Desu ex Machina

The first streaming episode of Bakemonogatari, perhaps the strongest title of a marquee of solid shows the past two seasons, was released recently. It is really great to see that after the TV airing concluded, Bakemonogatari doesn’t miss a single beat and continues its sublime, distinctive storytelling style at and at the high quality of art and animation that we have come to expect for 12 episodes previous. Arararagi (sorry, I stuttered) is also one of the coolest male leads in anime. His subtle character change and outward attitude both keep him honest and make watching the show fun. If Araragi were different, Bakemonogatari’s dialogue driven structure could easily have collapsed. Oh and he also molests Mayoi-chan at the start of the episode, which is also plus points.

Now remember, this episode was a STREAM. so excuse the 360p or whatever. DVD will be out in like 2010

After a near perfect episode 12, we pick up where we left off with Tsubasa Cat part 3. Horie Yui is one of my favorite voice actors and Bakemonogatari is hocchan at her best. The way she renders Tsubasa is both distinctive and compelling; combined with the masterfully written dialogue, it is hard for this episode to be anything but amazing. After a load of dialogue, they go see Oshino and that’s basically the episode. It’s hard to summarize episodes of this show because the show is about the dialogue, not the plot. It’s not about what happened, it’s about the process by which it was presented to have happened. It’s about the the characters say, the way they say it, the reactions. This is why a good seiyuu corps is needed. If you want to find out what happened, go watch the episode yourself.

I particularly enjoyed the scene where Araragi encounters Hitagi in the bike-lot. Araragi’s relationship with Hitagi is unconventional in an anime sense because there is almost no romantic tension. Hitagi is smart and very rarely misunderstands her boyfriend, which is a fresh breath of air compared to many other anime with romance. Also present is some fourth wall breakage, which never goes over too badly if used in moderation.

Oh Saito Chiwa, Aika-chan would have taken offense to all those hazukashii serifu in episode 12

The end of the episode, however, left me most excited. Well, besides this…

if you got gg’s release of the stream, they left in the commercials for the singles of the OPs. They are taking painfully long to come out, especially since they are so fucking good, but after the end credits we get a sneak peek of Horie Yui’s OP for Tsubasa Cat! The little clip I’ve heard sounds fucking amazing and I can’t wait until we get to see the OP, and ultimately (in like January) get the single. It’s called sugar sweet nightmare and sounds great. Definitely check out the commercial after the credits of gg’s release if you haven’t already.

Dammit, I had this marked on my calendar. Now I am in despair. I even had this post set aside to write about the new episode. Now it’s all ruined and the flow of my blog is all messed up. SHAFT, if my blog goes down in flames because of the lack of a post about how pumped  I am for Bakemonogatari and all five of my readers abandon me on the cold dark streets of the internet, I’m holding you guys responsible. Also, with an extra week episode 13 better make me cream rainbows or something. I’m also looking forward to Horie Yui singing an OP and the singles releases of the other openings.

Also, Nadeko with green hair is the best, yeah I said it. 3AM going to sleep.

Today I just feel like posting something so here are random thoughts about stuff.

kevo at work

Finished Sora no Manimani last night, and I liked it. Koharubi final released the last episode after a few years of waiting. I wanted to review it but I didn’t really feel that I had any opinions on the show that others didn’t already state. If you want to read a review on it, I recommend checking out Kholdstare’s review of the show. It’s well written and basically tells you everything you need to know. Definitely not for everyone, but a good anime none the less.

Somehow I have not been forced to watch Needless when it aired and I blame all of you for it. I started like last night and got up to 4 episodes and I loved it. The first two or three episodes were kinda slow but the show for me is getting good quick. From what I see it’s a great sublime blend of parody with good pacing. I’ll try my best to catch up with the show before it finishes airing.

I’m slow in picking up shows this season, but I might take a look at Yumeiro no Patissiere if I have time because it has cooking and the synopsis of the show contains “spirit of the sweets”. Taiga vs. Yui in Saimoe Japan finals; exactly what I wanted. I’ll be posting again once the winner is decided. But if you don’t want to wait, check out Lunatic Antics or Micchi’s blog for some more info about the match itself.

I’ve started watching Hajime no Ippo again recently. It’s great stuff, well paced despite being like ten million episodes. It’s fun to watch, but it’s such a marathon. I want to get to the 50th episode soon, however. Watched the first episode of GA Art Design Class the other day and it reminds me of Lucky Star x Sketchbook ~full color’S~. I’ll keep watching, but it had better excite me soon.

Bakemonogatari continues to make bank with DVD sales which it deserves. I can’t wait for the series to continue and I’m looking forward to the stream later this month. The show has done nothing but impress me, especially after a near perfect episode 12. God it sucks writing on writers block. These aren’t paragraphs! I better stop now before my blog post hurts someone. In conclusion here is another picture of Sumomo.

As this absolutely miraculous season of anime winds down, I am left rather sad to think that it is all over. So many shows, from Saki to Bakemonogatari are headed for an end. After a weak winter season and an uneventful spring 2009, the summer season could not have come at a better time. In fact, I don’t think I ever remember a season as solid as this season. I was originally planning to preview Fall 2009 but fuck Fall 2009. Does it have epic schoolgirl lightning mahjong? No. Everything looks like shit, but I recommend checking out Kampfer, the “look we have the budget for a loaded voice actor cast” anime of the season. Plus it has traps, so sign me up. Also, Romance of the Three Kingdoms had better not suck. I recommend picking that one up because the source material is the manliest most awesome thing ever. Finally, I will probably watch Seitokai no Ichizon because I hate myself. Oh yeah, Railgun looks cool because it looks like Index without the shit. There, fall preview complete.

Click for full size, but this image is about as hard to find as a rickroll

What makes this season great? Let me count the ways. Regardless of how it ends (I believe there are two episodes left), Saki fucking rules. And the critical thing is that the half that is good aired in the summer! The first half of the season is good two but the actual tournament and truly epic mahjong occurred when the days are long. Besides creative animation, a solid soundtrack (the original score is usually overlooked but it’s very functional), and a well executed albeit simplistic plot, Saki shines because of the great storytelling that endears so many different characters to the audience. I might be writing a full review later (so expect me to do some self plagiarism ) but I just want to take this chance to applaud the fact that GONZO seems to still be capable of making good anime, even if they are no longer 100% in charge of the project. If you have not picked it up this summer, I definite recommend at least giving it a try. It doesn’t matter if you play mahjong or not. In fact, watching Saki inspired me to pick up Japanese mahjong and now it’s my favorite type to play (though countless others have picked up Japanese mahjong from complete scratch, as evidenced by Tenhou’s spike in activity in recent months).

Bakemonogatari is another addition to half insane, complete genius director Akiyuki Shinbou’s portfolio. Bakemonogatari is sharp, well paced, intelligent, and contains enough action to keep the audience paying attention. Shinbou’s crazy abstract art induced animation antics are put into full use bringing Nisio Isin’s novel to life both visually and spiritually. Bakemonogatari hits the ground running, immersing the viewer into its plot right from the beginning of the first episode. Like Saki, Bakemonogatari shines with its characters. Hitagi and Koyomi foil each other and their relationship is beautifully construed, serving as the crux of much of the story. I find the phase the anime is in currently I’m on episode 10) an interesting departure from my personal vision of how the show was going to progress, but I’ll obviously ride this out and see how it ends. Very, very good show.

As if Shinbou wasn’t done, Zan Sayonora Zetsubou Sensei, the third season of the world’s most depressed teacher (and personally my favorite comedy franchise ever) is having a great season; perhaps the best of the three. the art style has been slightly tweaked, with lighting effects more apparent and less usage of patterned textures. The gags are as sharp as ever, and each episode is basically a by the book adaptation of the manga, though there is really not much wrong with that, as they are picking good chapters to animate. The Zetsubou Sensei anime differentiates itself from the other medium by delivering perfectly fitted animation, nice art, and crisp voice acting led by a strong cast including Kamiya Hiroshi, Nonaka Ai, and Inoue Marina (like always).

Is that all, kevo? No way, I’m just getting started. The new season of the Hayate no Gotoku franchise, Hayate no Gotoku!! is another addition to this season’s roster. Like Saki, even though the show began in the spring the good episodes are in the summer. Hina, as much as I love her, has a terrible arc and her dialogue throughout the entire show I found really really cheesy. I guess turning Hayate no Gotoku into Love Hina was one of the changes J.C. Staff wanted to try with the second season. Another thing J.C. Staff tried out was changing the art; and while there was nothing wrong with the art in season 1, I find everyone even more fun to look at with seasons 2’s sharper, more brightly colored color palette. Nagi’s crisp, jade green eyes contrast beautifully with her bright golden hair. I’ll stop now before I start sounding more creepy. Despite what I said about Hina in the storyline (she’s still uber moe, however), overall I like the approach of giving this anime kind of a backstory to connect the episodes. The writing also feels more disciplined and the jokes and gags flow much better. And as I stated before, the second half of the show (right after Hina’s arc) is absolutely hilarious.

But kevo, all you’ve listed so far are comedy shows! True. This season is definitely very heavy leaning towards comedy (Bakemonogatari isn’t really a comedy but oh well) but for someone who watched comedy anime like me I guess this season would seem like a goldmine. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing. The heavy hitters of summer is backed up by very good, solid shows of all genres. CANAAN isn’t a genre-defining, ground breaking show that will forever be etched into our memory, but it’s a very solid show with nice fast paced action. It’s unfairly overshadowed this season, but it’s still good regardless. The plot is rather complex, and the pacing isn’t very good, causing the story to get rather convoluted. CANAAN can get rather confusing or completely incomprehensible at times, but overall it functions on a basic level and delivers entertainment. Type-Moon did a great job with character design, art, and animation. great voice work by Tanaka Rie.

Considering how good it is, Sora no Manimani is the most overlooked show of the season. I think like 4 blogs in the internet have ever mentioned it. I even admit I’m like 3 episodes behind. Sora no Manimani is about a fledgling high school astronomy club, a rather reclusive boy and his long lost, super outgoing childhood girlfriend, and the binding relationship that surrounds friends. It’s a beautifully construed tale of the coming of age and the feelings that surrounds us all, set before a deep night sky filled with spectacular stars. Oh god I’m saving that sentence for a review in the future. Ok, maybe I’m making the show sounds like the best thing since sliced bread but it is actually very enjoyable. Mihoshi is a great character: lively, helpful, smart, and cheerful to a fault. Most importantly, there is great depth to her character, enriching the plot by a great extent. She’s also really cute. Saimoe 2010 yeah!

Besides that, all of these shows are backed up by a plethora of solid series (of which I plan to pick up later in the future as a batch). Taishou Yakyuu Musume is pretty good, from what I’ve watched and heard about. I’ll finish it later when I have time. Basquash!, Spice and Wolf II, and Aoi Hana round out the season. Hell, I’ve even seen people defending Fight Ippatsu Juuden-chan, saying it’s at least worth a watch. I’ll bite and watch it later but hey, it’s at least generating good interest and discussion. I’ve probably overlooked some stuff that I can’t remember for now but oh well, you get the point. (Oh right, Full Metal Alchemist, yeah I hate FMA bye) So the main question? Best season of anime ever? Dare I say it? Dare I stand up to the people who are going to flame me, bringing up spring 2007, winter 2005, or even better, summer 1992 (if the 90’s was your favorite era of anime you are too hardcore for me)?

Yes. Yes I am. Bring it on. Comments section is right down the page. You don’t even have to type that word out to assure you’re not a bot. I’m sure if free cialis likes fall 2008 that much he will comment accordingly. I’ll even give you a handicap: your favorite season didn’t have Endless Eight.

Image Credits:

http://www.pixiv.net/index.php?mode=medium&illust_id=6132142
http://www.pixiv.net/index.php?mode=medium&illust_id=5428180
http://www.pixiv.net/index.php?mode=medium&illust_id=6027344

Sorry for the lack of updates the past week. As I have said, I moved back into college this week and I had to wait a bit for internet. A day after the internet came, when everything has just been set up, and just when this year of college was starting off perfectly smooth, my laptop rolled over and just died. 12 days after the warranty expired. It has been one year. So a trip to the computer store and $1000 later, I’m back here again. I got a nice new HP HDX but to be honest I’d rather have my old Acer and 1000 bucks back (no, I will not buy a cheap computer. I am the President of the Video Game Club and I am a techie. A graphics card is synonymous to food for me). Budget is going to be really tight this semester. Oh right, my two Saimoe blogs… yeah CCY’s gonna be kind of upset.

In the meantime, I rewatched both seasons of Rozen Maiden in the last week. And because I didn’t have a computer Thursday night, the re-watch of Rozen Maiden Traumend became the first 13 episode anime I have ever watched in one sitting (t’was a quite fortunate way find out that my roommate’s PS3 can read data discs and play avis). As my first anime (childhood anime on Cartoon Network don’t count), Rozen Maiden has a special place in my heart. I remember how much fun I had with the series and how excited I became. A few years later, that feeling is still there. Sure, I’ve watched tons of really great stuff and 100 more anime since then, but this show is still just so amazingly solid. I also returned with deep appreciation for how talented Rie Tanaka is. My love for Suigintou is like a truck.

That look on Gin's face is absolutely priceless.

To cheer me up, however, gg gave me Christmas in August and did a triple release yesterday. Episode 7 of CANAAN was really cool, and the last two episodes were kind of a slowdown. That’s ok, not every anime can be Tengen Toppa Gurenn Lagann. There’s lots of talking and only little bits of Maria being annoying but nothing too intense. The story in confusing and the way it’s explained feels rather forced and gets in the way of the flow of the show. Regardless, they are at least trying and the character development is decently solid. Liang Qi especially stands out for her lunatic antics, zettai ryouiki, and bb gun action. More Rie Tanaka faggotry on my blog right here. I gotta take care of my favorite voice actor of all time you know. She is at her best when her character is batshit insane.

Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei continues to be freaking awesome. They animated one of my favorite chapters of the manga this week, about the Winter Shogun. Hopefully, they will animate my favorite chapter sometime. To continue the voice actor fagging, Horie Yui is in this week’s episode as chain sale schemer Maruuchi Shouko. I find it quite interesting that they are adding new people into the anime, and it hasn’t become overwhelming. I hope the infinite sales girls show up more in the future. The characters are extremely easy to figure out with minimal amounts of explanation needed. Characters are really what makes Zetsubou-Sensei gel and click together as a strong, enjoyable comedy anime.

If this was intentional, the seiyuu joke is clever.

Finally, Bakemonogatari 8. Bakemonogatari is so much storytelling and that storytelling is very masterful. We go into Suruga’s storyline and find out a little about her past. We learn of her nearly obsessive love for Hitagi and how multiple layers of her consciousness respond. This anime is captivating because it works on so many levels and there is meaning and thought in so many aspects of the plot.

I wasn’t really feeling it too much this episode, despite my praise for it. I guess after the first episode of this anime, I was expecting some action. Don’t get me wrong, however. Bakemonogatari as is is absolutely sublime. The drama is good and the show in itself is very thought provoking. I liked this episode’s OP, as Miyuki Sawashiro is a very talented singer and voice actor. I liked the final interaction in the opening animation where Hitagi cuts Suruga in half with scissors. The foreshadow was great symbolism and played into the episode well.

Oh right, Hayate no Gotoku also was released recently. This season has been hella good and HnG has not broken the trend. After three insanely hilarious episodes in a row, this show seems to want to reel back a little bit before it starts killing its fans. Still, this episode was pretty fun and full of lulz. Nagi gets a part time job and Ayumu is moe. There’s also a Haruhi dig, so there’s no reason not to watch it.

Ever since after the first episode of Bakemonogatari when I found out I would have to wait almost a month for Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari to come out, I have been looking forward to August 12th. However, one day in advance, I discovered that it has been leaked. I instantly became sick to my stomach. Songs become licensed and released and sold for a reason, so artists can make a living. Thoughtlessly downloading the music, much less ahead of the release time, is both selfish and illegal. As someone who has this CD preordered, I feel bad for how much the industry is suffering. Fansubs are one thing, but pirating and torrenting music like this is just a terrible and unfortunate thing to happen. Shame on you people, ruining the industry and making supercell’s life completely in vain. I for one will be waiting for 8 more hours for the album to properly come out and then wait for the CD to ship over to my house. I insist you all do the same, for you won’t be finding any download links on this blog.

sike, haha fuck that shit here you go. Rock on, hombres.

[imoutonouta] Bakemonogatari ED – Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari [supercell] .mp3 DDL

Here’s the original post with a link to the torrent.

There are 4 stories listed up there. Therefore, this anime sucks.

“Mahjong Story”, of course, refers to Saki. Sea Story is the English name for Umimonogatari, and Ghostory is the English name for Shinbo’s other work this season, Bakemonogatari. Three of the very popular shows this season showing up here on the board. So let’s walk through with the latest on each of these. Oh right, “Leopard Head Story” is not an anime this season, sorry :/

The last two episodes (15 and 16) of Saki has been some kind of combination of awesome and badass. It really gets into the crazy shonen style mahjong with the yuri kind of repressed into only 2nd most important to dramatic lightning effects and lines like “I WILL BE THE FLOWER BLOOMING ON THE PEAK!” Knowing and playing Japanese mahjong a lot, I know just about every single little nuance in each character’s hands and I usually understand all the crazy strats in the show. Regardless, seeing crazy over the top special effects and the overboard reactions of characters to the events and actions in the game is a strangely savory mixture of hilarity and catharsis. If Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was about mahjong, it would be something a lot like Saki. Episode 16 of Saki was basically purely awesome as Koromo rips the shit out of everyone with her giant mahjong penis and tears people’s still-beating hearts out of their chests in glorious victory. (Ok, not really, because that would be strange even by this show’s standards)

If you are still reading and still have not seen this episode, I have no idea why you are still reading. Any episode with flaming tsumos and lightning rinshan kaihou needs to be watched immediately. The whole episode was basically a roller coaster of intense mahjong action. I knew Koromo was being too quiet in the last episode, so now she unleashes her true inna powah. I would summarize what happened but unfortunately I cannot make my writing spew lightning out of the screen at you.  I’m curious how the show will end from here, namely who wins the tournament and moves into Nationals. Regardless, I’m excited for the next episode, especially after I saw the episode preview.

This is by far the most GAR I have ever seen Saki. Time to go super saiyan.

I snuck into Gonzo’s office last night and learned that in the next episodes there will be a crazy development where all the girls in the show have to team up and play a game of mahjong against alien invaders that decides the fate of the earth itself. There will also be magical transformation scenes and the heart of the tiles. Oh dang I spoiled it.

I’m not caught up to Umimonogatari, sorry. I find the story massive amounts of “not interesting” but I will give this show a watch and see if it gets cool. I’m not the biggest fan of the art but the anime has Horie Yui so I can listen and pretend I’m watching Kanon.

The third episode of Bakemonogatari was basically meh until the end, which had me doubled over laughing. Now that Hitagi no longer has crabs, she stops being a cold hearted bitch spewing awesome one-liners and dissing Araragi, she becomes a strangely mellow bitch spewing awesome one-liners and dissing Araragi. Hitagi is the only reason I would consider fixating the “comedy” genre onto this show. Hitagi feels that she owes Araragi something for introducing her to Oshino and solving her problem. In this episode, character development reveals that Araragi is a bit of a pussy when it comes to women, basically being too scared to take up any of Hitagi’s offerings, despite undoubtedly being attracted to her. Hitagi is a very interesting character herself, and the relationship between our two protagonists will be fruitful. This show also introduces a loli (see left), who has twintails AND fangs. Formulaically, I assume (which is probably a nono with a Shinbo anime) she also has a mysterious problem/power to be fixed. In conclusion, show rules bye.

Oh right. Apparently, we have to wait until freaking August until we can torre- buy the ending theme in stores. What is this evil. Here it is in all its awesome glory, regardless. Fear the awesome piano intro.

The lyrics (in case you have seen this subbed or speak Japanese) are retarded. How can you not find Altair after finding Vega? It’s called the summer triangle for a reason, you know. It’s the “tip” of the triangle, and Deneb should be just as easy to spot. In case anyone is inspired by the anime, it’s summer now and the summer triangle should be high up in the sky (almost overhead) if you’re in a mid-northern latitude. It’s a pretty cool sight, I recommend getting away from bright city lights and taking a gander sometime, maybe while playing this song. Man, I should totally pick up Sora no Manimani and turn this into an anime astronomy blog.

First things first: last night I watched my 2000th episode of anime since starting to use MyAnimeList. Since have a retarded penchant for this stuff, it also coincidentally was my 100th anime completed. I noticed I had 1991 episodes and 99 anime under my belt earlier in the week while randomly looking my anime list. I had a multitude of options available at the time to make my 100th anime my 2000th episode, because I am a loser like that. I was considering not making them the same episode for a while because it seems kind of lame and cheesy, but I decided to go with it in the end. My original solution was to watch one episode of something random and finish the first season of Hayate no Gotoku. As much as I love that show, however, it didn’t feel “landmarky” enough. Another choice was either Afro Samurai or FLCL, both shows I decided against but I will finish soon. Cowboy Bebop would have been acceptable, but it impossible because I was too many episodes from the end. That show has been on hold for a solid year because my old hard drive crashed and I was too lazy to get it again. Rather inexcusable, I know, I do enjoy the show.

I finally decided to watch whatever I wanted until 1999 make a movie (which MAL counts as 1 episode) my 100th anime and 2000th episode. I chose Hiyao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, and it turned out to be a great choice. The music really made the movie pop out from the rest. Miyazaki’s crazy antics, such as non conventional plot developments, strong protagonists, redeemable antagonists, and environmentalist themes, are all there and present. The story is great and the fight scenes (yeah, fight scenes in a Miyazaki film) are pretty cool. In conclusion, Princess Mononoke was, in my opinion, a great watch and a good milestone anime. 2,000 episodes of anime in a little more than a year while maintaining what I would consider a “normal” social life is a pretty decent clip, don’t you think? Now on to 200 anime and 5000 episodes by next summer!

I searched "Princess_Mononoke" on danbooru to get this image. So you had better appreciate this picture's aesthetic in this blog post considering what I had to suffer.

I’m a few days late, but the first episode of Bakemonogatari is finally out in English. As much as I love my man Akuma from ODI, I suggest qIIq’s subs over Koharubi’s. It’s pretty evident really quickly why subs took 688 years to come out, the massive amounts of typesetting is absolutely insane. Besides that, what did I think of the episode?

In one word: awesome. In 642 words (and rife with much more sarcasm and lame jokes):

As with any other episodes, there are certain qualities that are good and bad. The slightly bad (or at least unnecessary) part is Shinbo’s signature directing style of shoving random frames of text into your face like a Gatling machine gun at the beginning of the episode. While I understand and appreciate the tense, chaotic, and rushed effect this creates, I’m not having a lot of fun watching an anime frame by frame. In reality, you don’t miss much if you just watch the beginning without pausing to read anything, though it does help with some character background info. So the good parts? Right, everything else.

Akiyuki Shinbo IN DA HIZZOUSE

I love every character so far.  Senjougahara is basically a perfect combination of 2 parts cynically insane, 3 parts being voiced by Saito Chiwa, 3 parts moe, 2 parts jagged sense of humor, and 9 parts pure badass. Besides that, Horie Yui does a great voice for Hanekawa-san, as well. If you excuse my voice actor fagging (I’ll stop after this I swear), Kamiya Hiroshi, straight out of his award winning role for Zetsubou-sensei, voices our male protagonist Araragi Koyomi. When Hitagi (I’ll call Senjougahara by her first name from now on) appears out of nowhere and shoves a boxcutter into Araragi’s mouth, I knew immediately that this show was going places. Weighing 5 kilograms is a rather unusual, yet undoubtedly original concept as a problem or curse. You can somehow feel that Hitagi as a character is going to be thoroughly explored and you look forward to that, because she is visually and plot-wise interesting. Also, any character that uses school supplies as weapons, let alone a character who happens to have the power of hammerspace for said school supplies, is automatically awesome in my book. Spoilers follow, but watch the damn episode dammit.

Did I mention the perfect zettai ryouiki? Yeah that too, as if the first episode wasn't awesome enough.

After recovering almost instantly in a staple to the mouth, a sensation better left to a viewer’s imagination, it is revealed that Araragi is a vampire that recovered back into human form. This anime then proceeds to have absolutely nothing else remotely similar to Twilight, as if to say “sike! just kidding haha gotcha”. Anyways, Araragi proceeds to tell Hitagi about Oshino, a miracle worker type person who can apparently restore people with strange powers back to normal. I assume he can also make Touma be able to hi five espers, Spiderman not have to wear that godawful suit all the time, and Ikari Shinji have balls. Maybe the last one is a stretch. I wouldn’t classify this show as a comedy just yet, but on the way and at Oshino’s place Hitagi is occasionally randomly popping hilariously awesome lines, just to keep this anime fresh. You really have to notice how well Shinbo directs “flow” in an episode. You don’t really get bored, because Shinbo does whatever it takes, be it jokes, crisp dialogue, or insane visuals involving noodles, to keep you constantly entertained. The plot is then kicked into gear when Oshino concludes that Hitagi has crabs and he will help her. Or something like that. To cap it all off, the ending theme rules too.

I’m not going to go insane and declare that this will be be show of the season just yet (since whenever I do that too early the show ends up sucking), but it’s definitely on the right track. I can’t wait to see where this show is going, and Hitagi is hot as hell. The visuals and art are top notch and I am absolutely confident that this show will be well produced. Finally, I just noticed that this show’s English name is Ghostory, which is the absolute worst thing I have ever read. Fuck English. Can’t wait for the next episode. *staple staple*

Today, I am going to just talk about the first five anime-related topics that come to my mind.

Storytime: It’s the prelims round of Saimoe Japan (the Anime Saimoe Tournament). I want to participate and I put a ballot together with my friend uis, who in return for six of the ten names on my ballot, provided the voting key. So after like 10 minutes of double checking to make sure my ballot is formatted right and I’m posting in the correct thread (everything is in Japanese because they hate foreign participation) I get slammed basically with a message that my American ISP is banned. Ok, I thought, so I proxied a random server and that’s banned. Then I proxied a Japanese ISP, and 2ch’s mechanism picked up the proxy. Apparently I have to have starred in the movie Swordfish to be able to vote for which 2D animated girl I think is the more attractive.

Fuck reality and Zion, we did all this because we just wanna vote in your anime character popularity contest.

The Reich-fuhrer xenophobic hodgepodge demographic that is the otaku internet of Japan has decreed that I cannot vote in the 2009 Anime Saimoe Tournament. I have found the xenophobic tendencies in Japan (another instance is many eroge visual novels being DRM’ed outside of Japan) a rather disturbing trend. Over at International Saimoe League, we don’t really mind Taiwan spamming Rozen Maiden characters and China spamming Haruhi that much. I mean it’s annoying but it’s fair. I guess that’s because we have “International” in our name.

In other news, Yuki utters a grand total of five syllables over the course of the entire second episode the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It must have been a quick day at the office for Chihara Minori. I know she’s busy, so at this rate she can just leave her lines on Kyoto Animation’s voicemail.

Everyone who watches anime has a different “favorite Miyazaki film” or Studio Ghibli film. It’s like the same people who discuss what the best Disney movie or Beatles and Michael Jackson song is (The Lion King, Let it Be, and Bad if you disagree you are WRONG). For Miyazaki films, people usually answer with the standard fare of Spirited Away (typical response), Princess Mononoke, or Howl’s Moving Castle. Occasionally, we get My Neighbor Totoro or Castle in the Sky (i.e. old people). Know what I never hear? I have never heard anyone say that their favorite Miyazaki film is Kiki’s Delivery Service. This is probably because this movie is too kickass. I might dedicate a full essay to this later after I finish watching every one of Miyazaki’s works. I like it because even among Miyazaki’s unique style of direction and plots, Kiki’s Delivery Service is unique and different. It seems so much smaller, less ambitious, and compact. The touch and magic of Miyazaki’s directing is there, but the epic granduer and overarching messages are much more subdued and sutble. It’s just such a great, simple feel good story with great amounts of depth if you peer a little harder. So yeah I’m a rebel now.

I have noticed that while my conversational Mandrin Chinese is perfect, my reading has withered into shit. It’s because I never read anything in Chinese. I discovered this because I tried to watch Chinese fansubs of Bakemonogatari. Because English fansubbers are slow and … slow. I know a few groups are going to pick this up and I will wait patiently. I don’t really blame them too much, as the first episode has over 9000 lines of typesetting. Fansubbers have nightmares about two things at night: Akiyuki Shinbo’s directing style and jokes about the .ass format. (”Hey babe, are you fansubbed? Because I want that .ass) This will probably mean that releases of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 3 are going to be slow and unreliable as fuck. Maybe if a.f.k. does it they will have the good sense not to make 170MB hardsubbed unchaptered .avi’s but I will honestly take anything. If Shinbo keeps directing I am sure that pretty soon people will be fucking for fansubs. Would you do Aeris from Eclipse for some Full Metal Alchemist? It’s pretty tempting…

Finally, time to go off and watch CANAAN. About time…

Around 11 hours from the time this post is completed, Eden of the East concludes (at 11 episodes instead of the usual 12 or 13). This officially starts the cascade of shows ending, signaling the bloody and fiery death of the season and immaculate rebirth into a new season. At least that’s how I imagine it.

So how does the new season look? Here’s a snapshot at what I’m looking at for the next season. Before any whining starts, no I have not seen Spice and Wolf. Stop asking.

Can’t Wait

Definitely watching CANAAN. It just looks plain cool. I share this mindset with just about everyone on the planet. It’s a Type-Moon adapati0n, the promo art looks cool, and Tanaka Rie is in it. I’ve actually played 428, the game CANAAN is based off of, before, albeit very fleetingly and in Japanese. The game, from what I could grasp from about five minutes, has a very unique mode of storytelling. Multiple storylines happen at the same time, and you kinda switch between them. I’m pretty excited to see how the anime is going to reflect this unique feature of the game. There are detectives and scientists and kidnappers and all that cool stuff, so knock yourself out, action junkies. CANAAN is probably going to turn out to be that one action show per season that everyone watches and talks about. Sorta like Eden of the East.

CANAAN is serious business. Also, I can tell that Type-moon art from a million miles away

The show I am looking forward to the most this season is undoubtedly Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. It was a few months ago that I read on ANN that the third season had been greenlit. If I recall correctly, an epic fistpump was involved. In my opinion – no fuck that. This is fact. Sidesplittingly funny and surprisingly intelligent, the Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei franchise is comedy anime at its absolute finest. The show and its premise simply does not get old. Kohji Kumeta does such a great job with the manga, while SHAFT and Akiyuki Shinbo create an absolutely superb animated product. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is what everyone who loves comedy should watch- it’s a near perfect balance of dark humor, pure fun, and anime references, all put together with near flawless technical execution. The art is original, unique, and eyecatching. If you’ve seen Shinbo’s other works you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Personally I will be giving Taishou Yakyuu Musume a watch. The story takes place in 1925 and is centered around two girls who want to create a baseball team. It sounds kinda like K-ON! with baseball. Hey, I like girls and I like baseball. Why not. The cast is loaded and J.C. Staff is capable of pulling this one off. Watch out for this show this season.

Maybe…

As for the maybies, I might try out Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 if there’s lots of talk about it. The premise seems quite unintresting (Japan has earthquakes woo) but who knows. Aoi Hana is made by J.C. Staff, which is the only reason I’m even considering it. Lovey drama shoujo suki suki rabu is what I’m expecting. Doesn’t mean it can’t be good, it means it would have to be extra good to get me to care. Umineko no Naku Koro Ni will be watched on a short leash. “But kevo! You loved Higurashi!” Aha! That’s the trap there. The difference between Umineko and Higurashi is not simply the difference between Kanon and Clannad.Umineko is turning out to be a totally different breed than Higurashi. It probably won’t be certifiably bad, but holding Umineko to expectations from Higurashi will probably leave you dissapointed. I don’t like how Umineko looks, but I’ll swallow these words right here if I enjoy the first few episodes.

Finally, I’ve heard some talk about Umi Monogatari. The anime looks like massive amounts of dRaHmAh and the trailer looked unimpressive. But I’ll probably give this anime a watch for voice actors and discussion and do a quick drop if I’m not impressed. In order to instill maximum confusion to us, however, there is an anime similarly named Bakemonogatari, which looks awesome. I didn’t put it in the definitely watching section because I wanted to instill some suspense and mystery into the blog post. Moreso that I forgot before and when I remembered I already thought of the neat segue from Umi Monogatari. Akiyuki Shinbo is making this one again, so that’s already enough reason to watch the anime. From what I’ve seen, the character design and art look great. This anime will be hyped regardless so I might as well jump in and see what it’s all about.

Looks like a pretty solid season. Definitely better than last summer… *shudder*