Dantalian no Shoka has been great fun, and watching it inevitably makes me think about Gosick, another light novel-based anime set during the 20s starring a goth-loli. In turn, it also makes me think about the creative voices behind these two adaptions. This post is entirely speculation and fun on my part. It is neither my goal to interpret what the creators of these shows intended, nor to compare the shows in terms of quality.
Time for yet another ridiculous plot to power through my infamous on-hold list! According to MAL, I currently have 195 shows on-hold, which I’m proud to say is a lot fewer than last year at this time—but not enough. I don’t want to have *any* shows on-hold, so I must keep plowing forward! This new plan revolves around airdates~
I picked one anime that I had on-hold from each of the past 25 years and wrote them down on lots to be drawn one after another until all are completed. (Sadly, I didn’t have an on-hold show for every year, so there will only be 21 total). The first lot that I pulled from an old shoe was Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. I started this show in 2008 at a time when I was buying a lot of random used DVDs wherever I could find them. I’d only seen the first four episodes and I remembered only basic things about them, so I started back from the beginning.
Parts in [bold pink brackets] are spoilers.
‘Ay yo, check this out! Tonight we got two crazy motha fuckas straight outta GAINAX ready to show us what they can do. First up we got the veteran Fast Action Man, the legendary director and key animator of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, my nigga Imaishi Hiroyuki! Then after that, we got one of the newer heads on the block, the master of the Hard Looking Mothafuckas, give it up for Amemiya Akira! This shit’s gunna be sick, so I’mma step offstage while DJ Digiboy lays down a beat and Imaishi takes it away. LET’S GO!
Here’s what’chu gotta do – for each animator, start by watching the video that shows you what their style is all about, then listen to the audio clip where they break it down!
Hiroyuki Imaishi (AUDIO)
Yo, my flow is never static
‘Cause my style is erratic
And fanatics get ecstatic
When they see what i got cookin’ in the attick
‘Cause my mind is systematic
In creating my visual acrobatics
Your style seems dramatic
Like you think it’s cinematic
But the truth is that your flow chokes like a fuckin’ asthmatic
I’ve had it
Bust your style with my semi-automatic
That’s right I like guns
And makin’ characters run
And you know when I’m in charge
You’ll be seein’ something fun
GAINAX wouldn’t be the same without me
They never leave me out because I know they never doubt me
My fans and followers keep track of my series devoutly
So you should think twice ‘fo’ you fuckin’ try to out me
Bitch.
Akira Amemiya (AUDIO)
Akira Amemiya in tha house
I like my robots lookin’ like they gunna take you out
So many tone layers even Otaking is proud
Take your single-color shit and GET THE FUCK OUT!
When I draw Gurren Lagann you know that nigga go hard
‘Cause he’s ready to attack with his crazy drill arm
And when I’m handlin’ the scene you’re gunna know what’s goin’ on
‘Cause I keep my shit fluid n’ let you see what I’ve drawn
Imaishi skips frames like he’s playin’ hop-scotch
Like he’s trying to draw after a few bottles of scotch
And it ain’t no surprise when the shit is a mess
Then he tries to play it off as if we should be impressed
Well fuck that
I may be new but I got style in spades
My scenes have kept my fans rewatching for days
It’s just a matter of time before I start to get paid
An’ take ova’ the role GAINAX won’t even want you to play
You heard it here folks – Hiroyuki Imaishi and Akira Amemiya just laid it all out for you, so now it’s your turn to decide – who’s style do you like best? The intense and spastic fast action of Imaishi, or the firm and furious hard looks of Amemiya? Leave your thoughts in the comments thread! This is MC DB signing off!
Post BGM. (I’m gunna start doing this. I’ve always wanted to anyway. Though in this case it might take 2 plays, lol.)
A post in the Epic Journey. Contains FLCL spoilers. Continued from here.
Episode 5 of FLCL has pretty much always been my favorite. It’s where all the plot setup finally starts moving (late as that sounds) and the whole episode is zany and awesome. What’s especially great is that it’s the most hyper-active, action-packed episode of the show but still has as much depth and subtlety as the rest of the show. And since it’s where things come to a head, it’s also probably the easiest episode to misinterpret. See, up to this point, most of the important stuff that no one gets pretty much goes right over their heads and it’s less that they misunderstand as it is that they just don’t realize something else is going on. In this episode, all of that stuff going on in the background comes rushing to the forefront, so when you see it, it’s some new thing that you try to make sense out of but really can’t without the information you missed. So this is the part where all of our earlier impressions were wrong and it becomes really important that you’ve been reading along! (not to sound pretentious, lol.)
A post in the Epic Journey. Contains FLCL spoilers. Continued from here.
Episode 2 is all about Mamimi (1), who may be my favorite of the FLCL girls and I find is by far the most overlooked by series fans. And I don’t blame them – she’s a tough nut to crack. Growing up in my teen years with this show, I never got nor cared for Mamimi much at all. I never understood what she was on about and mostly ignored her (I didn’t care much for girl characters back then anyway.) In my reading of FLCL theories, her ‘overflows’ and attitude had been connected to the grand scheme of the story by people who I now know also didn’t understand her. The trouble that so many people have is that they’re missing the point. As I said in ep 1, this is a normal show with exactly 1 insane character, Haruka. The key to Mamimi is that she is a real girl.
A post in The Epic Journey. Contains major FLCL spoilers.
Ride on, shooting star...
FLCL is one of the anime I’ve watched the most times in full, probably second only to Cowboy Bebop. When the show first aired on Cartoon Network, I had the good sense to record it on VHS, so I was able to watch it extra times outside the Adult Swim replays. Since I’ve seen it so many times, I can remember it pretty easily. That’s why, unlike Evangelion which I only watched once, I don’t question it as one of my favorites. However, it’s nonetheless been about 3 years since I last watched it, so I really don’t have a sense of just how much I like it.
The first episode of Sengoku Basara is probably the most manly and fucking awesome first episode of anime ever. I don’t even know where to begin – my fucking beard grew longer while watching it. My fucking balls grew. I felt like I should have had a beer and a porn mag or something while watching it. Basically, Production IG decided to pretend to be GAINAX and produced some insanely over-the-top, totally fun-loving samurai action. It’s purposefully cheesy, throws back to all kinds of chanbara film techniques and fights so insane it’s hard to believe the characters aren’t in mechs. Fucking Date Masamune rides his horse with ARMS CROSSED and WIELDS THREE SWORDS AT ONCE — PER HAND
But lets not forget the main reason to watching this, NORIO WAKAMOTO AS FUCKING ODA NOBUNAGA. I loved the game, I love the show, will watch all eps at least twice. There is nothing negative I can say about this ep – it was astonish-mazing. Will do a more through post when Shinsen drops the first sub.
Almost forgot, op is a pretty good Abingdon Boys School song.
In the world of American comics, fantasy, and sci-fi, most of the big stuff consists of assloads of stories set in one central universe. Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Warcraft – stuff like this has a big universe of works that fans can devote themselves to. Anime has it’s fair share of universes as well, ranging from immensely huge and decade-crossing, some of a great size that are relevant only to otaku, and many smaller universes lying around.
Standing high above anything else are the big guns like the Gundam Universe(s), the Macross Universe, the Leijiverse, the Pokemon Universe and so on. Then we have some universes that are less universally known but still enormous, especially for otaku. The Type-Moon Universe is certainly up there, but for sheer unbridled scope, the Touhou Universe stands above everything. I want to talk about my own favorite universes, most of which are a little smaller and more homely but still large enough that they should be called a universe and popular enough for a strong cult following. (NOTE: Please don’t comment in regards to what should or shouldn’t be called a universe or metaseries, I’m just trying to make a post.)
I am of the mindset that an opinion should be made based on research in any situation. I hate to hear people bitch that ‘all mecha sucks’ when they’ve seen exactly two shows from the genre (this seems to be the case for many.) I am sick of people calling a show ‘cliche’ when the show is intended to be homage or parody. These are all things that a little research would show to anyone. Whether or not you like the show is based all on you, but before you open your mouth to the world, you’d best know what you’re talking about. That’s why I’ve gotten rather tired of people making uneducated remarks about studios, especially those that supposedly ‘suck.’
My Sword Is Unbelievably Dull 