Chikorita157's Anime Blog

Anime blog that focuses on Yuri and School Girl Slice of Life Anime and Editorials

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Anime Blog Reading and Improving Anime Blogs

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Anime Blogging may have a fun aspect given that you are sharing your thoughts to the world, but in reality it takes a lot of time and dedication. The blogosphere is so vast that you might find thousands of Anime Blogs out there to read. However, it’s the blogs that stands out the most get the most attention.

You may ask, why are you writing an editorial about reading other people’s Anime blogs in the blogosphere? You asked a good question. I’m writing about it because I read a blog post on it. Additionally, I had an idea that reading other people’s blogs gives a blogger an idea on how to improve their own blogs. After all, everyone wants to be successful Anime bloggers and get as many readers out there as possible.
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Opinion: K-ON, It’s more about Good Friendships than Girls doing Cute Things.

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Friendship is one of the most desirable aspects of life since it allows us to interact with people that share the same interests and have a fun time. Without friendship, people would not be enjoying life and be setting in a corner with a feeling of boredom. In addition, having many friends can increase the chances of getting a job depending on how good your friends are.

K-ON is probably one of those shows that most people wouldn’t know about the friendship theme because of its reputation of being a girls doing cute things kind of show. If you look deeper in the activities and the songs they do, you realize that they are enjoying themselves because of their strong relationship between them. That feeling of friendship is what brought some of the nostalgia explained more in the last editorial when I looked back in my high school years.

Fanart used in this post is made by n@tu
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Read moreOpinion: K-ON, It’s more about Good Friendships than Girls doing Cute Things.
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The Observation of Music from Key’s Visual Novels

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After listening to the Angel Beats Original Soundtrack, I wondered about the other Original Soundtracks from other previous Key works like Kanon, Air and Clannad. After extensively listening to them, the three soundtracks had different styles between them and obviously completely different from the synth dominated tracks in Angel Beats.

Note: Fanart used in this post is made by さとPON
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Read moreThe Observation of Music from Key’s Visual Novels
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What is the Definition of Slice of Life Anime?

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What exactly makes an Anime be considered in the Slice of Life genre? There has been talk about it around the blogosphere on the true definition of the Slice of Life genre (Midnight Equinox provides a whole lowdown of bloggers who provided their views on the Slice of Life genre). Like I said in my slightly trollish response, it’s actually complicated. There is a reason why explaining the genre complicated. People have different views on what qualities in the show they would consider as Slice of Life. However, I’m going to share my views on what qualities that would be in the Slice of Life genre.

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Read moreWhat is the Definition of Slice of Life Anime?
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State of the Union: The Current State of Anime/Manga/Etc Cataloging Services

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Don't worry, we changed in the last 6 months...

Cataloging sites are an important pillar to any Anime Fan since it keeps track what we watched, completed or planning to watch. People share these lists with others so other people can see what the person watched.

The evolution to good and easy to use Cataloging Services have been a rough one. MyAnimeList from the opinions of other users have been rather negative for unnecessary changes, random bugs and no open APIs that its been a frustration for both regular users and developers alike.  AniDB hasn’t changed much and still too advanced for the average user. AnimePlanet is rather new still and still missing some features. However, its still better than MyAnimeList in many aspects. Lastly, Melative, the whole kitchen sink remains powerful and became more accessible to users. However, it does not have a really pretty web UI. In this State of the Union, I will discuss my thoughts on what’s good and what’s not good about these services and which one benefits the user the most.

Note: Fanart used in this post is made by えびばーちゃん
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Read moreState of the Union: The Current State of Anime/Manga/Etc Cataloging Services
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Reminiscing the Past: My Journey Through Anime…

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Remembering the happy memories can always be fun...

After reading Yumeka’s blog post on different generations of the US anime fandom, it would be interesting to tell my experiences of Anime when I first started in the nineties in full detail instead in a small paragraph…

From the nineties, things were a lot different compared to what Anime fans have now such as easily accessible fansubs, fast Internet connections, streaming, and cheap boxsets. Anime was hard to obtain and can only be watched from limited sources from television or VHS. Since the topic is relevant, I will show you my experiences on how Anime was like back in the nineties to the present.

Note: Fanart used in this post is made by 米

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Read moreReminiscing the Past: My Journey Through Anime…
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Scanlations… and the State of the Manga Industry

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After the Credit Crisis of 2008, the economy was taking a downward spiral of unemployment, foreclosure, loss revenue and such. Add the BP oil spill in the Gulf and it looks pretty dismal. It’s no doubt that the Manga industry is taking a big hit not only because of the recession, but the existence of scanlation sites and the lack of viable and legal alternatives.
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Read moreScanlations… and the State of the Manga Industry
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WordPress 3.0 and What it means for Anime Blogs?

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Wordpress 3.0, tastes just as good as vanilla ice cream!

WordPress 3.0 is the next big installment of the popular WordPress blogging platform used by the majority of Anime Bloggers. Automattic, the maker of the WordPress have been working on 3.0 since the early of this year and there had been some Beta and Release Candidate builds. Currently, they are very close to releasing WordPress 3.0, which brings a new array of features to bloggers. I will discuss some of these features that could be useful to the Anime blogger.

This only applies if you have a self-hosted WordPress, not blogs hosted on WordPress.com

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Read moreWordPress 3.0 and What it means for Anime Blogs?
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Opinion: Elitism and the Aniblog Tourney: What happened?

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If these people are able to make up, why can't the Aniblogosphere?

In light of the drama, I felt that I needed to write this editorial because things went out of hand. People arguing each other saying that Listless Ink doesn’t deserve this victory and that Random Curiosity should have won. I have discuss this on my sideblog that I won’t go into detail (just read the post on my Sideblog if you are still interested). Still, this argument keeps going and going, which disturbs me. This editorial won’t be about Random Curiosity and Listless Ink, but other things that bother me about the whole situation.

Note: Fanart used in this post is made by 紅雪

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Read moreOpinion: Elitism and the Aniblog Tourney: What happened?
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AniBlog Tourney – Round 2 Part 5 (Day 14-17) and Round 2 Followup

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Time for the longest stretch of the digest....

Sorry for the delay… I was playing Half-Life 2 (which is a good game like with Portal) and totally forgot about the last few matches… so I guess I have to write them up…

Like the last digest, blogs will be judged on content and design with content weighing more. Second Page contains the Round 2 Followup. Note that I won’t be doing any digests next round since I have already reviewed all the blogs in the tournament.

Note: Fanart used in this post is made by 竹家ﾕｰｷ@待機.
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Read moreAniBlog Tourney – Round 2 Part 5 (Day 14-17) and Round 2 Followup
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Aniblog Tourney Round 2 Part 4 – Day 10-13 Digest

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Taking a small break...

When I really need to do these digests, I forget now since I have no classes at the moment. It was a week and a half since Spring Semester ended, so I will try to roll these posts a bit more quickly than what I am doing right now.

Like the last digest, blogs will be judged on content and design with content weighing more.

Note: Fanart used in this post is made by 悠夜
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Read moreAniblog Tourney Round 2 Part 4 – Day 10-13 Digest
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Dropped Anime Flashback: Kampfer or Add Moar Fanservice and Dumb Down the Characters

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Ah, Kampfer… The Genderbending Anime that hasn’t been. Kampfer was a big disappointment across the board not only because of the excessive fanservice, but they dumb down the main character to intolerable levels so he would be hated just like Sakura… They did just that… They made Natsuru into a big idiot and a sucker for Sakura, who is obviously taking advantage of his female form. Also, he didn’t gave a sh** about the other girls who want the male Natsuru. Hell, probably the only sane character in this story might just be Shizuku… As I remembered, I only watched Episodes 1 and 6 before dropping this piece of crap… but I will go more in detail on why this show is a piece of crap.

Nogizaka Haruka Purezza’s fanservice may be bad, but it cannot compare to Kampfer. Kampfer is fanservice laden to beyond belief. The typical stuff from most harem anime plus clothing being ripped, more censor steam, boobs and then some. Not only that I heard they put references in completely random places. What kind of Anime does that? Oh wait…

From what I have seen from the two episodes I seen, It was a disaster. Girls randomly battling each other with more fanservice shots, Natsuru obsessing over Sakura, and girls obsessing over Natsuru and wants to dress him (or her) in outrageous outfits for example… That what I got from it and it definitely didn’t play well for me. What Purezza and Kampfer have in common is the weak male lead. Yuuto’s apparent flaw is that he let everyone else step over him and not being aggressive enough. However, Natsuru got to be the lamest, even Yuuto’s niceness can’t beat Natsuru’s pathetic life. Natsuru knows damn well that other girls in his harem (Akane, Mikoto and Shizuku) wants him, but he completely ignores them and go for the manipulative bitch called Sakura Kaede. Natsuru likes her because she is obviously the prettiest girl in the school, but you have to know that appearance isn’t everything. This can apply in real life. The prettiest girl ever can be the most manipulative bitch out there and wants you to do things for her all the time.

Not only that, the ending from reading it on various anime blogs shown to be a big disaster. What Ode to Joy have to do with anything? Funny thing is that Purezza took the same cue from Kampfer and did its Ode to Joy thing, but not nearly as lame as Kampfer. Want to power up, let’s take more clothing off… Bullshit! After that final scene, absolutely nothing is resolved… That is just bullshit. Not only that, people ask, what the hell we watched after looking at Episode 11. I wonder too, what did I watch/read about? A pile of shit!

I can go on with Kampfer, but there isn’t really much more to say. Kampfer disappointed everyone across the board. Not only that, they ruined the story by making the male lead even more of an idiot than in the Manga. It’s worth noting that not only the story is horrible, but the music too as what zzeroparticle said in his Kampfer Soundtrack Review:

Katou’s messing around with musical genres is a double-edged sword and while Kanno and Iwasaki are able to draw forth memorable music by doing so, Katou displays no such skill and ends up cutting himself badly because he’s simply not good enough to deliver wide-ranging music that consistently engages the listener.

And it shows when you listen to Kämpfer’s music. The task of composing a diverse musical portfolio taxes him to the limit and he doesn’t have a whole lot to give. In the early part of the track, there’s a glimmer of promise; the melody is solid, catchy even, and just when you enter the bridge, you come back face to face with the opening melody. Development? What development?

By reading this, you know that Kampfer is a pile of shit since it suffers from not so good storytelling, uninspiring and completely random music, an incompetent male lead and a horrible ending. From this, what do I expect out of Kampfer? Absolutely nothing, except watching it with other people for amusement on how shitty this Anime is. Nomad could have done a better job on Kampfer, but they bombed it like on the same level of Action 52… Maybe not as horrible as Action 52, but it’s still bad. So yea, Kampfer is probably the most horrible Anime I watched so far excluding the Endless Eight fiasco with Suzumiya Haruhi S2.

Notes: My plan was to originally rewatch up to Episode 6, but the problem is that most of the torrents by then were pretty much dead, so I have to use what I already know.

Read moreDropped Anime Flashback: Kampfer or Add Moar Fanservice and Dumb Down the Characters
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Aniblog Tourney – Round 2 Part 2 – Day 4-6 Digest

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I was fooling around with my iPad...

I got a bit sidetracked yet again with the iPad. I decided to get one and it works great so far… and I got distracted and yeah… forgot about the AniBlog Tourney…

Since I have a real iPad now, I will review blogs on my iPad instead. Like the last digest, blogs will be judged on content and design with content weighing more.
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Read moreAniblog Tourney – Round 2 Part 2 – Day 4-6 Digest
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Aniblog Tourney – Round 2 Part 1 – Day 1-3 Digest

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No wai! I was busy...

Sorry for the long delay… I was caught up with final exams that happened on the first two days. On Wednesday, Steam for Mac was released and it came with free Portal, so I spent my time playing Portal and moaning about sacrificing my Weighted Companion Cube. I just beated the game when I totally forgot about the second round… so yeah.

In this round, I will do things a little differently. Instead of reviewing them individually, I will review them basing on content and layout/design. Content weighing a lot more than the layout/design. This will make things run a bit more smoothly.

Note: The fanart used above is made by えらんと
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Read moreAniblog Tourney – Round 2 Part 1 – Day 1-3 Digest
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One Year Later, I still enjoy K-ON!

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No, it's not because of the pillow fight that Mugi started.

It has been nearly one year ago since the first season K-ON!. When I first watched it, I actually enjoyed it and more so since in 2009, I was already in college and graduated from High School. I still enjoy the second season of K-ON! as much I did with the first season. So, how come I still enjoy this moeblob, music slice-of-life anime? For several reasons.

First, It brought back past memories on how my high school life wasn’t great compared the girls in K-ON and how they are enjoying school. I have attended a public high school where some or most of the students are from higher class families. The school I used to attend didn’t have a good environment because there were some students who do drugs, going out drinking, and obsessed about relationships for example. I was one of those teenagers that don’t do these activities. I had friends, but gradually I stopped talking them when college started. I was a minority in the school and the school was not a multiracial school. As a result, I was picked on and bullied in high school. These were the reasons I didn’t like my high school years compared to college years. Now looking back at K-ON!, they don’t suffer the problems and it seem that the girls actually enjoyed going to school and having fun after school and eating cake and drinking tea. I wished my high school years was like this… less teenage rage and more on enjoying school and having fun with after school activities.

Second thing I can relate to K-ON! is the music aspect. Yes, half the time spent on the whole season is watching them drink tea, eat cake, socialize, and etc, but they actually play. In middle school, I enrolled into concert band since 7th grade up to the last year of high school. I played Clarinet back then and gradually, I started to get better with the lack of practice since I spend time on the computer. Although I never got first chair in my high school years, I did enjoyed playing music. The same happened with Piano. Ever since I started when I’m young, I hardly ever practiced. However, I managed to play those pieces with some minor mistakes. I am talented like the girls in K-ON! who manages to play the songs perfectly without any practice. It was quite amazing. Since college however, I haven’t really touched the Clarinet and the Piano, but I should start playing again with Anime Music of some sort.

Lastly, K-ON! is not all about the moe factor or moeblobs. There is always going to be moe-haters, mecha-haters, action-haters, romance-haters, you name it! Deep down from the shallow perception of moe, K-ON! has what all the qualities slice of life anime have. Slice of life stories relates back to your or anyone’s life and past experiences. Although K-ON! may not a masterpiece, it is still a pretty good and well balanced slice of life Anime that most who can enjoy that enjoys the genre. Then again, isn’t a slice of life story supposed to be a mere image of everyday life? We may not see a person like Yui in real life, the character personalities can be a possibility.

Life experiences and the music is what makes me watch K-ON! like I do with the slice of life genre. While some people may not like this genre because of the lack of plot, I think most people would enjoy it as there is other elements in slice of life such as comedy, drama, romance, etc.
Attribution Information

Fanart used in this post is made by 眼鏡虫

Read moreOne Year Later, I still enjoy K-ON!
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Conclusion of Match 32 and Contest as the Whole

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Was so close, but didn

With the clear winner, Anime Princess with 6 votes unless it changes in the next several hours, it was a very close match… but a very ironic one at best since my blog from my assumptions would have won mainly on the strength of content. It simply proves that the Aniblog Tournament is a popularity contest and the voters aren’t voting based on content, but on popularity as described on a recent post: Although with Anime Princess winning being very close with content strength, I think with some matches, the following applied:
As you may have noticed, there has often been a difference in the number of votes in the two different polls in the one post. The main reason this happens is when people link to the tourney asking them to vote for someone (usually themselves), their followers/readers/minions blindly obey and vote in just that poll, never looking at anything else on the tourney whatsoever. So while its great that people are at least writing about the tourney, we would like to ask that you perhaps write something more substantial than just ‘VOTE FOR ME!’.

Sometimes it is all politics, but not in this case. I know my flaw is the banner, but that shouldn’t be a real weakness since I found a lot of flaws on Anime Princess, but my blog I have to admit is also flawed because I’m not exactly the best writer out there. I’m surprised that I have even gotten that far considering most people stop blogging after one year. My writing may not be the greatest, but certainty not the worst.

I think there is some things I can improve on with the following:

  • Making people more aware of the blog: I think this is one of the problems. If you look at my blogroll, it is hopelessly small. I need other Anime Bloggers to help out and give the blog more exposure. Next time when there is another contest, I can probably have a better chance of winning since there will probably be more readers and such and with myself updating the blog regularly, it wouldn’t be a problem. Considering I have half the followers compared to Lossty on Twitter… it is pretty sad.
  • More original title: I’m guessing that a very generic title like ‘s Anime Blog is getting tiring. I probably need to think up another name for the blog so that it would stand out more.
  • Guest Editorials/Reviews: Perhaps I should allow other bloggers in the blogosphere share their thoughts on issues like Anime and the Industry and other stuff to get readers more interested.
  • What you think I should improve on in the future besides the banner and the theme? I know I have some troubles with grammar, but I think I am pretty good in the content department since I no longer do those summary episodic posts and more of an editorial/thoughts type now and that I post editorials time after time again.

As the results stand, I wish Lossty luck and I will help her by sending a list of stuff that she should fix on her blog so she will have a chance to win against the next match. Also, I apologize for any rude remarks I have made and I never meant to attack the blog since Lossty deserves it after the tight competition.

Read moreConclusion of Match 32 and Contest as the Whole
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Angel Beats – What was the purpose of bullying Tachibana Kanade?

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All she wanted to do afterwards is eat Mapo Doufu...

Finally got caught up and from these three episodes, Yuri goal is to eliminate Tenshi (real name: Tachibana Kanade) because Yuri thought Tenshi was the god… The only problem is that she isn’t and couldn’t rebel because she is the student council president.

Yuri is a big bully and the SSS is becoming a gruesome bullying group. She intended of making Kanade loose in the baseball game just to make her cry? Also, what about the breaking into her room just to get information on her? Now, Yuri executed her plan to make Kanade fail all her exams just to ruin her reputation and have her kicked out of student council? Well, yes… and that was the result of it after the exams were over. Like with Haruhi, Yuri has no morals or even proof that Kanade is actually god or not… Just go ahead and go along with the Anti-Tenshi plans without knowing damn well that Tenshi is a human like all of them meant to be.

In contrast to Yuri’s bullying… it’s just as gruesome as real life bullying. Bullies have no morals and just doing it because they have no self esteem and think that by bulling a student or a person that is weaker than them, it will make them more powerful… What would that do to help the victim? With bystanders not doing to protect the victim from the bully… what would that do to the victim with all the pain and suffering like with Kanade is suffering after losing her position in student council after the SSS tried to sabotage her tests?

Tachibana Kanade needs a warm hug… I feel sorry for her on how she is mistreated by Yuri’s outrageous plans to get rid of her.

Thoughts

Away from the Kanade bullying by Yuri… I felt that the 4th and 5th episodes being very enjoyable and funny. However, the 3rd episode was filled with melodrama. Iwasawa’s story was very sad and I sympathize with her since she never got to finish her goals because the injury caused by one of the parents fighting. The music is exactly what I have said in my review of Crow Song single, so no need for the explanation…

This also brings up a new point after watching Episode 5, even good people who rebel even get eliminated… and also, Tenshi didn’t get eliminated after she was removed from student council, so I don’t really know what is Yuri’s reasoning that if you obey Tenshi, you will get eliminated. That is simply not true at all.

With the 4th Opening done by Yui’s singer, LiSA (don’t know why, but they probably don’t want the voice actor for Yui to sing) which was pretty decent, but I still perfer the Piano version.

Overall, although the comedy scenes are out of place, I think it is still a very good series so far. The animation has been really good so far compared to the first episode. Perhaps, they will animate Little Busters! next? Who knows…

Read moreAngel Beats – What was the purpose of bullying Tachibana Kanade?
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AniBlog Tourney Part 6 (Day 15-16) Digest and Round 1 Followup and Suggestions

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Ui <3...

As the first round is coming to a close, competition is becoming fierce. As always, my review criteria won’t change as we review the last 8 Anime Blogs in this round. I will be posting this early since next week, I need to spend time studying for exams for four subjects. The next 8 blog reviews will be posted on Monday…

Before going on, this review Digest will contain screenshots of the actual website and how they look on my machine, so slow connections, beware… I’m basing all content on quality, not the blogger’s overall opinion on issues and stuff. Also, if you want to vote in the tournament, you can do it over here. Make sure to vote for us on Tuesday!

In addition, there is a followup and suggestions on what I have observed overall and problems that I have seen that some blogs should fix in the future.

Note that this post is paginated. First page is the blog reviews and second is the Round 1 followup and suggestions.
Note 2: Fanart used in this post is made by るしゅーと.
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Read moreAniBlog Tourney Part 6 (Day 15-16) Digest and Round 1 Followup and Suggestions
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The end of the Taste Test… Mayoi Neko Overrun just did not work for me.

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Although Nozomi Kiriya is amazing... the whole premise of the series isn't...

I would have thought having show about a Nekomimi would be good. The problem is the glass is a quarter full… Although the show may not be as fanservice laden as Kampfer or the first or last episode of Nogizaka Haruka Second Season… I was proven wrong. It did have potential of being a better than average romance harem show, but it didn’t deliver. Why? A few reasons such as inconsistency, character designs and the level of fanservice.

Warning: Slightly not safe for work….

First, a problem I see with Mayoi Neko Overrun is its inconsistency… From the two episodes I watched, the tones are completely different. With episode 2, we are introduced to Nozomi and yes she is very skillful. Then  in the third episode, the episode becomes drama packed and just recently, a hot spring episode packed with even more fanservice up to the roof. The problem is that it is not consistent as the tone of the story keeps changing. Now it comes from just being a normal harem anime with average fanservice to a melodrama to a full blown eechi romance anime. No, it’s not the material’s fault, but the problem is that each episode have a different director. It is pretty difficult to keep the consistency of the whole story when we have different directors for each episode. It’s just like Endless Eight when Koyoto Animation and Kadokawa thought it was funny to have different Animation Directors and we knew how that turned out… We have fans complaining that it looked like K-ON! or saying the animation sucked. Having two directors working on different episodes is okay, but having 12 different directors… I don’t know about that one after what happened with Endless Eight and their experimentation.

Second problem… Fanservice… Like mentioned from chaostangent’s taste test on Mayoi Neko Overrun, he mentioned the… well fanservice rather perfectly:
Fifty seconds in: under wear close-up. Sixty seconds in: abuse by an overly arrogant female. Four and a half minutes in: breast jiggle.

I didn’t caught that from the first episode, but I was a lot more careful in the second episode… Few minutes in before the OP, we already have boob groping and a panty shot… After the OP, Nozomi naked and more Gainaxing from Otome, Chise being completely naked, panty shot from Nozomi and it goes on and on… Some examples:

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Boob groping... I thought this is supposed to be better than Purezza... but it fell in the trap...
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Whats this? Nozomi fooling around with her swimsuit?
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If you thought this was bad... Wait until Episode 4...

And guess what… It is not the worse of the fanservice… Episode 4 presents completely naked people…

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Yes... it can't get any worse than this...

The problem with this show is that as with all the typical harem anime “cliches” out there, Mayoi Neko Overrun certainty have fell into the ditch with the rest of the harem anime that are often fanservice laden. Fanservice with this type that is over done too many times become very distracting and ruin my overall thoughts about the whole show. This applies to all Anime I watch. While Nogizaka Haruka First Season had some fanservice, I never seen that many panty shots and Gainaxing, which made it less distracting and made the show more enjoyable. In contrast to the Second Season, the opposite happen although there were some episodes with no fanservice at all that I enjoyed. However, the first and last episode was horrible because of this… too much unnecessary fanservice! It may depend on the person, but I care more about the story, not some fanservice shot that doesn’t need to be there. Also, not all fanservice is bad… The sexual kind gets very bad in my opinion when it is overdone and in this case, I think so.

Character Designs… I’m guessing they are all right, but however, I would consider Fumino a run off the mill Tsundere as she is very violent and stuff… However, it gets a bit too out of hand and as always, very tiring… I can’t remember how many times she said “DIE TWICE” or something like that… Although the main lead isn’t as wimpy as some leads from other harem anime, the problem is well… not having an established harem and stuff…

In conclusion, Mayoi Neko Overrun is a run off the mill Ecchi Romance Harem and doesn’t go beyond that to improve itself. It was a promising story, but the problem is that the story’s tone is all over the place and there is too much fanservice. If they kept the fanservice to the level as the first season of Nogizaka Haruka, it would have turned out okay… but it didn’t as it fell into the pool of cliches that past and recent harem Anime fell in. In the end of the day, it is a “your milage may vary” anime. If you like the typical fanservicy romance harem anime with a nekomimi in it, this is the Anime for you… but not for me since I rather watch something more worthwhile without the ridiculous amount of fanservice that I can enjoy without being distracted by Gainaxing and stuff like it…

However, I did like the story in Episode 3, but it wasn’t enough for me to continue watching it… so yeah…

Read moreThe end of the Taste Test… Mayoi Neko Overrun just did not work for me.
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AniBlog Tourney Part 5 (Day 13 and 14) Digest

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It's Yui-nyan!

As the first round is coming to a close with the last few matches, competition is becoming fierce. As always, my review criteria won’t change as we review another 8 Anime Blogs. I will be posting this early since next week, I need to spend time studying for exams for four subjects. The next 8 blog reviews will be posted on Monday…

Before going on, this review Digest will contain screenshots of the actual website and how they look on my machine, so slow connections, beware… I’m basing all content on quality, not the blogger’s overall opinion on issues and stuff. Also, if you want to vote in the tournament, you can do it over here.
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Read moreAniBlog Tourney Part 5 (Day 13 and 14) Digest
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AniBlog Tourney Part 4 (Day 10-12) Digest

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No... It's Azu-nyan...

As the first round is coming to a close, competition is becoming fierce. As always, my review criteria won’t change as we review another 12 Anime Blogs.

Before going on, this review Digest will contain screenshots of the actual website and how they look on my machine, so slow connections, beware… I’m basing all content on quality, not the blogger’s overall opinion on issues and stuff. Also, if you want to vote in the tournament, you can do it over here.
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Opinion: One Year Later, Eroge is still under threat of Dying… By Who? Guess!

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Almost about a year ago, I have written against the ban on eroge games and had a poll on it. A vast majority was against this ban. What caused it? Some controversial game called Rapelay appeared on the UK Amazon store that sparked outrage. Now like with some people, they like to butt into other countries business and extremist groups like Feminism Now, which I put the full blame along with news organizations like CNN overblown the whole situation putting the pressure on Japan to try and create anti-loli legislation that is clearly unconstitutional and having a group of creators in Japan speaking out against the legislation.

Along with it, minori, an eroge and visual novel maker decided to bar everyone in the west from their site. Just recently, they launch an assault on a popular visual novel translation wiki with an editing war saying the fans are not allowed to translate a clean, all ages visual novel eden. This obviously outraged a lot of minori fans accusing them of being betrayed even after importing the games legitimately from Japan, thus dubbing the whole situation as “minorigate.” Two blogs, Omonomono with the article titled Open the Minorigate” and another from The Nihon Review with the article titled minorigate, or, How to Piss Off Otaku Without Really Trying both produced very convincing arguments, but I’m not going to focus on Minori in this opinion piece. I want to show my opinion why I am against this whole eroge ban and why people who want to dictate how Japan should control their culture really need to stop now.

The Rapelay incident is just like the Hot Coffee incident that happened in July 2005, around the same time the Rapelay incident occur. Like Rapelay, Hot Coffee was a mod in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas that was a minigame that featured a sex simulator. This drove controversy and the game was rerated Adults Only and drove controversy. Jack Thompson arose from this incident and wanting to ban all video games with nudity and violence. He targeted violent games and also Sims 2, a popular life simulation game. Thompson’s attack on video games made gamers angry saying that what Thompson’s attack on gaming and his “Modest Proposal” was going to ruin freedom of expression. There were video game laws that were passed in California and Florida, but eventually these laws became unconstitutional and were shot down and Jack Thompson eventually lost his attorney license.

Why am I mentioning Hot Coffee Mod? In relation, Rapelay is the same, except that instead of being a western game, it is a game made in the east. Now we get into different cultural values and stuff and being Asian myself, I know how different these cultures are. The problem is that like with Hot Coffee, it is going to be like trying to ban violent video games. It’s not going to work because most free countries have laws that protect the freedom of freedom, expression and media. So what Japan is lax on stuff when comes to sexual stuff. The problem is, some westerners no matter how much they hate eroge or not, they have no right to tell another country how to dictate their culture. It is Japan’s culture, not yours. Say if another country said that they were offended by the stuff in Grand Theft Auto and want the game banned. Then the United States Senate creates legislation trying to ban every game that have violence in it, would you like it? For most people, they will not and complain over it. If people in the US don’t want violent games to be banned, then like with Japan, they don’t want their eroge banned. How do you think they will feel if the anti-eroge bill gets passed in contrast with a bill banning violent games used in my example… do you think they are going to be happy as you going to be happy with violent games being banned? The answer is most likely no.

As with violent video games, they do not equate to gamers who play these types of games to commit violent crimes as a Japanese person playing eroge and doing the same. Video Games do not influence people in practice. People should already know right from wrong and not to copy what happens in the video game.

Another thing I blame is news organizations and radical groups like Feminist Now. News organizations had overblown the whole situation when it didn’t need to. We get those radial groups that want to ban Eroge and then we have this massive chaos going around. Just last month, CNN tried to fuel the fire and go on and bringing up Rapelay again when the incident was several months old. This causes minori to do what they have done and I don’t blame them. I blame media organizations and radial feminist groups. The problem with them is they disregard what other people think about them and go ahead and start this holy war against Eroge games and ruining it for everyone else. People easily get offended over everything. If they get offended already, they should practice self-censorship and do it now. Why? It is a great practice so that you don’t have to go around and ruin it for people who wanted to play that sort of content.

In conclusion, it is more of the media organizations, politicians and radial group’s fault for letting this crusade to ban eroge games for going so far. They don’t care about what other people think or what they think about them. As long they are satisfied, fans of these games not only in Japan, but also outside of Japan are going to get hurt badly because they can’t practice self-censorship. Also, it is not their business for them to dictate what other countries should do with their culture. It’s the countries responsibility. I for one, think this crusade needs to stop and everything needs to go back to the status quo. Even if I don’t play Eroge games that often, I don’t want people have to suffer the fate of not being able to play the next Eroge game from minori they want to import. As some said, people should stop complaining about Anime Dying, but Eroge Dying because of these groups that want to put an end on Eroge.

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AniTourney Review Part 3 (Day 7-9) Digest

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Blog reviewing is pretty hectic, but fun.

Now, we are on week two of the competition and it is pretty fierce. As always, my review criteria won’t change as we review another 12 Anime Blogs.

Before going on, this review Digest will contain screenshots of the actual website and how they look on my machine, so slow connections, beware… I’m basing all content on quality, not the blogger’s overall opinion on issues and stuff.

Day 7

Match 13

Black and Blue Socks

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Black and Blue Socks have a clean layout. Although the theme is commonly used, I won’t criticize it since it’s a limitation on Wordpress.com. The layout is very clean and navigable. Although an episodic blog, it does have a decent amount of editorials mixed in and the content is fairly good, so I have much to say… It is a pretty well rounded blog…
Major Arcana

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Major Arcana has a very nice and clean design. Although the author does episodic blogging as the former, unlike the former, there is a lot more editorial blogging covering a variety of subjects. The post quality is very good, except that unlike the former, the author doesn’t post as often… but from the quality of posts and content, the advantage is Major Arcana, but ever so slightly.
Match 14

Daijoubu

wpid-Daijoubu-300x242-2010-04-27-12-22.pngThere is not much I can say about Daijoubu as it is another comic blog with well, comics that look as they were made in MS Paint and posts that lack quality and not as good as Beta-Waffle’s… I wished that this blog have done a better job in providing content that are higher quality. Perhaps some editorials and stuff… Oh well…
Mecha-Guignol

wpid-Mecha-Guignol-300x246-2010-04-27-12-22.pngAlthough not particularly interested in some of the genres that the author is looking at, I think the author of this blog done a better job with the post quality. The author posts a mix of editorial and rarely episodic blogging. With the shortcomings of Daijoubu, it is quite obvious that this one is going to be my choice…
Day 7 Results

Major Arcana and Mecha-Guignol
Day 8

Match 15

Ani-Gamers

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Despite the name of the blog, Ani-Gamers is a mixed episodic, editorial and review blog. Ani-Gamers have a clean layout, although not the usual layout as the stuff is on the left side. Fairly good quality posts and the author seems to post frequently.
Anime Full Circle

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The problem with Anime Full Circle is that the text is a bit unreadable, maybe because of the fonts used on my system. In contrast to Ani-Gamers, they post fairly frequently, but the problem with the posts is that some of the posts lack some quality. If they improve their post quality, I would have vote for them, but the clear advantage is Ani-Gamers. Anime Full Circle should consider either getting a new theme or fix their current theme so it would be more readable.
Match 16

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Since I follow Anime Instrumentality Blog on my RSS reader, it is obvious that I am going to vote for them automatically. It is rare that the Anime Blogosphere focus mainly on Anime Music as a whole, but I find this blog rather unique with high quality reviews on Anime Singles, Albums and Singles and also focus on Anime and related music as a whole.

The problem with Kita ze Inbou is that they focus way too much on Episodic Blogs and post a lot of screenshots like Random Curiosity. They have a clean layout, but why the banner add is on top of the banner? I would rather have them move it to the content area. Although the theme looks appealing, they really need to post more original content like editorials and stuff.
Day 8 Results

Ani-Gamers and Anime Instrumentality Blog
Day 9

Match 17

Behind The Nihon Review


Behind The Nihon Review is mostly an editorial blog. The pieces I have looked at were pretty professional and rational, although they don’t post as often. The layout design overall is pretty clean and easy to navigate.
Chocolate Syrupy Waffles


Chocolate Syrupy Waffles is probably one of the most controversial blogs out there that tries to be funny and interesting. The problem is some may not like the opinions shown on the blog. Also, they do episodic posting as well. As for the layout, it is pretty clean and easy to navigate. Despite the outrageousness of the blog, I think Behind The Nihon Review is better since it has a more rational approach on issues and being more polished.
Match 18

Listless Ink


The author of this blog must have put a lot of effort to make it look really nice. From the looks of the comments, that is simply insane. The content is mostly editorial and the posts are pretty good quality.
Super Noisy Rice Shower Goes Boom!!

Rarely there is a blog out there that focus primarily on Seiyuus. Like the former, the content is pretty good as well and it also has a very clean layout. Tough decision… so I’m going to let you guys vote for what blog I should ultimately decide on. The poll will close this Friday and I will decide on that day on what blog to vote according to the votes on this poll.
[poll id=”12″]
Day 9 Results

Behind The Nihon Review. Match 18 to be decided.

Okay, this wraps up the long blog digest… Now, vote for what I should vote for on Match 18 and I’ll be on my way. Next digest will be posted on Friday with another 12 blogs to review.
Attribution Information

Fanart used in this post is by G TONG (Pixiv Page)

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