Archive for the “Specials” Category

Slowly progressing through the second floor in Etrian Odyssey

I have yet to compose parts seven and eight of this year’s series of memorable things and as I am already two days behind, I decided to end it early with a single post listing what I might have written about individually if I cared enough to do so:

• Nagi’s frustrated “I’ll grow into it!” assertion in Kannagi ep. 6 when she goes clothes shopping with Tsugumi.
• The bullfight in Michiko to Hatchin ep. 6 for the rescue and the scene’s entertainment value
• Winning a game show during AOD 2008 and getting a Bleach pin (which I have since lost)
• Seeing Evangelion 1.0 on 35mm with a large crowd at AX, admiring the visual updates, and cringing a little during that awkward Rei-Shinji scene (you know the one)
• Being included in the special thanks section of the Emma Season One Set [pic]

I don’t feel too bad about calling off the remainder since many other writers are still proceeding on schedule and I think I did a good job with the ones I did finish. I felt pressured to catch up on more than I could actually manage; now that has lessened, though still lingering, and I will pass along my relevant feelings as I finish each. I still plan to do the regular predictions/resolutions posts.

When I heard on Monday that Wednesday’s Anime Almanac post would involve what Scott thought about Crunchyroll, I began thinking about writing a post that both responded to his essay and the two-part interview ICv2 posted with Crunchyroll Ken Gao. But then I got distracted and didn’t read either until Thursday, which happened to be when the post-publication feedback focused on credit and a rehashed discussion of the usefulness/lack thereof of comments.
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In Monster episode 14, Eva sends off a married businessman after a night of intimacy then notices her gardener saw him leave and knows of her dealings with numerous men so she asks him if he has the confidence to make her happy. (His wife hangs around with different men and hasn’t come home for a while.) The next day, Eva invites him out to dinner at a classy restaurant and he wakes up in the middle of the night next to her in her bed.
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During last year’s set of reflections, three of the “moments” were from real-life events, two involved websites, and almost all of them were concepts about series rather than specific moments within them. I have been trying to write this year’s posts with a narrower focus (and I think I’ve done fine so far) but today I will stray from that trend and mention something that didn’t come from proper anime or manga but rather came to my attention while attending a few conventions.

I previously wrote about meeting artist Tim Ferriera at Sac-Anime, where I found his influences include Range Murata and Yoshitoshi ABe, and briefly mentioned getting volume one of his webcomic Techgal (which I can’t seem to find at the moment) at Animation on Display a month later but I didn’t talk about the comic itself.

It centers on the eponymous gearhead Kristi, her brother Derek who tries to protect her, and the attempts of a company to steal her inventions for their own purposes. It’s light-hearted and doesn’t try to position itself as OEL manga or manga at all since it’s a webcomic and only a side project of his when he’s not doing comedy magic shows and other things. You can read all of what has been posted so far on the comic’s website.

The beginning of Gintama episode 26 has the Yorozuya working in a convenience store and, as one would expect, they piss off a customer.

He first complains that Kagura is leaving crumbs in his bag while she’s eating an nmaibou (lit. delicious bar) over it, then that irritation intensifies when he asks for the manager and Gin-chan appears gnawing on a similar bar. After the two have a brief conference under the counter, Gin comes back up and explains they are temporary employees and thus don’t know the hard stuff but promises they will work really hard. Kagura then places the customer’s bag in the microwave and when asked what’s she zapping, she replies that she doesn’t know but that she’s working really, really hard at it. (I’ll have to remember that excuse next time I ruin a heat up meal.) The customer realizes his JUMP is in the bag and after that mention, something else inside the bag explodes and ruins his weekly manga magazine.

The rest of the episode continues with Shinpachi discovering one of his old friends has joined a gang in order to get tougher and culminates in a madcap drag race with Otae as one of the drivers. My anime club really enjoyed watching the first twenty-eight or so episodes during the previous school year (here is what they’re screening this year) and remembering this moment makes me want to pick up where they left off.

Of the anime I initially sampled this fall, Hyakko was the one that had the most slapstick/physical humor and though I enjoy a variety of comedic styles including dry, pun-filled, and ironic, slapstick and the like garners the most immediate and primal reactions of laughter from me. (It doesn’t hurt that “stupid” comedies Wayne’s World and Dumb and Dumber are among my favorite films.)

Episode 2 was full of these moments as Torako and Tatsuki competing against each other as the quartet tries out different sport clubs. First, they try baseball and Torako pegs Tatsuki in the upper thigh. Next, they attempt to play doubles tennis but Torako double faults by missing the ball she throws up as part of her “Tiger Smash” serves and accidentally throws her racket at Tatsuki’s face on her second whiff. Basketball follows and they decide to have a free throw match. Tatsuki blocks Torako’s attempts with her own shots and Torako does the same to her when she’s up at the line. Torako spikes a jump ball into Tatsuki’s gut then Tatsuki chases her attacker around for a few seconds before landing a flying kick to Torako’s back.

The group decides to give sports a break and moves on to arts clubs, like calligraphy and plant arrangement, but the bad blooded rivalry continues. Finally, they go down to the soccer plain to stage a penalty kick showdown with aloof Suzu acting as impartial goaltender and Torako slide tackles Tatsuki as she is about to take her kick.

Koji Oe made the connection two months ago between Torako and Azumanga’s Tomo – the irritable relationship between her and Tatsuki is similar that of Tomo and Yomi or Pani Poni Dash’s Himeko and Rei. In fact, Torako’s seiyuu – Fumiko Orikasa – also gave voice to Himeko. But, while there is that sort of annoyer-and-the-annoyed relationship, I think of it more as a conflict between an honorable, mannerly upper-class girl (who happens to be the daughter of an electronics company president) and a risk-taking, combative, dimwitted, not particularly ambitious girl who presumably comes from a working class family. Also: Tatsuki’s anger seems to be more bitterly expressed than in the other two duos, which makes it more entertaining to watch IMO.

Anyway, I have enjoyed the four episodes I have seen so far and look forward to finishing this short series over the next few weeks.

When the anime adaptation of Kobato. was announced earlier this month, I thought I would go back to some of the later volumes of Newtype USA, where the manga was serialized in English before the magazine shut down. The first chapter I found, chapter 9, began with Kobato looking around the city for cold beer on a hot summer day as suggested by her stuffed animal guide, Ioryogi-san, who told her that the proliferation of beer gardens would trump “Cool Biz” in its ability to combat global warming. After enjoying that chapter, which marked the end of a prologue of sorts, I found a previous one (ch. 4) where Kobato kept an elderly woman company on New Year’s Day. I liked that one as well so I now find myself catching up on the manga.

The basic plot is that Kobato Hanato, a naive girl, tries to ease the wounded hearts of troubled people in order to fill a bottle with their bad feelings. When she finishes filling the bottle, she will be able to go to someplace where she deeply wants to travel. Where exactly is not revealed at first but one might put two and two together and make an informed guess when they notice she always covers the top of her head with various hats. She begins to helps out at a nursery school and meets two people who have been seen previously in the comic but never directly crossed paths with her.

Thinking about why I am attracted to the manga, I think it is the combination of Kobato’s determination and Ioryogi’s fits of frustration when Kobato screws up. I would like for it to be properly published in the US and I am sure it will garner a certain level of sales as a CLAMP property. It wouldn’t be a 21st-century title from them without some small nods to other franchises and the ones in this manga include a bakery sharing its name with one from Chobits, the daughters of Kobato’s landlady are named Chiho and Chise, and Misaki from Angelic Layer can be seen during Kobato’s search for free beer samples. (I am discovering such references through online research, just like I did when watching Tsubasa Chronicle, since I possess a insufficient familiarity with their catalog of works.)

SPOILER WARNING for Now and Then, Here and There.

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Last year, I participated in the “Twelve Moments in Anime” project and it was a fun and frustrating experience trying to come up with memorable anime-related things that happened to me in 2007. It was also interesting to read what other people reminiscing about in their writings. I sort of bent the rules by talking about some real-life events (e.g. Fanime, Yaoi-Con) but I think those were fine because they related to the overall fan culture.

CCY kicked off this year’s project earlier this month and I have four (more like, three and a half) subjects in mind as of this writing. I will use the tag ‘12daysofxmas2008‘ to distinguish between last year’s posts and the ones to be posted over the next two weeks. I’ll have to do some work to remember what the hell I did watch this year and maybe game the system a little by quickly finishing some series, which should help fill out the rest.

Just like last year, the collection of twelve will be unordered so something posted later on is not necessarily more or less important than another posted earlier. It still may be (and likely will be due to the nature of subjectivity) but I won’t explicitly rank them.

Bet you never thought of this way of giving presents?

Yes, I am aware that today is Boxing Day but I won’t consider this twelfth and final entry in this year’s “12 Days of Christmas” retrospective (sponsored by the Anime Blogging Collective) to be very late since I got some of my presents, including a new wristwatch, today, For this last highlight, I will return to Lucky Star and not focus on any particular moment (e.g. the Inital D parody, Comiket, the cosplay cafe) but rather something that spanned the series and carried it through its twenty-four episodes – the variety of topics that were discussed between Konata, Tsukasa, Kagami, Miyuki, and others.
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