As I write this I’ve just finished viewing the last few episodes of Lucky Star. a.f.k. has been good and all, but unreliable and temperamental (you know it’s getting dumb when they delay subs due to “it being licensed”… twice) when it came to the last stretch. Props to Guerrand for giving us that final lap, and Moogy for mirroring the downloads on his server.

Lucky Star, in my opinion, exceeded all expectations. Paradoxically, this would only work if you had no expectations to begin with, because it was that type of anime that could only work under a lack of preconceptions. Of all the posts I’ve read about, the most appreciative ones were those who didn’t stuff LS into a box and still expect it to work its magic, namely because LS was something that just couldn’t operate under those conditions.

I’ll be honest upfront and say that this review’s one of those largely starry-eyed types. I found no problems with it whatsoever, but that might have been due to my approach to it, and how I chose to not let what the community at large perceived as problems interfere with my assessment of it. I say this in confidence, surely, for I know that LS will be one of those anime that I’ll be able to re-watch a year from now.

I have about nine entries in my feedreader’s Byousoku news bin that I’ve skimmed through briefly for fear of them influencing my review (yeah, you people sure can write). They’re all related to 5cm, but I’ve noticed two things they’ve neglected to point out, and this will therefore constitute most of what I’m going to say, if not all.

Do we take our ability to interpret symbolism and less coherent storylines in anime for granted? How much life experience do you have to have before you can relate to issues like what Byousoku addresses? I say this since I saw 5cm twice; the first time alone, in the middle of the night, and the second time with a group of about eight friends. The contrast between my reactions and theirs were large, to say the least, and I was left wondering if I liked 5cm only due to my exposure to both.

and the collision of your kiss that made it so hard, made it so hard

In my idealist world of adaptations, movies like the abomination that was the Death Note live action would never exist. It was good as a movie for movie’s sake, but not good enough for my higher standards. Neither was it a case of source material fan bias — for what it’s worth, the only thing an adaptation should do is contain the essence of the original, the brilliance that made people sit up and gape in wonder, and this is where the Death Note movie didn’t work for me.

If it isn’t obvious already, neither did the Honey and Clover movie. Sitting down to watch it with a small group of close friends, I viewed it again through the eyes of a newcomer to Chika Umino’s colourful little world. Yes, it’s very pretty, but what does it do? A convoluted, dizzying effort that tried to cram in the heartbreak of 36 episodes or 10 volumes, which just didn’t seem right to me. Maybe it’s the cynical bias, but I’ll leave that to you to decide.

If there was one fault I could attribute to the first season now that it’s all over, it would have to be the cliffhangers, assuming that while some cliffhangers are indeed faults, not all faults are cliffhangers. One day on IRC amidst the usual verbal diarrhoea TJ of Riuva fame wondered aloud if Code Geass was the pinnacle of mecha anime, and although his statement was buried in a deluge of anal statements shortly after it got me thinking.

the first rule of parody fanart is that Lucky Star makes anything funny

To begin with, it’s short-sighted to compare Code Geass to Evangelion when talking about the pinnacle of mecha, which would be like comparing the proverbial apples to oranges. This stems from the two subsets present within the mecha genre, of which I’ll name Symbiote and Vehicle respectively:

A graph first, before anything:

After much delay and procrastination, I finished sola since it was beginning to seem clear to me that Doremi wasn’t interested getting out a release any time soon. It was a rough journey, surely. While it wasn’t the type of anime I’d look back and cringe at for having wasted X hours of my life on (that dubious honour goes to Bokura ga Ita and the Death Note movies), it definitely belongs in the category of “could have been way better”.

I don’t claim to know what makes an anime good. I know what makes an anime good, and it’s definitely not about pandering to the salivating group of moe fanboys that, by some measure of coincidence, have substantial purchasing power. “Good”, of course, is defined as being in reference to my standards, (because I have them! a shocking concept, surely) and it’s just too sad to say that sola, with respects to those standards, weren’t really up to par.

They say good things come to those who wait. I couldn’t agree more, having waited ever since I saw the first episode of Darker than Black, to get my hands on the soundtrack that contained the epic post-rock track, the one that’s first played when Louie uses his powers on Hei. Yes, that one. I’m a big fan of post-rock as far as things go, and naturally, my hopes were with it to be included with this album.

Having been a fan of Yoko Kanno for as long as I can remember since The Vision of Escaflowne, it’s really inspiring to see how much she’s grown as a composer. The character and charm that makes up the body of her work is still there, for the fame (and, I’m guessing, fortune) she’s now in possession of hasn’t gone to her head at all. Having seen her tackle classical, jazz, and electronica in her past works, I suppose post-rock was just a matter of time, and about time, too.

’cause everyone of us has the devil inside

If rational, level-headed opinions (and sarcasm) offend your conservative, illogical sensibilities, you can still turn back. You don’t have to read beyond this. No one’s forcing you to do anything, no sirree. Exit’s that way.

It’s easy to spin anything. Bet you didn’t know that. The witch-hunting, pitchfork-waving mob gets their kicks from taking things out of context. I blame the rise of a post-modernist society. Because, you know, things should be taken at face value and all that. The importance of looking at something from a structured perspective, or in context, is antiquated fundamentalist bullshit; the new way to go about things is to analyse things on the surface level. Nevermind differing cultural norms, I mean, since it’s being published in my country I must be able to hold it to my own set of personal values, and say things like “I’m fully aware this isn’t part of my culture, but the PERVERTS! How DARE they!”

That’s brilliant reasoning there, if I say so myself.

The trainwreck that I thought was sola apparently isn’t. If it manages to keep up its pace there’s even the chance it might escape with a few medium-to-deep cuts and severe bruising, but it made me wait for nine episodes. Made me wait for 9 episodes. That’s as long as 216 minutes. And that’s terrible.

My worst fears about it were confirmed, though — this isn’t a rehash of Kanon alone. It’s like the writer decided to steal elements from both Air and Kanon in order to make what he thought was the grandest mashup ever, only it took the worst possible parts from both, which resulted in something shitty beyond belief. Until recently, that is.

This is about how Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight! was pretty much like Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad. By “pretty much” I mean “a lot”, and if you’ve seen both like I have you should be able to see the connection. It’s damn obvious if you ask me. Pity not many saw the glory that was Ray and his Engrish, because as far as mainstream tastes go Beck failed. Explanation after the cut.

no, I wasn’t expecting this either, despite the huge warning signs and how I seemed to have missed the glaring fact that Seioh High was an all-girls school.

I’d watched till episode 13 last September, by which point Triad decided to take three months to work on episode 14, which made me decide to wait till they’d finished subbing all of it. It was then licensed around March or April, which set me off searching for the remaining 5 episodes, and as the Spring season came all thought of watching it flew out the window till Saturday afternoon.

The lesson here? Don’t rely on Triad for anything (I mean, just look at StrikerS), unless it’s an obscure, non-moe series like Bokurano that no one else wants to sub, which means you’ve got to rely on them anyway. I digress. Higurashi was a mixed bag, although I loved it more than anything, and I’m really looking forward to the next season. Bring on Summer.

About the title. This is to save some of you the effort of reading through this: there isn’t any, at least not with respects to Code Geass — if you’re one of those who think it is, excuse me while I pause to laugh and make fun of your crap anime that you think is superior to it, like Gravitation or Sister Princess, Loveless or Ichigo 100%. You can press Ctrl+W now.

To those of you who’re reading on, well, I loved it. What can I say? While my eyes were suffering towards the end (like yours would too if you’d watch 23 episodes over three days), my mind was revelling in the sheer quality of it all. As I mentioned previously I loved the unoriginal premise — an unsubtle blend of Gundam SEED and Death Note. Kira (Yamato) + Kira, anyone? It’s more likely than you think!

this screencap is justice, like Light

So after watching the entire season, let’s talk about what I think of Azumanga Daioh. It didn’t improve after the first episode, but considering the pathetic waste of time that was most of the series, I guess that was to be expected.

Azumanga Daioh is, at best, an average show. At worst, it’s like Charlie Chaplin trying to cheer up a little girl post-rape with his legendary slapstick humour, which is technically funny, but really sad when you look at the bigger picture.

I finished Air. After watching two out of four key Key works I feel a take on the genre would be appropriate so watch out for a hopefully extensive critique on the visual novel as a genre in the next two, three, maybe five days — in addition to that, I should be reading Planetarian after my exams (I keep on thinking “Planetes” for some reason) and I can’t wait for Clannad to air next season, if everything goes as planned.

the summer specials obviously weren’t about fanservice.