IS - Infinite Stratos: a new anime season begins

Infinite Stratos is one of the series I have been looking forward to this winter season. Well, it aired today and the speedsubbers have been hard at work, with Ayako's release coming this evening.

How is it so far?

Seitokai no Ichizon DVD fansubbed? NO WAY!

YES WAY!!

Thanks to ar over at Unlimited Translation Works, there is now a decent fansubbed DVD version of  one of my all-time favourite series. Not that there was anything wrong with the old SS-Eclipse subbed release, it's just that it was based on the broadcast version. Ar, going by the handle "HarEM", did this as a side project "With help from a lot of others along the way". The results show, and are totally worth rewatching. (more)

Haiku Anime Reviews Part the Second: Hen Zemi

Comedy ensues

When a sick-minded psych class

Does sick-minded things.

Thank you. <bows> 
(A very strange OAD, released by Doki and m.3.3.w.)  

Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya: A Brief Review

Ahem.

It. Was. AWESOME.

This movie was so worth waiting for. Gonna watch it again tomorrow with my son (a huge Haruhi fan). 

And it will be just as good then as well. 

That is all.  

I take back anything I said about Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt.

I suppose, some months ago, when I first watched Gainax's Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt that I wasn't in the right frame of mind. "Oho," I thought. "It's a Japanese version of a second-rate Adult Swim cartoon" -- and I turned the episode off after a few minutes, mainly because I found the art style annoying.

Not what you expect from Gainax.

Turns out I should have watched longer, and with a better outlook.

This anime is AWESOMESAUCE, with extra sauce on the side. Sure, it looks like something from The Cartoon Network, but The Cartoon Network could only hope to do something this funny and risque. It's multimedia in the best sense of the word, combining regular animation (with hilarious use of art-shifting, e.g. the main characters' transformation sequence shifts to standard anime style and they pole dance), CG and live-action miniature work. The show is foul-mouthed, rude, crude and one of the best things I have seen all year.

Imagine, if you will, a North American cartoon like Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends or Jimmy Two-Shoes with an NC-17 rating and you get the idea. However, the animation is far, FAR better in only the way Gainax could do it. I'm not going to do a long description of the anime; it has been done better elsewhere (like the Wikipedia page on it, for example). I will say this, however: fer crying out loud, Panty (the blonde character in red in the pic) uses her panties as her main weapon -- they turn into a gun -- and Stocking (the goth loli) uses her stockings in the same way.

Consider me a convert. This is the kind of anime that people who don't like anime could easily watch and enjoy.

Haiku Anime Reviews, Part The First

Hyakka Ryoran Samurai Girls.

Gorgeous artwork plus
naked Samurai women
equals Fanservice.

Domo arigato.

The Worst Maid Cafe in Japan.

It really isn't.

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, episodes 1-6

Originally broadcast weekly on Tokyo Broadcasting, October 7 through November 11, 2010

Fansub by Furukawa Pan 

I figure when doing a review blog that it's best to start with a current series and work back from there. With that in mind, and before delving into my anime archives for my All Time Faves, I thought it would be good to start by reviewing Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru (lit. "Yet the Town Keeps Going"), an anime series based on the manga of the same name by Masakazu Ishiguro. So why start with this one? Short version: it's really good. The review continues after the break.