So its that time of the year again, we’ll be continuing this wonderful tradition, this will be the third year we’re doing this and it is still as fun as it was three years ago. During that time we only had about 4 or 5 categories and it was all done in a bit of a hurry, so the so the second year we decided to have more categories. In the end we ended up having too many categories and everything became a little bit messy, so we’ve been weeding out some categories and improved on our format this year and sure enough we have, what I feel, a very solid coverage.
2011 was a year filled with ups and downs, however if you ask me this is one of the best years in Anime in a very long time. We see many shows trying to break patterns and incorporate new styles to break the norms, this has lead to some really exciting shows.
* [The awards below are not official, these are just based on our personal opinions.]
Something that is new for this year is that we’ve added a “Random” section at the bottom where we had the freedom to take a pick of categories we personally wanted to award someone for, we felt this approach was more personal and can make it a whole lot more fun.
Speaking of new things we will have a new participant this year in Yumeko, someone who unlike me has a more omnivorous taste, hopefully this will bring more variety to our picks.
Koru is back for a another year and last year he struggled to fill out most of the categories as he didn’t watch that many shows, so this year he has prepared himself thoroughly by watching probably more shows than any of us.
And of course, it wouldn’t be a true award show without the person who came up with the idea of this at the start. Mandy is of course featured this year too and with a new way of approaching the shows she has improved her variety a lot.
Last to be mentioned is me, I’m not quite sure what kind of factor I bring into these awards. I often aim to be the one that breaks patterns and sports weird and obscure picks but I somehow end up picking really generic and boring shows, I felt like I landed there this year too but I’m still happy with my picks.
Maniakku and all the award participants wishes you a Happy New Year and is looking forward to a great 2012 with amazing Anime, here are your 2011 awards!
Battlefield 3 is now closing in on its first week out as a beta and I feel like writing a little about it.
Now I want you to read this with moderation as this is the first FPS game I’ve actively played since Counter-Strike 1.5, I should say that the main reason why I don’t like the FPS genre is because it feels like a very restricted and one-sided. The whole first person perspective is outplayed and it feels like playing the same game over and over again, the only difference a new game will bring is a different opponent and a different gun, what I really like about playing new video games is discovering new and fun game features and this is why I believe the FPS genre is highly restricted.
The very reason I actually gave Battlefield 3 a try was the constant rumors of some kind of game revolutionizing development and the fact that my old friend is working at DICE. Now for the time I have played the game I have yet to see anything revolutionized, I feel like I’m back to playing the same old first person shooters as I did in middle school but at the same time I always have to keep the thought in the back of my head to take every little thing with a pinch of salt.
The only game mode available in the BF3 beta at this moment is the “Rush Mode” that reminds me slightly of the Counter-Strike format “Bomb & Defuse”, there are no vehicles available in the game yet and it feels like until we get to play the game with all of its features we can’t make a complete verdict but with what I have experienced so far I’m not impressed and to be honest I’m really disappointed.
It feels like I was right from the beginning, the FPS genre has incredible restrictions when it comes to gameplay and it feels like Battlefield 3 is no different from the other ones. You can enhance the visuals, exhibit higher realism and make the experience as amazing as you want but in the end you’re still sitting there aiming with your mouse and keyboard (Because really manly men play FPS games on PC) strafing, aiming and crouching, repeating the same thing over and over again, the game doesn’t evolve at all and has no space for evolving either.
Now I have been slightly negative in my post, I figured I would give it some praise too so I’m just gonna say it now, this game is beautiful. Maybe there are some small details that could have been done better but so far the game has been “a feast for the eyes” and what really catches your attention is the lighting. The game has really high requirements on what kind of gear you might be sitting on but even on low settings the game still stays visually appealing and is even on-par with other high end video games.
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Before I finish, I’d like to say one more thing.
Electronic Arts are fucking idiots..
I’m not sure what kind of inbred retard thought of the Battlelog system but whoever he or she is, they should really go and resign right now. They made the Battlelog to get the players more involved and closer to the community but to be honest I don’t like this approach. I don’t think anyone have come up with a more roundabout way to start a game since Valve came out with Steam, the Battlelog is incredibly inflexible and I don’t think the way to get the players to get more involved with the community is to piss them off first, unless you want them to flood your forums with complaints.
As usual I’ll be putting in the disclaimer that this is my personal list and is in no way official at all, after all I don’t want to offend someone. ;)
This season was so terrible I don’t even know if I even watched 5 series, but we’ll see what comes up.
5. Mayo Chiki
Well it turns out I only watches 6 (!) series this season, and the only show that managed to be worse than Mayo Chiki was Sacred Seven. As I mentioned on my twitter there seems to be a recurring pattern that every fan-service filled anime that I pick up because the just might have a chance to be decent actually does start out decent, of course towards the end of every single one of these shows it just keeps going downhill with the most ridiculous developments.
Every season I try to give one of these series a try just to see if maybe one season we’ll finally get to see a good 13-episode fan-service series.
Don’t watch this, its a waste of your time.
Anyways, let me actually write something about the series, it sort of has a reverse-gender bender thing going on. At first it seemed to be an interesting idea but in the end the focus on the gender-bender completely falls out of the picture and we end up with the usual generic fan-service crap.
4. Kami-sama no Memochou
Speaking of series that can develop for the worst, Kami-sama no Memochou was actually very interesting despite the heavy vibes of Gosick plagiarism. The main character is what mainly caught my interest on this one series and about halfway through the series everything seems very reasonable. After watching about half of it I’m actually starting to question the sexual orientation of this guy, he somehow manages to find a resolve that turns himself completely queer and what may seem to change his interest in girls into an interest in guys. I’m not trying to say that his change of heart is not okay but as a development in an anime it is completely wrong.
Watch only half of it, the rest is crap.
3. Dantalian no Shoka
As I’m writing this the final episode hasn’t been aired but I’m fairly certain that this show can’t drop below the ones I have mentioned earlier, if you like shows about books you might actually like this.
It seems very popular to be on the Gosick bandwagon at this point but nothing very specific brings this series to attention.. Well except for the very curious ENDING. The show carries a solid story and interesting characters, especially with the voicing cast. The only thing I would knit-pick with this series is that the whole shounen power-up special abilities kind of ruins the mood of the series and I feel could have done much better with normal characters.
Watch this if you like mystery shows.
2. Kamisama Dolls
Singing “robots” have never been cooler. Oddly enough I had very low expectations for this show, and it turns out I was completely wrong, the series is incredibly interesting and it inhibits probably one of the moe imouto-characters ever (I love Utao <3), I could do without the brocon but I'm just happy with the whole experience. The show is categorized as "piloted robots" however I'm gonna challenge this label and say that they're not piloted at all. They're just dolls being controlled by mental power, I wouldn't exactly call that piloted. Maybe they could categorize it as "Puppet Show" or "Puppetry".
I like the singing "robots" (Sorry, it feels weird calling them that) and most of the songs are really catchy and cute. The ending hints about a second season and I would welcome it warmly, I feel like 13 episodes didn't justify it. It has much more potential and I'm really looking forward to a possible sequel.
Definitely watch this!
1. Steins;Gate
When I first looked up the new series for the upcoming season at the end of the spring season, I didn't see anything that would interest me. But when I read that Steins;Gate would get an anime I figured this would save the entire season. However when I watched the first episode I found it really boring and got really disappointed so I decided to drop it after just 1 episode.
Time passed and as the terrible summer season haunted me I ran out of series to watch so I figured that I could give the show a second try. I did and scored one of my personal favorites, unlike Chaos;Head this show clarifies better of what is going on and just by knowing that it is going to mess with your head even more. Fuck Inception, we have death-loops.
The show is built around time-paradoxes and sending information back into time changing the present. The show captures you really well and the constant time-hopping and the changing of past and present made you really question what the whole point of watching the show was as parts of it was rendered completely useless, it was at that point I realized how really into the show I actually was.
I love this show because it makes you think a lot, I was really absorbed into the plot and sometimes caught myself theorizing about their trials and solutions. It approaches you on a lot of levels such as; humor, psychology, morale and romance. I have many times stated that this is what makes a series really good, so diversity = good.
If you can deal with the slightly slow start, this show will blow your mind and change your perspective. A must-see!
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Best Opening: Dantalian no Shoka
Best Ending: Dantalian no Shoka
Shows to avoid:
Sacred Seven
No. 6
Mawaru Penguindrum
I will only proof-read this once as I’m a little busy at the moment, please forgive any grammar or spelling mistakes.
The blog has been stagnant for a while now, I’m really sorry about that but it seems like its gonna stay that way for a while longer. This short update is just to tell you that the blog isn’t dead or cancelled, and secondly because Sacred Seven is the worst pile of crap I’ve watched in a long time.
There aren’t many female seiyuu that can pull off true comedy however if there is any light in the darkness, Kobayashi Yuu is that voice actor.
Although with the face of an angel, she probably has the lowest pitched voice of any active female voice actor. Now I don’t know much about voice actors and half of the time I forget their names, but if there is a voice that I tell by just hearing one line it is Kobayashi’s. Her style may not have much variation but I’m completely fine with that, makes it all easier to figure out who it is.
Her main business is comedy and there is no doubt that her voice is tailored for comedy, right around this time we’re all pretty used to her doing comedy gigs and just by her presence and energetic dramatization it all becomes a notch funnier.
She is also starring in some of my favorite comedies such as Gintama, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Arakawa Under the Bridge, B Gata H Kei (Don’t miss Yuu’s attempt to do the dramatic evil laughter), Nyan Koi, Yondemasuyo! Azazel-san and many more. There are also some less comedic roles in Samurai 7, Umineko and Fractale but with mediocre success, instead this just proves more that comedy is her forte and I absolutely love comedy with Kobayashi.
