Categories
Anime Blogging

Anime Blog Awards Nominations: The Post

It’s true that I had some initial misgivings about the Anime Blog Awards. But I think they’re probably on the right track to doing something good for the community. So here’s my me-too post about why I nominated the blogs that I nominated. Also, Impz, I think this is my official sponsorship announcement for BGB and Anime Nano for the ABA. I’m Hung Truong and I approve this message.

Categories
Anime First Impressions

Zettai Karen Children – Anime First Impressions

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For some reason I thought Zettai Karen Children was some kind of sequel to Zettai Shounen, but apparently it’s its own series. The second mistake was that I thought Karen was a character in this show, but “可憐” can mean both pitiful and lovely, which actually describes these kids pretty well.

Categories
Anime First Impressions

Special A – Anime First Impressions

I’m continuing to use the first episodes of this season to procrastinate doing meaningful graduate work! Yay! I heard that Special A was sort of like Ouran, so I was stoked to see it get subbed.

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Special A is about an outstanding young girl by the name of Hikari. She’s been trained from an early age to do pro wrestling. By pro wrestling, I’m pretty sure they mean real wrestling and not the fake American stuff like with Hulk Hogan. You can see her here growing some facial hair. It’s a little patchy but so is mine.

Categories
Anime First Impressions

Kanokon – Quick Impressions

I’m actually watching a couple of first episodes this season, mainly because I need a way to procrastinate doing all the stuff I’ve got due this week. I think Kanokon was one of the first anime out with subs so here goes:

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Kanokon features a tsundere meganekko iinchou. A good way to start out!

Categories
Anime Preview

Toshokan Sensou == Library War == AWESOMEE!!

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So I just found out (for whatever reason, I’m slow) that there’s going to be a Spring anime about all out library war! Apparently the military has gotten involved in the censorship of certain books. So going to library school means basic training and learning to use a rifle to protect books.

There’s a lot of awesome quotes in the PV, like “watashi mo hon wo mamoritain desu” (I want to protect books!) and “oretachi wa seigi no mikata jya nai!” (we’re not allies of justice (in that cheesy Sentai kind of way)). The protagonist is a frisky high school girl who apparently has a history of saving books from the government in her past.

Also, since I’ll have an ALA-accredited degree once I get out of grad school (the School of Information used to be the School of Library and Information Science)! Technically, I’ll be certified to protect books from evil myself!

Categories
Anime DVD Review

xxxHolic Vol. 1 – Anime DVD Review

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xxxHolic always reminds me of that one editorial on The Onion: I’m Like a Chocoholic, But for Booze. Except in this case it’s for xxx? Good luck trying to buy this one in a store without getting weird looks…

Categories
Blogging

Some Kind of Anime Blog Awards Going On…

I guess I’m a little late to post this, but there’s some kind of anime blog awards going on. This is sort of neat, and props to whoever set this up.

Wait… who did set this up? The email I got form my form was just signed by “The Anime Blog Awards Committee.” At first I thought it was “The Anime Blog” who was setting it up, but I’m not so sure now. It all seems a bit shady.

Also, the tagline is “by bloggers for bloggers.” This is manifested in the rules that state you must be a blogger to nominate blogs. As if readers can’t have a good enough opinion of the quality of the blogs they read? I think if anything the anime “blogosphere” should be trying to encourage participation from readers, not excluding them from nominations.

It seems that that the voting will be done by only anime bloggers. Way to empower your readers… There’s something very exclusionary about this that I don’t like. Perhaps if nominations were from bloggers and popular voting could be done by everyone. I guess they might be concerned about gaming the system, but including only bloggers makes it seem like the cool kid’s club where you’re not welcome if you’re not as cool as them (assuming that anime bloggers are considered cool).

Anywho, I’d rather focus on the positive and decided to participate anyway. I put up some nominations on blogs I like (some probably don’t fit the requirements). Hopefully things will go smoothly.

Edit: Ani-Nouto pointed out that at least one person linked with the awards commitee is traceable. I guess my general point is that transparency would be appreciated since there’s really no mention at all of who is officially behind the awards. For all I know, Basugasubakuhatsu could have created them and put in some shill nominations to regain my past blogging glory. What past blogging glory? Oh, I guess you have a point.

Categories
Anime

Minami-Ke Okawari: Seconds? No Thanks, I’m Full…

So I haven’t really been watching much anime since starting grad school, but I latched onto Minami-ke a few weeks ago and I’ve been watching it whenever I have free time.

I’m about four episodes into the second season, Okawari, and I have to say, the series seriously jumped the shark transitioning seasons (and apparently directors).

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Note: trying to stop a crossdressing guy from removing his panties: funny

The first season was a nearly perfect slice-of-life + weirdness anime. Kind of like Azumanga off of the crack. We had some cross-dressers and weird shirtless stalkers, but besides that, things were cool.

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Note: Creepy students in blackface looming in the background: not funny

But the second season just doesn’t do it for me. The direction is horrible. The stories are boring. The Bible Black faces are completely misused. And the blackface that all of the supporting characters wear is just kind of unnerving. Am I watching an anime or an h-game? Also, what happened to Sensei + Ninomiya-kun? It was the best show within a show since Binkan Salaryman! And the ultimate harbinger of shark-jumping has arrived: a new character! Things do not look good for the Minami sisters…

I’m going to keep watching since the first season was so awesome, but if things don’t shape up soon, I’m going to have to refuse this second helping.