アニ・ノート

In what is becoming a tradition, new season is new candy!

The avant-guarde kindergarten-hour designs of Heartcatch are banished like a bad dream, and the robust, eye-pleasing girls are back.

He liked it enough to whitewash:

I’m happy that the show did not attempt to explain the situation with Muryou. Some things are fine to remain mysterious because they ultimately don’t matter to what the show is about.

Oh, brother. I am pretty sure this was unintentional, based on the small exposition fragment in the end (with chibi Muryo in a Roman toga). It may be that it came out better that way, but it would be even better if the little segment was missing entirely. But what does it matter now, it is what it is, and it is a great show. I did not see a direction this strong until Oh Edo Rocket came about.

UPDATE: [link].

A few days ago, a co-worker twittered: “そういや、@zaitcev はまどか☆マギカは見たんだろうか？ 日本語分かるから俺らのつぶやきでネタバレになるよーな(^^;;” (“ネタばれ” means “spoilers”). I appreciate the sentiment, but wish to note three things:

1. There is an expectation that those who watch anime are expected to watch Madoka, or at least enough of an expectation to make explicit hedges.
2. I often hear that “Japanese do not watch anime”. That is plainly not true. I knew it since talking anime with a hotel clerk in Ueno, but this is a reminder.
3. Sometimes you see animebloggers posting about social stigma of anime. Unless you live in Phillipines or Malaysia, please, give it a rest. I do not observe it impeding my professional career in any meaningful way.

And no, I am not going to watch Madoka. I’m rebelious that way.

I Am Wouldo Cube:

I was close to dropping Nichijou after the first epsiode – you could say it’s Azumanga on crack, but I didn’t like the cast nearly as much as Azumanga or Lucky Star’s.

I was close to dropping Nichijou after the fourth episode. Cannot stand how Prof. abuses Nano. But images from Suguru’s entry seem intriguing enough to limp along a bit more.

BTW, for some reason I was surprised to learn that “nichijou” is actually a word, from Railgun, no less. In ep.2 Saten says “自分の日常に戻りたい” == “I want my everyday life to return”. I thought it was some kind of made-up word, like “hagedou” (“禿同” – note the wrong kanji for “激しい”).