Winter 2014 – Week 11 Anime Review

This week: the contrast between Aki’s family and Hachiken’s family in Silver Spoon, demonstrating Hiyori’s character growth through subtraction in Noragami, the humanistic personalities of djinn in Magi: The Kingdom of Magic, and the good half and bad half of the story in Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha.

12 Days of Anime – Day 7 – 1 Year Anniversary and Mistakes in Anime Blogging

Today, December 20^th, marks the 1 year anniversary of my anime blog.  And since it’s in the middle of the 12 Days of Anime, let’s double up this anniversary with an appropriately themed 12 Days post.  The topic for today is about something central to the beginning of my anime blog and something I learned over the course of this year.  My whole system of classifying anime through the tags of Brain On/Brain Off never really made sense, caught on, or was used by others.  You could even say: it was never a good idea.

Summer 2011 – Season Review

Better late than never, right?  Well, at this point, it might as well be never.  So here it is, the final, all-encompassing review for the Summer 2011 anime season.

Dantalian no Shoka – 12 (Finale)

Preseason expectations provide a reference point when judging an anime once the final episode has aired.  It’s a basic way of evaluating an anime, seeing how well it performed over the course of the season compared to how you initially expected it to be.  And from here, we can begin to formulate a grade or score for the anime.  Besides developing an overall opinion, it’s also fun is to see what expectations were right, wrong, and what came as a surprise.  And the purpose of this post will be to examine the latter.  So let’s see what went right, wrong, and surprised for Dantalian no Shoka.

Dantalian no Shoka – 11

Why do many anime wait until the end of the series before showing us episodes like this?  This episode showed important moments in Huey’s past, adding some detail and depth to our protagonist, while also providing a proper introduction and story for the malevolent library Raziel and her partner, the Professor.  Had this been placed earlier in the series, it would’ve improved these characters since this story and these details would be in our minds for most of the series, allowing us to better understand their actions and draw clearer conclusions on their true forms.  But alas, the most appropriate story in the series comes at the end which is a mistake all too common in anime.

Dantalian no Shoka – 9

I always like it when an art style drastically changes like this (and only for an episode, too).  For one thing, it’s amazing to watch an anime series through the eyes of another director/staff and see what they do with the material.  It also enchants you, catching you off-guard and grabbing your attention by providing the same anime but in a completely different and unfamiliar style.  And episodes like this also infuse a bit of vitality, a jolt of energy, or something lively into the series for doing something strange like this.  Not my favorite or best episode in the series but one of the more eye-opening, especially artistically, of the anime.

Summer 2011 – Week 9 – Short Thoughts

What’s with the term ‘Fabulous Max’ in Penguindrum?  Who does the most damage in BakaTest?  What has me unhappy with Tiger & Bunny?  And what shows are starting to drag on and tire me out?  Keep on reading to find out all this and more regarding this week of Summer anime.