Otakuism

But she will always be Mercedes in my heart.

And…yay for quirky post-modern humor? At least the radio drama was interesting. The duty segment was pretty good, especially the parts with Komori. She’s way too cute for a hikikomori, or does not facing the cruel light of the sun give her perfect skin? The over dramatic part was the best, though. The thing about the “conversation killers” was very true, and I love that kind of overly dramatic humor. It’s the only type of humor that I think anime as a medium really excels at. You can do surreal commentary in other mediums, but only with anime can you make jokes that ridiculously dramatic. That’s my two cents on the nature of Humor for today.

And I haven’t commented on the full OP yet either. The video has taken a step down in quality, replacing yuri bondage with Grey’s Anatomy (the medical textbook, not the ABC drama). That gets a wag of the finger from me. The Rumba song itself is good, except for the middle part in the full version where it’s very repetitive. The ending is worth getting through that, though. While Bure was a stronger song overall, the harder rock tone of Rumba has its own merits, too. And I still wish I could find a collection of Ootsuki Kenji’s work that doesn’t involve anime. The lack of Ootsuki Kenji’s music has left me in despair!

P.S. I wonder if it’s my duty as a blogger to include one “despair” line in every post on Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei?

GARness increases by a factor of ten when paired with a loli.

Claire Stanfield (306) beats Kurosaki Ichigo (170) and Gennosuke Fujiki (69). And so another shounen hero loses. At least this contest still has some integrity. Not a lot, but some.

Lloyd Irving (195) beats Kira Yamato (194) and Thenardier (55). Personally, I always found Lloyd to be a pretty annoying character in Tales of Symphonia, but it’s still better than Jesus Yamato winning.

Zaraki Kenpachi (385) wins against Guchuko (197) and Rokudo Mukuro (160). Poor little moeblobs, even tsundere ones, just can’t catch a brake.

Ladd Russo (407) defeats Sunohara Youhei (194) and Joseph Shingetsu (48). I get the feeling a lot more people watched Baccanno than I ever realized.

Roronoa Zoro (321) beats Justice (194) and Nougami Neuro (167). Another deserving victory for One Piece.

Ryuuguu Rena (423) surprisingly easily beats Chirico Cuvie (66) and Ali Al Sarshes (170). I know Chirico couldn’t win cause he just doesn’t have name recognition, but I really didn’t expect Rena to win. There’s still a lot of Higurashi fans, I guess.

Saigar takes a break for a couple days and then comes back kicking with Group A Round 2. It’s Dio Brando vs. Hosaka vs. Robert E.O. Speedwagon. Hosaka garnered the most votes in round 1, but can he really beat the immortal Dio? And it’s Emperor of Britannia vs. Itou Kaiji vs. Itoshiki Nozomu. Kaiji got the most votes last round, but I like Itoshiki here more. Kaiji still cries way too much.

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Now this is one surprise-filled episode of Dragonaut. So, yeah, spoilers galore. First we find out that Garnet has been a dragon the whole time, though I wonder if she’s actually a half dragon. Only one of her eyes is red and she hasn’t shown the ability to actualize at all. Seeing as how she was searching so hard for the Resonance ability early on in the series, I think she’s probably a really defect dragon, which would also account for her temper. Inferiority complex much? Garnet is just a whole set of mysteries it seems.

Toa reveals that she is dying, which kind of puts a damper on the show. Seeing as how the whole theme seems to be about defying your fate she could still live, but Gonzo really does like its tragic endings. So after that troubling revelation, what better time to have a symbolic wedding. It makes sense, but is also very cheesy, which most anime romances are actually.

Of course the real surprise of the episode was Akira’s quick death. Admittedly when any character starts talking about their feelings you know their gonna die, but Akira’s was pretty brutal. Nice spray of blood there animators. Speaking of animation, I think her death scene has the best animation of the show so far. Pretty faces. Akira’s death causes Machina to go berserk and transform in Dark Machina, who plans to use the power of the Holy Grail to-wait, wrong show again. She just plans to kill Asim real good. No idea why Asim wanted her to go berserk, though. Despite being punched by Jin he’s still a smug bastard who cackles a lot. Next week is looking to be a real climax, so hopefully we’ll get a lot of awesome melodrama and stuff that I love from Gonzo shows.

Or, to be more accurate, comatose. As surreally funny as these random Fuuko moments are, they really need to stop. They just further erode the emotional impact of Fuuko’s story. If Kyoani wants to have so much fun with Fuuko just give her her own show already. She could be a henshin heroine fighting evil octopuses who threaten the kingdom of starfish. Hell, I’d watch that. Though, that can also sound like one weird eroge *shudder*. I think I’ve gotten my point across.

Yeah, that’s GAR.

Medicine Seller (234) somehow beats Izumi Soujirou (181) and Jacuzzi Splot (103). How can a measly Medicine Seller beat the great Awesome Dad? What kind of name is Medicine Seller anyways? Someone tell me I’ve never watched Mononoke.

Attenborough (300) beamspams Age (138) and Potemayo (143) to death. Poor moeblob. Just can’t stand up to pure muppet firepower.

Shibuya Kazuya (174) wins against Kawahira Keita (103) and Moriyama Sunao (95). Having never watched Ghost Hunt I really can’t say anything about this guy.

Lelouch Lamperouge (327) geasses his opponents Eiga Danjuro (98) and Keith Anyan (81) to kill themselves. Having actually read the To Terra manga, though not seen the anime, I would say Keith is definitely more GAR than Lelouch’s fabulousness, though both are the same kind of calculated killer character. Keith just doesn’t screw up as much.

Afro Samurai (213) barely kills Furude Rika (209), again, and Izumi Konata (159). Rika had a very strong showing here, but being the only guy in the bracket and voiced by Samuel L. Jackson Afro had to win.

Monkey D. Luffy (232) beats Shiba Hiroshi (92) and Shinichi Chiaki (189). A One Piece character finally gets the recognition they deserve, though anyone who’s actually seen Kotetsushin Jeeg will definitely agree to the GARness of Hiroshi. GARest giant robot piloting cyborg around.

We’re finally at the final round 1 bracket, Group H. Nothing much of interest here. Guchuko shows up in her tsundere glory but will probably meet the same fate as Potemayo. Chirico Cuvie and Ali Al Sarshes also face off in a battle of old real robots vs. not so real but it’s still gundam robots. Thrilling.

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Some of Graham’s dailogue is really starting to creep me out. I don’t even want to think of the “let me embrace you!” line.

There’s only so many ways to say “what the hell were they thinking?” From buried enriched uranium to uberhax gundams that don’t move when a few missiles are thrown their way, this episode goes beyond suspension of disbelief. Sunrise must think we don’t even have a brain anymore, which might be true on their part actually. Doesn’t matter as long as those gunplas sell I guess. I applaud the show for being consistent with everyone but Celestial Being actually being smart. It takes guts to make your main characters that dumb.

At least Patrick gets to see some action (perhaps in more ways than one). That’s always nice, right?

In the immortal words of the Burger King: WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?!

And so the Thrones finally show up on the scene in all their glory while trying vainly to be as awesome as Char with the red paint scheme. Not happenin’. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from gundam it’s that any sized army can be taken out in seconds with bits, even if there’s only ten of them. Count on it next episode. Hopefully the Thrones will help this rambling show find some plot, though I wonder if Gundam 00 with a plot would be even worse than it is now?

So, that’s it. I’m feeling awfully underwhelmed here. It’s not like the ending was bad, it was very functional, which is the problem, almost too perfect and too concise. It was blatantly obvious here Keyani is trying to get us to turn on the waterworks, if only for the fact it’s Key and that’s what’s supposed to happen. The whole thing would of been better without the suitcase randomly appearing. One, the idea of random people trading a suitcase around the world requires way too much suspension of disbelief. If the Ichinose’s were such famous people couldn’t someone just mail it to Japan? What else is google supposed to be used for? Two, it robs Kotomi of her own personal closure. Having Kotomi come to terms with her parents and her past by herself, with the help of some friends, is a far stronger story than the suitcase deus ex machina. But I guess a tale of quiet triumph wouldn’t get make us cry as much as a heartbreaking letter from the dead. Though, again, the mind wanders to how did Kotomi’s parents have time to write that letter and put the bear in the suitcase when they apparently died from a fiery explosion.

It’s not that Kotomi’s a bad character, far from it. She’s weird for sure, but her humor and earnestness make her a very likable character. It’s hard to deny her cute design, too. The problem with Kotomi’s story is that it’s not driven by her, but all caused by outside events. The suitcase is the most obvious aspect of this, but Tomoya’s mysterious friendship is also circumspect. Do we really need Kotomi to be the forgotten childhood character? Couldn’t her past work just as well told completely from her perspective? If Tomoya doesn’t remember he was Kotomi’s friend until after he befriended her anew, then does it really matter if his past friendship existed or not? The whole thing feels thrown in just for the required amounts of Keyches. Kotomi’s story is very lowkey and poignant, but marred by a plot that wants to be more emotionally epic than it actually is. Which seems to be the pattern with Clannad, great characters trapped in tiredly overused plots. Hopefully further stories will be entertaining while trying to move away from this point, but I doubt it.