It’s quite ironic that shortly after a lengthy meta-post on how side characters tend to have their characteristics amplified (since they only usually have a single one) to the point that their image eclipses their true merit, I find myself stumbling upon the a similar concept in characters, and that is ending the lifespan of a character early.

Thankfully for our sanity, I mean that only in the chronological sense in Shugo Chara, as a character is removed from the plotline not by force, but by circumstances, but still it circles around to the same point, as suddenly I find myself wishing for a lot more of said character.

It’s probably something about how we always desire more than we have, and since side characters and those who don’t stick around for the full series get less screentime, we wish they had more attention paid to them, and take to flying the banner for them as a way of pseudo-protest. But I’m no psychology major.

What I am is very glad that Shugo Chara is restoring (or keeping, at least) my faith in its cast and in the genre as a whole. I’ve found the magical girl genre to be bar none the best for establishing a mood of warm fuzziness, with a level of sweetness that can stir hearts without rotting teeth.

Shugo Chara has this done pretty well in having more than just a lot of pink and shiny transformations, adding in some great character dynamics and development that really show just why shows like Cardcaptor Sakura can hit it so big in being appealing to viewers both young and old.

To me, Shugo Chara really feels like the Cardcaptor Sakura, like the definitive magical girl show, of this decade, and the most recently released episode, the 25th, only reinforces this belief.

(Pretty major character spoilers, be forewarned.)
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There seems to be cries every season about how the cropping of shows is worse than the last, and while this may or may not be true depending on your taste in shows, I’ve always found it hard to be lacking in stuff to put up on the screen every night. This is because while there may not be many standout, my-God-I-need-to-watch-this-now shows in every season there are always plentiful bounties of sleeper hits, things worth trying because someone said it was good, or just plain old shows, enough to ensure that I get continually buried deeper and deeper in a pile of anime I need to catch up on.

Perhaps a large part of it is due to the fact that I enjoy being very easily influenced and thanks to that I can pick up random shows if two or three people say it’s actually pretty good - doubly so if they can nail a weak spot of mine - combined with the fact that I really haven’t seen much, having only been in the anime-watching business for just over a year.

To prove that anime Is Out There - cue the X-Files theme - I’m going to spend a little time tonight going over the majority of my watchlist, instead of the huge specialty posts on a single anime which have been written recently. In case you haven’t figured it out, that’s mostly code for “I want to talk about True Tears, Clannad, and Shana II but am too lazy to unify it in an easy way” with some bonus laughing at other shows added in.

Since it’s March and all and I like to pretend to be hip and knowledgable about sports (Protip: Motorsports yes, sportssports no.), it’s a super special sweet sixteen - ow, my manliness - March Madness-type organization with, you guessed it, sixteen shows on the list. There are in reality a few more but the majority of the extra would consist of “I saw this once, and would kind of keep watching it if there were nothing else to watch,” which explains itself well enough.

To be fair it doesn’t have the mass-voting aspect or the actual sports-related references of the other March Madness anime posts, but, hey, 16 anime, that’s a lot. (more…)

Looking back…

And now for the Slowpoke news: we’re in the winter season.

I’m still stuck in the past, not because of any traumatic accidents which have permanently scarred me and/or my memory, but because the fall season is arguably a much more robust season than the winter ones, at least in terms of new shows.

Especially for a visual novel slash romance slash restricted rock-paper-scissors fan like me, there were a lot of shows that were very appealing; many of them, despite being in tried and tired genres, brought a lot of fresh concepts to the table.

And what’s interesting about this, is that unlike in the summer season, a lot of the most promising shows didn’t close out at twelve episodes. Those that did, were strong shows, no doubt, but many more than that have been promised at least 20-odd episodes, double the goodness if they can keep the pace up.

As such, the winter watchlist is turning out to be strangely familiar. There are plenty of carryover shows on the list, and those that are new shows to 2008 are mostly sequels in some way or form (Zoku SZS, Minami Okawari). Not to leave a bad impression of the winter season - but there aren’t any names of new shows that really stand out from it.

This doesn’t equate with ‘no good shows’, per se - some of my favorite fall shows have been ones that have been completely off the radar - but going off the blog reactions so far, there hasn’t been a standout show that absolutely blows people away, that came out of nowhere and delivered the awesome. Undoubtedly there probably will be, but for now I’m content with surviving off both fresh old shows, and some true classics that are burning a hole in my DVD collection. Today, I’ll take a look at what we have to expect from some of the shows coming into their second cour in 2008.
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Shugo Chara! is a ‘pure’ magical girl show that follows the adventures of Amu, a popular schoolgirl who hides a hidden desire to be accepted for her true self. This wish is manifested in the Guardian (Shugo) Chara, little entities that represent a future personality of someone - for Amu, it is the athlete, Ran, the artist, Miki, and the chef, Su. Amu is forced into a elite group of students known as the Guardians, people who have sworn to protect the dreams of innocent children everywhere. They do this by transforming (”character changing”) into their envisioned future self with the help of the Guardian Chara, and purifying “X Eggs” - negative wishes - back into their original state. Amu’s situation really gets complicated as she begins to get torn between Tadase, the King Guardian and guy of her dreams, and Ikuto, the soft-spoken gothic character who appears to be working for a mysterious but no doubt nefarious company known as Easter…

1/23/08: Episodes 14 + 15
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1/16/08: Episode 13
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Click here for more information on Track Two.

-CCY

Who watches these shows anyway?

Apparently, we do. Magical girl shows have a surprising reputation and an even more surprising fanbase - at least gauging the English anime blog opinion, there seems to be a lot of positive reviews of the genre, or at least microcosms of it - Cardcaptor Sakura is the classic, some of us (me) stand by more recent ones such as Nanatsuiro Drops, and now the latest hit, Shugo Chara.

Admittedly the middle one was originally an eroge but what all three of these have in common, which is why I find this trend surprising, is that they are all ‘pure’ magical girl shows, unlike what I would like to dub “magical lolicon” shows which pander to more directly of a male base.

Somehow, ‘pure’ magical girl shows have managed to gather quite the male audience themselves, despite being aimed at an audience half (a third, one-fourth, etc) the age and with twice the X chromosomes. I mean, look at it. (Link through Canned Dogs)

Why is this?
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Shugo Chara is a “pure” magical girl show that’s receiving a lot of praise across the English anime blogging community, which either means that most bloggers are eight-year-old girls, that they’re still embracing their inner child, or that this show has more merit than a first glance would show.

So I gave Shugo Chara a try and I ended up waking up in a gutter the next morning with half my teeth missing. It was just that sugary.

Granted there were a lot of appealing aspects that looked like they could be turned into something good, but the rest of the show was so drowned in Bishie Catguys, LOL Fangirls, and Hay Guys English is Cool abuse, that I didn’t see them being able to overcome the flaws.

Remember, coming from a guy who liked Cardcaptor Sakura and Nanatsuiro Drops.

Naturally, however, since (with very few exceptions) first episodes never click with me I forged on with Shugo Chara into the second and third episodes and found things improved - or at least changed - to an extent.

And my quick judgment would be that Shugo Chara is a passable show that’s worth trying, especially if you - and even if you don’t - have the fortitude to stand more pink than a barrel full of Kirbies.
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