Behind The Nihon Review » Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Now, Why am I Watching This Again?

Akira — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 06:00:05 +0000

Just what am I doing with my life?

During the past days, I’ve been having some fairly intricate conversations with my partners in crime (mostly whilst waiting in line for goods at Comiket.) One of our more interesting conversations dealt with the root purpose of anime, which my friend claims is escapism. He posited one simple question to me: If I am living a fulfilled life, why do I still watch anime?

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Zzeroparticle’s List of 20 Noteworthy Anime Titles

zzeroparticle — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:18:48 +0000

That period between Christmas and New Year’s always leaves me in a sort of limbo, where the future is just about there, but not quite, and the past still needs to be nudged on a bit further until it can finally be called the past. Because of that, there’s never really a whole lot to do, making it an excellent time to simply sit back and reflect. The imminent arrival of a new decade means that we look back a bit further than we normally would. After all, 10 years is a long section of road upon which one travels through life, and provided that you didn’t get carsick for most of the journey, there should be some rich memories that you’ll probably want to look back upon and cherish.

Hence, this series of “decade’s” posts by The Nihon Review Staff. If there’s one commonality that links us, it’s that this past decade saw our interest in the medium surge as we began viewing not only the classics of old, but following the shows currently airing in Japan. And despite the deluge of anime we’ve seen, there are those that have made such a deep impression upon us that we cannot forget them.

So in following the footsteps blazed by gaguri, and wishing to join those who have put their thoughts forward, I present you my list of twenty titles that made an impact upon me in this past decade. TV shows tend to leave a stronger image in my mind, so I opted to focus on those. So with that, here’s my list. Dramatic execution demands that I start from the bottom and build up towards the top to create suspense. I’ve always hated that, and so, I’ll start from the top and work my way down. It’s always seemed more natural that way.

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Copyright © 2009 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By zzeroparticle | Permalink | 22 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Aria The Animation, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gankutsuou, Gunslinger Girl, Honey and Clover, Kino’s Journey, Monster, Mushishi, Nodame Cantabile, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

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The Limited Staying Power of Anime Comedies

Sorrow-kun — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:50:08 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I promised a critique of the new season of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei to balance out the unbroken praise of this unusually fertile currently airing season. The problem is, since I wrote that post, Zan SZS has delivered three particularly good episodes. Now, to that point Zan SZS hadn’t been a bad anime by any stretch of the imagination, and, on the other side of the coin, I wouldn’t say the latest three episodes have produced mark-hitting jokes with the consistency of the brilliant Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (which I’ll hence refer to as ZSZS). But there’s been an improvement which kinda neuters the point I was hoping to make (although it does conform to another point that I like to make frequently, ie, that it’s impossible to make a proper judgement on an incomplete series, since, like in capitalism, it demands speculation which is unreliable). But I guess what I want to point out is an observation of a trend: anime comedies generally lack staying power.

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Summer 2009: First Thoughts

Sorrow-kun — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:14:34 +0000

It’s still early days, but I genuinely think that there’s much more of interest on offer this season than there was last season. Maybe it’s little more than a matter of perception, but what this season has which last season failed to offer are sequels from proven franchises. It’s not a brilliant thing, since sequels are often innately unambitious, but I can look at titles like Spice and Wolf II and Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and say “ah, yes, I want to watch these”, because their predecessors were so good. Also, there aren’t too many series I’m following so far which are just out-and-out crap: even the worst series I’m watching have at least something I can enjoy or look forward to, whether it be classy music or mindless, over-the-top action. There is one exception to all of this, which is fast turning into one of the most epic disappointments I’ve ever seen in anime. I probably don’t even need to say what it is, it’s been so thoroughly discussed that you probably already know what I’m talking about.

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Copyright © 2009 Behind The Nihon Review. All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.
By Sorrow-kun | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to StumbleUpon | Tweet! | reddit
Post tags: Aoi Hana, Bakemonogatari, Canaan, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Sora no Manimani, Spicy Wolf, The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Umi Monogatari, Umineko no Naku Koro ni

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Anime Oscars?

Sorrow-kun — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:15:27 +0000

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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AnimeSuki 2008 Choice Awards: Picking Winners

Sorrow-kun — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:50:47 +0000

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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Songs to make you feel like you’re always super special

Sorrow-kun — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 08:08:44 +0000

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 noticeable technical shortcomings, but, while I can see where he’s coming from, I can’t help but find the song charming and fun to listen to. Arguably my attachment to the song is totally irrational, and I’d have a tough time formally reviewing it, since I just couldn’t put it at arm’s length and reason my way through it in a way required for a good review (add to that the fact that I just don’t have the knowledge to confidently write music reviews).

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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: Allison to Lillia, Aria The Animation, Chaos;Head, Rosario + Vampire, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

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