KyoAni is trolling us… Endless Eight 15,521 Loops and Counting

Posted by Neko Kyou in Suzumiya Haruhi on July 20th, 2009

Correction. It should be “I’ll see you all again 2 weeks ago the day after tomorrow, again!”

It’s been like 4 or 5 episodes?

I can’t say I really remember how many there’s been, it’s all just dejavu now.

Is that what KyoAni is trying to do? Trying to get us feeling like Kyon or bore us to death like Haruhi is doing to poor poor Yuki?

It’s a good thing that Yuki is an alien humanoid interface that doesn’t really care for much besides doing absolutely nothing and observe, or in this case, watching real life re-runs. Otherwise she’d probably committed suicide over 15,000 times.

Hey, if you’re going to get resurrected again in 2 weeks just to experience the same shit all over again that you’ve been through hundreds and thousands of time already, might as well enjoy the 2 weeks of peace and quiet, right?

Spend nearly 600 years of such repetition and the death for 2 weeks option might actually start to sound like a good idea.

I have a theory that there will be 8 episodes in Endless Eight. It’s KyoAni’s way of trolling us and hoping to get away with it. They messed up the episode order in the first run, so now they’re giving us the same episode over and over again.

It could also be that the scriptwriters decided to take a long vacation and they decided to just use the same script with some brilliant fashion change since the animators are obviously still working – lazily I might add.

I wonder if Sugita et al has gotten sick of recording the same script over and over again. I bet Minorin completed her lines as Yuki within an hour for the entire Endless Eight arc right even before she came over for DaiCon last week.

It’s amazing that no one has actually thought of actually trying to do something about the loops other than just talking about it. Or that no one bothered to asked Yuki to actually tell them what was going on from the very beginning of the next loop. Sure, she’s just an observer. But history has shown that if you ask, you will receive – especially if it’s Kyon asking.

Kyon should just kiss Haruhi. It worked the last time Haruhi worked her magic on the world. It should work this time too.

Maybe I should just read the novel and find out what actually happened.

Is this action even possible??

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So Many Questions: Eden of the East!

Posted by Neko Kyou in Thoughts on June 20th, 2009

I knew from the start that Eden of the East will end hanging. I thought I was ready for it, but I was wrong!

Damn it.

Did Takizawa wiped his memory again?

The sound from the phone and the way his mouth gaped was the same as in the first episode when he wiped his memory the first time. It’s safe to assume that’s what he did and then pre-programmed himself to slip his phone into Saki’s pocket.

What does he hope to achieve as King?

So all the hints about Takizawa being a Prince was referring to this moment. He became the King of Japan, or would it be more accurate to say the new Emperor.

And wouldn’t he be taken out by the Supporter for finishing up his money?

It happened to the good doctor. But since Panties is still alive after being presumed dead, it’s possible that the Supporter did not kill the doctor and that he is merely being held captive. Just a hunch.

What exactly is #1’s plan?

He seemed quite glad that Takizawa managed to stop the missiles, even though he was the mastermind behind it. He was also there when Takizawa first wiped his memory. It’s possible that there’s more to him than he’s letting out right now.

When will those of us outside Japan get to see the first movie?

It’s probably going to be a long, long time before we get to see it… And it’s probably going to be another cliffhanger ending that leads to the 2nd movie…

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What’s Your Recommendation?

Posted by Neko Kyou in Thoughts on June 18th, 2009

“Which cake is better?”

You know sometimes a friend who isn’t into anime comes up to you and asks if you could recommend them an anime to watch so they can see what’s so great about it.

This happens more often if most of your friends are fans of anime and manga, and he or she always seem to get left out whenever one of you start bashing about this guy called Kishimoto for ruining someone’s fishcakes or something (yes, they probably know what fishcakes is in Japanese, especially since they’ve been dragged by you to the nearest ramen every week).

There will be at least a time when they will start to wonder what’s so great about these Japanese cartoons known as anime. You will then be approached by said person with the question “Hey, maybe you can recommend me something to watch.”

The usual response would be recommending your favourites, whatever that’s currently “hot” or recommending a random show based on their preferred genre.

I actually had a few friends asking me just that and it got me curious about how others go about it. Would you recommend your favourites or do you take a different approach to recommend something?

Is Lucky Star a top choice?

At the top of my head, I can easily suggest some of my favourites like Cardcaptor Sakura, Ranma, Lucky Star and Haruhi. But thinking about it, I doubt someone who has never been exposed to anime would want to watch a mahou shoujo and a show like Lucky Star would only alienate them. A parody is not a parody unless you’ve seen the original, and let’s just say that even right now I haven’t been able to catch all the jokes yet.

Ranma might be a good place to start, but with over 160 episodes, it might be too much for someone completely new. Haruhi is shorter (so far) very popular and are light novel adaptations, but I still wouldn’t recommend it for a newbie.

Instead I find myself recommending shows that are mostly slice of life or comedy and are short (or have short season), such as Minami-ke, Ouran Host Club and Honey & Clover. Then depending on what they like, I would recommend obvious choices like Gundam, Black Cat, Initial D or Slam Dunk.

It’s quite interesting to see how some would immediately recommend Lucky Star or Gundam to someone who just wanted to have a peek at what anime has to offer out of curiousity and that the last mecha show he watched was Robotech about 20 years ago.

I believe it’s important to recommend something you know the person will enjoy, and that is not necessary what you yourself find enjoyable. Lucky Star is one of the best shows in recent years, but it’s a heavy hitter. First, you gotta bait the poor soul into the dark side with easily digestible snacks… then you bring in the heavy artillery and forever corrupt a pure soul…

Haruhi-sama will be so proud of you.

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FMA Brotherhood an Improvement

Posted by Neko Kyou in Thoughts on June 2nd, 2009

The original Full Metal Alchemist anime was good. But I didn’t quite like it all that much. The main attraction was definitely Mustang and his love for mini skirts.

When the first episode of Brotherhood came out, I was disappointed that Mustang was now Lockon. Took a while to get used to, but I still strongly prefer the original. The new voice just doesn’t have that sarcastic feeling anymore.

But after 8 episodes, I find that I’m enjoying Brotherhood a lot more than I did the first time. Brotherhood goes straight to the point instead of dilly-dallying around and letting the solemn atmosphere sink in deeper than the South China Sea.

The first FMA was way too gloomy and I hated that. Some liked it for that, but not me.

The only reason I continued watching was because the story was quite interesting, and with majority of the people around saying that FMA is a must watch, that probably helped me finished the entire series – except the movie.

With Brotherhood, I find myself somewhat looking forward to the next episode. While the main plot remains, the execution is different, although I admit that my memories of the original plot is rather hazy.

But whatever.

I had my doubts at first, but Brotherhood will be a lot more enjoyable, for me at least. One way they can improve it even better is by killing the voice-over during the mid break.

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Why Do You Hate Fillers?

Posted by Neko Kyou in Thoughts on January 7th, 2009

Fillers...

Fillers, for most parts (and especially true in Naruto), serves no significant contribution towards achieving the end story other than dragging it out so the anime does not overtake the manga. This is to make sure that there are always materials for the anime to use, which is ironic in way since they are already making up materials to be used in the filler.

According to Wikipedia:

Filler can also refer to a term regarding some episodes of manga-based anime. New anime episodes and new chapters of manga usually have a weekly run. Since a single anime episode may use several chapters of manga as storyline material filler episodes are usually used to give the manga time to get ahead of the anime story.

No one would argue that fillers generally is a waste of time and often causes frustrations to fans of the series. However, does that mean that they are evil? It ruins a show for many people, but does it mean that everyone is affected?

I would say not necessarily.

It would actually be more accurate to say that fillers are more likely to “ruin it” for fans who read its manga counterpart. For example, I find Shugo Chara to be entertaining save for a few episodes. It wasn’t until I read a few volumes of the manga that I realized there were plenty of fillers being included.

So why do people hate fillers?

Here are 5 at the top of my head:

  1. The story is not as the author intended it to be
  2. Sometimes contradicts past and/or future plot
  3. No actual development for characters and plot
  4. More often than not, fillers have sub-par plot that does nothing but wasting time
  5. Frustration due to anticipation of upcoming arcs

Of the 5 reason I listed, the last is probably the most common and valid reason for disliking fillers. Let’s take Naruto as an example again, since it’s infamous for bringing about fillers whether it needs it or not. Fans were looking forward to Naruto part 2 (Shippuuden) after the end of the over-dragged rescue Sasuke arc.

Naruto & Yondaime Minato

Instead we were treated to about 80 episodes of filler, about a third (and almost 2 years) of the entire series up to Shippuuden. It’s no wonder so many fans of the series decided to drop it.

However, that didn’t stop Naruto to continue in its popularity. Ask any non-manga reader for Naruto and they will most likely tell you that they enjoyed most of the fillers. However, tell them they were fillers and they’ll suddenly go “oh really, no wonder they sucked”.

The word “filler” triggered something in their mind to recall the bad memories about those epidoes. But otherwise they would be perfectly happy with what they’ve watched. Slightly dissatisfied, maybe, but content nonetheless.

Knowing that you are about to watch a filler episode immediately leaves a bad taste in your mouth even before you’ve actually watched it.

But are fillers really that bad?

Probably not. It’s really more of a psychological problem. We are just impatient to get to that great part of the manga that anything that gets in the way unnecessarily is nothing but annoyance. Some would argue that fillers actually degrades the series, it’s only noticeable to those who are already “in the know” of what’s to come.

Occasional fillers can actually be enjoyable. It’s like a short break from the main plot, a “side quest” of sorts. Turning it into a regular feature as they did with Naruto, on the other hand, is just asking for trouble.

Perhaps the best type of filler is one where the original author(s) of the series have a direct involvement in its production.

Cardcaptor Sakura

The anime and manga version of Cardcaptor Sakura are very different, and many episodes can be considered as “filler” by Wikipedia’s definition. The anime even introduced a new character, Mei Ling, who actually played an important part of the story. It was filler, but it was good.

Why was this so?

I came up with 2 possible explanations:

  1. The term “filler” hasn’t been corrupted in my mind
  2. CLAMP had direct involvement with writing the screenplay

At that time, filler meant very little to me since I was just starting to watch anime as what they are rather than just cartoons. And it wasn’t until years later that I found out that CLAMP had directly worked on the screenplay for the anime as well.

Both explanations are probably true since with CLAMP doing the writing, the story and characters can continue to grow and develop outside the boundaries of what was presented in its manga. This strikes out 4 of the 5 reasons why we hate fillers mentioned above.

What’s your take on this?

Me? I still think fillers sucks. After what they did with Naruto, you can’t blame me :)

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