Darry Buns for Everyone!
They’re the cutest, more adorable ones on the block.
They melt in your mouth, not in your hands.
They’re soft to the touch, like heaven wrapped in plastic.
They’re Darry Buns. Now available at a local anime blog near you!
Despite urban legend, these won’t last forever!
Sweet Aftertaste: A Brief Rundown of Sorts
When the episode ends with putting a smile on your face, I think that’s a good thing.
Of course, sometimes it’s just a cheating cheap trick that’s doing the smirking for you. (Hello wawawa wait I forgot what show I’m mocking?) Gurren Lagann’s rather-epic end to the first 13 episodes is a good example of how to do it so honestly, on the other hand. But still, you aren’t sure if you are smiling because you know we’re going into a recap episode and jump forward in time (yay non-loli NonoNia), or because you’re still on the well-animated euphoria of good old battle robot…goodness.
On the flip side there’s this さよなら絶望
Sort of like Sky Girls TV, actually. Although I think, like Yin, I might have to use my fingers for that one.
On a completely unrelated subject, this is pretty cool–and you won’t see it in a street racing anime:
Today: AnnouncementTorrent
This year is not too bad as far as US con news goes so far. Definitely an improvement from the last. I’m just going to highlight some of the ones I care about:
Emma being licensed is actually my biggest ZOMG. It’s a great little gem but it’s so far off the well-treaded path for anime, let alone anime in the US, that RightStuf might have some trouble finding good homes for their DVDs. But somehow it’s the sort of show that makes you think “hey, there must be some people out there who’d buy Victorian romance imported from Japan.” Especially in the US. Especially after you scrub-a-dub-dub and remove traces of “Maide In Japan” from it.
Gurren Lagann being licensed is a nice treat. I like the show enough to watch it, but it suffers from the Eureka 7 problem in some ways. I wish it was shorter so at least I have no excuses about being able to afford it. Then again, technically I can still wait for a thin-pack from E7, and ADV is much better about releasing collections than most other studios. What’s wrong with Eureka 7? It’s too long, it’s not the sort of thing that you want to watch the whole thing twice (although some episodes definitely many many times over).
DMP is going to release Flamboyant. We know they’re bringing over a Megami compilation later this year, so this is more of the same, I guess (I hate Megami stuff with a passion, but it’s good to know). It’s interesting because I bought Flamboyant back when it was hot enough for a second run… Well, at least it’ll be cheap (and with more artwork!). Flamboyant, for the noob, is the first (and so far only?) art book by Hakua Ugetsu. Sure, it’s got the name Bakuhatsu Tenshi to taint, but the stuff inside is awesome.
Along with the re-announcement of Nanoha and Nanoha A’s, I think I might even buy the SRW OAVs when they come out. Probably pass on SRW TV though. These are all “maybe” but I think I like A’s enough to not pass.
Cosmode USA. Uuugh. In other words, a US cosplay magazine.
Last one for the day: Wings of Honneamise on DVD and HD-DVD is actually a big deal. The US is ahead over Japan on the HD home video effort. At this point in the game I don’t care if it’s Blu-Ray or HDDVD. I just want my anime on 1080! And this is a classic to own for this purpose.
Seasonal Impression Mashup (Take 2)
Instead of posting my first impressions (who cares about first impressions anyways? LOL an exercise at judging books by covers), I’d just like to reflect how this time of the year was this year and last year, and hopefully those things will chime with you and give you some idea what the hell I’m talking about. For one, I’m tired of being judgmental about anime. It’s not healthy to do it all the time, y’know?
But like last year and every year before that, some anime are more interesting than others. I remember last year I was reading a few blogs about Canvas 2, and heard about some long ass dumb debate on Animesuki forums regarding Canvas 2’s controversial ending. “Well, isn’t that interesting?” So I embarked to marathon it, finding it fairly compelling to watch. Or maybe those things happened out of sequence? I recall waiting for the last fansubs to come out in order to hold back from the full impact of the first impression of the ending would have on me.
I imagine some time this past year a lot of anime viewers took the same trip with many other shows. Simoun, Suzumiya Haruhi, and many others? But in the larger scheme of things anime companies are looking to expand their territories in the minds of its viewers: to grow more fans, to grow more people who’d give their shows a try, to grow more marketing opportunities and foreign interests, and of course, clamoring and accolades and $$$.
It’s no surprise that the big guns get out this time of the year. Shows like Saiunkoku Monogatari is wrapping up its year-run (3 cheers for Shuurei~) but what will take its place? It’s probably licensed, so a job well done. Gainax’s Gurren Lagann looks to capture a similar sort of thing, in a totally different way, on a different TV channel. Will it run a similar path? Or even a more lucrative one because of Gainax’s leverage and the genre itself? I don’t know. But that’s hardly the only player in the field. If there’s grass, you can play ball–even if that grass is made of dead people. Gonzo earns its name by resurrecting William Shakespeare himself in their adaptation of Romeo And Juliet, so … all is fair in an anime about love and war?
But no, it’s not fair. I have less time than ever to watch all these new shows (yet I do it anyways?) and that’s not counting a couple other shows that I’m dying to catch up from last season (Nodame most notably). Time is a cruel mistress indeed. On top of my obligations as a somewhat responsible human being, do I have to stress through plowing through countless raws, one show trying to outdo the other, appealing from one genre to the next and across and all over? It really pays to be an elitist asshole right about now.
We even have a space conquest anime about various alien races … at the same time with a doomsday anime with Shoji Kawamori mecha designs. Grah. Plus a new Bones anime. It’s like being a bee buzzing over a lovely meadow during springtime [insert Bee Train joke here]. The serial nature of anime means you’re really making an investment now to follow a show, which sort of locks you in for some time. Maybe that’s why first impressions are so important?
But blah, having a compelling pilot episode, as important as it may be, is not of what good shows are made of. Darker than Black, for example, calls on you to wait for episode 2, and I get the feeling of what makes that stuff good is all there.
It’s a frantic time of the year, but also a good time of the year. It’s just that I’m way too busy to celebrate?
