Fog is my name and I like to play with my life in so many ways, that’s what they say!

Broadcast as recently as 2002, yet widely unknown and unlicensed, Secret of The Cerulean Sand is a fun, period-set adventure show filled with Vernian Airships and Miyazaki-style colourful, family orientated action.

Cerulean Sand is the story of Jane Buxton, a young girl growing up in a rich, English aristocratic family who ends up on a globe trotting adventure after her scientist brother goes missing – presumed dead – in ‘The East’ (it’s never exactly specified where in the East this is) while desperately searching for a legendary ‘floating liquid’ that can make the construction of all sorts of man-made flying machines possible.

So, bringing along only her butler, a dog and more unrelenting optimism than seems healthy, Jane sets off to locate her Oni-sama. The show can pretty much summed as an old fashioned adventure story – after a fairly slow start made up overly nice encounters with nice people on trains, Cerulean Sand eventually develops in to fast-paced action show, filled with sand-pirates riding deadly jet sleds, huge steam-powered airships carpet bombing small towns, and double-crossing aplenty. For the sheer amount of fairly exhilirating action that occurs (especially towards the end where, for a family show, things become suprisingly brutal) Cerulean Sand can be recommended.

The proviso here being, of course, that the reader realise that Cerulean Sand is most definitely a family show. Stylistically, it has more than a little in common with Miyazaki’s classic Future Boy Conan and Hideaki Anno’s similarly awesome Nadia: Secret of Blue Water, but without the true kinetic artistry of the former or the more dramatic, adult edge of the latter. That is not to say Cerulean Sand is without its own artistic merits – it’s brilliantly animated, expressive, and manages the extraordinary feat of including CGI airships that don’t look entirely shit – but it doesn’t quite have that stamp of brilliance which makes Conan or Nadia what they are.

In fact, more than either Conan or Nadia, what Cerulean mostly reminds me of – and possibly part of the reason I enjoyed it so much – is the cartoons I used to watch as a kid. There’s shades of the charming Around the World with Willy Fog or that masterpiece of 80’s television Mysterious Cities of Gold here – action packed, fun and unpretentious. This is just high adventure, kids getting in crazily dangerous situations, the joy of travelling, seeing the world and soaring through the sky.

On those terms Cerulean Sand can be enjoyed immensely, like a nostalgia trip for something you’ve never actually seen before… definitely worth checking out.

Clannad – Oh gods, it’s gone all harem on us

- We couldn’t be bothered to blog episode 16 as it was criminally arse.

Here at ActiveCore, we have a policy on blogging. If blogging requires even the slighest effort, then don’t do it. To this end, episode 16 of Clannad was skipped due to laziness and the fact that there was really nothing to talk about.

But, for completeness sake, here’s my blog report for episode 16:

They played basketball. The reason why made no sense whatsoever. Eventually, it ended.

That out the way, on to episode 17:

This weeks Clannad was interesting in that it was the show really starting to, erm… show it’s true colours. The style of narrative is taking a definite split from the Kanon and Air territory, and into the realms of more standard harem comedy. So this episode we see our hero Okazaki being pulled back and forth by the three generic pretty girl leads who all seem to fancy him, while he mopes after his friend Nagisa-chan, who fainted at the beginning of the episode from the sheer effort of talking to an adult.

Bless her dumb, pretty girl cotton socks.

So it’s standard harem cliche stuff, with all the things you’d come to expect from that most insipid of television genres – We have the girl coming to Okazaki’s house so he won’t be late to school (which could only have been more cookie-cutter harem if she’d said “Oni-chan! you’ll be late for school!”) , various girls seemingly tripping over eachother so they can make him his lunch and, lastly, getting locked in a gym equipment storage shed with a girl.

(As an aside, the fact that anime characters are forever getting locked inside gym equipment storage sheds with pretty girls seems ludicrous in the extreme. In all the schools I attended in my youth, not *one* of them had doors which could be locked simply by closing them from the outside. You needed to lock it with a key which you got from the teacher, who would never lock the door without checking that nobody was inside. Maybe they just do things differently in Japan…)

..Anyway. Episode 17 is pretty much a failure then. Some of the Clannad comedy is in there, but its sandwiched between so much yucky anime fantasy bullshit – pulled off with little charm or original spin to it – that the whole episode just feels distinctly hollow, cynical and un-Kyo-Ani-ish.

Un-Kyo-Ani-ish is not a word.

So as a change in direction goes, it’s a bit disappointing to me. The Kanon/Air approach to story – with the main character wandering around on his own, spontaneously coming across various people and helping them with their problems like some sort of cross between David Carradine from Kung-Fu and Stairway to Heaven – was certainly flawed and often massively underdeveloped, but at least it was…. unique, somehow.

With the close of the Kotomi story arc, Clannad seems to be sliding into bog-standard harem in a way that is just uninteresting to me. Sure it’s a lot more of an ensemble piece – I know its one man show approach was one of Kanon’s major criticisms – but when that ensemble is made up of boring people re-enacting anime tropes over 20 years old, you can’t help but lose interest.

Seriously, make Haruhi season two already.

Gallery Fake – Love in the twisting labyrinth of Paris

- Making stamps and dolls exciting since 2008

Episode 14 of Gallery Fake is yet another addition to what is turning out to be a brilliant run of episodes in what i’m now officially dubbing The Best Show You’re Probably Not Watching. This week Fujita heads off to Paris, where Sara – his partner/girlfriend/middle-eastern royalty type – becomes obsessed with delivering a 20 year old love letter found stuck inside the frame of an old painting.

Over the course of their search for the truth they find themselves exploring the old shopping arcades in the passages that criss-cross the back alleys of Paris, uncovering Cold War intrique, drug deals, precious ancient antiques and the loneliness from a 20 year old broken promise…

Once again this is Gallery Fake at its best. There’s a clear affection for Paris here, and this episode manages to capture the beauty and mystery of that ancient place despite the shows always iffy animation quality. From the winding back alleys to the banks of the Seine at sunset, we get a mix of tourist travel guide, art history, Cold War thriller and love story all rolled into one. It’s a thoroughly complete episode, and doesn’t suffer from the random under-developed side plots or pointless, mis-judged comedy that this show is sometimes prey to. And, of course, no GIANT SNAKES this week either.

Well, next weeks preview promises a duel between Fujita and an undercover British police officer over the black market sale of a long lost portrait. If that prospect doesn’t at least have you interested, then you obviously have no soul at all, and should probably rush off back to your next episode of Spice and Wolf and the loving embrace of mindless fox-girl nudity doing a poor impersonation of entertainment.

For the rest of us, cross your fingers and hope that the subs keep coming. As ever – show your support.

Let’s get brewing!

Moyashimon is an odd show. Deeply odd. Set at the Tokyo Agricultural Univeristy – a real place, apparently – it concerns the ‘adventures’ of Tadayasu Sawaki, a student with the unusual ability to see germs and microbes. But not, however, germs and microbes in the icky under-a-microscope sense. The germs Sawaki sees are cute, have smiley faces and talk a bit like Tachikoma tanks.

Sawaki ends up hanging around with a strange bunch of scientists and campus slackers, all under the command of a Professor Itsuki Keizo, who’s first scene in the show involves him sucking the blood out of a seagulls anus.

Yes.

So, it really is all abit unusual. Sawaki’s gift/curse/condition doesn’t exactly lend itself to high drama or action, and so the individual episodes of Moyashimon tend not be about much. Sawaki see’s germs. People get surprised about this, often entertaining various ideas of how they can make money out of it. Invariably, most situations end with the main characters getting heavily drunk.

It’s a mix of edutainment (the show has exhaustive amounts of detail on various microbes and their effects on, chiefly, sake brewing) and comedy, with Sawaki’s ability to see the real disgusting grime on every person and in every room leading to bouts of screaming, panic, and whole buildings getting constantly quarantined and decontaminated.

Aside from the microbe business, the comedy here is strange enough to be funny, but no deliriousley mad-cap enough to be annoying (like, say, Excel Saga). At various points Sawaki does battle with the horse riding, fan-wielding student council, gets chased around a field by american football players, and sticks his hand up a cows arse.

It has a serious side of coure, but Moyashimon’s underlying messages about the uncertainty of youth and the need to find direction in life are familiar territory for college-set anime. Moyashimon pulls it off well, however; never diving into melodrama, and focusing more on the quirky, silly side to student life than the tough stuff.

Indeed, even the nature of the characters relationships is handled with a preference towards the slightly absurd and the unusual. Simply Moyashimon seperates itself from normal genre conventions: there’s no “love interest” here, no “desperately suffering loner”, no true, dedicated friendships even. The characters in Moyashimon just know each other, sometimes vaguely get along, and sometimes come into bizarre conflicts which bounce off eachother and spin in wild, mad directions often fueled by booze and the need to get laid.

The microbe thing is great – it’s cute, informative and certainly original – but even without it Moyashimon stands up well as a decent little character-led comedy with a manic sense of humour and fun dialogue covered in lashings and lashings of alcohol.

Recommended.

Bonus Feature: Includes Series Impressions Thus Far!

- Sneak Preview: They’re not good!

Odd that my first post about Clannad here on ActiveCore would start on episode 15, but rest assured i’ve been quietly watching this since its started, following the ’story’ and characters as they’ve developed thus far. As we’re just over halfway through Kyoto Animations latest project, it seems now would be a good time to chat about the show and take stock of things so far.

But first episode 15 itself.

Gods…

Clannad is at its most boring when attempting the sort doe-eyed, soppy schoolgirl melodrama that anime seems to specialise in. Even worse is in this episode – blatant filler if i’m any judge – in which they attempt to create drama out of something thats less dramatic than my commute into work every morning.

So this week: Our hero Okazaki discovers that Generic Girl A is having trouble setting up the Theatre Club, despite now having acquired Generic Girl B, Generic Girl C and Generic Tsundere Girl D into its ranks. The problem? They need a teacher to supervise the club, and the only remaining teacher currently not looking after a club is desperately needed for the also-soon-to-be-revived Choir Club, led by Generic Girl E and Generic Evil Bitch F.

Christ.

It makes you wonder why you aren’t just sitting and watching season six of 24 like a regular adult.

The drama is of course boring as is possible without physically encasing the audience in ice. Despite KyoAni’s always admirable dramatic directing techniques, the characters generic, bland personalities slide off eachother to create a 20 minute non-event about nothing.

As ever, what saves this episode of Clannad is probably the comedy. The sequence in which Sunohara continually follows Okazaki around the school with a basketball is a laugh, as is yet another of Okazaki’s fuck-with-the-bland-cute-idiot-girls minds sequences in which he pretends to be somebody else over the phone, only to have the girl in question believe him.

Verdict for episode 15: “I’m sorry, but i’m not able to love men”

Which brings us neatly (or not) to my thoughts on Clannad as whole now we’ve all made it this far: it just doesn’t work. By way of comparison with the other Key game adaptions, i’d say it far superior to the muddled mess of Air TV, but just not in the same league as Kanon, which I enjoyed immensely.

Why? Well – lets get this straight first – I think Clannad, Kanon and Air all have atrocious storylines. Their stories are terrible bland caricatures of anime drama, filling the screen with pretty but horrifically dull schoolgirls who have one massively unexplored TOKEN EMOTIONAL PROBLEM which the hero then helps them with because he’s a cold, handsome loner with a heart of gold, and because the whole yarn is just a dreadful piece of otaku wish-fulfillment disguised as entertainment.

That out the way, what made Kanon work was just how totally beautiful it was. Yes, the world, characters and situations were all naff (or at least horribly melodramatic) but the show was animated with a kind of ethereal beauty that somehow looked *nicer* than reality. Even Air TV, bizarre schizo show that it was, had that almost surreal beauty generated from the blazing summer sun that baked down on everyone and everything.

Clannad has… nothing. It’s plain. Normal. Surprisingly for Kyoto Animation, whos works are usually so full of life and charm, the world of Clannad has been constructed with a degree of generic blandess and lack of detail thats just unentertaining. I don’t hate it, but without Kanon’s beauty, or even Air’s bat-shit insanity, Clannad just feels like nothing. For 26 episodes.

Just hurry up and make Haruhi season 2 already.

Gunslinger Girls – Il Teatrino – Episode 03 – Fight! Fight! Fight!

- Hot Girl on Literary Metaphor Action!

My love/hate/vague indifference relationship with Il Teatrino continues with our 3rd episode in the series. This week the plot starts proper with inexplicably cool, suit wearing child assassin Triela and her greasy haired keeper Hillshire going out in search of a missing Section 2 agent.

First, because i’m nice that way, the positives:

Triela seems to be the only character to come through the recasting process unscathed. Maybe its simply due to her fundamental coolness, but Triela remains an endlessly watchable character, even after the horrid voice changing and character design nastiness that has occured. The scenes that made up a majority of the episode – Triela eating in a fancy restaurant, snooping about the town and blushing like the cute schoolgirl the new production team seem to think she is – were all fine. I might even go as far to say fun to watch.

Of course, the dramatic climax to this episode was the inevitable clash between her and oh-so-serious pretty boy killer Pinocchio. This, sadly, is when everything starts to fall apart…

I’d almost forgotten just how cheap Il Teatrino is compared to season 1 or, really, most other anime this season. The fight scene in this episode struggles with its pea-sized budget and, in a desperate attempt to create the feel of a dynamic action scene, the animators are reduced to:

Whoooooossssshhh!!!

Action lines! and boy, do they love using them! Every punch, every kick, every slow walk forward (seriousley) is accompanied by crazy flashy borders travelling up the side of the screen like they’ve just activated a bonus in Rock Band.

SSSSSwwwwoooooossssshhH!!

It’s a cheap, horrible effect that just stinks to heaven of cheesiness and silliness. It doesn’t ruin the episode or anything – not really – but… god…

The only thing that could make this cheesier is if it was accompanied by a Six Million Dollar man style “ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chaaaa” noise

Look at it!

This isn’t 1968!

What sort of animation is this?.

Kicking the year off with a bang!

Yes it’s back!

After the success of the Spring OP Charts last year I couldn’t resist doing it all over again, hopefully this will become a regular event each season.

For those of you that don’t get the premise from the title, this is where I’ll watch almost every Anime OP of the season and rate them against each other to see which one is the best/worst/most surprising.

As with last year a big thanks to Youtube and AnimeNewsNetwork who make this event possible (even if they don’t know it exists).

I have tried to include all of the new shows this season as there aren’t a huge amount, if one is missing then I probably don’t know it exists or couldn’t find a video of it yet. I’ll make sure to keep this post updated each week as videos often get taken down and new ones go up. As usual if anyone has any requests or comments please make yourself heard below.

Last years version wasn’t actually a Chart (best to last in numerical order) but this years will be. I’ll still do the awards bit at the bottom as well and I’ll even try embedding the top 5 videos, what more can you ask for? Now, on to the rules!

The Rules

1.  The show has to have started airing in January 2008 or have a new OP first airing in January 2008
2.  The show has to have a streaming video of the OP on the web (that i can find without learning kanji)
3.  The judge (me) has to be vaguely aware of the show

Criteria

The OP’s will be judged on the Animation, Music and how they have been Combined overall (what I’ll call fusion). Quality of the version watched will be taken in to account as I don’t have time to download a perfect copy of each show. If there is a full version of the song it will not be taken in to account when judging. This is purely my personal opinion, it is not in anyway impartial, scientific, philosophical or based on any professional music training.

Rating

The OP’s will be listed from best to worst, 1st to 17th. They will also be rated on the criteria above from 0.0 to 5.0, 0 being the worst and 5 being the best.

The Contestants

Sisters of Wellber Zwei
Rosario to Vampire
H2O ~Footprints In The Sand~
Hatenkou Yuugi
Major 4th season
Persona – trinity soul -
Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
true tears
Shigofumi
Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de
Minami-ke ~Okawari~
Aria The Origination
Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-
Ookami to Koushinryou (Spice & Wolf)
Noramimi
Hakaba Kitarou
Yatterman

The Positions

01.  Aria The Origination – Spirale by Yui Makino (video)

I have a confession to make, I’m in love with this song. From the first time I heard it I was enchanted, I had to hear it again and again. Even more astonishing I wanted to watch Aria even though this was the 3rd series and I’ve never seen any before. The music is so soft and soothing as is Yui Makino’s voice and the small bass kick just brings it in to this century. The animation is simple but attractive, the characters are cute yet complex. I could go on for days…..

Animation – 4.6 / Music – 4.8 / Fusion – 4.5

2.  true tears - Reflectia by eufonius (video)

Now that’s how you do an opening to a high school dating show. Starts slow and gets better, the singer has a really cute voice and the song really becomes catchy. The animation seems really nice quality and the characters doesn’t feel as generic as some of the other shows on this page. The OP gives me the impression that this series is really fun and fresh, in fact I like it so much that I’m gonna have to watch episode one now.

Animation – 4.0 / Music – 4.1 / Fusion – 4.4

03.  Hakaba Kitarou - Mononoke Dance by Denki Groove (video)

Once again I have no idea what the show is about, however this OP really intrigues me, I just might check this out if it gets subbed. The animation isn’t really to my liking but it’s definitely striking and a little retro. The song is excellent, a really good electro/dance piece that seems to pair with the animation perfectly. Mononoke Dance is simple but effective, I want to listen to it again!

Animation – 4.2 / Music – 4.4 / Fusion – 4.2

04.  Persona – trinity soul - Breakin’ Through by Shuhei Kita (video)

Ah the first anime of the new season with random feathers falling from the sky. On a serious note the songs really catchy, the singer has a great voice, the guitar riffs good and it gives me a positive feeling about the show. The animation seems pretty good as well but the character designs seem a bit bland, a man falls in some garbage though which gives it more points. Overall a nice OP, still on the fence about whether to watch the show or not.

Animation – 3.9 / Music – 4.3 / Fusion – 4.0

05.  Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - kuso Rumba by Kenji Ohtsuki and Zetsubo Shojo-tachi (video)

The show that dares to be different returns with another good OP. If you don’t want to do the Rumba after this song then there’s no life in you! Ok the music is a bit ‘harsh’ but I think it fits the mental state of the show perfectly, the female voice actresses really pull it together as well. Not much can be said about the animation as it seems to change each episode. In the first episode there really wasn’t any, but I won’t mark it down to much on that. Overall great OP.

Animation – 3.5 / Music – 4.2 / Fusion – 3.9

06.  Ookami to Koushinryou (Spice & Wolf) - Tabi no Tochu by Natsumi Kiyoura (video)

While this show doesn’t really interest me the OP seems polite and inoffensive. The music seems to suit the pacing and style of the show while the animation seems varied and detailed. The nudity is a bit odd but I guess that’s part of the show. While the OP didn’t really make me want to watch the show it did give a good impression of itself, the music and animation complemented each other well.

Animation – 4.0 / Music – 3.7 / Fusion – 4.2

07.  Hatenkou Yuugi - Heartbreaking Romance by Kanako Ito (video)

I’m a little torn about this OP, it starts well, gets worse and then gets better at the end. The song is quite nice apart from the chorus and the animation is quite nice apart from the lazy character design. Seems to be a show that’s nearly there, but would probably tend to be more bland than exciting. Still the OP does a reasonable job of selling it, music and animation go well together.

Animation – 3.4 / Music – 3.6 / Fusion – 3.8

08.  Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- Tatta Hitotsu no Omoi by KOKIA (video)

Straight off the bat I have to say that i really love this song, its a powerful ballad that seems to fit the persona of the show, unfortunately I can’t say the same for the animation. The animated landscapes seem reasonably nice but the rasterized photos are a bit confusing, I’m not sure what they have to do with the show. Once again this didn’t really make me want to watch the show and it doesn’t really give you any indication what the shows about.

Animation – 3.0 / Music – 4.0 / Fusion – 3.6

09.  H2O ~Footprints In The Sand~ - Katayoku no Icarus by Yui Sakakibara (video)

This OP starts well and gets worse for me. It goes from nice moving animation to moving the camera about to simulate movement with girls that look like they are cut out of any random h-game. The song likewise starts off nice and softly then goes all shouty at the end, the woman’s voice just doesn’t sound shouting like that. Overall though the music and animation seem to compliment each other.

Animation – 3.4 / Music – 3.6 / Fusion – 3.8

10.  Noramimi – ????? (video)

Sorry but I couldn’t find the name of this song so if you know then please share. The main reason I even bothered putting this OP in is because of the watercolour style artwork, its absolutely lovely. While I can’t say the song is good, it definitely suits the show and has a playful air about it. Overall the OP put across a heart warming feeling and I’m sure the shows thoroughly enjoyable, if this is your sort of thing.

Animation – 4.0 / Music – 3.0 / Fusion – 3.8

11.  Minami-ke ~Okawari~ - Kokoro no Tsubasa by Rina Satou, Marina Inoue & Minori Chihara (video)

Oh dear, the people that animated Shuffle! strike again… The songs ok, but unless the shows completely changed from season 1 then its a bit out of place, to loud and excited. The animation is pretty poor, especially at the beginning, robot walking? flashing eyes? I’ll take the first seasons OP thanks. Not really sure what to say about the fusion, it wasn’t a mismatch but then they hardly went brilliantly.

Animation – 2.9 / Music – 3.3 / Fusion – 3.4

12.  Sisters of Wellber Zwei – Theme of Wellber by Dobashi (video)

The song so good they used it twice, well, not quite. While they have indeed used the song again I don’t think the animation fits the song as well this time, the action and over the top cgi just feel a bit out of place. There’s not really much you can say about the song, its quite grand and definitely has some grace about it, but using it again just feels like pure laziness. I heard the first season wasn’t that good so I’d expect the same this time round.

Animation – 3.6 / Music – 3.8 / Fusion – 3.2

13.  Yatterman – Yatterman’s Song by Saemon Onyakichi (video)

Hm. Yes… Yatterman. Well it’s not awful, I’ve seen far worse OP’s. Still there’s not much to go with here. The animation is bright and inoffensive and its hard to complain about a giant mecha dog, I’m not sold on the hats though… The song appears to involve a lot of barking and shouting “Yatterman”, its definitely retro but it has a certain charm about it. Overall at least it didn’t send me to sleep like the Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de OP.

Animation – 3.4 / Music – 3.2 / Fusion – 3.4

14.  Rosario to Vampire – COSMIC LOVE by Nana Mizuki (video)

Fanservice go! Right, the songs catchy and exciting but nothing ground breaking. It seems to me that it probably matches the mood of the show, a bit silly, a bit violent and very insubstantial. The animation is pretty much the same, generic looking characters, high school, pantsu, bright colours, weaselly males and nothing to get worked up over. Seems a rather average OP for an average show, still, its a bit of fun I suppose.

Animation – 3.0 / Music – 3.2 / Fusion – 3.4

15.  Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de – Hizamazuku Made 5 Byo Dake! by Miyuki Hashimoto (video)

Another game conversion. The OP is hardly anything to get excited about, cue cheery Jpop with bouncy bass and an average singer. Characters aren’t quite so generic but the setting seems enough to put me to sleep. Girls living in a house?! Wow that sounds….. like 500 other shows. Definitely a very average OP which leaves me wondering why so much VA talent is on board for it.

Animation – 3.0 / Music – 3.0 / Fusion – 3.0

16.  Shigofumi - Kotodama by ALI PROJECT (video)

I’m gonna come straight out and say it, I don’t like Ali Project. Their music is always over excited, confused and the lyrics are all over the place, this song is a perfect example of that. The animation is alright and that’s being a bit generous. Lots of black, ctrl-c and more generic characters. Oh and there were more feathers. I was going to watch this show but the OP has nearly put me off, never a good sign. Still, despite the boring OP I’ll give it a try.

Animation – 2.2 / Music – 2.4 / Fusion – 2.6

17.  Major 4th Season - Rise by Ootomo Kouhei (video)

The man singing this song seriously needs to clear his throat, god what an awful song. I wasn’t expecting much from the OP to Major season 4 and it definitely smashed my expectations out of the park, home run, as fast as possible away from this OP. Bland manly song with highly unoriginal animation. About the only positive thing I can say is that it was baseball animation for a baseball show, good job….

Animation – 2.5 / Music – 1.3 / Fusion – 2.8

Awards

Most Surprising OP – true tears (This OP convinced me to start watching the show, not much higher praise than that)

Most Surprising Song - Hakaba Kitarou (Wasn’t expecting anything from this OP but the song’s pretty good if you like electro music)

Most Surprising Artist - Persona – trinity soul - (I’d never heard of Shuhei Kita before but I’ll definitely look out for them/him in the future)

Most Surprising Animation - Noramimi (The watercolour style is really nice, makes the animation seem less childish)

Worst OP - Major Season 4 (Atrocious song, generic animation, no thanks)

Worst Song - Shigofumi (Give it up Ali Project you can’t sing)

Worst Animation - Minami-Ke ~Okawari~ (I really expected more from this OP…)

Best  OP – Aria the Origination (Probably just me on this one but its perfect)

Best  Song – Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Was close between this and Persona but I had to give Zetsubou Sensei a nod)

Best  Animation - Persona - trinity soul - (The animation seems quite detailed and stylish)

Aftermath

Overall I was surprised by the quality of the OP’s this season as with no big name shows I wasn’t expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised by several of the songs and some solid animation. Persona, true tears and Hakaba Kitarou all did well with convincing animation and catchy songs. Minami-ke ~okawari~ disappointed me with an average song and awful animation while Major season 4 and Shigofumi were just plain bad.

It feels like I was more generous with the marks this time round, I’m not sure if the OP’s have gotten better or my standards have gotten lower. Overall the music was of better quality than the animation with nothing really memorable on that front. As usual most of the shows combined the music and animation together in a decent fashion.

Conclusion

Once again this was an enjoyable experience, other than watching episode one of every show I don’t think there’s a much better way to get a feel for the series on offer in any given season. Once again I messed up with the HTML and the spelling as always is atrocious, hopefully it didn’t spoil the experience to much. This seemed to take up more time than I’d bargained for but looking back over it, it still feels a bit basic. I’ll definitely have to think of a way to spice this up next time round.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope everyone finds it useful to have all the seasons OP’s in once place. I’ll also try and get some full version of the songs up on the box music player thing as they get released.

Gunslinger Girls – Il Teatrino – Pinocchio

- A step in the right direction…

First of all, it should be known that todays Gunslinger Girls blogging will be a lot shorter than intended due to me having injured one of my fingers, making it extremely hard to type. Astonishingly, I actually managed to injure myself with a *business card*. Just goes to show that being some guy working in an office can be just as hazardous as being an international assassin.

Now thats out of the way, on with the episode.

Awesomely, episode 2 of Il Teatrino sees the show taking a massive step in the right direction, taking the time to slow it down and build up some characters and inject the show with some much needed style. So, this week none of the main characters feature (save for a brief scene right at the end) and instead we focus on Pinocchio – this seasons villainous hitman type – as he goes about his routine of killing people, drinking wine, being followed around by cute kids, discussing the gender of cars and plotting to blow up bridges.

It’s pure plotting and character, done with the kind of dialogue heavy, considered pacing I was worried Il Teatrino was going to skip altogether. It was compelling stuff, with the way Pinocchio himself is portrayed as a cold, emotionless tool of his superiors sure to lead to some interesting conflicts and comparisons with Triela, Henrietta et al when they inevitably meet.

This episode has certainly put me in a better mood about the whole season in general, though in truth I can’t tell if thats because the show is actually getting better, or because this episode just didn’t feature the main characters and their ugly, stupid, “cute” character designs. Only time will tell.

I also admit some slight confusion because, well… didn’t Angelica die last season?

… I must be missing something.