You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine, and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?
Yes.
Everything's going to be fine.
Yes.
Everything's going to be fine.
Friday, May 04
Yes! Pretty Cure 5
This is the fourth instalment (and second reboot) of the Futari Wa Pretty Cure franchise. Gone are Nagisa and Honoka (sadly) and Mipple and Mepple (thankfully). Cure White and Cure Black are replaced with Cure Dream, Cure Rouge, Cure... Cure Lemonade?! Oy. I won't look up the other two to avoid spoiling the surprise.*
The original was quite a good show, though it did to some extent fall into the monster-of-the-week trap as magical girl shows so often do. The heroines were very engaging, and the opening and closing themes kicked ass.
The sequel and reboots haven't managed the charm or originality of the first season, though it's been successful enough to run to nearly 200 episodes and several movies - as much as the entire run of Sailor Moon.
I'd give this season a miss unless you're a Pretty Cure completist or a mahou shoujo addict - or a ten-year-old Japanese girl, in which case, I must congratulate you on your grasp of the English language!
Quote almost worthy of Gir: I wish I could go to sleep at night wrapped in fried eggs!
* It's called Pretty Cure 5 not because it's season five, but because of the mandatory number of any sentai team.
This is the fourth instalment (and second reboot) of the Futari Wa Pretty Cure franchise. Gone are Nagisa and Honoka (sadly) and Mipple and Mepple (thankfully). Cure White and Cure Black are replaced with Cure Dream, Cure Rouge, Cure... Cure Lemonade?! Oy. I won't look up the other two to avoid spoiling the surprise.*
The original was quite a good show, though it did to some extent fall into the monster-of-the-week trap as magical girl shows so often do. The heroines were very engaging, and the opening and closing themes kicked ass.
The sequel and reboots haven't managed the charm or originality of the first season, though it's been successful enough to run to nearly 200 episodes and several movies - as much as the entire run of Sailor Moon.
I'd give this season a miss unless you're a Pretty Cure completist or a mahou shoujo addict - or a ten-year-old Japanese girl, in which case, I must congratulate you on your grasp of the English language!
Quote almost worthy of Gir: I wish I could go to sleep at night wrapped in fried eggs!
* It's called Pretty Cure 5 not because it's season five, but because of the mandatory number of any sentai team.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
10:03 PM
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Captain Harlock
Okay, so this one is not actually part of the current season. Or the previous season. Or the one before that. Or...
Okay, it's 30 years old.
But, unlike Toward The Terra, a 2007 animation of a 70's manga, this 70's anime doesn't suck. Even though it has much worse artwork and animation, even though it's 14 molar melodramic acid, it's still a good show.
I'm not sure exactly why, but it is. Possibly because Harlock is an archetype rather than a stereotype. (Whatever that means.)
But how does that chick with no mouth drink all the booze? That's what I want to know.
Okay, so this one is not actually part of the current season. Or the previous season. Or the one before that. Or...
Okay, it's 30 years old.
But, unlike Toward The Terra, a 2007 animation of a 70's manga, this 70's anime doesn't suck. Even though it has much worse artwork and animation, even though it's 14 molar melodramic acid, it's still a good show.
I'm not sure exactly why, but it is. Possibly because Harlock is an archetype rather than a stereotype. (Whatever that means.)
But how does that chick with no mouth drink all the booze? That's what I want to know.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
02:53 AM
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Hayate The Combat Butler
Hapless highschool student Hayate* gets fired from his bicycle courier job, and through Plot Contrivance 3B gets hired as a butler for super-duper-rich family.
It's a very standard anime comedy so far, but I do like his shoulder angels.
* Actually, it's more his parents who are hapless. In fact, his parents should be shot.
Hapless highschool student Hayate* gets fired from his bicycle courier job, and through Plot Contrivance 3B gets hired as a butler for super-duper-rich family.
It's a very standard anime comedy so far, but I do like his shoulder angels.
* Actually, it's more his parents who are hapless. In fact, his parents should be shot.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
02:14 AM
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Thursday, May 03
Master Of Epic - The Animation Age
The break-the-fourth-wall show of the season. It's a show set in an MMORPG featuring characters who know that they are in a show set in an MMORPG.
It's largely just a send-up of RPG and anime tropes, with no sign of a plot, but it does this well enough to be worth watching.
The break-the-fourth-wall show of the season. It's a show set in an MMORPG featuring characters who know that they are in a show set in an MMORPG.
It's largely just a send-up of RPG and anime tropes, with no sign of a plot, but it does this well enough to be worth watching.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
07:34 PM
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Heroic Age
Beautiful space princesses. Grizzled space captains. Deadly space ants. Skintight space suits. Cliched space opera - well...
Actually not too bad, judging from the first episode. Nice character designs, artwork, and animation. Big spaceships. Biiiig spaceships. Giant robots too. Appears to be a straight action series, but as long as it doesn't take itself too seriously, it could be quite good.
Beautiful space princesses. Grizzled space captains. Deadly space ants. Skintight space suits. Cliched space opera - well...
Actually not too bad, judging from the first episode. Nice character designs, artwork, and animation. Big spaceships. Biiiig spaceships. Giant robots too. Appears to be a straight action series, but as long as it doesn't take itself too seriously, it could be quite good.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
06:45 PM
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Still To Watch
Missed a few items in my current season viewing: Romeo x Juliette, Heroic Age, Master of Epic - The Animation Age, Reideen, Hayate the Combat Butler, Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, and the OAV Murder Princess. There's still a lot more out there, but the rest hasn't been fansubbed yet.
Missed a few items in my current season viewing: Romeo x Juliette, Heroic Age, Master of Epic - The Animation Age, Reideen, Hayate the Combat Butler, Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, and the OAV Murder Princess. There's still a lot more out there, but the rest hasn't been fansubbed yet.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
04:32 AM
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On Fanservice
Watching Rocket Girls has led me to some ponderation on the subject of fanservice. When you think of fanservice in anime, the first thing that comes to mind is panchira and the like; gratuitous T&A. But more generally, fanservice is something put in, not essential to the story, that makes fans happy.
There's are fair bit of fanservice of the latter sort (and a certain amount of the former) in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which has certainly contributed to its popularity. Admittedly, Haruhi's awareness of Narrative Causality makes it hard to say what is and isn't important to the plot...
The scene with the HP-41 in episode two of Rocket Girls is pure engineer fanservice. The same character is back in episode three, describing his childhood dreams of going into space, which began when he watched the moon landing (he's in his early forties; I know I watched it myself, but I was too young to really remember it). He ended up a salariman, but left his job at the age of 40 to join the SSA, an apparently private but government-assisted space project.
The reason I wanted to discuss this is that if you are delivering engineer fanservice, you must be assuming that your target audience will include engineers, and you need to understand that they will suffer from engineer's disease. And when you put in scenes that just plain wouldn't happen - the helicopter scene in episode one; the catalyst scene in episode three - purely for the comedy value, you do rather irk your fanbase.
Not irked enough to stop watching, not by a long shot, but still irked.
Watching Rocket Girls has led me to some ponderation on the subject of fanservice. When you think of fanservice in anime, the first thing that comes to mind is panchira and the like; gratuitous T&A. But more generally, fanservice is something put in, not essential to the story, that makes fans happy.
There's are fair bit of fanservice of the latter sort (and a certain amount of the former) in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which has certainly contributed to its popularity. Admittedly, Haruhi's awareness of Narrative Causality makes it hard to say what is and isn't important to the plot...
The scene with the HP-41 in episode two of Rocket Girls is pure engineer fanservice. The same character is back in episode three, describing his childhood dreams of going into space, which began when he watched the moon landing (he's in his early forties; I know I watched it myself, but I was too young to really remember it). He ended up a salariman, but left his job at the age of 40 to join the SSA, an apparently private but government-assisted space project.
The reason I wanted to discuss this is that if you are delivering engineer fanservice, you must be assuming that your target audience will include engineers, and you need to understand that they will suffer from engineer's disease. And when you put in scenes that just plain wouldn't happen - the helicopter scene in episode one; the catalyst scene in episode three - purely for the comedy value, you do rather irk your fanbase.
Not irked enough to stop watching, not by a long shot, but still irked.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
03:43 AM
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Tuesday, May 01
Rocket Girls Ep 2
Win!
What are the values of Δv1 and Δv2?
But some of those numbers have seven digits...
You have a calculator, don't you!?
Right, right! ... the heck is this!? There's no equals key!
Of course not! Don't you know Reverse Polish Notation?
Of course not!
Oh, really? In that case... I'll take five minutes to cram its operation into your head. When I'm done with you, you'll never be able to use a regular calculator again!
Win!
What are the values of Δv1 and Δv2?
But some of those numbers have seven digits...
You have a calculator, don't you!?
Right, right! ... the heck is this!? There's no equals key!
Of course not! Don't you know Reverse Polish Notation?
Of course not!
Oh, really? In that case... I'll take five minutes to cram its operation into your head. When I'm done with you, you'll never be able to use a regular calculator again!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
12:39 AM
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Monday, April 30
Spring Season - Not So Summery
I wrote a nice little summary of all the shows from the Spring season, and then I clicked on the wrong thing and the editor ate it.
Sigh.
You'll just have to read the posts for now.
Okay, I'll at least list the ones I plan to watch:
El Cazador de la Bruja - May be a rehash of Noir, but I haven't seen Noir. First two episodes are solid.
Darker Than Black - Mysterious, without the incoherence of Kiss Dum.
Rocket Girls - Looks like fun. Rockets. Girls. What more do you need?
And the ones I'll give a try:
Tengen Toppa Gurrren-Lagann - Extremely silly, but I'll give it at least a couple more episodes.
Claymore and Sisters of Wellber - Both show potential, but could fall into the great Cliche Swamp without warning.
iDOLM@STER XENOGLOSSIA - Rocket Girls seems to have taken the same formula and distilled it down to its essentials, but this still looks like it's worth a try.
Kami-chama Karin - But only because I want to know what the hell is going on.
I wrote a nice little summary of all the shows from the Spring season, and then I clicked on the wrong thing and the editor ate it.
Sigh.
You'll just have to read the posts for now.
Okay, I'll at least list the ones I plan to watch:
El Cazador de la Bruja - May be a rehash of Noir, but I haven't seen Noir. First two episodes are solid.
Darker Than Black - Mysterious, without the incoherence of Kiss Dum.
Rocket Girls - Looks like fun. Rockets. Girls. What more do you need?
And the ones I'll give a try:
Tengen Toppa Gurrren-Lagann - Extremely silly, but I'll give it at least a couple more episodes.
Claymore and Sisters of Wellber - Both show potential, but could fall into the great Cliche Swamp without warning.
iDOLM@STER XENOGLOSSIA - Rocket Girls seems to have taken the same formula and distilled it down to its essentials, but this still looks like it's worth a try.
Kami-chama Karin - But only because I want to know what the hell is going on.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
11:22 PM
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Toward the Terra
Once you get past the opening theme - recorded, I understand, by a tone-deaf badger with a three-pack-a-day habit - you discover the real reason why classic 70's manga are rarely translated into 21st centry anime: Because they are total crap.
Once you get past the opening theme - recorded, I understand, by a tone-deaf badger with a three-pack-a-day habit - you discover the real reason why classic 70's manga are rarely translated into 21st centry anime: Because they are total crap.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
10:44 PM
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