Wataru awoke one day and found that he was green.
Why was he green? Because he was a ghost. Wataru was a ghost.
Wataru was confused, although this had little to do with his newfound existence as a ghost, and more to do with his horrendously low IQ. He looked at his hands. They were transparent. And green. He floated along, lost in thought, until he found that he floated through a wall.
One element of Kaiba I wanted to write about in my Secret Santa review is the show’s black sense of humor, but I couldn’t find a decent way to work it in to the review. That thing was getting too long, anyway. So now, since this week’s episode of Hunter x Hunter is a recap episode, and I’m not writing about that shit, you get this instead. Hooray!
Spoilers for episode 7 of Kaiba lurk within this post. Enter at your own risk!
Skip to 4:30 in the video to witness the one moment of joy Sister Princess has given me.
Watching Sister Princess (almost) every week has been . . . an experience. Judging from the idiotic premise, lousy production values and mind-numbingly dull writing, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that I grow angrier as I watch each episode, like an Incredible Hulk who is set off by awful anime. But after 17 episodes of Sister Princess, I would say that watching it brings me no emotion at all — anger, joy, sorrow, and so on, they all leave me during the course of a normal episode of Sister Princess.
It is quite possibly the most lifeless, bloodless piece of media I’ve ever consumed. I can’t bring myself to be angry at all these fetishized dolls throwing themselves at some bland turd of a lead character, because everything is crafted with such banality. At least Shuffle! has the guts to go all out with its idiocy. Sister Princess plays like it was created by a group of people who are afraid of being judged for their stupid fetish that nobody gives a shit about. They want to go all-out incest orgy, but they just can’t, because there’s no conviction — only fear. And so every episode has characters searching for teddy bears or shopping for light bulbs.
So when I watch Sister Princess, it is the truest form of emotional masochism, because I feel nothing inside for those 23 minutes. My eyes see images unfolding onscreen, but nothing registers in my brain. That awful slow-talking loli says something that is supposed to be cute, but it is too faint to reach my heart. Even the immense pain I felt when that evil dojikko cheerleader fuckface spilled some shrill nonsense from her hateful mouth is nothing but a dull throb now. I am but an empty shell of a man for 23 minutes a week.
What I’m trying to say is Sister Princess is turning me into a serial killer.
(More reflections on page two.)
I’m not sure I would say Level E is the “best” show of 2011, but when it comes to pure enjoyment, it’s probably the one I liked most. Prince Baka made me laugh more than every other character from every other anime combined this year, and the writing is consistently strong and interesting, even when the stories don’t quite work.
And the ending . . . I’m stepping up to the plate and saying Level E‘s finale is the best and most satisfying final episode I watched this year. Just by virtue of being satisfying, it beats like 90 percent of anime endings already, but it’s truly the culmination of everything that makes Level E a wonderful, entertaining series. The writing keeps you guessing, but once the twist comes, it’s so well-executed that you swear you should have seen it coming the whole time. Prince Baka is at his douchebaggiest, fucking with people for the sheer hilarity of it. Kraft is alternately trying to figure out Baka and freaking the fuck out.
And the princess. Oh, that princess.
Princess Luna proves herself Baka’s equal — perhaps even superior — by doing to him what he has done to everyone else throughout the series. For me, it’s the most romantic gesture of the year: Luna sweeps Baka off his feet by beating him at his own game. She sees what she wants, and she gets it, and she has such fun executing her grandiose plot! And the sparks when Baka realizes Luna has pulled the wool over his head~ <3 Only Baka can appreciate the sheer work Luna has done to become as amazing as she is.
That’s a pairing I can get behind. Luna x Baka: Ship of the Year.
(This is my review for Reverse Thieves’ third-annual Secret Santa event. I have another Secret Santa review coming up at The Nihon Reiew. Both are spoiler-free reviews.)
I knew a little bit about Kaiba going in: Mainly that the main character wakes up in the beginning of the series having lost his memory, and that the crux of the series is a journey to regain that memory. And I also knew that the man at the helm of the series is Masaki Yuasa, a man with no shortage of admirers, at least in the circles of anime fandom in which I find myself. I count myself among those admirers: The man has a unique, distinctive vision for his stories, and the way they play out onscreen is fascinating. I could see why people may be turned off by the aesthetics of his works, but I find that his unique brand of “ugliness” usually fits in perfectly with the stories he tells.
Barefoot Gen is often compared with Studio Ghibli’s Grave of the Fireflies – both concern themselves with the dire situation in Japan as World War II drove to a close, and both movies view the war through the eyes of children. Barefoot Gen is a comparatively sloppy movie: The animation isn’t particularly strong, and the voice acting for the kids is raw and weak (mainly because actual children are providing the voices). But there’s one moment in Barefoot Gen that will be burned into my memory for life: The moment when the bomb is dropped on Hiroshima.
I’ve watched so many war movies that I am almost numb to the violence. Real violence still shakes me to my core — I think you’d have to be inhuman to not be affected by it in some way. But through the haze of fiction? We see so much violence in our stories (and have for decades; this is not a new development) that it’s difficult to be shocked by it. When the bomb drops in Barefoot Gen, however, the way the nuclear fire rips through the citizens of Hiroshima is so raw and disturbingly detailed that I felt it deep down in my gut.
It’s not something that is played for entertainment; it’s something that exists so that humanity will never forget. However one views the sides and roles of World War II, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki — along with the other numerous horrific events and battles of the war — should never disappear from our collective memory. Every day that passes, I hope we can learn from the past and move closer to an era where such brutal conflict is unnecessary.
The cynic in me thinks I’ll die disappointed; the optimist in me thinks movement even by centimeters is a worthy goal.
FUCK YEAH, GIANT HAIR
FUCK YEAH, GUITAR SOLOS
FUCK YEAH, CREDITS
FUCK YEAH, LOUDNESS
FUCK YEAH, ODEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN
I hope we never see another episode of Panty and Stocking, and that this will forever be our final memory of the series.
