Let’s nick another nifty post title from John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar for this round-up of anime focused links. Considering the time of year we end with two best of twentytwo lists, but first there’s a look back at the 2000s cult classic Vandread, a review of Godzilla Singular Point, an indepth look at how the 86 series uses letterboxing and a neat little Spotify playlist for o.g. IdolM@ster tracks.
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Vandread
Vandread was an anime that came out in the year 2000 and it’s a bit tricky to introduce because everything it is it’s also not quite. It’s a harem anime, but not quite. It’s a space giant robot anime, but not quite. It’s a science fiction anthology anime, but not quite. It’s about genders, but not quite, about relationships, but not quite, and about identity, but not quite. In a lot of ways, Vandread is a really confused piece, a gem of its time. -
The Jet Jaguar Show
Godzilla Singular Point is a gorgeously designed, beautifully animated sci-fi show that often feels like arriving mid-lecture to a physics class. This, somehow, is part of the appeal. The 13-episode anime series is weird and dense if not weird because it is so dense, cramming a prodigious amount of information into a franchise that historically just kind of waves its hands around whenever the science comes up. Stories about stopping some rampaging giant monsters tend not to foreground this much math. But to summarize exactly how granular the series gets about concepts like the passage of time would require me to dive into ideas that I only half-understand myself, so to give a quicker and more digestible impression for just how odd, how left-field/galaxy-brain out there the first Godzilla TV anime is, we need to talk about Jet Jaguar. -
Bringing Letterboxes To Life: Toshimasa Ishii, Tomohiko Ito & Eighty-Six Episode Twenty-Two’s Use Of The 21:9 Aspect Ratio
Episode Twenty-Two is predominantly shot in the 21:9 aspect ratio or what some may call a 21:9 ‘letterbox’ since there are two horizontal bars that clasp the animation from above and below. 86 has opened up the door to experimenting with aspect ratios before. Fido’s flashback in 4:3 within Hirotaka Mori and Satsuki Takahashi’s episode (Episode Ten), as well as Ken Yamamoto’s use of 21:9 in the second cour’s opening, are examples of how they can be mobilised to add to the anime’s ongoing discussion on the multiple perspectives that are present during times of conflict. Shifting to a different aspect ratio represents a shift in worldview and provides viewers with an alternative lens to interpret what is going on in front of them. So what exactly makes Ishii’s experiment in ‘Shin’ different from the ones that preceded it? In my view, the use of 21:9 helps to express the pent-up emotions felt by the characters. The director breathes life into the bars and makes them responsive to the feelings of the subjects. -
Million Live — Essenti@ls
music from the idolmaster million live (アイドルマスターミリオンライブ) sorted in categorical, then chronological order! all songs are included except solo/unit mixes & off vocal. playlists will be updated frequently as new albums get released. WELCOME to 765PRO’s theater! | missing: VARIETY 02 -
Top Anime of 2022 (and Year in Review)
“Alright, great, I can always count on you for cynicism about art and culture, but didn’t you say something about being invigorated in your anime viewing?” Sorry, yes, I got away from myself a bit there. I include all this doomsaying preamble merely to say that while I understand the industry’s situation isn’t great, my own year in anime has been littered with reasons to hope. I’ve leapt backwards across anime history, and discovered that the early shows of Miyazaki and Takahata are just as enchanting as their film work (to say nothing of the fantastic early Toei Doga films). I’ve rediscovered the unique joy of group watching, and have munched through hundreds of episodes with my housemates cheering beside me. Hell, I’ve even watched some currently airing anime; this year lacked a “this is what I watch anime for” production on the level of Heike Monogatari, but it’s made up for that with an altogether wider spread of commendable shows, alongside One Piece’s preposterously consistent adaptation of its most ambitious arc so far. -
The Backlog, Year… 5? And a half?? A Hiatus in Review
Counting everything together, I do only come to a mere 48 new shows to run down, barely more than half of my busier years, even though we’re counting almost six more months in here than I usually would. I can’t even bother to put the usual “watched in rotation”, “watched off rotation” brackets in, because there’s really only four rotation shows here, and I finished none of them! Yet. But you know what? I’m still gonna put my all into it. If there’s one thing this girl here cares about, it’s lists, right?
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