Shameful Otaku Secret!

Eureka-ism

This one’s still fresh in my mind. Xam’d: Lost Memories aka Bounen no Xamdou aka Bonen no Zamned is proving to be one of the year’s finest shows. And honestly that doesn’t surprise me much. After RahXephon and Eureka Seven, Bones should command attention when they create an original mecha series — especially with Sony forking over a small country’s annual budget to get it made and shipped out via PS3. As this is still the current episode, I won’t post a picture and I won’t even talk too much about it. Suffice to say… episode 19.

There are those who thought it was too much, but there are those who didn’t like Diebuster either. For me, a tribute is a fine line — Macross Frontier was 26 episodes of tribute, and while it was mostly enjoyable, I’ve made my overall opinion known so I won’t go on and on. But a beautiful, seat-gripping moment like this one? I’ll take a tribute. Especially considering what it did for the story and mood of Xam’d.

Aside from their consistently high production values, unique recognizable style, and obsession with western aesthetics, there’s an even stronger mark of a Bones production (at least of their grandest projects): their stories’ unshaking faith and optimism. Hope and love are Bones’ hard work and guts.

Anno-ism

There are plenty of moments so far in the current ef: a tale of melodies sequel to get into this list (“Warum” comes to mind), but I’m not sure any of them beat the first series’ phone card scene, which Martin described in the comments of this site as “Anno-esque” (best word for the text-on-blank-screen stuff I’ve ever heard). I watched ef: a tale of memories shortly  after it aired, all at once, so episode 9’s nail-biting climax can sit comfortably in an ‘08 list.

Usually romantic anime (especially VN adaptations) don’t even have much of a conclusion, but those that do tend to force the characters into dramatic confessions through horrifying situations reeking of melodrama. There’s no shortage of melodrama in ef, but for all its fantasy, its characters have certain ways about them that really strike me as realistic. It’s not just that they have sex or even, God forbid, touch each other (I’m looking at you, Okazaki), it’s how their obsessions and hangups affect the plot more than any outside influence (not so much with the current series).

Episode 9 was the perfect fusion of Shinbo-ism and melodramatic character-driven angst. As the saying goes, you’ll pay for your seat, but you’ll only need THE EDGE.

Grit. those. teeeeth!

Part four. as always, this mess is CCY’s fault.

No, I’m not actually talking about one of the numerous manly face punches present in anime. It is, however, something that did (more or less) show up in a Coburn post. Sometime near smack in the middle of true tears, Hiromi encounters Noe. And she recognizes Noe as an interloper in her long-standing plans to win the useless Shinichiro. Having been raised to think she was his illegitimate half-sister, Hiromi is used to swallowing her feelings. But put a magnifying glass on her, and you’ll find outward signs of her finally beginning to crack, as when she grits her teeth.

For me, this moment was magic. It solidified true tears‘ ability to (a) survive purely on execution, and (b) succeed in portraying subtlety where most other dramatic anime gets really ham-fisted. The series’ story is not a new story, it’s not even a particularly good story, but true tears stroked my balls repeatedly with its subtle, tasteful ways of doing things.

Besides: Tragedy and pain don’t happen all at once as a result of setting of the wrong flag — they happen in small doses of inevitability that stack on top of each other until you’re left with a broken heart. That kind of subtlety also becomes a great showcase for complexity in true tears‘ characters in moments like this one. I feel as if I should use the word “subtle” one more time.