Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 01
Summer 2009 looks like it’s going to be a pretty good season for new anime, not least because of the premises that some of them are putting forward. Like this show, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 – the story of a huge earthquake hitting Tokyo. It seems simple enough on the face of it, but delve down in to specific characters and there’s great potential there.
The opening, while unlike its peers with flashy and expensive animation, is simple and conveys a real sense of disaster, what with its black and white stills of destroyed landmarks and vegetation growing in their wake, with our future protagonists steadily marching through the whole thing. It won’t win any “Best Opening” awards, though.
The message at the beginning of the show, warning people that this is fictional, based on research, and may be different to the real thing, really focuses the mind – remember that Tokyo is well overdue a massive earthquake and there are regular classes as to what one should do in the event of one. Take in to account that this is being broadcast on Fuji TV’s noitaminA block, which is scheduled between their normal programming and their late night anime as a gateway of sorts. You can tell that they’re trying to appeal to a wide and fearful demographic with this one.
It looks like this has worked – in the anime ratings for the Kanto region (source) for the 6th July – 12th July, the show managed to break in to the top 10 (usually a preserve for daytime shows) at number 9 with an average of 5.8% of households watching – the highest rated “late night” anime.
The Never-ending Summer
Something was wrong. Kadokawa and Kyoto Animation had been dropping hints at a second season for quite some time, even going back to that CCTV viral site that many said hinted at the Disappearance novel being animated. Since then, we’ve had the announcement that we would get a second season, which was then subsequently revoked when we were told it was only a re-run. Cue internet hysteria.
Someone at Kadokawa must’ve stumbled across this thing called “viral marketing” somewhere, and thought it would be a good idea to string the fans along for a good number of years before finally giving us more new episodes of Haruhi goodness.
I must say, I kind of liked the way they were doing it – seeing the speculation build about what they were doing, along with the theories that they might just repeat the first series twice in their 28-episode slot for a 14-episode show. The hype machine was certainly at full steam when Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody aired basically unannounced. There was a sense of occasion around the whole thing, which thankfully distracted from the animation, a lot of which came from the K-On! school of drawing and which I thought was visibly poorer than the older episodes.
Clannad ~After Story~ 04
Wow. How far behind on just two series am I? The answer to that rhetorical question – very. So without further ado, let’s get on with the last episode of this mini Sunohara story arc.
Toradora! 02
I know that I’m hilariously far behind broadcast of all two of the series I’m blogging right now, but that should be rectified soon. I’ve cheated a bit with Toradora! and skipped ahead, which just goes to show that I quite like it so far. Which is strange, because it’s not one defining factor that keeps me watching, it’s the sum of the parts.
Currently Digesting
I would love to tell you what I think of every anime series I’m watching right now. Really, I would. But first of all, I doubt you’d be the least bit interested, and second of all, there’s only 24 hours in a day, and because I’m at uni, 18 of them are often consigned to this thing called “work.” But enough complaining. I thought I would quickly go over some thoughts rattling around my head about some of the other series I’m currently watching.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, of course, just the shows that I’m most interested in, and would like to share. You’ll probably see a second part to this list soon.
Clannad ~After Story~ 03
It’s great to see Mei back to her usual investigative self at the beginning of this episode. We’re still in the middle of the charade of Sunohara and Sanae going out, and it’s evident that Mei has some doubts about the validity of the relationship, what with these questioning looks.
