For the fourth year running, I’m going to have to confess that I’ve still not watched Gundam Unicorn. Yes, I have all, what is it, six episodes that they’ve released thus far sitting on my bookcase, but that this point, I may as well wait until the last episode is released rather than struggle, as I did with the second episode of Code Geass Akito a couple of days back, to remember what happened in the previous instalment once the long wait for the finale is over.

As for how the rest of the year ended up panning out, at least anime-wise, I feel it’s gone pretty well. Maybe it’s just a warm afterglow of this last season of the year, with shows like Kill la Kill, Kyousougiga, Build Fighters and Yozakura Quartet, it’s been a really strong last quarter in terms of the kind of cartoons I enjoy watching, even if the New Years episode of Sword Art I’m subjecting myself to whilst trying to finalise this post leaves a bit of a bitter aftertaste.

Anyway, on with the usual Token End of Year Post format. Just bear in mind that this is in no-way an Anime of the Year post, more just a bunch of things I feel like writing about – otherwise this’d be a whole mess of words about Yamato 2199 or Gatchaman Crowds (looking forward to that BD-version final episode) or some other show that isn’t about Attacking Titans that I don’t really mention. There’s plenty of others out there expounding the virtues of their version of the best of the year if that’s what you really want to know.
(more…)

I’d imagine the following post isn’t going to be news to most people reading this, at least at first blush, but since I still seem to be getting an unusual (for me) amount of traffic for that post about Katyusha being missing from the Crunchy stream of Girls und Panzer, despite there being a number of better-written posts on the subject elsewhere, I figured I may as well make another post now that the US disk is in retail channels.
(more…)

Well, not exactly, but this one shot of Oguie’s bookcase in the first episode of the new Genshiken is pretty weird. Those DVDs on the same shelf as the Hi-Fi are pretty specifically UK editions – you can even see the BBFC logos replicated on them. Some of the content looks to be a little esoteric as well – the Aliens Quadrilogy boxset should be obvious, as should the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood. Next to the Torchwood to the right seem to be a volume of Classic Doctor Who (the silver bannered packaging is pretty distinctive), a couple of volumes of New Who and a bunch of stuff I just can’t make out.

To the right of the Aliens box is what looks to be the Gremlins Collection boxset and what is the really odd thing here – Bo Selecta.
(more…)

It’s hard to complain about anything in particular in regards to any specific British element presented in the first episode of Kiniro Mosaic, where the shows prologue is set in England. By all reports, it seems that they fairly meticulously location scouted, so whilst I’d like to complain about the practicality of using a Morris Minor for transport (at least as a primary mode of transport), I guess there’s someone out there who continues to be crazy enough to do so. You also can’t really complain too much about how old-looking the furnishings of Alice’s home are given they’re basically a replication of a real-world location, though, despite indoor shoe-wearing being acceptable here (though I don’t tend to do it myself), I’d question wearing boots on the bed.
(more…)

Insert joke about “blog updates” here.

I watched the first couple of episodes of old OAV series Mad Bull 34 earlier in the week. I don’t really have much to say about it’s actual content right now – it’s pretty much the kind of thing that I suspect most of the people who actually read his blog would hate anyway, being the incredibly violent and misogynistic adventures of the straight-laced, American-born Japanese cop Daizaburo “Eddie” Ban and his man-mountain pimp of a partner John “Sleepy” Estes (the man so imposing he has two nick-names, the other being the titular “Mad Bull”). I find pretty much everything about it to be pretty damn hilarious, but it’s not exactly high-brow or socially enlightened viewing material.

Of all the random things to jump out at me as being interesting in the show, though, the scene in above screenshot amused me. It’s a scene where Daizaburo is waiting in the car whilst, unbeknownst to him, Sleepy is collecting money from (and doing other things with) the prostitutes under his protection (when I said he was a pimp, I meant it in the literal sense). What I find kind of curious is the debris littering the car – fairly genuine looking Coke, Pepsi and 7-Up cans, and even a McDonalds cup!
(more…)