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!

Read Full Post »

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…

Read Full Post »

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 12: It’s the Zombie Apocalypse, Hugh Disward!

With the summer season almost entirely wound down and the fall season starting with a bang, and by bang I mean Fate/zero and HunterxHunter, I was prepared to leave the overwhelming mediocrity of summer behind with the heat stroke and sunburn. Just as I donned my loose autumn jacket and plopped down in front of my laptop with a cup of hot tea and a cat on my lap, ready to blog about the overwhelming dialogue that comprised the entirety of the first episode of Fate/zero, I noticed that there was one last episode in my “To Watch” queue of something that I had been purposefully “forgetting” to blog about the past few weeks: Dantalian no Shoka.

Read Full Post »

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 9: Giant Insect Invasions, and Why I Don’t Write Posts in a Bad Mood

This has proven itself the most interesting episode of Dantalian since the first, mostly because I think it just doesn’t handle establishing its characters well. Dantalian no Shoka is a series that thrives on surprise and the unexpected character-wise. It just hasn’t worked in the past with other characters introduced having no fanfare, or even a sense of belonging in the world. Nobody is set in a routine, they just seem to sit on the sidelines until they’re called into the plot of the episode for whatever reason. To a larger extent than the visuals, the world just feels artificial, like an elaborate stage production with robots as actors.

Read Full Post »

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 8: A Few Good Men Ruin Shit for All

Dantalian no Shoka is once again dragging its feet with another two part episode. I wish there was more I could write on it, but I have almost nothing to work with. At worst though, it’s a functional episode, which is more than I can say for that horrid Bizarro-episode with Anti-Huey and Anti-Dalian gallivanting around Western Europe. The dynamics actually work this episode, even if they’re rather uninspired. The plots are decent, nothing stellar. All in all, a pedestrian effort made marginally better by Huey having a chance to shine as a character, and Dalian mostly keeping quiet.

Once again though, it isn’t spectacular. The first half in particular suffers from a lack of closure, showing good buildup but ultimately having it lead to nothing. In it, Camilla makes her return to a thunderous, monumental wave of apathetic sighs, though the pain is eased somewhat by her showing up with a rather spiffy moustache.

Read Full Post »

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 7: The Pursuit of Happiness Made Unnecessary by Perfume and Buns

Part of the human condition is the permanent, ultimately futile quest to attain true happiness. It’s this lifelong journey that’s been responsible for every major technological and philosophical development not related to cleaving a man’s skull, or having a bullet change chambers from that of a gun to that of a beating heart through means of a pulled trigger.

This idea, like many interesting concepts, is brought up in Dantalian no Shoka then promptly dropped for the sake of having Dalian do something cute, or having Huey be made completely ineffectual by powers outside his control.

Read Full Post »

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 6: Like Kino’s Journey, Except Not Good and With Dolls

Dantalian no Shoka has been in quite the slump these past few weeks. I think that some of the higher ups took notice and told the cast and crew that their show wasn’t doing so well. To continue my trend of abridged, occasionally fictional conversations, I imagine that it went something like this:

Bigwig: Listen guys, your show sucks. Find some way to spice up the plot and characterize Dalian and Huey further, so you might give a sense of weight to the series.

Director: You got it boss! We’ll axe the two reasons why anybody watches this and replace them with two token characters that have the combined personality of a strip of drywall.

Bigwig: That’s not what I ask- [Axed in the back Groundskeeper Willie style]

Director: Now quick, bury the body!

Read Full Post »

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 5: It’s Alive! Sort of; a Glimpse into the Homunculus and Its Humanity

Systematically checking off every Victorian/Steampunk-esque plot device under the sun, Dantalian no Shoka has now landed on homunculi. The homunculus has had a small role in anime, but is trotted out for all to see in this episode, in the guise of an attractive blonde with men begging to betroth her right and left. While the idea of a creation imbued with everything but free will, and the components thereof, eventually grasping the finer points of being human isn’t anything new in anime (See Chobits and Baccano for two prominent examples), it isn’t brought up enough to usually warrant talking about.

Read Full Post »

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 4: Proto-Annie Wilkes Strikes Back

Imagine if Misery were an anime  aware of a sliver of its viewership and their hang-ups. Now, imagine if, instead of forcing the author to finish a book about a man having a run in with a bee worshipping tribe of aborigines, it were about the author being forced to make the kidnapper’s preferred couple get together, regardless of how canonical it actually is. If you can imagine all that, then you have a good handle on the central premise of this episode of Dantalian.

Read Full Post »

Dantalian no Shoka Episode 3: The Children of the Damned Happy Hour

Oh boy, another episode of Dantalian no Shoka! This means that we can prepare for much the same of what we’ve watched earlier, except divided into two parts, a format best utilized in comedies.

Read Full Post »