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

Casshern Sins: I’m actually starting to enjoy it as it nears the end. Kind of feels pointless, though.
Clannad ~After Story~: It’s kind of gotten to the point where I really don’t care, but it’s not that bad. Still very pretty.
Jigoku Shoujo Mistuganae: Episodes alternate between being very good twists on the normal formula, to very… weird. It’s really troubling when the first half of an episode is really happy, because you just know things are going to go south. They’ve been laying off of the damning to hell sequences as of late, which is good.
Kurogane no Linebarrels: My disposable guilty pleasure show. I watch this for the soap opera youth drama, as well as the tits. When the animation gets crappy, it doesn’t really matter because the style is already pretty quick and dirty.
Maria†Holic: While not the best SHAFTXSHINBO combo, I’m starting to find this entry into the team’s resumé to be quite entertaining. The girls don’t really have any moé charms, but I find them rather beautiful.
Michiko and Hatchin: This show continues to be of fairly high quality, but would really shine if Watanabe was actually on direction. The episodes have been getting a bit weak, but still good.
Minami-ke Okaeri: Better than Okawari, but still falls short of the original. If I ever get around to re-watching Minami-ke, I’ll probably just stick to season 1. You did well asread, but not well enough!!
Shikabane Hime: Kuro: For some reason this show is becoming really cheap looking, but I still enjoy it. I hope it ends strongly.
Sora Kake Girl: I’m tempted to label this as my favourite of the season. It’s a wonderful combination of fanservice, science fiction antics, and well-realized moé characters. I smell some fanart coming on.
Sora Wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai: Since this is only going to be nine episodes (according to MyAnimeList), I guess KyoAni only has to animate one or two new episodes. Or maybe they can stretch the last OVA all the way to episode 9. Who knows. I like it.
To Aru Majutsu no Kinsho Mokuroku: If I put my desire for more Index screentime aside, this has become a pretty decent collection of SF/fantasy centered stories. With some pacing issues, of course, but it’s developed into a pretty good show.
Toradora!: This show is rare case. I think it’s quite good, but I’m not moé towards any of the characters. It slipped up a bit after episode 16, but it’s gotten back on track. It’s pretty good, but I don’t think it’s really worthy of BEST SHOW OF THE YEAR or anything like that.
Tytania: The writing in this show is ever so cheesy, but I love it. It has the Death Note/Code Geass appeal, in which I actually watch it for the ridiculous plot as opposed to other things like character interaction. The characters are quite crap, I think, except for the moé princess and Fan Hyulick.
Zettai Karen Children: It’s ending so soon? Say it ain’t so! I want a second season! A third, even! This could run for 200+ episodes and I’d be totally cool with that.

Kind of started on my 30 disc DVD backlog, and am half-way through a Shuffle! disc. Hoping to burn through my Shuffle! and Air discs before I head off to Japan. I’ll probably bring Gao Gai Gar and Nanoha along with me to Japan.

Original Post

What you were going to see here was a comic about Haruhi getting a second season, but we all know how that turned out. After that, I was going to do some angry comic about how Newtype played us all for fools once again, then I realized a comic about some rumour that barely lasted 24 hours won’t age terribly well. So instead, you’re getting this comic I made about a week ago–the original comic 129.

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out on the whole. As far as writing goes, I’m not sure if Yu Aida and Keitaro Arima know each other or not, but in the end I just assumed that they’re not acquainted. I believe Yoshinobu “The Nish” Nishizaki is out of jail, however I’d like to think he just goes around wearing prison gear all the time. The girl in panel two is from some horribly creepy website that I learned about through Akiba Blog. I won’t link it for fear of getting arrested, but google “Candy Doll U-15″ if you feel like being dangerous, and have an affinity for Russian lolis.

The art turned out quite well, I think. The backgrounds aren’t much at all, but I like the character art and how it all came together. The observant readers out there will notice I switched back to a traditional comic font. I started using fonts like Verdana after I saw Gone With The Blastwave do something similar, but then I realized he was only using boring fonts because he didn’t have a comic font for a good while. Nevertheless, I decided to keep using Verdana because it afforded me more freedom than Edible Pet II. After a while I noticed my choice of font made the comics look all the more amateur, so with this strip I switched to Penny Arcade’s font, which offers upper-case and lower-case letters, which I really like. I’ll probably keep using it.

I’m flipflopping like a politician here, but I’m going to give the doujin one more week for preorders. This is mostly because I just got an order from a guy for five books, and now we’re six books away from reaching the target. Another thing I want to bring up is that we’re going to accept international orders now, mostly because we’ve been getting lots of requests from overseas readers. Now, shipping overseas is going to cost a lot– more than the book itself. If you’re still cool with that, go ahead. But, to that guy who’s ordering three books to bring back to his friends overseas–keep doing that. It’ll be cheaper for all of you. Even if we don’t reach 30 orders by the end of the week, I suspect we’ll get close enough that we’ll print up the book anyways. Hope you all like it.

Recently I’ve been going back and watching the 16:9 releases of Clannad ~After Story~. I had fallen behind, and now I’ve finally found a chance to catch up. Going back, I’ve stated to appreciate some of the arcs more. Specifically Misae’s arc–it’s typical Key, but I liked it well enough. I still think Miyazawa’s arc is really dumb, though it does have a nice fight at the end. The show looks really great, and it’s such a shame that I don’t like it more. I probably won’t buy it. Oh, something important happened in the last episode, I guess, but I won’t talk about it. I have episode 17 sitting on my desktop, so I’ll get to that soon.

I also recently watched what I believe is the 2008 Lupin III special, Sweet Lost Night. It’s pretty good once it gets past the ridiculous (even for Lupin standards) plot. Lupin specials are always fun, and this one delivers that quite well. However, it’s not terribly rewatchable like 1$ Money Wars, Burning Zantetsuken, Walther P-38 and Episode 0. The main thing that bothers me here, and what bothers me in most Lupin anime, is how Zenigata constantly plays the part of the fool. In this special it’s notably bad, since he’s wandering around with amnesia for most of the runtime. In the manga Zenigata is on level with Lupin, yet in all the cartoons he’s cheap comic relief. I appreciate how in the opening sequence they demonstrated how Zetigata’s finally caught on to all of Lupin’s tricks over the years, but like I said, they quickly push him aside.

As April draws ever closer, I’m getting more excited about my stay in Japan. To bring everyone up to speed, I’ll be staying in Warabi, and taking classes at Sophia University. The acceptance materials along with stuff for my visa should come in today, so I’m eagerly waiting for the mailman like the stupid motherfucker I am. I guess in the meantime I could do something like brush up on my Japanese.

That’ll be all for this week. I somehow put out a normal sized rant this week, and I’ll try to do the same in the future. Later!

With both the years 2007 and 2008 behind us, it’s time to look ahead to the glorious year of 2009! Well, not really, but there are a number of shows that have come out of 2008 incomplete, so here’s a rundown of the ones I’m watching.

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2007 sure feels like a long time ago, but not long enough for me to have forgotten about some of the great shows that came out of it. The battle of 2007 has already been covered on this blog, so why am I writing about it again? As per usual, some of the fighting spilled over into 2008, and this post is devoted to those brave shows that had the courage to take on 2008, even though they were incomplete.

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Hey hey hey sup 09 what’s happenin bro

Current
Casshern Sins: Sins carries itself on art direction more than anything else, but the light musings on what it means to live are interesting. Casshern has also stopped being a pussy, kind of.
Clannad ~After Story~: I have no idea how the writing in this show is so inconsistent. It ranges from very juvenile to fairly mature and compelling in the space of a few episodes. The consistently great production values keep it very watchable, even if the writing is total crap.
Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae: I like Jigoku Shoujo, shutup :(
Kurogane no Linebarrels: They were doing their best when the show was silly, but hopefully it can do seriousness well. If the opening episodes are any indication… they can’t. But I hold out hope!!
Michiko and Hatchin: This show keeps betraying my expectations, but at the same time it never disappoints. I guess they had to sell this is an action show or no one would watch it. It’s a pretty good… crime drama? Is that what it is? Anyway, it’s very good.
Tentai Senshi Sunred: Right when the formula was getting stale, they mixed it up again. Pretty good comedy, but not one of the best. That said, it’s hard to top the brilliance of Gag Manga Biyori and Colorful…
To Aru Majutsu no Index: The writing has gotten a little better, but the pacing is still way off in some episodes. They really need to do a better job of balancing character involvement, since for a show called To Aru Majutsu no Index, Index sure doesn’t do much anymore! Touma also has really lame dialogue. God. I like it, though. Cute girls.
Toradora!: For an otaku-centric romance show, it’s surprisingly very good. I came into this expecting to like it for fanservice and jokes, but as a character drama and romance, it offers up some meaty stuff to chew on. Very well done show.
Tytania: Started off pretty slow, but has developed into a pretty good space adventure. Not as good as the best space adventure, though!
Zettai Karen Children: Almost the best show of the year. Consistently entertaining and lots of fun. I love all of The Children :3

I just finished and will finish a bunch of things.

Before I get underway, I’d like to note that I have very little idea as to what I’m talking about. My contact with Real Japanese Otaku is limited only to this one guy I talked to when I was 13, and this random girl on Mixi who is more of a Shounen Jump reading fujoshi than anything else. I do however have the power of fanart, popularity surveys, and the slightly retarded cries of English speaking fans on my side, so hopefully my rantings will have some bearing on what’s actually going on. THE TRUTH, if you will.

Over the past year or so, I’ve noticed something most peculiar. It is a tendency amongst anime fans to prefer characters who come off to me as naggy, annoying and generally not very attractive personality-wise. I’m talking about characters like Kagami (Lucky Star), Hinagiku (Hayate no Gotoku!), Kyou (Clannad), Asuna (Negima!) and hell, Asa (Shuffle!). These characters tend to be tomboyish, naggy, and some of them are pretty generic and poorly handled tsundere girls. I don’t like these sorts of characters, as they posses traits which are not desirable to me as an otaku. However, these characters are wildly popular amongst the majority of otaku, and I have really difficult time understanding why.

As an otaku, aren’t you supposed to embrace fantasy? Where’s the fantasy in girls who are, more or less, like girls you’d run across in the real world? What’s attractive about a girl with the personality of a boy?  Similarly, what’s attractive about a girl who punches you straight into sky in order to hide her feelings, instead of telling you straight out that she likes you? I’ve asked people why they like such characters, and time and time again they can never give me a straight answer. The typical answers are, “you just don’t understand” or “well, she has a nice seiyuu.” My friends, these are not reasons. These answers are what we call “dodging the issue”, with the issue being wholly unpleasant personality traits.

I have a theory– these fans are terribly shallow people who like these characters just for their designs. How many times have you heard about a guy sticking with an unpleasant girl simply because she was hot? It’s a sad story, and unfortunately such a mindset has now manifested in otaku culture.

My friends, my brothers, my sisters, I beg of you; don’t be fooled! This is all a conspiracy by The Industry to turn us into normal people! Don’t let them have their way! Embrace the few shreds of sanity left in otaku entertainment! Embrace the loli! Embrace the doting childhood friend! Embrace otaku girl! These are all characters you should like! Don’t you want to stand proud and say, “Yes! I love Kaede because she loves Rin unconditionally and would do anything for him” or “I love Nagi because she can name every single Zeon MS without breaking a sweat” as opposed to finding ways to hide your horribly shallow personality by saying this character “has a good seiyuu.”

It’s not too late for salvation, my friends!

Two things:

• The only way the Clannad game can be better than the anime is if half of the arcs are completely different. For example, in the game Yukine would be suffering from bone cancer, and the only way to cure her would be by taking out her skeleton, leaving her in a form not dissimilar to that of Ditto.
• These last two episodes have totally proven my point. Just off the heels of the uninspired Misae arc and the horrible Yukine arc, we have two really great episodes. They’re well written, well directed and nothing dumb happens in them at all. What the hell!

Clannad is one of the most frustrating shows in existence. I’m just going to put that out there to begin with.

Across the vast spectrum of visual novel fans, I imagine two distinct factions of people. Type-Moon fans and Key fans. Two sides, hungry for blood. The blood of each other. They rarely interact, except to exchange digital blows on some anonymous BBS or IRC channel. Actually, this probably doesn’t happen at all, but if it were to happen I’d be more with the Key people. I mean, you’re either a stupid pretentious fuck who thinks mollusk metaphors are deep, or you’re a guy who likes cute girls dying. I’d rather cute girls dying.

I like Air and Kanon. I think they are great shows. I actually consider Air something of amateurish masterpiece, and Kanon is great until you realize Ayu is the main character. I like Key stuff. Their work is heavy handed, mellow-dramatic, and pulls at your heart strings using some of the dirtiest tricks in the book. But I don’t fucking care. They are pieces of good, solid entertainment; and do have some degree of artistic merit. Clannad, however, is different.

Clannad is Key’s attempt to move away from this type of story writing. Stories in Clannad concern themselves with mostly normal things. Family disputes, misunderstandings and things like that. The problem is the manner in which these issues are handled. How many fucking times in season one is an issue resolved through a goddamn motherfucking sports competition. It has to be two times, maybe three– and they almost do this again in Sunohara’s arc in ~After Story~! What the fuck, Key? Another example can be found in the absolutely abominable Yukine arc which is so childishly handled that the only thing keeping me from running to Japan and murdering someone is its great ending.

But at the same time, some arcs are absolutely wonderful, or at least not totally horrible. Fuuko’s arc, even though it’s a total ripoff on Makoto’s story, is pretty good; Sunohara’s arc is great except for the ending; and the latest arc with Tomoya opens with an episode so good that I was wondering if they sacked Jun whateverhisnameis for someone who’s actually good.

The one consistent element throughout this whole mess is KyoAni’s amazing presentation of it all. The small background details, the carefully calculated levels of bloom and the detailed depictions of Sunohara getting beaten within an inch of his life keep me coming back. Also, when the show isn’t focusing on its plot, there are a lot of great humour scenes. Quite frankly, I would have liked it better if Clannad was a school comedy. It’d be a lot better than what it is now!

Current
Casshern Sins: Great art direction but the writing is so boring. I’m pretty sure Casshern says JUST WHAT AM I in every fucking episode.
ChäoS;HEAd: It’s always super special! I like this one a lot.
Clannad ~After Story~: Hit and miss. Needs more Mei and/or baseball episodes.
ef – a tale of melodies: This is like a Shinbo show except not good.
Ga-Rei-ZERO: I mostly like it. Really dig the opening/ending tunes.
Golgo 13: ….
Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae: It’s like the writers on this show compete on who can write the crappiest episode.
Kannagi: Yamakan’s direction is great, and the production values are flawless, but the plot stuff lets it down.
Kemeko DX: Nice tits. Humour is hit or miss.
Kurogane no Linebarrels: This show is about man things like robots, tits and giant black men named JACK SMITH who cut airplanes in half.
Kyou no 5 no 2: I guess it’s fine but I still don’t know any of the character’s names.
Michiko to Hatchin: Uneven, but on the whole extremely well done.
Rosario + Vampire CAPU2: This show has moments of genius, actually. Moments of genius mixed with many moments of utter stupidity.
Shikabane Hime: Aka: This show is incredibly trashy, but it takes itself so seriously that I can’t help but take it seriously too. Gainax’s work also really helps it.
Tentai Senshi Sunred: Mostly funny. Some moments fall flat, but mostly funny.
To Aru Majutsu no Index: Pretty entertaining fluff after a string of terrible opening episodes. Let’s hope it stays this way!
Toradora!: I really like this, even though I can’t find a character to like. Taiga is almost cute, but she’s too violent.
Tytania: :V
Yozakura Quartet: This has a really shitty plot, but the direction is ok. Good voice acting, too.
Zettai Karen Children: Not as good as Hayate, but a thoroughly enjoyable year-long show.

Not Current
Windy Tales: Finishing this soon.

Reading
Hayate no Gotoku: Comic version is pretty good so far, but Kenjiro Hata is kind of a bad artist but works around his failings well.
Ikoku Meiro no Croisee: What? There’s only one volume so far? It’s been a year! Where’s volume two :(

I guess I’ll read more of the Tsukuyomi manga soon.

Current
Casshern Sins: Arty retro stuff. Sometimes boring, but mostly good.
ChäoS;HEAd: Moe psychological thriller. I can dig it.
Crannad ~After Story~: The first arc was great, but now it’s getting into “NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN, KEY” territory.
Detroit Metal City: Hahahaha, the rapping episode.
ef – a tale of melodies: Behind on this already.
Ga-Rei -Zero-: I dunno. Kinda good.
Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae: Lesbians send you to hell.
Kannagi: JIMI, DA NE. The opening is almost the best part of this show, but the real stuff is mostly good. I wish Nagi and Jin would argue less. It’s not funny like when Kohei and Hazuki do it.
Kurogane no Linebarrels: This show is just funny.
Kyou no 5 no 2: Not as good as the porno OVA, but decent. Kind of boring at times.
Michiko to Hatchin: SASSY, CRASSY, ASSY. Need more episodes~
Rosario + Vampire Capu2: You know those people who hate 0nT but watch it anyway? That’s how I am with this damn show.
Shikabane Hime: Aka: On hold because of FUNimation faggotry. I like it, though.
To Aru Majutsu no Index: Hey let’s talk for 30 minutes then make something exciting happen at the end of the episode only for the following episode to be more talking. This show needs to be fixed soon.
Toradora!: I think I love it. Such great character stuff here.
Tytania: I almost love it. Too gay, though.
Yozakura Quartet: I feel the Kurenai magic every now and again, but overall not that great. Good ending song, though.
Zettai Karen Children: Absolutely Lovely! That’s why it doesn’t lose!

Not Current
Gankutsuoh: Pretty good except all the characters who aren’t the Count are dumb cunts.
Mushishi: Pure brilliance.
Windy Tales: Almost pure brilliance.

Manga
Slowly reading through some manga in both Japanese and English.

OH MY GOD

WHY IS SHE NOT A MAIN CHARACTER?! FUCK YOU, KEY.

GUNDAM FIGHT, READY GO!

Clannad ~After Story~

After a season of silence, KyoAni returns to blow our minds again, this time with… cute girls playing baseball! Sure, it’s not as good as Haruhi’s baseball episode, but it’s still pretty fun, and I enjoyed it a lot. I’m not sure if my attitude just changed between when the first Clannad series ended and now, but for some reason the show clicks with me more. Maybe it’s just because this is so good compared to that horrible Tomoyo-centric OVA from a while back. God, that was a piece of shit.

Sadly, once again, the beautiful work of KyoAni gets horrible treatment from the TV stations. Apparently the 16:9 broadcast looked worse than the 4:3 broadcast. wtf, Japan? Are you really going to force me to buy Clannad on DVD? Really? I haven’t even bought Kanon yet!

Hyakko

Hyakko is very awkward. It seems like it’s trying to be some charming and cute slice of thing but it isn’t quite hitting the right notes. Some things work (mainly Suzu) but the rest is kind of like watching some amateur play the piano, or something. Maybe it’ll get better in future episodes, but this first installment is just kind of weak.

Toradora!

Toradora may or may not become the best show of the season for me depending on how Taiga develops. I’ve read some of the manga (something like two chapters) and she just kind of came off as crazy. And in the anime she still comes off as crazy. Not really a good kind of crazy, but not a bad one either. I like the main character, and hopefully he can stay not useless for the 13 or so episodes that this is meant to run for.

Some things people are pointing out about this show are the framing of shots and its general pace, which I also find quite pro. Especially in comparison to Zero no Tsukaima , in which shots are meant to provide the best view of tits and ass (note: this is not a bad thing.) The storyboarding and directing in Toradora! is more film-like. I wonder if they’ll be able to keep it up.

Oh yeah, the character designs are mostly fine. Not as good as the light novel or manga, but they have their own charm. Very round, cute and bubbly.

I’m so glad all of this stuff is starting in October, rather than in September like I originally thought. I was wondering how I would be able to handle twenty more shows on top of of the fourteen I already have going. Thanfully, that is not the case, and by the time this new season rolls around, about everything I’m watching right now would have concluded.

This season isn’t looking all too hot. While nothing looks super horrible, nothing looks totally good either. With most seasons I can usually pick out one show that I know I’ll love (eg Kodomo no Jikan, Kure-nai, Gurren Lagann) but there’s nothing really like that this season. I hope at least some of these can surprise me!

Man, I just gotta watch this

• Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: More Zetsubou Sensei cannot be a bad thing.
• Kannagi: Watching for the KyoAni connection alone. The plot seems fairly standard but will be good with the correct execution.
• Kyou no Go no Ni: I actually really dig the new art style– it seems closer to that of the original manga. But considering the OVA covered all of the manga material, I hope this anime-original stuff isn’t bad… or maybe they’ll just adapt the manga again, I don’t know. I just hope for tight loli asses.
• Michiko to Hatchin: Ok, maybe I lied when I said I wasn’t able to pick out one show this season that I’ll just love. Michiko to Hatchin just might be that show. It bleeds Cowboy Bebop (Watanabe is the “music producer”), and just seems like tons of fun. The only problem is that Manglobe is working on it. They made Samurai Champloo, which was a good show– but they also made Ergo Proxy. Yeah.
• Tytania: This is apparently Legends of the Galactic Heroes sans ten billion episodes I have to watch. Sold. (Though, it looks kind of gay)

Man, I should probably watch this

• Casshern Sins: These character designs, man. They’re like retro and modern at the same time. I’m interested in this simply because it’s a remake of an old property, and it may even be good considering Madhouse is behind it.
• Clannad ~After Story~: Ah, so this is the part where things get all depressing and mellow-dramatic. Sweet! After Tomoyo’s OVA, I’m a little sick of Clannad, but hopefully with this series it’ll redeem itself.
• ef – a tale of melodies: I wasn’t totally taken with the first ef series, but I liked it well enough, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t watch the sequel. Also it’s by SHAFT, so it’s basically guaranteed to be good.
• Hyakko: Random school girl comedy. None of these can live up to Azumanga Daioh in my book (yes, point and laugh) but these types of shows are always fun. I kind of like the character designs.
• Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae: Jigoku Shoujo is such trash, but I watch it anyways. If the writers can keep things mildly entertaining, I’ll be happy.
• Shikabane Hime: ZOMBIE SCHOOL GIRL KILLS ZOMBIES AND GAINAX ANIMATES IT. Should be good.
• Ride Black: I’m not totally sold on the premise, but the combination of a Gainax and Ghibli director, plus Madhouse, along with some cool artwork knocks this one up a notch or so.
• Tentai Senshi Sunred: No one will sub this :(
• To Aru Majutsu no Index: I’m all for moe nuns and J.C. Staff.
• Toradora!: I tried to read the manga, but the translation was just soooo bad. Hopefully the anime will be good, so I can just watch that instead. J.C. Staff make good stuff, so it probably will be. I like the character designs, even if they are wildly different from the originals. Main girl is cute.
• Yozakura Shijuusou ~Yozakura Quartet~: Watching entirely for the character designs, but the premise has potential to be entertaining.

Man, I probably shouldn’t watch this

• CHAOS;HEAD: The premise is amazing, but the character designs seem too generic for even me. It’s by Madhouse, but they’re doing like five-thousand things, and this show will probably get shafted on the animation budget.
• Ga-Rei Zero: I like the character designs, but I probably won’t watch this unless it gets rave reviews.
• Kurogane no Linebarrel: This show had potential to be s-CRY-ed 2 with awesome missile spam and robots, but it’s by Gonzo so it’ll suck. Has an English site for some reason.
• Kemeko-DX: Romantic comedy with good artwork. Hopefully it’ll be above average, but my expectations are low.
  
• Macademi Wasshoi!: This looks really panderific in a bad way, but I’ll give the first episode a shot since I have a poster of it up in my room.The artwork is kind of weird.
• Rosario and Vampire CAPU2: Why do I subject myself to pain? But who knows, maybe this one will have an animation budget or something.

Man, fall’s gonna be busy!