Category Archives: Animé

Discussions relating to Japanese animation. Not just for kids!

So Long, and Thanks for all the… Grief? (Updated)

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I have yet to see it on any news outlet in Houston, but the word at the office is that Director of Public Works and Engineering Michael Marcotte has tendered his resignation to Mayor Parker. The effective date is in two weeks. According to multiple sources, the Mayor was not happy with unspecified job performance issues and requested the Director vacate his position.

What prompted this action now? The City is embroiled in multiple controversies, as the new mayor puts her stamp on the city. A hefty water rate increase, a drainage “fee” initiative that has her tacit approval, upheavals at Metro; now would not seem to be the time to throw more fuel on the fire. All of those involve Public Works in some way. Yet the fact remains: Marcotte is out.

Several questions immediately occur:

  • Is Marcotte supposed to take the fall for the rate increase?
  • What was the mayor unhappy about?
  • Who else, if anyone, will be following, if the mayor is unhappy?
  • Did Marcotte balk at some demand involving the rates, cooperation with Metro, backing the initiative?

Taking the fall doesn’t make sense. There’s no way that Parker can shift the blame for needing the rate increase onto Marcotte; not while she was the controller and silently oversaw the vast expansion of debt funding from capital projects into everyday operations and maintenance. So what is going on?

Perhaps we’ll hear when the usual 3:48 pm Friday evening press release goes out, but I’m not holding my breath.

Update: My view of Marcotte is probably not that well informed; I don’t interact with him in any way. Still, my impression is that he’s an even-tempered administrator who doesn’t rush to judgment, isn’t prone to arrogance, and listens to his managers. He’s been a loyal soldier publicly, whatever he’s had to say privately. He’s tried, within budget constraints, to see to it that his employees are compensated as well as in the private sector.

If I had to take a wild guess, I’d say that the rift probably had to do with the rebate program, and/or contract administration and code enforcement. The latter areas have always given me a queasy feel when I’ve dealt with them; contract inspectors sometimes act like they’re working for the contractor, not the city. There’s nothing I can specifically point to as wrong-doing (or I’d be publishing it, screw OIG), but the creation of the rebate program risks letting the rot spread. Not to mention, it removes funding from the utility system and hands it to slumlords.

New Animé Terms and Concepts?

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Steven DenBeste discusses the arms race. The animé arms race that is, as he writes on the concept of simple plot or setting devices taken to their extreme. In honor of Gillette and Shick, he christens it “the five-bladed razor,” and then goes on to list what he feels are the “winners” (or perhaps, “worst offenders” would be a better term) in each of several catagories: Panty Shots, Harem, Maid, Combat Android Girls, catgirls, Girls With Guns, and so on. However he missed a category, for which he’s hardly at fault; I never realized it existed–and it may not have, prior to the series in which I found it.

I don’t watch a lot of robot shows, (Dual being only the 2nd one I’ve ever purchased, unless you count Nadesico), but the establisher and therefore hands-down winner in the category of Robot Fanservice has got to be Godannar. I mean, really, where else would you see something like this?

“Live, tonight, from Tokyo Bay, Robot Mud Wrestling!”

“Your diodes turn me on, baby!”

A “camel toe” on a giant robot? (These things are about 25 meters tall.) You know, after some thought, maybe it should be a five-bladed razor just for “Most Extreme and Ridiculous Fanservice.” It doesn’t even need a new category…

Edit 9/8: Well, I’m watching Dual, and the robots in it are also female in form and have high heels. However, none of them have obvious panties or tube tops. And they aren’t as…. uh, well-endowed.

Newtype = Old Media?

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Several weeks ago, I was browsing around my animé pusher’s blog when I ran across a post about the trials and tribulations Robert had gone through trying to get a simple advertisment placed. It seemed that Newtype, which bills itself as the USA’s premeire animé magazine, had a problem with how racy the original image was that he’d submitted for use.

This is the image:

Note the extremely skimpy panties. What you can’t see at this resolution is the tiny crease in their center. The “camel toe,” as it is called, shows up in the racier anime fanservice; Yumeria, Godannar, and DearS are three that I know have featured them, far more graphically. (In fact, I almost didn’t post this shot from DearS, because it’s borderline NSFW.)

Well, Newtype didn’t like it and demanded changes, only they weren’t really clear about what they wanted changed. After several back and forth e-mails and two revisions, Newtype finally agreed to run the revised picture. Note that the original is within their written policy on art. Robert was a bit frustrated with the unclear instructions and not very friendly/businesslike manner in Newtype’s e-mails, so he used them in a blog post expressing his annoyance. I read the post, and would have termed the e-mails from Newtype “very brusque, but not quite rude.” I definately didn’t think much of the customer service or friendly manners of their editor.

The change requested? I’d have guessed lengthening the skirt to hide the panties.

Nope.

Remove the crease?

Nope.

It was just to widen the panties to cover those little ass bulges to either side. That’s all. But the editor of NewType is apparently repressed, and he couldn’t say that outright.

On the other hand, he was apparently able to express himself on other matters. Specifically, he was not amused to see a customer publicly discussing frustration with his directives. So, if you visit the post now, all the e-mails and the altered versions of the art are gone. Instead there’s a note:

[UPDATE: As of Aug 14th, 2006 the remaining text and graphics of this post have been voluntarily removed by me at the request of the Editor of NewType USA. A final edit may be in order, I haven’t decided yet.]

In a further comment, replying to Steven DenBeste’s logical question “why do you have to cater to him?”, Robert remarks,

Indeed, especially considering the way I was asked. I’ll be making a seperate post soon about what happened and what we’re going to do about it.

Well, I think I can answer that question. Robert “has” to cater to the editor of NewType because NewType thinks it’s an Old Media Giant, one that can treat the customers any way it wants to. Well I’ve got news for them: Old Media Giants are dinosaurs. There isn’t anything between the covers of their magazine that I really care about. I’m not the type of person to read E! Magazine, TV Guide, People or any of the other gossipy rags going on about the entertainment industry or any niche thereof. And frankly, I hate having to put up with their stupid advertisement at the beginning of so many DVD’s.

I’m certain that not everyone shares my opinion on the uselessness of such media rags, and it has a lot of readers (for the niché, that is). And they do have at least some of the power to treat customers as rudely as they wish, muzzle their complaints, and suppress negative word of mouth if they want to. But that doesn’t make it right or engender good will in the community. The New York Times is no role model, and acting arrogant and unaccountable isn’t any way to do business.

(edited for clarity at 12:35)

Melancholy Mentioned in Newsweek?

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I kid you not. It’s an article about the insane popularity of YouTube, which now hosts over 2,000 clips on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimaya, whether from the series or parodies of it, such as the famous Gundam Robot ED. Of course, being an American news magazine, they had to get it wrong, calling Melancholy a “cartoon aired on a local TV station.” You’d think someone with the name of Akinko Kashiwagi would know better. This is supposedly a scan of the print article, but I’ve seen one claim it’s a fake (nothing to support it though.)

Baka.

Hat tip to Anime on My Mind.

Edit: it’s noted that 10,000 animé DVD’s sold is considered a smash hit in Japan, but MHS is running five to seven times that! I really think we’re going to see a second season come 2008….

Updating a Few Things

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I just added two more websites to the links at the left, and bumped three. Welcome aboard to Riuva and Baboon Pirates! Sayonara to OfftheKuff, Ann Coulter, and People’s Republic of Seabrook. Ann’s “crazy conservative lady” act has gotten old, OffTheKuff has fallen into total soc-lib moonbattery, not to mention supporting Carol Alvarado, and I’ve never been able to figure out PRoS — got bored with trying. Parody or serious? Enh. Who cares anymore?

The main thing that got an update is the Collected Anime Reviews page. I’ve done a number of articles that never got added to it, and entire sections of my collection were still missing. I added a lot of the AWOL series and more commentary on series that I haven’t done full reviews of, in addition to fixing a few other things. I also updated my animé order, seeing as I sent in a new one yesterday. Hopefully winging (or rather, rolling) its way too me soon will be:

Dual — Parallel Adventure (boxed set) — I checked out several reviews and all of them agree that it’s a cross between Tenchi Muyo and Neon Genesis Evangelion, yet one that could stand on its own. This tells me that either it’s obviously true, that the reviewers all copied each other, or they all took payoffs from Pioneer. If it’s the latter, am I too late to get in on that gig? It’s got a really cool OP theme; reminds me a bit of Neutron Dance from the first Beverly Hills Cop movie.

Godannar #6 & 7 — This will finally finish off this series. I’m not really expecting a lot besides fan service, but it would be nice if a mediocre series finished strong for once, instead of the pattern of crappy endings I’ve been running into lately with Scrapped Princess, Mars Daybreak, etc. Well, I wouldn’t argue that Divergence Eve ended badly. It was one of those shows that you reach the end and go “Whew! Oh my God, what a ride!” Don’t think I want to repeat it; in fact I haven’t brought myself to rewatch the first scene yet. Or seriously think about ordering Misaki Chronicles. I haven’t seen a horror movie this disturbing since Alien3. And this was much better.

Starship Operators #2 — Speaking of sub-par endings, this sure had one. Oh well, the middle of the series is pretty strong.

Anime Fansubs, Part VII

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Ok, today, lets take Inukami (literally, “dog-god”). Preferably someplace far away, because I found it to be quite aggravating. I had some expectations for it after seeing Riuva’s review, but this show just didn’t cut it. There’s simply no there, there. If you’d rather watch this series with no foreknowledge, beware, because I’m going to get into spoilers. Except they’re not really spoilers, because as of ep.11, not a damn thing has really happened, except Youko is getting along with Kouda’s ten inukami, and everyone despises Keita as a pervert when they aren’t appreciating him for his better qualities. Yawn. The opening song and animation advertises an action-adventure with magical girls, romance, and maybe a little fanservice. Perhaps it would be a nice show — if that’s what they had made. What the viewer gets is nothing like that.

Youko, from the opening credits. Lots of action scenes of her or Keita laying down rightous butt-kicking, or of Youko looking somberly at the moon.
Our first sight of Youko in the show itself. Isn’t she just the cutest thing?
And they seem to get along just grandly. Forget it. After about two more minutes of teasing, it’s going right downhill.

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Co-incidental Oddities

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Two of the several animé fansubs I’ve downloaded recently are Inukami and Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan. (The latter translates as “Beat-to-Death-Angel Dokuro-chan” and it’s about that bad after the first couple of episodes). What caught my attention was that Dokuro-chan sounded really cute, and that I liked Hikari, the theme song to Inukami. After some thought, I decided that the lyrics were nicely romantic at the start, but the tune, while above average for the medium, wasn’t that great. It was the soft voice that I liked, so I checked out who the singer was. Lo and behold, the singer of Hikari (and voice of Yoko/Youko), Horie Yui, was also the voice of Dokuro-chan. I kept reading, and it turns out she’s got a very long resumé, some of which I recognized.

Have checked out but not bought or seen:
Ayu Tsukimiya in “Kanon” (video game, special, and both series)
Bottle Fairy (TV) : Theme Song Performance (ED) (eps 7 – 9, 13), Theme Song Performance (OP), VA of Sarara.
Love Hina as Naru Narusegawa in all versions; OAV Theme Song Performance; X’mas Special – Silent Eve Theme Song Performance (ED)
Negima! Theme Song Performance (OP3, OP8, ED4) and VA of Makie Sasaki
Immortal Grand Prix (TV 2) as Fantine Valgeon (actually, I’ve seen parts on CN).

Stuff I really liked:
Sister Princess : Theme Song Performance (OP) & VA for Sakuya (she was the clothes-horse that kept coming on to Wataru.)
Mars Daybreak as Megumi Higashibara (the kid psychic).

And that’s just a fraction of her listings. She was even a minor character in a Cowboy Bebop episode.

I had really liked the OP for Sister Princess; it was one of the best things about the show. She’s definately someone to watch (or listen to, I suppose). I’m bumping Negima! up from a “maybe one day” to a “perhaps soon” just on her basis. I need to find out if her character’s minor, or has enough screen time amongst the 30 girls in that show.

And yeah, she’s cute.

“Metal Tub Catch”

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Steven and Shamus have been discussing washpans to the head. In animé, it’s like the proverbial pie in the face, and usually happens when someone is too full of themselves. I misremembered some of the details of this scene, but it is still the funniest washpan gag I’ve seen yet.

“Contest #500: Metal Tub Catch”

A Brief Interlude of Animé

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Ok, so far I’ve watched:

  • Mars Daybreak #6, which finished that series. Entirely too clichéd at the end.
  • Godannar #5, which puts me 1 DVD from completion. Some answers are appearing, but not enough. My psychic theory has seen evidence both pro and con. We do get one very important answer: the two American pilots aren’t lesbians. At least, not to start.

  • Excel Saga #1, just into the third episode. At that point I decided that watching it alone was a waste. I put it back in the case, and I’m going to hold on to it until Dr. Heinous and I can kick back for a couple of days worth of animé binging, and then I’m going to watch in a state of legal intoxication. It’s just the kind of show that the brain cells should not be operational. Well, not all of them, anyway. This show is what Bobo Bobobobobo-(oh, whatever) wishes it could be. It’s just so hilariously wrong, on so many levels.

I Held Out As Long As I Could

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Well, thanks to the $$$ crunch from dental work and other things, I had to halt my animé purchases for a while. I managed to hang tight while beating down the credit cards, but I was starting to get the shakes, see Skuld lurking with a bomb around every corner, and have odd dreams involving giant robots and cute girls. When I found myself plotting the fastest way to deal with Hezbollah positions in Lebannon using combat maid androids, I decided I’d best get my fix before I started calling NASA to see if they’d spotted any green-haired alien babes on the recent shuttle mission.

Sooooooo, I just contacted my pusher through his super-seekrit online order form, and had him send me several hours worth of mind crack:

Excel Saga Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak)
Divergence Eve Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak)
Mars Daybreak, Vol #6 DVD
Godannar, Vol #5, International Affairs DVD
Starship Operators, Vol #1, Revolution DVD

Excel Saga: I’ve heard too much about this one for too long, mostly thanks to TRG. Got to check it out; this show sounds seriously demented. Fits me to a ‘T’.
Divergence Eve: I just can’t pass up those cows! I mean pilots. Pilots! Whatever. The second series has gotten rave reviews but you gotta see this one first or nothing makes sense.
Mars Daybreak: Finally finishing this series off. I hate to say it, but I started having problems with Vess on the last DVD. She went from “I want to kill Gram” to “I want to kiss Gram” a bit too quickly. One thing though, her dad is definately in cahoots with the big conspiricy.
Godannar: Robots and scantilly clad babes. How can I argue with that? Two more after this one, and then I’m done. I have to admit, my interest is slacking a bit in it. The story is thin, and when they start giving you stats on the monsters, you know they’ve skimped on the plot.
Starship Operators: Sorta obligated myself to buy this series by watching the fansubs. It’s the best damn space-military show since Banner of the Stars. Although there’s not many fleet engagements, every battle is tense and well done. Only negative is that they have a tendency towards “Geordi LaForge” solutions from the first officer. And the ending is rather ambiguous, which was my biggest problem with the series.

Ah My Goddess! didn’t make the cut this month, but now that I’ll have finished off Mars Daybreak, I’m thinking a smaller order might be in order late next month, and I can pick it up then. Also, I need to see the reviews on “This Ugly Yet Beautiful World.” I couldn’t decide from the pre-release publicity if it was worthwhile or just another thin plot with fanservice tacked on.

And now, back to your usual programming.

Anime Review: G-on Riders

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It’s blog sweeps month? Nobody told me! Time for an anime post! And boy, do I have the fanservice this time. In fact, I’ve got so much of it, I have to put it below the fold. I also have to put this warning on it: While the thumbnails are merely risque’, some uptight businesses (probably even my own) would consider them NSFW. And when I start using text links to the pictures…. look out because that stuff is definately NOT Safe For Work! (Yes, I might have botched the aspect ratio again. Or maybe it’s just those two shots. Sorry all, but I just don’t have time to take eighty pictures again and then cull them.)

How to describe this show? Well, it’s farcical, it’s comical, it parodies anime, it’s loaded with fanservice that pushes bulldozes the line into ecchi, and it’s completely, utterly, irredeemably silly. It hasn’t got a serious bone in it’s body, yet it’s not a comedy, it’s not exactly a farce, it’s not always a parody, and sometimes, it almost gets serious. Almost. As I watched it, I finally realized why it seemed familar. It’s another Martian Successor Nadesico, only not as good — but with a lot more fanservice to cover up that fact. (I’m pretty certain it was made from a hentai game after seeing episode 14.)

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