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You may have noticed that I had fairly good things to say about the first episodes of Wednesday shows Aoi Hana and Umineko (and to an extent, Umi Monogatari), yet I haven’t blogged the second episodes of any of those. The main problem is that my Wednesdays (and Thursdays) are unexpectedly busy this season, so it’s hard for me to find time to blog any of those three shows on the day they air, and none of the first two episodes have sold me on any of them enough to free up time by dropping and replacing one of the shows I’m already following. This may of course still change if one of the other new shows I’m really interested in (Princess Lover or Sora no Manimani in particular) greatly disappoints in their second or third episodes, in which case I’d probably find time for Umineko or something, albeit later in the week.
FTP!!!!!!! woot
That is too bad, I hope Sora no Manimani doesn’t disappoint.
Don’t forget Tokyo Magnitude XD
imho Princess Lover is largely inferior to every one of those other three shows. But well, tastes can be so different. Manimani is really nice though.
That’s a shame. I was hoping to see you do Aoi Hana since it (and yuri in general) needs more exposure.
I’m actually a bit surprised about your sentiments regarding Umineko, considering most people seemes to consider the second episode to be a big improvement on the first, which you already said was interesting enough.
Then again, it will take a few more eps to get to the meat of the story anyway, so it’s okay to be undecided until you reach that point =P
u can always ask another blogger to blog them, but in return you do it for them in the future.
Princess Lover wtf umineko is the best show of the season.
@Serpit
Well, Omni isn’t really into horrors/gores, so lol
Umineko is probably the best show of the season. I really hope you end up blogging it :/
@hmm
Which is a perfect reason why it’s okay to wait for a few more episodes =D
Princess Lover can’t disappoint !
We have a Busty Saber !
I agree.. Umineko gets pretty epic later on, so I hope it wins you over eventually. 😀 It’d be a shame if you don’t blog such an amazing series~
Umineko hooked me from the start, though I enjoyed Higurashi as well, so I fully expected it would…
Hope you end up blogging it, but I’ll be watching it either way.
That’s a real shame about Umineko.
Fair enough if you’re not into the genre.
For me, it’s among the top 3 shows of the season with ease.
Princess Lover and Sora no Manimani just seem like your usual cannon fodder, but everyone has different tastes.
Umi!!! Umi!!! Umi!!! I find the amount of pure BS amine out there much more horrifying than any horrors or gores. Even though they’re bad on the limbs & bodies of the main characters, its still just an anime. But I can even watch horror movies w/o raising an eyebrow. BTW, Bakemonogatari isn’t what I would call a romance comedy…
That’s a shame… All three look very promising.
Can we at least get a Preview on Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. The first episode was really good.
I aree with stormflux. if the first episode is any indication, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 == sleeper hit of the summer. 😛
How is a noitamina Bones series a “sleeper hit” in any sense of the word?
Umineko because every day is getting worse, despite being the best job of 7TH Expansion the anime leaves a lot to be desired. the seiyus, the backgrounds and the director are at times depressing, but it is for everyone.
PD: Umi Monogatari <3
@Eriol elric
You say that “everyday is getting worse” with only two episodes out? That’s really biased, the meat of the story not even it has arrived. Give them a chance :S
And I found the seiyuus, the backgrounds and the director really good. The script is what is a bit rushed compared to the original, but now they have 3 chapters to the rest of EP1, so they can pull it pretty well if they want. They are already in the introduction, for god’s love, and they are managing pretty well.
@Shugosha
I read all the comments I have read of Umineko, and expected something more cold, raw and venomous than the Higurashi, but so far I find that climate.
Anyway, director?? Chiaki Kon have “letter introducing” the franchise Higurashi and Nodame 2T, y Yui Horie no sticks to the role of a girl possessed D: (ami Koshimizu= no mother, Daisuke Onno= fabolous, etc)
Equally, it is only an opinion, but we’ll see as the series progresses.
@Eriol_elric
Ono is perfect for Battler and you will end seeing why. For example, he did pretty good in the DramaCD. I have seen pretty good comments about Horie and Koshimizu roles here, so it’s subjective opinion.
And Umineko isn’t a awesome story because it’s cold, raw and venomous, precisely. Umineko begin to turn into something really different and totally awesome around around EP2 and EP3, and not because it resembles Higurashi. It will depends on how DEEN work it, but the novel morphs into something really unique and epic.
You’re really going to skip Tokyo Magnitude 8.0?
It’s like, the second most promising show of this season…
no one says u have to blog it on the day it airs. take your time.
and this is why you’re steadily losing your readers at a frightening rate…you tend to go for series that are more quantity (in terms of animation) than quality (in terms of story).
@Summy
And how would you know whether he is loosing his readers? Do you have stats to back up your claim or do you have psychic powers?
I think Omni is not concerned with readership numbers. When RandomC first started, it was a small blog in which Omni’s only goal is to write up summaries and a little bit of his opinion on the series he is interested in. I don’t think that idea has changed. Omni (and other RandomC bloggers) should not have to blog on shows that he/they are not interested in or doesn’t have the time to do it just because ‘supposedly masses of people’ keep raving about how good the series is or supposedly is.
Regarding Tokyo Magnitude 8.0: I’ve already got two Thursday shows, a Friday show, two Saturday shows, and (probably) three Sunday shows, so it’s very unlikely that I’ll be able to fit it in. The first episode didn’t impress me enough to even consider it.
Regarding Princess Lover and Sora no Manimani: I’ve actually watched relatively few romance comedies in the past year compared to divine or jaalin, and I’d like to balance my palate a little since divine is always criticizing me for watching too many “serious” shows. Last season I had one (Hatsukoi Limited), and that didn’t carry over to this season, so I admit that I’ve been looking for more. These two particular shows fit into my schedule a lot better than Umineko does because they’re early in the week, but like I said, if they both suck after two or three episodes, then I’ll consider moving things around for Umineko.
Summy: Who says the site is losing readers? In fact, we’ve recently in the past two weeks seen a boost in readership by about 10-15%.
And I find it very ironic that you say I go for things like animation quality instead of story quality. A few years ago, a reader told me that I was focusing too much on the production side and too little on the story side. This was perhaps true back then, but in the past couple of years, I’ve focused much more on talking about story elements of various shows I’m following or introducing. In fact, if you read everything I post, you’ll find the vast majority of what I write is reflection on what happened in a particular episode and then speculation on what’s going to happen. This in turn has caused me to put greater value into story potential when judging a series. Certainly that potential is there for Umineko, however it’s not great enough for me to redo my entire schedule to fit it in.
i guess it was a totally poor choice of words, and for that i apologise. I base my opinion of decreasing numbers on the posts made per topic, because i’m no system administrater, that’s all i really have to go on. i was merely pointing out the fact that considering i am a long time faithful read of your blog, i miss the days back when just uploading screenshots of half an episode would cause an average of 30 posts minimum. and a fully opinionated thread would cause a flow of 70+ posts. you can say in the past few weeks total readers have increased, but overall you can’t base your increase on a spike on the graph.
in the end i just feel that the anime industry as a whole is on the downturn. now i know its not your fault, but things are series that gets chosen here always seem to be on the low end the scale. again i state that this isn’t your fault, but i’m merely stating my opinion.
keep up the good work omni+his helpers, but try to hear our voices as well.
I’m not really into Umineko nor was I in Higurashi nor was I ever into the games – they are good Doujins but I see much better stuff out there. Maybe you can say it as for sex, that psycho violence sells – in that case good night anime community :O
and @ anime junkie, as i said, it was a poor choice of words, but can you atleast ask me to clarify what i mean before you jump the gun and call heretic the moment the guy on the pedestal gets dissed. blogging does go both ways.
@Summy
I have to agree with you. I think that’s probably the biggest reason (besides that I’m very busy with university things) why I only watch rarely anime now. I often see another manga or game adaption (in most cases I know the story and when you’re spoiled it’s much less fun) or just some other stupid romance/ comedy show. My biggest complaint is, that I see a lot of low budget shows and a lot of copying (similar shows).
In the past there were much more original story animes and I miss series from the caliber like Last Exile or Eureka Seven. Ok there are always exceptions like Code Geass (though R2 fell down a bit) or Macross Frontier. But in the end there’s much more mainstream these days – and that turned down my interest into anime a lot. I even wonder how Omni can watch that many anime and still be interested that much in it. Besides he just likes to blog 😉
Umineko is good but not the best show this season.
>I miss series from the caliber like Last Exile or Eureka Seven.
Xam’d? Eden of the East? Bokurano? Guardian of the Spirit? 12 Kingdoms? Denno Coil? XD
>I see a lot of low budget shows and a lot of copying (similar shows)
well, they also want to make money and copy what is successful v.v
But Tokyo Magnitude is imho quite special and original. So I’m far from giving up on animes ^^
tokyo magtitude T_T aoi hana T_T
cannot make it
maybe some will see that show rating 5/10!!!
@Omni: If you want to blog a show that has romance like Hatsukoi Limited, then why aren’t you gonna blog Aoi Hana? It’s probably gonna get really good in te next few episodes. Please consider blogging it :/ Umineko too, of course.
Aoi Hana definitely will be a better series than Princess Lover, in every aspect XD
yea what happened to Tokyo Mag. 8.0? >_>”
It’s a shame that Omni doesn’t intend to blog Umineko. OTOH, ppl like me who didn’t play the games don’t risk getting spoiled by those who don’t know hot to properly use the spoiler space.
the lower budget stuff always existed, and were ALWAYS in the majority.
its like the people that insist the quality of jrpgs have gone down because they feel they’re seeing more lower tier series than they used to, without realizing many of those lower tier titles have existed for YEARS. there isn’t more lower-tier jrpgs, they were just never even remotely on the outside-of-japan radars until the PS2 gen.
anime is similar. the reality is even if you go back just a few years, even raw releasers barely put out anything other than the better known (and higher budget) series. i remember actually having to search for raws of some series that weren’t of the genres that the mainstream of western anime fans were paying attention to. they all copied each other and just released 6 copies of Naruto (or insert whatever title). whats changed is how many ppl are fishing round for every series that comes out every season in Japan. in other words, the reason you’re seeing more of the crap is because more of the crap is showing up on your radar, not because it didn’t exist.
someone call an exorcist!!!
Summy: Number of comments is not an accurate indicator of readership, though it does help indicate relative popularity of shows in relation to each other. If I could have my way, I’d love for Basquash to get more attention because it deserves it right now.
Urs: It’s not the same. Aoi Hana is more of a pure romance series, and I’m talking more about the romance comedies that I used to like a lot and have been trying to get back into. Sometimes you just want to enjoy a simple fun show that doesn’t require much thought. Plus, like I said, Aoi Hana doesn’t fit into my schedule like Princess Lover and Sora no Manimani do.