… and I wasted valuable Q&A time asking the director about it. It kind of makes me wonder if there’s anywhere else I can take this blog from this point onwards. I kind of feel like I’ve now peaked, and it’s all going to be downhill from here.

That said, I’m not sure that I bought his answer – that such things are so common in Japan that most households will have at least one, which is why he likes to include them in his works. I think he’s trying to cover up some grander conspiracy that the anime industry is maintaining.

As for the film, it was pretty fantastic, though I’m loathe to talk about things too much since it’s likely to be another year before most people get to see it. What I will say is that the movies final act could really have done with losing about fifteen minutes – everything leading up to that point was gold, featuring a lot of the kind of irreverent humour you’d expect from something written by Hideyuki Kurata, but the climax drags on a little. It’s hard to complain too much about it, though, as it’s such a visually stunning movie. There’s an amazing density to the look of the movie – like those scenes in Kamichu where Yurie visited the land of the gods, only on a movie-level budget. Honestly, I also think having seen Evangelion 2.0 the previous evening may have elevated my expectations for how a movie should be paced, as that really is insane.

That is is, Korone, That it is.

I don’t really have anything to say about Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou – it pretty much falls into that category of shows that I watch simply because it’s stuck online at Crunchyroll at the same time as another show I watch. By this I mean, whilst I have the laptop hooked up to the TV in order to watch Drrr!, I figure I may as well watch this as well before I unhook things. This is pretty much how I ended up getting into Saki, actually – I’d hit Crunchy for Natsu no Arashi and just keep watching. Ichiban is no Saki, but it’s fun enough in it’s own right, I guess.

Sighting courtesy of Wonderduck – if you cast your attention back and to the left, you shall see a cardboard container adorned with a series of oranges. Perhaps it’s not labelled as such, but I’ve claimed less specific examples and Mikan Boxes on prior occasions, so I’m taking it.

Thanks to Digitalboy for the heads-up on this one, from the 97th episode of Gintama. Honestly, I’d be surprised if it was the first occurrence of such a thing in the show given the general parodical silliness that permeates it, but I’m not really inclined to go back and watch all the prior episodes to find out – I don’t watch anime Gintama. I did read the manga through to about volume… seven or eight, I think. I’m not entirely sure why I stopped reading it, come to think of it – I do enjoy it, and I’ve probably got a stack of unread later volumes lying around too. I should probably get back to it…

Oh, wow, it’s a reader submission, courtesy of Author. That’s kind of rare, probably because I tend not to publish my contact details (though, seriously, if you can’t guess a valid e-mail address for me, I’d question if I’d want to talk to you ^^;).

Anyway, this is from Astro Fighter Sunred, from the second episode from what I can ascertain. There’s not really much to say about it – it’s nice and clear and front of screen, so at least no squinting and wondering about whether nor not it actually says Mikan is required.