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After all these community events, Gamingforce should just rename itself to Gamingforce Statistics Forums. People here seem to have a need to see stats for every single thing that goes on around here. Egregious (but hilarious) examples include:
Tombstone Pizza delivery stats
FOX2 stats from the Ace Combat Event
Prop/Diss stats during the Bringing Back the Balance week (or was it just a day?)
and of course, the Gamingfort kill/looting stats
And given that there's been a general petition for more journal stats, I think my case has been strengthened further. This fascination for statistical information illustrates that stats make everything more fun. Sorta like having unlockable achievements, but without the tediousness.
Nothing cleverly done or anything like that, nor do I even understand the subject of the speech, but I do like the result that comes about from juxtaposing the speech along with the music.
NOTE: Long video is ridiculously long... and it takes about 2 minutes to get the idea.
No musings here, but if I'm introduced to a soundtrack via GFF (see my Papillon Rose review), it's only natural to post a link from my chocojournal. Anyhow, review for One Outs's OST has been posted to my blogspace.
I understood most of what Gary Becker was saying in this piece until I came across this line:
Quote:
Unfortunately, pay caps that leave total pay considerably below what able executives receive in other companies make it more difficult to attract these executives to companies in distress because they can earn more, and work with considerably less government interference, in companies that do not take or need aid. Moreover, severe limits on severance pay help to lock in incompetent executives who then might refuse to leave voluntarily because they would not receive any significant financial incentives to leave.
My ignorance of the sort of stonewalling and politicking that goes on between management and corporate boards is going to reveal itself here, but I've always thought that if the Board of Directors wants to fire an executive, they can do so at will. The thought of an incompetent executive seems like a ludicrous one to me, but since my knowledge of contracts between corporate executives is rather limited in terms of how they're structured, maybe someone who has better knowledge can explain this one to me.
Other than that, my only thought is that golden parachutes impose unnecessary costs that prevent a company from running efficiently, so why they exist is beyond my knowledge.
More on Executive Compensation (and a few pointed jabs at investment banking)
Quote:
Why, Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., wanted to know, does anyone need multimillion-dollar bonuses on top of million-dollar salaries?
"If in good times you were told you weren't going to be getting a bonus, what part of your job would you not do?" Frank asked. "Would you, like, leave early on Wednesdays? Would you take longer lunches?"
While there's no good answer for this one, it does demonstrate that Barney Frank's sarcasm never disappoints. It's also some food for thought given what I pondered over regarding the optimal point for CEO pay.
Also, for anyone who's looking for a dream job in the exciting field of investment banking, here's a few choice quotes to chew on:
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“I’d almost rather say I’m a pornographer,” said a retired Wall Street executive who, for self-evident reasons, asked not to be identified. “At least that’s a business that people understand.”
Quote:
“Fact is that this [banking] is a terrible way to make a living — except for the money,” Ken Miller, a former vice chairman at Credit Suisse First Boston and now a private investor, said. “The lifestyle is terrible — the hours, the sucking up. These guys must feel like they’re the victims of a capricious god.”
A stunning indictment if I say so myself and it's definitely not the stuff that they say during presentations and career fairs. After talking to bankers about the long hours (in some cases, over 100 hours a week unless you work at Deutche Bank in which case you work more like 120 hours a week) and the drudgery, I steered clear of banking and I'm the better for it. They have the money, but I'll take the quality of life, thank you very much.
It's also worth mentioning that most of the people from my graduating class who became i-bankers quit after two years.
Some of the comments in this post dwell pretty heavily on the ethical considerations and maybe it's just the way I think, but the ones who're calling him out for being a deadbeat are way off the mark and it's mildly annoying. One such comment is as follows:
Quote:
Though phrased very politely and realistically, Mike’s letter is exactly what’s wrong with the economy and the people that make it up (don’t even get me started on the recommendations of comment #1, that’s just straight up gaming the system). You have to be accountable for your actions, otherwise trust (and the rest of the economy) breaks down.
Mike, did you sign a contract saying that you’ll pay X amount of dollars for the next Y years? Can you still afford to make those payments and feed/clothe your family? It seems like the answer to both of those questions is yes. So guess what, you need to hold up your end of the bargain and keep on paying that mortgage.
When you purchase anything whatsoever, you are taking an implicit risk that that thing may not be worth as much in the future as it is right now. You’re basically saying that since you ‘lost’ in this transaction, you shouldn’t have to pay the consequences. If the home went up in value, would the lender have a right to raise your monthly payments because the home is now worth more?
Now, I'm no expert on contract law, but I was under the perception that all contracts list out the obligations for parties to agree to and that a well-written contract will include provisions on what penalties take effect in the event that the contract is breached by either party.
The reasoning behind having a penalty in the event of a breach is fairly simple: both parties recognize that there are instances in which executing the terms of the contract is economically unfeasible and that breaching the contract and paying the related penalties (in this case, the foreclosure on the house) would be the best option. If anyone wants an example, I can probably come up with a scenario that illustrates this principle.
So back to Mike's scenario, assuming that both parties are of sound mind, I can't think of anything more transparent than a contract. Both parties can read what they've agreed to, they are well aware of the risks that come with signing the contract, and they are aware of the consequences of breaching it. When the information is presented so clearly, I find it difficult to see how ethics should be a consideration in this situation.
It's one thing if one side of the exchange negotiated in bad faith, but somehow, I don't think that's the case here.
Words from Bill Watterson - Thoughts and Connections
On a whim, I decided to look up information on Bill Watterson in no small part because the role that Calvin and Hobbes played in my childhood was so great even if I didn't understand much of the philosophical musings that he spouted back then.
Despite the futility of the whole episode [him painting on the ceiling of his dorm room], my fondest memories of college are times like these, where things were done out of some inexplicable inner imperative, rather than because the work was demanded...
It's surprising how hard we'll work when the work is done just for ourselves...
Maybe taking his words as a way of justifying my hobbies goes a bit far, but lately, I've been feeling these sentiments more keenly than I've felt before, especially in light of some recent developments in my life.
The process of writing on my blog and for that anime review site have been very motivating and I have the drive to actually spend copious amounts of time thinking and writing even though I know that it's unlikely to yield substantial fruit beyond self-satisfaction. Is this pure selfishness? If I were to focus my efforts on doing things that society values (like providing a good or service), would I be capable of achieving much much more than I currently am in society's eyes?
Ultimately, the answer to both of those questions is yes, but this answer doesn't bother me as much as it once did because the kind of work that others may consider a waste of brain power makes me happy. Being happy with your life and who you are, I've found, is more important than gaining prestige, a concept that I'm convinced is a lure that society puts out to get smart people to do things that no one in their right minds would do for a living (see: investment banking) (1). That's why to me, work is painful by its very nature precisely because it's work. Those who are lucky enough can escape that cycle by engaging in a hobby that happens to make them a decent living, which definitely makes life far more fulfilling than toiling away in an investment bank, law firm, or doctor's office just to be able to tell people that you work in those professions and earn those megabucks. Or maybe those people who work such jobs didn't consider the value of intangible benefits like time to allow one's mind to wander when they made the value calculation to enter a certain profession.
(The next trick: try to get parents who are so taken in with the middle-class ethos to understand this concept.)
(1) Paul Graham also writes about this over in one of his essays.
It's about time I moved away from anime in this journal since my blog already does a decent job of that. So with some inspiration taken from a certain anime blogger, I've decided to devote this journal to things I read on the internet (which may include anime) and have a thought or two about. Seeing the sort of vetting that people on here are capable of rendering, I figured it'd be a good way to refine my thinking process. (Let's see how long this'll last.)
So stuff regarding the economy:
Quote:
“That is pretty draconian — $500,000 is not a lot of money, particularly if there is no bonus,” said James F. Reda, founder and managing director of James F. Reda & Associates, a compensation consulting firm. “And you know these companies that are in trouble are not going to pay much of an annual dividend.”
Mr. Reda said only a handful of big companies pay chief executives and other senior executives $500,000 or less in total compensation. He said such limits would make it hard for the companies to recruit and keep executives, most of whom could earn more money at other firms.
So part of the plan is to rein in executive compensation at firms that receive TARP money. OK, check. It's a good political move and the public was pretty sick of executives getting huge bonuses when their companies were failing. And since the government had to bail them out, it's also understandable that they'd want a hand in the way things were run.
That said, I'm trying to picture Mr. James F. Reda saying that first line with a straight face. Calling a $500,000 limit "draconian" and "not a lot of money" seems to me a statement that's wildly out of touch with reality (granted, the comparison group he's thinking of are CEOs in Fortune 500 companies). For most people, half a million is a windfall and Reda's attitude only underscores the income disparities out there. Is it wrong for me to be disgusted by the way he said that so casually?
He then goes on to talk about the issue of being unable to keep executives if the pay is limited to that amount. While I agree that you need to have the right incentives in place to get people to work optimally (a good solution would be to include stock options as a part of that $500,000 where they have the chance to receive ridiculous amounts of wealth if they succeed in reviving the bank's fortunes, so the theory goes anyhow), I'm not sure how strong a correlation exists between executive compensation and how well a company is doing in general. My professors have told me that no such correlation exists according to some study, but I haven't taken the time to look into this study so let's leave it alone for now and ponder the theoretical pay versus performance.
What I'm curious about are the marginal benefits of executive compensation to the company. Let's say that by increasing the base pay of an executive by $500,000 and add another $500,000 in stock options, the company earns an additional net income amount of $2 million, one can't begrudge the company for doling out that extra amount.
But if we go up the pay ladder, we have to ask ourselves at what point a corresponding increase in executive pay will result in no increase to the company's bottom line. My guess is that that amount will be somewhere around $5-10 million (this amount includes housing and dining stipends, bonuses, stock options, and other benefits) because once you reach that point, an extra million dollars isn't going to coax out much in an increase to the company's net income and the company would be better off using that amount to expand their business further.
Furthermore, there's no guarantee that higher pay leads to better executive performance either and we've seen evidence of this in John Thain (Merrill Lynch), Vikram Pandit (Citi), and Rick Wagoner (GM) whose companies have been flailing around pretty badly. It's not like you'd want to retain people who are incompetent as chief executive anyways. One could argue that things would have been worse had these people not been present, but the flip side of the coin is also true, so that's an argument I'll simply dismiss unless someone can present a compelling scenario.
In the end, I think money can only motivate so much. Most investment bankers, by the time they reach the point where they'd be considered for an executive position, are already damn wealthy and the only real benefit of being a CEO is the prestige that comes with managing such a large company and managing it well. Other than that, it's hard for me to see how pay and benefits would get them to produce more because you either have the skills to manage a company well and allow it to grow or you don't.
Thanks to Bigblah for providing the soundtrack and the album scan. I don't know if I'll ever get around to reviewing OST 2. Maybe if I'm bored one of these days I'll tackle it, but for now, this will have to do.
Currently Playing: Something that isn't Papillon Rose
How AX2008 Fared (Part 2 of 2 - Back from Intermission):
So last we had left off when Yoko Ishida had exited the stage and a brief 5-minute intermission was called up to allow Jyukai to make their entrance. Jyukai seemed to be a two-member group with Minami Watanabe on vocals and presumably Dewa Yoshiaki, a Japanese guy who wore tight pants and played guitar. Up until this point, I had not heard much of Jyukai’s works… or so I thought until the first song was played, which turned out to be Anata ga Ita Mori, the ED to Fate/Stay Night. If there was one thing that was immediately recognizable, it was the fact that Minami wasn’t quite up to par with Yoko Ishida and that it was easier to catch her mistakes. In spite of that, she performed Anata ga Ita Mori rather beautifully. The rest of the pieces that the group performed weren’t ones I could name off the top of my head though evidently they took their themes from Ah My Goddess Flights of Fancy and its follow-up as well as one song from Buso Renkin. All in all, I’d say that a lot of her songs were rather on the melancholy side, though it didn’t quite stir my emotions. If there was any change that could have been made, I probably would have suggested that Jyukai performed first and followed it up with Yoko Ishida just because I think the end of the concert should strive to be energetic. But that’s just me. It was still pretty enjoyable though.
After that, the rest of the day was marked for acquiring loot and we started off with a visit to the Artist’s Alley which also contained the Art Show. Normally, AX is pretty well-known for having decent works of art at the Art Show, but this year’s were a bit of a washout. Many of the works looked like they were done by elementary school kids who drew crude pictures with crayon. Needless to say, they looked absolutely terrible. While I was there, I also noticed some familiar pictures which had been there the year before! Apparently they had not been able to sell or something, so they made a return. It was fairly disappointing to say the least since I had been hoping (and failing again) to snag a really well-drawn picture, maybe two. Oh well, at least some of the models looked nice, though the no-camera policy didn’t allow me to snap the image of a really well-done model of Suigintou from Rozen Maiden.
At least the Artist’s Alley was pretty good and after wandering around looking for good fanarts, I stumbled across a table that had a very good picture pair of the 4 main cast members from Lucky Star. The first pair consisted of Konata and Tsukasa. Konata was, not surprisingly, cosplaying as Haruhi while Tsukasa was wearing an Evangelion plug suit. The other set was Kagami and Miyuki, with Kagami wearing a dress while Miyuki was wearing a red vest. They’re obviously cosplaying in that picture too, but I wouldn’t be able to tell you what they were.
Then it was off to the Exhibit Hall phase 2 (The Revenge!!) where I mostly drifted around aimlessly moving from booth to booth with the goal of trying to complete my Kaleido Star DVD collection (missing volumes 3, 4, and 6) as well as some ARIA paraphernalia. I managed to obtain neither, unfortunately even though there was a figurine of Akira, which would have looked good next to my Max Factory Alicia, but I chickened out on that one and let it be. I did manage to snag a Revoltec figurine of Yotsuba from Yotsuba&! as a gift since the person in question really likes the manga. I also added a Ghost in the Shell keychain just to bump up the total price to above $20 as to pay by credit card. That Lucky Star picture set pretty much drained my low amounts of cash. Oh well. I should have remembered to withdraw cash earlier in the day anyhow.
Also interesting to note was that Wizards of the Coast were there, touting D&D 4th Edition (which I have negative opinions of for being a shoddy piece of game design). Also went back to look at Guilty Gear II Overture (that I mentioned before) and saw that it played a lot like a Dynasty Warriors game, but other than that, that’s pretty much how my day went. I had to leave early so no panels, anime viewings (not that there was anything particularly great on), Persona 4 announcements, or AX Idol, which is just as well. Day was still a blast and I enjoyed it immensely.
Thoughts:
LA Convention Center was a shockingly decent venue with the Nokia Theater close by, allowing for easy access. Parking was also plentiful (even if it’s a bit expensive) and the Convention Center as a whole was huge. This meant that overcrowding wasn’t an issue and that I could move from location to location at a pretty good clip (not that I went to too many areas). So all in all, the new location was a definite plus.
AX Staff was also a lot more organized. I had praised the new registration system that they had in place which again, was excellently implemented, allowing for people to go in and out really quickly. Waiting in line to scan the barcodes was never a big issue and aside from the occasional printer hiccups, everything went off without a hitch.
TL;DR Version:
The Good: I apparently got a lot better at Melty Blood or something, the Yoko Ishida/Jyukai concert was a blast. Excellent location and organization for a change.
The Bad: I still missed out on the Anime Trivia contest again. Not that winning it is something to be particularly proud of, but I’d like to see how disgusting my levels of knowledge are. Or lack of knowledge. My haul of anime merchandise was also distressingly small. Also missed out on the BlazBlue demo in the console rooms. Ran out of cash. Note to self: try to see if I can go to more than just one day.
Ill-gotten Loot: Yotsuba Revoltec, GitS keychain, Lucky Star fanart.
The Irony: Most of those purchases weren’t for me but were gifts for other people.
Coming off of last year’s miserable convention as well as the SPJA’s inability to actually be organized, I entered this year’s Anime Expo with disturbingly low expectations. It didn’t help that this year, I wasn’t all too enthused about the guests of honor unlike last year when Hirano and Co. made an appearance. But I still went nonetheless and set my bar really low with the hopes that there wouldn’t be a repeat of last year’s waiting in line for 3 hours fiasco and that the convention would actually be enjoyable this time around.
How AX2008 Fared (Part 1 of 2):
So after arriving at the convention hall around 7am on Friday morning, the lines had already begun to form and once the registration gates opened, we moved in pretty quickly and also got out rather quickly as well. Gone was the need to go through a cumbersome process just to get the badges printed out. This time, they had a handy machine that scanned a barcode on the confirmation email and sent that information to another machine to have the badge information printed automatically. I probably managed to get in and out within the span of 15 minutes. Needless to say, this was a massive amount of improvement compared to years past.
And it’s off to the arcades we go! The AX messageboards indicated that there would be no Melty Blood Act Cadenza there which made me pretty unhappy because of the losses I took last year. But as I went into the arcade, lo and behold, the messageboard goers lied and there it was: a Melty Blood Act Cadenza machine. I did manage to get a few games in and succeeded in beating 2 people before getting my face smashed in by someone playing Nero and by another person playing Neko-Arc (Yes, I’m still seething over that one. My lack of playing Melty Blood definitely showed there.). Oh yeah, and I was maining Shiki Tohno the entire time because I’m still a scrub. I also tried a game of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, but for some reason, I was really off that day (or maybe my opponent was just really good) and lost pretty badly though the second round was much closer than the first round due to the back and forth.
After wasting enough time at the arcades for about an hour, there was a block of time when I stood in line to get tickets to the Yoko Ishida/Jyukai concert held at the Nokia Theater and after that, it was to the Exhibit Hall. There wasn’t a whole lot there to catch my attention aside from the Nippon Ichi USA and the XSEED booth, which had some pretty awesome looking posters. The booth for Aksys Games was also rather interesting because they had a playable version of Guilty Gear II Overture out as well as one for Battle Fantasia. I also got a good look at Tales of Vesperia and the animation for that was definitely very nice. Alas, time was running short and after a quick lunch, it was off to the Yoko Ishida/Jyukai concert!
For those who remember it, the SOS-Dan concert last year was terrible both in the quality of the singing as well as the scheduling. None of that happened this year and it’s an understatement to say that my expectations were completely blown away.
The show started off well enough with Geneon doing some previews of some shows it had planned to bring over stateside and some of those were rather nice even if I did ponder about whether they’d be able to make a reemergence in the R1 DVD market. One of the noteworthy things included Hellsing Ultimate which was pretty much a story revolving around Alucard and Co. fighting off Nazi zombies. It’s bloody and violent and is all that you really ever expected out of a Hellsing show anyhow, so I suppose expectations were met. Another preview followed, this time of shows that are out in Japan including Allison and Lillia (which I approve of), Nabari no Ou (which I heard was ehhh), Kamen no Mad Guy (ecchi comedy with a GAR.. maid… guy), and some other series whose title I have no idea though it looks like it’s derived from a dating sim with some supernatural elements to it (the girl the main character comes across can manipulate electricity or something). Overall, not too terrible in terms of picks but not overly impressive either. There were better series in the Spring lineup as you’re probably very aware.
In due time, Yoko Ishida’s concert began and from the very start she managed to entrance the crowd with a medley containing some of her anime-related works. I was able to recognize most of the songs contained in that medley even if I couldn’t place the anime series in which they appeared. Of the songs that I could come up with, White Destiny (Pretear), Sugar Baby Love (Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy), and Towa no Hana (Ai Yori Aoshi). There are probably more that I missed, but nevertheless, that was a great way to start things off. The next song to come up was predictably enough, Open Your Mind from Ah My Goddess (TV). A brief moment where the emcee played for time so that Yoko Ishida could prepare her next pieces took place and after that, it was Para Para time. The next medley featured a lot of anime mixes including Let Me Be With You (Chobits) and You Get to Burning (Nadesico), but the next song that really took the cake was Cruel Angel’s Thesis (Neon Genesis Evangelion) which seemed like it came out of nowhere and shocked me to the point where I was absolutely stunned, and then left shitting bricks. Basically, Yoko Ishida’s performance was excellent and I was definitely pleased with what I heard. Her voice was pretty good and she made very few mistakes unlike Aya Hirano last year (Note to fans: Aya Hirano is terrible with live performances). Her performance made the registration fee for AX worth it! Definitely something not to be missed!
Intermission
That’s it for now! Tune in sometime tomorrow for my review of Jyukai’s performance as well as a summary of what transpired afterwards (including my ill-gotten loot) as well as an overall opinion of what I thought about AX 2008.
OK, so it’s been almost a week after Anime Expo has ended and while I only attended the Saturday events and walked around on the exhibition floor on Sunday, I can say that the convention was a mixture of fun and somewhat of a fiasco. It’s only been my second time going to AX and while I can say that I planned things better than I did last year, the convention still needs to step up in its organization to set things right. This entry will pretty much give an overview of what I did on that Saturday.
After going through the registration process, I decided to hightail it to the Westin where they had the video rooms, mostly because the schedule said that Fantastic Children would be on, followed by Kamichu!. Fantastic Children was pretty decent though three episodes is hardly enough to judge a series by. I only saw parts of episode 1, which may have contributed to the amount of confusion I felt while going through episodes 2 and 3. The art and story felt like it was something taken out of Now and Then, Here and There with the plot revolving around these beings that do not age and are traveling the world seeking something which wasn’t divulged in those three episodes and battling shadowy pursuers. While it did feel like a decent series with a promising story, it didn’t register a high enough blip on my radar to continue delving into with any sense of urgency. I have read that people found that series to be pretty decent so that will have to be for another time.
The next series that I managed to see was Kamichu! and while I didn’t have high expectations for it, it turned out to be a great show that I’ll definitely need to look into. The story revolves around Yurie, a student in junior-high who recently became a goddess and now has to somehow cope with that. This series comes with a great cast of characters ranging from the level-headed and cynical Mitsue to the clueless love interest Kenji to Matsuri, the daughter of the person in charge of the local shinto shrine who immediately seizes the opportunity to market Yurie out to the rest of the community. What this series manages to do well is make what would normally be extraordinary into something mundane as we see Yurie do her best to navigate through the duties of being a god while still retaining her life as a student. All in all, the comedy manages to deliver while retaining its sense of innocence and charm.
Afterwards, I headed out over to the arcades where I finally got to play a few games that I was really looking forwards to playing. The first was Melty Blood: Act Cadenza which I sucked at horribly because of not being used to the joystick controls on the machines. Basically went out and picked Ciel, my main for Melty Blood ReACT: Final Tuned and fumbled my way around while trying to do the combos that I’ve grown accustomed to doing on my gamepad back at home. I did manage to beat 2 computer opponents before some guy came in and challenged me with his Ciel. Although both of us were playing really crappily, he played less crappily and managed to beat me pretty quickly in the second round. I also got to play Mushihime-sama and my skills at the Touhou games did help me some, but they weren’t enough. Maybe my concentration was off a bit after that Melty Blood game. Who knows.
Once that was done, I headed over to the art show where I caught sight of a few interesting pictures involving that bunnygirl that appeared quite a few times in Densha Otoko. Too bad I didn’t know enough or followed that live drama to have a strong attachment to that picture to warrant buying it, so I let it pass. There were some other interesting Kingdom Hearts fanart as well as some decent Suzumiya Haruhi pieces up for auction but none of them looked particularly outstanding, so I let those pass as well. The only thought I had while in that art show was that I regretted not picking up some of those Gankutsuou pieces they had last year. Better luck next year I guess.
Ended up walking around the exhibition hall after that although time was a huge constraint there because I had to plan to grab the tickets for the SOS-dan Concert later in the day. I still did manage to pick up some anime and manga there as well as a few shirts. Nothing big there and the list of my ill-gotten loot can be found towards the end of this entry.
And finally, around 3:00pm, I got in line for the event that I was most anticipating: the SOS-dan Concert. This is basically where the convention’s lack of organization reared its ugly head. What began after that was an annoyingly long 3-hour wait as the people backstage were trying to set things up. First, they were claiming some sort of problems with the sound system and then the excuses stopped coming. I ended up waiting in line where the day was hot and the position in which I was standing didn’t really allow me to play Ace Combat X on my PSP without being hit by large amounts of glare, so I instead marveled at the sheer amount of annoying otaku behavior (including a girl who just couldn’t shut up about her Haruhi cosplay and kept answering her phone with “Moshi moshi! Haruhi desu!”). My eyes also bled from watching a hairy male dressing up as some To Heart character although I did catch sight of some of the Hard Gay cosplayers who were hilarious. Luckily, I did have some people to converse with and one was talking about how awesome the Romeo x Juliet soundtrack was, and that got started into a talk about Sakimoto’s awesomeness. Some good did come from standing in that line after all. They finally let people into the arena around 5:30pm, but that wait was pretty bad nonetheless.
Once things got under way and everyone was seated for the concert, it started off with Yuko Goto singing that song played in episode 00 and she delivered a pretty solid performance, singing it perfectly off-tune just like the original. In between the songs, they’d usually do a demonstration of how voice acting was done, both with the Japanese and English voice actors doing the voices to the images they’d throw on the screen. Nothing too much to speak of in that area. Next up was Aya Hirano singing Bokuen Desho? Desho? and her rendition of it was a tad subpar. Maybe she was nervous or something, but her voice had this vibrato to it that detracted from the song. While she did receive applause, I can’t say I was all too enthusiastic about it. Her later performance with God Knows and Lost My Music were far better although God Knows also suffered from that vibrato. When it came down to it, Lost My Music was probably her best performance, though given the subpar delivery on Bokuen Desho? Desho?, that’s not really saying too much as things would have to fall to a new low to exceed Bokuen Desho? Desho?. Minori Chihara (Yuki’s VA) gave the best performance of the three (partly because Yuko Goto only performed one song) and she did her part well. I don’t remember any glaring errors that jumped out, probably because I knew neither the titles of the songs she sang nor have I ever heard them before. The concert concluded with Hare Hare Yukai which I thought was performed pretty competently. No complaints about that one.
All in all, the concert was a mixed bag of disastrous organizing and subpar performances from the VA that I had been looking forwards to hearing, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless just for being able to see them in person and getting a perspective into how things worked in the industry. I’d say the amount of enjoyment I derived out of the event was enough to outweigh the problems, so it was worth it in the end.
Summary of the experience:
The Good: SOS-dan concert was fun despite some of the issues I had with it, brought Kamichu! onto my radar, enjoyed playing shooters and Melty Blood.
The Bad: Horrendous organization (what else is new?)
Ill-gotten loot: Hayate the Combat Butler volumes 1-3, Twelve Kingdoms (complete series), Gunslinger Girl boxed set, various trinkets from Atlus, and a t-shirt with Mushishi (which were the official convention t-shirts).
Would I go next year: Depends. It’s being held at the LA Convention Center. I don’t know if I’m willing to go that far just for a con. Now, if it were held in San Diego…
In the previous entries I’ve gone through the shows I’ve been enthusiastic about (save for maybe Sola), so now it's time to begin the ones which don’t generate much of a reaction from me.
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS:
The first on that list would definitely be Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. While the entire Nanoha A’s cast remains, the series takes a possible misstep in adding 4 more characters to join the protagonists’ side with the main problem being able to give each cast member enough screen time. As it is, Subaru, the rollerblading melee specialist, and Teena, the gun-wielding illusionist, are taking up most of the time, mostly by being angsty and trying too hard to be melodramatic. Furthermore, nothing has been done to explain Erio or Caro’s situation and why we should care about them. With such a ridiculous cast, I’m tempted to call out the Directors for mismanaging things and drawing out character introductions longer than they should while filling in the time with training sequences that could be better-used to further the overarching plot. Furthermore, the reason most people are watching the Nanoha franchise is to see magical girls beating the crap out of each other and we haven’t gotten any of that. Since most of the battles have been taking place between robotic drones, the amount of drama that characterized Nanoha A’s through combat chatter is extremely disappointing. The same amount of disappointment can be had when you compare the pacing of Nanoha A’s to StrikerS. I’m holding out in case things happen, but sadly, I don’t think I’d be all that surprised if they screwed it up this time around.
Darker than Black:
Finally, we reach Darker than Black, a series that is absolutely amazing in the way it mismanages the plot and the characters. The story here focuses on some catastrophic event that has given rise to human beings called “Contractors” who have powers not unlike those of the X-men but are struck with a condition that, upon using their powers, they must fulfill before they can become normal. There are also “Dolls” which were human beings, but have now lost their sense of emotion and serve as reconnaissance agents. The major struggle in this series is between power blocs that seek to learn more about the Hell’s Gate while eliminating the opposition. While the premise there sounds really good and promising, the execution is terrible since the Director loves toying with the viewer and leaving them in the dark. I imagine that when he directed this, he was laughing at the viewer because he has all the secrets and, like a playground bully, refuses to divulge them. With each passing episode, nothing really gets resolved and more questions emerge. While there’s nothing wrong with building up multiple layers of mystery, the way the series does it only elicits frustration. Each episode is haphazard in the way it’s connected to the main plot with only Hei to serve as a loose bridge to tie anything together. The police department also seems to be a bunch of incompetent knockoffs who exist to clean up any plot holes and feed us useless clues into the workings of the world. Although things appear to get better around episode 9, I would not recommend that anyone trudge through 8 episodes of crap to get here. Few shows can turn things around at this point. While Read or Die, the TV series managed to make the ending awesome, it had an advantage that Darker than Black didn’t: the beginning was a whole lot better-executed than DtB.
Other shows to mention:
Well, there were a few that I checked out that didn’t catch my attention, but people may want to check them out nonetheless. Seto no Hanayome is a story about a kid who is saved by a mermaid while on vacation. The problem with that situation is that when a mermaid saves the life of a human, either the mermaid or the human must die. The resolution to this conundrum is for the mermaid, San, to marry the human, Nagasumi. Things end up going insane when you factor in San’s family, a mermaid yakuza clan, whose patriarch is dead-set against it while the mother is fine with the idea. While this series tried to be funny, the jokes just didn’t fly with me. The Final Approach-esque plotline doesn’t really help either. Still, some people may find this interesting enough to check out.
Nagasarete Airantou has also gotten on some people’s radars. While I did watch it when some people said it was “just like Mahoraba,” I found it to be a vastly inferior harem show. The fanservice is just a bit too much for my tastes and I really didn’t find myself being able to connect with the characters like I did during the first episode of Mahoraba. As such, I’ve dropped the series since the only madcap ridiculous series that manages to be funny is Hayate the Combat Butler.
Looking Ahead:
Summer’s approach signals some new sequels and that means I’ll be checking out Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai for sure since I’m looking forwards to the good end. Zombie-Loan is PEACH-PIT’s new offering, and given how much I enjoyed their work on Rozen Maiden, I’ll be checking this one out. Doujin Work could prove to get on the list just because of how much I enjoy doujin games and want to see the process parodied. It’s a bit more sparse than what we got out of spring, but that’s OK since there are plenty of series that are continuing, so it’s not as though I have nothing to watch.
While I’d give Lucky Star the nod for the best comedy show this season, Hayate the Combat Butler gives Lucky Star a run for its money. Where Lucky Star derives its humor from otaku activities, Hayate takes theirs directly from anime and gaming sources and goes about parodying it through overt references. The premise is already silly to begin with: Hayate, a down-on-his-luck high school student tries to kidnap Nagi Sanzenin in order to pay off the debt his parents have fostered upon him. When he ends up saving her from a kidnapping, Nagi decides to hire him as a butler in order to serve and protect her. In addition to Nagi and Hayate, Maria the maid makes a great addition to the cast as does the crazy/drunk teacher Katsura, the bonklers/student council trio, and of course Sakuya, who continually dreams of forming the EPIC comedy trio with Hayate and Nagi. Together, this show succeeds at making situations that are already ridiculously over-the-top even more so. The pacing and timing of the jokes are also really well done and I found myself feeling pretty giddy (a good thing, mind you) after each episode. Through it all, I hope to catch more awesome references on the caliber of Gendoboss and see what sort of zany humor they can throw around. This show is definitely a great comedy that is worth checking out.
Romeo x Juliet:
Then there’s GONZO’s attempt at yet another adaptation of classic literature and this time, the source material gives us Romeo x Juliet. Shakespeare’s foundation of the forbidden love between the houses of Montague and Capulet remain intact, but the scenarios have been altered. The story begins with the Montagues who’ve toppled the Capulets from power in Neo Verona and proceed to turn it into a kleptocracy that ultimately benefits the aristocracy. The Capulets and those loyal to them were forced to scatter and the sole survivor, Juliet, was kept hidden away so that Capulet’s retainers could plot a rebellion to free Neo Verona from the iron fist of the Montagues. While the premise is a good one, the story has been struggling to find a perfect balance between the epic war story and the romance. Early on, when Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time, I couldn’t help but think that the approach seemed to fit the teenage romance stereotype to an extreme with Juliet acting quite differently when she was the outlaw in red and when she was Juliet. I was hoping that Juliet would be more of a Balsa-like character, but that doesn’t look like it’ll pan out, until recently. As of episode 9, things have heated up quite a bit and life is teaching Juliet a few harsh lessons that she’ll have to learn from or else fail in her mission to topple the Montagues. Add to that some awesome characters in the vein of Tybalt, and you’ve got a lot of good ass-kicking to bear. In a way, this series does give off a few Final Fantasy Tactics vibes and I’m hoping that the rebellion will reach its potential as an epic story. The soundtrack does succeed in blowing me away and I do hope to get it as soon as it’s released. With all the action, drama, and the huge amount of potential, this show could very well topple Seirei no Moribito. It has a lot of catching up to do, but the story of the rebellion can easily save it, starting with the events from episode 7.
Victorian Romance Emma: The Second Act:
Speaking of forbidden romances, this season’s given us a continuation of a very good one in the form of Victorian Romance Emma: Second Act. The first season left off with a sorrowful departure when Emma left London and her lover, William Jounes. All that came about because of the death of Kelley Stowner, Emma’s employer, and the difficulty in sustaining their relationship due to class differences. With this groundwork laid out, the story continues with Emma finding a new employer and through a series of events, eventually reuniting with William. Things aren’t that smooth however. During Emma’s absence, William acquiesced to his father’s wishes and began seeing Eleanor Campbell, a member of the nobility, on a regular basis. On Emma’s end, a mechanic named Hans has entered her life. While I have no idea what direction this story will take, the plot has been moving along nicely, orchestrating a good amount of drama without it being overly exaggerated. The character development has also been superb, on par with what I’ve seen in Seirei no Moribito. Eleanor has been given a lot more personality and with the situation that she’s going through, you really do feel sorry for her since she is a good person at heart. The portrayal of the historical is decently accurate, which augments the wonderful atmosphere of the time period. Put all the plot elements and the atmosphere together and you’ve got a really good mature romance that’s definitely worth a shot if you’ve seen the first season since it takes up the already well-written story and adds a few more twists into it.
Sola:
[/i]Sola[/I] has been somewhat interesting, but ultimately, the lack of direction and seemingly rushed segments has made this series fall short of its potential. Yoribito currently lives with his sister Aono and has this fascination with taking pictures of the sky. On a fateful day, he comes across Matsuri who he befriends only to find out that she’s a Yaka, a creature that arises when a human was killed and something happened to allow them to live on. Because they didn’t truly die, they must live on forever without aging and without being able to go into sunlight. While the first episode gives off an atmosphere of a show that could be the next Tsukihime, they make a sudden transition into a slice-of-life series which is at odds with the picture they painted before. Thankfully, the dark and ominous atmosphere does return when Matsuri and Aono meet, but even that isn’t enough to nudge the show into something that’s a must-watch. With only 13 episodes available, it feels as though the Director were trying to cram everything he’s got to make the story resolve by the time the 13th episode hits. That might explain why Takeshi, a Yaka hunter, manages to get an entire episode describing his past, but even that seems rushed and out of place. That episode only left me incredulous at how stupid he was clinging to some stupid vow which only had violence as a way of being fulfilled. Yoribito isn’t that great of a male lead either, nowhere as memorable as Sugita’s Yuuichi or Kyon, but definitely not too annoying as to grate on people’s nerves. While this series has some serious pacing issues, it’s not so bad as to render the series unwatchable. Aono and Matsuri do come off as well-developed rivals and Mana comes off as a loyal friend. I wouldn’t recommend this highly, but I also wouldn’t pan it that hard either. It’s just one of those shows you pick up if you want something a bit out of the ordinary and aren’t expecting anything chock full of quality.
Stay tuned for Part 3 to come sometime in the next 48 hours.
Why not? I did one last quarter, so I'll do one this quarter.
Another anime season has come and gone, but this time, there have been a lot of shows to clap for. Spring 2007 stands to be one of the better seasons with a huge variety of shows that have caught my attention and managed to maintain it. While last season, I complained about only having really one good show that started, this time, we’ve been blessed with no less than 6 shows which have shown themselves to be high-quality series. It certainly becomes difficult to find time to keep up on all of the shows, but that’s something I can live with and I don’t mind complaining about it since the reverse situation is far from desirable.
Shows that finished
Nodame Cantabile:
To be honest, I really shouldn’t be writing anything on Nodame Cantabile because Froth-bite has taken their time subbing it and because of my hesitation to watch Hard-Gay’s fansubs, I’m only on episode 14. However, there really hasn’t been anything to complain about because the characters have been developed really well and with each episode, continue to mature and more devoted to their art in making music. The story revolves around Chiaki Shinichi, a music student who wishes to become a conductor, his crazy next-door neighbor Megumi “Nodame” Noda who’s fallen in love with him, and a crazy cast including a violinist who wants to make classical music more like rock, a perverted conductor who prefers womanizing to conducting, and a gay timpanist who views himself as Nodame’s love rival for Chiaki. Together, their hijinks, trials, and tribulations set up the foundation for this series. I’ve already made the Honey and Clover comparisons from my comments on that show from the last quarter and I don’t see that changing at all. Nodame Cantabile continues to impress and I highly recommend it for people who enjoy classical music or a good romantic comedy.
And… that’s it! I didn’t really watch anything else that started in Winter 2007 because nothing really impressed me all that much. Manabi Straight was discarded after 7 episodes and I never felt the urge to watch more Hidamari Sketch after the first episode though my judgment of that show may have been a bit premature. Now, let’s go on to the good stuff: the shows which have come out this season which have been occupying large amounts of my time.
Shows that started
Seirei no Moribito:
Although it’s only by a small margin this time around, Seirei no Moribito (Guardian of the Sacred Spirit) earns my highest praise this season. Moribito revolves around Balsa, a spear user who has been assigned the goal of guarding Prince Chagum from assassins sent by the King because the Prince is the vessel for a water demon that will bring a drought upon the land. While the first few episodes gave us a lot of action eye-candy, the later episodes have departed from that in favor of character development. Probably the biggest draw to this series is Balsa who is the epitome of the strong, mature female character. Oftentimes, we’ve been stuck with female characters who are ditzy or overly angsty with nothing to really show in terms of personal strength and resolve. Balsa demonstrates that she is capable of transcending the usual stereotypes by making sound decisions in a calculating manner without sacrificing her femininity. Her actions are reminiscent of Kenshin in a way, particularly in her self-imposed code against killing. Aside from Balsa, the shaman, the star diviner, and the assassins sent after Chagum have their backgrounds told in great detail, giving everyone a human touch of gray instead of the stark black and white scenarios that pervade series similar to this. The quality of the animation is really high, which makes the action scenes breathtaking and the background scenery absolutely beautiful. Now that much of the characters have been introduced, I’m looking forwards to seeing which direction the plot will take since that’s the area that has had the least amount of advancement so far.
Bokurano:
Next, we have something more depressing in the form of Bokurano, a mech series written by the author of Narutaru. Here, you have a group of 14 children who have all entered into a contract to pilot a mech they named Zearth and use it to defend the earth from unknown alien invaders. The catch here is that as soon as an alien is killed, the child who was chosen to be the pilot for that battle also gets killed because piloting Zearth uses up that person’s life energy. While the battles between the invaders form only one aspect of the series, the more interesting segments come from watching how the children face the consequences of piloting Zearth. Already, we’ve started seeing a lot of varied reactions to the situation, from Kako who completely loses his mind (and who could blame him) to Kodaka, whose irreverent view towards life allows him to embrace the role of pilot wholeheartedly (of course, it also helps that he wasn’t aware of the curse of being in the pilot’s seat). What this series does is take a premise similar to Lord of the Flies and raises the stakes. Watching the fallout coming from this is going to be the factor that makes or breaks this show, but so far, they’ve delivered, giving us a mixture of the madness of it all as well as shocking revelations into the thoughts and lives of each pilot.
Lucky Star:
Lucky Star has been one of those shows with low expectations that quickly skyrocketed close to the top of my favorites list. While I’ve been a huge fan of Kyoto Animation’s output, I didn’t have high expectations for this one. But they managed to land a surprise here by taking a 4-panel comedy strip and turning it into a great series by tackling elements of otaku and gaming culture. Lucky Star takes a look into the lives of Konata Izumi, an otaku and gamer girl, the Hiiragi twins Kagami, the responsible, level-headed one, and Tsukasa, the sister who tends to space out and acts ditzy, and Miyuki, the resident encyclopedia and biggest moe-blob of the show. The show is charming, especially the way it delves into situations that bring out the funniest in each character, ranging from Tsukasa’s highly enthusiastic approach to using a cell phone to having Kagami and Konata’s personalities bounce off of each other. Lucky Channel might be the only downside to this show because the quality of the segment varies wildly from episode to episode with awesome scenes like the tsundere discussion to drab ones like the segment discussing MMOs. While I had my doubts after the first episode, I’m glad I stuck with it, especially after the new director took over and did a great job getting the punch lines in the right place and increasing the overall quality. After a brilliant first half, I’m expecting more characters (cheer squad members in the OP) and more hilarity in store for the second half.
I thought I'd make a thread in Animespot but changed my mind against doing so as it's more appropriate for a journal entry. So let my (unedited) ranting begin:
As April approaches, another anime season will soon begin. Ongoing series will draw to a close while others will continue in the hope of keeping up the pace to come out to a strong finish. Unfortunately, when the best a season has to offer is a remake of an older show (Don’t get me wrong, it’s a pretty damn good remake!), it’s a telling sign of this season’s quality. While other seasons have been graced with many good series coming out all at once (remember the season where Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, and Ouran High School Host Club was showing?), this season just doesn’t have the breadth of quality as other seasons past. We did have one awesome series and two excellent series coming to a close, but there has been only one good new series to have come out. It’s been a great time for me to watch some of the older stuff that I missed out on (Akagi, Marimite), but it’s kind of a shame that I don’t have anything new to really share. I’ll be trying to hold out until the next season starts for sure.
With that in mind, let’s go into a review as to what shows have ended, what newly released shows have made my cut, and what we can expect in the (very) near future.
Shows that finished (or are in the process of finishing)
Spoiler:
Of the shows that finished this quarter, Kanon (2006) stands out as being the best as it carried a rich plot and succeeds in giving every character a good amount of screentime and in tying all of the loose ends in the final episode. The series didn’t really give off a strong impression since some of the girls were a bit annoying with their apparent ditziness. However, it was Tomokazu’s performance as the sarcastic Yuiichi and his interaction with each of the girls that kept me going, and eventually, the girls became more sympathetic and lovable as time passed. Towards the middle of the series, things really begin kicking into high gear as the viewer is subject to a rollercoaster ride of emotions ranging from the hilarity of taking Ayu to see a horror flick to the tragedy surrounding Mai’s past. The events are arranged so that around the last 5 episodes, the series becomes super depressing when you realize what’s going on. Shiori’s story stood out the most in its emotional impact. Thankfully, the series does end on a happy note and it’s one of the best anime endings I’ve seen yet.
Le Chevalier D’Eon has also technically finished even though not all of the subtitles are out yet. I’ve always been a sucker for series that have their foundations built upon a historical era and this one does it especially well, combining suspense, supernatural events, and of course, centering it all in the realm of France ruled by Louis XV. The interaction between the characters is strong, and you get a good feel for what the characters are doing and the motivation behind why they’re doing it. The supernatural effects are also done really well in terms of how Lia de Beaumont comes in each scene accompanied by an appropriate quotation from the Psalms. There are plenty of plot twists to keep the viewer on his toes and the intensity level keeps on rising as the protagonist tries to hunt down the people who would bring revolution to not just France, but all of Europe. All in all, the series is definitely worth a watch as you get a group of interesting characters who, despite being different, all have the best interests of France at heart only to experience tragedy after tragedy as they set about on their goal of challenging the Poets.
Finally, Red Garden is coming to a close. While this one isn’t as good as either Kanon or Chevalier, it’s still worth a watch. This series also falls under the supernatural bent as four girls find out they’re no longer alive on this world. It is this realization and how each character copes with the situation that makes the series interesting. Kate is by far the strongest one as she accepts her fate and tries to make the best of a bad situation while Rachel refuses to believe that this is happening and later on, shows to be the most unstable of the lot despite being the most proactive in taking on the combat scenarios. Herve also proves to be an interesting character in the way he looks at his uncle’s operation and how his uncle is more interested in Lise instead of taking care of the remaining female relatives. Despite the hatred he shows towards his uncle, he does not ally up with Kate and company; rather he views them as his enemies and has nothing but contempt for what they’re doing to his relatives. He will go as far as to manipulate them. Both sides are going to marshall their forces and how this series will end is anyone’s guess. I’m gearing up for a depressing ending though since the anime such far has put all of the characters in a tragic light as they are forced, by circumstance, into their current predicament.
Shows that have started
Spoiler:
Of all the shows that have started, Nodame Cantabile is by far my favorite. You take the formula that was present in Honey and Clover, change the students from visual arts to music, add some slightly crazy characters, and you get an awesome series that combines into a delightful romantic comedy set with a strong emphasis on classical music. The series does an excellent job of giving both the romance (although the romance is admittedly shallow at this point) and the classical music its undue attention. I’m especially impressed with their choice of music in that it’s not just limited to a specific era or even the most popular pieces: they expand out so that you have Beethoven, but also get a touch of Rachmaninoff, Brahms, and Bartok. The characters are also well done in that many of them are easily identifiable as classical music elitists that I’ve had to deal with in school. To them, music is the purest art form and nothing can disturb or change its purity. This show has completely swept me off my feet and I expect nothing but sheer awesome and hilarity from watching it.
Then we have Manabi Straight, a show I picked up because folks over at 4chan seemed to be keen on it. Looking at the character designs, I expected something in the realm of Ichigo Mashimaro, but instead was sorely disappointed. While Ichigo did an awesome job managing each character and keeping the events in the girls’ lives moving along, Manabi drags a lot on the plot. I suppose it’s good if you’re looking for a character study and enjoy the moe-ness of things, but it’s just not what I’m looking for. Manabi’s existence seems to be bent on building people up to be more energetic and take an optimistic (almost to the point of naivete) view of life. She accomplishes this by being hyper and enthusiastic about everything she does, allowing her to attract a loyal fanbase. The other characters are straight out of a cookie cutter; you have the really shy girl who lacks confidence in what she does, a tsundere character, one who is completely oblivious to what’s going on and doesn’t really help the group any, and the athletic and upbeat girl. The execution in the way the series runs is very lacking and I really can’t recommend this series to anyone at all. Not even Aya Hirano’s voice as Mei and Yui Horie as Manabi can save the series. While there is a group of people who enjoy this show, I just can’t stand it and as such, have chosen to drop it off my list.
Final thoughts
As I had previously said, this season was disappointing. While three good shows came to an end, only one new show was worth watching. One problem is that I haven’t given Les Miserables a fair chance and I didn’t really like what I saw in the Hidamari Sketch! OP so I’m not making a proactive effort to watch both of those shows for now. I’m hoping that by the time spring rolls around, we’ll have some new series that I can recommend. Kyoto Animation is putting out Lucky Star and I’m also looking forwards to Romeo x Juliet, just for the soundtrack if nothing else. Later this year, we can look forwards to another season of Suzumiya Haruhi, Clannad, and a sequel to Juuni Kouki (Twelve Kingdoms). While this year hasn’t really started with a bang, there are plenty of good shows to make it end on a blast.
As a note, it'd be nice if people can toss out some recommendation on new stuff since I've been disappointed with the selections so far.
Response to:
