Anyway, my 2013 book buying list, if I have dates (note: these do not count graphic novels):

• Etiquette and Espionage, by Gail Carriger (out)
• Curtsies and Conspiracies by Gail Carriger (11/05)
• Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs (out)
• The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen (06/04)
• What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen (out)  Ha, apparently I already had this; just found it.
• Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews (07/13)
• Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews (out)
• Tarnish by Katherine Longshore (06/18)
• Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers (04/02)
• Kitty Steals the Show by Carrie Vaughan (out)

I’m undecided about some of these, if I want to continue reading them.  I just wanted a list to see what I may or may not be interested in purchasing.  Sometimes I just need a book with no pictures, y’know?

Missing:

• Terry Pratchett (next book announced, but he’s still writing it)
• Deanna Raybourn (nothing announced)
• Jim Butcher (lost interest since that thing happened to Harry)
• Kim Harrison (lost interest ever since that stupid Pierce came on the scene, also too many characters)
• Charlaine Harris (lost interest since the faerie tie in happened)

This was the anime I started watching at Anime LA.  In the attempt to get it on sale if I chose to buy it, I marathoned the rest of the series (minus the special episodes) in one day.  I decided not to buy it.

Okay, so as a standard rule, I tend to avoid all anime with the words “imouto” (little sister) or “oniichan” (big brother) because for some reason, Japanese otaku LOVE anime with some kind of implied or real incest angle.  And with the translated title, this just sounds DIRE.  It seemed to get decent reviews, but I didn’t trust anyone, so I just put it on the “avoid” section.

My friend, however, told me a bit about its plot and it sounded more safe that way:  Kyousuke finds out his sister Kirino is a closet anime fan and promises to keep her secret.  Well, not entirely safe, because Kirino doesn’t just like anime, she likes that horrible imouto anime I just explained above.  But still, it sounded semi-ok, so we watched the first couple episodes at Anime LA, and it was pretty funny.

Since the sale I was considering buying it from ended the next day, I was pressed for time and marathoned the following 10 episodes.  It turns out I have a love/hate relationship with this anime.

The good:

• The side characters Ayase, Kanako, Saori, and Kuroneko.  Ayase and Kanako are Kirino’s “normal” friends.  Saori and Kuroneko are her otaku friends.  Ayase is Kirino’s fellow model and is horrified when she finds out Kirino’s hobby and shuns her, only to realize that she misses her and decides to try and like the less skeevy parts of her hobby.  Kanako desires to become an idol and will go to great lengths to doing so, even if it means pandering to otaku men.  Saori and Kuroneko are also endearingly funny, especially the goth-loli Kuroneko who is always fighting with Kirino over whose anime is better.  And then Kuroneko and Kirino write their own stories and put each other as terrible characters in the stories.  Saori is sort of a quiet instigator with her swirly glasses and oddly formal speech patterns.  Her last name is Bajeena, which is… frightening.  (hint:  B and V basically sound the same in Japanese)
• The otaku jokes.  Kuroneko and Kirino bicker like the anime forums I frequent.  They argue the same arguments.  Kirino defends her “loli incest porn” and Kuroneko is an “elitist.”  I loved the episode where they go to Summerket (Comiket) and the cosplay contest (“Isn’t this an anime for kids?  Why are there so many adult men here?”)  The otaku fandom jokes were truly funny and hit their mark.

• The eyecatches.  In the halfway point of anime, there’s this thing called an “eyecatch” which signifies the midway or commercial point.  These specific eyecatches were DVD cover parodies of real anime series, and it was pretty fun to see what anime they were going to do next.
• The OP/ED:  I believe each ED was a different song (I could be wrong, but it definitely was more different than the same), and the OP would vary with whatever characters were going to be in that episode.  I thought that was neat.
• The art.  The art and character designs were very appealing.

The terrible:

• Kirino.  She is loathsome.  She has zero redeeming qualities.  She punches and kicks her brother without provocation, makes him get her eroge (erotic games) sometimes, much to his embarrassment, treats his potential girlfriend like a slave because of her (Kirino’s) jealousy, and talks down to him constantly.  Everyone else goes out of their way to be friendly to her or tries to go the extra mile for her even if they don’t really like her, and she gives back nothing in return.
• Kyousuke.  He has no spine.  He lets his younger sister treat him like dirt.  In the final episode, she practically beats the shit out of him in a temper tantrum (and it’s not even a funny scene) and he’s all amused fondness the next day.  Domestic violence is not fucking endearing.
• The “male gaze factor.”  Kirino is in middle school, and she is posed or has the camera drift over her body in truly disturbing ways.
• The sis-con games.  Watching Kirino play these sex games featuring little pre-teen sisters was disgusting.  There was even an episode where she was getting totally turned on while playing her new game which grossed out her brother, who could hear her through their shared bedroom wall, as well as me.

So yeah.  Hated the ending.  Hated the main characters.  Hated the creepy pandering.  Loved the side characters.  Loved the otaku references.  Unfortunately, the bad is outweighed by the good for me, and I just can’t justify buying this, despite some of the gems this show has.  I really, really wish they just made a funny show about a teen fashion model who is ashamed of her otaku habits and guilt trips her brother into helping her.   If they had cut down the creep factor and ramped up the otaku jokes, this could’ve been a really nice little comedy.

LATER:  Okay, so I went ahead and watched the final extra 4 DVD only episodes because everyone said these made they show.  I don’t know if they made the show, but they were a HUGE improvement over that horrendous ending of the original, and once again, am on the fence about owning this show.

1. Violence cut down severely in episode 12.5 the “true” ending as opposed to the so-called “good” ending of episode 12.  MUCH MUCH BETTER.  My hatred for Kyousuke has been tempered.  That last episode truly broke me on him.
2. The next two episodes had no Kirino (yay!) and instead focused on Kyousuke’s and Kuroneko’s growing friendship (yay!) and introduced a new character, a fangirl (she was pretty funny).
3. The last episode had Kirino again, but she was much more likeable and sympathetic for a change instead of horrid.

So.  Where does this leave us?  Another season is being made, and I’m curious to see what tone this will take.  Will it continue the grossness of the first season, mixed in with the occasional gem?  (boooo)  Or will it shift tone (as it seemed to be doing) and instead focus on the otaku fandom jokes?  (I HOPE)    Definitely will be watching s2 on Crunchyroll to see where this amazingly frustrating show is going to go.

My bacteria get a new addition to the family.

What I Saw:

There was quite a bit of cosplay, but since I was in panels for most of the time, I only got a few pictures.  There was this one guy who was dressed as Hard Gay and he had an entourage of shirtless Eeveelutions which I tried to get a pic of but missed my chance.  Bummer.

Kuroko’s Basketball (Kagami (red) and Kuroko (blue))

This sports anime is a favorite among the slash fiction groups.  A lot of women will crossplay this and then act out their BL fantasies for pics.  As seen above.

* * *

Samurai Champloo (Mugen (guy) and Fuu (girl))

An older anime and a favorite of mine.  A nice couple cosplay.

* * *

Soul Eater (Medusa)

Medusa is an evil witch with vector (arrow) powers.  She also has snakes tattooed on her arms that can come off if she chooses.  She wears her hair twisted in front, which this girl did nicely.

* * *

The bathroom signs were anime themed, which was pretty fun.  Kinda want one on my bathroom now.

* * *

Finally, my shopping loot.

Three tiny things.  A Fionna button (Adventure Time) from Artist’s Alley.  A Laboon keychain from One Piece (the whale cracks me up with Luffy’s painting on his head).  The keychain has wheels and when it rolls, his flukes move slightly.  There was a plush I was eyeballing, too, but I forced myself to only one plush.  And finally a Nyanko-sensei phone charm because 1) Nyanko-sensei (from Natsume’s Book of Friends) and 2) Beer.

Here’s a better picture of Nyanko-sensei:

And finally, my prize purchase, C. trichoides from Moyashimon.

It has another microbe on its head, but I can’t identify it.  The tag says R. rebura in katakana, but since in Japanese, Rs can be either Rs or Ls, I can’t find a match in Google, especially without knowing the genus.

Excellent start to the cons this year.  Next up:  Wondercon in March!

Starting off the convention year way early this year with a one day trip to Anime Los Angeles, aka, The Other ALA.

Anime LA is a small con.  Not a teeny con, but way smaller than I’m used to attending.  A mere 4000 people attend this con usually (I’m used to about 20K-120K cons), and it’s held on the ballroom floor of the LAX Marriott.  My friends invited me to hang out with them, and I was sort of reluctant, since the single day price was expensive ($35 for Saturday), and… it’s a small con!  I suspected there would be nothing to do, the dealer’s room would be piddly, and I would get bored quickly.  However, Anime News Network said they would hold a live ANNCast taping (their podcast), and I’m a big fan, so I agreed to go for one day.

Got there at 11, and after some parking issues (parking lot was full so I had to go to another one, but directions to self park were not clearly marked, so I got lost several times and yelled at for going the wrong way and ending up in the monthly parking section), there was no line, and registration was a breeze.  I got a very nice looking badge out of hard plastic, and it wasn’t laminated or inserted in a plastic sleeve.  I wish other cons had on-site registration this easy (or pre-reg lines go as smoothly). *cough*Fanime*cough*

For an anime con, there was oddly only one anime viewing room for shows.  I’d already seen everything they offered or wasn’t interested in any of the shows, so I watched no anime at the con.  I did however watch a couple episodes of Oreimo back in A & J’s room during some downtime between 6 and 8.

Oreimo’s full name is “My Little Sister Can’t Possibly Be This Cute” which sets off ALL of my warning bells when it comes to gross little sister incest anime, but instead it seems (I say seems, because I’ve only watched 2 episodes so far) to be about a boy who finds out his cute little sister is a closet otaku and she spends all her modeling money on supporting her sketchy habit of little sister visual novel games because she finds them so cute.  She desperately wants someone to talk to about her habit, but is afraid she will lose all her normal school friends if they find out, so she swears her brother to secrecy and make him her accomplice in supporting her hobby.  So far it seems pretty entertaining, although I’m still suspicious of any modern anime with the word “imouto” (little sister) in the title.  I will watch a few more episodes with my guard up.

Industry/Informational Panels attended:

• Anime Fandom Before the Internet (panelled by Justin Sevakis, David Keith Riddick, Meri Davis, Matt Schley)
• Buried Garbage (horrible animation clips, hosted by Justin Sevakis)
• ANNCast Live (podcast taping, hosted by Zac Bertschy and Justin Sevakis)
• What’s Popular in the US vs. Japan and Why (basically a Q&A, panelled by Zac Bertschy, Justin Sevakis, David Keith Riddick, and Evan … something.  I’m sorry!  I didn’t write down his name, and it wasn’t in the program. -_-;)
• The Legacy of Satoshi Kon (hosted by Matt Schley)

As you can see, it looks like we basically stalked Justin all day.

I have no pictures of the panels because we sat in the front row all the time, so I felt weird.

Anyway, all the panels were excellent.  These were not fan run panels, but by people who actually knew what they were talking about and who were used to talking in front of people and being keeping our attention.  I enjoyed learning about the pre-Internet anime fandom, back when VHS tapes were exchanged, and newsletters and fanzines were mailed out.  This was back before fansubbing, and people would gather to watch the raws (non-subbed/non-dubbed anime) with one guy in the front who would yell out what was happening on screen.  Translations would happen if someone had a Japanese neighbor who was willing to sit down and watch and write down what was being said.  Totally fascinating.  Justin then proceeded to kill our brain cells by showing absolutely atrocious animation from India and Indonesia, and clips of the worst dubbed anime, Garzey’s Wing (which I need to sit down and watch with G sometime while drunk) at his Buried Garbage Panel.  ANNCast had a small turnout, but we got some news of upcoming changes coming to ANN (video reviews, comments on articles vs. the forum threads, Justin’s new column, Pile of Shame–pretty much him going through his backlog).  What’s Popular had a huge turnout, standing room only, and that was pretty entertaining as people would ask about differences between Japanese and American audiences.  I missed the Kick-Heart panel which was opposite this (the first anime funded by Kickstarter, which I have contributed to), which was too bad.  I wanted to see that one, too, but I was enjoying myself at the Popular panel.  And finally, we ended our night with the Satoshi Kon panel, which fired up my interest again, and when I came home I ordered a copy of Perfect Blue, which is supposed to be an extremely good anime, but also super disturbing, which is why I’ve been avoiding it.  I finally caved after this panel.  I also need to watch Millennium Actress, and rewatch his other stuff (Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika, Paranoia Agent).  As a special treat, to close out his panel, Schley also showed us Kon’s one minute movie, Good Morning, which I had not seen before, or knew existed.  Loved it.

As you can see, my day was totally filled.  I did manage to run off to the dealer’s room and artist’s alley, where I picked up a few small things, and we did find time to eat and watch a couple eps of anime back in A & J’s hotel room.  I had a great time, and got my money’s worth, which I was completely surprised and pleased by.  Would definitely do this again.

In which I read and buy too much manga for another year.  Seriously running out of space here.

As with last year, I divided up my favorite manga into four categories:  new titles (titles released for the first time here), continuing titles (titles that started prior to January 2012 that I was already reading), discovered titles (titles that were released prior to 2012 that I started reading this year), and finished titles (titles that had their final volume published this year).

NEW:

Paradise Kiss (rerelease):  I already own Tokyopop’s out of print release of this story of aspiring fashion designers and their model, but Vertical license rescued it and improved it, printing it in a larger format, giving it a new and improved translation (at least, it reads better to me than TP’s version; for one thing, Arashi lost his British accent that TP gave him because he happens to like punk), and adding a few color pages.  It is a truly gorgeous release, which is what Ai Yazawa’s beautiful series deserves.  I just hope the final dress is in color somehow.  I would love to see that. (Vertical)

Kaoru Mori’s Anything and Something:  As a huge Kaoru Mori fan, this stand-alone collection of odds and ends was an instant buy as soon as it was announced.  I wish I could own everything that’s Mori-related.  The stories may have been a tad weak, but I didn’t care because the artwork just blew me away.  Mori is a master at drawing the sexy, yet not salacious female form, full of curves, and not the overly top-heavy, stick-thin women that most comic artists think is sexy. Also, there was lots of art going back to Emma, which was a welcome addition.  (Yen Press)

Thermae Romae:  Yen Press did a stellar release with this book.  Oversize hardcover, clear plastic dust jacket to resemble wetness with the title printed on it, heavy glossy pages.  The story of a Roman bath architect who keeps accidentally traveling to modern day Japan and stealing their bath ideas to incorporate in ancient times, much to the delight of his clients.  So far it’s fairly episodic.  It’s educational, funny, and the art is great, but I’m hoping it gets a little deeper with some kind of continuous storyline in the future.  Major props to Yen for this book.  (Yen Press)

CONTINUING:

Drops of God:  Possibly my favorite series I’m reading right now.  This is the one series I try to get others to read more than anything else I’ve read.  G, Shaz, and I will have drinking parties with DoG suggested wines (we can’t do vintages, but we can match everything else).  So far, the best wine we’ve found is the Torbreck Woodcutter’s Shiraz (pictured), although the Laughing Magpie is pretty good as well.  G also found the Clos Pegase Mitsuko’s Vineyard Chardonnay and is saving it for the next time we see Shaz.  After G read it, he lent his copies to a non-manga reading friend who bought them all, and I got another friend in New York reading the series, plus gave out vol. 1 & 2 for Christmas to my aunt and another wine-drinking friend, who’s already bought vol. 3 on her own.  Sadly, for some reason, the mangaka does not want to release any more volumes to the American publisher because it isn’t as big a hit as they would like, which I find completely absurd and irritating beyond belief.  I would buy ALL the volumes of this wonderful series. Currently putting together a spreadsheet of the wines covered to facilitate shopping.  (Vertical)

Bride’s Story: A new focus for Bride’s Story with another Central Asian bride.  Amir still makes an appearance, but only as a side character.  The main character (besides the bride) is Mr. Smith, the anthropologist.  Still completely entrancing and gorgeous, but it comes out sooooooo slowly! (Yen Press)

Slam Dunk/Real:  A tie between these two Takehiko Inoue basketball manga, because I can’t choose between them.  Inoue finally returned to Real (still currently running in Japan) and Slam Dunk edges toward its English language finale.  Such engaging, struggling characters and sports tension!  Such dynamic art!  I love them both! (both from Viz, with Real from the Signature imprint)

DISCOVERED:

Skip Beat:  I forget why I picked this up.  I don’t know if it was general consensus this was good, or if someone specific recommended it (if you did and are reading this, please prod my failing memory so I can thank you).  Whatever the reason, Viz was releasing this in omnibuses, so I figured why not.  I immediately got hooked by the unique protagonist.  Kyoko is in love with her childhood friend, Sho, who became a Japanese idol.  She does everything for him, including dropping out of school to make sure he succeeds in becoming the number one idol in Japan.  Only she finds out he thinks of her as some dumb dog and is using her affection to maintain his selfish laziness.  When she discovers this, all hell breaks loose in her soul and she becomes fixated on utterly destroying him.  She is frequently pictured with “grudge demons” swirling around her, cackling maniacally.  This just delights me to no end and I find this hilarious (being one who has occasional grudge demons myself).  I thought this was a 30 volume release and bought all 30 volumes (with a third omnibused), and then realized to my horror it’s still ongoing in Japan.  Dammit! (Viz)

Dorohedoro: @ABCBTom LOVES this manga and talks about it all the time in twitter.  Deb Aoki also recommended it at this year’s SDCC Best/Worst Manga panel.  So, I got the first couple of volumes.  It’s not something I usually read; it’s got some weird lizard-headed guy who has a tiny man inside him who’s trying to find the wizard who changed his head into a lizard head… and… yeah.  It’s pretty dark, ’cause he will bite off wizards’ heads as the tiny man discounts them as the one he is searching for.  He’s passionately fond of dumplings, which his partner-in-crime makes for him.  An odd, engaging manga, both funny and sinister, and I need to pick up more volumes.  Part of Viz’s Signature line.  (Viz)

Saturn Apartments:  Another unusual title that’s mostly slice-of-life about window washers in the future.  Humans have been evacuated from Earth and now live on a man-made ring that encircles the planet.  Upper levels get plenty of sunlight and are very well-to-do, while lower levels are in perpetual darkness and poor.  To keep getting their precious sunlight, window washers are recruited from the lower levels to clean the upper levels.  Mitsu, a novice window-washer, interacts with his clients occasionally, and dreams of possibly descending to Earth and finding his missing father, another window washer who disappeared via accident.  The art is different featuring roundish squat people that are kinda cute.  Another Signature title.  (Viz)

Ikigami:  see post.  Yet another Signature title.  (Viz)

FINISHED:

Cross Game:  I was sort of hoping for some deviation from the anime, but there wasn’t really (other than being way more meta and having some bizarre, out of place fanservice).  But the anime was pretty faithful to the manga, and that’s ok, ’cause it doesn’t look like it’s getting released here in anime form, so I can at least have manga form.  One of the best romances/coming of age type stories I’ve read in manga.  I love this series so much.  Ko and Aoba are hilarious with their bickering, and tied together by the tragic loss of Aoba’s sister, Wakaba.  Akaishi is completely lovable with his solidness, dry humor, and faithfulness to Wakaba’s memory.  People may dismiss this as a sports manga, but baseball is not the main focus of the story (it is a big focus, but is more a vehicle than belonging to the sports genre).  I heard sales were abysmal, and that’s really too bad, because this is one of the best manga series I have collected so far.  (Viz)

Ouran High School Host Club:  This romcom dragged on a bit too long, but I still have a fondness for its silliness and sweetness.  Haruhi is roped into pretending to be a boy in a host club at a ritzy high school to pay off a debt.  In doing so, she finds herself making friends with the obviously insane other members, and causing some romantic turmoil with a few of them.  It started off immensely silly and then slowly became semi-serious, but never really lost its sense of humor.  (Viz)

Twin Spica:  A very touching story about a tiny girl determined to become an astronaut who has an imaginary (or is he?) friend, Mr. Lion.  (Vertical)

(There’s no real worst of manga in my list.  There’s ones that I didn’t really enjoy reading that much, but none that were truly unpleasant or chores to read.  The closest would be Limit, because I just don’t like stories about bullying and it makes me too uncomfortable (it resurrects preferably forgotten memories).  I bought the first volume, but think I’ll stop there.)

This year was WAY different from last year.  Last year I barely watched anything and had to struggle to even make a top 3 list.  This year I sampled 33 anime and completely watched 13 through at least one quarter.  Obviously they weren’t all good; most of the cut list fell into the trap of being boring or mediocre (anime loves cliches and tropes).  Legal streaming is completely changing the way I can watch anime, and I’m now in danger of being overloaded whereas before I was scraping around, trying to find stuff worth the effort of downloading (not my preferred method).  Recently, I purchased a year’s subscription to Crunchyroll for HD quality, usually same day simulcast anime.  It’s an awesome deal.

Onto the lists!

BEST:

(Note: If you want better summaries of the Spring shows go here; Fall shows go here)

Spring was immensely strong, which is a good thing since Summer was so dismal, and Winter was pretty weak (with the possible exceptions of Natsume Yuujinchou 4 and Daily Lives of High School Boys which I didn’t watch due to licensing).  Fall, however, was able to surprise me with a number of strong shoujos and an excellent SF thriller.

Space Brothers (Spring) :  I’m actually letting this one build up some episodes for a bit because it loves ending on cliffhangers.  It’s probably about ready for me to pick back up again.  Mutta is in America now with Hibito, but he’s still being tested.  It’s still excellent, and I just love the story and the fact the characters are in their late 20s and early 30s.  I got G started on it, too, although he isn’t keeping up with it as it doesn’t really fit in his schedule.

Kids on the Slope (Spring):  It ended on a time skip but I liked the ending, however implausible it was.  I also picked up some jazz music due to enjoying the soundtrack quite a bit.  Sentai licensed this and has the rights to use the music, thank god, so now just waiting for the release.

Kuroko’s Basketball (Spring):   Loved this anime.  It was a great sports anime, flamboyant with their tricks, even if it was ridiculous and excessive.  It’s no Slam Dunk, that’s for sure.  It’s supposed to have a second season, because it didn’t finish, but there are some severe problems in Japan where some deranged person is sending threats through the mail, including dangerous substances to anyone associated with the manga or anime.  The doujinshi (fanart comics) convention circuit is suffering, being cut short or cancelled altogether.  Suspect rumors include jealous angry classmates of the mangaka or possibly some psychotic Slam Dunk fan.  While I understand the concern for safety, I believe that the message being sent to the terrorist (and giving ideas to future terrorists) is “Yes, we will cave to your demands, enjoy the power trip.”  I wish they would find this guy and put an end to this stupidity.

Lupin III: A Woman Named Fujiko Mine (Spring):  Bewbs and butts.  And a pretty awesome art style and interesting story.  Violence Jill does a much better job than I could ever remotely do at analyzing the series.

Tsuritama (Spring):  The ending was a bit weird, but I still adored this vibrant anime about friendship and aliens.  Plus, best OP of the year.  You see that dance the characters do?  I did that EVERY SINGLE EPISODE.  Because I am a dork.

My Little Monster (Fall):  This is a very interesting shoujo, as the main guy, Haru, seems to have some really big issues.  He’s socially incompetent, possessive, immature, and jealous (he’s either traumatized from some past occurrence, or he’s got some Asperger’s like thing going on).  The main girl is aloof, obsessed with being the best student, and torn with how she feels about the main guy because it interferes with her studying.  She gets mad at him, but instead of really addressing the problem, she ignores him, which he hates.  I’m more interested in Haru’s rival, Yamaken, but of course she won’t end up with him.  I want to see how she manages to get Haru under control and acting like a normal human instead of being controlled by his Id.  Unfortunately, it ended completely open-endedly, with some other romances starting to stir, but going nowhere with the abrupt ending.  I’m really hoping for a second season to see some more character development and closure of some kind.  Plus more animations of Shizuku eating, which are the cutest ever.

Kamisama Kiss (Fall):  My other favorite shoujo this year.  This and MLM kept switching back and forth, squabbling for top place for Fall.  I loved all the bickering yokai and the will-o-the-wisps were adorable.  I do wish Nanami had been slightly stronger, although I did like the last episode and thought her dance was nice.  I picked up the manga so I can read farther into the story, and to see what that mischievous wind god is up to.  All the music–OP, ED, and score was great, too.

Psycho-Pass (Fall):  The ending to the first season was awesome, showing the complete failure of the Psycho-Pass system (the system that measures a person’s likelihood of committing a crime).  Starting off slow, it built up to a great arc with the all-girls’ school arc (creepy!) and then the final shocking showdown between Akane (the rookie cop) and Makishima (criminal mastermind).  I can’t wait for season 2 next Winter.

(Note:  I did not include Chihayafuru on here because it started in 2011 and continued into 2012.  This would’ve topped everything again had I counted it.  Currently rewatching in preparation for season 2 starting this month.)

WORST:

I’m very impatient when it comes to shows and if something doesn’t grab me or gets boring I will usually drop it immediately,  so it’s hard to find a truly “worst” anime for the year.  Most of the shows were floating around mediocrity.  However there were a few shows that I felt totally failed.

Natsuyuki Rendezvous (Summer):  This show infuriated me.  I wanted to like it SO MUCH, but I just didn’t, and I loathed all the characters.  I managed to stick it out through to the end, but then I just became angry that I wasted like five hours on it.  If I hate the characters of any show, it’s really hard for me to watch it because it just makes me agitated, and then it’s not entertainment and becomes a health risk instead.  I did like the art though, and Rokka’s character design, which was so unusual for anime, with her extremely short hair.  She was really cute though… until she put on that hat.

His hat wasn’t any better, btw.

Sword Art Online (Summer):  This anime I’m mad at because I absolutely loved the first episode.  Having spent seven years playing WoW, I was excited to see a good-looking anime based in an MMORPG world.  And a dark world at that, with a sadistic creator who trapped all his players in the game with the threat of death if they stopped playing or died in game.  Sounds great!  And then it immediately became blah on the second episode with a mediocre fight scene and the third episode I didn’t even make it through.  By then though I had already excitedly told my friend that it looked AMAZING, and sounded AMAZING, and then had to tell him, no, I was wrong, it sucked, never mind.  Sigh.  (Of course, I didn’t learn, and proceeded to repeat my mistake with Code:Breaker, although my excitement was much more tempered due to being more suspicious.  And I was right to do so.)  The anime fanbase seems extremely divided on SAO though, with half thinking it the best show this year, and the other half completely hating it.  I don’t think it was the worst show ever, but among the most disappointing, definitely.

Aoi Sekai de Chuushin de (Fall):  This anime was just terrible.  I had expected it to be fairly mediocre but still fun.  It was Nintendo vs. Sega!  Classic games made into anime characters, with Sega being the good guys and Nintendo being the bad guys, with evil Mario King in charge riding a ferocious dinosaur (Yoshi).  At least I think that was what it was going to be about.  I immediately turned it off after the second extremely busty girl had all her clothes exploded off her body by the Sonic equivalent (the first lady lost all her clothes during an orgasm she had by the mere sight of Sonic’s power, if I recall correctly).  Early announcements did not tell me this was going to be an extreme ecchi show, which is just pure blech.  KOS.

(Note:  there are far, far, worse shows out there, but I just didn’t even bother because I knew I would loathe them.  So this is just stuff I attempted to watch.)

BEST PURCHASES:

• Kimi ni Todoke:  Extremely sweet story of an awkward outcast girl making her first friends and falling in love.  Beautiful packaging by NISA.
• Natsume’s Book of Friends:  Quiet episodic story of a boy who can see yokai and his yokai “friend” who’s attempting to return all the names his grandmother stole to their yokai owners.  Another wonderful license by NISA.
• Bunny Drop:  see post.  Yet another excellent release by NISA.  (NISA wins this year for anime releases)
• Detroit Metal City:  Hilariously raunchy comedy of a guy who goes to Tokyo to become a pop singer and somehow finds himself heading a death metal band.  Barebones release by Sentai.
• Hatsukoi Limited:  see post.  Barebones release by Sentai.
• Princess Jellyfish:  see post.  Excellent production by Funimation with a ton of extras, including all the shorts.

I managed to see sixteen of 2012′s movies this year, although half were through Netflix.  However, towards the end of the year, I did finally start seeing movies on my own instead of repeatedly missing them in the theater while waiting for friends, so hopefully I will be able to increase my theater viewing next year.

Not part of this summary, I also made a large effort to fill in some gaping holes in my movie background.  I watched Terminator 1 & 2 (movie 1 did NOT age well, ugh, 80s; movie 2 was still pretty good), Die Hard 1-4 (all great, especially 3 with Samuel L. Jackson), Alien and Aliens (amazing, bought the BDs soon afterwards), Beverly Hills Cop (eh, is ok), Blade Runner (Final Cut) (loved the world, seems to have aged well except for maybe the score), Unbreakable (the disc died halfway through, which I took to be a protest by my player and read the spoilers because I didn’t want to sit through that again), and Mission Impossible 1, 3, & 4 (a lot of fun, despite Cruise’s RL insanity; I was told 2 blows, so to just skip it).  I will want to continue this trend next year.  Problem is there’s a lot of Mel Gibson movies in this list (Lethal Weapon, Mad Max) and he’s been outed as a complete dick.  I’m not sure if I can put that behind me or not.

Ok, back to the current year!

Movies seen in the theater:

• Secret World of Arrietty:  blog post here.
• 21 Jump Street:  blog post here.
• Avengers:  The pinnacle of the Marvel build up of the Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man 1 & 2.  And it was amazing.  Loved this movie.  Totally how a comic book movie should be made.  Lots of action, lots of flashy sequences, no emo angsty stuff (or very little), just lots of good lines, a fun story, and punching of things.  Black Widow was a total badass, too, yay!  Also the birth of the rabid Tom Hiddleston fans.  I think they started poking their heads out after Thor, but they kind of exploded after Avengers.
• Brave:  This was sort of sold as a princess movie, but it really wasn’t a princess movie.  This was a mother/daughter relationship movie.  The trailers only covered the first half of the movie, and it really wasn’t about Merida not wanting to be a princess.  It was more about how she and her mother did not understand one another and didn’t listen to each other until it was almost too late (like Freaky Friday).  I actually enjoyed the movie, and thought Merida was pretty great, especially with her mass of wild red hair.
• Looper:  This was the first movie I saw by myself after I got fed up with missing Prometheus and Dark Knight Rises during summer.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems to be the It guy this year.   He’s been slowly becoming more and more popular (and more and more attractive) and now I can’t seem to get enough of him.  I still need to buy Inception.  Anyway, this is a time travel movie with all the time travel problems, but it does a pretty good set up of the rules, so it worked for the most part.  Also Beta Male Experience pointed out this was kind of two movies where the hero in one “movie” is the villain in the other “movie.”  The juxtaposition is cool.  JGL was also totally a young Bruce Willis, eerily so.  Not so much in looks, even with the prosthetics, but with his mannerisms.  I love this man.   (note to Beth:  he is my new Depp infatuation)
• Argo:  The second movie I saw by myself after I totally didn’t die after seeing Looper.  This might be my favorite movie I saw this year.  A great thriller, even though since it’s based on history (the Iran hostages), you totally know the end, like with Titanic.  But this movie was great.  Lots of tension, but also balanced with some light comedy between John Goodman and Alan Arkin.  Minor note, but also neat was the usage of the old 70s red, black, and white Warner logo.  Haven’t seen that for a while, but I liked the mood it instantly set, transporting me back in time.
• Lincoln:  During my visit home, I spontaneously asked my mom if she wanted to go see Lincoln with me.  And she said yes!  I haven’t been to a movie with her since 1989.  So this was extra special.  It was an excellent movie, although it really should’ve ended five minutes before it did.  Tommy Lee Jones and Daniel Day Lewis were fantastic, especially the former, being grumpy TLJ at his best.  It was almost really more about the ratification of the 13th Amendment more than Lincoln himself.  I’m so happy I got to see this with Mom, and that she had a good time (and didn’t fall asleep!).
• Django Unchained:  I managed to squeak in a solo viewing of this (definitely NOT a Mom movie, haha) the day after Christmas.  Fabulously fun and violent (sometimes too much so; could’ve done without the eye gouging scene.  I’m all for gunfights and stabbings and explosions, but anything meaty and hands-on other than punching makes me queasy).  Extremely satisfying seeing all those horrible slave owners and racists shot up all over the place.  However all the Western cameos totally went over my head (I mean, c’mon, I totally missed recognizing Tom Wopat, and I grew up on Dukes of Hazzard).  Also, there was this one woman with a bandanna over her face that looked like she was supposed to be important, and then nothing ever came of that, so that was just weird.  And I do wish Pearl had done something badass at least once.  Great soundtrack.

Movies Netflixed:

• Jiro Dreams of Sushi:  blog post here.
• One for the Money:  A bad movie.  Really.  Not good at all.  Morelli wasn’t even remotely Italian (the guy playing him just screams Irish).  Katherine Heigl didn’t feel anything like Stephanie Plum, and I think she was sleepwalking through the movie.  Ranger was ok, I guess.  Lula was good, but there wasn’t enough of her.  That wasn’t really the movie’s fault; Lula becomes a stronger character in later books.  I did like Stephanie’s family; that was done well.  Well, Debbie Reynolds was not physically Stephanie’s grandma (I always picture Sophia from Golden Girls), but she acted enough like her.
• Woman in Black:  The first non-Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe movie I saw.  Super creepy!  Wasn’t really crazy about the ending, but the scariness of the movie was good.
• Cabin in the Woods:  One of the movies I really wanted to see in the theaters, but didn’t.  All I heard about this movie was “DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILERS” and “go into the movie blind” so I avoided everything, and went in knowing nothing except some vague stuff that I couldn’t help but overhear.  It was GREAT.  I loved this movie.  And I hate horror movies, especially slasher pics (the only reason I saw the above movie was ’cause I wanted to see how Radcliffe would do as non HP).  As such, I don’t really want to say much about this movie so as not to ruin it for others who haven’t seen it. Another Whedon picture, but some parts felt more Whedony than others.  This movie was scary and funny and I saw some parts coming, but I think you were supposed to, and it was more of the dread knowing it was coming and it would be bad.  A whole lot of fun (despite some gore) and highly recommended.
• Men in Black 3:   Another case of actors in a movie acting like younger versions of other actors in the movie.  Here it’s Josh Brolin (a long time favorite since Young Riders) acting like Tommy Lee Jones back in 1969.  I think I may have actually liked this movie the best of the MIBs.  I haven’t seen 2 for a very long time, but everyone says that one is terrible, and I liked the first one, sort of, but not as much as everyone else seemed to.  Most of all, I like the J and K chemistry, which is now mostly J and young K chemistry, and it was still really good.  Brolin did an excellent job as a still serious, but slightly looser K, and I enjoyed Emma Thompson as Agent O.
• Prometheus:  Prometheus was really the reason I wanted to catch up with the Alien franchise.  This was supposed to be huge, and I wanted to be ready for it.  Plus Ridley is supposed to be one of the biggest badasses around, and female to boot.  I watched this with my cousins.  Er… yeah.  What was up with the WORLD’S DUMBEST CREW EVER?  No weapons on an unknown planet.  They take their dumb helmets off once sensors say the air seems to be breathable.  WTF.  Who does that?  There could’ve been other reasons to leave your helmet on, like biological reasons.  The biologist gets grossed out by an alien corpse.  THE BIOLOGIST GETS GROSSED OUT BY A DEAD ALIEN.  DOUBLE WTFERY.  And then when he sees a LIVE OBVIOUSLY ANGRY ALIEN, he’s all, “Oooo, pretty!”  ARGH!  And really David?  That was the best way to do test “that”??  WHY?  Are you programmed to be a freaking SADIST?  *rageragerage*  This was a really DUMB movie.  As in all of the characters would do things for no explainable reason, completely counterintuitive, nonsensical, other than to move the story along.  The travel chamber was pretty though.  I’ll say that.  Also, there’s the whole “yes it’s a prequel” “no it’s not a prequel” confusion, where things happen that make it look like a prequel, but then things happen that would totally not lead to Alien, so… meh.  It’s like, it’s definitely the Alien universe, but there are too many similiarites to not be a direct prequel, yet too many differences to be a direct prequel.  What a mess.
• Magic Mike:   Channing Tatum is soooooooooooo pretty once he starts moving around.  Hotness.  Other than that… everyone else in the movie was a complete asshole.  Hated the Kid.  Hated Matt Bomer’s character.  Doubly hated Matthew McConaughey, just for being so grosstastic.  I just need a DVD of Channing Tatum doing his dance routines.  (After typing this, I just went and added Step Up to my Netflix queue, haha)  Also, what was with all the boobs?  Needed more naked Tatum butt, IMO.
• Amazing Spider-Man:  Let’s see… I wasn’t completely thrilled they rebooted this movie already after only ten years.  I did like the cast.  I thought the cast was awesome.  Especially Emma Stone, because I like her way way more than Kirsten Dunst, even though I prefer MJ over Gwen Stacy.  Martin Sheen made a great Uncle Ben.  Andrew Garfield… was a fine actor… but I didn’t like his Peter Parker.  This Peter Parker was not nerdy enough.  He was kind of a jerk and not really likeable.   Plus he seemed WAY too emo to be Peter Parker.  I dunno.  Having his parents in the movie, too, was weird.  I never heard anything about Peter Parker’s parents before this movie.  It’s always Uncle Ben and Aunt May.  The Lizard guy was fine.  And I liked Denis Leary as Captain Stacy.  So yeah.  Great cast.  Great action; I loved all the webslinging.  So-so story with lots of weird happenings, like the whole spider bite reason.   And the cranes.  I didn’t like the cranes at all until he was actually using them.  The reasoning though was completely contrived and fake.

Movies missed:

• Dark Knight Rising (#1 on my Netflix list)
• Skyfall
• Rise of the Guardians
• Les Miserables
• Cloud Atlas
• Hobbit

I’m hoping to cram 2013 with all of these.

Movies I’m looking forward to for 2013:

• Zero Dark 30 (it actually just came out, hit #1 slots of top 10 lists all over)
• Man of Steel (maybe.  Not really feeling emo Superman.  Supes isn’t emo, ffs.  Will probably rent)
• Pacific Rim (it’s got mecha and kaijuu!! It’s like a live action anime movie, but good!  I hope…)
• Die Hard 5 (since 1-4 were so fun)
• Iron Man 3 (hopefully the Kingsley curse doesn’t fall on this movie)
• Star Trek 2 (FANIME MOVIE)
• GI Joe 2 (YES YES YES, Cobra Commander has his shiny mask, and Snake Eyes lost his lips!  And JINX)
• Great Gatsby (Baz Luhrmann movie, means if nothing else it’ll be full of eyegasms)
• Fast & Furious 6 (super guilty pleasure)
• Thor 2
• Frozen (new Disney fairytale movie)
• Oz (maybe. Not really a Franco fan, but I do like Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz)
• Gangster Squad (maybe.  I LOVE that period.  Awesome cast.  And it has Anthony Mackie wearing a hat and suit again)

And quick rundown of my top 5 movies of 2012, in no order:  21 Jump Street, Argo, Lincoln, Avengers, and Cabin in the Woods.

Things have been quiet on this blog, but this month’s Manga Moveable Feast has nudged my lazyass brain enough to make me want to contribute.  Hosting this month is @ProfessorBlind over at Rocket Bomber.  I’m usually talking to him about food and beer or remembering “fondly” my old indie bookstore days.  Currently, I am inspiring him to write an super unhealthy cookbook which will sell a billion copies during Father’s Day.

Anyway, the subject for today is Appetizers Wednesday–”The Manga My Best Friend Lent Me That Got Me Into Manga.”  And seriously, just now I was going to be all, “ha, I got into manga on my own,” when my creaky memory was all, “Nope, nope.”

Around 1996, I started watching anime.  My roommate brought home some Ranma 1/2 fansubs, and I recognized the characters from a video game my sister’s boyfriend had showed me.  I watched all the tapes my roomie brought home, then went out and started buying them myself.  Anime was EXPENSIVE back then, $30 for 3 subbed episodes on VHS.  So after I bought the first season, I stopped because really, it was too freaking expensive.  I also didn’t know where to proceed from here after that, so my interest got put on hold.

In 2001, my coworker’s girlfriend, Angela, rekindled the fire.  She was the biggest Sailor Moon fangirl (she would dress up as Sailor Jupiter, and it was quite fitting, since she was a tall, lanky brunette), and she absolutely loved pretty anime boys.  She introduced me to Fushigi Yuugi and it was amazing–ok, it’s not so amazing now, but back then it was a revelation.  Who knew that animated men could be so dreamy?  Angela also lent me her Sailor Moon manga (this is the part I forgot; I remembered her getting me interested in anime again).  After reading a few volumes, I went out and bought my own copies.  Then I bought Cardcaptor Sakura.  Then I bought Sorcerer Hunters and started the Fushigi Yuugi manga… and it snowballed from there.  Now I have shelves and shelves of manga, double stacked, piled on top, overflowing onto the floor in front of the cases, heaped in several precarious piles around my bed, and stacked on the bedside table threatening to fall over as I grope for the alarm clock.  Have you seen Read or Die, the OVA?  My bedroom looks like Yomiko’s house.

But back to Sailor Moon.  I already had almost a decade of reading superhero comics off and on (mostly X-Men and Incredible Hulk) under my belt.  I was sort of stuck in that mentality where I only wanted to read superhero comics because indie comics were weird looking and strange (I’ve gotten over that, thankfully).  Sailor Moon though was… beautiful.  I loved the flowing hair, the shining huge eyes, and the girly silliness of Usagi (Serena according to the Tokyopop translations… blehhhh).  It was over the top and fun and wonderful and romantic, and I MUST READ IT ALL AND OWN IT.  (I tend to get fixated on things… *cough*).  So I did, and then after I started watching the Cardcaptor Sakura anime, I went out and bought the CCS manga.  Same with Sorcerer Hunters.  Actually much of my early manga purchasing (with the exception of Sailor Moon; I couldn’t get into the anime–reading melodrama is different from watching it, plus the manga was 10000x prettier) was from anime that I watched to see how the manga differed.

I’m not really sure why I liked Sailor Moon so much.  I’m by no means a girly-girl at all.  I’ve always preferred “boys’” cartoons and “boys’” toys.  I do have a pretty huge soft spot for mushy romances though, so maybe that was it.  Or maybe it was the novelty of reading a comic book that was written so obviously for girls with romance and hearts and sparkles, yet still full of action and fighting and kick-assness.  It’s something you don’t really get in mainstream superhero comics.  There’s a severe lack of sparkles, unless you’re Dazzler or Jubilee.

I eventually lost touch with Angela, but many of my current friends share my anime/manga interests and we are fairly generous when it comes to lending our stuff out (provided you listen to my rules as I am OCD when it comes to my books and DVDs–no spine breaking, no dog earing, no fingerprinting my discs, no leaving discs lying around–I will hurt you).  I especially love it when I can get my friends interested in something they weren’t before; it is a very good feeling.  It’s also very cool to get someone who doesn’t read manga into reading manga, even if it’s just one title (this just happened with two friends and Drops of God).

So to my past manga friend Angela, and my current manga friends Shaz, Alyse, and Greg, I am thankful.  I am also thankful to my wonderful manga-loving twitterfeed which gives me so many good suggestions.  And thank you Naoko Takeuchi, mangaka of Sailor Moon, for your beautiful art and fun stories and starting my trip into the black hole of the manga world.

Moon Prism Power, Make Up!

p.s.:  Tokyopop’s flipped, cheaply printed Americanized editions have long been out of print, but Kodansha’s been putting out newly translated, unflipped editions recently, so you can easily get copies at Right Stuf, etc.

Wow, was summer 2012 disappointing or what?  Disastrous.  Such promise, and there was almost zero follow through.

Sword Art Online I dropped in the middle of the third episode out of sheer boredom.  Such a disappointment after such a spectacular first episode.  Humanity Has Declined became an utter chore to watch, especially in the “Groundhog Day” episode.  Dropped.  Natsuyuki Rendezvous I managed to stick through til the bitter end, but boy, was that bitter.  Hated both of the men.  Neither redeemed themself.  Shimao became more and more despicable until I was yelling at my tv in the final episode.  Rokka was extremely flat as a character.  No chemistry between Hazuki and Rokka, plus he was trapped in fairy tale land for about five episodes and that was SO BORING.  I’m so mad I wasted all that time watching it, but I had to see what happened since I watched half of it before getting fed up.  At least it was pretty.

The two successes  for me were Utakoi and Moyashimon Returns.  And I know I’m in the severe minority for Moyashimon Returns.  Almost my entire twitter feed hates it, and we usually have fairly similar tastes, more or less.

For continuing series, Kuroko’s Basketball finished for now (I think more is coming in a couple seasons, thank god), and Space Brothers is still super spectacularly awesome, so yay!

Fortunately Fall seems to be making up for a dismal Summer (although not as good quality-wise as Spring).  Watching nine shows currently (counting the ongoing Space Brothers), and that’s insane.

Code:Breaker:  This season is very heavy on the dystopian/magic/suspense shows and the shoujo romance shows.  This is one of the former.  The first episode was quite good and featured a really strong female protagonist who gets caught up with a strange guy who calls himself a trash man as in, he cleans up human scum by setting them on fire.  Cool, right?  I was super excited with it!  And then the second episode became boring and blah and expositiony and I lost all interest in it.  I’m willing to give it one more episode to see if it picks itself back up, otherwise I’m dropping this.

* * *

Shin Sekai Yori/From the New World:  In our time, humanity is suddenly threatened by some kind of manifestation of psychic power.  Skip forward 1000 years and children are being trained to control their powers in school.  If children do not manifest psychic power during puberty, something suspicious and undisclosed as of yet happens.  So there’s this feeling of ominousness hanging over the show, but so far nothing really has happened.  A couple of kids have disappeared quietly who were having problems with their power–either not strong enough, or too power hungry, but of the main five characters, they’re on some kind of educational camping trip.  Apparently the next episode goes off the deep end in exposition so I guess I’ll learn something then.

* * *

Zetsuen no Tempest/Blast of Tempest:  First of all, I call it Tempest Blast because Blast of Tempest sounds stupid.  WHY they didn’t call it Civilization Blaster LIKE IT SAYS ON THE PROMO ART is beyond me.  But nobody calls it that, so I call it Tempest Blast ’cause it sounds at least somewhat close.  Anyway, another one of those mystery happenings anime.  These giant eyeball things appear in the sky and then suddenly entire cities get wiped out by some plaguey thing that turns all flesh to iron.  There’s also a internal war in a family of mages.  One mage is thrown into a barrel and set adrift in the ocean to land on a deserted island where she can’t use her magic.  A boy’s sister is brutally murdered and he goes ballistic, and seeks the help of the exiled mage for answers and revenge.  Somehow based on Shakespeare’s Tempest…  To me, this is just sort of a confusing mess, and I’m still watching it, but I’m not really captivated by it, hence the garbled summary.  The boys are pretty?  One of the “bishounen” shows that are prevalent this season.

* * *

Psycho-Pass:  Of the mystery shows this season, this one is my favorite.  It’s very Minority Report, which I like.  Everyone has a Psycho Pass, which monitors latent criminal tendencies.  If it shows a sudden spike, Inspectors and their Enforcers are sent out to find the person and bring them in for rehab.  Enforcers are latent criminals that work for their organization; they’re basically hunter dogs and Inspectors are their handlers.  Of course there are problems, just like in Minority Report, as the “criminals” haven’t technically committed crimes yet, they just have the heightened potential to.  The main character Inspector seems woefully misplaced in her job; she’s very noobish and seems quite incompetent, although at least she realizes her uselessness and is despairing about it.  Hopefully the series will show her growth; otherwise this could be quite irritating.  It’s an interesting world at least, so this remains a strong anime.

* * *

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun/My Little Monster:  A quirky high school romance.  Shizuku is a top student and has no time nor desire for friends, really.  Haru is an AWOL delinquent student (but actually very smart) and completely socially incompetent.  Of course that means these two are meant to be together.  There was a lot of controversy over a very badly used line (“Be quiet or I’ll rape you”) which is unfortunate.  There’s also a forced kiss, which again caused more controversy in a very touchy culture nowadays.  However, it’s actually kind of a cute anime as Haru immediately declares his love for Shizuku without really understanding what it means, throwing her into a tizzy.  Haru’s friends/notfriends are starting to hang around more, and the quirky cast is growing rapidly, which I think will bring more fun.

* * *

Kamisama Kiss:  Possibly my favorite of the new shows this season.  Another light-hearted romantic comedy, this time between a high school girl, Nanami, who suddenly finds herself as a land god with a rundown temple.  Convenient, since her loser father just lost their house due to gambling and ran away.  Anyway, she has a couple of small servants and also a really big one in the form of a surly fox familiar to help her with her new duties.  This super cute, SUPER bishie anime is done by the same director of my beloved Fruits Basket anime, and has much the same feel, from the onigiri voice to the scene change sound effects.   Nanami even looks a bit like Tohru sometimes.  This show has me giggling a lot and feeds my inner fangirl.

* * *

All of the above shows can be found at Crunchyroll.com (My Little Monster, Tempest Blast, From the New World) or Funimation.com (Psycho-Pass, Code: Breaker, Kamisama Kiss).  The next two were sadly not picked up for streaming, even though they were my most anticipated shows of this season.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures:  SO DRAMATIC.  Everything is exaggerated for effect.  It’s pretty ridiculous and silly, and it’s so over the top even tragic occurrences are almost laughable.  George Joestar almost dies in an accident but he and his son Jonathan (JoJo) are rescued by a thief looting what he thought were dead bodies.  In return, George takes in the thief’s diabolical son Dio and treats him as one of his own.  Dio doesn’t hide his evil side from his step-brother, but does from their father in the hopes of inheriting the expansive estate, which leads to stress between JoJo and his father since JoJo knows the truth and his father doesn’t.  There’s also a suspicious magical mask that JoJo’s trying to figure out what it does.  Only 3 episodes in, and there’s been so much craziness that’s happened and I’m told it only improves from here.

* * *

Suki-tte Ii na yo/Say I Love You:  The drama of the shoujo romances.  Mei is ostracized at school, bullied and friendless.  Her anti-social and loner attitude catches the attention of the super popular Kurosawa, who is instantly intrigued and begins to pursue her.  I have mixed feelings about this show.  I do really like it.  It feels the most real emotionally of the shows.  However, Kurosawa’s weird dominating attitude over Mei sort of creeps me out just a tad and it makes me a little uncomfortable.  Multiple forced kisses!  A part of me is wondering if I’m being manipulated by the growing disdain and increased rumblings (rightfully so, mind you) of how women are portrayed in geeky entertainment (anime, games, etc.) and it’s affecting my watching behavior and reactions.  Anyway, I’m really interested in seeing where this is going, as I know several manga bloggers that were ecstatic when this anime was announced.

* * *

Dropped Series:  these are shows that I watched maybe one episode of before throwing up my hands and giving up.

Magi:  Loosely based on Arabian Nights characters like Aladdin and Ali Baba.  Except Aladdin is an annoying 8 year old boy (at least he looks like it) who stuffs his face all the time, and can’t help but attack large breasted women (or men) and mash their boobs around or give them “motorboats.”  NOPE.

Ixion Saga:  A horrible looking fantasy where a MMORPGer gets transported into a fantasy land and … zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  Terrible art style, terrible plot, terrible humor, barf.

Robotics;Notes:  Something about a robot club.  Happens in the same world as Steins;Gate (which is supposed to be superb) and Chaos;Head (which is supposed to be atrocious).  This seems to be very middle of the road bland.  It wasn’t good.  It wasn’t bad.  It just… was.  I’m not adverse to it, I just didn’t find anything interesting about it.  If reviews improve or become really strong, I could go back to it.

Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de:  A war in a fantasy land between Nintendo warlords and the oppressed Sega.  Really.  The characters are all based on video game characters.  Mario is the evil Nintendo emperor, hahahaha.  I was going to watch this for laughs, but the first episode was SO AWFUL.  First, Gear’s (aka Sonic) powers are so amazing, that Ramses (Columns) pretty much has an orgasm and all her clothes explode off her body.  Uh huh.  Then, Gear is challenged to a duel by a disgruntled Opal (Opa-opa from Fantasy Zone) and when he headbutts her before she can attack, all of her clothes go exploding off her body.  Especially around the boobage area.  At that point I was all, “HELL NO” and turned off the show.  The only part I liked was seeing evil Mario arrive on his flying dinosaur, who I presume was Yoshi.

—

So that’s it for Fall 2012!  Very curious to see who survives to the end of the season.  I’m guessing at least one more show will be dropped, but it would be nice if some gems come out of this.  Winter is bringing back the second season of Chihayafuru and I’m SO EXCITED!!!

Finished two more books for my project.  This took a bit longer because Revolution was HUGE.  Cinder is no lightweight either.  Also added three more books on hold and read some other related books for fun.

So it’s been a while since I blogged last about this project.  I was zipping along, reading quick reads when I suddenly had Revolution in my hands, and everything got bogged down (it’s almost 500 pages).  And while I was reading that, Cinder FINALLY came in at the library, which I’ve been looking forward to for awhile. (fyi, there are some spoilers ahead, although I feel they’re not really spoilers, since it’s pretty obvious it’s coming, so you’ve been warned)

Revolution (Jennifer Donnelly):  Recommended by Beth.  Hmm, I guess I would say, teen fantasy?  Sort of?  It doesn’t really start off that way though.  Andi is an extremely gifted musician in a Brooklyn high school, but her life and family are destroyed when her younger brother is tragically killed.  Well, to be honest, her family was already fraying with an absentee father, obsessed with his work.  But when her brother died, her already shaky family was completely devastated.  With Andi failing school and her mother’s mind broken, Andi’s father finally comes back to see the mess that’s left, hauls Andi off to Paris, and puts his ex-wife in a psychiatric ward, much to Andi’s rage.

Okay, all this stuff, I totally liked.  I also liked Andi’s life in Paris as she begins to finally heal.  And when Andi finds an ancient journal, left behind by a girl her own age living during the French Revolution, I liked Alex’s story, too.  What I didn’t like, was Andi’s totally predictable and unsurprising time trip back to the 18th century after she gets confused in the Catacombs of Paris.

I could feel this coming.  I knew it was going to happen.  And when it did, I was so utterly disappointed.  It kind of ruined what was a really good story, the time travel gimmick.  I really really wish Donnelly had just left everything in our time and used Alex’s story to help Andi come to realizations in her own life as a teaching lesson, and left out the whole time travel thing.  Up until that point, I was totally digging the story and the writing.  The writing is fabulous.  Andi was an interesting character, especially her horribly flawed relationship with her father (I really did feel bad for the father, as bad a father as he was).  The historical research for Alex’s story was also really good.  I loved reading about that, too.  But that time travel part… meh.

Cinder (Marissa Meyer):  Picked up because I got Scarlet, the sequel, at ALA.  Also, Beth said it was good.  Blah blah, I love fairy tales, blah. Okay.  Cinder is the beginning of a science fiction series, called The Lunar Chronicles.  It’s many years in the future.  There’ve been four World Wars, and the world is now divided up into large unified chunks.  The common enemy is the Moon, where a race of humans have mutated to develop dangerous mind-controlling powers, and are called Lunars.  However, not all Lunars like their Queen, and many have defected and hidden themselves on Earth.

Cinder is set in what was China and is a fabulous retelling of Cinderella (obviously).  Future books will play on Red Riding Hood (Scarlet), Rapunzel (Cress), and Snow White (Winter).  Cinder is an orphaned cyborg, adopted by a man and sent to live with his wife and two daughters, when he suddenly dies, leaving an unwanted girl in a mostly unloving family (the youngest daughter, Peony, while still spoiled by her mother, has a good friendship with her stepsister).  Adri treats her ward like a slave, as cyborgs have a social stigma and are treated as non-humans and freaks by many, despite their still human brains.  When one of her daughters is suddenly infected by the Plague, which is ravaging the world and as yet is still uncurable, Adri in her grief and rage, turns Cinder over to the royal research labs as a test subject.

I love this world.  It’s fascinating.  There are hover cars and androids and cyborgs, yet there’s that touch of oldness too from the fairy tale aspect, like princes and royal balls.  It is an interesting blend.  I’ve also started reading Scarlet, which continues Cinder’s story, along with introducing a new character, Scarlet, and there are now spaceships and super soldiers but again, there’s that oldness, as Scarlet is a French farmgirl who sells her farm’s produce at local restaurants.  And of course there’s romance, as these are fairy tales after all, but these fairy tales don’t necessarily have happily ever after endings.  Politics, diplomacy, secrets, and “the greater good” rear their ugly heads, making the roads to romance difficult, and possibly impossible.

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For fun (i.e., not on the reading list), I’m reading Scarlet, as I mentioned above, and I got the last book in the Dairy Queen trilogy, Front and Center.  DJ’s life is all a big mess now as she realizes that to get scholarships, she has to decide on a college in her junior year.   She’s being courted by Big 10 schools, but she does not feel she has a Big 10 mentality, and is eyeballing lower division schools, much to her brother Win’s dismay.  Plus she’s also being courted by her friend and teammate Beaner, but her heart is still with Brian, despite his treatment of their relationship.  I love DJ and her family, and I’m sad to say goodbye to her with this final book.  This was everything I’d hoped for as a final installment.

On hold at the library:  The Pigman; Will Grayson, Will Grayson; Wintergirls; and Princess Ben.  Princess Ben isn’t one of the 235, but it is by Murdock, the author of Dairy Queen, and I want to read more of her stuff.