アニ・ノート

It’s not entirely smooth sailing, but what bloggers said was true: it’s about girls being friends (and enemies, but it’s not very intense).

My biggest gripe is the weird art, which sometimes abates, sometimes comes in full force. Those eyes, they’re just bad.

I deal with the issue by ignoring the visuals and seeing stick figures in my mind’s eye. Dialog drives the show. Marimite is not heavy on meaningful body language and subtle facial expressions. Surprising, really.

UPDATE: The 4th season looks like a significant improvement, despite keeping the side-pointing eyelashes:

In fact, DEEN offers really kickass reimaginings of the original design:

Not sure how true to the anime these are, and what season this is supposed to be. But they are gorgeous.

QUICKIE: Owen asked on IRC: “did you draw those yourself in Linux’s equivalent of MS Paint”? This is so cold. But as a matter of fact, yes, it’s my first digital drawing…

Good to my word, I ordered the DVD 1 of the Windy Tales (Fuujin Monogatari), and added Mahoraba v.2 to complement the v.1 that I brought from Tokyo in March.

Obviously I’ve seen both, but you know… supporting the industry etc.

I don’t know if I’m going to make this a regular feature, and in any case I don’t expect to outdo J.P.’s famous column. Still, the situation looks suspiciously similar: I am made to watch things I would otherwise miss, and I love it. After the horrors of the last week (Black Cat is horror — in more ways than one), my clubmates fed me Lucky Star OVA, Fumoffu, and Nodame Cantabile, as well as revisiting Gurren-Lagann and Sketchbook.

Not much is there to say about the extra-long OVA, just visit Random Curiosity. Nodame was a surprise, however.

I always was a little miffed about the term “romcom” (”Romantic Comedy”). In most cases, it has the romantic part, but very little comedy (e.g. ef, unless you laugh when a girl dinks her cellphone in a nervous breakdown). In Nodame, it’s comedy all the way, and a strong comedy it is. Honestly, after seeing the first episode I was certain they would not be able to keep it up. Then I saw two, and again it seems inconveivable for it to stay that good, but this time I’m ready to be pleasantly surprised. And I like the look of the show too. Animated in Japan, baby.

On the other hand, Fumoffu was a total loss, just as I thought. Slapstick all the way. Others liked it, I think.

Of the rewatches, Sketchbook was even more iyashikei than I remembered it. It’s not unbearable, but not exciting either. If it were the last show, I’d bug off. But Gurren-Lagann was last. Rewaching a strong show was in some ways a usual experience (saw more than before), and in some ways not: I had an entirely different appreciation for some people, for example Kinon.

I don’t know just how he plans to pack 10 episodes into 7 days, because I thought we had the similar bandwidth issues. Budgeting 2 episodes each day gives 14 slots, and the remaining 4 are easily taken up by rewatches.

Aside from the density of it, looks like a good plan. No Corpse Princess there. Amusingly, Jeff marked Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka as an eroge adaptation specifically, but forgot that ef was one as well. Also, since I started nit picking, Hyakko had enough attention not to be a “surprise” (well, in my definition, anyway; an example would be Sekirei and surprise of not being another Kanokon).

Daniel is back with a catch-up post, and among other things mentions Vandread:

Wrapped up the first thirteen episodes of Vandread. I’m surprised at how amiable this series is, a diverting combination of naval pursuit and a comedy of genders. Interestingly, I even like the fanservice: it’s amusingly innocent, almost prelapsarian (don’t think too hard about the theological implications of that, I’m sure they’re incorrect).

Nothing new for those who paid attention, but a great quote to paste, isn’t it?

The first volume of Divergence Eve came through the letterbox today. (If you haven’t heard of this one, it’s one of those rare anime which both (a) has mecha and (b) received a thumbs-up from Steven Den Beste.)

You mean, like the aforementioned Vandread, right? I think we’re seeing him being tsundere about mecha: dismissing it officially yet admitting the samples which broke through the filters (e.g. Kirameki Project). At this point, admitting that mecha is not all bad is an empty formality.

According to ANN, the unfortunately capitalized true tears, originally to be released dubbed by the evil half of Bandai, is coming out in a subbed boxset instead. The series won high acclaim when it ran, but nonetheless I’m going to use Netflix or other forms of preview before buying. After all, Lawson liked Kiminozo too.

UPDATE: Jeff e-mails:

I like Kimonozo the way I like free beer. I like True Tears the way I like single malt scotch. Same result, entirely different experience.

Since I do not drink alcohol, I don’t quite understand what he’s getting at, but I understand that anime is not one-dimensional (which is why the averaged star ratings are so useless).

Needless to say, heavy spoilers are ahead. Kurogane says:

The ending is so… inconclusive. Worst type of end in my opinion dammit. Urge to kill Kawamori seriously rising. It’s never revealed who Alto chooses and everyone just manages to survive and land happily on the planet. I just feel like my feelings have all been trampled over and thrown away like a used dirt rag. Oh man, I was at least expecting some deaths.

So, even worse than Macross Plus, which itself left a bad impression.

UPDATE: DarkMirage was more verbose and circumspect, but it looks like he agrees. He used the word “cop-out”, even.

Animenation editorizes on the topic of anime gradually receding from American mainstream entertainment, and specifically the broadcast TV. John is aware that TV is becoming less and less relevant:

Actually, what we may be seeing now is a transition from anime on television to anime broadcast online. Vuze, Youtube, BOST TV, Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Joost, among others, are all now making significant advances in substituting for, and replacing traditional television broadcast.

So, here we have a diverse field. I started with BOST, due to their unabashedly anime-centric model and idealism, including DTO-DRM. YouTube is the leader of shorts, dwarfing every other participant, working to monetize (and perhaps lifting the length limit). They have no DTO. Crunchyroll is Mos Eisley of anime, trying to legalize. Their criminal past gave them enough name recognition to crush BOST (also they are cheaper). Hulu is the epitome of ad-supported, free of charge, video. In anime, they are a newcomer even against BOST, but they have experience in killing and burying mainstream American TV. I know almost nothing about Joost, except that they send mass promotional e-mails to bloggers like me. And about Vuze I know nothing period (well, I do know that they are connected to Azureus somehow). John declined to name iTunes, Amazon Unbox, and Netflix. Anyone wonders what may be common among them? Maybe being massive retail empires… DRM running amok… strange proprietary formats and software? One way to the other, conventional giants aren’t fairing well so far, but they are always around, bidding their time.

P.S. Woops, we both forgot about Veoh, who cannot decide if they want to be Youtube or Crunchyroll.

Steven discusses Mave-chan and seems more pleased than I was. Although, partially the difference with my dissatisfaction was based on different perceptions. I thought that Rei did have enough time to escape in the end, and made a conscious decision to stay, which is completely different from heroically throwing away a chance to return for the sake of the girls (it was there only before, when they did not know if he’d make it). Anyway, he’s got screencaps and spoilers for those who’re interested.

Not sure if I should blog this, because everyone should be reading J.P. anyway, but he’s seen Sailor Stars (an official follow-up to Sailor Moon SuperS). Even after seeing the YouTube clip he linked, I am having a hard time believing that creators can fly off the handle so far.