アニ・ノート

Orion sez:

Speaking as someone who’s done a fair amount of kendo, that was a dang good hit. My reaction was pretty much the same as all the other characters. Successfully executing a fast and precise taiatari hiki-men like that is not an easy thing to do, especially against a skilled opponent.

Anyway, all that to say, I’m very impressed with Satori, and very impressed with Bamboo Blade for keeping the kendo fairly realistic, unlike many over-the-top sports series.

Like I said, Bamboo Blade is Rocket Girls of the Autumn 2007 in more ways than one.

Random Curiosity runs a poll for the favourite series of 2007, 135 entries. Of course such polls are easily broken (you know about the Ron Paul poll-stuffing and spamming botnet, right), but still, it may be interesting. I wonder if I’m going to be the only person voting for a certain show… It should’ve been Manabi Straight, but I missed it in the list and voted for something else. I’m not giving it away though. Vote for yourself.

BOST move over! The heavy hitter is in town:

So when ADV quietly announced their new Anime Network online streaming video service, I thought it was best news to come from the industry since the launch of the Tokyopop’s “Authentic Manga” line.

Quetly announced indeed. I did not know about this until I read the above.

I think that if this can be watched at all, it can blow BOST out of the water. Firstly, most people have an unlimited tolerance for ads. Remember how many buy Disney DVDs with non-skippable ads. So, ad-supported services will always win. Add to it the fact that BOST is hella expensive. I can hear the whining “i’m too poor to pay but i’m entitled to watch shows for which i don’t wanna pay” already. And most importantly, just ask yourself if you’d rather be watching Keitai Shoujo or Gurren-Lagann? Two words: Yoko’s chest (she also has a gun).

UPDATE: I have a suggestion for Mr. Kellis: ask a friend to install a proxy (a datagram-based VPN would be the best for trans-pacific performance, but SOCKS will work as a quick fix). I suspect that Maestro would not look kindly on using Moe Check’s own server for this purpose, or you would not even need a friend.

Concrete Badger comes out with a premature summary (on the heels of a recent episodic post).

He is taking a risk by making pronouncements about series which haven’t completed yet. He thinks he knows who pairs whom, but there can always be a NICE BOAT. Miyako at one point mentioned that she can only spend little time with Hiro, and I thought she’s hinting a terminal illness, perhaps. I did not get back and work out the precise translation because I’m pretty set on getting DVDs anyway, so I was going to save that for the future. If she rolls over in the last episode, it’s going to rehash things.

Badger also comes down on the other side of the main divide from me: he’s watching for the Miyako and Hiro, whereas I mostly ignore what the dumb trio is doing (or is it a quad now with Kosaka).

Omo asks a good question: where are all the industry blogs? Commenters chime in with suggestions.

All I know so far is that blogs exists which purport to represent the industry but are actually done by outsiders (like TAB), or run by marketing side (anime.ign.com). I don’t know of anything readable from the industry itself, so my umbilical is ANN (except the personal blogs mentioned in comments). So, thanks for bringing up dot ANIME (now let’s persuade them to provide a feed).

Hashi-hime has the scoop, and it looks like there’s nothing for me to watch, except possibly True tears.

I saw the gif a week ago at Moero Amazon, as a thumbnail, and thought that it was done locally there, but now Orion posts a full-size version. Strange. Anyway, there’s lot more fun screencaps at Epic Win, even if the swallowing of chalk is missing. Good times.

UPDATE: Orion writes in e-mail that most likely the animated gifs were made
independedly. The moe.ro one was posted earlier, but it’s a thumbnail.

In today’s quicktakes Steven drops the hammer on Aoi Sakuraba:

I think Aoi is the problem. She’s an otaku dream girl, but of a kind that is hard for a westerner to stomach, the “Yamato Nadesico”.

My problem with this statement is the Steven’s projection of personal biases. The type is not hard for a westerner to stomach, it’s hard for Steven to stomach.

I suppose I’m not a bona fide “westerner” despite all the efforts of Peter The Great, so my opinion does not count. But what about Shamus? I think his western cred is pretty much unassailable.

Damien goes all personal on the ass of Someday’s Dreamers and shares this practice:

No other anime has yet caused me that sort of distress again, mainly because since then, I have been actively avoiding any anime which is supposed to “make you cry”.

Unfortunately, I think he’s only bidding his time, because, if Someday’s Dreamers caught him flat-footed, just about anything can. Heck, I cried for Lucky Star (I don’t remember exactly where, I think it was during the ghost visit). And then again, Azumanga.

With that in mind, I still avoid uncomfortable anime too, and often it takes ugly forms. Dennou Coil is sitting abandoned in the middle of the sleepover episode because I sensed a turn to the worse during the preparations for the duel.

This is why I always give people a strange look when they tell me that my refusal to watch sad anime (or, to be specific, sad parts of anime) means that I am “missing out”. Better for me to miss out on an outstanding anime, I feel, than to lose hours or days of my life in catatonia.

They have no idea, so of course they think that he’s missing out. For most people the balance is calibrated differently.

I found myself willing to trade to a certain extent, if something uncommonly fascinating is offered, e.g. ef (which, so far, turned out to be a risk well worth taking; not that I’m suggesting it to Damien or anything — just reporting).

Scott is back. It remains to be seen if he can keep it up, but if he can, he is going to be the first such case. Neither Sama Zama nor Astro (his neighbours in my feedlist) seem able and/or willing. Gambare.