You know, I didn’t watch Shakugan no Shana, but watching Zero no Tsukaima kind of makes me wish I had watched Shakugan no Shana. Because, if it’s anywhere near as much fun as Harry Potter and the Harem of Tristain…
In the immortal words of Hiraga Saito, “Horse whips turn me on…”
Or perhaps it’s the pink hair.
Has anyone else noticed that Shimizu Ai is providing the voice for two different characters in Strawberry Panic? Obviously, she has a lead role in Suzumi Tamao, but she also plays Hyuuga Kizuna. If you can’t recall who Kizuna is, I don’t blame you, since she’s a minor character rarely referred to by name: she’s the pigtailed girl in Chikaru’s harem.
At first, I thought Kizuna’s seiyuu was simply channeling Shimizu Ai. Nope. It’s Shimizu Ai herself. Granted, seiyuu occasionally pull double duty - most of the guest characters in Simoun, for example, are voiced by members of the main cast - but it seems rare for a headlining seiyuu to voice two regular characters in the same show. It’s especially weird when you consider how distinctive Shimizu Ai’s voice is. While she plays each role a bit differently (Kizuna sounds more squeaky and immature), there’s no hiding the fact it’s Shimizu Ai.
Which raises some interesting questions: have Tamao and Kizuna ever interacted with each other in the same scene? I’m sure they’ve appeared on-screen simultaneously at some point, but have they ever both been party to the same conversation? Or, more importantly, have they ever spoken directly with each other? I don’t believe it’s happened yet, but if it ever does… how bizarre will that be?
Scott is right. If there’s one obvious thing that separates To Heart 2 from its predecessor (and by predecessor, I mean the original series - not To Heart: Remember Not to Drink When Pregnant), it’s the simple fact that Konomi is no Akari.
Of course, that doesn’t mean To Heart 2 doesn’t have its own charms. It still exists within the To Heart world, after all, and Takaki’s female classmates are all cut from that pleasant, “girl next door” To Heart template. Konomi could be Akari if the story allowed - but it doesn’t. To Heart 2 is, essentially, To Heart Neutered. It’s a standard bishoujo game dressed up in the trademark red and white seifuku.
The funny thing is, the lack of a central figure in To Heart 2 ultimately provides each girl the opportunity to shine. In the original series, for example, a character like Karin would have gotten little attention. In To Heart 2, however, she shows up again and again. And, of course, there are hordes of Komaki Manaka fans out there (myself included!). All things considered, the two characters you would most expect to win Takaki’s love - Konomi and Tamaki - get very little screentime whatsoever. I suppose To Heart 2 should be commended for attempting to satisfy fans of each girl, at least. In the original series, one is inherently obligated to cheer for Akari.
Admittedly, I’m a To Heart fanboy, so I’m inclined to appreciate anything and everything To Heart (yes, even Remember My Memories… just pretend it’s an alternate universe or something, and it’s not all that bad). So, I can’t complain much about To Heart 2, even if it does lack most of the charm of the original series. It’s still To Heart.
AMV Week is on temporary hold. Why? Lo and behold, I decided to revisit a certain forgotten project. It’s coming along, but I’m a lot more lazy about this sort of thing than I used to be, so I won’t make any promises.
Also, I decided to catch up with a forgotten show. It’s a shame it’s still stuck in fansub limbo.
Oh, and uguu~.
No sweat rags featuring sad girls in snow for me, but hey… I can always dry my hands on Konomi-chan. For a trip down memory lane, here’s my towel shopping report from last year.
Omo beat me to it, but I want to point everyone toward these incredible vector traces of Simoun eyecatches, courtesy of NegativeZero. Typically, I don’t use vector traces for desktop wallpaper, but these are too attractive not to use (notebook | desktop). I look forward to seeing more.
And, speaking of Simoun, I have to say this…
When the show first started, I ignored it. Later, I figured I’d give it a try. Initially, I wasn’t sold. But I kept watching. And now? One of my favorite shows of the year. No doubt about it.
Spring Break! A wonderful time of year for college students everywhere. Some go to the beach. Others return home. Me? I always stayed put and worked on term papers. And by “worked on term papers”, I mean, “sat around playing video games.”
When working on creative projects, I have a tendency to lose track of time, working and working until, next thing I know, it’s 4:00 AM and I’m too keyed up to sleep. I work some more, collapse into bed, sleep a few hours, wake up, and start again. This continues until I either finish the project or run out of ideas. Obviously, it’s difficult to partake in such a lifestyle when you have daily responsibilities to consider, so what better time to embark on a creative project than when on vacation?
When Spring Break rolled around in March of 2002, I was in need of an intervention. I was an anime junkie, watching everything I could get my hands on, buying DVDs left and right. I dreamt of magical girls and giant robots. It was during this period that I was first introduced to Cardcaptor Sakura, the uncut version of which was being released on R1 DVD at the time. Only twenty or so episodes in, I was hooked. Even to this day, Cardcaptor Sakura remains one of my all-time favorites.
A month had passed since I had completed my first music video, and I was already itching to create another. Cardcaptor Sakura was on my mind. I was staring at a week of precious vacation. And so, my second video came to be…
Of all of the videos ideas I’ve had over the years, Sakura no Yume came most naturally. It took minimal planning. I intrinsically “knew” what I wanted the moment I started editing. In some ways, Sakura no Yume is an oddity in that it utilizes music from the featured show itself - another “rule” broken, I suppose. Yet, Iwao Junko’s Yasashisa no Tane was really a perfect fit for the story I hoped to tell.
That story begins in a simple enough fashion, with Tomoyo watching over Sakura as she drifts asleep. Since Iwao Junko provides the voice of Tomoyo in the show, it’s implied that Tomoyo is serenading Sakura, herself guided through her dreams by the luminous orbs of the Glow Card (featured in Episode 18 of the series, “Sakura, Yukito, and the Summer Festival”). Sakura’s dreams are framed for the most part by the lyrics of the song (English translation here), and often refer to the loss of her mother, either directly or indirectly. Students of Sigmund Freud are free to draw their own conclusions.
In many ways, this video is the model for every video I’ve created since. At the time, anime music videos were typically glorified clip shows (to a point, they still are even today). I was more interested in telling a semi-original story, however, and that required building scenes rather than stringing together seemingly unrelated clips to fill time. Sometimes, this is easy. Sometimes, it’s not. Occasionally, I’d find myself thinking, “I’d sure like a shot of Sakura pole-vaulting over a pool of lava here,” regardless of whether or not such a scene existed in the first place. Making do with what’s available requires some creativity, and it can be terribly frustrating when things simply refuse to work out.
Sakura no Yume, however, wasn’t an especially difficult video to create. I never hit “the wall” creatively, and even though I only had the first twenty episodes to work with (only the first five DVDs were available at the time), I had all of the footage I needed to properly tell the story I wanted to tell. Still, not wanting to rush myself, I took my time, completing the video the final night of Spring Break.
In a lot of ways, the video was an instant hit. Cardcaptor Sakura fans were plentiful at the time. Cardcaptor Sakura music videos, on the other hand, were not. Even today, I often find Sakura no Yume on lists of “favorite CCS AMVs” and the like, and have received more positive comments about the video than the rest of my videos combined. Despite that, it’s not my personal favorite. That distinction belongs to my next video…
A second season of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi has NOT been announced… yet.
On a totally unrelated note, I hear Newtype Japan just sold a shitload of magazines.
