アニ・ノート

This is the second time when I watch a series because of the top rotation at Chizumatic. The first was Cosplay Complex, and what a disaster it was. I thought the lesson well taken, but one picture was just irresistible.

I still consider Megumi of Muteki Kanban Musume the most beautiful character design I have seen, but Yuri Kurosu of Magikano is in the same league (at the least). Unfortunately, she’s a bit of a comic relief.

The show overall emits a strong stink of School Rumble, but since it’s not as endless, I hope for the better.

UPDATE: Aroduc says:

<Aroduc> Zait
<Aroduc> I have bad news
<Aroduc> Magikano has one of the worst endings thinkable
<Aroduc> I think it’s a great show until those last 2-3 episodes though
<Aroduc> But the ending is… just… well… as far as endings go, it manages about a -3/10
<Aroduc> It’s not even that the characters do anything that makes you hate them
<Aroduc> It’s that the writers do

Consensus seems to be, abandon the show with 2 episodes to go.

UPDATE: Steven disagrees, or, rather, stands by his earlier evaluation. I pride myself in being spoiler-proof, but this time I hesitate to open the spoiler tag.

Omo wrote about that exclusive PS3 rental for $4. I don’t think he made any new points: simply put, Sony can take their time-limited rentals and their obscene DRM and stuff it up their ugly butts. I’m linking it only because the topic is important.

When I checked it last, there was no webserver in TiVo, or nobody wrote a client for their transfer protocol, or I my google-fu was weak, but I found it impossible to watch TiVo videos on Linux. Now it is possible.

I stopped watching broadcast TV somewhere around 2003, so I was curious what’s up there. But at first inspection the box had only a filler episode of Naruto recorded. Looks like ep.145, if I remember right. Hinata is captured, etc.

Ads were pretty horrible. I completely forgot what it was like. Suddenly paying $3 per episode of Strike Witches sounds like a great deal.

And in any case, I have the better part of Naruto on DVD. I always thought the move they gave to Hinata in the adaptation an eyesore.

Between these two factors, I do not expect giving my TiVo a heavy workout.

The blog which was never used for this sort of thing (and is usually silent for months) suddenly pops a review of Strike Witches TV with some choice words for OVA included:

Such flimsy pretexts were already offered in the frankly atrocious OAV of the same name that appeared about a year ago. That effort failed by providing almost no action, very little mecha fan-service, and all around poor production values.

and

I came to Strike Witches with trepidation, expecting the same unwatchable dreck as in the OAV.

Obviously there may be a difference in opinion, although I am rather sanguine about it. Rocket does not have to become my sworn enemy. I am not attached to Strike Witches franchize. So, if someone finds Strike Witches unsatisfying, it’s all right by me. And he’s right that OVA was poor on technicalities. But to be blind to the concept of the heroic poetry which underpins the OVA (and largely lacks from the TV series) is rather striking for someone posting reviews.

If this post heralds Rocket’s plunge into animeblogging, then I have my reservations. Certainly, it’s some smooth writing, but if ideas animating the writing are no good, then…

The last drop was the mistreatment of Aria. Godspeed, Lolikit. Godspeed.

Regarding the bust size chart J.P. linked at the very bottom, Ubu asks:

I had assumed that the Japanese text was a translation of their names, but if you look at it, there’s English punctuation throughout. In fact, Eila Juutilainen’s is only a question mark. So what are they saying?

It’s a bit tough for me to figure out, but these phrases appear to be their remarks in regards to their chart position. I looked up a couple of them:

Sakamoto: 泣くな宮藤 (”crying Miyafuji” (?) [Please feel free to e-mail me if you know what this actually means — Author.])

Perrine: 屈辱 (くつじょく)です…ね (”humiliating, isn’t it”)

Sanya: 特に…何も (”nothing in particular”)

Or perhaps they are just general character notes. In that case, Perrine is humiliated by Mijafuji’s friendly terms with Mrs. Sakamoto, and not [only] her bust size.

You know, this Japanese thing is kinda fun.

UPDATE: Andrew emails:

泣くな宮藤 = Don’t cry, Miyafuji. Adding な to the end of a verb produces an informal negative imperative form. Basically, it tells someone not to do something. So 食べるな = Don’t eat, 見るな = Don’t look, and so on. One wishes that all of Japanese grammar were so simple…

Thanks. If I wanted to say “don’t cry”, I would use “泣かないで”. Which may not be correct; no idea where I picked that form.

UPDATE: J.Greely emailed with:

Nakanaide is a request (”Please don’t cry”), shortened from nakanaide kudasai; nakuna is an order (”You! Don’t cry!”).

Good news: Rie Tanaka receives some lines. Bad news: most of the rest.

Notes:

• “You are I are in the navy, so you don’t have to call me Major” — “Sakamoto-san” seems to be good enough. Kinky Japanese.
• Wilke seems to take the need to herd cats in stride, but I wonder how she is going to address Perrine’s insubordination.
• Individual scores are part of the canon. Bizarre. Sure, we *heart* Hartmann-chan, but…
• For all that was said, Rie Tanaka sounds a lot like Aya Hisakawa in this role. Her ability to select an image and stick to it is outstanding, but does she even have her own voice?
• Tons of pairing and clustering is in the group. Obviously Sakamoto and Wilke get along well together, then we have daughters of frozen wastelands, mismatched bonkuras, and the enlisted duo. This pretty much leaves Barkhorn and Hartmann on their own, and Cloistermann forming Strike Witches’ Kaorin.

SDB was right as usual:

On the other hand, if the show drops into “team-mate of the week” mode for a while and gives everyone their own focus episode, it could get tedious. And since this is a full-season series, I think that’s likely.

We’ll just have to suffer through it. Only nine others besides Sakamoto and Miyafuji.

Next episode is Barkhorn, and they even placed a hook for her into this episode, not counting the preview.

UPDATE: Steven observed that I “was less impressed than [he] was.” It is true… I appreciate the story, but the nopants was just too much. Also, the way our newbies dinked their Striker Units was terrible, especially since I suspect they are going to be like new come the next episode.

The Impz’s right hand man posted a longish review of iDOLM@STER Xenoglossia, which neatly explains just why I was right to drop it after ep.8. I think I got the best part: Haruka’s cuteness, the excitement of iDOL launch, and the pretty animation. Yuri and action/detective do not interest me. It’s a show for which I had high hopes, it even has its own category! But it wasn’t to be.

Seen at Minaide Hazukashii:

While reading Stripey’s post (and the comments) on rewatching My-Hime, the inevitable discussion popped up: what’s the deal with the ending? […] The debate basically boils down to one of two sides: either the ending sucks because it’s a reset ending or it’s appropriate because it’s a reset ending. How does that make any sense? Well, it depends on genre.

I think that reset ending is never appropriate.

That’s where the problem of the ending arises. Some of these genres demand a dark ending, while some demand a happy ending. It’s hard to feel moe moe when everyone dies horrible, gruesome deaths. But then again, you’re not supposed to be feeling moe moe when people are dying horrible, gruesome deaths. Ultimately, it comes down to whether you had been watching the show all along as happy fun times which then go horribly, horribly wrong or as a peppy veneer over a dark undercurrent. Both are correct!

That’s not relevant here, IMHO. The problem with the reset ending is creator’s dishonesty and/or incompetence. It’s the same for dark or light anime.

In any case, if Mai-Hime has a reset ending, it’s just one more reason to drop it.

Hinano writes that Rie Tanaka is coming to NYAF. I think it’s a big news. Although we have new (relatively) people coming up all the time (for example Aya Hirano), Mrs. Tanaka is one of the very few seyuu who I even bother to remember. She has a place in my mind together with Kotono Mitsuishi. You can see I’m not going to compete with Hashi-hime, I’m just telling how great Mrs. Tanaka is.

I think my favorite roles of hers are:

Chobits - Chi/Elda/Freya
D.N.Angel - Towa-chan (Towa no Shirube)
Hayate no Gotoku - Maria
UFO Princess Valkyrie - Sanada-san
Rizelmine - Kyōko Yachigusa

No Stellvia? I only saw Chobits from the above, but I am most familiar with Mrs. Tanaka’s work as Yomi in Azumanga. One anecdote related to that is, I watched a recording session of Azumanga on Youtube (now taken down by property police), and it was clear that Rie Tanaka was the only seyuu who cared about being properly dressed and groomed. She has a pretty good singing career going, and her singing has the same air of impeccable professionalism to it. It’s not as passionate as Yoko Ishida’s, but her voice range is just tremendous and she’s not afraid to use it.

So, yes, big news as I said. I am not Mrs. Tanaka’s flaming fan, but it would be great to get to her panel.