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.
Will add shading, background and other stuff later.
I finished Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei a good while ago in its most raw of forms, but upon the release of the last episode with subtitles I decided to watch it again, this time with the convenience of a translation. However, this rewatch wasn’t a full marathon. I stopped watching the subs after a.f.k. dropped off the map and decided to continue on when either a) a.f.k. came back or b) anon/volans completed their subs. b) came first, so I downloaded episodes 5-13 and watched them over the course of a few days.
Subtitles certainly did help the experience somewhat. Watching the show raw, I could get the gist of a number of routines, but a lot also left me in the dark. What didn’t help the experience was the speed at which I watched the episodes. This show just does not work marathoned.
After Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei gets done with introducing the characters, it switches to a pretty basic formula. By the time we get to Zoku, all the girls are already introduced and the episode format is changed so that instead of one sketch across 24 minutes, we get three. As one can imagine, watching these episodes back to back does get a tad repetitive. This doesn’t especially hurt the enjoyment I derive from the show, since the episodes are still enjoyable as pieces of Art, but as far as comedy goes it’s hard to laugh at the same thing over and over again. Shinbo & Co. try to mix it up a bit with some bits of animation and voice acting madness, but that only goes so far.
Taking the show in small doses is probably the best way to go about watching it. When I was watching the show weekly, I laughed at it more, even if I didn’t understand a few things. I think Zetsubou really benefited from its weekly airing, but given the rate at which subs surfaced, it was hard for non-Japanese speakers to truly have that experience. As such, people who try to marathon the thing now may grow sick of it due to its shamelessly repetitive nature.
Another thing kind of hurts the experience for us English speakers are the subtitles. I said before that they help, but they also detract from the experience somewhat. Zetsubou is a wordy show. Not just in dialogue, but when it comes to on-screen text as well. Because of this overload of text, slow readers like myself can only half concentrate on the voice actors’ delivery of their lines, which is a shame since this show has some killer acting which really helps push the humour across.
I guess like all Shinbo shows, Zetsubou is best appreciated if you’re pretty well-versed in the Japperknees language as well as culture. This is of course only more of an incentive for me to continue on with my Japanophile efforts and secure a trip or ten over Japan.
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.
So, today I was bored during my New Media New Markets class. While teach was spouting off nothing in particular, I was googling for things. One of the things I googled for was Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Under “images”, I came across this curious screencap. I’ve recapped it since the original had a watermark.
This is from episode 4 of the first series. Just fresh off skimming episodes of Shuffle! Memories, I noticed an interesting parallel…
I wouldn’t put it past Shaft. It’s just such a good seiyuu_joke. And subtle, too. I didn’t even notice it when watching the episode.
Or maybe I’m thinking too hard.
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.
I figure I’ll bunch all this stuff into one entry, just because.
Thanks to an overseas DVD trade between Shiro and myself, I was finally able to secure the first volume of Nurse Witch Komugi. Having finished SoulTaker a few months back, naturally the next course of action was to dig into these wonderfully fluffy and sugary OVAs, hilariously completely different from the work which they are derived. As of right now, I’ve seen three episodes– 1, 2 and 2.5. In other words, the whole first volume.
A long while back, some fool told me that the jokes would be quite difficult to get, given they referenced seemingly obscure things. As such I was ready for a Pani Poni Dash! styled barrage of weirdness, but almost thankfully, I got something slightly more sane. The show really is your typical otaku moe-fest, with its share of reused gags and routines. It’s very entertaining, well animated, and easy to watch. The only parts where people may get thrown off are at the ends of each of the episodes, which usually feature a reference to something uniquely Japanese. For instance, the first episode had Komugi fighting against a giant Mona (complete with kopipe-beam and other associated 2ch madness) and the second episode had Komugi (all five of her, for some reason) done up as your favourite Science Ninja Team. I suppose if one doesn’t know anything at all about anime, then such things may come off as alien, but for the most part, this shit is basics. Perhaps it gets wackier later on– I don’t know. In the meantime however, I’ll just conclude that the guy who was on about this show being impossible to crack is an idiot, because, well, he is.
The funniest part about this DVD is that you can really see its age in the translation, mostly due to the fact that “moe” is translated as “charming.” I can just imagine the translator wracking his brains over this word which, for the most part, was pretty unknown to US fandom at the time. The image of him trying to define the word for himself and then finding an appropriate English equivalent simply sends me into fits of uncontrollable laughter. “Charming” Medical Shower, lol.
Well, I suppose it makes more sense than “turn ons”
Apparently Kadokawa is cracking down on fanworks for some asinine reason. I can kind of understand the logic behind knocking openings and endings off video sites (even if doing so is incredibly stupid) but cracking down on fanworks is tantamount to shooting any love for your product in the fucking face, especially when it comes to properties such as Haruhi. Haruhi is driven by its fandom– the reason so much attention is still focused around it almost two years later is due to its insane fandom. Telling fans to stop making works of love based on your property is basically the same as telling them to not like it. Is it so hard to see that fanworks are pure and unadulterated works of love? Why squash that creative spirit? It doesn’t hurt the company at all– in fact it only helps them, given it’s fucking free advertising. Doujin sales ain’t gonna hurt you Kadokawa, so chill. Neither will MAD movies, for that matter.
Shinbo is motherfucking holding out on us all for not revealing where he gets his drugs. I’d go as far as to say that the last third of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei episode 7 is a landmark in Japanese animation for just how fucking out there shit can get. They don’t just switch between different animation styles in one segment, they go through different techniques, even brining flipbooks and claymation into the mix. It’s fucking bizarre. I’ll supply for your the tip of the iceberg of madness in the form of a screencap right now.
Yes, that is Bob Ross painting Konata. And it only gets weirder from there.
“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.
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.
I don’t have any kind of musical vocabulary at all, so bear with me. The full version of Kuusou Rumba leaves something to be desired. The first 90 or seconds that they made for TV sound great, but after that it really just falls apart (because, you know, Things Fall Apart.) The song seems very much divided into parts, and while these parts sound mostly ok, they don’t flow together too well. That’s really my main problem with the song– it feels rather disjointed. I’ve listened to it a couple of times, and it’s grown on me a little, but I just can’t like it as much as Hito to shite Jiku ga Burete iru. Though, it took me a while to dig that one, so maybe it’ll be the same here.
As far as the new opening animation goes, I have mixed feelings. SHAFT is known for their unique openings, but they’re also known for revising them over a period of time. I really like the look and feel of this new opening, but it feels really unfinished. The first 45 seconds have no animation at all; just random shots of body parts plus credits. While this is fine, it just feels like filler for real animated stuff that’ll go there. I hope that’s the case, because the animated parts in the last 45 seconds are pretty super. I dig Itoshiki’s outfit (what is he wearing, by the way? An old military uniform?), the dance routine, Itoshiki and stalkergirl embracing while falling, and Itoshiki hanging alone on a tree. It’s all so stupidly emo looking that it’s awesome. Well, aside from the dance, that’s just awesome. Hopefully they’ll add more to it. We didn’t get the real, completed opening to season 1 till about episode 5 anyway, so hopefully by this season’s episode 4/5 we’ll see an improvment.
The show itself is good, though.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
First comic of ‘08! It looks kind of bad! It’s not totally horrible, but it’s not totally good, either. I do like Tina’s yandere face in panel 4, though. After reading this comic over and over, I realized that it’s actually just this comic + this comic. Oops. This comic plays up the slowly developing insanity in Tina. Normally she’s a cheerful fangirl with pretty well rounded opinions on things, but if you hung around Rets as much as she does, certainly you’d have instances where you’d crack. Rets, however, is smarter than he looks, and knows how the right time to exit. He should thank his lucky stars he’s not dead on the floor. Yet.
The severe lack of Nagi doujins out of C73 is a problem, though. I let last Comiket off since the show was just beginning, so naturally I assumed there wouldn’t be a good turn out. But now the show is almost over, we are lacking in high quality Nagi porn! What is with the fixation on Hinagiku, huh? Tell me, Japan! Actually, I’m sure Japan would tell me to stop whining and just go over there to buy the things myself. Which I would like to do. Eventually. I may do a comic around that idea for next week, but it’s not really fully planned out, yet. In any case, I am in despair. To console myself I’m downloading older Hayate doujins, hoping they will be of Nagi. It’s fine, but I want stuff that’s FRESH. FRESH, NEW AND WELL DRAWN. Sigh. Comiket, I will take you on. One of these days.
New season has started, and as usual, I’m not watching the first episode of everything like every other blogger. I am a discerning individual, and can tell just from promotional art whether or not a show will be for me or not. My judgment has rarely done me wrong, so I’m fine with not watching everything. I have watched some things though, those two things being Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Rosario + Vampire. I won’t say much here, since I’m reserving my thoughts for a blog post that may or may not happen. I will say that SZS 2 is more of the same except with better animation and the style may be a bit more off-beat and wacky. Rosario + Vampire is a stupid fanservice show, but provided Gonzo doesn’t fuck up the animation, I could watch that for 13 episodes. As of right now currently looking forward to subs of Minami-ke ~okawari~, Gunslinger Girl 2, and the end of Sky Girls (I need to finish my year in review, dammit!)
Before I take off, I’d like to mention a few things. The comic has gotten some press again, this time in the form of the Anime Genesis Podcast, and Aarin’s Blog. Anime Gen declares me webcomic of the year, and Aarin gave me a fairly well thought out and honest review. Thanks to both of them.
That’s it for this week. I head back to school next week, but I’ll try to push out another comic before then. Later!
The Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei character song album is probably worth your money, or at the very least your download. Me, being the cheap son of a bitch that I am have not bought it (actually, last night was the first I heard of it) but it’s pretty rockin’, so I plan to! In the same way that I keep meaning to buy that Air OST, or that Tsukuyomi Best Collection, or that Pani Poni Dash OST, or all those Pizzicato Five CDs. This shit costs money, ok. Anyway, I don’t have anything of a musical vocabulary at all, but from what I can tell most of these songs cover a wide variety of musical genres with a wacky JapperKnees twist. Probably not something to listen to around the ippanjin, but a must for all you sick connoisseurs of wotaku music (such as myself.)
Sample Tracks
Also, a.f.k. put out another episode.
Was completed on the 7th, but due to a power outage (nice going DC) and me being stuck on my brother’s PS3 until after midnight, it is being posted on the 8th. I am mostly happy with the CG work, even if it didn’t turn out exactly as planned. Tried to go Shinkai with a few panels just to try that out, and it works to some degree. Drawings are pretty bleh. Seems my job has thoroughly ruined my hands. I’ll try better next time. Hope you all can tell that’s Yuuko Gotou and Aya Hirano.
Needed a sub because there were too many words that I couldn’t understand.
As far as hilarity goes, this one was probably back down to the level of episode 1. This is mostly because I don’t find Kaede all that funny. The whole split personality gag doesn’t really click with me. She’s amusing enough though. Not really a fan of blond hair, however. I liked Tarou though. What made me laugh at the first two episodes were how they took very serious issues, such as stalkers, and didn’t take them seriously at all. Tarou is an illegal immigrant girl living in Japan under a fake name (clearly fake, because I believe Tarou is a boy’s name?) with a bunch of other illegal immigrants. The level to which this issue is mocked is almost offensive, and thusly incredibly hilarious. Tarou also worked as a hilariously sarcastic commentary on Japanese society. She was saying everyone in the country is so nice, because they call people cute even when they aren’t, and that certain kinds of people are “nice” to little children. God, that last part killed me.
Direction wise it was the standard Shinbo fare. By now I’ve gotten used to the style of the show, so none of its stylistic eccentricity really wows me, but it’s all good. I didn’t really like how the opening scene in the class room lasted so long, but it did produce some nice shots. Overall it was the same as always, but good.
I actually finished this about a week ago, but didn’t want to post it right off the heels of the last comic, so I decided to wait. Not sure how fresh the news is now, but it’s not a month old or anything, so I feel posting about it is relevant. For those who don’t have the slightest idea as to what the comic is about or what I’m talking about, kindly make your way over here.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a pretty spectacular just two episodes in. It bleeds with the sexiest brand of negativity I’ve ever seen. I love it! I simply love it! Also, Shinbo’s direction is as experimental as ever. This is probably his best work already. I may actually start blogging it episode by episode and be a true blue cliche anime blogger! Hurrah! Ugh.
Gurren Lagann 16 was all recap. Nothing in the way of newly recorded lines or anything which left me a bit cold. It just felt like a long music video. The ending sequence with all the concept art was real nice though, and the post timejump footage looks promising. I’d really like some of that concept art in an artbook. Here’s hoping.
Ok, that’s all for today. Got some stuff to do. STUFF.
Episode 2 was just as good, if not better than episode 1. I actually laughed at a lot of it raw since I could get the basic gist of things. I only fear that it’ll become a bit formulaic. Once again, this episode also started with Itoshiki trying to kill himself, Kafka stepping in in an attempt to stop him, but actually making the situation worse, and him asking “WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE IF I DIED?!” This is funny once or twice, but I hope they mix it up a bit in later episodes. However, the show had a great chance to show a lot of “its stuff” this time around. Episode 1 was mostly introduction, but now they can get on to the good stuff.
Also a ton of references. I caught a Hidamari Sketch nod, Motsu, Konata and MASSUGU GO.
Oh, and it looks the opening and ending remained the same. Someone told me they’d be different from episode 2 and onwards. I guess not.
The Good: Just about everything! Yuuko Goto’s even in it!
The Bad: Since it’s SHAFT the TV animation will be all over the place but fixed for the DVD release
Ok, if you hate this show you simply have terrible taste and can’t appreciate art. It’s that simple. You’re a moron if you hate this show.
So yeah. This is Akiyuki Shinbo’s latest opus, SAYONARA ZETSUBOU SENSEI. I would explain the premise, but this guy does it better. Probably because he can read and understand Japanese while I can’t. I couldn’t understand a damned thing in this show, but fuck was it beautiful. Animation wise and direction wise. This isn’t some cheap ass Negima!? or Hidamari Sketch– this show looks like it has money behind it. Well, at least the first episode. I don’t have much hope for the rest after this, but I know it’ll all be fixed for the DVD anyway.
On Hidamari and Negima!?, I noticed aspects of both in this. I had a theory that Shinbo was treating Negima!? as a playground for directorial weirdness (but eventually gets bored about 7 episodes in) and Hidamari Sketch as an opertunity to try new looks and styles. Some shots in the show are similar to that of Negima!?, such as the shots of the classroom’s name placard; while some shots borrow Hidamari’s style of using big blocks of solid colour, manipulating only the shapes with little or no lineart. Shinbo’s trademark dramatic lighting is here too, along with a lot of silhouettes, and odd colour palettes. Shinbo’s also taken on a very classic Japanese look with this show, but I’m not sure if that’s more the influence of the comic or him just indulging in his own interests.
Strangely enough, and this doesn’t happen too often, I noticed the background music in this show. It’s spectacular stuff! Really complements the feel of the show. I’ll be picking up this OST as soon at it happens. I don’t remember the opening and ending too well, except for that they were good.
The opening and ending animations on the other hand are also quite good. Well, this episode opens with an opening that’s all text, with photos of a bald guy flashing at some point (he appears throughout the episode too, sometimes as a censor to cover girls’ privates. It really kills my boner.) The ending animation is absolutely gorgeous. I’ll reiterate my first statement somewhat here– if you even care about the art of 2D animation, you will like this ending. It is a MASTERY of what 2D work can do. Ok, maybe I won’t go that far, but it’s quite fantastic.
In my mind I’d like to think this is Shinbo’s dream work, in the same way Paprika is Satoshi Kon’s dream work. I’ll come to an exact conclusion about that once I’ve seen the entire series though. It wasn’t too long ago (well, I guess it was) when I saw the first episode of Negima!? and caught the Shinbo bug, thinking the series was going to be great. Because of Negima’s steady declide of directorial merit (that said, it’s leagues above a lot of other crap out there) I’ll still approach this one with a degree of caution.
I do have to applaud it for successfully scratching a big itch of mine that has gone unscratched for far too long. The “extremely artsy fartsy dark comedy itch.” Been bugging me for years.
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