Otakuism

This has been another wonderful non-sequitar brought to you by the wonderfully horny otaku of Japan (and me).

Ahoy, maties. Once again Talk Like a Pirate Day has snucked up on me like a storm in the Atlantic and has left me bereft of any piratey fun. Yarr, but that be how the rum spoils. As it be tradition in these waters, I will now post pictures of various pirate booty (if you know what I mean) drawn by that favorite shipmate and eroge artist of mine Utility Pole Spirit, who’s actual name I have completely forgotten. Enjoy my fellow seadogs, until my ship sails into the waters of Bombay again and we can all enjoy a good many bottles of rum. Now, how about that booty?

I’ll admit it; the last couple episodes of Gurren Lagann just haven’t clicked for me. Something’s not right. First the deaths of the side characters last episode just felt like a tedious cliche. “It’s the final battle now, so everyone unimportant has to die,” kind of thing. I didn’t connect with any of their deaths, with only Makin’s raising any kind of response due to his family situation. Second, it’s taking two whole episodes just to transform into the Chouginga Dai-Gurren. It’s felt like an eternity. The whole thing with the spiral power felt like an excuse to keep Simon away so they could kill everyone else, because it’s the final battle. Haven’t defeated even one Anti-Spiral ship yet. Where’s my “all those stars are the enemy?” The whole space arc so far has just paled in comparison to the epicness of the Teppelin battle. Right now it just feels like we’re going through the motions to get to an ending. And it’s hard to say things will get really better with just two episodes left.

Still, I did find Kittan’s sacrifice suitably epic. All the Kamina references really reinforced the idea that even though Kittan has looked up to Kamina his whole life, he had become strong in his own way; a true Spiral Knight. Needed better music though. Nothing wrong with the opera/rap, just that the opera part was actually kind of bad and didn’t fit the epic mood. Something like the main theme that plays all the time would of been more appropriate. As for the whole Yoko kiss/doombitch thing, they’ve been setting up Kittan x Yoko since the timeskip and it’s not like she really reciprocated. It was only natural to think Kittan was going to die. He’s the second most hot blooded guy in the series; it’s like a mecha law he has to die. At least he went out a cool way.

Boota is the most GAR animal in any series evar.

And, yes, those do look stupid as hell. Just goggles would of been fine.

I love it when a new meme is born. That is a nice boat.

With one ridiculous dance. And, no, I haven’t actually watched the episode yet. In fact, I’ve hardly watched any anime this last week, managing only Gurren-Lagann 24, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 06 (yay subs!), and Kamen Rider Den-O 30. Damn real life.

Story:

Cause I’m lazy tonight, here’s the summary from Tokyopop: “A mysterious organization is hell-bent on orchestrating a war between the New Human Empire and the Vatican. Special Ops AX Agent Abel Nightroad teams up with a spunky young novice named Esther to try and stop Gyula, the bloodthirsty Marquis of Hungary, from unleashing the legendary Star of Sorrow”

Impressions:

Ok, for those confused about the differences between this Trinity Blood novel and the earlier one, here is how it works: In Japan this volume, Reborn on the Mars, was published first with a second book and series, Rage Against the Moons, being published afterwards. Rage Against the Moon was published here first, though. Storywise, all the events of Rage Against the Moons take place before the Reborn on the Mars storylines. Tokyopop switched the publications probably due to this.

The story this volume roughly corresponds to episodes three and four of the anime, the Star of Sorrow episodes. Except, obviously, the book greatly expands on everything to make it a much larger book, throwing in the malicious police officer Radcon, Tres Iqus as a major character, and even a full-scale Vatican invasion. Definitely more exciting than the actual episodes. The gorgeous artwork by THORES that occasionaly appears is a wonderful bonus to the story. I’m still disappointed that Tokyopop doesn’t present the opening spreads in full color, like Seven Seas did with Boogiepop. I wish they would just release an artbook already.

After reading this, my opinions haven’t really changed much on Trinity Blood. Yes, there are still a ton of cliche elements - weak yet secretly strong lead, powerful catholic church, heavy use of Clarke’s Third Law like Vampire Hunter D, etc. However, I think Trinity Blood uses these diverse elements in a unique enough way to be wholly entertaining while you’re reading it. Trinity Blood is basically a pulp adventure novel/cold war thriller, with the emphasis on the adventure. Trinity Blood isn’t deep at all, or even particularly rememberable when you think about, but it’s great for a light, fun read between all those heavy school books. Highly recommended by me, but I think it’s obvious by now where my tastes lean. Now, time for me to track down the Full Metal Panic Novel…

I love Potemayo. It was the best show to come out of the summer season. It flawlessly mixes cute moeblobs, really weird characters, and slapstick comedy. Every minute fills me with such ecstatic giddiness and indescribable happiness; I’m cutegasming every second. But, that’s the problem.

I have no idea what to write about Potemayo, at all.

In retrospect, this is a plight of most comedy anime I’ve watched. Muteki Kanban Musume, Negima!?, ARIA, Manabi, Hayate, Ouran, Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei (SUBS?!), etc. When it comes to anime heavily focused on humor I’m just at a loss of what to say. Obviously I enjoy them very much, but it’s tedious just to rewrite all the jokes and I don’t want to do many “OH GOD THIS SHOW IS AWESOME” posts.

A lot of this goes back to the nature of comedy; something is always funny when you see it but can be very different when you’re told the joke later. The only problem with my current way of blogging is that I feel it limits getting the word out about how great these shows are. I mean, does anyone talk about Muteki Kanban Musume, even though it was the best physical comedy in many years? Not really, and that’s kind of the problem. Any other bloggers encountered this same problem and found ways to counter it?

Example of Potemayo’s genius.