Parenting – Page 7 – dadwatchesanime

A Tale of Two Soul Eaters

September 27, 2015September 27, 2015madreceiver4 Comments

So recently I just finished Soul Eater (late in the game I know) and then followed up with the more recent Soul Eater Not. Two vastly different shows set in the same general universe, produced by the same studio (Bones), but (the anime) written and directed by different people.

I know it is unfair to compare the two and I will try not to, but I am sure my bias will seep through.

Soul Eater

Students a the DWMA (Death Weapon Meister Academy) train to become proficient at defeating witches and humans who have strayed the path to become evil and thus their souls have become corrupted. Students generally work in pairs as weapons (students who can physically transform into weapons) and the meisters that wield the weapon. After a meister and weapon have accumulated 99 evil human souls and 1 witch soul (which the weapons absorb) they can become an official “Death Scythe” that can be wielded by Death himself (who founded the academy and the fictional “Death City” where it is located).

The show follows primarily pairs/trio: Maka Albarn and Soul Eater (a Scythe), Black Star and Tsubaki Nakatsukasa (who is able to transform into several weapons associated with ninjitsu), and Death’s son: Death the Kid and his partners Liz and Patty Thompson (both pistols).

The show has a lot going for it.

The story is enjoyable. However, for me, the first six episodes (or so) are a bit annoying and mostly exposition: necessary, just not my favorite part of the series. I know a lot of people prefer the manga story-line, but since I haven’t read it this doesn’t bias me.

The artwork is my favorite thing about this show. It has got it’s own cartoon-ish, nior, Halloween feeling to it that appeals to my aesthetic sensibilities. I love the sun and moon (my favorite background creepers)!

I watched the English dub and it is absolutely fantastic. I often watch subs since I watch a lot of new material on Crunchyroll, but the dub of this is really good and I highly recommend it if you haven’t watched it.

The soundtrack is really good and I am an absolute sucker for the 2nd OP: “Black Paper Moon” by Tommy Heavenly6.

http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/Tommy-heavenly6—PAPERMOON/8e52f8a06aa16038c0d2974c395ada65

Attention Parents: Overall this show, while not harmless, is probably good for the 12 and up set. There is some ecchi stuff early on, mostly with Blair, but this is minimal in the overall picture of the show. There is blood. Black blood and otherwise. There are also themes of abuse, mental illness, infidelity, and madness. All of these themes could be a really interesting talking point with your kids if you watch the show with them.

I loved this show and highly recommend it (as I know many other do as well). And this now brings me to the other Soul Eater….

Soul Eater Not!

Last year’s Soul Eater Not! jumps into the same universe as the original Soul Eater (Anime ending in 2009). It is classified in the ecchi, comedy, and shounen categories which I don’t think is exactly accurate. It seems to be more of a slice of life, seinen style of show with some yuri suggestion thrown in for good measure. Whatever it is trying to do, it never seems to firmly achieve it.

The story revolves mostly around 3 freshmen students at the DWMA: Tsugumi Harudori, a weapon (halberd) and two meisters, Meme Tatane and Anya Hepburn. They are all weapons of the NOT class (Normally Overcome Target) who are there to learn to control their weapons and abilities, as opposed to the EAT class (Extraordinarily Advantaged Talent) which takes their abilities into the field to fight evil humans and witches (ie: the original Soul Eater). Much of the show revolves around Tsugumi’s indecision around which person to pair up with for her meister.

Soul Eater Not! was meant to take place slightly before the main story-line of Soul Eater. Because of this you do get cameos from most of the Soul Eater series characters. Pre-zombie-fied Sid is most heavily used and is treated fairly well as a character. Stein also makes a couple of appearances playing “the wacky doctor” to an annoying effect, I found. Maka serves a small role as some inspiration for Tsugumi as well. The cameos from the original series (with the exception of Sid) felt kind of contrived and forced, but maybe that was me.

The yuri undertones (or maybe overtones?)… I know this is a standard in the “cute girls doing cute things” shows (and this was essentially “cute girls doing cute things” at the DWMA), but my god did they beat you over the head with it. If Meme wasn’t sleep-molesting Tsugumi in some part, then it was Anya getting all tsundere-style jealous that Meme was touching or rubbing up against Tsugumi (maybe I exaggerate, but not much). And then there was the whole side story of Kim Diehl and Jacqueline O’Lantern Dupré (who were both in Soul Eater as side characters) and their whole romance/ friendship/ partnering which seemed largely unnecessary.

And can we talk about boobs for a minute? I know if there is a school anime with a bunch of girls there will be a scene where they talk about their boob size. It’s a given. It is an immutable law of anime. But for gods sake! In Souls Eater Not! they wouldn’t shut up about it!! Fine, mention it one time *eye rolls*, we’re done. But repeatedly???!!! Can you tell that this annoyed me?

The animation was clean and well done. Is it what I liked from the original? No, but it was meant to be different, so if you accept that, it was animated fine.

The story is weak. It never quite gets a foothold of what it is trying to be. I liked some of the end where it got a little action oriented and thus the characters got some development, but otherwise the show felt largely directionless.

The OP was actually pretty good. Monochrome by Dancing Dolls.

Attention Parents: The show is a bit more ecchi than Soul Eater and has yuri undertones. Otherwise there is no blood and little fighting or challenging themes to deal with.

I do realize I may be being unfair to Soul Eater Not!, but I do feel like it didn’t make clear what ever it was it was trying to do. As a slice of life, or even as a “cute girls doing cute things” show it didn’t live up to it’s potential. If you haven’t watched these shows, maybe Soul Eater Not might be one to watch first and perhaps then enjoyed more?

Happy viewing everyone!

Sometimes It’s Just An Immediate: Nope!

September 10, 2015September 10, 2015madreceiver7 Comments

As I’ve stated in postings past I often screen various animes to see whether my younger (now 12 year old) son can watch them. Some I’m watching because I wanted to watch the show and others are just a brief screening for to red or green light a show for him to see. I often don’t get around to every request he has since I don’t have all the time in the world to screen eveerything he comes across.

Sometimes it’s just a: “Nope.”

First episode. First 5 minutes. First impression. All screaming: “This is not appropriate for him” or “If I let him watch this his mother will kill me”.

This season had a few “nopes”.

Gangsta

A gritty, bloody, crime ridden show. It’s got killing, blood, abuse, prostitution, and all other manners of organized crime. I like the show (even though the plot seems a bit convoluted at times). The animation is good. The main characters are interesting and likable in their own ways. There is an interesting story going on (although it does seem a bit muddled in it’s presentation). But given all that I stated in the first two sentences it is not appropriate for my 12 year old. Hell, I could tell it was a “no go” from the OP sequence.

A good song though….

Monster Masume

AKA: Everyday Life With Monster Girls. I was pretty suspicious about this one when I clicked on it to watch it. Aaand within the first 5 minutes: “Nope!!!”

It is basically about a guy who has various “Monster Girls” foisted upon him to live in his home as part of a Inter-species Cultural Exchange Program of which he never volunteered for. It is a harem show, except they are monster girls instead of just girls.

It is ridiculously ecchi and, admittedly, it made me crack up a few times at is juvenile sense of humor. That being said: it’s all body part and sex related jokes (and some of the resulting embarrassment along with it). It’s not a bad show I guess. I haven’t felt compelled to keep up with it though. So, it a “Nooo…you can’t watch that…just no.”

My Wife Is The Student Council President

Okay. I only found out about this show the other day. I didn’t know about Crunchyroll’s Mature settings. I was talking to a coworker and he told me about this show (he likes more ecchi comedies than I do). I told him I hadn’t seen it available and he mentioned the Mature content filter. It comes defaulted to being “on”, so I switched it off and there this show was.

So, I know ahead of time that my son cannot watch this. But curiosity gets the better of me and I watch the first episode. It’s about two high school students who have just found out that their parents arranged for them to be married when they were younger. The girl (the student council president), is taking this arrangement to heart and has shown up at her betrothed’s door step ready to live with him. He tries to scare her off the idea by acting like a “pervert”, but she doesn’t back down from her commitment. And by the end of the episode there is exposed nipples being licked.

Nope. Can’t give the go ahead with that one either.

It’s funny. There is nothing inherently wrong with these shows. Ecchi humor is just that: humor. As a parent, however, I have to decide not what is necessarily “wrong”, but what I will advocate for him to watch. I think my hesitance comes in not with the jokes themselves, but with his maturity to understand the jokes and to take that information into his brain (and out into the world) in a mature fashion. So that is why I will censor these things out. Not because they are bad, but more because I want him to be able to process mature subject matter in a better way than he is able to now. This is not the same for all kids, some can handle it earlier, some later. Just food for thought…

How My Younger Son Watches Anime

August 26, 2015August 26, 2015madreceiver13 Comments

AKA: What my son has been watching this summer.

My 11 (12 tomorrow) year old watches a lot of anime. And a lot that I watch, I am “vetting” to make sure that it doesn’t have any content that I deem inappropriate (or that I think his mother will object to).

That being said: he is always after me to check out shows to see if he can watch them, but I don’t have all the time in the world. I work. I socialize. I even watch non-anime related shows.

Luckily he does find titles he can watch. And watch he does….He’s a binge watcher. He can sit and watch a show all day. And then re-watch it again. I cannot do this. I rarely binge watch. A few episodes, yes. Watching for 4 hours, no.

But he found some things to keep him entertained that are good for his age with not much objectionable content. I have not watched many of these except seeing some of them while I was in the room.

Toriko

A gourmet hunter on the search for more food to complete his ultimate meal. Fighting impossible beasts and eating the most absurd things. This is very much a Shonen anime in the vein of One Piece (there are a couple of crossover episodes in fact). I had started to watch this and set it aside and my son has now finished the series of his summer break. Much of it I didn’t watch, but I did see the Durian Bomb episode which was hilarious.

love-live-school-idol-project-1

Love Live! School Idol Project

My son started watching this one because of his older brother. As some readers will know his older brother is a Utaite (or You-Taite) who does English covers anime theme songs. Well, my older son was covering a song from this show and thus his younger brother liked the song and started watching the show. I have not seen any of it, but know it has a loyal following. It wasn’t surprising to me that he got into it as he was a huge fan of AKB0048. I think he has completed all seasons of this anime.

Stella Women’s Academy High School Division Class C3

Another in the vein of “cute girls doing cute things”. This time it’s survival games where girls at an all girls rich school are hunting each other with pellet guns in simulated war games. He had bugged me about this show and I think I watched one episode and figured it was harmless enough. Being that he was a huge fan of Girls Und Panzer, I guessed this would be up his alley. And it was. I, however, have no idea if it’s any good (it looks mostly harmless at any rate).

Waganaria!! (Working!!)

Now I have actually seen most of the first season of this. It is a funny show, absolutely hilarious at times. One could argue at times that some parts may be inappropriate. There are drunken sisters, a lazy boss that has a girl in love with her, and the main character could be seen as potentially creepy with his obsession with young, cute things and/or people. However, it’s mostly harmless and he loves the show.

Luckily he can find shows that he can find shows that are okay to watch and then binge-watch because I can’t keep up with his anime consumption….maybe I should’ve sent him to camp.

Food Porn! I mean… Wars!

August 9, 2015August 9, 2015madreceiver3 Comments

If there were two standouts from the spring season for me it would be Ore Monogatari and Shokugeki no Soma (Food Wars).

If you follow my blog you know that I, and my boys, love Ore Monongatari and often watch it together. That, however, is not the case with Shokugeki no Soma. My 11 year old keeps asking to watch it and I keep saying: “No!”. I am a mean dad who never lets his kids watch anything, but I am comfortable with this fact (please read as sarcasm). But I do have my reasons.

Shokugeki no Soma follows Soma Yukihira, a boy who grew up cooking along side his dad (Joichiro) in his dad’s small restaurant. He wants to surpass his dad’s skills and take over the restaurant one day. As Soma is about to start high school, Joichiro shuts down the restaurant to work overseas and enrolls Soma in an elite,and highly competitive culinary school where only a small percentage of the students graduate.

While shocked, Soma adapts and decides to do his best. Of course making enemies of the first day of school by telling everyone that he’ll be better than them.

I am a bit of a “foodie”. I love to cook. I have worked in the food industry for a long time, so this show hits the spot for me. It is really, in my mind, a cross between a school anime and Iron Chef with a bit of shounen posturing and ecchi-ness thrown in for good measure.

I wish I had these kinds of knife skills!

The show is often focused around a cooking challenge of some sort designed to test student’s technical skills or creativity under pressure.

Besides being entertaining I find Soma’s determination and confidence while having some humility as an appealing aspect to the show. He likes when he has satisfied a person eating his food and is supportive of his classmates while still striving to be the best he can be.

If that was all there was to it, I’d let my 11 year old watch it. But then there are scenes like these:

Which perhaps wouldn’t be so bad, but it resulted in this:

While I find this hilariously absurd, it is something he probably should wait on. The kid is in puberty for god’s sake: How might this mess with his budding development? (I’m kidding).

Scenes like these aren’t going to help either (especially if I have to explain to his mother what I let him watch).

So I tell him:

“No.”

“Stop asking.”

“No.”

“You already know the answer. Why are you still asking?”

Attention Parents: This show is ecchi at times. Most of the the show is actually pretty tame, but then they eat and you get scenes like the above and below.

That being said. I love the show and am glad it was running on into the summer as well!

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it!

-I do not own any of the images in this post.

Cosplay With Kindness Documentary

August 8, 2015August 8, 2015madreceiver1 Comment

Cosplay: Literally “Costume Play.” Dressing up and pretending to be a fictional character (usually a sci-fi, comic book, or anime character).

Cosplay is often a fun way to express your fandom. It helps show others what you like, escape into a character, and bond with other fans be it characters from sci-fi, comic books, or anime.

I have cosplayed. My sons have as well. I have done Kensei Ma from Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple and Yuugo Tennouji , aka “Mr Braun” (Steins Gate). My son has done Kululu from Sgt. Frog.

It’s fun. And I have had nothing but good experiences, as has my son. In fact, earlier this year at Anime Milwaukee, my son got invited to participate in the Masquerade (Cosplay competition) where everyone was very welcoming and supportive to him.

This, however, is not everyone’s experience.

I became aware that bullying was a thing in the cosplay community last year at Anime Midwest while attending voice actor, Greg Ayres’s panel: “Why Your Fandom Sucks”. He told a few horror stories where some fans take things too far and ruin the experience for others. It was through Greg Ayres’s Facebook page that I became aware of the documentary: “Cosplay With Kindness”.

The film maker was inspired to do this documentary after attending Greg Ayre’s “It Gets Better” panel at Anime-Zap. It is to address, and hopefully combat, bullying in the cosplay and convention going community.

Please support this project if you are able.

Go like their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/CosplayWithKindness

Or help support their gofundme:
http://www.gofundme.com/CosplayDocumentary

And please visit their website to learn more:

http://cosplaywithkindness.org/

Cosplay and conventions should be fun. I remember when I saw the “Why Your Fandom Sucks” panel Greg saying (and I paraphrase): “There is no wrong way to cosplay. If you are not the same size, race, or gender as the character that you are cosplaying as: Who cares? You are being a fan. If your outfit is not professionally perfect: It doesn’t matter. You are being a fan and sharing your love of something with others.”

That struck a chord with me. As a parent, and as a bit of an outcast myself, I appreciated this message. Support this project.

And more than anything else: Be kind!

-As a side note. It was my experience at Anime Midwest and seeing the Greg Ayres panel in 2014 that inspired me to start this blog.

Anime Midwest 2015: 3 Teens, 1 Pre-teen, and a Tired Dad

July 12, 2015July 12, 2015madreceiver3 Comments

Anime Midwest has come and gone. I am tired, but really happy. It was a blast and is my favorite Con so far. I packed up my two sons, their cousin, and my older son’s friend (my best friend’s daughter) and headed out early for Chicago. A nice option from the con: this year they started mailing badges for pre-registered attendees. However, I forgot to click the box for my boys to get their badges mailed so we had to pick theirs up at the con. Since we got there early, there was no line: no problem. We checked into the Hyatt Regency O’hare, got our badges, and brought all our stuff in to get ready for the con. The first panels, merch room, and other events began at 12 noon. My younger son and I went to see the opening ceremonies and the teens went their own way. It was a packed weekend and I had a hard time figuring out how to divide it all up to explain it, so here I go.

Panels and Guests

As I said earlier, the first panel that we attended was the opening ceremonies. This is where the convention staff do a little intro and introduce the many guests in attendance. It was running a little behind so we did not see the entire thing.

We left to see the “Meet Billy West” panel. Billy West is the voice actor known for Futurama (playing Phillip J. Fry, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, Dr. John Zoidberg, and Zapp Brannigan), Ren and Stimpy, and a host of other roles. A great speaker and seemed to be a genuinely humble guy who really enjoyed talking with the audience. If you ever have the chance, go and see him.

We also caught the tail end of “Meet David Matangra”. He has a much larger catalog of anime credits than I was aware of but some of his more notable roles are: Bertolt on Attack on Titan, Daichi on Say I Love You, and Tomoya in Clannad. We only were able to hear about the last 10 minutes of his panel where he was talking about theater and some upcoming work he was doing. One thing you find is that a lot of the American voice actors have a background in theater.

Most of the other panels we caught were on Saturday.

We started off with “Reviewing 101”. This was an interesting panel, but more focused on You Tube style reviews. It was put on by a person who was a My Little Pony reviewer (among other things). It was informative anyways and a good slow way to start out the day.

We also caught part of the “Meet Caitlynn French” panel. I found out from that she has serious nerd cred being not only a anime fan, but a video game player, and table top gamer. She was recently announced as the voice for Shiro in No Game No Life (which she was very excited about). My son’s main reason for wanting to meet her was for her roles in AKB0048 (Suzuko) and Girls und Panzer (Hana). She is also a pre-school teacher in her non-voice acting life. My son spoke to her briefly after the panel and she was very cool to him.

The highlight panels for me on Saturday were the Greg Ayres panels: “Why “Your Fandom Sucks” and “It Gets Better- Anime Con Edition”.

“Why Your Fandom Sucks” is a panel on how fans can go off the rails, take their fandom a little too seriously, and how this can ruin things for others. Greg told horror stories of where fans did dumb things, outrageous things, and sometimes downright hurtful things all kind of tied to their various fandoms. It is a panel well worth attending if you have a chance. Greg is a good storyteller and the over-arching message of the panel is a good one: Be a good fan, don’t be a jerk, make a supportive community of fans, and that as long as you’re not hurting yourself or anyone else there is not really a “wrong way” to be a fan. As a parent I can get behind this kind of message and find it to be important.

“It Gets Better- Anime Con Edition” is based off the “It Gets Better” project which was started in response to a series to teen suicides where kids were being bullied for being (or perceived as being) gay. Greg hosts this panel to talk about bullying of LGBT teens and bullying in the fan community as well. Being the parent of an openly gay teen, this is another panel I truly appreciate.

The only other panel attended that weekend by my younger son and I was the “Boxers or Briefs- Multi Guest Q&A” on Sunday morning. This was a rapid fire Q & A panel where any silly question was asked. Many of the guests were recovering from heavy partying the night before and it got pretty raunchy. Oh well…I knew there would be some questionable parenting moments at the con. I have come to accept this will happen.. he did find the repeated answer of “three dicks” to be hilarious (best in context I guess) as any 11 year old would. Guests : John Swasey, Caitlynn French, Greg Ayres, Chris Rager, David Matranga, Joel McDonald, Chuck Huber, Sonny Strait, Spike Spencer, Chris Cason, Blake Shepard, DC Douglas, and Eric Stuart.

There were many other panels I would have loved to seen, but only so much time in a weekend to see it all.

Concerts

Anime Midwest really shined in the amount of musical guests they have…really quite a great line up of acts. I saw more than I planned on seeing (which was great) and wish I would’ve seen more.

Face Time Police

We wandered on this performance on the mini stage off of the Con Sweet ( a place for con-goers to get free rice, ramen, and soda). The duo does songs inspired by anime and video games. They had a lively acoustic set which was pretty enjoyable.

Brentalfloss

A comedian and musician who has a popular You Tube channel where he does video game music “With Lyrics” put on an entertaining performance. We ended up in this show thinking we were coming to the end of the Mega Ran and K-Murdock concert so we could be early for Steam Powered Giraffe, but everything was behind schedule so we saw most of Brentalfloss’s set. He was very fun and my son liked the “Mad Libs” song he did (a largely inappropriate version of “Let it Go”).

Mega Ran and K-Murdock

After Brentalfloss these guys came out and..damn! I am thrilled I got to see them! I had no prior experience with Mega Ran, but he was awesome live. He is considered to be the best known video-game influenced musical artist out there and is licensed by CAPCOM as their official rap/ hip hop artist. They ended their set with YT Cracker coming up on stage with them: it was awesome! I have gotten a couple of his recordings since the con and really like his stuff. Check him out!

Steam Powered Giraffe

We saw them last year and had to go see them again. The steam punk inspired robots putting on their show that is both music and comedic performance. They put on an excellent, entertaining show and are well worth a watch. My boys and myself were all looking forward to seeing them again.

Raves

There were Rave dances on both Friday and Saturday nights. The teens attended the rave on Saturday until around 1:00 am and I checked it out a little as well. While I don’t really dance to rave music, I could appreciate anyways. I like what I saw of Greg Ayres set more than the first and my older so liked his more as well. The downside of curfew for teens: they happened to leave right before $1000.oo in small bills was thrown into the audience. They weren’t happy to hear they missed that.

The Cosplays

There are always so many great cosplays, so many that I don’t know, and I always mean to take more pictures, but never seem to get enough.

Holy Madoka! There were a lot of Puella Magi Madoka Magica cosplays at this con. I got so many pictures since my son was stopping everyone to take his own pictures of them. I have thought it would be hilarious/ disturbing if I cosplayed as Mami Tomoe sometime, but not shaving my beard and walking with an exaggerated “man” walk while complaining about the other magical girls and about getting older…

Metalocalypse

Zapp Brannigan cross-play and a minion.

Not sure who they all are, but video game related I think. They all did great jobs on their costumes.

Nudist Beach (Kill La Kill) and Mekakucity Actors

Clannad (Tomoyo and Tomoya) and Full Metal Alchemist (Lust and Greed)

Danmachi (Hestia), Ouran High School Host Club (Tamaki), Dragon Ball (Master Roshi)

Nisekoi (Chitoge and Onodera), A Spiderman, No Face, Winry Rockbell (FMA), and Stein (Soul Eater).

A few more pictures I took. A Jon Snow, some colorful people, and “Kawaii-Vader”.

It wouldn’t be a con without a couple of furries…

My favorite photo I took. A cross-play of Death The Kid (Soul Eater)

The kids

My son finally got Chuck Huber to autograph the headpiece for his Kululu cosplay, which was awesome.

Lesson: Never leave a horse mask unattended..

A ramen lunch at Mitsuwa is always a good idea.

Exhausted kids on the way home means a job well done.

It was a good weekend.

It’s Convention Time Again!!!

July 1, 2015July 1, 2015madreceiver2 Comments

Anime Midwest: July 3-5

It’s time to pack up the kids and go to another convention! This time I am taking my 2 boys, their cousin, and a friend all to Anime Midwest in Chicago this coming weekend. 3 teens and a pre-teen. When I tell most people this, they shudder. However, the 3 teens will probably ditch me for most of the time and so it will just be me and my younger son.

We attended this one last year and really enjoyed it and I have been looking forward to this con more than any this year. There is a ton to do: concerts, panels, gaming, raves, a maid cafe, and much more.

Check the website for full details:

http://www.animemidwest.com/

Highlights for me:

Steam Powered Giraffe

A truly enjoyable steam punk inspired musical act that are a lot of fun!

Greg Ayres

Voice actor ( Clannad, Ouran High School Host Club, Deadman Wonderland, Free! Eternal Summer), DJ, and Project Beck. I saw Greg’s “Why Your Fandom Sucks” panel and really enjoyed it due to it’s (despite the misleading title) message of inclusion and trying to maintain a supportive community of fans. As a dad I can get behind this message.

Chuck Huber

A voice actor known for roles in: Full Metal Alchemist, Soul Eater, Black Butler, One Piece, and most importantly, Sgt Frog. As some of you may have read before, my younger son is a Sgt Frog fan and cosplays as Kululu. Chuck Huber was the voice of Kululu and so he (my son) wants his head piece autographed badly.

David Matranga

A voice actor who has been in several shows including Attack on Titan, but more importantly for me: Clannad. My first real show that drew me into anime. I’d be interested to see a panel with him.

Billy West

The voice of several characters on Futurama including the role model for all men: Zapp Brannigan. Also known for tons of other American voice work ( Jimmy Neutron, Ren and Stimpy). ” Brannigan’s Law is like Brannigan’s love, hard and fast.”

Samurai Dan & Lady Gillian

They know martial arts. They teach you a few things. They are hilarious. Enough said.

There is so much more going on, many more talented voice actors and other interesting guests attending. Check out the website to see all of what they have to offer. I will post some updates about the convention sometime after.

-Most images are from the Anime Midwest website. I do not own them.

A Lolita Goddess and a Well Meaning Hero

July 1, 2015July 1, 2015madreceiver3 Comments

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

Also known as “DanMachi’ or “Familia Myth”, this anime has been both a light novel and manga before it was picked up by J.C. Staff for adaptation.

Set in the world Orario, adventurers set out for fame, money, and glory to a dungeon where they gain experience fighting monsters and other kinds of beasts. The adventurers are set up in “familias” which are led by gods (who have made the choice to live among humans at a loss of their divine powers). The gods in the show are taken from all sorts of mythologies: Greek, Roman, Norse, and Hindu.

The story follows Bell Cranel, a young (and new) adventurer, who is the only member of the Hestia familia. Bell is an earnest kid who just wants to be the best adventurer he can be and to become a hero one day. Hestia (named for the Greek Goddess of the hearth) is a low level goddess who is portrayed as a big chested “loli”.

She is very protective of Bel and tries her best to support her only family member, but she can be a little too clingy/ possessive when it comes to Bel.

In a nutshell the show is largely an adventure based show (that has a few harem elements) that is largely modeled after Dungeons and Dragons or an MMO, with gods manipulating things in the background.

I liked the show, although it was not a stand out for me this season. The animation was done well and many times it reminded me a little of Sword Art Online. Although my older son pointed out that this may be because both Kirito and Bell are both voiced by Matsouka, Yoshitsugu. The story is decent and I think if it continues, has the potential to become more interesting as you see what the gods are up to behind the scenes.

It also has a decent OP:

Attention Parents: There is fan-service in this one. Big, bouncy, anime chests and some skimpy outfits is the most regular offender in the show. There is also a nude scene at one point. Monsters are getting killed so there is some blood as well. If any of these things offend you: you have been warned.

This was a good show, not great (in my opinion), but worth a watch if you’re looking for something to do.

That’s all I got.

Remember kids: Brush your teeth!

Re-Kan! The weird Mix of Touching Stories and a Perverted Cat

June 22, 2015June 22, 2015madreceiver1 Comment

Re-Kan!

Hibiki Amami can see ghosts. She can not only see them, but interacts with them on a daily basis. She leaves offerings for them, talks with the serial killer victim, knits for the ghost of the young girl that haunts a bathroom, and plays with the spirits of dead children. She has a generous heart to those who have passed on.

This sets her apart from others. She is a new student that has transferred to a new high school and has always had a hard time making friends (besides ghosts) because of her “gift”. Other students are mostly scared or weird-ed out by her behavior.

And if you saw someone being dragged off by spirits you might be put off a little as well.

Luckily, the classmates at her new school seem to be a fairly tolerant bunch and she makes friends fairly quickly. And that’s what the show is about: a high school girl who can talk to the dead.

Overall I liked the show, it didn’t amaze me, but it was a fun diversion at times that had a few problems.

First off, the stories were a strange mix of comedy and sometimes really touching drama. The drama was usually done fairly well and there were some very touching moments. And then there was the comedy which could be a mixed bag. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. I didn’t find the perverted cat that funny, but they didn’t over-use him and they tried to vary how he showed up at least.

The animation was fine and had some good points to it, except one thing bothered me that I could never get past:

Kana Urehara and Kyoko Esumi’s eyes through their hair!!! I found it so annoying! It definitely distracted me. I know it’s petty, but it did.

Attention Parents: Overall the show is pretty harmless. There is the perverted cat yelling about panties in several episodes, but that is about the worst of it. The show does deal with spirits and issues of the afterlife, if that conflicts with your religious ideals then you might want to give it a pass.

Overall I liked the show, but it definitely has it’s faults. What it does have is a good sense of compassion and interconnectedness (spell check says this isn’t a word, but you know what I mean). Hibiki’s compassion for the dead comes through in all the things she does for them which is often being a liaison to the living. It is when she is afraid she has lost her “gift” that her friend shows her the impact that she has had on the living. This is something that we all forget. Our impact on others. We, for better or worse, affect others. It is something to remember in your daily lives. Be nice, take a lesson from Hibiki. Sometimes a small kindness goes a long way.

It’s Gorgeous: Watch It!

June 15, 2015June 15, 2015madreceiver5 Comments

5 Centimeters Per Second

I know I come late to the game in this one, and that it has been out for a while, but it showed up on Crunchyroll so I decided to give it a try.

I watched it with my 11 year old. It is fine. There is nothing that I would call objectionable. What I will say about this film is it tends towards a somewhat mature story line that may not hold a younger viewers interest.

The film (with a run time of about 60 minutes) is stunningly beautiful. The story is subdued, dealing with love, loss, and unrequited feelings. I watched the dub (which is rare for me) which was well done. I enjoyed it a lot and honestly found myself just saying: “Wow” a lot in response to the animation.

If you think your kids can sit through the story, have them watch it. Heck, if you want to explain to a friend or your parents how beautiful anime can be, have them watch this!

Until next time, keep watching and doing what you love. So will I.

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