Euphoric Field

Normally I’m not keen on posting on currently airing shows other than first impressions and last impressions because in the middle, my opinion varies too much ep to ep and detailing my thoughts just makes me confused on how I feel about a show. This is why I prefer marathoning to weekly watching.

However, I HAVE to post about Kurenai. I already have been considering it the best of season with incredible dialog, great animation, an intriguing and unique story portrayed with brilliant directing - it’s just a fucking masterpiece. And episode 6 had a FUCKING MUSICAL OUTBURST! YES! YES! I’ve even watched it more than once already (a rarity for me) it’s just so goddamn brilliant. The movements of the characters were comically dramatic and the singing, even from the characters who couldn’t sing well, was perfect. All just brilliant and funderful. My praise be sung.

While on that Brains Base note, the first ep of the new Baccano OVA is one of the best eps of anime I’ve seen since the show itself. Brains Base is just pumping win out like they’ve got a factory of it!

I’ve decided to abandon my Anime-Planet account and go back to using My Anime List. The main reason I started using A-P more is because I am a whore - I like to be praised, and I like to flaunt my opinion like it matters. Since the leader of the site likes my high-quality recommendations, I was having fun making them. plus I was submitting some of the anime that as missing. I even had a sort of job on the site though it was insanely tedious so I rarely did it XD. A-P is a good site in only one regard - quality. There is a LOT of quality control on the site so that entries, reviews, etc. looks as professional as possible. Honestly, it’s mostly just pretentiousness since while ANN and MyAL and all do have that evil corporate feel to them, for all the shitty quality there’s an assload of information, options, and the occasional excellent review. I’m admittedly bitter over A-P’s review section because they wouldn’t accept me as a reviewer T_T They said that they were thinking about it, and that I had potential, but they never got back to me, despite the fact that I was in frequent contact with the leaders of the site >_>

What’s sad about their reviews is that there flat-out aren’t enough of them. They are excellent in quality but not only do only so many anime have reviews, but they only give one opinion and it has a high tendency to be one I disagree with (for instance, a recent review giving Dennou Coil a 5 whereas i would have given it a 9)  however the site leader said she prefers that we don’t focus on reviewing things that someone else has already done.

To put it simply, for all the great quality, A-P just lacks in too many areas to be worth it. There are a ton of anime missing from the database, the reviews are almost never helpful because they only give one opinion, and there are other sites which give more information and database options. The site’s ‘thing’, anime recommendations, is also weakened by the fact that there are a LOT of REALLY stupid ones in the mix (such as an S-cry-ed to Zatch Bell rec based on ‘they both contain lots of action.’) My Anime List is currently the database with the most options so I’ll be going back to using it from now on. You can see my anime list here:

http://myanimelist.net/animelist/2007DigitalBoy

I’ve been checking The Animanachronism’s Annotated Blogroll regularly waiting for him to add me, and he did! And what’s more, he said good things about me!

• Euphoric Field is an interesting mix. Its author is prepared to discuss some of the less-explored topics (extreme violence, yuri) alongside more traditional reviews and editorials, and for that the blog deserves respect

Fuck yes! This is the highest honor my blog has received to date (shit, the first honor my blog has received to date, unless you count Danny Choo’s comment). And i means even more coming from one of my favorite bloggers!!!

I watched Nana at almost complete random, which I have to say is extremely impressive on the show’s part. I normally take weeks just to work up the gall to watch anything more than 26 episodes, and then most shows don’t keep my attention enough to distract me from how long they are. Nana did just that. I watched the first episode at complete random on Monday just because I saw it in someone’s favorites list who tends to watch things I like (vonpost, if you’re reading this, it’s you). I’d already read a couple chapters of the manga years ago, but it still seemed nice. So the next day I continued. And I was done by Thursday night (Friday morning?). The irony here is that just, what, last week?  I was thinking how nice it was to have watched Dennou Coil (26 eps) over the course of 5 days because I could remember pretty much everything that happened, which sometimes doesn’t work when I watch 26 ep shows in 2 days. However, I wound up watching Nana in 3 days, and it’s 47 goddamn episodes. Just goes to show how addicting it was.

Nana, for me, was just like watching Welcome to the NHK, with a fourth of the laughing and 4 times the menstrual cycle. Which is fine, because I have proven time and time again that I am secretly a transvestite or something. Anyway. The reason for this is that NHK and Nana both tackled a very real-world perspective which  is extremely negative, and both ended the same way - wishy-washy. And mind you, this is WAY more about the NHK novel. Forget the show. I love it, but if I’m thinking NHK, I’m thinking the novel. NHK was definitely more direct in it’s purpose, which is natural when the lead character is as desperate as Satou. In NHK, things always look up one minute, down at the next, and just cruise along haphazardly in the middle. There is never a sense of accomplishment, and there is never a saving grace. At the end of the story, Satou is still unhappy, still not sure what to do, and still mostly a hikkikomori. What he discovers in he end is only what he knew from the beginning, and he only changes how he deals with it.

Nana similarly continues going up and down like any good drama, and like NHK, you never really feel like ‘things are going to be okay now’ and even at the end, things still suck for all of the characters in some way. They are struggling just to find happiness in whatever their everyday lives bring them, and learn how to smile even while unfulfilled. I know, I know, this comparison is probably unfair because there are probably a million stories like this. However, there aren’t a million anime like this, and if there are even more, I haven’t seen them. I am not well read. As you probably well know.

When I watched NHK a second time in January, my final verdict on it was just that I disagreed with it. I probably talked about it here already, so I won’t go deep in again, but basically the first time I saw NHK last year it scared me shitless because it said that in the end, I would just have to be a normal person, and I didn’t know how to take that. However, when I rewatched it I was in ‘I can do anything and be happy no matter what’ mode so I didn’t agree. Watching Nana, I am still the sort of person who thinks I can do anything, and that I can be happy no matter what. However, I am already like Nana (either one will probably do). I came to the realization that who you are and how you feel have nothing to do with each other. You can be happy no matter what your circumstances are. It was only when I saw Hachi living out this theory that I started to hate myselg.

I’ll say this, from the point that Hachi decided to marry Takumi onward, I wanted to strangle her. I felt like she should have found a way to be with the one she loves, and she needed to find a way to make it work. I felt like Nobu, too, was fucking up by not taking action. I kept thinking ‘why can’t they gain the courage to make everything right?’ bu the truth was that Hachi realized she could never truly be fulfilled. She figured out that she needed to live under the best possible circumstances and find a way to be as happy as possible. Suddenly I felt like a sellout for believing I could be happy under circumstances like that. At first (as usual) I thought ‘what’s the point of living if you can’t ever truly be happy?’ however when I thought about it more, I feel like it’s fine this way. I’m sure that when Hachi looks at her child, she is filled with love and hope, and I can smile knowing that I can feel emotions like that one day.

That all out of the way, let’s get to the show itself. My favorite character was definitely Shin. He was smart, cute, and always a joy, and his own little self-discovery was great. I can’t help but wonder if the manga ever gets into his past. Layla was also awesome, being his childish love interest. And, of course, Yasu was always full of win, along with Nana playing into my goth gal tastes. My favorite part of the show was the pacing. It may have taken a major shift in the second half of the show, but still remained great, even if it was wrist-cutingly depressing fro like 20 fucking episodes.

Throughout the first 20 or so episodes, this show was majorly inspiring for me, and I jammed on my bass for hours and hours while watching it. Then, last night, when I finished it, I had this oppressive feeling of ‘what’s the point?!’ however with my new realization, I feel inspired all over again. Very glad I watched this.

Some random great anime quotes. If you have some, comment. No unlimited blade works >_> The ones in moonspeak are just ones I remember better that way.

Nana
-”I’ll sleep with you if you tell me you love me.”
“Eh?! That’s not just a word you know! Don’t make a Japanese guy say that!”

RahXephon
-”That’s a bad habit of a white person. They only believe in what they see.”
“What, do you want me to put something yellow in my living room?”
“Yes.”
-”Anata wa usotsuki!” (you are a liar! The way it was delivered was just perfect.)

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (it’s like the 300 of anime when it comes to quotes)
-”Kick reason to the curb!”
-”Don’t believe in yourself, believe in me, who believes in you!” followed by “Don’t believe in me who believes in you, believe in you who believes in yourself!”
-”Who the fuck do you think I am?!”
-”RAW RAW FIGHT DA POWAH!”
-”CLENCH THOSE TEETH!”
(-I’m sure someone will tell me if I forgot any)

Earth Maiden Arjuna
-”Naze korosu?” (why kill?)

Baccano!
-”You are all a part of my dream!”
-”THANK YOU, FUCK YOU!”

NHK
-”INBOU DA!” (It’s a conspiracy!)
-(I can’t remember the exact words, but it was along the lines of ‘FUCK YOU, BITCHES!’)

Sayonara Zesubou Sensei
-”ZETSUBOU SHITA!” (I am in despair!)

FLCL
-”My dad wrote a book on the deep secrets of Eva.”

Haruhi
-”Wa wa wa wasuremono” (Forgot my something, the birth of Minoru Shiraishi’s legend)

Manabi Straight
-”Massugu go!” (Forward go! Most inspirational phrase of all time)

Black Lagoon
-EVERY LINE IN THE WHOLE FUCKING SHOW.

Cowboy Bebop
-”…bang”
-”You will cry tears of scarlet!”

Evangelion
-”I’m so fucked up!” (directly after masturbating next to Asuka’s hospital bed)

Boogiepop Phantom

-”LIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (it scared the shit out of me)

Akira
-”TETSUO!”

Bamboo Blade
-(don’t know it exactly, but the whole bit on Taniguchi Goro)

Gundam
-”My father never even hit me!”

Lucky Star
-”…..depleted uranium….”

Lain
-”No matter where we are… we are always connected!” (the most lighthearted Lain sounds the whole series and the first time we see anything but glum from her)

Since shiro told me to, my diagnosis of Soul Eater as of ep 4.

As of episode 3 of Soul Eater, Andrew Cunningham, who convinced me to watch it in the first place, is saying that Soul Eater is nailing the manga’s style perfectly. He is also saying the manga is ‘ludicrously good’. Keep these two things in mind at all times to better understand my mental conflict. Also keep in mind that this is a Bones show, and I am a total bones fanboy. It’s even directed by the guy who did Ouran, which I loved mostly just for it’s directing.

Soul Eater is fucking with me. I swear to fucking god. This show seems to be doing for me EXACTLY what the Venus VErsus Virus manga is doing for me. That is to say, it’s waving ‘things I know you like’ in my face, but like a twinky on a stick above an exercize machine, I seem to be forced to work through some stuff I absolutely hate to get to the rest. And just like VVV, I seem to be going ‘well, I don’t like it yet, but I really like it, and I can’t wait for more.’ It’s like S&M.

Starting now with the bait. (numbered for convenience in second part)

1. Soul Eater is all about the style. Any show that is all about the style, regardless of what that style is, I will likely enjoy it (see: Texhnolyze. I actually enjoyed causing myself mental and physical pain. And it’s in my goddamn top 40!) And what’s more, it’s one of my favorite styles! The dark, gothy, Tim Burton style is always a plus in my book, and the animation being as gorgeous as it is only sweetens the pot. Character designs are great, landscape designs are great, it’s just a joy to look at. And! Not only is there the dark part, but the punk part as well! I love it when the characters have that ‘fuck you!’ look about them, and make cool facial expressions and shit, which this show more than accomplishes. Truly, the style screams ‘me’. I remember my wide smile the first time I watched the op.

2. FIGHT SCENES. I love action. I got into anime because of action, and I still love to see it. Soul Eater’s first ep had 2 wonderful fights with some awesome directing, and the second episode followed suit with some badass techniques. The important thing for me in fights is just the cool moves - animation can be good as sin, but if it doesn’t look cool, it won’t matter. Soul Eater looks cool AND has insanely good animation, so it does everything right essentially.

3. OCD Guy. Getting a little bit more specific now, I have a soft spot for OCD characters because dur-hur guess why I click between two web pages incessantly for hours with neither being changing at all! Plus he just look s cool as shit and has a cool voice. And his name is fucking Death the Kid.

4. Fun Main Characters. Soul is a fanged, ghetto-dressed badass who turns into a scythe. He’s obsessed with being cool and he can be a bit of a bastard. My kind of hero. Maka is cute, and while she isn’t especially unique, I do like her attitude when she gets serious.

5. Good music. The ending theme is by far the nest song in any show this season. Plus there’s some fun J-rock when shit and fan collide, and it just fits too well. Reminds me of playing Devil May Cry in that aspect.

All that is some real good shit. That many positives put together should make one fucking hell of a show. However, as VVV has taught me, any amount of positives, when combined ith some negatives, can take a show down from ‘excellent’ to ‘awkward’. NOT bad. I will say that. Merely containing so many positives is more than enough to save it from being bad. However the mistakes keep me in limbo to the point that I can’t figure out what to think and everything comes out simply awkward.

Why?
1. The Style. This is, more or less, my most minor complaint, because the style does SO much right. However, I do think that the show has certain shots and scenes that feel way too fucking cramped. This tends to happen when characters are in a location that is only shown in a small portion - for instance, when they went to the graveyard in episode 4, we only see just the one row of graves that the characters stand near in the whole scene, never being shown any more of  the graveyard. It becomes hard to get a proper perspective of the surroundings. Many of the locations are never explained, so it feels like everything is really close to each other. The only time this was fixed was in episode 3 when Death the Kid flew tot he temple, but with the town, the school, the witch’s house, the graveyard, and the mansion from ep 2, everything seemed to be within a ten minute walk from each other or something since they just sort of got there. Maybe they really are close together, I don’t know. It just makes me uncomfortable. I know, I probably sound like the biggest asshole on earth right now.

2. Fight scenes - this is another where there is a whole lot of right and only a little wrong. In fact, the first 2 eps were perfect. The fights in both eps did everything right. It wasn’t until ep 3 that, for me at least, things got weird. Pretty much my least favorite thing in a fight scene is dialog, however it’s even worse when the characters stop to crack jokes. It just makes the fights awkward because you wonder why the hell the enemy is hesitating. Both eps 3 and 4 did this, though 4 to a bit lesser extent. However, ep 4 featured a lot of dialog from the enemy, which also tends to bother me because it means a pause in the action. The tension in a fight comes from the exchange of blows going fast and cool looking, but it looses momentum if there’s one attack, some dialog, and then another attack. The use of the special moves in ep 4 was pretty cool, but I just wish things would’ve been more instantaneous.

3. OCD Guy. His joke got pretty stale prtty fucking fast. I still love him, but they did go overboard. Which brings me to…

4. Black Star… erm I mean the main characters. In the second ep, I managed to confuse myself into liking Black Star. I confused myself into appreciating his self-appreciation, and thinking that his determination made up for his idiocy. But I was fucking wrong! He’s annoying! Seriously, I really hope he doesn’t have to talk to much. And on THAT note

5. The dialog. THIS is the clincher. This show has very bad dialog. There has almost not been any single line that was any good. There was passable, but there was a lot of fail. Every time a joke is brought in, it is made old simi-instantly. The characters’ personalities stand alone to the point that you wonder just how they could possibly do any good bouncing off of each other. If the dialog had been any good up to this point, i might have hopes that the character interactions get to be fun and hilarious, but as it stands, I’m hard-pressed to see that.

So, seriously, wha the fuck? What am I supposed to think here? Should I be getting super duper fucking excited because this show is liek OMG so totally me, or should I be keeping my expectations low? Only time will tell, and it will keep telling and keep confusing me until it either gets good or ends, because if it doesn’t get better, I probably won’t realize that it wasn’t any good until it’s over.

I’ve been banned from posting on /a/ so I’m really fucking bored.

Earth Maiden Arjuna - Perfect.

ef ~a tale of memories~ - Brilliant.

Eureka Seven - Brilliant - Almost perfect.

Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann - Brilliant

Martian Successor Nadesico - Perfect

Serial Experiments Lain - Perfect.

Baccano! - Brilliant - Almost Perfect

Dennou Coil - Fucking brilliant.

Just my opinion, which no one ever agrees with anyway : p

(in some alien language because Tokyopop’s gay ass doesn’t keep things in color)

Because I don’t talk about it enough, you may or may not know that Boogiepop and Others is my favorite novel ever and one of my favorite anythings ever. I don’t think it would have been half as great though if the translator, Andrew Cunningham, hadn’t done such a fucking amazing job, and Seven Seas adding all sorts of juicy extras that tugged me into the series with utter force. Long after reading and loving Boogiepop I found out that Andrew Cunningham had a blog and I could, like, talk to him and shit. Also, he translates a whole shiltload of novels now, and even reviews some of the ones he does and others. Well anyway, he translated Gosick and his review was favorable. Plus it had a gothloli involved and I LOVE gothloli. So seeing it in the store, I knew it had to be MINE.

For those who aren’t familiar with light novels, they are basically like reading an anime but with no pictures. Plus they are short. I read very slow so it took me about 3 hours to chomp through Gosick, but if you are the type who reads a graphic novel in 15 minutes, you should be able to finish Gosick in 45 minutes. When reading, I felt like it could have made a good movie or OVA, though by the end I was more leaning to the first arc of a series because I definitely want more.

Gosick is essentially a quirky episode of Detective Conan with more interesting main characters. The whole Sherlock Holmes style is strong with this one, and the formulas were very Conan-reminiscent. Shocking things happen, people yell in shock, most of the supporting cast is killed, and a shocking twist mixed with the most ‘no way’ clues possible reveal the truth. Replace Conan’s ‘One truth prevails’ with Victorique’s ‘I reconstructed the chaos based on the facts that sprung from the fountain of knowledge’ and there you have it.

The only trouble I had with Gosick was at the beginning when it didn’t exactly tell you where it was going, but I ended up feeling glad that time was taken to really get me into the characters before the action started. The main character duo will make many cry ‘Haruhi’. Kujo, a Japanese student at a European school full of white kids, takes himself and everything a little too seriously, can be very frank and a little stubborn but has a heart of gold. It’s easy to imagine him talking in Kyon’s deadpan. Victorique is conversely the opposite of Haruhi in terms of outward personality, but her dialog is almost the same minus the tsun. While she isn’t energetic and outgoing (n fact, she spends all of her time sitting in a tower reading multiple books in different languages at THE SAME TIME) she does command Kujo to do her bidding and acts out of sheer boredom. However, she is also a genius unlike Haruhi and states everything only according to absolute fact. Throughout the novel, we are given equal evidence that she might be more of a kid than she lets on and that she is, in fact, a robot. The duality makes her fun and interesting, and I look forward to the two characters returning again.

The mystery itself didn’t seem like it was all too original, especially since a lot of the clues were completely ridiculous. However in the end, when things came together, I was genuinely surprised by one major plot twist that made me feel like a complete idiot. In the end it was worthwhile, and since the book was so brief, it helped make the whole experience feel satisfying.

If you like mystery or are just a light novel freak like me, I definitely reccommend reading this.

Dennou Coil is one of the shows that I’ve known I had to watch for a long time and there was absolutely no reason not to, but I just never got around to it. If you look back into my blog, I did a post on the first ep last year declaring it one of the best first eps I’d ever seen (it remains so) and all the cool kids who watched it seemed to enjoy it a lot. Even Shinsen (you know, that guy who was supposed to be my partner and only did one post?) was talking about how great it was. Plus I’ve managed to accrue a decent amount of
yuri porn from this show so I needed to see it. What finally pushed me to do so was insane boredom and a recommendation from /a/. I love you anon.

Now, allow me to refer to another one of my old blog posts, ‘perfection vs. brilliance’. Dennou Coil isn’t perfect, but it sure as fuck is brilliant. This show does an inhuman number of things right, especially at the beginning and the end. The first 8 or 9 episodes have insanely fast pacing, lots of door-opening, tons of fun, a cast with a good variety of personality, and some good ol character development. There was quite a bit of childishness to it (makes sense, it was a kids show) but like fellow kids show Gurren Lagann (yes people, DC is like fucking Gurren Lagann, taken a hint now?) it managed to be surprisingly dark and deep. I was easily enthralled. There was, unfortunately, a point around halfway where things felt a little off. Right after Isako has just gotten uber god-mod powers and the mystery is running thicker than ever, the show takes a little 4-ep break to do some hardcore exposition on the technological backdrop — via some utterly hilarious and over-the-top comedy.

There were three short story eps in regards to the Illegal creatures in the DC world. One ep was massively epic and very FLCL reminiscent, one was miniature epic and one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen (yet strangely deeper than any other ep. It almost qualifies as a desert island ep - it might on rewatching, since I was just a little offput on how the plot had seemed to fade into the background when I was watching). And the las was a more somber tale. Then there was one more exposition thingy and the plot came back full force.

I can’t really consider the second plot-heavy portion of the show better or worse than the first because they were so different it was almost like 2 different shows. The hyperactivity that kept me glued to the screen before is replaced with truly well-done suspense that drew me in even more. As the conspiracies grow and the mysteries are solved, everything comes together in such a way that I ended up totally swept into it - the last show to do this with such skill was Gankutsuou, but I’d go so far as to say DC beats out Gankutsuou in that through it all, it still managed to have deep characters and intense plot twists.

And if the character development and engrossing plot weren’t enough for you (hey, they can fail sometimes. 12K and all that.) Or if pure, awesome fun still doesn’t have you convinced, Dennou Coil also has some truly unique concepts (think Lain in laymans terms, or .hack that’s actually probable/explained). the world was rich, interesting, and most importantly it’s different. It’s the kind of show that an infinity of spin-offs and fanfiction could spring from. Plus, I’m a huge sucker for urban fantasy (that’s how I ended up liking Shana ;_;), so that was a big plus. It’s also one of those shows (you know the ones) where the animation, sound, and directing all just fit together perfectly (there seen to be at least one of these per season, I’d say. Currently = Kurenai) and all are top-notch.

In my favorites list, the shows that have the most significance to me in terms of emotion and beliefs usually take top spots, pushing the generally good-ass but not-quite-powerful shows down, however Dennou Coil has easily broken it’s way into my top 10 as a totally unexpected contender. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have IsakoxYasako doujins to oogle >_>

I added Akiyuki Shinbo in the most unbelievably TL;DR fashion imaginable. Prepare to scroll a lot!