The color and finish of Filicia’s fountain pen are somewhat similar to a Nakaya Long Cigar in Aka-tamenuri or Heki-tamenuri. It could also be a Neo-Standard. The nib looks to be either stainless steel or rhodium-plated gold. Strangely, the nib is rotated to the left a lot, indicating an oblique nib. However, extra-fine (judging from the line thickness) oblique nibs are exceptionally rare – I’ve never seen any thinner than a fine in fact. And she’s got some fine handwriting.

picture of said pen for comparison

On a somewhat-related note, Ed’s (from Fullmetal Alchemist) is most similar to a Waterman Charleston.

Noël using a ballpoint! A sadly generic-looking clicker. I initially thought that fountain pens would be a mainstay in the series, given their age compared to ballpoint technology. Since the show’s practically confirmed to be in some sort of post-apocalyptic setting, more modern technologies would give way to the rather antiquated ways – and what better way to imply it than with an “old-fashioned” writing implement. I guess not though. I take it she has some sort of supplier for the ink, since modern ballpoint ink is surprisingly complex.

And Noël’s left-handed too.

Going back a few frames, we can see that Noël’s using a magnetic compass without a lens. One has to wonder how she can properly navigate when a) she only has a compass without any other aids like protractors; b) the map she’s using doesn’t have any gridlines or proper marginal notes; c) the compass isn’t exactly oriented to the north – not that you need to when looking for the general direction of an objective. Oh, and the map itself has a river running straight through mountains. By the way, you probably shouldn’t use a ballpoint when working with a map! Pencils are best.

This scene was pretty interesting. A fish swims against the current in the rather pristine river waters. Seeing as the fish swims against the current, we could guess that it’s a salmon, which only goes back to its birthplace in the river to lay its eggs before swimming back to the sea. Kanata then exclaims:

It’s possible to attribute her sense of wonder to her personality, but this also kind of jives with the statement Noël made an episode earlier:

Perhaps we could also say that she was delighted to have seen a fish in its more natural habitat, than wherever else they normally see them.

This scene really reminded me of a chapter in ARIA, “Town Treasure” (v3, ch13), except rather than a lively, bustling Neo-venezian town, the three girls see a barren wasteland, which is of course beautiful in its own way.

Said scene from ARIA manga

Kanata and Rio’s names are in Kanji, and so are Filicia’s and Noël’s, but Kureha is also in Roman characters? I’m no expert in Japanese, but Kureha is quite decidedly a very Japanese name.

バカとテストと召喚獣OP
Title：　Perfect-area complete!
作詞：　畑　亜貴
作曲/編曲：　前山田健一
歌：　麻生夏子

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu OP
Title: Perfect-area complete!
Lyrics: Hata Aki
Composition / Arrangement: Maeyamada Kenichi
Vocals: Asou Natsuko

Kanji:

放っといて育つものなんだ　なんだろう？

one more chance, one more chance
never never give up!
one more chance, one more chance
never give up!

出会いましては簡単すぎるよ
最初に決めた答えはひとつ
ときめきました合格しますか？
恋も勝負もあわてない

コツコツコツと徹夜に溜息
私のなかに天才dreamer
思うことみな叶えばいいな
他人＜ひと＞の世界はきにしない

（にゃ！）

Perfect-area complete!
絶対ここで待ってるんだ
Perfect-area 望む声が聞こえるよ
ah! EAR EAR!!

Why? とまらないすれちがい
私が相談相手なら
「友達かい？」　「友達です。」
悲しき０点だね
No! やりなおしかきなおし
本気で one more chance please
いまやり素敵な未来があるのに
いまやり素敵に my life, my life, my life!!

願いましたよ月にも星にも
科学的にはどうにもならず
かがやき増したあしたを夢みて
恋でガマンを学んだね

ムクムクムクと広がる雨雲
私をぬらす瞬間squall
悩みごとほら流れたみたい
泣き言なんて忘れよう

（よし！）

Passive-nature conversation!
感動したいもっとずっと
Passive-nature 自分次第変われるよ
hi! EAR EAR!!

What? さりげなくきいてみた
私は勉強不足で
「可能性…」　「ありますか？」
試験は何点かな？
Yes! だれだってきみだって
間に合う give up? It’s wrong!
これから始まる季節にあいさつ
これから始める my love, my love, my love!!

気がついたときには　うまれてたなぜだろう？
さあね　意識はもう育ちつつあるよ
つよくつよくね

Why? とまらないこのきもち
私の勉強不足で
「可能性…」　「ありますか？」
それとも０点かな
No! やりなおしかきなおし
本気で one more chance please
いまやり素敵な未来があるから
いまやり素敵に my life, my life, my life!!

–

Romaji:

hottoite sodatsumono nanda nandarou?

one more chance, one more chance
never never give up!
one more chance, one more chance
never give up!

deaimashite wa kantansugiru yo
saisho ni kimeta kotae wa hitotsu
tokimekimashita goukakushimasuka?
koi mo shoubu mo awatenai

KOTSU KOTSU KOTSU to tetsuya ni tameiki
watashi no naka ni tensai dreamer
omoukoto mina kanaeba ii na
hito no sekai wa kinishinai

(nya!)

Perfect-area complete!
zettai koko de matterun da
Perfect-area nozomu koe ga kikoeru yo
ah! EAR EAR!!

Why? tomaranai surechigai
watashi ga soudan aite nara
“tomodachi kai?” “tomodachi desu.”
kanashiki reiten da ne
No! yarinaoshi kakinaoshi
honki de one more chance please
ima yori suteki na mirai ga aru no ni
ima yori suteki ni my life, my life, my life!!

negaimashitayo tsuki ni mo hoshi ni mo
kagakuteki ni wa dounimo narazu
kagayakimashita ashita wo yume mite
koi de GAMAN wo mananda ne

MUKU MUKU MUKU to hirogaru amagumo
watashi wo nurasu shunkan squall
nayamigoto hora nagareta mitai
nakigoto nante wasureyou

(yoshi!)

Passive-nature conversation!
kandoushitai motto zutto
Passive-nature jibun shidai kawareru yo
hi! EAR EAR!!

What? sarigenaku kiitemita
watashi wa benkyou fusoku de
“kanousei…” “arimasuka?”
shiken wa nanten kana?
Yes! dare datte kimi datte
maniau give up? It’s wrong!
kore kara hajimaru kisetsu ni aisatsu
kore kara hajimeru my love, my love, my love!!

ki ga tsuita toki ni wa umareteta naze darou?
saa ne ishiki wa mou sodachi tstsu aru yo
tsuyoku tsuyoku ne

Why? tomaranai kono kimochi
watashi no benkyou fusoku de
“kanousei…” “arimasuka?”
soretomo reiten kana
No! yarinaoshi kakinaoshi
honki de one more chance please
ima yori suteki na mirai ga aru kara
ima yori suteki ni my life, my life, my life!!

Nowadays, the airwaves are flooded with less-than-satisfactory adaptations of eroge/bishoujo games, but as we trace back their roots, we end up at a little anime called To Heart. A dinosaur by today’s animation standards, To Heart really got me with its old-school charm and styling. From what I’ve read, To Heart originally aired in 1999 – over 10 years ago – in a time where people saw the potential of bishoujo game anime adaptations to be nothing more than ero-anime, To Heart turned heads by airing on national TV as a decidedly slice of life show.

Everything about the show feels so… old. In a nonnegative way. The music, the visual styling, the animation – especially the characters. It’s a breath of fresh (decade-old) air. Unlike many of today’s eroge type characters where there are strong dividing lines between archetypes, and that we can basically cherry pick from a list of moe “traits” to form an instant character, To Heart’s many heroines aren’t as hardcoded. Unfortunately, the fact that this is such an old work also shows, particularly in the pacing of the episodes. For the most part, the progression of the show is Hiroyuki meets girl -> Hiroyuki gets to know them better -> Hiroyuki solves problem. Although it’s circumvented by having usually having a combination of the main group of 4 – Akari, Hiroyuki, Shiho, and Masashi working on the problem, it more or less works out this way, after which the girl just sort of vanishes into nowhere. It would have been better to see more interaction among the girls even when it isn’t their arc anymore.

Another aspect of the show that really drew me to it is its slice of life factor. A lot of eroge adaptations often have contrived, complicated plots with plot twists, drama, and so forth, but To Heart is a kickback to the good ol’ days of high school romance (not exactly). It’s nice to just see the characters live their lives without getting them so messed up in needlessly complicated matters that make the viewing experience a more intense one. I hesitate to call this “iyashikei”-type anime, but it wouldn’t be difficult to associate it with the words “gentle” and “pleasant”, because those are perfect descriptions of the show.

It came at a great time for me, really. Had I watched this in my earlier days of “actual” anime fandom, I would have shunned this as a borefest, as I watched stronger and more action-oriented titles like Bleach, through fansubs, and things like GTO and GetBackers through Animax (you know, when it didn’t suck). Over the years, I’ve mellowed out; skipping on action-oriented shows and heading straight to the shoujo, seinen, and other less-manly-sounding shows has become the norm. I suppose tastes evolve over time.

Sadly, the To Heart anime franchise was succeeded by the rather infamous To Heart 2, whose production quality was so abyssmally bad that upon trying to watch episode one, I dropped the show 2 minutes past the opening theme. It is just that bad.

To Heart and To Heart 2 (2005) were animated by Oriental Light and Magic, now know as OLM Inc. Their most prominent works are Utawarerumono, To Heart… And Pokémon.

Despite To Heart’s vintage, the show was only recently picked up for English stateside release. Though Rightstuf recieved the master copies around 2005, being a cel-animated work captured entirely on film and not on a digital format, the remastering process the company was forced to undertake took another two years, pushing back the show’s American release to 2007. I suppose a low-key title like To Heart would’ve been ignored, despite the licensing frenzy that happened during the anime boom that occured years back. Furthermore, it’s most probable that typical American audiences, who were more used to the sex and violence stereotype that anime was so well-known for in its earlier days, couldn’t digest this peaceful piece of work.

Ultimately, I think I was lucky to have picked this during the drawing of lots[1] that took place last month. It hit all the right places – endearing characters (who unfortunately don’t show up much outside of their own arc), a peaceful atmosphere, nice music (asides the OP, whose vocalist was a bit grating to my ears)… All of these factors came together to form a lovely slice of life show that still works well a decade down the road.

[1] – Full disclosure: in a Filaniblogger Christmas get-together, ghostlightning (who is now a 33-year old daddy) decided to have us draw lots containing short shows each of us nominated and have use blog anything about what we watched over the month of January. This is the last entry in this “series”, so to speak. Sorry if I let you down orz

Seems to be a trend with winter being a slow season, which I suppose is good. School’s been picking up again, and lately I’ve been feeling horribly drained and empty. But on with the impressions!

Shows covered in this post:

• Chu-Bra!!
• Seikon no Qwaser
• Dance in the Vampire Bund
• Ladies vs. Butlers!
• Omamori Himari
• Durarara!!
• Ookamikakushi
• Sora no Woto
• Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

Chu-Bra!!. Man, it’s really hard to not associate this show with fanservice. I mean, a girl who has an interest in women’s undergarments. To be honest, judging by the premise alone, the anime would probably turn out to be, well, crap. Rather than being full-on fanservice comedy, it seems to be telling one of those coming-of-age stories with the three girls, and how they use the magical wonders of lingerie to overcome their problems! (probably).

There’s really nothing that makes the show stand out to be honest, even with Chihara Minori’s voicing and all. Overall, it wasn’t really engaging, or interesting, but I do admit, the premise really has me being judgmental about it all. There’s actually quite a number of things that you could learn about women’s underwear (like that bit about children vs. adult panties); not that the non-female half of us can make use of it, however. I suppose it’s just a matter of wait-and-see if things get any better (hopefully so).

I had a quick peek at Seikon no Qwaser’s online webcast and suddenly WHOA NIPPLES AND LACTATION. The TV broadcast didn’t have that, but it had some of the most poorly implemented censoring ever: zooming in on half the picture, destroying the picture quality and making an awful lot of camera angles look even weirder. I didn’t bother watching any other part of it after that. I suppose I shouldn’t have expected anything less, however.

SHAFT likes to mess with things. Sometimes, as in the case of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, it works quite well. Other times, not so much. Dance in the Vampire Bund falls under the latter case. The entire thing felt so off from the source material that the entire show, there was a sense of incompatibility between the media. And while I do acknowledge the differences in media, there is such a huge disconnect that the liberties taken with the show almost come off as insulting to the manga, which I had been reading two months prior.

For a minute or two, I couldn’t help but associate Ladies vs. Butlers! to Gurren Lagann, thanks to Miss S. Flameheart’s twin drills that would pierce the heavens. Excuse the bad joke. Moving on, what have we got? Middling production values, less-than-satisfactory music, and the censoring was painfully strong in this one.  It’s one thing to use censoring to drive DVD sales, but it’s another thing when over half the screen’s whited out. Hell, the entire show feels like an exercise in mediocrity. And the biggest problem for me – the characters are boring and one-dimensional. For a show like this, where the characters are the lifeblood of the entire gig, writing their personalities to be as flat as a board – the complete opposite of just about every girl in the show, mind you – is just going to cause the  viewers pain.

The second episode though, for some reason, was quite enjoyable to watch, if only for the above  scene.

Omamori Himari was one of the shows I was really looking forward to this season. After the first episode, I was just kind of speechless. It felt so, weird. What I can definitely be sure of is that the anime production designs really don’t convey Matsura Miran’s (really really hot) character designs. Some people likened them to Kanokon’s and of the little I’ve seen of it, I would have to agree. Also, apparently, the voice actor for Makoto (of School Days and Nice Boat fame/infamy) is doing Yuuto’s voice, and he is using the exact same Makoto voice! Yuuto’s a pretty decent lead, I would say, and to constantly associate him with one of the most pathetic, most useless leads just kind of irks me.

The first episode’s camera work in the fight scene was a huge disconnect from the rest of the show, cinematography wise. Whoever was in charge of that had a real fetish for cut-ins, I think. Half the freakin’ scene was made up solely of cut-in shots. All in all, it doesn’t manage to make a big impression. Hopefully the succeeding episodes won’t have the just-satisfactory feeling that this first airing had. And even if it did turn out to be mediocre, I’d probably watch it anyway because Koshimizu Ami does antiquated dialects so damned well. Plus Lizlette is too damned cute.

Durarara!! (or Dullalala!!) is penned by the same guy who came up with the highly enjoyable Baccano!, and it’s animated by the same studio too – Brains Base, also responsible for Spice and Wolf II, among other shows. As with Baccano!, there is an ensemble cast with a lot of interweaving stories, but rather than a pulp fiction sort of setting in the prohibition era, it’s set in trendy modern-day Japan.  It just oozes with style, and despite the slow start in the first third or half of the first episode, it quickly picks up the pace in the latter part and never really gets boring. Hopefully it’ll keep this up through its run.

Lately, Ryukishi07’s  been on a spree of bad luck, with both of his works (Cicadas and Seacats) being rather mercilessly butchered by Studio DEEN, but here comes Ookamikakushi! It wasn’t released under 07th Expansion proper – rather as a commercial game with the scenario written by him and character designs by Peach-Pit. Overly round heads aside, the show looks to be another one of those guy-goes-to-town-with-weird-traditions-in-the-middle-of-bumfuck-nowhere-and-suddenly-mysterious-murders-replete-with-killer-lolis plots. Not that I have any problems with that! Lolis are cool! Yeah!

A load of people related a bajillion and a half different anime to Sora no Woto (or So・Ra・No・Wo・To), and despite the fact that it’s (probably) not all copying, I assume that the K-ON!-like character design was most definitely because they wanted to pander a bit to the moe-loving crowd. And of course, the archetypes – clumsy girl, serious girl, jealous loli, lazy/sleepy girl, and carefree girl. But I suppose this is a bit harsh – with the huge variety of shows available to the casual viewer today, we could probably classify any character X under any archetype Y, which I suppose could be the result of having watched so much anime within any period of time.

Anyway, onto the show – it does feel like a slice of life anime; girls in an oft-overlooked military installation just spending their days. It’s almost iyashi-kei, but it’s yet to truly cross that line, I think. I love the setting of a peaceful, rural French town, with a defunct yet high-tech tank sitting in the hangar for a pinch of contrast, and then we have the strange mishmash of Western and Eastern cultures which others have covered in greater depth and breadth than I ever will. It is a very interesting point of discussion though, but as it stands, I have nothing in particular to point out about it. Personally, I would hate it if the show ended up shifting into high gear and getting serious at one point or another, because as it stands, Sora no Woto is perfectly fine as it is.

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu is apparently done by SILVER LINK. but it feels so SHAFT (because apparently one of Shinbo’s staff is working on this). Color filters, blackboard scribbles, and all. Not quite the thriller that say, Ookamikakushi could be, nor is it laced with fanservice like Omamori Himari or Chu-Bra!!. Honestly, I can’t put my finger on what kind of show this is – almost like Seitokai no Ichizon, in that it’s very much character driven and that one never needs to truly take this show seriously. I like that, and I like this a lot.

And I’d Hideyoshi. Totally.

Totalling up my major purchases this year gave me a bit of a shock. I spent a grand total of over 70,000 Pesos (over 1,500 USD holy crap) within the year, not including the food expenses and such which pretty much doubled, maybe tripled this year, college be damned.

Hit the jump for a quick breakdown and of course, graphs.

(excel spreadsheet for reference)

Anime-related purchases:

Figures: 12,500.00
Manga: 9,370.00
Novels: 1,825.00
Games: 2,300.00
Artbooks: 2,000.00
Others: 820.00

Total: 28,815.00

As always, figures cost a ton of money. Last year saw only three new figures for me (Sonic form Fate and Nanoha didn’t get to the shores here, it seems? at the least, WasabiToys didn’t get them) but dear heavens, the Nanoha series of Alter is unbelievably expensive. As is the trend of figure manufacturers these days to up the quality along with cost. Likewise, there’s been a decrease in some manga releases,  but more new, interesting titles also debuted (eg: Negima’s slowing down of releases, alongside Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei’s debut this year). This kept manga expenses to a relatively close level from last year’s. A lot of new light novels were also released – the Haruhi series in particular – as well as Spice and Wolf’s novel form (not that I could buy it). Seems publishers (read: Yen Press) are seeing the potential of light novels too, but because of the tiny, tiny market for these, they ended up changing the presentation to suit the general populace’s tastes (that is, changing the cover design). No biggie. Ar tonelico 2 was released in the year too, and despite the incomplete Japanese voicing, and game-killing bug, I ended up buying a copy anyway. Less artbooks of interest were available this year, so I only ended up getting a copy of ARIA the ILLUSTRATION: AVVENIRE, as well as a (free) copy of Nanao Naru’s Nana-iro Aisu from a friend.  Overall, not so huge a departure from last year’s trends, I think.

Non Anime-related purchases:

Writing instruments: 13,606.25
Ink: 5,326.50
Paraphernalia: 785.00
Headphones: 11,055.00
Components: 13,680.00
Others: 800.00

Total: 45,252.75

This is where things get messy for me. Less money spent on pens, that’s good. But whoa, over twice as much spent on ink; especially on the 3 bottles which each cost 1,100 for me. The price you pay to import premium Japanese stuff, I guess. With all the ink I have on hand though, I should go through this year with relatively fewer expenses. I can most definitely lighten up on the pens too, especially because an aunt found her old Mont Blanc 146 “LeGrande” and just tossed it over to me. That’s pretty much my entire year’s worth of spending right there, and then some!

Headphones… oh man. I think I can squarely place the blame on this new hobby on my ever-so-wonderful host, Randall-onii-chan and Hemisphere and that discussion on awesome headphones on #dasaku a long while ago. Earlier in the year, I got a Grado SR80i (which my parents initially paid for, but I insisted on paying them back) and just a couple months ago, a used and rather beaten-up Audio technica A900 (in need of repairs). And then the components, good gracious. A Digital-Analog Converter, as suggested by Accany (and countless others) already in my possession as well as a used, full-size headphone amplifier coming my way too. I feel horrible about spending all this money on stuff, to be honest.

GRAND TOTAL: 74,067.75

Initially it seemed like a huge sum of money I’d spent that year but taking into account the fact that I made around 700~800 USD in my small business of buying, selling, and trading pens, it doesn’t seem all that huge an amount now. In a sense.

Still, I really feel a huge sense of guilt knowing I spend all this quite freely as a student while other, already professionals, had to bust their bums to earn even less, and all that money went into hobbies rather than into a more worth cause (like you know charity or something).

There went my resolution to spend less.

This goes a little more in-depth from the previous post, noting trends in the shows I watch and things like that. Note that I’m only including anime with seasons from 2009; thus, all movies and OVA are not included, as well as (re)watching of older shows). Some shows that are unfinished are ranked while others are unranked, depending on the show, extent of watching, etc.

Again, this isn’t indicative of the year itself, given that the shows picked are out of my own choice/discretion and therefore, are not in any way a good measure of the year itself, but rather what the year was to me. (eg: subjective statistics(?!?))

Anyway, hit the jump for the numbers and (wait for it-) graphs. Oh my, Jason Miao would be proud.

excel spreadsheet for reference

Graph1

Here we have some pie chart thing with the percentages and exact numbers of great vs. good vs. okay vs. shit anime. As you can see, there are a similar number of good versus okay shows. Honestly, there should have been more shows that ended up as a great show, but ended up falling down to merely good, or sometimes just okay in my opinion. They ended up getting shifted down usually because of only one or two factors or flaws big enough to bring down the show as a whole (see: Haruhi S2 / Endless Eight, Phantom / Ending). Similarly, there were a few shows that were close to being considered as shit, but a few factors influenced my decision to keep them in the realm of just-okay or sometimes all the way back up to good (see: Kampfer / Character Designs, NEEDLESS / Lots of girls).

Edit: Forgot to mention: Not that there are very few I marked as “shit”. I attribute this to my fluctuating standards when it comes to anime. That is all.

Graph2

A nice little line graph showing the number of anime watched (finished or otherwise) from each season of 2009. It all averages to 17 shows per season, which I think is around the typical number of shows watched and/or blogged about by the normal anime viewer.

Graph3

As one may notice, there is a huge climb from winter to spring. If memory serves me right, winter didn’t really have much to offer in terms of shows that I liked. I think. There was some pretty good stuff like RideBack and Sora Kake Girl, but it was pretty barren otherwise. Spring had a lot of stuff to offer, like K-ON! and Saki, Eden of the East, Phantom, and Sengoku Basara, and I watched much of it. However, only 8 were completed, a little over a third of the shows that I initially started with. Summer was where the year’s anime really picked up. Loads of great shows, and barely any crappy stuff; Taishou Yakyuu Musume, Sora no Manimani, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, and of course, Bakemonogatari – all aired in summer. Fall didn’t let up and delivered shows like Sora no Otoshimono, Kimi ni Todoke, and Darker than BLACK’s second season. Also airing in fall was  Aoi Bungaku which, to be honest, I haven’t gotten to watching yet. I’m never really fond of the constantly serious stuff.

Graph4

A line graph would work best in displaying the progression of each season’s quality. As I said earlier, winter offered little in terms of content for me, which is why there’s barely any good shows at all. Spring took place during the gap between high school and college and therefore explains the sudden spike in activity (see graph 2). With more time on my hands, I could be more indiscriminate about what I watched, leading to an overall increase in each category. Summer began alongside the first term of college, which meant I had to be pickier with my shows. This, combined with the shows of the season, led the what I would say was the best season of 2009. Fall follows up with an equal number of great shows, but a general decline in quality. There are a lot less good shows, and more of the mediocre stuff, as well as a shit show – technically infinity times greater than summer’s. Though admittedly, the said show is 11eyes, and I marked it as such because it’s a pretty awful adaptation of the eroge, speaking from the viewpoint of one who’s already played (a bit of) it.

Overall, if I had to rank everything, it would be as follows:

• Summer 2009
• Fall 2009
• Spring 2009
• Winter 2009

Summer and fall however, are both very good in terms of content, but when it comes to the shows in general, summer wins by a hair. Winter on the other hand, was kind of a disappointment in general, while spring is a very typical season.

2009 Year in Review Posts to come: Expenditures

Totally got caught up in ECO that I forgot to type this up; I’m cramming all the anime I watched in the whole 2009 so this is probably the longest post I’ve ever done for the year, though it’s already 2010! (I’m sure it’s still 2009 somewhere).

And without further ado, hit the jump for the rest of the post:

Estimated time spent watching anime: Approx 341 hours

(shows marked with an asterisk denote that they aired only partially or not at all within the year)

I suppose you could just skip this and head straight down to my top 5 of 2009.  Or just read the massive wall of text.

Great shows:

*Ga-rei Zero: As I wrote in my 12 moments series of posts last year – pity I didn’t join in this time – the show starts with a bang and ends with one too. Damn good stuff.
*ARIA the ORIGINATION: Man, the last few episodes were really powerful, and I really felt this sense of loss when I realized that the show had finally ended. We need more things like this in the world.
*Kannagi: Though a lot of people didn’t like it for the sudden loldrama at the end of its run, we can’t discount just how enjoyable the show as a whole was. And Tomatsu Haruka’s voice acting was superb, and a great lead-in to her work in Polyphonica Crimson S (shame about that show thought)
*CLANNAD~after story~: Honestly, I STILL haven’t finished this damned show. It’s too depressing for me to watch, even though I know the ending will make me feel all warm and fuzzy. That doesn’t mean it’s not great however. It is, plot-wise, and KyoAni’s superb animation only helps to carry that all the more.
*Hidamari Sketch: Likewise, I still have yet to finish this. Went through it halfway, but I ended up putting it aside for a while. Maybe I’ll get back to it when I go on an acid trip. (not really)
*Hitohira: I don’t remember who recommended this, but it was a very charming little show that really pushes its characters forward. Lots of great characterization and development, and it’s relaxing to watch too. I keep stopping at the beach camp arc though.
Sora Kake Girl: Apparently, this was like Mai-Hime in space or whatever, except I never watched it so I don’t get the analogy! What I do know though, is that it’s a very entertaining watch. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and by god, no one dies. I think.
K-ON!: Moeblob show, but it’s a moeblob show done right. It hits all the right notes (pun intended) and it’s never a bore to watch. The drama moments feel slightly disjoint from the rest of the flow of the episode, even though it’s really how the manga goes. Weird.
Eden of the East: Damned good stuff. One thing I learned this year is how incredible Production IG is in making some really great shows – Eden of the East is a great show of just that. The first episode on its own is such a great reel that you can’t help but watch (their Johnnies).
Hayate no Gotoku! S2: Just right. A bit of a departure from the first season rife with references, and less focus on the plot. The second season sticks to the manga and lightens up on the random jokes, which is a good thing. It initially felt weird though, since there was such a huge shift in production quality, that I was thrown off for a while. Not that that’s a bad thing, of course.
Saki: Oh man, this made me get into actually playing Mahjong over the net for some time. I still do, on occasion – that’s how awesome and fun the whole show was. Really, if Gonzo did more shows like this and Strike Witches, they wouldn’t be in such a horrible financial situation right now.
Hatsukoi Limited: Hm, it’s almost like watching a number of interconnected short stories. On first loves. A lot of people (me included) compared it to KimiKiss, but honestly, this tops that. Completely.
Taishou Yakyuu Musume: Whoever reads this place on a semi-regular basis (who in their right mind would) would know that I’m a sucker for slice of life, and TYM does it well. With an ensemble cast even. It’s also a nice peek at a Japan’s history of women’s baseball. I think.
Bakemonogatari: Oh man, this show. So awesome. The source material, the direction, and the peak of it all – the dialogue. I could just watch any two characters of the show talking and already it would be interesting enough as it is. And let’s not forget Senjougahara Fascination; I’m sure many others were taken in by her too. I’m a Nadeko supporter, however! Go go Nadeko~
Sora no Manimani: A sleeper hit and a charming slice of life/comedy. Or perhaps comedy/slice of life. The two genres mesh so well together in here that it’s difficult to separate the two, or put one in front of the other. It’s a real pity that this slipped under the radar of a lot of bloggers, because this was and is a really, really good series.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0: God this was depressing. Depressing as hell. But boy it was good. Bones knows how to make shows. After this and DtB, I’ve really looked up to them now.
Seitokai no Ichizon: Surprisingly, DEEN makes an adaptation that is better than mediocre! I thought they had no hope, after butchering Fate, Higurashi, and Umineko. I suppose maybe they just need to stay the hell away from serious stories. And CG dragons.
Sora no Otoshimono: I may get bashed for this, but Sora no Otoshimono is damned good. “But it has flying panties!” you may say, but the show does it all very well. Comedy is comedic, slice of life is nice and lifey, and serious moments are SRS, especially in the latter half of the show. Heck, the author, Minadzuki Suu, is the same person that penned Watashi no Messiah-sama, and well, that was one damned good series. I really wish that they didn’t go with such a short 13 episode run though, it’s left me wanting for more, and at the moment, only the manga can supply my fix.
Kimi ni Todoke: Really feel-good stuff, this show is. Perhaps the one thing that makes me smile so much is Sawako’s innocence; never does she assume that people are bad, or that they do bad things. I suppose it’s got something to do with her lack of self-esteem, but the way she’s so positive about everything around her just warms my heart.
Darker than BLACK S2: Man, this was not enough. Not enough at all. We need more now. But Hei should keep his face shaved at all times, and his hair trimmed and kempt. Otherwise, he looks evil.
*Kara no Kyoukai movies: This shit is cool. Period.
First Squad: The Moment of Truth: It’s an interesting take on the World War, and is presented in such a way that you’d almost think it’s real (I almost did). Plus Russian-dubbed anime is pretty rare and interesting in itself, though the VA’s weren’t very… “into it”?
Summer Wars: Every single one of the characters is likeable. Squeezing such a huge family into the span of two hours, you’d think a lot of them would be shoved aside, but as the climax proves, a family together is a real force to be reckoned with.

Good shows:

*Toaru Majutsu no Index: Too much exposition, which ultimately made the show kind of boring and full of random yak-yak instead of action. And Index gets shafted later on. Not too shabby a show though.
*Toradora!: It was good, but not that good. And apparently the episodes started fluctuating in quality later on.
*Spice and Wolf: Short arcs meant it had to be paced right, but it was not. Gotta love the Holo/Lawrence dynamic, however.
*HidaSketch x365: It doesn’t quite match up to the original, really. But I suppose that’s it. A fun show nonetheless.
*Xam’d: Very interesting, but sometimes I just Didn’t Get It. Your mileage may vary, I suppose. Still, it’s a very intriguing watch.
*Shigofumi: I’d kept watching, but it was just so damned depressing. Depressing is okay, but I can’t take it for the whole 25 minutes. Beneath that veneer is a gold mine though, which I really need to get to digging.
*Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: More of the same, I suppose. Not so bad, I guess.
*Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka: The only reason why this didn’t end up in great was that totally random ending. Everything had already pointed to a Yuuhi end, but they ended up turning the tables on the very last minute and gave everyone a happy incest end. (though I suppose there’s nothing wrong with that too)
Maria†Holic: An enjoyable watch, and Kobayashi Yuu always makes for a whacked-out, crazy as hell character. Not much actual rewatch value though, aside the laughs.
Asu no Yoichi: An inoffensive show. Nothing bad, nothing special. And nothing else.
RideBack: Initially enjoyable, but when everything started getting serious, the show just slowly sloped downhill from there.
White Album: I suppose I’m not rating this too badly because I didn’t realize how much of a dick Touya was until the second season. His character alone makes me rage at the show, actually. Unfaithful bastard.
Kemono no Souja Erin: I only had this for like one, two episodes, and then got dropped. It’s not bad per se, but it just didn’t suit my tastes.
Haruhi S2: Absolutely brilliant, had it not been for Endless Eight. That was – excuse the language – some of the dumbest fucking shit I have ever seen pulled off.
Valkyria Chronicles: It had great production values, but just not enough going for it to sustain my interest.
Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~: Bee Train, in its quest for artfaggerjackery, totally ruins the ending of what could have otherwise been a great series by going against the canon ending by instead killing Reiji. Dumb move guys, dumb move.
Tears to Tiara: Superb production quality, but the whole show has this sort of dumbness to it, with lines like “Swords don’t lie!” and things like that. And it’s quite formulaic in its execution.
Shin Mazinger Z: First episode was filled with MEGA AWESOME GAR, but I ended up dropping it because I don’t like mecha in the first place. Whoops.
Sengoku Basara: More GUTS AND PASSION GAR, but for some reason I ended up dropping it anyway. I wonder why.
NEEDLESS: I thought it was absolute crap, but then around episode 5 it just turned into a show with lots of girls (with good character design). Fun for the entire family!
CANAAN: It’s like an thriller/action movie chopped up into a 13-episode series. Which sounds cool, except the pacing is godawful bad. By the time the episode ends you’re wanting more, but by the time the next one starts, you’ve already lost your drive.
Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: See Zoku SZS.
Princess Lover!: As with Asu no Yoichi, it’s an unoffensive show (asides the lolicon I suppose) and actually quite enjoyable if you get into it. Sadly, it won’t be anything more than that.
Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou: Though the premise was pretty interesting and the characters fun, it didn’t really seem to go anywhere with it. Too bad, since the cast was a fun bunch.
Spice and Wolf II: An improvement from the first season; there were only two main arcs, which let the story build up nicely and allowed the plot to get a foothold. In turn, the pacing was vastly improved, and the show as a whole felt very coherent. Not at all rushed or lacking.
GA -Geijutsuka Art Design Class-: Talk about a redundant title. It’s funny, but not really laugh-out-loud funny, but it has a certain cohesiveness that some other gag shows lack.
Nyan Koi!: A fun series with a well-rounded cast. Plus cats. Cats are cool. What definitely was not, however, was the ending, which was kind of cheap. I would’ve preferred a different way to end it, rather than the whole Junpei turning into a cat thing.
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Railgun eschews the exposition that plagued Index thankfully. Still, I can’t help but feel that there’s a certain (scientific) thing missing, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Cencoroll: An amateur production just about animated by a single person. It’s interesting on its own but it would have benefited from some further exposition, or more dialogue, because it has a very dry, rough-around-the-edges feel to it.
To Heart: Very retro. Very. But it tickles my interests because despite its eroge roots, it is firmly slice of life. At least, according to bluemist it is.

Okay shows:

Macademi WAsshoi!: Fun, cheap laughs. Lots of nakedness.
*Soukou no Strain: Beginning is really, really good, but plummets around halfway point (Lavinia filler episodes, especially).
Minami-ke Okaeri: Lost the charm that the original series had.
Hetalia Axis Powers: Cute, but kind of pointless. Good for a few laughs though.
KuroKami: An injustice to the manga.
Shoujo wo Miageru Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai: The only mediocre thing KyoAni’s put out in recent history.
Asura Cryin’: Totally lost interest. Not very good to begin with, now that I think about it. Seven Arcs should just get back to Nanoha already.
Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica Crimson S: Bad budget, everything feels a bit dumb, but man Tomatsu Haruka’s voice acting is fun to listen to.
Tayutama -Kiss on my Deity-: Having played the game prior, I can’t help but make comparisons at every corner. All of which are in favor of the game.
Natsu no Arashi: As I mentioned earlier, I just can’t get along with the art direction. Nasty stuff, man.
07-Ghost: I thought it’d be even half-worth watching, but it was just full of pretty boys anyway.
Pandora Hearts: I blame my classmate for being such a rabid fangirl about this that I ended up hating the show. Alice is a great character though.
Shangri-La: Started off okay, but in typical Gonzo style, turned crap pretty quickly.
Ristorante Paradiso: I gave it a chance, but… no. Just… no.
Fight! Ippatsu Juuden-chan: Hm. Pissing your panties. Lovely. Not that bad though.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni: It’s watchable, but the typical DEEN massacre is all over the place. Some people noted that it wasn’t so bad, but… eh. They rode too much on the killer loli thing.
Kanamemo: Initially interesting, but the only fun thing that remained after a few episodes was loli-molesting.
Umi Monogatari: The characters really made a bad impression on me that I ended up dropping it posthaste. I think
Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra: The show is very disjoint and throws around a lot of events that seem to only forward the plot. And good heavens, the OP is by Ali Project.
Kampfer: More like Mein Kampfer. Character designs are very nice though!
White Album S2: Touya’s continuation of being a dick just irks me too much. Far too much.
Seiken no Blacksmith: It’s decent, but the katana fetishism really gets to you sometimes. I suppose if you ignore all the cliches and stuff, there’s nothing truly offensive, by my standards (they are low).
Shin Koihime Musou: Just random hijinks from our wonderful feminized ancient warriors of China! Maybe I should give this a second chance and see if it improves?
Kobato: I was kind of hyped to watch this because my old Newtype issues had the first serialization of the manga, but I was just disappointed.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu S2: Inoffensive, but mediocre, unlike say, Princess Lover!.
Trapeze: It’s like a series of short stories, except the way they’re presented in is annoyingly pretentious. Please don’t pretend to be Shinbo kthx.

Shit shows:
Akikan!
Queen’s Blade
Arad Senki ~Slap Up Party~
11eyes

Top 5 anime of 2009 (in no particular order because I will be lynched otherwise):

• Bakemonogatari
• Eden of the East
• Summer Wars
• Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
• Kimi ni Todoke

2009 Year in Review Posts to come: Anime Statistics, Expenditures

Edit: I may be getting air dates and stuff messed up; shows that aired before 2009 are marked as such… to the extent of my memory.

illust: きもこ＠マイピク募集中 pixiv

Happy New Year!

Multiple late “Year in Review” posts to follow. (lol cramming)

It’s a great time to be a erogamer. Even if you’re English-based without a shred of Japanese knowledge, there are countless translation projects out there that one can read. Given the plethora of already released eroge/visual novels , there’s sure to be one that caters to your tastes. Gal-ge, Naki-ge, Nuki-ge, Yaru-ge… All sorts of ADV’s / visual novels are right there waiting to be gobbled up.

But I’m here to talk about one in particular: Liar-soft’s Sekien no Inganock -What a beautiful people-.

Plot:

You are Gii, a travelling doctor wandering the <fantastic> city of Inganock. 10 years ago, a great catastrophe fell upon the city; the <infinite mist> surrounded Inganock, isolating the city, mutating humans and every living thing, and releasing monsters and hideous creatures that lay waste to the city. The once perfect, self-sufficient engine city was now a <fantastic> city that no one in the <known world> dared to speak of.

On one of your walks around the city, you encounter a little girl being abducted by a <behemoth>. After saving her, you find that she is not just any girl – ordinary, yet not ordinary. Not within Inganock. What happens to you from here on out-?

Characters:

	Gii: The doctor who seeks salvation, the one who extends his arm. He wanders the lowest tiers of Inganock as a Cracking Doc – a doctor who manipulates the Phenomenon Equation to heal injuries by “fixing” bodily errors. Walking around in a perpetually sullen face, he will extend his arm to anyone and everyone who needs help.
	Ati: The cat who looks at the sky, the sighing woman. She mutated into a <coeurl> – a <fantastic> mutant with the characteristics of cats and tigers. Working as a runner – a freelance mercenary – she utilizes her steel-like muscles and reflexes strengthened with crack engines to accomplish her often life-threatening duties in her line of work.
	Kia: A girl who gazes, who continues to wander. She and Gii meet on the infinitely crowded street of the seventh tier. Gii steps in as she is taken away by a <behemoth> and saves her. She holds an unending curiosity and a childlike innocence that the peoples of Inganock have long forgotten, like their memories of the <revival> that occurred 10 years prior.
	Kerkan: The one who understands salvation, the man who wishes for death. A former enforcer of the government, he wanders the streets of Inganock. In his travels, he delivers the only salvation to the citizens of Inganock – death. Kerkan has a long-standing hatred for Gii and his line of work; while Kerkan culls lives, Gii restores them. However, he seems to have a hidden agenda behind all of this…?
	Ruaha: The steel girl who continues to be a human. An “automaton” who has lost her master, and all her ties and relations. She stays alone in a large warehouse full of useless texts and documents, awaiting any visitor who comes. Otherwise, she simply stands still in standby mode – not even a twitch or blink.

[mind the spoilers from here on]

Translation comments:

Honorifics are retained. Good; I like it that way. A lot of words and terms are enclosed in brackets such as <fantastic>. It throws me off, but this is originally part of the script. I didn’t particularly like the way that the text was linebroken however, just to preserve the original linebreaks. It makes the text look awkward at times, but it still flows smoothly. More or less. I spotted less than 5 major typos too. Overall a great job for the time taken.

Review Proper:

The most outstanding aspect of Inganock, I would say, is the setting. It’s downright incredible. The sky is perpetually dark – not even a glimpse of sun. Air is never clear, constantly clouded with the smog that comes as a by-product of the heavy utilization of the engines. There’s child labor, prostitution, and people die right and left, without anyone batting an eyelash. Whenever it rains, it pours for days, leaving nary a single patch of ground untouched – as if the whole city were crying out for its citizens, both dead and alive. Yet despite this, there are the little slivers of light that slip between the cracks. No matter the situation, the people of Inganock cope with their surroundings, their situation, and continue to struggle through life, such as Paru, Lupo, and Polun’s boundless energy and happiness, despite their illness and situation. These little things are like candles in the night, continuing to shine light to the otherwise depressing, desolate setting.

Graphics are very fitting for the story. There’s a roughness to the paper dolls, and the way there’s a flower-pattern overlaid on the colored areas is a very nice touch; it lends a uniqueness and depth to what could otherwise be a dull, boring picture. Lighting effects are done very tastefully too. Because much of the light comes from incandescent sources due to the lack of natural sunlight, there’s a warm tone to the CG’s that contrasts sharply with the dark, dank, bleak atmosphere of Inganock. Overall, the presentation of the game is almost like a picture book, rather than a typical ADV or VN. And a plus – the main character isn’t faceless.

BGM is good all around. There aren’t many tracks, but for a game you could finish in 2~4 days (with a walkthrough), it’s just enough that you don’t get sick of the music. Pieces I particularly liked were 02 – Daily Life / Always, 06 – Daily Life / Detective, 08 – Destiny / Destiny go round, 11 – Battle / Endless Dance, and 12 – Battle / Dancer across the deadline. Always and Detective lend very well to the dirty, steampunk atmosphere of Inganock. The latter in particular, has a jaded mood that matches perfectly with the citizenry of Inganock. Endless Dance and Dancer across the deadline are great in upping the tension for the battle, though after a few goes, it does get a little annoying. Not so much because of the music, but because of the writing, which I’ll rail on in a little while. Destiny go round is a lively, almost playful track, evocative of the days of the wide open countryside – a far cry from Inganock’s current state. Although I suppose it’s just me. Still, this is the sort of music I’d kill to get into the elevators for.

Inganock (the game) presents its story with a game system that I hadn’t encountered before – “Inner Voices”. In brief, one is shown a portion of the game’s cast. You can choose to listen to whoever’s character sprite is highlighted, which then unlocks another one or more to listen to. In order to get the choice that does NOT lead to a bad end, you have to be able to listen to enough voices to de-mosaic the characters on either side of the screen. If you don’t pick the characters in the proper order, you’ll forced to choose end because there are no more highlighted characters, and in doing so, you’ll get a bad ending later on in the chapter. Personally, though an interesting element of play at first, it essentially degenerates into a save-load-save-load cycle until you get the right order for the chapter. Since there are no ways to really tell the order, one has to rely on knowing who can speak next, which is still flawed as you may make a mistake early on and not realize it until much later.

The game is very, VERY sparse on the ero content. Out of all the 11 scenes in the recollections section, only 6 involve nudity, and within those 6, only 4 involve sex, and within those 4, only 2 involve sex with you (Gii). Heck, there are a couple scenes that aren’t ero at ALL, but are just scenes that involved multiple CG. Of course, the good thing is that both those eroscenes involve you and Ati, which is a good thing! If you can’t tell by now, I absolutely love Ati and her character. She is awesome and love.

On the bad points of the game – and there are quite a few – I would attribute much of it to the writing. Though the setting is quite well-established, and though the characters are likeable in some way or another, these skips in quality are so noticeable that I cannot comprehend how or why they slipped through

One. Gii is invincible. Every fight has him winning without a scratch on him. No matter how powerful the enemy is, he always seems to *magically* take no damage and completely wipes the opponent out completely. This totally, totally makes the fights anticlimactic and destroys any tension that could’ve possibly built up earlier because you know despite the odds, he’s going to win. Period. The only time this doesn’t hold true is the 12th chapter where Gii fights Kerkan. He fends off Gii’s first attack – only to be done in with the second.

Two. Copy-paste writing. Absolutely sloppy, and absolutely unforgivable. This ties in with the earlier fault where Gii always wins. Not only do you know he’s going to win, but after reading a couple of chapters into the game, you know how each fight carries out. First, Gii extends his right hand. There’s the same comment on how he moves, and then the enemy attacks! (exclamation mark is significant) Gii remains unscathed, and says “Too slow.”, to which the enemy screams at or makes a comment on. Gii replies “Don’t cry.” and then proceeds to command his <Kikai> to slash/smash/incinerate/tear enemy with his right arm. Other sections of the game also contain almost exactly the same dialogue, such as the golden staircase scenes with Astea; heck, they reuse the same voices too. Perhaps there is a meaning in the repetition, I cannot say, but to my experience, this is just mere padding and lazy writing on the scenarist’s part. On the upside, there are no two “…”  lines every start and end of a scene. That’s good.

Three. Partial voice acting. This totally throws off anyone who’s playing the game without any prior knowledge of it. Initially, you’d assume it’s almost fully voiced, with everyone but Gii getting a voice. Then you think, “Oh, maybe it’s just the heroines.” when the other side characters don’t have any voices either. But then in the third chapter’s first half, everyone loses their voice. I suppose it’s a minor issue, or perhaps a budget/production problem, but it’s a very distracting issue nonetheless.

Fourth. Now this is a bit personal, but I very much disliked the way they handled Ati in chapter 11. She finally confesses her love to Gii, but she soon meets her “end” at the hands of Lemure Lemure. Now, I really hate it when the characters I like meet unpleasant ends, but when they simply get used as a plot device, or as a means of forcing tears out, I rage. This is the latter. I seriously did not see any point in shafting Ati when really, in the greater scheme of things, she played a merely insignificant role anyway. Furthermore, it’s unfair to the Ati fans to see Kia – Ati’s rival, in a sense – end up with Gii.  Hell – it’s even implied that Gii had fallen for Ati as well. Kia never did a damned thing while we see so much development in Ati’s side of things that it feels as if Ati was killed off in order to pair up Kia with Gii.

Don’t get me wrong of course, the game is incredible in its own right. It’s definitely not for everyone though. The game’s theme and mood are dark. Very dark. Enough have gotten me thinking about it gloomily for the few days I played it. Also, the game leaves a lot of questions unanswered – what happened to Gii and Kia? What of Ruaha and Kerkan? Is the little kid at the end Porshion? What then of the other 40 <Kikai>, were they also able to come back as Porshion did? Where did Ati go? And so on. I personally like my fairytale endings and happy stories, but open-ended stuff like this is good too. Still, the game’s setting and atmosphere are executed very well, and I think if you like stories like those, I’m sure you’d like Inganock too. In light of the shortcomings of the game, I cannot bring myself to rate it very highly either. If only they’d polished it up a little better, it would have been one awesome game.

7/10

All images taken from game or from Liar-soft’s website (game, home 18+ only!). All copyrights belong to their respective owners. Etc.

It’s the last Christmas for the single-digit years of the 21st century.

But boy, it sure don’t feel like it.