Streaming Anime Subs From Your PC to Console with ps3mediaserver
August 23, 2010 at 10:15 pm | Posted in anime, utilities | 2 CommentsWhat it Does
If you have a PC in the living room you don’t need this. But if your big huge HDTV is in the living room and you want to watch subbed anime on it, it’s a real pain. DVD is easy of course, but most subbed anime that’ll never come out in the US, like Astro Fighter Sunred, comes as mkv these days which is a royal pain in the ass to deal with on media appliances. Neither the PS3 or XBox 360 will play them native with subs. And don’t even think about the Wii. ps3mediaserver can ease the pain.
Not just for PS3
First, don’t let the name fool you -it’s ‘ps3mediaserver’ for historical reasons, but it’ll serve to any upnp media client. This guide is for the PS3 and X360, which can handle almost anything you throw at them, but it should work for any client if you cut the bitrates far enough.
You’ll Need Java (for the UI)
Before you go ‘noooooooo’, ps3mediaserver uses ffmpeg to do the heavy lifting, so you’re not trying to transcode HD video streams in Java. The Java UI lets it run on Windows, Mac OS, or Linux, which is quite convenient. Download Java here.
Initial Install
Grab ps3mediaserver from http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/. Second tab at the top, download the install for your system, install it.
Now the fun part – run it, and you’ll get ‘Java PS3 Media Server vblahblah’ – the interface is a little strange. Unless your PS3 is actually powered on your Status tab will show a BIG RED X like the world is ending. Don’t worry. You don’t need any clients on at this point.
Go to the General Configuration tab – you might want to ‘Install as a Windows Service’ to keep it running in the background, or ‘Prevent OS from sleeping while streaming.’ On the Navigation/Share Settings tab, down at the bottom you will probably want to add (+) a directory where you’ll have all your subbed anime sitting. All this stuff you can set as you like.
Transcoding Settings
Transcoding Settings tab is where all the action is. Choose each page in the configuration tree on the left side as we go along.
‘Common transcode settings’
You probably want to set the ‘Number of cores used’. Set it to at least 2; 4 if you have 8 cores; if you have 4 cores then 4 if you don’t mind eating all your CPU while transcoding, otherwise 2.
‘Maximum Bandwidth’: This one is really important if you’re streaming over Wifi. It takes some experimenting, but I find that 8-12 works well on 802.11g for my environment. Too low and everything looks ugly. Too high and you get video pausing. If you’re going over ethernet, feel free to set this to 0. Low power clients: if you have one of those non-beefy clients I was mentioning before you may need to cut this down to a bitrate it can handle. Just keep lowering to 6, 4, 2, 1, till it works. Also see ‘Use Video Scaler’ on the MEncoder page.
‘Mpeg2 Video quality settings’: I set this to ‘Good quality for Wifi HD”. You may be able to go higher, but lossless is ridiculous.
Important: Finally, in Misc Options, make sure ‘Definitely disable subtitles’ is off and ‘Force transcode for the following extensions’ is set to ‘mkv’. It seems wasteful, but I’ve run into cases where subs wouldn’t show without it.
MEncoder
You probably want to enable ‘Enhanced multicore support’. It has warnings, but it seems to work for me and you definitely want the extra heavy lifting power for those HD shows.
‘Use Video Scaler’ is useful for low power devices. No use serving up 720p to an N800. Check this then set the Width and Height to the screen size of your media player. Otherwise leave this off and let the console do the scaling up.
UPDATE: ‘Custom options’ – some subbers are lazy bastards and don’t even bother to label the subtitle languages with a language code, so neither en or eng works. Use ‘-sid 0′ here to try to get it to use the first subtitle track even if it has no label.
‘Audio language priority’ can be whatever you want, usually ‘jp,jpn,en,eng’. Those listed first are chosen first.
‘Subtitles language’ should be ‘en,eng’ or your native language. ‘fr,fre,en,eng’ would choose french first then fall back to english.
Important: ‘Audio/Subtitles language priority’ is the important one: ‘jpn,eng;jp,eng;jpn,en;jp,en’. I find subs are inconsistent with the naming, so you need to give all four possible combinations of ‘japanese audio + english subtitles’. Again, add your native subtitle language as desired.
I set ‘Autoload *.src/*.sub subtitles’ to on, but I’ve never actually tried it.
Save it and Try It
Hit the ‘Save’ button at the top of the panel, then fire up your console. On XBox 360, go to My Xbox, My Videos. After a second or so a ‘PS3 Media Server [mypc]‘ should show up on the left. Select it, browse your videos, watch away! On PS3, go to Videos on the XMB. If you don’t see ‘PS3 Media Server [mypc]‘, then ‘Discover Media Servers’. Watch!
Settings from the Console
You can access the special #Video Settings# and #Transcode# folders from the list of ‘Videos’, which give you some extra control from the console if you need it for a given picky video. Settings show up as fake videos you can toggle on and off.
Some Limitations
The biggest limitation is that you can’t fast forward or reverse effectively. Transcoding means that it looks like a big long stream which is delivered on demand. But pause works as expected.
Summer 2010
July 8, 2010 at 7:06 am | Posted in anime, Summer 2010 | Leave a commentYes, it’s already a new season. Signs are promising. It’s like Halloween in July.
The good:
Seitokai Yakuindomo is 4-panel gag manga about a high school student council (stop me if you’ve heard this before) turned into anime. It’s nothing special, but nothing especially bad either. If you need some comedy this is the only thing we have so far.
I can’t say Amagami SS is any good, but I can’t say it’s horrible either if you need your seasonal porn game turned into harem anime.
Forget It
Ookami-san and the Seven Companions is Shakugan no Shana type art with the usual action harem crap. The lead girl uses little kitty boxing gloves to beat the crap out of people. It has somehow managed to innovate and make the useless male lead even more pathetic than usual. This is what has become of the Spirit of Nippon. Banzai! Banzai! Medetashi medetashi.
Shuufuku no Campanella seems to be Aqua and Aria for simpletons. Go watch those instead.
Spring 2010 Finale
July 7, 2010 at 7:32 am | Posted in Spring 2010 | Leave a commentIn parting, this is all I want to tell you about Spring 2010:
- Keep watching Arakawa Under the Bridge, it’s the best of the season.
- Astro Fighter Sunred continues to be understated-ly funny as hell.
- Durarara and Katanagatari are good for your adventure needs.
- Kaichou wa Maid-sama, while surely cliche and diving into fanservice, is probably the least offensive and best produced shoujo comedy of the season, and I need at least one of those. The art is nice too.
Weekly Anime Showing – 2010 Mar 2
April 3, 2010 at 9:57 pm | Posted in anime, Spring 2010, Weekly Showing | 1 CommentFinally posted on time!
- Hipira 2
- Nodame Cantabile Finale 10
Nodame’s back… and Chiaki… uh oh. Honestly not sure how the last ep will go. Which is good. - Cheburashka Arere 20
- Durarara!! 10
Plot is still advancing at a decent rate… and suddenly the nebbish finds his niche. Still waiting for sword girl to show up though. - B Gata H Kei 1
I would have sworn this was based on a porn game, but instead it’s based on a 4-koma running in Young Jump about a girl who dreams of having 100 sex friends. But she’s nervous about being a virgin, so she picks your typical male nebbish hero as her first, which puts it back in cliche retread territory. It’s a slight dynamic shift, but I can’t really recommend it. - Ippatsu Kikimusume 8
- Heroman 1
Bones’s new project. The production values are top notch, and it’s really strange (but in a good way) seeing an anime based in Los Angeles rather than Tokyo. The look is spot on, so they must have taken a field trip and taken thousands of reference photos. In the end, though it still comes down to giant personal robot/wish fulfillment machine controlled by digimon type hand glove and actually gets less interesting at that point. - Cooking Master Boy 14
Hah, we knew 13 couldn’t be the end of it! - MnF Kaiketsu Zorori 15
Second rate writing with second rate animation, and Nelly-chan showing up always means a second-rate episode… but the payoff at the end was surprisingly good and it’s always good when Zorori’s being the bad guy.
Weekly Anime Showing – 2010 March 26
April 2, 2010 at 7:27 am | Posted in anime | Leave a commentOkay, I swear I am going to stop doing these a week late. Work has been insane recently, but that’s just whining, not an excuse.
- Hipira 1
A short series of short episodes about a vampire boy in a vampire town who can’t fly. One of the group assures me this is based on a book. It was definitely amusing enough for me to keep showing them. - Cheburasha Arere 19
- Nodame Cantabile Finale 9
So good. Nodame’s concert debut. But I have the horrible feeling that this is only going to 11 eps. - Durarara 9
I called this long ago, but we finally find out what happened to Celty’s head. The plot is advancing faster than it seems to be. What next? - Ippatsu Kikimusume 7
- Katanagatari 3
This might be the best episode so far. A very interesting opponent, as usual the art was gorgeous, it was funny, and it hardly felt padded at all. - Kaito Reinta 7
- Cooking Master Boy 13
- Kaiketsu Zorori 14
The second half of the ‘Ramen Yojimbo’ episodes. I really love this show when it has the good artists, the good writers, and Zorori is actually trying to be a prankster, and these are a good example.
I should note that Cooking Master Boy is the only series that everyone feels free to MST3K. It’s so ridiculous and over the top that it’s just natural – but this is not in a bad way! We all look forward to that golden gleeaaaaaaaaaaam as this week’s insane concoction explodes in someone’s mouth like [simile deleted].
Friday Anime – 2010 Mar 19
March 26, 2010 at 7:45 am | Posted in anime | Leave a commentWhoops, this is a week late because I completely forgot about it because I’ve been working furiously at getting caught up on freaking One Piece manga. More to come on that. But here’s what we did one entire week ago today:
- Zenryoku Usagi 24
- Nodame Cantabile 8
- Kaitou Reinya 6
- Working! 1
- Durarara!! 8
- Cheburashka Areare 18
- G.A. Gejutsuka Art Design Class 12
- Higepiyo 39
- Cooking Master Boy 12
Noooooo, it’s the end of Higepiyo. I enjoyed that for the entire 39 eps – it’s amazing how much less you demand at 3 minutes per episode.
Also the end of G.A., which went out without even a twitch – which is appropriate for this low key series.
Working!! was a preview of a new series about a guy working for a Famiresu (Family Restaurant like Denny’s) with all sorts of fetish-filling girls. Hello harem, Hello Comic Party, which is what it mostly reminded me of. Also Hello the annoying bright red This is a preview watermark in the upper right hand corner for the entire episode.
Nodame Cantabile Finale continues to be fantastic, and Durarara!! continues to be entertaining – and I really do want to see where the plot is. Hopefully it’s more interesting than the obvious guesses I’ve put together. My guess about the head was spot on.
Friday Anime – 2010 Mar 12 – Summer Wars!
March 14, 2010 at 7:29 am | Posted in anime | Leave a comment- Nodame Cantibile Finale 7
- Cheburashka Arere 17
- Summer Wars
- Higepiyo 38
- Cooking Master Boy 11
Due to lack of the normal shows and the arrival of Summer Wars I decided to do something a little different and risk sticking a two hour movie in the middle instead 3-22 minute eps. This is really quite a risk, since people are used to something new every 20 minutes, so an almost 2 hour show is like 6 eps of the same show in a row without a respite.
Luckily, Summer Wars is awesome. As soon as this thing shows up for official buying in the US I am going to be all over owning a hard copy of it. It’s by the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and the best animation company in Japan (Madhouse) so both the story and the art are great. The designs will remind you a lot of Dennou Coil. The story hinges on a massive worldwide MMO called Oz which has more than a passing resemblance to Second Life except there are inexplicably no penises. If you know anything about computers some of the MMO related items will require a bit of suspension of disbelief, but I suggest just rolling with it – and every time you think ‘Man, there is no way a company with a huge worldwide MMO would do something so stupid,’ just remember that Linden Labs would has repeatedly done stupider things.
And oh yeah, Nodame continues to be awesome. I assume this is only 11-13 eps, and this is the final series (for the anime and the manga), so where the heck is this ending up?
Great Manga: Otoyomegatari
March 10, 2010 at 11:28 pm | Posted in manga | Leave a commentChapter 10 of Kaoru Mori’s Otoyomegatari manga came out ‘subbed‘ this week. This is normally a great series with fantastic art (possibly the best I’ve ever seen in a manga), but this story this week was also especially good, and most importantly not anything you’re likely to see outside of something like Popgun. If you haven’t read this yet, I suggest you download the whole thing at Mangatraders or elsewhere.
Friday Anime Showing – 2010 Mar 05
March 10, 2010 at 10:46 pm | Posted in anime, Spring 2010, Weekly Showing | Leave a comment- Tentai Senshi Sunred Specials 1-2
- Zenryoku Usagi 33
- Nodame Cantabile Finale 6
- Kaito Reinya 5
- Durarara!! 7
- Cheburashka Arere 16
- Bakemonogatari 14
- Trapeze 11
- Cooking Master Boy 10
- Higepiyo 37
- Pythagoras Switch 2007 Jan 24
- MnF Kaiketsu Zorori 13
Some weeks you get a perfect storm where everything is boring or angsty or melancholy – this wasn’t one of those weeks, thankfully. This was a week where almost everything was good, which are almost as rare. Nodame Cantabile Finale 6 was one of the best episodes ever. Durarara!! finally explains a bit more about the world’s strongest bartender. Bakemonogatari 14 just for existing. MnF Kaiketsu Zorori 13 was one of the sadly rare one where they have a really good writer with a really good keyframer for some cute Yojimbo Ramen action. This was the last ep of Trapeze, but it was almost played out anyhow, so good to go out like this. And finally even a mere 3 minutes of Sunred is better than no Sunred at all.
Friday Anime – 2010 Feb 27
February 27, 2010 at 11:24 pm | Posted in anime | Leave a comment- Zenryoku Usagi 32
- Nodame Cantabile Finale 5
Really not a lot to say here other than that this is still one of the few anime we get that’s written for adults and it continues to be excellent. The extra budget doesn’t hurt either. - Kaitou Reinya 4
- GeGeGe no Kitaro (1968 version) 2
It’s amazing to see how unpolished this all is. And I don’t mean just the black and white. On the other hand, the unassuming rawness is rather appealing. Hakaba Kitaro (a few years ago) had some of this, but the current GeGeGe no Kitaro is bland as all hell compared to this. - Ippatsu Kikimusume 6
- Trapeze 10
Finally, non-OCD. Irabu baffled as his vitamin shots do nothing, but there’s something deeper hiding here. - Cheburashka Arere 15
- Durarara 6
Here comes the real plot, finally kicking in. Of course all the bits from eps 1-5 have been hinting at this. - Higepiyo 36
- Shiawase Apartment’s Okojo-san 4
A kiddie show is really still the best way to end the evening.
Sunred, Sunred, wherefore art thou?
Friday Showing 2010 Feb 19
February 22, 2010 at 10:49 pm | Posted in anime | Leave a commentWhat? No Astro Fighter Sunred? Not my choice, I assure you. We’ve run out of them for the moment.
- Zenryoku Usagi 31
- Nodame Cantabile Finale 4
Nodame continues to be excellent. Tanya finally gets serious about piano and Kuroki, but is it too late? - It’s a UFO! Flying Saucers
A short ‘documentary’ on how flying saucers really exists that veers from merely gullible into totally crackpot when they start showing us schematic diagrams of the ships. So bad it’s good. - Kaito Reinya 3
- Trapeze 8
What, more OCD? But at least they’re different kinds of OCD. - GeGeGe no Kitarou 01
This is the 1960s show, which I think is the first of at least 4. Black and white. - Durarara!! 05
- Higepiyo 34
- Cooking Master Boy 9
- MnF Kaiketsu Zorori 12
Well this one wasn’t too bad for a Nelly episode. Finishes off the two parter without too much padding.
Friday Showing – 2010 Feb 12
February 13, 2010 at 11:19 pm | Posted in Spring 2010, Weekly Showing | Leave a comment- Astro Fighter Sunred 40
If you miss the first sunrise of the new year there’s always the first Sunred of the new year. Akeome! - Nodame Cantabile Finale 3
There’s a train wreck a’comin’… - Ippatsu Kikimusume 5
- Durarara!! 04
You know, I figured there would be some lame pseudo-science bullcrap explanation for the headless horseman cyclist woman. It’s refreshing that there isn’t. A very nice ep with a very disturbing finish. - Cheburashka Arere 14
- Trapeze 07
The number of cameos from previous eps takes a sudden spike. - Katanagatari 02
This ep had about as much talking as the last one, but felt less padded. Cheerio! The art continues to be lovely and plenty of humor. Still one of my top 3 for this season. - Higepiyo 33
- MnF Kaiketsu Zorori 11
I am starting to hate Nelly-chan. She is the harbinger of bad episodes.
Friday Showing – 2010 Feb 05
February 6, 2010 at 7:34 am | Posted in anime, Spring 2010, Weekly Showing | Leave a commentWhat, me updating this on time? Yes, shocking.
- Astro Fighter Sunred 39
The Pudding Empire actually makes it to Earth and starts scouting an invasion. Not quite as good as the last couple, but I love the Emperor and his 80s arcade sound effects. - Zenryoku Usagi 30
- Nodame Cantabile Finale 02
Bravo! Merci! Crepe! Auclair Sensei comes into his own. - Trapeze 06
- Cheburashka Arere 13
- Durarara 3
This continues to impress. Well written, well animated, and low key funny. And I have no idea where it’s going, and I like that. Assuming it does actually go somewhere, or it falls flat like a Twin Peaks house of cards. - Ippatsu Kikkimusume 4
- Hanamaru Kindergarden 1
Wow. You know how it is when the guy everyone knows is a closet alcoholic makes ‘jokes’ about really needing a drink? Yeah, this is like that but with the Japanese and child molestation. Especially after Kodomo no Jikan and knowing there’s already piles of porn for this on Japanese websites. Creepy. - Cooking Master Boy 8
Finally we know who wins the Dumpling Battle (was there any doubt?), with the most ridiculous dish and bevy of of supernatural gleams so far. - Mafukiden Pandarian 2
We watched the first ep of this bizarre show long ago. It seems to be some strange collaboration between Japan and China about a heroic panda from a heroic panda village. Also he is the Panda Jesus and there is a bat-winged Panda Satan sending out evil pandas and evil flaming queen pandas to beat up brave young pandas. Oh and there’s super corn and transformers and fairies and stuff.
Friday Showing Jan 29 2009
January 30, 2010 at 8:56 am | Posted in anime | Leave a commentNo showing last week due to various circumstances, which now makes me sad because this was a very good week except for one screwup on my part.
- Astro Fighter Sunred 38
Normally series run out of steam long before this, but lately Sunred has gotten even /better/ as they move to a semi-consistent plot for the entire episode. People in the group who don’t normally laugh out loud were audibly amused. Though if you haven’t been watching previous eps I don’t think this would make much sense in several ways. - Nodame Cantabile Finale 01
I knew this would be good, and it is. And it seems to have a budget! The art is appealing, the characters and drama and humor are as good as ever. Though again, if you haven’t been watching the previous series this won’t do anything for you. - Trapeze 5
An outgoing doctor marries in to a staid, stiff, rich family. This was another especially good ep, especially if you consider just how much worse it is for Japanese people to fart on an elevator. - Kaito Reinya 2
- Durarara!! 2
This is living up to expectations. Still not sure how the huge revolving cast will work out, but I really like the adult writing and the art. This was another perspective on the first ep, and I am wondering how far they can take that. - Katanagatari 1
This is the transition between Mononoke and Bakemonogatari. Gorgeous art (and stylistically simplified character designs), good writing, but it might be a bit too talky for some people. Also, this is 50 minutes long, which won’t help that. But I liked it a lot. - Higepiyo 32
The chubby bully gets his brief moment in the sun. *Whinnnnnny!* - Cooking Master Boy 8 – or it was supposed to be, but I put 7 on again.
- Chebruska Arere 12
- MnF Kaiketsu Zorori 10
Even though the anime bubble has burst and there’s a low number of shows this season, Sunred plus Nodame Cantabile Finale plus Durarara!! plus Katanagatari (plus Trapeze even though that was really last season) makes this a really really good season for adults even with all the usual trash running interference. I’m quite pleased!
Spring 2010
January 17, 2010 at 1:32 am | Posted in anime, Spring 2010 | Leave a commentI’m going to try doing this again for the new season.
One point of interest – the amount of new shows scheduled for this season is tiny. About 25 or so compared to far more than 50 just a couple years ago. I guess moe uber alles and Endless Eight finally killed off the bubble. Given that, we can expect a trend of conservativeness. Not in a political sense, but in a lack of risk taking and falling back on proven successes – Sora no Woto or Ladies vs. Butlers for example. So expect a lot of deja vu. Legend of Koizumi is fairly daring given that, but that’s not being shown on TV either. On the other hand, Durarara!!, Katanagatari and Nodame in a single season is more than we could usually hope for.
Recommended
- Durarara!! – Makes me think of Eden of the East with headless horsemen on motorcycles. A calculated mix of banality and shocking violence. As of six eps the real plot is fully kicking in, but I’m not sure if I’d have minded if it didn’t. Highly recommended.
- Katanagatari – This is the transition series from Mononoke to Bakemonogatari though it has more in common with the latter. Character designs are nicely stylized and simplified, and the color and art as as vibrant as you’d expect. The plot is also simplified and stylized, but recognizably Bakemonogatari style.
- Nodame Cantabile Finale – Exactly what I was hoping for. If you haven’t seen the previous series this is not for you, but if you have you can’t miss it. High budget, well written, and more Nodame.
- Reform Without Wasted Draws – The Legend of Koizumi 1 -Mix up Kaiji, Saki, and Hetalia and you get Ex-Prime Ministers Junichro Kozumi and Tarou Aso (think Bill Clinton and Bush 41) as hard-bitten Mahjong players fighting a desperate game vs Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung of North Korea. Dubya also makes an appearance. Japan gets nuked. Well maybe. There’s no chance in hell of this ever airing in Japan so it’s webcast + DVD.
Maybe
- Kaitou Reinya – Short little 3-minute webcasts about a great thief girl, but the real star is the mouse.
- Ookami Kakushi – Seems to be Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni with some Rozen Maiden/Touhou feel. Hard to say based on just the first ep, but I’ll watch another. Yeah, it’s about what it seemed to be. If that’s the sort of thing you want, you’ll like this.
- Sora no Woto – High production values, great music, could be a good setup. Character designs are blatantly K-On ripoffs and the setup is more than a little Strike Witches (but without the fanservice). But it seems to be a bit better than either of those. If you’re looking for character driven cute girl drama this is your show for this season.
Crap
- Baka to Test to Shokanju – High production values, but every school cliche in the world combined with every Pokemon cliche in the world. Somehow the lead girl is Utena but with everything that would make her threatening to teenage males removed.
- Chu-Bra – Girl starts a lingere club at school after her racy black panties are exposed before the whole school. Yeah.
- Dance in the Vampire Bund – Loli vampire molestation and banal to boot. You might like this if you liked that other loli vampire anime I can’t even bother to remember the name of (not Karin, the other one).
- Ladies vs. Butlers – Immediately apparent this is made by the Kanokon people. All T&A, school cliche, loli molestation and soft ‘fuzzy’ faces. And boring.
- Omamori Himari – School cliche overload. A dangerous female bodyguard transfer student and an ancient threat. Oh yeah and everyone has huge tits. You’ve seen this a million times. Update: and it’s based on porn! Well that explains it.
- Seikon no Qwaser – This season’s Queen’s Blade fetish slot, apparently. Power up by breast sucking. Full Disclosure: I say I watch the first ep of everything, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. I only skimmed this.
Friday Showing – Jan 15 2010
January 17, 2010 at 1:12 am | Posted in anime | Leave a comment- Usaru-san 4
The last of these – about as epic as you could expect for something this fluffy and short. - Astro Fighter Sunred 37
Florsheim takes a chance on a super-violent American monster. Fight! Sunred! - Trapeze 4
- Kaitou Renya 1
Another 3-minute short – pretty much flash level animation, but amusing. Hint: The mouse is the real star. - Ookami Kakushi 1
One of the new season. This one looks like it’s trying to be Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni with some Rozen Maiden or Touhou mixed in – and after the first ep I have no idea if this will be any good, but I’m not ready to say no yet. - Cheburashka Arere 11
- Durarara!! 1
This is the best thing I’ve seen so far this season. It reminds me a lot of Eden of the East with headless horsemen on motorbikes. Very smart so far, and looks very good in HD. And a guest appearance from Horo. - Ippatsu Kikimusume 3
- Sora no Woto 2
This is veering more into Strike Witches territory. But without the panties. And I love the music. The OP is great, and the BG reminds me of Shamanic Princess. Production values continue to be high. Will watch again, with trepidation. - Higepiyo 31
- Cooking Master Boy 7
- Zenryoku Usagi 29
Short version – Watch Durarara!!
Friday Showing – Jan 8, 2009
January 16, 2010 at 12:03 am | Posted in anime, Weekly Showing | Leave a comment- Usaru-san 3
- Astro Fighter Sunred 36
Recent eps have a unifying theme, which makes them even funnier as the gag builds. Florsheim builds a hero radar so they can ambush them at any time. Sounds like a great idea, right? - Trapeze 3
- Cheburashka Arere 10
- Sora no Woto 1
- Yurumates 1-4
Cute 4-koma manga about ronin at a run-down apartment. - Zenryoku Usagi 28
- Cooking Master Boy 6
- Higepiyo 30
- MnF Kaiketsu Zorori 9
Zorori is finally back on track after the boring 5 ep Grun Rod thing. This one was actually funny and it’s just the first part of a two-ep arc, but it doesn’t feel padded.
Sora no Woto is one of the new ones. We’ll have to see where it goes, but I kind of liked the first ep once I could get past the blatant cloning of the K-on character designs, which feel kind of mismatched. With any luck this won’t turn into just K-on + Strike Witches.
What We’re Watching – Jan 1 2010
January 3, 2010 at 6:26 am | Posted in anime, Weekly Showing, winter 2009 | Leave a commentHappy New Year, Happy Same Old Anime! Well maybe – Koizumi was new and amusing.
- Usaru-san 2
- Astro Fighter Sunred 35
Now an over the hill fat salaryman, the third member of Sunred’s team, Weather Yellow… hashin! - Reform Without Wasted Draws – The Legend of Koizumi 1
Best thing all night. Mix up Kaiji, Saki, and Hetalia and you get Ex-Prime Ministers Junichro Kozumi and Tarou Aso (think Bill Clinton and Bush 41) are hard-bitten Mahjong players fighting a desperate game vs Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung of North Korea. Dubya also makes an appearance. Japan gets nuked. Well maybe. Given how spineless the Japanese are – Hetalia got pulled off the air for very low-key references to Korea (especially compared to how it treated Italy) – there’s no chance in hell of this ever airing in Japan. It’s direct to DVD with two webcast previews. - Nyan Koi 12
A happily meaningless final episode. It’s sad, but I now prefer empty fluff compared to fluff that tries to introduce inappropriate angst and fails horribly. - Cheburashka Arere 9
- Trapeze 2
This was also a high point. I was expecting the trapeze artist from Ep 1 to reappear (given the name of the show), but the recurring character is actually the psychologist. So it’s a mental trapeze. The theme appears to be psychological disorder of the week, and this time it’s psychological priapism. - Ladies versus Butlers! 1
Wowwwww, this is horrible. You can tell it’s by the Kanokon people – the occasional bit of humor but mostly just fanservice and molestation. - Getter Robo 1
Another classic old show. If you’ve ever wondered where all those hoary old cliches they make fun of in shows like Gekkiganger Three and Godannar come from, this is it. It utilizes almost every single one without irony. This is too painful to watch now except as a curiousity – think He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. - Higepiyo 29
- Zenryoku Usagi 27
- Kinnikuman 5
So the takeaway: Watch The Legend of Koizumi and Trapeze – don’t watch Ladies and Butlers.
definition: Everything is Ninjas
January 2, 2010 at 12:25 am | Posted in everything is ninjas | 1 CommentI can’t claim to have come up with this myself; I believe the credit for the basic concept goes to the great Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga which lays out the basic idea that espers are just ninjas.
The simple argument (which I’ve expanded and bloated quite a bit here) goes like this:
- The Japanese loooooove ninjas.
- They attribute near supernatural powers to the ninja tricks (ninpo) in the same way as Clarke’s ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’. At some point these actually become supernatural powers through the requirements of technique escalation.
- Ninjas go out of fashion because there’s just too many ninja series, because they’re viewed as old fashioned, or because Tezuka’s doing sci-fi, or similar reasons.
- So instead of ninjas you get espers, magicians, aliens, or other martial arts. Even cooking manga like Cooking Master Boy or Iron Wok Jan are basically about ninja chefs.
- But the key thing is: if you replace the characters with ninjas (and make allowances for the external trappings) you would hardly be able to tell the difference.
Some giveaways are:
- Named/called techniques (Kamehameha! Rising Steel Claw God Dragon Blazing Uppercut!)
- Secretive clans.
- Passed down by blood; even if the hero seems to develop the powers spontaneously, it’s usually a previously unknown blood connection instead of the western tradition of getting the powers by some sort of accident. If it appears to be an accident (One Piece‘s gumgum fruit) then if the series goes on long enough it turns out to be a family thing anyhow.
- Specialized training is required, and the harder you try the better you get (but the upper limit is set by natural talent).
- Battles that consist of free exchanges of escalating techniques (randori) until the most powerful technique wins.
There are some exceptions to this. In particular, sports manga shares the idea that inate talent is the most important thing but usually ditches the rest of it for the idea that nothing beats insane dedication. Eyeshield 21 is an interesting hybrid of both.
What We’re Watching – Saturday Dec 26
January 1, 2010 at 11:52 pm | Posted in anime | Leave a comment- Usaru-san 1
Cute little short about a rabbit (Usagi) that dresses up as a monkey (Saru) and eats a banana to become a superhero. - Astro Fighter Sunred 34
This was a really good one – I like it when the show actually has a theme. General Vamp’s trying to find a monster to fight Sunred, but he’s already beaten them all up, off the clock. - Trapeze 1
Very strange blend of animation and video footage – I am completely unsure of where this is going, which is good. - Nyan Koi 11
One week later and I can’t remember a thing about this episode. - Spice and Wolf Special 2
Unlike the first, this is a complete waste of time – basically Hinako Issho ni Training with Horo. - Darker Than Black – Gemini of the Meteor 1
Another show that proves that everything comes down to ninjas, even if they’re disguised as psychics or contractors or whatever. That actually sounds like another good definition post. - Zenryoku Usagi – 26
It’s good to have these back. They couldn’t survive a half-hour format, but work great in 15 minutes. - To Aru Kagaku no Railgun 3
What can I say? It’s near the end of the season, running out of stuff to run. - Higepiyo 28
Higepiyo is still one of our favorite shows, and this episode about helping out at a bakery is a good example why. - Majime ni Funifuni Kaiketsu Zorori 8
- Finally the padded Grun Rod arc is over. The creepy goats were fun, but can we get back to fun one shots?
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