{"id":5730,"date":"2011-10-09T01:30:49","date_gmt":"2011-10-09T08:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flomu.wordpress.com\/?p=5730"},"modified":"2011-10-09T01:30:49","modified_gmt":"2011-10-09T08:30:49","slug":"this-season-sucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/flomu.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/this-season-sucks\/","title":{"rendered":"this season sucks!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Chihayafuru<\/strong><\/p>\n

Watched: 90 seconds<\/p>\n

The first twenty seconds are wasted on a background-less monologue, and then it cuts to a group of guys talking about a beautiful girl. \u00a0I thought something was up when the show didn’t even bother to show the guys’ faces, but I stuck with it because it sounded like a stereotypical horrible shounen show. \u00a0And then the camera shows this hairy-butt-crack-ugly bishoujo, flowers and everything! \u00a0And then the guys complain that she’s wearing sweatpants and a belt.<\/p>\n

I don’t understand girls quite well, but if this is the norm for female beauty, you’ve got it all wrong. \u00a0Take that one movie<\/a> that was out some time ago for example. \u00a0I had to see enough trailers to know that the basic premise of the movie was “hot guy turns ugly and gets girl because his inner beauty blah blah chick flick shit.” \u00a0But the thing is, he doesn’t actually turn ugly<\/em>. \u00a0Instead, he shaves his head and gets some tattoos.<\/p>\n

The same is true here. \u00a0In my brief, 90 experience with this show, I discovered that girls believe that sweatpants and a belt make somebody ugly and socially unacceptable to be around.<\/p>\n

Well, that’s just not true! \u00a0A pretty woman will be pretty no matter what she wears (unless she covers herself in trash and feces and proceeds to blow chunks on you), whereas an ugly woman will remain ugly no matter what she wears.<\/p>\n

And to add a corollary to that: a fat woman will look all the fatter if she wears tight jeans and low underwear that reveal her butt crack. \u00a0It will annoy everybody around her, especially the asian aniblogger guy in her japanese class. \u00a0Maybe she should put on some real clothes. \u00a0Or work out to fit in those clothes. \u00a0Or stop showing me her butt crack. \u00a0I don’t want to see that.<\/p>\n

Community opinions (plus Shoujo rant)<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s love at first sight.
\n– Guardian Enzo<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I read 7 “first impression” posts on this show, and 6 of them were “this show greatly exceeded my expectations in every way possible,” etc. \u00a0E Minor said it was above average. \u00a0Youngsters<\/a> these days have really<\/em> low expectations for anime! \u00a0Back in my day, we had to walk ten miles in the snow to the nearest black and white television to get our fill of good anime, like Lucky Star. \u00a0Nowadays, there’s neither work nor reward. \u00a0You should’ve seen it back then. \u00a0Back in ‘Nam.<\/p>\n

I’ve never liked shoujo. \u00a0Ever. \u00a0The highest score I’ve given to a shoujo anime is 5\/10, and that was me watching Fruits Basket in 2008, before I even knew anime blogs existed. \u00a0I’ve tried junk like Ouran High School Host Club, Kare Kano, Special A, Kimi ni Todoke, you name it. \u00a0They all suck.<\/p>\n

It’s just way too stereotypical – everything follows the same model. \u00a0The guy is perfect, the girl is perfect, and they fall in love and nothing happens<\/strong> along the way. \u00a0Each episode is a repeat of the last. \u00a0You could make the same case for shounen, but at least I can stomach guys beating the shit out of each other. \u00a0This flowery romance stuff is terrible.<\/p>\n

If the couple in Kare Kano had fallen in love, dropped out of school, started a motorcycle gang, and attacked the Diet building, then I might’ve dubbed it worth watching. \u00a0But the drama came from dropping a couple ranks in school and the guy not being totally perfect and blah blah blah. \u00a0The “character flaws” in shoujo are barely flaws. \u00a0By the end of the anime, the flaws are all patched up and you have a model citizen. \u00a0Kind of like the valedictorian at my high school. \u00a0She was also the prom queen. \u00a0Everybody liked her, she was half-Asian (>> implying something about looks and grades), and she was really friendly. \u00a0But OH WAIT, she secretly likes attention! \u00a0GOODNESS, HOW SCANDALOUS! \u00a0LET’S IGNORE HER AND MAKE HER FEEL BAD. \u00a0Also she has the perfect boyfriend and a lot of friends.<\/p>\n

I don’t see the point of this weak storyline. \u00a0It’s too exaggerated to be realistic (unless the female half of society functions at such a petty level) and too boring to generate any semblance of interest in my thick male skull.<\/p>\n

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Tamayura ~hitotose~<\/strong><\/p>\n

Watched: 33 seconds<\/p>\n

I watched the first episode of the OVA, but for some reason I still downloaded this crap. \u00a0It’s probably because I forgot the name of this show. \u00a0I thought it was called standard 4-girl 4-koma anime #45.<\/p>\n

Usually, I give these things a chance. \u00a0Yuru Yuri was pretty terrible, but I still watched half of the first episode because there was a bit of decent humor buried under the all the look-alike\/clone moe characters. \u00a0My Tamayuramamahuragagababahuhurara (rhymes with “Crab” Hitagi’s first name, I believe) experience went like this:<\/p>\n

0:03 oh boy, I downloaded a terrible version of this<\/p>\n

0:10 I spy some serious necrosis!<\/a><\/p>\n

0:19 oh, this is one of those<\/em> anime<\/a><\/p>\n

0:25 We have the whole cast already…<\/p>\n

0:33\u00a0Her name is POTTE? \u00a0Haha oh man<\/a><\/p>\n

What really got me was the instant posing, though. \u00a0One second, the character in the camera frame is drinking a carton of juice, and the next, she’s posing and winking and kawaii. \u00a0Why do these companies even try? \u00a0K-ON! was a lucky shot, okay? \u00a0Get over it and make some good anime! \u00a0(KyoAni certainly did!)<\/p>\n

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I have no friends<\/strong><\/p>\n

Watched: 6 minutes, 28 seconds<\/p>\n

I thought this was going to be a show about social rejects. \u00a0Instead, I got a bunch of harem fanservice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The main character is a Ryuuji ripoff. \u00a0People get scared of him, but he looks like your average J.C. Staff RomCom male lead. \u00a0Except he has bleached hair.<\/p>\n

OHHH, how WEIRD!! \u00a0Why aren’t people scared of the blonde girl, then? \u00a0Or the white-haired Index ripoff? \u00a0Or the blonde maid? \u00a0Or the orangeish haired maid? \u00a0This is sexism!<\/p>\n

I got up to the part where the main character meets this girl talking about air friends. \u00a0The boring dialogue reminded me of Bakemonogatari, except it was even more boring. \u00a0At least SHAFT put in all sorts of fancy animation to keep the audience occupied. \u00a0Here, there’s just some fang-tan loli-nun double-maid tsundere rich girl lab coat scientist girl every stereotype imaginable.<\/p>\n

I’m surprised at the sheer number of stereotypes they managed to cram into this sorry excuse for an anime. \u00a0So first they lure in the dumb otaku with a title they can relate to, and then they take all their money by shoving so many cliches at them that everybody will eventually buy a figure of one character.<\/p>\n

Ways to improve:<\/p>\n