Series Review – Azumanga Daioh

This is a series which I’d previously heard a lot about, but never really had an opportunity to watch, with it being constantly put aside for watching other things. I knew that it was considered to be a top-tier slice of life comedy and quite influential on other series, but I still hadn’t seen it. When Anime Lab put it up on their website, I figured this must be a sign. I love comedy slice of life so it’s a wonder that I hadn’t watched it previously. I have no idea if anything really constitutes spoilers in a slice of life series but I will include the warning that I’m going to discuss some characterisation in this review.

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Long Riders 06 – Oh Four Tuna

While other shows are starting to wrap up, we’re about half-way through Long Riders now. I wonder what will happen when the Winter season starts? I hope that the end of the series can air as planned.

A little time has passed since the last episode, and Ami has had a chance to do more training and get more experienced, so she decides that she’d like to attempt riding Yabitsu Pass again with her friends. I think that it’s really good to see Ami applying her experience and attempting something again which she failed at previously. This time she makes it to the top!

Series Review – gdgd fairies

Anime is frequently lauded for it’s overarching stories and quality 2D animation. gdgd fairies has none of these things, but I think that it’s still worth a look. gdgd fairies is a strange little series of comedy shorts (14 min episodes) created using the MMD (Miku Miku Dance) software. It features the life and adventures of three fairies, pkpk (Piku), shrshr (Shiru), and krkr (Koro). My review does mention some of the events of the show, but as it’s a sketch comedy, I don’t think these qualify as plot spoilers. Use your own discretion! This review discusses both seasons of the show, as they’re fairly similar in content.

Long Riders 05 – Taking Flight

We’re back on track (hopefully) for Long Riders! There’s been some changes to the visuals of the OP this week, replacing scenes with Ami’s folding bike with her new road bike.We also get to see a bit more of Saki, despite her not being properly introduced as of the start of this episode. It’s nice to see the changes in the opening to reflect the changes in Ami’s lifestyle, I wonder if there will be any other changes later on in the series?

Nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award

This week I was lucky enough to be nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award Twice! I thought I’d answer both sets of questions in one post, so there’s twice the sunshine.

Thanks so much to WeeabooOtaku for the nomination for this award! You should check out their blog, they’ve got the same sort of love for comic anime series that I do, and also talk about Japanese culture and J-dramas.

Thanks also to Japanime Talks for the nomination! Their blog has lots of collated lists related to anime things, and the occasional review.

Series Review – Ace Attorney

As promised, even though I didn’t end up doing episodic posts on the series, I have finished Ace Attorney and done a review. I’ll chalk this whole thing up as a failure owing to inexperience. I hope I’ve already got a bit better in figuring out what to write about.

I’m sure that you’re familiar with the idea that fans of original source material (a book, game etc.) tend to never be especially happy when their source material gets a screen adaptation as there’s changes made to the source material. I know that in the past I’ve been very much of the opinion that all changes were bad, although I have softened up a bit over the years when it comes to realising that what works well in a book may not work well in a film or series and sometimes a few changes are necessary in order to make an adaption work well in the medium. If you ever wanted proof that having a faithful adaptation of the source material may not really do the source material justice, you need to look no further than the Ace Attorney anime.

Long Riders 04.5 – Covering old ground

It turns out that in spite of the listed week’s delay, there was an episode of Long Riders aired this week in Japan, but it was just a recap episode, covering the previous events in the series with some new narration. This is not being simulcast by Daisuki because there’s not anything really new, but there is a little information regarding the episode on the Long Riders website. You can also see plot summaries (in Japanese) accompanied by some images for the other episodes.

Monthly Roundup – My first month

I can’t believe it, but I’ve had this blog for a month now! Even during this short time, it’s been a real learning experience, trying to wrap my head around WordPress, and working out that people weren’t exaggerating when they said that the Ace Attorney anime wasn’t very good (there will be a review of the whole series coming). I’ve also learned that people who like cycling seem to be interested in cycling anime, based on my blog activity. I’m hoping that as time goes on I’ll learn more about what is going to work for me in terms of content and posting.

A big thanks to all of my readers and the lovely people who have followed my blog, and taken time to like and or comment on my posts! A big thanks also to the people I know in real life who are reading my blog and who have all individually told me that my writing style is ‘a bit formal’. I’ve not done much informal writing before and it seems like I’m having some troubles loosening up. You’ll probably all tell me my apology is a bit formal too, but I have to start somewhere, right?

I’ll also use this spot to feature some posts from other blogger’s posts which I have read and enjoyed this month. You may want to have a look at these yourself!

https://mechanicalanimereviews.wordpress.com/2016/11/05/trends-in-modern-anime-the-three-episode-rule/
Mechanical Anime Reviews observes the trend of how shows seem to be considering the Three Episode Rule when creating new series. I personally have a four episode rule, formed back in the days when it was common for a friend to lend you the first DVD of a series which usually had four episodes on it, but I know a lot of people go with three episodes to get a taste of a series and there’s some nice insights.

https://lethargicramblings.wordpress.com/2016/11/05/lethargic-ramble-tanaka-kun-and-my-struggle-with-slice-of-life/
Lethargic Ramblings talks about why they don’t find slice-of-life interesting and a rare exception. I think slice-of-life is great, but it’s very interesting to see a well-reasoned view point as to why it doesn’t appeal.

https://theanimeharvest.wordpress.com/2016/10/31/the-purpose-of-out-of-ten-scores-why-theyre-pointless-except-sometimes-but/
Anime Harvest discusses when giving a show a score can be valuable, and when it feels kind of meaningless. I have problems myself with the idea of giving an out of ten score for many similar reasons to the ones they gave, that’s why I thought I’d stick with a simple recommend or not recommend at the end of my reviews, but I found their argument for giving a show a score very interesting, and something I’d consider.

https://litakinoanimecorner.wordpress.com/2016/11/10/anime-lost-its-spark-dying-me-thinks-not/
LitaKino talks about why she thinks that anime is not ‘dying’ or losing its charm, despite some opinions to the contrary.

I’m hoping to have many more months of writing and learning ahead!

You ruined everything! – Thoughts on spoilers

This post is going to be something a bit different from what I’ve written so far, as it’s a general reflection. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my blog and how I’d like to fill my twice a week post goal plus occasionally maybe a bit more (or should I actually bump it up to three times a week? I’ve been posting nearly three times a week as it is). I feel like committing myself to doing one series review per week is the act of a madperson, as I’m sure it’s not realistic to get through an entire series every week and be able to write about it, and I only have a finite amount of shows which I have already seen (plus for a lot of older shows my memories are so vague that I couldn’t write about them with any assurance). Perhaps reflections will become a regular part of my blog, or perhaps they will be a more occasional feature. I do have a few ideas for topics which I’m hoping to share with everyone.

The idea of spoilers is very much a hot topic. With information readily available to us these days on the internet, you can be only one click away from finding out something about a film, book, or a series which you haven’t seen yet, or you haven’t seen up to the point which has been discussed. Sometimes it’s even friends who are excited about something that you both enjoy who are a bit further ahead than you and share things that you don’t want to know. Some people can get very annoyed about finding out details, and there seems to unfortunately be some people who take joy in intentionally revealing information about something which will upset those around them.

Long Riders 04 – Where has the bike gone?

Hinako is earnest for once

This episode starts out with Ami talking about being interested in a road bike and getting a pretty good run-down on the different kinds of bikes from Hinako. You do want a different kind of bike to suit your needs, and it may have taken four episodes (or what seems to be around 4 months based on the fact that the first episode would have been in April and I’ve seen an August date on a calendar in the previous episode) for Ami to figure it out, but her folding bike while great for a short commute, is not so good for the distance cycling she’s interested in doing with her friends.