Behind The Nihon Review » Reviewing

4 People 1 Raeg

AC — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:00:59 +0000

What do they all have in common? I hate them.

As the anime community welcomes the Winter 2012 anime season, most would look back at 2011 and recall what made the year. It may be seen as one with a fair share of great anime, especially when it witnessed convention-breaking titles such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Mawaru Penguindrum. It’s common to see people name their favorite anime of the year, and on top of that, reminisce of all their favorite characters which graced each and every season.

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SCOTIF: Fandom vs. Spring ’11 Season

TypicalIdiotFan — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:01:50 +0000

Nine seats but only one TIF with all the power

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez!

All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the Typical Idiot Fans, are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is now sitting. God save Anime and this Honorable Court!

The Court shall now hear arguments on docket entry number zero-zero-two; the case of Fandom v. Spring ’11 Season.

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Copyright © 2011 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By TypicalIdiotFan | Permalink | 24 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku, A-Channel, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, Ao no Exorcist, Astarotte no Omocha!, C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control, Deadman Wonderland, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, Dog Days, Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera, Hanasaku Iroha, Hen Zemi, Hidan no Aria, Kaiji, Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai, Kampfer, Maria+Holic, Nichijou, Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai, Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream, Seikon no Qwaser, Sengoku Otome - Momoiro Paradox, SKET Dance, Soft Tennis, Steins;Gate, Tiger & Bunny, X-Men

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Adaptations Suck: A Look at Astarotte no Omocha

TypicalIdiotFan — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 03:11:27 +0000

Not trying to bust your balls, sir. I'm just saying...

I don’t know if Oizaki Fumitoshi is a good director or not. Based on his credentials, he has mostly excelled in character designing. However, he has directed at least three works: the Gonzo production of Romeo X Juliet, the Gonzo production of Welcome to the N.H.K., and Diomedia production of Astarotte no Omocha. Though Welcome to the N.H.K. was considered a good anime by most, it was regarded with much more vitriol for being a bad adaptation of an even better manga. Generally, adaptations from manga to anime result in and sometimes necessitate changes. There could be a thousand reasons why, both stemming from the production office and / or from the director him/herself. The only common aspect all of these adaptations with Director Oizaki at the helm have is that they’re all pretty bad adaptations.

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Actually, “It Gets Better, I Swear” is a Legitimate Defense

Sorrow-kun — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:15:32 +0000

This warms my heart, but I hate to think what's going to happen to Charlotte.

I know the favourite retort of Scamp, from The Cart Driver, right now is “it gets better, I swear” as a way to dismiss any claims that his criticism of a given series that has either previously aired or is an adaptation are shortsighted. The problem with this as a counter-criticism is that “it gets better” is actually legitimate more often than he’d like to admit. Scamp and I vary drastically as far as our policies on dropping anime go. He’ll generally trial the first episode of everything except the most obvious of garbage, while I only drop anime out of utter despair, and am more than willing to tolerate dreck once in a while (whatever doesn’t kill you, etc). Back in the day, I too would try a swathe of new shows at the outset of the season, but even then I considered dropping an anime akin to surrender. These days, I’m a bit more finicky and discriminating with my first up choices, and inclined to listen to reviews about what I’ve missed. (This post contains moderate spoilers for the tagged titles.)

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Bringing Anime to Life

AC — Tue, 17 May 2011 08:53:55 +0000

Who is more boyish: 3D-Kazehaya or 2D-Kazehaya?

If you watch Japanese movies and have been following them lately, you would’ve probably noticed a rise in live-action adaptations of anime/manga titles, and it piqued my interest the other day when I finished watching Kimi ni Todoke the live-action movie. It’s not difficult to understand the surge in such movies; firstly, the staff doesn’t need to pen the plot from scratch; secondly, such movies won’t need viral advertising since their original sources have done the job; and lastly, since the original sources would have more or less established their fanbase, the movies are likely to get their fair share of the pie.

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Moshidora and Building a Good Team: Part 2

Sorrow-kun — Sat, 07 May 2011 08:00:28 +0000

Is this a good team? Or are they missing something?

In episode 6 of Moshidora, Minami recruits 12 new freshmen members to the baseball club out of a field of 30 try-outs. Out of that group, only one of them makes the starting line-up, and walks into an established, developed team which has a pre-existing, if radical game plan. While the game plan has obviously been devised by the coach with the current crop of players in mind, particularly pitcher Asano, if I were in charge of this team, I would be inclined to tinker with the game plan each year, as the line-up loses its final year students, and the newbies improve and begin to press for selection. This post follows on directly from yesterday.

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Nichijou and the Standard Failings of Random Comedy

Sorrow-kun — Mon, 02 May 2011 11:51:59 +0000

I have a great deal of respect for movie reviewer Roger Ebert and equal respect for the respective geniuses (a word I don’t throw around lightly) of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, so when the two parties clash, it’s very difficult not to have mixed feelings. One such clash took place in the distant past, 1998, over a movie that a young Parker wrote, directed and starred in, Orgazmo, which has relevance to me right now only because I just watched it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It was a silly comedy, filled with the types of sight gags, gross out moments and winks at the audience that one might expect given the premise of a Mormon-cum-reluctant pornstar, but it also showed examples of the Parker/Stone wit, and their knack for approaching dumb topics in a dumb way, but someone coming out of it looking very, very clever.

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Copyright © 2011 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Arakawa Under the Bridge, Nichijou, Orgazmo, Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

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SCOTIF: Fandom v. Winter ’10-’11 Season

TypicalIdiotFan — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:48:36 +0000

Justice may be blind, but it is also a typical idiot.

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez!

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Copyright © 2011 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By TypicalIdiotFan | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Angel Beats!, Dragon Crisis, Fractale, Freezing, Gosick, Hourou Musuko, IS: Infinite Stratos, Kimi ni Todoke, Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?, Kurenai, Level E, Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, Mirai Nikki, Mitsudomoe, Onii-chan no Koto nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara, Rio: Rainbow Gate!, Yumekui Merry

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The Nihon Revue, Episode One

Akira — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 06:46:33 +0000

This is what my face looked like when I first inspected my mic quality.

That’s right, kids— The Nihon Review now has a podcast! It’s called The Nihon Revue, and features the ever-so-charming Sorrow-kun and everyone’s least favorite blogger (yours truly) doing what The Nihon Review does best: reviewing anime.

For our pilot episode, we have for you five of last season’s hits. Most of these shows have finished only recently. Here’s the program:

Bakemonogatari: 0:30

Angel Beats!: 5:50

Senkou no Night Raid: 11:05

Working!!: 13:30

Arakawa Under the Bridge: 19:25

Total runtime is 27:40.

We realize that there were a lot of things we could have done better— this podcast is a work in progress. We’re hoping to put one of these out every season for everyone out there. Also, I definitely need a better microphone, but I’m currently abroad, so bear with me on that one. Thanks for supporting us, and enjoy:

Also, a download link if you so please.

Don’t forget to come join us down at #nhrv @ irc.rizon.net. We always welcome new faces, so drop on by.

Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Akira | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Amagami SS, Angel Beats!, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Bakemonogatari, High School of the Dead, Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi, Seikimatsu Occult Academy, Senko no Night Raid, Shiki, Strike Witches, The Nihon Revue, Working!!

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Ambition and Profit in Anime – What do We do About “Failed” Experiments?

Sorrow-kun — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:37:25 +0000

When omo, writing for his site Omonomono, gave his final impression of Angel Beats, he talked about seeing it fall under its own weight, and likened it to what a “failed” attempt to make ef – a tale of memories might look like. It got me thinking about the concept of ambition in anime, and the role it plays in the creative process. I’ve spent much of my time online in the post-Angel Beats week defending my ultimately positive impression of the series. Several bloggers have come to the conclusion that Angel Beats is a poorly executed work (which I won’t disagree with) that needed more episodes (this I’m not so convinced about). In one of the rare instances, this is a case where I think, to oversimplify to the point of being insulting, it needed less stuff… ie, less substance. But, more important than anything else, it needed direction. (Above image found on moe.imouto, NSFW.)

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Angel Beats!, Code Geass Hangyaku no Lelouch, ef -a tale of memories, The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi

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