Category: Anime

Anime

July Anime Season (Summer 2005)

This month, many of the series I’m watching will end. That gives me the right to add more new anime series to watch this July right? Wrong.

I’m lessening my load on watching anime, due to this thing called board exams, my road to go professional on my college diploma thingie. Hopefully, the fun should never stop in this blog (well at least for the summer season), because I’m gonna watch some anime this summer season.

Though I’m trying to lessen my watching load, the list looks so great, I’m having a hard time choosing what to watch.

It’s summer over there in Japan but actually it’s rainy season over here, so to avoid confusion (just my own confusion) I’ll call this the July Anime Season. Here are some of the series that interest me so far:

Da Capo Second Season – One of my favorite bishoujo game series has yet another anime! This time, I think it will be based on a manga serialization. A new character will be introduced, along with Nemu, Sakura and Kotori. I’m wanting another 26-episoder, but I think this will run for only 13.

Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid – Well, I watched both FMP series but I’m still thinking if I’ll follow it immediately. For one, this should be another great FMP because Kyoto Animation is gonna do it, so expect eye candy. On the other hand, this looks like your regular mecha action rather than the extreme Fumoffu comedy which I liked very much.

GUN x SWORD – I always skip action. I prefer to watch them in batches and marathons.

Ichigo Mashimaro – Been hearing good things about this from blogs and forums, so I’ll give this one a try. The girls are cute, in a unique way.

imageimageimage
Just watched a prologue video. Looks like a slice-of-life comedy about the girls’ normal and weird personalities, kinda like Azumanga Daioh. This is exciting. Plus, it has a stellar seiyuu cast for the 5 girls. I’m hyped now! Better read the manga!

Kamichu! ~Kamisama wa Chuugakusei~ – Looks nice.

Kidou Shinsengumi Moeyo Ken – This looks like harem and samurais.

Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo – Okay, so your wife is a magical girl. Big deal. Many anime guys have magical girls as wives or lovers. I wonder what will make me want to watch this.

Petopeto-san – Wow! The artwork looks extremely moe~! Some kind of welcome surprise this is, coz I’ve never heard of it.

SHUFFLE! – Oh, it’s this bishoujo game based series I was talking about a [while back->shuffle]. See my reactions over there.

Suzuka – Never heard of this before but some are saying that Suzuka is an excellent manga series.

DELIBERATION

Absolute Watch
Da Capo Second Season

Watch
Petopeto-san
Ichigo Mashimaro
SHUFFLE!

Watch Later
Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid
GUN x SWORD
Suzuka

Watch Maybe
Kamichu! ~Kamisama wa Chuugakusei~
Kidou Shinsengumi Moeyo Ken
Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo

ufotable and gainax

Futakoi Alternative animation studio ufotable seem to like spoofing, or paying homage, to Gainax’s works. Makes me wonder if some of the Gainax staff is actually doing behind-the-scenes work inside ufotable. Makes me wonder even more if those Gainax staff is getting frustrated with all the maid anime their own studio produces nowadays, and opted to work in ufotable for now. Nah, I’m just thinking too much. Homages are common in anime.

There may be more spoofs and references in Futakoi Alternative that I didn’t notice. Yup, it takes a keen eye to get more. I don’t have a keen eye.

Rentarou singing Yume no Naka e. (episode 7)
image
Is Yume no Naka e really just the Karekano ending song? Or is it a generic Japanese popular folk song of some sort? I’m not sure if it’s an anime original or just a revival of a popular classic Japanese song. S.O.S. (another song featured in Karekano) is a revival though.

Rentarou doing the FLCL thing (episode 7)
imageimage
Someone has just gone FLCL crazy. I miss that show.

The three doing the Karekano OP flying sequence. (episode 9)
imageimage
Can’t get any similar than this.

Anime On Location: Reverse

This is the reverse of my [Anime On Location->anime-on-location] feature.

So this time… how visible is anime in real life? How often would you see your favorite anime drawings in normal streets?

This post is a collective of links and images which feature some real pictures where animated art blends with our normal lives. Be it posters or anime-related places, I will try to see if anime is visible anywhere else aside from TV and movie screens.

This is gonna be an ongoing collective so if anyone wants to contribute other material related to this, just comment in this post. Please do also contact me if some of the links are already down. It’s kinda hard to find this kind of content though.

==================================================

Comic Market 68
http://www.galge.com/galge/nomember/sbp/topics/05/08/12/index.html
It’s one of Japan’s biggest and most popular comic conventions. Everything otaku-related can be seen, heard, felt, and ‘sold’ there. They definitely wouldn’t want to miss being there…

Sights of Akihabara
http://www.akiba-bound.net/?p=36
http://www.jefflawson.net/anime/archives/002411.html
http://www.tyth.net/wordpress/?p=115
Fellow bloggers visit Akihabara. Exponentially better than our local Chinatown, but a lot more expensive of course. This is the real stuff.

He is My Master Promotion Gig
http://www.livejournal.com/users/pedolicious/71859.html
http://blog.livedoor.jp/geek/archives/24932011.html
This is possibly one of the anime marketing gimmicks where I can never comment to negatively nor positively. A TON of girls wearing HiMM maid cosplay gives promotion cards for the anime’s recently released DVD volume. Sure, Akihabara otaku folk will be shouting with oohs and aahs while armed with their top-of-the-moe-line digital cameras. The rest of the regular Japanese walking public, however, may be disgusted.

Moe-bus
http://oki2.jp/bus/index.html
This link shows a lot of Japanese public transportation buses which were painted with anime and bishoujo game related pictures as advertisements. Sure it’s nice, but don’t dare take a picture with your favorite bishoujo, lest other commuters label you a weirdo.

School Rumble Live!

I watched on video a certain School Rumble Live Concert, and it was quite good! Seiyuus, singers and some bands sang numerous songs featured in the anime series and also the drama cds as well. Too bad no sign of Yuko Ogura was found, maybe she’s too mainstream to be in such an otaku-filled event. Instead, we get all the girls singing her Otoko no Ko Onna no Ko ending theme.

One performance in particular, School Rumble 4 Ever, was so great! Four of the girls danced and sang that incredibly catchy female rap song.

I enjoyed this one better than the Love Hina live concerts, probably because there are more cute and young seiyuu here. The songs are great too. [Yui Horie->horie-yui] may have stuttered a bit during her Scramble performance, but the live rendition of that School Rumble OP is as catchy as ever. Maybe my only complaint is that there is too much unicorn table, while too less Mamiko Noto.

Anyway sorry that I can’t bring you the songs nor the concert video itself, so I have boring screenshots. Spicing it up a bit is the seiyuu’s respective character that they voiced in School Rumble, and a bit of other anime info.

imageimage
Ami joined Yui also as the Ichijou twins in both Futakoi series.

imageimage
Yui Horie, she’s appearing in so many series these days.

imageimage
She currently plays Kanade-kaichou in Gokujou Seitokai.

imageimage
You would probably know her as the legendary “Lain.”

imageimage
Mamiko, another seiyuu with an unmistakable cliched voice working in many series these days.

imageimage
Nao in My Hime. Different style, eh?

imageimage
You guys would probably know her as Nono in Top wo Nerae 2 but I didn’t watch that.

image
I dunno how she belongs to School Rumble, maybe a minor seiyuu, featured in a drama cd/ost, or maybe a guest. Anyway she is also one of the singers in the Mahoraba OP.

image

image
They have a lot of songs scattered around the drama cds of School Rumble. Because of this, they had the most songs performed in the concert.

Anime On Location

Of course, not all places in anime worlds are virtual. Some of them are artistic renditions of real places in Japan, others are completely based upon the place.

This post is a collective of links and images which feature some locations in Japan which have been rendered in animation through various anime productions.

This is gonna be an ongoing collective so if anyone wants to contribute other material related to this, just comment in this post. Please do also contact me if some of the links are already down.

==================================================

Locations of NANA
picture1
picture2
picture3
picture4
Nana Navigator Nana (arrgh ok, the Nana anime navigator who happens to be named Nana too) reports about Jackson Hole, the cafe that some characters of the [Nana->] series hang out in. This is actually a real cafe in Japan, with the same design. I capped some shots of it.

Locations of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
http://haruhi.sonnabakana.com/file.html
http://kanai.dw.land.to/location/haruhi.htm
Nice comparison shots from the Suzumiya Haruhi anime and the real deal.

Locations of Ichigo Mashimaro
http://www2.wbs.ne.jp/~misscast/location/ichigo_marsh/marshmallow.html
Interesting stuff. The manga settings were derived from these places, so hopefully they would be rendered in the new anime as well.

Locations of Kamichu!
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sgtpepper/20050711/p1
Pretty nice, a couple of comparison shots of the town of Kamichu.

Locations of Mahou Sensei Negima
http://forums.animeblogger.net/viewtopic.php?t=99
Maestro4k has some interesting shots over at the forums, real places where Negima’s Mahora Gakuen locations are seemingly inspired from. Look at the Library Island, it looks very similar.

Locations of Futakoi Alternative
http://www3.plala.or.jp/happyhobby/2koi/2koi.htm
This town seems to be called Nikotama. Looks… desolated. How did the guy take pictures of the streets without any people in sight? Probably early morning.

Locations of Uta~Kata
http://matthew.animeblogger.net/archives/2004/12/07/utakatas_setting.php
http://www22.ocn.ne.jp/~autumn/tabi_utakata.html
It is said that Uta~Kata takes place in Kamakura. Matthew has some pictures up, while the Japanese link shows more pictures of Kamakura, with matching Ichika and Manatsu figures showing up sometimes.

Locations of Initial D
http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~eg9/gallery.htm
The tracks on Initial D are amazingly based on real-life mountain passes in Japan. If you do get to Japan and drive these mountains, don’t even dare to try driving like Takumi. Just enjoy the view.

Locations of Onegai Teacher/Onegai Twins
http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~smith/article/log/20030825.htm
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~kazeyama/one2sato/one2sato.htm
These two sites compare real-life counterparts with the corresponding animated backgrounds. The resemblance is absolutely impressive.

Locations of Love Hina
http://www.geocities.com/myksvoll/photo1.htm
This is a nice page about real-life locations used in Love Hina, including an actual Hinata Sou.

Locations of Air
http://htc.moon.st/ota/05041601.html
http://tarax.flop.jp/alive/log/000660.html#more
I found this interesting site which features the real-life locations for the bishoujo game and anime Air. Those Misuzu and Minagi dolls will guide you through the places, with the corresponding screenshots for the animes. The site also seems to feature other locations for bishoujo games like Fate/Stay Night, so check them out as well. The second link goes to the same location, this time… a real-life Misuzu acts out scenes from Air?? Find out how they did it…

Shibuya
Shibuya is a popular shopping and entertainment district. It is where lots of gals hang out and shop around. It’s the perfect setting for the anime Super GALS! Kotobuki Ran.

Shibuya 109
imageimageimage
A popular building for those fashionistas…

Hachiko Park
imageimage
A park with a dog statue named Hachiko. Hachiko was regarded as Japan’s most faithful dog because it patiently waited outside Shibuya station for its owner every day, even years after its owner died.

Tokyo Big Sight
imageimage
The Tokyo International Exhibition Center, more known as Tokyo Big Sight, is Japan’s largest exhibition and convention center. For otakus, this means a haven of comic and anime-related conventions being held there, the most popular being Comic Market.
Anime:
Comic Party
Comic Party Revolution
Genshiken

Kyoto
Kyoto, being one of the most popular tourist destinations, would obviously be used by countless other anime series. Whenever there is a field trip in an anime, Kyoto is a preferred tourist spot.

Kiyomizu temple
imageimage
Kiyomizu is a popular temple in Kyoto because of its great height and view.
Anime:
Love Hina
Mahou Sensei Negima
Sensei no Ojikan

Sasuke = Anakin

Well, this season is supposed to be Star Wars season, and I’m supposed to stop watching anime for a while because of all the hype (ex. rewatching the rest of the old and new trilogy), but oh well…

imageimage

What made Sasuke and Anakin similar?
– They’re sorta chosen ones.
– They’re cool-looking, in that fangirls may react the same way once he appears on-screen. (kyaa Sasuke! kyaa Hayden!)
– They’re powerful in the worlds of their own respective franchises.
– They took the path to darkness.

However, the circumstances to which they took the dark path are somewhat different.
– Sasuke wants more power to avenge the death of his family and the rest of Uchiha, by killing his own brother.
– Anakin wants more power to somehow save his wife Padme from his nightmares of her dying at child birth.

Sasuke wants revenge but Anakin simply wants her loved ones to live. So, does that give Anakin enough reason to turn over to the dark side of the Force? Does that make Sasuke only purely evil? Not quite.
– While Sasuke’s intentions seem unjustifiable, he still tries to make good on the rest, like not killing Naruto, or not sacrificing the lives of other people in achieving his goals.
– Over the course of Anakin becoming Darth Vader, he grows from being merely protective of Padme to being extremely delusional of his newfound power, to the point that the dark side has consumed him. He even forgot his original intention of saving Padme’s life at one point, and many lives were sacrificed in achieving his goals.

So, what hope is left of these two dark heroes?
– Well, we haven’t seen too much Sasuke lately, but we still know there is good in him. Hopefully Naruto will bring him back and snap him out of his avenger mode.
– Well, if you have seen the old trilogy of Star Wars, you would know the answer to this. Let’s just say that good is still in Anakin/Darth Vader.

Musical Surprise

There are some times when you feel awesomely about an anime character. Mostly, you feel awe when some shounen character makes some cool new action moves.

Me? I feel awe whenever I see an anime character play a musical instrument.

It’s just my own outlook, but whenever an anime character know some musical expertise, I feel like they put themselves out of character for a little while, and it’s cool. More especially, if I never saw that coming.

Taken from Futakoi Alternative 5:

This is Souju in an entirely different aura. This scene of her playing a guitar seems so unbelievably sentimental. You can imagine how Alternative this anime is. One day they run around, do spying, cooking, and cosplaying gothlolis. Then here is Souju, playing guitar. According to the episode, the song is Daisy Fitzgerald’s Unitable Dream. Although I swore I have heard that kind of guitar pattern before, I never knew whether it was a rendition or an original. All I would realize is that in our real world, a novelist named F. Scott Fitzgerald had written a novel called The Great Gatsby, in which one of the main characters was apparently named Daisy.

Taken from Mahoraba 20:

Now this is the surprise. Momono, yup that rowdy girl who drinks beer everyday… a pianist! And hear this… Sayoko, the incompetent and slow mother… a violinist! They played a classical music combo for a school festival… and they are nothing short of amazing! I could still understand Momono, having that sweet soft side at one point of the series, but heck Sayoko. She would have made a living with those l33t violin skillz! What a waste of talent.

It was pretty hard to get the name of their musical piece. Only by watching the scene n times did I realize that the announcer did state the name of the score. But it was pretty hard to make out because while the announcer was speaking, Mahiru’s genki maid was shouting! What did I get? Something that sounds like “Medilsohn”, “violin” and a number “64”. Thanks to [Bagle->]’s amazing search capabilities (hehe), I got directed to the real score… Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64!! Yay me!

WordPress Appliance - Powered by TurnKey Linux