Giving Her Away

It’s pretty clear in this season that animators are leaving 12/13 episode series open or blatantly obvious for sequels, as if they need a validation from the viewer to green light that second season, rather then simply tying up the loose ends and then surprising people with a new season later on. I know it must be a tough economy and being conservative with anime means cutting back on what you’re making until it’s a proven product. Take K-ON!! for example, it’s first season of only 13 episodes was pretty meek, didn’t go too many places, and stuck to the same SoL formula proven successful by its predecessors and legendaries, aka Lucky Star and Azumanga Daioh. As soon as they figured out people bought it up, a full 26 episode second season was ordered. Much like a second term for a US President, here is where the real story starts, the characters really stretch out, and the interesting bits start to happen. Sadly, all we got was 26 episodes of roughly the same damn pacing and scenerio, and although it was pretty fun, nothing much more met the eye.

I don’t even need to have watched episode 26 yet to probably draw this conclusion, and if I do, I’ll amend this. But for now, consider this my final review of K-ON!!

Title: K-ON!! Season 2
Sub Group I Watched: Chihiro, Coalguys, Frostii, kk, UTSF
Episodes: 26
Rating (1-10): 7

Honestly, despite being random, disjointed, full of sex jokes, and utterly pointless, I am awarding second place on my favorite of the season to Seitokai Yakuindomo. It took a little to get into, but once in, it was pretty funny, with characters and moments that reminded me of why I liked Pani Poni Dash and it’s random humor. They made a blatant jab at a second season, which could always happen, which is fine. An entire mini-series on GEORGE-EEEEEEEEEEEEE can be made and it’d be awesome. Or just Hata. DAT KUROKO VOICE.

Title: Seitokai Yakuindomo
Sub Group I Watched: Ayako, Doki, Ryuumaru
Episodes: 12
Rating (1-10): 7

Honestly, Asobi ni Iku Yo hasn’t interested me enough to watch the final episodes. I dunno why, but it did not grab me in the final episodes as it did in the beginning episodes, and I think the reason was that they started out fine, and then thinned the damn thing out in the middle, now they’re trying to cram plot in the remaining episodes and hope enough fans generate a second season to expand upon. This is the kinda shit that annoys me about anime lately, at least make a proper 13-episode season and then expand upon it if you green light a sequel. Eventually I may finish this, but consider it final reviewed for now, because eh, just not interested enough to care.

Title: Asobi ni Iku Yo
Sub Group I Watched: Ayako-SubDESU
Episodes: 12
Rating (1-10): 6

So final stats for this season are:

Looking forward to next season starting soon, Index 2 and Sora no Otoshimono: Forte, among others.

Finally, in Saimoe-related news, I plan to put together an actual WP blog for next year’s shit after this year is over. Although Google sites served my purpose, having its own place makes more sense. Initially I thought against it, so many other sites already provide good coverage of the tournament and I feel I’d be competing somewhat, but honestly, I enjoy trying to improve my graphic art design abilities, despite being amateurish, on shit like this. I probably won’t bring anything new to the table, AS.org already does excellent analysis and stats, Saimoe Update does excellent news coverage, and Micchi collects graphics and other news items, as well as the staples of AnimeSuki forums and Synchroom. I probably will apply my TLDR brand of blogging as well as expanding on the Predictions aspect I focused on this year. So over the course of this year, the site will start to take shape as I figure out template formats for posters, site details, and other things. I’ll post the link when it’s half-operational, although cool kids can probably guess.