Hello again. So, another week has come to pass, and new episodes have been watched. Did they hold up to the openers ? Did a show betray all my expectations already ? Well, read on to know !

Sora no Woto – 02

This second visit to the five girls’ base was just as pleasant as the first one. It helped introduce the character better, even though nothing moved forward too much. In a way though, it’s a bit like the beginning of Haibane Renmei, so it’s not bad per se. Though I hope the next episode will see the start of some kind of overarching plot.

There is a question that this episode really didn’t help answering : why the military theme ? For now, it could very well be simply for the moé factor. Or, maybe it’ll develop into something more, a deeper reflexion. I’m praying that it’s the second option, as Sora no Woto seems clever enough. I was pleasantly surprised to see that even if Kanata, our main heroine, is the typical “genki-everything-is-wonderful” girl, she isn’t a brainless moeblob. For one, she isn’t scared of ghosts. Too many animes would have had their heroine squeal and make “cute” frightened faces, but Kanata seems to be above that. I still have great hopes for Sora no Woto, if only for the opening, which is intriguing enough.

Verdict so far : Very Good

Ookami Kakushi – 02

Ookami Kakushi 02 was a very good surprise. The mystery only thickened, with a new character having been introduced. As of now, it’s still too late to draw any conclusion, but I’m guessing that things are not going to end up well for Kaname, the girl who’s also kinda new in town, and is probably a little too curious for her own good. As for Hiroshi, our main protagonist, he’s still weirdly popular, but it seems like he’s going to go through some disturbing events, judging from the preview of episode 3.

And it’s something that Higurashi did not do. For all its gory and unsettling moments, it didn’t have characters that looked like they were sexual deviants. I hope it’ll be handled well, because if it’s the case it could make for a very disturbing show. I just hope it won’t go overboard and into fanservice territory. But I have faith, the storytelling here seems pretty solid, and only two episodes in I’m already hooked. I need to know the truth.

Verdict so far : Very Good

Dance in the Vampire Bund – 02

This is shaping up to be the big disappointment of the season. Even though it got some plot going, this episodes still felt quite empty. Plus, friggin’ werewolves ? Come on, are all vampires stories required to have werewolves too these days ?

Also, if at least it served an actual good plot, it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but having the protagonist suffer amnesia is a cheap trick. Then there are the scenes where our main character outruns a helicopter machine gun, or avoids a missile simply by ducking. And still in his human form, mind you. Add to that the totally gratuitous “shadow gel” scene, and you get something that is easily the worst show I’m watching this season. I still hopes it’ll get better, but I won’t hold my breath.

Verdict so far : Bad

Durarara!! – 02

Durarara!! frightens me now. Honestly, I’m starting to wonder if the universe is suited to contain this much awesomeness. Maybe it will tear the fabric of space and time apart, I don’t know. Because, seriously, if this show manages to maintain this level of quality, it’s going straight into my top five animes of all time.

It’s already showing signs of greatness, and it’s only been two episodes. Already, the seemingly supernatural headless rider surprised me by actually being a character with a personality, and not just a plot device. Then Durarara!! does something that delights me to no end : it shows simultaneous events from the perspective of several characters. I cannot get enough of that kind of storytelling.

And it’s plain gorgeous, artistically it’s really top notch, both graphically and aurally. Really, words fail me, I cannot convey how much I love this series.

Verdict so far : AWESOME !!

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu – 02

This one is still totally crazy, and it’s still funny, so it’s good !

I suppose a special mention goes to the main protagonist who spends a big part of this episode with a table glued to his hand. I suppose this could be compared to a show like Ouran : crazy antics and pretty standard romance. I hope the crazy part will remain the main focus of the show, or that maybe it’ll even turn into something more down the line, but anyway I’ll still be going with the flow. A very light series, but one needs that from time to time, I suppose.

Verdict so far : Great

(Tom Clancy’s EndWar review, Part 1 of 3)

So, today I bought Tom Clancy’s EndWar on PS3 (found it for a tiny 15€) and invested about 45 minutes in it, just enough to see how it played like. To be fair, the test conditions where far from ideal: small SD screen, and much worse no headset.

Which is a shame, because I’m sure this is going to get a thousand times more awesome played with speech recognition. It will…

What ? What do I mean with speech recognition ?

Well, EndWar is a real-time strategy game, which is a genre that always struggled on console. So, as it became clear that a gamepad would probably never trump a good ol’ keyboard-mouse combo, Ubisoft sat and thought about a new way to control the units on the battlefield. And they came up with a speech control scheme that, I read, works flawlessly. It’s one of the two things that made me buy this game.

The other is the setting, World War III (well, more like Northern Hemisphere War III, but I guess it doesn’t have the same ring to it). I must say the perspective of playing the role of a commander uttering commands to his troops on near-future battlefields sold me pretty fast.

And as I tried the first two missions, I quickly saw how speaking instead of navigating menus would make for a much more dynamic experience. It’s a thousand time faster to say “Unit 5, Attack Hostile 3” than to click through 4 or 5 menus to achieve the same thing.

That being said, the game promises to be quite frantic, even a bit too frantic for me, but ultimately it promises a great deal of fun. The battlefields are large enough, the rock-paper-scissor mechanic for a relatively easy decision-making process, and everything looks rather good.

Should the speech recognition system live up to my expectations, this may very well become the first console game I try to play online. Its semi-persistant World War mode looks like a lot of fun. But first I’ll need to invest quite a bit of time in the single player modes, and we’ll see how it goes. See you for part 2 !

Part 1 score : 7/10

So, this first week of the season was quite good. I had initially planned to follow 4 shows this season, but in the end I think I’ll had a fifth one to the list, thanks to rave reviews it has had on other blogs and its first episode which did not disappoint.

Without further ado, here’s what I saw :

Sora no Woto – 01

I was very hesitant about that one, because I’m really not into purely “moé” anime. That’s why I didn’t watch K-ON, especially when I learned it had not a lot of music in it (yet it’s about a “light music club”, go figure). But anyway, Sora no Woto was being foreseen as K-ON, but with a plot, so in the end I gave it a try. And I did well !

Tough the first episode wasn’t spectacular, it set up a number of element that could steer the show away from the pure moé/slice-of-life routine and into more mysterious territories. Episode 2 should be out and subbed any time now, so I’m eager to know if it stays as good.

Oh, and the backgrounds look gorgeous. The characters are nothing very new or special, but they get the job done. Music also seems to play an important part in the show, so I’m paying special attention to that too.

Verdict so far : Very Good

Ookami Kakushi – 01

This one has a plot coming from the same guy that made the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni games, and that’s why I’m watching it. Unfortunately, it seems like the same old drill: a town whose people are divided between those who embrace progress and those who refuse it, murders and mystery ensue.

Altough it’s far too early to draw conclusion, as of now it looks like it’ll be good, but nowhere as awesome as Higurashi was. It stills does that “innocent-looking while somewhat disturbing” thing very well, so if it’s taken in an original direction, who knows…

Verdict : Good

Dance in the Vampire Bund – 01

I’m usually not particularly fond on vampire animes, but this one was by SHAFT, so I had to at least try it. Some people must have been relieved to see no walls of text and other bi-color shots so prominent in many SHAFT shows, but for me it was a bit too conventional.

Sure, for the most part the episode was supposed to be a TV talk show about vampires, but it maybe felt a little too mundane for its own good. And when the action picks up, it resolves pretty quickly, and the cliffhanger isn’t really breathtaking. But it’s SHAFT (and Shinbo as the director), so who knows how it’ll turn out.

Verdict : So-so

Durarara!! – 01

This is this season’s serious business. Probably the most hyped show this winter, and for good reasons ! Many people found the opener to be somewhat of a letdown, but oh boy, not me. It delivered everything it had promised, and then some : the trendy urban setting and characters, the mysterious headless killer, the edgy designs…

The first episode is packed with information, and at first the viewer can really empathize with the main protagonist who has some trouble adapting to the frantic pace of the life in Ikebukuro. But this show is sure to be a thrilling ride with its seemingly awesome cast, which include a big black russian sushi chef (yeah, yeah, really), a guy throwing vending machines around and all the trendy people we get to see in this first episode.

And of course there’s the mysterious headless rider. So, well, basically this one can’t go wrong. From the character designs somewhat reminiscent of Yozakura Quartet and the cool setting, it’s bound to be awesome.

Verdict : Awesome

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu – 01

This is the fifth show I was referring to in the intro. I have seen my share of weird school concepts in drama and anime, but I guess this one tops them all. Can you imagine a school where student are distributed in the classes according to their grades, class A (for the best students) being incredibly luxurious, while class F being a dump, and where classes wage war on one another using summoned chibi versions of themselves ?

No ? Well, me neither, until I watched this. Then, add to that the fact that the chibi summons have stats which depend on their student’s grades on the last test. Oh, and yes, to restore their energy mid-battle, the student can take “recovery tests” to boost their summon’s stats. In the end, the class who wins the battle, defeating the other’s class rep, can switch classrooms with the looser.

Yeah, this is insane. But it’s very entertaining to watch nonetheless !

Verdict : Great

End Notes : I’m currently debating whether to add pictures to these posts… What do you think ? Comment and tell me. I don’t wanna make those longer than they should, but maybe it’s a bit dry without pictures.

As I failed miserably at many of the goals I set for myself last year, I won’t reiterate and fail again. If there’s one thing I want to do though, it’s giving this blog a little of the attention it so badly need. To do that, I’ve decided to inaugurate some “categories” which, because I’m a pretentious bastard, will have pseudo-artsy names.

So, here’s a breakdown of what I have in mind at the moment :

– “Dreaming through the noise” will be a series of short reviews of albums I’m currently listening to and feel are worth sharing. Ideally I’d like to put one sample song in a streamable form for each post, but I’ve yet to find an easily manageable solution. Suggestions welcome, of course !

– “Whimsical pictures” will focus on mangas and animes. I think I may start blogging regularly about series I’m following, but there will probably also be a fair share of reviews of things I already completed. I will refrain from detailed summaries in the episodic posts though, and rather try to convey the general mood of the show/manga, and what makes it or breaks it.

– “Digital rooftop” will regroup game reviews. I’m thinking of trying three-folds reviews, with a post covering my first hands-on impression of the game, another post while I’m in the middle of it, and a final one after the deed is done. We’ll see how it goes.

So that’s it. Of course, I hope I’ll be able to get myself to write outside of those three categories of course, because I’ll really try to maintain specific format for those posts, to prevent them to simply regroup all my posts about anime, music and games. For example, those two last “2009 in anime” posts I still need to complete ? I wouldn’t want them to fall in the “Whimsical pictures” category.

Anyway, I hope you all spent great holidays with your family, friends, significant other or even alone, whatever floats your boat. See you around for those two last “12 moments” posts and the inaugural posting for those three brand new categories, which will perhaps explain what the names are about.

Or maybe not. It’s not like there’s a deep meaning behind…

(Tenth post in the “12 days in anime” 2009 project led by Mega Megane Moé. Other participating blogs include Shameful Otaku Secret!, Continuing World, Fighting for Nippon!, We love maids., Bokutachi no BLOG, Anime Profiling, Desu ex Machina, Blogging about Anime, I Will Show You Terror in a Handful of Flans, Pontifus, Open Your Mind, ∑Xce7ion, Ganbatte Forever!, Mikotoism, wat u say, Memories of Eternity, Simplicity, Gabrielino Anime Club, UNMEI KAIHEN, Nigorimasen!, Mainichi Anime Yume and We Remember Love)

I guess it was bound to happen, with the return of my sister from Japan (yay!) and Christmas celebrations, I missed the last posting deadlines. But that won’t prevent me to try to post no less than three moments today ! And if my will is strong enough, I’m sure I will prevail ! (I just finished watching Tenga Toppa Gurren Lagann a few days ago, does it show ?)

But on to today’s topic, the moment I want to remember on this day is one that comes from a show that didn’t get, to my best knowledge, the recognition it deserved. This show is FLAG.

The plot of the shows is as follows : A civil war is raging in Uddiyana, a fictional country set somewhere in the region of the India-China border. One day, a photographer covering the war takes a photograph that quickly becomes a symbol of peace and hope for the people. The picture features a flag, which by extension also becomes a symbol itself, serving as the banner of the UN-led peace effort. But as it seems like the war will soon be a thing of the past, the flag gets stolen ! A special unit is dispatched to retrieve the flag, a photographer set to accompany and document the operation. And, you’ve guessed it, said photographer is the same one that took the famous picture, Saeko Shirasu.

From there, the story revolves around the life Saeko lives within the special unit, in their base and out on the battlefield, and the one of her mentor, Keiichi Akagi, who is Uddiyana’s capital and witnesses the reaction of the people to the war.

Now, if I tell you that there are mechas involved, you’re probably going to think something along the lines of “Oh right, another mecha show” – with more or less enthusiasm whether you like this kind of things or not. But, honestly, the presence of mechas in Flag is almost inconsequential. Sure, it makes for some nice CG graphics, but that’s about it. There are far more defining traits to be found in Flag. Like it’s directing.

The whole 13 episodes put you inside a camera’s lens. Or inside a webcam, or present you the desktop of a computer. The show is about journalists, after all, and it strives to give a “documentary” look to the events, and mostly does a stellar job at it. Sure, it makes the main characters look like camera addicts, but what’s important is that it works. At first, you have to get accustomed to the weird framing, and the strange and scarce camera movements, but once you get immersed into it, you’ll love it, it really gives Flag a very specific atmosphere.

But can still shots and original presentation make a good anime by themselves ? Of course not. And this is what Flag really excels at : the way it portrays its characters and the interactions between them is something to behold. The shows ostensibly keeps thing realistic, so don’t expect any super-badass here. What you’ve got is a bunch of mostly ordinary people, and while some are good at what they do, it never becomes unbelievable. And, as the plot moves on, they learn to know each other, or, more exactly, Saeko learns to know them. But not through long-winded exposition scenes, no. It’s by experiencing things at their sides, by seeing how they react to the happenings.

And as the mission of the special unit comes to an end, they have to part way, and that’s when you realize that, just like Saeko, you’ve become attached to some of them. And not because you can identify yourself with them, because you’ve started to look at them as friends. It’s a very odd thing, as most animes tend to explain every character’s thoughts more or less thoroughly. In Flag, you don’t really know all their stories, but like in real life, bonds are forged by what you “live” with them. And this amount of emotional believability is probably the main reason why I was devastated by the scene in episode 13 when Saeko watch the video message her friends made to see her off.

The way Saeko breaks down while watching that little video reminded me of what I felt on a somewhat similar occurrence, and to add to the effect, it’s not done in an overly dramatic fashion. Sometimes, less is more.

There are also two other “things” that are very much worth remembering about Flag. The first one in the sound effects. No one usually pays too much attention to those, but here I really noticed their quality, helping bring more realism to the show. The other is the OP/ED, which are both fabulous. The OP is made of various still images, alternating between pictures of a young Saeko and war photographs. With the accompanying soaring music, it’s really epic. The ED is the only time where you’re not seeing things through some kinds of “lens” (the way it ties into each episodes is clever, tough), and it makes for a nice change. It also takes a whole new dimension with the slightly longer version that is shown in the last episode…

All in all, if you don’t mind watching a “serious” show, give this one a chance, you won’t be disappointed.

(Ninth post in the “12 days in anime” 2009 project led by Mega Megane Moé. Other participating blogs include Shameful Otaku Secret!, Continuing World, Fighting for Nippon!, We love maids., Bokutachi no BLOG, Anime Profiling, Desu ex Machina, Blogging about Anime, I Will Show You Terror in a Handful of Flans, Pontifus, Open Your Mind, ∑Xce7ion, Ganbatte Forever!, Mikotoism, wat u say, Memories of Eternity, Simplicity, Gabrielino Anime Club, UNMEI KAIHEN, Nigorimasen!, Mainichi Anime Yume and We Remember Love)

Out of all the criticism I hear about anime (or manga, for that matter) as a whole is that “it all looks the same”. And, even though it’s not technically true, as anyone spending at least a moderate amount of time watching anime could tell, you can’t deny there is an “anime style”.

But, sometimes, you can find a show that really don’t follow the “traditional” style. And when a distinct visual style comes to complement an awesome plot, you get something in the vein of Kaiba.

Kaiba really is a strange beast. At first, it seems harmless, telling the tale of a young man who lost his memories in a world where said memories can be transplanted from a body to another. And judging from the first episode, you can easily be fooled into thinking this is going to be a gentle show following the travels of Kaiba in search of his memories.

And, well, you would be somewhat right. Except for the “gentle” part. Soon enough, you realize that the future Kaiba is set in is far from “cute” despites its looks. It has become a true dystopia, where a lot of things aren’t what they seem at first glance.

As he travels, Kaiba gets dragged deeper and deeper into the world’s problem, as it looks as he’s more involved with them than he, and you, first thought. But I won’t spoil anything for you, as this series is one that really shines if you let it surprise you.

But what moment did I choose, you ask ? Well, it’s the end of episode 7, where you see a plant devouring a planet. You first see this very plant before, and it almost looks cute… As I said, things aren’t always what they seem in Kaiba.

I really do urge everyone with an open mind to try Kaiba. You definitely have to get used to the show’s art style, but if you can do that, you’re really in for quite a ride. The characters are numerous, yet interesting for the most part. And, I cannot stress this enough, Kaiba might look like a child’s book, it’s really not anything like it. The overall tone is very mature, maybe even more so than in some “serious-looking” shows.

Add to that a wonderful (and I mean it) soundtrack, and you’ve got yourself a true masterpiece. Kaiba is science-fiction as it best, challenging you with its plot, weaving a mystery that you’ll be eager to unravel, and on the whole delivering a stunning experience.

(Eighth post in the “12 days in anime” 2009 project led by Mega Megane Moé. Other participating blogs include Shameful Otaku Secret!, Continuing World, Fighting for Nippon!, We love maids., Bokutachi no BLOG, Anime Profiling, Desu ex Machina, Blogging about Anime, I Will Show You Terror in a Handful of Flans, Pontifus, Open Your Mind, ∑Xce7ion, Ganbatte Forever!, Mikotoism, wat u say, Memories of Eternity, Simplicity, Gabrielino Anime Club, UNMEI KAIHEN, Nigorimasen!, Mainichi Anime Yume and We Remember Love)

Many animes made me laugh.

Many animes made me care for characters that aren’t even “real”.

Many animes have brought me to the brink of tears and beyond.

Many animes bored me to no end.

Many animes made me wonder wha the hell was going on.

But only very few animes scared me.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni did.

And it did early on, in the first arc even. I was prepared to watch a complex, gory anime, yet that didn’t help, came episode 3. The moment that’ll stay engraved in my mind for a long time is the scene where Rena and Mion come to visit Keiichi, who stayed home because he “was sick”.

Oh, sure, the scene starts out innocently enough, after all, it’s two girls visiting their classmate, right ? How can it compare to things like someone ripping her own nails off or torturing a child ? And look, they even joke, and the girls brought Keiichi something to eat. But as they are about to leave…

That’s when the creepy music kicks in, and they start asking embarrassing questions to Keiichi. That’s also when their eyes get these scary slit pupils. It sounds like a cheap trick, but it works very well, helping to build the tension.

And one can easily put oneself in Keiichi’s shoes, as those two girls seem to know more than they should, and speak in that soft but menacing tone he’s heard them use more than once. Perhaps the most unnerving part of all this is that they never do anything. You’re sure something horrible is going to happen, but it never does.

But the dialogue between Mion, Rena and Keiichi, as chilling as it is, isn’t the scariest moment of the episode, nor is the following scene where Keiichi finds a needle hidden in the food his “friends” gave him.

No, it’s the instant just before that, when the girls leave, the door almost closes, but suddenly reopens, showing Mion’s face way too close !

“Don’t be absent tomorrow…”

That couple of seconds is guaranteed to haunt me for a long, long time…

(Seventh post in the “12 days in anime” 2009 project led by Mega Megane Moé. Other participating blogs include Shameful Otaku Secret!, Continuing World, Fighting for Nippon!, We love maids., Bokutachi no BLOG, Anime Profiling, Desu ex Machina, Blogging about Anime, I Will Show You Terror in a Handful of Flans, Pontifus, Open Your Mind, ∑Xce7ion, Ganbatte Forever!, Mikotoism, wat u say, Memories of Eternity, Simplicity, Gabrielino Anime Club, UNMEI KAIHEN, Nigorimasen!, Mainichi Anime Yume and We Remember Love)

There is something universal in the way real tragedies are able to tell you what is going to happen, then still deliver their emotional blow at full might when it does happen. One could think that being prepared lessens the impact of the events, but with a well-written tragedy, it’s absolutely not true.

If anything, it makes the whole ordeal more painful. You can’t help but to hope that everything is going to be all right for the characters, yet you know those hopes are vain, as destiny rolls over them and leave them crushed.

And then you want to scream that it’s unfair.

At least that’s what I wanted to do while watching Bokurano. Especially episode 13. (Warning : spoilers ahead)

Bokurano is a vicious show. At episode 5, you learn a first shocking truth : the children composing the main cast and piloting a giant robots to protect the Earth lose their lives after the battles. That in itself is pretty cruel, they’re only children, dammit !

Then, at episode 13, you uncover another aspect of the “game” the children are taking part in : their opponents are also humans from other universes, and the universe of the loser disappears into oblivion. A that is a pretty dramatic turn of events.

Until then, you could have been thinking that it was alright because they were fighting “invaders”. But no, all the while they were defeating people who were, like them, trying to defend their world.

All in all they find themselves in a inextricable situation. They have to choose between winning, killing a whole universe, then dying, and losing, dying and taking their whole universe with them. That’s pretty bleak, isn’t it ?

What I found really interesting, and memorable about Bokurano was the way it was structured. The story really takes the time to investigate the way each of the children deals with the situation and the imminence of their death. More often than not, I found myself holding my breath as all the chairs were spinning, ready to designate the next pilot. I knew at least most of the children would die in the course of the “game”, yet I couldn’t help to root for some characters, wanting them to escape their fate.

Paradoxically, I’m glad that the show didn’t shy away from the dark outcome of the whole thing. It made the ending that much more powerful. I would have hated it if the ending had been a “happy” one. The sacrifice of all those innocent children turned the memories and the life of the little Kana into something so much more precious.

Sometimes, no matter how much you want to run away from it, there’s no escaping fate.

(Sixth post in the “12 days in anime” 2009 project led by Mega Megane Moé. Other participating blogs include Shameful Otaku Secret!, Continuing World, Fighting for Nippon!, We love maids., Bokutachi no BLOG, Anime Profiling, Desu ex Machina, Blogging about Anime, I Will Show You Terror in a Handful of Flans, Pontifus, Open Your Mind, ∑Xce7ion, Ganbatte Forever!, Mikotoism, wat u say, Memories of Eternity, Simplicity, Gabrielino Anime Club, UNMEI KAIHEN, Nigorimasen!, Mainichi Anime Yume and We Remember Love)

I’m in despair ! Having to change my list of moments at the last minute has left me in despair !

I’m late with this one, but a terrible and cruel battle raged in my mind yesterday, and I had to let a winner emerge before I could take action and finally write this post.

At first, this moment was to be dedicated to a rewatch of ef, because this series proved to be a totally different beast the second time around. That came as a surprise seeing how I’m used to feeling more or less the same about shows I watch more than once. And it was something worthy of this list.

Then Sayonara Zentsubou Sensei came.

I just finished watching this… thing, and even though I’m aware my judgment may be distorted by recency biais, I know for sure I would still remember the sheer madness of the whole thing had I watched it many months ago.

So I knew this post was going to be about a SHAFT-animated show, but which ? After a long internal debate, the craziness won, and I decided to make class 2-H my seventh memory for this year.

I’m not sure words alone are really able to convey what makes Sayonara Zetsubou Seinsei worth remembering. Let it be said that it’s probably the craziest show I’ve ever watched. It’s not complex, it’s a comedy, but it advances at a breakneck speed and you’re often almost overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that’s happening, and there are flashing walls of text, countless jokes appearing on blackboards and signs, and what not…

I guess the most memorable moment of it all is the first contact I had with the desperate teacher, in the form of the “Preface” episode. Not only is it one of the most frantic of the season, it’s also the only one that catch you unprepared.

It hits you like a shinkansen then stops, turn around, and run over you again. And again, and again. Until you’re begging for mercy, and it’s over. And when it is, you’re left with a puzzled look on your face as you wonder what the hell did you just watch.

I will say no more, except this : if you haven’t experienced the madness of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, you ought to yourself to at least watch the preface episode. Only SHAFT could pull off something like that, but you’ll be glad they did !

(Fifth post in the “12 days in anime” 2009 project led by Mega Megane Moé. Other participating blogs include Shameful Otaku Secret!, Continuing World, Fighting for Nippon!, We love maids., Bokutachi no BLOG, Anime Profiling, Desu ex Machina, Blogging about Anime, I Will Show You Terror in a Handful of Flans, Pontifus, Open Your Mind, ∑Xce7ion, Ganbatte Forever!, Mikotoism, wat u say, Memories of Eternity, Simplicity, Gabrielino Anime Club, UNMEI KAIHEN, Nigorimasen!, Mainichi Anime Yume and We Remember Love)

Some events tend to set the anime blogosphere aflame. Take a loved and insanely anticipated series, a crazy stunt, combine the two, and you can get bloggers and anime fans talking endlessly over it. And this year had probably the most spectacular meta-show I’ve ever witnessed. Due to technical constraints, I could not follow the episodes, and ended up marathoning the whole season in two days. So here is, the 8th best moment of the list : The Melancholy of Harui Suzumiya’s Endless Eight !

(Note : in the following I’ll use KyoAni where I guess it would be better to use Kadokawa/KyoAni. A bit like how Linux should be called GNU/Linux… Ah well…)

First thing first, let me spill the bean early on : I rather liked the Endless Eight arc. There, I said it. But before you start to throw bricks my way, give me a chance to elaborate a little on why I didn’t think it was merely a “troll” by KyoAni. I won’t, however, try to unequivocally prove that it was the best way to handle it, or even a good way at all. I’ll merely try to expose my personal way of seeing it.

Now, for those of you living under a rock for the past years, or at least not following the happenings of the anime world, a brief summary. The Melancholy of Harui Suzumiya was a very successful anime by Kyoto Animation that aired in 2006, and which was based on a series of light novels about a girl unknowingly capable of altering reality. After a long three years during which KyoAni teased all the fans about the possibility of a sequel to their massive hit, it came true. This year, a “second season” was aired. In fact, it was combined with a re-run of the first season, shown in chronological order (which wasn’t the case for the original run), intertwining old episodes with new one. And, between June 19 and August 7, Endless Eight happened. This story arc depicts the protagonists trapped in a time loop that forces them to live through their two last weeks of summer vacations over and over again. For 8 episodes, they looped, going through essentially the same events, with the same conclusion.

The thing is, the way Kyoto Animation chose to translate the somewhat unimportant arc from the novels into an anime was a bold move to say the least, and was very polarizing. For some, it was regarded as genius, while others thought it was a big slap in the face of all the fans of the franchise. And think what you want about it, but at least it got pretty much everyone talking about the show. And as they say, any publicity, good or bad, is still publicity, right ?

Now, let’s get down to it: why did I find this seemingly boring-to-death arc enjoyable ?

First, while the arc was still airing, I followed the internet drama it generated. That was a first way to generate it. Each week, people would speculate about the possible end of the ever longer loop, only to get their hopes and theories dashed. At the time, the response was more negative than positive. People were expressing their frustration, as the second season was being “wasted” retelling the same thing over and over. On the other hand, people who weren’t bothered by that weren’t very vocal, probably waiting to know how it was all going to end before stating that “it was great”. I suspect that if the whole season had been devoted to Endless Eight, more or less everyone would have been angry at KyoAni.

As I said before, I wasn’t watching the show at the time, which gave me a more “detached” look at the situation, but I can honestly say that I was a little sad to learn I would be watching “the same episode over and over”. Sure, I read that the clothes were different, but that was it. When I got to watch these episodes, I was pleasantly surprised, discovering how different they were. Well, of course, the dialogues were almost the same, the events too, but each iteration of the loop had enough uniqueness to keep things fresh : one focused on hands, with excessive hand movements from the characters, one was definitely spookier than the rest, one had scenes looping two times… Of course, those differences were clear to me thanks to me watching them back-to-back. Maybe my appreciation would have been different, had I seen them with one week between each one.

But let us look at what did Endless Eight did in terms of character development and viewer involvement. In all the series, we’re usually most familiar with Kyon’s take on the events unfolding, as he’s the narrator. But, this time, though he stays the main “protagonist”, we get to see things through the eyes of Yuki Nagato. She’s clearly in the same boat as the viewer, as she’s the only one that remembers what happened in every iteration of the loop (more than 15000 of them in the story !) while unable to do anything to change it. Of course, one may argue that Nagato could do something, except she’s bound by rules she has to obey. The end result is still there, by seeing the same events happening 8 times, we get a glimpse of what she’s enduring. At no other point of the show are we closer to any other character (except for Kyon). And if usually we feel sympathy for the poor Kyon that gets dragged along, this time one wants to yell at him to DO SOMETHING in that cafe, before Harui leaves and their fate gets sealed. That was an interesting change. Combined with the way Kyon acts in the following arc, “The Sighs of Harui Suzumiya”, it paints a better picture of the grumpy narrator.

That said, it wasn’t the only way Endless Eight engaged (or tried to, at the very least) the viewer. Once again, I must remind you that I watched all the episodes in one go, and that I knew the arc was going to last 8 episodes, so I’ll be speculating a bit, but bear with me, will you ?

Starting from the second loop iteration, the episodes are structured like an tension rollercoaster, with “incidents” marking key points : the phone call at the beginning, the first meeting in the restaurant, the pool, the beginning of the festival, Kyon calling out to Nagato (or not), and of course the meeting on August 30. Each one of these events is a possible turning point, with either Kyon or Koizumi experiencing déjà-vus, and though I did know the loop wasn’t going to end before the 8th time, at each time I couldn’t help but to anticipate those events, thinking that maybe, maybe this time it would play out differently. And it never did, of course, yet the next moment was coming up, and my hope were getting up again.

Now call me silly, but I’m sure that had I followed the episodes as they aired, the effect would have been magnified. And I suspect it was part of the reasion why many people resented the arc so strongly. KyoAni was destroying the hopes of people in a vicious way: each week, people would start hoping that, yes, this time it would be the last one, then they entered the episode with high expectations, and were put through the aforementioned cycle of hope and disappointment. And the following week, the same thing happened. Sure, some people (many people ?) dropped the show, vowing only to return after all that time looping madness, but those who remained had even higher hopes : “Come on, THIS TIME it’ll end.”

“But why do that to Harui ?” you ask ? On one hand, KyoAni could have gone the easy way and make “more of the same”, sticking to the plot of the novel, however risking to lose the little something that made the original run such a huge success. But on the other hand, wasn’t the first season something more ? Something crazier ? What’s more, do you think this could have been attempted with a less-known series ? I’m pretty sure a very devoted fanbase was necessary for it to work in the first place. If, say, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (it also deals with a looping time scenario) had tried to do the same thing, it would have failed and people would have quickly dismissed it as pretentious and lame. But it was Harui, it was bound to be good, or at least redeem itself at some point.

And many fans that despised the Endless Eight arc dropped the show “until something new happens”, not completely. That’s a key difference. Now, I’m not sure how KyoAni will be able to sell DVDs, as most people will probably feel robbed having to buy discs with 4 times the “same stuff” on them, but that’s another story. And note that a movie based on The Disappearance of Harui Suzumiya is planned. And that is not innocent, KyoAni must have known that The Disappearance was the arc the fans were the most eager to see animated, yet they didn’t include it in the second season. Also, they didn’t announce a third season, but a movie ! A way to avoid people thinking they would get a bad surprise in the form of another bizarre stunt.

All in all, my guess is that Kyoto Animation not only dared to do something unusual, they also handled it pretty well, and Harui will probably maintain its popularity. The strong reactions of most viewers goes a long way to show how attached they are to this story and characters. I suspect that the movie will be awesome, but “normal”, as if to atone for the second season.

Well, I guess I have more or less said all I wanted to say on this moment. I’m probably far into tl;dr territory for now, especially seeing how much literature is already everywhere on the web regarding this, but then again, making people react was probably what this crazy loop did best. Endless Eight is maybe placed a little to low in my ranking of this year’s moments, considering its scope and overall impact, but well, I just had to make it the 8th. But fear not, I’m not going to post slightly amended versions of this post for the next 8 days. Or will I ?