Really, it felt like they actually answered my wish. It was an episode mostly centered around Iori. And thank you P-san for making Iori blush. It was totemo kawaii. I wonder how many affection points were earned during that scene. The way the episode’s theme panned out was rather cheesy, but I guess it was par for the course.

Something really sidetracked most of my attention for almost the entire episode however, and it was Kotori’s face during her 4 second appearance. That unsurprised face tells more about her character than what most anime are able to do during an entire segment devoted to character development. I exaggerated.. but I really would like an episode dedicated to her since she seems like the one to make jabs at others rather than take it.

Mr. Producer in the background has some kind of magical cup with infinite overflow depth. I want one.

-maserbeam

Yayoi: “I really want to butt in and correct them on that detail about Chavez and Don Caballero…”

I paused the show to go get a drink, and this scene only had me imagining Yayoi wanting to correct them on something. That particular angle of someone’s head looking at something in the distance always seems to automatically evoke familiar anime norms. I could only hope that Yayoi has such taste in music, but I don’t know enough about Idolmaster. The only way to solve that would be to plunge straight into the games and attempt to read all the moon runes.

I think most people will understand why I’ve decided to join others in blogging about this episode. Episode 6 is rather early to show off your animation budget, but I’ve learned that A-1 Pictures has essentially redrawn the Smoky Thrill dance sequence from Idolmaster 2 for the xbox 360. I saw more animation in one minute than I did watching two episodes of Steins;Gate. I might be willing to pay a high price to see A-1 Pictures fully animate entire songs. Maybe bundle it with the limited edition Blu-Ray as an extra. It IS a show about idols dancing; indulge us a little won’t you A-1 Pictures? It’s not often we get to see such grandiose movement in our anime.

This only makes me more excited to see more episodes. And more Iori, please.

-maserbeam

Holy frijoles.

It’ll be obvious to a lot of people that this “4 girls doing stuff” setup is boring to a lot of people, but the consistency in the art production is rather surprising. No, that doesn’t mean the entire series looks like the above screencap. (But good lord that would be amazing. In a different way.) Taking a look at who’s doing the main animation production gave me more questions. There were so many secondary animation studios helping out in episode 1. Episode 6 is a milestone, because.. Chinatsu drew the above picture. I’m just reeling with omfg and anticipation as I was watching the horrid art proceed to the next frame. It really reminds you that sometimes it’s not how well something is drawn, but what it ends up looking like.

Speaking of art, Yuruyuri is a surprising contender for the Most Consistent Art Award. Squishes, stretches, and follow up animation still showing up throughout the show. It came with a few shortcuts here and there, but nothing to be all Minami-ke about it.

Minami-ke had three seasons. There, I said it.

-maserbeam

Would you like your mug to contain coffee coffee?!

There should be some kind of metric for humor. Or at least some way of better convincing someone they should be laughing at something. But this isn’t a post about that. Nichijou is finally legal at the ripe episode of 18, and what do we get? The Embarrassment of Yuuko Aioi. Jesus Butt-fondling Christ I had a haddock. Because fish is all your references must point to when talking about anime, since it’s from the land of Japan. I laughed very hard during Yuuko’s train ride of mistakes. It wasn’t a derail unfortunately, but the destination was ultimately kind of boring. One of the few times where I really didn’t feel the vibe it was going for. Mai in the knight get-up trying to troll Yuuko into going trick or treating made me sad.

More importantly, the image I’m using made me reminisce for the days I actively drew stuff for fun. I had a character with snake pupil eyes, and whenever she entered her higher form of strength and concentration, her pupils would rotate to a horizontal position. Very obvious symbolism of the “unlocking of powers” type of character development. Man, I sucked at character design.

There was also one time where I had a dream that a cop pulled me over to ask me, “You know I pulled you over, right?” To which I would reply affirmatively. The policeman nods in agreement and returns to his patrol car and zooms off to find someone else to pull over. I woke up at that point and wondered what it meant. It meant that I would eat bread in 5 minutes. Yuuko’s dream in the last segment was easily better than mine. (Not that I was ever implying my dreams are awesome, because they’re not. They are disappointingly bland.)

See the ratings for the episode.

-maserbeam

It’s a fresh anime! So it’s now time to look at new anime like everyone else has been doing. Do I have a unique outlook? Probably not. Give me page views, please.

Very clean and solid animation, thanks to Brains Base doing the production, so in terms of visual appeal it’s alright. I do remember there being a show of questionably and wildly variable quality done by Brains Base. (Looking at you Akikan.) It seems they’ve also smartly avoided unnecessary expenditures by drawing other humans as mere sign icons. Quite reinforces that clean look — I like it. It remains looking like a regular anime, but with a strong enough style that sets itself apart. As long as the show doesn’t try to ride solely on it’s initial inertia, I think it’ll do fine.

Wait. Nothing about the blushing girl?

-maserbeam