Category: Special Articles

Wow… I finally managed to last a full year. It seemed an appropriate time to change my lay-out. Star Crossed v3, in a way. I’m really liking it so far. It’s basically a huge edit of the Georgia 2004 template. Unlike my previous two lay-outs, it’s really been built to match my style of postings, instead of the lay-out I had on blogspot, which was just the basic lay-out with a few things changed, or my previous lay-out, which was an attempt to move the same-lay-out to blogsome, because I liked it so much.

This also seems a good time to introduce a new feature: the review index. I’ve written quite a few anime reviews in the year I’ve been active (61, to be exact), and I must imagine that things are getting a bit unorganized. That’s why I’ve made two posts, one which sorts them alphabetically and one which sorts them, based on ratings. Along with a small genre-definition for each of these anime.

I don’t write that much articles, but I felt like I had to say something about this issue. Those who frequent my blog probably should know that I’ve been annoyed with this issue for a long time.

Yesterday, I saw the first episode of an anime called Rakugo Tennyo Oyui. Ever heard of it? Nope? That’s what I thought. I missed it as well. It’s a series which aired during this year’s winter season. I originally thought that the creators delayed it, and that it never aired in the first place. Guess what? It did air, it finished after 12 episodes and only one sub has come out so far. But as that one was entirely neglected, the fansubbers gave up after only one episode. Well then. Does Rakugo Tennyo Oyui deserve to be neglected so much? Is it really so bad that people don’t want to even touch it? Of course not. It’s a perfectly fine light-hearted mahou shoujo with comedy elements. There were only one or two annoying characters, apart from that, the rest of the characters were very interesting to see. Especially the way they interacted with each other.

Rakugo Tennyo Oyui isn’t the first anime to be so horribly neglected. I originally thought that Makai Senki Disgaea was ignored, but at least this series got all its episodes subbed. There are much worse cases of ignored anime. Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club, for example. It’s a truly excellent series, but almost nobody could find out, as only one episode has come out subbed. Himawari? An actually nice, inspiring slice-of-life series about a ninja academy. It’s few attempts at comedy also were very good and the series sparkles in character development.

Shoujo Yang Geum no Yume? great adventure series about a girl who loves cooking. This one also just got one sub. Kirarin Revolution? A semi-serious story about a girl chasing down her dreams to become a pop idol. Nothing wrong with that. Despite its annoying elements, I enjoyed watching the only two subs which came out. Hime-Sama Goyoujin? A perfectly fine comedy anime about idiots acting stupid. Great if you don’t want to think about anything. Yoshinaga-Chi no Gargoyle turned out to be hilarious, but because there were only two subs which came out, this series got horribly neglected as well.

My point is, that each of this series ranges from good to awesome. None of them deserves the treatment it’s got. Now, let’s take a look at the really bad series, shall we? Coyote Ragtime Show was fully subbed, almost right after it aired and id had three fansub groups working on it. It’s the same with Zero no Tsukaima. Yoake Mai Yori Ruri-Iro na got its first two episodes subbed right after they aired by two fansub groups. Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukifu wo also has two groups working on it. Shounen Onmyouji also got subbed in less than a week after it came out. Same with Tokimeki Memorial, Gift and Love Dol.

Now, let’s take a look at the popular series. Both Kanon and Death Note have a massive SIX fansub groups, working on them at the same time. It doesn’t matter whether they’re good shows or not good show, six fansub groups is way too much. Two would have been more than enough. And there are more series like this which get way more fansubbers working on them than is actually needed (Zero no Tsukaima, .Hack//Roots, Coyote Ragtime Show, etc).

Notice this trend? The popular shows get oversubbed and because of that, the ignored shows get no chance of being fully subbed, in order to get the attention they deserve. And the annoying thing is, that it’s very easy to actually solve this problem. Take Death Note, for example. Live-Evil and Toriyama World can just continue to bring out Death Note at a steady pace, so that C1 can tackle, for example, Himawari. Desuno can focus on Shoujo Yang Geum no Yume, SOY can work on Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club and Animanda can sub Kirarin Revolution. Same with Kanon. SS-Eclipse and Sprocket can continue with Kanon, so that Shinsen-Subs can work on a show like Jigoku Shoujo or Marginal Prince. A.F.K. can try to handle Rakugo Tennyo Oyui, AQS-Anime can try to sub Yoshinaga-chi no Gargoyle and AnimeU can give Hime-Sama Goyoujin a try. And voila, a lot of problems would be solved. This, of course, is just an example.

I’m not trying to attack, flame or troll the fansubbers in any way. You’re all great people, who bring anime to the non-Japanese community. But I felt that I just had to say something about this. It’s been a trend for a while, and I’ve been getting more and more annoyed at it. Especially when the solution is so simple.

I’m not sure whether I’m going to use this section often, but it’s perfect if I want to say something about certain series outside of the monthly summaries. Perhaps I’ll use this more often in the future f I want to say something about series I’m not blogging.

Himawari

I remember that I classified this anime as mediocre. It was probably an ordinary love-anime which was doomed to be nothing special forever. Well, I was wrong. ^^ I decided to check this out again after seeing the promo-art for the second season and became curious. I’ve seen 6 episodes as of right now, which have made me be able to give a more fitting description for this show: it’s about a female ninja, who’s horrible at every field, but has a huge amount of motivation and determination. I can’t believe how inspirational this worked. Not just for the rest of the cast of characters, but for me, as viewer as well. Himawari gets thrown into some situations, any normal person would have just quit after a few minutes. And she actually gives her full dedication to these situations, even though she goofs off horribly. This case is a simple matter of a bad first episode. I wouldn’t say that this anime is going to win many prizes, but it’s definitely a good watch.

Yoshinaga-chi no Gargoyle

It’s really a long time ago since I saw the first episode. I just finished the second one, and now I know: this anime is hilarious! If there ever was a series which doesn’t deserve being abandoned by the fansubbers, this is it. I can’t believe how funny the cast of characters is. Each one manages to contribute in some way, and the two main characters are just hilarious. They definitely have interesting and unique personalities. I’m really recommending people who love a good comedy to check this one out, and I’m really hoping that Doremi will continue subbing this hilarious anime. ^^

Gintama

Gintama is another one of those anime you need to get into before it becomes actually funny. I think that that’s why most people (including almost me) ignored it when it first came out. Now that I’ve seen up till episode 6, I’m glad to say that Gintama is a hilarious anime. Just like with Yoshinaga, the comedy works great. There are so many puns, references and just pure random moments. I also like that this is one of the few anime that critizises itself. The dialogue is pretty difficult to follow, even with english subs, but that makes things only better. The cases, introduced in the individual episodes also show that thought has been put in them. This definitely is one of th emore creative anime out there.

As you can see, the bandwidth for some of my images has run out. I’ve been using photobucket in order to display the pictures I need for each point, though the downside of this is the fact that it has a maximum amount of bandwidth it can use per month. As this month will end tomorrow, the problem isn’t that big, but it remains annoying. Thank goodness you can have more than one photobucket-account, which means that problems like this one won’t occur anymore. At least, let’s hope so. ^^;

I was fairly surprised when I ran into these ones while preparing for the July-Summary. Another surprising fact is that nobody seems to be talking about them. Well, time to change this, I just had to post it. Every single one of these OVA has a unique art style, and every one of them will probably have a very dark mood.

Maihime OVA

No, it’s not what you think. It’s not Mai HiME, it’s Maihime, or Dancer Girl. It’ll probably focus on the love of a dancer girl, judging by the art and the fact that AnimeNfo labeled it as a love-romance. Here you can see some teaser screenshots, and I have to say that I like them.

Neko Machi

There’s absolutely no information about this one, except for some japanese writing I don’t understand. Still, this looks to be one creepy OVA about cats. If you take a look at the teaser screenshots here you can also see that the art will be rather dark, strange, and probably unique. I like that. AnimeNfo labeled it as a fantasy-horror.

Zakuro Yashiki La Grenadiere

A french novelist called Balzac wrote the story for this one in the book “La Grenadiere”. It’s about a woman and a child who live in a small cottage in 19th century france. Supposedly, the woman was labeled as a mystery, as she didn’t get out of the house too often. AnimeNfo labeled this as a novel, which doesn’t really give much information about the genre, though I think it’ll be some dark slice-of-life story. Here are some teaser screenshots, and they look gorgeous.

Yo Shomei Bijutsukan LINE

This’ll be a rather unique anime. It’s about art. It’s art style is extremely simple, like an old picture-book. AnimeNfo didn’t assign any genres to it, though the teaser-screenshots, which can be found here give us more clues about the nature of this OVA. It’ll be simple, it’ll be art. Will it be good?

Gendai Kibunroku Kaii Monogatari

This’ll be a definate horror OVA. It consists of six parts.
1. At a dry river bed a refrigerator associated with a terrible anecdote, “Refrigerator.”
2.A one room western-style house, above a carved table an objects stands out like a sore thumb. It was an accidental discovery to a College of Arts student’s terror. “Daruma.”
3. On a long bridge while boys are traveling, they encounter a ghost personally, “Bridge of Evening.”
4.I n a free shopping market a sarcastic man is guided to the otherside, “U.S. Military Sale.”
5. The railway crossing; continual mortal accidents are a puzzle being persued, “Railroad Crossing.”
6. Summer vacation at a tranquil countryside, boys personally experiance a miraculous event, “I want a friend.”
These descriptions don’t really sound that scary, but who knows. Here are the teaser-screenshots, and I´m wondering how these descriptions and these screenshots are linked.

Fantascope Tylostoma

This is a strange one. We have this man, who appears every 700 years. Because of this, he’s able to see once flourishing villages decay into oblivion. Then he meets a woman, a prostitute, from this period, the passion begins. Most likely, this will be a love story. Though the most remarkable feature of this OVA is the art. Everything is in sketchbook-style. Here are some teaser screenshots.

Joseito

This anime will be making use of 3D-animation techniques, though not the standard way. Here are some teaser screenshots which show this. The show is going to be a school-life anime. Fairly unique among the other OVA’s listed here. It’s about a painter, painting a schoolgirl, and giving this schoolgirl her own story.

I kept telling myself not to get involved with this drama, though I have to say the following. As you all know, DrmsChr0 started a whole fad of bashing Jason. I have to admit, when I first read it, I felt very inclined to agree with him. But then I started to think. And I thought back about the post I made back in May, when I got kicked off blogsuki.

Basically (correct me if I’m wrong), all people are saying is that Jason sucks because his opinions are horrible, and he doesn’t contribute to the community. I have to admit, my opinion is the total opposite from his. He also isn’t involved in the Anime Nano-community, and doesn’t comment too often. Still, he runs his own forums, and I have had one comment on my blog made by him. Still, I certainly know more people are active when it comes to posting.

Does this make him suck? Of course not. People are forgetting one thing: it’s his site. He can do what he wants with it. The fact is, he isn’t looking for customers. He just wants to show his opinions. What does he get back? Opinions like “you suck”. Honestly, if you don’t want to read his articles, then why do you?

I see people noting that all of the anime bloggers out there are part of a community. Because they are, they have to comment a lot, and be active. This would indeed be true, if we were dealing with some forum. This is not the case, however. I can’t see why people who start a blog are automatically required to comment on other blogs and act like active parts of the community. That’s not the reason to start an anime blog, in my opinion. You should be able to choose this for yourself.

I finally managed to make my 300th post. Yay! Another milestone hit. On top of that, this blog is now exactly seven months old (I started it at november 22nd). I decided to use this as an opportunity to display some statistics.

– Over the past 221 days, I’ve made 300 posts, which equals to 1.36 posts a day.
– I’ve recieved a total of 244 comments. These are a total number of 160 if you don’t include the posts I made myself.
– Hopeless made a total number of 23 of the comments. Cos comes in second with 18, and Anga is third with 13 comments.
– The series with the highest number of posts dedicated to it is Jigoku Shoujo, with 24 of them. Bleach and The Law of Ueki come in to a close second with 23 of them, and Bleach will probably take the lead in a couple of weeks.
– The most posts on one day were made during my Christmas Update, on December 24th: a massive 12 of them.
– So far, I’ve reviewed 23 anime, and I gave each of them a rating. These anime averaged out at 80/100. (note, this doesn’t mean that 80/100 is the standard. The standard is 60/100, though I’m more inclined to finish 80/100 anime than I am with 60/100 anime)
– My longest post so far is my May Summary, which consists of a massive 4600 words. My longest post about a single episode belongs to Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 08, with 2540 words.
– At the time of typing this, I’ve managed to gather 31095 visitors.
– The record of most pageviews in one day still remains at April 30th, when I was still on blogsuki and recieved 1554 of them. Ever since I was removed from blogsuki, this number has been halved, with a maximum of 609 pageviews at last sunday.
– The term most popular by the search engines was Saiunkoku Monogatari. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni comes in as a close second.
– So far, I’ve yet to discover any weird search strings. The funniest I could find is the following: “does bleach kill mosquitos”. I know, it’s out of context, but still.
– Best Series Ever: Mahou Shoujotai (couldn’t resist. I just had to mention Mahou Shoujotai in some way ^^;)

I was in a certain mood to check out as much trailers as possible. These are the results. I won’t be providing any links, if you want the trailer, then you can just use Google or YouTube. They were easy to find, so I don’t think that providing links is really nessecary.

Flag

I’m really getting exited about this series. The trailer only strengthened this. The character design will probably look very interesting, and the mecha-design and action scenes also looked very impressive. And that’s coming from a guy who isn’t too much into the mecha genre. The anime will indeed be action-packed. That’s certain. Though the thing to set this anime apart is the fact that the main characters have got nothing to do with these mechas. They’re just a bunch of photographers, set out to collect information. The music also sounded of very high quality.

Binbou Shimai Monogatari

I may be wrong, but I think the title means something along the lines of “Tales of a Poor Family”. It’ll be a slice of life-show. It doesn’t look too impressive, and it’ll probably revolve around the main characters, trying to make a living whilst living under poor circumstances. The trailer had some very cute moments, so I’ll at least check this one out, even though I dislike most of those slice of life-shows.

Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls

I’m still wondering whether this anime will become a total succes, or a big failure. Still, the trailer gave a lot of hints. Apparently, the personalities of the girls will be changed. Blossom will be more of a fangirl and shopping-freak, instead of the bossy person focused on strategies in the cartoon. Bubbles will be miss-popular and have a very cool personality, instead of her crybaby version in the cartoon. Buttercup will be more ambitious, instead of her tough character from the cartoon. I have no idea about the professor, though he seems to have some kind of assistant. The major seems to have gotten some brains, and Mojo Jojo seems to be playing for villain. I’m hoping that we do get to see the gang-green-gang, though. Still, I’m a bit worried about the personalities of our three main characters, as they don’t seem interesting at all, and they remind me too much of certain american cartoons. The original series had some good points, but also some incredibly bad points. It’s up to the creators to remove these incredibly bad points.

Zero no Tsukaima

Alas, I was wrong. This won’t be the next Magikano. It’ll be worse. It’ll be the next Shakugan no Shana. I can’t believe that we have to witness such a horrible mess yet again. Not another Tsundere for this season! We’ve got enough of these already! The trailer just took away all of the enthusiasm I had for this Shana-clone. I can already see people going crazy about this. The katana probably gets turned into a magic wand and melon-pan gets turned into whatever favourite food of the main character. It’ll probably get its own SOS-fansite as well, including its own set of fan-made towels and t-shirts. I just know it! I’m so hoping for the side-characters to be able to save this anime.

Gedo Senki

This is the Ghibli-movie which is coming up in July. It’s promising to look awesome. I like the character designs, especially those of the main characters (which is a rare thing). A lot seems to be happening, and the graphics promise to look just amazing. It’ll probably take till january till it gets finally subbed (if it goes through the same process as Tsubasa and xxxHolic), though this is something to be watching out for.

Project Blue Earth SOS

After seeing the trailer, my anticipation for this anime has downed a bit. The art stopped looking amazing, it’s just above average. The two main characters are also exceptionally talented persons. At least, they behave like that. I hoped them to be just some ordinary high-school students who got involved against their will. Though I’m fearing more and more that they’ve got some elite goverment positions. In any case, aliens attack, and they’ve got flashy beams that destroy anything that hits them. Exiting. Not.

Coyote Ragtime Show

This was a trailer which made me extremely enthusiastic. The characters look amazing and unique, not to mention the music. It’s also got an interesting plot to back it up. This’ll definately be on my top list to watch.

Night Head Genesis

You know, this show might actually be interesting. At first, I wrote it down because of the horrible site, but the trailer showed some nice things. I especially like the look on each of the characters, and the girl on the moon also suggests at some mystery being thrown in. Who knows? The show might become very entertaining. In any case, if the creators make the little boy an important character, I’ll keep watching.

Le Chevalier d’Eon

The other good trailers really made me exited about the shows. That’s indeed what a good trailer’s supposed to do. This trailer, however, did not make me exited at all. That either means that it’s a bad trailer, or it’s a bad show. I’m hoping the former, as I like the setting. Still, the art didn’t look impressive at all, the animation was a bit buggy and none of the characters really grabbed me.

I suddenly realized something when I took another look at the front page. I haven’t changed the poll at all ever since the end of march. I guess I’m getting lazy. Ah well, now we at least know that Mushishi features awesome music.

Anyway, I decided to replace the poll with something that’ll actually be useful to the site: should I rate individual episodes or not? I’m seeing some sites who actually do this, and I often find myself looking for the rating they gave the episode. I’m wondering if more people experience this.