I love to cook. Oh, boy, do I. Not much of a baker though. I can get the job done, but if you want your treats made with love then look elsewhere, sweetness, because mine are made with wall-punching and fuckwords.
However! In honor of Ranka’s inaugural attempt at baking, here’s my recipe for Moe Sugar cookies. Pardon me, my friends outside the U.S. and rural U.K., these are in English units.
Side note: Is it just me, or was Sheryl’s weekly hoe-bag outfit just a tauntingly slutty version of the overall-and-halter getup that you Ranka fans have probably been loving the past few weeks? She doesn’t play nice, that Sheryl.
Side note 2: I’m sure Lucky Star probably answered this question and I forgot, but is it more moe to cook or to fail at cooking? I’m gonna vote “fail at cooking.” But cooking doesn’t make me think of Moe, it makes me think of this:
Ha you assholes I beat you to it. I’m old, see, and that allows me to be judgmental. Actually, I’m not that old, but I’m prejudging anyway.
Best OP: The Tower of Druaga.
This was a hard one. Lots of great tunes and animation this time around. Kaiba’s ethereal opener with English lyrics shows you exactly what kind of beautiful and haunting 25 minutes are about to happen. To Love-Ru’s tantalizing but stylish OP turned out to be the best thing about the show every fucking week. Even the gay-ninja saga Nabari No Ou, which I don’t really care for, has a great song by a previously awful band (VELTPUNCH). But Druaga gives us clever credit placements, a jaunty ska-rock tune that turns dramatic toward the end, and most importantly, a question that we have to ask weekly: are we being faced with a an alternate reality situation in this series?
Best Music in general: Macross Frontier.
There is a two-part quiz to establish best anime music in a season.
Is there a Macross series?
Did Yoko Kanno do the music for any series?
If you can answer “yes” to either, you’re set (some of Macross 7’s butt-rock aside). We can answer “yes” to BOTH this season. Aren’t we fortunate bastards? Ranka’s “Aimo” is Yoko Kanno’s best tune since my favorite one, “Myung’s Theme (Voices)” from Macross Plus. But here’s the close runner-up, “Ninjin Loves You Yeah!”
Train Wreck of the Year: Geass R2.
I stopped blogging it, mostly because everyone else already was. But I still watch, usually open-mouthed. Time after time it leaves me in slack-jawed disbelief as the camera pans out to millions of Zeroes! Orange-kun comes back from the dead! LeDouche quotes Light Yagami! Tits flow from Sunrise’s pencils like a mighty Mississippi of mammaries! Underage heads of state with no tits at all convene, possibly panty-free, in a soundproof room in Zero’s giant truck with a fucking panda on the side being driven by CC and covered in fucking Cheese-kun window stickers! FUCK! Where does it end?? This quote from Derailed By Darry sums it up pretty well:
Code Geass R2 is genius on so many levels, just not on the classical “well-written” level.
Fantastic observation. I realized this week that there is nothing out there like it, and yes thank you jebus I’m grateful for that, but there is a bizarre brilliance in the over-the-top-ness.
By the way, mai waifu on Geass: “Oh, is it time for your stories?”
Biggest surprise: Tie! Daughter of 20 Faces and Kamen No Maid Guy.
20 Faces had potential from the get-go, being from Bones, but it was clear that early on their attention was focused mostly on Soul Eater. However, the series consistently played out so solidly that I find myself waiting for it more all week than any other. To top it off, the last episode was jam-packed with the kind of ballsy direction and stylish animation that are Bones hallmarks.
Maid Guy was a surprise simply because it turned out to not be shitty. Yes, the animation budget was probably fished out from between Madhouse’s couch cushions, but at least they don’t save money by having all the characters drink tea for 10 minutes per episode like some other Madhouse shows. Kogarashi is a previously-unseen mix of hilarious and frightening, and I will gladly watch every week to find out what crazy Maid Guy Power will be unveiled next.
Best First-Episode Experience: Soul Eater
Yes, it’s a shounen/action/talking-during-battles kind of show, but Bones aimed to prove early on that they could execute with style. I immediately re-watched the first episode because my head spun too fast to figure out what was going on the first time.
Voice actor of the season: Megumi Nakajima as Ranka Lee
Open auditions are apparently a very good idea. She out-acts most of the rest of the cast, and her tongue doesn’t sound nearly as thick as Sheryl’s on those Engrish song lyrics. Shin sums it up much more clever-style.
Best Shoujo: Toshokan Sensou
Dear Itazura Na Kiss, I still love you, and I think you embody your genre like nothing else. Unfortunately, a new character who is vulnerable and real but not quite so pathetic as the usual shoujo heroine has risen up, and she’s really tall! Plus, as a boy, I find all the guns to be exciting.
Dear Special A, Toshokan Sensou’s ensemble cast is far better than yours. Also, I never liked you.
The wiener
Drum roll…. OH SHIT Copping out. But unlike most people who don’t believe in superlatives (like me) I will pick the “best” show of the season. Just not until the end.
I’ll say this, though — it’ll probably start with a K, whatever it ends up being.
No gimmicks this week, I drug out the soap box instead
If you can’t make a crazy generalization or inflammatory statement every once in a while, there’s not much point in blogging, now, is there?
Seriously though, bear with me. Yes, I realize all too well that Kanokon is happening this season, but I sometimes think Macross Frontier is the most brazenly fan-pandering anime show out there. Why?
So far, though it is a classic franchise series, it’s catering somewhat obviously to the trends of the day, including high school harems, moe, lolis, implications of yuri, you name it.
At the same time, it panders almost as shamelessly to classic Macross fans, with its near-infinite parallels to previous series. From Catherine Glass’s uncanny resemblance to Misa Hayase or the Macross-shaped high school, to the inclusion of “My Boyfriend is a Pilot” and the little easter eggs like a Minmay doll flying at Ozma’s head — the more references you can spot, the more enjoyment you get out of the series.
Fanservice is, as we all know, not necessarily about upskirts and 10% breast coverage, although Sheryl seems to have the latter under control. Protracted transformation scenes, techno-babble speak, obscure references, and missile spam are all the kinds of things that anime fans feed on, thus they’re fanservice. I think Gainax taught us that pretty well.
Overreaction?
This isn’t a new situation for the franchise. After all, every Macross series has had a captain who looks exactly like Bruno Global, and every series has had gratuitous references to Minmay. Hell, Macross 7’s characters even watched Do You Remember Love?
Something about Macross F is starting to rub me the wrong way, though — it’s starting to feel like it’s not as much about the story as it is about getting franchise fans to approve, or getting new fans to embrace the franchise. The past two episodes are perfect examples.
Episode seven sees a massive space fight juxtaposed against a Sheryl concert. That trick is old as the hills, though every time it’s done right, a Valkyrie gets its wings. If an old-school Macross fan didn’t enjoy episode seven, he should just turn in his card now.
Episode eight, however, revolves heavily around the kind of high school love comedy plot that I see enough of outside of my favorite franchise, and don’t really care to see in it. Every time Sheryl upstages Ranka, I feel the warm wave of moe and think, well that’s the intent, isn’t it? I don’t want to get into the Moe Problem (the poison that’s killing our plotlines) just yet, that’s for a different day.
Today there is plenty of time to rant instead on the fact that five minutes of what used to be my favorite twenty of the week was devoted to chasing after a cute green creature in possession of a main character’s panties. Dear lord, when does the Naked Misunderstanding happen? Is Sheryl going to show up naked in Alto’s bed? Oh, goodie, now that Sheryl’s in the school too, do we get a school festival episode?
I originally heard this was a 13-episode series, is that true? If so, I’m extra pissed to have the story dicking around and the production company so poorly mismanaging the budget, but it really seems like I have some false info there.
Just for balance
Here are the things I liked a lot about Episode 8:
Ranka in the carrot suit. Nuff said.
Ranka’s long path to stardom. Life was easy for Minmay: The SDF Macross population was small, everyone was going to die, and not that many people could sing. But Ranka has to do what Sheryl told her to do: work hard. Now she’s living that lesson.
Sheryl sticking around, dicking up Ranka’s life. As much as that brings the moe, and the emo (anagram! holy cow! who knew? probably everyone but me…), it’s the kind of conflict that needs to happen for real drama. Alto is not enough because he’s showed zero interest in Ranka and very little in Sheryl. Only her persistence has cracked his disinterested facade a little. But if Sheryl hurts Ranka’s budding career, it’s only going to amplify the Alto factor for our green friend.
Harmonica kid. I rarely think new characters are the answer, especially when some existing ones (Cathy, Leon, Ozma) are just starting to get development time. But this show could use a good shake.
So… Macross F… my midseason evaluation for you is getting shaky compared to that mind-boggling start, but as a famous cowboy once said, I can’t quit you.
20 Faces had potential from the get-go, being from Bones, but it was clear that early on their attention was focused mostly on Soul Eater. However, the series consistently played out so solidly that I find myself waiting for it more all week than any other. To top it off, the last episode was jam-packed with the kind of ballsy direction and stylish animation that are Bones hallmarks.
