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12 Days

12 Moments of Anime #1: The Memories That Revolve Forever

by ETERNAL on December 25, 2009

2009 has been an interesting year, though it was probably more interesting for me than it was for anime. Between finishing up some personal projects, broadening my scope of anime and media consumption, and delving deeper into my selected niche of visual novels, the distance between my last Christmas and this one is vast. Of course, aside from all of the personal growth that I could go on and on about, there was something quite significant that occurred this year, and it’s the only thing befitting the number 1 spot.

It goes by the name of Honey and Clover.

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12 Moments of Anime #2: Fate/disability shoujo

by ETERNAL on December 24, 2009

[yukitarou]

There’s a lot that one can say about Fate/stay night; I spent about 5000 words on it in total, and I estimate Owen, Pontifus, and Martin have spent about the same.

Of course, when it comes to a game this iconic, there’s no accurate way of counting the impressions and retrospectives of fans. F/SN has always been one of the most popular visual novels in the history of everything, earning not only an anime adaptation and a plethora of merchandise, but also a solid concrete reader score (approximately 9/10 on VNDB and ErogameScape [NSFW]). Long story short, it’s a good game. Period.

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12 Moments of Anime #3: Life Goes On in the Big Dango Family

by ETERNAL on December 23, 2009

I’ve said a lot about Clannad, to the point that I hardly feel like linking to a post. It was a spectacular show while it lasted – maybe not revolutionary, per se, but certainly a change of pace from the standard Key fare that we’ve grown accustomed to. Truth be told, my favourite moments in the series aired in 2008, while the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa was developing until things unfolded the way that they did. The whole warm-and-fuzzy shoujo-esque bliss of the middle portion of After Story is something I’ll never forget, but it’s also a memory that falls awkwardly on the line between this year and the last.

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12 Moments of Anime #5: Conspicuity in Cataloging, Sweet Blue Flowers

by ETERNAL on December 21, 2009

[ame]

Aoi Hana was a spectacular show, easily my top pick from the summer season. It inspired a lot of thoughts in me, too, which I recorded in the post that the awkward pun in the title is referring to.

Interestingly, 2009 was pretty much my first experience with the yuri genre, and I think I’ve learned my way around the tropes in the past year. Marimite was good, no doubt about that – the symbolic memes of ribbon-adjusting and “walking slowly is preferred here” define what shoujo-ai is all about. In fact, I don’t think it’s wrong to simply call Marimite a definitive piece, despite the origins of the genre reaching back to the 70s and 80s.

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12 Moments of Anime #6: Saya’s Song, Google’s Hegemony

by ETERNAL on December 20, 2009

[viola]

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard of Nitro+. You probably also played Saya no Uta when it was translated at the beginning of the year.

If you have done those things, then chances are high that your mind will never be the same.

I wrote about the game when I first finished it, but it’s hard to capture the story’s psychological intensity without experiencing it first-hand. Much like Ryukishi07′s When They Cry, Saya’s twisted story is a great example of how to do psychological visual novels right. That said, Saya no Uta does drift more toward horror and fantasy than Umineko‘s mystery, but the end result is the same. For the <10 hours it will last, I would be surprised if the sound of Saya’s song does not leave your spine chilled.

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12 Moments of Anime #10: Out with the New, In with the Old… and the New

by ETERNAL on December 16, 2009

In 4chan’s words, I’m a newfag. Or a moefag, however you decide to put it. Like many of the /jp/ denizens and unlike many of the most established editorial bloggers, my area of preference – and my specialty – will always be within the modern moe/eroge scene.

However, as we all know, level grinding to increase only one stat well result in a terribly unbalanced character. Unique skills are only useful when they can be backed up by a decent foundation. Knowing this, when I finally finished my initial trek through the world of VN adaptations and my favourites list was more or less solidified, I decided to take a journey through the annals of history – to the days before I was born, to VHS and beyond.

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