Not hav­ing read the manga, I came to the con­clu­sion that Hetalia could’ve been one of two things. It could’ve been sheer fangirl pan­der­ing or it could be a bril­liant piece of satir­ical his­tor­ical wit.

Artist

My enthusiasm for Hetalia is gone. In fact, it died at the end of the first season. There was some false enthusiasm because of the return of Hetalia after its return between seasons but I’m now finding it impossible to summon energy for Hetalia posts anymore. And if I’m not enjoying writing the posts then I’m sure my readers aren’t enjoying them as much either.

With that, I’ve decided it’s time to finally call a halt to my Hetalia episodics. I don’t want to be putting up posts I’m not proud of. 18 months of Hetalia and it’s finally time to call a close on these posts. It’s been fun, oh boy has it been fun at times. The most random pieces of historical info I’ve learned over the course of this show. The wild and varied comments you lot left. But there’s no sign of Hetalia ending anytime soon and chances are it’s going to continue for several years left. Deen would be stupid to stop animating so cheap yet rakes them in so much money. If there was a clear end in sight I’d probably be OK but as it is I don’t have the enthusiasm to continue blogging this series indefinitely.

I hope that you guys continue reading my other posts, although I realise many of you only watch Hetalia out of any currently airing anime. If so, I at least hope you enjoyed reading my posts until now as we joined together to create world peace and generally make merry.

Now if you don’t mind me, I’m going to get my cart and leave–

What the artist was thinking I do not know. Equally baffling is what on earth I was thinking I would use this picture for. What sort of instance would a picture of a whale wearing Alucard’s hat come in use? In the end, I could only think of one post in which I could use this picture. You’re reading it.

What we didn’t get an answer to is what’s up with Uchida’s waitress girlfriend. When he was telling his amazing story at how we whooped those Tengu assess to her, I was eagerly anticipating some reaction that would show she was a Tengu herself but there was nothing. That in no way means she’s clear of suspicion. For one, how did she get out of the cave unharmed after Uchida ran off like a giant wimp? And do you really think we’re going to believe she knew what was going on in that cave because she ‘thought she saw someone’? Suspicious me thinks. Neither do I think that the existence of Tengu are out of the question. They spent a lot of time explaining what they were to now reveal they were just a bunch of mothmen. The girlfriend is still suspicious. The Tengu are still out there. It’s just I don’t think to two are related anymore.

I suppose I could continue talking about the plot but I’m only kidding myself if I do so. Occult Academy isn’t about the plot and I doubt it ever will be. ‘Plot’ is just an excuse to shove Uchida in a giant pile of crap. ‘Plot’ is a reason to have Smile swinging his massive spanner around. ‘Plot’ is fabricated on the spot so they could have JK jamming away and striking dramatic poses while doing so.

(I almost wrote his name as TK. Imagine when Girls Dead Monster had to get a new vocalist, they took JK as their great new lead singer. I’m trying as hard as I can, but I just can’t come up with any flimsy reason why JK would be considered moe.)

I love Smile and JK. Maya might be wearing that one-piece, fig­ure hug­ging, zettai ryouki out­fit of hers, but Smile and JK steal the show whenever they’re on screen. Smile wielding his spanner at a size even Guts would be proud of as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Although Maya was holding it at the end of the episode so maybe it’s made of a super-light substance or hollow on the inside. However Smile could not have done what JK did at the end of the episode. I simply can’t imagine Smile attempting to pull a dramatic pose. He’s the kind of guy who would take out the gods while picking his nose.

The plot may be a bit of a joke but the humour is still as clever as ever. One particular favourite moment of mine was when the vice-principal lady (who I swear look exactly like Rosa Ushiromiya from Umineko except with dango hair) was asked why it was felt necessary to seduce Uchida and she retorted with ‘I’m aloud have a crush, aren’t I!’. The show knows when to be silly (the Scooby-doo esque scene with Smile and JK missing Maya and Uchida when they ran through the caves) and it knows when to lay on the slapstick to full effect with Rosa lookalike’s love poem. As much as it feels like it’s stumbling about a bit, Occult Academy is a strangely lovable show.

Cut out all the s’life scenes. You’re left with Black Rock Shooter wandering through this other world filled with checkered bathroom tiles and roman columns. She eventually finds the other girl. BRS offers her hand, possibly of friendship but we don’t know because the characters don’t say anything. The other girl refuses and they then have an awesomely choreographed fight scene. At the end the girl offers her hand of friendship again and we get that final scene. The end.

And it works! What we’re left with is an experimental animation OVA, with no speaking whatsoever, about a girl trying to repair her friendship with another girl. We don’t know why they’ve fallen apart but we don’t need to. Friendships fall apart for all sorts of reasons. But through the Powah of Lurve she breaks through and their relationship is restored. Better yet, since this is all done without any dialogue, it leaves the viewer to plug in the gaps however they want. It’s not difficult to follow either but it’s still cleverly done that you won’t necessarily have your brain in standby mode throughout. Plus you get that wonderful animation and artwork to gawk at, leaving you feeling refreshed and pleased with your viewing experience. A solid 8/10, well worth those 20 or so minutes.

Interestingly, [gg] released a fansub with exactly that (must have been incredibly easy to ‘sub’ something with no dialogue). For those who haven’t watched Black Rock Shooter yet I would strongly recommend you just watch that version. I’d love to hear from someone who does, just to see if my theory on how you’ll interpret it is correct.

Hey Scamp, do you have a MAL account? I’m curi­ous as to what these new “you­tube gen­er­a­tion” fans are into these days.

kadian1365

I had always seen myself as the latest generations of anime fans. Not an incorrect assumption either. I only started watching anime mid-2007. The Youtube Generation was symbolised by the ever-present and easy access of every and any anime thanks to the rampant presence of illegal streams, normally on Youtube (in fact, you could look at the progress of the Youtube generation through which streaming sites they used. Youtube to Veoh to Megavideo to what next?) You could also call it the MAL generation in how the focus changed from a small amount of anime being precious to focusing on consuming as much anime as possible. But, more importantly for the purpose of this post, it was the latest generation. This meant that everything that is, always was. A description of a show remained the same. Fan opinion of certain anime remained the same, because that’s what they were always like in my memory of fandom. However it appears the next generation has arrived.

The realisation only dawned on me yesterday but the signs had been there already. Azumanga Daoih being considered a classic? I mean, it’s not like I was around when that aired but certainly I had never seen anyone refer to it as a classic before. Or seeing Hellsing mentioned as a newer anime fan as something old and ugly looking. I suppose it is 9 years old now and I guess looks a little bit dated compared to the most recent anime, but really?

This is meant to symbolise different generations. Or something

It goes beyond just certain anime aging in the eyes of fandom. Other anime are being spoken about in different ways. When people discuss the long-running shounens, nobody seems to list Inuyasha anymore, far more often referred to as a show with crazy fangirls. Elfen Lied was one of the most opinion-splitting anime and would prompt rage discussions between admirers and haters. Now bring it up in conversation and you’re far more likely to get intelligent discussion, or at the very least some mentioning of the shock factor of the first 10 minutes. When listing out the all-time great anime, I just don’t see the Kenshin Trust and Betrayal OVA mentioned anymore . It’s not like people have stopped liking it as much. Conversely I see Galactic Heroes talked about far more often. I used to believe that there was a certain amount of contempt reserved for Samurai Champloo but now it appears to be remembered more fondly.

It’s hard to talk with any sort of full authority here because sometimes your mind can be warped by what only a few comments say, but fan opinion has certainly changed. I am no longer the latest generation of anime fans. Everything I believed to be true is no longer so. There is a new generation with a different perception to everything I once held. This doesn’t mean I’m disenchanted or anything like that. It was just a shock when I had realised what had happened.

When I mentioned this dramatic change in my identity as an anime fan on twitter, I got responses that essentially said ‘been there, done that’. I’m sure that many of you reading this post have been any fans longer than me, long since having passed this stage in anime fandom and all I’m doing is making you feel old. But screw you guys. This is a big deal for me.

Picked up on: Epis­ode 1

Why I picked it up again: Because you lot told me to. Which is pretty much the same reason I pick up any anime in these posts. Why do I have this section again?

Review: I can certainly see why I originally dropped Macross Frontier. It is awfully derivative, but not necessarily in a bad way. Which sounds like an oxymoron but bare with me for a second while I explain.

When I make season previews, I’m often on the lookout for something a bit left of centre. Something very different from the norm, like Tatami Galaxy last season. They’re a welcome change of pace from your standard anime fare and any anime watcher needs these shows occasionally in their diet to keep them from growing bitter from repetitive viewings of the same old anime. Some people state that these types of shows are why they watch anime. They watch anime for those series that set themselves aside from the rest of the pack. Ultimately I believe these types of fans are doomed to the burnout. These anime are rare. You might get 2–3 every year, leaving you disenchanted with the rest of anime fandom as they watch whatever this latest mecha singing craze happens to be.

To really enjoy anime though, there has to be an inherent love of the staples of the medium. This isn’t something you can naturally create and cultivate. It’s deep ingrained into your psyche. Whether you want to or not, you will enjoy the crazy coloured hair, the robots, the love triangles, the grand plots, the exaggeration of certain character traits. This might sound like I’m describing Macross Frontier but you could use those exact same descriptions for Code Geass, Full Metal Panic, Mai Hime and many more. Series that are so inherently ‘anime’, yet have a sheen to them that says the creators loved and cared for what they were making. This is what I watch anime for. Not for the latest arthouse series. I watch it for the series that scream of anime and scream it the loudest and with the most passion.

I wouldn’t say Macross Frontier restored my love for anime or anything like that. For one, it’s not like I never lost it, and anyway that would be giving it way more credit than it deserves (I ended up giving it a MAL score of 7). This time though, I removed the jaded veil of someone who thought he had seen this all before. That season I was busy being enthralled by Kaiba (Geass R2 was also airing at this time, but I was late to that train and only started watching R2 when it had reached something like episode 14). I had seen it all in regards to Macross Frontier before. But this time it managed to recapture the feeling of a newbie anime fan, amazed and entertained by everything that was atypical in anime.

Also Sheryl > Ranka

Was it worth picking up again: Yes. Unbelievably ridiculous civil-war stopping divas and all.

I said what my plans for with Hetalia back in this post but I’m sure many of those who read my Hetalia posts don’t read any other posts. Certainly not a boring status update anyway. What I’m doing from now on is following the Hetalia subs done by Rumbel Subs, who also happen to provide DDL for those of you who hate torrenting. I realise that means I’m about 2 episodes behind the regular releases but that’s preferable to raging over the other subs that are available. Now what could happen is that very few people read these posts because I’m a few weeks behind but I’m hopeful that that won’t happen. The only thing I do plan to change is include a brief description of what happened in the episode to remind those of you who are a few episodes ahead which episode this was. Hetalia episodes have a tendency to mesh together in your head anyway, what with the total lack of cohesion between them.

Right, enough of that, back to blogging!

This was the episode where: Greece and Japan got angry, France and Spain fought over Chibiromano as Chibiromano himself got all sad because his brother was better than him at everything (except actually being interesting to watch in the show itself). Then France sent a fat bird on the attack.

(I think I might have fun writing these plot descriptions. Abridging the latest Hetalia episode makes the whole thing sound even more ridiculous than it already is)

…although, now that I’ve written that brief summery, I’m struggling to come up with something else to say. It doesn’t help that the episode started with Greece and Japan, who still don’t do anything worth commenting on. Chibiromano is a bit more interesting, delving into the history and the economic divide between the North and South. It’s a phenomenon that pretty much every country in the world has. Well, not North vs South obviously. For example, there’s the prosperous South of England vs the North. In Ireland it’s the East region around Dublin vs the bog land west where grass grows down the middle of the road. While it’s interesting to look at it from a Hetalia perspective (the brother who doesn’t get doted on because he’s not as talented) it’s not really that funny.

The only really funny part of the episode came from randomness. France sending his fat, annoying bird out on the rampage to pillage, rape and destroy. So I decided ‘hey, if Hetalia wants to use randomness to make people laugh, then so can I!’. So I created this.

France’s favourite pokemon is Metapod.

First of all, as soon as this girl entered, I was absolutely convinced that it was his mum. It hit me instantly that it was the case, although there’s not a whole lot of evidence to back that up. The big fact in favour of this theory is that she called the kid on TV ‘Fumiaki’, which Uchida himself says only his mum calls him that. However everything else is against this theory of mine. For one, he called his mum barely a minute before he went into the restaurant and his younger self was in the background so this girl couldn’t be him. Also they don’t sound or look the same at all.

Why was I so convinced that she was her mum anyway? I had loads of theories as to what was going on here but the more I think of it, the less likely they are. Humph, well I put lots of thought into them so I’m going to have to wrap my ideas around this latest realisation.

So the mum couldn’t be in two places at once, right? So this person clearly isn’t his mum, but one of those tengu doing some shape-shifting or something along those lines. They’ve shaped themselves into something that would appeal to Uchida. Wait, that makes more sense than I realised. He did say that she was ‘exactly his type’ right? So obviously the tengu shape-shifting thing has altered itself to appeal exactly to Uchida. She called him Fumiaki because it was what he was desperately hoping at that time. He was feeling extremely depressed after calling his mum and wanted someone who could understand him. Then right at that moment a hot girl calls the kid on the TV Fumiaki? Something’s fishy here…

Right, time to push this theory further. The old lady in the restaurant wasn’t a sister. That was a rather lame lie on its part. It was the tengu simply taking shape of the latest person he’d seen. The tengu then turned into the women of his dreams, which is what took her so long to deliver the food. What breaks this idea down though is that the old women called for the moe girl to come back to the kitchen, but the old lady wasn’t in sight when she said that so it could be possible for a tengu to project a disembodied voice or something like that.
Pushing this theory even further, because I’m like a dog that won’t let go of a tennis ball. If you want to get this theory off me you’ll end up with your hand covered in my saliva…hmmm, maybe I pushed that metaphor too far.

Anyway, that curry place isn’t real. Notice how there’s never anyone else in there, or how he only noticed the place after he made the phone call. A sign it’s a creation by these Tengu things? Or how about the fact that when he left the place the first time, there was a tengu watching him. Admittedly this theory doesn’t quite stretch that well. For one, he’s still quite obviously eating curry, so I guess Tengus must be capable chefs as well as potential aliens. Then there’s the fact the girl had a car. Although now that I think about it, didn’t Uchida say that this was the car of his dreams? Girl of his dreams + car of his dreams? Although you’d think if it was the car of his dreams then he’d know how to use the seat belts. I guess the Tengu spent too much time watching Top Gear.

One idea that crossed my mind was that maybe moe girl was only visible to him, but Maya saw them together in the cave. She didn’t make any references to him being with a girl, but I doubt that, if she saw him babbling away to himself underground, that she would leave him be and hide behind a rock. But almost while she was down there she got attacked by Tengu. Suspicious me thinks.

This will be my face if not one of these theories are even remotely close to the truth. If that episode was genuinly just Uchida meeting some girl in a resteraunt and going on a date with her then I shall be extremely dissapointed. If she’s nothing more than an ordinary girl who will only show up into the plot to add some extra love interest then this episode was crap and so is her character. I have faith in you Occult Academy. You’ve shown that you’re clever with your humour and your script. Show me now that you’re also clever with your plot.

Little Miss Literature Girl here is yet another one of anime’s never ending bubbly female leads. She’s nice. She makes cute noises when she eats those books of hers. She’s a bit ditsy. She will be nice to every person she ever meets and the closest she’ll ever get to being annoyed will be when she goes ‘ah moh~!’ and puffs out her cheeks. When someone touches on a subject that may be sad, shadows go over her eyes and she paints on a lonely smile. You’ve seen this character before, probably as a shojo lead. They’re cute and admirable without ever actually being interesting characters to watch.

Bungaku Shojo is a world filled with sakura petals and over-exposed shots of people brushing back their hair as the wind blows through it while looking into the distance meaningfully. They’ll probably sprout a generic line about how nice something is that will probably be translated by the insufferably-nice-to-each-other fans as ‘bittersweet’. The main theme of the story is trust, which brings in plenty of opportunity for one person to make some sort of reference to being worried (probably by using that lonely smile of hers I mentioned earlier) only for the guy to say something banal but nice back to her. Hence people shall squee at how cute and lovely and nice this whole show is. Oh, and it references famous literature so therefore it must be good.

Nice, nice and more fucking nice. Toss in a dash of cuteness, being nice situations between characters who never do anything except sprout nice lines to each other and provide opportunities for other characters to spout nice lines back at them. I’m not even sure how many of the above things actually happened in the episode I watched. I just started describing what always happens in these types of shows. However I watched the first OVA episode of 3 and that’s plenty of time for them to cover all the bases. There’s certainly room there for the main character to cry a bit and for the bloke to hold her and be all nice to her. It will be cute and yet so sad.

I could be proved wrong here. Maybe anime fandom will prove me wrong. You all could look at this and go ‘wow, that was boring’. But I think I know anime fans by now and you’re going to lap this stuff up. I’d love for you guys to prove me wrong but those who have read the novels this is based on are already going gaga over it. Plus I read from that highly accurate source of information known as ‘some post I read in a forum’ that the episode was very loyal to the original. So yup, you’re all going to love this, because it has people being insufferably nice to each other. bleargh

This is basically Call of Duty with bunnies. The plot is far from original, albeit something that’s used far more in Western productions than anime, but it’s done well enough for you not to really care. The CGI work isn’t exactly Pixar levels (there was one scene of a truck driving and I swear the wheels never once touched the ground) but oddly I think the CGI style suits it more than typical anime style would. Also, it’s bunnies with rocket launchers and snipers. You’re watching them recon a village through a scope while their cute little bunnie tails are waggling away. It’s such a strange mix but you can’t help but grin watching these bunnies gun down the evil camels (at least, I think they’re camels).

I’m not sure what the release schedule for this is. It’s a 12 episode net release but I have no idea when the next episode will be released. I read from that hugely reliable source known as ‘some bloke in a forum’ that the next episdoe won’t be until next year. However it doesn’t largely matter because the nature of the show is entirely episodic so you won’t be waiting impatiently for the latest cliff-hanger to be resolved.

tl;dr it’s bunnies blowing shit up. Watch it.