アニ・ノート

I’m done with SSS 02, and I would like to augment my previous post.

• SSS includes musical numbers in every third or fourth track. I think they are image soungs, lifed as-is from character signles. There was some effort to fit them in though. For example, Squirtle’s number is ostensibly heard when she sings karaoke when the gang visits Kagari’s bar. Considering how expensive these singles usually are, it’s a score (unless you need off-vocal tracks). Sadly, I’m not impressed by composition and arrangement.
• It took me a while to reconcile myself with the fact that the anime and SSS have no common scenes whatsoever.
• Credits for the CD list several artists, but not seyuu. Weird.

Sekirei was a fun little series that opened nicely. I was re-reading my category for it just now [1], followed links, and suddenly noticed that Steven mentioned a different cast for the Drama CD. I don’t have the old CD (it was long out of stock by the time I remembered about it), but a quick check at Wikipedia reveals that Steven was right. And what a stellar cast it was… Rie Tanaka as Tsukiumi! Was that role made for her or what? Well, we were extremely lucky to get Marina Inoue in the anime and SSS. But still… I feel like I need to get that CD somehow.

[1] I was prompted by Ubu’s flippant remark comparing Sekirei with Akikan. At first, I meant to write a combative post about Ubu’s intelligence, but on second thought Sekirei deserved Ubu’s scorn. I am reminded about it every time I rewatch it and see all the annoying faults. We need a remake by Production I.G. If Kanon got one (by KyotoAni), why not Sekirei?

Steven posted a small teatrise that lauds Strike Witches and pits it against Sekirei:

But the real reason the [Strike Witches] works for me is the characterization. All the girls are good, but the characters of Miyafuji and Sakamoto make the show. They’re both really interesting, and the interaction between them is also really interesting.

[...] And that’s why it’s outselling Sekirei: that one doesn’t have any equivalently riveting characters.

I think it cannot be right. It’s a grown-up’s perspective, and very off-center for the buying demographic in Japan. We may posit equally well that it’s lesbians who sell Strike Witches: the way its cast falls into neat pairs is a shipper’s heaven, missing from Sekirei. In any case, we’ll never know unless we run some focus groups.

But I just wanted to muse, why is it that I enjoyed Sekirei more, and stuck with it to the end?

On reflection, it comes down to two things: Tsukiumi and fanservice.

Fanservice I already touched upon after 3 episodes:

[C]oming from Strike Witches, Sekirei offers extremely soft and polite fanservice by comparison. In Strike Witches, the key idea is to pound into viewers’ minds that no matter what is shown on the screen, it’s completely natural and acceptabe in the other world… so, tough it out, suckers! But Sekirei returns to standards of fanservice seen, for instance, in Ranma (actually, it is milder in the early Sekirei, but I heard it turns the nipple knob up later quite a bit).

Sadly, Sekirei degenerated in the second half; the DVD-selling steam started to pop up regularly, etc. Still, it remained way and way ahead of Strike Witches.

As far as characters go, Steven is right when the issue is considered rationally: there’s nobody in Sekirei with a well developed, “riveting” tragedy (in the first half at least). But Squirtle was too charming (and of course she’s ultimately doomed, absent some trick by the author, like a group ascension for the winning Ashikabi). I am pretty sure I crossed the bad parts only to see how she’s doing and it she’s going to last until the end of the season.

Using the sparkling new 500GB Samba share on the home network, Ana-sempai watched my fansubs of Sekirei… and liked it. Apparently the appeal was that all characters were sympathetic, including Minato. We had a vigorous discussion in MacDonald’s about various harem leads. Where SDB places the line at “gets the grip”, she divides them into “annoying” and “not annoying”. Therefore, Minato is classified as useless but not annoying, which is the key.

On the other hand, she dismissed my interest in Tsukiumi with “everyone likes tsunderes”. Is it that simple? I liked both Rin and Saber equally, and thought that Taiga did not hold a candle to Ami, despite being a semi-titular character.

Anyway. A survey of Strike Witches buyers’ breakdown by sex may be surprising.

I was wondering why there are 108 Sekirei(s). I asked Ana-sempai, and she said it had something to do with a Buddhist belief; there are 108 sins or other.

Sekirei is not the only place where 108 pops up. For example, Yurie Hitotsubashi ranks 108 during her temporary transfer. I could swear I saw 108 elsewhere, quite recently even, but now I cannot remember.

Google suggests that Suikoden, a game for DS, has 108 playable characters. It’s not an anime, however.

UPDATE: Omo reminds about Shikabane-hime, who, as I now recall, had to kill 108 corpses (don’t ask, I have no idea what that means; something like Soul Eater with a bare ass, presumably).

David Mankins sent a link to a page with some of the things linked to the number 108, e.g. “There are said to be 108 earthly desires in mortals”, etc.

DiGiKerot speculates that Sekirei may actually be hinted by Suikoden or at least its Chinese parent, 108 Stars of Destiny.

Steven Den Beste also found 108 in Negima, where someone gets “108 Carnal Boys”.

I received a tip from DiGikerot that Funimation acquired licenses to Sekirei and Birdy, as announced at their panel at AnimeUSA. There goes my “Funi only licenses shit” mantra. I realize that with the dominant position Funi enjoys, it was only a matter of time before they grabbed something decent in their bumbling. Now it’s “Funi mostly licenses shit”.

BTW, all normal news feeds were asleep at the wheel. There’s nothing at Gia’s Vice, John’s Nation, and even on the mighty ANN. I love reader’s tips. It’s too bad I don’t get much, and Mr. Kerot is more of an online friend than “reader”.

Sekirei and Kampfer are almost entirely unlike each other, except for the very broad conformance to the genre of “fanservice comedy”… and for one more thing: both had half-hearted endings for the season, which can serve as a springboard for sequels, if money is forthcoming (in case of Sekirei, this hope has already realized).

The dissimilarity of the two is actually rather striking. Perhaps I’m just approaching them from the position of a stereotypical hater: breasts? check! harem? check! So same! To be sure, there are some rather vague and high level similarities. The villains are in control in both settings, for one, and heroes rebel (some of them, anyway). Both series flirt uncomfortably with the SDB’s “dead girl” classification. But just about every detail is different otherwise (e.g. Natsuru has the powers, while Minato does not, the slavery present or absent, etc.).

I like Kampfer’s character art way more though. The Rushina factor is more sensible in it.

He says in a post at MMM:

The second season has completely departed from the manga, and the results are far more promising than I expected. [...] I don’t know who’s writing this, but I’m impressed so far.

More to the backlog?! But I wanted to catch up on K-ON.

P.S. Now we see how the leading zero convention for episode numbers is more than just to arrange episodes in a directory.

At MMM:

While the first two episodes were a bit off the manga, it appears that their main use was to “re-rail” it back onto track.

This is what I was afraid might happen and it is a major disappointment. Remember Ranma½? That is pretty much what awaits Sekirei now, except that it’s not going to be 7 seasons. Zero no Tsukaima only managed 3.

Now aside from all the jiggle and family issues, the show is pretty entertaining. The comedy is reasonably intelligent, although Kazehana goes a bit overboard [..]

Yeah, whatever.