Yerocha’s 2012 Anime Awards – Part 2

[previously on 2012 Anime Awards]

Most Under The Radar

Kuroko no Basket

A while back, I started the manga version of Kuroko no Basket and attempted to catch up on the series before the anime came out. At only 30 or so chapters, I failed hideously. I honestly didn’t think the series was that great in the beginning, since it had a rough time capturing the team aspect of basketball properly. Hell, I still have trouble telling some of the other Seirin players apart. When I later switched over to the anime, I was surprised with how everything managed to be so much more exciting. I would say this is just due to Production I.G. knowing how to direct a sports series, but I can’t because those were the people who made the Prince of Tennis anime. I think what made it better is that the source material is very action intensive, and those types of series can work much better when we get to see the characters move. Plus I felt the characters were all acted well, so each of them became a lot more interesting. For all of that, I feel I should thank the anime for rejuvenating my interest in a series I might have dropped a while back.

Yerocha’s 2012 Anime Awards – Part 1

Well, it’s that time of year again. The time where I finally sit down and get to discuss all the different anime that came out this year. Strange as it sounds coming from an aniblogger, I don’t get to talk about anime as much as I would like to. I’ve found that you don’t really know how strong your opinions are until you try to get them in writing and see what comes out.

This will go similarly to the awards I gave out last year, except I decided to divide this into three posts instead of two. The awards themselves are mostly for fun, but I also go over what I thought about the series as a whole. Like last year, these were a few shows that slipped under the radar and thus aren’t included. The main ones I missed out on being Hyouka, which I never started for stupid reasons I’ve genuinely forgotten (I’ll watch it one of these days) and Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita and PSYCHO-PASS, which didn’t look like my thing. I’m not far enough into Magi or Shinsekai Yori to really discuss them, either. Also these awards are for shows that started in 2012 rather than ended, so Chihayafuru, Persona 4, Shana Final and Guilty Crown were covered in my previous awards. So with that awkward introduction out of the way, here are my awards for anime in 2012.

Most Gratuitous Use of Imouto

Zetsuen no Tempest

SAO may have had one as a major character, but the fate of the world never revolved around sibling love in that show.

It took a little while for me to fully understand what the themes of this show are supposed to be. The Shakespearian quotes and everything like that I could get, but it was difficult to grasp how to feel regarding the story. Then a few episodes ago, it occurred to me that this series shares a good deal of similarities with the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. The world is rapidly going to hell and various groups are working towards remaking everything based on their own ideals. There may not be the hordes of demons to team up with, but it’s still a familiar feeling that I get. There’s even a major focus on the nature of order in the world, which goes nicely with the Law vs Chaos theme a lot of the SMT games revolve around. It all makes for an interesting series to watch each week, and it might also help lay the groundwork for Devil Survivor 2 come April.

Liebster Blog Awards

After doing a bit of looking around the blogs I follow, I discovered that HippieFreak had actually nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award. Several weeks ago. NO idea how I missed that when it came out. Thanks for the nomination, and also thank you to Starsamaria for the nomination she gave in a similar award. Not sure why there are two kinds of awards, but I’m still happy with it.

As far as I can tell, this award is meant to highlight the lesser known bloggers out there. Upon receiving a nomination, the courteous procedure is to nominate five blogs of your own that you read on a regular basis. The only requirement is that these blogs need to have less than 200 followers. It took a bit of thinking to decide exactly which blogs to give nominations to, so I ended up going with those who have both been supportive and who I feel should receive support as well. I had trouble deciding exactly which five to nominate, but just know that all of you still have a place in my heart and my blogroll.

Ace Railgun’s 50 Questions

Something I saw over at Ace’s blog just the other day was a list of fifty questions about himself. I’d seen something like this done on Youtube once, so it got me interested in doing something like this myself. After also seeing it on Marth’s blog, I officially decided that I should follow suit. These mostly relate to my anime habits with some focus on more personal things, but luckily it’s never TOO personal.

Questions About Anime

1. Who is your favorite male anime character?

L from Death Note.

2. Who is your favorite female character?

Osaka from Azumanga Daioh. These are both old responses, being two of my first real anime, but they easily stand the test of time.

3. What is your favorite anime soundtrack?

FLCL. I’m a fan of it, can you tell?

Current Manga Rankings – 2011 – Part 2

15. Rosario + Vampire II

What a long, awkward trip it’s been. I remember back when I started this manga and it was just another boring harem series with various random monsters to fight. Since then it’s grown up into a surprisingly well done series about the relationships the previous series began, and it manages to provide a good amount of depth to what were previously uninteresting characters. It even manages to make the action more interesting, since it’s no longer just Inner Moka stomping on everyone. I’ve actually started looking forward to the newest chapters, which I would never have expected at first.