The Fierce War of 2008: Director’s Commentary
Jesus Christ, is it already January 9th, 2009? Fuuuuck, dude. Man.
2008! Looking back on it all, it was a pretty good year. While the there were a bunch of shows I should have just skipped, there were also a whole lot of shows I liked quite a bit. But I’m serious when I say that I should have skipped those shows. I probably should have skipped a lot of the B- shows, too. Know why? Because I watched over sixty shows this year. Sixty shows! That’s twice as many shows than I watched last year. God, how many hours is that? No wonder I couldn’t go back and watch old things like Ideon; I was too busy watching the latest shitty episode of Rosario + Vampire!
With that in mind, my resolution for 2009 is to watch less new shows. In fact, I’m going to limit the amount of new shows I take on each season to around five or six, as opposed to ten or twelve. I love Japanese cartoons, but when you watch so many mediocre titles that you can’t really bring yourself to drop due to nice character designs, you really start to get jaded. This also applies to wholly entertaining, but also disposable shows. ToLoveRU was great fun, but what did I gain from it, aside from an appreciation for Mikan and doujinshi of her? It is however good to watch these shows, just to get them out of your system. 2008 was actually only my fourth year watching anime as it aired in Japan, so I needed a year where I could just binge on junk.
But next year, I’m slimming down! I only intend to partake of shows I really like, or shows that get positive press from the right people. If I can whittle my viewing down to a select few Strike Witches, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu or even Kure-nai quality shows, I’ll be more than content. And what shows those were! All great, and all for different reasons! Man, anime sure is rad.
Of course, with less things to watch, I’ll probably have even more free time than I already do. I’ll probably spend that time doing other geeky things, but I also intend to watch a bunch of older titles. Over the past couple of years I’ve accumulated a bunch of shows from years past that I really should watch, but never have! The shows I have range from classics like Zambot 3, to shows AWO hate like G-on Riders and Popotan. I also have these big Gao Gai Gar boxsets sitting here, begging me to be watched.
All that said, time I could spend watching older anime next year will probably partly go towards time exploring the wild and crazy land that is Japan! Yup, I’m going over there, and it’s going to be rad. I’m not quite sure if I can swing Comiket yet, but if I do there is definitely going to be a podcast. Taking that into consideration, that extra time will also be spent studying my Japanese. I forgot all forty kanji I knew!
So long 2008! It’s been cool and all, but it’s time to finally let you go.
But hey! Before you guys click away to whatever site you want to read next, take some time to play this song I’ve posted, and and imagine names like Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hideaki Anno scrolling up on a giant imaginary movie screen to a backdrop of stars, with remains of Char’s Hyaku Shiki floating around. That’d be cool, you know?
[audio:http://mistakesofyouth.com/music/05%20Ima%20wa%20Oyasumi.mp3]
so its the end of a era 2008 is a closeman,
I have been enjoying your podcast, Comic and blog for about 5 months now and its becoming a dayly routine to check it out.
So cheers to the new year of anime!
you misspelled Tomino
Great resolution with watching less new anime. I can’t even grasp wathcing 60 2008 anime when most of them sucked. You need to grow some balls and start dropping shows. You don’t have to do it in half an epsode, but you’re making progress with stuff like Yozakura Quartet.
Jaded writers are more fun to read, ala Tycho.
“Sixty shows! That’s twice as many shows than I watched last year. God, how many hours is that? No wonder I couldn’t go back and watch old things like Ideon; I was too busy watching the latest shitty episode of Rosario + Vampire!”
Or have the time to, you know, get a girlfriend. I kid, I kid.
You should have dropped shows?
I watched Hyakko ALL THE WAY THROUGH.
I actually dropped Hyakko after two or three episodes… forgot to note it down because it was so unremarkable!
I put Hyakko on hold after two episodes too, but few weeks later when I was bored I picked it up again… And guess what, it turned out to be a decent series. Well at least good enough to not regret the time spent watching it. Once the story stops focusing only on the four main girls, it starts to be quite amusing, at least in my opinion.
In regards to future viewing, Gao Gai Gar is awesome (though you probably already know that), but I have yet to meet anyone who liked Popotan…
I was referring to that. In fact you did note it down that you dropped that series for being unremarkable.
I was poking fun at the fact that you said you should have dropped shows, when you actually did, whereas I didn’t.
I’d say something constructive, but that song is too good. Ah, it brings back memories and fills my heart with a strange feeling that only a poet could describe. And even a poet wouldn’t be able to accurately describe the feeling.
~ Amuro . . . ~