One day you will be released from all that binds you.

Red Data Girl (RDG) episode 8 was really good, and I can’t wait to see the full resolution version. The show looks just as good as I had expected, but the story is much more interesting than I had guessed it would be. One really good thing about having the low-res versions come out in advance is that I get to watch each episode at least twice, and thus get a little more out of each one.

Building a robotic rover for the Comeback Competition.

Episode 57 of Space Brothers (Uchuu Kyodai) saw the team working on their entry in the Comeback Competition. Up to now the Comeback arc has focussed mostly on the personal challenges confronting Nanba and his fellow astronaut candidates (in particular Pico, the unhelpful engineer adviser that was assigned to their team). This episode, however, provided a narrative in which the team confronted technical challenges and overcame them with engineering solutions. The result was entertaining and atypical for the anime-viewing experience. While this series has provided some very good episodes that focussed on personal challenges (the self-doubt someone can face when they make a mid-life career change, for example), I am particularly glad that we got an episode out of it that tackled this sort of objective obstacle.

In fact I would go so far as to say that this episode was the sort of thing I was hoping to get out of Robotics;Notes, but never did. SpaceBros has proven that a robotics competition can provide a compelling narrative without resorting to secret organizations, unreal technology, mysterious powers and so forth. We should have more shows like this, in which a group of people peacefully resolve a challenge. The process by which people act as a team to solve a problem can be an interesting story, and it still offers the opportunity for characterization, humor, setting, and so forth. Another recent show that made the process by which a group of people reasoned towards a solution the substance of the narrative was Hyouka. More of this please!

The finished autonomous rover; she’s a beauty!

Shinobu Wakamiya – alone in a crowded room.

Chihayafuru season 2 episode 18 is a continuation of the final match of the high school team Karuta championship. There was enough give and take and enough tension to keep me thoroughly engaged (and anxious to see the conclusion), but as intense as that story was, there was another, fascinating story taking place out on the sidelines. Shinobu Wakamiya, the reigning Queen of Karuta watches the match between Chihaya and Rion, and a series of emotions washes over her.

Outside the room, Arata Wataya provides some explanation: people who are deeply involved in Karuta might view the individual matches as the real game, but without the team matches and all of the other ancillary activities, Karuta would die out.

Meanwhile Shinobu, a consummate loner, inwardly finds the source of her awkwardness. Instead of helping her fit in, instead of merely being a consolation for a lonely girl, her Karuta has isolated her from other people. She doesn’t like team matches, but not just because they are a waste of time … not just because she doesn’t get along well with others … she was molded into a loner by adults who wanted to prevent her natural desire to have friends from diminishing her killer instinct.

I have mentioned before that “shinobu” is another word for ninja. Shinobu’s playing style is described by Chihaya as “silent”, and several times in the past few episodes they used Shinobu’s ability to suddenly appear beside people to comic effect. Now there is another way that Shinobu is a character that references popular notions of ninjas: she was socially isolated as a child as part of her training to become the Karuta assassin she is today.

I’m not going to speculate on what will happen in the individual tournament. There is a very real chance that Chihaya won’t be able to play against Shinobu, which is the one thing I was DYING to see this season. … I just can’t think about that right now.

Taichi Mashima reflects on the possible futility of his life.

Chihayafuru season 2, episode 19 brings us the end of the National high school Karuta team championship. I know there are some who were upset that this was a three episode long game, but it is obviously the climax of the series, so it had to be one of the longest games offered.

Certainly there are still some things that need to be wrapped up before the end of the season, but if one thinks back to the very first episode of the first season, the show has been motivated by Chihaya’s desire to play Karuta with her friends. The game of Karuta is really played one-on-one, so the only real chance to experience the camaraderie of team play is while they are in high school. Everything from the very first time we saw Chihaya in the very first episode (hanging up a sign to advertise the Karuta club), the flashback to her experience playing with Arata and Taichi as a team, her insistence on getting new members this season (when everyone else thought she should be practicing for the Queen tournament), even her willingness in this match to play with a damaged finger, knowing full well that continuing to play in the team match would make it unlikely that she could play the following day in the individual tournament.

I’m not going to deconstruct the match. It was interesting, but I have been wrapped up in this match for so long (they actually started the Naniwa poem 4 weeks ago), that I am ready to set all the tension aside. Instead my mind is lingering over a 10th century poem that Kanade explains during the match.

I am like a boatman without a rudder
Drifting from the mouth of the Yura River into the sea.
Where this love will take me, I do not know.

– Sone no Yoshitada

The poem is associated in the episode with Taichi, who is a pretty remarkable character. He has gone from spoiled brat, that I would have enjoyed punching in the face, to a pretty decent person, who has an unrequited love for Chihaya. But even more than his possibly doomed romance, this poem seems to be about another aspect of his character.

Usually Taichi struggles to achieve his dream. In Karuta he is willing to go to other cities to compete so he can gain a class-A ranking. Fate, however, hasn’t been kind. Earlier the series took some time to point out that despite all of his hard work, the one thing he is lacking in a pinch is luck. Since he doesn’t believe in luck, he takes his losses as personal failings. In this match, however, we see Taichi try to change. For once, he relinquishes responsibility. He realizes that there is nothing else he can do, and thus, he becomes like a boat without a rudder: taken be the current.

I still think it is possible for Taichi to play well in the individual tournament and earn his class-A ranking, but I don’t fully understand the rules on class advancement. We have about 5 episodes left, so there is still time for one more substantial arc before this series is over. How are the producers going to wrap things up?

Yuusei Nishida faces off against his arch-rival.

Chihayafuru season 2 episode 21 was excellent. It really stood out, even against the typical quality of this excellent series. There were a couple of important stories told. The first was how Chihaya managed to make it to the best eight, despite her injury; this was a great story, full of insights into Karuta play as the best episodes of this series tend to be.

The second was Arata Wataya’s march towards taking the individual championship. Unfortunately for Yuusei, Arata’s path marches right over him. Yuusei might not appreciate it, but he did pretty well against Arata, who won his first match in a more than perfect game. It has been a long time since we have seen Arata play, and here we had him facing off against one of Mizusawa’s top players.

In an episode full of great storytelling, we ended with an AWESOME moment. Chihaya had been saying she needed to save her right hand for when she played Arata, but something happened to change all of that.

Bonus Service (Shinobu Wakamiya)

Shinobu Wakamiya is ready to rumble.

Serika Itou celebrates the successful launch of the Team E’s rover.

Space Brothers episode 60 seems to be the conclusion of the Comeback Competition arc. Honestly this show can move pretty slowly at times, but that doesn’t change the fact that it has a fresh storyline. I suppose the story will now turn to Hibito’s return from the moon. I’ll be a little sorry to see the attention shift from the engineering competition, because I think that it was a great idea for a story — someone should do a whole series based on this premise (and NOT have it turn out like Robotics;Notes).

Miyuki Sagara and Izumiko Suzuhara

Red Data Girl 12 seems to be the end of the school festival arc. I don’t really want to talk much about what happened , since I’m watching the preview episodes, and the broadcast is about two weeks behind. It was a really interesting take on the “Culture Festival” theme, though. Having the student council walk around in stage hand costumes was brilliant!

I do really like the way FFF has been providing both versions of Miyuki’s Buddhist chants, (here the Shunyatra Mantra):

Om svabhava shuddha sarva dharma svabhava shuddho ham

I am interrelated with all universally existent phenomena

 

On the whole RDG has turned out to be a very good series. It looks great, as I expected, but the way it handles the supernatural and school politics aspects is much more interesting than I thought it would be.

Apo

Space Brothers episode 61 covers Hibito’s return to Earth. I was very happy to see that instead of an entire arc dedicated to Hibito’s return from space, the series dealt with it in one sitting. By this point we were already familiar with the various possible problems, and the emotional backdrop to the events, but I was a little worried that the show would continue with its typical pacing. By handling the events of several days in a single episode, they managed to cover a lot of ground, and capture the tension and excitement. The result was a particularly good episode in contrast to some of the episode in this series that have dragged on too long.

Suigintou from the 2013 Rozen Maiden reboot

It is time once again to look ahead to the upcoming anime season, to pick some shows to discuss, and to predict a show that will beat them all. As usual, I warn you, the reader, that this is my personal selection of shows that look interesting, and I have by no means included everything that is supposed to be airing (some 35 shows)! If you want to see a more comprehensive account of the upcoming season, check out a preview by some other folks such as Psgels, the Star-crossed Anime Blogger.

The shows included in the post are:

• Tamayura ~ more aggressive ~
•  Gin no Saji (“Silver Spoon”)
• Rozen Maiden
• Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi (“On Sunday, God Abandoned the World”)

Now that you know what to expect, let’s anime!

Picks

Tamayura ~ more aggressive ~

Get ready to photo!

Given that the first season (~ Hitotose ~ there was an OVA before that) saw the previously timid Fu participating with her friends in a Photo / Perfume / Baking / Storytelling event, I don’t know how more aggressive the world can really handle. At any rate, I expect more awesome stuff from this season. The director, Junichi Sato, is the best at making these so-called “healing” anime. Maaya Sakamoto is back to sing another OP. If you don’t know, the last season was full of really interesting demonstrations of local customs from the Inland Sea, and lots of crafts.

Gin no Saji (“Silver Spoon”)

These chickens will not always be this happy. Watch the preview for the shocking truth!

Silver Spoon ( #ginsaji ) is about someone who enrolls in an agricultural school out to the country to get away from his parents, and the crazy things he has to endure as a result. Could be funny, and it is Noitamina. (Oh, and the dude who wrote Full-metal Alchemist wrote the manga). Unfortunately the preview videos are embedded in the official site in a way that does not encourage sharing, so you’ll have to head over there to see them yourself.

Prediction

Rozen Maiden (2013)

Shinku character sketch. It looks like they haven’t made any radical changes … just simplified the design.

I’m not totally sure why Rozen Maiden needed a reboot, since the first series (2004) was great. I’m sure it has a lot of fans. Nevertheless, there is a remake about to begin, and I am looking forward to seeing what becomes of it.

For those who are not familiar with the franchise, it has supernatural elements, because a large part of the cast are “living dolls”, but really what makes it great is the juxtaposition between the smaller stories based on broken people (including the male lead, Jun, who is a hikikomori) and the larger story of the dolls, who fight to prove themselves as worthy of being reunited with God their maker. It has battle elements and comedy and the first show had some good music as well as a great sense of style.

Of course Ali Project are back for the OP (this time called “Eat My Roses”), and the ED will be from Annabel, who has been putting out a lot of music lately, including Spring 2013′s Red Data Girl, and the PS3 game Atelier Ayesha.

Encouragement Award

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi

If nothing else, this show promises intense colors and funny names.

“On Sunday, God Abandoned the World” is a perfect example of something that sounds like a good idea — or at least sounds so crazy that it needs to be checked out:

On Sunday, God abandoned the world. Since then nobody can die or be born. A little girl, Ai, is the grave keeper for her village. Ai must help the would-be dead to find peace. One day a boy who calls himself Hampunie Hambart, the Man-eating Toy, appears in the village. He kills everybody and sets the village on fire. By talking to Hampunie, Ai finds out a shocking truth.

The preview shows off colors that are very intense, and I do like a bold approach to visuals. I also admire the courage involved in naming a main character “Hampunie Hambart”. I’ll certainly be checking out an episode or two.

Wrap up

If nothing else it looks like there will be a few shows worth checking out this Summer, so don’t spend all of your time at the beach!

Chihaya Ayase in tears at the end of the B-kyu Individual tournament.

Episode 23 of Chihayafuru season 2 splits the attention between two very important games. In the A-kyu tournament, two of the most important people in the world of Karuta are facing off for the title. In the B-kyu tournament, Taichi is ready to face down his final opponent … until Chihaya appears ring-side. Taichi instantly loses his cool, and struggles to end the match early, because he wants to release Chihaya.

Taichi’s desire is to support Chihaya, and let her watch the game transpring between Arata Wataya and the the Queen, Shinobu Wakamiya. His good intentions cause him to play recklessly, however, and then he loses confidence in his own ability to win against an opponent that Chihaya barely beat a few episodes back.

The episode had interesting perspectives on Karuta strategy (in both Shinobu and Taichi’s case, a decision was made to focus on winning certain cards, instead of over-committing in the face of a powerful opponent). There was also a surprising insight into the world behind the scenes, as Kanade Oe realizes that the reader for the B-kyu tournament is being graded for a position as a certified reader. Nevertheless, in true Chihayafuru style, the story comes back to the human and emotional elements in the end.

Chihaya and Taichi’s relationship in this episode is a little like the story of the Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. Chihaya wants to be there to support Taichi in his bid for A class ranking, and Taichi wants to support Chihaya by getting her out of there and back to the battle between Shinobu and Arata. Each of their gifts diminish the meaning behind the gift the other person gives.

We only have a couple of episodes left. I’m going to be so sorry when this show is over!

Shinobu Wakamiya, the reigning Queen.

With episode 24 of Chihayafuru season 2, the national high school tournament is almost over. I think I understand now why they wanted to pace this season as they did. The one thing we have left to find out is how Tsutomu “Desk-kun” Komano did in his match. It wasn’t quite a sweep, but Mizusawa High did quite well in the individul matches, taking first place in at least two, and possibly three ranks outs of four. If there are 25 episodes planned the final episode can be dedicated to the reveal of Tsutomu’s outcome and an emotional closing ceremony.

The first season ended with Chihaya’s regret that they would spend the next year as losers. This time we end the season with them having taken the national championship as a team, as well as several of the individual titles. In addition, we have some nice rank advancement, as was discussed briefly at the beginning of this episode.

We also have some cool things to look forward to if any more Chihayafuru seasons (or movies) get a green light. There is the upcoming Meijin tournament (probably best tackled as a season unto itself) as well as the promise of Arata moving to Tokyo.

Chihaya Ayase listens to Kanade Oe’s lecture.

And thus season 2 of Chihayafuru comes to a close. This episode went very differently than I had anticipated. There little time was spent on reflections upon Mizusawa’s victories. Instead a lot of time was devoted to Chihaya’s injury, which turns out to be a serious condition requiring an operation and hospitalization. There was also some unexpected romantic development. In perhaps the most surprising development, however, Chihaya and Taichi get invited to the Fujisaki training camp by Coach Sakarazawa.

There is no doubt in my mind that the producers want to deliver a third season. They left things just as Taichi and Chihaya were about to enter the Fujisaki training camp. It is like saying, “the story doesn’t end here!” I was desperate, at the end of the first season, for a second season announcement, and couldn’t believe my good fortune when it came. Am I pushing my luck to ask for a third season now?

Bonus Service: Chihaya Ayase

Chihaya in hospital gown and hand cast.

Just one example of the fine illustration of hands in Kyoto Animations newest: Kyoukai no Kanata

Hello everybody. I have been taking a break from blogging, but not from anime! In the past I used to try to write a post for every interesting series upon having seen the first three episodes as a “taste test”. The last of the “first three” have just aired, or are about to do so.

Having seen the first three episodes of many shows this season, I conclude that the one I enjoy seeing the most one quarter of the way into Fall 2013 is Kyoukai no Kanata, a series about a meganeko blood mage, and the boy who loves her.

Kyoto Animation has done their usual spectacular job of animating the series — everything looks great, and this time there are actual fantasy action scenes (sword fights, yeah!) that get the KyoAni treatment, but they also throw in some amazing animations of small things, such as Ayaka’s hands while she was tracing out the occult circle. Remarks from around the blogosphere are mostly positive, including surprise that we already are pulling out a serious battle this early.

Other shows that I have enjoyed so far include:

• Kyousougiga — This show is great fun, and I really like the way the mythology is mixed with almost a Sci-Fi feel.
• Log Horizon – This show is holding up better than I thought it would. The story is starting to develop, and I think they are managing to build up tension without using the same — you die if you lose trope that has been used plenty already.
• Yowamushi Pedal — so far this one looks better than Ace of Diamond, the other sports-themed anime this season, but I often lose interest in these shounen sports shows, which have a tendency to go on far too long.
• Yozakura Quartet Hana no Uta – I went into this without having seen previous entries and find it pretty entertaining so far.
• Golden Time — I wouldn’t say this is one of the better shows I am watching, but the third episode certainly went in an unexpected direction.

I hope the rest of you are enjoying the Autumn as much as I am!

“Most people know that when sea turtles lay eggs they cry”.

Episode 83 of Space Brothers (Uchuu Kyoudai) was enjoyable, and not just because it showed animation of sea turtles crying. I generally have a problem with any series that lasts this long. In my opinion, long series allow the story to meander and the production team succumbs to the temptation of adding pointless filler. Space Brothers is an example of this phenomenon, and I have considered dropping it more than once. The pace seems to drag, as concepts that don’t deserve entire episodes are given precisely that. Also “Mr. Hibbito”, might have been a cute idea, or a fun aside, or even useful for an episode or two, but it is really just filler and thus should stop.

All that having been said, there was something quite well done in this episode. The main premise was the effects of having told Mutta and Kenji that they are competing against each other for a single position on a moon mission. Kenji becomes cold (and hates himself for it). Mutta’s inferiority complex almost leads him to give up. All the while a side character was raving about sea turtles this and sea turtles that. The more sea turtles were discussed (sea turtles cry; sea turtles can’t breathe underwater; sea turtles are graceful; the sight of a sea turtle is considered good fortune; …), the more the viewer is lead to believe that an event with a sea turtle will be pivotal in leading the astronaut candidates out of their gloom. And yet that doesn’t happen.

What does happen is that a school of barracuda enter the area where Mutta and the others are constructing a mock moon base. We have been set up for a close encounter with a sea creature of some sort, but instead of a beautiful, empathic creature, it is scary and certainly dangerous. I wouldn’t say that the scene with the barracuda was everything one might want it to be, but with all of the build up, it is easy to see how it would be a transformative experience.

Obviously I do like this show, even when I can see it’s faults. At 89 episodes I’ve watched more Space Bros than I have other long-running series (Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Prince of Tennis), which I typically drop at about episode 50. I do wish the production team would do a better job at picking specific dramatic moments to develop, rather than handling EVERY hesitation, EVERY fear, EVERY question with the same approach of dragging it out so that it takes up a whole episode. This show would be much better if they trimmed the fat. There is a lot of good stuff underneath it, nevertheless.

Mirai Kuriyama, the cursed spirit world warrior.

Kyoukai no Kanata (Beyond the Boundary) turned out to be a fun watch, that was emotionally engaging at times, and had some very good artwork. I suppose there are several types of questions people might have about this show, depending upon their background.

For those who know close to nothing about the show, I imagine they would be looking for basic information like, “What can I expect from this show?” It’s a Fantasy-Action Anime from a top-tier production company (Kyoto Animation). It looks great, has some plot twists and exciting developments, but it isn’t go-to material for someone looking for tight plots, with no loose ends, or realism, or philosophy.

Those who saw that it is listed as having Significant Objectionable Content on Anime News Network might be wondering, “What’s up with that?” Personally I think that is ridiculous. It has a lot of fantasy violence, including a character that can control her blood (and usually shapes it as a sword, as in the screen cap above), but it is so fantastical that, despite the blood, it is a bit tough to think of it as gory. It also has frequent references to perversions, including a sister complex and a fetish for girls who wear glasses, but this has to be one of the tamest depictions of perversion in anime in years, compared to the amount of ecchi that is standard in just about any mainstream series out there.

Some knowledgable anime fans might be wondering, “Can KyoAni make a Fantasy-Action series, without loading it up with moe?” I think the answer we received was an emphatic NO. The series looks great. I am glad that Kyoto Animation, which has immense talent for animation, worked on a real Fantasy-Action series. But I, let’s face it, this show was loaded with moe tropes. If you can handle that, it is a fun watch, but isn’t going to change a lot of minds about KyoAni.

Finally, there could be a few individuals who watched the series who wonder what I thought about this or that. I personally didn’t feel the show was weighty enough to invest a lot of time in speculating about the many loose threads left dangling. “Would you buy it? Do you think it would be worth buying a set on, say DVD, to have available for a rewatch, or to loan out?” Hmmm…. If I had to choose between buying KnK or buying Hyouka (another series by Kyoto Animation), I would certainly buy Hyouka. “Okay, but would you rather re-watch KnK, or Endless Eight?” Heh, you got me there. I’ll would probably buy Kyoukai no Kanata before I buying the second season of Haruhi no Suzumiya.

Final Thoughts

I did have fun watching Kyoukai no Kanata. It is a bit mindless, but it is a beautiful spectacle.

The Winter 2014 anime season begins.

January means it is time for another preview post, although I am not genuinely excited about the anime series this season is offering. (Maybe I am overly obsessed with the thought of Elder Scrolls Online coming out on 4/4/14; by contrast nothing in the new season seems as epic and engrossing).

Hamatora

Take, for example, Hamatora. On paper it sounds pretty good: people with psychic powers investigating a serial murder who is hunting their kind. The preview, however, just didn’t work for me. It looks more like a bishounen show than an action or a mystery.

Wizard Barristers

Every time I start watching a preview for this show, I think, “hey, this looks pretty good!” The action looks exciting. There are older characters. The idea of “Wizard Barristers” is intriguing. Then, about half-way through the protagonist gets introduced and I think, “No. No. No. There is no way I am going to be able to put up with this series series.” I’ll probably check it out anyways. Then hate myself for it.

Inari Kon Kon Koi Iroha

This is the RomCom that looks the most interesting of the season. A girl falls for some guy and gets the power to shapehift by saving a fox. I like shows about supernatural beings at temples. Unfortunately the artwork seems a bit lackluster. Still worth a shot.

Houzuki no Reitetsu

Speaking of supernatural beings, the most promising comedy seems to be about the everyday life of a demon.

Space Dandy

Normally I would be immensely excited for a show by Shinichiro Watanabe. I certainly will be checking it out, but the trailer (and premise) has me thinking it is going to be too campy to hold my interest.

Why you so dissatisfied, dog?

I think it is a fair question for someone to ask me why, with all the shows I just mentioned, I’m just not feeling it this season. I just don’t feel like there is anything substantial this season. I read about some old favorites over on Metanorn last month, as people were writing up their Secret Santa posts, and it just left me thinking, when was the last time we had something really substantial, like Serei no Moribito? My top three favorite series are Haibane Renmei, Twelve Kingdoms, and the Crest/Banner of the Stars series. I don’t expect every show to be that great, but series like Dennou Coil have deep world-building, unique characters, mystery, action, comedy, and innovative art styles. I just don’t see anything from this season reaching that level (although I would be happy to be proven wrong).

Anyways

Enjoy 2014 (and get ready ‘cuz Elder Scrolls Online is coming)

Space Dandy stakes his claim.

The first episode of Space Dandy turned out to be mostly silliness. As I said in my season preview, this show just doesn’t look like it is going to have the heft that you might expect from Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop).

“X Jigen e Youkoso” by Etsuko Yakushimaru

Meanwhile the Ending theme, sung by Etsuko Yakushimaru was actually quite pleasant, although not as attention-grabbing as her work on, say Mawaru PenguinDrum.

Hello everybody, and thanks for visiting. This is my official 500th post here at the Abandoned Factory, so I hope you don’t begrudge me having a bit of fun.

Have a great 2014 everybody!

TL;DR :  “Go see what Cara said.”

For the most part the Spring 2014 Anime season seems to be samey-sameness, with one important exception.

Ping Pong: the animation

Ping Pong: the animation

This one looks really interesting! Masaki Yuasa is back in the Noitamina slot. All the visuals so far really stand out. Should be a good watch.

Honorable Mentions

Atelier Escha & Logy ~Alchemists of the Dusk Sky~

Atelier Escha & Logy ~Alchemists of the Dusk Sky~

I have written before about the Atelier franchise. I liked the emphasis on Alchemy, there were some interesting mechanics in the title I played, and it had some good art and music. Given that, I will be checking this anime adaptation out, but with some trepidation. They seemed to have played up the bishoujo elements, instead of some of the more interesting aspects. One of the most interesting aspects of this title is the very weird pun: the Japanese pronounce & (“and”) as toe (long O), so the characters names with an ampersand in it is pronounced as the word Eschatology, which is a sub discipline of Theology concerned with the End Days (with questions like What is Heaven? What is Hell? What happens after death? How will the world end?)

Kindaichi Case Files Returns

I have previously written about an earlier anime adaption of Young Kindaichi’s Case Files. The should be an actual mystery genre title. The mysteries in the previous series that I watched (I also saw a series of anime movies about Kindaichi) were fairly detailed and developed as actual mysteries (as opposed to masquerading as mysteries, but really being an action show, or something else). The author of the manga also did another mystery genre series that I enjoyed: Detective Academy Q. The problem with the author, as I see it, is that the characterization is very weak. I wrote about this before, too. Basically my view is that this could be a well-plotted Mystery series, but the characters are likely to be little more than one-dimensional.

Conclusion

I may seem dismissive in blowing off 9/10ths of the anime coming out this upcoming season, but three new shows to watch is actually not that bad. I still have some catching up to do from previous seasons, and #ESO Elder Scrolls Online will be launching April 4, 2014, so I’ll need to reserve time for that.

Enjoy the Spring, everybody!

Alpha from Yokohama Shopping Trip

As I enter another year of anime blogging here at the Abandoned Factory, I’m sure y’all are starting to wonder why I don’t have my very own robot to blog anime reviews for me. We have a lot to go over.

Contents:

• Motivation: can adjacency be removed from anime blogging without replacing it with Subjectivism?
• Alpha
• An Initial Plan for the Work Ahead
• Conclusion

Motivation: can adjacency be removed from anime blogging without replacing it with Subjectivism?

In addition to wanting a robot of my own, who can post articles on my blog for me, I have long wondered about what good ani-blogging can do. When I started the Abandoned Factory, I had grandiose visions of doing something like Cahiers du cinéma, but with giant robots. What I soon learned, however, is that the act of anime blogging seemed destined to navigate twixt the Scylla of episodic blogging and the Charybdis of pure Subjectivism.

One of the main problems, as I see it, of episodic blogging is that the most compelling aspects of an anime are not revealed in a single episode. In other words deeper analysis can only be performed after the series is over, when the series can be viewed as a whole. I refer to episodic blogging as being dictated by adjacency, because it is enmeshed in the broadcast sequence, where future episodes are not yet available to the reviewer as the blog post is written.

On the other hand, the typical alternative to episodic blogs is highly subjective. There is a place for subjectivity, but I felt that attempts at so-called “editorial” blog posts were often dictated by the personal experience and perspective of the blogger. While I sometimes quite enjoy reading this type of post, I did start to wonder if it was possible to generate an objective anime review.

I by no means think I have found the perfect answer to this question, but I do think I found a method towards one possible answer: an ani-blogging robot. As we all know, robots are moe battle maids capable of perfect objectivity, unlike their all-too-human masters.

Alpha

Alpha is the robot who runs the coffee shop in Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (Yokohama Shopping Trip) a meditative anime about a robot who spends her days lazily drinking coffee and taking pictures in the post apocalypse. All things must have a name, and so my new ani-blogging robot will also be named Alpha, in memory of her laid back relative.

In a peaceful post-apocalyptic world where the coasts have been flooded, Alpha is a robot left in charge of a Cafe by her owner who went off travelling. One day, she receives from him a package containing a camera, so that she might take pictures upon which she could later be able to reminisce. This brings Alpha to take closer notice of the little events of life and time around her.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (plot summary): Source ANN

Alpha, the ani-blogging robot, will be expected to watch anime, reflect upon what she has seen, and post her findings here on the Abandoned Factory. I expect her to use an objective process to evaluate the anime she has watched, and thus I am asking her to focus on the way color is used in different anime.

An Initial Plan for the Work Ahead

In a general way, I think Alpha will need the following capabilities:

1. New anime must be downloaded from the Internet. In an ideal world, Alpha will take care of acquiring new videos to watch without my constant supervision, or even regard for my taste in anime.
2. The anime videos must be read from the file system and converted to structured data. For example, Alpha could “watch” the video, and convert each frame into hash-map of key-value pairs, where the key is an RGB coded color, and the value is the number of pixels that were found to have that color in the current frame. There might be some additional meta-data or summary data (for example a value to represent how bright or dark the frame was as a whole). An entire episode would be a collection of frames, with some additional meta-data (for example an identifier for the anime series from which the episode came), and possibly some more summary info intended for analysis.
3. Analysis is the process by which Alpha reflects upon the structured data she has seen, including multiple episodes of a single series, or possibly multiple series within a season, etc. This might very well mean that additional summary information is “remembered”, for example, a how varied was the use of color in this episode (or season)?
4. Finally the results of reflection must be organized and posted here at the Abandoned Factory.

Conclusion

As I type this, Alpha may be little more than a gleam in my eye, but I certainly intend to bring Alpha into this world. Steps 1 and 4 are the easiest to perform for a human assistant, so I will start by developing Alpha’s sense of sight.

Wish me luck, dear readers!