SPIRIT OF THE DECADE: 10 milestone animated works

Everyone loves to mention their favorite shows of the decade.

Me? I notice the milestones. Tainted as my view may be.

10. Overman King Gainer

Why: Made mecha fun again. Even though it probably was 7 years too late.

9. Gundam SEED

Why: After the incredibly successful experiment by Sunrise and Bandai to rake in more money, aka Gundam Wing, Bandai applied the same formula for SEED. And included hot women and the Gundam brand to ensure the masses would buy it even though it was clearly a really long advert to sell plamo kits. The followups, Gundam SEED DESTINY and  Gundam 00, continued this trend.

8. Azumanga Daioh

Why: The popular 4-koma animated series introduced slice of life in it’s purest form, a feat not to be topped until ARIA rolled along. It’s bloody good stuff.

7. Burst Angel

Why: Burst Angel was the first GONZO show I actually stopped caring about. Up until then, every GONZO show I watched was, at the very least, pretty decent.Even Sunabozu, but I’m crazy like that. Who knew that after Burst Angel, they would actually either screw up good source material or did horrible things to animation?

6. Strike Witches

Why: LOOK AT DEM WITCHES. NO PANTS. NO PANTS. Sardonically, I’d say it was because of this show that brought about Queen’s Blade being aired, but then again, I could mention the crapload of H-anime being released. This is also the last good show GONZO made. Well, okay, that and Saki, but who cares? DEM WITCHES WEAR NO PANTS.

5. Tengan Toppan Gurren Lagann

Why: It’s probably the last good super robot show being made for a while (No, Shin Mazinger Z is a remake of a much older and beloved series). Also marks the beginning of the end for mecha in general.

4. The Melanchony of Suzumiya Haruhi

Why: It’s simply the biggest thing in Japanese animation since, well, ever. The posterchild of “Japanese soft power”, the rock star of Japanese animation, it did what Eva did over a decade ago: win over new fans and wowed older ones. It’s also interesting to note that this was when moé finally took off like a badly-made North Korean rocket.

3. K-ON!

Why: It’s moé, in a nutshell. Azumanga Daioh had humor and good characters, ARIA was simply amazing, and Hidamari Sketch was probably too cute for mortal eyes. But K-ON, unfortunately, had none of those. In my opinion. Oh, some good music, but seriously, all bad shows have good music. So there.

2. Genshiken

Why: Not Densha Otoko? Because Genshiken humanized the otaku. And made them look like normal, if mildly idiosyncratic individuals. Train Man made the otaku look normal, to be honest, but Genshiken reinforced that notion by portraying them as people instead of caricatures.  Also made characters with geek hobbies a mainstay of character archetypes.

1. Kanon (2002)

Why: Okay, so eroge adaptations have been going on way before this happened, but Kanon was one of the biggest shows to be animated in that decade. But what about To Heart? Well, To Heart probably wasn’t made in the last decade.

SPIRIT OF THE DECADE: A look into last decade’s animation and blogging trends!

I consider it the greatest irony to be writing about animé trends from 2000 onwards even though my exposure to it has been painfully limited. In fact, while trawling through the top (insert arbitary number here) lists, I’m actually learning new things.

Let’s just say I did not fully appreciate some of the stuff I was watching and am now scrambling to learn more. Also I didn’t know Kawamori was off being James Cameron when he’s not being James Cameron with TRANSFORMING ROBOTS POWERED BY POP MUSIC (also known as fucking around with the Macross franchise).

I’ll be liberally referring to MATT ALT’s timeline and related articles as I go along, peppered with what I can glean from THE PATRICK MACIAS LECTURES ABOUT OTAKU CULTURE. (The CAPS LOCK is totally required.)

However, let me just say something about the last decade.

How could people not watch shows like Busou Renkin and Overman King Gainer? I mean, If Fukuyama Yoshiki sang the OP (or ED) to a show, it’s probably a good bet the show IS good. Then again, people pay good money for troll attempts like Endless 8 and The OverHype Of Suzumiya Haruhi, so I can’t really say anything.

Also, when the most significant robot shows of the decade are remakes of already known classics and moépop Macross (and Gurren Lagann), there’s a big problem.

…Yeah. I need to read more.

The best show of 2010 has arrived.

What a badass.

The best show of the year has arrived.

Fuck your moeblobs, fuck your Gundams, heck, fuck the Macross Frontier movie and fuck Sunred. Yes, I meant that offensively and sexually.

THE LEGEND OF KOIZUMI HAS ARRIVED.

And it is made of badass Japanese ex-Prime Ministers, badass mahjong action rivalling Akagi, and. So. Much. MANLY. PASSION.

What I learnt about Junichro Koizumi:

• He can take survive being assassinated.
• It takes more than 3 bullets to kill him. And by bullets, I mean Browning .50 MG bullets.
• He is a total mahjong-playing badass.
• He is full of MANLY PASSION and will do anything for world peace and Japan. Well, maybe not getting plowed in the butt, but he’s so badass he wins all his mahjong matches.
• He can play mahjong WITH FATAL BULLET WOUNDS.

What I learnt about Taro Aso:

• He is a total mahjong-playing badass.
• He is a crack shot with a bolt-action rifle. One assumes that the rifle he is holding is an Arisaka Type 93. With a scope.
• He is not, contrary to popular belief, the worst Prime Minister the country ever has.
• Nor does he mention anything about courting the otaku vote.

Go watch this show. It will probably blow your mind. It is that good.

HAPPY FUCKING NEW YEAR.

No seriously, go have sex with a cat or something. I mean, it is the Year of the Tiger and all, and tigers are related to cats.

And now, THE SPIRIT OF THE DECADE LONG THOUGHT TO BE DEAD. I mean, the decade review.

The best show of the decade was Overman King Gainer, followed by Macross Frontier, Gurren Lagann and Shin Mazinger Z in second place. Astro Fighter Sunred takes a close third simply because it aired in 2009.

The worst shows of the decade were KissxSis (for almost-hardcore porn), Aki Sora (for actual hardcore porn), totally not Queen’s Blade (for softcore porn on TV), and maybe the Evangelion remake (I didn’t watch it), due to the fact that it was a blatant grab for cash by Hideaki Anno. Apparently being paid to make bigoted right-wing speeches doesn’t rake in as much money as it should.

Shows that were misjudged for the decade include Strike Witches and… … … Strike Witches. I need to watch more shows.

Good thing that happened in the last decade include the apparent death of Gonzo (for most people), Kyoani making too much cash for it’s own good, Gurren Lagann, Macross Frontier, and uh, probably the existence of Colony Drop.

Bad things that happened this decade include The Overrating Of Suzumiya Haruhi, the formation of the OEG, wah, Gipface being a dick, Haeleth being a dick, gp32 being a dick, gg being trollsubbers, Dattebayo stopped subbing Naruto due to troll end…

You know what, 2009 was a quiet year. None of the usual suspects trolled hard enough to make an impact, and the new trolls on the block were way worse since they were acting from a basis of moral superiority. No wait.

Well, Fuck that. 2010 is they year when THE LEGEND OF KOIZUMI airs (26 Feb). And after that, no other show will be talked about for a while.

Epic mahjong Animu Updates Plox

SITE IS UP.

Have I mentioned that you totally have to watch this show?

YOU GOT BURNT: The Reverse Thieves Secret Santa 2009 Anime Review

Brought to you by The Reverse Thieves Secret Santa Project.

No seriously, I have no idea on how to begin this.

I’m kinda lost on how to review Martian Successor Nadesico, because it’s begging for a rather hilarious manner as to how it gets reviewed, so…

You know what, i’m just gonna do it.

Send Miku to Venus. Of course, you probably knew about it.

Apparently, being a geek is not limited to losers.

Some scientist in Japan wants to send Miku to Venus (probably in the same manner as the Voyager probes held information about Earth for aliens, but with much better tech), and he (or she) needs 10K signatures to make it so.

Pretty cool idea. Even though personally, I wanna see Chibi Miku on Venus.

You can sign the form here. I already signed mine with a touch of 40K.

12 Moments of Anime: OVERMAN KING GAINER

Day 6 of THE 12 MOMENTS OF ANIME, SPONSORED BY CCY.

Totally not related to the fact Fukuyama Yoshiki sang this as the oper for his concert in Singapore. Totally not related at all. (Admit it, it is totally appropriate for him to open any of his concerts with THIS.)

Totally not related at all.

Oh man, the wonderful memories. THE TOTALLY WONDERFUL MEMORIES.

In all my time watching animé (even the TV stuff aired in, oh, 2000-ish?) I don’t think many shows can top the zanyness, sheer amount of recockulum, and quite simply, the amount of  fun and glee I get (and not in a “guilty pleasure/braindead” kind of glee) when watching. A feat not to be matched until recently, when I was introduced to Macross 7, relived my childhood watching Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko (Shinbo X JC Staff X sizeable budget = WOAH) and more recently, the exploits of the Nadesico.

I am surprised that no one actually watched the show past the first few episodes, or had some grave criticisms. The critics are to be expected, to be honest, but the show has DANCING in the OP. Expecting a fairly serious story with THAT has got to be one of the biggest leaps of logic I know. Not to be insulting to people I know, but this show is a must-watch. Even if it does start off slow.

After all, anything with an OP sung by Fukuyama Yoshiki can’t be all that bad, right? (Macross 7, THIS, Busou Renkin, I am totally right about these 3)

AFA brought back all those wonderful memories. What a trip. Better than LSD and opium combined. Guantareed.

So many words, so little time: In support of the 12 Moments of anime

Yes, someone jumped the gun and reminded me of this.

I am in full support. Yes, really.

And now I am reminded about Nadesico.

Also theme: Enjoyment.

What has Monolith done to Alfimi

…and why is she sexier than Yin D:

ARGLEBARGLE

What is this I don’t even

Oh my The Endless Frontier EXCEED PV

…And they updated the site.

Parting shot: SILLY AXEL IS THE BEST AXEL

This post has been brought to you by SRW HotNews. Insane ramblings brought to you by cute beagle puppies howling.