Category Archives: Franchises

January 14, 2013

Bookcover Scratchpad #1 Winter 2013

By omo

Two very important things that shouldn't be missing

 

Just to keep track what I watched:

Maoyu – The only new anime that piqued my interest that I wasn’t already interested in. I think it has more to do with the presentation than anything at this point, but let it be said that when it comes to animation, getting the presentation right is perhaps the best thing you can do in the first episode. The future is dicey because I think there’s some kind of genre warfare going on. I smell a post.

Love Live – Totally lukewarm. Might be because I haven’t really watched the live shows much. Approaching 2.5D is tricky, I guess. It’s one of those cases when we break Love Live down by element, it checks all my boxes but the finished product doesn’t do anything for me. But because it checks all my boxes and does nothing for me, it intrigues me in some weird way. Maybe I should just watch some live shows first.

Senyu – P. alright. Yamakan notwithstanding. I think there was something about short anime said by some people that is slowly becoming a thing. I guess this is why I am still planning to finish Poyo and Wooser. And Kuromajo-san ga Toru. And maybe Yurumates. LOL.

Mangirls – I think I got over the language joke in the first 5 minutes of seeing this title. Sadly that was funnier than anything in the show. But it’s short, I don’t think it hurts to follow.

Yama no Suzume – The Encouragement of Engrish is pretty strong with this one too but it presents a slightly more otaku-friendly atmosphere.

Amnesia – It could be worse. I guess I’m about as interested in it as I was with Hakuouki. Which is to say…well, the OP/ED were nice. To recap a conversation I had elsewhere, the whole otomege adaptation genre is still developing, so expect mediocrity for some time. It would help to have a good otome game first.

Oreshura – It’s a good example of how this “genre” evolved to be slightly more interesting on each subsequent iteration. At the very least there are some meat on this dry bone, versus shows like Oniai. But maybe some people prefer that instead?

Ai Mai Mi – Not Strawberry Eggs. I think I prefer Tekyuu slightly more.

Da Capo III – Well, really no opinion at this point. Besides that, man, Ms. Charles “Ruru-nee” Yoshino sure is…Ruru-nee-esqe.

THE UNLIMITED Hyoubu Kyousuke – It’s fun, but I can see if you go into this show expecting something else,  you might not like it. Me?  I had nothing against Zettai Karen Children, but I dropped that for a reason. So when I started Hyoubu Kyousuke I was expecting something a lot worse, and didn’t get it. It’s certainly more fitting of its Manglobe association.

Osaka-Okan – See above comments about short anime that I would watch but haven’t. Actually this one might be the one to beat in 2013 winter. And still wondering why the Osaka native is not voicing the Osaka immigrant and we’re left to see Asumiss trying her hand at something lols.

Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman – Bakumatsu Lupin is wholesome fun, but unless it does something interesting soon it’ll get tiring real quick. I don’t know, I’m not usually big on era pieces.

Ishida & Asakura – Ha. Well, it wasn’t really funny. It also reminds me that I didn’t ever get around to finish Cromartie (what is this with short anime and I), to its credit.

Minami-ke Tadaima – I remember why I stopped watching this show. Not bad though.

Tamako Market – It’s cute and fuwafuwa and made of gohan. There is no curry. The bird is really the one redeeming feature to this show–he’s like the lotus filling to some mad expensive wagashi. This anime is bleeding sakuga kyun-ness. Well, it’s an original, and I’m weak against originals. Not expecting much but I’m sure at the worst it will be overindulging. At best, Dera might rival the legend that began in the 12th century…

Sasami-san@ganbaranai – Probably my most anticipated anime of the season. Probably my favorite. It’s all too early to say, but in traditional Shinbo style he checks all my fetishes boxes. Only problem is that all I hear is 765pro Shacho voice every time Onii-chan speaks.

GJ-bu – You know what? It’s okay. But I can’t imagine you’ll miss out on much if you didn’t bother. I don’t know if I will bother.

Kotoura-san – The emotional whiplash aside, it makes a strong statement. I can argue with how it did things but at this point I’ll just enjoy the light-hearted comedy.

Vividred Operation – Too bad this isn’t SUNRISE making an anime that gives SUNRISE a new meaning. Also, best magical pet concept yet.

Mondaiji tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru soudesuyo - Also known as “Problem Children are Coming from Another World, aren’t they?” I uh… let’s just call it Mondaiji. It’s okay, I guess. Maybe it’s because of the bunnies, but I find myself liking the show more when I’m not watching it. Which means I might not bother with it either.

PuchiM@S – I’ll probably marathon this, but sufficed to say it’s exactly the kind of crap anime for sad folks like me.

I will surely try the other stuff, too, like 2GD2GT. Except maybe AKB0048.

PS. I pseudo-dropped Koichoco half way in. I ought to finish it.

 

6 comments | posted in Da Capo, Idolmaster, Kotoura-san, Love Live, Maoyu Maou Yuusha, Minami-ke, Modern Visual Culture, Mondaiji tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru soudesuyo, Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru, Sasami-san@ganbaranai, Tamako Market, Vividred Operation, Zettai Karen Children

January 12, 2013

Sasami-san@ganbaranai Episode 1 Conjectures

By omo

Haruhi Suzumiya

Did you just watch Sasami-san@ganbaranai episode 1? Did that make sense? No? I don’t know, but there’s plenty to go on from here, even for someone unfamiliar with the source material like me. But it requires some decompression for someone who isn’t neck-deep in Japanese culture and subcultures.

Continue reading

32 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Sasami-san@ganbaranai

January 11, 2013

The Speed of Puchim@s Is the Speed of Anime News

By omo

Kotori

FUNimation picked up a cute little IP called PUCHIM@S this season and they decided to announce it in their subscriber-only forum. There was a tweet from the FUNimation account to let people know the news is out. After the fact, I took a look at the timing and both the forum post and the tweet hits 12 Noon Eastern time on the dot, or roughly 1 minute later, on Jan. 10th 2013.

A bit of background–FUNimation’s elite video service (which is what I meant by subscriber) is generally panned. I have been using it for about 6 months and I can see why. At any rate most news hounds don’t use it, but they probably have access to it. It took the following time for these news pieces to hit twitter after the initial announcement:

Crunchyroll: 23 minutes

FandomPost: 37 minutes

Anime News Network: 40 minutes

That’s pretty much it for the full-time staff efforts.

As far as I can tell there was no heads-up PR to prime them. ANN is pretty notable about having that often, but I guess not this time.

Also, it is only fair to say that this one anecdote does not indicate if CR or Chris B. or ANN is faster at breaking news. It’s more about a reaction time sort of thing–how fast can people pick up the news, in a way that, I think, measures fairly. Everybody in this case probably followed the same tip trail to the source, unless someone had a head’s up or, in the unfortunate case, were actually keeping tabs on the FUNi EVS forum. It’s like a drop of water landing on a perfectly stilled pool, and measuring the wavelengths of its ripples.

As a matter of disclosure, you all know I also write for a site that often post news (but we don’t really try to break via speed, as fun as that can be once in a while). It took me 11 minutes to copy-paste the EVS post and write some basic instructions into an email to send it to our tip line, and one more minute to post the same copy-pasta on a forum that I read.

PS. Nobody in my timeline picked up the news until one of the news orgs broke it. That shows you how panned FUNi EVS really is. Or maybe we’re all just polite? I don’t know.

PPS. To its redemption, ANN is now the first to break Senren Kagura’s simulcast news that was announced on Jan 11th, 18 minutes after noon. The forum post about Puchim@s indicated another license would be announced today at noon eastern (11am central), but the forum post for Senren kagura actually went up at 10:18am central time today, which is kind of amusing. Anyway.

PPPS. Amuse-bouche. What the.

3 comments | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Idolmaster

January 9, 2013

Angel Beats & Organ Donation

By omo

When I read this article, I thought about Angel Beats. Because, like, it is actually tackling a subtle notion about afterlife and more importantly explaining how what we believe the afterlife to be, that directly impacts the way we look at ourselves right now, and how we live this one.

I mean, it’s a very tangible thing when it comes to organ donation. Some philosophies enable people to donate more willingly than others, after death. And in term, that impacts actual lives of people who can use the help. I think Angel Beats is, from this perspective, an ingenious way to tackle a fairly thorny problem. And it didn’t even had the time to be preachy… Oh who am I kidding?

Hinata & Yui

 

5 comments | posted in Angel Beats, English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Modern Visual Culture

January 7, 2013

Maoyu’s Pop-up Book

By omo

The mixed-media franchise aside, the one thing that stuck with me in Maoyu Maou Yuusha pilot was the way the story is portrayed from a simple archetype into a nuanced and developed world. It’s Disney-esqe and it evokes the feeling of a pop-up book.

It’s not uncommon in the era of remakes and reboots to see some nursery tale reborn as a modern interpretation. I mean, what the hell is this? Joking aside, the story about a hero vanquishing some evil overlord serves as the pages in which the first-time viewer flips as s/he walks through this 2ch-original tale.

What “pops up” is the multidimensional aspect of the story. While the characters remain flat and 2D-like, their complexity blossoms like a fractal image with each word coming out of the Maou’s mouth. Sure, the Hero’s reaction was cute and Maou’s naivete was cute as well, but the story’s heft increased ten fold from the first encounter to their moment of contract.

The multiplicity of the narrative’s depth expands, too, as cuts and flashbacks show us the world beyond the grim-dark, empty castle. We see merchants and kings, cheering or troubled, and forces moving behind the shadows. Characters that the bizarre duo will eventually encounter on their journey to the world outside of their war-torn destiny already make their appearances, even before the Maou undresses her headpiece.

Maoyu’s world, as set by the pilot episode, is really nothing that special. But it was that flat underpinning which sets the baseline to what we were to expect. I think the way the story pops in the pilot episode is largely credit to the animation direction… It also makes me wonder if having a billion different manga spinoffs make a difference when the eventual anime finally comes together.

Did someone say "PLOT"?

Bonus: A good contrast can be seen in Da Capo III’s pilot episode. The funny thing is, by this point, there is a large amount of background material built into that franchise, with two full-blown otaku-minded mixed-media pushes in the two previous Da Capo sets of games. So what does the first episode do? Boil it down to the basic template as much as possible. In fact it feels artificially done, and in a way that might mislead viewers. Instead of elaborate relationships and a huge back story about the magic tree, we just get, welp, what we get. Knowing this show, though, it’s probably just to get you focused away from the back story so they can bring it to the foreground later, with more impact. Well, we’ll see. It’s something they can’t just leave alone (and they aren’t hopefully, with the ex-eternal-17 character on the screen from the first episode).

PS. Magic Knight Rayearth.

4 comments | posted in Da Capo, Maoyu Maou Yuusha, Modern Visual Culture