アニ・ノート

I don’t know if it’s the cosmic justice or anything, but according to Hinano, Megumi Nakajima was used as a character in Vocaloid (and presumably her voice was somehow used as a base for synthesized vocals there). I mentioned it just recently that Sheryl’s singing was more dramatic and forceful in Macross Frontier than Ranka’s, but since I listened to the OST without watching the same performances in original context, it was blatantly obvious that, in an surprise reversal, Nakajima is a better singer than May’n.

Hinano herself is ironically clueless about the selection:

I never really understood why they used newbie seiyuus as vocaloids.. The only feasible vocaloid I can think of is probably Gakupo since he is based off an actually GOOD singer. Otherwise they can grab any person off the street and be like “can you sing a couple notes?

Well, who never put her foot in mouth please throw the first stone.

The soundtracks and music by itself is essentially a different world, and Hinano may simply be not adept in it, have weird tastes and preconceptions, etc. Look how in another example of unexpected discovery, I’ve become a fan of Rie Kugimiya the singer after sampling her Iori in Idolmaster musical numbers off an accidentially purchased CD. And I thought she was only a two-bit seyuu for two-bit tsundere parts. Tsk, tsk. I’m no better than Hinano when pigeon-holing them.

Anime Nation:

Isn’t Piracy Supposed to Hurt Films?

Let me get this straight. X-Men Origins: Wolverine leaked to the public more than a month prior to theatrical opening, and the flick has been widely panned. Yet it still had a $9.1 million bigger opening weekend than Star Trek, which got universally positive reviews and even advance Thursday night screenings. And with a $235 million total box office so far, including international receipts, ICv2 anticipates that Wolverine will continue to outgross Star Trek.

There’s a lesson in this for John Ledford and Chairman Kadokawa, but they hold their own customers in such contempt that I don’t expect them to learn it.

Since we’re on topic, I decided that I won’t go anywhere near this Star Trek thing after the reports of hard friskings and filming the audience. The movie industry can stuff their flick where sun does not shine.

Karmaburn:

I dropped Saki after two episodes because I don’t know crap about mahjong so it confused the Bejeesus out of me.

Now he knows how I feel about baseball shows. Only I get it worse, because there are lots of them. A game without discernable rules or purpose; I deduced that teams compete to collect points, but those are awarded arbitrarily, so the formal objective does nothing to add any sense to the proceedings. It is extremely amusing to read that so-and-so is “a natural southpaw”, though.

Last Exile opened here before the “NO-GONZO” policy was installed, so I grandfathered it. I’m still of two minds about finishing it. Last Exile is painfully GONZO, especially by the end when the typical wink-wink, pay-no-attention-to-problems, everything-is-resolved-outside-the-frame direction takes hold (where did Dio get that vanship? how did Alex free his arm?). I see now why bloggers say that all GONZO shows are exactly the same (except Vandread): they really are.

Last Exile is only better than the rest of the usual GONZO fare thanks for Sophia (pictured). And she’s not even the female lead, formally at least.

Liked: It was ok, nosedived like all GONZO shows.
Rewatch: Not even for Sophia.

P.S. I hated Vandread’s ending too, but for a different reason entirely. It did not unravel like all other GONZO endings. Instead, it delivered the message with which I disagreed. So, that end being bad was completely coincidential to the normal bad end everywhere else.

P.P.S. Now that I’m done, I went to check what Aziz thought. His analysis is much deeper than my superficial complaints above, but I think that he expends too much mental energy on an undeserving subject.

UPDATE: Sagematt points to an exception to the “all GONZO shows are the same” rule.

I received the last volume from RACS a few days ago, but only unpacked it now. And what do you know, the cover is from The Best Episode.

If everything goes well, this is the last show that I bought in singletons, ever.

DiGiKerot reminded by e-mail that without the OVA my collection is not technically complete. But while true, it’s immaterial for one-volume releases. I was only concerned about being unable to put a set together due to cancellations.

By now I already know what to expect, and Jessi does not disappoint:

I should have known that I had gotten too far this season without watching one of these nasty little throwaway eroge shows.

It’s not all recycled vocabulary though. Here’s some choice abuse heaped on the hapless show and characters that dared to satisfy different tastes:

Mashiro, probably meant to be the moe core to this rotten apple, ends up just looking freaky with her oversized fox ears and empty purple eyes. [...]

Granted, Tayutama 01 didn’t look like a masterpiece, but was it really that bad? I’m going to see a few more episodes to make sure.

UPDATE: Or maybe not:

So just based on the first episode (which is what Jessi and Pete also were talking about) this series doesn’t seem particularly stellar. I have three eps downloaded, and I may watch another. But for the moment this one ranks three snores out of five.

At the last club meeting of the semester, I watched Macross Frontier 25, some Nodame Paris-hen (about 09, I guess), and Shuffle 03.

Every time I watch Mac F, it makes a big impression. It’s definitely not a series for me, there’s too much stuff going on, and then the unresolved triangle was just such a horrible letdown in the end. Nonetheless, it’s a quality work, and an enjoyable action show. Most importantly, it’s not populated almost exclusively by characters ranging from announg to disgusting, like Plus was.

I had the OST for a while without watching the parts with the songs, even built some impressions which may be unconventional (surprisingly, Megumi Nakajima > May’n). But seeing all the singing in action adds an entirely new dimension to it.

Shuffle was just as bad as before, although the animation looked a bit better on second take. Club members unaimously agreed that it’s a terrible show, but liked it nonethless. Especially vocal was one guy who appeared to like Pani Poni Dash [1]. It takes all kinds.

Paris-hen did not seem improved from where I dropped it. Overcompressed, etc. Kuroki was a teeeeny bit better. Still, I’m not interested in continuing it.

[1] PPD was famously blurbed by SDB as “[take] 1 part Azumanga Daioh, mixed with 2 parts Excel Saga. And remove all of Azu’s charm and warmth.” Mind, the characters that I called “repulsive jerkfaces” he merely called “obnoxious”.

Only one episode of Haruhi-chan was posted this week, #25. In it, KyotoAni continues to screw with fans. I really don’t feel like posting every week only to belittle the show, since it’s certainly good for what it is: giving a stiff competion to Adventures of Mini-Goddess. On the other hand, every time I watch an installment, I’m reminded about the sadistic nature of its creators, torment of the fans, and so on.

Even Churuya-chan was infected. Honestly, in the scene where both lolis fall asleep (on Kyon, no less), I expected to see both dreams. But they only showed one. Perhaps it’s the joke, but then it’s pretty lame, even if the first dream was insanely glorious. I mean, the dance in the air, and then the smoked cheese head floating above all that in the majestic light… They probably just ran out of ideas how Achakura could rival that.

P.S. I completely forgot that Emili Kimidori was a character in the main show until a frame in 25 reminded me (she was yet another human interface, briefly appearing to entertain Haruhi). Still, being reincarnated as a balloon dog was a bad lot even for it/her/him.

I’m not sure if anyone cares, but for some reason Jason and Don decided to talk about vapid DVD reviews on ANN simultaneously. While Don stayed on topic, Jason went tl;dr how DVD reviews are bad in general… And failed to mention the name of Chris Beveridge. Didn’t fit the narrative?

BTW, it looks like Yoko loses… to Kan’u of all people.

Reading how Ledford tries to prevent stakeholders of his failed companies from hurting his new projects is quite amusing. It’s amost as good as reading the HardOCP reporting on Phantom (just not quite as extensive and has no pictures of the appartment in question). Seriously though, I cannot see a Texas judge believeing there’s no mixing assets between these entities when push comes to shove.

UPDATE: Avatar’s comment on JP’s post:

Keep in mind that ADV was having extreme financial problems, has laid off virtually all its staff, etc. Rather than license new shows under the old company name, the new shows are licensed under a new company name. This way, if the old company is forced into bankruptcy or liquidation, it doesn’t affect the licensing terms of the new shows (they’re technically owned by a different company, and thus not on ADV’s beleaguered asset sheet.)

ADV’s rented out 210-219 in that building for ages. 216 was the original suite they started with. I used to have an office in 217. If they’re still open in 210, the people that are left must be rattling around in there…

That’s what I thought all along, and thought that JP was saying the same, but I guess I didn’t follow his argument closely enough.