I have a website.  It sucks.

The phrase “hit or miss” is often used to describe shows which appeal only to a very specific group of viewers.  In Sankarea’s case, a more appropriate term would be “hit and miss,” with just barely more hits than misses.

• HIT: SHAFT-like art

SHAFT-like artistic flair is everywhere in Sankarea… and it shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that the director comes straight from SHAFT.  But Sankarea does better than, say, Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei or Bakemonogatari.  It holds back the black screens, the weird camera angles, and the shadowy silhouette shots, using them as a tool, not a crutch.

All anime should strive for the level of art and this perfect balance between art and story.  Seeing derpy QUALITY animation isn’t fun, but getting bombarded by SHAFT’s cotton puff ball witch creatures isn’t very enjoyable either.

Plus, cool scenes make for great screenshots.

• HIT: Romance with a twist, random stuff I couldn’t fit anywhere else in this post

This is what drew me to Sankarea in the first place.  It’s hard to produce an interesting romance without it turning into KeyAniesque melodrama, but Sankarea manages to keep it at an innocent romance level for the duration of the show.

(I need to be careful what I say here, because the next section is a bit contradictory…)

I really like the pacing of the relationship between Rea and Chihiro in main storyline, excluding episode 11.  They meet in episode 1, Rea dies by episode 3, and four episodes later, Chihiro gets kidnapped, leading up to episode 11 (see below for bashing of episode 11).

Many people have said that the finale, showing Rea’s zombie side take over, is DEEN yelling “Season Two please!”  I agree.  But more importantly, the finale shows Rea and Chihiro growing closer.  Having resolved the issue with Danichirou, Chihiro and Rea have returned to the abandoned building where their forbidden love first started… and now, they are finally taking a step beyond the innocent love that the past twelve episodes have portrayed.

Perfect place to stop the show.

Oh, and yes, the whole zombification deal was predictable, but the execution was top-notch.  Case in point: when Rea “dies,” it all happens so fast.  Rea’s slow climb up the hill contrasts with her father’s spontaneous slap and her sudden death.  As a member of the audience, you can almost experience the pain Danichirou is going through as he sees his daughter die so quickly.

• MISS: Director goes MIA

Somewhere along the line (episode 7), the director went back home and found another man in his bed with his wife.  This shot off a series of events which culminated in either the director running away from home or the director gaining a bipolar personality disorder.  So the wife and her lover filled in for him.

They evidently could not resolve their differences, because episode 7 was about Wanko, episode 8 went back to the main storyline, episode 9 was about Mero, and episode 10 went back to the main story line again.  And episode 11 and 12 are a different thing altogether.  I made a graph to make clear what was going on behind the scenes.

OVA bonus: Wife’s lover and director run away together, and wife and cabaret club girl drink until the wee hours in the morning.  Staff still on mustard strike.

But in all honesty, the director really screwed up halfway through.  One side story isn’t bad, but string together Mero, Wanko, and Rea’s parents, along with some plot holes about Chihiro and Mero’s zombie mother, and you end up with something rotting so fast, even hydrangea leaves can’t help.

And speaking of which…

• MISS: Episode 11

I had to include this specific episode under a separate category because it is such an outlier.

If this one episode had been modified, the entire show would have been a decent watch.  Mero and Wanko’s episodes weren’t bad, just a bit out of place.  And shoving in that episode about Rea’s past does show some rushing on the part of the Director, but it would have been passable.

But this episode… this damn episode… it ruins anything and everything Sankarea stood for.  Just look at that bunny girl shot above.  Why would you ever even think of putting that godawful scene into such a great show?

The eleventh episode took the whole father-daughter conflict and threw it into the trash.  It’s nice to have something new and refreshing, but watching Chihiro make an ass of himself was not refreshing – it was annoying.  And to top it off, we have some maids forcefully inserting fanservice into the show at a very inappropriate point.  While Chihiro is trying to take a morally correct stand, you see Rea in the background dressed in a bunny suit.  How is this in any way acceptable?

Take a lesson from Shigofumi.  Now that was a show that had a supernatural father-daughter conflict and pulled it off.  Take out the mindless fanservice shots.  Make Chihiro and Danichirou’s confrontation more serious (optional).  Don’t be in such a hurry to wrap up the conflict.

The key word most people are using to describe Sankarea is “potential.”  It had a hell of a lot of potential, with a likable cast, an extraordinary art style, great music, and a perfect premise.  And then DEEN shot itself in the head, throwing all that away for some cheap fanservice shots and a terribly misguided set of episodes.

It’s a damn shame to see a great show like this degenerate.  I know that no matter how much I loved episodes 1-10 and 12, I won’t be able to recommend Sankarea to anybody because on the whole, it’s nothing special.  And that just breaks my heart.

one month’s pay

I just now realized that my pictures are SUPER HIGH RESOLUTION and thus better and cooler than anything else other people would post.  And I realized long, long ago that a torrent of boring AX posts would come out in the days following the convention.  That’s why I tried liveblogging in 2009, not blogging in 2010, and I forgot what I did for last year.  But the point is: Everybody’s doing their “AX was so cool” gig and making the likes of Seinime and J159 all jealous.  So it’s not really hip.  I want to do something unique, something shocking, something totally extraordinary.

But whatever, here’s a regular post.

People I met:

• high school friends
• college friends
• canon_chan (covered above)
• canon_chan’s friends (covered above)
• kevo
• Inushinde
• Shinmaru
• that Ogiue Maniax guy
• HandsomeCrust
• Crusader
• I forgot the rest
• Some guys somewhere
• Katawa Shoujo booth
• Katawa Shoujo artist
• Katawa Shoujo Miki cosplayer

aforementioned Miki cosplayer

Day Four

There was a male dressed in a Yamaku colored uniform, but I didn’t realize he was crossplaying/cosplaying a male Miki until after I took authentic Miki’s picture.  But it doesn’t really matter cause Miki is minor and not Rin.  And cause I don’t like men.

I wanted to cosplay as Rin because I didn’t see a single Rin cosplayer.  There weren’t even any Emis or Lillys or Shizunes or whatever.  So disappointed.

the n is messed up cause it’s nyoro~n

Day Three

I waited in the standby line for the LiSA concert because my friend wanted some free tickets.  And then we sat down in the seats we bought.  But at least four of our friends got bleacher seats.  They probably could see better than we could, since Hall G was such a shitty place for a concert.

I didn’t like the LiSA concert very much.  She was idol-ish and cute and totally boring as hell.  All the songs sounded the same, her excited actions were all the same, and I had to stand the entire time because the fans were crazy.  The girl on my right was jumping up and down and screaming while waving her glowsticks for the entire ninety minutes.  I bet she won’t be walking this entire week.

Day Two

The Yuki Kajiura/FictionJunction concert, on the other hand, was really really really good.  It was very professional, the music was awesome in general, and I left thinking how lucky I was to be able to attend the concert.  But even more surprising was how I felt during the event.  Sometime halfway through, I just choked up with emotion and couldn’t breathe.  I was so happy, listening to the music and being a part of the crowd, that I found myself fighting back tears.

If Hyadain came and had a concert, I would probably lie prostrate for the entire concert and sing Hallelujah for an hour afterward.  And then I would kiss Hyadain’s hand, get him to autograph my face, and then run around town naked until I get arrested.

Hell, I don’t know what I would do if I could run into something I really lov

[taken out cause whatever]

handsome

Day Four

Oh wait, I did.

After giving it a bit of thought, I decided not to censor the above image.  I’ve been pretty hesitant to flaunt my mug around on the internet, and with good reason (at least I think so).  But in this case, I don’t think I have the heart to ruin the image.

Here’s me with one of the Katawa Shoujo artists, weee, whom I respect a whole lot.  I was so excited when I saw the “Katawa Shoujo” sign that I bought the artbook without looking inside.  I thought it was some enthusiast’s drawings… and then I looked inside and realized that I had laid hands on a priceless treasure.

Yeah.  I could go on and on about the game, but I think I have already so whatever

Apparently, Four Leaf had two tables up for Katawa Shoujo merchandise, but in my hyped up stupor, I could only see one.  Oops.  Maybe next year.

god tier

same same same same same same same same same same same same same same same same

Day Four

I saw both Mayo Prince and Nano on the same day as the Miki sighting – Day Four.  Surprising, especially considering how almost nobody was cosplaying on the last day.

I wanted to take a picture of the guy taking a picture of these guys taking pictures, but I could only get a picture of the guys taking pictures…

Day Five

In retrospect, this Anime Expo has been really cool.  I took many photos of people taking pictures of other people and managed to blur up a lot of my other photos.  I got to attend a very cool concert and a not so cool one, I got to buy lots of junk I will probably never care about, and I got to meet some aniblogger/twitter people including the reclusive icystorm.

I wish I could have met 2DT, though.  I hear he’s a well-dressed, well-spoken, and well-mannered gentleman.  Canon said he rode into the sunset on his bright white steed, but I think he probably tossed a rose back and said “sayonara.”

I’m going to be at AX next week.

I’m only watching two shows this season: Eureka Seven AO and Space Brothers.  If you guys could recommend some other good ones (not crappy jazz), that’d be great.

Eureka Seven has the best music I’ve heard in an anime in a while.  Repetitive, yes, but when the music starts, you know Ao’s going to kick some ass.  Space Brothers, too, has some great music.  It’s got some string stuff that comes in at important times to say “hey, this is touching.”  And, surprisingly, it works!

But besides that, Space Brothers is a failure.

Huuaaa, I love this series.   - Shizuo

 Heck, not only are you one of the best series to come out more than a year, you’ve also got the most addictive cliff-hangers I’ve seen in a long while.    - psgels

Amazing episode.   – Rei

It’s a surprisingly basic formula, but boy does Space Brothers continue to be entertaining against the odds.   – Andy Hanley

Shut up, you guys are wrong.

Except Hanners… somewhat.  I pulled Andy’s quote out of context, and I apologize for that.  Here’s the entire version:

Yet again, this was a rather corny and predictable episode of Space Brothers that managed to get away with being incredibly cheesy simply by fully leveraging Mutta’s personality and place within the series – in essence, the guy is so likeable that you can’t help yourself but to cheer him on and get wrapped up in his world and situation no matter where it might take us.  The result is thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end, as we watch Mutta stumble from crisis to infamy with a massive slice of good luck which nobody who has been keeping up with this series would begrudge him.  It’s a surprisingly basic formula, but boy does Space Brothers continue to be entertaining against the odds.

And here’s the biggest problem with Space Brothers: there’s a neverending war between the predictable, nothing-really-happens plot and the likable character that is Mutta.  We haven’t seen an anime delve so deep into a single person’s mind since The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.  We get to listen in on Mutta’s thoughts just like Kyon dished out his own sarcastic thoughts.  And through this process, we learn about every aspect of Mutta – how he really feels during the TV spotlight, how he feels about his brother surpassing him, etc.  This gives us the advantage of knowing why Mutta does whatever he chooses to do.

But on the other hand, there’s the really “corny and predictable” side to the anime, where “a massive slice of good luck” catapults Mutta into the exclusive astronauts’ club.

Wait, but that’s not the really bad part.  What really ticks me off about this show is how unrealistic it is and its lack of purpose.

The entire show is centered about Mutta becoming an astronaut.  He starts off in the pits, a jobless bum whose previous boss fired him because Mutta Zidane’d him.  And he ends up an astronaut, up there with his little brother. Your typical rags to riches story.

Nobody is amused.

What’s the point?

You could say the point is to show Mutta’s success so we can feel happy for him.  We get so many opportunities to connect with this fellow and when he reaches the top, we feel happy.  As Andy put it, “the guy is so likeable that you can’t help yourself but to cheer him on.”

That would be a valid argument, save for the fact that Mutta’s success is nothing more than a series of lucky coincidences.  His mother sends in the resume.  He is somehow qualified for the first exam (how??).  He plays around with the screw on the chair.  He has a huge backer in JAXA and he doesn’t even know it.  He defeats the criminal.  He has a very nice old man push him into bragging about his actions.  The host of the show specifically mentions the blind training for some strange reason.  It’s not that something’s wrong with the picture.  Everything is wrong.

So in a sense, it’s like we’re watching somebody cheat his way to the top.  It’s like having a friend get into an Ivy League via family connections, or landing a job because he/she sucked up to the boss.  But wait, Mutta didn’t do any sucking up, so it feels even more unfair.

Call me petty, but I’m jealous of Mutta’s good luck.  The show tries to blow this off in Episode 8 with a line about getting one’s own luck, but I’m not buying it.  I don’t see how Mutta participated in anything but the bragging bit.  It’s all just dumb luck.  So no matter how funny or likable Mutta is, I can’t trick myself into thinking that he deserves anything he’s getting.

So in the end, there’s no moral to the story.  It’s a show about a lucky bastard who keeps getting luckier and luckier, and the little “setbacks” he has are washed away once we realize that the end result is Mutta becoming an astronaut.  I mean… really.  The short black woman doubting Mutta’s skills.  She’s just a thinly veiled tool to make us root for Mutta.  ”Oh, you’re dumb.  We know that Mutta is smart and will make it.”

I don’t like Space Brothers.