It was just a month ago that I covered the AnimeSuki 2011 Choice Awards, and it’s the time of year where I like to go over my own, personal mock awards for anime. To quickly go over the ground rules, not much has changed from last year. Anime are eligible if 1.) I’ve seen them and 2.) they’ve finished their intended run. I haven’t seen as much anime this year, so if there are obvious candidates I’ve missed, feel free the berate me in the comments. As has been the case for this mock award’s existence, I’ve tried to make them resemble the real Academy Awards, but in a way that’s relevant to anime. This year, I’ve changed the “Best Script” award to “Best Writing” firstly to match the Oscars and secondly because best writing is a much easier criteria to judge than best script. One thing I haven’t done though is split it into “Original” and “Adapted” categories. I don’t think there are quite enough quality original anime to justify the split… yet (one day, hopefully).

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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: Hoshi o Ou Kodomo, Hourou Musuko, Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, Mawaru PenguinDrum, Moshidora, Steins;Gate, Usagi Drop

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The AnimeSuki Choice Awards frustrate the hell out of me. I definitely think it’s a worthwhile idea, which is why I cover it each and every year, as it is a good exercise to see which anime a community of its size rate highly, and Haak does a good job organizing nomination and voting stages, counting votes and announcing winners. But the problem I’ve been complaining for years about now, in this very column, seems to get worse every year. There’s too many categories, which makes the nominating and voting processes (as well as attempts to cover it comprehensively, like this one) a giant pain in the ass. The categories are hella ambiguous too, which makes the nomination process confusing (fortunately the voting process isn’t so hard, because the choices are more limited).

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Copyright © 2012 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: AnimeSuki Choice Awards, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Colorful, Fate/Stay Night, Hourou Musuko, Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai, Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, Mawaru PenguinDrum, Moshidora, Redline, Steins;Gate, Usagi Drop, Working!!

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Triple H Cosplay

I recently had the pleasure of meeting translator and writer Naoki Matsuyama (Twitter) from Contectures, a Japanese publishing company started by literary critic Azuma Hiroki. We sat down at a large café in Shinjuku, the heart of Tokyo, along with freelance translator Ko Ransom (Twitter), who had graciously set up the meeting for me by serving as a point of contact. The three of us talked for almost two hours, discussing topics ranging from anime to American intellectuals and pundits, but there was one overarching theme that held together all of our discussion: Japan reaching out and becoming more global. Immediately, I made the connection between what Contectures was doing and what I often did as a blogger, which was analyzing anime-related topics for a non-Japanese audience.

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Copyright © 2012 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Kylaran | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: ARB, Azuma Hiroki, Blogging, Contectures, Japan, Mawaru PenguinDrum, Rock Over Japan, Triple H

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It’s not often that we do two podcasts in two weeks, but it’s the time of the season where we get together to bitch about what we hated about the season just finished. Except, it was kinda hard to find enough shows from the last season that we hated, so we had to reach all the way back to the summer season. Shinmaru joins me for a chat this time, and we finished up by reflecting on his time as a reviewer at the NHRV over the last twelve months. Here’s the list of shows we’ve covered in this episode:

0:40 Un-Go

5:19 Mawaru Penguindrum

9:35 Squid Girl S2

14:35 Natsume Yuujinchou San

17:57 No. 6

23:11 An interview with Shinmaru

This episode runs for 25:31, and we’ve somehow managed to avoid spoilers. So feel free to listen here:

And collectors can get a download from here.

Copyright © 2012 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: Mawaru PenguinDrum, Natsume Yuujinchou, No. 6, Shinryaku! Ika Musume, The Nihon Revue, Un-Go

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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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I call not Mami.

Surprise, bitches— I’m back. (Not really. Just for right now.) After a night of revelry and watching the fireworks at Darling Harbour, Sorrow-Kun and I ran back to my friend’s house to record this very special hour-long (LIVE!!) New Year’s Extravaganza. We patched in Kylaran, delirious from Comiket 81, and also had two special guests— Furinkan and AstCd2, both of is.moelicious.be fame (infamy?). We talk about life, love and everything in between Guilty Crown, Haganai and The iDOLM@STER. Enjoy, and Happy New Year.

0:25 Comiket 81
2:55 Anime of the year: Penguindrum v Steins;Gate?
9:37 Guilty Crown – Too many cooks spoil the broth?
17:14 Was Haganai deliberately bad?
26:18 The politics/religion of The Idolm@ster
37:40 Favourite characters of 2011
49:35 Hopes and predictions for 2012

Total length: 59:23. You can listen to it here:

Or download it from here.

Copyright © 2012 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Akira | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Comiket, Guilty Crown, Mawaru PenguinDrum, Steins;Gate, The iDOLM@STER, Three Way Action

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This is our hero shot.

This post is something of a spin-off/sequel from the last, this time looking at the events, particularly the episodes, displayed in anime this year that were memorable. While others on the aniblogosphere formatted their annual reflection in the 12 Days mold, I’ve instead distilled my list of awe-inspiring moments to five episodes in one post, not because I’m trying to be different, but more because twelve is… err, a big number. The Nihon Review, as a whole will also offer our reflections with the annual Year in Review article (coming soon, stay tuned), and there’s been a lot of debating and horse-trading behind closed doors as we figure out our definitive list of anime highlights and what we want to say about each title. But for now, let’s just look at some individual episodes. (Warning: major spoilers ahead.)

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Copyright © 2011 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Ikuhara Kunihiko, Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, Mawaru PenguinDrum, Moshidora, Shinbou Akiyuki, The iDOLM@STER, Usagi Drop

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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 | 21 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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Attention has previously been directed at Mawaru Penguindrum’s plethora of symbolisms and visual allusions to famous works of art. Articles by other writers, containing rich analysis of the deeply philosophical elements of the story, the directing, and the real life cultural references have been some of my favorite posts in recent weeks on anime. Without a doubt, the symbolism in the anime runs deep. But how far does it go?

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Copyright © 2011 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Kylaran | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Art, Buddhism, Fate, Ikuhara Kunihiko, Kant, Mawaru PenguinDrum

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When the Noitamina time-slot started back in 2005, its intention was to be a place where unconventional, “unusual” anime could air. Starting with Honey and Clover (these days considered a masterpiece by a not-insignificant number of fans), Noitamina’s ambition to showcase anime that reached beyond the typical demographics targeted by most anime has been a worthy one that, despite some up-and-downs, it generally made a good fist of achieving. While Noitamina’s expansion to a two-series slot has only been recent, when we get two shows that seem to be unremarkable genre pieces, it stands out.

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Copyright © 2011 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control, Code Geass Hangyaku no Lelouch, Fractale, Guilty Crown, Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, Mawaru PenguinDrum, No. 6, Steins;Gate, Un-Go

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