Why I’m Dropping K-On!

While K-On! have seemingly won over the much of the blogosphere with its characters gushing with overwhelming moe, it is this very same cuteness overload, among other things, that has turned me off this series.

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To Aru Majutsu Final Episode

Episode 24 of To Aru Majutsu no Index was pretty satisfying. Looking back at the anime, I’d give the series probably a B+, with a number of story arcs that would rate much higher. I enjoyed the initial arc best and any story arc that involved Touma fighting magical foes, which fortunately was the bulk of the episodes. The series did have some duds however. I didn’t find the two episode arc starring the Accelerator and the loli Biri Biri that interesting nor did I care much about the one where everyone switched bodies. However, like any good anime series, the series ended on a high note with some of the best coming in the last four episodes. Read more

Toradora Episode 24

What the heck happened to this series? As you’ve notice from my posts, I took a small break from blogging about anime lately largely because of some time issues and because there were more interesting things happening on the gaming side. So, I’ve been spending the last couple of days catching up.

So last night, I marathoned episodes 22 through 24, skipping the ski trip that was episode 21. When I left this series, the growing feelings between Taiga and Ryuji was become more apparent, leaving Minorin (and to a lesser extent, Ami) conflicted about their feelings about Ryuji. Read more

Banned Pokemon clips

Ten Exceptionally Inappropriate Pokemon Videos has been posted by Unreality. I wasn’t really that surprised to find that there were parts of Pokemon that were edited for the American audience. Japanese cultural sensitivities are quite different and what they allow in anime (which isn’t just for kids in Japan) would certainly shock many conservative American parents (while many Americans would just probably just laugh it off).  I cherry picked three of them, but for the rest, go see them on Unreality. Read more

Maria sama 4th, episode 6

Episode 6 of the 4th season of Maria-sama ga Miteru was in a word, awesome. There was just so much win in this episode that I’m breaking my rule of doing one episode recaps. Generally, since I want to focus my site equally among a different topics, I avoid doing one episode recaps and just talk about trends I see in an anime series. Sometimes a lot doesn’t happen in an episode (see my thoughts on episode 5), but so much happened in episode 6 that it feels like three or four episodes crammed into one. Read more

Maria-sama eps 3 -5 recap

I’m really torn on the 4th season of Maria-sama ga Miteru. On one hand, I’d like to find what what happens in Yumi and Yoshino’s pivotal second year as they search for their soeurs. develop and grow. On the other, the 4th season incarnation of Maria-sama has been disappointing in some regards.

First, consistent artwork for the Maria-sama series has never been a strong point for the series. If you compare episodes from the first and subsequent seasons, the differences are remarkable. The first season definitely used more muted colors and everything had more of a pastel look - it’s the Maria-sama look that I like best. The 4th season continues from the art quality of the 3rd season OVAs. The colors are brighter and the facial expressions in particular seem more crude. It’s how the faces are drawn that’s my biggest gripe. At times, especially in the 5th episode, the faces just look distorted and you sort of wonder which monkey drew Yumi or Sachiko…it’s that bad. Read more

Fansubbing still thrives

Ed note: This article first appeared on my other blog on December 12, 2008. I am reposting the article here because the issue of fansubbing keeps popping up. Recently, Crunchyroll, a website that catered to the fansub community went legitimate, removing all fansubbed media from their site. One wonders if this is signals a new trend.

If you’re a fan of Japanese animation or Korean dramas, you’re probably already well aware what fansubbing is. If so, bear with me until I help catch up those of us that aren’t familiar with the term.

Fansubbing is the process in which domestic language translations are transposed onto foreign digital media. While fansubbing occurs in multiple languages, the most popular forms of fansubbing occurs with English language subtitles transposed onto Japanese animation (anime) and Korean drama series. Digital raws of the media are uploaded onto the Internet from Japan and Korea, translated by bilingual enthusiasts and then modified with video editing tools. Over the last few years, the tools and the process of producing a fansub (the finished product with translations) have become standardized almost to point that is considered a boilerplate process.  Read more

Toradora relationships

I watched episode 17 of Toradora last night on Veoh. My Japanese isn’t very good so I understood maybe about a third of it. Regardless of that, it was still pretty compelling. I usually wait for a fansubbed translation for most shows, mostly because I want to understand in detail about what’s going on. If I like the show, I’ll pick up the DVD later when it becomes available. However, Toradora is one of those rare shows that almost compels me to view it as soon as a new episode show up. I really think it’s that good.

I had low expectation of this show at first because I thought Taiga would be another Louise (of Zero no Tsukaima) and the show would be a two dimensional comedy about a tsundere girl having trouble expressing her feelings. Basically, a stock show that many anime viewers have seen dozens of times at least.  Read more

Jin’s anime sequel wish list

Everyone has at least a few anime series that they think are just begging for a sequel. There’s many reasons why sometimes a sequel would be so satisfying:

• The anime ended with a giant unresolved cliffhanger
• The anime’s production values or treatment of the source material was subpar. A sequel could “redeem” the franchise.
• The manga, on which the anime is based, have continued on and has progressed far beyond the end point of the anime series.
• As a fan, you’d just like to see a continuation of your favorite series.

With that said, here’s my list of what I’d like to see given the sequel treatment or perhaps even remade.

Shakugan no Shana

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. This series already had a second season, and frankly squandered most of it with filler consisting of the often overused amusement park and cultural festival episodes. Despite the filler, I feel that the last episodes of the second season redeemed the show. The show was finally getting interesting again with the reappearance of Hecate and Yuji being able to do more than just stand on the sidelines. There were just so many things left unresolved that a sequel or even an OVA that wrapped things up would be really nice. Read more

Current anime season weak

Over the last couple of years I watched a lot of anime. I mean a lot. Not only was I watching some really good anime, but I was also catching up with shows that I either never watched, had previously ignored (and rediscovered) or just some that I felt I needed to watch to complete my anime education.

So what are some shows that I feel that are part of a good anime foundation?

• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - an epic anime that seemingly becomes more legendary as time passes
• Nodame Cantabile - a great anime with unforgettable characters, great musical sequences and a really sweet ending
• Ouran High Host Club - this anime made me laugh so many times I lost count
• Card Captor Sakura - along with Sailor Moon, the archetype of the magical girl animes
• Neo Evangelion - can’t have a good foundation without including at least one mecha anime
• Maria-sama ga Miteru - the archetypical shoujo anime that is technically yuri, but involves no explicit ecchi and instead focuses on the intense (and implied) relationships of  girls who attend an exclusive Catholic academy
• Naruto - a “kid’s” anime that sometimes surprises you about the lessons it imparts about growing up

This isn’t an all inclusive list, and there’s probably a good debate of which 9 or 10 shows would give you a decent enough foundation into the types of Japanese anime. And possibly even more debate as to whether just 9 or 10 shows would be enough. Read more

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