What Are We Watching?

November 17, 2008 at 11:10 pm | In Weekly Showing | No Comments

This Friday’s show:

  1. Detroit Metal City 11
  2. Michiko and Hatchin 3
  3. Kannagi 1
  4. Nodame Cantabile Paris 5
  5. One Outs 1
  6. Hyakko 4
  7. Skip Beat 3
  8. Kaisetsu Zorori 19

Michiko and Hatchin, Nodame, and Zorori are the anchors and Michiko was probably the best thing shown. Hyakko and DMC are the comedy relief, as is Skip Beat to some extent. Kannagi and One Outs are there since I try to make sure we watch at least one ep of the not completely horrible new stuff. I can’t really see showing more of either unless we’re short.

For the people who asked, this is not a big showing. Only me and four friends.

One Outs

November 10, 2008 at 6:46 pm | In anime, fall 2008, guilty pleasure, ridiculous premise | No Comments

Summary: Baseball as a gambling vehicle
Based on: 3 eps
Info at: Anime News Network (pic from there, too)

a10199-10

Note: This is a guest review by Brendan Speer.

When found out about One Outs, I was very excited.   ‘Finally’, I thought to myself, ‘An Akagi where I’m familiar with the sport!  This is going to be great!’  Plus I can pretend that the Lycaons are the Cubs.  Thusly, I waited for 2 weeks for it to be subbed; begging and cajoling friends to do it for me.

Then I sat down and watched the first episode.

And I was really disappointed.  I figured out that one of the great things about Akagi is that I don’t know the first damn thing about Mahjong.  I could really follow Akagi play without the little nagging doubt in the back of my mind.   The prospect of an 120 kph (75 mph) pitcher with no breaking balls being able to psych his opponents out that much introduces an element of that ‘This is ridiculous!’ feeling.

And yet, I’ve watched 3 episodes, and will probably watch the fourth tonight.   First off, it’s still compelling to watch.  I _still_ want to see Toua beat his first challenger at One Outs Baseball.  Even if I know the prospect is preposterous.

What Akagi and One Outs do differently from traditional ’sports’ anime, like Hikaru no Go and Prince of Tennis, is that the latter play like ‘Japanese youth introduction to sport <insert sport here>’.   Prince of Tennis will spend half an episode talking about the Buggy Whip Shot, or try and illustrate the difference between an All-Arounder and Baseline Retriever.  One Outs doesn’t do this.  Instead the sport is only a vehicle to tell the story, quite well I might add.  You know what’s going to happen, you always know who’s going to win.  However, between the Narrator, the Music, and the situations, you’re still compelled to keep watching.   How will Akagi play out of this?  Will Toua get hit?  It’s quite ingenious.

As Ron has referenced in his paragraph, the character designed have been tarted up for the female audience.  In Akagi, the character designed were basically ugly.   Distinctive, and stylish, but unattractive.  The unattractive, gritty style fit Akagi well.  In One Outs both Kojima and Toua are pretty-boy anime arch-types, the former being the squared-jawed Japanese traditionalist, and the latter having that punky bishonen going for him.  Even the first opposing team’s pitcher has an Kaneda-like street punk handsomeness to him.

The first two episodes were very Akagi like.   Very slow paced, building suspense.   The third introduced another element, of the Owner of the team.  I’ll try not to give away too much, but I like the way this is turning from the Akagi formula.   I suspect when I go back to rewatch something like this, however, I’ll still turn to the Mahjong master.

What We’re Watching

November 3, 2008 at 3:27 am | In Weekly Showing, anime | No Comments

This Friday’s showing:

  1. Zenryoku Usagi 11
  2. Detroit Metal City 9
  3. Yozakura Quartet 1
  4. Natsume Yuujinchou 13
  5. Nodame Cantabile Paris 3
  6. Mouryou no Hako 2
  7. Tetsuwan Birdy Decode 13
  8. Skip Beat 1
  9. Slayers Revolution 13

Three series ended this week - Natsume Yuujinchou, Birdy Decode, and Slayers Revolution.  Birdy was decent adventure and managed a decent not quite happy ending, but Natsume will be missed the most. I’m glad there’s another series coming. Slayers ending was sort of a mercy, since it’s much more fun when it’s just goofing around as it does at the start of a season instead of trying to be dramatic at the end of the season.

Skip Beat was pretty decent. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a good shojo comedy. I’ll show at least another ep. On the other hand Mouryou no Hako totally cratered. It went from creepy horror to relentless padding. Seriously, when you spend the entire second half of the show just driving around lost while dropping names you are doing the worst (and most boring) kind of exposition possible. The entire room was yawning.

What are We Watching?

October 29, 2008 at 12:46 am | In Weekly Showing | No Comments

I need to get in the habit of updating this one more often, I missed at week. But here was Friday’s showing:

  1. Zenryoku Usagi 10
  2. Detroit Metal City 8
  3. Michiko and Hatchin 1
  4. Nodame Cantabile Paris 2
  5. Kamen no Maid Guy 12
  6. Kaiketsu Zorori 17
  7. Tetsuwan Birdy Decode 12
  8. Natsume Yuujinchou 12
  9. Slayers Revolution 12

Kamen no Maid Guy ended with a total whimper. Slayers Revolution and Tetsuwan Birdy Decode were both visibly padding themselves out for the final ep, though Birdy at least tossed you a few bones. Michiko and Hatchin was pretty well received - hey, more Bebop is good. Nodame and DMC were of course awesome.

A Stunningly Generous Game

October 23, 2008 at 7:37 am | In off topic, you kids get off my lawn | No Comments

This blog is about anime, so I swear not to go off topic like this often, but I really wanted to give recognition to a game that’s extremely generous to the user - something you might appreciate as a busy adult.

Saints Row 2, just released for XBox 360 and PS3 (and soon the PC) is a dichotomy - it’s a Grand Theft Auto type game, perhaps even the most cynically derivative. The plot is total throwaway trash, a  complete gangbanger young male power fantasy. Reviews of the game have been decent, but thanks to the poverty of narrative it has been mostly written off as an ‘okay’ game.  But I think it’s actually a better game than Grand Theft Auto IV, because it goes to great lengths to make sure you have fun and not get in your way. For a game that’s about you being a total dick, it’s very polite, almost obsequious.

There are three types of missions - plot missions, optional activities, optional collection. The collection is the usual ‘50 hidden CDs are scattered around the city’ type thing. The plot missions advance the plot, obviously. But the optional activities, which could be throwaway, are actually what I consider the meat of the game. Unlike GTA IV or other games that include mini-games, the primary consideration here seems to be ‘is it fun?’ For instance, Septic Avenger has you hijacking a pumping truck and devaluing property values by spraying everything with human waste while your driver keeps up a steady stream of comments like ‘Now that’s a dirty cop!’ after you take one down with a high powered fecal jet. Utterly juvenile, yes, but a blast to play.

Trail Blazing has you donning an asbestos suit, setting yourself on fire, and racing through checkpoints on an ATV while setting hapless pedestrians on fire for bonus time. Mayhem asks you to do a certain amount of property damage in a given time - and the game gives you infinite rocket launcher or shotgun or assault rifle ammo so you don’t have to worry about anything but survival and damage. There are many more. And if you beat these activities, you get real, very useful rewards like reduced vehicle damage, infinite weapon ammo, or infinite sprinting time. It makes them fun and then rewards you for doing them.

The customization is insane. You can:

  • Create your character with a staggering array of option sliders. Male, female, fat, skinny, hispanic, black,  caucasian (or a mix!) - there are at least EIGHT separate sliders just to customize the lips.
  • Full body tattooing - each arm separately, each leg, chest, stomach, upper and lower back. The game lets you treat tattoos as clothes and change them at will. Not realistic, but nice.
  • Six character voices (3 male, 3 female) and then all your speaking parts are done in all six voices.
  • The array of clothing is almost overwhelming - at least 500 items, and you can choose the colors, whether you wear your hats forward, backwards, right, left, etc. You can even buy lip piercings.
  • All ‘movies’ are rendered in engine, with all your customizations, so ‘you’ are you through the whole game.

There’s just a spirit of generosity everywhere - it’s as if the designers actually asked ‘how can we make this not annoying?’ That should be fundamental for every game, but it’s hardly ever done in practice - Super Mario Galaxy or Geometry Wars 2 are the only examples I can think of recently. Hell, the guys at LucasArts seem to have been actively trying to make Force Unleashed even more annoying (’Disk access just for the menu? Sweeeeeeet!’). They probably weren’t, of course, they just weren’t considering it at all - and it shows.

Here’s how nice the game is:

  • Save anywhere, any time, even on console versions.
  • Missions are generously checkpointed. If you start a mission, drive across town to a nightclub and accidentally shoot a guy at close range with the rocket launcher (just hypothetically you understand), killing yourself, you will restart just outside the nightclub, after the drive.
  • Missions are generously signposted. If you have to run through a maze of a building, there are several waypoints.
  • I didn’t run into a single plot mission that was stupidly frustratingly designed. Sure I died or failed several times, but it was always my fault. Some of the highest level optional activities are very hard to complete in time, but that’s fair.
  • You get homies who do missions with you and are basically cannon fodder to distract the bad guys. If they die, it’s as easy as running up to them and pressing a button to revive them.
  • Redo old missions at any time through a clever ‘newspaper clippings’ gimmick, and redo any level of any completed activity by going back to the site.
  • If you like the music you hear, you can go to a music store, ‘buy’ any music you heard on the radio, and create your own music station.
  • There are plenty of bases you can win/buy throughout the city, and you can customize how they look.
  • You can customize how your gang looks, how they fight, and even your own fighting style.
  • I never felt constrained much by money or ammo. Both were sufficient, but not so plentiful as to rob you of motivation early on. Though by the end of the game you’re rolling in cash, which is as it should be.
  • Buttons do what you expect. I can’t emphasize this enough. The best example is that the back button brings up the map and the start button brings up the menu. But if you press the map button while already in the menu, it closes the menu and gives you the map, and vice versa.  That’s obvious, but only one game in a hundred would be that considerate in practice. Most are oblivious sociopaths.

The big takeaway from all this is that I never felt I was doing something stupid and boring just because the designers or implementers were lazy. If I thought something would be cool, I could probably do it. Read that again. How many games can you say that about? I just can’t emphasize enough how amazing it is to play a game that respects you enough that it doesn’t waste your time at all.

Of course I have some complaints. The plot, as mentioned, is trash. Ultimately I know I’ll remember GTA IV’s plot more than Saints Row 2’s (hell, I can barely remember SR2’s plot even now). But I also know SR2 was more fun than GTA IV.  The attack helicopter activities are also a little squirrelly because the copter controls are too loose, but those are optional except for the last plot mission, which is pretty forgiving.

I’m sure I’ll get a bunch of comments about how I’m weak for wanting the game to be too ‘easy’, but that’s not what I want. I don’t mind hard. Hard games forcing you to think carefully about what you’re doing and show some skill are great, and if you just run around randomly firing at things in SR2 you’ll die fast. Games that are hard because the people who made it were lazy are something else entirely. I beat games like Contra, (original) Prince of Persia and Battletoads (okay that’s a lie, I never played BT) back in the day and I no longer have the time to waste on stuff that insta-kills you for no good reason.

So thank you, Volition, for actually respecting the player for once (even while insulting my intelligence), and for making SR2 a lot less buggy than SR1. I can wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who doesn’t mind the crudity of the subject matter, and based on my informal polling more people will end up actually finishing SR2 than GTA IV.  It’s sad that I would feel compelled to write this because I’m so stunned that a game isn’t user hostile, but that’s the state of the industry.

definition: plot crystalization

October 23, 2008 at 2:53 am | In definition, plot crystalization | No Comments

This came about because I just finished Yakushiji Ryoko’s Case Files, which is a great example of this. Card Captor Sakura is another.

Basically it refers to a series where the first several episodes are aggressively, even boringly, formulaic, then they hit you with the real plot.  CLAMP stories are perhaps the best examples of this - Card Captor Sakura, Tsubasa, XXXholic, Rayearth, etc., but it also seems to be a requirement for most magical girl shows like Pretty Cure. They lull you in, then wham.

I’m not sure if this is exactly good or bad - it’s certainly bad during the forumlaic setup where you’re thinking ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, she has to capture another card’, but in the case of something like Ryoko’s Case Files where the last third of the show suddenly turns into a sprawling epic where they bring in all sorts of bits from the early episodes that you’d thought were just throwaway, it’s actually kind of fulfilling.

This is felt much more strongly in shoujo anime, so I’m going to say this is linked to shoujo cliche - the first several eps are designed to lull the viewer into a sense of familiarity and security before they can get into the real plot.

Why I’m Cranky

October 20, 2008 at 8:39 pm | In meta, pandering, you kids get off my lawn | 1 Comment

In the future, when people ask me why I’m cranky about anime, I’m just going to send them to this music video. Warning: not exactly safe for work and the audio will make you want to burn your ears out with a red hot poker.

definition: pandering

October 17, 2008 at 7:11 am | In definition, pandering | 1 Comment

I fling this word around like monkeys fling poo, so I guess it’s incumbent on me to offer a definition other than ‘I know it when I see it.’ I realize it’s very subjective. To me, pandering is where somebody said ‘okay, how can we make this more appealing to pathetic nerds’  even when it doesn’t come naturally out of the context of the show. If it makes sense for the show, then okay. It all boils down to is it calculatedly gratuitous?

You might consider Hellsing’s gun porn, ultraviolence, and style over substance to be pandering, but I get the feeling that Hirano (the manga author) really, truly, loves this stuff and is just writing what he thinks is goddamn cool, so it’s not pandering. This is what he loves, there’s no compromise of principle.

To me (and you may legitimately disagree) Horo’s omnipresent nudity in Wolf and Spice is less pandering than the crotch shots in Strike Witches because in Wolf and Spice the nudity is treated like it’s nothing - just another outfit, no lecherous loving pans over insanely detailed flesh. Whereas in Strike Witches it seems like the guys writing the show had the crotch shots as their primary directive and they show up at the most ridiculous times - rubbed in your face, so to speak. You can tell they consider this the primary selling point of the show.

Lucky Star isn’t bad once you get past the stultifyingly boring first episodes, but the character of Konata is too obviously calculated to appeal to pathetic otaku guys. Pani Poni Dash is generally okay except when they throw a completely gratuitous bromide in your face - and even worse make it a pull-out pan with sparkly highlights to rub it in your face! Shows like Akiba-chan, about maid doll girls in Akihabara, are entirely cynical ploys. Hell, anything with ‘Akiba’ in the name, period.

Other things are harder for me to pin down. Akamatsu’s Negima! has an unprecedented buffet of girls that’s undeniably extreme pandering, yet the plot and dialogue is less pathetically desperate than his previous Love Hina.  As above, some people see Wolf and Spice’s nude wolf-girl scenes and go ‘Holy crap, where did this come from’ and I can see that - to me it flows naturally when you involve a fertility goddess, but that’s just gut feel and I can’t objectively argue against it.

To Aru Majutsu no Index

October 14, 2008 at 8:15 am | In adventure, anime, could be worse, fall 2008, fightfightfight, guilty pleasure, ridiculous premise | No Comments

Summary: Action magic/drama in Young King Ours/Square-Enix style.
Based on: 2 episodes
Series Summary: at Anime News Network (picture stolen as well)

Okay, so this one has me conflicted after 2 eps. I’m going to tell you why you shouldn’t like it, then why you should.

First, it’s utterly typical of a style you find in Young King Ours magazine, which I subscribe to, and anything Square-Enix sponsors. An adolescent male appeal with violence, sexual undercurrents, and an emphasis on fighting and sheer coolness over plot. Of course there’s always magic/psychic powers involved, lots of fighting and explosions, and a young guy who’s sort of helpless (but not a totally weak despicable dork, thank god) but turns out to be the only way the world can be saved once his powers can be trained up. World Embryo is the epitome of this. So when I see it my reaction is to go ‘meh’.

On the other hand, given the formula setup, the characters in this are relatively well done, likeable, and believable (minus the loli teacher). It certainly delivers the action. I can’t fault the character design or animation or music. The heroine (?) out-Rei’s Rei for being white-haired autistic savant, but since the hero’s not even slightly romantically attracted to her (so far) that’s tolerable. The most eye-rolling thing here is that everyone believes in psychic powers but not magic, though they have a Justification for this.

So what am I saying? I’m not sure yet, but if Yozakura Quartet drops the ball this could be my action show for the season.

Yozakura Quartet

October 10, 2008 at 5:39 am | In Weekly Showing, adventure, anime, fall 2008, fightfightfight | No Comments

Summary: shojo Bleach
Based on: 1 episode
Series Info: at Anime News Network (pic shamelessly stolen too)

For some reason this starts out with a hugely boring chunk of exposition about how the half-human half-demon town came into existence, which wouldn’t even need to be explained if you thought your viewers had two brain cells to rub together. The basic plot is about a town where humans and youkai (demons) co-exist, and the quartet is a group that hunts down bad guys. Think Geobreeders, Phantom Quest Corp, or Ghost Sweeper Mikami. The setup is pretty standard.

But once you get past that, I rather like this. It continues the trend of merging of shojo (girls’) and shounen (boys’) genres, and reminds me of nothing so much as a slightly more girly Bleach before Bleach jumped the shark. I absolutely love the character designs, especially Kotoha.

This could easily end up in the crapper if it just milks the premise as stated and turns into harem anime, but for now I’m absolutely grabbing the second ep.

definition: hgame to anime sucks

October 10, 2008 at 5:12 am | In definition, hgame to anime sucks | 2 Comments

This one is related to ‘rpg to anime sucks‘. It’s just as easy to remember - any anime based on a hentai (porn) game sucks. Which should be obvious, because it almost inevitably means harem and/or buffet of girls and usually school syndrome and of course an unlikeable nebbish male lead. And the female characters are even more one-dimensional and annoying than usual - and really, who wants to put up with all that if you can’t even have sex with them (since the anime are invariably pg-rated)?

Some of the hall of failure include:

  • Comic Party
  • Fate/Stay Night
  • Kanon
  • Kimi ga Nozomu Ein
  • School Days
  • Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica
  • To Heart (and To Heart 2)
  • Tsukihime
  • Utawarerumono

And some horrific anime I can’t even remember the name of about a battleship powered by the main character’s semen. (Brendan S reminded me that this is Lime-iro Senkitan).

These are usually pretty easy to spot - are there gratuitously too many different types of girls (especially an annoying loli) and a plot that seems to be an afterthought? Does the main goal seem to be to get you to lust after one of the female chars rather than involve you in the story? Unfortunately, manga seems to be headed this way too, so I mistakenly identified Sekirei as one of these even though it isn’t. Rosario to Vampire fits here too.

School Days is perhaps the most interesting of these - it knew it was based on a vapid porn game, so it took the most horrific of the game paths and rubbed it in your face, and made the main character to pathetically weak you couldn’t possibly like him (I hope).

definition: rpg to anime sucks

October 10, 2008 at 4:54 am | In definition, rpg to anime sucks | 1 Comment

I love console RPGs unreasonably. There’s something soothing about a formulaic dialogue heavy old-school RPG like the Tales games that just appeal to me.

Sadly, every single anime based on these is formulaic boring crap. Take the recent Tales of the Abyss or the Star Ocean 2 anime. I liked those games a lot, but I couldn’t even sit through two eps of the anime. And I can’t think of a single counterexample (and don’t even say the Final Fantasy VII movies).

The least bad I can think of so far is Mahoujin Guruguru.

Here’s the list of failure so far, and I’m sure I’m missing quite a few:

  • Ar Tonelico (OVA)
  • Arc the Lad
  • Blue Dragon
  • Chrono Trigger (OVA)
  • Final Fantasy Unlimited
  • Idolm@ster: Xenoglossia
  • Night Wizard
  • Persona 3
  • Ragnarok Online
  • Suikoden: Demon Century (OVA)
  • Tales of the Abyss
  • Tales of Symphonia
  • Tower of Druaga
  • Wild Arms
  • Wizardry (OVA)
  • World Destruction
  • Xenosaga

Not included here are anime based on porn adventure games like Tsukihime or Utawarerumono - that’s something else.  Nor do I include real RPGs to anime, like Record of Lodoss War.

define: tsundere

October 9, 2008 at 5:33 am | In definition, tsundere | No Comments

This is a term that’s almost as overused as moe. Basically it means a girl who acts all hostile (tsuntsun) towards the nebbish male lead, but since she’s secretly in love with him she can’t help but get all flustered and super-bashful-girly (deredere) in the right circumstances.

These have peaked in popularity, and there has been a huge amount of bitching about how the term has been cheapened, but Louise from Zero no Tsukaima and Taiga from Toradora are great examples.

Another sign that tsundere are played out is the recent growth of the related yandere character - who acts polite and girly, then goes totally insane and cuts you up with a meat cleaver (think Rena from Higurashi).

Kuroshitsuji

October 8, 2008 at 7:31 am | In anime, fall 2008, ridiculous premise, shoujo cliche, yaoibait | No Comments

Summary: Shojou Hellsing (again)
Based on: 1 episode
Series Info: at Anime News Network (pic shamelessly stolen)

[edit: I reread my initial review of this, and it came off far too harsh - sure, this is formulaic, but it's not as bad as I made it out to be.]

Sigh. It really is disappointing that anime/manga for girls are even more more generic than anime/manga for boys. Aren’t women supposed to be more subtle, nuanced, and intelligent than stupid brutish men? Then you look at Harlequin romances (and shojo anime) and realize this isn’t the case. Women prefer their plots even more formulaic and predictable than men do.

So now that I’ve got that ranting out of the way, if you liked Nabari no Ou this is the your shojo anime for you this season.  Ciel Phantomhive (eye-patched prettyboy) is the heir of the English Phantomhive toy dynasty. His butler, Sebastian, is an ultra-competent ultra-handsome demon lord. Everyone else in the household is comic relief.

I had a brief moment of appreciation for this show when it actually invoked some horror (the oven scene), but then it completely cheapened and nullified it. The best I can say is this isn’t as horribly bad as Trinity Blood.

But, for you people who need your formulaic prettyboys (and I have my own guilty pleasures), this is your show. And the production values are indisputably good.

Kannagi

October 8, 2008 at 7:18 am | In anime, could be worse, fall 2008, miko | No Comments

Summary: Divine love comedy
Based on: 1 episode
Series info: at Anime News Network (picture shamelessly stolen from there too)

It’s hard to tell from only one episode, but given the horrible premise and opening animation this was actually better than I expected. We’ll see. Generally miko are just a rape-bunny fetish, so I’m skeptical, but I’ll be watching the second episode.

Schoolboy Jin (an interesting name in this context that can mean ‘person’ or ‘god’ depending on the character) carves a figurine out of wood from a sacred tree (nageia, a type of conifer). The local land-god, displaced from her habitat, animates the figure and suddenly Jin has a hot divine chick living with him. I’m giving this a chance since even with the obvious harem setup coming, the first ep resisted the obvious panty shot and other cheesecake opportunities.

This could could go straight in the dumper from here, and I suspect it will since it reminds me most of  Ai Yori Aoshi or Seto no Hanayome, but damn it I have some faint hope.

define: miko

October 8, 2008 at 7:10 am | In definition, miko | No Comments

Shrine maidens, with emblematic white robes and bright orange pants. Unfortunately, these, like nuns, are generally viewed by the Japanese as shorthand for ‘rape bunny’. The usual inseparable mix of sacred and divine.

Detroit Metal City

October 8, 2008 at 7:00 am | In fall 2008, guilty pleasure | No Comments

Summary: Low-brow death metal comedy.
Based on: 6 episodes, 5 volumes of manga
Series info: at Anime News Network

This series only has one joke, but I love it and it’s fairly bottomless. Negishi the nebbish just wants to write vapid jpop songs, but to make ends meet he transforms into Krauser II, lead vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter for death metal group DMC.

Negishi is the wussy super-ego, but when he dons the mask (or even lets down his mental guard), his Id takes over and he becomes Krauser II, who can sing ‘ten rapes per second’. Part of the fun here is that Krauser II isn’t just some made up persona, it’s really a facet of Negishi’s personality that he won’t admit exists.

The legend of Krauser says that he killed his parents then raped them then broke out of prison then raped them - then killed them. Got that?

And this is all animated by the super-fabulous Studio 4C in low fidelity Gag Manga Biyori style. The low quality visuals are part of the charm.

Fall 2008 Anime

October 8, 2008 at 6:37 am | In fall 2008 | 4 Comments

It’s that time again - Fall 2008 season. So far this is a much better season than the last one was! Here’s Joe Chan’s List of Fall 2008 Anime.

Updated: Nov 17, 2008

Mini-rant: I guess I need to reprise my mission statement here after some outraged mail. This is not for people who love anime in general. You’ve just discovered it, it’s soooooo much better fthan South Park and you love it all, bless you for your enthusiasm. But this is a list of anime for jaded old people who’ve seen most of this crap a hundred times before, have read Nietzsche and Pollan and  Wolfe, and are desperate for anything truly new and exciting (though we’ll settle for Yozakura Quartet if the world won’t give us more goddamn Moyashimon).  Yes Toradora is cute school romance, but that is no longer sufficient, just as Terry Brooks or Robert Jordan are not a sufficient replacement for Tolkien.

So Far So Good:

  • Detroit Metal City -Low-brow comedy about a Death Metal band. Centers on the disconnect between the lead char’s nebbish persona as himself and his king of demons persona as the lead singer/guitarist of the band.
  • Hyakko - This looks to be the high school girl comedy this season. I like the designs a lot, it’s understated, and nothing happens but that’s okay. Think Maria-sama crossed with Best Student Council. Actually, something does finally happen but I won’t spoil it. Sadly, ep 2 has one of the worst cases of animation degradation I’ve ever seen. Seriously, I could draw better keyframes than that. Ep 3 is back up to snuff - for schoolgirl comedy anyhow.
  • Michiko and Hatchin - This is trying overly hard to be the next Cowboy Bebop, including Kanno wannabe music, but it’s been so long since Bebop I’m willing to take that. Reminds me of Robert Rodriguez as well. After three eps this is still excellent. Imagine Bee Train stuff (Noir, Avenger, Madlax) done by someone with talent.
  • Skip Beat - We haven’t had a good shojo love comedy since Love Complex. It’s a Cinderella story, with hard working plain earnest girl in love with a beatiful, talented(?) dickhead. That would have been hard to take for long (LoveCom was too straightforward), but there is a Twist.  This is definitely our new weekly shojo comedy series.
  • Tentai Senshi Sunred - This came out of nowhere. This is a deranged little half-length gag show about a Sentai character. It’ll fill the gap nicely now that DMC is over.

Could be Okay:

  • Ga-Rei Zero - Supernatural action that’s trying way too hard to be cool, but the ending guarantees you’ll at least watch the second episode. Update: Gah. Okay, so the 2nd ep doesn’t exactly cheap out, but doesn’t resolve things either. One more cliffhanger! By ep 4 this has calmed down into pretty standard school stuff. They’ve cheaped out by starting at the end.
  • Kannagi - with the subtitle ‘Crazy Shrine Maidens’ I’m actually quite surprised the first ep was as good as it was.  The big risk is it degenerates into typical Seto no Hanayome domestic comedy.
  • Toaru Majutsu no Index - This one makes me conflicted. The writing and music on this are both great. At its core it’s just another generic Square-Enix anime, but I hold out hope it can escape that.  Better than Shikabanehime anyhow.
  • Yozakura Quartet - Supernatural action comedy.Think a more shoujo version of the early non-sucky Bleach. And I’m good with that. For some reason the first couple minutes are very forced exposition, but then it gets better. Still a little formulaic.

Special Circumstances:

  • Kameko DX - This is your Pani Poni Dash for the season. A non-stop mix of non-sequiturs, fanservice, anime in-jokes (and even a Westworld reference, good lord!) and shallow insanity. Wherefore art thou, Excel Saga?
  • Kuroshitsuji - If you liked Nabari no Ou, this is your token shoujou drama/comedy show for this season. Think girly Hellsing. Not as wretched as Trinity Blood at least.
  • Kurozuka - There’s one of these every season. Loosely based on historical events, high quality dark art, Noh music and stylings, Drama, and injected supernatural elements (to me it’ll always be ‘Gasaraki style’). When the big guy dropped out of the sky and started hitting people with his staff I thought ‘I bet that’s Benkei’ and sure enough. So Yoshitsune with vampires. You know if you like this.
  • One Outs - Baseball, but the (beautiful) players are (reluctantly?) after each others bats and balls. Then it turns into high gambling drama. Brendan Speer compares this one to Akagi with ‘the exact same snail’s pace pacing’.
  • Tytania - Did you like Legend of Galactic Heroes? You must have this, now. If you’re unfamiliar, think giant space battles fought in 2D planes. They haven’t invented 3D space or computer targetting in the future, which is good because the ships have only token shields. The bridge of the Imperial flagship is a Victorian tea room (no, really!), everyone is impeccably attired, and the second thing mentioned about the Empire’s general is is how beautiful he is. Really, you’re in this for the political drama. Update: The LOGH fanatic I know calls this ‘LOGH for Dummies’.

Pass:

  • Akane-iro no Somaru Saka - Not quite as bad as CHAOS: HEAD, but it’s every h-game and visual novel cliche rolled into one.  Complete with an ending ’surprise’ plot twist that makes it even more banal than I thought possible!  And girls whose hair has more personality than they do.  If there’s anything non-cliche about this it’s the fetish it has for girls’ knees.
  • Akiba-chan - stop-motion maid dolls in Akihabara. This is painfully bad pandering. Yes I end up using that word a lot, but a lot of this crap is just so cynically aimed at stupidly hardcore otaku.
  • Bihada Ichizoku - I actually rather liked the first ep of this over the top ridiculous anime about a family dedicated to having the best skin in Japan, but while this recognizes its ridiculousness, it doesn’t manage to surpass it, which would be necessary to keep watching.
  • CHAOS: HEAD - Worst. Anime. This. Season. Porn game conversion. Most pathetic and unlikable male character ever (yes, worse than Welcome to the NHK). Yet all the beautiful girls (who happen to be serial killers) love him and are huge anime nerds. Hint: Even if you know the plot and execution are pathetic cliches, it doesn’t make it better when the hero constantly points out how pathetic they are.
  • Earl and Fairy - This would be the Vampire Knight of the season except there’s already Vampire Knight this season for your generic bishonen action. Girl who can see fairies and dangerous beautiful angsty men with bare chests (add your own fairy joke here). You’d be far better off watching Natsume Yuujin Chou instead.
  • Inazuma Eleven - Digimon meets Shaolin Soccer for young boys. Based on a video game.
  • Kurogane no Linebarrels - So in this anime the huge dork who deserves and encourages the bullying he gets summons the giant robot by touching her breast while porn music plays. This is pretty typical GONZO - awful (meaning hugely obvious) 3D CG plus hi-res backgrounds plus high frame rate but crudely drawn 2D animation which will get progressively worse with each episode.  There’s some hint there might be more to the plot, but ugh.
  • Kyou no Go no Ni (TV) - ’sexy’ fifth graders. No seriously, they took the exact same jokes from the OVA series and uglied up the character designs and pedo-ed up the characters. Say what?
  • Macademi Wasshoi - Magical Pedo Harry Potter Academy. This one reeks of UFO Princess Valkyrie (including the obligatory nekomimi combat maid), so if you liked that you’ll like this.
  • Mouryou no Hako (Box of Spirits) - Creepy, beautiful horror set just after WW II. Actually, it’s a bit hard to tell what’s going on from just the first episode, but I definitely want to see more. Update: wow, ep 2 was one of the worst letdowns ever. No more creepy, and the second half is just them driving around the entire time while name dropping people you don’t know at a half-assed attempt at exposition.
  • Quiz Magic Academy OVA - this is just fanservice if you already like Konami’s game. If not there’s nothing for you here.
  • Rosario to Vampire Season 2 - You know what you’re getting here. Panty shots and bad plots. Amusingly, half the stations that showed the first ep censored it due to the sheer number of crotch shots. Hadn’t they seen Strike Witches?
  • Shikabanehime Aka - How do you fight dead people? With hot dead teen chicks, of course!  Again, well done but absolutely typical Square-Enix setup. I have to admit I love the OP.
  • Tales of the Abyss - Yet Another Forumlaic Conversion of a console RPG to anime. I liked the game (Tear 4 Lyfe) and I still can’t watch this.
  • Toradora - formula school romance about a guy with a mean face (but a heart of gold!) and a tsundere girl who happens to look just like Louise from Zero no Tsukaima. Pass unless you can’t resist sitcoms about misunderstandings or tsundere.

What Are We Watching?

October 8, 2008 at 6:14 am | In Weekly Showing | No Comments

I supply the anime for a weekly showing. It’s an interesting exercise, because some of the people watching don’t really care for anything that’s plot or drama heavy - so it has to be stuff that’ll keep everyone interested, which becomes a useful exercise in compromise.  As one example, I like Yakushiji Ryoko no Kaiki Jikenbo, but the sensibility is too adult for the weekly showing, so that’s something I watch on my own. Or we watched Noein, but I know it wasn’t really liked, so I’ve become more conservative in my choices. Now with that said, I like everything we watch for one reason or another.

We watch about 3 hours worth, which works out to 7 22 minute shows plus one short show to lead off, which you think would be challenging to fill, but the real problem is trimming down to ‘only’ 8 shows. Here’s what we watched this Friday:

  1. Detroit Metal City # 6
  2. Bounen no Xamdou #2
  3. Kaiketsu Zorori #15
  4. Toradora #1
  5. Tetsuwan Birdy Decode #10
  6. Soul Eater #15
  7. Natusme Yuujinchou #10
  8. Slayers Revolution #10

This isn’t just a random layout - it starts with something short and funny, and ends with something upbeat and adventuresome, and I try to prevent any transitions that are too jarring.  The first and last positions are most important. You want to start out with something short and funny like Damekko Doubutsu or Zenryoku Usagi, then end up with something upbeat with action. Until recently that was Bamboo Blade, now it’s the new season of Slayers.

I stick in some new stuff when it shows up after filtering out the truly horrendous things like Akiba-chan, hence the Toradora. It probably won’t be showing up again, but it was worth seeing one ep of for everyone. This coming Friday will probably be a lot of new stuff.

The only thing on this list that feels like ‘filler’ right now is Soul Eater. If there was anything worth replacing it with I’d replace it fairly easy. The rest is all stuff everyone (and I) seem to like pretty well. Okay, maybe Natsume Yuujinchou is a little girly, but you need something pensive in the list.

Yen+ Magazine

August 21, 2008 at 12:53 am | In manga | No Comments

Generally I only talk anime here, but I read manga too and it’s not too often we get a new shot at a periodic manga anthology.  Generally the niche is a nonstarter, with one failed attempt after another (anyone remember Raijin?). The English version of Shonen Jump manages to keep going because there’s a never-ending market for Naruto and Yugi-oh (they even realized they could entirely remove the plot from Yugi-oh to get Yugi-oh GX and it made no difference). But now we’ve got a new competitor.

Overview

I got issue 1 when it came out, but wanted to at least get issue 2 before saying anything to give the series a chance to ramp up, and now I’ve read that. The format is interesting:  on the right half you have 5 Japanese series which read right to left.  On the left half you have 5 Korean and US series which read left to right.

Overall I have to say the production values are great for your $10. It’s large format and much higher quality paper than the magazines are originally printed on in Japan. The translation and lettering are quite good - at least I never thought I could have done a better job myself, as has been the case with some recent crap from Del Rey and Viz.  The original sound effects are left as they were and then annotated with both a romanized and translated version.  So you might see a ヒューーーー for wind and then next to it a little ‘hyuuuu (whoosh)’. You could just dismiss this as cheaper than entirely redrawing the effect, but I prefer it since it preserves the art and is good reading practice.

So that leaves the content. If Shonen Jump is for pre-pubescent boys who just want to see stuff blowing up then this is targeted at pubescents who’ve discovered their brothers’ porn stashes. Stuff blowing up but with panty shots and romance. Whereas Shonen Jump knows it’s for young boys Yen+ is a little schizophrenic about which gender it’s targetting. Also interesting is that every one of the Japanese side series has an anime tie-in, and I’m not sure if that was intentional or not.

Japanese Side

Soul Eater: This one is kind of stylish. It’s fight fight fight with some comedy: basically Bleach Lite with more gratuitous nudity and wackiness, but I do like the visual ideas. Unfortunately the the anime executes them much better and I can’t see any reason to read the manga instead of watching the anime.

Nabari no Ou. ‘King of Ninjas’ more or less. More fight fight fight but it’s an interesting hybrid since the visual style is shoujo with lots of lanky pretty boys, and shoujo tropes abound.  The manga’s pretty comparable to the anime, but neither really grabbed me much.

Bamboo Blade. School sports comedy/drama about a girls’ kendo team (there are two boys, but they’re mostly sideline).  This is probably the best manga in the book (I’ve read several volumes raw) - it doesn’t degenerate into harem even given the setup, there’s no exploitation, there’s no ridiculous powaaaaa up! escalation. It’s just fun.  There is a bit of buffet of girls in the setup, but it’s never really abused.  I think the anime actually has better (cleaner) art, but either is good.

Higurashi: When They Cry.  This is a weird combination of horrendously cute fanservice with explicit horror, torture, and dismemberment that switches modes at the drop of a hat. You can see my review of the anime here. The manga undeniably has better art, but the anime (at least the first season) is paced far better. Two months in and if you didn’t already know what was coming I think you’d be pretty bored with the manga at this point.

Sumomomo Momomo. Fighting comedy. Super-strong martial artist girl who happens to look like an 8 year old wants to have a baby with weak nebbish boy and constantly begs him to impregnate her in uncomfortable pedo scenes. A girl who fights in a literal bondage outfit shows up later.  Again there’s an anime, but I wouldn’t bother with either.

English/Korean Side

Maximum Ride.  A Korean-drawn adaptation of James Patterson’s teen action adventure books. The art is well done and at least the story isn’t another frickin’ love comedy.  I haven’t read the books, so I don’t really find myself involved yet, even after two episodes. It seems to involve some aggressively diverse good-guy bird-people against some gnarrr gnarr evil wolf-people and mad scientists who want to dissect them.

Nightschool. This is your token amerimanga , which if you read any plot-based webcomics you’re probably overly familiar with. The art’s not bad at all (though completely formula for the genre),  but the plot and delivery are total cliche with the usual glut of ‘tee hee’ asides and fourth wall breaking the format demands.  To be fair, this isn’t a uniquely amerimanga thing (see Kaze Hikaru for instance) but the inability to escape it seems to be.  I’m not sure who to blame for that - Gold Digger and Ninja High School? Anyhow, you’ve seen this before.

Pig Bride. Supernatural school love comedy/drama in shoujo style. When the male lead was a young boy he got lost and was forced to marry a young girl in a pig mask. He writes it off as a dream, but now that he’s living at school guess who shows up? I actually kind of like this one because it’s so formula (and the manga style is dead on) that the little uniquely Korean bits really stand out.

Sarasah. Supernatural school love comedy/drama in shoujo style. No, not a copy and paste error. But this one is a bit more dramatic than Pig Bride. The heroine’s been stalking (no other word for it) her school crush for a while, till he gets fed up and pushes her down some stairs, killing her. But now she gets another chance thanks to a sympathetic goddess. I don’t really like the main character, but obviously redemption is part of the theme here (or had better be). Art is good, as expected.

One Fine Day. This is just airy cuteness. You’ve got this spaced out guy who owns (?) a mouse, cat, and a dog, though maybe they’re his familiars because he’s apparently a wizard. And they show up randomly as kids in animal suits instead of animals. Nothing really happens except random surreal cute stuff - he buys some eggs to make breakfast and they hatch into little gangster chicks. The art is light and open to go with the breeziness of the story. I actually like this in small doses.

Jack Frost. This is the polar opposite of One Fine Day. It’s Hellsing-style, all thick dark blacks and violence and dismemberment. It’s also got more cheesecake than I’ve ever seen in manwha - nakedness is one thing, but I’m not used to seeing Video Girl Ai type lovingly rendered crotch shots (as seen from the PoV of the girl’s own decapitated head - wha?). The plot is pretty much total trash, but I have to admit I kind of like the art style in general.

Conclusion(?)

I’m not sure if I have a conclusion.  Technically this worth the price.  It’s a lot of pages and high quality reproduction/translation.  It’s certainly worth more than the $10 you’re paying per volume of Naruto,  but the bigger problem is that I’m not sure if this is worth the time to read it when you could be reading or watching something better.

Next Page »

Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.