A Look At The Sacred Blacksmith

I’m not too enthusiastic about this new season. I’ll just follow about 3-4 shows and marathon the others when they turn up to be good. On the bright side, I can attack my backlog with more ferocity–there’s Planetes, VOTOMS, and Victory Gundam sitting in my hard drive.

That aside, I decided to check out The Sacred Blacksmith, which wowed me with its PV a few months back.

Watching Anime: Weekly Watching VS Marathons

Most of my RL friends who are into anime don’t like watching running shows. Their reason: running shows are a hassle to keep up, and they prefer to download batch torrents and marathon the shows instead. I could relate, since I started out like that; however, I got burned out from the sheer volume of shows I had marathoned. Watching episodes in bulk is a double-edged sword–you can finish a show in record time, but it taxes a lot from you.

Shin Mazinger And Its Oft-overlooked Achievement

When Shin Mazinger is talked about, much praise is dedicated to Imagawa’s epic reimagining of the Mazinger mythos, Baron Ashura’s superb characterization, or that awesome narrator. However, I noticed something about it that has never been brought up before: Shin Mazinger is a 26-episode super robot TV series entirely without monster-of-the-week episodes.

2009.9.12 Anime Karaoke Notes

We Filipino bloggers had a karaoke session last Sunday. To atone for my previous failure(s), I really got to join this time!

Nono’s Ocean

Planetes is definitely something. Episode 6 made me laugh as hard as any Fumoffu episode, but episode 7 touched me with its two contrasting subplots. I’ll talk about episode 7 in this post.

Your Dad’s Mechanical Beasts Wished They Were This Cool

It’s been a long time since I last saw some crazy designs like these that don’t just stand there getting blown to bits. And boy, do they have some character. The Giant Robo lookalike doing a number on Mazinger has got to be the finest point of this episode.

Of course, it’s all but guaranteed that Mazinger will rip these guys a new asshole when God Scrander arrives, but these 15 minutes of fame are as good as any.

Utena’s Two Recaps

How does one make a recap episode so compelling? These are some good examples, but Utena kicks ass by having two of them.

The first recap (episode 24)  touches upon the filler episodes. I had had my fill of laughs with the episodes recapped here, but I laughed harder than before with this recap. All it does is show the filler from another character’s point of view, while adding stuff that retcons events. Actually, the last one is pretty much the show’s modus operandi, but it is played to comedic effect this time. It also ends rather nicely.

The second recap (episode 33) is a more dastardly piece. It alternates between Utena talking banally to someone off-screen, to a radio show that acts as preamble for a clipshow. While it only recaps the last few duels, I’m glad to have seen them again–since each of these duels have a strong underlying theme in them (be it eternity, purity/innocence, or miracles), and might hint on the darkening mood of the show. And then we have a long scene of Utena rambling more, until HOLY FUCKING SHIT–

I’ll stop now.

PS: I want that car.

Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny

Lately I’ve been playing Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny. It’s very pretty, but is primarily a multiplayer game, with scant options for single play. For God’s sake, there isn’t even a difficulty setting, which means you’ll get your ass handed to you very fast, since I find the 8-way run system confusing (heck, my brother has been playing SC since 2000 and he still can’t utilize 8-way run to its fullest).

The Revolution Begins

D-Boy’s cry for a revolution can’t be more timely enough–I’m 7 episodes into Utena and having a blast.

So, random impressions until I find an aspect of the show worth delving further into:

• Some classy stock animation here. Instead of gattai sequences, we’re treated to an awesome gate, spiral staircase and some ZOMG inverted castle in the sky. It’s a kind of ritual that gears us up for the duel, and it’s very well-done. The insert song makes everything even better.
• Speaking of insert songs, there’s one about trilobites.
• I don’t like anime critters that much, but Chu-chu is some serious nutbladder-bursting material. I can see the love that the animators shower him–so actively eating things (even in the background), so unable to take it easy!
• The silhouette girls are hilarious, and manage to be on topic despite taking on weird roles.
• Nothing is sexier than Koyasu saying “baby”.
• Except, half-naked Touga, perhaps!
• I want Anthy to snap. Getting beat up every other ep is not fun.
• Nanami, for a jealous schemer, is lulz. I actually feel sorry for her, getting trounced by Anthy’s weird animal posse. Srsly, snails in a pencil case??? And Utena wonders how Anthy has no friends?
• Her OP shot is very intriguing, though–I can has dual-wielding ohohohoho nao?
• Miki, oh Miki–how unfortunate of you to live in a world without a vaccine for measles…
• Juri is scary. And is hot. Look at those curls. I want to wrap them around my– okay I’ll stop.
• So far the show is pretty funny in the right places (random unannounced Saionji wwwwww), but I sense danger lurking around the corner.

On Anison

A list, if you please.

• With the coming AFA ‘09 in neighboring country Singapore (starring /m/ deities like Yoshiki Fukuyama and Ichirou Mizuki), I am once again reminded of the sorry state of otaku events in my own country. I have never ever heard of a Japanese guest appearing in local cons and it will probably stay that way until I am a senile old man. As for the AFA itself, I would need to rob a bank before I can make the trip. At least we have this. Only in the Philippines!
• The new K-ON album is an ingenious product. It’s enough to make you pick up an instrument (if you haven’t already), and learn Cagayake Girls. The second disc is all about playing the aforementioned song, and there’s sheet music at hand if you’re not a dirty pirate. The show itself can be dissed for various reasons, but the musicality of the songs can’t be denied–and Pony Canyon knows this.
• I miss old-school anison. You know, the kind of anison that is tailor-made to the anime itself, one that cheesily calls out the anime’s characters/robots/themes. And cheese is fantastic. We need more anison today in the vein of Kanjite Knight. I’m not saying that the current breed of anison (performed by seiyuu or mainstream artists) is bad–it ’s great for the majority of anime, but I believe that old-school works best for mecha.
• If ever I get a 3D flesh-and-blood girl, the ultimate test of our solidarity would have to be this, (replacing the song of course)

Ihttp://www.afa09.com/