Quality and Quantity of Fall '09 Anime

Last night I watched (part of) episode nine of Sora no Otoshimono, but it just seemed so messed-up to me that I decided that I would give up on the series as a whole. I began writing this as a preamble to my Otoshimono review, but it got so long that it seemed better suited to the discussion formum:

As you probably already know, I'm the sort of anime fan who likes to watch the shows that are currently running on Japanese television--the ones which the Japanese themselves just saw for the first time a couple days ago. Not long ago, so many new anime series which were interesting and entertaining would come out each season that I would have to accept that I couldn't watch them all simultaneously. Instead, I'd have to download and save some of them which I would hopefully watch later on when I had some time to spare. But more and more quality series poured out of Japan, with each season steadily building up my backlog until it looked like I might never get around to watching them all. I simply didn't have enough time.

This Fall 2009 season is looking like it may mark a distinct turning point regarding the quality and quantity of new anime. Not only were fewer new series released to begin with, but there was a disturbing shortage of good ones. I count an unprecedented seven new series which came to seem so mediocre that I cannot justify devoting the time needed to watch them. Considering that only eight new series seem likely to be viewed by me to the end, this is especially dismaying. I have tightened my standards up a bit lately; I'm certainly no longer the every-new-series-is-better-than-the-last-one guy that I was as a beginner. But in general I think of myself as a viewer who is hard to disappoint, and so a show has got to be pretty unpromising to turn me away.

Fall '09 shows which I gave up on:
Nyan Koi
Sora no Otoshimono
Sacred Blacksmith
Kimi ni Todoke
Book of Bantorra
Asura Cryin' 2
Needless

Fall '09 Shows I'm still watching:
Natsu na Arashi Akinai-chuu
Inuyasha Kanketsu
Kampfer
Nogizaka Haruka Himitsu: Purezza (balancing on the edge between keep watching and give up on)
Sasameki Koto
Seitokai Ichizon
Shin Koihime Musou
White Album 2

Fall '09 Shows I'm saving to watch later:
11 Eyes
Letter Bee
Sunred 2
Queen's Blade 2
Railgun (because Index itself is in my backlog of unwatched anime)

Anyway, does anyone else have anything to say about the quality and quantity of Fall '09 anime?

We have no control over quantity, but I would answer your question with a question of my own. Define your perception of quality?

If I may use White Album (a series we both can agree on) as an example, we know that many titles aren't going to be as good as White Album (I'm excluding genres of course), but I don't think that means the other titles don't have quality. I can't defend the other titles, but "The Sacred Blacksmith", "Nyan Koi", and "Kimi ni Todoke" all have something to bring to the table depending on ones point of view. I couldn't see myself looking down on those titles, because I think White Album is better. I can't even say that really because W.A. and Blacksmith (in terms of impact) are neck and neck right now for different reasons. If (again for example) one only looks for W.A.- types of anime, then they might find themselves without many titles to watch since those kinds of titles are 'once in a while' gambles. My whole thing is, how can a viewer know what has quality or not if they don't see a series through to the end? Do you see where I'm coming from?

I can't see why you dropped Sora no Otoshimono. It took so long for it to finally show it's true colors and now that it has, you dropped it? Why didn't you drop it before while it was still in the air? If you stayed with it for the fan-service and comedy, then that would make sense, but now that it has a story to go with it, it's no longer good enough?

As for the time issue - I know exactly where you're coming from when you talk about not having enough time to watch everything that comes out and that is completely understandable. I wasn't going to watch Nyan Koi, but I picked it up and was happy I did the more it progressed. Other reviewers' excitement for Kamper made me want to watch that as well, but there is just not enough time going around for me so I had to leave it out.

I'll edit this later but

• Nyan Koi - Great Show
• Sora No Oshitimo - He is my master mixed in with a girls Bravo. Not a bad show either but not a top fav.

• White Album - I refuse to watch as I keep getting School Days vibes, I'm not going that path again.
• Seikotai - I like seeing other places besides the school room no matter how funny it might be.

Edited on 12/13/2009 04:20 PM.

Well, maybe I shouldn't have listed the names of the particular series in each category, because I don't want to get into arguments about which ones are good and which are not. I admit that my tastes are fairly odd and I'll leave it up to people to decide whether the points which I make in my reviews make sense to them or not. It's the numbers as a whole--the total number of Fall series which I found not worth watching versus the number which I did--which seemed troubling to me.

During the summer I watched no less than 14 different series to their conclusion. The number of series which I tried but concluded would never be worth watching was 7 (I realize now that Needless was a Summer, not Fall series). This is not a direct comparison, because Summer is an 'off' season, and this was a mix of Spring and Summer series. But it's significant that including ongoing shows from previous seasons will only increase the total I'm currently liking by one (Cross Game). To be honest, at the end of Summer I was left feeling that several shows which I had taken the time to watch had just barely been worth it (Juuden-chan), and I decided to tighten up my standards and watch a couple less series during the Fall. But I didn't expect the total of shows I liked to drop so precipitously.

There's about a 50-50 chance that I will not watch any more Purezza, which would make my adjusted totals 8 shows abandoned versus 8 watched to the end (I remembered another which I quit--Kobato). Actually, things aren't as bad as they seem since the 'backlog' shows are ones which I felt would probably be worth watching someday. I gave up on assigning numerical ratings to shows almost immediately after I began reviewing here. My definition of quality is a simple one: is it worth the time which it takes to watch? Do I gain more, through entertainment, or do I lose more, through boredom? Even if you disagree with my tastes, both seasons were judged by the same set of tastes, and I don't think they have changed radically enough in the past three months to completely explain this. Something funny has got to be going on. The guys at ANN Podcast mentioned this week that the total number of new anime that were released this season had fallen by something like a third; and they described those in general as "lousy" (or some similar word). I wouldn't go that far, but I think there's definitely a problem out there.

As for Otoshimono, I was hoping that the secret behind Ikaros and the Angeloids would be something unique and intriguing. I was also hoping that Ikaros would develop a healthy personality rather than being the submissive sexy servant that she started out as. The show had wobbled back and forth between tempting me to quit and throwing me another bone. In episode nine we got our first look at Nymph's superiors, and I was not impressed. The panel of evil looking guys (you cannot see their eyes because they are hidden by their shady looks) wasn't unusual or interesting at all, IMO. Them giving her a high voltage jolt as punishment for failing to capture Ikaros just seemed sleazy and predictable. What really dashed my hopes, however, was the way Ikaros is still such an idiot that she completely believes the offhand comment about humans being inherent liars. Her personality has hardly progressed a bit, and that just made me throw up my hands in dismay. I realized that with this double-whammy I really didn't give a damn how the plot would resolve, and might as well cut my losses.

Edited on 12/13/2009 07:34 PM.

All interesting points you have there. Your ANN podcast note bridges the gap for me concerning your overall point.

I agree there certainly is a problem (generally speaking) with anime nowadays vs. what feels like titles from not too long ago.

I don't know if you want to converse on the reasons, but perhaps I can start it off by pointing the finger at the economy, which for the most part is affecting the increasing amount of anime companies falling from grace in recent news.

Less anime giants = less anime titles (quantity) = less chances for better titles (quality). That's how I see it in a nutshell. Thoughts......

Edit: Speak of the devil. Check out the latest from ANN. Ouch! That's gotta hurt.

Edited on 12/14/2009 03:06 AM.

In another forum we had an interesting discussion about a tendency to replace good characters and stories by more moe and fan-service elements in recent animes. When otakus happily purchase each and every DVD of Endless Eight, what can you expect?

Yes, I think the current recession definitely has a lot to do with the malaise in the anime industry. I read somewhere that when money is tight companies tend to go with low-risk, already proven topics rather than taking chances with original ones. Thus, series get repetitive. Otoshimono seems a good example of this, (IMO): another sexy-supernatural-chick-falls-into-ordinary-guy's-lap show, much like Akikan, Sekirei, or DearS.

I was afraid when I got up this morning and logged on I would find that I had seriously offended my cyberfriends here at Mikomi, but I'm definitely relieved to find that that doesn't seem to be the case.

Devil Doll, was that another forum here at Mikomi (which I missed) or was it at another website?

Edited on 12/14/2009 12:59 PM.

Offended? Us? Never. (LOL). Surely the best band of anime critics on the net here on Mikomi are worthy of more than that (LOL).

You don't ever have to feel that way Stretch. We are all civil adults here (unless we are all really 9 year olds in disguise trying to act like civil adults - LOL). We'll deal with any problems when they arrive like we always have. If we cannot resolve the issue, then we forgive - forget - start fresh.

If you want a good laugh, I just realized that IMO means 'in my opinion'. It finally dawned on me just now. (^_^)

Edited on 12/14/2009 01:18 PM.

Now that I think about it Stretch, have you looked at Chapter 8's ANIME LIST of titles for the new winter season? Under these pretenses, I don't think the next season will have many titles with enough substance either. IMO (LOL), I think the majority theme is going to be ecchi fan-service and that (for the most part) won't lead us to anything substantial. What is an anime otaku to do in rough times like these?

Edited on 12/14/2009 02:24 PM.

Hmm when I look at that list I see, 1 really good one (Nodame), 3 historical, 3 fan service, and about 5 gag, and 1 cutsey.

Looks like I won't be watching much in the Winter season.

Well, I will give as many new series as possible a view, since I think getting a first impression of something new is fun, even if it doesn't turn out to be something which I want to watch. That's the only way to make certain some good ones don't slip past me. And I like trying to put my feelings into words here. But a show about Kewpie Dolls?

P.S: It wasn't until relatively recently that I figured out what "IMO" meant, either.

My cheeks hurt from laughing so much...

Sometimes Stretch your mind just doesn't want to take another 'copy of Anime xxx for the 1000th time'. You know I just rewatched Sorcerer Hunters and didn't find it as funny as I did when I first watched it.

But I still think Nyan koi is worth a watch. It's not a mindless fest that Kampfer is.

I second Forbin's suggestion. Give Nyan Koi another chance as you might find that you are about to miss a hilarious series filled with comedy, romance, and awesome character chemistry minus those stupid cats. If you do try it (finish it) and still hate it, then you can spam hate messages all over the forums (LOL).

Edited on 12/14/2009 02:59 PM.

Sigh ... both XenoBop and Stretch are a bit hopeless.

bookmark the following site and add it to quick links list - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=imo

It is perhaps the best and most comprehensive slang dictionary around.

Back at Stretch about recessions and market adjustments. These types of economic events don't stop things (like anime titles) from being produced. They just force marginal and incompetent companies to either begin producing or fold under the burden. It is Gainax's poor choices in anime titles and bad business decisions that first put it in trouble several years ago, and the poor economic climate that finally put it out of its misery.

The anime market place is currently adjusting to the changes in industry, changes like high-speed-computer-animation and internet-based-distribution. Many of the older companies are just not smart or adept enough to adapt to these new technologies - so it is no surprise that they went under.

Much of 'Japanese animation' (like more than 50%) is already being out sourced to Korea and China already. And we can expect Vietnam and other pacific rim nations to begin appearing on this list soon.

Many good anime-related companies (like Funimation, JC Staff, Shaft & Zexcs) are in good shape and appear to surviving the changes well. And when the world economy improves, we can expect to see a number of new companies appear as if from nowhere (staffed by senior members from the defunct old companies.)

And then we have the issue about what titles they choose to anime... I fear that we might be a bit jaded. There are about 2000 titles listed in MIKOMI and I personally have seen about 1/3+ of them. I suspect that many other senior reviewers are in a similar situation. That makes us a bit out of the norm, especially when compared to the average viewing audience - which I suspect is heavily weighted by teenaged boys in the troughs of puberty.

But we need to keep in mind just who our visiting audience is. Web-traffic (also known as readers or visitors) has gone up a bit recently and probably will continue to increase, due primarily to quality of our collective content. If we take too much delight in unjustly trashing and bashing new anime titles for being too similar to something else, we run the risk of scaring or driving away our audience.

And griping aside, we all have seen lack-luster and dismal anime seasons before... and we will probably see such again.

Edited on 12/15/2009 07:04 PM.

And OH!!! If are a true insomniac and/or want to learn more about trends in the anime market place, you can try to chase down a marvelously detailed 400+ page analysis that was released in August of 2009.

http://www.marketresearch.com/map/prod/2406782.html

I have been able to find a few snippets of this article (they want $5K for entire article at this web site), but the general index sort-of hints at some of the complexity and issues in anime.

Edited on 12/15/2009 02:13 PM.

@Stretch: Another website (and not in this language so linking there wouldn't make a lot of sense I guess).

Oh well... Anyway, speaking of the Winter Season, I saw my first sign of it today: A commercial for a show called Sora no Woto and set to premiere on January 4.

Well, this has been an eye-opening experience. I had thought that what I demanded from an anime series in order to declare it worth watching (more enjoyment than boredom) was pretty modest relative to everyone else, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Recently I had posted a message at ANN Answerman in which I complained about how so many shows seemed to have little or no conclusion, probably because they were based on incomplete manga. I was certain that lots of people would say that they had noticed the same thing, but on the contrary hardly anyone did, and one person seemed distinctly offended by my claims. My standards certainly aren't anywhere near as high as those of Zac Bertschy, but they must fall somewhere between those of the professional reviewers and the general public. I love anime in general and like to think that I'm making a positive contribution via my reviews, but I just can't get the thought out of my mind that watching what I think is mediocre television isn't the best use of my lifetime.

P.S: I will watch at least another episode of Nyan Koi.

Heh Stretch...as I said earlier, sometimes you go into a funk because of so many similar shows but then you realize you MISS those imcomplete shows and how they made you laugh.

But if you think the ending of Platonic Heart is a good example of a show that ends? You need a new show! Hahaha

I'm sure the masses are already aware of what your talking about for the most part, Stretch. You'll just have to find some other use of your time in between the titles you actually do like. I think this 'trend of anime' won't be over for a couple more seasons before we can notice the 'change in wind direction' if you know what I mean.

Luckily for me, I can't wait for most of what's coming out...

P.S.: Nyan Koi is not a guaranteed title until after episode 3.

Edit: The end Jan-chan's message in Quality and Quantity of Fall '09 Anime (Post #3721) couldn't be more correct. I agree 10,000%. We can't judge a title without giving them all a fair chance for originality.

Let's think more about our visitors and those who don't voice their opinions...

Edited on 12/15/2009 07:21 PM.

Stretch - I think that your demands for an interesting and original anime series are actually quite reasonable, but probably a bit unrealistic given how the anime market is set up.

Those that make decisions as to which titles get animated look primarily at which manga titles that are selling best. And in the current economic climate, these decision makers are all going to play it safe by not taking-on any interesting and fun new titles.

I am really surprised when a gem like Bakemonogatari actually gets animated. I always wince when a new season brings a dozen anime titles, along with two dozen new hentai OVA titles (sold over the 3 month season). GEEEE!!! Care to take a guess as to what sells? Can we really pretend to be surprised when a softporn title like Queen's Blade proves popular?

I have noticed that we (the senior reviewers) have a tendency show our bias by completely DISSing any anime titles released for the 8 to 12 year-old crowd. Come to think about it, fansub groups also tend to DISS these titles by not subbing them. SIGH.

Well, here is another view of what the month of January will offer.

I wonder if the 2 FSN movies will put the sex back in :)

And J/C how DARE you call Bakemonogatari a gem when you haven't even reviewed it! Bad Boy!

Oh and did anyone else see that documentary about an animator at Brains Base (FSN) who only makes 11k USD a year. Yikes, you can make more working at walmart.

Edited on 12/15/2009 07:48 PM.

OMG!!! Too funny for words! Did you see Jan-chan's review of Bakemonogatari? What an a**-hole (LOL). You call that a review? I fell out my chair laughing just now. WOW. A regular comedian.

I'll bet Jan-chan can get more than 11K working as a comedian. That's for damn sure.

Hey Stretch.

Both Forbin and I are well aware of the problem of the absence of quality in recent anime titles. But we have also noticed that one Japanese animation company in particular, JC Staff seems to only accept and focus on good to high quality anime projects.

So if you are craving an anime fix, try trolling thru JC Staff's list of earlier releases to see if you have missed any of their titles.

One of my problems is that as a reviewer (for fun) I enjoy the excitement and uncertainty of the latest series--the ones which are just coming out now. Of course the 'freshness' is greatest at the start of a new season; the new titles haven't been reviewed to death already and there's no way to be certain which way they will go; so all bets are off, so to speak. I can watch a new show, put my first impressions into words, and see how they compare to everyone else--which is fun. Perhaps I'm relatively demoralized at the moment because a lackluster season is dragging on to it's final conclusion while I am impatient for something new. Maybe the next season won't be any better, but each new batch of shows, about which I know practically nothing, seems to have the effect of wiping the slate clean and allowing me a fresh start.

And if all else fails I have a s---load of highly praised shows still waiting to be watched; I haven't even watched Gankutsuo yet.

• JC Staff does 2 things I like in particular, boobies and story.
• Kampfer was a JC Animation and a Nomad Story so all it had were boobies.
• UFOTable does one thing I like : Puppets.
• Sunrise : Yandere girls who try to kill their lovers..haha
• KyoAni : Beautiful girls who's heads are interchangable ... haha .. sorry Xeno but it's especially true of your fav Clannad.

Edited on 12/15/2009 09:05 PM.

I notice we keep repeating the same things over and over again. That's cool since we can get deeper into our inner feelings and thoughts. As for me:

When I see the statement:

"...there's no way to be certain which way they will go..."

I may be wrong here, but isn't stopping after only one episode (no matter how similar it may seem) a direct contradiction to that statement? Many reviewers here on Mikomi are guilty of this, but I see a slowly increasing trend all over the net on other review/streaming sites. It only tells me (generally speaking) that the quality of thoughts and opinions out there in anime land will continue to decrease. Surely, there is someone else who has also noticed this.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Edit for Forbin: I agree to that somewhat, if and only if, that's something a viewer focuses on.

Edited on 12/15/2009 09:26 PM.

So Forbin, are you proposing a 'bouncing boobie' scale? Should we ask Rebecca to put together a Forbin bounce rating?

Noteworthy titles might get a ...



And if anyone doubts what Forbin sez about KoyAni, check this one out...

And MOE titles can get anywhere from one to four MOEs...

One Moe -

Four Moes -

Have mercy on my soul. I can't keep laughing this hard over such a short period of time. Are you guys trying to kill me or something.

Jan-chan, you are something else. I know some people who will literally die if I show them that KoyAni gif. It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Well, the point about not being able to be completely certain which way a show will go after watching just one episode is true, to a certain extent. But it ties into another point which we both agreed on, namely that we haven't got the time to watch everything. If you add up the titles in the original entry you'll see that I watched at least one episode of no less than 20 different series, and there was no way I would be able to keep up with that many. Even some of those which it seemed would be worth watching had to be saved for later. The obvious question: why haven't I used those titles to fill the gaps in my viewing schedule instead of complaining? Well, 11Eyes, Railgun and Letter Bee don't seem to be members of my favorite genre, comedy; Queen's Blade 2 absolutely refuses to burn in a manner which is playable beyond my computer; and I can't watch Sunred 2 until I finish the original Sunred (which I'm currently watching). Incidentally, Sunred is a f---ing hilarious show which I strongly recommend to everyone. I'll watch some Nyan Koi if you watch some Sunred. Anyway, if you examine the reviews of series which I decided not to watch after just one episode, you'll find that I generally make a point of leaving them "Unevaluated" rather than declaring them an "Avoid".

P.S: The KyoAni animation cracked me up. If it's possible to place such fancy animated images here, does anybody know how to convert the quilt-like avatars at the left into other images?

Hmm a Moe Rating.... I only know #1 which is Galaxy angel but I am not familiar with the other 4.

Moe 4 is a 12-episode TV series that came out about 5 years ago and tells the tale of 4 princesses (vampire, android, werewolf and sorceress) who travel to the human world and live together in a treehouse. (But derned if I can't remember the title)

If a JPG is an image or picture, then a GIF is a scrolling collage of a number of JPGs bundled together in one file. As a matter of practicality, they usually contain from between 3 to 12 images or frames and are set to loop. There are a number of online sites that will permit you to load in the various images/slides/frames and then with the press of a COMPILE button, will spite out one GIF file.

Once created, a GIF can be treated as one standard file. Move your cursor over the GIFs above, press right-mouse-button and click on properties. You can find out where the actual file is located and what the file size is.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/513/1153412854125vx4.gif
GIF image (animated, 12 frames
45.12 KB (46203 bytes)

You can also save the GIF file locally to your harddrive and treat as you would any JPG file.

Edited on 12/16/2009 01:40 PM.

That 4-moe GIF must have been from Renkin San-kyuu Magical Pokaan, because it's labelled as "Pachira.gif" and Pachira is the vampire girl from this show (I've never heard of it before today).

You drive a hard bargain Stretch. Deal. I'll watch Sunred and I'll hold you to Nyan Koi. Both Forbin and yourself can thank me later for getting you to commit to watch it. You can expect a post from me later tonight. I'm about to get off my Xbox and watch some more WAM (White Album Madness) anyway in an hour of so.

Well, I won't promise that I'll watch all of Nyan Koi, but I'll give it another try and go at least as far as episode three. I'm downloading the episodes right now. I hope Sunred turns out to be your cup of tea--it certainly was mine. Keep in mind that the show currently coming out is the second season of Sunred, not the original one. You can get that from AnimeSuki--look for "Astro Fighter Sunred".

Edited on 12/16/2009 05:41 PM.

I'm glad to see that both Xenoknight and Forbin are enjoying Sunred. If all three of us recommend it (right?) surely practically anyone would like it. I think of it a highly original and witty comedy that somehow didn't get much attention. Think of it as another Skip Beat, Jan-chan.

I've come across an obstacle Stretch. It seems that, for most websites, ep 15 is the end of Sunred. Ep 16 onwards just isn't viewable for some reason. If you can offer a solution other than torrents, I would be able to continue the show.

I don't know why that would be... I downloaded all 26 episodes a couple of months ago and they all seem to play just fine. If all else fails, I suppose I could burn them onto a DVD and mail them to you.

Lets save that for a last resort. I'll try a few more methods as I only scratched the surface with several sites. I'll just have to dig deeper.

Thanks for your willingness to help me finish it though. I may have to take you up on your offer.

Edited on 12/21/2009 04:01 PM.