Toilet Humor

What, you were expecting something else? Mind out of the gutter people, I just watched some anime, figured I’d tell you what you probably already know about some shows I watched.

Amagami SS+

The original show was not really good, but it’s four episode format at least kept the show feeling fresh, and boring arcs ended sooner than later. So this is like two episode arcs showing more…more doesn’t mean that I really care that much.

Rihoko finally got her boyfriend, which seemed to make the internet happy.

Honestly, this second season is quite boring, and I guess I don’t care for it that much, but the “I must finish everything” person in me must watch.

Ano Natsu de Matteru

This really is not good. It’s pretty, the pacing is nice, but it rubs me the wrong way when you think about the plot. I have not seen any of the Onegai series prior to this, so I’m not familiar with similar works, but I hate hate hate (have I said hate) the predictability of this. I’ve seen five episodes, but I just can’t wait for the plot point where he finds out she’s an alien. But aside from that, there’s a whole lot wrong with this show besides its rampant predictability.

To start, she’s kind of screwed over Kai because if she ever leaves, she’s not going to be able to heal him anymore, which means she’s basically given him a death sentence. To finish, his best friend just dropped the bomb that Kanna loves him, and to be honest, I just want to kick him in the nuts. Every character in this show is stupid, dumb, idiotic, and utterly inept. Kai, for a main character, is not even spineless; he’s just a blank slate. It’s like the authors decided they need him to just do what they want from week to week and didn’t even give him a personality.

Despite this, I’m watching till it ends…ufufufu

Another

Seen one episode, love PA Works, but even then this feels like it’s trying way too hard to be creepy.

Black Rock Shooter

I went into this with the same expectations as I did the OVA, thinking I’d hate it (I liked the OVA). I’ve seen one episode of the series and I really like it. Expectations are a bitch.

High School DxD

I have nothing interesting to say about this, I’m watching it, and it’s really shitty as I expected it to be. I find no reason to explain why I watch shitty anime; I like to do that some time. Like might not be the right expression…

Inu x Boku SS

I really saw only one episode of this, unlike BRS and Another, I don’t remember my opinion.

Mouretsu Pirates

Honestly, who doesn’t love pirates? After five episodes, there’s been a lot of talk about pirates, and not much pirating going on. I’ve seen comparisons to Star Trek, and at the moment there seems to be an awful lot of pulling ideas out of asses to get things done. What’s great about this is the underlying sense of fun that permeates the show. It’s the future, fine, but to be able to say, “I joined the yacht club, and all I got was this field trip to space,” is really cool. It’s nearing four cools worth at this point.

It has the right amount of camp, popcorn, and did I mention pirates? There are some serious violations of basic physics occurring, but once you break the “sound in space” rule, all bets are off.

Nisemonogatari

I loved Bakemonogatari. This has had some jaw-dropping moments, but my favorite thing so far is Karen’s opening song/animation, and I hate hate hate (yes, hate) bees. Bakemonogatari didn’t cement itself as something really good to me until I saw it as a whole, and I feel the same here. It’s too early to say I love this, but at the moment it’s meandering in this intro arc too long. Service!

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2^nd season

This is still loud, obnoxious, silly, and way out of its gourd. I love it as much as the first season. I just need to watch this at about a quarter of the volume I watch anything else.

Thermae Romae

Technically, I “finished” this. I liked it a bunch, but it was helped by its short episode format a lot, and its execution was pretty perfect.

Zero no Tsukaima F

Finally fucking finishing.

I dropped these:

Rinne no Lagrange – Meh.

Symphogear – Didn’t make it halfway through the first episode.

Kill me Baby – Didn’t make it halfway through the first episode at 2X.

Nichibros – Made it through the first episode, yawned the whole way through, think I lost some brain cells.

I needed more ridiculous in my life after the year I’ve had, queued up the first episode, and almost quit right then and there. Choice quotes, “WTF is with this opening,” and “Oh shit, I picked the wrong anime to watch for Secret Santa.” I powered on through to the second episode and I found something I didn’t expect to find after that first episode: gravity. I think about five people just fell out of their mechs during the second episode. Suddenly, I understood what the twitter respondents meant by, “Ridiculous,” and kinda fell hard for the show.

Directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino during his happier portions of life, Overman King Gainer is a silly romp filled with a lot of fun. Thematically the show really is just about embracing the unknown versus the status quo. To sum it up in a couple of sentences: People live in domed cities that are supplied by rail systems, because the earth was uninhabitable for a time. Small sects of people decide that the earth has healed enough and it’s now time to move on to living from the land again, hence, they form the Exodus. Exoduses are named for their destination, and this one is called the Yapan Exodus. Exoduses are bad for the rail systems, because they no longer rely on the rail systems for supplies, and that’s just bad business. The Yapan exodus begins, and Siberian Rail company gets mad, and the cat and mouse game begins.

That’s about all there is to say about the plot. This really just needs to be seen to be appreciated. I kinda missed out on twelve moments on anime, you get twelve reasons I loved Overman King Gainer, in no particular order, of course.

Overmen

Do the monkey with me

Ridiculous mechs that not only do normal things that mechs do, but also will mess with the collective minds of people. Yes, they have special powers called Overskills that do things like manifest your fears, or let you hear people’s deepest thoughts. How awesome is a mech that not only can stomp on you, but also at the same time mess with your mind? Very awesome, that’s how much.

King Gainer

Dreadlocks FTW

The titular Overman of the series. Can do almost anything, but what really matters is that it has dreadlocks. How excellent is a mech with dreadlocks? I don’t even need to answer that.

Gainer Sanga

Thinking about girls

He’s our main character and pilot of the titular King Gainer. Not wanting to go on the exodus at first, he becomes entangled and an advocate after wanting to protect his friends. I also loved that he basically got awesome piloting the Overman because he was great at video games. I like to think that’s a nod to The Last Starfighter, but I’m probably nuts.

Ninja

Silly reader, you know you can’t take a ninja’s picture

There are fucking ninjas in the show, ‘nuff said.

Gain Bijou

So moe

Exodus leader, and excellent sniper extraordinaire. Experienced and knowledgeable, he’s been on a few failed exoduses, but is determined to succeed here. The man is also just sexy, almost out of place in the grand scheme of things.

Meeya

Larger than life

A legendary songstress and icon from the past, she sings about the exodus, and compels people to join her on the way to Yapan. What’s great about her is that she really has no part, aside from her godlike history and ancestry, there’s nothing more to her. Yet her importance is the overarching need to move on from the Domeopoli.

Sarah Kodama

Probably pissed at Gainer

Gainer’s love interest, and all around excellent lady. I put her on here because I love the relationship she has with Gainer. The two are just a wonderfully shippable couple, but her determination to complete the Exodus are what drives her.

Jaboli

Happy being near Adette

Loyal to the Siberian Railway, and her commander, Adette, she fights the exodus with all her might. Problem is, she’s clumsy, and rather stupid, and without Adette has no direction. That doesn’t stop her from being entertaining every time she’s on screen.

Bello

How much hairspray does that take?

DAT HAIR, playboy extraordinaire, and permanently friendzoned by Sarah. Sorry bud.

Asuham Boone

Yup, I'm awesome

Hates Gain because he broke his sister’s heart. Nothing like a personal grudge with one person to drive you to stop thousands of people from a goal. But that’s what makes him awesome, he doesn’t care, hey just wants to smack Gain around.

Adette Kistler

Because the hat keeps her warm

I almost put Adette in this list three times. She’s a soldier, a mech pilot, and a teacher. WIN WIN WIN! Always speaking her mind, and promiscuous in her actions, she’s a joy every time she’s on screen.

Gravity

Don't mess with gravity

People fall down, a lot, and I always love it when people fall down.

And that’s it. So much fun and perfect in length. I’m not a good marathoner of anime, because of life and all, but this was about as close as I got. Thank you Secret Santa for the fun show.

This being my first experience with NaNoWriMo, here’s what I learned:

• For the month of November, I watched a lot less TV.
• Holy crap! Distractions!
• I have some supportive folks around me, especially Flak, my wife, and certain members of my family who read a few excerpts and gave me a bit of feedback.
• I learned that I want to know more about my family, because to truly depict their lives correctly and respectfully, I need to write more than what I know, but about them and their views.
• I can actually write (not sure how well, but I can put words on a page in a coherent manner).
• Scrivener is a pretty cool writing instrument.
• 50,000 words is a whole lot of words.

So, as much as I enjoyed the experience, for someone like me, trying this for the first time, it’s pretty daunting, even near impossible.

There are a few things NaNoWriMo could do to make the experience…I don’t want to say better, but more palatable for less experienced writers. NaNoWriMo is held in November, which is where most of the drawbacks exist:

• November is short
• November has a major holiday that most people likely celebrate
• For students, November tends to be near the end of fall semester which certainly doesn’t help get things done

Now those drawbacks can be overcome, I just couldn’t do it. Once you fall behind, it’s daunting to try and catch up. To hit that 50,000 words, you have to write around 1,666 words a day, which is doable, but pretty challenging. Personally, my subject matter was practically already written in my head, until I hit the wall of what I didn’t know, but when I fell behind, I found myself trying to make up that deficit the next day, which was nearly impossible at some point. At the end, I started using NaNoWriMo’s dashboard tools with Scrivener to figure out better daily goals that were more palatable.

In the end, I enjoyed the experience, even if I didn’t hit the goal for the month. I wrote almost every day, save my wedding anniversary and Thanksgiving. So, not that you all care, but I did get 28,440 words down and the intent to write more on the subject.

As many other anime fans, I have lists out on several sites. Each is different, and has different features. A while back the one I keep at Anime Planet delightfully informed me that I had completed fifteen shows principally produced by GAINAX. So for your reading pleasure, I have provided below the list of shows and my brief thoughts past the break. It’s not a full review of the show, just two or three bullet points about how I feel about it from my memories. The keyword being memory; some are remembered well, some more memorable for how good (or bad) they were to me.

These are not ranked in any order aside from alphabetical, sorry to disappoint.

Aim for the Top! (Gunbuster)

• The first GAINAX show I ever watched. And likely the first I ever officially purchased licensed in the U.S. on VHS tape.
• I have a lot of love for this show. The scale of the robots, the absurdity of humanity’s last stand, the epic conclusion episode. There’s so much to enjoy from this classic.
• One of my all-time favorite anime.

Aim for the Top 2! (Gunbuster 2)

• I rate this show as highly as I do its prequel.
• Even though I rate it as high, I admit it’s not quite as good. Even so, GAINAX does so much to remember its love for the original Gunbuster, I just can’t rate it lower.
• If you’ve seen and love the prequel, this is GAINAX’s love story to the fans of the original.

FLCL

• I’ve seen this about eight or nine times. At some point during the third or fourth watch, I finally understood what was going on.
• I do like this show a great deal. I have a penchant for random shows, but I like it even more if the random gets tied together with something.
• The show made me want a Vespa, which I never did get.

Hanamaru Youchien

• A show about kindergarten teachers and their classes. Oh, there are kindergartners in there that look like something out of PoteMayo.
• GAINAX didn’t really do anything special here, but it was better than average.
• All-in-all, this was simple and entertaining, and didn’t purport to be anything more than it was.

He is My Master

• Young master gets high school classmate to work for him as a maid.
• He’s a pervert and there are low-cut, short skirt maid outfits.
• There is also a crudely drawn crocodile named “Pochi.” Pochi was win.

Houkago no Pleiades

• I don’t even have three bullets for this.
• Apparently GAINAX needed money from Subaru, so they made this, and those who watched collectively said, “WTF?”

Kare Kano

• Everyone warned me about the second half, they were right. Although, I’m not sure I even really enjoyed the first half that much either.
• It’s really hyperactive, and personally that just didn’t work for what the story was trying to accomplish, in my opinion. Even so, I can see how this influenced almost every shoujo series after it.
• I really wanted to like this more than I did, but I seem to get the feeling that a lot of us did.

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

• This show is great, as long as you don’t take it seriously. It’s silly fun.
• The first episode was so serious at first and then suddenly…Mushrooms. I loved the parody episodes a whole lot, really made this a fun series.
• How can you go wrong with a character named “Mune Mune?” I mean, come on.

Neon Genesis Evangelion (TV Series)

• I really thought I would like this…I didn’t.
• I really think I should like this…I need to re-watch it. (Originally watched the dub, so I might have hated the dub more than the show itself)
• I found it terribly pretentious, but see above comment on needing to re-watch the show.

Oruchuban Ebichu

• Perverted hamster silliness
• Crudely drawn and mostly stupid, with some funny moments peppered in. “That’s the wrong hole!”
• Learned some new Japanese slang

Otaku no Video

• When I got into anime, this was one of the first ones I watched. Probably a bit too early
• I still appreciated the satirical nature of the beast
• Again, some fun parodies in here, of which I remember the amusement park looking an awful lot like the SDF-1

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

• Panty said fuck a lot.
• Stocking liked to be tied up.
• Ultimately this was stupid and not funny at all.

Re: Cutie Honey

• GAINAX rebooted Cutie Honey.
• There’s not a lot of substance here.
• Not that you could ever really take Cutie Honey seriously, but this was good if you turned your brain off.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (TV Series)

• You would think that if the absurd scale worked so very well in Gunbuster, that if you ramp it up in this show it would just be awesome. It’s not, but it was better than some other things GAINAX has done.
• What ended up being a fantastic first half growing with the characters and their fight for freedom, turned into a spectacular mess after the major turning point in the first half.
• It was honestly comical how they just kept trying to one up themselves in size of robots by the end. This one-upmanship unfortunately overshadowed any human element left in the show, to the point where I just didn’t care anymore.

This Ugly Yet Beautiful World

• This is the most generic thing I’ve seen from GAINAX.
• It was utter crap.
• Apparently this was a GAINAX 20^th anniversary title, and they have shown they can do much better than this trash.

Wings of Honneamise

• A particular favorite of mine. GAINAX really shined in this film with its animation.
• It’s not a fast paced anime, but the coloring and mechanical design was well done.
• It’s a bit confusing in the middle, but I enjoyed it anyway.

So there’s that. I was also just notified by Anime Planet that I’ve seen ten series produced by Brain’s Base. Maybe I’ll write another post on that, but at my pace, expect the Secret Santa post first.

Idols, now with less giant robots

So far each episode of this show has left me digging for what I want to see, which is annoying, but not entirely bad, because the standard moe tropes that are presented can be passed off as garbage easily and put aside. It’s almost like getting two episodes in one.

Every episode holds a little treasure for me due to personal experience, but what didn’t work for me in episode three was playing with cows, or Yukiho’s fear of men/dogs; things we’ve all seen before. This tends to pale with the rest of the episode, which was a pure joy for me.

Personal experience in live sound, recording, and even helping my wife attempt to get into the “business” as a singer, leaves me almost squealing with joy at the rest of the episode.

This episode has 765 pro on their first live gig at a festival. Expectations are high with all the girls as they think they’re about to be treated extravagantly, and they’re expectations are tempered when they arrive after the really long drive to the venue. The venue is small, the equipment old, and the clientele is a very small town.

Peppered between the silliness is the entire idol crew pitching in to make the gig work. They work the PA system, the lighting, the decorations, the stands for the festival, and all the background prep needed to pull off the show.

So what’s shiny is the team work, and the depiction of the setup for the gig. Watching the girls figure out how to put the old system together to make the PA work, was like a flashback to my days running live sound in a field with nothing but a tiny generator. But what sold me was overcoming what you expect to become what you need to be by working from the very bottom of the chain when you’re handed practically nothing.

The girls have a dream, and aside from Iori’s outward ojou-sama attitude, the rest understand what they need to do to attain those dreams, even if means performing in a backwater venue that no one will notice.

To be honest this works so well on the business aspect of the show, that the part about Yukiho overcoming her fears was just secondary. I really don’t care that it was secondary, because the background prep is done so well.

The goodness extends to the previous episodes also, even if the entire first half of episode one was chasing the hamster all over the office, the second half where the girls were interviewed about why they wanted to be idols was so well done, you didn’t realize that half an episode was wasted. Episode two gave us the promo photo shoot, which through a few snapshots gave more insight into the personalities of the group than any intro could. Two episodes in, and you know what each individual’s personality is, and what they believe the idol business is.

I was so ready to dismiss this, but I’ve found something that I’m really enjoying, even if I need to push some things aside and roll my eyes a few times to find it.

Art still by ヤチヲ. Stupid emboss effect, by me.

More licking…let’s see what flavors come out this time for my discerning palate. Previous post is here.

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko: Setup, with an OP that I’m not sure whether I love or hate. At least the main character tells us all the clichés to be expected for the setting. It’s almost like he was reading from the high school anime handbook.

Hidan no Aria: What’s with the self-referential in this one too. “This ridiculous plot you’re about to see could be like something from an anime and manga.” Yup, I got that, so why do you need to tell me that when I’m watching an anime based on a manga already? Hmph, the runaway segway was kinda stupid, and the loli from the sky that grabbed the guy off the bike with her flat chest was predictable. I didn’t get that far, but I predict there will be a comment about her flat chest, and the loli being offended by said comment.

C: Looks snazzy, but is confusing in the first two minutes. I have nothing to judge here, except that it warrants further viewing.

Cheated and watched a whole episode

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku achi wa Mada Shiranai: Oh look, this one didn’t need to be self-referential at all, what a concept. That said, this made me feel all gooey inside. It was kinda sad, yet happy, yet depressing, yet fulfilling. I think I’m going to like this, because that’s the kind of stuff that works for me. Tell me a story Ano Hana, I’m watching.

Art by ヤチヲ

Something for you taste test fans, here’s a lick test. What’s a lick test you ask? I define it as watching the first two minutes of content of a bunch of first episodes and share my thoughts. Not sure what this is an exercise in, but life hasn’t been kind to giving me as much time for anime this past week. If the OP falls within the first two minutes, it doesn’t count in the two minutes.

Maria Holic Alive: “Dear mother, in heaven,” etc. More of the same from last season, which I thought was alright. Now the question is, will more of the same still be alright, or just too much. The OP was honestly disappointing when comparing it to the first season. I’m not sure that this will be the actual OP

30-sai no Hoken Taiku: Idiotic censorship, and for that fact, why the heck did the censor the guy’s nipples? I’m not sure what the point of this will be if it’s so terribly censored. The OP is generic and squeaky.

Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera: Go Nagai character designs, ok; old lady’s spinning tits, nightmare fuel. I feel like this could be cool based on its origins, but then again, it’s about demons and the like, which is typically a turn off for me.

Kämpfer für die Liebe: The first season was so bad it was great to make fun of. This looks like more of the same. If I sat through Infinite Stratos, this can’t be much worse. The OP was generic, and reused the transformation sequences from the first season for laziness. I only hope this will spin off more of Kampfer: Abridged on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/2KaTAS). But apparently this is supposed to be two episodes, so I can put down the knife now.

Dog Days: Hmmm…The OP is by Mizuki Nana, that’s not a bad start, then it looks like everyone is some breed of dog. Took a look at the cast, and it’s impressive. The fantasy setting looks a bit like something out of Final Fantasy. With a cast like this, it’s either going to be awesome, or an excellent train wreck. It does have Wakamoto Norio in it, which is an automatic plus.

Nichijou: Woo, an Afro! Wind-up Robot? Um…yeah. For a comedy anime, I didn’t laugh once in two minutes. I guess I need to see more before comparing it to that other KyoAni show. I Didn’t make it to the OP in two minutes, darn.

Steins;Gate: Interesting style points this one gets. Two minutes nets you a little mystery to whet your whistle. Potentially interesting, but will it be more interesting than the previous semi-colon show is the question.

SKET Dance: Some fighting in the beginning, talk of a tempest, and then BAM: Welcome to high school. Generic spineless transfer student, and I’m not sure if I should even finish episode one.

Tiger and Bunny: I have no idea what was going on, except that all the mechs had ads on them, which is all I could glean from two minutes of watching.

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai: Two minutes gets me this much information. Panties and four girls trying to jump the guy’s bones. We haven’t even seen the guy’s face yet. This is another that I wonder if I should even finish episode one.

The following shows I’ve cheated a bit. In that I’ve seen the whole first episode. So for sake of keeping this short, which it isn’t, I’ll just pretend I watched only the first two minutes.

Hanasaku Iroha: Very pretty and a bit snarky, PA Works is good at scenery porn. I’m hoping this is as engaging as True Tears was for me.

Hen Zemi TV: Lacks the dirty stuff from the OADs, which is probably not a good thing.

Good friend of mine that runs Dreams of the Quill (dotq.org) had a writing challenge recently. I enjoy writing, so I took a stab at a little bit of fiction. I wanted to give my meager readership here a chance to take a look at it, because truly, any feedback would be just so spiffy.

So without further ado, please head over to dotq.org and check out Operator 35571:

http://dotq.org/2011/03/28/operator-35571

Comments can be left on the page there, or here.

Enjoy, and while you’re there, check out the other entries also: http://dotq.org/2011/03/28/results-of-writing-challenge-1

• I’ve been solidly entrenched in the winter blahs.
• Work has been … difficult and tiring
• I watched a bunch of shows this winter, most of them I did not like; aside from Madoka, Level E, and Hourou Musuko.
• I hope to continue my non-posting ways soon.

Also, I was on my own install of WordPress for a while, but due to some unforeseen circumstances with mother nature, I had to move off that host. I’m back on wordpress.com with my own domain. Links will be broke, etc etc. Feel free to shoot a comment if something is terribly broke.

Cheers, from your favorite kima-ota