Although TheBigN beat me to it, I’ve been dropping hints left and right that I’ve joined the mass that is Touhou Anonymous, least of which would be an amusing cry for help on my mini-blog, but I think it’s time to make this official: my name is CCY … well, my psuedonym is CCY … and I’m a Touhou addict.

Who knows what it is. The manic gameplay that shoots adrenaline through your veins as quickly as the characters shoots bullets, the immense music scene from its hard-rock remixes to the drug-like addictive flash songs and everywhere in between, or just the sheer size and limitless bounds of the fandom … perhaps I’ll never know a reason until I fall out of Touhou.

But until then, in my typical analytical style, I can’t take it lying down. I’m very bad at admitting I simply like things because I do, and so it’s time to dig up the roots of, at least, my Touhou fandom and shine some light on some of the intriguing, curious, or just plain weird ends of the Touhou universe.

There’s a method to every madness, and it’s time to find mine, in this mini-series of mini-posts. And target number one …

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Apologies for a quick entry, but that just means I’ll have to leave the discussion open-ended instead of just babbling on forever. We’ll see if this incites more comment.

But, anyway, if I do manage to get this post finished in the next half-hour, it will have been roughly one year since the airing of the first episode of School Days, the infamous harem (some say anti-harem) show that was groundbreaking or shocking in so many ways. Truly it is one of the most unique shows the anime world will see - maybe not in concept, but in execution, you just have to wonder what kind of ideas were running through the producer’s heads, for better or worse.

I thought it would make an interesting topic to look back from much further down the proverbial river (hey, you make the boat jokes, not me) back at School Days, and see if it’s still everything it was cracked up to be. (more…)

As much as I begin to unintentionally obscure my roots in the United States through my pursuit of foreign culture, sometimes I find myself having a distinctly American approach to things regardless.

And while I may not be chewing down on countless hamburgers or invading foriegn nations or driving pick-up trucks or however the wildly offensive stereotype goes, I do exhibit more than one trait in common with our most popular American, George W. Bush (or at least his government), in wanting to mess around with things that are distinctly not mine.

While perhaps the stage of anime is not quite as important as the global one, I was reminded of this way of thinking of “no, I want it THIS way” while watching some recent popular shoujo shows.

Maybe it’s not just an American way of thinking, but rather a fallacy of all humans, to want more than what is currently presented, but either way, I’m finding the topic of shipping to be one that’s sent me, as usual, on a variety of tangents; some serious, some sarcastic, some squeal-y, but all entertaining.

So put on your Cologne of Rabid Fanboy Protection +1 and let’s take a dive into one of the more divisive ways that a fandom manifests itself, into a lair typically more well frequented by the opposite sex (y’know, the kind that doesn’t exist on the internet … er … women), that of shipping.

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The rumors of my blogging laziness have been greatly exaggerated.

In the midst of the working world and of real life another Rapidfire post rises from the ashes to inject a thousand-odd words of anime ranting and raving into the bloodstream of a starved anime fan.

Well, in all honesty I hope you’ve been reading elsewhere too, so you shouldn’t be starving, but in any case, I’m just starting to go off on random tangents, having already written all the content out of my head (yes, the pre-jump section comes last here) and now desperately typing random, fourth-wall referential content in an attempt to fill space.

In case you’re interested in what’s on board for today, there’s a news section announcing a new Shuffle!-like substance for the PC, a short metarant involving ads and websites, and a good long analytical-type thing about Howl’s Moving Castle - one of the popular Miyazaki films - and the power of emotional connection versus logical appeal.

Well … uh … how about that Nagato?
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I’ve been going on an interesting, almost existential-type tangent in my anime fandom of recently. Perhaps it’s a slow time waiting week-to-week on all the latest shows, or an over-saturation in pink happy-happy fluffiness, but I’ve been challenging my mentality (and perhaps sanity) recently with some new material.

Those who recognize the two works (or at least one) in the title should already know the common link bonding them and that is that they take realistic, sometimes disturbing close shots at the lifestyle of the manic anime fan.

It’s an eye-opener in the sense that they are mirrors into your own life - if you’re reading this blog, you probably have, or have felt at one point, at least some degree of similarity with the characters in these works. You might not be as grossly distanced from reality, or as disillusioned with real people, but certainly it’s a thought that has crossed your mind. “Oh, wouldn’t it be nice for life to be like anime.” “Oh, wouldn’t it be nice if real girls were like that.”

Well, think again.

The tones of these two shows are markedly different so far, at least with just one episode of NHK under the belt versus 25 chapters of Ressentiment, but both of them do have at least some power to inspire inner reflection, with a almost black-humor tone coating them a la a Zetsubou Sensei with less random imagery and comedy and more close-to-home hits.

I’ve enjoyed them a lot, for the same reason I enjoyed an anime like Kaiji or a visual novel conversion like H2O, and that is because they are unmistakably different from whatever you’ve seen before. And ironically, this concept of ‘being different’ is what they are all about.

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A quick discussion on two unrelated topics here, a concept I like to call ‘halo characters’ and a rant (albeit spoiler-free) on the status of Kure-nai through episode 9.

It’s pretty much as is, so let me use this pre-jump space as a mini-shoutbox, a mini-rant within a mini-rant post. It’s like those Russian dolls.

* Does anyone have plans for Anime Expo (AX), the weekend of the 4th of July? Some friends and I are considering making it happen (albeit very unlikely) and I’m just wondering if any of you can bribe me. Or provide rooms. Come to think of it, those two might be related.

* Those who said ItaKiss were better than Special A … yeah … you’re right. The latter has been on a horrible, horribly spiral recently with just Hikari bearing the weight of the show (Kei has since collapsed, for now).

I’m hoping this is just a result of S.A. spooling up for a bit of awesome later on, but ItaKiss is definitely pushing a lot harder with more plot and more intriguing characters. I don’t even hate Naoki any more, that’s how good it is.

* 300+ MB releases of Toshokan Sensou make me a sad panda. It’s one of my most-looked forward to shows of the season, yet it’s stalled out for me on episode 4 as I struggle to look for low-size subs. I use direct download, not torrenting … maybe that is my problem. Unless the crackdown in Japan busted a Toshokan Sensou capper, or something. It’s a tough gray-area issue to argue, so I’ll stay away from that.

And now, onto the main (minor) event…
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So you wanna watch a harem anime. Or maybe you’re just amused by my post title.

In any case, the harem genre is one that enjoys a negative reputation from anime viewers, mainly due to the core nature of it being one guy surrounded by many girls waiting to jump him - rather pandering, even I will admit.

Of course, such a stereotype is the same as assuming that all shonen action shows involve men in spiky hair screaming, or all shoujo romances feature blond-haired ambigously-gendered prettyboys surrounded by sparkles and flowers, or, more pertinently, that all anime is hentai. So it’s my job today to recommend some of the better harem-type shows out there with a fun little activity - and I don’t mean fun like your teacher’s definition of “fun”, trust me, so it’ll be OK.

The problem with the harem genre, and the reason it has gets a bad rap from so many people is that, admittedly, it does vary wildly in quality. There are piles of pandering shows which are nothing more than the stereotype I mentioned above. But not all of them belong in this pile.

Rather, many shows have a harem setup only in appearance, and belong to a greater genre I usually term the ‘visual novel’ shows, after works like Kanon or Tsukihime that were originally visual novels, that have a skewed male:female ratio for sure, but have a more refined (or at least more refined pandering to emotional fools like me) taste.

So here’s a little quiz I devised on a boring weekend to help you determine which visual-novel / harem-type anime might suit you. Amuse yourself, at least to see if you’ve seen what I’ve recommended and whether it suits you or not. It’s all about what personally appeals the best in such a diverse genre like this.

Enjoy! (Yeah, everything’s after the jump. Keep going…) (more…)

The adages “birds of a feather flock together” and “opposites attract” are often at war, being two different ways to describe how people come together. While usually this is meant to describe the relationship between two distinctly real people, these sayings can be applied to the fandom of anime characters as well.

And in this 2D realm, oddly enough, the situation is much the same in that there are veritable arguments for both sides of the coin.

It’s quite obvious that there are character types in anime that would never be possible (or at least extremely implausible) in real life, ones that clash with the passive, soft-spoken attitude that most male anime fans embody. At the extreme end of the scale you get dominatrix-type characters in shows best left hidden in a dark corner somewhere (or under a mattress), but even more family-friendly personalities can pull off the appeal of being the polar opposite of the stereotypical harem lead archetype.

There are the extremely hyperactive types that simply exude energy, bouncing off the walls and willing to try everything as least once, no matter the consequences. Their outgoing attitude and lack of shame is a nice fit for any daydreaming viewer who wishes they could be as enthusiastic.

The appeal of a tsundere can somewhat fall under this umbrella as well; rather, it is the umbrella, housing the love-love couple of these two trains of thought at one time. A tsundere character as strictly defined will reach both sides of the spectrum; being a totally different, almost foriegn personality with their cold, sometimes brutal tsuntsun side, yet exhibiting the same blushing, stammering, flustered deredere side that many inexperienced romantics are familiar with.

But more than that, when I mean ‘birds of a feather’ I don’t mean characters with simply the same personality but those who share the same kinds of beliefs and passions as an anime viewer. It’s one thing to relate with a character based on their experiences and emotions but when you find someone else who can appreciate the same thing you do … it’s scarily intriguing.

Perhaps too much. (more…)

Premise 1: Tsukihime, one of my personal favorite visual novels - and one I would highly recommend to anyone who wants some real sad girls in stuff, except with stronger characters and hundreds of times more action scenes - is apparently getting a remake of sorts. To use a colloquialism, much bricks were pushed out my rectum.

Premise 2: There has been more than a fair hint that everyone’s favorite no-luck heroine, Satsuki Yumizuka, might finally have her arc and story ending in said remake, mainly because 1) she’s listed as a “heroine” in the scan, 2) there’s not much else to add, and 3) Sacchin fans are probably standing outside Type-Moon headquarters right now with pitchforks right now demanding it. If this is true, I might push out enough bricks to build a house. Not like a apartment, but like a three-story mansion with twenty rooms, all filled with brick furniture and brick technology and brick refrigerators filled with brick food and drink. And, of course, a meido…made of brick. In fact, twin maids.

Needless to say I am a mild fan of Satsuki Yumizuka and being able to see her true ending, hinted at in the spin-off game Melty Blood (which worked things in the typical Nasu way by going off an ending which at the time didn’t exist), would be quite the experience. But I can’t help but feel a bit pensive about this development, in part due to something I’ve been brooding.

It was something I read on a fellow blog, or perhaps on a forum, about the popularity of side characters. Side characters, or at least characters without a defined story, tend to be quite popular, sometimes more popular than some of the main characters. Think of Kanon’s Akiko Minase, the Itsuki / Mayumi comedy duo in Shuffle!, Yukine of Clannad. Or, going outside of the visual novel genre, any of the Lucky Star minor characters, Wilhelmina / Margery / whatever yuri bait from Shana, hell, I even have soft spots for Hamaji (H2O) and Sakura Sae (sola).

But is there any logical basis behind this greater appreciation of characters left out from the big dance? I think there’s definitely a sort of bias going on here, one that might end up dimming the ranks of the Sacchin supporters if such a route ever comes out.
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A long, long time again, in a blog post much removed from today’s, I talked a bit about how the OP of a show was something quite vital to the success of a show; maybe it was the show that made the OP, or the OP that made the show, but either way, if I liked one, I probably liked the other.

And usually the music side of not only this, but both bookends to a show, the opening and ending sequences, is focused on when reviewing these sections. It’s logical enough, given that, like many a person has learned from dating in real life, as pretty as something can look, if you can’t stand it when it opens it’s mouth, it’s a bad sign.

Unfortunately a lot of opening and ending sequences are pretty much the same as every other one in the history of the planet (or, perhaps, anime). Show a quick shot of all the characters in the show, perhaps hint at some plot spoilers to come, pan up to the sky, call it a wrap. For an action show, flash through some fight scenes; for a harem/visual-novel show, show a bunch of scenes of the heroines looking alternatively enthusiastic and pensive.

Usually, after the tenth or so iteration of the same thing over and over, it gets boring.
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