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.

Instead of doing three at a time, I’m just going to blaze through all of these at once.

Akikan

Oh Akikan! What could have been! You had such a wonderfully dumb concept! If handled correctly, you could have been immensely entertaining! It was, however, not meant to be. If episode two is any indication, the staff doesn’t even care about this show. I haven’t seen something this ugly since that time I watched ten episodes of Soul Link, which is quite hilarious, since Suzuhira Hiro did the designs for that show as well. To make matters even worse, this show is by Brains Base. I thought better of you guys! I mean, Natsume Yuujinchou was boring as shit, but at least it looked good. This is just an abomination. Do not watch it.

Maria†Holic

The dastardly combination of Akiyuki Shinbo and Studio SHAFT (AKA: SHAFTXSHINBO) are at it again, this time with the amazingly sassy and abusive Maria†Holic. Though, quite frankly, I’m a little disappointed. The show carries itself on its witty writing more than anything else, and when that happens in a Shinbo show you know something is wrong. Him and his cohorts have boiled the signature SHAFTXSHINBO style down to a science, while at the same time bringing nothing new to the table. The show is playing it pretty straight, and is more on the Negima!? side than the Tsukuyomi ~Moon Phase~ side as far as directorial eccentricity goes. I like it, but I expect a lot more. The opening sequence does more or less make up for all of the show’s shortcomings, though. And the writing really is great–Maria is such a dickhead.

Minami-ke ~Okaeri~

Well, that feels a lot better. After stumbling around a bit with the slightly deformed baby that was Minami-ke Okawari, our good friends at asread have done their homework, and figured out just what makes Minami-ke good. Okaeri is a step back into the snappy direction and quirky writing that made the very first Minami-ke a joy to watch. Instead of trying to force their own stylings onto the production, asread is keeping to the spirit of the first series as much as possible, and are doing a fairly good job. The colour scheme is set back to the warm tones that brought the first series to life, and the character designs are a fair compromise between asread’s style and the style used in Doumo’s series. While not as horrible as bloggers make it out to be, the artwork in the series ranges from having moments of greatness, to simply being okay. It’s rough, but it’s still pretty good.

Rideback

This one fooled me. I came in expecting mecha warfare, but instead I got some seinen college story with strangely girly character designs. I don’t really know if this’ll hold my interest, but episode one didn’t totally suck. The story of a girl losing her talent for ballet then finding herself again on some random robot motorcycle is dumb, but it didn’t weigh things down too much.

Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo (Sora Kake Girl)

I was unable to tell if this first episode was a mess of cliché on purpose or not, but once you’re half-way into episode two it’s pretty clear that this is Sunrise parodying themselves. This is another one where I’m not sure if it’ll be able to hold my interest, but it has nice character designs on its side, and pretty solid Sunrise production values. It’s probably better than Code Geass, but lacks the entertainment value.

Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai (Munto TV)

Munto is kind of like Kyoto Animation’s Daicon IV opening animation, except much longer. It’s a pretty generic fantasy story, but you can tell the staff’s heart is in it. This first episode is just the original 2003 OVA with some slight touch-up work, so naturally it looks pretty dated. While not as shiny and bright as modern day Kyoto Animation titles, everything moves well, and some shots look like really good pictures you’d see on pixiv, just animated. The female character designs are all great, with a couple of especially cute lolis in the cast.

Not doing Shikabane Hime Kuro since I’m not done with Aka yet.

Original Post

Oh god, here’s another comic. I really liked the sketches for this one, but as I continued I started to like it less and less. Looking at it now, I’m pretty indifferent towards it. It could stand to be better, but I don’t hate it. I tried some new things, like correctly sized heads and conventional panel layout, and they work pretty well. The backgrounds are the usual mess of bad mouse painting mixed with pictures I steal from Google images and Tokyo Kid’s official site (which seems to be down at the moment, hm.) I don’t think I’ve made this clear, but I do steal a lot of images when I make comics. I know this is fairly obvious, but I figure I should make it known that I’m not pretending all of Brad’s Hawaiian shirts are my own designs. They’re all stolen. But lots of artists appropriate imagery in similar ways, so I don’t feel too bad. Oh yeah, speaking of stolen images, I’m not going to provide an uncensored version of this comic just so you can see the horrible shota shit Tina is holding. If you really want to see it, hit up Mandarake’s shota section. It’s like the second book there. I didn’t want to hang around too long, that shit is gross.

Another podcast came into existence a day or so ago. It’s me, Omo and Link going on for about fifty minutes about that show everyone has been ripping their manga up over. I’m going to try and do a show with Señor Link again about that Touhou cartoon Maikaze released a while ago. That’ll be neat.

I mentioned last rant that I threw together a little doujinshi on a request from a friend. I got some requests to buy it from some people over the last week, but before we can print anything we need at the minimum thirty requests. We’re not quite there yet. It’s only three bucks, and it’s pretty funny even if you haven’t seen the series in question. So buy! Buy! Buy! We can also do digital copies, but if anything’s going to be printed, we need at least thirty people.

I did my first bit of fanart for 2009, and once again it’s a picture of Chiaki being touched in a bad way. I did this at the beginning of 2008, too. I have no idea why. I’m not even that wild about Chiaki. I mean, she’s cute, but not one of my top 5 lolis or anything. Oh well.

A bunch of cool anime has started, and the coolest is probably Maria+Holic. I don’t want to say too much, as I’m already planning on saying a bunch in a future season review post, but it’s pretty good. It’s not really as crazy as I want it to be, but what can you do? The opening is pretty rad.

Anyway, we’re at the end again. Later.

Hey guys, there’s stupid people on the internet, and today the stupid people are complaining about the artwork in the newest Minami-ke series, Okaeri.

Take a moment and think: how many anime fans have been to art school? Well, I know one, but that’s about it!

For a period of time–specifically, one and half years–I was an art student. I took all the rigorous foundation classes, and have a pretty good grasp on the fundamentals of good art (even if my own art doesn’t necessarily reflect that.) In my eyes–my trained, art school eyes–Okaeri looks slightly above average. The animation is TV standard, but has some nice fluid cuts here and there. The characters generally stay on model, but there are admittedly a few bad cuts. This is normal. In fact, most of the shows anime fans go crazy over have animation that’s worse than this. I wonder if all the Okaeri detractors also watched and enjoyed both seasons of Rosario + Vampire. Most probably!

The most surprising part about this response is that asread is actually trying to mimic the look of Doumo’s original series. And you know, they’re doing a damn good job! Sure, the character art is more on the Okawari side of things, but the colours and the linework are more in keeping with the show’s first season. I honestly think most of this response is just people jumping on a hate train started by some 2ch faggots.

Bottom line is it’s all fine, and people are dumb. Out of the whole episode, the worst shots my art-school-eyes saw were actually in the ending sequence, and this one frame is kind of bad:

But hey, it’s only on the screen for like two seconds. So whatever.

Between mediocre anime and really great anime lies one’s comfort shows. These are shows that generally don’t aspire to much, but do their thing well. At the same time, there are also shows which fall short of their expected potential, but are still quite entertaining regardless. Here’s a list of 2008 shows that fall into either of those categories.

(more…)

Just got a bent up March 2008 issue of Megami from J-List…

I got this issue for the poster of Kokonoe covered in chocolate, but me being at home, I couldn’t really put that up. Luckily, on the other side is that hot SZS pic.

I ain’t going to sugarcoat things here, but Minami-ke Okawari just isn’t as hot as the show that came before it. It’s inferior in about every way to the studio Doumo produced predecessor from the animation quality to the script writing. That said, I found the show to be at least enjoyable for what it was, and also found it quite fascinating. What makes the show fascinating is the fact that it’s studio asread’s second work. The studio caught my interest with Shuffle!, and since then I’ve been keeping something of an eye on them. If I was this guy then I’d probably keep track of the individual animators, but I can’t read kanjis nor can I identify individual animators’ styles.

I’ll get the boring details out of the way first. The script writing in this series was noticeably weaker than that of the first Minami-ke. It seems the writers at asread can handle a harem well, but tackling slightly more realistic personalties proved to be a challenge for them. By virtue of that fact, a lot of the characters were simplified– boiled down to their core traits, and they worked from there. Some characters were even written off entirely. This was servicable, but because of this dumbing down Okawari lacks the genius found in the first iteration of Minami-ke.

The direction tried its best to be unique, and worked to some degree. The use of question marks or exclamation marks popping from characters’ heads was charming, but other than that it just seemed like another case of asread not really being up to the task of slice of life comedy. The direction is competent, but lacks the energy and flow that made the first series such a smooth operator.

As far as animation goes, it’s noticeably worst than asread’s first work, Shuffle! I haven’t seen Shuffle! in a bit, save the first DVD just recently, but I remember the animation being quite fluid. However, in just the first four episodes that I re-watched recently, there was definitely a consistency issue when it came to art style. Okawari’s animation, from what I can remember, looked consistent the whole way through, it just wasn’t really fluid. Asread doesn’t quite have that Shaft-like dexterity when it comes to stretching the budget, so there were a lot of cuts that just looked awkward, but they made good use of pretty still images when they could.

Alright, now that all that crap is out of the way, time for the good stuff. One thing that struck me here and in Shuffle! was asread’s quirky sense of humour. In Shuffle! it manifested in the form of the girls’ “Defense Forces” and various other small details here and there (the fact that bald old guys attend high school, the first eye-catches.) In Okawari, from what I can remember, it mostly took shape in the opening and ending animations. That strange creative spirit is part of why asread interests me as a studio.

Minami-ke ~Okawari~ is probably an ok-to-good slice of life show at best, and suffers because it was thrown the giant shoes of the previous work and tried its best to fit into them. I won’t say asread didn’t give it the good old college try, but what they eventually churned out here was certainly lacking. That said, I appreciate their ambitious approach to things, and expect greater works in the future!

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.

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.

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.

It goes without saying that Doumo’s rendition of Minami-ke was brilliant, and that such brilliance would be difficult to replicate, especially by a completely different studio. Though, surprisingly enough, Asread’s doing pretty alright. Asread is a fairly new studio, with their resume being chock full of a lot of in-betweening credits and various other wishy-washy roles. Their only true work is Shuffle!, which was spectacular, but with newer studios it’s hard to tell if further works will be just as good as the other one or two things they made. I remember being psyched about Doujin Work, given Remic worked on Magical Pokaan, only to find that it was absolute dreck. Asread, however, doesn’t disappoint with their version of the three Minami sisters.

Now, it’s not all candy and sugar and shit. The show kind of got off on the wrong foot. The first episode was very awkward, like it was trying too hard to duplicate the charming scriptwriting of the first series. About four or so episodes in though, I’m starting to dig it. It could be a case of me just getting used to it, or the series just settled into its groove. The approach to the material is different, yes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. I can’t say I prefer Doumo’s episode structure to Asread’s or vice-versa, but they’re both entertaining, that’s what matters. However, what I do like more about this one are the visuals.

The first thing that struck me about the Shuffle! TV show was how it looked. I loved the character designs, and the use of colour and shading. It all just worked for me. Okawari looks basically the same, so naturally I love it. Everything from the detailed backgrounds, to the colour selections, to the sharp character design– I love it all. This isn’t to say Doumo’s look is inferior. I love the character designs in that one, too (they’re closer to the original, I think?) but as far as the rest goes, it’s good but doesn’t really hit my weak spots.

Anyway, here’s hoping for nine more wonderful episodes.

Ever since I found out what Gegege No Kitarou was, I simply had to partake of it in some form. Everything about it just looked like tons of fun, but it was all in a language that I could just barely understand. What a fucking cocktease. It’s good to know that at least one group of individuals out there cares and have decided to translate what is probably the most faithful Gegege No Kitarou adaptation to date? I dunno, I’m hardly familiar with the franchise at all, but seeing as this is based on the original ORIGINAL Kitarou, I don’t think I’m too wrong in making that claim.

The show doesn’t disappoint. It has a striking visual style, is deliciously dark, and is, as expected, just a lot fun. I can’t write too much about it, since I barely know anything about the characters or the franchise, but what I can say is watch it. If you do maybe Shinsen will sub it faster.

Not really related, but Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei episode 4 was more awesome than all of the first season combined. If you can even fathom that.

The second, and probably last round of reviews for the winter season. Only two this time– probably not going to watch much more than this unless someone decides to sub the new Gegege no Kitarou and/or Noramimi.

• Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-: And I thought they were over-reacting. Then I saw it. I haven’t seen the first one in a bit, so the voice changes didn’t bother me so much, however just about everything else did. Gone is the well thought out cinematic presentation of the original, and instead we are treated to kwality anniemay. This isn’t even average, it’s below average. The animation is stiff, the direction is generic, and the BGM doesn’t work at all. So far the only saving grace for this one may be that I will watch just to see how the story progresses, but in that case I should just shell out for the manga instead. It’s so funny how Artland was able to take a work of art which stood out from the crowd and turn into something that blends far too well into the sea of mediocre anime. Though, I will admit, that one scene with Henrietta hugging Jose’s shirt was quite moe. I need me a job at the Social Welfare Agency!
• Minami-ke ~Okawari~: After I found out that Ayako wasn’t planning on subbing this, I just went for the raws. I’ve only seen one episode so far, but I honestly don’t see why people angry at it. Beyond the opening, the contents of the show are basically the same. I can’t say I understand many of the jokes, but the direction seems similar, the characters appear to be consistent, and it even looks like it picks up where the last one left off! Asread does a fairly good job with the animation, but the odd shot here and there reminds us of the fact that they’re still newbies. Anyway, I like it. Hopefully someone will pick this up, since most of Minami-ke’s charm lies in the dialogue.

That’s it. Considering the titles this season has to offer, I may just end up watching Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Minami-ke ~Okawari~. Rosario + Vampire is pretty insipid and poorly animated, and Spicy Wolf could go up or down for me. I guess the good part is that I’ll have time to catch up with some older shows.

The winter season has started, but unlike every other blog I’ve come across, I am in fact not watching every show that rears its poorly animated head. I am a very discerning creature, and after about four or so years of seriously watching anime I can tell just from various promotional materials what would probably interest me. Thusly, out of all the current offerings that have aired up to this point, I have only watched three shows, all of which I will cover now.

• Rosario + Vampire: Stupid fanservice show– based on a Jump title and animated by studio Gonzo. I can’t really say that this combination is one that produces anything of respectable quality, but so long as Gonzo doesn’t screw up the animation, I could watch this for 13 episodes. If it starts looking like Soul Link then I’ll stop, since poorly rendered fanservice is just retarded.
• Wolf and Spices: Cheap but not ugly animation mixed with a boring premise and as of right now boring characters. Yes, I find it boring, even if Cunningham loves the book to pieces.
• Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: More of the same, which isn’t a bad thing at all. The show has the same clean minimalism that defined the first series, but steps up the key-frames for more fluid sequences. Soundtrack is a mixture of old and new (mostly new) so it’s not like they decided to cheap-out on anything. It’s hard to tell if the humour will remain the same. This episode was mostly bizarre, but only because the first eight or so minutes were based around the nonsensical stories found on the dust-jacket flaps of the original manga. The normal part of the show also has weirder moments too, so it’s hard to tell where this new season will go. Anyway, it’s the best thing I’ve seen so far.

That’s all. Apart from those three, I’m waiting for subs of Minami-ke ~Okawari~ and Gunslinger Girl 2. Yeah, I know they’ve gotten mixed reviews, but I need to see them for myself. I’d watch Hakaba Kitarou and Noramimi if people actually subbed them, though.