Anime, Part 1
Something that I have been doing a lot of recently is watching anime. Though it does have certain conventions and peculiarities, anime is a medium rather than a genre, so it might seem unusual to announce that my watching habits would be not-narrowed to such a broad spectrum-kinda like if someone told you they liked watching Hollywood movies as though Hollywood only made movies in one genre. I could attribute this habit to several virtuous-sounding reasons, but probably the most accurate one is MyAnimeList.net. Because that web site keeps score of what I watch, it feels like I've accomplished something after being entertained. It's like getting achievement points for playing Xbox games.
On MyAnimeList.net, I give everything I've seen a score out of ten, and I've been adding a word or two to describe many of them. But sometimes a word or two is not enough. For instance, I wrote "robomantic" next to Idolmaster: Xenoglossia, but what I really wanted to write was "robomantic, betrayal". Obviously, betrayal adds a whole new depth to something that might have otherwise only been robomantic. (To clarify, I use the word robomantic to suggest romance with a robot, not the presence of a robomancer.)
Had I somewhere to write more than a word or two, I could expand on those brief thoughts. Maybe I should write this down in my LiveJournal, where I vaguely recall that large tracts of literary real estate are freely available, unlike our length-rationed Twitter future.
AnoHana 9/10, sad, sweet [watched subbed]
This story, five teenagers finally getting into contact with each other after the accidental death of a friend ten years ago, is poignant and emotional and comfortably paced. Being such a short series, it feels like a movie with enough screen time to explore how each of the characters has been affected. This anime made me wipe away tears to make room for more tears both times I watched it. Only some mild and unnecessary fanservice kept it from a perfect score.
Azumanga Daioh 7/10, quirky [watched dubbed]
This anime is about five or six girls in the same high school class. That's not just the setting, it's pretty much the entire plot summary. It's the Nichijou of its time. The two things that benefit most from my propensity to forget things I don't like are films with cursing and this anime. The way this exists in my memory, purified of the cringe-worthy scenes, it deserves at least a 9/10 for how many times I laughed. But then I force myself to remember the mental notes I left in the comments section of my brain: "cost-cutting long scenes of awkwardness" and "that one teacher". It does help that Tomo, the most annoying girl, was also the cutest.
Bunny Drop 8/10, consciously cute [watched subbed]
There is one anime* on this list that makes me feel super paternal, so I was interested to see how this show about a guy two years older than me being entrusted with the care of a six-year-old girl would make me feel. I enjoyed it, though the show seemed too aware of what it was and where it was going. After finishing the series, I went and read the continued manga summaries on Wikipedia. When will I learn?! Don't do this. I should've learnt my lesson from Fruits Basket.
*It'd be too spoilerous to tell you which one, but I can say that it makes me feel unexpectedly mushy inside.
Clannad and Clannad After Story 9/10, charming, sad, touching [watched dubbed]
One of the most appealing things about anime compared to much of American television is that characters are often given more opportunity to grow and change and leave because the story calls for it, not the casting. Clannad is the story of a boy in his first semester of the last year of high school (Clannad After Story is about the second semester), and during that year he meets various people and finds himself trying to help them with their problems. It's funny and moving, and it's interesting to see the boy's character growth from mislabelled as a delinquent to a maturer person. It's like Lucky Star if Konata was male and any of them actually wanted to do anything with their lives.
Code Geass and Code Geass R2 10/10, recommended! [watched dubbed then subbed]
This is the best thing that I have ever seen on any kind of screen. It's the story of a boy from Britannia, a country that encompasses both North and South America, who is living in Japan when Britannia invades it. Japan is defeated, and the boy declares that he will obliterate his homeland. The whole thing plays out a bit like an amazing cross between Death Note and Ace Attorney, complete with cliff hangers and characters that are crazy and colourful. Due to a bit of shooting, keep out of reach of children.
Cowboy Bebop 8/10, engaging, violent [watched dubbed]
In an effort to watch some of the anime that is considered classic, I watched this 1998 series about a bounty hunter who flies his spaceship around the solar system looking for the criminals of the future. I got drawn into the ongoing story presented in a increasingly less episodic manner. It was a fraction too violent for me to recommend, but that was pretty much its only fault. Interestingly, one of the characters was cryonically frozen many decades ago, but in 2012 she would be about sixteen or seventeen. If I ever see any teenagers cosplay her, I will be sure to mention that to them. (But I doubt that that I will see that. Cosplayers of that age don't seem to go for retro stuff for some reason.)
Death Note 8/10, suspense [watched subbed then dubbed]
I have seen four episodes of anime that amazed me-episodes that are compelling and thought-provoking and are head and shoulders above their peers. Two of them are in Death Note. (The other two are the first episode of the second season of Melancholy of Haruhi and the tenth episode of Madoka Magica). More amazingly, one of these is the very first episode of Death Note, whereas the other three are nothing without their context. I would score this a 10/10, but at times the depictions of violence and supernatural things were excessive. Many of the cliffhangers had commensurate payoffs.
Eureka Seven 6/10, sad, great music [watched dubbed]
I want to give this anime a better score. Sometimes I do and then I adjust it down again. It's not like points are limited, or that I only have a certain number to distribute. Also, I want to like everything I watch. But this show was full of things I loved and things I hated, and the hated things did not redeem the good things. The characters were good and the story was interesting. The soundtrack was excellent, and I still listen to it more often the music than any other show on this list. Also to its credit is that more than half the episodes made me cry without making me feel like it was emotionally manipulating me. I can't define my disappointment without spoilerously exploring it, and it wasn't as easy to sum up as my disappointment with Last Exile.
Fate/stay night 7/10, great music [watched dubbed]
Much like Eureka Seven before it, this has great characters and music and a moderately interesting story. It just didn't feel like they did enough with these ingredients. A 7/10 might seem like a harsh mark, but it seems to me to be my "average, I enjoyed it" score. To its credit was that it was a bit of a Code Geass dub reunion, as was Durarara!!.
Fruits Basket 8/10, endearing [watched dubbed]
Despite how varied they were, the characters in this show were almost at a dishwater level of dullness. But Tohru, the main lead, was so upbeat and so industrious that for weeks afterwards I told myself to be more like her. (I usually do okay on the upbeatness, but not so much on the industriousness.) This was a 7/10 show plus bonus marks for inspiring me to better myself.
Gunslinger Girl and Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino 7/10, powerful, violent, tragic [watched dubbed]
The OP for the first series is my new favourite song, unseating "Accidents" by Arcade Fire after a long six years. I don't know how to praise any of the rest or if I should. The main character seems endearing, but she really wore on me after a while-but I can't help but think that that was the point, so maybe it was very clever. The premise is this: a covert government agency in Italy uses amazing technology and brainwashing to turn young girls who have been gravely injured into formidable assassins. The first series is violent, making me audibly gasp several times. It also tried to focus on too many different characters. The second season didn't have those problems, but it left a mess of unanswered questions. I don't mind if a series wants to develop characters on both sides of a conflict, which is something that Code Geass and Death Note both do well, but I resent the events that transpired in this undertaking. I give this my Seal of Disapproval.
Gurren Lagann 8/10, epic scale [watched dubbed]
After a shaky start that seems to lack any promise, Gurren Lagann grows up to be something special. In a world where power directly correlates with self-confidence and tenacity, Naruto Uzumaki thankfully never cameos! I'm not sure who to recommend this to, because I'm not sure exactly how to quantify the appeal, but I enjoyed it both times. One mark deducted for Gainax bounce.
Idolmaster: Xenoglossa 7/10, robomantic [watched subbed]
I don't know what to make of this. It falters when assessed alone and it falters when assessed as part of the Idolm@ster franchise. I discovered this anime from the logo of the box of a cute Haruka polyresin figure I bought. It was mostly predictable with an acceptable amount of strained credibility, but it took an interesting turn about halfway through when the OP changes. But it got to the point where not all of the characters I liked could be happy at the one time. Since finishing the series, I've finished the Xbox game (no subtitles) and the 2011 Idolm@ster anime. In that context, it seems so weird that they largely discarded the characters' predefined personalities and other stats in Xenoglossia. Yukiho is a busty sleeper, Makoto is a jerk, and Chihaya is 3-33 years older and bad. Whatever happened to the simple times when Miki was the busty sleeper, Iori was the jerk (but tsundere), and the only flashbacks Chihaya had were of her broken home?
K-On! and K-On!! 8/10 and 10/10, cute [watched subbed]
If I had to fault K-On!!, the second season, it would be two episodes that are appended after the last episode. It was such a solid season, more so because these were removed and shifted to the back. Though not terrible, I choose to ignore them so as to award this 10/10. I feel that I need to justify this high praise, which was previously reserved only for both seasons of Code Geass. The strength of this show is that it delivers exactly what it promises. Whether it promises much at all is open to debate, but it delivers its four or five cutely-drawn girls in a music club very sufficiently.
Love Hina 5/10 [watched dubbed]
I am embarrassed to have started here. Discounting early morning television that was incidentally Japanese in origin (like Pokemon, Battle of the Planets, and Technoman), Love Hina was my first anime. I used to buy the discs from what was then called Electronics Boutique with the money that I made from my new job at Big W. The plot of this series leaves a lot to be desired. It's in the so-called harem genre, the kind where the protagonist gets hit a lot and is prone to accidentally falling on people. Later, I heard at least two of the voice actresses play parts I liked much better. Kaola (Wendee Lee) was Haruhi in Melancholy, Faye in Cowboy Bebop, Fee in Planetes, and even (very briefly) C.C.'s nun in Code Geass. Shinobu (Hynden Walsh) was Asakura in Melancholy, that sister woman in Durarara!!, and Lain in Serial Experiments Lain. I am always happy to hear either of their voices, though Ms Lee's took some getting used to.
Lucky Star 6/10, uneventful [watched subbed]
If romance, character development, and an engaging and memorable plot appeal to you, feel free to skip Lucky Star. It's a poor man's Clannad. Almost the entire series is inane banter. Like the following entry, my rating for this could do with fractions. Some days it's a 5.5, other days it's a 6.5. In contrast to Macross Frontier, there's a part of my brain actively making a case against the show whenever it returns to my memory.
Madoka Magica 10/10, recommended! [watched subbed]
It takes Madoka, the main girl, ten minutes just to brush her teeth and leave the house. A cat-like being offers Madoka any wish she likes in exchange for fighting surreal invisible witches. There is barely a glimmer of hope that it could be worth watching in the first two episodes, but then it scoops up a bunch of magical girl clichés and takes them to a more interesting place. I cannot recommend this anime strongly enough. It will be released on DVD and Blu-ray volumes in Australia starting April, but until then here is another way to see it: http//haydenpratt.com/madoka.txt
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt 6/10, irreverent, gross [watched subbed]
I watched this for a Panty & Stocking photoshoot to get a better idea of the characters. Some shows are an unwavering 6/10 like the ironically-named Sacred Seven, but this is more of a 4/10 and an 8/10. It's gross, irreverent, and has English swearing in the Japanese dub. But if you could magically strip those things out, it's hilarious comedy and satire that is generously broad and occasionally nuanced. If only the two sides weren't inextricable! I could compare this with what little I've seen of South Park.
Sacred Seven 6/10 [watched subbed]
This and AnoHana were the first shows I kept up with weekly as they were broadcast. The latter was great, but the former was like spending the afternoon at the river fishing out rocks only to find that none of them were any good-and several generic maids proficient with firearms. When I was watching the first half of Guilty Crown, I couldn't help but throw my arms into the air and say "Why didn't Sacred Seven try to be like this?" at least once per episode.
The World That God Only Knows and The World that God Only Knows II 7/10, satire, funny [watched subbed]
A guy that only likes 2D dating sim girls is tasked with winning the hearts of real girls. His amusing success is the result of treating everyone as though they could be summed up by a few words on TVtropes.org, often wrongly. I have seen many humorous overreactions to events and situations in cartoons, but Keima's still make me laugh. His explanations of the gaming world to his assistant are also often priceless. With a bit of editing to lessen the supernatural premise and the less interesting characters, this series could be a 9/10. I would welcome a third season.
Next time: Ceres, Celesial Legend, Durarara!!, FLCL, The Idolm@ster, Last Exile, Macross Frontier, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute, Ouran Host Club, Planetes, Serial Experiments Lain, Soul Eater, and Star Driver.
On MyAnimeList.net, I give everything I've seen a score out of ten, and I've been adding a word or two to describe many of them. But sometimes a word or two is not enough. For instance, I wrote "robomantic" next to Idolmaster: Xenoglossia, but what I really wanted to write was "robomantic, betrayal". Obviously, betrayal adds a whole new depth to something that might have otherwise only been robomantic. (To clarify, I use the word robomantic to suggest romance with a robot, not the presence of a robomancer.)
Had I somewhere to write more than a word or two, I could expand on those brief thoughts. Maybe I should write this down in my LiveJournal, where I vaguely recall that large tracts of literary real estate are freely available, unlike our length-rationed Twitter future.
AnoHana 9/10, sad, sweet [watched subbed]
This story, five teenagers finally getting into contact with each other after the accidental death of a friend ten years ago, is poignant and emotional and comfortably paced. Being such a short series, it feels like a movie with enough screen time to explore how each of the characters has been affected. This anime made me wipe away tears to make room for more tears both times I watched it. Only some mild and unnecessary fanservice kept it from a perfect score.
Azumanga Daioh 7/10, quirky [watched dubbed]
This anime is about five or six girls in the same high school class. That's not just the setting, it's pretty much the entire plot summary. It's the Nichijou of its time. The two things that benefit most from my propensity to forget things I don't like are films with cursing and this anime. The way this exists in my memory, purified of the cringe-worthy scenes, it deserves at least a 9/10 for how many times I laughed. But then I force myself to remember the mental notes I left in the comments section of my brain: "cost-cutting long scenes of awkwardness" and "that one teacher". It does help that Tomo, the most annoying girl, was also the cutest.
Bunny Drop 8/10, consciously cute [watched subbed]
There is one anime* on this list that makes me feel super paternal, so I was interested to see how this show about a guy two years older than me being entrusted with the care of a six-year-old girl would make me feel. I enjoyed it, though the show seemed too aware of what it was and where it was going. After finishing the series, I went and read the continued manga summaries on Wikipedia. When will I learn?! Don't do this. I should've learnt my lesson from Fruits Basket.
*It'd be too spoilerous to tell you which one, but I can say that it makes me feel unexpectedly mushy inside.
Clannad and Clannad After Story 9/10, charming, sad, touching [watched dubbed]
One of the most appealing things about anime compared to much of American television is that characters are often given more opportunity to grow and change and leave because the story calls for it, not the casting. Clannad is the story of a boy in his first semester of the last year of high school (Clannad After Story is about the second semester), and during that year he meets various people and finds himself trying to help them with their problems. It's funny and moving, and it's interesting to see the boy's character growth from mislabelled as a delinquent to a maturer person. It's like Lucky Star if Konata was male and any of them actually wanted to do anything with their lives.
Code Geass and Code Geass R2 10/10, recommended! [watched dubbed then subbed]
This is the best thing that I have ever seen on any kind of screen. It's the story of a boy from Britannia, a country that encompasses both North and South America, who is living in Japan when Britannia invades it. Japan is defeated, and the boy declares that he will obliterate his homeland. The whole thing plays out a bit like an amazing cross between Death Note and Ace Attorney, complete with cliff hangers and characters that are crazy and colourful. Due to a bit of shooting, keep out of reach of children.
Cowboy Bebop 8/10, engaging, violent [watched dubbed]
In an effort to watch some of the anime that is considered classic, I watched this 1998 series about a bounty hunter who flies his spaceship around the solar system looking for the criminals of the future. I got drawn into the ongoing story presented in a increasingly less episodic manner. It was a fraction too violent for me to recommend, but that was pretty much its only fault. Interestingly, one of the characters was cryonically frozen many decades ago, but in 2012 she would be about sixteen or seventeen. If I ever see any teenagers cosplay her, I will be sure to mention that to them. (But I doubt that that I will see that. Cosplayers of that age don't seem to go for retro stuff for some reason.)
Death Note 8/10, suspense [watched subbed then dubbed]
I have seen four episodes of anime that amazed me-episodes that are compelling and thought-provoking and are head and shoulders above their peers. Two of them are in Death Note. (The other two are the first episode of the second season of Melancholy of Haruhi and the tenth episode of Madoka Magica). More amazingly, one of these is the very first episode of Death Note, whereas the other three are nothing without their context. I would score this a 10/10, but at times the depictions of violence and supernatural things were excessive. Many of the cliffhangers had commensurate payoffs.
Eureka Seven 6/10, sad, great music [watched dubbed]
I want to give this anime a better score. Sometimes I do and then I adjust it down again. It's not like points are limited, or that I only have a certain number to distribute. Also, I want to like everything I watch. But this show was full of things I loved and things I hated, and the hated things did not redeem the good things. The characters were good and the story was interesting. The soundtrack was excellent, and I still listen to it more often the music than any other show on this list. Also to its credit is that more than half the episodes made me cry without making me feel like it was emotionally manipulating me. I can't define my disappointment without spoilerously exploring it, and it wasn't as easy to sum up as my disappointment with Last Exile.
Fate/stay night 7/10, great music [watched dubbed]
Much like Eureka Seven before it, this has great characters and music and a moderately interesting story. It just didn't feel like they did enough with these ingredients. A 7/10 might seem like a harsh mark, but it seems to me to be my "average, I enjoyed it" score. To its credit was that it was a bit of a Code Geass dub reunion, as was Durarara!!.
Fruits Basket 8/10, endearing [watched dubbed]
Despite how varied they were, the characters in this show were almost at a dishwater level of dullness. But Tohru, the main lead, was so upbeat and so industrious that for weeks afterwards I told myself to be more like her. (I usually do okay on the upbeatness, but not so much on the industriousness.) This was a 7/10 show plus bonus marks for inspiring me to better myself.
Gunslinger Girl and Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino 7/10, powerful, violent, tragic [watched dubbed]
The OP for the first series is my new favourite song, unseating "Accidents" by Arcade Fire after a long six years. I don't know how to praise any of the rest or if I should. The main character seems endearing, but she really wore on me after a while-but I can't help but think that that was the point, so maybe it was very clever. The premise is this: a covert government agency in Italy uses amazing technology and brainwashing to turn young girls who have been gravely injured into formidable assassins. The first series is violent, making me audibly gasp several times. It also tried to focus on too many different characters. The second season didn't have those problems, but it left a mess of unanswered questions. I don't mind if a series wants to develop characters on both sides of a conflict, which is something that Code Geass and Death Note both do well, but I resent the events that transpired in this undertaking. I give this my Seal of Disapproval.
Gurren Lagann 8/10, epic scale [watched dubbed]
After a shaky start that seems to lack any promise, Gurren Lagann grows up to be something special. In a world where power directly correlates with self-confidence and tenacity, Naruto Uzumaki thankfully never cameos! I'm not sure who to recommend this to, because I'm not sure exactly how to quantify the appeal, but I enjoyed it both times. One mark deducted for Gainax bounce.
Idolmaster: Xenoglossa 7/10, robomantic [watched subbed]
I don't know what to make of this. It falters when assessed alone and it falters when assessed as part of the Idolm@ster franchise. I discovered this anime from the logo of the box of a cute Haruka polyresin figure I bought. It was mostly predictable with an acceptable amount of strained credibility, but it took an interesting turn about halfway through when the OP changes. But it got to the point where not all of the characters I liked could be happy at the one time. Since finishing the series, I've finished the Xbox game (no subtitles) and the 2011 Idolm@ster anime. In that context, it seems so weird that they largely discarded the characters' predefined personalities and other stats in Xenoglossia. Yukiho is a busty sleeper, Makoto is a jerk, and Chihaya is 3-33 years older and bad. Whatever happened to the simple times when Miki was the busty sleeper, Iori was the jerk (but tsundere), and the only flashbacks Chihaya had were of her broken home?
K-On! and K-On!! 8/10 and 10/10, cute [watched subbed]
If I had to fault K-On!!, the second season, it would be two episodes that are appended after the last episode. It was such a solid season, more so because these were removed and shifted to the back. Though not terrible, I choose to ignore them so as to award this 10/10. I feel that I need to justify this high praise, which was previously reserved only for both seasons of Code Geass. The strength of this show is that it delivers exactly what it promises. Whether it promises much at all is open to debate, but it delivers its four or five cutely-drawn girls in a music club very sufficiently.
Love Hina 5/10 [watched dubbed]
I am embarrassed to have started here. Discounting early morning television that was incidentally Japanese in origin (like Pokemon, Battle of the Planets, and Technoman), Love Hina was my first anime. I used to buy the discs from what was then called Electronics Boutique with the money that I made from my new job at Big W. The plot of this series leaves a lot to be desired. It's in the so-called harem genre, the kind where the protagonist gets hit a lot and is prone to accidentally falling on people. Later, I heard at least two of the voice actresses play parts I liked much better. Kaola (Wendee Lee) was Haruhi in Melancholy, Faye in Cowboy Bebop, Fee in Planetes, and even (very briefly) C.C.'s nun in Code Geass. Shinobu (Hynden Walsh) was Asakura in Melancholy, that sister woman in Durarara!!, and Lain in Serial Experiments Lain. I am always happy to hear either of their voices, though Ms Lee's took some getting used to.
Lucky Star 6/10, uneventful [watched subbed]
If romance, character development, and an engaging and memorable plot appeal to you, feel free to skip Lucky Star. It's a poor man's Clannad. Almost the entire series is inane banter. Like the following entry, my rating for this could do with fractions. Some days it's a 5.5, other days it's a 6.5. In contrast to Macross Frontier, there's a part of my brain actively making a case against the show whenever it returns to my memory.
Madoka Magica 10/10, recommended! [watched subbed]
It takes Madoka, the main girl, ten minutes just to brush her teeth and leave the house. A cat-like being offers Madoka any wish she likes in exchange for fighting surreal invisible witches. There is barely a glimmer of hope that it could be worth watching in the first two episodes, but then it scoops up a bunch of magical girl clichés and takes them to a more interesting place. I cannot recommend this anime strongly enough. It will be released on DVD and Blu-ray volumes in Australia starting April, but until then here is another way to see it: http//haydenpratt.com/madoka.txt
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt 6/10, irreverent, gross [watched subbed]
I watched this for a Panty & Stocking photoshoot to get a better idea of the characters. Some shows are an unwavering 6/10 like the ironically-named Sacred Seven, but this is more of a 4/10 and an 8/10. It's gross, irreverent, and has English swearing in the Japanese dub. But if you could magically strip those things out, it's hilarious comedy and satire that is generously broad and occasionally nuanced. If only the two sides weren't inextricable! I could compare this with what little I've seen of South Park.
Sacred Seven 6/10 [watched subbed]
This and AnoHana were the first shows I kept up with weekly as they were broadcast. The latter was great, but the former was like spending the afternoon at the river fishing out rocks only to find that none of them were any good-and several generic maids proficient with firearms. When I was watching the first half of Guilty Crown, I couldn't help but throw my arms into the air and say "Why didn't Sacred Seven try to be like this?" at least once per episode.
The World That God Only Knows and The World that God Only Knows II 7/10, satire, funny [watched subbed]
A guy that only likes 2D dating sim girls is tasked with winning the hearts of real girls. His amusing success is the result of treating everyone as though they could be summed up by a few words on TVtropes.org, often wrongly. I have seen many humorous overreactions to events and situations in cartoons, but Keima's still make me laugh. His explanations of the gaming world to his assistant are also often priceless. With a bit of editing to lessen the supernatural premise and the less interesting characters, this series could be a 9/10. I would welcome a third season.
Next time: Ceres, Celesial Legend, Durarara!!, FLCL, The Idolm@ster, Last Exile, Macross Frontier, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute, Ouran Host Club, Planetes, Serial Experiments Lain, Soul Eater, and Star Driver.