(Okay, this is the hardest part, which is why I've been putting it off.)IntroductionI know calling Mr. Smith wrong is a harsh way to put it. In all honesty, I feel for the guy. He's putting out a product that he thinks is worth selling and people are just coming along and taking it, putting it on the Internet and thumbing their nose at the whole capitalist ideal.And in a large part, I do want people to buy anime. I do want people to support the industry. But on the other hand, the capatialist paradigm is changing or rather has changed. Gone are the halycon days when a few brick and mortars controlled a very local market and you had to go to them to get your stuff. That was obilitarated when Amazon and eBay proved to be workable business models. Long past is the times when you had to have a physical medium to enjoy copyrighted material. That disappeared with mp3s and the rise of Napster. And quickly disappearing are the days when even ISPs can control the flow of intellectual property through their lines. That vanished when Comcast couldn't close down BitTorrent. (Granted from the sound of it, it might have been more of a case of truth in advertising then anything else.)So while I feel bad for Mr. Smith on a personal level, I have to say that he needs to wake up and smell the 21st century and the new brand of capitalism. A capitalism that isn't controlled by a few brick and mortars in a very local area. A capitalism that is controlled by the consumer.And downloading intellectual property without paying for it has become a consumer choice.Why I think Seviakis's argument is right.To be honest, perhaps tj_han is correct, and I'm merely mimicing someone else's opinion, but I have worked in retail a long time. And if there is any one rule in retail it's: The customer might not always be right, but they're still the customer.And in the end, the job of the retailer and the businessman is to meet the customers need. Never has this become more important than in the world of intellectual property, which unlike furniture or shoes or drugs, is not an actual physical item. You can't force customers to come buy from you. You have to offer them either exceptional customer service or a really cheap price.Seviakis's argument acknowledges this. That it doesn't matter why people are downloading. And while he does indulge into proving that it is hurting the industry, he also points out that trying to guilt people into buying isn't going to work. Essentially the industry has to wake up and deal with the fact that they're not meeting their consumers needs.And the consumers are taking it for themselves.(Again, I could spend and entire post talking about whether this is good or bad, but hopefully I've argued that it's a non-point.)So if the industry wants to compete with fansubs, it has to do exactely that. Compete with fansubs. It has to offer the same service that fansubs do. If they don't then they'll continue to lose money to them.To be fair, I'm not entirely sure I did his argument justice, but that's what I took away from it. And it's Mr. Smith's argument that scares me far more.Why I think Arthur Smith's argument is wrong.Like I've said before, I feel bad for the guy. I will give the man credit. He did start off by saying that the industry is evaluating different options to provide anime quicker to the market. But... and this is a big but... I have a serious problem with the tone of his response. His first two points were much like the beginning of Seviakis's letter. He's simply trying to prove that fansubs are indeed hurting the industry. Now I could spend all day poking holes in his numbers, but I don't think it's necessary. What is necessary is to point out why he's doing it.He wants us, 'the fans' , to be concerned about the industry. My initial opinion about his tone hasn't changed. The first section of his letter is a plea for people to worry, to give money, it's a pity party told in four part harmony. It's a call to give and give and give some more because you're local neighborhood anime company needs your support. It's not the words of a business man, it's the words of a beggar. Essentially he's turned the anime industry from a business into a charity. Where we "should" give money, rather than "want" to give money.What disturbs me the most is his third point, where he says why they can't do what Seviakis suggested. Now I do have to give him credit, he does say that he's going to "work to shorten this length of time" but the problem is that he has to make it much quicker than six months. Granted, I've gotten less angry about this as I've read it, but it still seems, like a question of , "Oh we'll try." rather than "Yes, I'm going to do that."And that's what I want to hear from Smith. I want to know that he's doing everything he can to save his business. I want to know that I'm not wasting my support on an industry that isn't working to support itself.Because otherwise, why should I waste my time.
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"You were...trying to make yourself taller, weren't you?"Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a funny kind of show.Naturally, I mean that in both senses of the word. First off, it's a 'funny' show in the same way that someone like me might smell 'funny', with a style far removed from most slice-of-life shows. You come to SZS expecting a standard bright, cheerful school-life comedy and what you get is something you might expect from the British and their flying circuses.It's a type of show that's insulting and off-the-wall, with continuity thrown to the winds in favor of sheer insanity in numerous disconnected sketches. And compounding this is that distinct SHAFT style, with the plentiful camera cuts, the occasional strangely-framed shot, and parody after parody of every aspect of both anime and society.It's quite simply, an anime that you're unlikely to see the likes of again (barring its sequel, Zoku SZS), in style and in concept, for good and for bad. A show like this feels highly experimental in nature (at least for me, who is used to comparatively sane slice-of-lives), a kind of 'what happens if I press this?' on a six-hour scale, and naturally as a result it has its great moments and it has its annoying moments.Luckily enough, for the most part Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is 'funny' in the gut-busting sense of the word as well.(Unless you're prepared for spoilers, that is.)I can only guess that all three are here because they are SHAFT show heroines.As has been expounded on all of forty-eight hours ago, characters are what make slice-of-life shows great, and SZS looks to deliver with a quite large core cast that keeps on growing, with each newly introduced member of Nozomu Itoshiki's class. But what's interesting about SZS is that it takes a different approach than shows like Minami-ke, in that it focuses more on cast-plusplus-ing (er, adding new characters) than really developing the existing ones.Most of SZS's half-episode sketches involve introducing the next member on Itoshiki's roll-call, and each one is done quite well. Each character in the story has their own distinct personality trait, one might say defect, and over the course of 10-odd minutes we usually see that personality evolve as the character comes in contact with the equally demented world of Itoshiki.The best part of the cast is the wonderful way in which pretty much all of them are messed-up or out-of-place in some way, from Fujiyoshi (first name?) the yaoi fangirl to Meru the internet troll to the incredibly normal girl (whose name, naturally, I forgot) and ever so many more. Their interactions are even better, when the frequently closed-minded personalities clash, whether it be Chiri's OCD perfectionism forcing itself on other characters, or Kafuka's optimism radiating out. Words don't really describe the amount of humor that seeing Chiri trying to evenly divide a 4-strawberry cake for 5, 6, and eventually 7 people, and finally resorting to liquefying the whole thing in a blender.Additionally, an aspect of SZS touched on in a few episodes, but perhaps not fully realized is the deliciously anti-harem style of it. Your standard harem show with a bunch of cute, happy, pleasant girls (no doubt childhood friends from X years ago) going hardcore deredere over some nondescript male is entirely dime-a-dozen (especially around these parts of the internet), and the ridiculous way in which SZS turns a cliche like this on its head is 110% awesome. Here, a pessimistic, insane, and slightly suicidal teacher racks up a bunch of love interests including a stalker, an OCD perfectionist, and a shut-in (hikikomori), who all pursue him with almost disturbing enthusiasm. (Don't forget, they're his students, too.) It's a concept that is all too enjoyable, and I wish that SZS had poked more fun in this area.Still, what the show does do will generally leave you on the floor, rolling with laughter. With nearly every half-episode being a character introduction, and with every character being drastically different or strange in a new way, there are a lot of winners in the bunch.Not to mention, the show has a simply obscene level of depth to it, one that can stretch a 25-minute show to 30 or 35 with the sheer amount of pausing needed to catch all the in-jokes.SZS features what apparently is the SHAFT trademark Mighty Morphing Chalkboard, with a changing message written on it each scene. These range from in-character notes, to random commentary, to subtle pokes at other anime; it's a great way to extend the viewing life of a show in seeing things you didn't see before - as long as you don't mind breaking up the flow of the episode a bit to pause.Not to mention, SZS does some not-so-subtle pokes as well. Whole minutes of the show are devoted to parodies of TV shows, commercials, and pretty much anything you can think of. If you don't get it, it's probably a reference.Which herein lies one of the minor flaws of SZS. One would think that not understanding a show would be a major flaw, but here it's just a manner of getting in the right mindset. Honestly, if you're trying to 'get' SZS, you're probably watching it wrong. On the incomprehensible scale from 1 to 10, with Cardcaptor Sakura being a 1, and Lucky Star a 10, SZS would solidly smash through the glass ceiling with something on the high side of twenty.It's the full package; when it's not doing random references to Japanese commercials, it's slapping together scenes in a disconnected manner, and when it's not doing that, it's busy being discontinuous. I think the epitome of this is when Itoshiki gets utterly flattened by a runaway trolley at the end of the penultimate episode, only to return perfectly fine in the final episode (which, incidentally, acted exactly like a normal episode, introducing two characters with next-to-no sense of conclusion).I really did wish that sometimes the show would at least pretend that past events had happened - if only because I wanted to see a 'sketch with no punchline' - but overall the show still manages to make it work with the sheer over-the-top-ness of the show. Taking it seriously is taking it the wrong way. It's not the 'brain in park' level of fanservice shows, but more of a 'clutch disengaged', where you kind of coast downhill and let the show take you where it wants.Something that's more worrying about SZS is when the humor goes wrong; there are many absolutely brilliant moments in the shows that wouldn't be possible without the dark style of it, but sometimes in trying to be funny it trips over its own shoelaces.This is usually apparent in characters like Maria, the illegal immigrant. A lot of her humor revolves around her combination of poverty and enthusiasm about the country. She's kind of the pitiable character, the poor beggar that everyone in the show can't help but love. But often times a lot of the jokes regarding her backwardness come off as more 'social commentary' than true humor. It's tough to draw the line between comedy and straight xenophobia sometimes.Likewise, SZS started going down to the Fanservice Mart when it realized halfway through, that panty shots were a lot cheaper than the joke over at the Funnies-R-Us; however, those who are less sexually repressed find that these gags contain only about a quarter of the taste, and, unlike what the back of the box says, aren't just as filling.Kae[d/r]e the pseudo-yandere flipped back-and-forth between her Japanese nice-girl and foreign lawsuit-threatening persona (another touchy gag) almost as much as her skirt flipped up, which only occasionally was part of an actual joke, instead of the far more common 'dead space / transition panties.'Kiri the shut-in and Chie the actually kind-of-level-headed character also succumbed to the same form of random sexualization usually confined to fanfiction, bookending funnier jokes with spontaneous yuri. Maybe it's the sunlight-fearing geek in myself, but Kiri really had a lot more potential than that, which was only realized at the start and end of the series.Barring these pratfalls, though, SZS's humor largely works well, with enough redeeming moments, and enough of a different feel from the norm, to earn a solid Konata thumbs up (Good job!) in this category.Visually it's a treat as well, and while it's not the most graphically stunning piece, it does enough tricks and has enough fun to stand out in an above average way. The art style of SZS feels very distinctive - one might say much more traditionally Japanese - and the way that SHAFT mixes it up as usual with crazy camera shots, graphical style changes, and especially the visual gags, makes it enjoyable to watch.The OP sequences in particular deserve special mention. the first OP, made solely of black title cards, feels cheap, but the mixing up of the 2ch copypasta in the lightning-fast text segment warranted a second look (especially with a bunch of censored words that made it feel like a puzzle to understand). The second OP was ADHD central and showed a lot of that distinctive SZS edge, from the flashes of yuri bondage (among other entendres), to the faces with kanji on them, to the random real-life shots superimposed, it's a lot to take in. And the third OP, shown for only two episodes, was a bit cheap in the animation department but had enough text to make it all worth it, with joke upon joke that could only be discovered though master subtitling and frame-by-frame viewing.The songs were plenty worth it too; the SZS soundtrack had a couple songs that were memorable, although not MP3-player worthy, but the OP / ED were absolutely fantastic. "Damn Twisted Person", the first OP, was a demented hard-rock song, while the second, "Gouin ni Mai Yeah", was more typical, yet still listenable, J-pop-style stuff. "Zessei Bijin", the ED theme, as you may remember, is one of my all-time favorite songs, with a jazzy, swinging beat that's infectiously catchy, and the lyrics, like Damn Twisted Person, fit the show and its amusingly twisted feel very well.Sayonara Zetusbou Sensei is a show that probably turned a lot of a people off. The subbing was (understandably) slow, the humor was a bit questionable in the middle, and the insanity might be a bit too much to bear. But overall, I think it's a stand-out slice-of-life show that deserves at least a peek.It doesn't have that universal appeal of shows like Azumanga, doesn't have the great cast of Minami-ke, doesn't have the charm of Lucky Star. But what it does do right is that it is unmistakably its own type of show. It's different, it's provocative, and it still has a great, funny cast. Try it, and see just how much fun being left in despair can be.-CCYSince it was inherently hard to find Kiri with anything more than her trademark blanket on, we'll go for #2.(If Minami-ke is a "better than good", Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is a "not quite great.")(For some reason, I'm finding a lot of slice-of-life casts to be head-and-shoulders above many of the harem shows I watch. Is it because they're flatter, so that I can't really see their flaws? Or is it just that they're just less tailor made for moe, and more for funny?)The Path to the Post:A few posts around the anime blogging networks that I browsed through in order to help make this post possible, which didn't really have a place in the de facto post to be cited.* Concrete Badger's final episode post at The End of the World mentions the Britcom element of SZS as well as providing some other interesting analysis on the show, the final episode, and apologetic culture.* Ascaloth at Riuva touches on the amusingly discontinuous nature of the show, the parody elements, and more.* Don't forget, there is a second season; first episode post courtesy of recap blog Tenka Seiha.
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The story starts out differently from the anime and manga, in the drama Takemoto Yuta played by Ikuta Toma (Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, Akihabara@Deep) meets Hanamoto Hagumi played by Narumi Riko (Ichi Rittoru no Namida, Ruri no Shima) almost as soon as the drama begins. I was a little worried before the drama began that Narumi Riko was too big to play Hagumi who looks like a middle schooler in the manga and anime and was played by the somewhat more petite Aoi Yu (Hula Girl) in the movie version, but after the opening scene I was convinced. When she gave Takemoto that Mona Lisa smile by the pond I knew that she'd be just perfect as Hagumi. I'm not going to say anymore about the plot I don't want to spoil the fun that's to come for everyone who hasn't already read the manga, watched the anime or seen the live action movie.Love Song & SARS-Fansubs released the English hardsub this afternoon for the first episode and they've done a beautiful job and very fast hardsub release. Download the bit torrent file here. The fonts look great as well as the karaoke and the video quality is excellent. If you prefer a RAW video file you can download the bit torrent file for that here., and soft subs for episode one here. Personally I like this series so much I'm grabbing both.By now I believe that she's HagumiNice use of karaoke effects and they also don't clutter the screen concealing the video.
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Blogging List for the winter 2007/2008 season Briar: Sisters of Wellber (maybe) Calawain - Rosario + Vampire (Saturdays), Kimiaru (Thursdays?) Crusader: Gundam 00, Shugo Chara, Macross Frontier (holding out for a miracle), True Tears (?) Extrange: Spice & Wolf (Sundays) , Persona (Thursdays) Igunis: H2O ~Footprints in the sand~ (Sundays), Shigofumi (A Day after when subs come out I guess) Impz: [...]
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Hard candy doesn’t really wow me; it’s a lump of flavored sugar that’s only function is to dissolve. Oh so not impressive. I like my candy with texture and personality, not some lazy piece of sugar. However, if hard candy meets me halfway in terms of being more than a slightly [...]
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Based on one or two episodes, here are some first impressions:true tears -- After two episodes, this is the cream of the crop, for me. Beautifully directed, with interesting characters, and silences full of meaning. The animation is almost KyoAni-level. Takagaki Ayahi is outstanding as the electric Noe, and Nazuka Kaori equally outstanding as gentle, complex Hiromi. Nishimura Junji, the director of Simoun, and Okada Mari, one of its writers, have taken the original game and completely re-imagined it.Spice and Wolf -- I hoped that the "wise wolf" Horo would become a classic role for Koshimizu Ami, and episode one makes me think my wish just might come true. Horo is a powerful thousand-year-old wolf-goddess posing as a 15-year-old human, and her archaic speech and playful character really give Amisuke something to sink her teeth into. Horo's travels with the merchant Lawrence show promise. This may give the staff a chance to wipe out the memory of their previous show, Cosmopolitan Prayers. Best OP of the season.Porfy no Nagai Tabi -- This year's show in the World Masterpiece Theater series is directed by Mochizuki Tomomi (YKK, Zettai Shounen, Princess Nine) and got off to a good, but typically slow, start in the first two episodes. High-class family drama, involving a Greek boy who will lose his parents in an earthquake and travel around Europe trying to find his sister.Hatenkou Yuugi -- Reverse-harem shoujo adventure, with a fascinatingly unpredictable lead shoujo played by the great Kobayashi Sanae. Her bishounen henchmen are played by Sakurai Takahiro and Miki Shinichirou. Could degenerate into monster of the week, but not bad through two episodes.H2O Footsteps in the Sand -- I will probably have finished watching this show by the time I decide if it is worth watching. I enjoy it enough so far, with its mysteries and its determined lead guy. But it seems crudely constructed, somehow, like Myself;Yourself. And like that show it tries to shock us with unexpected violence.Persona Trinity Soul -- This much psychic angst and violence are too much for me, but it seems like a strong, well-made anime.Shigofumi -- This show is the love-child of Shinigami no Ballad and Jigoku Shoujo. The plot through the first two episodes seemed a bit clunky, but worked. Ueda Kana is beginning to display her vocal chops in ep2.Minami-ke O-kawari -- Another helping by another studio with the same VAs. It's okay, I guess. I was never as amused by the first version last fall as many others were, and they are not as happy with this version as with that one.Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei -- More more of the same. But this time it really is the same. Shinbou by Shinbou. Smart, beautiful, weird.ARIA the Origination -- Even more. It looks great and sounds great. Lovers of the franchise like it. I admire it, but I hardly ever seem to get through a whole episode. If you are an ARIA fan, however, then be sure to watch: this is probably the last ARIA anime, since the manga itself is drawing to a close.Hakaba no Kitarou -- I was going to pass on this one until I read the AnimeSuki thread. Wonderful animation and music and a charming (?) story, through ep1 at least -- as long as humorous, knowing urchins from beyond the grave are to your taste. I should have known that Noitamina would not bore us.Noramimi -- Well-made low-impact family comedy with Doraemon-like character design. Worth a look.Ayakashi -- Poorly made, but somehow quite entertaining. I could have said the same about this director's previous show, Lamune, which involved pure romance rather than supernatural violence and teens with special powers. Good cast includes Mizuki Nana, Kishio Daisuke, Matsuki Miyu, Shimizu Ai, Yukino Satsuki, Sugita Tomokazu.Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino -- I found the first episode quite lame, and so did lovers of the original series. They say this substitutes standard moe for the original impassive lolis. Bad move.They Are My Noble Masters -- A terrible waste of some great VA talent. At least Hayate is occasionally watchable. This is Hayate with very limp humor.Rosario to Vampire -- A real disappointment. Mizuki Nana is good as the lead girl, but the plot, animation, and personalities are deeply boring, through two episodes.Sisters of Wellber 2 -- It was lovely to hear the dulcet tones of Takahashi Mikako again, but this just feels poorly made and dull.
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I don’t know about anyone else, but personally I think I’ve lost interest in BLEACH over the pass 6 months or so. Perhaps it’s seen its time, or perhaps the damn fillers that keep popping up annoy me. What happened to the good old days when BLEACH was the best show to grace my weekly [...]
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"Haruka-neesama IS amazing."Actually, wait, that's not a quote, nor is that Haruka. Have your pick of catch-phrases for the obligatory quote to kick off the post, then:"NINOMIYA-KUN!!""Bakayarou!" (spelling brutalized)"SENSEI!!""Rare expression!""*Hosaka's extremely strange laugh*"And I'm sure I'm missing very many. It's a slice-of-life show that, like many, is simply filled with personality.One of the shows that many have named as one of the better school life comedies in recent times, what Minami-ke does best is both embracing and breaking the bounds of slice-of-life shows.Like many, the focus of the show revolves around a bunch of female characters in one place, and their adventures both at school and at home.Unlike many, there actually are guys in this show, and even if they do get abused all the time like the uncommon male in a slice-of-life, their presence is very real and very central to the show.Like many, the show relies quite a bit on repeated gags, both of the 'in rapid succession' and 'in every episode' types; some of which work well, others which do not.Unlike many, Minami-ke doesn't shy away from the romance side of things, frequently left unexplored in slice-of-lives. Rather, it makes great fun of it.Probably the best aspect of this show is the breadth of it. It has a bit of physical comedy, a bit of verbal comedy, a bit of disturbing comedy, and even a few Lucky-Star style sympathetic moments. Characters are introduced nearly on an episode-by-episode basis, and they nearly always come bearing new gags. Minami-ke does a great job of feeling like a contained snapshot of a limitless universe, where the characters were not the only ones in the world.(And thus, neither did that make them the gods of that world. That review is coming later, I swear, officer!)It's tough to gauge whether Minami-ke is truly the best comedy of recent memory, especially because the genre itself seems to be spreading out - there's dark humor (Zetsubou), the connective shows (Lucky Star), the relaxing shows (ARIA), and so on. Minami-ke feels the closest to what one might call the original school-life comedy roots, with the likes of Azumanga Daioh, and in that slot it functions quite well as a show.Maybe it's a bit of a put-down to call it 'yet another good show from the fall season', but that's what it is; not forgettable, by any rates, but not legendary, either. The kind of show that lives on in catchphrases more than moments. And that's fine.Oh dear, I've concluded the post already, what to do after the jump?(Oh, and SPOILERS ARE BOSS, even though it's tough to spoil a show like this.)The most important part of a show like this is definitely the characters, for in a comedy they serve two purposes.They deliver the jokes, first and foremost; a good character can build up a stereotype around themselves, carve themselves a niche, so that when you see a half-naked guy cradling a fish you can laugh and go "Oh, that Hosaka."Secondly, a great character will develop themselves by occasionally breaking out of that stereotype, by being actual, developed characters. Slice-of-life shows don't have to have the same rapid, smooth-flowing pace that other shows, like visual-novel adaptations, tend to maintain, but it's important that there be at least some sense of continuity as the show travels along.Shows like Azumanga work because of this factor, that helps to achieve the same goal as any other anime; to make the viewer feel like they're really there with the character. Since slice-of-lives don't carry the same dramatic impact as others, in this case it's that sense of growing up with a friend; you learn about them and get to know them very well, and you can sense the little changes in them, you can be surprised when you see a side of them that doesn't appear very often.While it doesn't seem like this happens very much in this type of show, it's quite essential and it tends to happen a lot more than you think (Plot? In MY slice-of-life?) - very few shows get away without a sense of major continuity, and that's because they're so insane and off the wall that they don't need it.Minami-ke is one of the shows that works the 'constant evolution' factor quite well, in doing it in two ways. The first one is the easy one to do, that many shows do, and that is by introducing more characters. Minami-ke has a simply huge cast, from both pairs of the three Minami siblings, to the two-plus classroom friends that each girl has (one 'normal' character and one insane one, amusingly), to even a few token adults that show up. Not to mention, the legendary Sensei and Ninomiya-kun.New characters can add a lot to the show, freshening it up with their new personalities and with the relationships they form with the other characters, romantic, comedic, or otherwise. And Minami-ke works it well in making so it doesn't feel like forced introductions; the characters have always been there, you just haven't seen them, or something of the like. Each character has their merit, and that's what makes it work.Likewise, the main characters of Minami-ke aren't stagnant either. At first glance, Chiaki's the sarcastic, sharp-witted child, Kana's the energetic dunce, and Haruka's the wise, kind lady. They could easily be distilled down to their essences and pronounced near-copies of other, similar characters (in order: Tsuyuri [Doujin Work], Tomo [AzuDai], Alicia [ARIA]). But, you'd find out you'd be wrong.Chiaki is a manipulative character less on purpoes, but more out of her childhood innocence. She doesn't know a lot about romance, or about people in general, and so her strange reactions to, for example, Fujioka's love letter, or the gender-bending Mako and Touma (?) are made even more amusing. Not to mention, of course, her sisterly love for Haruka, a key weak point.And one that Kana's all too happy to strike. Taking a look back at her, she seems like the type of character that would appear in a murder mystery: the happy-go-lucky person that no one would expect of being the mastermind behind everything. Quite often, Kana is very air-headed and gullible, but she's shown great flashes of genius, of being able to deftly manipulative those with romantic or otherwise logical weakness. She is an entertainingly curious character, a "what if I do this?" type with no regards for sanity.Haruka is actually much the same way, except in a more reserved manner. Her kind demeanor really feels close to her true self and not forced at all, yet she can play mafia boss like the best of them. She's well-meaning with her friends and siblings, and always tries to be kind to everyone, but even she shows lapses of judgment and mind. And a bit of skin too.Minami-ke's fanservice (does shouting "cheap transition!" make it more so?) is actually pretty survivable, for someone who reacts to breasts in anime with the attitude of a 6-year-old scared of cooties. A few shows have left me in despair (now that's subtle) in how when the comedy well began to run dry, they replaced it with cheap fanservice instead, but the rare undergarment shot or otherwise exposure in Minami-ke is more productive than anything else. It's used as the means instead of the ends, as part of a joke or gag, and that's when fanservice works best, for risque laughs.Aside from having a enjoyable and quite large cast of characters, the other thing that Minami-ke really deserves accolades for, as hinted at, is its approach to romance, and of the female-male interaction in general. Most slice-of-lives, at best, give these kind of jokes a glancing blow, with an occasional "you ever wonder why there are no guys in our lives?" non-sequitur, but Minami-ke tackles the issue in style.There aren't many heart-pounding, blush-inducing moments that one would expect from a romance, naturally, but rather there are plenty of comedic scenes - or rather, characters - that revolve around romance.Fujioka is probably the one that plays it the straightest, as he fills the role of well-intentioned guy that can't get a move in edgewise on Kana; effectively his tactics of trying to sell screen doors to submarines (it just doesn't work the same) are smirk-inducing alone, but when he's followed up by his own equally-lost stalker, things get great, like in the four-way busy-signal-fest in the final episode.Hosaka's on the other end of the scale, with a creepily-obsessive-guy demeanor that's played both to his benefit and his expense, or maybe both at the same time. His devotion is awe-inspiring but laughably aimed, as he frequently lapses into entertaining stereotypical daydream sequences involving him, wife material Haruka, and miniature Kana and Chiaki kids, who are funny all their own, such as when they pop up from under Haruka's clothes during a romantic moment, demanding food.Makoto (if anyone doesn't call him Mako-cakes by now) is the true idiot of this show, upstaging even Kana. As the elementary school kid he's extremely gullible, especially combined with a strange crush on Haruka (out of your league, kiddo) that makes him susceptible to both much Chiaki hate and Kana manipulation. As such he spends most of his time in drag, as he gets much closer to Haruka in his female form, to the point where everyone thinks he's kidding when he announces he's a guy.In fact, great amounts of literature could be written for the amount of disturbing but downright hilarious cross-dressing that goes on in Minami-ke, with not just Mako but Touma, the other-family Minami who wants to be a guy. As such, 'gender swapping' is taken to new heights, with the enthusiastic efforts the two of them put together, in their own way, and with the amount of confusion that both they and their fellow characters have about their true identity.The final thing that really stands out about Minami-ke is that it's a show with quite a bit of full-circling going on. I like nothing more than seeing a thread opened at the start and closed at the end, perhaps because it makes me feel smart or perhaps because it's a good way of establishing the previously-defined continuity.There are a few examples of this - such as Kana kiss-attacking Chiaki in episode one, and a Minami relative returning the favor to Kana in the final episode - but none probably more distinctive than the legendary adventures of Sensei and Ninomiya-kun.The two of them fulfill numerous purposes in this show. First off, it's an amusing parody of overdramatic soap operas, with more than a fair bit of ridiculousness to their adventures. This is evident in their second power, the strength of their running gag; whether it be the cries of "Ninomiya-kun! / Sensei!" or the speeding black car, it's repeated enough times to be hilarious, while still retaining some freshness in just how (and who) gets owned by a car this time. Not to mention, the epic video game in episode 4.Finally, the show mirrors Minami-ke in coming to an end in the final episode as well; it's kind of a show within a show in that regard. Who didn't feel a mixture of amusement and delight when the speeding car drove right by Sensei in the final episode? It's a great example of how to start, maintain, and conclude a running gag in a show like this.Moving away from characters, the more sensual aspects of the show were relatively average, although not in a negative way. The graphics were a bit better than the norm at least, with a few things that stood out; the tear-drops faces and dramatic eyes were distinctive, and occasionally the show would break out some downright stunning camera angles. And while the soundtrack didn't have anything memorable, it was nothing ear-rending, and the OP and ED were repeatable, if not a bit typical, songs.It's tough for a slice-and-life to strike it big, if only because funny moments tend to be less impression-making, less memorable than dramatic, emotional ones. Double so since those elite slice-of-lives tend to be the ones setting the bar for every other one out there. Minami-ke has it tough in a sense, as even though it's really the only kind of its type for the fall 2007 season, it's got that big looming shadow of Azumanga over it.Luckily, it was smart enough to step out from under that shadow; instead of trying to climb the back of giants it went ahead and made its own mountain, carved a path that, while familiar, was unmistakably its own. It tried to be different and it worked; I doubt that it will be a trend-setter nor a champion for other shows to knock off, but Minami-ke is definitely what could be filed as a "better-than-good" show. One that won't rock shake your soul, but one that will make you definitely feel like your time was well spent.But as you know, Minami-ke's going into overtime with MK Okawari, where we'll see if the quick second season serves to heighten or tarnish its glory, while the hype for Haruka is still hot.-CCY(If there's one thing that bugs me, it's that I didn't devote a single other post to Minami-ke.)(Seriously! ef! It's coming soon! As long as I review within 13 days it should be fine...)The Path to the Post:A few posts around the anime blogging networks that I browsed through in order to help make this post possible, which didn't really have a place in the de facto post to be cited.* An extremely in-depth review - two parts! - over at neko's thinkbox, which shares a few of the viewpoints I held.* Jason's many Minami-ke posts over at AoMM, which are funny as always, catchphrase-coining as always, and contain a few astute observations too.* Stripey's post on fanservice and it's right place, which pretty much is dead on the money.* And of course IKnight (random post linked), for pioneering this trend in blog citing.
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This is the second part of my three-part examination of the fansub debate. If you want to see part one it's here.Now, I'll admit when I started this I made a pretty audacious claim. I said that I'd end the fruitless debates that circle through the fan community on the subject of fansubs. Hopefully, people will agree. If you don't that's fine too. But these are my thoughts anyway.The reason why this subject is so divisive is because the arguments have become circular. If you assume X, Y and Z then A must be true. And then someone else comes along and says well X, Y and Z aren't true, so A must not be true either. On top of that because anime is such an emotional topic and with the collapse of Geneon, the arguments themselves have become more emotional. To the point where people call each other names rather than form real insightful arguments.The problem is that the arguments themselves don't really mean anything.Fruitless argument 1: If you're a fan, then you'll buy the show.Man, if I had a dime for everytime I heard this one. The problem is that it's complete bull. It makes the assumption that enjoyment of a show and spending money on said show are the same thing. Not only are they the same thing, but you're a morally bad person if you don't spend money on said show.This is blatantly false. Case in point: I've had a lot of friends borrow my anime (which by the way is perfectly legal), and they've watched it and enjoyed it. Now they haven't spent any money on said shows. They haven't put any money into my anime buying fund. But nevertheless, they enjoyed the show.Now the classic counterpoint to that is, "Well you should." or "Well BitTorrent means that you can loan that same show to 10,000 + of your friends." The problem is that these arguments are both unrealistic and dangerous. First they're unrealistic because obviously people aren't spending money on X shows. Second they are dangerous because they set up two camps of people. Those who hold the "moral high ground", and who try to guilt trip the fan community into supporting the industry. And the rest of the people, who resent the first group.The problem is that it doesn't have an obvious solution. If people could be guilted into supporting the industry then they would have been. So all it does is create two groups of people scowling at each other like teenagers on the schoolyard.Fruitless argument number two: "Fansubs hurt the industry."This is one of the crux arguments in this entire debate. The problem is that it doesn't matter whether fansubs help the industry or hurt the industry. More to the point, we as fans don't have access to the resources to prove this argument one way or the other.Even Zac Bertschy, arguably one of the biggest pro-industry advocates out there, stated that he thought fansubs might have helped Fullmetal Alchemist, where they hurt Haruhi. So it's never going to be a cut and dry issue.What IS important is that the industry thinks that fansubs are hurting it. In fact, probably one of the most astute comments I've heard about it came from Anime Roundtable, when one of the commentators stated, "It makes a good excuse." And it does.But it doesn't make for a good debate, because whether or not fansubs help or hurt the industry, the industry will continue to claim that fansubs are bad. And no matter how much people say otherwise, it won't change their minds at this point.Fruitless argument number three: "People download fansubs because of X"In the end, it doesn't matter why people download fansubs. What is more important is what fansubs represent - a first view of the series. As I've stated before entertainment has a limited shelf life. Several studies have shown that the more a person views a particular piece of entertainment the less they enjoy it. This is something I've expirienced personally. I have to have a cooling off time before I rewatch a show, even if I enjoy it more on the second viewing, there is a certain sense of tension that is lost now that I know how the show ends.The reason why this argument is fruitless is that without a massive study we'll never know why people download fansubs. And to top it off, even with a massive study, people are just as likely to lie.So the way around this argument is to understand, that no matter why people are downloading they ARE downloading these shows.The question remains why do we need to stop the fruitless debate? The answer is simple, because it polarizes the anime community. On top of that, they increase the resentment between the people who purchase anime, the people who purchase and download and the people who just download. In essence, the community can't speak in one voice, to say what they want.Which is obviously - Anime now, when it comes out.
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