Usurped to Usurper

Here are some excuses:

Schoolwork, helping the homeless order discount pills under the bridge, rescued a cat girl, parents died, became some random hobo’s lover because I have a hard time being in debt to other people, I died and was indoctrinated into the Afterlife War Front, Yuki was futilely trying to explain how a human might time travel, even worse Mikuru was trying to explain how to time travel (classified information.. and then classified information classified information), extreme bleeding after posting that picture of Yin, separation anxiety due to Yin’s absence in my life, became a contractor and didn’t care anymore, have an obeisance that requires not blogging, ODed on Yui-ism, stopped to think and forgot to start again, was stuck editing the Stray Cat Societies film, ate Nagi’s cooking, ate Shana’s cooking, ate Taiga’s cooking, ate any Rei Kugumiya character’s cooking, had an affair with C.C. that ended with old age on one parties part, drilled a whole… THROUGH THE HEAVENS, wanted to become a Nonoriri but realized the Buster Machine was in my heart all along, was stuck at the top of a Ferris-wheel with Hinagiku (and loved every second of it), got hit by a crazy pink haired girl on a scooter only to have horns coming out of my head that turned into Robots that had to be fought off with guitars, courted my favorite tsundere Kagami-sama, enjoyed my stay at the Time of Eve, mentioned The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in front of Konata, became a wonderful messiah/air king, didn’t mention The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in front of Konata but ended up talking about it anyways, burst into a puddle of LCL fluid while children sang some creepy song, realized I still have no f*ing clue what happened at the end of Evangelion, talked economics with a wolf, married a fox that lost her memory and disappeared, ran into a lost snail, outgrew my harem, married and had a cute little bundle of Ushio,  learned to play the guitar (but not really), God Knows I Lost My Music and Lived Alive, and SCHOOLWORK!!!

In other words: IT WASN’T MY FAULT!

Still, through every trying event I somehow managed to glimpse the comments left hear and had a hardy chuckle at quite a few of them. From the blatant “The only sensible thing to do is to hijack your blog.” to the less conspicuous: “I’ll have totally monopolized this blog.”  I became quite aware of Passerby’s intentions for my seat high in the clouds dictating my impressions on the median that is anime. Frankly I think he did a better job right where he was and left me completely care free to wander about my days: That is except for the gads of homework. Still I apologize for my continued absence and for not sparing a few minutes to reply to all the wonderful comments. The truth is to respond to a Passerby comment would have required a post… a feat I was not too inclined on when my brain was dead.

Not to dissuade Passerby’s attempt at stamping his mark all over this place I think I will try to put up a post. I have an hour tonight, a clear head, and a sunny disposition so let’s get cracking on some of the developments over the past few weeks.

cheap acomplia border=”0″ alt=”Image hosting by IMGBoot.com” width=”595″ height=”382″ />

Angel Beats:

The Devil’s Advocate Whispers Demonically Into the Microphone: Clannad, Kannon 2006, Air, and Angel Beats:

One of these things is buy amoxil without prescription not like the others,
One of these things just doesn’t belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

Obviously we’ve been indoctrinated into watching a Key story in a certain way. I’ve never played the actual Key games, but from some of the whispering I’ve heard down here in Hell (I am the Devil’s advocate after all) they can have quite sketchy pacing. Should we chalk up Angel Beats pacing issues then to PA Works mishandling the material, or should we chalk up the success of the others to KyoAni’s brilliant handling. I would have to error on the side of KyoAni in this case and from what I’ve read most of you agree, however, this might just be because we’re used to their way of telling the story. In some ways I really like the fast pace of Angel Beats: Instead of hitting us over the head for ten episodes with Nagisa’s death we would have been through it by the end of the episode. Just think how much better off my heart would be if Ushio’s death had lasted seconds as opposed to episodes. In some ways I’m kidding in other ways I’m not. After finally watching Aria the Animation I can see why some people like the pleasant slow pace, but Aria the Animation isn’t really about telling a story while Angel Beats is: and what’s more they only have 13 episodes to do it. I wish they had more time, but they don’t. Episodes chalk full of stuff might not leave me with that pleasant feeling of contentment, but I do like never being bored.

Dustin: You’d like that all too much wouldn’t you Mr. Smells like Brimstone. Unfortunately for you I don’t live inside your little hot box. What you conveniently forgot to mention was what Passerby pointed out “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.” Basically we understood the sadness of Tenshi’s situation from the first episode. We have seen enough Key works to realize when somebody has a sad life. Do we really need to be told all the time? Instead of saying “Her favorite food is Mapo Tofu and she came to eat some as comfort food, by herself, in a corner, without friends, because she doesn’t have any, and just when you think she’s going to get some, we’re going to rip them away (Like Nymph’s wings) and watch her and you squirm for the rest of the season *Evil Laugh*”. No PA Works at that point it is sufficient for you to say “Tenshi’s favorite food is Mapo Tofu” and let us watch Otonashi crawl away into a little corner to pity himself. We can infer the rest tyvm.

So what’s the deal? Is Angel Beat’s good or bad? Can we get a sum up? It’s a bit hard to tell at this point. I hate being preached at and played for false sympathy so Angel Beats has rubbed  me the wrong way a bit, however, it’s still a lot of fun to watch every week. I mean who doesn’t want to see more emotionless, friendless girl gaining friends? If you just raised your hand for that I’m officially internet facepalming you. That said I would like to see Jun Maeda try to tell a different story. We’ve got the sad people being sad and no matter how you change the world if you don’t change the story and message we’ll get bored. Even Tenshi’s cuteness won’t save you…

Ok it might save you, but if she wasn’t so adorable you’d be in big trouble order discount tabs Maeda, BIG TROUBLE!

As for actual plot development beyond the fishing episode I know one thing: It will be sad. It has to get a lot worse before the final episode break-throughs. So far they’ve managed to blend the comedy pretty well, but given the way these Key Story arcs tend to go it can’t really last can it? I guess that’s a pretty big spoiler in some ways, but at least it won’t be as painful as waiting for Nagisa to die for three episodes all the time thinking “Maybe it won’t happen, maybe, just maybe this will be the Key Anime that’s different.” No such luck my friends, no such luck. Angel Beats, like all Key Animes, are about highlighting the beauty of tragedy and death. Jun Maeda tries to make death meaningful in a way it’s never been. Will he ever succeed? Only time will tell.

Arararagi (err… Arakawa) under the Bridge

Dabookman made a request for a post on this and since I’m kind of doing a mass post I’ll throw out my most general thoughts here as it’s kind of that mid season point. Unfortunately for a story like Arakawa it had a lot of momentum, but did not make the transition into mid-season well: Why? Because at some point you have to stop introducing odd new characters and get to the point. Have you ever watched a movie and thought “Oh wow, this scene is why they made the movie”? Arakawa has a very distinct feeling of using that in the first episode. They created a funny situation with awkward one dimensional characters that seems to have nowhere to go. This by no means makes the anime bad, but for me it’s not quite satisfying either. They might have a good conclusion with the romance between the leads, but their point has already been made. It’s had great moments, but in the end that’s all I’ll remember it for (if at all).

I must admit the opening song has a weird way of sneaking into my brain and turning the volume up. I like its verse… too bad about the chorus huh…

To Cece about Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood:

Gomenasai Cece I actually haven’t been watching the anime. I read the manga regularly so the anime was one of the first things I dropped when my ampicillin buy online schedule tightened. I don’t think I can do justice to whatever it was you wanted me to review :(.

With all of that typed I fear I am out of time for the night and I still have to go collect some awesome pictures. I know I didn’t even come close to responding to some of those amazing comments, but I fear we just might be done with the season before I do them justice. I encourage everyone to read Passerby’s comments on the last few episodes of Angel Beats though: He has basically posted much more concisely what I would have wanted to convey in the first place (and then some). There is one more point I would like to mention though: “When the cat’s away the mice, as they say, shall play.”

How funny that this should be the perfect segue into me posting these pictures: