Back in July, Jeff of Hop Step Jump! posted a picture of an unnamed character from an unknown manga.  I loved it, and turned it into a wallpaper.  Understand that I change my wallpaper on a weekly basis, yet this one lasted for three months.  There was something about the young woman that just grabbed my attention.

A week or so ago, Jeff put up another picture of her... and I found out her name: Alpha.  A little bit of searching turned up the name of the manga: Yokohama Shopping Trip (Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou).  It's been very well received (and won an award for best SF manga in 2007), but hasn't been picked up here in the States... but more importantly to me, there were two different OVAs made for it... and they were listed on Animesuki.  A few quick downloads later, and I was ready to watch.

So, what was the result?

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:14 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 The 14 volumes of the manga are some of most engaging that I've ever read. Go read them. Please.

Posted by: TheBigN at November 17, 2007 02:21 PM (Xs2Gi)

2

I've been working through the manga, slowly. There isn't really any action. It's all about atmosphere and engaging characters and amazing art -- and it's amazingly good.

But it's also just about the last thing I'd think would make a good anime. The things you need for a good anime just aren't there.

Anyway, I think there's no doubt at all that the Misago is a feral robot. And I bet the Sea Goddess is a broken robot, still partially functional.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at November 18, 2007 05:09 PM (+rSRq)

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It's been a while, but The Librarian's schedule has finally slowed down enough that Anime Night has resumed!

And what did she want to watch?

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The omake continue to trickle out from Japan. 



There are times that I love being an anime fan.

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So, remember that AMV I announced a few months back, using Kanon 2006 and a track by The Smithereens?

It's dead.  Dead dead dead dead dead.  The proverbial doornail is more alive than that idea.  Bereft of life, it rests in peace.  It's joined the bleedin' choir invisible.  This is an ex-AMV concept.  I just couldn't make it work in my head, and I couldn't bring myself to force through it while clipping.  As a result, it stagnated and eventually, I gave up on it altogether.

But, as Gainax taught us, for every Death, there is a Rebirth.  And so it is in this case.  A few weeks ago, I heard the new single (does anybody under the age of 30 still call them 'singles' anymore?) from the Foo Fighters, and something went *click* in my brain.  Not an "...Angel" level click, but a click nonetheless.  So, from the ashes comes this:

I'm working on another Kanon '06 AMV... and this time, it's for real.  Again.

I can hear the groans of Ubu, Astro, and Pixy from here...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:28 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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(...with deep, abject apologies to Honorary Duck Jeff.)

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It's been a long, long couple of months here at The Pond.  Of course, there's the whole F1 thing, and work has been long hours on top of long hours, with some more long hours tacked onto the weekends to boot.  I've barely had time to watch any of the new anime season at all.

But there HAS been two shows I've watched so far... and I'm in love with both of them.

The first is called Minami-ke.  It's the story of three sisters: Chiaki, a too-smart gradeschooler, Kana, the hyperactive middleschooler, and Haruka, the high schooler.

^{Chiaki, Kana, Haruka.}

So far, the show seems to be nothing more than a look into the life of three sisters.  Nothing exciting, but a lot of fun and some laughs.  It sort of feels like Azumanga Daioh, honestly: it doesn't have a plot except for life, but it's enjoyable to see the sisters go through life... and it's FUNNY without trying to be.  In two episodes, I've laughed out loud more than I did during the entire run of Lucky Star.  Scenes like this one:

      ^{"Geez, not again..."                 "I believe I can fly..."           "Not the teapot..."}
...just make you chuckle, or laugh, or smile.  It's just that sort of show, and I'd rather watch this than any number of Gundams or Shanas.  I'd happily recommend it to just about anybody.

But the show that's completely captured my heart isn't Minami-ke:

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:22 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I guess it's from the 24th and final episode of Lucky Star... Enjoy!

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Well, eleven out of twelve ain't bad. And, paradoxically, the worst episode may have been the best episode... which makes no sense at all, but bear with me.

FMP:F is a comedy series about a teenaged boy who has grown up fighting wars as a mercenary, and knows nothing else. Oh, sure, ask him to blow something up, or shoot someone, he's your guy, no question! Ask him to flirt with a girl, though...
...see, he doesn't know what flirting is. He's never done it, never HAD to do it. He asks one of his classmates, who tells him it's a "girl hunt," and... well, this is the result:

Yup... fish outta water, that's Sagara. So what's he doing in school? more...

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It's a heavily-armed romantic comedy.

...and I love it. I've just watched the first eight episodes, and I can't tell you how many times I've broken out laughing. Sagara and Chidori are great characters; I like them both a LOT more in this than I did in the original series.

Of course, FMP:F doesn't take itself anywhere NEAR as seriously as the original does. It's a flat-out, full-fledged comedy. Paper-fan level violence abounds (though the rugby episode has some more violent violence in it, even that's more in the way of 'Three Stooges' than 'Platoon').

So far, most episodes are made up of two 12-minute stories. This keeps the humor fresh, I'm finding; what works for 12 minutes might drag for 24... in fact, the few full-length episodes have proven to be the weakest, in my view.

This is not to say that they're bad. 'Weakest' in this context means that they're earning a solid 'B' grade instead of an 'A'.

I didn't realize this when I bought the series, but it's animated by Kyoto Animation... the same people who've brought us Kanon 2006, Air TV, Haruhi Suzumiya, and Lucky Star. As you can guess, it's frickin' beautiful, though not quite as lush as those series (though there ARE moments...).

More to come when I finish, but right now I'd give this a hearty two wingtips up and a big 'recommended' for anybody looking for a laugh.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:47 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Ten days or so ago, in a fit of depression, I paid a visit to the local BigBlueBox store and picked up ADV's thinpack for Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu. I'd seen 2 episodes of it via screener disc a while ago, so I didn't go in blind, but it's odd, 'cause...

...well...

...I don't like FMP. I hated the first series, and what I've seen of the "2nd Raid" did nothing to change my mind. So why did I buy this?

It's a comedy, and one that doesn't much take itself seriously. That's about my speed at the moment, so I'll give it a watch and get back to you... there are worse ways to spend a Sunday.

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Everybody's... um... interested in what the new Evangelion movies are going to look like, yes. But have you heard about Petit Eva?

It appears that Petit Eva, subtitled "Evangelion @ School", is going to be shown via the internet and at conventions. Anime News Network reports:

"The Gainax/Khara franchise spinoff spoofs the psychological science fiction drama by reimagining the characters as classmates in Tokyo-3's Nerv School, headed by Principal Gendō Ikari and Misato-sensei. The student body includes three different Rei 'sisters,' the EVA-01 mobile weapon reimagined as the school bully Evanchō, and the ill-fated Jet Alone robot as JA-ko, a 'hidden character' in the form of a shy android girl."

Um...

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Steven treads a trail broken by Avatar in the comments of my post on the Chiyo-chan cameo in Lucky Star:

Take a look at the third picture in this post. Isn't that the same girl?

Yutaka has green eyes and pink hair. Chiyo-clone has red-brown hair and... um... what color eyes ARE those, anyway? Not green, at any rate.

So I can definitively state that no, that is NOT the same girl.

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By now, everybody knows that Lucky Star constantly throws references to other anime series into every episode. Just off the top of my head, there was Kanon, Haruhi Suzumiya (a whole frickin' episode), Marimite, Keroro Gunso, Full Metal Panic, and probably two dozen more that I saw, but didn't catch.

That's all well and good, but I didn't expect THIS one, from ep18:

Yep, that's Chiyo-chan from Azumanga Daioh all right...

UPDATE: In an attempt to make the cameo a LITTLE more clear, I'll post an edited version of the above screenshot.

------Chiyo------

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:04 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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Dear Dad...

It's been a while since I last wrote. After that Worm attack, we put into Yokosuka for some major repairs and upgrades, and I was too busy scraping barnacles to write. I did find some old photos though, and I thought you'd be interested in hearing about how the Sonic Diver unit got to where they are. more...

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Run in fear! Plead for mercy! BEG FOR YOUR LIVES!!!

No, wait... wrong script.

*shuffle shuffle* Ah, here we go...

*ahem*

Wonderduck Productions has begun work on it's second AMV. The subject anime will again be Kanon 2006, partially because I don't want to get into DVD ripping just yet, but mostly because that's what lept to mind.

Yes, just like "...Angel", this one sprung fully-formed into my brain... with a bonus: the song has never been used, according to AMV.org. In fact, the band in question (The Smithereens, best rock band of the '80s and early 90s) only appears ONCE at all, out of 150000+ videos.

Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaaa! Here we go again!!!

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Over at Chizumatic, Steven is talking about who Mikuru from Haruhi Suzumiya really is, and mentions that "some fans speculate that Mikuru is actually Kyon's younger sister." He then goes on to say that "they have the same eyes."

Hmm. Sounds like a fun bit of speculation, and one that I had no previous opinion on... let's take a look! I called up my AFK fansubs (which gives us a lot more opportunities to take screenshots of Imouto-chan), and photoshop, and started snappin'. I tried to match camera angles as much as possible on all of these, of course, and I used the left eye of each... here's a result:

Top row, L to R, we have Imouto, Mikuru and Haruhi (for comparison). Haruhi's looks like Imouto's but not Mikuru's. Mikuru's is longer than Imouto's or Haruhi's... I think.
Bottom row, we've got Imouto and Mikuru. The shapes of the eyes are... different, but that might be because Imouto is grumpy in her shot, where Mikuru is happy.

Still, not exactly a ringing endorsement of the "same eyes" arguement, but not enough to disprove the theory. Further study I leave to the interested individual; I don't see Imouto being a younger version of Mikuru, m'self, but I'm not about to rule it out, either, based on my short experiment.

Then, for a lark, I decided to go farther afield... for your entertainment, here's even MORE left eyes:

Can you name them? Answers and further discussion below: more...

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Moetan, ep 1

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Bumper Sticker seen on the way to dinner this evening:

Oh my aching head...

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Ani-nouto starts to get the dry heaves from this line in Lucky Star, ep 11:

There are some girls out there who'd like to have a talk with you, I think...

(note: the reference is actually to Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu, a short-run TV drama from 1982, that took place in Asakusa... which is where Konata ended up when she fell asleep on the train... and has NOTHING to do with Nazis, by the way.)

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A few days ago, I was discussing with Ph.Duck the whole concept of fansubs. As a translator (one of the very few people in the world who understands a language called 'Marathi' well enough to translate poetry from it into English), he understands the difficulties involved... but he didn't quite grasp why people did it. "It's just TV shows, right?"

TV shows, movies, manga, books... you name it. "But why do they do it?"

Near as I can figure, fansubbers do their thing mainly because they enjoy it. They're improving their grasp on a difficult language, and in the process spreading the artform that is anime to those of us who have problems with languages (or just don't want to bother to learn). Further, they know there's an audience out there for what they're doing. They must get some sense of pride that, say, Rocket Girls is becoming a hit amongst a certain group of fans... a cult hit, to be sure, but nevertheless a hit.

In my theatre days, what I did would be analogous to that of the fansubber's role. I was a lighting designer. Everybody saw my work... indeed, my work could have a pivotal role on the success or failure of a show (lighting designers have a saying: "Fsck with me, and you act in the dark.")

But the audience never knew my name. Like an umpire in baseball, I was most successful when people didn't even notice the job I did. Only once out of nearly 200 shows was I ever brought out on stage after a production for a round of applause (a high school production of Dracula; I was a guest designer, and even my crippled ego at the time recognized that the design I came up with was pretty darn good. That production wound up being invited to the All-State High School Theatre Festival, one of just six plays from the entire state to have that honor. It's no stretch to say that it was, far and away, the best there, too.)... and I got a standing ovation. But that production was as flashy as a Pink Floyd concert; the word 'melodrama' was invented just for shows like that one, and the lighting was supposed to be noticed.

I digress. My point is, the individual fansubber doesn't usually get noticed, either. Yes, there are groups that are known for the quality of work they do; AFK and Eclipse leap to mind, for example. But the individuals involved aren't generally well-known at all.

All of which leads me to the whole point of this post... the occasional lapse in a fansubber's concentration level which turns a scene completely on it's ear.

Rocket Girls, episode 10. A high-school girl who ran away from home to become an astronaut has just been informed that she's going into space in two days, after only a couple of weeks worth of training. Furthermore, the news has been blared over the world's media. She calls home for the first time since she left, hoping to talk with her mother and father. Instead, her younger brother answers, and after a few minutes of small talk, she asks to talk to her parents. "They're not home," her brother says. "They've gone to the shrine." "The shrine," asks our heroine? "Yep," replies her brother, "the shrine...":

Oy.

I'm not making fun of the fansubber here, really I'm not. It's more a case where this sort of thing is so uncommon that it almost begs to be pointed out. Yes, you might have clumsy translation (even the professionals do it: "Future Men" my left wingtip...), and this is probably just a simple spelling mistake, but the difference between "pray" and "prey" is too funny to let pass.

By the way, thank you, Rakuda Fansubs, for your efforts for Rocket Girls. I'd link to your website, but you don't have one!

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