It’s time to return to the land of Flonyard filled with people with animal ears and tails.
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12 Days of Anime – Day 7 – Little Busters JC Staff Rage
Sadly, not all announcements were good news as VisualArts gave an announcement that caused some Key fans to go ballistic. Yep, it’s JC Staff doing the animation for Little Busters. (Image Source)
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12 Days of Anime – Day 6 – 2nd Anime Blog Tourney
You know it’s coming! Yes, I’m mentioning the Anime Blog Tourney. (Image Source)
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12 Days of Anime – Day 5 – Fate Zero
On the fifth day of Anime, the focus is on the second part of Fate/zero. (Image Source)
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12 Days of Anime – Day 2 – Milky Holmes 2
On the second day of Anime, the focus is now on the lovable and toy-less detectives known as Milky Holmes. (Image Source)
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12 Days of Anime – Day 1 – Amagami SS Plus
With 12 days remaining until Christmas and since I don’t want to write a post on Christmas Day, its time to get started as I write about some highlights on Anime in addition to fandom stuff in 12 separate short posts. For the first day, I’m going to focus on a show that fits the mood a bit named Amagami SS Plus. (Image Source)
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Status of the Aniblogosphere in 2012 – Haitus = Dead Blog?!
Just recently, the current state of the Anime Blogosphere doesn’t look great with a good number of blogs dying. In the last three months, We Remember Love, Kaminarianime, and Otaku Life: Anime Review hanged up their hats and call it quits (Moe Fundamentalism decided to go on hiatus before the author reversed the decision quite recently). Judging from my blogroll, there are 6 blogs that haven’t updated since October.
From the look of things, did the Mayans predict that December 21, 2012 is the end of Anime Blogging as we know it? Maybe, or probably we are overreacting. In a recent twitter conversation between Marow, Marth and myself concerning how long blogs last after Morrow mentioned a blog that only lasted two months (full conversation here), It gave me some thoughts where the blogosphere is heading. Early this year, I have covered quite a lot on blog longevity and the reason why blogs die. However, I would like to go over the current trends since there is a good number of blogs spontaneously dropping dead from the sky, which currently gives us this disturbing trend. (Image Source)
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Kyoto Animation and Why They Remained Successful
Believe it or not, sometimes a studio that animates a particular show sometimes brings appeal to a work. As seen with the likes of Studio Shaft, Production IG, PA Works, Sunrise and Kyoto Animation, they add something unique. Most notably, Kyoto Animation from the past several years has gained a lot of praise for its production values. This is more so with the airing of Hyouka and now Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai this year. I felt that they do deserve the praise for various reasons as they pay attention to detail, bringing appeal to the characters and their ability to make faithful adaptations. (Image Source)
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iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa – First Impressions
As The iDOLM@STER franchise becomes more popular, especially after the anime that aired last year, Namco feels the need to make a new game. That game is iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa, which focuses more on the rhythm aspect rather than the managing from the main games. Like the first PSP games, each edition contains different idols and exclusive songs (at least 6 songs are included in all the games). (Image Source)
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PeTA, Team Plasma and Pokémon – Misconceptions and Concerns about Pokémon Welfare
As everyone should know, Pokémon Black and White 2 have just come out in America. I didn’t get the English release since I already own a Japanese copy of the game when it got several months ago, but that is beside the point. Just this week, PeTA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have released a parody game called “Pokémon Black and Blue” to promote their agenda by using everything that made Pokémon great and take it out of context. When I watched a person play the game with commentary, I felt disgusted. However, it brings up some ethical issues that were present in Pokémon Black and White that released last year. (Image Source)
Warning: If you haven’t played the game, there are some spoilers.
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Hyouka – Final Review
For this year’s project, Kyoto Animation decided to adapt Hyouka (氷菓, lit: Ice Cream), a set of teenage light novels involving a Classic Literature Club. While the show is slightly different from what they usually do, it is rather unique on how it uses Mystery to develop the characters. In turn, it creates an enjoyable experience for various reasons. (Image Source)
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Anime Adaptations and Why Good Ones are “Difficult” to Produce
When we review Anime, one of the common factors is how well a studio adapts the source material. This can range from Manga, Light Novels, Visual Novels, and Video Games since the whole industry rides on it to sell related merchandise. Since production committees have different approaches to achieve this, expectations will never be the same since printed media doesn’t have any voice actors to begin with. This is why I wanted to share my thoughts about adaptations since it has always been a hot topic. (Image Source)
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Kokoro Connect – Episode 9 and Thoughts about the Biggest Public Relations Disaster in Anime History
After putting it off for several days, I wanted to let the drama settle before diving into the 9th episode. Since Dog Days aren’t out yet, I’m going to share brief thoughts for this episode and the bullying incident that everyone talked about in great lengths for the past week (Image Source).
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The Anime Blogger Interrogation Game (Updated)
Since I’m still taking a short vacation in Boston, I decided to entertain some people with five questions I came up for a game by Iso. Thankfully, I haven’t been tagged for any questions yet, so I won’t be listing any unless somebody decides to.
If you are wondering about the rules, here they are.
- Each person is supposed to follow the rule of fives.You are allowed to ask 5 questions, after which you can tag up to 5 bloggers by hyper-linking to their blog; 5 questions because it’s not too many to flood another blogger and occupy too much of his/her time, but yet a large enough number to ask your most important questions, and 5 bloggers to avoid spamming. Hence, prioritize your questions, and who you wish to ask!
- Those tagged are obliged to answer the questions in a blog post, and after which, they are entitled to create their own 5 questions and tag 5 other bloggers, so on and so fourth. You are allowed to tag the person that tagged you in the first place. Also, copy and paste this section on your blog so others can understand how the game goes.
- In the case where a blogger strongly refuses to answer a question, he/she must instead post a nice anime image, wallpaper or cosplay picture, et cetera in response to that question.
- To make things interesting, a blogger can include wildcards in his/her 5 questions by placing an asterisk, (*), after which those tagged are obliged to reveal something interesting about themselves that others did not previously know. There is no limit to the number of asterisks one can place (which means there can be up to 5 wildcard questions).
- Anyone can feel free to start the game; you don’t necessarily need someone to tag you. Just create your 5 questions and tag your 5 people of choice. However, the catch is that you must answer your own 5 questions as well.
- To potentially prevent an endless game, this round of games will end on the 8th September 2012, 12pm JST (GMT +9). After which, no more bloggers can tag others to answer their questions.
So let the games begin. (Image Source)
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Summer 2012 Midseason Impressions
Since summer break is coming to a close, I may as well share my midseason impressions on what I’m currently watching. (Image Source)
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My Answers to Yumeka’s Questions
Since I’m still enjoying my vacation, I decided to go a bit off track. Remember the 50 questions I have answered back in March? Well, I’m going to entertain you with some answers to questions Yumeka came up with. So, enjoy and feel free to share your thoughts on what I have said. (Image Source)
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Blog Carnival: Going Further with views on Animanga Blogs
Just a month ago, I shared my opinions about the never-ending debate regarding Episodic vs Editorial blogs in a recent editorial. Since then, a fellow blogger named Foxy Lady Ayame started a project for bloggers to share their thoughts about a specific topic in the Anime Fandom. For this one, it’s focused on reflections on Animanga blogs. Since it’s closely related to what I have talked about a month ago, it shouldn’t hurt to talk about it from a different perspective. (Image Source)
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Dog Days and the Power of Escapism in Anime
While watching Dog Days, something came into my mind for another topic to write about from Anime regarding escapism. Although I analyzed Iyashikei’s escapism along with friendship and healing last far, of course adventure/fantasy shows such as the one I have mentioned and Sword Art Online has many elements of escapism though it’s setting, characters and their abilities. I’m just fascinated how they accomplish this aspect for these genres in general, which want me analyze them and share some thoughts about it focusing on a fantasy world called Flonyard. (Image Source)
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K-ON! The Movie – Movie Review
Since the London Summer Olympics began just a few days ago, I feel the need to finally watch the K-ON movie since it takes place in the same city. As hinted in the Episode 27 special, it’s quite obvious that the Light Music Club will go on a Graduation Trip and it actually happened. (Image Source)
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Editorial vs Episodic Blogs – Why it Shouldn’t Matter
In the recent months, there is something nasty that has spouted out from the Aniblog Tournament, although this debate has been going on in the blogosphere for a long time. It’s the battle between editorial vs. episodic blogs to decide which one is better. For me, I feel that the debate is pointless since it shouldn’t matter for reasons I will explain below. (Image Source)
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Reasons for Dropping AKB0048 and Thoughts about Eastern Asian Idols (Updated)
From the look of things, the reasons I dropped AKB0048 didn’t satisfy some people since I was full of rage after watching the second episode. After taking some time to let it settle in, I would like to share some thoughts on why I dropped it and my thoughts about the idol craze in East Asia that is going on in the past few years. (Image Source)
Note: Added additional thoughts regarding Idol Production Companies taking full control of the girls’ lives. (Originally published May 19, 2012)
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Remembering Love: Clannad After Story Part IV (END)
As the month of “Remembering Love” comes to an end, I will focus on the last part of Clannad After Story, namely Ushio and the ending. (Image Source)
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Melancholy of AniBlog Tourney II – Growing Pains, Ballot Stuffing and Drama
As it seems, there is no sign of life in the second Aniblog Tourney as the organizers try to procure a secure voting system. From the mess caused by ballot stuffing, I have my doubts on whether or not they will ever recover. With that, I like to share my thoughts on why these tactics undermines the whole tournament. (Image Source)
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Spring 2012 – Midseason Impressions
It seems like the whole spring season is going by so quickly. Since we are at the halfway point, I may as well share my impressions of all the Spring Anime I’m watching so far. (Image Source)
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