The Story Thus Far

So I haven’t written anything here in a while and, really, who cares because few people read it and it’s just a writing exercise for me right now. I’m fine with that, because I enjoy writing. But, that said, I miss writing about anime. It’s just that I don’t feel knowledgeable enough about any particular subject, besides just reviewing what I watch, to write with any sort of regularity. I originally promised, or rather pledged to myself, one column a week. Well, that was all fine and dandy when I was first starting and had all these ideas in my head, but now I’m just running out of things to talk about and that kind of saddens me. But whatever, that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

What I’m here to talk about now is how I got into anime. I feel this is an important subject to breach upon because so many new anime fans could come now that Toonami is back on Cartoon Network, albeit on a late night slot where adult swim used to be. But hey, it’s apparently pulling in more viewers than adult swim used to, so there’s that. And #SoulEater has been trending on twitter, worldwide, for the past two weeks. So that’s cool too.

But my story doesn’t start recently. It wasn’t as far back as fansubbed VHS tapes or even no subs tapes with a guy standing up front explaining what’s happening. No, I was born in 1990 and, as an impressionable fourth grader, or thereabouts, I was introduced to a few very important shows to anime in the US. Those titles were Dragonball Z, Pokémon, and Digimon. These three shows nearly molded my consumption habits as a child (alongside other staples like Power Rangers and Ed, Edd n Eddy).

Those shows were part of the initial anime boom in the US, and molded a great many now-anime fans into the anime fans that they are. But for me, they were really cool cartoons with really cool visuals. Something anime does well, and perhaps better than any other medium, is the visuals. You have great stories in Pixar and Disney films, but you rarely get something so striking as My Neighbor Totoro or Paprika. That’s where anime shines and it captured the minds of hundreds of thousands of kids in the mid- and late ’90s. I was no exception. I remember watching Dragonball Z religiously as it came out, week to week. I still remember exactly where I sat with my best friend from elementary school, glued to the tube watching Dragonball Z’s Namek arc transpire in front of us. While I wouldn’t put Z into my top anything of shows I’ve seen, it most definitely is the one that influenced me the most.

Now, there was a good three or four year period where I watched cartoons on TV, not knowing at the time that they were anime, and just thought they were cool. I watched YuYu Hakusho and Kiki’s Delivery Service and several other titles that I can’t even remember (there were so many at the time! Like Sailor Moon, the ill-fated Cardcaptors, Gundam Wing, Hamtaro, and god so many). But when I entered junior high, I just kind of stopped watching anime. It had mostly gone off TV by that point (well, that’s a lie, but it was much less prevalent—at least it was in terms of my then-consumption habits). By that time, I was sucking at Super Smash Bros and playing the also ill-fated Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King game with my new junior high friends (said best friend from elementary school had by then moved away). This was at a time that I hadn’t even seen Lord of the Rings, except the first film…during which I fell asleep during the REALLY SLOW visiting elf land place (I’m poor with Lord of the Rings names/settings/etc.).

Anyway, junior high was done in two years and I went off to high school. But my high school years were, like so many others, spent trying to learn guitar and starting yet another ill-fated band (that is to say that it is both the third ill-fated thing in this column AND ill-fated as an idea in general). The problem was I sucked at guitar and was the leader, which I was poor at at the time. I’m better at being a leader (though still poor compared to those natural leader-types), but still pretty bad at guitar. But I digress!

My junior year in high school was around the time that I said to myself, “Man, remember that one show where that guy shot a gun from his finger.” Me being awful at sentence structure probably actually said that. But I was remembering with fond memories YuYu Hakusho. Being the awful person I was at the time, I downloaded YuYu Hakusho in its entirety and have watched it probably six or seven times since then. And that’s a 112 episode show.

But that was really the beginning to my re-immersion into anime. Since then, which was around 2006, 2007 or so, I’ve watched 328 anime according to my ANN list (that’s 197 TV series, 28 OVA, 72 movies, and 16 specials according to my MAL list; which is also 6,395 episodes and 108.51 days of anime). I believe I can safely say that I am an anime fan.

I, like oh so many others born around 1990, was brought up on those old shonen shows that were on after school. I’ve since grown out of that phase (no I haven’t; I still love One Piece). But my anime fandom will live ever strong into my adulthood. It’s something I’ll pass on to my children, and hopefully they won’t hate me for it.

Entitlement

Let’s talk about entitlement. Because when I woke up this morning, I said to myself, “Hey, I want to be pissed off about things today.”

First up, a disclaimer, because this is by no means exclusive to anime. That’s evident in the very fact that gamers have thought of the word “freeware” as being a thing. And there are the people that take video cameras into the theater and record the movie in awful, awful quality and then put it up on the internet. And those other people that put up full CDs online for everyone to access (made famous by the Napster stuff of the late 90s or early 2000s).

So, really, this is everywhere. But anime is an industry that can’t hold its own as much as the gaming industry or the film industry or the music industry. Not to say that it can, and has, survived through illegally downloaded content. But it’s going to have a much bigger struggle to recover from illegal downloads on a large scale without the fan backing that it has. So this is speaking really more in general terms that specifically to anime fans.

Anyway…Anime fans (not ALL of them, but a good enough chunk of them) believe that they are entitled to anime the way they want it. That means that it has to have the honorifics in the subtitles and it has to have the names in the Japanese order and it has to be released within the day of it airing in Japan and a whole laundry list of other things that HAVE to be there for them to buy it.

A complaint that I had heard, which I didn’t even know was a complaint, is that anime isn’t being released fast enough here in physical media. It’s released in 13 episode sets whereas American shows are released in full season sets. Well, anime is typically 13 episodes a season, but beyond that, it’s kind of just how the industry is working right now. A few years back, it was $20 for 2-4 episodes, so the industry at large has grown. But also, to make profit in a niche market like this, it could be necessary to sell sets for ~$50 for 13 episodes.

I think what irks me the most about anime fans is that they seemingly HAVE to have their anime right now, subtitled, and in high definition. It can’t be on a one day delay or a few day delay, like Crunchyroll and Funimation’s simulcasts are. That would be ridiculous to wait a few days to watch anime for free and legally.

Really, anime is coming to the States faster and en masse. We have reached a near pinnacle in anime exposure for fans here because of Crunchyroll and Funimation and The Anime Network and even Hulu. These streaming services are bringing over what has to be over 90 percent of the new anime airing on TV each season, and yet fans as a whole will still find something to complain about.

So guys…can’t we all just get along? If you’re worried about price, and you only want subs, then why not just get a subscription to Crunchyroll? If you follow every series that comes out, that’s about 14 episodes of anime PER WEEK. And you pay $7/month. So that’s 56 episodes of anime for $7.

The way I see it, there’s no excuses about “too expensive” or “not fast enough” anymore. You can get 50+ episodes of anime from Crunchyroll for $7/month and they come out the day of or the day after the original air date. So man up and pay for what you love or shut up.

Top 10 Anime Shows - #5-1

You can read my introduction and my #10-6, too.

Alrighty then. #5.

My #5 is probably the best science fiction anime I’ve ever seen, which makes it pretty easy to guess what it is. But other outstanding science fiction anime include: Neon Genesis Evangelion and Time of Eve. I had Evangelion really high last time around, and I almost forgot it again this time around. But this is another one of those shows where, if this were a top 15 list, it would definitely make it on the list. But Evangelion has its flaws, including some sketchy direction from Hideaki Anno. But what it’s trying to do is, I think, still unmatched in any media to date. But it just falls short. Again, pushed off by pandering to my own desires and putting both One Piece and K-ON! onto the list, because it definitely deserves to be on here.

On the other hand is Time of Eve, a really subtle six-episode ONA by Yasuhiro Yoshiura. While I’m at it, I’ll also mention Aquatic Language and Pale Cocoon, his other two works that I’ve seen. All of them are extremely subtle and all of them are extremely good. The dub for Aquatic Language is extremely forgettable, but the sub and the story that’s packed in those nine minutes is great. I think that what Aquatic Language was trying to do was both expanded on and done to a greater, and better, degree in Time of Eve. I also put Time of Eve really high up on my last list, but I’ll admit that my memory is hazy of the show as a whole now. But you can import the BD for pretty cheap now (which is what I did!). What it does for both Asimov’s three rules and for blurring the lines between human and android are absolutely amazing. Probably better than what the Ghost in the Shell series did.

Which, surprising no one, is the #5, Ghost in the Shell. The movies blur that line between human and android a lot better than the series, I think. But Mamoru Oshii loves to screw with you like that and the series had a lot more important things to say about government corruption and other things of that nature.

What I really liked about GitS though was the combination of character episodes and plot episodes (called “stand alone” and “complex” episodes in the first half and “dividual,” “individual,” and “dual” episodes in the second half). I’ll admit that the series really dragged for me in the first half. I just didn’t care to see so many front-loaded character episodes all at once. Something that anime does a lot, and I really like it for, is introducing the ongoing conflict early and keeping that going throughout. GitS didn’t quite do that as well for me. But that is hardly a detraction from the series as a whole and is merely my personal preference.

Having said that, I really liked the Laughing Man plot better than the Individual Eleven plot. Though I liked the “dividual” episodes more than I liked the “stand alone” episodes. So it’s a toss-up for what series I like better; though I think I’ll say that I liked 2^nd GIG better than the first.

What it basically boils down to is this: Do you generally like science fiction or cyberpunk series? If the answer is yes, and you haven’t seen GitS yet, then go watch it.

Ok, #4.

The also-ran for #4 is His and Her Circumstances. Hideaki Anno’s other great work, but he had to leave mid-project due to creative differences between him and the original mangaka. Despite this, the story that Masami Tsuda had been trying to tell is absolutely amazing and no amount of sketchy directing or production values is going to ruin that. But the manga would almost certainly make a top 10 list. The anime, however, struggled to finish and left a crap ton of things unfinished. Thus it misses out.

The #4, though, is Usagi Drop. This is another fairly new series, but it’s one of the best I’ve seen ever. Granted, I haven’t seen a whole bunch of old things like Revolutionary Girl Utena and the like.

What really draws me to the show, though, is just the story that Yumi Unita is trying to tell in a single parent trying to raise a child. The characters of both Daikichi and Rin are so complex and so great that you root for them and you love them as if they were real people. I suppose that’s the goal in any show, but you almost feel like you’re there when you’re watching Usagi Drop.

This is also another one of those shows, like Space Brothers, where this could be a live action production, but this being in animation really brings it to life. What this show, and the next show on the list, does really well is tackle legitimate issues (in this case, of single parenthood and the effects that it could have on the child as a result) in very tactful ways. At the same time, it makes you slowly fall in love with the characters as they move through their own lives. You find yourself wanting to just watch them talk to each other and see what happens.

Similar to K-ON!, this show has some pandering to fans with Rin, but it’s hardly as detracting as it could be in K-ON! But despite these minor shortcomings, it’s a show that’ll capture a lot of people’s hearts, on a similar level to the Ghibli films. It’s really too bad that it didn’t get a dub, but at the same time, a lot might be lost with Rin’s performance if they did make a dub. But I do regret not getting a dub for this show. Alas, NIS decided against it.

Now we’re in the top three, and right on to #3.

I have no also-rans for #3, nor do I for #2. But prepare for also-rans in #1! Anyway, my #3 show is Wandering Son. While Usagi Drop is trying to tackle single parenting and things of that nature, Wandering Son is tackling a much larger beast: It’s trying to tackle the issues of gender identity, and doing so while the characters are going through puberty. Double confusion for the protagonists, Nitori-kun and Takatsuki-san.

And that’s really what grabbed me so completely into the series. The relationship between these characters and just seeing them grow is so compelling and Takako Shimura’s writing is just so good and so amazing that you want to see these characters live their lives through these really complex problems.

I suppose the only real flaw of this series is the mature characterization of everyone, which is oftentimes stretching belief for the mentality of your typical middle schoolers. But that’s hardly a major detraction from the series, as the stories that Wandering Son is trying to tell hold much more importance than these detractions.

Really, what makes me like this series so much is that it touches on a subject that most US productions wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole. And it executes it in such a way that US productions wouldn’t touch with a 20-foot pole. That’s certainly something I really admire about anime; is that it’s willing to tackle these touchy issues, and oftentimes in a very tactful manner.

But I think I’ve rambled on enough about Wandering Son. It’s a very understated series that will get looked over by mere premise. However, it’s definitely worth checking out and sticking out, given that it’s only 11 episodes.

So #3, Wandering Son. Onto #2.

My #2, and former #1, is Baccano!

This show really does everything I want in show. It has great characters and it has a great ongoing plot. The folks at ANN said that you could jump into any scene and just have fun watching it, and I’ll have to agree with that. You won’t understand everything that’s going on in the scene, no. But by god, you’ll have fun watching it. This is a large cast of a little more than a dozen and you find yourself rooting for every single one of them by the end of the series in some little way.

I think one of my favorite things about the series is that it has amazing rewatch value. You get everything you need to enjoy the show watching it the first time, but you gain a greater and greater understanding for the series as a whole as you watch it two, three, four more times.

The characters in Baccano!, though, really bring the story together. Where would this show be without people like Isaac and Miria? Or Firo? Or Ennis? Or the conniving Szilard Quates? Even minor characters like Elmer C. Albatross and the Devil himself play a seemingly major role in the story as a whole. And secondary characters like Czeslaw Meyer and Maiza Avaro really bring the rest of the cast together to form one, cohesive whole. Last but not least, not enough can be said about Ladd Russo. Every time one of these characters is on screen, I just want them to be there forever. They’re easily likable and understandable, and they really have to be for the way the story is being told.

The disjointed narrative, told in chronological order through the various years, but the years themselves told very much out of order, make this show one of the most unique you’ll pick up ever. If this were told in a strictly chronological order, it would lose a lot of its umphf and strengths. The narrative structure, much like the music in a Yoko Kanno or Yuki Kajiura composed series, could very well be called a character unto itself. I wouldn’t, and it would be a stretch to do so, but you could make the argument.

Anyway, overall, Baccano! is a lot of fun. I think that no matter who you are, you will find some enjoyment out of Baccano!, if not from the show as a whole. It has a great mass appeal and a great dub cast, which only makes it more accessible.

Finally, the home stretch. #1.

The also-rans for the #1 spot are just the works of Shinichiro Watanabe, specifically Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, the “Baby Blue” short that was part of Genius Party, and Kids on the Slope. No matter what this man is doing, it is goddamn brilliant. The only reason they remain off the list is because the shows, while really amazing, just didn’t resonate with me as much as they did with other people. My preferred show is a slice of life, as evidence from three of my top 5 being slice of life shows. But, with the exception of Kids on the Slope, which I enjoyed the most out of the four, they just didn’t resonate with me as much as the other shows. They’re really, really good, and Bebop and Champloo are definitely worthy of an objectively best top 10 list and as great introductions to anime to people who have never seen a minute of anime. But they just don’t make the cut.

But my #1 show that I have ever seen is Anohaha: The Flower We Saw That Day (in Japanese, ano hi mita hana no namae o bokutachi wa mada shiranai, which translates to we still don’t know the name of the flower we saw that day).

This show is really, really great. I finished this show and wanted to watch it again, just to have that same feeling I got when I finished it the first time. I so very rarely have that desire, but Anohana did it for me.

Anohana really captures what it’s like to grow apart as a result of anything (in the show, the death of their close friend, which is revealed first episode, I think). Coming back together for these characters is a painful, and oftentimes awkward, process that none of them really want to do, but they’re all going through.

The show also highlights the scars that one has after something as traumatic as the death of a friend. These people are going through a really tough transition, and have been for the last few years. While the situations they’re allowed to be in are sometimes stretching belief, I think it only emphasizes just how hurt everyone is.

What I really liked it for was everyone trying to overcome this huge trauma. The five characters keep doing these superficial things and it’s only when they finally give it their all do they really overcome everything that’s happened to them.

So despite Anohana’s sometimes unbelievable situations, it really knows how to hit you right in the feels and tell a great, if relatively simple, story with great, and not at all simple, characters. But the decision really came down to personal preference. I just love slice of life shows, this one in particular.

Well, there you go. My #5-1 best anime that I’ve seen. I haven’t seen some supposedly really good ones, like Rose of Versailles, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Moribito. It’s also been a while since I’ve seen Wolf’s Rain. I also decided to not include movies on this list, as those will be going in a separate list. Top lists like this really change for me based on my mood, but every show mentioned here will always be a mainstay in my favorite shows that I’ve seen. At least that much is very unlikely to change in the future.

Top 10 Anime Shows - #10-6

Read the introduction first?

Let’s jump right into #10.

The only also-ran I have for the #10 spot is Fullmetal Alchemist and Brotherhood. I don’t call these two one series, nor should anyone because of how wildly different they are. Both of these series definitely have a great amount of wide appeal, evident in just how popular they both are in Japan and in the US. But it just doesn’t eclipse what my actual #10 is, and that is One Piece.

I really, really hesitated to put One Piece on here because it is, I think, objectively worse than Fullmetal Alchemist, and it’s a lot less accessible to a large fanbase because of its length and its sillier moments.

But One Piece is well into its 600s of chapters and almost in the 600s of episodes, and it’s still going strong for me. Some of the most recent arcs, just before the time skip, were some of the most emotionally charged stories in anything, in my opinion. That, by and large, is why I think One Piece is so great. Its ability to tell stories at this high of a level for this long is extremely impressive to me.

One Piece does have a really simple way of telling a story, which is basically powerful person is trying to take over place and Straw Hat Pirates defeat them in the end. Interlaced in this storytelling is flashbacks that inform on a major character of the arc (whether that be Luffy, Zoro, Nami, or whoever). But each of the stories that they’re telling are just so good and hit you in ways that you don’t expect. I did not expect to be shedding tears over the destruction of a ship, but I certainly was watching One Piece.

I think what One Piece does the best is that it doesn’t kill characters just to give finality to the story. It’s something that anime does frequently in these long-running shonen shows, and even Fullmetal Alchemist is guilty of this (but it doesn’t detract from the story). The first major death in the present time doesn’t occur until well into the 500s of chapters, I believe. That, I think, is a testament to just how good Eiichiro Oda’s storytelling is.

It’s a really daunting task to just step into almost 600 episodes of just one show, but I’ll tell you right now that it’s definitely worth it. If you skip over filler and OP/ED, you can power through the show pretty easily in two weeks (that is if you have nothing else, or very little else, to do).

No time to dwell on One Piece, though, which is definitely the longest thing I have on this list. Moving on to #9.

I have a crap ton of also-rans for the #9 spot, and it’s really because they’re similar to my #9. They’re all love stories in a regular-ish setting. First of the also-rans is Fruits Basket. Fruits Basket didn’t quite make the list because some of the anime stories are really meandering in the scope of a 26-episode series. The manga would almost certainly make a top 10 list for me, but the anime just falls short because it’s missing that true ending instead of the anime ending. Also-ran number two is Ouran High School Host Club, for the same reasons that Fruits Basket didn’t make it. Ouran is a brilliant not-really-deconstruction-but-more-parody of the over-the-top shojo tropes, and it’s just so funny. But it leaves every love story open for reading the manga by the end of the series, which had its own (very similar to the manga’s) ending.

The rest of the also-rans are: Clannad and After Story, but the first half drags on for maybe too long. However, it’s necessary for to inform the second half, I think. And the second half is really where the show is at its strongest. It just doesn’t have that complete greatness that the rest of the shows on this list do. Next is Nana, which suffers from the same things that Fruits Basket and Ouran do, and now it looks like we fans may never get an ending to even the manga. Which is really too bad because Nana is among the best shojo out there, ever. Next is Honey and Clover, which I really have to and want to revisit because I think it’s a show that really grows on you more the more you revisit it. It’s completely dependent on you liking the characters to like the show, which isn’t a bad thing, but it doesn’t get into who they are and why you should like them fast enough and the first half of the first season suffers for it, unfortunately. Next is Kimi ni Todoke, which is a show that I really liked. But it’s a really subtle show, and thus doesn’t leave a huge impression on you. I was left with, “That was really, really good. I’ll revisit that down the line, but not anytime soon.” Which is why it has to be left off the list. Last, but not least, of the also-rans is Toradora. Toradora is a show that I immensely enjoyed, but it just doesn’t have that final push to make me love it completely. The ending also feels rushed and wrapped up nicely, when they could have done something like Oreimo and done a few extra ONAs and served themselves a much nicer ending. But they’re might have been something in production that prevented that.

Anyway! My ramblings aside, my #9 is, without any regrets, K-ON! and all related material. First season, second season, and movie. Loved it all. I can watch these girls just hang out for 40+ episodes and a movie and still want more. If any show has completely captured the art of meandering and telling that in standalone stories, it’s K-ON! This is a show that I will revisit probably at least every year, just for that nostalgic feeling you get watching these girls.

But really…this show completely captures that high school life of hanging out with your friends and that feeling of loss you have after you move on. It ends on a high note though, of course, because all the girls are going to the same college (and there’s a continuation manga!). If you didn’t have that really close relationship to people back in high school, or even in college, this might not resonate as strongly with you. Or if you can’t stand just meandering stories, and K-ON! is very meandering, then it might not be your cup of tea. But K-ON!’s kind of meandering is a good kind of meandering; a kind of meandering that informs the characters in ways that some of the also-rans couldn’t do as well.

The dub cast for K-ON! is suitable, but kind of hit-and-miss overall. The actress for Yui strains at several parts and it’s not until you watch a few episodes that you even start to get over it. Mio seems to be perfectly voice matched, but I have to wonder what she’s bringing to the table that the Japanese seiyuu wasn’t. Meanwhile, Mugi is portrayed middle-of-the-road in terms of the performance, but the overall tonality of Mugi was definitely maintained, and I have to give the actress a few more points for that. Azusa was lacking compared to the Japanese seiyuu, but I feel that the dub performance brought something different, albeit subtle, to the table compared to the original. Ritsu, however, is by far the best performance in this dub as a whole. I didn’t really like Ritsu overall based on the Japanese, but the dub really tips it for me. I found myself falling more and more for Ritsu because of how good it was.

So overall, the show really does a lot of things well. But it’s also a very divisive show, with the detractors saying that it’s just moe pandering (which is kind of is). I’m not sure it’s worth putting at #9, but it’s definitely better than One Piece and, on a personal level, I wanted both One Piece and K-ON! to be included because of how much I like these two series. Unfortunately, that means a few other shows get the shaft. Sorry, those shows.

Moving on to #8.

I don’t have any also-rans for the #8 spot, so I’ll just jump right it. The #8 is Hellsing Ultimate, which is not to include the sometimes great, usually spotty TV series.

Hellsing Ultimate, to me, is, well, the ultimate form of anime entertainment. It’s not for the light at heart because, just like the Trust and Betrayal OVAs, there’s a crap ton of blood that pours from places you didn’t think had that much blood to pour from. But the draw to this series will always be Alucard ripping the ever living shit out of people. Sure, there’s some interesting takes and/or deconstructions of vampire tropes as well as a slave-master duality between Seras-Alucard and Alucard-Integra. But what this boils down to is I want to watch Alucard rip things apart in a gruesome manner.

If I watch any show just for the pure, high-octane entertainment value, it is Hellsing. I marathoned through Hellsing I-VIII, the only ones that are in English, and I have absolutely no regrets about that decision. That was eight hours of pure entertainment.

I think what really makes me love this series so much is the rivalry between Alucard and Anderson. Alucard constantly says that no one is immortal, and that seems to be a running theme through the series. But Anderson, the once mortal who Alucard wanted to be killed by, becomes a monster himself and Alucard loses all respect for the man Anderson once was. That says a lot about the character of Alucard and Kouta Hirano does that absolutely brilliantly.

So, yeah. For me, there’s not much more to be said about Hellsing Ultimate. The draw is, and always will be, entertainment. Pure and simple.

Ok, #7.

I had a lot of trouble putting the #7 on the list, just because, aside from One Piece, it’s the only show that’s still airing. And, for all I know, it could have a really bad ending. But it’s just a testament to how good this show has been up to this point that it got on the list.

Before that, though, a few also-rans for #7. These are also relatively new series. The first one is Chihayafuru, which took the fall 2011 season by storm. It was by and far the best show out of that season and I am super excited for the second season coming out in the winter 2012 season. But Chihayafuru kind of had it all for me. It had great characters, with Chihaya, Taichi, Nishida, Komano, and Oe, and a great driving plot for all of them, in the karuta card game. Beyond that, it’s a fairly conventional sports anime, which says a lot about its characters. The relation between these five, and the additional past history with Arata, Chiahya, and Taichi, makes this show absolutely amazing. I’d love to put it on the list, but pandering to my own desires and putting K-ON! and One Piece beat this show out.

The other also-ran is Madoka Magica. It is an absolutely brilliant piece of work from Gen Urobuchi (the writer for Fate/Zero’s original light novels and second season as well as the fall 2012 season’s sci-fi Psycho-Pass) that should be a required viewing for anyone who calls themselves a fan of the magical girl genre. Shows like Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura paved the way for this to be created and it almost certainly wouldn’t be the same without their own deconstructions of the genre. But Madoka Magica takes deconstructing a genre to the level that hasn’t been done in 16 years when Neon Genesis Evangelion premiered in Japan. It starts off as a pretty typical magical girl fare…and then episode three hits you like a ton of bricks. And it just gets darker and darker and darker from there. These are middle school girls dealing with all of this and it is played absolutely brilliantly. I can say with certainty that the magical girl genre won’t have another great show like this in a good five years at least.

But my #7 show is Space Brothers. It’s just such a great show and by far the best season from a spectacular spring 2012 season that also included Kids on the Slope, Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, and tsuritama.

Space Brothers is a show that takes its time with telling its own story. Once we were 30 episodes in, our protagonist, Mutta, still hadn’t become an astronaut—which is what he’s been trying to accomplish since probably episode two or three.

What makes this show great, or what took it over the edge from just really, really good for me, was around episode 25 when Mutta and four other characters were placed inside an isolated pod tube apartment-ish place as part of JAXA’s astronaut exam. The characters themselves were there for two weeks and it felt like I was watching them in real time. Yet I was constantly at the edge of my seat wanting to know what happened next. Then there’s always one or two episodes of just build up to the point where we find out Mutta has moved further on in the astronaut exam. Each and every time, I don’t know whether he’s going to succeed…But dammit, I’m cheering him on, on the edge of my seat, to succeed.

This just explores characters, both Mutta and the myriad of side characters, in such an amazing and deep way that I don’t frequently see in anime, or even American TV. I don’t think I’d see five minutes of a 20 minute episode dedicated to a character we’ve seen on screen for maybe 20 minutes prior to this. But Space Brothers does just that. It takes the time to give some of the seemingly less important background characters their time in the spotlight. And it could very easily feel like wrapping up the storyline with a nice bow (the character I’m referring to previously had several quarrels with Kenji, who quickly became friends with Mutta at the beginning of the exam), but it doesn’t feel like that. It feels like you learned about the character instead of, “Ok, their story is over now. Moving on.” And I really appreciate that out of this show.

Once this gets a dub, and by god it had better, this is definitely going right alongside suggestions like Cowboy Bebop and all the Ghibli movies as great ways of introducing someone to anime. That’s just how good it is. It doesn’t feel like I’m watching an anime, but it being in animation really brings it to life.

Moving right along to #6.

The also-rans here are simply the works of Makoto Shinkai, simply for lack of a better place to put them. I haven’t seen Children Who Chase Lost Voices, but I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. I also have very little recollection of Place Promised in Our Early Days, but I remember liking that a lot. However, his two works that really represent what he can do as an animator, director, and writer are his debut Voices of a Distant Star and the feature length 5 Centimeters per Second. Voices really hits me every time I watch it. I remember getting it in the mail, watching the dub, watching the sub, watching the sub that Shinkai acted in himself, then watching the dub again. It really is that good. 5 Centimeters per Second is something that I’ve really been meaning to revisit, but I’ve seen it twice and really liked it both times. I’ve only seen the ADV dub of the film, but I thought it was outstanding. David Matranga always seems out of place at first (given my introduction to him was Sanzo in Saiyuki, it’s understandable), but he outshines as always. While Voices emphasizes trying to be together, even though you’re so far away, 5 cm emphasizes the tragedy of simply drifting away from those you love. Both stories are just told fantastically and if you want to check out Shinkai as a whole, do Voices. If you dislike it, stop. If you like it, watch the rest of his stuff. At the very least, you’ll really appreciate the animation in it, because it is top notch.

My #6 best anime I’ve ever seen is Spice and Wolf. The stories that Isuna Hasekura are trying to tell are absolutely stunning in their detail and the dynamic between Lawrence and Holo is among the best dynamics between two characters in anything.

I think what really drew me to the series is that both Lawrence and Holo are exactly the type of character that I love to watch do things. They’re both extremely intelligent, yet sometimes just as naïve, and they both always seem to have a plan—even if that plan isn’t panning out exactly as they planned.

The series as a whole tells four complete stories, or four of Hasekura’s now 17 light novels, and each and every story is unique and creative. From the silver coin fiasco to smuggling gold to selling pyrite to fur trading again, they are all amazing works of creative brilliance in economics. I remember the pyrite, which involves simply watching the time go by with Lawrence, and it is one of the most tense moments that I ever remember watching. And it’s just so mundane, it’s great.

What this really boils down to is whether you like Lawrence and Holo and like their dynamic. Because that will be make or break in the series. If you love them, you love the series. If you hate them, you probably hate the series.

Alright, that was a lot of also-rans. I got most of them out of the way, but the rest deserve the wait. Now, that was #10-6. Next up, #5-1. Which you can read here.

Top 10 Anime Shows - Introduction

I recently listened though ANNcast’s top 10 anime of the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. That got me thinking that my own top anime list was extremely outdated, because I wrote that about a year and a half or two years ago. And a lot can be watched in that time period. And, trust me, I have watched a lot in that time period. I have several also-rans for each number, either because they were similar to that particular show or because they deserve to be mentioned in tandem with that particular number.

First, I want to explain a bit on how I ranked each of these. First and foremost, on a personal level, is rewatchability. For example, things like Buffy and Breaking Bad are really good. They’re really, really good. But do I really have a desire to watch them again? Buffy, yeah, way down the line. Breaking Bad? Probably not ever again. So the top shows on this list I’ll want to watch over and over again and I’ll never get sick of them; or they’re shows that I finished and I immediately wanted to start back over again, just to have that same feeling again.

Next in how I ranked these shows was, of course, simply how much I enjoyed them on a personal level. This works in tandem with how objectively good I think these shows are at their peak. And that last part is extremely important, because some of these shows can really drag at parts (*cough* One Piece *cough*).

Before I start listing off all these series, I want to mention a few shows that just didn’t make the cut. They were ruled out before I even considered the rest of the list.

First off is Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal. I watched this back in high school, when I was going through that huge nostalgia phase where I watched everything I did back when Toonami was on weekday afternoons (which included Rurouni Kenshin). At the time, I didn’t really like it that much. Now, when I watched it again, I was really impressed. This show really captured a lot of what I liked about the franchise as a whole, yet put it in a much more serious manner. It’s also tragic to see Kenshin grow up like he did. The title gives away what’s going to happen (spoilers: it’s betrayal). But it’s executed in a way that you don’t 100 percent expect. But it just missed the cut because it didn’t quite resonate with me. I loved Kenshin when I was a kid because it had that ridiculous shonen-y feel to it. This was definitely much more adult storytelling, but it wasn’t the Kenshin I knew. Perhaps if I watch the Kyoto arc of the TV show, I’ll like it more. But pure personal preference threw this off the list. Though that doesn’t mean it wasn’t really great, it was. If this were a top 15 list, perhaps it would make it. Alas, I have no reservations about leaving it off.

Next is Mushishi. Mushishi is a show that really took me a while to finish, or even want to finish. Travis Willingham’s acting really put it over for me, because it was a bore for me the first time around. That said, this show has some really great singular stories that cannot be ignored. “The Light of the Eyelid,” “Raindrops and Rainbows,” and “The Sound of Rust” are among a few of my favorites. But the fact remains that I didn’t want to finish this series at all when I first watched it. It’s only watching it a second time, remembering with nostalgia the great stories that lay within this series, that I began to truly appreciate it. It was around episode 17 or so that I said to myself, “Ok, just power through the rest. Doesn’t matter how bored you are.” Now, I still can probably only take these episodes in in moderation, and that’s what puts it over the edge and out of top 10 territory. Again, if this were a top 15 list, this would almost certainly make it. But alas.

Last, but not least, is Gurren Lagann. I immensely enjoyed this show, and still do to this day. Kamina crying out in episode eight still gives me chills whenever I think about it (but that’s about all I can say without spoiling anything further for the few who haven’t seen this series). Out of these three also-rans, I’d call Gurren Lagann my favorite by a fairly wide margin. I’ve only heard snippets of the sub, but the dub is definitely top notch, up there with Cowboy Bebop and Baccano! as best dubs out there. This one isn’t missing anything in particular…but it’s lacking in one compartment compared to every other show on the list. I can’t justify placing it higher than anything that’s already on my list and, thus, its regrettably relegated to the also-rans.

Ok, that is the introduction. Next up, my #10-6 and the also-rans for those. Read it here.

Releasing a DVD

I haven’t written words here in a while, and it’s mostly because I couldn’t really think of anything worthwhile to write about. But now I’ve finally thought of something. What is the process of releasing a DVD/BD state side?

First, your typical turnaround from the airing of the final episode to DVD/BD release date in the US is about a year and a half, give or take six months or so (sometimes more, rarely less). Funimation’s products, as far as I can tell, usually have a year and a half turnaround. There are some outliers (Like A Certain Magical Index/A Certain Scientific Railgun) and things like Hellsing and the other Geneon/ADV stuff that Funimation hauled in after Geneon/ADV’s respective demises won’t use this same turnaround.

There are several reasons as to why this takes so long. The first and foremost reason is materials. The Japanese licensor just can’t get the music, the video, the scripts, or the whatever elses to the US licensee fast enough. This, I suspect, is what delayed Hellsing and A Certain Magical Index for so long. However, the license itself can take forever to complete as well, and that can stall a release faster than anything. The most recent, or perhaps most notable, example I can think of is Evangelion 2.0. The problem with that was that Gainax (the production company behind Evangelion) thinks the product is worth its weight in gold. And if you combine all the merchandise that Eva has released over the years, that’s a lot of gold. Anyway, Gainax wanted way too much for the license and Funimation had to either talk them down or concede to a higher price than they wanted to (probably a combination thereof).

Of course, there can be several other reasons as to why production is stalled. The video could be flawed in some way or the English dub audio could be flawed in some way or they could have to recast someone based on the Japanese input or whatever. It really depends on the title itself and the bumps in the road that particular title runs into.

[Note: The Japanese have the final say in everything, including scripts, casts, DVD/BD menus…As far as I know, every part of the US release has to be approved by someone on the Japanese side of things. I’m sure that sometimes, they’ll just sign off on stuff willy-nilly. But for something like Evangelion, I would bet some Gainax intern has to look through everything that a higher up executive or production member doesn’t want to.]

Moving right along, the licenses themselves are split into several parts. So when you license a series from Japan, you have to get the license for the music, for the DVD release, for the BD release, for the streaming release, and so many others that I don’t even know. Sometimes, however, you get a license that just says “home video release license” (or the actual technical title). But what that means is that the licensee gets to release that show on DVD, on BD, and on any future home video thing that we invent for the duration of the license. That’s why you’d see so many, “Sentai formally announces license for X show” or “Funimation announces home video release for Y show.” Because, nowadays, these companies will just license the streaming first to see how it does and then license the actual show for home video. Sentai’s just been announcing that it will stream X show, but never formally says it has a license for anything (but you can bet that it does have a license for X show if Sentai is streaming it).

Finally, there’s the dub production. That’s a whole separate article that I’ll just save for later because that goes through producers, line producers, directors, script writers, actors, and a whole plethora of other important people (those are the folks during the ending that you skip over). But the US licensee goes through dub production, gets it signed off by the Japanese, and finally releases that title in the US. A formal announcement of release date, I would imagine, comes pretty near the end of production. But dub actors usually records shows about four to six months prior to release. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but I believe it hovers around that.

When it finally gets released, the typical thing to do now is 13-episode sets. Very rarely do you see sets with fewer episodes than that (unless the complete series is fewer episodes than 13). The most recent ones that I can think of are Madoka Magica and K-ON!’s first season, both of which were release in four-episode sets. Funimation has, on at least three occasions, released the complete series at one time in two 13-episode sets. But very rarely do you see sets that are released with more than 13-episode in a first run, unless it’s a reprint or an old title (shows that Discotek and Nozomi have been licensing are among these exceptions).

This release schedule is much easier on the wallet than how it used to be. Now, you can get 13 episodes for about $45, usually less, sometimes more. Before, you would spend $20-30 on four episodes. Oh how the times have changed.

Well, that’s a quick and dirty version of the process, with I’m sure a good bunch of holes missing in what I’m saying. But this is the gist of it all, I believe.

On Animation

This is all about animation. I’ll be the first to say that I don’t know much about how much films cost, aside from on a general level. What I do know is that an animated films (or anythings) can and do cost more than a live-action film that’s doing the exact same thing. At least that can be the case on a general basis.

I just read that Wreck-It Ralph, that new hip movie the youngin’s are talking about, cost $165 million to make. Comparatively, Skyfall cost $200 million to make, Avengers cost $220 million, and Dark Knight Rises cost upwards of $300 million to make. That’s a lot of dough to dish out just to make a film. But those latter three films are huge blockbusters with huge followings behind them. So far (as of Nov. 9, 2012), those latter three films have made $323.2 million, $1.511 billion, and $1.078 billion [all numbers according to Wikipedia]. Comparatively, Wreck-It Ralph has thus far garnered Disney $72.634 million. Compare that with the last three Best Animated Features: Rango (2011) cost $135 million and earned $245.375 million, Toy Story 3 (2010) cost $200 million and earned $1.063 billion, and Up (2009) cost $175 million and earned $731.342 million.

That’s a lot of numbers to throw at you. But let’s throw more numbers at you by looking at the last three films to win Best Picture, just to make it a little fairer in comparison to big blockbuster movies. The Artist (2011) cost a meager $15 million to make and earned $133.432 million, The King’s Speech (2010) cost, again, around $15 million and earned $414.211 million, and The Hurt Locker (2009) cost $15 million and earned $49.230 million. But those were all the artsy fartsy movies that don’t get a whole bunch of exposure or audience compared to, say, No Country For Old Men (which won Best Picture in 2007, cost $25 million, and earned $171.627 million) or The Departed (which won in 2006, cost $90 million, and earned $289.847 million).

To put that into perspective, Best Animated Features have net earned (and this is all according to Wikipedia and not at all meant to be an accurate depiction of the actual net earnings of these movies): $110 million for Rango, $800 million for Toy Story 3, and $656 million for Up. Best Picture’s have net earned: $118 million for The Artist, $399 million for The King’s Speech, and $34 million for The Hurt Locker. Then $146 million for No Country for Old Men and $199 million for The Departed.

So as far as Best Picture compared to Best Animated Feature goes, the Best Picture’s seem to cost a lot less than both blockbusters (because anything costs less than those) and the Best Animated Features. But, with the exception of The Artist, which seems to have done pretty well for itself, it seems that animated features are making more money (and, of course, this is on a large scale and by no means always the case).

So why not always make animated films instead of live-action films? It seems Japan has taken to this and largely produced animated works instead of live action. That’s, of course, not to say that they don’t make live-action things. Akira Kurosawa and Mamoru Oshii are names that I know that make live-action things in Japan (or did in the past in the case of Kurosawa).

But animation takes a LONG time to make. By what I’ve read, my impression is that live-action films, optimistically, take about nine months to make. Again, from what I’ve read, my impression is that animation can have a year or year and a half turnaround from conception to screen. I know that production on an anime series starts about a year before it ever airs on Japanese TV.

So you can make some typically shitty action or comedy movie for half (or even less) than a blockbuster, have half the turnaround, and make twice as much (or, at least, enough to keep making movies). This is the same with anime. Anime production studios will typically be working on around nine new shows at the same time (exceptions that I can immediately think of are Kyoto Animation and Ghibli).

Out of those 9 shows, ½ (that’s ½ of one show, not ½ of the nine) is going to be as good as Space Brothers or as successful as Fairy Tail or Hunter x Hunter—and that’s if they’re lucky. 3 are going to be about the quality of the Princess Tutu’s and xxxHolic’s. And the rest are going to be pandering to the latest fad in anime so they can keep the roof over their heads. I’m hard-pressed to say it would be different for Hollywood or anywhere else. [This whole paragraph is only my own speculation based on what I’ve seen in the past few years.]

So what’s the point of all this? I don’t know. I’m trying to sort out my thoughts as to why animation is considered this lower class of media and I thought that earnings might be a part of it. I know that time must be a part of it. It is fun to speculate though!