Fly Away Now

My new favorite series for this anime season has to be the series Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt by Gainax. I love it so much it’s revived me back from the dead to make a post about the first episode. If you want a summary what happened in the first episode there are other great blogs out there. I want to focus on the smaller details.

If you’ve seen a number of Gainax’s past works then Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt can be described as the love child of of Re:Cutey Honey, FLCL and Dead Leaves that manages to defined itself as it’s own character.

Some people might be turned off by its Cartoon Network Power Puff Girls/Samurai Jack/Johnny Bravo/Invader Zim/etc. style but make no mistake, it’s a hundred times more detailed and a thousand times more crazy and is definitively Gainax.

Look at that fat cop. How are you going to tell me he’s NOT awesome. Hanging outside a car shooting akimbo sub machine guns while the car is fast enough to warrant the drawing of speed lines and the onomatopoeic text of a vehicle going really fast.

Speaking of sounds appearing as text, have you ever wondered what it’s like to have synesthesia? Watching this series is probably the closest you’ll ever get to having synesthesia… or reverse synesthesia. My brain is working over time, there’s a picture of a gun and the sound effect of a gun. That’s fine. It processes that. Then there’s all the scrolling text and the other part of my brain which deals with critical thinking and is normally shut off is rudely woken up by a loud “BLAM BLAM BLAM”.

Continuing the train of thought of rude awakenings, I accepted and got used to the American cartoon form factor. At some point there was a transition to the traditional anime style and I was floored.After spending the majority of the episode really deformed (not super deformed, just really deformed)the style shift was super sweet. Sweet like strippers.

That screen shot is from a magical girl type of transformation scene. A stripper magical girl transformation scene. A pole dancing stripper magical girl transformation scene. A dual pole dancing stripper — why are you still reading this and now watching it — magical girl transformation scene. But the style shift doesn’t end there, the final kills are done in a fantastic record of blowing up of models in front of a backdrop. They’ve mixed the real 3D world with 2D and the cartoon 2D with anime 2D. My mind is blown.

Oh sure, the cartoon network style may look simplistic but there is excruciating detail in this series.

You probably won’t notice that the train station is called “PENI STATION” the first time you see this scene.

However the subtle messages and fine detail are not immune to Engrish. As you notice that the train from PENI station is headed to CRITORI Station. I’m rather surprised by how much they got away with.

That image alone makes this blog no longer safe for children. The best advice I can give you is to watch this series. It’s fast pace, it’s unique and it’s an interesting evolution of Japanese animation.

October 4, 2010. Uncategorized. Leave a comment.

Rosario+Headphone

So it would appear that the popularity of AKG headphones extends beyond a single apperance. In the manga Rosario+Vampire II Chapter 19 the infamous AKG headphone shape makes yet again, another debut:

Due to the limited manga color spectrum of black to white I cannot say for sure what exact model of AKG head phones this demon is dawning. However I have successfully narrowed it down to either the mio-moe-magnificent AKG701 or the AKG 601. I’m a little more inclined to say that the headphones are the AKG701 just because there’s more white on the manga drawing of the headphones in question than white exists on the AKG 601. Keep in mind the manga is definitely not a 100% graphical depiction of the AKG701/601 and that the AKG601 and AKG701 are almost a single photoshop away from each other in styling. Feel free to draw your own conclusions:

May 25, 2009. Tags: akg, Rosario+Vampire. Uncategorized. Leave a comment.

Haruhism

Hello true readers. Sorry it took me so long to post this great news but I had to recover from the excessive but well warranted hype surrounding the series that has sparked an amazing cult religion. On with the news!

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu Season 2 has aired.

All the signs pointed towards a second season but we kept getting tricked. The first trap was a nice boat instead of the first episode of Haruhi-chan. Then we were tricked as the “second” season turned out to be a re-airing of season 1. But the networks later showed a total of 28 episodes for Haruhi. Being a fairly skeptical person I was expecting for the original broadcast order of the series followed by canonical order.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu is such a great series that it’s easily over-hyped. The grave disappointment brought upon us with trick after trick I felt was a great way to twist my innocent maiden spiral-powered heart into believing there really wasn’t going to be a second season and in effectively nullifying any negativity and disappoint that hype will bring upon a good series.

Of course I have already read the novels so I wouldn’t be surprised if my happiness were to suddenly disappear.

May 21, 2009. Uncategorized. Leave a comment.

K-On, AKG, zomg, moe moe kyun!

There’s this great moe-fest show done by KyoAni, the same people responsible for that great cult-fest show and that great bawl-fest show. Episode 5 recently aired and I couldn’t help but notice everyone’s favorited maid wonder Mio has a nice pair of headphones. Behold!

snapshot20090501194755

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Take note of the brown leather headband, the two tension wires and the white nipple shaped cups. Also take note of it’s $250-$300 price. Feel free to ignore the travesty that is the little pink CD player the headphones look like they’re connected to, no need to tarnish the dream that is Mio.

Oh and Mio X Sand Canyon.

May 1, 2009. Tags: akg, k-on, mio. Uncategorized. 1 comment.

MAD Monday: Get Down

oooOOOoooOOOooo

☆ゲッダン☆

Let us pretend we’re experimenting with the internet and we find a peculiar glitch in the game Golden Eye for the Nintendo 64 and then that glitch would uh… er… *get down* with a peculiar song by Kohmi Hirose and produce an offspring video that far more entertaining than it’s parents. From there it grew and evolved into meme status. As we all know, no one is safe from memes. Even the harden badass Sephiroth can’t defend against it. I know what some of you are thinking, the Get Down dance requires too much spazing for anyone to accomplish. Something like the Hare Hare Yukai is so great because people around the world can gather and dance. So how can anyone do the Get Down dance? Well, the internet is an ever changing environment and as humans we are ever changing creatures.

March 9, 2009. MAD. Leave a comment.

Konata’s Corridor

I dare you to not watch this more than once.

For those of you who are deprived of quailty and knowledge: the song for this MAD video is “Corridor of Time” background music from the game Chrono Trigger. If you have a pair of decent headphones you might want to try listening to it with those. I’m sure a controlled leafy substance would make it even more interesting as well.

March 8, 2009. MAD. Leave a comment.

Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan

Ignoring the fact that the lack of views, lack of “memes”, quitting the horrible black hole of the internet and all around laziness has discouraged me from posting things like meme Monday and such, I am not completely dead. Continuing the deity muse from which my blog is spawned from: I would like more believers.

End of excuse / explanation.

Kadokawa has subbed and released the “anime” known as Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan to youtube. If you’re learning about it from here then let me just say it’s probably not what you’re expecting. Leaving expectations aside and taking it for what it is, the video is great.

The English subtitles coming from Japanese origin and mistakes may occur but fear not the meanings and ideas are properly conveyed. Even with 100% accurate subtitles I’m sure there will be a number of people who will describe the video with three letters. So before you tag the video as wtf let me explain some Japanese culture.

In Japan if your first dream of the New Year contains Mount Fuji, a hawk and an eggplant then the year will be filled with luck. If you know what Kyon has been through then it makes sense that his hastuyume did not properly contain all three key items for luck. He will probably have another stressful year on the account of Haruhi. Hopefully that ends up being something like another season for us.

Also from Kadokawa is Nyoron Churuya-san which I did not like as much as Haruhi-chan. I am a big fan of the actual 4-koma of Churyua-san (by Utsura Uraraka) but sadly I don’t think it works out as well animated.

February 15, 2009. Uncategorized. Leave a comment.

Touhou Tuesday: Night of Nights (ナイト・オブ・ナイツ)

Hello true readers, I know what you must be thinking. I can hear your screams from yesterday, “WHERE’S MY MEME MONDAY?!?!” and rest assured Meme Mondays will still be around. However, in celebration of the release of the Unofficial Touhou Doujin Anime at Comiket 75 Meme Monday has been replaced with… TOUHOU TUESDAY.

This isn’t the first time something Touhou has been featured on this blog, and now that there’s an unofficial anime it can officially be featured on this blog because it’s an anime. Anyways, Night of Nights!

Night of Nights ナイト・オブ・ナイツ

The original Touhou song is titled Night of Nights but you’ll often find it on niconico or youtube as “night of something else” where something else is whatever the MAD video is themed around. There are some neat ones like Night of Command that fires up my blood and makes me want to type: A B HIDARI A B B A HIDARI MIGI YUUGI to whoever I can find. Lucky Star continues to entertain us with wacky remixes in Night of Kagami. ToraDora features the totally demented Night of Minorin. Speaking of demented and scary, Night of Nights might have not served over 1 Billion it has served up a Night of Ronald. If you seek class and finesse there is also a crazy Night of Nights played on the piano and an electric guitar.

Until next time…

SHANGHAI SHANGHAI SHANGHAI SHANGHAI
HORAI HORAI HORAI HORAI
France Hollands Tibet Kyoto London Russia Orleans!

P.S.

A B HIDARI A B B A HIDARI MIGI YUUGI

Edit: Back to the future! This post was accidentally posted at 1/6/2008 instead of 1/6/2009. That has been fixed.

January 6, 2009. Tags: ナイト・オブ・ナイツ, MAD, meme, Night of Nights, toho. MAD, meme. 1 comment.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope 2009 will be filled with awesomeness and anime.

New Years is arguably one of the most important holiday for the Japanese. There are tons of all sorts of neat trivia relating to a Japanese New Year that could be discussed such as the switch from the lunar calender to the Gregorian calender in 1873 or what the blazes is kagami mochi but I choose to talk about a single number, and it’s not 2009.

One hundred eight. 108. The number you might find referenced fairly often in anime and manga. Some references off the top of my head is Zoro’s 108 Pound Cannon attack from One Piece. The Death Note manga is another good example with its non-coincidental 108 chapters. What’s so special about 108? Depending on your religion it could mean all sorts of things: the total number of deities, the number of tattva, the approximate radius of the sun in earth radius or the number of earthly desires. The Buddhists in Japan ringing the bell to show out the old year and welcome in the new year are more concerned with the 108 earthly desires. You could find different ways to count those 108 earthly desires but I think Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism has the coolest way of counting it.

If you take :