Who's Akira's waifu again? I forgot.

On the flight to Sydney to meet Akira, the word “off-kai” rang continuously in my head. This was the first time I’d gone to meet someone from the internet, and I was reminded of what 2DT said of his meeting with Akira and the nerves he had beforehand, in his post on 2-D Teleidoscope. I was full of nerves too, which didn’t make an uncomfortable domestic flight on a budget carrier all that much enjoyable. (The sleepy guy sitting in the aisle across from me was rudely awakened when a stewardess clumsily bumped a drinks cart into his knee, but that’s nothing compared to the crap Akira told me he experienced from said carrier.) When I touched down, Akira told me to take the train into the city, and that he’d wear a shirt that only I would recognize.

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Copyright © 2012 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Comiket, Guilty Crown, Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, Kannagi, Kill Me Baby, Kugimiya Rie, Mawaru PenguinDrum, Steins;Gate, The iDOLM@STER

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If it wanted, anime could go back to business as usual after this, but it would be a great injustice if it did so.

It’s the time of year when people like to reflect on the events and people who shaped the last last twelve months and that’s not different among anime fans, particularly bloggers. So while the 12 Days of Christmas are underway again this year in various locations, and in various incarnations, most of which are particularly focused on the moments and episodes that defined the year, it’s also worthwhile to take a glance at the individuals who made headlines in the anime world this year (and gave people like me something to write about). So, my question is, who was anime’s “Person of the Year” in 2011.

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Copyright © 2011 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Fate/Stay Night, Fractale, Ikuhara Kunihiko, Kannagi, Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, Mawaru PenguinDrum, Shinbou Akiyuki, Yamakan

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This season features a funny coincident in that two of the more prominent anime feature hardcore otaku in the lead roles. And while Kuragehime‘s Tsukimi and Ore no Imouto‘s Kirino are both otaku, the differences between them are blatant. But there are also some interesting similarities past the surface. They both have issues with family and they both are, at times, awkward in their interactions with other people… Kirino at home and Tsukimi around strangers. They also both have a lot of interesting scope for character development. (Moderate spoilers for the tagged anime. Image taken from oreno.imouto.org.)

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Kannagi, Kuragehime, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai

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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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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
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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This article is also titled "In Defense of Dirty Hoes." Because who wouldn't defend a ho like Nagi?

Two years ago, a comic serialized in Comic Rex stirred up a huge controversy after the sexual purity of its main heroine came into question. Flamewars were had on 2ch, and over-zealous fans teared up their tankobon volumes in protest. The author fell deathly ill after the controversy occurred (in an unrelated and extremely unfortunate incident), and she has not returned to drawing manga since then. To this day, there is no official resolution to the controversy.

Have you worked out what series I’m talking about? Correct. The answer is Kannagi.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Akira | Permalink | 23 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Bakemonogatari, Kannagi, Simoun

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Who are these men? What do they represent?

A few days ago, as I was chatting idly with an Australian friend of mine on IRC, he pointed me to an interesting interview with Yamamoto Yutaka, acclaimed director of Kannagi and former member of Kyoto Animation. In the interview, he brings up several intriguing points about the anime industry and trends within the “otaku” community that he finds rather disturbing.

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Copyright © 2009 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Akira | Permalink | 24 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Ghibli, Kannagi, To Aru Majutsu no Index, Toradora

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Like I mentioned earlier, I (sadly) have more than a passing interest in these types of awards. The 2008 Tokyo Anime Fair Awards were just announced to, as far as I can see, reasonable disinterest. I can see the logic behind the choices behind these awards, even if I don’t particularly agree with all of them (in all honesty, I surprisingly haven’t seen most of the winners, so it’s hard for me to have an opinion either way). But as Kaioshin Sama from When Anime Past Meets Present puts it, if you don’t like the results of a given set of awards, why not make your own. But it’s not like I’m taking his advice (I’m starting to sound like a tsundere now), I’ve been playing with this idea for months.

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Copyright © 2009 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Aria The Animation, Code Geass Hangyaku no Lelouch, Detroit Metal City, ef -a tale of memories, Kaiba, Kaiji, Kannagi, Kara no Kyoukai, KimiKiss pure rouge, Kurenai, Mouryou no Hako, Natsume Yuujinchou, Nodame Cantabile, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Shigofumi, Spicy Wolf, true tears, Yakushiji Ryouko no Kaiki Jikenbo - Ryoko’s Case File

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I’ll admit it, I do have more than just a passing interest in these types of awards. Obviously one affords as much credibility to a set of awards like these as one agrees with the results, and it always surprises me just how much people RAGE when they don’t, c.f. SaiMoe and its multiple incarnations. Then again, there’s more emotions involved in SaiMoe than there are in these.

This year’s list of nominations is a little more “credible” than last year’s, where, for whatever reason, titles like 5cm/s and Baccano! were snubbed in categories that they could have possibly won had they made it past the nomination round. There are a few titles here and there that I would have liked to have seen given nods, but for the most part they’ve captured the likely winners, which isn’t an all-too-easy thing to do in something that’s determined by an open popular vote. Anyway, this post is an attempt to predict the winners, which is much more challenging than just telling you who I think should win (but I’ll tell you that too ). Particularly with the AnimeSuki Forums, which is a real mix of varying tastes. I haven’t done any counting of the current votes, but I have flipped through the thread, so I have a (highly) vague idea of what people have been voting for at this stage.

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Copyright © 2009 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 23 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Allison to Lillia, AnimeSuki Choice Awards, Aria The Animation, BAMBOO BLADE, Clannad, Code Geass Hangyaku no Lelouch, Detroit Metal City, ef -a tale of memories, Gundam (all), Itazura na Kiss, Kaiba, Kaiji, Kannagi, Kanokon, Kara no Kyoukai, Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de, KimiKiss pure rouge, Kurenai, Macross Frontier, Mnemosyune Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi, Mouryou no Hako, Natsume Yuujinchou, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rosario + Vampire, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Shigofumi, Shion no Oh, Spicy Wolf, Strike Witches, To Love-Ru, true tears, Tsubasa Chronicle, Zero no Tsukaima

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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 is pretty disappointing), there were a few pleasant surprises here and there. Here’s a short list of the titles that particularly caught me off guard, and certainly exceeded my expectations.

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Copyright © 2008 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Aria The Animation, Itazura na Kiss, Kannagi, Kurenai, Natsume Yuujinchou

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