#MANSERVICE AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

[f3lldrag0n]

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[punderfulowl]

Top 12 Anime (That I've Seen) in 2018

Happy New Year, one and all! You read the title right, starting off 2019 with a change of format with not ten, but TWELVE entries in this year-end list! Not only that, I’ve actually watched more current stuff than last year! 

Allow me to explain...

Just in case you haven’t seen my list from last year, this list will consist of anime I’ve seen this year and not necessarily anime that came out this year. Why? One, because I watch whatever I want to watch. And two, because not a lot of people do end of the year retrospectives this way and it’s a fun time sharing older series that many might not have seen, yet (not exactly original though considering that I stole this idea from videogamedunkey). Now that you understand the rules, let’s begin!

12. Fastest Finger First (2017)

Starting off the list is a little anime series that may have gone under most people’s radar when it first came out. I, myself, forgot about it until a random clip showed up on my FB feed via Crunchyroll’s page and decided to seek it out. It was a fun enough time with learning about the ins and outs of the Quiz Bowl world while getting behind our young heroes that aim to be the best. Admittedly, this shows rolls with plenty of anime cliches which almost drowns out the few surprises it has. One of those surprises is that these high school characters actually look like high schoolers! There’s no, “lolz, that’s a freshman in high school, but she has double D boobs! And that one over there is over six feet tall high muscle tone! Cuh-razy!”

Okay, that was more of a personal note, but it’s still appreciated. Anyway, it’s a cute show and definitely worth the look.

11. Ray:The Animation (2006)

Starting out is a show that I did a review on earlier this year so I’ll keep this, as well as other shows I reviewed already, relatively short. Ray is about a young woman, whom is an amazing doctor in her own right, tackling medical mysteries as well as her own foggy past. Medical dramas may be present in live-action shows, but it’s quite the rarity in anime especially having a woman in the leading role. Unfortunately, the lackluster animation and art keep it from going higher on this list, but all the good it has is REALLY good (albeit with some silliness here and there).

10. Beautiful Bones: Sakurako's Investigation (2015)

I’ve already had my say in regards to this series, but, just to clarify for this list, my feelings have not changed. Holds itself well for a mystery, has an interesting protagonist, and is visually beautiful. I would like to know more about this story, but that would mean reading the light novels. It may be low on the list because of it being a glorified commercial, but I would recommend this anime regardless.

9. Devilman Crybaby (2018)

Once you have seen this list as a whole, you’ll notice that most of the stuff I’ve seen last year was on the lighter side. You can blame Devilman for that because I needed some fluff for a morale boost after watching that! However, I didn’t place it at the bottom of the list for a reason and that’s because I recognize this anime as the game changer it is. Devilman is both visually and narratively different from what we’re used to in anime and we, as a community, need more of that. We need more shows that start up conversations on not just meaning, morals or symbolism, but rather on what we want to see and how trends should change. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve yet to recover from this show, so I’m going to look at some pictures of adorable puppers.

8. Pop Team Epic (2018)

Apparently, a LOT of people didn’t like Pop Team Epic and the attention that it was getting. I...don’t quite get it? I guess you can be allergic to fun? Sure, it was weird and off the wall, but that OP was a banger, though! Okay, so the humor didn’t jive with everyone, but it sure jived with me!

7. Aggretsuko (2018)

A fun look into the life of a young individual stuck in an average desk job (except, you know, with animals), Aggretsuko was an honest to goodness surprise for me last year and I’m glad it’s getting a second season. 

6. Violet Evergarden (2018)

I’m sure that there are going to be a lot of people that will be mad at me for not putting this higher, especially since I think it’s this high to begin with on its merits of being a beautifully animated show alone. Yes, it had some really good character moments and one episode that got me very emotionally invested, but for some reason I find this spot to be just right. Hey, it beat out six other shows, right?

5. Interviews with Monster Girls (2017)

If ya’ll aren’t angry now hahaha!

Seriously, be thankful that my bias only had this anime this far. What bias is that? As sad as it sounds, this show opened up my eyes to the wonder that is Sakie Satou aka my new, overall, waifu. 

Sakie aside, this show has a lot going for it. I can just imagine if this kind of story was handled by anyone else our main protagonist, Tetsuo Takahashi, would have been some bland self-insert with no personality, but instead, he’s one of the show’s strong points. For one, Tetsuo is a freakin’ adult and freakin’ acts like one. Second, instead of a generic, lean body type, he’s pretty jacked which I like to think provides some manservice for those looking for it.

IwMG is a delight and you should check it out if you haven’t already.

4. Hinamatsuri (2018)  

Hinamatsuri was considered to be not only the best comedy anime of 2018, but the best anime, period, of 2018. Those claims are easily understood because the show has many things going for it: comedic timing, slapstick, and a variety of interesting characters. I’ve already said my piece when I reviewed it earlier, so all I have to say is to check out Hinamatsuri for a good laugh or seven.

3. Teasing Master Takagi-san (2018)

This show has charmed me so much. It was such a surprise. However, I’m going to keep this short because any longer will leave me gushing over and over again about how freakin’ precious these two kids are.

2. Nichijou (2011)

Nichijou is such a delight! The pacing, rhythm, and slapstick are ALL on point! I remember seeing some images back in the day and wasn’t all that impressed, but it wasn’t until one or two years ago that I came across some actual footage and was left impressed. A truly hilarious show with its own style. Go and watch this if you need a laugh.

1. My Hero Academia [S1] (2016)

So, yeah, I was about two years late to this party, eh? But after two years of seeing a lot of my friend fall head over heels for MHA, I thought, “Enough is enough, time to see if all this hype is merited.”

It was, it so freakin’ was.

I paced myself as best as I could thinking that I could space out the (current) three seasons because I’m not huge into binge watching, but I practically watched the first two seasons back to back. I enjoyed it that much! Heck, it got my brother to start watching it and he’s not that big into the anime scene! However, between the first two seasons, I felt that the first season was the stronger of the two and thus its place on this list. 

Sorry for this being WAY late, but I’m glad to have finally finished this. Here’s to another year of being a huge nerd! Hooray!

[drink-n-watch]

Genre : Action, fighting, supernatural

Episodes: 12

Studio: Platinum Vision

  Something has awakened. Something that’s been slumbering for a long time is beginning to stir and the shockwaves are being felt all over heaven and earth. Demons are getting restless and the attacks on innocent villages have become routine. Thankfully, the Sanzo party is here to protect the good people from the fiends that would do them harm. Never mind that they happen to be just as fiendish themselves. As long as you can pay for the services, you can trust them. Probably. After all, you have to be able to trust a venerable Sanzo monk now don’t you? He’s the one smoking and getting into a fist fight with his demon buddy while screaming obscenities. Yeah, this should work out just fine!

The journey for this little title to make it on my to watch list went something like this: this looks like an otome adaptation, it’s probably really stupid, I’m gonna watch it. a week later – yeah there’s plenty of stupid out there, maybe I don’t need this one, I’m going to flush it. Wait the summary says Yokai, I like Yokai, I’m going to keep it. OK, I guess I should really watch this at some point…

yeah…this is a smart way to start this post…

If you didn’t pick it up from my little skit there, I did not know what I was getting into but I sure thought I did. The production value for this show is decent. animation can get a bit visibly cheap with reused scenes and stills with offscreen battles but for the most part, everything is well done. Voice acting is quite good, colours stick to a signature palette, design and art is pretty.

Unfortunately, I think this pretty design and art is in fact doing Saiyuki Reload Blast a disservice. I took one look at those chiseled young men and their intricate costumes (all different and this is important) and I immediately thought, this is clearly an otome. At best it’s a poor man’s Touken Ranbu which remains one of the best cute boy shows I’ve ever seen and also only. The lack of a clear female lead was pushing me towards option number two but I was expecting some basic slice of life nonsense with historical flourishes thrown in for flavour. Some manservice and if they wanted to push it maybe a drop of hoyay suggestion.

look at all that…mancandy?

I judged it entirely on it’s cover I have to admit. I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one at that. That’s the problem you see. Those that are generally uninterested in those types of shows probably dismissed it offhand. I don’t blame them, the aesthetic is pretty glaring, and it’s not entirely wrong, the show is classified as Josei. But aside for a few scenes in the OP, there’s no fanservice at all (unless you count the lady monk with the super tight outfit) and none of the expected staples of the genre. Someone specifically looking for the show insinuated by those visuals, would be disappointed or at least, confused.

The narrative and execution of Saiyuri Reload Blast is closest to a rather traditional fighting shonen. If you had switched one of the main characters’ design to a sexy lady without changing anything else at all, you could have marketed it as such easily. The season is roughly separated into three arcs. The opening establishing arc plays out as a series of monster of the week episodes, with our main party going from one village to the next and saving them from demon attacks. It’s fine, a little dry but I’ve seen worse.

I said it was ok….

The second arc is a flashback to 500 years prior where the story starts to really from and the foundations are laid for the greater lore. It quickly became apparent the this show was basing itself on a Journey to the West, which is pretty awesome. It’s a very loose retelling but there were enough similarities for me to recognize it pretty easily, that made my appreciation for the series rise quite a bit.

This flashback arc was rich in references to classic Chinese folklore and filled with a tense atmosphere unmatched by the other episodes. I also found the flashback characters considerably more interesting. Despite how bloody and ultimately sad this arc was, it was by far my favorite part of the anime and I would have loved a season that explored just that story. The last arc brings us back to the present where past and future collide in an all out multiple episode battle.

After watching the show I found out that Saiyuri is an expansive franchise. Reload blast is only the latest in several anime incarnations, a whole series of OVAs, multiple rounds of manga, at least one movie and a stage play. This may in fact explain some of my gripes. You see, Saiyuri really plays up a lot of shonen tropes. The never ending battles, mid-fight monologues (this is so prevalent in fact that I think in the middle of battle is the only way we get an exposition), the best friend fisty cuffs, the super dramatic realization screams and the cathartic last minute saves.

Nantaku really needed more development mind you

They’re all there and all well done, except this is a 12 episode series. When you’re characters are going through this massive emotional struggle over what is a pretty silly situation in fact at episode 60, it works because you’ve grown to really know the characters and you accept their eccentricities. Also the stakes have been slowly rising so you got accustomed to it at your own pace before everything spilled over into ridiculous. Now you’re just kind of in for the ride. When the same thing happens at episode 4 you’re like, yo relax dude and this is kinda silly.

The low episode count and the need to fit in a fully realized three arc narrative with a centuries spanning background really condensed everything. To Saiyuri’s credit, the narrative was still pretty easy to follow and although the characters were pretty shallow, they weren’t completely 2 dimensional either. But the dramatic pacing is what really suffers here and ultimately will stop most people from engaging with what is at it’s core a decent, even interesting story.

mullets again…

If you happen to be interested in the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, I say give this anime a shot. It has some good moments and the parallels with Journey to the West are really fun to notice. If you like the character designs and are in the mood for a fighting anime that won’t make you commit to a high episode count, this could also be for you. Otherwise, it’s uneven and clumsy. There was enough there for me to be intrigued about the other anime seasons and-or manga but not enough for me to actively seek it out.

Also, in the very last episode we find out the jeep they have been driving in al along has a mind of its own and is in fact Hakuryuu which is Hakkai’s pet dragon. We find this out in the last 5 minutes of the last episode. Like wha??? OK, I’m done now. Oh no wait one last thing. There’s no Yokai. I mean the demons are technically yokai but they call them demons and they look like demons… this show has some failings is what I’m saying.

Favorite character: Field Marshal Tenpou (If there’s a season dedicated to the heaven’s arc – I will watch it!)

What this anime reminded me: This is the only way a monocle makes sense:

The problem with some people is that when they aren’t drunk they’re sober

Suggested drink: Berry Burbon Blast

Every time Sanzo is sleepy(ing)– take a sip

Every time Gojyo gets called a water sprite – take a sip of water

Every time Sanzo tells someone to shut up – take a sip

Every time we hear a stomach growl – get a snack

Every time Hakkai spouts random facts – humour him

Every time Gojyo’s chain scythe thingy appears out of nowhere – take a sip

Every time Nantaku gets hurt – take a sip

Every time Goku throws a fit – roll your eyes

Every time anyone smokes – take a breath

Every time there’s mid battle monologue – laugh, it’s all you can do at this point

Saiyuki Reload Blast – Journey to the Middle Genre : Action, fighting, supernatural Episodes: 12 Studio: Platinum Vision Something has awakened. Something that's been slumbering for a long time is beginning to stir and the shockwaves are being felt all over heaven and earth.

[just-another-anime-nerd]

Free!: How opinions change over Time.

I remember when I first watched Free! a couple of years ago. I started it only because it was a show by Kyoto Animation. Like many others at the time I dismissed it as mindless fanservice at first, though I still watched through the entire thing for some reason. Probably because it was KyoAni. I didn’t believe that this could be much more than some kind of ecchi show for girls, after all the Internet did it’s best to give me that picture. But this is still a KyoAni show and KyoAni shows have much more to them than being moe fests or in this case “manservice” (except for Phantom World. That shit was totally just stupid and mindless fanservice with a bit moe mixed in.)  and yes, Free! was no exception. It actually managed to draw me in with it’s likeable cast of characters telling a story about this group of friends and their shared passion as well as their hardships for/through swimming. If this would have been a more sports focused show, I don’t know how much I would have enjoyed it, but eventhough swimming was always a present topic I felt it was used more as an device to tell the stories of these characters. I’d say it is a Slice of Life show more than a Sports show. I never thought I could get as much enjoyment out of Free! as I did in the end and now, after years since I first watched this show, thinking about how this show was going to be so stupid, I’m sitting here, started season three fully hyped for it and can’t wait for the next Episode.

Also.. I wished, I could watch the movies somewhere legal but.. I just can’t afford another monthly subscription service.. Well.. I suppose I have to wait with them eventhough technically they both play before season 3..

[liuwdere]

Women Directors in Anime Panel - Transcript

Here are the slides and audio. (I dunno why you’d want the audio if you’re reading a transcript, but hey, who am I to judge.)

Prior to the start of the panel proper, I played the Animator Expo shorts “Endless Night” and “Tomorrow From There” so the early comers weren’t stuck sitting around with nothing to do. I then put on the first Kyousougiga PV as a lead-in to the presentation.

Hi guys, and welcome to Women Directors of Anime. I’m Micchy. You can find me on Twitter @liuwdere, where I post very bad content most of the time and also have opinions on figure skating.

To start us off: Who can name an anime director? Anyone, go as basic as you like.

Hayao Miyazaki, the obvious one.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Ninja Scroll.

Challenge: who can name a female anime director?

Sayo Yamamoto.

That’s cheating, I showed her name earlier. Well, anyway, point is, they’re a bit harder to think of.

Raise your hand if you’ve seen one of these shows. Looks like just about all of you. Yuri on Ice? I see a few Yuri on Ice fans here. (Audience member: “I don’t know what that is.”) Well, congratulations, you have seen an anime directed by a woman!

Why talk about anime directors? I’ve seen several panels about fictional representations, strong female characters, so I would also like to bring some attention to the real-world anime industry and representation in that aspect of anime. There are a ton of women working as key animators, writers, in-betweeners in anime, but very few have managed to get the higher roles of production. This is not to say the lower roles are not important—they’re super important. With key animators, I’m a huge fan of Megumi Kouno, who key animated Shelter, if you’ve seen that. This topic is kind of arbitrary, but there are some talented ladies out there and I want to talk about them. Also, honestly, it’s also possible to be very comprehensive because there are like, 25 of them.

What do directors do? Basically they oversee anime production. Their involvement can vary; some of them are very involved in the storyboarding, the music choices, the writing, while others are a little more hands-off, a little manager-like. Some directors rise on the production side—they’re good at managing people, good at making sure people have their stuff done on time, and that’s what gets them in charge. Some of them start as key animators and eventually take over the lead visual development. Of course, they are all beholden to the will of the production committee, which is made up of the sponsors and execs in charge of the show, because money—money’s gotta come from somewhere.

Where are all these ladies? If you look through the industry, they tend to be clustered in a few genres. Number 1: kids’ shows and long-running franchises. We’re talking things like Precure, with the Suite Precure, Happiness Charge Precure, and Heartcatch Precure movies. [Yoko Ikeda, Chiaki Kon, and Rie Matsumoto] all started by directing episodes of the show before taking charge of the movie. Cardfight Vanguard G, the second season. [NOTE: This is actually inaccurate; Yui Umemoto is not a woman. Apologies for the mistake.] The File of Young Kindaichi Returns, also the second season. [Both Umemoto and Ikeda] were taking over established franchises.

Where else? We’ve got kids’ shows, and obviously, anime for women. We’re talking shoujo and josei manga adaptations, otome games, what I like to call “manservice” (though this genre classification is really loose), and boys’ love.

With shoujo manga, you’ve got Vampire Knight (anime Twilight), Otome Yokai Zakuro, Nodame Cantabile (a romcom about music students), and Skip Beat. We’ve got Sailor Moon Crystal season 3, Ristorante Paradiso (old man moe), the fifth season of Natsume Yuujinchou (Kotomi Deai taking over from Takahiro Omori), and Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun. (I hear a few shouts, nice.)

Otome games: These are visual novel dating sims where you play as a heroine character and get your choice of pretty boys to date. On that side of things you’ve got La Storia della Arcana Famiglia, Magic-kyun Renaissance, Diabolik Lovers, and its sequel Diabolik Lovers More Comma Blood—directed by two different women, because of course they are. (This is my favorite bit of Diabolik Lovers—you throw her into the pool. Just throw her in a pool.)

Manservice: This is what I like to classify the sports shows, the boy idol shows, the historical romances and stuff. We’ve got Meganebu! (cute boys doing cute things in a glasses club), Hakkenden, Prince of Stride; Free! (with one exclamation point), Cheer Boys!! (with two exclamation points), and Yuri!!! on Ice (with three exclamation points).

Boys’ Love: There’s a conversation to be had here about how women are kind of co-opting gay men’s stories, but that’s a topic for another day; I’m not talking about that today. You’ve got This Boy cycle from Soubi Yamamoto. These are a series of independent films, all short. Doukyuusei from Shouko Nakamura, a lovely story about two high school boys falling in love. And on the trashier side of things we have stuff like Junjou Romantica, World’s Greatest First Love, and Gakuen Heaven. Personally, I recommend Gakuen Handsome.

It’s important to note that even in these genres, most of the anime is still directed by men. Super Lovers—anyone?—that’s directed by a man. And of course, you can find women elsewhere; these are just the genres you’re most likely to find women. After all, who better to make anime for women than women?

Where else are they? If you look towards the edges of the industry—the avant-garde, the experimental animation showcase projects—you can see that some of these projects give younger women a chance to take charge of their own short films. Space Dandy was supposedly directed by Shinichirou Watanabe and Shingo Natsume, but in actuality, they gave a lot of creative reign to the individual episode directors, which is why every episode looks so different. Some of them were women. Panty and Stocking was another case of this. There’s also Japan Animator Expo, a series of web shorts released over several years, which featured quite a few women.

Talking about the women in particular: I’ve grouped them for convenience. I’m going to start with the ladies at Kyoto Animation.

A little about KyoAni: KyoAni is a unique studio in that all their animation is done in-house with a salaried staff. This is the case with most of the industry; most other studios hire animators freelance. Okay, you come in, you draw these few cuts, you go home. The only other major studio to do this—to have a salaried staff—is Studio Ghibli. Kyoani also has a strong focus on training young talent. Their veteran animators will spend a lot of time providing guidance to the younger staff. (Another studio that does this is Studio Toei, which produces Precure.) Both of these factors make it very conducive to nurturing young talent. Two of the names at Kyoani are Naoko Yamada and Hiroko Utsumi.

Naoko Yamada [the first female staff director at Kyoani] is probably best known for directing K-On. What I want you to notice about Yamada is her astute attention to character animation and body language. If you’ve seen any Kyoto Animation shows, you know what I mean; [the characters] act in specific ways, and [the animation is] very shiny, very polished. This particular attention to body language is what eventually got her the directorial position for A Silent Voice, which is about a deaf girl. Obviously [the girl] communicates through sign language, so you can see why the body language would be important there. (Also, [Yamada] likes legs. She has a lotta legs in her storyboards. It’s pretty obvious; you see knees all over the place.)

[A Silent Voice PV]

Going on to another woman at Kyoani: Hiroko Utsumi, who directed Free. It should be pretty obvious that this show was helmed by a woman just from the butts and abs on display [for the female gaze]. I mean, characters in-universe state, “Oh my god, those are really good butts and chests and abs and shoulders.” So that’s a thing.

Here’s where I get a little wibbly-wobbly: What I like to call the “Penguindrum alumni.” This is because there were several women working on this particular show that later went on to head their own projects. To talk about them, I need to talk about Kunihiko Ikuhara. This guy is the infamously eccentric director of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Penguindrum, and Yurikuma Arashi. He’s heavily influenced by the late Osamu Dezaki, with a strong focus on visual metaphor, cinematic language, and very surreal imagery. On one of his projects, Penguindrum, there were a bunch of ladies who were episode directors and assistant directors who later went on to lead their own projects.

The first one I’m going to talk about is Mitsue Yamazaki. A lot of her work is really pretty, but personally my favorite is her comedy work on Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun. Here’s a clip where two boys play a dating sim game and get a little too into it.

[Nozaki-kun - Tomoda]

Another one of these ladies who worked on Penguindrum is Shouko Nakamura. She did a lot of early work at Studio Gainax working on Gurren Lagann and Panty and Stocking. You can see the Gainax influence in her style with loose, relaxed lineart—you could contrast it with, for instance, KyoAni’s polished realism. Last year, she directed a boys’ love film adapted from a manga by Asumiko Nakamura, Doukyuusei.

[Doukyuusei PV].

If you’re wondering which episode she did on Panty and Stocking, it’s the one where Panty’s sex tape gets leaked.

Akemi Hayashi: She saved the human race from the Zentradi in 2009. Actually, no, she didn’t. Fun fact: her name happens to share the kanji from a possible Chinese rendering of Lynn Minmay, from Super Dimension Fortress Macross, which made researching this one kind of hard. (I was like, I wanna find out about this director, but was only getting results for this anime girl. I like Macross and all, but that wasn’t what I wanted.)

Akemi Hayashi for real: She, like Shouko Nakamura, did early stuff at Gainax. You can see her work going way, way back—if you’ve seen the 1997 anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, she did key animation on the opening sequence for that. She’s been the animation director for a number of high profile projects, including Casshern Sins [and] the Rebuild of Evangelion films. She hasn’t had a full TV series or movie debut yet, but she has directed a few short films and the penguin episode of Space Dandy. What I’m going to put on for you next is a short film done for a collaboration project called Ani*Kuri 15: fifteen one-minute shorts from different creators in the industry. Hers was called “Namida no Mukou,” roughly “from behind tears.” Like Shouko Nakamura, she also has a strong focus on fluid animation. I especially like her use of subtleties in facial expression and body language, conveying emotion through that.

[Ani*Kuri 15, “Namida no Mukou”]

Getting to directors who did not work on Penguindrum (which is a ridiculous classification in itself): My personal favorite, Sayo Yamamoto. This lady is super extra: when she was in college, she wanted to work on animation, but the faculty told her, “No, you can’t work on animation.” She said, “Heck, I’m working on animation anyway,” and did. She caught the attention of director Satoshi Kon to work on Millennium Actress. Stuff happened and she didn’t end up working on that, so her first work at Studio Madhouse was some animation on Trava, which later became the basis for the movie Redline, if you’ve seen that. There she got noticed by Shinichiroh Watanabe, director of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. She was brought on to be an episode director on Champloo, and that’s where she says she first got creative control over her project.  [Yamamoto] has also directed a lot of opening and ending sequences; if you’ve seen the first ending sequence to Attack on Titan, that was all her: the sketchy charcoal drawing, that’s her.

Yamamoto’s one of those creatives that has a strong influence over story direction as well as the visuals. For instance, she has a fixation on the femme fatale character, as well as gender and sexuality in general—especially female and queer sexuality. You’ve got Michiko and Hatchin, which is about Latina women, one of them a lesbian. The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, literally an entire series about what makes the femme fatale—Fujiko Mine, the femme fatale character in the long-running franchise Lupin III—what makes her tick, and why is she bad? That show is about interrogating that.

Yuri on Ice also addresses sexuality in a way that’s a little more subtle than her previous works—YOI is a lot lighter, less gritty than the “sex and murder” tone of Fujiko Mine. Part of this is because it is a collaboration with manga artist Mitsurou Kubo. But you can still see hints of this fixation on sexuality and femininity in [for instance] episode 3, where Yuri literally works to channel his inner Fujiko Mine. There’s also a queer character in Fujiko Mine, so yeah, gender and sexuality is a big thing in Yamamoto’s work.

Also, butts. Sayo Yamamoto isn’t that open to giving interviews, but from people who work with her, we have reports that yeah, she was very insistent that they draw butts very well. She says figure skaters have such nice butts you can put things on them, and was really insistent that the staff draw them all. Also, she is on record saying that she liked the scenes in Lupin III where Fujiko took her shirt off—make of that what you will.

Beyond her fixation on butts and sex, she also has a focus on fairy tale imagery and sketchlike charcoal/pencil drawings. This is the ending sequence of Rage of Bahamut (which is getting a sequel this season, I’m so excited) and it’s quite gorgeous.

[Rage of Bahamut ED]

Wasn’t that pretty? (Audience member: yes.) As much as I would like to talk about Sayo Yamamoto all day—I will seriously talk about Sayo Yamamoto all day if you let me, so don’t let me—next we have Rie Matsumoto.

Rie Matsumoto is a director who started at Toei, animating and directing episodes of Heartcatch Precure. (If you don’t know what Precure is, it’s basically My Little Pony, but magical girls and Japanese. That’s the kind of fandom it has. Maybe a little less bad, but not the point.) At Toei, she directed the original promotional video for this series called Kyousougiga, which became a web series and eventually a 10-episode TV series. Then she went AWOL for a few years, later reappearing at Studio BONES directing Blood Blockade Battlefront. (She’s also really cute, I think. [Audience member: It’s true.])

Matsumoto’s another one of those creators with a strong storytelling stamp as well; she has a hand in writing a lot of these works. She as a creator is eclectic as hell. Kyousougiga is like a dozen shows in one, about nostalgia and regret and salvation through platonic love and depression and narcissism—it’s great. Some of the themes that reappear across her work, especially in this original part of Blood Blockade Battlefront, are family bonds, salvation through familial love. In Blood Blockade Battlefront she basically added an entire subplot that was about two siblings reconciling with each other, because that was [the story she wanted to tell]. That’s not even in the manga at all.

For Blood Blockade Battlefront, the artist of the manga [Yasuhiro Nightow] had only one request to the anime staff, and that was to make an opening sequence worth seeing a hundred times. That’s a pretty daunting task, but Rie Matsumoto was like, “heck, I’ll do it.” I’ll let you decide whether she succeeds or not.

[Kekkai Sensen OP]

Every frame of that thing has so much, the composition’s superb. Matsumoto is not directing the second season, unfortunately; she says she’s told the story she wanted to tell and no longer has interest in telling more. Someone else will be taking charge of that second season!

Here’s Soubi Yamamoto, another one of my favorites. No relation to Sayo Yamamoto. Soubi Yamamoto is unique in that she’s basically entirely independent. Most of her work she wrote, directed, and animated almost all by herself—kind of like Makoto Shinkai, director of the current hit Your Name, as well as Five Centimeters Per Second, Garden of Words, if you’ve seen those.

Yamamoto’s really young. Her This Boy series: This Boy Can Fight Aliens, This Boy Caught a Merman, This Boy Suffers from Crystallization, and This Boy is a Professional Wizard. They’re all standalone, thirty-minute shorts. She made the first one of those when she was 22. (She’s like, 27 now. Really young.)

Characteristics of her style: When you see a Soubi Yamamoto thing, you know it’s Soubi Yamamoto. It’s got a saturated color palette, limited animation (since it’s basically just her), on-screen text and manga-like textures/aesthetic. She also has a pretty large hand in writing most of her shorts. You see themes of loneliness, isolation, the difficulty of maintaining interpersonal connection—and boys kissing, there’s quite a bit of that too. What she did not write was MEGANEBU, her one and only TV series to date. This is about a bunch of guys in a glasses enthusiastic club. It’s about as dumb as it sounds. In this scene one of the characters is trying to go to club and is sidetracked by a praying mantis.

[Meganebu, episode 5 - about 3:00-4:30]

The rest of the episode escalates from there—he brings out a suit of armor and a flamethrower just to get past this bug. It’s pretty great.

Atsuko Ishizuka. She was the first [female] staff director at Studio Madhouse. In 2008, the head of Madhouse Masao Maruyama said of her that she was probably the most talented young director in the industry at the time. She’s managed to get a foothold in the otaku market with No Game No Life and several other reasonably successful properties.

She’s also very fond of very, very bold color design. Personally I think she goes a little overboard with it most of the time, but in this 2009 show Aoi Bungaku I think she handled it well. This show is an anthology of adaptations of Japanese literature. Ishizuka directed episodes 11 and 12, “The Spider’s Thread” and “Hell Screen,” both based on short stories by Ryuunosuke Akutagawa. (Has anyone seen Bungo Stray Dogs? Yeah, it’s that guy. He’s actually a real person.) Hell Screen is about a painter who’s commissioned to decorate the tomb of an emperor with his glory, but when he’s faced with the suffering and strife that’s going on in the country he paints a picture of suffering instead. This is the scene where he finally breaks when his daughter is burned before his eyes. [Its exquisite use of color] is really gorgeous; y’all should watch it.

[Aoi Bungaku, episode 12. No link, sorrymasen.]

Aoi Bungaku has unfortunately never been licensed because the market for adaptations of Japanese modernist literature is kind of small. (Its audience is me, mostly.)

Moving on, we have Eunyoung Choi. Choi is a longtime collaborator with avant-garde director Masaaki Yuasa. If you’ve seen Tatami Galaxy, Ping Pong, Kick-Heart (which aired on Toonami a while ago, I think)... they also did an episode of Adventure Time together. Most of Eunyoung Choi’s work has been with Yuasa, so you see their styles kind of merge, with loose lineart, flexible animation, favoring dynamic motion over consistent character models. She did direct the ninth episode of Space Dandy herself (Yuasa came later in the second season with the fish alien episode). This is the episode where Space Dandy and the crew go to a planet where all the living things are plants.

Interesting to note that Choi is Korean, and not Japanese; if you look at the edges of the industry, with the ‘artsy’ projects, you can see a bunch of non-Japanese people. Kevin Aymeric, French background artist; Michael Arias, a director from America; Thomas Romain, French mech designer; Bahi JD, Austrian animator; a lot of them work on the same projects because they’re all buddy-buddy with each other.

So she’s directed this lovely but trippy episode of Space Dandy. [It’s a unique style on display here.]

[Space Dandy, episode 9, about 15:30-17:30]

That was Eunyoung Choi. Here’s another lady: Ai Yoshimura, who directed Oregairu, Blue Spring Ride, Dance with Devils, and Cheer Boys. She’s pretty good at handling moments of intense emotion: in Blue Spring Ride there are so many scenes where you can just feel the atmosphere dripping with romantic tension. (Sometimes it’s bad.) But my personal favorite thing of hers is Dance with Devils, which is basically an anime Broadway musical about a girl and demon boys. This show had the brilliant idea of making Cerberus a mashpotato dog. And he has a musical number. You guys should see it ‘cause I love this show to death.

[Dance with Devils - Loewen]

This show also has wonderful numbers like an extremely wannabe rap and a song called “Emo Liar.” It’s “I Won’t Say I’m In Love” but with anime boys and more screaming. Anyway, that show is great and I feel like everyone should watch it, but that’s just me.

I feel like I should mention the most prolific director in the entire industry, [Chiaki Kon]. I don’t think this is even a complete list of her work. Here I have Golden Time and Sailor Moon Crystal. Season 3, since the first two were directed by someone else. She, uh, sure does put out a lot of work. Not a lot of it’s very good, but there sure is a lot of it! Props to her for getting so many jobs. I mean, as much as I love Nodame Cantabile, those two seasons are not good. Also Junjou Romantica. I’m not gonna say anything about Junjou Romantica, but… Junjou Romantica.

Literally everyone else: I of course did not have time to get to everyone. A couple of names I like on here:

Noriko Takao directing Saint Young Men, which is about Jesus and Buddha chilling in an apartment in Tokyo, and it’s pretty great. That will probably never get released over here because fundies.

Kotomi Deai directing the second season of Silver Spoon and the fifth season of Natsume Yuujinchou. She took over Silver Spoon from SAO director Tomohiko Ito, who was currently then busy with SAO.

Sayo Aoi directing The Merman In My Bathtub. See, there are actually two gay merman anime. I just think that’s incredible.

I also really like [Mitsuko Kase’s] Ristorante Paradiso. It’s the kind of show you watch if you’re really into older men. Like, if you want to sit back after work, chill and watch reasonably attractive older men do their thing, that’s the show for you.

(I have seen basically everything on this list. Some of it’s pretty bad. Some is actually decent. Not [Yukina Hiiro’s] Chu-bra. Nnngh, we don’t talk about Chu-bra.)

The anime industry today is obviously changing. There’s more anime produced now than ever before; we have dozens of new shows every three months. Go back a few decades, we had a dozen new shows a year. With that boom, the women’s share of the market is definitely growing. You see this with a lot more anime directed at women: the idol shows; the sports anime,which are intended for younger boys but have a significant female following anyway (hot guys); Touken Ranbu, which is more of a thing over in Japan than here; Osomatsu. With that, we have more female-led projects than ever before.

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. The wages in the industry are terrible. Animation is a really hard job! It takes a lot of skill, and they get paid almost nothing for it. Also, the industry is kind of a boys’ club and has been since the beginning. On the bright side, a lot of these women are really young and will probably do good work in the future, so I’m gonna beg you guys to support them by watching through legal channels. (I’m shilling for good friends at Crunchyroll.)

I then went through a few resources and places to watch the good cartoons, concluding with the same two Animator Expo shorts from before the panel for the people who showed up later. Thanks for playing!

[thejpfdude-blog]

The Week in Anime (Week of 8/14/17)

Hello friends and welcome to another edition of TWiA! There’s a lot to get through, but first let’s head on over to...

The News Corner

This week didn’t have too much in terms of shocking news. The one thing I do want to highlight that came out this week is:

Violet Evergarden PV2

Mmm that’s good stuff. Not as amazingly animated as the first CM, but that was more or less done for the light novel so I don’t expect the whole show to be that level of quality. And even then the PV had some dang good animation, complete with some more information about the show. From the translation done here, one might think it has a big focus on romance. And that’s what I thought too, that is until I read another comment in the same thread that mentioned light novel spoilers but had a TL;DR stating it’s a coming-of-age story and not a romance. Good to know, otherwise I probably would’ve had the wrong expectations for it.

I’m not gonna lie though, I’m pretty hyped for this show. I’m trying not to be, but ever since the CM came out (which was the first glimpse of the show), my first question was “when?” (which has since turned into “how many days until January?”). I’m excited for the potential pairing between KyoAni animation and a great story considering the light novel won the Grand Prize award in the same yearly award that other light novel-turned-KyoAni shows like Kyoukai no Kanata and Chuunibyou only got Honorable Mentions in. Well, only four months to go. That’s not that long of a wait honestly.

Now before I get onto the rankings and awards, I want to write some blurbs about some shows I recently finished. Now some of these shows aren’t ones I finished within the last week, but I think it’s a good time to talk about them after having them stew in my head for a little. So let me start by talking about a show I might have an article on in the future...

Love Live Sunshine

With season 2 of this coming soon, I was determined to try and finish this show. And I did. So that’s nice.

On a more serious note, Sunshine was a nice sort of spin-off to the main Love Live anime. I think one of the biggest complaints I heard was that it was too similar to the original anime, and I can see that. The whole school-closing storyline was a bit too convenient, though it actually didn’t get resolved by the end of the season, so that’s something to keep an eye out next season. Another thing was the similarities of the leaders of each group, which I strongly agree with. I mean I wasn’t a huge Honoka (Honkers) fan in general, and Chika to me feels sorta like a ripoff of her (hence the reason I call her Ripoff Honkers).

But some of the other stuff wasn’t as bad to me. Like other than Ripoff Honkers (and Dia to an extent) I feel like each character is unique enough to be their own person, rather than be a clone of a previous μ‘s member. Sure there’s some obvious parallels that can be made. Ruby/Hanayo for shyness (which is even eluded to in the anime), Mari/Nozomi for being the memester, etc. But when I think of, say Hanamaru, I don’t think of anybody from μ‘s in particular, but about her zuras and her eating habits. Same schtick for the rest of them (except Ripoff Honkers). If anything, I like Aqours a bit more than μ‘s so far, if only because my favorite character from the Rabu Raibus is in Aqours (though favorite group is still a toss-up as of now).

Story-wise, I liked Sunshine a lot more than the original, if only because there was a minimum of the “power of friendship” stuff that the original had (like the final scene from the last episode of S1). And before episode 10 when the third-years joined the group, I actually liked how the drama didn’t feel too cheesy. Of course, that changed when the third-years joined, but it still wasn’t as cheesy as the original show, which was nice. Add in the fact that the slice-of-life scenes added some nice snark (making it less /r/wholesomememes cult-like happy), and in the end Sunshine > original (at least anime-wise). 6/10 overall, and actually somewhat excited for the next season in 2 months-ish.

Free!

Funny story. Actually not really funny, or a story: I had this on my list for some time, but it wasn’t until I visited my friend last week that we ended up watching the first 6 episodes of this show. And then from there I finished it a few days later, and now we’re here.

This show’s pretty famous for its manservice (fanservice of the male variety), and I’m not gonna deny that. In fact, I’ll confirm it: there were a lot of shots of those muscular sculpted bodies, toned to perfection.

...

Uh yeah. But other than that this show was actually pretty fun to watch. I don’t know how much of that is the fact that there was at least one main girl character in the show, who ended becoming one of my favorite girls and now has a place in my Favorite Characters list on my MAL profile.

But it’s really because in it’s core it’s a sports anime, and not of the shounen type. Like there’s competition and hype sports moments with none of the shounen tropes like explaining every single ilttle thing. It’s actually... like sports with just plain competing, which as a huge sports nut I’m down for. The races were pretty hype, and the drama between the characters wasn’t too out there (though the whole thing between Rin and Haruka seemed very ship-friendly).

So overall, a surprisingly good show, manservice aside. I’ll definitely be watching the second season of this soon (once I settle in to my new place). 7/10 would recommend for swimming shenanigans.

Teekyuu

In my quest to have Nisemonogatari be my 200th entry on MAL, I watched shorts/specials that wouldn’t take too much time to watch. So why not watch the famed 2-minute short known for having faster pace than the Roadrunner? Generally I don’t like fast-paced shows, but I think that this short does a really good job with itself. Content-wise this show is so freaking ridiculous and doesn’t take itself seriously. But it works for the most part, and it’s pretty hilarious. Though it’s technically about a tennis club, I think they only have tennis in like 3 of the episodes, with the others focusing on some other random subject.

If there’s one negative to this, it’s the pace. Because as well as they use it, it’s still super quick, and sometimes an episode goes by and I go “what just happened?” Still, it’s a stupidly fun show: overall 6/10, and definitely will be watching the next 8 seasons (no I’m not joking, the ninth season is airing right now).

Nisemonogatari

So that was an adventure. This was an interesting case study, considering these were the stories that Nisio Isin (the author of the light novel) never intended to be released. As a result this show ended up being probably the most controversial entry in the Monogatari series. And it showed: this version of Monogatari really ramped up on some questionable scenes. Before I get into the infamous scene this show’s known for, let me get into some other stuff I wasn’t really about. First, the bath scene in episode 4. I don’t doubt it was an important scene: in fact it’s probably one of the most important scenes in the whole of Monogatari. But it’s the whole showing a naked 8-year old girl for the majority of the episode thing that made me pretty uncomfortable. It’s funny looking at the comments of the rewatch thread, and people trying to explain why it wasn’t that bad. The most common thing I saw was that it wasn’t sexualized at all, what with Araragi not being pedo like he is with the others and the fact that there wasn’t any zoom-ins of the naughty bits.

Yet the problem I have with that is that at it’s core it’s still... a naked 8-year old for the majority of an anime episode. And I’m not denying what the people in that thread are saying: actually it makes a hella lot of sense. But it’s still a naked 8-year old. I’m not about that life, even with the deeper meaning and all that.

And now that toothbrush scene. That... was a thing. Yep, a thing. Indeed. A. Thing.

Sigh... that was honestly the most uncomfortable I’ve been while watching anime. I’m glad I live alone or else I would have feared a roommate or something coming into my room and seeing me watch that. 

Now before you start telling me “deeper meaning” and all that jazz, I’ll just say this: my least favorite subject was English. The reason? I always had to be on the lookout for some deeper meaning, some symbolism, etc., instead of just enjoying reading. Now with the Monogatari series full of its more deeper themes, symbolism and looking deeper into events is very necessary. But looking past the deeper meaning this scene is a guy brushing his sister’s teeth while she starts getting sexually aroused, almost leading to a kiss in the end. That’s... also not my thing. Big time.

Well, that rant’s out of the way. Not counting the above scenes (as well as some of the other questionable stuff like imouto boob touch), I actually did enjoy this show. Monogatari’s slowly becoming one of my favorite franchises, making what should like a boring dialogue-heavy show fun and interesting. And now that Nisemonogatari’s out of the way I’m excited for what’s arguably the best version of Monogatari, Monogatari 2nd Season (kinda misnamed don’tcha think?). Overall despite above statements still a 7/10 show, with hope for the future.

Now that that’s done let’s move on to the good ol’...

Rankings:

1 (0). New Game!! (9/10) [5/12]

2 (0). Princess Principal (8.5/10) [6/?]

3 (0). Kakegurui (7/10) [6/12]

4 (0). Tsurezure Children (7/10) [6/?]

5 (0). Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season (7/10) [19/25]

6 (+1). Sakura Quest (5/10) [19/25]

7 (-1). Ballroom e Youkoso (5/10) [6/24]

8 (0). Centaur no Nayami (5/10) [6/12]

9 (0). Isekai Shokudou (4.5/10) [6/?]

10 (0). Nana Maru San Batsu (4/10) [6/12]

Awards

The Tangent Award: Centaur no Nayami

After 6 episodes, I think I have a general idea of why I feel like this show is off. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do like the show. Some of the scenes offer some nice commentary on the small issues that these people face (like the whole toilet thing) that some people may think is pedantic but I think is super interesting. Basically the stuff like the first few episodes of Demi-chan wa Kataritai (with the nice interviews and stuff).

The problem that this show has is that it goes through different scenes that seem jarring in transition. It jumps from one thing to a completely random thing, leaving me wondering how they even got to a certain point in the episode. Though in the end they’re able to show that the disjointed events are somewhat connected, the connection’s as fragile as Troy Tulowitzki (sports fan explanation: a baseball player who’s seemingly always injured, hence he’s called “fragile”). And in the end I continue on, wondering what I just watched for the past 23 or so minutes. I feel like there’s a better way to organize the episode, but I’m not really sure how yet. For now I’ll just continue watching, because despite questionable organization it’s still a mildly entertaining show.

The Not Comfy Award: Kakegurui

Yo but actually what was that episode. Return of masochist queen = return of fear for my life. This show isn’t high on my “comfy show” list, but after this episode it’s sunken even lower.

On a totally unrelated note, I’ve changed my opinion from slightly liking Yumeko to not liking her at all. In fact it’s kinda funny that my opinions of Yumeko and Mary flipped, and now I find Mary to be the better girl (if not best girl of the show). Seeing how she’s not just one of the crazies and actually seems kinda nice is reassuring to say the least (even if the crazy leaks out at times). The return of Suzui was also nice, considering he’s a good dynamic compared to the insane characters in the show. If anything, I’m curious to see how this ends, considering the pace so far and the fact that it’s one cour.

Best Episode of the Week: Princess Principal

After three straight weeks of New Game!!, we finally get a new show for best episode of the week. It was a hard choice, considering this week’s episode of New Game!! was very good. But Princess Principal wins out with a great episode about Dorothy and her life before being a spy.

I won’t go deep into the episode because I want to try to not have too much spoilers in these blurbs. But what I will say is that dang, these girls have good reason for being spies. Also that the end of this episode was pretty sad, especially considering Dorothy’s final line. Princess Principal’s been impressing so far, and I love the disjointed style of storytelling (with case 6 last week and case 18 this week). Next to New Game!!, this show’s been my favorite of the season. I highly recommend it even if you aren’t the biggest fan of CGDCTs or spy stuff.

And that’s all for this week! Thanks for reading! Just a quick announcement/notice: I’ll be busy next week preparing for school and moving into my new place, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I don’t have the time to watch the currently-airing shows. If that does happen I’ll mention which ones I didn’t get to, and if it doesn’t well then it’ll be business as usual. Anyway, thanks again and I’ll see you in the next post!

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Boku no Hero Academia 22 - 23 | Grimoire of Zero 8 | Royal Tutor 9 | Kado 8 | Tsukigakirei 8

Boku no Hero Academia 22

I never saw that “meteor shower” coming! BnHA keeps the surprises coming, eh?

Hey, he used Uraraka’s name! He’s serious now!!!

I gotta admit Denki and the other hero trying to defend Uraraka only because she’s a girl is an outdated idea (but the patriarchy demands I only get irked about this a bit), but defending Uraraka because she’s almost out of commission is something I can understand.

Oh, the tough realities of herohood…the suckiness of failure…I gotta touch on this more in Half-Paid Heroes. Better pay attention!

It’s kinda clear Shouto vs Izuku is gonna get cut off by the time limit, but it’s interesting to note that there are 2 rivals close to Midoriya. Normally a shonen hero only has one fixed one.

Boku no Hero Academia 23

I’ve seen people comment a tonne on episode 22, so episode 23 should garner a lot of attention too as the highlight of this season.

I always thought by saying Shouto could be a hero, it implied his mother could no longer be one. Why? Possible trigger warning for this, but I think it’s “enduring Endeavour’s abuse”.

The bandage on Uraraka’s face reminds me that BnHA is good at consistency.

Poodle girl, who tried to defend Uraraka last ep, is still in the crowd. Another good touch of consistency.

This is rare – Bakugo’s introspective and showing off why he’s top of the class simultaneously.

Looking at this from a strategy point of view, Deku still has his legs, potentially his head if he wants to risk it, (uninjured) parts of his arms maybe, or overexerting his arms again. If he gets very creative, maybe his torso. It still looks like Todoroki’s going to win nonetheless, even though he seems to be showing some signs of fatigue too.

I thought he’d overexert his arms again, but I guess I never thought of the more logical path, which would be “overexert the fingers again first”, huh?

That threw me for a bit. 1) Todoroki never says “now I’m angry”. He’s the cool guy, to make a lame pun. 2) That’s a cliched line only bad guys say. Then again, it could be a “you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back” moment.

Ice is powerful. So powerful, there aren’t many ice Pokémon, and I originally planned to have an ice-skater be the 6th ranger in Half-Paid Heroes, only to find that since I kept restructuring the lineup, the skater became too OP. (Also, because Half-Paid Heroes used to be a strictly girl-turns-into-magical-boy affair, the 6th ranger - Yuki - was a great big hinge on what came afterwards, so I’ve struggled with the storyline now that I’ve given it a more workplace SoL baseline.)

I always thought ice was also a salve to some extent, but with more destructive power comes a lessened ability to heal.

Todoroki looks like Bakugo now. Guess it can’t be helped, seeing as “explosions” are associated with “fire”.

“Such a doting father.” – I laiughed, because we just found out that’s blasphemy. It’s ironic, to use the proper term.

Block rubble is a sure sign that this is a sakuga fest. Wowee, last time I saw block rubble was ConRevo (as far as I can remember)! Thank you, BONES!

Hmph. Fanservice. If you like Shouto’s fanservice here, you’ll definitely like Free!, but I’m neutral on it. 15 year olds shouldn’t be so muscular…sure, it’s part of a hero’s job to be muscular if they’re physically fit, but fanservice of 15 year olds ain’t my thing, y’know?

Grimoire of Zero 8

I’m of the idea that Albus is a dude for commentary purposes, but I’ve seen lots of comments across the ‘net saying Albus is a girl. It seems this episode will get rid of whatever misconceptions I have about Albus’s gender once and for all.

When the wolf says she is closest to Him, who’s “she” exactly? Sorena? Sorena’s granddaughter?

The wolf is behind the main trio at the end of the OP…!

I get the feeling this stitch-up scene is just for some manservice on the wolf’s part…but at least it holds some revelations for those that don’t want manservice of the muscle kind. (In terms of bishonen, I don’t dig Dragon Ball or Free!-style muscles anyway. *shrugs*)

That is one young grandmother…but dangit, why was the wolf hot as a man???!!! (It’s distracting, and I already have too many husbandos…but he’s only hot when he has his clothes on.)

Wuh…? Just when I decide he’s worth staying for, I find out his name…and it’s Holdem? Like, Texas Holdem?

Sometimes belief is all one needs to fight for a cause, Holdem my previously-handsome man.

Grimoire of Zero is lucky its CGI is only noticeable when the show is paused…

“Who knew he was Sorena’s granddaughter…”

From the pronouns used in the subs, it seems that even the subbers believed Albus was a dude and stuck to their guns even after the explicit revelation.

Royal Tutor 9

Fancy gakurans…if you already have a gakuran lying around, it’s pretty easy to cosplay the princes, I guess.

Why are those guards so excited?

This thing just went all ACCA-shaped. That’s not a bad thing, I’m just saying guns are normally used at the climax of shows like this, like in ACCA.

I think the “I am a grown man” jokes are getting a lil’ old at the business end, but that’s because when I see drama I expect consistent drama.

The camera scene was so ludicrous that I ended up laughing anyway…

As an action writer, that butt-kicking Heine did was perfect (albeit a tad slow). Then again, this show’s specialty is a SoL-style pace and I wouldn’t change that about it.

That trick Ludwig did was basically what Alciel did in Hataraku Maou-sama!, but because it was compressed into a shorter amount of time, it had little to no payoff.

“The stupid-seeming fellow is right.” – I never thought Maximilian seemed stupid…

I noted Fuchs said, “Take me away,” which is a very interesting point.

Well, now we really can’t neglect Heine’s past. Get hyped, Royal Tutor fans!

Kado 8

Shunina’s reading something called Ningen Manzai. According to this website, Ningen Manzai is about a god from space who comes to earth and becomes human…then something about angels and another god. Even if you don’t learn the entire synopsis of Ningen Manzai, the book is very relevant, ain’t it? Also, Shunina’s using his seahorse bookmark from last ep, which is cute.

The discussion on Sansa reminds me of the Porygon incident…

“Hail to Humanity”? So that would mean…the title is actually Ningen Banzai…

It’s Kado Skype, powered by Wam. That…that’s great! We can finally see Wam being put to use around here.

As someone who’s studied IT, I understand Gonno’s words on networks well.

Google Satellite. Yep, it exists.

Kado is unintentionally hilarious sometimes, like the “Dad! Dad!” bit there. The chestnut bit I found vaguely disturbing but that was because Shindo looked like he was gasping for air. For the “Dad! Dad!” bit in particular though, Kado’s gone all Summer Wars and that’s why it’s funny.

These jellyfish are really lifelike…but you get a sad feeling from this “date” scene. As if suddenly the staff finally give us a look into why Saraka is correct…you feel like this is all just an “all according to zaShunina keikaku” thing, and suddenly you see the tower known as humanity was knocked down as soon as Kado came.

So Saraka’s saying…the tale of Kado (the show) is a tragedy? Well, that’s a new take on this whole scenario…hey, wait. So Ward and Gonno (to a lesser extent) are the evil ones here?

Grumpy Gonno…haha.  

Does SETTEN need to learn how to “not be evil”, as per its inspiration’s philosophy? Hmm.

It’s Shunina, on a TV show, like a celebrity. The world is evolving in ways I thought were unimaginable.

Is it possible to watch Sansa because of peer pressure, because Shunina could be seen as a “cool” guy? I wonder…

LOL, so you’re going to get him to talk with drinks? I can’t imagine a drunk Shunina…but I can understand that with drinking culture, it’s probably the right way to go to get closer to someone. (Even if that “someone” is an anisotropic being.) Shunina may not understand “food” after all.

As much as I love the alien dork, he’s getting more and more sinister as the show goes on. From what I’ve read on Kado all over the ‘net, people have distrusted him since episode 1, but hey. That’s what we’re here for.

Shinawa was absent yet again, thank goodness.

The round object in the preview (it looks like a white sphere surrounded by blue chunks) is probably a Nanomishein, knowing this show.

Tsukigakirei 8

Welp, we’re finally back to Dazai after referencing Souseki.

Huh? That part with the dancing guy with the mask has gone from live action to animated…so it seems like the staff of Tsukigakirei give an effort now.

The OP seems to evolve more as time goes by, which is interesting. A few eps ago, the sheet only said “title” but the title of this work that’s evolving is called 13.70. However, it seems to be by Azumi Osamu, and not Kotarou. (Or maybe that’s just a penname of Kotarou’s, based on his love for Dazai?) 13.70 is 75 mai (sheets) long.

Love is hard to describe, and I guess when you love someone it’s hard to put into words because of that.

Is the video going slower or did the animation budget get cut in half?

I’d assume “hayashi” refers to the rice.

So it’s not my imagination…the budget got skimped on! You can tell because they did the same almost still scene thing twice this ep.

Noting how dark the potato is, I’d say it’s sweet potato (purple).

Ahahaha! So that’s where the potato mascot come from. They’re sweet potatoes then…now I get it! (It’s just that when you say “potato” on its lonesome I think of the one you make ordinary chips out of.)

Now that we know Kotarou’s birthday, I know she’s going to buy him a present. That’s what anyone would do…and of course, I was right.

That shot of windchimes from the OP. I like it, but I know it’s recycled from there.

Well, for all the budget skimping they’ve done, they’ve churned out some really good festival shots. They’re so lifelike.

I didn’t think geta were annoying enough to give you blisters. Guess I was wrong.

You’re so stealthy, Akane (sarcastic).

Finally, here are the development we’ve been waiting for. Unfortunately, they’re paired with some really bad off model shots. Fortunately, they bother to give us the first kiss.

The fortune tags both say “I wish to be together forever.” (<-paused specifically to translate before subs came up)…CR tells me I was pretty bang on with my translation.

This ep’s ED convo is just a lovey-dovey couple fighting and saying “I love you more. No, I love you more” sort of thing, so don’t bother.

I got bored of these a few eps back, but since I have time right now, I went, “Why not?”.

Well, as much as I dislike the humour in these, I have to admit the moral in the Aira one was pretty good.

Well, finally Sakura gets some happiness. Good on her.

I don’t think I’ve seen a girl being called ippiki before. Ippiki is normally used with small animals, like dogs or cats.

The Roman and Ryouko (Sensei) ones are the worst of these, I just can’t ship them because the age gap is about 10 years. That’s a little too big for comfort, y’know?

That “Kotarou’s Parents” one actually made me laugh. It’s also a good insight into characters that don’t get developed much in the series. If I were an author (which I am, I just haven’t got any properly published books out there yet – the closest book I do have out there has no words…*hides in corner of shame*), I would have bonus content more along these lines.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Prince of Stride: Alternative 2 – 12 | ACCA 1 | Hand Shakers 1 | Nanbaka 15 | Marginal #4 1

(ep 2)

I don’t think I noticed this last time, but the dropped item is a Stride headset.

“…that won’t affect your future…”

That technique, where the memory becomes “movie footage”…I like it. Plus, Kyosuke was basically half of the reason why I stuck around with this show…haha.

“Fubun ritsu” at least translates directly…

Without context, the dialogue sounds pretty funny, especially because Diane should be (half) British and maybe should’ve picked up on the fact D’s sounds like…well…

The “D for Demon” pun is an English only one. The D in the Japanese is for doge (and not Doge, mind you). Doge is short for dogeza, or putting yourself on the ground and bowing furiously (to regain respect, for example).

Even Kadowaki is into the photoshoot!

Ah…without fanservice, this show would never get off the ground. Judging by how well sports anime fare from having pretty boys, that is.

There seems to be a theme of “letting go” in this, which makes it a perfect character study for One Wish They Never Wanted. Unfortunately, I’ve basically finished the story now…

Note tobu is also the word for “to fly”.

It vaguely bugs me that every time the subs go “Takeru”, the Japanese goes “Fujiwara-kun”.

The dude’s name is Asuma (you can hear it in the Japanese clearly), but the subs said “Yuma”.

I never questioned it, but…why is there laundry in the Stride clubroom?

I dunno about shogi, but apparently “a mistake leads to progress”.

(ep 3)

Andromeda is a maiden in the mythology. So Reiji’s right. Also, he’s voiced by Mamoru Miyano. You can’t go wrong with the dude.

Who in Dante’s Inferno is the flashing light head man?

Yeah, I wonder where the “Mee-chan” comes from too.

LOL, biology joke. Luckily, I understand it.

Sometimes Takeru sounds too deep for a teenager.

(ep 4)

Sometimes the humour can be a bit hard to follow in this show, but the visual quality is second to none!

Riku specifically asks to trade bentos, so the “trade bites” thing is deceiving.

I dunno what the “Japan Deep” is, but I think this is it.

Gelidium jelly. Aka agar…in some cases.

Back to Takeru observing muscles. It doesn’t get overdone, which is a good point of this show.

Basically Nagatsuka is Yamato from Nanbaka…haha.

The English is really good around the “on your mark” bit.

(ep 5)

Apparently you can get a motorcycle licence starting at the age of 16. I’m not good with balancing though, so a bike is hardly appropriate for me.

That shot of Hozumi, with the “Kuga” locker in the back…hmph. Nice foreshadowing/suspense shot.

I can’t quite make out what Ayumu’s saying when the subs go “Bering Sea”, as I don’t know the equivalent in Japanese. However, it most likely isn’t “Bering Sea”.

I don’t know what the equivalent to the “KGB” thing is either…Update: Okay, I know it now. It’s “ka ge be”, at least in its audio version.

(ep 6)

What are the helicopters for?

There was a kaitenzushi that Kuga-senpai passed…(hey wait, what am I saying? Kuga’s not my senpai!)

The English on the subway sign behind Yuri is really good. Why are these fine details in this show so good?!

It’s moments when a character smiles and you smile along with them, that’s why I watch anime.

I think “Yuniko” was a parody of UNIQLO, a Japanese brand. Apparently they’re pretty cheap, and I’ve been able to find it in my home city for a good few years now.

Really? Gainaxing? On Diane? I must’ve wiped that from my memory.

Hozumi, don’t leave Kuga-senpai hanging!

(ep 7)

*nods* Heath, Riku, I know your feels.

I dunno what a Kankokukan is…

I think they mean the Sea of Okhotsk…since that’s close to Japan. At least there was a warning that this would indeed be stupid talk and nothing more. However, the “Stop getting creative with my memories!” means that that gibberish was actually a bunch of locations in Japan, characterised by that weird stuff in the animation. I bet only people who are really acquainted with Japan and its geography would get it…because I don’t.

I dunno what a “Jangara” is. Or what “Jangara ramen” is.

It’s really hard to tell who’s bros with who here. Probably because they have completely different hair colours.

If you watch the Riku and Asuma scene carefully, you can see Ayumu, Hozumi and their Saisei counterparts sliding on the balls in the room behind them.

In the back of the “salt to the enemy” scene, it says shio (in romaji), salt (obviously) and shio (in katakana). On Riku’s bag, it says shio (in kanji).

Myogenesis.

Poor Mr Dan…

Shizuma! That loose hairstyle suits you so well!

Batsu ge-mu, LOL.

That Reiji really seems to like Kobe products recommended by Takeru, huh?

Here’s a little something on the Tamaya and Kagiya bits. Kadowaki-ya is a pun on that.

LOL, that manservice.

(ep 8)

4th wall break…?

Hokkaido is known for being snowy…so yeah, “northness” it is.

Of course, when they say “Lee”, “Chan” and so on, it’s Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. The Dragon Awakens belongs to…I dunno, actually.

Is Riku’s hair black when his face is hidden by the magazine (last part of ep with credits)?

(ep 9)

I only just found out, but that fanboy from Saisei, Kaede? He’s voiced by Toshiyuki Toyonaga, meaning he’s Yuri Katsuki (Yuri!!! on Ice). Kyosuke is voiced by Junichi Suwabe, making him Viktor Nikiforov. Yeah...that happened 3 seasons before Yuri on Ice...

Stick figures…that’s not a very conventional way to save on anime budget, but it’s a way nonetheless.

Gendo pose!

Seriously? Toilet humour? At least it didn’t last for too long.

There’s a box in the hallway that says “Aomori apples” on it.

(ep 10)

Did I just see Kyosuke with no eyes…? No, the aliens got his eyes too! That was so close to a perfect run (pun intended) without those face stealing aliens!

The question about snow is just an equivalent to “something impossible happened”.

“The devil getting sunstroke” was probably due to it being really hot.

Panda bread…the reason why it even exists is because pan da means “It is bread” and panda…is panda.

I know that feel, Riku… I’m only average, I used to not be so average…and that’s the sad part about me.

The rainbow of change…I hope it comes for me too.

(ep 11)

A high touch is a high 5, by the way.

LOL, 5th Symphony. Of course…

LOL, Shizu-man. A cross cultural pun…you don’t see those very often. Update: Apparently, that’s “Oshizu” in the Japanese.

That deadly look in Reiji’s eyes…it’s hard to look away from.

(ep 12)

Hopefully this show helps to motivate me long into the future…!

*yells into the breeze* …Idiots!

Even Hachiko has an EOS decoration, LOL. Hachiko is a dog known for his loyalty, having waited for his master right up until his death. However, his master had died before him.

So whose plan was it to see Honan in the first place (in regards to Galaxy Standard)?

Naked Speed…? What kinda name is that?

So did they…never mind. You know at the end.

Ah, bookends. At least they’re satisfying, even if they’re a little cliched.

The end of summer will last forever…until the winter comes. Heh. Of course I’d see that viewpoint. (Whaddaya mean, I’m too much of an optimist to be a constant whiner? I assume you’ve been through the POSA eps with me so far, and some of them twice.) Anyways, hope to see you again when our decisions once again collide…

Update: The name “Amatsu Ida” was on my mind and I couldn’t figure out why until I realised it’s the same pun as Tenya Iida’s. The POSA staff must’ve thought they were really funny, eh? Also, I thought they all had numbers in their names (Tasuku Senoo, Bantaro Chiyomatsu etc.) but I was wrong about most of them. However, there’s continuity between Shizuma and his bro (they both have the “horse” kanji, Asuma is “playing horse” – playing as in “frolicking” and such – while Shizuma is “quiet horse”) and Tasuku is “task” in katakana.

(ACCA 1)

I’m here because of Natsume Shingo and the stuff he showed on One Punch Man.

Okay, question. How do you spell Jean(?)’s name?

I love how there’s one shot that looks like it’s going to be a mouth to mouth kiss but turns into a secret telling instead.

Fweh? So, the part about the 13 districts suddenly starts to have echoes of the Hunger Games in it, and considering I suddenly decided to implement a Hunger Games parallel/parody into one of my fics one day, I know the exact makeup of such a story.

You can’t really tell Eider’s surprised aside from her open mouth…okay then. Moving on.

There was some very limited animation during that conversation (where Jean learns ACCA won’t be dissolved).

I don’t live in a family of four, so I actually questioned the squabbles over the flan for a second there.

“…or an ACCA chopper.” Speak of the devil, it’s a chopper! *Ahnold voice* Get to za choppaaaaaaaaaa! (Haha.)

What’s up with white uniformed Yurio’s hat? (Assuming Nino is the black haired dude.) Update: Turns out Nino has blue hair, while Knot is the dude with black hair. White uniformed Yurio’s name is Rein.

Pan = bread, apparently in Portuguese as well as Japanese. Also, Rein likes donuts and since he’s the “police” in this area…that sort of seems like a cliché…?

Mauve is the only one I really recognise (aside from Jean), after downloading all the ACCA icons I wanted before I saw this show. Mauve has some really distinctive hair. I recognise Rein from the icons, but not his name…hence the last dot point.

Trembling grey-haired dude’s hand was…actually pretty funny.

I love how Mauve is characterised by indigo hair that moves in the wind. It makes for some very limited yet LOLworthy animation.

Apparently, the café in the east staition (?) has American coffee (albeit lowercase) and blended coffee. Someone managed to stick that in…I’m impressed.

The ED looks arthouse, and I mean that in a good way. So…basically, although this seems to be a weaker showing than SGRS, it looks pretty good and I’m keeping it on for another ep.

(Hand Shakers 1)

Thought it had potential…but then the previews came out, and yet again, I have stumbled across the…problematic anime…of the season.

If there’s one thing I have to question, it’s the giant turtle on one building’s wall. Who thought a giant turtle on a wall was a good idea?

Yeah…if there’s any way to describe me after I see Gainaxing + torture, it’s “losing all attention”. Plus, they didn’t really explain anything yet about this boy who’s (according to the CR synopsis) called Tazuna or his girl Koyori. The CGI is hardly impressive either.

Gainax counter no. 2. Yet again, the scene is hardly impressive by any count. I think they’re trying to go all out with their visual techniques, and they’re achieving nothing.

When the camera specifically rotates around Pres’s mammaries…you know that’s a problem. Problem no. 2 is that I focussed more on a (purple) ad that says “Do Tarot Divinations!” instead of Tazuna. One last chance before I nope out of here, and that’s only because AniList was down earlier today just as I was using it.

Gainaxing no. 3. That’s it – I’m out of here.

(Nanbaka 15)

*groans* After Hand Shakers, I need therapy…ugh. I decided to rewatch a lot of my “worst shows ever” after Hand Shakers, too, which should very well explain my sore throat, feeling of a headache and any other symptoms I may exhibit during this simulcast commentary.

Rin! Rin! Hi! Hi! sounds more nasal. That’s what’s wrong with it.

Shut up…in English? I guess so.

Liquid nitrogen, in English? Hmm. Futamata-sensei’s good...or maybe just whoever was responsible for that.

Ooh…pretty screens…dang you, Hitokoe for being in the pretty screens’ way.

Poor Hitoshi. Doesn’t that hurt?

Where did the splat sound effect come from?

Why do they have to be so direct about…erm, that stuff? Hitoshi wears…those?

You said there were other traps here, eh? *raises eyebrows*

CGI prison bars…? Really? Plus, Hitokoe, you’re already annoying.

Even if parts of this ep were a letdown, Nanbaka is much better than a series of my worst anime…in a row. Ugh. *shivers*

(Marginal #4 1)

Idol anime are hard to access, so I’ve finally got one to cover…maybe.

Minimal CGI…that’s good. No gripes there, then.

Huh. It’s rare to find kanji that are assigned completely different romaji to their usual ones. Tsukuru has its own kanji, but those kanji are for bukatsu or club activities.

I knew it was coming…but L and R? In English, it just sounds uninspired.

Kirihara’s yet another Toshiki Masuda role…haha. Of course.

Marimo? The lil’ fluff moss?

I was confused at first about this “Starclusters” thing, but it turns out it just means the fans. Like Beppu Apes.

Yet another weird name I was prepared for, but got overwhelmed by when it showed up in the show proper. Shy…what a weird name…

I dunno why, but I react more to Lagrange Point’s hair being implausible rather than Marginal’s.

Hah, biology joke. That Atom is such a Masuda character, it’s cute.

Okay – complicated pun time. That kanji (it means “well”, as in the one with the water in it) is one letter I, but the word for “good” in hiragana is two Is but they sound roughly the same.

Of course, the iPun comes from iPhones, but the Taisho era is definitively Japanese.

The I-400 exists…but no one handles things like that at an elite school, right?

Tetranacci exists too, but…you know.

You can tell from their behavious that despite their hair colour, they really are bros, that L and R Nomura.

I think they tried too hard with L…or is it R? Welp, it’s one of them. The gaming twin. Update: It’s R. L’s the green marimo one.

Wow. Swanky room, kid.

Okay, whose idea was it to make Korean barbecue sauce flavoured soda?

Mayuge means eyebrows…

These guys are genre savvy. The specific word I used to describe them were “hideously genre-savvy”, but they hit the sweet spot between “too cliched” and “too much savvy, they ruin the entire genre”.

Wait, who gave the tomato then?

Mai is apparently the name of the group’s manager.

Okay, I’m keeping it on for another episode or so. It’s not completely out of the box, but it’s likeable.

[thejpfdude-blog]

The Fall 2016 Shows Awards

Hello friends and welcome to the annual INSERT SEASON HERE Shows Awards! Firstly, apologies for the delay: school and all that stuff delayed my watching of some shows, and I just finished catching up for the most part (not including 3-gatsu which I still need to catch up on...). After this post I plan on posting my thoughts on each Fall 2016 show I completed in detail, and then I’ll post my 2016 Awards for the entire year in anime.

But before all that, let’s start simple and look back at the last season with awards and other random stuff! Firstly, my rankings for the season:

Rankings for Fall 2016:

1. Kimi no Na Wa (10/10 Would Recommend) Nobunaga no Shinobi (7/10 ONGOING)

2. Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan (7/10)

3. Haikyuu!! S3 (7/10)

4. Flip Flappers (6/10)

5. Hibike! Euphonium 2 (6/10)

6. Yuri!!! on Ice (6/10)

7. To Be Hero (6/10)

8. Watashi ga Motete Dousunda (6/10)

9. Sengoku Choujuu Giga (5/10 ONGOING)

10. Stella no Mahou (4/10)

11. Nyanbo! (4/10 ONGOING)

12. Kiitarou Shounen no Youkai Enikki (3/10)

13. Okusama ga Seitokaichou!+! (2/10)

Awards:

Best Show: Nobunaga no Shinobi (HM: Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan, Haikyuu S3):

Let me say this right off the bat: this season overall was weak, probably the weakest season of 2016. For reasons I’ve put in my post dedicated to talking about each show, I look back at the show with a bit of disappointment. Even my AOTS, Nobunaga no Shinobi, was somewhat underwhelming. It’s not the show for everyone, and it’s not talked about much. However, its comedy and cute twist on historical characters was fun to watch, albeit a bit confusing at times without the proper context.

Shoutouts to Saiki which was still entertaining even with what I felt was a drop-off in the second half and Haikyuu for being Haikyuu despite its lackluster opponent.

Worst Show: Okusama ga Seitokaichou!+! (HM: Kiitarou Shounen no Youkai Enikki, Nyanbo!):

The second installment of My Wife is The Student Council President featured all of the lewdness of the first season without any of the nice comedy and heartwarming moments that made the show bearable. And without them, I found myself facepalming at every misunderstanding and tsundere moment that the anime found itself taking. The harem route is not my thing, and honestly if I want this kind of stuff I would be watching hentai.

Shoutouts to the long-titled show for being “The Unbearable Original Short of the Season” and Nyanbo for being the runner-up for “The Unbearable Original Short of the Season”.

Best Surprise Anime: Nobunaga no Shinobi (HM: Flip Flappers, Yuri!! on Ice):

I honestly never expected that my AOTS would be a short about chibi historical figures, especially with new seasons of Haikyuu and Hibike. But here we are.

Shoutouts to Flip Flappers for surprising me the second chance I gave it and Yuri!! on Ice for being a decently good show in its own right.

Worst Disappointment: Okusama ga Seitokaichou!+! (HM: Haikyuu!! S3, Stella no Mahou):

I didn’t expect much from this show: I thought that it would be more of the same from the first season. Yet somehow, it wasn’t that, and ended becoming a painful experience that I would not recommend for reasons mentioned above and later in a more detailed post.

Shoutouts to Haikyuu!! for falling a bit short of what I realize now to be high expectations and Stella no Mahou for severely dropping off during the second half of the show (thanks to a certain character I’ll mention shortly).

Best Girl: Natsuki Nakagawa (Hibike! Euphonium 2) with HM to Chidori (Nobunaga no Shinobi):

I really had to search to find a best girl, and it ended up being someone from a sequel. Maybe that’s why I didn’t like the shows from this season: there wasn’t a character from any of them that I could obviously point to being best. Or maybe I’m just typing random bull due to jet lag setting in... por que no los dos? In all seriousness, I loved Sleepy-senpai the first season, and she stays the same in the second season. Combined with some top banter with frenemy Yuko and we got ourselves a best girl.

Shoutouts to Chidori for being the best girl in the best show.

Best Guy: Kusuo Saiki (Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan) with HM to Asuma Mutsumi (Watashi ga Motete Dousunda) and Kei Tsukishima (Haikyuu S3):

This season Saiki gets the award instead of HM like last season, and it’s not because there weren’t worthy candidates: Saiki is just that good of a character. His snark and wit add to the comedy of the show, and without him the show would 1: not exist and 2: be worse.

Shoutouts to Mutsumi-senpai for being best guy of his show and a pretty chill dude that I would hang out with, and Tsukishima for showing some pretty nice character development that made me like him by the end of the season.

Worst Girl: Minaha Iino (Stella no Mahou) with HM to almost every character from Okusama ga Seitokahichou!+!:

My goodness, this was an easy choice. This girl somehow made her show go from okay to bad in no time, and made Stella no Mahou from a decent CGDCT to one I wouldn’t recommend to even people who like CGDCT. For reasons I’ll go more in detail in a later post, her personality and relationships between the main cast were unbearable to watch.

Shoutouts to almost every character in Okusama for being either violent tsundere but secretly loving the MC or clueless as fudge and secretly loving the MC.

Worst Guy: Satori Tendou (Haikyuu S3) with HM to Kazuma Mutsumi (Watashi ga Motete Dousunda) and Christophe Giacometti (Yuri!! on Ice):

Tendou was probably the single biggest reason I find Haikyuu S3 to be the worst Haikyuu installment. He reminded way too much of Betelguese from Re:Zero; not the greatest comparison for a HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL PLAYER. Yes, he played the villain role very very well, and I give him props for that. It’s just it felt so unrealistic in a show that has pretty realistic characters. Oh well, I’m still hyped for a future Haikyuu season without Shiratorizawa.

Shoutouts to Senpai’s older bro for being the focus of the weirdest arc of the show and being a generally weird dude, and Christophe for being the staple boy for unnecessary manservice in his show.

Best OP: Chi’s Sweet Home (2016) (HM: Haikyuu S3, Flip Flappers):

Yes, the Best OP goes to a show I’m sure nobody is watching (including me). But this OP contains the two things I look for in a OP/ED: killer music and killer visuals, both of which are achieved. I mean just watch this. For a kid’s show, it’s on par with some pretty good OPs.

Shoutouts to Haikyuu S3′s OP for hyping me up before each episode and Flip Flappers for it’s nice song and animation.

Best ED: Haikyuu S3 (HM: Flip Flappers, Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume, Stella no Mahou):

The Best ED goes to Haikyuu S3 over Flip Flappers, and the reason is I like the visuals of Haikyuu S3′s over Flip Flappers’. Simple as that really. They both have pretty great songs and great visuals, but if I had to choose one to watch I would choose Haikyuu’s.

Shoutouts to Shakunetsu for it’s nice song and chibi stuff (which I’m a sucker for) and Stella no Mahou for it’s lit af track.

And some others that I didn’t type up explanations for because jet lag recovery:

Best First Episode: Yuri!! on Ice (HM: Haikyuu S3)

Best Finale: Haikyuu S3 (HM: Hibike! Euphonium 2)

Worst First Episode: Okusama ga Seitokaichou!+! (HM: Flip Flappers)

Worst Finale: Yuri!! on Ice (HM: To Be Hero)

And that’s it for the awards!

And some big news! I said it might be coming back, and I can now confirm that The Week in Anime posts will be coming back starting this Monday the 16th. I’ll be installing a new format that should hopefully be more fun for me to write and for y’all to read, and we’ll see if my schedule allows me to continue writing those while hopefully writing some other posts like I wanted to. Well until then, I’ll see you in the next post!