This, that, and the other thing…
By TheBigN
We move into the second round, where some of the competitors have been weeded out, the rounds and time between them are shorter, and we start to get a little tired of some of the songs already presented. The five polls have already been set up, and I’ll try to get to them as fast as I can, starting with the first two brackets here.
By TheBigN
Do these two polls have Guts? I’m hoping they do, as Fate’s bracket definitely had some pretty damn good songs like that. Continue reading ‘The Anime Music Tournament 2013 Bracket Guts – Round 1 – Polls 1-8 “Analysis”’
By TheBigN
I was relatively late to the party for something like this new tournament. Music is something that I hope most people enjoy listening to, and definitely there have been more than a handful of anime that I decided to pick up due to music associated with it, from openings and endings to background music. So I feel like I should have been paying attention to something like this from the get-go, or at least from the nominations stage. Others have said that I have “questionable” taste in music (:)), so at least my potential nominations might have made things interesting, although an analysis of the results of the nominations point out that such a decision might have been moot. This is too good to pass up though, so I’ve participated in the Prediction Challenge, and I wanted to put in my two cents on the songs that are on the ballot as the tournament goes, especially as there’s a fair bit that I haven’t heard before (which is always exciting). This will be pretty tongue in cheek and probably not up to how I usually write on the blog, but it’s good to be reactionary than thoughtful sometimes. And it will probably make me put more effort on this blog than I’ve been doing in the past two years combined. Whether or not that’s a good thing is anybody’s guess.
Without further ado, the first round of polls is here, with streaming music and everything :
Continue reading ‘The Anime Music Tournament 2013 Bracket Alpha Polls 1-4 “Analysis”’
By TheBigN
There is always a hope of being wow’ed by something that comes up while watching anime. Something intriguing enough for me to actually post for the first time in months, I guess. 
What caught my interest this time was the (I guess 1st, knowing how SHAFT does things) opening to Nekomonogatari covering the “Tsubasa Family” arc, one prequel to the story introduced in Bakemonogatari. By itself, the story of how Araragi gets to know my favorite character in the show, Tsubasa Hanekawa, as well as the anomaly that comes to inhabit her is intriguing enough as is for me. There wasn’t much necessary to pump me up for watching it (can’t wait for Kizumonogatari later on as well), but I was blown away by the opening to this adaptation: To preface though, I still have not watched the full episodes yet, so there will be plenty of randomness and likely BS to follow the video. 😛
The song itself grabs me, reminding me a little bit of the Chobits 2nd ED “Ningyo Hime”, but here, “Perfect Slumbers” goes on its own path, striking a hopeful tone despite Tsubasa’s thoughts of an unrequited love. The cinematography coupled with the motifs used in the video such as the bookmarks (so many forms!) , the guitar/headphones/record, the sun becoming the moon, and the train lend help me further define her character, of which we already know a “fair” bit about. “Isolation” comes to mind here, and it helps that right until the end, she’s the only person in this OP world. And then when the guitar dissolves, and turns into a bed of flowers setting the backdrop of Koyomi prostrating himself in front of Tsubasa, as it looks like he can seemingly do nothing before the anomaly comes out is “the shot” for me. Of course, I’ll see how powerless our main hero really is in the actual work, but the shot of Tsubasa right at the end seems resigned to whatever comes regardless of any attempted interventions.
The marriage of the music and visuals together created a dazzling experience for me, and I too quickly compare it to the live action and animated (both links not safe for work) OPs that were done during the “Tsubasa Cat” arc of Bakemonogatari, which isn’t fair. Since while those do a decent job at showing the Tsubasa’s duality, despite the intensity and shock value (especially of the animated version), I doubt they will have the staying power in my mind that this opening will.
SHAFT x Shinbo already had me at Hello in animating more Hanekawa, but this is icing on a cake I haven’t even begun to have yet. It’s not a bad deal.
by dm00
The moment of utter victory of one of the most surprising(ly) romantic heroines in a lifetime of anime viewing.
by dm00
With the licensing of Xam’d and (previously) Toradora, I thought my wished-for list of anime licenses was growing pretty short.
Then I sat down to enumerate it, and I realized my list still had a ways to go (in no particular order):
(Some of these I’ve gone so far as to get (used, primarily) on R2 DVD, and may do more as years of not-being-licensed go by.)
Also, I’ve heard good things about My Mai Miracle, but I haven’t seen it. I’d spring for inexpensive releases of Shangri-la and Angel Beats, too.
This list would keep me ecstatic for a while, certainly.
What’s on your wish-list?
I didn’t stutter.
Though granted, it’s kind of hard to do that with a “small” cast compared to Durarara!’s. Not the best quality either, but hey.
by dm00
With apologies to the artist who styles themself as “Kondou Mu”, who did the adaptation of Kiyohiko Azuma’s Yotsuba&! image to Bakemonogatari.
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TheBigN
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