Shameful Otaku Secret!

Part of the 12 Moments in Anime 2009, which walks like a duck and talks like a duck, and thus must be CCY’s fault.

In terms of quality — animation, writing, characters — as well as that pure glued-to-the-screen factor, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 stands out in a (mostly) unimpressive field of competitors this year.

But I think what will stand out in most people’s minds is the moment when they realized… it.

When exactly it happened is something that some viewers had to go back and establish. But for many, this handy infographic sums it up.

Legend:

A: Oh my. This is bad. I wonder if…
B: Oh, it’s really true. And the denial… it’s so heart-wrenching.
C: How, uh… how long are they gonna keep this up?
D: argaaargrgrgashflakjsdasdfklhja

Now the question is, did that slight overemphasis lessen the impact? I suppose it did, but the feeling of disappointment passed. That’s partially due to the strong final episode, which I know left my household all dewey-eyed, and partially due to the simple fact that the series as a whole was great. I haven’t seen that level of emotional intensity, whether it be the very real sense of fear and danger early on or the tragedy of later episodes, in a long time. So regardless of how you feel about “the thing” and its corresponding moment, at least there’s a strong series to go with it.

This 12 Moments of Anime 2009, it is Char

That’s the name of the 14th episode of Planetes and it means what it says in more than one way, some of which will spoil you if you haven’t seen this marvelous show, so don’t read on if that’s the case.

The first half of Planetes is basically a slice of life of orbital garbage collectors, set in a marvelously intricate sci-fi near future. There’s workplace drama, issues of ambition and social status, and even some office romance. It’s actually the culmination of that workplace fraternizing that provides the turning point. Hachimaki’s forced to reexamine his priorities in light of his relationship with Tanabe and his opportunity to make it to Jupiter. Not only that, the tone of the show starts changing dramatically from that point.

Really, the sad truth is that it never got any better for Tanabe and Hachimaki than their first kiss. It was all downhill from there.

Ghostlightning became briefly obsessed with the concept of what happens after the climactic hookup, and who can blame him — anime so often gives us a “chase is better than the catch” feeling by focusing 13-50 (or more) episodes on getting to the culmination of a schoolkid’s crush and showing us nothing of what happens after. Of course, that implies that everything is idyllic and wonderful, and that there’s no possible drama in two people who admit that they’re in love with one another. How incredibly unlike real life that is.

In the end, Hachimaki righted his wrongs and realized that his dreams could coexist with the more mundane aspects of his life (as long as they were willing to wait seven years…), and he tied it up in a really romantic and cute kinda way. But in the context of both the series and anime as a whole, episode 14’s “turning point” was a hard moment to top.

Part of the 12 Moments in Anime 2009, which would be a ripoff at any bakery.

This is a short one, because honestly I don’t feel much like writing about Honey & Clover right now. I already did it, (warning: same pancake) and though I feel like there’s more to say, I’m not sure how to say it because H&C kind of flew by in my brain.

Why?

Because it’s the first thing I “marathoned” in a really long time. The marathon is the catnip of the anime fan, and the bane of the ones with real lives and jobs. It’s what happens when you are so sucked into a series that you’re preoccupied by its characters during work or school. You’re distant in conversation with real human beings because you don’t care what happens to them, you care what happens to HAGU DAMMIT. And you have to bear witness to the constant fight between your unstoppable desire to keep going and your sad knowledge that you’re bringing the end on sooner.

In this case, bring it on because it was worth getting to the end again (as evidenced by how many re-watches a mere mention could trigger). So the moment in this case…? It’s realizing that I was in the thick of a marathon and I wasn’t going to stop until it was over.