Bits of note in Hayate 31.
Service shot.
Trapt loli Hayate. I feel so dirty…
Hayate is the luckiest man alive.
Legs.
Return of maid Nagi.
I will refrain from the obvious dirty joke.
Oh my god…
…are they referencing Lets and Go?
wut
Updated the ero section of the art site.
It works just as well, if not better without text, too.
A simple one this week, and there’s going to be another simple one next week. Reason being I want to focus on doing some non-comic art for a bit. fun start soon now is always neglected, and I want to flesh it out with some pictures. I always get ideas, but I never find to time to put them to paper past very rough planning sketches. As you can see, I just updated the art site with some (slightly NSFW) Halloween-themed art. There’s also a wallpaper of it.
I just finished Yamato 2, and overall I felt it was a big step above the previous series. The only real bad parts were how near the beginning the Yamato was just owning entire battleships with one shot (lol, Jesus Yamato) and the ending. By the end it seems they wanted to stick as close as possible to the end of the movie version, just with less people dying. Because of this, they kind of write themselves into a corner, then bring out a magical Deux Ex Machina to save the day. I came to like Dessler a lot more in this series. He seemed kind of lame in the first one, but he really came into his own as a True Anime Badass in this one, truly deserving of this song. Now, all I have to do is finish Rocket Girls, then move on to Yamamoto Yoko, and then finally finish off Planetes. After that, I think I would have had enough of spaceships, so I think I’ll move on to re-watching some old sexy comedies. HiMM and Shuffle! are far overdue for a good re-watch…
That’s it for this week. Catch you guys again later.
Art site has been updated with some slightly NSFW Halloween themed art.
It was an ok episode. Overall the jokes were funny, but it all tied together kind of lame-like. Oh well, it was funny. Some bits of note.
lol american politics
so hot~
As usual, lifted from here.
Ok, since I’ve finally decided on what shows I’ll be watching, I guess I’ll list ‘em.
Current Shows
Clannad: KyoAni once again produces a beautiful looking Key adaptation. Liking it very much.
ef: Only 2 episodes in, but it seems pretty confused. Watching mainly for the SHAFT factor.
Genshiken 2: Looks like they’re really going to mix things up in episode 4. Also, it’s nice to see this getting the love and care it deserves in terms of production value.
Ghost Hound: I actually really like Production IG, but lately they’ve been making nothing but super boring shows (Seirei no Moribito, Reideen.) This, however, has all the right ingredients for something very interesting, and if episode 1 is any indication, it should be.
Hayate no Gotoku: Just plain fun. I’m so happy it’s running for 52 episodes, though I wouldn’t mind if it went on forever. Nagi is adorable.
Kaiji: Gambling anime is awesome. I need to see more than 5 minutes of Akagi, eventually.
Kodomo no Jikan: One problem I found with the manga was simply the fact that it was a manga. Simple things like colour and voice acting really gives this story the kind of life it needs.
Minami-ke: Oh so delightful! I love every minute of this show. That said, I’ve only seen 2 episodes. Chiaki is the best, though a Kana is fine too. Both at the same time would be ideal.
Moyashimon: I’ve only seen the first episode. So far the best part of this show is the opening, though it has what it takes to become quite good.
Shana II: I’m liking the tighter quality control on the character design this time around. Though, three episodes in may be a bit early to pass judgment on something like that, but overall it looks better than the first one. I’m liking it weekly, and I may have liked the first one more weekly. Not sure if I could ever marathon it, though. Kasumi is hot.
Sky Girls: Kind of becoming less entertaining, but still watchable. Perhaps 24 episodes is too much?
Chopping Board
Dragonaut: A “so bad it’s good” show, right down the shitty Beast Wars-styled CG. Not sure how long I’d feel like keeping up with it just for that and the character design, though.
Gundam 00: Too many pretty boys.
Not so current shows
Rocket Girls: Meant to watch this when it first came out, but the subs were severely lacking, so I gave up on it. Recently acquired a batch, and am about half-way through. I’m glad I decided to catch up on it. It’s quite good. Nothing totally impressive, but it’s nice to watch.
Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2: Gets the corny space opera thing right, unlike the first series which just came off as kind of boring. It’s less “unpleasant situation of the week” and more “super crazy awesome manly thing of the week”.
Reading
Anything when I get the chance.
This comic seems pretty lame looking at it now, but whatever. I wanted to give Tina a hint of insanity to balance out all the wish fulfillment. Then again, some guys get off to yanderes. I guess I’m one of them. Oops. The line art here was pretty horrible, but the colouring saves it, I think. For once there is no crazy lighting effects, so I focused on making darkness look as pretty as possible. I like how it turned out.
I watched 8 episodes of Nadesico with my friend Seiya this weekend. Since I had never seen the show, he took it upon himself to screen some of it for me. I like it, but watching a bunch of episodes all at once makes it come off as very fast, and almost rushed. The episodes are briskly paced, and I feel better suited for watching one at a time, with at least a day (or like, an hour or so) between episodes. That and I’m not very good with marathons. Lack of attention span and all that. But hey, I’ve been listening to YOU GET TO BURNING all day, so that means something.
The specifics for Gunslinger Girl season 2 have been released, and the production staff, seiyuu, and even the studio are completely different from the original series. This isn’t totally bad, as it’s been left to some talented individuals. My only problem is that it’ll feel like a completely different show. Even though Genshiken changed studios 3 times, the vocal cast stayed the same, giving the show some sense of continuity. Since even the voices have changed, it’ll be interesting to see how it works out. Guess it’s good that I haven’t seen the first one for a while?
Anyway, that’s it. This day has been kind of bad, so I just wanna relax for the remaining hour of the day to some animes. Later.
my world has just been turned upside-down
It’s like finding out Santa Claus isn’t real, or something.
I guess I should have known that this was going to be more or less a very long opening act for SSX. The movie had some good scenes, but overall it felt like watching a very dark screen for 2 hours while people died matched to beautiful music. I suppose the movie would be fine if I was going to move on to SSX, but only three episodes have been subbed, so that’s not happening. Also, it reminded me that I’m not in the mood for long over-done dramas at the moment. I guess I’ll try it again if/when all of SSX gets subbed.
I may pick up some episodes of the original series in the meantime, though.
http://www.otokojuku-the-movie.com/
Thanks to Randall for the tip.
I wondered why I was running low on disc. Now that I have space I’ll get My Youth in Arcadia and maybe even Space Adventure Cobra.
I still don’t have enough space to tackle Hokuto no Ken, though.
Plan for the first panel of a comic. Those random scribbles are meant to be bare trees.
This man haunts my dreams…
Alrighty, here goes! More fall season reviews!
Genshiken 2
Um, wow. Seems like they finally found the right people to adapt Genshiken into animation. NOT ONLY is the animation worlds better than that seen in the first series or the OVA, the production staff actually seem to get the subject-matter that they are dealing with. The show is peppered with small nods to various classic anime (thus far mostly Gundam) and the biggest of these nods is the opening itself. This season’s opening parodies newer Gundam openings, and features Madarame and Sasahara as Char and Amuro respectively. To make the deal even sweeter, super-otaku and ero illustrator Urushihara Satoshi himself, directs the opening complete with bouncy boob animation. His direction burns with the true spirit of the otaku– challenging the impossible and pushing forward into the future towards infinity (ok that’s not like otaku at all, but it sounds cool). This is Otaku-dom at its core. This 90 seconds, right here.
Moving on from the opening, the actual content isn’t that different from the manga, which is fine. Being faithful is better than making stupid shit up (unless you happen to be SHAFT.) One thing to note is that previous animated works brushed over a couple of fine details, those being Sasahara’s acquisition of a PC and Ohno and Tanaka being together as a couple. Sasahara’s thing is taken care of, because now he has a laptop (at the expense of not getting an animated version of that one hilarious manga chapter) and Ohno’s and Tanaka’s relationship is still hinted at subtly, as it was in the OVA and at the end of the first TV series. Another thing to note is that Studio Arms seems to be primarily a porn studio. This means the fanservice is like super good.
Minami-ke
This show is delightful. It hits me all my weak spots, leaving me as nothing more than a pile of goo. The design work is exactly to my liking, as it dances on the line between cartoony and realistic perfectly. The characters, while archetypal, are all realized well and play off each other in an amusing fashion. The gags aren’t laugh out loud funny, but they’re good for a light chuckle. The entertainment value found in this show isn’t really in the laughs-per-minute, but rather comes from one enjoying watching the characters just be who they are. It’s good fun done well, and I’m sure anyone who likes being happy can appreciate it.
ef -a tale of memories
SHAFT and Shinbo tackle an eroge adaptation, and the results are rather interesting. It’s important to note that Shinbo isn’t directing here, he’s only supervising, but his eccentric and surreal visuals are still there to some degree. However, the surrealism doesn’t really work that well. Its application seems a bit haphazard, and it’s not as skillfully woven in as it is a full on Shinbo work. Episode two is a little better in this respect, and also throws in some traditional Shinbo imagery and techniques. As far as the proper content goes, I’m not that taken with either of the stories they’re telling here, or the characters. I like one story a little better than the other, but other than that, I’m only watching for the visuals. Hopefully the actually meat of the show will improve.
Some pics of the Choco-wearing-nuthin’-but-an-apron figure that I got the other day. NSFW pics after the jump. (more…)
DreamParty has come to a close and already Kaede dakimakura covers are appearing on Yahoo Auctions. They seem steeper than I imagined. Only two have buyout prices (yahoo’s “buy it now”) which are between 19,000 and 20,000 yen. I’m not quite prepared to spend that much, so I’ll keep watching…
edit: Someone had one up for 15,000 yen which I figured was the best I could get, so I went for it.
The site was down for about 72 hours earlier this week. I am not sure what exactly caused this, but my guess it was just problems getting the new system up and running. Things seems more or less stable now, so I’m assuming there is nothing more to worry about. I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m not sure if I did on the main page: visit this blog when the site is having server troubles. Half the time I won’t even know why the site is down myself, but it’s there so you know that I am at least aware that there is trouble.
Why?
Because it is delightful.
Neko-Musume, Gegege no Kitarou, 1959
Fanart of Neko-Musume, Gegege no Kitarou, 2007
Ok, I’m being a little unfair using fanart, but that picture is more or less a copy of the 2007 design, just in a bikini. Now, it’s not like the sexalization of lolitas is a new thing in Japanese animation. My research* shows that such sexulization has been going on since at least the 1980s! I mean, just look at the Nanako SOS opening (the DVD covers are far more damning, though) or better yet, the Tokimeki Tonight ending. Not having seen any of these I can’t vouch for how much of this content rears its head in the actual shows, but it’s clear Tokimeki Tonight influenced a couple of individuals who were responsible for the manga and anime versions of a certain series.
Now you, the ever-intrepid reader of this sinful blog may be wondering, “Why is wildarms writing this? Hasn’t he admitted to being a lolicon on numerous occasions?” This is very much true, and I am a dirty lolicon, and basically the point of this post is me wondering why exactly I’ve made such a thing public, and why the animation industry itself is coming out about something that is quite taboo. I think it’s probably because Otaku have been looked down upon as social rejects for so long, that they’ve eventually lost all shame. I mean, who needs shame when you’re the scum of the Earth? You’re free to be as sick as you want, since no one has any higher expectations of you. I’m not sure when the whole lolicon thing really exploded, but I’m guessing it’s recent. As I’ve said, the fetish has been around for a while (dating all the way back to Cagliostro? Then again, pedophiles have been around since the dawn of time, I guess) but only now is anime mostly filled with girls who look barely over 12.
The only real troubling part about all this to me is the fact that now Otaku are in the public eye. And because they are, doujin artists get arrested, shows get cancelled, and Kodomo No Jikan gets censored out the wazoo.
*research meaning going on Youtube and watching old anime openings
edit: Note that this post isn’t really serious, I’m just noting down some thoughts I had on the way to class.
Bought at Kotobukiya, a little Japanese market down in Porter Square. The Nezumi Otoko one was pretty bad. The little English label claimed it was orange juice, but it tasted like grapefruit juice, and a I fucking hate grapefruit juice. Oh well, they’re nice cans.
First episode of Gundam 00 aired, and it’s not totally horrible! Aside from the openings and endings that make my ears bleed, the actual episode was alright. The design work, character and mecha-wise is still terrible, but I guess it’s what kids like these days. I’d prefer it if it was a bunch of hardened old dudes fighting, but whatever. I did very much like the tone of the opening scene, even if it was a totally laughable commentary on the political climate of today.
The story is as retarded as I thought it would be, though.
But it seems like the characters think that as well, so maybe it won’t be filled with all those oh-so-hilarious Seed-styled contridictions.
That was a pretty good movie. I’d kind of like it if more time was spent on each individual event, but then the movie would have ended up even longer than it already was. Yeah, the parts felt too short, but overall the film felt too long? I dunno. But yeah, I liked it. A little clunky, but I can see why is is revered as a classic. I may even get the next one!
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