could give praise for.

Symphogear is like a combination of Macross and the Mahou Shoujo genre. But unlike Macross which based its success on the blend of kick-ass action scenes and awesome songs, Symphogear had the characters does the job of both. It didn't seem like it, but it turn out to be a pretty awful concept. It looks really silly to see the characters singing while getting hit and tossed around at the same time. It's like talking non-stop to a guy who's constantly punching for face. It just isn't going to work.

There's also a sharp dip in the production quality after the first episode. The action scene still does its job fine, and there some pretty cool CG and backgrounds, but some of the simplest scenes looks hilariously bad.

I still get chills whenever Nana Mizuki's character enters the battle with an awesome song, until I saw her singing and attempting to perform complicated maneuvers at the same time. It looks incredibly tiring and even I, the audience, feels breathless for her. Aoi Yuuki's singing hasn't been very impressive so far. Her "rage mode" seems to have potential for interesting developments in the future, but that itself isn't going to keep me watching this.

Outlook: Bad.

Nisemonogatari

January Summary/First Impressions Part 2 (Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, Inu X Boku SS, Kill Me Baby)

2012-02-01T15:52:00.001+08:00

Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

3 Episodes

Sunrise on a highschool comedy?...

Well I'm not sure what to expect from this, but Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou certainly didn't echo anything I'll expect from the studio that created Gundam and Code Geass. As it turns out, this anime is surprisingly funny for something that mainly feature guys. It's full of silly, comical and perverted jokes of these teenage boys, but best of all, a lot of their situations and jokes is something I can relate to (opps). It's quite special in that the series sells on the humor in realistic and probably everyday moments, unlike many titles of similar genre, e.g. the other Nichijou last year. It's a pity that most of the girls in the series will never be properly introduced, from the looks of it, which would make this a sausage fest all the way. This isn't really the kind of stuff I would put into my watch list, but since it's pretty entertaining so far, I'll keep it on for now.

Outlook: Positive

Inu X Boku SS

3 Episodes

I immediately got hooked onto the manga after a quick glance; the story isn't the most original, but the unique characters is what makes it so interesting. It has a well planned and deeply engaging story to tell, and it continuously moves on with the story without any point of lull in between, which I appreciates. A lot of stories like to insert slice-of-life or comedic chapters in between the arcs for the sake of character development, but sometimes it's better without that distraction.

Unlike Kill Me Baby and a lot of titles I could name, Inu X Boku translates stupendously well into anime format, which is pretty rare. Ririchiyo's character works out so much better in animation, and the format also gave characters like Sorinozuka so much more "life". The story's going to get so much better from here on, and I can't wait to see how they'll handle the climaxes. Good job, David productions.

Outlook: Extremely Positive!

Kill Me Baby

2 Episodes

Ironically, the series I look forward to the most turned out to be the biggest disappointment in this season. I loved the manga, long before the anime series is announced. It boasts quick, silly, quirky humor and links the jokes in a chapter together really well. In fact, I can't really name another gag comedy 4-koma that does this better.

The anime screwed up everything that is awesome about the manga. Firstly, the comedic timing is all but lost. Comedic timing means everything in a comedy series to me, and I've barely managed a chuckle for the first two episodes. Secondly, Sonya's VA is downright terrible, and she's supposed to be the more experienced of the two. Lastly, the production values is crap. The BGM is either missing or plain weird. I've been in denial about how bad the opening theme is but... (sigh). Let's just pretend this anime never happened.

Outlook: Negative

January Summary/First Impressions Part 1 (AnoNatsu, Another, Brave 10)

2012-01-31T22:46:00.002+08:00

Ano Natsu de Matteru

3 Episodes

AnoNatsu has left a surprisingly good impression at the end of the third episode. Now, I'm not familiar with any of the Onegai series people kept connecting this anime with, but on first glance, AnoNatsu appears to be build on a generic setup and runs on a very formulaic development. What surprises me is that the story has consistently develop in ways I didn't quite expect. I'd have thought it'll be easy to predict the general outline of the story, but no. What I got in the end is an anime with a very familiar setting and popular character styles, but runs on a very fresh (and very welcome) story style that marks a refreshingly stark contrast with your average common anime series. This might sound like overly high praise for just three episodes, but I always appreciates it when stories avoids the cliché traps in the opportune moments. The plot itself still leave much to be desired, but AnoNatsu has already worked out half the formula for a success.

Outlook: Very Positive

Another

3 Episodes

Despite being a horror series, I failed to be even mildly thrilled by anything they've tried for the first three episodes. If anything can be considered scary, it would be the BGM; and unfortunately, only the BGM. I understand that the anime is still at the phase where it has to build up the suspense and setting and stuff, but it has never really gave the audience anything to be scared of. I'm pretty sure that if you turned off the BGMs, all you'll get is simply a pretty boring high school story with a hint of mystery.

In any case, Mei is way too cute to be the subject of my horror; and it's ironic that I'm enjoying this more as a regular high school anime instead of something that's supposed to freak me out. Being adapted into a unfamiliar style and its fantastic animation quality is keeping me interested, but I'm not sure that would carry me very far.

Outlook: Mildly Positive

Brave 10

3 Episodes

I'm not normally into samurai series like these, but this feels like a more shounen version of yet-another-sengoku-anime, without too much anthropomorphism, exaggeration or gar. TMS studio is also something I've never heard of, so I'm quite interested to check this out...

ahh... fine. I'm watching this for Satou Rina. Damn.

But ideally, I was hoping for another Samurai Champloo or Seirei no Moribito. Well, from what I've seen from the first three episodes, I'm sure Brave 10 would never get anywhere close. We have a fairly generic plot of the main character meeting and fighting the various "braves", but at least the action's pretty good so far. Nothing's amazing, but the anime has done well to avoid clichés despite having rather shallow characters. It's unfortunate that Satou Rina's character, Isanami, is portrayed as your regular female lead that falls in love with the male lead for practically no reason.

Anyway, they should fire the sound guy. Too many times the voice work is barely comprehensible compared to the overwhelming sound effects, and I can't seem to find a appropriate volume I can set to watch the show.

Outlook: Fairly Good

My face during Another Ep3

2012-01-28T03:18:00.000+08:00

Seriously, though, does that mean that Mei is a something like a doll created based on Fujioka?

(Oh darn, Mei is so cute...)

Happy Lunar New Year!

2012-01-23T00:35:00.002+08:00

Happy Lunar New Year to all the Chinese anime fans!

OMOD is on a short hiatus due to that, plus I'm still settling in my new job.

P.S. This season is awesome!

Anime Blog Carnival Roundup: What makes a 10/10 anime?

2012-01-16T14:03:00.000+08:00

A 10/10 anime by all standards

At the end of the carnival, each of us is supposed to do a roundup post that summarizes our thoughts and findings in the carnival. While the objective of the roundup post is pretty vague, it gives us the freedom write whatever we wanted on the carnival. It isn't compulsory and sometimes only organizer is required to write one, but since this is a hobby we're writing about, and being the very first Anime Blog Carnival, I thought it'll be a good opportunity to share.

Well, first of all, I didn't realize that Anime Blog Carnival can be abbreviated as ABC. Cool, huh?

Defining The "Value"

I was surprised by how obscure and unique my "value" scoring system is. For my reviews and scores, I've always wanted them to represent how much I would recommend a particular title to the anime's target audience. The term "target audience" is extremely important; like what I've discussed with many others, does this particular anime seeks to entertain you? For example, I'm plenty sick of all the gusto and sweltering hard work themes in sports anime. Is it fair for me to rate this particular sports anime lower because I didn't like that? The producers of this anime doesn't care about me; they seek to entertain fans of this genre, and those guys surely had no problems with these themes. I couldn't allow myself to judge this anime purely in terms of enjoyment because of how unfair it is, but I could judge it from the point of view of the target audience, hence the "value".

Ephemeral Dreamer's post helped me defined the difference between "Value" and "Quality", which is Purpose. Has the particular anime achieved the desired reaction from its audience? Does it successfully convey the message it had to the audience? And most importantly, has the show entertained whoever it seeks to entertain? I've discussed this with Kai that the execution of the story means practically everything to me; it's easy for us viewers to see the objective of the show, and the enjoyment level holds close to how well they've accomplished that objective.

And lastly, "Value" has helped me defined which titles I would want to rank it amongst my top-tier 10/10. Like what Mira said, a great show, or to me a perfect show, might only get a 9/10. A 10/10 title has to means something more to me. And in most cases, my 10/10 title is a perfect show with a little something extra. For example, Samurai Champloo has an incredibly unique story setup that seeks to entertain with the interaction and development of the characters while abandoning the usual modus operandi of storytelling. By having awesome characters that worked well with each other and the story setup, it earned that one last point that pushes it from a 9/10 to a 10/10. This little something extra might be subjective across different kinds of target audiences, but I know I'll see it no matter the genre.

This is going to look like a tl;dr to once again justify my carnival post, so I'll stop here.

Subjective vs Objective

One of the things I've learned about the carnival is that reviewers, or scorers, usually based their scores on a subjective or objective point of view. See draggle's roundup post for a breakdown on where each of the carnival participants belongs to. Subjective scorers, also Yumeka's heart score, is akin to my first scoring method based on enjoyment. It's not too rare that we see a subjective score that sharply contrasts with the public generated average, because in the end it still depends on the scorers' tastes. Objective scorers, also Yumeka's head score, is akin to my second scoring method based on quality. Objective scores are often quite close to the public generated average, because they tend to look from a general point of view. A quick look around the net tells me that reviewers often belongs to one of the two groups.

I find myself to be a blur of both group. As you can see, I've tried and abandoned both scoring methods and went with something that works for me. Scoring on "value" has many similarities to scoring on "quality" (objective), but the final score can be very different.

It's still just preferences, after all. A mix of opinions from the subjective reviewers, together with the average created by the objective reviewers, would in most cases still presents a score that well reflects the worth of an anime title.

In Conclusion...

There's quite a few unexpected benefits from the carnival. First of all, the carnival allow other bloggers to bring up the points that you've missed out yourself. Their opinions might also contribute and reinforce your own, to help form a stronger conclusion. The carnival also allows us to reiterate, clarify and reinforce our points in the discussion with other bloggers, and it's worth it if you had a solid interest in the subject.

Through sharing and discussing, I've learned quite a bit, and that led me to make a few minor tweaks in my reviewing/scoring method. While the score itself would not change much, I've learned that the reviews itself should be a personal thing and thus I would try to have more subjective input. The "heart score", or enjoyment factor, is better used as modifier to the score instead of a component or percentage; and in the end, "value" is still a very subjective thing.

Finally, I would like to thank fellow bloggers Marina, Sam, Marow, Nopy, Draggle, Mira, AceRailgun, Leap250, Yumeka, SnippetTee, Ephemeral Dreamer, Hoshiko, Yi , @fkeroge, Valence and Kai that helped make the first anime blog carnival a success. I haven't had any solid plans for a second carnival, but I've had some ideas I would like to try out in the future. Feedback is most welcome! Thank you everyone!

(Back to the carnival post, with links to all articles)

Anime Blog Carnival! - What makes a 10/10 anime?

2012-01-09T04:38:00.005+08:00

Welcome to a blog carnival! What is it about, you ask? Well, the exact definition is subjective to the participants, but generally a blog carnival is an event where several bloggers get together to write and discuss about the same subject. It's a fairly simple concept that allow bloggers within the same blogosphere to talk about a particular topic, and although the idea that has been used in other blogging circles for a while now, strangely enough it is almost unheard of in the anime blogging community.

And so, I've got several fellow bloggers interested to join in this round of the carnival. Marina, Sam, Marow, Nopy, Draggle, Mira, AceRailgun, Leap250, Yumeka, SnippetTee, Ephemeral Dreamer, Hoshiko and Yi would all be publishing their post sometime today (or tomorrow, depending on their timezone), so be sure to check out their opinions on the subject too.

What makes a 10/10 anime?

You must have heard this a lot. How would someone justify a 10/10 score given to an anime? Depending on the site or blog the score is given, it might be a full 5 stars, a 100/100 points, etc. In a place where the different titles are judged by a single individual (blogs) or a huge number of people (MyAnimeList, Anime Planet, etc), you've got to wonder what the numbers mean to these people. You might have remembered that one guy who gave everything he liked 10/10, or someone else who gave only 3 out of 200 anime titles a full score. How would you justify their scoring methods?

According to my anime list, I'm pretty liberal with my 10/10s. But after writing reviews for almost every anime title I've watched for 6 years, my reviews and my scoring system has changed a lot, and many times. That is to say, many of those titles won't have gotten such a score from my current rating system. Here's a look at how a 10/10 anime meant to me over the years, and probably still do for a lot of people.

Shuffle!, a 10/10 anime based on enjoyment.

Score = Enjoyment (2006-2008)

When I started writing reviews, I had a firm stance that the score should only, and directly represent how much I enjoyed the anime. Stuff like animation quality and production values mean little to me; no matter what they went through in the animation process, no matter how hard they tried to deliver the entertainment, and no matter how well they tried to create a complex and intriguing story, to me, only one thing mattered: The Final Product. If I do not enjoy a 500 million yen project created with a huge amount of talent, I would still score it lower than a 50 million yen project made whimsicality but somehow clicked with me. People watch anime as a form of entertainment and its score should reflect how much it entertained.

So back then, a 10/10 is something I loved to death, despite any flaws.

It took me pretty long to agree that this scoring method is pretty unfair. First of all, I'm not the all-genre person I thought I am. Genres like sports, horror, shounen-ai, psychological and tragedies tend to score lower than others, and I'm more bias towards more moé series. Secondly, this method does not give those unique, avant-garde and crazier shows a fair chance.

Toradora!, a 10/10 anime based on quality.

Score = Quality (2009-2010)

It then dawn upon me that the score should really reflect the quality of the anime. People watch anime for entertainment, and the score should reflect how well it can entertain the people who know what they're looking for. I judge a action series based on how much it got me fired up, a comedy based on how much it made me laugh, and a tragedy based on how much it made my cry. I judged it from the perspective of the target audience, because it only seemed fair that a totally crazy show would be perfect for a totally crazy person. Looking from a wider perspective, I began to take the animation quality and production values heavily into account.

Then, a 10/10 score practically means that the anime is flawless.

But this also created a paradox that I can't avoid. How can I rate something awful like Eiken so low, where the target audience are obviously people who wants nothing but hideously huge boobs?

Hanasaku Iroha, a 10/10 anime based on value.

Score = Value (2011-present)

It was with the formation of this new scoring logic that I came up with the idea where I would put the newer reviews written with this logic in a blog, which was a year ago. This concept came to me while I was watching the first season Shinryaku! Ika Musume... It was arguably pretty funny, and I always laughed every episode. But was it worth it? Despite the fact that the series succeeded in making me laugh, I can't shake the feeling that watching the whole thing was a huge waste of time. I really wanted something that meant more than just a few minutes of laughter. Then it came to me.

The score should reflect how much the anime meant to the target audience.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica, also a 10/10 anime based on value.

My Perfect Score

A very enjoyable anime with excellent production values would only score a 9, tops. When we talk about the value of the viewing experience, a lot of questions come into play. Does it make the audience think? Does it make the target audience relate to something in real life? Does it allow the target audience to experience what's missing in their real life? How original is it? How unique is the plot? How memorable are the characters? The list goes on. Film studies tells you that productions deal with questions like these all the time, and if they can hit the correct spots, I won't hesitate to give a poorly-produced show that I didn't enjoy a perfect score.

Hanasaku Iroha is a good example. The series is far from perfect, with plenty of boring moments, unnecessary moé at times and draggy pacing, but its sincere storytelling, careful play of emotions and extremely refined atmosphere won me over. HanaIro might score high for enjoyment, much lower for quality, but its value makes it a 10.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a different example. Despite being a relatively crappy year, I'll still say that there's at least 12 titles I've enjoyed more than PM3, and only one of which scored a 10/10 (that's HanaIro). But if there's one anime that makes you think, it's PM3. Its originality, bold concept that deconstructs the Magical Girl genre paired with the shocking plot twist and a brilliantly executed ending secured the "Anime of the Year" title even before the next season starts. PM3 didn't get an impressive enjoyment score from me, but it no doubt deserves a 10 for value.

So! What does a 10/10 score means to you?

Other Carnival Participants: (Article links would be updated as they are posted)

(Article) Anime B&B
(Article) The Otaku's Study
(Article) Anime Viking
(Article) Nopy's Blog
(Article) Draggle's Anime Blog
(Article) Hachimitsu
(Article) Ace Railgun
(Article) Leap250's Blog
(Article) Mainichi Anime Yume
(Article) Lemmas and Submodalities
(Article) Ephemeral Dreams
(Article) World of Yamaguchi Hoshiko
(Article) Listless Ink

Related carnival posts:
Ambivalence or is it ambiguity?
deluscar

December and Fall '11 Roundup

2012-01-07T23:34:00.000+08:00

This only make sense because I'm only able to catch up with these titles in the past couple of days. (Sorry)

The Good

Ben-To

While the anime didn't conclude with an epic battle like I imagined, I must say it ended pretty well. The final Orthros storyline was pieced together clumsily with a back-story that superficially flipped the allegiance of the characters, but the frivolous story style makes it easy to ignore that point. I'm sad to see Yarizui went out of action in the final part of the anime, but it's nice to see that Sato possibly trigger a flag with her.

Still, even with the rather conclusive ending, Ben-To is still an anime that is hard to impress. I don't suppose David Productions expected to make a killing with their first piece of work with such a ridiculous premises, but I don't suppose many people expected something like Ben-To to do okay anyway. While I must say that Ben-To was enjoyable to a certain extent, I don't see myself ever recommending it to anyone.

Working'!!

Working'!! seems to get progressively better as it shifts from the jokes based on the character's traits to the jokes that runs with the character's development. It's hard to say any real character development takes place, but the tiny advancements Sato has towards Yachiyo and the supposed "improvements" to Inami's phobia helps make the anime stop looking like they're running the same three jokes over and over again. I'm not too impressed with their original jokes though.

The first season quickly became my top series that year, but I don't find myself liking the second season just as much. While I can't deny that the increase in budget boosts the entertainment value with awesome graphics, I don't like the fact that they seemed determined to run the jokes with a huge stack of cheese on top. Excessive cheesiness is one of the few things in anime I can't stand, but if they thinks it actually helps make Popura any cuter, I'll give. (sigh) They did all that for the sales numbers anyway. Thankfully, that's my only real problem with the anime.

Tamayura ~Hitotose~

And with that last episode, Tamayura jumped straight to the top of the list and became my favourite series of Fall '11. I've always loved slice-of-life animes like these, but I've always thought that Tamayura had something lacking; and it was not until the end where I began to feel that they've played the friendship aspect of the characters extremely well. It's not like other notable slice-of-life series didn't toy with the same idea, but I don't think any of the other series has been able to use that idea as one of it's main selling points. Tamayura not might be consciously doing that as well; but the selling point of Tamayura was always been pretty vague, and perhaps that's what highlighted the bonding between the main girls of the show. Well, it works for me, at least.

Tamayura remains to be snoozer in the end, because (like what I've mentioned above) they don't really have a solid selling point, like Aria's beauty of Venice, K-ON's moeblobs, Croiseé's innocence and the sense of adventure, Lucky Star's comedy, etc. That itself makes it really hard for a non-slice-of-life fan to get into. I myself had times where I fail to absorb what's going on in the series out of boredom, and that is the anime's weakness. Tamayura is enjoyable, but not memorable.

The Average

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

With Yozora's development in the end after revealing their past connection to Kodaka, I don't find myself hating her anymore, which is good, but the fact that it came so late makes it kind of pointless anyway. My beef is that after the secret is revealed, absolutely nothing happens. At least, nothing happened except that they knew. It doesn't feel like they have gotten any closer at all. So why the f.ck did it matter? I mean, I'd be pissed if Kodaka gets Yozora instead of Sena, but at least I wanted it to mean something before it ends. Not in the next season, because I don't see myself catching it anyway.

Last Exile ~Ginyoku no Fam~

I got to admit that after that magic of the beauty of the Last Exile universe wore off, the series had became a little tiring to watch. For one, the story has been terribly slow and Fam still fails to shows any signs of character development. They would need a lot of clever scenery and shots that would help portray the diversity and vastness of the different countries, as much of the recent backgrounds are almost totally blue sky, and that's it. At the end of every episode they still left a hook that would keep me interested in the story, but they aren't bold enough to make it more dramatic. Well, now that they've given us a character to loathe (Princess Liliana) and with Alvis revealed, that should keep my attention for a while.

The Below Average

Shinryaku!? Ika Musume

If I may put it bluntly, Ika Musume has always been a "dumb comedy' to me, and I picked it back up after dropping it early on because I'm able to see it that way. With a bit of cuteness as a plus, of course. I don't really buy the character designs (except for Ika-musume herself) with the kind of animation quality they had to offer, but mini-Ika was simple moé overload. So overall, the anime allows me to turn my brain off and enjoy it. But for the love of god, they actually went with a real story to warp up the series. And it sucked. They took the simplest possible "quarrel between friends" story and ran with it. Then I had to re-activate my brain because I need all of it to process how stupid it was. Goddammit.

Shakugan no Shana Final

What Shana ever stood for, I never knew. I've always seen Shakugan no Shana as a supernatural fighting shounen story with a romance angle which I, unlike many others, don't think it necessarily sucked. I actually welcomed the idea of the romance-heavy plot in season 2 because it helps prevent the story from being so one-dimensional.

Fine, then they decided to throw all of that away and went for a war scenario instead. An entire cour went into the war between the bad guys and good guys, but I dunno, does any one really cares? They brought a whole bunch of characters we barely or never knew about and who cares if any or all of them died? This is a sequel, and want to see a continuation of the story that revolves around the characters we knew and cared about. All we get after 12 episodes is (yet another) Sato getting it on with ~~veteran prostitute~~ milf flame haze Margery Daw and Shana finally knowing who she really wants to be. Wait, she never knew that before? News to me. Perhaps they simply pulled an overused plot from within the Divine Gate and ran with it.

Winter 2011/2012 Pre-Season Impressions

2012-01-04T05:18:00.001+08:00

Damn Rinne no Lagrange had an early release before I could complete this, but heck; let's get this over with.

Despite the comparatively low number of series produced this season, quite a number of series caught my eye; and while I don't really have the time to give a first impression on all of those titles, I might end up following many of them, depending on the reviews from fellow bloggers.

	Recorder to Randoseru Studio: Seven (All they did was Morita-san wa Mukuchi... and Beyblade) Notable Crew: Kugimiya Rie as the chibi Summary: A gag comedy where the siblings totally does not look their age. On first sight, you gotta admit that it concept sounds pretty dumb. But as long as the anime does not take itself seriously, it might still be worthwhile entertainment. I'll wait for other people's judgment to see if I would catch this.
	Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou Studio: Sunrise Notable Crew: Hikasa Youko, Takagaki Ayahi, Yuuki Aoi Summary: A slice-of-life comedy with male protagonists. This smells a lot like Kimi to Boku from not too long ago, but fortunately this isn't a complete sausage fest, which makes it a lot more appealing in comparison. I'm more surprised that Sunrise is animating this, which seemed to be something totally out of their niché, but T&B proved that they take good risks. 1 episode test.
	Another Studio: P.A. Works Notable Crew: Err... Summary: Main lead can see a ghost? There seems to be a lot of talk about this anime, but horror/thriller doesn't interest me. Considering how much I like P.A. Works I might give it a try, but I'm unlikely to follow this unless it has a intriguing story.
	Rinne no Lagrange Studio: Xebec Notable Crew: Kayano Ai Summary: Female pilots a mech to fight aliens. I hated Xebec with a passion, but I know that they had some good titles under their belt. Director Toshimasa Suzuki did Heroic Age, so at least there's some familiarity with mecha series (not sure what "Chief Director" Tatsuo Sato's job is). Being an original production, there's too little to be said about the story at this point (unless you've already watched the preair, you might have a faint idea), but the promo video shows a lot of promise.
	Inu X Boku SS Studio: David Production (Ben-To) Notable Crew: Hidaka Rina, Hikasa Youko, Hanazawa Kana Summary: Female's bodyguard turns out to be a fox spirit. David production's Ben-To didn't really win me over, but it's a nice surprise to know how well this new studio can do. I was initially very skeptical of this anime, but after reading the manga, which was really good, I started to look forward it. It isn't exactly your usual tsundere romcom; the story actually had a variety of interesting characters, and the lead characters are pretty unusual as well. Hidaka Rina's age is pretty close to her character too. She's 18 and her character's 15. Definitely watching this.
	Nisemonogatari Studio: Shaft It is sequel to Bakemonogatari, which is widely considered the best anime of 2009. That's enough reason for you to watch it.
	Mouretsu Pirates Studio: Satelight Notable Crew: Hanazawa Kana, Horie Yui, Omigawa Chiaki, Itou Shizuka, Tomatsu Haruka Summary: Female lead inherits a pirate spaceship. Damn, just by looking at the seiyuu line-up, I'm ready to sign up. The premises isn't particularly imaginative, but the animation quality sure looks impressive, at least from the promo anyway. All I'm concern with is the director Tatsuo Sato, who hasn't direct anything for quite a while now.
	Ano Natsu de Matteru Studio: J.C. Staff Notable Crew: Tomatsu Haruka, Tamura Yukari, Yousuke Kuroda Summary: ? People seems to be talking about this a lot, but I've never been a fan of the Onegai series, so I could hardly get interested. Since this is an original production as well, practically nothing is reveal yet... all that can be deduced from the promotional videos ain't particularly interesting. If the animation feels awfully familiar to you, you're probably right; the director of Anohana also helms the production of this one. Too little is known about this anime to give a good idea of how well it'll do, so I'll give this a 3-episode test.
	Brave 10 Studio: TMS Entertainment Notable Crew: Ono Daisuke, Satou Rina, Asakawa Yuu Summary: Yet another Sengoku period anime. I usually skip stuff like these instantly, because the re-enactment of history has been done so many times and there leaves little room for imagination. But unlike many others, this isn't a game adaptation, doesn't cast all the characters as girls or in the different period. Having Ono Daisuke and Satou Rina in the seiyuu line-up definitely caught my eye as well. I've never watched anything from TMS Entertainment though, so this ought to be interesting. Giving it a 1 episode test.
	Senki Zesshou Symphogear Studio: Encourage Films Notable Crew: Mizuki Nana, Takayama Minami, Summary: Girls fight unidentified enemies with songs. First of all, I've never heard of Encourage Films. A quick look at their history tells me that this is the first anime that they're in charge of, other than a ONA, which makes things a little bit uncomfortable... Still, we have Nana Mizuki taking a singing role in an anime, and that itself shows a lot of promise. I'm not too sure about Takayama Minami though. She a veteran mostly known for Detective Conan, but I've never heard her myself. Her bio shows that she's a singer, but she's almost 50... would she fit into her teenage singer image?
	Amagami SS+ Plus Studio: AIC Notable Crew: Itou Shizuka, Yukana, Shintani Ryoko, Satou Rina, Asumi Kana Summary: 2 episodes per heroine to carry on the different routes in the first season. I liked the concept enough to buy the manga, but the story direction of the first season of the anime seems to left a bad taste in my mouth. Of all the heroines, I thought only Kaoru had a proper story and ending; the very limited amount of episodes per heroine makes it hard to explore the character's relationship properly. Q.E.D I don't think the omnibus format works as well as it did in Yosuga no Sora. I also didn't really understand the point of continuing past the story in the first season; what can two episodes per heroine do?
	Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai! Studio: Feel Notable Crew: Kitamura Eri, Horie Yui Summary: Three half-sisters go live with their 19 year old uncle. I was afraid they would step into the forbidden territory with this one, but I liked how they highlighted the family bonding theme above the slightly ecchi scenario. Being produced by Feel, there's no doubt that there would be a good amount of fan-service involved here. This feels to be a lot like Kure-nai which I'm very fond of, and with all the cute girls involved, I had to give this a try. Special note: They're casting a 19 year old for the 3 year old girl (which is very reasonable in seiyuu terms) and Horie Yui's singing the ED theme.
	High School DxD Studio: TNK (all they make is shit) Notable Crew: Hikasa Youko Summary: Male lead died and went to harem heaven. I'm always on a lookout for a good harem anime, but this one might not even warrant a try. As much as I like Hikasa Youko, she really had a penchant for crappy anime, and this one feel strongly like one of her awful choices. Seriously, go check out the TNK list and you might get a good idea of what this show would be like.
	Black ★ Rock Shooter Studio: Ordet & SANZIGEN (unless I'm mistaken, this is both studio's first project) Notable Crew: Hanazawa Kana, Sawashiro Miyuki, Mari Okada Summary: BRS is a concept character without a real story, so they can take this anywhere, really. Having Hanakana and Sawashiro Miyuki on the lead roles is a huge boost, and with Mari Okada writing the script, BRS seems a pretty safe bet. Then again, the OVA fails to amaze anyone, and while that production is more about exploring the character concepts, I have doubts about how well BRS can translate into a story. Still, I used to be quite a BRS fan, and I'm sure to watch this anyway.
	Kill Me Baby Studio: J.C. Staff Notable Crew: None Summary: An incredibly dumb Boke and an incredibly violent Tsukkomi. Both as little girls. I love the manga, so I was ecstatic when I heard they were going to animate this, but the preview and opening theme was seriously disappointing. I can only hope that this isn't the final version of the OP, although the song is bad enough already. Furthermore, they starred a couple of relatively unknown seiyuus for the leads, and with the number of anime J.C. Staff is doing this season, it feels like Kill Me Baby is done with whatever excess manpower they had left. At least, the OP seems to tell me that they don't give a shit. The director is also a newbie. Damn.

Summary

Would definitely watch - Inu X Boku SS, Nisemonogatari, Mouretsu Pirates, Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai!, Black ★ Rock Shooter, Kill Me Baby

1/3 Episodes test - Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, Another, Rinne no Lagrange, Ano Natsu de Matteru, Brave 10, Senki Zesshou Symphogear

Reserve judgement - Recorder to Randoseru, High School DxD

Other shows I don't care about - Shin Tennis no Ouji-sama (sports), Area no Kishi (sports), Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2 (haven't watch prequel), Natsume Yuujin-chou 4 (haven't watch prequel), Zero no Tsukaima 4 (haven't watch season 3), Aquarion Evol (haven't watch prequel... kinda)

New Year (Anime) Resolutions, Site Update, Anniversary, Changes, and gosh, I don't know what I'm talking about

2012-01-03T05:24:00.000+08:00

(Sorry for the excessive expletives)

First of all, Akemashite omedetou minna-san! May we all have a good year ahead of us. Well, 2011 is a pretty bad year for anime, to me at least. Except for the best-sellers, I can't even say confidently that I loved all of my top 12 picks. As long as we're not all going to die, 2012 would definitely be better. I hope.

Well, this would be a tl;dr rant. I hate posts like that, truly, and I almost never read tl;dr anyway unless it's MAY, so if you're anything like me you should bounce now, really. The above paragraph is all that is for this post. My head is now full of shit (again, sorry for the excessive expletives in this post) and I just need to get stuff out before I can continue blogging like I want to.

So, you know about the two-year curse of anime bloggers? It seems that a ton of anime blogs doesn't last 2 years before they gets burned out or lose interest. I don't know about other people, but I've always saw this as a real threat, even before I began blogging. And guess what? I've just experienced firsthand on what being "burned out" feels like.

The latter half of December feels like Basic Military Training to me (yeah I've been through that shit). On top of juggling all the stuff I need to do for my new job, there's also the art assignments I need to complete for my entry into university, and there seems to be tons of friends and family commitments, art classes, driving classes, and I also had to deal with the 12 days of Christmas Post that I unwisely got myself into, unprepared. Seriously, towards the end of the 12 days, I feel like I started making up shit as I go along. Because there just aren't 12 moments in 2011 that would stay with me. I mean, no doubt they are the 12 most memorable ones in the end, but I can't remember half of them already. I could have made it into something more meaningful to me with my posts, but without preparation, and having to post everyday, depleted my limited brain-juice for that one. (The Hatsune Miku concert was genuine, although nobody gives a shit)

And there comes the problem. When you make good posts with good response, you get the enthusiasm and energy to keep going. But when you start writing shit, you look back and stare at your shit and questions youself "Is this the kind of standard I have?" And you get bummed out and there goes all the energy you once had. I wonder if my fellow bloggers ever felt the same?

So this is me getting burned out. I mean, I could have gotten a post out days ago, but my creative juices simply fails to exists and I just sat there site-hopping, watching videos I didn't care about, go out and hang with friends at every opportunity, re-site-hopping the same sites I've been visiting 5 minutes ago, and simply doing anything not-blogging. It's funny right? It took most people two years, and it took me only one.

Yeah, that's right. As of 1/1/12, I've been blogging anime for a year. I tried to pretend that I didn't, because I've never achieved any milestones that I could brag about. But yeah, whatever, I admit that I can't be considered a newfag anymore just because this restarted blog has only been a few months old. Well yeah, my old blog is still there, go see it if you want, but it's so filled with shit that I can't bear to look at it anymore. Ugh. I think I left it there to remind me of my shame.

Well. So, this rant is like a remedy to my burnout. Somehow I feel the need to get this out before I can continue blogging, really. Normalcy would began tomorrow. Meanwhile, enjoy the reward pic, Jinx style.

So anyway... this is me trying to talk like Louis CK. I love that guy.

And oh... wait! There's still my anime resolutions for 2011.

- I would not be doing anymore Season Previews, because I can't (and won't) do a better research than many other blogs, especially Random Curiosity, so there's no point in writing that. However, I may do Pre-season impressions, but that depends. I'm not sure I would write one for this season, since it already started (I thought the first episode of the year would start on 5th Jan... oh well)

- I would try my best to finish up the reviews I procrastinated to write for the shows I watched in 2011, like Denpa Onna, Mayo Chiki, Angel Beats!, Yosuga no Sora, TTGL, etc...

- I would try my best to finish watching the best of 2011, namely Mawaru Penguindrum, Steins;Gate, Usagi Drop, Fate/Zero, and err... wait, that's it. I almost forgot that 2011 sucked.

- I really need to check out Milky Holmes and Durarara.

- I had made a futile attempt in episodic blogging for Guilty Crown, and my waning interest... well, made my posts suck. Really bad. I mean, I can't believe I wrote all that. I picked GC for it's tendency to not suck, but well... you know the rest. So up till now, I've never completed blogging any one series, but I'm still gonna try.

12 Moments of Anime #12: Vocaloid Concert (and Merry Christmas!)

2011-12-25T01:43:00.000+08:00

If you think about it, Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid actually has nothing to do with anime at all. But you just can't deny the huge impact it has in the otaku fandom and it's influence. It can already be said that Hatsune Miku is a prominent figure in the anime industry, despite never having a single anime produced for her. This is why the Mikupa Concert in AFA11 this year is the most memorable, and most important memory of 2011.

I don't wanna get pulled out of the concert, which is why I didn't take any pictures of the concert itself. But now that I think about it, the possibility of that happen is near impossible, right? Must be the heat of the moment. Anyway, check out this and this for more coverage and pics.

I regret not knowing the newer songs before I went to the concert, because it was so awesome, it made me a Vocaloid fanboy all over again. I used to only bother with Supercell; now my playlist expanded to 74 songs from different composers, like kz, Deco*27, samfree, wowaka, and more.

...I'm so obsessed, I could go on rambling forever, really. I'm sorry this isn't a very interesting post, but I really just wanna save the best for the last, and maybe other Vocaloid fans would feel the same way. But I'll end this here, because today is a important day for friends, family and lovers, right?

Merry Christmas!

P.S.
My Vocaloid Playlist, if anyone wants to compare.

Miku:
Ai Kotoba
Albino
ARiA
Black Rock Shooter
Clover Club
Dear
Dear Cocoa Girls
Eh? Ah, Sou
Electric Angel
Finder
Finder DSLR Remix
From Y to Y
Heartbreaker (Supercell)
Hello, Planet
Hold, Release; Rakshasa and Carcasses
Ievan Polka
Innocence
Kocchi Muite Baby
Koi Suru
Kurukuru Mark no Sugoi (Supercell)
Last Night, Good Night
Light Song (Livetune, kz)
Lilachorn (Livetune, kz)
Line (Supercell)
Marginal
Melody...
Melt
Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru
Moon
My Time
Nekomimi Switch
No, Thank You
Our Music (Livetune, kz)
Packaged
Popipo (Vegetable Juice)
Rollin' Girl
Romeo and Cinderella
Saihate
The Secret Garden
Shooting Star (Livetune, kz)
Sono Ichibyo Slow Motion
Sound
SPiCa
Stargazer
Strobo Nights
Time Machine
Two Breaths Walking
Two Faced Lover
Usotsuki no Parade (Supercell)
Uta Ni Katachi Wa Nai Keredo
VOiCE
World's End Dancehall
World is Mine
Yellow
1/6

Len, Rin, Luka, Duets, and others:
Aku no Meshitsukai
Aku no Musume
Colorful X Melody
Corruption Garden
Double Lariat
Iroha song
Just Be Friends
Kokoro
Kokoro (Game version)
Luka Luka Night Fever
Melancholic
Meltdown
Migikata no Chou (Len)
Migikata no Chou (Rin)
Promise
Rip=Release
Triple Baka

12 Moments of Anime #11: Dicing people in slow motion (Kamisama Dolls Flashback)

2011-12-24T23:18:00.000+08:00

I digress. Watching Kamisama Dolls again reminds me of how much the animation sucked. At least, it's glaringly obvious in this particular episode. So anyway, this is about episode 7; the flashback episode which shows Kyouhei and Aki's childhood, and what made them who they are now. In essence, this is much like the flashback of Akemi Homura. Both flashbacks that was done extremely well, to a very powerful effect, but left quite a different aftertaste. Homura's episode left me reeling with awe but I was going "crap, this is tragic". This episode left me terribly depressed, but I went "man, I can't wait to see what happens next".

First, a bit of a recap. Aki is already a kid shunned by the public back in the village, but it was never implied that he was anything more than a bit of a dick. He had a deep grudge with the village, but he wasn't a homicidal maniac. Yet. We're still seeing a fairly clean and innocent version of Aki.

Then came Chihaya-sensei. She was a cheerful and charming teacher that everyone likes, including Kyouhei. That was until the asshole of the village, Atsushi, set his eyes on her. Atsushi's heritage and position in the village lets him do almost whatever he wants with little consequences, which is why he sexually harass Chihaya endlessly. Chihaya, of course, rejects his crude advances.

But unlike everyone thought, Chihaya had a hole in her heart. She unwittingly had sex with one of her ex-student's parents, which shattered her image in the student. Her trauma was exploited by Atsushi for the rejection and the fact was exposed to the entire village, which causes her mind to break. Once again, she unwittingly filled her widened hole in her heart with Aki, whom she linked her ex-student to.

Unfortunately Atsushi caught wind of that as well. Be it out of spite or jealousy, he kidnapped Chihaya and raped her. Or maybe it was gang-rape, by members of Atsushi's group. The kidnap also serves as a trap for Aki, whom they want to make a casserole with.

Then, well...

At that moment, Aki's silent rage regains him the control of Kuramitsuha.

And... the rest is history. Aki got branded as a traitor for the murders, Chihaya's included, got locked away for good, got Kuramitsuha sealed, and Aki has never been the same again. All because his lover got raped and killed.

This is the scene that made it to one of my most memorable moments in 2011. These aren't simply violent scenes, but more like tragic scenes. The silhouette of Kuramitsuha spinning and dicing everyone in slow motion isn't made that way to glorify the violence; it's to mark the turning point in Aki's life, where he decided to make the whole world his enemy. The Chiaki Ishikawa song that was played during this scene made it unbelievably dramatic. In the good way.

This is what I'm like after the episode ended.

12 Moments of Anime #10: Seiyuu Controversy

2011-12-23T23:54:00.000+08:00

Aoki Ume's version of Toyosaki Aki

I'm late, and well, something cocked up, and I think I crashed Anime Nano for a while a few days ago. Something I scheduled for the 30th of this month got published immediately, somehow. And it was dated 30th on Nano as well.

Anyway, I wasn't too keen on writing this because this is about the uglier side of the anime industry, and I don't really want to be part of seiyuu-bashing in any form, but, well... decided to anyway, since this is one of those things that quickly got right on top of my head when I thought of 2011.

It started with this piece of news on Sankaku Complex.

The photos aside, it was mentioned that Aya Hirano had sex with all but one of her band members, and apparently she was so sex crazed that it caused the band to break up. I'm sure it's obvious to you what happen next; the fans abandoned her, got a really bad rep with the media, lost contracts, and her career fell apart. I don't really care that much really. A lot of people think I'm a Aya fan because I used to be a Harutard, but no, I never really liked her or her other roles anyway. It's a bit of shock that she's so, well, "loose", but I didn't care much in the end. Aya has never portrayed herself as the brightest person anyway.

(most of these news below are from the hashihime blog. See blogroll)

Then came the news of Toyosaki Aki living with Tom-H@ck, who composed much of the K-ON band songs as well as those on Haganai. There's also the Tomatsu Haruka's date with another guy. Related posts: The message from Sphere (which both Aki and Haruka belongs to) to fans, and the conference leak.

Aaaaand this, which is like a compilation of the recent scandals. First and foremost, I didn't really have a problem with seiyuu's leading a normal life, because, hey, they're still normal humans. But well... being a seiyuu automatically makes them an idol (as long as they're young or attractive enough), and I feel that if the agency is pushing their images as an idol (which is pretty much guaranteed), they should refrain from doing anything that could led to scandals like these. I'm not saying to be chaste or pure or whatever, no, but you gotta admit taking photos like these and the idea of living with another guy is pretty dumb. I mean, if you let your agency sell that image of yours like that, then it's your job to protect that image. I think so, at least, because I'm not one of those guys they sell that image too. I don't care about stuff like these.

......

Ok, I lied. Reading about Hanazawa Kana having sex with her ex many years ago makes me feel a little... something? Jealousy? I mean, how old was she when she did that? She's even my age! And she's my favourite seiyuu and all, and... aw, fuck.

I'm not taking as sides in this debate or anything, I don't want to be one to say what's right and wrong. This is just a little food for thought.

12 Moments of Anime #9: Anohana ED

2011-12-22T09:10:00.000+08:00

I need a pic, so here's some moé

Here's a short one. I ought to make a top OP/ED of 2011 post to put this into, but Anohana's ED "Secret Base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~ (10 Years After)" is special enough to call it a "moment of 2011". There's just something about ED that ties up the atmosphere of the show really nicely. EDs has always been more important than OPs to me; in fact, most of the anime songs in my Ipod are EDs. This particular song is a good example of why.

The drop at 0:42 still gives me the chills.

Runner up: Wired Life (Ao no Exorcist), Shiny Shiny (Deadman Wonderland)

12 Moments of Anime #8: Yuru Yuri Murder Scene (+comic)

2011-12-21T12:48:00.004+08:00

Yuru Yuri is a surprisingly funny series in the summer season, and I even ranked it amongst my top shows of the year. (Review) I know, I've said this so many times that I feel I'm losing credibility as a writer.

More about the series itself in the other posts. I feel that I had to give Yuru Yuri a mention in one of the 12 moments of anime. It was either this or that other kissing scene, but draggle already got that one covered. I'm cheating a little because this is practically the final scene in the show and I've mentioned this twice, but what the heck.

So... Chitose is on a chocolate-induced high that sets her on a kissing frenzy. It's obvious where this leads to, so I won't say much... check out this crappy little comic strip I made.

First Chinatsu, now Chitose. Poor Akarin.

Luckily for the rest of the cast, Chitose is extremely susceptible to nosebleeds when she sees a possible yuri situation, so Yui suggests that they hit her with one from the most-shipped couple.

And so, Chitose died in a spectacular fountain of blood. Everyone lives happily ever after.

This would be the third time I used this image. It never gets old, does it.

Oh, and Akarin died as well.

12 Moments of Anime #7: Ohana's first tears

2011-12-20T18:05:00.006+08:00

Remember that when the first episode of HanaIro aired, everyone was talking about how awesome it was? The series might not have pleased everyone in the end, but I think most would agree that the first episode did made quite an impression. Also known as "Ohana's worst days ever".

In her own words, Ohana thought of herself as a pragmatic person. I'd like to think of her as an incredibly mature person for her age. She's only 16, yet she had to deal with all the housework, including meals, for her useless mother. And when shit hits the fan, she dumped Ohana at foreign place while she ran off with her not-father boyfriend. Ohana didn't cry, sulk or even frown, and took it like a man. Except that she's not a man.

And yet, the worst has yet to come. Remember all the crap she had to deal with right as she steps into Kissuisou?

1. Being told to die and making the worst possible first impression with your roommate,
2. being told to work your ass off to earn your keep immediately and
3. being told that you're worth shit to the person that's supposed to take care of you;

4. Bullied by your uncle,
5. having to tell on your mom to get help (to the person who only cares about your mom's dirty little secrets)
6. neglected by your peer/roommate who's suppose to assist you;

7. Completely failing to click with your peer,
8. f*ck up your first day of work by trying to be nice,
9. and have the person you're trying to be nice to, take the fall for it.

It wasn't like the people at Kissuisou are all horrible people. It wasn't a hostile environment where everyone is your enemy. It's just that everything seems to go horrible wrong for Ohana all at the same time, even if Ohana tried to make the best out of the situation. I had began to see Ohana as an incredibly tough girl for being able to deal with so much. But when her first tears fell, it becomes clear how much she's holding in. She was all alone; no friends to talk to, no allies. I heard my heart break.

It was unforgettable.

12 Moments of Anime #6: Kano Yasuhiro's New Manga

2011-12-19T23:46:00.000+08:00

I'm talking about Kagami no Kuni no Harisugawa, which is serialized in Jump. Kano Yasuhiro is known for Pretty Face and Mx0, both serialized in Jump in the past.

Kano Yasuhiro's one of my favourite manga artists. All his three manga are rom-coms with a slightly supernatural element, and I really liked how to approach this genre. Unlike a lot of similar series, Kano Yasuhiro's male lead has a lot of backbone, and in all cases, often went through hell to protect the female lead. I really love his female designs; they never had an outrageous body (aside from some side characters used for comedic effect), and always really cute in the innocent way (excuse me). The romance in the stories also has a very innocent and childish feel to it, practically no mention of sex at all, and a lot of cute and awkward moments. This may sound like him trying to redo the same idea again and again, but it's just what he does best. And I'll bite, because I just love how he does it.

Unfortunately Jump readers don't appreciate him that much. Pretty Face was canceled after a one-year run due to low ratings, but it wasn't so bad because the story concluded pretty nicely, although he had to leave things a bit open-ended due to lack of time to do a proper conclusion. I didn't realize Pretty Face was a canceled manga until Mx0.

Mx0 wasn't so lucky. I was following the manga as it published, and I bought the books as it came out. Despite what I thought was a awesome two-year run, Mx0 got cancelled due to low ratings as well, and it concluded really badly. With just 3 chapters to sum up the manga, the very forced story had the main character transfer school so he could began life proper, or something like that. I couldn't believe it when the story stopped so abruptly at 99 chapters. Jump literally screwed Mx0.

I loved both mangas, so it was disappointing that both of them had to end up like that. I also can't imagine what it's like for Kano Yasuhiro to have both of his works screwed like that. In the next couple of years I've heard nothing from him expect for a few one-shots, which never made the hit. He even tried to do a bloody and gruesome story known as Loop... maybe he was desperate or something.

Well, that's why I was elated when I found out that he's finally back in 2011 with another project, which is Kagami no Kuni no Harisugawa. Unfortunately, he got serialized on Jump again. Haven't he learned that Jump readers don't appreciate him?

Kagami no Kuni no Harisugawa is a lot more ecchi compared to the earlier two. I don't doubt that it's a way for Kano secure his fanbase, but the setting of the story makes it too easy for Harisugawa to take a good look at the ~~right~~ wrong time, so might as well, right?

Story-wise, I can't say I really like the development compared to Mx0, but it's still enjoyable nonetheless. Give it a try people, and if you like it, buy the manga when it comes out! I'd hate to see this one go down the same way as the other two.

I love his "epic" faces.

12 Moments of Anime #5: Series of Disappointment

2011-12-18T22:20:00.001+08:00

One of the disappointments (apparently) that I didn't watch myself.

Every now and then we get a highly-anticipated series that turns out to be a flop. It could be due to its studio, original work (for adaptations) and/or crew that we gave it so much attention, but when we finally got to the show itself, it's terrible. Shit happens, I know, but it seems like it happens way too often with 2011 titles. Titles like:

Fractale (Review)

The Hype: There's a lot of talk about this series before it aired, mainly because of director Yamakan's promise that he would retire if Fractale fails to be a success. ~~Remember that this is the guy who directed Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu.~~(opps, he did a lot of stuff for MoSH, but he wasn't director) I loved the artwork and the series is aired on the noitaminA timeslot, so it shows a lot of promise.

The Fail: Fractale doesn't know what it wants to be. Or rather, what it wants to sell. If it's the sense of adventure they're looking for, they failed to immerse the audience into the world and environment. They made us pose too many questions about the world and the Fractale system and left it unanswered until the audience stopped caring. The characters are worse. Nessa and Phryne are just as mysterious as the Fractale system itself, and being the primary drivers of the story, we knew too little about their identity and objective to understand their role. Clain is barely a character. He's driven by the direction the story needs to go, and he never had any decisions or motives until the very end. There are no protagonists in the story; everyone acts and moves along with an invisible man. Fractale is a show with a brilliant idea and concept, but zero execution.

Infinite Stratos (Review)

The Hype: Most people dissed this right away for being a harem, but they're forgetting that director Yasuhito Kikuchi did Macross Frontier, and the writer Fumihiko Shimo has done Air, Clannad, Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi, FMP, Higurashi, and Kanon (2006). I was looking for a good harem, to be honest, and the haremettes VAs include Marina Inoue, Hanazawa Kana and Hisaka Youko. Plus protagonist Ichika looks like he'd have a backbone instead of your usual wimpy lead. Plus there's a lot of skin-tight body suits.

The Fail: Despite being quite the man sometimes, Ichika is as bland as any other harem leads. Characters like Cecila and Tabane are incredibly annoying. The animation quality took a sharp dip after the first episode, and they seems to have barely enough budget to animate a good fight other than the one in the first and last episode. The story (outside of character development) is complete bullshit and having the mechs hardly made a difference in the story. IS is all about selling its characters. They should have stayed that way, all the way.

Nichijou

I've dropped this as early as the fifth episode, so I probably can't justify this if it turns out to be awesome later in the series, but my first impression of Nichijou was seriously underwhelming. KyoAni is no stranger to moé, and a light-hearted comedy that features these energetic girls (well, except one) almost seemed too easy. Practically every project they did before this sold like crazy, and apparently Nichijou is already a popular manga. These are the reasons why I pushed myself as far as the fifth episode to finally admit that this isn't something I would enjoy. To me, its comedy is a hard-sell, yet remains bland and boring most of the time.

Guilty Crown (related posts)

The Hype: You probably know this by now, but director Tetsuro Araki did Death Note and High School of the Dead, and writer Hiroyuki Yoshino did Code Geass, Macross Frontier, Mai-HiME, and Mai-Otome. And it's also on noitaminA. Actually, just read this.

The Fail: This might be my last chance to say this, but Guilty Crown is an attempt to use the excellent animation quality they boasts to tie up random tropes and clichés with something they tried to pass off as a story. So many plot holes, so many cheap tricks, and so many things that doesn't make sense. Actually, just read that.

12 Moments of Anime #4: Charlotte!

2011-12-17T23:20:00.002+08:00

Sometimes explaining why you love a character is just silly, but what the heck.

Not to be confused with Charlotte from Puella Magi Madoka Magica who is apparently way more famous.

Infinite Stratos might not be a very good anime, but it certainly knows how to treat the ladies right. In the character designs, at least. That's the reason the series scored 7/10 from despite having a shitty storyline, direction and animation quality. That might sound unreasonable high, but midway through the series I shifted my expectations to their primary selling point. After all, when you watch an anime, you're trying to enjoy it, not to simply scrutinize it.

Charlotte is a cheap blend of common moé archetypes, but it's also a perfect blend of moé archetypes. Her individual traits does not stand out, but combined with the unusually close relationship with the protagonist, it makes her something special. A character is shaped not by her given traits but by her scripted events, and I think that has a lot to do with why Charlotte become the most popular character in IS (according to MAL, anyway).

Charlotte is my anime bishoujo of the year. I don't usually claim characters as "waifus", but I might just make an exception for her =D

12 Moments of Anime #3: Gathering of the 5 Kages

2011-12-16T23:55:00.000+08:00

If you're a reader of Naruto, then you will know what a game changing moment this is.

The history of Naruto is plagued by war. Practically all of the tragedies and losses are a resulting consequence between the war fought by the five main ninja villages, who represent the five biggest countries in the world of Naruto. Even during peace, the relationship between the villages remains volatile and hostile, with all the espionage and greed pertaining to their village's interests.

Not in this very moment. The leaders of the five biggest ninja villages stood side-by-side to face a common enemy, and like Oonoki said, is really incredible for a team where the members would normally try their best to erase each other. And don't forget that these Kages also represents the most powerful ninja of their village. One can only guess what this team can achieve, be it in politics or in combat.

It's like a team of Obama, Putin, Premier Wen Jiabao, Niclolas Sarkozy and David Cameron.

12 Moments of Anime #2: The Past of Akemi Homura

2011-12-16T15:06:00.004+08:00

You know which episode I'm talking about.

I've blogged this episode before, so I won't really go into it. But here's some of the reasons why this episode stood out.

1. It was climax after climax. We already have an idea on how it would turn out, but each of the climax ended differently, developed the next, and made sense chronologically. Basically, it's like multiple org-

2. The shocking personality change of Homura. From a weak, timid and humble girl, the episode perfectly portrayed how the events shaped her into a cold, ruthless and intimidating person.

3. Mystery unveiled. Specifically, Homura's raison d'être. I'm a pretty impatient guy, and normally I'll be pretty annoyed if they left an important story element untouched for like 3/4 of the series. But in this case, we see that the longer the suspense, the bigger the shock value.

4. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, how the world should have been if Kyuubei wasn't such a troll.
Not really his fault, but fcuk Kyuubei

I'm still sore about Homura not even attempting to explain the truth of the world to Madoka.