OVA Review: Black Rock Shooter

Posted on July 31, 2010 by Jon

Flaming eyeballs? There's a Visine for that.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Black Rock Shooter was originally a character designed by the Japanese artist Huke, which the band Supercell adapted into a wildly popular Hatsune Miku music video. The video itself doesn’t feature much plot; it’s just the titular protagonist travelling around a post-apocalyptic world, looking all emo and angsty. That means when Yutaka Yamamoto and Studio Ordet decided to make a full-length original video animation from this concept for their first independent project, they had their work cut out for them. Not only did they have to prove their little startup studio could produce quality anime, they had to create an entire universe and mythology for Black Rock Shooter from scratch.

So, did they succeed? Did Studio Ordet prove it could hold its own against the older, larger and better-funded anime studios? Sadly, no. This OVA was a disappointment on nearly every level. It’s a pity, since there’s a really interesting concept here. Unfortunately, it was dragged down by poor animation, badly paced storytelling and low production values.

Is Anime Doomed?

Posted on July 30, 2010 by Shamisen

Editorial Comment

Could we be living in the last days of anime? One industry insider seems to think so.

This article featured on ANN is from an interview with writer Dai Sato, credited with writing episodes for Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell. He paints a rather grim picture picture of the decline and death of anime within the next few decades.

Sato dismissed the idea of “Cool Japan” and complained that much of the in-between animation work in anime is outsourced to people in other countries, who may not be aware of or invested in the work itself. Similar to director Hayao Miyazaki, Sato criticized politicians and other who promoted the image of Cool Japan for their own purposes. Sato also decried series that were more about escape than about confronting real problems, and proclaimed that the anime industry in Japan is a “super establishment system” rather than a creative force, focused more on characters and on merchandise. He suggested that manga was “the last hold out,” and that if manga was lost then anime would not last without it.

While this reflects one person’s opinion, there are others who think the industry is growing. However given the subpar offerings for the summer 2010 season I can understand the reasoning behind Dai Sato’s statements.

Read my own opinion on this after the break.

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Bakacast Briefs – OneManga’s Doom

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Jon

First off, sorry for the lateness of this Bakacast episode. Since Dustin is on vacation this week, I got to try my hand at editing the podcast, and it took friggin’ FOREVER. On the plus side, I did get to pick the theme music this time around…

Anyways, this episode features a greatly expanded cast. Although Dustin is absent, I brought in Konata (aka Jeagle) and Shamisen (aka Larry) to fill his place. That means you’re getting twice as many bakas for the same low price!

As always, you can download it directly, subscribe to our RSS feed, or let iTunes do all the work for you.

We start off with a discussion about the demise of One Manga, as well as the new Seven Seas licenses. Then, after drooling over recently-announced sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender, we get into reviewing this week’s new anime.

Highschool of the Dead #3
Occult Academy #3
Seitokai Yakuindomo #3
K-ON!! #16

And that’s pretty much it. See y’all next week!

Yen Plus Offers Free Online Manga!

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Chris

Yen Press, the US publishing company that holds the rights to titles such as Yotsuba&, K-ON! and Highschool of the Dead, has launched the online version of their monthly anthology magazine Yen Plus this week, replacing their now-defunct print edition. To celebrate this event, the August issue of the magazine is free, while any ongoing subscriptions will be $2.99 per month. The fact that this move occurs in the same week as the death of One Manga is perhaps only a coincidence, however with other publishing houses like Square Enix also putting content online, we may be seeing the beginning of a major shift in manga content distribution. What’s your opinion: are you along for the ride?

More after the jump.

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Review: Seitokai Yakuindomo 4

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Guest

HOORAY FOR ANOTHER DISAPPOINTMENT!

After last week’s episode of Seitokai Yauindomo showed signs of improvement, I was hoping the next one would continue this trend. Unfortunately, like a sick twist of fate, this week’s episode reverted back to the subpar quality of the first two–rife with overused innuendos, juvinile humor, abominably bad storytelling and nonexistant character development. It was a huge punch in the stomach to watch this disaster after I was so impressed with last week’s episode. It pains me to do this, but it’s time for me to pull out my good ol’ ranting stick of nerd rage.

See my rage unleashed after the jump.

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Review: K-ON!! 16

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Guest

Who wants a sticker?

I’ve been quite enthusiastic about K-ON!! lately. Every episode since 13 has been good, and I was especially hyped after last week’s enjoyable offering. Sadly, this week I was in for a disappointment. While the latest episode wasn’t necessarily bad, I didn’t enjoy it all that much. Sure, it had some really cute moments in it, but I feel that the plot was far too repetitive. It relied all too much on the cuteness, eschewing any meaningful plot or character development. The end result was an episode that was a bit disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t exactly bad… but it wasn’t very good either.

Read more after the jump. Continue reading →

Thar She Blows: One Manga Signs Off

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Chris

Well, it has finally happened. One Manga, one of the biggest scanlation hoarding websites on the internet today, is closing up shop at the end of this week due to ‘publishers recently changing their stance on scanlations’. It was only a matter of time before the popular website submitted to pressure from the multi-national manga anti-piracy coalition, which aims to reduce the huge amount of manga piracy on the internet. Indeed, the scalp of One Manga will be a big victory for the coalition as, according to ANN, One Manga was ranked #935 on Google’s 1000 most visited websites on the ‘net. This is quite a staggering thought; to think that a website that relies on such blatant piracy could rise to become one of Google’s top 1000. No wonder it had to go.

Do you visit One Manga frequently? I know I did, yet as I said in my previous article, and I say again now: lets pull our fingers out and start supporting the industry we love. Consider the death of One Manga the final wake up call.

Review: Occult Academy 3

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Jon

Show us those pearly whites!

After the first two episodes of Occult Academy blew me away, I was expecting big things from the third. In hindsight, perhaps this was foolish; many anime have great introductions, but falter a few episodes in. Was I setting my expectations too high? Or was I merely so confident in the creative talent behind Anime no Chikara that I thought they could do no wrong?

Perhaps I’m being a bit drastic; the third episode of Occult Academy certainly wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. It rounded out Fumiaki’s character wonderfully, and delivered more laughs than Seitokai Yakuindomo will ever manage. However, it barely added anything to the series’ mythos or storyline, other than the rather bland new character Mikaze. In fact, this Mary Sue romantic interest and her date with Fumiaki took up far too much of this episode’s runtime, and slowed the pacing to a crawl. The end result was an episode that, while still enjoyable, was nowhere near as good as the previous two.

Find out more after the break.

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Project Haruhi First Anniversary Contest Winner!

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Chris

Last week, Project Haruhi celebrated its first anniversary as an anime blog. We asked you, the readers, to help us come up with a witty and fun tagline that would suit this website. Well, congratulations to Kamanashi for the winning comment! Project Haruhi: We’re not interested in ordinary cartoons is definitely something Haruhi herself would say and captures the vibe of the website perfectly.

Kamanashi, please forward your contact details to ryoko[at] projectharuhi.net and we shall send you your prize, a $50 gift certificate for J-List. Once again, congratulations!

Kamanshi’s blog and Twitter

Honorable mentions:
Galen: I Can’t Believe Its Not Moe!
Starlogic: Because Sankaku Complex is NSFW
Zzeroparticle: Chocolate Cornets and Other Anime Musings; After School Tea, Cakes, and Anime

The Four Laws of Moe

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Jon

Is this moe's true form?

This is a refined and expanded version of an editorial I originally wrote for Japanator. The original can be found here.

It seems one of the biggest problems in the ongoing moe debate is the lack of any concrete definition for the term “moe.” This has lead to all sorts of argument among otaku; some believe the term can be applied to any female character the viewer considers cute, while others argue it should be strictly limited to its original Japanese definition. Personally, I think the truth lies in between these two extremes. After all, language is defined by its usage, not by the opinions of a few crazed fanboys or some dusty old dictionary. Therefore, based on my own observations and research, I have created the Four Laws of Moe. I believe these laws lay out, in clear and concise detail, the exact parameters of moe and what traits a character must exhibit in order to be considered as such. Of course, these laws are merely a reflection of my own opinion; feel free to improve upon them, argue against them or even construct your own alternative theory. Whatever the case, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.