Anime Progress Report – October 2014
The amount of tolerance I can muster for harem/brocon/siscon/moe is directly proportional to the amount of stress suffered at work. So after some months of stress from work, I am now back in the arms of anime lol.
And lately I have been feeling some urge to post something, so while the iron is hot I’ll strike! Some shows I’ve seen recently…
I Love Anisong 2014 lineup looks good but I can’t go…noooooooo
NOTE TO SELF: I should never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, NEVER, EVER, check out the I Love Anisong lineup if I wasn’t planning on going.
I AM NOW FILLED WITH SELF-PITY AND RAGE AT THE SAME TIME.
Why this ranting? Because in the past I would only look at the Anisong lineup AFTER the whole AFA was over. This time I made a very big mistake of checking it out, and finding out it has quite a decent lineup. In the previous years the lineup didn’t impress me so it wasn’t so hard for me not to go.
AFA 2014 I Love Anisong Mega Anime Music Festival
Dates: 5-7 December 2014
Location: Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre
05.12.14 (FRI)
Artists:
- angela
- Eri Kitamura
- DJKazu
- Yui Horie
06.12.14 (SAT)
Artists:
- fripSide
- The Idolmaster
- LiSA
- yanaginagi
07.12.14 (SUN)
Artists:
- Eir Aoi
- FLOW
- GARNiDELiA
- mayn
- ROOTFIVE
I did not allocate any funds this year for travel to Singapore. I guess I am still quite sore at the debacle I suffered on the last day of the AFA concert–I could barely see May’n because of the gigantic guys in front of me. The thing I should have done was plan and save up for the next concert instead. Oh well I guess I should be wiser from now on. (Actually I could afford to go as I do have some savings…But I have this thing called a budget.) One day I will come back with a vengeance. :D
Now excuse me as I go to a corner of my room and weep gently…
My Top Anime for 2012
Because catching up to backlogs must start with the post backlog! :P
You see, I had started the post 2 years ago but never got the energy to finish it.
An early spring feel
So I just recently finished reading the translation for volume 9 of Maria-sama ga Miteru, titled Cherry Blossoms.
It’s funny because a year ago I had thought of translating it myself. I had bought some Marimite volumes from Bookoff during the time I was in Japan. So I thought, why not do some translations? But then I was faced with the unbearable number of kanji (without furigana). I turned tail at the challenge–I gave up. And after reading the translated version I am now sure it would have taken me months (if not years) to translate it myself. So for now I’ll stick to my raw manga with furigana for my dose of Japanese reading practice.
There’s always something that gets left out in adaptations, so it was not a surprise that some details from the light novel were missed out. Indeed, reading the light novel would really be a good choice for that reason, even after you’ve watched the anime (or rewatched it countless times like me). Some things I can remember that stand out:
1. First off was that Touko did other stuff to Noriko, aside from taking the juzu from her school bag. Poor Noriko also went through other stuff that was not shown in the anime.
2. Naughty Mami, who was the one who assisted Shimako, already had a suspicion something was going to happen and had asked Tsutako to take some pictures. And yes Yumi’s narration that she was taking notes as the inquisition unfolded really made me laugh.
3. Rosa Foetida and Rosa Chinensis visiting Noriko was a planned diversion with a *script*, but it’s not so readily obvious in the anime.
4. In the anime it looked like Noriko randomly saw Shimako standing under the cherry tree, but there was a reason why Noriko went there.
5. Yumi and Yoshino did their part for the ‘inquisition’ but it was too minor to include in the anime. Though I wished there were also details in the novel on how Yoshino desperately stalled Shimako :P
Anyway, I really have no complaints about the adaptation. It stayed true to the source material (with some acceptable deviations), but it is recommended to read the source material as it shows the whole story.
Anime Progress Report: Playing Catch-up
I was able to finish Love Lab this year. Thoughts of “Why did I stop watching this again?” were running through my mind while having fits of laughter. Ah, how many shows in 2013 made me laugh? Not much (because I did not watch much hahaha). After finishing I rewatched the episodes with Maki Makio in it. Such fun! :D
I have also finished Maoyuu Maou Yuusha. Actually, it was more like a case of “it’s only about 12 episodes and it’s not annoying so why not finish it?” thing. Although some foreshadowing of things to come in the ending episode was interesting, more often than not I found the show boring. I don’t think the economics thingie was well handled–innovation blah3x now there’s progress–but it didn’t feel interesting. Maybe it didn’t blend well for me, like the way management principles from Peter Drucker did with Moshidora.
For the backlog, there’s still To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S, and Yondemasu Yo! Azazel-san Z. I don’t know if I will finish them this month though. And who knows when I’ll able to start on the 2014 winter anime hahaha.
On the manga side, I’ve been trying to read through the Chihayafuru raws. But the surprising blocking points are the small fonts. @_@ I have been trying recently to do more reading of raws and it’s really annoying to be faced with small fonts. Either I can’t make out the kanji, or I can’t make out the furigana (if I don’t know the kanji). I know I’m whining but yeah it’s my blog, help me vent my frustration. Onegaishimasu. :P
I also read (whenever I remember to check) Space Brothers. I suppose my Japanese-language level is not good enough when encountering complex or technical terms, but I do still get the gist of most of the other dialogue. As a consequence I have stopped watching the anime. One could call that a surprising side effect.
Actually I was going to write a post about anime dropped because of the manga, but yeah, laziness set in. Maybe I will be able to write it in the future, but for now, ja! :)
Looking Back: Anime Festival Asia 2012 at Singapore EXPO
OK, so since this year I decided not to go to AFA (for financial reasons–gotta save), I’m in a reminiscing mood. And since I actually had started writing something about it (but never finished it in 2012 lol), I guess it’s time to post something. So below is my account of my first-ever trip to the Anime Festival Asia held in Singapore.
——–
Ok, so how do I begin? This trip had a lot of firsts. Of course it was my first trip to AFA. It was my first international trip alone. (Thank God I got through the biggest hurdle of all: Philippine immigration). It was also my first time to go to an anime live concert! Hurray!!
The bored and the impatient
I thought I could keep up the one-post-a-month momentum. Alas, it was not to be. The stress from work is ramping up, though it’s nowhere near the level when I first started blogging. Still, stress is stress.
Anyway, once Chihayafuru 2 finished, my interest in the spring season anime waned. I then went on a time-wasting, mind-numbing anime marathon:
Honey & Clover
Honey & Clover II
Ergo Proxy
Claymore
My excuse? I thought it was good to get better versions of old series. And what better way to do quality assurance than to watch ‘em all episodes? Let this post be proof of where my time went lol.
I also started rewatching Monster and Moshidora. Unfortunately these two depress me so I couldn’t get past 5 episodes. I’m sure I’ll finish the rewatch. Someday.
I have also been on a manga-reading binge lately. Aside from Chihayafuru, I have read several chapters of Silver Spoon, Space Brothers , ahead of the anime. I also read ahead of Claymore back then, but now I have caught up. It’s an even more excruciating wait than Chihayafuru. ^_^;
I think that’s it for now with the updates. There’s actually more I want to say, especially about the summer anime but it will be bedtime soon. Till next, ja! :)
Weekend is near once again
It’s not Friday night yet but here I am itching to write something, or anything. Hahaha! Of course the backlog posts are still in the backlog and until I find the motivation/energy to finish those these progress reports will have to do.
So I just finished a rewatch of the 1st season of GITS SAC. And before that the 2nd season of GITS SAC. And before that I watched GITS Solid State Society. It’s backwards but hey, that’s how I started. (Though it really must have started when I saw that new GITS trailer.) I was tempted to buy a newer copy of Salinger’s book and re-read it. Thankfully, I was able to resist spending impulsively. I shouldn’t have entered the bookstore, period.
On the currently airing shows, only Chihayafuru, Space Brothers, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S, and Yondemasu Yo Azazel-san Z are holding my interest. I seem to have gotten past my initial obsession with Chihayafuru when I decided to read ahead the manga. At least now the wait doesn’t have to be so excruciating. As for Space Bros it’s going fine though I wish they’d just skip the childhood flashbacks of the side characters. Yondemasu Yo seems to have featured another angel, and well at least it’s still funny. Railgun has gone darker in its themes and I have added to my misery by reading the wikipedia entries. I don’t like the direction it’s going but I’m not the author so I can’t complain too much. I haven’t bothered to get the recent episodes of Red Data Girl. Not that interested anymore.
In other news, there’s a ‘climate map’ that maps trending manga, anime and other Japanese cultural exports per country in Asia. According to the map, #1 trending in the Philippines is Pokemon. Though I’m not really that surprised, I’m not sure how accurate that is either. If I had more time right now I’d probably explore it more but maybe another day. Still it would be interesting to know how they came up with that.
Links: Asahi, Asia Trend Map
