Category Archives: Anime

Project Haruhi’s Fall Anime Preview, Part 1

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You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

We are Project Haruhi. We are not one, but many.

That’s right! Contrary to popular belief, this website actually has several different authors writing for us. And we’re not just a bunch of emotionless clones, either… we each have unique opinions and aesthetic preferences. Despite what some of our readers believe, we’re not all grumpy moe-hating oldfags or fanservice-bashing puritans. Our tastes are as diverse as the colors of the rainbow.

To help emphasize that fact, I’ve asked each of our authors to write up their own short fall anime preview, detailing which shows they’re interested in and why. The first four of these previews are in this post; the rest will come tomorrow. Hopefully, this should give you a good idea of what to expect in our upcoming episode reviews and podcasts. Maybe our opinions will help you decide which shows you want to watch as well. So read on below the break, and let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

Note: Before reading this, it might be a good idea to check out Random Curiosity’s preview. It has descriptions and trailers for each of the shows we’ll be talking about, and is generally an excellent resource for keeping track of the new fall season anime.

[OP image by bbmbbf]

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Madhouse Earns My Forgiveness With Epic New Film

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I have immense respect for the prolific anime studio Madhouse, but their offering this season has been a total disappointment. Highschool of the Dead is one of the worst anime I have ever seen; a veritable ordeal to watch. If it wasn’t for my duties as chief editor of this site, I would have dropped it weeks ago. The K-ON!! finale might have been a wrenching roller-coaster of emotion, but the last episode of HOTD is what brought me to tears… tears of joy, that is. I’m so very happy that I don’t have to watch another episode of that garbage.

So, as you can imagine, I’ve been pretty disappointed in Madhouse lately… that is, until I saw this little trailer for something called Redline.

Freakin’ epic.

Seriously, this is one of the most visually stunning anime projects I have ever seen. I especially love the bits which display an aesthetic I can only describe as “LSD cyberpunk.” I think this film is worth watching for the animation alone. Madhouse, you have redeemed yourself.

You can learn more about Redline at ANN.

Otaku Debate: Did the Summer Anime Season Suck?

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Surprisingly, last week’s debate didn’t generate the knee-jerk negative reaction towards obesity that I expected. Most of the poll respondents said they preferred their girls anywhere from “meaty” to “slightly chubby,” which could be considered average weight for most people. It’s nice to see our readers have rejected the “thin = sexy” message of pop culture and formed more realistic standards of beauty!

This week’s topic is a bit of a painful one for me. In my humble opinion, this anime season has been a total letdown. Most of the shows, such as Seitokai Yakuindomo and Ookami-san, were just too bland to be worthwhile… and the few that showed promise, like Occult Academy and Highschool of the Dead, turned out to be total duds. The only show that’s marginally entertaining at this point is Mitsudomoe, but the very risque humor makes it appealing to only a small subset of otaku.

Now, I don’t think this means anime is doomed or anything silly like that. We’ve had bad seasons before, particularly in the early nineties after the last economic crash. Still, that doesn’t make it any less depressing to slog through such mediocrity. Has this season left you in a similar state of despair? Or do you think that I’m being overly negative? Are there any anime this season you did enjoy, or are you taking refuge in old classics like Dirty Pair and Gundam while this storm blows over? Vote in the poll below, and share your thoughts in the comment section!

(Just FYI: I consider K-ON!! to be a spring season show, so it doesn’t figure into this debate.)

[poll id=”17″]

Bakacast Briefs – May The Quartz Be With You

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Despite the allure of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, I managed to get this podcast out in a somewhat timely fashion. See? Sometimes miracles really do happen.

Anyway, in this episode we skip the news in favor of two extra reviews: Chris and Larry talk about Working!!,and everyone debates the strengths and weaknesses of Broken Blade (or Break Blade, if you want to be a title purist). We keep our griping about Highschool of the Dead to a bare (Haha! Get it?) minimum so we can quickly move on to more interesting things. Like how awesome it would be to live like a Pokemon trainer.

Anime covered in this episode:

  • Working!! (entire series)
  • Broken Blade #1
  • Highschool of the Dead #10
  • Occult Academy #10
  • K-ON!! #22 and #23

A list of our Bakacast Affiliates can be found here. Be sure to check out their blogs!

[Music used in this episode is “Broken Machine” by Trace Dragon XVI K.]

Past Masters: Dirty Pair

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Introducing Kei and Yuri, also known as the Dirty Pai... er, Lovely Angels!

Space is the final frontier… and these two girls are about to destroy it!

If you’ve ever hung around with oldschool anime fans, you’ve probably heard them mention Dirty Pair. This science fiction buddy-cop comedy has a huge American following, enough to make it one of anime’s best-known cult classics. In fact, this show’s popularity led Nozomi Entertainment to go through all the legal hassle of licensing it nearly twenty-five years after it originally aired. But why exactly is this series so beloved? Well, to answer that question, I just need to make one simple comparison.

Dirty Pair is the Japanese version of Star Trek.

Like Gene Roddenberry’s classic 1960s TV show, Dirty Pair is anachronistic. The look and feel of this anime is incredibly dated, mired in that campy mid-eighties culture that we all enjoy mocking. However, this campiness is part of the charm; the space bikinis, short miniskirts, moon boots and outlandish hairstyles just add to the sense of unrestrained fun that permeates this show. Just like Star Trek, this series’ strengths lie in snappy writing, loveable characters and great stories, allowing it to rise above its sillier qualities and become a true science fiction classic. Despite being a relic of another era, Dirty Pair is still a timeless anime that everyone can enjoy.

Find out more after the break.

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WTF? Panty & Stocking Trailer Revealed

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Ladies and gentlemen, may I present… the official trailer for Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.

I’m not sure what I just watched, but I know it was AWESOME. After seeing this trailer, Sheentaku on Twitter described this show as “an adult version of The Powerpuff Girls,” an assessment I agree with wholeheartedly. It appears that my earlier prediction was correct; Panty & Stocking is indeed a Gainax-style tribute to the great American cartoons of the 90s. The implications of this are clear. In my humble opinion, this is the must-watch show of the 2010 Fall anime season.

Notice the audio track may not be suitable for the work /open public environment.

Bakacast Briefs – Metroid Rage

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The last Metroid in in captivity… but the fanboys are not at peace.

On this week’s Bakacast, we delve into the world of video games and examine how the new Wii game Metroid: Other M completely destroys Samus Aran’s character. Since both Dustin and I are pretty big Metroid fans, there’s plenty of hilariously impotent fanboy rage thrown around. After that, we get around to our usual anime reviews, wherein we address whether or not protagonists such as HotD’s Takashi should have sex. Finally, we answer some decidedly serious Twitter questions as best we can.

  • Highschool of the Dead #9
  • Occult Academy #9
  • K-ON!! 22 (We didn’t review this because Jeagle was absent. Hopefully we’ll get to it next week.)

A list of our Bakacast Affiliates can be found here. Be sure to check out their blogs!

Opening music is “Menu Theme” from Metroid Prime. Ending music is “Samus’ Lonely Waltz” by blackguitar.

Series Review: Working!!

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Here we are at the tail end of the Summer 2010 season, with hardly anything worthwhile to watch. As Bakacast listeners know, we at Project Haruhi are having a hard time finding things to like in the anime we review each week. It’s getting pretty desperate here, such that we no longer care if the flat, uninteresting characters in shows like Highschool of the Dead live or die. Thankfully that is where Working!! comes in. This lifeline of hope was thrown to me by a friend who knew my despair. “This should help! This is moe as we remember!” she said as I sobbed into her arms about my lack of faith in moe. I remember her smile was like a ray of sunshine, boosting my confidence. Happily, she turned out to be bang-on correct. Read on to learn why she was right!

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Review: Highschool of the Dead 9

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This is a guest post written by The Austin Critic. Check out his blog here!

I don’t get Highschool of the Dead. There are times when it’s trying to be a gritty zombie show, and other times when it’s a completely over-the-top, fanservice filled action show. For example, the previous episodes had scenes which featured realistic weapon handling and a few uses of strategy, giving me the impression that this was a realistic portrayal of the zombie apocalypse. The next minute however, the main characters suddenly gain the abilities of Schwarzenegger and start dodging bullets, using weaponry, driving CG military vehicles into hordes of zombies and plowing through countless undead with melee weapons. It also doesn’t help that the fanservice just stops any chance that anyone could take this show seriously. This episode was further proof that this series is having an identity crisis, as one minute it decides to show the mental conflicts that Saeko has gone through before and during this zombie apocalypse, only to completely discard this serious subject matter with fanservice.

Read more after the break.

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Review: K-ON!! 21

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Last week’s episode of K-ON!! had a rather solemn tone, making viewers teary-eyed as the HTT girls finished their final festival together. With this in mind, the next episode could have had any tone imaginable. It could have kept the serious, dramatic feel of the school festival, or shifted back to the lighthearted but ultimately pointless moe fluff that made this show so infamous.

Sad to say, they decided to go with the latter. It reminds me of a previous annoying filler episode a few weeks back. However, this episode was far more entertaining than that disaster, with the jokes being good and the interactions spot on. Of course, since I’m an evil hater critic who loathes all things good and pure, I still had some problems with it. My main complaint is that the episode doesn’t bring anything new or interesting to the table… just more predictable moeblobbery that fails to surprise anyone. With only five episodes remaining, can they really afford to be wasting time with this kind of filler?

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