That’s never really a question you ever think to ask yourself. It’s perfectly normal to assume the ride will last forever, and it does until . . . Well, I’m not quite sure which show it was, but I just remember the ride ending.

“I’m done.”

Call it an awakening or a revelation, even an epiphany. Really, all I knew was I hit wall and just burnt out. Though what struck me was I didn’t know why it happened.

Now, I’ll tell ya, anime was good – heck! It was like a drug I didn’t wanna quit! Every episode was a rush and as soon as it was over I loaded up another hit. My hard-drive was devoted to anime; stills, clips, sound bites, doujin, wallpaper, desktop themes. If it was anime or came from Japan I had to have it. Yet once I hit that peak none of it meant anything anymore. So, one bitter day I purposely formatted away that eight year otaku binge.

“Why?”

Well, for a while afterwards I wondered about the reasons why it all stopped turning me on. Yet for the most part I realized I never gave myself a reason as to exactly why I enjoyed the stuff in the first place. I consumed it without conscience.

I still remained a somewhat studious fan afterwards and followed along the wave of the culture tide. I went back on and off the wagon like every recovering addict. I went back just to taste, but the potency just wasn’t as strong as I remember–as I thought it should be. Something must have been wrong with me, clearly. Or maybe not. Perhaps it wasn’t me at all and that it was anime with the problem. Maybe anime just stopped being as good as it use to be? It was too crazy to think.

The times kept changing; Anime-Turn Pike got sold off, Ex.org closed, fanfiction.net became just noise, and Mixx changed to Tokyopop then soon after ceased publication. I remember hearing once about the slow death of the anime industry  in Japan. Again, it’s been so long I can’t recall who said it, but there was claim that anime, becoming too expensive to produce in light of a declining economy, was on the verge of collapsing. At the time I thought that was absurd. Its mainstream popularity in the states was growing day by day. How could it be dying?

“And it didn’t die . . . didn’t it?”

It was during that abstaining period when I remember that article, then things made sense suddenly. Anime had died and I watched it happen.

Having been use to the good stuff–the stuff that built anime into the style it’s defined by–I couldn’t handle anything less. It wasn’t that single show that clean put me off, it was the gradual dissension of quality over time; the quality of animation, of art, of acting, of story, of substance and meaning. All of these degraded, ever so slowly, until it was too late for anyone to distinguish between stellar and crap.

How could this happen? That’s another story for another time, but take note! There are instances when a show really stands out from the crowd. Ones that push the boundaries in all areas. When something like that comes along take notice because that’s what turned us all on in the first place. A great show reminds us why anime really is in a class all its own.

But don’t try convincing yourself that something is good because of a played gimmick or thinking the show will be better once it picks up. When will that “pick up” be?

In the 3rd episode?

The 7th episode?

13th episode?

Second season?

But why should you even? Because I believe your time is too precious to spend waiting for that metaphorical handjob. Become critical in what you watch, and watch for the sake of knowing that it’s good, not just because it “fills the requirement.”

You know when something is bad and you should put trust in your instincts. And if you still are hesitant, then take a note from someone more badass than I am and “don’t believe in yourself! Believe in me, who believes in you!”

July’s Girl of the Month is the delightfully huggable airhead of K-ON, Yui Hirasawa. To be frank, Yui is dumb, but she grew on me with all of her silly antics in every episode. Maybe I do have a slight bias for ditzy moeblobs, but how can any K-ON fan in their right mind not like Yui? She’s too funny not to like, and her earnest spunk just makes you want to cheer her on. I painstakingly selected this batch of Yui images from Danbooru a magical place on the interweb, so I hope you guys enjoy this month’s gallery. DOSUKOI DOSUKOI!

This post has no pictures, no frills, and most importantly, no out of place images of lolis in compromising positions — It’s just boring text. Hit the jump for an adventure of text!

Bakemonogatari:

The ghost story premise and promo art intrigued me, so I’ll give this show a shot. Unless SHAFT gets lazy with the animation, like they did with last season’s horribly animated (but otherwise decent) Natsu no Arashi, Bakemonogatari should at least be okay. If I was to use a baseball analogy to sum up my expectations of this show, I’d expect a single run. Anything more than that is gravy.

Princess Lover:

Don’t know what it’s about, but I’ll watch it on the premise of hot chicks. It’ll probably be crap, but every watch list needs a crappy show or two to counter the good stuff. You know, for balance and all.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (2009):

I’ve been looking forward to this psuedo-sequel since the original series ended way back in 2006, and KyoAni has finally delivered at last. Haruhi’s second season started airing back in April, so this placement is technically, actually kinda sorta late.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni:

I’m always up for a good mystery, but I dislike gore. Seeing that Umineko is from the creators of Higurashi, a show I dropped because of the gore, my time with Umineko will probably be short. Yeah, bash on me for not gutting it out through Higurashi, but gore will usually always turn me away. Regardless I’ll try to stick with Umineko for at least the first arc, and hey, I may even try to pick up Higurashi again if Umineko sticks.

Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei:
Zetsuou Sensei has an obligatory place on my list. I loved the prior two seasons (and OVA), so my summer will have a dash of despair with the return of the world’s most negative teacher, Itoshiki-sensei, and his deranged lovable class. All together now — ZETSUBOUSHITA!

That just about sums up my preliminary summer picks. I’ll probably add one or two more when the season officially starts in a week or so, but my main plan for anime will probably be to catch up on older shows that I’ve missed or left on the back burner.

i herd u like out of place imagez of loliz in compromising positionz.

I’d like to say that I fell in love with this new opening sequence from the first frame – but truth be told, I didn’t. It’s not a bad song by any means; I just don’t think it’s an improvement on the first.

Ah, well – since when have we been obsessed with OPs and EDs anyway? (The first smart arse to throw in a pithy comment on that clearly rhetorical question will receive a shiny new triple-stack bump on the head, Ritsu-style.) The real deal is the new episode itself, and if it’s anything like the original material it’s going to be a real treat all around.

Today, we’re throwing the spotlight on Stella – a hardbound artbook featuring the work of ARIA manga author and illustrator Amano Kozue.

CONTENTS

Note to readers: Click on the images to enlarge. Requests for larger, high-quality reproductions/scans will not be entertained. If these low-quality samples succeed in piquing your interest, please support Amano-sensei and the publishers by purchasing the artbook.

Stella’s first course consists of scenes set in the world of Amano-sensei’s popular manga series ARIA. There are sixteen pages of art in this section, several of which are shown below.

The rest of the book features artwork prepared for Amano-sensei’s other manga series. We are served sixteen pages from Roman Club . . .

. . . followed by a whopping 34 pages of art from Crescent Noise . . .

. . . and eight pages from various other works.

Amano-sensei’s visual feast concludes with a rich dessert: fourteen pages from ARIA’s prequel, AQUA.

MY THOUGHTS

Neo-Venezia is clearly meant to be the star of the show. The book opens with art from ARIA, ends with art from AQUA, features art from AQUA on its covers and bears a title that fits comfortably into the quasi-Italian world of these series. In terms of quantity, however, Neo-Venezia plays second fiddle to the less well-known series Crescent Noise, which claims 34 pages for itself in this book (versus just thirty for ARIA and AQUA combined). A little disappointing, but then again the book’s sub-title reads “KOZUE AMANO Illustration Works II” – not “KOZUE AMANO Aria Illustrations (plus a few extras)” – so I can’t really complain.

There are few – if any – discernible stylistic differences between the art featured in Alpha and the works collected in Stella, so I’ll simply quote what I said in my review of the first volume:

Like the manga series and its anime adaptation, the art of ARIA and AQUA seems to have been designed specifically to induce a sense of calm refreshment on the part of the viewer. Amano-sensei’s style favours a soft palette – mainly in shades of blue and green, the colours of the sea – and a masterful use of shading to create vistas that are both strikingly beautiful and remarkably easy on the eyes. Human figures are usually drawn in poses that suggest not action, but relaxation: sitting serenely on the edge of a canal with the sea lapping at their feet; perched on a high spot gazing up at the azure sky, with the ocean’s gently rippled surface spreading out underneath; walking in an open arcade at sunset within sight of the sea-green harbour. It’s enough to make one want to lie in bed and sleep peacefully through the afternoon, or even fly straight to Venice itself and experience the joy of leaning back in a gondola borne upon the calm waters of the Venetian lagoon. (I wouldn’t recommend dangling one’s feet in the waters of the real Venice, though. The crystal-clear seas of Amano-sensei’s Neo-Venezia are a pleasant fantasy that its real-life counterpart on Manhome can only wish for.)

The other manga series represented in Alpha call for similar character designs, but a markedly different style of art execution: less depth, a simpler scheme, a palette with fewer pastels and more primary hues. I was not as impressed with these earlier works as I was with the art prepared for ARIA and AQUA, though I imagine fans of Amano-sensei’s other series will find something to their liking in these sections.

Like its predecessor, Alpha, this hardbound artbook comes in a transparent plastic slipcase – a feature I’d like to see on more artbooks, mainly for the added protection it gives. In this case, the title of the artbook and the standard back cover details (price, barcode, etc.) are printed on the slipcase, which leaves the covers of the book itself mostly unmarred by text.

AVAILABILITY, COST, ETC.

Stella was first released in 2005, but a reprint was issued in 2008 so availability shouldn’t be a major concern.

Here are the acquisition details for my copy (mostly from the original sales receipt):

Place acquired: Animate, Akihabara (Tokyo) branch
Date and time acquired: 26 March 2009, 8:46 PM
Acquisition cost: 3,130 yen (including tax)

In addition to Animate, I remember seeing all three Amano Kozue artbooks in the Akihabara branch of Comic Toranoana (artbook section, ground floor of the doujin wing). AsoBitCity, Mandarake and other stores – including major bookshops – should also have copies on stock, but I can’t attest to that personally.

If you’re based outside Japan, consider ordering the book from an online retailer. Amazon Japan, for one, is selling Stella at the prevailing Akiba street price and will ship internationally, although the shipping costs can be ruinous: from 2,200 yen (including the per-item handling charge) for Asia to 4,700 yen – which exceeds the price of the book itself! – for South America. As always, poke around for the best deal (list price and postage) before buying.

THE LAST WORD

Must buy. Even though there are less of them here than in the first volume, the beautiful illustrations in the ARIA and AQUA sections alone are worth the price of the book.

The sheer amount of anime fans that self identify as otaku and wear it as a badge of pride is mind boggling. Correct me if I’m wrong now, but being an otaku is not and never has been a good thing. It is technically the convenient end all term for any persons whose interests include anime, manga, games, visual novels, figures and Japanese idols, but no one in their right mind should ever pridefully say they are otaku.

In fact if you are proud of being an otaku, you should feel great shame because you have just identified with the lowest common denominator, the bottom feeders, of Japanese society. While not all aspects of otaku hobbies are bad, the plethora of negative labels come with the territory. When I hear the word “otaku”, the first thing that comes to mind of is the stereotypical obsessive, argumentative, delusional, shower aversive pervert that has an unhealthy relationship with a dakimakura of their favorite anime character. Even if you don’t fit the above labels, that’s what an ordinary person probably thinks of you because the reputation surrounding otaku is not positive to say the least.

Let’s take the words “nerd” and “geek” now. While the two are synonymous with social outcasts that are stereotypically clumsy, socially awkward and an obsession with anything remotely related to Star Trek and/or elves, the terms do at least convey positive traits about them such as intelligence in educational subjects and electronics. Otaku… Not so much. That’s not to say that there aren’t smart otaku, but I generally place the group in the lowest rung of social outcasts. In other words there’s no upside to being an otaku. There’s nothing wrong with anime itself or anything of that sort though. I actually love anime more than I ever have, but my rant/argument is that people that aren’t otaku shouldn’t call themselves such. Otaku =/= cool. So next time you think about calling yourself an otaku, don’t say “otaku”.

PS: Don’t say “fujoshi” either.

PSS.: Yes, the post title is a play on Don’t say “lazy”.

Best Animation

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

It was difficult to choose a definitive winner for best animation, so this is something of a four way tie. As was to be expected, Production I.G. and BONES are here as the usual suspects with Sengoku Basara, Eden of the East, and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood leading the pack for best animation quality, though Bee Train is a surprise dark horse with Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~. Bee Train… Good animation…? lolwut indeed.

All of these shows look great, but since four-way ties are no fun there must be a definitive winner. After much careful deliberation (not involving picking a number out of a hat), FMA: Brotherhood emerges as the winner for this category. I think FMA’s animation has been the most consistent of the bunch, not to say that the other candidates’ animation haven’t been anything less than great. BONES is just so superb at making beautiful looking shows.

Best Story

Eden of the East

Compared to the Best Animation category, the Best Story was a no brainer. The mystery/drama/thriller Eden of the East wins this by a longshot. EotE explains its story with enough detail to inform the viewer of what’s going on, yet is still vague and mysterious enough to remain interesting. It also has no shortage of WTF plot twists. Anime with realistic stories usually aren’t my preferred choice, but EotE does it very well on a level that matches (and perhaps exceeds) the standards for a blockbuster movie. It’s that good.

Best Action

Sengoku Basara

Sengoku Basara is the spring’s premiere action show and packs a ton of adrenaline pumping, testosterone excreting fights into a 30 minute show. The fight scenes are well choreographed and aren’t afraid to get downright ridiculous with feats that kick physics to the curb. Physics be damned — Sengoku is GAR!

Best Music

K-ON
Sengoku Basara

As good as this season’s shows have been, this season has been fairly weak as far as background music goes with very few stand out OSTs. On that note it wasn’t too difficult to pick two clear winners. K-ON has a lot of memorable tunes that nicely set up this little slice of life. The soundtrack is mostly ambient and upbeat. Some of it even sounds like elevator music, but it’s very fun to listen to and puts me in a good mood.

Sengoku is on the opposite side of the spectrum with sweeping, epic orchestral music that perfectly sets the mood of the civil war Sengoku era Japan. As long as an orchestral soundtrack is remotely good, chances are I’ll like it.

Best OP

Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

KOKIA’s “KARMA” from Phantom is the best OP of the spring lineup. There should be no debate about this. The brooding, haunting vocals and minimalist yet tasteful accompanying animation make it the best OP I’ve seen in a long, long time.

Yui’s “again” is the distant runner up with a more typical, standard fare J-Pop song. The song itself is beautiful, and the animation is crisp and vibrant, making for an OP that is well above average but not truly great. It’s still good enough to worth mentioning though.

Best ED

Eden of the East

EotE has one of the most unique EDs I’ve ever seen. “futuristic imagination” from school food punishment fits the show’s mood like a glove, but the real draw is the very innovative stop motion paper cut out animation. It’s just so quirky and blows every other ED this season out of the water.

Best Character (Male)

Date Masamune (Sengoku Basara)

PUT YA GUNS ON! I would put my guns on for Masamune, whatever that means. This guy is a badass among badasses.

How badass is he?

Masamune is so badass that he transcends time with a motorcycle horse riding biker gang. Masamune is so badass that he needs six swords to fight. Masamune is so badass that he speaks English in a time of extreme isolationism in Japan. Hell, badass is an understatement for this manliest of men. WE ARE NOT WORTHY!

Best Character (Female)

Kotobuki Tsumugi (K-ON)

Best female is tough to pick because anime are stacked with hordes of female characters to satisfy all tastes. There’s one winner here, and that is the oh-so-lovable Tsumugi from K-ON. I just love everything about her. Such a sweet and goofy personality. Worship the eyebrows and submit to Mugiism. Resistance is futile.

Best Sleeper Title

Souten Kouro

Souten what? Souten Kouro bitches! This flew under my radar until a recommendation from ilikewhiterice, and it instantly found a place in my heart. This is definitely intended for the niche Chinese history enthusiasts, but it can and should be enjoyed by other fans too. It’s not really “good” per se, but it’s a pretty damn enjoyable historical show in its own right, sort of a more violent Sengoku Basara with less action and more politics. Don’t be scared away by the politics though as it can be interesting if you give it a legitimate chance.

Best Anime with Motorcycle Horses

Sengoku Basara

This is totally not an excuse to give Sengoku another award, okay? It’s just that motorcycle horses deserve their own category and the only show that had them was Sengoku.

Best Anime Overall

Eden of the East

I’ve said it multiple times, and I’ll say it again. Eden of the East is by far and away the best show of the season. A good story always makes for a good anime, and as explained above, EotE has an excellent story with plenty of mystery and suspense revolving around the Selecao, each trying to win a twisted little game against each other. We non-Japanese probably can’t fully understand all the nuances that comprise the show’s social commentary about Japan’s current state, but we can appreciate its broad general message as much of it still applies to us as well. Somehow as great as EotE is, it’s still not my favorite show of the season. That right is reserved for the final award…

Most Enjoyable Anime Overall

K-ON

I’m a sucker for the moe 4-koma adaptations. So sue me. K-ON isn’t the greatest show of the season — It’s actually kind of average as far as 4-koma adaptations go. Regardless it’s been my consistent favorite this season because of the comedy and my x4 weakness to moe drivel.

Wild TSUMUGI appeared!

Go NOIRSWORD!

Wild TSUMUGI used Attract!

NOIRSWORD is in love!

…Yeah. Pokemon reference aside, K-ON is the most enjoyable show of the season for me. As Meu would say, “K-ON is too goshdarned cute”.

In this post, nostalgic memories of the Indigo League and the anime’s steady decline thereafter. Time to nerd it up a notch!

Note: I will use the English dub names for convenience. If you want to be a weaboo about it, just pretend I’m saying the Japanese names instead.

An overdue admission, I’ve long been a closet fan of the Pokemon franchise ever since the release of the original Gameboy games and the subsequent anime hit syndication. Even though the first generation was released well over a decade ago, I remember it like it was yesterday. Catching Pikachu for the first time back in Viridian Forest, foiling Team Rocket’s plans at every step along the way, and finally becoming the league champion after knocking your smug rival (Gary) off his high horse. Good memories.

Likewise, the anime that accompanied the games was, dare I say, pretty damn good. It might be nostalgia speaking, but nearly every episode of the ‘original season’ that covered Ash’s journey through the Indigo League along with Pikachu, Brock, Misty, and Team Rocket was pretty damn good. Yes, even the massive amounts of filler that outweighed the story episodes by a fair margin and resulted in more one-episode characters than I care to count were fun to watch. It was just fun to follow Ash and company on his journey be it fighting gym leaders, battling Team Rocket (back when they were halfway competent), helping an episodic character with a problem, or dealing with a recurring Jigglypuff that just couldn’t take a hint. I really, truly can’t think of anything bad to say about the original series because it was good with plenty of action, drama and comdy. I might be exaggerating a bit, but I stand by my word that the first season was good all around.

Eventually Pokemon lost its way along the line somewhere along the line. The quality of the show as a whole dipped in the ’second season’ in the Orange Islands arc with the arrival of newcomer Tracy temporarily replacing Brock to shake up the roster. While The Orange Islands was a significant dip, it was still watchable. If I had to place my finger on when the show became crap, it had to definitely be somewhere near the beginning of Johto, going through all of Johto and Advanced Generation (Hoenn) and spanning a time period of six years from 2000-2006. During this time period rampant, boring filler was the norm, Team Rocket gradually became nothing more than a running gag, and even the once vaunted gym and league conference battles lost their glory. Quite frankly, the anime was crap. While its purpose was always, first and foremost, to entertain children, it wasn’t very good but apparently did well enough to keep chugging along.

For the most part, Johto and Hoenn were unwatchable to me. Maybe part of the reason was growing up, but I did catch episodes here and there to see if it was still crap — And it was. The point was the show had lost its magic though. What made the first season so fun was sorely missing from the newer seasons. Post-Indigo League, the show degenerated into a cycle of repetition, mostly involving Team Rocket trying to kidnap Pikachu with lame scheme after lame scheme. I continued to play the games through this time period while mostly avoiding the anime.

When Diamond and Pearl were announced, I decided to give the anime another shot while going through the accompanying game. Surprise, surprise. The Diamond and Pearl anime was actually halfway decent. It was still nowhere near the first season, but at least it became fun to watch again. Some semblance of drama returned to the show with the introduction of a badass new rival, Paul, whose views and morals totally clashed with Ash’s. The point of a rival is to be a total prick, and Paul has the part down pat. The new baddies of the show, Team Galactic, have actually made their presence felt as well. It’s refreshing to have competent villains back in the show. A good villain is something you take for granted when you have nothing but Team Rocket to deal with for years on end. Yeah, Team Rocket is still around, but their antics are more bearable. D/P does have some excruciating filler, but as a whole is a drastic improvement from the previous years of crap. It must be doing something right though, because I do make time to watch it at least.

Bonus round. I think the Pokemon anime as a whole could stand to benefit from a complete reboot by following its manga adaptation, Pokemon Special. It’s friggin’ awesome with a much darker and violent story that more closely follows the games. Pikachu blowing Brock’s Onix to bits and Charmeleon slicing Arbok in half FTW. Best of all, there are more protagonists than just Ash. Seriously, the series needs a new protagonist every now and then to stay fresh. If you think Pokemon is too kiddy, go try the manga. You could easily find scanlations at one of those manga sites out there.

Well, that’s enough nerding out for one day. I don’t know why, but I just wanted to talk about Pokemon for some reason. It was fun to reminisce. Now that I got that off my chest, I’ll return to talking about moe moe girls and the usual stuff, whatever that may be.

The Girl of the Month for June is Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo’s super sexy (and socially awkward) space detective, Itsuki Kannagi. I usually don’t go for the well endowed girls anymore, but the fact that she kicks ass and can also pull off being cute and sexy at the same time is what makes her special. And hey, we could always use more cute, sexy green haired gals in our lives. It really is an underappreciated hair color amongst the many pinks and blues that make up the majority of weird anime hair colors, so I guess it’s up to me to spread the love starting with Itsuki. Go green!

For those in the know-how, you’ll know that apparently, NEC will be releasing real life versions of the Selecao phones used in Eden of the East, seen in the blog post here.

Also, seems Evangelion will be releasing their own NERV-only phones too, as seen here. (Warning: Links to Sankaku Complex, which is riddled with NSFW stuff from head to toe. Tread at your own discretion.) It looks pretty bland though.

Personally, I’ve always thought the Selecao phone looked unique and cool enough to warrant owning one, even back when I saw those pictures and thought they were just fake mock-ups. For the time being though, it seems only Selecao Nine’s colour scheme will be available, though they are apparently throwing in “Falling Down” as a ringtone, free of charge. Only time will tell if these will be in widespread production, it’ll be a shame if it’s only a limited release.

Now if we can get ourselves a secretary named Juiz and a bank account of ten billion yen…

Update: An official link from NEC, I think – http://www.nec-dp.co.jp/information/20090409.html#pl-pagetop