FunBlog

The usual caveats apply: I haven’t sampled everything and my tastes are not yours. Series that are continuing into the Spring are not generally eligible, though I am making an exception for one that has no overall story.

The anime industry is clearly suffering from the bad economy. Fewer series were produced. Fan service shows (a mainstay of the second-tier studios) have gotten raunchier. Even if you think that’s a good thing, it has to be a sign of desperation.

Still, the year has to be judged by the best that is produces (remember Sturgeon’s Law.) By that measure 2009 actually wasn’t all that bad.

Outstanding Anime Series of 2009

Amazingly there were 3 series this year that really stood out, each with its own unique visual style.

Bakemonogatari (Ghoststory) Finally a series from Shaft that I can wholeheartedly endorse. Macabre, funny, twisted and solidly entertaining.

Higashi no Eden (Eden of the East) OK, the ending feels a little abrupt, but the show as a whole is brilliant, like nothing I’ve ever seen. A dark story, but funny and clever, consistently surprising and fascinating.

Kemono no Souja Erin (Erin the Beast Player) A great fantasy story, quite long but carefully written with no waste or filler. Warning: the drawings may remind you of a children’s book, but this is not for little kids.

Special Honorable Mention

Ponyo was actually released in Japan in 2008, but Americans had to wait until 2009 to see it. The bottom line: Hayao Miyazaki is back and near the top of his form, at least if you like things like Totoro.

Noteworthy Anime Series of 2009

Aoi Bungaku (Fresh Literature). This selection of stories by noted twentieth century Japanese writers is not for everyone, but I rather liked it. The stories are fairly dark; in an earlier post I half-jokingly said that contemporary serious Japanese literature is mostly about suicide in one way or another. This series did nothing to refute my thesis.

Clannad After Story People who had played the game seemed to like the ending more than those who hadn’t. Still, if you like this sort of thing, this is another solid adaptation of a Key visual novel by Kyoto Animation. Get out your handkerchiefs.

Kimi ni Todake is indeed an angsty shoujo romance, but this one is special. The heroine, who has more than a trace of ASD wonders wonders why she has no friends and tries to reason out logically what she needs to do to get some. The results are a bit strange, but surprisingly successful.

Mainichi Kaasan (Everyday Mom/Mom’s Life) Sure the character designs are horrifying, but this adaptation of the gag manga about a manga artist and her family is the most consistently funny show of the year. However you may need to have kids of your own to appreciate the humor.

Summer Wars. It’s cyberpunk vs. Japanese tradition in this movie. As science fiction it has a few refrigerator moments, but the depiction of the quarrelsome but supportive traditional extended family is priceless.

Toradora Finally–a harem comedy with a decent ending!

Interesting, but Not to My Taste

There were several shows that were worthy efforts, but which for various reasons I found unwatchable.

Genji Monogatari Sennenki OK, let’s get real. The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century, is not the world’s first novel. Perhaps it’s the first novel written by a woman, or the first example of chick lit. In any case The Golden Ass, written by Lucius Apuleius sometime in the 2nd century, reads much more like a modern novel.

This anime adaptation of Gengi is beautifully drawn, and the convoluted writing has been cleaned up to make it comprehensible to a modern audience. Unfortunately I can’t make myself care about the endless love affairs of a beautiful but narcissistic prince.

Kuuchuu Buranko (Trapeze) A daring, innovative visual style. I couldn’t make it through even one episode.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun) There are many people who really like this, and it clearly has a lot going for it, including fine animation and interesting characters. Unfortunately I find the character of Kuroko so revolting that I just can’t watch the show.

Kyoto Animation Jumps the Shark

Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Second Season). There was plenty of reason to fear that the sequel would be a disappointment, given that the writers had cherry-picked the best of the source material for the first season, but nobody expected something as bad as this. Stretching what was at most 5 episodes worth of material to 14 episodes had the fans dumbfounded and furious.

Haruhi illustrates the sort of mistake that talented people can make when they get too arrogant, but Sora o Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai (Munto) is a work of total mediocrity: an uninspired story, flat uninteresting characters and bad animation with obtrusive CGI.

You may not feel that K-ON belongs in this category. It was a tremendous hit, pretty to look at, funny and fun to watch. However compared to Lucky Star, the same studio’s earlier adaptation of another gag manga about high school girls, K-ON falls short. Lucky Star is just as plotless, but it is funnier with much better developed characters. The main innovation in K-ON consists of cranking the moe factor up to 11. This is no substitute for good writing.

Still Watching

Cross Game. There’s nothing obviously special about this sports/romance anime, except the fact that it is well-drawn, well-written and has lovable characters. It is a long, slow-moving series, but consistently enjoyable.

Kobato. I’m still not sure whether this is going to turn out to be brilliant or a disappointment, but it is rather cute and charming. Charm can only take you so far though. They need to prove that there is a real story here.

Inuyasha Final Chapter. It’s very simple. If you were a fan of the original series, you will want to see the ending. If you didn’t see the original series, the sequel has nothing to offer you.

Millennium Actress is something of an overlooked gem. The movie won all sorts of awards in Japan and was widely praised by critics, but its American release sank without a ripple. This supports the general rule that an animated film that doesn’t even pretend to be for kids has no chance in America. For anime fans it is worth a second look.

The movie is reminiscent of Citizen Kane, though it is less political and more romantic. The basic structure is the same: an investigator explores the life story of a public figure, seeking some key insight that will explain the life and give it meaning.
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The trailers for Up in the Air do their best to suggest that this is a formulaic romantic comedy about two people who initially hate each other but end up falling in love. It isn’t anything of the sort. Nor is it a cynical black comedy like Office Space, as one might guess from the premise. It’s something different, a bit smarter and subtler than either.

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) works for an outplacement firm, and what with the current economy he is very busy flying from city to city to companies that have layoffs scheduled. Mostly his job consists of firing people whose managers are too cowardly to do the job themselves. In between he gives motivational speeches in which he preaches a Zen-like avoidance of attachments and commitments.
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Avatar, James Cameron’s first movie since Titanic (1997), is a solid science fiction story, probably a classic. It is a visually stunning extravaganza which seems to have required the contributions of just about every CGI effects studio on this planet.

A lot of people are saying that while the movie is visually stunning the story is weak. I wouldn’t call it weak; I found it exciting and rather affecting. It is certainly very derivative and rather predictable, but that seems to be true of just about everything that comes out of Hollywood these days.
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The Princess and the Frog is something that we haven’t seen in a long time: a traditional hand-drawn animated film from Disney. The last one was 5 years ago. (It was called Home on the Range and it’s understandable if you don’t remember it.)

After Home on the Range flopped, Disney announced that they would not make any more hand-drawn films, and would instead use computer rendering for all future animated theatrical movies. Apparently they changed their mind, and I think that is worth celebrating.

The Princess and the Frog is not quite as good as the best of the classic Disney animated films, but that’s holding it to a very high standard. It has a solidly entertaining story, and much of it looks very good. If you care about animation, you should probably see this, if only to encourage Disney to keep trying.
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When I saw the trailer for Fantastic Mr. Fox my initial reaction was “Wow, that’s pretty bad animation!” This was quite unfair.

My reaction was based on an unconscious assumption that this was an example of computer-generated animation, the approach used in most animated movies today. In fact, if you are an animation fan Fantastic Mr. Fox may be worth seeing because it may well be the last major motion picture ever made using the much older technique of stop-motion animation. The sad fact is that today’s computer technology can create a very similar look with more realistic motion, all at a much lower cost.
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This is a bit unusual–an anime based on ballet. The story draws heavily from Swan Lake and the The Nutcracker, with individual episodes inspired by various other ballets, operas and pieces of classical music.

This gives the series the singular advantage of having some of the world’s most beautiful music for its soundtrack. It also features clever and thoughtful writing. However the animation is, overall, only mediocre. It’s regrettable that this was not produced by one of the top-ranked animation studios (I’m thinking of Madhouse in particular.) If it had been this would surely have deserved a full five stars.
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