Everyone's favorite child Hunter is now a Figma!


It's been a really long time since I've done a Figma review. I hadn't really noticed it, but I guess my growing obsession with Nendoroids is showing. I'll try to be a bit more diverse from here on out! Anyway, this month's review covers a figure that I pre-ordered in a literal split-second, since orders for him opened right after he was announced. It's Gon Freecss from Hunter x Hunter, and he's rapidly become one of my favorite characters since the premiere of the new anime season two years ago (it's already been that long?). And he's already one of my favorite Figmas for a very simple reason; he can stand on his own! My Miku Append Ver. is the only other Figma I have that can pull that off, and this time it's due to Max Factory adding something that I've wanted in Figmas for a long time; articulated toes! This does wonders for balancing the weight of the figure, and I hope that it's a regular feature in Figmas from now on.

   
Gon's release is pretty sparse in the accessories department (which I'll get into more below), but one of the better ones is his backpack. I was so excited about this that I forgot to take the usual front/back/left/right pictures until after I put it on. Gon does have a hole in his back like most Figmas, which is where the backpack attaches. You get the backpack on by removing at least one arm (the instructions suggest taking off both, though). I had an easy enough time getting his arm off, but it refused to go all the way back on, which is why his shoulder looks a bit dislocated in some shots. In other notes, Gon has a pretty solid paint job with just a little bit of paint bleeding on the shoes and some smudging along his hairline, but neither are noticeable from a distance. That's not bad at all by mass-production standards.


Gon's second main accessory is his fishing rod, which slips into the straps on the side of his backpack. This was a little difficult to do the first time, but now the straps are bent enough that it fits easily. Why they weren't made in the right shape in the first place is beyond me, though.


There's also an extended version of the fishing rod, which makes it look like Gon is swinging it through the air. However, if you want to use a dynamic pose with this accessory, you'll have to break out the stand, which attaches to the bottom of the backpack since Gon won't be able to support his own weight anymore. The results are nice enough, but I really dislike the non-optional extension for the stand. The hole in the bottom of the backpack goes straight up while the extension peg is always at an angle, meaning that it'll never fit properly. This makes some of the crazier poses you might want to try with him more of a hassle than it should be, since he'll be falling off the peg if so much as a breeze passes. I guess that this is my cue to finally get a generic Tamashi Nations stand...

You'll also notice Gon's alternate faceplate in the above picture, which is the only other one he has. His faceplates don't work quite like other Figmas, perhaps because his hair is too anime. The fringe is not a separate piece; it's attached to the rest of the expression. This is fine, except for the first time I took it off and I couldn't figure out where exactly the hair on the expression ended and where the rest of the hair began. And with Gon's hedgehog head, it was a prickly lesson. And I have to admit, I'm a bit sad that there isn't a third expression of him laughing or something, since that seems more "Gon" to me than the expressions that were included.


Anyway, as I'm sure you've noticed in the pictures, Gon also comes with a wide array of hands mostly geared around recreating action poses and/or for holding his fishing rod. I liked some of the nuances here, like the difference between the open hand and the one where the fingers are flexed. They'll be fun to play around with in pictures.


And his final accessory is...an extreme letdown. Given the Figma line's obsession with extra effect parts, I thought that Max Factory would come with something nice to represent Gon's Nen abilities. Nope. Instead, we get... a glass of water. Or rather, a cup and then a separate piece of plastic with the water sculpted that you can put into the glass. It's supposed to represent the scene where Gon learns that he's an Enhancer, but I don't have a Figma-sized table, nor do I think that the water was important enough to get its own accessory... As you can guess, this is my least favorite Figma accessory ever. I guess he can just...hold the glass? I really wanted some Nen parts to play with... Perhaps I'm just unaware and can't see them?

Not like that's gonna stop me, though.

Overall, there are some parts that I love about this release and others that I hate. Gon has amazing articulation, a great sculpt and paint job, and just by himself is very reflective of his character. However, the accessories (aside from the backpack and fishing rod) are a bit uninspired. And the glass is just lazy. Remembering how fast pre-orders opened after he was announced, I wonder if this was a bit of a rush job. If that's the case, I'm glad that the figure itself didn't suffer much for it. I will always be happy about his articulated toes.

A quick look around the internet shows that he is still available in some online shops, but I personally wouldn't pay anything over SRP for him due to the smaller number of accessories and only having two exchangeable faceplates. He does make up for it with his playability though, and there is a Killua Figma already available, with Kurapika due out soon. The logical progression would be to add a Leorio, but we'll have to wait and see!

Images by me.

I am already planning next year's party!

 
I'm having problems believing that this is actually over! Part of me is still expecting an episode next week so that I can bother you all with my feelings and silly theories on this blog... But! Unless KyoAni wants this to become the next Full Metal Panic/Haruhi Season Three, I'm going to take the endcard at face value and expect something next year. For now, I'm savoring this final episode. The last time we get to see the gorgeous swimming animation, the last time we get to see the main group act like dorks...and the last time I wished I could reach through the screen and slap Rin in the face.

 
I mean, as I've explained at length in other posts, I see where he's coming from. Not being able to swim in the relay was a hard blow. I expected him to be upset, but I didn't think that he'd throw the emo fit to end all emo fits, come in dead last in the race because he had too much angst to bother trying, and then finally fail at getting out of the pool, making it look like he was injured. But nope, it's just his sore loser side coming out again, and Rin's willing to drag down all the people who care about him so that he can have his fit.

YOU MADE HARU UPSET. GO SIT IN THE CORNER.

 
I just... urgh. This is a real pet peeve of mine, in real life and in fiction. Yes, he has issues. Yes, he has a legitimately sad past. That does not excuse any of this behavior. In the last couple episodes, but especially in this one, it feels like his background has been used as an excuse to justify how Rin is acting when the reality is that he's a brat whose current situation is of his own creation. If it was out of his control, then sure, I'd have more sympathy for him. But screaming and throwing things (not to mention that horrible split-second where I thought he hit Nitori) demotes him to a two-year-old in my view. The guy has a lot of maturing to do.

That is the sound of my heart breaking

I apologize for that rant. I needed to get that off my chest, since I feel like fandom has been giving Rin a free pass as well. And I admit, that would probably be more of a footnote if it weren't for how the episode progressed, which is to say, poor sweet Rei. You want to talk about real friendship? Here's a guy who has his priorities straight. Despite leaving his previous sport, feeling like he was letting the team down, and thinking that the team was ignoring him because all they talk about is Rin, he still offers his spot in the relay because he knows what it would mean to them. And honestly, that was also Rin's moment to prove that he'd learned something, that he understood now that his friends would be there for him no matter what, that nothing was over. He could've let the new team have their moment in the sun. But nope. Rin gets what he wants because he's the angst baby who gets no repercussions.

Okay, I'm done complaining about Rin now, I swear. I am happy that he finally worked out his problems with Haru and the rest of the group (the SUDDENLY CHERRY BLOSSOMS scene had me in stitches though), and I'm glad that they won the race as The Best Team Ever even though they were disqualified. I just wish that it hadn't come at the expense of Rei's dream or at least had the other characters recognize more what a selfless action that was.

 
My mixed feelings on this episode aside, I enjoyed the heck out of this series. That probably goes without saying at this point, and I always expected that I would like it, yet I didn't expect that I would like it this much. I went from mostly just marveling at the animation and not shipping anything to being emotionally invested in how this would all play out (not to mention my new obsession with Nagisa/Rei). Yes, it got pretty silly at points with the fanservice bent, and at times it got a little too heavy-handed with the drama, but I have to hand it to KyoAni for adding a bit more weight to the plotline when they could've just made it a piece of disposable fluff and called it a day. For that reason, I also don't think that the K-ON comparisons are completely accurate, since unless I really wasn't paying attention, I don't remember this level of drama in that show.

 
There's also a lot to be said about the characterization in this show as well. If I hadn't grown to like the characters as much as I did, then it's likely that the more dramatic parts would've put me off the show entirely. Even with my love/hate relationship towards Rin's character, I wouldn't rant if I didn't care. Apathy towards a piece of entertainment is worse than disliking something about it, since that usually means that the work has failed to draw you in at all. That definitely wasn't the case here, since as you can see in my rant above, I'm holding Rin to the same standards as I would a real person. These kids are real to me. Or maybe that just means I'm crazy.

 
Anyway, while my favorite KyoAni show is still Hyouka, Free! will now occupy a special place in my fangirl heart. Haters gonna hate, since going by the projected sales, I doubt that the rest of the industry will ignore this section of the fandom as much as it has in the past from now on. It was exciting to watch something directed at my gender that was well put together for once. That said, I'm not expecting a ton of copycat shows either, since this was another installment of what KyoAni is good at: genuinely interesting club stories with good characters. Hopefully this will remind the people who greenlight "a club about nothing" shows that they're much more engaging when the club acts like...well, a club!

And since I don't know how to end this post, have some dorks in the shower.

I'll see you next summer for sure!

Images from Crunchyroll.com.

Yes, I am glad that the time-honored American tradition of street ball festivals has finally been recognized. I kid, it's good to have Kuroko back!

 
I've spontaneously decided to start blogging Kuroko for two reasons. One, the simulcast is on Saturdays, and even when I'm really busy I usually block out a decent chunk of time for anime on weekends, and two, if the first season was anything to go on, this will continue to be a solid show with something to talk about every week. That said, I'm only familiar with the anime, since I was lucky enough to finish marathoning the first season right when the second season was announced, so I decided to wait rather than check out the manga. I have no idea what's going to happen, so no spoilers in the comments! That includes hints. I want to be surprised!

 
Anyway, the episode itself was pretty solid. It picks up right where the last season left off, even resuming the episode count. There's a little bit of recap at the beginning, but not to an excessive amount. Instead, more time is spent hyping up the members of the Generation of Miracles that we haven't seen yet. Considering what we've seen so far, I have a hard time imagining that the silly basketball powers could get crazier, so I'm pretty excited.

 
But the episode is really about filling in more of Kagami's backstory, with another new character that I wasn't expecting. So far it looks like they're setting up Tatsuya as Kagami's character foil, since they've both come a long way in basketball, and it's likely that Tatsuya's growth was caused by meeting the Generation of Miracles as well. There's also already plenty of angst to mine, from an unresolved rivalry to an unexplained injury. Kuroko kind of had a monopoly on unresolved past conflicts last season, so it will be interesting to see how Kagami handles this.

 
Also, as more of a side note, I found the portrayal of America...interesting. And I don't mean the Engrish (although that was pretty funny). Judging by the palm trees and the beach, I'm assuming that Kagami was in Los Angeles. The buildings and the general setting felt pretty accurate, but it also felt so empty. Where are all the people? The cars? I get that the show might not have the budget to have that much going on in the background, but seeing an LA street with no cars parked along the sidewalk just feels strange to me. This is true of most anime that decide to have scenes in America, not just Kuroko, but since it was such a big part of this episode I wanted to mention it.

Excuse me sir, I believe that you are in the wrong anime. Attack on Titan just ended

Finally, I'm not sure what to make of this guy. That was crazy, just casually interrupting the tip-off by putting a piece of candy on top of the ball. Is his basketball superpower being really tall? And since this is the first game, it'll likely set the tone for the rest of the season. There's already a lot going on here, so I'm really excited to see how this season turns out!

Also, the OP animation was everything that I ever wanted

Images from Crunchyroll.com.

The first rule of Meganebu is to be absolutely ridiculous.

 
The President of the Glasses Club is a simple man with simple desires: in order to get his school to recognize the amazing power of glasses, he dreams of creating an actual pair of "x-ray" glasses that let a person see through someone's clothes. When he finds out that the school's annual vision check-up is tomorrow, he gets the rest of his club--composed of The Cool Stoic One, The Sleepy One that Likes Sweets, and Two Shotas--to kick their development into overdrive, since obviously a hot chick will come to administer the test. If they are ever going to prove that their project is a success and get their clubroom and funding back, now is the time!

 
The club certainly lives up to its name, and the show goes to great lengths to make sure that you don't forget that the point is glasses. If I wasn't already aware that its source material is a drama CD, my guess would be that it comes from a four-koma, since even within the same scene it feels like it's deliberately set up for mini-punchlines, mostly revolving around glasses. The plotline is glasses. Their character designs mainly show off their glasses. They make a pose that looks like a glasses frame. The reason for their existence is glasses--ok, you get the point.


But that's one of the reasons why I'm a bit concerned about this show, since there can't be that many silly plotlines and puns revolving around glasses to fill an entire season. I could be wrong, but I didn't find the jokes they were playing so hard that amusing either. The one time the show got a legitimate laugh out of me was when the President ran all the way up to the eye chart when asked to move close enough to be able to see it. The rest of it was either a bit too silly ("I WILL REDUCE WIND RESISTANCE BY TAKING OFF MY SHIRT") or just fell flat (the shotas arguing).

 
But what stuck out far more than the increasingly silly plot and jokes was the visual style. It runs through the whole spectrum from "Wow, that's an interesting style choice for this scene" to "Who was responsible for the colors on this, my eyes are bleeding." There's an undeniable visual flair to this that I definitely like, but I wish that it would hold off a bit on all the neon. On the audio side of things, the background music that constantly announces the name of the show in the same way an FM radio station lets you know what frequency you're on is the funniest stuff I've heard in a while.


Overall, I think that Meganebu will live or die based on whether it will be able to keep up with the wacky visuals and silly glasses puns. There's also a definite fujoshi fodder angle to this, but aside from the suddenly shirtless scene and the part at the beginning where one of the shotas was hanging all over the president, it doesn't seem to be going after that angle as much as I thought it would. There's potential here for an entertaining bit of nonsense, and I hope that Meganebu can pull that off.

Images from Crunchyroll.com. This post is also available on Organization ASG.

There are now officially over fifty episodes of Phi Brain. The world is an amazing place.

 
I'll just put this up here at the top; if you're wondering if you can watch this season without having seen the prior two, the answer is no. This episode wastes absolutely no time getting straight into the action and introducing what I assume will be the core conflict for at least the first half of its run.

Things seem to have gone back to business as usual after the events of the second season, with Kaito traveling around the world in hopes of restoring his mentor Jin's memories. But things begin to change when he solves a reset puzzle and obtains the "prize," a brooch with a cat on it. At the next puzzle, a strange girl named Raetsel appears and claims the brooch as well as Jin. Strangely enough, Jin seems to remember her. Meanwhile at Root Gakuen, the other Phi Brain children suddenly have to deal with a new threat, a man called Enigma who wants to remove all puzzles from the world.

 
If you've watched Phi Brain for any amount of time, you already know that the show strikes an interesting balance between having a serious plot and ridiculous character motivations. Phi Brain's true calling card is that everyone in its world is utterly obsessed with puzzles, and that does not change here. Despite taking somewhat of a darker tone right off the bat, the wackiness of the series still cannot be denied. The names are silly, the music is upbeat, and the animation does a great job of showing the uniqueness in each character. And yes, people are still taking their puzzles far too seriously.

 
But the break between seasons seems to have done Phi Brain some good, since there's a shine to the production that wasn't there before and the premiere decided to deal with the unresolved plot threads from the first season rather than retread old material like the second. That said, the second season did the same thing but ended up to be disappointing anyway, so we'll have to wait and see if it keeps this up. One thing that did get me really excited was how this episode handled the puzzle solving section at the beginning. This show has always had a problem with showing its solutions, but they might have finally struck gold here. The scene concisely explains the puzzle's solution and how it works while not losing the "holy crap, he figured that out within seconds" reaction. Hopefully the rest of the season will follow this example.


Overall, this premiere has given me a lot to be excited about. If you enjoyed the previous two seasons or even if you found the second season lacking, there's a lot in here that shows exactly what makes Phi Brain so fun to watch. I think that fans of the series will be very happy with this episode, so if you like the series and haven't seen this yet, what are you waiting for?

Images from Crunchyroll.com. This post is also available on Organization ASG.

It wasn't until I started watching this episode that I realized how much I'd missed this ridiculous vampire mech space Nazi drama.

 
In some ways, it feels like Valvrave hasn't stopped at all. It takes less than five minutes for the show to get to a battle, picking up at the exact moment where things left off. A bit of exposition follows, finally explaining a bit of what the Valvrave's really are by introducing a strange particle called a Rune. The Valvrave engines run on Runes, and Haruto's attacks are apparently the system's way of harvesting them from humans. The AI's are still shrouded in mystery, although the reference to them being "the original pair" probably means that they'll be a major plot point this season.

 
Meanwhile, the student-run government is finally getting some consistent support from other countries, yet they seem to be more interested in making the new country reliant on them for everything. The implication is that they'd rather have them stay as a convenient rallying point for the war rather than a truly independent nation. What the kids will do about this (if anything) remains to be seen.

 
And I'm perfectly fine with that since I'm not watching this for the political drama, and I think it's fair to say that nobody else is either. I'm here for the aforementioned ridiculous vampire mech space Nazis (give or take a couple of those words), and Valvrave does not disappoint. The show opens with a guy forcibly inducted into an evil council via vampire bite. Just the explanation on Runes filled its "silly sci-fi BS" quota for the season. The battles are over the top, L-Elf is two steps ahead of everybody, and it's not Valvrave until somebody says a line that is easily taken out of context.

The subtext is strong with this one

Basically, Valvrave hasn't undergone a dramatic makeover since its absence, so if you enjoyed the first season there's no reason to expect that you won't like this episode. The new character designs came out nicely, and the OP (or rather, the ED this week but I'm assuming it's the show's new OP) is pretty solid. The other Valvrave pilots that are not Haruto and Saki are still playing secondary roles however, and there was not much focus on them in this episode. I'm hoping that the show will find a way to balance them equally, otherwise there was not much point in adding them in the first half. But overall, I'm still excited to see Valvrave back and am happy that it wasted no time in getting right back to what makes the show enjoyable in the first place.

Images from Crunchyroll.com. This post is also available at Organization ASG.

The hype is already building, and it's only the second episode!

 
Sorry about the delay! I actually had this written up on Sunday, but thanks to school I had no time to put the images in until now. Expect my blogging schedule to be weird from here on out; my last year of grad school tops blogging anime. And then there's that copy of Pokemon X singing its siren song at me...

Anyway, this week was more of a "signs of things to come" kind of episode, giving us a little bit of a preview before the Winter Cup stuff gets underway. I admit, I was expecting them to get stomped by Atsushi and Tatsuya, but I guess showing off their skills would ruin some of the tension in an actual tournament match. They can't spoil the surprise this early, I suppose. I am glad that the episode took a bit more time to introduce Atsushi properly, though. I definitely like him as a character; the contrast between his huge size and his immature personality is interesting. He also verbalized a question that's been bugging me for a while now:

Thank you

 
I'm also pretty interested in how he gets along with Kuroko, since they're presented as holding completely opposite mindsets when it comes to basketball. I don't think that it's a stretch to say that Atsushi isn't passionate about anything despite his insistence that he likes winning. His dislike of people who have a love of the sport but lack the skill to face him doesn't make much sense otherwise, since if he had ever liked something that much it would be easier for him to see where his opponents are coming from. Meanwhile, Kuroko has previously made his thoughts on people who play without love very clear. I look forward to the idealogical standoff in the future.

 
Not much else happened aside from Satsuki showing up out of the blue to explain why Aomine wasn't in the finals. The final member of the Generation of Miracles that we haven't seen yet was hyped up a bit more, and it looks like Kuroko is developing another superpower. I'm excited to see how that will play if he manages to perfect it by the tournament, as well as seeing how Kagami will deal with Tatsuya's unexplained method of passing through people's guards. The two are probably related somehow, since they both involve getting around an opponent. The wait for the tournament is already killing me!

Images from Crunchyroll.com.

Despite being a popular fixture in the Vocaloid fan community, there are not a lot of figures of Kaito to speak of outside of the various Nendoroids and garage kits. When a Figma was announced at Winter WonFest earlier this year, I was immediately excited. I love my Cheerful Nendoroid Version, but I was happy to see that he'd get a more articulated figure as well. When he finally got here, I couldn't wait to see how he'd turned out!

   
And to be honest, I'm more than a little disappointed. To start, his paint job isn't great by Figma standards; despite having a pretty simple design, the lines are not straight, the paint bleeds are pretty obvious, and the coloring just feels off. I'm talking about the paint on his jacket in particular for the last one. The promo photos made me think that it would be a kind of pearl similar to what was used on the Ultimate Madoka Nendoroid, but instead they used something that lost its shine really quickly after being taken out of the box and attracted dust particles like no tomorrow. This hasn't happened since my review of the anime version of the Black Rock Shooter Figma, and I'm not sure why they went back to that material.

He also has strange problems with his joints. The hips are very loose, yet the rest of the joints are a bit stiffer than the norm. Also, the stand is horrible. For whatever reason, they're continuing the strange arm thing that they used with Gon, so he's not secure on it at all; it's more like he's leaning on it at an awkward angle. Also getting back a bit to the paint issue, a lot of the joints (especially the ones in his arms) tend to scrape against parts with dark coloring, so the risk of paint transfer is high. His default expression already had paint transfer on it right out of the box from his bangs. Thankfully it's easily covered up, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place and Max Factory is usually pretty good about this.


But let's keep moving. Kaito's main accessory, of course, is his scarf. There's a short one and a much longer one, which I'll cover a bit later. It does have some articulation and holds its place well, but it feels so flimsy that I got really paranoid every time I moved it. I've heard reports of people breaking theirs pretty quickly, so watch out for that if you're planning on getting him. Also, this scarf refuses to sit neatly on Kaito's shoulders, so there's not much room to turn the head unless you want to snap off his microphone along with it. The promo pictures promised a fair range of mobility, but it doesn't seem to work in practice...


Anyway, the default face is kind of boring, isn't it? Let's try the singing face! I was pretty excited about this one, since the promo pictures showed him with a more serious expression and-- Wait a minute... Something's off here... Let's look at the box.


Oh. That's why. They changed the angle of the eyebrows but went ahead and used the same promo images anyway. That's...just...great. This doesn't even look like a singing face to me anymore. It looks like he's surprised at something, or yodeling. Or about to make a sassy remark.

Oh no you didn't! *z-snap*

You'll have to forgive my frustration here, since this is the first time that I've been straight-up lied to by pre-order promo pictures about the final product. The scarf is one thing, but making a change to a faceplate with no announcement before the release bothers me on a whole different level for some reason. Oh well. At least I can get some unintentional amusement out of this faceplate regardless.


Moving on... Kaito's other, longer scarf does sit better on his shoulders, but I still ran into the headset problem. It also has the same flimsy joints, so I don't think I'll be touching them ever again out of fear of breaking them. This picture also shows off his final accessory, an ice cream! This is probably my favorite accessory of his, but when I put one in his hand it immediately snapped because the grip for it was too small. Good thing he came with two of them, otherwise I'd be extremely mad about that too. So much for sharing one with the other Figmas, though.

OTL

So overall, I'm pretty disappointed in this release. A lot of people were waiting for a long time for this figure, and I think that Max Factory did a sub-par job of it, especially since they were asking for a higher price than usual when preorders went up. Just trying to replicate the poses on the box brought up a whole host of problems, not to mention accessories breaking or coming close to doing so with minimal use. The paint job leaves a lot to be desired, and I don't want to talk about the faceplate change anymore. If any of these problems crop up with the Attack on Titan Figmas, I don't think my heart can take it.

And yet, with all of that said... It's still a Kaito Figma. He's still readily available (probably because of the above problems) at a price closer to what he's actually worth. And if you like the character enough to be interested in this figure, then go for it. At the end of the day, I think that figure collecting is partially about bringing your favorite characters to life in some way. And I'd be lying if I said that I didn't buy him solely because I didn't want my Append Miku to be alone anymore.

They complement each other well, don't you think?

Images by me. This post is also available at Organization ASG.

The Attack on Titan reference jokes write themselves!

 
Sorry for the delay! By the time you will be reading this, I will be attempting to write three papers simultaneously on three different 500+ page books. Grad school is fun! I think I might need to lock my copy of Pokemon X in a safe and hide the key until I rework my homework schedule...

There is a disturbance in the Force

Anyway, a new tournament is finally underway! Episode three seemed to be mainly concerned with hype, which is to say that its purpose was to show off how much Seirin has improved since last time they were in competition. The increase in skill is immediately obvious when you compare it to their games towards the end of the first season, and they were already pretty good at that point. However, this time around we have an uninjured Kagami banging his head on the rim, which is insane on a number of levels. I've gotten used to this show and how it treats skills like superpowers, but I admit that I laughed when the Generation of Miracles simultaneously "sensed" his awakening. That said, it's that level of silliness combined with the serious treatment that keeps me watching.

Damn son

But I think that the real key here will be whether or not Kuroko perfects his unstoppable drive. The Generation of Miracles may be focused on Kagami at the moment while he climbs his way up, but the show isn't called Kagami's Basketball. They say that it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for, and Kuroko has already proved himself to be an important factor to consider. If they forget about him, I think that might prove to be the key to their downfall. He's catching up quickly, and so far only Kagami and Momoi seem to be aware of it.

 
And while the Generation of Miracles continue to be interesting--there are still two we've yet to see in action--the introduction of the Uncrowned Kings changes things up a bit, which I appreciate. If the Generation of Miracles is on the crazy tier, then it only makes sense that people who worked their way up through talent and dedication would be right below them even if they are ignored. At least, that seems to be the implication, but I'm not sure what to make of Teppei's counterpart Hanamiya just yet. That guy's character design alone screams "sleezeball."


In any case, we've already got several plotlines going at the start of the Shutoku vs. Seirin rematch. It'll be fun to see what inevitable obstacles will pop up this time!

Images from Crunchyroll.com.

"Hey, this is probably the end of the arc, maybe something nice will happen!"

Hahaha, no. This is Attack on Titan, why would anything nice ever happen?

As anyone who has access to my Tumblr is well aware of at this point, I've become more than just a little obsessed with Attack on Titan over the last couple months. I'm planning on having my review on the anime up in the next couple weeks I swear, and I'll go more into why it's taken over my life in that post. In the meantime, my obsession has demanded that I catch up with the manga, which brings a whole bunch of interesting developments that the anime didn't get to touch on. The characters and plot arc of this series fascinate me, so on the spur of the moment I decided to start a new monthly installment discussing the new chapter.

"But Muse! Isn't this an anime blog?" Yes it is, but I also do what I want. The whole reason I made this blog in the first place was to have a space to gush and wildly speculate about my favorite series, and right now that's Attack on Titan. These posts will probably be similar to my episodic posts, with the focus on plot and character developments. Gotta use that writing degree somehow, and there's not much point in talking about the art here since 1) my drawing skills begin and end at stick figures, and 2) the art in AoT is wildly inconsistent. I'll comment on expressions, but not much else. This last part may go without saying, but expect spoilers.


But on to the chapter itself! This one's more of a "breather" as far as the manga pacing is concerned, although--as always--the characters are dealing with some heavy stuff. The first part of the chapter is an unfortunately familiar sight; the majority of the people who went out on the mission are dead, and most of those that remain are injured. The only difference between this time and the last major mission outside the walls is that they technically succeeded; they got Eren back! It doesn't feel like a victory though, and now Eren--again--has to deal with the angst of knowing that a lot of people died because of him, and he doesn't know how to make it up to anybody.


But there is one bit of a bright spot; if Eren can learn how to harness the power he used at the end of the previous chapter to control the mindless titans, then its possible that things could get a lot easier. There's speculation circling in the fandom right now that this power is the "coordinate" that Reiner and Bertolt were talking about, but I'm not so sure. It's already been pointed out that we've seen this power before, like when Annie called all the Titans in the area to devour her Titan form so she could get away. However, Eren wasn't screaming as a Titan, so I agree with the speculation that it might be some kind of mind control. Others in the fandom have pointed out that the Titans in Trost may have continued to attack Eren after he transformed because he was unknowingly using his powers to command them to fight him. Something about Eren constantly subconsciously screaming "COME AT ME BRO" strikes me as funny, but given his unending hatred of Titans it makes sense.


That said, there are still a lot of unknown factors here (who know what other powers Titan shifters have that Eren isn't aware of) and the line of thinking that the characters show here is really similar to when Eren had to prove himself to the military. Yes, having a Titan Whisperer would great, but Eren still doesn't have a handle on his Titan form to begin with. What was supposed to be a test run for a larger mission outside the walls had horrible consequences. Discovering the traitors in their group too late cost them even more. I'm just hoping that they'll come up with a really solid plan to get past the wall this time. This series has conditioned me to expect the worst whenever characters make dramatic proclamations about what they will do next.


The big reveal for this chapter though was something that's been guessed at for a while now: the Titans were humans all along, and this group in particular came from Connie's hometown. How they transformed is anyone's guess (although I'll be really surprised if the creepy as heck Ape Titan isn't responsible somehow), but it's the only explanation for how titans were able to attack without breaching the wall. In any case, this opens up a whole new level of disturbing possibilities for the plot, since one person has already pointed out that Sasha probably killed Connie's dad a few chapters back. If this means that more dead characters will be suddenly resurrected as Titans...actually, I don't even want to finish that thought.


This is a fascinating turn for the story to take. A lot has been said about how Attack on Titan goes against shounen tropes, but I think there's a more discussion to be had on how this works as a war narrative. It presented itself at the beginning as a "Us vs. Them" story, giving the characters plenty of motivation to fight against an ambiguous evil, the perfect boogeyman. However, ever since Titan shifters were introduced--and especially after Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt made things even more complicated with their ambiguous morality--the lines of good and evil aren't so clear cut anymore. Isn't that how it goes with war? You're convinced that you're on the side of good and righteousness only to find out that you were fighting people just like you all along. There isn't "winning," just survival. "The world is cruel" indeed.


For the most part, the reactions to this are pretty much what you'd expect. Poor Connie gets to deal with the fact that not only was his hometown wiped out, but also that his family are now Titans. Hanji realizes that she was technically performing human experiments this whole time. Levi seems pretty upset about this too, which is not something we've seen very often.


And then there's Erwin. Smiling while the people around you discuss the possibility of human brains being absorbed into man-eating monsters is definitely not the socially acceptable reaction. There are a lot of theories flying around about this reaction, from Erwin being in on the wider conspiracy with the Wall Cult to having a complete break with reality, but I think that it might be related to something else that we're not aware of yet. The short conversation between Levi and Erwin right after this moment seems to point to this. "Is that the real reason you're in the Survey Corps" seems to be particularly important here, with "that" being something that Levi and Erwin know about. Hanji's apparently out of the loop here, as shown by her confusion and Erwin immediately changing the subject. Right now, the whole scene just serves to highlight how much we don't know about Erwin outside of his role as Commander.


Anyway, while Erwin's been out of commission, it seems like Levi and Hanji's working idea was to get Eren and Historia away from the capital, and by extension, the higher-ups in the military who might be in on the conspiracy. Apparently the easiest way to do this was for Levi to pull rank and claim the kids as his new squad, but his line about making Eren "desperate" is concerning. Maybe he thinks that if Eren is always around people that he cares about, it'll be easier for him to use his power?

And then of course the last page has to remind us how the last squad ended up. More tears for the personal ocean.

Whatever is being planned, we'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, Levi having to deal with a squad full of teenagers is a pretty funny mental image. At least we got to see Eren being a dork while trying to warn everybody about how Levi runs things.

NO JEAN, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. CLEANING IS THE PRIORITY IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE

Images from Crunchyroll.com. Please support the official simulpub.

Pretty much the same thing that happened last year, but on overdrive.

It really sucks to say this, but I can't blog Kuroko weekly anymore. This is for a variety of reasons, and the biggest one has to do with school. I'm in my last year of grad school now, and I want to get my teaching credential once I'm done, which means I get to go through yet another round of testing and the application process while also preparing to write my thesis and give a presentation to the school next spring. That is the highest priority in my life right now.

That's not to say that I'm not watching anime, though. I'm still watching a fair bit, I just had to rearrange how I watch it. I'm slowly breaking my habit of only watching anime on the computer just to take tons of screencaps in favor of watching on mobile apps when I have the time. I still have the itch to write about anime as well, but aside from a small handful of shows, I'm a few weeks behind everything at this point. By the time I can write about an episode, the next one is already out. At the moment, my schedule doesn't allow me to compete with other episodic blogs.

I also feel like the content of those posts wasn't up to par. I love Kuroko, but just a few weeks of breaking it down made me realize that I watch it more passively. It's not a "turn off your brain" kind of show, but I'm really just there to enjoy whatever is happening in the present story arc. As I'm sure I've made obvious by this point, I like writing posts that examine character development and motivations while trying to guess the plot trajectory. I can't write those posts with Kuroko, and I don't have the time to force myself to try. It's a great show, and I'm still watching it, but I won't be writing about it aside from a review sometime in the future.

Speaking of which... I have an unfinished review backlog going all the way back to the Spring 2013 season, and I would love to finish that before this year is over. Hopefully not beating myself up over unfinished episodic posts will give me the chance to focus on that. Not to mention that I'm still planning to participate in the 12 Days of Anime and a Top 12 of 2013 post. Aside from those, it's likely that the only posts you'll see from me will be about stuff I'm really obsessed with and need an outlet for, like that Attack on Titan manga post from the other day.

In summary: I'm not dead! School is trying really hard to kill me, though. I'm still around on Twitter and Tumblr, but don't be surprised if I drop out for days at a time. Hopefully the Winter season will go a little bit better.

What could've been an average but otherwise solid show ends up mediocre due to stumbling over its own plot justifications.


In two different worlds, there are two boys named Arata. One lives in a fantasy universe where the fate of his clan rests on him pretending to be a girl to become the Princess's successor. The other lives in our world, and has recently returned to school after becoming a shut-in due to bullying. But when an attempt is made on the Princess's life in the first Arata's universe and he's blamed for it, he runs off to a magic forest where he switches places with the other Arata. Modern-day Arata has to survive in this strange new world while on the run from the corrupt members of the princess's personal guard and learning how to wield a magic sword known as a Hayagami.

 
I was very excited for this show in the Spring 2013 line-up, but it ended up being one of the biggest disappointments of the season for me instead. The premise is great, and the first episode had me interested despite being a bit concerned about the pacing. However, by the end--even without reading the manga--it was clear that this production had bitten off a bit more than it could chew by trying to reach a specific stopping point without giving a lot of thought to how condensing events would affect the plot and the characters.

The result is that when it did decide to focus on something, the shallowness from the lack of build-up became very obvious. The romance subplot between Arata and Kotoha feels like the result of anime cliches more than an actual growing relationship, Arata screams over the deaths of one-episode characters that he barely knows, story arcs are resolved with previously unmentioned power-ups that come out of nowhere to save the day, and alternate universe Arata is completely forgotten as the show continues.

 
However, as frustrating as all of that was, it wasn't enough to completely break the show. That is, until it decides to explain the core relationship that provides the forward momentum for much of the drama in this series: the rivalry between Arata and his bully Kadowaki. The ED of the show plays this up as a big, dark, shared past between the two, but when the actual reasoning is revealed, the rest of the show falls apart because of its flimsy foundation. In the interest of avoiding spoilers I won't go into specifics, but essentially Kadowaki is blaming Arata for his insecurities due to a misunderstanding, and Arata never corrected him on it. Of course, if Arata had then there wouldn't be a show, but Kadowaki is presented as someone who is so bent on revenge he's willing to destroy an entire world as well as himself to get a chance at fighting Arata, so it was surprising to see that all of that rage came from something so easily resolved if he just stopped to think about it for a minute. I've seen defense of his actions by saying that he's full of hate and didn't know where to direct it, and that may be true in the manga, but as far as the show goes, that still makes the rivalry shallow in my eyes because he's not dealing with his actual problem.

 
The show even points out how weak this rivalry really is when it only takes other world Arata one school day to call Kadowaki out on his crap, beat him in a fight, and show his friends and those who fear him that he's actually all talk. What was stopping the other Arata from doing this? Everything else in the show is in service to the big showdown that they're supposed to have, but after finding out its roots, I couldn't bring myself to care. The "realization" Arata makes at the end of the series feels like it happened because the show needed a place to stop, not because he went through any character growth to earn it. In contrast, the rivalry that's presented as a parallel through Kannagi and Akachi is infinitely more interesting because there is nuance to the good and evil here, with which side they fall on the result of their actions, not because of a power fantasy about getting back at the schoolyard bully.


Throughout the show I never quite shook the feeling that there was a truly interesting world here with valid explanations to all the problems I was having with the plot. From the little bit I've read about the manga, it seems that the show did indeed gloss over tons of information that probably would've made it more enjoyable. However, just the animation alone makes it clear that the show wasn't working with the best budget; while it occasionally turned out some amazing animation (the EDs are great), the quality consistently degrades all the way up to the finale, off-character models and all. It's a shame, since the series is fond of big set pieces where the characters have epic, element-based battles. It does make a statement about the show as a whole, though; there is something very interesting here, but it just didn't have the chops to pull it off. Getting mad at character justifications may be better than complete apathy towards what's going on, but because of that I can't recommend this anime either.

Images from Crunchyroll.com.

Better late than never! I'm still super busy with school, but I wanted to get out a preview post anyway. The year is almost over (holy crap, where did all the time go?) and the Fall season will start wrapping up soon as well, so it's time to get excited--and then be disappointed several weeks later. Such is the life of seasonal anime watching.

Like last time, my schedule won't allow for me to pick up more than a few shows--thesis quarter, here I come!--so I'm stricter with my "to watch" list than I would be otherwise.

Disclaimer: The following is my personal (and sometimes embellished) opinion based on the information available and is subject to change throughout the upcoming season. None of the opinions expressed are directed at any individual. You are welcome to express your opinion in the comments section, but anything overwhelming negative (name calling, abusive trolling, etc.) will be deleted.

This preview does not include: upcoming movies, OVAs, special episodes, sequels to shows that I have not seen the first season of (when seeing the first season is necessary to understand the plot), spinoffs that I have not seen the original material for, "kids" shows that I do not intend to watch, shows where there is little to no information available, re-releases, adaptations of games that I have not played, and shows intended to be shown on mobile platforms in Japan (such as cell phones).

Overall, please respect others' opinions and feel free to share what you're excited about in the comments below!

Buddy Complex
Genres: Sci-fi, Mecha, Drama, Shounen, Action
Synopsis: Aoba Watase, a high school boy living in a city called Maihama, leads a normal life of school, romance, and the swim club. Watase’s life changes when he sees a beautiful girl, Hina Yumihara, at the pool one day and discovers he is initially the only person who can see her. In order to keep his high school’s swimming club open by recruiting more members, Watase hopes to enlist Hinao to appear in a promo video shot by Watase’s close friend, Gengo. Hina agrees, but on the condition that he does something for her in exchange – pilot a mecha for an organization known as Celebrum. Agreeing to her request, Watase is drawn into a world of fighting giant robots in a game-like world that he must save from Deutera Areas formed by aliens known as Gards-orm that threaten to destroy the earth. However, Watase soon comes to realize that the world that he is living in might not even be real at all and begins to find that everything he is doing is strangely familiar. As he questions the nature of the reality he lives in, Hina must continue to fight in order to protect the lives of those important to him.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. I find it kind of funny that Sunrise has the latest announcement of the season, like, "LOOK HERE WE ARE HERE IS MECHA YOU WANT MECHA WE GOT MECHA!" Anyway, I've recently realized that I like my mecha with a high dose of ridiculous plotlines, so this doesn't do much for me. Pass.


Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! 2
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, School, Slice of Life
Synopsis: Second season.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: High. I really enjoyed the first season, but I'm still not sure where they're going to take this one plot-wise. Hopefully it doesn't jump the shark.


D-Frag!
Genres: Comedy, School, Seinen
Synopsis: Kazama Kenji likes to believe he is something of a delinquent. Moreover, others seem to like to agree that he is. Of course, Kenji's gang finds their way to a group of four not-so-normal girls—Chitose, Sakura, Minami and Roka—and all at once, whatever reputation he may have is nothing compared to the outrageous behavior of the girls. Shanghaied into joining their club, what will happen to his everyday life from that point on?
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. Nothing here is really grabbing me. And they've announced voice actors but not staff? Weird.


Silver Spoon 2
Genres: Comedy, School, Shounen, Slice of Life
Synopsis: Second season.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: High. This isn't so much of a second season as it is a continuation, with the whole "split-cour" thing. In any case, the first half was solid, and I'm excited to see what the characters do next.


Go! Go! 575
Genres: Music, Slice of Life
Synopsis: Go! Go! 575 adapts the Project 575 games for PlayStation Vita and iOS, which allow anyone to create songs using the traditional Japanese 5-7-5-syllable meter found in haiku and tanka poems.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. At first glance I thought that this was the Idolm@ster clone (must be the numbers), but nope! It's a...karuta Idolm@ster clone. Huh. Call me if it's anything like Chihayafuru. (But I won't hold my breath.)


Hamatora The Animation
Genres: Game, Shounen, Super Power
Synopsis: This story unfolds on the stage of Yokohama in 2014, and centers around the special abilities referred to as "Minimum" or "Minor miracles."
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. This is one of those mixed media things, which means that there will also be a game and a book among some other stuff covering other aspects of the storyline that us westerners will probably never get to see. In any case, even though this is not technically a game adaptation, seeing Seiji Kishi as director killed the little interest I had in the show. I don't think he understands the difference between games and TV shows, so I'm passing on this.


Hoozuki no Reitetsu
Genres: Comedy, Fantasy, Slice of Life, Supernatural
Synopsis: Hoozuki is the aide to the great king of Hell, King Enma. Calm and super-sadistic, Hoozuki tries to resolve the various problems in Hell, including a rampaging Momotarou and his companions. However, he also likes spending his free time on his hobbies, such as fawning over cute animals and raising "Goldfish Flowers."
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: High. They had me at supernatural slice-of-life. The premise sounds really interesting, and the director was also responsible for Kimi ni Todoke, so I'm expecting something slow and visually interesting. I can hardly wait!


Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha.
Genres: Comedy, Supernatural, School, Romance
Synopsis: Fushimi Inari is a shy, not-so-bright middle school girl living in Kyoto's Fushimi ward. She has a crush on her classmate Tanbabashi, but cannot express her feelings. One day, as thanks for helping a fox pup, the deity Ukanomitamanokami grants her the ability to change her form.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. It seems like a perfectly nice show (the director worked on Utena, which is always a good thing to see on someone's credit list) but Hoozuki no Reitetsu is filling my supernatural quota for the season. I might watch it later if the buzz is good.


Mahou Sensou
Genres: Action, Fantasy, Magic
Synopsis: In this modern magic action story, Takeshi Nanase is an ordinary high school boy who has a somewhat dark past. Due to certain circumstances, he formed a "fake" couple with his childhood friend Kurumi Isoshima, but otherwise, he lives a normal life. However, one day, he comes across a girl named Mui Aiba, in a uniform he has never seen before, collapsed on the school campus. This encounters changes Takeshi's destiny completely. Mui tells Takeshi that she is a magician, and she apologizes, for she turned Takeshi into a magician, too. What Takeshi once knew as one world is actually two — the world where magicians live and the world where humans live.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: None. In today's news, a light novel adaptation promises an epic storyline involving magic and a dark past, but will probably end up as yet another thinly veiled excuse for harem antics. And now, the weather.


Mikakunin de Shinkoukei
Genres: Seinen
Synopsis: The comedy revolves around Kobeni Yonomori, who on her 16th birthday suddenly has a young man with little presence named Hakuya Mitsumine and his younger sister Mashiro appear in front of her. It turns out that Hakuya is her fiancee, and Mashiro is her future sister-in-law. The three (and Konbeni’s older sister Benio) start living together underneath the same roof, and hilarious happenings occur.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: None. The genre says seinen, but my anime cliche radar says harem.


Nisekoi
Genres: Comedy, Romance, Shounen
Synopsis: As a child, Raku Ichijo made a secret promise with his childhood sweetheart, keeping a pendant as a memento while his love took the key. He dreams of one day meeting his past love, but years later, reality smashes his hopes when Chitoge Kirisaki accidentally knees him in the face... Though Raku's a normal high schooler, his family heads the notorious yakuza gang the Shuei-Gumi faction! And he's dragged into family affairs when he's forced into a relationship with Chitoge, the daughter of a rival gang's boss!
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Moderate. I've heard a lot of buzz about the manga, yet (you might be noticing a trend here) it sounds like a harem setup. I guess the gang war thing makes it kinda unique, but I'm honestly not really understanding the excitement on this one. I'm going to wait to see what others say about the adaptation before deciding if I'll watch it or not.


Robot Girls ZGenres: Comedy
Synopsis: The story revolves around a new team of "Toei robot girls" named "Team Z" that is made up of three girls based on Toei's Mazinger Z franchise: Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, and UFO Robot Grendizer. Usually they perform in activities around Nerima ward in Tokyo to raise the awareness of the promising future energy source "Photon Power" (koushiryoku). However, there are times when "Mechanical Beast" team of girls emerge from the "Subterranean Empire" and attempt to steal the energy. Thus "Team Z" has to battle them to prevent this, though sometimes they just go and beat up the "bad girls" to relieve stress.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. It looks like this will be short, reference-based nostalgia humor, so you'll know right away whether this will appeal to you or not. As I've said before and will say again, mecha is not really my cup of tea, so I'm gonna leave this one to the fans.


Nobunaga the Fool
Genres: Sci-fi, Mecha
Synopsis: The Western Planet and the Eastern Planet. Once upon a time, the two sides were bound by the "Dragon Pulse" spanning the heavens. The civilization that once had prospered has now turned to a tale of dreams, as the inextinguishable flames of war tear the realm asunder. The two planets remain engulfed in endless battles. The return of the super technology known as "sacred treasures" could revolutionize the world order, but no one knows of them but one person — a "heretical girl." A girl from the Western Panet, Jeanne Kaguya d'Arc, saw heavenly visions of the birth of a "Star Messiah" who will save the world. She embarks on a journey to the Eastern Planet with Leonardo da Vinci, "the one who observes the world." They come across the heretic of the Eastern Planet and "the greatest fool of the day," Oda Nobunaga.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: None. Woooow. This is the most anime synopsis I've read in my life. Part of me even wants to believe that it's a parody, like one of those over-the-top series in otaku humor shows. But it's real! It does get points for not having the Oda Nobunaga character as a high school girl though.


Nobunagun
Genres: Action, Shounen, Supernatural
Synopsis: Shio Ogura is a Japanese high school student, who is visiting Taiwan on a school trip when she is suddenly attacked by monsters. Agents known as "E-Gene Holders" from the government agency DOGOO also arrive, who wield weapons infused with the spirits of historical figures. Shio is revealed to also be an E-Gene Holder when the soul of Oda Nobunaga awakens after she tries to rescue a friend.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: None. ...I spoke too soon. It honestly sounds like an okay premise, but "Oda Nobunaga as a high school girl" is getting old.


Noragami
Genres: Action, Adventure, Shounen
Synopsis: At the boundary between this realm and another, there live eight million gods, dead spirits who serve the gods, and other assorted spirits who help and meddle in the affairs of humans. A sweet middle school girl named Hiyori Iki has been enduring bullying from her classmates, and she goes to the restroom by herself to cry. Scrawled on the bathroom wall is a phone number and the message, "I solve your troubles."
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. Another series where my reaction is "eh." Nothing's grabbing me, so it's a pass.


Nourin
Genres: Comedy, Romance, School
Synopsis: When the national idol Kusakabe Yuka suddenly retired from the entertainment business, it shocked the world and it devastated teenager Hata Kosaku. Kosaku was Yuka's biggest fan and her departure left him depressed. His classmates at the Tamo Agriculture School finally are able to get him to leave his room and attend his class, but to everyone's amazement, Kusakabe Yuka (her stage name) comes into the class under the name Kinoshita Ringo as a transfer student. Kosaku realizes he has the once in a lifetime opportunity to get to personally know his dream girl and, together with his group of friends, try to find out why she is here and become closer than just classmates.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. So... Silver Spoon but with idols...? What? I admit that I'm curious to see how that works out, but as I mentioned at the top of this post, I don't have a lot of time. Pass.


Oneechan ga Kita
Genres: Sienen, Comedy, WTF
Synopsis: The story revolves around Tomoya Mizuhara, a 13-year-old boy who suddenly gains a big sister when his father remarries. 17-year-old Ichika is a little strange, and her affection for Tomoya is rather overwhelming, if not scary. On top of things, Ichika's friend Ruri is the ultimate sadist. Then there is Ichika's big-breasted quarter-Japanese friend Marina.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level:



Saki: Zenkoku-hen
Genres: Game, School, Slice of Life
Synopsis: Sequel to the Saki series covering the Inter High School Mahjong Championships.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Moderate. All right, back to the side of Saki that I actually care abou--wait. Why is Nodoka not wearing any underwear?


Sakura Trick
Genres: Romance, School, Yuri, Slice of Life
Synopsis: The story revolves around Haruka and Yuu, two girls who go to a high school that is slated to be shut down in three years. To share something special between them, they share a kiss, and their relationship deepens from that moment onward.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Moderate. Yuri series are rare enough that I'm willing to give this one a go. Also, it looks adorable, which is more than enough of a reason to watch a romance series in my book.


Sekai Seifuku: Bouryaku no Zvezda
Genres: Action, Fantasy
Synopsis: The story follows Zvezda, a secret society bent on glorious world conquest—and led by a little girl.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. The fact that their leader is wearing a skimpy outfit puts me off the entire thing. Pass.


Super Sonico The Animation
Genres: N/A
Synopsis: Super Sonico is the mascot girl of the "Nitro Super Sonic" events held by Nitroplus. In her back story, she is already a photoshoot model, game character, and a musician, even as she studies as a college student.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. This is kind of a strange one. Sonico is a weirdly popular character with tons of figures, many NSFW. When I first got into the figure collecting scene I thought she was some kind of famous hentai character or something, since it seems like no figure exhibition can go by without an announcement of a new figure of her in another compromising position. But nope, she's literally just a mascot character with no other backstory whatsoever. To that end, I have no idea what this anime will be like. My current guess is comedy fanservice. Anything serious would likely make even less sense.


Z/X IGNITION
Genres: Game
Synopsis: The story is set in the not-so-distant future. Five "Black Points" suddenly appeared around the world as portals to parallel worlds. Immediately after, strange creatures began their invasion from these portals. These creatures are the inhabitants of five worlds — the same worlds in different timeframes. In order to ensure their own future timeframe survives, each of the five invasion forces battle to wipe the other future timeframes out. The key is one card-shaped device.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. I'm not sure if this one has a tie-in card game or not, but it certainly sounds like it does. Aside from that, this sounds really generic. Pass.


Space☆Dandy
Genres: Comedy, Sci-Fi, Space
Synopsis: The lead character Dandy is an alien hunter and the "dandiest man in space." The anime is set far in the future where people have gone to the far reaches of the universe. Dandy is searching for aliens that no one has found before with his robot partner QT.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: High. I try not to let myself get hyped for anything because of past burns, but I'm really hyped for this. It has an amazing staff (Shinichiro Watanabe is directing), the previews look great, and it'll be close-to-simulcast on Toonami. That last part alone is huge news for anime on TV. Watanabe also described the show as "25 episodes of Mushroom Samba," which you should all remember as that episode of Cowboy Bebop where they got high. If that doesn't sell you on this show, then I don't know what will.


Strange+
Genres: Comedy, Shoujo, Slice of Life
Synopsis: The story begins with a teenaged boy named Kou who came to the slums to search for Takumi, his missing big brother who ran away years ago. The brothers reunite, and it turns out that Takumi now heads the Mikuni Detective Agency. Kou wants to bring Takumi back, but he doesn't want go back home himself. So, he starts working at the agency, doing odds and ends.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: None. Nothing is standing out to me about this series either, but I would like to take a moment to mention that according to MAL, the director of this show apparently made his own hentai. He's credited as director, scriptwriter, storyboarder, and animation director as well as for the key animation and the character design on a single NTR hentai. I don't know why I find this so funny, but I thought I would share.


Tonari no Seki-kun
Genres: Comedy, School, Seinen
Synopsis: The original manga revolves around a girl named Yokoi who sits next to a boy only known as Seki-kun. During class, Seki-kun continues to not pay attention and instead creates amazing little distractions, such as a detailed golf course with the course's hole being a dent in his desk, or an entire dramatic war being played out by paper shogi pieces. Yokoi often finds herself getting reluctantly interested in his games, even though they always seem to end up getting HER in trouble with the teacher!
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Moderate. I was initially going to pass on this one, but since it has a shorter running time and gives off a kind of Nichijou vibe, I'm giving it a shot.


Wake Up, Girls!
Genres: Music, Slice of Life
Synopsis: Green Leaves Entertainment is a tiny production company on the verge of going out of business in Sendai, the biggest city in Japan's northeastern Tohoku region. The agency once managed the careers of magicians, photo idols, fortune-tellers, and other entertainers, but its last remaining client finally quit. In danger of having zero talent (literally), the president Tange hatches an idea of producing an idol group. On the brash president's orders, the dissatisfied manager Matsuda heads out to scout raw talent. Matsuda makes a fateful encounter with a certain girl…
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. Yamakan saves anime with an Idolm@ster clone. Pass.


Witch Craft Works
Genres: Action, Fantasy, Supernatural, Seinen
Synopsis: Takamiya Honoka is a regular student whose only problem seems to be that he sits next to Kagari Ayaka, the school's #1 beauty. They have never spoken to each other before and any small interaction between them immediately results in her fanclub beating him. Yet when a falling part of the school's building is about to send him to the afterlife, it's Kagari that comes to his rescue. Only... she's dressed as a witch, carrying him in her arms and floating on a broom?! Kagari tells him it is her mission to protect him and that now she can finally protect him openly rather than undercover.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. Another bland-sounding magical girlfriend series. Pass.


Wizard Barristers
Genres: Magic
Synopsis: The story takes place in Tokyo in 2018, where normal humans and those who can use magic coexist. As a result, there are laws against using magic, and a "magic courtroom" exists to preside over lawsuits regarding magic use. In these cases, "Benmashi" or wizard barristers defend those who use magic. The anime follows Cecil, the youngest Benmashi in history, and her associates as they defend clients in these cases.
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level: Low. The premise sounds good, but it's being animated by Arms, which means an unnecessary amount of attention to boob physics. Also, it's being directed by the same guy who's working on Galelei Donna this season, which has been underwhelming at best. Pass.


Lately, My Little Sister’s Been Acting A Bit Strange
Genres: Comedy, Romance, Shounen, WTF
Synopsis: In the romance comedy, a girl named Mitsuki Kanzaki lives with her step-brother Yuya after her mother remarries. One day, Mitsuki is possessed by the self-proclaimed spirit of a young girl, Hiyori Kotobuki. Hiyori (in Mitsuki's body) must fall in love with Yuya to move towards the "Gates of Heaven." Also known as the "little sister chastity belt anime."
Thoughts/Personal Hype Level:

Japan. You really need to stop. Please stop.

Series information from AniChart and Stargazed Charts. Pictures from MyAnimeList and Google. Top Image is an official image from the Snow Miku 2013 campaign.

As the year winds down along with the Fall season, I'd like to take a post to look back and cover my favorite titles from 2013. While they're isn't any contest or voting going on this year for top show (that I'm aware of), I'm keeping the format that I used for Kidd's Aniblogger's Choice Awards since that kept things pretty concise. While I did rank the shows, I feel that they are all equally great examples of their genre and/or style and recomend every one of them!


12. Pokemon Origins
While I adored the Pokemon anime growing up (I definitely wouldn't be here now if it weren't for that show), I did wonder what the show would be like if it followed the games more closely. Fast-forward to 2013, and I finally have my answer. Orgins caters directly to the nostalgia factor, playing up memorable in-game dialogue and events that will be familiar to anyone who played this game when they were younger. While it's interesting seeing Red interact with the game world as his own character rather than a player avatar, the short format (only four episodes) leads to a lot of summarizing, particularly when it came to the gym leaders. There's also the frustrating bit where they decided to include Megastones (a new addition to Pokemon X and Y) in the storyline, which made the trip down memory lane feel like yet another advertisement. But despite my complaints, it was amazing to see parts of a game that literally changed my life in animated form. This is a must-see for any Pokemon fan, old or new, even if you think you've outgrown the franchise. At the very least, you have to hear the reworked Champion theme.


11. The Devil is a Part-Timer
I love trope-based humor. I also love when tropes are subverted in interesting ways. So it only makes sense that one of my favorite comedies of the year based its humor around subverting tropes. The absurd premise and hilarious reaction faces of Devil is a Part-Timer had me in stitches more than once, and it managed to pull off the rare event where a comedy covered a serious plotline without creating tonal whiplash. The recycled parts in the second half is the main reason why this is so far down the list, but it's still a very enjoyable comedy. You can read more about it in my review here.


10. Valvrave
It's hard to describe exactly what Valvrave is. "Mecha parody" isn't completely accurate, since there is that episode. Yet I can hardly call Valvrave serious either, since the bulk of it is concerned with absurd plot-twists, ridiculous science, and some of the best one-liners I have ever heard in an anime. However, even considering the much darker side of the series, Valvrave is a lot of fun to watch. I encourage people who are willing to let logic go in favor of entertainment to give this show a try. It's the kind of series where you'll know right away whether or not you're in for the long haul.


9. Kyousougiga
As of the writing of this post, this series is not over and has yet to move into its final act, yet I'm still confortable with putting it alongside my other top series from this year. What started out as an incredibly confusing OVA has turned into an amazing story about family told through mythological references and incredibly creative animation. My only complaint so far is that the story suffers in parts where animation from previous releases is re-incorporated into the plot in ways that don't make a lot of sense, yet it's still quite the sight to see. I don't know where it's going to end up, but it's provided an amazing ride.


8. Chihayafuru 2
I was beyond excited when I heard that my favorite series from last year (and also the year before, I just cheated) would be getting a second season. Everything picked up again like it had never left, like a second season was an inevitability rather than a novelty. It was great to see my favorite characters return and fall in love with the new ones. However, the pacing did stunt my enjoyment of the show, which is why it's tumbled out of the top spot. Tournament fatigue really sets in during this season, and considering how the manga has over twenty volumes out, I'm not really sure why certain matches were stretched put so much. However, more Chihayafuru is a great thing, and fans of the first season should still support it if they want to see more. ...We will get more, right?


7. Eccentric Family
Honestly, this one is pretty much equal with Kyousougiga on my list in terms of being an amazingly animated supernatural story centered around family, but Eccentric Family goes higher on my list since it's completed its run and we can look at the story as a whole. Following the lives of a family of shape-shifting tanuki is a great premise, and P.A. Works proves that they still have originality left when it comes to animation and character designs. Some stuff gets handwaved and other plotlines aren't resolved as conclusively as I would like, but this show provides a great discussion on the role family plays in defining who you are, with awesome mythological


6. Gatchaman Crowds
I've seen this show dismissed in a lot of places around the anime side of the internet for a number of reasons, ranging from "girls can't be a main character in Gatchaman" (I can see the fedora now) to misreadings of the ending. However, I feel like a lot of people missed the actual point; Nakamura (the director) took the opportunity to remake Gatchaman and turned it into a commentary on the hero myth and what it means in an increasingly connected society. It's more about social media and the potential power of gamification than it is about fighting aliens, and I think that was a really interesting move to take. I strongly urge people who passed over it the first time to take a second look.


5. Gargantia
I really struggled with the decision to put this higher on the list than Gatchaman, but Gargantia has still stolen my heart. Eventually I'll finish my longer review, but I'll say here that Ledo's journey to find his place in a world without war was a very interesting one for me, even though a lot of the characters and some of the plot points weren't given the right amount of development to carry the story. In my opinion, its saving grace was the relationship between Ledo and his A.I. Chamber and how that played out in the final episode...but I don't want to get into spoilers. Check it out if you haven't already. Just the worldbuilding alone is a sight to see!


4. Watamote
While it hits close to home and I completely understand why some people couldn't watch it all the way through, I feel strongly that Watamote is an important anime to watch if you're an anime fan. Its portrayal of social anxiety is dead on, and it never makes that the butt of the joke. It presents Tomoko's problems for what they are with no judgement, so most of the humor comes from references or the absurd situations she finds herself in. The art style is also great, taking it a step up from the original manga with unique lighting and visual choices to reflect Tomoko's mood and her relationship to the world around her. While it can get a bit hard to watch depending on much you relate to Tomoko, it's a powerful show all the same.


3. Free!
My top three is where I said "screw it" and went completely self-indulgent. There are shows on this list that are much better written and artistically interesting than Free! (which is not to say that the animation is bad--that's laughable to say about KyoAni) but I had so much fun watching it. It was a really interesting experience to watch an anime that was produced with the female audience in mind and to have it be good, not just another otome adaptation cash-in (*side-eyes Amnesia and Diabolik Lovers*). I have my problems with how it wrapped up its dramatic arc, but it was a fun ride all the same. Hopefully this will result in more club-based anime that actually does what the club is supposed to do. I'll leave my thoughts at that, since I've already gushed enough about this show in my episodic posts. Season two can't come fast enough!


2. UtaPri 2
But while Free! is fun, UtaPri is still king since it remains the only otome adaptation that hits the right notes as an anime in its own right. While I didn't find this season to be as solid as the first, UtaPri is still just an all-around fun time that never takes itself too seriously. ...Which is the understatement of the year, since this is supposably a series about boy band idols, yet features a giant dragon lighting a stadium on fire, shortly followed by what can only be described as the largest group hallucination ever experienced by a group of (allegedly) sober people.

Why aren't you watching UtaPri yet?


1. Attack on Titan
And finally, there was really only one choice for the top spot. For the past several months, this story about soldiers fighting back against the giants who are trying to eat them all has completely taken over my brain. The character arcs are riveting, the battle choreography is incredible, and the hints woven throughout the story about the deeper secrets in the narrative lends a lot towards multiple viewings. Despite my overwhelming love for this series, it definitely isn't a perfect show; story arcs are stretched out more than is necessary,leading to a lot of scenes where characters are just sitting around and talking, and the animation takes pendulum swings from completely gorgeous to not being able to run at a regular framerate (although that had more to do with budget). However, this is a show that needs to be experienced by every anime fan if only because of the huge impact it has made on the fandom, even reaching people who do not watch anime regularly. If you haven't seen this yet, I cannot urge you enough to watch it. It is quite the experience.

What are your top anime from this year?

Images from Crunchyroll, YouTube, Hulu, and Google Image Search.

Happy holidays everybody! This year I'll be participating in the 12 Days of Anime for the third time. If you haven't heard of it before, there's more detail in the link. I like the treat the 12 Days posts like a personal highlight reel, covering some of my favorite moments, characters, and episodes that aired in the last year. And I'm kicking things off with my biggest unintentional laugh of the year, straight from the otome adaptation Amnesia.

First, some context. I did not like Amnesia. However, I did get all the way through it, which is more than I can say about Diabolik Lovers. I bring that show up because it also has a similar scene, but while I laughed at that one too, this one is far funnier to me because of my mindset when I was watching it. By this point, I'd completely given up on Amnesia being entertaining. I'd just sat through three episodes covering an over-possessive stalker who had locked the main character into a cage for several days and yet the show still expected me to view him as romantic and sympathetic. I was ready to drop the show at the end of the episode when, halfway through, this happened:





Then the show transitions into the next character arc like nothing happened. While the character's actions were explained later, this particular scene is never referenced again. I don't know if it was because I already didn't care where the show went at that point, the fact that it came out of left field, or that the main character believed for a second that her crazy boyfriend was the one dangling her off the roof, but for a while just seeing a single screenshot of this scene would crack me up. More otome adaptations need to embrace their unintentional humor side. Then maybe Amnesia would've been a better show.

Images from Crunchyroll.com.

Prisma Illya was...okay, I guess. I didn't hate it, but it's not exactly a standout in the magical girl genre. However, it did have it's moments, and one in particular completely blew me away.


There's a long stretch in the middle where the characters are trapped in an alternate reality while fighting against a particularly powerful opponent--Alter Saber, although this isn't explicitly stated--in their quest to obtain magic cards that contain power-ups. However, this battle becomes much bleaker than the previous ones once the girls throw literally everything they can at their enemy without leaving a scratch. For the first time in the show, death is a real possibility, and Illya completely shuts down.


What follows is pretty much a deus ex machina moment, but I'm more than willing to let it slide. Illya summons new, completely unknown powers from the card that she'd received earlier, resulting in one of the best battle scenes all year. Silver Link pulled out all the stops here, easily rivaling the work done by ufortable in Fate/Zero. Yes, it's really that good.


It's truly something that needs to be seen to be believed, and even if you watch nothing else from this show, I urge you to check it out. It's Episode 6. You're welcome.

Images from Crunchyroll.com.

Free! is a story about a boy and his pool.


Like most atypical romances, Haru's relationship with water is widely misunderstood. How can a human love liquid? They're not even in the same state of matter! But Haru perseveres. Nothing will come between him and water.

Even when the going gets rough...

And his friends don't understand...

...It's all worth it in the end. Love is love. Haru/Water is canon and no one can deny it.

Images from Crunchyroll.com.

For a show that's essentially about social media, Gatchaman Crowds makes a pretty good case about not letting it rule your life.


I mentioned in my Top 12 post that Gatchaman Crowds is really more about social media than superheroes, and I stand by that. It's also the first show that I've seen that gives a good commentary about the increasing internet presence in day-to-day life without taking a negative outlook. No complaining about the public's obsession with smart phones here!


That said, it doesn't try to pass off the Internet and social media as all rainbows and unicorns either. The majority of the conflict in the plot is drawn from people using these tools and the ease of becoming anonymous to satisfy their own selfish ends. The ability to hide can bring out the worst in people, unleashing their hatred onto the world without any fear of personal repercussions. Which is where Gatchaman Crowds' ongoing message comes in: you can always turn it off and walk away.


It's a good thing to remember, even though it sounds simple and obvious. It's a particularly important message for the online anime community, since so many of us (including myself) use the Internet as our main means of following our hobby and interacting with other fans. However, there are also a lot of...let's say, oversensitive people who have very specific ideas about what it means to be an anime fan and what kind of opinions you should hold if you consider yourself one. When someone comes along to rain on your parade, so to speak, how should you handle it? Gatchaman Crowds argues that it's perfectly fine to just drop out for a while. There will always be haters, but what's the point in indulging negativity?

 
It's not a perfect argument (we can't all be Hajime), but it's good to remember that sometimes arguments are the Internet are just that--arguments on the Internet. If an aspect of social media doesn't appeal to you, or you feel that a particular online community is too toxic, you're within your rights to not engage. Save your time and energy for those relationships--both online and off--that mean the most to you.

Images from Crunchyroll.com.

Look at this majestic human being. A/N: Some spoilers in this post.


In the increasingly silly and logic-breaking world of Valvrave, there is one constant: L-Elf is the most competent and badass character in the entire show. If you follow his plan, everything will work out. A lesser person would've admitted defeat after failing to capture a top-secret military weapon for their country because they had their body stolen by a genetically altered teenage space vampire. Not L-Elf. Instead, he lends his basically-psychic battle prediction abilities to the other side, ensuring their victory. Who needs to control an overpowered mech that runs on human souls when you can have all the pilots completely trust your decisions? Who has the real power here?

 
Images from Crunchyroll.com.

Turn around, dammit! (A/N: Some spoilers in this post.)


Eccentric Family offered an interesting glimpse into a different world running parallel to ours, where creatures of myth really exist. My favorite aspect of the show was how it dealt with the little nuances of living as a tanuki, or a tengu, or whatever in modern-day society. A lot of things were familiar, especially on an emotional scale, but living as a being that's not at the top of the food chain changes your perspective a bit. Their society has different rules and considerations that don't apply to humans, partially because of their powers and also because of a drive to survive. And I think that one of the best examples of those differences was Kaisei.

She spent a majority of the show as a disembodied voice, a twinkle in the shadows, a conveniently placed ladder. However, we did get a pretty good sense of her character. She seems to be the one member of her family who isn't out for power or glory, quietly subverting them while staying out of the spotlight. I liked her immediately, and wondered when or if we were ever going to see her.


When she finally does make her appearance, it's with little fanfare. It took me a minute to realize who she was. However, despite revealing herself to the audience and a few other characters, the person who she's trying to help--Yasaburou--never lays eyes on her. I'm sure that this is symbolic of something, although I haven't figured it out yet. The Japanese ideal of purity maybe? I don't know. In any case, if a show can get me to buy into the merits of a relationship without worrying about the fact that they're cousins, they're doing something right.

Images from Crunchyroll.com.