You may be wondering why you’re reading about a  film critic on an anime blog. Rather, you may be wondering why you’re reading about Roger Ebert at all. I was going to give my thoughts on Little Witch Academia today, but that can wait. Roger Ebert passed away today — a movie critic so successful his very name has become synonymous with criticism, a professional who became a big name in the movie industry despite never appearing in a film, the single biggest source of my writing inspiration.

I’ve been reading Roger Ebert since before I learned how to write an essay. It simply blew my young mind that this guy’s job was to write about what he thought about movies. The real poise and structure of his reviews were lost on me for many years. His distinctive style was a balance of sensual descriptions of how he felt about a scene with technical analysis of how a scene works. His praises translated his appreciation of the film into excitement and anticipation on your end, but he never came off as gushing. His critique bore the full schema of sarcasm and dry wit. He explored writing beyond the traditional essay, reviewing films in the format of letters or poems, and never shying away at an opportunity to squeeze a quick anecdote. Most importantly, he don’t give a fuck. He took ownership of his writing; they were his words, his ideas, his identity. He was proud of his work, and you could easily tell.

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Shinsekai Yori is a complicated show in a lot of ways. While it was airing I heard a lot of praise as well as a lot of complaints, with one complaint in particular coming up time and time again. The human characters just weren’t likable. I heard them called flat, boring, merely reactionary, and a lot of other adjectives that condemned them to mediocrity.  I understood, but at the same time, I knew that the show was bigger than just its characters.

My fascination with SSY began when I read that it was supposed to take place 1000 years in the future. Upon seeing the first episode and the cryptic transition from people blowing up in our present day to seeing humanity reduced to an agrarian civilization, I was hooked. To me, the characterization wasn’t as important as the world building, so I wasn’t bothered by the lack of depth to most of the characters, besides Saki and Shun, but I’ll get to them later. The short segments at the beginning of the first three episodes were brilliant for establishing this eerie feeling that something was very wrong despite the relatively easy going lives of Saki and friends, culminating in the info-dump of episode 4.

– Be warned that spoilers follow –

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If you have looked at any anime season preview chart from the last few years, you may have noticed that there seems to be a new imouto show just about every season. While it’s easy to attribute this to the creepy, incestuous tendencies of the Japanese anime audience as well as the equally creepy presumptions of the industry itself, I’m not here to discuss this disappointing development. There is a much more ominous problem posed by Japan’s obsession with little sisters, and that is the negligence of older sisters.

I am not a proponent of fetishizing “ane” characters, mind you, I just find it tragic to see such a glorious character type drown in the sea of siscon anime that threatens to become Japan’s primary source of revenue. Older sisters in anime play a rich variety of roles and can be utterly amazing characters. So, in an effort to proliferate ane appreciation, below are five of my personal favorite anime onee-sans. Most are actual older sisters, but two of them are not, in a strict sense. Instead, the dynamics they share with other characters are akin to that of an older sister looking out and caring for her siblings. Note that these are not necessarily in a specific order, except for my #1.

#5 – Takanashi Touka from Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!

I found it pretty hard to believe when I read that  Touka is a character original to the anime. This was after watching several episodes and thoroughly enjoying the juxtaposition of her serious, deadpan style and the ridiculousness what her actions. The second episode when Rikka “battles” her sister set the bar for the nutty comedy she would contribute as she plays along with her sister’s delusions, comes out from under people beds, and does crazy gymnastics to keep a voice recorder away from Yuuta that has audio evidence of his chuunibyou.

Most of my enjoyment of Touka came from this crazy character comedy and her no-nonsense demeanor and ladle wielding. When the show switched into serious mode, she would just be another person telling Rikka to get over their father’s death, which was a bit grating at first since just telling someone to get over it rarely works. It should be expected that her reaction to her sister’s continuing chuunibyou was exasperation, she is a working 20something year old, after all, and that’s probably a big part of why she left the job of consoling her sister to Yuuta. She really does care for her sister, but had neither the time nor patience to help Rikka break out of her shell. Or she was just shipping her sister with Yuuta, I wouldn’t put that past her at all.

In the end, I consider Touka one of my favorite parts about Chuunibyou, and a rather memorable older sister. And so, I will continue hoping for another season that will never come if only to get more of the Takanashi sisters. (more…)

Anime is a medium full of archetypes, so more often than not, characters will have a certain set of traits that pigeonhole them into established character types — tsundere, tomboy, yamato nadeshiko, hot-blooded hero, reticent intellectual, and so on. Of course, if every character in every show was simply a certain archetype played straight, watching anime would get boring in a hurry. The best characters are the ones that mix and match character traits, so while they might fall under a certain archetype, they are still multifaceted and interesting.

Of course, stitching character traits together can easy go awry, so you have to be careful, lest it end disastrously and result in a character whose actions become nonsensical. On the other hand, even characters forged from tried-and-true archetypes can come across as forced and awkward in the hands of a bad writer. Every once in a while, though, some gifted writer decides to take gar, the quality of being absurdly bad-ass, and moe, the quality of being heart-burstingly adorable, and combines these seemingly mutually exclusive traits in one character. Then something magical happens. A character is born that can house both the nutbladder-rupturing power of moe and the blood-boiling, “FUCK YEAH” power of gar. This, my friends, is true gar-moe.

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Maybe it’s the steadily plummeting temperatures, but I find myself remembering the summer anime season fondly. I have heard a number of people say that summer seasons tend to be slow — after all, this summer had Yuru Yuri; Joshiraku; and of course, Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita. This brings me to an important part of my anime watching this year. It was a warm and summer day, shortly after the eighth episode of Jintai had aired when the clouds were rent asunder and God descended from the heavens and spoke to me in Kugumiya Rie’s voice of the truth about Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita.

Jintai fans may remember the multitude of comparisons drawn between the Time Management arc and the Endless Eight arc from Haruhi. While this is an apt observation, its scope is much too narrow. Jintai isn’t just like Haruhi, Jintai is Haruhi. More specifically, Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita is a spin-off of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya set in an alternate universe that Haruhi created after she got bored with the old one. This is supported by the presence of each of the five members of the SOS Brigade in this new universe.

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One of my favorite shows in the last few seasons is Yuru Yuri. I enjoyed it not only because it’s a funny and enjoyable comedy with a cast of  cute girls, but because the show is surprisingly robust and works on many levels. While it appears to be another show about cute girls doing cute things, the show drops subtle hints of existentialist and nihilist critique. Behind the thin veneer of moe and light humor, Yuru Yuri is a Kafkaesque depiction of the vain search of love in a sea of ennui.

Nihilism and Yuru Yuri

Nihilism is a prevalent undertone in Yuru Yuri, manifesting within both the storytelling and the characters. An oft-cited, cliché, but accurate critique of Yuru Yuri is that it is a “show about nothing”. While action and reaction do occur throughout the narrative, there is no intrinsic meaning to anything that happens in the anime. The show is a series of minutiae that focus on pointless events, such as a cicada flying into Akari’s room or Yui playing video games. It is from this absurdity which Yuru Yuri draws its humor and strands its characters. The cast live their lives existing not in a world of friends, school, and homework; but in a world of quiet madness, desperately seeking some kind of stimulation or true meaning. This meaning, of course, does not exist. (more…)

Hyouka is one of the few shows that forced me to like it as I watched more of it, although I wasn’t sold on it from the start. A number of factors played in favor of the show, but the most appealing to me was the blossoming platonic relationship between Oreki and Chitanda. The keyword here is blossoming, since I think we all agree that static platonic love is one of the most boring stuff to deal with at all. You could tell from the onset of the show that it was probably going to happen, but the anime still conveyed the slow, developing romance with patience and deliberate grace.

Oreki was introduced as an anti-social individual with a weird idea about an energy-saving lifestyle. I thought his passiveness was pictured in an extreme manner at times, but it was still a believable aspect of him. Being introvert myself, I found it easy to understand Oreki’s worldview. Those weird thoughts do occur to us, yet we decide to ignore them in most occasions. The ridiculous amount of attention Oreki puts to the voices in his head and his dedication to act upon them made him entertaining to watch, although I do understand how it might bore others. I also do suspect that most of those who couldn’t handle that trait associated with Oreki are from our fellows extroverts, but I sadly have no studies to prove this scientific hypothesis. *read: anime is serious business* Editors’ note: This post is a 100% scientifically factual study that is going to be published in the Journal of Anime Psychology and put into every school textbook in America. Please direct all Nobel Prizes to Vanikawa. 

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Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (Humanity has Declined) is one of those anime that are impossible for me to review. Not because I find it plain or unremarkable, but because there are so many contradictory opinions I have on it. It’s fresh and smart, but confusingly disorganized. The show is carried by its characters, but excessively relies on narration. I hate shows like these; they can never decide to be good or not. Curse this crap for making anime blogging hard.

One aspect of the show I do want to cover is the anachronistic storytelling that Jinrui employs. Anachronistic storytelling (narrative where scenes or episodes are ordered irrespective of chronology) is as old as storytelling itself — notably employed in classic works like The Arabian Nights. The work can be episodic, where the overarching plot is either absent or mostly irrelevant with respect to time (many slice of life shows, Cowboy Bebop, Baccano, Star Trek). Alternatively, non-linear storytelling can also be encapsulated as part of the narrative itself, where flashbacks, reverse chronology, or in media res is deployed as a literary device to accomplish something for the sake of drama (Inception, Momento, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni).

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita is non-linear in a unique third way: where episode order is exclusively anachronistic. I’m not a big fan of this structure of storytelling. Sure, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu pulled it off, but it requires a certain level persuasion to convince a viewer to put forth the level on concentration required to actually appreciate it. I’m not sure what anachronism actually brings to Jinrui; the show drops hints about the chronology (namely, Watashi’s hair), but so what? I enjoyed the show, but I didn’t see any linkage between the episodes or arcs. The episode order of Haruhi, while slightly confusing, prodded the viewer to examine the setting and action on the screen to figure things out, creating a sense of immersion that paralleled what Kyon was going though. This was obviously the intent of Kyoto Animation. The out-of-order construction of Jinrui made the show simply feel slightly disorganized. (more…)

As a follow up to last time’s editorial, I don’t believe there is a harem stigma. However, I do believe that there is a clear case of visual novel stigma. Even if a visual novel adaptation was entertaining, regardless of how well-constructed or enjoyable it is, the anime adaptation is still hounded by what it is.

In the last few years, light novel adaptations have been popular in anime. Iconic shows like Shakugan no Shana and Bakemonogatari all trace their lineage from light novels. Even school anime like Boku wa Tomodachi ga Nai or Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu have been very popular, despite having a similar setup to a visual novel. One main male, a handful of varied bishoujo eyeing him, and all the tropes and character archetypes that come bundled with every visual novel made in the last five years.

A common criticism of visual novel adaptations is the sincerity of its source material. Mashiro-iro Symphony is an example of a recent anime that has faced such criticism. Yes, we all can acknowledge that a story where you essentially get into a bunch of cute girls’ pants is probably not going to be the next Slaughterhouse Five, but there’s simply no chance when you get an English description like this.

When boys suddenly get into places where they’ve never been allowed before, some girls tend to get upset. So when the decision is made to merge the elite Yuihime Girls’ Private Academy and the coeducational Kagamidai Private Academy, everyone wants to take extra care in avoiding trouble while bringing the two Privates together. Therefore, rather than just sticking the Kagamida boys into the Yuihime girls all at once, a plan is concocted in which a group of test males will be inserted into the Girls’ Private Academy first. Thus it is that poor young Shingo finds himself being thrown as a sacrificial lamb to the lionesses of Yuihime, who aren’t exactly waiting for him with open arms. Will Shingo manage to survive the estrogen soaked death pit that is Yuihime? Can the girls learn to be more receptive to the boys? And just how long until something involving panties will cause emotions to flare, sparks to fly and the battle of the sexes to explode? It’s a desperate battle to turn discord into making sweet music together in Mashiro-Iro Symphony – The color of lovers!

Sentai Filmworks (via Anime News Network)

The description is so horrid and inaccurate that even the game, at its highest potency of ecchi levels, cannot ever sound so bad. Actually Mashiro did not even have any panty flashes other than one scene with a flying kick, which actually made sense to flash. In fact you probably saw girls without clothes on more often than panties. I suppose Sentai Filmworks put huge emphasis on most and least important aspects. Speaking of Sentai Filmworks, recent news on August 29 shows that Sentai Filmworks also licensed Koichoco.

In Japan, participation in extra-curricular activities is as fundamental a part of an education as chalk and gym shorts. However, not all students are overachievers, and for those like Yuki Ojima, groups like the Food Research Club are welcome havens in which to slack-off. But what’s a slacker to do when the radical new candidate for Student Council president announces her intent to get rid of clubs like the FRC? Well, getting the help of the current Student Council president is a good start, but HIS suggestion is so counter-intuitive that it’s crazy: Yuki should run for the Student Council himself? And yet, it’s SO crazy that it just might work! Especially when Chisato, the chocolate-adverse president of the FRC (and Yuki’s best childhood friend,) and members of other targeted school clubs start to join the swelling FRC army. But can this army of goofs and goof-offs coast all the way to political victory? Or will someone have to step up to the plate and take one for the term? They may savor victory, they may taste defeat, but you’re certain to eat up Love, Elections, & Chocolate!

Sentai Filmworks  (via Anime News Network)

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Today’s post is a guest post written by my friend Usny. He wanted to share his thoughts on the lost potential in Kokoro Connect this season. After a brief discussion, I offered to host his ideas and give him a chance to taste the full aniblogging experience. I didn’t even charge him for editing or the snarky remarks I added into the post . If you aspire to write about anime, or just have a few hundred words lying around about a particular topic, I would be glad to look at a manuscript and offer editing and critique. No guarantees I’d post it, though . You can follow @Usny on Twitter and engage in iDOLM@STER or Type-MOON fandom with him.

No doubt, many of us initially brushed off Kokoro Connect when we came across it in the previews for the summer season. An anime about high schoolers swapping bodies? Please. Next you’ll be telling me there’s another siscon sho- oh wait.

Certainly, most people did not expect the direction that Kokoro Connect ended up going. The show uses the body-swapping mechanic to discuss one’s sense of self and the malleability of personality, as well as to put the characters in some very interesting situations.Taichi helping Yui overcome her androphobia by teaching her every man’s weakness? Great. Taichi and Aoki confessing to themselves while in the bodies of Inaban and Yui? Hilarious. Heartseed forcing the SCS members to choose who should die with Iori’s body? Fantastic. Too bad that’s where the show abandons body-swapping.

Now the SCS members randomly have their “desires unleashed,” which is usually just called “being a teenager” in the real world. While this leads us to get treated to Inaban cleavage, most of the episodes just end up consisting of every character yelling at every other character. This profound lack of focus is what keeps the show from realizing its potential; the show explores its characters, but it feels like they are being dissected on an operating room table rather than being given a chance to grow organically. I can see Kokoro Connect taking the SCS members’ unleashed desires to an interesting place, but I really wish they would have explored the body-swapping catalyst a bit more in depth.

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