|
||||||
 |
I consider 2009 a pretty fruitful year as far as actually watching anime goes – the summer season for example, was the best I remember from this decade. I watched a lot more shows to completion though on the whole, I retained my tendency to drop things like a hot potato as soon as I spot something I don’t like. Oh well, any year I finish watching more than 10 anime series is a good year in my book! Usual arbitrary awards follows. Reflections on the decade begin. Here we are at the end of the 00s and what a good 10 years for anime it’s been! I suspect that’s probably because it’s the first full 10 years I’ve actually been actively following shows by the season. I think my choices are fairly obvious and similar to many of the lists other people have done (refer to Kitsune’s post for a compilation) – a good show should always be a good show no matter the subject matter and the intended audience. Without further ado! A few days ago, anime producer Murakami Koichi (村上恒一) announced on his blog that he was engaged to a person of ‘renowned standing’ (人気商売 is the phrase he uses, it literally means somebody whose job is dependent on public popularity) but due to the nature of her profession, he was unable to mention her name. Murakami did not explicitly state what field his future bride works in, leading to speculation and predictably the internet masses have decided that she is likely to be a ’seiyuu idol’. Which leads to even more asinine speculation about the identity of Mrs. Murakami – all sorts of names have been thrown into the ring, ranging from the usual suspects (Mizuki Nana, Hirano Aya, Tamura Yukari etc etc) to the hilarious (Ochiai Yurika, Kuribayashi Minami). Typically the discussions surrounding the whole fuss go something like ‘if you really can’t say who it is why bother to announce it in the first place? To create controversy? Gain attention?’ And so on. Got back this morning after a quick weekend break in Singapore on a personal trip – I hadn’t been there in almost 10 years and AFA09 seemed as good a reason as any to make a stop. Orchard Road hasn’t changed much in the interim, although Phoenix Hotel is now gone and that new ION place is open – all the other familiar haunts like HMV in The Heeren and Kinokuniya in Taka are still correct and present as I remember them. The Christmas decorations are rather cringeworthy though, like those 4 Santas near The Heeren – how fugly are those things? I should’ve taken a pic of them, but I was scared my lens would break… Anyhow, I don’t have too much to say about the AFA09 experience – I’m not much of a con goer nor am I into figurines, merchandise or cosplay – so I spent most of the time wandering around in circles (somehow repeatedly ending up in front of the meido cafe). Ended up not taking many photos as usual, preferring to just walk around taking in the sights and…. absorb the otaku atmosphere? While rinerei was busy snapping away, I was busy… looking at stuff. Snapping pics of moving legs can be quite hard (sorry, Yuuko from xxxHOLiC cosplayer)… Briefly, my AFA09 experience. Following up my main guide with a few notes, as in seasons past I’ll be looking briefly at trends and highlighting some of the seiyuu to look out for. Despite the number of anime productions almost doubling from the summer, the spread of roles is very even this time with few obvious stand-outs. Again, it’s not a great season for the guys, with only Miracle Train really catering for the young male seiyuu and most of the other shows seeing female cast members easily outnumbering them. The fact that most of the ‘new’ shows are actually sequels, spin-offs or adaptations from existing media with pre-existing casts already in place must be frustrating for the newcomers hoping to catch a break. I shall repeat for the umpteenth time – the reason I don’t really take into account OVAs and specials (think Mahoromatic) for these guides is that they’re one-off things that take up one day’s recording and in some cases, seiyuu don’t even have to audition for their roles beforehand so they can hardly be classified as ‘busy’ if they’ve already recorded their lines for a broadcast special 2 months in advance. TV series on the other hand, are the meat and potatoes of their day job and helps pay the bills. Onto the list. It was a tough (no actually it was very easy) decision to kill the bumper new anime season guide I usually write up every couple of months to torture myself, but the gist of it all is that my external hard drive (nearly) died and with it went my time and motivation to do anything except scream in anguish. What I’ll do instead is cover the parts I’m interested in, namely the seiyuu and music – which are of course the only areas in which I can offer expertise. Lots of holes to be filled yet, which means another update will be made next week. I’m starting to think my guides are getting obsolete, Gigazine’s is pretty comprehensive and covers most of the stuff I want to know. Which naturally means I’m inching closer to permanently retiring from doing these. Does the personal touch still count for much these days? ….not according to keikaku. My ridiculous self-imposed rule of watching only 5 regular TV anime series at any given time is threatening to blow up thanks to the summer season. In years past the shows that have aired around this period have been… well, a bit rubbish – I’ve had the (un)fortunate pleasure of being entertained by the likes of Moetan, various iterations of Zero no Tsukaima and Night Head Genesis before, but it’s a different story this time around – for once I might have to drop shows because I don’t have time to watch them rather than because they’re totally shit! Oh what I’d give for 48 hours in a day… |
|||||
|
Copyright © j1m0ne's blog - Reaffirming that every female seiyuu is a closet rezbo since 2006. |
||||||
Comments