Incredible Nothing!

Once upon a time, I was in an anime club.

(more…)

Chi is not pleased that I left him out of my first impression posts…

Chi’s Sweet Home was actually the first first episode I watched of the Spring season but that was back home when I was still busy freaking out packing to come all the way here and my then stressed anime starved mind needed that 3 minutes of fuzziness that only a show about a kitten could bring. I kind of forgot about it once I arrived here in Osaka though, but after sifting through so many series this season, I think it’s about time I watch more of Chi and his fuzzy ‘adventures’. It’s the perfect way to chill out after a long day of seemingly endless lessons -_-” Seriously, you must be an extreme cat hater to not feel you day brighten up at least a little bit after watching Chi He’s like a smaller snarkier version of the incredibly adorable Grey from Sketchbook (Another must watch for cat-lovers. Personally, I don’t have a preference between cats or dogs. Or kappas =P).

But if cats aren’t your thing (or penguins) and and you have like 5 minutes to burn without anything to do or watch, here’s a couple of ’short short’ titles you could consider:

Kappa no Kaikata or How to Raise a Water Imp is a short short in that each episode is only 4 episodes long but there’s 26 of them so you could technically finish the series in under 2 hours of you wanted to. It’s about a guy who decides to get a water imp (kappa) as a pet, which may sound bizzare to us since these duck-billed turtle-shelled creatures (remember Pani Poni Dash?) don’t actually exist (or do they…?). But in the realm of the show, which is your otherwise average modern-day Japan, they’re the new hottest pets since… whatever the last hottest pet in Japan was. Basically it’s 26 episodes of ‘Watashi’s (so ANN refers to him. The main human character doesn’t have a name) forays into taking care of his new pet Kaatan, who turns out to be quite a handful (feeding kappas horseradish seems to be a very bad idea…). Other recurring characters include various other kappa owners and their kappas who do pet-owner-like stuff like dress up their kappas in human clothes, take them out for walks/swims, use them as replacement family members, etc.

The show kind of ends on a “uh-oh, this may turn serious” note, but it turns out to be a “eh? that’s it?” ending. Still as a whole, Kappa no Kaikata is a fairly entertaining light hearted watch. The stories are fairly episodic save for a few ’story arcs’ like the one about the humanoid kappa ‘Hercules‘ who can glare the sh*t out of anyone (lol). And yes, before you ask about the pic, all of the human characters in the show are literally faceless - possibly to put the focus on the kappas instead of their owners. It’s an… interesting gimmick to say the least (about as mildly disturbing as blackened out faces in Minami-ke: Okawari), and at any rate a cost saving one (which is probably why it’s been employed it in Itazura na Kiss -_-”).

Also at 4 minutes per episode (but only 16 of them) is the over the top and slightly NSFW Ippatsu Kiki Musume. The show is about a China musume Kunyan who has a penchant for getting herself into ridiculous life-threatening situations and the absurdly unpractical (though they try to cast it as perfectly feasible) methods that she is forced to employ to escape out of them. Oh, and she is often naked/becomes naked in said situations. For instance the episode where she slips in her bath tub and her hair gets sucked into the drainhole such that her head is stuck underwater and she almost drowns. Or when a conveniently parked truck traps her in a phone booth on a hot sunny day and she is forced to strip to stay alive in the oven-like cramped space. Unorthodox and not really recommended methods of averting disasters from the show include making a tissue paper rope ladder to escape out of a tall building and using a condom water balloon to put out a fire (no joke, there’s actually a ‘live action’ portion in the episode where they demonstrate how to make one, lol).

Of course the show’s not meant to be taken seriously at all, and is really quite hilarious in a warped kind of way (the narrator often tries to put real life physics into the equation whenever Kunyan assesses the situation, wtf). The art is crud of course and I’m not sure why they wanted to waste their budget on a blah OP sequence at all, but if you’re looking for someone to laugh at/pity for a good hour or so, Kunyan may be a ’safe’ bet (warning for partial frontal nudity).

Even in peril out at sea, Misato-bunny (bottom right, voiced by Mitsuishi Kotono) still looks good XD

Now if you have a little more time to spare, like say 12 minutes, there’s always Zenryoku Usagi (which I can’t believe I’m still pimping out XD). Okay, so it’s probably the kiddiest show of the lot ignoring Chi’s Sweet Home, but it’s still a pretty lulz show with good clean humour (with a slight tendency towards violence XD)… But if you’re too busy laughing at bouncy boobies and fox girls (or MAID GUYS. GAR!!) then nevermind…

Bunny-service???

The last title I’d recommend is probably the only actual ’short short’. At only 6 minutes and the one ‘episode’, Ame to Shoujo to Watashi no Tegami is actually a worthwhile freelance work by an independent CG artist about an aspiring writer who writes a love letter and… Well, saying anymore would spoil things, lol. The art may not be BONES or Madhouse or KyotoAnimation, but for a one person job it looks pretty good and rather funky in a good way, and the story may be short, but still cleverly amusing in its own way. A feel good way to spend 6 minutes if anything =P

Well, that’s it for short shorts that I can think of off the top of my head for now. Save for Ippatsu Kiki Musume (which is mostly mindless humour XD), they’re all good examples of how a show’s entertainment value isn’t always in proportion to its running length, and they all make the most of the short time span per episode, which is always preferable to dawdling about for a god part of 24 minutes without getting anywhere (I’m thinking of you… err… can’t remember the last show I dropped for being too filler-ish).

(Edit:) Answer: What a blooper, it is the frog girls (Posted a wrong pic -_-”)

When Kimikiss ~pure rouge~ first started last year, I avoided it on the superficial account of it having a ridiculous-sounding title. Seriously, Kissdum~Engage Planet~ and then this (Didn’t watch that one either for the same reason)? Based on this ‘rule’, I won’t be touching To-LOVE-RU next season

Anyways, after finding out that Kimikiss had nothing to do with Kissdum and that it wasn’t a generic fanservice harem despite what the image which the dubious title conjured up, I gladly gave it a go, and well, I kinda liked what I saw so I continued to the end.

But now that I think about it, was there much to like in the first place? I think I was just glad enough to watch something that wasn’t a generic harem and I had faith in J.C. Staff serving up something decent in the ’serious’ romance department. At the start there was the spunky character Mao and the mysterious ice queen type Futami that caught my attention early on (though I really hated her hairstyle, but you shouldn’t judge a character by her design… and anime shouldn’t be about the artwork… Yeah, delusions), and that made up for the rather lackluster male leadS (I think both ef and Kimikiss got people excited for having more than one male lead at that time). Then as the series got along and the initial pairings established themselves, things were watchable enough with Mao and Kai and Futami and Aihara. Kouichi and Yuumi weren’t exactly the most enthralling coupling to watch at that time.
But then, things started to change when I spoilered myself on what was to become of Mao Kouichi and Yuumi (and if you don’t want that to happen to you… well, what are you doing reading this post in the first place then?)

Till now, the idea of a Kouichi X Mao ending just doesn’t seem right, like the only reason it’s there is so that there’s conflict in the story to lead up to a conventional climax in the end. Half way through the series, I realized that as dull Kouichi and Yuumi were at a glance, the two really complemented one another as a couple (if only for both being pretty plain average characters) and once I started appreciating that fact, watching them spend the most of their limited time together wasn’t the chore it was at the start anymore. Of course, around that time Mao ceased to be her likeable self anymore and started carrying the burden of the bitch of the show when she started developing feelings for Kouichi seemingly out of nowhere, and dependable old Kai had to take the brunt of it.

Perhaps Kai’s a little too dependable for Mao?… -_-”

Even Futami knows it’s a bad line.

When things started gravitating full force towards a Kouichi X Mao end though, my attention turned to Aihara and Futami instead. Not that I ever ignored them in the first place. Despite carrying a little bitch burden (that picture cracked me up, lol) herself, I actually like Futami despite her stereotypical distant and socially unconscious persona (and I’m personally ashamed that I’ve only recently confirmed that her ‘vaguely familiar’ voice is that of Tanaka Rie… I need to clean my ears out a bit.). Aihara X Futami was one coupling I supported from the start, and I’m glad that things turned out pretty well for them in the end despite the dawdling around in the middle of the series, Aihara’s clumsy if not amusing confession, and my worry that Futami would somehow give him up to Sakino out of pity or something in the end. And at least one of the couplings I actually rooted for materialized in the end (The other two being Kouichi X Yuumi and Hiiragi and the rich girl, lol)

In the end, I still found Kouichi getting together with Mao a slight stretch to the imagination since he really was getting along really well with Yuumi before Mao’s hormones got the better of her, and he still calls her Mao-neechan even after confessing -_-” I am however glad for Yuumi, Sakino and even Kai for being able to move on with life despite their respective losses. Sakino especially was noteworthy in her actions that actually prodded Aihara X Futami in the right directions.

And that’s it for Kimikiss from me. Overall, a decent watch which I actually have little to speak ill of (oh besides the horrible frogs and the fluctuating animation quality for what that’s worth), though very little for me to rave about either. Kimikiss ends up being one of those series which was worth it enough to watch from week to week, though it’s unlikely I’ll remember anything of particular about it in a few seasons time. So much for that then.

(Wanted to call the OVA just ‘Tokyo Revelations‘ but that’s apparently something different altogether)

So at the end of it, the things I gathered were along the lines of:

Well at least now that I know what Miyano Mamoru (playing Kamui. Subaru’s voiced by that Shimono Hiro - ef’s Hirono, OoFuri’s Tajima- not that I could actually tell without looking it up) sounds like as a bishie vampire, maybe I don’t have to force myself to watch Vampire Knight next season anymore (I still will for Horie Yui though *sigh* VK was one show I had zero intention of touching until I saw the cast list. Suddenly it’s on my MUST CHECK OUT (for at least one episode) list -_-”)

Seriously I didn’t expect them to pair up Kamui and Subaru as twins (much less vampiric ones… I think I prefer Hansel & Gretel, thank you) considering Subaru already has one and they’re sort of using the Tokyo Babylon Subaru design instead of the X Subaru. What happened to Hokuto? Kamui’s too emo to costume-rape Subaru into a Michael Jackson cosplay! At least they brought back the rest of the X TV crowd as well, though they average half a speaking line each by the end (and who’s that extra shouta they slotted in?)

Nadie Sakura with a gun? I thought BEE TRAIN wasn’t handling this one anymore? (Let’s ignore the fact that she actually held one in the pathetic bus arc in the previous season) Anyways, it was a little irked that she had to go back into sleeping beauty mode for the first two episodes, and if it wasn’t for what she did in the third, I’d think they only rehired Makino Yui just to do the OP. Synchronicity’s one of her better songs though, it captures the desperation of the character quite well - the desperation that she had to actually do something in the OVA which she does in the end despite there so many of CLAMP’s other characters more capable of conducting a solo mission in the vicinity -_-” And speaking of Sakura…

Cardcaptor Sakura? In my Tsubasa??? HOOEEEEEE??!!

What else? Mokona’s still annoying as ever, Kurogane’s still pissy as ever, Fai isn’t looking all too good by the end, Shaoran… well let’s just say he’s not exactly like himself anymore. And though Yuuko explains that every little detail that’s brought the group together had been conveniently arranged by Fei Wang Reed in lieau with his grand master plan (I’d be rather skeptical had I not spoiled myself by reading manga spoilers), it still seems rather farfetched in the sense that there seems to be no reason to choose these specific 4 for any particular reason at all to execute his plan (Why couldn’t he choose someone more twisted and badass like Seishirou??? :P), it’s not like they have any particular strengths that make them the perfect feather hunting machines (except in the case of ‘Shaoran 2.0‘) and seems more trouble than it’s worth. Perhaps there’s a better explanation in the manga *shrugs* but the explanation that Yuuko gave just seemed to loosely tie loose ends for the sake of giving that semblance of destiny and inevitability that’s always brought up by CLAMP.

But who cares about those details? Considering this is actually part of the so far sadly sub-par Tsubasa story(speaking of the anime here), this OVA is pretty good. It’s much a slicker production, the music still retains the quality which the first two seasons probably didn’t deserve, things actually happen that matter to the plot, and it didn’t feel like a complete waste of time! It’s a good redeemer for those who had or still have any interest in this series and have been scarred by the poor television series. Now if we could only get Production I.G. to continue doing the future non-filler arcs in the story…

The woes of the well-endowed women of baseball…

I managed to watch less than half of the chinese subs for this DVD only episode when it first came out (my combined Japanese and Chinese comprehension obviously being way below subpar). Seleria’s post on it gave the impression that the only thing worth watching in the episode was ‘sexeh bodeh‘ so I left it on the backburner for a while… Almost forgetting about it till Central Anime released English subs (Thankfully, or there’d be a bunch of dialogue that would’ve blown past my head, like the following:)

Thank God Central Anime for subs!

The episode is really a peek into the Musashino baseball team, from the perspective of one of the team members who feels that their team has no chance in advancing past the first round in Koshien, hence it would be ‘embarrassing’ for them to train as seriously as Haruna does. In the end, Haruna uses some psychological trickery to show the guy the power of GIVING IT ALL YOU’VE GOT and inspires the team captain and the rest of their team to GIVE IT ALL THEY’VE GOT as well, which leads to the team’s victory in their first game of the season. Huzzah. To me what was interesting to see was the lengths the characters would go in order to advance themselves in baseball, especially in selecting the schools they want to enter based on the school’s team/grounds, etc. (this was touched upon in the previous ep as well) I suppose the concept is rather foreign to someone who was never that into sports and dreaded Physical Education in school as a chore like me =P

It doesn’t matter if you win or lose… as long as YOU GIVE IT ALL YOU’VE GOT!!

They managed to introduce some of the Musashino team members, but being a one-off episode (unless Musashino faces off against Nishiura later on in a future season… Oh wait, better not get ahead of myself there…) my brain hardly registered any of their names (it’s hard enough keeping track of the Nishiura’s!) save for Haruna (duh) and Suzune, the manager. Thankfully, like Momokan, she has a personality to match her, uh, assets (If Shinooka followed this trend, it’s would give the impressions that OoFuri’s all about the balls and boobs *swt*). As for Haruna, watching his crush on Suzune being, well crushed by the revelation that she’s dating the team captain (whom he doesn’t get along with!), was well worth watching the episode for

~USO~DA?

Haruna chanelling Mihashi??? Priceless XD

Though we never got to see a MihashiVSHaruna showdown in the anime (has it or will it happen in the manga? Should I consider reading it???), the above scene totally made up for it XD

All in all, a nice epilogue of sorts to an already awesome series, and thankfully I didn’t find it a disappointment like Seleria did (well, I did have the advantage of being informed that there was no Mihashi, Abe or Tajima in the episode, so my expectations were suitably adjusted =P) as Haruna-centric the episode was (my blood still boils remembering the scene where he smugly thinks he’s ‘won’ against Abe when he first meets Mihashi in all his flightiness in the bathroom. Grrr…). I’m still crossing fingers for another season some time in the future though… (Then again, said fingers have been crossed a LONG time for another installment of Ouran amongst other things…)

I recently realized that there was one series in my 2007 list that may or may not have been added in prematurely, since at the time I hadn’t exactly finished watching it. The series is #9 on my list, Sketchbook (~full color’S~ but I won’t be using it clunky full name in this post anymore), just behind the rather similar slice-of-life-of-a-group-of-art-students show Hidamari Sketch.

Truth be told, both series were almost equally enjoyable with Hidamari barely winning me over since I have the penchant for SHAFT’s funky style. I was only one episode away from completing Sketchbook anyways, though I admit that final episode had been lying around for some time just waiting for me to come out of my reluctance to watch it… That may sound like a bad thing for the series, but it is very much otherwise. I just happen to have the rather unfortunate habit of watching series at my own leisurely pace (usually one episode of a show a day unless I’ve decided to marathon it, which is seldom), and when a series has been delivering a certain enjoyment to me over the course of time watching it, I tend to get a little stubborn in refusing to ‘end’ the experience by watching the final episode - sometimes leaving it for ages until I almost forget that it’s there at all! Of course eventually I do give in and get it over with, though by then much time has probably passed and whatever joy I had watching the series would probably have faded away anyhow… But if I was really that reluctant to let a series ‘go’ in the first place, it’s almost always the case that when I finally get to the last episode that I’m reminded once again why I liked that certain series so… And yes, after that lengthy rant I’m glad to say Skecthbook has been one of those series, and most certainly earned its rightful spot on my top 10 for 2007.

Sora should be a spokesmodel for green tea. And just chilling out =P

What really ‘drew’ me to Sketchbook so to speak, was the simplistic approach it took in entertaining the viewer. It’s a slow paced episodic slice of life series with a healthy cast of characters that are instantly identifiable by their usually singular quirk. The message it seems to be sending seems to be hey, I don’t need a deep plot or complex characters to make a show entertaining, just watch Sora walk around looking for things to sketch, taking tea breaks and making simple if not totally obvious observations about the things around her, and be satisfied with it! And you know what, it works. Half the time it’s what we’re shown, and though some may find it a tad bit dull, for me it really is a soothing experience that’s pleasing to the senses, truly fitting to the ‘healing’ brand associated with ‘iyashikei‘ series such as Sketchbook.

What really brings this series to life though is its ‘colourful’ cast of characters who are mostly the members of the school’s art club and each have their own individual quirk. I may had trouble identifying all of them by name, but from curtain climbing to hand-puppets to entomology I knew precisely what talent or bizzare habit that made each character distinct. It’s not too hard to keep track of them all despite there being new ones being introduced at Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei-like intervals (even in the last episode) since the characters themselves are clean cut and serve mostly to pepper the series with comedy. And they’re such an amusing bunch and varied bunch that you can’t help being drawn to at least one of them, if not all of them as a whole.

What I particular liked in the last episode was how Sora spent most of it in the art room mostly by herself, while recalling just about every single character that’s appeared in the series and what she’s thought of them onto her canvas. It was the perfect reminder of everything that made Sketchbook special - the characters, the observations of the things and people around us in life, and the cats. Ah yes, the cats were definitely a refreshing and entertaining addition to the cast and story (The one called Grey in particular, is just so darned adorable!)

Another thing I finally noticed in the last episode was that Negishi-senpai is voiced by Shimono Hiro, the voice of Tajima on OoFuri. Something I failed to note until Negishi was calling out to the rest of the club to see the sakura trees, since up till then we always heard him in his angry hyper-shout mode (No wonder Sora’s afraid of him XD) Also notable in the seiyuu cast were Hanazawa Kana as Sora, Makino Yui as Hazuki and Goto Yuko as the hilarious Kate (Ke-ito). Also, could you pick out Tamura Yukari and Noto Mamiko from any of the characters? (what th- Mamiko Noto voiced Inuo?!)

As the final ‘development’ in the show, Sora suddenly musters up the courage to speak up to people in the end. It was certainly a wonderful moment in which she calls out to Hazuki and Natsumi from across the road, and so unlike the Sora we’ve seen in the past 12 episodes that it’s quite surprising, but a pleasant surprise it is. All throughout the series we’ve learnt bits of Sora’s character from her monologues and have been given the opportunity to appreciate her simplistic point of view in life, to see her receive that bit of growth is both a reward the viewer and Sora herself. Bravo!

A lovely end to a lovely show indeed… And with a reminder to continue Hal Film Maker’s other more reknowned iyashikei work Aria. So while I bid farewell to Sora and her art club (and the cats!) it does seem to be the perfect time for me to catch up with those gondolas of Neo-Venezia which have left me far behind.

Run, Mihashi, run…

It’s already 3 months into 2008… And I’m still stuck writing posts about yesteryear (This is what happens when you restart your blog at an odd time of the year -_-”). Perhaps not the best time to publish this, but what the heck, this list has been sitting in a word file for much too long.

The 16 anime that made my year in 2007 (no real significance to the number, just so happen 16 of them I considered above average by my technically loose standards. And no series continued from 2006 or continuing into 2008 either, it’s a purely 2007 list), in ranked order (good to great to best) :

The Good:
16. Dennou Coil (spoiler: RIP Densuke T_T)
15. Nodame Cantabile (Mukyaa~!)
14. Lucky☆Star (L-O-V-E Lovely~Tsukasa!)
13. Claymore (The Idiot’s Guide to Self Mutilation)
12. Seto no Hanayome (Masa-san!!!)
11. Lovely Complex (All Hanshin-Kyojin BANZAI!)
10. Darker than Black (BONES)

The Great:
9. Sketchbook ~full color’S~ (Slow down world…)
8. Hidamari Sketch (Sorry ef and Bamboo Blade, the Miya of the year is here)
7. Moyashimon (The “You Absolutely HAVE to check this one out for yourself” show of the year)
6. Minami-ke (KANA IS BOSS)
5. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (~Burebureburebure~)
4. Potemayo (Honi, honi!)

Top 3:
3. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
2. ef ~a tale of memories~
1. Seirei no Moribito

Ranking done by the more serious, rational, and supposedly objective side of me that’s supposed to judge the overall aspects of the show (Story, characters, presentation, blah blah blah) though obviously influenced by the whimsical, instinct-following, impressionable me (an indication of how much I felt the show impacted myself as a viewer, whether it tickled me silly or made me go “HOLY SHI- THAT WAS AWESOME , now I just have to sit down and let the other side of me think why…”).

Of course anyone who’s read this blog lately will probably notice the omission of one particular title, which at the time of this list’s conception (a few months ago, mind you) was done on purpose since I wasn’t done watching the series in question… But in the back of my mind there was no doubting its place on the list - the question is where? If serious, rational and objective had more of a say, this series would probably rank 4th pushing the current #9 to #4 a position back (and Gurren Lagann would have to switch places with ef). But based on my sheer enjoyment of this series and how it really changed the perception I had of its genre, I’m giving the 2007 top honour of personal favourite anime on Tondemo Nothing! to…

Which neatly rounds up the Top 10 standouts series (#s 9 to 0) on my list with OoFuri coming out tops. *applause* A similar situation arose the year before that: Mushishi was easily the best overall ’serious’ anime of 2006 (this time, it’s Seirei) and Haruhi to me was best in just about every other respect (and was no doubt the iconic series of its year -whether you liked it or not- much like Gurren Lagann), but my personal favourite Ouran High School Host Club won me out anyhow. Call it personal bias or ‘bad taste’/'good taste’ or whatever, but what can I say, my blog my pick =P When you have strong shows colliding at the top, I’m the kind who’ll pick the one that just feels right, and there’s no denying that Ookiku Furikabutte is that series for 2007. Even back when I was only halfway through the series starved for subs, OoFuri had already impacted me so positively that I just knew it was the year’s Ouran for me. I’d like to say more about the show now that I’ve officially completed watching it, but that’ll be another post for another day.

It’s also interesting to note what others ranked as their best show of the year: Specifically, Jason chose Gurren Lagann, Kurogane went with Seirei, Jeff Lawson pulled pleasant surprise by crowning Potemayo ^^ while the guys at Epic Win championed the best of the best: Mushishi! (Okay their real choice I wasn’t as excited about). Besides these that come to mind, there was quite the Minami-ke love as well if I remember correctly.

I won’t be debating why one series is better than another (or explaining why I didn’t include/watch/finish watching series XXX not on the list) since this post is quickly becoming dated material. As a whole, I think 2007 offered myself many surprises in terms of series I liked (and utterly disliked) and though there were less hard-hitting sure-hit shows than 2006 and more average fodder running around (which even if I completed watching, did not make the top 16) there was generally enough to impress me at any given time during the year. So here’s hoping for as good/a better showing of shows this year.