Comic Site Rant: Hannah Montana meets Heroes

Original Post

Man, ai-sp@ce sure feels like old news now, but such is the nature of the weekly comic, especially when the hack artist/writer can’t come up with a joke about the news story in question the week it hits and instead decides to make a comic about being a horrible Japanophile. Anyway, here we are with a comic about ai-sp@ce, which is actually just pinched from a bit of a forum exchange, because such things make for the best comics. I don’t know about you, but I actually find this one kind of funny. Sure, the dialogue is stilted and awkward, but with this entire webcomic project thing being a learning experience, I think that’s fine. The artwork is also fine. Yes, there is horribleness in Rets’ fucked up collar in panels 2 and 3 along with some really bad shading, but I like the general look and feel of this one. Boston locals may actually know where this comic takes place. I’m trying to be a less-good Makoto Shinkai by basing backgrounds off real locations. How am I doing??

Dennou Coil sure is something. I think I can only watch it force fed to me 4 or 5 episodes at a time, but it sure is great once you get past those boring opening episodes. My favourite part of the show so far has to be the zombie Illegals attacking Yasako’s house. The kids crossing over to the other side is neat, too. What a wonderfully imaginative show. Not sure how much re-watch value it has, but it certainly is great.

Along with finishing Kaiji up a few days ago, I also finished the wonderful Ryofuko-chan OVA. Various personalities in the comments sections of a number of posts kept telling me to take the plunge, so I did about a week ago, and finally finished it up this week. In my mind, there’s two sects of “otaku entertainment”– boring panderific shit (Yotsunoha, Moetan anime) and hilarious panderific shit with lots of personality and energy (PaniPoni Dash, Hayate no Gotoku.) Ryofuko-chan sits happily in the latter category. Yes, the show has lots of naked lolis, and the opening focuses almost entirely on images of the two main girls in skimpy outfits, but damn is this show just wonderfully absurd. It’s not really laugh out loud funny, but its wacky nature can’t help but put a smile on my face. The mere idea of people from Romance of the Three Kingdoms being cast down from the heavens into the present day– two of them as little girls– is just hilarious. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of people from the past coping with modern life, and Ryofuko makes sure to present this concept in the most humourous way possible. And it doesn’t just focus around lolis– there are a lot of other great side characters, some of which are voiced by epic male seiyuu. Jouji Nakata and Norio Wakamoto are in this! Jouji fucking Nakata! NORIO FUCKING WAKAMOTO! It is also one of the few shows that features a GAR hot blooded loli. So yeah, it’s wonderful, and everyone should watch it. Giant Robo even makes an appearance!

Anyway, it’s half-past-noon already and I have things to do on this long weekend, such as write an essay comparing how Lear and Satan deal with exile in King Lear and Paradise Lost respectively. But that can wait, anime comes first, hurr.

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