Category Archives: Season Reviews

First Impressions – Infinite Stratos

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Just one of the things Infinite Stratos copies from Love Hina.

I was a little skeptical of Infinite Stratos just from the short description on Cart Driver’s season chart. Mecha are neat and all, but the no-boys-allowed rule seemed like a flimsy attempt to force a harem situation. Plus, the description of the main character’s friend made her sound like a generic tsundere. On the other hand, the director (Yasuhito Kikuchi) also worked on Macross Frontier, a show which managed to take a pretty traditional love triangle and make it interesting (even if Sheryl is clearly better than Ranka). So, hey, it could be good, right?

Unfortunately no, it isn’t. At all. Virtually everything in this show is profoundly disappointing, and the only thing I liked barely got any screen time. I’ll break it all down for you after the jump.

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First Impressions – Dream Eater Merry

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She's more worried about her head being uncovered

This is probably as good a time as any to mention that I kinda have a thing for toned female stomachs. My best friend growing up was the only other person I’ve ever known who shared this interest, but now I can add a third person to our club: Yamauchi Shigeyasu, the director of Dream Eater Merry. He’s obviously not shy about it, since I’m pretty sure Merry’s bellybutton had more closeups than her face. As much as I appreciated the attention to detail on this part of her character, I was still primarily interested in what was going on everywhere else. Fortunately, I wasn’t disappointed.

Fujiwara Yumeji has recently been having dreams in which he is pursued by a gang of bipedal cats through what looks like New York City from An American Tale. They finally catch up to him but retreat after a rooster crows, signaling they’re “out of time,” but promising to bring their boss to meet him next time. The next morning, he uses his ability to see multicolored dots by looking through his fingers (I never knew this was a special thing because I always see that sort of stuff when I press on my eyes like that) to try to predict what type of dreams his friends will have that night. After hanging out with a slightly creepy teacher and talking about writing novels, he heads home and has a forceful encounter with a strange girl who wanders off after she loses her hat.

More tummy after the break!

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Weekly Anime Review: Fall Season Wrapup

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Well, this season of anime was certainly a pleasant surprise. After the lackluster summer season, everyone at Project Haruhi felt that our prospects for the fall weren’t all that great. Fortunately, a few standout series managed to rise above the typical  fare and keep us entertained. Foremost among them was Squid Girl, which we all agree was the best show of the season. Sadly, that’s pretty much the ONLY thing we agreed on.

While recording our weekly reviews on Bakacast, a number of disagreements sprung up. Dusty and Glen are huge fans of Star Driver, whereas I found it too boring to watch past four episodes. Alternatively, I’ve been quite the Panty & Stocking apologist, but Glen and Dusty find it marginally entertaining at best. And we all enjoyed hating on OreImo, one of the most reviled shows of the season… except for Glen, who actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Even our opinions of Iron Man tended to vary.

For the purposes of these reviews, I’ve tried to assign each show to the person who enjoyed it the most. The exceptions are Samurai Girls, which NOBODY liked, and Iron Man, which Dusty gets because he’s our resident comic book nerd. Hopefully, that will make these reviews more than just one unending stream of negativity. No promises, though.

Our in-depth reviews are below the break. Beware the sacrilege! Oh, and the spoilers too.

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Bakacast – We Are Not Spinal Tap

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On this episode of Bakacast, we bid a semi-fond farewell to the Fall 2010 season and share what we’re looking forward to (or dreading) in the coming winter. But first, I guess there might be more Lucky Star in our future? Who knows! And, more to the point, who cares? Frankly, we’re more interested in the recent Disappearance of Haruhi Suzimiya movie, which kicks off our review segment.

Ever wanted to hear me lose my temper? Well, you’ll get your chance when Jon and I battle it out during the Panty & Stocking discussion (though at least we can all agree that the soundtrack is fantastic). And to make sure this episode was extra special, we captured Thomas from Stepping Up to the Anime Plate so he could give us his thoughts on MM!

We cover:

  • The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
  • Panty & Stocking #13
  • Otome Youkai Zakuro #13
  • Squid Girl #12
  • Iron Man #12
  • MM!
  • Star Driver #13

Since the winter season’s shows won’t debut before our normal podcast recording time, we’ll be doing things a little differently next week. How different? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see…

Bakacast – Chizuru vs Grizzly Bear

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Bakacast is back from our holiday vacation, and we hope you guys had a good holiday too! I got The Secret of Kells on Blu-ray, so you can expect me to review that sometime in the future.

In any case, we send off OreImo with tempered praise. This won’t be our last discussion of the series, though. We’re pretty much guaranteed to talk about the OVA’s when they come out (I’m crossing my fingers for a “nice boat” ending). After that, Glen and I lament how far Zakuro has fallen, Glen and Larry’s rant on Samurai Girls justifies my decision to drop it by the fifth episode, Glen confesses his love for Kanako of Star Driver fame, and I come up with a surefire way for Squid Girl to get a coveted 6 out of 5 Picards.

We cover:

  • OreImo #12 (finale)
  • Panty & Stocking #12
  • Otome Youkai Zakuro #12
  • Samurai Girls #12 (finale)
  • Squid Girl #11
  • Star Driver #12

We’ll officially say goodbye to the fall season on the next episode and start bracing ourselves for winter. But until then, why don’t we gather around the yule log and enjoy the soothing strains of the Panty & Stocking soundtrack?

12 Days of Anime #4: Salvation From Hell

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Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt was easily one of the most anticipated anime of the fall season. Conceived under the influence of excessive alcohol by the brilliantly insane folk at Gainax, it had the creative team behind Gurren Lagann mixed with artistic inspiration from Jhonen Vasquez and Genndy Tartakovsky. It was a match made in heaven! And after the borefest known as Hanamaru Kindergarten, everybody was eager for Gainax get back on top of their game. We expected something incredible, something that would sear our eyeballs and burn our brains. We wanted another Evangelion, another FLCL, another Gunbuster.

Perhaps because of our high expectations, PSG was a disappointment at first. Sure, it was frenetic and fun, but the comedy was incredibly one-note. The whole ‘barrage of lewd humor’ bit had been done far better in other anime, including this summer’s Mitsudomoe. So we wound up with a show that was pretty to look at and had a kickass soundtrack, but was otherwise unremarkable. People were starting to lose faith. Had Gainax laid another egg?

Then, salvation came from the most unexpected of places… the fiery pits of hell!

Yup, these devilishly sexy villains managed to singlehandedly save PSG from the purgatory of mediocrity.  The Demon Sisters brought a sorely-needed vibrant energy to every episode they starred in with their forceful personalities. This was a turning point for PSG; instead of an endless barrage of tired sex jokes, we got actual story and clever parody. Of course, there was the occasional off episode, but on the whole it was a vast improvement. It’s no wonder why these two hellish vixens have gained such widespread popularity… perhaps even greater than that of the protagonists themselves.

Bakacast – My Motorcycle Can’t Be This Sexy

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On this episode of Bakacast, we praise yet another one of Hasbro’s new TV shows, Transformers: Prime. But before that, we all discuss the details of the content-restriction bill that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government passed recently, also known as the “anime ban.” Not because we think we think we’re breaking the news, but because we’d like to help calm down all the people positing end-of-the-anime-world scenarios.

After that, we go to our normal reviews, which contain more rants than usual thanks to Kirino’s absurd “apology,” Samurai Girl‘s hilarious thoughts on love, and Iron Man‘s writing staff proving they have no idea how a plot is supposed to work. Oh, and I guess we answer a Twitter question wherein we reveal how terrible we are at casting live-action adaptations of anime.

We cover:

  • Transformers: Prime #1-5
  • OreImo #11
  • Panty & Stocking #11
  • Iron Man #11
  • Squid Girl #10
  • Otome Youkai Zakuro #11
  • Star Driver #11

[This album art brought to you by ka-ju, who is very talented at drawing giant robots.]

12 Days of Anime #12: My Summer Crush

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Now that final exams are over, I’ve decided to participate in the 12 Days of Anime project. It’s kind of a ‘back to basics’ anime blogging challenge, in which we count down the days until Christmas by writing about 12 anime-related moments from the last year that were particularly memorable or influential. I don’t know if I’ll be able to come up with 12 things to talk about though, so I might let Dusty fill in some of the blanks. Anyway, here goes!

I have an unusual perspective on fanservice. In my opinion, those promiscuous girls with the giant, floppy tits from Highschool of the Dead or Samurai Girls aren’t sexy in the slightest. Perhaps my overexposure to internet porn has made me jaded, but those kinds of blatant attempts at titillation tend to bore me. That’s why I always evaluate fanservice-heavy shows so cynically; I’m always looking beyond the breasts, hoping for some worthwhile character or unique story. Sometimes, my patience is rewarded with hidden gems like Kiddy Grade. Most of the time I just wind up disappointed.

But, this summer, something special happened. My first memory of her is during a school meeting, held in the massive marble hall of Occult Academy. Her father had died, but she wasn’t sad. She just sat there in a metal folding chair, impatiently tapping her fingers as if annoyed by the whole spectacle. This was a girl who carved her own path in life, and everyone else be damned. Even her clothes, sexy as hell itself, asserted a fierce individuality. This wasn’t another feckless fanservice female or mild-mannered moeblob. No, this was a woman with fiery passion and an icy heart.

Her name was Maya Kumashiro. And I had fallen in love with her.

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Bakacast – My Little Panty

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On this belated episode of Bakacast, Jon, Larry and I take a quick diversion to share our thoughts on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. For those of you hoping to avoid diabetes, don’t worry; we’ll balance out the sugary sweetness next week when we tackle giant, transforming robots with a penchant for violence.

With our equestrian evaluation complete, we gallop on to our normal stuff (except for Zakuro, which was skipped because Glen was absent). Then we hit the Twitter questions, which, as usual, takes a turn for the bizarre. Will our listeners ever get sick of asking us about hentai and eroge?

Probably not.

We cover:

  • My Little Pony #1 & 2
  • OreImo #10
  • Panty & Stocking #10
  • Samurai Girls #9
  • Iron Man #10
  • Squid Girl #9
  • Star Driver #10

While you wait for the podcast to download, why not check out My Little Pony for yourself? You can find the pilot on YouTube in four parts.

Or check out Jon’s gender-swapped image of me, which actually gets mentioned on the podcast. See? I told you Twitter questions get weird.

Bakacast – Panty & Stocking with Top Gun

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Well, another episode of Bakacast is complete, but now is not a time for celebration. Jon is missing, and the only clue I have is a ransom note left under one of his Rei figurines. I’ll transcribe the whole thing here, so maybe you listeners can help us get him back.

To the pitiful human degenerates calling themselves Project Haruhi,

My dear sister, Kneesocks, and I have taken your leader hostage. Seeing as your minds are likely too clogged with filth to process why this has happened–a trait you share with certain angels I’m unfortunately acquainted with–I’ll explain in the simplest terms possible.

You are liars. You’ve repeatedly called me and my sister “villains” with no evidence to back up such claims. In fact, there’s far more evidence to suggest Panty and Stocking, the two “heroes” that so many brain-dead humans like yourselves slobber over, are the ones in the wrong. Wherever they go, they leave chaos and sewage in their wake. Their vulgar habits and language obliterate what little beauty was mercifully granted to them. And, worst of all, they flagrantly disregard the rrrrrrules of elegant society.

This is not the first time you’ve proven yourselves incapable of intelligent thought. First, we only lost our beach volleyball battle because the referee was biased toward the blonde bimbo, which was such a gross violation of the rrrrrrules that any sensible person would say we won by default. Second the characters in Iron Man shouldn’t be mocked for their idiocy, since they’re accurately mimicking how all humans behave. The fact that Squid Girl so easily entertained you with a story about a child playing with an umbrella proves it. Third, you created the word “bro-bath” out of wholecloth simply to describe the perceived homosexual undertones of Star Driver; our more refined minds, however, can tell you such things only exist within the confines of your perverted imaginations.

In fact, as Kneesocks and I thought about the podcast you just recorded (your communications were laughably easy to bug, by the way), we realized the only thing any of you got right was calling our theme song the best one on the upcoming Panty & Stocking soundtrack.

If you want your friend back, you will retract your false statements about me and my sister and publicly apologize for your insolence. Don’t worry, he’ll be kept safe until you inevitably accede to our request. Unlike those fallen angels, we care about our reputation.

~Scanty

While we figure out a way to save Jon, maybe you’d like to find out first-hand what we said about:

  • OreImo #9
  • Panty & Stocking #9
  • Otome Youkai Zakuro #9
  • Iron Man #9
  • Squid Girl #8
  • Star Driver #9

You can find our written reviews of these shows here.

    Also, I should thank MLPnox (who was not, as I suggest in the episode, a Twitter account made up by Jon in the spur of the moment) for the My Little Pony question. Because of you, I managed to convince Glen and Larry to review the pilot episode with me on the next Bakacast.

    You’ve done well, my friend.