[Anime Reviews]

Allison to Lillia: the end of the line at last

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Allison to Lillia, Rants]

It’s with no small amount of relief that I’ve completed the epic disappointment that was Allison to Lillia. I feel as though the characters are now put out of their misery: when they are so lively and engaging it feels like an act of cruelty to even watch them go through such an embarrassment of a storyline. Another way of looking at is is that when I eventually reach the end of Code Geass I can sit back with the final episode, safe in the knowledge that I’ve already experienced true trainwreck television. In a very literal sense.

“Oh rly?” “Yes, rly.” “No way!”

Since I haven’t after all actually finished Geass the term ‘trainwreck’ is little more than an over-used buzzword; at this point though I can still understand the feeling of disappointment the R2 haters among you must have felt. On the plus side it means I’m more likely to enjoy Lelouch’s final outing since, with the final two arcs of Lillia taken into account, it probably can’t be any worse than what I subjected myself to this week. How did such a promising show go so wrong?

[5 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

Itazura na Kiss and the rationale of droppage

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Itazura na Kiss, Random thoughts, Rants]

My current watchlist looks like this. I think you’ll agree that longlist is looong - there are one or two that I’m following on DVD, or would be if finances permitted, but overall I’m balancing my time between a lot of unlicenced shows simultaneously in addition to full time employment (and the so-far fruitless search for better full time employment). This has led to a feeling that I’m sure many of you are familiar with - my personal standards have crept up to the point at which I’m actually looking for excuses to stop watching them in order to ease the pressure. To put it another way, “why watch series x when y is more entertaining?”. The weird thing is, I’ve never experienced this before but recently I’ve bitten off more than I can chew in terms of how much I’m watching. Sadly, unless you can give a good argument to the contrary, I think that Itazura na Kiss has to go.

When taking on too much becomes a burden: ironically this show has slipped into On-Hold purgatory too

When I say I’m looking for an excuse, I mean I want to give good reasons for dropping it; the last thing I want to do is be another Maddox wannabe who fails to see that logical and articulate arguments are what allows him to get away with being so bitchy and scathing. “This show sucks!” without a good argument to back it up will just make me sound like a troll or a retard; mindful that even after reading my last review for the show I still can’t remember why I enjoyed it in the first place, I feel that I need to outline in detail why InK seems to be failing.

[10 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

Allison to Lillia and the Fiona arc: where I do literary criticism and make fun of plot holes

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Allison to Lillia, Over-analysis, Rants]

I’m so strongly in two minds about Allison & Lillia: on one hand it’s old-school style feelgood entertainment that had me glued to the screen from start to finish; on the other hand the direction and screenplay writing are so amateurish that it was enough to make me cringe in embarrassment and sketch out how even I could do the job better. Be warned that this post is looooong and involves a foray into the theory and structure of narratives to make my point…sorry if it’s tl;dr because I know the likes of IKnight and Sat-kun are much better educated in that literary criticism stuff than I am. I just have to rant about how bad writing is spoiling a great series.

Should have seen it coming?

I actually started to make a short list of plot holes and inconsistencies on my mini-blog, the full version of which I’ll set out after the ‘read moar’ tag. The thing is, although this show sucks noodles on some levels it’s frustratingly good on others. I’m not on about merely the artwork or music - neither can be faulted - because the conceptually this is a really extraordinary show. It’s just that I can’t believe the original novel’s author, Keiichi Sigsawa, would make such glaring mistakes in an otherwise great story.

[19 Comments]

[Editorials]

Anime elitism: why I’m cooler than you and why that doesn’t matter (shockingly delayed editorial #2)

Posted by Martin  [Tags: community, Random thoughts, Rants]

Maybe it’s the nature of the Internet that ‘elitist’ behaviour and views are so widespread, no matter how much they are derided. I believe that a contributing factor to the perception of elitism among anime fans though is that the fandom is a niche community: simultaneously small enough to have a sense of ‘us’ versus ‘everyone else’ yet large enough to contain cliques, lingo and who knows what else. Within this relatively small group of individuals there still seem to be borders in our minds that separate each of us, including those who are in our eyes, or consider themselves to be, ‘elite’.

Walking the line of good taste without falling into the trap of ignorance and arrogance is walking on a knife edge, like our hero here

Unfortunately, the assumption of elite groups implies superiority and inferiority, so I think the ‘elitist’ term is inaccurate and should be used only for reasons of convenience (which is why I’m resorting to using it in this post). What I’m examining here are the people who are seen as ‘top of the heap’ and how that manifests itself; furthermore I’m questioning how their position may not be a ‘horizontal’ separation of superior and inferior…using my elitist self as an example because I rule (sarcasm intentional).

[19 Comments]

[Editorials]

Epic fail: the worst anime ever

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Rants]

Thanks to my apologist leanings I’m prone to fanboy raves and ‘best evar’ lists but often I’m quicker to recommend stuff I like rather than warn people off stuff I don’t. I’m not rude by nature (not intentionally anyway) so I’m more likely to make recommendations than indulge in bashing and ranting. Until now.

For one night only, I give you my rundown of the barrel-scrapings, the colossal misfires and fabulous flops that I’ve had the misfortune to see in my experience as a fan. Some anime is great, most is watchable but some is nigh-on unforgivable…in the best-case scenario it does carry some entertainment value, if only for the reason that its inherent badness is in itself hilarious. As in all top-X lists, you won’t all agree with what I have to say here so make use of that handy comments box to present your own choices of Epic Fail - if nothing else, you can spare others the pain you experienced.

[13 Comments]

[Editorials]

Bad journalism has left me in despair!

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Over-analysis, Rants]

This little gem by a stateside student paper columnist Elon Glucklich cropped up over at the AUKN forums and since no comment I could make on it would either fully express my feelings nor indeed get through to its author, I’ve decided to set them out here. I haven’t edited or abridged this at all: it’s cp/ed from the source and I’ve merely added footnote numbers that refer to my own thoughts in order to keep this monument to journalistic ignorance intact and preserved for posterity. You can either use it as a case study for your own written projects related to misconceptions of anime in Western culture or in a more general sense use it as a reference in How Not to Argue Your Case. Or just laugh yourself silly because I, like A Geek By Any Other Name, suspect it could be written as a April 1-style joke, albeit a weak one. Cheers to Bateszi for the find - click the MOAR tag to read the full madness.

[10 Comments]

[Editorials]

Bokurano: Hiroyuki Morita on trial

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Bokurano, Rants]

A recent bit of news is Hiroyuki Morita’s controversial decision with Bokurano. I’m taking this on now because 1) it’s still relevant and 2) it’s straightforward to write with my current situation amounting to a laptop that’s out of action until the weekend, at the earliest. Bah.

[2 Comments]

[Editorials]

Hayao Miyazaki: out of ideas?

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Hayao Miyazaki, Rants]

Okay, the ‘Bokurano on trial’ article I promised you will be online in a day or two. This post though is the result of a very interesting discussion over at Cruel Angel Theses, which mainly concerned itself with Dennou Coil. I haven’t seen that show unfortunately but it got me thinking - is the output of Hayao Miyazaki really as good as the general concensus makes it out to be or is he just retreading familiar territory?

[7 Comments]