This post is dedicated to the good, the bad and the WTF’s of this year. It’s really been an interesting year…..

Heh, I was supposed to post this yesterday, but with all the shopping, satelite tracking, celebrations and epic rickrolling, I only finished it today. I guess this will be my first real post of 2009, hehehe.

Anyways, the point of this post is to relive the more memorable moments of 2008 for me, in terms of anime and such. Another year filled with good things, bad shit and “just WTF were they thinking?!” craziness.

The Good.

Redeeming ending of the year: Code Geass R2

I have to admit, despite the general descent to craziness, R2 managed to cap it off with one of the more touching endings of this year. Rest in peace, dear prince, rest in peace.

Studio of the year: Studio Gonzo

Despite the general decline of their quality, one thing makes Studio Gonzo stand out this year, the beginning of their free online streaming of their shows, WITH SUBTITLES, on major video-sharing sites such as Youtube and Crunchyroll.

Probably the single most celebrated initiative by any Japanese production company in this decade, Gonzo braved through critisicm from their peers in the industry and semi-legalized what most fans have been doing all along anyways.

Besides, their shows this year weren’t all that crap. Strike Witches even made it in to my Top of 2008 list, not to mention the more significant milestone of topping the DVD sales chart. Let’s just hope news of their near-demise is greatly exaggerated.

Pose of the year: Ranka’s (ﾉゝ∀･)~キラ☆ pose, Macross Frontier

Seriously, is there any challenge for this award? Ranka’s (ﾉゝ∀･)~キラ☆ pose has been spotted even on politicians. There’s something to be said about that pose that’s so powerful it disarmed an entire platoon of rebelling alien giants.

GAR Male of the year: Negi Springfield, Mahou Sensei Negima.

Sure there was Ozma Lee and Orange-kun, but this year’s GAR award goes to Negi for sure. Especially after single-handedly pwning a professional bounty group with his bare fists.

Furry of the Year: Horo

Anyone disagrees?

Miko of the Year: Kou

I thank the gods for Wagaya no Oinari-sama for fulfilling my miko quota this year.

Gym Shorts of the Year: Fujibayashi Kyou, CLANNAD series

Legendary episode is legendary. CLANNAD 17 nearly pulled my trousers down me over the edge. That said, balancing two coins on top of each other is a task I still fail to achieve T_T.

Imouto of the Year: Sunohara Mei, CLANNAD series

“What are you saying? Onii-chan, you’re acting strange~”
“Why can’t I call you ‘Onii-chan’, Onii-chan?”
“Onii-chan~ what should Mei do?”

Saishuu Heiki Imouto Sunohara Mei. God damn you Sunohara for having such a cute lil’ sister!

Cosplay of the Year: Hiiragi Kagami, Lucky Star as Hatsune Miku, VOCALOID series

It just fits her so well. KyoAni really has a knack to stir up their fans and hit them right where it counts.

The Bad

Disappointment of the year: ef – a tale of melodies.

After the highly praised ef – a tale of memories, the inevitable announcement of the sequel was a happy news for me, but sadly, the show itself didn’t quite match up to the first season in terms of connecting the audience to the characters and the pacing was, quite frankly, awful. Even the ending lost some impact despite of its intended tear-jerking qualities due to how rushed the final two episodes were. SHAFT… if only… if only…

“I only watched this because of my favourite seiyuus were in it” show of the year: Kanokon.

Oh, the power of a seiyuu(s) doing crazy roles compels me to watch even the shittiest of shows.

“I can’t believe I actually finished watching this show” of the year: D.C. II. S.S & Zero no Tsukaima III.

Honestly. The fact I actually followed both those shows until the very end should win me an honorary title or something. Especially for finishing the piece of shit that was ZnT III. Even the DVD OVA.

Controversial Ending of the Year: Akane-iro Somaru Saku.

Akane-iro seemed like it went down the much more supported Yuuhi end, made more significant since it was the first time in YEARS that Rie Kugimiya voiced an ACTUAL tsundere, but betrayed all expectations of Yuuhi camps to choose a WINCEST ENDING with “Imouto of the Year” runner-up, Nagase Minato. Really reminds me of a certain 2005 show….

Most Tragic Death of the Year: Shirley Fenette, Code Geass R2

SHIRLEY!!!!!!!!!! BAWWWWWWWWWWWW. That homo shota totally misunderstood her and killed her despite that she actually kept Lelouch’s identity a secret even after she remembered it. It was made even more painful as she confessed her love for Lelouch as she lay dying in his lap. I could write volumes more about her death, but I’ll just leave it at here, it’s too painful to continue talking about it.

The WTF?!

WTF Ending of the year: H2O ~Footprints in the sand~

H2O almost ended up in the previous category, but thanks to it’s ending, it barely escapes that and instead making it over here. Sure the ending had its good bits, but dear god, it was still bloody “WTF?!”. One thing’s for sure, H2O managed to rock my soul.

WTF Father of the year: Mikawa Kirameki, Shigofumi

Norio Wakamoto nearly ended up here, but Mikawa Kirameki really is the better (or worse) choice for this award. Probably the biggest narcissist ever seen in an anime, you really have to admit his dedication for beauty was awe-inspiring and disgusting at the same time. Poor Fumika T_T.

WTF Mother of the year: Queen Marianne, Code Geass R2

After making Marianne out as some sort of heroic existence throughout most of Geass, it was surprising to discover that she was still alive all this while, hiding inside the body of a loli. Then when she finally appears before Lelouch, the first damn thing she does is to do a single can-can styled twirl to greet him. And to think she was one of the big reasons that Lelouch became a ruthless manipulator who would sacrifice even his siblings to find out the truth behind her “death”. Sigh…

Control Mechanism of the Year: Nipple controllers from Magical Heart Kokoro-chan.

Really one of the single most WTF moments in anime this year, the supposedly April Fool’s joke that was Magical Heart Kokoro-chan actually came to life as an OVA and 0verflow sure made a lot of people 0verflow with it.

Prettiest Male of the Year: Saotome Alto, Macross Frontier

Admit it. Alto is undeniably the prettiest amongst the trio, especially when he is in his Sakurahime-mode.

Trap of the Year: Hamaji Yakumo, H2O ~Footprints in the sand~

Solely in this list because not only he’s 99% a girl already, he actually manages to score with his best friend to the point of marrying and having kids AND THE WIFE DOESN’T MIND HIM STILL CROSSDRESSING! Living proof that traps can still achieve real happiness.

Wasted yuri potential: Sheryl x Alto x Ranka

Macross Frontier would’ve been 100x more awesome if Alto was really a girl. Yuri love triangle three-some…. ooohh I shiver at the thought.

“What was I thinking when I was doing this” Post of the Year: “I am now heartbroken….. T.T”

The Suki Suki Sat-chan fanclub is still accepting membership applications.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I didn’t like it as much as memories, but at least melodies ended things off well. I honestly lost interest after the irritating emo arc of Kuze and Himura around after the middle of the series. Yuuko’s sudden death also didn’t help out…. T_T.

Well, for an ending episode, it’s pretty much just as planned, with present-day Himura finally getting to meet spirit Yuuko in the original Otowa city. The final scene of them both on the school rooftop was really touching and both of them really deserved better after knowing their backgrounds.

That said, melodies didn’t impact me as much as memories did, mostly because of the “draggy” feel of the story. Especially hated Kuze for being an asshole for most of the past 5 episodes, while Himura was just so undecided at times. They should’ve given Miki-chan more than just one episode of airtime too, sigh…

Speaking of Miki, nice kick there, Mizuki-chan!

Overall, I think I’ll still reserve judgement on whether melodies was on or below par until the DVD-rips come out. But I can say for certain it’s a bit disappointing after the expectations I had for it.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

First off, we finally get to meet Miki! She’s really Mizuki when she was still a child then. It turns out she’s also an orphan after she survived a suicide attempt by her parents at sea and thanks to that, she’s closed off her heart to others. However, Yuuko has her way with children and she manages to establish a connection with her, bringing her out of the shell. Damn she’s cute. I have too much maternal instinct for 2D children.

But it seems that Yuuko is rather doomed to not experience happiness for long, as not long after she’s freed from the clutches of her sadistic brother and in to the arms of happiness, she’s snatched from it when she gets run over by a car. Yeah. Seriously. God is sure cruel to those who want His blessing the most.

I do have a bone to pick with how SHAFT is dealing with melodies however. This episode’s pacing felt really fast due to the change from “happiness” mode to “tragedy” mode in less than 20 minutes. It’s not helped either with how predictable the accident was. I really wanted it to happen maybe next week. Just as we got introduced to Miki… Yuuko T.T. Also why the fuck is Yu carrying Yuuko’s body and walking down the road slowly? Can’t they call an ambulance instead? Well, not like it’d make any difference in the end…

CALL FOR AN AMBULANCE DAMMIT!!!

That said, another two more episodes to go. They still need to resolve Mizuki’s arc. Kuze is really getting on my nerves.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Yuuko T_T.

Yuu confronts Akira but chickens out. Yuuko continues to feel the pain both she suffers and she inflicts on Yuu. Oh man, melodies is turning out to be so much more darker than memories was.

The Mizuki and Kuze story still remains pretty much stagnant, but this week it’s Kuze’s turn to go all crazy on us.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

…………… man I’m stunned.

I knew this episode was going to have major revelations when I put it in the MPC-HC playlist and the OP rolled w/o vocal tracks and the characters in the animation. I was certain for sure nothing good would be in this episode.

However, it seems even with the mental preparation…. this episode still hit me quite hard.

This episode fully focuses on Yu and Yuuko and finally reveals the secret that Yuuko has been hiding from him all this while, after Yu confesses his love towards Yuuko with full honesty and from his heart.

As we’ve suspected, Yuuko’s adopted brother has been severely abusing her because she isn’t a perfect replacement for his own dead sister. Not only has he abused her physically, Yuuko also describes, intensely and in detail, on how he violated her sexually the first time and detailed the abuses she has been suffering through for the past few years when he couldn’t get over the fact that Yuuko isn’t his dead sister.

In this aspect, SHAFT’s presentation style, which mirrors the Miyako spamming of Hiro’s phone in memories, was really applied to full effect and probably surpasses the mentioned example twice-fold. The visuals. The script. The voice acting. All of them choreographed together to reveal the pain and suffering that Yuuko has gone through and fully imparts the pain she has felt towards the viewers and most importantly, towards Yu, blaming him partially for what happened and for his rejection of her back when they first met and last saw each other.

God, that was a really intense and hard-hitting episode. I’ve been especially wondering what Yuko’s life has been and it definitely isn’t all sunshine and joy.

Notably as well, the visuals this week also employ liberal usage of tarot cards to present the characters emotions and state of mind to the viewers, both with Nagi, who finally realizes her own feelings towards Yu, as well as Yuuko’s painful recounting of her own suffering.

Now that this has happened, what will Yu do to resolve it? There should be a confrontation between him and Akira but who will come off the better. Most importantly to me is Yuuko’s fate afterwards and what happens that leads to her future incarnation.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Chihiro and Kei are finally reunited after 5 years of separation. Both of them have finally reconciled fully with each other, especially now that Chihiro has Renji and Kei has Tsutsumi, while Hiro-oniichan got snatched away by someone else, www.

Yuuko’s story continues to get darker and darker on the other hand. She actually gets angry for the first time in the series and more disturbing revelations between her and her brother continue to give me the creeps about both of them.

I wish we get more Nagi focus though…

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

More colors in the OP this week. Honestly, I don’t really pay that much attention to it. It seems they’re actually expanding the scope of the show a bit to cover the old characters as well too.

The past, Himura and Yuuko:

The both of them go on a date to buy Yuuko new shoes. Himura wants to skip lunch but Yuuko persuades him to eat as well, showing her prowess at flirting with Himura (lol). Both of them enjoy the day until Yuuko decides to head for the church and they bump in to Akira and he warns Himura about “possessing his sister” in a very creepy, possessive sort of way. Is he infatuated with Yuuko? After he leaves the lovebirds alone, Yuuko reveals that Akira also lost his sister in the same disaster that claimed Akane.

Himura, on his way back, is “ambushed” by Nagi, who demands to know about his day with Yuuko, whom she knows thanks to Akira, in jealous, possesive sort of way. Himura sure is popular despite being a loner. Later that night, there is a longer flash back of when he bought Akane the red watch and how she was killed in the disaster when Himura flashes back on it. Yuuko is surprised by her brother too, and a look of loathing? maybe anger? crosses her face.

The present, Mizuki, Kuze, Nagi, Hiro and Miyako:

Kuze’s condition is worsening and he is slowly running out of time. He pays a visit next door, only to find out that Mizuki fell sick and he shares an intimate moment with her. “Artificial respiration” LOL. The next day comes, Kuze and Mizuki spend a day just lying outside in the sun under a tree, letting the day pass by them. Himura appears and in his usual fashion, dispenses his advice to Mizuki. Mizuki asks him to bless them in the way priests do and while denying he’s a priest, he does the gesture anyways but replaces it with “May the Force with you.” (LOL). Evening comes around and Kuze tells her to stay away from her.

On another Otowa, Hiro is having trouble with his deadlines so he asks his elder sister, Nagi, for help. Looks like both he and Miyako’s relationship are doing just fine.

Thoughts:

Eh, well, things are moving slower this time round I guess, but there is still substantial development in both timelines.

Akira is hinted to have an “unhealthy” relationship with Yuuko, and I really can’t imagine what he has done to her to give her that expression when all the while she has been very much cheery and smiling despite being in a hard position. I think it’s pretty much the first time we’ve seen Yuuko having a negative expression, really. Whatever is it, it must be pretty bad.

Nagi’s also… showing some similarities to Kei, particularly in her possessiveness towards Himura, which pretty much validates her interest in him. Adult Nagi makes an appearance in this week’s episode, and she does look a lot more mature now as well as having reaching a stature of fame. We’ve also solved the mystery of her relationship with Hiro, and it turns out she is Hiro’s elder sister, so that cleared another thing up for me. It seems she’s heading for Australia too, will she cross paths with Kuze and Mizuki?

It was also fun to see Miyako back to, even though it was pretty much a few scenes, including one that seems to give some form of resolution to her own feelings now that she’s going out with Hiro. I’d always thought their arc ended a bit too short.

On Kuze x Mizuki, well… it’s still like that I guess? Rather painful to see really.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Himura and Yuuko:

• The smoking sensei is officially revealed as Yuuko’s adopted brother to Himura.
• Himura notices certain signs in Yuuko, and finds out that she is being bullied thanks to Kuze and Nagi’s help.
• Nagi really loves being naked in school, doesn’t she?
• Himura suddenly gets protective and wants to square off with the bullies, but Yuuko stops him, as she doesn’t mind this “little pranks”.

Hints begin to emerge more that point to the conclusion that Yuuko has suffered quite a bit in her 10 years away from Himura. When she commented about how the bullying was just “medium level”, I can’t shake off the feeling that she’s actually used to even more worse things. Plus the fact that the “brother” feels really shifty contributes to my pessimistic views a bit too.

That said, Himura seriously needs to be a bit more truthful to his feelings, but I guess he still has the trauma in his head and the lack of courage to go further. The way I see it, the fact that he’s still concerned about Yuuko while telling her to stay away is just going to hurt her a lot.

Kuze and Mizuki:

• Mizuki finds herself given the cold shoulder by Kuze.
• Walking around town, she meets Himura who gives her the same warning as he did to Renji back in memories.
• Mizuki bumps in to Chihiro at the train station (\o/) and promptly molests… engages in some skinship.
• Mizuki finds out from Chihiro and Renji about Kuze’s condition, it’s cardiomyopathy. He collapsed in the middle of concert half a year ago.
• Kuze decides to “make a conclusion”
• Chihiro passes a message from Himura to Mizuki, telling her to go to the beach if she wants to hear Kuze’s final performance.
• Mizuki rushes to the beach and catches Kuze just in time to see him play his violin one final time before he burns it.
• Panicking, Mizuki attempts to put out the fire with her hands and successfully kicks it in to the ocean before any major damage is done (it seems).
• Kuze and Mizuki share a tender moment together.

On this side, the Kuze-Mizuki relationship has probably just started for real, as Kuze faces a deadly heart disease just as Mizuki starts to realize her emotions for him. I’d say the development’s a bit too fast, and I would’ve liked to see it being developed a bit more before it reaches this stage, but I guess there’s still a lot more story left to tell.

It’s also good to meet back Chihiro again and it sure is a weird feeling to see her playing a side role. Nevertheless, nice hug there by Mizuki, and I lol’ed when she commented that she was about to get a nosebleed, haha.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Himura-Yuuko side:

Important revelations are made this week in regards to Himura and Yuuko past. They were both orphaned at a very young age and used to live in the same facility together where they developed an odd bond. Himura’s family possibly lost in a fire, which also took the life of his younger sister, Akane, and he feels terrible regret for not being able to save her; a trauma that still lasts until his teenage years.

During their time at the facility, Yuuko was attracted to Himura and she continuously stuck around him, which dredged up Himura’s memories of Akane. Himura attempted to distance himself from her, but Yuuko proved to be tenacious enough to forge a bond with him, which lasted until she was adopted by a distant relative.

Since then, Himura has decided to live his life as independently as possible, so when he reunites with Yuuko at present time (his high school days), he tells her to not be involved with him anymore as he doesn’t want to remember their past together. Yuuko still proves to be tenacious to her feelings, bringing Himura up to the rooftop using the duplicate key where she confesses that Himura is her first love and it hasn’t ended yet. Yuuko proceeds to hug Himura and declares that she’ll erase all his sad memories.

It seems there are still many skeletons in the closet for this side of the fairy tale, but it’s good to finally know a lot more about Himura and Yuuko’s past. My early suspicions was that they were possibly adopted or their parents married each other, but it seems I’m a bit off the mark. Both of them are tied together by the loss of family, more so for Himura as he feels much remorse over how he failed to save his own sister.

Yuuko’s confession is a daring and somewhat touching too, especially when she declares that her first love hasn’t ended yet. It’s at least known that Himura has a measure of feelings for her, but he doesn’t want to admit it or get close to her as well. We’ll still need to see how Nagi plays in the whole equation as well as the other Amamiya, who didn’t make an appearance this week.

Shuichi-Mizuki side:

Kuze and Mizuki spend another day together. Kuze asks if she would like to go sightseeing around, but Mizuki declines. Both of them head to Renji’s house first, where Mizuki decides to do some laundry and promptly strips an unwilling Renji, who has been up studying for his exams. When the laundry is done, Mizuki heads to take it out to hang, but Kuze collapses suddenly. After a number of “bumps”, Mizuki manages to drag the half-conscious Kuze to the sofa and lets him sleep on her lap when he says he doesn’t want to sleep alone, assuring him that she’ll be there.

Kuze wakes up later in the evening, surprised at how he fell asleep. Mizuki sends him back to his home, and Kuze notices a stack of letters for him in the mailbox. He later brings them out to burn, answering that he’s cutting off all his relationships when Himura questions his conduct. There’s even a letter from Nagi in it, but he doesn’t read it at all.

Later that night, Kuze is having a drink at the back porch when Mizuki comes over, noticing the violin set on the table. When she asks Kuze if it’s fixed, he answers non-committally that it’s still broken. Mizuki starts talking about Kuze’s CD, telling him about how it made her feel so many things from the music, especially from the classics, which sounded “sexy”; as if someone was whispering sweet words of love in to her ears. She further drops a bombshell on to Kuze by declaring that she has probably fallen in love with him, before returning next door.

A surrealistic sequence reveals more about Kuze’s heart condition, hinting that it’s bradycardia arrhythmia, a fatal condition for Kuze as he seems obsessed with rhythms and tempo, with the metronome instrument featuring prominently this time round. It looks like discovering the condition has proven to be big enough shock for him to slump in to a pessimistic outlook for himself, even going to the length of discarding all his relationships, except for Himura and his neighbours, thus having Mizuki’s sudden confession for him comes as a shock to his pessimist self.

A proper OP and ED is in place in this episode, which will come as a relief for some. The ED is a Mizuki piece and it remains to be seen if there will be other pieces to rotate as well, as what SHAFT did in the first season.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Finally, a sequel to memories that deals with the other half of the ef cast!

The episode is separated in to two halves neatly; the first half about Himura and the second one about Mizuki.

In the first half, we’re brought back quite some years to the time of Himura and Shuichi’s high school days, when they’re both classmates. Himura’s involved with Hirono Nagi in the Arts Club as well, and she’s er… quite liberal. Amamiya Yuko also makes her appearance as well as Himura’s junior and quite shockingly we find out that she’s Himura’s younger sister as well and that she has some “grudge” on him.

Second half brings us back to present time and Mizuki is the lead here. Staying over at her aunt’s place, she gets to know that a famous violinist, Shuichi Kuze is their next-door neighbour and gets them to introduce him to her despite cousin Renji’s protests. Mizuki spends the day over at his place and even tries out Kuze’s “extensive” cosplay collection too. It’s hinted that Kuze is facing a slump in his playing as well as suffering from some sort of chronic heart disease, but meeting Mizuki seems to awaken something inside him.

So far, I can say melodies is proving to be a more engaging watch than memories initially was. I guess it’s attributed to the fact that we’re dealing with a sequel here, so viewers are quite familiar with the characters already. In fact, for me, in many ways back in memories, the main cast of melodies was quite enigmatic so at times, I did feel a lot more interested about their stories and melodies is pretty much the ultimate extension of that curiosity since we’re getting a whole series dedicated upon them.

Mizuki was pretty under-utilized in memories, but she finally gets her spotlight here. As revealed, she’s Renji’s cousin and they’re actually quite close with each other and this relationship is revealed and explored here. Mizuki’s personality is quite cheery and friendly yet not too overbearing so I’m immediately liking her a lot. There is also the fact that she is connected to Yuko as well in her past too, and I’m personally more interested in that.

The really new characters so far include Hirono Nagi and Amamiya Akira, both of them who seem to play a huge part in Himura’s past. Nagi’s relation with memories’ Hirono is still unknown, but it remains without doubt they are connected since both have a talent for art. Nagi also bears a resemblance towards Kei as well, yet her attitude is much more daring as she doesn’t even mind drawing in the nude and being seen by Himura. Having Itou Shizuka as her seiyuu also gives her that extra “oomph” to it much. As for Amamiya Akira, he is apparently Yuko’s brother too, as revealed in the melodies pre-airing special (ugh, damn crossplay) and he seems to be the advisor of the arts club, based on his conversation with Himura.

So far so good. Ahhh~~ melodies is definitely making me want to spoil myself by playing the games with all the mysteries being unveiled around. SHAFT’s signature style is also much more refined this time and seems less “shocking” than back in memories too when everyone was calling it “ef – a tale of Photoshop Filters”. Then again, I might’ve gotten much used for it this time round, since memories made us realize at its end on how symbolic those effects were used throughout the series.

Once you get used to it, you can actually derive a LOT of subtext than what is presented on the surface, especially on the character’s feelings and their hidden thoughts as well, thus giving the discerning viewers a much more empathetic view of the characters. I actually find it very much well done this time around and it gives a real depth to each of the characters.

Musically speaking, it’s even more influential now to be in line with the title of “a tale of melodies”. There is liberal usage of violin title pieces for foreshadowing(?) in the second half with Mizuki and Kuze. This probably mirrors how the “memories” part was the main thread in Chihiro and Renji’s story. I can’t say I understand much of the terms for now but it does add another level of emotional subtext to the show.

The soundtrack is pretty much the same as memories as well. No need to change what’s working, eh. The OP, ebullient future by ELISA is still sung in English again and it’s similar in feel to euphoric field as well. The animation text is mostly in German this time… competent German understanding quite required there it seems. No ED played this time though.

Right, enough rambles for now. Another week more for the next episode….

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.