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.
Aria the Origination Drama CD1 01 (and Aria in general)
Through a post I recently seen on Natsukashii, I found out about a new fansub group, called Tortoise Fansubs (web/IRC), who are subbing Drama CDs. Excellent! Drama CDs, and especially internet radio shows these days, are so common for anime in Japan. They are perfect for unlocking secrets and explaining nuances from the show that just can’t be picked up through the medium of video alone. Also, and especially in this case for me, it helps with the withdrawal symptoms of shows that have finished, much like Aria.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
I started (and finished) the first series of this anime quite a while ago. Last year, in fact. It was one of the shows that my university anime club introduced me to, and I am so thankful to them for that. I recently marathoned the whole first series again, and I’m so glad I did.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, also known as So Long, Mr. Despair to those who followed a.f.k.’s fansubs, is adapted from the manga with the same name, as it happens. The story was created by Koji Kumeta, who we get to see a lot of throughout the series, given that his head appears a smattering of times throughout each episode. It’s this kind of behaviour that makes SZS stand out for me as a great example of anime.
