Now that all of the new series this season have aired, it’s time to go over my thoughts on each one and decide what to watch. I have seen at least one episode of every series listed below, but most of them have gotten 2 or 3 episode views before I came to my decision. I have excluded sequels of series that I have not seen since I would not be able to follow what is going on.
Whenever you talk about anime, and in particular, the anime fandom, the term “otaku” almost always comes up. Those new to the anime scene have probably been bewildered by the conflicting uses of the term, so I will try to clear up some of the confusion here.
The reason why it is difficult to grasp the meaning of “otaku” is because there seems to be two main definitions that contradict each other. In Japanese, the word evolved into slang to describe people obsessed with a certain hobby, not necessarily related to anime (ie: military, idols, games). Calling someone an otaku in Japan was similar to calling someone a geek in the 80′s, before it became cool for everyone to call themselves a geek as they do now. It’s mainly used as an insult and conjures up images of smelly, fat, pedophilic men that may or may not be child killers (a famous string of crimes from 1989 is to blame for that).
A Taste of Animethon (ATOA) took place this here in Edmonton this weekend and I took this opportunity to try out some event photography. From the last Animethon, I learned that I needed a good flash and a wide-angle lens to better deal with the conditions at Grant MacEwan (the place where Animethon and ATOA is held). I have neither and I didn’t want to spend $500 on them so I borrowed some equipment instead. I used a Canon T2i with a 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens and 430EX flash. It was my first time using this set-up so it took a while to get used to and some pictures didn’t turn out as well as I wanted, but some of them still worked out. Anyone who is here just for cosplay pictures can scroll to the bottom.
It’s hard to deny that anime has good music compared to other animation. For example, I don’t think a song from Spongbob Squarepants or Ben 10 would ever make it onto the Billboard Charts, but you often hear of anime music reaching the top 10 on Japan’s equivalent Oricon Charts. With music oriented anime like K-ON! achieving huge success, that got me thinking: does music affect the popularity and success of an anime, or conversely, does an anime affect the popularity and success of a song?
In a recent post, I listed 10 anime series with good music that made it onto the Oricon Charts. Most of these series were very popular when they aired, but it’s hard to determine if that was soley because of the music or if the anime was already good. Ideally, to figure this out, we would need to put a crappy anime on the market with good music and a good anime with bad music, then watch the Oricon charts. Unfortunately, I don’t know any pop stars or anime studios that would help me, so I’m settling for the next best thing: watching Senki Zesshou Symphogear.
A while back, I was compiling a list of the most powerful books in anime. I didn’t get very far because quite frankly, there aren’t many popular examples. Instead, I had another fun idea: who in the world would be most suited or likely to possess the most powerful books in anime? A few days later, a huge news story swept the Korean peninsula: Kim Jong-il dead from a heart attack. For one of the most popular (not in a good way) villans of our time to die of a simple heart attack sounded suspicious to me… like something out of Death Note, wouldn’t you say?
If you haven’t heard of a Death Note before, see the below image for a run-down of how it works:
I’m sure you’ve seen a few of these posts around by now, but if you haven’t, du5k from One Minute of Dusk has come up with a blogging carnival with the topic of “What Makes a 10/10 Anime?”
A 10/10 rating can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but here’s a rundown of how I use the 10 point rating system:
Score of 10: perfect
Score of 9: could’ve improved in at least 1 area
Score of 8: overall great
Score of 7: enjoyable
Score of 6: average
Score of 5: meh
Score of 4: bad
Score of 3: waste of time
Score of 2: caused me to rage
Score of 1: should not exist
What we’re focusing on today is what exactly is “perfect”? I’ve thought about this for a while, and I’ve come up with this short list of what the perfect anime needs:
Sounds simple, but lets consider each item separately.
Back in 1997, visual novel producer Leaf released their third visual novel series, To Heart. The title proved to be extremely popular, and two years later on April 2, 1999, the To Heart anime adaptation was aired on Japanese TV. This was the beginning of a brand new genre in anime: the school harem.
While there were already plenty of love triangles in anime, To Heart was the first to introduce 11 different girls in a school setting with which the main character could end up with. The sheer number of girls vying for one guy’s affection and the fact that it all takes place in school was what led to the term “school harem”. The golden age of school harems can be considered as the years from 1999 to the mid-00′s, and ended at the start of the moe boom. Popular school harems include To Heart, To Heart 2, Kanon, Da Capo, Shuffle, and Clannad.
Everyone goes through the “newbie” phase when they start anything and it can be a very discomforting experience, especially if you’re a newbie to anime. With words such as “kawaii”, “moe”, and “otaku” to name a few, learning the anime lingo can seem just as hard as learning a new language, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive guide to help you figure out what exactly defines a character as “moe”, why there’s so much hype over some pieces of plastic, or why anime characters have such big eyes. Well, Tsurugiarashix and I aim to change that, but we need some help.
Last year I decided to rank my top 10 anime girls of 2010 and I am once again ranking the top 10 anime girls of the year, after all, it’s more interesting than the top 10 anime of the year. As before, any character appearing in anime that aired this year are qualified, and they are ranked by how much I liked them (which can factor in anything from cuteness to personality).
10. Inori Yuzuriha (Guilty Crown)
I’ve always liked pink-haired characters, and when I first saw Inori in Megami Magazine, I knew she’d be more than just looks. Not only can Inori sing, she knows how to use a pistol and can take out a pair of guards in a heartbeat.
Since the end of Mawaru Penguindrum, I’ve seen a lot of people say things along the lines of, “this anime sucked, there was no real story and no explanation whatsoever.” OK, comments may not have been that extreme, but you get the idea. I actually thought that the story was great, and no great story holds your hand through the end. With that said, it’s understandable that there would be some confusion with regards to Mawaru Penguindrum. To try to dispel some of that confusion, I have outlined some of my observations and conclusions here. It is by no means complete and I can’t guarantee it’s what the writer had intended, but it’s how I viewed the series and why I enjoyed it.
I have structured this post so that observations and explanations of small details are listed first. In the conclusion I explain how I viewed the series, and you can just skip to that part if you aren’t interested in the details.
Warning: Do not read further if you have not completed Mawaru Penguindrum (or Revolutionary Girl Utena). The topics that I cover below will spoil the entire series and assumes that you have seen every episode at least once.
