Spent fifteen minutes at Fanime, have five minutes to write on it. Didn’t have much time other than to be overwhelmed by all the stuff, so here’s the only thing I remembered, cosplay highlights.

- Hatsune Miku; obscure enough to surprise me.
- A very well done Haruhi / Mikuru pair. Sadly missing Nagato.
- Meganekko Konata. Not the best job but still cute.
- A Wii remote. XD
- EIRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN and Kaguya. Yay, I’m a Touhoutard now.
- Guy wearing a ‘I’m not cosplaying shirt’.
- Mudkip. I herd people liek him.
- AMU HINAMORI! I think. I really hope so.

And other highlights:
- Walked around Artist’s Alley, vowed to buy first thing with Kanon on it. It might take a while.
- Ran around Dealer’s Room, saw a lot of exciting things. Kare Kano DVDs 2 and 5 for $5 a piece but missing rest of the set.
- Ran into Video Room #4 for 10 seconds before deciding I was too lazy to hunt down lk, since I was leaving in 5 minutes.
- Fanime registration took 2 minutes. Picking up my prom tux took 2 hours. Fanime, 1, prom, 0. Being nerdy is awesome!

For tomorrow, I’m going to be at Fanime at 8 AM, so lk and etc., if you want to meet pick a place accordingly. Planning to wear one of my three iron-on ‘cheap nerdy shirts’ - depicting either an outline of Chihiro from ef, the “quiet unsociable person” tagline (Hisui, from Tsukihime), or Cirno’s nine-ball. Hope to see some of you there.

-CCY

Ah, everyone, let’s sit down, it’s time for the weekly Theater Club meeting … ah … uh … everyone, we have to talk about the Clannad movie today … could you quiet …

Hold on Nagisa, let me handle this …

Kotomi, stop trying to burn today’s script!
Akio, stop running around screaming manly phrases!
Ryou, stop blushing so much, the visible steam is making too much noise!
Tomoyo, turn down the beatdown on Youhei for a bit!

I’m sorry, was I being too distracting? It’s his fault that he’s screaming in pain so much.

Mei, stop trying to use your loli charm on anything that moves!
…Uh…Sanae…I think those screams of the damned I keep hearing are coming from your cooking.

NO ONE EVEN USED MY IMAGE IN THE LAST TEAM CLANNAD POST! *runs out crying*

I LOVE YOU THEATER! Wait, no…I WILL ALWAYS STAND UPON SANAE! Damn it … hold on, I’ll be right back.

And Tomoya … Tomoya, Tomoya, Tomoya … I’ve got to deal with you personally, you naughty boy.

Hey, that’s not tsun or dere, that’s just being dirty!

S-stupid Tomoya, it’s not like I was trying to come on to you or anything!

FUUKO’S DETECTING AN OBVIOUS LIE!

Whoa, that’s cool, I didn’t know Fuuko had a lie detector built in.

…yes, I got a speaking role!

HERE, HAVE ONE OF FUUKO’S 37 SENSES!

Uh, guys? On topic? Clannad movie? Review? …OK, Nagisa, you’re with me, we’re on our own now.

Hello. Nice to meet you. My name is Kotomi Ichinose, a senior in Class A. My hobby is warning people about spoilers (Huge spoilers, like spoiling After Story, i.e. the second season - I AM NOT KIDDING ABOUT THESE SPOILERS). I would be happy if you could continue to read this post.
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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…) Read the rest of this entry »

So what happened?

I posted numerous times on the show, shoved it to the top of the viewing list over and over, gave it a nine - the highest ranking possible - on the ever-important Scale of Condensing A Complex Anime Into A Single Digit Number (aka MyAnimeList). And yet, it takes until a month later for it to finally push its way out of the review queue, where shows I don’t have much to talk about go to die.

It’s not like I was collecting my thoughts on the show.
It’s not like I was rewatching it.
It just simply passed out of mind for a very long time, and that’s something that worries me, because I really did think I enjoyed this show much more than the average show.

This is because, for the uninitiated, this is nowhere near your average show.

This is a show that goes beyond the forces of moe that some claim poison (or at least, run rampant in) today’s anime. There is no moe to speak of, hell, I could probably count on one hand - probably one finger - how many girls even appeared in the show total.

Rather, what Kaiji is, is a ruthless adrenaline rush, both physical and mental. A show all about a sometimes naive, sometimes genius, sometimes emotional delinquent (named Kaiji) who gets himself in all sorts of shady financial debt, and is forced into a series of increasingly implausible, incredible, and intriguing gambles in order to pay it off.

These gambles are great to watch because most of the time they are at least thrill rides which will leave you guessing as to the outcome - don’t take winning for granted in this show - with incredible moments of raw emotion along every twist and turn. On a good day, they are great introspectives as well, as Kaiji ponders the viciousness of human life while getting whipped in a human-vs-human battle of mind and body.

It’s very much a complete package, one that I think deserves a watch by anyone, just because you’re unlikely to see a show like this often amidst more common show archetypes. It drags a bit at times and the noses are awfully pointy, but Kaiji is an injection straight to the heart, which feeds blood to the brain and the masculine regions of the body.

(Manly spoilers ensue after the jump.)

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(Un)fortunately, none of us bloggers will look like this

Well, now that Author’s linked it from his end, I might as well make an official page for it.

As mentioned before in previous posts, I am heading to Fanime, an anime convention in San Jose, Calfornia, this year in 2008. It’ll be my first time and I figured what the heck, let’s make a social-type event out of it, so we can put some faces to the flames … er … posts because I have no friends.

So I proposed a ani-blogger meeting at Fanime, and lo and behold I’ve got something resembling interest. Now you too can be trolled in person by shouta imouto lolikitsune, and be bombarded with the Kanon propaganda of…uh…me, and I imagine that Author will be there too, except you won’t see him because he’ll be on a open-air balcony somewhere sniping people.

Of course I digress and I’m just playing up the stereotypical images for fun, so, y’know, don’t kill me any more than you usually do.

But on topic here somewhere, here’s a little discussion page for any plans for a blogger meetup at Fanime. Frankly, I’m a teenager, I don’t plan things, and it’s my first time at Fanime, so it would probably just end up as a big group of people walking around the convention like any other group, except with more snarkiness and obscure references. But if there’s anything good that’s worth doing outside of the convention, like grabbing a meal (bah, food is for the weak) somewhere, let’s work something out.

Well, assuming we get a group that amounts to something. I don’t want to drag people out to Fanime just for one or two other people, especially when they’re quiet like me (at least, I hope I’m not going to turn into someone who runs around beating people with yaoi yuri paddles).

So yeah. I guess I’ll start camping on some IRC channels if anyone needs to discuss, I’m usually on #animebloggingcollective at Rizon. I suppose I should start hanging out in #animeblogger too, or wherever all the cool kids go.

-CCY

Following the two-and-change shoujo shows in this season has been an interesting look at the sort of evolution this genre has undergone in the 21st century.

There are distinct kinds of styles found in these shows tailored for the female audience - although they still manage to find a large audience for both genders with their emphasis on the emotional and with their sense for gender-neutral slapstick conversational / slapstick humor.

Itazura na Kiss is a throwback to the old days, the anime of the early 90’s built off of manga even older. (Perhaps that’s because it actually is such a well-aged title.) It has a very strong romantic undertone to it, featuring the ever-popular tale of a prospective couple shoved in close quarters. Like many shows of this day, the lead girl is unmistakably the main focus, as she tries to work her way into the heart of the male lead. This is always a large part of the story, with the emotions of the male lead often obscured from view; although, there is always time for more side characters and their stories.

Special A is the new-age shoujo, one with a more balanced feel to its mix of comedy and romance. In here it’s not so much about life lessons and love as much as it is simply having fun; being patently ridiculous in the name of hilarity is all part of the equation. There are interludes for sweet moments, but not even all of these are serious. The story is quite often episodic, with morsels of plot scattered among challenges or events of the week.

Just over a week ago I pitted these two shows against each other after their third episode and declared Special A to be the show with the better start. It was more amusing and had a more appealing cast; although, I declared, when they both stopped spinning their tires and started moving forward with the plot, Itazura na Kiss might be able to make a comeback.

Two episodes later for the both of them I’ve got reason to think just so, but don’t count the comeback done just yet; a new show’s entered in style, smashing through the proverbial glass windows, and it’s name is Toshokan Sensou, i.e. Library War.

Toshokan Sensou at first glance is hardly a shoujo show at all. Anything which has ‘war’ in the title, and features footage of uniformed soldiers engaged in firefights would appear to be much more appealing to adrenaline-filled males.

But look past that and you’ll see an equally engaging second side revolving around the life of Iku Kasahara, a female enlistee in the Library Task Force. Her business relationship with Instructor Dojo, someone who might have a bit more for her that what it seems, and the amusing breaks for slapstick comedy in this show, are definitely enough to flag this down as a show with more than a moderate feminine spin. (This, backed up by the fact that Toshokan Sensou has been serialized as a shoujo manga.)

As we approach the halfway mark for some of these shows on their one-cour (~12 episodes) schedule, it’s time to reevalute the worthiness - as one not quite humble blogger will gauge - of these shoujo-styled anime, in the quickly-becoming infamous fashion of the Series Showdown comparisons.

Except wordy, y’know, but that shouldn’t be a shocker.
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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. Read the rest of this entry »

The feature that everyone expected to be dead - probably including myself - returns for a second edition of quick ramblings about nothing in particular.

It’s pretty much as the title says in terms of the three topics - a call to arms about the upcoming anime convention in San Jose, new enlistments in the integrated blogroll, and a rave about the strangely delicious mix of books and guns, so check it out.
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All right everyone, great play we put on their for the Theater Club, now let’s wrap this up with a final reflection on how it all went. Nagisa, you’re the lead character, you start … uh … where’s Nagisa?

Tomoya and her went to go take the trash out by the gym storage locker a long time ago … I wonder if they’re OK?

WHY THOSE~ Uh, Ryou, where did I put my chainsaw?

W-w-weren’t you stripped of your license to use one after the incident with the last thousand fanboys?

Mmm, stripped…

Ah, fine, I’ve got better weapons anyway. I’ll be back in a minute.

(THIS NOT OUT-OF-PLACE INTERJECTION AT ALL INDICATES KYOU IS WHERE NAGISA AND TOMOYA SHOULD BE)

Hmm…the door’s locked. That’s it, then! *clears throat*

S-s-stupid door, it’s not like I wanted to open you or anything!

(Door breaks cleanly in two. Kyou gets duct tape and patches it up cleanly before continuing.)
Ah, Kyou!

ALRIGHT YOU LITTLE HUSSY PUT YOUR PANTS BACK wait what? What’s this?

Look, look! We found this dango farm in the gym storage room and we’ve been entranced with it ever since! Isn’t it just adorable? Dango, dango, dango, dango…

Alright you guys, can we get serious here? We have to do a peer review and we have to get going now. We’re months behind.

Tomoyo? What are you doing here too? (Alright, I get a speaking line!)

Well … I figured … if Tomoya was going to be here so long with Kyou and Nagisa … that I …

FUUKO’S HERE!

No, Fuuko! Go away! You’re killing my deredere Tomoyo fantasies!

(Actual review-like content after the jump … sadly. Also, watch out for spoilers.)
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I enjoy contradictions; not only in my mind-bending anime that I watch but also in what kind of anime I watch.

I like to tout my love for the visual-novel conversions, a genre that is on the mild end, gender-neutral with cute girls and sad stories, and on the extreme ends, a fanservice free-for-all harem-fest with characters filled to the nines with appeal and moe.

But there’s an equally large and some might say equally awkward soft spot I hold for the other end of the so-called gender divide, the shoujo drama. These are the shows that could almost pass to be daytime American TV, so filled with relationships made and broken, hearts yearning and hearts weeping, and more characters than any typical harem lead could ever dream of snagging.

Of course, the appeal of them is not the chance to watch another hour of The Days of Our Lives, but rather the emotional power of these shows that so often can speak to souls. Typically, the content found in these shoujo stories are quite down-to-earth, and extremely pertinent to the teenage age group of which I am a part of. They have a sky-high relatability factor, something that makes it easy for anyone to take many of the life lessons that these shows emit, and make it personal, and thus make the anime great.

And equally such, the shows are not grounded in reality so hard as to be drab, either. Most inhabit a realistic-like setting with more than a fair bit of ridiculousness in the content itself. It may be a school life show, but when the school life features giant glass greenhouses, over-the-top competitions and rivalries, and overally highly unlikely circumstances, it’s likely to induce a smile.

This mix of heartwarming story spiced with a sprinkle of insanity is what endears this genre to me, and when I found that two shows of this type were coming down the pipeline for the spring season, I was quite excited in finding my two ‘must-watch’, or at least ‘must-try’ shows of the season. But how do they stack up now that the first three episodes of each have been viewed?

An impromptu part two of the “Spring Season Battles” feature follows. Do note that this one is lighter on the pictures and heavier on the text, due to time restraints, and, y’know, things to talk about.

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