So, the stuff I was dealing with last week? All gone. Fixed. Good as new, as far as I know.
It doesn't 'cure' the past week, but what can you do?
I wish I could make a bigger deal out of this, but simply put: Haruhi is getting a second season. That's right, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu is going to be airing a second season starting this fall. Which means that while I will still be on campus at least 8 hours a day, at least 5 days a week, I will still make time between reading about Asian culture and contemporary literature to watch Haruhi.
The only thing I lack is friends to celebrate the news with. I wish I could drop by a friend's place and go: "Did you hear about Haruhi?" and they'd go: "What? No." "They're making a second season!" "Oh, awesome!" And then we would probably play a video game or hang out or talk about KyoAni or look up news on Haruhi season 2.
Yeah, that'd be nice...
Anyway, that's all for now. I feel like microwaved hell after working outside all day on the gardens and hedges, so I'm going to try to lay down and sleep without sweating through my sheets until I can't sleep at all.
Night all.
Showing posts with label anime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anime. Show all posts
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
31 Flavors of Anime
So I finally remembered what I was going to talk about earlier. The downside is that I've been getting small 15 minute naps all day to make up for the missing 8 hours of sleep, so you'll have to excuse me if I suddenly sounds a little insane.
Anime, as I'm sure you've noticed, is one of my interests and probably vices as well. Naturally, like any good anime fan / Otaku, I have to educate others on the wonder of anime. A few months ago, my family was visited by some friends of my parents, which is fairly common. While discussing some of my interests as small talk, one of them expressed recognition as far as anime went. She was a little misguided though, so I chatted with her a bit about anime. She suspected that it was made of two parts - television shows like Pokemon and cinematic movies like Spirited Away. I really have an issue with that.
You see, popular animation in North America is basically split on such a line. You have cartoon shows that are for children, mostly comedy or comedy and action mixed. Then you have the high-quality movies like what Disney has a history of making or like what CG movies are doing today. Sure, adults can enjoy it - the Simpsons or Family Guy are too 'mature' for most children, but they're still comedy shows at their roots. The only thing that pulls away from this are action shows based on toys or games like G.I. Joe back in the day. They're more pure action, but they're heavy in product placement and character recognition.
Now, I won't try and say that Anime is more noble and better than American animation. Anime is a commercial product as well, and if it wasn't for things like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh and Bedamon or whatever it certainly wouldn't be burying so deep into the American market.
What I will say, as I told that woman, is that Anime isn't a genre. When you think 'Cartoon' you might think Bugs Bunny or Ninja Turtles. It's true that not all American cartoons are that, but Anime has set itself up as a medium. Manga as well emphasizes that, the thick magazines they publish weekly or monthly are set towards obvious groups like young boys, young girls, older men (not porn) and older women.
What brought this up is mostly MuchMusic (It's like Canada's MTV [not to be confused with MTV Canada], but they still have music videos), who have been playing BECK in hour-long blocks at least a couple times a week. BECK, you see, is about young Japanese kid who gets caught up in the start of a brand new band that ends up going all the way. The series takes place over a couple of years and expands his personal development with other people as well as his development as a guitarist, singer and songwriter. I watched the anime when it was originally released in Japan and I really enjoyed it, and the dub is fairly good (though it loses a lot of its early flavor since everyone speaks English - originally there was a lot of fun Engrish). Where else could you have that, really? Need a new music series? I can think of at least another high quality series, NANA (Though it concentrates on relationships). Need realistic Sci-Fi? Cartoony Sci-Fi? Re-imaginations of classic literature? Racing? Team sports? Fantasy series? A show about bread? There's an Anime for every possible genre.
Now, filling Turner Classic Movies with Anime films is asking too much (Though they occasionally show some Ghibli works). Anime just seems like it's underused and misunderstood. People see animation and they suspect that it's either for children or, if it's really violent, gory or full of cursing - older boys. If people weren't afraid of watching, they could get into the drama of a series like Honey and Clover, or enjoy the investigative drama of Stand Alone Complex.
One of the big things that I'd like to see change is the realization that while girls watch 'boy' series with action like Naruto or Inuyasha (Though the latter is like DBZ for girls anyway), you might be able to pull in a larger female audience and sustain a male audience with girl-targeted shows. Fruits Basket comes to mind, Zannen.ca always seemed to be pushing for it, and I think it's a series that could really attracted viewers on, say, YTV's Friday night anime blocks.
Right now, I'm watching so many new animes from Japan I can't always keep track of them. It's up and down from the new-style harem anime Airantou to the otaku slice-of-life Lucky Star and the parody-filled comedy Hayate no Gotoku, back to the hyper-realistic, dark Bokurano, up to the mystic Reideen and further to the wackiness of Gurren-Lagann. Then I can watch some Shonen action from new episodes of Naruto and Bleach, then pull back to the drama of NANA or the situational comedy of Lovely Complex. When I'm in the mood, I'll sit through and episode of the developing Darker Than Black or the gory action of Claymore before loading up the next part of Sola or Rocket Girls. Really, with that kind of selection how can you complain? There's at least something for everyone - as long as you can stomach interesting characters and an intruiging storyline matched with excellent animation from some mere 'cartoon'.
That's all I can say really. MuchMusic's programmers really got my intrigued when they introduced BECK but YTV's regurgitation of Adult Swim is getting tiring as well. And could someone explain to me why Teletoon won't play a single anime series, but fills the evenings with Adult Swim's hand-me-down hit-and-miss 15 minute episode series?
That's all for tonight. Thanks for your time for my ranty little attitude today.
Anime, as I'm sure you've noticed, is one of my interests and probably vices as well. Naturally, like any good anime fan / Otaku, I have to educate others on the wonder of anime. A few months ago, my family was visited by some friends of my parents, which is fairly common. While discussing some of my interests as small talk, one of them expressed recognition as far as anime went. She was a little misguided though, so I chatted with her a bit about anime. She suspected that it was made of two parts - television shows like Pokemon and cinematic movies like Spirited Away. I really have an issue with that.
You see, popular animation in North America is basically split on such a line. You have cartoon shows that are for children, mostly comedy or comedy and action mixed. Then you have the high-quality movies like what Disney has a history of making or like what CG movies are doing today. Sure, adults can enjoy it - the Simpsons or Family Guy are too 'mature' for most children, but they're still comedy shows at their roots. The only thing that pulls away from this are action shows based on toys or games like G.I. Joe back in the day. They're more pure action, but they're heavy in product placement and character recognition.
Now, I won't try and say that Anime is more noble and better than American animation. Anime is a commercial product as well, and if it wasn't for things like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh and Bedamon or whatever it certainly wouldn't be burying so deep into the American market.
What I will say, as I told that woman, is that Anime isn't a genre. When you think 'Cartoon' you might think Bugs Bunny or Ninja Turtles. It's true that not all American cartoons are that, but Anime has set itself up as a medium. Manga as well emphasizes that, the thick magazines they publish weekly or monthly are set towards obvious groups like young boys, young girls, older men (not porn) and older women.
What brought this up is mostly MuchMusic (It's like Canada's MTV [not to be confused with MTV Canada], but they still have music videos), who have been playing BECK in hour-long blocks at least a couple times a week. BECK, you see, is about young Japanese kid who gets caught up in the start of a brand new band that ends up going all the way. The series takes place over a couple of years and expands his personal development with other people as well as his development as a guitarist, singer and songwriter. I watched the anime when it was originally released in Japan and I really enjoyed it, and the dub is fairly good (though it loses a lot of its early flavor since everyone speaks English - originally there was a lot of fun Engrish). Where else could you have that, really? Need a new music series? I can think of at least another high quality series, NANA (Though it concentrates on relationships). Need realistic Sci-Fi? Cartoony Sci-Fi? Re-imaginations of classic literature? Racing? Team sports? Fantasy series? A show about bread? There's an Anime for every possible genre.
Now, filling Turner Classic Movies with Anime films is asking too much (Though they occasionally show some Ghibli works). Anime just seems like it's underused and misunderstood. People see animation and they suspect that it's either for children or, if it's really violent, gory or full of cursing - older boys. If people weren't afraid of watching, they could get into the drama of a series like Honey and Clover, or enjoy the investigative drama of Stand Alone Complex.
One of the big things that I'd like to see change is the realization that while girls watch 'boy' series with action like Naruto or Inuyasha (Though the latter is like DBZ for girls anyway), you might be able to pull in a larger female audience and sustain a male audience with girl-targeted shows. Fruits Basket comes to mind, Zannen.ca always seemed to be pushing for it, and I think it's a series that could really attracted viewers on, say, YTV's Friday night anime blocks.
Right now, I'm watching so many new animes from Japan I can't always keep track of them. It's up and down from the new-style harem anime Airantou to the otaku slice-of-life Lucky Star and the parody-filled comedy Hayate no Gotoku, back to the hyper-realistic, dark Bokurano, up to the mystic Reideen and further to the wackiness of Gurren-Lagann. Then I can watch some Shonen action from new episodes of Naruto and Bleach, then pull back to the drama of NANA or the situational comedy of Lovely Complex. When I'm in the mood, I'll sit through and episode of the developing Darker Than Black or the gory action of Claymore before loading up the next part of Sola or Rocket Girls. Really, with that kind of selection how can you complain? There's at least something for everyone - as long as you can stomach interesting characters and an intruiging storyline matched with excellent animation from some mere 'cartoon'.
That's all I can say really. MuchMusic's programmers really got my intrigued when they introduced BECK but YTV's regurgitation of Adult Swim is getting tiring as well. And could someone explain to me why Teletoon won't play a single anime series, but fills the evenings with Adult Swim's hand-me-down hit-and-miss 15 minute episode series?
That's all for tonight. Thanks for your time for my ranty little attitude today.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann
I've decided to go ahead and try talking a little about an anime series I've been watching. This is a first attempt, so I'm just testing to see how smoothly it all goes. The pictures and descriptions are bound to contain spoilers, so bear with me. The screencaps also include timestamps from when it aired on TV, so I can't help them. Enjoy a look into one of the newer animes from Japan.
It's one of the big series I'm watching new this season, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann has all the makings of a worthwhile series. Now this season is really overfilled with mecha animes, so having something stand out like Gurren-Lagann does is a nice touch to a season with other series I'm enjoying. Another one of Gainax's works, it has a fluid animation style I can best connect with Re: Cutey Honey. The style and design of the robots is quirky but top-notch, overall leaving you with a good visual experience.
The story starts with Kamina and Simon (or 'Shimon' as a lot of the forum-goers prefer), who live underground in a world where the surface isn't a place they go. Kamina, leader of his Gurren Brigade, looks to the ceiling and cries out for a means to go to the surface and see the sky. His prayers are luckily answered fast, as two visitors from the surface shake things up in their little village. One of them is Yoko, a human from the surface who fights the powerful Ganmen, giant robots (That are mostly giant heads with arms and legs) that are piloted by the evil Beastmen, who are out to destroy mankind.
The first meetings with Ganmen are quick and excellent battles. Simon's personal mini-mech Lagann is impossibly durable and carries a natural affinity to drills, much like Simon does with his work drilling underground. Once on the surface and better introduced to the interaction between Ganmen, Beastmen and humans, Kamina quickly attempts to earn his own mecha, one that he calls Gurren. The fact that humans can't use Ganmen and lost on him, and he quickly finds out the secret to piloting one.
The story continues and the battles continue to grow bigger and bigger as the opponents get more dangerous and the threats get higher. By episode three the title is better explained as Kamina forces the two human-run Ganmen into a single robot, one he dubs Gurren-Lagann!
The series gets really interesting around episode 4, but only behind the scenes. One of Japan's biggest message boards 2channel was getting pretty annoyed with some of the minor details of the series, but episode 4 really got them talking. The animation for 4 was completely different, it really has to be watched to be understood. It looked very similar to BECK, a style that fit well for that series but ultimately looked horrible in the bright colours and unrealistic forms of of Gurren-Lagann.
Well, to answer the concerns, Takai Akai, one of the men who was there before Gainax really existed, was quite rude and generally didn't hold much respect for the complainers. After the complaints for episode 4 arrived, the 2channelers found the original comments and made a huge scene out of it, leading to the producer's resignation. It was a pretty horrible scene, since it was basically a bunch of idiots from a website complaining, but he really should have known better than to sink to their level and throw insults. I mean, you tend to expect a little more from people in important positions, but they're human after all.
With that all cleared up and a Takai Akai removed from the credits for episode 5, the anime continued as before: Full of robot battles. Episodes 5, 6 and 7 were fine episodes, introducing new characters and more information. Personally, I really started to wonder where they were going to go from here.
Episode 8 stopped any train of thought faster than an anti-tank missile. I won't breath a word of what happened, but if you watch the series watch it up to episode 8. Wait, watch it up to episode 9. I haven't seen it yet but it will make or break the series at this point.
Overall, I find that Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann promises a wacky, Gainax-level anime. I've seen many of their series, both their original creations and works they just had a hand in. Even series that people barely know about. It's always interesting to see their work, particularly since they seem to love their company as much as other people do.
Check it out, you should know the usual channels to find it with.
That's all for today. I suppose next time I'll cover Lucky Star, depending on how I feel about this one later. Goodnight!
It's one of the big series I'm watching new this season, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann has all the makings of a worthwhile series. Now this season is really overfilled with mecha animes, so having something stand out like Gurren-Lagann does is a nice touch to a season with other series I'm enjoying. Another one of Gainax's works, it has a fluid animation style I can best connect with Re: Cutey Honey. The style and design of the robots is quirky but top-notch, overall leaving you with a good visual experience.
The story starts with Kamina and Simon (or 'Shimon' as a lot of the forum-goers prefer), who live underground in a world where the surface isn't a place they go. Kamina, leader of his Gurren Brigade, looks to the ceiling and cries out for a means to go to the surface and see the sky. His prayers are luckily answered fast, as two visitors from the surface shake things up in their little village. One of them is Yoko, a human from the surface who fights the powerful Ganmen, giant robots (That are mostly giant heads with arms and legs) that are piloted by the evil Beastmen, who are out to destroy mankind.
The first meetings with Ganmen are quick and excellent battles. Simon's personal mini-mech Lagann is impossibly durable and carries a natural affinity to drills, much like Simon does with his work drilling underground. Once on the surface and better introduced to the interaction between Ganmen, Beastmen and humans, Kamina quickly attempts to earn his own mecha, one that he calls Gurren. The fact that humans can't use Ganmen and lost on him, and he quickly finds out the secret to piloting one.
The story continues and the battles continue to grow bigger and bigger as the opponents get more dangerous and the threats get higher. By episode three the title is better explained as Kamina forces the two human-run Ganmen into a single robot, one he dubs Gurren-Lagann!
The series gets really interesting around episode 4, but only behind the scenes. One of Japan's biggest message boards 2channel was getting pretty annoyed with some of the minor details of the series, but episode 4 really got them talking. The animation for 4 was completely different, it really has to be watched to be understood. It looked very similar to BECK, a style that fit well for that series but ultimately looked horrible in the bright colours and unrealistic forms of of Gurren-Lagann.
Well, to answer the concerns, Takai Akai, one of the men who was there before Gainax really existed, was quite rude and generally didn't hold much respect for the complainers. After the complaints for episode 4 arrived, the 2channelers found the original comments and made a huge scene out of it, leading to the producer's resignation. It was a pretty horrible scene, since it was basically a bunch of idiots from a website complaining, but he really should have known better than to sink to their level and throw insults. I mean, you tend to expect a little more from people in important positions, but they're human after all.
With that all cleared up and a Takai Akai removed from the credits for episode 5, the anime continued as before: Full of robot battles. Episodes 5, 6 and 7 were fine episodes, introducing new characters and more information. Personally, I really started to wonder where they were going to go from here.
Episode 8 stopped any train of thought faster than an anti-tank missile. I won't breath a word of what happened, but if you watch the series watch it up to episode 8. Wait, watch it up to episode 9. I haven't seen it yet but it will make or break the series at this point.
Overall, I find that Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann promises a wacky, Gainax-level anime. I've seen many of their series, both their original creations and works they just had a hand in. Even series that people barely know about. It's always interesting to see their work, particularly since they seem to love their company as much as other people do.
Check it out, you should know the usual channels to find it with.That's all for today. I suppose next time I'll cover Lucky Star, depending on how I feel about this one later. Goodnight!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
First Break
Wow, I've really been doing nothing lately, so it kind of hurts my mood to blog about stuff.
Well, Sunday I played more WoW and rested alongside my family. After that party we had to host, we were all too tired to do anything. The day ended only on a high note with the new Simpsons (400th Episode special) and the Family Guy and American Dad that followed. I swear, I never watch Fox except for the Sunday new animation block and the occasional show like House (That's on Fox, right?).
Oh, guess what? My Dad left about a dozen sausages from Saturday's part on the grill. Outside. All night. They looked a little shriveled and unhealthy, but they were quite edible and I've yet to have my stomach explode.
Monday was pretty dull as well. I played more WoW, including my last battlegrounds for the weekend, a 1 hour, 47 minute long heavy-defensive game where the opposing team basically locked out offensive attempts for an hour. To boot, I started the battle 30 minutes late, which is just my luck.
My Mom headed back north to visit my grandmother again, so us men were left to look after dinner. It turned out pretty well, Ribs with baked potatoes and some packaged broccoli with cheese for my Dad, while my little brother had leftover Salad from Saturday on top of it all. Apparently my Dad's dinner plans for the week also include another trip to Mandarin on Wednesday. <_< Fat chance I'm going there twice in a week's time.
If you don't get Discovery Canada or don't have access to it otherwise, you're missing out bigtime on Canada's Worst Handyman 2, the sequel to the reality-type show where a group of clueless handymen (and women) attend a rehabilitation center for their problems. I liked the first one a bit more, style-wise, but the series is worth watching every single week. It's not that I get an ego boost out of watching idiots do dumb stuff (If I did, I'd just watch Youtube or America's Funniest Home Videos or whatever Caught on Tape and crap like that), it's really interesting to watch people in a serious workplace and how they act and how it reflects on their work. I'd like to be on the program, not because I'm some horrible handyman, but because I'd really like to see if I could compare to the half-assed job they're all doing. The sister series to Worst Handyman is Canada's Worst Driver, a show of similar concept but with big dangerous cars flying around. It's going into its 3rd season, and my little brother says he'll sign me up (Since I don't drive, I'm therefore the worst person at it. Har har).
Today was another average day. I ended up skipping dinner since I had a lunch (This 'one meal a day' thing shouldn't be so habit-forming), though I'm not feeling hungry over 14 hours later, so I don't mind much. I found out that my weekend is going to be very, very boring. My entire family is out for one reason or another, and my plans to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End have fallen through just this afternoon. It means that from Friday morning to Sunday evening it's just me, the cats, and the interweb. Sounds nice and all, but when I'm trying to turn my life around just a bit a weekend where I won't be able to get out of the house or even see other people is more depressing than normal.
Oh, I had planned to do something big for Monday, maybe make it a weekly thing. I was going to write about a new Anime series I was enjoying. This week was Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, but after episode 08... I don't want to spoil it, but my will to cover the series was dashed to pieces. Maybe I'll have more to say when 09 comes out, or at least some sense of if Gurren-Lagann will be the most genius piece of anime work I've seen in ages, or a confusing muddled production Gainax did to keep themselves busy.
So until then, I'm going to just update when I feel like it, about what I feel like. Maybe I'll be able to put together something more regular to look forward too.
Well, Sunday I played more WoW and rested alongside my family. After that party we had to host, we were all too tired to do anything. The day ended only on a high note with the new Simpsons (400th Episode special) and the Family Guy and American Dad that followed. I swear, I never watch Fox except for the Sunday new animation block and the occasional show like House (That's on Fox, right?).
Oh, guess what? My Dad left about a dozen sausages from Saturday's part on the grill. Outside. All night. They looked a little shriveled and unhealthy, but they were quite edible and I've yet to have my stomach explode.
Monday was pretty dull as well. I played more WoW, including my last battlegrounds for the weekend, a 1 hour, 47 minute long heavy-defensive game where the opposing team basically locked out offensive attempts for an hour. To boot, I started the battle 30 minutes late, which is just my luck.
My Mom headed back north to visit my grandmother again, so us men were left to look after dinner. It turned out pretty well, Ribs with baked potatoes and some packaged broccoli with cheese for my Dad, while my little brother had leftover Salad from Saturday on top of it all. Apparently my Dad's dinner plans for the week also include another trip to Mandarin on Wednesday. <_< Fat chance I'm going there twice in a week's time.
If you don't get Discovery Canada or don't have access to it otherwise, you're missing out bigtime on Canada's Worst Handyman 2, the sequel to the reality-type show where a group of clueless handymen (and women) attend a rehabilitation center for their problems. I liked the first one a bit more, style-wise, but the series is worth watching every single week. It's not that I get an ego boost out of watching idiots do dumb stuff (If I did, I'd just watch Youtube or America's Funniest Home Videos or whatever Caught on Tape and crap like that), it's really interesting to watch people in a serious workplace and how they act and how it reflects on their work. I'd like to be on the program, not because I'm some horrible handyman, but because I'd really like to see if I could compare to the half-assed job they're all doing. The sister series to Worst Handyman is Canada's Worst Driver, a show of similar concept but with big dangerous cars flying around. It's going into its 3rd season, and my little brother says he'll sign me up (Since I don't drive, I'm therefore the worst person at it. Har har).
Today was another average day. I ended up skipping dinner since I had a lunch (This 'one meal a day' thing shouldn't be so habit-forming), though I'm not feeling hungry over 14 hours later, so I don't mind much. I found out that my weekend is going to be very, very boring. My entire family is out for one reason or another, and my plans to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End have fallen through just this afternoon. It means that from Friday morning to Sunday evening it's just me, the cats, and the interweb. Sounds nice and all, but when I'm trying to turn my life around just a bit a weekend where I won't be able to get out of the house or even see other people is more depressing than normal.
Oh, I had planned to do something big for Monday, maybe make it a weekly thing. I was going to write about a new Anime series I was enjoying. This week was Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, but after episode 08... I don't want to spoil it, but my will to cover the series was dashed to pieces. Maybe I'll have more to say when 09 comes out, or at least some sense of if Gurren-Lagann will be the most genius piece of anime work I've seen in ages, or a confusing muddled production Gainax did to keep themselves busy.
So until then, I'm going to just update when I feel like it, about what I feel like. Maybe I'll be able to put together something more regular to look forward too.
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