Rewatchability Watch (Umm...wait What?)
As some of you know, my mobile home was destroyed by an anarchist suicide tree back in November. Because I had moved nearly everything into the spare room because of some floor repairs, and because the spare room was destroyed quite efficiently. I lost most of my collection, including nearly all the DVDs and tapes I had. After I had paid for my tuition and books and was putting money aside I pondered replacing some of the Anime DVDs. The purchase list was short. Rewatchability is a rare commodity.
Van Dread....yeah I picked up the thinpack. This show really ought to have been mediocre at best but it is one of the most satisfying shows of the last 10 years. I will certainly rewatch this.
Welcome to the NHK....the loss of the entire set gave me a chance to pick up the last disc (which was not available singly after Funnimation picked the show up midway through.
Lucky Star is apparently no longer in production...though I can probably get it on line.
Days of Midoriwhich I mentioned briefly here is a spectacualrly good show with one of the worst premises of all time.
Full Metal Alchemist didn't get replaced as much as completed. I'd never picked up the third and final pack for reasons unrelated to the shows quality. Now I've watched the whole thing and it would have surely been on the list. I'll have a separate post on that later.
There was little else that I considered shelling out for, though I may pick up Black Lagoon at some point.
Zone of the Enders was on loan at the time...which is fortuitous as it is long out of print.
UPDATE: Inexplicably deleted the mention ofGurren Lagaan.
Also, Crest/Banner of The Stars was not destroyed.
Yes it is. In fact as I type this is slightly shorter than it ought to be, but still..... Part of the problem is financial. I've had to be very discriminating and there is also the fact that some of he older shows I'd like to see again are just gone. I've enjoyed a lot of stuff but I don't rewatch much.
I've also bought a fair amount of stuff that's new to me or I'd only seen the first few episodes of.
Spice and Wolf His and Her
Circumstances, Ikkitousen Fate Stay Night, This
Lovely Yet Beautiful World Hidemari Sketch and Evangelionwhich I've seen the very beginning of and very ending of and have long wondered "WTF!?"
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Mar 9 19:00:18 2010 (NkKu7)
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"This Ugly yet Beautiful World" was a waste of your money, I'm afraid. Most of those others I haven't seen.
Keronus Americanus
The Anime/Manga franchise and merchandising juggernaut that is Sgt. Frog was commented upon by virtually everyone in 2005 when the anime started up. The show is still going strong in Japan and has been exceedingly successful. The oddball comedy has been surprisingly successful at appealing to audiences of all ages and has a lot of similarities to the long running Urusei Yatsura series from the 80s (which, indeed, was the stated intent of the Mangaka). The main difference is that the characters tend to be more likeable.
The show concerns several frog like aliens who are trapped on earth after their ill-conceived invasion attempt went awry. Their leader now lives in secret as the sort of housekeeper for a comic book creator and her children. Other members of his squad are scattered around the neighborhood and similarly ensconced with various humans...all of whom possess significant normalcy deficits. Every week he contacts his teammates and they join forces to conquer the planet Pekaponia (Earth)... hilarity ensues. As an aside, the show teaches younger viewers important life lessons as well...such as the fact that women are scary and dangerous and best avoided....even if they are wearing sweatervests.
Given its spectacular success and very broad demographic appeal in Japan it was natural that somebody would try to bring this show to the U.S.A. The theoretical potential of the show to be a genre crossing hit was immensely appealing at first blush. However, there were major hurdles, most daunting being the fact that the pop culture references that litter the show are overwhelmingly Japanese specific.
As the target audience would be Americans the references would make as much sense as an episode of Robot Chicken would to a North Korean. This would seem to be a show stopper, but one must remember that US television has long made good ratings on incomprehensible stupidity so this was not necessarily an insurmountable obstacle. Additionally there was the fact that the company that actually bought this marketing conundrum was ADVision...and the people at ADV were geeks who dearly loved the show and really wanted it to succeed.
ADV seemes to have really tried to get the show released on television, which despite its niche appeal in the US was not an insane notion but merely a far fetched one at the time these decisions were being made. Cartoon Network was showing a lot of Anime then and a number of the in-jokes (perhaps as much as a quarter ) referred to those shows. ADV had assembled over the years a very fine cadre of voice actors and they were certainly capable of doing comedy well. The problem remained the very culturally specific nature of many of the verbal gags, The episodes required rather more extensive rewrites than usual though the basic plots and overall story arcs could be brought over with little trouble.
There was an even bigger problem that ADV did not foresee....ADV is no more.The show was one of those bought by Funimation and it is now being aggressively marketed by them....with a series of adds that don't quite do the show justice.
The show is one I found fairly enjoyable before this release and it
should be noted that the subtitle track is a pretty straight
translation of the Japanese, which is what most readers here will watch
anyway.
The dub fascinated me as I was very curious as to how they were going
to play it given what to the target audience is the alien nature of
much of the shows humor.
I don't know how many episodes ADV dubbed before they lost (or found out they didn't have) the rights in the Sojitz fiasco but the first 8 episodes are using most of the same voice actors that appeared in a preview ADV put on you tube some years ago. I am pretty sure that what we are seeing is very close to ADV's plan for the show, if so it is a worthy legacy because the dub is quite good. Funimation, which has a good reputation in its own right seems to have kept the bulk of the voice talent and there has been no jarring change in quality as of yet.
The dialog on the English track is fast paced,almost like a '40s screwball comedy. The acting is good and although the dialog has indeed been tweaked, the the Woolsyism's generally work quite well. All in all I was very impressed. In my initial viewing I watched all but the first two dubbed and felt it did not suffer at all , in particular I...oh wait...you aren't reading this....
You clicked on the Woolsyisms hyperlink above and your mind is now trapped in an endless information overload loop at TV tropes...foolish Pekaponian...your planets defeat is inevitable!
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You know, TVTropes as a Keronian invasion tool is so plausible it should be in the show.
At any rate, it's not so much "Funi is going out of their way to use the original voice talent" as it's "a lot of the better ADV voice talent moved to Dallas and does work for Funi now". ;p This has been going on for years, though at the beginning it was just a matter of commuting...
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed Dec 16 16:42:33 2009 (pWQz4)
Left to right, Tsuyuri, Najimi, Justice, and his pupil/ assistant/charge Sora
Based on a 4 panel strip, the 9 minute show follows college student Najimi Osana who upon losing her job is offered a one day job by her friend Tsuyuri. The job turns out to be selling Tusuyuri's rape-hentai doujin at Comiket. Initially appalled, our heroine does some quick mental calculations of the numbers of books her friend is moving. After meeting Justice, a childhood friend who is a wealthy and legendary doujin-ka, she takes an oath to make her fortune in fanfic Pr0nz! Soon she's learning that manga requires actual artistic talent, all about printing costs and the fact that certain doujin artists might owe their rock-star lifestyles more to independent wealth than Comic Market income.
Our heroine is undeterred by any of this however.Through sheer determination she proceeds to acquire a table...a rival...and a fan. Now all she needs is content.
This is an odd little show and the dvd is not without its problems...while the first volume comes with the manga, nearly half of each disc is a live action segment concerning two of the voice actors trying to do a manga...which means I paid 14.99 for 50 minutes of sketch comedy and 50 minutes of....wtf?.These skits did nothing for me. Additionally the lettering in the manga is sized wrong. The letters are so small that I recommend a magnifying glass. The package suffers from this quite a bit.
As to the show itself, it is an off color show but cute show. It would likely not have worked as
full length or even half length episodes, but the skit format suits its
little stories. It is little better animated than an old UPA cartoon,
but the animators actually have some fun with this and make the most of
their limited budget. The characters are enjoyably quirky. At this point I've watched the whole thing and, despite the
high level of background slash radiation and female nosebleeds.... I
laughed.
Sadly, Justice never grows to kaiju proportions and shoots beams out of his eyes
Oddly, I am in Agreement with Tsukasa on This Matter
Comiket!!? Are you NUTS!?
Comeket 76, day 3. The line from hell, 300,000 people being herded into the God Emperor of huckster rooms. I arrived around 8:30 AM expecting a monumental line, but nothing prepared me for this.
Note that this is not the line...this is the line to get in the line.
The brochure (~20 bucks at Gamers) says that photos of cosplayers are not allowed except at a prepared event nor are any photos allowed of the interior. As often happens, the English rules are wrong. No photos are allowed at all. I took these before a very corpulent gentleman threatened to relieve me of my camera.This long picture of the Tokyo Big Sight does not do justice to the size of the structure.
After only about 2 and a half hours I made it to the east wing and went through every one of the 6 bays, each footnall field sized. I started to leave having had my fill of huckster rooms and I was still a bit weak from the bug I was getting over....but I knew I could not face any of my friends if I did not make the trek from the east wing to the west wing.
So I wandered over and found myself in a river of humanity moving irresistably forward...er,up....no,over...no, I mean down...around...aiee! up again. There was a brief respite at an outdoor exibition area where some photos of cosplayers are allowed if permission is obtained. Given the language barrier and the somewhat confusing setup, I begged off and reentered the flow of fandom as it poured like a cataract down the stairs into the exibition hall below. From a hundred fifty feet up the view of the west wing atrium looked like nothing so much as footage of the great animal migrations of the Serengeti.
Although I think it's a bit smaller, the west wing is even more impressive than the east in some respects as there are quite a few very elaborate displays.
One thing I saw that was mildly amusing was that there are now a number of comfort pillows for girls. Also, in contrast to most of their male counterparts, the female doujin artists tended to be impeccably dressed and made up as they hocked their slashy fare.
I'm not likely to go back, at least until I am very proficient in Kanji. Finding anything in that sea of dealers is challenging for the locals let alone someone who can't read the map. OTOH, the place opened at 10 AM and I was out by 1:30...That’s less than some waits I've had at the DMV so the staff certainly did a fine job with a third of a million people.
Oh...and for the person who asked (you know who you are)...I'm 6 foot one and weigh over 270 pounds. I could not have gotten out. Thus there is no way Tsukasa could have POSSIBLY made it back once she got in the wrong line. So no...it was not contrived. (Sheesh!)
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Anyone who claims that scene from Lucky Star was contrived has clearly never actually in an Asian crowd. I used to ride the Tokyo-bound Chuo line express train every morning to get to work, and even those relatively meager crowds were pretty brutal. You don't so much walk as you're carried along by the sheer force of the human torrent.
Posted by: 0rion at Sun Aug 16 11:10:29 2009 (k9G8D)
LMAO! It IS simplified Chinese... but it doesn't matter "Mandarin" or anything else... the writing system is the same for all... Mandarin applies to the spoken version.
And they're talking about the NEW Star Trek movie... <3
Posted by: Faith at Tue Aug 11 06:25:13 2009 (0Y1ld)
Chocolate Cornets are Best if not Consumed in Raspberry Heaven
Some months ago I finished watching the last of the Lucky Star TV series. Due to life issues, a review has been languishing in draft form for just about as long. Rather more recently, I watched the entirety of Azu Manga Daioh, having previously only seen the first half. Both of the shows are quite similar on the face of it: Both are based on 4 panel comic strips. Both follow a group of girls through the three years of Japanese highschool. Both have fairly dry humor, similar in tone to Shulz's Peanuts. Both have likely been reviewed in depth by every blog that features any anime reviews on this side of Antarctica save this one.
However, I found the tone and rewatchability of the shows quite different.
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A bold premise, stated forthrightly, sir! I shall watch the responses... on closed-circuit video... in a bomb-proof bunker 23 miles away from the "event". ;p
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Mon Jul 20 21:49:27 2009 (pWQz4)
Posted by: Wonderduck at Mon Jul 20 23:47:42 2009 (Duio9)
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Seriously, dude, do you even read what Steven wrote? Awarding Kagura the most advancement is the dumbest review idea ever.
Also, how can you review Lucky Star without Lucky Channel? That shit was worse than Kimura by 1.8km. What selective memory!
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Jul 21 00:22:12 2009 (/ppBw)
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Interesting... it's been quite a while since I watched Azumanga, but I remember being bored by the Chiyo-dad sequences as well as the New Year's Dream episode (episodes?). Can't really relate to the rest of your complaints, though. Kaorin in particular was such a one-dimensional character that I never pitied her.
Lucky Star has a lot of flaws, but once you've gotten to know the cast it makes a first-class comfort anime.
Posted by: Andrew F. at Tue Jul 21 07:00:06 2009 (d5+fR)
5
I'm not saying Azumanga sucks, it kept my intrest for nearly all of 6
dvd's. Azuma is, after all, exceedingly talented. The unlikeability of
several characters put me off towards the end and, for me, its
rewatchability is low
Kaorin in particular was such a one-dimensional character that I never pitied her.
I agree that Kaorin is a one trick pony and the least fleshed out of the girls, however the crap she puts up with from Kimura is pretty awfull. That isn't the only reason she elicits sympathy of course. Just about everyone can relate to the heartbreak of unrequited love.
...can't they? ...or.....am I the only one who has had that happen? Oh dear..I suddenly feel so utterly alone.... .
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Jul 21 08:53:30 2009 (+QU+M)
6
Criticizing Azumanga Daioh is the third-rail of this hobby. That's the only review I've ever written, posted, and then taken down again because of all the crap thrown at me for my opinion -- which pretty much agreed with yours.
Seriously, dude, do you even read what Steven wrote?
Uhhh...a little... a loooong time ago...something about wanting a
varmint rifle Is all I remember..I avoided most reviews because I was avoiding spoilers as I had the thin pack for a time and intended to watch it. I never saw SDBs full review because
he got rid of it. (I think a bunch of angry Slavs invaded his comment
section or something
)
Awarding Kagura the most advancement is the dumbest review idea
ever.
Actually the review idea was that I find Lucky Star more
rewatchable than AzuManga, which I must say is an awesome idea, chock
full of win!
As to the question of Kagura, I agree that she is not well developed
as a character. We know very little about her as she has little screen
time and, like Kaorin seems to be included as a foil.
However, she is the only one who really grows and changes. This is
most obvious in the scene with the tent where she apologizes for her
asshattery and offers to rebuild the thing herself (to the scorn of
Tomo). She also buckles down quite noticeably in her studies towards
the end and seems to mellow on her competitive streak a little. The
character changes over time, in this case for the better. Most of the
other girls have stuff happen to them, and we find out more about their
quirks...they are fleshed out far better. However, the others don't
really change or grow emotionally, except perhaps Sakaki and her changes are less pronounced.
Also, how can you review Lucky Star without Lucky Channel? That shit was worse than Kimura by 1.8km.
I disagreeI feel that a 30 something man wanting to kindle a romance with his unwilling 17 year old student is worse than an amusing bipolar jaded celebrity by a full nautical mile. Now in fairness, when I sawLucky Channel first on a fan sub, my response was "WTF is THIS CRAP!?!1!". However, Sam Reigel and Stephane Sheh did a fine job with it in the dub. I found it amusing. A lot of people didn't. But, it is sufficiently detached from the show proper that I'd think anyone who didn't like it could just hit "SKIP" and be none the worse. Their stupidity is not integral to the story proper except for a few gags.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Jul 21 09:38:54 2009 (+QU+M)
8
Lucky Star -has- a Kimura. The difference is that it's Konata's dad. In Azumanga your sympathy is all with the poor girls, having to put up with this molester-wannabe (we hope). In Lucky Star, it's Soujirou that gets all the development, such as it is, and his "victims" never appear (possibly excepting how warped Konata turned out). It's not as bad because Soujirou never does anything (that we know about) and at least the same girls aren't subjected to him over a protracted period, but at the same time, he's no less of a perv (and quite possibly much more of one!) than Kimura ever was.
There's plenty you can criticize about Azu. It's true that Kagura is the only one who really develops. Everyone else coasts through the series, more or less exactly the same person they were before they got into high school, except with some happy memories to recall later on. And there's room for that kind of story too, of course, but it's not a literary masterpiece.
But there's the problem with comparing the two shows in the first place. With Lucky Star, the audience is expected to be "in" on the joke. Whether it's Kagami making fun of Konata for being a geek or Konata making fun of Kagami for being a norm, the fan watching the show is involved with the humor. (Which is one reason that Miyuki falls flat as a character - her jokes are flavored differently, and while "oh, look, she's done something absent-minded" is funny a few times, it can't carry the show.) Even Lucky Channel is in this mold, and this is coming from someone who is sworn to punch the hell out of Minoru Shiraishi should the opportunity arise, right?
With Azumanga, you can't be "in" on the joke because it's not joking. It's an idealized high school life, with most of the problems elided out, except for the obviously despicable guy who's SOOOO evil that he's a parody of the entire concept. Come on, they even have one wacky cool teacher and one serious cool teacher, both of whom are perfectly comfortable hanging out with them...
So comparing the shows like they're head-to-head rivals is mistaken in the first place. Sure, okay, slice-of-life. But Azu isn't a slice of YOUR life; Lucky Star is.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Jul 21 20:30:59 2009 (pWQz4)
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@ Avatar All your points are good ones, although I don't find Konata's
dad particularly disturbing. He is very much what I thought Kimura might be before the seventh disc. That is, he
is socially inept, finds teenage girls attractive... and thinks out loud. We
never see him stalk anyone unless one counts a wistful glance in the credits and
in the later episodes we see him being a pretty good...if
unconventional...father figure to Konata and Yutaka.
I think that
bothered me most about Kimura was that the over the top creepy stuff towards the
end (most of which IIRC was not in the trade paperback) was supposed to be funny...that left a really, really bad taste
in my mouth.
I do think that Lucky Star flows somewhat better and has
better characterizations but the parts that so appeal to me are going to
alienate a lot of others. The post explains why I find LS more
rewatchable.
I heartily agree that the series are quite different shows
and comparison is more than a bit of a stretch. However, the comparison comes up
frequently and I've been asked more than once how I could possibly like LS more than
AzMD...hence the post. While the post is more than 140 characters long the URL
is not....making my life easier.
Your last paragraph is, of
course, spot on.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Jul 21 21:46:34 2009 (V5zw/)
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I can't figure out what it is Pete is referring to that I wrote.
I left a comment earlier but it seems to have vanished? An expanded version if it can be seen here.
Posted by: Andy Janes at Wed Jul 22 16:48:16 2009 (lNf10)
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Steven, I think he's confusing Kimura (the teacher) with Kagura (the student/jock).
Posted by: Wonderduck at Wed Jul 22 17:57:56 2009 (Duio9)
13
I think you're being overly harsh on Tomo. She's hyperactive and insensitive and has terrible impulse control, but she's not really evil. Her misbehavior energizes the others and helps keep them from getting into a rut.
The most overtly malicious thing that she does is come up with a plan to bully Chiyo with a harassing "home inspection." But that actually starts the chain of events that causes the group to bond as friends.
Kimura is loathsome of course, but I think even that serves a purpose in the story by reminding us of the darker side of adolescence (which is never far from the surface in this show.)
The show isn't trying to say that high school is a wonderful, carefree experience. It is saying that it is a good experience if you do it with friends, and miserable otherwise. (Even if the friends are less than perfect people.)
That is probably why Kaorin, who is only marginally attached to the group, suffers much worse than the others. (One can, of course, come up with more negative interpretations, e.g. the writers are predjudiced against lesbians.)
Posted by: Jonathan Tappan at Thu Jul 23 21:58:58 2009 (7wFYN)
I am not yet this far gone...
I am not yet this far gone I am not yet this far gone I am not yet this far gone I.... I wonder if they will be coming out with a Yuki Nagato in the fut.... I am not yet this far gone I am not yet this far gone I am not yet this far gone Link via
Stone Knives...Bearskins
An interesting example of living archeology. A 13 year old tries to survive using the primitive technology of his anscestors..
Star Trek
Be advised that despite being an odd numbered Star Trek film, this movie kicks rather than sucks ass.
The film is at least as good as The Wrath of Khan. Interestingly, its premise in some ways a mirror image of that film. Wrath of Khan explored the characters long after the series and how they had changed...or not...over the years. This film ostensibly looks at how the characters started out, but because of the main plot point the film is a total reimagining. This reimagining however is astonishingly faithful to the original.
The characters are all well developed. The development of the Kirk/Spock/McCoy trio is absolutely dead on. (Karl Urban in particular is absolutely brilliant as McCoy.)
The secondary characters are all well thought out too, Uhura is pivotal to the story and is every bit the genius she is supposed to be. Sulu, Scotty and Chekov all are well written and acted and its nice to see Chekov be presented as goofy-smart as opposed to...just plain goofy. Bruce Greenwood is superb as Captain Pike.
The villians, despite not being particularly engaging or interesting, work surprisingly well. The villany in this movie is a banal and simplistic evil that nevertheless wreaks untold havoc. The villans plan is, not to put to fine a point on it....WHACKED, but they have tremendous power, murderous intent and the determination of a pit bull.
Despite the assurances that the film is not aimed at Trekkies there are in jokes and references galore...(a particularly painful "red shirt moment" elicited tremendous laughter from the audience).
I expected the film to be decent or at least interesting, I did not
expect it to kick ass and chew bubble gum the way it did. To be sure there are a few logical quibbles and some plot points that are dubious, (mostly revolving around a bumpy bit of exposition at about the halfway point,) but the pacing is superb, the acting excellent and the action nearly non stop. As a sumer action flick this is great. As a Trek film it is one of the best.
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It is the best odd numbered Trek out there. But it is not better than Wrath of Khan, in my opinion. The reason Khan remains superior is not only the development of the characters, but the pacing of the movie. J.J. Abrams seemed to have only one gear in this movie: full tilt. That's nice in action scenes, but you need to have crescendos, rest periods (I know there is a better term but I can't think of it this morning), and then builds to the next crescendo.
Khan has a build up to the initial ambush sequence, then the aftermath where you how its affected the characters. Then it builds up to the first showdown on the Genesis planet, followed by the revelations of Kirk's past and his fears. Then it starts building up again to the Battle of Mutara Nebula.
By contrast, Star Trek doesn't seem to have this. It starts off dropping the viewers into first confrontation. Then with barely a moment to recover, you get the accelerated introductions to Kirk and Spock. Both of which keep going at the same pace. About the only build is in the Star Fleet Academy scenes. Everything else its like being a bullet train. It works in this film. But it would have been nicer to every once in a while slow it down a bit.
If only I could meld Nicholas Meyer with J.J. Abrams and it would produce the perfect Star Trek movie.
Posted by: Bill at Sun May 10 13:59:10 2009 (BtODw)
2
Did they leave out Nurse Chapel? (I hope I hope I hope)
Did they leave out Nurse Chapel? (I hope I hope I hope)
We never see her, but during a humorous scene where McCoy is trying to deal with some...medication side effects...he shouts at an offscreen Nurse Chapel for some medication. However, I'd have to watch again but I think that it was mentioned later in the film
that she was "on deck 6"along with Dr. Boyce. I gathered that almost everyone on deck 6 died. .
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon May 11 20:11:50 2009 (V5zw/)
More Uninformed K-ON! Blogging
I still haven't seen K-ON! yet, but this series went on my to-watch list when I first heard about it. Pixie has had the credits up for two weeks and has some thoughts (including a very considerate earworm warning for the opening). I just now got around to watching them....
Not that I'll be able to see it for a while but I blundered into these 3 .gifs from K-ON! this evening. Not having seen the series, I lack any context but they seem to show one of the protagonists enthusiastically enjoying, respectively, a waffle, a chair, and some acid. The animation and art seem to be to Kyo-Ani's usual standards. I'm still looking forward to this.
If anyone has a review feel free to link to it in the comments.
UPDATE: Avatar has thoughts on this and several other recent shows. He seems upbeat overall.
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If anything, the art's significantly below KyoAni's normal standard - the character animation is loose as hell. The best is quite good, but the average isn't nearly as high as usual.
Basic plot is that spacy protagonist gets lured into the "light music" club (thus, "kei-on"), which has three musicians looking to form a band. They need a guitarist, but Yui's never touched a guitar in her life. She's also got the attention span of a gnat who's been mainlining speed and Red Bull. Hilarity, as they say, ensues.
I'll do a post on it, just got to decide when...
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Thu Apr 23 14:56:22 2009 (pWQz4)
Not so far off, actually. It's not a waffle, though.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Thu Apr 23 17:50:33 2009 (Duio9)
3
Spacey but she has a "whim of iron." The episode in which she acquires her first guitar is hilarious, since I've know the same thing to happen with a budding teen musician, "bright, shiny, pretty!"
Posted by: toadold at Mon Apr 27 00:35:06 2009 (zcbXo)
4
Nice try "Stephanie" Or should I say Vladimir Spamkovik. Pretending to
be a girl on the internet was your first mistake. Pretending to be a
girl that's actually interested in ME was so laughably improbable that you couldn't have
gotten Charles Fort to believe it. You're a bad spammer and a bad
person and will never amount to being anything other than a punch line
or a swear word. Quit now, wash your hands of this failure and go find
work where you are not a living embodiment of the Peter Principle.
This imaginary young lady has something to say to you as well.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Nov 5 05:15:33 2012 (e9h6K)
Anime News: Some Regrettably Accurate..Some Regrettably Not THAT Anime Blog has a roundup of most of the upcoming season. It makes an interesting comparison with this prediction I recently received via E-Mail.
As your brains may grudgingly recall, this time last year I predicted some of
the anime trends we'd be seeing soon. For those of you whom time has been a
balm to soothe the mind, let me rub raw some old wounds: remember Hobos,
Hairdressers, Veterinarians, and Mushrooms.
I confidently measure my
predictive powers against the track records of such luminous benchmarks as
Nostradamus, any economist (other than Adam Smith), and the Christian Bible.
As we venture forward further, the producers of Japanese manga and anime have
begun to make their intentions known. I predict 2010 shall be the year
of:
1) Demolition Derbys (a.k.a Banger Racing in Europe) 2)
Reptiles/Dinosaurs (listed separately because there are too many people on
this list who know the difference). 3) Gardening 4) Belgians
As
usual, at first the new elements will be introduced into fairly safe
territory:
Thumb Green : A heartfelt series about an orphan,
Tanazaki, who is adopted into a family of estate gardeners. Mom works in
topiaries and Dad prefers tea roses, but the adopted son follows in
bonsai-enthusiast grandfather's steps. When the last Japanese heir to the
estate dies and the manor falls to the young Belgian heiress, can Tanazaki
learn to forgive her shameful secret and teach her to live in harmony with
the back lawn? And will Tanazaki's new sister, who may feel more than
sisterly-affection for Tanazaki, ever perfect her compost pile? Look for the
hidden symbolism of the koi pond as it reflects the state of romance between
the heiress, the orphan, and the possibly-insane sister.
Crash 1911 :
A truly anachronistic and jingoistic offering, Crash 1911 is set in 1914(!)
in a Miyazakiburgstein (one of those generic Western-Central European with
steampunk touches) setting. "Crash 1911" refers to the undefeated reign of
driver Josef Tildeff's and his 1911 season winning twelve-competitor
collision. Now in 1914, most of the participants of that epic season have
returned with even more-outlandish cars and unlikely proteges, including a
deaf Mongolian, a Cajun zydeco-playing grandmother, and Tildeff's own protege
who is (you guessed it) a Japanese orphan. How will each of the competitor's
life experiences aid them in the upcoming derby? And why is it every
non-Asian character except the son of the Belgian calvary officer painted in
such a negative light? Still, all the mechanical designs will look like "the
Secret of Blue Water" meet "Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bag" to the point that the
only fan disappointment will be that none of the cars actually
fly.
Sensai Crocogator-san's Class Trip : Middle-school Crocogator takes
his students on a different class trip each week, visiting factories,
places of historical interest, zoos, etc. Students from different walks of
life (dirt poor, privileged rich, brains, jocks, and just-average-losers)
all learn important lessons each week while they face the challenges
of growing up Japanese. Each week at least one student will be eaten by
this pedagoguish member of Osteolaemus holtzus (common name: the
Too-Clever Crocodile), but never fear - they tend to reappear in the middle
of the episode with no apparent ill-effect. The series will impart a love
of history. Season highlights will include the hilarious Alligator-wrestling
episode and the tour of the Diet building.
Later, as fallow
ground goes further a-weed, we will see:
Caimen Maid Crisis! : This
rather pedestrian tale will be a complete ripoff of last season's
'Matic-Panic Stylist Yuki, except the cybernetic-valet will be replaced with
an alien Crocodilian Princess and the original threatening alien invasion
will be replaced by Atlantean golems. There will be no plot-twists that
couldn't be predicted by hyper-active ten year-olds. Sales of the figurines
of the Caimen Maid will convince the producers to put out 19 OVAs, each of
which feature her in a different provocative outfit that can be lucratively
merchandised.
Pumpkin Road-rage: It's the future, and a growing segment
of the transportation market features mutated, semi-intelligent vegetables.
The smartest of these appears to be Pumpkin Buggy, an orange sports-car with
a seed-spitting cannon. When rogue cars from the Belgian-based
Zucchini Biotechnical begin causing traffic havoc, Pumpkin Buggy and his
owner are drafted into the Tokyo Police Department to fight these
street-racing, squash-smashing renegades. It's "Jayce and the Wheeled
Warriors" meets "Speed Buggy" with a hint of "Riding Bean" and "ADP
Police."
(Name Witheld For His Protection)
Lest you judge my corespondent too harshly I would point out that he really did guess...unlike the above linked bloggers who I strongly suspect...peeked. Note too that unless there is some hapless cypher-nebish added to Queens Blade he was surprisingly prescient in not predicting any Harem shows.
Which is one of the few bright spots of the upcoming season (For me anyway)
Regards the actual upcoming season, my corespondents predictions certainly showed more innovation than the real thing. Queens Blade looks to likely to take 'fan service' well into the realm of diminishing returns...(the trailer is age blocked by You Tube...and rightly so ). However, while the reverse harem show Hanasakaru Sheishounen appeals to me even less, it is neat to see that there actually is one.
As to things that I'm actually looking forward to, the upcoming season is sparse pickings...with shows that seem to be ranging from the dystopic to the insipid. There are some things that seem to have some promise however. Providing I have any opportunity to watch anything, the long awaited sequel to Full Metal Achemistis certainly high on my "to watch" list, and I take comfort in the fact that it is the only one I'm reasonably confident will be brought over.
The brief synopsis given of of K-ON looks interesting...
The story about four high school girls that try to sustain their
school’s popular music club despite being unable to read music or play
instruments.
Heh...This could be cute.
The return of Hayate the Combat Butler is unlikely to suck, while the original was not high art it was enjoyably demented...For those unaware it tells the story of a competent and practical but...unlucky young lad who lands a job as a butler/bodyguard for an insanely rich and sheltered debutante and her bizzare household.
Of particular interest to me (being that I'm an utter geek) is, of course, that show the THAT crowd tossed onto the end of their post...as if it was an afterthought or something. (Infidels!) It appears that the next several weeks will see a straight up remake of... Mazinger Z!
Oh be still my beating childhood! Wow...Sad case of arrested development that I am, I fear I am going to have to watch this. I mean what could be cooler?
1
Hmm, that QB trailer looks pretty bad. I wonder if it were even possible to create one so bad for Sekirei.
K-ON looks like Manabi reprised, of course I'm watching that.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Mar 18 22:43:10 2009 (/ppBw)
2
The character designs for K-ON are great, and the concept sounds like it could work well, so definitely on my list.
Queens Blade looks like a train wreck. And while a train wreck with boobies is still a train wreck, it is also still a train wreck with boobies. So I'll give it about half an episode. Maybe a little longer if the girl with the magic hair shows up.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Fri Mar 20 10:40:49 2009 (PiXy!)
Refined Cultural References For the Erudite Geek
Wonderduck has started a conversation about what sort of geekery geeks should grok.
I'm not one to really ask about this as video games are a big part of the geek culture that long since passed me by and...well...I don't play many video games. I can count the ones I have played over the last 5 years on 1 hand.
Interesting FindAmongst the 37 songs I've thus far hunted down and put in the Blogradio rotation is one I blundered into quite unexpectedly: The radio edit of Hoshi no DejaVu, the OP song from Southern Cross.
I've been told that the song, (rather unlike the show) was fairly popular in Japan, topping the charts in 1984 at one point. It's an oddball find and it sort of blends with the other stuff too...
Hobby Space News of the commercial space industry A Babe In The Universe Rather Eclectic Cosmology Encyclopedia Astronautica Superb spacecraft resource The Unwanted Blog Scott Lowther blogs about forgotten aerospace projects and sells amazingly informative articles on the same. Also, there are cats. Transterrestrial Musings Commentary on Infinity...and beyond! Colony WorldsSpace colonization news! The Alternate Energy Blog It's a blog about alternate energy (DUH!) Next Big Future Brian Wang: Tracking our progress to the FUTURE. Nuclear Green Charles Barton, who seems to be either a cool curmudgeon, or a rational hippy, talks about energy policy and the terrible environmental consequences of not going nuclear Energy From Thorium Focuses on the merits of thorium cycle nuclear reactors WizBang Current events commentary...with a wiz and a bang The Gates of Vienna Tenaciously studying a very old war The Anchoress insightful blogging, presumably from the catacombs Murdoc Online"Howling Mad Murdoc" has a millblog...golly! EaglespeakMaritime security matters Commander Salamander Fullbore blackshoe blogging! Belmont Club Richard Fernandez blogs on current events BaldilocksUnderstated and interesting blog on current events The Dissident Frogman French bi-lingual current events blog The "Moderate" VoiceI don't think that word means what they think it does....but this lefty blog is a worthy read nonetheless. Meryl Yourish News, Jews and Meryls' Views Classical Values Eric Scheie blogs about the culture war and its incompatibility with our republic. Jerry Pournell: Chaos ManorOne of Science fictions greats blogs on futurism, current events, technology and wisdom A Distant Soil The website of Colleen Dorans' superb fantasy comic, includes a blog focused on the comic industry, creator issues and human rights. John C. Wright The Sci-Fi/ Fantasy writer muses on a wide range of topics. Now Read This! The founder of the UK Comics Creators Guild blogs on comics past and present. The Rambling Rebuilder Charity, relief work, roleplaying games Rats NestThe Art and rantings of Vince Riley Gorilla Daze Allan Harvey, UK based cartoonist and comics historian has a comicophillic blog! Pulpjunkie Tim Driscoll reviews old movies, silents and talkies, classics and clunkers. Suburban Banshee Just like a suburban Leprechaun....but taller, more dangerous and a certified genius. Satharn's Musings Through TimeThe Crazy Catlady of The Barony of Tir Ysgithr アニ・ノート(Ani-Nouto) Thoughtful, curmudgeonly, otakuism that pulls no punches and suffers no fools. Chizumatic Stephen Den Beste analyzes anime...with a microscope, a slide rule and a tricorder. Wonderduck Anime, Formula One Racing, Sad Girls in Snow...Duck Triumphalism Beta Waffle What will likely be the most thoroughly tested waffle evah! Zoopraxiscope Too In this thrilling sequel to Zoopraxiscope, Don, Middle American Man of Mystery, keeps tabs on anime, orchids, and absurdities. Mahou Meido MeganekkoUbu blogs on Anime, computer games and other non-vital interests Twentysided More geekery than you can shake a stick at Shoplifting in the Marketplace of Ideas Sounds like Plaigarism...but isn't Ambient IronyAll Meenuvians Praise the lathe of the maker! Hail Pixy!!
their ill-conceived invasion attempt went awry. Their leader now lives in secret as the sort of housekeeper for a comic book creator and her children. Other members of his squad are scattered around the neighborhood and similarly ensconced with various humans...all of whom possess significant normalcy deficits. Every week he contacts his teammates and they join forces to conquer the planet Pekaponia (Earth)... hilarity ensues. As an aside, the show teaches younger viewers important life lessons as well...such as the fact that women are scary and dangerous and best avoided....even if they are wearing sweatervests.
Amongst the 37 songs I've thus far hunted down and put in the Blogradio rotation is one I blundered into quite unexpectedly: The radio edit of Hoshi no DejaVu, the OP song from Southern Cross. 
