When we think of a fellow anime fan as an “elitist,” it usually means that they have some kind of elevated view of how anime – and to a certain extent, its fans – should be, and they deride what doesn’t live up to that view. The most common ideas associated with anime elitists is that they believe the only good anime are the ones that are distinctly creative and intellectually stimulating, or that the only true fans are those that watch anime using strictly legal methods…

Even though I can enjoy pretty much all genres of anime (I have my favorites of course), I don’t think there’s anything wrong with someone who likes only one or two genres. The problem comes when the person starts making negative judgements about anime they don’t watch and thus know little to nothing about. Ignorance is one of my pet peeves, especially when it entails just that – bashing something that you only have a vague idea about and having little to no experience to back up your claim. To illustrate with an example, let’s say there’s someone who mostly watches action/mecha anime and decides that all moe/slice-of-life anime is terrible. They claim all anime in that genre are boring, stupid, perverted, and cliche, and they don’t miss an opportunity to mock fans of the genre either. That to me is a form of elitism – making these grandiose claims about an entire genre of anime and its fans, especially when you have little first-hand knowledge about it.

So then, let’s say this person decides to give one moe/slice-of-life anime a try – Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai for example – and as expected, they hated it. But does watching one anime among hundreds from a genre suddenly give a ton of merit to their extreme claims about the genre as a whole? The fact that even within a genre there’s still such a variety of series and storytelling methods, is one of the many great things about anime. Even though Naruto and Death Note are both classified as shonen anime, Code Geass and Macross Frontier are both classified as mecha, and Hanasaku Iroha and Clannad are both classified as slice-of-life, one series in each pair is very different in style, theme, story, etc., from the other. With that said, it’s hard to put a solid number on how many series from a genre one should watch in order to be considered very knowledgeable about that genre. Going back to my original example, while I certainly think the person could make claims about Haganai since they did indeed watch it, I don’t feel they can do the same about the whole of slice-of-life anime based on one series.

I think there’s a simple solution to get your point across without the need to sound elitist. Rather than claim that all slice-of-life (or whatever genre of anime) is stupid, cliche, etc., you can just say “I find this genre of anime stupid” or “This genre of anime tends to bore me,” or something similar. When you add yourself to the statement, it makes it sound like you’re speaking from personal taste and it doesn’t sound like you’re trying to make your opinion a fact. Like CyborgCommunist said in a recent post, at the end of the day, whether something is good or not depends on the individual and not things like popularity or what kind of talent is behind it. But at the same time, if I’m going to pass a very subjective statement about a certain anime series or genre as true, I would feel obligated to be familiar with what I’m judging and provide evidence from first-hand experience, like I did with my criticism of season 2 of Nogizaka Haruka for example. There’s a difference between the sentences “Moe anime is bad and shouldn’t exist” and “I find moe anime stupid and pointless.” The latter sounds less elitist than the former. You have every right to make the former claim too of course, but I would take you much more seriously if you offer some reasoning for your statement and show that you have at least some first-hand experience with the anime you’re judging so harshly. The best arguments are those that stem from a variety of first-hand knowledge about the subject and not just vague notions of it gotten second-hand from people who probably share the same tastes as you anyway.

The reason I use moe/slice-of-life anime a lot in my examples is because it’s the genre that’s the main target for elitists. I’m not gonna go into detail here since I already did in previous posts. But I’ll just say another sign of elitism is having elevated expectations that all anime should be intellectually or artistically stimulating and should never be just pure pandering entertainment. Going so far as to say that fan-pandering anime (moe, slice-of-life, harem, yaoi/yuri, ecchi) is bad for the industry, when it’s really what’s making the industry do well in Japan, is again claiming that all anime should be as one sees fit rather than cater to different tastes. I don’t have any interest in ecchi or hentai anime, but if there’s a market for them that’s bringing profit to anime companies and joy to fans, I don’t have a problem with them. As long as anime I like is still available, every series that comes out doesn’t need to match my tastes. As for the other elitist idea that one should be 100% “pure” and legal in order to be a true fan is unrealistic. Can we really say that the person who watches tons of anime, some legally and some illegally, blogs about anime, and basically eats, sleeps, and breathes anime, isn’t as true a fan as the person who casually watches anime once in a while but always legally? I certainly think a true fan is someone who tries to financially support the industry when and if they can, but shouldn’t feel guilty for not shelling out money for every anime series they watch. For an easily accessible hobby like anime, I think passion speaks louder than money.

To conclude, I know this is the Internet and there will always be elitists who make grandiose statements about everything they dislike without offering sincere reasons and sneering at everyone of a differing taste, as well as reasonable people who are critical but make honest efforts to explain why they feel the way they do and respect others’ tastes. I’m sure you already know which camp you’re in by now and anything I’ve said here won’t change your mind. Just wanted to get my two cents out there.

As I’ve grown out of student-hood these past few years and moved on to being what the Japanese call a “shakaijin” (person of society), I’ve been taking the word “nostalgia” more to heart. I’ve often wondered, “How old does one have to be in order to feel nostalgic?” And while pondering this questions, I’d like to pay tribute to some old anime that hold particularly nostalgic memories for me…

While I’ve known the word “nostalgia” for a long time, it’s only recently that I’ve understood what it means by experiencing it myself. The first wave of nostalgia I remember came less than five years ago when I discovered that episodes of an old CG animated cartoon from the 90s I used to love called Beast Wars (based on the Transformers concept) had been uploaded to Veoh and I started watching it. It brought back memories not just of the show itself, but of what my life was like back then and how I viewed things at that age, compared to how I am now. That’s what nostalgia is to me – when you reach a point in your life where you can clearly perceive the line between the “then” and the “now,” and often you pine for something in the “then” that you can’t have now. It’s not just “Oh yeah, I remember that!” so much as remembering the feelings and lifestyle you had during the time you experienced the nostalgic object in question. This is why I think one has to reach adulthood, or close to it, in order to really understand nostalgia; since children tend to live in the moment, they don’t compare their past and present the way adults do. It’s when you reach that point in life where things become more busy and complicated that you’re finally able to compare it to the simpler times of the past through remembering these nostalgic things, whether it’s a place, TV show, book, movie, or even a smell or sound.

While I didn’t discover anime until late in my childhood, things have changed enough for me since then that I can feel nostalgic about certain titles I watched early in my fandom. I’ve found that any show or movie has to be at least ten years old in order for me to feel nostalgic about it. Hence, all of my nostalgic anime are from the 90s or very early 2000s. I watched a lot more than this in my early years as a fan, but these are the ones that are most nostalgic to me (though not necessarily my favorites). Do they make you nostalgic, too?

Pokemon (original series)

Nostalgic associations: I was still in middle school when I got into Pokemon and I would time-record all the episodes on VHS when they would air on Kids’WB. I played the old GameBoy games on my GameBoy Color and would often trade pokemon with others through the games’ link cable feature. I collected the trading cards and would go to my local mall every weekend and play the card game there, earning badges and sometimes prizes. I was also a big Rocketshipper. I had a friend that I chatted with about Pokemon almost every night and we’d even watch some of our recorded episodes together over the phone.

Cardcaptor Sakura

Nostalgic associations: I had never heard Japanese sung or spoken before CCS. Having watched the dub of CCS before discovering the Japanese version, I also learned how horrendous dubbed kids anime was back then (not that it’s a big deal now). I started collecting the series on subtitled VHS released by Pioneer, which was Geneon’s old name, at a local anime store (which sadly doesn’t exist anymore) before switching to DVD later.

Jubei-chan

Nostalgic associations: This was the first non-kids anime I ever watched and the first I bought fully on dubbed VHS. I didn’t mind the dub then but if I watched it now it would probably be pretty bad. Despite that, it was still a very funny show. I still especially love the ending song.

Slayers

Nostalgic associations: During my freshman year of high school, one of my good friends who I still see today invited me to her house to watch Slayers for the first time. I liked it very much and later bought season 1 dubbed on VHS. I bought the other two seasons on DVD and watched them on my old iMac computer until I finally got a DVD player.

Bakuretsu Hunters

Nostalgic associations: I think DVDs of Bakuretsu Hunters were among the first DVDs I ever watched, again on my old iMac computer. I liked both the dubbed and subbed version back then, but when I think about it now, the dub voices were pretty bad. The OP was an example of coolness back in the day.

Record of Lodoss War

Nostalgic associations: I think I saw this series strictly on VHS. I liked the OVA better because it was more focused on Deedlit, my favorite character in the series. Also, the dub of the TV series wasn’t so good despite having Crispin Freeman as the main protagonist (maybe he just wasn’t experienced enough back then?) But the OP of the Lodoss War TV series is still one of the best openings I’ve seen to this day.

Chobits

Nostalgic associations: I read Chobits by borrowing the manga volumes from a friend. I watched a few episodes of the anime dubbed by coming across them in RealPlayer files online…how old-school is that? I liked the “City With No People” storybooks featured in the series so much that I actually scanned them all on my old computer and sort of recreated the books on my site.

Fushigi Yuugi

Nostalgic associations: Fushigi Yuugi used to air dubbed on the International Channel (which I don’t even think exists anymore). I didn’t have cable TV then so a friend of mine recorded the episodes on VHS for me. I read the manga by borrowing it from a friend. At one point my group of high school friends were so into this series that we started nicknaming each other after certain characters. I believe I was Nuriko since he was my favorite character :3

Tenchi Muyo!

Nostalgic associations: Like Fushigi Yuugi, I borrowed VHS tapes recorded from Toonami from friends in order to watch Tenchi. I loved it right away and eventually bought the DVDs, again using my old iMac as a DVD player before getting a real one. I was glad that Pioneer’s DVDs included the non-censored versions of some of the more violent/dodgy episodes, but upset that they included “dubtitles” for their Tenchi Universe episodes. I eventually sold most of my Tenchi DVDs and stopped collecting the manga.

Love Hina

Nostalgic associations: Unlike most other series, I only read the 14 volumes of the Love Hina manga and didn’t get a chance to watch the anime until years later. If I recall correctly, there was some fan service gags but nothing too ecchi…it was actually pretty funny. I remember laughing out loud to myself at certain parts of the manga, which I rarely do.

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Nostalgic associations: I borrowed the Utena manga and anime on subbed VHS from a friend of mine who was really into romance/shojo series (I also borrowed Chobits, Love Hina, and Fushigi Yuugi from her). Besides Eva, I hadn’t yet seen an anime that messes with your head as much as Utena.

Trigun

Nostalgic associations: Vash was one of my first and biggest anime crushes :3 The Trigun DVD box set was also one of the first I purchased along with Tenchi Universe. I liked both the dubbed and subbed versions.

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I didn’t mention some of my bigger old favorites like Digimon, Inuyasha, Naruto, and Evangelion. The reason – like Pokemon, Digimon and Naruto are still ongoing now, Eva is still as talked about as ever and has new movies coming out, and for Inuyasha, it hasn’t been that long since the anime and manga ended.

Like I mentioned, it’s not so much what these old anime are about that makes them nostalgic to me; it’s the time in my life that I experienced them and those past feelings and memories that I now associate with them. Being in school at the time, having things like VHS and CDs, anime on Toonami and Adult Swim, stores with anime that don’t exist anymore, when Geneon and ADV were booming and the only way I could watch anime was through DVDs and TV – all those things add up to a time and place very different from now, and it’s finding that distinction between a simpler, more innocent past and a more complicated, busy present, that bring out nostalgia.

Every year since 2008 I’ve taken photos of my room, which is covered in anime, and posted them here on the blog. Even though I’ve lived in the same house all these years, I get new anime stuff every year and the design of my room changes accordingly. So here’s the 2012 version…

(I apologize if there’s an obvious glare in some of the photos. The flash wasn’t cooperating)

We’ll start with the area where I spend most of my time; in front of my 40″ HDTV that’s also hooked up to my computer.

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Here’s a closer look at the shelves under the TV where I keep my Blu-ray player and a bunch of DVDs/BDs. Starting from left to right on the top shelf is my Wolf’s Rain and Trigun box sets, then my Harry Potter and Lion King BD box sets, followed by a few other random movies. The bottom shelf has my Inuyasha and Cardcaptor Sakura DVDs, as well as all my GameCube and Wii games.

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My TV is connected to my computer/Internet, cable, Wii, and BD player, so I basically use it for everything :3 On either side of the TV you can see my Bose speakers, which give great audio for all these devices. On the shelf directly below the TV is the cable box and Wii.

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Next to the TV is my old computer desk that I now use as a place to hold and display things. The top part is now home to figures, plushies, and remotes, while the bottom is where I keep my computer and bass for the speakers (they’re behind the Pokemon puzzle).

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A closer look at the figures and plushies on the desk. The top shelf is my “Haruhi shrine” and right below it is the “Chopper shrine,” so I’ll always be able to see my two favorite characters ^_^ More figures on the left and plushies of Chi and Chibiterasu are sitting on the printer.

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Moving on to the wall next to the desk. That tall poster is one I printed of Harry Potter drawn anime-style. A Pokemon reji-sheet I bought while in Japan covers the window (it only goes up to 492 pokemon), and below that are more random posters, mostly Cardcaptor Sakura and Death Note.

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Next to that is the area above my bed. Pictures from various anime and my old Fushigi Yuugi wall scroll that’s now been hanging there for eight years. To the left of the scroll are my badges from non-AX conventions I’ve been. I have that pink pillow case covering my air conditioner during the winter when I don’t use it. Can you spot the two Nana keychains hanging from the blinds next to it?

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And here’s the actual bed, with my Inuyasha throw on it. That turquoise pillow in the back is actually a folding Pokemon pillow of Oshawott. And in the way back is my big Pikachu plush that I’ve been sleeping with since middle school.

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The wall above my bed is now the Madoka wall, with two fan art pieces and a printed poster I put together. Below those is the Haruhi 2012 calendar poster. And hanging to the left are badges from the now five Anime Expos I’ve been to. Hanging on the other side are two keychains of Niche, my favorite character from Tegami Bachi.

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To the right of my bed is the pink desk I’ve had since I was in elementary school. The chair that went with it broke a few years ago so I keep my Haruhi jigsaw puzzle in its place and bring in a chair from another room if I need to sit there. Lots of Pokemon figures and plushies on the desk, as well as the Japanese learning books I’m currently using for studying.

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The wall above the desk, with more posters, including my large Haruhi poster that I got signed by the English VAs at AX 2007. The tall black shelf is where I keep the rest of my anime DVD/BD collection.

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A closer look at the anime DVDs/BDs inside the shelf.

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The first closet door with more posters – Shana, Inuyasha, and a really old Yu-Gi-Oh! poster. The kanji picture on the bottom left is calligraphy I did while in Japan (it’s the kanji for “yume (dream)”) Hanging above are various tassels from the two colleges I graduated from.

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And the next closet door, which is mostly covered by a custom-made poster I put together of 646 pokemon. The two posters below it are covers of the two oldest Pokemon calendars I have, the 2000 calendars (one’s the Japanese version, the other’s the English version). Oh, and the top right cabinet has an AnoHana art piece I got from AX 2011.

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The wall above my bookshelf. This year I have the Pokemon 2012 calendar (last year I had Angel Beats!) Evangelion and Kannagi pictures are around it, and a row of plushies are sitting on the top of the bookshelf.

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The books inside my bookshelf. From left to right, the top shelf has some manga and other related books, mostly in Japanese, the English versions of the Haruhi novels that have been released thus far, and some Japan books. The second shelf has random literature books, animal books, and a bunch of novels by Japanese authors I read in college. And the bottom shelf has a few more Japanese lit books, Calvin & Hobbes collections, anime artbooks, Japanese learning books, and some anime magazines.

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And the last wall of my room, with the door closed. More posters, mostly of Code Geass and the Haruhi movie poster I got when I went to see it in theaters.

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That same area with the door open this time.

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Here’s the chair that faces the TV, where I spend most of my time. The Kyubey plushie keeps watch over me while I work :3

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And one last shot of my room, taken from the doorway.

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My cat, Toki…she approves of this room.

Hope you all enjoyed the tour~ I’ll be back with a regular post in a few days =)

As always, here are my first impressions of the winter 2012 anime I’m watching upon seeing two episodes of each…

Another

A horror/mystery anime with character designs by Noizi Itou? Sounded good enough for me to check out. Though nothing very suspenseful or horrifying has happened in Another yet, so far it’s building a nice and creepy atmosphere with enough foreshadowing to keep me engaged. Gorgeous setting designs by P.A. Works help, too…and I’m always up for ALI Project songs in anime XD Unlike other horror anime I’ve seen where there’s gore and shocks early on, Another seems to be focused on the subdued, creepiness factor rather than blood and scares. This may not work for everyone but I personally find it gripping. Unfortunately I’m finding the cast of characters rather bland, but I’m hoping that will change later on, or at least the series will give a satisfying story to make up for it. Again, kind of a slow-paced series that’s hard to judge at this point, but I think it’ll end up being worth my while.

Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is only the second slice-of-life/comedy anime with the focus on male characters instead of female, the first being Kimi to Boku. But either way, Danshi Koukousei has been a very funny show so far. Its humor is derived as much from parodying otaku and high school cliches as it is from the crazy quirks of the characters. Together it makes quite a refreshing mix of hyperbolic, slapstick humor and subtle, satirical humor. It even has a few unique extras such as gag-ifying the sponsor message in the middle of each episode and hiding the names and/or faces of many of the female characters. While the focus does shift to minor characters, most of the series is about the three cooky main characters Tadakuni, Yoshitake, and Hidenori, with Hidenori being voiced by Tomokazu Sugita, who thus far has had the most hilarious performances in my opinion. Each episode is made up of a series of vignettes, much like Azumanga Daioh, and while not every gag works for me, more are funny to me than not. I hope Danshi Koukousei continues to give me my weekly dose of comedy for the season!

Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki

My guilty pleasure for the season, Poyopoyo is about a cat named Poyo who’s unusually round. Each of the 3-minute episodes is a series of gags involving the cat and the family he lives with, mostly having to do with the cat’s round shape. While it’s no Chi’s Sweet Home, it is funny and cute if you like that sort of thing. I always enjoy Ikue Ohtani (voice of Pikachu) doing cute voices, and she happens to be the voice of the cat here. Poyopoyo is serving its purpose as a good, quick cuteness break in between more serious anime.

Nisemonogatari

I always thought Bakemonogatari was an entertaining but very…bizarre show. And its sequel, Nisemonogatari, is the same. It’s like the series knows how bizarre it is and knows that that’s where its charm lies. Shaft goes all out with the stylistic animation that ranges from flashes of on-screen text to seemingly random camera angles, not to mention the fact that the majority of the conversations in the series don’t sound anything like conversations real people would have. But all this savvy weirdness is probably what makes Bakemonogatari, and now Nisemonogatari, fun to watch. While it’s not my favorite cup of tea, watching a series so focused on style rather than substance is a nice refresher from time time. Not much has happened plot-wise in the first two episodes other than Araragi getting reacquainted, in typical weird Bake/Nisemonogatari fashion, with the female characters. It hasn’t caught my interest as much in these early episodes as Bake did, but you never know what’s in store with a strange show like this.

Mouretsu Space Pirates

My very first impression of this series upon seeing the above promo image of it and hearing that it’s based on a novel series called Miniskirt Pirates was that it’s probably just a silly, fan-service-filled, pseudo-space comedy. But after reading good reviews of it, I decided to give it a watch…and my first impression couldn’t have been more wrong. There’s no fan-service to be seen, at least not in the first two episodes, and it takes itself very seriously as a space adventure. In just these first two episodes, it immerses us in the space world it’s set in nearly perfectly, taking enough time to show us bits and pieces of the world’s advanced technology amongst the plot. And thus far it’s been paced very nicely, with the first episode establishing characters and background history, and the next episode setting the plot into motion. While Marika seems like a typical genki-girl protagonist so far, she’s at least likable and I find it interesting that any love interest she may have isn’t made apparent right away. The other characters look potentially interesting as well. All in all, Mouretsu Pirates has the makings of a great space adventure anime – a fun and creative sci-fi setting, a colorful cast of characters, and a premise that’s full of potential. I hope the rest of the episodes are as good as these first two!

*Dropped series* Digimon Xros Wars II: I’d also like to mention a series from fall ’11 that I decided to drop this season, Digimon Xros Wars: Toki wo Kakeru Shounen Huntertachi, the third installment of the Digimon Xros Wars series. While the first Xros Wars series was mediocre and the second was better, twelve episodes into this one and it was just bad. Too many things just don’t make sense; why do digimon have to be hunted by humans only to remain in their Xrosloader rather than sent back to the Digital World? The previous seasons show digimon living their lives in the Digital World and only joining humans if they wanted to, so why are they now being collected like pokemon? And now it seems like bad digimon can be turned good just by being hunted? If it was that easy, why didn’t they do that with the evil digimon in the previous Xros Wars seasons? What’s even going on in the Digital World now and how can Shoutmon reign as king if he’s back with Taiki again? Nothing’s really explained about why this hunting thing is important, Nene and Kiriha, the most interesting characters from the previous seasons, are put on a bus in this season, and in twelve episodes there’s no plot other than episodic stories…which wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t all so silly and lame. If Toei wanted to go with this digimon hunter gimmick, they should have made this season unrelated to the other Xros Wars seasons. It’s a shame that I’ve now watched eight seasons of Digimon and this is the first I’m dropping. But I will give the franchise another chance whenever they make a new non-Xros Wars series.

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That’s all for now. Hope you’re all enjoying the winter season of anime. And, if you haven’t heard about it already, the main AnimeYume.com site is currently blacked-out as part of the massive online protest against SOPA and PIPA. Wikipedia, Google, and other major sites, and even fellow anime blogs are also participating. Please do what you can to protect the Internet!

For the final part of the Anime Blog Carnival that I posted earlier this week, here are my concluding thoughts on some things I got out of the project…

After writing my post for the carnival’s topic of what makes a 10/10 anime, I read through other participants’ posts, many of which brought up points that I found intriguing:

Sam brought up the point of an anime’s age. Obviously older anime can’t be judged by the same technological standards as the anime of today. Also, one should take into account the anime’s target audience when examining its writing. Even if the genre isn’t your cup of tea, are you able to take a step back and look at it through the eyes of the target audience? (I guess this would be part of the head scoring I mentioned). Of course, not everyone would want to base their scoring systems on this, I just thought it was a good suggestion.

Marow brought up the idea that establishing exactly how a reviewer uses scoring is essential. After all, two people’s 10/10 scoring, or even 9/10, 8/10, etc., could be for very different reasons and mean very different things. He also brought up a great distinction in one’s viewing experience that could determine an anime’s rating – whether one simply watches an anime or experiences it. I’ve found that for all of my highly rated series, I did indeed experience them and was not simply entertained by them.

Nopy opted to make three criteria for determining a 10/10 anime: decent production values, likable characters, and constant attention. Like Sam mentioned, I believe it’s important to take the year the anime was produced into consideration when looking at its production values, but certainly an anime with good production values for its time is more likely to get a higher rating. If we see a lot of care put into the animation, setting design, music, etc., we’re in turn more inclined to care about what we’re watching. The constant attention criteria is interesting, as Nopy uses it to override “story” for how much the show is able to keep our attention. And with that, even slice-of-life anime that lack a story could get a high rating.

I felt that Nopy’s other criteria, likable characters, was expanded on a bit by draggle in his post. He uses the anime Simoun as an example, saying that, while he doesn’t love every character, what’s important is that he’s never indifferent to any of them. I agree that a great cast of characters brings out emotions in the audience, whether for good or bad. “Likable” to me doesn’t necessarily mean a character we’d want to be our best friend – since this is fiction we’re talking about, having a character that makes us invested in what happens with them is where the appeal comes from, not always that they’d be a worthy person in the real world.

Acerailgun mentioned that it’s rare for people to give “middle ratings” for anime, such as 4s, 5s, and 6s. Usually it’s 7-10 if they liked/loved it or 1-3 if they disliked/hated it. I do give 6s on occasion, and 5s rarely, but most of my ratings are in the 7-8 range. I’m pretty good at avoiding anime I know I won’t like, nor am I fussy with anime to begin with, hence I’ve never given a below 5 rating. Does anyone else feel that people tend to rate either in an extremely positive or an extremely negative way, rarely in between?

Hoshiko briefly mentioned how one can experience an anime differently watching it weekly as opposed to marathon-style. I can certainly agree, as I often see an anime’s 10/10 qualities better via marathon than weekly, as the story becomes one cohesive whole rather than pieces of it. However, watching weekly could have the advantage of prolonging suspense when we have to wait another week to see what happens next, and it also makes the viewing experience last longer, giving us more time to get attached to the story and characters.

Leap250 brought up the unique criteria of whether an anime ends with “open-ness” or not. Though some may feel this means the series is open in terms of being able to have additional OVAs, movies, etc., my take on that is how much the anime leaves itself open to continually existing in the viewer’s mind. For example, it leaves just enough things open-ended in its finale so that we can still forever indulge in the fates of certain characters or certain plot points that were never fully explained, but we’re otherwise satisfied with how the series ended.

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To sum things up, I’d say this first Anime Blog Carnival was a decent success. It’s not something I’d want to do all the time, as I don’t like having obligations and deadlines in my blogging. But if it’s a topic I’m interested in and I don’t have many other posts planned, I would do it again some other time. Thanks again to du5k for organizing the project and inviting me to join, and to everyone who commented and participated in the discussion ^_^ I’ll be back to regular posting in a few days~

This past Saturday I spent the day at AnimeLA, a small anime convention about an hour’s commute from where I live. One of the panels involved discussing how technology has changed the US anime industry. That, together with the recent news of Bandai’s closing, got me thinking of exactly what the future holds for the US anime industry…

(Sorry this post is longer than my usual editorials. I had a lot to say on this topic)

At the panel I attended with my friend and fellow blogger Neo-Shonen Fujoshi, I was surprised that not many people passionately blamed Internet piracy alone as the main culprit behind the decline of the industry. They probably would have a few years ago, but nowadays I think people are seeing that, while piracy does still have its impact, the problem is not so much obtaining anime illegally as much as a shift in how the younger fans of today express their hobby.

With this, the discussion at the panel brought up the idea of our changing times that are de-emphasizing the need to own physical copies of things. As I touched upon in a past post, with iPads, iPhones, streaming movies, Kindles, and the like, our society is rapidly shifting away from the need to own physical copies of things in order to have access to them. There’s now so much encouragement to save shelf space and money and just stream or download movies, TV shows, and even books rather than buy individual copies of them. And this is bad news for the anime industry, whose very life’s blood is DVD/BD sales. While DVD/BD sales of anime are still doing fine in Japan (more on that later), American fans are different – with so much anime available on Crunchyroll and similar legal streaming sites, many of which never even see a home video release, the concept of “being a fan equals buying anime on DVD/BD” is deteriorating. Not only that, but what was also mentioned at the panel is that, because of these streaming sites, the Japanese companies can just hire someone on their side to make subtitles and that’s it, saving money by bypassing the American anime company altogether. They’ve even started doing so with some home video releases, like the BD box set of Kara no Kyoukai. Just like getting your own book self-published or making your own videos with Adobe Premiere, what was once needed to be done by paid professionals with professional equipment can now be done by just about anyone with a computer. And unfortunately that means a gain for some but heavy losses for many.

So, with this de-emphasis on owning physical copies of all the anime you watch, what are the young fans of today doing to show support for their hobby? As the panelists mentioned and what I myself was briefly a part of in my early years as a fan, the only way to really see anime and be involved in the fandom back in the day was to either buy the VHS/laser discs/DVDs yourself, borrow them from friends, or get together in groups such as anime clubs to view and trade them with others. All you really found in the dealers’ rooms at anime conventions back then were anime on VHS/DVD and perhaps some character goods like shirts, CDs, and artbooks. Nowadays however, thanks to what I previously mentioned about streaming anime and society’s de-emphasis on owning physical copies of media, anime fans today watch all the anime they want alone via the Internet, no longer needing to go out and buy DVDs or get together with other fans in order to obtain anime. So, when they do get together with fellow fans such as at conventions, they’ve come to socialize in a different way.

In addition to a cosplay boom, another shift I’ve noticed through attending anime conventions over the years is that the fandom is getting younger and younger. With the ease of Internet access, and therefore anime access, it’s no wonder. And of course, these young fans who are still in school aren’t going to be spending large sums of money on anime DVD/BD releases, especially in a society that’s encouraging them to stream. So they express their hobby through other means – cosplaying, often quite passionately and in organized groups, talking about anime with others via vast social networks like Facebook, Twitter, blogging, etc., making their own anime fan art or web comics to sell at conventions and online…all of which is nice, but is giving little, if any, money back to the industry that creates what they love in the first place. And the dealers’ room at conventions can’t help but follow this shift in fan interests. Now what we mostly see there is cosplay accessions and grey market character goods, which again, unlike sales of DVDs/BDs, profit the industry next to nothing. Of course, there are still plenty of American anime fans (yours truly included) who are not part of this new mentality and like to own their own physical copies of the anime they love. But it’s hard to please everyone and my kind of fan is a dying breed.

So why is the Japanese anime industry doing fine while the American industry is in such peril? The way just about all anime series are released in Japan has been pretty consistent – 2-3 episodes per Blu-ray disc every few months, often with extra goodies such as mini-artbooks and posters, for about 5,000 to 9,000 yen each (roughly $65 to $120). As expensive as that is to American fans, Japan has been following that same model for years and it’s been working. Call it a difference in what it means to be a fan in Japan compared to the US, but Japanese otaku do spend that kind of money on anime releases. Why aren’t American otaku willing to spend the same? I think over the years American fans have gotten used to having everything in cheap box sets. In recent years, companies have been releasing full 26-episode anime series on DVD for less than $50. Even Blu-ray sets of 13-episode series can be bought for less than $80. Compared to Japan where you can’t even get 2-3 episodes for less than $50, Americans can get anime for very cheap. So why don’t they? Other than the legit reason that people, especially the young people that make up the majority of anime fans, don’t have the money in this bad economy, and of course pirating still being an issue, I believe the reason goes back to what I discussed in the previous paragraphs. I’ve even heard people speculate that the reason Bandai can’t go on in the industry is because they followed the Japanese model of releasing anime (3-4 episodes per discs released every few months) rather than go with cheap full box sets from the get go like other companies are doing.

In addition, the Japanese anime industry has another major side of it that America doesn’t have – character goods. Official products from practically every anime released each season, ranging from CDs, artbooks, figures, and plushies down to mousepads, phone straps, and towels, are available, often for a limited time, at stores like Animate and Gamers. You can get a good idea of what these products are like by scrolling through sites like AmiAmi that sell character goods to US consumers. While they’re not as profitable to the industry as DVD/BD sales, they certainly promote series and reel in profit.

So, what does this all lead up to as far as the future for the US anime industry? One of the panelists mentioned that the Japanese companies may just start bypassing the American companies altogether. Or more extremely, they might not even see a need to have an American industry anymore, as the majority of their profits are from Japanese otaku anyway. If that were to happen, the only way American fans could legally buy anime series on DVD/BD is to import them at the much higher Japanese prices, certainly without dubs and perhaps without subtitles unless the Japanese companies decide to have them. I personally can’t afford to spend the Japanese prices on anime releases, nor do I want them without good English subtitles, so I would be very upset if this extreme outcome came to pass. All I can do now is to keep supporting the industry as I have been: buying the US DVD/BD sets of the anime I especially like (as we all know it’s too hard nowadays to buy every series we watch) and importing figures and other official character goods whenever I can. If I become a millionaire and fluent in Japanese in the future, then I wouldn’t mind importing the Japanese DVDs/BDs at all. But that doesn’t look to be happening anytime soon, so unless some comparable alternative from Japan’s side comes about, I really hope Funimation, Sentai, Viz, NIS America, Nozomi, and Aniplex, with all their various business strategies, can hang in there.

*Further reading*:
Signs of the Times: An Industry in Transition – relentlessflame expands more on the changing industry and the differences between the Japanese and American anime markets

Endings and Beginnings – Neo-Shonen Fujoshi’s AnimeLA con report and her thoughts on the state of the anime industry

Revenge of the Special Edition – Mike Toole from ANN wrote a great article comparing the US anime industry of the past to the state it’s in today

Today’s post is part of a new project called an “Anime Blog Carnival,” started by du5k. What it consists of is myself and a handful of other bloggers writing a post about the same topic, linking each others’ blogs, and submitting our posts on the same day. The first topic of discussion for the carnival is “What makes a 10/10 anime?”…

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Before I get into exactly what kind of anime I feel deserves a 10/10 rating, I should first mention how I rate anime. In a post I wrote a while back, I discussed the two distinctions I feel exist in how we rate anime – the “head score” and the “heart score.” The head score is our rating for an anime based on how good we feel it is in terms of the usual things – story, characters, pacing, narrative flow, logicality, creativity, etc,. Our heart score however, is how good we feel it is in terms of our personal tastes and what we find entertaining, regardless of the other factors. It could be that it has tropes we like, character archetypes we adore, or a certain art style we can’t resist. For example, I find Angel Beats! vastly inferior to Cowboy Bebop in terms of story, setting, direction, character development, and other things. However, I personally enjoy watching Angel Beats! more than Cowboy Bebop. I’m more willing to spend money on Angel Beats! products and am basically more “into it” than Bebop. Why is this? Because Cowboy Bebop has a high head score for me while Angel Beats! has a high heart score. To simplify, the head score is our objective rating, the heart score is our subjective rating.

Some fans rate anime based solely on their head score, some base it solely on heart score, and some rate based on a balance of the two. So, with all that in mind, what anime would be deserving of a 10/10 rating from me? A very high head score for me practically guarantees a 10/10 rating. What this would encompass is an interesting story/plot that’s built up and resolved in a satisfying way, and a cast of characters that are entertaining and well written. I like to look at anime holistically, so every episode of the series doesn’t have to be 10/10 as long as the whole work averages that rating. If there’s any noticeable method of creativity and innovation when it comes to presenting these things, that would also increase the score. For slice-of-life/comedy anime that don’t rely on plot and character development, I’ll rate in terms of how good I feel the humor is and how fun the characters are. For all anime, if things like animation quality, character designs, music, and seiyuu performances are good, that’ll only increase the score to. But I can forgive these factors as long as the story and characters are of top quality.

While a very high head score for an anime equates a 10/10 rating from me, a very high heart score doesn’t unless I feel my head score for it is also of comparable quality. For example, I’m a big Pokemon fan and love watching the anime despite how flawed, predictable, and redundant it is. So, because of these things, I can’t give Pokemon a high rating despite my high heart score. But then there are series like Evangelion where I have a high head score and a high heart score for it. The head score alone would maybe be a 8/10 or 9/10, but my attachment to the characters and personal nostalgia (heart score) gave it that slight boost to a 10/10.

So to summarize, I feel there are two ways to rate anime – a head score and a heart score. For me, the head score is mostly what determines my number rating of an anime, though an additional high heart score can boost it. A 10/10 rated anime would, in my eyes, have a great story/plot, cast of characters, and narrative flow. Commendable music, art, and voice acting can also help give it extra points. But it’s my (mostly) objective view of plot, characters, and execution (characters and humor if it’s a plot-less slice of life/comedy) that determine the score.

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That concludes my post for the carnival topic. I didn’t make it as long as my usual editorial posts because the idea for the carnival is to read the other participants’ posts too, so it wouldn’t do to make mine a chore to read through. If you’re interested in helping us make this project a success, please read and comment on the other bloggers’ posts on the same topic:

Anime B&B by Marina
The Otaku’s Study by Sam
Anime Viking by Marow
Nopy’s Blog by Nopy
Draggle’s Anime Blog by draggle
Hachimitsu by Mira
Ace Railgun by AceRailgun
Leap250′s Blog by Leap250
Lemmas and Submodalities by SnippetTee
Ephemeral Dreams by Ephemeral Dreamer
World of Yamaguchi Hoshiko by hoshiko
One Minute of Dusk by du5k
Listless Ink by Yi

Not all of the above bloggers will have their carnival posts up today, so you may have to check back if there are certain ones you want to read. Don’t feel like you have to read and comment on everyone’s posts. I know it’s a lot, so feel free to read and comment on as many or as little as you’d like.

On January 15th, we’re all supposed to write a round-up post about the results of the carnival and our opinions about it. I plan to have a regular post in a few days, and then the round-up post on the 15th. So…I’ll see you all then. Thanks for reading/commenting ^_^

I’m sure we’ve all been in the situation where someone recommends an anime for us to watch that we’re not too thrilled with right away, yet they assure us that “it gets good later.” But how late should “later” be before it starts to feel like it’s not worth our time?…

I’ve heard opinions from both ends of the spectrum – fans who will drop any series right away if the first episode doesn’t immediately catch their interest, down to fans who will watch any series they start until the end to see if it was worth it. Besides someone’s overall patience with their entertainment, I think other factors are involved as well. Time, for example, could be one. Fans who have more free time on their hands could be more willing to put up with a mediocre beginning in an anime than fans who have less free time and don’t want to waste it on anime that’s not entertaining them from the get-go. Whether or not fans have prior expectations about the anime’s source material, original creator, or production studio are other things that could determine how much or how little of a chance they’re willing to give an anime. If they have faith in the original creator or are familiar with its original manga, they might have more patience with a series than someone who’s not familiar with these things. And of course, personality comes into play – if you’re patient and easy-going with your anime, you’ll probably be willing to wait longer for a series to “get good” than someone who’s less patient and more specific with their anime.

As I’ve discussed in a previous post, it takes a lot for me to drop an anime. Over ten years as a fan and I’ve dropped less than ten of the series I started watching. So does that mean I think an anime should have unlimited time to “get good”? I’ll admit I’m more patient than others when it comes to mediocre series, but I do have limits too.

To start things off, I try to be less judgmental at the beginning of a series since I know they need time for stories to unfold and characters to develop. So as long as the first episode of an anime isn’t a total bore or full of flaws, I’m willing to give it a chance passed that point. After that, the length of the series will also play a role. Usually the longer a series is, the more patience I try to have since I know more episodes equals more chances for the story to take a turn for the better or something else in the series to suddenly impress me. For example, if a 26-episode series is still boring me by episode 10, I’ll probably be more inclined to drop it than I would if a 50-episode series still hadn’t gotten good by episode 10. Once I make it passed the halfway point of a series, I become less inclined to give up on it since I figure “I’m over halfway done, might as well see how it ends.” As long as I don’t have any huge issues with a series and am able to derive a decent amount of enjoyment from it, I’ll stick with it till the end if my free time permits.

For long-running anime with hundreds of episodes, I know they take an extra amount of time to get good, though my experience has shown me that the payoff is worth it. I didn’t start to love Inuyasha until the episodes hit the 20s or 30s, and then it became my all time favorite series for a while. My favorite character in One Piece wasn’t even introduced until the episodes hit the 60s! Since the long-running shonen anime could take longer than two-cour anime to get “get good,” only certain kinds of fans are willing to get into them, which is understandable.

But, despite what I said above, sometimes a series does certain things that push by buttons as early as the first episode, causing me to not want to give it a chance regardless of length. For example, despite the fact that it’s a two-cour series, I found the first three episodes of the currently airing Persona 4 so boring and flawed, I just didn’t have the motivation to continue. My mind can be changed down the line though. If the latter half of Persona 4 gets an amazing amount of acclaim, I might be willing to give it another try. If a series I dropped early on suddenly becomes a huge success (as is the case with Lucky Star for me), I’ll most likely give it another chance. I tend to like the anime that become very popular, so for me personally, that would be a big factor in determining how much of a chance I’m willing to give a series. But for the average anime, if the bad outweighs the good for me in the first few episodes, I’ll be more inclined to drop it than if I was simply neutral to the first few episodes.

Another factor is exactly how “good” the “get good” part seems to be. If I were someone who hadn’t watched Madoka Magica yet and was ready to drop it by episode 2 because it wasn’t doing anything for me, I’m sure everyone who’s seen it would passionately tell me to give it a chance passed that point. So I’d most likely do so (helped by the fact that it’s only 12 episodes), whereas, I wouldn’t get such unanimous convincing for a lesser known series where maybe only a few people would tell me it “gets good later” while others would say it doesn’t (if it was a longer series, that would also be a deterrent). So an anime’s overall popularity is another thing that could make or break my decision to continue a series.

To conclude, there are a multitude of factors at play in determining how much time we’re each willing to give an anime to “get good” – how much free time we have, what we’ve heard about the series from others, how many total episodes it has, our background knowledge about the series, and how much patience we personally have when it comes to hobbies and entertainment. So now I’d like to know, how many episodes are you willing to give an anime to “get good”? Do any of the things I discussed above apply to you? Are there any other factors you think are important?

It’s now New Year’s Day here in the US, and like always, I want to do a “picks of the year” type post to celebrate. I started participating in the blogsphere’s annual “12 moments of anime” project in 2009. Since last year however, I’ve preferred to list my moments all in one post, unlike other bloggers who give each moment its own post. I usually reserve New Year’s to countdown my favorite anime of the year, but since I’ve already done that via The AniBloggers’ Choice Awards, I’ll be posting my 12 moments today instead. So, without further adieu, here are my 12 best anime-related moments of 2011…

#12: Completing 300 anime titles

In September, my MAL list finally hit 300 completed anime titles. I didn’t reach that milestone with the most dignified anime (my 300th was the Haganai OVA), but it still felt like a great accomplishment as a fan even though I knew I’d reach that number eventually.

#11: Rewatching many anime

Towards the end of 2010, I made a semi-New Year’s resolution with myself to rewatch as many of my favorite anime as I can in 2011. Though I love to rewatch anime if it’s a series I really like, for some reason I have trouble finding the time and motivation for it among watching seasonal shows. But I’m proud to say that I stuck to it and rewatched quite a few series in 2011. Starting with rewatching Wolf’s Rain and Angel Beats! in late 2010, in 2011 I rewatched Cowboy Bebop, Eden of the East, Toradora!, Canaan, Itazurana Kiss, OreImou, and even newer titles like AnoHana and Madoka (both of which I watched with my mom though she didn’t like them as much as I had hoped). And just yesterday I started rewatching Code Geass because I have extra time with all the seasonal shows having a New Year’s hiatus. There are still a few more anime I want to rewatch and then I’ll hopefully motivate myself to watch more older shows I haven’t yet seen. That shall be my resolution for 2012 XD

#10: Maintaining a blog for five years

Obviously my blog turns a year older every year, but it turned five years old in 2011 and I think that’s a pretty big milestone. I honestly think that 2011 was one of my blog’s best years in terms of generating comments and discussion (thanks to wonderful visitors like you!) I hope to continue that trend in 2012 ^_^

#9: Haruhi movie on Blu-ray

The release of the Haruhi movie in 2010 was a huge deal for me; I took a trip to San Fransisco to see it in theaters during its US premiere in May 2010, and I also took another trip to West Hollywood to see it again in another screening about a month later. And finally, in September 2011, it was released on DVD/BD in the US. It feels great to finally own a copy of one of my most anticipated anime of recent years XD

#8: Getting back into Japanese self-study

From roughly mid-2004 to mid-2009, I studied Japanese formally at college, first at my junior college and then up to Advanced Japanese at my university. Since I graduated over two years ago, I’ve been meaning to keep up my studies on my own, but was hardly able to do so in 2010. It was mostly due to having a job with no vacation time other than a few 3-day weekends, thus I wanted to just be lazy whenever I did have time off. This year however, especially since I quite my job four months ago and have had lots of free time, I got myself fully back into Japanese self-study – I’ve been having 3+ hour study sessions about once every 1-2 weeks (compared to once every couple of months like I had previously), I’ve put together a new method of kanji and vocabulary learning for myself that seems to be working (since I already have a good grasp of Japanese grammar, kanji and vocab are what I need to focus on), and I started writing journal entries in Japanese on Lang-8 in March. I plan to continue my studies as much as I can in 2012 =D

#7: The disasters in Japan

Since this is far from a positive moment, I wasn’t sure whether to include it or not. While it’s not a favorable moment like the others, I felt it should be part of my list since it was just so impacting to everyone, even if they don’t have a special tie to Japan through anime the way we do. This isn’t so much a moment for myself as it is for me to give a moment to all the people who died and suffered during these disasters, as well as all those who helped out in any way they could. Even though the earthquake/tsunami disasters in March 2011 didn’t affect the anime world too much other than some delays and event cancellations, it was still an extremely saddening, emotional, and frightening time for all of us who followed the event online even if we weren’t there in person. Something like this happening in any country is a horrible thing, but it affected me a lot more because of my special feelings for Japan. I hope 2012 is a much better year for the land of the rising sun!

#6: Angel Beats! on Blu-ray

Like the Haruhi movie, I was eagerly anticipating a US release of Angel Beats! and finally got my wish in 2011. Even though I like the Haruhi movie better, I rated the AB! release higher on my moments because I wasn’t as certain it would even get a US release, much less a Blu-ray release, anytime soon. It wasn’t simulcast when it aired and it took a while for Sentai to license it. But thankfully they did and it became the first anime series I bought on Blu-ray =) Although the English dub wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, it was still a nice release.

#5: US release of Pokemon Black and White

The Japanese release of Pokemon Black and White ranked #1 on my last list of moments. The US release that came out in 2011 was still a big event for me, but not quite as big since I had already played the Japanese version. What was equally as exciting as the US release of the games themselves was the promotional mall tours that were being held a few weeks before the games’ release. The mall tour I went to was tons of fun, as are the games themselves of course =D

#4: Madoka Magica

It’s no surprise that my #1 anime of year had to have a place on my list of moments for the year =) I’ve already praised Madoka enough so I won’t say anymore about it here. I’m sure you’ve all seen it by now and know whether you agree that it’s praise-worthy or not.

#3: Moving up to Blu-ray

In April 2011, I purchased my first Blu-ray player and first movies on BD. I’ve had a 40″ HD TV for over a year, but for a while I was hesitant to take the step up to Blu-ray. I finally gave in though, and have been enjoying it immensely. I’m slowly building a collection of anime and movies on BD, and I don’t have to worry about all my DVDs being obsolete anytime soon since I can play them all on upscaled quality on my Blu-ray player. The high quality picture on Blu-ray really is worth it for newer anime and movies with their more detailed imagery. I’m glad I decided to upgrade =D

#2: Anime Expo 2011

Anime Expo, the largest anime convention in North America, has been my yearly highlight every year I’ve gone. It ranked much higher on my moments for 2011 than 2010 because I was able to go all four days and had tons of fun ^_^ I’ve already posted about it in detail here, but to summarize, I bought lots of anime goodies, hung out with great friends, met some fellow bloggers in person, went to rocking events, and saw incredible cosplay. AX 2012 can’t come soon enough!

#1: Haruhi novels 10 and 11

Imagine your favorite series going on an unexplained hiatus for four years in the middle of a cliffhanger story with no clear idea of when it will be returning. Then, imagine the joy you feel when that series finally comes back with not just one, but a double release, as if to compensate for all those years of waiting and wondering. That’s what I experienced with Haruhi in 2011. Since it’s been my favorite series for many years now, I’m not only into the anime but the original light novels as well. Novel 9, published in 2007, ended on a cliffhanger, and other than a short preview chapter in April 2010, there was no new novel material again until 2011′s release of volumes 10 and 11. I was so ecstatic about it that I even provided some unofficial fan translations of portions of the novels. There certainly were some great anime moments this year, but when your favorite series has a release like this, how could it not be #1? =)

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Anyway, I hope you all have a safe and happy New Year! ^_^ Here’s to more great anime in 2012! See you soon~

Before the year is over I want to review the three one-cour fall ’11 series I recently finished watching. I don’t have a ton to say about each so I decided to put them all on one post…

Working’!!

If you enjoyed the first season of Working!!, the second season is more of the same. I think it’s better than the first, actually. I found the episodes more memorable and the jokes funnier, perhaps because I’ve already grown to know the characters and their little quirks from season 1. There were some very hilarious episodes this season, such as the episode featuring Takanashi’s reclusive sister Izumi finally spending a day out, and the episode where Inami gets extremely flustered with using her new cell phone. There are some good new characters, too. Kyoko’s juniors Yohei and Mitsuki were very entertaining, and the elusive Maya, who’s only ever been seen as a background character in previous episodes, had some surprise scenes in the final episode. In addition to more laughs, there were good relationship-development episodes for Satou and Yachiyo, Souma and Yamada, and of course, Takanashi and Inami.

The only thing I can complain about in Working’!! even within the show’s silly atmosphere, is the whole thing with Otoo searching for his wife and Yamada’s brother (also called Yamada) searching for her. It’s just ridiculous that they haven’t been able to find them when they’re right in the same town. Do police and search and rescue squads not exist in the world of Working’!!? Because it makes no sense that Otoo can’t find his wife and Yamada can’t find his sister if they were seriously looking for them as missing persons. Nor does it make any sense that the wife and Yamada themselves could just easily go to the police station and find their way back home since they’re all living in the same town. And how has Otoo’s wife been surviving all this time if she’s so “lost,” and why is only Yamada’s brother looking for her and not her parents? Well, I know it’s just supposed to be a running gag in the series and not meant to be examined like this. But still, even for a comedic show, I feel it’s asking us to suspend our belief a bit too much with this particular gag.

All in all though, like the first season, Working’!! is great if you like fan service-free slice-of-life comedies that are always light and never get too serious. It has a cast of fun, quirky characters and refreshingly takes place in a restaurant rather than a high school. Its humor relies on correctly timed gags and poking fun at character flaws, which it executes great in my opinion. Bright and pleasant animation courtesy of A-1 Pictures and a very catchy opening song help it along, too. Not the best but certainly a good show for its genre.

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Fate/Zero

As I mentioned previously, I’m one of the few who watched Fate/Zero without having seen Fate/Stay Night. I decided to watch it after reading good things about it and hearing that you don’t need to have seen Stay Night in order to follow Fate/Zero. After watching the extra-long first episode, I was immediately engrossed by the high-budget animation and extremely detailed fantasy exposition. Now that I’ve finished the series (the first part at least) I don’t think any particular episode stood out to me, but I certainly enjoyed it as a whole. I usually have trouble following complicated fantasy in anime, but for some reason I didn’t have that much trouble with Fate/Zero despite the myriads of fantasy terms and subplots it has. So to me, it was paced and written well.

The plot revolving around a magical war for an enigmatic object that can grant wishes is certainly one with potential. Together with a diverse and overall “cool” cast of characters, as well as an interesting juxtaposition of the modern world and ancient magic, you’ve got the stuff of a great fantasy epic. Even in just thirteen episodes, I feel like equal attention was given to developing the large cast of characters – even Rin, who doesn’t play much of a role in this series, got her own starring episode. Even though this first season ends on a cliffhanger, I feel like I got to know all the Masters and Servants well. I like the fact that they’re all so diverse – in age, background, social status, lifestyles, war tactics, and personality – from the psychotic killer Caster, to the noble and chivalrous Saber, and the carefree, reckless Rider. Being the kind of show that it is, it’s not surprising that Fate/Zero can be dialogue-heavy at times (it is based on a visual novel) and it’s also very serious, with little to no humor at all. Probably the reason Rider and Waver seem to be the most popular characters is because they add that bit of levity and comic relief we tend to miss.

Just as Working’!! is a prime example of a slice-of-life comedy, Fate/Zero is a prime example of a fantasy series, and whether you like it or not depends on how much you like that genre. If you’re at least okay with complicated anime fantasy that takes itself very seriously, I’m sure you’ll like Fate/Zero. Engrossing plot, interesting characters, good animation and pacing, and a memorable opening and ending perfectly fitting for an “epic” series like this. I look forward to season 2 in April =D

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Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

I decided to watch this series because I heard the light novels were very popular. Little did I realize that it was, plain and simple, a harem comedy not afraid to rely on fan service for some of its humor. But as harem comedies go, was it really that bad?

The vague premise that the show revolves around is that the characters are in a club for people who don’t have friends in the hopes of making friends. Like other slice-of-life/harem comedies, it revolves around mostly episodic stories with the male lead, Kodaka, and the girls having various misadventures that bring about humor, fan service, relationship developments, misunderstandings, and all that fun stuff.

Even though I don’t like fan service, I have a certain amount of tolerance for it and Haganai didn’t quite push me over my limit. Yes, all those scenes emphasizing Sena’s boobs made me cringe, but for some reason the show kept me interested enough anyway. So what did I like about it that made up for all the fan service? First off, Kodaka is a likable male lead – nothing great about him but at least he’s not an unassertive wimp like most others. And I actually grew to like the girls themselves and found them pretty entertaining. I like Sena because she thinks she’s all that but she’s really quite naive, Rika’s unique fujoshi obsession with mecha yaoi is just so over-the-top hilarious, Yukimura is a sweet, potentially interesting girl who I wish we could have seen more of, and Kobato’s “vampire versus church” thing with Maria is actually kind of cute (they are kids after all). I usually like the main girl, but oddly I didn’t particularly like Yozora. I think she was a bit too mean to Sena at times, though she did get some funny scenes. Speaking of funny scenes, I did find some of the humor in Haganai funny enough to keep me watching. I don’t mind fan service if it actually works in terms of humor, and it did sometimes in Haganai.

One thing that would have made Haganai a lot better in my opinion is if we had more scenes with the girls interacting with each other rather than just with Kodaka. The only girl-girl interaction we get is with Yozora and Sena fighting (which made me nostalgic about Ryoko and Ayeka from Tenchi Muyo! for some reason) and Sena kawaii-ploding over Kobato. I would have liked to see them build relationships with each other rather than just with Kodaka, but it is a harem series and obviously it intends to be just that. And yes, the thing with Yozora being Kodaka’s childhood friend was made painfully obvious. So obvious in fact that I didn’t care about it one way or another since it didn’t really affect anything until the last episode.

While I wouldn’t say Haganai is a great show even for its genre, I was invested enough in the characters and had enough good laughs to keep watching it despite fan service turning me off at times. If a second season ever comes along, I’m sure I’ll check it out.

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And just to note, I’ll be back very soon with another new post…sometime on New Year’s Day actually, I plan to post my “moments of anime” list. See you all then =)