Humanity Has Declined gif DUMP

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Ranma 1/2 gif

Because you and I know you can't changes sexes with a splash of water.

Just figured out how to take a part of a video clip and make it into a gif AND to get it to loop. It's pretty fun...

The vid pick wasn't exactly random. I finally finished watching all of Ranma 1/2 (the tv series, already watched the movies) yesterday. Been watching it on and off in order for a few years now. It's one of those comedy anime where you watch a couple of seasons and it gets pretty repetitive.
Which is why it took me too long to finish it. Since I watch anime as a  sport practically, I had this need to finish it. I usually try not to drop anime unless it's too annoying to watch.

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Anime Review (2): Humanity Has Declined

-gasp!-

Finally an anime more recent-ish that I can and will review. Firstly, this is not your generic type of anime. Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (aka Humanity Has Declined) has a different sort of humour that can be comparable to U.S. dark humour. If I gotten that memo, I might have not bothered watching it since I don't do well watching dark humour. ('course I usually rely on myanimelis.net as a database of finding an anime to watch. And it didn't even list it as a comedy...) 

Since I didn't expect it to be humorous I was surprised to see chicken CEOs in the first couple of episodes...  Though that sorta thing might have deterred me away, what kept me watching was the beautiful pastel, watery colours that was done throughout the show. The character designs were well-done and every character was distinguishable. With such cheerful tones, you would expect a happier look in humanity. In reality, you find a satirical look of humanity's problems in such a dark, playful matter. Irony. And who doesn't like sarcasm every now and then? 

As a side note, there isn't really a progressional story. Just an arc for every two eps or so.

The second thing that kept me watching was the main character. You never get to find out her name so she's just referred to as "Watashi" (Japanese pronoun for "I"). Watashi is relateable character who sees the world in a pessimistic and cynical matter. However, she is also smart and keeps any offensive thought to herself and acts accordingly. I didn't except such a personality being not a lot of pink-haired characters have a similar personality. As I review my favourite anime characters, they're usually dark-haired with smaller eyes. But Watashi ended up to be in my list of favourites. Without her, I wouldn't have enjoyed the series as much. 

Thirdly are the fairies. They're quite adorable and prolific when they're happy...The title for this series is pretty fitting. It pokes fun at us at certain ways I didn't catch right away. If given a chance, this is actually a witty anime. The pacing and the series of events could have been better though. So, though I can't give it a 10/10, it gets a 8.5 for originality, beautiful art, and a decent main character. I predict that this type of ironic anime will be seen more in future anime to come.

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Anime Epiphany (3): Masumi Itou

As I was watching Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, I've grown to really like its ending song, "Yume no Naka no Watashi no Yume" by Masumi Itou. The voice of that very song sounded very familiar as well. The slight, tenor screech (no offense intended) to the song made me think of the song "Blue Flow" from Haibane Renmei. Upon further inspection, the names didn't match. Of course "Heart of Air" (the vocalist to Blue Flow) sounded more like a stage name so I researched a lil more. Turns out Heart of Air and Masumi Itou are indeed the same person. 

She has also performed "Messiah" (under the pseudonym name, Hikaru Nanase) from Angel Sanctuary and was involved with Oranges and Lemons who perform the Azumanga Daioh theme songs. She's also a composer and songwriter. Not the most well-known, but I think she definitely stands out whenever she sings which works with the music whenever she arranges it herself.

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Anime Review (1): Aria the Animation

Picture this: Italy on Mars paved with endless blue, blue sea. Then you have gondoliers as your tour guides around this Neo Italian city. A smile on this young female tour guide showing the lovely sites. Everyone seems content and relaxed. This is what this anime provides. It shows you the wonderful world of Neo Venezia through the eyes of Akari Mizunashi as she trains her way to be a professional gondolier meeting new people and experiences.
Oh Aria... Such a wonderful Anime. The ultimate slice-of-life anime out there with a fantastical edge. :]
My top favourite anime out there. I full-out recommend it. Like most slice of life, not a lot is progressed in the series. But after you watch season 1 and 2, a lot of changes happen in the last season (there's 3 seasons in total) in the most epic way. It's one of those series where it gets better in each season. Each character is likeable, relateable and has a story.

You can purchase it on DVD here :]

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Anime/Manga & Japanese Lessons (3&6): Kansai and ラブ★コン

何でよね！

Like any country, there are various dialects that is somewhat different from its standard language. One dialect in Japan I'll be talking about is Kansai dialect. It's a pretty funny dialect that is often used in Japanese comedic groups. It's most prevalent in the city of Osaka in the Kansai region.

In the anime world, characters from Osaka are often seen as side characters. You can say they're like the 'hick' part of Japan. Often teased about by the way they talk and their different customs. It's nothing to be offended about since we do it ourselves when you think about it.

A great anime to watch with prevalent Kansai dialect would be Lovely Complex (usually seen written as ラブ★コン　in Japanese media). When you watch plenty of anime and then watch Lovely Complex, you start to hear differences. Honestly, rarely you would find the main character with a Kansai accent/dialect in various anime. This is a great recommendation to notice standard Japanese and not-so standard haha.

Don't forget kids, that the U.S. has various dialects as well. We can understand each other (most of the time), we just sound different and sometimes funny.

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Anime/Manga Lesson (2): About the term "Anime"

the term "anime" (as seen written as "アニメ" and pronounced as AH-nee-meh) is pretty much the Japanese term for a Japanese animation, Japanese animated cartoon, Japanese animated film.
Therefore, there's no need at all to say something like "Japanese anime." It's already implied that it's Japanese. (It's annoying when people say it like that... and it's almost redundant)
This is not to be confused with the term "manga" (pronounced as 'mahn-gAH' NOT pronounced similiar to 'mango'). Manga contains still images out of Japanese orgin (think of a comic book only that bookstores like to call it "graphic novels" being that they tend to be real thick). Again, there's no need to say something weird like "Japanese manga." It's implied to be Japanese.
Got it? Good.

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ドラゴンボール改: A Dragon Ball Kai Review

That is about my most favorite scene from Dragon Ball Kai. For those that don't know, Bandai has just recently re-released Dragon Ball Z calling it Dragon Ball Kai.
There's really no difference between the two 'sides a few things

• Bandai cut up the pointless powerups and those awe-faces that take up a good 5 min too long
• new openings and endings that of course weren't in the original DBZ
• it's in Japanese (original seiyuu) and subbed now to DL by decent subbers

It sure brings back memories. At the same time, it's fresh being that you get to hear 'em in Japanese. I doubt they'll be licensing Kai anytime soon.... hopefully.

Nov 2012: If you're curious, I did eventually dropped this series and it's been releasing on the Nickelodean channel last time I heard.

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けいおん!: A Review on the anime K-on!

even my desktop likes K-on! :p

You like slice-of-life genre? Did you like Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star, or even Haruhi? Planing to re-live that experience again? You'll like K-on!
A great anime that came out just this year and I'm already on episode 10 out of 13.

a few reasons to watch けいおん!:

1. the Main character Yui is comparable to Osaka from Azumanga Daioh. She's a genius in her own way, but to the normal people, a weirdo XD 
2. another girl by the name of Mio is quite similar to Kagami from Lucky Star
3. Mio's childhood friend name is Ritsu. Tomo and Yomi's relationship is also comparable to Mio and Ritsu's
4. K-on!'s moe is comparable to Haruhi as well as the animation.
5. the ending song, "Don't Say  'Lazy' " is just kick-ass. It's Ranked #2, #4 on Oricon Weekly Chart--4/28). They made the main characters look like they're real Jpop artists which makes it quite special from any other anime I've seen.

other than those similarities  there are of course differences which makes it stand out from those other anime. Go go go watch it!!

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Anime/manga lesson (1): The Harem and Reverse Harem Genre

As all anime fanatics may have noticed, every anime has its own genre. The U.S. don't have such genre in their animated and comics world which is why i'm labeling this as a Japanese sort of lesson as well. Today shall be these most interesting genre: Harem and Reverse Harem

In general terms, "harem" involves many woman associating with one man. Usually the woman are meant as sexual partners and/or multiple spouses; in addition to daughters, female entertainers and servants of that one male. "Harem" usually is used in Muslim tradition as it is more geared to the dwelling place for such a particular group of woman.

"Harem" for animals (i.e. elephants, meerkats, lions, etc.), is more suited for a group of females that would will only allow one fertile male in the group. Meaning the animal use of harem is slightly different in the social hierarchy as the females are in control in contrast to the man in a human harem.

NOW,

If we were to put this in anime/manga terms, the Harem genre involves, of course, many females. The many woman are beautiful in their own way and all have their little attraction to the male protagonist. Throughout the manga/anime you'll see these females trying various ways to get the male protagonists' attention as to get closer to him in comparison to their female rivals. Sometimes, the females won't realize their feelings towards the male protagonist 'till much later into the anime/manga. A great example of a Harem genre would be Tenchi Muyo! and Ranma 1/2.

This is no surprise that the Harem genre is geared towards the male audiences/readers.

If a Harem genre was geared towards the female audiences, this would be called a "Reverse Harem." You guessed it--t involves many attractive men and one female protagonist. anime/manga examples can be Fushigi Yuugi and Ouran High School Host Club. Now, I could be wrong, but that sort of genre doesn't seem to be labeled as much. If anything, a Reverse-harem is just simply implied within a particular anime/manga.

Observations: From what I noticed, all the males within a reverse-harem are not necessarily attracted to the female protagonist. In fact, most of them are just there for eye-candy. However, there are things like fan-service to give teasing hints that may be a male is attracted to the female protagonist. In contrast to a harem genre, most of the females ARE attracted to the male protagonist whether it's subtle or outrageous.

Rule of thumb for both harem and reverse harem = fanservice and ecchi depending on the audience accordingly.

Nov 2012: As of now, the harem/reverse-harems genre seems to be evolving in a way that it hasn't become as obvious. So, this may be put to rest as something in the past--BUT still good to know when exploring older anime.

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Speaking of Kokia... KARMA

from the wonderful world of Gendou.com, I noticed that Kokia did (as in composed, sang, and arranged) "Karma" from an anime called Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ which has just released in April and is still ongoing in Japan.
It's a beautiful, angsty song and seems to be fitting for the anime (which I will be watching some time in the future)
click on that image at the start of this post to get "Karma"
OR you can get your hands on Kokia's Karma's single here
Enjoy!
Comment for feedback and/or if you took/tried out the song.
ありがとう

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