A lot of the things told to young people for encouragement are usually auto-pilot sentiments. Find your passion. Pursue your dreams. Work hard. Stay true to yourself. Don’t let other people crush you. I’ve got your back. What I find interesting about Chu-Bra!! is the absurdity of Nayu’s passion kind of tests those sentiments. Do you really believe in those words or is it just bullshit? One scene in episode three brings this point home, during a discussion among three teachers after the main character, Nayu, tells them she wants to start an underwear club in the school. Two of the teachers have the practical, and I would say realistically normal, reaction. The third teacher, Mizuno, the junior of the three, comes to a different realization. Do I actually believe what I think I believe about helping my students find their niche in life?

We see these fight for it messages all the time in stories, but Chu-Bra!! with Nayu’s absurd fascination with underpants reframes the message for clarity. With a story less absurd, I think the stand up and fight would go unnoticed, or worse, something you put up with as part of the standard school anime narrative. The “people will laugh at you” part rings pretty hollow in some stories, but considering Nayu’s age and obsession with underwear, people really would think she’s some sort of freak. Even the most open-minded people would pause. Short of a character from Higurashi, Nayu is about as strange as they get as far as odd personality quirks and obsessions go. I smiled when Yako and Haruka stood by Nayu. The absurdity of Nayu wanting to start an underwear club helped put into context how much of a risk it was to stand up for their friend, not to mention the stepping into acceptance of that friend.

Chu-Bra!! is a strange hybrid of fetish fanservice comedies and family friendly shows like Kaleido Star, not exactly as ideal as a chocolate and peanut butter mix. As odd as it is, Chu-Bra!! is, so far, better than I expected because I found the absurdity of Nayu’s underwear passion spins the common assertions found in these shows, whether this is on purpose or a side-effect doesn’t matter to me. Underneath the panties is the message that you need to fight for what you are passionate about. Other people might laugh at you and think you’re messed in the head, but it’s your happiness and you have to fight for it, Nayu.

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Post tags: Chu-Bra!!, fan-service

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Sora Kasugano has a pensive air around her. She would be just another character from an eroge, except for the softly contrasted monochromatic colors of her skin, clothing, and hair caught my eye. I find all of the Yosuganosora characters illustrated by Hashimoto Takashi attractive, mainly for how well the line work and color palette match so well.

Houjun Otoyama sculpted Sora based on this illustration. The adaptation of that illustration to the figure, particularly in her body language is well done. Otoyama caught the pensive body language as well as the physical shape and tone. Her hips and subtle torso twist look far more solid in the figure. I’m a fan of tummies, so I enjoy the extra tone that Otoyama included on Sora. All that’s missing is some water glistens, but I don’t imagine there’s currently a way to include that detail without it looking eww-chunky. Last thing you want to do with an already questionable desk ornament is to have to explain that stuff on her is supposed to be water.

Her towel is rendered surprisingly well for being made of plastic. As far as the base goes it does the job and is unobtrusive. The black rabbit doll acts as a counterweight to Sora’s lightness. Keeping it on the base grounds the figure well. Check out one of the thumbnails at the end that show the figure without the rabbit doll and towel to see how the composition of the figure is a bit unsettled without these accessories.

MegaHouse’s Sora Kasugano isn’t completely chocolate and unicorns. Sora’s head tilt looks better in the illustration, conveying a bit more personality than the more straight ahead positioning on the figure sculpt. Her figure face is a little more generic than resembling the illustration. As far as the detailing, shading in places is a bit over dark. In particular around her knees and ankles, it looks more like dirt than the natural darkening of these areas on an idealized body.

The over-shading isn’t enough to detract from her legs, which are a bit more realistically proportioned than in a good number of figures, where the tendency is to really elongate the leg area. Sora’s head and body are about the same combined length as her legs. Often times this proportion can make a drawing or figure appear stubby, rather than long and elegant. Sora appears to be anything but stubby.

I hope to see a Brilliant Stage treatment of some of the other Yosuganosora characters. Sora turned out better than I expected and a little bit more interesting than I thought she would be. Foo-bar-baz gave the figure 5-stars and I think its a good figure as well. I guess, if I had to score points against the sculpt itself, it would be her butt. The shape around her lower back, the tailbone on up seems off.

Extra Shots

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Post tags: bows, MegaHouse, swimsuit

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While scrounging the bargain bins at a few online retailers, I came across this MegaHouse figure of Iori Manase, one of those cute IdolMaster characters. It struck me that the figure was odd. Iori was wearing pants, which is quite uncommon for scale figures and to some extent female character designs in anime, or at least among the characters that get made into figures. Just looking at the figures I have, only two are wearing honest to goodness pants, Fate/Zero Saber and Kino. For the rest it’s skirts, dresses, plug-suits, swimwear, and the occasional pair of shorts.

It’s not surprising that most figures don’t wear pants. I was just surprised that so few do. It’s a fan-service thing for sure, but I think designers underestimate that pants can be attractive as well. The Fate/Zero Saber is quite hot in a different way.

Unfortunately for me, Iori seems to be out of print.

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Post tags: character-design, Idolmaster, Kino, pants, Saber

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Cobra the Animation

This is great. The original material and designs come from the 80’s and looked so out of place among the others it called me. Cobra is so 80’s. Cobra don’t flee from his manhood like today’s man.

He’s KO’ed in the hospital and his stogy is still sticking out of his mouth. Cobra is so much of a man that the doctors don’t pull it out or hand him an ashtray. Cobra cuts to the chase. First episode is the Christmas episode. There’s no Christmas cake. What’s even better, Cobra sings. Sings Jingle Bells like he’s singing for the Parker family on Christmas day at the Chop Suey Palace.

The deal sealer is of course the white suit, blue shirt, and the red tie. He also doesn’t need a parachute when he jumps out planes. I bet he drinks Dos Equis. His weapon is the “Psycho Gun,” which apparently drains his mental energy. I bet he’s used it a lot.

There are other Cobra series and movies, but it so doesn’t matter. Awesome cheese. My second favorite show of the bunch.

Chu-Bra

I like fan service shows. I’m a dirtbag, I admit. The intro scene before the OP had me wondering if I’d watch it, because of the whole tripping thing in front of everybody. But, I found the show after the OP humorous, particularly when they’re on the staircase and the short-chick is trying to gather data with her cell phone camera.

It’s so “wrong” and “wrong” in the right hands is funny. Verdict is still out on Chu-Bra and the funny. Episode two awaits.

So Ra No Wo To

The character designs made it visually obvious that staff from K-ON! are involved here. This doesn’t bother me, since I’ve not seen K-ON! beyond some of the promotional artwork, but I really don’t mind that or how each character’s appearance accurately describes a character’s demeanor. It’s always like this in any medium. So while it doesn’t help, sorta doesn’t hurt to me.

What would have been great? If the writers startled expectations a little. If at the end of the first episode, Private Kanata sounded Reveille with grace, that would have been way more effective toward endearing herself to me, because it would feel like I learned something new about her. Who didn’t expect her to suck? This was already known before she put the bugle to her lips.

Now, what lures me to the show is the environment. I just love early 20th century military uniforms. The generic euro-setting reminds of simpler times, which is easy to feel romantic for. As far as the premise for an all-girl unit goes, the premise in So Ra No Wo To does its job — they can’t all be as good as Simoun in this regard.

In all, I look forward to more.

Omamori Himori

A show that seems to stick to the standards of its genre. It didn’t feel like I’d get anything out of it, so stopped after the eyecatch. Looks amusing enough, but I’ve had my fill of this type of show.

Hanamaru Kindergarten

I fully expected to hate this since the magic of kids is usually lost on me. It also opened with my #1 pet peeve, the “I’M LATE!” opening gambit. If it weren’t Gainax, I would have left.

Pleasantly surprised. I thought this would be too kiddy for me to stand or I’d want to throw somebody in jail by the end. Neither was the case, though the mom is a little creepy in an animated comedy from Japan sort of way, which is to say, awesome in a cartoon.

Durarara!

From the word go, the tale is a flashback filled with interesting candy. I love that the first episode is called “Exit 1.” Anyway, it’s a show to piece together by sort of just taking it in as it comes. The first episode drew me in. Durarara’s first episode is funny in a way. You have this noob Mikado all scared about all the things he’s heard about the big city and his friend who’s been living there, Masaomi laughs at him for believing the nonsense his bumpkin friend picked up from TV and manga. Then they start walking around and he discovers it’s crazier than he ever imagined, which he realizes is kind of cool as he stands on the side of the street having just seen something amazing speed by as the world slows down for him.

Durarara reminds me a little of Boogiepop Phantom and there’s a few things in the first episode that made me think of it, like how rumors are flying about an angel of death, the Headless Rider on a motorbike. Plus, there was the sentiment of anything can happen in this town.

A lot has been revealed, just, I have no idea what it means. I have the feeling that as soon as the final episode ends, I’m going to want to watch the first episode all over again and see how it changes for me.

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Post tags: Boogiepop Phantom, Christmas, Chu-Bra!!, Durarara!, fan-service, K-ON!, Omamori Himori, Simoun, So Ra No Wo To

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Master storytellers are often accused of finding a great story and then telling that story over and over again throughout their careers. It would be fair to say that director Satoshi Kon couldn’t shrug off that tag, even when adapting a story into one of his films as is the case with Paprika. As a fan, it sometimes doesn’t matter that it’s the same story again. We know this going in and each new work becomes something more than just a story in isolation from previous work. This can be good or bad, but for me and Paprika, this created some baggage that made it difficult to watch the film until I let it go.

I guess what I’m saying is that when I go into a Kon film, I look for certain things. He loves meditating about fantasy and the potential damage it can bring to personal identity. It is the story he retells. He loves to visually push the viewer through the end of one scene full speed into on-coming traffic. He loves to warn about obsession. He’s like a laughing monkey in a cage hurling fragrant handfuls of caution toward otaku faces. And like any old guy, he loves looking back, wondering how he got here.

Paprika takes some of these Kon fascinations a little further than his other films. In particular, it’s not just the characters having trouble telling the difference between fantasy and reality, but rather there is no separation between the two at points. There’s some sweet transition overlaps. But for all the advancement Paprika does to push the brackets and widgets Kon uses to tell his story, it’s my least favorite Kon film. Ironically, it’s also the Kon work I’ve seen the most.

I miss in Paprika what made Tokyo Godfathers and Millennium Actress the works of his that I most enjoy. In spite of all the cool shit thrown in for decor, Paprika is a basic thriller that trips up a few times and has some problems with momentum. It was difficult to get through because what I was expecting never arrived and what showed up in its place wasn’t good enough to take its place. Still, it’s good watch just for the weird stuff that he threw in there and to ponder some of the things the characters say in passing, but I enjoyed it so much more the second and third time after being able to set my disappointed expectations aside and just enjoy it as eye candy thriller material.

Release Notes

I got the region 1 DVD release. The dub was average in terms of how well they informed me and got me to the characters, which for a feature is somewhat disappointing. It did have a more theatrical feel to it than a dub for a 22-minute television program.

There are a number of interviews, behind the scenes type of things, and a commentary track. I haven’t seen all of them yet, but I always like those things.

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Post tags: Satoshi Kon, thriller

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Perhaps a three-dimensional representation of the Black Rock Shooter cannot scoop up all of the style of the two dimensional art, but Akeji pretty much rocked this out anyway. The best part of the figure are her blue eyes, giving off a melancholy vibe. They’re really mysterious looking. However, facial expression really only matters up close, like when the figure is on your desk. On the shelf, the rest of the figure is what should speak and keep it interesting for several months or more.

Even though it is a background element, the massive cannon makes this figure shine. That and the massive base. Both elements have more visual mass than the shooter herself and work to contrast with her long twiggy body. It’s almost like the shooter herself is a placeholder for the gun and the flowing coat, which kind of fits her sad expression. That coat is fantastic, a perfect amount of shine, and the folds superb.

I love how the hair came out. It sort of looks like there’s streaks of different shades in her hair, rather than just one color. Have the figure people been seeing some hair color commercials?

Here’s some other opinions of BRS: foobarbaz and Persocom’s.

In the end, an excellent rendition of the Black Rock Shooter character. Anyway, does she actually have a name?

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Post tags: 1:8-scale, boots, GoodSmile, gun

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I like to indulge in things that remind me of days gone by, even if the memory gets a little fluffed and imagined way better than it really was. Being able to hook into into Honey & Clover like that has made watching it more fun than I expected.

What Honey & Clover does well, I think, is it frames of a lot of familiar things and leaves enough space for you to put yourself into it, rather than packing that space with a lot of junk. To stick with lighthearted examples, the no meat/sick of noodles everyday gag is well-worn. Somehow this time through the gag, I remember eating 3-for-a-dollar supermarket brand mac & cheese or 8-for-a-dollar ramen almost everyday because I spent all of my money on beer and at the Ye Old College Diner after the bars closed. By November, all of my summer job money was blown and was dying for winter break so I could sell buckets of camcorders and rake in the spiff dollars, all of which I’d blow on beer by February. Money evaporated quickly in school, but there was always money for beer, even if you have to go lower than Natty or Beast, down to the truly nasty Old G.

We had our own version of the meaty savior Lohmeyer, except he was more of a rogue than Lohmeyer. He was the guy everyone loved. This man love was just as baffling to me as the Lohmeyer man crush was to Yuuta, but our Lohmeyer came through in times of need. How many days we could feast on his spoils of eggs, cheese, and hot dogs that he’d smuggle out of the frat-houses of Penn State? I’ve never seen so many people just love this guy on sight, just like Lohmeyer. Many times we were invited into the frat-party, he’d disappear, and then when we got back to the apartment close to morning and find 2-3 pallets of eggs, a log of american, and a bag of 40 frozen dogs.

At least this is what the first set (eps 1-12, ep.L) of Honey & Clover did for me. I could get more emo about it, but I’ll spare you until I see the rest. I love the character and world building so far (it paints such an appealing college fantasy). I disagree somewhat with the thought that Honey & Clover portrays this period in life realistically, though it touches real memories through its world. For that, it I found this first set worthwhile and now I’m anticipating the ride down, seeing how easy it is to put myself in most of the character’s shoes.

The dub is, well, okay. I’m just glad to have one, so I wouldn’t criticize it as much now as I would have in the heyday.

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Post tags: Honey and Clover, oh the humanity

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Hello again. Time for plastic and jpegs. This go around it’s Yagyu Jubei from Alter and Hobby Japan, the first in the Hyakka Ryoran series, featuring a quartet of legendary warriors turned girly by Nitro+. Jubei is a standard release figure, but some of the others in the series are Hobby Japan exclusives. Nitro+ designs usually translate very well into figure form, so I’ve been looking forward to these figures.

The individual design elements are appealing. Her swords mounted on rope belts around her thighs are ridiculous, but they look great. A skirt would just get in the way, so Jubei’s smart not to wear one. Function should win over modesty in these situations, after all.

The sculpt, by Mirano, emphasizes triangles to keep the eye looking over the figure. The wide hips are a triangle pointing up and the neckline of her shirt a triangle pointing down, where the two points meet in between her breasts. There’s a couple other natural triangle patterns that have been emphasized and put to good use, which helps give the figure a good visual flow overall.

While I love the decent sized hips, full size boobs, and the face/eye design, Jubei looks slightly off in her proportions. It could be the chunky shoes elongating her legs that’s throwing me off, but her torso feels a touch compact. Also, from some angles the placement of her neck/head gets thrown off by the drum on her back.

I had a good impression of the figure when I took it out of the box. Although, there are a couple of things that dampened the sweetness, I still have a favorable view of the figure after a longer look. It looks like Foobarbaz, gave Jubei 3 out of 5 stars, which I could see, but I think I like it a little better than that. Could just be that I like the designs and it’s tilting me a little.

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Post tags: 1:8-scale, Alter, anime figures, Hyakka Ryoran, Nitro+, pantsu, swords

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Everyone has a top 5 list, but Stripey tacks a question on it and it’s an easy post, so I bit; what does your top 5 anime list say about you? I’ve not thought about what my favorites are for a while. Thinking about it for a few, today my top 5 are:

1. Cowboy Bebop
2. Princess Tutu
3. School Rumble
4. 5 Centimeters Per Second
5. FLCL

From the list above, I guess I like anime where the dream ends or the wish didn’t come true. School Rumble might be the odd one out as a comedy, but I think there’s enough bittersweet, misconnection, and this bird has flown to fit, though I’ve only seen up to the end of the second season. Besides, Harima is too funny not to put Rumble on the list. All the shows pretty much have a catchy tune in there as well.

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Post tags: 5cm, Cowboy Bebop, flcl, Princess Tutu, School Rumble

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The familiarity with the English language makes it easy to get tired with the repetition of “idiot.” I wonder if Japanese people get annoyed that heartbroken female characters in anime have a vocabulary of ten words, nine of which are “baka.”

Like in Honey and Clover, episode 3. Ayumi spills out her frustration with Takumi and calls him an idiot like three times in two breaths. Sticking with “idiot,” for every time the Japanese repeats “baka,” does the English language version a disservice. It’s actually that scene in Honey and Clover that triggered this thought. I heard dozens of anime girls at the same time, rather than Ayumi in that moment. Ironman deserves better than that.

Still, I wonder if it gets translated as “idiot” all the time because people would complain if any other word or expression were used? I doubt it, but wouldn’t be surprised. There’s probably a good real reason for “baka” = “idiot” 88.37% of the time, like the lip-flap constraint or not wanting to use words that would date the translation, but I really wish there was an additional word for “baka.”

Though these days with slashed budgets, I’m just happy there’s any English dub at all, just to put this whining in perspective.

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Post tags: English-dub, Eureka-7, Honey and Clover, loser fan

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