I spent some time this weekend catching up with Toshokan Sensou, a show I lost all enthusiasm for only a few episodes in, initial interest notwithstanding. Like a lot of people, my disappointment with the show was a direct response to its ridiculous premise. However, having given it a second try, I’ve come to the conclusion that the premise isn’t quite as ridiculous as it seems. Oppressive totalitarian regimes often do have a taste for censorship, and there have been instances in history in which armed resistances have coexisted in a persistent stalemate with the ruling party for so long that they’re eventually recognized as legitimate institutions.

Ultimately, the trouble with Toshokan Sensou is not the premise, but the execution. The politics of Seika Japan are clearly more complicated than the show lets on, and the friendly manner in which the two opposing factions do battle suggests that the author mostly wanted to write a war story without, you know, dwelling on gloomy things like death and destruction (how delightfully Japanese). It’s undercooked, to say the least. But, taken as alternate history, it’s about as believable as any light political thriller that turns reality upside down for flavor, and taken as the coming of age character drama it eventually becomes, it’s about as satisfying as any other anime series of similar form, fit, and function.

In other words, it’s turned into a perfectly enjoyable show now that I’ve stopped trying to analyze and second guess it to death.

The funny thing is, it’s my natural inclination to take anime at face value, and not to analyze it or second guess it to death. Why did I not afford Toshokan Sensou the same benefit of a doubt as I would any other anime series? Why was I so quick to judge it so harshly? I really don’t know. I’m perceptive enough to recognize that I’ve been “down” on anime these past several months, if not “down” on a lot of things in general, so it could be I was simply looking for any reason to drop the show - any show, really - from my regular viewing rotation. Or, it could be I was just horribly depressed to see Aria come to a close.

Whatever the reason, it so concerns me that I would act in such a way that’s so out of character and so antithetical to the way I typically approach anime, that I feel like I need to subject myself to repeated viewings of Saikano both as a penance and as a reminder of what disappointing anime really feels like.

Or, I could just cut the crap and catch up with some of the other shows I’ve been ignoring. Like Itazura na Kiss. And Shugo Chara. And the second season of Da Capo II.

They ain’t gonna watch themselves.

After two relatively dry anime seasons in Japan, the sky has finally opened up and blessed us with more potential gems than there is time to watch them all. That’s my feeling, at least. And the timing couldn’t be any better.

As usual, here are the coming Summer season shows that catch my eye…

Zero no Tsukaima ~Miyoshi Hime no Rondo~ - Even though the second season left me a little disappointed, I’m still a fan of the franchise and its lead characters. If this third season revisits the humor and playfulness of the first season, I’ll be happy. If it tries to take itself too seriously, as the second season unfortunately did, I might not make it to the end. I can be plied with gobs of dere dere Louise, though.

Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora - Not too long after the first Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto TV series ended, I remember hearing rumors that a sequel was in the works. Being such a fan of the show, the news got me to burning, but the “sequel” came in the form of a spin-off manga series that never received the anime treatment. It’s taken five years and an additional manga series for the franchise to return to television, and I’m still burning all the same. And since HAL Film Maker has been hitting one home run after another lately when it comes to slice of life shows, I fear I might set the curtains on fire any minute now.

Telepathy Shoujo Ran - What is it about NHK shows and their uncanny ability to appeal to the nostalgic feelings of aging anime fans, with their tried and true themes, understated productions, and eye for all that is good and right about the medium? These are the sort of shows I’ll be watching ten years from now. I just hope they keep making them.

Chocolate Underground - The premise is so goofy that I can’t resist. Bootlegging chocolate? Just the thought is amusing.

Natsume Yuujin-Chou - My interest in shows built upon Shinto mysticism, both genuine and perverted, has been growing in recent years. It’s such a wonderful construct for fantasy stories. At first glance, this series has the appearance of a Mushishi clone, but I’m also reminded of lighter fare in the same vein. Like Mokke, for example. Perhaps it’s somewhere in between? Sounds like a good place to be.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu - I haven’t watched a good light romance series in awhile, as most of the recents entires in the genre have seemed a little too focused on fanservice and envelope pushing for my taste. This looks pretty good natured, though, and the fact that the female lead is an otaku (of all things) is a nice hook.

Hidamari Sketch x365 - You know, I’m really enjoying this, “let’s make more!” kick the anime industry is on. Shows like Hidamari Sketch deserve all the seasons they can get.

Count me among those fans who find “What ’bout My Star” from Macross Frontier to be one of the catchiest pop songs Yoko Kanno has ever produced. You could have Kelly Clarkson shout the hook in the chorus and sell a truckload of CDs. That’s how slick it sounds.

One reason I enjoy the song so much, I think, is because it’s essentially an extended version of Kanno’s “Going to the Sea” from the Honey and Clover movie soundtrack. I’ve always loved that particular track, but it’s more an incipient song than anything else, only consisting of a quick introduction, a “B” section, and a single chorus. It doesn’t develop any further.

“What ’bout My Star,” on the other hand, takes the same basic musical idea and transforms it into a full song. It’s especially easy to hear in the @Formo duet version, which was featured in part in Episode 5 of the series. That’s my preferred version of the song, by the way.

Of course, it’s just one of many great songs that have graced the series thus far. “Diamond Crevasse” is spectacular, and “Infinity” worked out surprisingly well in show. And then there’s that damn carrot song…

In my kitchen at home, I have a calendar featuring the work of Utagawa Hiroshige. The print for the month of April was particularly soothing; given how frenetic a month it turned out to be, I found the juxtaposition amusing. What would the next month bring? Depends on how you look at it, I guess.

Believe it or not, I’ve been writing blog posts these past few weeks. Every single one remains unfinished, however. I haven’t been feeling particularly inspired, to say the least, and even when inspiration does hit, I’ve been having a difficult time putting my thoughts into words. Typically, I don’t ask too much of my brain when I write; as long as I have my thoughts in order, the writing process is a sort of involuntary reflex. When the reflex is functioning, good stuff happens. When it’s not, I’m paralyzed. I could never hack it as a professional writer, that’s for sure.

This morning, I had an idea for a blog post. First good one in awhile, really. After fifteen minutes of writing, the box score was six sentences, eight trips to the thesaurus, and a hundred paces around the room. I promptly hit the close button and went outside to water my garden.

So, I think it’s about time I take a long break. I don’t intend to make a big deal out of it, but I also don’t want to waste a bunch of time dicking around, pretending that the inspiration and energy to write is going to hit me when I wake up tomorrow morning. Because, that’s what I’ve been doing. And I also don’t want you, my readers, thinking, “What happened? Did he get eaten by sharks?” Better to just make everything clear.

Anyway, I’ll still be around. And if I feel like writing something, I will. Perhaps I’ll start a new blog somewhere and post pictures of my cat.

I guess I’ll have to get a cat.

The secret to being a successful anime blogger is proper planning.

It sure has been raining a lot lately. I like the rain, though.

Sorry for the recent silence. I didn’t intend for the blog to go dark for such a long stretch of time, but it seems my brain is on vacation. I’m actually taking some time off later in the month; perhaps I’m getting an early start?

I’m sure you’ve heard by now, but voting is in progress for the inaugural Anime Blog Awards. Hop Step Jump has been nominated in three categories: Best Editorial Blog, Most Influential Blog, and Most Thought-Provoking Blog. Voting is open to the general public, so if you’re interested in participating, you can do so here. The polls close on May 15.

That’s all for now. I’m going to convalesce this weekend in hopes of finding some creative energy.

Snow, apparently.

I’m sure you’ve heard the news by now, but Aria has been licensed for North American release. For some reason, I’m not surprised. Right Stuf has gotten into the habit of licensing a lot of my favorite shows.

What’s interesting, however, is that the distributor held off on making their licensing announcement until a month after the show’s final season finished airing in Japan. I can’t help but wonder if they’re acknowledging the fact that many, if not most, of their buyers have been following the series in fansub format over the years, and would have been disappointed in a licensing announcement immediately prior to the series actually ending. It could just be a coincidence, of course, but the timing sure is suspicious.

Anyway, Aria is one of those rare shows that I’m always in the mood to watch an episode (or sixteen) of, so you can bet I’m looking forward to owning it on DVD. And I know I’m not alone. There’s an Aria fan born every minute, after all.

I’m sure if you asked someone who wasn’t particularly well acquainted with anime what its defining features are, you’d hear the standard responses: big eyes, neon hair, sex, and giant robots. Of course, every anime fan knows that there’s much more to the medium than, say, sexy big-eyed giant robot pilots with neon hair.

A lot of sexy big-eyed giant robot pilots have perfectly normal black hair, for example.

But people wouldn’t say those things if they weren’t true to some extent. Anime characters do typically have big eyes. Unnatural hair colors are a common sight. Sex is still a driving force in the industry.

And giant robots have never gone out of style.

It’s no secret that I’m not the world’s biggest mecha anime fan. I don’t actively dislike the genre or anything; rather, I’ve just never been all that intrigued by it. At the same time, I’m not much of a shounen action fan, and seeing as a lot of mecha series are, in part, shounen action series, I’ve steered wide and clear of the genre over the years. It’s not my thing.

But, I think there’s more to it than just that. As a child growing up, I never developed the same fascination with machines that many young boys do. My older brother had a keen interest in airplanes, likely driven by the fact our father worked in the aircraft industry. I had greater interest in writing, music, and other creative pursuits. And when we played together, I’d take my Legos and construct cities and buildings; my brother would build automobiles and spaceships. As we grew older, his interest turned to cars and architecture. Mine, to weather and maps. Today, he works in industrial design. I work in international business.

Or, to be more exact, I work in international business in the aerospace industry, spending my days surrounded by engineers who probably grew up with similar interests as my brother. Except, they’re still building their spaceships today. And when they talk about it, their eyes light up, and I realize how much passion they have for machines and what makes them work. And I think that explains a lot about the enduring popularity of mecha anime. If you accept that most Japanese anime fans are male and likely grew up with similar interests as my brother and many of my coworkers, you start to understand the appeal of mecha anime.

Of course, things change. I’m not entirely sure how to explain the growing popularity of moe anime and bishoujo game adaptations in a similar fashion - I’m not sure I want to know, to be honest - and as anime has spread around the globe, the diversity of its fans has increased tenfold. Mecha has held on nonetheless, but the focus has gradually shifted from the machines to the lives of the people who pilot them and the conflicts of which they are tools.

Or perhaps it’s been that way for some time already. It is the Gundam model, after all, and even though there’s no shortage of Gundam freaks out there who can tell you the thread length on every screw holding a MS-06J Zaku II together, there are just as many who spend their weekends dressing up like Char Aznable and waxing philosophic about the virtue of war with their Zeon comrades at the corner coffee shop.

Oddly enough, however, the one mecha show I consider a favorite is one in which the mechanics of the mecha themselves are both realistic and presented in such a way that many engineers would appreciate. Of course, I’m talking about Patlabor. With the exception of its oversized service revolver and gratuitous design elements, the Ingram makes sense. And many of the common Labors featured in the show look and function like the construction implements they are. I suppose you could argue that there are more efficient ways of doing construction work than utilizing giant bipedal robots, but from a purely mechanical standpoint, Labors are pretty no-nonsense compared to the giant robots in your average mecha series.

The fact that Labors are, essentially, giant machines is not lost on the show, either. Special Vehicles has more gearheads than police officers. Even a few of the police officers are mecha otaku in their own right. And the show spends as much time dealing with stories of industrial espionage and the politics of an increasingly technocratic world as it does stories of routine police work. The tag line at the end of each episode says a lot about the show’s outlook, I think: “This is a work of fiction, but in ten years, who knows?” Gundam is science fiction for dreamers. Patlabor, however, is science fiction for realists.

Not that there’s anything wrong with dreaming, of course. Today’s dreams are tomorrow’s reality, and all that jazz. But, while I have a little bit of dreamer in me, I’ve always been a realist at heart. It’s just one of the many reasons I love Patlabor as much as I do.

And when people ask me what I do for a living, and I say, “I work with a bunch of rocket scientists, but I just pretend to be a lawyer all day,” it’s not like I’m trying to make them laugh.

Honest.

You know, it never really occurred to me until now, but the cast of Aria is young. They’re all teenagers, if not a few years past twenty by the end of the series. The funny thing is, with the exception of Alice, whose great talent despite her young age is an ongoing plot point, the series doesn’t make much fuss about the age of its characters. Without the appropriate background, one could just as well assume that Akari and Aika are both several years older than they actually are.

Even more surprising is the fact that the Water Fairies are just as young. This, despite being the premier Undines in Neo-Venezia and mentors to three girls only a few years their junior. We know from Grandma’s long career that Undines aren’t exactly the Martian tourist trade’s version of the Japanese office lady, keeping busy until they can find a man to marry. But I can’t think of a single instance in the entire series where we meet an Undine who is clearly over the age of twenty-five. I guess they all moved up to middle management.

Of course, this is par for the course when it comes to anime. Even anime series that address the lives of adults, such as Patlabor and You’re Under Arrest, are stocked with characters younger than myself. And many of their viewers. An appeal to nostalgia is fine, too… I guess.

Now get your giant robot off my damn lawn, you little punk.

Just so you know, work and the sudden onset of Spring have conspired to suck up most of my spare mental and physical energy these past few weeks. I’ll be out of town on business next week, too, so I suspect the remainder of April is pretty much shot as far as blogging is concerned.

Sorry, but such is life.

Anyway, I’m still in the process of catching up with the Spring anime season. Here are some initial impressions of the shows I’ve sampled thus far…

Da Capo - More of the same. I’m man enough to admit that I have a soft spot for Da Capo. Through good times and bad, it’s always entertaining.

Kure-nai - I had been looking forward to this show for awhile, but I was also apprehensive given its pedigree and the fact I couldn’t quite figure out what genre to place it in. And while I still have a lot of questions about the show, I have to say that the first two episodes were quite good and more than enough to grab my interest. The art is attractive, the direction has style, and the acting is far more organic than what you’d find in your typical anime series. I especially enjoy the dynamic between the two leads. It’s surprisingly warm.

Itazura na Kiss - Who brought the time machine to the party? I’m having flashbacks to Marmalade Boy here. And I mean that in a positive way. Seriously, though, this is old school, traditional shoujo, and it’s just the sort of thing I have a history of getting hooked on. Great OP, by the way.

Kanokon - Kawasmui Ayako needs to talk dirty more often. As for the show itself? It’s funny in much the same way Girls Bravo was funny, and the boundary pushing fanservice is cute, but I see the joke getting very old, very fast. It’s been a blast, Kanokon, but I really gotta go now.

Macross Frontier - Yoko Kanno is in top form this time around. Victor best not be stingy with the soundtrack releases. Other than that, all I’ll say is that this is likely to be the, “damn, I can’t wait for the next episode,” series of the season for me. It’s good. Go watch it, already.

Special A - For some reason, this show has yet to click with me. The humor and writing feels unusually mechanical, and it sucks a lot of the charm out of what should otherwise be a fun show. However, it clearly has potential, and it could very well grow on me, so I’m reluctant to pass on it without watching another episode or two.