End of Year Review: What Series Will Last Us Into the Next Year (Possibly NSFW)

A post tangentially related to the New Year deserves an equally tangential header

Since the year is coming to a close in seventeen hours Pacific Standard Time, I’ve decided to end it by taking a look and reviewing the shows that will make the merge into 2012. Not all of these are superb, in fact only one of them really is, but they’re all worth talking about since they will be accompanying the newly airing shows both in winter and spring. So don your party hats, prepare to pop your champagne, and ready yourselves for the sheer unbridled joy of reading this post. Or just do the last part, that’s the one that matters most to me. In order of how much I’ve enjoyed each series thus far…

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Mirai Nikki Episode 12: The Ends Apparently Justify the Means

Read: Justification

If there is one thing I can say with certainty about Mirai Nikki at this point, it’s that it can’t do middle ground. It’s either surprisingly able at stretching out a tired format into an engaging series of events, or not concerned enough with consistency to remain anything but a painful watch. This episode exemplifies both sides of the issue: the frightening inconsistency and baffling stupidity of the characters’ actions, and the wonderful web of suspense that the show has otherwise been able to weave fairly well.

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Winter 2012 Season Preview: A Slightly More Cynical Look at the Coming Storm

This is the least appropriate header image I think I've ever used

As the snow falls in other, less inhumanly dry parts of the Northern Hemisphere, the Fall 2011 season has officially begun to wind down, imploding in a spectacular mess of penguins, bento lunches, and mini Squid Girls.  While a few two cour shows continue their rampage unabated (Only two of which I care enough about to keep following), the rest have taken their bows and jumped off the stage into the maw of oblivion yawning below, a few perplexingly earning second seasons in the progress. But this isn’t a post about that; it’s time we pay attention to the shows that will start to air for the Winter 2012 season! So here are my thoughts roughly in the order of how intrigued I am, thoughts that will likely become invalid as soon as the season runs.

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Editorial Day Post: An Anemia Rant

aka more flimsily disguised Shiki praise

So for those not in the know, flomu has declared today, the 28^th of December, to be a day for us lowly episodic/what-have-you bloggers who don’t usually write editorials to do break the mold and write one. And no one is keener to jump on arbitrary blogging fads than I am, I’ll tell you that much! That’s why it’s such a shame that my well of ideas has run frightfully dry in the past few days as far as editorials go, and I’ve been forced to type up a rant that questionably borders on editorial territory. So instead of looking into something that I’ve watched these past few months and writing a post on that, I’ve decided to go the easy route and rant about something that’s bugged me since I first noticed it: Why the fuck is anemia the go-to problem for anime?

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The iDOLM@STER: Flashier Than a Strobe Light, Less Substantial

There are some anime series that you desperately want to love. You’re either drawn in by the premise, one of the characters will strike your fancy for some reason and you’ll begin a furious Pixiv binge in search of any fanart of them to the point that your computer crashes and you’re declared legally dead, or you see some shimmer of pure gold underneath that thick sheen of shit and mediocrity and want to see if it’ll be more evident later on. The Idolmaster was one of those series, and it left me feeling entirely unsatisfied from start to finish despite the many efforts to make it otherwise.

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12 Days of Christmas Hoedown Throwdown Countdown: Day 1, My Greatest Anime Discovery

So after eleven days of unsatisfyingly building up to it, the day of reckoning has finally arrived. On this day, the last 12 Days posting day, only one idea came to mind as far as post ideas go: My greatest anime discovery of the year that I found through sheer luck. But really, this is a vain attempt to differentiate myself from Marower, who had the sheer audacity to steal my post idea before it even crossed my mind. So yes, that clumsy preface is my short way of saying that Aria is one of the best series I’ve ever watched, and definitely the best thing that I’ve discovered all year. And this is going to be a post on that.

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Mawaru Penguindrum Episode 24: All Good Things Must Come to an End

Yeah, it's kind of like this.

Opinions regarding the finale of Mawaru Penguindrum have been divided right down the middle between those that say it was an incomprehensible mess that proves that Ikuhara hates puppies, freedom, and apple pie more than Hans Gruber, and those that say it was a bizarre, yet fitting end to a fascinating story… even if they don’t know what the hell happened. That and Ikuhara is a god amongst mortal men. Hyperbole aside, I find myself in the latter camp, though no side is really right or wrong.

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12 Days of Christmas Hoedown Throwdown Countdown: Day 2, Best and Worst Miscellaneous Categories

As it grows more and more difficult to come up with lists based on numbers, I’m left scratching my head at the penultimate 12 Days post trying to think of a new theme to implement for the number 2. Since it doesn’t look like anything in particular and I like steering clear of poop jokes, I have only one option open to my knowledge: Comparing the best and worst of certain categories using mostly images and videos. It’s an idea as simple as it is needlessly drawn out by me. So enough needless blather, here we go!

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12 Days of Christmas Hoedown Throwdown Countdown: Day 3, Most Deprived of Necessary Sequels

It's not from this year, but my point remains the same nonetheless.

The time of post reckoning approaches, and my patience grows ever thinner as I’m left grasping at straws in regards to further post ideas. Anyway, these are the three shows aired this year that would do well with a second season for whatever reason. Maybe the story wasn’t wrapped up properly in only one or two cours, or maybe I just want to see another series of the exact same stuff. Either way, these are the shows that I think would maintain the same level of quality or actually improve due to the proper implementation of a sequel.

Sadly, it doesn’t apply to ones like [C] that needed more episodes to really work its magic, or series that weren’t really that good and had no potential despite claiming otherwise. As far as I know, none of these shows are planned, but that might change at a later date effectively making this post moot. So without further ado…

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12 Days of Christmas Hoedown Throwdown Countdown: Day 4, Most Improved Characters

We’re two thirds of the way through these posts, and I can see the blinding, unnecessarily festive light at the end of the tunnel as it grows ever closer.  However, as I mused over what kind of half-assed theme I could squeeze out of the number four aside from death, I came to the startling realization that here are some characters that have much more to them than meets the eye. On Day Four of my 12 Days series of posts, I’d like to commemorate the characters that initially appeared to be one-note, but eventually grew to have some kind of depth to them that wasn’t easily apparent at first. Either that, or they started out with potential and met it perfectly. Both are satisfying conclusions and should be rewarded equally. So without further ado…

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