I haven’t been as excited for the insertMonogatari series. As much as I like SHAFT, the material is starting to feel text heavy — as if it weren’t already. So far the only thing that I’ve noticed is the massive upscale of fanservice the show provides. Character interactions are feeling a little better, since it’s no longer Senjougahara-centric as Bakemonogatari was. But that’s probably my bias again, since I’m such a faggot for Yui Horie’s voice. The near OVA like production quality in the first episode was probably a sign that SHAFT finally came into some good money after Madoka Magicka’s stint.. and soon thereafter blowing it all on said episode. I think the art quality has taken a small dive, but some sequences still show consistency and maintenance. The bath scene that the above screencap comes from is a section that contains a large amount of drawn frames for something that easily could have been pared down to half, or even a quarter of frames used, and still be well animated. I’m curious if hiring additional frame checkers would have mattered.

Now, about the screencap I have provided.

On one hand, this screencap is obviously dangerous to look at in a workspace, and/or if you’re still paranoid about someone watching over your shoulder who might think, “A show about watching two persons in a bath?! Questionable! I must report him/her.” Context is a very important thing, and not everyone is able to process SUCH advanced thinking in such a short time span with limited information. On the other, you could have told someone they were brothers, and it’s Japan. Then the chain of thought changes to, “Oh. That’s right, people in Japan have those public baths.” It’s possible someone would call you out on it, declaring that a blonde couldn’t possibly be brothers with a black haired character. You would then rectify the misunderstanding by saying, “It’s anime.” Or maybe even: “Brothers-in-law. Separate mothers or fathers. Happens a lot in anime/Japan/Easter Island.” If you’re lucky, they won’t even bat an eyelid at the Easter Island bit.

What the fuck, right?

Also, sorry for the bad Japun in the title. (Japanese word pun. You know. Except I did it in English. I tried to combine 4 and story together. Fourth story. It’s the fourth episode. Clever? Of course it is. Maybe it still works in Japanese. Someone confirm for me.)

-maserbeam

My Kyubey can’t be this cute.

There’s also an extremely huge emphasis on the characters mouths. They’ve been nice and shapely — I can’t stop staring at them. I also highly enjoy the opening song, since whenever I hear it, I imagine a drummer flailing his arms around. Reminds me of some drummers that pull off the lazy, wacky and power drumming style. It’s always interesting to find them because they often have so much stage presence, you barely look at the rest of the band and the supposed front man. Which brings me to my next subject: Emiri Katou voiced the Kyubey we all love in Madoka, and she’s back as the mildly awkward and cute Ryuuko (pictured above). I’d want to say that Kyubey was a support character that garnered more attention than the characters around her, but that could have been on purpose too.  Even more noticeable than that (to me) is Ai Nonaka as Meme Touwa. That kind of character is unfair SHAFT! Seriously pierces my heart like a high caliber rifle round.

I honestly can’t believe how SHAFT manages to pull crazy interesting  performances from the voice actors.

Many points to Makoto for referencing The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and not being “an incredibly standard” male character. Watching him smother his face in the pillow Meme previously laid on was hilarious, with the following scene also being great.

I kinda laughed at the glittering hair scene. “Her hair is emitting chaff!” Ruined the mood, but that was my fault.

EDIT: Can’t believe I forgot my Planes and Pants rating system. Which will be explained in due time, after I iron out criteria.

+0/+2

-maserbeam

The show started off with a weak foot. I didn’t expect to be watching it in chunks of episodes, but I guess that’s how it worked out for me. Lucky for me that I still managed to download them each week. But I pushed myself to watch the last 4 episodes in one salvo. I’m once again disappointed that I’d have to wait again for this show to have another chance at a second season, since this stuff usually only gets one shot. But then again, Maria+Holic S2 is coming along, so I can still hope, right?

Aside from my bias for SHAFT shows until they create an absolute pile of shit (ok.. their joints with Gainax got kind of close), they’ve once again closed Soredemo with a hilarious and possibly tear-jerking episode. Maybe those tears are from laughing, or the drama-bomb we’re given in episode 12. Which one was the reason for you?

-maserbeam

A little late in running, due to me experimenting with things to try and make the sound less crumpled and obese sounding. It kind of worked, but I’ll let you see if it worked.

Most of the podcast seemed to be about being fabulous. In which case, the most fabulous anime this season are Milky Holmes, Togainu no Chi and Star Driver. A couple of announcement reactions as well, since Strike Witches and K-ON! are both getting movies, along with Maria+Holic getting a second season. More wonderful SHAFT productions for us to enjoy in the future, but we also can’t forget that Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru and Arakawa Under the Bridge S2 are already airing.

This seventh professional podcast is brought to you by amateurs, with exquisite amounts of unprofessionalness. We also can’t seem to refrain from saying things that make us sound stupid. We require failtrain my fellow crew. For new listeners to the podcast, we do our best to make it seem like we were recorded while we were naturally talking about anime all day like it’s the only thing we do. Maybe we’ll have a new listener or two thanks to Animeblogger.net, as it’s our first time being on an aggregator. Please rage carefully amongst the population.

Wait. Patchy’s tower of books isn’t supported at the bottom..

-maserbeam

I actually had a large post ready to be uploaded, but I realized I was just typing for the sake of getting some kind of article up that was supposed to sound professional.

After a single proofread, I deleted it.

Instead, here’s a series of short sentences that describe the current anime season from the narrow viewpoint of yours truly.

K-ON! Season 2 is Kyoto Animation giving us our weekly moe blob injections. Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou is the sequel to Seitokai no Ichizon. Working!! is for people who either like minimal story settings or have worked in the service industry. Kaichou wa Meido-sama is our seasonal JC Staff production with lovely watercolor/pastel background scenery porn. Angel Beats has the OP with a girl playing a piano. Heroman takes place in California. B Gata H Kei has Yukari Tamura. Ookiku Furikabutte is a baseball sports anime with a competent animation team. I don’t care about Major (another baseball series). Arakawa Under the Bridge is done by SHAFT. Mayoi Neko Overrun is love, since it has loli and zettai ryouiki. House of Five Leaves is a bakery and samurai talk boxes without any actual cooking. Kiss X Sis is for perverts. Senkou no Night Raid replaced Sora no Woto.

And I think Da Capo is happening again. (Yay!)

Picture of Kanata doing it wrong done by broiler (WARNING: Link is NSFW!)

-maserbeam