Month: January 2011

Ramblings

Let me tell you a story about five girls and a few cups of tea

I avoid writing these subjective, meandering articles whenever I can–if I have nothing of substance to say, why publish a post about it? Still, there are exceptions to every rule, and K-ON!! seems to have forced my hand. I’ve written about it twice (disclaimer: old posts are embarrassing and bad), and in that time I’ve said all that I have to say… yet I can’t leave things hanging.

So, instead of analyzing the narrative (what’s there to analyze?) or digging into the heart of its appeal (it’s pretty self-explanatory if you ask me), I’m going to tell you a story. It’s a story about the rise to fame of the world’s five greatest moeblobs.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Review

An Amagami Retrospective

In dire need of an imouto route.

Contrary to what some believe (possibly even the popular belief), dating sims are an intricate art. They’re not about the (nonexistent) ero-scenes or other forms of sexual titillation, and they demand more depth from their characters–even if it’s an illusion of depth–than your average moege. They are, after all, referred to as “romance simulation” in Japanese. Much like a good moe series that puts its own spin on the tried-and-true archetypes, good dating sims demand immersive writing that doesn’t rely on plot.

Judging from AIC’s adaptation, Amagami is indeed a good dating sim. I was underwhelmed at first since the show opened with perhaps the least realistic arc, but it quickly became evident that, despite the absence of Kenichi Kasai’s rather liberal interpretation, I was enjoying the series as much as KimiKiss.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Review

Tinkering with Tamayura

Tamayura turned a few heads when it was released toward the end of 2010, though most of those heads belonged to viewers who already adored director Junichi Sato’s work on the Aria franchise. The two anime are similar in the ways that count for the genre–Sato manages to build an aura of magic and childlike wonder around his settings, and he explores them at a laid-back pace. Tamayura’s presentation isn’t spectacular or particularly memorable but something about it reached me more effectively than Aria did.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Analysis

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya: The Goddess’ Belated Second Coming [part 2]

Note: This is the second half of an article that wound up being too long for one post. You can read the first half here.

Picking up from where I left off, Kyon and Yuki’s nighttime stroll is one of my favourite scenes in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, and it succeeds at doing something that most scenes can’t—building an atmosphere.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Analysis

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya: The Goddess’ Belated Second Coming [part 1]

Nagaru Tanigawa’s Suzumiya Haruhi franchise needs no introduction and it won’t get one. The same goes for KyoAni’s movie adaptation of the fourth book, Disappearance; it hasn’t received nearly universal acclaim for nothing. Instead of informing you that the film is good, as you’ve no doubt already discovered for yourself, I’d rather dig into it and attempt to figure out why it’s good. Fasten your seatbelts—we’re heading into closed space and it might be a rough ride.

Note: This post is longer than it should be so I split it into two—the second half can be found here.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Miscellaneous

Ringing in 2011 with… a post

(This is the first picture I saw when I clicked on my image folder and I figured, hey, why not.)

2011 has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Well, no, it really doesn’t. 2010 is much easier to say and it looks cleaner when written; the 0’s create a sense of symmetry and it doesn’t force you to type the same letter twice in a row, like a jackhammer pattern in a rhythm game.

I suppose what I really want to say is that a new year is here, and that this is probably a good thing. Like all students, life revolves more around the school year than the calendar year for me so I’m not feeling particularly sentimental. Luckily for me, this year’s resolutions are hardly an issue since I wrote a bunch of them last year, and just to prove that I’m not the kind of person who says things and forgets about them, I’m going to go through that list–one by one–and evaluate my progress. Let’s hope I didn’t fail!

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.