Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, and although this is most assuredly due to my laziness, it’s not entirely accurate to say that I’ve been doing nothing but loafing about drinking shochu and watching anime during the punishing summer months here in Japan. Not entirely accurate.

Anyway, what I’m planning to do is share some of my more interesting adventures during my time here. I’ll have leave the serious discussion on the finer points of Japan’s rich cultural heritage to 0rion; my tales will serve as more of a series of facepalm inducing incidents.

So I met Yotsuba the other day, as in IRL.

I was sitting in the cafe area at the local DOMY supermarket, minding my own business, enjoying some of their scrumptious yet very reasonably priced salmon nigirizushi. In the background I could hear the sound of a kid running about shouting something about “okashi” (candy).

As the sounds drew closer, it became apparent that the voice belonged to a small child approximately five years of age. As she entered into the cafe area, which I need to stress is just a couple of tables and chairs seated next to some vending machines within the store, her eyes met with a horrible sight. Namely, my face. Read the rest of this entry »

This article is probably the best and most accurate explanation of Touhou I have ever seen, highlighting both the fact that the games are incredibly punishing and also highly bizarre. Not that that should come as a surprise, considering they were made in Japan, the product of what the article refers to as “a 110 lb Alcoholic Game Designer”. Read the rest of this entry »

“Get some!”

I’m sure this is exactly how terrorists behave in real life.

Somehow I feel like this should be “the rejected Nintendo Wii commercial”. Fun for the whole family… if your family happens to consist of crazy siscon maniacs and masochist henchmen. Maybe cut to Liang Qi playing Mario Party 8, you know. At least that would explain why she seems so furious.

But man, if nothing else CANAAN is certainly generating lots of fodder for the internet meme-factories to work with. Between this and “LOVE AND PEACE”, CANAAN is a definite leader when it comes to legendary Engrish. Read the rest of this entry »

I mean seriously. Look at her blatantly wallhacking, shooting people right through the walls.

And her movements? Pretty obvious speedhacks going there. Possibly even a bunny hopping script.

And I don’t care what game you’re playing, anyone who spins in circles while shooting everybody within 100 yards is an aimbotter. That’s just common knowledge. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m mildly surprised that CANAAN seems to have received a fairly mixed reception so far. It’s one of my favorite shows this season, not only for its gorgeous art and memorable characters, but also because of the strong emphasis on symbolism and metaphor used to portray the deeper elements of the story.

That said, CANAAN is not without its flaws, but I view as a similar kind of story to Darker than Black. It’s not necessarily about the world and the larger plot. It’s not about realism. It’s about creating an environment to develop interesting characters and to explore their personalities, motivations, and relationships.

I’ve often said that I hate being mollycoddled by a story. There are entirely too many writers that feel it necessary to beat you over the head with the script rather than allow you to engage with it at your own pace. I much prefer a story that leaves itself somewhat mysterious, that requires the viewer or reader to dig a little below the surface.

CANAAN certainly provides that in spades. While a lot of it may not have any particularly deep meaning, it’s pretty clear that the story is using several key metaphors to portray the relationships between the characters and to foreshadow elements of the overarching plot. Read the rest of this entry »

Unfortunately I’ve started developing some symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome in my left hand, so I’m currently wearing a brace and trying to take it easy as much as possible.

It’s actually rather frustrating, not only because it affects my ability to perform my job, but also because I had a bunch of really cool posts I was working on and had hoped to share with you guys this week. I still plan to post a couple of things this weekend, but unfortunately I’ll have to back off my original blogging schedule a bit to make sure that I’m allowing myself to recuperate properly.

I dealt with RSI in my other hand some years back, so fortunately I know how to recognize the symptoms early and how to properly treat myself. It shouldn’t be a big deal, so no need to worry about me. I mainly wanted to let you guys know the reason why I’ll be reducing the post count for a while.

In other news, Guff finished his summer Japanese study program and is in Hokkaido now. He also still has not sent me any pictures or other blog post material, the lazy bum. Hopefully he’ll have some good stories for us once he actually settles down and comes back to the U.S.

Also Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 and Canaan are both incredibly awesome. Hopefully I’ll actually be able to put together some good posts about them in the near future.

Korosu!

Poor Lawrence Craft may be a genius at business, but he sure is dense when it comes to other matters.

I haven’t kept up with the Spice and Wolf manga or light novels much since the first season of the anime aired. Fortunately, the first anime season was brilliant and captured most of what I liked about the series, and the second is now following in its footsteps. I had hoped to blog this second season from the beginning, but due to lack of time I’m only just now starting to post about it.

This second season, now animated by Brain’s Base (although still with a lot of the original staff)  and with a more generous budget, has noticeably better quality. The character animation especially is more frequently on model than in the last season, and the animation seems a bit more fluid.

For reference, Brain’s Base also has to its credit several other visually excellent projects, including Kamichu, Baccano, and Kurenai. It should come as no surprise that their work here is just as excellent. Read the rest of this entry »

Saki’s epic win over Koromo in episode 19 was unquestionably amazing, with lots of lens flare, typhoons back and forth across the mahjong table, fiery Terminator eyeball glare, and LOL MAHJONG IS FUN LOL. It was also completely ridiculous and unrealistic (surprise!).

Obviously that’s par for the course with this series, when we’ve just seen a hanchan played that had multiple haitei raoyue (bottom of the ocean) and rinshan kaihou (drawing your winning tile from the dead wall after a kan) declarations made. I was curious, though, just how unlikely this last game really was.

Warning – lots of mahjong diagrams and math ahead. Read on if you have questions about what exactly happened in that last round of Saki 19, or if you’re curious about just how incredibly unlikely Saki’s win really was. If you don’t care about any of that, go ahead and just go straight to the end for the fanservice pictures.

OK, so first let’s consider Saki’s hand on the final turn of the game, and the sequence of events that leads up to her absolutely ridiculous win over Koromo. You can skip past this and right to the math if you already understand the details of what happened in that last game. This is Saki’s hand on the final turn, right before Koromo discarded:

So she’s in tenpai (needs only one tile to win) for a chinitsu hand (all one-suit), and she’s waiting on either a 1-pin or 4-pin. Basically, if she gets 4-pin she can win like this: Read the rest of this entry »

After Endless Eight (Episode 1)

After Endless Eight (Episode 2)

After Endless Eight (Episode 3) Read the rest of this entry »

And yet I’m still watching it, anyway.

That’s not hyperbole, either. This series literally made me fall asleep on two separate occasions when I was trying to watch it. Just, face on the keyboard snooze. I don’t know if it’s something subliminal in the funky music or what, but it’s practically an Aria-class sedative drug. Maybe I’m just hypnotized by the trippiness of the whole thing.

All that isn’t to say that Bakemonogatari is bad, though. To the contrary, while the series definitely has its share of flaws, I’d say so far it’s one of my favorite shows of the summer 2009 anime season.

The characters and dialogue are definitely the show’s strong point. Ararararagi seems to take all the surreal circumstances around him in stride, narrating with an almost Kyon caliber dry wit. His back and forth verbal sparring with Hachikuji and Senjougahara alternates between awkward and hilarious constantly, and the show actually has a fair number of terrible groaner puns, although many of them get lost in translation.

If nothing else, Bakemonogatari is certainly the leader this season for spawning memorable lines and internet meme fodder (although “Kyon-kun denwa” x 16 does give it a pretty good run for its money). Rararagi’s conversation with Hachikuji after he accidentally cops a feel while fighting with her was hilarious, as was Senjougahara’s unexpected confession. Read the rest of this entry »