アニ・ノート

Beta-Waffle:

I’m about done with the whole “Hajime’s too dense to figure out Jun’s a girl” thing right now, though. I don’t expect that we’ll get a conclusion to that particular plot thread any time soon, but I don’t really want it to become the overwhelming comedic crutch that this particular season leans on.

Hanners:

I suppose the real problem here is that Jun’s dilemma regarding Hajime has been done to death by now, and it’s really reached the limit of what you can do with this particular story line – A bit of a shame as the entire scenario and the pair’s relationship was evolving quite nicely, before being thrust back into the realms of cheap comedy.

I blame Jin Kobayashi. That bastard!

Although certainly Shinbo could’ve made a clean break with the manga, it’s probably not politically feasible. Sponsors would never understand.

Since Ayako posted subs, I’m rewatching GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class on TV. The difference is stunning: colors look washed out no longer.

Mind, the setup is made of an ancient Series2 TiVo and an equally ancient Sony projection TV (made before HDMI). It’s not a high-end home theater, but the picture is so much better. Obviously is something wrong with my laptop: gamma, dying LCD, number of bits in RAMDAC, or any number of other things.

Curiosly, not every show lacks primary colors, the laptop can display them in Gurren-Lagann. But GA:GADC is especially vulnerable. I guess it has something to do with color resolution.

UPDATE: Zyl comments that size advantage is more important for him. I’ve got 48″, but that mostly means that I have to move coach further out.

The suspension was mentioned previously, but I feel that I owe this series at least one screencap, since I could not get one for starter post.

The reasons for the fall are strictly speaking not the same as Strike Witches, which was was done in by ridiculous “fanservice” before ep.7. Here my biggest beef is the woeful disrespect for the characters, in particular Arresta. I could have toughed out the “fanservice”, but there was no compelling reason to do it.

Also, lack of DTO on Crunchyroll is a real deal breaker. With the legal availability so easy, I don’t feel too good about torrenting, but doing it all-streamed is too much bother. It’s not some masterpiece like Honey and Clover where I was willing to endure such hardship.

In recent year or two I found it difficult to raise interest about more than one show… IIRC in 2009 Spring I followed Arashi, and in Summer it was GA:GADC (in theory Taishou Yakyuu Musume is still on the running list, but it’s stuck on 03). So thinking calmly I know that it’s going to end in suspensions if not outright rejections, but I’m taking on Kampfer and Kimi ni Todoke, and may yet look at Kobato. In addition, there’s a couple of shows that I am sorely tempted to see: Railgun, which as I understand serves as Futakoi Alt to atone for its original, and Arashi S2, which I only reject on the no-sequel principle. If I had unlimited viewing bandwidth, I would also give a good try to Sora no Otoshimono. It seems like AIC ASTA’s answer to Sekirei, which cannot be too bad. Maybe Sacred Blacksmith, too.

P.S. Yes, this post is prompted by SDB complaining again (and just as vaguely as last time), but I’m not out to prove that Steven is “wrong”. Rather, I just thought “hmm, strange”, started counting shows, and it came up to a surprising number.

UPDATE 2009/11/04: Another example of starving.

How did this fail? I watched the special opener episode, and the real first episode… the anime didn’t grab me. Then, even its major boosters gave up, and the competition made sure Modern Magic won’t get a slot. The DB entry says “older gen annoying, stupid”.

Aroduc finished and panned it. BTW:

I mostly just hope that my guess is right and Nomad was sinking its cash and time into Kampfer instead of this.

He was prescient.

This post is a mere formality, since I’ve even created a category already. Kampfer is unbelievably “trashy” (or maybe campy or pulp), but it’s also ridiculous fun. I made it 4 episodes in and only merciless broadcast schedule stopped me from marathoning further.

One funny thing is that Kampfer is so enjoyable despite everything TJ said being true: like a stupid Ranma 1/2, crass, etc. (but not many 69 positions, in fact only one so far; TJ got carried away with bashing). But using my Hypocritic Oath powers I easily ignore all that (and yuri), concentrating on characters (down to Earth and believable), art and animation (V.pretty), and mysteries (such as Sakura’s identity). And unlike Sekirei, I expect a good end eventually: Kampfer is based on a light novel.

OH NOES: sagematt told me on #animeblogger that there are 13 light novels already and the series is ongoing. After a brief moment of despair I remembered that Sekirei was pretty good despite the ending with a continuation hook. I will rage only if they do not explain what’s going on with Sakura’s identity in this season.

I dragged myself through the end of the first episode with the help of healthy dose of skipping when they started dealing with items. Horrible show, really.

Mind, I was one of the few who ate the coronet discussion. The problem here is that I don’t care for the characters, jokes do not make me laugh, and there’s pretty much nothing else. Even art is ugly and animation is so-so (not as bad as in Tayutama but still). And to top it off, there’s plenty of competition despite season being generally thin (I’ve already approved Kimi ni Todoke and Kampfer into the running list, and I haven’t seen Kobato yet). So, exit Ichizon.

UPDATE: See Jonathan’s take: “The characters of Seitokai no Ichizon hardly seem human at all”.

For such a trashy show, Kampher is oddly well plotted, and the delicious mystery is set up impressively. In many cases when I see something odd, it is explained later in a convincing fashion. There was one issue case though which they will have a difficult time retconning: how did Prez replace Sakura during the idiot dance in ep.2 (and kept her away from the scene)? It took only a few seconds. Although Natsuru closed her eyes, Akane did not (I’m certain she watched). So, Akane knows what’s going on. What is it, then?

The only explanation I can see is that Sakura took part in the proceedings, either willing, or as a medium/puppet. So, we may discover what’s going on when Sakura’s complete story is revealed. What would it be, then?

One possibility is that Sakura is the Moderator (which is why she gaves away companion toys). A variant on that is that she’s an agent of Moderators. Since her normal identity is rather complete and includes feelings for Natsuru that look pretty genuine, I would suspect that she transforms and most likely her regular form doesn’t know what’s going on.

There are two more problems with this, although potentially tractable. Firstly, if we take Prez’s confession on its face value, she does not know Moderator’s purpose or anything about the game overall, and there’s an adversarial relationship of sorts. Therefore, if Sakura is a Moderator’s medium, Prez should not be able to transform her at will and Sakura/M definitely would not be ordered around. Secondly, the memory of normal Sakura was erased, which is hard to explain from the motivations of Moderators (Prez might want it, but then we’re granting her some very strange, non-combat and magic powers (while she’s a user of Schwert, not Zauber (but… her Schwert repels magical attacks, so strictly speaking she’s a magic user))).

Why didn’t Akane volunteer to share ker knowledge about what’s happening to Sakura from that incident? Jealously probably played a role and a desire to keep cards close to her chest. So mach for being “partners”.

I’m wondering if a rewatch would help me to pick any extra clues, or I already have all the necessary inputs, only cannot deduce the answer.

UPDATE: on second thought, there was another quick transport: when Prez fought the partners in the library, she transferred Sakura in her place at the end. The exchange went in the opposite direction, but otherwise it was the same and even made me (and Akane) suspect the two were the same person. We were wrong, but what was the explanation, then?

In general it was heavily hinted at Sakura’s larger role. For example, the three veggiepuses in her launch box clearly represent three Kampfers (which makes Makoto special somehow, but no matter). Maybe Sakura/M can figurally speaking eat the trio. A smaller hint is that Sakura and Prez are on first-name basis. In any case it’s likely to be explained and I’m straining myself for no good reason. But it’s fun.

UPDATE: DS says that “There are not enough hints of a larger story to make viewers care.” Madness — or plain inattention.

BTW, if anyone has ideas, comments by e-mail or link are welcome. Spoilers are fine. Good shows cannot be spoiled: I knew that Archer was a returning Shirou when I watched F/SN. And bad shows, too bad for them.

By a strange coincidence, entrails toy was profiled at Failblog recently.

I’m sure someone has blogged this already, but I’m saving it for reference.

“Neko funjatta” means, roughly, “I stepped on the cat”, or at least the song goes that way (with missing particles).

BTW, I realize that nobody stepped on the animals in Kampfer, it’s just the principle of entrails that I’m remarking on.

Swayed by the exhalting posts, I gave Kimi ni Todoke a good try and giggled maniacally non-stop through the first 15 minutes of the episode. Also, squeaked “OH NOES SHE’S CHANGING COLOR” and such. No idea if this is my internal fangirl or what, I’ve never met her before.

As far as art goes, it’s open to interpretation. Yano and Yoshida are drawn as caricatures not completely dissimilar in spirit to the monkey boys of J2, and I recall Aroduc had no objection to that. And Windy Tales proves that anime can be breathtakingly beautiful while disposing with the trappings of big-budget show that we take for granted: complext layouts, animations of large numbers of background characters, numerous lines and shadings, etc. Backgrounds of Todoke certainly are amazing and it’s obvious that the show is prepared for a BD release. So, it’s all in the eye of the beholder.

Same applies to the work of Mrs. Noto. Evirus e-mailed me that she “is still refining the role, but when she does hit her marks she is spot on.” After listening for myself, I think he’s right. Sure, there was too much breath and such, but it’s abating. So I’m optimistic on her score.

As far as the story, too early to tell. Chracters seem sympathetic, but again the dude is a big question mark. I’m not even certain I’ll stick with the series in the long run, but it was a good ride at the start.