Monday, December 31, 2007

F*head's Best of 2007!
I'm not really sure if this is a good idea, but since I'm bored and want to avoid doing schoolwork I'll give it a shot. Note that I've nixed all the shows that technically started in last year, even if they bled over into '07 (so no Death Note); I've also decided to cut the ones that are just new seasons for old shows (which really only effects Genshiken, but I've said enough good things about it anyways). Needless to say, I'm not even pretending to be objective here. So, let's get on with it:

1 - Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. Kind of a given, as this is pretty much the Bugatti Veyron of mecha shows. GL is an extraordinary achievement on just about every level; it's about the most ambitious series ever attempted, and certainly the grandest this year. This thing crams three seasons' worth of any other anime into the space of 27 episodes (all of them impossibly beautiful and well-made), it spins you around an emotional corkscrew the whole time (true to the Gainax spirit), and it does all of it while making it look easy. Mind you, it's not the show that I loved the most this year, because that'd be a little bit like loving the Sears Tower. One doesn't love GL so much as one respects it.
2 (TIE, because I'm a wimp and I couldn't choose) - Claymore. Now, this is a show that I loved. From beginning to end, it's in disarray. Quality is uneven from episode to episode, there's quite a few silly DBZ-isms (especially later on), Raki is annoying, and the ending... uh, isn't an ending. If you're looking for a really perfect series, one that you can't nickel and dime into oblivion for all of its mistakes, then you already got plenty to choose from in 2007 (many of them on this list). Claymore, in contrast, is a mess with a heart of gold, a whole that far outclasses its parts. GL is the best show, but it was Claymore that I craved most in the days between episodes.
2 (TIE) - Nodame Cantabile. As a show about classical music, it's got all the cliches that anime/manga dig out whenever they drag out a mediocre pianist or whatever. It's sappy, it's naive, it's so soaked in German romanticism that the characters may as well be wearing lederhosen, suspenders, and kneesocks. It does better than most, mind, and when it finally knuckles down and does the concerto episode the results are epic, but still. However, while it's not very good on music, as a romantic comedy nothing else this year comes close. The characters are all wonderful (especially the leads!), the funny bits work, and the drama comes through nicely. I whine about the music stuff, but really: as a series you can't do much better than this.
4 - Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Shaft (specifically the Pani Poni Dash squad) finally delivers. The PPP guys are now sort of like the Justine Henin of anime: nothing from them quite hit the level of great for whatever reason, but the potential always seemed to be there. With SZS, though, they nailed it. The wackiness is no longer random and empty, nor does it end up fighting against a story arc. Here everything's centered around characters and around the topics (the things to despair over) of the week. And, I might add, this show is relentlessly sexy - which isn't what you expect when the entire cast is made up of psychiatric cases.
5 - Kaiji. Kaiji is completely unironic MANime. In a year where everything else often seemed made of shiny surfaces and spun sugar, this show is all blood, sweat, and testosterone. And it's about card games and gambling for God's sake. If there's a single genre that I'm almost guaranteed not to like it's gaming and sports anime - yet somehow, the sheer dramatic gravity of Kaiji makes it work. Watching it is like slamming back a shot of gin: it burns like hell going down, but for some strange reason you want more.
6 - Potemayo. Somehow a show about freakish nonhuman moe abominations flew in out of nowhere and became the best slice-of-life series of '07. Potemayo, despite its cuteness, is laugh-yourself-coughing funny and easily one of the smartest shows of the year. And then there's Guchiko, who - I'm not ashamed to admit - is my favorite character of 2007. One may argue that I ought to pick someone a little deeper (Clare; Kaiji; Risa), but Guchiko is such a stroke of mad genius that she deserves the recognition.
7 - Dennou Coil. Despite all their differences, Dennou Coil is like Gurren-Lagann in that they're both shows which expand what anime can do. True, there hasn't been a shortage of those this year, but unlike the oddly unsatisfying Ghost Hound and the abominable Kissdum Dennou Coil actually works as a series. It does just about everything well, and the hops between funny and serious always ring true. Really though, the beard episode alone guarantees it a spot on my list.
8 - Minami-ke. The other great slice-of-life show from '07. Apparently they're remaking this for the coming season, and for the life of me I can't figure out why. Like Zetsubou Sensei and Potemayo, what makes this series work is the characters, and they've picked a damn good batch of them. And I hope the reader can forgive me for having a little bit of a thing towards Mako-chan.
9 - Lucky Star. There's no way to justify liking Lucky Star. I'm sorry, there just isn't. The show says nothing and has nothing to do except pander to the audience. It's a cultural black hole; while watching it, I get the sense that I'm being swindled somehow. It lacks the dynamics of Genshiken and the darkness of NHK. It's the absolute worst among the otaku shows - and for that very reason, strangely, it's the purest. Lucky Star just IS lazy, unoriginal self-indulgence, it's well aware of that... and there's something brilliant about it.
10 - Shion no Ou. Every few seasons anime comes along and proves to me that I can and will genuinely like shows that I never believed would appeal to me; between this and Kaiji, fall '07 was the season that did it for gaming series. Shion, even more than kaiji, understands the golden rule of the genre: the less you make the series about the game, the better. I have no idea how shougi is played and I have no interest in learning, but damn does it work well as a spectacle. This show just does everything well, from puppy love to suspense to plotting to heated competition. It is, of course, quite absurd, but that comes with the style.
HONORABLE MENTIONS - Rocket Girl, Lovely Complex. I like simple shows - shows that know what they're doing and what their limits are, and don't try to go beyond themselves. Rocket Girl and LoveCom are like that: the first is cute girls in a space program, the second is short guy getting together with tall girl in Kansai. That's it. Both are basic, unadulturated animated entertainment. If Gurren-Lagann is a Veyron, then these are Miatas; they're just fun to watch, and not meant to be anything more.

All right then! Please write your own if you'd like, and I look forward to your nasty letters.
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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

This christmas I got socks, a shirt, and rent money. That is what grad school is like.
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Friday, December 7, 2007

taking a break from paper-writing
So I've just noticed that, even after being on this site for about two years, I'm still considered an otakuite. And, for that matter, I still haven't revived that stupid "what is a sentence?" thread like I've been meaning to for months.

Ah, well. Let's have a movie.


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Thursday, November 29, 2007

Dote Up a Blog
This is probably the last scorecard update I'll do, since there really isn't much of a season left. The only changes are dropping Dragonaut and picking up Minami-ke (which is sort of like Ichigo Mashimaro's older, slightly less pervy sibling - I highly recommend it).

Mainly, though, I just wanted to link to one of the creepiest things I've seen recently, the op to a little eroge called Dote Up a Cat:



Dear god. If anyone needed proof that "moe" has all sorts of creepy sexual hangups closely related to it, this is the best smoking gun they will ever find.

Maybe I'm overreacting here. I mean, I've seen zillions of eroge ops, many of which depict events that I will not mention on a family website. Yet this one, which is comparatively much tamer, somehow - for me - tops them all by a mile. In particular, I am completely unnerved by the "PLEASE FILL ME WITH MILK FULL TO OVERFLOWING" bit. Jesus Christ, people, I've watched hardcore pornography that doesn't make me feel anywhere near as dirty as Dote Up a Cat here. And as if this isn't enough, there's also a fanmade Kodomo no Jikan version called, yes, "Dote Up a Child".

... *shudder*
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Friday, November 9, 2007

Wow, it's been awhile. New scorecard; not much has changed, except that I tried (and didn't pick up) a few other shows and dropped Kimikiss. Once you've played the game long enough, you get a sense for when a show starts heading down south never to come back up; Kimikiss 5 had that unmistakeable scent all over it. Oh, if only I'd been able to do this while watching the first dozen eps of Blood Plus.

Anyways, the season is turning out to be a lot better than I had initially expected. Nothing is really groundbreaking (well, maybe Kodomo no Jikan, but not in a good way), but a lot of it manages to be great fun. And funny as hell, Shion no Ou and Kaiji are probably my favorite series at the moment (aside from old chestnuts like Genshiken). I am at a loss to explain how this happened, given that neither is the kind of show that I am wont to rate so highly. It's been a strange year, folks.

Finally, if you haven't seen it already:


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Monday, October 29, 2007

Ah, I was wondering when things would get running again. Hooray!

No real changes on the scorecard this time (although I did finally give up on Sky Girls and Hayate). And, to celebrate theO's return, how about yet another butchered op:



It didn't come out as well as I was hoping, but still good for a laugh. This is the only RA song I'm aware of that's even MORE catchy than the infamous Never Gonna Give You Up, so you're definitely going to be humming this for the rest of the day if you take the risk of watching the thing.
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Monday, October 22, 2007

well now.
A close look at the current state of my scorecard probably ought to produce the resultant question: "what in the hell are you thinking??"

I dropped ef. I watched the first ep of Ghost Hound, and decided to give up on that as well. Both of these are shows that strike me as quite smart and very well-made, but for whatever reason I just wasn't getting into them at all. At some point, I guess, you stop being concerned about watching things because they seem "novel" or "important" regardless of whether you actually enjoy them. Could this be a sign that I'm getting older and more stuck in my ways? But then, why do I love Kaiji so much?

In related news I picked up Shion no Ou, which - inexplicably - is yet another gaming/sports-type anime (something I usually hate) that I actually find incredibly compelling. This, combined with Kaiji being head and shoulders above everything else on the air, makes it a very unusual season for me. I also picked up - and here is where I have to imagine the objections hitting - Kodomo no Jikan. I swear, people, I did not mean to do it. I was hoping to drop this one on principle the minute I turned the damn thing on. I thought I would go in, close the window at the first instance of pointless pedophile fanservice, and be done. Except... it's... actually pretty good, as much as it pains me to say that.

Everything else basically continues apace. Blue Drop is developing nicely. Shugo Chara remains completely the best (and in questionable taste at times). Hopefully I can decide on Dragonauts by the next episode.

Finally, I'm considering dropping a couple of holdovers from last season. Hayate and Sky Girls, great as they were at first, aren't really looking their best these days.

Also: Bell (and anyone else in Chi-town), you interested in heading to this Final Fantasy concert next year?
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Saturday, October 20, 2007

more new season stuff
First off, it turns out that every single Wonder Showzen episode is online (except for the unaired pilot). Go watch ALL of them right now, if you haven't already. I particularly recommend "Patience."

Second, not much new on the scorecard this time. Frankly, I was expecting that I'd end up dropping at least one of the circled shows, but just about everything's held up pretty well for their second episodes. Of all of them, Dragonauts is now probably the closest to the edge: it really looks promising, but the series has yet to settle down and find a steady tonic somewhere. It comes across a little like Geass by trying to please every conceivable person who could be watching, but ends up worse by also obfuscating what the hell is going on. When other shows do the latter - Lain is a good example - they often compensate by hitting their basic mood early and hard. Dragonauts is two episodes in and I still don't know how the hell I'm supposed to be thinking about it. I really want to like it, but unless they're going to pull a rabbit out of their hat in ep. 3 I'm probably going to just toss the thing. And yes, I'm planning to do that while keeping Bamboo Blade (god, why did no one think of crossing Rei and Utena before? no points for originality, but still) and Kimikiss (even though saxophone characters are even worse than violin characters). I'm not proud, people.

Also, I fixed the Genshiken 2 op. No, this is not a parody. Yes, I was genuinely trying to improve it from that godawful club song they have now. Halko seemed the ideal choice, and I think it works pretty well (better than before, at least).


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Friday, October 19, 2007

Uchuu no umi wa... ore no umi...
Nothing on the scorecard worth changing, but I did go ahead and make a tribute to Captain Harlock that I thought I'd share.



(hint: might be funnier if you are familiar with the original op)
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Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Adventure Continues!
New scorecard is up. I think I've actually marked the majority of these things one way or the other now, and a lot of the ones left look like they're either OVAs or things that don't have a chance of getting subbed anyways. So, it looks like after I've trimmed the circled ones down a bit (the second episodes will tell the tale) I've pretty much got my fall mapped out. And uh... wow, it's not really all that promising. Kaiji, of all things, looks to be the best by a good margin.

Couple of notes. Gundam 00 is absolutely gorgeous, which we all kind of knew going in; on the other hand, it is deliriously stupid, has burgeoning didactic tendancies, and just plain smells way too much like Gundam Wing. PASS. Ninomiya-san is remarkable for having all of the elements one could possibly ask for in a wacky romantic comedy adventure harem series, yet still coming across as completely joyless. PASS. Lastly, in spite of my better judgment, I am holding onto Kimikiss (for the moment) because the character designs for the various archetypical mating choices are, and I do not use this word lightly, perfect. Watching such things float about in the OP creates an experience kind of like hearing Geza Anda breeze through the second Bartok piano concerto: it just seems too flawless to be real. The show itself isn't bad either, but the spotlight is definitely on the girls and only on the girls.

Anyways, let's see what happens in the next week or so. BONUS!! The single manliest video on Youtube:


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