12 Days of Anime – #1 How Do You Feel About This City?

ね、碧美、この街のことどう思う？

Hey, Aomi, how do you feel about this city?

To think that the best development a setting gets is not from the original material, not even from a spin-off, but a spin-off’s anime-original material…

At the end of the Academy Festival arc of Index, what saves the city from destruction are the fireworks that are part of the celebration. Supposedly, that represents the will and strong feelings of all the students living in the city. (Dunno how that works.)

Seems like there was little need for vague symbols like that, though. Even without Touma there to preach about it, the students of Academy City chose to protect their home and stand their ground when the situation called for it, overwhelming odds and 20 000 drones be damned.

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It was my first time taking part in the 12 days of anime, and obviously enough I also broke my post-per-month record xD. I mostly went for outstanding but underappreciated moments, rather than the most obvious high points of a series. The order was more or less random.

A Top 12 Anime of 2013 post is in the making and will appear before year-end, though I’ll wait for some shows to air their final episodes this year. Until then! 

 

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12 Days of Anime – #2 Warning: Lies Get You Killed

貝木さんもわたしをだますんだね。

It seems even Kaiki-san lies to me.

Because a good cliffhanger is never bad.

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12 Days of Anime – #3 Don’t Take Them Lightly

おい、軽戦車、そこをどけ！

いやです！それに８９式は軽戦車じゃないし。

中戦車だし！

Hey you, get that light tank out of the way!

Don’t wanna! Besides, the Type 89 isn’t a light tank.

It’s a medium tank, you know!

The Ooarai girls are justified in their repeated pleas for more firepower, but on the other hand, people tend to get attached to objects and equipment that helped them overcome a great challenge.

It was great to hear that just a bit of pride towards their underpowered vehicles slipped into the girls’ lines. 

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12 Days of Anime – #4 Buddha’s Compassion

教えてくれ、仏の慈悲で、神の俺にも！

Tell me! Share Buddha’s compassion with me, a god!

Hajime of Gatchaman Crowds’ fame went down to meet a god as an equal, but the same show would later present a “God is dead” speech through Sugane. Scenes like that always remind of the feelings of betrayal and disillusionment still deep in the Japanese psyche – how many nations were forced to hear their god announce himself to be human?

And yet, there were as many as two series this year which called for compassion for god. Both of them present god as something of a prick and somebody who messed up plenty along the way, which is very telling, but both also stand up for the divine being: he did the best he could.

Kyousougiga and Kami-sama no Inai Nichiyoubi, are the two shows just a coincidence, or do they signify a slow change in the Japanese approach to god?

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12 Days of Anime – #5 Skyscraper In Your Heart

だったら心で建てればいい。

自分の心の摩天楼は決して、壊れない。

Then build it in your heart.

The skyscraper in your heart will never crumble.

People sometimes complain about young anime characters not acting their age, but I find those scenes and characters most delightful.

In primary school, I would pester my teachers with philosophy during lunch breaks, skyscrapers and all.

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12 Days of Anime – #6 What Is This Naked Man Doing In My Show?

What is this I don’t even-

Actually, getting the really absurd stuff out of the way at the very beginning was a fine move. How could anyone complain about the naked men all over the show after this glorious mizugi apron in the first episode?

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12 Days of Anime – #7 And Then She Air-stomped

Watching Miyu try (and fail) to break down the principles of magical flight into something compatible with reason struck a chord with me. But I thought, maybe she could create footholds from mana and air-stomp to fly?

And then she air-stomped. Great minds think alike? (wut)

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12 Days of Anime – #8 Watch This and Weep

悔いなさい、葦原怜那。

その無責任な生き様を!

Watch this and weep, Ashihara Rena.

This is the price you pay for your irresponsible ways!

Bragging after an attack is for the viewer’s convenience, bragging before an attack is for the suspense.

But when fifth-graders let each other assume a shooting position, brag, then execute a perfect long throw, that is no artistic exaggeration. That is an issue of attitude.

On both sides?

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12 Days of Anime – #9 …Except When They Don’t

二人に…絶唱を使わせない…

I’m not letting you two… sing your swan songs…

The difference between overpowered and broken is that broken refers to the lack of balance within a system, like trying to defeat your opponent with a suicidal ultimate attack only for the opponent to suck in all your power and make it their own.

Of course, there are brownie points for your opponent doing all that just to protect you, rather than in self-defense.

(And yes, that’s the last song-related day, I promise.)

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12 Days of Anime – #10 No, Honestly, Songs Solve All Problems…

何、この歌？違う！この歌じゃ、私の魔法陣を… やめろ！今、ここで、こんな力を広げては…崩れていく、私の希望が、私の夢が…！

What is this song? No! This song will destroy my spell. Don’t! If you release this power here, it will all fall apart, my hope, my dream!

Honestly, is there something Index’s songs cannot do? So far we had throwing nuns around, neural therapy and now piloting a space station.

Well, it is Iguchi Yuka we are talking about…

By the way, was there not another show this year where Iguchi’s songs went around causing miracles? I wonder…

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