アニ・ノート

Suguru is nothing if not persistent. I’m curious if he’s going to see Crescent Love like I did or not. I have to admit, I toyed with the idea of continuing the nominally suspended series many times. Feena compels. BTW, I tried to explain it to him before, but I guess my power to link is not great enough, more the pity: it was a passable cantalope, really.

The idea of “uber-bishoujo is interesting, and it would be interesting to see a permalink to Stripey’s thoughts. The comparison with Lafiel is making itself too.

UPDATE: He’s already seen all 12 episodes and posted the final summary. I was just reading and thinking “so true… so true…” But I have to say that Suguru’s sacrifice cemented my decision not to return.

The Epic Win lives up to its name by putting a witty twist onto the end-of-the-year summary theme. The biege butts owned totally, I laughed. Thanks, Orion and Guff, I needed that.

Their last item was a brutal beating of Code Geass. The most damning is probably this:

And of course the final over-the-top cliffhanger of an ending that leaves all the tension up in the air and none of the loose ends resolved…and all of that after making fans wait months for the season finale.

I’ve read about the bad end at Omo’s thing before, but an independent confirmation is welcome. Now it becomes conspicous how Owen neglected to mention the trainwreck.

It looks like a flu with an opportunistic bacterial infection. The blog will return later. Cannot sit upright long enough to watch an episode, but no matter, ef 12 is not translated yet.

I’m reserving a hotel for my imminent trip to TAF through a quaintest website ever. To begin with, it has messages such as this:

Thank you very much for your inquiry. We estimate as below. Please check and reserve after mature consideration.

No SSL, but then it does not take a credit card either. Nothing prevents a prankster from reserving all rooms in all hotels in the association… Like I said, quaint.

Orbitz suggested me the same Shinagawa Prince where J. Greely stayed for a low price of $164. Looking through the Internet, Ueno should be a superior location.

Seen at Omo’s today:

Not long ago I finished the last episode of ef - a tale of memories. It’s by far the most impressive anime of 2007. Sadly that’s just my impression and not a lasting opinion tested with time, but it was hard to deny that ef was a gimmick intended to impress. Much like Zetsubo Sensei and Hidamari Sketch, ef is the product of SHAFT, the same studio and pretty close to the same production team.

I’m so envious of raw watchers. Currently I’m batching the last 3 episodes of ef to marathon it. But I’m pleased to know that ef’s ending went well with Michaelhim. Honestly, it was a concern (which is not gone completely yet, SDB loved ending of Vandread, I hated it, but I’m “cautiously optimistic”). Also:

In the case of Seirei no Moribito, it was honestly pre-licensed as the flagship show kicking off Production IG’s 10th anniversary (IG is already one badass animation studio in Japan, not to mention the show is based on an acclaimed novel series to as well). In the case for Dennou Coil, it’s a primetime NHK project with 8 years in the making and a lot of anticipation (and no hype!). It bugs the hell out of me simply because I see what’s so good about those two shows, yet neither manages to make me care about them very much; yet I can’t stop talking about crappy shows like these SHAFT offerings [ef, SZS, and Hidamari].

Indeed. And an ouch for Dennou Coil. I think I’ll complete it one day, maybe, when it’s on Netflix.

FRIDGE UPDATE: I think we can add Rocket Girls to the coveted list of crappy shows of 2007 which beat the pants of flagship productions as far as interesting their viewers. It’s the most fun and exciting show, where ef is most moving and touching. And it wasn’t made by SHAFT, so being interesting is not some special SHAFT magic. BTW, Omo knew about it.

My softcover edition of “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” has the following at the page 122:

So I went through the entire plant. I have a very bad memory, but when I work intensively I have a good short-term memory, and so I could remember all kinds of crazy things like the building 90-207, vat number so-and-so, and so forth.

It looks that I was wrong when I wrote that she can retain seven things. The seven things limit deals with items in the immediate attention, but evidently the short-term memory goes further than that. By definition it’s maintained by agitated neurons, and a brain has billions of those.

Chihiro actually sneaks in a small expose on the topic somewhere around ep.4, when she explains her techniques of retention to Renji. I thought it was a little unrealistic, but perhaps not so much.

This 10s clip makes me uncomfortable for some reason (seen at ef-memo.com):

Maybe it’s because Geneon are threatening to take the precious fantasy and turn it into a vulgar teenage porn.

Also, their Kei seems shockingly sturdy.

This is going to spoil a lot, but this what efbloggers have to do. I found myself saving URLs for later, and it’s a good thing most people mark the episode in the summary. So, Moe-moe writes:

With the sudden breakdown of Chihiro last episode, I was certainly surprised at her speedy recovery throughout this episode. She seemed to go from the hysterical girl 4 years ago and throwing her diary at Renji, to somehow falling in love with him again in what seems to be the span of a day. Is that what Chihiro does every single day when she wakes up? I find it rather hard to believe how she can somehow remain the same type of character that she is if she went from being confused and frustrated to being the calm and cheerful girl that we have seen in the earlier episodes. I can only imagine how much she actually has to read in her diary just to remember all the things from a certain point of time to now.

This is not how I saw it. I do not claim that my understanding is any better, in fact it’s probably worse, but here goes.

Chihiro took about a week or two to come to her senses, with every meeting counting a day or more. However, it was very clear that due to random circumstances of the moment she awakens, her personality differs every time somewhat (this is, in a way, the scenario of Mahoraba). It seems to me, however, that she then molds it subsequently by letting herself forget things. A person can retain up to seven things in short-term memory, so Chihiro has complete control over them.

This process may be related to one other detail: I’m quite certain that she spins things in the diary. It came up first during all the pre-reset kissing and confession hubbub, when she obviousy has read what did not really happen (ironically, I do not remember the detail itself, because I failed to note it down). It also happened after the reset and more explicitly. At that time she completely handwaved it on the spot. Honestly, I started to worry that Himura tampers with the diary.

Regardless if she does this on purpose, she exhibits a certain flexibility in what she remembers. Renjii is very lucky she does not choose to remember nasty things.

Until Jeff Lawson included Lovely Complex into his 2007 list, I had no idea that it was a 2007 title. I’ve read about it at Karmaburn and made a mental note, but it seemed like some old school show. I eventually relegated it to the bottom of the queue for having a trap with kissing. A flimsy excuse, I know. I watched “Some Like It Hot” back in the day, but I have to sort the wheat from chaff somehow, however imperfectly.

I’m not just reading blogs, but also rewatched Haibane Renmei raw. Sadly, it’s too hard. And it’s not just Washi.

Again I saw a few things not seen previously, for example Midori grabs Hyoko under the arm at the festival (uh-oh).

Returning to present, as far as powerful storetelling goes, ef does not measure up (Dennou Coil might, we’ll see; Manabi’s strength lies elsewhere). Apparently either it’s difficult for the industry to perform at Haibane’s level all the time, or the market is not there.

Currently, Haibane Renmei’s sales rating at Amazon is 14,697. It’s middle of the road for an old series. Stellvia tin pulls pitiful 49,887; Shingu: 45,467; RahXephon: 14,211; Lain: 9,604; Azumanga thinpack: 7,563. To see what current “hits” (as much as it applies to anime) can reach, Naruto Uncut v.5 is 559.