NOW UPDATED TO IMPROVE GRAMMAR!
Okay, here's the story.  Not that long ago, I was gushing about Kurokami.  The first two episodes were good-to-very good, the animation was swell, the characters were interesting, so on and so forth.

But something is doing a good job of turning me off the show.  Big time.  Look, here's our main character:

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Well, who woulda thunk it?  On February 1st, the two-years-dead Duck U. Anime Club is going to rise from the ashes and give it another go.  The difference this time is that this one is almost exclusively student-driven, which is really exciting to me.

Last time around, I started the DUAC so I could have some people to watch anime with.  I did the recruiting, the posters, the viewing-rights-obtaining from the anime companies (ADV good, Bandai very very bad), the scheduling, the room reservations, and act as Advisor to the club, and enough people showed up to make it worthwhile.  The only thing I didn't do was decide where the budget was going to go... though I still had to sign off on every purchase (i.e., pizza and beverages for the club meetings).  It was fun, but I wasn't particularly unhappy to see it fade away; it was a lot of effort for not a whole bunch of reward (though the plaque from the club proclaiming me to be 'the best advisor a club could have' was pretty nice).

This time, though, two students independently came to me about getting the band back together, and while I was happy that there was interest there, I wanted it to be clear that I would only be the advisor this time... everything else was up to them.  Mainly this'll mean that I get to make the final call on shows watched: nothing offensive or explicit (no Elfen Lied, mores the pity, no hentai, no Hellsing Ultimate... and really no Dokuro-chan).  Other than that, the success or failure of the club is in their hands.  The fact that the two of them are freshman and sophmore gives me hope that it'll last for a while.

One clever idea they've already had is that the club will meet for about six hours on Saturday mornings.  The original concept was to blow thru an entire series (or two) every week... which is possible, sure, but I know that I get 'show fatigue': an inability to watch more than five or six episodes at a time (and that's for my favorites, like ARIA, Kanon '06 or Azumanga Daioh... it's a lot less for others).  I suggested they try three shows in 2-hour blocks instead.  That way, people can come for part of a series and still not miss out if they have to leave... or they could come for a genre they're fond of (i.e., giant robots) and leave when it shifts to something they don't like (i.e., highschool romance), for example. 

We'll see what happens, though I'm cautiously optimistic at this time.  It seems the two students driving this have talked to quite a few people, so this might actually work.  Keep your wingtips crossed!

Do you have any experience with anime clubs?  If you have any suggestions, leave 'em in the comments!

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Kurokami (aka "Black God") has a curious history.  Originally a manga, it was written by a Korean manhwa (Korea's version of manga) team specifically for the Japanese market.  The authors, humorously, don't entirely know Japanese, a fact they make fun of in the omakes at the end of the books.  The anime (produced by Sunrise), however, is the first ever to be broadcast simultaneously in Japan and America (on ImaginAsian TV, dubbed).  So, what of the show?

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Touhou fandom is something I know nothing about.  Apparently, however, it's godawfully huge in Japan.  Originally a scrolling shooter game by a one-man 'team', it's grown into something much more massive than that.  Oh, the game is still done by the one guy, but there are now either 11 or 14 Touhou games, depending on if you want to count spinoffs or not.  It's so big, that at the recent Comiket there were nearly 900 individual sellers of Touhou-related doujin manga, and the game even has its own sizeable festival (called Reitaisai) devoted solely to a Comiket-like doujin market.

So... hugely popular in Japan, Touhou is.  Fans have assumed that it's just a matter of time before some production company scoops it up and makes an official anime out of it, but as of yet there's been no sign of that happening (one reason might be that ZUN, the creator of the games, wants to direct and write the show himself).  When you boil it down, though, it'd kinda be like making an anime based on Defender or Galaga... who knows how it'd turn out?

But, remember when I said that it was popular in the doujin circles?  Well, one group decided to make their own anime.

Skeptical?  I was.  It's a lot easier to draw a manga than to do a full-fledged anime.  So how'd they do?

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Our continuing quest to discover if the Ikkitousen Great Guardians series of OVAs can out-perv the Dragon Destiny OVAs, our friends at Studio ARMS have brought us the newest in the "sexy cosplay" contests...

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Well, Don's doing it, and Steven's doing it, and I've got nothing better to blog about today, so here goes:

• What anime are you watching now? 
Multiple that are airing in Japan.  If you mean, "what anime that's been released in the US am I watching," then I'd have to say Please Twins.  I picked up the thinpack boxset a month ago, and only now have I gotten around to watching it.  Oh, and it's not a 'secret shame' anymore; it really is pretty good.

• What is your favourite time to watch?
Night-time, generally around about 10pm-ish, more or less.

• And your favourite place?
In front of my computer for fansubs, on the couch for DVDs, though the wing chair is common, too.

• Who is your favourite auteur?
None.  I don't do auteurs, I do shows.

• Your favourite OST?
Probably Kanon, though the soundtracks for Bubblegum Crisis 2040 and Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex would be right up there.

• What is the most difficult anime you’ve ever watched?
Eiken.  Oh, different "difficult," sorry.  The two Ghost In The Shell movies.  Thought-provoking stuff, and not particularly accessable.  Or you could just watch them for the pretty pictures, your call.

• What was the first anime you remember watching?
Ranma 1/2, followed by the OVA for Oh My Goddess.  1996 or so.  Get off my lawn.

• Do you have a comfort show that you re-watch?
ARIA comes the closest.  I've watched ep09 of ARIA the Origination more times than I can count.

• What is the most erotic anime you’ve watched?
Nothing, really.  I don't watch hentai, so that takes out a lot of it. 

• Which classic should you have watched?
I've been told that Haibane Renmei is fairly good.

• Which series did you never want to end?
ARIA.  They could make another 200 episodes about the gondola girls of Aqua and I'd watch 'em all.  I wanted a few more episodes of Azumanga Daioh, too, but mostly because I wanted to see what happened to the characters when they went into their first year of college, not because I wanted the show to go on forever.

• What is your most overrated anime?
Today, tomorrow and forever: Naruto.  Why that piece of drek is so popular is entirely beyond me. 

• Which character could you have an affair with?
Like Steven says, "you're joking, right?"  Right?

• Who is your favourite character?
Alice Carroll, from ARIA.  Followed closely by Mai Kawasumi from Kanon.

• Which character do you most dislike?
Saji Genpou from the Ikkitousen series of shows. 

• Which character do you identify with most?
I don't know that I identify with a character in any anime.  That's probably a good thing, all things considered.

• Which anime changed your life?
Ranma 1/2.  Not because it is anything particularly special, per se,  but it was the show that introduced me to this medium that I enjoy so much.

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Okay, we're far enough into the current season for me to have made up my mind as to what I'm sticking with.  Finally.

So, without further ado, the latest season of What's Wonderduck Watching?


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Continuing with the quest to see if they can out-ecchi the Dragon Destiny OVAs, the good (if somewhat pervy) folks at Studio ARMS have rolled out the second OVA for Ikkitousen Great Guardians. 

It's a high bar to try and clear... do they succeed where they failed the first time around?

^{Boy, it's good to be an otaku...}

And who is our Sexy Cosplayer this time around?

^{The living dead girl herself!}

Obviously, from here on out, everything should be considered NSFW.  Most of it really isn't, but better safe than sorry, neh?

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To be honest, I wasn't sure he would.  I knew he'd appreciate the show, sure, but as he said, he doesn't "do well with 'lots of personality but nothing happens' kinds of shows".

Well, he just finished watching S1e13, and one could say he likes it:

"I will say this: this is one of the best things I've ever watched."

In the past, I've either suggested or he's gotten interested in a few shows based (at least in part) upon my recommendation: World of Narue and Jubei-Chan, and I waged a campaign to get him to watch Azumanga Daioh, and while he's liked them all (2.5 stars, 3.0 stars, and unrated due to fanboi interference), he's never been as... enthused about a series as this.

I'm pleased.  And relieved: I really wasn't sure he'd like the series, and said as much in one of his comment threads.

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1 I think you'll like my review. I just finished writing it, but I need to collect some frame grabs before I can post it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 17, 2008 10:03 PM (+rSRq)

2 I've seen people say that a show like ARIA, from what they've watched, is not for them. But I've never ever heard of someone saying that they hated the show. I think that's also a nice testament to the series.

Posted by: TheBigN at October 22, 2008 01:19 PM (9A02J)

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Nozomi Entertainment shed some light on something suspected for some time: it's looking like they've got the entire ARIA license.

They just announced that the first half of the 26-episode series ARIA the Natural will be released on January 29th, 2009.  This coming fast on the heels of the release of the entire ARIA the Animation series just a few weeks ago should make every fan of ARIA click their heels with joy.

At least metaphorically.  It sure as heck made ME happy!

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So I've watched ARIA season 1 ("The Animation") on DVD and it's just as good as I remembered it.  But tonight, I was rewatching the outstanding Episode 9 of season 3 ("The Origination"), when something struck me... something that made me smile and applaud (metaphorically, of course) the staff and writers of the series all over again.

Episode three of the first series is when we're first introduced to Alice, the Pair from Orange Planet.  She's something of a prodigy at the gondola, yet still in school.  In the episode, it's revealed that, in fact, she was featured in "Undine Magazine", what I figure is the People of Neo-Venezia. 

As Alice walks to school, she is approached by two admirers who'd like an autograph:

She turns them down, saying (in effect) "I haven't done anything yet."  A sensible attitude, but it kinda crushes the spirit of the two girls.

Jump now to episode 9 of season three.  Alice has just gone through her school's graduation ceremony, and is in the process of leaving the school grounds.  Before she does, however, she's approached...

...by the same two girls!  This time, one of them asks for a button off her jacket, and Alice agrees.

The first time I watched it, I thought it was nice, but I didn't catch the link back to the beginning of the show.  Now, though, I'm just impressed as all get-out by either the forethought put into ARIA, or the memories of the creative staff (whichever you'd prefer).

It's a little thing, but hugely important in showing the development of Alice's character over time...  and it's the little things that count.

(incidentally, the two screencaps show what can be done with a halfway decent budget, too...)

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This past Tuesday, the ARIA Season 1 boxset was released and I, being a huge fan of the series, needed to order it.  There was no question of where I'd be heading to place the order: Robert's Anime Corner Store.  Huge selection of just about anything anime or manga related, decent prices, yadda yadda yadda.  Lots of on-line places have those things.

But here's where RACS is different: Customer Service.  After I placed the order, I gave them my Duck U. e-mail address... which makes sense, because I usually have packages shipped to the Bookstore (that's where I am during the day, after all).  The problem is, Duck U's IT department has upgraded their e-mail filters from "hungry" to "rapacious", and after 24 hours, I hadn't gotten the usual confirmation e-mails from RACS... they never even made it to my "junk folder", being killed before they reached my mailbox altogether.

So I e-mailed RACS' customer service (from my everyday e-mail addy) explaining the situation, how I gave the wrong e-mail address, never got the e-mails, blah blah blah.  A short time later, I get a response, and this is where RACS truly stands above all the other 'Brand X' websites out there:

Robert himself replied. 

The President of the company dealt with my problem, and took the time to say hi while he was doing so.  I know he's dropped by The Pond before, and I've even exchanged e-mails with him once (about 18 months ago), but still:  PRESIDENTS DON'T DO THAT!  At least, not unless the person is screaming to high heaven about lawsuits and so forth (which I wasn't), and even then, they're more likely to lawyer up. 

For that reason, if I need to order something, I will always go to RACS first.  If you're in the market for anime, you should too.  Thanks, Robert!

Besides... Noemi's cute.

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-Toradora! ep01

I had absolutely no expectations for this show, but, for at least one episode, I was amused and entertained.  He's a nice guy with scary eyes, so everybody is afraid of him.  She is called the "Palmtop Tiger", because she's the ultimate tsundere.

Cue wacky hijinks.

I don't know why that putdown seems so effective to me, but...

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So now we come to the most important part of Ikkitousen Great Guardians: the obligatory OVAs.  The question is, of course, how will they be able to top the OVAs for Ikkitousen Dragon Destiny?  They didn't quite hit "hentai" with those, but they couldn't come much closer.  Will they go completely bugnutty this time?  Let's find out!

^{I suspect that I AM going to be "entertained".}

Hakufu's mom as MC?  This bodes well... or ill, depending on your point of view.  But what is the "Battle Entertainment Club", and just what the heck does it do?

^{Why did the ice in my glass just melt?}

Oh.  Oh my.  Better than strip poker.

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In the final episode of Ikkitousen Great Guardians, Ryoumou was possessed by a magic user, and her dragon taken from her.  She was then sent to fight Hakufu, which would have been an interesting, if short, battle: Hakufu with her dragon is more powerful than anybody.  Ryoumou at full power can (barely) stay with her; without her dragon, I'd think Hakufu'd make short work of Ryoumou.

Anyway, Ryoumou attacks by surprise, punching Hakufu through a concrete floor... and then we see her:

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I admit, I'm way behind the curve on watching Ikkitousen Great Guardians.  I'm only up to ep05 at the moment, and I'm really not enjoying it all that much.  Sure, sure, there's fanservice everywhere, and that's nice and all, but the creators seem to have a hard time figuring out if this is going to be a serious series (like Dragon Destiny) or a comedy.

As a result, we've gotten a good intro episode, two serious eps (02 and 03), and now two particularly stupid ha-ha episodes (04 and 05).  And when I say "particularly stupid", I mean "as stupid as you can imagine Ikkitousen can be, except worse." 

Episode 05 is so mind-numbingly dumb that I've taken two days to watch 12 minutes of it.  My IQ level, none too high to begin with, plummets every second I watch.

However, it's not entirely bad.  It's a beach episode, and at roughly the 9:38 mark, this appears on the screen:

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Okay, so they're not new episodes, exactly.  Something called "picture dramas," actually, which were included on the ARIA the Origination DVDs.

A picture drama is more like an comic book with audio.  The seiyuus read their lines over still pictures, in other words.  For a show like, oh, Dirty Pair, this would be awful.  However, this is ARIA we're talking about here: slow-paced, relaxing, casual.  There was hardly any action to animate to begin with (though the animation quality was very good in the final series), so this is perfect.

And the art is pretty solid, too:

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Last year, BeeTrain brought out the third and final installment of their "girls with guns" trilogy, El Cazador de la Bruja (NOIR and Madlax being the other two).  At the time, Pond Central was still cursed with dialup, so I wound up dropping the show after four episodes, all the while vowing to catch up with it down the road.

Well, I finally did.  During the past few days, I've watched the whole series, and enjoyed it greatly.  It's not as good overall as NOIR, but there's a lot more humor in El Cazador, so that part evens out.  We won't even be talking about Madlax here, as it's not even in the same league as these two.  The main characters, Nadie and Ellis are very likable, and work well as co-leads.  The setting is one you don't see often in anime: Mexico-ish (the show doesn't explicitly state they're in Mexico, but I'll go out on a limb here), and the animators got the look (or what they think Mexico should look like) down cold.  The plot is a little weird, with some supernatural elements thrown in.  There's action, drama, comedy, and for those who who had problems with the director's decision not to show blood in NOIR, there's blood here, but never excessive, and always plot-based.  Unfortunately, the supernatural aspects (which to me seemed silly at times) alone knocked El Cazador down from the level of  the (more or less) reality-based setting of NOIR.

Of course, saying that El Cazador isn't as good as NOIR, which is on my short-list of favorite shows, is kind of like saying that Willie Mays wasn't as good as Babe Ruth.  It may be true, but you're still making a serious comparison to the best of all time, and there's no shame in not quite matching up.

I would highly recommend this show to anybody who likes NOIR, The Dirty Pair, or a bit of action with your drama/comedy mix.

I give you fair warning, though: there's an earworm 'round these parts.


more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:33 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 You forgot the "tee-hee".... :p

Posted by: Ed at September 10, 2008 04:36 AM (pAgvx)

2 It wasn't subtitled!

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 10, 2008 07:57 AM (AW3EJ)

3 In a later ep, Ellis is doing the Amigo Tacos jingle, and Nadie tells her she forgot the "tee-hee" at the end.

But thanks for adding one, anyway

Posted by: Ed at September 10, 2008 03:16 PM (pAgvx)

4 It's not so bad. Now the caramelldansen video...

Posted by: JP Gibb at September 11, 2008 06:50 AM (psafG)

5 The tacos song is the definite running gag of that series (other than those crossdressing bounty hunters, but they don't count).  I got tired of it after a while, but it came back with a vengeance when L.A. decided to do it. Fun times. :3

Storywise and actionwise, it's not as good as Noir. But I like it better as a complete show because the characters and interactions were funner, it always kept a humorous tone to it, and I like random adventures over plot most of the time. I'll definitely buy it if it comes out here, while I'm still mulling over buying Noir after all these years since watching it.

Posted by: TheBigN at September 12, 2008 08:19 AM (lbpix)

6 I totally disagree about Madlax,I happen to love the show.

Posted by: adam at February 29, 2012 03:45 PM (amNxb)

7 Necromancy at its best!  Adam shows up to a thread that's been dormant for nearly four years... to complain.  Bravo!

Posted by: Wonderduck at February 29, 2012 07:04 PM (O9XO8)

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As most of you know, I am generally proud to call myself an otaku, in the English sense of the word (and, possibly, the Japanese sense, too... YMMV).  But there are moments where the antics of other otakus (otaki?) make me just want to crawl under a rock and hide.

To whit, THIS:

Okay, it's Chuck Yeager's myspace page, cool!  Real American Hero, no question about it... now, is it really him?  I dunno, but I could believe it easily enough, so let's just assume it is.  Now, if you scroll down a little bit to the comment section, the first bunch all seem like the usual hero stuff: "Thank you for being an inspiration to me," and things like that.

And then? 

Thank you, Mr Otaku With The Communist Manifesto In Front Of Your Face.  I'm now going to go find a rock, and after I beat you over the head with said rock, I'm going to hide under it.

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So this evening, one of the new ducklings attending Duck U. stopped into the Bookstore to buy his books.  Never mind that classes started last Wednesday, that's not important... what's important is that he was wearing an Evangelion t-shirt, featuring the NERV logo, similar to this one at Robert's place.

I complemented him on the shirt, and I kid you not, he sneered at me and asked me if I had seen the show on Cartoon Network. 

(crowd gasps, goes "Ooooooohhhhhhhh".)

Now, I don't know what crawled up his arse and died, but if you act like "a joik or woise", you can expect that there will eventually be some sort of return fire... and I was pretty much in a bad mood anyway.  So I decided to have some fun.

I admitted that I only saw an episode or two of the show on Cartoon Network (which is true; I borrowed the box set from a friend, then bought my own set a few weeks later), and started to scan his books into the register. "It's one of those 'Japanime' shows about giant robots, right?"

He said "It's called anime, and it's more about the end of the world, and what it means to..."

I assume he was going to say "...what it means to be human," but I cut him off. 

"I prefer more slice of life shows, m'self.  Azumanga Daioh is probably my favorite, but there's a bunch of others, too.  Shows like Kanon, Clannad, y'know... though Hidamari Sketch is awfully good, and I would have loved another season of Sketchbook, though I can't imagine it'll ever make it over here.  I'm very happy that ARIA was licensed by Nozomi, though I haven't pre-ordered it yet.  Someday's Dreamers is pretty decent, too;  I'm working through that one now.  It's no CardCaptor Sakura, though.  But then, what is?  But y'know, shows like Soul Eater and Toshokan Sensou are a treat, and NOIR is one of the best shows I've ever seen, and those aren't really slice-of-life.  And then you have the classics like Bubblegum Crisis and it's remake, Oh My Goddess and it's remake, Ranma 1/2... you have heard of Ranma 1/2, right?  Came out in the early '90s, maybe a little before your time?  Oh, yeah, and don't forget the legendary Dirty Pair or the Gunsmith Cats OVA... can't go wrong with girls with guns, right?"

At that point, I paused for a moment.  And smiled.  "But I'm not much of a fan of giant robots.  That'll be $258.50."


...and get off my damn lawn.

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