Gen X Otaku 1971: the OG blog

Wakfu is worth a watch!

Wakfu (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Although my favorite entertainment medium is Japanese anime, I'm also attracted to other animated shows that show a heavy influence of Japanese anime, from Teen Titans to RWBY to the recent French cartoon Wakfu, which is based upon a videogame franchise.  It's now streaming on Netflix (and was apparently on American television some time back) and has an English dub, and a Spanish dub (which I sometimes watch) besides the original French audio.  The characters have definitely grown on me, especially Evangeline, the coaxing blonde female elf that every male character goes gaga for, even more so than Princess Amalia herself, who's definitely pretty too but also a "prissy princess", personality wise, while Evangeline ("Eva" for short) is a no nonsense archer & bodyguard.  They are members of main character Yugo's traveling party, along with Az, Ruel, and Percedal.  Wakfu is basically the in-world term for "magical energy", sort of like the Star Wars "Force" of this fantasy realm.  It flows throughout the world and only those specially attuned can summon up and use Wakfu to create magical spells and manipulate matter and energy.  Not unlike the Anime Fairy Tail, this world emphasizes the outsized importance of specifically Dragon Magic.  Yugo is the Eliatrope brother of little dragon Adamai.  In fact, Yugo is the last Eliatrope still living as far as anyone knows.

They oppose the evil Xelor who calls himself "Nox", a being who builds terrifying clockwork automata that wreak havoc upon the countryside.  He has ambitions of capturing all the world's Wakfu and remaking the world anew.

 

It's definitely worth watching.  The characters are likeable and engaging.

Heck, I watch it mainly for the Evangeline & Amalia fanservice...no no, it's not THAT anime, e.g. no panty shots, jiggling boobs, etc.  It's just these characters are really easy on the eyes is all...

Log Horizon (Dub) -- Better than expected!

I just got back from a screening of the first 4 episodes of the new Anime series from Sentai Filmworks known as Log Horizon.
  It was actually MUCH better than I expected, and I must admit, having seen all of the original SAO and a bit of "Dot Hack", I walked into the theater a bit jaded and cynical, doubting that I'd like much of what I was about to see.  I have to admit I was wrong.  Log Horizon was good--really good.  The characters in particular were very likeable and memorable, and their chemistry together really hooks you and makes the show enjoyable to watch.  Some immediate differences between SAO and Log Horizon, Log Horizon drops the SAO pretense of "if you die in the game you die in real life"...the characters ARE indeed trapped in their favorite MMO after a new DLC upgrade.  But if they "die" (run out of hit points), they simply re-spawn in the temple of the territory where their character was originally created.  It's not the end of the world, but it can be an enormous pain in the ass.  The world of Log Horizon is said to be exactly 1/2 the size of planet Earth.  Towns that are 8 km apart in the real world are only 4 km apart in the world of Log Horizon.  There is eating & drinking in this MMO, but the food is bland and all tastes the same, regardless how it looks.  The story is very vague about how the characters came to be stuck in the new DLC version of their favorite MMO, or why they can't log out, or what's "really" happening to their bodies in the "real" world.  They don't seem--at first--to be the victims of any wider conspiracy, there's no all-powerful Dungeon Master who controls their fate, it's just more like an accidental glitch that's preventing everyone from logging out and nobody knows why or how they're supposed to leave the game.  Also, the "jump gates" of the former game world no longer function in this 3D VR version, so all transport must be done on foot or by beast of burden.  Horseback is fine, but eventually our heroes upgrade their ride to Griffins and stuff.  The game in this world of Log Horizon (ログ・ホライズン Rogu Horaizun^?) actually goes by the name of Elder Tale (エルダー・テイル Erudā Teiru^?).

The story focuses on main character and protagonist Shiroe (シロエ Shiroe^?) who is best known as "Shiroe the Strategist" or the "Villain in Glasses" (腹ぐろ眼鏡 Haraguro Megane^?) from the Elder Tale game. His real name is Kei Shirogane (城鐘 恵 Shirogane Kei^?).  After he finds himself in the upgraded version of the game and rather nonplussed as to how he got there or how to get out, he decides to check his friend list and at least hang out with someone he knows.  He meets up with Naotsugu (直継 Naotsugu^?), who is Shiroe's best friend and was also a member of the now disbanded Debauchery Tea Party group. His real world name is Naotsugu Hasegawa (葉瀬川 直継 Hasegawa Naotsugu^?).  He's a bit of a shameless horn dog and always lusting after the ladies.  Shiroe also adds to his burgeoning party Akatsuki (アカツキ Akatsuki^?), a trained assasin whose skills he's very familiar with from past raids & alliances.  However all this time, he never realized that Akatsuki (アカツキ Akatsuki^?) is actually a girl.  She asks Shiroe for a transformation potion and manages to use it to change her in-game avatar to be female and conform with her biological and mental gender.  Although her in-game avatar looks like the body of a young teen girl of perhaps middle school age, she's actually in her mid-to-late 20s, same age as Shiroe who is a graduate student in Engineering in the real world, on the verge of earning his Master's degree.

My favorite character by far in the first 4 episodes is the mysterious Nyanta.  Nyanta (にゃん太 Nyanta^?) is a werecat Swashbuckler and a bit of a ladies' man himself, though far more of a "smooth operator" than lumbering Naotsugu.  He's voiced by newcomer Jovan Jackson in the English dub and I was very happy to hear a black actor voicing this anime character...It's been a personal gripe of mine that there's not enough diversity in Anime voice acting.  Some of this is the fact that many Japanese anime stories do not include black people or other ethnicities.  Nyanta is a large "cat-man", so some artistic liberty was possible and I'm glad that they took the risk and cast a black actor for this role.  It basically makes Nyanta the bad-ass SHAFT of the show and I love it.  I remember getting into a bit of an argument with an anime voice actor who is also a casual friend, complaining about the production of Moonlight Mile where an obviously black character was voiced by an obviously white actor, yielding a performance that was downright cringe-worthy.  My friend's argument was along the lines of "dude, they try, but there's just not that many black VO actors out there.";  My contention was and is they don't try hard enough, so I salute this bold move from Sentai Filmworks and hope it is a sign of better things to come.  Many of the cast and crew were in attendance at this screening and Jovan Jackson was a crowd favorite generally, but especially among the black fans who were thrilled to hear his character, and I was thrilled for them.

Some white voice actors are able to pull off a black character voiceover...I'm thinking Chris Sabat as Garterbelt in Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, say.  Or the voice of Dutch from Black Lagoon.  White men with deep enough voices and acting chops can pull it off.  But Jovan Jackson's Nyanta is on a whole nother level and it's fantastic.

While I'm probably not going to rush out and buy this anime as a new release, I do think I will be adding it to my collection eventually, maybe as a birthday present to myself next year, say, after the first or second price drop.  It really was a pleasant surprise and I look forward to continuing the story of these characters and learning more about the strange online world they're trapped in and how they cope and try to find their way back to reality.

Sugar Land Happy Anime Fun Time Podcast

So as I mentioned in passing below, this blog now has a podcast associated with it.  Follow the link to subscribe to the RSS feed or whatever, or to selectively listen to individual episodes.

If you'd rather cut & paste the link yourself, here's the URL:

http://www.spreaker.com/user/7429481

Knock yourself out.  I plan to use up all my alloted memory for a "free" Spreaker account as I play around with being an junior league Anime podcaster.  Once I've used up all the available memory, I'll probably download then delete back episodes to free up space or just quit.  It's just an experiment at this stage, as is this blog.  I'm glad if people enjoy it, but I'm doing it mostly for myself, for practice and just as a fun hobby, nothing more.

My best Pre-order Blu-Ray ever; or, Finished Toradora! (spoilers!)

The main characters of Toradora! (from left to right): Ryūji, Yūsaku, Taiga, Minori, and Ami. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, I just finished my Blu-Ray Deluxe edition of Toradora! last night, including the OVA.  Without a doubt, the best Blu-Ray Pre-order purchase of Anime I've ever made.  I thoroughly enjoyed that series from start to finish.

I know a lot of people complain about the ending, and yeah, it's kind of bullshit, but I wonder how many of the people complaining the loudest simply #ragequit at the credit scroll and stormed off?  Because if you want your happy ending you have to put yourself in Marvel Movie viewing mode and sit through all the credits through the end and f*cking pay attention.  In a perfect ending, Taiga should've broken the fourth wall and cursed the viewer out..."You think I'd give up on my man after all THAT?  DUMBASS!!"  Anyway, it was great, even if the midway point to the credit scroll of Ep.25 was kind of a big middle finger to the audience.   The true ending (post credits) redeems it.

As great as the main characters are, I think the one I feel most for is Minori Kushieda.  That pained expression on her face in the penultimate episode, where Ryuji is attempting to lie about having rescued Taiga in the snowstorm, it was so well rendered as to be simply heartbreaking.  The pain in her quivering eyes was palpable.  Her look of "...how fucking could you!" at Ryuji.  Minori just breaks and refuses to be a part of the farce any longer.  She blurts out the truth, that it was Ryuji who saved Taiga and not Kitamura.  She could've added for emphasis "I was f*cking there!! I started to go after you but HE (points) pulled me back to go after you himself.   Because he loves you dammit and you love him."---of course, the beauty of this anime is that all that extra dialogue is unnecessary, because Minori's face says ALL of it in that scene.

She's totally justified at blowing up at them both...She spends the latter half of the series in a deep depression...because she's in love with the same guy as her best friend whose life is way more effed up than her own and who desperately needs Ryuji to keep her world from falling apart...Minorin has to push aside her own feelings and suffer in silence while Ryuji and Taiga keep deceiving themselves about the nature of their relationship and their feelings for each other.  The series did a good job keeping me guessing at Minorin's true feelings right to the end.  I knew she was upset and in pain and putting on a brave face for several episodes, but her confession did genuinely surprise me a little.  Though I suppose in hindsight it was alluded to indirectly when Taiga forced the two of them together on the street and Minori had to grab Ryuji by the hand to keep him from wandering into traffic and immediately blushed with embarssment and muttered "Stupid Taiga Stupid Taiga Stupid Taiga" under her breath.  The show does a good job of keeping Minorin's feelings opaque and does dangle the possibility of her being an in-denial lesbian.  Minorin even says as much out loud, questioning herself.  Plus she's a jock and aggressive softball player, and a little weird generally.  Hell, she could actually be bi.  But it was oddly gratifying to learn she did have love for Ryuji after all, though that love also caused her enormous pain, too.  But you can't really help who you love...a lot of it's involuntary and it does sometimes hurt, especially when other considerations prevent you from acting on those feelings.  Minorin is the very best friend you could ever want.  She's loyal, quirky, cheerful, and willing to endure a great deal of emotional pain for the friends she loves and cherishes.

I had trouble relating to Ami Kawashima...one of my Twitter friends kept insisting Ami was "best girl" in the show, and I held back my judgement until I had finished, but I just don't see it.  I get that she has strong feelings for Ryuji and she's right to point out and criticize the almost creepy, quasi "(surrogate)father-daughter" dynamic at play in Ryuji and Taiga's day to day relationship...but Ami's such a passive-aggressive b*tch it's no wonder she only knows how to catch Ryuji's attention with her body, but instantly repulses him when she opens her mouth and starts talking.

Anyway, besides Toradora! I also recently watched and finished Flowers of Evil.  I know the rotoscoping is very off putting to a lot of viewers but I didn't mind it myself.  As you know, I generally don't go for sub-only shows but I made an exception for this one.  It was good, but its stock in trade is the emotion of dread, and the episodes themselves have such emotional intensity that I could only stand to watch 2 maybe 3 episodes back to back.  The "bad girl" chick, Nakamura, is actually kind of hot.  I joked on Twitter that I only later realized that she's essentially a gritty "real life" tsundere, insofar as she treats him like shit and curses him out and it takes a long time to figure out she actually has feelings and desires for the main character.  The main character idolizes the popular girl Saeki, but feels unworthy of her.  The whole arc of the show is learning that rough-and-tumble Nakamura is more closer to who he really is rather than what he merely wishes himself to be.  He can't actually handle angelic Saeki as a flesh-and-blood girl.  The real thing could never live up to his abstract ideal.  On the other hand, earthy, vulgar Nakamura represents the dark, untamed female sexuality he actually craves but is too chicken-shit to admit it to himself or acknowledge it.  She's his dark soulmate, every bit as misanthropic and nihilistic and self-loathing as he is.  I'm glad this was picked up by Sentai Filmworks and given a North American home video release (I bought it on Blu-Ray), but it was a commercial flop in Japan, so it's highly doubtful a Season 2 will be forthcoming, which is unfortunate, as the final episode contains a lot of "flash forward" style previews of what a Season 2 would've looked like, and it looks freaking awesome.  *Sigh*  So, like Roundpeg of 2Lazy2Botaku so often says, yet another case of "f*ck you, read the manga" (which I am doing and it is pretty awesome in its own right).

I also liked Knights of Sidonia.  In fact, I liked it so much, I'm rewatching it again on Netflix in Spanish this time for the sheer hell of it.

Other anime I'm futzing around with include the usual Toonami stuff (Space Dandy, Attack on Titan) and also a few selections from Crackle.com, such as old episodes of Ruroni Kenshin (aka Samurai X) and a mediocre sci-fi action series Viper's Creed that I'm mainly watching because it's dubbed in English and looks kind of cool.  I sometimes watch an episode before bed on my iPad, mostly.

Oh, and lastly I'm working my way through Psycho-Pass on Netflix as well, which is a damn fine anime in its own right. Dystopian sci-fi police drama and dark as hell.  Likeable main character, strong supporting male character, etc.

Watamote (dub premiere), Ep.1-4

So I took in the dub premiere of the WataMote anime series, Episodes 1-4, at Alamo Drafthouse Mason Park earlier this week.  I really enjoyed it.  I had some concerns about Monica Rial doing the voice for this character, but these proved to be unfounded, as I think that Tomoko is such a batshit crazy character that now I have a hard time imaginging which other English language female voice actress in Texas would do the role justice and I keep landing back with Monica being the perfect fit.  Her range is indisputibly large, and she can voice Tomoko at her craziest (think Momoka from Sgt. Frog) 

...and also capture her at her most vulnerable and tender moments, and there are a few; for example...

That scene at the gazebo, where one of the boys buys Tomoko a replacement umbrella and leaves it next to her while she's sleeping...and she wakes up confused but decides to use the umbrella but says "I wish a boy would be nice to me for once"...that scene is just heartbreaking, in the manga as well as in the anime.  (Because, of course, a boy WAS just nice to her).  Tomoko is pretty messed up but the thing about her is apart from the seemingly permanent dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep from staying up too late playing videogames in poor lighting conditions, she's not a bad looking girl.  Little rough around the edges, maybe, with zero fashion sense, but not hopeless by any means.  She's genuinely cute, she just suffers from poor hygene, low self-esteem and crippling social anxiety and awkwardness.  She externalizes blame, avoids responsibility, and is genuinely creepy & inappropriate.  Tomoko makes me laugh, and I get laughs at her expense, but I never laugh at her in a mean-spirited way.  Both for the manga and the anime adaptation, I find myself ultimately sympathizing with Tomoko and even quietly cheering for her from the sidelines.

Tomoko is what a female anime/eroge otaku would look like depicted more realistically, verus, say, Konata Izumi of Lucky Star fame, who is the anime fantasy heroine, at least in her own mind.  Konata is otaku and proud.  She's confident, strangely athletic for being disinterested in sports, and she's 18 but looks 14.  She's approachable and not the least bit creepy or off-putting.

Tomoko reminds me of the main protagonist of Welcome to the NHK, only as a teen girl and lacking the heightened, full blown paranoia of that particular protagonist...but well on her way to NEET or Hikikomori status if she doesn't mend her ways.  Tomoko is literally paralyzed by her social anxiety...the only person she can have actual conversations with are her former BFF from her Middle School, and her brother, who finds her annoying.  Her social anxiety is even worse than NHK's protagonist.  I think Tomoko is also a more realistic anime/eroge otaku than, say, Kirino from Oreimo.

Anyway, I knew that I was going to want to watch all of this series, so I had already taken advantate of the Sentai Filmworks sale over on Right Stuf! awhile back, and WataMote was one of the Blu-Rays I bought during that sale.  Having seen the first four episodes on the big screen at Alamo Drafthouse, I'm eager to be able to finish it at home on Blu-Ray.  I'm looking forward to continuing the manga in English as well.

 

Got in my Toradora! pre-order.

Cover art of the first DVD compilation released by King Records, featuring main characters Ryūji Takasu and Taiga Aisaka (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A brief post to confirm I got in my deluxe Toradora Blu-Ray/DVD Combo preorder from an online anime retailer who handles NIS America merch.  I've watched Episodes 1-3 of the dub and so far I like it very much.  It seems to be moving a bit faster than the manga series.  The male protagonist Ryūji Takasu is voiced by the same voice actor, Erik Scott Kimerer, who voices the main male protagonist of Accel World and plays Alibaba in Magi. Johnny Yong Bosch voices Kitamura, Ryūji Takasu's best friend and Aisaka Taiga's unrequited love interest.  Christine Marie Cabanos (Madoka of Madoka Magica, and the titular character of Squid Girl) voices supporting character Minorin (Ryuji's main secret love interest) and Cassandra Lee voices Taiga.

I like it so far, and my box set includes a nice art book that is also translated into English, which is an added bonus (I was fully expecting this to be left untranslated and just pretty to look at).

I'm on Volume 6 of the Manga, which is ongoing in English.  I'm looking forward to enjoying the complete series on Blu-Ray.  Please don't spoil it for me, but I've heard the ending for Toradora! is kind of a dissapointment.  So I'm hoping to just enjoy the journey as I go.  There are just some tender scenes in the manga where despite their ostensible love/lust for other characters, it's painfully obvious to the reader that Ryuji and Taiga are meant for each other.  I remember one cell where she's crying from anger and frustration, tears flowing down her face and Ryuji is just holding her gently, from behind and above her.

I accept Cassandra Lee as Taiga, though I am left wondering who else among the BangZoom! regulars were up for this role.  I think Christine Marie Cabanos definitely works better as Minorin; would not have cast her as Taiga.  I accept Erik Kimerer as Ryuji--I guess Bryce Papenbrook can't voice EVERY hero/protagonist for BangZoom! these days ;-)  And I'm fine with JYB voicing a supporting character.  I'm very glad I preordered this.  Now just waiting on my Eva 3.0 Blu-Ray to come out.

Finally finished: No.6 (Dystopian Sci Fi meets soft BL/Yaoi)

Luci Christian speaking at Anime Evolution 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This review contains spoilers; please skip if you don't want certain plot elements spoiled.

I finally finished the dystopian Science Fiction anime known simply as No.6, which stands for the sixth of the last known urban human settlements after a great cataclysmic war destroyed our world as we know it.  It was founded by a cadre of idealistic scientists hoping to create a brave new world, but they end up siring a quietly fascist totalitarian nightmare where dissent is crushed out quickly and quietly with minimal fuss.  The main protagonists are Shion and escaped forrest denizen "Rat".  This anime strikes brave new ground with some rather overt homosexual overtones and chemistry between the two main male protagonists.  "Rat" is a desperate refugee from No.6's Correctional Facility.  Shion saves him from being recaptured by the authorities.   "Rat" later repays this favor when Shion's natural curiosity causes him to run afoul of the authorities in No.6 and is facing imminent incarceration and possible execution.  It seems "disappearing" undesirables is a common modus operandi for the civil authorities who rule No.6 from behind closed doors.  Their methods are mysterious and involve such strange tools as "parasitic bees".  A wayward citizen will be suddenly struck by a seeming illness and age to death on the spot and fall over dead.  From the body will emerge a single parasitic bee.  Shion himself very nearly becomes a victim but the aging process is arrested and he escapes with merely prematurely white/grey hair and unsightly liver spots on his face and neck.  Otherwise he is quite youthful.  "Rat" rescues him and takes him outside the dangerous confines of No.6 to the wild country where the last of free humanity eke out a rough and tumble living away from the totalitarian utopias like No.6; No.6 functions like the Borg of Star Trek, determined to either re-assimilate or kill these wayward former citizens.

Shion's childhood friend Safu, voiced by Hilary Haag in the English dub, has fallen in love with Shion.  Awkward and abrupt, she bluntly tells Shion she "wants his sperm", which leaves Shion almost speechless.  Not long after Shion's departure from No.6, Safu falls under the suspicion of the authorities of No.6 because of her longtime association with the fugitive Shion.

"Rat" makes a living part time as a stage actor, where he gladly takes on female roles and identifies himself as "Eve" in the playbills of his productions.  He is mutual friends with a gruff young teenager who prefers to call himself(?) by his(?) title, "Dogkeeper".   This character's gender is kept ambivalent.  "Dogkeeper" has long hair and a pretty face but has the mannerisms and speech of a young teen boy.

It is only much later in the series that Shion discovers by accident that "Dogkeeper" (voiced by Luci Christian) is a growing teen woman.  She's entering a developmental growth spurt, and Shion notices "Dogkeeper's" pert breasts pressed up against him.  The character design shift after this reveal is subtle but palpable.  We begin to notice her curving hips and developing breasts, though she keeps pretending in public to be male, presumably to ward off or diminish the danger of being raped in this Mad-Max like barren wasteland of a human settlement outside the megacities like No.6.  One of "Dogkeeper's" dogs rescues a baby from a No.6 external military operation and while the baby is fussy in the hands of a man, Rikiga (力河 (リキガ )^?), the former journalist, the baby coos softly in "Dogkeeper's" hands and calls her "Mama".  The baby feels comforted being held by a (young) woman.  "Dogkeeper" is struck dumb by this at first then realize the baby's behavior might be a dead giveaway to her true gender and she puts the child back down onto a nearby bed.  These scenes helped endear "Dogkeeper" to me as a character.  I cared about her part in the struggle and very much wanted this young woman to survive (she does).

The ending was a bit cliched Deus Ex Machina, but I suppose it can be forgiven; Shion's seemingly naive pipe-dream for peace comes to pass in reality, and soon "Rat", Shion, and Shion's mother really will live together in peace in harmony in a world where the wall separating No.6 and the rest of humanity has been torn down.  Safu becomes central to the final act, in a moment of tragic sacrifice.  "Rat" gives Shion a final kiss and the story comes to a close.

The opening credits song is very catchy and has been on my iphone for quite some time.  I own this series on DVD from Sentai Filmworks.  I did have one playback issue with the final 3 episodes watching the DVDs on my PS3.  When I reached Episode 9, the DVD choked on me.  I ended up having to remove the DVD from the PS3 and finish watching these last 3 episodes via my PC instead, without any further playback problems.  I don't think this is a QC error on Sentai's part, but rather a bug in the PS3 that also existed in the PS2, namely that certain DVDs just simply wouldn't play properly in them and would need to be viewed in a stand alone DVD player or Blu-Ray player or else watched via the DVD-ROM drive of a desktop PC.  It was a little annoying, since I use my PS3 to watch a great deal of my anime on physical media, usually with no issue.

Anyway, No.6 is a very competent, entertaining piece of dystopian Sci Fi and the BL/Yaoi elements are quite subtle and downplayed.  I frankly was a little disappointed just how restrained the anime stayed on this score past the 4th episode.  I would've welcomed more overtly romantic longings, jealousy, lust, and general homoeroticism between the two male protagonists, but considering that Japan is actually behind the United States with respect to progressive attitudes towards homosexuality, perhaps that's expecting too much from this anime.  It's definitely pushing at and interrogating native Japanese taboos, and that can only be a good thing.  "Dogkeeper" and her gender politics of survival are also compelling and add to what makes this anime a quality product.

I would recommend  owning No.6, or at least renting it or checking it out via Anime Network.  As much as I liked the dub performances, though, there's so much singing (left in native Japanese, thank goodness) that I have to wonder if sub-only might've been the better call with this story.  Maybe.  But only Luci Christian could make "Dogkeeper" such a compelling character for me personally.

Neon Alley is DEAD to me

Well, today was the big day, the big switcheroo for VIZ's showcase streaming anime service Neon Alley, the app for which I have installed on my PS3, and which is now basically "dead", as I expected.  Any attempt to launch the app produces an unspecified error and advises the user (uselessly) to reboot and try again, ad infinitum.  Like I said elsewhere, I knew the "Live" channel was going away; what I thought would happen would be that the app would be upgraded so that only the "catch up" feature would be enabled and even expanded and I could get back to watching more of my favorite dubbed shows. 

NOPE.  It's WORSE than I expected.  Not only am I shunted over to Neonalley.com, which redirects to Viz.com...even though I can still login with my Neon Alley credentials, when I look through the available streaming shows, what do I find?

ONLY SUB ONLY SHOWS.  All the cool, English-dubbed Aniplex shows I was watching?  Gone.  SUB ONLY NOW, SUCKA.  If I wanted sub only, I'd be a Crunchyroll subscriber you SHITS.

So if I actually wanna watch the last 2 episodes of Accel World, I have to either suck it up and watch it subtitled in Japanese or BUY THE DISCS if I want to keep watching this show in ENGLISH LIKE I HAVE BEEN SINCE THE GODDAMN BEGINNING.

And if I want to keep watching this radically altered Neon Alley content on my PS3 or on mobile devices like my iPad or iPhone, I have to sign up with Hulu+ and use THAT native app instead.  Hell, I don't like the free content on offer on the website via my PC, why in blazes would I sign up for Hulu+ to access this same content of not-what-I-want on mobile & gaming devices?

Your DEAD TO ME, Neon Alley, DEAD.  All it means is one less source for English dubbed Anime.  I'm so pissed off I feel like signing up for an Anime Network account out of sheer SPITE.  I was HAPPY to continue paying Neon Alley a subscription fee for their Dubbed content.  It was kind of a cool experience, one that I'm glad I got to experience.  I freaking LOVED the anime series MAGI, and ZETMAN was kinda cool, too, and I really enjoyed all I got to see of Accel World, and the series "K" was pretty to look at, even if I found the story frustrating and baffling at times.

I even did buy the DVDs of LaGrange, Seasons 1 & 2, because I liked the story and I liked how pretty it was.  I do regret not getting Blu-Rays, though, as the video quality of the DVDs aren't quite at the same level as what I got to experience via Neon Alley's "catch up" video playback display.  I may yet buy Accel World on Blu-Ray precisely because of just how beautiful the animation is to look at, plus I love the story.

I will miss Neon Alley, and I did appreciate the free month of service with them at the end, but I'm so mad it couldn't have just stayed pure Video On Demand (which the catch-up feature kinda-sorta was) for a modest subscription, sans "live channel".  That's what it should've been from the start.  That's what I enjoyed most, and it kept me regularly watching, visiting, and interacting with their site via the PS3 installed app.

I do have my FUNimation Elite subscription to fall back on, of course, and heaven knows I've got a formidable backlog of physical media (DVD/Blu-Ray) to get through, too, not to mention the periodic rental anime DVD from Netflix (I'm slowly working my way through the original Sayuki at the moment).  I've also been keeping up with Space Dandy and Blue Exorcist via DVR'ing Toonami for the appropriate time slots.  I really enjoyed every episode of Space Dandy and look forward to the next season airing in July 2014 (fingers crossed).  I did watch ahead in Blue Exorcist via my last few days with Neon Alley, so until Toonami catches up I'll be deleting those episodes unwatched from my DVR. 

Oh, and I'm still making progress on streaming Netflix anime, though I'm running out of new things to watch there.  I did finally take in the edgy film KITE, but, after interacting with other fans, I'm convinced the version I saw was edited from the original; hence I was underwhelmed, having heard the hype from the unedited original.  I still enjoyed it, but I had to watch it sub-only, too.  There's a title I need to get on DVD from Right Stuf! and watch unedited and with English dub.

Other than that, I recently finished Tenchi Muyo GXP, and am very far along in HERO TALES and in D GRAY MAN.  I will probably finish HERO TALES before I finish D GRAY MAN.  I do sometimes slip in an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic here and there for fun, but I'm not in any sense of the term a "brony".

I'm glad that there is new anime being added to Netflix streaming; the problem is it is all stuff I've either seen someplace else (SAO) or it's a title I already own on physical media ("My Bride is a Mermaid").

I was really hoping to watch the English dub of GARGANTIA premiere on Neon Alley sometime later this year.  Now it appears that's never going to happen.  I'll just have to take a leap of faith and buy the Blu-Ray when it's released and hope for the best.  I did watch Episode 1 on Crunchyroll ages ago (subbed) and really was blown away by how beautiful it was.

I realize I'm in the minority, pouting about the changes to NEON ALLEY.  I know this is a positive for most North American Anime fans, the majority of whom probably prefer sub-only or are apathetic.  To dub fans, the Neon Alley changes are nothing but a tragedy and unmittigated disaster.  This is literally NOT what I signed up for.  At least I'm not being charged for it anymore.

*Sigh*.  At least I still have my weekly anime screenings at Alamo Drafthouse, too.  May that ever be so for as long as I remain an anime fan.  I'm hoping, too, that FUNimation will work another nationwide deal with Alamo Drafthouse and screen the first four episodes of the Attack on Titan dub just before the DVD/Blu-Ray release.

Finished Season 1, Maria Holic

Maria Holic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So I finished up Season 1 of Maria Holic last night.  I did enjoy watching the first four episodes on the big screen at Alamo Drafthouse.  The ADR cast & crew turned up for the screening and I finally got to meet and take a picture with Monica Rial, who plays the lead antagonist.  The audience reaction definitely made the show.  It was slapstick and funny and absurd.  Unfortunately, the plot went nowhere after that and the main character made no progress and became less sympathetic to the audience.  The main character is voiced by the same voice talent who voiced Excel of Excel Saga way back in the day for ADV Films.  Or rather voiced Excel until she blew her voice and a replacement actress was recast to finish production.  It actually fit with the fiction of Excel Saga after Excel gets shot (and cast off) by her master.  That event shakes her to the core and she becomes a much more sympathetic, far less zany character from that point forward.

The same fate, alas, does not befall the Maria Holic protagonist, though by the end of the series I was definitely hoping it would.

Apparently Maria Holic was originally an old sub-only title that for some reason Sentai Filmworks decided finally needed to be dubbed into English.  Chris Ayres declared he hadn't had this much fun dubbing a title since he worked on Nerima Daikon Brothers (which I actually liked).  It's just too bad the ADR director's enjoyment didn't bleed over into my experience as a viewer finishing Season 1, which was not enjoyable in the least.

This is a series that should've remained sub-only.  The jokes fall flat most of the time because too much of it is imbedded in Japanese culture in a way that doesn't easily translate.  It's very Japan Otaku-centric insofar as it references other anime & manga that are (I presume) popular in Japan but that I know nothing about.  The lame attempts to make American pop culture references fail more often than they succeed.  Most of the humor comes at protagonist Kanako Miyamae's (宮前 かなこ Miyamae Kanako^?) expense.  Kanako is a closet lesbian attending an all girls Catholic school in Japan.  Her backstory is her mother attended there as a student years ago, and met her father, who was a teacher at the time (slightly scandalous).  Kanako's "problem" isn't that she's homosexual, it's that she's a total "horn dog" who wants to fuck anything with a pulse and a vagina.  She's so desperate to have sex, so completely overstimulated by her attractive classmates all around her that she gushes rivers of blood from her nose (a common anime & manga trope based on a Japanese "old wives tale" kind of cultural thing).

Oh, and the titular character, Mariya Shidō (祇堂 鞠也 Shidō Mariya^?), is a cross-dressing teen pretty boy with a mean streak a mile wide.  He has a twin sister who's cross dressing as a boy at a nearby all-boys academy.  The reason for this has to do with some obscure stipuation in their grandfather's will and they'll void their inheritance if they don't comply with this requirement.

Mariya Shidō (祇堂 鞠也 Shidō Mariya^?) is the first person Kanako lays eyes on and she falls in love with "her" at first sight.  But Kanako quickly notices that touching Mariya makes her break out in hives, the same reaction she gets touching ANY male.  Kanako quickly discovers Mariya's secret when she walks in on Mariya changing clothes and talking like a dude to his loyal (and very rude) maid, Matsurika Shinōji (汐王寺 茉莉花 Shinōji Matsurika^?), who is helping her master attach his fake breasts under a corset.  Mariya threatens Kanako and forces Kanako to become his roommate to keep her under close watch.

The show is supposed to be a sex & relationships comedy, I guess.  But Kanako is so inept she can't initiate even a single genuine relationship.  And she's got the sex drive (and focus) of a man.  She reminds me a little of Yamada from B Gata HK (Yamada's first time) only far less funny.  This cast of characters are so ill served by this dumb plot.  This could've been a sensitive yet funny "Yuri" melodrama.  The only "relationship" Kanako is sort of involved with is an odd kind of "bodyguard" relationship with Nanami Kiri (桐 奈々美 Kiri Nanami^?), a cold, aloof, vaguely Aspergian girl, whom a teacher tells to protect Kanako and look out for her, mainly from a sense of loyalty of having known and befriended Kanako's mother years before.  Kiri takes the bold step of feigning to be Kanako's girlfriend, even though she's totally straight and interested in men.  She wears glasses and is a liberal arts nerd but terrible at math & science.  She's very literal minded, a little awkward, and nearly as aloof as Mariya's maid but her rudeness comes more from her blunt manner than any mean-spirited desire.  Like I said,  very Aspie.  Even Kiri shows more emotional growth as a character than Kanako, for whom we rapidly lose any sympathy by series end.

There are a lot of weird mysteries and subplots that I found I completely lost any interest in solving by the end.

I know there's a 2nd season of Maria Holic that has been dubbed and available for pre-order as of this writing, but I don't think I'll be picking it up.  If anything, I'll probably be selling off my Season 1 set to Half-Price Books in the future.  This was both a waste of time and money for me.  The whole entertainment value I got out of it was watching Ep.1-4 for free at Alamo Drafthouse Mason Park with the cast & crew.  Beyond that, blah.

Finished Fate/Zero on Neon Alley

At long last, I finished the Fate/Zero series, dubbed in English, on the Neon Alley channel app on my PS3 at home.  I did ultimately like how it wraps up and folds neatly into the start of Fate/Stay Night.  The scenes jogged my memory and I remembered the backstory of the original series' protagonist.

As far as visuals go, no question, Fate/Zero wins hands down, though Fate/Stay Night: Ultimate Bladeworks (condensed re-cap movie) does give it a run for its money and that one is my hands down favorite of the entire franchise.

In terms of story, Fate/Zerois my least favorite.  I much prefered the story of the original series, Fate/Stay Night.  The characters were more sympathetic and I cared about their fates much more.  Ultimate Bladeworks is a highly condensed "recap" movie in one sense, but it also takes the story in a radically different direction, too.  It practically must do so because it hasn't got the time to cram all the events of the original series into a single feature film.

My biggest complaint about Fate/Zeroare the intolerable number of "expositition dump" episodes where the characters do nothing but monolgue about the world and how it got that way, and so much of it is jargon-laden, never explained, and often quite opaque.  It's just a confusing word salad made to sound deep and impressive but without really conveying much by way of useful information.  The first episode is by far the worst offender of this; but alas it's not the only episode guilty of this sin against good storytelling.  There is a later impromptu drinking session between Gilgamesh (aka "Archer"), Iskander (Alexander the Great, aka "Rider"), and Arthuria ("Saber") that is nothing but banter back and forth, mostly between the seemingly more experienced ancient kings arguing their worldview against the more progressive Medieval king.  It is all very wordy but not terribly witty and ends up being quite boring.  If you're going to have lots of dialogue, at least make it interesting dialogue with genuine entertainment value.

Anyway, Arthuria ("Saber") is of course my favorite character, voiced by three separate voice actresses but believably the same character.  She's more of an archetype made flesh than an actual real person, so I can forgive the casting changes for her from work to work.  My next favorite character would be the Knight of the Fianna otherwise known as "Lancer", wielding the mighty Gae Bolga spear/lance of Irish Celtic legend, reputedly once wielded by the mighty Cúchulainn himself.  Lancer is at his best and most noble in Fate/Zero and Ultimate Bladeworks.  He's honestly kind of a brutal asshole early in Fate/Stay Night and somewhat redeems himself only much later on into the series.  I actually own a Lancer figurine that I recently picked up at Anime Matsuri Con here in Houston two weeks ago.  I also picked up a smallish 3rd impact Askua complete with eyepatch and painter's cap with "kitty ears" (modded to fit her communication gear hairpiece underneath).

I'm a little unclear what Neon Alley's plans are after April 1st.  I had earlier gotten the impression that only the "live" channel would be going away, but that the "catch up" feature on the app would not only remain but also expand to become a more truly VOD type product, and that to watch Neon Alley shows over mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, etc) requires creating a Hulu+ account. 

But in the latest update from Neon Alley, I now get the distinct impression that the native "app" for Neon Alley on PS3 (and PS4) will be going away entirely and the content will ONLY be accessible via the Hulu+ "app" on those systems and ONLY NeonAlley.com (website) would be free of charge to access from one's PC.  If this is the case, then that really kind of sucks.

Anyway, I decided to devote this evening to push and finish Fate/Zero while the Neon Alley "app" is still up and running.