Anime Apolyton 2009

[Wraith]

Looks like Viz has finally gotten around to setting up their Honey and Clover site. Been waiting for that one, but still no work on DVD releases. Looks like they're going to be streaming it, though. Haven't seen the trailer (flash on linux is still a problem), but I understand it doesn't actually use music from the show for some reason.

--"my son is just over a year old."

Heh. Well, the Miyazaki movies still apply. ^_^

Unfortunately, most of the good family oriented anime don't make it to the US. Just like here, popular shows keep going, so stuff like Doraemon and Sazae-san have been running literally for decades. Licensing several thousand episodes is a bit much for most licensers...

It might be hard to find, but Hare+Guu might work. Lots of bright colors and fun music for the rugrat. I quite enjoy the dark comedy in the series, and the kid isn't going to pick up on the inappropriate bits (Weda is rather young to have a kid Hare's age). Of course, comedy is a pretty personal taste issue, so I don't know if it'll be to your liking. The rest of it should be plenty entertaining for the kid. Cute artwork, but not as bad as Hamtaro.

There's also Kodomo no Omocha, a/k/a Kodocha, a/k/a Child's Toy. The main character is a child actress who is a bundle of hyperactivity and can be quite amusing to watch. Some darkness, mostly bullying among the school kids, but nothing too horrible as far as I've seen. The anime does have rather more than the manga, so I can't speak to the series after they run out of the source material, but the first part is pretty good. Note that Sana's use of language is sometimes inappropriate... it takes her quite a while to learn why she shouldn't call her manager her "pimp".

Tutu would still be good for later. Not sure how well it would hold his attention at one, though.

Anyway, I'm probably not the best one to be giving advice on this issue. The kid is a bit young for my usual viewing. The kind of stuff I do think of as most appropriate is going to tend to the disturbingly cute (like Little Snow Fairy Sugar, which lives up to the title).

Wraith
"If Guu's having fun everything's all right."
-- Guu ("Jungle wa Itsumo, Hale Nochi Guu")

[Jon Miller]

Guu is pretty good.

JM

[DanS]

I was also told that the Americans speak English, not Engrish, English. Sadly, this is a sign of pretty high production values.

Interestingly, they speak English (the American version), but there's no Japanese translation at the bottom.

[self biased]

i'll see what the torrents have to offer. your advice is invaluable.

[Wraith]

Looks like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is getting another season ^_^

--" your advice is invaluable."

You should probably consider the reviews at The Anime Cafe. They haven't updated in years, so they're missing recent titles, but they'd be a good reference for older stuff.

--"Interestingly, they speak English (the American version), but there's no Japanese translation at the bottom."

I'm still not sure why they handled that the way they did. We've got characters speaking in English to people speaking in Japanese and very little confusion about what's being said. Maybe they'll bother to explain it, but I wouldn't count on it.

Wraith
"After the hikikomori, we have a stalker. What's with the students in our class? As if I'm not enough of a problem on my own."
-- Itoshiki Nozomu ("Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei")

[Wraith]

More updates.

First, another place to check for age-appropriateness in reviews is the Christian Anime Alliance. Feel free to ignore the religion section of their reviews, but they do comment on violence and language and the like, and they've got reviews for more recent series than Anime Cafe.

Some big news. My favorite so far is that yo****oshi ABe's new project has been announced. Chiaki Konaka is involved again, and ABe's been working on this for a while now, so I'm very much looking forward to it.

Next, Funimation has licensed the first season of Spice and Wolf. The second is just about to start, as well.

Speaking of the new season, there's yet another season of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei coming out. I do have to admit I quite enjoy this series, so it should be fun. The manga, by the way, has been licensed by Del Ray and the first two volumes are available in the US.

In more sequel news, the second season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has started. In typical fashion for this series, they're playing games with it, and the first episode was run in the middle of a rerun of the first season. One of the stories they're going over this season should be the actual making of The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru.

Full(er?) listing here. I notice that Nodame Cantabile is getting an OAD (basically a special DVD release with the manga), so there should be another couple episodes or so to maybe wrap it up.

Last of all, Twin Spica is getting a live action version, which starts running next week. I do enjoy this series, although I'm more excited about the release of the next volume of the manga on the same date. Live-action adaptations of anime don't have a great record, but they should be able to do this without hamming it up or adding stupid special effects, so there's hope.

Wraith
"Good dreams, bad dreams. It's still unfortunate to wake up in the middle of one."
-- Judeau ("Berserk")

[Jon Miller]

Nodame is coming back? Excellent.

Of the ones that started a couple of months ago the only ones I have been following is the East of Eden and K-ON!

JM

[Ben Kenobi]

Wraith sighting! +1

Good to see you Wraith! How are you doing?

[DanS]

I started to follow another series this season in addition to Eden of the East (which is turning out good so far) -- Cross Game. Cross Game is a drama/romance with a side of baseball. Excellent so far. Pulls you in from the first episode.

I'm dabbling in some other series. Nothing really of note.

[Wraith]

--"Nodame is coming back? Excellent."

Don't get your expectations too high. Since it's a manga extra it's probably only going to be an episode or two. It's also going to be interesting to see how this gets handled for licensing, although I don't think anyone's licensed the anime for the US yet (or is likely to), so it'll probably be a different title that faces this problem.

--"Of the ones that started a couple of months ago the only ones I have been following is the East of Eden and K-ON!"

I had to give up on K-On. I gave it a decent chance, 5 episodes, but I really got tired of the moe-bait. I don't mind moe if there's something else there, but I wasn't seeing anything but pure calculated moe bait from that show. I didn't even find it funny. It was like Potemayo without Guchuko.

Eden of the East is a mixed bag. I have to admit that I started it mostly for the Chica Umino character designs. Unless they're gunning for a second season, I really don't see how they can wrap it up in the time they have left. There are some good moments, but some of it is telegraphed a little too blatantly. At the same time, some of it is so out of left field it feels like a complete ass-pull. If there's no second season I really don't see how they can pull it together in any reasonable way.

--"Good to see you Wraith! How are you doing?"

Not bad. Much better now that a new ABe project is gearing up ^_^

--"Cross Game."

Haven't seen any of that, since I'm not usually in to sports anime (Yawara being the big exception).

The main shows I've been following are Ristorante Paradiso and Marie & Gali, which are pretty far apart on the spectrum ^_^ The former is pretty much a slice of life drama and the latter is a crazy comedy/science educational show. I never thought I'd hear a hip-hop song about Fleming's Left Hand Rule, but they did it. As a love song, no less. And it works great.

I'm watching several other things, but the only one really worth noting is Guin Saga, which is based on an epic fantasy series. Not sure how I feel about this one yet; the series is huge, and I don't know how much the anime plans to cover. The villains are too mustache-twirly for my tastes so far, but there's still plenty of story for that to calm down.

Well, there's the eternal One Piece. The manga is in the middle of an epic story arc, and given this series that's saying a lot.

Wraith
"Idiot, where is the fun in running away? You've got to tick off the enemy before you start running away!"
-- Apoo ("One Piece")

[Jon Miller]

I thought the idea for Eden of the East is that they would have a movie afterwards?

K-On! is extraordinarily Moe. It is, however, much better done than other shows like Saki which seems to be trying to hit the same sort of demographic. Nothing like Strawberry Marshmellow or what have you though.

I am sometimes scared by the level of *Cute* that I like.

JM
(That being said, none of the huge Moe moments of K-On! are the ones that I found enjoyable, so maybe I am fine.)

[DanS]

--"Cross Game."

Haven't seen any of that, since I'm not usually in to sports anime (Yawara being the big exception).

I think you will be able to tell whether you will like it from the first episode. Two tops.

Re Ristorante Paradiso, I dropped that after two or three episodes. Just didn't sustain well enough for me. Haven't tried Marie & Gali. Maybe I'll check it out.

Re Guin Saga, I've been watching that. Has some good parts. I'll probably watch at least a couple more episodes, depending on my mood.

[DanS]

Eden of the East is a mixed bag. I have to admit that I started it mostly for the Chica Umino character designs. Unless they're gunning for a second season, I really don't see how they can wrap it up in the time they have left. There are some good moments, but some of it is telegraphed a little too blatantly. At the same time, some of it is so out of left field it feels like a complete ass-pull. If there's no second season I really don't see how they can pull it together in any reasonable way.

Man did you ever peg that series. It totally jumped the shark.