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 »

“Zaaaa Paaaay-paaaaah!!”

Man, even years later hearing that ridiculous Engrish pronunciation of Yomiko Readman’s codename still makes me laugh out loud.

I really should go back and rewatch my favorite classics more often. It helps recapture some of that nostalgic enjoyment that got me hooked on anime in the first place. This time around I also caught a few interesting details and subtle nuances to the story that I had never noticed in the previous times I watched Read or Die.

What an excellent show; I had forgotten how great it is. Not to say that I didn’t remember that it was great, I just didn’t remember just how awesome of a show it really is. The music, the characters, the pacing and plot, and the art design are all outstanding.

Heck, even the animation quality still looks pretty dang good, even by today’s standards. That says quite a lot considering how much animation techniques have evolved over the last decade. Read the rest of this entry »

Somehow the discussion from a couple days ago about Tokyo Tower inspired ghostlightning to comment that the tower somehow possessed some kind of moe quality to it:

.

“I find it interesting, within the context of usagijen’s post and the comment that inspired it how your photo is from a vantage point that’s higher than the Tokyo Tower itself. It’s as it it’s small, or diminished and is now being defended for reals, because it needs to be. The tower is somehow… moe.”

Well, leave it to regular Epic Win guest artist jupeboxgal to go and actually turn that completely random concept into a reality. While somewhat bizarre, much like the original comment that spawned the idea, this picture is entirely too awesome to not post about. So, here it is, Tokyo Tower-tan. Ain’t she adorable?

Now we just need somebody to make a corresponding image in response to usagijen’s comment:

“Now if Tokyo Tower is moe, as ghostlightning said in your post, then Mt.Fuji might as well be its GAR counterpart”

Greetings all,

So I’m back in Japan again, here to take up my Japanese studies once more. This time I’m staying in Okazaki City actually, with a very nice host family who for some inane reason has decided to not only tolerate my presence but also supply me with delicious foodstuffs.  The Sugimoto family have been marvelous hosts and also assisted greatly in answering my endless barrage of questions about Japanese grammar.

Okazaki is quite a peaceful place, which is nice for contemplative reflection whilst sitting outdoors…

…or at least it would be if not for the ceaseless, deafening assault of noise from the hideously massive 蝉　(せみ cicadas) that have installed a veritable cicada Disneyland in the tree outside my bedroom window.  At 6 AM sharp every morning they are open for business, and lately business has been booming. Read the rest of this entry »

…has never really bothered trying to appreciate it.

(Click for larger version)

This post is in response to usagijen’s article / mini-rant about Tokyo Tower and aesthetics in general, which was itself inspired by a comment on ghostlightning’s latest Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 post where someone referred to Tokyo Tower as “overrrated”.

Both are highly recommended reading, by the way, whether you’ve been watching Tokyo Magnitude or not. Her post really helped remind me just what a significant place Tokyo Tower holds in Japanese history, as both a visual landmark and a symbolic one.

From her article:

“As for Tokyo Tower, well let’s just say I gained much more appreciation for it after watching the AWSUM movie ALWAYS ~Sunset on Third Street~, as I witnessed how this landmark became the pillar of hope back in the 1950s where people are starting out a new life after the war. It was a sign of a new era in Japan — an era of hopes and dreams, an era of a bright future (a bright ‘mirai’).

They built Tokyo Tower with the ambition of making it the TALLEST tower in the world, and other towers might have ‘outgrown’ it now, but you can’t take away the fact that it was successful back in its time. Having known its significance made me all the more realize that TOKYO TOWER IS BEAUTIFUL.”

While Tokyo Tower is a bit dated by today’s standards, and while it’s kind of a rip-off of the Eiffel Tower, you certainly can’t deny its major cultural significance. Even from just a purely visual, aesthetic standpoint, I still find it quite beautiful. In typical Japanese fashion, they even modify the lighting to different colors seasonally or during certain events to help give the skyline a different look. Read the rest of this entry »