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

I finished Dennou Coil tonight by way of one of MIT’s anime screenings, and boy it certainly was something.

Dennou Coil was really one of those shows were I just kicked back and enjoyed it for the spectacle. I didn’t pay close attention to the story or the characters, opting to instead just relax and marvel at the animation and the direction. Because that stuff was good. That isn’t to say the story stuff wasn’t good either, since there certainly were moments when I really wanted to know what was going to happen next. Though, the problem is, when I actually force my self to think about how the story flowed, it feels very uneven and rough. I dunno, maybe I just can’t decipher wacky technobabble so there’s probably holes in my understanding, but some moments felt too “lol anime” in a show that seemed to want to separate itself from that kind of thing.

I’m not sure how to feel about the characters. Yasako was serviceably moe and Isako was, for the most part, annoyingly emo and DON’T TALK TO ME-ish. The rest were decent in their own ways, but none struck me as particularly interesting. Honestly, my favourite is probably Mega Baa, since she’s just nuts. Her or Densuke. What a fucking legend Densuke was.

The soundtrack was pretty good. They used a lot of the same tracks over and over and OVER again, so eventually they stuck in my head as Pretty Good Stuff. Also, as classics like Gunbuster and End of Evangelion prove, dramatic scenes matched to overly dramatic piano pieces WIN. So yeah, I guess I’ll be downloading buying this OST.

In the end I liked Dennou Coil, but mostly for the Flashy Special Effects and stuff like that. It had some plot points that really interested me, but on the whole the show kind of fell flat when it came to the things that mattered. This is kind of fine though, since the mid-series filler was pretty entertaining. Not really sure about rewatchability as of yet.

BONUS: After the showing I approached rikchik (you can find him lurking in the comment sections from time to time) with my theory– that being, Dennou Coil is a message to otaku telling them not to get too engrossed in eroge and 2ch flame wars. They of course totally fuck this up with the Yasako x Isako yuri at the ending, as it encourages us otaku to go back to our  computers and fap to pics of Yasako and Isako doing it.

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.

Original Post

I am so very disappointed in this comic in every way. The art is lacklustre and the script is pretty… horrible. I just wanted to talk about Kaiji in some way before it finished its sub run, and do a general parody on the art style.

You know, that scenery in panel 1 is actually inspired by Clannad. Strange, right? Well, when I put digital paint to digital canvas, I just start picking out dark/grey colours, so a lot of Clannad’s spring-time happiness doesn’t really carry over. I blame the fact that it was actually raining outside while I was making this. And I just like grey-ish overcast atmospheres. Anyway, next week should be better. I hope. orz

The new season has started, but I’m still kind of in the process of putting a lid on the rather craptastic winter season. That’s mostly a case of the sub groups having to catch up, though. I have however watched one spring season show so far, and that happens to be Kure-nai. You may remember that I was looking forward to Kure-nai a while back, and thankfully episode 1 seemed pretty good. I say “seemed” because I watched it raw and couldn’t really understand what was going on past the basics. It does however have great animation, great atmosphere and an adorable little loli who is thankfully less annoying than she was in the preview. If the script is as good as everything else, then Brainsbase might have another Kamichu or Baccano! quality show on their hands. Let’s just hope they don’t pull another Innocent Venus. Oh, also, the opening is worth noting.

As far as other anime I’ve watched recently goes, I caught a bit more of Dennou Coil at MIT. The show is certainly getting a lot better as it begins to explore its mysteries, and the “filler” has become quite entertaining, too. The show has a lot of character, which I admire. Not sure if it’s rewatchable for me, but I actually do like it now. You know, I have to thank MIT for showing things like Baccano! and Dennou Coil– things I was reluctant to go and watch/finish for myself due to my own stubbornness. So yeah, good on them.

Still trudging through Shinigami no Ballad, almost a week past the set review deadline. Sorry Seven Seas, I just ain’t a fast reader, and it doesn’t help that the story I’m on I saw before in anime form. It’s not a bad book, but it’s not especially amazing either. I think I liked the first story a bit better.

Anyways, that’s it for tonight. I’m out.

Original Post

I don’t know how to feel about this one. The biggest problem was that I forgot to draw Rets in panel 2, so I had to hastily sketch him in Photoshop. Though, looking at it now, I kind of like that. Tina’s face also looks too long in some planels. Bleh. I guess I like it more than others. And yes, I know that messy little scribble on the sketch pad doesn’t really look like Roro– I didn’t wanna put to much time into drawing man porn. The joke seems solid enough to me.

Anime Boston is in something like two weeks. I’ll be there, but I won’t have a table or anything. I’ll just be walking around with some dudes. Most likely my server admin and Seiya (gotta get back in contact with him!) and will probably meet up with DS and Hinano.

About half-way through Dennou Coil, and it’s finally starting to show its stuff. The fish episode and the beard episode do a good job of playing with the setting they’ve created far better than the opening episodes. Also, a lot of interesting plot developments are starting to take shape. I actually want to see the next episode, now!

Finished Diebuster again. I almost forgot how incredibly epic the ending was. I almost want to buy those Bandai Visual DVDs, now. Almost.

Anyway, cutting it short today for whatever reason. Got some raws/subs to dig into and a Shuffle! DVD. Later.

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

“no author is stupid enough to talk about their own comic on 4chan, except dan kim”

And indeed, I am not that stupid. Hell, I don’t even post on 4chan. Clearly someone is running around in my skin.

Context would help, I suppose. Rewind to about a week or so ago– I’m bored and decide to google my name, looking to see if people are saying dirty things about me (that’s the one and only reason I blog and make a comic, after all.) I was happy to see that I had hit gold in the form of a 4chan thread. The thread, however, was gone. So, to narrow things down, I only searched for my name within 4chan, and then proceeded to add various other words after my name, trying to get other parts of the thread to appear in the google excerpt. Nothing of much interest showed up, but after that I searched for my name on 4chan daily. Throughout the week I came across more threads, all deleted, and repeated the same process to try and get the general gist of them. I came across remarks such as “stop posting wildarmsheero” and “gtfo wildarmsheero.” Now, in my mind, “wildarmsheero” was shorthand for “wildarms’ stupid horrible comic fuck that stuff” so I assumed they wanted whoever was posting my comics to stop. It wasn’t until I came across the quote posted above did I conclude that someone was impersonating me. So yeah, guys, I don’t post on 4chan. I’m a 2chan/danbooru guy. On the few times that I do post on 4chan, it’s always as anonymous. Back in ’03 when the site first hit, I did post under wildarmsheero and used a tripcode, but that seemed more common back then. I haven’t done that for a good four or so years now, though. Anyway, one good thing came out all of this. In one of the google excerpts, someone mentioned that I had dated the last comic incorrectly. I have since amended the comic, and thanked 4chan accordingly.

But, enough about that. Surprisingly enough, I like how this comic turned out. The background is pretty solid, and the character art is mostly ok. Rets looked pretty weird in some cuts, but I managed to hide the parts I didn’t like with cropping and shading. Still, it’s not perfect, I make my usual mistakes, but I like it. One thing I have to improve on is fabric folds and shading. Unlike anatomy, I can’t quite see the method in the madness that is fabric folds, and to a lesser extent, shading. Guess I have to do more life drawing. Don’t know if the script is funny, since I’ve read it 100 times and wrote it like months ago.

Don’t have much to talk about anime-wise. Winter season is slow, and I haven’t yet picked up any older titles to plow through. Newest Zetsubou Sensei was amazing for a number of reasons, but I don’t wanna spoil it. Other than that, I watched the first four episodes of Dennou Coil at MIT. I decided to give the show another shot since they were showing it. I still find it really boring, but it’s better in large chunks rather than bite-size portions.

Anyway, that’s all for this week. 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…)