Engines, weapons, navigation, communications: check. Systems all green. THAT is cleared for takeoff!

Dear Friends and Readers,

After much deliberation and hard work, THAT has now moved to our own domain! From now on, join us at www.THATanimeblog.com

We’re all looking forward to having our new site operational and having you join us there. Our own domain will allow us to have more control over the technical details of our site and better serve our readers. Please update any feeds or bookmarks you may have. This AB.net site will be staying up to redirect our readers to the new one, but all new content will be on the new site. We would like to thank the AB.net crew for the home they’ve given us since we started out and we wish them and the AB.net community the best.

Additionally, the excellent and difficult work done by those who helped set up our new site must be acknowledged. Many thanks to Crusader for securing the new address, to Kabitzin from Sea Slugs Team and our own Mabdese for their work in setting up the layout and importing files, and to mercenary computer security engineer extraordinaire Agruktos for getting down into the messy, buggy depths of such a complicated undertaking and managing to resolve our most persistent issues. The journey was long and arduous, and much more technically infuriating complicated than we first suspected, but now finally it is done. In the next few days some minor tweaks will be done to the new site, but these do not relate to the main functioning or appearance of the site. Starting tomorrow I (EO) will be remaking all the ‘premium subscriber’ logins for our friends who use them, so please be patient if you regularly use one. And please let us know if you encounter any technical problems, we’ve had so many it’s hard to believe that there isn’t one last gremlin lurking somewhere. Thank you for reading THAT, and we look forward to seeing you at our new home.

The THAT team moves our precious squid plushy and other materials over to the new site.

We are Oscar Mike! Stay frosty.

Unlike that honor these do not require a beheading…

With the passing of 2009 we thought that it was time to recognize those who showed individual competence during the course of the year. While it is the habit of many to judge series here we prefer to recognize the characters that made their shows a little bit better even as their series was weighted down by anchors that exceed the weight of Big Zam. While there are many who are worthy we decided to only bestow honors to those who gallantry we have borne witness to so while air dates may vary, they are just as deserving if not more so than some of the scum that crept forth from the dirt this year. After much deliberation and table pounding we have finalized the list for those exceptional few who made 2009 so much more bearable and outright enjoyable. These are but the first in a long list of names that have scrawled their names upon the pages of history with the blood of their enemies.

The Reinhard/Yang Wen-li Distinguished Service Cross

Origins: While Yang Wen-li and Reinhard have long since passed from this world there is still a need to give due recognition to exceptional commanders who rise above their respective series and demonstrate a superior grasp of strategy, operational art, and tactics that would have both Yang and Reinhard eager to recruit them into their personal staffs. Thus was created this award in the 35th Century (1982) to honor superb commanders of formations large and small who display tactical skill and outstanding leadership in times of great crisis.

Brigadier General Katie Colasour – To put it simply Katie was in the wrong series, at the wrong time, and on the fated to lose side. Surely she deserved better than to have her plans thwarted by pixie dust and havoc physics, but at least while she had screen time it felt like it was almost Macross with Patrick trying to show his undying love for her. Unlike most of the cast she had a fully functioning mind in stark contrast to her closest rival who was getting drunk and was refusing to put out for the booze she got. Still, for winning out in the end in life Katie is here by awarded the Reinhard/Yang Wen-li Distinguished Service Cross for conspicuous gallantry in the face of a plot armored foe, and for refusing to surrender in the face of unbeatable odds or worse join them in a idiotic Three Ships Alliance or something to that effect. She demonstrated competent tactical thinking despite having technical inferiority that only grew more disparate with time and managed her men well, under the most horrid of story conditions considering she was saddled with Andrei. On the behalf of mein Kaiser Reinhard-sama and The Honorable Fleet Admiral Wen-li have a wonderful honeymoon, General.

Lt. Arleen Nazon – Having been betrayed by the man who supposedly loved her Nazon was condemned as a criminal for the deed of one dirty Zeke. In her quest for revenge she turned her understrength platoon from a few mechanics to top class pilots that helped make Operation Odessa a resounding success. While often the first to be sent in as cannon fodder they adapted well under the command of Major “Giggles” Colmatta whose leadership is rather suspect. Having accepted that death was a distinct possibility she turned herself and her mild mannered mechanics into berserkers with exceptional cunning that got the better of many a Zeke. While the Zekes already had the data from her beloved RTX-440 that did not deter her in the least as she punched a hole right through Zeke lines to wreak havoc upon their artillery. For demonstrating superior leadership in leading her RTX-440 platoon under the most dire of combat conditions during Operation Odessa and having destroyed 13 Zakus,  6 Magella Attack Tanks, countless Zeke infantry, two Doms, one Gouf, and two Dabudes. Sadly this honor is a posthumous one as Arleen did not live to see the end of the war though her sacrifice and that of her unit resulted in a significant loss of Zeke heavy equipment and personnel.

Grand Duke Jouslain Tytania – The clear successor for the title of Grand Duke of the House of Tytania. Gifted diplomat, generous and kind leader to his fellows, and most dangerous enemy to his foes. He began his rise to distinction with swift political action to end the crisis caused by Ariabart’s unexpected defeat by rebels. Continuing on, he incorporated brilliant minds that were dismissed by his peers into a tight knit group that could act in all manners necessary to the conduct of politics and war. Lord Ariabart, a solid commander that was sneered at by his rivals for one unforeseeable defeat; Princess Lydia, viewed by others as merely a hostage to ensure her planet’s loyalty, but in fact a valuable social asset; and Lord Bal’ami, the son of a traitor who was held in the same contempt as his father by others was turned into a valued source of ideas and shows promise as a future commander and leader. All were brought under Lord Jouslain’s influence and protection, showing his vain and impulsive rivals that it takes a team to run an empire, not just a leader.

Oberstein Order of the Velvet Glove

Origins: Created to honor all those who work indirectly, get inside the heads of their enemies, and manipulate friends and foes alike for the greater good. These skilled men and women often go unrecognized by the nature of their work, but they are often of the highest importance to their causes, whether it be galactic empire management, yuri shipping, pursuit of True Love and Friendship, or many other worthy causes.

Tsumugi – Sometimes your own side needs a little manipulation to make the most of things, and Tsumugi used her gentle facade of an oujousama to quietly steer her friends towards The Yuri. Skillful and elegant, Tsumugi secretly worked to optimize the Light Music Club without ever betraying her intent. Innocent comments such as ‘I think that’s alright’ were used to take conversations in a definite shipping direction without suggesting Tsumugi as the initiator of such thoughts. And her ability to call upon vast resources helped bring the club together and provide them with the training-vacation time necessary to BE FRIENDLY. An outstanding manipulator and schemer if there ever was one, leading to her deserved nickname ‘the Machiavelli of Moe.’

Ayane Yano – One of the best analysists in modern shoujo intelligence, Ayane is currently leading a team that has scored several successes against Ume Kurumizawa and her war on True Love and Friendship. While Sawako is out on the front lines and Chizu itches to escalate the conflict, Yano has quietly worked behind the scenes supporting the effort. She was the first among personnel in the field to warn of the threat posed by the evil Vichy-tan, and the first to take action. Adept at gathering HUMINT, she scoured the area for both friendly and hostile witnesses to Kurumi’s actions to piece together a complete picture of her methods of attack. Her recent actions including [SPECIFICS REDACTED DUE TO SENSITIVE NATURE OF ONGOING OPERATIONS] have earned her this commendation and our gratitude.

Kana Minami – Good supervisors are just as invaluable as the higher profile field agents and analysts, and Kana Minami has demonstrated great skill in managing several covert operations. The continuing Operation Mako-Cakes has been her responsibility since its inception, and she has also overseen liaison efforts with Fujioka and Tomo as well as numerous shorter duration operations and actions during her years of service. To this day Operation Mako-cakes continues with its cover intact, despite extremely difficult situations that would have compromised Makoto’s identity many times over if it had not been for her quick thinking and intimate knowledge of those she handles.

Baron Ashura – Despite being the butt of a long string of jokes Baron Ashura nevertheless got the last laugh with a single act of subtle treachery that led to the demise of Dr. Hell and made all the efforts of the titular heroes all for naught. Baron Ashura was never the strongest and despite numerous attempts at defeating Mazinger Z he inevitably failed each and every time. He was made into a traitor to his own people by Dr. Hell but his love for Mycenae was so deep that he endured every disgrace and beating just to fool his enemies into underestimating him. He fooled the smartest woman in all of Mazinger Z into taking him in and deceived Koji into thinking that he was an ally while he waited for the time to strike back decisively. Baron Ashura not only made up for his past treachery but also brought about an invasion to avenge the loss of Mycenae when the heroes thought that they had finally triumphed. For treacherously ensuring that there will be a sequel, the person we least suspected, Baron Ashura, is hereby awarded the Velvet Glove for manipulating the heroes into destroying all that Zeus had fought and died for.

Roy Focker Cross

Origins: Following the heroic sacrifice of Roy Focker in defense of the SDF Macross on 30 November 2009, UN high command designed and began to award the Roy Focker Cross for service and sacrifice. Sometimes the cause of righteousness must be watered by the blood of brave men and women, and their supreme sacrifices are honored by this most somber of awards.

Prince Ali al-Sarshes – An ace pilot who also took the initiative in rallying forces to fight the terrorist group Celestial Being for many years, he made the ultimate sacrifice for the U.N. during the final battle of the war. He served when called in the service of several of the pre-Federation armies, both in and out of uniform, was instrumental in the destruction of 2/3 of the Gundam Throne forces, and without hesitation joined the forces of the Federation and A-LAWS when they were created. While stalking known Irish Republican Army terrorist Lyle ‘Lockon Stratos’ Dylandy, Ali al-Sarshes was killed by a chance shot, no man ever able to best him in honorable combat. Despite Celestial Being remnant claims to the contrary, his fatal wounds did not match the weapons signatures of any CB weapon used by Dylandy. He is survived by his sister Alphard al-Sarshes.

Kikiyo – A unit commander, superb markswoman, and healer for many years in the fight against Naraku, she ignored her wounds to save Miroku and take the fight to the hated Naraku despite the extreme personal risk. Waging her own personal war against the terrible foe for several years, she was the first to develop the Shikon Purification Strategy and brought others into her plan. Putting aside her rival’s lack of worthiness in both combat and love, she tirelessly worked to assist all who oppose Naraku, even when they did not understand the necessity of her methods. In the end she gave her remaining life force in the operation to purify the Shikon Jewel while Naraku was attempting to inhabit it. The war continues, but her sacrifice will never be forgotten.

Herman Yandell – The age of Zeke ascendancy was a hard one for the poor soldiers who made up the EFGF, they fought against a technically superior enemy that pushed them to their limits of endurance and courage. This long and bitter fight had caused numerous wounds on Lt. Yandell, both psychological and physical, unlike those pretty boy engineers in the Zeke wasted weapons program. Despite the personal hardships, his grief, and his endless nightmares Yandell never backed down from a fight. While the Type 61 was no match for the Zakus they faced, it did not stop Herman Yandell from taking the fight to the enemy and in his final moment of supreme triumph felled the White Ogre. Sadly his victory was cut short by a Zeke RPG team, while Yandell and his beloved Type 61 have gone into the mists of time, his name will forever remain on the honor roll of the honored dead who have gave all they had and more in the fight against the vile Zekes.

Arleen Nazon, Karppi, and Kuzuwayo – Operation Odessa was a hard fought campaign that cost many a Feddie his life to expel the hated Zeke invaders from the Earth, among them were three engineers who were betrayed and had the blame thrust upon them by a traitor they once called friend. Despite having years of work undone by a base act of treachery, and despite being relegated to becoming penal troops neither Nazon, Karppi, nor Kuzuwayo cowered in some jail cell to weep of the injustice that was inflicted upon them. Instead they sallied forth with all the courage they could muster to endure the insults and get back into the fight at a most important hour. None of them had any previous combat experience yet they rose to the challenge and met it tread first and built a fearsome reputation for getting the job done. The swathes of dead and dying Zekes was a testament to their righteous fury. But it was during their first mission with the 44th Independent Composite Brigade that they met a a tragic end, but their deaths were not in vain as they successfully annihilated an entire Zeke Battalion and their supporting heavy artillery in their last charge. Even when confronted by a traitor professing love and friendship they did not heed his lies and blew him straight to hell where all Zekes go when they die. For their tenacious efforts between the time of their sentencing to the their last charge they were granted amnesty and the Focker Cross for performing above and beyond the call of duty and making the supreme sacrifice under conditions that were harder than they needed to be.

Lieutenant Colonel Barack Ginin – The war against GN Terror cost many good men their lives, but one in particular stands out for his sins were few and his conduct noble through and through. Unlike the terrorists he did battle with, Ginin was never the one to moan every other episode about how Kataron had killed his wife in a terror attack, and maintained his composure in front of his subordinates including one very lost Louise. His loyalty was first and foremost to the men who served with him and despite Louise’s lackluster performance early on spared no effort in giving her praise when she did well and never failed to bail her out when the rookie got herself in trouble. While terrorists such as Klaus and Shirin are hailed as heroes for bombing civilians, Ginin was condemned as a criminal for merely killing members of a terrorist movement. While the quality of Ginin’s beloved Federation might have been less than that of the Federation that Yandell, MacKenzie, Nazon, Burning, Monsha, Sanders, Bate, Synapse, Adel, Amada, Joshua, and many others defended, his courage and bearing were equal. To set the record straight and to honor a man who made the supreme sacrifice so that his team might live and Katie’s operation might succeed it is with great pride and sorrow that we are to award the Focker Cross to one of the few true heroes of Gundam 00.

The dream that will come true someday
(Becomes) a mere unheard whisper
That is lost within the light  shone by the night
Soon enough, her eyes will open  if it is fate
At least  yes, only now…

So with this year about to conclude it is worth mentioning what a glorious year of Yuri it was and how it was a decent year for a few select heterosexual couples. While there are cretins who chafe about the lack of quality series their numbers are few and they are stupid for having such narrow tastes. It gloriously began with Mariaholic with Kanako concocting glorious fantasies of a Yuri world and ruined Shizu for marriage though her final victory was thwarted by a most dangerous and skilled trap. Despite the lack of Best End for Kanako I do hope that one day she will mature into a powerful master of the Yuri and claim the yuri harem that her loli angel had prepared for her. Sadly it was also a winter of despair as the hateful Saji and those CB terrorists brought ruin upon Soma and Louise and forced them into tyrannous hetero pairings with loser animu males. Skip Beat! had Kyoko confess her undying love for Moko despite persistent speculation that Kyoko has even a drop of affection for Shotaro.

Spring brought K-On with Mugi-chan giving Ritsu ample opportunity to claim Mio and ruin her for marriage. But the best was yet to come as summer introduced us to a paragon of Yuri Virtue in the form of Alphardonee-sama . Even now her prowess has yet to be matched and she remains one of the more unforgettable heroines that have wielded the Yuri. Such was he grace that she has become the Gold Standard against which all heroines will be measured by. Riding along Alphard onee-sama’s side was the redoubtable Liang Qi whose yuri love for Alphard was truely great though sadly it was not to be reciprocated fully. However the union of Alphard and Liang Qi produced a glorious daughter they named Kuroko who inherited many of their best traits and combat prowess. While not as powerful or great Marin and Kanon were a delightful pair whose yuri love was sadly unconsummated because of silly rules and Kanon being bi. Also of note was the yuri baiting series Kampfer which I found to be a riot for it delivered consistent yuri despite the presence of a male whose loyalty would have been most praiseworthy had he not been so misguided. There was also Aoi Hana, Saki, Taishou Yakyuu Musume, and Sasameki but we didn’t cover them nearly as much this year though I might manage considering the horrid lack of yuri this winter. So comrades let us toast to this glorious year that will be long remembered and possibly sorely missed as 2010 reaches every corner of the globe.

Calawain’s- Traps, Nopan, and an Unstable Teleporting Lesbian

I’m a rather devout fan of yuri, giving every show with it at least a shot, and wow, there were a glut of shows with yuri content in them in 2009. One of the most anticipated yuri titles in awhile was Sasameki Koto, which was a decent enough adaptation. I found that Kazama’s seiyuu and character were pretty weak and heavy on the emo, but Murasame’s voice was perfect, and I felt that they really nailed her deadpan side as well as the delusional one. Also, can’t forget the awesomeness that was Akemiya the trap, above. They also managed to insert a heap of humor throughout, and didn’t get bogged down in Aoi Hana-like melodrama.

Railgun managed to definitely snag the best comedy yuri title of the year, with the impassioned Kuroko wholeheartedly stealing the show with her antics of Biribiri love and abuse. I came for the Biribiri, but stayed for the Kuroko. Now if only they could come up with a plot that isn’t total trash. Oh, and ditch the other two “protagonists,” Uiharu and Saten, what a glut of boredom those two manage to inspire.

By far the best yuri title of the year in my mind is Saki, whose yuri antics (among other things) I covered previously. The show featured a rather large collection of yuri pairings, and everyone had their favorite (shamefully, I’ll take the often overexposed Saki and Nodotits). What was fascinating is that even though people had their favorites, there was rarely any hate for other pairings, just an appreciation for the deliciousness of it all. My image folder for Saki is filled with more than just two characters thanks to /a/. What began, ostensibly, as a show about mahjong certainly ended up being about yuri and a lack of panties. Saying that Saki is about mahjong is kind of like saying FLCL is about robots and aliens, right?

ExecutiveOtaku’s ‘The Sound and the Yuri’

While I do not worship at the Temple of Yuri as my comrade Crusader does (i.e. I don’t specifically enjoy yuri just for the yuri), this past year has delivered a number of great shows that had high yuri content. Maria Holic was a great comedy. Evil trap roommate, Kanako’s angel song, nearly Hosaka-level daydreams, oh-so-SHAFT animation and humor elements, and that great ending song/animation. Maria Holic was definitely in my favorite comedies of the year, probably second after the newest Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, and it had plenty of competition this year. Plus it had the amazing Matsurika, deadpan abusive maid commentator extraordinaire. K-On, while not explicitly yuri, definitely brought the lulz with it’s yuri undertones in several scenes. Tsumugi quickly became my favorite for her elegance and feigned ignorance while she secretly shipped her friend together. Behind those oddly cute eyebrows lurks a sharp and devious intelligence.

Moving on to action, Canaan was not my favorite show ever, but it had some great moments in it. Alphard was an amazing antagonist, at times a master of frontal assault, at others a deliciously cunning trickster. Backed up by her crazy, obsessive, failed yuri-love Liang Qi (GET SOME GET SOME), it made for some great action scenes and was a decent if not amazing show. Finally, on to more dramatic things, Aoi Hana, which I’m still working on finishing, brought us some lovely yuri romance and equally lovely visual style. As my love for Honey and Clover and Kimi ni Todoke shows, I’m a sucker for those watercolor landscape and location shots, and Aoi Hana knew just where to hook me by setting the story in Kamakura, one of my favorite places I’ve ever been to. Despite a little too much of the waterworks early on, I’m looking forward to a satisfying ending to what is so far a very nice yuri love story.

Additionally, all these series had some pretty good music. K-On centered around it, giving viewers a lot to listen to. Maria Holic’s wonderful ‘Kimi ni Mune Kyun (Kyun!)‘ ending theme was catchy and nicely executed in 16-bit style, both visually and in its audio.  Aoi Hana’s OP, Aoi Hana by Kukikodan,  started off as slow and kind of sad, but moved to a more upbeat tone, and seeing Akira and Fumi dancing around together was both cute and beautifully animated. Canaan had quite the badass OP right from the first electric guitar notes, Mind as Judgement. And that countdown featuring all the main characters was one of my favorite elements in an OP this year.

Crusader’s The Fighter, The Dreamer, and The Lover

While it was a glorious year overall I have to make special mention for Mariaholic, Canaan, and Railgun. I have never wavered in advocating love between otome as the state of animu males is generally lacking, but Mariaholic brought a good number of glorious Kanako fantasies that just SMASHED REALITY INTO ATOMS IN THE NAME OF SHINING ZEUS while poor Kanako never had a night of forever and ever with the harem that was rightfully hers it was most fun to bear witness to her flights of fancy. Having now ruined Shizu for marriage I hope that Kanako will become the mistress of yuri that we all know that she is capable of being. Alphard onee-sama simply out shone every yuri heroine of the year as she is indeed an heir of Chikane’s legacy as Alphard is indeed an ojou-sama from a distinguished family that has been continued for a thousand years, skilled in both literary and military arts, with wit and beauty, the intensity of summer, the grace of autumn, the pride of winter, and the gentleness of spring. Such is her greatness that she can outfight most of the boys that marred this season, save perhaps Prince Ali himself (it’d be a draw really since they come from the same school of CQC) and of course ALMIGHTY ZEUS (really I’d like to see someone other than Hades try, could use another instance of AWESOME TYPE ROCKET PUNCH). Alphard consummated her yuri love with Canaan producing a daughter maned Misaki who inherited the latter’s super powers and she also raised a wondrous daughter named Kuroko with Liang Qi. Thoughtful, loving, and mighty Alphard was everything that any one should aspire to be, sure she made a few mistakes, but at least she strove to correct them while liberating Canaan Mk II from the shadow of Siam. Final mention goes to Kuroko whose love of her onee-sama is almost as intense as her mother Liang Qi’s and whose martial prowess makes Alphard smile with pride. All in all it was a good year with many heroines worthy of praise, a year like this might not come again for quite some time. For the fans of yuri at least for this year anime was worth watching despite the cries of decline from the hordes of hetero harem animu infidels. So IN THE NAME OF SHINING ZEUS HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Alphard Onee-sama was most willing to pull punches when it came to women.

Poor Liang Qi did not live to see Kuroko grow up and find yuri love.

Kanako is equivalent to an Ez8 for she will marry Aina.

Also Kanako is part of the 8th Yuri Team.

I approve of public displays of Yuri Affection, religious and cultural considerations be damned!

Best Customs declaration EVAR.

Something that has always perplexed me is why anime fans don’t watch more Jdramas. I’m sure this could be for any number of reasons but many dramas are based off anime  (Hana Yori Dango, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, GTO, Nana, etc.) and some seriously seem to have been animes in a past life. That’s where Samurai High School comes in.  It’s got all that you ever wanted in an anime ridiculous faces, great acting, awkward shots focusing on things that aren’t important and the absurdest characters in strange places. Yet still these two worlds will never meet eye to eye I suppose.

In that way it’s kind of like the plot for this show. The main character Mochizuki Kotaro (played by Miura Haruma, who also was in Gokusen 3) is an unsuspecting and frankly average high schooler who shares the name of his ancestor, a heroic general from the Sengoku period. While for normal people this would just be an omen of good luck when Mochizuki meets a strange librarian things start to change. When trying to save a classmate he bumps his head and turns into his samurai ancestor!

It’s all in this book! I swear!

The first episode starts out with Mochizuki in a battlefield in Sengoku Japan, about 400 years ago when samurai were overtaking something in Osaka. I’m the first to admit I don’t like history very much. He’s woken up in class and tries to explain himself but he’s in math class so there’s very little reason to be dreaming about history. As a punishment the teacher assigns him a paper on the Campaign he was dreaming about. On his way home some girls harass him for money but evetually he heads home. On the way he sees a library sign that leads him to believe he can find books about history in there.This smile makes me smile. Oh ho ho ho~

The creepy librarian woman sees his name of the paper to sign out books and brings him a very special book which glows. Inside the book is the tale of a boy the same age (17) and same name as Mochizuki.

The second-hand embarrassment is so high right now.

When he gets home instead of writing his paper he pretends to do samurai moves with a ruler. At that point he gets a call from his best friend Ai who sees their classmate Nakamura in trouble. He does what any good samurai would and runs to the rescue.

Yanki’s are pretty bad ass but even I think I can take these girls. Especially if I were 6′2″…

Nakamura is kind of a helpless boy. He stutters and looks down all the time but because he’s played by Shirota Yuu (former D-boys member) I forgive him. Mochizuki is immediately scared and stutters out a bunch of nonsense. When he tries to defend himself he trips down a flight of stairs and hits his head.

Somehow as a samurai Mochizuki has perfect hair and a TON of eyeliner. Very stylish for the Sengoku era.

The bump on the head makes his ancestors personality come out. Even when we (the audience) can hear the real Mochizuki on the inside he seems powerless to make his own body move. Samurai-Mochizuki easily takes care of the three pansy girls while freeing Nakamura. He does this with the ruler that was still in his pants ^^;;. He moves in to kiss Ai but then this happens.

Warning: May explode when kissed.

He wakes up as normal Kotaro and has trouble trying to explain to Ai what happened. He doesn’t have time anyway because Nakamura has already gotten himself in trouble with those yanki girls again. This time Nakamura has let them talk him into stealing watches. Mochizuki runs to try and convince him not to do it but ends up there at just the wrong time.

Neither of these men is articulate enough to explain that three evil girls did this.

They are taken the police station, picked up by their teacher and manage to clear their names in front of the board while the girls get off scot-free. There’s a long scene of lamenting where Nakamura tells Mochizuki that they’re both weak and so they can never win at life and it’s as simple as that.

Stop moping you pretty boys this isn’t a Final Fantasy game!

When he arrives home Mochizuki’s father tells him that he is the ancestor of the samurai bearing the same name proving something that we’ve pretty much known all along. The yanki girls from before kidnap Mochizuki and Nakamura a few hours later to beat them up for some reason even though everyone got off without more than a slap on the wrist.

Look, they brought friends…

They throw Mochizuki out the window when he fights back and he bumps his head and turns into a samurai again so he can kick butt with a broom!

Becoming a samurai also puts his hair in a ponytail for some reason?

He beats all the bad guys up and the day is saved with no thanks to Nakamura because he pretty much cowered on the ground and made sad noises the whole time.

I’m trying not to read anything sexual into this but I have trouble.

♥ It’s a bromance ♥

Final Thoughts:

If you have some time and you’re out of anime (amazing but it happens) then I would definitely tell you to give this series a watch. It’s a pretty great series and there’s already has five episodes out. I had a ton of fun watching it and even my fiance kept starring at my screen to try and watch it with me. Unless I get some overwhelming response I don’t think I’ll be blogging other episodes of this but I figured maybe every now and then I’d show you guys a great Jdrama that’s anime-ish. This one gets a full 5 stars out of 5 for wild ride awesomely acted ridiculous anime-esqe comedy.

Confession Corner:

I have something to get off my chest and I won’t be able to move on until I do. I started watching this for Shirota Yuu. You do not know this about me but I am in love with the Sailor Moon Musicals and Yuu played Tuxedo Mask from 2003 to 2004 (where I fell in love with his body singing). Someday I may bring you some Sailor Moon musical reviews and recaps but until then I leave you with this picture:

a blogger called Jaalin confessed his confusion. He links to other people.

But the thing is.

I am Jason Mraz. [here's my entire life story condensed into a single image, since it's basically worth over nine thousand words]

I have a huge fetish for K-ON. I even tried to write down a lot of the music. Well, the music kind of sucked, but it has a lot of moe, so you can see why I like it.

I wanted to incorporate the sounds of K-ON in my new single to try and bring out a new evolution in western indie music! That would be a lot of fun, right? While the music in K-ON sucks, my music is good, so it balances out. Not only that, but the strange asian music that thinks that it is western brings an exotic blend to my music. I wish to share to all of you otakus my new music that blends east and west, better and less better, my music, and K-ON’s music.

I see shit sucked so hard Steve Jobs wouldn’t let lolikit use the iPhone even if lolikit paid him. Too bad because I think there was an app to fix the fail.

Being bored as all hell I decided to play this lolikit fellow’s game which I have to say sucks…its more of a grind than World of Warcraft and no where near as funny since he goes out of his way to try and top Leeroy Jenkins and FAILS. Still I guess it is to be expected from an arrogant indy studio seeking to charge 60 USD for episodic gaming, no wonder why Gabe Newell told Studio Lolikit to take his shit to elsewhere. So in this game you go back to fucking high school, the paradise of weeabo dipshits who want to make up for their lost four years and yearn to go back to being some prick who could suck off his parents’ money. For a game that is so in love with high schools it certainly leaves out the best thing you can do in High School as an IRL Troll. All in all typical hippie bullshit I have come to expect from denizens of the People’s Republic of Berkeley. Doubly so for a trustafarian like this self proclaimed Dr. Lolikit (must be a lame attempt at riding Dr. Mario’s coattails) who plays himself in the game but was probably too high to do any voice acting for his tweeker looking furry ass.

I liked CJ better when she wasn’t a part of the master race…come to think of it I liked her more in her last game…

So instead of giving you choice you get to be some pink haired scrawny little girly man instead of something cool like a Space Marine or a Master Chief Petty Officer with rebounding health you know something original… I suppose that since this lolikit is a hippie it was too much to hope for some genuine badassery and instead we get a festival of mediocrity of remarks that might seem snide to civilian dipshit but to an enlisted guy like me it seems too fucking polite. Also since the main douche of a protagonist’s name is in red font it is clear that CCY is just a lousy cover for CCP, I bet lolikit thought he was very clever but I have fought the Red Menace since 1989 I know how the enemy works. Hell even the pink hair was a dead give away to lolikit’s allegiance to Code Pink… Despite the sexual spectacles this game is “sexy” like like a prudish fat yaoi fangirl…the sad truth is that there is no sex! Hell there isn’t even any sexy violence! I played for 100% completion in order to be Korean enough for Starcraft 2 when it comes out and still there was hardly any blood spatter to be found…

Hey Owen the scouter only breaks at 9001, it can run negative numbers real well…though I admit penalizing you with a negative for every time you fap is a bit harsh.

Gaming is normally about getting an experience you’d otherwise couldn’t have like blowing up people into little itty bitty pieces while getting Amnesty International crying enough tears to flood the world. Not here though, as it seems to be a game for the auteur, a game not made so much to give a player a good time, but a game made for the creator as a chance to show off how great he is and to wank off to himself. Five minutes in we already see the Marty Stu character of lolikit himself insinuating that he gets to bang one of his students, as usual some big breasted blue eyed blonde haired bimbo, I suppose it is a statement on how much he adores the Master Race (furries in Mein Deutschland indeed). If I wanted to hear about other people having sex I’d watch pr0n instead as at least I can forgo the nasty hairy hippie and have some hawt girl on girl action, but in CCY17 the game doesn’t give you a choice and in order to curry favor with HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED cuts out the sex. I would have given lolikit more points for putting in his little fun time in the chem lab, that way he could be where he rightfully belongs…in jail for distributing child pornography like the Jap fag that he is.

I asked Alphard and Liang Qi to pass judgement on this game as well…I was severely punished with airsoft pellets for wasting their time…

Unlike a good game like say Halo 3 or Duke Nukem Forever CCY17 is actually a shitty visual novels made for weeaboo who can’t really play games and can’t beat Nintendogs. As such it’s a boring little game with dialog boxes out the ass and crappy one click combat in which there are no satisfying kills to speak of (Killing this Scott character seemed more like community service since there was no Achievement, come to think of it there were no Achievements period). Instead of a PvP kill count to track how much shit you are not killing you get three numbers which make no sense, I suppose you have to be as high as lolikit to find them funny.

Owen is also the lamest villain ever as he is obviously a lesser version of the famed Jackal from Far Cry 2. Owen is a shirtless hippie while the Jackal is a learned arms dealer, the gulf in evil is quite jarring in that Owen might as well be making friends with furry forest creatures and sing to birds. Speaking of shitty characters while beautifully designed were a blatant attempt to hide the truly hideous visages of almost all of the characters. I may not personally know them (well I do know Impz and they certainly did not even begin to scratch the service in his regard though I suppose the artist was simply too overawed to do a realistic depiction…which is of course forgivable), nor would I want to, but judging from how the Aegis Combat System is always identifying them with transponder code 7700…along with a huge radar cross-section I suppose that they are quite large… Also for a group that would knowingly try to ride Krauser II’s coattails they certainly don’t look the part, and I am sure that a few laws were broken in the process. I can only hope Krauser II rapes lolikit 11 times as recompense for trying to make money without his permission.

Who in their right mind would want to learn how to suck gold balls out of garden hoses? Also flashing gang signs are we now lolikit? The Glee Club isn’t a gang, you don’t even have guns…THUG LIFE indeed.

While one would expect this to be a full game it turns out to more insidious than an EA franchise as at the very end they promise to bring in more sequels and to bring you the shittiest DLC that would make Oblivion’s Horse Armor look like a bargain. The game is a total rip off despite the pretensions to choice it seems that despite going her or there will always lead you along the same dull paths (all paths lead to incomplete). Also for some reason we have to do stupid shit like troll club when there isn’t a manly mecha fighting club, riflery, EOD, or CQC club. At the end of the day CCY17 is not worth 60 USD for the PC, and there is a very good reason why this isn’t on WiiWare, 360 Arcade, or PSN, namely shit sucks. It’s linear, boring, the one click combat has been done better elsewhere, the writing makes Gears of War look like a Pulitzer Prize winner, and it’s over priced for an episodic game. In short Dr. Lolikit is the Uwe Boll of gaming in that his adaptations suck even when he wrote the original, for the self proclaimed “Serial Troll” the game spends an awful lot of time sucking up to people. Although, since he is a hippie he probably thinks that showering his targets with praise and adoration, and giving their egos a blowjob that he’s “trolling them.”

Ugh…do we really have to white knight this chick? Can’t we just strap a bomb to her and let her blow up the principal’s office…

I am being overly mean, the game is quite adequate in it’s beta form and is held back more by restrictions of the visual novel genre than any lack of elan on the part of the developers. Still I hope this actually sees completion as it would be sad if after all those donations it turns out that Studio Lolikit is just another 3-D Realms and takes forever to deliver their game. I suggest playing it for a laugh here or there, but there is still reason to hope that Studio Lolikit will actually survive to complete this project.

In any case the hippie wanted suggestions on how to make the game better so being a veteran gamer I might as well tell the weed smoking hippie how to stop sucking. Well here goes…

To that dirty old hippie in need of a shave and a haircut:

1.    Needs more weapons and dynamic fisticuffs like Fight Night Round 4 (Don’t tell me you suck more than EA, hippie.) because if I am going to kill Scott I want it to be on screen with my fists breaking his fragile face bit by bit.
2.    Needs more mecha, no seriously stop making homage to crappy harem animu and go with the best genre hippie.
3.    Needs more yuri, it’s fine if he wants to fantasize about other men, but if you want more people to play put in something for men, and all men love yuri. Other wise this game is stuck trying to appeal to fat yaoi fan girls with yaoi paddles, and without lurvin scenes Studio Lolikit will be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy before Christmas.
4.    You’re an asshole until I’m in the game.
5.    You’re an asshole until Calawain, EO, and lelangir are in the game.
6.    Make Impz more trappy, because right now what you have, while splendidly drawn, does not do his trappiness justice.
7.    Needs Achievements.
8.    Liang Qi-sama wants Wii controls and the ability to import her Mii.
9.    Alphard onee-sama thinks your one click combat sucks you need something more FPS, like V.A.T.S.
10.    Music is lacking you need to level up that deaf lazy chimp of a composer to Yoko Kanno level. Also start with using The Winner when turning Scott into a bloody mess and have the ending theme be 10 Years After, trust me it will make your game better.
11.    Needs genderbending.
12.    Less furries.
13.    If IKnight is not mecha, it ain’t IKnight.
14.    MOAR Quicktime events.
15.    Get a better writer, at time of writing Rhianna Pratchett is kicking your ass.
16.    Seriously how could you not go with a beat’em up?
17.    Let us pick from a number of protagonists other than CCY, he’s a commie and boring as hell.
18.    Your M Rating is misleading, it should be rated E for Everyone like your Marty Stu, call ESRB and get it changed.
19.    How dare you insult Impz by implying that this Omo can be anywhere near as trappy, we all know he’s a fat American Pig…
20.    Needs Prince Ali to kill people randomly to keep the excitement going.
21.    Your physics engine sucks more than Havoc, nothing even bounces…

Dude he looks like a terrorist without the rag over his head…not a terrorist straight out of hell.

Killing this fool was oddly unsatisfying, I could not bust a cap in his ass watch his blood spurt out in interesting patterns, worst of all there was no Achievement unlocked…thanks for sucking the fun out of killing people lolikit you fucking hippie.

That hardly does Impz justice…just saying.

Mein Kaiser Reinhard was sorely disappointed at how they had four different places to hold the press people.

My apologies for having fallen off the face of the Earth, but I was seconded as a vehicle driver and general purpose mule for T-ono.net who generously offered me a chance to go to Anime Expo 2009 for free and gave me a place to sleep free of charge in exchange for my services and vehicle. It was a great experience for me and hopefully this will be the first part in a short series about my own experience and misadventures at AX. I skipped Icystorm’s tweet up and meeting and had to decline AnimeDiet’s offer to chill, but my taskmaster certainly made my lazy ass work. Day Zero was the AX Press Junket that sadly did not go over too well. While it is inevitable that guests would be late there were some galling mistakes that I noticed with the Press Junket. I am not sure if Mike and Jeremy from Anime Diet or if Dancing Queen of How a Girl Figures experienced the same thing, but I am sure they noticed some problems as well.

From my understanding, limited though it may be, one on one interviews have been replaced with this junket and in all fairness the principle is sound. The problem is not one of strategy, it is one of implementation. This year there were four holding pens for the press groups which was a huge mistake to begin with as the staff had to go between the 3rd and 31st floors looking for press groups. More than once some groups simply fell off the radar and the nominal head of the junket, Mr. Chase Wang, was sweating bullets going between the two towers and the 3rd floor. Since I am interested in scuttlebutt I even heard that Seiji Mizushima, Youske Kuroda, and Yun Kouga had a period of grace where no one interviewed them, despite there being press groups who were idle that did want to have an interview, my hosts being one of them. To remedy this I think they seriously need to consider just emulating the command structure of a Fire Direction Center where by everything goes to one central command post where the lists are kept and a plotting board for the locations of each press group and the status of each of the guests of honor are maintained. If it had gone well then the nominal head should not be running about with his head cut off (probably from being overwhelmed), and instead coordinating everything from a single location from which periodic status can be obtained to update a plotting board, similar to the miniatures they use coordinating the aircraft on a carrier. You simply cannot have four holding pens and expect a good level of coordination without a central command post.

It seems that Lady Cima was the one in charge of Morning Musme…

Then there was the issue of a bathroom on the 31st floor…having to go down to the second floor was bad enough (third floor bathroom was closed), but having to commandeer Toshiyuki Morikawa’s (a.k.a. Sephiroth) bathroom on occasion is not a sign of proper planning. We got the opportunity to interview Mana of Moi Dix Mois fame (who by the way can speak, because I heard it, and he doesn’t always walk around in costume, also that makes me his prophet so bow down mortals!), but the interview was pretty much sunk by the fact that the translator was simply tired (perhaps there was sufficient reason, but not in my mind a mark of professionalism on her part). I am not clear on the specifics but if a new translator is paired up with a rock star then there will be trouble, as any rock star is almost certainly too much for a rookie to handle. If Mana could deny all recording devices and photography and get away with it then he certainly is a big fish, and all big fish eat little fish of one sort or another. Also another interesting thing was that the Morning Musume translator/leash essentially dictated who could get an interview, whether or not it was because the first two groups were EPIC FAIL or that the leash was simply walking over the AX staff is something I don’t know. Nevertheless it probably did not go JUST AS KEIKAKU.

Not all members of the press met Lady Cima’s approval for interviewing her charges…

In short AX09 Press Junket is still a wonderful idea in principle, the problem this year was one of implementation. It wasn’t controlled confusion it was confusion, not because the staff weren’t trying hard enough, but just because every one had a radio did not mean everyone knew what was going on. If anything the staff was go above and beyond more than they needed to instead of simply what they were supposed to be doing and that is not right. Had Clausewitz witnessed this he would berate (and fire) those in charge for not taking fog and friction into consideration and above all having no distinguishable command structure at all. However I am willing to offer methods and proposals for a more efficient way of managing their problems of controlled confusion, a sailor method but I am confident it would invariably be better than what they used this year.

Still I learned a few things such as the iPhone voice memo app is a superior than some dedicated voice recorders, Nightow-san and Nishimura-san were quite curious about it when I popped it out.  Lastly Cool shit that happened were that Nightow-san and Nishimura-san did the fusion dance pose, some dude I met pissed in Sephiroths’ bathroom, and Imaishi-san and Nishigori-san were laughing when Morning Musume (who were next door) started singing.

Gatoh Shoji, what the fuck are you doing? Why are you writing anime scripts instead of finishing Full Metal Panic? Why do you hate your fans so much? The last book was published more than a year and a half ago, and ended on a unsettling, climatic twist. You already had your fun with GONZO’s Tower of Druaga, and unless you’re writing scripts for the next Full Metal Panic anime, you need to get the fuck back to writing novels.

(Because Orion asked so nicely, here’s a spoiler warning: The following paragraph contains a spoiler that everybody who actually cares about Haruhi probably knows already anyway. Have a nice day.)

Kadokawa, fuck you, I know what you’re pulling with this episode. Some time in the future we’ll get another episode where Kyon finds out about the endlessly repeating day, probably after you show us this exact same episode again. The ending will be slightly different, and you’ll save however much it costs to make 1 episode of anime. Yes, I have so little esteem in Kadokawa and KyoAni now, I can honestly believe that they would do this. The new and deproved OP/ED/animation in general makes me RAEG hard.

Tanigawa Nagaru is still sitting on his ass not writing the next Haruhi novel. No one likes your fucking manga. It’s a piece of shit, your mangaka sucks, and WHY WON’T YOU WRITE MOAR HARUHI. At least if they got the original character designer, Takeda Hinata, to draw it, it would be worth reading for the art alone. Actually I don’t know what I expect out of him anymore, since Haruhi is his only original and good series.

Eden of the East has movies. I would rage except I haven’t been following this show, and won’t bother until the movies come out on DVD and gets subbed (sometime in 20-FUCK-IT-ALL). At least March Comes in Like a Lion is still going steadily on. In terms of other manga, even Skip Beat is going into a bit of a lull, with the current arc boring the shit out of me. xxxHolic is being affected by Tsubasa’s “I’m-a-giant-crock-of-shit” syndrome and has long since became unbearable. It’s also pulling the Bleach card with an average of 3 frames a page.

I would rage about Bleach and Naruto, but what’s the point? The only Jump manga I get any real joy out of now-a-days is Gintama. Even One Piece is boring me a bit with its current arc. While I’m on the topic of Jump, Shaman King’s new ending is no better than the old one, and HxH is still on endless hiatus.

That’s more than enough pointless rage for today. Time to go play some TF2 and get owned so I can have a reason to rage some more.

Recently, ANN of all places posted this interesting article of a survey conducted in Japan on which anime characters the respondents wished to marry. Most of the characters on the lists shouldn’t be particularly surprising, and its somewhat tilted toward currently running shows, but it’s amusing nonetheless.

For those of you too lazy to click, here’s the waifu list:

1. Mio Akiyama (K-ON!)

2. Hinagiku Katsura (Hayate the Combat Butler)
3. Taiga Aisaka (Toradora!)
4. Rukia Kuchiki (Bleach)
5. Yuki Nagato (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
6. Azusa Nakano (K-ON!)
7. Chrome Dokuro (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!)
8. Sheryl Nome (Macross F)
9. Yui Hirasawa (K-ON!)
10. Asuka Langley Sohryu (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Three of my top 5 waifus are shared (namely Mio, Hinagiku, and Yuki, and not necessarily in that order), but none of the rest approach top waifu status for me. The other members of my top 5 would be Rin and Kagami, of course. It’s unfortunate how fickle fans are, as the majority of choices are from currently running shows. Toradora was likely still running when this survey was conducted, and Macross F only ended a few months ago with a movie coming up. As for Eva, Anno is currently releasing all of those new movies that I haven’t seen…

Husbandos:

1. Kyouya Hibari (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!)

2. Gintoki Sakata (Gintama)
3. Toshiro Hitsugaya (Bleach)
4. Mukuro Rokudo (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!)
5. Sougo Okita (Gintama)
6. Date Masamune (Sengoku Basara)
7. Tsunayoshi Sawada (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!)
8. Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach)
9. Sebastian Michaelis (Kuroshitsuji)
10. Toushirou Hijikata (Gintama)

What also amuses me is the popularity of the Gintama men. I mean, the show’s humor is very, very low brow, with tons of toilet and sex humor. I would have figured that females would be turned off by that kind of material. Perhaps they are just so enamored with the sexy men that they don’t care? Is that like me watching K-ON because of Mio even though I find the quasi-plot to be dull and often just stupid?

Well readers, what are your thoughts and selections?

I have lots to do…

I won’t lie I think I am suffering a bit of this burn out thing after roughly two years of being the tl;dr guy I hope to recharge my batteries soon and get back to business as usual, but it seems the perpetual boredom of military life is going to be beyond my reach for the time being, assuming that everything goes according to my supervisors’ plans I will be out and about frolicking from one base to another across the country attending classes real soon methinks. Even when I am not moving about, as a newly minted E-5 as my first real responsibility I get to mentor an E-3 who seems to be having a bit of the troubles, professionally and perhaps otherwise. Then there is the issue of my family… Still I hope to be doing some VOTOMS posts real soon and catch up with the rest of the season. I suppose this is more for myself as once this gets published I will have to try and meet these goals.

I want my Kasrkin to look like these guys…

Once again I skipped Fanime and instead went to a gaming convention which reignited my passion for another hobby quite profoundly…Now that the Imperial Guard Codex is out I have a hankering to get cracking on that, and trust me I have plenty to do. I also promised 13sugars that I would paint up a 1:100 Union Flag for her as well so I suppose with all these tasks that I will have to start keeping things shorter and using less screen caps. I also have to do a proper two years on post now that I have felt the first pangs of burning out… ah well K-ON and VOTOMS: Roots of Ambition post sometime later I suppose I have to run up to Davis and back to try and snag two extra tickets for graduati0n first thing in the morning.

Yeah I think I can really get into this one.

I started aniblogging roughly a year ago, my first post was April 29, 2008. So let me provide a rough sketch of events that make up a year’s worth of internet history.

Part 1 – Genesis

c. April 20, 2008: started stalking Animanachronism via his MAL, read Colonial Code Geas and Narnian Nerve Gas, this is the gateway blog/post/blogger, so I am indebted to all this (don’t forget about MAL!).

c. April 22, 2008: created blog on wordpress, it sits there for a while.

c. April 23, 2008: discovered anime otaku, begin archive binge, Mike will later turn out to be first of many good online friends.

April 29, 2008: wrote first post on Takemoto [original is lost in the aether].

May 1, 2008: Mike wrote a lunar new year post considering my first post, providing good publicity. I discover the names Baka-Raptor and lolikitsune.

c. May 5, 2008: started conversing with itsubun, she drags me into IRC. Humorously, when on IRC, a fellow called “saturnine” says “hi lelangir”, and as I recall, I ignored him a few times. I had not heard good things about this “saturnine” guy. He was an entity to be avoided.

May 19, 2008: in response to massive lolikitxowen dorama, the first overly-sexual comic-parody based on Kure-nai is made.

May 20, 2008: hilarious dorama at heterochromia, an equally lol-post is written in response, but, most importantly, my post is linked to THAT by Impz, creating big traffic for the day and more publicity.

c. May 25, 2008: the sphere collectively discussed microblogging, stemming perhaps from Bateszi’s creation of Afterimage (3/7/08). I start to use MAL blog and tumblr as primary retreats for microblogging, a starting point in theorizing about the internet.

June 4, 2008: wrote post in response to itsubun’s feminist round robin, I mean, all-girls-round-robin (AGRR), though this merely indicates itsubun’s influence of inter-blog collaboration and a basis for future thoughts on collaboration.

Part 2 – dasaku

June 29, 2008: moved to dasaku, you may remember:

c. July 15, 2008: deleted original wordpress archives, the formulation of nomadic blogging spree.

c. mid-July 2008: begin watching LoGH (life is forever changed).

July 25, 2008: final post on “lelangiric” iteration of dasaku hosting.

Part 3 – Wandering

July 26, 2008: first post at THAT.

July 27, 2008: guest post at Minimum Tempo.

July 28, 2008: first post at superfani.

August 1, 2008: first post at cal’intents.

August 3, 2008: first post at Yukan.

c. August, 2008: re-create “lelangiric” centralized archives, which are pre-50, post #50 being the first at THAT.

Part 4 – metatheory and google

November 11, 2008: create LoGH blog, first post there.

November 20, 2008: write first “on blogging” post, the start of many changes.

November 26, 2008: “optimize your reading” cross-posted, the glory of google reader shared items is discovered.

November 28, 2008: first post at fallen aizen.

c. late November: registered for twitter.

Part 5 – anitations, metatheory put into practice

December 8, 2008: first anitations post.

c. December 15, 2008: started to do collected notes on episodic posts at anitations as well as CCY’s 12 days of Christmas. The 2.0-ish role of collating is new.

c. Christmas 2008: round-robin-ish dialogue on Kannagi is churned out, teamwork effort is decidedly a failure.

c. January 2009: various dialogues with Crusader, lolikit, digiboy, etc., towards dialogue as a new style of content.

January 8, 2009: last post of the 5-part meta series, inarguably the most educational experience.

Part 6 – NAO

March 1, 2009: music blog instated.

March 17, 2009: ani-blog-music feed started.

March 29, 2009: podcast with calaggie.

c. April 2009: ０（笑）「２．７１」んのちんちんを食べました！オイシでした！

in perspective

- As of today, the secret-google-society has risen in ranks to at least 18 people.

- I haven’t written a decent post since April 7^th. Twitter is to blame.

- My main contributions to meaningful discourse are comprised mostly of spamming my poor google reader friends with K-ON MADs and/or commenting on other’s shared items with raucous and irate LOLOLOLOL or wwwwwwwwwwing. I rule.

- わーーーーーーーい！LELANGIR BANZAI. PROSIT。

Most of us enjoy a bit of music, or rather, anime music. Though the fact may be apparent: the animusic community is not that large. Yet, more importantly, the animusic community is not solidified by any driving force(s). The aniblogosphere has nano, antennae, and just a generalized perception that it’s there. I do not think animusic has this.

So in an effort to solidify the community, this is just a request to bloggers that have, at one point or another, blogged about their love for animusic, which contains other related topics like seiyuu, j-pop, sheet music, and so forth – post your music feeds! If you have a wordpress blog this is easy, just go to your front page, click on your “music” category (or whatever it’s named), and click on the feed button in the address bar. You should get several options, the bottom one indicating the feed for the specific category.

For bloggers that host their own blogs, this might be readily available (not like I know how to implement this anyway), but Pipes temporally resolves the problem. I’m sure bloggers that hosting know how to use it…

Here is the google reader public aggregate feed I’m constructing. It is lonely! Only 11 feeds, need moar plz.

[for some reason, trying to put nano's feed into Pipes won't work]

Philosophy of adaption

Well, I think Kyoani and its creative minds were surely in a syncretic state – they had to balance viewer satisfaction with satisfying their own artistic minds. They had to balance – what Cuchlann and I fight about – the meaningless of art and the superimposed politics of art, entertainment. [This would probably apply to everyone who's ever had to publish something.]

So then let us say, “to excise, or not to excise, that is the question.” In order to provide the viewer with a narrative that avoids resets Kyoani would have needed to remove arcs, ends, and possibly rewrite some material. Yet they decided to include all the original material in the adaptation. The relationship between these two choices – that of “chastity” or “adulteration” – is not hierarchical. This is not a political question, it is a philosophical question¹, and as such, the significance is not in the result of the deed (higher or lower viewer ratings, more or less money) but in the inseparable morality of the deed itself – the two are merely artistic choices devoid of any intrinsic meaning, therefore, both having no meaning, they are equal to one another.

So for some reason I don’t like bringing up talk about the VN and aspects of adapting material. Yeah, Clannad is an adaptation, yeah, aspects of linearity fail sometimes, that’s inevitable. I’ve been working under the presumption that it is literally impossible to encapsulate the aspect of VN replayability in anime, therefore it’s rather silly to compare an anime to something it is intrinsically incapable of doing because, remember, we’re operating under the philosophy that, basically, the means justify the ends (not a typo). Even if you were to reverse the position, say that Kyoani alters source material, rewrites a few endings, there would still be things that version would be intrinsically incapable of doing, like providing those very reset ends you removed and so forth. [hear hear!]

Psychology of time

Valsiner (2005) writes that

[t]he co-existence of different bases for time measurement in human cultural practices reflects the historical complexity of measuring time. Efforts have been made to turn time into reversible units, similar to measures of length, weight etc. These static depictions of time can be seen as examples of “reversible time”. Surely such units are convenient cognitive illusions, yet they have their practical utility. Thanks to that, continuous events can be turned discrete (for example, there can be specifiable “end points” to experiences such as sitting in a lecture hall…). By trying to measure time, the duration notion is lost and time becomes represented in ways similar to space. Practical needs for social organization of life activities in societies guide the thinking of persons about time in the direction of overlooking the irreversibility of the duration.

In sum – time is irreversible as it flows, intricately linked with our experiencing our relations with our worlds. As a result of human cultural history, we have attempted to describe it in terms of stable units, which have served practical purposes. For the understanding of development, units of time that are used in science need to retain some features of irreversibility.

The take-away message is that in our viewing of Clannad (or any sort of time travel) we have to separate psychological time from narrative time.

fig1

[There are some epistemological nuances here - the narrative as a whole doesn't "regress" because the progression of the narrative is tantamount to a developing human psychology within irreversible time, but the narrative does indeed return to events that happened within a past that was established within the framework of relative events of the holistic narrative.]

Previously, Pontifus had written:

I’m having a hard time convincing myself that Clannad is tragic at all, ultimately, when all its tragedy is erased by magic.

But this is a reductive view which equates constant psychological time with narrative time. If we were to say truly that specific events onto which we have attached personal meaning were erased it be tantamount to memory loss of the viewer. Thus we can expand our graph:

fig2

Here, because excel sucks for 3-axis graphs, psychological time = ∆0 because it is always constant. For every instance of psychological time we establish a narrative event, that ratio is 1:1. But narrative events can regress, so even in a ∆0 of psychological time there can be a +/-∆x narrative time. Finally, emotion is always situated in irreversible time (psychologies cannot transverse time) and thus, for the sake of this study², we can set up some syllogisms:

∆emotion = ∆0psychological time
∆narrative time = ∆0psychological time
+/-∆emotion ≠ +/-∆narrative time

A change in emotion equals no change in constant psychological time.
A change in narrative time equals no change in constant psychological time.
A +/- change in emotion does not always equal a +/- change in narrative time.

Figure 2 is a hypothetical calculation of Pontifus’ psychology of Clannad. His psychological time is constant, yet as narrative time regresses his emotional level drops drastically. This is because, as he stated, “tragedy is erased”, which is just to say that narrative time regressed within a constant psychological time. But, as opposed to an Aristotelian notion of tragedy as an end product, it is clear that even a regression in emotion is a process that cannot disregard one’s history.

Even Nazarielle said:

…after what happened, it’s hard for me not to think that they were just trying to hit us as hard as they could, knowing that they could later reverse the sadness and make us all happy at the end. In hindsight, I can’t help but feel that it’s all rather artificial or fabricated. [emphasis added]

But for Nazarielle to explain his discontent, he must first explain the process by which this discontent arose. The process of emotion-building is invaluable because irrespective of what these emotions entail, they are always the basis for a developing psychology. And to explain more fully the process model within this developmental psychology, a fourth data series is need: reflexivity.

fig3

For someone like Pontifus or Nazarielle, or nearly everyone in the ’sphere, reflexivity is crucial – it’s writing, blogging. If there is one thing that is not altered by emotion in irreversible time nor narrative time it is reflexivity – it is cumulative, you cannot erase it (unless you perform a frontal lobotomy or something).³

notes

So with convention season reaching a fevered pitch during the spring and summer I thought that it would be fun to introduce the finer points of one of my convention staples, the MRE. Now I know that the thing says COMMERCIAL RESALE IS ILLEGAL, but there is no actual law that I have seen and they sell the things at the Travis AFB commissary anyways so if one wanted to one could get these things, even the manufacturers sell them directly though you have to buy a whole case at a time. Still at about $7.25 (there is a Tailored Operational Training Meal that goes for about $4.22 that has less calories, though is not nearly as impact resistant) a pop it’s not nearly as bad as those hotdogs, hamburgers, and small bowls of chili that the hotel or convention center tries to sell you, I am sure usagijen is going to have a fit at what I am about to say, but there certainly are benefits to having a light weight lunch that is rated to be shoved off C-130s. Besides it tastes just as good if not better than the standard convention food, and at least when you make it is fairly hot and not mildly warm to cold. If you can get a hold of these and your venue won’t have reasonably priced food I’d recommend getting an MRE especially if your schedule is packed, less time spent eating means more time doing other stuff. Besides it’s a better option than eating fast food at every meal or getting that $1.50 1 oz. bag of chips. So yeah I had one that was getting a bit old and decided it would be fun to open it up just for fun.

They call it beef steak, I call it mystery meat…

Despite the jokes of MRE meaning Materials Resembling Edibles, Massive Rectal Expulsions, Meals Rejected by Everyone, etc. it’s sort of like canned food, though the meat patties are often tough there are superior menus like the pot roast, rice, and beef stew. Other than the main course which can really be hit or miss the rest of it is usually good. The cookies are dry but edible and it tastes like a cookie, the pound cake is better, and I personally thing the crackers are okay since they have a high fiber content so that it won’t clog your system, plus they usually give you cheese spread or jam to go with it. I don’t like the wheat snack bread all too much but it does fill in for the crackers. Otherwise the fruit tastes like canned fruit and you do get candy like Skittles and M&Ms. If you are lucky you get one of the prized milk shake powders which are pretty much a meal in and of themselves and are often the most palatable part., otherwise they are excellent trade items in the field. Just be sure to drink plenty of water since you will need it… They also come in vegetarian and have fewer problems than the chicken for the most part.

Yeah my kitchen was a mess that day…

When I first saw these things in high school I though that they were the coolest things since I expected canned spam. That flameless ration heater isn’t much nowadays but back in the late 1990s I thought they were something, the thing relies on the oxidation of magnesium which produces hydrogen gas which you don’t want to get a good whiff of. The water gets really hot and is undrinkable but it gets the job done. The tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce is standard and is a god send if you need to add flavor to something or if you just like spicy foods. Just keep in mind these things really pack the calories averaging about 1200 for a full MRE since soldiers burn more calories running jumping and shooting.. The thing also comes with waterproof matches that usually work when dampened so if you need to burn those loli doujins in a hurry you can do it fairly easily and even in the rain! Still the flameless ration heater really isn’t allowed to go on a plane nakkid so you will need a sealed MRE if you are planning on flying. Otherwise boiling is a good enough method of the heater fails or you lose it. You also need a small knife or some sort of cutting device because the pouched can be really tough and even then you don’t want to peel it at the notches. Better to cut laterally so it’s more accessible and easier to eat.  If nothing else you can laugh at what passes for food for poor bastards like me during the first few weeks of hitting the ground.

More like any beans…at least they got rid of those lima bean dishes.

Opening an MRE is like opening a present, you don’t know what’s in it and even when you open something with a weird name you might find that it is something you normally eat any way, such as the fruit pastry which is really a pop tart. If nothing else get some for the zombie invasion or a natural disaster kit.

Uncle Sam is not bound by advertising laws, because he bought them not you…

The modern hard tack.

These actually taste pretty good.

Though it’s not the healthiest thing in the world…

Yeah those are real tootsie rolls, Uncle Sam like to have fun with words.

Ah it feels like the public school lunch program all over again.

Just make sure not to eat these at before you rack out.

Unlike Akiko’s Jammu it won’t kil you.

Soon this will all be behind me.

So I got the news from my university Dean’s office about a week ago, I’ll get my degree early…but the catch is that I will be getting a B.A. in Microbiology with a minor in East Asian Studies and English, instead of the B.S. in Microbiology with a minor in East Asian Studies. Perhaps there is not much of a difference in a B.A. from a BS, but the fact that my degree is going to have Art instead of Science really eats at me. Whether or not that is going to affect my chances for employment remains to be seen but I attach more prestige to the B.S. than the B.A. even if the difference is only going to be two classes. I know that ultimately though I have no one to blame for this other than myself, I transferred with too many credits and took about a quarter’s worth of classes I did not really need that I only took to keep my options open. I had gambled on the idea that the student population would not mushroom the way it did. I already went over the unit cap so it was pretty much a forgone conclusion that they would boot me out with a degree as the Dean’s Office held all the cards and had no incentive to let me petition for excess units once they figured out that went around them the first time and will be 2.5 units over the 225 cap. Certainly if I had been more focused on getting a B.S. I could have gotten it, and the fact that I did better in my minor classes than my major classes did little to help my lost cause. Most of the anger and bitterness has subsided, but in the end I find it mildly irritating all the same.

The Yuri I never saw,

The Muto that I never held,

The bath I never had,

and this University’s lack of Hasegawa speaks for itself. (adapted from an insult to the 1st Cavalry)

I’ll try to keep the bitterness to a minimum but as most of you boys and girls are in college or going to college, don’t make the same mistake I did, plan your course work out like your life depended on it, and try to avoid classes you don’t really need. Also if you are going to transfer do not bet an over achiever in community college and transfer with as many units close to the minimum as you can. I went in with 114 when I only needed 80 right off the bat which they pruned down to 90.5 units. The other issue was that I took a major in which the only interest I had in it was disease causing organisms, the rest did not interest me terribly much and I took it because it seemed more useful and could help me find a job that made decent money. If only it were like Moyashimon in that there was a lab course with instructors like Haruka and Muto, if only… Still it was also around this time when I had my fate handed to me by an enemy that I could not defeat in a civilized non-violent manner that I also finished Fancy Lala. The military teaches you how to roll with punches, but sadly they don’t really teach you how to deal with the bitterness and the anger of defeat.

Remember when you considered your crayon art to be good?

Okay so maybe getting old has some perks.

I am Quattro Bajeena I am looking for a man named Char…Have you seen him?

So before I compare my miserable existence to that of the protagonist of Fancy Lala, the anime was an oldie from 1998 about a girl named Miho who gets the power to magically conjure up clothes she draws and turn into a 15 year old Miho. She starts out as a model and eventually gets to release a single before the magical creatures that granted her mastery over space, time, and matter went on into the next temporal plain. It wasn’t a commercial success but I liked it very much since I like genki never say die characters like Miho, it also helps that she has fantasies that are very similar to Hosaka’s though since Miho predates Hosaka by ten years I think that perhaps Hosaka took a page from Miho-nee when it came to letting his imagination run riot. It’s a good old school anime to watch if you haven’t strangled the child within. Overall it was an experience for Miho that came to an end at which point she was powerless to fully reclaim what she had, though the lesson is probably that she still has time to grow up to be Lala and she needn’t such into it. Funny how kids wish that they could be adults and when they become adults all they want is to be a kid again. I liked it a lot because of the bitter sweet end, Miho, might not see Lala for another six years, but life went on, after her adventure was over life went on there was no need to despair because she still a had a number of years to enjoy being a kid.

Things were so much simpler when I was nine…

Say does that magical pen work backwards?

Whatever happened to see through clothes anyways?

Maybe it was a happy coincidence that I finished Fancy Lala around the same time my plans for the future were rendered moot with one swift stroke from the Dean’s pen in the NO box. Just like how Miho’s stint as Lala ended abruptly and just as she peaked, my college life will soon effectively come to an end and like Miho I will have to figure out what to do from now on. Where as Miho would someday see Lala again on her 15th birthday, I cannot afford to do this college thing over again nor do I have that much time to devote again. Soon I will fully enter the real world instead of residing in the dual existence of college drunkard and GI Joe. Graduating early is both a blessing and a curse it means that I won’t have any civilian employment when I get out, and judging by how dismally everyone else is doing I should be grateful that I have already enlisted and have rank over the new crop of recruits who are signing up now to make ends meet. At this juncture I don’t know what I want to do depending on how the job search thing goes, and as I have mentioned before I can still beg Uncle Sam for a job (which he will surely grant so long as he gets to decide where it is I shall work), just sooner than I had ever intended. One great thing about being shoved out is now the constant pressure of having classes seems to have abated. I hear they call it senioritis and it certainly feels good since I know I can’t alter the fate I was handed. The BA I supposedly get in March (I didn’t file for graduation on time because I did not know I was going to graduate or that IGETC fulfilled the foreign language requirement) represents in many respects a tactical victory in that I am no longer losing money paying tuition, but represents a strategic defeat in that I did not get the degree I wanted. Ah well more time for animu and mango I suppose, I just hope that a B.A. in a science is not totally useless because that would make this a very costly Pyrrhic victory.

Impz is that you?

You’ll see Lala again Miho…

Plus you won’t have to wait the full Ten Years After.

Well in the end I hope you kids learn from this old man’s academic equivalent of Lake Trasimene. Still like Miho I can look off into the setting sun, one chapter of our short existences has closed, we may have tasted bitter defeat, but so long as we have the capacity to endure this glorious struggle is not yet over. I’ll always have Moyashimon to remind me of the lab that never was, and Fancy Lala reminded me that I still have a future. Maybe God is trying to tell me something I have prayed for an end to college and now I got it. I just didn’t expect God to use Fed-ex overnight shipping. So far this year I have been promoted, robbed, and now I am graduating earlier than expected, there is something oddly amusing and mildly miraculous about what has occurred in my ho hum existence in the first part of 2009. Now to pray for Title 10 orders for a billet in Honolulu…I want certainly want Honolulu, but given how God seems to have an odd sense of humor IMHO, I suspect I will get Title 10 orders…to someplace just as sandy but with horrible beaches… I at least have a future being a more active Jolly Green Giant (though more like Disgruntled Tan Dwarf) that gets to stride to the farthest corners of the earth on Uncle Sam’s penny it’s almost like a dream come true.

Still I wonder if every college graduate who got their degree during hard times goes through this. Perhaps there are a few of you who are older than dirt that can attest to Next War-itis What Next-itis?

Skip Beat post later if Impz is still MIA on it.