If my Fate/Zero and Persona 4 posts had to start off with a disclaimer about my lack of experience with each respective franchise, then it’s a given that I have to do likewise for a franchise where I do have previous experience. Make no mistake, what you are reading here are the impressions from a hopeless fanboy for the original Last Exile and shall spend most of this post comparing my sparkly yet fading memories of the original with this latest rendition.

There is a bit of a change of tone for this Last Exile. You know that one scene from the first episode of the original after the two sets of musketeers finished decimating each other (‘Disseth bullets will avoid Mullen Shetlends body’ and all that) and there was that shot of all the dead bodies, offering a rather stark contrast to the fancy pants chivalry commanders on board the ships? There’s none of that in Fam, the Silver Wing (just calling it Fam from now on). Not exactly that scene, but there’s a lack of the darker edge the original had. This version is definitely more upbeat and light-hearted, while still keeping the same adventurous tone the orignal had. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as I’m sure many of you will argue, but the characters are a bit too…how shall I put this…thick headed? They’re stock characters with a single motive that they stick to for every line of dialogue they spout. I guess it’s the first episode so they’re just setting the scene, but everything was very black and white.

They did keep the heart of Last Exile though. The one thing that Last Exile does, better than any other anime I’ve ever seen, is the sense of adventure. There’s a thrill in discovery and flight that Fam captured brilliantly, most notably in that opening sequence with them being pirates and capturing a ship. The music helps here, taking a note out of the original series soundtrack. I’m convinced the song playing during that scene was a remix off the original series opening song. Although, since I’m on the subject of the opening song, this new one just pales miserably in comparison to Cloud Age Symphony. But yeah, that’s just me being the insufferable fanboy for the original again. Not that I want everything to remain the same. As much as I loved Dio in the original, I can’t for the life of me see why he’s in this series, apparently not ageing a day between the two. Is this even the same world as the original, or did they create an entirely new world and just carted Dio over because he’s just that fabulous?

Fam does do one thing better than the orignal. The animation is absolutely fucking glorious. Not only that, but it’s glorious in the Last Exile style, so that all the ships are that highly detailed CGI style that somehow matches up with the character designs. There’s something about the flat faces of Range Murata’s character designs that blend in well with CGI. I always liked how Last Exile used its CGI, keeping only the ships in CGI and the characters hand-drawn, rather that flicking between the two depending on the whims of the animators at the time. There’s a beauty to the absolute classic steampunk design of Last Exile that, again, lends itself to the sense of adventure that the series is so good at.

So, verdict from a Last Exile fanboy? It’s pretty good. I don’t mind that they’re going for a lighter tone, so long as the characters gain depth (and preferably stop being moe, although the moe factor was thankfully lower than I initially feared). If that happens, then I’m on board with this season.

Firstly, on the ‘Not killing you for implying I’m British when I’m Irish’ thing, I’m really not a patriotic person. There’s a reason I fled the country across into England in the first place. In fact, I generally don’t get the whole point of patriotism. Why support something just because you hail from there? It has strengths and flaws, just like every other nation. Why do people feel the need to play up their unique qualities in a desperate attempt to retain their nationality, especially when these include keeping teaching a dead language that serves no purpose in the real world. Fuck you compulsory Irish language!

Oh right, original question. Biggest problem with being a British based anime fan is fucking region restrictions!

I always liked the robot segments from Clannad. The combination of the ridiculously heightened frame rate and the airy-fairy music gave the whole thing this ethereal feel to it. It was a rather simple story about a lost robot, but I loved how the entire thing was narrated by a robot through logical reasoning.

I’ve been watching the Patlabor TV series recently, and I’ve noticed something rather strange. You know the way in modern romance/action/moe anime, such as Shakugan no Shana or the Raildex series, people say they care far more about simply watching the characters than any stories they get involved in? Well, in Patlabor, the plotlines to each episode are often stupid. The real enjoyment comes from watching the cast goof off and be themselves. Patlabor is often held up as a prime example of an anime from the golden era, yet the enjoyment I get from it is rather similar to how people describe the typical JC Staff anime. Heck, Noa isn’t that far away from being a moeblob.

Asides from all the aspects that make a good story no matter what the medium? Something that uses what animation is good at. One to push the boundaries of logic and experiments with presentation styles. Stories that work both on a surface level and deeper one. Something with enough of a sense of humour about itself to muck about, all while keeping this within the tone of the anime and not negatively effecting the story. Basically, everything Legend of Black Heaven does.

I’ve noticed some people complain about the term ‘slice of life’ when it should more accurately be classified as comedy, or coming-of-age, or ~healing~ or whatever. It’s an argument that always struck me as flawed, mainly being judged by the viewers own interpretation of what a slice of life looks like. Honey and Clover may not have been a slice of your life, but it’s a slice of someone’s life. It’s looking at their everyday activities. Having comedy doesn’t disqualify them from being slice of life. Sorry that your life is so boring that nobody ever cracks a joke, but most people’s lives do indeed have punchlines scattered amongst them.

I’m not really the right person to ask this question of, but since I’m here…

10 years ago, fully digital painted anime were taking off, but wasn’t being experimented with much. This left almost all anime around the early 00’s look rather similar. There’s a real blandness in presentation around that period. Anime has since developed and, since about 05, started experimenting much more with what could be done with digital animation. Now most animation studios like to muck about with the capabilities of digital animation, except certain studios. For gods sake JC Staff, catch up with the crowd and animate something that’s at least interesting to look at!

The reason American programmes often get stick for including things like The Token Black Guy is because they’re obliged to include racial minorities even when they haven’t thought properly on how to incorporate them into the story. Anime doesn’t really have this problem, but what you get instead is the reverse issue with under-representation. People have got to write stories that include minorities as a natural part of the piece.

Probably not what you were asking, but whatev’

2DT has a post on this. It’s somewhat reassuring to know that I hate the old form of moeblobs (the horrendously dull annoyingly perfect Miyazaki heroines) as much as I hate the new form of moeblobs.

People are often so intent on seeing boobs and blood that they miss the fact that the censorship is intentionally meant to be part of the show. It can be used for humour, and frequently having a ridiculous animal head censor offers far more enjoyment than seeing a cartoon nipple. Alternatively, while I may laugh at Deadman Wonderland and its gun that shot black censor holes into people’s chests, the alternative is to show everything like Hellsing Ultimate does, which is just gross, sickening and ultimately jarring away from the intended story experience.

Constant reruns of K-ON and Lucky Star unless we stand up and fight for what is right!

Also One Piece will be exclusively read by people over 60 because they are the only ones who have kept up with the plot since the start and nobody else is willing to pile through the 1000+ volumes to catch up.

Fractale. I now see that it is a well constructed tale about a boy struggling to overcome his shyness born from his lack of interaction with society. It’s an epic tale of romance, friendship and a clash of ideals between whether we should shoot down old ladies or shoot down old ladies with angry looks on our faces.

Hahaha no Fractale is shit.

Make everyone watch Hetalia and understand how silly they all look. Except don’t make them watch chibitalia because that part is painful to sit through and trying to make them do so will have the world leaders unwittingly launching their nuclear arsenal.

Plagiarism? I have no idea what you are talking about.

However long it takes to tell the story. While I know it’s nice to spend as more time with the characters you love so much, dragging anything out also thins out the quality. I personally rather like this 12/13 episode phenomenon anime has settled into. The 40-something episode long series are often padded far beyond what they need to be, while short 2–3 episode OVA’s don’t have enough time to get us to care. Patlabor is too long, Dominion Tank Police is too short, but Madoka Magica is just right. This applies less to anime and more to visual novels, where it seems padding your story out with redundant nonsense is common place, as if not being at least 30 hours long means you have disgraced your family. Make it shorter and charge less, is that so hard?

I’m so indifferent about video quality that, even when illegally downloading, I stick to 480p where possible. Once you reach a certain quality of image and sound, it stops having any improvement on how the story is told. Beyond that point is just for videophiles. It’s not like I have a laptop capable of playing Blu-Ray anyway.

The president of Nitro+ recently announced they had 5–6 anime projects in the works. It sounds a little bit over-ambitious to me, but 5–6 projects makes it sound like each one could be a short OVA of some sort. I would certainly be interested in a Saya no Uta OVA. It’s not like it could go on TV anyway, what with all the shit that happens in that game. An OVA would mean less focus on trying to make you fap to rape scenes, and on more on the horror element. The building up of tension would be far more effective in anime format. Keep the story intact, maybe making a few fixes to the natural flow of events, and you have the bones of a real quality 3 episode OVA.

Shizuo from Durarara, Lelouch from Code Geass, Revy from Black Lagoon and Mugen from Samurai Champloo. Problem is, I’m not sure any of these would listen to me when I tried to get them to rob a bank. Realistically, it would probably be just myself and Geek Boy from Panty and Stocking.

How did you know my penis had that? I’ve used all kinds of creams but it won’t go away.

…oh wait, inflationary, not inflammation

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Again, if you want to ask me to write about whatever, you can still do so.

This show is going to fucking explode with Japanese otaku. Yes, I know IdolM@ster is already massively popular and preventing the Berserk manga from going anywhere anytime soon, but I don’t think there is a single way they could have made this any better.

This was about a good a first episode as IdolM@ster could have done. It was a unique and clever spin on the standard opening episode ‘cycling through the haremmetes’ routine. In having the cameraman directly ask the girls why they became idols and other personal questions, it gets straight to the root of each of their personalities, without it coming off as lazy expositionary dialogue. I also liked how they made producer-san totally silent for the entire first episode. All the information I’ve gotten from the games is second hand, but from what I’ve heard, you are the silent producer-san, so the way they kept him silent for the episode served as a good way to make it seem like you were touring the set before the actual series began. The animation suited the show well, the bgm fit each scene. Praise praise praise etc.

And here is where I say “but” and launch into a big auld rant at some minor nitpicky aspects before admitting I like the show, right? Or are you too busy being shocked that I liked IdolM@ster?

Actually let me clear that up: I do not like IdolM@ster. I am merely commenting on why I think this anime adaptation looks about as good as an anime adaptation of the IdolM@ster game could be. The problem is, it still has to come from IdolM@ster. That means it still has to have the same cast of characters from the game. This was like a police line up for irritating female anime character archetypes. Each and every one is nerve-jammingly annoying with scary efficiency. They screech and whine and go “ah moo”, every single one sounding like they’ve got a blocked nose. Each one is overacted, desperately trying to highlight their single character trait. None of these aspiring idols are characters. They’re such calculated moeblob archetypes that they’ve surgically removed any actual personality from each one. Every single one made my eye twitch.

So yeah. Well produced. Extremely well produced. Could not be any better produced. But argh argh argh get it as far away from me as you can!

My thoughts on Denpa Onna after 5 episodes. Because sometimes I have more to say about currently airing anime than I can possibly fit in your standard monthly roundup. Or my alternative and more precise sub-title, why it should have stopped after episode 3.

Denpa Onna is about a generic teenage boy going to live with his barmy aunt and her illegitimate daughter, who she bizarrely refuses to acknowledge the existence of most of the time. The daughter doesn’t seem too phased by this either, spending her time wrapped up in a futon and declaring she’s an alien. It is up to our wise-cracking protagonist to discover what’s going on here and snap the poor girly out of her current state.

This scenario works fairly well for the first three episodes, mainly because of how well the characters fit their roles in the story. The aunt may be barmy, a 40 year old women acting like a teenage girl, but this all acts as a sign that she thinks she’s not capable nor mature enough to take care of a kid. She’s been feeling pretty depressed at her own inability to raise a child. She hides from her weaknesses by latching onto and teasing our generic main character, a person she can finally feel some degree on control over. She got on my nerves a bit, especially when they pushed her moe-aunt quotient a bit too much, but it works well for the story.

Erio is the batty cousin, wrapped up in the futon, convinced she’s an alien. This is pulled off incredibly well due to how utterly out there she is. So much so that she might as well be from another planet for all we know. The high pitched squeal of her voice is muffled by the futon, creating this bizarre creature spouting complicated lines of dialogue that actually represent something a lot more mundane, like “go get me pizza”. What’s equally commendable about her character is how, when the futon drops off, she still holds this air of mystique. Shaft really want to go all out here, showing her hair sparkling, zooming in on her face to show what a strange looking girl this is. The futon dropping also drops her defensive barrier somewhat, but it will still take some battling to get through to the heart of the problem.

And that’s where our generic male lead comes in. Obsessed with leading the perfect teenage life, keeping mathematical track of all his interactions with his cute girl classmates, he finds himself living with this elephant in the room at home. A problem that he can’t stop himself from trying to explore, which is exactly how the story is revealed and developed. The story becomes about single parents trying to raise difficult children and how they escape to a fantasy land to get away from the harshness of reality. Our hero discovers this problem and then takes it upon himself to drag Erio out of her fantasy alien land and get her to face reality, with him on hand to help her every step of the way.

As an aside, one thing I liked about Denpa Onna was how it based the story around E.T. I rather like the idea of the modern fairy tale. A popular piece of entertainment from years ago becomes a fairy tale or a classic story to base current stories off. I prefer the modern fairy tale approach than basing your stories from Shakespeare or that bloody bible again. Erio presents herself as the same sort of creature that E.T. looks like, wrapped in the blanket and everything. I love the little twist with how they incorporated that famous bike scene. Instead of taking off into the sky into fantasy magical land, the bike crashes down and that’s where Erio comes to the realisation that she’s not living the life of an alien. It’s cleverly woven into the narrative and I respect Denpa Onna for pulling that off.

The show must go on though, and here’s where the problems begin. With the characters functions gone from the original solved plotline, the author has to continue with the story he has set up. Now it’s about Erio settling into society. Thing is, that’s not what he wrote the story to be about originally. E.T. has long since lost relevance. The characters no longer fit this new plot that he has to explore. The Aunt has regressed from pretending to be a teenager because she can’t face her adulthood, to being totally indistinguishable from a teenager, with no hints of adulthood left in her. She’s regressed to a one-joke character, merely acting as a titillation device. Erio loses her mystique as an alien, but what we get in return appears to be one of those mentally challenged girls from a Key drama. This may be the natural direction her character had to take in this story, but stripped of her alien persona, she too becomes a one-trick pony. Whatever story there was has been lost beneath a pile of pandering and moeblobbery.

What this stinks of is a story being made drag out beyond its natural length. An author who wrote a story that could span one light novel, but hadn’t considered what to write next until his publisher told him to write the next volume. It’s like a TV show made a pilot episode that had the producers roaring with laughter, but when they were told to make more, they suddenly realise they had used up the shows one decent gimmick and weren’t sure what to do with it from here on. The story for Denpa Onna should have ended on episode 3, with perhaps the main characters spiel about adolescence points at the start of episode 4 acting as a final narration over the ending credits. You might say the story hasn’t ended yet. Erio still isn’t integrated with society. I say pah, we didn’t need to see that. The story was just about generic main character discovering what was going on with his bizarro cousin and dragging her out of fantasy alien land. All the show is doing now is killing time before they can finally call it a day.

Note that, despite pimping this contest out, I’m not that much of a mecha fag. Hence some of my choices and reasoning will differ from classical mechafag thought processes.

Lancelot

Code Geass

This blog is named after Code Geass, so I could hardly not put in the most iconic mecha from that series. Lancelot is fuckwin anyway. Not so much for the design. The rollerblades are cool but the rest is standard over-elaborate metal spam. I love Lancelot because of how it’s the spanner in the works in all of Zero’s plans. Suzaku was put into the machine as an afterthought, never expecting it to get off the ground, and stuck into suicide missions, but it’s precisely because of the lack of logic behind its deployment and unpredictability of its abilities and pilot that it messed with Zero’s plans. Also because I’m a big weeaboo and like to pull Lancelot’s lifting off pose (one hand on the ground in front of the legs) when I’m about to run after someone.

Z-001

Roujin Z

Less a mecha and more a super computer turned care worker for seniors. At least, that’s what the Z-001 starts off as. Then it gains sentience and the personality of its patients dead wife and turns into a destructive machine! Rampaging across the country, dragging parts of the landscape and cities into it and becoming one with the machine. It evolves with the more it gathers, becoming a more and more terrifying machine as it attempts to carry out its mission to bring the old dude to the beach. Z-001 deserves a vote for loyalty and determination.

Unit 01

Neon Genesis Evangelion

A very stereotypical choice again, but Unit 01 deserves it. I love how it’s required to be plugged in to function, like a super laptop that has ambitions to be a desktop computer and achieves this by running out of battery as soon as you plug it out. Mainly though, it’s because Unit 01 is scary. It grunts when it attacks. It has a primeval roar. It eats other mecha. Repeat that for me. It eats other mecha.

Gurren Lagann

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Manly combine go! *SLAM*…*fix slightly* Hah, now we’re unbeatable!

Yup, Gurren Lagann is awesome because of the ridiculousness of how the thing functions. I love all the graphs and bars inside the machine that measure the rate of manliness it’s currently exuding. I love the arrange of moves it has, such as the ‘who the hell do you think we are kiiiicku~!’ and, of course, the Giga Drill Breaker. It’s such a ridiculous machine and I love it to bits.

Vital Guarder

Infinite Ryvius

There is no other mecha quite like the Vital Guarder. For one, it’s piloted by about 50–60 people, none of whom are actually inside the robot itself. Instead, they float behind the robot in a seperate ship, stuck behind computors as they compile complicated algorithems so the machine can do something as simple as lift it’s arm. Second, it doesn’t fight with any sort of conventional weaponry. Vital Guarder’s weapons are intense gravity fields alone. Again, Vital Guarder is scary, but in a deadening sort of way as you stare it down, frightened by the sheer power that machine holds.

Delphine

Break Blade

Like all the mecha in Break Blade, the Delphine is a big, ugly, clunky machine that swings its arms and legs in a lazy yet unstoppable fashion as it dukes it out with other hunks of humanoid metal. That’s what makes all the mecha in Break Blade awesome, I’m simply picking the Delphine because it’s the main one. They are proper machines. None of your flying around invincible beam spam nonsense. If you shoot the Delphine, you will scratch the paintwork, and it will wear those scratches with pride amongst the other squeaky clean competitors in SaiMecha.

Canti

FLCL

It’s the imagery used to in FLCL that makes this guy so memorable. Canti is a fallen angel. He is the messiah and the saviour. He saves the birds with his halo and TV screen for a face. He also transforms into a massive gun and is piloted by Naota, even coming with it’s own unique eject function, so I think he qualifies as a mecha all right.

Nirvash typetheEND

Eureka Seven

Fuck the Nirvash. That’s piloted by Renton and Eureka, who are boring people and shouldn’t have been the main characters. Eureka Seven would have been infinitely improved by having Anemone and Dominic as the lead two. Plus their robot is even more awesome. You don’t so much get strapped into the typeEnd as you do get absorbed and held in place in like some sort of futuristic sex toy. It’s the Evangelion-esque robot in a series where everyone else was too busy pussy-footing about on surfboards and is far more awesome than any of them because of that.

Fuego

Ride Back

I want one. I don’t care how, I just want one. I want a motorbike with arms and wheels on its legs that can drive along walls. Why haven’t you made this yet, science? I am still waiting with all my worldly possessions to purchase a Fuego, even if it means going into debt for the rest of my life.

Mecha Panty

Panty and Stocking with Gartarbelt

You know you like it.

It was then that I realised the mistake I was making. A season preview is not about information. How silly of me to think such a thing. The real driving force behind what makes a great season preview is opinions. Informed opinions, yes, but opinions never the less. A chart is no place for my opinions, they are merely information storage houses. But I love opinions, especially my own. So with that revelation, it’s back to doing what I do best: Informing the world of my totally biased views on anime!

TV Series

Fractale

Click here to view the embedded video.

First of all, Fractale is airing in Noitamina, a timeslot devoted to hosting anime that doesn’t suck. Being in Noitamina alone means it’s worth checking out, regardless of anything else. The series is directed by Yamakan, a guy who’s reputation far exceeds his few achievements. He storyboarded a few episodes of Haruhi Suzumiya, got kicked off Lucky Star after 4 episodes for sucking so much, directed that dull Black Rock Shooter OVA. In fact, the only real worthwhile achievement he has to his name is him directing Kannagi. I’m a little bit worried about his moe reputation, but Noitamina wouldn’t host pure moecrap. Yamakan did say that if this anime isn’t a hit, he would retire. However he is a bit egotistical so take all that with a pinch of salt. Trailer looks slightly Ghibli-esque and I love some of the steampunk artwork I’ve been seeing of the series. Sorry, I’m really just babbling by this point. Definitely optimistic, if not overwhelming so.

Kimi ni Todoke 2

Stupid shojo. I don’t think my problem comes fundamentally from the shojo genre as a whole. It’s the stereotypical shojo fair that I have no time for. That is what Kimi ni Todoke is, and I simply have no patience for that at all.

Gosick

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First off, it’s by Bones. While their original productions often fill me with rage with their pitfalls, they’re generally pretty good at bringing out the best in adaptations (FMA and Ouran, as case points). Second case for Gosick is the high praise I’ve seen the novels get. It’s a proper detective story, true to the style of Sherlock Holmes, which can often be hard to find in anime outside of Detective Conan. The case against is a bit damaging though. This is far from a star studded staff listing from Bones here. Warning signs alone come from seeing the Heroman director on board. Still, he’s working with better material here, so it should be worth a shot at least.

Beelzebub

I know there are many people excited about this. These people have already expressed surprise at the apparent lack of enthusiasm expressed by the rest of the aniblogsphere towards this hit manga. Want to know why, all you Beelzebub fans out there? Fairy Tail, Letter Bee, Nuaridgyaoean no Mago Nurarara. Time and time again we get the latest Shounen hit manga getting adapted into an anime, getting hyped up by the shounen manga fans, only for it to be yet another disappointment. Seeing Pierrot at the helm as well (they did Letter Bee and Nurarara, along with Naruto and Bleach) doesn’t fill me with excitment either. I mean, it sounds like a pretty cool story. Teenage delinquent in charge of demon baby. A combination of the shounen formula with the new parent comedy, it sounds promising. But I’ve been burned too many times in the past to get excited for whatever the latest shounen hit anime is.

Wandering Son

Click here to view the embedded video.

Noitamina again. Just in case you’re unfamiliar with the timeslot and think I’m hyping these titles up for nothing, here’s a quick snapshot of what anime it’s hosted in the past 5 years: Eden of the East, Moyashimon, Nodame Cantabile, Honey and Clover, Tatami Galaxy, Trapeze, Jellyfish Princess…I think you get the gist. Even when the studio attached is AIC, whose previous anime have included Ore no Imouto, Amagami SS and the Strike Witches sequel, the call of Noitamina has caused them to produce probably the most original looking anime of the season, at least in terms of the artwork. Admittedly, Wandering Son doesn’t look to be my sort of thing. A bit too airy fairy/fluffy/lovely/beautiful and I generally don’t react too well to these sort of anime. But hey, good for the people who do like this sort of stuff, and good for AIC that they’re not doing fanservice crap yet again.

Merry Dream Eater

Click here to view the embedded video.

To be fair to JC Staff, they have been branching out a bit lately. Most notably of which is their careful stepping into the generic shojo genre of Maid-sama. So hey, good for them that they’re finally diversifying from the typical ‘flat-chested highschool girl, possibly  with super powers, meets generic male lead’ that they always put out. Merry Dream Eater is about a generic teenage boy and the  flat chested girl who falls into his lap one day. JC Staff being JC Staff. Shakugan no Shana, Raildex series, Ookami-san you know the drill by now. They put out something resembling a plot while the fans fawn over the moeness of the female leads. The Light Novel adaptation has very low profit margins and I guess these series are sorta par for the course for JC Staff. A way of giving their staff some experience on working on anime. It’s just it’s starting to feel like a while that they made an anime I liked that isn’t called Nodame Cantabile.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

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The wildly erratic but occasionally brilliant Shinbo, along with his equally eratic studio Shaft, are producing this anime original product. There’s been a bit of hype surrounding this due to an apparently godlike staff list, which I had gone along with until I actually took a look at the staff list. Err, this is godly? The actual good staff are on stuff like music and character design, which is a pretty useless place to put good staff if the actual prodict they’re making stuff for isn’t well written. The actual main bulk of the writing staff are a few Shaft folk (although the director of Arakawa Under the Bridge makes me happy) and a bunch of nobodies who only previously worked on the forgettable Gonzo anime Blassreiter. Essentially, this anime boils down to what Shinbo has cooked up in his brain, never a good thing to rely on. My feeling is Shinbo is aiming for a true Magical Girl series, based on wha the promos have shown. Absolute purity and goodness in an unabashed, totally serious way that leaves the old school magical girl fans declaring the glory days have come back. Sorta like Gurren Lagann for the Magical Girl genre. Which I’m afraid I just can’t get excited for. Magical Girl anime just don’t do it for me (he says, basing this prejudice solely off Princess Tutu and the fact they have stupid names like Magical Musical ~Chu~ ~Chu~ Lyrical Heart and Soul Puni Puni Girl SOS).

Wolverine

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Oh Madhouse, what on earth has happened to you? I was one of the few that originally kinda liked Ironman, but eventually the stupidity got to me and I dropped it. Actually no, it wasn’t the stupidity. I watched and enjoyed the entire of Cobra. The problem with Ironman was you could tell the creators simply did not care about the product they were working on. Which makes it even more baffling that they decided to take on these projects when they clearly had no interest in them. Why Madhouse? To any anime fans reading this: Don’t bother with Wolverine or Ironman. If you want some Madhouse goodness, wait for Redline to finally come out on DVD. That will be the next big thing to hit the anime scene from them.

Level E

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First off, actually watch the trailer the full way through. Pretty cool looking eh? Level E is your token low budget, high concept anime of the season. The sort of minor hit that will never achieve much due to its low budget, but will gain a small following of supporters. A bit like Giant Killing from last spring. David Production are a pretty shitty studio, having only previously made Ristorante Paradiso and Book of Bantorra, and being propped up by Pierrot isn’t the most exciting of duos. The manga is from the same guy who wrote Hunter X Hunter (called Hiatus X Hiatus by its adoring fans) so there’s talent somewhere behind this show. Really though, my mild optimism is based more off the interesting synopsis than anything more concrete. But hey, that’s the great thing about these low budget anime. Nobody really cares if they drop off the face of the earth, and if they succeed then it’s always a nice extra to have each season.

Dragon Crisis

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This is apparently the anime to look out for if you’re a sakuga nerd (translation: animation nerd, because animation nerds are also massive weeaboos). Deen have decided to bring in some talenter animators for this. Otherwise, you’re staring at yet another Deen crapfest. You would think something with the word ‘Dragon’ in the name would be pretty awesome. Afraid not. Generic male lead finds magical girl who instantly likes him while bossy childhood friend gets jealous. Yeah, you all know the drill by now. Yawn next~

Infinite Stratos

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Generic male lead goes to school where he’s one of the only guys, although I’m sure they’ll be able to fit in the perverted best friend character somewhere. The catch is this school has girls using massive weaponry to fight off aliens or something along those lines. Basically, excuse to have lots of explosions and mecha musume action. It’s far from being the most inspiring of concepts. It does have one interesting point of note. The director of Infinite Stratos was also a director on Macross Frontier. Otherwise though, total newbie studio 8-bit making harem animu doesn’t fill me with excitement.

Is that a Zombie?

Click here to view the embedded video.

lolDeen. This is basically Deen imposing on JC Staffs domain of ‘generic male lead getting picked up by flat chested high school girl with magical powers’. Which they can’t even do very well. I certainly would have more faith in Merry Dream Eater being watchable than this. lalala next

Nyarlko

In case you haven’t got the memo, Nyarlko is a moe-fied version of  Cthulhu; H.P. Lovecrafts demon monster thingy I dunno, I’m an uncultured plebian who has never read any Lovecraft. Basically a massive demon thing with tentacles and claws and all sorts of horrid things, turned into a flat chested, silver haired moe girl. Just let that sink in for a minute. The first episode is out already. It’s a directionless flash animation that barely qualifies as a legitimate anime.

Rio Rainbow Gate

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Rio is based off a pachinko game character, a gambling machine for single men who can’t get a job. This isn’t actually the first time an anime has been based off a pachinko game. There was Umi Monogatari a few seasons back. It wasn’t very good, but what it did show was that, given something so plotless as a gambling machine, the creator could come up with their own plot. So what did Xebec decide to do with this anime? Yeah, this was doomed from the moment the name Xebec came into the picture. For a quick idea of what to expect from Xebec, last season they made Yosuga no Sora. Booooooobs~

Houkago no Pleides

Houkago no Pleides is a project between the car manufacturer Subaru and the animation studio Gainax. I have a sneaking suspicion this is just a bloody advertisement. You’d think the producers would say that it wasn’t a TV show if it wasn’t, but I wouldn’t put it past Gainax to troll anime fans. That’s the thing about this project. Having the name ‘Gainax’ attached could mean bloody anything. The promo image is just a bunch of moe girls. It could be an advertisement. It could be some moecrap. It could even be a Redline-esque racing show. I really have no idea what to expect.

Mitsudomoe 2

The first season of Mitsudomoe was low-brow to the extreme, to the point that I stopped finding it funny and was mainly just grossed out by ‘urine samples being mistaken for eye drops’ type jokes. This season is only 8 episodes long btw, so not much for those handul of Mitsudomoe fans out there.

I don’t like you at all,

Big Brother

They’re not blood related. Just sayin’. In the world of incest anime, this is far more down the KissXSis route of straight up softcore porn than the fence-sitting nature of Ore no Imouto. If you like softcore anime porn, then you’ll love this! If you actually have taste, then you won’t. You’ll watch actual porn instead.

Freezing

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The website for the Freezing anime has a game. It’s one of the ball-and-paddle games where you knock out the blocks off the screen. In this case, the blocks are the clothes of the buxom females of the show, revealing their underwear-clad bodies beneath. It’s a rather fun way to pass the time actually. I cleared every single girl…umm, maybe I shouldn’t be admitting to that. Anyway, you should know what to expect from the game alone. This is one of those ‘girls fighting while their clothes disintergrate’ anime, which is a little bit depressing when you realise that’s now a fully fledged genre. Booooobs~

Starry Sky

If I’m going to heap scorn upon Freezing and I don’t like you at all, Big Brother, then it would be hypocritical of me to no heap just as much scorn upon Starry Sky. Generic female lead with no personality goes to school with heaps of beautiful boys with various famous voice actors (that you can listen soothe you to sleep in seperately sold drama CD’s) who all are instantly infacutuated with the female lead. This is the biggest pile of crap out of anything this season. Seriously girls, don’t watch this crap. If you do, I have as much respect for you as I do the people who watch Kiss X Sis. Well, maybe not. As far as I’m aware, straight up female oireantated anime porn doesn’t actually exist. The only one that actually shows anything explicit is Boku no Pico. You’re stuck with ero games, yaoi manga, static art or male aimed hentai. In fact, I’m pretty sure Boku no Pico was actually aimed at the shotacon male audience. So I guess if you’re really starved for some moving anime beautiful men whose only purpose is to sexually excite the viewer, then there’s really not much options. But for god sake, don’t pretend Starry Sky is anything but that.

Suite Precure

The endless Precure franchise. It has its fans, but my unnatural bias against magical girl anime has prevented me from ever watching this series. For those who do, I’m afraid I’m not sure if this is meant to be a sequel to Heartcatch or not. It’s all a bit confusing and I don’t really understand the continuity in the franchise, so go research that for yourself.

OVAs

Most of these are spin off or sequels to whatever. People tend to get unduly excited for OVAs when they’re just stupid extra episodes, which is annoying to see when there’s some genuinely interesting OVAs in there.

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Future Diary was just a 7-minute pilot. Yuri Seijin is a project by ufotable about a planet of lesbians. Dream C Club is based off those idol games, like Idolm@ster, for loser purity-obsessed otaku only. Haven’t a clue what Goulart Knight is supposed to be. There are still 3 interesting OVAs in here. Supernatural is the obvious one. It’s basically a fully fledged series, spanning 22 episodes in length. I’m unsure how the release format is going to run though. Madhouse is behind the project, although I’m wary after their miserable attempts at Ironman. I’ve never seen the original American TV series and all I know is that it has a massive fangirl following. It’s worth keeping an eye on anyway. The other two new project OVAs worth keeping an eye on are Tailenders and Koisento. Tailenders I was originally hyped for but, after watching Redline in the cinema, it now inspires considerably less excitement. It’s basically a much worse animated version of that. Still should be worth watching, but from a company called ‘Anime Innovation Tokyo’ is it too much to ask for a little bit of innovation? Koisento is interesting simply because I know next to nothing about it. Sunrise producing a 40 episode OVA? Sounds cool to me

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Movies

Usual blah blah about movies not being seen by western anime fans until the DVD’s come out etc. My method is researching what anime movies are coming out is to type in names of anime movies that have been screened in Japan but I haven’t seen hit the fansub scene into amazon.jp to see if they have a release date announced. It’s not the msot accurate method, but it’s better than nothing.

Proffesor Layton and the Eternal Diva is apparently out already, although from what I’ve heard, you’re better off waiting for the English dub to hear Laytons hilarious gentlemenly english accent. King of Thorn is out 13/Dec, which looks mildly entertaining.  Trigun: Badlands Rumble is out 15/Dec. Again from reviews, it sounds like a nice nostalgia trip but nothing substantial. The Dissapearence of Haruhi Suzumiya is out 18/Dec, which has been hyped up to extrodinary levels by those who saw either the c

::Edit:: What the hell guys? Why did nobody tell me I was missing the last few paragraphs of this post? What the hell happened to them anyway?

The episode itself continues Ore no Imouto’s downward spiral into nothingness. The episode was pretty much devoid of a narrative, beyond maybe the fact that Ayase is warming up ever so slowly to Kirino’s hobby. There’s no rhyme nor reason behind these episodes anymore. It lacked humour as well. Sticking characters in embarrassing outfits only ever works when we have some sort of emotional attachment to the characters and understand the embarrassment they are feeling. It’s a pretty weak attempt at humour in any case, as the inevitable maid cosplay in the next episode will show, but even the very basis of the humour fails when it involves Ayase and Kayako, two characters the show hasn’t made me give a shit about as of yet. The only grin I really got from the episode was Kyousuke’s cosplay as a member of the Men in Black.

Looking pretty suave there Kyousuke.

But let’s not just dismiss the episode at take a proper look at the message. Back when the show began, people were comparing Ore no Imouto to Genshiken, on the basis they were both about coming to terms with your own hobby, both cases being otaku-ism. For the most part, that theory has dropped off as the show progressed, but there was some basis for that theory. Ore no Imouto was giving off this message that you should be more open about your love for your hobby, especially in episode 2 where Kirino an Kuroneko opened up to each other when they couldn’t in front of the yaoi fangirls (surprise surprise, the best scenes in the anime involve Kuroneko yet again). But with the more recent episodes have put what happened in that episode into a different light. It was never about being more open about your own hobby. It was about being more open about your love of moe.

The part that set me off on this train of thought was a comment by Landon back on episode 7.

Maybe OreImo is attempt­ing to mock the fans that think like Kur­oneko, and the only reason why people think it’s the oppos­ite way around is because they’re far closer to Kuroneko’s point of view. More often than not, the tar­get of the joke doesn’t real­ize he’s being mocked.

That’d explain why OreImo goes right back to being an otaku pan­der­ing series: it expects you to find Kuroneko’s stance ridicu­lous while sid­ing with the per­vert sister.

Ore no Imouto is an otaku-pandering series. Anyone who still thinks otherwise is delusional to the extreme. You can still draw entertainment from some other parts of the series, and it’s true that there are still parts of this anime that are incredibly well written and witty Kuroneko exists. But the intention of the anime shapes the direction it takes, the messages it gives out and in turn can tear down what other entertainment you had drawn from the series.

There is no mocking of moe otaku here. The quality leap in animation for Kanako’s Meruru long, along with the attention and adoration they put into her song. The line afterwards about how she thought it was a good thing that the crowd were so enthusiastic about seeing Meruru. Moe is a good thing. This is where the plain and simple moe-hate on my part comes in. This isn’t a flaw in the writing anymore. This is just me reacting negatively to what I disagree with being placed on a pedestal for praise. The celebration of emotionally immature man-children who sexualise children (she wears a friggen elementary school backpack) because they can’t handle older women. I’ve heard the argument before that being a lolicon doesn’t mean you’re a pedophile. Biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard, they’re cheering for a real-life version of Meruru here. There’s no pure-intentions here either, they showed the Meruru porn earlier in the episode. They showed Kirino, who is simply the intended audiences persona inside a middle school girl, getting a nosebleed watching IRL Meruru. Ore no Imouto is celebrating all of that.

It disgusts me. I know people will try to argue that there’s more to moe than lolicon, but that’s what it was born from. It’s similar to how you can garner entertainment from Ore no Imouto even when you’re not it’s intended audience. You can derive entertainment from other areas, but the driving force behind moe is this sexualisation of innocence. A genre based entirely around sexual titillation is bad enough. Combining this with the fantasies of immature men who can’t grow up and face the world, you have the moe genre. If anyone wants to know why I don’t like moe, it’s all here.

The divide between good Ore no Imouto and bad Ore no Imouto has never been so clearly divided as it was in this episode. They basically split the episode in two between the otaku pandering siscon crap and the budding friendship between Kirino and Kuroneko and how Saori-shi gets Kyousuke to play as the diplomat between the two, clearly believing that he’s more capable of bridging the divide between the two and preventing the two from gouging each other’s eyes out. At least when he’s around, they refrain from directly attacking each other and leave it to portraying the other in fiction as being sexually violated.

I do love the dynamic created between the 4 characters. As 2DT said, it can all be taken as every girl being in love with him and using their own methods to try get his attention. Not necessarily a bad thing though, because each method is different and fairly-well constructed so that it’s actually entertaining to watch. Harems get a lot of stick but anything can be entertaining if written well. Bakemonogatari is the best example of this. That anime is a massive construction of a perfect world for Arararagi and, by extension, the otaku male viewer. But it’s done so cleverly and often not noticeably until someone points it out to you that it’s a great feat of story-telling. It’s when you replace crappy writing, plot, characterisation and all other parts that make a good story with pandering that drives it down. You can create a harem anime that panders to the viewer so long as it isn’t a substitute for engaging writing. You can write moe so long as it isn’t a cover for your other flaws.

Which is why Kuroneko’s existence in the anime is baffling. She exists in the show to point out how the type of anime Kirino likes is the otaku-pandering crap that it is. That the moe is covering up for the other flaws. Notice how Kirinio is far too preoccupied with dancing away and performing a KIRABOSHI~♥ than actually paying attention to the show itself, and recoils when Kuroneko points out the contradictions the show has. Yet the show then goes and performs exactly what Kuroneko pointed out as being a bad thing right throughout the second half of the anime. Why? Like, why? You’re clearly a more intelligent show than this Ore no Imouto. Why must you insist on then reverting to type and become the very type of anime you’re mocking? I just don’t understand.

Anyone who still thinks this anime is a genuine depiction of a heartwarming brother and sister relationship has the self-deception capabilites to rival a member of the Flat Earth Society (they went to a love hotel on Christmas Eve for fuck sake. Read the bloody signs). But it’s not the squickyness of incest I’m bothered about anymore. If Ore no Imouto actually went the full way with an incest end, my respect for it would actually increase for having the balls to do so. But it won’t. We all know it won’t. The Ore no Imouto dating sim game has a siscon end, but in a story in which every ending is canon, none are. It’s just too busy pretending it’s a genuine bro/sis relationship while pandering to the siscon crowd at the same time. It doesn’t have the balls to actually go one way or the other. I’d love to be proven wrong. For Ore no Imouto to have a Cart Driver ending. But it won’t. We’ll end on a ‘heart-warming’ scene, followed by the brother walking in on her in the shower and then falling on top of her, in much the same way something like Kannagi ended.

Why yes. Yes I am, and shame on you for not doing the same thing. Anime is serious business, don’t you know. Blogging anime even more so.

Episode 122: Message from Venus

Why hello there Pioneer plaque. Didn’t expect to see you here. Wonder how some Venusians got hold of it. Wasn’t it supposed to have gone outside the Solar System, not back towards the inner ring planets? One thing that always bugged me about the plaque is the people being naked. If aliens did come to earth expecting to see these creatures, they’d see nothing of the sort. They would view these fully clothed creatures as some sort of evil creatures who had killed off the previous, hand-waving inhabitants and were therefore a war-mongering nation that should be destroyed at all costs. Way to go astronomers. Thanks for dooming our species.

btw since when was there a child on the plaque? Way to get basic facts wrong Shaft.

Or did they?

I’d say many of you have already come to the conclusion that the peolpe on the tape are Nino’s parents. Telling your child to brush your teeth and wash your hair is very parental things to do. The train of thought I’m on at the moment is the whole Venusian thing comes from Nino’s parents, who appear to be quite obviously as batty as Nino is. The tapes must be their way of keeping in touch with her. If they are still alive that is. Maybe they’re just mementos Nino keeps.

Either way, the kid on the plaque? Well, the man and women are Nino’s parents and the kid is Nino. It’s a symbol of parents sending messages to Nino using a famous reference to aliens. It all makes sense now!

You knew as soon as Recruit said this that he’d jinxed it. If there’s one thing you can be guaranteed about Arakawa, it’s that nothing will ever go exactly the way Recruit thinks it will. In fact, more often than not it will go the total opposite way. As soon as he thinks Nino won’t get too angry, she will go and do exactly that.

Also Nino’s eyes when she saw Recruit were creepy. In fact, Nino’s eyes manage some of the strangest expressions I’ve ever seen anime characters pull. For a character who’s often rather monotone and blank, her eyes really do tell you a lot of what’s going on in her mind. Albeit what’s going on in her Nino-warped mind, which means you have to read her expressions in a slightly different way to how you’d read other characters’ expressions.

Episode 123: Up the telephone pole

Angry Nino is a difficult thing to envisage. She obviously wouldn’t slap anyone or yell. That’s just not Nino. But neither do I think she would hold it up inside her with a cold silence. She needs to express her anger in some form. Perhaps pretending she was a space cruiser and shooting down Recruit? Nah, her space version has been prised open a bit here so she couldn’t resort to that. In short, her comfort zone of pretending to be from Venus has been cracked. So instead she acts like a cat who has just found out its going to be taken to the vet. The turn around and hiss as she’s running away from Recruit was fantastic.

Sister really could be the saviour for the Catholic Church. I’m sure the younger generation would be much more willing to attend church if they were

1. Only 5 seconds long
2. The communion was chocolate chip cookies instead of that shitty unleavened bread
3. The priests were masochists instead of pedophiles

(I swear that will be the only ‘priests are pedophiles’ joke I use for the whole year. Not because it’s tasteless or controversial, but because it’s been done to death that I no longer find any of them funny. The shock factor has long since gone, go make jokes about something else that’s been joked about less often. Like airplane food)

Episode 124: Message

Shaft making fun of crappy fanservice moe manga. Although such is the state of the industry at the moment that you’re far more likely to hear these words coming from a Light Novel. Manga doesn’t have as many moecrap coming out of it, outside of 4-komas. You’re much more likely to find the old-fashioned harem featuring large breasted girls who fall over a loser main character instead of flat-chested moeblobs who blush when they see the generic main character. Honestly, I prefer the older haremshit to this moeshit, even if it’s just the lesser of two evils.

Episode 125: Weighter than words

Now that is scary. Nino’s anger earlier on in the episode was just her desperately trying to release her feelings in what felt most natural to her. This is controlled anger Nino. This is Nino and Recruit having something akin to a couples argument. It’s strange to think of it this way, but Arakawa Under the Bridge is one of the few anime that focus on a couple’s relationship after they’ve gotten together. It’s just easy to forget about because they’re such an unconventional couple. Remember, the story doesn’t end when the couple gets together.

Think about it Recruit. What if she’s a mass murderer? Could you really accept that? What if her parents called themselves Vesuvians to hide from their child the truth behind what they were really doing? What if she genuinely was an alien sent to destroy the earth and will activate after she’s been there for 10 years? Or as soon as she loses her virginity? Or that Nino is actually a hermaphrodite? Could you really accept those kinds of facts?

Although I’m guessing what’s really on those tapes is something so stupid and trivial that Recruit will pull a shouty loud face over the whole debacle. I kinda hope it isn’t. I would like a good reason behind why Nino is so afraid of revealing her past. But I can’t see Arakawa heading in that direction.

Nino~! Aww, come here Nino, please cheer up. I’ll bake you some cookies, buy you a better fishing rod, give you a hug, anything! Just stop making that defeated face!

(does this count as moe? I’m not even sure anymore)

Oh Hoshi. If you ever had even the slightest chance with Nino, all hopes have been dashed right there. That would be like someone taking my collection of downloaded anime and taping over them with ‘Home and Away’, saying he just taped over some stupid cartoons. Except 10 times worse, and that’s saying a lot.

Episode 126: Pajama Party

Forgive me for this one, but the rest of this post might be a bit of a P-ko pic spam. She stole the show for the entire second half of the episode. In an environment as bizarre as the community under the bridge, having P-ko acting like a normal women and pulling all the girls into doing women things was fantastic. Complaining about men and how they listen to what women are saying and not doing what they actually mean for them to do. Or how about her becoming the mouth of Nino, telling Recruit what Nino really wanted. Nino may be the princess for everyone under the bridge, but P-ko is the one you really need to win over if you want the women on your side.

Nothing in particular to say about this picture. Just stuck it up for the contrast between the subs and the image. Stick it up as the lead image to an /a/ thread and watch the results. I don’t want to do it. I’ve found myself reading 4chan recently. Originally it was just to read the Season Preview Chart threads to see what people were saying and how to improve them, but I found myself drifting towards other threads. I’ve got to eradicate this infection before it becomes incurable. I should be OK. I’ve caught it at a very early stage in its development.

Maria stripping for the pajama party brought to mind how Arakawa doesn’t really do fanservice, which is strange for a Shaft anime. It does occasionally like to accentuate how pretty Nino is, but normally it’s done deliberately when Recruit finds himself thinking about Nino in a sexual manner. More often, it’s just showing her lips more clearly than usual. As I said, very strange for a Shaft anime, who are often more than happy to focus in on cleavages and crotches and hugely disturbing underage lotion rubbing scenes.

P-ko taking charge. Well, Maria is hardly going to take charge. She just wants to insult men whenever they enter her vicinity. Stella is too young to take charge of anyone who isn’t one of the metal heads. Nino is totally spaced out and incapable of saying much at all. P-ko is the only one left to take charge. Good on ya P-ko! You’re a man’s worst nightmare: A girlfriend’s scary best friend. Well no, there’s plenty of things scarier than that. A girlfriends scary mother for instance. But this certainly isn’t something you’d be seeing in your more pleasant dreams. Except maybe the more adventurous sexual ones. Hmmm, I better get off this train of thought now.

Episode 127: Ric’s secret tape

It is a well known fact that bishies all look like women, but I think Recruit may have taken it a little too far in this picture. Err, I might just be seeing this in my nightmares. While I’ll be seeing that other one with P-ko and Nino in my slightly more pleasant drea–no Scamp, get off that train of thought now!

Episode 128: With a heavy heart

To get to Nino you have to first pass her three guardians. P-ko should be pretty easy to defeat. Make sure you don’t get hit by projectile gardening implements and carefully toss a banana skin in her vicinity. Victory is assured. Stella is more difficult to defeat because of her Fist of the North Stella mode, so more indirect tactics will have to be employed here. Shouldn’t be too difficult because she’s not the most emotionally stable. Tell her Sister has some cookies or something. Maria would be the toughest and only could be defeated through sheer endurance. Your only option would be to take her punishment until she got bored. Only then would you be able to save your Queen.

Nino isn’t a normal girl. Her facial reactions can’t be read the same way as you read others. But there’s still similarities there. Anger gave way to worry, but worry that she would lose the life she was currently enjoying. Which is exactly the same thing poor old Recruit was worrying about. An understanding is reached and Good End is achieved. Also, that cynic side to me that surfaced back at the start of the episode? Not sure where he’s gone by now. Probably off sulking in a corner as my love for Arakawa shoved it to one side, mumbling drearily about how you know perfectly well there’s nothing worthwhile on those tapes.

I’ve said it before, but I’d be shocked if Nino’s past did include something genuinely worth hiding. I like the idea that there’s some method behind the madness to everyone under the bridge. That Sister is here because he couldn’t fit into modern society when his brain was so war-warped. That Hoshi is here because he wanted to sing his own music. That the metal heads are escaping from a orphanage where they were bullied and treated poorly by the staff. That Nino hides her past behind a facade of being from Venus. I doubt there’s a good reason, but I really hope there is.

Almost 3 hours writing this bloody post, and you lot had to read over 2000 words of me rambling on. Here’s an awesome t-shirt to make up for it.

Then there’s Ore no Imouto. Instantly dismissed as soon as I saw the name. But it refuses to suck. It refuses to enter into creepy siscon territory. It’s.…it’s the b-b-best new anime of this season. OK there, I said it.

One simple change from episode 1 to 2 that I liked was the brother is now used to being in his sister’s room. One simple scene I liked a lot from the last episode was how he was noticeably uncomfortable stepping foot inside his sister’s room. Now, the guy’s used to it already. The closest example I can think to this is Dexters Lab (that show’s been on my mind a lot recently thanks to Panty and Stocking) where Dee Dee’s room is seen as the spawning pit for all that is evil and pink in Dexter’s mind. However while he’s more used to his sister now, it’s still not total comfort. Kirino’s tsundere act and being generally bitchy is something I’m pretty sure most brother’s would never put up with, but the guy is currently playing the role of Good Brother© and not making fun of her hobby. In a way, that’s why he tried to get her to make friends in the first place. There’s only so much Good Brother© he can play before he gets sick of it and he doesn’t want to shoot down his sister when she’s so dependant on him at the moment.

Out of place amongst your own kind. Aw, you had to feel for the poor girl. It’s easy to forget certain facts because it’s an anime, but she is still only 14. There’s no group more judgemental than young teenage girls. Even the snarky grannies bow down towards the overwhelming prejudice and condescending tone of the fearsome teenage girl. Hence, by association, there’s no group more self conscious also. That panic you get when you realise you don’t fit in at all. Don’t worry Kirino. They’re all a bunch of yaoi fangirls who wouldn’t know good fashion if it hit them in the face with a prawn salad.

From the promo images of Ore no Imouto, I had this person singled out as 1) A man and 2) A hyper idol otaku who was in love with Kirino and envied the brother of his position because he ‘always wanted a sister that cute’. That seemed like the stereotypical way for any anime to go. Introduce ‘competition’ to ‘test their relationship’. Nothing doing here, thank god for that. I actually like the girl a lot. Take aside the people who couldn’t get it right first time around and create a smaller group for them to talk with each other. It’s a simple method but the idea had honestly never crossed my mind. Gotta keep that one for when I’m setting up a social meet sometime.

The real reason I’m blogging Ore no Imouto. Please please please put a scene in which the Sugiento cosplayer watches the last episode and have her standing up in shock, pointing dramatically at the TV screen as it shows a picture of some straw hat wearing, corn chewing, cart driving bloke and yelling “HE’S ALIVE!”. I’d probably close down the blog and declare Ore no Imouto best anime of the year if it actually did that.

Well, I wouldn’t go that far. This blog is the centre of English-speaking, Arakawa fandom on the internet and that’s the real best anime of the year. I-i-it’s not like I’m that big of a fan of Ore no Imouto or anything.

You are my new hero, little cosplaying girl. I am saving this picture to use whenever someone tries to tell me Heartcatch Precure is the best anime of the year. In fact, due to the deliberate ambiguity of the statement, I could use that screencap whenever anyone talks about a moe anime. Ironic that it was a moe anime itself that has given me this glorious piece of ammo.

I quite liked the scene of the two of them in Akiba, discovering who it was that typically shared your fandom. It’s something that’s always amused me that when it comes to anime fans, gender roles are switched from western television and movies. Girls love the dark and evil anime, with blood and whatnot, while men love the cutesy anime about little girls and bright colours. Female otaku in Japan have better taste than male otaku. Although I did like how the two of them had that disappointed look on their face going through these shops. They knew their fandoms were made up of those types of fans, but to see it in action had an inevitable annoyance to it. It’s also going to be like that for the fandom for this anime. We’re going to have to share it with those siscon fans. I realise I’m probably insulting a bunch of my readers here, but eh, whatever, you bunch of incestuous creeps.

Yargh, I’m already going hitting that 1000 word self-imposed limit. Before I finish, I’d like to talk about how this episode was released extra early. For those who don’t know the details, I could, and normally would, link you guys to the ANN article. However the article is deliberately vague. That’s because Ore no Imouto was supposed to be ANN’s first dip into the world of simulcasts (‘Simultanious Casts’ now apparently meaning several days after it’s aired in Japan, but whatever). However, the episode was leaked from their site too early due to shitty security (what actually happened was someone simply changed the URL of the first episode from 1 to 2 and *poof* there was the video file). Now I am a fan of legal streaming and, rather surprisingly, also a fan on ANN. However even I feel more amusement than remorse at this incident. Partly because of the beautiful image of ANN having to report this incident as news because they reported the Funimation One Piece fuck up, but also because it wasn’t available in my country and, since it’s ANN, they were never going to be available in my country. If ANN drop out of the game, that means less competition for Crunchyroll and anime that I can actually watch.

So yeah, brb lafin at ANN.