While the hot springs and the beach are more well-known destinations for anime filler episodes, the amusement park is one of the harem / romance genre’s best kept secrets; at least, by ‘best kept’ I mean you don’t see a lot of other shows at theme parks (next on Kaiji: Restricted Whack-a-Mole).

However, despite being built around fun, amusement, cheap montages, and general lightheartedness, theme parks in anime are actually quite intriguing places to be; for some reason, they always show up at Plot O’ Clock (i.e. late) in the storyline. In fact, sometimes entire stories take place there (note that I have not actually played Ever17 yet).

Part of this can be attested to an entertaining, occasionally ironic contrast between a jovial, carefree atmosphere and a deeper conflict or drama between characters. Said tension is usually romantic, especially since amusement parks seem to be the Place to Go on dates in anime.

And the ace in the hole for said amusement park dates is the Ferris wheel. Quite possible the slowest moving vehicle since Aria (not an insult!), the Ferris wheel is a nice, relaxing ride for little children, sightseers, and if Completely Realistic Fiction is anything to go by, people who are long overdue for a confession.

Simply put the Ferris wheel offers the best – and worst – aspects of the genre shows, in that it’s an easy way to build romantic tension between characters by shutting them in a sealed environment with no escape, and that it’s equally easy to break said tension at the most critical moment when the ride ends.

And so seeing the amusement park trope used again and again in shows is something that brings a sort of hushed anticipation to me, in that while a few incredibly interesting things have happened, there have been equal amounts of predictable, cop-out tripe of the “failed confession version #494″ variety.

Perhaps this whole post is representative of the Amusement Park Episode concept; I hope for it to raise a few eyebrows and crack a few smiles, but in the end it’s still mostly filler. That said, let’s commence plot advancement and take a look at some of the reasons I think the Ferris wheel is one of the more noteworthy places to be…

(Featuring spoiler-related stuff regards Cardcaptor Sakura, Shuffle, Myself;Yourself, and DNAngel – yes, that manga – so move cautiously)
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Crank up that meta machine once again…

Something that I’ve always found kind of strange in anime fandom is the popularity of the phrase “Well, I didn’t like the first episode, but I’ll give it a few more shots.”

As one who says too many good things about anime, it’s not that it worries me that people are torturing themselves with anime they simply don’t like – yet, one might potentially say, but rather…

Why can’t they just make first episodes good for once?

Because the industry is crashing and burning, that’s why.

Of course, the factor may not lie with the episodes themselves – since it would be illogical for a studio to put out a subpar-quality episode when it counts the most to reining in viewers – but with us, the audience.

Because we might just not care that much.

Why is it that first episodes never click? You probably think you know the answer – and you might just be right! It’s not a hard topic, but there are quite a few valid explanations, and as always no stone of the anime metagame will remain unturned.

But what can you do about it, if you’re tired of apologizing after shows, wondering why life never gets better – at least until a few hours of watching down the line?

Can we really do anything at all?

At least in my experience, there are some ways to be pleasantly surprised by new shows for once…

(Oh, and regarding the strike-through’d links, those are some of the articles that I felt stood out on the latest Oh God Anime is Dying debate; and as sarcastic as that sounds, it’s not an issue to be ignored. At this point there is not left for me to say that has not been done elsewhere, so please give these people your attention.)
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The 2007 fall season of anime is something that has been discussed and, naturally, will continue to be discussed for quite a while. In fact, that’s exactly the rather broad topic for another post rush by the Anime Blogging Collective (every word is a separate link, so please click and enjoy accordingly); the autumn 2007 season.

Now having already debated to the end of a story arc and back what shows merit attention this season (undoubtedly the answer, if you ask the right person, is all of them), it’s time to look behind the scenes as always in classic meta-fashion.

Being relatively new to the anime scene (having laid low until about March or April of this year), being on the cutting edge of anime is something that I’m experiencing for the first time.

While in the past I could survive solely on old shows of great merit (and sometimes of great length), or on shows of the season past, having finally caught up with most of the shows of the past I depend to a large degree now on the latest releases from the fall season, with only two or three ‘retro’ or ‘rewatch’ shows completing the list.

It’s certainly a different ballgame to be watching anime ‘live’ per se, rather that catching up with seasons past. In a sort of meta way, the experience one derives from both is rather different.
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To mitigate the massive flood of viewers pounding on that ‘read more’ button, though, let me stress that today’s post is, as always, completely and almost depressingly work-safe and wall-of-text-y.

Fanservice is one of those issues in anime that is nearly completely polarizing; the middle ground is very barren, with most people lying in the “I’d hit it” or the “Get it away from me” camps.

Perhaps because the issue is shoved down our throats so much that it’s one of those things that’s impossible to ignore, especially with sexuality being at the forefront of endless American discussions.

The training of most people to be averse to anything resembling human flesh leads to much beating of dead horses, at times, with ‘concerned parents’ and nameless grey-haired lawyers jumping on half-a-second long flashes of nudity on TV and poorly rendered sexual acts hidden away on some game disc. But on the internet, with the ability to be anonymous, the split between the two groups, in favor and opposition of fanservice, is quite more evenly split.

At this point it would be easy to take one position as a high ground and condemn such blatant fanservice as mind-warping and demeaning to women and generally fire and brimstone stuff. And as much of that belief that I share, it’s still in a sense wrong to lock out and stereotype completely those who perhaps are a bit looser in belief and a bit more enjoying of the female form.

Certainly there could be arguments formed for fanservice, valid ones. Not everyone who enjoys a bit of fanservice is a lifeless nerd hidden in a basement somewhere. For some it could be another form a physical comedy; something simple, easily digestible, and relaxing. Or the counterargument by being so uptight about the matter, naysayers of fanservice or sexuality in general are making the matter worse. Even that focusing on one kind of fanservice is unfair; while ‘boing boing’ fanservice is the most common type, remember the definition of the word fanservice: there could be straight moe fanservice, in-joke fanservice, technological (mecha / car) fanservice, and so on.

Still, it’s likely clear by now that I plan to argue the ‘clean’ side in saying ‘keep the fanservice down, please’, and I hope to prove some valid points instead of just coming across as an uptight skin-fearing person.
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Word association time: I say harem, you say:

A) Unrealistic.
B) Simplistic.
C) Uninspired.
D) Boobies!

Many anime fans would pick one of these four to describe the genre; something that really shows the relatively bad reputation that one-guy-many-girl shows have. But there is, just like most other genres, much more than meets the eye in harem shows.

What earns the harem genre such a hard reputation is the wide range in quality that a crowded market like it is bound to contain. More so than any other, harem shows are prone to cash-ins, cheap adaptations, and lazy work simply because it’s the type of show that has a proven audience.

Why? Because it appeals to many people on the lowest, most physical level of two-dimensional sex appeal. Those who manage to keep blood flowing to the brain are the ones who instantly write off the genre as brainless fanservice.

But just like take-out food, you can’t condemn a whole flavor (in this case, of anime) based on on bad experience, and so today’s public service message will deal with the fact that there are plenty of good harem shows out there (or shows with harem elements), as well as plenty of good reasons to watch it.
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