I’ll pass this along. It is a subject that needs addressing.

AKB0048

Why should you watch this show? Hmmmm…. That depends on you.

Do you like singing, idol groups?

Do you like training sequences?

Do you like fight scenes?

Then this anime has it all for you.

As stated in an earlier post: this is one of my 11 year old son’s favorite shows. This surprised me frankly. I had started watching it out of curiosity and honestly still haven’t finished the second season.

It’s premise is pretty absurd and was mostly a vehicle to promote popular Japanese Idol group AKB48 I’m sure (since the voice actors were members of AKB48 and some of the other iterations of  it).

The premise is this: It is the future. Many planets have banned entertainment. Guerrilla music group, AKB0048, risk life and limb to bring their performances to their fans across the galaxy where entertainment is banned with the help of flying singing platforms, mecha suits, lasers, and light saber like microphones. Perhaps I exaggerate a  little, but not much.

The story follows several new hopefuls who want to join this idol group to spread music, love, and hope through the universe.

It follows them as they train.

As they (or their seniors) perform.

And as they fight.

And it is that is what makes it appealing. It is cute. It is simple mindless entertainment. Music, dancing, fighting, and general silliness. It is also, while corny as hell, talking about following, and fighting for, your dreams. And who can argue with that?

If you are looking for a high minded, revolutionary, cutting edge anime: this isn’t it. But that’s okay. If you go in with low expectations to watch a mindless, cute, entertaining show: then I think you’ll like it.

Attention Parents: There really isn’t much objectionable in this show. There is some mild fan service where the girls are getting pictures taken of them in bathing suits, but that is most of it. It also has that obsession with body image that you start to hear in anime the more you watch it.

Mostly I like the show because it was: “About Hope”.

Kibou Ni Tsuite : About Hope

Original / Romaji Lyrics English Translation
sono te nobashite mo
ima wa (ima wa) todokanai yo
bokutachi no yume wa
motto (motto) tooku ni aru nda

I reach out this hand of mine,
But I can’t reach it right now.
Our dream is still
Far away.

yozora no hoshi datte
nan’okukounen no kanata
kurayami no saki ni
kagayaku mono

The stars in the night sky,
How many billions of light years away are they?
Shining brightly
Before the darkness.

kibou ni tsuite
boku wa katarou
na mo naki shijin no you ni (you ni)
atsuku (atsuku)
kimi ga namida ni
kureteiru nara
nagusame yori mo
yagate (yagate) shiramu (shiramu)
sora o katarou ka?

I’ll talk about,
My hopes and dreams,
With passion like
A nameless poet.
If you feel lost,
In your tears,
Instead of comforting you,
I’ll tell you of
The brightening sky.

ai o sagashite mo
sugu ni (sugu ni) mitsukaranai yo
jibun no hou kara
dareka (dareka) ai shitemiru nda

Even if I search for love,
I won’t find it any time soon.
In my own way,
I want to try and love someone.

konna hiroi sekai
unmei ni michibikarete
tatta hitotsu dake no
hikari o mita

In such a wide world,
I’m guided by fate,
The only light
That I could see.

kibou ni tsuite
boku wa katarou
toshioita suifu no you ni (you ni)
fukaku (fukaku)
kimi ga nanika ni
kizutsuita nara
teate suru yori
noboru (noboru) asahi (asahi)
boku wa yubisasou

I’ll talk about
My hopes and dreams,
With the depth
Of an old sailor.
If you feel hurt
By something,
Instead of tending to your wounds,
I’ll point out
To the rising sun.

hito wa daremo minna
akiramete raku ni naru yo
dakedo yume wa itsumo
se o mukenai

Each and every one of you
Is comforted by giving up.
But you’ll never
Turn your back on your dreams.

kibou ni tsuite
boku wa katarou
na mo naki shijin no you ni (you ni)
atsuku (atsuku)
kimi ga kotae ni
mayotteru nara
tachidomarazu ni
aruki (aruki) nagara (nagara)
kibou ni tsuite
boku wa katarou
na mo naki senshi no you ni (you ni)
itsuka (itsuka)
yume o kate ni shite…

I’ll talk about
My hopes and dreams,
With the passion like
A nameless poet.
If you ever lose your way
To the answer,
Keep walking,
don’t stop.
I’ll talk about
My hopes and wishes,
Living off my dreams
Like a nameless warrior.

Oreimo

Siblings, Kyousuke and Kirino Kousaka, don’t get along. They haven’t for years. Then one day Kyousuke discovers his sister’s secret: She is a closet otaku. She loves anime, manga, and eroge video games. She seems to have a special thing for “little sisiter” games. And for the first time in years this brother and sister begin to talk.

On the surface it seems like a harmless premise and it is mostly a harmless show. An older brother protecting his “perfect” little sister’s reputation (she’s popular, a model, and athlete) by helping her indulge in her hobby and being someone she can finally talk about it to. And the show is this….

But Kirino is a horrible person, not a tsundere, just a horrible person.

She shows the world this:

But she is this to her brother:

Sadly, Kyousuke is a pushover. He helps his sister with her hobby. He helps her find friends outside of her school that share her interests.

But what does he get? Her acting increasingly horrible over time.

And don’t even get me started on the creepy incest themes of season 2.

However I liked the first season. I didn’t much like Kirino. I liked Kyousuke ad the supporting characters. I liked the art work. And I definitely liked the theme song:

http://www.jpopsuki.tv/media/embed?key=85c01e5084c0ed8de4ec6d661c9ff02b&width=720&height=480&autoplay=false&autolightsoff=false&loop=false

It can be an enjoyable show to watch. I would stop at season 1.

Attention Parents: Sexual innuendo, adult themes, and incestuous relationship (season 2). You have been warned.

The show may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but not every show is

I gave a small report in a tired haze Friday evening. Hopefully this should be a little more coherent.

We slept in and ate breakfast in our room. I have discovered over time that bringing your own food saves money, time, and you can eat healthier. Do it. It is a good idea.

If you are a light sleeper, this con may be hard for you. All the rooms go around the perimeter of a large open space that goes up from the second floor to the eighteenth floor and it echos. You can expect to hear people having fun until about 4:30 in the morning both nights. For us, it was not a problem.

My son put on his Kululu cosplay and we wandered out for the day.

We first hit The Maid Cafe at the top of the hotel that is put on by Hoshi No Yume Maid Cafe group in Milwaukee. It is an okay event. I think it is best if you go during one of their designated dance times for more entertainment. Otherwise it is just good service for some coffee or tea and some desert items.

On our way back, we ran into a staff member in the elevator with a badge that said “manager”. I remarked to him that it must be a really busy job. He said it was and that he was working on 4 hours of sleep. He then asked if my son was entered in the cosplay competition. I told him we hadn’t even considered it. He said if we were interested to go and sign up on the second floor. So I asked my son if he wanted to. He was unsure, but decided to try it. We signed him up and he was pre-judged and entered into the “chibi” category. We were told to make our way to ballroom D by 4:30 for instructions for the competition. So we wandered off to find things to do for the rest of the day.

We went to the dealers room to see our favorite Joker again.

After that we went to see voice actress Leah Clark’s panel: “Leah Clark Calls Your Friends”. Leah Clark  known for her roles as Blair in Soul Eater, Fuyuki in Sgt. Frog, and Jiji in Princess Jellyfish, just to name a few. This is a panel where Leah prank calls the audience’s friends. I had some fun and had her prank call my older son who couldn’t come to the convention, in the voice of Fuyuki. He didn’t pick up so Leah left a pretty funny message on his voice-mail. He was both thrilled and annoyed with me, but if you can’t have some fun at your child’s expense what fun is parenting?

We then headed over to watch “Cosplay Combat Chess”. Where cosplayers have volunteered to be live chess pieces in a  narrated chess match. Once a piece is taken, the cosplayers take the stage and perform a mock battle. The whole thing is pretty entertaining.

After that we ran into a few more characters before going to the competition.

 

Kill La Kill

Rayquaza

Steins Gate

The Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat

A Lolita

Madoka

Big Hero Six

My Little Pony

The Pre-show prep began at 4:30 pm for the cosplay competition. This consisted mostly of where to walk, how long to stay on stage, and where to sit. And then it was time to wait, and wait, and wait some more. The upside is we were able to talk with a bunch of the cosplayers and see some amazing costumes (sadly I didn’t take pictures then). My son got a lot of great feedback and encouragement from the other entrants (who were all older than him).

The doors opened for seating around 6 pm and the event finally began around 7 pm. My son was the first to take the stage. He was the only entrant in the “chibi” category. He took the stage and the audience “awwwed” and cheered loudly. The event featured beginning and advanced walk-ons, beginning and advanced group walk-ons, and skits. The whole show ended by 9 pm. My son, being the only entrant, won his category. He was pretty happy and had a lot of fun.

The first picture was him accepting his award and the second was right before the visiting cosplay judge, Mandy Moore (aka AmazonMandy), gave him a hug.

It was a long day. It was a good day. We left, got dinner, and went to bed.

Sunday was a short and quiet day. We got up late, packed up the car, and checked out of the hotel. After that, we went to see the Taiko drummers perform.

We checked out a panel on Key Animation and Clannad for a little bit. Hit the Merch room one last time and headed home.

A few final thoughts. This experience of a convention was very different this time from previous conventions. I cosplayed as well as “Kensei Ma” from “Kenichi- The Mightiest Disciple” (I never got a picture of myself, for myself oddly enough). Along with this and my son dressed as Kululu we became part of the spectacle that is a convention. One of my favorite moments was my son’s first picture that was taken of him on Friday night. A woman in a black, full body suit, saw him and freaked out. She was going: “Oh my god, Oh my god! Kululu is my favorite all time character! Can I have your picture? Can I have a hug? No? Just a handshake. I don’t want to freak you out. This is too awesome!” My son was stunned and a little amused. People loved his costume and he got a lot of pictures taken (I got a few as well). He loved  it. It made him part of a larger, weird community. Everyone was pretty cool with him and I think that is one of the great things about these conventions: acceptance. People love that you are a fan of something that they might be a fan of and that don’t care too much about how you’re expressing it, just that you are expressing it. Sure, there might be some negative people there as well, but it was overall very positive.

Next stop: Anime Central in Chicago, in May.

I posted earlier about my son’s cosplay as Sgt. Frog’s Kululu that I was attempting to do.

It is done. I did the head piece and someone else sewed the out-fit.

I think it turned out pretty good. Anime Milwaukee get ready!

Chaika- The Coffin Princess. It took me a while to decide to watch this show. Reading the description on Crunchyroll along with the faux European style names put me off a little, but since the current season of shows were not all that appealing to me I thought I’d take a look (it is now airing it’s second season). I decided (after watching the first season and some of the second) to let my 11 year old watch it too. That is a point of contention, but more on that later.

Chaika- The Coffin Princess follows the story Chaika, a girl with white hair who claims to (and appears to be) a wizard. Set in a land where a 300 year war had ended after the death of Arthur Gaz, Emperor of the Gaz empire and reputed to be the most powerful wizard in history. Chaika, who wanders around carrying a large coffin on her back like an over-sized backpack (I have to think she has great back and leg muscles to be able to do this) claims to be the dead Emperor’s daughter and is gathering his remains to give her father a proper funeral.

If were only as easy as that right? Where are the remains? Scattered around the countries bordering the Gaz empire of course. The story has the Emperor being killed by eight heroes and that his body was carved up into several pieces (which are prized as a source of great magical fuel).

Chaika, being kind of innocent and not all that competent, employs two ex-military (called Saboteurs)  Toru Acura and his sister Akari (who is not really his sister). Toru has not adjusted to peace time well, so body guarding and helping a girl hunt down body parts gives him a purpose again.

And that is how the fun begins.

I like the show. The world that is created is interesting and unique. The story has enough changes to keep it from getting stale. The animation is good (not outstanding or my favorite, but solid). So I thought: “I could let my 11 year old watch this.”

Overall I make good decisions about what my son can watch and while this show can get a little morbid and bloody at times I don’t think it overall is one that needs to be worried about. My wife did not agree.

Now while the show has a creepy concept (a girl collecting her dead father’s body parts) it is far enough removed from reality for most people to see (including an 11 year old) it as a fantasy story. The wife decided to pay attention during episode 12,”Those Left Behind”. This (along with episodes 10 & 11) features a creepy,sadistic kid. There is some blood and disturbing parts. My wife (who doesn’t like anime) was incredulous. “Blood! Killing! Dismemberment! What are you letting him watch?!” I respectfully disagreed with her. I know what 11 year old boys are like. I was one. I have heard what my son talks about with his friends at school about. They can (and do get worse).

Once again this illustrates my point of the blog and reviews: We all have different standards of what we will find appropriate for our kids to watch.

Parenting bit. Chaika- The Coffin Princess contains fight scenes, blood, body parts (mostly preserved in a bottle), a psycho kid, and a morbid concept. There are also some ecchi bits. Akari has a bit of a crush on her brother (who is not actually her brother), Toru, and occasionally says a few questionable lines. Watch it, it’s good fun! Decide for yourself if you want to let your kid watch it.

I am not a professional reviewer or writer. I am just a fan and a parent.

That wasn’t nice Chaika…I do have a job. That’s why I don’t post more frequently.

When looking for a new show to watch I usually scroll though the shows on Hulu, Crunchyroll, and Netflix. See what image captures my eye, read the show’s description, then often go and read a reviews on myanimelist.net.

This image caught my eye. A girl lifting up her skirt. I am mildly ashamed to admit that, but I am glad that it did.

Bakemonogatari is one of my favorite shows. It is put out by the animation house, Shaft, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite studios due to their unique sense of art direction.

Ghost story follows highschool senior, Koyomi Araragi, who had earlier that year survived a vampire attack. The show mostly centers around him helping several girls who have had problems/ encounters with spirits, demons or mythical creatures of some sort or another.

It was adapted from a series of light novels by Japanese novelist Nisio Isin. Since it didn’t come directly from a manga the art style was more from Shaft and from illustrations in the novel by a Taiwanese artist, Vofan.

I liked the use of lines and shadow in the show a lot.

It made for a visually interesting treat. Also the barrage of info derived from the light novels that would show up at the beginning of shows made for interesting viewing.

And of course the famous head tilting is a trade mark of Shaft and nowhere is it more apparent in Bakemongatari.

(admittedly some of these were from other seasons. Not Bakemonogatari, but you get the point.)

The show is dialog heavy and is one of the strongest parts of the show. There is much that goes over my head since there is Kanji word play going on. That being said, if you are not a fan of reading subtitles, this is not a show for you.

Parenting bit: There is graphic violence and blood ( although sometimes uniquely colored). There is adult sexual humor and some fan service (but by no means over the top). That coupled with a lot of reading and older themes may not make it the best for younger viewers, but that is up to you.

I can’t recommend this show enough. If you want a deeper explanation of the story go to myanimelist.net , wikipedia, or the show’s wiki. I am not a professional reviewer or writer. I am just a fan and a parent.

I love this ED. By Nagi Yanagi

The full song: