Drastic My Anime Blog

Written by TheBigN(ever Knows Best)

I usually don’t respond to posts this way (since I usually have a concord rather than a discord with posts that I mention on the blog), but I knew that Owen was going to write a post about why he thinks that Lucky Star is a show that is more “Slice-of-Life” in comparison to, say, Hidamari Sketch for a while now. So now that it’s here, I might as well respond to it like I’ve been planning on doing all along. Maybe it was because I expected to be blown away by Owen’s stunning logic, or that I’m much more solidly in the Hidamari camp (you can see that it’s among my all-time faves on my MAL, despite it being cheap) than the Lucky Star camp, and/or maybe it was because I was running on four hours of sleep the night before. But my general response to the post was summed up by “Meh” and “I think Sat-chan might be a little off with his reasoning there”. So for a nice point-counterpoint exchange, I’m going to try to explain why I feel this way as best and as respectful as I can, though there’s a niggling thought in the back of my head saying that I didn’t read his post right to do this. But what the hey. That’s how politics can be won.

Continue reading ‘Hidamari Sketch As “Better” Slice-of-Life than Lucky Star, AKA Why I Think Sat-chan Has It Wrong, But I Still Love Her Anyway’

Written by TheBigN

Sometimes, all it takes is that X-factor which makes all the difference. I find that Kamen no Maid Guy’s namesake, Kogarashi, as someone who’s pretty much epic in nature in almost all ways, and thus as big a wild card as they can come (so expect some nice bias here :P). His qualities aren’t too complicated, but they work for me: The combination of strength (inner and outer) and intellect as a former teacher or MIT (why is it almost always Massachu-chu as a location for American colleges in anime? Why doesn’t anyone go to or come from Cornell in anime? Obviously we need to fix this). The numerous Maid Guy abilities that Kogarashi has, such as Maid Guy Sight, Vibration, Shredder, Voice, Levitation, Dance, Master Spark, and so on (and yes I know the last one doesn’t count, but given Kogarashi, I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a move like that). The 37 human and inhuman senses he has at his disposal. The handing out of Maid Guy badges when someone impresses him or happens to be a good citizen in society (how I’d like one of those emblems myself). His determination and inability to be deterred, regardless of societal norms, in order to raise his master into a fine human being. The fact that he suffers no fools gladly, but pities them as well. And so on.

Continue reading ‘Impressions So Far on Kamen no Maid Guy: Is Too Much Power “For Awesome” a Bad Thing?’

Written by TheBigN

As stated before and probably forever till the end of time, we all have our preferences in terms of what we want to do, which includes watching anime for example. And as a result of these preferences, you could say that all we need are certain elements that fit them in order to keep up watching and enjoying a show where most other things that the program should have “going for it”, well, aren’t. You might have noticed that one of things that work for me consists of how the characters interact with each other in a series, and if I’m entertained in that way, it doesn’t matter how bad things can get for me. Luckily, both Spice and Wolf and Hatenkou Yugi aren’t bad shows at all and have much going for them besides that aspect, though they still have their problems. But the relationships between the main characters in these pieces more than make up for the rest of what I saw as shortcomings that both had in other aspects.

Continue reading ‘An Impression Double Deuce on Spice and Wolf and Hatenkou Yugi: The Odd Groupings Are the Best Ones’

Written by TheBigN

Lelangir’s post on how memberships are less “well-defined” as we think they are (or at least, that’s what I thought he was trying to say :P) made me wonder about why we place so much value into that in the first place. I don’t have the answer to that, nor do I plan on trying to explain what sets up this information, as I feel like I lack the proper information to be able to attempt to pull one off (nor is BS the way to go).  But with things like the amount of content generated just from the idea of the Round Robin discussion… group… thingy (which I helped out a wee little bit with), we can see that there’s a lot of opinions focusing on the idea of inclusion, separation, and all things that go with “separating” people into two or more different categories.  When looking at myself, I find that where I’m placed or I place myself is based on my life, blah blah blah all that jazz. But I’m also starting to find that when applying this to the animeblogosphere, these categories make me feel a little guilty, whether it’s justified or not. As Marmot had commented on another of my posts, apparently being insecure is part of the shtick that comes with being an anime fan (yay for more compartmentalization!), but I feel that I’m becoming too neurotic about this, as seen by the examples below. But let’s begin (the killing time).

Continue reading ‘No One Ever Is To Blame… But Myself’

Written by TheBigN

So this week, I’ve finished up (some would say survived) my first year of medical school.  While that is an accomplishment in and of itself (though I don’t really feel like that at the moment, and it’s only because people tell me that it’s so), I still have a whiles to go. Even after going through four years and two major tests (where the first one pretty much decides how high I can aim for the future based on what I get) in the end and hopefully grabbing that MD, there’s still more work to be done before setting off on my own.  A couple more years in a residency program, where I would work with bonafide doctors in learning my future specialty as well as participate in an internship for a year (or so I’ve heard, and I bet you’re getting tired of these parenthetic remarks by now. Maybe I should start using footnotes or something. :P), along with some more tests, and I would be good to go. The reason why I mention this sorta off-topic personal tidbit is because I hope that if I manage to get through my “magical” time in med school, my residency ends up being as enjoyable as the ones that Akari, Alice and Aika experienced under their tutelage under the Three Water Fairies in Neo Venezia.

Continue reading ‘Impressions on ARIA: Praise You Like I Should’

Written by TheBigN

This is sort of a continuation from my last installment in this category from my experience at the D.C. Sakura Matsuri. As you recall, I immediately criticized in my mind the actions of some participants during a cosplay contest for what I thought was no good reason. And I had mentioned that at the time I was thinking that as anime fans, we represent anime culture to the rest of “society” (a fun concept to be sure). So the “logical” conclusion I had was that because these cosplayers weren’t acting “normal” in regards to society, moral scruples, or whatever kinds of standards most of us agree abide by, they were demonstrating to people that anime culture isn’t normal. Therefore anime would not be perceived as normal and “those” fans end up making it harder for the medium to have “mainstream acceptance”, whatever the hell that is. Not the best train of thought there, as you can see, and I’m still a little ashamed at myself for that unfounded rationale.

Continue reading ‘My Delusions as a Fanboy: Down That Slippery Slope to the End of the World’

Written by TheBigN

So if you’ve been reading this blog, you might have noticed that I have a thing for ARIA. In this case, you should excuse my saying that RightStuf is my favorite licenser at the moment, as other bloggers have noted with this annoucement. ARIA has been one of the titles that I’ve wanted licensed in the US since I first started caring about that sort of thing years ago, so I’m really happy that this came through (Now go Hidamari Sketch! Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight! Futakoi Alternative!). And I hope that somehow I’m able to introduce this (in my opinion) wonderful world to others.

As if Akari needs any extra help in the first place.

ARIA BANZAI!

Written by TheBigN

This season has brought out a lot of entertaining shows, and it makes me wonder if I’ll have enough time to see all that I want to see. When coupling this with the yearly ritual of next to no Internet access (and what is would probably only be 56K, so fun times) during the summertime, it makes for a massive backlog of things to take a look at when school goes back in action (however, things might work out better this time around). And that backlog will probably be increased further by a combination of things that I want to see this summer, such as Hidamari Sketch x365, and the increased difficulty of the second-year of medical school. But enough about what might be, and more about what is. Of the many series that I’m watching and planning to watch (hurry up with Library Wars subs, please), three have stood out early, hooking me in different ways.

Continue reading ‘Three Quick Spring 2008 Impressions: Flow, Glow, and Not Your Ordinary Status Quo’