Gosick - winded down

{spoilers warning}

Gosick started out with great atmosphere, lively character dynamics, and promising scenarios. However, it devolved into a cliched romance.

Gosick is set in the fictive country of Sauville, which emerged victorious with the Allied nations after WWI. The anime designers put a great deal of effort into bringing the Alpine beauty and charming capitol of Saubreme to life.

The series starts strong when Kujo and the mysterious genius Victorique get themselves tangled up into mini-Battle Royale aboard the ghost ship. From there, the pair grow closer as they explore Victorique's past and take on other mysteries.

Kujo is the earnest Watson to Victorique's Holmes. Unlike Holmes, Victorique's eccentricity is not entirely by choice, but enforced by the forced isolation by her father's orders. She is also part Rapunzel, living in her high library tower, far from other people. While she is mentally capable, she lacks Holme's physical power and accuracy. Early on, Kujo helps to compensate for this weakness.

This dynamic erodes as Kujo and Victorique becomes closer, and the the next world war looms on the horizon. As an alternate history, the Second World War is spurred sooner. The original story ties in Victorique's past and her father's obsession with Sauville nationalism, but washes the characters away with under the tide of history.

Perhaps that was his intent, but it reduces Kujo to clinging to Victorique, and Victorique trying to cling to Kujo. This is the helplessness of children in the world of adults. Again, perhaps this was the author's intent. However, I enjoyed the series, because the characters were engaged and were intimately tied to the outcome of the early story arcs. There were other ways for Kujo & Victorique to stay relevant. Several times, characters would mention Cordelia Gallo's (Victorique's mother) involvement during WWI. I think that Kujo & Victorique could have played a larger role in a smaller part of the drama, if they had been able to flee underground or gone to a neutral neighboring country and taken part in the Sauville resistance regime.

Instead of being on the verge of adulthood and grow up, Victorique relies on Cordelia's legacy, while Kujo marches off to war as an infantryman. The fall in the significance of the characters after the first half and the sudden jump in events between parts 22 & 23 resulted in having the characters struggle to survive, but by the end of the series, their story could have been the story of any earnest boy and beautiful girl. Maybe that's enough for some audience, but I think that there could have been so much more with the original setup.

Fool for the Old Skool

Hades: Project Zeorymer is the perfect name for this ode to bombastic mediocrity. Yet, it still tickled me to watch giant robots blast off with names like Zeorymer of the Heavens or Rose C'est la Vie of the Moon. That last one probably made me loose a few brain cells.

However, there is something about the character designs, the mecha direction, and the unabashed gung ho spirit. Zeorymer does focus on the villains, making them the protagonists of each episode and imbuing them with a spirit that is usually reserved for the heros. This role reversal is reinforced by Zeorymer's overwhelming dominance.

I also see strains of Raxhephon & Eva, but then they may just be tropes of the genre that first drew me into the madness: Giant Robots.

Haruhi Season 2 End

I just watched the ending of the 2nd Season of the Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi [1]. While reading the Baka-tsuki fan translations of the novel, I had considered the movie making arc to be the middle child between the roaring opening of the original Melancholy (1st 6 episodes) and the Disappearance storyline.

After all, the actions were already completely defined and had already been shown in detail as episode zero. However, Kyoto Ani really kicked up the intensity in episode 13 during the argument at Tsuruya's house. Sugita nailed the scene and the animation was nothing less than inspired. Their reconciliation was also natural and well done. Haruhi trying to tie a ponytail recalls his complement in closed space. We can only hope that Mikuru doesn't go around in a ponytail or the world might end.

All in all, the first episode of the second season was good and the last three were excellent. The middle was interesting from an innovation standpoint, but was a bit overdone. Here's to a third season, soon.

[1] AFK fansub.

Not Britannica

One of my friends told me that she'd met a dumb guy who thought that he was smart. He was denying liability for some event or another, but kept on saying:

"I'm not reliable."

This bimbo [1] was trying to impress my friend, but he persisted in stating his unreliablity after she corrected him. His attempt to impress ended in an epic fail.

That was the feeling that I got from watching the first episode of Code Geass: Lelouche the Revolution. When the Brits or many successful empires conquered nations, they often used locals to help carry out their bidding. During the heyday of the British Empire, they recognized Indian nobility, then used them to help administer the Jewel of the Empire.

Also, the honorary Britanicans should have been using at least riot gear (e.g. rubber truncheons, plastic restraints, etc.), so that they wouldn't be overpowered by the local populace. However, such details would have violated the characters' metrosexuality with its phallic cludginess. A mass slaughter of the locals would have also ignited a mass uprising in the Shinjuku slums. Afterall, this is only 7 years after the beginning of the occupation.

In the aftermath of WWII, MacArthur warned Washington: "give me bread or give me bullets." While he may have been exaggerating to get the materiel, he knew that he would have problems if he didn't feed the defeated Japanese. In Germany, groups of unrepantant Nazis called the Werewolves still fought against the Allies, despite years of war weariness.

But is it fair to fault a mecha anime for unrealism?

My criticism of the first episode lies in two lines:
1. The conceit has potential. The image of the Japanese living in their own downtown as a slum is striking. However, the first episode ham-handedly develops the world. This is disappointing considering the ambition & scope that the writers are pushing. In short, they hyped the hard-core, so they have to live up to it.
2. Lelouche's use of anime cliches hampers the development of the episode. High schoolers, dramatic idealism (Suzaku) juxtaposes discordantly with the genocidal slaughter at the end of the episode. So if you aren't dazzled by Samwise-Frodo intensity stares and girly-man gorgeous teens, this show may not be for you. In other words, this is more of a niche show, which is a legitimate business strategy, but moves away from the universal rule: "If it sounds good, it is good." And I doubt that this show is for me.

I may try episode 2 if the mood strikes me, but I have my doubts about that.

Usually I wouldn't bother to write a detailed negative review based one episode, but this Code Geass a pet peeve of mine, which I detail in criticism #1. To this day, I criticize the Segway for the same thing.

[1] Bimbo first applied to men in the '20s.

1000 Masks - End of the Line

I just finished watching episode 51 of Glass Mask. And I'm not sure what to think. I think that it was really good, but I'm not sure yet. I'm going to have to watch it again. But the series overall was excellent.

Aoi Hana the Animation

I've seen episode 1 via crunchyroll, and it's a beauty. The character designs are a bit more grown up and detailed than most of Shimura's frames, but they manage to convey the characters and their atmospheres. The color palette combines liveliness, soft shades, and incredibly detailed lighting (like the dapples on Akira's skirt) to lend itself to the subtle layers of character growth and emotion that is the author's staple.

The animation style feels like a favorable recombination of Shinkai's background & the raging melodrama "Bokura ga Ita". I'm a fan. Onto episode 2!

I've been in an otaku-cave. Oofuri has been out in the US and I've only recently noticed. Also Kannagi has just been released. I'm just catching up with Clannad. I think that the lack of space has been slowing down my anime collection. Also, the unwatched series have piled up. Being an otaku can be demanding.

Glass Mask 2005 up to episode 45

I remember reluctantly watching the first episode of Glass Mask 2005. I was wondering just how good a twenty-odd year manga story line could be. Maya-who?

Now I'm fully hooked wondering what the end of the 2005 series will bring. Will episode 51 bring a resolution to the Crimson Goddess competition? What about Hayami and Maya? Obsessive otaku want to know.

The fanboy factor is high and I'm looking forward to the last few episodes.