I’m Glad that Gonzo is Finally Dying

According to various sources, everyone’s favorite studio Gonzo is being essentially forced to resort to ero anime, considered a mark of shame in the industry, with their worst staff, as if any scrap of talent hadn’t left long ago or was (mercifully?) canned. This is a sign of the times, a reflection of a flagging world economy and financial troubles of Japanese animators. Now Gonzo themselves is a different type of beast.

Good riddance. I hope Gonzo burns to death for the pain they’ve wrought on the anime industry, or alternatively is forced to animate the worst brands of porn or trading card game series possible. Low standards, bottom-barrel adaptations, one of the worst track records in the industry short of Imagin, all facets of the depressingly awful mark that Gonzo has left. Gonzo has done little except hinder the industry with their “signature” generic series with cookie-cutter plots and typically drab, unimaginative character designs. They Gonzoified Bakuten in almost every aspect, which should have been enjoyable enough with those luscious designs!

From the painfully generic Trinity Blood to the comically awful Dragonaut to the seemingly amateurish Glass Fleet to the ill-fated RomeoxJuliet to Witchblade of the stereotypical Gonzo guns/gore source material to the dead-on-arrival Solty Rei to the lowest-common-denominator Rosario + Vampire to, uh, Gantz to the unimaginably horrible adaptation of the near masterpiece that is Bokurano, Gonzo excels in pumping out some of the worst series in the industry, and this is their past few years alone. I’d say I fully enjoyed 5.5 of their series lifetime, one of which was flawed enough (Last Exile). Guess the other 4.5 and you win a prize. I can’t say this of a single other studio with a Gonzo-level breadth of titles. Not even close. Think of how much better off we’d be if Gonzo never touched a few of those travesties and a far superior studio worked their magic.

Ponder the economic impact of Gonzo destroying countless anime series. The lucrative otaku-centric DVD industry is worth millions upon millions, if not billions of dollars annually. A best-selling DVD can average 10,000 to 15,000+ units weekly. Considering that Gonzo’s only recent hit has been Strike Witches and their other shows have barely moved units, think of the possibilities. Imagine the greater profits from Gonzo having cutback their production years back.

On the other hand, their efforts haven’t been all for the worst. Gonzo’s contribution to digital streaming has set an example for what Japan should strive towards for the betterment of themselves and their viewers. Besides pulling adjectives out of a hat that I could apply to near all production studios, I can’t think of much else!

As much as I’m sad to see any major player in our much-watched animation die, Gonzo’s warranted death echos a certain desire in fans for a greater calling. One above the worst possible fanservice (and amusingly, Strike Witches, their last work, was fanservice above par!), tired action, run-of-the-mill plots, insulting direction, and the third-rate art/animation. For all the injustices, Gonzo’s end is near and thankfully so after repeated failures, including their infamous nine-month deathwatch, almost a half-year ago. Years from now, we’ll still be looking back and saying “this series is better/worse than Gonzo”, so their influence will be left for enough time to come.

J.C. Staff, More Like Staff of Talentless Hacks

What is wrong with you, J.C. Staff? I’m aware that you love ruining absolutely everything in recent times. Why do you have to mess A Certain Magical Index up to this extent ? Why do you hate this planet and all of its denizens? Why couldn’t they have, uh, adapted the material, as opposed to translating it into animation?

This series had the potential as a cheesy sci-fi action series with cute little girls. Sort of like a loli-centric, much less badass version of GaoGaiGar with railguns subbed in for the mecha and in 2008. It turns out Index is actually a Nasu Kinoko me-too with all the quality exposition direction of Shana and the writing on par with my excrement. Touma turned from a likable lead to a tired cliche, the direction died, there’s no campy railgun-type humor, and this show has been borderline painful since episode four. Not only am I amazed how comically terrible episodes 4-6 were, it is equally incredible that a series with a character like Komoe has jumped the shark. Come on.

Now I can’t be this harsh on J.C. Staff in good faith. Currently, they are producing the decently entertaining and competent Toradora, worked on Potemayo, one of last year’s sleeper-hit surprises, and they have have a fine past as an above average animation studio for enough series I liked, but some of their (recent?) staff sure fails at direction and apparently series composition.

And I really wanted to like Index. Maybe there’s luck and we’ll get a followup adaptation of the Railgun spinoff comic, which is pretty amusing for what it is. With a different staff or studio. I’m feeling the same about Index itself, where another studio could have trimmed down most/all of the tedious and mood-killing exposition. Like SHAFT.

Shugo Chara: Fangirlism and Foolishness

As I am sure many of you know, I happen to be eating up Shugo Chara like a delicious steak. A New York strip steak grilled to perfection. It seems that some people, such as ever polarizing fangirl Hinano, disagree for patently ridiculous reasons, mostly related to so-called “filler”.

Since when is filler a negative aspect of anime? Do we want every single series we watch to be six episodes and nothing except balls-to-the-wall pure plot? Some of the more enjoyable episodes (and certainly moments) and character development of Shugo Chara happen to be non-plot-based or centric. Where would we be without expanded Eru cuteness or Ami as god? Besides, if Shugo Chara TV were a carbon-copy of the manga, which happens to have some dirty filler, what fun would there be in that? Shugo Chara isn’t even about the story.

I have a sneaking suspicion these types have never seen past magical girl series, such as Cardcaptor Sakura, Hime-chan’s Ribbon, Fancy Lala, Corrector Yui, and enough other staples. Either this is true or they’re looking back at the past with very bright, rose-tinted glasses that obscure awful filler from eyesight. It has been years since I’ve seen CCS, yet I recall four or more times the number of cards in the anime versus the comic. And you know what? CCS happens to be one of my favorite TV series.

I’ll point to the magical shows of varying quality from the past few years, such as Mermaid Melody, Full Moon, Pretty Cure, Akazukin, Ultra Maniac, Futago Hime, etc, which all feature apparent quality-sapping “filler” more than Shugo Chara does. I enjoyed Full Moon, Ultra Maniac, and Futago Hime enough, thank you very much.

Filler happens to be a stong point of enough past and recent non-magical girl favorites of many, including Nadesico, Kodocha, Aquarion, Kamichu, Kure-nai, and a myriad of others.

As Hinano and others have harping on the evils of filler and how season two of Shugo Chara will be “trash”, I embrace it and look forward to my adorable Amu and her friends in the next year to come. I wish that everyone could look past their fan-driven narrow-mindedness and enjoy a high-quality magical girl series. This is the best pure magical franchise we’ve had since CCS. Fuck fangirls, and no, not in the positive sexual manner.

I’d invoke the Internet Fuckwad Theory to explain this all away, but my blog isn’t a tired clichefest.

Barack Obama: Our Next President

Some of you who know me personally, know that I’ve been working as an intern for the Barack Obama campaign as of recently. This is the reason why my blog has been semi-missing in action for about two weeks now. While I’ve still been keeping up with anime and games, my time (and thoughts) have been dominated with Obama and how to best help him achieve the Presidency through my volunteer work.

As proud citizen of the United States of America, I have seen our country’s decline over the past eight years from the mismanagement by the Bush administration. I was getting more and more disgruntled with our politicians. As a left-leaning moderate extremely annoyed with the Republican party, I was looking to our Democratic majority in the House and Senate to clean up the mess, but I wasn’t seeing much progress.

After reaching the conclusion, before the primary process started, that Hillary Clinton (a politician I can’t stand) would be the Democratic nominee, I was ready to call it quits on following politics for the next 4-8 years. Yes, I was an Obama supporter since the start, but I have no realistic notion that he had a chance until his Iowa caucus win. Actually, since his speech in front of the Democratic National Convention in 2004, I wanted him to run for President. This was hard for me, being that politics is my second love after technology and gaming. Little did I know how much everything would change.

Come January 3rd, I was blown away by Obama’s surprise win and re-energized in my love for politics. At that point, I knew he would be the next President of the United States. From that point on, a sizable portion of my time has been spent, and still is, following political blogs and otherwise keeping up with this historic period in our history. He proceeded to clean up on Super Tuesday and win eleven straight primaries. On June 3rd, after a long-fought primary process, due to to Hillary Clinton’s stubbornness for the most part, Barack Obama was declared the Democratic nominee.

I admire Barack Obama as a politician, a man of strength and values, a supporter of stem-cell research and technology, a negotiator with our enemies, not a warmonger, and a genuinely good human being of heavy conviction. He is running an extraordinary campaign, based on the internet and individuals, not corporate interests and lobbyists. I am 21 years old and I feel as if he speaks to and cares about our generation, unlike the average politician that sees re-election as their primary concern. As a member of his campaign, I will do all that I can to ensure that he becomes our next President. I hope that you all assist me and the rest of our great country by donating to his campaign, volunteering (every little bit helps!), and lastly, voting for Barack Obama come November 4th, 2008. Yes, we can.

Besides, it’s not only Obama who we need to become our next President. We need to keep a Democratic majority in Congress to recover from the horrid mess the current administration has put us into time and time again. We need to all go out and vote for our Democratic Congressman and Senators, in addition to Obama, come November 4th. This isn’t a choice. It is what we must do to save America and guarantee the well-being this country for our children and grandchildren.

My blog isn’t dead, but my writings will be much more sporadic. Not that they were ever regular, but I have a reason now, at the very least. I’ll still be online, following the few series I was already watching, reading Touhou doujin, playing games, and updating this blog when creativity comes to me. I’m currently playing through Metal Gear Solid 1-3 from the beginning after buying the Essential Collection, since I’m in a MGS mood, and starting up Final Fantasy Tactics A2. It’s more that don’t have as much time nor energy to blog about my hobbies until Barack Obama is in the White House. My heart just isn’t into anime blogging as of now.

Song of Fire

After pondering on why episode 6 of Kure-nai just plain worked for me, I came to the realization that most anime series would work as full-featured musicals.

At the core, what’s the point of a musical? A musical illustrates the human condition and emotional state through song (and in many cases, dance). A musical is, in essence, a story of passion. Of individuals bettering themselves. A commentary on society’s ill failings and triumphs. A musical can be about any of these things and more.

Aren’t these similar reasons for why we watch anime? I know that it’s been said that some of us dedicated passion to our hobby. It’s certainly how many veterans of the medium explain their continued fandom after oh so many years. Even further than that, music is an inspiration for many in their daily lives. For some, it’s what keeps them waking up every morning.

It’s already implied, but I’d have no issues with the remaining episodes of Kure-nai in a musical format. I’d prefer it, actually.

ani-nouto is A Fucking Faggot

What in the flying fucking is this so-called “Author” moron of the blog “ani-nouto” on? Which high horse did he fall off of today? In one of his latest lazy as fuck posts, he nonchalantly insults Luc Besson’s 1994 ingenious action piece Léon (otherwise known as Leon: The Professional or The Professional), when likened to the currently airing Kure-nai by another blogger. Amusingly, I made this same metaphor, in a more indirect fashion, almost a month ago.

Why would anyone, no matter who they fucking are, dislike Léon? That’s like saying Casablanca is shallow trash. I’d appreciate some half rational credit where credit is due, but no, this “Author” dumbass criticizes the film for who knows what the fuck reason. He doesn’t even claim or defend why the movie is worth “quitting halfway”! I’ve seen better blogging from autistic middle schoolers.

Even worse is how this man-child doesn’t allow comments or trackbacks on his blog. Almost as if he knows he’s a self-righteous imbecile prick deep down inside. Who in their right mind does that? Isn’t the point of our, pardon the cliched buzzword, blogosphere to share and discuss ideas and opinions? The method this ani-nouto armchair critic employs is completely and utterly counterintuitive to this goal.

I’d poke fun at why he dislikes Macross Plus, but that’s like kicking a man after I’ve hit him over the head with a 2×4.

So, Mr. Author of ani-nouto, can you tell me why you hate Léon so much as to not defend your own opinion? For fucks sake.

Melody of Oblivion

What in the fucking fuck, ANN faggots? I always knew that you were a bunch of tepid industry shills, but couldn’t you stop fucking sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong? You know fucking zero about the rest of the online anime community, outside of your polarized vacuum. For fucks sake. This is one of many reasons why people hate and ridicule American anime fans.

Posts like this bother me the most. Yeah, lol guys pirates are terrible people that rape and kill entire families. How about if I couldn’t watch raws and fansubs, I wouldn’t be an anime fan? 90% or more of series out there I’ll never buy without seeing most or all of the respective show. I like supporting the anime industry, if anything, but if push came to shove, I would quit bothering.

It wouldn’t matter all that much to me, since I could go spend even more time with political blogs or following baseball, but I like my anime. Even worse, that guy’s an Obama supporter. I thought most Obama backers, like myself, were more moderate left-leaning folks, not conservative sounding fuckwads.

The worst part of all is that infamous fansubbing community retards like bayoab come out with their inaccurate elitist bullshit in this thread. It paints an incredibly skewed picture of anime fans outside of ANN’s ridiculosity.

I know my raws and fansubs won’t be going anywhere anytime soon with the still relative security of Share – I’m of the belief that the raws cappers were caught for external factors, not related to Share itself – and the advent of Perfect Dark, plus IRC, Friio (transport streams), newsgroups, etc. Episodes of what I want to watch will always be around and I’ll continue to be an anime elitistfan.

It’s more that I wish that the scourge of our fandom would quit it with the baseless fingerpointing.

Blargh, Reset Endings

I finished watching Genesis Climber Mospeada (of Macross fame) today. It was entertaining 80s cheese, but I felt cheated and annoyed at the end. Extremely cheated. I know that Mospeada’s very old, so I’m less warranted in my complaints as of the present, yet why do tired reset endings still continue to this day? The excuse for an ending is a lazy emotional grab at the audience that rarely, if ever, works. It doesn’t leave a strong positive impression with viewers and it betrays our enjoyment. After finishing the show, I have to say that it almost seemed like a waste of my time, if it weren’t the last Macross series that I had to see for completion.

Mospeada should be the true prototypical example of how reset endings ruin the tone and the lasting appeal of an anime series. Bleh.

Why Do I Love Touhou?, or Moe Shrinemaidens Are Awesome

When I try to explain why I love Touhou, the long-running series of curtain fire shooting games (or shmups) of the moe variety, they usually don’t understand. Sometimes, I don’t really know myself. I assume it’s similar to any fandom, except that Touhou has a pretty esoteric one, for the hardcore at the very least.

I’m obsessed with the doujin. Whether it’s Youmu and Yuyuko’s comical and sometimes puzzling relationship, Yukari’s utter laziness, Aya’s overexaggerated drive to get that picture or scoop, or just plain danmaku bullet battles, I could read it all week. It’s not what I was drawn to the series by, but the doujin is what keeps me.

The music. ZUN is obviously best at music and it shows. From Reisen’s theme to Nitori’s theme to even Wriggle’s, I like them all. It’s when you get to the huge and equally bizarre Touhou remix library of Alstroemeria, IOSYS, and hundreds more that I can call myself a true fan of Touhou’s music.

The fanart is what drew me to Touhou in the first place. ZUN might be a, uh, mediocre artist, but the fanartists pick up the slack for him. From cute to fucking hawt to awesomely cool, it’s all there. I can spend hours and hours looking at danbooru for Touhou art alone when I’m bored.

Touhou, my obsession, my testament.

Kanokon is a Fucking Horrid Piece of Fucking Horrid Shit

You should be ashamed, Japan. Sure, I’ve hated your banal, outright insulting fanservice harem genre since I’ve been into anime, yet Kanokon is somehow more disgustingly insulting than almost anything that’s come before it. Yes, I know that sex sells. I know that shiny massive breasted characters and fox spirit lolitas make thousands. That doesn’t mean that it has to exist for viewers to be shot in the face with this fugly fanservice and lonely otaku to fap to it.

Not only was I incredibly bored two minutes into the one episode (and why did I watch this one episode of Kanokon? I have no idea.) that I wanted to torture myself by watching last week, I felt like putting my cock into a wood chipper would be more enjoyable. Shows like Gravitation or fucking Boku no Pico are better than Kanokon.

If I see anything worse than Kanokon next anime season, I’m going to bomb fucking Japan. All of it.