Anime!

[Pedro_Bear]

I was reading somewhere that a second series was due this year...

They've done this to us so many times now, and every time it's been an artfully constructed troll to flog anything but a new series. We fall for it every time, too.

There has to be a second series, there is enough material now in the novels and the manga to make three as-good as the original. Not that I personally mind them taking their time to get it right, mind you, yet the oft-promised release date remains nowhere in sight and there is the sneaking suspicion that the delay is less to do with quality control and more to do with the creators fapping to their own drawings of Mikuru.

TL;DR? Don't hold your breath, and pray night and day it's not live action.

Speaking of Mikuru and in particular things pedomoe, the other day I accidentally the whole of Strawberry Marshmallow / Ichigo Mashimaro. It was unexpectedly watchable, helped no doubt by the recognition that the best character in it (obviously Miu, why am I even typing that?) also shares her voice with Chung Li in SF4. The associated music is full of character-driven delights, too (oh, and do look right, at the description box...)



Basic Plot: uhh...there isn't one? We follow a bunch of cute girls around like a stalker, and drop dead of diabetes poisoning as they do increasingly cute things. Despite that unpromising description, this is very good indeed, yet it's not something you'll rush to admit to having watched without the shroud of anonymity provided by the internet...

Spoiler:

Spoiler alert

SO FUCKING MOE YOU'RE GOING TO DIIIIIIEEEEE

[close]

[The Boston Crab]

Hmm, I'll keep waiting, I'm quite good at enduring suspense (as anyone in the Animal Collective thread will surely acknowledge). In the meantime, I guess I'll pick up some of the novels. I almost got hold of the live music show but then decided that's not exactly the angle I'd dig.

Not sure if I'm super tempted by Ichigo Mashimaro, though the fact that Miu appears to have 'CUNT' stitched on her little jacket does make it mildly more appealing. Are the Chinese 5-0 going to bumrush me just for Googling it?

[Consignia]

Just a quick question, if Pedro's sniffing around: Is this definitely cancelled? I was reading somewhere that a second series was due this year...

Very interesting question. At the moment this is being re-run in Japan, explicitly in chronological order. When the series was broadcast, some of the later stories where interspersed with the main focus, but they didn't adapt everything from the novels. One such story, Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, would come somewhere in the middle of the chronologically run series. The re-run is scheduled for 28 episodes long, and the next episode that should be broadcast if the first series was be being broadcast fully should be The Boredom of Haruhi Suzimiya. However, the episode is listed as Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody. The buzz at the moment is that the second series is to be broadcast alongside the first series, being plopped in order when neccessary. We should find out in the next couple days if this is true or not.

[The Boston Crab]

Woop woop! Obviously it's massively anticipated so would be quite a stunt if they pull it off. At the same time, surely (SURELY) it's inevitable that they're going to do this since it's a 28-episode run?! What else could they be showing?

Anyway, very interesting stuff if they show it as you suggest. You mean that certain 'second series' episodes would actually be slotted into the 'first series' chronology? I've not read the novels (in fact, they've JUST NOW finished downloading!) and have never watched the shows 'chronologically', only in the order that they were televised, so maybe I've misunderstood a little/lot.

[Pedro_Bear]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[UPDATE 05.17.2009] - TV Wakayama was asked to remove next week's episode title.

thisiswhattheydidtouseveryfuckingtime... ARRRRRRRRGGGHHH...


Oh, if you don't have it bookmarked, this site has very good streaming anime, saves torrenting a whole rar of crap.

... cunt...

Strawberry Marshmallow is certainly knowing enough to make Clint Flick print publishing in-jokes, if that's any recommendation? The lead character smokes, drives a cute motorscooter and can't get employed, and the kids she looks after are so moe it really physically hurts.



Miu is the flawed (and often floored), dynamic, slightly sociopathic trouble-maker, and even the lame, glasses-wearing goodie-goodie is a broad enough take on the stereotype to make her interesting.

It's not in the Haruhi/Rozen league of drop-dead awesome anime tv, but if you are curious as to the true defintion of moe (i.e. not actually pedo at all), then Ichigo Mashimaro is it.

[Consignia]

thisiswhattheydidtouseveryfuckingtime... ARRRRRRRRGGGHHH...

Well, maybe. There's some strong evidence this time to point in another direction. There's certainly something going on, as this rerun has been heavily advertised, more so than most showes get. I've heard they were asked to refrain from releasing the title before the airing.

Anyway, I've been having my own Haruhi binge recently. I've been reading the novels, getting some of the spin-manga, buying the art-books, watching Haruhi-chan and Churuya-san, and even playing the Wii game. It'd be the primetime for me to get another series of the show proper.

[Pedro_Bear]

/a/ is open-eyed, white-knuckling it with an epic count-down... I don't think I can take it, I'm off out for the next two hours.

If the worse comes to the worse, I promise to carve ca/b/ into my forehead before going for ch0's high-score in the refectory tonight.

[Pedro_Bear]

ETA 30 mins... Hope you can moonspeak.

[Consignia]

Yup, it's a new episode alright, todays episode is bamboo leaf rhapsody.

[Pedro_Bear]

GET IN RIGHT NAOW!!!! stream is -30mins, it is just starting!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[madhair60]

As a result of this thread I'm acquiring both Gurren Lagann and Haruhi Suzumiya.  These will be good.

I also like Azumanga Daioh.  I thought that was lovely.  Oh, and Mahou Sensei Negima, which is the worst shit ever and all the more watchable for it.

[Consignia]

Oh, and Mahou Sensei Negima, which is the worst shit ever and all the more watchable for it.

Negima is by Ken Akamatsu, the patron saint of mediocre sex comedy.

[madhair60]

Negima is by Ken Akamatsu, the patron saint of mediocre sex comedy.

Yes!  And it's crap!

[Pedro_Bear]

HAH! K-ON who? Was there anything else broadcast at all on any channel on Earth last week? I think not...



If you know how to make a Wish, or frequent desuchan's /a/, then the initial English weather report is massive clouds with crystal clear vision. I understood half of it from the moonspeak anyway (and... uhh... the fact that it was worded 99% the same as the dialogue in the translated novel...)

So... yeah... the new episode just slots right on in with the others as if it had always been there. It's Mikuru-heavy (always good), time-travel-tastic, and ties up three loose ends while unravelling something huge at the end...

They hid the opening music from us in this broadcast! It might be worth checking out the later wapland showings in case they casually slip it in then. The end theme has changed, as you'll no doubt have already heard.

Here are their wishes (they rush through the shots of them): Mikuru, Yuki, Itsuki, hurrr, durrr...

Seeing glasses-Yuki again was a treat, too. I think maybe the highlight though was Kyon's internal kawaiis, and the seconds-long "struggle" with his moral fortitude on the bench at the thought of cashing-in on his reward (which, of course, we all knew would never, ever get to happen anyway, especially as it's looking more and more likely...)



DO IT. This is one of the best television comedy shows of all time. Just pretend to yourself that it isn't anime if that's what is putting you off.

[madhair60]

I've got the first two episodes of Haruhi; which order am I supposed to watch these in?  Do later episodes fill in the blanks?  This is baffling so far, it's like a film that Haruhi herself has produced.  Obviously I'll stick with it, but I think these files might be labelled wrongly... or I'm missing the point entirely.

[Consignia]

I've got the first two episodes of Haruhi; which order am I supposed to watch these in?  Do later episodes fill in the blanks?  This is baffling so far, it's like a film that Haruhi herself has produced.  Obviously I'll stick with it, but I think these files might be labelled wrongly... or I'm missing the point entirely.

There are 4 orders: Broadcast, DVD, Chronological, and Chronological with Series 2. You're probably watching the broadcast which is the most mixed up of the lot, but the most fun to put together. If you stick with the broadcast order, you'll get it eventually. The other three a very similar, except that the DVD starts with the amateur movie, and the Chronological with Series 2 has extra episodes dotted around continuity.

[Pedro_Bear]

Ha ha! Haruhi doesn't truck with mortal ideas of continuity, the series deliberately shakes the order in which you see things. The meta-joke is that Haruhi is directing all of the episodes, not just the pilot, and so she mixes them up to be more fun, or as Kyon exasperates during one of the endless corrections during the next-week-on tail, "this is just uneccessarily confusing now..."

If you really want to see just the main plot arc, you need to watch the six episodes specifically titled "The Melancholy of..." which are episodes 2, 3, 5, 10, 13 and 14 in the original broadcasted order, or 2-7 on the English sub DvD release, assuming you got the recent one that starts with "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina" pilot (the av club film reel).

If you've got the original broadcast order (i.e. the awesome a.f.k. fansub torrent), the shake up is worth enduring though, as the multi-layers of sub-plots gently build up to make finale episode 14 truly epic, what with the mysterious events having been called-back to in so many previous ones, and the over-all effect is much better as far as characterisation of the tertiary characters is concerned.



Also, for some (mean-spirited, boring) people the series can seem to be anti-climatic if you watch "Someday in the Rain" last (i.e. if you have no soul whatsoever), but with S2 now broadcasting, this won't be such an issue.

[madhair60]

I have the a.f.k subs - and thanks for all the help.  I'll be sure to give impressions, whether you want them or not.  And now, Gurren Lagaan

[madhair60]

Haruhi is fucking fantastic

[Pedro_Bear]

It's that all right. Who would have thought a seifuku magic girl melodrama could be so awesome? That's what we're watching, and yet it's so much more than that.

We've been streaming it while building our new chan (oh the joy of editting unlabelled css templates through trial and error...) and there just isn't a weak episode. "Someday in the Rain" parodies weak episodes, and even wilfully having nothing at all happen to them makes for awesome tv.

Having seen it all for the millionth time, I have to say I really feel sorry for Mikuru. Not, I hasten to add, because of the bullying*, but more that she is so very unconfident in her hidden-role.



Everyone else is so centered and balanced with their secrets from Haruhi, but poor little Mikuru isn't. The new episode really underlines this, and even though we see that she grows up into a super-confident, able adult, the scenes where she laments in her self-doubt on the bench at the end are tear-jerking, doubly-so given that none of the errors she thinks she made were her fault. Her please-won't-somebody-hug-me body language is killer too, spot-on subtley rendered in common with all of their expressions and emoting throughout the series.

*

Spoiler alert

the scene in "Someday in the Rain" where Haruhi starts spontaneously singing an evil, gleeful version of Hare Hare Yukai while forcibly stripping her is possibly the funniest thing on the small screen for years

[close]

Next report: K-ON



initial reaction: Hidamari Sketch with GITARH

[Glebe]

Watched Tekkonkinkreet the other night-and blimey, I was fairly impressed. Not only is it visually astonishing, it also gradually gains real depth and substance as it goes along. Very good indeed.

[alan nagsworth]

Watched Tekkonkinkreet the other night-and blimey, I was fairly impressed. Not only is it visually astonishing, it also gradually gains real depth and substance as it goes along. Very good indeed.

Yeah that film is lovely isn't it? It's made all the more enjoyable by the awesome soundtrack aswell, crafted beautifully by Warp Records veterans Plaid.

[Glebe]

This is gonna sound weird,

Spoiler alert

but the Minotaur character kind of reminded me of Aphex Twin.

[close]

Then when I noticed that Plaid were on Warp Records in the credits, I thought "Oh! Aphex Twin!"

[alan nagsworth]

Haha! He reminded me more of the Skull Kid in The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

[The Boston Crab]

I bought three Haruhi dolls in some weird market yesterday.

YE-HAY.

[madhair60]

Can I have one?

[Glebe]

Can I have the other 'spare' one?

[Consignia]

I bought three Haruhi dolls in some weird market yesterday.

YE-HAY.

Well, Today I got a Haruhi Pinky figure(linky), Asuka from Eva Figure(linky), A set of Gurren Lagann mini-figures (linky), and virtual bubble wrap (Linky, beat THAT! /slams down phone

But seriously, I need to stop visiting hobby link. Too much tempting shit, for my nerdly desires.

[The Boston Crab]

Dolls for everyone! Yeeaahhhh.

They also had a bunny girl/guitar doll but it was 40 quid. My girlfriend was with me and I think she would have cut off my cock.

[Pedro_Bear]

'sup guise? I've been sooo boooored. Does anyone have any icecream? What's been happ...



Fuck your dial-up, it's 2009, luddite, get broadband or get out. EYEBROWS! GITAH! PANTSU! FOREHEAD! All together now! /a/ll together naow! OK-ON!  You might need a bit of persuasion to watch this next one, but I promise it is every bit as awesome as Haruhi in its own little moe way. There are subbed torrents of complete K-ON! S1 now available, and they are well worth the bandwidth.

Basic Plot: We follow a group of schoolgirls around as they make friends with each other through an after school music club. Yep. That's basically it.

NB: It's funny, really really funny, it's so moe it doubles you over, but it ain't for everyone.




K-ON! Suitability Quiz Question One

Does even the thought of moe anime make you puke all over yourself in disgust and/or self-loathing?

Yes: goback2gundam, riddle boy

No: Not being a huge fan of pedo moe myself, I approached K-ON! with some hesitance. The lack of any obvious tsundere in the main character line-up was also a bit personally off-putting, but the initial sequence with Yui running to school was so sytematically endearing that I persevered. And then we met Ritsu, and the rest of series became compulsive viewing.



K-ON! Suitability Quiz Question Two

Does the idea of a creepy committee crafting anime characters to maximise their appeal give you cold sweats, especially with moe?

Yes: You're not very bright, are you? They're all made this way, just not as good as K-ON!

No:



Everything about Yui's character and look maximises her cuteness beyond comparison levels. She straddles above even the likes of Strawberry Marshmallow like a collosus made of pure d'awwwwww.



Ritsu is the archetypal, blustering, high-energy mate you had at school, Mugi epotomises "rich girl slumming it", and Mio just is your friend if you've ever had one. The secondary characters are similarly min-maxed to enhance their roles, especially the pretty young music teacher who becomes the comedy side-kick to the group, but, you know, so fucking what?


K-ON! Suitability Quiz Question Three

Does the idea of slow character development progressing exponetially through a series put you off beginning it?

Yes: Well then, you'd be bettHEY EVERYONE BIKE RIDE!!!

No: K-ON! is a character driven anime that layers itself slowly. It takes three episodes to get you in an arm lock, and then tickles you relentlessly and ceaselessly until you are sobbing by episode 12. In terms of a series being progressively rewarding to watch all the way through, it is going to take some beating.

This does mean, however, that those initial episodes present flat central characters, Mio in particular. Yes, we learn she's a scaredycat, and yes she's been friends with Ritsu forever, but she and Mugi are somewhat two dimensional for quite a bit while Yui and Ritsu steal all the scenes and set the tone and pace of the thing. The others don't take long to catch up though.



Mio and Ritsu visibly grow up during the series, and their childhood relationship changes along the way, at one point resulting in a very believable girlie spat that is quite disturbingly realistic.



Yui and Ritsu grow close enough to tease one another with snippy asides in a totally believable way, each rubbing off on the other. We'll chat about Mugi in a bit...



Even when we become confident in the characters, the writers introduce a new one, essentially to add another perspective for us to see how the girls have developed since they first met up. This is no idle plot device either, as the new character arrives fully-formed, injected into the group specifically to act as a new pair of eyes through which we see things.



Poor Azusa-chan is completely corrupted by the girls into their slovenly ways, and in terms of displaying staggering command of character-driven storytelling, she's the jewel in the crown, despite arriving late.

So for meta-plotting then, this series is as clever as Haruhi, it's just doing something rather different over all. At one point episode 12 effortlessly calls right back all the way through the others to the very first things we see, and in doing so... well... next question then...


K-ON! Suitability Quiz Question Four

Do you like a good cry during an anime?

No: You will die alone, so why not hurry things up, eh?

Yes: There has never been an anime sequence that has made me blub at the monitor quite like Yui's last desperate dash in "Finale". The realistic fall-out between Mio and Ritsu was tearful enough, but episode 12 deliberately sets out to make you cry. This is very much a girlie anime (no, never), and if a girlie anime can't have a talking cat, it's going to do its best to make you bawwwww at certain points.

That is the finale to S1, by the way, everything builds up through the series to break you there so that they can lift you right back up again, higher than ever in the final few minutes.




Did I mention it's funny? Really, really funny? This despite the clearly designated "suitable for all" usually resulting in lame jokes and whatnot, and indeed some of the more subtle gags are spelt out for the very younger veiwers, but it's done lightly and unpatronisingly.

This is anime, after all, and the people they are entertaining are as diverse as they are demanding of good television, and tweens will not be talked down to by a cartoon. Speaking of diverse audiences...


K-ON! Suitability Quiz Question Five

Are you likely to try to watch this with someone who just doesn't get the concept of fanservice?

Yes: HAH! Enjoy the IKEA sales, you sap.

No:



It takes as soon as episode 4 for the girls to be splashing about in their swimming costumes. Even before this, you will not be able to avoid noticing that chipper Ritsu is drawn as being right on the very brink of puberty, it is one of her character definitions. Yet it is all done lightly, knowingly, and the series remains realistically pre-sexual. This is firmly in the Haruhi zone of acknowledging anime's tendency to sexualise young characters, and slying taking the piss out of you if you're watching it just for that.



The music teacher is in Haruhi's role as the person forcing them into increasingly embarassing outfits whether they are performing or not, and throughout the grand anime tradition of costume moe is upheld whilst mocked at the same time. There is a whole tl;dr that can be written about the role of the music teacher, but it's easier if you just watch the show.



Mugi's developing interest in yuri is as much a joke at the expense of the masturbators as it is honesty charming and naive. The reactions of Ritsu and Mio when they notice it are spot on believable, and the series just carries on as if nothing unusual is going on, because, actually, nothing unusual is going on. This happens. What? What agenda?

That having been typed, K-ON! is this year's gift to yuri, MADs, /fiction, and fan art in general. Again, as with Kyonko, the strength of the characters has afforded them some protection from the Hentai rapists, and much of the H-content is suggestive or charming rather than overt or sickening.



So... yeah, h-manga rip-offs aside, the themes in K-ON! are friendship and fleeting moments of childhood just before you are no longer a child. The girls are so believably lazy and unmotivated for almost all of the time, it is quite refreshing to see such honesty. If you are lulled into believing this anime has anything to do with a rock group or playing instruments, you'll be disappointed.



Certainly it is about selling instruments, and bleeding edge mobile phones, and cute bags, and even thermos flasks, and character cds, and K-ON! music albums, and scarves, and mittens, and teapots, the product placement is as bold as it is omnipresent, but again, so fucking what? A tv show that inspires little girls to march into music stores and buy up electric gitahs is no bad thing at all. The disc 2 of each CD single that perpetuates its presence for yet another month in the top 10 out there is a music practice disc, the songs stripped down track by track for each instrument, for new musicians to play their part over the top. In much the same way that Haruhi made you want to learn a dance, YOU bring the music to K-ON!




The in-house influence of K-ON! on it's big sister show, The Best Television Show In Existence, extends beyond Super Driver to a full overhaul of animation style, and sneaky, blink-and-you-miss-'em cameos by the light music club:





The back-influences are, of course, structural, spiritual, and subtle: K-ON! is infused with Haruhi's saldage for experiencies worth experiencing, and a sense of urgency that doing nothing on account of a future that just promises more nothingness in return is avoidable, but only if we make it so ourselves.

K-ON! approaches this positive, joyful possibility without a tsundere to drag them all through it kicking, moaning and bitching; the girls of the light music club have to navigate their way past their own inherent lazy inertia through friendship alone.

Yui finds friends for the first time in her life, and through this she finds purpose and motivation. Mio and Ritsu find that their friendship changes as they grow up, and Ritsu suffers the consequences of trying to hold onto the old, before they resolve a more mature one. Azusa finds that a music band is a band of friends who play music, the revelation turning her whole approach to the previously all-importance of technique on its head. Mugi's dilemma is unresolved as of series one end: we can confidently expect something equally subtle and poignant from the show's take on the poor little rich girl who tries so hard to please everyone all of the time she leaves nothing for herself.

The timescale makes a difference to the overall feel between K-ON! and Haruhi: the action in Haruhi occurs over the course of a few weeks in the original Melancholy of... plot arc, whereas K-ON! burns through a whole school year in the same number of episodes. Yet the character development slots right into place: the writers for both know their charges inside out.

K-ON!'s lovely young music teacher with a "dark secret" who becomes first their sensei and then their comedy side-kick - hindernace almost - as she falls all-too-easilly into the role of friend, and takes advantage of their laziness to indulge her own, is a horribly recognisable and accurate portrayal, even within the cartoonish framing she's being presented. This is a valid, contemporary adult role that is hardly ever touched on elsewhere.



Adult authority is, of course, absent outside of faceless teachers maintaining perfect discipline in classrooms. Parents are not seen with their children in either K-ON! or Haruhi. K-ON! even makes this into a sly joke at one point: what is essentially the heartless abandonment of Yui and her sister over Christmas to enable the characters to meet up and the audience to see what the girls are like at home is lightly acknowledged to be the plot device that it clearly is. Leagues away is the sleazy appartment janitor who makes a direct, unambiguous, sexual pass at Haruhi, and her reaction to this, silently bowing and moving deliberately backwards and away from the area, the adult authority acknowlegded, but at the same time denied within the situation. She is simply not going to engage with the escalated sitution by stooping down to his adult level. It's the same framing, illustrative of the differences between the two series. The K-ON! girls are simply not going to be placed into such a situation, to do so would be monstrous. Indeed, Yui finally "arrives" in the group when she becomes familiar enough to be included in the slapstick, to strike her before this point for comic effect would seem truly horrific.



What sets K-ON! further apart is the absence of boys. Ritsu's younger brother appears for a few frames in the very final episode, and we learn Sawako's "dark secret" is boyfriend related, but beyond a few shop assistants, K-ON! is all girls in a way that tween anime simply is not as a matter of course. This does present an inherent incompleteness in the overall world presented by K-ON! at the benefit of disposing outright with the predictable romantic sub-plots that drive girlie anime. Gender-swapping K-ON! is disasterous, the female personae do not translate at all, and this again draws attention to how extraordinary Haruhi's world is with regards to the role of gender in the series. Does this reality-gap diminish K-ON!? For some idiots, apparently "yes", but then again, these are the same negative, soul-dead fools who couldn't understand let alone feel the magic spell woven by Endless Eight. None of their opinions matter, they struggle to engage with the mundane thanks to their self-serving, self-important compartmentalisation. Fuck 'em, Pokemon is a lie: you can't catch 'em all, and their punishment is their own self-imposed isolation from an everyday personal mythology. Good.



School-based anime characters live in that liminal state enjoyed by protagonists throughout children's literature, just old enough to cope with whatever the story is going to demand of them, but not old enough to dismiss it as "not-profitable". Where Haruhi and K-ON! have the edge on their British counterparts is with their positive core, the belief that the important things in life are based in experience itself, and that their time is not just some pointless drag towards social conformity and limited options. Haruhi grabs you by the tie, and runs you down the corridor away from your comfortable self, the girls of K-ON! have to motivate themselves. That the series chooses friendship as their motivation is truly delightful and eminently inspirational.




TL;DR? K-ON! is another world-class television show that will be dismssed out of hand by idiots simply because of the animated format and/or their own inability to watch a story focused on tweens without sexualising them. This quiet little anime has so much more to offer its viewers in a single episode than British TV offers in an average month all channels combined. The Wire perhaps approaches the level of confident, effortless, character-driven delights displayed by K-ON! and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, if that is anything to guage them by? So stop being such a snob and give them a torrent ffs, you're missing out you stuck-up fool.





NEXT UP: Parody-heavy, symbolic meta-humour and loli vampires? In my anime folder? It's more likely than you thinking: