Wednesday Derp #1: August 28, 2013

I've been racking my brain to come up with an idea to keep me blogging while catching up on this season for the last two weeks. And I'm starting with a weekly column that is focused on commentating on the week's episodes and the news stories. I don't want to recap things, because I find reading plot summaries to be boring when it is outside Wikipedia. If I want to know what happened, I'll watch the episode or read the news article. I'm choosing to do this on Wednesdays for a simple reason; not much happens on Wednesdays. Very few anime are released (at least for American audiences), college football (my other addiction) has a grand total of four games on Wednesday nights this season, and my part-time job with the University of Michigan basketball teams sees the same number of games between now and March. In short, I should have time to do this. So, let's start this first edition of The Derp, under the jump.

Mixed within the show announcements, cast confirmations, and preview videos are only a couple news items I want to talk about. First up are the goings-on at Studio Ghibli. To the surprise of no one, the studio continues to be a money printer, as the newest film Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) extended its run to five straight weeks atop the Japanese box office, and Disney has announced that they will release the film stateside later this year. But, that's not the most interesting thing going on there, I'm much more intrigued by an interview that Miyazaki Hayao gave, where he said he would be open to a second Nausicaa film being made, if Anno Hideaki was the director.

How to become a Japanese voice actor:
1. Know Miyazaki Hayao.
2. ???
3. Profit!

Yes, that Anno Hideaki. The guy behind Evangelion. After picking my jaw up off the floor, I tried to make some sense of this. I knew that Anno made his voice acting debut as the protagonist in Kaze Tachinu, and that he had worked on Nausicaa early in his career as an animator, so he and Miyazaki have a history. What makes me question whether Miyazaki has begun to go senile in saying he would give his blessing to an Anno sequel of Nausicaa is quite simple. Anno has directed exactly one thing that isn't related to Eva since he abandoned the Kare Kano production in 1999, a Cutie Honey OVA that was released in 2004. And that makes me question whether Anno can do anything besides Eva at this point in his career. Miyazaki has earned his status as a god in the anime industry, and Ghibli will do whatever he says. Even if that means turning over one of his most prized series to a guy who hasn't shown he can do anything aside from giant robots and teenage angst in well over a decade. Thankfully, this is probably just a lot of hot air, as the final Eva Rebuild movie doesn't come out until 2015.

On a more positive note, the only Key anime that was not adapted from a visual novel may finally be getting a visual novel. I only mention this because when Angel Beats first aired in 2010, I like many felt the series was rushed and could use more fleshing out. So, I made a joke that an Angel Beats 2014 would one day be released, either in anime or game form. It looks like I could end up being right, because if a game is in development, a 2014 release date is certainly possible.

Anime Power Rankings:

Because I have read way too much sports journalism in my life, I love lists and rankings. Therefore, I rank the top five series that I am watching at the moment, and give some commentary on them.

5. Gatchaman CROWDS

For all of its weirdness, I am pleasantly surprised how well this show works. Yes, one of the main characters is a cross-dresser. Yes, Miyano Mamoru plays a sadistic alien who kisses people. Yes, I find the main girl to be obnoxious. It doesn't matter. Any superhero show that literally posits whether the world would be better off without superheros gets high marks in my book.

4. Uchouten Kazoku

What's better than a weird show with a point? How about a weird show with heart. This show has been a solid, enjoyable watch for several weeks with its quirky look into the lives of tanuki. But, the latest episode was fantastic. The Shimogamo family coming to terms with how the family patriarch died was heart-wrenching, and was the high point in this dramedy's run thus far.

3. Monogatari: Second Season

While I'm not thrilled by Araragi's continuing lolicon tendencies, the current story has me anxiously waiting the next episode. Anime has done time travel well before, and who doesn't love a story about those nasty unintended consequences of going back in time and changing one little thing.

2. Uchuu Kyoudai

I'm expecting this to be a mainstay on this list for as long as it runs. It hits me in all of the areas of which I am quite susceptible. It's about an adult character (he's 31 at the start of the series) who decides to follow his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut. And it's done with a solid grounding in reality. And the characters are great. I'll mention little things about what I love about this show as they come up, and I'll have plenty of time to go through them, as this 22-minute weekly JAXA commercial doesn't show any signs of stopping in the near future.

1. Shingeki no Kyoujin

Yeah, I'm picking the hottest show in anime as my favorite thing I'm watching. And it would take an applesauce choking of the highest degree for it to lose this top spot before season one ends in October. I'll sum it up this way. Early on in the show, I was spoiled to a major plot point. When I heard of this plot point, my exact thoughts were "That's fucking stupid." Then, the show actually executed the plot point, and did it so well that I had to admit I was dead wrong about my initial assessment of said plot point. Since then, I've been on board and I implicitly trust everyone behind this show. And I haven't been let down yet.

And one for the road...

The face that launched a thousand uguu~

Now that I'm caught up, I'm working my way through Kanon (which one? the only one, duh) as part of a project where I watch all of the Key animes so that I know what kids these days are talking about. So far, I'm enjoying it more than Air. It helps that the main girl isn't an obvious tragedy magnet, at least not yet. The main character is the usual jerk with a heart of gold and a dry sense of humor that Maeda Jun writes really well. I'm hoping to finish it over Labor Day weekend and move on to Clannad next week. Maybe even get through all of it before the second half of the Little Busters anime airs this fall. Updates on that, as well as everything else, next week.