12 Days of Anime, Days 1 and 12: New Beginnings

By TheBigN

I had missed Day 12 earlier, but since it comes from the same moment as Day 1, I decided to put them together to finish up this series of events.

If there was an anime that I could say was my clear favorite of 2010, K-On!! would be it. The further adventures of Yui and friends were expanded from their manga sources nicely. Plus, the slow progression of the four seniors trying to figure out what they wanted to do in the future post high school made for impactful, poignant moments at the end of the show. But this season all started with a little riff:

Yui playing her portion of “My Love Is A Stapler” said a lot of things to me. As it was interspersed with scenes of fellow students, including the rest of Houkago Tea Time coming to school, it was the sign of a new term of school, and with it, all new potential for opportunies and adventures to have for everyone. The fact that Yui spent her morning getting to the Music Club room early and ended up practicing the song (while humming it as well) indicated that we might see a new Yui more dedicated to working hard on improving her playing which in turn would lead to a more improved band. And the fact that they decided to use my favorite HTT song rather than others that they played for that moment meant that at least for me, the moment would remain in my mind that much more effectively. But as we see Yui end her playing with a guitar windmill , it’s a good realization that despite all the other indications that the previous playing had provided for something different, this was still the group of fun-loving girls that we know, and that was a nice moment as well.

My other notable beginning for K-On!! actually comes after a notable source of tension in the show had ended.

Secret Santa 2010: Bartender

This is the second post of 2 from DMAB participating in the Reverse Thieves’ Secret Santa Project for this year.

“In happy times, one cocktail is enough, because anything you drink will taste good. But, if there a hundred shapes of unhappiness, I want to be a bartender who will make a hundred cocktails to soothe unhappiness.”

When Bartender first came out in 2006, I watched the first episode, felt like I’d get back to it, and never did until now. Probably because around that time I was still one year away from legally being able to drink. To be honest, I feel like it was a good thing that I waited to watch the show, since I’m not sure that I really could get it back then. And I’m not even sure that I totally get it now, since I don’t even really drink that much (I can count on my hand the amount of times I’ve had alcohol this year. That’s more than usual, and always a little bit of alcohol that was never enough to even give me a buzz. But I digress). However, I could get the general idea at the time; the experiences of a young bartender at a secluded bar in the Ginza strip known to produce a Glass of the Gods. With this ability, the bartender, Ryuu Sasakura, from his interactions with the consumer was always able to think up and execute creating a drink (with godly skill) that managed to suit the customer’s needs. From this main point, we get a show that has definitely increased my respect of alcohol and of bartenders.

The man in action.

12 Days of Anime, Day 2: From Her Heart To Ours

By TheBigN

Another day, another concert.

I liked the Kanon Nakagawa arc of The World God Only Knows, partly for its implausibility in the situation that Keima faced himself in as the one person that our idol focused on, and probably for realistically covering the life of an idol. As far as I know. But what got me was definitely the concert at the end to the arc. Leading up to it with Kanon losing confidence in her ability to make an impact, followed by her willingness to just make an impact for Keima as her loved one wasn’t really grabbing at all. I myself kinda wished they had more of a focus on why Kanon felt that way despite all the success that she was getting as an idol, and they kept hinting at something besides her history as a former member of a group, but nothing really came out of that too much. Then again, I’m not necessarily sure if getting into the bones of the motivations of her, or other heroines in the show, was the point. That being said, the concert more than made up for that.

Secret Santa 2010: Armor Hunter Mellowlink

This is post 1 of 2 posts from DMAB participating in the Reverse Thieves’ Secret Santa Project for this year. Enjoy Link’s review of  Armor Hunter Mellowlink.

By Link

Armor Hunter Mellowlink is the 1986 OVA spinoff and companion piece to the much-celebrated Sunrise real robot franchise Armored Troopers VOTOMS, telling the story of the ages-old conflict between the Gilgamesh Confederation and the Balarant Union, and the many lives affected by it. VOTOMS is known for depicting sci-fi war drama in a “hard” or semi-realistic manner without completely far-fetched technology for the most part.  Per director Ryosuke Takahashi’s vision, the VOTOMS universe does not feature souped-up Gundam style mecha and alternatively utilizes the small, mass-produced Armored Trooper VOTOMS (Vertical One-man Tank for Offense and ManueverS), sans beam weapons, ridiculous armor, superpowered beings, etc. The protagonist himself goes through countless units, bucking the status quo in both super and real robot anime. Mellowlink is the only entry in the long-running VOTOMS universe that does not star perennial stoic wonder boy Chirico Cuvie. He is nowhere to be seen here. Every other animation in of the franchise is a prequel or sequel of sorts to the original TV series, while Mellowlink is an independent story taking place in similar, or in some cases, nearly the same locales. Oddly, while VOTOMS has several follow-ups, Mellowlink currently has none. That could be be intentional, considering how its story is wrapped up definitively, though I’ve always been of the opinion similarly with the franchise itself. I never understood why Sunrise saw it fit to endlessly milk their classic to pointless ruin, which sadly continues to this day. The only tenuous connection between the two series is how the events of Mellowlink slightly lead into what occurs during VOTOMS initially.

Armor Hunter Mellowlink’s protagonist is Ality Mellowlink, of the title’s namesake, a former hardened Gilgamesh AT pilot. Mellowlink mysteriously has his infantry unit’s, the Schweppes Platoon, mechs stripped from them near the end of the war and supplied only with outdated anti-AT rifles and little armor or other armaments. He ends up as the one and only survivor of his squad after the enemy gradually wears his mates down and is later utterly betrayed and killed by their own corrupt Gilgamesh commanders. This incident is deemed the Planpandoll Scandal. After he lives through the ordeal, Mellowlink is framed for stealing military supplies and realizes that he and his men were sent to die. On the run, he vows revenge on the military leaders who orchestrated this crime, going from planet to planet finding his targets. Naturally, as per genre conventions, Mellowlink meets a mysterious woman with connections to his plight, Lulucy, who becomes a recurring character and gradually supports him in his efforts. Other genre tropes rear their heads in regards to the rest of the cast, as assumed.

The notable, and dare I say, badass quality of Ality Mellowlink is how he chooses not to use an Armored Trooper to fight his opponents, a cue to how the same men supplied him with merely a rifle in war, many of which who do use robots in combat against him. Much of the battles showcase Mellowlink using his brains and brawn to outmaneuver and typical brutally execute his perpetrators, who are often piloting (variants of) the Gilgamesh Confederation’s signature mech from VOTOMS, the Scopedog. I love how Sunrise shows off many custom Scopedog units and our protagonist destroys the driver in satisfying fashion. I’ll admit that much of my enjoyment while partaking in this cartoon was watching this, for a better phrase, mechanical porn. The OVA certainly details its action scenes with Mellowlink’s rifle and various weapons he uses to surprise his prey. If nothing else, Armor Hunter Mellowlink is an example of high quality, purely fun action done right by 80s standards. On that note, the only very minor weak point of the show is how the writing and characters are fairly two-dimensional, a strong contrast to its VOTOMS lineage. But it doesn’t strike me as a significant factor, considering how Mellowlink doesn’t aspire to be more than enjoyable battles, light and free of baggage or drama. A manly man exacting vengeance on those who ruined him. Ality Mellowlink achieves this by the end in fitting fashion, surely.

I have to say that Armor Hunter Mellowlink was what I expected and I was not let down in any areas. Japan doesn’t produce shows like this anymore and it was a treat for that alone. All VOTOMS fans should watch it as soon as they can spare the time, if they haven’t before. Heck, watch it again for a grand old time. I can’t recommend this to others that have never seen the original TV series because it does somewhat spoil it. But hey, isn’t everyone a VOTOMS aficionado deep down inside?

12 Days of Anime, Day 3: Music Is Forever

One of the things that I liked about Sora no Woto was how the current setting that the story is set in came from essentially an amalgamation of whatever anachronisms were left over of the past following an apocalyptic war. It was a little disappointing that not much was done to really explore the setting, as the focus was clearly on the girls of the 1121st Platoon. But I did enjoy the bits and pieces that were given to us, as we struggled along with the show’s inhabitants to make sense of a world made up of a mix of elements of different cultures and traditions, where new meanings were given to things that we currently consider as institutions. And things like this make me think about the transience of things, where even with the desire to be known after death is present for many people, that realization might not be a given long after the fact. That being said, one idea about the series seems to be that while many things are lost to the wayside of time, some things are universal, and as such can remain with humanity even as life keeps moving onward. One such thing is music, and it’s demonstrated with what could be considered the show’s leitmotif in “Amazing Grace”:

There’s no specific moment from the show I’ll use here, but just the idea that music doesn’t even need words to have an impact on people, to the point that it can bring even warring factions together, is a desirable one.

12 Days of Anime, Day 4: Homeless Yuno

Episode 10 of Hidamari Sketch × ☆☆☆, in which Yuno flushes her keys down a school toilet, and ends up rooming with everyone in the Yamabuki Apartments.

Miyako's turn.

12 Days of Anime, Day 5: The Sense of Wonder

By TheBigN

I very much enjoyed the first eight music videos that comprised Gurren Lagann Parallel Works, where members of the cast of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann were thrust into alternate worlds, or at other periods in their lives besides that of the specific timeline the series was based in. At the same time, you don’t need to have any knowledge about the show at all to enjoy them as well. So I was pretty damn ecstatic about hearing that there were seven more episodes to come this year, and checked them out when I heard that they came out. As with the first set, I enjoyed all of the videos, animated by different animators associated with GAINAX, and focusing on different genres as well. But as luck would have it, the first video of Parallel Works 2, “The Sense of Wonder” blew me away, and remained my favorite of them all:

Animated by Akemi Hayashi, the cast is moved into a more fantastical world, where Lagann is relegated to a toy, and Nia acts as an entertainer and is kept by Lord Genome. What remains the same are things like the relationships between Kamina and Simon/Yoko, the burgeoning love between Simon and Nia, and the caste system with Lord Genome at the apparent head of it all (hah hah!).  And the music, with vocals by Ai Ujita (singer for BlueBlue/I’s Cube), is fantastical, solemn but hopeful, and helps narrarate the story as well as spoken word probably could.  ”The Sense of Wonder” tells a lot in it’s 5 minutes and leaves a lot unsaid and known, but for me, it was just beautiful.

12 Days of Anime, Day 6: A Punch To The Face = Satisfaction

Running late, but oh well.

Durarara!! lost its steam as the show went along, with arguably it’s climax being the reveal of the Dollars’ full force, and Celty growing comfortable with who she currently is while still searching for her missing head. But the tension of the three separate factions coming together to do battle remained, notwithstanding because of how all of the major plot points in the show, and especially in the second half, were pretty much orchestrated by the Magnificent Bastard, Izaya Orihara. As time went on, Izaya became a very frustrating character to watch, as 2DT attests:

A rich and handsome young man who knows everything (including where to find some really sweet duds), who is never caught by surprise in any meaningful sense, because everything fits into his multi-game chessboard that screams “by the way, in case you didn’t get the memo, I’m a renegade genius.” Izaya has no flaw whatsoever, aside from being a total sociopath—which is hardly a flaw when he’s neither bothered nor hindered by it at any time, ever.