The Anime Music Tournament 2013 Bracket Ichijou – Round 1 – Polls 1-8 “Analysis”

By TheBigN

The Ichijou Festival commenced already here, with the first set of polls already closed, and this last half pretty much done with one day to go. That being said, this was an interesting bracket after the last few brackets that have been pretty strong. And by interesting, also in the sense that I haven’t heard several of these songs before now. 😛

The Anime Music Tournament 2013 Bracket Ein – Round 1 – Polls 1-8 “Analysis”

By TheBigN

Here we go again with the fifth round of polls with the Ein bracket. Both polls are open this time around, so hoping for some good votes here.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei GN12

by dm00

Dear Kodansha, please release a collection of Koji Kumeta's color works

Zetsubou Sensei manga, v12: the first season of the anime appears to have ended (there are some comments in the text about that and about working with anime creators). The explanatory notes in the back seem briefer than in the Del Rey volumes, but I think they catch the important things. The translators also appear to rely more on the reader’s intelligence in picking up references from context. In that, I think they got the right balance.

Koji Kumeta’s art style was designed for SHAFT. Plain, stylized figures, high contrast images, sharp lines, walls of text. Looking at Nisemonogatari while reading this, I wonder if Kumeta influenced SHAFT’s artists a little, or maybe even liberated them a little.

There’s a great two page spread in chapter 117: Chiri’s aura as perceived by Kaga Ai is a wonder torn from the notebooks of a schizophrenic.

I’d have thought the Zetsubou Sensei schtick would have worn thin by now, but with the passage of time, it seems like Kumeta’s better able to play off the established characters. Plot progression in my Zetsubou Sensei? No, nor character development. Kumeta has established his archetypes and now can join the audience in heckling them and their foibles.

On the other hand, the concept seems really disposable — I don’t know that the schtick can bear multiple readings, even with the nuggets hidden on every page (having said that, I think Kodansha’s production values are fine in this volume). This volume, Kyoto Animation (or its fandom) is in for a good deal of mockery — Lucky Star is mentioned several times, the Haruhi dance appears in one of the lists, and (perhaps only related, as it’s about the visual novels) one panel has a cycle of Key games interrupted only briefly by a Type-Moon detour.

It’s kind of amazing to me that this series apparently continues to thrive in translation — 12 volumes! — when other series withered on the vine. Not that I’m complaining about this series’ continued success. But gosh, I wish a little had spilled over onto Moyasimon.

Clannad considered harmful

by dm00

Vaseline lens flare

or, “How I learned to appreciate Angel Beats“.

I finished Clannad After Story last night, plunging through the six episodes on the last disk in one sitting (which I suspect is an easier, though perhaps not better, way to see it than in a series of week-long cliffhangers).

Oh, hey, sad girl buried in snow.

Shaft despairs

by dm00

A commenter over at Jason’s place pointed this out.

Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, episode 7, about 10:02

If the above doesn’t come out as an animated gif, try here.

Text slowed down a bit:

What. outta money after moving to a new office?!
Gotta cut corners to make a profit. huh!?
Your production costs are the same but other companies are selling a lot better!
You really can’t pull this off at the same time as Ghostory, can you!
The pictures aren’t moving! You can’t even call this animation!
The anime industry’s collapsing!

Update: And, two seconds into the much-maligned episode 10 of Bakemonogatari:

Bakemonogapology

Zetsubou Sensei GN v2

by dm00

 

More Zetsubou-sensei? Yorokobusu shita!

 

(I sure hope I got that caption right.)

Volume two of Del Rey’s translation of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei arrived a couple of weeks ago, and, if anything, it’s better than the first volume.

Del Rey’s designers have done a good job paying respect to Koji Kumeta’s color work with their simple cover designs (which contrasts with the busy-ness of Kumeta’s pages — see below).  This volume, like the last, comes with many pages (10 this time) of notes at the end, including a few in which the translator admits defeat (“Unfortunately, analyzing this map in detail would take as much space as the entire volume…”). But all is not lost — along the way the reader is learning about many running jokes in the series.

But they do an admirable job, despite missing an opportunity to put Kumeta’s under-the-dust-jacket Komori joke (“Hey! Don’t open it, okay?”) on the “Stop! This is manga! You’re going the wrong way!” page.

Zetsubou-sensei GN v1 review

by dm00

 

Cover of Del Rey's translation of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

 

The first volume of Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei from Del Rey has been on the bookshelves of American bookstores for several weeks now.

I’d pre-ordered it as soon as it was available for pre-order, and I’m generally happy with my (discounted) purchase.  When I first heard about this series, it struck me as one that would be nearly untranslatable.  Joyce Aurino, the translator, has taken on a thankless job and done perhaps as well as anyone could.

Thankful for Anime, 2008

By TheBigN

When I did this last year, I thought I was a little unique for setting it up the way I did. Turns out that this same format (and the title even), had been done for years past by one Jason Miao. Goes to show you how originality is hard to come by (orz). But it still is a good time to be thankful for yet another fun year in new anime series.