Bored at home, or Cen watches shitty anime and doesn't know why

Ever since I moved back into my parents house, I've been unable to play League of Legends at all, so I've been watching a lot more anime, a couple of which aren't bad.

First, I've been keeping up on Nurarihyon no Mago. For the life of me, I can't figure out why I'm still watching this show. It's absurdly generic shonen, involving yokai (demons), swords, etc. I think something about the "high school guy living a double life" thing attracts me, but I can't excuse myself for watching this show. Every episode, I expect something to happen, and nothing ever does.

Next up also has to do with yokai: Yokai Otome Zakuro. I honestly don't think it's bad at all, but it does get rather boring. Character development is barely existent, and pretty much every male character is absurdly pretty, which gets annoying after a while.

After that we have Fortune Arterial, in which there are two things too obvious to miss. 1: It's an adaptation of a H Visual Novel, that wasn't made by Key, and as a result has about the same chance of being good as I do of randomly bursting into flame. 2: Vampires. Not traditional, Hellsing-style vampires either. kinda halfway between Twilight vampires (They have no reaction to sunlight at all), and Chibi Vampire vampires (They really don't seem that threatening).

Next on my plate is Shinrei Tantei Yakumo. While it started out pretty good, and has a pretty good cast, it's just sort of plateaued. While there has been plot development, it hasn't been all that interesting, and twists have been pretty obvious.

It hasn't all been bad though. Thanks to Mefloraine, I avoided giving Milky Holmes a second chance. (It's pretty much K-ON meets Sherlock Holmes from what I could tell)

I've also been watching To Aru Majutsu no Index II, and apart from a lack of Misaka really doing much besides tsundere-ing, it's as good as ever. Accelerator even showed up at one point, still his bat-shit crazy self.

I did finish Katanagatari, and wow. The last episode was an amazing end to a great show. If you haven't watched it yet, I recommend you do so immediately.

On another note, I've yet to watch the Haruhi movie, "Haruhi Suzumiya no Shoushitsu" (The Dissappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya). This is despite the fact that it's based on my favorite of the Haruhi light novels, and entirely due to being unable to find decent internet for more than a couple hours in the past week. Hopefully I can finish that download tomorrow.

Sorry I haven't posted recently. I've been going through a lot lately.

Fall anime season

As I promised, here is my quick review of a few of the shows airing this season. Be aware that this is only my opinion, and that just because I dislike a show doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, just not my thing.

Quick note, I'm watching a few "second seasons" this season, so my recommendation on each of them is to watch the first, then continue.

So here goes:

To Aru Majutsu no Index II (A certain magical Index II): The second season of To Aru Majutsu no Index, it pretty much picks up exactly where it left off. While a lot of season one revolved around events in Academy City, season 2 seems to mostly take place outside of the city, which is new. Lots of new characters being introduced, which is on par for a new season for any show. If you liked the first season, you'll love this one. To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (A certain scientific Railgun) is an offshoot of this show, so if you liked it, I'd highly recommend you watch through the first season, then pick up season 2.

Tegami Bachi REVERSE: I hear a lot of people trash on Tegami Bachi, but for reasons I've never really been able to pin down, I loved it, so I was really excited about the second season. As with Index II, this picks up right where the first season left off. If you liked the first season, go ahead and watch this, as it's pretty much just more of the same.

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru: This show is... interesting. I love the opening animation/song, and the show itself is entertaining enough, there just doesn't seem to be much that really jumps out at me. The animation isn't great, but I've certainly seen worse. I've only watched the first episode, so maybe it picks up in 2 and 3, but I'm not sure about this show.

MM!: It's rare that I dislike a show so much that I can't watch past the first episode. I know a few people I follow on Twitter absolutely love this show, but I really didn't like it. While the voice acting and animation is pretty good, the writing and characters are, in my opinion, abysmal. The characters don't seem to have much of a personality past their personality quirks, so the main character is a masochist, and not much else. Japan's seeming obsession with things like S&M has always struck me as odd. It's like they can't think of any way to show that someone is weird besides either making them obsessed with sex, making them a hardcore otaku, or making them an M. I'd be open to watching more of it if this show actually turns into something besides random S&M humor, but I'm not holding my breath.

Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (My little sister can't be this cute!): As so many others have put it, I'm not going to be telling my siblings I'm watching this show. I actually really like this show so far, and as I understand it, the light novel was quite good, so I'll probably try to find a translation of that. The show's main character is the older, high-school aged brother of a middle-school girl, who is quite popular. She's a model, both in the student and picture-taking variants, but she is also a closet otaku, and plays a lot of 18+ VNs, or "eroge" (short for erotic game). Her brother finds out about this, and helps her to do things like find friends with similar hobbies. Honestly, aside from the sis-con element to the show, as evidenced by the title, this show actually has a much more realistic portrayal of the relationship between like-aged siblings than most anime/manga. If you aren't deeply offended by things like eroge and the siscon relationship, I highly recommend you watch this show. If those things do offend you, I'd honestly suggest you find a hobby besides anime, because anime is rampant with them.

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes: Most season I dislike maybe one show. This is one of the first times I have literally had to turn a show off before I was even halfway through the first episode. Maybe my standards are getting higher, or maybe this show really is that bad, but damn this show bored the hell out of me. From what I saw, this is a sort of a moe detective show, which seems like a really bad idea to me, as a lot of moe involves being, quite frankly, stupid, airheaded, or clumsy. These traits, of course, really don't lend themselves to being a detective. Now, from what I saw, it seems very likely this show is targeted at a fairly young audience. But then, so was Yumeiro Patissiere, and I absolutely loved that show. I can't in good conscience recommend anyone watch this show.

Others: There were a couple other shows I checked out, but chose not to review, nor watch. The reason for that is that I could see merit in them, but they were just not my type of show. Togainu no Chi is the only one that I can actually remember at the moment, and while I know a lot of people like BL, it just doesn't interest me. One of my biggest problems with a lot of reviewers is that they intentionally watch a show/play a game that is a genre they know they don't like, and end up reviewing the genre, rather then the game/show. (IE: every time Yahtzee touches a JRPG).

I'll post a short review of both Bakuman and Kuragehime later, but I can summarize both in one word: Watch.

Well...

So I never made a post of what shows I'd be watching. Sorry about that, I'll put up a list after this post.

That's mostly because I've been somewhat busy with school, finding a job, and preparing to move back to my parents house. A few of my friends might have an open room in their house next month, but they need to talk about whether I can live there without being able to pay rent until I find a job, if not, I get to move back in with my parents. (I love my mom, but that's really not something I'd like to do, for various reasons I won't discuss here.)

See, I was going to try to kinda blog about a show episode-by-episode, and figured I'd do that with To Aru Majutsu no Index II, but I encountered a problem.

You should have noticed a couple things from reading my blog. First, I'm not that great of a writer. Actually, I hate most writing, which is why I hate English classes in all forms, despite how much I love to read. The next thing I hope you noticed is that I try not to spoil shows when I'm reviewing them. Something I doubt you've noticed is that I won't post something unless I am either satisfied with the quality of the post or pissed off about something to the point that quality means nothing to me. That's not to say all of my posts are high quality, just that they were sufficient enough to pass my neurosis-check. (I really do suspect that I'm mildly OCD or Autistic sometimes.)

This brings me to the problem I encountered when trying to write a blog post about the first episode of Index. See, being a second season, a lot of it doesn't make sense unless you've seen the first season (If you haven't you really should, it was great). So I found it difficult, with my limited writing ability, to come up with a post that I liked enough to publish.

I also found that I enjoyed shows less when I was watching them with the intent of blogging about them afterward, kind of like how writing an in-depth book report makes me enjoy reading less. It makes me focus on every negative thing in the book/episode, so it doesn't seem as good to me.

Anyways, that's why I haven't made the promised post, that one will be forthcoming as soon as I get something to eat.

The ACTA and You.

So the ACTA passed. However, thanks in large part to Europe, a lot of what I was worried about was removed (things like ISPs being forced to block "illegal downloading").

What ended up being passed is such a gutted bill, it's more of a stern warning than any sort of action. While technically the government can now seize any computer or iPod they want simply upon the suspicion that it contains pirated material, they never will, as the ACTA is all but unenforceable. They won't do that because any such actions would be deemed unconstitutional so fast their heads would spin. Well, at least I would hope that would happen. Realistically, the ACTA is aimed at distributors and China, not people who download movies.

If you don't know what the ACTA is, you're part of the problem in America right now. Americans need to actually be informed, have their own opinions, and stand up for themselves.

Basically, if they really do start seizing personal property on the suspicion of piracy and counterfeiting without any sort of search warrant, I'm saving up and moving to Sweden.

Edit: It seems this hasn't passed yet, but it's still important to know about.

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt

When I first heard about this show, it sounded pretty bad, mostly just full of stupid jokes and fanservice. However, after watching it, I have to change my opinion. It does have fanservice, but the entire show is a parody of pretty much every anime/cartoon in existence, especially American cartoons that try to be anime.

Definitely watching this, as for other shows, I'll post a quick review of the shows I plan on watching once I watch a few more first episodes.

K-ON!! Episode 20

So since pretty much every aniblogger on the planet is talking about this, I figure I should too.

I've been complaining about how K-ON!! season two has little to do with music in a show that is supposed to be about a band. While episode 20 was finally a concert episode (Indeed, their last concert), it didn't win me over again for that reason. Instead, it made me realize something about K-ON!! as a whole.

I'm not sure why I didn't realize this before, but K-ON!! isn't about music. It's not about a band; music honestly plays a very small role. Instead K-ON!! is a slice of life show about the people in a high school band. There is a very small difference there, but it causes the show to go from just "okay" to "great". A very large part of what makes the show so great was episode 20, and the fact that every major character had a role to play made the episode that much better. As http://enryoshitaino.tumblr.com/ said, episode 20 of K-ON!! was good because of all the episodes leading up to it. For me though, episodes 1-19 of K-ON!! were also made better because they led up to episode 20. Before that, they were a lot of random episodes that didn't seem to build towards anything. That's fine for, and expected from, a slice of life show, but all of them were somewhat validated at the end of episode 20. For me, the first 19 episodes of K-ON!! were simply there to endear the characters to me, which is why I nearly cried at the end of episode 20. (I really wish I could cry at anime/movies. Even when I feel like I should, or even want to, I can't.)

However, no matter how good episode 20 was, the next few episodes will help to make or break the show. They'll have to be a good balance between the regular slice of life episodes and episodes like this last one. If they're all just slice of life, the show feels like it will fizzle, but too many like 20, and the emotional impact of them will become expected, even boring.

I'm pretty sure I didn't express myself as well as I'd like to, but I think I got my point across.

Edit: I should clarify some of those statements. First, everything I wrote about K-ON!! was referring to the second season, hence the "!!". Episode 20 of K-ON!! can't compare to episode 12 of K-ON!.

I would argue that K-ON! is about a band that happens to be made up of high school girls, whereas K-ON!! is more about high school girls who happen to be in a band, which as I've said in the past is not a direction I liked. My point was that K-ON!! 20 redeemed the second season somewhat, not that it made it as good as or better than the first.

Summer Anime Part 2

So now that I've had a chance to watch a bit of the various shows airing this season, I can make a better call on what is any good, so here we go:

K-ON!! Season 2: Continuation of what aired last season, as of episode 16 they still haven't done much with music, despite the fact that it's a music show. Seen in that light, it's boring, but as far as moeshit goes, it's pretty good. Keep watching if only because it's one of the few non-shit shows this season.

Highschool of the Dead: After watching five episodes, it's still following it's winning formula of boobs, blood, and zombies.  The storyline itself isn't bad. In fact, I'd go so far as to call it good at times. Each character has been a little better developed, and Hirano has just been getting more badass. Definitely watch.

Seitokai Yakuindomo: I've honestly only been able to make myself watch 2 out of the 4 episodes I have, which is not a good sign. The 4-koma-esque style of the show essentially prohibits any real storyline progression, the characters are flat and uninteresting at best. It tries to have a perverted sense of humor, but all it really manages is to elicit a giggle here and there. All in all, I'm going to agree with others when they describe it as "Seitokai no Ichizon" or "B Gata H Kai" without the funny. Don't watch.

Cat Shit One: There's only one episode of this out, and I've only heard rumors that a 2nd will ever be airing, and that is supposed to be in January. That's really unfortunate, because the show is amazing. If you like military/war movies or shows at all, you'll love this. It's probably one of the most accurate military shows ever made, right down to the model of guns used, the tactics the "Americans" and "Terrorists" use against one-another, even the way the characters walk correctly. There is one exception: all of the characters are animals. This is not a complaint though, because they make what would be the war equivalent of a procedural cop show very interesting. Definitely watch.

Amagami SS: I was worried about this one. While I, unlike most, actually like the toned-down artstyle and character design, the first couple episodes were somewhat boring. However, the third episode showed the show for what it is: An attempt to turn the classic shoujo romantic comedy genre on it's head, or at least make it more interesting. The first character arc was 4 episodes long, and ended up being pretty enjoyable to watch. The girl that was the main subject of the show was somewhat boring, but she had a lot of cute points. (Seriously, who didn't love her random Wow!'s?) The new arc focuses on a much more energetic girl, and it looks like it's going to be much more interesting. Watch, if your into this genre.

Strike Witches 2: It's still Strike Witches, and seems to be developing more of a plot than the first season, which is good. Honestly, this show has been talked to death, and I don't feel like ranting about how it's not just a bunch of fan service. Watch it and decide for yourself, just make sure you actually pay attention to the plot, and not just the character's asses.

Asobi ni Iku Yo: The best way to describe this show is: "Who put all this filthy plot in my harem show!?". It is definitely a classic harem-type show, but it also has a plot that is completely separate from the "Who is he going to end up with?" plot. It is very fan service-y, so avoid it if you don't like that. Otherside, it's a fun show if nothing else. Watch it.

I was going to add more shows to this, but I honestly don't care enough about things like Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin and Nurarihyon no Mago to write much about them. I like Mago, and not Occult Gakuin, so there's that.

Summer Anime Quick Reviews

So I'd heard that the summer season is a dumping ground of sorts. All the crap tends to end up here, likely because people tend to go outside a lot more during summer. It's like how in America, a lot of new shows start airing in summer, and most end up being crap.

After reading other blogs, and watching the first couple episodes of the new shows, this summer anime season is indeed a dump.

Here's a short list of what's airing:

Seitokai Yakuindomo: Similiar to Seitokai Ichizon and B Gata H Kei, but not funny. Pass.
Mitsudomoe: Practically a clone of Kodomo no Jikan, but replaced good characters with stupid jokes. Pass.
Amagami SS: Could have a decent plot, but the characters, style, pretty much the whole show, is dull. (A lot of people say the character design is dull, but I actually like it.) Pass.
HSOD: More blood and sex than I've seen in anime in a long time, also the only real zombie apocalypse anime I can think of. Watch.
Ookami-San: Faily mediocre, but the characters are fun enough that it's entertaining mediocrity. Watch.
Asobi ni Iku Yo: Haven't been able to get the first ep of this yet. I hear it's a surprisingly good twist on the generic harem genre.

Edit: Saw the first episode of Asobi ni Iku Yo. It turned out it actually does have a plot. Honestly, it seems to me that it's actively trying to turn the whole harem genre on it's head.

Also saw the first episode of Nurarihyon no Mago. Not going into huge detail here, but I'm still on the fence about it. It probably won't be amazing, but it could turn out okay.

Full Reviews of Asobi ni Iku Yo and Nurarihyon no Mago are forthcoming. Too tired to think about writing them, but I have some ideas in my head for each.

HSOD Update

So after watching the second episode and reading a bit of the manga, I've rethought my position here, and will definitely be watching this.

My main complaints about HSOD were the shameless fan service and the utter predictability of the first episode.

The first complaint isn't really that fair, I've realized. Realistically, most shows these days will tone down the fan service in a manga-to-anime adaptation, or will be so completely moeshit that fan service wouldn't really work. HSOD is an exception here though. It's anything but moeshit, and the show is actually very faithful to the manga, both in plot and style.

The complaint about predictability wasn't really fair either. The first episode of HSOD was so predictable because it was full of zombie tropes. Tropes exist because more often than not, they work. They can add drama, humor, or even just familiarity, which is more important than most people realize. In TV especially, completely new shows, devoid of tropes such as these are fairly risky. When an audience isn't familiar with something, they have trouble relating to it, and that's one thing tropes help to accomplish.

As for zombie tropes specifically, such as killing the freshly zombified best friend, even when you expect them, it allows for character and plot development without alienating viewers.

Now, the second episode of HOSD was still fairly predictable, but that was mostly because we know who the members of the adventuring party are, and we knew they would have to get together fairly early to avoid a lot of floundering about in the plot. Predictability is not always a bad thing, as it often occurs because there are only a couple of ways to do something that really make sense.

Ookami-san to Shichin no Nakamatachi

Ookami-san to Shichin no Nakamatachi is one of the shows I'm most interested in this year. At first that was due to the main character, Ookami Ryoko looking exactly like Aisaka Taiga, just with longer legs. Now that I've seen the first episode, I actually find the show itself interesting.

The basic plot follows Ookami Ryoko and her seven companions, hence the name of the shows. They run a sort of club that helps people in exchange for favors down the road. Near the beginning of the episode, a boy named Morino Ryoshi that has been stalking Ookami confesses his love to her when she forces him out of hiding. It turns out he has a phobia of being looked at, due to being brought up in a very rural area. Ookami's best friend, ironically named Akai Ringo, hears this, and insists he join their club, as his ability to follow people unnoticed may prove useful.

As far as over-arching plot, that's all that really happens. There's a short plotline involving Morino's first "mission" with the club, but it seems irrelevant to the main story.

This show also has a kind of theme running in it. The characters seem to be a play on characters from childrens stories. The main characters all relate to (even look like, in Akai's case) characters in Little Red Riding Hood. The whole first episode is like a re-telling of Cinderella. Even the name of the show: "Ookami-san and Seven Companions" can be compared to "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves".

In addition, Ookami-san is produced by JC Staff, who apparently do nothing but light novel adaptations. It contains many VAs from their other shows. Narrator = Kuroko(Index/Railgun), Akai Ringo = Saten(Index), Ookami Ryoko = Itou Shizuka(Railgun), Eika(Sky Girls), Wilhelmina(Shana), Rachel(Baccano), and Hinagiku(Hayate).

All in all, I like this show so far. If not actually a very good show in itself, it's pretty entertaining.

Also Ookami has cat-knuckles. I'd post a picture if I could find one.

Mitsudomoe

Mitsudomoe is a new anime this season about a new elementary school teacher, who happens to be a virgin. In his first class, he has three problem students, who happen to be girls. The teacher decides that as a teacher, he needs to figure out why these three are the way they are, and try to help them overcome it.

Sound familiar? It should, because that's the exact same plot as Kodomo no Jikan. However, to be fair we should note the differences between the two shows. I've made this handy table just for that purpose.

Kodomo no Jikan	Mitsudomoe
The girls are very good friends, but not related.	The girls are sisters.
The girls' quirks are believable	The girls' quirks are ridiculous
It takes time for the girls to open up to the teacher	The girls immediately decide they need to hook up the teacher and the new school nurse.
Kokonoe is very possessive of the teacher, pretty much from the start.	The girls immediately decide they need to hook up the teacher and the new school nurse.
The girls tease their teacher about his virginity.	The girls take pity on their teacher about his virginity.
The girls, while precocious, act like grade school girls.	The girls act like they're in high school.
I found the Kodomo no Jikan manga interesting, and thought it made an interesting commentary on how we, as a society, view children.	I found Mitsudomoe uninteresting, and thought it made a sad point on how easy it is for crap to get on air.
The teacher is pretty much the same.	The teacher is pretty much the same.

Seriously, I couldn't stand this show, and have no intention of watching any more of it. I rarely make this sort of judgment call, but I get really annoyed when a show so blatantly copies another one. At least in the case of Lucky Star vs Azumanga Daioh, the similarities were mostly in the area of style, not story.

On another note, I heard recently that there is actually an anime of Kodomo no Jikan, which is one of my favorite mangas (manga? mangi?). So look forward to a review of that whole show once I get my hands on it.

Strike Witches 2

 

Strike Witches 2 is a sequel to Strike Witches. If you liked the first season, you'll probably like this one. If not, you're one of those people that disliked it purely because of the fan service, and completely ignored the plot itself.

Seriously though, I really liked Strike Witches, and I'll probably like this new season. It seems to be off to a good start. Hopefully they'll actually explain what the Neuroi are this time, rather than ending the show right when they seem to be about to.

Probably my shortest review ever, but I've never had much success with getting people to understand why I like Strike Witches, and as a second season, pretty much any explanation would ruin the first.

High School of the Dead

So High School of the Dead was one of the shows I was interested in, mostly because it's pretty much the only zombie apocalypse anime I've ever heard of. Okay, first off, this show has an unbelievable amount of fan service. The picture above was the only one I could find that wasn't a manga scan, and wasn't practically porn. Not that that's a bad thing, I just think it's hard to take a show seriously when it has more fan service than Ikkitousen (Battle Vixens, for you dub-watchers).

Now that that's out of the way, we can talk about the show itself. I won't talk much about violence, as it's a zombie anime, and thus expected to be encountered in large quantities. The show has (I think, Kevin would probably disagree) interesting characters. They have definite personalities, and while they may be somewhat stereotyped (Why do all male leads either do badly in school or are geniuses?), they react believably to the situation. So if the characters are interesting, that means the show is pretty good, right? Unfortunately, that may not be the case here. This show is easily the most predictable show I've ever seen. It follows pretty much every zombie movie cliche out there, [spoiler]right down to the main character having to kill his best friend, who happens to be going out with his unrequited love.[/spoiler] The main character, who seems to be somewhat of a loser, as far as I can tell, sees a zombie attack outside the school when he's skipping class, sees it for what it is,  pulls his unrequited love and his best friend out of class in an attempt to save them, and from that most of you can guess pretty much the entire episode's storyline.

Some of the things the show does very well include an accurate depiction of how most people would react to a zombie apocalypse. One teacher jumps out a window, people turn on their friends to save their own lives, most of the students are simply too confused to react in time, resulting in quite the zombie horde. The main characters' emotions are very well communicated, and like those of the rest of the cast, seem very human.

It might just be me, but the show itself was somewhat depressing, but it made me want to watch more. The last line sums up the general mood of the show: "On the day everything I knew came to an end, [spoiler]I killed my best friend[/spoiler], and embraced the love of my life for the first time."

Note: Highlight spoilers to see them.

Amagami SS

Amagami SS is yet another show based on a visual novel that seems "iffy". The main character is incredibly pathetic, even for this genre.  When the show opens up, he's talking about his past a bit. Apparently, two years ago, he asked a girl out, she agreed, and then stood him up. In his mind, this was so emotionally scarring that it's still affecting him a full two years later. Now that he's a second year in High School, apparently he's ready to start dating again, before the seniors graduate.

My impression of the first episode was that the show is very generic. So far, none of the characters really stand out, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Often in shows like this, some characters are too over-the-top, and just have ridiculous personalities that provide comic relief at the expense of a stronger storyline.

From what I understand, the show will have a format that involves "rebooting" the show after each girl's arc, which is something I usually don't like, as it means many weaker plots rather than one strong plot. In my experience, it's best to modify the story so that you get to "meet" each character, and learn a bit about them, but it doesn't actually go down each path in sequence.  That's what Clannad did, and it worked pretty well, as opposed to Kanon, which didn't actually restart after each path, but went down each of them in sequence anyways, making it seem very disjointed. The only time this method really works is when the VN itself was intended to be played like that, where you are supposed to go down each character's path in sequence, like Ever 17. Now, this VN may have been like that, I really don't know much about it.

A couple things I did like were the character design and lack of any real fan service. The character design is pretty standard stuff, but there's something about it that seems fresh. I can't really put my finger on it. The lack of fan service could mean that the show has a sense of shame, as opposed to shows like Mayoi Neko Overrun or High School of the Dead, which is a good thing, although pretty rare these days.

All in all, I'm nervous for this show. I hope it turns out to be more interesting than the first episode hinted it would be.

Still to come this season:
High School of the Dead
Ookami-san to Shichin no Nakamatachi
Mitsudomoe

Possibly:
Seitokai Yakuindomo
Strike Witches 2
Shi Ki
Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin
Nurarihyon no Mago

I'll make an effort to at least watch to first episode of most of those.

B Gata H Kei and Arakawa Under the Bridge

While Durarara and Angel Beats were both among the best shows I've seen in a long time, B Gata H Kei demonstrated how easy it is to have an interesting/entertaining concept, but not really go anywhere. B Gata H Kei started out as an attempt to turn the "Guy trying to get laid falls ass-backwards into true love" stereotype on it's head by replacing "Guy" with "Girl". While this kept it interesting, the "trying to get laid" part served only to provide humor, and really didn't make for believable situations or good storytelling. The show really shined in it's characters. While there were a few cliche characters, such as Kyouka, the ridiculously wealthy antagonist that was disturbingly similar to Martina from "Slayers", the rest were pretty well done for the most part. All in all, it was an enjoyable show to watch, but is by no means an amazing work of art.

Arakawa Under the Bridge isn't really comparable to any other shows, mostly because it seems like an anime adaptation of a 4-koma manga. It has an incredibly weak storyline, and was chaotic enough that any storyline that did exist was nearly impossible to follow. Like B Gata H Kei, Arakawa was all about the character interaction, which made for a very funny show, due mostly to the sheer insanity that seemed to permeate the cast. Unfortunately, it got somewhat boring near the end, as it got to the point that it was just repeating jokes to keep itself going. It attempted to have some sort of conclusion, but the storyline was already so weak it didn't really make much sense. Much like B Gata H Kei, it was fun to watch, but not much else.

Angel Beats! and Durarara!!

So both of these finished in the past week. While they were both amazing shows in their own right, I think Angel Beats was better overall, if only because it was shorter.

You'll have to let me explain that last bit. All of Durarara!! was amazing, especially compared to almost every show that aired this or last season. The ending just didn't grab me at all. It didn't really have much of a climax, it just sort of wrapped up all (or most) of the remaining story-lines so it could end.

Angel Beats! on the other hand, had a great ending, even if it did feel just a tad rushed. I always know a shows was amazing when it ending leaves me with mixed feelings of joy and disappointment. I'm happy, because the show was amazing, and the ending even more-so (fairly predictable from around episode 8 on). However, I'm slightly disappointed because there will be no more Angel Beats! and there was a good amount of material they had to build side-stories, mostly dealing with each character's pasts. I hear the DVDs will have an unaired special, and I really hope that either explores other characters pasts, goes into Hinata/Yui's relationship more either in the afterlife or when they're reborn, or is an adaptation of part of the light novel, and explores the founding of the SSS.

Several other shows I'm watching are ending with a week or two, so I'll give a bit of an overall review when that happens, if I liked/disliked it enough to be bothered about it. Probably won't be doing that for Arakawa Under the Bridge, because while it was funny, it had just enough of a storyline for me not to get fed up with it.

Arizona, Seattle, and Immigration

"The Mexican says, 'You did not ask the Indians' permission to come to America! Why should we follow your laws about immigration?'"

"The White man says, 'Let's go down to the reservation and ask the Indians how well unregulated immigration worked out for them.'"

Agree with the new Arizona law or not, you can't say this quote doesn't make a good point.

 I have only heard one valid argument against this new Arizona law. That argument is as follows: Much of the illegal immigration into the US would cease to exist if it wasn't so ridiculously hard (and expensive) to become a legal immigrant.

No matter where you are from, whether you are getting/are married to a citizen, etc. It will take at least a year in order to get a green card, and that is only the first step towards becoming a citizen.  It also costs at least $1000 dollars to get through the green card process.  This does not make our country more secure, because it is *significantly* easier and cheaper to simply get a visa and stay in the country illegally, or run across our southern or northern borders.  Most of this time/money cost comes from the massive, inefficient bureaucracy that is he Department of Homeland Security.

This does not mean I empathize with illegal immigrants. I do not personally dislike illegal immigrants, mind you. I simply dislike any large group of people that pisses all over our laws, and/or has no obligation to pay taxes, yet causes an enormous drain on public services, such as transportation, law enforcement, and hospitals.

The Seattle city council has no right to criticize Arizona's new law requiring their police to enforce existing US immigration laws. Even a small amount of research will show that an inordinate number of hospitals have been forced to shut down due to the uncompensated use of their emergency rooms for things like the common cold. Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the U.S. While these cannot be proven to be 100% caused by illegal immigrants, it is a fact that as an area's population of illegal immigrants grows, so does it's crime rate. In addition, when illegal immigrants move to an area, that area provides much less tax revenue than it now requires to maintain it, as there are now a large number of people not paying taxes that would be, were they in the country legally.

This is not conjecture, or opinion. This is indisputable fact.

When the Attorney General of the United States goes before congress and condemns a state law without so much as reading the damn thing, we have a problem. A lot of people are lying about the contents of this law, so lets set some facts straight.

Rumor: The new Arizona law allows the police to stop anyone on the street and demand to "see their papers".

Fact: The new Arizona law specifically prohibits this behavior. The only time the police can ask to see proof of your immigration status is in the course of lawful contact, and only when reasonable suspicion that the person may not be in the country legally exists. This means that in order to ask to "see your papers", the police must come into contact with you while enforcing another law. Pulling you over for speeding, for example, or arresting you for robbing a liquor store.

Rumor: The new Arizona law will cause racial profiling against minorities, specifically Latinos.

Fact: The new Arizona law also prohibits this. Race, gender, religion, etc is not valid criteria to establish reasonable suspicion. Being unable to provide a valid driver's license when pulled over for speeding is.

"Courts have ruled (Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968)) that a stop on reasonable suspicion may be appropriate in the following cases: when a person possesses many unusual items which would be useful in a crime like a wire hanger and is looking into car windows at 2am, when a person matches a description of a suspect given by another police officer over department radio, or when a person runs away at the sight of police officers who are at common law right of inquiry (founded suspicion). However, reasonable suspicion may not apply merely because a person refuses to answer questions, declines to allow a voluntary search, or is of a suspected race or ethnicity. At reasonable suspicion, you may be detained by a police officer (court officer on court grounds) for a short period of time and police can use force to detain you. If it is a violent crime (robbery, rape, gun run), the courts have recognized that an officer's safety is paramount and have allowed for a "frisk" of the outermost garment from head to toe and for an officer to stop an individual at gun point if necessary. For a non-violent crime (shoplifting for example) an officer may frisk while at reasonable suspicion if he noticed a bulge in the waistband area, for example, but can frisk in that area only. In the city of New York, once a person is released in a reasonable suspicion stop, a "stop, question and frisk report" is filled out and filed in the command that the stop occurs."

tl;dr If you don't act suspicious, they can't/won't ask you to prove your immigration status.

Anyone that makes either of the arguments against this law that I listed, have not read the law, or even done preliminary research into it, and are likely just repeating what someone told them.

/angry

So a friend of mine is in what you might describe as a bad relationship. While I won't get into specifics to protect the innocent, the most recent development has been that he has put a lock on her cell phone, so she can't call or text anyone. I assume the share a cell plan. They also live together.

I really hope she gets out of that situation soon, or is cleared to ship off to basic training. The main reason for this is obviously that it's not good for her to be in that situation, but another important reason is that if this goes much further, there will be a physical confrontation between her boyfriend and several of her friends, which is something I'd like to avoid if possible, mostly because I'm not great in a fight. Not that I wouldn't be right there as well. That really wouldn't solve much anyways.

I may be lazy, arrogant, and have any number of other faults, but if there is one positive trait I have, it's loyalty to my friends.

I apologize to my friend if I've posted more than she would have wanted me to, but I need to let out anger somewhere, and this is the best place I've found to do so.

Any advice on this subject would be welcome.


EDIT:: So it seems he has given her the code to her phone, after she tried 350 different four-number combinations. Still not happy about that. When someone starts controlling your means of communicating to that degree, they no longer have any interest in what you want.

How to not look like an idiot when posting online

Taken from a WSJ comment section, this is the best way to not appear stupid on the internet:

"Here is a novel thought. When you are going to state a theory or premise; test it first. For instance, if a light bulb flashes and the thought arises from the recesses of your less than agile mind, "I will suggest a link between small government and adultery", quickly jot down the names of famous politicians caught with their pants down. If the names you write down, Sanford, Ensign, Clinton, Edwards, Spitzer, Hart, McGreevy, et al, are not consistent with your premise; abandon the post so as not to appear silly."

Credit for that goes to  John Cunnane, whoever that is.

The article being commented on was: An Economy of Liars, and while the comment is more or less irrelevant, the article is dead on concerning the economy.

WHAT ARE YOU WANT?

I love fansubbers that don't TLC (Translation check), QC (Quality check), or edit sometimes.

House of Five Leaves

So I haven't actually watched any of this show myself, but I've read a lot of comments on it, and there seems to be a lot of argument over the unorthodox character design.

There are two main camps here. First, you have the pretentious morons who seem to love the show, but won't say more than how much they love the character design. This group also claims it to be "art", and yet contrasts it against other shows, such as Angel Beats, which is apparently not art? If you consider one anime to be art, you have to look at all anime as art. Now, some art is good, and some is bad, but you can't have it both ways. The most common assertion they have of the other side is that "They are 7 years old and have no taste in art."

The other camp are the shallow idiots, who claim the character design is "ugly", and can't seem to grasp that not everyone has the same taste they do. Indeed, they are willing to write an entire show off based entirely on it's character design. Now, they do have the right to do that. It's perfectly normal to make a snap judgment on whether you'll watch something based on how it appears. It's anime for god's sake, it's not that important. The problem with this side then, is not that they dislike the show due to appearance, it's that they feel the need to go and post online about how hideous it is. I even saw one person go so far as to say it made him nauseous. Why is it people can't just quietly dislike something and let others enjoy themselves?

The funny thing about this argument is that both sides have the same argument, in essence: "If you don't like what I like, you're (insert shallow or pretentious here)." Now, I am personally not a huge fan of the character design. I hear it looks better in motion, and it might. However, the character design isn't even the reason I haven't watched it. I haven't watched it because I can't find it for the life of me. Not that I really have the time to watch *another* new show this season.

Google vs Apple vs Microsoft

Since this seems to be the "war" the tech world wants to talk about, this quote sums up each company (and their shortfalls) pretty well. Taken from a comment to a Gizmodo article of similar name: Link

"If Microsoft had the bomb, they’d stuff it with so many useless features that it could never fit through the bomb bay doors.

If Apple had the bomb, they’d make it so friendly and easy to use that they’d have to remove the warhead to fit in all the neat stuff.

If Google had the bomb, they’d realize that killing the people below would diminish the advertising audience, so they’d launch a blimp with “Bang” on one side and targeted ads on the other."

(Above quote was edited for spelling)

K-ON!! Season 2

It's K-ON!!(Yes, the !! is part of the title), and thus awesome. Review over.

Seriously though, season 2 seems to be shaping up much like season 1 did, although if it's 26 episodes long, it might get stale.

K-ON!! is awesome, but I really liked Sora no Woto better. They had pretty much the exact same production team/studio, which is why K-ON skipped a season.

I liked Sora no Woto better in part because it wasn't such a moeblob show. I'm not being very fair there, K-ON did develop into more than moeblob later in it's first season, but they seem to have lost their momentum or something. Really episodes of K-ON can do two things: focus on music, or focus on moe. The first two of season 2 focus on moe, and the show is much better when it focuses on music.

For those not anime-savvy, a moeblob show is one in which at least the main character (In K-ON all 5) is not so much a person as a blob of moe. It's probably best you look that word up on Wikipedia or something. Technically, moe translates to "budding", and moe can be roughly translated as "a turn on" depending on usage, but it's very hard to describe accurately. It's one of those things you just kinda pick up from watching a lot of anime. Not even Japanese otaku can define it in less than an essay and do it justice.

In fact, a real definition of it is widely debated in the anime community, particularly in Japan. I would agree with Joseph L. Dela Pena when he argues that moe is a pure, protective feeling towards a female character, without the sexualization of lolicon. But even that doesn't really capture it.

Dance in the Vampire Bund

So I finished Vampire Bund finally. It wasn't great, mostly because it moved way too fast and all of the character development was rather arbitrary.

It had a lot of potential, but kinda fell flat after episode 3 or 4, which is pretty common.

I suppose I shouldn't expect much from a show best described with 3 words: Naked, Loli, and Vampires. (Okay they never really show any nudity, but it's like the heroine is allegic to clothes or something.)

Sakuracon 2010 AMV Contest

So after reading on the forum a bit, I've come to realize I was not the only one that had a problem with the AMV contest this year. It also helped me realize what my big problem with the "Best in Show" winner was: It wasn't an AMV, and according the the rules of the contest, shouldn't have even been allowed in the contest.

An AMV is an Anime Music Video. While Ginta Reviews a Movie was certainly hilarious and well lip-synced, it wasn't an AMV, because there was no music. According to the rules of Sakuracon's AMV contest, 70% of a video must be video with music playing in the background. Let's face it, when people voted for Ginta Reviews a Movie, they weren't voting for the video itself, they were voting for the sound clip associated with it. It could have just that sounds clip with a still image of a random anime character and still won. How can you really say a video is "Best in Show" when it was nothing more than admittedly well done lip-syncing? I saw several videos that did an amazing job of showing a clip or even a still image that captured the particular part of the song that was playing at the moment. Ginta Reviews a Movie had little to no "interaction" between the video and the "song", something I consider essential to a good AMV.

I almost want to say that comedy videos should be ineligible for the Best in Show prize, or there should be some kind of weighted judge vote to counter the audience in situations like this. I say this because the video that wins Best in Show is almost always the one that won the Comedy category, at least in the years I've watched the contest. Now, this is mostly because the majority of people really don't care for "serious" AMVs at all, so a lot of them only vote in the comedy category.

I also think that when the videos are shown to be voted on, they should not display the name of the person that created it. This would be to avoid people voting for their favorite creator as opposed to the best video. In the re-showing and showing the winning videos there would be no issue with this, as votes are already in.

Katanagatari

Katanagatari is at first glance both very generic, and very unique. The basic premise of the show is fairly normal for it's genre. It's set in medieval Japan, and follows the journey of Yasuri Shichika, the 7th head of the Kyotouryu, a style of martial arts designed to combat swordsmen, effective to the point of being considered a sword art itself. With Shichika is Togame, a relatively high ranking strategist in the Shogun's army. Their goal is to gather the 12 Deviant Blades created by legendary swordsmith Shikizaki Kiki.

Now, that does sound like fairly generic martial-arts shonen, and to a degree it is. However, the characters, writing, and beautiful if unorthodox art style more than make up for it. Another bonus is that rather than releasing one 20 minute episode per week, creating things such as annoying cliffhangers, episodes ending mid-battle or just before battle, etc, it is airing as 50 minute long episodes once per month for 12 months, likely focusing on a different "Deviant Blade" each episode.

Having watched three episodes, I can tell two things. First of all, while the character design takes some getting used to (it's honestly the reason I hadn't watched it until now), it is very refreshing when compared to other more popular styles. Second, the method of airing one hour long episode once a month works quite well, allowing for each minor story arc to begin and end within a single episode, preventing large cliffhangers that annoy everyone (I'm looking at you Code Geass!).

I'm going to be looking forward to the next few episodes of this show.

Arakawa Under the Bridge

If Durarara was last season's "omgwtf" show, Arakawa has the potential to be this season's. The main character is the heir to a very rich and powerful company, and his family has the motto "Never be indebted to anyone." When he falls into a river and almost drowns, a girl named Nino saves his life. When he asks her what she wants to repay the debt, she says she wants him to fall in love with and live with her. The twist? She lives under a bridge and is batshit insane. She claims to be from Venus.

In fact, the show has the feeling of everyone except the main character being completely nuts, be it Nino or the "Village Chief" whom he has to meet (and get a new name from) in order to live on the riverbank. The village chief is man that seems to live in the river, wears a kappa suit, and insists that he's a kappa.

Seriously, this show has the potential to be one of the funniest shows in the past year, possibly rivaling Bakemonogatari, although that is unlikely, due to the sheer awesomeness that permeates Bakemonogatari to it's core.

Mayoi Neko Overrun

If Kaichou wa Maid-sama is a fujoshi show, Mayoi Neko Overrun is the opposite. It hasn't got a ton of fan service, but it's definitely there. The main character, Takumi Tsuduki is the childhood friend of one main heroine, Fumino Serizawa, and the adopted younger brother of Otome Tsuduki, who runs the Stray Cat patisseire where he works. He is often in charge, as Otome is frequently out of town. Both Takumi and Fumino are technically orphans.

The other heroines are Chisa Umenomori and a mysterious cat girl that Otome brings home at the end of the first episode, but is not yet named.

So far, there's really not much of a storyline started, so it's hard to tell how it will turn out. Although, the only way Fumino could be more tsundere is if she was voiced by Kugimiya Rie.

Kaichou wa Maid-Sama

Kaichou wa Maid-Sama is the first "fujoshi" show I've watched this season. Basic premise is that the main character is the student council president (seito kaichou, or kaichou) at a mostly all-boy school (something like 80% male) and works part-time as a waitress in a maid cafe because her father left her family with a ton of debt. Of course, being overworked and a helpless girl, the first boy that finds out about this is of course the hottest guy at her school, and is worried about her.

Do I need to continue? Can we all see where this is going? I thought as much. Honestly, this has to be one of the most generic shows I've ever seen. At first the main character is all panicky about being found out, but then she seems to be starting to like the guy. Like I said, fujoshi show. Am I going to watch it? Oh, probably.

Fujoshi is pretty much the female equivalent for the word otaku, by the way, despite otaku being a generally gender nonspecific term. It translates to "rotten girl", but like the word otaku, it's mostly used to describe anyone that is very interested in anime/manga/games, and in the case of fujoshi, yaoi.

B Gata H Kei

So another new show this season is called B Gata H Kei, and it really needs very little explanation.

The basic premise is that the main character, Yamada, (They never give her first/given name) is the most beautiful new first year at her high school, and she wants to find 100 fuck buddies but she has never had a boyfriend, let alone lost her virginity.

This is for one very... odd reason. She thinks that despite her otherwise amazing appearance, her vagina looks funny/strange, and would turn off any guy that sees it, or at least make him laugh. This is compounded by the fact that she thinks any guy she tries to have sex with will laugh at her for being a virgin.

Her solution? Find what she calls a "cherry boy", or a virgin to lose her virginity to and build her confidence. When she finally finds one (Like 2 minutes into episode 1) who sits next to her in her class, she proceeds to mock him for his virginity, throw him in a closet and show him her boobs (With her bra still on, so not really I guess), steal one of his schoolbooks, and get him to rub her stomach. Either she's quite insane, or simply the most awkward person on earth.

Now, the show never really explains why she is so obsessed with sex, except that she's 15 and given her goal of wanting 100 fuck buddies, aspires to be a whore. I guess it's important to have goals?

Honestly, as retarded/ecchi as this show sounds, it's much cleaner than you might imagine. It's clearly trying to build up a real relationship between Yamada and the boy previously mentioned, and will likely evolve into a fairly average shoujo, albeit one that is so focused on sex it could easily turn into porn.

Will I watch it? Probably. But remember I also watched Kampfer, which had the rare quality of being consistently terrible.

New (To me) Anime

So I got ideas for several shows I wanted to watch at Sakura-con, and for me that means downloading them.

I've seen parts of about half of them, but the others are more or less completely new to me. I've only seen one of these shows in it's entirety, and that's Noein.

So I'm now downloading:
Noir - Seen about half of it.
Noein - Seen all of it.
Hellsing - Seen bits and pieces of it here and there.
EF - A Tale of Memories - I saw the second season of this, and managed to actually follow it without even realizing there was a first season.
Tsukuyomi Moon Phase - Heard of it.
Karin - Known as Chibi Vampire in manga.
Kamichama Karin - Never even heard of it, stumbled upon it looking for Karin.

While the legality of downloading anime is another rant altogether, I will say this: If I wasn't able to download it, I probably wouldn't watch anime at all, and thus would not be interested in supporting those that make money off the sale of it's merchandise, so there.

Note: The fact that like four of those anime involve vampires is something of a statement about how it's relatively easy to make a good vampire show, and not have it be retarded like Twilight.

Angel Beats

So I finally got a chance to watch the first episode of a couple of shows airing this new season.

The first I watched was a show called Angel Beats. The first episode opens with the main character waking up with amnesia, in a world a nearby girl named Yuri (Who happens to be aiming a sniper rifle at something) calls the afterlife. He confirms that he is unable to die after essentially asking Yuri's target to prove he can't die, at which point she stabs him in the chest.

When he wakes up, a few minutes of exposition take place and a few basic ideas are put into place. In this world there are three types of beings: the "dead" students at the school, the "npcs" which seem to be there to make the world seem more real, and "Angel" as Yuri refers to her. Angel also appears to be the student council president of the school this all takes place at.

Basic plot is that the dead people have two choices: follow Angel's wishes by following along with regular school life eventually being "erased", or resist Angel by joining the "Afterlife Battlefront", a group of "dead" students who don't want to be erased. The main character, Otonashi, chooses the later. (At least for now, he makes a point of telling himself he isn't really a member)

One thing I noticed is that the characters of Yuri and Otonashi are like much mellower versions of Haruhi and Kyon from "The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi" (Otonashi being more accepting of his situation, and Yuri being less... Haruhi). Yuri even looks a little similar to Haruhi. In the above picture is Otonashi (Left), Yuri (Center), and Angel (Right).

I think this show could have a lot of potential, as long as it doesn't have too much filler or fall into the same pit that Kampfer did, and largely ignore the main plot. The animation for the show is also very high quality, but high quality animation can only make a good show better, it can't make a bad show good. One deciding factor could be what the nature of the world they are living in turns out to be, as well as the nature of Angel.

Ookamikakushi

Ookamikakushi also finished this week. Ookamikakushi is a mystery show in which a high school boy transfers to a small, developing town in the Japanese countryside, but there's something going on that he doesn't know about, and people start disappearing.

I know that sounds a hell of a lot like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, but it really isn't very similar. I just can't say much more about the plot without spoilers.

While not as good as Sora no Woto or Durarara, Ookamikakushi was pretty enjoyable to watch. Like Sora no Woto, it is 12 episodes long, but the last episode is a kind of filler/OVA style one that really doesn't have much to do with the plot.

Sora no Woto

So I finally watched the last episode of Sora no Woto. If you haven't been watching it or keeping up on that kind of thing, Sora no Woto is somewhat of a slice of life anime about a small group of soldiers in a sort of distant future post-apocalyptic world, after humanity has rebuilt, to a degree. It takes place in what seems to be part of Europe, Spain, judging from the scenery. Music is a major theme, specifically the tune of "Amazing Grace".

Anyways, Sora no Woto is one of the best shows this season, with episodes that range everywhere from moeblob to war. I would highly recommend you watch this show, even if you don't normally watch anime.

Starting my blog

So I finally went ahead and made a blog. Not sure what anyone expects to see here really. I plan on ranting about whatever strikes my fancy, as well as reviewing a couple new anime each season, initially with first impressions then whenever my opinion changes, etc.

I may or may not decide to place ads on the page, if only because it would get me money, and I like money. I suppose it depends how many people actually start reading this.

Anyways, hope you enjoy my ranting about whatever random crap I can come up with.

Title is kinda a work in progress.