Category Archives: Franchises

August 8, 2012

Best noitaminA Show Is the Most Mainstream One

By omo

A lot of anime fans I know likes noitaminA. It’s probably because I know too many internet people; the sort of people who like non-mainstream stuff (not that they don’t like mainstream stuff, as we will see). That Fuji TV programming segment tends to favor the kind of anime that you don’t see often outside of it. It also helps that some of the shows on noitaminA are based on franchises that were fan favorites even before those respective things turned into anime, in some cases, new versions of older anime.

Here’s just a poll from some Japanese site on who likes what. You can read more about it over there if you wish. This is the results of “3,125 votes from 1,097 people.” All disclaimers about internet polls, etc, apply. I didn’t read the original post to get if there’s any specific or special about this polling group or poll or whatever. Anyway:

1: Anohana (306 votes)
2: Kids on the Slope (213 votes)
3: Mononoke (211 votes)
4: Moyashimon Anime (191 votes)
5: Library Wars (173 votes)
6: Tsuritama (163 votes)
7: Guilty Crown (158 votes)
8: NO.6 (135 votes)
9: Eden of the East (135 votes)
10: Nodame series (128 votes)
11: Rabbit Drop (118 votes)
12: Natsuyuki Rendezvous (104 votes)
13: UN-GO (95 votes)
14: Honey & Clover series (85 votes)
15: Shiki (83 votes)
16: Ayakashi (82 votes)
17: Trapeze (78 votes)
18: Kuragehime (73 votes)
19: Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 (72 votes)
20: Tatami Galaxy (65 votes)
21: Thermae Romae (60 votes)
22: Black Rock Shooter (57 votes)
23: Hakaba Kitarou (56 votes)
24: C (51 votes)
25: Antique Bakery (43 votes)
26: House of Five Leaves (35 votes)
26: Jyuousei (35 votes)
28: Live Action Moyashimon (30 votes)
29: Hourou Musuko (24 votes)
30: Genji Monogatari Sennenki (21 votes)
31: Fractale (16 votes)
32: Paradise Kiss (14 votes)
33: Hataraki Man (10 votes)

Yep, Fractale is not the worse, but it’s likely a minor aberration. Hataraki Man and Parakiss are probably too old for this demographic.

The highest-ranked show I didn’t watch is Mononoke, but not for lack of trying. Next is #16, Ayakashi. Then it is #23, Hakaba Kitarou. Do you see a trend here? Maybe not, because I also skipped #25 (fujoshi crap), #26 (fujoshi crap), #28 (not anime), and #30 (see previous trend). Please note that by calling any given noitaminA anime “fujoshi crap” is like saying anime is from Japan; that is kind of the given.

I get the feeling there are way too many people voting up Mononoke, more so than a reasonable group of random internet anime-viewers should. I mean yes I get it, but really? Actually the fact that Kids on the Slope came in #2 (look at the ratings) probably speaks volume about the people who voted, given how it averaged out to be the same as BRS/Guilty Crown. It definitely seems to confirm this previous theory/observation, in a way that is self-contradictory. I mean Kids on the Slope sold poorly, overall, while Guilty Crown still charts (in a way that respects its #7 rank). Actually those two titles typifies a lot of Noitamina shows; they either get a lot of love from the mouth and no love on home video, or a lot of hate and some love from people buying them. Of course, what is for sure is that Anohana both sold well (also see Guilty Crown on that list) and did well on TV. The elusive, the anecdote quoter’s favorite: a hit. And then there’s Fractale.

If you dig back a few years, you can tell a lot of the lower ranked shows did no worse than the higher ranked ones on TV. It just seems kind of arbitrary. Which is why I’m wondering why Mononoke did so well; it wasn’t particularly better rated than, say, Hataraki Man. Why the big gap between the two? (If you are curious, the MAL link has the answer, or see here.)

PS. There’s a follow-up to this observation. Maybe it will become a post!

9 comments | posted in Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai., Guilty Crown, Modern Visual Culture

August 6, 2012

Takagaki Ayahi Laughs and Cries

By omo

One of the intangible factor that floats seiyuu-idol pop group Sphere is its classically-trained vocalist Takagaki Ayahi. Ayahi (or Ayahime) is gifted with a decent singing voice and majority of Sphere fans probably concur that hers is the best, even if hers may not be their favorite. Indeed there are probably the fewest Ayahi fans out of the whole group, especially given her relatively few otaku roles on her relatively short CV. She gets outshined by her groupmates, who are popular on their own in a lot of ways.

There is this enjoyable irony, thus.

I think Ayahime works great in these PA Works T_T anime projects, Tari Tari being the latest. It’s a bit like her gig in Fate/Zero–the earnest girl that laughed and cried within the same episode. It’s what she did in Tari Tari 6. It isn’t that her acting is actually that great, but in a way Ayahi’s voice is something you just don’t hear very much of, partly because she’s just not in so many shows and her voice has enough of a uniqueness to it to take note. Enough for a lead character, enough for a cappella 5-piece, enough to stand out between a Noto-and-Hayami manzai gag (how many times has that happened anyway?), and enough to delight Noe supporters throughout the ages.

Which in retrospect plays to all of her strengths, and it’s a pretty tall list to stand up against. Then again my favorite Ayahi performance is still the brat from Mitsudomoe, so what do I know?

I certainly don’t follow her solo vocalist career, or what little bits of it. Thing is, even when you up the ante and play with operatic stuff, Ayahime comes across as, at best, a delightful, if pedestrian, passer-by who is best known for her seiyuu idol status, and not because she lights up the ball. Yes, we know she can sing, but is she any good? More importantly, does she have what it takes? She may be able to wrestle a standing fan (something most opera singers have not done, I imagine), but how about a whole bunch of them? I think the jury is still out on this, even after the third Sphere album. At least, I don’t really know.

5 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop, Tari Tari

August 5, 2012

Manabi Straight on Blu-ray

By omo

It’s always kind of a gamble to buy a BD release of a show created during the post-digital, pre-high-def era of TV anime. That’s pretty much any show created between like 1998 and 2008 or so, which includes Manabi Straight. Manabi Straight is one of the last TV anime that was created for the 4:3 format and watching it gave my plasma temporary burn-in. LOL for cheap TV I guess.

That unfortunate circumstance aside, I lament that I just don’t have all the time in the world to rewatch this gem. I managed to just catch the last episode, the OVA episode (now slotted chronologically onto disc 3 of 4) and the Machiasobi event from last November (also on disc 3). It’s a little odd to see Nonaka on stage again, after just seeing her not too long ago in person. Equally odd was how the event is about showing the audience the PQ difference for the Manabi BD box, and get everyone to sing the Seiou Gakuen Kouka. I mean, a sing-along event with a video of Horie Yui teaching you (well, it’s a joke) how to emote it? Okay.

The oddness of the event bleeds into the home video version. At the event, they have this kind of small screen on stage where they showed you side-by-side between DVD and BD of episode 11 (and some other clips). It looks great on home video because, well, you see the actual video. I just don’t know if anyone present at the actual event can tell from that distance.

I haven’t taken a close look at anything other than disc 3 and disc 4. Disc 4 contains the final 4 episodes of the series, plus all the TV spots (TV ads and DVD ads), trailers, and the karaoke video for the five image songs for the main characters. But what’s probably more of interest to perspective buyers and Viewers Like Myself is the last episode and how it’s “reshot” or whatever ANN uses to describe the work ufotable put in. To make it clear, episodes 1-11 + OVA episodes have had their composition redone for the BD release, but they went out and redid episode 12 by recreating the CG effects. If I know Japanese I probably could tell you, because they talked about this at the Machiasobi event. Yeah, I think it’s odd to have Nonaka and the King Record producer guy tell you how good this transfer is, in the thing you just bought.

If composition is what I think it is, redoing it means now the scenes are rendered at a higher resolution as it is being composed by whatever software they use. This is drastically different than doing an upscale because the software that spits out the re-composed scenes are working from the original property, rather than the end result video that gets interpolated by the upscale software. I guess you can think of it as being one step closer (in reality, probably more than one step). And I think given the way anime is put together these days,  that might be the best thing you can do for a TV anime of that vintage. What is amusing is I can totally see someone do this to 2k or 4k, give them another 10 years.

Anyway, this is also why the CG, which is sometimes generated dynamically at composition, need to be re-done. Because it would look like ass otherwise. Since I don’t have a BD drive I can’t cap them for you, but let’s just say the cherry blossom scene at the beginning of episode 12 (this is the naming convention used by the BD box; OAV episode is labeled as such, not 6.5 or whatever) looked reminiscent of 5cm/s. There are a lot of pans and sky cuts in episode 12 and they look gorgeous. When Mikan popped out in the epilogue by herself I thought “only if Evangelion TV on Blu-ray would look this good.” There’s just all this detail in the scene when Mei was driving to the airport with the crew.

However, when you just look at the normal foreground animation, they don’t look too different than the previous episodes. It looks better than upscaled; the lines are well-defined, if a bit rough. The show has its share of derpy faces, after all.

The other notable thing about Manabi BD in terms of PQ is the stop motion ending. It looks great, and that should be the case because I’m going to assume they shot the whole thing using some DSLR, and that means it was put together using whatever-megapixel photographs. 1080 is only 2 megapixels; 4k is only 9.4 megapixels.

The intangible details aside, here are the stats [Amazon, King Records, ufotable]:

  • 4 BD discs, 1 DVD disc (materials for your PC…?)
  • contains episodes 1-12 plus OVA episode (on disc 3)
  • Discs 1, 2 are single layer, discs 3 and 4 are dual layer.
  • Comes with a slip case with a huge obi-thing that covers the bottom and the back of the packaging.
  • Also has a 108-page book containing all sorts of supplementary material, fits in the slip case.
  • Discs sit inside of a 5-part digipak that holds all 5.
  • First week sales: below reporting threshold

You can get more nitty gritty if you see the listing on Amazon and the like. There was a contest where people can vote for the cover image on the BD BOX, on ufotable’s website. It ran for about a month and you can get all the non-winner pictures as A4 postcard-things if you buy the BD BOX direct from ufotable.

Rewatching the series is definitely on my to-do list. I’m due one anyway.

2 comments | posted in Manabi Straight, Modern Visual Culture

August 3, 2012

The Other 2.5D, Scarlet Rain

By omo

You know how there’s a furry scale? There’s probably something like a mecha scale too.

No, not really about Strike Witches (even if that’s a good example of both types of scales). Actually, one of the more attractive aspect of mechanical design for popular media is its ability to transform. A big reason people like the F-14 is its moving-sweeping wings. It is not a surprise to see the now-retired assault aircraft pairing off with futuristic valks in Macross Zero. And as you know, these witches transform into furry beings by magic and military weapons by mechanical parts.

The value in transformation almost implicitly point out that the degree of mechanization for a mechamusume is not a quantized value, but a sliding scale. It’s one thing to paint a girl’s picture to the side of your aircraft or bomb or tank. It’s another to replace the giant robot and replace it with a girl-android-thing. Maybe we can even put, at the extreme ends, just girls piloting these things on one side, and girls piloting these other things on the other end of the scale.

You know Aegis from Persona 3? She’s a pretty much middle-of-the-road for mechamusume. Now by definition mechamusume is combing traditional mecha with that moe bishoujo aesthetics, like “girl+tank” or “girl+RX-78“. Aegis is just a straight-up android, and by definition human-like robots will exhabit some humanlike-ness. If that style of femininity is what the android has, it might be difficult to consider that as mechamusume. Perhaps as a new dimensionality?

But to a degree one end of the mechamusume spectrum is kind of like how people get off on guro or, say, ableist porn–it’s all normal except insert-the-blank, where the blank is some kind of abnormal physiology. Androids approach this idea from the opposite, in that the question is how human-like that they may be, except for their ears and the on-off switch, as an example. I would say these kinds of mechamusume are almost just normal people; that’s kind of their schtik. That’s the 0%. After all we don’t quite put Miku in this category.

I think Scarlet Rain is a pretty good example of both the more extreme form of mechamusume, as well as the idea of this non-fixed value of how much of a mechamusume a character could be. For one, in Accel World, you are your avatar, and it isn’t something you pilot exactly–you could kind of control it, but it is ultimately presented as the version of you in Accel World. So in that sense, when Scarlet Rain is doing her bit of the story inside the Accel World universe, she’s only known as Scarlet Rain, and not Yuniko. It’s a pretty serious transformation in contrast with Strike Witches, don’t you think?

Or maybe better yet, perhaps we can posit that it is Strike Witches that is progressive in combining the mechanical aspect of the girls with the innate identities thereof. Yuniko is still just Yuniko in the real world, after all. To the degree Power Ranger Pink can transform from mundane to magical (sometimes with the hardware), it speaks a lot about the place our characters inhibit within the scope of what makes of mechamusume. As I would put it, it’s about venturing into that 2.5D land, that gap between the common-sensical and the fantastically two-dimensional construct of the mechamusume.

I suppose Drossel has met her match, though. Long live the (tsundere imouto) Red King!

[I wrote this before Summer Wanfest 2012, so for reference check out this and that. Or this plamo KOS-MOS, the most moe weapons platform]

7 comments | posted in 3D-2D Modeling, Accel World, Modern Visual Culture, Strike Witches

July 22, 2012

You Had Me at Episode 3: Summer 2012

By omo

Coming in, I thought this season is a weak season. But after looking around, it’s probably not that bad; maybe even slightly over average. It’s not as great as last season for sure, but looking around I see a lot of bloggers thinking this season is weak. I don’t know. If we throw all these shows on the wall and see which sticks, there might be an average amount of winners in that bunch. Wish times like this I have a magical power that summons empirical studies of whatever at my command. Like, “Magical makeup! Summon science!” [Of course, if you are one of those people who think Fujiko was the best anime last season and only one worth watching, you can save us some time and just go die in a fire.]

I’m ordering this by no order, and shows I don’t list are either ongoing, dropped before I get to 3, or in a couple cases, I didn’t even try them. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything [edit: now that I added Joshiraku].

  • Jinrui wa Suitaishimashita: Thumb up. Solid satire with some bite, and easy to go down like all good satire. So good, I can do episodic, and tempted to do so!
  • Total Eclipse: Thumbs missing. My initial impression of Muv-luv Alternative: Total Eclipse was actually this “pervy” figure of Cryska, followed by Yui with a SMG. You can tentacle some armada if you are interested in more details, plus some backdrop to the Total Eclipse story. I got my first real piece of the action at AX where we got backed-to-back episodes one and two right after a Kurinoko/ayami performance. I think I liked that more. But to be fair, the first episode after the two set-up episodes felt like kind of like this, where it’s trying to “throw back” to a Top Gun-ish narrative. I’m going to wait to episode 5 before really risking for a call since to me the story didn’t quite begin until ep3.
  • Tari-Tari: Thumb up. It paves its own path, which is reason enough to watch if you are interested in the subject matter at all. Looks sharp and entertaining for the most part; just waiting for the story to gel and the CDs to come out.
  • Oda Nobuna no Yabou: Thumb up. Probably the one dark horse anime this season. It’s surprising competent, production-wise. Studio Gokumi x Madhouse = woah. Kanae’s performance props the show up as much as the good pace things are going. Its only drawback is that some prerequisite knowledge about history through the games really helps your enjoyment.
  • Campione: Thumb down. The only things going for it are the delicious fanservice and voice cast. The concept could be interesting but it’s executed in a very dull way.
  • Kokoro Connect: Thumb up. Character drama needs good acting and we have it. I feared Hisako Kanemoto would be the weakest link but with the Yui episode come and gone, she actually did a pretty good job. The animation seems like that knock-off Kyoani style but there’s nothing offensive about it.
  • Sword Art Online: Thumb down. I don’t like it but it’s a compelling watch. The production value is nice and I can empathize with the grief…as in, oh hey you just got trained sort of grief. Or in episode 3’s case, some one in their guild went Leeroy. I suspect though at the end of the series that might become true for actual viewers of this anime, at least the griefing part. The best strategy is to enjoy what little kernels of joy each episode provide you now, rather than later.
  • Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru: Thumb down. Nakaimo is a trash show you can drop but it’s definitely the one good trash show out of the rest of the trash show this season. Main credit for being interesting in terms of plot and presentation. Conceptually it is way worse than most shows this season…if not THE worse. Which also is a credit to its favor if you look at it the other way.
  • Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate: Thumb down. I like this show’s approach to politics and elections but it’s not going to cut it. Only for harem/visual novel types (eg., this is kind of trashy). Not thrilled about the art style, but it does the job. I’ll probably end up watching it LOL.
  • Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai: Thumb down. Sorry to say, Aya Endo fans, but this is worse than QB season 3 I think.
  • Natsuyuki Rendezvous: Thumb up. Why? Because I like the persistent take from the NTR angle. It really juices up this otherwise kind of boring josei fantasy. I’m also impressed how it can fit both manservice and womanservice in that tidy package. Kou Matsuo and his crew aside, it’s back to the basics of noitaminA, which is usually worth at least a look.
  • Binbougami ga: Thumb up. Another show with a potentially downward outlook, the opening episodes have a big impact but it’s the kind of show that often will settle into a pattern and it’ll get repetitive quick. I won’t be surprised if I end up dropping this show in a few weeks. It’s good to hear Hanazawa in an unusual role but I’m not a big fan of this performance. Toilet-level slapstick comedy, however, scratches my itch. It’s like the companion piece of Jintai.
  • Hagure Yuusha no AESTHETICA: Thumb down. Speaking of toilet humor, this one reached bottom first. I think I probably would enjoy this show if it can crank up the level of ridiculous over time, but that also means this show is not for most people. Perhaps if it looked better, a few of the more voracious viewers would give it a chance and get as far as the Kanatan-voiced, stoic-dere loli character….which is to say, yeah, you’re not missing much. If you’re on the Kana Ueda yuri-kei train of thought, though, consider Hagure Yuusha that bullet train from Yuriseijin taking you to heaven. If you like the populist nonsense in this show…well don’t get too serious.
  • Utakoi: Thumb up. Because it’s kind of the dirty josei/shoujo stuff some of you like, but also it’s better than average for its category (edutainment). I probably should drop it, but given how all the shows I want to watch airs between Thursday and Sunday, it fits into those empty Tuesday-Wednesday slots.
  • Joshiraku: Thumb up. I have a soft spot for the stuff that goes on in the ED, but that aside, the jokes tend to come at a good clip and enough of them hit. And sure, I like the girls enough, but more as people than as cute girls. (Are they even cute? Even Kigu?) I realized I can enjoy enough of the jokes raw (which is to say, not very many at all) but the tedious buildup to the punchline makes the whole thing not fun when you’re mired with the not-funny stuff. So I guess dropping this show would be the thing to do if the fansubs stop.

I think that’s it. Other shows of note:

  • Eureka 7 Ao: Episode 12-13 kicks things up a gear, which is sooner than the first series. The setting plays a bigger role than ever, which is nice for long-time fans. I wonder if they can actually tie this in with Xam’d setting-wise wwwwww.
  • Rinne no Lagrange: In Stellvia we have the group-cry episode. Now we have the group-yuri episode. Thanks, Tatsuo Sato. At least you are consistent!
  • Space Brothers: Yawn.
  • Yuru Yuri: Yawn♪♪
  • Sengoku Collection: At least I have no idea what the next episode is going to be about! But it’s getting kind of boring, at least in the past month; they need to spice stuff up.
  • Moyashimon Returns: Put me in the camp of people who think season 1 was special and season 2 is missing that special something. Nonetheless it is still a decent watch.
  • Dog Days: Hopefully season 2 will way surpass season 1. So far it has. But I’m not watching this show~
  • Accel World: I was hoping to see this plot concept earlier, but I guess it’s okay to have this story now.
  • Hyouka: Still really dull, even if the school festival episodes have been really a treat.
  • Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere 2: The barometer is, “will I doze off during any of their long exposition/tirades?” If yes, it’s a so-so episode; if no, it is a good episode.  So far the count is about 1 to 2 and I suspect by the end of season 2 it’ll come close to even.

And I’m still watching Sket Dance. It’s still my type of humor.

PS. What is amazing (again) is that other than Hyouka and Joshiraku, every show on this list is getting a North American “stream.” (Funi’s 2 new shows aside, which I presume they will play catch up at some point in the very near future.) I wonder why…

PPS. I’m actually keeping up with over 20 shows at the moment. And I thought it would get better after last season….time to cutcutcutcut. I guess I did with AKB0048 already…

PPPS. Yep I missed a show. To make up for it, here are some links to peeps from GG and their notes on Joshiraku. It’s pretty fun to read. Check it out.

PPPPS. I went back and watched Joshiraku 3 and slotted it in. And removed Ebiten because, well, it’s just clutter at this point. So yeah. By the way, Ebiten HP is LOLs.

9 comments | posted in Binbougami ga, Campione!, Dakara Boku wa, Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, Joshiraku, Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate, Kokoro Connect, Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!, Modern Visual Culture, Muv-luv, Natsuyuki Rendezvous, Oda Nobuna no Yabou, Sword Art Online, Tari Tari