Archive for the “Anime” Category

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Prayers had been answered. Here to hope that Doumu get to animate it. I welcome back our GAR Fish Hugger.

When the majority are drooling over fanservice or sophisticated storylines, there are sometime a little gem making its way in internet and gain a little following.

Detroit Metal City is one of these gems. At first glance, it seems to be a music band anime like “Beck”, but upon viewing, all these expectations are shattered. The viewer will get to sit through a short episode of gag anime, dealing with the Death Metal.

Actually, Death Metal is one of the ingredients of this comedy. From the Death Metal, Detroit Metal City, the band, have the music, the theme. From the Black Metal, D.M.C gets the hatred for humankind and the hate-loaded lyrics, and lack of respect for everything the common man hold as dear. The other ingredient of this gag anime is the sheer contrast between Johannes Krauser II, the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter, and Soichi Negishi, the man behind the ghoulish paint.
Anyone who had been familiar with the early Norwegian Black Metal scene may remember the stories of people who had actually gotten to know the man behind Euronymous, a rather nice guy who would tell you about his passion in music (read the book “Lord of Chaos” to know more about Euronymous and Mayhem). This is the kind of contrast you will see in Detroit Metal City, only taken to the extreme. If Euronymous was actually a rather nice guy, off-stage, Negishi is like totally white as snow, have a love for Swedish pop (always the Scandinavians), and have the aspiration to raise to the top as a sugary sappy soapy pop artist.

But things had not gone as planned and he somehow ended up in that band, performing on stage as the feared Krauser, said to be a homicidal maniac and remorseless rapist. Negishi had a hard time to leave the band. Moreover, his on-stage persona have taken a toll on his social life, where he tries to be normal, but always find himself in situations where his on-stage persona take over and get the better, for the fans, or the worse, for his love interest, of him.

And the show had not other pretentions than showing Negishi trying to be Negishi, but turning Krauser the instant the situation get too much for him to handle as Negishi. The music store or the police scene are the prime examples of these awkward but hilarious situations. The harder he struggles, the more entertained the fans, and the viewers of the anime are.

Technical-wise, the style is fitting. There are hardly any full screen scene but it does serve the theme of the anime. The same could be said about the animation that gives this rough feeling from the musical genre.

The format is of the short kind, like Cromartie highschool, in one way, it does it justice and prevent the viewer to be tired from the gags. Something that could have happened if it was stretched over 20 minutes.

Detroit Metal City is a little gem in this rather monotonous, imo, summer. It gives food to the people missing comedy format a la Cromartie and may introduce people to the world of Death and Black Metal genre.
Detroit Metal City is a hilarious take on the music anime genre with a slice of Mister Hyde and Doctor Jekyll on and off stage.

So I know more about it. It’s not just two OAVs. It is also going to be a 13 episodes series. I am hoping that this release will get younger people to know about the first man to have ever had a gun instead of his arm. Sorry Megaman fanboys, but Cobra was first!

August 29th seems to be an eternity for the old man I am.

Cruel Angel Thesis, Stone Ocean version

nicovideo link

And something I dont know, but godamn, the animation is good

nicovideo link

This was the original

Gintama version

D-Gray Man version

Baccano version

One Piece version

There are also a Gundam 00 for those who are interested, and a Minami-ke version (sadly, it seems that the Minami-ke version is off-synch, sound-wise)

Fucking furries.

It just did not help that the female lead was a cursing ball of angst, there were the fucking furries. The kung-fu bear and the evil cultists cats.

When there were an outlandish element in a heroic fantasy setting, or any settings, I do expect some effort to make it believable, acceptable and kinda justifiable. Lodoss has worked mostly because it did stick close to the tropes laid by its inspiration, AD&D2 and mainly dragonlance; Berserk was at its core a mix of Paul Verhoeven’s “Flesh and Blood” with a slice of Hellraiser, and it worked. Escaflowne and Scrapped Princess made mecha work and be justifiable in their worlds. It’s not the case with World Destruction, I’ve yet to think of a workable reason to justify why there be furries. The alchemy is just not here.

Technical-wise, there were nothing to complain about it. It’s just the setting that didnt draw me in like the classic like Lodoss, Berserk and Escaflowne did. Maybe if the furries were close to their D&D models like lizardmen, yuan-ti or werewolves, or looked like mogwai, it may have been easier to take. Hell, Utawarerumono has came up fine with women with dog ears, and Karura, it was one of my favorites in 2006. But here, no.

Maybe one or two more episodes, then drop it.

At least, Zero no Tsukaima 3 has Mamiko Noto as Titfania.

Here your OAV, made to cater to the pleasure of Tomoyo fans and their frustration over Nagisa ending.

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Enough random spamming for now, I’ll talk about one of the first summer shows I watched, the other one being Nogizaka Haruka.

Blade of the Immortal is a manga I have been following since my years in high school. Knowing that Bee Train has been animating it has made my fears legitimate.

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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!

Bring me Rock, Revy, Dutch, Benny, alleluiah and peanut butter.

Bring me the western pop culture references.

Bring me the high octane action.

Bring me more Terminator Meido.

Bring me Shen Hua.

Bring me Mr Chan.

Bring me the cult status one-liners.

Bring me more black lagoon. TV series or OAV, as long as I see them all back, I am happy!

It’s nothing new if I tell you how it all started.

While not pretending to bring a definitive answer, I feel like pondering over why bunnygirls seems to score so high in our male sexy/moe/cutedar.

Because talking about bunnygirl and not mentionning Mikuru is a capital crime

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Smoked cheese nyoron~

Visiting Eretto’s site as I usually do, I realized how long it has been since the Churuya phenomenon has boomed. We love or we hate it, but it is one of the notable internet meme of the two past years (this is counting that infamous japanese four letter words that has drawn an ever burning hate toward dolls from me (the childhood traumatism from Chucky did not help), or the dansen).

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