Gen X Otaku 1971: the OG blog

Gearing up for Oni-Con 2014!

English: Monty Oum at the Penny Arcade Expo East 2010 in Boston, MA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just a brief administrative note, I'm gearing up for Oni-Con 2014 in Galveston.  But before I go, I'm dropping by Alamo Drafthouse Mason Park around 4:30p for the 5pm sharp screening of RWBY Volume 2 hosted by Rooster Teeth.  The timing is a little shitty, as I have a hotel reservation in Galveston to keep that same night, so I'll probably be ducking out of the post-screening Q&A unless Rooster Teeth sends some of their crew that I'm actually interested in seeing, like Bernie, Gus, Barbara, Gavin, or Geoff...or Monty Oum, of course.  If it's none of those folks, I'll probably bail early, just as the Q&A starts.  But when I heard about this event on the Rooster Teeth podcast, I was determined to make it work somehow, i.e. attending the RWBY marathon screening AND still making it down to Oni-Con early to enjoy Galveston and pick up our passes early, etc.  Now it'll be too late to enjoy much of Galveston when we arrive, but I'm willing to live with that.  My friend S.R. and I are just going to check in and probably go straight to bed to catch some ZZZ's so we can be up, get breakfast at McD's then head to the Convention Center to get our all-con passes, etc.  I'm planning on bringing my PS2, and my friend S.R. is bringing his Xbox 360.  We plan to watch anime in our hotel room in our down-time, though that depends on if the room TV is configured to allow such devices to be attached to them or not....I hear there are special hotel models that specifically don't, because they want to steer guests to their pay-per-view services, etc, and discourage gaming, etc, that they can't monetize.

Speaking of RWBY, it looks like someone took my advice (probably not really, but it does "look" that way) and turned over creation of their figurines to a company that actually knows what they're doing when it comes to Anime figurines in general, because the next generation of RWBY figures look stunningly awesome and are a much closer match to the actual character designs within the show, a 3D analogue to the actual 2D designs, the way Anime figurines should be.

The first generation of RWBY figures bore only a scant resemblance to the original character designs and were off putting, at least to me.  I advised at the time they needed to contract this work out to a Japanese firm that does Anime figurines as their core business and to take the RWBY character models and create figures based on THAT, and it looks as though that's exactly what they did, thank goodness.  Whereas I gave the first gen figures a pass, I think I will definitely be picking up at least a Ruby Rose and a Weiss Schnee...and will probably break down and get a Yang and Blake, too.  My only quibble is that Ruby's hair looks more darkly brown, nearly black rather than dark, dark red.  Other than that the next gen figures are a 100% improvement over the first run.

RWBY aside, affordable figure hunting is my main goal at Oni-Con.  I've gotten some incredible deals in the past, and I've always had better luck at Oni-Con with figures than I ever had at, say, Anime Matsuri, where the prices were all highway robbery level in the dealer's room, and I only bought very tiny figures.  I'm still hoping to find someone selling Super-deformed/Chibi Panty & Stocking figures (though I also love the full sized ones complete with stripper pole for each "Angel")...I'm determined to find a full-sized Rei Ayanami that will finally match my seated Asuka and my standing Mari & Misato.  I have a few Rei figurines, but they're all to different scale than these others, which is annoying.  I might also like to pick up a bit more "Fairy Tail" gear along the way.  I'll largely pass on Wall scrolls...they look great and all, but I don't really have the wall space for them in my work cubicle and my mom gives me enough grief for the stuff I do put up in my room already.  I'm lucky to put up the few anime calendars and Megatokyo posters that I do.  I'd be pushing my luck with a wall scroll.

My hotel this year has a pool, but once again, a cold front is rolling through, so I doubt it will be all that hospitable for swimming, even at the hottest part of the afternoon (unlike last year, where afternoon temps really did climb pretty high on Saturday, for example).  I plan to Cosplay for Halloween only (Friday), decked out as a Star Trek TOS Science Officer....short sleeved uniform shirt during the day, long sleeved after sundown.  Mom thinks I need to "grow up", but screw that.  Star Trek is forever, man.

I hope this turns out to be a really great Convention, and I'm really looking forward to it, and to visiting Galveston yet again.

 

"It Girl" inspires simultaenous love and hate in my inner otaku

 

My "inner otaku" simultaneously loves and hates this music video.

 

I mean, the visuals are GREAT, playful, very "Anime"...and I wouldn't mind the presence of the "Loli" girl as a character, but why for the love of GAWD did you make her the FOCUS of it?

It just makes it CREEPY and confirms EVERY WRONGHEADED STEREOTYPE about Anime that we don't need right now or ever.  And THAT I f*cking hate.

No, Pharrell Williams isn't a pedophile---go fuck off if you're tempted to hurl this accusation.  But yes, the video comes off as fucking creepy and it could've so easily been otherwise.

And perhaps I ought not be so surprised, it's not as if there's not a history of Pharell Williams and problematic videos dealing with women (*cough* Blurred Lines *cough*)...

I do like this video, but hate what it will do for the perception of Anime/Manga culture.  Parts of it are really nice, but inserting himself into the video chasing after the Loli just...ugh...NOPE.

 

Manga Minute - Flowers of Evil (Vol.5)

Finally got around to starting Volume 5 of the manga series Flowers of Evil which finally covers new material beyond the anime adapation of this series.  Nakamura and Kasuga deepen their strange relationship.  Nakamura is seriously turned on by Kasuga's descent into deviancy.  She's very sexually forward but also violent, slapping Kasuga playfully but hard across the face one minute, then rubbing his crotch with her foot the next.  It's pretty hot.  Meanwhile, even though Saeki formally broke up with Kasuga, she just can't get over it.  She can't get over "losing" him to Nakamura and strives to understand what Nakamura means to Kasuga and why she herself (Saeki) can't seem to satisfy him in that way.  Her alluring face graces the cover of this manga, with her arms in a sensually suggestive pose, and it seems poor Saeki wants another chance with Kasuga, in spite of everything that's happened.  But Saeki is so pure and pedestrian and timid.  How can she compete with the raw, untamed feminine sexuality that Nakamura exudes?  I look forward to seeing where Volumes 5-6 take this story further.

Back from screening Ep.1-4 of Sunday Without God

Just returned from a special screening of Episodes 1-4 of Sunday Without God (神さまのいない日曜日 Kami-sama no Inai Nichiyōbi^?) by Sentai Filmworks, which is a damn weird anime fantasy show.  12 year old Ai Astin (アイ・アスティン Ai Asutin^?), is a novice "Grave Keeper", who inherited the role from her mother (now deceased).  Ai grew up in a small, isolated village and is blissfully ignorant of the wider world outside, which has descended into brutality and chaos since the event 15 years ago where God, the Creator, both made himself known to humanity and announced his departure from the world, essentially giving up on the humanity project and leaving humankind to fend for themselves.  He granted them immortality of a sort and left Earth to run itself.  He had a second thought and sent along the Gravekeepers, for those who still yearned and prayed for a traditional death with the possibility of a post-mortem heavenly reward.  The Gravekeepers function as basically a form of Shinigami, or Grim Reapers.

Basically Earth has devolved into a Zombie-land where nobody dies in the normal way, not even from grevious bodily injury.  The corpses remain animated and still moving, after a fashion, though they do slowly lose their humanity with time.  Only the Gravekeeper class can grant humans the final death with a properly conducted ceremonial burial.

It seems young Ai is neither fully human, nor fully Gravekeeper, though apparently her mother was a full-0n Gravekeeper.  Typical Gravekeepers are not unlike Valkirye insofar as they are beautiful women who are unfailingly polite but otherwise devoid of emotion.  They follow the divine command to bury the dead, whether the dead like it or not.  Ai is unexpectedly emotional and has human compassion, just like a normal girl.  After she learns the terrible truth about her origin and about the wider world, she grimly resolves to carry out her appointed mission as a Gravekeeper to the best of her ability.  Her father's best friend, Yuri, becomes her travel companion and guardian after Ai's father's passing, along with a taciturn but friendly adult Gravekeeper named "Scar".

The first four episodes are largely devoted to "world building" of this very strange fantasy realm which superficially resembles modern Europe; despite the presence of modern technology (cars, guns) the architecture remains decidedly Medieval and Renaissance.  There are no "modern" buildings, not even in the larger cities.  The "ground rules" of the world are really strange and a little hard to follow.

The story is pretty good, just a little odd.  The main character, Ai, is likeable and indeed adorable.  I won't be rushing out to buy this series to finish it anytime soon, but it's a "Maybe" for a future rental, if it ever shows up on Netflix streaming or rental DVD.  The world is very vague about the nature of its human religion(s) or the nature of its recently departed "God".  There's Christian iconography (as one would expect in a European setting) but very little in the way of coherent Christian theology.  The theology we do get is very vague and unspecific, and there don't seem to be any clergy or priests remaining to offer up any kind of theodicy or other apologetics for the recently departed deity.  The story doesn't quibble with any specific religion, merely critiques a more abstracted "Philosopher's God", of a sort.  In this the anime can be irreverently amusing and tongue in cheek, or at least I found it so, as an atheist viewer.

It's not a strong recommend, but I can lightly recommend this show.  It didn't bowl me over or take my breath away, but I was reasonably entertained.

Special advance screening: Bayonetta!

Mari Shimazaki tried to make the witch Bayonetta more appealing with longer limbs and adjusted proportions. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was expecting to write this post telling readers all about Episodes 1-4 of The Devil Is A Part Time, but instead our host Rommel S. pulled a switcheroo on us and treated us instead to an exclusive advanced screening of the new Bayonetta movie!!  While I was looking forward to The Devil Is A Part Timer, it is in fact screening WITH the English dub on Netflix as of this writing.  So I can watch it anytime, in fact.  Currently I'm back to watching Fairy Tail, and I'm also part-way through Psycho-Pass.  I was pleasantly surprised to get to watch Bayonetta this evening, having only just today heard it talked about on the most recent episode of ANNCast with Zac & Justin.  Apparently FUNimation was very flexible with this production and went out of their way to call back the original voice actors from the original SEGA video game, including sending the ADR Director to the UK to track down the English voice actor for Bayonetta and record her dialogue at a sound studio in England, conducted over the course of 12 days.  I was very impressed with the visuals of this movie, which is non-stop action, never a dull moment.  I have no experience with the video game or its fictional world, but the movie does a decent job of exposition via dialogue that I caught on fairly quickly who the principle players were, etc.  I never once felt confused or disoriented.  The "angels" of this world reminded me in passing of the menancing nature of the "angels" of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and to a lesser degree some of the visual motifs of RaXephon, as well.  I was unclear if Witch Jean was intended to be a nodding reference to Jean D'Arc (Joan of Arc) or if that nomenclature was merely coincidence.

This is a definite Blu-Ray collectors' item, if nothing else for the intense battle sequences alone, of which this movie delivers in spades.  Unlike the Blood C movie, which had serious pacing problems, the pacing in Bayonetta moves along at an even clip with no drag whatsoever.  It feels like watching a successful play-through of a medium sized video game.  The story is ostensibly set on earth, but the countries are fictional and it also takes place partly in certain terra incognitae astral realms outside of normal space-time.  The angels are invisible to ordinary humans but can wreak havoc on the physical world nonetheless.

It's difficult to really talk about this film without spoiling it; those that know the videogame already know the story.  I came into the theater a blank slate and was reasonably entertained by the spectacle.  It is rated TV-MA but mostly for the graphic violence and some of the heavy sexual overtones and fanservice, but there's very little in the way of overt nudity.  It's provocatively sexy but hardly "smutty".  Bayonetta as a character is larger than life and over the top.  She's an unruly demigod with a strong will of her own.  The entire movie is basically watching Bayonetta kick ass, over and over again.  My only criticism of the movie is that Bayonetta is basically female Superman who never has to confront any metaphorical "kryptonite".  She never suffers, never endures any defeats or setbacks.  She's perhaps a little too perfect as a cinematic hero.  I like to see my heroes and heroines suffer and struggle a little on the way to attaining their goal.  I suppose one could argue that in her past she knew defeat and suffering, but we only get that in glimpses and flashbacks.  Again, it's damn impressive in its visuals, and it's nearly enough to bamboozle the audience into overlooking Bayonetta's indestructability and lack of empathy for nearly any of the other characters.  The ADR script was witty, with plenty of amusing one-liners that provoked laughter in the audience tonight.  I would definitely re-watch this movie, and it piqued my interest in the videogame franchise as well.

My thanks to our host R.S. once more for securing this special advance screening for us at Alamo Drafthouse Mason Park in Katy, Texas.

Resumed Fairy Tail

Most of the recurring and prominent members of Fairy Tail. (From left to right: Mirajane, Elfman, Plue, Makarov, Gray, Lucy, Happy, Natsu, Loke and Cana) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just a brief note in passing to affirm that I've resumed watching Fairy Tail on FUNimation's Roku channel, for which I have a subscription.  I just concluded Episode 61, the aerial battle between Natsu and Cobra, the Poison Dragon Slayer.  Fairy Tail still has all the right melodrama and related feels, and the Celtic rock soundtrack continues to give me a boner.  I was watching Fairy Tail on Netflix, but reached the end of what was on offer in that venue.  It's possible there are newer episodes up now, but I'm just as happy to keep watching via my Roku player.  I still need to drop back and resume watching the 2nd season of Aquarion EVOL, and I'd like to go back and finish the last few episodes of Heroic Age, though I'm fuzzy in my memory of where to pick back up...I think I'm on the episode after the Dark Nodos episode, where Age basically goes full beserker mode and threatens foe and friend alike, but recovers from that state thanks to the peaceful thoughts of the Princess, who calms the savage beast, and one of the Silver tribe Nodos (voiced by Greg Ayres) flips over to Age's side, with the Princess and the rest of humanity, aka the Bronze tribe.  I only have a few more episodes to go on that classic series then I can mark it off as "completed" on my Anime list.

I notice the price for Haganai Next (season 2) has come down considerably, but it's still not available for streaming on FUNimation's Roku channel.  I am considering buying it, but not just yet.  In the meantime, I'm eagerly awaiting Kill La Kill Volume 2 of the dub from Aniplex, as well as my long delayed copy of Eva 3.33 on Blu-Ray.  So glad I got to see Eva 3.0 in theaters with the English dub when I did this past summer.

Also just received Flowers of Evil, Volume 4 of the original manga (in English, from Vertical), thanks to Interlibrary Loan.  I'm eager to see where the manga goes from here, since the conclusion of volume 3 was VERY close to where Season 1 of the Anime finishes up, with that dramatic confrontation between Nakamura, Saeki, and the male protagonist in the pouring rain on the mountain road, then the long, silent, awkward ride back to town in the back of the police cruiser.  I'm anticipating that Volume 4 will not only finish where Season 1 of the Anime does, it will push slightly beyond it.  There are several volumes yet to go, too, so I'm eager to see how the story develops beyond where the anime leaves off.  Shuzo Oshimi has very interesting end notes at the conclusion of each chapter, reflecting on how the manga came to be, sources of artistic inspiration that are meaningful to him in a more general sense, and the overall message he's been trying to convey through the medium of this manga, namely the end of adolescence.

This struck me in particular as interesting, since I feel like I'm mentally stuck in adolescence myself sometimes, even in my early 40s.  This I chalk up to my Asperger's rather than a willful disposition on my part.  But I am curious to see what counsel Oshimi has on how people should ultimately overcome an adolescent mindset, etc.  Nakamura continues to fascinate me, and her face graces the cover of Volume 4.  The conclusion of Volume 3 is almost as emotionally impactful as the scene was when recreated in Anime form.  The rotoscoped actress did a respectable job showing Nakamura herself breaking away a false layer of pretense...I think the screenplay words it better in the Anime (if the subtitles can be trusted)..."Stop tearing my soul apart", and the actress has a pained expression on her face that betrays that Nakamura actually has feelings of her own for the main protagonist.  She's a "real life" tsundere and is more subtle and complex than most typical Anime tsundere stock characters.  In the manga she says something more like "stop clouding my soul, you shitbug", BUT, though the line falls kinda flat, the very next cell, where her expression changes...I think that cell beautifully captures that pained expression even more concisely than the live action rotoscoped actress does...you can see the tears welling in the corners of her eyes, and her face is beautiful despite being wracked by rage, passion, love, and dispondency, all at once.  But "stop tearing my soul apart" conveys in the Anime the same punch as that image; a trigger that makes the viewer say "aha, she DOES have feelings for him."  Though of course, another tip off is when Nakamura violently tears Takao's clothes off his body--AGAIN, forcing him to stand naked in front of Saeki with his dong explicitly in view.  Nakamura is so often so violently sexual in this way.

The final episode of the Anime is more of a "flash forward" preview of the story yet to come than an actual coherent narrative.  It does look interesting, but sadly I'll only be able to enjoy this part of the story in manga form, as it seems unlikely any more of the story will be adapated into Anime form, not least because Japanese viewers & consumers reacted negatively to the rotoscoping format and sales figures were exceedingly low.  It's very lucky to have received a North American release at all.

I'm glad Sentai picked it up and I hope it did well enough that they don't get punished financially for sticking their necks out for this show.

I still think back to Cody Baier's savaging "review" of this show and how pigheaded ignorant it was.  Then again, this is the same numbskull who dismisses Miyazaki as an "Arty Michael Bay".  I think Cody focuses exclusively on "Manime", stuff like Fist of the North Star or Madbull 34 or what have you.  If it doesn't fit into those parameters, he has no time for it.  I will admit, Cody could make me laugh, though it was often that kind of guilty laughter I get from listening to shows like I Just Had A Terrible Thought.  Both thrive on shock value.  But when Cody started spilling over into not so subtle misogyny, I bailed on him for good.  Kyle is a weirdo and a freak, but Cody crossed the line for me.  Kyle on the other hand actually likes some of the same kind of anime that I like and was recently a guest host with Sean Ryan on Method To Madness.  I really loved that episode of MTM and hope Kyle comes back as a guest host on future episodes.

Sadly I think the jokey "podwar" between MTM and Fightbait has ended in a stalemate, with J.P. looking increasingly likely to "podfade" once again, real life intruding in too much to sustain the production of his show.  Which is too bad, because Fightbait was one of those rare Anime podcasts that, like 2Lazy2Botaku, actually covered shows I'm actually watching in English dub at or around the same time.  J.P.'s last episode was a bit of a downer, as he was relating the death of an acquaintence whom he was fast becoming friends with, so the loss hit him unexpectedly hard.  I totally respect if J.P. needs to step away from the show for awhile to deal with real life and not come back until he has both sufficient time (boredom) and motivation (boredom relief through anime) to do the show properly.  Shaft+ seems to have podfaded for now, which is unfortunate.  I still haven't finished their most recent episode because they cover one of my emails bitching about Neon Alley's change of services and note how longwinded I am.  I was acutely embarassed and hit the pause button and still haven't gone back to "face the music", so to speak.  I just wanna say "ah, forget I said anything and go on to discussing other Anime news, please."; I guess the Shaft+ guys will get back to podcasting eventually.  Otaku Into It is mildly amusing, and every so often I listen to Banzai Beat.  Then of course there's my usual pattern of AAA and ANNCast.  AWO has gone back to stealth mode.  GME has branched off with a sister show covering anime that I enjoy.  I'm looking forward to their review of Princess Jellyfish, which is coming soon.

As regards the Anime screenings at Alamo Drafthouse, pretty much all I have to look forward to is the new release of The Devil is a Part-Timer from FUNimation.  It is running on Netflix and though I haven't checked, I bet for now it's sub-only, since I don't think the DVDs have "streeted" yet.  Probably handling it the same way they put up a sub-only stream of Attack on Titan on Netflix before the home video release of that show.  I'll have to pass on the screening for Sunday Without God, as I'll be entertaining relatives from out of town.  I doubt very much that my female cousin will be interested in watching Anime with me in Katy, Texas after being on the road all day.  I won't even ask, since it'd make me look like a huge dork, and I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm kind of a weirdo already anyway.

Rosenmädchen Zurückspulen

Just got back from a screening of Episodes 1-4 of Rozen Maiden Zurückspulen at Alamo Drafthouse Mason Park in Katy, Texas.  The last word in the title means "Rewind" in German, as in to rewind a videotape or reel-to-reel film or audio cassette.  Or more figuratively it signifies that this is a "reboot" of the original, basically.  I know I saw the original Rozen Maiden dub ages ago but it was so "meh" that it barely left much impression.  I think Johnny Yong Bosch was in that dub, and maybe it was a Bandai(?) release?  All I remember was it involved creepy dolls that talked that the main character was obsessed with, and he eventually went crazy, the end.  It was dark, and creepy, and I really don't remember much beyond that.  It was entirely forgettable.

Rozen Maiden Zurückspulen is by contrast at least a coherent narrative, where there's actual struggle, and stuff actually happens.  The plot seems to be going somewhere.  Sure, it's still creepy and Loli as fuck, but it's loads more entertaining than the original.  I wonder if if this was ever a dating sim back in Japan, as this anime adaptation separates the protagonist,  Jun Sakurada (桜田 ジュン Sakurada Jun^?), along two parallel fates in space-time.  One in which he chooses to activate the red doll named Shinku (真紅^?, Reiner Rubin, Crimson), while he is still in Elementary School and one in which he does not until much later, when he's first started college.  These lines of fate interweave and cross over, which is kind of interesting and lends an almost Steins;Gate feel to the series.  Shinku is voiced by the incomparable Luci Christian, and many of the Sentai Filmworks regulars round out the rest of the voices of the other dolls, including Hilary Haag (happy to see her still active in the biz), Brittney Karbowski, and Monica Rial, among others.

Rozen Maiden is actually faux German...proper German would be Rosenmädchen.  You wouldn't use the "Z" to get a "Zee" sound; the S makes that sound in that position in German.  The German word for Maiden is Madel (Maid) or diminuitive Mädchen (Girl).  Anyway, that's nit picking, I know.

I'd probably watch more of Rozen Maiden Zurückspulen as it definitely piqued my interest.  The animation is really nice, and the story is sufficiently engaging that I care about the main character(s).  Shinku is definitely a pint-sized Tsundere.  Saito, Jun's co-worker, is an aspiring young theater student and seems like a really sweet person who likes Jun.  Definite future girlfriend prospect, even Shinku can see that, even if Jun can't.

The original Rozen Maiden was just kind of a snooze fest; really, new viewers could just jump right in here and not miss a thing.  This is NOT the kind of show where a knowledge of the original show is strictly necessary.  It's not a priority purchase for me, but I'd definitely watch it for rental streaming on Netflix someday, or on rental DVD.

 

October 2014 Anime Screenings, narrated

 

Here's the October 2014 Anime at the Alamo schedule, narrated for you by two anime girls, Grace (an Aussie lass) and Emma (UK).

Finished Korra Book 3 and Deadman Wonderland

The principal characters of Deadman Wonderland. From left to right: Tamaki, Yō, Makina, Ganta, Shiro (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anyway, another evening watching anime and other animation.  Watched a few more episodes of Psycho-Pass, which continues to be awesome.  Also marked some milestones this evening, finishing up first Deadman Wonderland followed by The Legend of Korra Book 3 Finale.  Deadman Wonderland was good, but the non-ending end is a bit of a letdown.  Definitely what podcast host Roundpeg calls a "f*ck you go read the manga" ending.  The series finishes with an extreme flashback to before the construction of Deadman Wonderland, when Shinji was a loose cannon of a beat cop in Shinjuku, but had already acquired his "Branch of Sin" powers, even though he didn't fully understand them yet.  It all hints at a wider and deeper conspiracy but we'll never get to know about that.  Also, at the conclusion of the penultimate episode, Makina seems very near to launching an in-house coup d'etat.  Also, at least some of the Deadmen rebels managed their escape.  Ganta and Shiro survived, but there's a sense of forboding that their future relationship will ultimately be a tragic one.  Deadman Wonderland is pretty twisted and fucked up, but Psycho-Pass is arguably more so.

I also downloaded the Nick.com app to my iPad to watch the Season (Book) 3 finale of The Legend of Korra.  I had tried watching it on my mom's desktop, but once again it had the same horrible lag problems that it did the last time I tried watching this series on that machine.  With the Nick.com app, the streaming was nearly perfect, and it used nearly the whole of the iPad's screen so I didn't feel like I got a diminished experience.  I was pretty impressed with the finale, though it ends with Korra much worse for wear, while Jinora finally ascends to become an Air Bending Master.  Not to mention her spirit powers are vast, too.  I had the option to continue on with Season (Book) 4, Episode 1, but I logged out for now.  I look forward to continuing the fourth season soon, which is just now starting.

I really wish Legend of Korra was still on regular television; I'd much rather watch it off my DVR than off my iPad.  But I'll manage, I guess.  I still need to get caught up on not only Attack on Titan but also Space Dandy, which recently concluded on Toonami.  I do feel a small sense of accomplishment at having finished Deadman Wonderland and I am looking forward to finishing Psycho-Pass relatively soon.

I screened the first four episodes of Princess Jellyfish for some friends this week.  I think they liked it, but I think I also spoiled them by screening Yamada's First Time first.  Yamada is one of the funniest Anime comedies I've seen in a long time; only Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt made me laugh harder.  Princess Jellyfish, though it has its comedic moments, is a bit more deep and introspective.  Less of a "crowd pleaser"; still, they voted to continue watching the series, so I hope to screen episodes 5-8 for them sometime in early November, not long after Oni-Con 2014.  I also look forward to screening the next volume of Kill La Kill for my friends SR and FM, maybe in mid-November or early December, just the 3 of us.  I would also like to eventually get my hands on the Blu-Ray edition of Evangelion 3.33 that I pre-ordered many months ago now.

I also plan to continue the French animated series Wakfu, probably in Spanish with subtitles.  I guess I could watch in the original French, but my Spanish listening comprehension is better and I almost don't need the subtitles because, well, it's a kid's show.  I'm giving some thought to re-watching Knights of Sidonia yet again, in the original Japanese this time.

And no doubt I'll keep watching Viper's Creed and Ruroni Kenshin infrequently via Crackle.com, and an epsiode here and there of Sailor Moon via Neon Alley.  I've given some thought to buying the VIZ Media dub of the original Sailor Moon on DVD, which is available for pre-order now.  Not for me, but for my cousins in Kentucky.  Though perhaps giving them my complete collection of Kodochamight be more appropriate for now, since that's a story about Elementary school kids while Sailor Moon (i.e. Usagi) is a High Schooler.  Plus, with the new English dub from VIZ, they've restored the original narrative found in the Japanese version, i.e. not edited for U.S. television broadcast.  So I hear that, for example, the lesbian relationships aren't papered over or explained away, etc.  Which gives me pause...not because I don't think they couldn't handle it, but because their parents might disapprove and not let them watch the entire series after that reveal.  That's another impetus for me to finish watching Sailor Moon on Neon Alley, so I can better judge for myself how that plot point is handled.  I'm torn when it comes to Kodocha, which is way out of print now.  I loved the series and probably will watch it again eventually.  I have a S.A.V.E. edition from FUNimation and am reluctant to give it up, but at the same time I want to share my love & joy of this series with my cousins and give them an appreciation at a young age for Japanese anime.  On the other hand, buying a used out-of-print (replacement) copy is a pretty steep proposition last I checked Amazon.  I got them Tweeny Witches last year.  I hope they enjoyed that.  I've also gotten them Anime themed plush dolls before, too.  They may never grow up to be female otaku in rural Kentucky, but I can always hope.

Anyway, that's all I got for now.  Signing off, dear readers, until next time.

 

My Aspie Anime Nite October 2014

Princess Jellyfish (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just finished screening Ep.1-4 of Princess Jellyfish for my fellow Aspie friends.  They seemed to get a kick out of it, though the laughter was more subdued than when we all watched Yamada's First Time together.

I hope they will vote to continue the series, as I really love it.  I did notice the 2nd time around that the main male protagonist does have some slightly sexist views on women, despite mostly being an empathetic nice guy to Tsukimi.  My friends were also very annoyed by Mayaya, feeling like she was just too over the top.  The only reason I accepted her was because I'm a huge fan of Monica Rial's work, and this character is so different from her usual roles that it struck my funnybone, but I can see how the character could become grating to those unfamiliar with Monica's vast body of work.  After two of my friends had to leave early (they have little ones at home to look after and can only rely on a babysitter for only so long), we switched over to (re)watching Okami-san and Her Seven Companions.  I hadn't noticed just how otaku inside-jokey this series is, especially Luci Christian's narrator.  I caught some jokes this time around that completely flew over my head the first time I watched it on DVD way back when.  Also, I noticed yet again just how much Okami-san resembles Aisaka Taiga from Toradora!, only taller.  They're like long lost sisters, and both are tsundere as hell.  They both have little redheaded best friends (Ringo, Minorin).

It was a fun night with friends, and I always look forward to these once-a-month gatherings where I can stop being such a lone wolf and actually share my love of anime like an anime evangelist to a small gathering of receptive friends.  I may share other films with them in the future, but for the time being we're sticking to anime, and I'm trying to pick series that have the widest possible appeal, even to non-anime fans, i.e. not the super otaku niche stuff.