Anime!

Although the random skits at the end are rather funny, I can’t really approve of them. I see them as mainly time wasters, and perhaps that time could have been used to flesh out the story more. The introduction of characters could have been a bit more descriptive as well, but having read the manga it doesn’t affect me as much.

We still have tons of pictures to get formatted and labeled over the next few days, including the ever popular CosPlay galleries, looks at all the con booths, and just lots of pictures of the con itself to say nothing of the small manufacturers and urban vinyl booths!

I reckon most of you guys would’ve read my previous two articles on dating otaku girls. Particularly the second one which talks about boyfriend and friend material. I was reading School Rumble volume 16 just now, when it suddenly struck me that Kobayashi Jin’s manga is quite realistic in the application of such boy-girl dynamics.

The portrayal of comiket in this series reminds me more of Comic Party then Genshiken or Lucky Star; where more focus is on the circles and authors than the actual doujin. The animation is understandably sparse, though I don’t think that particularly helps or harms a series like this. As long as the characters aren’t completely off-model, it’s alright. I do think the OP and ED are a little too long for thirteen minute episodes. Doujin Work looks to be a humorous little series to follow for the summer, and its length means it should be easy to keep up with.

One of the benefits of a really long commute is that it provides plenty of time for catching up on TV shows (and since I can watch about 5 episodes per day like this, I’ve been watching more than just anime.) I think I downloaded GaoGaiGar about a year ago. I watched the first 5 or 6 episodes, then forgot about it, then watched another 5 or 6 a little bit later before getting a little bit bored of it.

Anime I am currently watching: Black Blood Brothers, Tenjho Tenge, R.O.D., The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

They are NARUTO, BLEACH and INUYASHA of course. While more discerning viewers of anime would have expanded their palates to include more hi-quality works such as GitS and Gintama, the fact remains that the above mentioned 3 are the most popular, you could say as starter culture.

* Listen to local Japanese pop culture critic Kelly Haines detail the relationship of dolls to cosplay (“costume play”).

My first though was “Wow - this must be old!”. I’ve gotten used to watching anime that fits within a somewhat homogeneous style, so when I see something like this it is rather a shock. It actually isn’t that old - it was released in 1999. That’s newer than Lain (1998) or Utena (1997). Unfortunately my mind links that style with stuff like Speed Racer, or Lupin, and I often have a hard time enjoying something like this. Luckily that wasn’t a problem with this one since the story soon took over and I stopped noticing it.

I actually truly enjoyed this episode a helluva lot more than the previous arc, mainly because it had Karin, Toushiro…and you guessed it, a soccer ball xD. What impressed me the most about this episode was Toushiro’s perfectly drawn faces. Usually when it comes to fillers, it seems that the well-drawn manga visuals are replaced by failed attempts at creating abstract art, especially for the faces. Expressions are a common problem, where eyes, face edges and hair go flying everywhere across the head. Some even turn out looking like the opposite sex, or another character altogether (lol Yoakena).