I’m a Kyoanifag

I just realized this now.

Analyzing my top anime, I just realized that most of the stuff Kyoto Animation did are in there (and quite deep at that). Besides being produced with top notch visuals, Kyoani has the knack of trying to make everything perfect. While it works at times and fails at times, apparently on whatever they do. . . I like it.

Clannad After Story – Best sequel ever. It still holds the record as the anime that made me cry the most. Bringing out emotion on me is hard and only a few shows have ever done that, so to be able to do that and even more, Clannad is just amazing.

Suzumiya Haruhi – The first season was just amazing. A totally refreshing take on execution and storytelling by skipping around the chronological order. The characters get develop in totally unique ways.

Full Metal Panic Fumoffu – I love FMP but I have to say, I enjoyed the comedy first and foremost. Imagine that! They made 12 episodes of just pure comedy between Sosuke and Chidori. Oh god I still get the chuckles remembering this show.

Nichijou – It’s one of the strangest comedies I’ve ever seen. It’s random, it’s absurd and it totally hits the right buttons on making me laugh. It especially has scenes that really bust your guts out (even moreso than Fumoffu) like the Mio wrestling episode.

Lucky Star – You could say Lucky Star made a new wave of comedy. It’s just girls doing cute things yet it’s so fucking entertaining. Nothing happens but at the same time, so much stuff just appears and makes you crack up.

I also liked Kanon, K-ON! and now Hyouka.

With Hyouka, Kyoani just took a leap in Slice of Life. From girls doing cute things, to girls doing nothing, Kyoani now makes people that talk about doing nothing. Hyouka has a lot of drawn out dialogue and exposition and you realize, WHY? Episode 6 is imminent of this. Chitanda got mad and asked Houtaro why she got mad. THAT’S IT. THAT’S THE WHOLE FUCKING EPISODE. And guess what? I loved it. I fucking loved it.

This is embarrassing, I never realized it until now but I really am a Kyoanifag.

Spring 2012 Week 9

Ratings start from (-) which means terrible, until (++++++++) which is bombardastically amazing.

#1 Mysterious Girlfriend X – 09 : It’s the usual MGX flair: I swear the honesty of Urabe and Tsubaki’s relationship is just unrivaled. What stands out though this episode besides Urabe’s twintails is the outstanding direction. I always say MGX has great direction but moreso this episode. The camera angles, the dimmer than usual lighting, the more vibrant than usual movement of the characters. – (+++++) Incredible

#2 Fate/Zero – 22 : Calm before the storm episode. That scene with Rider and Waver was just daaaaawwww. I swear even if I know they won’t win, I want them to win. I was freaked out though with Irisviel’s scene near the end. That was just creepy. – (++++) Cool

#3 Sakamichi no Apollon – 07 : This series really likes to stuff up as much content in one episode. Yurika gets more spotlight this episode in her whole “I’m gonna rebel with my political bandit disowned boyfriend” schtick. Props to the series though in making us see it in her POV and how we really see how she thinks. Kaoru also gets a nod in this episode because on how much he’s changed (or matured) during the course of the series. Great Stuff as usual. – (+++) Excellent

#4 Mouretsu Pirates – 22 : Surprisingly this episode showed us what we expected Mouretsu Pirates to be before it aired. Lots of excellent battle tactics, tricks and explosions. I feel kinda sad that this series is preparing its ending already (like most shows this season) with Marika finally thinking about what to do after high school. – (+++) Excellent

#5 Hyouka – 06 : The teacher-student relationship in Japan bugs me. It’s too uptight and if that sorta thing happened in my class, I’m pretty sure most of us would get angry. A pretty mundane episode, even by Hyouka’s standards, but the execution was just perfect for me to care about what’s going on. – (+++) Excellent

#6 Sankarea – 09 : A slightly heartwarming Mero side-episode. There’s nothing much besides Mero seeing her mom in Rea’s cold hands. I really wonder how they’re going to end this series. There’s only 3 episodes left and it feels like we’re only starting to get to know the characters. – (++) Great

Tonari no Kaibutsu Kun gets an anime adaptation

From ANN

OH GOD. OH GOD OH GOD. KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Well down goes one of my Top 5 manga that I want turned into an anime. Now if only Dengeki Daisy would get an announcement.

As an added bonus, Say I love you (a rather generic shojo manga but still good) also gets an adaptation. Shoujo adaptations rarely come by and seeing 2 get greenlit on the same day. . . SHOUJO FANS REJOICE!!!!!!!

Update:

It will be produced by Brain’s Base with the Kimi ni Todoke director and the Baccano/Durarara screen writer at helm. IT’S LIKE GOD HEARD MY PRAYERS!!!

*Making a category as early as now since I’m 100% sure I’m gonna talk about this when it comes out. 

Spring 2012 Week 8

Since I can’t motivate myself to blog a series, I decided to just make make short impressions on a daily basis. It’s less effort and I get to talk about all the shows I’m watching.

Ratings start from (-) which means terrible, until (++++++++) which is bombardastically amazing.

(It does feel like I’m copying someone else style but oh wellzz)

#1 Mysterious Grilfriend X – 08 : I thought the episode was going to be all about BOOBS but they added a little ear fetish too. While BOOBS in anime are always done so generically in anime, here in MGX, it’s used with honesty. Tsubaki telling Urabe everything he’s thinking about was just something you don’t see in anime often. The slapping segment near the end was just amazing too. – (+++++) Incredible

#2 Sakamichi no Apollon – 07 : Ahahaha I loved how everyone started dashing to the auditorium because of the power of music. And for a good reason since that concert scene was gorgeous! I’d say this is one of Apollon’s best episode to date. – (++++) Cool

#3 Hyouka – 05 : So our first major arc ended. I like the twist to the whole Sekitani Jun thing this episode which made a lot more sense than Houtaro’s theory last episode. The lame pun was kinda creepy in a way (which is good). The lengthy exposition style still bogs the character interactions a bit, but it really hits hard on the mystery side. – (++++) Cool

#4 The Legend of Korra – 07 : Well this isn’t anime but this is the only place I can talk about it so why not include it?!? If The Legend of Aang revolves on adventures, Korra revolves around politics. And boy was it really good and heavy this episode. Not as awesome as the last episode but they did make some really great twists. – (+++) Excellent

#5 Jormungand – 07 : That’s some damn fine writing there. Jormungand’s coolness isn’t just about BANG BANG BANG but also on how that BANG BANG BANG is done. Koko and the Chinese guy eats dinner while their subordinates kill each other to death. Some really cool fun shit, one of Jormungand’s better episodes. – (+++) Excellent

#6 Sankarea – 08 : Every Wanko scene really has to be a sexy one eh? Rea was adorable this episode; she really looks great with a ponytail. I realize now that with Rea’s strength, she’d fit well with the Armstrong family! Looking back though, the whole episode was just about Wanko taking a bath, Rea going shopping and another “kidnap Rea” plan by her dad, but the way it was directed hardly makes you realize this. – (+++) Excellent

#7 Aquarion EVOL – 21 : Oh god Brownka’s having so much fun with the whole Shrade X Cayenne schtick. The revelations this episode were the ones I’ve been waiting for since the show started (and has been hinted at since the first OP). One complaint though: The second OP keeps cracking me up, especially when used as an insert song. When you read it, you realize that AKINO’s been shouting “You’re so beautiful, it’s depressing!” at your face for episodes. – (+++) Excellent

#8 Fate/Zero – 21 : That Bike scene was seriously cool. I was just less amused at the other things happening; too much cool people drinking while watching other people suffer I guess . . . and oh god Rider’s countdown to death is coming, aaack!! – (+++) Excellent

#9 Tsuritama – 07 : I don’t really like it when guys slap girls in anime, particularly here in Tsuritama since Natsuki’s sister is such a sweet girl who just want her family to work. The drama and tension between Natsuki’s family is genuine though; still I prefer Tsuritama when it’s being fun (just like life). – (++) Great 

#10 Saki Achiga – 07 : These last two episodes have been pretty entertaining thanks to the director finally realizing that it’s time to actually concentrate on the matches. I’m still not warming up to these impostors but HEY, it looks like Stealth Momo will have a big role next week. – (++) Great

Mysterious Girlfriend X – Regret never really disappears

There’s this saying that to have a life with no regrets, you should live it to the fullest. In my opinion this is a load of bull since you will always regret. Whether you chose option A or option B, somewhere in the back of your head, you would have wished you chose the other option either because you imagined it would have been the better choice or just out of plain curiosity. Besides what does living to the “fullest” even mean? You will never be able to live fully because you can never choose all the options. I think rather than living to the fullest, people should learn satisfaction.

How does one learn satisfaction though?

In my opinion, it’s definitely through honesty. Besides being the best policy, it lets you admit that you do have regrets which is an honest human flaw. Regret never disappears. It can be lessened though through realizing that more regret would come through if you chose the other option. This is what Mysterious Girlfriend X has been repeating as its theme in the past couple of episodes.

Tsubaki and Urabe have an honest relationship. They tell each other how they feel about certain things going around their relationship. For instance, Tsubaki saw his middle school crush and realized that he regretted not to catch up with each other because of Urabe. Because of the couple’s honest relationship though, Tsubaki openly tells this to Urabe but also tells her that he might have regretted it even more if he did go because Urabe might have been sad. This follows up to Urabe also admitting how she would have been really sad if Tsubaki did go with his middle school crush and left her alone that day.

In another episode, Urabe’s athletic talent was recognized and she was asked to join the track team. Urabe didn’t join though because she wanted to go home with Tsubaki everyday. She definitely regretted it but at the same time she would regret it even more if Tsubaki were to go home alone without her. The same with Tsubaki too and how he wants Urabe all to himself yet at the same time wants her to join the track team and be exposed. Tsubaki then told her to join but Urabe realized that both of them would have more regrets if she did join the track team, so in the end she didn’t.

I find this kind of relationship really beautiful. Tsubaki admitted his regrets and was honest to Urabe. In turn, Urabe admitted her regrets too. Their relationship improved even more because of Tsubaki’s honesty in realizing his regrets and him reaching satisfaction with Urabe. I’ve never seen a high school couple in anime reach this kind of approach to relationships before (usually stuff like this happens in more mature fluff like Nodame Cantabile, Honey and Clover)

I swear MGX is genius stuff.

[Remembering Love] – Kimi ni Todoke

Well Trzr23 put us all up to this so might as well put my own Remembering Love post. Coincidentally, I have been rewatching quite a number of anime from Brotherhood, Haruhi and Kimi ni Todoke. I have an easy time explaining my love for Brotherhood and Haruhi but Kimi ni Todoke was different. Thinking about it, why did I like this series so much?

Besides the RAW emotions it manages to bring out of me, whether it was “DAAAW Sawako”or “Die in a blazing fire UMMMEEEE“, Kimi ni Todoke stood out of all the other shoujo series because of one simple thing which is . . . well simplicity.

Everything Kimi ni Todoke does is basic. It takes off all the stupid gimmickry and just focuses on either its romance, comedy or drama. It’s incredibly pure too, which most series lack these days. When you describe shoujo, Kimi ni Todoke is the epitome of it.

Take for example, the three episode arc wherein Yano and Yoshida started doubting that Sawako likes them because of a rumor. Everything that happened in those three episodes was incredibly normal for a high school setting (something most series tend to forget) and it really developed those three’s friendship. Some people would call this “dragging” because  it’s stretched but I call it “pure development”. They didn’t use cheap tricks (well there were misunderstandings but then again completely normal), they just went with the flow on how high school friends would sort things out.

The main couple of this series is obviously Sawako and Kazehaya. The development of their relationship is painfully slow, looking at it by episodes, but thinking about it, it didn’t really take them that much time to finally realize they like each other. It’s like subjective and objective. There’s some things you can’t see when you’re too close (like the lovebirds budding relationship) and there’s some things you can’t see when you’re too far (how slow their relationship feels but the time is actually fast (especially by the second season)).

With these points of view in mind, Kimi ni Todoke becomes a really lovely anime; one that stands at the top of shoujo romances. It’s really sweet remembering my love for this thing (or all the UMEEEE rages).

Things are gonna be slightly slow in this site but I am still alive.

I’m probably not gonna make another one Remembering Love post (Trzr23 suggested 3-4 posts) though since as fun as rewatching is, it’s TOO time consuming. Toodles to the other still on board with this project.

Achiga-hen just isn’t living up to Saki

I’m really not feeling this spinoff. You might as well call it a ripoff since these new cast are just a bunch of phonies.

Achiga-hen’s good at building up. It’s technically as good as the original when it comes to this aspect. It hits the right notes on how to make me feel excited on what’s to come. It uses hints and foreshadowing like no anime can. But while Saki delivers with very intense mahjong battles, Achiga delivers with . . . more buildup. It just builds off and builds off to the point where you realize ” Why bother even building up a certain scene in the first place?”.

Achiga-hen’s characters are charming to an extent but they are in no way as interesting as the girls in Saki. It really hits when the real main cast gets a cameo. It’s like these new characters are complete throwaways when shown with Nodoka and Saki. Heck when the whole Ryuumonbuchi cast appeared, I was like ” Fuck these girls, I want Koromoe!!”

The fetish meter, admittedly is pretty consistent. While we don’t get characters that blush in every single part to make you feel all tingly like how Saki does it, you do get new ones like that main character and her clothes complementing her blushing knees and bubbly personality, or long hair with big boobs, short hair with small boobs, different hair styles matching different clothes and body proportions => Saki always nails it to the point where they’ve created a standard for themselves.

The most important part of Saki though is the mahjong battles. While we finally got a bit of it in Episode 4 and 5, it still just doesn’t live up to Saki and friends. The powers are getting repetitive and stupid (not much on the stupid since all Saki characters are guilty of this) and the way the match plays just feels too “paced” I guess. The slow parts and the intense parts are given equal time which is supposedly good but it just kills off the game somehow. I don’t know but in Saki, the matches were pretty drawn out in more than an episode.

So yeah, Achiga-hen does NOT live up to Saki.

Alimango island in Fate/Zero

Alimango Island is actually a real island in the Philippines. It’s located in Negros Occidental, in the middle of the Visayas. Now whether the island in Fate/Zero is really Alimango island, what we can technically be sure of is that they used a Filipino Island setting for Episode 18.

Alimango is Spanish for crab, but also Filipino for the same word. The whole island with the church, the houses, the roosters . . . it’s definitely a Filipino island. Fate/Zero probably used it because Philippines is one of the only countries in Asia with Christianity as its main religion. Also the whole Kerry thing feels very “Bisaya” (no racism intended).

Though I am worried that the only time Philippines is mentioned in anime is when zombies (Fate/Zero), assassins and terrorists are involved.

Fate/Zero – 18

So in short, Kiritsugu had a really cute nickname, lived in an island with his dad who starts an experiment which turned everyone into vampires/zombies. Feels very BLOOD-C/Shiki/Higurashi which really shows why Kiritsugu is so screwed up currently.

The last time I saw a back story this good was Kamisama Dolls. It really gives Kiritsugu a new face. You get to know him more and how his ideals started to slowly form to what it is now. Fate/Zero really took advantage of the whole episode, even going as far to skip the OP.

It’s hard not to gush about this series. It really is a story that’s executed perfectly with the right amount of story telling, narrative and dialogue without having to baby feed you too much. At the same time it presents ideals and themes that really questions the topic being tackled to the point that even I’m starting to question myself.

WHALE SHARKS

//not an anime post

///me trying to go all traveler on revenge without the revenge

A few days ago, me and my family went on a trip to find Whale Sharks in Sorsogon, Philippines. Apparently these cute, large, spotted beings are so common there, you can actually snorkel off from the beach and find one (not recommended and not promoted by anyone). To our excitement, we arrived in Dosol early and did some reckon first before doing any “swimming with the big fishes”.

To our unpleasant surprise, the locals haven’t found one in days. Apparently the current is too strong and the whale sharks are having a hard time catching plankton. We stood by at the tourism office (where people rent boats to find the whale sharks) asking people “Did you see one? Did you see one?”. They were all like “Nope.” With sad faces. There was even one guy with a really expensive looking long-ass camera; poor guy he also didn’t see one.

That night, our tricycle driver/boatman/tourist guide requested that we go and try looking for fireflies in the river. The town was pretty dark at night but we weren’t scared. Because it was so dark, we could totally see the stars on the sky. In Manila, the only light you see in the sky is a helicopter so this was a real treat. As we were gushing about seeing stars, the boatman/tourist guide pointed out where the fireflies are. IT WAS LIKE A FUCKING CHRISTMAS TREE. You know that scene in the recent episode of Fate/Zero wherein Saber raises her sword to perform Excalibur? You remember the part where yellow sparkles started lifting off the river sides? This looked exactly like that except it was all in one tree. AMAZING was all that I could say. The boatman/tour guide then proceeded to give us leaves from the tree which the fireflies circled around. He said it was good luck. We all hoped it was.

The next day, we suited up (with our swimsuits-NO swimming with whale sharks does not require you to dive so no special gear was needed) and went off to the Tourism Office immediately. The people there showed us a video on rules and regulations and after that one of the managers spoke to us. He said that none of the people who went out in the morning saw one so don’t expect too much. We(my family)  held hands, prayed (because we’re Catholics) then proceeded to shout “Butanding HERE WE COME!” (whale shark in Filipino is Butanding).

We didn’t see anything for 3 hours. The hour hand turned one, it was sweltering hot, the lucky leaves dried up and we were all losing hope. Our BIO (Butanding Interaction Officer) suggested that we go see corals for now just so our money will be worth it. The corals aren’t much (if you’ve seen a lot already) but hey at least we did something.

We were ready to go back defeated when suddenly the BIOs started going wild. “BUTANDING BUTANDING DOON!”.  Then suddenly a big blob of shadow suddenly crosses on the other side of our boat. OH FUCK THE WHALE SHARKS ARE HERE. The BIO instructed us to jump on the boat and look down while following him.

I started hearing shouts from other people. I was like “what is it there?”. I pull my head down and guess what I see? From head to tail I SAW IT. I FUCKING SAW IT. It was huge (about the size of a bus) and it was grey and spotted. It had gills on the side and its head is soooo horizontal. “Osore!” played in my mind the whole time. I sprang my head up from the water then started shouting for success.

Going back to the Tourism Office, people were surprised we saw one since the others who went at the same time as us didn’t get to see it. Oh well, “WE FUCKING SAW ONE SUCKS TO BE YOU!”. Just kidding since I do hope the current recedes and the whale sharks come back. Donsol is a far better place to see these beasts rather at that other place.

/// those pictures aren’t mine. We didn’t have underwater cameras to begin with.