Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by ur mum)

Not much now. Will update when new things have started.

Current
Chii’s Sweet Home: Three minutes of stuff.
Ghost Hound: I don’t really care about this one anymore. Almost over.
Hakaba Kitarou: Subs have slowed down. Still decent entertainment with above-average art direction.
Kaiji: HOLY SHIT TISSUE BOXES THIS SHIT IS WILD
They Are My Noble Masters: Bleh.

Finished/Almost Finished
Clannad: Rushed but acceptable ending. I hope this after-story thing won’t be too long… but I suppose having questions answered would be nice.
Dragonaut: One episode to go. As horrible as this show was, I don’t regret watching it, since it was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while.
Hayate no Gotoku: I’d welcome 50 more episodes. Nagi~
Minami-ke ~Okawari~: Yeah, I’m thinking asread didn’t get their Shuffle! budget for this one. Looks good, but moves awkwardly. Ending was fine.
Rosario + Vampire: One episode left. Decent for a crappy show.
Shakugan no Shana II: lol
Wolfy Spices: Well thank god that’s over!!
Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: Waiting for Strato to sub the rest, but finished it raw. Very difficult to understand raw ;__;

Reading
Shinigami no Ballad: Past the deadline for the review, so trying to finish this one up. Works better as a cartoon.

Reading some KnJ chapters when they surface, and just finished another wonderfully confusing volume of Trigun MAXIMUM. I still have volumes of GSG unread, am almost caught up on OTAKU USA issues and have lots of unread Macias books from Christmas.

Can anyone recommend me any manga series that aren’t adaptations/have been adapted into an anime that I may like? I kind of wanna be an elitist manga reader, hur. Extra points if it’s not shoujo and not over 10 volumes.

Maybe I should elaborate more on that last post…

I have nothing against Clannad. It’s a good show! It has nice animation, good acting, decent direction and the writing isn’t totally horrible! And yes, considering the ending we got, I too felt a bit shortchanged! I do want to see the rest of the story, if only just to make sense of those few unexplained images in the opening, but– and this is a rather large but– can we please have Haruhi 2 first? I’m not even that much of a Haruhi-ist, but after Kanon and Clannad (I suppose KyoAni did take 6 months off for that Lucky Star thing…) I want some crazy SF adventures again!

I’ve noticed that Key shows are good for me in small doses. I love Air, even if it doesn’t make any sense at all; think Kanon is good solid entertainment; and even find Clannad to be an ok use of 23 minutes each week but… seriously. After a while one just grows tired of Key’s brand of writing and just wants something more off-beat and less vanilla. Sure, by Clannad Key’s writing is in its most matured state, but as a result it’s actually a little boring. Thusly, I’m growing rather pissed that KyoAni is wasting their talents on this sub-par story. That second half best be damn good stuff to make up for shit like Kyou’s EXISTENCE.

Conversely, I’ve heard reports from Haruhi novel nerds that the books skew in favour of Yuki, especially book 4 (the one suspected to be animated next.) I don’t like Yuki (but that’s another post entirely) so naturally I’m also approaching the rest of Haruhi with some degree caution, too. Instead of boring old Yuki, let’s focus on the adventures of Mikuru, guys! She’s clearly the best character! Give the girl some love!

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with Japan. /me grumbles and watches Kodomo no Jikan DVD rips

Yeah Clannad’s a nice show and all, but jeeze KyoAni, I’m growing awfully tired of these Key adaptations. Air was awesome, Kanon was great if not a bit dumb and Clannad is fine but… kind of boring. Moar lite SF plz, less lukewarm teen romance. Shuffle! already does that a lot better than every Key thing ever, probably.

Current
Clannad: Fine. Last arc killed two birds with one stone, I guess, so now we’re on to Nagisa.
Dragonaut: Yes, I’m still watching this, 21 episodes in. It’s so horrible, but it’s so bad it goes full circle and becomes good again.
Ghost Hound: Each episode is well done, but as a whole it leaves a lot to be desired.
Hakaba Kitarou: Carries itself on art direction, but is still enjoyably dark and mischievous. Makes me want a US release of the Gegege no Kitarou manga.
Hayate no Gotoku: Coming to a close. I wouldn’t mind a second season after something of a break. This last batch of episodes is pretty strong.
Kaiji: Working off shock value now. About six more episodes to go.
Minami-ke ~Okawari~: Not really funny, but an enjoyable watch. Asread’s animation doesn’t seem as good this time around, but I don’t remember much of what Shuffle! looked like past that one Memories episode I skimmed through for screencaps.
Rosario + Vampire: I should drop this crap, but I guess eight episodes is past the point of no return?
Shakugan no Shana II: Stuff is finally happening… four episodes until the end!
Spicy Wulf: Boring but watchable.
They Are My Noble Masters: Kind of want to drop this one too, but it’s not as bad as Rosario + Vampire. Carries itself of references.
Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: Only good winter season show that’s not Hakaba Kitarou (and I guess Okawari). For serious. ZETSUBOU FAITO.

Not So Current
Dennou Coil: Watching this again for some reason. Still pretty boring, but I’ve gotten past the point where I dropped it last time.

Reading
Trying to get through back issues of OTAKU USA. Have stacks up unread manga sitting about. Should read those Macias books I got months ago.

Original Post

I actually had this one drawn and done for a bit. The idea was to get this one done real early, then have the one for next week done already. That didn’t really pan out since I’ve been in something of a funk all week. No matter. This comic was real easy, and looks fairly good, I guess. I dunno why Rets has such a messed up expression that last panel, I guess I thought it would be funny. You know, the greatest thing about this comic is that you can probably put any kind of dialogue in and it could be funny. Probably funnier than what I have here. As you can see the comic is something of a joke on anime writing, highlighting two examples of QUALITY. Honesty, do girls really go “I WON’T LOSE!!!” all the time?

Winter season is still fairly lame, and a lot of shows from Fall are concluding. Hayate seems to be going out with a bang, with a strong set of final episodes (manga-based?) and Clannad is ending well. I kind of wished I’d just stayed with the widescreen releases of Clannad instead of watching both 4:3 and 16:9 versions. I kept up with the 4:3 mostly because I didn’t want to miss any discussion on it, but about 19 episodes in, there’s not much to talk abut. Yes, I do appreciate that Clannad was trying to be different in not telling overdone sob-stories, but as a result it comes off as rather boring. Well, boring isn’t the right word. Maybe not as memorable and engaging. I guess it’s not good that I don’t really dig the characters all too much (well, it’s more I don’t like Kyou and to a lesser degree Tomoyo.) Nagisa, however, is cute as a button, so I guess that’s fine. This last arc is shaping up to be a good one, but I doubt Clannad will leave much of an impression in my mind.

I’ve been catching episodes of Diebuster at MIT lately. Diebuster gets a lot of flack for various reasons, but I like it well enough. I think it lacks the punch of its predecessor, but is in turn a more competently structured story. The first two episodes are rather weak, I’ll admit, but the show settles into its groove at around the midpoint, and then does nothing but impress from there (splitting of planets etc). Maybe one of the problems people see with Diebuster is the lack of too much overdone drama. Sure, there’s drama, but Gunbuster was pouring that stuff on at episode 2. Personally, I like Diebuster’s approach better. Makes the show easier the watch.

Another thing I’ve caught snippets of at MIT was Ergo Proxy. For those who don’t know, back when Ergo Proxy hit I was kind of looking forward to it as a fan of Witch Hunter Robin. I dropped the show after nine episodes. I caught the first four episodes again a few weeks ago, and episode 8 last night (was trying to get there in time for Diebuster, but ended up watching an entire episode of EP, too.) The show is beautiful. I love dark, grey colour schemes. Always have. The show puts together a nice, if not somewhat generic, futuristic dystopian world. I think it looks great. The praise stops there though. The actual content is kind of meh, and the only good character is Pino. No, not because I’m a lolicon, because she’s genuinely entertaining.

That’s all I got for today. Let’s hope I can get something out by next week. I sure do have plenty of scripts to work off of…

Current
Clannad: It’s good. I think it has nice characters and a number of good scenes, but thus far the main stories have been kind of weak.
Dragonaut: I don’t even know why anymore…
Ghost Hound: Still moves at a snail’s pace, but that doesn’t really bother me at all. Something of a plot seems to be developing, and I’m hoping it involves more Miyako screentime.
Hakaba Kitarou: Deliciously dark and enjoyable. Needs Nekomusume :3
Hayate no Gotoku: Nearly over, and I shed HOT TEARS OF SHAME. Another year-long season, please?
Kaiji: Show kind of got weaker after GAMBLEBOAT but it’s still fairly enjoyable. I hope E-Card is more complicated than it looks.
Minami-ke ~Okawari~: Most certainly different, but that’s not a bad thing. It looks good, but you can tell Asread is still a bit green with some cuts here and there. Probably not as funny as the last one, but still enjoyable. You can tell they’re trying.
Rosario + Vampire: Apparently has no inbetweening. Yeah, this animation is super cheapo, but the characters are always on model, so that’s good. I could probably stand it for another nine episodes.
Shana II: Stuff happens.
Wolf and Spices: Pretty good, but not totally awesome. Probably a step above a lot of stuff airing right now, though.
Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: EXTREME. Shinbo and Co. play with original manga material, usually with hilarious results.

Mr. Sunshine used some underhanded marketing tactics and got me into watching They Are My Noble Masters. I’ll check it out soon.

Not so current
Baccano!: Finishing the rest tonight. Just plain fun, but I hope all the stupid commotion makes sense in the end.
Devil Hunter Yohko: Finally finishing this after many years. Lots of nudity, action and dirty jokes– so basically good stuff for growing boys.

Original Post

I was going to wait until after I went to bed to post this, but given I’m so hyped up on stuff, I figure I’ll put the comic up now. There’s really not much to say here, as I think its best for you draw your own meanings from it. The artwork is mostly good. Tina came out nicely, and I’m happy with how creepy I rendered Anno. Rets’ lineart is a bit wonky, but it gets covered but shadows so it all works out. I’m using a set of pens to clean up the sketches now, rather than a mechanical pencil. A friend of mine got me a set of Copic pens as a late Christmas present, and I was delighted to see that they had a 0.03 mm size pen. A long time ago I used to use Sakura Mircons, and whenever I used the 0.05mm it broke on me. I’ve been using 0.3mm Copic for a bit and it has yet to die on me. At this rate I may go back to using actual ink! Actually, does the lineart look slightly thinner?

I’ve been messing with the site design lately. If it looks funny just force reload and it should be ok. I’m not sure how I feel about the black. I may tone it down a darker grey, but anything is better than unresolved white.

Recently got that Max Factory Pachira from HLJ, and let me tell you, it’s quite a lovely figure. I can’t say I’m enamored enough with MagiPokaa enough to buy figures from it (though, I do like the character designs. I may pick up that Uma if I see it at a con again), but this figure’s gimmick was too awesome pass up. Those in the know should have a good idea as to what I’m on about :3. The only real problem is that during the cast-off process some red paint rubbed off on her chest. It’s nothing major, but it’d like to clean it up. Anyone got any tips?

The current crop of stuff airing hasn’t been all that impressive lately. I just finished Moyashimon, which was a weird show. Not weird in the way that I wanted it to be, though. The promo material suggested the show would be all about the microbes, but they really take a back seat to bizarre plot twists and character interaction. The show has fun sitcom-ish qualities to it, along with some strange drama-ish aspects, but never did it really act on what I expected out of it. I doubt I’ll watch it again, since a good half of it is extremely boring, but I guess it was fine in the end. I’m also not too taken with Clannad. The stories are fine, but they lack a lot of the overdone drama that made both Air and Kanon engaging to me. The characters, while well-written, don’t really leave much of an impact on me either. Maybe I just like poorly written stories better? I dunno. Kaiji is pretty DBZ at the moment, but it seems like they moved out of that with episode 15.

As for the new offerings from the winter season, I am again mostly not too taken. Gunslinger Girl 2 is an absolute depressing wreck. I may give it the three episode test, but it’s just too sad to watch. Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is of course genius, so I’ll just leave it at that. So far the best thing I can think off that’s not a sequel this season is Spicy Wolf. Episode 1 was boring, but by episode 2 I am beginning to see truth in Cunningham’s words on the original novel. Horo and Lawrence’s banter is entertaining, though I’m not sure if that alone will keep me for 13 episodes. It really seems like it’s a good time to catch up on old things, so I guess I’ll watch something like Devil Hunter Yoko tomorrow, or these Crusher Joe things that came down the pipes this morning.

I guess I’ll try to get some sleep now. Later.

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.

(more…)

Picture shamelessly stolen

Not much right now. Waiting for the new stuff to start.

Current
Clannad: Coming off as the weakest amongst the Key/KyoAni trilogy. Fuuko’s arc was fine, but nothing much past that. Kotomi’s story seems to be kind of interesting, though. I just can’t shake the feeling of “been there, done that” after Air and Kanon.
Dragonaut: The “so bad it’s good” thing is wearing off. Not sure if I’ll be able to finish this one just for the lulz alone, but it has nice production values for the most part…
Ghost Hound: Each episode is interesting and mildly entertaining, but it doesn’t go out of its way to make want to love it.
Hayate no Gotoku: Still consistently funny. This needs to run forever.
Kaiji: Shifted from Death Note JUST AS PLANNED episodes to NHK-esque examinations of people who have hit rock-bottom. I still like it.
Moyashimon: Unfortunately, quite boring. The microbe designs and opening are so great, but the show itself is a yawn-fest. I’ll probably finish it since it’s short.
Shana II: Will all the fanboys stop whining about the lack of action now? You get to see your loli engage in badly animated battles again! YAY! Whatever, it’s fine.

Will finish Minami-ke and Sky Girls once the subs hit.

Not So Current
Just watching a bunch of DVDs I got for Christmas. Air is nice a second time around. I haven’t seen it for so long, so it’s mostly all new to me. Will start on Soul Taker when I get a chance, and maybe Nadesico after that.

Will probably update when the new stuff hits.