Hrmm

I took a look at To LOVE-Ru and saw the name Yabuki Kentaro. Flipping through the first chapter, I'm glad to say that I didn't see Train or Sven, but the bodyguard guys were awfully familiar... Well, typical shōnen fanservice manga I guess.

Then I came across this madness. Tokunan Seiichirō: Human Clock. It's seriously surreal: feels like Dali (art and film), Picasso, Miró, and whoever else did this sort of thing, along with a splash of French cinema. I can't tell if this is pure sloppiness or pure genius.

Comipress: Tokunan Seiichirō
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
Man a Machine, translated

Doujin Work

You would think that the whole making-doujinshi genre has been wayy overdone. It has, for sure, but somehow it's terribly enjoyable. I started watching Doujin Work again (after a hiatus), which consists of some amazingly low-budget animation. The first few episodes were pretty predictable, but I watched episode 4 last night and it was hilarious. The whole Cafe With Cat stuff was great. And ... :3



[I finally hooked up my big speakers. Earlier I played the ED from Noir, which had a rather scary presence. Now I found my Tenchi stuff. It's pretty nostalgic. The OP to Universe is rather amusing. More importantly, I need to find my Foobar settings...]

Geh, more anime

I'm glad there's not very much to watch this season. Maybe I can catch up with older stuff... primarily Dennou Coil.

I just watched the first episode of Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de / They are my noble masters. It's pretty darn trashy, but still entertaining. I confess that I do have an affinity for the ojou-sama setup, which is the primary reason for my interest in this anime. However, it may just be too trashy to endure. For example all the characters are uncannily derivative. Shinra (-sama) gives me Haruhi vibes, I can't place Hato but she seems awfully familiar, and the rest ... yeah. I like how Yume is into ham radio, but these randomnesses are just that: randomnesses. (According to Firefox spellcheck, it's a word. Woot.)

Last week I watched Minami-ke ~Okawari~. I couldn't stand last season's edition, but the new crew seems to have a better conception of the manga's unique characteristics. Just starting from the (pretty bizarre) opening, you can tell they're reaching for some OMGWTF. Then the pacing, the fast cuts, and the freeze-frames are all done in a way that reflects the manga's deadpan action. I think they got it right, along with the slice-of-life elements.

Tried Wolf and Spice. Seems pretty meh. I'm putting this series in the "going to read the novel someday" pile.

Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is awesome, no question. Haven't watched it yet, beyond a few minutes.

I finished Myself; Yourself a few weeks ago. It wasn't anything special, and I plan to hate on it sometime. Currently in the romance pile are Kimikiss, CLANNAD, and Tokimeki Memorial (surprisingly awesome, I swear), so I'm not sure about picking up either of this season's offerings. H2O has generic character design, pretty nice backgrounds, and maybe an interesting story, but I worry that it's cliché and/or depressing. True Tears seems like it has more ambitious direction, and from the description has the potential to be more heartfelt and slice-of-life-y. We'll see.

キミと夜空と坂道と

This song's been rattling around in my head. "Kimi to Yozora to Sakamichi to", something about You and the Night Sky and the Slope, if I'm parsing that correctly. "Slope" isn't very romantic, of course. Neither is most of Myself; Yourself. Okay, that was a bad segue; I'm still watching it after all. The good part: Nanaka miko banzai. The bad part: unlimited loli works. Okay, I'm stretching again, but to spend two episodes on whatshername offends my sensibilities. I guess you can't create a visual novel for the mainstream without hitting all the major demographics. And there's probably not enough plot to fill out 13 episodes otherwise, even though they've thrown in just about every cliché they could. Well, I take that back, they've got several characters' worth of plot left, probably; Ep 7 implies that there's even a path for Yuzuki-sensei. Admittedly the anime has made me mildly curious about the visual novel. For example, these frames are pretty much instant tsundere gratification.

(Slight change of topic) Looking at ANN, Nanaka's seiyuu, Ami Koshimizu, has done a lot of other roles. This season, she's also in Kimikiss, as Hoshino-san, a role that's close to that of Nanaka. Interestingly, she's also the voice of Tenma in School Rumble, quite a different character. Even more curiously, she's going to be Horo in Wolf and Spice/Spice and Wolf/Spicy Wolf, something of a teasing role. Well, next season should be interesting.

Oh yeah, the song. It's very catchy, particularly the refrain. For awhile I had "ボクらしく，そう，キミらしく，ただ夜空を見める" repeating endlessly in my head. That line pretty much sums up my romantic attachment to this song. Listening to it now, I can identify other catchy aspects. There's that guitar riff after the lead-in, which turns into a chromatic upward cadence -- it's a major rush. I've also started to notice the stunning effectiveness of simple backup voices, whether in harmony, or to add breadth to the melodic line. In this case there's a lot of groovy "whoo-hoo"ing which somehow works extremely well. Man, there's an organ in the mix too. These arrangements never cease to amaze.

The lately

I haven't been doing much of anything lately. Watched one or two episodes of Noir. Read the usual unending trickle of manga; some may be worth discussing in depth.

The only thing I really caught up on is Kimikiss. Certain portions are absolutely inane (you know, the frogs) but the rest is exactly the vicarious romance that the doctor ordered, in a variety of addicting flavors. (The worst part about romance material is withdrawal, after all.) Putting that matter aside, it seems that the production committee blew their budget on that sax CG. That said, it's actually pretty good CG for once, and musically accurate (disclaimer: the only wind instrument I play is the recorder). But the question is, why'd they devote the effort to it? Why go so far as to integrate a solo passage into the CG sequence? It boggles the mind.

Oh, since I was in the city today, I went to Kinokuniya. It seems they've expanded into the ground floor, basically directly below the second floor space, with a reduced footprint. The first floor is all manga, and the second floor is "other stuff". The expanded store might be larger than the San Jose location, but I'm not sure. I somehow felt that the manga selection wasn't as large, but that may be because I wasn't able to find Moyashimon.（Their website shows it in stock at SF, but I looked around the KC section several times and didn't see it. Maybe I should just ask next time. Or bring one of these along.) But I got the rest of what I was looking for, and resisted buying some mysterious $10 boxed Haruhi figure. (Seems to be the Solid Works Collection DX.)

The requisite picture:



I haven't been keeping up with news, so it was gratifying to see that Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is getting a second season. The volume of N.H.K. is for a friend who's also slowly learning Japanese. Minami-ke is just for staying current, even if I can't read it properly.

Mokke is definitely much better than the anime adaptation would lead one to believe. It feels like a seinen manga -- and I'm not talking about the lack of furigana.

All this manga piling up means that I need to start studying the language seriously. I've been sitting on this textbook for almost six months, sigh. Time to get cracking.

sola = art?

So there's this umbrella sold at MoMA...

Fall impressions the third

It pains me somewhat, but I've actually started taking notes after I watch an episode. This way my thoughts remain fresh and snarky when it comes to committing them to hypertext. It should also help me get more things off my chest; otherwise the really inane, cliché things start piling up inside me and I get very sarcastic.

I'm tempted to just cut and paste my vague notes, but that strikes me as being far too lazy, even if this is a throwaway anime blog. (Yeah, and it doesn't even have screenshots.)

Mokke 1: This wasn't as polished as I had hoped. I expect a lot from my slice-of-life entertainment (OK, I expect a lot from everything), and while there's interesting glimmers of philosophy and character development, the mood just isn't there. It may be a good window into traditional Japanese culture though. Since the manga runs in Afternoon, I think I'll pick up the first volume and see how it is in its original format.

Myself; Yourself 2: I'm still finding segments of this series difficult to endure. I skipped through a lot of this episode. They probably blew their budget on the pivotal scene near the end. The sudden glow and rush was really nice, and I'm glad to note an attempt at animating the correct piano notes for once.

Myself; Yourself 3: Still painfully bad, but ultimately worth it for tsun -> dere drama. I may as well rant: it's obvious that they're selling this eroge visual novel, and selling it hard; the ED sequence is proof of that. We've got the classic inept protagonist, the more-capable best friend, and even a loli waiting in the wings, apparently. But I shouldn't complain too much; this miscellany comes with the territory. Rather I should thank them for indulging my miko tsundere osananajimi sensibilities. Can't think of much that's cuter than a girl toying abstractedly with a pretty rock, jealous thoughts in her mind. Make that girl with towel, fresh out of the shower. Sheesh, these people are clever.

Clannad 2: Hey, it's still good. Surprise surprise. For once, the protagonist is actually well characterized, and it helps that the seiyuu isn't I Can't Believe It's Not Kyon. It's also good that they're not focusing on an uguu girl, although there seems to be one here too. Lastly, I don't know too much about Key, but either them or KyoAni has a thing for rushing through fields, and it's ... well, a rush.

Kimikiss 2: They say that Japanese fans of the PS2 game are up in arms about how the protagonist has been split for the anime. Well, tough, I say. This is a Very Good Move on the staff's part. It not only avoids the Curse of the Inept Protagonist, but in this incarnation it brings Mao to the forefront, and she's a very strong character. I suspect those complaining don't want to lose their individual vicarious thrills, but consider that with the split approach we get at least three vicariously successful (I'm willing to bet) romances as opposed to one. And there's an assortment: awkward, inscrutable, and forward. We'll see far fewer "how dare they not include $girl's ending" posts too. So why complain? I, for one, welcome our multi-protagonist, decent-sax-CG, declining-production-budget overlords.

Sketchbook 1: This is surprisingly good. (It's amazing what they can do with a 4-koma these days. The anime for Sketchbook, Hidamari Sketch, and Lucky Star are all totally different in style and execution. Truly fearsome.) Out of first episodes this season, I would have to say this is the best. The mood is spot-on, there are cats, there are weird girls, and there is simple enjoyment of life. Why, the soundtrack is even made of jazz. I give my full blessing.

Genshiken 2 2: Not much to say here. It's well done. The OP is way over the top though. Doujinshi is a dangerous thing. (Something to note: it helps to have read and mostly forgotten the manga before watching the anime. Particularly the forgetting.)

Blue Drop 2: This was quality, except for one jarring comic-style reaction 2/3s of the way through. Still unclear what's going on.

Ghost Hound 1: I think this is the first series I've seen that is truly HD in scope and implementation. The sound design alone is worth a few years of continuous applause. I like how the background sound goes from drones to FM synthesis, and such. As for the much-vaunted "Spiritual Animation", it's cool, but it doesn't seem particularly groundbreaking. The backgrounds are fantastically detailed. I like the OP song: swing that's dark instead of cheesy.

Kaiji 1, 2: This is very well done: they've nailed the art style and the over-the-top delivery. My interest is flagging, however, so I'll probably end up reading the manga sometime.

Kimikiss 3: The budget seems to be running down. Definitely more annoying parts. Belatedly, I note that the (admittedly pedestrian, but effective) technique of fading in the ED is being carried over from Honey & Clover.

Gundam 00 1: Ah, where to begin. The opening sequence animation is fabulous; they definitely spent a lot of time on it. However, from the get-go we have a strong allusion to Full Metal Panic!, which only gets stronger as the episode plays out. The OP sequence is standard Gundam, but it's really interesting how the OP song quotes part of the second Zeta Gundam OP. I take this as a sign that everyone is going to die. I can't say I like the non-Gundam MS designs, and I haven't seen enough of the Gundams to weigh in on their aesthetics. The seeming focus on physical combat is a bit strange; perhaps somebody watched Code Geass a bit too rapturously, or maybe even was responsible for it. (Rant on reel-in kinetic weapons forthcoming.) I'm terribly amused by how everyone's all like "hey it's marked GUNDAM I wonder what that means" and then a few minutes later say "oh it's another gundam". Oh, I can see all the glorious Gundam clichés coming from a mile away. Since those clichés include pulchritudinous princesses, I guess I shouldn't complain.

Blue Drop 3: Strangely enough, the mood is consistent through the whole episode, except for a jarringly comic outburst two-thirds of the way through, just like ep. 2. But I've gleaned basically enough of the plot and have lost interest.

Rental Magica 2: Was the time-slip announced? I was rather confused. Anyway, this is the Kaze no Stigma for this season: kinda bad, but exciting nonetheless, with solid novel-based plot and characters. The distinction is that the originally seinen Kaze no Stigma was turned into a aggravatingly shounen anime. At least the Rental Magica novels are shounen to begin with. Still may pass on this series for the shounen-ness.

Moyashimon 1, 2: I must say, I was expecting more from a Noitamina production. At least the OP and ED are up to snuff. There are some brilliant sequences in the anime, but the execution of the rest leaves a little to be desired. I think I'll investigate the manga for this one too.

Egh, that's it for now. I would have been done much sooner had it not been for those meddling adults. Anyway, I'm on restricted internet for these two weeks so I'm not getting any new stuff. I may have some retrospective ponderings instead.