Weekly Anime Review – Cute Squids and Stripper Demons

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Longtime readers of Project Haruhi might have noticed that we haven’t been posting a lot of anime reviews lately. This is because most of our authors, myself included, got tired of writing long screeds for every freakin’ episode of anime we watched. Therefore, we’ve decided to adopt a more streamlined format for individual episode reviews. Each author is going to write a short, two-or-three paragraph review for whichever shows they’re covering, and they will all be collected together into a single weekly column.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the inaugural edition of the Weekly Anime Review. Keep reading below the break for our cynical, jaded anime rants, then let us know what you think in the comment section!

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Bakacast – Kirino is a Jerk

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In this unusually awkward episode of Bakacast, I reveal my intimate knowledge of lesbian faeries, and the entire Bakacast crew learns the secrets of baby-making.

On the review front, we’re dumbfounded by OreImo, learn that it’s not a good idea to eat lunch while watching Panty & Stocking, randomly riff on Iron Man’s adventure IN SPAAAAACE!, and celebrate Star Driver‘s fabulousness. Also, by popular demand, I gave Bakuman another chance; though I’m guessing fans of the show will wish I didn’t.

We cover:

  • OreImo #5
  • Panty & Stocking #5
  • Otome Youkai Zakuro #5
  • Iron Man #5
  • Star Driver #5
  • Squid Girl #4
  • Bakuman #2 & 3

[OP is Super Driver, ED is Tomare!, both by Cristina Vee. This post is brought to you by me listening to Queen on loop, and viewers like you.]

BiriBiri is Back! – A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA Review

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When I first heard there was going to be a Railgun OVA, I was disappointed. Yeah, you read that right. Unlike other fans, I was not looking forward to this. Ever since episode thirteen of the original series, I’ve been waiting impatiently for J.C. Staff to cut the filler crap and move ahead with the actual story, as laid out in the manga. The last thing Railgun needs right now is more pointless fluff. Being the pessimist that I am, I was steeling myself for more holodeck swimsuit antics and Pizza Hut product placement. Fortunately, I was wrong.

In a nutshell, this OVA was exactly like one of the better episodes of the TV series. There were lightning-lesbian antics, an urban legend-based mystery that needed solving, a personal crisis for Mikoto and the Power of Friendship™ to help save the day. Hell, you could stick this in the middle of the show itself, and it would be nigh-indistinguishable from a regular episode. This is both a good and bad thing; although this OVA is guaranteed to entertain the hardcore Railgun fans like myself, it also suffers from all the same flaws that made the original show such a hard sell for more casual viewers. This half-hour of Mikoto-filled goodness encapsulates everything that is right and wrong with the franchise as a whole.

Read more after the break.

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Bakacast – Shark Armageddon

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Did you know that the ghost shark is the ninja’s ancient nemesis? It’s true! Jon is back to educate us on this historic myth and more on this week’s episode of Bakacast. I’ve finally resigned myself to the fact that these things are going to be well over an hour for the rest of the season, which I guess means we’ve finally joined the ranks of every other anime podcast. That sound you hear is my tears falling upon the altar of conformity.

That other sound you hear is from the future where every podcast listener breaks my fingers for not liking Squid Girl. Yes, I realize I have a problem! My heart is broken, and the only cure is the power of love.

In this episode, we ramble… er, talk about:

  • OreImo #4
  • Panty & Stocking #4
  • Otome Youkai Zakuro #4
  • Samurai Girls #4
  • Iron Man #4
  • Squid Girl #3
  • Star Driver #4

Oh, and to anyone who clicked on that YouTube link? Good luck getting the song out of your head. Muahahahaha!

[Album Art Source]

East Meets West Part 1: What can Superman learn from Japan?

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I’ve made it clear before that I like it when artists try mixing two cultural styles to create something new and interesting. Though that’s partly because I love artistic experimentation, there’s a practical reason, too.  I’ve noticed there are certain things America is better at than Japan, and vice versa; and both countries have pursued ideas the other hasn’t. In this three-part series, I’ll analyze what I think are each country’s artistic advantages: why they’re good and what the other country can learn from them.

For this inaugural entry, my focus is on comic books. To make my comparisons easier to parse, “comics” will refer to American comic books and “manga” will refer to Japanese comic books.

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Moe Beyond Anime: The Masked Alien Lover

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As I stated in my “Four Laws of Moe” article, moe is a concept that is intrinsically linked to anime. The very term conjures up images of giggling Japanese schoolgirls, meganekko, and other archetypes found solely in Japanese media. But is it possible for moe to exist outside of anime? The feelings of paternal protectiveness which define this meme are not restrained by cultural boundaries, so why does moe itself have to be exclusively Japanese?

I’d like you to meet somebody. The masked female alien in the picture above is named Tali’Zorah nar Rayya. She is a character from BioWare’s Mass Effect series of space opera RPGs. As a Quarian, Tali’s hypersensitive immune system forces her to constantly remain inside her environment suit, protected from the infectious hazards of the outside world. Even a few seconds of exposure could be fatal. Throughout Mass Effect 1 and 2, you never to see her face… only the cold, hard steel of her mask.

Despite this, I still think she’s moe. Find out why after the break.

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Bakacast – Turning Japanese

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In this unusually long episode of Bakacast (no longer called “Briefs,” for obvious reasons), we bring back Twitter questions with hilarious results. For example we talk about which anime character we’d like turn into (hence our use of the classic weaboo anthem “Turning Japanese” as the intro song), genderbending, and the awesomeness that is Picard. These answers and more await, if you can manage to get through the first hour and a half!

Besides the mountain of anime we review, we also take a look at the stats Crunchyroll released recently and discuss what surprised us, what didn’t, and what trends we’d like to see in the future.

Anime covered in this episode:

  • OreImo #3
  • Panty & Stocking #3
  • Iron Man #3
  • Samurai Girls #3
  • Squid Girl #1 & 2
  • Star Driver #2 & 3
  • Otome Youkai Zakuro #2 & 3

So yeah, we’re jam-packed with content, which I hope makes up for Our Glorious Leader Jon’s absence and the long wait.

OreImo 2 & 3 – Moe Done RIGHT!

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The claw is our master!

Okay, drop everything you are doing right now and listen up. I am watching only one series this fall. Yup, it has already come to this; my last ditch attempt to spin my fanboy generators to maximum, my last summoning of will to enjoy an anime series with every fibre of my being. This is in a way quite sad, as there are plenty of people enjoying this season’s other anime to their fullest. Samurai Girls, Iron Man, Sora no Otoshimono, Panty and Stocking, or whatever your vice is; none of these are doing anything for me. The fanboy generator room has instead become a place of quiet meditation and brooding. That is, until I started watching My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute. Thats when things finally started spooling.

Now Jeagle did begin to review this series a few weeks back, but has since become lost in his own little world. My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute (or OreImo for short) has quickly become my numero uno anime for this season. Witty writing and dialogue, interesting characters and a wonderful art style makes for pleasant and funny watching. I guess what makes it so out there for me is the story. Here we have Kyōsuke, the older brother, almost characterless and devoid of much emotion, at least to start off with. He is sick of being the neglected child despite being the eldest of two. Then there is Kirino, the star of the show, the younger sister, the teen goddess, and boy, doesn’t she know it. If the anime itself isn’t very pretentious, Kirino makes up for this in leaps and bounds, much to Kyōsuke’s chagrin. The catalyst that kicks off the fun is Kirino’s closet fetish for little sister eroge. Sound dangerous? I have no idea where this series is heading, but am along for the ride.

Read more after the break.

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Roundtable: Remembering Golden Sun

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In 2001, Nintendo released Golden Sun, an RPG made by Camelot Software Planning for the Gameboy Advance. It took both critics and gamers by storm, quickly earning a devoted fanbase. Its 2003 sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, met with similar praise and solidified the series as one of the best on the GBA and a must-have for RPG fans. However, it’s cliffhanger ending also left fans clamoring for a third game. Their hopes were met with little more than teases.

Finally, at E3 2009, Golden Sun DS–now titled Golden Sun: Dark Dawn–was revealed. As the resident Golden Sun fanatics, SilentAki and I can’t wait for its North American release, which is just a little over a month away. Since both of us recently replayed the first two games, we decided to meet on Skype to discuss what made Golden Sun such a great series. So if you want to join us on our trip through nostalgia lane or simply learn what all the fuss is about, follow us after the break.

But be warned: there are SPOILERS ahead!

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LGBT in Anime: Hourou Musuko

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Pop quiz: without using Google or Wikipedia, what does the ‘T’ in ‘LGBT’ represent?

If you guessed ‘trap,’ you aren’t completely wrong, but you aren’t right, either. That ‘T’ actually stands for ‘transgender,’ which is arguably the least represented and least understood culture associated with alternative sexuality and gender roles. Cross-dressing and gender swapping in popular media, especially anime and manga, is generally played for laughs or used as a plot device which is given little real focus. Hourou Musuko, however, is a manga which dives right into the issues and portrays them much differently than what is typically seen. The anime adaptation begins airing in January 2011, and the English version of the manga goes on sale in March. Find out why you should care after the break!

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