As I often do on Saturday nights, I was online chatting with Brickmuppet (which says a lot about my life, doesn't it?).  He was sending me various and sundry pictures of a somewhat questionable nature, as is the usual wont, but one of them was different.  It was a picture of a tiny fairy-like being riding a duck.  I recognized it immediately, because c'mon, it's an anime duck... and I realized that I had never actually used that particular show before!  The time has come to rectify that mistake.

-Binchou-Tan, Ep01
The entire series has been put on yootoob and I warn you, you will immediately develop both cavities and diabetes from watching it.  But it's really kinda worth it... it's just a lovely little piece of fluff where every character is the living embodiment of types of charcoal.

It isn't all sweetness and light of course.  Binchou-tan is a lonely orphan that lives in a small house deep in the woods and has to forage for food when she isn't working in the nearby town doing menial tasks.  One of her friends is a miko that communes with the afterworld.  Y'know, that sort of thing.  There's some meat in the froth, though.  Well worth the cost of time, dental work, and insulin.  I will warn you that, unless you are completely heartless, there is a very chance you will be tearing up or flat-out crying during the last few episodes.

And it's got the best looking realistic ducks I've ever seen in anime.  That counts for a lot too.

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-Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Ep26
A few months back, I stumbled upon GITS:SAC running on Cartoon Network at, like, 4am.  I was struck by just how great the show looked, particularly since it was first broadcast in 2002.  Oh, sure, there are moments when it looks... not so hot... but by and large, they're outnumbered by the drop-dead gorgeous visuals.

For a while there, Production IG was the company to go to if you wanted a show to look top-shelf.  Sort of the way KyoAni is now, I suppose.  I gather they were the first to really devote themselves to digital animation.  Surprisingly, GITS:SAC avoids most of the oddness of early computer animation; only some cars look like they've been pasted into the scene.  I find it hard to ding the series in any way, really.  The storyline is a little clunky at times, but on the whole it all works.  Hard not to recommend it.

...and the rubber duckie has a red sailor hat and kerchief on.  Bonus points for that!

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