Scott Spaziani

 By the time this post is going up everyone has said pretty much what needs to be said about The Avengers. It’s well written, the action is amazing, and it’s surprisingly hilarious. I have come to the Marvel films as someone who knows nothing about Superhero comics and I came to Avengers without seeing Captain America, which is one of the five movies that build up to the climactic battle. Even without that piece of the story, I didn’t have a problem following the characters or what was going on, which is just as it should have been.

Not to say that Avengers is completely standalone. I think if the audience hadn’t seen at the very least Iron Man and Thor they wouldn’t have quite understood the plot. Other than that, the other films simply filled in color to what is an amazing ensemble cast of broken, super powerful individuals.

The highlights is definitely the dialogue. Joss Whedon’s trademark banter works well among the bickering Avengers as they try to work together. Especially Tony Stark, who is more hilarious than he has ever been with his quick comebacks and pop culture references being served at an amazing speed. Stark is characterized as someone who pretends not to care, and thus insults and belittles people, but Whedon shows that when he flips that switch Stark can be bitter and terrifying. The line from the trailer, “If we can’t protect the earth, you can be damn sure we’ll avenge it,” holds a sincere menace and fear that I didn’t feel in the two Iron Man films. 

The action was stunning. The final scene features The Avengers battling against a massive army supported by giant floating snakes that looked like they were designed by the Final Fantasy 13 team. The action was kept fresh by having The Avengers face different type of foes, in different situations, and combining their powers and skills for maximum effect. Whedon is able to show, amid the chaos of a crumbling New York City, why this team was brought together and what each of them brings to make them work as a more powerful unit. I look forward to seeing the movie again, if for nothing more than that final scene. 

How to pretend you're aboard the Starship Enterprise

Anyone who loves Star Trek has at one point wished they could be on the Starship Enterprise exploring the galaxy. Well, IO9 found the next best thing: filling your room with the Enterprise idling sound. This youtube clip loops for 24 hours and will simulate what it's like to sleep on the Enterprise.

Beginnings: Nobody dies on the first goomba

SephirothX writes about his experience with attempting to beat the original Super Mario Brothers and how the first Gooma, used as a symbol for the first dangerous obstacle in a game, effects the player. It's a fun and surprisingly profound read for anyone who played Video Games as a child.

Preview: Brain busting goodness in Quantum Conundrum

Kim Swift, who helped create Valve's Portal and Left 4 Dead games left the powerhouse company to join Airtight Games where she would have more freedom. The result is Quantum Conundrum, a 3D physics puzzle game where the player has the ability to alter states of matter in order to solve complex puzzles. The mechanics sound interesting and the art style is more cartoonish and friendly than the Valve games. If it comes close to her previous two projects Quantum Conundrum is sure to be a winner.

While I was distracted by the announcement of the iPad 3 and a massive box of board games that came in I still managed to do plenty of internet surfing over the past week. Here are the highlights:

Pictures of people scanning QR codes

QR codes have been popping up everywhere in the last two or so years but have you ever seen anyone actually use them? Finally, a tumblr blog which aggregates all know photos of people taking advantage of this wonderful invention.

You Look Nice Today: Razzledazzle

You Look Nice Today has been my favorite Podcast for a long time. It opened the door to the world of comedy Podcasts and I have listened to the archived episodes over and over again. Unfortunately the release of new episodes were always inconsistent and the last episode was released on November 3rd, 2010. Until this week! The cast of You Look Nice Today is back to discuss inserting a 20 sided sidekick into famous movies. Listen to it!

Fix your iCal

MacOS 10.7 users have dealt with Apple's decision to change iCal and Address Book to faux leather designs that do more to distract the user than make the application more attractive. Luckily at the MacNix blog they have an easy installer that will change iCal back to the 10.6 design. It's a little change that goes a long way.

Original Darth Vader voice

Although Lucas never intended to use David Prowse's voice as Dark Vader, the actor still preformed the entire scrip during filming of the original Star Wars. This video gives fans a taste of what the production staff and actors heard when making the film, before James Earl Jone's terrifying voice over was applied.

Click below to watch the video

Starting this week I'm going to be doing a weekly round up of the best things I've found on the web. These are things I've shared in other places, maybe even on the My Tubes Are Clogged tumble log, but I want to talk a little about them and gather them in a place with some permanence and to give people one more chance to see some awesome stuff. So here is the first edition of "What's clogging my tubes?"

Nostalgia Critic reviews all the "bad" Star Trek films

There is a belief among Star Trek fans that the odd numbered Trek films are the "bad" ones. Well, the Nostalgia Critic puts that theory to the test by reviewing all five of them (excluding the 2009 J.J. Abrams edition to the series). The reviews are hilarious, as are most of Nostalgia Critic's work, and really break down the problems these films suffer while contrasting them with the "good" entires in the series. The five episodes will take you over two hours to watch but they are well worth it for any Star Trek fan.

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture review
• Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock review
• Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier review
• Star Trek 7: Generations review
• Star Trek 9: Insurrection review

Jesse Thorn gives advice on being successful online

Jesse Thron, the head of the Maximum Fun podcasting network, write a piece on Transom titled "Make Your Thing: 12 Point Program for Absolutely, Positively 1000% No-Fail Guaranteed Success." In the piece Jesse quickly goes over his rocky history and then gives twelve examples of creative people who made it big doing with they love on the Internet and what lesson is to be learned from their example. It becomes an inspirational blueprint from which one can begin building their own internet success story. I know I'm going to try and follow it.

Marc Maron interviews "Weird Al" Yankovic

Marc Maron's WTF Podcast has evolved from an outlet where the down-on-his-luck comedian vented about his problems into a highly successful interview show which featured some of the top comedians in the world, actors, musicians, and everything in between. His interview with the fantastic "Weird Al" Yankovic digs into Al's early start in music, his befuddlement at his sudden fame, and proves that Al is just an normal geek doing something he loves for the fun of it.

Check out the preview below

The Internet is perhaps the greatest creative force at has ever existed. Nothing proves that more than the energy behind fandom communities. People focus their dedication to a piece of art and use that energy to expand on the property in ways the original creators never dreamed.

Of course, this isn't new. Building on top of previous art has been a staple of the creative process for as long as humans have created art. Now, however, the process by which something is imitated, parodied, or built upon had been shrunk to almost zero.

So, of course, let's take a look at My Little Pony. As they have been doing since the show began they took an existing piece of art and parodied it for use on the show. This time they picked a famous song from the music man which had been famously parodied in the Simpsons. So while the source is the same for the secondary work created by two separate professional animation teams the Internet combined the parodies to create a third level of parody. A parody within a parody, if you will. Best yet this came out only hours after that episode of My Little Pony had aired.

"Ya Got Trouble" from "The Music Man" (Embed disabled)

"The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

"Monorail" from The Simpsons

The last few years I’ve been avoiding games “without an end,” such as games where the major focus is on multiplayer. The reason being that I like to beat a game and move on to a new gaming experience, II like variety. There are gamers in the world who have been playing nothing but Counter-Strike for the last twelve years and while I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, in fact those people are going to save a lot of money in the long run on new titles and hardware, I don’t think I could bring myself to actually spend more than a few months on any one game.

This year I’ve played some long games such as Dragon Age and Fallout: New Vegas, as well as games with no clear end like Shogun 2. Even though they were long the two RPGs had a clear end and while I didn’t get tired of Shogun 2 I just didn’t find myself returning to it after a certain point.

I’m a person who loves to beat games and move on. My goal is to get a complete narrative experience, then move on to the next one. Skyrim has completely halted that urge. I find myself going into Skyrim now, two months after its release, just to wander around and do little quests. After killing dozens of Dragons the encounters are still exciting and the variety and richness of the quests continue to absorb me. Even with all that more than the game continuing to compel me, the world of Skyrim has become a comfortable place to return.

The main reason that this happens is because the experience of Skyrim isn’t fixed, it isn’t directed by a writer and crafted so the player gets a specific narrative. It’s built as a choose your own adventure where the player is able to craft their own experience as they go along. If a quest doesn’t interest the player then they can simply ignore it and that part of the Skyrim narrative vanishes from their own personally crafted narrative. The most enjoyable aspect of this being quests which you stumble across almost accidentally. I hesitantly accept the responsibility and starting to run through them as a quick way to get some gold. It’s in these little pieces of the game, something that could have easily been skipped over, which best illustrates individually crafted experiences. There are some of these seemingly small side quests that develop into epic pieces of the Skyrim story. Once I experienced the first of these I couldn’t help but wonder what little secrets the game held that simply went passed over, unnoticed. Not from disinterest but simply from the fact that the game is too massive to ever be completed.

I’m expecting to get ready and move on from Skyrim soon, but each time I play find myself falling into the side quests rather than resuming the main quest. Before I can put the game away permanently I will finish the main story, something I didn’t come close to doing in Oblivion, and I will complete the Civil War quest line. Even after that my quest log is filled with unfinished quests on top of the thieves guild and Dark Brotherhood quest lines that I haven’t even touched, but of which I’ve heard nothing but good things.

Skyrim has become more than just another game in my normal run of games. It has become a comfortable place to go when I feel stress, it has become a way to craft my own gaming experience where I can choose to fight monsters, settle arguments through diplomacy, or just go for a long walk. It’s a little scary how much I’ve fallen in love with Skyrim as a destination, more than a game. I’m looking forward to seeing how much longer I’m going to be playing it, even as my backlog becomes larger and larger.

I tend to make New Year’s Resolutions that I forget about by halfway through January and so to prevent that, I decided to put them down in writing and that way I can come back to it at the end of the year and see how I did. The main problem with vague resolutions is that they are hard to measure, so I will make them as specific as possible. My most successful New Year’s Resolution was in 2010 when I vowed to avoid “Any fast food with a dollar menu” and so I managed to avoid Burger King, McDonald's, and Wendy’s for an entire year. Having such a specific goal forced me to stick to it and hopefully putting my goals down in writing will have the same effect.

1. Lose sixty pounds

This year I started on a strict diet thanks to a weight loss contest that started at work. When it began I decided that this was the jumping off point I needed, and so I dove right in. Now, about eleven months later, I’ve lost seventy pounds; more than 20% of my body weight; and feel better than I have in my useful memory. But, unfortunately, there is a lot of work left to go and while a steady 266 is far better than where I was I still have a long way to go. So I think losing another sixty pounds in a year is a reasonable goal and will get me closer to being healthy and remaining healthy.

2. Write consistently

Yup, a vague goal. I hope to write at least one blog post per week here, even if it is a video with a bit of commentary, and a post up on Otaku in Review at the very least once every two weeks. I would also like to spend more time working on my fiction than I did in 2011, which honestly was almost nonexistent. In 2011 I thought more about what blogging format I wanted to use than actually writing content. Now that things are set up the way I want I’m going to just work on my craft.

3. Take as many photos as possible

I started to take photography seriously as a hobby in 2011 but I still don’t get out and take photos as much as I should. So in 2012 I want to not only just take photos with less abandon with my camera phone but make sure to have my DSLR on me more often so I can take it out and start taking photos if the urge comes over me. Also I want to make sure I take more photos on occasions I do take out my camera, because there is no reason to hold back. This is especially true at conventions more than anywhere else.

4. Time management

One serious flaw I have is my lack of time management. I go to sleep too late, wake up too late, and waste my idle time. So part of my goal for time management is to wake up early, go to bed early, stick to a set schedule and not waste idle time. Idle time is death and even a few minutes is time I could be reading, writing, watching something, or playing a game. The more I get done in a day the better!

So those are four goals that I think are attainable for the coming year. I’m getting older, and it’s about time I start getting some important things together before it’s too late. Hopefully, these goals will allow me to take some steps in the right direction.

Image source

In Japan it’s not an unusual thing for people to come together and create fanmade animation based around their favorite properties. However, that doesn’t happen so often in American fandom communities. Maybe they lack the rabid nature of the Japanese fans or just the lack of a property that drives American fans to go through the trouble. Well, My Little Pony has inspired fans to create some custom animation around the character known as Doctor Whooves. In the clips below we see two scenes from Doctor Who recreated with 100% custom animation. I look forward to seeing more complete adventures of Doctor Whooves if the animators decide to continue with the work they’ve started here.

Ponified form of an extended version of The Doctor’s message to Martha Jones in the two part “Human Nature/The Family of Blood”.

Ponified form of the climactic moment from “The End of Time Part 2” as The Doctor decides to turn around and face his greatest enemy yet.

The main attraction of New York Comic Con for me was the coming of visionary director Makoto Shinkai, known for 5 Centimeters Per Second and Voices of a Distant Star. So, I was understandably excited when I was approved for an interview. The original schedule was to be me with a a group of four other outlets for a half hour, then they decided to combine all the interviewers into one big block and have ten people speak with Shinkai for a full hour. However, many of the outlets didn’t show up. The few that did just took off when they learned that video wasn’t allowed. I understand those who only release video to be upset that they can’t record but…we’re talking about a chance to speak with Makoto Shinkai! Even if I wasn’t allowed to publish anything, if I was sworn to secrecy for the rest of my life…you get a chance to speak with one of the best animation directors currently working in Japan.

In the end only two of us sat down with Shinkai-san and my fellow interviewer asked only three questions in the half hour session. SoIbasically had a one-on-one with Makoto Shinkai for over twenty minutes. I wanted to prepare some questions that wouldn’t be wasting my opportunity. I figured everyone would be asking him questions about starting as an independent animator or his love of clouds. I wanted to ask him specific questions about his films. So I came up with as many specific questions as I could about the film I know best: 5 Centimeters Per Second. I didn’t expect to ask all of them. I couldn’t have been more lucky with the way things turned out.

When the interview wrapped and I asked to take a photo, the one at the start of this post. Shinkai agreed then offered to take one with me, which I eagerly accepted. Before we parted I told him I was looking forward to seeing his new film the next day, explaining that I missed the screening in Baltimore. He hoped that I would enjoy it. That evening I saw the excellent panel where Roland Kelts interviewed Shinkai in the official panel, which can be read about on ANN or seen here. After getting so close to Shinkai and asking him my specific questions it was good to get a well rounded view of the man. It backed up my impression of him, which I’ll cover at the end.

The next day I got to the con early so I could get a seat for Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below which was a beautiful film, to say the least. After the film Shinkai held an autograph session at the Bandai booth and another stroke of luck hit. I bought a copy of 5 Centimeters Per Second and said I’d like to get it signed. The cashier asked if I had a ticket which I did not, they had been given out early in the morning. A guy standing next to me said he had an extra, he grabbed one but had never seen a Shinkai film! I was so grateful and wanted to give him something so I handed him $5 and got in line. When I reached Shinkai he seemed excited to see me and thanked me for coming out. I told him I saw the film and that it was beautiful. He asked if I enjoyed it. I said, “Very much.” He shook my hand and said, “Yesterday when we spoke I had fun.” To which I returned a humbled thank you and told him that the honor was completely mine.

My impression of the man was complete in that moment. Throughout the weekend I got the feeling that he was truly humbled when people enjoy his work. During his introduction of “Lost Voices” he told the audience, “If you like the movie it’d make me really happy!” (which he said in English) and I get the sense that was a completely sincere statement. Shinkai loves making animation and even more he loves when people enjoy his work. I hope the crowd that came out to see him at New York Comic Con gave him reason to continue creating exceptional works of art.

You can read my interview with Makoto Shinkai over at Otaku in Review.

Over the last few years I’ve perhaps been more transfixed by Apple’s products. Their design and functionality attracted me more than the competitive products, especially in 2006 when I bought my Macbook. The beautiful, white, wonderful example of industrial design was years ahead of the bulky laptops that Dell and HP were tossing onto the market. Due to the success of those white Macbooks the entire landscape of design in the PC industry has changed. Now every company produces beautiful machines. That is what Steve Jobs did more than anything else. He could see trends before they happened and he knew what the customer wanted.

The Apple of 1983 was happy building Apple IIs and if John Scully had his way they would have never moved forward from making variants to the popular computer. Steve Jobs took a team of engineers and designers, removed from the rest of the Apple campus and built the first consumer computer that featured a Graphical User Interface. Without that bold step forward it might have been years before a company decided to take a chance on a GUI, setting the development of consumer operating systems back years.

The modern introductions of iPod, iPhone, and iPad share the same pattern. Jobs didn’t invent the categories but he gave consumers what they wanted out of the products and by Apple developing the products the world of digital music, multi-touch smartphones, and multitouch tablets exploded.

Even if you’ve never used an Apple product, or would never think of using an Apple product, the technology you’re using today has been effected in some way by Steve Jobs. The world is a better place because of Steve Jobs.

An Apple without Steve Jobs and a Microsoft without Bill Gates. The personalities responsible for transforming our society have taken their leave. The next generation of innovators will build on their work and continue to change the world for the better. The march of progress continues on.

As everyone else on the internet has already discovered, the commencement speech Steve Jobs gave at Stamford is among his greatest legacies. In it he three stories from his life and his philosophy in approaching it. The first is connecting the dots, trusting that "the dots will connect" if you follow your heart. The second is love and loss, how he always tired to do what he loved to do and never worked for anyone but himself. The third is death, his relationship to death before and after his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. The speech is inspiring, to say the least, and is one of the few moments that Steve Jobs shows a personal side of himself. One of the few times he relates to an audience on a human level. It’s a shame he didn’t try to do it more often.

Here are some of the best excepts from the speech, along with link to the full speech and the video.

"I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

"On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." - Steve Jobs

Words to live by. Words I want to live by, at least. Makes me rethink a lot of things. Perhaps it's time to stop standing still. It's time to move forward. Not slowly, not safely. I've been trying to live safely, but no one ever made something of themselves by taking the safest road. No one exciting, at least.

The numbers are in and I’m shocked. Even with PAX East 2012 across down, a much more mainstream convention, Anime Boston’s attendance grew yet again. A fitting bullet point for the convention’s tenth year.

I was glad they acknowledged how big a deal the tenth anniversary was and yet they didn’t go overboard in reminding the attendees of the milestone. They had a few retrospectives panels run by staff and a small “museum” in the Sheraton hotel dedicated to the convention’s history. They had shirts from all ten conventions; even if they were just staff shirts; they had badges and programs from all of them as well alongside special bits of signed merchandise and newspaper articles from the convention's history. They even had a ten year old room sign which, when I saw it, I clearly remembered the style of sign from that original convention. As an attendee of the first Anime Boston I was happy that they had gone through the trouble to preserve the conventions history. While ten years isn’t a long time, it is a significant part of my life and my fandom that the convention has been around. I wore my Anime Boston 2003 shirt and looked at the same shirt displayed proudly in the museum as a piece of it’s own history. I felt like I was a part of something in that moment, and felt confident that Anime Boston will be a staple of the fandom for years to come.

Anime Boston is held, as it has for the last few years, in the Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Hotel in the heart of Boston. Unlike most convention centers, which are normally build away from city centers, the Hynes provides easy access to the Prudential Center Mall’s food court. If that doesn’t sound appealing, there dozens of amazing restaurants within walking distance and an entire city’s worth of attractions if you want to drive or take public transportation. A favorite in the area has been the Pour House, which is a pub that serves an amazing burger. This year we decided to take a short drive, long in Boston traffic, down to the famous Eagles Deli which has been featured on Food Network’s Man Vs. Food for a delicious Cheeseburger and some of the best coated french fries I’ve ever had. Of course, as I have for the previous two years and because disgusting Chinese food is one of my guilty pleasures, I also went to Panda Express in the reasonably priced food court. Hynes also has the normal convention food located right in the main hallway but if you buy from those venders you’re wasting money and not allowing yourself to enjoy the food that a major population center can offer.

It's a solid season this spring but, unfortunately, one only has time to try out a few shows. I attempted to pick two of the big Moe shows, two of the most serious general audience shows, and two shows that just looked adorable. I hope you enjoy my previews of Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, Mysterious Girlfriend X, Japanese Folktale, Polar Bear Cafe, Kids on the Slope, and Space Brothers. Hopefully I help you decide if you want to check something good out… or help you desperately avoid something. 

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia 

The show is built around ghost stories told at a high school. Most of them involve Yuuko-san, who is rumored to have been a student who died at the school. On his first day at Seikyou Private, Teiichi Niiya meets Yuuko-san in an abandoned part of the school and agrees to join the school’s paranormal club in order to help Yuuko get her memories back.

The episode started out extremely cute with club member Momoe going over the reports of paranormal activity and while she remains oblivious to her stuff floating around her head. She seems to revere Teiichi as someone who can communicate with spirits, someone who has a connection to the dead. When Teiichi arrives he seems more nervous and flailing than anything else, he is also talking to someone who isn’t there which leads to more fun humor as Momoe thinks he can read her mind and several misunderstood statements.

The show was enjoyable up to this point, Momoe is a cute and fun character and the fact that Teiichi is constantly distracted by something that isn’t there, obviously a ghost, was the source of some great misunderstanding based humor. 

Where the show started to lose me is that after the eye catch they replay the entire first eight minutes of the episode again, except this time the audience can see and hear Yuuko. Well, that was an interesting way to introduce the character and concept to the audience but it didn’t require reusing all the footage a second time. While at first I thought it was neat, I quickly grew bored.

After they had gotten past that point it returned to being a fun show. Yuuko’s constant annoyance at her own legends are funny as well as Teiichi’s attempts to cover up her presence to Momoe and the other characters who can’t see her. However, these are jokes that will be quickly played out as the show takes a monster of the week structure. 

 Dusk Maiden of Amnesia is a cute and beautiful show but I doubt the content will be enough to keep me interested for thirteen episodes. They had to replay a long scene in the first episode twice! That doesn’t bode well for the rest of the show, even if their intentions were to do something compelling and different. I’d watch one or two more episodes, but I don’t have high expectations.

His and Her Circumstances, or Kare Kano for short, is famous among Otaku for being the final piece of animation directed by Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno, who left the project before it had finished due to disputes with advertisers and the author of the original Manga, Masami Tsuda. Which is strange because she, supposedly, claims she was unhappy with Gainax’s focus on the humor and not the romance. After watching the show I doubt that was the only thing she was uncomfortable with in the adaptation.

Kare Kano is an odd show, not odd in the sense that it’s a weird or hyper active like some recent Gainax titles. It’s odd because the core of the story is a generic Shoujo anime. Yet, Anno takes what could have been a simple romantic comedy and transforms it into a commentary on the nature of relationships and how they effect and charge individuals. A few episodes in the post-Evangelion style of Anno is apparent. Elements reserved for some of Evangelion’s more spectacular episodes are used in Kare Kano with abandon. These include sketches, dialogue as text for emphases, still frames, long sequences of inner monologue, manga frames, and abstract animation meant to symbolize a character’s mental state.

Lets try to go back to the time and place and get into the head of Anno as he starts to direct Kare Kano. It’s the year 1998 and he just finished creating one of the most influential anime of all time, one that’s colossal impact is still being felt over fifteen years later. Then he was allowed to refinish the ending of his masterpiece with a huge budget and again creates a masterpiece that pushes animation forward narratively and stylistically. Gainax will never raise higher than the peak they reached in the wake of End of Evangelion. How is Anno rewarded for these accomplishments? He gets to adapt a Shoujo manga.

With so many Anime drama’s being built around horrible cliches and stock character designs it’s refreshing to see a show that thrives for realism above recycling tired old anime tropes. P.A. Works celebrates their tenth anniversary by crafting a show that is closer to a live action drama then traditional anime drama. Does their attempt to bring a realistic drama to modern anime work or does the show falter? Ohana Matsumae is a sixteen year old girl forced to mature faster thanks to her less-then-ideal mother, Satsuki. When Satsuki’s boyfriend becomes involved in a crooked deal they’re forced to flee Tokyo sending Ohana to stay with her estranged grandmother at a traditional Japanese inn. Ohana needs to work, learn to deal with people, and attempt to repair the relationship between Satsuki and her family.

There is a beautiful simplicity to Hanasaku Iroha. It doesn't relay on any of the standard anime tropes or set ups, it doesn't seem to be one of the many shows that wants to appear to the niche anime audience through their fetishes, and it doesn't seem to care about wish fulfillment. At first glance, I expected all of these things from the show and it surprised me by avoiding all those traps of most recent anime. It has been hard to find shows that don't reflect some of those problems, even from modern quality anime. Hanasaku Iroha strives for realism and after spending a short time with the characters and living in the world for a bit they've definitely hit the mark.

There are few things in the world I enjoy more than I good time travel story. Time travel offers a unique twist to a standard narrative, in that, events don't always occur linearly. The events the characters experience are jumbled and due to this the plotting of a time travel story come out far more interesting than a standard drama. Steins;Gate takes place in Akihabara where a group of friends modified a microwave to send text messages into the past. Underestimating the consequences Okabe Rintaro, self proclaimed mad scientist, allows people to use the machine to change the past. What he discovers is that even altering the past slightly can completely change the world.

Steins;Gate is really two different shows. The first half is a Moe show with time travel elements and the second half is a time travel show with Moe elements. Strangely both work, for different reasons, and the transition from the lighthearted and fun atmosphere of the first half of the narrative moves smoothly when Steins;Gate suddenly becomes deadly serious. Such a change in tone is difficult to pull off, yet Steins;Gate manages it by having a fantastic first episode which encapsulates most of the elements that the series will represent going forward. The audience gets the insane antics of Okabe, the wonderful Moe of Mayuri, some of the deep time travel elements, technobabble, and murder. This execution is viewed in hindsight, however, as the first episode’s tonal imbalance may turn away overwhelmed viewers.

The second and final part of my 2012 Winter season preview. Here I review the first episodes of Nisemonogatari, Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne, Another, and Ano Natsu de Matteru.

Fans of Bakemonogatari rejoice! The long awaited sequel is here. Like the original, the animation and character designs are absolutely beautiful. There is a special craftsmanship to the backgrounds in this show, probably because the majority of the show is made up of long scenes of dialogue. Due to the lack of action, the look and feel of scenes becomes extremely important. In the scene that takes up a long portion of the middle of the episode Koyomi speaks to his younger sister about life and love. The room she is in is elaborate, featuring a

large round couch sitting directly in the middle, a fully fledged art gallery on the left wall, and ladders arranged oddly. The camera angle shifts as they speak to highlight different parts of the scene. These backgrounds are the most beautiful part of Nisemonogatari and like Bakemonogatari I look forward to each new location that Shinbou crafts and look forward to deconstructing how they reflect the narrative.

The show is largely dialogue, but what made Bakemonogatari brilliant is that the dialogue is as compelling as the best choreographed action scenes. The banter back and forth between Koyomi and the various characters is wonderful, each character having a different flavor of banter which allows the characters to get fleshed out in an abundance of detail. It’s almost as if the tone of the show shifts depending on whom Koyomi is interacting. In the opening scene with Hitagi the show takes on a dark, desperate aura but the next scene makes the show feel like a romantic drama. Like Bakemonogatari expect these changes in tone to be constant throughout.

The unfortunate thing about Nisemonogatari is that it picks up shortly after the end of Bakemonogatari and viewers without knowledge of the pervious series will be completely lost, especially with the opening scene. I have seen Bakemonogatari but this first episode assumes a level of detail that two years has wiped from my memory. Even so I can that that with this first episode it looks like fans of Bakemonogatari may have finally gotten a worthy sequel.

Nisemonogatari is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.com

In this first part of my Winter Preview are the first impressions for Poyopoyo, Familiar of Zero F, Mouretsu Pirates, and Brave 10.

Poyopoyo

Moe Sato finds a cat and names him Poyo because of his round shape. The episodes are short pieces about Sato’s new life with her pet.

Poyopoyo’s first episode was extremely quick and simply a set up for some of the jokes going forward. The show is about an adorable cat who is round, to the confusion of most of the cast and is really the chief gag of the series. This episode established that the cat does cat like things, and is cute while doing them.

The art is cute and fun, fitting the style of humor and the length of the episodes. The humor of the show doesn’t only come from the cat but from a bunch of quick jokes simply tossed at the audience in mass. The Father quickly became my favorite character as you watched him instantly fall in love with Poyo and suddenly put him in a role reversal as he and his daughter beg his distraught son to allow them to keep Poyo.

If you like cats there is no reason not to check out Poyopoyo. It’s three minutes an episode and streaming for free. You’ll find it cute, at the very least.

Poyopoyo is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.com

2011 turned out to be an interesting year. It seems the moe craze is starting to dimmish a bit with a few notable failures; Yuru Yuri I'm looking in your direction; but overall 2011 turned into a pretty good, especially for Funimation with them pushing out two of the titles on this list on top of their exceptionally successful FLCL rerelease.

The titles on my list paint 2011 as a year where Japan returned to attempt reaching a western audience, where an auteur director came of age, where artistic exploration reached a new pinnacle, where sweet and simple narratives play with our emotions, and where Japan proves they are still capable of creating some of the finest Science Fiction in the world.

Each of the titles on the list represent different reasons why I'm an anime fan. The chief reason among them being how much depth the medium has to offer. The qualifying rules are simple, a series had to have finished airing in 2011 and a film has to have been released on DVD or screened in the United States at some point in 2011. Now, on to the list!

5. Tiger & Bunny

Tiger & Bunny stands apart from other Japanese attempts at superhero stories because it relies so much on the characters. They are beautifully drawn and full of life, so much that I desperately await more stories set in the universe. Tiger & Bunny has the potential to be the new gateway drug for the next generation of Anime fans just as Cowboy Bebop was for my generation. It has themes that appeal to a western audience but enough anime tropes to prepare an unsuspecting audience before jumping into the vast world of the medium.

Above all else Tiger & Bunny could keep me on the edge of my seat with excitement though the majority of the final arc and allow me to build a strong enough emotional connection with the characters to have me break down in tears. For an action show to do both of those things elevates it above the majority in its genre.

Makoto Shinkai has been called the next Hayao Miyazaki, for good reason. In his newest work he creates an adventure narrative in the vain of the greatest of Miyazaki’s films, a departure from his extremely emotional love stories. By making a Ghibli-esuq film he is making a direct challenge to the master of Japanese animation but is it too early for him to be making such bold declarations or is this Shinkai clearly declaring his rightful place in the animation world? Asuna is a young girl who has been forced to mature early due to the loss of her father and the hectic schedule of her mother. She spends her time on the mountain listening to strange music from her crystal radio. One day a mysterious boy saves her from a beast, this starts her on a journey that brings her to the underworld Agartha and will lead her to a power capable of resurrecting the dead.

The film is gorgeous. Known for his fantastic art and attention to detail, Shinkai again creates some beautiful landscapes. There are dozens of frames in the film that deserve to be framed and hung on a wall, moments where I audibly gasped at the landscapes that Shinkai creates. Shinkai is probably the best artist currently working in Japan and he has poured all of his talent into crafting this film. When Asuna descends into Agartha we’re treated to the remnants of a once great civilization, here Shinkai builds magnificent ruins and gives them an unbelievable sense of scale. It can’t be understated how a meticulous use of background detail aids world and character building. Being able to see shelves and books, various containers, and other elements of life make the people of Agartha come alive. The creation of a lived in look to the villages and cities is comparable to Miyazaki’s towns in Nausccia and Princess Mononoke. The audience is immersed in this world completely. It feels alive.

It's hard to say anything about New York Comic Con that hasn't already been said, or that isn't a repeat from what I talked about last year’s show. The event was definitely bigger than last year and the space was far better utilized than last year with them opening up the North Hall for the autograph area. Of course, this being Comic Con, even with the large show space the crowding was horrible. Building a multi-genre show has its positives and negatives but I fear that Comic Con may have finally crossed the line into being more of swap meet with a theater showing clips from upcoming pop culture hits rather than a space to celebrate any type of fandom.

The main component of New York Comic Con is undeniably the show floor. A massive space that serves as both a dealers room and a place where marketing professionals can attempting to push their new products on con-goers, a space for meeting your favorite artists and writers, or check out some fantastic indie art pieces. The show floor comes with all the spectacle that you'd expect from a geek event that takes place in one of the largest cities in the world. This is, unfortunately, a double edged sword. While the show floor is so large as to keep attendees busy for an entire weekend it is also the main place where the majority of people will be concentrated. Over all three days it was difficult to get from one end of the floor to the other. There is a constant fight against the raging mod to see anything and if you happen to be stuck behind someone who wants to take a photo the halls immediately get blocked with dozens of people fighting, not realizing that they've been halted by a guy with a camera phone and desire to get a third picture of Captain America. They'll always be something to enjoy on the show floor, but be ready to fight in order to see it.

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This week I review Eden of the East and its two sequel films; “The King of Eden” and “Paradise Lost.” After we answer some listener emails. Also, I’m obsessed with the Angry Video Game Nerd, Sega Master System memories, and Michael is still playing TERA. In news Funimation channel returns to verizon FIOS service, Steins;Gate fim slated for fall,K-on! manga’s second run to end in June, and Limited Edition Hatsune Miku PS-Vita offered.

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This week Michael and I talk about MMO RPGs and rant about Funimation. In news Sentai Filmworks adds Cluster Edge and Upotte!, Aniplex USA will rerelease Baccano on Blu-ray, Mangagamer releases Eve Burst Error PC game,NIS America licenses Bunny Drop,Funimation adds Eureka Seven AO and King of Thorns, Hyouka now has all five K-On! actresses, and Steins;Gate Parody Adult Video. In our main segment Michael reviews the classic Project A-ko and I talk about my second watching of Working!!.

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This week we discuss a conservative blogger’s attack on My Little Pony and how Michael got caught in a twitter flame war. In news Kodansha licenses Battle Angel Alita and more,Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below, 21st Century Boys manga listed by Viz, K-On! Londa taxi recreated as plastic model, Madoka Magica anime gets its own magazine, and Doraemon DVDs recalled due to Condom written on screen. In our final segment Michael gives a preview of Kyoto Animation’s new anime Hyōka and I review Ah! My Goddess! season one.

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It’s another season preview! Guests Jon Ingoglia from Moe Moe Bacon-Kun and Greg (Thedigitalbug) from Risen Goes to School by Bus join us to review nearly every single anime that started this spring. Also, post-party fatigue and Sakura Matsuri in DC. In news Sentai Filmworks licenses Medaka Box; Dusk Maiden of Amnesia; Tsuritama; and Queens Blade Rebellion, Discotek announces DVD release of Saint Seiya movies, Crunchyroll steam of Phi-Brain put on hold, and NicoNico removes streams for several anime titles.

Anime featured in this episode:
Ozma
Sengoku Collection
Acchi Kocchi
Jormungand
saki achiga-hen
Natsuiro Kiseki
Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? of the Dead
Hiiro no Kakera
Yurumates 3D
Zetman
Tsuritama
Kuroko’s Basketball
Folktales from Japan
Polar Bear’s Cafe
Shining Hearts ~Bread of Happiness~
Lupin III
Sankarea
Accel World
Medaka Box
Space Brothers
Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos
Upotte!
Dusk Maiden of Amnesia
Kids on the Slope
Mysterious Girlfriend X

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Michael and I are joined by Jon Ingoglia from Moe Moe Bacon-Kun and Charles Dunbar from Study of Anime to talk about Anime Boston 2012! Also: Jon starts watching My Little Pony, running panels, and Kickstarter. In news Crunchyroll’s final licenses, Bobobo-bo-bo-bobo lacks english subs, Sentai filmworks licenses Kids on the Slope and Hidamari Sketch specials, Discotek adds third Galaxy Express 999 film, Funimation will simulcast New Lupin III series and Zombie of the dead, Viz media licenses Berserk film trilogy, Aniplex to release Oreimo; Garden of Sinners; and Bakemonogatari, Vertical adds Paradise Kiss manga, and Yen Press adds Thermae Romae Anything and Something Umineko no naku koro ni.

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It’s a short show this week as I prepare for Anime Boston so we decide to discuss anime fans reaction to their favorite series being criticized using this blog post as a jumping off point. Also cleaning, EA is the worst company, and the first season of Breaking Bad. In news Crunchyroll licenses a ton of shows, Discotek announces DVD releases of Captain Harlock and Lovely Complex, Sentai Filmworks licenses Mahoromatic, Viz media to steam Zetman Dark Hero, and Oreimo Anime is getting a second season.

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This week Michael and I talk about Ico, Skyward Sword, and the fact that you can skip checksum without any problems. In news Sentai Filmworks licenses Hatsukoi Limited, Jmanga adds Night on the Galactic Railroad, Key’s Little Busters to get a visual novel, New Angel Beats! project in the works, Dirty Pair Flash coming soon to DVD, Akira creator planning a new Shonen Manga, and Steins;Gate’s Hayashi writes Square Enix’s Bravely Default. In our final segment Michael gives his detailed reviews of all the digital manga applications: Comixology, Kodansha, Dark Horse, Jmanga, and Viz.

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This week we’re joined by Daryl Surat from the Anime World Order Podcast and Otaku USA Magazine to help review Char’s Counterattack. Also Sony Vita talk, more Mass Effect, and will Anime Boston suffer because of Pax East? In news Sentai to release This Boy can Fight Aliens, Media Blaster plans release for Squid Girl season 2, Discotek plans more Lupin III releases, Crunchyroll to steam Ozma, Religious anime film “The Mystical Laws” to open in October, and Director Noboru Ishiguro Passes Away at Age 73.

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This week we talk about the Mass Effect 3 ending controversy and my attempt to condense my DVD library. Check out Gabe’s write up about ME3 over at Penny Arcade! (spoilers) In news, Right Stuf starts live action label, Media Blasters drops Lodoss War release plans, Discotek licenses Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo, Samurai Pizza Cats, and original Casshan, Crunchyroll to steam Yamakan 1 Charity Anime Blossom, Squid Girl manga to bundle new Original anime DVD, and Prosecution drops charges in Canadian manga child porn case. In our final segment Michael review Princess Knight and I go over the first twenty episodes of Hunter X Hunter.

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This week Michael is distracted by the release of Mass Effect 3 to the detriment of the show and Scott got some board games in the mail! In news Shinkai art book comes to iPhone, Crunchyroll to steam Haiyore Nyaruko San and Hiiro no Kakera, Crunchyroll will donate all Blach and Naruto steam proceeds to quake charity, NIS America licenses Otome Yokai Zakuro, DCS Cherry Blossom festival to hold Ghibli film marathon, and I.G. works makes Mass Effect anime. In our final segment Scott reviews the Bandai release of K-On! and he answers the question that echos through the anime community: Does K-On! have real merit?

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This week Michael and I talk about weather, his crazy podcast week, the Mass Effect 3 DLC mess, and the future of video game business models. In news Seven Seas licenses Haganai Mayo Chiki Manga, Discotek Media to release retro game master series, Jmanga now available worldwide (with requisite digital manga discussion), and Mass Effect franchise explain in adorable manga. In our final segment I give a final review of Hanasaku Iroha and Michael gives a first impression of the Cross Game manga.

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This week please excuse the excessive excitement that I have over my new car, I picked it up only an hour before we began the show. Michael gives his initial reaction to his new PS Vita. Joining us this week is The “Anime Anthropologist” Charles Dunbar from Study of Anime and our good friend Greg “The Digital Bug” from Reisen Goes to School by Bus to review last weekend’s Katsucon 2012 including line problems, licensing news, and the horrible miscommunication between panelists and convention staff. In news The Bleach anime is about to end as Warner picks up the film rights, Sentai Filmworks licenses Kurenai and K-On!!, and Fox news calls out Arietty for it’s anti-one percent agenda.

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This week we talk about road rage, impromptu high school reunions, and the hallow earth. In news NISA to omit recap episode from Kimi Ni Todoke release, Crunchyroll and others to stream Madoka Magica, Discotek licenses Space Adventure Cobra, Sentai Filmworks adds Fate/stay Unlimited Blade Works, Verizon drops Funimation channel, Tokyo animation fair awards, and new Ghibli projects outlined. In our final segment Michael reviews the limited edition release of Madoka Magica and then we give advice to a new anime fan.

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This week we discuss some Double Zeta Gundam and some Dirty Pair TV as well as Michael’s updates in his Winter Season progress Plus, Michael remembers the good old days of anime fandom. Also more Skyrim chat and buying hotel rooms for anime conventions. In news Sentai Filmworks licenses Planzet CG and The Book of Bantorra, NISA announces Occult Academy Blu-ray, Ken Akamatsu’s Negima! to end in three chapters, Toei animation sues 869 BitTorrent users over One Piece, and AX 2010 lost $1.2 Million; still in debt for $700,000.

I went to upload the Podcast on Saturday morning, as I normally do, and our service (Mevio.com) seemed to have a bug. It wouldn't let me access the form I normally fill out to post a new episode. Sunday came and still the same error. It wasn't till this morning that I went through a different "upload" link, their site is a horrible mess, that I was informed my account was suspended. The steams are still playable and back episodes can still be downloaded but I can't upload any new content to that feed. It seems like there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of Podcasts in the same boat as us. Mevio did a mass banning and while many of those who were affected have attempted to contact Mevio support for answers, including myself, we have yet to receive an answer.

If this isn't resolved soon (and probably if it is resolved) I will be forced to move to a new service, this time probably self hosted, and change the Podcast RSS feed. Watch my twitter feed and the blog for any updates and thanks for being loyal listeners to the podcast.