K-ON! 01

Feels like Lucky Kannagi

Winter Season Thoughts

Lately I’ve been a little slow on the intake of anime and such. I blame Ar tonelico 2 (best RPG ever, by the way) and general apathy and laziness. Anyway, of the stuff I’ve watched, much of it has turned out to be above average at best. I think. Older fall-season shows won’t be included. Just because.

Maria†Holic
Yuri-trap stuff with SHAFT-style comedy. I like this a lot more than I did Pani Poni Dash or Negima?!, even if the humor is more or less similar. It’s got the absurdness of SZS without the zillion references, making the humor a lot more understandable and accessible to a Japanese-culture-impaired person like me.

Akikan!
Oh my god, just two episodes are enough to make my eyes bleed AND cause brain tumors. Surprising that such a show came out from the same studio that did something so awesome as Baccano!.

Asu no Yoichi
Pretty so-so. It’s watchable, and each of the sisters is clearly (though stereotypically) different from each other. A few moments of chuckles here and there, but nothing outstanding. And the, as Aroduc coins, thouspeak does get on the nerves.

Minami-ke Okaeri
Definitely feels more Minami-ke than Okawari. The animation style and character designs have been changed to something more like the original show (teardrop mouths!). I’m still as dense as ever and I never really laugh at their jokes. Almost never.

RideBack
It’s too early for me to objectively talk about the show, but it does seem to have some promise. I don’t like the slightly messy hairstyle of the main character though, but that’s just my OMG ANIME HAIR SHOULD BE STRAIGHT impulse.

White Album
To be honest, I haven’t gotten to watching more than a single episode of the show. It feels like I really need a lot of energy to watch the show, because it’s internally tiring in ways I have yet to comprehend. On the one episode I actually did watch, it definitely has a different aura and air to it compared to almost ever eroge-adaptation anime I’ve seen; can’t quite explain it, but that’s how it is for me. Apparently, because it’s styled in the 80’s anime sort of fashion, and I haven’t really experienced much, if any at all, of those kinds of shows.

Sora Kake Girl
It’s a very… refreshing show. Very energetic and never really a dull moment. Jun Fukuyama doesn’t even bother with changing his voice anymore so Leopard sounds like Lelouch, albeit insane. ALI PROJECT OP aside, the show is very pleasant overall, but I can’t quite tell what direction the show’s trying to take. There’s action, and there’s comedy, and there’s some deeper stuff going on in the background, but looking at the show as a whole, it’s got a very positive, happy-go-lucky sort of flow that clashes with some other aspects.

Chrome-shelled Regios
I read a single volume of the translated manga and well, what I remember completely conflicts with what I’m seeing. The names, character designs, all seem familiar, but in a different setting. Anyway, the show’s not bad at all; lots of action, time set aside for character building and plot too. I’ll probably go with it all the way to the end to fulfill my need for a bit of action in my anime intake.

Kurokami
I thought the show was pretty good in its own right… before I read the manga. The liberties Sunrise has taken with the source material are clear as day, and frankly, it really nags at me. Sort of like how Konata referred to drama CD’s and anime having different voice actors. You know that they’re different media, but they still feel kind of different. I’ve yet to go much further than the second episode, but Kurokami is still quite a competent show.

Shoujo wo Miageru Sora no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai aka: Munto TV
First, what the blazes is Kyoto Animation doing with such a horribly long name. And why are they resurrecting a really old 2-part OVA by turning it into a series? I honestly have no clue. They seem to be paying less attention to the show compared to something like CLANNAD, however, as evident by the lower quality animation of Munto TV (in comparison to aforementioned show). It’s pretty bad though, from what I’ve seen – half an episode. Not really worth watching, except maybe just to see what KyoAni can do with its own original material.

Kemono no Souja Erin
Feels like a kids-y, Disney-y show. Almost all the kanji show have furigana, the narrator speaks in a clear, slow tone, and generally uses comparatively simple words. On the show itself, I can’t quite enjoy it all that much. I’ve never really enjoyed things like this normally, but I really would like to expand my horizons, broaden my palate, that sort of thing.
I should probably finish the second half of the first episode.

Hetalia Axis Powers
Episode 1: Wut.
Episode 2: Wut.

End of Year Rundown – 2008

This year was filled with all sorts of shows. Good shows, average shows, “I-ought-to-watch-these-some-other-time” shows. I’ll be doing a verylong rundown on what I think is a list of all of the shows I’ve watched for the first time within the year. VERY tl;dr post up ahead, grazing past 2500 words. Read it or skip along as you please.

12 Days, 12 Moments in Anime – Day 12

Moment #1: Aria

To be specific, the ending of Aria the Animation. Okay, sure, it wasn’t exactly a Christmas setting, but the feelings, the mood it invoked, were the same.
Truth be told, I watched the full series earlier this year, and then the thirteenth episode another time just a few minutes ago, just to keep the feelings a little fresh. It really delivered a simple message to me: No matter what you occasion you’re celebrating, what makes it all worthwhile is being with the people you hold dear. For Akari, it was being with her friends and seniors, Aika, Alice, Alicia, et. al. For me, well, it’s my family and my friends are (though obviously they’re with their own families).
It really hit me hard this year because, if you remember a previous post, my grandmother passed away. She was always there during our family’s Christmas parties, so her absence really drove home that little insight I had.
I just love Aria for things like these. Despite being set so distantly, it still feels so close. The wonderful things I pick up from this show only add to my appreciation of the series, and adding to that, the wonderful, relaxed feeling I always get when watching the show, it makes for a perfect way to celebrate Christmas and the rest of the year.

Buon Natale.

12 Days, 12 Moments in Anime – Day 11

Moment #2 – 5cm per Second

Byousoku was, and still is, my favorite animated film.
I’ve re watched it twice last year and another time this year, with each rewatch adding more and more to my appreciation of it. The visuals were excellent, the sound was great, but there was something more to it. A lot of people mentioned how they were able to empathize with Takaki – how his experiences in the film were able to remind those people of their own. Now to be honest, I’ve never had a romantic relationship before (go figure) so I never could empathize, but despite that, it was able to bring out a sense of sympathy for Takaki.
In my first viewing, I was never really able to take in the deeper aspects of the film. Rather than concentrating on the movie’s other portions, like themes, moods, emotions, I was more concentrated on the technical aspects of 5cm. The graphics were downright stunning, and the voice acting wasn’t half-bad either. In the end, I didn’t really feel much about the movie. It was an incredible display of well, scenery porn. And that’s all I thought in my first watch.
My second was a little more satisfactory. The last part of the movie was able to get me awfully depressed because of the ending – its ability to bring out raw emotion in me is perhaps only matched by a small number of things – ARIA and planetarian to name a few. I was also able to relate it to another of Shinkai’s movies – Voices of a Distant Star – and I noticed a couple of parallels in the themes present: love, distance, separation, they were there. After that, school took over and I wasn’t able to think about it much after.

This year, I was able to view it with a little more time to spare. A lot of parts of the movie stay in my memory, but there is a certain part: the last moment at the crossing where I found something more to the movie. It’s where a train cuts off a possible reunion with Akari and after which, Takaki moves on. Everything comes back back full circle, except this time, Akari isn’t on the other side of the tracks. To be honest, it really made me depressed and angry because they could have seen each other again, yet they were not; the distance of a single train crossing becomes comparable to that of one light years away as in Voices of a Distant Star.
I thought it was just unfair – the entire thing. And then Takaki just moves onward with a little smile on his face. Evidently, it’s not exactly a happy ending, and I guess that’s life. It’s never going to be a happy ending, but even then, you have to move on. You have to accept what life throws at you and press forward.
I guess what makes 5cm so great is its encapsulation of so many little things that you get to realize and appreciate the more you watch it.

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