Artur Nóbrega posted on April 26, 2010 at 2:42 am | Permalink

o/

Oh god! Good luck with your job! And please! Don’t forget to post about your lovely one! Still there are a few of Black Contractor episodes to comment xDD

Dabookman posted on April 26, 2010 at 6:33 pm | Permalink

Oooh! Me! Me! Arakawa Under the Bridge, that is a MUST for reviews. It keeps getting better and better, and the characters keep getting stranger. They now have a man with a star head, a guy who can only walk on lines, a pair of twins with what looks like fish heads, and a “Sister” with a mean scar and an Uzi. If that doesn’t say “REVIEW ME!!” I don’t know what does.

Cece posted on April 27, 2010 at 4:54 pm | Permalink

Dissapointment… :sad: I understand though. Work is work so I’ll look forward to your summer posts. I would like a FMA Brotherhood review. The last three episodes have been awesome and I wanted to see what you think.

Passerby posted on May 3, 2010 at 3:11 am | Permalink

Sad to hear that life has got you down. It’s eerily quiet in here without a Dustin to haunt the blog, and a bit of a shame considering the interesting shows this season. The only sensible thing to do is to hijack your blog. When the cat’s away the mice, as they say, shall play.

This is actually a nice segue into Angel Beats, where there are no cats in sight, only a lot of scurrying mice. Tenshi, as we’ve seen for 5 episodes so far, hardly qualifies as the requisite feline; at best she is a very disciplined rodent. I’m sure Dustin could say a lot about this if he were around, actually, but since he isn’t I think I’ll take the opportunity to just drop my opinions into his blog unchallenged. Dustin has resigned! I am the new webmaster! A new regime is here!

–Angel Beats! 5–

It’s quite surprising how tame Tenshi (sorry, Tachibana Kanade) is. Relatively, I mean. Considering that she was supposed to be symbolic of ‘the system’ that the SSS were rebelling against, she never really brought the full weight of it down on the SSS (like her successor was all too keen to do). She merely followed the rules. Very rigidly. I’m not sure if this is just a personality quirk or has some deeper meaning, but in either case the way she toed the line was what made her Yuri’s foil. Tachibana Kanade never does once refer to herself as Tenshi. No, she’s the student council president first, and antagonist to the SSS second. Yuri knows this, and takes advantage of it. She knows that Tenshi does not escalate; I wonder why Yuri brought out the guns in the first place. Yuri also knows that Tenshi, as mere student council president, cannot enter the Principal’s Office, and therefore it is the safehouse of the SSS. So where’s the principal? That’s the big question of the series.

In any case, Tenshi (initials TK – conspiracy!) is no Angel. Episode 5 seals the deal. In episode one we were let to believe she was some sort of inherent custodian of the system, comes with the place–it is clear now she is not. She’s been sacked, after all. This leaves us with a few questions, actually:

1) If Tenshi isn’t Tenshi, what is she?
2) What is Naoi, her successor?
3) If she was just a student, why did she not disappear?

I almost couldn’t bear watching this episode, actually. I had been supporting Tenshi from Day 1, actually, and the reason was that the SSS showed itself as nothing but a bunch of delinquents, albeit with a higher cause (or Yuri does, at least). In episode 5 they had devolved into this bullying racket. Otonashi tries to play conscience of the SSS but he’s more useless than Jiminy cricket; his moral outrage stays mostly within his head (you are the most useless Kyon ever). Perhaps Jun Maeda is continuing to dangle this question in front of us. Why are they doing this? What are they fighting for? It sure was easy sympathising with the stoic and inoffensive Tenshi, and I sense Maeda laying some kind of emotional trap.

Nevertheless, I am curious as to the direction the series will go now. Is Tachibana Kanade going to step down from her role as main antagonist? What are they going to do about the OP then, after all that work they put onto it? I’m too used to Tenshi’s song at the beginning opposing Yuri’s in the ED, and if Naoi gets an OP instead (the hell) the balance is just going to be off.

Passerby posted on May 10, 2010 at 6:41 am | Permalink

My goal is to eventually fill the “Those Who Spoke Last” sidebar with only comments by me in this topic. Then I’ll have totally monopolized this blog. Or perhaps I’ll look like a very determined spammer. I’m fine either way.

Considering I only have time to watch one series this season there’s only one thing to talk about. Who needs variety anyway? I mean, I can spend the entire post just talking to myself. Anyways, without ado:

-Angel Beats! 6- “Family Affair”

or

“Am I still watching the right series?”

Jason (the moonfang) commented some time ago about how if it was Kyoto Animation and not P.A. Works doing this series they’d do things differently. Sprinkle more detail into the world. Play with their shots. Have more consistent production values. I am inclined to agree. I think Dustin got put off by Endless Eight (which I still firmly think is an interesting, if ultimately failed, experiment, but that’s another spiel for another day) and admittedly Kyoani is no longer that one studio that goes above and beyond. Still, they have a certain pedigree established after their experience with three Key works, and I’m perfectly willing to trust them to do Angel Beats full justice should Jun Maeda have gone to them. Can you imagine them doing it though? I mean, with a straight face? How will they resist not just making Otonashi Kyon, casting Aya Hirano as Yuri, and having Tenshi activate her powers with fast-spoken SQL code? Look forward to it when they remake Angel Beats in 2014.

I wasn’t intending to rib Kyoani this much, only to point out that they would most likely be able to deliver a different animal. PA Works have done fine with the material thus far; the jokes are well timed, the casting is solid, the music is as beautiful as expected. But what they lack compared to Kyoani, I think, is the experience with Jun Maeda’s work. Jun Maeda writes visual novels, not anime. The differences between the mediums really are telling in Angel Beats. Visual novels are carried heavily by dialogue and unfortunately this seems to have carried to the anime. It’s now a frequent event for a character to start narrating their sad life stories. I don’t think this works. It’s effectively the character telling the audience to feel sorry for them, and it comes off as heavy handed. In this latest episode Otonashi just comes out and has a little internal monologue about how sad Tenshi’s situation is. I draw the line here. The audience does not need cue cards. We do not need to be told when we should break out the tears. Rather, it undermines the entire effect. You’re stealing my catharsis, Otonashi!

The direction also seems a bit confused, but that may not be Maeda’s fault (…maybe). What happened this episode? Naoi changes from villain to supervillain (now I will be God! Also, I have mind powers) from out of nowhere. The melodrama was also dropped like some bunker-buster. Suddenly, rain! Tears! Then a flashback! Is this a pacing problem? I can’t switch gears that fast. I also can’t suddenly just feel empathy for the card-carrying Nazi, no matter what kind of childhood trauma he suffered. Character development can’t be delivered with hoses.

It will also be comical if all the dead just popped up on their feet in the middle of all the crying and screaming, but that may have ruined the mood, I suppose. Speaking of mood, what happened to the ontological mystery? Tenshi’s also lost all her mystique. The tofu’s cute and all, but you’re starting to -lose- personality. Hang in there, Tachibana Kanade.

To relate this to my opening points, I think Kyoani will have dealt with this better. It’s not a matter of budget or whatnot. They’re just more experienced with delivering this kind of material. Air was by no means a subtle affair. Same with Kanon, but they were getting better. By Clannad that had perfected Key storytelling to a bit of an art, and recognized the inherent flaws in the VN to anime transition by giving Clannad two seasons instead of just one. I’m not saying I don’t like Angel Beats—I still think it has a lot of promise. Cut back the heavy hand and slow the pacing and it’ll be even better, I think.

Factoid of the week: Otonashi is ambidextrous.

Jason "moofang" posted on May 10, 2010 at 10:17 am | Permalink

Can we have an “all in favor of Passerby becoming Dustin’s slave co-blogger” vote? Or at least a “Passerby go start a blog nao” one :P

Anyway, hope your work is going well and hope you get “released” soon.

(Is it just me or does Dustin always dish out the seizure-inducing pics when he needs to get away with something ^^ )

(Oops, sorry bout breaking in in the middle of your comment streak Passerby :P )

Passerby posted on May 11, 2010 at 12:52 am | Permalink

What are you doing?! Now I’ll have to start form the beginning! Gah!

Maybe I’ll just settle for looking like a fairly half-hearted spammer. I can compromise.

Starting my own blog sounds awfully like real work, and that just won’t do. Dustin can have this thunder back when he decides the weekend pay just isn’t worth it. Until then…

[Insert evil cackle here.]

Sadly, I can’t do any pictures, seizure worthy or otherwise. Unless I try ASCII art…no, that’s terrifying. Let’s not.

Passerby posted on May 16, 2010 at 6:54 am | Permalink

I have a distinct advantage over Dustin in that I have no obligation to make my posts meaningful in any way. I have no particular need to retain readership. I have no target audience. Content? Ha!

With that in mind, let’s consider:

-Angel Beats! 7- “Alive”

or

“My complexes give me superpowers!”

What happened to Naoi? He limelighted as a major villain for about an episode and in a flash has been reduced to yet another gag character in the ever expanding gallery. Not that I really mind; the speed at which they tried to develop him was too fast to build empathy, and making him funny is the second-best option. At least now no one has to take him seriously.

Actually, I’ll have to correct myself. Naoi has an extra role: plot device. In this episode, his psychic powers are needed to unlock Otonashi’s memories so we can have his story too. Yuri is so casual about it. “Hey, you have these dangerous mind warping abilities that drove me cataconic. Do it to Otonashi too”. If she really wanted to fix Otonashi’s memory she should just have knocked him over the head in episode 1; it’d have been faster and less awkward.

By the way, it’s funny it’s always the messed up ones who get awesome powers. I can’t even begin to list the flavours of psychosis that is Naoi. It’s like how blind people naturally have crazy elocution skills and all autistics are human calculators. There’s a strange kind of karma at work. Apparently Naoi’s superpowers are justified by having every complex under the sun and having to hang uncomfortably close to Otonashi for the rest of the series.

Speaking of which, Naoi’s personality 360 in regards to Otonashi may be vaguely disturbing, but we should see this as truly a new era of anime. Otonashi is a modern age protagonist. Traditionally, being the male lead entitles him to get all the girls. In this new era, he also gets all the guys.

Yes, that means Noda is actually a tsundere. Ruminate on this for a moment.

Moving on and away from that line of thought, this episode was actually Otonashi’s episode. You’d think there’d be a bit more fanfare to the whole backstory, but instead it was just another flashback. A very familiar flashback, actually, one that brings memories of Clannad. It was about time the magical Key disease finally reared its ugly head again, and of course it is saved for our new-age protagonist. Apparently, in his past life Otonashi has depression and motivation disorder, but can’t afford therapy. His only ray of redeeming light is his sister. A familiar story indeed, but although Otonashi’s sister plays a familiar role to Ushio, Ushio had the advantage of many more episodes of development as well as a mother we had gotten to know over an entire season. Otonashi’s sister is…cute? Sure, it’s sad when she dies (in the snow) but that’s it. Otonashi has an epiphany, sorts out his life, and…dies in an accident? There’s no tragedy anymore, just random. I think Otonashi agrees, because his personality does not change one bit after the flashback. A bit of tears, then business is usual.

The fishing was amusing, and one strong point of Angel Beats is that it never fails to amuse. But surely Otonashi could have been afforded a full episode of backstory? The limited episode run does not help the story at all. All of Otonashi’s flashback is promptly forgotten in the face of Kanade’s evil clone (rogue AI or whatever it is). Could we have waited? Angel Beats is full of ideas but not enough time to realize them all. I think I’ll keep saying this every week, but it could use a more episodes and more organisation. It’s a bit late at this point in the game for Angel Beats to rethink what it wants to do with itself, so I can only hope it all leads to a big idea somewhere down the line.

Factoid of the week: Otonashi is immortal, and does not age.

Dabookman posted on May 17, 2010 at 7:17 am | Permalink

Now, this isn’t really all that major a point at the moment, but I feel it needs to be said. I’m sure your all aware of the “other” Kanade, but were you all watching closely when she hacked up the master of the river? Kanade saw the danger, felt she had to save everyone, and then she SPLIT into two people, the red-eyed Kanade (who hacked the fish up) and the normal golden-eyed Kanade, who passively stays with the rest of the gang for the remainder of the ep.

Do I know where I’m going with this? Not really, but I must say that the idea of Kanade having the ability to split into two people is interesting, I mean you could just chalk it up to her “Guard Skill” but It’s still a little weird in my opinion, I mean why would she need something like that in the first place?

Though from your post Passerby I guess we could just say its all for the sake of shock-plot development… but it would be nice to actually have some meaning behind it. *sigh*, I think that’s all I wanted to say… *bows to passerby* Sorry for interrupting your flow, keep it up! *flees out doorway*

Passerby posted on May 17, 2010 at 11:19 pm | Permalink

This is an interesting point and like you I still am not sure what to make of it. We are, quite conveniently, never shown what happens to the insta-clone after she sashimis the master of the river, only to have red-eyes pop up again at the end of the episode. It smelled awfully like Angel Beats had palmed a crucial card, so to speak, but I, like you, am hoping something would come out of it, and am willing to wait for next episode.

As I said, I’ve put my money on clone or her defence program going rogue or something like that. Or maybe ‘Tenshi’ is an aspect of Tachibana Kanade or something like that. All wild speculation at this point. If I have learnt anything from sci-fi, though, is that all clones are evil. If this is rogue AI, then one rendition of Daisy Bell and the SSS are all doomed.