ÆON Anime

Kso…I try not to be a fanboy in most things but Kagami from Lucky Star made an impact on me as the filthy weeaboo that I am (please dont quote me on that I prefer to be referred to as “Otaku” in most things) and courtesy of Fireryda, I found Katou Emiri’s music.

She NEVER shows her teeth when she smiles! LIKE WTF! She either has butt ugly teeth or does it just to taunt people like me who manage to find and point out the most pointless crap ever.

Anyway, I like her album “One girl” but when I listen to “Vivid” all I can think of is the word “average” which makes me sadface

Anyway this is my problem atm…Illiana tells me I’m well beyond help now

For those that care, the link to my last.fm is here

So being bored at home and all, I’ve decided to rewatch many of my animes. I stumbled upon this gem in one of my folders(specifically the pink one). This is one of my favourites and for good reason too.

Nodame Cantabile

Synopsis

Shinichi Chiaki is a first class musician whose dream is to play among the elites in Europe. Coming from a distinguished family, he is an infamous perfectionist; not only is he highly critical of himself, but of others as well. The only thing stopping Chiaki from leaving for Europe is his fear of flying. As a result, he’s grounded in Japan.

During his 4th year at Japan’s top music university, Chiaki happens to meet Noda Megumi; or as she refers to herself, Nodame. On the surface, she seems to be an unkempt girl with no direction in life. However, when Chiaki hears Nodame play the piano for the first time, he is in awe at the kind of music she plays. To Chiaki’s dismay, Nodame moves into the apartment next to his and finds out that she is head over heels in love with him.

Nodame Cantabile tells the story of Chiaki and Nodame, as they not only learn to deal with each other, but learn lessons from one another as they strive for the top of the musical world.

Review

This is a romance-comedy story with a bit of drama and music in it, while that may sound cheesy on paper it’s executed almost perfectly. In my opinion, this places near the top of my favourite romcoms and for good reason too. Though if you hate romcoms then you should steer clear because this isn’t going to change your mind. Though the main plot is the relationship between Chiaki and Nodame, their musical lives all work together to make the story much more interesting.

Each of the characters are unique and interesting though they may have cliches, each develop in a unique way which is quite interesting to enjoy. Chiaki, an overly serious guy and Nodame, a goofy girl. This is a typical cliche within romcoms where the main characters are complete contrasts however Nodame Cantabile plays with this formula and shakes it up which keeps things fresh. The side characters themselves are interesting as well, whether it be the upbeat Mine or the perverted Milche.

The graphics are great, through the use of water-colored palettes it knows how to bring out the focus in characters. It’s also nice to see a show where they don’t have the typical giant anime eyes. Though the pride of the graphics is the instrument playing. The detail is so high, the movement of each finger and keypress on a piano, all of these are finely animated. The only gripe I would have is the long distance shots, where the characters are just still images as if panning or zooming onto a picture.

Being an anime based around music, it uses alot of classical orchestral pieces. Never listening to classical music, I dont know if this is a recreation just for the show or taken from an actual orchestra however the pieces themselves are magnificent. The subtle sound effects upon certain realizations really help to bring out the comedy in these moments and is a nice touch to the show. Mukya~

I highly recommend this show to anybody who likes their drama with a slight subtle romance to it as it is quite good. Though it lacks in the fanservice area (practically none) so stay clear if thats all you watch anime for.

Graphics 4.0/5.0

Audio 5.0/5.0

Story 4.0/5.0

Overall 4.5/5

Thats right, some vague details regarding a Fate/Stay night movie have surfaced.

I for one rather enjoyed the anime and am actually looking forward to this…unless it is given the budget of movies like Machine Girl…In which case I will rage a little bit.

Actually it seems people are only aware of the eroge on Kotaku and are somewhat unaware than a non-erotic anime of it actually existed….lol….gamers.

Kotaku link here

Official link here

So after watching this season (which I skipped for god knows why), I thought I would write a review based on what I think of it.

ARIA the Animation

Synopsis

On the planet Aqua lies the watery city of Neo Venezia, a tourist hub in which people travel around in gondolas. Professional gondoliers known as Undines are well-revered as they act as tour guides for the people. Akari Mizunashi is a gondolier in training and also an employee of Aria Company. She gets to meet all sorts of people as she takes them on the gondola rides, from friendly mentors to special individuals, all this admidst the beautiful scenic backdrop of the entire city.

Graphics 4.5/5

This isn’t a show with explosions, mecha or giant laser beams flying around the screen, and the art palette shows. Utilizing soft colours it shows off its peaceful mood. The art is particularly detailed, reflections in the flowing water, a detailed world, colour gradients in the sky, fine details such as these make this show look like a work of art.

Even the characters themselves are spectacularly detailed, with the use of flowing hair to represent blowing wind, chibi characters to show comedic moments, it really helps to enjoy the show. The character designs are unique with each of the many characters being instantly distinguishable from each other even though they may look similar.  Through all this it really does help to present a peaceful atmosphere, although there are times where the chibi characters aren’t really needed and sometimes the finer details of characters are a bit odd looking at times, these things are at most, minor and really dont have any impact on enjoyment.

Audio 5/5

While the soundtrack itself isn’t something to write about, the use of it within the show is just amazing. The soundtrack is unique utilizing string instruments it creates a peaceful atmosphere while also being able to add tension when needed. The music is never over-dramatic and is kept on the low so it doesnt impede on the show. The OP and the ED aren’t very catchy but they’re so peaceful they could put you to sleep while listening to it which really fits with the mood of the show. Minor details such as the sound of water flowing, birds chirping, wind blowing, these all help to engross you into the show.  Each of the characters present a unique voice in the story, whether its Aria’s “punyu” or Alicia’s “ara ara” or even Akari’s optimistic voice, they are all distinguishable. Whether showing a caring moment or stress the voice acting is done beautifully that you can feel the mood in their voices. Either way the audio is done so well you could almost feel you’re there.

Story 4.5/5

While the show follows a seperate story per episode format, they all tell such a complete story that you almost can’t tell whether you’re watching it in order. The story itself is nothing to write home about though, as there’s nothing major that ever happens, instead this show rather likes to focus on the day to day activities of the undines. Even compared to harem anime standards, the story is fairly simple, which usually spells a recipe for disaster but for ARIA, this is why the show is so great. Although simple, they’re all very simple and peaceful letting you watch it one episode at a time at your own rate without thinking that you’re missing out on anything. With no villian nor any continuing storyline, there isn’t much of a buildup to other episodes so it should be taken pretty slowly.

Overall 4.75/5

This show is definately not for somebody who wants a bit of action between characters, or who like giant epic fights. The peaceful mood in this show will infuriate those who just want something big to happen, nothing big ever does. Cynicism should be thrown far far away when watching this show. If anything I recommend that everybody should at least try out the first episode of this show. It’s definately a hit or miss title, meaning you’ll either like it or hate it, either way its a beautiful anime thats great at what it does, relaxing entertainment.

And I leave you with Moe-Alice~

Affians post about his Nakajima Megumi addiction spurred my curiosity about what anime I am addicted too and loving atm…Typically I like storyline + meaty action but lately I simply cant get enough of the “daily life of…” anime.

Example was Ichigo Mashimaro … I simply couldnt get over how easily I could sit there and happily watch the anime even though it was somewhat slow and only very rarely had hilarity throughout the episodes…then I think about K-ON!, Doujin Work, Chobits, Lucky Star, Haruhi (although its slightly different) and now Im watching Minami-Ke.

These anime are slow but simply fantastic to watch imo…Occasionally a little bit of humour is thrown into the mix to keep people entertained but somehow Im content just to sit back, relax, drink my coffee and watch as “life” goes by in pretty pictures on my screen.

So far as I know, I havent met anyone who has a preference to this sort of anime over anything else…or am I being naive?

Been busy of late working on getting various things around the site fixed up and working, plus course has started again limiting my time to do the things I enjoy. Anyway, I’ve been watching Macross Frontier if you couldn’t guess from the picture and I’ve become addicted to Ranka’s (Nakajima Megumi’s) singing, as I’m sure many others have now that I think about it.

I went and got the two soundtracks and the Ranka Lee Debut Single and have had the songs playing on a frequent basis.

Here’s Seikan Hikou for your enjoyment.

New Zealand is a small place globally speaking, it can be pretty hard to find niche products and groups. I’m lucky in that I have a couple of pretty well stocked anime/manga/figures/more stores handy. But that comes with the issue that a niche product in New Zealand is going to come with a hefty price tag, I don’t have any comparisons on hand but take my word for it.

I came across a site that has a very detailed list of places in around here that sell our favored products, New Zealand Anime & Manga Shopping Guide.

Most of them I had come across before like locally here we have Pulsar Max and sadly they don’t have a web presence but they have a wide selection and can get things in if you ask for them, you pay for it though in the price as it’s not cheap and sometimes you would be better off buying from overseas yourself.

One that is fairly recent and not on that list is Overworld in Petone. A small store run by one guy just of the main street and mostly stocks mainstream stuff like Bleach and Naruto but it has some nice odd stuff and respectable prices to match.

When I read that we in NZ could use Amazon Japan I was ecstatic and went on a spree making wish lists of all and sundry (was also fun to see how much Japanese I could read).

So in the ever present future when I have money (aka not a student) it looks like I’ll have some catching up to do.

I’ve been learning Japanese for a little while now and I’ve found a few things that help me learn in my daily use of the internet with Firefox.

There are a few plugins that I would like to share that make learning Kanji a lot easier because I find that reading Kanji in context is easier than trying the impossible task of memorizing all the various characters.

Furigana Injector

This is one of the best I think, it puts the furigana for the kanji next to it letting you read it phonetically. It helps me to learn the various forms of Kanji in context when reading without having to look the character up all the time. It can be configured with a list of Kanji that it won’t add the furigana for so that you can remove the furigana on characters you know well.

Get it here.

XHTML Ruby Support

Using the Ruby Support with the Furigana Injector puts the furigana above the kanji on the web page instead of next to it. It can be nearly impossible to read on smaller font sizes but still works nicely and with Firefox you can always zoom in. It also can expand any common acronyms you come across in your adventures across the internet.

Get it here.

Rikaichan

Last one. Came across Rikaichan fairly recently and it provides a popup dictionary lookup when you mouse-over the kanji. It has the benefit of providing lookups in English, German, French and Russian.

Found over here.

All Three plugins running on dannychoo.com

I hope someone else finds these as useful as I have in learning Japanese and overcoming the obstacle that Kanji provides in browsing the internets in 日本語.

Doujin Overload is coming to Auckland in a couple of weeks and as far as I know is the only annual doujin exhibition in New Zealand. Opening on the 25th of July 09 Doujin Overload is playing host to heaps of local doujin artists and events including cosplay, art contests, live performances and figure collections.

Taking place at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Regatta rooms A and D it’s looking to be a fun convention and one that we sorely are lacking in here in New Zealand. I won’t be able to attend myself due to being half way across the country but I’ll see if we can get some photos from those who do go.

Haruhi

Yuki

Mikuru

BUY NOW FOR THE LOW LOW PRICE OF ONLY $273.360 NZD!!! (Shipping exl.)

T_T Where am I gonna get that much money!?