Season 1 Episode 1

Small Update

2012-02-01T02:52:05Z

I just updated this season’s “Shorts Sequels and Kids Stuff” entry with a look at the very first (very raunchy) episode of Gokujyo.

Meanwhile, In Real Life…

2012-01-31T02:09:31Z

I’m just updating quickly to mention that I have a close relative in the hospital, so updates may be spotty until the situation calms down. Thanks for your understanding.

So what has everyone been watching so far this season?

Brave 10–First Episode Review

2012-01-29T05:02:44Z

Brave 10

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: Studio Sakimakura

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: Nami is a shrine maiden who becomes the victim of an assassination attempt. Her shrine was also destroyed by Tokugawa Ieyasu's men in the process. In the meantime, Lord Sanada Yukimura has been gathering ten warriors who might just have the power to change history. As these brave men join together, Nami's power begins to awaken.

]]>

Episode Summary: Saizo is a ronin and a loner to boot, but hunger and circumstances lead him towards a chance meeting with Isanami, a shrine maiden without a shrine. Nami explains that her shrine was destroyed and that she's on her way to meet with lord Yukimura to discuss what to do about it. Saizo has no desire to get involved in Isanami's issues, but somehow ends up accompanying her to Ueno castle anyway. He remains with her while she has her audience with Yukimura.

The lord seems unmoved by her plight, and sends them both on their way, but his aloofness turns out to be a ploy; Saizo and Nami turn out to be the perfect bait for the ninjas who've been harassing the area of late. It's then that Nami reveals her true power; the jewel on her headband can summon immense power, and the enemies are vaporized in front of the awestruck group. Saizo finds himself getting more involved than he ever wanted to be as Yukimura gathers the ten most powerful men he can find to fight for him.

Thoughts: When I saw previews for this series, I was hoping that it might take a page from the book of Sengoku Basara and entertain with manly hyperbole. My assumption, though, was that it would most likely be closer to Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan due to its cast, which is comprised of cute and sexy males and their token female friend/audience self-insert. The result lands somewhere in the middle, and while the fact that it achieves neither extreme might be a comfort to some, I found its safe choices and middling production values to be a bit boring.

I don't know how many people are familiar with the "Garfield Minus Garfield" comics, but the person who posts them takes Garfield comic strips and edits Garfield out of them, so that Jon Arbuckle is talking to himself. The original comics are really the pinnacle of banality, and the edits, while simple, are a marked improvement on the source due to how they provoke a kind of melancholy discomfort in the reader. I feel similarly about this episode, which would have been much easier to stomach if Isanami didn't exist. I feel a little bit bad tearing into a female character so readily, but the truth is that Nami sticks out like a sore thumb from the moment she first appears. Her clothing alone reads more as modern-day cosplay fashion than anything that may have been worn during that historical era (not that some of the men are any better, but they're at least dressed in a more subdued way), and her personality is so grating that it's difficult to feel any sympathy for her. As sympathy towards her cause seems to be a prerequisite for being able to invest in this series, I'd say that it doesn't bode well for its future entertainment value.

What this show does seem to have is action, and while it's not quite as balls-to-the-wall insane as Sengoku Basara, there's enough man-to-man fighting that it might be enough to save the series from being entirely skippable. "Might" is the operative word, though, because the style of combat, much like Prince of Tennis' style of tennis playing, could quickly become a string of overpowered magic attacks with no basis in reality. I think that martial arts are fun to watch even when they've been enhanced by various means (the way some live-action films use ropes to embellish the jumps and falls of its actors comes to mind), but when anime series resort to having characters on both sides of the conflict scream out special attacks in lieu of having at least some rudimentary battle choreography, things get boring very quickly.

While this episode didn't have all the obvious makings of a bad reverse-harem series, it was still a chore to watch (I recall pausing the episode multiple times to get up and go do something else). It unfortunately didn't leave a very strong impression on me, aside from the irritating personality of the female lead. I'd like to think that this could be a fun, if mediocre, series to watch, but I have a gut feeling that the scales will begin to tip further and further towards the side of mediocre with each subsequent episode. I doubt that this series will be remembered very long after the end of its broadcast unless it pulls a major stunt - and soon.

Pros:

There's plenty of action to keep things moving along.

Cons:

The female lead has an irritating personality and her costume makes her stick out like a sore thumb.
The first episode was a chore and I worry that subsequent episodes will continue that trend.

Recommended? I can't see this series turning into anything very compelling based on its first episode. Perhaps the other members of the cast might spice things up upon their introduction, but I don't have high hopes.

More:

Women in Anime–Tomoe Mami

2012-01-26T04:26:57Z

Note: This post contains spoilers for the series Puella Magi Madoka Magica. If you haven't seen the series and care about being spoiled, it's probably better to skip this.

This post is dedicated to my friend LT, a passionate Mami-supporter.

In my previous entry, I talked about some reactions to Puella Magi Madoka Magica that described the characterization of the cast as, to put it politely, lacking in depth. I've seen the term "moeblob" bandied-about, which is at its heart a description of characters who lack personalities beyond what's required to provoke a reaction of "moe" in their audience. While this is a term I'd usually reserve for series that have no other purpose than to present cute characters to an otaku audience (unlike Madoka which actually has a fairly rich story to tell), I don't completely disagree with the term's use in this case - the characters in this series really aren't what I would call fully fleshed-out. That, however, doesn't mean that they lack stories worth telling.

Tomoe Mami is a character known primarily for having been killed three episodes into the anime's broadcast. While her death marked a startling turning point in the series, as a character she wasn't around long enough for the event to have the same kind of emotional weight as some of the events which occur in later episodes. She's become the target of a lot of posthumous speculation, and there have been theories that speculate that she was somehow working in conjunction with Kyubey to help entice innocent girls into becoming contract labor for his energy machine. Her death became a meme and her character remained a mystery. She's easy to overlook in lieu of characters who had more screen time and yet, like the other girls in Madoka, her existence serves as a strong symbol of something much bigger than the struggles of one character in one anime.

]]>

I didn't like Mami at first. I briefly bought into the theory that she was Kyubey's puppet, a strong, seemingly-happy magical girl with deceptive grace and kindness which she used to entice other young girls into the Incubators' power-extraction scheme. It wasn't until a friend of mine revealed to me (after blazing through the entire series over a couple of evenings), that Mami was her favorite character, that I began to consider alternate possibilities. Then it hit me; watching Mami's experience was like looking into a mirror and seeing my own face as it looked years ago. Not literally, of course, but what struck me so forcefully was Mami's apparent self-assuredness about the way that the world worked and her place within it, which is definitely a youthful foible that I shared. In her first appearance, she swoops in with a smile on her face to defend Sayaka and Madoka, the firing of her muskets like a mid-air ballet. She takes the two younger girls under her wing, teaching them all they need to know to be magical girls. Of course, her confidence is born of naiveté, as she's the only magical girl within the show's main timeline who isn't forced to face the entire truth about her eventual fate and doesn't succumb to the same slow deterioration of her brethren.

Watching the show's third episode again, especially being privy to alternate-timeline-Mami's anguished mental breakdown in episode ten, lends a new perspective on some of the briefly-glimpsed tragic aspects of her character. What I found most memorable was her advocacy of informed choice; she emphasizes to Madoka that her wish should be well-chosen and something that she actually wants for herself. As we learn, Mami had very little choice in her own wish - her options were to contract with Kyubey, or die a painful death - and it's this aspect of her character that sheds some more light on her purpose within the narrative. I see Mami in sort of a motherhood role, guiding her young magical girl friends with the hand of experience and the stern love of maturity. Just like our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers did their best while hoping for a better future for their daughters, Mami bids Madoka to consider herself and relish the fact that her wish will be the product of her own desire, unlike hers which was the product of desperation and necessity.

Unfortunately, as with real life, the price of daring to be too optimistic, too confident, or too blind to reality is to be punished by having to stare into the gaping maw of the world's harshness. Mami grows overconfident, bolstered by the joy she feels at finally having someone near her to quell her loneliness, and her giddiness ends up killing her. Hers is a sudden loss of innocence coupled with the bitter realization that some things are still unconquerable. For those of us who have ever dared to try and demand respect from a culture that seems so focused on apologia for its own hatred, Mami's story is all-too-relatable. The minute she advocates for her friend's agency (and seems wishful for the return of her own), she's punished in the most graphic manner possible.

Part of me has grown to love Mami because she represents something simple, perhaps a more innocent time in my own life. She looked into Kyubey's eyes and wished only to live, and while she seems to have her own set of regrets about this choice, her exuberance while fighting her opponents demonstrates that, in some way, she's thankful for the life that she has. Another part of me has grown to admire her for daring to hope for an end to her loneliness, because so often we're told that to want for ourselves or wish on our own behalf is to suffer from weakness and greed. And I feel a certain kinship with Mami; her reaction to learning the inevitable truth of her existence as a magical girl is one of extreme horror and grief, just as coming to terms with the fact that the world isn't quite the idealized place I once thought it could be has caused me a great deal of sadness.

Just as Mami's death becomes one of the first seeds of Madoka's own wish, so does the sadness of reality beget determination to change things for the better, and that's perhaps the most valuable lesson that her experience can teach us. It doesn't really surprise me that Mami isn't a popular character, because her appearance is fleeting and her richness as a person is ultimately symbolic and based more on one's personal interpretation of the series' prominent themes. To be honest, though, what intrigues me most about her is that her existence, however obliquely, reinforces the idea that women should have choices, and that to be punished for wanting something better for oneself and one's friends is truly unjust. While I may get my head chewed-off (figuratively, of course) for speaking up about certain aspects of anime and other media that are harmful to myself and others, I like to think that I can emulate Mami and remain graceful while fighting my battles, be thankful for my friendships, and be happy to live my life, even though I've already learned a great deal about its disappointing truths. Sometimes our greatest successes are the seeds of inspiration we plant in those around us.

Next time, I'll be writing about Sakura Kyoko. Please look forward to it!

Mouretsu Pirates–First Episode Review

2012-01-25T04:38:18Z

Mouretsu Pirates (Bodacious Space Pirates)

Number of Episodes: 26

Production Company: Satelight

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: High school student Kato Marika lives in a future where space travel is commonplace. One day she's informed that her father was once a space pirate, and that because of laws set down during a conflict a century ago his ship, the Bentenmaru, has now been passed to her.

]]>

Episode Summary: Marika is a normal high school student. She enjoys participating in her school's yacht club and holds a part-time job at a local maid café. One day while at work, she serves a couple who claim to know her mother, and not surprisingly they show up at Marika's home later on to deliver some news: Marika's father, a space pirate, has passed away, leaving the command of his ship to his only daughter, Marika.

This turns out to be a lot for Marika to take in to begin with, but things become even more serious when groups of mysterious men crowd into her maid café after school. She's joined by transfer student Kurihara Chiaki, who appears to know more than expected about Marika's circumstances, and who rescues her from the violence that erupts at the café.

Thoughts: I'd like to have a talk with whoever translated the title of this series into English, because if I weren't committed to watching all of these first episodes, their choice of the word "bodacious" (a portmanteau of "bold" and "audacious," as I've now learned), may have kept me well away from what stands to become probably one of my favorite new series this season. And here I thought anime held no more surprises for me. This might be bad form, but I'll willingly come clean; after watching the first episode, I immediately watched the second and third. I think that this was partly out of caution, because I would hate to rave over something that degenerated into the same-old nonsense an episode later. It was also because I was intrigued and wanted to see where the plot was going right then. While I'm not quite ready to give this show an A+ grade right out of the gate, it goes without saying at this point that I think I'm going to enjoy it.

I recently entered into what I'd call an anime slump related to my Sunday night anime gathering. I had begun to feel that every show we were watching was about some little boy and his problems. We jumped from Deadman Wonderland to Blue Exorcist to Hunter x Hunter (sticking with none, I might add), and our one long-term continuing series was (and still is) Hajime no Ippo which, while pretty good, is essentially about a bunch of dudes beating each-other up with their fists (I mean, it is a boxing anime). My attempt to introduce Chihayafuru into the mix was met with MTS3K-style jibes. While it would be inaccurate to say that I can't relate to stories about males (I pretty much have to be able to, because that constitutes the majority of what's available), there's a point at which I'd really like to experience a story about another female. What makes this show appealing to me is the fact that it's not only about a girl, but several supporting cast members are also girls or women. Though it seems like most series set in girls schools are done so to maximize the potential for locker-room-peeping and/or yuri hijinks, in this case the backdrop of the space yacht club serves as a way to show Marika working in a cooperative capacity with other girls her age to reach a goal, and while that may seem like a small thing to get excited about, it's such a rare occurrence in media (especially considering that the show is thus far almost devoid of panty-shot fanservice junk) that I can't help but feel optimistic.

The cynical part of my mind tells me that just about any food would taste like the best meal ever after coming close to starvation (and any character would seem a paragon after watching an episode of Highschool DxD), but I think that Marika is a very sympathetic and believable character who I'm fully onboard with as the hero of this series. What makes her appealing is that she's not perfect, but her flaws also don't fall into the crummy characterization traps that plague female anime characters in this age of cash-in moe idols. She doesn't react overdramatically when she learns that her father has just died (and was a pirate, surprise!) and she expresses a believable amount of hesitation at the prospect of taking command of her birthright. I'm also very interested in the relationship that she has with her mother, and hope that the series takes time to explore more of the mentorship interaction the two share. I thought that the scene in which Ririka takes Marika out to learn about firearms was brilliant, if only because we get so few scenes like that between mothers and daughters in anime.

Ririka's going to end up dead, isn't she? No, don't tell me. I don't want to know.

One thing that might be a barrier for some people is the pacing of this series, which is definitely more relaxed than I would have expected. Personally, I admire a show that lays its groundwork properly, and this one has already done a good job of establishing the environment in which this story takes place while also introducing characters in a way that seems natural. While space piracy is undoubtedly cool and full of adventure, if Marika were to instantly take command of her ship and inspire devotion and respect in her crew it would be just as unbelievable as if a teenager was found to magically be the perfect candidate to pilot an experimental mecha. I'm glad the director is giving the character some time to grow into her hero pants instead of forcing her to don them before the time is right.

After watching the subsequent episodes of this show (which, at the time of this writing were the second and third), I'm giving myself the permission to look forward to watching it every week. It's not perfect (I'm not quite on board with Chiaki's role or personality yet, for example), but it's probably the best surprise I've had so far this season. At the very least, I'm just glad that there's an anime series being broadcast that has the potential to be widely-appealing and that also has female characters worth cheering for. Sometimes small victories can be just as sweet as major ones.

Pros:

The main character is admirable and she has positive relationships with other girls and women (the show already passes the Bechdel Test, in other words).
There's a glaring lack of the expected types of fanservice.

Cons:

The pacing is a bit slow to start with.
Chiaki isn't a very interesting character thus far.

Recommended? I can't believe it, but I'm actually invested in a series with the title Bodacious Space Pirates, and I'm looking forward to watching more.

More:

Inu x Boku Secret Service

2012-01-22T17:02:23Z

Inu x Boku Secret Service

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: David Production

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: The high-security living quarters of Maison de Ayakashi are rumored to be haunted, when in fact the home is a specialized place for human beings with non-human ancestors to live. Shirakiin Ririchiyo decides to live in the house for the purpose of self-improvement, and at her beck-and-call is Soushi, who asks only to be her "dog."

]]>

Episode Summary: Shirakiin Ririchiyo arrives at the Maison de Ayakashi with her things, ready to move in. All her life she's been teased for who she is, driving her to put up a strong front and have a standoffish personality. By living on her own, she hopes to gain enough inner confidence so that her false snobbishness will become unnecessary.

As part of her living arrangements, Ririchiyo is assigned a servant or "secret service" agent to respond to her every need. Ririchiyo's servant, Soushi, is especially devoted, and his single-minded devotion gets on Ririchiyo's nerves. She tries to send him away many times, but his presence turns out to be beneficial when Ririchiyo is attacked. It's then that Soushi shows his true colors.

Thoughts: I'm at a bit of a loss to describe exactly what bothered me about this episode, but for all its apparent appeal to fans of males in positions of servitude (by which I mean butlers or servants and whatever romantic connotations arise from that kind of power relationship), it also seems to be aiming to expand its audience to male fans as well (if the number of shots of the main character in a partially-dressed state is anything to go by). I'm definitely not out to fault a show for attempting to cover all of its bases, but by utilizing multiple visual and narrative aspects that in many cases tend to turn away broad swaths of people, I can't really tell who the audience for this anime is supposed to be. As someone who's usually on board with offbeat series, I have to say that I'm a little bit disappointed (and confused).

One of the most grating parts of this episode is Soushi's blind devotion to his new master. He reminds me of Dug the Dog from the Pixar movie Up, in that his reaction to meeting Ririchiyo is something along the lines of '"I just met you, and I love you!" While this reaction is truly on par with the behavior of many real dogs, between two characters who are human-shaped (if not exactly human-minded), the interaction quickly begins to feel like that of a bad romance novel. To her credit, Ririchiyo is annoyed and taken-aback by Soushi's behavior (which in real life would amount to stalking, let's not forget that), but then again it's difficult enough to comment on her true feelings at this time because so much of what she says and how she acts is meant to cover-up her real emotional state.

I get the impression that Soushi's devotion is meant to be read as romantic, and the impetus will be on Ririchiyo to come to terms with that throughout the course of the series. I can't help but be reminded of the book and film series Twilight, where emo vampire hunk Edward Cullen spends the night standing around and staring at Bella Swan while she sleeps. This too is meant to be romantic, but the fact is that this kind of non-consensual vulnerability is anything but sweet and endearing. This idea that the situation "he loves her so much that he won't listen when she says tells him to leave" (or shows up anyway when she's incapacitated and can't say anything one way or another) is something worth emulating is more than a little bit creepy. Romance can have an element of fantasy, but it shouldn't work counter to real-life standards of decent behavior (especially when it's already difficult enough to get some people to accept that there are standards of decent behavior). In any case, Soushi's clinginess and penchant for hovering outside of Ririchiyo's door in the morning until she wakes up is kind of unsettling when you think about it. Ririchiyo's characterization has its own problems, but at the very least her bad attitude is given some background. I'm no fan of the snooty ojou-sama character, but it's not as difficult to sympathize with one when it's clear that she's been bullied in the past.

Much more interesting, though, are the supernatural elements of the episode, brief though they may be. Even considering my dissatisfaction with Soushi as a male lead, the fact that he is, literally, a dog (or fox spirit), is amusing in its own way. While I don't know if it'll be enough to tip the scales in this show's favor, the fact that there's the potential for a little bit of action and that there are already the makings of a supernatural ensemble cast does distract a bit from the cheesier aspects of this episode.

I don't have an irreparable hate-on for this show - yet. I think that there's a little bit of potential for some character growth, especially if more of Ririchiyo's past issues are explored further and Soushi's stalkerish attitude diminishes. I like that there might be an action component and heck, the show seems nice-looking from an aesthetic standpoint. But those are a lot of "ifs" to go along with some rather out-of-place touches of nudity, and I'm not entirely convinced that the show is up to tackling everything within the span of 12 episodes.

Pros:

Ririchiyo's standoffish nature exists for a reason that's explained right away, a rarity for those sorts of characters.
There's a potential for some supernatural action, which might liven things up a bit.

Cons:

Soushi's devotion borders on stalker-ish, which is a real turnoff.
The little slips of nudity and panties don't serve any purpose other than to make the target audience of this show a confusing mystery.

Recommended? At this point I'm not optimistic about this show's prospects. While I won't rule out the possibility of its characterization issues being addressed, the fact is that this show seems unfocused and throwaway at this point.

More:

Knight in the Area–First Episode Review

2012-01-22T03:32:46Z

Knight in the Area (Area no Kishi)

Number of Episodes: TBA

Production Company: Shin-Ei Animation

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: Aizawa Kakeru doesn't believe that he has the skills to make it as a soccer player, so he keeps to the sidelines and manages his school's team. His brother Suguru who's skilled at the game thinks that Kakeru might have some hidden abilities that he's not accepting, which causes arguments between them.

]]>

Episode Summary: Aizawa Kakeru is perfectly happy being the manager of his school's soccer team, since he can watch his talented older brother play the game. Aizawa Suguru is convinced that his younger brother would make a good addition to the team himself, but an injury left Kakeru with little confidence in his abilities and so he prefers to keep to the sidelines.

An argument between the two brothers, as well as a strange encounter with an "alien" Kakeru has in the park one night, prompts Suguru to force Kakeru to try out for the first string squad. Kakeru is angry, but he buckles down to give it his all in spite of it.

Thoughts: Like several other fans, I was hoping that this series might turn out to be just a little bit like 2010's Giant Killing, which was great fun due primarily to its investment in its characters and its well-animated soccer action. One major advantage that Giant Killing has over this series, though, was that its cast is comprised of adults rather than children and thus its focus is on more mature topics. While there was still plenty of opportunity for the characters to be silly, the obstacles that many of them challenged and overcame were more resonant with me because I felt some kinship with their situation. This series already feels like it's aimed at a completely different audience demographic because its characters are younger and their antics seem more geared towards an immature mind set (or at least towards an audience who is more unquestioning of overused character tropes).

I was also cautiously hopeful that this show might be a little bit like Cross Game, which was an engaging show in spite of the fact that it was also considered a shounen (rather than seinen) sports series and thus had no obligation to appeal to anyone older. Despite being spoiled for Cross Game's big first episode "twist," I still blubbered like a baby because the drama was handled so sensitively. Unfortunately I don't see this series accomplishing the same feat. Wikipedia has already spoiled me to the fact that this series has a similar narrative twist coming up, but what's lacking in this case is the connection to the characters that Cross Game so deftly forged. The major characters that were introduced in this episode, namely Kakeru, Suguru and their childhood friend Nana, all have very simplistic, flat personalities. Suguru especially comes off as irrationally angry and violent towards his younger brother rather than sympathetic. Yes, he might feel that his brother's wasted skill is a very important issue to address, but when he corners him and becomes physically threatening, my agreement with his cause begins to falter. Likewise, Kakeru is kind of a boring kid, and Nana still occupies the spot of "probable love-interest" without being engaging. The secondary cast isn't much to speak of either, with one character in particular acting so goofy about girls that I couldn't stop rolling my eyes.

Some of these problems might be easier to ignore if the sports action were a larger part of the narrative, but I don't think that that will be the case. Most of the first episode is comprised of character drama, and the more action-oriented parts of the episode aren't animated with fidelity towards reality in mind. Even when watching sports anime I'm not necessarily that hung-up on the animation quality, though it helps; the aforementioned Giant Killing wasn't the greatest in terms of animation, but the most important parts were given the most attention and were better off for it. But in this case... well, if I were forced to pick between watching Prince of Tennis 2 which I know for a fact would be just as bad or worse as far as silly shounen tournament garbage is concerned but is ten times easier on the eyes, and choosing to watch this series, the choice might not be an easy one for me to make.

Does the first episode manage to get anything right? Well, one refreshing thing that definitely puts this episode ahead of whatever Prince of Tennis might have in store for us is that this isn't a shounen sports series that relies on special attacks or super powers. There's very little drama to be had when a series can easily grant god-like power to its main characters to use in decimating their opponents; even though the protagonists (almost) always win, it's best when there's always the underlying threat that they might not. I'm also thankful that Suguru isn't the series' main focus because, though he may play an important role, his skills are too developed already and his personality leaves something to be desired.

At this point, I don't have very high hopes for this show. Unlike some anime fans I'm not hardwired to dislike sports anime just because they involve sports; though I'm no sports fan I think the genre has something to offer even those of us who couldn't name more than a couple of currently-active sports stars. The genre does tend to be problematic for those of us who aren't that interested in bundling high school melodrama or shounen tournament plotting with our entertainment, and this show appears to suffer from a bit of the former. It may improve, but I don't have very high hopes.

Pros:

The action is pretty down-to-earth and doesn't rely upon overpowered special attacks to drive the action.
The assumed protagonist seems to have room to develop, both in personality and in sports skill.

Cons:

The show so far seems a bit too immature for my liking.
The characterization overall leaves something to be desired.

Recommended? Hard core fans of sports anime may want to give this a try, but taken as an overall package the first episode is decidedly underwhelming.

More:

Some Updates

2012-01-21T06:16:41Z

I wanted to post a short update just to mention that the Shorts, Sequels and Kids Stuff post for Winter 2012 has been updated with a review of the first episode of Busou Chuugakusei Basketarmy under the "Shorts" header. I'd also like to mention that my lack of "Women in Anime" posting this week is due mostly to being unexpectedly busy, then deciding to wait until the following Wednesday to continue onward (for the sake of consistency). I did mention that the column's posting might be spotty until the season has calmed down a bit, so consider that my excuse.

Carry on.

Ano Natsu de Matteru–First Episode Review

2012-01-21T05:19:32Z

Ano Natsu de Matteru (Waiting in the Summer)

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: J.C. Staff

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: Summer vacation becomes the beginning of a film project when Kaito gets caught in an explosion that he can't remember. His friends decide to join him in a Summer of movie-making where they learn about each other and their relationships to one-another.

]]>

Episode Summary: Kirishima Kaito is out late one night testing the high-speed functions on his new video camera, when a bright light drops from the sky and he's knocked backwards into the watery depths below. He vaguely recalls a woman's hand reaching for his own, but when he wakes up the next morning it's as if nothing has happened. At school the next day, Kaito and his classmates are joined by a new transfer student, a red-haired girl named Takatsuki Ichika. Ichika is a bit awkward and unsure of herself, but soon falls in with Kaito and his crowd when they decide to use their Summer break to film a movie.

Kaito can't shake the feeling that something isn't quite right; while at the pool, his friends notice a wound on his neck that he doesn't remember receiving. Things get even stranger when Kaito sees Ichika by the river fishing; it turns out that she has nowhere to stay, and after some internal deliberation, he invites her to stay at his house. Kaito's wound suddenly gets worse and Ichika reveals her true colors just in time for Kaito's sister to arrive.

Thoughts: It's been a couple of seasons since we've all been subjected to an entry from the "magical girlfriend from space" genre, so I thought that I'd tear the band-aid off and get to it as soon as I could. Though I'm no big fan of series whose central hook is the fact that a hot girl drops in to give some average schmuck a good time, this episode manages to hit all the same bases while still being tolerable. It doesn't seem like it will be an out-of-the-park home run, but this series doesn't stoop to the deeper, murky lows that have defined some of the trashiest teen-focused romance anime of late.

One major difference between this and some of its contemporaries is that the small amount of fanservice that exists is somehow in slightly better taste than the majority of what crops up in your average ecchi series. I'll be the first person to say that I have never, except in the very rarest of cases, thought that fanservice adds anything to a series or serves as a necessary component; most of the time it's the only way a dumpy show can hope to attract a meager audience, though strangely-enough it's also a way of gender-segregating a show's audience appeal, thus cutting its audience at least in half. I have to grudgingly admit, though, that there are degrees of fanservicey grossness, and this episode is certainly on the milder end. I think that a lot of it has to do with plausibility. There's a predictable scene where Ichika is showering with Kaito right outside the bathroom. Of course she sticks her head out and the young, inexperienced boy gets flustered; to avoid the chance to perpetuate such an obvious gag would probably be too much to expect of most series. There's nothing about the scene, however, that screams "buy the Blu-ray so you can see the uncensored boobies!" because that's not where the camera is focused; all we see is Ichika's face peering out the sliding door. Likewise, Kaito gets a helping of boobs in the face, but the scene framing is very coy and we ultimately don't see much. Don't get me wrong, when Ichika's towel slips and she's forced to hide her nakedness with the closest object, we all know exactly what's going on, but at least she's she's not waving around back-breaking water balloons while her nipples are being hidden by stray beams of light from the magical censorship flood lamp.

This episode feels much more subdued in tone than I would have expected, actually. It does a good job of establishing a very lackadaisical, summery feeling without being heavy-handed about it (for example, the cicada sound-effects are relegated mostly to the background). Another thing that I liked was that there seems to be a sense of constancy to Kaito's group of friends. The progression of their last day of school before break is structured in such a way as to feel very unstructured, by which I mean that the narrative seems much more connected by the group's conversation regarding their potential movie project than it does by how they sit in class and wait for the bell to ring. The way the group of friends gravitates to each-other throughout the day also does a good job of establishing their relationships to one-another without being too blatant about who's the "timid character" or "playboy."

That said, it's still difficult at this point for me to muster much enthusiasm for this show, primarily because I've never really been able to connect with the purported appeal of "magical (or in this case, alien) girlfriend" stories. It's a genre that's so closely tied to male wish-fulfillment that even a well-executed example still feels like an obvious, one-sided fantasy. Even if Kaito isn't a bad guy as far as anime protagonists go and Ichika doesn't seem like a sex toy or a pushover, there's still a palpable undercurrent that betrays the central contrivance again and again. I would like to be able to look past that in a show that deserves it, but I'm not yet convinced that this is that show.

This is a nice-looking anime and though I have several criticisms of it I'm certainly willing to admit that the first episode exceeded my expectations. I don't know yet, though, if this is one of those shows that has a hint of fanservice to rope in the audience or whether it will continue to deteriorate into a full-blown fanservice comedy, so I'm apprehensive of saying anything too enthusiastic about it at this point. It occupies that weird space in-between "I really dislike this" and "I'm recommending this to all of my friends," and it could really go either way at this point. At least I'm not dreading the prospect of watching a couple more episodes.

Pros:

The first episode does a good job of establishing the level of friendship within Kaito's group of friends and defining them (however simply) as different people.
Though there's fanservice, it's lacks the sense of outright grossness that defines the excessive nudity of so many recent series.

Cons:

At its heart, the show seem to be yet another magical-girlfriend wish-fulfillment fantasy of the most average kind.
The sexy gags are all very predictable.

Recommended? I think I'm going to need another episode or two on this one. There are a lot of times where I can tell right away whether or not an anime is going to be anger-inducing, but this one is a little bit too subtle for that.

More:

Shorts, Sequels and Kids Stuff–Winter 2012

2012-01-19T03:30:44Z

Winter 2012 is noteworthy for being jam-packed with short-episode series and boasting quite a few sequels (some to series which haven't been on the air for a while, like Prince of Tennis). Here I'll preview the majority of them to determine which shorts are worth following and which sequels might inspire one to go back and pick up previous seasons. Just a few notes:

-The most recent Pretty Cure series doesn't start until February. If I see anything noteworthy about it at that time I will most likely just edit this post.

- Danball Senki is an ongoing kids series that I can't really find current subs for, so it may not get any coverage because of it.

- Daily Lives of High School Boys is actually a full-length series, rather than a series of shorts as I had first been led to believe, so it will be covered separately.

- Basketarmy doesn't appear to exist anywhere obtainable on the internet, so coverage may be forthcoming. Update: barely a day after this entry was posted, a video showed up, so a first episode review has been added.

- Gokujyo, which I'd previously dropped due to lack of any news, apparently is being broadcast this season, and it's a series of shorts; the first episode was reportedly not broadcast for reasons of self-restraint (which I assume means that it was too risqué).

Edit: The first episode of Gokujyo is finally available. Check out the review below.

With all those qualifiers out of the way, let's get to the shows!

Shorts

Recorder to Randsell (Recorder and Backpack)

Number of Episodes: 13 3-minute episodes

Production Company: Seven

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Thoughts: (Based on episodes one and two) Atsushi is a fifth-grader who has the appearance of being in his late teens, while his older sister (who's in high school) looks like she's in elementary school. This, of course, causes all sorts of problems that lead to comedic situations.

The premise for this show is silly and its execution ends up being a little bit light on the laughs. The iffiest bits for me to deal with were the jokes that poked fun at Atsushi's physical maturity; one of Atsumi's classmates seems to have a crush on him, and Atsushi gets mistaken for a pervert at one point. While I'd say overall the show seems fairly innocent and, despite some misgivings I had about the premise at first, I think that it'll probably stay that way, something about these kinds of jokes rubs me the wrong way. (Also, doesn't it seem odd that Atsumi's friend has no idea that the large boy talking to her is her friend's younger brother? It seems like it'd be something worth mentioning to others).

I do have to give a shout-out to Kugimiya Rie, who turns in a subdued (and therefore more convincing and less annoying than normal) portrayal of Atsumi. I can only hope that this is a trend that continues into the future.

All-in-all, the first couple of episodes are pretty cute and inoffensive, but I'm not sure that I'd really call this a straight-up comedy. At best, the chuckles it provides are subtle, and it short run-time doesn't give the show enough leeway to set-up many extended jokes or running gags (aside from the main one, that is).

]]>

Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki

Number of Episodes: TBA

Production Company: Studio DEEN

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Thoughts: (Based on Episodes one and two) One drunken night out, Moe Sato finds a cushion-shaped object in the street and decides to take a nap. In the morning she realizes that her cushion is actually a cat, who she names "Poyo" (Puffy). Poyo is like any other cat, except that his roundness makes him extra-cute in the eyes of most people. Even Moe's father, a grizzled old farmer, is charmed by the cat. Moe's brother, however, tends to fight with Poyo.

As a critic, I'm finding very little to chew on here (as I did with Recorder to Randsell), but as a cat-lover I find that there's more than enough to keep me entertained. Though Poyo is kind of a strange-looking feline specimen, his behavior - his feelings of entitlement towards his environment, his ability to sleep just about anywhere - is completely in line with that of any ordinary cat. The content of this series might be entirely, pardon the pun, fluff, but it's certainly easy to enjoy even if nothing really happens.

Busou Chuugakusei Basketarmy

Number of Episodes: TBA

Production Company: asread

ANN Encyclopedia MAL

Thoughts: In a future conflict, it’s a squad of armed middle school students who hold the fate of the country in their hands. They possess a mysterious box which their leader claims with change the course of Japan’s future.

This is a prime example of a series being presented in small doses when it really begs to be compiled into a more standard format. Despite any misgivings I may have about the content (I find the use of children in a military context to be pretty far-fetched, no matter the setting), I think this is something which could be entertaining as a full-length OVA episode or movie, but this episode tries to cram a whole lot into three-and-a-half minutes to the detriment of the tone. The early part of the episode does a good job of showing how serious things are, but the characters’ sometimes goofy personalities tend to diminish the impact of the heavier scenes. There are enough anime series based around school-aged kids and teens, and the characters’ lack of maturity really doesn’t help this episode.

The animation is fairly nice and I don’t think the concept is entirely without merit, but I’m not really impressed with this episode. I think the child soldier bit has been done before and better, and the short length of this episode doesn’t allow there to be much depth in either the characterization or plot. Unfortunately this looks like a lot of wasted potential.

Gokujyo

Number of Episodes: TBA

Production Company: LMD

ANN Encyclopedia MAL

Thoughts: Aya wants to look just right when she goes back to her all-girls high school. She spends extra time in the morning fluffing up her boobs and making sure her clothes look just right, but she forgets one important thing – her panties. She discovers this when a classmate brings her a pair of “lost” panties that she found on the street. Aya spends the morning plotting and eventually decides to con her friend, Konatsu-chan, into giving up her underthings. A fight ensues, and the two girls end up bare-assed in front of their classmates.

It comes as no surprise that this episode was seen as unfit-for-TV because it’s just as raunchy or raunchier than even a lot of the late-night male-focused ecchi anime that’s on TV right now. Its tone is reminiscent of a lot of the American gross-out comedies that I’m familiar with (American Pie comes to mind), the only difference being that all the characters are girls. Abstractly I’m kind of glad something like this exists, because it means that audiences are being addressed more equally (well, this feels like it’s directed towards women rather than men, but that may be my mistaken perception). In practice, though, this really isn’t the type of comedy that I prefer and I’m not sure that I could take Aya’s over-the-top attitude week-after week. It’s almost as if, by creating a character who’s just returned from an extended stay in the US, the creator is painting this picture of sex-crazed America that’s not really based on any truth. Fans of really low-brow humor might get a kick out of Aya’s antics, but I don’t think this is for me.

Sequels

Zero no Tsukaima F

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: J.C. Staff

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Thoughts: Saito, Louise and friends are summoned by the Queen to Romalia, center of the Brimir faith. They meet with the Pope, who like Louise and Tifania is a Void Mage. The Pope hopes that the other mages will aid him in calling forth the fourth Void Mage by acting as his shrine maidens. Louise and Saito have a love spat, while Tifania learns more of her bloodline. When Louise witnesses a theft in progress, she tries to thwart the thieves herself, but it falls on Saito to arrive in time to rescue her.

I caught the first episode of the third(?) season of this series, and boy did it leave me steaming; there's a scene where the protagonist, Saito, tries to coerce Louise into getting into bed with him, which is totally heinous. This episode doesn't quite stoop to those lows, but there are plenty of breast gags (groping, staring, and flat-chest-shaming) to go around, as well as more than enough jealous harem hijinks than I really ever needed to see. I can see this show's otaku appeal, but part of that appeal is that it's just another iteration of the same old safe moe junk food that sells. Financially it makes sense, but I just don't care for the characters and the story leaves me cold.

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes Dai-ni Maku

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: J.C. Staff, Artland

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Thoughts: Milky Holmes are still living the lazy life, skipping school most days to mess around in their vegetable garden, totally forgetting their former detective glory in the process. This perturbs Henriette-sama (Arsene) and her phantom-thief servants. The Phantom Thieves take their revenge out on the garden, bringing the wrath of Milky Holmes down upon them.

I think that I've just seen enough propeller nipples to last me a lifetime.

The first season of this anime got quite an underground rep as being a very funny comedy. After watching the second episode of the first season, I was almost tempted to watch the rest, not because it made me laugh, but because it made my jaw drop with the bizarre antics of its characters. I'm almost tempted to go through with it again, because this episode was so over-the-top that I don't really know what else to say about it. The only other anime I could reasonably compare it to might be the recent incarnation of Demon Prince Enma, with its weirdly over-the-top gross-out fanservice that barely qualifies as titillating. I mean, there's a guy dancing around with a cucumber sticking out of his pants. I don't even. But I did laugh.

I also have to mention that there was some pretty entertaining animation during the scene where Milky Holmes and the Phantom Thieves come to blows. It was unexpected from a series that seems to happily revel in its own stupidity, but I enjoyed it.

The Prince of Tennis 2

Number of Episodes: TBA

Production Company: Production I.G.

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Thoughts: The Seigaku tennis squad arrives at the U-17 training camp, an elite camp for players under the age of 17. They get picked on by some of the high school students in attendance, but soon prove their worth. After making it to the training courts, the "prince" himself, Ryoma Echizen, arrives to join them. They learn that they'll be fighting for spots on one of only 16 training courts, and some disagreements break out once people start getting eliminated. The middle school student begin to prove their mettle, even against highly-ranked high school students.

OH THIS SHOW. My husband (then-boyfriend) and I used to watch this series' first incarnation, until around episode one-hundred-thirty when its transformation into "Tennis Ball Z" became complete and it finally jumped the shark. When the protagonist of a series can eventually utilize all of the other characters' special attacks, it's time to quit. Several more episodes and OVAs later, here we are. This episode is very nicely animated, but boy is it corny as heck. Characters get to use their catch-phrases, their special techniques are flaunted, and everyone shows off just how bishounen they are. It's just like old times. The first episode was actually really funny - unintentionally I'm sure - but I can't imagine sticking around for another hundred-something episodes for no payoff. Also, these guys are still all in middle school? They look very mannish to me. It must be something in the water.

Amagami SS+

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: AIC

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia PV

Thoughts: Tachibana began dating Ayatsuji-san after Christmas, but their relationship hasn't moved very quickly since then. Ayatsuji is running for student council president, and chooses Tachibana as her running mate, but things get messy when they find out another girl has also chosen him as her potential vice president. When early election surveys don't turn out as planned, Tachibana must help his girlfriend win the hearts of her classmates. Some underhanded dealings turn things sour quickly, however.

Based on the format of the first season (each arc dealt with a relationship between Tachibana and one of several different girls), I had kind of wondered what else could be accomplished by a follow-up season. I guess I got my answer here, it being teenage melodrama and soap-opera antics. While this doesn't seem to be one of those series that deals in outright raunchiness, this particular storyline seems based entirely around the assumed "cattiness" of women when a dude is involved, and that's a real turnoff. It's a situation that obviously could happen in real life, but it's much less common than fiction creators would have people believe. Everything else about it seems fairly unremarkable, and I find myself still not caring about Tachibana's love life.

One-Shots

Kyousogiga

1 episode ONA

Production Company: Toei Animation

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia PV

Thoughts: A girl named Koto finds herself trapped in a strange alternate-universe version of Kyoto with two younger boys. Here, people and spirits live side-by-side, and Koto and her friends live out their days causing mayhem. They're currently living with a monk named Myoue while they search for a particular rabbit, but Myoue has secret dealings of his own. It turns out that Koto is housing Kyoto's patron goddess inside her, and there are people very ready to welcome her back.

One positive thing that I can say about this ONA, without any reservations, is that the quality of its animation makes it entertaining to watch. It suffers, though, from trying to force multiple episodes worth of narrative into a twenty-five minute package; watching it a couple of times has clarified some parts of the narrative for me, but there's still a lot of stuff that needs to be inferred about the characters and why they're behaving in the manner that they are. I like the energy here, but bright colors and video game sensibilities really aren't a replacement for good, old-fashioned comprehensibility. I'd love to see a multiple episode ONA or a movie based around this setting, though.

On Mary Sues

2012-01-17T21:10:35Z

I got several comments on my Rinne no Lagrange first episode review, not so much pertaining to the show itself but in relation to a paragraph I posted about my thoughts on the term "Mary Sue" and how it did/didn't apply to the main character of that series. Those thoughts were based on a blog post that I linked to in the review. There was some discussion about the accuracy of the blog post and the use of "Mary Sue," as well as the choice that the author made to use the character Batman as a male comparison. I thought it was an interesting discussion that might better be addressed and clarified out in the open rather than multiple times in the comment section of that review, so here I am.

The primary point that I took away from Comic Book Girl's examination of Mary Sues is that we generally have different ways of examining and critiquing female characters than we do male characters. I wouldn't say that everyone is so-inclined - I'd argue that a good critic is someone who's equally critical of a poorly-written male or female character - but as far as casual criticism goes, what I have personally witnessed is that it seems much easier for people to jump on a dopey, poorly-written female character and criticize her freely, while ignoring or deliberately avoiding Johnny-goody-two-shoes in the other corner. It doesn't help that there really aren't a lot of lead roles for women, period, but that's a whole other post.

As at least one commenter mentioned, the term itself comes from a particular character from a particular Star Trek fanfiction from way back in the day. It came to refer to a very specific type of self-insert, one who is mysterious, unrealistically-talented and/or unnaturally beautiful, and beloved by all of the canon characters. I don't necessarily have a problem with the term as it describes these kinds of characters (since they are pretty one-dimensional and uninteresting), but what I do have a problem with is what I see as its widespread use to describe any sort of female character who's any measure above the norm. This isn't a crime committed by most critics that I'm familiar with, but poke around forums for a while and you're sure to see the term flung around in this way (and it's even listed as one of several relevant definitions of the term on the TV Tropes page for Mary Sue. Apologies in advance for the link, which will trap you within a TV Tropes time warp that may last for several hours). I don't mind being corrected about the definition and technical use of the term, but I do believe in semantic shift, especially in such a quickly-changing environment like online fandom. As a fan who doesn't passionately follow fanfiction but who pokes her head in once-in-a-while, this is my experience; we have different standards for judging original characters from fanfiction, and those standards often extend to "official" canon characters. And no, the existence of a male version,"Marty Stu" or "Gary Stu" (depending on your preference), does not imply that the male use of the term is nearly as common, or that the extensive use of the female version is somehow free from criticism.

This was the reason I applied this line of thinking to my review of Rinne no Lagrange's first episode; my immediate urge was to call Madoka a Mary Sue character mostly because of the time the episode spent showcasing her extraordinary skills and the devotion towards her as demonstrated by the girls in her class. I caught myself, though, because that's not fair; Madoka is an idealized hero character with skills to match. She might not be the type of character I care for (I prefer more regular, everyday people), and the series in which she stars doesn't appear to be anything special, but to knock some characters for being improbably brainy, physically strong, or talented means to criticize several lead characters from stories that span all media (which often doesn't happen). And that is where the term's semantic shift has proven to be the most detrimental to the expression of women's power fantasies an heroic ideals. One step out-of-line and she's a Mary Sue as judged by the layperson fanbase, whereas her male counterpart may not undergo the same scrutiny. Likewise, despite Batman/Bruce Wayne's adherence to many of the profile quirks of a traditional Mary Sue, it can be argued that he's not one, so it's a label that should be applied just as carefully and thoughtfully to women who are attractive, powerful and/or mega-rich. Being a fantasy doesn't make her a Mary Sue. Being unrealistic in certain ways doesn't make her meritless as a character.

In closing, I'm no Mary Sue apologist and I am aware of where the term comes from and what it means, but the point I'm trying to make is that its use is out of control. Even someone like me, who prides herself on trying to be conscious of race, gender and sexuality, can internalize this kind of fandom baggage, and that makes me feel a little ashamed of myself. My only regret in this specific case is that I made a big deal out of the use of this terminology as it relates to a series that doesn't seem as though it'll be worth talking about any further, but them's the breaks.

Rinne no Lagrange–First Episode Review

2012-01-16T00:06:57Z

Rinne no Lagrange (Lagrange: The Flower of Rinne)

Number of Episodes: 24

Production Company: Xebec

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia VIZ Anime

Brief Overview: Madoka is the lone member of the "Sweat Suit Club," though her extraordinary abilities in almost every sport allow her to help out with the other school clubs whenever she can. One day she's recruited by a mysterious stranger named Lan to pilot a robot called "Vox" and to defend her fair city from invasion by hostile robots.

]]>

Episode Summary: Kyono Madoka is a girl blessed with talent in many sports, as well as a bright and friendly spirit. Always prepared to aid someone in need, she even wears her swimsuit underneath her school uniform, which comes in handy when she notices someone drowning on her way to school. Her classmates at school keep prodding her to join a club (other than the "Sweat Suit" club, which is of Madoka's own making), but her schedule for helping out each of the other clubs in turn doesn't give her the time to devote to just one.

Madoka meets a girl named Lan one day, when Lan returns Madoka's discarded school uniform to her. She becomes a comrade of Madoka's by joining the Sweat Suit club, then turns around and whisks Madoka off to an artificial island where Madoka is introduced to the robot she will now be piloting. It's just in the nick of time, too; an enemy attacks their compound and Madoka is forced to fight. Luckily her mastery of wrestling moves gives her a clear advantage over her opponent.

Thoughts: I wavered back-and-forth about including this episode with the previously-posted "dregs" entry before finally deciding that it deserved a more robust review. This episode's problem really isn't that it's "bad" so much as it simply doesn't leave much of an impression, as it relies so much on genre tropes that it really offers nothing new to its audience.

I read an interesting blog post several weeks ago about the concept of a "Mary Sue" in fiction. For those who aren't familiar with the term, a Mary Sue is an original female character, usually created for use in fan fiction, who is unrealistically perfect. She may have special powers, or she might be supernaturally beautiful in some way. The point is that she's unrealistic as a person to a large degree, more an example of wish-fulfillment than someone meant to reflect the mundane realities of our world. Most people I've met are very dismissive of these types of characters, and on paper it makes sense; why would we as women want to be misrepresented by someone who doesn't reflect our own reality? The point of the post, though, is that fiction, mainstream fiction in fact, is filled to the brim with these sorts of characters, the only difference being that those characters are male. The example the author gives is Batman, but consider all the tales of kings and heroes and gunslingers that exist and have become classics, the thing we admire about those people is that they're more skilled and ethically infallible than we are (or at least superhuman in some way and respected for it).

I was very close to spending a large part of this review complaining about the fact that Madoka is a very unrealistic character who's good at just about everything she tries. She's everything to everyone in each of those sports clubs with which she helps out, and she's got the type of spirited, "genki" personality that makes her the embodiment of the "can-do" attitude. She saves the lives of people in need she sees on her way to school. She takes to piloting the Vox robot (after she forces a takeover of the controls, that is) naturally and with no training whatsoever. It's like the creators of the show wanted to save themselves the trouble of writing and animating portions of the series that address how a real person would require several hours of instruction and training to pilot a huge experimental machine. It's not realistic... yet the situation is set-up exactly the same as the majority of other mecha series that star male characters instead of female. And while I may have criticized several other mecha series for indulging in the tropes of the trade, to single out this one by using the loaded term "Mary Sue" seems out-of-line. Let's just say that I'm unbelieving of most or all situations that would dump a youngster into the seat of a military vehicle, especially when it appears that there are plenty of capable adults around to do the job instead. This is not an exception.

Character classification dilemmas aside, the biggest problem with this episode (and by extension, possibly the entire series), is that, aside from some nice artwork, it's very generic. Its setup feels very similar to Star Driver in that it brings mecha anime to the seaside (heck, Madoka and Takuto are pretty similar as protagonists go, too), but aside from an atypical setting, nothing surprising happens in this first episode and it lacks a good hook. The only real mystery left unanswered so far is the big one about who Madoka will be fighting and why she'll be fighting them (the opponent she battles in this episode isn't really given a proper introduction or explanation). A scene near the halfway point suggests that there might be some invasion of alien bishounen to come, but that's not the sort of story development that gives me a lot of confidence in a show's future.

And then there's the unnecessary fanservice. This show is much tamer than I would have suspected after seeing the PV (the video seems to include all of the three or four panty/crotch shots that were in the entire episode, and none of those are particularly extreme), but the preview for the second episode looks as though it will introduce the third primary character, and her character design seems geared to, shall we say, draw the eyes downward. I experience a sinking feeling in situations like this because I want to be able to recommend a female-focused show to others and to praise a series for highlighting girls as potential heroes. I also want to encourage more varied representations of body types in anime, because at best right now you tend to only get "thin" and "thinner," when it comes to female character designs. But when having a different body type means "we got to animate really big breasts moving unrealistically in order to please a certain fan demographic," it really highlights the message that women aren't represented in ways that don't involve their bodies as eye candy. This could be a perfectly pleasant, if unremarkable show, but once again it has to be overshadowed by this seemingly insatiable need to pander, and that is really sad.

This isn't a show that I have high hopes for, and thus far it hasn't demonstrated a good "hook." I also worry about its focus on one particular audience demographic (thought I'm not surprised that it has that focus). If it seemed to have a stronger vision or if I had any reason to believe that its intended audience was wider, I might be more inclined to give it another shot. As it is, this seems like a pretty but all-to-generic reiteration of several mecha series that happens to feature female characters.

Pros:

The look of the show is very nice and its setting is a bit out of the ordinary.
The primary cast seems to consist of young women, which is a pleasant surprise.

Cons:

Despite starring women, women do not seem to be one of the show's target demographics thus far.
The show adheres closely to genre tropes and doesn't try to do anything creative with them.

Recommended? While it would have been a mistake for me to lump this in with the worst-of-the-worst from this season, the first episode doesn't do enough to distinguish itself for it to be noteworthy. Thus far this is a pass.

More:

Winter 2012–The Dregs

2012-01-15T03:20:32Z

Welcome, everyone, to this season's compilation of some of the most noteworthy (for being garbage) opening episodes. Just as a reminder, I'm doing this as a service to myself to make sure that I manage to complete these episode reviews with my sanity intact. I'll be giving these series as much coverage as I deem necessary - if that means a couple of paragraphs outlining how the show is just like every other show within its genre, then so be it, but if it turns out to deserve a thorough thrashing, that's what it will get. My hope is that this will get most of the junk out of the way so I won't have to sit and dread it for weeks.

As a note, Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai! a.k.a. Listen to me Girls, I'm Your Father! is being bumped to this section due to some early reports of it being just as trashy as I had hoped it wouldn't be. Also, I can't seem to find any info on Gokujyo so I assume that it's not being released this season as the chart states. If I update this post with any additional series, I'll be sure to post a note on the front page.

Well then, shall we?

High School D x D

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: TNK

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia PV (May be NSFW)

Thoughts: While the whole thing was bad, perhaps the worst thing about this episode is that the protagonist came close to death twice but didn't actually snuff it, saving us from having to hear about his preoccupation with women's breasts.

This series has your typical ecchi harem setup, wherein one guy ends up surrounded by women. This time around that guy is Issei, a second-year student at a recently sex-desegregated former girls school. His one goal over the past year has been to get a girlfriend and grab some breasts (as he states often), but he's thus far been unsuccessful. The tides seem to turn when a cute girl from another school asks him out, and Issei boasts about it to his friends. The situation turns negative quickly when Issei's new flame turns out to be a female devil, who promptly kills him for reasons so far unexplained. Luckily for him (and unluckily for those of us who are sick and tired of this stuff), a beautiful upperclassman named Rias saves his life, turning Issei into her loyal servant in the process. An encounter with a fallen angel demonstrates that Issei has been blessed with some unexpected bonus powers as a result of his revival.

]]>

So apparently in this anime world, breasts are kept aloft by special anti-gravity devices rather than bras. Seriously, no one seems to wear any supportive undergarments (the fact that all of the female high school students have extremely prominent erect nipples in certain scenes seems to suggest this). I had sympathy chest pains throughout the entire episode, especially when the characters' breasts appeared to jiggle at the slightest hint of bodily movement as if their existence was the by-product of bad video game physics. Perhaps this is one of the benefits to being a demon - you don't really give a darn about your own wayward body parts.

Zac Bertschy of ANN jokingly wrote that someone ought to put together a fund for all the poor manga and anime creators who don't appear to have a sex life that involves real people, the suggestion being that TV series like this one wouldn't be quite so brainless or grotesque if they were less concerned with pleasing the sexually-inexperienced, skeezebucket middle-school mindset and more concerned with constructing a story that doesn't make viewers like me want to send its writers to detention. Hypothetical charities aside, though, the characters in this series aren't just juvenile, they're downright unapologetically immature. The main character's dying regret is that he didn't get a chance to grab more breasts before meeting his untimely end. If there's a quicker way of getting me to completely not care about what terrible things happen to a main character, I don't know what it is.

Abstractly, though, it's a real bummer to see series where the male protagonists are just there to be fodder for the abusive tendencies of other characters (the reverse being true as well). I don't have any issues with S and M fetish material (it has as much a right to exist as any other pornography), but there's something about the tone of this show that just makes it seem very abusive for no reason, and the fact that Issei is an unlikeable git anyway doesn't really excuse that. It's as if the cast is comprised only of very evil, hateful people who either lack self-control or just exist to be terrible to one-another.

Despite what it may seem like at times, I'm not theoretically against entertainment that targets sexual fetishes; we all have our turn-ons and like to seek out stimulation sometimes. But sum total of this episode's content was fetish indulgence at the expense of all writing and characterization (of both sexes), and that is such a waste of everyone else's time. Not to mention the fact that the complete and total breast obsession presented here just encourages the kind of tunnel vision that reduces women to body parts, something which happens in real life enough already. Here's a news flash for this show's creator(s); I'm not just the two fleshy masses attached to my torso, and teenage boys aren't by-and-large uncontrollable horn dogs. Let's stop pretending that sexuality in anime has to have the added effect of alienating half the population and encouraging bad behavior in the other.

Was this episode better or worse than expected? It was about even with my expectations. While I suspect that this will be the worst first episode I'll watch this season (at least as far as fanservice is concerned), it doesn't even rank with some of the really terrible hard-core ecchi series that have cropped up over the last year, so I consider that a small victory. At the same time, though, it's definitely gratuitous and makes its purpose - titillation - brutally obvious at every turn.

Senki (Senhime) Zesshou Symphogear

Number of Episodes: 13

Production Company: Satelight

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia PV

Thoughts: Do you ever get the impression that a bad show may have been marginally less-bad if it had been put in more capable hands? I'd be open to the idea of mecha-suited pop idols, but this episode's execution just left me cold.

Kanade and Tsubasa are a pop duo who go by the name "Zweiwing." Tachibana Hibiki is a young girl attending their concert. When the human-devouring creatures called "Noise" interrupt Zweiwing's concert, Kanade and Tsubasa transform into singing, Noise-busting military machines, but not before the majority of the audience is slaughtered. Tachibana is gravely injured, but Kanade gives her own life to protect her. With a new lease on life, Tachibana goes to school to follow in Zweiwing's heroic footsteps. When she's personally threatened by a group of Noise, she discovers just how much power she has stored inside her.

To be perfectly clear, I don't really have a problem with this show's general concept, and I think that it has its good points. Its setup allows for supportive female partnerships, and there's really no question about how powerful the heroes are (especially in comparison to the wholly ineffectual military forces). The issue is really the slapdash construction and the execution of some particular elements that shifts the mood from "intriguing" to "amateurish and silly." There are several major logical flaws that are difficult to overlook, a specific one being the fact that (as others have already noted), Zweiwing is completely unable to save ninety-nine percent of their audience, who are eaten by Noise, yet one of their members sacrifices her own life to save the life of one specific person with whom she isn't even acquainted. On the one hand, this is a clearly an indicator that Tachibana is an important character. On the other... well, Kanade is on almost all of the promotional artwork, and she dies within the first half of the first episode of the series. I highly doubt that this series is worth such a major trolling effort on the part of its creators, so the effort seems worthlessly expended.

There are also several instances of anatomical wrongness that end up being very distracting. Kanade seems to be the most frequent victim of a case of lazy artistry, since her chest seems lopsided in several cuts. This may be more a function of the suits the characters wear, which are impossibly molded to their body and specifically accentuate their bosom. The breasts just seem like unattached entities in several scenes and the effect is off-putting. The quality of the animation isn't really up to the task of convincingly animating the action scenes either; Zweiwing's stage introduction is obviously rotoscoped, but what's gained in smoothness of character movement is lost in the characters' derp faces. Finally, the action scenes are cut like someone's bad AMV, their purpose only to show action happening without enough thought paid to the visual flow of the scenes. It's not impossible to parse out what's occurring since the situation itself isn't complicated, but it does make it kind of a chore to watch. The fact that the names of the characters' attacks are flashed on the screen seems like an unnecessary throwback as well.

Add to all this the fact that there are at least a couple of out-of-the-blue, "let's look at boobs" camera shots (one which involves Tachibana peering down her shirt to look at a scar she received on her chest, the other involving a very bouncy female scientist), and you end up with an opening episode that doesn't really have a clear purpose nor a decent hook.

Was this episode better or worse than expected? I suppose all told it was slightly better than I would have expected. I had actually braced myself to deal with a lot more visual fanservice than was present, so that was a definite plus. What kills it for me, though, is the fact that it seems so ill-constructed and its creators seem to be taking things much more seriously than is actually warranted. If the show had more of a zany, obvious-parody feeling, or if there were a bit more joy evident in the telling, it might be more watchable, but as-is it's difficult to build any enthusiasm for what's happening.

Kill Me Baby (Baby, Please Kill Me)

Number of Episodes: TBA

Production Company: J.C. Staff

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia PV

Thoughts: So, can something truly be classified as a comedy if one isn't inspired to laugh at it?

Yasuna is a normal high school student whose friend Sonya is an assassin. This makes their friendship a bit touchy, since Sonya often responds to Yasuna's friendly gestures with violence. To offset that her violence, Sonya harbors a number of strange fears (including nervousness around bugs and ghosts) that make her seem uncharacteristically sensitive for a killer. Sonya's associate, Agiri, is a ninja with some very unorthodox skills. Though she seems like an airhead, there's an undercurrent of danger to the way she interacts with others.

As with most anime based on four-panel manga, this series deals out the gags in bite-sized pieces. Its problem is that it does so while being extremely obvious about it, to the point where one wonders why these choppy bits and pieces were forced to play together at all. While I never expected a show like this to have a strong narrative, the way it's presented is jumpy and unfocused, skipping from gag to gag without slowing down to check if those gags are actually funny or not.

The one major factor that contributes to this episode's dullness is the fact that it has essentially one primary joke that gets run into the ground. Sonya is a killer with some amusing fears, and the majority of the gags involve that concept in one way or another. This idea is not really that clever to begin with, so the fact that it's re-established a number of times with very little alteration begins to feel repetitive very quickly. There also seems to be this idea that Yasuna yelling a lot is uproariously funny, because almost all of her lines are delivered at high volume and with a frantic tone. Unfortunately, this just results in me feeling as if I'm being spoon-fed jokes, and good humor shouldn't have to feel like such a chore.

The one saving grace in this case is Agiri, whose seeming-ditziness belies a very sinister interior. They way her skills as a ninja are continually disproven, only to be proven twofold in a more subtle and scary way, can be chuckle worthy if one is in the right mood. I especially enjoyed her way of teaching her special ninja skills to Yasuna, via throwing stars and poisoned blow darts. Though hers is essentially another repeated gag, the variety of its expressions help to break up the feeling of monotony a bit.

Despite how I may have classified this series, I wouldn't really call this first episode "bad." Rather, it's just very uninteresting and doesn't seem to offer a whole lot of variety with its humor. It's not the sort of thing that I would be opposed to watching more of, but if this ends up being several episodes of a variation on a theme I can't see myself bothering with it for long.

Was this episode better or worse than expected? I suppose I would have to say better, but only just; it doesn't offend except with its blandness, but that in itself is not really a compliment. As much as I would hate to resort of lazy adjectives, the one word that keeps coming to mind when I think about this episode is "stupid."

Papa no Iu Koto wo Kininasai! (Listen to Me Girls, I'm Your Father!)

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: Feel

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Thoughts: Yuuta is just beginning his college career, and manages to get friendly with an attractive (but strange) female upperclassman with large breasts and a very deadpan attitude. He counts himself lucky, even though the girl's associates are a bit of an oddball group. He doesn't have much time to enjoy his good fortune, however, before his sister and her husband leave him with a large responsibility; while they're gone, they're leaving their three daughters with Yuuta so that he can act as babysitter. The two older daughters (both of whom are not related to Yuuta by blood) turn out to be a bit more than he can handle; Miu, the ten-year-old, seems a bit too eager-to-please her uncle, and Yuuta makes the mistake of walking in on fourteen-year-old Sora while she's changing clothing. What's a poor guy to do in this house filled with young girls?

[Content Warning for talk of sexual assault and leering]

Well, the first thing would be to NOT check out the ten-year-old's panties peeking out from beneath her short skirt! About eighty percent of this episode is boring and unmemorable, but the last twenty percent makes up for it by being gross and unfolding exactly as I would have expected it to based on the title and promotional artwork.

Here we have yet another example of a scenario that flirts with incestuousness between siblings, but gets off on a technicality; the two older daughters of the Takanashi family are children from their father's two previous marriages, so they are not genetically related to Yuuta in any way. Apparently in some peoples' minds this makes the fact that their primary interactions with their uncle-by-marriage so far have involved him ogling them in a sexual manner hunky-dory. Wow, this is just so edgy and unique! Thanks, anime!

Joking aside, the primary gross-out factor here is, surprisingly, not the girls' blood relation to the main character, but rather their ages in relation to his. So far there have been sexual gags related to both fourteen-year-old Sora and her ten-year-old sister Miu, and the implications of that are almost too terrible for me to want to talk about any further. Here's my issue - it's bad enough that so much anime (and so much media in general) makes a habit of sexualizing female characters to the point of ignoring any real character development for them. I don't have a problem with characters who are sexual and I don't want to be mistakenly accused of slut-shaming of characters (and by extension, real-life women who are open about their sexuality), but I have to ask, to what end does portraying their sexuality serve? If the answer is not "it demonstrates an aspect of her character that allows her to be perceived as a more rounded, real person with wants and desires," then it's very likely that she's there as window-dressing to appeal to a particular demographic. Unfortunately, there are very few anime that actually manage to get this type of character right. The bigger issue here, though, is that the two girls aren't just eye-candy, they're underage eye-candy. This show is making light of ogling girls who aren't old enough to (legally) give consent, because it's oh-so-funny to put a dude in that situation and watch him squirm for the camera. You know, because statutory sexual assault is awesome. Gross out.

Add to all that the fact that the camera seems primed to focus on things like women's breasts (Yuuta's senpai is a frequent victim of the scene framing's pinpoint boob accuracy) and you have all the potential for yet another garbage fanservice incest "comedy." The fact that shows like Nichijou continue to be made prove to me that good, laugh-out-loud comedy doesn't have to be based around pushing the envelope of taste, so at best I can really only call this a lazy attempt at making a few people laugh. At worst, it's pandering and gross.

Was this episode better or worse than expected? I guess if I had to pick an anime genre that I liked the least, "incestuous fanservice comedy" would be near to the bottom, so to call it "worse than expected" would probably be half a lie. I guess what made it feel worse in this instance was the fact that, for most of the episode, the badness was kept to a low rumble which lulled me into a false sense of apathy. It was only when the very last segment rolled around that I was confronted with the really barfy subject matter.

Women in Anime–Puella Magi Madoka Magica

2012-01-12T02:41:57Z

I thought long and hard about how I wanted to kick off this column. I had considering sharing some more information about myself and some opinions about anime fandom and where I think I belong within it, but that's something I could write about any time. I thought about beginning at the beginning with, as someone suggested, examining Princess Knight. I thought about dusting off one of my favorite series, Mononoke, which is a collection of supernatural stories that primarily revolve around women, and giving that a well-deserved re-watch. In the end, though, the subject that I kept returning to was a series that concluded less than a year ago - a little magical girl series called Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Why Madoka? Well, it all has to do with moe.

]]>

I'm sure most readers of this blog have some idea of what moe (mo-eh) is. The technical definition that surfaces every now-and-then (especially when you've used the term in a way that a moe fan deems incorrect), is that it refers to the feeling of fondness and/or protectiveness one has when confronted with something cute and helpless. The example most often used is that it's a feeling an older brother might have towards his cute younger sister. The "pure" definition of moe makes it clear that the word isn't a designator for a specific genre of anime, but the description of a feeling or reaction towards characters within anime, manga and games. The funny thing about language, though, is that the definitions of words tend to shift somewhat based on their common usage. Ask several Western otaku about the meaning of "moe" and I'm confident that several of them would be able to share a few examples of "moe" anime or some different categories of "moe" characters like tsundere or yandere. While several (very vocal) people still cling to the term's original usage, more commonly "moe" has come to refer to a stock set of situations and, more often, the types of characters that are said to populate moe anime.

When I consider the meaning of the term, I think of it as a set of character short-cuts meant to elicit a particular response from fans. To me, moe characters have become a lazy replacement for actual character development. When someone creating a manga or anime wants to target a fanbase that's ready and willing to consume media featuring specific character types, it's a no-brainer situation - they create a flat-chested tsundere character, hire Rie Kugimiya to voice her, and then they rake in the dough (in theory, anyway). One interesting thing that's happened in the last few years, though, is that several series which I would not classify as moe have incorporated elements of moe characterization, and not particularly suffered for it. The main character of Blood-C is a "dojikko" (clumsy girl), and yet that element of her character seems more a symptom of the personality forced on her - it signifies her enslavement and, by extension, the enslavement of manga and anime creators having to appeal to fans of these false female ideals in order to make a living. The female characters in AnoHana, especially Menma, begin their journey as very obvious stock personalities before time and events within the show help to flesh them out. In these instances, our expectations about the characters are used and then subverted, to good effect.

That's where we return to Madoka. A friend of mine mentioned recently that she'd been interested in watching Madoka until several of her friends advised against it, their reasoning being that the characters were nothing but moe-bait. Having watched the entire series several times I felt an argument brewing inside my gut, but then it struck me that their observation was perhaps more accurate that I was willing to admit at first. I harbor no illusions that that Akiyuki Shinbo and company created this series for any greater purpose beyond making a magical girl series that would be popular with otaku. The female characters of the series begin their lives as stock personalities; Madoka is cute and timid, Homura is the dark silent type, and Mami is the prim-and-proper mature one with big breasts. Then suddenly, through a confluence of unique artistry and uncommonly good story creation, the characters aren't just otaku bait, but representatives of the struggles of girls and women throughout history. It's a show that had no business being more than eye-candy, and yet it dared to delve deeper and take several assumptions about magical girl series to their logical (and often startling) conclusions. And the fandom stood up and took notice.

So what better way to begin this project than to demonstrate that, even in today's harsh creative environment that rewards sameness and safety rather than risk-taking, there are still bright spots for those of us looking for characters to admire. Even if their expression is imperfect, they are still there for us to discover and enjoy.

Next week I'll begin my examination of this series' characters with perhaps the least-developed and most misunderstood character of the group, Tomoe Mami. Often admired and sometimes reviled, Mami's exit from the series served as its first turning-point, the message being that this wasn't to be a happy, sunshine-and-rainbows type of show. I hope you'll join me in looking at what makes Mami so unexpectedly interesting as a character and the concepts that her existence represents within the show's universe.

The Best (and Worst!) of 2011

2012-01-11T00:30:34Z

Every year ANN does a "best-of" post for the anime that's released in some form in region 1 (either on DVD or streaming) during the year. While I respect their methodology and understand their reasons for sticking to official releases, I can't help but thinking that the delay between release (which can be months and sometimes even years) gives the list a feeling of "been there, done that." With all due respect to their reviewers, Carl Kimlinger and Theron Martin, who are both very experienced, I can't help but feel like the list is missing a female perspective (or at the very least a little bit of diversity). As someone who watches anime as it's broadcast, whether that be via streaming methods (which have become ubiquitous lately and which I attempt to utilize as fully as possible) or other means, I take pride in rooting out hidden gems and enjoying popular favorites as they're being released.

These are my thoughts primarily on the anime that was broadcast in Japan last year. In some cases, alternative choices may have been overlooked if I didn't feel like I'd seen enough to feel confident in the decision. Some of the categories are meant to be less serious than others (I'm sure you'll be able to tell the difference). Feel free to mention some of your favorites in the comments!

My Favorite Series of 2011

Mawaru Penguindrum

Runners Up: Kimi ni Todoke Season 2, Natsume Yuujinchou San, Tiger & Bunny, Usagi Drop, Wandering Son, Puella Magi Madoka Magica

All right, I realize I didn't do a very good job of narrowing the list down, but I can't help it; there were several series that aired in 2011 that I really loved, and for varying reasons. I loved Kimi ni Todoke's portrayal of social anxiety, for example, and Wandering Son gave me hope that anime's portrayal of gender and sexuality wasn't entirely doomed to be terrible. What made me go with Penguindrum over the others is the fact that it managed to combine many of the things I love about anime. The show is colorful and strange, it has a great soundtrack, and the director managed to incorporate surrealism and symbolism in the best ways. It may not be quite as good as its director's most well-known (and loved) work, Revolutionary Girl Utena, but I just finished it and already I'm looking forward to watching it again.

]]>

The "Time I'll Never be Able to Get Back" Award (for series I watched against my better judgment)

Rio: Rainbow Gate

Runners Up: Sacred Seven, Fractale, Blue Exorcist, Yumekui Merry

Yes, I watched all of this, and no, I have no idea why. This show is based on a pachinko game, and boy does it feel like it; it's completely mindless and silly, and filled to the brim with bouncy women in (contextually-appropriate, I'll admit) revealing costumes. I feel like something about this show must have hypnotized me because I really cannot fathom why I continued to watch this. At least Sacred Seven had some good action to make up for its loser protagonist and ridiculous villain.

Best First Episode

Wandering Son

Runners Up: Mawaru Penguindrum, Natsume Yuujinchou San, Nichijou, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Usagi Drop

The best first episodes are those which draw the viewer into the world of the show and cause them to hunger for more. They're always memorable and often emotionally-affecting. To translate, a great opening episode often gets my tears flowing (in the good way). Natsume Yuujinchou San stunned me with its beauty, and Usagi Drop brought tears to my eyes due to its sweetness and affirmation of familial love. What really stuck with me from the moment I first saw it, though, was the first episode of Wandering Son, which introduced Shuichi, a young boy dealing with his desire to be a girl, and his friend Yoshino, a girl who wants to be a boy. Its emotional content is so raw and, though its subject matter seems so specific, its story of wanting to become one's true self is really so universal that the emotions cut to the bone. This is a series that every bigot ought to be required to watch, and it proves that anime is capable of presenting transgendered characters who aren't just comedic "traps."

Worst First Episode

Manyuu Hikenchou

Runners Up: Aria the Scarlet Ammo, A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives, Seikon no Qwaser 2, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere,

This category isn't just for bad first episodes, because those are a-dime-a-dozen no matter what sort of media you're talking about. This is an opportunity to "award" the worst, most incomprehensible or vile first episode from the past year, and hands-down that episode was the opening episode of the misogynist barf-fest that is Manyuu Hikenchou. The premise of the show is about as sickening as you can get; in this alternate universe, women are literally given social status and personal worth based on the size of their breasts, and the noble families will go so far as to "steal" the breasts of others in order to augment their own. There's also plenty of female-on-female molestation and assault. Ugh. I don't know if I mentioned this, but after I finished writing the first episode review, I literally put my head in my hands and cried, because multiple people had to participate in the creation of this series. It literally went through the hands of dozens of people who thought that this was somehow okay to make and present to the public. And people call me overly-sensitive. The only other episode to come close was Seikon no Qwaser's second season opener, which found every opportunity to prove that its protagonist is a little rapist-in-training and a molester. What a garbage nightmare.

Most Unnecessary Sequel

Seikon no Qwaser 2

Runners Up: Baka to Test 2, Maria Holic Alive!, Hunter x Hunter

As noted in the previous category, Seikon no Qwaser 2 is a complete garbage nightmare, so I think I needn't say much else about it. Baka to Test was a mediocre comedy that literally put me to sleep, and the first couple episodes of the sequel seemed like an incremental drop in quality to me with less of a point that many of the more pointless first season episodes. Maria Holic was one of my guilty pleasures, but the second season really failed to keep me interested. While not technically a sequel, the remake of the Hunter x Hunter anime simply left out too many of the story's building blocks for me to make any sort of emotional connection with the characters.

Series That Begs a Sequel

Tiger & Bunny

Runners Up: Wandering Son, Mawaru Penguindrum

I'm not really the type of person who watches to the end of an anime and then starts wishing for a sequel; I've been an anime fan too long to get my hopes up, and I think most series, even if open-ended, are often better left as-is. But dang, the world of Tiger & Bunny is so ripe with potential that any number of things could be done with it. I'd love to see more stories involving the secondary characters, perhaps, or maybe and entirely new group of heroes could have their opportunity to shine. Of course, there are movies in the works already, so I suppose that's something. While I consider the Wandering Son anime to be a great snapshot of its characters' lives, I would always enjoy learning more about them (at least there's always the manga). As for Mawaru Penguindrum, I'm not suggesting that it needs a direct sequel, only that I think Ikuhara-Sensei needs to be directing anime series more often than once every decade. Ooh Mr. Ikuhara, Ooh!

Best Series for Anime Beginners

Tiger & Bunny

Runners Up: Hunter x Hunter, Level-E, Marvel Anime Series

Getting people into anime nowadays is tougher than ever, because its begun to lack the "cool" factor that appealed to people of my age group back when we were still in high school (the late 1990's). Anime has become even more of a niche media product in the ensuing years, with more and more anime created to appeal to specific groups of otaku. Still, there are always a few series, however well-known or not, that could potentially entice the uninitiated, especially those who are already coming from a sci-fi/fantasy media background. While the Marvel Anime (Iron Man, Wolverine, X-Men, and Blade) may have seemed the more obvious choice, the series that I think has the better blend of familiar traits with specific anime embellishments is Tiger & Bunny. Hunter x Hunter, while flawed, is still one of the better shounen series that's on right now (and its most recent incarnation is still relatively new, so there's not a lot of catching-up to do), and Level-E is a great blend of sci-fi and comedy.

Best Graduate-Level Anime Course

[C] Control - The Money and Soul of Possibility

Runners Up: Mawaru Penguindrum, Nichijou, Hyouge Mono

Though I'd love to give top honors to Mawaru Penguindrum in every instance, it has the benefit of being pretty accessible on a certain level (in essence, it's a real page-turner that could be analyzed further at the desire of the viewer). Nichijou requires knowledge of Japanese culture to get several of its jokes. Hyouge Mono incorporates many actual historical situations and items into its comedy. [C] is really the only series, though, where prior knowledge of macroeconomics and the worldwide effects of monetary situations would be to the viewer's benefit (though it's certainly not one-hundred-percent required).

Series I Never Finished but Would Like To

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee

Runners Up: Kaiji Season 2, Moshidora, Showa Monogatari, Tamayura Hitotose

Considering all of the mediocre-to-bad series I did manage to finish, it seems counter-intuitive for me to have overlooked several series that I liked at first glance or was looking forward to. In one case, my inability to finish the show has more to do with the lack of subtitled releases; Showa Monogatari isn't the type of series that really interests anyone besides those of us who enjoy obscure and/or historical stuff. Kaiji 2 is definitely the type of show I'll want to get around to when I have time to marathon it in a couple of sittings. Tamayura is one of those laid-back slice-of-life shows I'll want to be in the mood to watch, and Moshidora, well, I don't have a good excuse in that case but it's probably more a matter of time than motivation. But the first two episodes of Croisee were so cute and lighthearted that I can't fathom why I didn't just go with the flow when I had the chance. I'll have to hop on over to The Anime Network and make short work of it some time.

Best Region 1 DVD Release

Revolutionary Girl Utena Remastered from Nozomi Entertainment

Runners Up: Antique Bakery from Nozomi Entertainment, Katanagatari from NIS America, Durarara! from Aniplex of America

When I first got a chance to watch a few of the remastered episode's from Japan's re-release of the Revolutionary Girl Utena series, I began to wish with all my heart that a US company would step in to fill Central Park Media's vacated licensing shoes. At Anime Expo 2010, Nozomi Entertainment (the licensing branch of the Midwest's own Rightstuf anime seller), answered my prayers. Their trio of boxed sets for this series feature gorgeous box art and tons of great extras, including interviews and artwork from the series. My pre-order of the final set also included a great pack-in gift - a replica of the rose ring that the duelist characters in the show wear. It would be difficult to think of any better way Nozomi could have offered this classic must-see series to anime fans old and new alike. They are definitely worth the money. Nozomi's release of Antique Bakery is similarly good, with a pack-in booklet that contains descriptions of the cakes that the characters make in the series as well as interviews and the like. Their website for the series even features some dessert recipes for the more daring cooks out there. Katanagatari was released to NIS America's already high standards for quality, including excellent box art, a DVD and BD combo pack, and a hardcover book with art and information from the series. Aniplex's Durarara! boxed-sets feature high-quality construction with cool transparent plastic slipcovers, some postcards with neat artwork on them, and the first set I pre-ordered came with a Celty helmet keychain. The only problem with those DVDs is the fact that they don't seem to feature an episode count on them anywhere - when we were watching them in anime club, I had to search online to make sure I had the right sets with me.

Best Female Character

Akemi Homura, Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Runners Up: Kuronuma Sawako, Kimi ni Todoke Season 2; Makise Kurisu, Steins;Gate; Ayase Chihaya, Chihayafuru, Sui Shijima, Hanasaku Iroha

I have a soft spot in my heart for each of these characters. Sawako's gentleness, earnestness and social awkwardness really endeared her to me from the get-go, and the second season of Kimi ni Todoke only built on that more. Makise Kurisu provided stubborn groundedness and intelligence to contrast with Okabe's goofy personality. I love Chihaya's straightforwardness. And Sui's poise and dignity is admirable. But who topped them all for me this year was Homura, especially after the 10th episode of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Her devotion to her friend Madoka was revealed to be much greater than anyone could have predicted to that point, and it became clear that the anime was really hers all along.

Best Male Character

Natsume Takashi, Natsume Yuujinchou San

Runners Up: Okabe Rintaro (Houoin Kyoma), Steins;Gate; Kazehaya Shota, Kimi ni Todoke Season 2, Kawachi Daikichi, Usagi Drop; Kaburagi Kotetsu, Tiger & Bunny

Takashi is the type of guy I'd like to see more of in anime. He's good-natured in spite of his hardships, he's devoted to his friends and he does his best to help people. In a field that's often crowded with perverts and brats, it's so refreshing to see a character who's actually nice. As for the runners-up, Okabe gets a nod for being memorable in his mannerisms and devoted to making things right with his (sort-of) harem, Kazehaya for being determined and sweet, Daikichi for stepping in when no one else would, and Kotetsu for being not only a hero with a great sense of justice, but also a loving father.

Best Duo or Group

Kaburagi Kotetsu and Barnaby Brooks Jr., Tiger & Bunny

Runners Up: Yano Ayane and Yoshida Chizuru, Kimi ni Todoke Season 2; The Super Peace Busters, Ano Hana; The Color Rangers, Level-E

Kotetsu and Barnaby embody to me what's best about the odd-couple dynamic. They don't get along at first and their personal goals and philosophies are quite different. After a while, though, they realize that they've actually learned from one-another, and that they can't work with anyone else. As for the others, Yano and Yoshida proved just how excellent and supportive female friendships can be (also, Yano wins for her rationality and maturity). The characters of Ano Hana reveal just how deeply childhood memories can influence the people we become (and how those bonds never truly disappear). And while there were many people who disliked the Color Rangers story arcs of Level-E, I thought these unwilling child heroes made for some of the funniest and most touching portions of the show.

Best Mascot or Animal Character

Nyanko-Sensei, Natsume Yuujinchou San

Runners Up: Sakamoto-san, Nichijou; Pedro Martinez, Kimi ni Todoke Season 2; Penguins #1, #2 and #3, Mawaru Penguindrum

Nyanko-Sensei will pretty much always win this category by default because he has such a great personality. Though he considers Takashi his "prey," everyone knows that he's actually grown to care for him over time. Also, the thought of a fat cat with a bad attitude reminds me of certain cats that I know in real life. In a very close second place are the penguins who symbolically act out whatever is going on with the Takakura siblings in Mawaru Penguindrum. They're one of the examples of how director Ikuhara can somehow inject comedy into dramatic situations and make it feel like it belongs and doesn't spoil the mood.

Biggest Troll

[TIE] Prince Baka, Level-E; Minakami Mai, Nichijou

I'm discovering more and more that I'm a really big fan of troll humor (as long as, you know, no one is actually hurt in the process). The act of pulling a fast one over on someone, of trying to get a rise out of them, of leading them on to a big punch line or of slipping a great gag into what's assumed to be a serious situation is just really, really funny to me. Level-E is an anime series that revolves almost entirely around Prince Baka-ki-el-Dogra's trolling of the human race, more specifically his new friend Yukitaka, the young students who become the Color Rangers, and his handlers, Kraft, Colin and Sade. Mai-chan is an all-around unapologetic troll, her most frequent target being her friend Yukko (the "dumb" one of the group). Her trolls are legendary, but here are several good ones:

Green Light, Red Light

Mai loves Yukko

10 Yen Soccer

Yukko's Test

Best Opening and Ending Songs

Rather than award a winner in either category, I'll just list my favorites for the year. I suppose that this is a cop-out, but hey, it's always a large field to try and narrow-down and I think it would take more time to do so than it's worth.

My Favorite Openings:

"Harinezumi" from Fractale

"Fukanzen Nensho" from Kamisama Dolls

"Cold Finger Girl" from Level-E

"Nornir" from Mawaru Penguindrum

"Cras numquam scire" from Dantalian no Shoka

"Matryoshka" from [C] Control

"Bowl Man" from Hyouge Mono

"Sweet Drops" from Usagi Drop

"Tama Mera Mera Iccho Celcius!" from Dororon Enma-Kun Meeramera

My Favorite Endings:

"Magia" from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

"Fantasy" from Un-Go

"Dear Future" from Mawaru Penguindrum

"Take Off" from Blue Exorcist

"Kimi no Kakera" from Natsume Yuujinchou San

The "Oh No They Didn't!" Award

Dororon Enma-Kun Meera Mera "Swinging Breasts" and "Penis Sword fighting"

Runners Up: Uta no Prince Sama "Boy-Band Introduction," Kore wa Zombie desu ka? "Extended shot of Ayumu's magical girl taint," Yondemasu-yo Azazel-san "Poop Curry," 30-Sai no Hoken Taiiku "Vacuum-powered anus."

I wanted for there to be a special award for the anime scenes that made my jaw drop in amused horror, and these two scenes from the first episode of the newest Enma-kun incarnation really took the cake. It amuses me greatly that NIS America will be inflicting this series on the Region 1 Market sometime this year; I'll be waiting to hear the unmistakable sound of every anime fan's head exploding (especially since there's plenty of stuff later on in the series that's just as crazy). Somewhat less intense but still amusing were Ayumu's masou-shoujo kick from the first episode of Kore wa Zombie desu ka? that featured an extended camera shot of his panty-clad behind, the "Strawberry Curry" incident from the tenth episode of Yondemasu-yo Azazel-san (where Beelzebub's stash of poop is accidentally used as an ingredient), and the God of Sex's invitation for the main character of 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku to have sex with him.

Well, that's a wrap everyone. Didn't see a category you though should be included? Disagree with any of the choices? Feel free to offer your thoughts in the comments. Just remember that I, as a human being with a limited amount of free time, couldn't possibly have watched everything in its entirety last year, so keep that in mind while you're replying (especially if you think I've overlooked something - I probably have, due to time constraints).