OP Theme: スピラーレ by 牧野由依 (Makino Yui)Episode 1:「第１話「その やがて訪れる春の風に…」 During their practice, Akari and Aika complimented Alice for her confidence which she enriched during the carnival. Aika let off a yawn and a chain reaction occured. The girls excitedly discuss the spring coming soon in their usual manner. They were going to stop by a cafe nearby and Akari saw Al and Akatsuki by the waterfront. They were studying but Akatsuki soon got into quarrel with Aika.Back home at ARIAc ompany, Alicia came home with delicious looking sandwiches. Aria sachou ate them too fast and choked itself. Later, Woody arrived and passed a small package for Alicia to Akari. It was from their guests during the carnival. Alicia opened the package an found a small sakura jam. Thus, she decided to gather their friends to enjoy it together. Alicia and Akari went for grocery shopping while Aria sachou tried fishing by the company waterfront (It got bitten by a tiny crab). They later baked biscuit to go with the jam. Akira, Aika and Alice arrived and they had the meal first since Athena would be late. While enjoying the tea, Aika asked about the guests who gave them the sakura jam. Alicia and Akari told them about a girl with her mum on the cold day. The mum had never seen snow before and the girl was disappointed for the wrong timing. Alicia remarked that she would receive something wonderful and after swaying the gondola a few times, upon reaching the large waterfront, a snow flake dropped onto the mum's hand. Both the mum and daugther were enchanted by the experience.Aika then told them regarding Akira's amazing experience. There were four men in the gondola and one of the was standing and swaying while wearing a mask. Aika was controlling her frustration while Akira tried very hard to maintain the balance of the gondola. As Aika was about to bursted her patience, the man was about to fell into the water but Akira went to save the man from falling into the water.Alice also told of Athena's amazing experience where a baby was throwing a tantrum and spoiling the atmosphere. Athena made funny faces and the baby laughed. Alice believed that it was amazing that Athena could make the crying baby laughed through her funny expressions.Athena then arrived and joined them. Aika commented that it would be hard for them to catch up with the three fairies. Alicia then told them that even prima undines have a long way to go. Aika in turn asked Akira about her sastifaction. Akira replied that one cannot be fully sastified since they were also experiencing new things and improving themselves. Afterward, the three young undines went outside and talked about achieving and being prima undines in near future. Inside the house, the three fairies looked at the young undines and remarked that they would become excellent prima undines. ED 金の波 千の波 by 新居昭乃 (Akino Arai)P/S: It's wondeful to watch new episode of ARIA. A new seson of ARIA makes the season worhtwhile! Personally, I like the ED better than the OP. And if you speed up the ED, it would sound even better which I found out by accident. Still deciding whether I'll purchase the OP and ED. by the way, the yawn is really contagious. After Aika, Akari, Alice and Aria sachou yawned, I also yawned. Let me know if you experienced it. Note: It has been my tradition to write short summary only but this time I included screen shots. Adun should also be covering this series as usual. In addition, I think there'll be a lot of people who's going to cover ARIA the Origination because of its popularity and the lack of good anime this season.
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Japan Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan By Aimee Major Steinberger Rated T for Teen, 13+ Go!Comi, $16.99 Japan Ai is Aimee Steinberger’s charming sketch diary of her trip to Japan with two female friends. Written in a cheery, casual tone, it’s more quirky personal story than travel guide, but it includes plenty of useful information like maps [...]
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Here's a very cool youtube video that teaches you how the Japanese fold their clothes in a fast and efficient manner. Thanks for my friend pcp for sending it in to me. I also personally went and tried it out myself. I must say it really works.
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Occupation: High school student, which explains why I'm not mentioning my name or age.Location: San Jose, CaliforniaQ: I noticed that you've mentioned that you started watching anime with Card Captor Sakura, what was the next anime series you watched? How long have you been a fan?A: Ah, my second series I think was D.N.Angel, a typical action/romance show that I think was female-orientated. But those two shows lasted me for a few years (I first watched CCS around 2001-2002); the first anime of my 'true' fan phase, which began around January this year, was Tokimeki Memorial ~only love~, a bread-and-butter harem/romance. Very tasty bread, though.Q: So how much do you watch in a week? Do you have a particular time of day that you watch anime? Any kind of rituals that you perform before watching it? A: I watch an episode (or two) or anime every night as the last activity of the day; I probably average 10 episodes a week. As for the rituals, finding pigs to sacrifice got a bit tedious, so I usually just sit down in front of my computer (I'm a fansub person) and start watching.Q: I've noticed that you've said you like to watch shounen harem shows and magical girl shows on your blog, what is it that draws you to them? Do you think the harem show is an overlooked genre? If so, why? If not, why? What type of show do you avoid like the plague? Is there any show that you're embarrassed to admit that you like? The harem genre is kind of a mixed bag to me; it's like what I picture the shonen action genre as: something that has both a lot of really good content and a lot of really base, boring tripe. The harem shows I watch are usually adapted from visual novels and don't feature a lot of fanservice; what I like about them is the wide variety of likable (in both personality and looks, but mostly the former) characters and the vast stories that such shows have. There are some pretty neat twists that keep you watching; plus, I'm kind of a romantic, so that quota gets filled too.Magical girls shows, admittedly, I talk about a lot, but I've only dabbled in a few: CCS, NanaDrops, and Shugo Chara being the ones I remember. I do like how the female leads are surprisingly complex and entertaining characters, and how the feel of the anime is usually pretty heartwarming and relaxing.The harem genre, as a whole, I'd like to say is overlooked because a lot of people think it's fanservice and pandering central, but to be honest, a lot of it is. I think some of the harem-types that focus more on the characters and the romance deserve attention and a serious look rather than being dismissed as 'moe crap', though, so I guess I do think it's overlooked. It's like going to a flea market; a lot of stuff is uninteresting and unappealing, but there are a lot of gems hidden if you look around.What shows do I avoid? I've had a bad stereotype against shonen action for years; I don't know if things like Naruto and Bleach are really bad, or just hated for being popular, but I've never found out. Also, I'm usually pretty harsh on anything that's overly fanservicey without a reason.Any show that I'm embarrassed to like? Well, I'm a guy that admits he likes harem shows and magical girl shows, I think that answer is clear! :P Seriously, however, Shuffle! might come the closest, since the first half is, in the words of the main character, "breasts [among other exposed things] everywhere I look", but the second half is very dramatic, very different than the norm, and completely justifies the show in my view.Q: What type of things do you enjoy about fandom? Do you go to conventions? Do you cosplay?A: What I like about fandom is that we're all crazy in a sense. The extent to which we go to analzye every last detail out there means that I can always find a good discussion on something, whether it be of the symbolic references, character justifications, or just plain merit of some show.Although, occasionally, we're a bit too crazy (although I probably am too), which leads to your next question: I haven't gone to a convention (and thus, haven't cosplayed) yet, but I am considering doing both for the first time to the local Fanime in 2008.Q: If you had to pick your top five anime, what would they be?A: Kanon (2006) and Cardcaptor Sakura for sure. I'd like to circumvent the rules and pick the Tsukihime visual novel as number three - it may not be anime specifically (although there was a pretty poor conversion made) but it's one of the most gripping and emotional stories I've seen.For the last two...I've seen a lot of 'really good' anime, but none that I would for sure call one of my 'favorites'. I'll go with (Gambling Apocalypse) Kaiji, which is still airing, actually, for manly mindgame fun, and School Days, which, while maybe not a 'fun' anime, was an extremely attention-capturing one that broke all the rules of harem as we knew it.Q: What is the one thing about you that you think would surprise your readers?A: Well, I'm not really a blogger. I'm actually an astral projection of my former self who is...Man, if I had a penny for every time they used that trick in the anime I watch, I'd have...four cents. But seriously, this is a tricky one; I don't talk a lot about myself on my blog, preferring to discuss what they came here for - anime - but in terms of that, it might be that I've never really seen anything shonen past my dubbed Pokemon days.There's been so much hype about newer shows like Gurren Lagann, Code Geass, Death Note, and whatnot that I begin to wonder if I missed something. Maybe when I have more time and less romance anime I'll find out.Q: When did you start blogging? And why do you blog?A: I started blogging in April of this year (2007), to make funny jokes about Kanon and other shows I watch, since I didn't know of a lot of the anime community at the time. I've continued to blog to sharpen my writing skills, and to have kind of a soapbox for whatever rants of anime that I come up with.Of course, I do enjoy a good discussion about anime (especially the conspiracy theories) with my readers, or on other blogs.Q: If you had to classify your blog as a particular type of blog, what type would that be?I'd call mine an 'argumentative' blog. I tend to shy away from episode recaps unless it's something really shocking that deserves to be talked about. Instead, I like ranting about various meta-style parts of anime. The merits of a specific genre, the logic (or lack thereof) behind the use of a specific anime stereotype/cliche/event/etc, that kind of thing. I also enjoy writing about 'old' anime series (early 2000s, not current season, etc), to bring back some titles into the spotlight that deserve it.Q: Where does the title, "What is eternity doing tonight?" come from? And what is eternity doing tonight anyways? Ooh, thought I'd hear this. XDThe short answer is 'Engrish'. The title is actually a wildly misquoted lyric from the OP theme to Kanon (2002). I was looking for something other than "Name's Anime Blog", and I decided upon this random question as my title. I'm not fully sure what I meant it to mean (perhaps some contrast between the longevity of 'eternity' and the immediacy of 'tonight'?), but it sounded cool at the time.Unless some readers are really attached to it, I plan on changing it to something that rolls easier off the tongue next time I renovate the blog.Q: What type of blogs do you read? What type of blogs do you avoid? A: I read blogs that I like. I don't read blogs I don't like. XDAnything that's particularly analytical, I can usually enjoy; I like seeing how deep people can dig the rabbit hole, and reading a good deconstruction of a show's inner meaning is really interesting, especially when I can't figure it out.Humorous episode recaps are a favorite of mine too, providing the jokes are good.Episode summary blogs aren't my thing unless they fall into the above category; blogs that take 90% of the post as the summary and 10% as the impression don't usually appeal to me, since I only read these posts after I watch the episode. Spoiler watch, and all.Also, internet drama and lots of flaming / swearing isn't particularly interesting.Q: If you had to pick three posts that were your best, which ones would they be?A: Hmm, that's a tough one. I'd rather someone tell me, since all my posts are structurally the same; think of an idea in advance, sit down, write in one continuous block, post.Well, for humor, I'd go with my fall 2007 season half-time review post, which was a lot of fun to write and covered a lot of series.For argumentative, I like "Why Watch Harem?", since it's something that I felt strongly about, and as such, hopefully turned out well.And for series review, kind of a subset of the above, I'd say the one I did for School Days didn't turn out too bad. It was an emotionally charged series, and I think that fueled me to write a pretty in-depth post on it.Q: Any closing thoughts?A: Yuki Nagato for life!Uh, no, wait...thanks for the interview, and I hope that I'll be able to work for you in the...no, still wrong.Well, first off, in case you couldn't tell, I like to be funnier than perhaps my serious style above insists, it's just that I typically write Serious Business analytical posts.But really, I'm looking forward to having my blog torn apart or whatnot, so we'll see how this goes. I don't get much reader input on the blog outside of the posts, but I don't know how much emphasis is placed on this stuff.Also, this Q&A session is about 1.5 times the length of an average post of mine. Wow.Cheers.^^-CCY
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IntroductionNow there are blogs that do short recaps about what is going on in the industry. There are blogs that do episode summaries. There are even blogs that have funny dialogue between the various members of the blogs. There are even blogs that disect every series with the seriousness of an academic paper.But I can count on one hand the amount of blogs that I've found that take on harem and magical girl shows the way that CCY's "What is eternity doing tonight?" does. In fact, just taking a look through his participation in the Anime Blogging Collective's 12 (or 18 in this case) days of Christmas, we get a look at Kanon, Da Capo, Tsukihime and Shuga Chara.So let's take a look through Cameron's eyes about What eternity is doing tonight?(In the effort of full disclosure, I do suscribe and read this blog frequently).ContentSo what's so appealing about a blog that pretty much solely focuses on magical girl shows and visual novel adaptations? The answer is a whole lot. Now I'll admit, I don't really watch the same kind of shows CCY does. The whole thought of a love tetrahedron sends me into hives. And the what passes as comedy in harem shows makes me shudder. But CCY usually can pick a topic and disect it down to the core.In fact, let's take one of my favorite posts of his, "The Survival of the Moest". Now this post tracks about about 1,000 words, which is pretty average for one of CCYs posts. In comparison, this is generally on the long side at most sites. We start with a pretty general introduction about Marmalade Boy, leading into a discussion of genre. What's astounding about this post is the fact that he leads in with a thread, takes a turn in the discussion to talk about the shoujo genre in general and closes on that topic.That general structure holds true for most of the posts. They start with general (seemingly unrelated) statement connect it with the real point he's trying to make and then fleshes out that point. What's amazing is that most of the time that thread holds.The problem is that it doesn't always hold. CCY's strength is that he can take a thread and expound a good point from it. Where his posts start to dip is when he loses that focus. For example, his 12th day of Christmas post about Myself;Yourself weaves in and out, but doesn't have a solid point. Now some of this might be an expectation that the reader has seen the episode he's refering to and some of it might be that he's trying not to spoil it for the reader, but in a lot of ways it doesn't stick together.But in all honesty, it's pretty rare for his posts.The other thing is he does focus on magical girl and harem shows pretty much exclusively. Which isn't neccesarily a bad thing. I'm all about a blogger blogging about what he or she wants to blog about, but it can limit the enjoyment of some of his jokes. Which for blog posts like his physics related, Schrodinger's cat post, can be a bit of a killer. But if you keep up with the same shows that he does, you will be fine.FormatTo be honest, I was going to complain that he didn't have access to his archives on the front page of the site, but he's got it now. Although mostly, it's through tags. I'm still a little unsure about the usefulness of tags myself when it comes to blogs, but I would like a date archive. That's just me though.As far as the readability of the site, it's pretty much black and white, no frills. Which in all honesty is a good thing. He does incorporate a good deal of visuals, which in some cases is helpful if they're related to the text. But in some cases they do slow down my browser enough when I'm scrolling through to be a little bit annoying. So I would say that's a wash.What I really like are the changing banners. Again, these are somewhat in-jokes, but they do give the page some personality, and it's pretty easy to distinguish what the blog is all about right from the get go. ConclusionSomebody else, who runs a better blog than this, said about What is eternity doing tonight, "I don't know what it is about this blog, but CCY can take apart a harem show like no other." And I think that's the best way to sum it up. While you may not get all the references, even if you don't care about the shows, it's an interesting blog to read anyway. The only people who might not like it are people who actively hate the shows CCY pulls apart. In fact, those are the people that may want to stay away from this blog. But other than that, I'd say Whatever eternity is doing, it's sure doing it right.--------Agree or disagree? Leave a comment or email iniksbane@gmail.com
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OP: “Breakin’ Through” by Shūhei Kita - Hey, I actually really like the OP. The song is catchy, and the animation is stylish. It reminds me a lot of the Tokyo Majin and Death Note OPs.
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BREAKING NEWS! Game turned into anime, and it's not utter crap! PERSONA -trinity soul- does the impossible and surprises us all with a paranormal action series, airing Saturdays at 22:30 JST on MXTV.
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I have been a huge fan of Persona 3 when I played it on my playstation 2. The dating sim and adventure RPG is an exotic mix, and I always like the Greek mythology themed summons in the series. Hence, it is logical that I am extremely excited about the anime adaptation of the game, [...]
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So because I was busy shopping for beds and mattresses today I didn’t get a chance to watch this stuff until later in the evening. Lots of premieres today so let’s get the [snow]ball rolling. Persona -Trinity Soul-: I said “ew” more than once but at the same time it was kinda interesting. I also [...]
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By all means, I should be entirely smitted with ef, like most of the otakusphere (to steal a term) seems to be.It's got what seems to be it all: a unique animation style, characters ripped straight from a storyline I dreamed up, parallel plots that look to tie together smoothly, and personalities that are appealing without being overly moe. Not to mention, a green-haired meganekko.I've spent a lot of my time with my hands plugged in my ears not just because I'm trying to get the earwax out, but to avoid the spoiler-tastic raving that everybody has been going on about for ef. It encouraged me to catch up with the show over the last few days of vacation as part of the "My God, it's Winter 2007/8 season already!?" watching panic.So I was quite surprised when ef turned out not to be the gripping, awe-inspiring wonder that it's been made out to be, but merely a show that's good. Funnily enough, popular recommendations as to shows in off-center genres such as magical girl (Shugo Chara!) and GARmbling (Kaiji) have worked wonders for me, and I can't say enough superlatives about those, but for a visual novel show that's pretty much straight up my alley, it's not working out quite the same.I could attest this to any number of things. First off would probably be that I've just seen too many of these damn shows. I love the visual-novel-slash-harem genre to death but in terms of bringing new concepts to the table it takes a lot to impress me. Perhaps because I'm an 'expert' in this genre I expect more, and it's quite easy for shows in this genre to fall into a cliche pattern.It's a bit amusing, in that I try to avoid blatant escapism in my harem shows, which is kind of like trying to avoid the cream filling in an Oreo. It's there and it's going to be there, because that's a core part to a lot of shows in this genre.ef has stayed out of this trap pretty well, but there are parts where it stumbles a bit; Chihiro's spontaneous lapsing into uber-dere-dere mode with the "you can kiss me if you want" for one, and the quick transitioning of the Kei - Hirono - Miyako plot into a sort of love triangle of the jealous regard.This bugs me, probably the most because it was doing pretty well while giving the romance part a backseat, while making the story a tale of character discovery, and when the love-love part gets center stage it's just sort of flat and been-there compared to the rest.It's a bit early to be refuting my argument but I suppose the counter is that this kind of stuff could just be working to develop the characters; yeah, Miyako's just working herself into either the lonely girl or yandere corner, where things will get interesting, and Chihiro's "kiss me nao plz" thing is kind of tacky but it sets Renji on a hardcore monologue.Maybe this post as a whole is kind of ironic, in that it does mirror Renji's thoughts a lot. That feeling of "gee, I should be loving this, but something's wrong" is very prevalent in my viewing of ef so far.The predictability factor is beginning to rise in the show as well, continuing on with the 'story is looking kind of weak' worry. Soon enough, if it hasn't already, it will hit Renji that Chihiro's story, like most, is a quite un-subtle narrative reflecting on her own tragic life, and their story will continue on their heartwarming if not kind of straightforward style of "someone reaching out to the lonely person". Eventually it will hit Kei that she's being a Class-A Jealous "Friend" and being entirely unfair to Miyako. At that point, they'll have a My Story Is Sadder Than Yours duel and Miyako will probably claim Hirono, while Kei either gives up on her feelings or puts out to that photographer guy.It's all entirely speculation of course, and most of you who have actually already finished ef (which, I suppose, is all of you reading this) are laughing in that evil-villain-with-a-monocle way at my foolishness, but that's the way the story is feeling to me. It just seems like ef has played most of its cards already.We have Chihiro's backstory, have most of her inner feelings exposed. We've seen Kei's light and dark side, seen her relation to her sister and her guilt, her true relation to "onii-chan" Hirono. Miyako, we now know her past, and her desperation to be recgonized, to be loved by someone again.It's just sort of at a 'what now?' point. Maybe there's something good to be said about this, how ef is up-front with its characters and doesn't take the entire time beating around the bush saving up for a shock that should have been obvious. But I'm just kind of lost with what this show is planning to do; it was moving so solidly earlier and is now kind of bogging down a bit, with sequences which are moving, yes, but damn long.You know what I mean, with Miyako's now-famous 99 Missed Calls (take that, American movies). It was a touching moment, one that isn't easily forgettable, but the little Mystery Science Theater voice in the back of the head spoiled everything. "They used like 4 frames over 15 minutes, you know," it says. "They didn't have to drag it on so long, we know that she's desperate." it says. "Why couldn't it have spent more time on her backstory instead of throwing it out there and going straight to the voice mails?"This is my problem with ef as a whole, as as much good as it is on paper, it's just not clicking, not getting that connection with the viewer for me. I see Miyako rant on and on for 5 minutes to Hirono's phone, and I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to feel sorry for her or scared of her. I see Renji struggle with whether he should Just Kiss Her Already, and I'm not sure whether he's doing what any person would do or is just being a standard romantic coward.It's this unease about the story that gets to me, that it's very ambiguous in terms of characters and morality. This is probably what a lot of people love about this show, in that it's different from every moe-fest visual novel; like Chihiro says, "if the characters are thought to be cute, that means they aren't described properly."And don't get me wrong; I don't hate anything more than a story that is very black and white, good vs. evil. But the characters of ef just aren't hitting any special shade of grey; they don't really inspire, at least not yet, a lot of discussion about their actions and thoughts. They're just, there, to me. And that hurts.Undoubtedly, the judgment is not final yet. I've still got five episodes to go and that could make all the difference for this show; even though I cannot see how yet, ef might pull an ace out of its sleeves. There might be an intriguing twist, or more revelations on a character's train of thought. But right now, it's just kind of a dissapointment.Like Chihiro's "you can kiss me" scene, what it says and how it looks are two different things. It's on paper, visual novel gold, a show with the dual plotlines of a KimiKiss, the balanced characters of a sola, the character discovery of a Myself;Yourself, but in reality, it just doesn't have the feel that it should. It's just not lining up, and that's something that worries me.Clearly, the intent to like ef is there, by the tone of those words and the references to the show itself. In the end, although it really sounds like I dislike the show, maybe the underlying meanings of this rant tell more - I try to hate the show so that when it turns out good, it's all the better. We shall see.-CCYAny show with Cardcaptor Sakura, Touhou, and Lucky Star has to be good, right?(Incidentally, I don't have much to say about the SHAFT-itude of it all.)(One more random thought: all the red-flash-heart-beating parts of episode 7 were a real throwback to Tsukihime the visual novel. Hehehe.)(Finally, Chihiro's analogizing of her own problems to the sheep math problem, with the "if the chain is 13 years long" and all, was much more chill-inducing than Miyako's 99 Missed Calls.)
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