“Remote Island Syndrome (Part 2)” Much better than the first part. Nothing laugh-out-loud funny but the fact that it carried itself as a serious mystery episode until the ending was entertaining enough. It almost made me wish that it WAS a real mystery because I [...]
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This episode, “Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi V”, was a dialogue-heavy, expository episode, what with a tale from Haruhi’s past and Koizumi’s cosmological ramblings. It was a pretty somber episode after leaving the apartment complex, most likely due to Mikuru’s complete absence. Haruhi and Kyon walk to Asakura-san’s apartment but find it’s locked. Haruhi then asks the [...]
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Like Haruhi? Once again, I am forced to admit (not that it’s a bad thing) the greatness of Haruhi. This episode was both dull and very, very excting, all at the same time. I think Haruhi has once again justified the episode mess-up, by giving us something different. I look at this series in a new [...]
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So I was looking at her entry on ANN and I saw that Aya Hirano is going to play Layla Serizawa in Nana. While I’m watching Nana, I’m not familiar with the manga. Wikipedia says that that character is the lead singer of Trapnest, so does that mean that we’ll get Haruhi 12-esque [...]
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With one of the most outstanding anime of 2006 coming to an end this Sunday, I find my thoughts drifting to the final episode of Haruhi a lot this week. Besides the bittersweet anticipation, there's a small voice that probes ever so often, "How is the series to end?" Actually, we do know how SHnY [...]
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Is it really already the end of June? And the summer season gets started tomorrow? Things have been going by much too quickly for me to keep up recently (^^;) Anyways, news, news...Studio Fantasia's New Anime (MOON PHASE) Studio Fantasia and director Tetsuya Watanabe -- that would be the director and studio that did Kimi ga Nozomu Eien -- team up to bring a new original anime this fall titled 奏光のストレイン Taikou no Sutorein. Mankind has advanced into space, but has split into two warring factions. Sera@Ayako Kawasumi, a member of the Union, finally sees her older brother Ralph again, but he's a part of the opposing army. Even so, Sera forces herself to fight -- will her feelings reach her brother? GuessI'll be looking forward to this one ;) Hidamari Sketch Anime (MOON PHASE) The 4-koma by Ume Aoki that's serialized in Manga Time Kirara Carat (Hidamari Sketch on Hatena) will be made into an anime this fall. I know I've read about Hidamari Sketch somewhere before... it'll be going on my list to pick up next time I grab stuff from Amazon :) Shouji Gatou and Nagaru Tanigawa Discuss Haruhi (MOON PHASE) Nagaru Tanigawa (author of the Haruhi novels) and Shouji Gatou (Full Metal Panic) discuss Haruhi in this month's The Sneaker. Apparently Tanigawa-san himself is the one who suggested bringing "Asahina Mikuru no Bouken" first, shuffling around the episodes in the anime, and also ending with Yuuutsu. According to an interview with the director, he'd like to make more of Haruhi into an anime, but as of now absolutely nothing is set. I'd be very surprised myself if a second season of Haruhi isn't made considering how successful it's been (pretty much a license to print money). I'd like to see a second season with Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu as the main story, being a Yuki fan and all ;)
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“Live A Live” Haruhi played guitar Jamming good with Kyon and Yuki - The girl from the stars Wow, in the preview for the next episode Kyon admits that the story will progress! Still, that matters not in the face of this offering, which features Haruhi very briefly coming to understand the concepts of humility and generosity. The Cultural [...]
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This month has been so damn sweet, with many of the top series stepping up their game and delivering great episodes. Since I’m carrying a rather light load going into the next season, I’m excited to see what the summer season will bring! Top Five This Month: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: The concert in episode [...]
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Another amazing episode from the Halls of Haruhism. How will we graph you today? There were three reasons why I thoroughly enjoyed this episode: Kyoto Animation’s amazing attention to detail. They packed so much detail in the busy festival scenes throughout the first part, from inside jokes to plot points revealed later on, and they [...]
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Pretty slow today, so I thought I'd respond to this post by Stripey over at Hontou ni Taihen desu. A bit different since my interests are a bit different ;) Here are my favorites in no particular order, along with what I've watched from each studio and some people you might see showing up frequently in the credits for the studio's works (if I can think of any). Kyoto Animation What I've seen: AIR, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu People: Tatsuya Ishihara (director), Hiroshi Yamamoto (script/storyboard/episode director), Akiko Ikeda (character design) Strengths: KyoAni quality -- the beautiful backgrounds and character design, the ridiculously high quality animation that stays high quality throughout an entire series, and unrelenting attention to every last detail. If you watched AIR or are watching Haruhi now you already knew that ;) Weaknesses: Tends to be faithful to a fault to the original works of the anime they do -- in Haruhi's case, leaving those who haven't read the original work behind with the experimental series composition (jumping around) and by bringing that in episode 1. Will they be able to maintain that "KyoAni quality" for all 24 episodes (their longest work) of Kanon this fall? SHAFT What I've Seen: Tsukuyomi ~MOON PHASE~, Paniponi Dash! People: Akiyuki Shinbou (director), Ken'ichi Kanemaki (script/series composition), Kazuhiru Oota (character design) Strengths: When I think SHAFT, the first thing that comes to mind is director Akiyuki Shinbou and his very unique sense of style, especially usage of shadows and color. Just take a look at the OPs for Tsukuyomi and Paniponi Dash to see what I mean. I enjoyed both shows a lot, and SHAFT has been improving the technical side of things with each show they've done. Weaknesses: Akiyuki Shinbou's directorial style takes some getting used to if you haven't seen one of his works before, though his work on Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha (with Seven Arcs) was rather normal compared to Tsukuyomi or Paniponi. Consistent animation quality is another issue -- Tsukuyomi's ranged from excellent to downright bad. They did a better job with Paniponi Dash!, but will they be able to do even better and live up to expectations for Negima this fall? They also tend to take a lot of liberty with interpreting the original work -- in Paniponi Dash's case, it alienated fans of the manga who couldn't keep up with its pace. If they do that with Negima it ain't gonna be pretty (^^;;) Seven Arcs What I've Seen: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's, Inukami! People: Keizou Kusakawa (director), Yasuhiro Okuda (character design), Yoshinari Saitou (episode director/storyboard/animation director) Strengths: Seven Arcs firmly established itself with its work on Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha with director Akiyuki Shinbou, garnering quite high praise from mahou shoujo fans, including me of course ;) They further reinforced that impression with Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's the following year, even with a change in director from the first season of the show. They're capable of very high quality animation, especially detailed battle scenes as seen in Nanoha. Definitely a studio to keep your eye on. Weaknesses: A very new studio with not much experience. The animation quality in Nanoha wasn't consistent from episode to episode, and the same issue is showing in Inukami now. Yoshinari Saitou's interpretation of the character designs in episodes where he's animation director strays too far from the original (known as "Velka-style" animation among otaku familiar with the studio), making it seem like the animation has significantly dropped in quality, even though there's usually more detailed movement. When are we going to see a Nanoha-quality battle in Inukami? (though that might just be the nature of Inukami there, hehe) HAL Film Maker What I've Seen: Princess Tutu, Kaleido Star (original creator, Jun'ichi Satou), Uta~Kata, Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime, Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan, ARIA The Animation, Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime Gyu!, ARIA The Natural People: Jun'ichi Satou (director), Shougo Koumoto (director), Keiji Gotou (storyboard/animator, director for gimik works like Uta~Kata) Strengths: Home to one of my favorite directors, Jun'ichi Satou. I don't think there's been anything of his that I haven't absolutely loved. Lots of other talented people there as well -- no better place to learn than under the supervision of Satou-san. I can watch what HAL Film Maker does without worrying too much about anything. Weaknesses: Animation isn't quite as technically impressive as other studios. Some issues with consistency, especially when working on more than one thing at a time. J.C. Staff What I've Seen: A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, Azumanga Daioh, Mahoutsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto (Someday's Dreamers), Mahoraba, Sensei no Ojikan, Gokujou Seitokai, Shakugan no Shana Strengths: A studio I'm very familiar with since I've watched many of their works. And I've liked pretty much all that I've seen :) They work on a wide variety of shows as Stripey mentioned, a lot of which come in my range of interest. Weaknesses: Depends more on the kind of work they're doing. Gokujou Seitokai, for example, seemed to suffer from a lower budget than most of their other works, so animation quality wasn't quite up to their usual standards, though I still enjoyed the show.
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