A Bit of Background

I thought some people might be interested in my review process and some of the things that influence how I rate a show. And if no one is interested, well, tough. I'm bored and wanted something to write about, and this is what came to mind :)

First, a bit of history. I've been an anime fan since I was a youngster, though my first big obsession was with Sailor Moon, when it arrived on these shores chopped-up and dubbed-over. Then there was Ronin Warriors and various other scattered series. I was, unfortunately, one of those kids who didn't have access to Cartoon Network at the appropriate time to see Gundam Wing, Cowboy Bebop, and various other iconic series first run on American television, so my education in that area is still lacking somewhat. However, things didn't really start getting kicked into high gear until I entered college and subsequently joined the University of Minnesota Manga Anime Society, a student-run anime club on campus. It was there that I first encountered fan subs, both VHS and digital. The first series I ever downloaded was Azumanga Daioh, and it only went forward from there.

Of course like many fans, after a period of intense fandom, I gained experience with various types of anime series and began to get more critical. I went through numerous dry spells where I felt like there was just nothing good to be seen. Finally, in probably February or March of 2007, I decided that I would make it my goal to preview new episodes of anything I could find for the new Spring season coming up, and write about them on my Live Journal, so that my friends could read the reviews and save themselves some time. I think from that season I ended up watching, in whole or in significant part, a good 8 or 9 series, and began to realize just how many potentially good shows were flying under my radar. So each season since I've entered into with renewed enthusiasm, and I generally take away at least a couple of new series to enjoy.

Late in 2007, my friend Boris came to me with a proposal - he wanted to work on web design, and I wanted a better way to get my reviews out there, so he though we could team up and do a website. It's worked out well ever since. He's good at the coding part of the website, which he does all by hand in a text editor, and my output of writing is pretty consistent, so there's a good stream of new content.

As for my review process, it goes something like this. Each new anime season, beginning in January, April, July and October with some stragglers scattered throughout, I spend a week or a week-and-a-half amassing a collection of first episodes, generally though bittorrent (though with the advent of more streaming options, I feel like that might change in the future). When I have a decent backlog, I start my writing. I do a bit of research on the general genre and plot of the series before I watch it (that's where the links in the reviews come from), because some of them get confusing and I have trouble remembering character names otherwise. I watch the episode, summarizing each half at the time of the viewing, and take a screencap from each half to include with the review. After the viewing, I write down my thoughts, which may focus on any number of aspects, including the story, the animation, comparisons to similar series, etc. I sum up the more important thoughts in the Pros and Cons section. After editing (which I do to varying degrees based on how busy I am), I email a batch of reviews off to Boris so that he can upload them to the site and include them in the archives and whatnot.

I think here I'll comment on/defend certain aspects of my reviews. First of all, I don't include numerical ratings in my reviews, and never really have. I think numbers are too arbitrary and don't really say anything in the end. I feel like, even if I don't like a series, if I give reasons why I didn't like it, even someone who disagrees with me could read the review and know if the show might be something that they like. For example, if I said something like "this series is gross because all the girls have gigantic tits", someone who's into gigantic tits would know that it was something they might like. Saying "This show is a 3/10" doesn't really give that kind of feedback.

I think that there are a lot of people out there who might take issue with the fact that I base my opinion on 1 episode, because that doesn't take into account the entire story or any potential character development that might happen throughout the series. While I see where they're coming from, I am also well aware of the fact that introductory episodes are often what get a decent budget and the most attention from the staff, since they have to get people interested in the series somehow. I can think of very few series that change significantly in tone or content enough to completely change my opinion of them. I also don't have time to research or watch every series from beginning to end since I have a day job and only have evenings and weekends free (and I *gasp* do things other than just watch anime in my free time). So first impressions are key with me.

I don't tend to like or dislike any particular genre. Actually, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think that any genre can have good series and bad series. I haven't had particularly good luck with certain genres, including yaoi, harem and general fanservice series, but I'm making a solid attempt to at least try and find a couple series from each genre that I would feel comfortable recommending to a fan of that genre. I would like to be able to judge series more on how good they are as compared to the standards of their genre rather than my own personal objections to them, but I certainly won't stop pointing fingers at things that I think suck crap :)

I hope that provides some insight into what goes on around here. If anyone ever has any questions, feel free to email me (jessi at s1e1 dot com) and I would be happy to answer them here.

Haruhi - New Season or Just a Tease?

So by now just about every anime fan with a pulse is aware of the fact that, during a "rebroadcast" of the original series, a new episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya aired, which was inserted into its appropriate place in the show's chronology. There seems to be a lot of confusion as to whether this was a one-time thing, a bonus episode, or whether this signals a whole new set of episodes that will air as the rest of the season unfolds. I myself am confused, because most reports that I've read on the matter haven't been very forthcoming or explanatory, and there are some decent reasons why either explanation could be possible.

On one hand, there was a report a few months ago about a new season of Haruhi, which was quickly retracted and explained as a "misunderstanding" regarding a rebroadcast of the original series. I believe that this was also accompanied by some concept and character art in a print magazine that featured characters that were not in the original series (though I don't feel like going through the trouble to personally verify this). Considering that this new Episode 08 of the show showed up so nonchalantly, people (including some very passionate fans who are friends of mine) are speculating that the whole rebroadcast was a ruse and that the new episodes are a surprise for fans.

Of course, that's what rubs me the wrong way about all this. One would think that a new season of one of the most popular anime series of the past few years would be paraded out with all the pomp and circumstance the studio and broadcaster could afford. It's almost an assured audience. Yet, the only foreknowledge people had of the new episode was the title listed on the TV schedule. Personally, I think this situation makes sense if the episode is simply a bonus for loyal fans watching the rebroadcast of the series, but I feel like the news of a new season would be all over the place by now if it were really happening.

Of course, the next few weeks will probably help to explain the situation further, and if the wishes of fans come true, there'll be more new content to drool over.

Update: Check the comments for news on the new schedule (thanks to BigFire). I guess it's true that the new season is worming its way into the rebroadcast.

For some reason I find this to be a very smug move by all involved, but people who are really intense fans of the original series should be deliriously happy right about now.

AMV Recommendations 5/6/09

One thing that I enjoy in addition to watching anime is watching, and very occasionally making, AMV's. Every once in a while I happen to come across some that I think are pretty good, and worth passing on. Hopefully I can make this a regular feature here. All links are to Anime Music Videos profile pages, so you will have to be a member of that site before being able to download them (it's a free membership).

A Melody of Memories by Kitty-Galia.

A crossover between Utena and Romeo x Juliet, which involves a love triangle between Romeo, Juliet, and Miki. Interesting idea, and I'm always sort of fascinated by effective crossovers.

He-Mon and the Masters of the Spiralverse by Ultimatetransfan.

An amusing parody using visuals from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and the audio from the old He-Man and the Masters of the Universe TV show.

Watchmanga, which I also just realized is by Ultimatetransfan.

Pretty decent interpretation of the Watchmen trailer, using footage from Cowboy Bebop, Akira and Darker than Black.

Next time maybe I'll post something other than just crossovers and parodies, hehe.

Central Park Media and Utena

So by now anyone who cares has heard the sad news that Central Park Media, American Licensor of such titles as Patlabor, Descendents of Darkness (Yami no Matsuei), Project A-Ko, to name a few, has filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and closed its doors. As one of the trailblazers in the 1990's for releasing anime DVDs, it's definitely depressing to see them go. I fondly remember watching the various Project A-Ko OVAs with my friend in middle school. Of course, the most significant loss for me and many of my close friends is a little series called Revolutionary Girl Utena.

I might be revealing my age a bit by saying that, when I was first starting to get into anime fandom heavily in the early 2000's, Utena was one of the series my local anime club was screening. Only the first two DVDs were out at the time, so when we got to the second big story arc, we were reduced to suffering through some VHS fansubs that had something wrong with the tracking so the sound would buzz every couple of seconds. And you know what? The series was so good that we suffered through it willingly. Some years later, after Central Park Media had released the rest of the series, we watched it again, and even though the demographic of the club had altered itself quite a bit, people still demanded to watch it in its entirety.

Now that CPM has disappeared, the remaining stock of DVDs are probably going to become hot property. Luckily I completed my set sometime last year or the year before, and I have doubles of the movie (I swear those things keep asexually reproducing on my DVD shelf, since I always seem to have more than one no matter how many times I think I've given one copy away). I keep pondering whether or not someone will rescue the license for the show or not. On the one hand, the fanbase for the show is quite small, but on the other, they are passionate beyond belief. It's difficult to say whether Funimation will continue to act as Anime Jesus and keep saving shows like this, or whether the show will fade into eventual obscurity.

Of course, one positive development regarding the series is that it recently received a remastered release on R2 DVD. There's no news yet of this coming to R1, but some rips have been popping up on the internets as of late, and they look beautiful. I took the liberty of putting together some comparison screencaps from the first episode. The images on the left are from the CPM region 1 DVD release that I bought ages ago, and the images on the right are from an mp4 video encoded version of the remaster with subtitles applied. Click on the picture for a bigger version.



























I'm excited to watch the series again with color correction and decent video quality.