Monthly Archives: September 2009

End of season: Spice and Wolf II

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Spice and Wolf’s second season was one of the shows that I was looking forward to the most. There are two things that I really enjoyed about Spice and Wolf: the huge role that economics plays in moving the plot and the verbal sparring and conversations that Lawrence has with Horo (which might explain why I love Bakemonogatari so much). The first season left us with a fairly open end to pave the way for more adventures.

In anticipation for the second season (and because of boredom commuting to work) I decided to go through the light novels that Baka-Tsuki had translated. As it turned out, this was just volumes three and four. As per my expectation, volume three was animated and we got to see Amati get pwnt in his smug face. Not as planned was the absense of volume four in favour of some other volume that I’m not familiar with.

I’m not sure why everyone’s so disappointed over the new OP. Personally, I think it’s great and it goes particularly well with the scenes in the OP. I can understand everyone’s discontent with the loss of SEVEN APPLES ON THE WITCHES TREE, but it’s like losing Dango Daikazoku – unfortunate, but they probably didn’t have a choice.

I can see why Brains Base decided to go with not volume four as the second arc. If we consider the entire season, it seems like the entire thing was focused on developing Lawrence and Horo’s relationship. Volume four was more about finding Horo’s hometown and more about her origins. That is, it was more focused on the journey than on their relationship.

It was interesting seeing their interactions in the second arc after the material from volume three. Volume three was about Lawrence’s and Horo’s trust in each other. The second arc shows us a Lawrence and Horo who aren’t quite jabbing at each other in the same way as at the start of the first arc. And in the second arc, we see them putting their trust to work in selling Horo to make the deal work.

Unlike the first season, where we saw them ride on a cart off into more adventures, the second season has much more closure. Well, Lawrence’s and Horo’s journey continues and we have no idea where they’ll be next, so it’s still open in that sense. However, their relationship is a lot less vague. Their relationship has been developed to a fairly concrete point by the end of the season.

And so we come to the end of a very solid season. At this point, there’s almost no uncertainty that we’ll be seeing a third season some time. And I’ll be waiting there again for more long, entertaining conversations and saving the day with the power of commerce.

Wolf and Terrible Cover Design

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So today, we found out what the US cover of Spice and Wolf volume 1 is going to look like. It is pretty terrible. It looks like either a terrible teen novel like Twilight or a terrible trashy romance novel that you’d pick up at some supermarket. I understand that you don’t want to publish a book with an anime wolf-girl on the cover, that’s fine. I’m not sure how a naked wolf-girl advances the notion that Spice and Wolf is quality stuff any better though. And of course, their offer of an alternate slipcover in an issue of Yen+ isn’t really enough to make me go out and buy a volume.

So in about five minutes, I’ve managed to think up a better cover design. The problem beyond the cover being terrible is how they plan to make covers for future volumes have the same look and feel. My ideal cover would be some sort of sketch or watercolour of the place they’re visiting, say a field of wheat for volume one or Rubenhaigen for volume two, and Lawrence’s cart somewhere on the cover. There, we have a classy cover scheme that conveys the atmosphere of Spice and Wolf, fits the target audience (light, fantasy, not trash), and can be extended for future volumes.

It’s baffling because their Haruhi cover redesigns were actually pretty good. The silhouette of Haruhi is recognizably Haruhi and the use of a bright solid colour makes it easy to distinguish volumes apart while keeping them visually consistent.

It’s unfortunate, because I was looking forward to buying Spice and Wolf much more than Haruhi. I guess that won’t be happening now.

End of Season: Hayate the Combat Butler!! 2nd Season

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So, after searching through my archives, I noticed that I hadn’t talked about Hayate the Combat Butler in very much depth yet.

I really like Hayate the Combat Butler. I enjoy its humour, like its Zetsubou-ish references and in-jokes. I also really like a lot of the characters. And I also like the non-comedy parts as well. I guess there isn’t that much I wanted to say about the series in general.

The second season got taken away from SynergySP by JC Staff. With that, JC Staff is now in control of all the Kugimiya Rie tsunderes. A lot of people hated the alleged art changes, but either I’m blind or they’re blind, because beyond some very slight colouring changes, there wasn’t much that was different from before.

The biggest change was in the story. The first season was a mixed bag. I didn’t find the non-manga arcs all that interesting, and this was before I started reading the manga. Other people really liked the tripped-out, anything-goes filler material. And so, our positions flipped on the second season.

Most people who enjoyed season one, hated season two. People familiar with the manga probably weren’t fans of the second half of the first season, but enjoyed the second season a lot more, as it focused on moving the story ahead. Those who liked the first season probably hate the second season for introducing something resembling a story and character development.

The problem with the filler-loving people is that they became fans of something that wasn’t Hayate the Combat Butler. These people complained that they were ruining Hayate by focusing on bad romantic comedy and harem instead of on the references and parodies. Sorry guys, but Hayate is romantic comedy and harem. It turns out that Hayate wasn’t supposed to be for you.

But for those of us that do enjoy real Hayate, the second season was great. For the major arcs, it followed the source material really closely. For the one-shot gag chapters, they were expanded to fill an entire episode, but the added material was pretty good too. I think it’s the best adaptation that JC Staff has done recently that I can remember.

Although one thing that I did take issue with was their mixing of 00 and SEED references that one time. Innovators and Naturals? C’mon guys, SEED isn’t that old that we’d forget what a Coordinator is.

I’m looking forward to the next season, which is well beyond the manga scanlation point, and where I will likely finally see this enigmatic Athena-tan.

Finale: Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

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My interest in Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 followed a fairly interesting trajectory. I swear I was the only one who was interested in it when it was first announced. After all, it’s BONES, a studio that I really like, making a show about something that’s relatively original and grounded in reality. It wasn’t until summer previews hit that more people took a look at it.

The show starts off with Mirai, a fairly irritating kid. Obviously, the story and circumstances will have her grow out of being irritating. Still, that didn’t stop the first few episodes from being excruciating because of this kid. Compounding this situation was the fact that pretty much everyone who wasn’t Mari was kind of a dick to the kids. That’s not to say that the show was terrible, but it was hard to get excited for each week.

Of course, this all changed in the second half of the show. See, I had assumed that the outcome would be Mirai and Yuuki reuniting with their parents and GOOD END ensues. The other plausible ending that others had suggested was rocks fall, everyone dies, BAD END. I hadn’t expected Yuuki to die, although in retrospect, there was no reason for me to believe that.

And that really changed the rest of the show. The initial screwing around with the audience was pretty well done. Internet arguments flared over whether he had actually died or not. Over the next few episodes, it became more and more clear and by the time the reveal came, it had already sunk in. I was pretty happy with the resultant ending, particularly with how the family handled everything.

This is one of those shows that isn’t going to make it anywhere near my list of favourites, but is definitely a quality piece of work that I enjoyed watching.

The （　´_ゝ`） of Haruhi Suzumiya

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So the Sighs of Haruhi Suzumiya follows ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT. With that, the second season of Haruhi is cemented in mediocrity.

Reading the second volume of the light novel after having seen short stories from the third and fifth volumes was pretty interesting. There are a few gems in there, but in general, it’s not quite as strong as some of the other volumes. That’s understandable, though. It was only the second volume and I can see how cool it would have been to see the resultant movie several volumes later. It’s expected that the later volumes would have stronger writing.

Still, Mikuru shooting stuff out of her eyes and Yuki saving the day is great. Shamisen and his philosophical insights are also great. Kyon getting pushed to the limits of his patience is fantastic. But why isn’t Sighs enough to placate the rage over ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT? Isn’t it not ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT which means it’s great?

Again, let’s consider what was animated this season: Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, Endless Eight, and Sighs. What did the predicted broadcast indicate? Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, Endless Eight, Sighs, Disappearance, and one or two other chapters. Instead of animating arguably the best arc of the series and another chapter or two, we got the same chapter eight times.

It doesn’t matter whether or not Sighs is a return to form and that it’s not ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT ENDLESS EIGHT. Sighs isn’t Disappearance. Instead of seeing crazy time travel and alternate universes, we got the making of The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00. Instead of seeing an arc with an enormous amount of character development, we got more of the same. Instead of getting an epic capstone arc, we got more supplementary chapters.

The thing that is most disappointing is that they went out of their way to deliver a mediocre season, when all they had to do was do a straight adaptation. I guess I’ll be looking forward to Little Busters! instead of the next Haruhi, because at least they don’t screw around with Key games.