Ahhh the New Year. A time of beginnings, resolutions, and rebirths. A chance for everyone, everywhere, to start over with a fresh beginning. A chance to wash away the bumps, bruises, smudges, and stains of the last three-hundred and sixty-five days so that we may try again for the better. While the Winter season is sometimes considered part of the previous year, we here at NHRV like to use it as the starting block for what will come. Last year had so many great titles that it would be unfair to compare what will come with what has been. Still, 2011 got off to a great start with epic titles like Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Level E, and Rio: Rainbow Gate so it is only appropriate that 2012 must do the same to keep up. As Stan Lee would say: “Excelsior!”. Thus, we NHRV’ers have put together our first of the first thoughts for the year How does 2012′s start look so far? Read on and find out!
Introduction by: TypicalIdiotFan

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Copyright © 2012 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By NHRV Staff | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Amagami SS, Ano Natsu de Matteru, Another, Bakemonogatari, Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, High School DxD, Kill Me Baby, Moretsu Pirates, Natsume Yuujinchou, Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai, Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki, Recorder to Randoseru, Rinne no Lagrange, Senhime Zesshou Symphogear, Sousei no Aquarion, Thermae Romae, Zero no Tsukaima

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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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A year ago we were graced by the season of Summer 2010, when the flagship series were High School of the Dead, Occult Academy, and Amagami SS. We were thankfully saved by Shiki, but otherwise we left that season screaming for something better. It seems someone heard our pleas, because Summer 2011 has showered us with a quantity of promise we haven’t seen in a while. Sure, the worst of the season are still scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas – and the less we must say about them, the better – but the cream of the crop should leave everyone highly satisfied for the next three months.
Introduction by: Elineas

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Copyright © 2011 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By NHRV Staff | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Blade, Blood: The Last Vampire, Idol Master, Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, Itsuka Tenma no Kuro-Usagi, Kami-sama no Memo-chou, Kamisama Dolls, Manyuu Hikenchou, Mawaru PenguinDrum, Mayo Chiki!, Morita-san wa Mukuchi, Natsume Yuujinchou, Nekogami Yaoyorozu, No. 6, Nurarihyon no Mago, R-15, Sacred Seven, Usagi Drop, Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ Maji Love 1000%, Yuru Yuri

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More mock awards on the anime blogosphere (as if there haven’t been enough), this one being a sequel of the one I did last year. Just like the last effort, this set of awards will be structured to (somewhat) resemble the real Academy Awards, cheekily timed to coincide with yesterday’s ceremony. Again, these awards are completely biased by what I’ve seen (as well as the small detail of my own taste), and I’m pretty much going to conveniently ignore ongoing series except where it’s utterly clear that there’s no worthwhile competition within cooie. The other anomaly is Bakemonogatari, which is near enough to completion that I may as well treat it as such. I’m also going to snub worthwhile series like Aoi Bungaku and Kemono no Souja Erin because I still haven’t finished either (which is unfortunate, because what I’ve seen of both series has been outstanding, but they’re not what I’d call “easy” shows to watch, which is why I’ve been pacing myself with them). Oh yeah, and seeing as I’ve had to try to recall an entire year’s worth of anime, songs and seiyuu, there’s almost certainly something or someone I’ve unintentionally left out, so feel free to point out if you think I’ve tripped up.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Aoi Hana, Bakemonogatari, Canaan, Clannad, Eden of the East, Kara no Kyoukai, Natsume Yuujinchou, RIDE BACK, Taishou Yakyuu Musume

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This is happening a lot quicker than it did last year. This time last year there was a massive gap between the end of nominations and voting, which didn’t start until the 25th of Jan. This year, voting is going to be over before the 20th. Personally, I think it was better the way Kyomi did it last year (although I have a sneaking suspicion it was a consequence of him being lackadaisical)… well, not the massive gap between nominations and voting, but the fact that voting didn’t start until late in the month. It gives more people time to catch up and to stew over the anime they’ve seen in the last year. Some of the nominees haven’t even been completely subbed (to my knowledge and conveniently ignoring Crunchyroll), while, in my book, Bakemonogatari (which is going to absolutely clean up these awards) is still technically ongoing.

This year’s nominees are reasonable enough again. I can’t think of too many blatant exclusions (except for one which I’ll get to later). In all honesty, I’m actually less concerned with what wins than I am what gets nominated. Winning is, a lot of the time, about splitting hairs. Being nominated means that an anime has actually been recognized by a reasonably sized audience for excelling at something. 5 cm/s missing a nomination for the animation category two years ago still sticks in my mind. I’m not sure what was going through everyone’s mind during the nomination process (myself included, since I also forgot to nominate it). Since then, forum goers have been much more careful during nomination. I like to think AnimeSuki has learned its lesson.

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Copyright © 2010 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: AnimeSuki Choice Awards, Bakemonogatari, Clannad, Eden of the East, Eve no Jikan, Gundam (all), Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, K-ON!, Kampfer, Kara no Kyoukai, Kemono no Souja Erin, Natsume Yuujinchou, Saki, Spicy Wolf, Taishou Yakyuu Musume, Umineko no Naku Koro ni

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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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Copyright © 2009 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By NHRV Staff | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Casshern, Clannad, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Natsume Yuujinchou

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In anime, moe is so rammed down our throats sometimes that it is easy to grow tired of it. It’s become a successful component in anime, to the point now that (to pull a number out of my ass) ~90% of anime use the moe art-style for character designs, but like all successful things, it has been abused and overused to the point where it’s use has become stale and unimaginative in a lot of instances, and even blatantly manufactured and manipulative in some of the worst cases (cf. the visual novel adaptations with an array of archetypes that you can check off on a list). Moe itself, though, is difficult to define (I don’t particularly subscribe to the Akamatsu definition) and we’ve basically been forced to go to an upper-upper-upper level to define it, calling it something akin to an art-style, which is sufficiently broad to encompass all things moe but tells you nothing about what makes it special or unique as a phenomenon. The challenge of defining moe in a meaningful way comes from the fact that it’s different things to different people, and I think most people have given up trying to come up with a definition that’s specific enough to describe it comprehensively, but general enough to encompass everything to do with the phenomonen. So, defining moe is a challenge (arguably) no one has completely succeeded at, now I’m going to attempt to define a subset of moe, something I refer to as “natural moe”.

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Copyright © 2009 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: Aria The Animation, Hidamari Sketch, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Natsume Yuujinchou, Sketchbook ~full color’S~

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Must... buy... Pizza Hut.

…and a few thoughts on the current season.

Mild spoiler warning for the tagged anime.

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Copyright © 2009 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: Birdy the Mighty DECODE, Kemono no Souja Erin, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Natsume Yuujinchou, RIDE BACK

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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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