The title is an approximate translation of Kotomi’s oddly-named theme. Etude pour les petites supercordes, anyone? I’m wondering if it’s Flench, which makes it a distant cousin of Engrish, in addition to falling under Japan’s ranguage category. Or maybe it makes perfect sense in the context of string instruments since “cordes” apparently denotes that, to say nothing of how “study” in this case is meant to be a short performance piece of some sort, but I can’t really figure out the “little super strings” part.

Unlike Fuuko’s arc which held its cards closely to its chest and didn’t really let on what it was all about until after the SURPRISE REVELATION (which turned out to be nothing more than Key recycling an old idea), Kotomi’s arc shows its hand right from the start, albeit quietly amidst all the manzai comedy and lighthearted moments. It wasn’t the focus, to be sure, but the understated manner in which it was revealed caught my attention.

It’s also occurred to me recently as to what the dream world really is — hint: it starts with “a”, and has eight letters. I was pleased to find out after confirming with reliable sources that I was right, for the most part at least. Non-spoiler spoiler thoughts (yes, I am aware of the contradiction, but there are spoilers, and there are spoilers) about it after the cut, although if you had even the slightest amount of imagination and watch the OP animation as often as I do — which is every single time there’s a new episode — you could have figured it out already.

Then it’s all tears and drama. Two series with real — and by real here I mean being born to the exact same set of parents and sharing substantial genetic make-up — incest that I know of have all manner of hysteria in their veins. While I haven’t read or seen Angel Sanctuary and are therefore unable to personally vouch for that one, reading Koi Kaze moved me beyond measure for its realistic and uncomfortable portrayal of that six letter word which also happens to be a popular fetish.

Now, before anyone accuses me of being pro-incest, I find my sister as attractive as I do other men (hint: I am straight) and sympathise greatly with those afflicted by it in real life. Neither will you find me separating my future children from each other as they grow up during their formative years due to how the Westermarck effect and genetic sexual attraction provide scientific explanations as to why it happens.

You could say that incest and to a lesser degree, twincest, are as much a part of harem anime as the moe girls and other stock archetypes are. The pseudo-oniichan has been around for ages; I choose to bring this up due to how M;Y has been handling the subject matter this time around, and its subversion of what is an often used and abused trope means that the episode, in addition to resolving two sub-plots, also shone as a result of its excellence.

never was there a question of depth and importance

Or, black holes and revelations, which is my take on how Myself; Yourself is going to resolve itself. Trust Muse to know better. I read three dissenting opinions on M;Y today, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s an inevitable by-product of blurring the boundaries of the genres, which also means it absolves itself of any blame if that’s the case.

This season holds a record for most renai/visual novel/dating sim adaptations not behaving like a typical adaptation of its make should. There’s the excellent and emotive Clannad. The maligned yet deep ef. The vanilla and pristine kimikiss. M;Y differs in that the game will be released soon, making any comparisons to the source impossible. Unlike the other three, M;Y has an advantage for being devoid of any expectations whatsoever; unfortunately, this works for and against it.

Personally, as things stand right now I don’t see it attaining an outright good/bad consensus. Not like that’s a bad thing given how a lot of the best shows out there lack unanimous acclaim, or how lowest common denominators are usually the only means by which an anime attracts the most praise, but it’s not a good thing either. You could call it schizophrenic, indecisive, or bad planning. I prefer to use what might seem to be a misogynistic analogy.

I picked up Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun. Yes, that Ninomiya-kun with the succubus, not the tragic yet hilarious metafiction in Minami-ke. Now, while I’m certainly not short of shows to blog about or watch this season since I’m keeping up with a grand total of 16, I’m tired of anime blogging. Not in the commonly understood “woe is me, this is a meta post about why I’m burnt out” sense, but in a “this is a post to let you know I’ve not lost it” sense.

I’m sorry CCYoshi, as much as I wanted this to be a counter-culture essay extolling the virtues of fanservice in Ninomiya-kun, there simply wasn’t anything to write about. Which is precisely why I like Ninomiya-kun, in any case:

one distinguishing characteristic of dango society is that they have no distinguishing characteristics

This is another Anime Blogging Collective� joint blogging effort brought to you by TheBigN, Roxas, CCYoshi, Moogy, Damien, and Martin. As ef is the Lucky Star of the season in that it’s a severely misunderstood anime that’s getting bad press due to badly written, snap judgement opinions that prefer to brand it the misunderstood problem child from a couple of episodes, we thought that a feature like this was severely overdue.

If you haven’t started on this gem of an anime, now would be a great time to do so. A note of interest would be that the seemingly random images only appear for 10% of the time in the first two episodes, before dipping to about 5% in episode 03 and further dropping to non-existent amounts on consecutive episodes. I’ve heard people comment on ef getting better, but it isn’t merely my opinion when I say that it was always good.

I say this on the strength of rewatching the entire series up till episode 06 so far; it’s evidently an anime that’s intended to be viewed more than once. You could say it’s a flaw in that the first two episodes are incoherent on a first viewing but make perfect sense when viewed later, but I’d rather look at it as a strength. It’s undeniably ambitious and artsy in its own idiosyncratic way, but powerfully executed, only underwhelming due to its extensive usage of what seem like red herrings in the beginning, and I hope that this series of posts will clear the air on that, enhancing your enjoyment of the show as a result.

Looking at the abortion that was my previous post on Gurren Lagann, I concur that the concept of raving about GL in blog posts was something I certainly underestimated while trying to write about 9 episodes watched in one sitting. If bloggers could be reduced to incoherent wrecks by watching an episode a week, those 3 hours were probably like that overdose of speedball which killed River Phoenix.

This has to do with the little bit of crying that was present this episode, which also happens to be the penultimate episode of Fuuko’s arc. I’ve found it to be an initial downer, but the thought suddenly struck me in the middle of the episode — what if Fuuko didn’t get a Good End like Ayu? Until now I’ve been convinced that Key is like some kind of tsundere bully that trips you while you’re walking and then cushions the impact by throwing a pillow underneath, but what if they decided not to this time around?

That brief insight proved to be truer than I imagined, for the manly tears present in this episode certainly surprised me. It was like waking up to a sledgehammer being swung in my face by a masked figure at my bedside, and while I’m not about to be reduced to a raving tearful wreck just yet, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to say the same as confidently next week.

The comments on this post were cute. Specifically, though, I’d like to commend Higevs, Xerox, and lKnight for taking the bait. My mention of “magnum opus” was deliberately provocative, utterly random, though not without careful forethought and really a point I meant to expand on in this post; it was interesting, other post comments aside, to see what the term really means to each of them, and how their taste influenced their criteria for such judgement.

while light shows juxtaposed on serious ones make for hilarity…

This was a real exchange between Jeff Lawson and J. Valdez:

Jeff Lawson: I watch a lot of slice-and-life shows.
Jeff Lawson: And by “slice-and-life”, I mean “slice-of-life”.
J. Valdez: Do you mind if I start calling shows like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and School Days, “Slice-and-Life?”

Fun times. I reserved the slice of life shows for the last because I had a nagging feeling I was going to like them regardless of when and how I saw them, to say nothing of how viewable subs for Minami-ke were only made available some time back. The wait was worth it, in any case, since I can’t remember the last time I laughed till my chest hurt.

Happy Remembrance Day to those who even know what this is. To be honest, neither did I until I decided to look up November 11 on Wikipedia, having heard it being mentioned once in the Incubus song “A Kiss To Send Us Off”, and then later in Darker than Black as a character name. Apparently today is the end of what was World War I, and Tensai Okamura, the creator of DtB, decided to name a chain-smoking blonde with freezing powers after it.

So I found the Incubus song to mirror DtB’s story very well. In case you’re one of those humourless science students who have problems with lateral thinking, the lyrics basically parallel DtB through the usage of imagery like kisses (Brita), electricity/clouds (Hei), and mention of November 11.

While I personally have no problems making the connection, I thought screencaps would illustrate this point of mine better, so here it is. YouTube of the Incubus song after the cut. Source of the lyrics is here, track #2, which is Incubus’ official site so they’re guaranteed to be accurate.

This post is obviously meant to be inflammatory from the title! I mean, there could be no other reason for using “arrogance”, could there? This post also obviously refers to every fansubber out there and not a select few who are concerned. Please keep that in mind as you read this post, and before you proceed to comment. Take every word I say out of context. It’s not like I tend to be sarcastic on the internet or anything, nope.

I may not agree with what you say, but I�ll defend to the death my right to drill it

The basis of harem is pretty simple — one guy, a lot of girls, and plenty of rabu-rabu hijinks in-between. This, unfortunately, is as easy as saying that the basis of shounen is this guy who discovers a drill-shaped key his inner powers one day and goes on to pierce through the heavens save the world. Or saying that the basis of shoujo is throwing one girl into the midst of 10 or so pretty guys and having her come off with her one true love, or that the basis of slice of life is that NOTHING HAPPENS.

what Konata said about tsunderes having twintails was true

ef - a tale of memories could very well be- no, it is the Lucky Star of Autumn. It’s easy to bash for reasons like “random visual crap”, “distracting”, “confusing”, and equally as easy to hate for the very same reasons, which are, by some coincidental measure, only skin-deep. I feel that ef has its share of detractors due to how they’re not exactly comfortable with its method of presentation, which is unorthodox; or it could be due to how it’s supervised by Akiyuki Shinbo (note: supervise is not the same as direct), who apparently has a track record of psychedelic and random shows under his belt, thus enforcing a placebo effect like “this has to be bad”, which is, ironically, the direct opposite of the reason why we’re all watching kimikiss (”this has to be good, it has Honey & Clover’s director working on it!”).

I think it’s too convenient to not think at all, deriding the style and ignoring the substance in order to push away another show conveniently, declaring that it’s the work of the anime devil etc. Style is not substance. Once I got past the initial weirdness that the show’s now infamous for, I finally realised that there was a method to the madness — if you could call it that — that was displayed by ef. Word is on the street that SHAFT’s being as faithful as KyoAni and it’s not their style, because it’s what was part of the original CG in the game.

How many of you noticed that the visuals only decide to go kaleidoscope when it’s any one of the three couples having protracted conversations together? No, you couldn’t have, I mean, no one’s watching this show anymore right? I owe this post to Mike of Anime Diet for his keen and shrewd Lit Student observations; in particular, his post about ef 03 finally made me see the light, for I was still floundering about trying to figure out the meaning behind it all. No thanks to him pointing me in the right direction I can indeed see what ef’s trying to do, and it’s a thing of beauty.

sadly, a couple of token appearances just didn’t cut it