Unfulfilled Expectations or a Drastic My Anime Blog 2008 Primer

By TheBigN

So according to others, I was apparently supposed to be part of the “12 Days of Christmas” craze that’s sweeping the blogosphere, and I’m kinda confused on how that impression came to be. I’m planning on doing what I did last year with the “Impressions on a Year 2008” coming soon after Christmas, but nothing of the sort was happening before the holiday. At the same time, I feel guilty when I see links from other blogs saying that I’m participating in it when I’m not, so I figured that I should go and do something about it. And from the outset be lazy and selfish about it. So, instead of covering my thoughts on the year of anime that I saw, I decided to write about what I thought were the best posts on DMAB this year, even though December isn’t over yet. Of course there’s bias involved here (yay self-horn tooting!), so if you have different favorites than I do, please feel free to say so. Nor is this post itself going to be the pinnacle of good writing (as I’m tired and lazy right now), but I feel that this helps people who haven’t bothered to check out the blog before, and at least it gives me some time to reflect on things.

A mix-up almost as bad as this one?

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(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.

A “Character Study” on Hidamari Sketch with Pictures and Sentences. Duh.

Written by TheBigN

I’m not the only one that’s pleased that someone has finally subbed the Hidamari Sketch specials (now if only Sketchbook could finish at least :P). As you’ve seen on this blog, the series is one of my favorites, and I keep trying to get people to take a look at it, and it’s working slowly but surely. :3 And I figure that it’s been a while (not really) since I’ve written a post on Hidamari that I should set up shop again. Besides making me wonder what would have happened had Shinbo and co. taken a more… proactive approach on the show (I think it would be awesome fun, but then I usually think that about most SHAFT productions), the specials reminded me how much I liked the characters and the things they do. Since I’m a very easy person to please, I was pleased so much by these two episodes that I felt like showing most of the cast off here. To help with this, I’ve included a shot or two that I thought personifies most, if not all of, the qualities that I see in each of the characters. All of these pictures are from the first Hidamari special, which is made of much win and awesome, though the second special is the same way, only in different areas. This is all in fun (i.e, not meant to be a great post), and as always, feel free to add on, take off, or conflagrate my thoughts as you see them here.

Impressions on a Year 2007: Happy Action Fun Time

Written by TheBigN

This installment contains SPOILERS. I repeat, SPOILERS, so read at your own risk. This is also hella long, so again, read at your own risk. :3

With that being said, these are the episodes or moments in series this year that made an impact on me; the “definable” stuff.  I guess, in a way, you could say that as an extension, these are the memorable series for me for the year. Not all of them are my favorites for the year, and all of my favorites aren’t on this list, but these are the ones that stick in the mind long after the show’s over. 😛  

Impressions on a Year 2007: Awesome Soundtracks I Haven’t Covered Yet

Written by TheBigN

By now, you should know what my standards of “awesome” are, but let’s move on, shall we? 😛

When I’m talking about a soundtrack, I think about all of the music that a show entails, including the OP/ED. So what was the point of having all of those tracks standalone in the first place? Because they usually arestandalone from the rest of the soundtrack; Unless you care about what you listen to while watching anime, you only tend focus on those pieces of music because they’re the intro/outro of the show. So I figured they needed something by themselves, but all of the show’s music needs a chance to shine as well.  Usual criteria for this: Liking more than half of what I listened to overall which is harder than it seems. This is probably why Senrei no Moribito‘s, Byousoku no 5cm‘s,Hayate the Combat Butler‘s (yeah really) and Heroic Age‘s OSTs aren’t on here: They we’re good consistent stuff, but they just didn’t work with me as well as these ones here did. And because ef‘s kickass soundtrack won’t be out till next year apparently (as short as that time is now), I’m not including it here. 😛

Impressions on a Year 2007: “Awesome” Phrases

Written by TheBigN 

For a change of pace, today the focus is on statements I heard over the year that worked for me. A great way to show my limitations and weaknesses here, so feel free to add lines that you think I should have added. 😛

Impressions on a Year 2007: Awesome OPs and EDs

Written by TheBigN 

Self-explanatory really, though my writing might not be. Whether because of the song, the visuals, or both, these intros and outros worked for me this year. Using youtube, I tried to get all raw versions, but some only had a subbed version. But that shouldn’t be too important, should it? 😛

BTW, this probably is a long post, which also explains what happens when you aren’t too selective. :3

Impressions on a Year 2007: Beginning With Interesting People Not Named Manami Amamiya or Miyako from Hidamari Sketch

Written by TheBigN

Hopefully you guys have had a good Christmas and an even better Boxing Day/Start of Kwanzaa. And in case you’re wondering, I’m not Canadian, nor do I actually celebrate Kwanzaa. Now on the actual post. 😀

Even though I’m making a list of what I found to be the most interesting, impressionable, immaterial (and missing power), and impressive things I’ve seen in anime and anime blogs this year, the reader should take everything I write with a grain of salt (</common sense>).  I haven’t seen every anime this year, nor listened to every OST, ED/OP this year, and so on, which is why you won’t see things from shows like Code Geass, Gundam 00 or Idolm@ster: Xenoglossia, for example (erm…). And I certainly don’t think I’m qualified to highlight something as the “best” overall, so I’m just going to go for things that worked (or didn’t) for me.  These are by no means complete lists or completely accurate lists, as I know I’m going to forget some things or others in the process. Also, if you’re expecting quality, be prepared for more of the Musashi stuff than the really good stuff. 😛  Try and enjoy the show… and the snow if things work out correctly. :3

Today, I’m focusing on some of the characters that made anime this year interesting for me. This is limited to one per show to keep this post briefer than it could have been, including the characters in my post’s title (why not Miyako some may ask? Hopefully you’ll see why in a couple of weeks – definitely my favorite character of the year BTW). And I’m not done with the title characters yet, but I feel like I need to pay attention to others; they need love too. :3