
I take it back. I once thought Kimi no Todoke was just a commonly-used shoujo manga story setup with a remarkably good presentation. Oh, it’s still stereotypical, and we can still see the incoming events from a mile away. But to take such plain story/character concepts and — forget touching my soul, try hugging and deeply embracing it — Kimi no Todoke has gone beyond just an exceptional storytelling style. It doesn’t need the screaming drama and convenient revelations of shows like Toradora. It doesn’t need the surreal premises of KEY works, nor the contrasting darkness that main characters must challenge in most Nakige visual novels. It doesn’t even need to focus on the main pairing relationship like one would expect out of a romance drama, especially shoujo. It manages to warm the soul and draw tears from our heart without any of those exceptional elements, without even the need to make us feel depressed. That, is precisely why Kimi no Todoke is so profound in its own right: its presentation isn’t just exceptional, it’s godly.
The setup of this story is so common it feels like it could happen in your neighborhood; the delivery of the story feels like it did happen in your neighborhood, to your best friends and right before your very eyes.
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It’s ironic in a way. Kimi no Todoke adheres to stay within the box of normal shoujo manga, but in doing so it exceeded the limits of not just the shoujo genre, but traditional romance-drama in general…
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Screw you Gainax, screw you…
A movie adaptation lacks the time for details that a series enjoy. With that in mind, the second movie of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen was as good as it gets. Yes, it skived out a lot of the details from the early parts of the TTGL episodes range that it’s suppose to cover, but the bonuses it did add in totally destroyed any complaints I would have had. Seriously, the climatic battle of Lagann-hen makes the final boss fight of Gurren Lagann TV series look like a catfight in comparison. Not to mention they did a better job clarifying the Spiral Nemesis, and Lord Genome’s little Tron adventure were both brick-shitting and hilarious at the same time (screencap, 2).
 WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE!?! –is something I want to say to Gainax
My beef with the movie however, lays in how badly Gainax’s mood pacing ruined my emotional control for an entire night, and not in a good way. Delivering absolute despair to your fan is not cool. I guess they’ve accomplished their objective: I can never forget this movie now. But that still doesn’t mean I want to watch it a second time; at least, not all of it.
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Posted by Aorii in "Novels", Anime, Games, Manga, Otaku, tags: Anime Family Project, Chibitalia, Emiya Kiritsugu, Emiya Shirou, Higuchi Ririko, Kudryavka Noumi, Mai Waifu, Nia Teppelin, Otomiya Haine, Potato, Rita Mordio, Sakagami Tomoyo, Shannon Casull, Shirakawa Kotori, Shirakawa Nanaka
So Honya finally started the second round to the anime family project. Yay! It also means it’s time for me to publish this post that I started two months ago. About time. There’s been quite a few changes in my anime family, reflecting upon how my views have shifted over the two years since Honya’s first anime family project startup. But I think this time, a few more of the characters have entered the frame to settle down permanently.
 The bestest true end I wish for
The anime family project is, in a nutshell, a selection of characters from anime, manga, visnovs, et cetera, that are assigned to roles in your ideal fictional family.
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Netto first got me thinking when he reported the eroge industry to be in a state of peril, but I’ve been puting it off until this past weekend, when I (finally) finished Persona 4 and got started on my UK version of Agarest Wars. As one might guess, those two games are very much on the topic here.
 Tears to Tiara Visual Novel on the PS3 (those graphics aren’t bad at all)
The boundaries between JRPGs and Visual Novels has always been blurred. After all, IGN recently identified the JRPG “talking cardboard cutout” tradition in their Top 10 Ways to Fix JRPGs, and the most recognizable image of Visual Novels has got to be that windowed screenshot of bishoujo character CGs atop a classroom background with dialogue box beneath it. Not to mention, there are Visnov producers like Alice-soft (Rance) and that branch of Leaf/Aquaplus (Tears to Tiara, Utawarerumono) who seems to specialize in importing RPG elements into their Visnovs. But combining JRPG and Visnov elements goes far deeper than just the graphics corner-cutting of presentation or the addition of a basic combat system.
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There’s no Impression in regards to Nodame Cantabile at this point, one either likes it or they don’t after two whole seasons. Although, I find it mighty hard to appreciate the anime fully after enjoying the live-action so much. The faces of all the characters just look so… flat (=_= ). Not to mention how much they cut the performances down by.

In many ways, it felt like the Finale chapter had reset the stage once again. Loneliness brought forth by genius seems to be a reoccurring theme within Nodame. For Chiaki, his superhuman determination and drive, combined with undeniable natural talents, are sending him off to the stars where none of his peers could match of being his equal. For Nodame, it’s her unique talent whom few can recognize and understand.
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Posted by Aorii in Anime, Crossvision, tags: Fullmetal Alchemist, Macross Frontier, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Seikai no Senki, Shakugan no Shana, Sunrise, The Twelve Kingdoms, To Aru Majutsu no Index, Worldforging
As a hobbyist worldforger, Lelangiric’s post and Eternal’s continuation on how the mechanics/setting of anime tends to fall short of expectations actually ticks me off a little bit. Not quite because of their viewpoints, but because modern Japanese animation, and much of recent scifi/fantasy in general, are a rather poor gauge on measuring the literary values of setting creativity. But then, that’s also partially our fault as the viewers…
 Exposition start: activate lecture mode! (and who remembers this old yet remarkable anime?)
By and most in today’s series, we don’t have ‘setting’. More precisely, we have a very much watered down version of ‘setting’ which is far better entitled ‘premise’. The difference between these two? A setting attempts to round out the details behind all the primary concepts and mechanics it introduce. It goes beyond just those two initial lines of conceptual explanations and seeks to reflect the cast’s understanding of their World to the audience, without inhibitions or convenient cutouts. On the other hand, a premise is a set of concepts and mechanics simply handed to the audience with minimum scrutiny, and the viewer is expected to accept it in order to make the story work. ‘Premises’ can be upgraded to ‘setting’ through storytelling, but without intricate detailing and/or in-depth analysis, it will always remain what is it: merely a premise, a set of ideas and foundations, not a World.
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Episode 2 confirmed my initial thoughts. At the rate they’re going, Baka to Test to Shokanju is going to outright win for me as the best anime of Winter 2009; even with how much I’m looking forward to Nodame Cantabile.
I mean seriously, it’s got just about everything, and it does it with high quality style:
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A love born from an experimental act, as threats and exploitation from one side meets backstabbing from the other…
As the latest series authored by Tooyama Ema, the mangaka of Hyakuen! and Koko no iru yo! (also known as that Kimi no Todoke alike, which isn’t really true), Watashi ni xx Shinasai sure made huge strides of improvement in breaking out from the stereotypical Shoujo shell. I’d definitely say this is her best work yet.

Though, I have to admit, this manga has one smut-covered title that really gives off the wrong impression. Yet it’s also surprisingly accurate in an different way. The premise may not exactly be original, but it’s uncommon enough to warrant a refreshing read, and the presentation is just wonderful. Thanks goes to Nagareboshi Manga for scanlating it.
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