And another term of japervese animeeshon:

December 2011
to February 2012



by cowboybibimbop


by Zana


Right now I am interested in two series:

Nisemonogatari – a sequel to Bakemonogatari

Another – looks like a kind of mystery show


I’ll have a look into Brave 10, probably a few more, but most of the stuff seems to be random and average.

 

The only one that seems even a bit interesting is Another.

Winter season is going to suck for me. Suppose it had to happen after this season gave me 14 shows to follow.

 

I've probably only watch Nisemonogatari though I was hoping there'd be a prequel rather than a sequel.

 

Fucked up a bit: Here is Zana's latest version with more dates:
http://neregate.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/neregate.com-Winter-2011-2012-Anime-v3.png

One add-on: Gundam SEED is airing remastered in HD.

What the fuck did you watch?

 

Brave 10 seems to be the only decent one for my tastes, can't seem to open that third link.

 

Yet another season with fuck all to watch. I haven't found a season with even a handful of decent shows since like... 2009.

 

Yeah, what 14 are you watching? O_O

Unless you're including other anime from past seasons you're watching...

But yeah, seems a bit dull compared to this season. But I guess a lot of the anime from this season are actually gonna be 22-26 eps, so are going to continue into the winter season.

I thought this season was fairly nice compared to the last few seasons.

Fate Zero is epic. Mirai Nikki is bizarre, fucked up and weird, but pretty cool. Guilty Crown isn't as good as it should be, but is still quite decent so far. I was really disappointed by how crap Last Exile 2 ended up turning out...

3 shows that I'd rewatch is pretty decent. Most of the times I struggle to have even 1. And all 3 shows with more than just a shitty 13-14 eps!

I do miss the days when 26 episode anime was like, the minimum and you'd often see 52 episode ones all over the place. Now we just get shitty 13 eps most of the time.

 

To be fair, those 52 episode series were so bogged down in the unnecessary that plot and character development seemed to be moving at a snails pace half the time.

 

Eh, the typical shounen anime is a lot longer than it needs to be and yet at the same time, it will never *feel* that long to me. They get strangely addictive and it rarely feels 'off' when a single fight goes over 5 episodes.

I remember smashing down 52 eps of History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi over a weekend and not feeling like I had watched more than 24 episodes of something - and then a year later I rewatched it again over another weekend. Same thing happened with the 70 or so eps of Hikaru no Go.

 

Don't normally look forward to the seasons coming out, go for older ones mostly. Yet, Another has definitely gotten me intrigued. Will probably end up following that. Still need to watch Magica Modaka....I know I butchered the spelling on that one. >.>

 

Shounen anime is a little different for me since I grew up on DBZ and its 10-15 episode long fights, I'm used to it. I suppose what I meant was filler in a way, when an anime is shorter in length it generally has had the unnecessary fat trimmed from it and thus the important parts of the show are all thats left. Doesn't mean I don't love something like Inuyasha with its semi-decent filler purely for amusement, it just means I can do without it.

 

Yeah, true. A lot of anime that long are full of fillers. Another example of an anime that was completely let down by fillers was Get Backers. It started off decent, then had an amazing arc, then just went to the shits. Or of course, the obvious 100 or so fillers we got of Naruto.

But then there's a lot of good long anime that don't have fillers more than a couple of eps. Full Metal Alchemist (+Brotherhood), Gundam Wing/SEED, Kenichi, Blood+, etc.

Still, as much as I love anime with deep, complex, or interesting plots, I always have a soft spot for cheesy, long and predictable shounen anime. Especially shounen sports like Initial D, Yakitate Japan, Cross Game (first 25), Giant Killing, etc. I even loved Prince of Tennis at one point, but I think I've outgrown it now. =P

 

Only one of the sport ones I can say I've touched is Initial D and that was only the first two manga volumes a few years ago, seemed like it was pretty good. But ya, I don't always mind filler if that is all it is. Filler has been blown way out of proportion by some of the bigger animes and that starts to bug me when its something like 10 to 15 episodes before I actually get to plot again. Having that happen once in a series is annoying but if the series isn't actually done I can understand. Doing that two or three times though is really really pushing the limits of my patience. Its like how I can't watch One Piece, I've read the manga and I know what happens in it but I have so much crap to wade through before I get to the interesting arcs that its just a slog.

 

I see some new Rurouni Kenshin thing, and the first of the Berserk revamp movies. Even though I'm probably not going to get to see either for at least a year, this season is already infinitely better than the last few in my book.

This happened because the anime industry has been losing money hand over fist since 2006-2007. That's about when the American DVD market imploded, and at the time it was holding up a frightening amount of the Japanese industry. To the best of most people's knowledge, the majority of anime would break even during their TV run in Japan, if they were lucky, and would only start earning profits in the USA and other foreign markets. When those fell apart due to a flooding of sub-par works being sold at ridiculous prices, and the rise of moe as the driving force of the industry in Japan, things were bound to be cut back. This is partly why Code Geass and Gundam 00 were split into two, 26 episode seasons, there just wasn't enough money floating around to support them running uninterrupted.

 

I totally didn't know that. I never thought US sales would be a driving force compared to domestic sales at all.

I always assumed it was just an assumption (whether correct or incorrect), that moeblobs sell better than anime with serious storyline. Which given some of the 2channers obsessive nature, and how every season it's moe which take the most popular spots, isn't necessarily a bad assumption.

I guess 2006-2007 is also around when everyone had very high bandwidth internet plans, bittorrenting was picking up huge momentum and fansubbing groups were all over the place. No one was buying DVDs anymore.

Though what about the early 2000s and 90s? Back then American releases would come in *years* after the Japanese ones, and seemed more like an afterthought. Don't tell me they still relied on foreign sales back then too...?

 

The issue with moe is that it has a very finite audience in Japan, and virtually no audience in foreign markets. On the other hand, the people who are into moe properties are perfectly willing to buy the media and accessories for their favorite show, but only their favorite show. Many animation studios decided that competing on the sure bet was better than trying to appeal to broader audiences, both foreign and domestic.

There was also the problem of American companies reissuing shows in elaborate "special editions" with kitschy chachkies - miniature pencilboards, shirts, etc. - as well as legitimate extras like director commentaries and such, and charging ridiculous amounts for those. Even if someone liked a show, and was willing to buy the DVD's, it was incredibly difficult to figure out which relase to purchase, and then justify paying the insane price for it.

Something you have to understand is that before the 2000's anime was not being produced in the number that it is now. At the height of the anime bubble, well over 200 shows were being produced per year. That is nuts. Before then, there were maybe 70-80 shows produced per year. So yeah, a lot more money was floating around even after the Japanese economy in general took a nose dive in the early 90's.

What changed things for both the better and the worse was the massive success of the Pokemon anime outside of Japan in the late 90's. Numerous Japanese banks and investors saw how successful this show was, and decided that anime might be something worth investing in. In addition the early 2000's is when anime was really beginning to hit it big in the USA. You had the rise of Toonami and Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, the animation sequence in Kill Bill Part One, the release of the Animatrix, and the rise of Tokyopop in the manga market by way of releasing single volumes at $10 a pop, and unflipped. All of these things occurred within the span of a year or two, and really drove anime into the limelight in the United States. So by the mid 2000's, their was an influx of money into the Japanese industry from both domestic banks and investors hoping to make a profit, and from foreign companies wanting to provide an ever increasing audience with the anime that they wanted to consume.

Too bad they dropped the ball.

 

I think the last anime DVD I actually bought was back in 2005 when I got a Noir DVD with the episodes I couldn't find on Kazaa. It was $30 and for that price I got a whole....3 episodes. Awesome.

I think with subscription based online streaming businesses like CrunchyRoll showing up to date anime as they come out in Japan, at a considerably cheaper price, there's a more accessible way to watch anime...but still, people are too used to torrenting by now.

*shudders* Some of the obsession by moe-otaku in Japan is scary. But I guess they're so obsessive, the industry can rely on them spending big bucks on their merchandise.

I mean, the obsession goes from celebrating character's birthdays (with a heck of a lot of expensive merchandise) to buying 29 copies of a magazine that issued a feature on the voice actor of their favorite character on 1 page. It appeals to a demographic that involves individuals who do things like spend $110,000 on 5,500 copies of a new single from their favorite idol and leads to even the train companies making a carriage themed after K-ON. Let's not forget character dakimakura, or their general insistence that they prefer 2D to 3D to the extent they have mock weddings with their moe characters.

And of course, said disturbing individuals are so obsessed with their characters, that they will feel betrayed and dump their favorite anime/characters and make it their most hated thing in the world if they ever learn that the voice actor who are voicing their objects of interest has a boyfriend (and is thus not pure, as the character is supposed to be) and has had a seiyuu (even in the 90s) have a husband and child in secret, who after revealed, lost all her jobs.

Japan otaku are scary, scary people.

 

>linking shitkaku complex

sorry your everything is invalid

 

It's a pretty valid insight into the retarded things anime otaku on 2chan do.

And that was my point. They seem to be the target audience for half the moe-blobs that seem to be made.

As for why I read Sankaku...I actually...have no idea. It's a complete waste of time, serves to just annoy me most of the time, and doesn't really have interesting articles...at all. O_O