Anime Blog Online

Archive for July, 2009

I once thought of doing an episodic-blogging (or multiple-episode-coverage per post) for Cross Game, because it’d a waste if I don’t. As I’ve noticed, when I’m not writing about what I’m watching (or if I’m not compelled to write about what I am watching), I’m simply, well, watching. Passively. Just like how it was before. In turn, my appreciation for the anime and the luster of my animu-loving Kokoro no Tamago, weakens.

Blogging makes me feel more alive; Simply having the URGE to write is enough proof that I still have that PASSION burning within me, and I find that really comforting. It’s like, wow, I’m still able to nurture the Natural Child ego within me, I’m not as jaded as I thought!

“I want to capture the awesome moments of Cross Game!”, I once told myself, especially after episode 5 — but then where is that dream now? Gone with the wind?

Jiji– I mean Coach Maeno, the coach of the Prefab baseball team (aka the “rejects”) of Seishuu High makes me want to relive that ambition again. He might not seem like it, but he’s one GAR grandpa. Things are heating up in Cross Game, if seeing Coach Maeno all FIRED UP to beat the elite baseball team isn’t enough (I’m totally pretending I still haven’t seen episode 16-17 here). For years, he held onto his love for baseball, and while that allowed him to gain extensive knowledge about the game, his lack of competitiveness made him passive throughout the years — dreaming of Koushien while not really being into winning. Now things are different; with his position and the kids’ Koushien dream at stake, he couldn’t afford to just sit around and do nothing. If there’s any better time to kick the asshole infamous results-obsessed elite coach’s ass, it is NOW.

Thanks to Kou, Akaishi and Nakanishi, together with the rest of the team, he found himself the golden opportunity to not only dream of Koushien, but finally make it come true — on the way to that Road to Glory.

When you’re burning with PASSIONATE LOVE for something, you’d find yourself discontent with being lazy. For anime fans, it’s the “Simply watching is not good enough!” or “I have to watch MOAR” kind of mindset — either we indulge in an amassing behavior or expressive one. You feel as if you want to pimp what you’ve watched to the whole world as you want people to know that THIS IS F*CKING AWESOME!! Someone has to draw the line between Healthy Passion and Delusional Fanaticism, of course. But I digress.

One thing I realize is that when I don’t set my mind into blogging a series, I find myself being a casual and semi-apathetic viewer, and I hate it when I do that, especially for something as awesome as Cross Game. And by “setting my mind into blogging a series” I don’t mean it like “simply watching for the sake of blogging”, but rather wanting to be moved or entertained enough by what I’m watching (and keeping my FOCUS on it) so that I will be compelled to write about its AWESOMENESS later on.

Rewatching the past episodes of Cross Game and rereading this post of mine made me go “I want to write MOAR of this! Not this!” So yeah, right now I really want to WRITE MOAR about Cross Game, and let’s hope I’ll have enough creative juices to produce blog posts. As much as I don’t wanna miss out on the new season’s offerings, I wouldn’t want to spread myself too thinly by watching a lot and ending up just watching them and nothing else. Awesome shows like Cross Game deserve all the attention they can get.

I’d want to look back years after and pride myself on being an anime fan who didn’t just watch anime, but became a Productive Individual in the process even though I sacrifice some work time to slack off and write blog posts like this instead of focusing on my work

P.S. I really want to watch Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 right now because I’m pretty positive it’s the kind of show that’ll make me chatty and blabber a lot. But man, I can only do so much as to want to GIVE LOVE to them great animus TT__TT

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Don’t you just love onsen’s?

(For those who have been waiting, sorry for the lateness of this post, was busy with politics earlier)

Yuri-flag triggered!

God damn it, Hinagiku’s so bloody cute!

Nishizawa, breaking women’s gaydars since 2009.

And finally, a little service for the lolicons. WAH and Shin will probably love this.

©2009 Kurogane’s Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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(Whew, after rushing through making posts for 1-3, I’m finally caught up to current, just in time for the next raw to come out.) As other students are just becoming noticed, Saku plans to ride out the rush of introductions avoiding attention and burying his nose in books. Instead we get some big time double entendre from Mihoshi, yelling in front of his class about what great nights she had with him and how she won’t let him sleep that night either, spreading both scandal and, to some, admiration for Saku. The Astronomy Club now begins to plan its next activities as Saku gets cold feet about being a member and voluntarily ‘goes missing.’

She’s in your classroom, ruining your reputation.

(Posts are coming in kind of rapid succession, but once I’m caught up to the current episode I promise to stop monopolizing the front page. Ep 03 post sometime late today or tomorrow.) We find the members of the Astronomy Club in despair as their prospects of finding the fifth member necessary to be officially considered a club are bleak, not helped by President Roma coughing up blood as he tries to recruit others. But the presence of the second years in Saku’s classroom has drawn the attention of others.

Their darkest hour.

Edogawa, meanwhle, must follow his dreams with the Photography Club.

You’re not really sorry.

Enter: Hime Makita, Saku’s classmate who has a crush on him and a complex about her curly hair due to being teased about it as a child. A moment of kindness on the train when her hair got caught on Saku’s button has ignited her burning desire to get closer to Saku. Only Mihoshi is in her way. Confronting the upperclassman for being in the First Years’ room, she begins her war for the heart of Saku.

Confidence is good, but don’t underestimate your opponent.

Returning to the same room later in the day for school duty with Saku, Hime thinks she will have access to him since they are classmates. Only to find the Astronomy Club occupying the room, frightened off by Fumie’s plotting of their demise outside the club room. She pushes them out for some alone time with the object of her infatuation.

I love the glaring cat eyes Mihoshi has here.

No rest for the wicked.

However discouraged Hime may have been when she first learns from Saku that he’s known Mihoshi for seven years, she returns from her dejection with renewed resolve. Again we see the possibly developing theme of memory, as Hime is determined to have Saku remember her, even if just from their incident on the train.

That’s one way to be remembered.

Today, at 05:35 Ep. 02 playback time, Hime Makita formally declared war on Mihoshi Akeno. We are now at war. We are now at war.

Perhaps being remembered isn’t as important as which person remembers.

Confession intercepted!

Breaking Hime out of her moment of bliss, Mihoshi brings Hime and Saku up to the school roof to look at the first star of the evening, Venus in this instance. Repeating information about the planet and when it’s visible, Saku causes Mihoshi to go all rabu-rabu in admiration while plunging Hime once again into another short lived bout of despair. But Hime’s hopes rise again as Mihoshi tells her that her and Saku aren’t going out. Seeing her chance to get closer to Saku, Hime immediately volunteers to join the Astronomy Club.

Talking about astronomy turns Mihoshi adorably chibi, reminiscent of a cell phone charm.

These eyes glow with an awesome power!

In celebration, the club gets together for snacks and plans an outing to look at the stars that night. Hime and Mihoshi engage in their first battle, waged with refreshments. Student Council President and deliciously evil adversary Fumie appears to remind her enemies that she still lords over them, tempting Saku once more by mentioning that the Literature Club meets regardless of the weather. Perhaps she used her dark magicks to command the skies, because the planned outing ends up rained out. Luckily for the club and not so much for Saku, Mihoshi obtained his phone number and calls to get permission to head to Saku’s house.

Saku is perhaps feeling a little like Poland.

Much as with various forms of international solidarity, the fellowship of first year students is cast aside at the convenience of great powers.

President Fumie: beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea! We shall love her and despair!

At Saku’s, Mihoshi is received warmly by Saku’s Mom. His many admirers try to get a look at his room, but he manages to outrun them. After drying off and Saku’s Mom trying to ruin his cool image, the club members leave. Here we have another drama element, as Mihoshi is silent and stares blankly for a long moment after Saku’s Mom tell her to say hello to her parents for her.

A warm welcome.

The next day another outing is planned, and plans of another nature are also afoot. Daydreaming about being able to wear her best clothes in front of Saku and riding on his bike to the observation area, Hime is ultimately thwarted by Mihoshi’s precautions against mosquitoes and Roma’s bike being the only one with a back seat. Unfortunately for her, he goes into one of his fainting/bleeding spells while driving on a downhill that would fit well into an episode of Initial D. We end the episode with some real astronomy knowledge, Edogawa referencing Fist of the North Star and Ultraman, and Sayo and Saku having a chat.

No plan survives first contact with the Astronomy Club. Also the sign says ‘White Horse’, but you get the point (and I’m just nitpicking.)

No! It’s an electrically assisted bicycle driven by a fainting student!

More potential drama setup.

Your weekly astronomy lesson.

- I don’t think it’s going to be any surprise that Mihoshi’s parents probably died (no spoilers from the manga reader please!), but I’m hoping that whatever her long pause was caused by will make for good character development.

- This show makes me want to buy a telescope. This and other shows are obviously a conspiracy between anime companies and manufacturers!

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Not only she’s cute…

… but cool as well!

One show I’ve been tremendously enjoying in the Summer season has to be Princess Lover! although for some reason, the urge to blog about it never did come until this episode. Teppei is quite likable as the protagonist, helped by his simple charm and his fish-out-of-water situation. The girls too are pretty attractive without being too stereotypical, for example Slyvia, who now kinda has that “Saber” feel to her, LOL.

Of course, episode 4 has tipped my heart’s balance towards Seika-sama, especially with the nice bit of character development they put in to this episode that explains her initial antagonistic attitude towards Teppei and in one fell swoop also manages to showcase her charms to the max. I especially lol’ed at the “under table foot fights”.

Man… summer this year is turning out to be quite a great season.

©2009 Kurogane’s Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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A rambling post awaits you, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

You know something’s fishy when someone ends up liking a series for how heartwarming it is, while another one ends up liking it for the lulz factor. Take for example Opinion 1 of deathkillz regarding Kanamemo:

“[...]it was really moving to see how Kana, being 13, is able to be normal whilst to outsiders (her new friends) her state is really pitiful indeed. Her pitiful state can basically be summed up when she was happy about having newspaper for a futon? I felt a sudden urge to cry BWAAAAAAAAAA! along with the other girls. It was just that type of touching story and I am frankly very weak against things like these.”

vs. Opinion 2 of Crazyanimegyrl:

“Couldn’t help it… I LAUGHED MY ASS OFF!!! This Yuri, Loliconess first episode (Alone for the First Time) was funny! [...] Hilarious… downright hilarious. The first episode tickled my funny bone.”

Basically you have one blogger liking the show for its seriousness, who was even moved to tears by its heartwarming charm, while another one cries her heart out laughing at its absurdity — both liking the series for drastically different reasons — a phenomenon that can’t simply be explained by gender bias considering that both of them are actually girls * in before THERE ARE NO GIRLS ON THE INTERNET *

So whom should we believe? Could we say that one of them is right, and the other one is wrong? Well after watching one episode, I have come to conclude that both of the aforementioned opinions are valid and true, since Kanamemo did have its touching parts, as well as TOUCHING PARTS (IYKWIM). The scenes (based on the first episode) would change from melancholic and serious, to comedic lulz, with LOLI GROPING WTF moments and yuri raburabu, then melancholic stuff again, followed by yet another round of WTF Moments — certainly not what I expected based on the promo image. Could you blame me, for not being informed of what this series is going to be, for having the faintest bit of hope that I’d see a heartwarming slice-of-life moe fluff series ala Ichigo Mashimaro in this?

this basically sums up how I feel atm. Sigh.

It’s not like I have anything against yuri, fanservice, and loli in general, just that there’s something about the formula used in Kanamemo that I find off-putting but I can’t seem to out my finger on atm– oh wait this might just be it (from the Kanamemo thread in animesuki forums):

Malkuth: After two episodes, I do not know what to make out of this one. OK, some situations are genuinely funny, while in others it feels that they try too hard to pull out a smile from the audience. Also the whole loli and yuri stuff feel somewhat detached, not comedic. Remove them and you’ll get Mahoraba. Dunno, it seems to me that there is no direction in the writing.
deathkillz: All I can say is that you are probably watching it from a wrong angle or that you have a thing against loli or yuri (which is understandable).
Malkuth: No, I have nothing against these elements in shows as long as they(sic) are there for a reason or the focus. My problem with Kanamemo is that it seems that they were thrown just in order to expand into a specific audience.

emphasis mine.

It’s like one day, the author suddenly thought of working on a comedy slice-of-life, just because. “Ohh, let’s make the characters loli so it can sell to the lolicons!” And then there was the loli protagonist, and the super loli dorm manager. “Let’s add a drunkard into the mix too, so we have the sorry excuse for loli boob grabbing and other fanservice stuff you never thought possible! hihihi~!” Who would’ve thought boob-grabbing lolis is possible?! Pure genius, amirite?! Only in Kanamemo, people! “Let’s make all the characters girls, for GIRL POWER and YURI!” And then there was yuri. There you have it folks, yer loliyuri mix packaged into this one series called Kanamemo!

Unlike Juuden-chan which is just straight-out brainless and absurd and not really meant to be taken seriously, here we have a series that tries to be heartwarmingly serious and fanservice-ly comedic, and ends up suffering from an identity crisis. Or that it leaves me confused since I don’t know what it’s really trying to be. Of course the ones who belong to the show’s target audience can always go “But there is a reason/focus behind these mixed-up elements, we can see it and that’s why we’re enjoying it!”. Either the WTF Kanamemo formula works for you, or it doesn’t — easy as that.

Kodomo no Jikan this is not.

I once mentioned that, hypothetically speaking, all animes can be enjoyed when viewed in the “right light”, and while I know I’m not quite doing this for Kanamemo, I don’t think I’d want to enjoy this. Watching Darker than Black and Cross Game allowed me to see the qualities of an anime that I’d consider “OMFGAWESOMESAUCE THIS [makes me come harder than omo]“; Kanamemo, on the other hand, enlightened me about the qualities of an anime that I’d consider “objectively crappy”. I r elitist yeah.

Much has been said about giving anime a chance, but I can’t seem to bring myself to do that for Kanamemo. Perhaps in another time, another place, when a certain event triggers me to crave for something random and lulz.

Though as hashihime said, “Sense of humor is such a personal thing. [...] So it’s reasonable that some people wouldn’t relate to the humor here”, kinda reminds me of how I managed to enjoy ToLoveRu and My Condolences, Ninomiya-kun, at least for a little while, despite its utter absurdity/stupidity.

Some people are also of the opinion that Kanamemo is a good slice-of-life comedy, and this basically got me thinking, what is a good slice-of-life comedy anyways? I’m thinking it’d be along the veins of Azumanga Daioh or Ichigo Mashimaro” (I still haven’t seen Lucky Star and Hidamari Sketch, among others), especially the latter, which makes me cry true tears and laugh as well (the serious part does not interfere with the comedy, and vice versa) but that’s just me with my limited slice-of-life exposure. Any thoughts on this?

P.S. I can’t help but feel as if this and this are acting as my “conscience” as I write down this post, but uhh whatever. Yeah this is a me-centric vitriolic post, so what?! Even if you end up enjoying Kanamemo I doubt it would change the fact that it’s retarded >:]

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Sora no Manimani: a series combining some real astronomy with a romantic comedy story that reminds me a bit of Nodame Cantabile. Being enamored of space and astronomy for as long as I can remember (a Golden Book about the planets was one of my favorite books when I was 3 or 4 years old) I couldn’t resist wanting to blog this series. Since I just started here at THAT, I’ll be making some posts in quick succession to catch up to the most current episode.

Let’s begin

The premise: Saku Ooyagi returns to the town he grew up in to begin high school, recalling his childhood friend Mihoshi ‘Mii-chan’ Akeno (one year older than him) whom he hasn’t seen since he was a young boy. Mihoshi used to drag him kicking and screaming from his quiet days of reading to look at the stars and nature, and he fears a possible reunion. Seeing her at school, her enthusiastic and forceful ways unchanged, he inadvertently joins her astronomy club.

Episode 1: Welcome to the Astronomy Club!

The episode opens with Saku waking up from a dream in which he remembers when he was very young and Mihoshi dragged him out into a field to watch the stars. Setting up the background for Saku and Mihoshi, she shows him a pendant given to her by her father which she claims contains starlight.

No, saku, it is obviously the Amulet of Plot Device.

However, Mihoshi climbs a tree to get closer to the stars, falling as Saku dives to try and catch her. Awakening with a thud that breaks his bedside table (that’s some tossing and turning!), Saku wakes up the morning of his first day of high school.

His mother is so proud, and not unlike someone we’ll meet shortly.

Fears resurface as Saku walks to school, knowing that a demon from the darkness of the past lurks somewhere in this unassuming town. A demon of endless energy, the one who savored the destruction of his peaceful childhood of quiet indoor reading as Lucifer delights in twisting the souls of the damned!

The Nightmare of Saku-mon.

But it is a decently large town, what chance is there of meeting someone from so long ago? Looking forward to a quiet high school life, Saku arrives at school to find the clubs trying to attract new members, and then, this.

Haruhi?

Realization.

Her old friend/plaything sighted, Mihoshi is relentless in her pursuit, despite Saku’s futile attempts to claim he doesn’t know her. She chases him through the school, arms spread appearing to be attempting to gain lift. Well, they do have those snazzy pilots wings on their uniforms (why couldn’t my school have something cool like that?)

Locked on.

Fox Two, Fox Two!

Splash one love interest.

The cavalry, in the form of the other Astronomy Club members arrives too late for Saku, as Mihoshi invites him to join and the two give different answers as to whether they know each other. However, Student Council President Fumie will not tolerate such incidents occurring in her hallways. The Astronomy Club routed, Saku is left to contemplate his options for avoiding Mihoshi.

Just a little too late. Sayo Yarai (right) and club president Roma (left).

No, not this Roma.

President Fumie. I recommend viewing this image/scene while playing ‘Resistance’ from the Valkyria Chronicles OST.

However, Mihoshi will not be denied, running quickly to Saku’s classroom at the end of each period. He escapes for a time, only to be found in the library and chased down into the hallways, where a confrontation ensues. Hardening his resolve to the point of making Mihoshi upset, they get to the heart of the issue. After the falling accident Saku moved and neither said goodbye and Saku said to his mother not to talk about Mihoshi again. We get our first glimpse of some of the drama I expect the series to have alongside the large amounts of comedy.

Who remembers whom seems to be an important theme at the start of this series. Mihoshi seems especially upset when Saku denies their time together.

Perhaps this one of those ‘mistakes caused by youth’ that Char warned us about. Saku, having hurt Mihoshi’s feelings, realizes how stubborn and mean he was at their parting.

Unfortunately for him, his rapid confirmation of Mihoshi’s memories inadvertently leads him to sign up for the Astronomy Club.

The episode comes to a close with the club recruiting fair as Fumie harasses the Astronomy Club, apparently old foes, and Saku and Fumie by chance discover their mutual love of literature when he spots her Literature Club president materials. Mihoshi, feeling threatened, makes sure to remove Saku from such a dangerous (to her) environment and attempts to use inspiration instead of brute force to secure Saku’s allegiance to the Astronomy Club. Telling him about her dream to show everyone the beauty of the night sky seems to have worked, as by the end of the episode Saku proceeds to produce larger pictures for club recruitment.

Jealous Mihoshi is rather cute in a devious sort of way.

Final Thoughts: I’ll use this spot for observations on things other than the narrative of the current episode in this and my future posts.

- The animation is quite crisp and nice, well defined lines and good flow of camera movement  in some scenes.

- I rather like the technique of having the ED start playing as things are still going on, blending the end of the episode into the credits and letting the song rise naturally from events.

- Also, adding everyone’s astrological symbol by their names in the credits was neat.

- I’m still guessing a bit if this is going to be much more comedy than romance/drama or if the latter will work itself into things as time progresses. I’m fine with it either way.

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When the great Prince Ali called for a new uprising against the hated Azadistani occupier, one man answered the call to arms against the regime of Marina “Couch Potato” Ismail, …EO, Engineering Officer ExecutiveOtaku (added by Crusader)

Introductions are in order

I sing of blogging and a man about to blog

Greetings to all the readers of THAT and a gracious thank you to the other writers and admins for giving me this opportunity. I go by the name of ExecutiveOtaku (EO for short) a reader and fan of the site for around a year and a half and am now privileged to be joining the writing team here at THAT. I will be starting off my blogging here by covering Sora no Manimani this season, and perhaps picking up another series or retroblogging an old series as I begin to get a feel for how much time I’ll need to allocate per series and hopefully develop my own style of writing my entries.

What I would like to bring to you, the readers as a writer here is:

- Regular content: I promise to be timely in my updates of the show(s) I have chosen to cover.

- Occasional editorials or thoughts on different aspects of anime and the anime community as I experience it.

- Developing my own style with your input: I have kept a livejournal for several years, but this is the first time I’ve written for others besides my friends. I look forward to the fun and challenge of blogging here and will definitely appreciate your feedback and recommendations as I begin to find my footing.

- Have fun and try new things: In the future perhaps pick up a series I might not think I’d enjoy, try blogging a series in live-blogging style, cooperate with other writers, and generally try to produce fun and interesting posts for the readers.

As this our first meeting, I’d like do a quick introduction. While I watched a few anime movies when in middle school, I really got into anime in early high school with the advent of both early Midnight Run/Adult Swim and the (rather late) arrival of broadband to my little town in the middle of nowhere. Genre-wise I tend to like a bit of an odd mix of anime, from mecha to otaku ‘in joke’ series to jousei to space opera to romantic comedies. Some of my favorite series include Honey and Clover, 08th MS Team, Lucky Star, FLCL, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Code Geass, Toradora, Cowboy Bebop, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Aside from anime, I’m currently a graduate student of international security in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, having double-majored in International Relations and Japanese as an undergrad. My other studies and interests include history, sci-fi, cars, computer and video games, miniatures wargaming, travel, cooking, and film

I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of my tastes in anime, sir

In conclusion, I look forward to blogging here at THAT and to hearing your feedback as I jump into the world of anime blogging. よろしくおねがいします。

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Ho ho ho ho ho ho, Saki is awesome.

Finally the match is heading to a much more interesting direction. Can’t wait to see how Saki’s gonna counter attack Koromo.

But seriously, Kazekoshi should’ve put their captain on the final match. Ikeda is kinda useless isn’t she?

©2009 Kurogane’s Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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…. I can never get used to the sudden switch from tsun to kawaii mode of Medaka.

OH GOD OVERFLOWING LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!

OH GOD FINALLY A NON-FABULOUS MEMBER OF THE STUDENT COUNCIL!

©2009 Kurogane’s Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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