アニ・ノート

Heard today:

<sagematt> I wonder why zaitcev thought that Soramani stood a chance.

Here’s one of the reasons:

Yes it’s generic school romance comedy show, but it has nothing offensive and digusting and irritating about it that would stop me from watching it. Many might think Mihoshi is annoying but her character reminds me a lot of Nanaka from Nanaka 6/17 as well as Midori from Midori no Hibi.

In actual event, Mii-chan turned out a nasty little bitch (sorry to repeat myself, but it’s accurate), and a complete opposite of Midori. Midori dedicated herself to her love completely, whereas Mihoshi only thinks about herself (or deludes herself into thinking that she’s good to the object of her interest, but result is the same).

I remember vaguely a literary work (possibly a classic) where two brothers, now adults, talk and reminisce. The big brother asks “do you remember those wonderful pillow fights we used to have?” and the little brother says, “oh yes, I do remember. Do you want to have one?”. Then they take pillows and the little brother kicks the big brother in the nuts as hard as he can, then observes the understanding slowly appearing on the other’s face.

That’s about what Mihoshi deserved for her precious memories, too, but alas, she’s a girl, so that’s impossible. And the dumb bint would probably not understand either. She had a small chance in the anime, and passed on it.

The first 9 minutes 40 seconds of Sora ni Manimani look very much like an extremely low-rent reprise of Honey and Clover to me.

The art, on the average [1], is unimpressive. Yoakena was better, what to say about Toradora, Kimikiss, etc. So, I’m not optimistic. I’ll give the story a chance, but if it continues to turn around the dysfunctional relationship of Mii and the loser, out it goes. I cannot believe I am about to compliment Taiga here.

UPDATE: The second part was even worse. Saku put up a pretty decent fight and won some respects for talking down the nasty little bitch at first, but with the railroad plot like this was there any doubt in his doom? Even the better parts came out screwy, namely Fumie Kotozuka. Where are the likes of Yuri Kurosu and Sumire Kusou? Not made anymore, apparently! I was so upset that I closed VLC without listening to the ED.

[1] The short scene in the train with the whispering girls was drawn ok, but it was about the only 7 seconds of good stuff. Granted, scaling characters down for a group that listened to Mii’s recruiting looked ok as well, but that was even shorter and static.

When I saw the title of the post, I thought he’s trying to discuss Toradora. I wonder if he permits a series to be both dramatic and melodramatic simultaneously, possibly in different aspects.

UPDATE: Theowne replies with a deeper look. BTW, it’s refreshing to see someone referring to Ayn Rand on the merits and not using her as a political fetish.

Otou reports on the greatest anime series ever.

One of the unexpected turns (if not quite a twist) is like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann’s most masterful one: it turns out the series isn’t actually about who you think it’s about. Well… it is and it isn’t.

No need to be so cagey about it: the Hero+Narrator structure of Haibane was discussed freely by bloggers ([1,2]). It’s not a new approach to storytelling: A.S.Pushkin employed it in The Captain’s Daughter back in 1836, for example. ABe just applied it masterfuly. I don’t know if he pioneered it in anime.

GA: Genjusuka Art Design Class is so comfortable, and the fansub situation is so bad, that I tried to go raw. Impossible, of course.

One exception is when a text is present, like in case of soft-and-hard excercise.

Also, turning Super-Saiyan needs no explanation.

But otherwise, I’m helpless at the mercy of Ayako.

I actually linked the famous musical number before and that was enough to snare Sixten, but the geriatric animeblogger club at Meenuvia needed prodding by Wonderduck before they started paying attention (also, Mr. Duck embedded the video instead of simply linking it).

It would not be a big spoiler to reveal that Koume’s number is the only musical insert in the first 2 episodes, perhaps in the whole show. Nonetheless, it has something in common with the main idea of the series, so it’s not a deceptive ad.

BTW, I used an electric commuter train just like the one Koume was riding momentarily. According to its data plate, it was made in 1932, and remained in service in Irkutsk until 1970s, long past the time when ER-1 et.al. took over the lines near the capital.

Where TYM really shines is the artwork. Where Bakemonogatari is crisp, hip and stylish, TYM looks more like a watercolor painting for the most part, with fluid animation and realisticly drawn characters (though Koume’s perpetually rosy cheeks are a little out of place). It’s really a nice, almost gentle, show, which is strange to say about a sports anime. Baseball being what it is, however, it fits quite nicely.

So he says, but when Koume and Akiko visit the training ground for the first time, they are so shocked out of their socks by the violence of the game.

Anyhow, the art of Taishou Yakyuu Musume is outstanding indeed. I also appreciate how J.C.Staff decided not to skip on animating secondary characters and body language movements. There’s a ton of small turns and such.