It’s been so long since the original announcement that Black Rock Shooter would be a Noitanimoba title that my original displeasure of its placement here has long since receded. The fact that the premise of the show was so flimsy that they could only stretch it to 8 episodes ended up working in its favour because that meant we got the surprisingly charming Thermae Romae to fill the gap. Plus Noitamina will save anime next season with friggen Bebop director Yokko Kanno jazz band all up in this shit, so suddenly I’m in a much better mood. So hey, Black Rock Shooter, let’s see what you got.

Much like the OVA back in the day, the interesting part of the anime is the alternate world setting, looking like some sort of post-apocalyptic bathroom with girls in black string bikinis getting into beautifully choreographed fight sequences. They’ve gone for some weird meld of CGI characters with standard anime backgrounds, and I rather like the look. Because they keep the CGI to only these alternate world sequences, it doesn’t feel weird when the two sides don’t look the same. The weird disconnect between this alternate world and the real world is still as vague as ever, but I don’t mind that. I kinda like the idea that you have a subconscious that fights in a black string bikini and has no voice. I think they could be a bit more subtle with how they connect the imagery instead of having the creature quite literally throw macaroons at Black Rock Shooter’s face, but whatever.

Another thing that really struck me in this episode was how truly great the character design for Black Rock Shooter is. Considering this entire franchise spawned from a single character design in the first place, that shouldn’t be too surprising, but there’s something so inherently cool about Black Rock Shooter. My theory the reason the whole thing is popular in the first place is because it’s a Dark and Edgy interpretation of Hatsune Miku. Simple as that.

Unfortunately, much like the OVA, only 20% of the airtime focuses on the Black Rock Shooter world. The rest focuses on a bunch of girls being insufferably nice to each other. Whoop de freaking doop. To be fair, the characters here are infinitely more tolerable than those in the OVA because they appear to have a bit of life to their interactions. Plus the conflict introduced is something with a bit more weight to it. It’s a bit of a strange move to include a character that is basically autistic, and I can’t say it’s handled particularly well or with much grace, but it’s at least an interesting set up as far as interactions go.

However, being ‘better than the OVA’ by no means implies that this is good. The melodrama is forced to the point of being unintentionally funny. The way the main character breaks down after being fed too many macaroons was ridiculous. Similarly, the overly dramatic way she paired back up with her friend, complete with insert song blasting out over her good-natured genki attitude was eyeroll inducing. Then there was that stupid pretentious opening narration about the sky and clouds and colours that felt like it came out of Daily Lives of Highschool Boys, except played totally straight.

It seems like there’s a serious disconnect between what the creators want to make and what people actually care about. Anyone who gives even the remotest crap about Black Rock Shooter does so because of the aesthetic. That is quite literally all there is to it. A cool character design and some neat concept art. Trying to drag in this awfully melodramatic teenage girl story feels like we’re obligated to sit through these segments of tedium before we can get to The Good Stuff. Even as a framing device for the other worldly segments, these scenes drag on way too long. Use your BRS world segments to tell what the emotional upheaval the characters are going through. Showing the characters go through emotional upheaval in the real world eliminates the entire point of the BRS world. Well, eliminates it from a story-telling perspective that is. I like the concept, but the post-apocalyptic bathroom should be the focus on the show, not these boring teenage girls.

Anyway, ratings.

A Grade

I wonder when my last A Grade was?

B Grade

B+ Nisemonogatari

Episodes 1–4

A large part of me really wants to mark this lower for all it’s pointless meandering dialogue and pedo smut. But there’s just something about this series. It’s taken a pretty standard boring formula and, with the combination of Shinbo at his nuttiest and Nision’s long-winded dialogue, create an anime that is truly unique. In many ways, the flaws I may have with the series are necessary evils to achieve its goal. Yes a lot of the dialogue feels pointless and yes the smut is off-putting, but take those away and you diminish what makes it tick in the first place.

B+ Daily Lives of Higschool Boys

Episodes 1–4

I was all prepared to give this an A after the first episode, but each one since then has gotten progressively weaker. But still, behind all that there’s a satirical edge that puts Nichibros far above its peers. The comedy has more than just in-the-moment laughs. It’s those kinds of jokes that stick with you beyond the experience of watching it. The mockery of pretentious nonsense dialogue in the Wind is Troubled sequence. The pinning of every problem a teenage boy has on their mothers. The fact that they devoted an entire episode to mocking obnoxious teenage girls. It has that edge to it, I just hope the downward trend doesn’t continue.

B Thermae Romae

Episodes 1–6

You know that empty feeling you get after you finish a great anime? I’m not entirely sure why, but I got that after I finished Thermae Romae. This show was fun, clever, witty and surprisingly charming. It didn’t have much to it, but the repetition of the jokes actually ended up adding to it. The small wait you got before Lucius’ eyes sparkle upon eating a new brand of food makes the eventual payoff that much sweeter. As much as I want more, keeping it to 3 episodes ensured the joke never got old. Still a shame they animated it in the stupid shitty flash, but a great little series nonetheless.

B Persona 4

Episodes 13–16

It’s the usual case with Persona 4. Some episodes that feel like they should work are let down by poor delivery and pointless straying away from the main story. But then we’ll change episodes, or even change scenes, and suddenly Persona 4 is back to being brilliant again. A scene nails the timing of a joke or reveal. The direction the story takes is fascinating. How it turns an established formula on its head and does something clever with it. Persona 4 could have been great if they put more time and effort into it. What we get instead is something that flashes brilliance, which is at least enough to keep my enthusiasm for the series high.

B– Future Diary

Episodes 13–15

Fucking Future Diary. Episode 15 was fantastic, brilliant, completely nuts and yet cleverly plotted. It throws out these kinds of episodes every now and then, only for the subsequent episode to promptly fall back to an awful lot of it being stupid. I don’t know why the author feels like he needs those dumb slapstick moments. It’s not like the crazy parts aren’t plenty funny by themselves. It’s when it melds the two that it shines. It’s even more annoying than Persona 4’s dumb moments because Future Diary’s highs are that much higher, yet its lows are also that much lower. Future Diary at its best is top 30 material. I’d like to see what this mangaka makes next, just to see if he can fix the problems this has.

B– Aquarion EVOL

Episodes 1–5

Aquarion is dumb. Whatever you take away from its relatively high ranking in this list, don’t mistake it for me thinking this show is incredibly clever or anything. But there’s something just inherently funny about the concept of basing an entire series around adolescent raging hormones powering giant robots. They’ve just gone so far and are so dedicated to this concept that the jokes and unintentional humour it pulls from these situations are very entertaining. I can’t say I give two shits about the plot, but I am most certainly entertained by how it has stretched its premise.

B– Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing

Episodes 12–14

Oh Fam. Fam Fan Fan. I feel like I’ve exhausted everything I had to say about this series already. Apart from Fam and maybe the music,  everything else about this series is great. But so much of the screentime is taken up with indulging in Fam’s mind-boggling brainless energy that it drags down everything with it. Someone drop a giant anvil on her head, and then maybe I’ll be back on board with this series.

 B– Natsume Yuujinchou 4

Episodes 1–5

I guess I have to give credit to Natsume for producing some very solid episodes this month. The franchises strength has always been its storytelling. Single episodic stories still works for this series. But it’s also incapable of shaking that feeling that there really is no more overarching story to tell anymore. The fact that they went back into Natsume’s past again to dredge up another comparison between young and old Natsume shows the strains of where this franchise is desperately searching round to find something new to distract us with. To be fair, it is working, but eventually fandom will collectively throw their hands up in despair claiming “I do not care anymore argh!”. Or maybe that will be just me.

C Grade

C– Bodacious Space Pirates

Episodes 1–4

OK, this is starting to get silly. We’re 4 episodes in and nothing has happened. The series quickly turned into Odin. Space sailing with lots of characters running around pushing flashing buttons. The writing and dialogue may be down to earth and well-written, but its all useless if it goes nowhere. Please start to make some stuff happen Space Pirates. You have been completely outclassed my Aquarion. Friggen Aquarion, the show with some of the dumbest writing around, yet it’s still far more entertaining than you are. Where’s that energy your crazy OP indicates there will be?

D Grade

D+ Kyousogiga

I think I watched this back in December, but forgot to include it in that monthly roundup, so here it is instead. Maybe I skipped it because I hadn’t a clue what to write about. It was certainly colourful and energetic and a joy to just look at if you’re into that kind of thing. Storywise though, it was a mumbled jumbled mess of ideas that didn’t form a coherent process that just left me feeling dazed and kind of annoyed. It had that Cencoroll problem of, as a first episode, I’d be interested in checking out more, but as a once off it feels disjointed and pointless. It they decide to pick up more, then cool. With Black Rock Shooter coming up, there is precedent set for one shot episodes turning into full series. It’s just a shame they picked, you know, Black Rock Shooter instead of the likes of Cencoroll or Kyousogiga.

D+ Recorder to Randsell

Episodes 1–3

It’s not bad, I guess. There is something rather bizarrely amusing about the sight of what appears to be a grown man acting like a child. But that’s kind of all it has, and it doesn’t really do enough with it. Thermae Romae and Detroit Metal City proved that your one gag can be pushed if you use it right, but this doesn’t. Inoffensive and OK for a quick grin, but I can’t work up the effort to watch anymore.

D+ Brave 10

Episodes 1–2

Brave 10 gets a lot of basics right and that makes it tolerable to watch. The characters all have distinct personalities. They give you an instant idea of what the plot will be about. The pacing is done correctly so that key events happen at key stages of the show. In many ways, whoever has adapted this has done a great job getting the best out of this story. But it’s so unremarkable and bland, I just found it hard to give a crap about what’s going to happen. It’s just sorta average, and I don’t have the patience for average.

D Hunter X Hunter

Episode 14

There was a point in episode 14 where I realised I had to stop watching this. The characters took out the numbers that would say who they had to fight. The classic shounen tournament model of being excited about which characters would be facing off. That is, until I realised I did not care about a single one of the potential match ups. Killua vs Gon? Nah. Kurapika vs Leorio? Meh, really don’t care. If you’ve gone 13 episodes and I still don’t care about any of the characters, you don’t deserve anymore attention. Dropped.

D Basket Army

Episode 1

Back in 2008, I remember seeing episode 1 of some random web series pop up on torrent trackers in the middle of a season. I had no idea what it was. It never appeared on any season preview or anything. But, on a whim, I downloaded it anyway and ended up absolutely loving what I saw. That series was Time of Eve, and because of that I’m always willing to give whatever crazy OVA series pops up a chance. But based on the first episode, Basket Army isn’t worth your attention. We’ll have to wait a bit longer for the next Time of Eve.

D– Senki Zesshou Symphogear

Episodes 1–3

In the end, there’s only so long I can watch something this stupid ironically before I cave in. Rio Rainbow Gate was special in that regard, and Nymphogear lost it pretty quickly. A combination of nothing happening for large chunks of the episodes and the desperate attempts to be self-aware that just felt pathetic sapped my enjoyment out of it. It’s a fucking dumb show, even dumber than Aquarion if you can believe that. But it lacks the underlying humour of the concept that makes Aquarion work. Girl Singing while Fighting is cool and all, but they do nothing with it.

E Grade

E+ Another

Episodes 1–3

My god this show is bad. Bad bad bad. The horrific BGM that tries to dramatically cut out every single time someone shuts a door or turns around. The cuts to dolls in a desperate attempt to create a creepy atmosphere. How they use the storytelling device of “ooh something happened but we’re going to draw it out for longer by not telling you”. The entire 3rd episode consisted of almost nothing other than that. Plus there was the end of episode 3. If you’re doing all this creepy atmosphere thing, maybe it would be tolerable if there was a genuine sense of the normal being creepy. But it’s as if they went “boy, this story sure is boring. Quick, kill someone” and we get a character die by falling on their umbrella. Fucking stupid beyond belief.

E+ Highschool DxD

Episodes 1–3

The only reason I was watching this was as a though experiment to see how long my theory that it had strong feminist leanings would last. Turns out not very long. It turned very quickly into the girls actually conforming to sexualised stereotypes rather than subverting them. But it did serve as an interesting counterpoint to Nisemonogatari. Despite there being tits everywhere, Highschool DxD is not sexy, while Nisemonogatari most certainly is. It’s like throwing some tits on-screen is meant to be humour. It’s like the difference between a gentleman’s club stripper and a crack whore. One goes a lot further, but the other is most definitely sexier.

F Grade

Why Future Diary? Why can you not produce two great episodes in a row?

Last episode was great. Well directed, clever plot twists and Yuno being crazy. This episode was back to contrivances, dumb dialogue and Yuno being crazy. I thought the problem with this series was the scooby gang of pointless teenage companions, but their screentime in this episode was limited to maybe one shot of Akise through a window. Yet they still decided to introduce the stupid back into this series with Yuki’s dad. Again, it’s not like I can’t see what they’re trying to do. He’s supposed to be a pathetic loser, with what appears to be a charming degree of honesty behind that, but actually reveals more layers of deceit and furthers his pathetic nature. But in execution, he makes dumb jokes about being pervy and wacky slapstick humour. Then there was that final contrivance of Yuki falling down a hole. I get what they’re doing. It’s creating an life-or-death choice on who he trusts more. But they do this by sawing a hole underneath him, Loony Toons style? I can generally roll with Future Diary contrivances but that one made me shake my head.

I’m not even sure quite what the problem is. Do I blame the original author? He has a great story in his head, but his attempts at conveying it only succeed half the time. Do I blame the director of the anime for failing to iron out the kinks of the original? Again, it’s not like this was a bad episode. I liked the direction it decided to take the story in. But the stupid dialogue and unfunny sense of humour keep taking me out of the experience. Plus when they do, it means I’m suddenly incapable of rolling with the usual Future Diary logic.

Yuno remains the only consistently great thing about this series.

A quick run down of events in Nisemonogatari episode 4. Arararagi takes a girl to his room to ride his giant banana, and Arararagi takes a bath with a sultry naked blonde loli vampire. That is pretty much it. I think Aquarion’s level of sexual symbolism probably beats out Nisemonogatari, if you can possibly believe that. But when it comes to just pure filth and smut, Nisemonogatari is still a level even above Highschool DxD’s pole dancing ED sequence.

I really like this new version of Tsubasa. She’s no longer the reserved character she was in the original, which translated to her being rather boring to watch. The whole point of her arc was there was a wilder side she was keeping hidden, but broke out when it became too much for her. She’s since been liberated and morphed into this intelligent grinning tease, coaxing reactions out of Arararagi while keeping the full extent of her knowledge under further wraps. They’ve done this with nearly all the characters in this series. They’ve very clearly developed as a result of their respective arcs. Tsubasa even has this extra layer to her in that, while being liberated makes her more attractive and sexy, she’s also confident without throwing herself at Arararagi. It puts her a level above Nadeko certainly, although at least Nadeko improved in entertainment value from the first season.

A lot of the female characters are becoming more likable this season. The solving of their problems did not result in their depth being eliminated, as was the case with Denpa Onna. It’s natural maturity and development, which in turn makes the characters more appealing because you’ve seen them grow. From Tsubasa to Nadeko to even Kanbaru, a lot of the female characters are improving somewhat this season. In fact, the only one for whom I’m not quite as infatuated with this season as last season is Senjogahara, depressingly.

Random piece of Shaftyness I liked were some of the tricks they did with the handcuffs. Lights reflecting off them. Focing on the swinging chain when he moved his hands. Not sure why, sometimes I do just like looking at Shaftyness for the sake of Shaftyness too. Although speaking of Shaft being Shaft, we have another Shinbo anime with sultry blonde naked loli vampires having some kind of cleanliness lotion rubbed into their body. Thanks for that Shinbo. Didn’t need to be reminded of your one total bomb in Vampire Bund. The actual pedobait oddly didn’t bother me quite so much. Maybe it’s because I’m half english and have that typical english reaction to sexual content of any kind. You know, a crumpet halfway to my mouth and my monocle falling out as I exclaim “oh I say!”. After spending so much time on Sankaku recently, there’s little in the way of pervy anime stuff that can phase me anymore (but I’m still not ever touching Boku no Pico).

Speaking of DEM PLOTS, it was great to finally have a Nisemonogatari episode where all the dialogue actually had something to do with some kind of overarching story. As great as it is to see these characters again, those conversations in the earlier episodes were mostly pointless. The Tsubasa conversation was great in this regard. It got across her new personality while also establishing her relationship with the sisters.

Then there was over half an episode devoted to a bath scene with Shinobu. Again, cheers Shinbo you massive pedophile. Can’t say I share your enthusiasm for the sultry blonde loli vampire thing. I preferred it when she sat in the corner silently, although I do love that image of her being forced to sit there listening to Oshino rambling on. I always liked Oshino last season. He had this suave yet dangerous vibe going on, almost Durarara-esque. He would have fit perfectly on the streets of Ikebukero. Shame he’s gone, and I’m not sure if this new bloke has quite the same presence he did. Then again, we did only got one scene of him.

Tell you what I did really like about the scene with Shinobu though, was the immortality discussion. There’s something about the loneliness of longevity that I’ve always found fascinating to watch. Spice and Wolf did this really well, as did Crest of the Stars (albeit they are basically covering the exact same ground). Nisemonogatari wasn’t so much about him outliving a loved one or anything like that. It was the reconciliation and admittance that he knows he could outlive all these people and be stuck with Shinobu for hundreds of years. It was a rather quiet yet surprisingly profound scene that spoke far beyond the scope of what the –monogatari series ever felt like it was going to cover. Serious props for that scene, even if it did have to also make my monocle fall out.

When a sequel to Last Exile was announced, it had a real air of desperation to it. It felt like Gonzo were desperately rummaging through their back catalogue to find an IP with recognisable quality that they could rehash for some extra dough. The original Last Exile was great, but it was also complete, and ended in a way that solved all the characters issues and wrapped everything up in a perfect package. It by no stretch needed a sequel. But they did so anyway, setting it with new characters and on a completely different planet, with only very loose connections to what happened in the original. That all said, Gonzo put an extraordinary amount of effort into this, pumping out something that I would say could stand proud alongside the original. That is, if it wasn’t for Fam.

Let’s talk about the good first though. Last Exile was a standard-bearer for how to integrate CGI into hand-drawn animation well, keeping only the machinery CGI. Last Exile Fam is that except bigger, better and with more intricate detail. The scale of the CGI models for the battleships is phenomenal. They really give the sense of these giant clunky machines that were built by real people, with insignias and rivets and everything. Asides from simply looking impressive, this also helps flesh out the world by designing everything so well. The variations between the bad guys factory produced fancy ships and the pirates less conventional looking weapons to the Russian women’s pointy fighter jets. There’s a real sense of different cultures conveyed through the designs. It feels like a proper world. There’s a great sense of epic scale to these battles too, because you can feel how immense these ships are. Compared to something like Legend of the Galactic Heroes, where the space battles may as well have been some kid on his playroom floor going “pew pew pew”, when a ship explodes in Last Exile Fam, it really gives the sense that a monster has been taken down. The pitched battle sequences here are probably the best in any anime I’ve ever seen.

The way the different cultures are portrayed ties into the other big area I feel Last Exile Fam excels at: The politics. Each nation has a reason for fighting and reasons for wanting peace, but what it does really well is how it is portrayed. It’s not done through some boring narration over a shot of people fighting. When you just throw names of nations and political ideals at you, it just goes in one ear and out the other. You have no reason to care. Last Exile Fam does this well by having the politics centre around a small group of characters that are central to the conflict and it’s their ideals and personalities that shape the direction. On one side we have the two Princesses of Turan and on the other we have the military one-eyed general and his teeny tiny Augusta. It all works because it explains why these people are fighting through character development, which is how politics in a story should be conveyed. OK, it’s a little too keen on making the military general start massacring people, but his reasoning are logical and human. You understand why he’s doing it.

The problem starts when the person they use to watch this conflict through the eyes of is a complete brainless twat. As far as I’m concerned, Princess Millia is the main character in this story, or at least she should be. She’s the character with flaws and the one with the real human investment in this conflict, both for political and personal reasons. She is the one who is developing slowly through her encounters with different nations and people. However the person she chose to ride around with is Fam. Fucking. Fam. The most brainless moronic single-minded simpleton to ever grace the skies. A character who mindlessly blunders her way through anything and everything, not having the mental capacity to doubt herself or justify her actions beyond her witless adherence to the genki philosophy. This character archetype has slowly but surely become one of my most hated, up there alongside the Yuji Everylead the Bland. The problem here is that genki juvenile idiotic energy is treated like A Good Thing. Her justification to just jump into things because it feels right should not be something that constantly rewards her. It’s not that I can’t enjoy a stupid character. Yuki in Future Diary is an idiot, but he gets punished for his idiocy, and is therefore incredibly entertaining to watch. People just conform to Fam’s way of thinking, degrading the intelligence of the conversation around her.

Possibly my favourite episode of the series so far was the flashback one to the Grand Race where Fam is only 6 years old, part of the reason being because her idealistic energy flying in the face of actual facts fitted someone who was only 6 years old. Every single other character from the flashback had since developed. But not Fam. Oh no. She remains exactly the fucking same. The next episode had a scene where Fam said she wanted to return to the times like the one where the Grand Race took place, only for the Russian chick to point out that there was an assassination there that highlighted that there was unrest beneath this seemingly happy scene and it was merely a mask for the problems in the world. But such a complex issue couldn’t fit into Fam’s tiny brain, so she just blunders on saying she wants to recreate that day anyway. What’s worse is the other characters agree with her. They get sucked in by her stupidity, their own brains abandoning their skulls in the face of this black hole of intelligent writing.

I like this new rendition of Last Exile. I love the scale and intensity of the battles, the development of characters such as Millia and the military commander, and how well realised the world is. But Fam is a giant gormless genki wart on this otherwise great series, degrading everything she comes into contact with. Fuck you Fam, you suck.

I think some of Yuno has finally rubbed off on Yuki. Best case scenario here is the man ends up with a busted iphone. Worst case scenario: He spins into a swirling black vortex of nothingness. Way to be a dick Yuki.

This scene. Holy shit this scene was effective. I quite literally hid my face under my bed covers (and promptly felt like a bit of a twat for doing so). She had barely been gone 5–6 minutes in this show and already she’s like this spectre hovering over everything. This unseen evil, only ever observing the product of her work but not her physical self. Which is why I’m torn on reintroducing Yuno so quickly back into the plot. On one hand, the idea of holding her return back, constantly working as a background threat, would have done wonders for the tension in the show. The fact that you can’t see her only enhances the Legend of Yuno. Plus think about the thrilling moment when she does finally return, saving Yuki when he least expects it. It would have been a marvellous moment. On the other hand though, it’s as though Future Diary realised that it doesn’t have much to keep you entertained if Yuno isn’t on screen. Still, I’m disappointed Future Diary couldn’t keep it in their pants for a bit longer.

Even with that factor though, this was still one of the strongest episodes of the series so far. I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of this new diary pairing. Deus messing with its own rules again, as they both apparently count as one diary owner even though Yuno has the exact same power and counts as one on her own. But that did tie back into the narrative Future Diary has had going since the very start. The same twisted dichotomy Yuki has always had. Either has to pair up with Yuno or basically die. On one hand, if he does pair up with Yuno, he returns to the threat of a comatose state in an abandoned building or whatever crazed possessive sexual fantasy Yuno has next. And he has to commit to that relationship wholeheartedly for them to win the game. Future Diary drove home that fact by presenting them with a couple with the same powers as Yuno but with totally different levels of trust between them.

Mind you, why exactly did they decide to take their diaries instead of snapping them in two? I had a similar problem back when Minine didn’t break their diaries after the kid gassed Yuki’s house, but an insightful commenter pointed out that the police chief would see if she planned to do that, so her hands were tied. Maybe some bright commenter can justify why the couple didn’t snap Yuki and Yuno’s diaries in two (although no spoilers kthx). If it’s for some silly reason like “we wanted to see you grow as a couple” I’m going to Get Very Angry About Cartoons On The Internet.

Did anyone else notice the animation quality leap in this episode? It’s not like Future Diary ever had great animation or anything, so it really stuck out how fluid some of the animation was. In fact, the entire episode was really well directed for a change. The timing of certain scenes felt bang on, such as the action directing during the fire fight scene and Yuno’s return to delirious ‘Yuki praised me’ form. Boy did I love that scene. A teenage girl deflecting throwing knives with a knife of her own through the power of a single line of praise. It’s completely fucking ridiculous, and I love this show for that.

I did censor any boobage, but the video is still very much NSFW. I strongly recommend not trying to keep up with the text the first time around. Go back if you doubt that Sankaku would write something to that effect.

I’ve spent way too much time on Sankaku for this video. My brain was starting to melt and my standards for decency have disappeared altogether. Yet I still didn’t find that article that claimed the Tokyo Youth Ordinance Bill would be “the end of late night TV anime”, a piece of hyperbole if there ever was one. Which is a shame because the one that claimed Evangelion would be banned isn’t quite as stupidly over the top, and actually has a small element of truth to it, even if it is totally blown out of proportion anyway.

Just as I was loading up the new Nisemonogatari episode, I paused it just as it began to get myself a hot chocolate. Lo and behold, what is the very first frame of the episode? Shaft and their wonderful obsession with close up shots of people’s eyes. I wonder if every single episode of the –monogatari series starts off with an ‘eyecatch’. Geddit? Eyecatch? Because eyecatch is the word you use for…oh never mind.

It’s the return of the meandering pointless Nision dialogue! I don’t believe in the three-episode rule many people seem to conform to. Attaching some sort of arbitrary number to the amount of time they’re willing to give something to impress is pretty dumb. But this season it’s been the third episodes of anime where my patience with little aspects of them have run their course. Nymphgear’s ‘so bad it’s good’ quality waned after episode 3. Space Pirates lack of anything happening has started to grate on my nerves. Recorder to Randsell’s lack of content beyond its concept jokes got old. With Nisemonogatari, the lack of development and pointless dialogue was running its course on my patience. What are Kanbaru and Arararagi doing, playing some friggen card game anyway? Why must you yell your damn straight man responses so much Arararagi?

It used to be the case that these meandering dialogues would be the exception rather than the norm. The conversation with Kanbaru was largely directionless, until right at the very end where they suddenly remembered “oh yeah, Kanbaru hates her family and Arararagi is worried about his own” and slotted that little piece of dialogue in. That’s where Bakemonogatari shines. I guess the problem is these dialogues from last season could be counted as introductions and setting the relationship between the characters, but this season they’re purpose is just to let Nision indulge in his nattering style. If this is what his writing looks like after an editor waded in with a chainsaw, I’d be afraid to ask what the original version looked like.

Holy crap, a man in Nisemonogatari!?! The harem paradise of teenage girls has been ruined forever! We had finally got rid of Meme and everything. I was trying to place what it was that made this guy look so creepy. His head tilts, bony appearance and ominous backgrounds were my original thoughts, but then doesn’t every character in the –monogatari series have that appearence? More likely it was just usual colour theory is plonking lots of reds and blacks everywhere. And hey, it worked. It’s easy to mock Shaft, and I shall continue doing so throughout these posts, but after watching Space Pirates and Nymphogear conduct their conversations with dull panning shots of the characters faces, it’s refreshing to have Shaft vomit all over your screen. Plus it’s a mightily improved Shaft from the one 2 and a half years ago. It’s not quite as wild, but it’s certainly more refined and calculated, and I prefer that. Like the energetic talented young footballer who matures into a gifted game-controlling playmaker.

I was starting to wonder whether I had lost my Senjogahara Fascination. I didn’t care much for her opening portion, and her drilling of Arararagi wasn’t doing much for me either. OK, she did have that fantastic line about Kanbaru putting a mirror outside her house, but for some reason her Yandere tendencies were no longer grabbing me the way they once did. I blame Yuno for this. Tying up her boyfriend in order to protect him sounds very similar to the latest twists in Future Diary. But the moment Arararagi ripped off his handcuffs, the entire scene changed tone. Of course he wasn’t in any danger, but Senjogahara has always been brutally honest so her seriousness at which she said she wanted to keep him safe perturbed me a bit. But her resulting lack of reaction when he broke free spoke volumes. In her own weird way, that was simply her showing her affection. In a…err, really weird way.

And then there was that smile. That smile! Where has that been hiding? It’s like she’s changed character. Senjogahara claims she’s tsundere, but she has never been. She likes to tell Arararagi that so he starts doubting what she says, but in reality she’s always brutally blunt and honest. Over the course of Bakemonogatari it moved from cold hostility to pre-dating flirting to awkwardness of young couple not really knowing what to do. It’s not so much that she changed than she’s actually developed. She could never have smiled like that in Bakemonogatari. Even in the romantic scene under the stars, she didn’t have the confidence to truly smile like that. I’m sorry for ever doubting you. Senjogahara Fascination is back. I’m sorry for ever leaving it.

I made my top 30 anime post about 2 years ago. However, as I watched more anime, more started to enter the list, which inevitably caused others to drop out. Instead of losing what I wrote about them forever, I created a ‘those who just missed out’ page, devoted to holding those that got kicked out of the top 30 in favour of newer, shinier stuff. But that list was starting to show its age itself. I was starting to watch anime that were not quite good enough to make my top 30, but better than those that had since dropped out. So to finally give those anime the credit they deserve, I decided the best method was to simply extend the top 30 further. So now you have this: 31–60.

60: Fireball

The original Fireball series is only 13 episodes, each one no more than 3 minutes long each, and yet it packs more laughs than most comedies could dream of. A brilliant back and forth between the only two characters, possibly the only anime where the CGI fits so perfectly it doesn’t even cross your mind to call it CGI, a brilliant satirical edge to some of the self-referential lines. It’s about as good a half hour as you will have in anime.

59: Memories

Studio 4° occasionaly release the OVA compilation pieces where they bring together various incredibly talented staff to create a few short pieces. They’re usually a mixed bag, including Memories itself, which has the less than stellar Cannon Fodder final segment. But I’m including it anyway for the first two pieces: Magnetic Rose and Stink Bomb. They are as fine example as any of how the script writer can dictate the feel of a show. Magnetic Rose, written by Satoshi Kon, is like what if he directed an episode of Cowboy Bebop, while Stink Bomb, written by Katsuhiro Otomo, is his classic dark sense of humour in which a normal gormless salaryman becomes this unknowing harbinger of complete destruction.

58: Dominion Tank Police

There was a trend in the late 80’s and early 90’s of OVAs about a police force fighting cyborgs in a smoggy megacity set permanently during the night. Most of them are fairly forgettable, but Dominion Tank Police stands far above the rest. The adaptation of Masamune Shirow’s manga has an edge to it that makes it memorable. From the wild raunchy humour to the incredibly well-developed world setting, its biggest surprise is that it manages to combine both this goofy light-hearted tone while tackling some deep themes of searching for meaning in your existence. Oh, and it has anti-tank penis mines.

57: One Outs

One Outs is technically about baseball and how one mysterious American pitcher propelled a struggling Japanese baseball team to greater heights. What it’s actually about is Tokuchi Toua, the chain-smoking anorexic spawn of satan, mentally assaulting various muscled men until the collapse at his feet. Tokuchi carries this anime like no other. It’s his put-downs, his mental calculations, his terrifying stare, that keep you riveted throughout. It does have some pacing problems, and does lack any real depth, but makes up for it with Tokuchi fucking Toua.

56: Dennou Coil

There’s a little fallacy in anime fandom that fillers are bad. Episodes that don’t advance the plot and serve only as contained stories are inherently bad thing. There is no greater example of how wrong this can be than Dennou Coil. Honestly speaking, I didn’t care much for the plot nor the characters, the world they inhabit is such an imaginative and well-invented place that I loved any episode that explored the possibilities in contained. This meant that the best episodes were the ones that acted as stand alones. Nucleur warfare beards. Pleiso the shadow serpent. The giant fish that ate the town. It really does have possibly the best realised settings in anime.

55: Tatami Galaxy

While I’m not quite as big on this as many of my fellow Yuasa-philes (screw you guys, Kaiba is better), Tatami Galaxy is still an incredibly clever story. Like Groundhog Day meets Honey and Clover, it’s the way it plays with its formula that makes it so good. The juxtaposition of each plot element with each episode, shedding new light on the incident each time, made for an incredibly rewarding experience. Sure it has more unnecessary animation quirks than anything even Shaft/Shinbo have put out, but it’s witty, sharp and has such a brilliantly constructed story that its positives far outweigh the negatives.

54: Trapeze

Speaking of auteur anime directors, lets move from Yuasa to the equally bizarre Kenji Nakamura and his incredibly strange Trapeze (or Kuuchuu Buranko if we feel like weeabooing for a bit). The story is about crazy psychiatrist and his solutions to dealing with various patients in a trippy environment where anything that isn’t polka dot is shunned for disgracing its family. Not all the crazy animation techniques work, such as the live action faces, but it’s how all these episodic heartwarming stories come together into this great overrall picture that make it special. Try it if you really want something different.

53: Jellyfish Princess

Three Noitamina anime in a row, but while the last two were artsy stuff that anime hipsters cite as their favourites, Jellyfish Princess is josei at its goofiest. Following the story of a bunch of hopeless female shut-ins, devoting their lives to some of the strangest otakudoms, from trains to old men, it’s about how one particular jellyfish otaku finally grew out of her shell and started to do something worthwhile with her life. But what really stands out is how well-directed the comedy is. It has the brilliant way of timing events that makes what should be otherwise fairly standard comedy stuff become utterly hilarious material.

52: Seto no Hanayome

Seto no Hanayome sounds awful on paper. Generic teenage boy gets saved from drowning by a mermaid and, according to mermaid law, he now has to marry her. It’s when you realise they are actually the mermaid mafia that the real heart of this series comes out: A ball to the wall bonkers comedy. Some of the jokes don’t work, but it fires off so many and doesn’t linger on any that it’s tolerable, and some of the jokes are inspired in how they defy your expectations. A husband and son try to sneak away some mermaid porn, only to realise it’s just a video of a fish flopping about a bit. Our mermaid idol bursts into a lullaby song, only for it to be a ridiculous off-tune parade of la-lee-ho’s. It’s not a particularly clever anime, but damn is it ever funny.

51: Casshern Sins

Madhouse are probably my favourite animation studio, because no other studio is willing to attempt the stuff they do. Robot Hunter Casshern was originally a generic superhero anime about a cyborg dude Casshern and his pet robot dog. Casshern Sins, on the other hand, is a post-apocalyptic depression fest in which our titular character wanders around a desolate landscape with his fabulous 70’s hairdo, meeting various people in states of disarray and generally doing a lot of angsting. What makes it special is how each episodic story surrounding these characters has a ray of hope to each of them. Highly ambitious and experimental, while also being a touch narm-y at times, it’s an anime that has a remarkable amount to say, and one that I’ve grown to appreciate more over time.

50: Crest of the Stars

While all of the Banner of the Stars series are good too, the original is the best constructed of the lot, and the only one that remains completely focused on the true core that makes this series special. The story of how Jinto and Lafiel grow from merely travel companions to having to rely on each other when thrust into various life-threatening scenarios. What makes it stand above its peers is how well crafted it all is. It has a level of depth to the science-fiction world that rivals Star Trek, and actually uses this information to build up a more interesting relationship between the two lead characters rather than just for technobabble (OK, there’s a bit of pointless technobabble, but not much). For two such reserved personalities, Jinto and Lafiel stand above their peers as one of the best duos in anime due to how real their feelings and interactions feel.

49: Spice and Wolf

Speaking of fascination character duos, Spice and Wolf is Crest of the Stars except set in medieval Europe and with more sex appeal. While Jinto and Lafiel are reserved, Horo and Lawrence have this brilliant flirtatious back and forth, as though they’re trying to find the most roundabout way of getting the other to confess their feelings, complimenting each other without the other person realising it. It makes for endlessly entertaining banter, only occasionally broken up by obligatory plot and economics chat. The economics stuff isn’t bad, but it does feel like you sit through them just to give better settings for Horo and Lawrence to start flirting again. Oh, and if loving Horo makes me a furry, then I shall yiff along with the worst of them, but she truly is walking sex.

48: Gintama

Gintama is to anime what Simpson is to American television. A satire of a popular genre (Simpsons it’s the family sitcom, Gintama it’s shounen) that occasionally devolves into the very thing it’s supposed to be satirising, but when it doesn’t, it manages to be incredibly funny. Rife with mocking parody, probably their greatest strengths is how they managed to remain funny for so many episodes. I’ve only seen 100-odd episodes of Gintama, so maybe it too like the Simpsons starts to lose its comedic edge, but from what I’ve heard from those 250 episodes in, it’s still as funny as ever. I should probably catch up sometime…

47: Bunny Drop

I hate using words ‘charming’ and ‘lovely’ to describe anything, because it implies that the piece in question is so concerned with being sickly sweet that it has no bite to its message, which is absolutely not the case with Bunny Drop. The story is about parenting and how difficult and yet rewarding the experience is, tackling subjects from single parents to the difficulty in earning money to properly raise the child. It managed to single-handedly change my entire perspective on parenting, and it does all this while being, yes, charming. And maybe lovely too.

46: Roujin Z

I’m a massive fan of Katsuhiro Otomo. He has this wonderfully cynical, dark sense of humour, bringing out some of the best black comedy in anime (a medium not particularly known for its black comedy). He wrote the script for Roujin Z, a story about how an old man in his containment facility/caretaking machine goes berserk, prompting a massive military operation to try take it down. It brings together some great themes of the dehumanisation of senior citizens and the importance of human interaction, all in this incredibly entertaining piece. It’s an unsung gem that’s much more accessible and fun than my description could possibly give it credit for.

45: Haibane Remnei

I feel a bit mean sometimes for not rating Haibane Remnei higher than I do, because it really is a flawless piece. It has this wonderful old-fairy tale vibe to it. Not in the Disney sense, but in the Brothers Grimm way, in that the strange yet slightly frightening fantastic elements come together in this almost ethereal package. One of the things I loved about Haibane Remnei was there was this massive world out there to explore, parts of which were slowly told throughout the story, but we were only concerned with this small human story surrounding these two characters. I guess it didn’t quite give me the same thrill I want from my favourites, but for what it’s trying to do, it really is perfect.

44: Time of Eve

Time of Eve is like one of those indie movies that do incredibly well on the movie festival circuits, throwing away modern conventions with a unique take on camerawork and dialogue delivery with some off-beat humour while still delivering ultimately the same story that makes it connect with people. It has this wonderful flow to it all. The lines run into each other and the swooping camera angles give this effect that there’s so much going on at once that you are only catching snippets of these characters lives. It made me a permanent fan of Yasuhiro Yoshiura and Studio Rikka and I can’t wait to see more from them.

43: Bakemonogatari

What’s funny about the amount of critical acclaim Bakemonogatari (and its sequel, Nisemonogatari) gets is that it’s ultimately a wish-fulfillment fanservicy harem, complete with girls falling for the main character because he’s a Nice Guy, and a camera that is on near permanent perv-mode. But the artwork is so pretty, the dialogue so sharp and cutting, the characters so well-developed and hilarious, the story so carefully woven into these flirt-fests, that you come away massively entertained by the whole shebang. It may be artsy smut, but it’s incredibly cleverly written artsy smut.

42: Lupin III Castle of Cagliostro

Miyazaki’s Castle of Cagliostro is the only Lupin III piece I have really loved. Not necessarily because they tampered with the formula or anything. Yes, Lupin is more good-natured and the tone more whimsical than some of the darker, edgier Lupin stuff. But what makes this one work is how fantastic the directing is. Every element comes together with perfect timing, the cues with the music swinging perfectly in rhythm with the characters actions. Some of the best scenes in the movie are when the characters are just dicking about on rooftops. It’s such a hugely entertaining film, it’s only downside being no Lupin property after this will love up to it.

41: Steins;Gate

One half sci-fi mystery, one half ball-busting time travel thriller, Steins;Gate was the anime that forced me to change my opinion that everything that came out of Visual Novel land that wasn’t eothir porn or melodramatic crap. The story builds up to certain key moments, cranking up the tension with each episode, while never losing the sense of humour at its core. And then there’s Okarin. Possibly the greatest main character in anime, his grandstanding and desire to be this great Mad Scientist drove this show, turning his whole world upside down, breaking him and eventually building up a man who became his own persona. El. Psy. Congroo

40: Hellsing

Not Hellsing Ultimate, that OVA that did away with the devilish style and character charm that characterised what I love about Hellsing and replaced it with sadism and overkill. No, this is that 2001 much-maligned Gonzo version of Hellsing, where the story just sort of drops off. But I love it regardless because it has a style like no other. This sort of dangerous suave charm, complete with some brilliantly strange relationships between the characters. From respected fear to controlled awe, between Alucard and Integra and Victoria, there was so much unsaid yet left implied that made it work.

39: Pale Cocoon

As far as short movies go, Pale Cocoon is the best. No, shut up, I don’t want to hear. Pale Cocoon is better than that. It was the second short movie Yasuhiro Yoshiura made, after Aquatic Language, and told this amazing story about a civilisation that had given up hope, all while focusing on no more than 2 key characters. The ending revelation stands up there as the greatest single shot I’ve ever seen in anime. Yasuhiro went on after this to make Time of Eve, an improved version of Aquatic Language. If his new movie, Sakasama no Patema, is supposed to be the improved version of Pale Cocoon, then holy shit will it be something special.

38: Redline

Redline is an experience. It has a rather stark lack of depth, and the plot is nothing special, but it does have this incredible attention to detail with each little character and element. Each touch tells a story about each of these characters. Little asides that give this picture of a much larger world this character inhabits. You get the feeling that there’s a story behind each little scratch on JP’s car. That is what I love about Redline. Well that, and the fact that it’s a thrilling, exhilarating journey through thumping soundtracks, massive explosions and swearing aliens.

37: Durarara

If you’ve been reading this post, instead of just glancing down to confirm the anime, you’d notice a few reoccurring trends. I like a suave style, a cast of characters with much larger stories than is told in the anime, and a focused story that centres on human emotions rather than grand plot elements. Durarara is all of that, to the point that you almost want to hate it for its own self-confidence, sashaying through character developments and plot twists, so assured of its own charm that you can’t help but be drawn along with it. It’s a shame that the arc they ended the first season on (and there WILL be a second season) was the poorest, because at its core, this is such a damn fine anime.

36: Kino’s Journey

Kino’s Journey is like Aesop’s Fables: The Anime. Each town and story that Kino visits and explores doesn’t make much sense on a surface, logical level. It’s the story beneath the surface meaning that’s important. How, through his probing questions and standoff approach, Kino draws out the thought process and belief system that created such a bizarre scenario as the one he had just visited. It’s one of those series you keep coming back to, realising how sharp it truly was, and how much of it applies to real-life serious issues. It’s unique in that sense, I’ve never seen anything else come even close to achieving what it did.

35: Nodame Cantabile

This is another one of those series that get by almost entirely on the strength of its main duo. What’s unique here is they work fantastically on their lonesome too. Chiaki is the uptight, devilishly handsome workaholic, whose harsh put-downs and persnickity attitude (always wanted to use that word) make him a hugely entertaining character in his own right. When paired together with the air-headed, dopey ball of moody energy that is Nodame, the two combine to create the ultimate entertainment pair. Gyabo!

34: Moyashimon

Moyashimon’s bizarre and eccentric characters and take on college life is, counterintuitively, probably one of the most accurate takes on how strange a small college life experience can be. The world is filled with young adults with attempting to create alcohol in their rooms, transgendered people trying to find themselves, covering themselves in dirt and grease for the sake of science. Oh, and bacteria floating around in the shapes of cutesy inch-high creature. Well OK, maybe that last point isn’t quite so realistic.

33: Arrietty

Ghibli have a few aspects to their movies that repeatedly bug me, but most of the time it comes down to how their magical worlds become too strained under the weight of what they’re trying to achieve and turn to deus ex machina and barmy town. Arrietty avoids this by keeping the focus tight and letting the directing, as good as Ghibli’s directing has ever been, tell the story. By doing this, it allows its magical elements and woven themes to shine all the brighter for it. What’s encouraging is that this was a directorial debut for Hiromasa Yonebayashi, proving that Ghibli has the talent behind it to survive beyond the days of Miyazaki.

32: Detroit Metal City

Detroit Metal City single-handedly ruined all music for me. Not just heavy metal music, with its tearing back of the jokes surrounding the desire to appear edgy and dangerous, but also in its mockery of other music types. The fallacy behind cheesy love songs. The ridiculousness of the myths told by over-enthusiastic fans. In one single stroke, I cannot take any music personas seriously anymore. I’m not sure whether to love it or hate it for that.

31: Porco Rosso

My favourite Ghibli movie, it does many of the same things that made Arrietty work. Porco Rosso is strangely down-to-earth, with very human characters and desires, telling a neatly compacted story that hints at a much more beyond what was told in this snippet. In a way, it’s a lesson in restraint. The lack on fantastical elements means that the one scene where they do embrace the magical, it’s made all the more memorable because of its brevity. That scene with the planes flying out of the clouds, leaving Porco behind. No other scene in any other Ghibli movie made quite the impact that shot did.

Continue to 30–1

The winter season has so far been the season of extraordinarily shitty opening songs. Even Persona 4 changed it’s kickass original song to some other dull thing. With all that competition eliminated, Future Diary takes the award for the best opening from an anime I’m currently watching. But hey, I talked about why it’s good before, so let’s try find something new to write about. Oh who am I kidding. It’s just going to be yet another post about how awesome Yuno is.

But before I return back to Yuno, I’d like to bitch about the King Diary. Just because you have a character in the anime called Deus Ex Machina doesn’t make Deus Ex Machina moves any better. Did you really need to introduce the King Diary when all it did was point out to the characters there was a ventilation shaft? Akise was clearly looking up at the walls. That’s how he spotted the camera. If he’s so bright, how could he not think of such a simple idea like climb through the ventilation shaft? I’m willing to suspend my disbelief in that they all choke to death from the gas in a room that’s supposed to be ventilated because there was a lot of gas entering the room, but still.

Why suddenly start changing the rules of the game at the halfway stage? I guess this was the point of the scene from last episode where Murmur and Deus wanted the game to speed up, or else they won’t get a winner before Deus dies. If they had left Yuno and Yuki as they were, they would have stayed in place for as long as Yuno could possibly keep Yuki from starving himself to death. So sometimes they’ve got to give the other characters a bit of a push here and there, even when the supposedly bright Akise can’t spot a fucking ventilation shaft and instead tries to reason with Yuno. Repeat that for a second there. Reason with Yuno. And he’s supposed to be the clever one.

But Yuno. Oh Yuno, you are fantastically creepy. We always knew you were. This was just the logical extension of what would happen if she got her way. But seeing it in action is brilliant. It’s not necessarily something we hadn’t already gotten from that fantastic parting shot from the last episode, but the little snippets of information, such as how she had brought all the tools to keep him in his comatose state, add to the creepiness factor of it all. I did particularly like how out of his depth Kousaka appeared when faced off with underwear clad pink haired psycho chick. The look on her face was very much a “who is this worm that fowls my vision away from my precious Yuki”. It’s almost like she doesn’t consider him a threat. Oh Yuno, your overconfidence was your weakness. And faith in his friends was Yuki’s.

And hey, since we’re doing references.

Can you feel it?

The engine

Throbbing