Miscellaneous

Introduction – “What the heck did I just get myself into?”


As most of you are probably already aware, Omni’s been losing a lot of bloggers on his site lately for various reasons. In fact, with the most recent departure of Patrik, the only blogger left on Random Curiosity is Omni himself. After speaking with Omni for a bit and hearing about how he’d like to expand the types of shows the blog covers, I gave it some thought. I was a bit apprehensive at first since I wasn’t sure if I could make the commitment or not, but I eventually decided to give it a go. The appeal for me was that by doing so, I would get a chance to voice my thoughts/impressions of shows I’m watching, hear other fans’ impressions, and provide readers with a broader coverage of anime here at Random Curiosity.

More after the jump…

Miscellaneous / Random Musings

Random Musings – Being Swamped And Sick Sucks

The Spring Preview is 95% done, but I’m about to fall over because of a cold and have a meeting in the morning, so it won’t be until tomorrow that I finish it. It has taken me a lot longer than usual because there are a lot more series than usual (30 at current count, not including kiddie shows), and I’ve probably spent 20-25 hours researching everything. Unfortunately, writing it and getting myself ready for the new season (plus all the normal school work and work work I have to do) means that I won’t have time to blog the new KimiNozo DVD, the Darker than BLACK DVD episode, or the School Days Kokoro-chan DVD. Regardless, I guarantee that the Spring Preview will be posted tomorrow, and here’s a sample to tide you over until then.

The Spring 2008 Preview is up now, so I’ve removed the sample.

Miscellaneous / Random Musings

Random Musings – Comment Page Links Fixed and Macross Airdate

  • Maestro and I have been doing some maintenance on the site in recent days, and it briefly broke the paged comments functionality on the blog posts by incorrectly redirecting some comment page links back to front page. I’ve gotten several emails about this, and I’m fairly certain that we’ve found the problem (caching conflicting with permalink structure) and have fixed it. If you’re still seeing comment page links that redirect incorrectly to the front page, let me know in the comments here or via email.
  • In anime news, according to an announcement at Wonder Festival 2008 [Winter] today, Macross F’s airdate has been set: it’s going to be taking over Shakugan no Shana II’s Thursday 25:25 timeslot on MBS starting April 3rd, 2008. So that means Macross is going to be on Thursdays and GEASS will be on Sundays, though those are only two of the 35+ series premiering in the Spring. 🙂
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    Miscellaneous / PV

    RADWIMPS – Order Made PV

     

    More likely than not, you’ve probably never heard of this group before. RADWIMPS is a rock band consisting of four musicians who are apparently all fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They got their unusual name when they combined the English words of rad and wimp – their official website even defines this as “excellent weakling” and “superlative coward”. In any case, they’ve been steadily growing in popularity, and this past week, they had their first Number 1 single on the Oricon charts, beating out even the release of Koda Kumi‘s latest single. And it’s for good reason too because Order Made is a great song. The lyrics (translation here) are about love and putting together the different parts of a person, and unlike some PVs, this one actually tells the lyrics like a story. Put together, I found it to be beautiful, and the part about tears even reminded me of the series true tears. I liked it so much that I’ve been scrambling to find more of RADWIMPS’ music, and Order Made has been on repeat on my playlist for several days now. Even if you don’t like J-Rock songs, I’d recommend at least listening to this one.

    CODE GEASS / Miscellaneous / Random Musings

    Random Musings – New Years 2008 Edition

  • Happy New Years! Now that I’ve gotten a chance to sit down and reflect, I realized 2007 really went by quickly. It seems like just yesterday I was writing about Shuffle Memories and Manabi Straight.
  • I’m hearing a lot of disappointment over the anime offerings for this upcoming winter season, and I somewhat share that sentiment since there’s only a few shows that I really care to see (Wolf and Spices, maybe Gunslinger Girl S2). With that in mind, I looked ahead further at the Spring 2008 and found it a lot easier to get excited about with the likes of Macross Frontier, the hilarious Kamen no Maid Guy, and the next CODE GEASS. There’s also a series called Special A (S.A for short), starring the talented Fukuyama Jun (Lelouch of GEASS) and Gotou Yuuko (Mikuru of Suzumiya Haruhi). The story of S.A – about a girl who has a middle-class upbringing who attends a rich school – is one that I find similar to Ouran in many ways, including how much it makes me laugh and how fun the manga is to read, so I’m really looking forward to seeing the anime adaptation. If you get a chance, I’d recommend checking out the manga.
  • Oh and speaking of CODE GEASS, there was news out a few days ago that it is not in fact taking over Gundam 00’s Saturday 6PM timeslot (as was widely expected) but is instead taking a new Sunday 5PM one come April of this year. I find that rather worrisome in terms of the direction the series will take with its more mature themes because it’s roughly in that same timeframe that more kid-friendly shows like Kirarin Revolution, Ultraman Mebius, and Chibi Maruko-chan air. That’s not to say that they’re going to dumb down the show or completely cleanse it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were major thematic differences – and I doubt things like Viletta or Kallen’s nipple slips, or Nina’s masturbation scene would make the final cut.
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    Best of Anime / Miscellaneous

    The Best of Anime 2007

    With the end of 2007 almost upon us, here’s a look back at some of the best series this year had to offer. Also included at the end are the final results to the Reader’s Choice Poll.

    Disclaimer: These are purely my personal opinion based on the shows that I saw in the past year. You could argue that I’m ignoring some of the less popular but equally good shows like Seirei no Moribito or BACCANO!, but I unfortunately don’t have the time to watch everything and can only talk about what I’ve seen. For a show to even qualify for consideration, it had to have met the requirements outlined in the Reader’s Choice Poll. That means that series like CLANNAD, Shakugan no Shana II, and Gundam 00 are not up for awards this year – they’ll be saved for 2008. There is also a big spoiler in here for those of you who haven’t seen School Days and still plan to do so, but hopefully that’s not too many people.

    Miscellaneous / Poll

    Reader’s Choice – Favorite Anime 2007 Poll

    It’s time for the Second Annual Reader’s Choice Poll! There are a lot of good choices this year, and I’m still in the process of choosing my own favorites (having a hard time deciding between GEASS and Gurren Lagann, among others), but below, you can vote for your Favorite Anime of 2007 from a list of every single series that’s ended this past year.

    If you voted in the first annual poll last year, you might remember that I had a somewhat complex set of criteria for shows that were included on the list. This year, I’ve decided to simply include every anime series (no OVAs or movies) that ended in 2007, with the only exceptions being the handful that ended last January. The general idea is that you can’t judge a series properly until it’s completely over. That means fans of Clannad or any of the other currently airing shows that are two seasons long will have to wait until next year’s poll (and that’s also why Kanon is on the list).

    All together, there are 135 choices, plus “Other” in case there’s a relatively obscure anime series you really enjoyed that’s not on the list (or even something that I just neglected to add). Choose your favorite and the winner will get included in next week’s post!

    This poll will close Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 11:59 PM.

    The Reader’s Choice Poll is after the jump.

    Honey & Clover / Miscellaneous / Random Musings

    Random Musings – Honey and Clover Drama Edition

  • There was a short commercial aired earlier this week for the new Honey and Clover live action drama. Pictured above from left to right are Hagu (played by Narumi Riko), Takemoto (played by Ikuta Toma), and Morita (played by Narimiya Hiroki). You can find the rest of the cast on DramaWiki, and the official site is here. Hagu’s actress looks a lot taller than I would have pictured her (she’s 163cm tall according to her wiki page), but I guess it’s hard to find an actress to fit the exact profile. Everyone else looks about right though. The series is set to begin January 8th on Fuji TV, and I’m more than interested enough to check it out and see if they can capture the same feel as the manga or the anime. Even if it doesn’t turn out to be that good, after watching the Negima Drama, I think I can stomach any type of adaptation now.
    Download the commercial.
  • I’m not a huge Weekly Jump reader, so I don’t know if this happens for other series too, but I found it odd that To LOVE-Ru‘s tankobons have nudity in them while the magazine version does not (compare this and nsfw this). I always thought that Weekly Jump series were targeted towards a younger audience, and this makes me wonder what they’d do if the manga were ever licensed in the US.
  • I’ve started work on the preview for the next season. There are a relatively smaller number of shows (around 20) compared to the fall, so hopefully it won’t take too long to finish. I’ll also be putting up a poll around the middle of this next week asking for your opinion of the best show of 2008.
  • For those of you wondering about an update on Jaalin’s whereabouts: I still haven’t heard from him. I’m getting rather worried, but unfortunately I can’t do anything except wait and hope nothing bad happened.