Rubénerd!

Between packing, moving and working on my university anime club's website and membership systems, I haven't had time to review the last two Tamako Market episodes Clara and I watched. I know, I'm as horrified as you are!

While we wait for me to have a sliver of spare time, have this super cute Megami image of the girls from the series instead. Arigato.

Perhaps this was a result of watching it while I was half asleep, but the latest episode of Vividred Operation seemed even more absurd than the previous ones I'd seen. Plotholes so big you could fly an Alone through them. Still enjoyed it though, I think!

By now, we can see the formula that is going into the plot for each episode. At least until we run out of heroines, after facing a fierce foe that can't be battled with the existing members, a new heroine is recruited, subjected to docking, transformed into a different coloured Tuvix, and With Their Powers Combined™ they save the day. So as long as they can keep recruiting members at this pace indefinitely, they'll be able to save the Earth from increasingly sinister devices! Right?

In this episode, we meet kendo master Saegusa, who painfully reminded me that I always wanted to do kendo (and fencing...) but never made it past the second lesson. Family reasons, as usual! But I digress.

I have to admit, I was pleased to be wrong about the depth of the characters. At first Akane seemed to be your stereotypically friendly but slightly ditsy character that anime studios increasingly cast in lead roles, but her maturity and determination under pressure were able to shine through here. Given she'd never done kendo before, she was performing some pretty impressive acrobatics while fighting, ditto when she was being chased!

Basically, I approved of the fact that she didn't need a stronger person to swoop in and "save" her in her civilian form, and that she was still determined even when not "equipped" with her grandfather's transformitive tech. This series may be cliche in ways, but at least it doesn't fall into the typical helpless-when-not-transformed mahou shoujo trope.

There were plotholes though. For starters, we were scared that Akane's secret was discovered by a lone observer. Recruiting your only witness to join your side and keep her quiet was a masterstroke, but surely SOMEONE else from the gigantic school complex facing the ocean would have seen her too? Where did their grandfather come from in that final scene? Did the animators for the Alones take a break and just use Flash for this episode?

Untimely though, these didn't bug me too much. I'd theorised the series was supposed to be a parody of mecha and mahou shoujo, but I'm lead to believe now that the writers just aren't taking themselves quite as seriously and are having fun with the universe they've created, which I can appreciate. For all the tech, interesting new propulsion devices and energy sources, we have ridiculous uniforms and that one scenery view framed from an opportunistic angle that's probably going to be a recurring gag.

So I'm unashamed, I'm enjoying this series. Perhaps not as much as I will Tamako Market though, which I should be able to watch with Clara now that she's back from Hong Kong, boom! ^_^

(And just before I go, what's the deal with this character? Lending power to the enemy? In the same class? Their enemy could be right under their almost-non-existent anime noses...)

Going through my masses of unwatched anime, on a hunch from Robbie in our anime club I decided to see what Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai was be all about, given it has a second season out now. Suffice to say, it wasn't entirely what I was expecting!

As the title suggests, this 2012 series revolves around socially awkward people who come together to make friends. Reading the plot descriptions, I was imagining the series very much like my experience with the anime club at UTS. I can't begin to describe how much this club has helped me make friends and feel accepted, particularly in a new city.

Naturally, we have the usual Transfer Student who's arrived at the school, and just like me he has blonde hair and menacing eyes. Well, mine are more panda than menacing, but there you have it. Through him, we meet the other horribly awkward social misfits the series will revolve around.

Immediately from this first episode I was drawn to the characters. Each serve as a larger-than-life representations of different stereotypically awkward people. Hasegawa Kodaka plays the roll of a legal alien among his peers who's misunderstood and feels out of place owing to his Western features.

Mikazuki Yozora (above) is resolute and strong willed, but seemingly copes with social awkwardness through bullying and insults. Kashiwazaki Sena (below) is the stereotypical popular girl who's social standing, attitudes and looks render it difficult for her to make real friends.

Superficially, I really liked the art. The scenery is colourful and detailed, and the characters themselves have lips! Perhaps not as groundbreaking as Mugi-chan's eyebrows, but anime characters having lips in this day and age? Madness!

I'd said this series wasn't what I was expecting, partly because it has more of a story than I thought it would. As I've come to expect from anime promotion, a large number of the posters and fanart for the series are rather suggestive. The series does contain some fanservice, particularly centered around Yozora's legs and Sena's... talent. Here's hoping Kodaka has his shirtless moment during a beach or hot spring episode. If I'm going to be viewing the series vicariously through him, the least he can be is devilishly attractive himself.

Honestly, I'm very much interested to see how these personifications of social awkwardness overcome their fears and make friends. Assuming that's what the series really does end up being about, and I've read conflicting reports. Should I be taking notes?

As an aside, I didn't beat my last anime review record of seven minutes. This took a whopping nine minutes, partly because the latest build of mpv from Homebrew decided to stop supporting screencapping, and I was forced to break open VLC with its neverending font caching.

With my wonderful girlfriend out of the country and unable to watch the next Tamako Market with me, I've continued watching Vividred Operation instead. With that glowing endorsement, here's episode two!

Having established the universe in the last episode, we get to see how the characters cope with their newly discovered mahou shoujoness. We also discover what they meant by the term "docking", fortunately it was far less suggestive than we were lead to believe!

The universe they've created here is an odd one. As I said for the previous episode, this universe is centred around the manifestation of a SimCity like power plant, which seems to attract sinister aliens. Despite there being a few odd high tech pieces of equipment, they're contrasted with contemporary fighter jets and large steel-hull battleships complete with bulkheads and rivets. The contrast is downright weird.

While we're on the subject of weird contrast, there were certain things that were hard for me to buy. It's easy to accept a mahou shoujo universe where the girls transform, are given limitless ammo and the ability to pick up planes in mid-flight with their bare hands, but apparently such powers also give them the ability to fly next to fighter jets and still be heard. LOUD MUCH!?

I'm also not entirely sure this is supposed to be mahou shoujo, or whether we're dealing with a moe version of mecha. Rather than being bestowed special powers, their abilities are apparently provided through the use of specialised technology, in the convenient size of a key!

We also see the manifestation of Viviblue, a merging of our two protagonists after they've "docked". This entails another transformation scene with lots of hugging and underwear. Of course. Viviblue emerges with Akane controlling her movement and voice, while Aoi merely providing thoughts and hair colouring.

I don't care if she's called Viviblue, I'm dubbing her Tuvix. Remember Tuvix, the merging of Tuvok and Neelix after that transporter accident on Star Trek Voyager? That's right, I intend to make a Star Trek reference in each review of this show, boom!

And speaking of boom, while it was parodying magical girls, Aoi is even given the ultimate weapon of choice: a gigantic hammer which can summon 200% of its raw power output when she's Viviblue. 1990s anime fans rejoice: HAMMERSPACE LIVES ON!

At this stage, I almost can't tell whether this is a parody or not. The weapons they use are super comical and cliché, the transformation scenes utterly gratuitous (forget what I said before about their being no nudity now). If it's not a parody, I'm watching it as such because it's far more entertaining!

Eleven minutes to blog a review, from writing to scaling and uploading screenshots to submission. That's MY special power!

When I first started Rubénerd here, I did it mostly to express myself, have fun, and for remembering how to do things. A few years ago I put a simple buy me a coffee link in the sidebar, and have been overwhelmed with all your generosity.

A few weeks ago, I added a link to my Amazon wish list. As with the buy a coffee link, I didn't really expect anyone to buy me anything from it. Still, it was a lot of fun to generate the list!

Well, yesterday morning I got a message in my inbox to say someone had bought me something from my wish list, a Good Smile Company Princess of the Crystal anime fig, from the Mawaru Penguindrum series! An email later, I learned my benefactor was Jeremy in Singapore. A delightfully self-deprecating, friendly person, all he wished for was to have his last name kept anonymous, and to thank me for all my "interesting fun blog posts about anime". What a gentleman :)

I'm humbled beyond belief. Thank you Jeremy, she will be displayed proudly alongside the rest of the gang ^_^.

Mix equal parts SimCity, mahou shoujou, Strike Witches camera shots, computer systems from Star Trek, really gorgeous colour and art, possibly some Evangelion and Eureka Seven, and you have the makings of this season's science fiction must-watch. Maybe! I'll see.

Vividred Operation is the story of a futuristic alternative timeline (maybe) where Japanese scientists realise there may have been something to this whole SimCity thing. No kidding, the experimental new power system which allows bikes to levitate and power an entire country was taken straight from the microwave power plant in SimCity 2000! The primary difference is one of scale, this plant is so massive it requires an island all to itself, and a population living on the aforementioned island to to support it.

At the beginning, we see the light of dawn over a city, as seen from a rather opportunistic angle. Bakemonogatari did something similar the opening frames of its first episode, and I ended up really enjoying that series, so I decided to give this one the benefit of the doubt.

In fact, while we're on this subject, we'll get it out of the way. The reviews I'd read were right, there is fan service of the derriere. Strike Witches took a historical science fiction setting and put girls into it who don't wear pants. In this series they don pants (or bloomers), but they may as well be vacuum packed. I'm not sure if that would cut off circulation, but in this universe, it doesn't. Fortunately, while a little gratuitous at times, it didn't replace a plot. Though I can already tell what the fan artists and fig manufacturers will be focusing on.

I'm a nerd, so naturally I paused while Akane's grandfather is in his home laboratory. Lots of computer screens eerily reminiscent of the USS Relativity on that Star Trek Voyager episode, right down to the colours and swirls. Nobody else online has seemed to make that connection, perhaps because admitting so would be a violation of the Temporal Prime Directive.

Indeed, much of this series seems to be about secrecy. What would appear to be a harmless source of power that would even be safer than anything radioactive, it attracted the attention of... someone, or something. Watch it to find out who, or what. What I can say, is that they use Star Trek Phasers. Sort of.

And of course, what science fiction show wouldn't be complete without... mahou shoujou? Well okay, I'm not sure if it technically counts, there isn't magic per se, this is all technology. Though as Assimov, the esteemed science fiction author wrote "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Technology still requires a lengthy transformation scene however, though unlike magic it doesn't require nudity.

The scene with the death of Akane's mum was a little too much to take, but the fan service is far more restrained than I thought it would be, the scenery art is amazing, and they've set the stage for something big. Let's see if it delivers, or falls on its arse.

I haven't blogged an anime series as it's aired since Bakemonogatari in 2009, but I'm getting back into it again with the delightful Tamako Market.

For those who don't know me, I have a Kyoto Animation Doctrine. This states that if Kyoani releases something, I have to watch it. Not "I should watch it", as in I have to watch it. The plot, the origins of the story, the number of clichés or blobs, these are all irrelevant. Or possibly, the reason. This used to be the Kyoani SHAFT Doctrine, but with limited time I had to get a bit more selective :)

As Clara and I huddled in front of the computer screen to watch Kyoani's latest endeavour, we couldn't tell if we were being trolled or not. Or if we were, whether you can be trolled in a good way. The story makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Firstly, a regal talking bird who's name happens to be a disparaging review of the foodstuffs his hosts produce? A bird who gains so much weight without simply exploding? The fact people so readily accept the fact he talks after the initial shock subsides? The fact he turns into a projector?

For a shameless person like me who watches anime for the art as well as the production studio, the colours, sky and market itself were rather vibrant, more than I was expecting. Clara is an actual artist and seemed impressed by these too, so I knew it wasn't just me being impressed by something simply because I have no hope replicating anything close to it.

The characters. Well, lets just say they look like K-On, talk like K-On, have the K-On eyes and hand gestures. It may as well be K-On, in a market, with a talking bird. I'll admit, I was excited to see the K-On character design being adopted for... guys. I unashamedly loved K-On, so I'm perfectly okay with this, almost nostalgic. There were a few elements of Hyouka too, especially of Tamako during the ED.

Haters gonna hate. I don't care. I'm going to watch the heck out of this series. The only catch, watching all this food being prepared made Clara and I eat more pizza than we realised, which gave us tummy aches afterwards. This is a concern.

Also, for what it's worth, the florist is already giving me ideas for a cosplay. I couldn't hope to match our club's Lexi, but I could try. Also, Tamako drinks coffee which is far too awesome for words. Sudohbucks, anyone?

Everyone I've spoken to or read has said Rinne no Lagrange was underwhelming. As a science fiction fan though, I'm fascinated by these flying mecha contraptions. What are they? How do they work? Their designs almost have a 1980s anime quality to them, at least from the screencaps and art of them I've seen.

If I ever find out, it'll be a while from now. The Ruben Kyoto Animation Law is still in full effect, meaning I have to watch the rest of Hyouka, Chuunibyou and start Tamako Market. I wish I had a choice in these matters, but I don't, you see.

While I was gone from Twitter on Monday, I was tweeted this:

I don't know her name I'm sorry.... @Rubenerd twitpic.com/behyf9

It would appear to be a Sony Alpha lens cap, and Makise Kurisu, everyone's favourite scientist! Well, that may be a stretch. Wait, the only thing stretching are her shorts.

Ironically, the last time I posted about her was when I was discussing hard drives. Wow, that was a lame pun.

From the illustrious Vadim this morning, here we have a #Double-You-Vectors contest entry by ~asdf12324qwerty on DeviantArt. Mugi-chan from K-on!

Vadim likes using vectors for folder icons, but my current thing is using them with scenery pr0n to create desktop backgrounds.