http://behind-the.nihonreview.com An insight into the minds of the staff of The Nihon Review Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:19:59 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's the busy review writing period, so most of the activity in the next couple of weeks will be on the front page. Just today we've published reviews of the recently finished Nodame Cantabile ~Paris Chapter~ and Detroit Metal City, which ended in October, and we've got reviews of ... http://behind-the.nihonreview.com/20081231/about-the-lack-of-new-posts/ This post is basically a reply to a response to a comment I made on a blog post on When Anime Past Meets Present. Kaoishin Sama (whose reputation precedes him) basically made a troll post that I fell for (as he put it) "hook, line and sinker". We, ... http://behind-the.nihonreview.com/20081222/trying-to-understand-an-alternative-approach-towards-anime-commentary/ It's hard to make head or tail of 2008 as a year at this point, and that's something I don't intend to tackle until our annual review (coming to a NHRV near you soon). And while the year didn't deliver any titles that I'd call an outright masterpiece (which ... http://behind-the.nihonreview.com/20081220/2008s-pleasant-surprises/ Seems like I'm taking over, doesn't it? This week, I had the extreme displeasure of watching SHAFT butcher what I thought was one of the most moving moments I've ever experienced playing a visual novel. As there were no real linguistic problems with this episode, this will be the aforementioned ... http://behind-the.nihonreview.com/20081212/voices-from-the-other-side-ef-melo-10/ zzeroparticle recently panned the ED theme of Chaos;Head, "Super Special" by Seira Kagami, in a review he posted on the Anime Instrumentality Blog. Now I can understand why he gave it a bad rating, he outlined a reasonable enough justification based on the bizarre, nonsensical lyrics and some rather ... http://behind-the.nihonreview.com/20081207/songs-to-make-you-feel-like-youre-always-super-special/ Back again with my semi-regular column. How's everyone? This week, I was asked again to fill in for our translator, who was absent due to personal reasons. In this installment, I'm going to give all of you a deeper insight into my job as a translator using Episode 9 as a ... http://behind-the.nihonreview.com/20081202/voices-from-the-other-side-ef-melo-episode-9/ This is one of the few times I've commented on other anime writers. Zac Bertschy's reign as ANN's Answerman is over after he stepped down, which I'd say is for the best. As he said in his post, he's burned out, and the signs of this burn out ... http://behind-the.nihonreview.com/20081129/anime-fans-still-lean-left-right/ As a generalization, critics tend to prefer titles that do something different, when it comes to genres. That could be trying to mix two or more genres in a way that hasn't been done before, subvert commonly used tropes or start out with an unconventional premise. Suzumiya Haruhi ... http://behind-the.nihonreview.com/20081127/the-value-of-a-good-genre-piece/ I've been thinking about the phrase "I like mystery" and what it exactly means. Mystery tends to be one of the more highly regarded genres, particularly in anime with the likes of Monster and Higurashi, and the vast majority of not just anime but stories in general have some ... http://behind-the.nihonreview.com/20081120/chaoshead-a-super-special-anime/ I'm Akira. Haven't written much on this blog before, but those of you who know me know that I'm NHRV's resident Japanese-speaking reviewer and niche anime geek. In addition to filling a role as the resident weirdo, I'm also a translator and fansubber. In this not-so-regularly updated series, I will ... http://behind-the.nihonreview.com/20081114/voices-from-the-other-side-ef-melodies-episode-6/