Behind The Nihon Review » Decade: 2000s

10 Things I Hate About You (Idiot Fans) Part B

TypicalIdiotFan — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:57:54 +0000

Lame way of representing "Part B"? Go fuck yourself. I like it.

Continuing from where I left off before, because the list just got too damned wordy, I want to instead focus on the more volatile pieces of anime fandom that piss me off. Unlike the first five items, which are just general fan pissing contest annoyances, these next five are much more serious. My friends and copatriots on this site, Kylaran, Sorrow-kun, and Akira, have been trying to bring out an awareness of the otaku nature both from aspects in the west and in the east. Their works have inspired me to bring forth more issues I find are important to anime fandom. These five items deal with the potential harm of fandom, the mental state of some fans, and the importance of personal freedoms and liberties. Because of this, I toned down trying to be antagonistic and curbed the swearing quite a bit, as I really want the readers to understand where I am coming from here. Sure, I still take some pot-shots at the fringe, but I do it out of love. I sincerely hope these last five are read with an open mind, as there is an “ugly” aspect to otakuism that we need to explore.

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By TypicalIdiotFan | Permalink | 26 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Bleach, Dance in the Vampire Bund, FUNimation, Happiness!, Hideaki Anno, Kannagi, Neon Genesis Evangelion, NTR, Otaku, Waifu

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10 Things I Hate About You (Idiot Fans) Part A

TypicalIdiotFan — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:55:13 +0000

It's time to get some shit done...

I have been a fan a very long time. I have seen the best of times and the worst of times when it comes to the anime phenomenon in America. I have seen new generations of fans spring up every few years, bolstered by the explosion of anime available on television, for retail purchase, in movie theaters, and over the internet. I am now 32 years old, an “oldfag” to most of you whipper-snappers, and I like to think that as I have matured, so have my tastes in anime and in anime fandom. In the beginning I was much like the rest of you. I watched everything, even the shit, proclaiming it was better than anything the West had ever produced. I collected wall scrolls, and figurines, and whatever anime related materials I could. I went to conventions and cosplayed and sat in on panels and sang karaoke and did all kinds of other fun stuff. Generally, I acted like what I have observed most young fans act like. These days are a little different. I still go to conventions and I still watch tons of new material, but now I write about it and have wonderful intellectual discussions about it. I know a few people in the industry who have remained friends over the years. I enjoy anime fandom on a different level than I did before.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By TypicalIdiotFan | Permalink | 31 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Arjuna, Avatar, Bleach, Chihiro, Coalguys, Cowboy Bebop, GG, Naruto, One Piece, Otaku, To Love-Ru

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A Reflection on a Decade

Shadowmage — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:09:14 +0000

Near the beginning of this decade, I looked at the anime medium as a source of fresh ideas full of creativity and passion, completely unlike the everyday drivel that filled the American airwaves. For the first few years when I feasted on the cream of the crop my belief was seemingly reaffirmed. As my internet connection got faster so did my consumption. Soon, I wasn’t restricted to a small handful of titles filtered by popular demand; I could watch virtually any anime Japan had to offer days after its release… And I did.

I’ve long wondered why anime has had a rather weak reception even in Japan, but after sitting through hundreds of hours of crushing mediocrity, I began to understand. Good anime are like gems found in a mountain of rocks, and by watching primarily above par anime for so long skewed my expectations to unreasonable heights. Because of this realization, I cannot earnestly argue my gut feeling that the medium has gone downhill since the advent of moe…

As a matter of fact when I sit down and list all the shows I’ve enjoyed from end to end, I realize that 2000 to 2009 is the greatest decade of anime.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Shadowmage | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: 5 Centimeters per Second, FLCL, Haibane Renmei, Honey and Clover, Infinite Ryvius, Le Portrait de Petite Cossette, Millennium Actress, Now and Then Here and There, Planetes, Voices of a Distant Star

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20 Decade Highlights (Kavik Ryx)

Kavik Ryx — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:27:42 +0000

With a relatively unique decade in anime at its close, everyone is bound to place their own superlative on it. And of course, many people will be quick to label it as the worst. Only truly getting into anime mid 2004, it would be highly presumptuous of me to put such a label on it. By all means the obscure works of the ‘90s and ‘80s could be just as dreadful as the garbage of today. The only difference is that today is an era where computer graphics have lead to a saturated market of cheap anime amplified by global trolling from the Internet. But this doesn’t make the good works of the decade any less so. There is nothing to say that new animation techniques and global communication haven’t contributed to a successful decade. After all, the following 20 examples are products of the past 10 years. Granted this does not include masterpieces such as Monster and Gankutuou, both of which I am yet to see. But for all the anime I’ve missed this decade, I feel blessed that I had the opportunity have seen these ones.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Kavik Ryx | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Flag, FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gungrave, Infinite Ryvius, Millennium Actress, Mushishi, Planetes, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo

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Looking Back, Looking Forwards: This Decade in Anime

Akira — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:48:53 +0000

As this decade draws to a close, we celebrate the last ten years in anime. Certainly, the industry has progressed far in the last ten years: anime has become more popular, both domestically and worldwide; it has matured significantly as an art form, featuring cutting-edge CG technology and beautiful, streamlined animation; and it has become massively commercialized, with anime goods proliferating and saturating the market, far outstripping demand in many cases. The rapid, irreversible commercialization of anime has been further exacerbated by a (relatively) new artistic movement in the industry: moé.

Certainly, moé did not revolutionize the anime industry. The artistic beginnings of moé were not in this decade, or even the last. Like all artistic movements, it underwent periods of growth and development. What this decade did see, however, was the exploitation of moé. Instead of utilizing moé as a set of aesthetic choices, used to bolster, reinforce and beautify a work of anime, it became an end in and of itself. The industry quickly realized that their idealized representations of women— well-mannered, upbeat, bright and beautiful— resonated well with anime’s predominantly teenage male audience. Thus, the industry shifted more and more towards the production of moé-oriented titles, especially during the latter half of the decade.

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By Akira | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Akikan!, Fight! Ippatsu! Jyuuden-chan, Ikkitousen, K-ON!, Kodomo no Jikan, Queen's Blade, School Days, Shuffle!, Sora no Otoshimono, Strike Witches

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Sorrow-kun’s List of 50 Great Anime of the Decade 2000-2009

Sorrow-kun — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 09:30:25 +0000

Our staff’s review of the decade continues, and today I’ll be taking on the massive task of trying to list the best fifty anime that came out this decade, as I saw them. As is fairly obvious by now, I can only list the anime that I saw, and I’ve taken the policy of not putting ongoing series on the list, even though there are a couple of gems that are still currently airing (such as Cross Game and Kemono no Souja Erin). Also, some of the series on this list started airing in 1999, but ending in 2000. You can find a collection of other lists that have been posted on the blogosphere here, and our good friend gaguri, from Ha Neul Seom (하늘섬) has posted his Top 50 here, which I highly recommend.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 38 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Aria The Animation, Azumanga Daioh, Gankutsuou, Gungrave, Honey and Clover, Koi Kaze, Millennium Actress, Monster, Mushishi, Now and Then Here and There

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AC’s Top 20 Anime of the Decade

AC — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:47:47 +0000

This has been a decade of mixed reactions for some people. A handful may see it as a period of renaissance, paying tributes to giant robots and classic mecha of the 80s and 90s in the form of instances such as Tengen-Toppa Gurren Lagann and Gundam SEED. Others see it as the period of the rise of subcultures, and the saturation of genres created as groundwork from previous decades. I see it simply as a decade of wonderful anime titles, most of them contributing to my all-time best list. Without further ado, here’s my list of 20 best anime this decade has to offer.

NOTE: The decade is defined as the period from 2000 to 2009, and the titles for this list are chosen based on those that began within the year 2000. Ongoing titles which debuted in 2009, and all formats – TV series, OVAs and movies – are taken into consideration as well.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By AC | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Clannad, Dennou Coil, Ghost in the Shell, Monster, Moyashimon, Mushishi, Natsume Yuujinchou, Now and Then Here and There, Sword of the Stranger, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann

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Zzeroparticle’s List of 20 Noteworthy Anime Titles

zzeroparticle — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:18:48 +0000

That period between Christmas and New Year’s always leaves me in a sort of limbo, where the future is just about there, but not quite, and the past still needs to be nudged on a bit further until it can finally be called the past. Because of that, there’s never really a whole lot to do, making it an excellent time to simply sit back and reflect. The imminent arrival of a new decade means that we look back a bit further than we normally would. After all, 10 years is a long section of road upon which one travels through life, and provided that you didn’t get carsick for most of the journey, there should be some rich memories that you’ll probably want to look back upon and cherish.

Hence, this series of “decade’s” posts by The Nihon Review Staff. If there’s one commonality that links us, it’s that this past decade saw our interest in the medium surge as we began viewing not only the classics of old, but following the shows currently airing in Japan. And despite the deluge of anime we’ve seen, there are those that have made such a deep impression upon us that we cannot forget them.

So in following the footsteps blazed by gaguri, and wishing to join those who have put their thoughts forward, I present you my list of twenty titles that made an impact upon me in this past decade. TV shows tend to leave a stronger image in my mind, so I opted to focus on those. So with that, here’s my list. Dramatic execution demands that I start from the bottom and build up towards the top to create suspense. I’ve always hated that, and so, I’ll start from the top and work my way down. It’s always seemed more natural that way.

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Copyright © 2009 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By zzeroparticle | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Aria The Animation, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gankutsuou, Gunslinger Girl, Honey and Clover, Kino’s Journey, Monster, Mushishi, Nodame Cantabile, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

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