Series Review: School Days

"Just as I thought. There's no one inside."

School Days is unquestionably the most blogged-about anime of the summer season, perhaps even eclipsing the king from spring, Lucky Star. Whether the hype is proportional to the quality of the show is the major question here.

This story of the three people who met in the school and got turned into three "love" stories has been getting reviews all over the spectrum; and it's not just anti-votes that are killing the show's rating.

Aside from the seasoned SD vets claiming that the story doesn't stay true to one plot - which is likely true, although unverifiable by me - the wide range of review scores and feelings about the show stem to the fact that School Days, above anything else, is unquestionably different from any show of the genre.

It sets itself up as a simple, happy romance show, a bit of a love triangle, something that a lot of anime viewers should be familiar with.

Where it goes from there is what's interesting, perhaps shocking.

Most of the viewers of School Days are well familiar with its darker-than-expected roots, and quite morally and/or sanity challenged characters. But adaptations tend to change a lot and with only 3 true "bad" endings out of a possible 20 (summing up possibilities from harem endings to ending up with any main character or side character) there are plenty of ways to clean up School Days's ways.

And for the first few episodes, School Days led you on like a criminal out of prison, claiming that it had changed. There was a happy, bright OP called "Innocent Blue." The character's crushes on each other seemed innocent enough. What could go wrong?

Plenty, in fact.

To say any more would be to spoil the show, but rest assured that if you like pleasant, upbeat, heartwarming romances you're going to be running screaming from School Days.

Rather, what you get is a dark, almost soap-opera-like concoction packed with twists, turns, and drama. This polarized the crowd, which generally fell into three groups:

1) Loved the drama, and the show.
2) Hated the drama, and the show.
3) Found the drama, and thus the show, hilarious.

Your ability to survive characters specifically set up to be detestable will say a lot about your enjoyment of School Days. If you can handle hating characters, if you can handle not making any assumptions that any character is "good", School Days is an excellent anime.

But not a top-notch one.

School Days is still a flawed anime, despite what one could possibly call quite enrapturing (when it's not ridiculous, or perhaps because it is) drama. The focus is arguably too thin, as while the main characters will have their stories resolved in a nice manner, the side characters simply disappear by story's end.

And it's not by any means a show everybody could find something to like in.

If you don't mind a walk on the dark side, School Days is still a show very worth watching, as what it does, it does very well. It's just what it doesn't do that keeps it from top status...

(Huge spoilers are huge, after the jump.)

The characters in School Days are arguably the most controversial aspect of the series, as they do plenty of things that range from ridiculous to just plain wrong.

Makoto is a martyr for the pimp lifestyle, as I can count on one hand all the characters with names in the show that he hasn't slept with...including guys. His actions at first were easily defendable; maybe he doesn't know how to approach Kotonoha, maybe he's being tempted by Sekai, maybe he's a good person after all.

And then he slept with Sekai, Setsuna, Otome, Otome's three friends, and Hikari, somewhat in that order.

The only people left defending him at the end were either the trolls who didn't take the show seriously, and those who respected him for being able to knock up that many girls. Yet somehow, Makoto was the character that showed both the most development...and the least.

Certainly in the last two episodes Makoto went through at least what seemed like an epiphany. He realizes that just maybe he was being a bit of a jerk to the one girl he really cared about, and he began focusing on the girl he'd been ignoring since the start...

Unfortunately there was another girl that he went through a phase with in between, Sekai, who brought out Makoto's true colors in trying to hang on to him, just to have him give her the cold shoulder in numerous ways.

Adding to the problems, Sekai was pregnant and so wasn't just about to give up Makoto to Kotonoha. Predictably, though, Makoto chose the one with the bigger rack and bigger will to make love to him, and Sekai made sure he didn't live to discover the error of his ways.

But to call Sekai a victim of circumstances would be a lie as well. School Days is filled with extremely flawed characters from every direction. Let's take a look at Makoto's harem:

Sekai sent the entire show into motion when she kissed Makoto at the end of episode 1. Had she stepped out there, things might have gone smoothly between Kotonoha and Makoto. Despite what she said about letting Kotonoha have him, in the end her emotional will overcame her logical one, and so she gave in to Makoto when he switched.

But it wasn't just Kotonoha who Sekai stole Makoto from. Setsuna was probably the original Girl With A Crush On Makoto, who confided in her best friend Sekai that she had a thing for him. Yet Setsuna got the shaft from the love triangle, having enough common sense to not get involved in other's business.

Not until late in the series anyway, when she kissed and slept with Makoto...in a desperate attempt to get him to stay with Sekai, and not turn back to Kotonoha. It's a strange paradox, where she sleeps with the guy she loves in order to keep him with another girl.

Otome was the third wheel, an outsider even more than Setsuna. Despite being a childhood friend of Makoto and wielding a powerful trio of evil friends, she didn't really have the courage or the opportunity to approach Makoto until the end, where she had a short fling with him, in between his Sekai and Kotonoha phases.

Her trio of friends slept with him later too, by the way. And inexplicably Hikari, the girl with a strange crush on his friend, Taisuke.

It's easy to see that all the characters suffer from a typical struggle of common sense vs. hormones, and in almost every case, the latter won.

Kotonoha is the "exception" to the rule in School Days, being made out to be the pure character, the real victim. Which arguably seems like patent lies, because she is quite mentally unstable, not to mention, possessive. She's easily pushed over, and there's probably a reason Makoto was the first one to approach her. You can't overlook any character in this show.

It's definitely a possible argument that these characters aren't as flawed as they look just because they had a slight (major) slip of judgment in bed; some say it's a realistic view of high school society.

But School Days takes the high road, ironically enough. It almost seems made to condemn this type of action. It certainly seems like the anti-harem show (not to be confused with "anti-harem" shows), a warning to future high school pimps out there to be very careful how you manage your harem.

Certainly Makoto could have gotten away with his life if he had, amusingly enough, stood up for himself a bit more. His ignoring of Sekai did more damage than anything else; his main flaw was that he failed to close relationships forcefully enough. He didn't ever really break up with anybody in person, instead taking cowards' way outs like using e-mail.

It's almost ironic that Makoto has the same problem as many harem leads, despite being so different: he lacks a backbone. Period. He just goes with the wind instead of just not going anywhere at all.

The characterization of the main trio worked relatively well, and despite all the ranting about their characters above they did seem like oddly realistic characters, realistic in their personalities and ability to make stupid decisions.

This is one of the interesting points of School Days, as for a long time it seemed like one of those things that Could Happen To You. Obviously at the end, it got a bit out of hand, but School Days's strength compared to other harem shows is that there is no supernatural premise, no magical secret. Everyone's a real person, with real friends and "lovers". It's almost creepy in it's realism (as stated over by the guys at Epic Win).

Unfortunately, the storytelling cracked a bit near the end, which may have alleviated the concern of some from the above regard, yet angered many more watching the show from an objective point.

Simply, the show takes on too much. There are so many plots introduced for the side characters that never really get solved. As interesting as the main love triangle was, there were many more things that needed to get conclusion.

Nanami got set up as the pity character at the end; admittedly I had hopes for her, since she was the only one untouched by Makoto. What happened to her?

Setsuna made a splash and dash with Makoto before flying off to France. Were they going to let her off? Never show her again? Apparently.

Otome seemed like she was getting somewhere in realizing she was foolish for ever liking Makoto. Why no true resolution on that?

Don't forget, there were probably almost as many people waiting for Taisuke the rapist to die in a fire as were those for Makoto.

And yet none of these plots were ever closed. With the one-minute "back to normal" scene at the very end of SD, after the credits, it's almost like they were anti-closed.

Unless, everyone would really forget and move on that fast?

Naturally in the end, there were some other logical loopholes too that didn't get covered, such as the body of a certain Saionji being discovered on the rooftop, or the dissaperance of Makoto and Kotonoha (off into the sunset, in a nice boat), or just why There Are No Parents In Anime.

One might argue that this show might slip from drama into the horror genre if that was covered, but in the end the show can get written off as an obvious work of fiction.

From that standpoint School Days works quite well. The soundtrack of School Days is one of the strongest I've seen in recent memory. While the actual music itself may be forgettable, the insert songs and changing credit themes really take the show to a new level of impact.

The end of the ninth episode, starting with Sekai's question "I'm your girlfriend, right?" really never fails to give goosebumps, with the way the song's highs and lows coincide with not just the ending of the episode, but also the following title display and episode preview. It's simply amazing.

Other insert songs are plentiful and strong, and add to the emotional effect of the show as well. I can't complain in the sound regard; while I can't really judge voice actors that well, I found them to fit quite well to their characters. The whiny Makoto, the desperate Sekai/Kotonoha, the quiet Setsuna...it works.

Graphically School Days is a good looking show as well; it's not fantastic (I think in terms of school series, it is topped by TokiMemo), but it's not ugly by any means. It GETS ugly in the show, but it doesn't look ugly.

On that note, the censorship in the series didn't bother me, if only because if it was uncensored, I'd probably be reaching for a bucket right now.

To sum it up, School Days is a dramatic and almost haunting school life show, which definitely gives perspective on the side of romance so rarely seen in anime these days. It makes a good contrast to the Shuffles and the Da Capoes where everyone gets along.

The audience can really feel the emotions from this show, which is what makes it such a hotly discussed series. One's mental state almost follows Kotonoha's throughout the show; first it's very pleasant and pure, followed by the creeping sensation that something's going wrong, and then topped off by a sort of insane laughter of the "this can't be happening" kind.

And that's what makes School Days such an appealing show to watch. If not because it's different than every other harem show, because despite the radical difference from the idealistic views and lives of many an anime viewers, it really connects.

It's one hell of a twisted roller coaster. Ride it once. Twice might make you sick, but it has to be experienced once, if only so you can say you hated (or loved) it.

-CCY

The Harem Handbook

Not much has been happening round the realm of Eternity. There have been a lot of shows to watch and perhaps blog about recently but nothing really standout-ish that's worth mentioning.

A lot of the summer series are sort of like American TV or sports. You watch it, you like it, and then in two days you've forgotten completely about it. Maybe that's a bit harsh but nothing from the summer season is One For the Ages; there are ones for those who like slice-of-life (Code-E) and magical girl shows (NanaDrops...or Moetan) and drama (School Days) but the biggest thing that we'll come away from the summer season with is something not in-anime per se but some of the events (Nice Jerkassery) and dark clouds that are swirling around anime.

As such there's not a lot to talk about until the School Days finale supposedly airs tommorow, as most of the series I'm following are, well, right in the middle. It's more of a crunch to finish off everything just in time for the fall season (which looks to be a good season for harem/romance/adaptation lovers) than anything else.

And so we get a post that I guess could be called filler but to dress it up, it's scathing commentary on harem show cliches dressed up as something humorish. And, without further adieu, let's get to the funny part already.

Please take note that these may not be 100% factual; it's based on the small sample of about 10 harem or harem-style shows I've followed, with the majority acting as followed

1) Law of Distance ("Osananajimi always loses" rule)
The character that will eventually "win" over the male lead is frequently the one that recieves the second-most screen time with him. While it may be a good bet in theory that the one closest to him- whether because of knowing him for X years, being his cousin, or so on - is the winner, that'd be too easy. Also, because the "lead" heroine frequently isn't the one that knows the lead male the best...

Corollary ("NAYUKI ENDING" rule): Said character with most screen time will often become a fan favorite because of said trait leading them to believe that said haremette "deserves" the win the most.

Corollary of Corollary ("Sad Sacchin" rule): Characters with disproportionately low screen-time and or the least relationship development are also the ones who recieve high amount of audience pity and love, because "nobody cares about them".

2) Harem Allotment Law ("All the usual suspects" rule)
Pick five from the following: childhood friend, energetic/genki (maybe tsundere) girl, school idol, tomboy, shy girl, quiet girl (not to be confused), foriegner, shrine maiden, other childhood friend, girl with magic power (can be combined with others), rich girl, sickly girl, geek girl, loli, completely ordinary girl, third childhood friend.

Corollary ("Sayuri? Who would've guessed." rule): Only the first three types can ever win.

3) Dress Code Law ("Looking familiar" rule)
You will have three (five is right out) outfits: school outfit, relaxation outfit, swimsuit (revealing, unless you're a loli, then school).

If you are the male lead, you will have dark grey/black hair, wear a mildly but not exciting distinctive outfit at school, have no guts but a lot of girls, and be utterly boring and nondescript. (Except for, in eroge, your disproportionately huge genitals)

If you're an adult, you don't exist.

Corollary ("Sugita" rule): If you're a male lead and are sarcastic to boot, fans will love your character forever.

Corollary ("Like a rock" rule): Clothing doesn't tear, break, or get stained for longer than 2 minutes, and if it does, only in the mildly revealing areas that will prevent your show from becoming R-15.

4) Productivity Law ("We've got all day" rule)
Always spend half your series loafing around and doing nothing. If you're an ecchi show, spend that time jiggling, flashing, or otherwise being perverse. If not, have lighthearted comedy and easily resolvable plots that end in pan ups.

Then, once halfway, hit them with every ridiculous plot twist you've got. If only someone had told you earlier that A's actually deathly ill, B has to go back to the netherworld, and C's actually out to kill everyone.

5) Peaceful Coexistence Law ("Time to find a new eternal love" rule)
With few well-known exceptions, harems always get along. The "winner" girl will be warmly recieved and congratulated with all the girls, as strong-willed as they may be, backing down very easily. Some of the should-be winners may be more distraught and perhaps violent but such resistance won't last for longer than an arc or two, because, they're all friends.

You can't argue against happy endings.

Corollary ("Key" rule): Said girls may also back down because they are dead, turned into foxes, or otherwise incapacitated.

6) Law of Sizes ("Only 5 rules before a dirty joke?!" rule)
Breast size is usually inversely proportional to the feistiness of a character. Thus, a tsundere or tomboy will be the flattest, while shy characters will often be most prone to the back-breaking effects of gravity (and glomps by fellow haremettes).

Also, all girls are really short, compared to the towering harem lead. Frequently, the most tall girls are the quietest ones.

Corollary ("Flat Chest Alliance" rule): Said tomboys with an apparent disadvantage chest-wise will also be the most vocal about what they are lacking, despite the growing loli movement.

7) Law of National Holidays ("What we're missing in America" rule)
Holidays that should be honored by all harem shows include:
* School Trip Day
* Meet the Characters Day
* Let's Go On An Adventure Day
* False Confession Day
* Bring a Mysterious Transfer Student to School Day
* National Go To The Beach In A Two-Piece Day
* Lighthearted Bridge Episode Day
* Interrupt A Romantic Moment Between Two Characters By Bringing the Whole Cast Day
* Oh God Not The Sad Piano Music Day

And always remember the haremette creed: Anyone you can love, I can love better.

-CCY

First Love the Five Hundreth Time: Code-E / NanaDrops

The summer season has been somewhat of a trip into the way-back machine for me, with these two quite under-the-radar romance shows. I've always watched a lot of shows with romantic aspects in them but to have a straight up story between one boy and one girl (with a possible Runner-Up Girl) is almost a fresh premise at this point.

The last title I remember that works like that was the legendary (and quite old) Cardcaptor Sakura, and as such how fitting that one of the shows that has captured my attention is almost a spiritual successor to it, Nanatsuiro Drops.

Although, to tell the truth, they're similar more on the exterior than on the interior; but magical girl shows in general all feel and act the same in the magical regard; the relationship aspects of Nanatsuiro Drops are what are boding to be quite interesting.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have a show that about three people have heard of, or at least blogged about - Code-E. Code-E is billed as a comedy/romance show which is a promising if not well-traveled road but with an original story and without any big names behind it Code-E is a really difficult show to come across.

Both of these shows, from at least a romance fan's perspective, are quite enjoyable in their own regards and have their own merits; despite being from the same genre they aren't exactly fighting over the same audience and they both have widely different approaches to the main topic of today: first loves.

(Spoilers through episode 7 of both series)

First love is pretty much the theme of a lot of shows with romance and romance aspects. While it may be an interesting concept to follow the path of, say, a hazed and disillusioned character who has vowed never to love again, or a sleep-around player who finally learns the meaning of true love, it's easier and simpler to write the story around a naive, innocent high schooler who is just learning for the first time how to properly flood-fill her face red.

The problem is predictably that easy != entertaining and we come to the predicament of Code-E.

Code-E really is a charming show, with what many call it an old-school flavor to it. The characters are adorable without being overly moe, and the slice-of-life feel to it is relaxing while still entertaining. It's largely a show that can be enjoyed without not much per se actually happening plot-wise; maybe because it's a show that revolves more around the characters than any doomsday plot or anything. Sure, there are hints of a Greater Evil (whether it be the inept German spies or the mafia guy with a pocketwatch), and sure, many of the characters do have supernatural abilities, but these don't steal the show at all, rather just being touched upon at times, with the main focus being Chinami's attempts to fit in and make friends in her new school.

Unfortunately since this is a romance show "make friends" essentially is code for "get to know all the female characters and spend a long long time falling for the one guy," and as such the show is taking a distinct direction towards playing out Chinami's development of feelings for the main character, Kotaro.

Which is great. Fine. Except, they do it the way every girl in anime has fallen in love since the history of mankind.

Denial is boring. Denial for two episodes is boring. Denial while shorting out the electrical system to a somewhat James-Bondy soundtrack is cute and innovative, but still boring. What is that feeling when you think of Kotaro, Chinami? I wonder. I really do. It couldn't be that you like him, because that would be too easy to admit.

Perhaps it's a result of what I watch but having characters deny their feelings at every opportunity gets repetitive fast.

This is precisely the reason why Nanatsuiro Drops is hitting its stride, because right before the three-quarters mark we've already got The Confession over with between the obvious love interests of Sumomo and Haru, and now we can get on to more interesting things.

Nanatsuiro Drops may have lost a bit of charm as it's magical girl story admittedly grows more cliched by the week (I'm missing the fun that they're supposed poking at the cliches) but the important part of the story is in full gear, and that is the developing relationship between the two main characters.

Now I'm only up to episode 7 and so I'm in the post-confession stage by about five seconds, but the promise of Getting On With It (admittedly, in more ways than one) and not lollygagging on the What Is This Love? factor is really engaging, almost too much for a show that seems to renounce it's eroge roots so soundly.

Although, the second interesting thing about NanaDrops is that, being based on an eroge, has it's focus primarly on the male lead, unlike most romance shows which follow the female lead around. It's nice to see things from the other side of the spectrum. Despite that being my side of the spectrum.

Of course at the three-fourths mark there are plenty of things that can change at this point; Code-E's clearing or stumbling into the confession bar, and NanaDrops's handling of the What To Do Now That We're Together sticky point will be pivotal. We will see at the end of these shows whether the romance show can still work in a day and age of moes and lolis.

-CCY

Sequels: Do They Suck?

Blunt, as always; but it's something that's often true among all forms of entertainment, whether it be movies, video games, or anime. Somehow the second, or third, maybe twentieth installment in a franchise just doesn't seem to match up to the previous in the series.

Today's whining is specifically brought to you by the second season of Da Capo, which is found by a lot of the anime community (again, a lot meaning what two places I could dig up posts on such an ancient series, plus whatever comments) to be inferior to the original, for whatever reason, whether it be a predictable outcome, annoying characters, or repetition.

For the most part I find this verdict to be true, and I can think of a few other shows that fit the bill. Shuffle! Memories can barely even be considered a sequel, rather being more of a clip show. To Heart 2 is not a sequel per se, but still very much "more of the same".

But are these sequels really as amazingly mediocre as many fans put them out to be? Not any specific show or game in general, but rather, as a whole, are sequels held up to a higher standard, and thus, rated lower? Or is it just the fact that the producers ran out of ideas?

Or, hey, are sequels a good thing? Asking the tough(ish) questions around here is the most fun...

Quite simply one of the reasons that sequels, at least in the anime world, are judged more harshly is because they already have a devout fanbase. Similarly to how visual novel conversions get judged pretty harshly at times, sequels begin with established content and characters, so if the storytelling and character portrayal doesn't match up with a fan's view of the series, some serious rifts are going to form.

Fans, especially in the anonymous age of the internet, are a very judgemental species, and as such hold many series to a high standard; sequels should be as good as, if not better than, the original, and when the original was a very well-recieved anime, it's a tough bar to clear.

Not to mention, opinions can be distorted very easily; a fan's "first love" of sorts is often tough to unseat, as shows catering to a fan's taste or exposing them to something new and exciting are often rated perhaps much higher than they should be.

Haruhi, for one. Now I enjoy Yukiiiiiiiiiiiiiii the adventures of the SOS Brigade as much as the next guy, but it is quite simply a show that's been overhyped to the moon and back. No show, no matter how amazingly good it is, can match the hype and unconditional love that The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has recieved. There is no touching it.

Which is why the second season of Haruhi worries me very much. I have no doubt that Kyoto Animation will pull off a solid work off a very solid light novel series, but the fact of the matter is that Haruhi is no longer a gem in the rough, no longer a series that no one had heard of before hearing it. Now it and KyoAni are big names in the anime industry, and so there's going to be big expectations.

But on that tangent, it's not just the fans raising the bar for sequels that causes many sequels to be panned. The shows themselves get somewhat out of shape.

As many judgemental, critical fans of a show as there might be, there's an equal amount of ones who will simply lap up anything with their favorite show on it. You know the type, the one that lives, breathes, and eats the show unconditionally.

These are the people that often spur a sequel because they are the ones that buy it to death, in every single media form imaginable. And so, companies being companies after all, want to push the shows that make the most money.

Companies also being companies, sometimes want to spend the least money to make the most money. This may not be as prevalent in the anime world, but those who play video games know what I'm talking about: the yearly redrawing of the title art for Sports Game 200X is seemingly the most work that goes into the next year's edition.

And so some anime may actually drop in quality, since the advantage of having a fanbase with what amounts to a crush on your show is that they will see it through rose-colored glasses. Sure, the plot sucks and the animation quality dropped, but isn't Character X so hot/adorable/etc?

The opposite end of the spectrum applies as well. Companies who don't want to just air more of the same might change the show too much in an effort to keep things fresh. Fans who are loyal to a particular Shirakawa character might feel miffed that the show now has introduced Aisia all these New and Exciting characters to the point where the characters and plotlines that they liked the most from the original now take a backseat to inferior, tacked-on characters.

It's the same idea as New Coke. It may actually be better, but the followers prefer the original over a radically different formula. Maybe that says something about our tastes.

So, sequels are both judged harsher and made poorer, by the looks of the argument. Why bother?

Well, for one, to be blunt, it still sells. Lovers quarrel because they care about each other (hopefully at least partially true) and anime fans complain about a series because they want it to be good. If they really didn't like a series they wouldn't bother with a sequel, and so it's out of an inner hope that the series turns out well that they voice themselves.

And there will always be the rabid fans who will follow series devotedly without question. Sometimes their actions are a bit questionable but to each their own, so if perverts like watching the same rehashed lolipedoshows and fanservice-fests over and over, people like me can watch the same rehashed harem shows or the same rehashed shonen shows over and over. It's all about personal enjoyment. (Such an American view, no?) One may be less socially acceptable but from an economic standpoint it's the same deal in that there is a committed audience with wallets that talk; sequels aren't going to stop anytime soon.

And, yes, sequels occasionally DO work as well; Haruhi should not be one to worry about, as it does have a solid base to work off of (the visual novels; although, the question of loyalty to the books definitely will be risen) and a dedicated animation team. Kanon 2006, if you can consider it a "rehash" of the 2002 version, was a solid show in every regard, being mostly well-recieved by the anime community. And in the end, there still are Da Capo shows coming out and there still is a solid siscon fanbase for the show, and I don't blame them.

While the second season may not be the best of shows, it's still very watchable, and opinions always tend to differ from person to person. Just because one person or a few people lambast a show doesn't mean that it's a show lost beyond hope.

-CCY

Series Review: Lunar Legend Tsukihime

Visual novel conversions are quite common in the anime world. It makes sense, a lot of the time; the content's already there, without much need for original work. And the characters typically already pander to the mostly male anime audience; whether it be improbable body shapes, lolicons, or just straight-up moe characters. And there's already a proven audience; the people who bought the original visual novel and are dying to see it in animated form.

But, for those animation studios who decide to make an anime out of a mostly serious or emotional visual novel, it's hell on earth. While playing to the lowest common demographic in more ecchi/lighthearted conversions (like, say, the first halves of Shuffle or D.C.) may be easy, making a visual novel with an actual story "work" is very hard.

Why? It's the simple concept of most visual novels; one guy, many girls. While it's not always as dirty as it sounds, the framework goes as such and as a result there's not one canon storyline to work off of.

There may be a main storyline, one heroine who is placed above the others, but still one obviously cannot ignore the other harem members and their stories entirely. And such resides the complexity of visual novel conversions in that a studio has to work to flesh out and unify the story as much as possible without straying too far from the original work, lest the fans be forced to take up their arms (although that seems to happen about anything, eh?).

And that is why Tsukihime is simply one of those visual novels that Does Not Compute into anime form.

Certainly I appreciate the efforts to make an excellent story into an excellent show, but in the end, Lunar Legend Tsukihime falls far short of the mark...even when you give it credit for trying to make a workable story out of things.

(Spoilers for Tsukihime anime and visual novel post-jump.)

Tsukihime is even more of a twisted story hellhole than most tear-jerker, plot-driven visual novels, in that the events for each character's storyline often overlap and conjoin. While each character in a show like Kanon has an almost completely different secret and story to tell, in Tsukihime lots of characters are connected and linked in ways that make it nearly impossible to tell in a fluent motion.

Shiki cannot simply take his turn with each of the girls, learn their pasts, cry a bit, and then move on before ending up with Arc. There are too many time paradoxes that would have to be worked around if each character was explored in depth.

In some scenarios Nero shows up, in others he doesn't. Sometimes Roa plays an important role, sometimes he's dead before halfway. To learn more about Ciel we'd have to have the fight at the school against her at night; and in her path Arc becomes the end villian, in a sense. If we learn anything important about Kohaku she'll pretty much steal the show. If the character's plot points are combined, essentially the anime loses a strong focus.

And so it's perhaps a bit wrong to criticize the anime so sharply for following Arc's True End and very little of much else. Sure, they could have made it work, but at what price? Sure, Arc's True End is "boring" in comparison to pretty much every other true end, but it's fulfilling and it works very well as a standalone.

But the problem is, the anime tried too hard to not be a standalone. It introduced aspects from other characters' paths: Akiha's red hair. Ciel's immortality. Sacchin moeeeeeeee~ Satsuki's entire story.

And it didn't close these threads. The side storylines are either ended unfulfillingly, or ignored entirely.

We never find out why Ciel didn't die.
We never find out why Akiha's hair is day glow red.
And in the end, Satsuki gets a cop-out of the "oh, I was sick so I didn't get turned into a vampire" regards. This, and all the other aspects, was a plot foreshadowing that never got cast into the light.

The end result is that first-time watchers are confused, and seasoned veterans are annoyed at the lack of elaboration. Even at the ending, it's never explained why Arc appears and dissapears. It looks like she's simply a ghost, appearing to say goodbye one last time, which is true and yet so, so wrong at the same time.

This is one of the major gripes of the Tsukihime fanbase, is that while many aspects of Lunar Legend Tsukihime seem plausible, compared to the actual content it's a drastic alteration.

Arc's running away from Shiki. Her unsmiling face making Shiki take responsibility for killing her. Ciel eating spaghetti. And, infamously, Nero getting wiped in less than three minutes, with not a single on-screen attack landed by Shiki.

Certainly there are explanations that could be made to explain these situations. "It was for dramatic effect." "It was to show Shiki was just that powerful." "It's a minor detail." But, the point is, it's still wrong.

It's not errors you can just wave your hand and make disappear. Part of this may be the fault of the rest of Tsukihime, in that it does, like mentioned, leave almost as much stuff out as it gets wrong. So there's no shining aspect of the story to point to and say "Yeah, but this makes up for it."

The one memorable aspect of the show was the music, and many a good scene make it did. "Justice" (protip: there's a Stepmania file for it) is an epically awesome fight song, and the piano and violin pieces do well to add emotion as well. The choral, instrumental OP is very dramatic (if not a bit abstract) with a feel that matches the anime. But as much as I rant about how good music can make a good series, it can't carry a series as far as a better story could have.

Graphics are a bit of a controversial factor. They look good, yes, but they look like guys. That's the simple argument about the art style. It's very dramatic, and it fits the show's mood very well, but sometimes I think the characters just look strange; for example, Akiha crying in the final episode.

Also, recycled animation is one of my pet peeves, and when I can notice it that's a bad sign. For reference, see Arc and Shiki talking in episode 3, where Arc puts down the same tea cup about 4 times.

Other than that, Tsukihime's biggest enemy is it's visual novel. 50 hours of gameplay sometimes just can't compress into a 12 episode (6 hour) show. There's too many threads to tread to make it a truly great show, and so the anime took a shot at integrating as many as it can, but fell flat a bit by putting a little too much on its plate.

It's tough to review Tsukihime from an objective perspective, but I feel that it could still work as a dramatic, mildly haremesque show that puts a major focus on action and character relationships. In a sense it's like another show with that outlook, sola, in that both are good shows, but there are obvious flaws and errors that will leave first-time viewers confused. The difference is that sola has no other content (yet!) for people like me to distort reviews with.

Tsukihime, from a Tsukihime fan's perspective, is a show that kind of hurts to watch, mainly because you know it's So Much More. It's not as bad as to pretend it doesn't exist (cough), but it's one of those things where I would recommend to skip it and just follow the visual novel instead; or, at least, to watch that anime before the visual novel. The anime takes a nice boat shot at making the visual novel work in a linear fashion, but the sort of alternate-universe telling of the 5 stories of Tsukihime (same events, different story) dooms the show to a sort of mediocrity among visual novel conversions.

-CCY

P.S. Although, perhaps my bias is a lack of knowledge of other sources for visual novel conversions; many of the famous ones (Kanon, D.C., Shuffle, etc) remain unpatched.

P.P.S. Not to contradict the argument of "keep it simple", but I'm really dissapointed that they didn't really manage to fit in any of the Far Side story at all. The maids come off as rather unimportant and side-characterish when they're really the backbone of the story.

Flat characters and full series

u see wat i did thar?

Actually this post did start out as a Lucky Star post catching up with all the episodes that have remained unblogged, but since the layout sort of devolved into a mental debate over whether the characters were A) realistic and B) funny, it's time to reach into the meta-vault.

So in that regard 1000 words about how awesome Tsukasa and Miyuki are has now been condensed to about 10, and it's time to move on with a head-hurting topic.

One of the criticisms that at least I have come up with for a lot of characters in a lot of shows is that said characters are rather flat and one-dimensional. You know the type. The energetic airhead who can't seem to get it through their head that they are annoying as all hell, even after ten episodes. The flat-chest-obsessed character who will do anything in their power to put another centimeter on. The really shy character whose only action is to blush furiously, stammer, and pretend they haven't been liking the guy for dozens of episodes on end now.

This isn't to be confused with characters who are a mix of tropes; even if you mix it up just a bit, usually a character can remain fresh. But the fact is, there are characters that are just that flat.

Now, being a fan of believable, appealing characters I often lead at least a mental crusade against most characters I consider to be one-dimensional. As usual, however, it's time to open it up to both sides of the argument, as just maybe there may be times where one-dimensional chracters just might be welcome after all.

Blasphemy! No, jump.

To put it simply character depth is usually proportional to series depth. In series with light-hearted content and lots of humor, characters are usually more simple and shallow than in a heavy, dramatic show where a character might have quite a few sides (and secrets to them).

And in the former situation, sometimes it's not too bad to have relatively predictable characters when it comes to making gags. It leads the audience to a sense of familiarity with the character, a sense of "Oh, what'll X do this time;" a question, perhaps, that they could already answer.

Likewise, 1D characters are easy to digest and understand; anyone who's had their brain wrecked to hell and back watching characters from shows like School Days slowly change and become someone Completely Different can enjoy simple characters who won't betray them; or at least, their stereotyped view of the character.

On the flip side though, there's a lot more worse to say about these types of characters than there is to argue in favor of it.

I used the word "familiarity" in the paragraph above; another suitable would be "predictability." Sigh, here comes X again, right? One begins to get tired of seeing the same thing over and over and over, no matter how funny it is. Because you've been there, done that, and you want to do something else.

1D characters are usually far enough out there that they don't really click with the audience as well. You may be dense like a character at times, or crazy like a character at time, but that much? I sure hope not. Usually when a character has only one main quality, that quality is going to be exaggerated beyond belief in order to really generate any (temporary) entertainment value out of the character. If it's not, there's not really any substance to the character. What you have is what we call a side character. And if that's a main character, oh dear...

Likewise the situation gets progressively horrific if the show you're watching doesn't happen to be a comedy. Sometimes a character does get distorted so much in other genres as well. For one, my specialty, harem shows. While these may be just as light as times as comedy, they do have a larger emphasis on being able to care for and sympathize with the characters, since these types of series do get serious, if at least for a little bit. And if you have a flat character, even if they do suddenly grow personality halfway in (equally unrealistic), it's really hard to connect with them, since they are still a rather immature and comedy-based character.

So, flat characters are bad. And the sky is blue. And?

What's actually surprising though is how just a little variation can make a character just so much more.

It's when a character goes against their stereotypical personality that things really get interesting. Even if it's just one out of ten times, it shows that that characters do actually have minds of their own, they do have more sides to them than one, they are somewhat realistic characters.

This variation doesn't have to be just doing the diametric opposite (energetic character becomes pensive) either. Even just a short moment of sanity can speak volumes for characters. After all, not even the craziest people in real life are crazy 100% of the time. They might change around others, or stop to contemplate their actions, or maybe just discuss normal things.

This is one of the reasons why I believe that the characters in shows like Lucky Star, and perhaps, to a lesser extent, Azumanga Daioh are actually quite plausible characters. As many jokes as they crack about Miyuki being clumsy, Konata being geeky, and Chiyo being loli, all the characters do actually take the time out to have normal conversations like normal people. And when they do act up, it might be in a way that seems semi-realistic; a gag doesn't have to be utterly insane and off-the-wall to work. Sometimes there's a second sense of humor, a "Yeah, I know what you mean/have done that before" concept that works on a connection level as well.

Perhaps that why it seems to me that characters that are mostly, but not entirely, flat can work because they do have moments where they resemble all of us. It's like how a Picasso painting, although it's a professional work and supposedly of a person, is so abstract and out there that a lot of people wouldn't recognize it, yet a simplistic cartoon drawing can be easily identified as a human. Obviously neither is really a person or a realistic representation of it, but the second one, through actually containing identifiable characteristic that we all share (facial parts in the right place, legs, etc) is much closer to an actual person.

The former might have more significance, and some might derive more of a sense of accomplishment of making sense of the Picasso, but for the untrained masses like me, the second is a lot more sensible - and maybe enjoyable.

-CCY

Shards of Summer: Nanatsuiro Drops

Nanatsuiro Drops has always been somewhat of a paradox to me.

It's background is an eroge, which usually means that the anime adaptation will have a generally male target audience. Not necessarily fanservice up the behind like Shuffle or to a lesser note Da Capo, but sometimes just a moe flood of cute characters in shows like Kanon. While the latter show arguably worked just as well for both genders, the fact of the matter is that both types of shows are ones guys don't mind being caught dead watching.

Now, Nanatsuiro Drops is pretty much straight-up magical girl stuff. Think about it. Eroge + magical girl = confused audience.

Sometimes magical girl shows can work for a male audience, in the case of raw loli-fests (I'm tempted to say Moetan, but I have no actual experience with that show), but NanaDrops pretty much plays the magical girl card straight, at least in the anime.

It seems that the anime has pretty much renounced any tendencies for fanservice or whatnot in favor of attracting a target audience of an age probably not old enough to buy the PC game NanaDrops was based on.

It's not to say that Nanatsuiro Drops is expressly one of those Not For Guys shows, since magical girl shows have worked for a larger audience in the past; not sure what is the draw of Nanoha, not having watched that, but it has a simply ridiculously huge fanbase, and even old-school, straight magical girl shows like Cardcaptor Sakura (it's by Clamp, shouldn't that be enough of a warning to straight guys?) are generally acknowledged to be one of those Top Tier shows. CCS was simply one of those shows that got people into anime.

NanaDrops, though, coming ten years after Sakura's adventures, may be what some consider "behind the times". While it may have worked long ago, now tastes seem to have changed away from the sugary, fluffy, heartwarming stuff towards, well, whatever it is you like today. Loli shows, fanservice shows, slice-of-life, moe, dramatic shows...none of these can really fit NanaDrops, which in an era of anime where there are No Girls On The Internet, really just doesn't click with at least a lot of people in the English anime crowd.

Nevertheless, NanaDrops does have it's devout supporters, both on AnimeSuki and on local anime blogs. Supposedly it's not as Magical Girly as it looks, rather turning some typical tropes on its head and generally poking fun at the cliches of the genre. Supposedly the relationship and character development is handled quite well and creatively, unlike the usual "rivals who fall in love" or the "boy meets girl in awkward situation; hijinks and crushing ensue" found in this genre.

But there are always going to be the rabid fans of any series that will stand up for it to the bitter end. Show me a moe harem show and I'll show you unhealthy levels of adoration. Show a lolicon Moetan and they'll show you the "merits" of a show like that. So perhaps it's possible that the fans behind NanaDrops are overhyping it.

As usual, the only way to find out is to watch a show, and thus embarked an second adventure into the cavity-filled sugarland of magical girl shows. Full opinion and perhaps some discussion of the actual show and the first 3 episodes after the jump.

First point, there's really no getting around it; Nanatsuiro Drops is made to rot your teeth to hell and back. If you cannot handle bright, peppy genki girls, if you cannot handle random chibi transformations, if you cannot handle sparkles and shinies and posing and funny magical words, NanaDrops will send you running for the hills and you won't come back.

In that sense NanaDrops almost is like a CCS 2.0 in that it features a heroine who is bright to the bitter end. Sumomo is like Sakura in that she shows her emotions very clearly; they'll be uber-shy around the ones they like, they'll be uber-happy when they're in a good mood, and when they're nervous and discouraged, yeah, they'll tear up.

Granted, Sumomo is a bit more of what one might term a "crybaby" than Sakura perhaps ever was, but she still shows that trait of "I shouldn't cry," "it'll be all right," "I've got to do my best," etc.

The other characters are somewhat typical fare as well. The male protagonist is every bit as aloof and antisocial as ever, there's the Adult Figure Who Secretly Knows Everything, the Heroine's Bestest Friend Ever (who's also in on it), and the Very Evil And Ominous Rival. Nothing horribly standout in personality.

Ironically enough, one of the places where NanaDrops shines so far is in the magical girl part of the show. While the premise is like every other show of the genre (or for that matter, Sonic game) with the "collect them all" deal, the little aspects are where it has a little fun. Being based originally on an eroge it's quite possible that the producers knowingly messed with the magical girl formula slightly, if only because guys simply can't stand straight-up monster-of-the-week, transform-and-attack shows.

In a sense, NanaDrops is kind of like "Magical Girls For Dummies". It's pretty hard for Sumomo to do things wrong, even if she tried. The magical book of rules pretty much covers everything, from how to get stardrops to how to keep a friend in on the secret to how to hax their way into a building. Even the rival seems a bit annoyed with Sumomo's incompetence, insisting that she improve herself so that they can have a fair and exciting conflict. The ring Sumomo wears pretty much points her straight to the stardrop every time, so that collecting the stardrop is about as easy as pressing a button.

As such, the focus is barely on the "magical" aspect at all, and more on the characters. The premise in having the Obligatory Stuffed Animal be the male protagonist puts a nice twist on things, in giving him a lot of a behind-the-scenes look at Sumomo in public vs. Sumomo in private.

The character development possibilities certainly seems promising. Sumomo has a lot of courage to gain and it'll be interesting to see just how Tsuwabaki (first name what?) handles the Obligatory Slow Falling-In-Love Sequence, not to mention revealing his identity (or not).

The two antagonist-type characters still have a lot to be revealed about them, to see how their personalities and conflicts play out. Not to mention that one mysterious masked guy from episode 1.

Again at the quarter mark in the show all I can really say is that it's a promising but not brilliant show; the developing relationship between Sumomo and Tsuwabaki (or just Sumomo's development in general) will be key to determining the success of the show, as well as how much it deviates from it's magical girl (and eroge, natch) roots.

Needless to say this show is not one of those shows everyone can watch. I wouldn't say that those adverse to magical girliness will be able to handle this at all, even if it does improve; the raw sugar content of this show will turn a lot off, perhaps deservedly. But those who can handle shows orientated more at girls - or, believe it or not, are girls themselves - just might find something to like in this show.

-CCY

ONE ~Kagayaku Kisetsu e~ English Patch Released!

Welcome your new Key (Tactics) visual novel overlords. Do it.

So yeah, the English patch for one of first (big?) visual novels released by the famous producers of AIR and Kanon was released earlier this month here.

ONE has always been one of those blank spots in many Key fans' histories mainly because there was no anime or major translation previously produced for it outside of what I've been told is a very shoddy OVA (one hentai, one non-hentai) produced a few years ago. Now it's time to figure out all those strange characters that you may only be acquainted with through doujin games like Eternal Fighter Zero (another excellent 2D fighter featuring Key characters).

So, uh, yeah, get to it if that's your thing. Eternal gratitude to the producers of the patch, and looking forward to a good read.

-CCY

(Mio Kouzuki image stolen from this Japanese site)

Shards of Summer: Code-E

With many of this summer and spring's hot shows finally going into their final phases it's time to play catch-up with some of the overlooked shows that have been tagged as watchable, to see if they turn out to be hidden gems or just a lump of coal after all.

Code-E is first up on a list packed with comedy and magical girl shows, and so for once the romantic show stands out in a typically harem crowd. I won't deny my tastes. This show practically defines the word "overlooked", as its presence is next to none with only 3 pages on Animesuki and little to no blogs following it.

Why? A few reasons. Code-E is another original concept and so it can't easily draw in people who were fans of corresponding visual novels or manga. Many people don't have time to watch the trailer for everything, so usually the only possible hook for shows like this are word-of-mouth and summaries.

The plot summary seemed passable, if not a bit basic. The genre's put down as "comedy and romance", which really almost seems to be code for "show is like everything else." If you think about it, there's a LOT of comedy shows. Romance shows are dime a dozen as well, although the non-harem variety seem to be slimming as well.

The supernatural premise of the heroine, Chinami, being able to emit electronical pulses - although it's not under her control - seems novel and different.

And, well, for overly moe judgemental people like me, all they needed to say was "meganekko + dojikko + romance". Sold.

But is this one that should be returned to sender?

Code-E made it's debut with the roaring sound of a pin dropping on the floor. Most of the people who watched the first episode and blogged it thought it a rather forgettable show, with a slow first episode with not much content.

Or noses.

As usual, being Eternally Optomistic Blogger Man, I find it hard to pan the series so hard based on the first 25 minutes of it. It's not world shaking by any regard, but it can definitely be classified under "watchable."

Although, it is true that really, nothing happens. 90% of the episode is watching Mysterious Transfer Student Chinami panic her way around school while trying not to short out the entire place.

Not to mention, apparently the only thing different about being twenty years in future is that everything's convienently electronic. C'mon, where's my teleportation, flying cars, and telepathy? Perhaps this isn't a show that's that sci-fi, and as such the setting and funny powers like that won't be overly important.

On the plus side, what we saw in the other 10% of the episode introduced some interesting premises that I haven't seen in a bit. There's plenty of characters show n in the story and the intro, and I look forward to seeing how they set up the 'conflict' in this show, if any. It might not be a 'good vs evil' thing but more a 'girl vs herself' type thing.

Chinami is a character with, as a stockbroker would put it, a lot of growth potential (not like that!). She seems like the type with very little self-confidence, probably stemming from her uncontrollable ability. The secret to taming her electric potential appears to be controlling her surprise, as she seems to let off more current the more gets unnerved, such as at the end of the show when pretty much all panic broke loose. I look forward to hopefully seeing her mature over the episodes into an assured, self-confident character.

The techy guy who, uh, 'confessed', to Chinami at the end seems to be the main male protagonist and an interesting character. His personality is tough to pin down, unlike most of the male leads I've followed recently. He seems like a kind of genius delinquent, skipping class to go work in his awesome computer shelter place. All that technology seems to have gone to his head as he clearly isn't one of those 'good with people' things, ignoring both Random Tsundere-Type's obvious hint dropping and ignoring the fact that "being interested in someone's body" just might not come across in the right way.


I'll admit, I laughed at that line. He's not horribly out-of-touch with social life like a lot of geeky types (swirly glasses, you know the kind) in anime, but more of the good-intentions-gone-bad type. Socially naive, maybe. I like that. He does seem to have at least a passing curiosity in Chinami outside of her power - shown when he sneaked a glance at her when they got off the bus. Nice that he cares - or at least wonders about - the well-being of her.

Speaking of Random Tsundere-Type Girl With Crush On Main Protagonist, I'm not sure how she's going to factor in yet. The focus of the story seems to be more on Chinami than the male lead, and so it doesn't quite fit to have presumably two girls (you can probably count Chinami in, eventually) going after the same guy. The whole situation seems like it would be one of those Misunderstandings Happen things, which hopefully will get pulled off well for once.

There's Mysterious Quiet/Strong and Silent Girl who is always an interesting archetype, especially since from the intro's look she doubles as a shrine maiden with a bow (hopefully I'm not getting her confused with that one girl from DCSS). She seems the type to know more than she leads on.

Then there's the blonde characters in the intro, the parents who probably won't play a major role (but you never know), and Sakura Kinomoto.

No, seriously. Photoshop those eyes green and you'll know what I mean.

And that whole bit with the meteor thing seems to almost be setting up for a bunch of other characters with strange powers...

On the negative side the music was one of the duller things I've listened to in a while. None of the soundtrack really seemed that memorable - although we'll see later on when they start reusing pieces - but the OP just doesn't seem to click at all. I'm all for an instrumental piece like Tsukihime's but the one for Code-E feels like it's trying to give off more of a 007 secret agent feel when really the anime seems to be nothing of the type. It just feels sort of disjointed with the rest of the show, which is more relaxed and amusing.

Not to mention, in the OP, why don't we see the main characters...or anything interesting...for the first twenty seconds? Commuter...bus...stoplight...oh, there's the title. Finally. Strange choice, that.

The show doesn't seem to have a lot of direction at the moment, which is why I keep saying above how "it seems to be..." or "it will be interesting to find out..."; what this means is that if things are executed well Code-E could be a bit of a hidden gem, but if not, it's a lot of meh material.

I don't expect it to be another sola (which was a great if not mildly flawed show), but I hope Code-E can be an interesting original concept in a pile of adaptations. While there is always a place for great conversions of heavy-harem eroge, or amusing manga or 4-komas, something it's appealing just to have a show where you really can't cheat and find out what's around the corner.
-CCY

School Days 11 - Rien ne va plus

"No more bets."

Alternative, all bets are off.

Just like the girls, I can't seem to stay away from Makoto and his story and so it's time to fire up the prediction machine one last time to see where this story is headed.

You'd think that with the original content and with the expectations of the fanbase one would expect the conclusion to be obvious. You'd also be wrong, with the curveball that the penultimate episode served up.

Strangely enough the last episode effectively neutralized, for now, the Kotonoha threat. I kept looking at her hands all throughout the last scene. Where's the knife? Where's the knife? Nowhere! Her eyes are back to normal and everything!

It certainly seems strange for all that buildup to be shot down in the second-to-last episode, even if there still are twists possible. It's just not flowing right - I suppose, in a sense, that Kotonoha's very existence is clinging on Makoto now and so it makes sense for her to swing to wildly - but if she ends up snapping anyway next episode this episode will seem a lot like a bad attempt to make a "calm before the storm."

Speaking of calm, this is true also because the rest of a cast on a whim decided to back off Makoto almost as quickly as they came onto him. Perhaps it's because they found out Sekai's actually pregnant (omg, panic, etc) or perhaps it's because they realized Makoto's a stupid pimp or perhaps it's because Nobody Cares About The Side Characters, but it certainly seemed almost deux-ex-ish.

I can understand Otome backing off. She was one of my clutch characters from last episode that could hopefully swing this series around, if anyone was going to be a salvageable character from School Days. It certainly seems that way now, as she is joining the ever-popular-club of "Promise sex (but maybe not deliver) to Makoto so we can turn him onto the path of righteousness."

Hikari confuses me. She did it at least twice with Makoto, which isn't making an entire lot of sense considering that she was the one with a thing for Taisuke. For her to abandon that for Makoto, even if she does manage to knock some sense into him regarding Sekai - seems very strange. As does the complete and total dissapearance of Taisuke. Perhaps he's smart and is fleeing to Canada.

Nanami's a question mark as she sure seemed troubled a lot during this episode, but Hikari claimed that Nanami was feeling better a few days later. I sincerely hope so, since Nanami seems to be (almost) one of the "sane" characters of School Days, a definition that is quickly being synonymous with "did not sleep with Makoto ever."

Sekai's change of heart was pretty quick as well; perhaps. As much as she hates him for cheating on her (and 4 other girls) and for getting her pregnant as a presumably high school student, well, she knows she's "won" because she's carrying Makoto's child.

Or has she?

Makoto has gone full circle and turned back to Kotonoha after 10 episodes. He certainly sounded like he "realized the error of his ways" when he was "talking" with Kotonoha, but something about his character screams "Pity pity etc blah blah sex me now kay Koto?"

Perhaps I'm being harsh on him, since he was crying and such, but this late in the game, as I've previously stated, is just too late for Makoto to make a full turn around. It's not going to happen dot period end of story lest a storm of fanboys angrier than I am burn the animation studios to the ground. A "good" good ending at this point just simply is not an option.

Why? Kotonoha's normal again, right?

For now.

Certainly there's a lot of focus on Kotonoha and with all this effort made to break Kotonoha we're not going to fix her in one scene. Another stick on her back just might snap it, which is plausible; despite what I said about that being ridiculous, it certainly feels like it'd be a more sensible bad end than the other option.

The other option being the third bad end from the game, the one involving Sekai as the criminal. Long story short: Sekai pregnant, check. Makoto sleeping with Kotonoha, no doubt. Slashy slashy? Let's see it.

It doesn't make a lot of logistic sense doing all the work to make Kotonoha the tortured character only to turn the spotlight on Sekai and let her loose, but running off of game events it certainly seems like the most plausible situation.

From what it seems though, the anime has blended many different game storylines (to the chagrin of many AnimeSuki forumites); Setsuna's Summer Days crush, the Everybody's Makoto harem piece, Sekai's dance at the bonfire, and so on, so certainly a new ending or a mix is possible.

And with a hint of ambulance sirens in the next episode preview, you know something's going down. It just seems strange that they put so much effort to "fix" everything this episode, since we know it's the equivalent of pasting a house together with a glue stick.

It might have been better if they shifted the Kotonoha insanity climax to next episode, since right now all it's seeming to be is a red herring. Sekai, be the criminal? It's possible. Kind of silly at this point, but she's a very troubled girl as well.

So, School Days 12, what to expect? It's hard to call, but suffice to say, bet on red.

I don't think any of the main three are going to get away unscathed; Makoto's going to need his last rites, and either Kotonoha or Sekai better start getting intimate with a prison cell. I'd say Kotonoha will be the one that comes off the "best", if only because she's the pitiable character of this show.

Hopefully there will be some conclusion to the side characters in this last episode. If Taisuke gets his just desserts, Setsuna makes a final comeback (although not I'm the Wife) and Nanami makes it through "clean", it'll personally be a moral victory.

-CCY

Analyzing the Anime Lexicon

Many times languages have borrowed words for another; if you're familiar with Spanish a great deal of words in that language are common with English, and if you know Japanese the same situation is true. The word 'taxi' is exactly the same across quite a few languages, and even English, the seeming source for a lot of words (perhaps not, but being my first language I tend to make comparisons to it), has quite a few foriegn phrases put into rotation in everyday colloquial use.

These phrases are one of the ways a person can be in effect judged by their cover; by the uncommon terms that they insert in their speech one can learn a lot about their hobbies and tastes. Among anime fans this infiltration is quite common, if not so much in everyday speech than at least in electronic conversation.

Now of course there has been a bit of a backlash against the use of random Japanese words in a language which is decidely not Japanese from both sides. From the foreigner argument, it dilutes and sometimes perverts the meaning of the word. From the comprehension side, you sound ridiculous when you randomly devolve into foreign conversation. Observe anyone who routinely uses the word 'kawaii' and ^_^ faces.

But of course there is a very logical reason for using foriegn terms in conversation; oftentimes some words just don't make the jump from one language to another cleanly - as in, without taking two sentences to explain something better summed in one word. Or maybe you just want to sound like you know what you're talking about.

So this post will take a vaguely in-depth look at some of the more common terms used among the English anime community (or at least, the ones I'm familiar with), how they got started, and whether it's a sane idea to continue using them.

Also, hopefully I'll sound less like a dry term paper.

1) Moe
Moe is one of those really annoying terms. On one side, it's become so much of a popular term among anime watchers on both sides that it's really begun to lose all value. Loosely defined from the start as "something that makes one want to protect the character", it continues to grow more vague as people refine their tastes. Shy girl moe, or naive moe makes sense, but then we go farther and farther down the scale to bandage moe, clumsy moe, small chest moe and one starts to wonder if one should just begin to sub "fetish" in instead.

The standard definition of moe from what I've seen and experienced is that it's a non-sexual adoration for a character. One could call a character 'cute' or 'adorable' instead of moe; but moe isn't usually a term that could be subbed for "I'd hit that."

It may vary from person to person since the definition is so subjective; one might consider a character moe, another might not.

Moe is a term that certainly borders on being thrown around too much, whether from the pro-side screaming "MOEEEEEEEEE" (insert that manga page of Kohaku + Hisui moe moe bath towel), or the anti-side dismissing shows like Lucky Star as "moe trash."]

But I feel that it's a valid term mainly because it is hard to pin down to one definition that could be translated into English. 'Adorable' or 'cute' comes close, and I use those as substitutes sometimes, but those don't really seem to convey the affection/attraction usually associated with moe as well.

2) Tsundere
Tsundere's a fun one. The definition for it is essentially "a character with both tsuntsun and deredere characteristics," usually a girl.

That's great. If you want to expand it to English it's "a character who at times acts cold and aloof towards another character, and at other times acts very shy and affectionate." Which is, well, a mouthful.

Which gets to the point that tsundere should probably remain in the anime terminology mainly because there is no other simple term for it. Observe:

"Haruhi is a tsundere."
"Haruhi's sometimes cold to Kyon at times but she can be really shy and submissive around him as well at times."

Clunky, isn't it?

Considering the first battle won, the second argument is of the definition of tsundere. What definition? I just explained it. But even with so many words, the exact characteristics of a tsundere are tricky to pin down. Relatively extreme tsunderes - Akiha of Tsukihime or Shana of her own series - are easy to figure out, but drawing the line is one of the hard parts.

Haruhi's a hotly debated one. Makoto from Kanon has my vote. But Kagami of Lucky Star? D.C.'s Nemu? Yuma from To Heart 2? Aono of sola? Where do you stop?

The more you allow the definition of tsundere to slip the less meaning the term actually has and so it's argued in some places (and in some, er, Lucky Channels) that this term needs to be taken in to the body shop for a makeover before we end up in a freaky parallel universe where Sakura Kinomoto's a tsundere.

But I think it works fine as is as well. Tsunderes are a well defined class of anime characters that can't really be easily shoehorned into other stereotypes because they are their own stereotypes. It's more important to figure out just who deserves this classification and who could use a different category.

Although, it might just be better to say a character has tsundere characteristics, while not per se being one.

3) Loli/lolicon (lolipedofin)
While exactly not a Japanese term nor exclusively an anime term, loli can be pretty easily associated with both, as at least from Westerners' point of view, Japan has a pretty strange obsession with kids.

Loli essentially has taken on the meaning of "someone is who is or looks young, mostly in anime", while lolicons are ones who...enjoy...lolis.

And so while it would seem easy to substitute a word such as 'child' or 'kid' for loli, the matter is a bit deeper. Just like calling someone 'stubborn' has a much different meaning than calling them 'resolute', labeling a character as 'loli' as opposed to 'child-like' has a different effect.

'Loli' has a sort of sexual connotation to it that other words wouldn't convey. Lolis are generally characters that look young just for the sake of looking young; the 18-year-old that looks like a 6th-grader because of some magic spell, tragic accident, or just because is occasionally looked down upon for being, in a sense, pedophile bait.

Now of course values differ from place to place and I'm sure us Yanks look unhealthily obsessed with the other end of the size scale at times but that's the gist of the term loli in that it does have a meaning that similar words would not.

And so it'll miss the lexicon banhammer as well.

You'll notice that I've given the clear to all the terms discussed today, perhaps because I consider these some more of the high-level anime terms in that even some anime viewers don't know what they are. I remember reading about moe at Megatokyo a year or two back and being stumped - and now I'm suprised how much it's took off.

More common, perhaps anime terms such as 'kawaii' (cute) and 'bishie' (i.e. bishonen i.e. hot, more or less) as well as standard greetings (konnichiwa, sayonara, ja ne, etc) I look a bit more down upon, but that might just be an unhealthy link between some of those words and "low-level" anime fans (where their only experience is a single show or two, usually through the English market - Bleach/Naruto/any yaoi-bait show/etc.). But arguably, these terms can be legitimately removed as well, since most of them have a simple English equivalent. The only reason to use them in English conversation is to show off a "masterful" knowledge of a foreign language. Or just to confuse people.

I'll leave you with a test: next time you hear a person use the word 'kawaii', call them 'kowai' and see how they react.

-CCY

Series Review: Tokimeki Memorial ~only love~

"It's said that if on the day of the Graduation Ceremony, if a couple declares their love for each other under that tree, they will always be happy."

It's so cheesy; it's so Tokimeki Memorial.

The surprisingly long-running "dating sim" Tokimeki Memorial has always had at least in some form a reference to this trademark of the series, a tree which the protagonist's goal is to get a confession under.

The anime version is no exception, and probably like the games that predated it, it builds it's show using these basic building blocks. Tokimeki Memorial ~only love~ is a very no-frills, straight-forward, one might say obvious harem/romance school life anime, and if you've seen any of these before, and if you see the first 5 minutes or so of the first episode, you'll know what to expect here.

To that sense, Tokimeki Memorial is the bread and butter show of a bread and butter genre. Harem/romance anime are one of the more popular types, appealing to a large and largely male audience. Tokimeki Memorial features many of the popular types of harem characters. The school idol. The energetic girl. The shy girl. And the mostly gutless male lead urged on by his companions who in no order are 1) womanizers, 2) unnecessarily masculine, and 3) soft-hearted delinquents. You see it once, you've seen it all.

So, the question is: why why why shouldn't you hate TokiMemo a lot, forever?

As predictable as it is, as cookie-cutter as it is, TokiMemo has sort of a charm to it, something that makes it stand out a bit from the crowd.

It boasts strong points where many other anime lack - the side characters go above and beyond and go very far towards carrying a show with somewhat predictable main characters. The mood never strays too far into overblown drama, always keeping somewhat of a light side and never shying away from devolving into sanity. The main characters do break their stereotypes at times - some might say in stereotypical ways - but certainly you can't pigeonhole the main three entirely into one block.

And, on a less objective sense, it's really a very good looking show.

Tokimeki Memorial ~only love~ isn't groundbreaking. If you hate harem shows, school life shows, romance shows in general, you're going to get bored of this faster than Makoto Itou does with whoever the hell he's with now. (If you're from the future where people have finally talked about School Days, substitute "very fast".)

Even if you do have a fondness for shows like this, TokiMemo is really day-to-day. You might think it's too predictable in the face of shows like Shuffle!. You might think the lead character is too cowardly in the face of guys like Yuuichi. You might think that this show doesn't maintain enough of a down-to-earth aura like - well, what has accomplished that? Honey & Clover (which I really need to see)?

But TokiMemo is one of shows that defies comparison; it's one that may not have a huge draw, fanbase, or, even a large blog presence, but if you like this show, you'll really like this show.

Certainly I have it to thank for drawing me back into anime, and so perhaps my view is colored by the 6-month-long journey this show has taken me on. But I really have a lot of praise for a show that, among harem shows, could be surprising good despite all the ground it retreads.

(Do I really need to say "Spoilers after the jump"?)

First off, yes, Riku Aoba isn't really that great of a harem lead. He's the uber-stereotypical harem lead, with not much to say to stand up for himself. Even in the end, when we came down to the confession, Sayuri monopolized most of the conversation. He seems much more powerful in presence than he does in manner, considering how much he's affected the rest of the school.

But the characters around him do a surprising amount to make up for him. The main haremettes aren't incredibly strong but none of them are really dislikable and all of them do have strong points to their character.

Sayuri Amamiya, the chosen girl from the first moment she appears on screen, started out as one of the weaker characters. The Unbelievably Perfect School Idol is so incredibly cliche and dull that it was quite easy to be driven to rooting against Sayuri (which, admittedly, is like trying to will time to go backwards), but she did undergo the personality change one would expect from a character like her; the cracking of the perfect exterior to reveal a very human and dynamic personality. Admittedly she pulled it off quite well, and complete with her long confession to Riku at the end Sayuri doesn't seem like an overly horrible character. Not an overly appealing one either, as being the Untouchable Idol she didn't do a lot towards winning Riku, but in a pinch Sayuri's not too bad, y'know?

Tsukasa Kasuga (two familiar names, now put together) is the token really energetic girl that attaches herself to Riku surprisingly early - episode 2! Tsukasa is pretty much what you would expect - a very hyper and talkative girl who parades around with her arm around Riku a lot; with her dark side being somewhat predictable, but again, executed very well with her beginning to develop doubt that just maybe - maybe as in maybe the sky is blue - Riku has eyes for someone else. In the end her hard struggle to put on a happy exterior for her man 110% of the time, and her development of real feelings for him may not have paid off for her in the end, but it certainly was rewarding for us to watch.

Mina Yayoi is the arguable fan favorite from what I've seen, representing the underdog, underclassman shy girl faction. As is probably well known these people never win but they're always the most adorable ones when they blush so hard that their face resembles a Ferrari. Mina breaks the mold a bit as well as it was proven time and time again that yes, she does have guts and she's not afraid to confront Riku directly with her feelings - something that Riku needs to take a lesson from himself. Mina is definitely a strong character, and sports quite good development, broadening out from a simply moe character to an admirably strong one.

But where TokiMemo really wins is the side characters. Not just the side characters, like Riku's friends, but the side characters. The ones you'd expect to only see in still or establishing shots.

Not to say that the real side characters aren't bad. Riku's friends are typical guy friends, being the ones that lament the most about getting a girlfriend (and notice the most skimpy outfits), but they are real friends, which is proven a few times in their loyalty to sacrifice themselves for him. They have their amusingly insane moments as well, whether it be the raw girl analysis of...uh...Eriol-look-alike (blue hair), Doujima's over-the-top manliness, or, well, Hiyoko. A talking chick (like baby chicken) that provides most of the insight and a lot of the manpower on the show.

Not that we could understand him, but still, Riku got to know a lot of interesting people.

The dynamic between Mina's friend Mo-chan and soft-hearted delinquent Inukai was sweet to watch as well; I'm always one for side relationships and watching Mo-chan (whose real name escapes me) get shot down over and over really was one of the more touching moments of the anime.

And, best of all, the rest of the classroom really gets a strong emphasis in TokiMemo, as opposed to other school life shows where everyone not important enough to be a Friend or Haremette simply gets ignored. You can get to know the minor characters in this show as well, both student and faculty.

While they may not have whole episodes to themselves or anything, speaking roles and short half-minute bits are common, and over the course of the show you'll find yourself recgonizing many more faces than you think, whether it be one of Sayuri's friends, a random meganekko, that girl with the funny deep blue hair, or one of the rather well-defined teachers that line the school.

Speaking of teachers, they are another good example of putting insanity to work for you. TokiMemo doesn't claim to be an overly serious series and so it doesn't put on any such airs; rather, it's almost like it should be an Azumanga at times with the randomness of the Evil Scientist teacher (complete with awesome organ music), the Deathly Ill (every day) teacher, the secretary/vice principal combo, the Nanako/Yukari act-alike, the gender-bending (almost) drama teacher, and even just the sweet homeroom teacher. All of them are good for a few random laughs and scenes, and generally do a lot towards expanding the depth of the series, character-wise.

The Bread Lady deserves a paragraph to herself, with a sweet smile and a scheming heart that Kohaku herself would be jealous of. Certainly when she shows up you know something good's going to happen.

Even the sports club leaders make regular appearances and are extremely energetic and entertaining. Perhaps they are somewhat cliche characters as well, but with the wide character roster the show can rotate gags enough so that they remain quite fresh. It's really one of the strongest parts of TokiMemo.

Perhaps to elaborate on some more negatives after ranting on about the characters for forever, the ending of the show really left sort of a bad taste, and while it's not a show-breaker, it definitely could have been done better. There was a lot of good buildup of drama and characters in the last 6 or so episodes, with Mina and Tsukasa's breakdown, their final ultimatums, and Riku's sudden moving away, and the last episode just didn't conclude enough of it.

Maybe in the efforts of time, Riku's closure scenes with Mina and Tsukasa were completely cut (I hope at least he will keep their contacts as well), and even his last scene with Sayuri felt a bit tacky. There was no true confession from him, ever, as he just let Sayuri run over him with her feelings. In the end, there was no "payoff", as they call it in the harem business. Maybe that's not the kind of show TokiMemo is.

And, on a more minor note, we never did get conclusion between Mo-chan and Inukai. If there was one girl that should've gotten her man, it'd be her, more than Mina. Maybe straight fanboyism, but hey, root for the underdog. And the side characters. And the soft-hearted bad guy.

Hello, OVA material.

Quality wise, the show felt very good as well; graphically I felt that it went above and beyond with a lot of lighting effects and artwork. Musically it wasn't brilliant - the OP/EDs didn't capture me - but the songs were recgonizable and so when you hear that chase music for just one more time in the last episode, yeah, you've got a big smile on your face. It works well.

That's the main points of the series; there aren't too many more gripes - sure, sometimes the insanity totally kills the mood at times; and sometimes the mood kills the insanity - but TokiMemo has a bit of everything to that regard, and so both fans of light and heavy harems can enjoy this show without going all Reese's on each other ("You got your plot in my comedy..."). It's not going to be a show that even comes close to going down in history one way or another. It's not a groundbreaker.
But, it does have very strong merits to it as a show that manages to fit a lot of varied and different content into a standard genre, and comes off as an excellent example of the lighter side of harem shows without devolving into fanservice. It has depth and extremely likeable characters to it. It's not going to change your mind about the genre, but if you can stand the taste of harem, Tokimeki Memorial ~only love~ will be a quite filling show.

-CCY