I decided to make one now since I realize I’ve been left out in the blogosphere. Follow me! – I guess. Dunno gotta learn everything tonight.
Though this does go to everything I’ve been saying since I don’t like promoting myself . . . oh well.
I tried to watch Acchi Kocchi. I went and downloaded 3 episodes. 5 minutes in I was like “Fuck this is boring!”. None of the jokes work, characters are flat, their idea of making you laugh is by drawing caricatures. . . it was terrible! But then I went all the trouble to download three episodes so I came up with an idea on how to watch.
I’m sure most of you have VLC. I fast forward it 1.5x just so I can finally get over with it and drop it. Weird enough, the jokes started working! The timing’s just about right, the interactions suddenly became more upbeat, I actually started laughing a bit. The jokes are still stale but the delivery suddenly became better.
Acchi Kocchi sucks but if you watch it 1.5x faster, it becomes a whole lot funner. I might as well just call this “Acchi Kocchi 1.5x” or something. I don’t recommend watching Acchi Kocchi, but if you’re a daring fan, I recommend watching Acchi Kochi 1.5x.
I’d say if you’ve been an anime fan long enough, soon you’ll start wandering of different places to see opinion of other people who watch anime. The anime fandom welcomes you with the three biggest places, Anime Suki Forums, My Anime List, and Anime News Network (sure there’s others but I’d like to stick to these three to make a point). Which is the safest place to thrive in?
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Anime News Network
Anyone can be easily drawn to this site, especially us gaijin. But goddamnit, do not wander off more than the news! Do not participate in the forums. This is not a good place to thrive in as a fan. YOU WILL BECOME PRETENTIOUS. A lot of people in this site are incredible pretentious hypocrites. They hypnotize you with what an anime fan should be. FANSUBS ARE EVIL! Pay off your own anime merchandise! We are the best because we are willing to wait for years for this certain 12 episode anime to come in. Then the hypocrisy comes in and you realize they themselves need fansubs. Not all anime are licenced. They hate fansubs yet they depend on it. I read once in the forums that there’s this Moderator that tried to defend not using fansubs. He said that just because they use it doesn’t mean they like using it. Stop, STOP!
More warning: Oldfags who still think Akira and Macross are the best anime ever and anime today are shit thrive there too.
ANN is good for news though . . . I go there daily to see announcements.
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My Anime List
MAL is a bit bearable than ANN when it comes to commenters but god oh GOD they’re fucking stupid. At least in ANN people have brain cells, but most commenters in MAL do not. Or at least they delete it when they start typing on their keyboard. When Little Busters was announced to be animated by JC Staff, everyone in MAL was OUTRAGED! I think there was one poster who went out and broadcasted that he/she (probably a she) will make an online petition for this monstrosity to be deleted! Yet when you keep reading deep in the forum, you realize that not many people even know what the hell JC Staff is, or what a production studio is. They just didn’t hear their masters KyoAni (who some of them don’t even know what this is besides “they’re fucking awesome) so they’re outraged. They’re just outraged. That’s it.
Well at least they’re not hypocrites, its just that the lack of brain cells is a bit disturbing. If you want to thrive here then its okay but make sure you have a brain! There are still decent people there. Plus you get to create your Anime List so you can keep track of your animus (notice the OUTRAGED FANS’ MAL and you’ll laugh like hell).
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Anime Suki Forums
I’d recommend this best though you do need to have a bit more knowledge in anime to participate in posting. I suggest lurking for a while, get used to everyone’s grove then start posting. Of course I’ll recommend this since I thrive here but I do have some problems with the site.
I’ll attack the good points here. Generally the people here are like a mix of ANN and MAL. Not too pretentious yet not too brain dead. You’ll get the best opinions here. You can make decent conversations. There’s different categories and topics in which you can comment on.
Bad points go to the rep system. People can neg rep you if they didn’t like what you posted (similarly they can up your rep if they like your post) so technically trolls are limited. But the system is incredibly flawed and abused. If you post something negatively, even though you weren’t trolling and just trying to cross off what you thought, then there will be people who’ll neg rep you. Why? Because they didn’t like your opinion. It’s opinionated so technically no mods can counter so that’s where the flaws come in.
So yeah, for AS Forums, you have to have a little bit more anime experience than the norm. You also have to lurk in a bit. They raise healthy anime fans though, the ones you’ll like or at least I like, so I definitely recommend AnimeSuki.
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I think I tried this stunt before though with MAL VS. Sankaku but I really wanted to get this thought so yeah . . .
After finishing reading Pluto and watching Monster, I went ahead and attacked more of Urusawa’s works. Billy Bat is a very contrived series. Urusawa now concentrates on history and how he can put different conspiracies in it.
The series is about Kevin Yamagata who draws a comic called Billy Bat. He gets notified that someone from Japan has the same character design and he thought that maybe he got the Billy Bat idea from what he saw when he was in Japan a few years back. He goes to Japan again to figure out who’s the author and maybe ask permission to use it. Little did he know that the Billy Bat character that he’s using spans for generations, even probably before Jesus Christ and its surrounded by different murders, mysteries and conspiracies.
Everytime Urusawa attacks a certain part in time, I always have Wikipedia ready. I’m not exactly familiar with Japan’s history but I’m really surprised that the Shimoyama incident is actually real and I got creeped out a bit. Same goes for the whole Francis Xavier, the first disciple, Oda Nobuaga. . . Urusawa weaved it so well, you can’t tell the difference between real and fiction anymore (except the bat of course which in all honesty is hard to believe).
I really had fun with the whole Lee Oswald and JFK arc. Urusawa really took all the conspiracies, played with it, added his own conspiracies, blown it up a bit, added Billy Bat to the entire scenario and my god was it magnificent. Urusawa really researches everything (or maybe he has a knack of raping Wikipedia) and I love the little bits of details here and there that she adds.
I still like Pluto a bit more than this, but Billy Bat is really interesting, especially if you love conspiracies. It’s still ongoing though (70+ chapers) so you have to wait patiently afterwards.
Remember this show? It aired in 2009, a season before Bakemonogatari. It’s an adaptation by Jin Kobayashi of School Rumble fame. The production team is SHAFT. There’s supposed to be at least a legitimate interest for this. Mysteriously though, no one gave a fuck.
. . . Why?
I really can’t fathom how not a lot of people know this anime. Maybe when it aired, people were turned off immediately? The first episode was a bit of a troll. Then again so is this season’s Dusk Maiden of the Amnesia yet not a lot of people are turning their backs here.
I’m not saying Natsu no Arashi is a hidden masterpiece or anything but its just so mysterious that not many people watched it. What’s weirder is that it even got itself a second season (knowing SHAFT though it was probably split cour but still).
Lumped it in together because I’m not gonna repeat the same shit again next week.
Hold: Mouretsu Pirates
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LAND OF THE TERRIBAD
nada for now
FAULTY BUT WATCHABLE
18. Zetman 7.7
American stylized anime never works but I thought Zetman could pull it off. It didn’t and to make it worse, it proceeded with a very fast pace leaving you with, “what the hell did I just watch?”. Yeah Zetman’s pretty bad but it’s still slightly watchable.
17. Dusk Maiden of the Amnesia 7.7
I like the directional quirk of the first episode and I saw a little bit of Natsu no Arashi in it which is a good thing. Second episode killed the shit off my brains as it proceeded to terrible character interactions and very been-there-done-that fanservice. No, accidentally groping someone’s breast just doesn’t cut it in 2012 anymore. You need to be more creative than that (and that’s coming from SILVER LINK which is supposed to be creative). I’ll give it a few more episodes but seriously, episode 2 was horrendous.
16. Medaka Box 7.9
I’m leaving this while I still can. I remember the manga becoming way too conflicted and having too many “powers” after a while. Still these episodes I watched were pretty good.
GOOD
15. Accel World 8.0
Imaginative setting combined with too much technobabble and terrible main leads. Index anyone? Accel World does too much telling for its own good and it’s gonna hurt later on. Having a fat shoe as a main character makes it even worse. But hey at least he’s FAT. We’ve always wanted those useless main leads to be fat and ugly, well at least Accel World has a nerve to make him FAT.
14. Saki – Episode of Side A 8.0
The episode side A spin off misses a lot of points that makes Saki work. You do not just breeze through the mahjong part and keep building off. What is Saki without mahjong? Why are you building up so much yet fail to what you build up the episode prior? I’d really like to address more on what makes this spinoff “off putting” so maybe I should make a post about that.
Still building up IS still build up and it’s hard to shrug off the excitement even though you know it’s not going to deliver.
13. Kuroko’s Basketball 8.2
This is incredibly embarrassing to watch. Too much cheesy lines, too many weird techniques, and a sense of realism in the game is totally gone. At the same time though, this is incredibly fun to watch. Characters keep on thinking about techniques and how they’ll shoot and its incredibly stupid and laughable but at the same time incredibly fun. If there’s a plus though, Taiga and Kuroko play off each other very well (if you say no homo then part of this show’s appeal will weirdly be gone).
12. Lupin III: Mine Fujiko Onna 8.3
Truth be told, I’ve put this on hold. Recently I’ve been watching an anime called Hakaba Kitaro. It’s a different take on Gegege Kitarou, a popular Japanese franchise, and it aired on noitaminA a few years back. It sorta reminds me of this Lupin III. A different feel from the original, a different style, very artistic. The thing is, I couldn’t bring myself to marathon Hakaba Kitarou. I can’t chug it down. I want to appreciate the different visual styles it uses (or the different shit filters) and I really can’t just put a date on when I’ll watch it. Same goes for Mine Fujiko. I want to appreciate the different details in its styles much MUCH more slowly. I don’t want to put a date on it.
Besides the unique style though, Mine Fujiko is just your normal detective/thief story. The series is nothing special besides the amazing production values.
11. Shirokuma Cafe 8.3
It’s a hit or miss kind of series but when it hits, it really hits. I also love the laid back style of the jokes. It fits perfectly to Panda’s personality.
SEASON’S MEAT
(2) 10. Aquarion EVOL 8.5
Aquarion has been proceeding in fluctuating quality. There’s really boring, repetitive, scenes then suddenly they follow it up with amazingly weird ones like that Super Dimensional Punch back to the Original Aquarion scene after Zessica shouted “chuuki” in which everyone reacted in really funny ways. I love EVOL but stop fucking boring me from one scene then amazing me on another!
9. Hyouka 8.5
I hold off giving an impression from Spring because I was waiting for this show. I was relatively hyped up for this since I generally like most things KyoAni pop up. Plus I got a real treat last year when they tried something pretty different from what they do with Nichijou and its absurdist ways. Unfortunately Hyouka isn’t really trying much to set itself apart from its genre. It felt like a more subdued, realistic version of Haruhi . . . which isn’t all that bad.
Major complaint goes to characterization of the male lead. Stop repeating that he’s “low energy” we already got it when you first mentioned it! In fact you didn’t even have to mention it in the first place! The scriptwriting concentrates heavily on narrative which gives a few scenes WAY TOO MUCH BABBLE. Still that won’t be a bad thing anymore once they start tacking the mysteries.
The animation though is something you can never diss with KyoAni. This looks fucking amazing. It’s like the disappearance movie animation except its 21 episodes. Realistic fluidity + detailed backgrounds + detailed everything + a slight touch of artistry really equals the best animation this season. You can hate on KyoAni all you want, but I’d gladly defend them when it comes to their animation.
8. Space Bros. 8.6
Space Bros. is very inspiring. They continue showing off Mutta and his battle to finally get back on track in his life and follow what he has always wanted to do which is becoming an astronaut. The sense of realism like sibling love and being the older one is really played well here.
7. Jormungand 8.7
I really haven’t watch that much war dramas but from the little that I did (Phantom), I absolutely loved. Jormungand is completely different from Phantom though, and I love the stylish, sexy and fun way of delivering its plot. Koko is fucking loco. Her personality is indefinable (kinda like Johan from Monster). You just know something weird is gonna happen once she puts on an evil smile.
6. Eureka Seven AO 8.8
I really need to watch Eureka Seven. It’s one of those anime you absolutely need to watch because it’s apparently a definition of what anime is. I kinda got a glimpse of it here on AO and if there’s anything I can say, it would be that I’m really excited for this. If they do it correctly, AO could reach heights that I have not seen in a mecha anime before. Also the animation is glorious. 2D mecha done like this really is the way to go.
5. Tsuritama 8.8
The level of creativity in its animation is amazing in itself. Kenji Nakamura is a genius. Sure [C] was a bit of a fail at times but its premise is really great and its unique take on economics surprised me. Tsuritama is far from what C is though. It’s more close to Kimi to Boku except it isn’t boring. There’s aliens, ducks, mind controlling water guns. Plus there’s great characterization and they actually feel like actual teenage boys (Kimi to Boku’s boys felt like those genderbent characters fans like to make).
4. Sanakarea 8.8
One of the two big surprises this season, Sankarea’s first three episodes were really solid. Nice exposition, clever directing, incredible visuals . . . it’s a complete package for an introduction! Really though, hat’s off to the directing. This wouldn’t be nearly as good if the directing wasn’t top notch.
The only thing detracting it now is some fans.
3. Sakamichi no Apollon 8.9
Really, really solid first two episodes. It delivered on what I expected (and I expected a lot) and even gave a bonus on amazing instrument playing scenes. Seriously, ANIME ISN’T SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!
If I did have a complaint, it would be the OP. This was the anime comeback of YUKI for me and it presented itself too. . . healing. I did read that Yoko Kanno composed it so maybe it’s her fault. I really just wanted to hear that girl who sang on Honey and Clover. Heh.
LEGENDARY
2. Fate/Zero 9.1
Amazing comeback. First they topped Ionian Heratoi with Saber’s Excalibur as the most visually stunning Noble Phantasm yet. Then they proceeded to question Saber’s morals and what chivalry really is. Is a battlefield better than hell or is it hell in itself?
1. Mysterious Girlfriend X 9.4
This is the second big surprise of the season. I really just can’t put to words on why it’s good. Certainly the directing is top notch (reading a fair bit of the manga myself), also the production quality, especially the music. MGX is really best served experienced. You need to watch it, get past the saliva and be amazed on how big of a throwback this is.
ALL TIME FAVORITE
MGX is really really close. . .
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I’d say this season is really good. It could even beat last spring’s bonanza and I already have one series that I LOVE (MGX). It really started off with a bang, with Space Bros. premiering early, then Fate/Zero, Sankarea, Mysterious Grilfriend X, Jormungand . . . noitminA added 2 more then Ao and then last but not the least, Hyouka. And even then, there’s still good series below the really good ones like Shirokuma Cafe, Lupin III and Kuroko’s Basketball. Heck Accel World and the Saki spinoff ain’t so bad.
If last season everyone’s praising how there’s so much good directing that terrible premises ended up to be good shows, much more so this season. We have Watanabe’s comeback, that doraemon movie director blowing everyone’s hats off with Space Bros and MGX, the Sankarea director who has a false name and apparently worked with SHAFT, FMP director, Kenji Nakamura . . .
It’s a good time to be a anime fan. Everyone should soak this up now while they can since Summer’s looking sorta bleak.
side note: I lost at the first round of the Aniblog Tourney. Oh well Trzr23 is a great blog (and weirdly people have been saying our blogs are identical) and since it beat me, it should proceed to win the entire thing (or else I’ll be shamed!). I actually thought I’d lose badly and people would criticize my blog heavily, but I didn’t (even lead the match for a few hours) and apparently PEOPLE ACTUALLY LIKE MY BLOG.
First of all Otaking, fuck you.
Secondly, not everybody actually has it easy when it comes to buying anime products. I live in a place where the only anime merchandise you’ll find are fake ones, so am I considered a rank lower if I didn’t fucking buy Bluray Boxsets worth I don’t even want to know because I would have to go all the way and order and if I did I wouldn’t be able to understand shit since there’s no subs? Is it bad that I’m poor?
So if I apparently don’t buy copies of your wonderful anime then I would be compared to a train groper? Yes I know your from Gainax and I fucking love Gainax, but I wouldn’t even know what Gainax is or what their shows are if I wasn’t that person you’d compare to a train groper. Oh but who cares since you don’t get profit! But then I don’t have money so that must mean I’m just some poor train groper who don’t deserve those Japan cartoons. Poor people who don’t have resources to buy unsubbed $500 Bluray Boxes like me should never even be considered as anime fans!
Oh yeah I’m sorry my region isn’t allowed to watch those streams. I guess my whole country should be compared to train gropers.
No Otaking, fans aren’t limited to Nippon and Americaw. Anime is more popularthan that.
(I do realize that if I was in his position, I’d be furious too that I’m stealing what they make but hey. . . I’m not a fucking train groper.)
Stupid internet connection made my 9GB Fate/Zero BD edition download for days. . .
Monster
I’m speechless to how good this was. Monster is an anime adaptation based on the manga by the germanophile Naoki Urusawa. Generally all of Urusawa’s works are held in high regard, but it seems that Monster is her best work so I handily downloaded all 74 episodes and see how awesome it actually is.
The murder mystery starts when Dr. Tenma revives a 10 year old patient named Johan. That was a terrible idea because it came to bite him a few years later when he is accused of a series of murder events. Tenma becomes a runaway, exploring Germany and finding Johan to kill him.
Monster is Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood set in Germany. The awesome part of Monster is that different plot points are set and culminated to create grand plots (I really loved the whole Vampire Millionaire arc) and different characters Tenma met would eventually meet each other and make other plot points. It’s like there’s a plot here, then there’s another plot in which you don’t know what the relevance is and then it builds up and you go “OH SHIT THAT’S FUCKING AWESOME”.
The best character is the show is undeniably Johan. Like how the story suggests it, you have no fucking idea what he’s thinking. One moment he kills middle-aged couples then the next moment he’s this tinker bell everyone is mesmerized with. Kinda like Edward Cullen except its fake. There was even a part where he became a TRAP.
Actually Tenma might just be the Traveler on Revenge (or Johan or Nina).
Monster continues the streak of awesome Uncurrency Anime titles.
Execution: 39/40
Engagement: 29/30
Characters: 18/20
Production Values: 8/10
Overall: 94/100
Moyashimon
Oh my god those Microbes are fucking cute!
Moyashimon is about a guy named Tadayasu who enters Farming College to learn more about these cute microbes he always sees. It must feel weird being friends with him, because he randomly talks in the air, going “OH MY GOD YOU’RE SO DISGUSTING” and gives you that “ugh stop being so stupid/gross/echii” anime expression just because there’s dangerous kawaii bacteria in your room that you can’t even see.
Moyashimon is educational . . . though you can’t use this in school. When your teacher asks you “Hey what bacteria is this and what does it do”, then you go draw a blob with two small eyes and a smile and you say “he does kawaii stuff”, your teacher might fucking slap you!
There are good characters in these series and there are heavily bland ones (that blondie who I don’t know what the hell is her use in the plot) but really, the main attraction is the cute bacteria. And it’s funny at times. Plus it’s a college animu, so we have to like it!
No really, Moyashimon is good. Cute, funny, entertaining . . . you can’t go wrong with this one.
Execution: 36/40
Engagement: 26/30
Characters: 17/20
Production Values: 8/10
Overall: 87/100
Inu X Boku SS
It started off rather terribly. One dimensional characters, grand setting only to never be used, plot with no focus (or rather don’t know what to focus with) and awkward dual service . . . The dual service stayed but it did improved quite a bit towards its run.
Ririchiyo’s insecurities started off as an awkward cop out of what a tsundere is but once the series really started tackling that part of herself, Ririchiyo became a bit more of an actual character. I’d say the same thing to the butler, though that’s mostly because of that one episode towards the end which was really good.
In the end I really just misinterpreted its premise. It never really planned to use its grand horror setting, it just wanted to focus on a select few characters and develop them bit by bit. The plot became internal conflicts which is a good thing. The last few episodes were amazing in retrospect to the entire series.
I got a good vibe walking off this series even with the major problem it has so I’m prepared to give it quite a good score.
Execution: 34/40
Engagement: 26/30
Characters: 17/20
Production Values: 8/10
Overall: 85/100
She could be the mascot for this blog, though she isn’t the traveler on revenge.
Well since I do care a little bit on how many people actually like my blog, I decided to advertise myself a bit. Do vote for me in the Aniblog Tourney if you have time and you like my blog. There’s not much to say about my blog besides “what you see is what you get” (hence all the words are written in the front page with no “continue reading”). I don’t pander to my readers nor will I ever do. My blog’s very masturbatory and I admit to it. This is like my ‘Dear Anime Diary’ or what have you. I guess that might be the very reason my blog isn’t as popular as it could be (or it could be my shitty writing, unchecked grammar, or one to two sentence post).
So vote for me tomorrow! ( or today if you’re reading this tomorrow) it starts at GMT 20:00
On another not so anime hand, I am participating in the Summer Komikon 2012. So for the Filipino readers out there, do remember to buy the first issue of ‘Chernila Comics’ which will be sold there. Also spread the word to other people about Komikon, the Komiks industry needs as much advertising as it can get. The website for Komikon is at the bottom of my right sidebar.
I’ve never really said much about Bakuman. here (besides ranting how the anime doesn’t do it justice) but now that it has ended, I just have to. Out of the hundreds of manga I’ve read I am not afraid to say this ends up as my favorite.
It has its problems here and there, but what Bakuman. always had, and consistently so until the end, is its willpower and energy (which the anime failed to replicate in oh so many levels). There was always that drive in Takagi and Mashiro to be better, not only for their dreams, but for their own. They always realize that it’s not in their personality to be satisfied with just being average (Tanto arc, PCP not getting an anime) and it always drove them to create a piece even better than before (PCP, Reversi). Well of course the main motivation for the Ashirogi team was for them to get an anime in which Miho will be the voice actress and sometime along the way, because of this motivation, I became so immersed and also drove myself to excellence in what I do with motivations I had.
Of course you cannot talk about Bakuman. without talking about its wild and diverse cast of characters. My favorite has to be Hiramaru-sensei and his editor. They always have these jabs that never go old. There’s the cold then turned lovely Aoki-sensei, the trashy Fukuda-sensei, and of course the main rival, Niizuma-sensei. Each characters personalities reflect the manga they are making. Personally I never really had that much infatuation with the main cast, but I never really hated them. I love all the editors though and their ways of caring for their mangakas, especially Hattori.
The main selling point of Bakuman. is its insights to the whole manga industry. “Popular = Best” is what’s important in Shonen Jump. From names/storyboards, to questionnaires, to rankings, to the editor’s department, Bakuman. really gave you an inside feel to the industry.Of course there’s that whole “It’s a manga about a manga” cynicism (and maybe that’s why the anime failed) and that was the main catch for me.
The Death Note duo, Ohba-Obata, created a gainax-stylized pump-ish feel to complement its never-ending competition theme (something the anime failed to realize). The whole story seems to mirror the duo’s own personal experiences and opinions, something I always loved. I especially loved the way Ashirogi Muto ended Reversi as a complete story (never dragged or anything) and how it somehow mirrored the way Death Note was done. In Death Note’s time, it was probably one of the most popular manga, but Ohba-Obata decided to end it when it needed to end. Actually, based on rumors, Death Note was actually supposed to end halfway through the story, with Light dying instead of L but the editors didn’t want to because its popular. Still Bakuman. addressed these issues SJ had (along with other problems) and I can’t thank Bakuman enough for doing this.
Bakuman. is my favorite manga of all time. What I wrote here doesn’t even do justice to how good it is. EVERYONE GO READ IT NOW THAT IT’S FINISHED.
Traveler on Revenge 