So we’re a few weeks into the Fall season now. Everyone bitched from the outset that there was nothing much interesting coming up, not to mention the overload of sequels. Me? I was pretty excited. Sure, there was nothing that stood out as on-the-edge-of-your-seat, I-am-staying-up-till-7am-to-watch-the-raws-god-damn-it (oh Umineko, how you abuse the fuck out of me again and again), but there was a small handfull of titles that appealed to me.

So now, dear readers, you get to experience my completely biased opinions on what few series I am bothering to keep up with this season! Hurray!

Sasameki Koto (Eps. 1-2)

I’ll get this one out of the road first, because as everyone on IRC should know by now, it’s the one I was–and am–gushing like a rabid fangirl about.

Sasameki Koto is yuri through and through, and it’s wonderful. The plot is simple: Sumika loves Ushio. Ushio loves cute girls. Sumika is not a cute girl. Sumika is, however, an awesome best friend, and consoles herself with by trying to make Ushio happy… even if it’s not together with her. Really, it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before. But the characterisation and Takashi Ikeda’s kinda quirky writing style really make it work for me.

It’s clear that everyone involved in this show knows the yuri tropes, but they work with them–and… well, at times they just walk right through them. They’ve picked a typical desaturated palette, with a frequent recurring sunset overlay. It’s nice to see the predominance of blacks and browns in the characters’ hair, too; this series doesn’t try to portray itself as anything amazing, just the type of drama you would expect in any average school, with any average people. That’s something I’ve found interesting about this series, really. Ushio comes right out and says she’s only interested in girls. Sumika never really questions that Ushio is female, or even her tastes in general. Sumika doesn’t even question why Akemiya-kun does what he does (you’ll see in episode 2.) All of it is just… accepted. There is, of course, drama from outside sources that find the lesbian tendencies disgusting, etc. But it’s all treated in a very… normal way. It’s nice to see that yuri drama that isn’t filled to the brim with OH NO ONEESAMA IS TALKING TO ANOTHER GIRL!!! Read the rest of this entry »

So…Pokemon. Chances are, we have all watched and enjoyed Pokemon some time in our past. I was lucky enough to start watching Pokemon from its very beginning, when it was first aired and Ash got his first Pokemon. The show was basically the hype of the school and among my friends. It became so distracting that Gameboys were banned from school, and Pokemon Trading Cards quickly followed suit. Many people remember vividly some memorable hype when they grew up, such as The Beatles, Vietnam War protests, or the iPod. For me, someone who grew up ignorant of Dragon Ball or Sailor Moon, this hype was Pokemon. I never got as far as keeping rare Pokemon cards worth thousands of dollars, but I got bought of the games, books, and became very obsessed. Now that it is ten years later, what has become of my obsession?

Just like yo-yo’s and the SNES, Pokemon went out of popularity while we move on to bigger and better things. I don’t quite remember when I stopped watching the shows, but like many fans, I still play the games. However, my competitive battling skills stopped during the third generation because there were simply too many Pokemon to remember, too many more skills to keep track of, and too many more abilities, natures, and other additions to learn. I changed my approach to playing Pokemon games not to be “the very best” but rather just to have fun, like I would for any other game. But in some ways, I was glad to see Pokemon retaining is popularity in games. Pokemon still dominates handheld systems, getting top ranks at GameFAQs.com for Nintendo Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS at the time of this post. In fact, I have seen Pokemon dominate 7 spots in the top 10 list, boasting over games such as Zelda and Final Fantasy.

To me, Pokemon is just something I can’t let go off, at least not yet. Eventually, I decided to pick up the show where I last stopped. It was interesting going through episode summaries to determine the exact episode where I stopped, but I finally found it, an episode in Season 6, the start of the Hoenn journey. This was the second series, the Advanced Generation, and the start of Ash’s journey with May. (It should be noted that no one fansubs Pokemon, so I am following the dubbed version.) Interestingly, I found that watching Pokemon again is very exciting. I ended up marathoning season through season of Pokemon during a time when marathoning anime was very difficult and boring to me. It seems as if I found some new, exciting anime that I really love.

There were many factors that made continuing Pokemon so fascinating. The first was that I am emotionally attached to the series and its hype, so I could recall the first five seasons…very well. The second factor is a very important factor, which made me glad that I continued from Season 6. In the Hoenn region, there is a new addition to Ash’s repetitive gym battles, and that is Pokemon Contests. Suddenly, Pokemon becomes some new anime that is very refreshing and thrilling. Watching May perform as a Pokemon Coordinator was very exciting while watching Ash’s gym battles was very nostalgic. The mix between the old and the new was excellent, but that’s not all. It seems to me that some hints of romance were added in this season, mostly centered around May. This makes the anime that much more interesting, and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Seasons 6-8.

Aside from being new and exciting, the Advanced Generation produced some excellent stand-alone episodes that I would like to bring into attention. First is Episode 386: Do I Hear A Ralts? I loved this episode because it was very emotional in a way, derailing from the usual gym battles/contests and focusing on Pokemon-human relationships. Also, Max was, for quite a while, useless and annoying, and this episode gave me a much better opinion of him. The episode starts with Max finding an injured Ralts, which he then convinces to let him help. Max brings Ralts back to the group and let it join in for lunch while Max takes care of Ralts. Because of his age, Max cannot yet be a trainer so this is one of his first times he could interact with a Pokemon like it was his own.

As usual, Team Rocket comes and attempts to steal Ash and company’s Pokemon. Now, typically, they would fail horribly and blast off. But not this time! Actually, the battle was really good, almost on par with the average gym battle as far as excitement goes. I mean, Wobbuffett actually uses Mirror Coat and Seviper strategically uses Haze. All in all, it was an unexpectedly damn good battle. During the battle, Max discovers that Ralts was still sick and hid behind a tree. The group decides that Max should run to the Pokemon Center, taking Ash’s Snorunt with him, while everyone is still battling. Read the rest of this entry »

From all of the anime I’ve seen in 2009, I must admit that Saki is my favorite of them all. No, I’m not a mahjong pro or a mahjong enthusiast, but rather completely ignorant of the game. What Saki delivers is something that very few other anime have done so before, and that is complete enjoyment. Several anime I really love have great episodes with a few average episodes in between, but this is not the case for Saki. Every single episode of this episode so far as given me incredibly high levels of enjoyment. It becomes something of a routine to constantly look forward to the next Saki episode. To make a quick but accurate analogy, I feel like a child looking forward to receiving his birthday present every single week.

But there are plenty of blogs that praise Saki (although not nearly enough). What I want to call into attention is the recent episode, Saki 17: Nightmare. Have you ever finished watching an episode of anime and had to sit back to process how amazing that episode was? That was exactly how I felt. I later tried to watch an episode of one of my favorite anime this season, Kanamemo, but I soon had to close the episode. For that night, only Saki existed in the realm of anime, and no other anime could capture my attention.

So what is so good about this particular episode? I must admit that the last episode, Saki 16, was also very good, technically. But it was also painful to see the “enemy” winning. Episode 17 wasn’t far away from it, but it added some crucial elements to the excellent suspense. First, it gave us a bit of background between Kana and Mihoko. This was much needed, because frankly, when I first looked at the lineup for Kazekoshi, Kana would be one of the last person I would have guessed to be their fifth player. Who is Kana, and why was she their main player? Was she their best player? If she lost to Koromo last year, why is she allowed to play against Koromo again this year with such a carefree attitude?

So many question, so little answers. A bit of background between the two characters are revealed, as well as a touching encounter between the two. Speaking of background, the problem that I had throughout watching Saki was the lack of background for the characters of the other schools, and one of my main annoyance was the lack of screentime for Tsuruga members. Read the rest of this entry »