アニ・ノート

Choux’s reverse psychology made me download the Lolikit’s game. Native for Linux!

Just so we are clear: I’ll never Katawa Shoujo. Never.

Including the sage advice about not queueing too early: you won’t be able to compete with seasoned veterans anyway, and if you are not fighting for limited-stock items, why bother?

It was also hot, incredibly hot. Be advised if you go that the air-conditioning system gets pretty much overwhelmed by the combination of Tokyo in August, all doors being open and the body heat of nearly half a million people. I understand that people did pass out from the heat, one seemed to be receiving first aid as I walked by. I was sweating so profusely that one of my concerns as I browsed was sweating on the product ( another reason, that a man should always have his towel!).

I knew that my endurance training had a higher purpose.

BTW, one notable part is how desperately poor Ken is. And yet he makes it every year. No excuses.

The best thing about animeblogging is the confirmation bias. Also, LOLs:

And here comes the main event! OMG I managed to watch K-On!!!! That show whose kindred I avoid like the plague! And I was OK with it! Sure there’s not anything monumental happening but the show has managed to make me feel relaxed (read: as in not really thinking). My favorite characters are Mio and Mugi. I’ve even grown to like ‘Don’t Say Lazy.’ I find myself humming it sometimes.

The truth will always triumph.

Get this from ANN:

Kun Gao, CEO of the Crunchyroll media-distribution website, has announced on this week’s ANNCast podcast episode that his company licensed the North American DVD rights to Makoto Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters Per Second film.

That’s is going to delight Robert and other luddites who hate the digital distribution. Crunchyroll, the pillar of streaming, is going to print DVDs (well, actually Bandai will, but on orders from Crunchy). Sweet smell of vindication and the like.

Just one question: where is Blu Ray?

When Hitoha says “語りたい” (”I want to relate”) about the Gachi Rangers, she is like an anime blogger, isn’t she? That burning desire? Is this why we exist?

Also in the first segment, Haruka Tomatsu makes a great impression of Mamiko Noto, with the “anooooou”. I kid you not, although screencaps can’t transmit it. Remember Sadako picking up the pen?

And in general the episode was very flashbacky for me for some reason. Maybe it would’ve been empty otherwise, due to rather repetitive comedy of misunderstanding in every segment. The other time, in the class, the dynamic of Miyashita, Sugisaki, and Yoshioka was very reminiscent of Namiko-san, Noda-chan, and Kisaragi respectively. Very nice. But I do wish the creators returned some early episode diversity into the humour.

After the sacramental “I’m back” post (ostensibly about Railgun), he followed with a real post, about Amagami SS — unlike someone else we know.

The ANN announcement (h/t Andy James) notes that the light novels are over after 12 volumes. I suppose that’s good news for the anime storyline. The problem for me is how I heard somewhere on the Internet that the identify of Kaede Sakura and the nature of Moderators were not adequately explained in any of the innumerable volumes. Not good, if true.

Another thing, the anime itself changed its tone significantly in the course of just one cour. Initially it was supposed to dig into the mystery at least to some extent (with Shizuku investigating), but gradually turned into a farce, even with moments of epic with the stuffed animals singing Ode to Joy and the like. Exactly how is the series supposed to get on track now?

I really wish there were some good news, but I cannot even be cautiously optimistic about this.

Sugisaki’s intro card:

It says “みつばのことが大嫌いなブルジョワ”, which, I think, is supposed to mean “Mitsuba’s hated bourgeois”. Still, creators allowed her to deviate from the common “rich bitch” type. As Aroduc says, she is essentially the same character as Mitsuba herself, thus proving that money are not necessarily corrupting or it is not money that are corrupting in this case. She is allowed to win sometimes, whereas the anime rich bitch always gets her just deserts. Also, she is not blond.

Since we’re on topic, here’s a couple more intro cards:

Yuki Yoshioka: “争いごとがきらいで、恋話が好き。眉毛がトレードマーク”. The meaning is obvious, but I have no idea how to read “恋話” (”mayuge” is easy).

Miyashita (has no given name at ANN, hello Sakaki-san): “６年３組で唯ーの常識人。面倒見の良さが、後に災いする事を彼女はまだしらない・・・。” Also a type we know well. As Keiichirou Aoyama said once, “I am the only sane man in the crew of this robot”.

I disagree with Evirus when he says that Ookami-san 02 “was God awful — easily the single worst episode of anything I’ve seen this season.” The series is bland and paint-by-numbers, but hardly “awful”, IMHO. However, it turned out to be a crime drama, and I hate those.

Some patient folks seem to like the later episodes well enough. Washi twittered “Ookami-san 6.. superb! *wipes away the tears* .. so fucking tender and beautiful! Never expected to say that about this anime.” And poor Sixten will have to stick with it too. But for us, other things beckon.

Mazui deserve a commendation for putting out .avi videos, but clearly it’s an afterthought for them: I have a bunch of screencaps that are artefacted all over. A good time to use “awful” as applied to the encodes. Anyone who has a Cowon D2 must learn to run subtool and ffmpeg if he hasn’t already.

I’m going to pass the first two thirds and proclaim, Miku is the awesomest foil for Mitsuba. I cannot remember a pair of antagonists so great since Yomi and Tomo. It is different, of course. The balance is strictly maintained (in the pool episode, Miku had the upper hand, in this one she was hoisted on her own petard). I think I like it more than Yomi always getting a short stick. Plus, the action of the two brings out the best in animators and seiyuu.

The other two segments were somewhat underwhelming by comparison. I mean Matsuoka is crazy, I get it already. The Papa bonded with Futaba nicely, which was fine, I suppose, just not quite at the level of Lucky Star 22.

BTW, remember the numbers? It turned out that the numbers are the birth order, as Hitoha considers herself a younger sister to Futaba. So, the names are backwards.

UPDATE: The grumpy animeblogger with a heart of stone takes a different view:

The fourth [segment] was just another little game of one-upsmanship between Miku and Mitsuba and picked up a little bit of steam towards the end, but the two of them don’t have all that much comic chemistry together. They’re both basically the exact same character, with slightly less sadism on one end, and they really only have a single joke about their claims of maturity backfiring through their segments. Repeating that joke ad nauseum does not make it funnier.