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While browsing for Koshien clips on Nico last week, I came across a pleasant surprise. It turns out that the same person who ran last year’s inaugural tournament that pitted 16 anime & manga-based teams against each other in a sim bracket has already started doing it again this spring. This time around (Nico link), the tournament has been dubbed “Koshien Dream Match” (甲子園ドリームマッチ), the field has been doubled to 32 teams, and the game has been upgraded to Pawapuro 15. It took two months but the first round wrapped up on Saturday so if you’d like read those results and the 2nd round matchups, feel free to continue.
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As a fan of the the first anime series and of the originating manga, I was interested in how this new version, FMA Brotherhood, would turn out. I was initially optimistic and I haven’t been disappointed so far after watching the first four episodes (through FUNimation’s video portal, just to clarify).

I like how Brotherhood is running faster than its predecessor. Shou Tucker’s story originally occupied two episodes; it’s now been told in one. A similar condensing happened with Cornello and Lior, with Rose’s “revived” brother and Ed in chains being cut, omissions I’m fine with. The mining town incident with Lt. Yoki was wrapped up in a few lines during an office conversation. I think the Clause/Majihal and the train hostage situation are being passed over entirely for the sake of a quicker storyline, which may be for the better. Those took place before Ed got his State Alchemist title, anyway, and it would benefit the series to not waste time on events of the past and instead focus on the main narrative.

Even though this remake seems “darker” – however you wish to read that – there are still the same moments of humor, e.g., Al being confused as Fullmetal during the brothers’ first appearances and Ed being sensitive about his height.

Something that bothered me about the first series, now that I look back at it, was Michiru Oshima’s orchestral score because it could be overbearing at times, particularly in the last quarter of the series. Akira Senju is handling the soundtrack this time around and though there are some tracks with similar dramatic vamps, there have also been less bombastic ones including a sullen, Middle Eastern-sounding string piece in ep. 3 (15:25-16:37 on Funi’s timecode) when Al was telling Rose about how he came to be a suit of armor. Regarding the opening and ending sequences, I didn’t care for either at first but then I grew to like most of YUI’s “again” – the quick bridge still annoys me a bit.

P.S. Alex Leavitt wrote an interesting post recently about the art design differences between the two series based on their first episodes.

Last month, Ignition Entertainment sent me a copy of Lux-Pain (DS) for review. It was originally developed by Japanese studio Marvelous and uses a visual novel framework in concert with adventure elements. The following are my thoughts about the game after finishing the first four episodes and 5 1/2 hours of play. (I read online that there are 21 episodes in total so I still have much more of the game to play.)

The Basics:
You play Atsuki, a 17-year-old whose family was killed by Silent, a parasite spawned from hate and despair. Operating as part of anti-Silent group FORT (Force for Obliteration of the Rising Terrors), Atsuki goes undercover as a high-school student in Kisaragi City in an attempt to discover the original vector of the Shanghai Incident, which infected 10,000 people in just 3 months and led to thousands of crimes and suicides.

Navigation between areas consists of selecting highlighted regions on an isometric map. Once you enter a dialogue scene, you see shadows of the characters you’re talking to on the top screen. Color changes ripple up through the shadows in response to your dialogue choices and when a yellow gas appears, that means there are Shinen (thoughts) to be read. A “Signum Anima” warning shows up and activating it initiates a mini-game where you have to scratch the touchscreen in order to reveal the hiding Shinen worms. These warnings can also appear when entering unoccupied rooms.
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Drawn by pixiv user petunia

Over the weekend, I read the first ten chapters of the K-On! manga because I wanted to experience the original characters and flow before reluctantly dipping my toes into the KyoAni adaptation. I was unconsciously recognizing certain things that I read from my followees on Twitter (which I once called the “backchannel” – the moniker still holds) and in my Google Reader feeds, e.g. Yui in awe of Mio’s fingers. I enjoyed what I had read and will continue to keep tabs on it. However, I now feel little to no ambition to watch the anime since I believe it will cover the same bases and I’d rather spend those 25 minutes per episode on something else. I could see how certain people could be head over heels for Mio but I just wasn’t feeling much for her; my favorite characters so far have been Sawako-sensei and Ritsu.

On Monday, I thought about the comparisons some made to Lucky Star (this one in particular) and saw some credence to that theory. (I personally felt a slightly stronger comparison to Manabi Straight but I’ll humor this route at the moment.) Mio and Ritsu could be roughly mapped, like Kagami and Konata, as a studious tsukkomi and bullheaded boke duo; Yui, like Tsukasa, as an airhead who means well; and Tsugumi, like Miyuki, as a nice girl from a rich family. I’m not saying that these are exactly the same – of course not! Among the differing aspects: Konata took after her father’s perverted tastes, Yui’s parents always seem to be away on trips overseas, and Tsugumi’s vacation home and her busily-booked house.

A tangential thought slowly grew regarding the quartet structure of main characters of slice-in-life comedy series, viz. “why does it appear as often as it does?”. I’ve already mentioned Lucky Star and K-On! but there is also Hidamari Sketch. Scott of Anime Almanac suggested that the artists may be thinking in fours due to the structure of the strips but that would imply the artist being unconsciously influenced by the form, something I’m unlikely to buy into – though I would accept conscious playfulness within such restrictions. When I try to think about “regular order” manga with core casts of four, two come to my mind immediately: Hyakko and Ichigo Mashimaro, though I’m not too familiar with the latter. (For the sake of inclusion in this post, I’m considering Nobue as an “adult” figure.)

I suspect there is much cross-influence in the slice-of-life manga arena and I think four recurs as a number of core characters, constituting a solid square of sorts. Even though I could extend this inquiry into other genres, I would rather not because that would require possible explanations to strain in encompassing a breadth of dissimilar series. Examples include Asu no Yoichi (the Ikaruga sisters), Noir (Mirelle, Kirika, Chloe, and Altena), Yozakura Quartet (the freakin’ title), Burst Angel (the four girls), and Weiß Kreuz (the four guys). I don’t have much to contribute on the already existing concept of relationship squares, or quadrangles, in comedies such as Kannagi and Maburaho so I won’t at this time but may in the future if I do think of something.

While writing this, I also thought of the number five and how that frequently appears in sentai/magical girl series, e.g. Sailor Moon and Saint Seiya, and played upon by comedies like Negima and Bamboo Blade. However, I currently lack enough deep analysis spark to speculate on that. Besides, I’m certain that subject has been written on a fair amount.

I recently came across the cover art for Sony Pictures’ upcoming release of The Sky Crawlers (May 26th on DVD and region-free Blu-ray) and I’d like to dig into a few aspects related to it.

First, some quote clarifications. When I see critics’ quotes used in movie promotions, my first instinct is to try to track down the sources and look at their contexts. The quote on the front by Dan Parsons (see above) comes from this post he wrote in December about its New York premiere at the Lincoln Center. The full sentence that Sony pulled from reads: “It’s his best work since the original GHOST IN THE SHELL, and proof positive of anime’s unique ability to excite and enlighten.” However, the only mention of ‘fantastic’ within Parsons’ entire post lies within the word fantastical from the following phrase: “Despite the fantastical nature of the aircraft…”

There is another quote that appears on the back of the box – “An Intense Experience!” – that is attributed to Justin Sevakis of ANN. That comes from this review from the same Lincoln Center screening and was taken from the following sentence: “The Sky Crawlers is an intense experience, and a level of artistic expression far beyond the levels even the best anime strives towards.”
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Drawn by TMO

This spring season features the highest amount of premiering anime being streamed legally with more than a half dozen premiering series currently “simulcast” on the Internet. Most of them are on Crunchyroll – Saki, Hayate no Gotoku!!, Natsu no Arashi, Shangri-la, Mainichi Kaa-san, and Ristorante Paradiso – while FUNimation is following up Shikabane Hime with Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood except this time, they are restricting the new episodes to their video portal.

The ball got rolling in spring 2008 when Gonzo GDH placed Tower of Druaga and Blassreiter onto YouTube, BOST, and Crunchyroll (CR); Strike Witches went onto those same three services that July. October saw CR play host to premiering series Linebarrels of Iron and FUNimation push Shikabane Hime onto YouTube, Hulu, Joost, and their newly launched video portal. Crunchyroll added Shugo Chara and Skip Beat in November; in January, they took on Gintama, Natsume Yujincho and Naruto Shippuden, the latter of which Viz also streamed through Naruto.com, Hulu, and Joost. Crunchyroll added Hitman Reborn in March.

One of the things that worries content providers about putting their video portals is whether the sites will actually generate revenue. It seems that Crunchyroll has gotten off to a good start by establishing an attractive platform for foreign content owners to get their properties global reach – a Yomiuri article about TAF 2009 relays the following figures for Crunchyroll: 4.5 million visitors who were often exposed to advertising, 1.5 millions of hours viewed monthly, and almost 15,000 paying memberships at $6.95 a month ($100,000+ of regular revenue).

On its about page, Crunchyroll says “[p]roceeds from the subscription service are shared among [their] content publishers”. It’s assumed that a portion of advertising revenue also goes toward that pool of creators. The question is whether the allocated distribution is based on a uniform rate or dependent of video views. That distinction could be be important for a studio in financial troubles like GONZO, which is undergoing restructuring.
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Kadokawa uploaded the above CM to its YouTube channel Friday to advertise Vol. 1 of Haruhi-chan/Churuya-san will come out on DVD May 29th for 5040 yen (about US$50). According to Animate, volume 2 and volume 3 have dates of June 25th and July 30th, respectively.

CDJapan lists the runtime for each of the three volumes (vol. 1 page) as 40 minutes, meaning one volume should contain about eight episodes of each series, assuming an average time of 3-3:30 minutes per Haruhi-chan episode and 1:30-2 min. for Churuya-san episodes. The CM also mentions first pressing extras of a soundtrack CD for volume 1 and four commentary cards & one of five bromide character cards for each subsequent volume.

Posting has grown infrequent in the past couple months and I’ve begun considering taking on an outside contributor. I decided to contract Ms. Excel as an investigative reporter after seeing her work in City Hall that brought to light gross abuses of power and wasteful spending by corrupt politicians.
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On this episode of the Nigorimasen Podcast (aka the N-Pod – no? maybe not, then), I talked with lelangir about how he came to begin blogging less than a year ago, his interest in music, theory posting, and knowledge production.

 

 Standard Podcast [49:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (230)

Music:
Opening: “A-LOAN” composed by Hiroyuki Sawano (Zombie-Loan OST)
Ending: “Cinema” performed by Picasso (Maison Ikkoku 2nd ending) [link]

Show Notes:
lelangir’s first blog post (April 28, 2008)
thoughts on the blogging tradition part 1 (read all 5 parts here)
I think either this or this was what I was referring to regarding semiotics
lelangir’s “Call of Arms” re: music posts
wildarmsheero’s post which I quote from
His post about Clannad and the psychology of time
the Penny Arcade! strip lelangir referred to (has some language)
IKnight’s review of Mechademia Vol 1

anitations | lelangir’s anime music blog | lelangir on Twitter

It’s almost April and I feel obligated to disclose the series I am initially interested in out of the batch of spring premieres. That doesn’t mean I’m not willing to try out other spring series down the line as I hear good things about them. Just to let you know how far I am in the winter series I started, I’m behind on all except Hetalia and that is only because its episodes are 5 minutes long.
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