17 different shows from the summer ‘09 anime season, analyzed and ranked from the bottom up.

Disclaimer: These rankings are purely a reflection of our own opinions and tastes, which are admittedly rather different from your average anime fan. Just because we don’t like a particular show doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it. Your mileage may vary, etc etc. However, if you do have a different opinion about a show, by all means post a comment so that people reading have more than one opinion to go by.

Summer often gets a bad rap as the “filler” season in between the generally much more packed spring and fall anime seasons. This season, however, summer boasts an excellent crop of new shows for fans of all different genres. Although I’m ranking these shows numerically according to my favorites, almost all of them are enjoyable in at least some respects.

Almost all. 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 »