How to make a Student Council Arc episode of Utena:

1. Introduce a member of the council as your focus
2. Make sure that character has a run-in with Utena
3. Optional bitch-slap
4. Challenge
5. Grab the handle, close-up on the water hitting the rose ring
6. Begin JA Seazer’s Absolute Destiny Apocalypse song
7. Climb the stairs
8. Transform Utena’s uniform
9. Power of Dios, Utena for the win (usually)

Previous discussion on Utena in the comments saw some people decrying this pattern as monotonous and boring, while others declared it ritualistic and symbolic in itself. Me? My design schooling kicked in and said hey — Utena is in fact a “series.”

Yes, of course, you say. Utena is a series. A television series. But there is a design trick called a series as well; it’s a group of items that illustrate the design principle known as repetition.  Repetition is exactly what it sounds like. But any series, in order to avoid monotony or maybe to express a point (if you have that in mind; when designing wallpaper it seems imprudent to try to make any kind of explicit statement), usually incorporates another design principle: variation. This, in turn, creates a third principle, emphasis. The changeup in the series is emphasized by virtue of its difference from the rest.

The variation or anomaly usually doesn’t come at the end, but then again straight design doesn’t have a temporal element. When elapsed time comes into play, obviously pulling the old switcheroo at the end is going to provide maximum impact. Utena’s student council arc puts the variation near the end but not at it — and brings back the familiar Utena victory to neatly cap off the arc.

So it’s a great design tool, extrapolated across 13 episodes as a motif. Lots of fun, too. But what about that lingering possibility that there is a representative purpose to the “ritualistic” repetition? Well, I’m not sure about ritual, but the options are there:

• End of the World seems to be some sort of puppet master, and it might require (or at least desire) a degree of religiosity in order to operate. The Council’s devotion to the dueling process is certainly quasi-religious, and until Touga subverts the process with his faux End of the World letter, they seem to hold the process in strict regard.
• Dios, too, might be looking for Catholic-level ritual worship in order to fully awaken — look at his name, even.

But regardless of the purpose of the repetition, the end result (for me) was to reinforce the futility of the Student Council’s quest for Revolution. For all of their dedicated faith in dueling, they can’t keep Utena from beating them and walking away with Dios’s power, and the Rose Bride.

I have nothing much to really offer in the way of interpretation; that was just how I viewed the arc, and part of what made it so satisfying to me. I’ll say it again: it’s clear to me that Utena is something. It’s the real deal, and it’s been a while since I saw something with quite this much going for it.

However, it’s more of a screwball comedy than Matsumoto’s typical epic style, and is kinda fun.

clearly the audio here says HOMO

If you need an antidote to moe, crying schoolgirls, and magical pregnancies, take a page from Harlock’s Book of Sexual Satisfaction:

I find myself thinking about not touching Tochiro's balls

Gun Frontier can be viewed dubbed or subbed via Gong Anime on YouTube and Joost, even if their translations aren’t always the bee’s knees.

Then get ourselves a prostitutes

Tower of Druaga is a great case for managing expectations: People who watched the Aegis of Uruk were met with a breezy, tongue-in-cheek series with a surprisingly heavy ending. It subverted everyone’s expectations, and yet didn’t go so far beyond them that the going would be too difficult for its sequel. But I’d hate to use a phrase like “calculated mediocrity” for a series I enjoyed as much as Druaga, especially since it was one of Gonzo’s best in a while.

So far, Sword has done a decent job of balancing the darker and more desperate mood of Aegis’s final two episodes with the goofiness that gave that series most of its charm.

As far as execution, it matches its predecessor well. Author may have put it best, and most lulzworthily, when he said that Gonzo “skirt the border of unacceptable as tightly as possible.” He also called the style innovative, which I think is probably taking it a bit far. I’d call Gurren Lagann innovative, so much so that you could easily forget amidst all the pencil scenes and unmoving frames that corners were being cut every chance. Druaga’s over-simplified art seems like it’s always reminding me of its cheapness. Fortunately, it’s not too unappealing, even if characters can get a little samey.

At any rate, Sword has been fun so far and I’m not worried about it maintaining. Also, Fatina is cute.

Lots of people do it, I suppose, but when I first started doing the “What’s on” posts, was I subconsciously copying Kabitzin? Probably, but then he went and got married just to copy me, so I hope we’re even. I haven’t seen a standout episode worth blogging in a while, so… what’s on at my house? (organized by how current I am, since that’s a pretty good gauge of my interest)

Caught up

Code Geass. It’s a sea change for Zero. Now that Lulu has pretty much lost everything, I’m anxious to see where the story goes. Maybe Goro and Sunrise aren’t even sure, who knows. I’ve been thinking for a while that LeDouche would end up founding a new group, consisting of Kallen, Orange, C.C. (for whatever that’s worth these days), and probably Suzaku, but I’m not sure what exactly I think this crew will actually do. What I am sure of is that Suzaku losing his marbles is pretty awesome.

Soul Eater. This one’s hitting its stride with action after some really funny non-fighting episodes. It’s getting dangerously close to the standard shounen series that it parodies, but there’s still enough style and humor to set it apart. Incidentally, I watched the Excalibur episode a couple times, making it Soul Eater’s first repeat for me in a while. America!

The Return of Maid Guy. I hope public outcry has brought those fansubbers back on for the duration (two more episodes), because the ridiculous Miko episode was gold. In fact, it was so brilliant, it was a fanservice show about fanservice. Meta.

Real Drive. When you take a step back, RD is just a series of portraits of this future world that Shirow has created, with Nyamo serving as a window for the viewer to look through. Still not a lot of people watching this one, but I’m glad to see that they’re all very vocal about how much they love it.

Macross F. Sheryl went through a nice period of “Who’s moe now, bitch?” but it looks like Ranka’s getting a little taste of pain just as she realizes how smitten she is with Alto, for whom shoujo bubbles were seemingly invented. Hopefully Alto won’t be fighting his next battle in a nice boat instead of a variable fighter. The self-shipping/everyone’s-on-a-date episode was dumb to me. And by the way… triangles, we get it. Worse than the freaking pineapple dessert. Anyway, I’m watching, still up to date… but for some reason I’m not doing a lot of caring. Oh yeah, the animation is dog shit. See above, Sinbad.

Daughter of 20 Faces. Chiko’s aunt has yet to learn that her niece is immune to soup-based attacks, but Tome has thankfully put those to a stop with a little blackmail. Akechi’s starting to look formidable, and though he seems nice enough, I don’t think he’s looking for Twenty Faces so he can make friends. It seems like the series is getting a tad sloppy lately, but I’m still on board and ready to find out what the hell TF did to himself in the lab to get so un-killable.

Behind

Bonin’ knows, am dough. aka, Xam’d: Lost Memories, aka Bonen No Xamdou aka Bounen No Zamned aka 亡念のザムド aka bleeeeearararagh. You could bullet list the similarities to Eureka Seven: motley ship crew (mailmen rather than surfers), organic mecha things, familial issues, grumpy captain. But as OGT mentioned, Xam’d opted to start with a bang instead of Eureka’s gradual ramp-up. Like Soul Eater’s first couple episodes, Xam’d grabs you with its action, energetic mood, and typically awesome Bones style. Don’t expect too many more episodes of 20 Faces with great animation though, since the Xam’d crew is currently wallpapering their cubicles with approximately Lichenstein’s annual defense budget. Even though I’m behind, this one is high on my list.

Blassreiter. Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but when the series took a brighter turn toward action and away from everyone dying, my interest level dropped. There’s just not enough dark stuff going on in my anime lately. Still, Amanda is one of my favorite characters currently, and who doesn’t want to see Wolf get his just desserts deserts desserts whatever.

Nabari No Ou. Still watching. Still gay. It got pretty cool for a while, with Miharu playing both sides and everyone stepping up their game. I’m pretty far behind on this one, but the big make-out session is inevitable, right?

Itazura Na Kiss. I really love the fact that a romantic anime has the balls to go past the wedding. Unfortunately, Kotoko still hasn’t grown as a character much, and the gender role issues that are coming to the fore make a somewhat progressive Yankee like me uncomfortable. But it’s cute, and the humor is still spot-on much of the time.

Kind of stopped caring.

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki. I still push play with excited abandon, but for a few episodes now I’ve been met with disappointment. The American-accented teacher was a riot, but what is this thing they’ve introduced? … oh god, it’s a plot.

Koihime Musou. I tried. I’m not sure why, but I tried. KM has a good heart, and piles of fanservice, but really, it’s dumb. As you can see, I am watching a lot of anime right now and I just don’t have room for Samurai Girl-on-Girl Pantyshot Showdown, fun as that sounds.

Golgo 13. I watch it whenever I’m bored and have no backlog, which is rarely. But the episodic format makes it great for just that. I can pick up Duke whenever I want and not worry that I won’t know what’s going on.

Special Rapey Bonus

Detroit Metal City. Go watch this thing. It’s fucking hilarious. It doesn’t have anything to do with Detroit (trust me, I lived there), but it has a lot to do with pig-bitch-rape, patricide, and sensitive artists. There’s not a big time commitment — it flies by at about ten rapes a second — and it packs a lot of laughs into a short, unique period.

So… there’s my schedule of watching (and generally not blogging) about cartoons. I don’t know how it happened, I just looked up one day and I was watching a lot of shit. Anyone else have this kind of anime load right now?

Oh, Chiko. I don’t envy you. Your aunt’s still trying to off you with soup, or the occasional desperate and ineffectual sneak-attack on a boat. Your best friend thinks you’re a novelty and occasionally pretends to be you just to get in trouble. Your only real friend is your murderous aunt’s servant. And now the latter two, along with the numbnuts detective who “found” you, have all gone hypnotized by some white-haired zombie cyborg demon doll who’s in love with Twenty Faces.

Oh yeah, you’re homeless, and it’s raining. That just sucks. What? Cyborg woman is holding your only friend ransom… Jesus.

Well, all is well, since you’ve found Twenty Faces! Sure, zombie doll bitch is all about killing you out of jealousy, but didn’t we all know that Akechi secretly was Twenty Faces all along?

Wait, he’s not? Okay, so Twenty Faces just disguised himself as Detective Akechi. Hm. Still following, just less so.

So Twenty Faces kills zombie doll lady, cool, but then he falls off a blimp to save you? Ouch! Meaning, you got him back, stabbed him while hypnotized, finally came to your senses, and he’s gone again?

Wow. Did I mention I don’t envy Chiko?

What the hell is going on?

The reunion of Ken, Chiko, and the Boss didn’t have time to be sweet and sappy because they were pretty much under threat of death the whole time. I think that gave us a nice indication of the new darker and more urgent atmosphere — that it’s never going to be the happy Robin Hood’s merry-men party that they used to be living in. Of course, an eyepatch is always a dead giveaway too.

Cyborg-love-interest is gone, but so is Twenty Faces. Or is he? The scene near the end of episode 13 really hints that he’s actually dead this time, but his work isn’t finished, and TF seems like the kind of guy who would gladly cheat death to get the job done.

Say what you will about Twenty Faces (no one is saying much, actually), but these past three episodes gave me what I like the most about the show. First, the rare action scenes are creative and well-animated with a sense of style that I think only Bones could really pull off. And more importantly, the story keeps me guessing, something it’s been doing ever since Twenty Faces disappeared. Love it. I also love the way the writers gave viewers an “I knew it!” moment when Akechi turned out to be Twenty Faces, only to take it away by revealing that he wasn’t.

This backstory on Akine really seems superfluous, and cyborg lover went down pretty easy (she just kind of gave up living), but I can’t say I have real complaints about the direction of the show lately.

As a side note, anyone notice that the visual effects in the OP make noise now, like motion graphics on a Fox TV broadcast? Kind of goofy and lame.

Movie time! Chiko, her aunt, and Tame trek to a secluded island under the guise of seeing a movie shoot, each with her own ulterior motives. See if you can match the goal to the character, kids!

• Find the jewel and see if it leads to Twenty Faces‘ whereabouts
• Kill Chiko
• Stop Chiko from being killed

There they run into Eye-Patch, aka Ken, aka Akito Tenkawa from Nadesico after he comes back all dark and broody in Prince of Darkness. He ain’t happy.

But it’s a funtime family reunion when it comes down to saving each others’ lives. Little do either of them know, Twenty Faces may have been working on a project during the war to turn ordinary humans into rubber Mazinger Z dolls. And one of them lured Chiko to the island using the jewel.

Chiko graduates

The highlight for me was the scene from one of the nifty action sequences in the show’s OP. That’s pretty neat to finally see in itself, but in this scene Chiko goes from spunky thief-girl to ultimate badass. Ken and the humonculus (or whatever she is) both notice how much like Twenty Faces she suddenly looks. And they’re both scared by it.

What’s next?

OGT has been speculating on the nature of the second half the series; his thoughts are that either Chiko’s going to get increasingly bitter and angry as she finds out more about Twenty Faces’ seedy past experimenting with Frakenstein-esque human hax, or she’s going to find out she’s been punked. I lean more toward the former, possibly because I just hope it’s not the other. For Twenty Faces to pop out at the end and say… “You passed!” reeks too much of the old “it was all a dream” trick.

No matter what, the Twenty Faces continues to be super-fun, and I’ll bet you anything that the first season ends with a bitching cliffhanger.

I’ll leave you dirty, dirty, fanboys with a bonus.

Everyone is still all hopped up on Geass — There are almost as many people blogging it as are subbing it, even though I’m pretty sure the shark is just a distant memory at this point. And don’t even get me started on Not-So-Special-A, which for some reason people seem to like.

Anyway, here’s where I tell you what I like, then casually berate you.

1. Kure-nai

Yes, it has occurred to me that people are in fact watching Kure-nai, but it’s so good that everyone should be watching. This is a treat, a treasure. It’s an unexpected gem, and much like True Tears last season, it snuck up on me. It’s a show of contrasts. The bouncy poppy OP and ED conflict with the sober, eerie shamisen during the next episode previews. The ultra-cute interaction between Shinkurou and Murasaki (and their bizarre neighbors) contrasts with the ultraviolence that occasionally crops up, and the lighthearted nature of many episodes is the ultimate contrast with the seriousness of the plot. It looks like next episode will really bring that home as the two sides clash like they haven’t since early on.

Why you aren’t watching? Murasaki is a real child, no a loli. You sick fucks.

2. The Daughter of 20 Faces

Come on, everyone. You love Aya, don’t you? Of course you do. I’m sure you also love a good caper. And who in their right mind doesn’t love an airship (Hindenberg aside)? Twenty Faces may look like Roger from Big O, but he’s your classic thief with a heart of gold, and while there aren’t Geass-level (read: ridiculous) plot twists, it’s a clever show with an awesome Aya Hirano lead character.

Why aren’t you watching? Because Bones put the entire 2008 fiscal year budget into Soul Eater. Or perhaps you’re too busy buying Pizza Hut to care, aren’t you? You make Aya cry. Happy? UPDATE: I just watched the newest episode, and enough people died to make even you degenerates happy.

3. Real Drive

Absolutely zero love for Real Drive, what’s up people? Is it because Stand Alone Complex is a little racist? Have we given up on Masumune Shirow forever? We’re Americans, we’re supposed to love Shirow no matter how much he hates us. Production IG has even thrown us an olive branch — a young girl lead character — and given us panty shots for peace offerings. I thought as western anime lovers we were supposed to be raised on this Gibson-esque cyberpunk shit.

Why aren’t you watching? Perhaps the Age of Moe really is upon us. You’re all a bunch of pansies! Also, everyone seems to have stopped subbing it. Audible sigh.

4. Allison and Lillia

Much like Real Drive, Shinsen seems to have given up subbing this in favor of stuff 8 other teams are already working on, but AniYoshi is still trucking, thankfully. And much like 20 Faces, this is a nice slice of retro adventure. It’s got a laid-back feel, and a casual romance element that never gets in the way of the fun. Plots move by incredibly fast, and sometimes with way-too-easy resolutions, but it doesn’t dampen the bright charm of the series.

Why aren’t you watching? It’s just not flashy, the art style is retro, and of course, they skip right over the parts where people are in high school. Really, you can go without uniforms for 20 minutes a week, can’t you?  You ungrateful philistines ought to be ashamed. Or you ought to go watch me blog the show at Yukan.

5. Kaiba

I can’t say it enough, people. Kaiba is a monster. It seems to prompt a lot of people to analyze it, but for me it works largely on the emotional level.

Why aren’t you watching? Not enough talking? Too round? I don’t know! I swear to god one episode had panties! Are you watching it yet? No? You disgust me.

We should be bowing low and thanking whatever deity we believe in that we live in the era of instant fansubs, and we should be enjoying those fruits.

Are there any shows out there that you feel aren’t getting enough love from the otakusphere?

This season’s getting crowded. After last season’s initial reactions, which ranged from ho-hum to enraged to “hey I know what would shake up a boring season, let’s enter the already-crowded anime blog space partway through,” my brain shakes and twitches like a junkie’s at the though of Macross and Geass fixes. I doubt I will watch everything I started with (I see no intrinsic value in Special A aside from the fact that Jun Fukuyama is in another freaking show), and I probably shouldn’t be blogging everything I watch. Oddly, Geass may fall into that list, much as I enjoy watching it, unless I can make a really fun game out of screencapping Pizza Hut logos and goth poses. And then along comes Allison & Lillia.

Story and Characters

Allison & Lillia was initially a bit confusing to me until I found out that the series is divided in half: Lillia is Allison’s daughter and doesn’t appear until the second half of the series.

In an alternate reality defined by an early-20th-century European look and a country at constant war with its neighbor, Wilhelm is a model student, so much so that he’s often asked to teach younger kids in the name of obvious plot exposition (still beats Special A, seriously). But one day in the middle of school his childhood friend Allison shows up in her biplane. Apparently she opted for the air force instead of high school.

When they encounter an old man with a bunch of made-up stories, their summer starts to get odd. One of his stories about his days in the army — which he claims to have not made up — turns Allison and Wil’s notions of world history upside down.

But before they can find out more, a man in a black car who claims to be the tax assessor takes oji-san away. Sensing something suspicious, impulsive and athletic Allison drags the reserved and bookish Wil along in a chase that starts by motorcycle but ends the episode in a plane, and very obviously begins a huge old-school adventure.

Psych Evaluation

Are you interested in seeing a cartoon where a pair of kids go off on a grand adventure in what (at first glance) appears to be a family-friendly, but grand and epic way? Would you like to see such a show capably animated in a vaguely vintage-feeling style? Then you, my friend, are sane! I know I want to see it, and I am almost definitely not that crazy.

This show had near-instant appeal for me. In spite of what my sidebar tells you, I’m still in the midst of establishing what to blog, but this has a better chance than most of making it on the list.

Will it hold up? Madhouse’s animation varies between shows but they are solid technicians, usually consistent from beginning to end. In this case it’s not bad, not great, but certainly watchable. Computers are used minimally to improve the smoothness of the airplanes in flight, and it works very well. The music enhances that old-school adventure feel, and seems very cinematic if this episode is any indication.

It was really refreshing, much as I like robots and Jun Fukuyama (and as much as you like fox-girl-panties, come on…), to see something like this. I’m really interested in seeing where it goes.