Just when I talked about the image of Otaku in Japan, out comes a video I got to know of recently on YouTube.
Channel News Asia goes out to the field of otaku cosplayers and finds out about the difficulties of maintaining their “weird” interest in a conservative Japanese society.
They sang the School Rumble theme song :) Here are the rest of the parts:
After waiting for 4 episodes, the real ED is finally here!
Shaft-san, otsukaresama deshita!
Love the part where things light up and the 4 are in the center of the flying Sakura petals, all this with the chorus kicking in. It shows the 4 characters giving new life to their 2 new junior residents.
I love Hidamari Sketch EDs, and this one’s no different. It’s in Shaft style, yet it’s not as radical as their other works and not too moe-fied either. Though not as good as the previous ED (which won 4th place in AAA’08), it still has the same style and Marble’s music is still great.
I wasn’t the only one who got worn out after a week of hard work.
Yes, my great luck with computers has finally run out. My hard disk died out on me two days ago, bad sectors and all. It’s been rendered as completely unreadable. Luckily I backed up my work files, but all my photos (AAAAAAARGH) and my blog files are lost in the partition vacuum.
Downloaded all sorts of recovery software but just like the goblin jumper cables they don’t seem to work. Will send it to a data recovery center tomorrow or day after.
Meanwhile, I’m on my new hard disk so I have to start over. Starting with software. So don’t be surprised if the next posts on the anime awards do not follow the usual graphic format.
However, not all hope is lost! In-between trying to revive my hard drive and panicking for my digital life, I surfed through NicoNicoDouga on my mom’s netbook and found some cool vids :) It’s an entertaining Dame remix of Shaft and Kyoani anime OPs and EDs! By the way, in English “da-me” means useless, just like my hard disk =_=
They should make more remix videos like this!
(Daitai) Shaft Studios OPED Remix (i.e. a great 11-min artsy feast for your eyes):
Well look at that, it’s my favourite anime studio, Shaft! To be exact, it’s the remix of works by Shinbou Akiyuki till April 2009 (no Bakemonogatari for you), who’s the director for most Shaft series. The video includes his pre-Shaft productions as well. Was really hit in nostalgia by Starship Girl Yamamoto Yoko!
Couldn’t find the non-Nico-comments version though, gomen.
KyoAni remix (i.e. a wonderful rendition of fluid animation, all in one go):
Complete with Full Metal Panic, Key shows and oh, who could forget Haruhi and Lucky Star. It’s the latest DameMixx creation and includes shows until December 2009, so it’s pretty updated. Btw, my favourite KyoAni show is Air :)
Just a little hint, a few of the above are gonna make to my Top 5 opening ;) Look forward to my next post!
Here’s to this hard disk not being another da-me one.
It’s that time of the year again! Top 5 ending, opening, moments, characters and anime shows by me in the next coming weeks! 2009 was quite a weak year for anime (for me anyways), but it had a few shiny gems planted here and there.
Took a while to montage the above pic! Can you name all the 35 anime I watched in 2009 in the above picture? If you can’t, leave it to figure.fm. I uploaded the pic and nearly all were identified in under an hour :O http://www.figure.fm/post/en/6863/Challenge+Tag+that+2009+Anime.html
Did a little photoshop tribute to Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu’s opening sequence, thought the art stills were inspiring. Wanted to outline my hair like below but got too lazy :P
And the original photo, taken in the dining room lol:
My cousin Daim wrote a nice piece of article in his *ahem* BLOG (http://www.daimation.com) detailing his preferences in selecting his favourite animation/movies. Had a nice discussion with my cousins last night, thought it was a great idea to come up with my own list! :) I invite everyone to do the same!
This is also in tune with the upcoming ahbonk.net Anime Awards 2009, so you will roughly know why I choose some shows over others.
Of course, this is just a writeup about my preferences. To each his own, I’d say.
First, let me tell you the most important factor in choosing the right show:
As long as it’s not Micheal Bay’s Transformers, it’s good.
Honestly, I thought winter is gonna be full of panty shots and fanservice galore (watched Ladies x Butler and Chu-bra first :S) with a microscopic amaeba they call a story. If it turns out to be like comedy king Sora no Otoshimono then I’m all for it. Here to save the season is the third season of slife-of-life goodness, Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu (that’s “3 stars” in English). Thank goodness.
I was very impressed with the first episode. Storytelling and comedy value are *still* entertaining on top of the no-need-for-improvement-but-still-improved animation and beautiful art style. I’m one happy anime fan. I love you Shaft.
If the third season goes well, it’ll be my number 5 best anime of all time.
So far (still more shows to go this month), I recommend for your winter viewing pleasure:
Dance in the Vampire Bund: From the first episode of this show, you already know that Shaft doesn’t like to follow things by the book. You’d appreciate it more if you watch a lot of Japanese TV coz it’s a parody of it. Won’t spoil much but I’m amazed at its life-likeness.
Ookamikakushi: I like the mystery part of Higurashi (innocent town with dark secrets), so this is right up my alley.
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: Using school test results to summon beings? Now that’s something! An instant comedy hit for me. Not to mention it’s from a bestselling light novel, AND Silver Link did a great, no, superb job at animating it. Surprisingly high production value.
EDIT: Just watched Durarara. Another recommendation, same studio and director as Baccano. Baccano had an interesting cast of characters that captured your attention upon first glance, which unfortunately Durarara doesn’t have. We’ll have to see how things go.
K-on second seas… I mean, Sora no Woto was nice, but still didn’t manage to pull me in just yet. Especially with the K-on character clones. Seriously, out of character design ideas?
Am waiting for Nodame Cantabile Finale, Hanamaru Youchien and Katanagatari.
Ok truth is, I’m just writing this post as an excuse to tell everyone how awesome Hidamari Sketch is :3 Yes I’m crazy for pastel colours and long oval heads.
What do you get when you cross motion graphics and otaku culture? That’s right, another MAD!
Just using manga material, promotional images and *extremely few* anime scenes, a few NicoNico users were brought together to create this third installment of the Hidamari Sketch motion graphic extravaganza. Needless to say, apart from the official Hidamari Sketch materials, everything is self-made, from the sprite movements all the way to the 3D modeling and effects.
5 days since its upload on NicoNicoDouga, it has gathered almost 115k hits and 12k+ mylist bookmarks (or favourites, in YouTube-speak). I’m one of them of course, considering how much I love the show.
The third one came out just in time for Christmas and for the new 3rd season of Hidamari Sketch which is coming out next month. Can’t wait! We need to welcome the two new cute Hidamari Sou tenants with open arms.
I'm just a little Malaysian dude living my life in Tokyo now. Am also a web and game designer. Currently studying the Japanese language and visual culture.
Well look at that, it’s my favourite anime studio, Shaft! To be exact, it’s the remix of works by Shinbou Akiyuki till April 2009 (no Bakemonogatari for you), who’s the director for most Shaft series. The video includes his pre-Shaft productions as well. Was really hit in nostalgia by Starship Girl Yamamoto Yoko!
