AnimeSuki Forums

Some tidbits to respond to your last two VMs to me:

I dropped Infinite Stratos after one episode as I couldn't stand watching generic harem anime at the time. Maybe one of these days I'll pick it back up if you think it's worth it. I have heard from people with a taste in moe similar to myself (such as 0utf0xZer0) that Charlotte is genuinely a likable character, and that's possible, as I don't recall her bothering me in the first episode.

I do think that ufotable will do a better job than DEEN. I don't recall any of the first few Fate/Stay Night episodes being as good as Episode 2 of Fate/Zero was, so yeah, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt right now.

I haven't watched Haibane Renmei yet, but I'll put it on my "to watch" list, and after I've seen some of it, I might come up with a genre classification term for you to use for shows like it and Angel Beats!

Need your advice on categorising some series.

If you were to pick a 3rd series to put in the same category as Angel Beats and Haibane Renmei, or a series that was similar to those two, what would you pick? I can't find another series that covered the concept of purgatory and 'slice of afterlife' just doesn't seem to fit either since other shows that fit that tag - Natsume Yujinchou, Red Garden, Shigofumi, xxxHolic - are pretty different to those two.

First review series complete. Also started the 'Anta Baka?!' Report segment and did a quick piece on the revelation of Kenji Kamiyama's latest work.

Interesting conversation with Zero. Charlotte was the only IS character I liked. I thought she was cute as hell.

Fate/Zero doesn't have Sakura and Rin since they would have barely been born when the Holy Grail War of that time happened, I believe. The PV vid I saw seemed decent. ufotable did Garden of Sinners and did it right. They're bound to do a better job than Deen. I'll give them benefit of the doubt for now.

Lack of movement is a real plague in the industry this year. And I don't like it.

Interesting October season piece you did. I think this season has more potential than people are willing to give it credit for.

PS. Keep making watertight arguments. Someone around here has to.

PSS. If Haruhi loses, we riot and manufacture 'Best In The World' T-Shirts!

So what tickles your fancy most for the upcoming season which is less than a week away? I guess Fate/Zero, UN-GO and Horizon were the ones that caught my eye at first glance. Interestingly Siren has already picked up UN-GO, which is interesting because Siren's pre-emptive licenses have been good ones overall this year. Hope it's a good one because Bones need cash big time.

Sorry to hear you have a cold. Hope you're getting over at.

That was quite a stirring piece you did on plot twists in your latest piece. Frankly, if there is one thing that has bugged me with current anime, it is the relative stale nature of their plots. There isn't much surprise, if any at all, with the majority of them. Yet, I can't help but feel that is by design though. Characters are the focal point of the modern era. Story's relevance has been diminshed signifcantly in the last 2 decades. Now while some may argue that it has been the case since the Baroque-style period ended and post-Verne shifted to a more Orwellian style, when I think about literature and media, they are mainly selling themselves through their characters these days. One cour series don't open themselves up for much forgiveness with plot progression. If there's another thing I haven't liked about recent anime, it's how off the pacing has been with a lot of titles. Filler episodes will usually backfire and derail the impact of the final climax. But it happens so much lately.

Just quickly on K-ON, more popular shows polarise people more often than not. So take that with a pinch of salt. Popular things will always attract significant amounts of haters. The thing is, I've never felt more neutral about any show than K-ON. I'm not a K-ON hater nor am I a K-ON liker. It's the only show where I felt no different seeing all of it compared to how I felt before I did. I can easily make a case for both sides and why people on either side are justified on feeling what they do. It's inevitable I get asked to review it so I will have to detail it sometime in the future.

On that, some local licensing companies have started sending me some of their titles on DVD on a regular basis, so I started up my anime blog this week. Address is here. Will need some cosmetic adjustments but for now I just want to start it and have some discussion going. Let me know what you think. My first series of reviews is going to be a Bunny Drop - Kamichu - Asatte no Houkou - Kurenai chain with the common theme being 'Precocious Girls.'

I see you've been in a war of words about why Tiger and Bunny is selling like it is.

It's simple, actually. Friend explained it to me last week.

Take one look at Pixiv at present.

It's utterly dominated by Tiger & Bunny fanart, because that's what the majority of the female artists there want to draw at present.

So Sunrise felt the need to school Bones in the art of being FAB-ulous with mechs involved because Bones made considerable money off of Star Driver. Meh. Completely non-plussed about it.

And it took me quite a while to figure out who that was in your avatar - huh.

So Usagi Drop is finished - for now. It seems like the option to continue it has been left open if sales of this series are big enough. But one wonders whether they even would if the further you go into the source material, the riskier it gets. Production I.G. have not had much success in sales lately. Since Ghost in the Shell TV series, they've been quite low. This is probably one they have a lot of hopes for considering Eden of the East did not get the numbers they would have wanted. This will also be an interesting measuring stick for the balance between cute and serious that is allowed within the slice-of-life genre. If this doesn't get decent numbers, I'll be disappointed as I still scratch my head as to why AnoHana's sales are so damn high, despite the obvious friendship values.

All said, series that was worth the watch. It has a charm and also an honest insight into the highs and lows of being a parent and an adult. For the greater part, it was a positive experience to watch. The episode with Haruko having her crisis/turning point was probably my favourite. Things certainly came a long way from the auspicious, tense beginning of Episode 1. Probably giving it 8.5/10. One of the two licensing companies in Australia were streaming Usagi Drop, so I'll wager Siren will license it.

Other things I've watched lately - I watched a rather intriguing series from 2008 called One Outs. It's in the same vein as Kaiji and Akagi, but with a good twist. Instead of being shady gambling, it's got sports involved. Baseball to be precise. Normally I couldn't watch baseball but this was a very thrilling series. Basic premise is Toua, a pitcher who ptiches mainly fastballs but excels at mind games and tricking his opponents into mistakes, gets signed by a league club under a crazy contract. For every out he pitches, he gets 50k. For every run he concedes, he loses 500k. What follows is perhaps the most enthralling mind games I've ever seen. Akagi was one twisted, cruel person and Kaiji was teary and never knew when to call it quits. Toua - he falls in between and is just damn cool. The guy may seem arrogant initially, but he actually has a lot of respect for baseball and for the people around him. The thrill of outsmarting his opponents and to make seemingly incapable people able to achieve the seemingly impossible was just enthralling. Also helps the VA of Kaiji and Akagi voiced Toua. Now gradually getting through Akagi. I can see how Madhouse were testing the water with Akagi before they got the mix of source material, visuals, music and atmosphere ideal for Kaiji S1. Will watch S2 once it finishes.

I think it's clear in these times people tend to prefer characters that are hard to dislike. The biggest case of success for that is K-ON. As light and bland as it is, it also provides very little to resent unless the fact makes one upset - which it does to me. Sales of series and merchandise are gigantic as a result and will be so for years to come. I wonder what on earth will be the big hook for the movie set in London...spotted dick instead of cake?

I had an eye appointment this week to get new glasses. The optometrist was so much like Kurisu in physique, clothes and her laugh it was rather intriguing. It seems Kurisu's character is not only refreshing but also not far removed from reality. ^^

Good points on Kanade. She's not a polarizing character - That makes it hard to rouse people to anti-vote against her, or for most people to actively dislike her.

Compare her to Kirino and Haruhi - Both characters are very polarizing, and have anti-voters at play even if strategic voting isn't an issue. I say that as someone who really likes one of the two, and tends to dislike the other one: So I myself am polarized by them, lol.

Also, thanks again for the kind words on my Kurisu write-up.

I still attest if enough people really cared, Mikoto could possibly do it. She was a bastion for people to rally around last year when Shana fans tried to take over DE via some deals they struck in Ruby and Diamond. As much as I really don't like Railgun, I acutally like Mikoto as a character. I'm just mortified by the people she's surrounded with.

Well, the sad thing is, May last year, I called Kanade dominating ISML 2011 after Episode 4 of Angel Beats. Almost everyone told me I was insane and that I didn't know what I was talking about. And look where we are now.

The reasons are simple. Kanade is a very placed, simple character. It's hard to hate her unless you resent the fact she IS simple and placid. Which is why she gets more votes. When you have a personality, motivations and a more defined character type, you get more enemies/haters. When you're basic, tryptophanic and are non-offensive in as many ways as possible, you will get much less hate. That's all it is. Kanade is a cleverly constructed kuudere that melts the hearts of many people. But I don't vote for her. She stabbed the guy in the first episode...I don't get how people forgive her so easily.

I share your sentiments. But remember than anime fans are one of the BIGGEST sources of apathy in the universe. So take it with a pinch of salt.

PS. Again, great article on Kurisu.

Well, I certainly can't fault somebody for getting anti-votes going against one of his most despised characters that is in contention for a Necklace. Just to be clear, though, I never had a problem with Kanade winning the Tiara either - I just wanted her to lose a match.

But as a result of Ruby, I've pretty much given up on that now. Shana III boosted Shana was probably the best chance left for defeating Kanade in a lone match. But even that likely depended on Shana having the perception of great strength going into her match with Kanade. With Shana being effectively anti-voted by yourself and others out of the Ruby necklace, she will look weaker because of it, and she won't be able to attract a big enough movement of support to bring down Kanade in a Kanade vs. Shana match

So, I guess we have undefeated Kanade now for all of 2011.