American Anime and Manga Magazines

Since the mid 2000's print publications have seen dramatic circulation and advertising revenue loss.  Niche publications were not unaffected by this and the mid and late 00's saw the discontinuation of many magazines and specialty print publications.  Magazines devoted to the anime and manga subculture in America have never been a very large niche, unlike Japan, and they have felt that drop pretty dramatically.  That's not to say that Japan hasn't suffered its own print media decline, which it has.  A variety of factors have contributed to this decline, the main one being the rise of the internet and its use.  Another is a generational shift away from publication subscription.  After buying almost every single issue of the 4 year long publication Shojo Beat, for a ridiculous price, I wanted to take a look at some of the magazines devoted to anime and manga that have come and gone in North America.  Some of these I had personally read over the years, others I was only peripherally aware of.

Anime Insider by Wizard: Wizard Inc.'s foray into the increasingly popular world or anime and manga was published monthly between 2001 and 2009.  Wizard had built up an empire producing industry magazines for other aspects of nerd culture in America, most notably comic books, and decided to enter the already crowded market of the anime industry magazine world. It featured interviews with people in the industry, reviews and release information on products.  It also tapped into its convention network for reporting in the field.

Animerica by Viz: Animerica was Viz's original otaku magazine and followed in the footsteps of the Japanese Newtype magazine.  It was in publication from 1992 until 2005 and came out on a quarterly basis.  The magazine featured interviews, reviews, otaku culture and some manga imprints.  Eventually a manga anthology was spun off of the magazine titled Animerica Extra which was canceled in 2004.

Newtype USA by A. D. Vision: This was the attempt to Americanize the long running and immensely popular Newtype magazine.  The monthly publication was produced between 2002 and 2008.  Newtype was an anime/manga/otaku culture magazine, featuring articles, interviews and other tidbits of information about anything otaku related including some content directly translated from the Japanese counterpart.

Protoculture Addicts: This was the first professional anime industry magazine to be released in North America.  In began publication in 1987 based out of Canada as a Robotech fanzine and eventually grew to become a legitimate anime industry magazine, featuring articles, reviews, previews (sometimes well ahead of any North American release).  In 2005 it was purchased by Anime News Network, with the final issue being released in 2008.  Technically not dead it will probably never exist in a printed format ever again.

Pulp by Viz: The first manga magazine I really spent some time with, this was Viz's attempt to tap into the adult/ecchi market by publishing manga series' aimed at the seinen audience.  This manga anthology was published between 1997 and 2002 and featured such titles as Uzumaki, Black & White (Tekkon Kinkreet) and Dance Till Tomorrow.

Shojo Beat by Viz:  Shojo Beat was the first/only North American publication to solely target the female otaku.  The publication ran monthly between 2005 and 2009.  The magazine published manga aimed at teenage girls and young women such as NANA and Honey & Clover and featured lifestyle articles and interviews with industry people.

Shonen Jump by Viz: The American rendition of the immensely popular Shonen Jump, featuring all of the top shonen titles that were licensed at the time in America, such as Naruto and Dragon Ball Z.  The monthly magazine ran from 2002 until 2012 and had some incredibly high subscription numbers.  With all its popularity it’s somewhat surprising that this one isn't still around.  Viz decided to focus on a weekly digital subscription manga service instead.  It allows them more flexibility in getting the most up to date manga to the market as quickly as possible and can follow suit with the Japanese release schedule for Weekly Shonen Jump.

    More than just the nationwide decline in print publication subscription/revenue affected the anime/manga niche market.  The collapse of the anime licensing industry in general in America at the end of the 00's was a major contributor as well.  With companies such as Geneon/Pioneer and AD Vision going under large advertising vacuums showed up further crippling any revenue the magazines generated.  Where can the industry go from here?  Many of them are remaining viable through internet publication and subscription services.  The internet is what helped kill print media in the first place and small companies like those that exist are better suited for the limiting revenue streams from internet content.  These companies are much more capable of dealing with those cash flows than a larger organization that’s bound by a physical product and office(s).

    Another contributing factor would be America's comic release schedule with is monthly as opposed to weekly schedule like in Japan.  Instead of buying a large, low quality, anthologies American's are used to getting monthly high quality single issue editions of their favorite comics.  In the earlier days of manga distribution in North America comic book companies such as DC shifted the manga titles they decided to release to fit their schedules and styles.  When other companies started to license and distribute manga they went directly with doing so in the tankoubon format.   This habit has become the dominating way America's purchase manga and has been for quite some time, helping to shift the mentality away from single issues or frequent anthologies.   Even in Japan, while manga anthology sales are slipping, tankoubon sales appear to be holding steady or not loosing much ground.  Many Japanese publishers are doing simultaneous digital publication if not downright digital only.  The internet is the key to the survival of the manga industry; world wide.  People seem to be willing to support it as well.  It helps to greatly reduce overhead costs and eliminates any publication waste that you would have with a print product.  Releasing tankoubons for series that are long enough and sufficiently popular enough still remains a vital component and an industry must.  Internet publications also can help to get more unknown authors/artists into the public sphere of awareness.  But they can also lead to quicker turn around as well.  It will be interesting to see what the marketplace for manga will look like in 2020.

(my Shojo Beat haul)

Koe no Katachi

Koe no Katachi (聲の形) is a shonen drama by Oima Yoshitoka.  The manga was published between 2013 and 2014 in Weekly Shonen Magazine and has been collected into 7 tankoubon.

    Ishida Shoya is a kid who doesn't like being bored.  His continuous fight against boredom causes his single mother more stress than he can understand.  He convinces his two best friends to join the fight with him and when a troublesome transfer student shows up he sees a golden opportunity.  Nishimiya Shouko has transferred to Shoya's school to get away from bullying problems she had in her old school.  She didn't expect the level of abuse she would suffer at Shoya's hands, though, for nothing more than his own entertainment.  Nishimiya is deaf and Shoya at first doesn't believe it.  What begins as amusement quickly turns into abuse as the rest of the class supports his attacks.  Even their home room teacher mildly supports the harassment of what he considers a nuisance.  The fun changes after numerous expensive hearing aids are broken.  Nishimiya's mother demands restitution and an end to the harassment.  The class outs Shoya as the perpetrator and when he tries to spread the blame around the class turns on him.  The abuse becomes so much that Shoya directs all of his frustration and rage on Nishimiya.  He sees her as the root of all of his problems.  The way she fake's her smiles and ignores all of the hatred directed at her.  Shoya's attacks on Nishimiya escalate at the same rate the class attacks him.  Nishimiya tries to show him compassion, further frustrating and angering him.  When the final straw breaks the camel’s back Nishimiya and Shoya get into a physical altercation, Shoya is suspended and Nishimiya transfers out of school.  Alone and dejected Shoya closes himself off, rejecting everyone around him, trying to inoculate himself from their hatred.

    As senior in high school Shoya has only one thing on his mind, to atone for his sins and end his life.  He learns sign language and saves up all of his money to repay his mom for the hearing aids he destroyed years ago.  He learns that Nishimiya attends a sign language school in the afternoons.  He marks down his calendar for the confrontation day, quits his jobs and sells his belongings.  He confronts her to tell her he is sorry for everything he did to her and that he regrets how horrible of a person he has been.  He's hoping to reconcile his guilt within him before he ends it all.  He gets flustered when he tries to tell her the pain he has had to deal with, his selfish ideas, and asks her to be his friend so they can get to know each other more.  Taken in by the moment, she surprises him by agreeing to be his friend, destroying any idea he had of killing himself.  The person he has been fixated on for years throws his life into disorder again.  He has to evaluate his intentions for killing himself and confronting Nishimiya.  He has to deal with the horrible things he did to her and to others.  Has he really changed, can he change?  Is he a better person than he was when he was younger?  Can he really understand this girl who he has been obsessed with for much of his life?

    This was an amazingly well done manga that deals heavily with bullying, social pressure and self evaluation.  The main character and majority of the view point come from Shoya.  We see the world through his eyes.  Throughout the course of the story a small band of characters are introduced, mostly people who were in the same class as Shoya and Nishimiya in elementary school.  Partial backgrounds and motives for these characters are developed, but not to the extent of the two main characters.  Even Nishimiya is barely focused on with much of the internal dialogue coming from Shoya.  There was one issue taken from her point of view, aurally, which was well done.  It would have been nice though to have more in depth analysis of her personal space.  Most of what you gather from her thoughts and processes are taken through her interactions with others and the notebook(s) she uses to communicate with.  What would be welcomed is another run at this story from her point of view and reference.

    This manga is completely set in the realm of reality.  At one point Nishimiya's mother, who has her own demons that have affected her personality, gets in an all out brawl with one of the girls tormenting her daughter.  Suicide is an ever present theme in the manga as well.  The characters look at it as a way to no longer be a burden on those around them and to make up for their indiscretions.  One side thing I thought was interesting and speaks volumes about the current state of Japan was Shoya's older sister.  She barely makes a presence in the manga; you don't even get to see what her face looks like until the very end.  She is instrumental in fostering Shoya's boredom fighting drive, she herself pursuing the same goal.  While he jumps off of bridges she sleeps with as many guys as she can.  Her presence in the manga is through her young daughter though, whom Shoya and her mother care after in her absence.  The little girl, named Maria, is half Brazilian.  This speaks of the growing community of South American immigrants in Japan, somewhat earning bad reputations among the native Japanese as criminals and lowlifes.  Between both of her children and their recklessness you would think Shoya's mother is a worthless parent.  The opposite; she is quite strong and has done well by herself, to raise two kids the best she can, run the house and her own business.  She's just a bit overwhelmed with her situation and perhaps not the brightest person around, but she does the best she can.  Mrs. Nishimiya on the other hand is struggling with her responsibilities and has taken on the traditional father role in the family.  She works hard to provide for her daughters and is in complete control of their lives, feeling this is the best thing for their futures. 

    It's nice to see a well done series that deals with some very important issues in Japan.  It's a breath of fresh air to see a character with a legitimate handicap instead of some moe eye patch wearing empty archetype.  There is an improving but still poor reality for people with disabilities in Japan.  It speaks volumes that the artist worked with the Japanese Federation of the Deaf as he produced the manga.  There is no fanservice and no shonen romance convention in this story.  No wishy-washy dialogue about whether or not so and so likes so and so.  No arcs where misinterpretations are construed and pointless arguments flare up.  I don't recall Shoya once uttering that he has anything like love for Nishimiya.  You can tell through his actions, though, that he grows to care about her, but he even struggles with that care being for selfish reasons.  The manga seems to have been just about the right length, really being split into roughly 2 story arcs.  Many people will be upset with the ending but if you pay attention I think you can figure out what’s going to happen to everyone.  This story focuses on the importance of communicating with more than just your words and how doing so will help you understand yourself and those around you.  Well worth the read.

    This series is currently available on Crunchyroll Manga.  The first tankoubon, under the name A Silent Voice, will be available in North America in May of 2015 by Kodansha.  There is a movie in production but no word on when it will be released and what it will cover.  I am assuming it will be live action and be a condensed rehash of the series.

Master of Epic: The Animation Age

Master of Epic: The Animation Age (マスター オブ エピック The Animation Age) is an original 12 episode fantasy comedy series produced by Gonzo.  The show broadcast in Japan in 2007.

    Years before the current fad of anime set in MMORPG's this oddly titled sketch variety show takes the viewers intimately into the realm of the real MMORPG, Master of Epic.  Each episode begins with its hosts, who also take on the roll of the classic Osaka comedy due.  They introduce the show and segway into some of the sketches.  The sketches vary in length, some recurring through out the course of the show.  The theme of the sketches are generally to explain various aspects of the game, offer tips and hints to players or to just plain entertain.  Most of them are comedic in nature but there are some moments of somber drama.  Over all, this series is a comedy and a rather goofy one at that.  The Waragetcha 5 is one of the best recurring sketches.  It features 5 player characters who have banded together to be Power Ranger like heroes who usually revert to thievery and unscrupulous behavior.

    This off beat series is probably the best anime aimed at selling a video game that has been created.  It's funny, stupid and entertaining.  The animation is OK, the writing isn't anything special, it’s just a simple and fun show.  There's really not much more to say about it than that.  It is what you get, a silly fantasy comedy used as a way to bring players to the real life game.  The game is unavailable to people outside of Japan though so if you don't live in Japan this show is just a silly comedy.  If you liked Dragon Half you will enjoy this one too.

    This series has not been licensed in North America, which is not a surprise.   What is a surprise is that it apparently at one point, according to Anime News Network, was available for streaming in North America on viki.com.   I looked quickly and it doesn't appear to be available any longer, so good luck in tracking this one down if you're interested.

The Brief Life as a Scanlation Translator

January of 2014 I picked up a current copy of the manga magazine Young Ace.  I needed a visual aid in explaining to people how manga is distributed in Japan, as I was having that conversation a lot at that point and time.  If you are unaware, manga is distributed differently than comics are in America.  When a series is licensed by a publishing company it is added to one of that companies magazines which come out at regular intervals.  Many are on a weekly or monthly release schedule.  The magazines, for lack of a better name, are large bound publications that feature many different manga titles.  They sell for a few hundred yen, have lower quality paper and are generally viewed as semi-disposable by the general populace.  Manga titles that show signs of popularity and length receive a reprint in higher quality paper featuring a handful of chapters together; the tankoubon that everyone outside of Japan is familiar with, for collecting.

 

 (Young Ace magazine Issue 3, 2014.  Published by Kadokawa Shoten)

    In that issue there was a brand new manga titled Inugami-san to Sarutobi-kun wa Naka ga Warui or Inugami and Sarutobi are on Bad Terms (or 'have a Bad Relationship') I figured, cool, I got lucky and am able to get into a series on the ground floor.  So I did a rough mental translation of the first issue.  Then searched out a scanlation of it to see how my translation fared with what other, hopefully more experienced people, came up with.  To my surprise I wasn't too far off.  I noticed a little note from the group looking for translators.  I figured, what the hell, and emailed them saying I was interested.  I thought this would be a great way to force myself to study Japanese and get better at kanji.  Some time passed and maybe 2 months later someone got back to me.  I told them my intentions to use this as a way to drill the language more and to continue reading the manga.  I was given a sample manga to translate as an interview and a test of my abilities.  I worked on it, relying somewhat on my various dictionaries and with some help from a translation program to clear up sentence structure issues.  I apparently did well enough and was offered a pick of a title on their list, as Inu-Saru-Warui was already being worked on.

    I went through the series' to see what would interest me then picked one out of that list that had furigana (hiragana characters used to help adolescents read unfamiliar kanji).  I settled in on a shonen romance titled 50 Ways to Kiss Her.  A few days later I received an email with a zip file of the issues scanned pages.  Scanlation at its basic; each page cut out of the magazine and scanned.  I went straight to work with my tablet and books handy.  The issue was rather straightforward and easy to work through.  It was long though, over 40 pages, so it took me a few days to finish. 

    The first part was to establish a simple and easy to follow method to explain what was being translated on each page.  So with the help of a sample text file given to me I began to establish my codex.

(Translation text for 50 Ways to Kiss Her, Issue 6, 'Theory 6 Animal Planet')

    Right away I realized how difficult and troubling translating all of the onomatopoeia would be.  I searched the internet and found a great resource to help me translate the myriad sound effects I was coming across.  A book I own, claiming to be an onomatopoeia dictionary, was anything but helpful.

    Once I had a rough translation down I went through, edited any spelling errors and re-worded it to flow more naturally.  When I was satisfied with the translation I sent it off, my job done.  Not too long after wrapping up the issue of 50 Ways to Kiss Her I was assigned to Inu-Saru-Warui.  This series proved to be a bit more difficult than 50 Ways was for me to translate.  To help me out I read the back issues to make sure I was up to date with the story as I was starting with issue 4. 

    Inu-Saru-Warui is a shonen romance that deals with the main protagonist, Inugami Tsubaki and the challenge she faces in retaining her future control of the family empire.  The Inugami family is a long running and powerful conglomerate that has its fingers and influence in almost every aspect of Japan.  Her father had inherited control of the conglomerate from her grandfather but had died prematurely.  Due to Tsubaki's youth and inexperience, her grandfather came out of retirement to run things until she was deemed capable enough.  Her capability comes into question on her entrance to high school when a transfer student, Sarutobi Sanosuke, beats her as the top student in their grade. To make matters worse she discovers he is moving in to her house and is being made the heir apparent.  Sanosuke strikes a deal with her though.  If she can beat him at something he will return the conglomerate back to her.  Unfortunately Tsubaki naively underestimates his ability to be deceitful.  Each time she loses a challenge she is put through an embarrassing situation as her punishment.

    I found myself a little out of elements having to deal with complex kanji for business conglomerates and other related elements.  I'm OK at general conversation but when it starts getting technical I'm a fish out of water.  I had to look up a ton of kanji that leaked from my brain the minute I looked away from the page.  But generally the translation process went as smooth as I could expect.  It just took time, more time than anticipated.  Since my Japanese is mediocre I could only move through the issues slowly.  It was a monthly publication so the issues were 30+ pages worth of dialogue.  Thankfully it was nothing as dense as Bakuman, but it had more dialogue than something like Kimi no Iru Machi.  Each translation probably took me about 8 hours in total from start to finish.  Half of that going through and re-wording things, being picky about the way the dialog flowed as well as deciding how to translate the onomatopoeia.  I took it upon myself to do that as poorly translated anything is a major annoyance to me.  Then I would relax for a few weeks and await the next issue.

(Inugami-san to Sarutobi-kun wa Naka ga Warui, Issue 4, 'Tsubaki-sama is Amazing After All!')

    After 4 issues we parted ways wordlessly, the group and I.  I think I was taking too long and the translation work was probably shoddy at best!  Near the end I was asked to help pick up the slack for a sister group that was doing Isuca.  They were anticipating a surge in popularity following that titles anime announcement and wanted to make up for lost time.  I did one issue, rather horribly, being way out of my element having to deal with odd supernatural references and other things I was totally not used to.  They didn't ask me to translate more than that one issue!  So I think that poor showing and how long it took me to translate the last issue of Inu-Saru-Warui put an end to my participation.  Which was fine with me.  I was out of my element and it had ended up being more stressful than anticipated.   The issues would usually come to me at times where life was most hectic and it was hard to keep making the same, legitimate, excuses of life getting in the way.  With all of my personal responsibilities it wasn't a realistic thing for me to commit to.  If my Japanese was better than it is, it would probably have been less of an issue.  If I could have breezed through them instead of slowly mouthing everything out like the learning disabled 7 year old I am, it wouldn't have been much of an issue.  But I am content in the understanding that my Japanese abilities are special needs child at this point, with perhaps a stronger kanji repertoire but lacking in other areas.

     Regardless, it was an exexcellent learning experience and I did increase my kanji understanding.  It made me a master of navigating my tome like kanji dictionary.  Radicals, its the only way!  My skill at dialogue and prefixes/suffixes is still shitty.  I have a lot more understanding and respect for oddities in translation.  Instead of instantly jumping on the way something is translated versus how I would do it, I consider the flow and context involved.  Japanese is respectably different than English and can be tricky to directly translate.  I view the rampant use of sound effects with an entirely other level of respect with in the Japanese language and need to seriously understand the crazy system they use for them.  I don't see myself getting into scanlation translation any time.  Instead, seeing the benefit of the action, I am slowly working through 34-sei Mushoku-san for private use and understanding only.  Even though it lacks furigana...forcing me to reference the tome more often, its worth the effort.  With furigana I was able to read it out and pick up on what the kanji was through familiarity with the words, as it is intended to do.  But this series is intended for a mature and literate audience...not some snot nosed boy.

 (Inugami-san to Sarutobi-kun wa Naka ga Warui, Issue 5, 'The Princess x Punishment Game')

UPDATE: After this post was initially released to the general public I had some conversations with people about it and realized I left some key factors out.

     One thing that came up that I didn't think about discussing, believing it was general knowledge, was the idea of financial compensation for scanlation work.  In no way shape or form did I receive any financial compensation for the brief scanlation work I did.  It is generally assumed that scanlation and fansub groups adopt a policy of honorable thievery and do not seek financial gains for illegally translating and releasing the works they do.  Back in the early days of VHS fansub groups you would typically pay a fee to cover postage and material costs.  But with the advent of electronic transmission I am unaware of anyone who charges anything for their translation efforts.  Some groups who maintain websites do have varying degrees of advertising space on their sites.  Given the niche market reach I doubt that would account for anything beyond covering website hosting costs if even that.  Generally people do this for the passion, bragging rights and experience.  Scanlations and fansub’s are undeniably illegal.   They exist and operate in a legal gray area and it is best not to push the owners of the licenses any further by trying to turn a profit from illegally distributing licensed material, especially across international borders.

    The other thing that came up was the amount of effort put into scanlating manga.   There are a few steps involved in doing a scanlation.  The most important is acquiring the source material.  This can also be the hardest if you are attempting to release it as it comes out in Japan.  This requires you either being in Japan or having a reliable contact that is.  This means someone is buying the magazines as they come out, cutting the pages out and scanning them.  Some groups, amazingly, are able to get their hands on the actual files the publisher uses.  The quality between the raw files and the scanned printed pages are significantly noticeable.  Lately also, many publishers are releasing the manga online as well, so if you are able to access that release you can easily get clean copies of the files around publication time.  I know that some groups can get some pages directly given the availability of the translated manga even before the magazine hits the streets in Japan.  Kimi no Iru Machi, near the end of its run, was sometimes available 2 days prior to the magazines release...that is insane!  The only other option is to wait for the tankoubon to come out and then cut the pages out and scan them.  Going the tankoubon route does not allow a group to release the manga simultaneously with its magazine release in Japan.

    Once the scans are acquired they are sent to the people who will be translating it.  The translation is done and then it’s time to do some serious editing.  This part, I feel, is the most time consuming and pain staking and I don't have any experience in it.  The easiest part is erasing all of the text in the word bubbles.  Then you have to typeset all of the translated text to fit in them.  That alone can be a pretty daunting feat.  Usually there is more text than can be held in the speech bubbles.  Many times panels will have text and sound effects mixed in with the artwork of the panel its self.  This significantly increases the difficulty in doing a complete translation.  Many scanlation groups will elect to leave any background text alone and place the translations underneath the panels or on the bottom of the page.  Those that are really dedicated to their efforts will delicately (or not) edit out the original text and typeset the translations in its place.  Many times the space will be left white when the original text is over artwork.  In rare cases a group will redo the erased line working to the best of their ability to make it look like nothing changed.  That is some serious dedication to your work.

    Having never attempted that portion of the scanlation process I can only imagine what you have to go through in the initial process.  Until you do it a number of times you are playing around with formats that work.  At times the amount of space in a speech bubble may not be enough to fit the proper translation so you either have to parse the translation down or alter the text in other ways to make it fit, cramming it all in.  If you are one to partake in reading scanlations take these things into consideration when your favorite weekly manga is a day or two late before you start complaining.

  

(Nightmare scanlation scenario - '34-sei Mushoku-san' vol. 2, Ikeda Takashi)

First Look at the New Titles for the Winter of 2015

2015 starts off a bit slow with shows that I am interested in watching, many of them are recent favorites returning to the fold.  Here are my thoughts on them after watching the first episodes.

Aldnoah.Zero 2: The original 12 episode run ended with a bunch of people possibly being dead, main characters.  So the return of this show was highly anticipated.  The story picks up 17 months afterwards to find the Vers military still waging, and succeeding in, a war of conquest over Earth.  Slain, the Earthling defector, has been knighted due to his noble duties and is helping to lead the conquest of his home planet.  Meanwhile the Terran forces have regained composure after the initial attack and are working to slow the advance of the invading armies with the hope of ending the war or even regaining lost territory.  The one thing that could have put an end to the conflict was Princess Asseylum.  Something has changed in her since the incidents of 17 months ago and she is now working as a champion for the conquest of Earth, broadcasting propaganda from the orbital castles.

    I am really happy to see the return of this show.  I enjoyed the original 12 episodes, including the cold, calculating, personality-lacking Inaho.  I really enjoyed the background of the story and all the events that led up to it.  The mech designs on both sides are enjoyable and interesting.  Yet there is one big point of contention I have with the shows return as exhibited by this first episode; the sudden hero shaping of Inaho.  Regrettably, but welcome anyways, Inaho is alive and still just as badass.  The fact he has some cybernetics now makes him ever more awesome in my book.  I wasn't happy with the way the introduced his return in this first episode of season 2.  Too much fanfare, too many things that smacked of traits used in shonen battle shows.  Pegging Inaho as the unlikely, and unassuming hero of the world, more than previously done.  This time they heralded his return as the savior of Earthlings like some mythical being.  Buy, maybe that's what he has been this entire time and I didn't pick up on it.  Some things seem to be reactions to much of the internet criticism of the original season, criticisms dealing with Inaho and his abilities and personalities.  Now he had/has the ability to affect the Aldnoah Drive's through a single drop of the Princess' blood entering his body?  Come on...that's stretching it a bit too far, don't you think?  Either way, I am excited for more adventures of Egg-kun.

Saenai Heroine no Sodate-kata: Another otaku for otaku-sake story.  One boy has ambitions to make a popular galge and recruits 4 girls to help him in this effort.  The girls, some of whom are otaku themselves, go along with his scheme for soon to be revealed reasons.  The first episode expositions all of this information while providing gratuitous fan service and slamming fan service and otaku for otaku-sake stories at the same time.

    I am torn with this one so far.  Just the same was I was torn with My Mental Choices...  The show presents its self as lambasting and criticizing otaku over reach while at the same time sticking with the things it calls out.  It’s hard to tell what the real intentions are going to be but the rampant dialogue destroying played out tropes in the moe industry are mildly entertaining.  I will give this one some more time to prove to me that it isn't a moe trap and is instead a smart and critical destruction of moe.

Koufuku Graffiti: Machiko Ryou is an independent high school girl who lives by herself after her beloved grandmother passed away.  The biggest thing Ryou took away from her upbringing was the need to be the best cook she can in order to be a desirable bride.  She doubts her abilities and is ready to resign herself to a live alone, perhaps collecting cats or something.  That changes when her cousin Kirin decides to live with her on the weekends in order to attempt to go to school in Tokyo.  Kirin is also using this as an opportunity to escape her parents, particularly her oblivious mothers horrible cooking.  Much to Ryou's surprise Kirin is instantly smitten with her culinary prowess.

    Man, it’s not as lame as I thought it was going to be but there is still a lot to not like with this one.  It’s a moe cooking show that may or may not be a cover for a yuri story.  There is some definite sexual tension/innuendo going on in this show.  The scenes of food being consumed and reacted to are quite...erotic in exposition.  Its jam packed with stereotypical moe/slice of life scenarios but there is something about it that as semi enjoyable.  Even with her pathetic personality and character design the main character is actually likeable.  I love cooking too...thought I don't think this show will really get into cooking like it was some battle cooking series.  So it stays in the cue for now...but tenuously so.

Durarara!! x2 shou: Taking place 6 months after the end of the original series and things in Ikebukero haven't changed at all.  All of its colorful personalities are continuing on as they always have.  The first episode deals with Celty mostly and ends with her being a bit more of a celebrity than she wants to deal with.  Someone has put a $100,000 bounty on her.  What new things are afoot in the wild streets of Ikeburuko? 

    I am super excited to see the return of this highly entertaining show.  Not only is the large cast of misfits still active they are introducing a number of new weirdo's to the mix.  As with the original show, it will be really interesting to see the directions this multi-tentacle story takes.  If nothing else, each week Durarara won't disappoint!

Assassination Classroom: Randomly one day the majority of the moon is obliterated and the octopus like creature responsible has told the Japanese government it will destroy the Earth in one year unless a class of 9th grade kids is able to assassinate him.  Now the class has this mission and the octopus thing is their teacher.  Can they save Earth with anti-octopus-thing airsoft rounds?  Who and why is this being doing such a thing?  What secrets abound!

    OK, so this is a semi popular Shonen Jump series so it’s going to have to meet a number of requirements typical of Shonen Jump titles.  The biggest thing I am afraid of and what’s threatening me to drop this as soon as possible; the possibility that it will be a really long show.  The manga is still going, so obviously there has not been an end to it yet.  The entire reason you start reading this is to find out how/when the kids will succeed and what the secrets behind the octopus creature are.  They have set up quite a bit of that ground work in the very first episode.  Suggesting, rather obviously, that the creature is from Earth and has some relation to this school or a similar school and is trying to impart something of value to the world.  I will seriously give this one five episodes.  Then unless it becomes magically fucking delicious it will go away.  I don't feel like being 'shonen battle' lectured to.

The Rolling Girls: 10 years after a great war in Tokyo all of the aristocracy disappeared.  In the vacuum of power groups of individuals have staked out old feudal territories across Japan.  Meanwhile everything keeps going on as normal, with the exception of new rules regarding control and authority.  Each area has a power base that battles the other territories for control in spectacular and somewhat ridiculous form.

    They didn't get into too much of what this series has been pegged to be about, mostly sticking with some introductions of the concept of the world and some of the key characters of the show.  So far I do not like it.  It seems like a dumbed down attempt to tap into the creativity of the guys behind Kill la Kill and FLCL.  In fact it feels like a blended imitation of both of those shows with some Atlas Shrugged thrown in for good measure.  While I am not a fan, I respect and recognize the brilliance of Kill la Kill, Gurren Lagann and FLCL.  This on the other hand seems to be without direction and a hodge podge of ideas with no real intent and purpose.  The animation is a bit odd, the dialogue is all over the place and the amount of suspension of reality they are asking for is a bit beyond me.  I doubt this one will be sticking around in my cue for long either.  I will give it a few more episodes to see if there is some coherent plot in the works, but I don't have any hopes for it.

Death Parade: When people die they find themselves in a high end cocktail lounge.  The barkeep informs them they are to play a game to determine what will happen to their soul.  The games are standard fare but with sinister affects.  They work more to force the participants to come to realizations about the lives they lived more than actually determining their ultimate fate.

    This feels like it’s going to be a by the book psychological tension series.  I don't anticipate there being any long story arcs beyond getting into the backgrounds of the beings who work at the bar.  There really is nothing new with this series that hasn't been done before.  The animation is a little clunky, especially the CG and the tension is predictable.  I am not sure if this will stick around much, I would much rather spend the time I would use on this show to finally finish Monster and enjoy some really well done psychological drama.