This column was a great idea since I’m a man of few words.
4 SHOTS FROM 4 FILMS
Akira (dir. by Katsuhiro Otomo – 1988)
Perfect Blue (dir. by Satoshi Kon – 1998)
Puella Magi Madoka Magica Rebellion (dir. by Akiyuki Shinbo, Yukihiro Miyamoto – 2013)
Spirited Away (dir. by Hayao Miyazaki – 2001)
Yeah, even I’m not gonna drag this blog down to the furthest depths. I’ll leave that up to Lisa Marie, with her most recent review of Showgirls! I really should link that, but been drinking, so that’s way too much work. But yeah, she watched it, reviewed it, seriously, go read it. Terrible movie, but I’ll bet she made it sound better than it was. She’s awesome like that.
No, what I’m trying to write about is the genre of movie known as disaster porn. The first example that most people have been aware of is most likely the movie The Day After Tomorrow. While a fun disaster porn flick, it was incredibly heavy handed with its environmental bullcrap message. But all disaster porn movies have that.
Why am I talking about this at all? Well, tomorrow (or really tonight if you’re one of thems that watches movies on their early night showings) is the premier of San Andreas, starring The Rock. If he doesn’t wind up punching the earthquake and saving California by flexing a lot, then I’ll be sorely disappointed.
Anyways, I’m gonna go see that tomorrow, and I know that my usual movie guy, site founder Arleigh, isn’t going to have seen it by then. Since it’s unlikely to have been reviewed, I feel that it’s really required to share a spoof of the disaster porn movies with everyone. I know for sure that Arleigh has posted this parody trailer, but with his urging, I am going to repost it.
This trailer is done to spoof the disaster porn of all disaster porn movies, 2012. In fact, it’s called 2012: It’s a Disaster!!! I’d honestly say that this trailer is better than the actual movie, and I think many people would agree with me. At any rate, Arleigh posted this very same trailer several years ago, but we both agreed that it’s worth reposting in anticipation of the Rock’s very own disaster porn movie. So, please enjoy this video, with it’s plane disaster, train disaster, whole city disaster, landmark disaster, rolling buildings, yay spaceships? YAY SPACESHIPS! Flying Bentleys, jumbo jet surfing, hell we’ll even forgive the ridiculousness of seeing a black president. Because that’s just plain lunacy! For sure, let’s celebrate awesome disaster porn with this trailer, and look forward to seeing the Rock grab an earthquake by the neck and plant it into the turf. ROCK BOTTOM! ROCK BOTTOM!!!
The following AMV of the Day is decidedly NSFW, unless you work at a place that is very lenient with what they allow their employees to watch. Which you probably don’t. So don’t watch this at work. Seriously, it’s not porn but it’s still very NSFW. Not sure if I’ve stressed this enough, but this is NSFW, and Through the Shattered Lens takes no responsibility for any discipline handed out for those that still haven’t paid close enough attention to what I’ve said.
Now, with that disclaimer out of the way, this is an AMV that I first saw when I was at Another Anime Convention back in October. They had the great idea of having a room dedicated solely to the showing of various AMVs all day every day of the convention. It was great to be able to relax and catch a few AMVs in between various panels that caught my interest. It was typically broken up into blocks that specialized in certain themes, and one of their late night themes was for various ecchi, or racy but not full blown porn AMVs. (They had a block for hentai, or porn AMVs, but that’s another story) The one thing I wish they had done different was that they didn’t always list the name and creator of the AMVs they were showing, so while I was aware that this one existed for some time, I didn’t have any luck finding it until Arleigh found it and showed it to me.
While I have seen a lot of ecchi anime in my day, this is made up of some 35 different anime, some of which I haven’t seen, and even further surprising to me was that there were even two that I had never heard of before. After viewing this AMV, I believe that’s an oversight I’ll have to correct. One wouldn’t necessarily think that the Can Can would work for this, but it is so perfectly done with just a rapid fire string of panty shots that I can only hope that someday the creator decides to do another like this except with boob shots. I was a little confused as to who the creator is, since at the end of the AMV it says it was made by Potato, but according to animemusicvideos.org, which is pretty much THE authority on AMVs, the creator’s name is FlamingMangos. Due to the racy nature of the AMV (did I mention this is NSFW?) I don’t believe that it’s been featured in any formal AMV contests. It’s too much for a general audience AMV contest, but not really bad enough to be in a hentai AMV contest. Still, its lack of awards is in no means a measure of it’s fun qualities. At the very least, I doubt you’ll be able to hear the Can Can and not have this AMV come to mind.
Anime: Akane-Iro Ni Somaru Saka, Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan, Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan 2, Demon King Daimao, Freezing, Freezing Vibration, Green Green, Gundam Seed Destiny, Hagure Yuusha no Estetica, Heaven’s Lost Property Forte, High School DxD, High School DxD New, Kanokon, Kyou no Asuka Show, Ladies Versus Butlers!, Maji de Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai!! S, Majimoji Rurumo, Manyuu Hiken-chou, Onī-chan dakedo Ai sae Areba Kankei Nai yo ne!, R-15, Rosario + Vampire, Rosario + Vampire Capu2, Samurai Girls, Seikon no Qwaser, Sekirei, Sekirei: Pure Engagement, Shuffle!, Shukufuku no Campanella, Sora no Otoshimono Final: Eternal My Master, To Love-RU (OAV), To Love-RU (TV), To Love-RU – Darkness, Tonagura!, Watashi ga Motenai no wa dō Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!, We Without Wings
Song: “The Infernal Galop” by Jacques Offenbach
Creator: FlamingMangos
Past AMVs of the Day
Arleigh has in the past taken time to congratulate the San Francisco Giants upon winning the World Series, so as a long time New England Patriots fan, I can only say congratulations to the Patriots for winning the Super Bowl, and here’s to hoping that he’ll win a record fifth championship next year! Yes, this is a short post, but that’s all that’s needed right now.
As I point out in nearly every post, I’m not terribly motivated. I make posts now and again when the inspiration strikes, and while I sometimes wish I were as prolific a writer as others here, I’ve accepted that it’s just not my thing. Part of my lack of posts is due to me putting in a ton of overtime at my job, and when I’m at home, I find that I just want to sit in peace and quiet, with no TV on, and so no anime DVDs being watched. But, just sitting and staring blankly at a computer screen is only fun for the first 7 days or so. After that, I find I need something to occupy my time. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always loved Legos. I had many kits of them, and of course a lot of the fun back then was mixing and matching them to make my own creations. These days I still love Legos, but they have such amazing kits that I’m quite satisfied building what they show. In this instance, I really got back into building with Legos a few years ago when I came across a Lego store in a mall. Never having seen a Lego store before, I went in and was instantly hooked on their Star Wars collections. I started with the Super Star Destroyer Executor, and haven’t looked back. The most recent kit that caught my eye was Slave I, which is Boba Fett’s iconic ship. It was a nearly 2000 piece set, and the final product is about 18 inches tall. Instead of me rambling on more than I already have, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking. For the most part every picture is the completion of one bag of parts, of which there were 13.
Well worth the $200 and 5 or so days (only doing a couple bags per day) it took me, and it’ll look quite nice with the SSD, R2D2, and the AT-AT that I also own. My only regret is not getting into this much earlier, since there are several limited edition sets that I’ll never realistically own due to their insanely inflated prices. Yeah, I’m talking to you Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon and your $5,000 price tag. Could have had you for a mere $500 when you first came out!
Arleigh has pointed something very important out to me. I have been drinking a lot, and the end of the year is nearing. (EDIT- I started this post on December 28th, and proceeded to get too drunk to continue. Then I forgot I had started it, got drunk several more times, and now on January 5th, I remembered it and am proceeding to get drunk again, so perfect time to actually finish this) Pretty much the best time I can think of to make one of my few posts this year. Again, one thing I should point out is that this year there were 149 series released, and I only watched 44 series. Basically, no one other than the biggest loser on earth could have possibly watched every single series released each year. If you know of anyone going by the name of Ryan Saotome, he’s one of those losers. Punch him one for me. But, I like to think that I have pretty good taste, and those 44 I watched were the cream of the crop. So of those best of the best, the best that I’ve watched was easily a series that came out this spring, a title by the name of No Game, No Life.
This show is pretty much an otaku dream. The basic premise is that “siblings” (I’m not 100% sure that they actually are related) Shiro and Sora are a couple of hikikomori, which are basically shut ins who don’t associate with other people, and they are the best gamers out there going by the nickname Blank. Blank is infamous in the online community because no matter what, they never lose. One day they get an invitation to play a game of chess. Naturally they win, although they have to struggle to actually do so. Upon winning, they are warped to the land of Disboard, where the God of that world, Tet, has decreed that all war is abolished and all conflicts between the races will be resolved via games. They quickly become rulers of the weakest faction in the world, humans, and set about to challenge all the races and eventually challenge God himself.
This is based on an ongoing light novel series, incidentally written by a native born Brazilian/Japanese, Yuu Kamiya real name Thiago Furukawa Lucas. Generally speaking, non-native Japanese do not find a lot of success in the Japanese light novel/manga/anime scene, so the fact that this has been highly popular speaks volumes about how well written it is. The anime sticks quite closely to the light novel, which works great for this first season, since there’s enough source material to cover it. Perhaps this means that any future anime adaptations will have to wait, or won’t be as good, but since most anime these days are basically just advertisements for the light novels/manga, I suspect that they won’t be in a rush to adapt more until either there’s more source material, or the light novel’s sales start to slip. Still, with it moving on average over 6,000 BDs per volume (and unlike in the US and other countries, Japan tends to only have 2 episodes per volume even with BDs so an average 13 episode series will still have 6 volumes) that’s showing there’s enough money out there to support a second season easily. I don’t follow light novel releases in Japan, because I can’t read Japanese, so I’m not sure what the sales were like prior to the anime showing, but I do know that for the year the releases averaged over 140,000 per volume, for 6 volumes, which is a pretty decent amount of sales. Combine that with the BD sales, and it’s pretty likely that the light novels got a decent boost, and so a second season is highly likely.
But what about this series makes it work? Well, first off, it’s insanely cute. We all know that Japan does cute better than anyone, but this just strikes a chord with even me, who has seen more cute than you can shake a stick full of kittens at. How cute is cute? Well, in a scene near the end, when the duo is panicking over thinking they’ve been transported to the real world (something hikikomori dread more than anything) Shiro is at her most adorable. 
No one can tell me that isn’t super adorable. You can try, you are wrong.
It also has one of the catchiest ending themes of the year.
Some of my favorite moments in the series come at the expense of Stephanie Dola. Prior to Shiro and Sora’s arrival in Disboard, she is attempting to be the representative of humanity, but she is inexperienced in the way of games and can’t see when an opponent is cheating, nor can she overcome that. Her naivety leads Shiro to basically begin using her name as an insult, calling her “Such a Steph”. She is constantly being somewhat humiliated by Shiro and Sora, but it never really and truly comes across as malicious. They do embarrass her often, but it seems more like they’re doing it to try and cure her of her naivety and teach her how to become a better ruler of humanity for when they either inevitably become the gods of the world, or return to their world.
Even though you know that Shiro and Sora are going to win (the heroes almost always win, especially in shows like this) the suspense and intrigue isn’t with the if, but the how. Their fight against the Werebeasts showed that even if they’re going to win, it was going to be tough, and most importantly, it wasn’t a bullshit type of win. It was certainly a come from behind, wow I didn’t see that coming, kind of win, but once it was explained, it makes good sense. The fact that the series ends on a major cliffhanger, to me all but assures there being a second season, but since I’m not currently in charge of Japan, and me and Japan don’t always agree upon what makes perfect sense, we shall see.
In all actuality, this was another good year for anime. Anyone saying that anime was better in the 90’s is a crazy person. It only seemed that way because anime was fairly new here, and so licensors were cherry picking titles. These days we get damn near everything, either through streaming, or through physical releases, so naturally there’s gonna be a lot more average titles, and a lot more stinkers. There has never been a better time to be an anime fan than now, and for 2o14, I say the best thing you could do is sit down and watch No Game No Life. Here’s to looking forward to what 2015 brings us, and I hope that I have a ton of must watch anime to think about writing about (but ultimately never do) in the coming year!
Hey all, I’d usually start this post off with me saying why I haven’t made a post in forever. I’m lazy. Plus Arleigh forgot to remind me when I’m at home. Plus again, I have been working my ass off for the most part this year. But, I figure I started to feel bad about not posting much considering how much Arleigh is paying me. And then I realized that I’m not being paid anything, so I stopped feeling so bad.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s talk about my adventures at Another Anime Convention in Manchester, New Hampshire during the weekend of October 17-19. Arleigh and I have attended 5 conventions together, 3 Anime Bostons and 2 Anime Expos in LA. But there’s still many conventions that I attend solo, even though it’s incredibly expensive. So, whenever I can, I try and go with someone like Arleigh. However, small local conventions are just not something that I’d call him out from the wrong coast out to the right coast, especially since both of us are pretty much exclusively interested in Japanese guests. Small, local conventions on the east coast are not going to get any Japanese guests ever. Anime Boston barely gets any, and they bring in well over 20,000 people. Another Anime Convention is lucky to get 4,000 people. But you know what? The location works so well for that. The convention is held in the convention center of the Manchester Radisson and even though the attendance is only between 3000 and 4000, it makes it feel every bit as busy as Anime Boston. Not anywhere near Anime Expo or Otakon, but that’s not a bad thing, because both those conventions are stupidly crowded.
This particular convention has a lot going for it. For one thing, even though I said it’s nowhere near an AB, since it’s a much smaller venue, it certainly feels every bit as big. At no time will it take you longer than 10 minutes to get from one end of the convention center to the other, but that’s something that can only be truly appreciated with a smaller convention like this.
So what does this convention have going for it anyways? Well, let’s say for a moment that you’re a fan of English dubs. If you want to meet certain dub actors, then this is the place to do it without a doubt. If English dub actors were my thing, I’d have been able to get several autographs no problem. Now, even thought it’s a smaller convention, it still would normally be as tough to get an autograph as any convention. However, AAC does something that I would encourage other larger conventions to do. And to an extent Anime Expo does this as well. What I’m talking about is that for an extra upcharge, one can essentially buy extra perks. Basically for $50 extra, you get a free t-shirt, unlimited line skips (yes, any line, at any time, every time any and every day. But there are maybe 3 events total over the course of the weekend that that would actually be an issue for), front of line access to guest autographs. Basically, the perks are there to lord it over the cheap ass normals. Did I do such? Oh hell yeah. If I saw a huge line for a panel, even if I didn’t give half a shit about the panel, I jumped the line just because I could, and I knew I was taking a closer seat away from some skinflint.
Now, Arleigh and I typically go to panels hosted by the Japanese guests and/or panels done by industry, such as your Funimations, Sentai Filmworks, Aniplex of America, or Viz Media. With none of those industry members present at a small convention like this, I had to go into it with a much different mindset. And you know what? I still managed to have a ton of fun and still couldn’t see everything I wanted to. What I did was take part in things that are in even the giant conventions, but we just never had time for. For example, I actually went and watched the entire AMV contest, including voting on my favorites. Because I am always ready to pass the buck, I long ago gave Arleigh the list of AMV winners, so instead of me posting them all, I’d hate to take away future AMV of the Day posts. Buck officially passed.
One thing I can’t very well pass off to anyone else is the very fundamental thing of cosplay. I’ll admit, I went into this thinking that the cosplay would be mediocre at best. I grossly underestimated the dedication of anime fans. Possibly due to the fact that there were less people around and so those that were there really stepped up their game, there was a big percentage of high class cosplay. Alright, admittedly there were the predictables like Kill la Kill, and Attack on Titan, which has now become the new Bleach and Naruto, but if there’s quality, then repeatablity doesn’t much matter. So, for right now, I’d like to regale you with pictures I took during my trip there. Admittedly, I don’t always know what I took a picture of, but if I don’t know there’s two reasons why I took the picture. Either the costume is cool looking, or the model is very hot. I’d say it’s up to you to decide, but screw that, I’ll tell you what I thought.
First off, we have a Little Mac cosplay. This is near and dear to me because I have previously cosplayed as King Hippo. Obviously King Hippo is a million times better, but hey, Little Mac is still pretty cool.
Pretty decent Zach (seriously, the proper contraction of Zachary is Zack. Enough with this lazy bullcrap) Galaphanakis. Frankly, I’ve never seen any of the movies, but even I can recognize somewhat famous movie scenes.
No idea what this is. Looks pretty elaborate though, so I reward people that take the effort to make a decent costume even if they obviously can’t pull it off.
My hotel room faced out to the courtyard. As I was up in my room taking a break, I happened to see this Sailor Pluto take a seat. I immediately headed out to try and catch her. Again, due to it being a small convention, the elevators weren’t crazy busy, so I was able to get out there and get her picture. If she doesn’t look crazy hot, then that’s due to my poor photography skills and not her own natural hotness.
The first of a few Kill la Kill cosplay photos.
May Chang from Full Metal Alchemist. The charm point is the panda in her hair. I love when people take the time to bring out the small details like that.
More KlK cosplay. Is this the last? Probably not. I mean, it was only the hottest anime property in the last year, so obviously no one would ever want to cosplay as it.
Again, I dunno, probably some video game. If it’s familiar to you, then sure, you know the game. Either way, she’s pretty nice to look at, no?
Another that I’m not really certain of, but she’s showing her panties for everyone to see. Do you honestly expect someone with the username of pantsukudasai (panties please) to not immediately see this and need to take a picture? My picture does not do her justice. Very hot. If you’re her and you’re reading this, color me surprised. What are the odds? You’re also some anonymous pervert on the internet who likes looking at attractive women in cosplay.
Like I said before, one of the most overdone cosplay in recent times is Attack on Titan. So if you want to stand out to me, the best way to do it isn’t to be one of a million Potato Girls, nor one of three million Levis, or the same number of Mikasas. No, if you want to stand out, be like this one and be a half eaten Marco. Brilliant!
No doubt this will be done often in the next several conventions, but SAO II (Gun Gale Online) Kirito was a novelty at the time, so I was surprised to see anyone with this costume already.
From Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai, I can’t resist a Rika.
Another rare male cosplayer. Most Sir Crocodile cosplayers don’t bother with the cigar. If you don’t go with the cigar, then what the hell is the point? Seriously, to anyone that’s considering it, at the very least buy a cheap cigar. Oh no, you’ll have to spend a day with tobacco on your lip. You’re not gonna get cancer from one goddamn day. Stop being a cop out bitch. Go with realism.
Generally I don’t take pictures of non anime properties, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Batman and Catwoman.
The girls here spent the entire weekend making chalk art. All in all, I can’t help but be impressed.
Frozen is pretty much the most popular movie in America and the rest of the world. It’s the top selling BD in Japan as well. It’s a shame that there wasn’t snow on the ground, but on the other hand if it was that kind of cold out I probably wouldn’t have gotten these pictures in the courtyard.
Again, keeping it all very topical, we have a cosplay of Luffy, or Lucy. Honestly, I don’t think people truly appreciate what cosplayers like this do. Most people aren’t reading the manga as it comes out, so the fact that someone gets a current arc cosplay made up is pretty impressive.
Not the greatest of any one of the Honnouji Academy group, it’s just not often that you see them all grouped together.
Again, I usually don’t pay any mind to non anime cosplay, but here we have Bob Ross. If you don’t know who Bob Ross is, then you are a grade A moron. Perhaps it’s not nice to insult the readership, but come on, anyone that’s at least been in college should know who the hell Bob Ross is.
Pretty good looking Mami. Know what would have made her look better? No head. Ooops, spoilers.
My goddamn unicorn! If that doesn’t make sense, then please hear my story. First off, a unicorn refers to something that if you don’t have pics, it didn’t happen. The backstory to all this goes as such. I saw this girl while I was having breakfast, heading down to an area where there is only on way to go. I didn’t sweat it, because I figured small convention, only one access point, I should easily find her and get her picture. After eating, during which she definitely did not come back that way, I headed down there to find her. I got distracted because I saw the barrel of that gun and figured I had her, but it turned out I was chasing down a Seras Victoria cosplayer. Then later in the day, as I was on the second floor waiting for a panel to open, I saw her walk by on the first floor. I rushed down to the first floor, heading to the direction that she was walking. Amazingly, I could not find her. Again, this is a small convention, with a basically small floor area. Finally, I saw her while I was on the same floor as her and got this picture. FYI, she’s Sinon from Sword Art Online II. Again, it’s a fairly new show, so I’m amazed that there is a great quality cosplay as this so soon. Plus, I’m very impressed that she didn’t go running to security when I told her that I had been hunting her down all day. Yes, I used those exact terms. Thank you Sinon for not getting me arrested. Also, I never saw her again the rest of the day, so I’m glad I was able to get a picture of this unicorn and turn her into reality.
Not the greatest I’ve ever seen, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen any Rinoa cosplay that it’s almost fresh again.
Finishing off the day, and the weekend, we have Shiro from No Game, No Life. This same girl was busy doing a professional shoot earlier in the day. I suppose I could have just shot a picture, but that’s not how I roll. Believe it or not, a guy whose username is begging to see panties does have morals. Luckily for me, I saw her later on in the day. During the photoshoot, she was wearing a crown. I think I got the better picture with her wearing panties on her head, which is actually canon in the show.
(To note, every picture taken here was done with the full permission of the person whose picture was being taken. If for whatever reason you have changed your mind and do not like the way your picture has been taken, contact me and I will take it down, no complaints or questions asked.)
So, with all that said and done, more has been said than done. But really, while I wouldn’t say break the bank and fly across country to attend, if you find yourself in the Northeast and hear that Another Anime Convention is gonna be going on that weekend, by all means fish out the $50, plus whatever your hotel costs, and you’ll find yourself having a great time!
So, I’ve fallen way behind on my posting. But let’s face it, I never really intended to make this a truly regular column. If I had to blame something, and let’s face it, blaming something besides myself is much more fun, I’d blame going to Anime Boston with site founder Arleigh. I mean, it makes sense, doesn’t it? It kept me preoccupied for a time, and it’s a very convenient excuse. Hey Arleigh, where’s the rest of the Anime Boston AMVs?
Alright, now that the focus is taken off of me, I’ll come back to the last set I watched before I stopped actually posting, and that’s the final set of the anime Special A, or more informally known as S.A. This is based off a shojo manga, or manga made with girls in mind, by Maki Minami. It basically follows the exploits of Hikari Hanazono in her super rich and super privileged high school class consisting of the best of the best. Of course, Hikari comes from a very modest family, so naturally she is the hardest worker in the group because she knows what it’s like to not be born from a family that’s going to automatically give her an eight or nine figure inheritance.
And that in a large part is the problem I have with the show. It’s all about Rich People’s Problems. Yet another show showing us how rich people are just the same as us, they have all the problems us commoners have, just magnified because they’re rich! Yeah, sorry, not buying it. Frankly if I’m in line to inherit a couple hundred million dollars, then I don’t really care what sort of responsibilities I might have to deal with. Oh no, my parents want me to marry someone worth millions of dollars to make our family worth billions? Cry me a river.
That episode is just a taste of what they go through. Frankly, I don’t care about Rich People’s Problems. I don’t relate to it at all. Look, I don’t want my anime to be realistic. I want my heroes to kick ass an take names. I want them to struggle a bit, but come out winning in the end. I WANT SHINJI TO GET IN THE GODDAMN ROBOT!! Ahem. Sorry about that. Anyways, this show just did not resonate with me. Some of the side characters were quite interesting, such as the pairing of Megumi and Yahiro. Now that was interesting. Hikari and Kei? Couldn’t care less. It probably doesn’t help that Maki Minami doesn’t do a great job of drawing distinctive characters, and the anime reflects this. Yes, you can tell them apart, but they’re so similar that it can be hard at times. All in all, this comes across as a series drawn by someone who’s basically saying “wouldn’t it be awesome if you were a clueless normal girl who got to go to a super elite rich person school just because you were fairly smart, and the richest smartest boy in school fell in love with you?” Yes, yes it would, but that doesn’t make for a particularly compelling story, especially for people that just don’t get or care about rich people’s problems. I don’t care how much you want it to be true, rich people do not have the same troubles us thousandaires do, and nothing you do can convince me otherwise.
All in all, I say skip this series. The anime can be had for cheap, provided you don’t care about English dubs, and even if you want your dubs you can have it for half the price of the manga. The manga does expound a bit further upon the story than the anime (obviously) but the ending is completely obvious from the beginning, so there’s not much need to put yourself through it all. If you want to see a better story of Normal Girl in Rich Person School, then I totally recommend Ouran High School Host Club instead.
Like the previous Song of the Day, Arleigh and I discovered this song at a panel at Anime Boston this past weekend. It also uses the Vocaloid characters, although this one features Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka. Unlike the character Mayu though, these two aren’t generally known for their yandere traits, so seeing them in this light is a bit shocking. All I can say about it is, I can never look at the two the same every again.
I meant to write this up some days ago when I actually finished this set, however I couldn’t figure out how to insert a link in here (and still can’t) so as is typical for me, I got pissed off and just gave up. However, with a show this good, it would be very remiss of me to not share it. I have already written up on the series in general with an Anime You Should Be Watching post (which is what I meant to link in here, but alas, the Add Link button remains greyed out) so this is just about the third and final season of Aria.
As I mentioned in that previous review, this show is the very definition of Slice of Life shows. In the previous seasons of Aria, it’s largely about the wonders that Akari sees on her new homeworld of Aqua (Mars), and the people she meets and befriends. Throughout those times, she and her friends are striving towards becoming Prima Undines, basically gondoliers like we have in Venice. This season the focus is much more on Akari and her friends realizing their dreams and the passing of the torch from the Three Great Water Fairies. But, like with all slice of life series, the destination isn’t what’s important. No one who watches this would think that Akari is going to fail her exam. We know she’ll become a Prima. The important thing is the journey, and seeing Akari and her friends come to terms with the fact that when they do reach their goals, that things aren’t going to be able to stay the same as they were before. Needless to say, there’s going to be a need for a lot of tissues. It’s not tragic sad like a Clannad is, but rather just so packed full of emotion that even thinking about certain scenes, such as Alice’s promotion, is enough to choke a person up. This is that episode, for anyone curious.
This set, released by Nozomi Entertainment which is the licensing arm of anime retailer The Right Stuf, is very beautiful. The artbox that was used is a nice, sturdy chipboard box with lovely artwork on it. The set contains all 13 episodes of Aria the Origination, the 7 episode picture drama (just think of a regular anime with little to no actual animation), and the OAV Aria the Arietta. It also comes with an episode guide booklet, and a disc with 2 hours of extras containing cast and staff interviews. There is no dub on it, so everything is in Japanese with English subtitles.
A few random thoughts I had about this set. First off, I really like how the opening theme song is played as part of the show. The vast majority of anime just have a set opener with the same animation every time. Aria has always made it so the opening just starts playing as we’re eased into the show, so in effect the OP animation is different every time. Secondly, just how freaking old is President Aria? On Aqua, apparently they have cats that are much more intelligent than Earth cats in that they seem to understand human speech. Of course, maybe our cats understand us perfectly and just don’t deem us worthy of responding, I don’t know. Anyways, President Aria is one such cat, but it’s shown that the founder of Aria Company, whom everyone calls Grandma, first came across and befriended President Aria back when she was an undine with another company. At that time she was probably at most 25, and now appears to be in her 70’s. So President Aria is at least 50, and still as active and pudgy as he was back then. I guess Martian cats live a very long time.
All in all, this was a treat to see. It’s definitely not a show that you’ll want to marathon, since it’s so slow paced. It’s best to be enjoyed an episode or two at a time, so you have time to properly digest each episode. Whether you need a pick me up, or just want to relax after a long day, there’s an episode of Aria that can fit the bill at any time. The great thing about Aria is that other than the last 3 episodes or so, you can really watch it in any order that you wish, and the story being told will make perfect sense.
Current backlog: 842 discs
Through the Shattered Lens 