Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by EXCELLENCE!)

2007 was really fucking uneven. The first few months got by on the better titles that carried over from 2006, but between April and August it was something of a wasteland. I managed to get my fix for good modern anime by way of genius works such as Gurren Lagann and Hayate no Gotoku, but all the other offerings during that period of time where somewhere between mildly amusing to plain bad. Thankfully, August saw the debut of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Zero No Tsukaima 2, both of which restored my faith in the industry somewhat. October once again impressed with Minami-ke, Kaiji and Clannad.

What follows will be something similar to my monthly posts, but for the Year In Review, I’ll be ordering things by quality using letter grades, starting from the worst to the VERY BEST. I cover a lot of shows in the post, but it’s not everything I watched during the year.

Here’s my rankings.

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Original Post

This comic isn’t very funny. It’s just me saying Gundam 00 will suck. Again. But the art is pretty so that makes up for it. Also, I think I’m making some kind of hamfisted point by having Ideon and original Gundam posters in the background but I’m not sure what exactly that point is yet. I don’t have a solid idea for next week yet which is troubling. Maybe I’ll talk about the Bokura No director, or mock Xenoglossia, or talk about Gurren Lagann. I dunno. Oh yeah, got a bit of fanart. It can be found here.

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Obligatory nude Hazuki image no.1

I think we all know by now that the director for the Bokura No anime fucking hates the manga. People I’ve talked to said this probably came about from Gonzo being a huge company and the people not really having much say in what they’re asked to do. This kind of cheapens anime for me. I understand for these fellows it’s a job to put bread on the table, but there is a distinct difference between a director who approaches his work as a job, and a director who approaches his work as art.

To be fair the Bokura No guy is making the best of it, by asking if he can change the story to suit his tastes. While this is bad news for fans of the manga who want an accurate adaptation, I’d rather watch this guy direct something he kind of likes over something he loathes. That’s part of what makes good direction, love for your work. I think this is why Evangelion works so well, because apparently the entire series really close to Anno’s heart.

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Gonna write about two shows that have nothing to do with each other. Because I’m awesome. Joking aside, the point of this entry is to address two shows that I’ve been watching but haven’t necessarily said anything about.

Bokura No

I like Bokura No. Maybe not as much as some of my compatriots, but it’s good TV. I mainly like it visually. It seems like it has a pretty average budget, but it looks good. I especially like the lighting effects, most notably in the opening. The character design is somewhat generic, but has a nice edge to it. They’re nice to look at. Episode 7 reminded me of episode 4 of NHK (among others) which was by Shingo Natsume. ANN doesn’t list Natsume as working on Bokura No, but it’s characteristic of them to be short information. This episode really looked like him in any case. I feel it works more in Bokura No than NHK simply because the Bokura No designs more easily lend themselves to that style, being somewhat angular and skinny.

Story wise it’s fine. I’m not completely taken, though. Each kid’s story interests me enough to watch more, but I’m not profoundly moved by any of them thus far. I also lack sympathy for them, probably because some of them died so early (thus not giving me a chance to learn about them), and their character development seems restricted their respective arcs. I suppose it’s easier that way. Makes it so I won’t end up in a crying mess. I was kind of hoping for the deaths more flashy and brutal. While some are, so far most of the kids have met their end do the rules of the game. The show’s only about 7 episodes in fansubbed, so I guess it could get better. But like I said, it’s already fairly good.

Though I don’t think Uninstall is a very good song. But it’s still stuck in my fucking head.

Seirei no Moribito

Wow, can they make this show any slower? It’s like watching one those three hours movies except for it’s not interesting. I was almost falling asleep at episode 9, but that was because I was tired. But still. It had a moment of action around episodes 2-5, and since then it’s started dragging. You can only go on for so long about some goddamn water spirit and signs of a drought before I just start yawning. God one entire episode took place is a fucking house. A bunch of talking! And it wasn’t even interesting! At least the animation is good, which is the only thing keeping me from dropping this show like a rock. It started fairly good, but now it just seems incredibly dull. Sorry Kenji Kamiyama, go back to cyberpunk stories plz.

Also Balsa is far too manly. Ugh.