Wakaranai

In some ways it’s good to be a yuri fanboy right now. Exemplified by shows like Saki, Strike Witches and Railgun it seems almost all the popular shows to have surface dover the last year are coated in a thick residue of yuri subtext. It’s hard to find a series nowadays that doesn’t deal with yuri themes or connotations in some way. With all the overtones being thrown around, combined with the increasing selection of anime that, following in the large footprints of Strawberry Panic and Kannaduki no Miko, are overtly marketed as yuri series, featuring unsubtle and unapologetic relationships between girls. It’s like the entire anime industry has suddenly come out of the closet collectively. But, as a long time yuri enthusiast, I think this has become over-saturation and over-simplification of what was once a sub-sub-genre of anime. Being a yuri fanboy used to be a frontier lifestyle. To get to that rare gem of yuri would entail much sifting, searching and usually a bit of imagination. I’m starting to crave that less obvious era once more, when yuri romance was a thing of hidden beauty, epitomised by symbolism, subtlety and romanticism rather than upfront fanboy appeal. Almost ironically, the innocence of yuri that used to make my heart waver has been stripped away as it loses its place as ‘forbidden romance’ in a modern society and an anime industry increasingly marked by fanboy fetishism rather than genuine emotionality.

So where does Sasameki Koto fit into all of this? Well, interestingly, I don’t think it fits at all. Despite being a series that essentially opens with the line “Why can’t girls love each other?”, it’s certainly no Strawberry Panic. It’s in no way trying to hide the fact that it’s a yuri series, but at the same time it’s not making a blatant fanboy appeal; the girls aren’t all super-cute moe fantasies and it’s not caught up in some implausible alternate universe without men (ala Strawberry Panic). And there is no fanservice to be found. I can’t say it feels like a realistic portrayal of lesbianism (and frankly, who wants that?), but it is grounded in reality and hence manages to evoke emotion. Episode 1 misleadingly got the show off to a shaky start in terms of characterisation, but since then the characters have become relatively believable and easy to sympathise with.

This is most true of the main character, the ordinary-looking and slightly masculine Sumika, whose yuri crush on her cute best friend and flagrantly lesbian, Kazama, is crushingly nonreciprocal. The dynamic between these two is the core of the show, and the fact that it is so unusual and fraught with angst gives the show a strong emotional pull over more straight-forward yuri of this type, like Aoi Hana. Sumika’s trouble stems from the fact that her love interest happens to be infatuated with cute and pretty girls, a catergory from which she is explicitly excluded. So despite Sumika being in a good position to confess in terms of the fact that Kazama is interested in girls, she is doomed to the role of jealous and frustrated onlooker as Kazama chases beautiful girls. The secrecy of her crush doesn’t derive angst from the morality or strangeness of her attraction but rather from her fear of being rejected. In that sense you could almost say that its strengths are its romantic storytelling ability, regardless of the yuri aspect. Take out the yuri twist and you’d probably still have a gripping story.

In being an atypical yuri series and not following the usual path of the S-class relationship, and not really chasing a theme uniquely found in the yuri genre, it doesn’t really feel like a yuri series, despite the fact that it clearly deals with girl-girl relationships. I have to say, I prefer yuri series that derive angst or excitement from the “forbidden love” aspect. Being set in a co-ed school rather than the standard all-girl’s-school setting does mean that occasionally allow the show to give the sense that the yuri predispositions isn’t entirely normal, but there’s certainly no antagonism. The only truly straight girl with any kind of role is completely unperturbed by Kazama’s interest, which is nice and all, but I guess I just don’t swallow the lack of prejudice found at this school. This series would have you believe Japanese high schools are havens of political correctness and acceptance while series like Shigofumi portray them as rampant with bullying. But this lack of true believability is forgivable because it isn’t what the show is really about, I just think it’s easy to get fired up and root for a pairing when they face external adversity.

In this case the struggle that defines this relationship is very much internal. Which, as I said before, is quite affecting as a romance story, but feels like it could have been to applied to any couple. While I consistently sympathise for Sumika, the main problem with the series is that it’s set up such that you can’t help but hate the object of her desires, Kazama. Kazama’s obsession with good-looking girls just feels unforgivably shallow coming from the perspective of the audience who knows how hurtful it is to the more sincerely in love, Sumika. The more I feel sorry for Sumika, the more I become frustrated with Kazama, which makes the show fun to watch but which doesn’t really make for a great pairing. I certainly don’t care for Kazama/Sumika, I just want to see Sumika happy. I think this is a flaw in the show, because I’m sure they could have made Kazama more likeable while still playing the obliviously dismissive card. Maybe that would have had the spark to set alight my yuri fanboy side.

As it is though, this is a strangely compelling tale of love, even if it skims over its girl-love angle a little too cleanly and simplistically. If you’re looking for a romance with a dash of angst and a bit of an unusual twist (yuri AND crossdressing), then this could well be worth watching. I’m enjoying the series in that respect, but wanted to try and articulate where it belongs in the exponentially growing mosaic of yuri anime. As yuri creeps into more and more anime, it becomes more important for its fanboys to remember where it came from and what its appeal really is.

It still feels like the summer season only just started and already people are looking ahead to see the coming storm of anime that is going to replace their summer lineup. At the risk of being left behind the rest of the otaku rabble, I thought I’d better do a bit of planning myself. As usual, chartfag’s impeccable season charts make the significant array of upcoming series much easier to digest. What remains to be seen is whether there’s anything palatable amid the season’s offerings.

This fall season offers up a reasonable number of anime - it’s not as surprisingly deficient as summer in terms of the quantity of shows, but at the same time there is a bit less for me to get excited about. Then again, much of summer’s excitement soon turned cold, and I ended up dropping or sidelining to backlog, a number of series. So perhaps it’s better having a few key series to pour all your expectations into to reduce the number of times you’ll be disappointed. In this case those key series are glaring out at me from the pack: Darker than Black season 2 and A Certain Scientific Railgun. I can already tell that those two alone are going to provide me with the essentially ingredients of a healthy anime diet. I can fanboy over the girls from Railgun and enjoy a some more plot-oriented and action-packed fun from Darker than Black.

One notable problem with the fall selection shown here is the depressing lack of original content! Usually when a Manglobe series is among an upcoming anime list it’s a solitary ‘original’ anime buried under the hype of all the adaptations and sequels increasingly taking over the TV timeslots. But this time, even Manglobe are doing an adaptation! There’s no Production I.G presence either, for a chance at something fresh. The result is that the single original series is some dodgy-looking Chinese series, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It’s a bit sad, but on the up side, this time a few of the sequels are worth getting excited about. And at least Darker than Black is going to provide some original creative content, even if it is a sequel.

Here are my picks for the season. If anyone has any series they’re awaiting that I’ve overlooked please recommend them to me! I know Fairy Tail has some potential although I won’t be interested until I see a great first episode or something.

● Darker than Black 2
If it weren’t for my deep fanboy affections for Biri-Biri of A Certain Scientific Railgun, then I wouldn’t hesitate to call this the highlight of the season, with big budget action/drama potential. That’s actually kind of strange because I found the first season quite disappointing overall. But I have the confidence that this will be able to surpass it predecessor and overcome the pacing and characterisation flaws that hurt it. I already love the look of the new sniper girl. I hope she adds some real personality to the mix.
>>> Full preview post


● Railgun
Wao! I’ve been interminably excited about this series ever since it was announced. I was a bit letdown by the To Aru Majutsu no Index anime, but for those who feel the same way, do not let that deter you from giving this series a try! It’s based off a spinoff manga starring the coolest character from Index, the powerful tsundere, Biri-biri. The manga that this anime is based off has been really enjoyable so far, so I think this show has lots of promise (although personally I’ll be happy with just lots of Biri-biri). The director has changed from the Index anime - the director of Toradora is heading this one. This promises a great mix of cute girls, a dab of nosebleed-worthy fanservice and plenty of story and action.

>>> Full preview post


● Sacred Blacksmith
Originating from a novel series this is a generic-sounding but awesome-looking fantasy produced by Manglobe . Even though they inexcusably screwed up on Ergo proxy, I always find myself looking forward to their series. Usually that’s because they do things that are original and unique, but in this case it’s just because I happen to be in the mood for fantasy and because I suspect they will be able to make something really visually attractive.

>>> Full preview post

● Kobato
It’s CLAMP without the noodle-people character designs! Despite my erternal love of their work on Cardcaptor Sakura, I’m not generally a big CLAMP fan. But Kobato is something new from them that isn’t xxHolic or Tsubasa, so I’ll give it a look out of curiosity. The sweet and lightly ditzy female lead, Kobato looks really cute and that’s always a big draw for me! My only concern is that the manga is a bit (extremely) light on plot.

>>> Full preview post


● Sasameki Koto
It seems that yuri-yuri anime have become a staple of the season lineup, and this time Sasameki Koto fits the bill. The yuri factor is very high and completely unsubtle in the vein of Strawberry Panic or Aoi Hana, but that alone isn’t enough to pull me in (especially now that it’s becoming so common since Strawberry Panic). I do like the description of the key relationship behind the series, it has a bit of an interesting ring to it. Sumika has to win Ushio’s heart! Let the yuri love battle begin! Hopefully this turns out well but for now I don’t really have any expectations.

● Nogizaka
In the case of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, however, I know exactly what to expect. That is, assuming the first season is a good indicator. This makes three sequels I’m planning to watch this fall. Sequels are everywhere, but of all the shows it came as a surprise that Nogizaka got one. The first season is one of those shows I secretly enjoyed watching on some shallow level while visibly complaining about it. With any luck it won’t take a more dramatic tone this season and we’ll get more fluff and fanservice to enjoy, The novelty of a moe-moe otaku/akibakei girl never really wears thin for me.

● Seitokai no Ichizon
Actually I wouldn’t even say I was interested in this series. The premise sounds pretty dull, the character designs aren’t exactly bad but they’re not really my thing either. Studio DEEN will probably do a competent job on the adaptation. I’m only slightly curious if it turns out to have a mild level of moe fanservice and cute girls. The only thing to do is give it a try!

● Sora no Otoshimono
There’s no use trying to hide it, I’m shameless drawn to this show by the attractive character designs, promise of panty shots and all manner of fanservice and the apparent chain fetishism going on in the promotional pictures. Most importantly, after watching the excellent PV I’m confident that it’s not going to be a dry, painful fanservice series in the vein of Queens Blade or the like - it looks like it has interesting characters and a good upbeat sense of humour. Apparently the lead male is a huge pervert which at least puts him slightly outside of the useless pathetic harem lead stereotype.

>>> Full preview post

Squeezed desperately into the nooks and crannies between assignments and exams, this season turned out to be quite a success, satisfying most people with a good mixture of action series, moe characters, shameless fanservice, bishoujo-style romance, nostalgic remakes and even a rare originality factor in the form of Production I.G’s Eden of the East. Spring ’09 was fun and upbeat. Courtesy of GitS:SAC staffer, Kenji Kamiyama, Eden of the East was arguably the highlight of the season, but it had to wrestle for attention with a number of other worthy series. Headphone and CD-selling, K-ON was the biggest success story, proving yet again that Kyoto Animation are the undisputed kings of moe and marketing. With a surprisingly large following the blatant moe selling-point of the show was bought up by an ever-burgeoning target audience. I’m sure the loli cuteness of Lucky Star didn’t pull in as much fanboy attention as this did. Maybe Kyoto Animation pulled in some extra viewers with the premise of music only to capture them with unforgettable moe moments like “Moe moe kyun!” and “Azu-nyan”. Unfortunately I was the opposite, put off by the apparent boring moeblob manifesto of the first two episodes and disappointed with the music aspect, I dropped it. But I’d known it was going to be all maid cosplay, cat-ears and beach episodes after that I would definitely have watched it! If Yui hadn’t been so pathetic I probably would have endured.

Saki followed a similar route, with the premise of mahjong and actual content of cute nekomimi girls, yuri, yuri, maids, fanservice, nopan jokes and more yuri. But when it’s not caught up in either taco-drama (they’re burritos anyway) or penguin-drama, it’s a pleasant enough series. Queen’s Blade is the ultimate example of ecchi from this season. The new Ikkitousen, it takes the fanservice meter and turns it up as far as it can go, smashes it to pieces and replaces it with its own metre, with bondage, peeing girls, tits that could feed an African family for three times their life expectancy, and constant strippings. Being an ecchi-fiend I actually did check it out, but was immediately put off by the huge oppai and acid-firing nipple-demons. Tayutama looked like it would have lots of fanservice but actually could of done with a whole lot more to disguise the fact that it’s shit. Fortunately, it does have cute costume designs and an animal-eared girl in its favour. Hatsukoi Limited strummed the fanservice chord with perfect restraint, providing a heart-warming romance/comedy anime with a serving of the evermore endangered panty-shots. This show was a big surprise for me, and one of the most consistently enjoyable of the season.

Sengoku Basara sits at the other end of the spectrum, providing fanservice for boys with a thing for hot-blooded men in flamboyant costumes engaged in a series of ridiculous action scenes. It’s all action, and well-animated, so if you can deal with the fact that it had no other discernable value then it probably went down quite well. FMA 2 had big expectations and hype to live up to, and doesn’t seem to be meeting them so far. I still subscribe to the idea that the first anime was good enough and they shouldn’t do another, even if there is manga plot left untold. The gimmicky jokes about Ed’s height or Winry’s mechanic-otaku status are mind-numbingly repeated, and the use of super-deformed drawings is getting to be too much. I could excuse the fact that it’s rushing through the first part of the story if not for that. Other heavy-weight franchises made appearances this season. Haruhi season 2 made a surprise cameo as a lead in to its coming airing next season. Hayate the Combat Butler also lives on with another season reincarnated by prolific studio J.C Staff. Many people noted J.C-ification of the character designs, but the new series seems to handle itself well enough.

On the other hand, GONZO created a disaster in Shangri-La, which had a lot going for it, from a novel story idea to designs by Range Murata, but poor budgeting and poor almost everything quickly led it astray. I’m sure it has its followers, but I couldn’t enjoy it. Basquash, a strange anime written by a foreigner lost a director after poor DVD sales. Not sure how switching directors halfway through a show will inspire people to buy the DVDs, but hey. Shugo Chara is steaming along, delivering requisite mahou shoujo to the masses. Mahou Shoujo certainly isn’t in its heyday, but at least Shugo Chara is keeping it alive.

Overall, I didn’t watch a lot, but I did find most shows I watched to be stimulating and interesting. Shows like Eden of the East and K-ON bought together a lot of fans and generated a lot of online discussion and fanart (I don’t think I’ve seen anything like the flood of Mio and Azu-nyan fanart that’s been saturating pixiv and danbooru lately). Next season, we’ll be feeling the bite of the reduced output of the flailing anime industry. Even with a significant cut in the amount of series, there’s still about 7 things I’m keen to watch, so I’m not about to be pessimistic! If anyone else saw the season different or had either highlight series, please share!

“ The trial of an American man arrested for ordering loli manga from Japan has ended after he pled guilty; he now faces a possible 15 year sentence, along with a $250,000 fine and the loss of all his precious loli manga.

The man, Iowa resident Christopher Handley, pled guilty to “possessing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and mailing obscene material,” charges stemming from postal workers rifling through his package and discovering it contained manga supposedly depicting underage sexual activity.

Today’s big story is the sudden, shocking and downright unjust conclusion to the case of Christopher Handley. His lawyer has convinved him to plead guilty, rather than further challenge the case on the merits of the obcenity charges with the help of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. One source, claiming to be a close family friend to Chris Handley describes the situation and suggests that he was mislead by his lawyer, and says that there may be room for some appeal:

Hello all. I am a close friend of Chris’ family. To shed some light on what happened, I thought I would share what I know. It was his own lawyer that encouraged him to take the plea. His lawyer convinced him that the case could not be won, and that he would be better off to plea to the lesser charge. However, it is my understanding that Chris was mislead in this. From what we were told, the lesser charge was simply the possession and import of obscene materials. He was also told that if he plead out, that he would more than likely not see any time as he has been on probation this whole time and has not been any kind of a threat to society since he had been placed on probation. Many of us that know Chris, are just as disappointed and upset as many of you. It is a miscarriage of justice, and with any luck it can be appealed. Read more here.

So perhaps there is a slim hope for justice to prevail after all. But for now, this development stands as an outrageous and disgusting example of the reach of persecutation and the limits of freedom and liberty. While feminist groups in the UK attempt to thwart the Japanese constitution and undermine the hentai industry by pressuring social groups and the government with moral posturing, the US now sees a precadent that effectively outlaws all loli or shota material, and even hentai that depicts adult-seeming characters in “obscene” sexual engagements. Countries of the world are lining up to take a swing at common sense and the right to freedom of thought by introducing and enforcing harsh measures against “virtual” material. In my country, Australia, the law is already quite clear: any pornography with underage particapents is illegal to import and (perhaps) illegal to possess, regardless of the degree to which they resemble a real human. There is no other way to describe laws like this other than an affront to freedom of expression and an illogical knee-jerk reaction by the ignorant public towards something they find offensive. Unless an action or belief harms or opresses someone else, what right does the government have to tell you not to do it, in the privacy of your own home.

Personal freedoms are out the window when it comes to the moral frenzy of the day, which is presently paedophilia. And of course, because it does not mean anything to them, most people are perfectly willing to accept that drawn lolicon IS child pornography, or that it leads to the consumption of child pornography or worse. This theory has been completely unverified, and lauded by the Supreme Court in the US and yet has been adopted by self-righteous moral crusaders all across the world. And the plainest example of just how stupid these kinds of laws have become is the sheer magnitude of the sentences, both the maximum and minimum, that importing or accessing so-called “virtual child pornography” can incur. Years in prison for a looking at a handful of drawings in your own home? That’s more perverse than anything I’ve seen in a hentai. Modern society is heading in a bad direction very quickly and I’m ashamed and frightened to be a part of it. The sheer selfishness of people who agree with these kinds of laws is astounding, even among the anime fandom. Look back at when Seven Seas licensed Kodomo no Jikan. The uproar over that, spearheaded by a good portion of the pathetic ANN community was a real wake-up call to me. It seems that if something doesn’t infringe on the lifestyle of the majority, it’s perfectly acceptable to have it banned and its supporters lynched, regardless of whether there is any reason to do so. And of course, it’s a vicious cycle; stigma surrounding this topic has become so great that no one in their right mind has the chance to defend it without being utterly destroyed.

This should be a sad day for anime and manga fans all over the world. And don’t think you’re entirely immune just because you don’t look at outright loli porn. Think about how the age of these characters can be established? What portion of anime characters are actually over the 18 and legal, and, more importantly, who gets to decide whether the art style of a hentai is depicting a minor or not? It’s ridiculous that I should even have to ponder these questions because we’re talking about drawings and pictures - it shouldn’t even matter. And if legal precedents like these are set, where will it end,

“What about Kaworu Watashiya’s Kodomo no Jikan?[27] Once you begin to attack pure fantasy, where do you stop? Under current legal interpretation, a drawing of Rin’s fictional panties covering her non-existent genitalia constitutes a prohibited sexual act.

If we apply that fact to other manga all of a sudden you can ban a wide range of titles, like the popular series Negima. These laws have the potential to make it more difficult to legally obtain hentai than actual pornography, because anime characters who are of age could be construed as being minors given a certain art style or body type. Hell, in the UK, laws are starting to spring up targeting pornographic featuring real or fictional adults engaged in sexual behaviour deemed offensive, like BDSM. These recent attacks on civil liberties demonstrate poor legal ethics and degrading public hysteria. Sentencing a mild-mannered, law-abiding, tax-paying citizen to years in prison is, as far as I’m concerned, completely unethical on top of irrational.

As you can tell, I have a rather strong opinion on this topic, but for a dryer and more convincing article on the legality of lolicon/shota in the US, this is a must-read:

‘Down the Slippery Slope - The Crime of Viewing Manga‘

In conclusion, the author says:

In the meantime, organizations like the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which would have provided expert witnesses at its own expense had the Handley case gone to trial, should be supported through donations and membership. News sites and blogs should loudly criticize government interference with the rights of its citizens to purchase, read and possess the publications they wish. Petitions should be sent to members of Congress objecting to the censorship of art under the guise of protecting children. Moral crusading against comic books and art must be forced into retreat.

For extra information on the Handley case, from someone actually involved, this page and website is also a good resource:

Matt Thorn’s Blog

I don’t post frequently, for a variety of reasons (don’t say lazy).  However, sometimes things pop up which need to posted on.  This is one of those sometimes:

If you’re a Gundam fan like me, you would undoubtedly know about Harutoshi Fukui’s Unicorn Gundam.  And if you’re anything like me, you probably fell in love with Hajime Katoki’s excellent mechanical designs for it.  And if you’re anything like me, an announcement in Newtype about Unicorn Gundam getting animated probably had you NEO ZEON BANZAIing all the way to Jaburo.  Exciting times for the 30th anniversary of Gundam; not only is the RX-78 getting a life sized statue of itself built, but Sunrise is caving in to the torrent of mecha otaku begging for Unicorn in action.  At this stage, I have no idea how it’s going to be animated: whether a TV series, OVA or film has not been confirmed, to my knowledge (though personally I’m hoping for a six episode OVA).  After my disappointment surrounding the rather promising looking 0081 project turning out to be primarily a video game I’ll never get to play, this is the sort of announcement I needed.

Though in ways Unicorn sticks close to an established UC formula, in others it creates intruiging plotlines.  The mysteries surrounding the identity of Char-clone and excellently named Neo Zeon ace Full Frontal are honestly pretty compelling.  I want to know who Full Frontal really is: is he the Char Aznable we all know and love, or is he the real Char Aznable, who our Char masqueraded as to escape persecution from the Zabis?  Additionally, the motives of the century old Siam Vist and his part in the creation of the titular Gundam really gets me going as well.  On top of that, there’s something of a Mazinger vibe going on with how Barnage Lynx, the protagonist (he’s in the image above), gets the Unicorn entrusted to him by his dying father, and I really like it as a twist on the ‘falling into the cockpit’ cliche that Mobile Suit Gundam pioneered.  Truth be told, it is a little melodrammatic, with the abuse suffered by the character Marida Cruz only coming in second place to Hansel and Gretelof Black Lagoon.  That said, I have no problem with darker storylines, so hopefully they follow through on what Fukui has written - I could use some 0080 style punches to the emotional gut.  I’d be very interested in seeing a cast list, as well as that staff list translated.  Also, I have to admit a fondness for Kumiko Takahashi adaptions of Gundam alumnus Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s character designs.  I think Barnage looks like a great lead and Audrey (Hep)Burn (pictured above) has a real sense of elegance around her.  At the moment, I’m pretty excited about the staff: director Kazuhiro Furuhashi has not previously worked on Gundam, but he was the director behind Le Chevalier D’Eon, Zipang and more importantly the truly excellent Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen OVAs.  Yasuyuki Muto is doing the script, and while he wrote Bible Black and Sengoku Basara, he was also the Chief Writer for Le Chevalier D’Eon, a series I thought was particularly well written.  With any luck, we may be in for a treat.  Sieg Zeon!

Quite unlike popular space-cowboy, Spike Spiegel, this blog is neither dead nor popular. It’s been running since 2005 now, which is well in excess of the mean life expectancy of an anime blog, so I guess it’s a bit late to worry about boosting up my readership now, but I did decide that it needed a makeover. As Kuroko put it To Aru majutsu no Index, it’s time for a change! Because I pretty much liked the old layout I stubbornly refused to change it, save for a few little additions. As a result, it’s looked more or less the same for years. In that time, Wordpress evolved to its second stage and introduced a bunch of new superpowers and general increased functionality. Ultimately, I wanted more functionality, and I also wanted a more expansive layout to appease the widescreen gods. So I present a new look for Wakaranai (which is still a work in progress in some ways), and avow to forge ahead, better, faster, harder and more prone to piercing the heavens than ever before! Massugu Go!

I’m also hoping to revise my post styles, and the general focus of content on the blog. I do want to post more regularly, and reduce the length of posts, particularly the episodic ones. I’ve tried to weed out episodic posting for some time, but I ultimately gravitate back to it because I have something to say after watching each episode. I may either try to limit these posts to one or 2 series per season, and really focus on doing weekly entries for them, or do posts only on standout (good or bad) episodes. I also want to include more commentary on news and events in the sphere of anime and manga, rather than just relying on critique as the backbone of the content. Hopefully regular posting should become a reality, especially as a friend of mind, Newtype (who has already made several good posts here), might be interesting in writing more often. If anyone has any comments or suggestions, I’d really like to hear from you, either on the new aesthetics, or on the composition of the content. This is a really good opportunity for me to improve the blog, make it more streamlined and more consistent. In particular, something bugging me is the question of whether I should change this font. By the way, I’m really proud of the banner (praise be to MSPaint Photoshoop. Amen), so if you either want to stroke my ego or give it a nice, refreshing Glasgow Kiss, then share your thoughts!

As for the image problem, a number of people were having problems with images being displayed on the blog. It took me a while to find the problem, but it’s fixed now, either way. So if you ran away along with the images, then please come back!

 ざわ。。。　ざわ。。

Fans hoping to see the scheduled broadcast of Haruhi parody anime Haruhi-chan tuned in eagerly to their YouTube channel today, but were instead greeted with a 46 second “nice boat” video announcing that the video had not materialised, and nothing more.

            Sankaku Complex

It’s hard to understand the machinations that go on behind the untamed Kadokawa marketing beast. It’s a black box to me, intaking the desperate yearnings of Haruhiists and outputting rage and sorrow. Their viral marketing for Haruhi, with all the cryptic website easter eggs, was actually pretty fun and different, but somewhere along the line they had a change of heart and decided to take up the mantle of malevolent bastards. I didn’t read too much into the Newtype debacle recently, because I figured that the cover had been talking about a rerun (I’m not sure why most major anime news services assumed that it was a season 2 announcement), but that certainly incited ire in many Haruhi fans who have been waiting for an ever-delayed sequel. Admittedly, I’m not a religious Haruhi fan, so I’m not too concerned either way, but I was looking forward to the Haruhi-chan youtube parody anime, which was promised as a cute little diversion to occupy fans until they finished the next season. So it’s a bit disappointing that they pulled a stunt like this, putting up a nice-boat video with the message “We couldn’t make it”.

Even if their production team were behind schedule, it’s a rude way to break it to eager fans. They could have changed the release date earlier, for a soft-landing approach. Well, if they thought it was an opportunity to garner some attention then it may have payed off, with this statistics:

_____________________________________________
#7 - Most Discussed (Today)
#1 - Most Discussed (Today) - Japan
#1 - Most Discussed (Today) - Film & Animation
#1 - Most Discussed (Today) - Film & Animation - Japan
#1 - Most Viewed (Today) - Japan
#76 - Top Favorited (Today)
#2 - Top Favorited (Today) - Japan
#9 - Top Favorited (Today) - Film & Animation
#1 - Top Favorited (Today) - Film & Animation – Japan

(Posted in the Sankaku Complex comments)

– But I’m sure it wasn’t the right kind of attention. With this much aggravating titillation, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Haruhi fanbase waned a bit, especially with how fast new trends and fads come along in the anime industry. And we don’t have a new release date either, nyoro~n. Churuya must flow!