The first step to making extraordinary anime (at least to me) is to populate the anime with a stellar cast of memorable characters and 2011 was full of anime that took this idea to heart.

One general trend that seems to be really gathering steam of late is creating male main characters who have an actual backbone. There are still shows that cling to the tired character type of the lame/weak male main character but, on balance, they are mainly the cheaper, lower-tier anime series. For this I think we have to thank Tomokazu Sugita and his performance as Kyon from The Melancholy of Haruhi. He might not have been first one to staunch the tide of wet noodle “guys” but with every snarky remark (and DVD sale) he created a counter-image of what a male main character could be.

Another trend, albeit a bit on the meta side, among characters I noticed this year was during the Saimoe competition. I didn’t cover this annual net competition of Japanese (and whoever else could sneak in) anime fans for the most popular female “moe” character but I lurked on an almost daily basis at the places that covered Saimoe. What I was surprised by was the near-total failure of the incumbent franchises to win against the new anime series. I don’t know if this anti-establishment fervor was merely a display of fatigue towards the older anime franchises or was this a signal of a shift in anime fandom. Maybe it’s a sign that 2012 will be the end of the world .

Before getting to the awards, as a reminder, I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum but there’ll be some because of how they’ll relate to specific awards. As for the continuing shows, only the part of the series that ran during this year is under consideration for this year’s awards.

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Best Female Main Character

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Nano and The Professor from Nichijou

Summer – Christina from Steins;Gate

Autumn – Chihaya from Chihayafuru

Wildcard –  Ohana from Hanasaku Iroha, Homura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Overall Winner: Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

I confess that I have weakness for characters that are heroes and those that are willing to sacrifice for someone else or for some “greater” good. Madoka is both all while being a normal kid so it was a forgone conclusion that she was winning this award the moment PM3 finished airing last spring. The race for second, meanwhile, would not have been clear cut if I had to pick.

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Best Male Main Character

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Prince Baka  from Level E

Spring – Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Summer -Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Autumn – You Satou from Ben-to

Wildcard –  Tiger from Tiger & Bunny, Furuta Sasuke from Hyouge Mono

Overall Winner: Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

This was another easy pick to make. From episode 1 I could tell Okabe – the Mad Scientist of Tokyo – was special; he is the type of character that seems almost supernatural in comparison to even the best male characters from the other anime series. The only problem was that after Chaos;Head I feared the story for Steins;Gate would ruin any chance for Okabe to shine (or maybe even sparkle). Thankfully, that fear proved unfounded and Okabe takes his place among the great anime characters of all-time.

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Best Supporting Character(s)

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Mami from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Grandma Sui from Hanasaku Iroha

Summer – Nyanko-sensei from Natsume Yuujinchou 3

Autumn – Rider aka Iskander from Fate/Zero

Wildcard – Oda Nobunaga from Hyouge Mono, Dio from Last Exile — Ginyoku no Fam

Overall Winner: Grandma Sui from Hanasaku Iroha

A couple years ago I lamented the lack of old people in anime. I pointed out that when an anime does include an old person, he or she is often the most awesome character in the entire cast. Hanasaku Iroha is but the latest example of why there needs to be more old people in anime. Grandma Sui beat a roster of very tough opponents, most particularly Rider from Fate/Zero. He is literally 75% of the reason to keep watching Fate/Zero and makes a strong argument for cutting everyone else out of the show and just focus on Rider and his master Weaver.

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Best Screen-grabber

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Madoka’s Mom from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Meme from Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Summer – The Penguins from Mawaru Penguin Drum

Autumn – Matsukaze from Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!

Wildcard –  Momoka from Mawaru Penguin Drum

Overall Winner: The Penguins from Mawaru Penguin Drum

This award is for the character(s) that best maximizes the small amount of screen time given them to leave an indelible mark on the show and on the viewers. Mom’s are a rare commodity in anime due, in part, to their ability to stop wacky hi-jinks and shenanigans. Madoka’s Mom and how she interacted with the plot was one of the reasons PM3 reached such a height of greatness as it did. It was difficult to pick someone else but the Penguins just deserved this award too much. Without them I don’t think Mawaru Penguin Drum would have been nearly as good or as entertaining or as comprehensible.

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Best Couple

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Takuto and Wako from Star Driver

Spring – Prince Enma and Princess Yukiko from Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera

Summer – Christina and Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Autumn – Shouma and Ringo from Mawaru Penguin Drum

Wildcard –  Aunt Touko and Uncle Shigeru from Natsume Yuujinchou 3, Madoka’s Mom and Dad from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Overall Winner: Christina and Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate

With everything else that happens in Steins;Gate it’s kinda surprising that the animators where able to fit the development of Chistina’s and Okabe’s relationship into the show as well, even finding the space to make it feel so natural and heartwarming to see. This component also played an important role in making the viewers care about what happened with the plot of the show.

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Best Character Ability/Power

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – The ability to beat entropy from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Rintarou Okabe’s ability to remember past world lines from Steins;Gate

Summer – The scarf that can make animals talk from Nichijou

Autumn – The ability to make a person answer one question truthfully and completely from Un-Go

Wildcard –  Seeing ghosts and spirits from Natsume Yuujinchou 3

Overall Winner: The ability to beat entropy from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

I think I was first introduced to entropy and how the universe will eventually wind-down many years ago with a story by Isaac Asimov called “The Last Question”. Personally, I don’t often think about the need to reverse entropy because I probably won’t be around to care but it is a problem that will eventually need addressing by someone. Beating entropy as Kyubey’s motivation made sense for an emotionless alien species and was another facet that showed the quality of thought put into PM3.

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Best Cast of Characters

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – AnoHana

Summer – Natsume Yuujinchou 3

Autumn – Mawaru Penguin Drum

Wildcard –  Hanasaku Iroha, Tiger and Bunny

Overall Winner: Mawaru Penguin Drum

This was the toughest category to pick in this section of awards because each of these series had such great casts of characters. Even when I decided that Penguins was a hair above the other choices due to the high quality of even it’s very minor characters in a cast as large as Penguins had – I still feels like I’m slighting the other choices.

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Best Character Development for Cast

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Star Driver

Spring – AnoHana

Summer – Ikoku Meiro no Croisee

Autumn – Mawaru Penguin Drum

Wildcard –  Hanasaku Iroha

Overall Winner: AnoHana

AnoHana was built to win this award and it’s not really a shocker that it did so. The most surprising nominee was Ikoku Meiro no Croisee because on the surface it looked like a mere “cute girls doing cute things” anime but a great deal of character development was tucked into the show. A sequel that further explores the cast would be something I’d love to see.

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Best Character Development of a Single Character

Seasonal Winners:

Winter – Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spring – Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Summer – Rintarou Okabe  from Steins;Gate

Autumn – Maon Sakurada from Tamayura – Hitotose

Wildcard –  Ringo from Mawaru Penguin Drum

Overall Winner: Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate

After going through the level of tragedy and pain that forced him to change from the wannabe mad scientist punk with delusions of grandeur to an emotionally scarred adult that’s been forced to make tough decisions and then had to watch those decisions hurt his family and friends over’n’over – I do not begrudge Okabe the happy ending he got at the end of Steins;Gate. This helped push Steins;Gate from being just a generic SF series about time travel into something exceptional.

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That’s the end of part 1; I hope to have the second part up within a day. Comments and feedback are always appreciated – I’d love to see what others would pick.

Another year finished and another year the wannabe buzzards prognosticate the demise of anime even when the empirical data continues to defy their constructed narratives. I’d compare these people to climate scientists who close their eyes to the last decade plus of weather but I don’t want to get political here .

Instead I’ll point out that this year saw two young studios P.A. Works and Silver Fox create series which signaled their emergence as top quality anime studios. Also, this year saw two studios – Shaft and Brains Base –  take the plunge with original works and the resulting masterpieces pushed these already well-respected studios into the stratosphere.  Nor could it be forgotten how Kyoto Animation and Satelight, two veteran studios, stretched their creative legs and produce great series in genres that their not known for. Or how a quirky little studio, david production, that spun off from Gonzo a few years ago produced not one but two quirky quality series this year and finally attracted the attention of a large number of anime fans.

So, for those reasons and others, it’s easy to see that this was a banner year for anime –  one that I want to reminisce about and remember. There’s various formats that can be used to do so but the one I like involves ranking the anime in various categories because it just seems more orderly this way.

Before starting into the “nice” awards I first wanted to list the anime series that I watched from 2011 that are eligible for the various awards and to hand-out a few “not-so-nice” awards.

Winter Season

Carry-over shows watched this season (2): Star Driver, To Aru Majutsu no Index II

New shows watched this season (10): Fractale, Gosick, IS: Infinite Stratos, Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?, Level E, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu!, Moshidora, Rio – Rainbow Gate, Wolverine

Shows that got dropped (4): Dragon Crisis, Freezing, Onii-chan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!, Yumekui Merry

Spring Season

Carry-over shows watched this season (1): Gosick

New shows watched this season (20): X-Men, Dog Days, Tiger and Bunny, Nichijou, Yondemasu yo Azazel-san, Hanasaku Iroha, Fireball Charming, Steins;Gate, Hyouge Mono, Hidan no Aria, A Channel, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera, Maria+Holic Alive, Ao no Exorcist, The World God Only Knows II, Seikon no Qwaser II, C – The Money of Soul and Possibility Control, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, Deadman Wonderland

Shows that got dropped (8): Hen Zemi, Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai, Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi, Sengoku Otome – Momoiro Paradox, 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku, Sket Dance, Sofuteni, Astarotte no Omocha!

Summer Season

Carry-over shows watched this season (6): Ao no Exorcist, Hyouge Mono, Steins;Gate, Hanasaku Iroha, Tiger and Bunny, Nichijou

New shows watched this season (13): Mawaru Penguin Drum, Kamisama no Memo-chou, Dantalian no Shoka, Nekogami Yaoyorozu, R-15, Sacred Seven, Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, Natsume Yuujinchou 3, Yuruyuri, Kamisama Dolls, Blood-C, Mayo Chiki, Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi

Shows that got dropped (3): Usagi Drop, No. 6, The Idolm@ster

Fall Season

Carry-over shows watched this season (2): Hyouge Mono, Mawaru Penguin Drum

New shows watched this season (15): C3 – Cube×Cursed×Curious, Fate/Zero, Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!, Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon, Hunter × Hunter, Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle, Tamayura – Hitotose, Chihayafuru, Persona 4, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Shakugan no Shana III (Final), Last Exile — Ginyoku no Fam, Ben-to, Un-Go, Guilty Crown

Shows that got dropped (3): Shinryaku!? Ika Musume, Working’!!, Mirai Nikki

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Total New Series Watched 2011:       78

Total New Series Completed:              53

Total New Series Dropped:                  18

Total New Continuing Series:             07

Now it’s time for the Anti-Awards. These are awards that the winners probably wouldn’t like winning and instead of spreading them out in the various parts, I’m going to put them here. Also, the awards will have a higher level of spoilers then  I normally use but I will still try to keep them to minimum.

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Best Half and Half

Winner:  Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko
Runner-up: Blood-C

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko was improved by having Shaft/Shinbou adapt it but it was also hindered by being attached to Shaft/Shinbou. Hindered because so much of what Shaft/Shinbou does occurs admidst finding the fantastic in the common everyday hustle-n-bustle of life to the point of this being the expectation. There was Natsu no Arashi:  about a boy whose first crush is a girl he meets working in a café who just so happens to be a ghost of a girl who died in WWII. Sore de mo Machi wa Mawatteiru features a normal high school girl that encounters time travelers, aliens, and visits the afterlife. Bakemonogatari has a typical high school boy getting turned into a vampire (then mostly back to human) meeting gods, spirits, and curses. Arakawa Under the Bridge has a typical salary-man fall for a woman that lives under a bridge and declares that she is from Venus (and might actually be an alien). So, when Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko started with the main female character saying that she was an alien, this primed the viewers a certain way but then to throw this out for most of the series made it difficult to not compare it to other Shaft/Shinbou series and find it feeling a bit shallow.

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Worst Half and Half

Winner:  Fractale

Saying half of Fractale was okay is probably stretching it a bit but among all the problems that it had there were several good ideas and positive aspects floating about. It’s just that these ideas and aspects were very poorly put together and then buried under a mountain of incompetence. I’m still wondering how the creators were able to take one of my favorite voice actresses – the very talented Kana Hanazawa – and made her voice about as appealing as screeching fingernails on a blackboard.

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Most Disappointing Ending

Winner:  IS: Infinite Stratos

Why, oh, why did the creators of Infinite Stratos chicken out and try to tack on a boring “serious” ending to this show? Here’s how the show should have went – the climax should have been the reveal of Charlotte’s true gender and the build-up should have involved the generic male main character having to go to greater-and-greater lengths to hide the truth. It would have complimented the nature of the show much better and not have been such a letdown.

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Most Disappointing

Winner:  Guilty Crown

Any questions? Okay, moving on…

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Most in Need of Being Longer

Winner:  C – The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
Runner-up: Un-Go

One can’t look over the year in anime without complaining about the episode counts that noitaminA series get. Un-Go actually accomplished a fair amount over it’s 11 episode run which allowed C to slip past to win this dubious award. C had some very interesting things to say but the silly CG battles and the compression artifacts from trying to squeeze C into 11 episodes just overwhelmed those interesting ideas.

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The You’re-Doing-It-Wrong Award

Winner:  R-15
Runner-up: Nekogami Yaoyorozu

Both of these shows should have been fun, light entertainment – perfect for the hot summer season – but both failed on a fundamental level and left the viewers saying, “you’re doing it wrong.” The bigger failure was on the part of R-15; the set-up was that this anime took place in a school of geniuses but somehow these “geniuses” were just a pack of boring, cliché characters. (And the one that plays the clarinet, if she’s such a genius then why does she spend the entire series practicing the same simple piece of music?)

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The Best Almost Good Series

Winner:  Dantalian no Shoka
Runner-up: C3 – Cube×Cursed×Curious

In different hands I think both of these series could have been fabulous. C3 probably needed more work to get there since the source material needed a touch of help and the style was trying too hard to look Shaftian without adding anything unique to the animation style. Dantalian no Shoka was so very close. More episodes would have helped but if that was unobtainable then trimming down the number of cases covered and focusing on fleshing these cases out and developing the characters probably would have been all it needed. Even so, Dantalian no Shoka was an interesting experiment in visual style that will probably help Gainax in the future be a better studio.

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The Series That Most Left Me Wondering “Why Did I Waste My Time Finishing This?”

Winner:  Deadman Wonderland
Runner-up: Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi

Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi had the characters and story of a really generic fan-service series and the low level of fan-service that’s typically found in a “serious” anime. Watching it every week left me confused and wondering when it would decide to fully commit to being one type of series or the other. This series was topped by Deadman Wonderland, however. I should have seen the signs early that the creators wanted to make a “dark” anime – like what all the cool kids are doing now – but lacked the ability and talent to do so. I even remember getting a chuckle over how the creators wanted to vilify private prisons but thought nothing of the implications to how the story would unfold. I did learn, though, when Mirai Nikki started resorting to implausible, silly turns-of-events to advance the story and I quickly dropped it.

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Best Series I Dropped

Winner:  Usagi Drop

Usagi Drop was, is, and will be on many lists as a top 10 anime for 2011. Not mines and that’s because I broke a personal rule I have about not checking out the source material before the end of an anime series. Objections to how it ends was just part of the reason for dropping it. The other part was watching a few more episodes after spoiling myself and seeing how the author clearly had the ending in mind when laying out the story and how she forced the characters into that path instead of allowing the characters to develop naturally and organically. Which is a shame, there was much to like about Usagi Drop.

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And on that note, let’s end part 0 and tomorrow I’ll put up part 1, the character awards.

After almost 2 years of kicking around the idea of starting an anime blog I decided four years ago today to see if I could write an anime blog and keep up with it. I guess the answer was – yes I could. (With the caveat that my writing style never developed into something that I liked and I haven’t been posting as much as I’d like to .)

Looking over my previous anniversary posts I noticed that they get shorter each year and this trend will probably continue this year though I might start showing my age by reminiscing about the good old days …

… Thinking back, it was a strange decision to make about starting a blog. I was always more math/science attuned and find organizing my thoughts into something coherent on paper a very difficult task. For example, that comment I left in the previous post took me almost two hours to write. Also, during the anime season that I started blogging, Winter 2008, I was feeling burned out over anime and was only watching one series. Why this was a good time to start blogging about anime is beyond me now. …

Sorry about that; reaching four years isn’t even that old compared to many blogs out there.

Before I lose anymore eyeballs to my meandering thoughts, I want to wholeheartedly thank the people who continue to read and comment on my little blog.

I don’t want to promise that I’ll write more in the upcoming year since that hasn’t worked in the previous years but I don’t foresee myself stopping anytime soon. I love anime as much as I did when I started and I still want to see more people watching anime and more people deepening their own love of anime by trying out new genres of anime.

And because someone might actually care, some stats:

• 438 total posts
• 1,096,351 total views
• 1986 total comments and
• 84,471 spam comments

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If I had funny search terms that brought people here I’d include them but looking them over I really don’t have anything that funny .

What Aniplex needs

The recent news concerning the demise of Bandai in the United States should sadden anime fans living in Region 1 but it was hardly unexpected news. Instead, the reason why Bandai is shutting down now is the surprising part. The Japanese puppet masters behind the American subsidiary decided that if the American consumer would not adhere to a similar model as the Japanese consumer then they would just close the American subsidiary down and try to entice the American hard-core anime fans into importing Japanese media at Japanese market prices because the alternative – anime at a reasonable price that could be reverse imported – would threaten the stability of the Japanese market.

While perusing the articles about Bandai I had a light bulb moment concerning the impending English adaptation of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Those reading can probably guess where this is heading but before I get to discussing the recently released English trailer I have to establish something first.

I am not an elitist anime fan who only watches anime subtitled since it’s the “purer”, innately “better” way to do it – I mainly watch anime subtitled because, in general, the quality of vocal acting is higher from the Japanese.  That’s not say there are no good English dubs; for example: FLCL, Ghost in the Shell:SAC, all Studio Ghibli movies, Baccano, Yu Yu Hakusho all come quickly to mind. To hear what a good dub sounds like here’s a few videos.

This one’s a bit old-school

This one’s a bit NSFW

This one’s a bit violent

This one’s a bit awesome

The plan that Aniplex is using for the Region 1 (aka Canada and the United States aka R1) release of Puella Magi Madoka Magica (PM3) is three volumes of 4 episodes each in 3 different options – bare-bones DVD, bare-bones Blu-Ray, special edition DVD/Blu-Ray combo. Assuming an actual price of $25/volume, $35/volume, and $65/volume, respectively, for the three options that works out to $75, $105, $195 to purchase PM3.

From a personal standpoint it doesn’t bother me much that Aniplex is using an outdated and pricier sales plan for PM3 in view of the fact that I’ve already seen PM3 and know if there is one show that is theoretically worth paying that much more for, it’s this one. The problem comes from the personal desire to see PM3 do well over here and realizing that it probably won’t.

Oh sure, PM3 will sell well for a “niche” title (fans who watched it already through non-official means will see to that) but it’s the type of anime that could take the entire R1 anime fandom by storm and be talked about and watched in the future like Cowboy Bebop or Evangelion or FLCL are now. Which is what I mean when I say PM3 will fail in America; it will never remotely approach the impact in R1 it could have and the anime industry will have missed yet another the chance to reinvigorate and grow the market here.

The first step in this failure is the higher price point. To pretend that offering a series at a much higher cost won’t present a significant hurdle in selling PM3 to the large base of casual anime fans is to live in a fantasy world. How many people unfamiliar with PM3 will jump at the chance to pay a minimum of $75 dollars for a 12 episode series when for $8 they could buy AIR, $18 to purchase Bamboo Blade, and $35 to get both seasons of Birdy the Mighty Decode in one box set?  This is just a first step; it’s still possible to overcome this pricing structure and convince the multitudes to watch and buy PM3 if Aniplex is sufficiently savvy. However, judging from the English trailer this does not seem to be the case; I count three big problems of this trailer whose job is to convince people unfamiliar with Puella Magi Madoka Magica into buying it.

Trailer needed some of this in it.

The first problem is that the English dub is atrocious and will actively turn off potential viewers. How will someone who has grown up surrounded by books, magazines, television shows, movies, and music that – no matter how vapid or deep – are all well-produced react to a trailer that contains so many cringe-worthy moments? Here’s a hint, it’s not going to be rushing out to purchase PM3. I’d be surprised if these potential buyers even get to the point when they see how much it’s going to cost to buy the series and compare it what could be bought for the same price.  There was one comment I saw at Anime News Network that I loved. The person wrote saying that after listening to the trailer for a third time he thought the dub sounded good. Think about that. Here’s someone who actively wants to like the dub and it still took three tries for him/her/it to succeed in drinking the kool-aid. This was an easy task to complete for this viewer and the trailer almost failed at it. Imagine a normal consumer; this dub won’t get do-overs and mulligans to convince that person into buying Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

(As an aside, the argument that the dub is good in the actual show is not a valid counter argument. If the trailer fails to convince a potential buyer into purchasing PM3 then there’s nothing to watch and discover that the “dub wasn’t that bad after-all”. )

Before moving on, I wanted to post a clip that does a much better job with it’s English dub so one could do a bit of comparing and contrasting. The clip in question is for the excellent series Bamboo Blade, another anime full of teenage girls (which normally seem like the English dubbers kryptonite).

The second problem is the reliance on the assumption that anime fandom in R1 is on a similar page as Japanese fandom. This a bad assumption to make and yet another nail in the coffin for PM3.  Even in this age of streaming anime, the R1 anime fan that sticks to official sources to watch anime is still only getting a skewed, partial picture of what “anime” encompasses. In Japan PM3 proves it’s possible to successfully sell a series just by saying that Shaft will be animating, Akiyuki Shinbou will be directing, Ume Aoki will design the characters, and Gen Urobuchi will be writing the script. These names mean something over there but that’s not really the case over here (exceptions include well-informed fans and fans that pick stuff up from fansub-watching friends). For these names to mean something, numerous anime in various genres over the past decade would have needed to get licensed and dubbed first to build up the needed groups of fans to mirror their Japanese counterparts.

By relying on the star power of the staff to sell PM3 and hiding the true nature of the series, the second problem of the trailer gives rise to the third problem; namely, it does not explain, excite, and entice prospective buyers. On a fundamental level people expect a trailer to be representative of the show and the trailer of PM3 is for a completely different show then what PM3 actually is. This bait-n-switch was very similar to the Japanese trailer but does anyone at Aniplex realize that there’s a difference between tricking people who are watching a TV program and tricking people paying a not insignificant amount of money for a DVD or Blu-Ray? There are going to be people who won’t get turned off by the high prices or the bad acting and actually found the trailer convincing enough to buy Puella Magi Madoka Magica who will then feel betrayed when what looked like a cute magic-girl anime turns out to be everything but cute. Will this turn these people into bigger anime fans or will this turn them into more cautious fans? Perhaps, the types of fans that won’t mind going through not-official channels to ensure they never get duped out of their money again?

And don’t think this won’t happen. Who else is going to buy PM3 – remember, we’re not talking about those fans that have already seen it but the large number of more casual anime fans – when those who’d enjoy where the story goes have no clue that PM3 has higher aspirations? I’m not saying the trailer should spoil the series but there were several scenes early in the show that made Kyubey’s offer seem a bit suspicious and signaled to the viewers that something more was going on. These scenes would draw potential buyers in because they’d want to unravel the mystery of Kyubey and to find out what happens when you “make a contract” with Kyubey. Of course, decent acting would help; for starters, Kyubey’s English voice has none of that slightly creepy edge his Japanese voice had.

To see a trailer that successfully explains, excites, and entices check out this trailer for Jellyfish Princess.

This trailer does the near-Herculean task of getting my hyped for an anime I’ve already seen twice and has an ending I find less-then satisfying. I’m definitely buying this anime when it comes out.

Here’s another example:

I realize I’ve written near 1600 words when I could have just said the trailer “sucks” and used the hours I spent over the last week writing this to instead cover the new Winter season anime (which pretty much rocks in comparison to the Fall season) but Puella Magi Madoka Magica deserves better and the anime fans in Region 1 deserve better as well. Which leads me back to why Bandai’s demise reminded me of Aniplex’s R1 plan Puella Magi Madoka Magica – it truly does take a R1 company to understand how to sell anime to those fans living in Region 1.

Almost forget here’s a the trailer in question:

In spite of only needing to watch and review a single title for the Secret Santa Project, the chance of discovering excellence a second time after Noein convinced me to squeeze a second series in. I chose Noein because it’s staff later did one of my favorite anime, Birdy the Mighty Decode, but I lacked such a clear indicator for the second choice. On one hand I had an anime called Figure 17 – which I’ve never heard of – and on the other was an anime called Simoun – which I remember hearing some positive buzz for. I decided that picking Simoun wasn’t in the spirit of the Secret Santa Project and went with the older and unknown Figure 17 as my second pick.

I popped the first episode in and I thought …

… Wikipedia must be wrong; this is a much older series then a mere 10 years old.

A few months ago I wouldn’t let this bother me and would continue watching but recently I’ve been trying to delve deeper into understanding the influence of the staff on an anime and I couldn’t wait for the end of episode 1. So, I stopped the episode and started reading up on staff and the production.

I won’t bore those reading with everything I found but there were a few things that I found genuinely interesting.

The director of Figure 17, Naohito Takahashi, had previously directed Berserk and been relatively busy in the 90’s but after Figure 17 the only thing he’s directed was Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple in 2004. I don’t know if the director ended up getting kicked higher up into producing or eventually decided to retire or what. Whichever it is, I find it a shame that’s not more recent anime series that he directed. And it reminded me that I should finally get around to watching Berserk before the new movies come out.

Then there was the case of one of the little animation studios that had the in-between animation farmed out to it. It’s name probably meant nothing to even the more hardcore anime fan back in 2001 though in a mere five years after Figure 17 even the most noobish anime fan knew the name of Kyoto Animation with the release of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. With just in-between animation there’s probably no indelible mark that fingerprints their work in Figure 17 but I wonder: did KyoAni do a good job? did this job help convince producers that they could be trusted with animating a series themselves? was there any lasting influence on the animators of KyoAni after working on this project? Maybe if I had the Japanese language competency I’d go all old-fashioned and write them a letter asking this.

A look of  the voice actors and actresses revealed the now very famous Rie Kugimiya voiced a minor character in Figure 17. At the time of Figure 17 she was just starting out as a voice actress and was still 4 years away from the role that would define and immortalize her (as much as anyone can be immortalized in the ever-changing world of anime fandom). The role was, of course, Shana the red-haired hunter. Nowadays she often gets typecasted voicing a Shana-clone character so I was interested to see what type of character she was voicing before Shana. In hindsight, the answer was an obvious one; she plays a loud, short-tempered, abrasive, fourth grade girl or more simply a proto-Shana role (a Shana role from before she was Shana). Once again I got to wondering if this role influenced her later career.

With my intellectual curiosity sated, I popped Figure 17 back in and started watching.

Story

Figure 17 can be broken down into three distinct storylines. The first centers on the main character Tsubasa and her coming-of-age. She starts the series as a shy, introverted girl that hasn’t handled the recent move to the northern island of Japan, Hokkaido, from Tokyo very well. Her life takes a turn when she witnesses a meteor fall near her house and goes to investigate. She walks right into the second storyline, though she doesn’t know this at first. She encounters a humanoid alien, DD, who has to collect several dangerous alien monsters that escaped his crashed star-ship. His job is made much harder because something about the Earth mutates these monsters into creatures much more deadly then he’s prepared to face. Luckily for him and humanity, our main character shows up to help.

I know what your thinking, what can a fourth grader do to help.

One of the cooler pieces of alien tech our friendly alien DD has is sentient armor suits that encase the wearer in a near indestructible shell, when needed, and stored in a handy liquid state, when not needed. Upon initialization these suits scan the wearer’s brain and creates a digital copy of that person consciousness which the suit then uses in conjunction with it’s superior reflexes and senses to augment the wearer’s combat abilities.

Tsubasa stumbles upon a spare armor suit and activates it by accident. Her being human somehow alters the sentient armor suit and the resulting Figure (which is what the person plus the armor suit is called) is much stronger then DD’s Figure (try not to chuckle too much) and she’s able to stop the alien. How altered Tsubasa’s suit is after coming into contact with a human becomes apparent when they go to separate and the suit takes on the appearance Tsubasa instead of returning into a liquid ball. This creates a problem for DD. He’s not supposed to interact with the locals yet he needs the help of  Tsubasa’s Figure and somewhere to put the suit which is now an almost exact copy of Tsubasa without raising suspicions. He decides to use his ability to erase and add memories in people to make Tsubasa’s family think he’s a friend of the family that’s staying with them and that the suit is Hikaru, twin sister of Tsubasa.

The addition of a more outgoing “twin” to Tsubasa’s life gives her the opportunity to slowly blossom into a more self-assured person that her classmates like.

The third storyline is Hokkaido itself. As opposed to so much anime that takes place in big cities, Figure 17 is set in an area of Japan so sparsely populated that it makes even Shiki and Higurashi look like they were set in urban areas. Throughout the show we see the change that the slow cycle of seasons impart on the characters, surroundings, and the story. And we get to see all four seasons because the aliens monsters present a much more insidious challenge then just the quick roundup that DD initially thought.

Thoughts and impressions

Thank you Secret Santa!

How did you know I love intelligent SF series that don’t skimp on characters and story or that that I was depressed over Steins;Gate ending with no anime this Fall season that could really replace it? Both Noein and Figure 17 were perfect picks.

There is, however, one caveat to my praise of Figure 17 that I feel I should mention. The overall 90’s look to the anime was not that difficult to get into and did not slow my enjoyment of the series but I found the character designs of the kids to be downright ugly from certain angles. The worse was the side angle which made the kids look like bullfrogs getting ready to ribbitt. Kids are almost universally cute, it’s an effective survival strategy on their part and one that should be replicated when coming up character designs unless there’s an artistic reason in not doing so. Someone should have said, “You’re doing it wrong,” and had the character designs redone.

Eventually, the shock was no longer that shocking but it took many episodes to get to that point. I want to mention this because in spite of this Figure 17 is still a very excellent anime; don’t get scared away do to this minor issue.

Past that I have nothing but praise for the show.

I most liked how the creators where able to make Figure 17 work as an alien invasion story and a coming-of-age story and a travelogue of Hokkaido and as an introspective thinking story both independently and weaved together.

To make the alien invasion compelling Figure 17 used alien monsters that could adapt and quickly evolve based on information it gathered about the Earth and how their brethren were killed. This escalated each encounter. The heroes never knew if the new weapons and strategies that they came up since the last fight would be able to defeat the latest and more deadlier monster. There were no shortcuts to victory.

To make the coming-of-age story interesting Figure 17 treated the kids as actual characters and not just as a group of cliches and tropes meant to cover all the bases in anime fandom. The result was a refreshing change of pace that helped me actually care about the characters.

To make the location relevant and engaging Figure 17 remembered to include the small things and also to effectively use it’s unorthodox format. For example, the harsh winters of Hokkaido force the people to build their houses differently then those living down south like around Tokyo and these differences, like sloped roofing so the snow slides off, get shown throughout the series. I’ve yet to mention that each episode of Figure 17 runs for a full hour (with commercials or about 45 minutes without) and was originally released once a month. This gave Figure 17 the time to feature the surrounding and do the character building and include at least one alien fight each episode. If this had been split down into 30 minute episodes the creators would have faced the decision to either try to include a fight into each episode at the cost of everything but the alien invasion scenes or to bounce between “action” episodes and “character-building” episodes and somehow keep the show feeling coherent and paced well.

To make the introspective, thinking angle not boring Figure 17 let the characters and story dictate when the viewers were meant to think about the topics presented. It didn’t try to brow beat us into contemplating the ethics of DD in forcing the family of our main character Tsubasa into believing she has a twin sister or the rights that the sentient battle suit deserves after effectively becoming a person with a lifetime of memories or any of the other questions raised because the creators know if it’s done naturally the viewers will do without a second thought. Fans of Dr. Who might have thought that the story behind the sentient battle suits was reminiscent of the recent two-part story dealing with “The Flesh” and you’d be right. However, it was handled much better here.

I could ramble on but it would probably be a case of diminishing returns at this point so I’ll close by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed Figure 17 and would definitely recommend it.

Figure 17

Final Series Score: 11.5/12 Near Perfect
Rewatchablity: 3.5/5 – Medium
Ending: 4.5/5 – Sublime
Animation: 2.5/5 – Average

This was part of Reverse Thieves’ 2011 Secret Santa Project. Go here for links to other reviews by other anime bloggers.

I know what you’re thinking at this point – “He’s still alive? It’s a Christmas miracle!” Actually, probably not and those same readers probably don’t want some long meta explanation as to why I’ve been absent when you’re just here for an anime review. Don’t worry, I feel your pain; my excuse is related . I like to write about anime that excites me in one way or the other and it was difficult to find that spark this season when compared to the two anime series that I watched for the Secret Santa Project.

I can’t tell you how many times I thought, “Gee, I really should write something for my anime blog … Noein was an awesome show … but I have to wait till Christmas eve to post about it … well, ahm … Noein was an awesome show …” repeat to ad nauseam. Of course, what I should have done was taken the time to write my review of Noein during November or any day of December before today but the side of me that demands perfection told me I had plenty of time to figure out how best to convey the sheer epic epicness of Noein. I’m not that surprised that it’s Christmas eve and I’m just starting now without figuring the perfect pitch .

This is the best I’ve come up with.

Noein is ambitious, grand science fiction; wrapped in an emotionally satisfying story of love, redemption, and friendship; executed perfectly and featuring some of the best animated and choreographed action scenes ever.

Story

The multiverse exists and it’s a jungle out there. The continued safety of one parallel universe from on onslaught of giant monster mecha intent upon destroying that universe was on finding and returning with an item of great power. At the start of Noein this universe discovered the item in a potential parallel universe. Potential because until observed by an observer it doesn’t truly exist (quantum physics is a weird and funny science – or at least how SF uses quantum physics). A crack team of soldiers are sent to retrieve the item but are shaken when this universe appears to be a mirror of their own universe from 15 years in the past.

Can these soldiers resist the temptation of going rogue and living in the beautiful world of their childhood before the mecha showed up? How will knowledge of a possible future change the characters in the potential – and now real – parallel universe? Can the plans by another parallel universe known as Shangri-La (the ones the made the large mecha) for the destruction of all other universes be stopped? How much of the story can I tease without dropping spoilers tags over everything?

Thoughts and impressions

Noein hit me like a ton-of-bricks; it’s all-time top 10 level goodness that I probably wasn’t ever going to watch because it’s a few years old.

I’d like to say everyone should watch Noein but realistically there are people that Noein isn’t meant for. So I came up with a short three step questionaire for those reading to see if they should watch Noein or not.

Question 1 – Did you watch and like Steins;Gate? If the answer is yes then drop whatever your’re doing and start watching Noein. If you answered that you haven’t seen Steins;Gate continue reading. If you answered that you watched and hated Steins;Gate then Noein probably isn’t for you. And that’s okay if you think that.

Question 2 – What was your reaction to Kyubey’s explanation about entropy and the heat death of the universe for his actions from Puella Magi Madoka Magica? If it was positive, drop what you’re doing and start watching Noein (and Steins;Gate if you haven’t already). If you thought it was confusing but that didn’t infringe on your ability to enjoy PM3 then watching Noein for it’s characters is worth a shot. If you thought it was confusing or stupid and it caused you to dislike PM3 or stop watching PM3 then Noein probably isn’t for you. And once again that’s okay if you think that.

Question 3 – Do you watch anime just for the fan service? If the answer is yes then Noein isn’t for you and though it’s difficult to say, that’s okay as well. If you answered no then Noein should at least be considered as well as Steins;Gate and PM3.

That’s about all I have to say given the time constraints and my desire not to spoil the show for potential viewers and because my other Secret Santa post in nearly 2000 words long itself. I’ll close with a video detailing the work by one of the key animators that worked on Noein. Yes, I read what Scamp wrote over at The Cart Driver but I wanted in include something that displays what I mean by Noein having some of the best animated and choreographed actions scenes ever.  The key animator in this video goes by the name Ryo-timo or Ryo-chimo and after Noein he worked on Birdy the Mighty Decode and most recently got to direct and largely animate the Yozakura Quartet 3 episode OVA series. The first animation studio that gives him a pile of money and solid source material to work with will make a killing.

Noein

Final Series Score: 12/12 Perfect
Rewatchablity: 4/5 – Medium to High
Ending: 4.5/5 – Sublime
Animation: 4/5 – Excellent

This was part of Reverse Thieves’ 2011 Secret Santa Project. Go here for links to other reviews by other anime bloggers.

Watching Gurren Lagann invariably leaves me in a contemplative mood; so, I wasn’t surprised when my recent rewatch of it ended with me reflecting on the quiet heroism that my grandfather (on my mother’s side) displayed throughout his life, which includes fighting in World War II. I decided to be a bit selfish and write something for this blog about him so others can read how incredible he was. I chose today to this so I could also remind people to thank a vet for the sacrifices that they have made.

My grandfather was a man of little words and he didn’t like talking  about his experiences in WWII or his earlier life so I’ve only heard parts of the story of his life from other family members over many different times and have had to put them together. It goes something like this.

Like so many other immigrants living in the Mahoning valley, my grandfather’s father worked in the steel mills and in those days it was a dangerous job. So, it wasn’t all that surprising that his father was killed while working in a steel mill nor that my grandfather’s mother decided to remarry. (That there was no welfare state like there is today probably contributed this decision.) Several years later, my grandfather’s step-dad contracted a bacterial disease while working in a steel mill and, since this was a couple of decades before the invention of antibiotics, he ended up passing away too. This left my grandfather’s family in a bind. By now there were several younger siblings that needed to be fed as well as my grandfather’s mom; so, even though my grandfather was still elementary age (once I was told he was in fourth grade and another time in sixth grade), he dropped out of school and got a job in a steel mill to support his family. Which he was able to do.

He continued to work in a steel mill until WWII and eventually joined the Army Corp of Engineers. I’m not sure if he was drafted or volunteered to go but he ended up going to the European theater and seemed to primarily work on building bridges. Like I said he didn’t talk often his war experience but I do remember hearing that he went to France soon after D-Day. (I think D-Day+3 but I’m not too sure.) One thing he did say about his time in Europe was that he disliked the French because they were a rude people.

After the war he returned to Youngstown to settle down and raise a family; he rarely left the area again. One of his war buddies offered to set him up to be an apple farmer in Washington state but he declined (thankfully, or else I wouldn’t be here ). He continued to work at a steel mill, tinkered with machines, and single-handedly built an addition onto his house when the family got to large. He literally did everything from digging out a full basement to laying the roofing shingles. The backdoor steps that he poured where so massively overkill that when a drunk driver tried to drive his full-size SUV at a high rate of speed through my grandparent’s house about ten years ago, those steps were able to stop the SUV before it could hurt anyone in the house or even cause major structural damage to the house.

I wish he’d have lived a little longer then he did because I was just starting to get old enough that his curmudgeon-like nature no longer scared me and I could appreciate him. Looking back I love how he’d show up for a family doing for about 30 minutes – just long enough to eat and engage in a small amount of socializing – before going back home. I have a couple mementos of him including his telescope and the wooden box he built to hold it and the various accessories.

In keeping with remembering Veteran’s Day, here our some pictures and postcards that have been digitalized that come from his time in WWII.

Picture of my Grandpa and Grandma at Mill Creek Park

Picture my Grandma sent over for my Grandpa while in Europe

I believe this picture was taken while he was still in training.

The next three are pictures that my Grandpa wrote notes on the back of.

I don't know if this is one of the bridges he helped build or just one that interested him.

They look cool in this picture

edit: I was looking through some of the other pictures I got and was wondering what exactly this contraption was:

I love how my Grandpa writes "of" as just an extra loopy "f".

Filed under: anime, off-topic, other wallpapers and pictures ]]> http://thenullset.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/remembering-veterans-day/feed/ 9 steelbound Grandpa_ww2 Grandma_Grandpa02 Grandma_Grandpa03 Grandma_Grandpa01 bridges_01 planes_02 planes_01 war photos02 Eva_MaxamillionShopinsky_01 planes_04 http://thenullset.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/happy-halloween-2/ http://thenullset.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/happy-halloween-2/#comments Tue, 01 Nov 2011 08:01:51 +0000 steelbound http://thenullset.wordpress.com/?p=8242 ]]>

Of all the holidays that inspire anime bloggers to post off-topic about, Halloween wouldn’t be my personal choice as the biggest but I just realized that I haven’t missed a Halloween yet. So for the fourth year running, I hope everyone out there had a great Halloween.

I’ve been trying to work through a bit of writer’s block lately but with the Fall season starting to really hit it’s stride I hope the inspiration will get me writing more often. Anyways, the next picture is of the pumpkins that carved this year, mine is the one second from the right.

Good anime Halloween pics seemed thin is year:

And let’s close with a couple other pictures from around my house for this Halloween season. I’m just glad there’s not snow on the ground at this point .

I was disappointed that a grand total of 3 kids came Trick-or-treating this year; the normal is around 25 to 35 a year. I gave these intrepid kids (it was sprinkling a little bit) double the normal amount of candy .

With the second episode of Last Exile ~ Fam: The Sil­ver Wing, Gonzo’s firmly shifted this anime into the winner’s column. They did this, in part, by embedding enough material that this life long SF fan can do one of his favorite activities – mental world building and guessing what’ll happen next. As long as Gonzo doesn’t screw this up, I believe this series of Last Exile could be even greater in scale than the first series and have a more epic story with better characters.

To see how I reach that conclusion, let’s start at the beginning.

(Be warned this post contains spoilers of the first season.)

The back story from the first Last Exile series wasn’t well enumerated in the anime itself but it was detailed elsewhere; so, since it helps flesh out Last Exile ~ Fam: The Sil­ver Wing, I’ll condense it here. Sometime in the future, the inhabitants of Earth were facing a total collapse of the biosphere and the possible extinction of humanity. They decided to build a fleet of ships (the Exile Ships) to seed a string of colony habitats (the Prester worlds) to ensure humanity’s survival and to provide a reservoir population to repopulate Earth once it was made habitable.

Basically, it’s Wall-E without the cute robots.

In SF circles this set-up is known as a generational ship and many stories have been written about the difficulties and dangers of keeping such an arrangement going without something going terribly wrong. The events of the first Last Exile series followed one such Prester world 600 years after it’s founding and how it was in the process of imploding. The Guild had been charged with maintaining the habitat and then using the Exile ship when Earth was ready but over the centuries the purpose of their world was forgotten, Exile became a myth, and the knowledge was largely lost. They kept some advanced knowledge but one example of lost knowledge was that they could no longer fix the weather system and stop the desertification of one half and the freezing over of the other half of their world. Not only that, but once the Guild forgot it’s purpose there was nothing to keep the society of this Prester world together and all it took was the personal ambition of Delphine to send this world into a suicidal tailspin.

Luckily, a plucky band of heroes was there to stop Delphine, unlock Exile and reboot the weather controls. This is where the first season of Last Exile ended but the logical next step is to take Exile back to Earth, if possible, and so we have the starting point for the second season.

Last Exile ~ Fam: The Sil­ver Wing almost certainly takes place on Earth and about three years after the end of the first season of Last Exile. My guess of three years is based on reading that it takes a year for Exile to travel between Earth and the Prester world from season 1 and guessing at the sequence of events since the end of season 1. (How it only takes one year isn’t explained; I’m guessing handwavium.) A round trip would take 2 years and the first trip of Exile was probably just a quick recon but at least one person stayed on Earth – Dio – and it was Dio that points out in episode 1 that Exile has just returned to Earth. From this it’s apparent we’re talking 3,5,7,etc. years in the future but the screenshot of Alvis in the opening song makes me think it’s only been 3 years which would make Alvis 14 years old. The exact number is probably not that important, though.

What is important was the reveal of the 6 “moons” really being other Exile ships. This fact alone can be used to guess at the political situation on Earth.

For each Exile ship there is probably a kingdom/group/ethnic enclave made up of people who came to Earth from a different colonial world and settled somewhere on it (assuming they didn’t get wiped out, more on that idea later). Since the signal was never given (or not shown in the first season), each of the other 6 Exiles plus the one we know from the first series probably returned to Earth at different times. For example, we know that the people of the Turan Kingdom have been living long enough on Earth to build a nice capital city and develop a sizable fleet of military ships (so at least a couple of generations) but Alvis’ Exile ship just recently returned.

This doesn’t sit well with the descendants of the people who stayed on Earth and survived through the natural calamities. They view the planet as their own and, frankly, I don’t really blame them too much in thinking that (unless there’s some sort of written agreement that was made back those 600 years before the colonial worlds were settled). However, the residents of Earth appear to have taken a very hard-line and formed the Ades Federation to wipe out the Turan Kingdom (and maybe others). The fervor shown by the leader of the Ades Federation in episode 2 had definite shades of ethnic or religious cleansing.

This left me wondering; why was the Turan Kingdom allowed to be founded in the first place? My guess is that the people of the Ades Federation couldn’t stop them as long as the threat of Turan Kingdom’s Exile ship could be used as a bargaining chip.

Imagine The Imperial March is playing at this point.

Seeing two Exile ships in action it appears that two things are required to command an Exile ship. The first is a special sequence of words that is unique to each ship and the second is some sort of genetic marker which is probably unique to the population of that Exile ship and also unique to running each ship. So, even though, the returning settlers would have easily been overwhelmed by the native Earthians they were protected by a superior weapon that is a single Exile ship and there was little chance for the natives to ever get control of an Exile ship to even the odds.

Of course, in episode 2 we see the leader of the Ades Federation gaining control of an Exile ship. He probably got the required verse from his assassin henchman, who was probably a guild member from the same world as the people of the Turan Kingdom. And this entire war was probably a ruse so he could capture one of the princesses who has the needed genetic marker to run their Exile ship. I find it interesting that the younger princess is not aware of their worth in relation to their Exile ship; this might be explained merely by the younger princess not being told yet due to her age or is it possible that she does not have needed marker and didn’t need to know?

Does this give the Ades Federation control of their first Exile ship or have they gained control of the other 5 Exile ships in the past? I don’t know, we’ll have to see .

To recap, the first Last Exile series took place on one of the colony worlds that Earth founded and Last Exile ~ Fam: The Sil­ver Wing takes place on Earth several years in the future after the end of the first series. The political situation on Earth is tense between those inhabitants that have never left (the Ades Federation) and those that returned from the colony worlds (the Turan Kingdom, other groups we haven’t met and assuredly the people from the first season that have just recently returned to Earth). A long-standing war between the natives and the Turan Kingdom ended with the Ades Federation gaining control of an Exile ship.

The Exile ship from the first season.

Like I said earlier, there’s enough here to start imagining how the series could go. It’s probably a very safe bet to guess that Fam, the pirates, the younger princess, Alvis and the crew of the Exile ship from the first season will combine their efforts to save the princess and defeat the Ades Federation. If that’s the case, there’s a real chance of a MAD Situation if Exile ships start fighting each other. Definitely a cool visual but can Earth withstand such a war?

Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s revealed that Fam or her navigator, Giselle, happened to be descendants from one of the  other Exile ships and can control the ship if they knew the needed verse.

Defeating the Ades Federation might be as simple as taking out it’s current leader but the second episode showed how difficult this is going to be. Though there might be elements in the Federation more sympathetic towards the returning colonists (or at least adverse to what a war could do the Earth) and could provide help in overthrowing him.

Dio, as a former Guild member, will have to play a big role in helping the rebels/pirates/ etc. since it looks like the natives have gotten help from other Guild members. Or maybe that’s just me wishing because Dio was my favorite character from the first season.

And finally, I think Gonzo is actually going to pull this off and save their company. Where they go next is too much of an unknown that I wouldn’t even hazard a guess but I’m hoping for more quality anime.

And if nothing else, Aoi Yuuki and Aki Toyosaki are great to listen too.

Filed under: anime, first impressions ]]> http://thenullset.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/last-exile-2-%e2%80%93-decoding-what%e2%80%99s-happened-and-conjecturing-what%e2%80%99s-to-come/feed/ 8 steelbound lastexile17934 lastexile03729 lastexile29417 lastexile08976 lastexile20271 http://thenullset.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/this-season%e2%80%99s-biggest-self-declared-failure/ http://thenullset.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/this-season%e2%80%99s-biggest-self-declared-failure/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:37:47 +0000 steelbound http://thenullset.wordpress.com/?p=8193 ]]>

Surprisingly, it’s not this show.

Implicitly stated at the start of any show, anime or otherwise, is a promise of some sort to the viewers about what they can expect to see accomplished by the show. It might be a spectacular CG explosion, an opening monologue by one of the main characters, or an opening theme song with a montage of the various characters of the show doing a variety of things but, whatever it is, it’s there.  If the viewer is amicable towards this promise then, chances are, the viewer will decide to continue watching the show with this promise morphing into what’s expected of the show.

Savvy creators use the formation of the show’s promise to apply spin to the viewing experience. At times only promising a little is the way to go: it’s not a shallow, failed romantic comedy but merely a well-animated fan service anime or it’s not an anime with a train wreck of a plot, so poorly constructed that a four-year old could do better but merely a fun romp that’s designed to get licensed as a kids show overseas. Other times it’s best to promise too much: that high-concept, big budget anime isn’t a failure even with it’s poor pacing, plot, characters, and characterization because it was ambitious or that anime that promises funny comedy, serious drama, and tasteful fan service isn’t a failure even when it delivers none of that because it’s fun to watch a train wreck.

Of course, promising too little or too much might backfire on the creator. The viewers might decide to move to an anime promising more or the viewers decide watching one series that fails as hard as Fractale did is enough. So, it’s really a two-edged sword for creators and in lesser hands, a recipe for disaster. This season, one anime in particular stuck out as so completely and utterly failing at what it promised to do without providing so much as a decent excuse.

That anime is Kamisama no Memo-chou (God’s Memo Pad).

The biggest, most energetic promise of Kamisama no Memo-chou is it’s an empowering manifesto for NEET’s (people not in Education, Employment, or Training) and their worth in society. It’s mentioned everywhere; it’s even specifically expounded upon by the characters in the anime – Alice repeatedly says that she follows a NEET code and that she’s a NEET detective, for example. So it’s all the more baffling to realize that the creators take great pains to actively work completely contrary to this vocal promise. Take Alice, the genius hikikomori detective, she’s not actually a NEET. She’s a self-employed detective that has an office and accepts paying clients (even the clients that don’t pay in money will render some service to her). She’s not even a hikikomori; it’s more like she’s just lazy and doesn’t like to go outside but even then she still goes outside every other episode or so. (Much more often than the woman who runs the ramen shop appears to.) Then there’s the main character; he’s so generic I can’t remember his name, but, he’s a high school student and works part-time at the ramen shop and is in training to be a yakuza gangster. He’s like an anti-NEET.

This wasn’t a hard promise to keep; look at Scooby-Doo, it fits the bill perfectly for a show about NEET detectives.

The other big promise of Kamisama no Memo-chou is the idea of Alice being a genius detective that uses the latest technology to get the information needed to solve any case from the comfort of her bed. This idea is reinforced by her impressive computer with it’s dozens of monitors but again the creators seem to actively work against this promise  the moment it’s formulated. The final story arc is freshest in my mind so let’s use it. When the time comes for our intrepid detectives to find the hideout of the people behind the drug Angel Fix, what do they do? What does Alice and all her intelligence and supposed computer prowess do? If your answer starts with either Alice doing something with a computer or putting on her thinking cap than you’d be wrong. Apparently, the right answer is you need an assistant willing to take the drug himself and someone to tail him to see where he walks off to.

Asinine. Even if Alice wasn’t supposed to be genius and a computer geek, the creators of Kamisama no Memo-chou are truly and completely dimwitted.

There are so many ways our heroes could have discovered where the hideout is without anyone taking the drug. For instance, if Angel Fix was such an epidemic then there should have been a large amount of people wildly walking towards the drug hideout that there should be multiple ways to track where they go. Check and collate police reports of where they arrest people under the effect of Angel Fix; look for them on security camera footage; trawl Twitter for people who mention people acting funny in public and cross-reference their GPS data; search the backgrounds of pictures uploaded for people under the influence. I’m not even sure that Alice would need a computer A.I. to help; she might just need a moderately clever computer program. Heck, a slightly less high-tech solution would involve implanting a GPS tracker in both drug dealers and monitoring where they go. There was really no legitimate reason for the assistant to take the drug. (Even if they were so hell-bent on having someone take the drug, why not administer it one of the drug dealers they captured?)

Like I said earlier, if Kamisama no Memo-chou had a good excuse like interesting and thrilling mysteries then it would have gone a long way to excusing the complete failure to live up to either of these two major promises; however, the mysteries were barely adequate. I’ll give them a little credit for being better than the mysteries found in Gosick but Sherlock they ain’t. (Check out the new Sherlock series from the BBC to see what good writing makes possible in mysteries set in modern times.)

Kamisama no Memo-chou wasn’t the worse anime of the season but it was worst self-declared failure. If only it would have better met what it promised to be or better tailored what it promised to it’s actual content then it might not have felt like such a colossal waste of time and potential.