Inside the Mind: Sternberg's Trianglular Theory of Love

Psychology is one of my favorite subjects, because of the great insights it gives into the behavior of both real people and fictional characters. In my "Inside the Mind" series, I will talk about a topic in psychology and connect it with some examples from anime.

Robert Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love (not to be confused with a love triangle) was an attempt to categorize different types of loving relationships, ranging from loving couples to family to close friendships. His published findings broke "love" into three basic components:

• Passion: This refers to the physical feelings of love, primarily referring to sexual arousal and romantic attraction. As an extension, it could also apply to any relationship driven strongly by emotional reactions or some kind of inexplicable "chemistry".
• Intimacy: This refers to the attachment and connectedness formed between two people. In contrast to passion, which oftentimes grows quickly and effortlessly and fades away pretty fast, too, intimacy takes time and effort, but grows steadily over time without dropping.
• Commitment: This refers to conscious choices to care for a person, such as marriage commitments or commitments to family ties. These can be short- or long-term, and can change suddenly as they are determined by conscious decisions.

The key behind the triangular theory of love is that these three components can be present at different levels of strength in all sorts of different loving relationships, and that these relationships can be categorized by which element or combination of components are most prominent relative to each other. Also, the strengths of these elements can change over time, which can cause relationships of one category to move into another over time. These categories can be thought of as different parts of a triangle with corners of passion, intimacy, and commitment, as seen to the left. The categorizations are as follows:

Non-love: Low passion, low intimacy, low commitment

This is a basic category to include any relationship in which the three elements are non-existent or otherwise insignificant. Casual interactions with acquaintances fall into this category.

Infatuated love: High passion, low intimacy, low commitment

These relationships describe highly passionate relationships formed over minimal commitments, and without any true intimacy built, due to lack of time or effort. If you've seen two characters suddenly and instantly fall in love at first sight with each other, to the point where you wonder what they even see in each other besides looks, you're probably looking at infatuated love. Such love, absent of intimacy or commitment, can quickly flame out and end up with the two people going back to non-loving acquaintances.

Example: The romance between Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask definitely starts out like this; you can't say there's anything between them other than raw chemistry (and some kind of reincarnational hijinks).

Liking/Friendship: Low passion, high intimacy, low commitment

Straight-up friendship falls in this category, defining two people who feel a close connection with each other without strong romantic feelings or particularly strong commitments past a basic commitment of friendship.

Examples: Naru and Hana of Hanayamata; Haruka and Makoto of Free!. Describes most anime friendships well.

Empty love: Low passion, low intimacy, high commitment

This category fits any relationship where all the "love" comes from a conscious decision to care for each other, absent of physical feelings or emotional connections. Family members who are not particularly close but will still lay down their lives for each other will fall in this. This category can also include those in an arranged marriage, in which case "empty love" may be just a starting point from which the relationship can grow into one of the categories below.

Examples: Sakura and Touya of Cardcaptor Sakura; Ranma and Akane of Ranma 1/2 starts out like this.

Romantic love: High passion, high intimacy, low commitment

This category encompasses romantic relationships with both strong physical feelings and emotional connection, but without particularly strong commitments, perhaps past the basic "going steady" extent.

Examples: Futaba and Kou of Blue Spring Ride (far from the only shoujo example)

Fatuous love: High passion, low intimacy, high commitment

This can include two people so strongly infatuated with each other that they rush into a commitment. Conversely, it could also include those put together in an arranged marriage but feel an instant romantic attraction to each other. In both cases, the passion can flame out fairly quickly, reducing the relationship to empty love, or intimacy can be built to help stabilize the relationship.

Example: I'm sorry, but I cannot see Kirito and Asuna's relationship from Sword Art Online as anything but this, at least at first.

Companionate Love: Low passion, high intimacy, high commitment
This category describes a close, intimate friendship which also has an element of a deep commitment to each other. This category can be used for extremely close friendships, close family members, and also romantic relationships for which the passionate romantic feelings have either faded or just aren't that prominent. (As a side note, studies have shown that companionate love is a better indicator of the long-term satisfaction of a marriage relationship than romantic love.)
Examples: Sae and Hiro of Hidamari Sketch; Kousuke and Kirino of Oreimo toward the end of the first season and up until *that* ending of the second season; arguably, Ryuuji and Taiga of Toradora! are more like this than anything else.

Consummate Love: High passion, high intimacy, high commitment

Oftentimes considered the ideal relationship in fiction, consummate love features all three components of love prominently. It's something that is generally only present in married couples, though some fictional romances may be depicted as a somewhat scaled-down version of this. And even in married couples, in reality this form of love is not always present all the time, perhaps even ultimately fading out as the passion goes out and the relationship transitions into companionate love (which, all things considered, isn't the worst thing in the world).
Example: Tomoya and Nagisa of Clannad After Story

This theory is interesting enough as it is, though it is far from perfect or complete. Still, it's a great starting point for thinking about character relationships in terms of the different ways love can manifest in those relationships. We can also think about how those components play a part in our own relationships.

Looking Back: Love Live! School Idol Project (and School Idol Festival)

I'm back to blogging! And what better way to return than to look back at a series that I had enjoyed quite a lot over its first run, but only truly came to love after experiencing it through other media?

Industry Talk: Dub-I-Dub

Let's talk about dubs this week, specifically why some shows get dubbed while others don't. All of this should be common knowledge to longtime fans, but it's something that I want to put out for newer fans as it is important for them to know if they care about what gets dubbed or not.

Sentai Filmworks recently put out their February 2015 release slate, which includes a fairly well-known title that has been a long time coming: Space Brothers. However, this first 13-episode set of the series, and likely the rest of the 99-episode show, will not be dubbed. Meanwhile, also on the slate for that month is a re-release of Leviathan: The Last Defense, released sub-only earlier this year, but now with a dub. A number of fans have gotten quite riled up that a "crap" show like Leviathan is getting dubbed (and re-released with a dub, at that!), while a "masterpiece" show like Space Brothers gets the sub-only treatment.

So I think it's time to set some things straight. First of all, I think Leviathan is a perfectly okay show. Sure, it's exceedingly average and not something I'd consider "good" by any means, but if you're looking for a brainless, fun fantasy action show, it's perfectly fine. But that's pretty much irrelevant to all of this.

Anyway, why do some shows get dubbed while others are sub-only? Simple: dubs cost money. A lot of money, too; I don't have the exact numbers, but the numbers I've seen point to a cost of several thousand dollars per episode. Let's say it's $5,000 an episode; for a 12-episode series, that's $60,000 the show has to be able to profit in order to make up the dub cost! What this boils down to is this: a dubbed show has to sell really well.

Now, certainly, dubs increase sales. A number of anime fans are only interested in or largely prefer dubbed titles to sub-only titles, for various reasons. And anime companies wouldn't dub shows if they didn't think there was at least the possibility to bring in so much more sales with a dub that the cost of the dub is worth it (especially since dubs help improve the long-term value of a show, as well as the overall image of the company itself). However, the question comes down to this: can a show bring in enough additional sales to cover the cost of the dub?

If not, the sub-only treatment makes sense; rather than lose money on a dub, they'd rather lose some sales but still sell enough to the smaller but devoted customer base that's fine with buying sub-only shows to make a profit. And in some cases, like Leviathan, if the sub-only release turns out to sell well beyond expectations, to the point where the company can feel like a dub might be profitable, they can always go back and re-release the show with a dub.

The most important thing to remember is this: whether a show gets dubbed or not has nothing to do with how good it is. It has everything to do with how well it can sell with the crowd that primarily or exclusively buys dubbed releases. Now, there are all sorts of theories for what titles are popular with that crowd and what titles are not; generally, action-heavy shows are more likely to get dubbed, while slice-of-life shows are very likely to not be dubbed. Also, longer shows like Space Brothers are disadvantaged by the greater cost of having to dub a lot of episodes (if you thought dubbing 12 episodes was expensive, consider having to dub 99 episodes!).

The thing is to not get angry over a show you really like not getting dubbed, or a show you think is bad getting dubbed. These companies are just trying to do what makes the most business sense, and for various reasons, the shows that sell the best aren't necessarily the best-quality shows. If you really want to try to get shows you like dubbed, your best bet is to try to promote the show while it is airing and increase the streaming numbers, as those are one of the indicators companies use to determine whether a show might be popular enough to be dubbed. And sometimes, you just have to resign yourself to the fact that great shows like Non Non Biyori and Engaged to the Unidentified just will never be dubbed... at least, as an eternal fan of slice-of-life shows, that's the reality I have to live with every month...

Looking Back: Myself; Yourself

Go figure that, in a show about multiple girls, the most memorable moment involves the friendship between two guys.

(Note: This Looking Back post is free of all but the most minor of spoilers.)

No weekly ramblings, but...

Sorry for the lack of weekly ramblings this weekend. I sent my laptop in for repairs, and wasn't in the mood to try to compose something on my iPad. And while I have the laptop back now, I don't really have it in me to compose anything like a Looking Back post.

Instead, I took the time to update my What I'm Watching page with final scores and thoughts on all of the Summer shows I watched, plus initial impressions of the Fall shows I've watched so far. Check it out by clicking on the page link above... or if you're lazy, just click here.

Final posts for the last two episodes of Hanayamata and Barakamon will be coming eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later. Also expect further coverage of Encouragement of Climb Second Season (despite the continued lack of a legal stream) as well as possibly a new show that I'll be covering during the season, plus a new feature called "3 for 3". What does that mean? You'll have to wait and see...

Looking Back: Invaders of the Rokujyoma!?

Note: My weekly ramblings will now be divided into various different types. "Looking Back" is where I look at a show that I have finished, either recently or in the past, and talk about my personal reactions to the show. "Industry Talk" will involve random ramblings about the anime industry, usually pertaining to the North American industry. "Anime Talk" is for most other general anime ramblings. I may add other categories later, too.

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"...invaded my heart instead."

Of all the things I thought this show might turn out to be, the one thing I did not expect was for it to be genuinely good.

One Week Ramblings: Looking Back at Visual Novel Adaptations

Visual novel adaptations, at least of bishoujo games featuring routes for multiple girls, have been surprisingly rare as of late. The most recent such adaptations that I've watched go way back into Fall of last year, with White Album 2 and Little Busters! Refrain. Overall, the number of visual novel adaptations any given season seems to max out at two, with no more than five in any given year.

This is a bit jarring for me, as around the time I seriously started getting into anime (around 2007), visual novel adaptations were pretty much the standard non-manga anime adaptation source (kind of like how light novels are now). That, combined with the fact that many of my first anime around that time were of such visual novel adaptations, and my eternal love for cute animated girls, make visual novel adaptations among many of my favorites at the time.

I bring this up because next season has an abnormally large number of such visual novel adaptations. Sure, four might not seem like a lot, and wouldn't be if it were 2007, but now, especially after such a drought of them recently, it's definitely notable. These four are Grisaia no Kajitsu, Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai, Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete, and, of course, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, in case you forgot that was originally based on a visual novel (in fact, the original anime adaptation aired in 2006, right in the middle of the golden age of VN adaptations, though I hope this new adaptation is better than that one was...). Aside from Fate/stay night, I'm not familiar with these visual novels, though they all look interesting enough and I've heard good things about the original Grisaia no Kajitsu visual novel.

But since I don't have anything to say about what's coming up, I'll talk instead about some notable visual novel adaptations I've seen in the past.

Of course, when talking about visual novel adaptations, the big ones are the ones adapted from Key/Visual Arts works: Air, Kanon, Clannad, and more recently, Little Busters!. All four are favorites of mine, being well-crafted and emotionally powerful works that really make the most of adapting the medium (though some might contest that for Little Busters!).

Aside from the top-level works of Key/Visual Arts, there are some other VN adaptations that I enjoyed. Among my first was D.C. ~Da Capo~, part of a large franchise that has only recently appeared legally in the US when Da Capo III was streamed, though the original remains my favorite of the series. The first half isn't much to speak of, but once things get serious and some revelations about the nature of the eternally-blooming sakura tree that is at the center of the series are revealed, things get serious and even tragic, making for some great moments. That show is pretty much my baseline for what makes a good VN adaptation.

Some VN adaptations I enjoyed that are available for streaming currently on Crunchyroll are Myself;Yourself and H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~. I'll have more to say on those later, but feel free to check them out on your own in the meantime.

Visual novel adaptations tend to follow a pretty basic pattern. There are multiple girls, and one at a time, the show goes down each girl's "route", exploring some of the issues of each girl (and of the guy as well) and ultimately resolving them, either happily or tragically. Eventually, the show might settle on a "main girl" that will be the male lead's official love interest for the adaptation. Various shows might mix up the basic formula in various ways, but generally speaking, the quality of a visual novel adaptation lies not in originality but in execution: having a good, varied cast of girls to be emotionally invested in, and then writing out their story lines (and where applicable, romance) well.

Of course, with the saturation of VN adaptations during that time period, there were just as many stinkers as there were solid works. (The original Fate/stay night anime is a good example of such a stinker.) And going into the four shows coming up this season, there's definitely the chance that one or more of them will turn out to be pretty bad, too. Still, as a former (and in many ways, still a current) fan of visual novel adaptations, I am hoping that these shows can turn out to be good.

One Week Ramblings: Looking Back at The Devil is a Part-Timer!

Even the Demon King needs 10000-yen bills.

There isn't much to say about this show, except that it scores very high marks in overall execution and pure entertainment factor.

One Week Ramblings: Looking Back at Fruits Basket

One thing I will sometimes do during these weekly ramblings is pick a show from my anime history and look back at it. (In other words, like Annalyn's Rewind posts at her blog.)  This will be separate from my Hall of Fame Inductions as the focus is less on recommending the show to others and more on what it means to me personally. Of course, I will very likely induct eligible shows I cover here properly into the Hall of Fame.*

For my first post of this nature, I thought I'd pick a show that was particularly influential to my anime history. I had a number of options, but after reading this article on Anime News Network on some "gateway anime" choices, as well as some other blog posts on the show (beware spoilers!), I decided on Fruits Basket.

Now, while Fruits Basket was among my first anime series I finished, it was not truly a "gateway" show in that it neither introduced me to an anime (or even to the shoujo genre, as Cardcaptor Sakura took that technically) nor was it the show that got me particularly interested in anime; nevertheless, it was a pivotal show that I watched during an important period of my anime history, and to this day it remains a show that holds a dear place in my heart.

I'll be doing a proper Hall of Fame induction of this show soon, so I'll be talking more about the show's qualities then. As for what the show means to me, there are a number of things that this show did for me.

Probably what really made this show so important to me was its various messages about life. They were very nice and positive messages that show that there is good in this world, and really helped me enjoy the show on a greater level than I had for most other shows I had watched until then. It helps that those messages were naturally incorporated into the show itself, thanks to a very nice protagonist in Tohru Honda, an optimistic and cheerful girl that sees the good in everyone. (She is also one of the major reasons I'm a big fan of her Japanese voice actor, Yui Horie.) She's one of my favorite characters in anime (although I like her even more in the manga; more on that later).

Of course, I have to talk about the other characters in the show, specifically the members of the Zodiac. They're a fun and varied bunch (well, most of them; Hiro was pretty insufferable in the anime), from the cool but soft-hearted Yuki to the tsundere Kyo, and fun side characters like the cheerfully childish Momiji and the crossdressing Ritsu and the absolutely adorable Kisa (one of the few girls among the Zodiac members). In addition to them, Tohru also has some good friends that play significant roles, too.

With a great cast, good messages, and a solid plot overall, plus some great comedy helped by some fun artistic direction, this show has pretty much everything it needs to be a top-tier show. I gave it a raw score of 9/10 (an A-) and a personal score of 9.7/10.0, both of which place the show cleanly among my favorites. If there's one particular thing I didn't like about the show, it was how it was cut short compared to the manga. While the anime does have a decent conclusion in and of itself, it is ultimately just a prelude to an even greater story found in the original manga. After enjoying the anime so much, I started reading the manga, and Fruits Basket also became the first manga series I bought in its entirety, even as it was being released in the U.S. by Tokyopop.

The manga is my all-time favorite manga series, and for good reason. It takes the foundation shown in the already excellent anime series and develops the characters and plot to further depths, introducing some Zodiac members the anime didn't have time to cover, providing more insight into the story's "villain", Akito, and showing that for all of Tohru's goodness, she is far from being "too perfect" (a complaint that is easy to make about the anime's Tohru, though it never bothered me too much). Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a reboot of the anime to cover the rest of the manga material will be coming, which is unfortunate, as if the anime could cover the entire story, it would probably be in my top 5 anime of all time. As it is... it's still in my top 20 and a show I remember fondly.

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News Corner

Sentai Filmworks has announced their December slate of releases. It includes a number of things, including some new licenses such as Reideen, the Queen's Blade OVAs, and The Ambition of Oda Nobuna, as well as the bilingual limited edition Blu-ray/DVD release of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! The releases are all available for pre-order on RightStuf, and will also start appearing for pre-order on other sites.

And in a particularly big bit of news, the original CLANNAD visual novel will be coming to Steam! Fans of the anime (which personally is my 2nd favorite anime of all time) will definitely want to check it out.

One Week Ramblings: The Actual Church of Barakamon

I've been very enthusiastic blogging about Barakamon, one of the best shows this season and definitely the one I would most readily recommend to anyone. One of the reasons why I love this show so much is how it presents Christian values in every episode--it's what I'm blogging about it, after all--which I had thought at first to be incidental rather than intentional, like most cases of Christian values I find in anime. However, these Christian values might not be as incidental as I thought.

While it was probably mentioned before, episode 7 of Barakamon confirms that the show takes place on the Gotou Islands off of Nagasaki. And if you read the Wikipedia entry I just linked to, particularly the Demographics section, you'll find out, as I did, that the people of the islands are descended from a Christian sect that escaped there during the persecution of Christians in the 1600s, and that there are many Catholics and Catholic churches on the islands, making it one of the most notable Christian communities in Japan. This is especially notable given that Japan has a very small Christian population, at supposedly less than 1% of the entire population--in anime, this means that very few anime are actually about Christians and Christian values; as I mentioned before, most cases of Christian values in anime are completely incidental.

Now, I cannot say for sure that the author of Barakamon is intentionally drawing on Christian values, or that the characters living on the island are Christians; nothing directly related to Christianity is shown, outside a picture of a cathedral as one of the tourist spots one of Seishuu's off-island friends wants to visit. Nevertheless, it is very clear that the people of the island live according to Christian values, in their sense of hospitality, grace, and overall friendliness, and knowing the Christian background of the islands, it now makes much more sense that their culture is steeped in those values, regardless of their actual beliefs.

All this is to say that Barakamon is probably the closest thing to an actual Christian anime airing on TV in a long time. Christian anime fans like myself who are long used to having to find redeeming values in a definitively non-Christian field of media should be glad to know that there is at least one major series for which the Christian faith is, if not a core part of the show, at least a significant factor in it. It certainly has given me a new appreciation for what was already one of my favorite shows of the season.

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News Briefs:

Lots of anime movies have their Blu-ray and DVD listings solicited.

Two Studio Ghibli favorites are appearing on Blu-ray for the first time: Kiki's Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke. In addition, Hayao Miyazaki's most recent (and probably last) work, The Wind Rises, is now available for pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD.

In addition, Patema Inverted and Welcome to the Space Show are also available for pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD.

One Week Ramblings: Raw Scores and Personal Scores

As a reminder, the Weekly Ramblings series now features my talking about something anime/manga-related, with various news at the end.

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Recently, I have implemented a new scoring system to complement my existing scoring system for anime. This new system, the Raw Score, follows a straight 1-10 scale (technically 0-11, but only one show will get an 11 and I'll never give out a 0) with no decimals, and scores are determined more by the shows own strengths and weaknesses than on my personal preferences and biases. For more information on raw scores, click here.

I have also updated my MAL page, such that raw scores are used for Score, while personal scores are under the Tags. As you can see, by and large my Personal Scores are higher than my Raw Scores, sometimes by quite a lot, and are pretty much never below the Raw Scores (assuming that a 10/10 raw score corresponds to a personal score of 9.7/10.0).

There are some interesting things on my end regarding how much higher Personal Scores are than Raw Scores. There are two shows, for instance, which have a Raw Score of 6/10 (a barely above average B-) but a Personal Score of over 9.0: Sister Princess and Dog Days (both seasons). I wrote a blog post on the former and have inducted the latter into the Hall of Fame under special conditions, but in both cases, I am well aware that, while I greatly enjoyed both shows, it was for reasons that go well beyond how good the shows themselves are (you can read about those reasons in the links given). In a sense, I consider them my "guilty pleasure" shows, though I believe both shows are at least good enough that they can be recommended to fans of similar shows.

On the other hand, while I will probably never hand out a Personal Score lower than a Raw Score (by and large, my personal preferences make me like a show more rather than less), I do have some shows where the Personal Score is exactly the same as the Raw Score. Probably the most notable example is Attack on Titan, which is a 8/10 (B+) show that I scored an 8.0/10.0. (Actually, all of my current examples of Personal Score = Raw Score are 8's.) I have mentioned in the past that Attack on Titan is really not my type of show, so the enjoyment I get out of it is pretty much entirely my appreciation for how well-done the show itself is; this is reflected in how my score for the show is entirely made up of its Raw Score. (The same can be said for Gunslinger Girl, another show scoring 8.0 on both scales. As for the third, Crest of the Stars, that has more to do with my withholding full judgment on the show as I have yet to see the sequels.)

Overall, I place more weight on Personal Scores than Raw Scores, though Raw Scores are good for what I choose to recommend to others--and will be a major part of an update to the Hall of Fame section of this blog.

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News Briefs:

- Cardcaptor Sakura will start streaming on Crunchyroll on Tuesday, though only the first 6 episodes will be available for free. All 70 episodes will be available for subscribers, and all episodes will be available both subbed and with the Animax dub.
- Funimation had plenty to announce during Otakon. They have officially scheduled Cowboy Bebop's Blu-ray release for December, and will have two unique Premium Editions, exclusive to Amazon and Funimation's site, respectively, each with different premium items and packaging. They have also license-rescued The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (both seasons, plus the shorts, but not the Disappearance movie) as well as Lucky Star, as well as the movies for Strike Witches and Steins;Gate.
- An impromptu Q&A session on Sentai Filmworks' Twitter (amusingly tagged #Notakon due to Sentai not being at Otakon but the session essentially being their "panel") has a couple of noteworthy notes. Most notably, No Game No Life has been confirmed to be getting a dub, and the Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Premium Edition box set is scheduled for December release.
- Finally, it's been a long time coming, but Season 3 of Working!! (known in the U.S. as Wagnaria!!) has been greenlit! The original manga will come to a close soon, but it remains to be seen whether the anime will be able to cover the rest. Nevertheless, I for one am glad to see one of my favorite comedies get another season, and I know some others will be too.

One Week Ramblings: Sporting Behavior Edition

I will be doing something new with the Weekly Ramblings, where I will be talking about a random subject related to anime and related media. Various news will be included at the end of these posts.

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Last season introduced two new sports anime series, both of which have continued into this season. Both are very good shows that I am enjoying quite a lot, and are easily recommended for sports anime fans as well as anime fans interested in trying a sports show. What is interesting, though, is how these two shows excel in two very different ways due to the nature of the sports involved.

These two shows are Haikyuu!! and Baby Steps.

Haikyuu!! is about volleyball, and chronicles one team's journey into the tournaments. Volleyball is very much a team sport, something the show makes very clear as it highlights each different player's role. As such, one of the show's greatest strength is in the development of the relationships between the players, as they learn to work with each other to defeat their opponents.

On the other hand, Baby Steps is about tennis--singles tennis, specifically--which means matches are one-on-one. Correspondingly, instead of teamwork, the show focuses on one player as he grows in his tennis skill. This show, then, excels in the individual development of that one player through each match.

A team sport about teamwork, or an individual sport about individual growth? Both are great at what they do, and really, a lot of it comes down to simply whether you like team interactions or individual development better (or, more simply, whether you like team sports or individual sports better). I personally like team sports more, so Haikyuu is the one I'm liking more at the moment, though I'm really enjoying both shows, so I'm quite happy either way.

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News Briefs

Here's a show I was not expecting to get a sequel, but am quite glad it is getting one: Kamisama Hajimemashita, known as Kamisama Kiss in the US. It's a show that I enjoyed quite a bit and I am definitely looking forward to more of it.

In more unfortunate news, Studio Ghibli have announced that they are considering dismantling their production branch, meaning we might not see much of any new works from the studio.

One Week Ramblings: 7/13/14 Summer 2014 First Impressions Edition

Since there's been a lack of notable news this week (just Sentai Filmworks picking up Samurai Jam -Bakumatsu Rock- and Bladedance of the Elementalers), I thought I'd use this post to go through all of my first impressions on the new anime of the season (outside of the YamaHanaBara trio).

Safe (definitely following)

First of all, there's Free! Eternal Summer and Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei!, which are both sequels and both following well with their previous iterations, which I enjoyed. So they're both in for sure. And I have already talked about Yama no Susume Second Season, Hanayamata, and Barakamon in my last post and how they are looking to be my top 3 for the season. Beyond that...

Locodol (2 eps.): This show is honestly a bit of a breath of fresh air for idol shows for me. Rather than focusing on all the singing and dancing and personal achievement aspects of the industry, it takes a more intimate focus on helping the local residents and the town itself, creating a charming show that works quite well for me.

Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun: Absolutely hilarious comedy, with the bundle of fun that is Chiyo Sakura making it an instant keeper. Definitely my top pick for a raw comedy.

Blue Spring Ride: I have read some of the manga some time ago, so I have an idea of what to expect, which is the main reason why I'm keeping with this one. All the shoujo drama is handled well enough and the show does look like it'll explore some good themes, too.

Sailor Moon Crystal: I have read some of the Sailor Moon manga, so I'm not going into this completely new to the series. (I have yet to see any of the first anime, though.) Anyway, it's all fun and enjoyable like the manga, so it's a lock.

Alive (continuing for now)

For the record, I have 4 open slots left on my final watchlist, as well as 2 wild card slots that I can optionally give out.

Sabagebu! -Survival Game Club-: This show has a great, fourth-wall-breaking sense of humor and some crazy, unconventional characters, plus some solid survival game action. It's all fun, though I'd like to see another episode to make sure it can keep this up for more than one episode. Status: Alive and kicking. Will very likely end up safe.

Terror in Resonance: For an intense, psychological thriller with some disturbing events within, this show does what it needs to to get my interest, focusing on the characters involved and hinting at their various histories and motivations. It should be a worthwhile watch, though I'd like to see another episode before committing. Status: Alive and healthy. Good candidate for another slot.

Invaders of the Rokujyoma!?: A stupid-fun show with few aspirations for greatness. It remains alive largely because it did very little to actually turn me off (unlike the shows below it), and I don't mind having a nice, brainless show on my watchlist (they make great dinner viewings). Status: Alive and okay. May make it to safety simply because others self-destruct.

Glasslip: (2 eps.) It sure looks pretty, but this P.A. Works show's premise has two things I'm generally not a fan of: love triangle drama and a "seeing the future" plot element. The execution is pretty good, but will that be enough for this show to secure one of the last slots on my list? Status: Alive and fighting hard for its life.

Sword Art Online II: (2 eps.) I came out of the first season of SAO neither loving the show nor absolutely hating it. I disliked many things about it but there were parts that were admittedly enjoyable. The second season doesn't start with too much to it (though the battle in ep. 2 was enjoyable), but I am hearing that this arc fixes a lot of the problems with the first two arcs, and if it can do that and maintain what was good about the first two seasons, it might just snipe out an open or wild card slot. Status: Alive but crippled. Lying in wait and seeing if it can take out a weaker show.

Tokyo ESP: It's worth comparing this to Terror in Resonance, since they both start with rather disturbing terrorist attacks, but honestly, this show does it all wrong. Too much violence just to appeal to the crowd that likes that kind of stuff, and not nearly enough world-building or character-building to go with it. That said, it seems to be an in media res start, and maybe the actual start of the story is more compelling, hence it does get another episode. But that episode will be judged harshly. Status: Barely alive. Needs a new breath of life to make it.

Persona4 the Golden Animation: This is my first experience with anything Persona4-related, and I'm thinking maybe it shouldn't be. It wasn't that hard to follow, and intriguing enough in its own way; I just feel that right now this is more of a New Game+ run, and it'd be weird to go through that without having gone through the first run-through (i.e. the first Persona4 The Animation) beforehand. One more episode to see if that really is the case. Status: Alive but seriously crippled. May be withdrawn to allow to fight in better shape.

Dead (dropped)

Rail Wars!: Couldn't even make it halfway in. Lack of interest in any of the characters or the story and an excess of bouncing chests lead to an early casualty for this show.

There's not much left for me to try out; only Bladedance of the Elementalers, as well as Jinsei if Crunchyroll picks it up within 3 episodes.

All in all, it looks to be a great summer season.

One Week Ramblings: 7/8/14 Anime Expo Edition

It's that time of the year again: time for Anime Expo and all the announcements that came with it. Here are all the announcements, by company.

Sentai Filmworks

Sentai Filmworks was full of announcements this time around. First of all, they have one additional Spring 2014 anime title that they have licensed: Chaika -The Coffin Princess-. The show is currently available on Crunchyroll, and Sentai will provide a home video version later down the road.

They have also licensed the following shows from the newly-starting Summer 2014 season:

• Akame ga Kill
• Argevollen
• Blue Spring Ride (Ao Haru Ride)
• Glasslip
• Invaders of the Rokujoma
• Rail Wars
• Sabagebu! -Survival Game Club-

They talked about some of their upcoming limited edition boxsets, starting with High School of the Dead (including the OVA) coming in November, followed by Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions!; later on, Beyond the Boundary will get the same treatment. Finally, there's the rest of Sentai's planned November 2014 releases (at the moment): Tari Tari, Natsuyuki Rendevous, and Stella Women's Academy, High School Division Class C3 will all get Blu-ray releases to go with their previous DVD releases, and Log Horizon collection 1 will be available with a dub... plus, they will release two new licenses from the Fall 2013 season: I couldn't become a hero, so I reluctantly decided to get a job (a.k.a. Yuushibu) and My mental choices are completely interfering with my school romantic comedy (a.k.a. Noucome).

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Aniplex of America

The only new news here is that on September 23rd, Aniplex of America will release the first season of Valvrave the Liberator on Blu-ray. The show will be available in Japanese with English subtitles (so no dub) with various extras for a store price of $120.

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NIS America

Upcoming releases from this company include the Hanasaku Iroha ~Home Sweet Home~ movie, coming October 14th, and Nyaruko: Crawling With Love! Season 2, coming November 4th. Both are available in their usual Premium Edition subtitled-only Blu-ray release standard.

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Funimation Entertainment

Funimation has three new licenses from the Summer 2014 season to go with their current slate: Barakamon, Sengoku Basara: Judge End, and Black Butler: Book of Circus.

They also announced several acquisitions related to their incredibly popular Psycho-Pass franchise: the Psycho-Pass Extended Edition, which, despite its name, is actually a season-long digest version that is airing this current Summer 2014 season, Psycho-Pass Season 2, which airs this fall, and Psycho-Pass: The Movie.

Finally, some good news for those who are a fan of A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun but were disappointed that the current home video releases are DVD-only: Funimation plans to release Blu-ray/DVD combos of these shows soon. The first season of Index is coming late fall, and the first season of Railgun will appear in the winter. Moreover, in October, they will be releasing the first part of the second season of A Certain Magical Index on Blu-ray and DVD right from the get-go, with the second part and the movie to follow in later months.

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RightStuf (Nozomi Entertainment/Lucky Penny)

Four new licenses have appeared courtesy of this company. First, there's Space Pirate Mito Seasons 1 and 2, which is actually a license rescue for a title previously owned by Media Blasters, and will be released on their Lucky Penny label with remastered video and updated translations. Only the first season will have a dub; the second season (also known as Aoi & Mutsuki: A Pair of Queens) will be sub-only.

There's also Fantastic Detective Labyrinth (a.k.a. Suteki Tantei Labyrinth), an unlicensed show from 2007, which will be available this fall as a sub-only DVD from the Lucky Penny label. For a very recent show, they have also licensed Yondemasu-yo, Azazel-san, a black comedy with two seasons airing as recently as 2011 and Spring 2013, despite which has not even been streamed legally in the US. The series will be released under the Lucky Penny label sub-only sometime in 2015.

And then, there's one show that's gone unlicensed for a while which I've definitely wanted to be licensed: Yakitate!! Japan! This show is all about baking bread, which the magic of shonen makes it far crazier and epic than it has any right to be. The show really is a joy to watch and I am very much looking forward to this release. The 69-episode series will be released starting in 2015 under the Nozomi Entertainment label sub-only.

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So that's some of the big news from Anime Expo. What announcements are you looking forward to?

One Week Ramblings: 6/29/14 Free Sunday Edition

It's the week before Anime Expo, and a lot of anime news will come out then. Until then, here's a bit of news here and there in prelude to all of that.

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Funimation has licensed Free! Eternal Summer, the sequel to last year's Free! swimming anime. This not only includes streaming the show as it airs this upcoming summer, but also a home video license sometime in the future. This is a fairly interesting and surprising development, but it should be good news to those looking forward to hearing their favorite muscle-toned boys dubbed sometime in the future. While the first season has not been officially announced as licensed yet, it can probably be assumed to be announced during Anime Expo.

And for those who prefer Crunchyroll for their streaming platform, don't worry, as Crunchyroll will still stream the series in the US.

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Sentai Filmworks will also have various announcements at Anime Expo, but for now, they have their October 2014 slate of releases. Here's what is available for pre-order on Rightstuf and other retailers:

- Sunday Without God Complete Collection, on Blu-ray and DVD, dubbed.
- Hakkenden -Eight Dogs of the East- Season 2 Collection, on Blu-ray and DVD, dubbed.
- Rozen Maiden - Zurückspulen Complete Collection, on DVD, dubbed. (Blu-ray will likely come later.)
- Meganebu! Complete Collection, on Blu-ray and DVD, sub-only.
- Kill Me Baby Complete Collection re-release on Blu-ray (dubbed).
- Bodacious Space Pirates Complete Collection, on Blu-ray and DVD (dubbed)
- Fate/stay night TV Complete Collection, on Blu-ray (dubbed)

The Bodacious Space Pirates and Fate/stay night complete collections are combined from their two-part releases earlier.

By the way, for those wondering about the number of DVD-only releases, both recent and future, there is a connection here, as their international licensing (on the Japanese side) are all handled by TBS--this applies to Photo Kano, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, Stella Women's Academy, Tamako Market, Rozen Maiden, and even though it is an older show, K-ON! Season 1. Nevertheless, Blu-rays are confirmed to be released on a later date for SNAFU, Stella, Tamako Market, and K-ON!, and can probably be presumed to be coming at least for Rozen Maiden.

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It's been a while since I've talked about Anime Sols, the crowdfunding site for classic anime. Their latest project is a bit different from their normal "classics", though: they will be crowdfunding the currently-airing The File of Young Kindaichi Returns, which is already streaming on Crunchyroll. Pledges for the DVD set start on July 13th.

They will also be streaming and taking pledges for some more classic series, namely the Osamu Tezuka works Dororo and Wonder 3, and the Tatsunoko series Gordian.

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Finally, next week also marks the start of a new season of anime! Here's a quick rundown of everything that has been licensed for legal streaming as of today, as well as their starting airdates:

Crunchyroll:
Free! Eternal Summer (7/2)
Glasslip (7/3)
ARGEVOLLEN (7/3)
ALDNOAH.ZERO (7/5) (licensed by Aniplex of America)
Sailor Moon Crystal (7/5)
Sword Art Online II (7/5) (licensed by Aniplex of America)
Re; Hamatora (7/7)
Persona4 the Golden Animation (7/10) (licensed by Aniplex of America)

Funimation:
Free! Eternal Summer (7/2)
Tokyo Ghoul (7/3)
Space Dandy S2 (7/5 on Toonami (dubbed), 7/6 online (subbed))
Terror in Resonance (7/10)

One Week Ramblings: 6/22/14 Mischevious Kiss Edition

This week, Discotek Media announced several home video licenses, including both new licenses and license rescues.

First up is Zombie-Loan, a 2007 anime series based on the manga by Peach-Pit (best known for the Rozen Maiden and Shugo Chara! series). The 26-episode series will be available in Japanese with English subtitles next year.

After that is Shin Mazinger Z Impact, a 2009 alternate re-telling of Go Nagai's classic robot series. The 26-episode series will be available next year in Japanese with English subtitles.

Rounding off the new licenses is ItaKiss (Itazura na Kiss), a 2008 shoujo series based on the manga by the late Kaoru Tada. The series is notable for being one of the few romance series to go past the high school era and taking the relationship of the main couple into territory explored by a select few (including a couple of dango-lovers). The 25-episode series will be available next year in Japanese with English subtitles.

License rescues include The Super Dimension Century Orguss, previously released by ImaginAsian Entertainment and including all 35 episodes in Japanese with English subtitles, plus an English dub for the first 17 episodes. There's also Flame of Recca and Ceres, Celestial Legend, both previously released by Viz Media and to be released in a complete series with their old English dubs as well as in Japanese with English subtitles.

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Funimation's DVD/BD release of Ben-To, originally planned for July, has been delayed, apparently due to the fact that they have received the masters for the TV broadcast, instead of the modified (read: uncensored) Japanese video release masters. While no new release date has been officially set by Funimation for the show, Amazon currently has a release date of November 4, 2014 set.

Speaking of Funimation, their September 2014 release slate has been announced. It includes Part 2 of Attack on Titan, the movies HAL and One Piece Film Z, the Season 7 Blu-ray collection of Dragonball Z, Anime Classics re-releases of Steins;Gate and Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, and S.A.V.E. re-releases of the two seasons and OVAs of Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts.

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Finally, keep an eye on the upcoming Ghost in the Shell 25th Anniversary Blu-ray, set to be released on September 23rd 2014 and using newly-remastered footage.

One Week Ramblings: 6/14/14 Special E3 Edition

Another edition of weekly ramblings, but this time I'll be looking at some things that happened on the video game side of the world. Why am I doing this on an anime blog? You'll see...

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Nintendo had a stellar showing this year at E3. With the announcement of several nice-looking entries in existing franchises, as well as showing off some new IPs, they really showed how they are first and foremost about the games. With that said, then, why am I talking about video games on an anime blog?

Well, I will be highlighting two pieces of news in particular. The first is the announcement of Palutena, the Goddess of Light from the Kid Icarus series, for the next Super Smash Bros. games.  This in and of itself is notable for fans of the series, but the announcement came with a special bonus: a trailer animated by none other than Studio SHAFT of Madoka Magica/Bakemonogatari fame.

Only a 30-degree head tilt? For shame, SHAFT.

Other new Smash characters include Mii fighters, who come in three unique variants with their own move sets, and of course allow you to customize their looks so that it looks like anyone is fighting. Want to have Kirito try out his sword skills as a Swordfighter? It's not entirely out of the realm of possibility (as long as your Mii-creating skills are better than mine).

Pac-Man is the third new Smasher announced. A classic video game character, his move set not only includes moves from both classic and newer Pac-Man games, but also references to all sorts of old arcade classics like Galaga.

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The second news of interest here is one of Nintendo's new IPs, Splatoon. In this third-person shooter, teams of squids who can turn into humans attempt to cover as much of an area as possible in their own team's color ink, by either spraying ink in human form or turning into squid form to swim in their ink color. It looks wacky and fun, and more importantly, it features cute squid girls.

Wait, squid girls? Why does that sound familiar...

I'm going to paint the town-de geso!

Yep, this is an Ika-musume game in all but name. Well, sort of; Ika-musume cannot turn into a squid to swim in her own ink (that we know of), and she prefers to spew ink out of her mouth than through a super soaker. But hey, there's now a revived interest in squid girls, and that has to make Ika-musume happy. The original creator of the manga even posted a picture of Ika as one of the game's Inklings on his Twitter.

One Week Ramblings: 5/23/14 Sailor's Memorial Edition

Welcome to One Week Ramblings, which is where I take time every week to go over various news and other things I feel like talking about. This series was on break for a while, so some of this will cover stuff from past weeks.

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The Big News this time is: Viz Media has licensed the original Sailor Moon series. The first four episodes are up on Hulu subtitled (with two more episodes to come each week), and Viz will release the entire series--all five TV seasons, three films, and the various TV specials--uncut on home video, including a brand-new English dub, and with Blu-ray editions planned as well.

Viz Media has also licensed the upcoming Sailor Moon Crystal anime that will start airing this July.

Now, admittedly, Sailor Moon hasn't held a big of a part in my anime history, so I'm not as excited over this as others likely will be, but this is definitely very interesting news, and I am very much looking forward to watching this at some point. (I definitely will be watching the new Sailor Moon Crystal, too.)

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Sentai Filmworks has license-rescued the first season of K-ON!, previously held by Bandai Entertainment, to go with their existing releases of the second season and the movie. Currently, there is a DVD re-release of the show planned for September 2014; a Blu-ray re-release is possible but not confirmed at the moment.

The release is among many others planned for September 2014, including: Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya (Blu-ray and DVD, dubbed), Stella Women's Academy, High School Division Class C3 (DVD, sub-only), Tamako Market (DVD, dubbed), the first half of Golden Time (Blu-ray and DVD, sub-only), the second half of Majestic Prince (Blu-ray and DVD, dubbed), and re-releases of Kampfer, Psychic Detective Yakumo, and Listen To Me, Girls. I Am Your Father! on Blu-ray (all sub-only).

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Some other assorted news...

Crunchyroll has confirmed that they will simulcast Sword Art Online II this summer.

For those looking for a legal way to stream Knights of Sidonia, Netflix will have the entire series available on July 4th with both sub and dub options.

If 38 episodes of cycling fun isn't enough for you, Yowamushi Pedal has a second season confirmed for October.

One Week Ramblings: 5/2/14 The Granola Card Edition

Welcome to One Week Ramblings, my weekly ramblings of anime-CARDCAPTOR SAKURA IS COMING BACK TO THE US!!!

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Ahem. Pardon me.

The huge news this week is: Cardcaptor Sakura, the classic magical girl TV anime series adapted from the manga by CLAMP, has been licensed by NIS America and will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 5th!

This show has quite an interesting history, both for itself and for my own personal anime background. The original TV series started airing in 1998 and aired for a total of 70 episodes plus two movies. It was very popular in Japan, and while it comes after several other magical girl series like Sailor Moon, the show was notable for being one of the first to be a hit among older and/or male viewers as well as the young girls that are typically the demographic for such shows.

Nelvana first brought the show to US children's television in 2000 under the name Cardcaptors, where the content was heavily edited and much of the show had been cut in a misguided attempt to appeal to American audiences. Not knowing this, I watched this edited version as a kid--mainly because it aired right after Pokemon--and rather enjoyed it. Without really knowing why, it appealed to me in a way that no other animated children's show did, and the show would remain on my mind for several years.

Geneon Entertainment sub-licensed the show in the U.S. and starting in late 2000 released DVDs of the show with the original Japanese audio track and English subtitles only across a total of eighteen volumes. Back then, though, I had no concept of anime as something that originated in Japan and could be watched in that language (all animated shows were the same to me). The release was mainly geared toward more hardcore anime fans, anyway.

Nevertheless, the card-capturing magical girl remained in the back of my head for several years, and would suddenly resurface five years later, when I was in college. By that point, I had become somewhat more aware of anime and manga to the point where I would occasionally look through the manga section of a library or bookstore for fun and could recognize a few names of shows here and there as being "anime" shows--Cardcaptor Sakura being one of them--but nothing beyond that. Still, the card-capturing Sakura came up in my thoughts once again during my freshman year, which got me interested in rewatching the show one way or another. At the time, still having no knowledge of Japanese-language anime DVDs and not having the money to buy them anyway--the fact that Geneon's license would expire and the DVDs would go out of print in late 2006 did not help--I turned to the one place everyone goes when looking for shows of their past: YouTube.

It was there that I discovered Cardcaptor Sakura; not the version that I remembered from my childhood, but the version I at least knew was probably the original version. (Some later research would tip me off to the heavily-edited nature of my childhood's version.) Watching through that was probably the first time I really got into something that I knew was an "anime". Between the unique and varied cards, the interesting characters and the focus on their relationships, and the overall novelty of what I was watching, I was hooked. It would be a while longer before I really got into anime, but Cardcaptor Sakura was definitely a major part of why I am an anime fan today.

Now, 16 years after the show started airing and 8 years since the original license expired, the show will be available in the U.S. once more. NIS America will release the show on August 5th in both a Premium Edition Blu-ray set and three standard edition DVD sets. The Premium Edition Blu-ray set includes all 70 TV episodes across 9 discs, as well as a chipboard artbox and a 76-page hardcover artbook. The set retails for $250, but you can find it cheaper on other sites ($180 on RightStuf, or $200 on the NISA Online Store with a tear-resistant poster as a bonus), and overall, for the sheer amount of content, it is definitely worth the money. The three standard edition DVDs contain 23-24 episodes each and retail for $60 each, though again, their actual price is lower on various sites.

Both versions will include a full English dub in addition to the standard Japanese with English subs. This is not the edited dub that went with Cardcaptors as I mentioned earlier, but it is also not a brand-new dub made specifically for this release; currently, it looks like it will be the English dub done by Animax for their release of this show in Singapore. The dub will be mono audio only and is essentially a "bonus feature".

Needless to say, I am incredibly excited for this release. Once I get it, I am sure that a re-watch of Cardcaptor Sakura is in order.

This is also notable in being NIS America's first license rescue, as well as the first time they are releasing a show which aired earlier than 2008.

Also, as a reminder, this license only covers the TV series, and does not cover the two movies. Discotek Media still has the license to the first movie, and will release it on DVD on September 24th, 2014 (which will include the original Nelvana dub, but with no edits to the actual video), with the Blu-ray release to follow later in the year. The second movie is still unlicensed as of now. As for why the two licensors are different: the Japanese companies responsible for international licensing for the TV series and each movie are different.

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Speaking of Discotek Media, they have a license of their own to announce: Chi's Sweet Home and Chi's New Address. This series of adorable shorts about a kitten's life will be released sometime "soon".

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Meanwhile, Sentai Filmworks has announced their August slate of releases, which includes the Short Peace series of short films, the second half of From The New World, and Watamote - No Matter How I Look At It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!, all with English dubs as well as subs, and all on both Blu-ray and DVD. They will also be re-releasing Mayo Chiki! with an English dub, as well as on Blu-ray for the first time (their previous release was a sub-only DVD). In addition, they will be releasing the following shows with subs only on Blu-ray and DVD: Fantasista Doll, Love Lab, Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 2000% (Season 2), and KINMOZA! - Kiniro Mosaic.

They will also be releasing Yuyushiki on Blu-ray that month, one month after its DVD release in July. This is the first indication that the various DVD-only releases in July could very well get Blu-ray releases later on.

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Finally, something more fun: Sometimes you can find anime fans in the weirdest places. Case in point: On Wednesday morning, the social media manager of granola bar maker Nature Valley revealed themselves on Twitter as an anime fan... and not for what you might expect. The reveal occured when they actually responded to a question about, of all things, who their favorite Love Live! girl was. From there, this Nature Valley employee's knowledge of all sorts of anime caught the attention of anitwitter accounts everywhere.

The surprising connection, of course, led to images of anime with Nature Valley granola bars photoshopped into them. The fun didn't stop at the end of the day, as the Nature Valley Twitter account continued to interact with anime fans on Thursday.

This is a cool thing and a nice reminder that anime fans really are everywhere. It is also probably a really good marketing move for Nature Valley, who has probably gotten themselves a lot more customers in the form of anime fans...

One Week Ramblings: 4/18/14 Good Kin'youbi Mosaic Edition

It's Good Friday, the day when we celebrate the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us. While I don't have a Christianity-themed post for today, I do have (a relatively short) one planned for Easter.

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This week was a good week for two of my favorite shows of 2013: both Kin-iro Mosaic and My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU have second TV seasons greenlit! (In Kin-iro Mosaic's case, a sequel had been announced some time ago but whether it'd be a full TV season or an OVA was not known at the time.) Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to these second seasons, along with the second season of Non Non Biyori that was announced some time ago... and, of course, the second season of Log Horizon planned for the fall.

Though all things considered, the second season I'm looking forward to most is still Yama no Susume this summer...

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One other well-liked show from 2013 gets some welcome news: Love Lab has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks for a home video release!

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That's all I've got this Good Friday. See you this Sunday for a quick post!