Chikorita157's Anime Blog

The thoughts, reviews and analysis of Comedy, Romance, Drama and Slice of Life Anime of a College Student

Otaku Elimination Game does show what’s wrong with the Anime Blogosphere

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After the overwhelming response I had with the previous editorial I wrote on how the Anime Blogosphere is filled with posts that are not even closely related to Anime and filled with boring rehash of mostly news and photoshots of figurines, no wonder AnimeNano are filled with not so interesting or good quality posts. I decided to write a second part of the editorial… How OEG shows what’s wrong with the Anime Blogosphere.

When the Otaku Elimination Game post it’s first review of select blogs, people have shun it outright for being a troll blog, but they do bring a point…. Anime blogs are becoming less about Anime and more about pointless stuff like random Japan news, photo shots of figurines and how much RAM you use on your computer, etc… It eeems that these days, Anime Blogs are becoming way too personal and people are beginning to post personal experiences too much compared to the ratio of actual anime/manga reviews and anime/manga related editorials and commentaries. Sure it’s okay to add your own thoughts to news, but the problem is that news even though you add thoughts to your news can outrun your anime content.

The problem is that the Anime Blogosphere is filled with alot of not so good blogs, believe it or not… Sturgeon’s Law is alive… and 90% of the blogs you see on AnimeNano and in the Anime Blogosphere is crud … and most of these blogs die after a few months and never become active again… The problem is that fansubs have gotten so easy to obtain that bloggers want in and we see more quantity over quality. We seem to forgot that years ago when Anime Blogs are less about what it is today and more like spoilers… The problem is that people seem to not put enough effort in their Anime Blogs, which can we see from the overwhelming majority of not so good blogs on WordPress.com, and most of these bloggers complain they don’t have enough time and end up not updating. We see way too many copycats of successful anime blogs like That Anime Blog, Random Curiosity, or even Danny Choo that Anime Blogs seem to have no uniqueness, which the OEG seems to be stressing greatly… Bloggers should be more creative and make their blogs more unique… perhaps making your own format and even doing something more creative… Innovation isn’t the problem, but quality of content and the number of copycat blogs out there…

Lastly, AnimeNano seems to be less about Anime and Manga, but more on pointless and uninteresting things about Japan and Anime/Manga/Visual Novel/Light Novel unrelated stuff. As pointed out, AnimeNano atleast doesn’t have Sankaku, but it still doesn’t make it any better because there is still blogs like Sankaku out there that doesn’t even talk about the stuff I mentioned… Anime Nano seriously need some kind of feature that allow you to flag that kind of content so that it won’t pollute AnimeNano… (No offense to anyone who operate that type of blog) or a better way, have a option to view Anime/Manga/Visual Novel/etc related stuff in one feed and another feed with Japan stuff, video games, etc.

The OEG should make people want to improve their blogs, not go in the corner and fear about their blogs being attacked and not doing something about it… Also, Bloggers should blog more, emphasizing on quality posts and make their blogs more unique from other blogs.

Note: I’m not against any kind of censorship whatsoever. I’m hoping I’m not beating a dead horse over this… but this will be the last post on this matter. 

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Editorial: What ever happen to innovation in the AniBlogosphere?

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My view of the Anime Blogosphere in General...
My view of the Anime Blogosphere in General...

The OEG attempted to jumpstart the half-dead blogosphere, but it seems to only cause people to question them or even outright show themselves as internet trolls by other bloggers and one blogger did their work for them already. The problem is that the Aniblogosphere in my view is alot less on Anime and Manga or anything exciting and more about just news on Japan, which we can get from ANN or even Danny Choo. We don’t need the same post on Final Fantasy XIII elixir… It’s already covered nor we need to know about random Japanese news or happenings… It’s been done by so many blogs that it’s not funny anymore… just look at the few posts I found on AnimeNano…

The same, old... news. Nothing interesting about it.
The same... old... news. There's nothing interesting about it.

Posting news is pretty generic and not exciting in my opinion nor it will help solve the ever troubling problem of the half-dead Anime Blogosphere. Bloggers should not only review Anime, Manga or even anything related to it, they should drive innovation and do something that haven’t done like a project or something that will interests the readers such as sharing your thoughts about other things like visual novels or making commentaries on characters or anime you have interest in or do something creative besides posting news… That’s Anime News Network’s job, not yours. I highly doubt you will get a lot of viewers that way… It’s not wrong or anything, but bloggers should tone it down a bit and start doing something innovative besides copying like Microsoft copying ideas from Mac OS X and KDE/Linux/whatever for example. That way, bloggers can be more happier that the Anime Blogosphere isn’t half-dead anymore.

Remember, it’s you that can reignite the Anime Blogosphere by innovating… It’s not my job to push you to innovate, it’s yours. Otherwise, it will stay like that if nothing is done and most wouldn’t like a half-dead Anime Blogosphere, would you? 

Hayate no Gotoku – First Impressions

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What sorta interests me about this anime is pretty much the third episode of Nogizaka Haruka Purezza, although the parody of a episode is similar to Hayate no Gotoku, but the original always a bit better. Touka and Nagi, ironically is voiced by the supposed by the Queen of Tsundere, Kugimiya Rie, the voice of other famous loli-tsundere characters like Shana, Louise and Taiga.

From watching the first five episodes of Hayate no Gotoku, it was pretty entertaining comedy. Hayate, a unlucky, ordinary sixteen year old boy is forced to work since eight years old since his irresponsible parents and he ended up getting fired because of his age. Knowing that his parents sold him to some “very nice people” (actually a Yakuza, Japanese mafia) and he runs away. He ends up in the park and sees a little girl and then confess to her with his intentions to kidnap her, but that girl actually took the confession seriously. He tried his plan, but failed and collapses. A woman gives him a scarf and he wakes up. He finds out that Nagi was kidnapped, so he took the woman’s bike and cases after the kidnappers and eventually saves Nagi, but he was injured and he was treated at Nagi’s mansion where his wish comes true, he gets a job as Nagi’s butler. He becomes officially a butler after proving himself by defeating the robot, although he ended up getting electrocuted and having to be treated again.

The episodes were pretty funny and had several references to other anime and also a complete parody of the typical action shouen anime, although there isn’t really much action to be seen and it’s mainly for comedy purpose. Oddly enough, although Hayate is pretty strong, his appearance looks vastly young and rather effeminate, a main reason why Nagi and Maria would eventually dress him in feminine clothing… (haven’t got there, but it would be pretty funny.) Like always, Nagi is a uber tsundere paired with her twin tails… more so since she is voiced by the tsundere queen. The animation was good, so I have no complaints about it…

Would I continue…. Yes, I probably would, but I would get the DVDs first before continuing, but would I blog it… Not so much since the number of episodes are pretty big (52 episodes) and it would take alot of work to blog it. 

Seitokai no Ichizon – Episode 8 Thoughts and Impressions

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Elise-chan is cute, but I'm no lolicon.
Elise-chan is cute, but I'm no lolicon.

Episode 8 was even funnier than the last… and Ken seems to become even more indecisive than ever and Elise-chan, Lilicia’s younger sister, which was sent for her evil scheme of writing libel about the student council, but it sorta backfired.
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Some things before Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is tomorrow, so I won’t likely make any updates on this blog, but before I leave for a day, I will make the following updates reguarding the Karaoke Contest and also MAL Client OS X and MAL Lite:

Karaoke Contest

I have made a change earlier that no effects or any alterations of the recording may be used. You may only use effects to reduce any grainy/background noise, but anything but that may not be used. I will be posting further details after I come back from Thanksgiving and hopefully start it on Monday.

MAL Client OS X and MAL Lite

I have made several changes to the MAL updating program for Mac OS X and also the lightweight, minimalist solution on Windows and Linux. MAL Client OS X 0.3.6 now features a new interface similar to the one on Finder. If used on Tiger and Panther, the interface will default to a sheet metal feel. Manga list lookup is added, but when you double click on a item, you can view the information about it on the browser. No manga updating is added yet since there isn’t enough API to implement it yet. Lastly, Melative updating can be done without updating your MAL status. You can make a update by going to the anime information window and clicking “Post Melative Update” on the toolbar.

I apologize that I can’t get the help updated and the Sparkle appcast updated since the FTP is down. Once it comes up, I will post the Sparkle update. For now, you need to download the disk image.

Download MAL Client OS X 0.3.6

For MAL Lite 1.1.2, I restored the full list featured on MAL Client OS X and added a tray icon. Download 1.1.2

I hope you a nice and joyful Thanksgiving… I will resume blogging on Friday after shopping on Black Friday and hopefully cover Kobato Episode 7 and Seitokai no Ichizon Episode 8. 

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Second Season – Episode 8 Impressions

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Oh no... more girls in Yuuto's "Unwanted Harem?"
Oh no... more girls in Yuuto's "Unwanted Harem?"

This time it’s a Mika centered episode and yes, it’s the last of the episodes that don’t focus on Haruka and her secret (which so far about 4 episodes in the season don’t have her in the spotlight, which some of the complaints are coming from.)
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Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – Final Impressions

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I have completed the first season nearly a week ago and it was a pretty good concept of a story which is pretty unique. In this story, they took a extraordinary nice guy and a high class girl who have one major flaw of being a otaku. That is just the surface of the story since Nogizaka Haruka is not entirely about otaku subculture in shows like Lucky Star. This twist, however makes things more interesting, but is it well executed? Let’s find out, shall we?

Content

The story is a typical romance story… a ordinary guy meets a girl. However there is a big twist in this story. Nogizaka Haruka, an ojou is the most unattainable girl in school with rejections up to the triple digits. Yuuto bumps into Haruka in the library after Yuuto returns the book and the magazine she took out revealed her secret, her love for Anime and Manga, which is viewed negatively for people of her class. However, Yuuto accepts her secret and will keep it as a secret. Throughout the series, the relationship between Haruka and Yuuto builds up with some help of Mika (Haruka’s sister), Nanami and Hazuki. Also with that, another girl is thrown in called Shiina which Yuuto accidently bumps into which causes her to gain some kind of a romantic desire of her becoming his boyfriend, although Yuuto only seems to like Haruka.

The series itself throws some references to other anime. The most references shown is Shakugan no Shana.

What this anime tries to shows the sad realization of how Otaku are viewed in real life. In real life, Otakus are viewed negatively because Otaku means house in Japanese, meaning that people who are otakus spend time watching and obsessing over anime, manga or playing games/visual novels and never leave the house, meaning that it can cause a lack of social skills. This is viewed when Yuuto tries to over up Haruka’s secret when a comiket catalog falls out of her bag when she fell and her father, Gentou which does not want her daughter to watch anime and read manga, but eventually allowed with the help of her mother.

There are some fanservice moments in Nogizaka Haruka, but nothing too excessive.

Animation

Diomedea did a pretty good job with animating Nogizaka Haruka, so there isn’t really much to comment here.

Characters

The characters in Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu is what you expect from a romance comedy, but not so much. I will talk about the most important characters, but besides from those, Nanami and Hazuki, Nogizaka’s maids who seems to be shown most of the story and help with Haruka and Yuuto and also help stop Gentou before his wife comes. Another is Ruko and Yukari, who seems to be alcoholics and finally, Haruka’s parents, Gentou, the hot headed father and Akiho, the seemingly beautiful, despite her age and intelligent mother.

Ayase Yuuto – The seemingly, extraordinary nice guy who seems to understand everyone’s feelings… This is somewhat the departure of the losers and jerks that are typical in harem/romance comedy anime, but there are some flaws that are more apparent in the second season with his character. Also, his personality seems to be more of a gentleman, although his class is lower than the jerkass Shutto, which in contrast is a spoiled brat and causing him at sometimes, being unworthy for being Haruka’s boyfriend, although he overcomes it, but the notion of him being a lower class than Haruka will be stuck in his mind for some time.

Nogizaka Haruka – The moe ojou and also have a terrible secret of being a Otaku, which is viewed negatively, especially in the higher class she is in. Haruka seems to be a very sweet character, which mainly causes most of the terribly sweet moments between Haruka and Yuuto. Although Haruka is really smart and is top of her class, she is somewhat a dojikko.

Nogizaka Mika – Haruka’s younger sister, but seemingly dirty for her age and already talking about sexual stuff? Mika in comparison is more easygoing and not as naive as Haruka… and even calls Yuuto, “Onii-chan.” It makes me wonder.

Amamiya Shiina – The second girl in Yuuto’s love triangle, although Yuuto does not have any romantic relationship with her and her being only a friend. With her bumping into him causes her to have a romantic interest with Yuuto.

Music

The music from Nogizaka Haruka was pretty good… We are presented with a pretty catchy opening theme which seems to have a fast pace and a ending theme with maids (seriously, who doesn’t like maids). The extra image songs not played in the anime sounded pretty decent, so no complaints.

Conclusion

The first season of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu is a pretty good watch for those who are sick of a indecisive harems and romance comedies filled with too much fanservice and a jerky male lead. For those who are looking for a deep romantic story or a non-cliched romance anime, you may come off disappointed. Nogizaka Haruka is a pretty good comedy romance anime in my opinion so far… but I would say since I haven’t watched other yet.

Once you finish with the first season, I suggest taking a look at the second, although it’s somewhat weak in content and have a little more fanservice, but you may find it just as enjoyable.

Overall Rating

8.72/10, B+, Outstanding

Attribution Information

This image is from here 

Kobato – Episode 6 Impressions

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OMG.... It's a bird...
OMG…. It’s a bird…

I have to admit, while this episode of Kobato is pretty good, it was slower than normal… and Kobato being the a complete Dojikko, which is shown more in this episode than earlier episodes with her tripping and hitting her head.

This episode is basically the nursery goes on a field trip and Kobato while getting her bag answers the phone call from the loan shark villain saying that he will shut down the nursery. She goes and tell Fujimoto what happened and he said to not to tell Sayaka because it will upset her. While they went on the trip, Ioryogi goes into another dimension and ask the wolf to investigate what happened to the nursery. After while, Kobato came back from the trip and brought back a four leaf clover. However, Ioryogi is bothered by the findings the white messaging bird brought back telling that the master who owned the nursery was forced to take a loan from a loan shark before he died two years later and now they are harassing Sayaka, which brings them a difficult task of filling up the bottle and saving the nursery at the same time.

The episode itself introduced to Ioryogi’s buddies and also the situation of the loan sharks that happened in the last episode… seeing that, what previously looked like a fluffy and soft anime just have turned into a dark and dramatic… Again.. it’s the working of CLAMP again… =p

Verdict

8.5/10 

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Second Season – Episode 7

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The way Shiina injured herself is pretty lame...
The way Shiina injured herself is pretty lame...

Although they somewhat up the fanservice, it’s away from the usual Haruka-Yuuto development and Shiina was given some screen time… Too bad it was too late since Shiina have no way in hell that she will win over Yuuto’s heart although some people perfer her to be the girl that Yuuto should be as a couple instead of Haruka…

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Seitokai no Ichizon – Episode 7 Thoughts and Impressions

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Mokyu~ Mokyu~
Mokyu~ Mokyu~

Well, this episode was really funny in a sense… not because it shoved references like Lucky Star did with going overboard and putting it in random spots, but actually made it work so it is funny. This is basically an episode where Kurimu decide that the whole student council should go on a summer trip to Tokyo by a overnight train. However, what the girls packed show a lot about their personality and interests. Minatsu hardly packed everything, Mafuyu packing all her game consoles (which looks like a computer, a Wii and a Playstation 2) which makes the suitcase very heavy and also her favorite treat that seems to heal her HP, Chizuru have a completely normal suitcase with her belongings although Ken thought there was something dangerous in there and lastly, Kurimu with a bag full of toys.

Night time came (Ken being chained and blindfolded) and Chizuru does something to Kurimu before she goes to sleep and Minatsu can’t recognizes Mafuyu without her ribbon on her head which causes Mafuyu becoming upset and relating it to a RPG she is playing. Chizuru goes to sleep, but she sleeps without anything on which makes Ken goes crazy.

What... Mafuyu was gaming all night long?
What... Mafuyu was gaming all night long?
Is this Marimite? and what is Kurimu is doing with her?
Is this Marimite? and what is Kurimu is doing with her?

Next morning, Minatsu wakes up and finds that Kurimu was missing, but actually sleeping with Chizuru. She also finds that Mafuyu spent all night playing with her Playstation Portable. The train announced that the train arrived at Tokyo and after they got there, they spent the whole day in the hotel room because it was too hot outside and night time came and they decide to tell scary stories such as Kurimu ended up getting murdered with knives(does this reminds you about a very familiar sound-based visual novel named Higurashi?) which scares the heck out of her. Kurimu not wanting to hear any more of these stories decides on catchphrases for each person and they cosplayed which was the most hilarious part in this episode.

Not sure about the cosplays though, but here is what they dressed up as:
Kurimu – Some kind of robot
Minatsu – Some classy dress
Ken: Maid uniform and some wacky shouen hairstyle
Mafuyu: Some school uniform
Chizuru: A Sheep… Errr… mokyuu~ (So Moe!)

The funny thing is that Chizuru after they got back still dresses in that outfit saying mokyuu~. I guess she does have a cute side of her after all. =p

The episode itself is the best I have seen so far in the whole season… the references are better executed in this one and it was very funny in many instances… Too bad some people have already wrote it off already even though it have gotten better… and you can never forget the Mokyuu~ so moe…

Verdict

9.2/10 

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