The null set

Fall 2009 Anime Impressions – Kimi ni Todoke and Sasameki Koto – A Tale of Two Shows

steelbound — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:01:58 +0000

Sasameki Koto

I’ve been ready to write my impression post of Kimi ni Todoke for some time now but I felt that I was lacking some sort of needed angle to best describe how I felt. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, I thought maybe I needed another show to compare it to, like I just did for Kampfer and Sora No Otoshimono, but nothing really fit until I finally sat down to watch Sasameki Koto yesterday. This was exactly what I was looking for and so here’s my impression post for Kimi ni Todoke and Sasameki Koto.

The Scores

Kimi ni Todoke

Rating: episode 1 – 10.5/12 Strong A
Rating: episode 2 – 9/12 A-
Rating: episode 3 – 8/12 B+
Rating: episode 4 – 8/12 B+
Rating: episode 5 – 8/12 B+
Rating: episode 6 – 7/12 B
Anticipation Level: 1/5 – Low

Sasameki Koto

Rating: episode 1 – 9/12 A-
Rating: episode 2 – 10/12 A
Rating: episode 3 – 9/12 A-
Rating: episode 4 – 10/12 A
Rating: episode 5 – 9/12 A-
Rating: episode 6 – 10.5/12 Strong A
Anticipation Level: 3/5 – Average to Medium

The Story

In Kimi ni Todoke, our main character is named Sawako but everyone calls her Sadako after the creepy girl in The Ring – mainly because she’s weird and creepy (in the awkward socialization sense that makes people weird and creepy) – but in reality she’s a very nice girl who dreams of finding someone who understands her and will be her friend. She also likes the most popular boy in her grade but doesn’t realize that its love she’s feeling. The story follows how Sawako opens up to people and finds friendship and what happens when a not-popular girl likes the most popular boy and, presumably, what happens after they hook-up. (That the two will become a couple is apparent before the end of the first episode.)

In Sasameki Koto, the main character Ushio happens to be a girl who likes girls – though only cute girls. She wasn’t smart enough to get into an all-girls school so she’s stuck going to a normal co-ed school and has had no luck finding a girl who meets her requirements. It’s revealed in the first episode that Ushio’s best-est and truest friend happens to like Ushio in that way but hasn’t said so to Ushio yet (probably because Ushio has stated that her best friend isn’t “her type” because she’s taller and not cute). The story follows the pair’s not-so-normal school life as Ushio continues to search for Ms. Right while her friend tries to be a true friend and help her even if it hurt’s her own chances.

Kimi ni Todoke

The Fine Print

I might as well start off by saying it bluntly – Sasameki Koto is a better show then Kimi ni Todoke.

By no means do I dislike Kimi ni Todoke but it has it’s problems. The primary one is that it lacks a compelling story and has no dramatic tension. By the end of episode 1, we know she likes him and he likes her and there’s nothing really impeding them from getting together – certainly nothing that’ll take at least another dozen episodes. This isn’t Romeo and Juliet where they can’t be together because their families are feuding. This isn’t Toradora where the boy and girl both like the best friend of the other and so they plan to help each other get the one they like but end up liking each other. This isn’t even Sasameki Koto where one character is Ushio’s “best friend” but wants to be more but can’t because she’s too tall and not cute enough to be the right type for Ushio. And another character knows the “best friend” likes Ushio so he starts cross-dressing to get the best friend’s attention because he’s fallen for her but the best friend is not interested in the boy – even if he looks cute (and incidentally catches Ushio’s eye). In each of these three stories, there’s a reason to continue watching which is lacking in the case of Kimi ni Todoke. It’s like watching a football game when the winning team has put the third string people in because the score is 48-3 in the fourth quarter – it’s boring for everyone so they all flip to the game where it’s 16-14 and the outcome is very much in doubt. Or to put it another way, it’s like how Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 had to really work at filling up it’s episode count because there was nothing to do when the story was just “and they walked home after an earthquake”.

Kimi ni Todoke

Another problem with Kimi ni Todoke is that the pacing is glacially slow which only reinforces the first problem because it makes one impatient that they’re drawing out what should take 2-3 episodes max. I think it would have been entirely possible to squeeze the first three episodes into one episode and then take the rumor arc (or whatever it’s called) and condense that down into a maximum of 2 episodes.

On the other hand, Sasameki Koto has built up a story that leaves enough questions that the viewer wants to come back to see how these questions get answered. Maybe the best friend will stay a best friend and decide that she likes the boy who’s willing to cross-dress for her to like him. Maybe Ushio will fall for her best friend or maybe she will fall for the cross-dressing boy, even after she finds out he’s a boy or maybe she ends up with someone else. I don’t know so I want to see how the story ends.

Another thing Sasameki Koto has going for it is that it knows when to be funny and knows when to be serious (and more importantly, the funny parts are funny and the serious parts are touching and interesting). Which is a tough thing to pull off, convincingly. Watching just the first episode would make one think the show is a serious show only – making it somewhat similar to Aoi Hana – but later episodes work in funny parts that play off of how people in love do silly things like how does one practice for a first kiss without actually kissing. So the result is almost Key-esque, namely Sasameki Koto might have you laughing one minute and feeling serious the next (luckily we haven’t gotten to any sort of Key style tragedy yet).

Sasameki Koto

There is one area that Kimi ni Todoke beats Sasameki Koto – production values. Production I.G. does Kimi ni Todoke and it really shows. The animation style has that watercolor feel (without it looking like they copied J.C. Staff) which is perfect for this show and makes the show look lovely and the animation quality itself is very good. Great OP/ED as well as good background music. The voice actors all really work with their characters; in particular Mamiko Noto does a great job as Sadako and I couldn’t help but notice that Yuuichi Nakamura who did Tomoya from Clannad is voicing the guy sitting behind Sadako and he is my favorite character. On the other hand, there’s nothing really wrong with Sasameki Koto’s production values but it’s apparent that AIC isn’t working with as large a budget. It’s nothing that really detracts from the show but it is apparent when comparing the two and I wanted to mention it because I feel bad about talking so harshly about Kimi ni Todoke.

(As a total aside, is it just me or does some of the background music for Sasameki Koto use an accordion? It kinda sounds like it does but I don’t have much music knowledge.)

And I almost forgot another thing that Kimi ni Todoke does that I like – they use chibis. You can never go wrong with using chibis. So, with that, I’ve said pretty much all I wanted say about these two shows. In case anyone is wondering, Sasameki Koto became the sixth show that earned itself a folder this season and Kimi ni Todoke still has not. I don’t plan on dropping Kimi ni Todoke, though, so if the second half of the show really picks up I will make a post up to help counter this largely negative post.

Sasameki Koto

Kimi ni Todoke

Sasameki Koto

Kimi ni Todoke

Sasameki Koto

Posted in anime, first impressions

Top 5 All-time Anime Comedies

steelbound — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:10:24 +0000

I’m always leery of writing top all-time posts because I realize that I don’t have the encyclopedic knowledge that a decade long anime fan might have so I always worry about missing obvious picks. And I’d probably skip them all-together if I didn’t realize that such lists give readers and potential readers a large amount of information about a writer (as was pointed out elsewhere just recently). Before I tackle an overall top all-time list, I want to start with an easier list that I’m more sure upon – my picks for top anime comedies.

The reason I’m more confident is twofold. The first is that of all the shows I watch, it’s the comedies that get rewatched the most so I know how well a show will hold up. After all, if a comedy is only funny one time then it’s nothing more than a flash in the pan. And every show on this countdown has been watched at least twice and a few have been watched more than that. The other reason I’m more confident is because I don’t think I’ve missed too many older series that should be on this list. When people talk about comedy animes, I don’t see many titles that I’ve never watched. I’m sure there’s some out there (and if one wants to point them out – please do) but I’m fairly confident that this is a good list and it does reflect what I consider a good anime comedy.

(5) – Azumanga Daioh

I just know that my ranking of Azumanga Daioh at only number 5 will get a sizable percentage of anime fans out there angry. And I could try to deflect these comments by saying that just getting on this list an honor but even I want to rank this show higher. The problem is that when I rewatched Azumanga Daioh recently, I still found myself laughing at it but at times I felt a bit bored and wanting the show to get to the parts of the story I especially liked. I think Azumanga Daioh might be suffering from the same fate that individual songs sometimes do – they’re overplayed by everybody and one gets tired of hearing that song over and over again. So, I don’t think there’s a flaw with the show itself and it remains funny enough that it definitely deserves it’s spot.

In case there’s readers out there that have not heard of Azumanga Daioh, let me say that you’re missing out on a very hilarious show. The main characters are an eclectic band of high school girls – very memorable as individuals and their relationships are even more memorable. The show follows them through all 3 years of high school life as they tackle the common pitfalls of school life – immature teachers, mean cats, low test scores, and placing first in the classroom athletic competitions. The show was done by J.C. Staff (Hayate Season 2, Toradora, Honey & Clover, Aoi Hana) and remains one of the best shows that they’ve done.

(4) – Lucky Star

Where a recent rewatch hurt the previous show, a recent rewatch significantly raised my feeling for Lucky Star. And for the record, I’ve always considered this a comedy and not a slice-of-life show.

Controversy, drama, and sky-high expectations have dogged Lucky Star from the beginning and as a result, it became very difficult for someone to just watch the show and react to it as if it was a normal comedy anime. Collectively, I feel this contributed to many people coming to dislike the show and I’d probably be in that boat if I hadn’t stuck it out long enough for the characters to really grow on me (about 8 episodes). Once I hit that point, I liked the show in ever-increasing amounts; I still wouldn’t have had Lucky Star here if it wasn’t for the rewatch. I realized the second time through that the early episodes where just as funny as the later episodes and the lone defect of these episodes was how long it got the viewer to like the characters. Once the viewer gets to know the characters, the entire show is a stellar comedy and is even better the second time.

For those readers that have not heard of Lucky Star, it follows the not-so-typical lives of 4 high school girls (including a pair of twins). Of the four; the visual novel and MMORPG playing Konata is the main focus, troublemaker, and engine that drives most of the show’s comedy. The show was done by Kyoto Animation (KyoAni) and the director of the first four episodes went on to work on Kannagi (which I was disappointed with) and the rest of the episodes were directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto who did the hilarious Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu. (Which almost made it on and speaking of FMP, there really needs to be a new season of that).

(3) – Potemayo

This is probably the least well-known or more accurately – the least watched show on the countdown because many people looked at a couple screenshots and decided a “moe blob” show couldn’t possibly be worth the time and didn’t stick around. And it’s a shame because these people missed a truly funny show.

Potemayo is a cute little thing that appeared one day out of the main character’s refrigerator and took up residence in his household. He didn’t seem to mind, naming her after the potatoes and mayonnaise that where in the fridge, and allowed her to come with him where he went. She had the vocabulary and apparent mental capacity of a year old baby but that wasn’t the only source of humor. For one, the show had a twisted sense of humor that came out every now and again, for instance I still can’t get enough of the scene that shows a bird eating a piece of fried chicken.

Something that separates this show from the others is that it occasionally swings from being a comedy to being somewhat serious. Never for a long time but it’s enough to get this show a slightly different feel. These transitions are always handled perfectly and never feel out-of-place (the wonderful closing song helps). This show was also done by J.C. Staff which makes them the only studio with 2 shows in the top 5.

(2) – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Take one teacher prone to despairing over anything and everything, mix in a classroom of oddballs, and flavor with “Shaft being Shaft” and you end up with a very hilarious show. In particular, the second season is (to date) the strongest all-around season and was what pushed this up to number 2. That’s not to say the other seasons were bad but the first season had to introduce the show and it wasn’t quite firing on all cylinders yet and the third season had to split time with Bakemonogatari so it’s animation was a bit lacking.

There’s so much to enjoy with this show. I love to see what Mr. Despair will despair over. I love when the item that he despairs over is actually something I despair over because oftentimes it’s things that I thought I was the only one that did so. I love the societal commentary that shows up in the show. I love the students and their quirks. I love the high quality voice work and the unique animation. I love the songs used. I love how there’s a whole layer of comedy in the background signs (even if that means I have to pause numerous times to catch them all). And I love how it’s a perfect vehicle to allow Shaft to be Shaft.

It’s probably the hardest show I watch fansubbed (between having to read the signs and trying to understand the 15% of jokes that are really Japan culture centered) but it’s really worth the effort.

(1) – Minami-Ke (Season 1)

I needed to call out only the first season of Minami-Ke because production of the second and third seasons was given to another animation house (for some reason) and they were know where near as good as Studio Doumu that did the first season.

This show follows the everyday lives of the three Minami sisters – one high school aged, one middle school aged, and one in elementary school and their social circles. The eldest sister is the mature one, the middle one is the trouble maker, and the youngest is the smart one that can’t stand stupidity. One of the exceptional components is how effortlessly Studio Doumu was able to handle the rather large cast and the various ways the different people added humor to the show. And trust me, there’s so many ways to find humor in this show that I won’t start listing them because I’m sure to leave several out. My favorite single character is Hosaka and his fantasies.

I still hold out hope that whatever prevented Studio Doumu from doing the other seasons will get fixed and we get a true sequel worthy of this season.

Posted in anime, anime rants/views

Fall 2009 Anime Impressions – Kampfer and Sora No Otoshimono – There’s a Right Way to do Fan Service and a Wrong Way

steelbound — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:20:19 +0000

Sora No Otoshimono

The majority of the professional, paid anime critics will insist upon putting every single fan service show in the same pile and labeling the whole lot as garbage – their existence being a personal affront to anyone with even just a hint of sophistication much like how English teachers feel about most popular books. They forget that people like Shakespeare ran his theater and wrote his plays for the common folk of the time – not for the intellectually “elite” of the times. If he did, I’d be willing to bet that no one would remember his name today.

The fact of the matter is that it’s possible to create a fan service show that’s entertaining and full of fan service and still displays the creative spark that separates quality shows from the generic shows. One of these shows does a pretty good job of displaying this spark whereas the other is exactly the type of rubbish that many think of when you mention fan service. Can you guess which series I’m talking about?

The Scores

Kampfer

Rating: episode 1 – 4/12 C
Rating: episode 2 – 3/12 D
Rating: episode 3 – 2/12 F
Rating: episode 4 – 3/12 D
Rating: episode 5 – 2/12 F
Anticipation Level: 0.5/5 – Very Low

Sora No Otoshimono

Rating: episode 1 – 9/12 A-
Rating: episode 2 – 9/12 A-
Rating: episode 3 – 7/12 B
Rating: episode 4 – 9/12 A-
Rating: episode 5 – 8/12 B+
Anticipation Level: 3/5 – Average to Medium

Kampfer - I'm still waiting for some character to comment on the dorky jewelery Kampfers have to wear.

The Story

In Kampfer, a typical loser high school boy wakes up one day with the ability to change into a girl. All Kampfers have to female – though no one knows why and the show doesn’t bother to explain it – and as a blue bracelet Kampfer, he has to fight red bracelet Kampfers – though, once again, no one knows why and the show doesn’t bother to explain it. Wacky hi-jinks supposedly occur.

In Sora no Otoshimono, a typical loser high school boy falls into a sweet situation, namely he becomes the owner of an angel that can fulfill any request – money, the ability to turn invisible, to become the world’s emperor, or to create new types of life from women’s undergarments. Wacky hi-jinks ensue and some not-so-wacky hi-jinks as well (with a few veiled hints at some sort of more serious storyline).

Sora No Otoshimono

The Fine Print

Kampfer is a terrible show, plain-and-simple, it’s not funny or entertaining or imaginative and it’s fan service is “service” in name only.

The original creator and the animators of Kampfer fell for the line of thinking that not much is expected from fan service shows and so they don’t have to put much work into it to be successful. It’s wrong thinking, it’s entirely possible to find creative thinking in fan service shows and when it’s done the result is a superior product and when one comes along (Sora No Otoshimono), it displays how big a waste of time shows like Kampfer are.

Another thing that I realized with Sora No Otoshimono is that because the story was well thought-out, the animators don’t have to work at including the fan service. This makes a difference; much like how in baseball, the best players make the sport look easy, the better quality shows make the genre look good. The animators don’t have to continually create contrived situations over and over again – all you have to do is give a typical high school boy an all-powerful wish granting entity and the show can pretty much write itself. And to see the difference in this point just watch Kampfer for how hard the show has to work and strain for it’s fan service.

Sora No Otoshimono

Other differences between the two shows include Sora No Otoshimono having a more interesting set of characters (Eishirou Sugata’s character is worth the price of admission by himself), better production values (so far every single episode ending of Sora No Otoshimono has featured a different song and different animation), and vocal work (Tatsuhisa Suzuki and Saori Hayami to name a couple pluses for Sora No Otoshimono). And on the topic of vocal work, I love Marina Inoue as a vocal actor (I gave her my top female seiyuu award for 2008) but she can’t quite sound manly enough to make the main character on Kampfer sound right. Hayate’s vocal actor, Ryoko Shiraishi, would have been a better pick since she can do Hayate the Combat Butler as well as Arashi from Natsu no Arashi.

In closing, I’m not saying that Sora No Otoshimono is Shakespeare (though Shakespeare makes about as much sense to me as when I try to understand Japanese). It is, however, a good example of how even in a genre not known for creative writing can, in fact, produce quality shows if people are willing to work at it.

Sora No Otoshimono - love the extensive use of chibis

Sora No Otoshimono

Posted in anime, first impressions

A Memorial and Some Odds n Ends (Armed Librarians, Outlaw Star, Bakemonogatari)

steelbound — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:40:43 +0000

I’m not sure how many people will care but I figure that I at least owe The Null Set readers an explanation to the whereabouts of it’s author and to offer some anime related content already.

During the last week of October and the first couple of days of November, I was helping my sister to nurse her one pet guinea pig, Lucy, back to health – trying to entice her to eat her food and when that failed, I held Lucy so my sister could force feed her. This ate a lot of time up in the day – not that I minded, in the 2.5 years we’ve had Lucy, I grew fond of her and also because it was the big brotherly thing to do. On Halloween it seemed like she was getting a little better but that turned out to be fleeting and by Monday, Lucy had passed away. Since than I’ve felt sad over the passing and depressed because my younger sister is heart-broken so I haven’t felt like writing.

This is a picture of her. I called her the ninja guinea pig because of her fur color and also because she liked to hide under things and silently move between things.

So that’s why I haven’t posted anything in a while and also why I didn’t respond to the nice comments I got on my last couple of posts, even though I wanted too (and now it’s been so long it feels weird to). I’m going to try to get myself to finish writing my fall impression posts as soon as possible but before I get to that, there’s been a few thoughts that I’ve had dealing with anime that I’ll mention now so I won’t feel bad about meta-blogging and off-topic blogging.

The first is that about Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra. I haven’t been entirely impressed with the storytelling but I love the setting of the show. After a couple episodes I remembered something that made the idea of people having “books” sound not so far-fetched. One of my favorite science fiction writers, Charles Stross figured that if a video camera was set to record in Divx format using the same resolution as a DVD, that camera could record an entire year of someone’s life for 10 TB. That’s 10000 TB if a person lives one hundred years – an absurdly large number today but probably not so in a couple of decades. He figures that if Moore’s Law continues to the point that we can encode a bit of information in a single atom of some super-durable material like synthetic diamond (using different isotopes of carbon to be the 1 and 0) that it would only take 600 grams (1.3 pounds) of synthetic diamond to record the lives of the entire planet’s population for a year (assuming 8 billion people) and 60 kilograms (132 pounds) to record the entire population for a century. Leaving aside the question if people will want to do this, it’s entirely possible that in the future it would be possible that people will leave behind records that detail their entire life and makes Armed Librarians a little plausible.

Next, I’ve been making my way through Outlaw Star after seeing it used in an AMV and it’s a pretty good show. In some ways it’s hard to tell the series is 11 years old and in other ways it’s glaringly obvious (think fashion and music choice). The reason I’m bringing it up here is that it has to have the oddest set of ending song animations ever in the history of anime. The people shown have absolutely nothing to do with the series nor does many of the scenes shown fit into the universe of the series. Even after watching 19 episodes, I’m still not convinced these are the actual closings; I still think the greater possibility is that they are some type of troll.

Since posting how episode 12 of Despair was better than a large part of the fall season, I’ve realized that I could have swapped out that episode for several other recently watched episodes and the analogy would hold up. There was episode 31 of Cross Game when Akane was introduced or episode 40 of Kemono no Souja Erin when all the plot threads get tied together and episode 13 of Bakemonogatari to name a few. In the case of Bakemonogatari this episode definitely did a good job of switching the flow from Senjougahara back to the Hanekawa (it is her story arc afterall). I thought it was an interesting choice to have Araragi’s conversation with Hanekawa take place in the same park that he had that long conversation with Senjougahara back in episode 3. This made it easy to compare the two different relationships and it also allowed us to see how the return of the cat spirit has affected the Hanekawa, namely she’s not the all-knowledgeable person she was. After all, if Araragi has to explain several jokes to you, something’s wrong. Also in this episode was a halfway plausible reason for how all of oddities that Araragi has encountered have been woman so far – this made my sister happy since that’s been bothering her.

And speaking of Bakemonogatari and Despair, I’ve been wanting to mention for a while now that gg has become my favorite sub group. I like how they just provide the English translation during the opening and closing songs. I also like how they strive to keep the translation sounding natural and I even like how they sometimes keep one of the commercials in their sub of a show. Just today I was watching the latest episode of Kampfer and the only spot of laughter I had while watching it was from the commercial for some sort of microwaveable hotdog that has left in by gg.

Posted in anime, general anime interst, meta/office keeping

Happy Halloween!! (2009)

steelbound — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:08:37 +0000

Hope everyone that celebrates Halloween has a Happy Halloween today. It’s still light out where I live so it doesn’t feel like Halloween yet. (And a totally old person thing to say is that in America, don’t forget the clocks go back an hour tonight.)

I decided that my sister needed to watch at least one 07th expansion/Studio Deen anime and episode 18 of Umineko No Naku Koro Ni being fresh on my mind (what an awesome episode), we started watched it last night – it also fits into the season. She seemed interested so let’s see how that plays out.

Here’s a picture of the pumpkins my family carved.

Mind’s the one on the bottom right. And here’s a few more Halloween themed anime pics – Happy Halloween.

Posted in anime, general anime interst

Anime Songs That Can Get Me To Shed Tears

steelbound — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:33:06 +0000

You can thank Winamp and it’s non-random random shuffling for this post.

I have a super condensed anime music playlist that I like to listen to; it’s only 230 songs long and there’s a handful of songs on this list that when I’m in the right mood will get me to shed a tear. Last night I wasn’t much in the mood but out-of-the-blue Winamp starts playing every sad song on the list in a row and even repeating some more than once so now I’m in that mood.

It’s probably not a good idea to marathon a Key series right now so instead I’ll write this post.

Oh, and there’s some spoilers so read at your own risk.

Natsukage – from AIR

Let’s start off with an obvious show that could generate a tear inducing song – AIR. This anime holds the personal record for the most tears shed while watching it (Clannad is a close second). See, I was a relatively new anime watcher at the time, mainly subsisting on a diet of shounen shows and wasn’t aware of the emotional depths that could be found in anime. It also didn’t help that I had absolutely no knowledge of what to expect and was lulled into a false sense of security by it’s light-hearted start. Therefore, when the story turned tragic, I wasn’t ready for it and ended up crying for just about every remaining episode.

Natsukage is the name of the instrumental track that KyoAni used for many of the emotional scenes during AIR and thus when I hear it, I’m reminded of those scenes.

Koikogarete Mita Yume – from Cross Game

The show’s first closing is another song that can bring me to tears and was able to from the very first time I heard it, which was in episode 1.

That episode completely blew me away. I wasn’t expecting to see enough character building and tragedy to fill most series all within those 24 minutes and by playing this song at the saddest scene meant that I’d always link this song to that first episode. Nor has that episode and that song lost it’s power to move the viewer, recently the animators essentially reshowed the first episode in it’s entirety for the episode 30 recap.

Kanon by Pachebel – from Kanon

The wedding standard got repurposed for another of Key’s works – Kanon. This time, the characters actually referenced the song in the show and provided a strong means for the viewers to attach the often tragic nature of Kanon to the song. At least when I hear this song in public it’ll probably be at a wedding and it’ll be more socially acceptable to cry to it.

“Libera me” From Hell – from Gurren Lagann

I’m convinced that Gurren Lagann is one of the greatest anime ever made and should be required watching for, not only those who profess to be an anime fan, but also for every single kid that grows up watching the insipid tv shows that pass for kid’s shows these days.

This song was used in many places throughout the show, primarily when it was time for the good guys to kick butt which makes it a strange song to cry over. And it would be but for it’s use during one of the best scenes to Gurren Lagann which happened in episode 26. The hero of the show, Simon, was given the choice between the easy way out and the harder path that true heroism calls for. He chooses the path of heroism and as a result is able to break himself and his comrades out of a devious trap laid by the enemy. The whole scene is very emotional, a testament to Gainax’s stellar character development and story telling ability, and having this track play during the entire scene meant that those emotions come back whenever hear it.

And within the entire scene there’s a small part that absolutely gets to me every single time I see it. The trap that Simon breaks everyone out of gives each person the ability to live in whatever dream world they wish for. One of the people trapped is Viral; he’s a beastman which means he looks human but was created sterile and he has a tough-as-nails personality so one would expect his dream world to be some sort Valhalla battlefield but it’s not – it’s living in a little cottage in a country meadow with a wife and a daughter that calls him “Papa”.

Dango Daikazoku – from Clannad

Yes, another song from a Key/KyoAni anime, this time it’s from Clannad. This was used as the first season ending but it wasn’t until the second season that this became tear inducing. Though in the case of Dango Daikazoku (or “Big Dango Family”), the song brings tears from being linked to the tragic parts to Clannad and also from the happy parts.

Love is a Flower, You are a Seed – from Only Yesterday

In many ways Only Yesterday is my favorite Studio Ghibli work so I find it an absolute travesty that it’s the only Studio Ghibli movie not released in America.

This is the only song that exclusively makes me shed tears from happiness alone. It’s the end song to Only Yesterday and the animators had it playing while the movie had it’s climatic scene before going to credits. So, like the others, those emotions got transferred to the song and hearing this song gets to me every time.

Anyone else want to share? Or is everyone too busy getting in the Halloween mood today?

Posted in anime, anime rants/views, general anime interst

So How Weak is the Fall Anime Season?

steelbound — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:35:00 +0000

Sure it’s easy to say this is a weak fall season of anime but how do you quantify it?

I could say that as of right now, I’ve seen only 2 shows that are good enough that I would consider placing them on my fall seasonal top anime list when it gets compiled in the future. Which is true, however this doesn’t really enumerate the problem well enough so instead I’ll make the following comparison:

Let’s call the following group of fall shows Group A:

4 episodes of Kampfer +
4 episodes of Nyan Koi +
4 episodes of Armed Librarians +
4 episodes of Railgun +
3 episodes of Sora no Otoshimono +
3 episodes of Miracle Train +
4 episodes of The Sacred Blacksmith +
1 episode of Trapeze +
3 episodes of Seitokai no Ichizon +
3 episodes of Kimi no Todoke

If I take all the entertainment and enjoyment from these 33 episodes of anime and compare them to a single episode – episode 12 of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Season 3, I find that episode 12 wins. Or to write it a little more mathematically:

Group A < Ep.12 SZS s3

Sadly, I’m completely serious and if I want to rub some salt into that wound, I’ll add that episode 12 wasn’t particularly that much better from the rest of the series. Here’s a recap.

Want deep discussions on science?

Want commentary on current affairs?

Want explosions?

Want chicks with weapons?

Want genderbending?

Want fan service?

I should run a poll: Kaere-sensei or Yoko-sensei?

Episode 12 had it all and it only took 23 minutes to cover all these bases.

I’ll probably get some feedback about including Kimi no Todoke in group A and because I haven’t written up my impression post let me just say that I do like the show but right now it’s seriously lacking in providing any sort of tension / conflict and I wonder why this show needs to run more the a couple more episodes.

Posted in anime, anime rants/views

Fall 2009 Anime Impressions – To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

steelbound — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:13:28 +0000

J.C. Staff has been on a serious successful roll of late which has made me a very happy anime fan because when they’re performing at the top of their abilities – very few animation houses can compete. After the spectacular last season with Aoi Hana, Hayate, and Taishou Yakuu Musume, this season’s sole series from J.C. Staff To Aru Kagaku no Railgun has mighty big shoes to fill. So the question is how did it turn out?

Rating: episode 1 – 6/12 B-
Rating: episode 2 – 5/12 C+
Rating: episode 3 – 8/12 B+
Rating: episode 4 – 9/12 A-
Anticipation Level: 2/5 – Below Average

I’ve learned from blogging that doing first impression posts after the first episode or the second episode will often lead to poor conclusions in hindsight because not every good show starts off strong. One of the best examples of this is Lucky Star, it took 6 episodes (25% of the show) for me to begin to enjoy the show the first time I watched it and in the end it turned out to be one of my favorite shows. I bring this up because if I had written this post up after the second episode, I’d be writing that there’s a very good chance I would drop this show since it seemed to lack any redeeming qualities. However, I waited for a couple more episodes because I’d rather be accurate then quick (even if my blogger senses are screaming at me to hurry up and post something), and let’s hope this is at least accurate.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun is a side-story to the Index manga and focuses on the character Misaka, a middle-school girl who can manipulate electricity which is where her nickname – Railgun – comes from and is one of only seven Level 5 people (which is the top level for powers, at least for right now). She befriends two new characters and along with her overly affectionate roommate, these four form the core of the show. So far the show has focused primarily on introducing the characters and fleshing out their friendship, though by the end of episode 4 hints of a deeper plot are starting to show up.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who looked at this series as a way to salvage what should have been a quality series. Which is why I was so depressed when the first two episodes of Railgun seemed to be more concerned with how much yuri fan service could be stuffed into the show. I have nothing against fan service or even yuri fan service but those types of shows are a dime a dozen and it would once again waste the interesting premise. And that’s also why I was happy to see episode 3 and 4 focus more on the characters, comedy not involving yuri groping, and their abilities because it’s now at least possible that this show turns out well.

In all fairness, outsourcing policework to middle school kids must save the government a lot of money.

Outside of the question of the subject to the show, there’s much to like here. The animation is great, as can be expected from J.C. Staff, and I really like the voice work done by the main characters. I also like the two new characters and the non-appearance of the majority of the Index cast (they were a gimped bunch). And having the focus be around these four characters is a stronger basis for the story and it’ll avoid how Index felt like the story was just about how Touma built his harem of girls.

I still don’t know if To Aru Kagaku no Railgun will be worth the time but it’s been able to move from the reject pile to the maybe pile and it’s possible that it could move to the decent pile. Therefore, I’ll suggest for now to potential viewers of this series to not judge the show solely on the first couple of episodes.

Love the subtle cameos from other J.C. Staff shows

Using flashlights while telling scary stories is so 20th century.

Posted in anime, first impressions

Fall 2009 Anime Impressions – Kobato

steelbound — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:22:07 +0000

Confession of an anime blogger time: I’ve never actually finished a Clamp anime show before. I hear their name mentioned frequently but so far, I’ve never come across a show that interests me enough that I watch more than a couple episodes. And the trend might have continued if this had been a stronger season with enough good shows and if I hadn’t read the excitement that some other bloggers had over this series and if the show wasn’t being done by Madhouse.

But all the stars aligned and I found myself watching Kobato. (And for the record I’m not using the official Japanese title because I refuse to add the nonsensical period at the end – it just doesn’t work with English grammar.)

Rating: episode 1 – 10/12 A
Rating: episode 2 – 10.5/12 Strong A
Rating: episode 3 – 9/12 A-
Anticipation Level: 2.5/5 – Average

Kobato is your typical genki (energetic and a bit klutz) girl who has come to Earth on a mission – to help people by healing their hearts. If she can help enough people then she can have a wish granted (what this wish is, we don’t know yet). To help her not get in trouble – because she needs it – she has a talking stuffed animal with the personality of a drill Sargent.

A very shoujo sounding show and that will scare many off but I found a lot to like about it even though I’m not much of a shoujo fan. The two big draws are Kobato herself and the polish that Madhouse has applied to the show.

In regards to Kobato, we can start by saying that the character type that Kobato falls into makes her a very sympathetic main character. One would have to be a very cold-hearted person not to start feeling the urge to cheer Kobato on as she tries her best to accomplish whatever task is presented to her and this desire is only strengthened from the fact that Kobato is a good person. Added to the mix is how the klutzy, not-familiar-with-Earth nature of Kobato injects the show with a good dose of comedy of a similar vein to I Love Lucy and that’s reinforced and expanded upon by her relationship with the talking stuffed animal. Nor should it be forgotten that Kobato is the master of outrageous expressions, which is always good for a laugh or three.

To help Kobato reach it’s full potential as a show, Madhouse needed to do a good job in adapting and so far they’ve really done so. This season has been full of mediocre and tepid animation which makes the high quality animation of Kobato all the more apparent to viewers. Animation alone is never enough to carry a show but it definitely helps. Less apparent but probably more important is how well Madhouse has been pacing the show and using the available time – the show flows naturally and the viewer is never left feeling that a joke has been stretched too long or too short or that it’s jerking haphazardly between the funny parts and the sad parts. Also helping with the enjoyment of the show has been the excellent voice work done by the various voice actors.

At this point the only thing that can sink this show (as I see it) is if they let the episode count on this one get really high and start meandering through filler material and letting the show become unfocused. I don’t think that will be case since I read that it’s going to run for 24 episodes, maybe not enough to finish the story but long enough to satisfy.

As opposed to Natsu no Arashi Season 2, the fan response to this one is large enough that I don’t think too many people will miss this enjoyable show but if for some reason you’ve passed Kobato over – I recommend giving it a try, you might just like it a lot.

But I still think my peeps are better

Posted in anime, first impressions

Fall 2009 Anime Impressions – Natsu no Arashi! Season 2

steelbound — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:01:42 +0000

The best place to start my fall season anime impressions is with the best new show of the season – Natsu no Arashi! Season 2. Of course there’s still a few series I need to get to; for example, I’d really like to pick up Aoi Bungaku but with the previous great but strange Madhouse show – Mouryou no Hako – still not completely subbed a year later, I don’t want to get attached to a show that I’m not going to be able to finish.

Rating: episode 1 – 11/12 A+
Rating: episode 2 – 10/12 A
Rating: episode 3 – 10.5/12 Strong A
Anticipation Level: 4.5/5 – High

For those that aren’t familiar with this series. The show revolves around a 13 year old boy, Hajime, who’s gone to visit his grandpa out in the country for summer vacation and what happens after he meets a 16 year old young woman, Arashi, and falls in love. She’s not like other woman but that’s to be expected, I guess, because she died in a bombing raid during WW2 and now she’s a ghost that only appears during the warmth of summer in physical human form and then she disappears for the rest of the year. If she can find someone to “connect” to, Arashi and that someone can travel in time. The first season showed that Hajime was able to “connect” with Arashi and this leads Arashi to asking for Hajime’s help with saving people she knew from being killed in the bombing raid; Hajime is more then willing to help and one of the dramatic highlights of the season was when the pair got caught up in an air raid.

Watching the first 3 episodes of the new season, I’m struck with the feeling that Shaft/Shinbou took an already pretty good show and increased the quality by a sizable amount. The animation still doesn’t feel on par with say Bakemonogatari but everything else just feels like it’s operating on a higher level right now.

Take the first episode, for example. Towards the end there was a fabulous example of how Shaft/Shinbou was able to effortlessly shift the show back-n-forth from being comedic to being serious without either feeling wrong or out-of-context. All while taking what had been a running joke from season 1 – that Jun is actually a girl – and turning it into a serious piece of character development and changing how the rest of the series will play out. They also were able to remind the viewer that Arashi comes from an older time period with her observation that Hajime reminds her of the boys from her time (the 1940’s) which hits Hajime’s character right on the head when one thinks about it (and probably explains why he “connects” with her). Even his liking of science feels like a throwback to when people believed that science was going to help bring about a better world and boys (and girls) wanted to be astronauts/rocket scientists.

And the comedy just seems funnier this time around, maybe it’s because the first season laid down a solid foundation to work with. For example, I was literally rolling on the floor when they went back to the first season joke of how the owner of the shop thinks you can de-age things by having it travel into the past but this time instead of milk she asked to be taken back in time so she could become younger and then one of the characters commented that it’s impossible for something that’s expired to become unexpired by time traveling. And the start of episode 3 has another great example but I don’t want to spoil that one as well.

It’s pretty apparent, at this point, that this is a weak season of anime which is disappointing but it doesn’t have to be all bad. Now is a great time to catch some of the great but overlooked shows from the past few seasons, and there’s not better place to start then Natsu no Arashi. (And for those that check out the first season, episode 1 is not the best of first episodes so I’d suggest watching the first 3-4 episodes before making an informed decision about watching the rest of the series.)

Shaft being Shaft

Mahjong is serious business.

Score! References to movies that are older then the majority of the audience watching it.

Just had to stitch this together.

Posted in anime, first impressions