アニ・ノート

As far as the anime is concerned, nothing unexpected has transpired, especially since it was a gimmick introductory episode. If you are a fan of the girls, you are just happy to see Haruka riding her bicycle. If you are not a fan, plese read Aroduc’s account and be content. He covered the essential outsider’s view, with perhaps insignificant factual imperfections (e.g. there was BGM coming and going as appropriate).

As predicted, A-1’s artwork is not up to the expecations. Maybe they should do some Aquateen Hunger Force for the American TV. All they need for that is thicker confining lines. But there is no use to cry about it.

Bluemist tweets:

t1: The IDOLM@STER 1: Probably the best first episode I’ve ever watched in any anime. All characters properly introduced, even characterized.
t2: The best part is the “What is an Idol for you?”. You just totally knew what the girl was about based on their answer. GENIUS WRITING THERE.

In case you think he’s trolling, here’s the third one:

t3: @thaliarchus If this ‘real’ idolmaster anime would turn out to be very good maybe I’ll retroactively watch Xenoglossia.

Woa. Also, Twitter destroyed animeblogging.

Speaking of “what’s idol for you” characterizations, there was something cartoonish or artificial about them… But on second thought perhaps I cannot forgive them how gloomy and formal Chihaya’s was, despite its length. We knew more about her from her handling of iPhone! BTW, she’s put a little piece of “Relations” in, and I do suspect that it’s her original recording from CDs just mixed in. This is the closest anyone comes to an insert in the whole episode, I think. Although, it’s a glass half-full thing.

Evirus (twitter killed animeblogging):

t0: Chihaya > Ritsuko > Miki > *

I really need to rewatch it, my raw powers were insufficient to parse Chihaya’s long speech properly.

CORRECTION: Of course it was “Aoi Tori” that Chihaya was singing, not “Relations”. I don’t know what possessed me to mis-identify it as “Relations”. What a lapse.

ANN (via):

An ad for the Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu light novels has announced that another anime adaptation is in the works. The new anime will adapt the story leading up to the final arc of the series.

Unlike ZnT, they promise us an ending (not sure if Hidamari ever got one). Note though, 3 cours is still only 3/4 of ZKC and FMA.

His take is basically that watchers like me have to be in certain denial:

If I take IS’s background seriously I have to conclude that the whole ‘IS military use is prohibited’ thing is propaganda, and not very convincing propaganda at that. IS are armed, IS pilots are taught weapons and combat operation, competitions between IS pilots are combat duels instead of any number of other plausible tests of IS pilot skill, IS piloting seems heavily militarized, and so on. I can’t think of a single non-combat use of IS we see in the entire series.

If I try hard, I can make the background covered on the Wikipedia .. make some sort of sense. Clearly ‘IS will never be used in combat’ is a highly unstable balance of power that no one expects to actually last once things get serious, so everyone is frantically trying to get powerful ISs and stockpiling trained pilots (and keeping a careful eye on each other).

Honestly, at first I thought that a lot of this styling was thoughtlessly carried over from Strike Witches, Sky Girls, et al. and is just adornments playing no role. To think otherwise were like claiming that boyscouts’s training and rituals are born of some military-industrial complex conspiracy. But he’s right. Considering the power of IS, stakes are too great.

This is not a compendium of announcements from the AX wave, but only what I found noteworthy.

Funimation continues to fight the “FUNi only licenses garbage” folk wisdom with not one, but two watchable shows: Asobi ni Ikuyo (AsoIku) and B Gata H Kei (GataKei). They renamed Asobi ni Ikuyo from Crunchyroll-originated “Bombshells From The Sky” into “Cat Planet Cuties”. I wish it were a prank. I did not stick with either of the two, to my great regret especially in case of indomitable Yamada, but both come highly acclaimed.

Aniplex is attempting to ride the enormous popularity of Puella Magi Madoka Magica all the way to profits by charging exorbitant prices in the way Bandai Visual did in bad old days. They are going to learn pretty quickly that Americans are not taking it laying down. Madoka is another show I won’t touch with a 3.3m pole, but its R2 sales top just about everything.

Nozomi (a.k.a. RightStuf – Dark Lord Kirchener’s company) did not announce anything fresh, but they are reprinting the Martian Successor Nadesico.

NISA announced Kimi ni Todoke, the marvel of modern shoujo. Pixy rejoice. Although recently Australia saw releases earlier, so maybe not.

Sentai (former ADV – Ledford’s company) nabbed both halves of ef. I do not expect it to become a commercial success, but it was a touching show that saw an extensive coverage at Ani-nouto.

I’m just a touch disappointed that nothing interests me enough. Perhaps GataKei is something to have for a future watch. Also, ef is a guilt-buy, although I supported the industry by getting a bunch of direct import merch. As always, nobody licensed Mahoraba. That is a given, obviously. But a curiously missing piece is Infinite Stratos, for which Ledford has streaming rights, but nothing is known about DVDs. I checked it out at CDjapan, and they ask 6300￥ for 2 episodes. With the exchange rate and shipping we are talking $623.09 (some items are not released yet). That is a significant amount of money for most people. I can rent a nicely appointed Remos GX and fly my wife for a breakfast in resort town for less.

P.S. I should add that after years of only licensing garbage, FUNi made a breakthrough in 2010 with Oh Edo Rocket and Kurage-hime. They seem to be turning the corner.

UPDATE: J. finds Funimation’s naming ideas palatable. And indeed, what else can be done? “We Come In Play”?

The king of episodic bloggers, however, has issues with my taste:

<Aroduc> “Funimation continues to fight the “FUNi only licenses garbage” folk wisdom with not one, but two watchable shows: Asobi ni Ikuyo (AsoIku)”
<Aroduc> Oh, Petey.
<Aroduc> Petey, Petey, Petey.
<sagematt> Randall (digiwombat) also defends AsoIku for some reason.
<sagematt> “Bombshells From The Sky” is now “Cat Planet Cuties”.
<Aroduc> Maybe it’s a Russia thing
<Aroduc> Like thinking that Railgun doesn’t suck.

I don’t understand what he wanted me to highlight. He did not watch Steins;Gate.

One of the saved links was Mike’s confession to Charl(otte), which I noticed only because I knew him from back at #animeblogger, and he always was leaning to artsy anime. He’s the biggest fanboy of Tatami Galaxy and the like. If IS can find a way to the heart hiding under the veneer of a high-lit-reading snob, there must be something redeeming about it.

BTW, Mike’s entry is naturally spoiler-heavy. But it’s a great example how good anime cannot be spoiled. I already know that Houki wins, too.

Now that I’m done with Railgun, I can watch Infinite Stratos, which also comes with a high load of expecations — only the positive kind. I stashed quite a number of links to various worthy reflections, and they all point in one direction: I’m going to love this show.

I was afraid to jinx it by posting an opening bracket too early (remember Arashi 01?), so I am already 3 episodes in. IS warms the heart like nothing else. It is something long forgotten from the times when anime was not trying to outpervert itself.

These days, if one wants to watch something joyful and live, he has to refer to rare adventure titles like Rocket Girls (which was not all that great; about the only compliment to it I can make is how it was more real than Allison and Lilia). Sure, there were things like GA, which tried to freshen the theme about which K-ON seemingly said everything… The way its dull successor carried the mantle was part and parcel of it. But now, this. Is this the dawn of anime’s new future?

After dragging it out for a two months, I finally put a stake through this affair. So, was the horror realized? No, it wasn’t. Railgun is nowhere as disturbing as original Nanoha and all the apprehension was for nothing. There wasn’t anything in it for me to like, but it’s ridiculous what circus I made from it. Usually lesser bloggers use the epithet “forgettable” in such cases.

Poor Mitsuko Kongo (CV: Minako Kotobuki): she is not a main character.

Just one more thing. At CJ’s one “lvlln” proclaims:

The Railgun side show failed just as hard, except that it mainly consisted of a poorly conceived and executed story of friendship.

I beg to differ, as Railgun’s story of friendship was quite well executed, for generic anime. It has no subtlety of Azumanga, power of Gurren-Lagann, or tragedy of Figure 17, but it is competently made. A little too by the numbers, perhaps. If this is a hard failure, what is left to say about actual failures?

If I wanted to make grand pronouncements, I would aim for something like this:

<Kurogane> i wouldn’t say Railgun was on the level of torture.
<Kurogane> it was mediocre but it had some moments.

But mostly I just want to move on.

UPDATE: No way, I did not agree to any OVAs. Steven definitely was the decisive influence, as he edged me on with special posts… The honor that not even President Obama receives often. But in the end it is what it is. BTW, I addressed his question of “too much lesbian jokes” directly in the opening bracket.

UPDATE: Aside from the friendship angle, I particulary noted the way Railgun saved Kiyama from the self-destructive spiral of “ends-justify-means” evil, from which usually there is no exit. It was just as well-presented as the friendship, only not realized by the bloggers.