Nopy's Blog

We’ve all heard of Key’s big anime titles: AIR, Kanon 2006, and Clannad/After Story, but there is one neglected title that I think deserves some recognition, Kanon (2002).

Unlike its successors, which were animated by Kyoto animation, Kanon was done by Toei Animation and has what could be argued as the largest eyes in anime. Indeed, 10 years ago, anime was pushing the limits of large-eyed kawaii-ness, and Kanon stood at the forefront of the movement. The early 00′s was also the era of harem anime (thanks in part to Love Hina) and the beginning of the rise of ”beautiful” anime (thanks in part to Hoshi no Koe). Kanon fit in with all of the anime trends of the time and was hugely popular, sweeping the fandom by storm. Being an average anime fan back then, I was also caught up with Kanon’s appeal.

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This is my second post of the “Remembering Love” series by Trzr23. See my first post for more information.

Continuing with my coverage of Martian Successor Nadesico, this post will be devoted to my favourite character of all time, Ruri Hoshino. Some of you may find it strange that my favourite character is in reality older than her anime self. That’s right, Martian Successor Nadesico turns 16 this year and Ruri is only 12 years old in the TV series and 16 in the movie. So how has one character remained at the top of my favourites for so long?

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At the beginning of the Fall 2011 anime season, I named Last Exile ~Fam, The Silver Wing~ the most under-rated series of the season. I was dismayed at the lack of interest in what seemed like an exciting anime. Now that I’ve finished the series, it’s time to look at whether my first impressions were well-founded.

It’s no secret that animation studio Gonzo has been through some tough times. A few years ago, their success with Strike Witches was the only thing keeping them afloat, but after the animation rights were given to another studio, they had to find something else. Last Exile ~Fam, The Silver Wing~ is a spin-off of Gonzo’s relatively successful Last Exile series with 21 episodes. The plot summary from MAL is described below.

All source of life originates from the Grand Lake.
At this very sacred lake, the battle between the Ades Federation and the Turan Kingdom has just begun. The Ades Federation, armed with massive battleships and its sights set on conquering the world, declares war on the Turan Kingdom. With the Federation’s troops encroaching on their beloved country, Turan now lies on the brink of collapse. As this is happening, the princesses of Turan look on as a small vanship named Vespa cruises above their heads.
What are the motives of Luscinia, the man leading the Ades Federation into the war? And what is the secret behind ‘Exile’?

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After my latest round-up post for the Spring 2012 anime season, I received a lot of comments saying I should reconsider watching Sakamichi no Apollon. Everywhere I went, it seemed like everyone was telling me to go watch it. So here I am on a late Sunday night sacrificing my sleep to give Sakamichi no Apollon a second chance with 2 more episodes.

When I finished episode 2, I was not impressed. For the most part, it followed the same lines as the first episode, which failed to gain my interest. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve seen the typical “trip to the beach” episode in anime. By this point I was wondering, “has the online anime fanbase gone crazy? what do they see in this show?”

Next up was episode 3, the last chance I was giving Sakamichi no Apollon to live up to the hype. It was like I was hit with a ton of bricks. The amount of drama packed into those 20 minutes was absurd. Episode 3 alone is already better than a lot of romance/dramas that I’ve seen over the years. Each turn of events was expected but shocking, and the characters’ reactions to each revelation were realistic and believable. In short, I was blown away.

I have now added Sakamichi no Apollon to my watchlist in the hopes that the rest of the series will be at least half as good as episode 3. As for all of you who recommended this series to me, I am now expecting it to be awesome and am holding you to your word :P

Have you ever wondered where Gen Urobuchi got the idea to kill off Mami? You could argue that he came up with the idea himself, but go back 15 years before Puella Magi Madoka Magica aired and you’ll be surprised at what you find.

This is my first post in the “Remembering Love” project which Trzr23 has started. Every Sunday in May, bloggers are invited to write about older anime; the series’ that made them fall in love with the medium. More details can be found here.

It’s no secret that Martian Successor Nadesico (a sci-fi mecha space comedy harem action romance drama parody from 1996) is my all-time favourite anime. The anime is about the crew of a civilian space battleship called the Nadesico which is sent to Mars to rescue and salvage whatever they can from Jovian invaders. You can read the full plot summary on MAL. To help people understand why Nadesico has endured as my favourite for so long, I’m going to share some of the moments in the first half of the series which really stuck with me.

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Now that all of the new anime for the spring season have aired, it’s time for my seasonal round-up of the best and worst. To those of you new to my seasonal posts, I preview every new anime (excluding some sequels and spin-offs) and share my thoughts on them. I also indicate which series I thought were worth continuing and which weren’t. At the end I pick three anime – the best of the season, the worst of the season, and the most under-rated. Naturally, my opinions are all heavily biased.

Accel World

I would’ve watched this series for Kuroyukihime alone. She’s pretty and looks cool in her black dress and butterfly wings. The world that the anime is set in has me interested too, who wouldn’t want to be able to connect to the internet using their brain? The story follows a typical shounen plot, but that’s OK.

Status: watching

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I don’t usually watch bread anime (the only one I’ve seen before this was Yakitate!! Japan), but with so-called “slice-of-life” anime *cough* Ano Hana *cough* turning out to be more drama than slice-of-life, I wanted something that could induce at least some yawning. That’s when I heard about Shining Hearts – Shiawase no Pan (Shining Hearts - Bread of Happiness).

Written by Itsuro Kawasaki (Wild Arms: Twilight Venom, Tsubasa Chronicle: Tori Kago no Kuni no Himegimi), Shining Hearts is a dating-sim-turned-anime published by Sega in 2010 and is well-known for its horrific storyline and scenes so cute and sweet that they make your stomach churn. Being a dating sim, it does have some XXX scenes which are essential to the story and if you want to see them, you can watch the uncensored story on Youtube.

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Since I abandoned the anime screenshots project a few years ago, I’ve received several comments from people wanting it back. After much deliberation (amongst me, myself, and I of course), I’ve decided to start it up again to see how it goes. This time instead of weekly posts, it will be seasonal, covering some of the more interesting screenshots of the past few months. For those new to the Anime Screenshots column, it’s basically a collection of screenshots that I took while watching anime that I felt were worthy of sharing, as you can see below.

Screenshot 1:

Anime: Ano Natsu de Matteru
Episode: 3
Comments: Has anyone else noticed Japan’s odd fascination with Tommy Lee Jones?

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Anime such as Mirai Nikki promote violent and deadly behaviour among children and should be censored.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations or reading.

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Prelude: In case you missed my previous posts, I am practicing to write persuasive essays in 30 minutes for the GMAT and decided to write blog posts at the same time. The topic above is one I created and the essay below is my answer. There are some spelling and grammatical errors, but that just shows how fast 30 minutes is. If you have some tips or suggestions for writing a good essay within the time-frame, please share.

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Nisemonogatari is a direct sequel to the popular anime, Bakemonogatari, consisting of 11 episodes and produced by SHAFT. The synopsis from MAL is described below:

The black swindler Kaiki Deishu, who once deceived Hitagi, returns to town and spreads the incantation which cursed Nadeko before.
Koyomi’s sisters Karen and Tsukihi try to capture Deishu but…

The synopsis doesn’t give you much to go on, and after watching the series, I can see why. I enjoyed Bakemonogatari when it aired in 2009, but I was really disappointed to see how Nisemonogatari turned out. To make my explanation simple, just take a look at the following screenshots.

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