ef ~a tale of melodies~ Episode 6 was hands-down the best episode of anime in the fourth quarter of 2008. But that’s not what made it catch an invitation to this dinner. The day I wasted at work making the below, on the other hand, is.

And how appropriate is that? By dropping, I am referring to the ceasing of following a show that is airing. Like, the “Dropped” list on MyAnimeList. Funnily enough, this first set of shows I’m dropping only has an overlap of one show with the list of shows I said I would flame to hell and drop.

Here’s the list:

4. Casshern Sins – even Megaman would have been better. I know, I know—Owen called it fiber of the anime diet—but still, it’s kind of…lame? CJ says that she’s sick of its pretentiousness, but Episode 4 (that is, the last episode that I dropped) didn’t give off any pretentiousness. It just sucked. Sophita was a nutcase and Casshern’s jug of emo has gone sour. There’s no fun in Casshern Sins and there’s no deeper meaning that I can discern, either. And this isn’t me being a dick. This is me scratching my head.

They throw a lot of philosophical shit at us, but it’s totally boring. And the center of the whole thing—Casshern—is so confused and empty that he isn’t even a subject worth studying. All we really get are the feelings of others—mostly robots, so lol@feelings—regarding death. Maaaaaaybe there’s something deep in contemplating death, but whatever it is it’s not interesting to me.

Also, lol @ John Lichman:

Casshern Sins: Rewatching Ep 1. I think this is the stand-out for Fall 08. So far, this and Detroit Metal City OVAs are the year’s best.

No, dipfag, no—even if Casshern were as good as DMC, Aria the Origination owns this year. But I guess it’s possible that Mr. Lichman just doesn’t understand Aria because he’s a Republican. I’m noticing a trend—they tend not to understand things.

3. Kemeko DX is being dropped for obvious reasons. Or at least, they should be obvious. If they’re not, you’re TheBigN and your taste buds have been ravaged by one bad show too many.

2. Kurogane no Linebarrels is absolute trash, as DiGiKerot so carefully explains to us with his masterful weekly comics. I expected this show to be trash; I hoped I’d be able to sit through it. Just as planned, it was trash. Thankfully, I’m not broken enough to keep watching it.

1. Kuroshitsuji – I think that these two tweets explain my feelings for this show with incredibly concision:

Kuroshitsuji doesn’t accomplish a whole lot. It’s not going anywhere, and if I’m going to be watching slice-of-life I’d rather be observing the antics of good people than those of rich evil people. I don’t sense Kuroshitsuji heading for a “Ciel is evil and greedy so good people take his shit and give it to the needy” end, so I’m dropping it. I’ll admit that the show is nice eye-candy for shotacons but that’s not really my thing. Really.

Why the sudden dropping of shows? I have a disgustingly heavy load this season. Before this dropping, I was watching 28 currently airing shows. That’s like, the same kind of load I was taking on back two years ago when I was a depressed brat. Guess what? I’ve been mildly down for a couple months. Recently, I’ve been getting back into a groove with my fiction writing and some art, and, as such, have begun dispelling some of my worries and doubts. Along with this improvement, I’m finding less time for shit.

Less time for shit means less time for shit anime, and less time for shit anime means it’s time to drop the above-mentioned shows.

It also means it’s time to drop ChäoS;HEAd. But I won’t yet. I’ll give it another episode to win me over. I really shouldn’t—it’s like a mixture of NHK ni Youkoso and Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni and, much as how baby+baby=baby, shit+shit=shit—but I will. I’m doing it for CCY-senpai, and for my unfounded faith in all things otaku.

Anyway. There’ll be another wave, I’m sure. I’m trying to hang in there for a number of shows—Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka, for one, and Yozakura Quartet, for another, but I’m sure they’ll come swooping down like so many disgusting brown-white smears.

As Toradora! fades, Kannagi continues to impress.

I’m not sure what meaning of “fades” is intended in Karmaburn’s latest post, but Toradora! has, in my eyes, improved over the four episodes I’ve watched. Episode three was a bit of a disappointment after episode two, to be sure, but episode four was very strong in my book. On the other hand, we have Kannagi, a vehicle of moe and typical lulzesque fare. I have yet to discover any redeeming factors in Kannagi. The show’s idea of “interesting plot twists” include nun cosplay, harem development, and… shit… help me here… anybody?

Yeah. I got nothing.

Toradora!, on the other hand, astonishes with a painfully sympathetic male lead (unusual for such shows, as noted by my PR guy) and a psychopathically violent tsundere on a level hitherto unheard of (she is in fact so violent that if she were a real person in my life, she would kill me). Novelties are nice, after a fashion, and Taiga is in fact mindlessly violent to the point of it actually being funny (unlike Louise, who’s just a bitch, or Haruhi, who’s just insane).

What does Kannagi do differently? What impresses about it? Granted, it has some nice character animation, but that does not a good show make. The thing about Kannagi that stands out the most is its OP, which is horrendous when you take a step back from the animation and listen to the song (“YEAH! UNBEREAVABAL!!”). Also, close scrutiny of the choreography reveals that it is atrocious; Nagi flails around like a still-born fish suspended from a string.

And ultimately, as Evirus himself notes, the dance is no more than a continuation of Haruhi’s legacy. Maybe he thinks that’s a good thing.

Me? It makes me puke.

I was looking forward to Kannagi, having heard that it was supposed to be boring slice of life (I blame THAT). Toradora! I went into with absolutely no hope, expecting it to be a grim continuation of Kugimiya Rie’s “legacy.” Even had I had no hope for Kannagi, though, I can’t help but feel like it’d be turning me off in the same way it is now, given past trends.

So—Toradora! is fading? And Kannagi is the pleasant surprise of the season? I don’t believe it.

Bitches be trollin’.

The possibilities seem endless. This could be a really interesting detective story or a really bad story about unrequited love, suicide, paranoia, and rebirth as your lover [...]

Looks like it’s following that first option.

Baka-Raptor commented on that post, saying:

Blog this. Nothing else.

Now, the big problem I’m having with following Baka-Raptor’s advice is that, as frankeinstein noted, I only blog the worst shows. And, as fall underwhelms with its vast selection of mediocre titles, this second episode of Mouryou no Hako has lifted the show onto a pedestal far above this season’s standards. In other words—it is not only not shit, but it is so much better than the (bad) non-shit that it’s hard for me to ridicule it.

Seriously. I tried blogging this episode, in my usual style. You can see what happened below:

it-it does hurt, but you can start moving…

“Shit… I have failed in my duties…”

	What are these “duties” you speak of, Mr. Cockblock?
	I was honor-sworn to protect Yoriko’s virginity!
	Fuck you!! Thanks to your attempted intervention, this show is losing to Ga-rei Zero in hotness levels!

Exhibit A: Ge-rei Zero is HOT

P.S. Baka-Raptor, Ga-rei Zero has dinosaurs, lesbians, and characters who are like you. I’m not trying to boss you around, or anything, but watch that shit.

“Hey, Ma’am. I won first-place in a competition for the blankest sex face. You, clearly, did not.”

… yeah. My attempt at blogging the episode deteriorated very quickly, as you can see, into “funny” screencaps accompanied by sex jokes. Why is there so much sex on my mind? I blame CCY-senpai.

*drools*

Ahem! Anyway, yeah. Mouryou no Hako is shaping up to be one of the better shows this season, in my opinion. Up there with Ga-rei Zero and Earl and Fairy (why do people say this one’s a guilty pleasure? Where’s the guilt in it? It’s fucking awesome), as I see it. And as such, it’s hard for me to make fun of it.

Of course—I don’t really know how the show’s going to shape up yet. For all I know episode three will be back to nonsensical poetic lesbianism, and I’ll be able to knock it for all I’ve got. But right now, I’m interested in following the show a bit more seriously.

A: “O Fortuna” plays as Krauser II prepares to go mouth-to-mouth with a dick.

screenshots: kurogane no linebarrel, episode 2

This was two days ago, now, and there’s no way I’m going to reread that post, so I unfortunately cannot tell you why I picked what I did. I like to think I tended to polarize at the two ends of the fail spectrum (you know, fail, and less fail) and went with shows I thought I’d either like or hate, but no guarantees. The “resource” wasn’t too resourceful and I ended up making some wild guesses. Anyway, expect at least one post each on all of these shows, and expect at least half of those to be scathing:

ChäoS;HEAd
ef – a tale of melodies
Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka
Kurogane no Linebarrel
Toradora!
Skip Beat
Shikabane Hime: Aka
Clannad ~After Story~
Michiko to Hatchin
Kannagi
Tales of the Abyss

With any luck I’ll be blogging regularly this fall. I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be. Other than, you know, having a job (or two, or three). And maybe trying my hand at NaNoWriMo. Anyway, there should be some free time in there which I can dedicate to bashing shit.

In less well news, I’m down a weapon from my arsenal.

… graphs.

And why am I down graphs?

Because fucking Steve fucking Jobs and fucking Apple fucking broke fucking Photoshop fucking 7 in fucking Leopard.

Thankfully, Google, in classic Athena-senpai style, is still pretending to be an ally of mine:

I shall learn this Google Charts thing, and I shall use it well.