I am..

...too busy this week.

Here are some boobs instead.

I love boobs

Enjoy!

Crazy Japanese stuff in anime

*Includes spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*

Okay, so this week it all started with me showing the Mameshiba world to a friend of mine. He laughed and scratched his head and showed it to all his friends. (Btw if you don't know what Mameshiba is, I really urge you to go click the link - hours of Japanese style mental fun).
I first saw the Mameshiba ad when I was watching Ao no Exorcist (Blue Exorcist) and for some reason the stream had these crazy little dog-beans running around and singing in ridiculously squeaky voices in between the real show. Here:

So by the end of the series, I was more looking forward to these dog-beans than the show itself. Turns out the little buggers show up at the most unexpected time to pester you with extremely random trivia.   
Now, let me ask you - who the hell thinks of something like that? So one day you go to work and tell your boss: "Ok, so today we could work on these characters who are beans... but also dogs! And to make things more interesting, they also have a broad horizon!" "Ow, right, brilliant plan!"  
Well... I hope he got a promotion, cause the Mameshiba are very entrancing.  

But it got me thinking about all the completely mental stuff that you can encounter in animes - and I don't even mean the usual things like trying to see girls panties or getting a nosebleed when you think about too perverted things. 
First of all, Japanese people have really weird ideas about western culture. It's as if their legends and myths were true, and ours are just... optional. Like good ol' Saber here.
 

Let me break it down for you: the chosen one just happened to be a girl, named Arturia, but since no one thought it was possible for a woman to rule and yet the will of Excalibur was unquestionable, they all pretended she was a man. Okay, that may not be too bad, right? Except then, in Fate/Zero, we are revealed that Arturia married Guinevere who became her queen, mostly just for the appearance of it. A 'king' has got to have her queen, yo. Then everyone freaked out when Guinevere fell in love with Lancelot. Let me quote (from FSN wikia):  

When Lancelot and the queen began their affair, the Knight of the Lake considered fleeing Camelot with her, but his loyalty to Arturia and his sense of duty prevented him from doing so. When political enemies of the king exposed the affair, the queen was ordered to be executed. Left with little choice, Lancelot attempted to save her, killing several of his fellow knights including Gawain's brothers Gareth and Gaheris in the process. 

Which is why Berserker was born. There's a bit of a different view on it under the Saber link, but the point remains - basically there were two woman, married to each other, but there was no lesbian action nor was neither of them allowed to secretly get a guy. Sounds legit. Very much Japanese-style self sacrifice. And a beautiful western legend - raped.

Another curious thing - maybe not so much about crazy Japanese stuff, but more about their view on life and love - there is almost never ever any love or kissing (and things are faaaaaar from sex) in anime, especially if it's about school and magic. But then in 11 Eyes, it suddenly becomes OK! Because they're doing it to give the guy more power - so that he could go save his girlfriend :D
Dayum dude, your girlfriend might not be too happy about that.

Anyway, coming back to real Japanese weirdness, have a look at what they've done with the French Maid concept.

So they took a sexy costume, added cat, made the girls say 'nyan-nyan' to satisfy Japanese perversion and shoved them into café's. Awesome. That's exactly who I want to be serviced by - submissive Japanese hybrids of cat and maid.

Now let's talk about the legendary move by Hatake Kakashi. Oh yes, Naruto knows all about it, the poor boy. Sennen Goroshi or a Thousand Years of Death/Pain. Well yes, it sure sounds like it. What exactly went through the heads of whoever created this? "Well, I've got a plan - lets make this grown up epic ninja, who is also the rolemodel and teacher of these three kids, stick his fingers up the boys butt. But only as a lesson, okay?" .... Right.
Btw, seen this move elsewhere too. I'm guessing that means they really use it, huh...   

Aaaand then there's Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai (Seriously, Fall in Love With Me) or Majikoi for short that is pretty much on the highest level of mental I have ever seen (okay, at least among the more respectable ones). One girl sneaks into the male lead's bed every morning to try and have sex with him, so he leaves a rolled up futon with a cucumber attatched to it as a decoy. Why? He doesn't want her.
 She also replaces all of his porn with images of herself (overly attatched girlfriend much?), even made him an erotic video game starring... herself. There are scenes where the protagonist wiggles his balls around to show how much they resemble some Japanese deep fried food; people hold embarrassed conversations in the buff for like 5 minutes in a row, talking about how it shouldn't be embarrassing; a penis-festival; a lesbian limbless cyborg... pretty much everything you can think of.
What caught my eye especially was a totally new level of street perversion. So this little dude, Ikurou Fukumoto is obsessed with getting panty-shots with his camera and when he fails, he calms himself down with his ultimate technique:

Yes, he pretends his fingers look like girls lower body. And yep, the inside of his elbow is her butt. For some reason, I'm not sure this is entirely fiction... oh that's right! Maybe because Japanese people tend to sniff dirty panties, too...   

I have more grains to spill next Friday. In the meanwhile share your opinion - what crazy stuff have you seen?

Autumn 2012

*Includes spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*

So most of the new shows have aired by now - some even have a second episode out - and like any self-proclaimed anime specialist, I too am now going to dive into the world of striking metaphors and clever wordsmithing!
Just kidding.
Let the expert opinions be given by obsessive fanatics. I'll do the good honest normal people version of what impressions the new shows left on me. 
I'll be using a primary version of something I like to call the HAI or Hopes-for-Anime Indicator and even though it sounds pseudo-fancy, it's just the weighted average of what I think works or doesn't work in the new anime. It spares me the trouble of having to address all the major aspects of a show in word, especially if I'm going to watch around 30 of them. I expect the method to be improved by the beginning of the Spring anime season 2013, but for now I'll stick to what I've come up with. I've focused on the ones I liked best, but it's possible to see the full list here.

Haru and Shizuku

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun  
8,7 (of 10)

...also known as My Little Monster, is exactly what it says it is - a show about a monster. Well, except his name is Haru and he is handsome, strong, surprisingly emotional ... and a genius. He's also wild, unstoppable and extremely impulsive, which puzzles the dryly rational heroine Shizuku to the core. As much as Shizuku may want to focus on her studies, she gets completely caught up in the little monster's pace after a teacher bribes her to take Haru some handouts and he decides they are friends. Because she brought him his homework. Duh. Obviously.

But things don't stop there as by the end of the first episode there have already been confessions of love, violence towards Shizuku's face, a change of heart and even a kiss. Watching one episode of this show feels like you've watched an entire season or at least a full length movie. But during the entire time it keeps you glued to the screen since the humor and absurdly comical situations pop out at any thinkable moment. 
Now I'm not your typical school romance fan - rather, I avoid these shows as much as possible. But this one starts off very strong, providing some captivating characters and a quickly evolving story which spices up the usual school and romance anime. Also, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun brings funny instead of awkward and embarrassing. What's there not to love!
Whereas the animation isn't anything special, it manages to keep up with the dynamic style of the rest of the show. All in all - lots and lots of potential, but whenever a show premiers this well, the question becomes: Will it be able to keep it up?

Btooom! 

Ryouta and Himiko

8,2 (of 10)

Everyone probably has that one friend who still lives at home with his mom, doesn't work or go to school and spends his days engulfed in video games. Well that's exactly where this anime starts off and with your typical gamer-gets-thrown-into-game setting, Ryouta, whose sole life has been pwning n00bs in the shooter game Btooom!, suddenly wakes up on an island equipped with a bomb pouch and no clue how he got there. 
Although it sounds like almost any other anime of the sort, from .//hack to the latest addition Sword Art Online, I found Btooom! pretty captivating. The majority of action in the first episode takes place in the main character's head - as there is no one else to talk to - and yet the authors manage to skillfully create a rich background and a spot on personality. For the first time, Ryouta is forced to think about what he is actually doing in the game he so loves and whether it's a healthy thing to be throwing bombs at people.

Somehow they've managed to display him as scared and confused as anyone would be when stranded on an island where other bloodthirsty 'players' are lurking, but he's not as a complete wuss. There is naturally the obligatory moral dilemma about killing people but luckily it doesn't drag on.
Visually it's nothing mind blastingly special, but the details and scenery are done rather well and all in all it rises well above average. Looking forward to the rest of the show and hoping it won't become a random action anime.

Shinsekai Yori
8,0 (of 10)

Shinsekai Yori

Shinsekai Yori, or From the New World as it is translated, appears to be the obligatory messed up sci-fi/mystery/post apocalyptic show of the season. Although it places somewhere below NGE on the level of crazy, the show brings together bits and pieces from a world that is strange and hard for us to understand. In the beginning we are shown a regular view of the modern world where suddenly people and things get torn apart. Then we teleport into the future where scenes of a Shintoistic/Buddhistic ritual take place - and at the same time we are shown a girl who 'has the Spirit of Adulthood come upon her'. That's when you know this one is mental enough to be the apple of the eye for all the critics.
As for the rest of us, the lack of structure might bring confusion and loss of interest instead of wrapping us into a mystical world of supernatural and horror. A good slowly unravelling structure is vital to a show with so many thorough aspects and unlike Steins;Gate, Mushi-shi and FMA: Brotherhood, this one seems to leap from one topic to the other, leaving many things laying around like horses you forgot to draw all the legs to as a child. So they're just spasming there on the ground. Horrible.
With that said, From the New World offers a great variety of topics along with the edge of spookiness, characteristic scenery and the hope of something great evolving from all the crazy. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the entire thing.

K
7,9 (of 10) 

Not entirely sure what the K stands for (okay? kool kids?), but the anime itself is packed with extraordinary visuals and lots of 'ubercool' characters. Actually, it gets rather ridiculous how many kakkoii guys they've managed to shove in there. And the visual side is clearly what the show is counting on, as the rest of the story just does not seem to evolve during the first episode. There are hints of a mildly interesting story - and there's magic, so it can't be all that bad. We are shown a gang of cool guys, whom you can see above, and a happy-go-lucky school kid, who might not belong to that school at all. For most of the show they are just shown to run their own errands and only in the last few minutes do these two stories clash. Oddly enough, those last few minutes make you want to know more and find out why the cool guys are after the school kid.
All in all, amazing visuals, not a lot of story, but somehow the potential makes up for it. Let's hope it actually does.
 
Wooser no Sono Higurashi

Wooser

7,8 (of 10)

He looks kind of cute but he's blunt and brutal and shameless - which also makes the short series extremely likable. Wooser, the yellow rabbit-like thingy to the right, ------------------>
is the main character of Wooser no Sono Higurashi or Wooser's Hand-to-Mouth Life. In a few minutes he displays some serious narcissism, his love for meat and, being surrounded by young girls, I'd say a fair amount of perversion. Still, Wooser is a funny little fellow and although there is no plot whatsoever and the entire thing is put together from random bits, it's plenty to give you a good laugh. Now add to that the magnificent voice of Mamoru Miyano in the style of Hououin Kyouma and it becomes just unstoppable! Well hopefully.
 
Zetsuen no Tempest
7,7 (of 10)

Zetsuen no Tempest

It's only once in a while that I hear anything as ridiculous as the phrase 'Civilization Blaster'. What the hell is that?? It sounds like the mixture of a nuclear bomb and a confetti gun. But that's exactly what Zetsuen no Tempest or Blast of Tempest has been given as the full title: The Civilization Blaster. Well, be that as it may, this show is bringing everything possible to a fantasy anime - magic, guns, love, murder, poetry, a mysterious disease, a strange cult - the full package. Actually, it goes to the extent where you start wondering if someone is maybe overdoing it. But strangely enough, Zetsuen no Tempest seems to have the potential to pull it off - everything is fused and blended pretty naturally, everything has a reason, a consequence and next to magic, it's still a world that we know. Will it be a Code-Geass-style win or a Guilty-Crown-style failed attempt?
By the way, the visual is pretty nice - including teleportation magic and the scenery. The addition of Shakespeare's poetry might have been pushing it though. Well, let's hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

It is now possible to subscribe, so if you enjoyed the blog, be sure to do that! 
I have more grains to spill next Friday. In the meanwhile share your opinion - which of the new ones did you enjoy most?

...and then came the sequel...

*Includes spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*

In the light of a new season starting in the anime world, I'm inclined to be a bit melancholic about all my favourite shows that have ended - and I mean in general, not the previous season. When I watch or read something that I really grow fond of, it's extremely hard to let go of it in the end. Let's say I'm reading the Game of Thrones series and finally, finally, mr Martin finishes the damn saga. That's terrifying! It's like the end of a world! Although I don't like waiting years and years for the next part of the story, at least there is something to look forward to. It's kind of like losing something from your life if there is nothing else coming! Here, let me paint a picture:

Regardless, however desperate I may be, I recognize that at some point all good things must end. Or they stop being good. And yes, Hollywood, I mean you especially. Although there may be money to be made from '[insert name here] Adventures 2&3&4...' due to the gullible hopeful fans of '[insert name here] Adventures 1', story and qualitywise it would just be better to stop with the first. Sometimes before the first.

I'm not sure if that idea entirely works in the anime world though. There definitely are some animes that have overstayed their welcome, like the endless sequels of Digimon (I did like the first 3, by the way), Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Gundam - there are plenty. But more surprising are the ones that become a more special and diverse story with sequels. I'd say, at least to some extent, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Naruto Shippuuden do that. If you look at the top anime list here, you can see that many sequels are ahead of their first part in the list. So today I'll be focusing on the ones that I think absolutely profit from having a sequel or a second season.

Code Geass

Although this one was probably never meant as one season only, it's original run time was from fall 2006 to March 2007. The next season aired over a year later, in April 2008. It's not very uncommon for shows to get canceled and sequels to be announced and called off again, so if I had been watching it from the Japanese TV back then, I would've been rather scared that the first season would be the end of it. Even if there are various reasons for delaying a show on purpose - from creating more word of mouth marketing to polishing every edge of the new piece of work - you can never really know what's going on behind the curtains and weather your beloved show will make it back to the screen.
But thank goodness it did, because it was clearly the second season that brought it home. Where the first part was what built the story and gave it colour and some background, it was the pace, new variations and characters of the second season that provided such an epic culmination. It brought so many new elements and yet managed to keep the vibe from the first part - not to mention create new word of mouth publicity with the ending and become one of the most legendary psychological and strategic minds anime ever.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

This one has a very specific topic so I don't really blame you if you haven't seen it - or have avoided it.
The first season, which ended in September 2006, painted a rather bloody picture that could arguably be targeted to very sick people only. There were a couple of live-action movies and even a spinoff OAV before the 'official' second season aired July 2007, but it really was the second season that saved everything. Where the first season was cute-kids-getting-brutal, the second gave it some kind of context and reasoning which made it less sickening and more tragic. I know people who've watched a few episodes of the first season and then looked at me in disgust for having seen two seasons of it and never ever speak of it again. In my defense - I even told them that it may be pointless to watch the first season if you're not going to follow through the second since otherwise all you'll remember are twisted pictures from a story with no point other than killing people off over and over

Clannad: After Story

Probably one of the most famous sequels as well as a long time top of the ANN best anime list, Clannad: After Story is what saves the anime for me. The sequel, which aired similarly to previous examples a year after the first season ended in October 2007, has earned a lot of praise and won many hearts. 
You may call me a cold bastard and I would agree, but the regular Clannad left hardly any impression on me. Perhaps it is due to so many school animes out there and every other one of them trying to be so very overly melancholic. Or maybe I'm just a heartless bitch. 
Whereas I fully acknowledge that without the first season and the first half of the second season there would not be such a rich back story and contrast, the story itself only begins for me with the second half of the sequel. That last part is where the "Real Clannad" starts and takes off from the ground of  'a bit above average' and becomes something special. The excruciatingly long introduction pays off. Another sequel surpasses its original.

But one of the greatest surprises was something very unusual. I just recently finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Yeah, I know what you're thinking: that's not anime. True that. Still, the influences of Chinese culture and Japanese animation are so intensely visible in the series, that I would most often find myself wondering why they weren't speaking in Japanese.
When I first ever saw this cartoon it was when my sister was 6 and she watched it during the mornings. I didn't think much about it back then, it seemed rather tasteless. But with the urging community of 9gag, I decided to watch the show and guess what - it turned out to be awesome. There was the mindset and subtlety of Asian cultures skillfully mixed with American straightforwardness. It had great action, was very well drawn and no one really denied their feelings - the full package. A full shounen protagonist who is great at battles and knows how to handle spiritual stuff. What more can a girl ask for!

Now when I finished the original and went on to the Legend of Korra, I must say I was rather sceptical. We all know how the Western world butchers good things with sequels. But as the show evolved, I discovered my fears were for nothing. With matching undercurrents from the first show, the Legend of Korra kind of picks up like it's the most natural thing in the world. True, the world has changed and instead of the traditional China-like world, one might say there are new settings brought in from the red China - communist ideas in the world of element bending. And true, there seemed to be a lot take from the USA around the 40s, but all in all, it was the special and specific world of the four elements. Also, bits and pieces of the past were shown with our favourite characters from the original show all grown up, doing great deeds. 
I mean, dayum! Look at Aang, he grew up to be uberhandsome! Oh yes you did, yes you did!

It is now possible to subscribe, so if you enjoyed the blog, be sure to do that! 
I have more grains to spill next Friday. In the meanwhile share your opinion - which sequels do you like or hate?