The year 2013

Oh look, is it time already?
Hello everyone, and welcome back to a new edition of my annual anime review! I know I abandoned my blog half a year ago and moved to facebook instead, but nevertheless, I’ll continue my tradition of writing an anime retrospective view at the end of each year like I did in 2012, 2011 and 2010.

I have rather mixed feelings about the anime series in 2013. There were many series, which had great potential in the beginning, but ended up into a disappointment. Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, Vividred Operation, Red Data Girl, just to name a few. We only had a hand full of anime series, which were really great from start to finish and some series will probably be completely forgotten by the next year.

Nevertheless! 2013 brought us one particular anime series, which has generated a hype in the anime community the world has never seen before. A hype which has surpassed titanic proportions and united the entire anime fandom on the world.

Without further ado, let’s get straight to business! Here are my personal

Top 10 anime series of the year 2013!

  #10:  Yahari ore no Seishun / Hataraku Maou sama

These two are prefectly on par in terms of entertainment value and I still can’t decide which one I liked better. Both aired in spring 2013, both were one cour (13- episodes) and both were fun, memorable series with a great cast of characters. Hachiman in Yahari deserves a special mention because he was very refreshing MC in a Highschool RomCom. His cynical world view and sarcastic personality was brilliantly executed. (same reason why I like Kyon in Haruhi)

Also, Saika is the best girl- I mean trap – of the year.

  #9:    Railgun S2 (WITHOUT THE FILLER SECOND HALF)

Yes, without the filler in all caps. Because the entire sisters arc was UTTERLY AMAZING from start to finish and probably the pinnacle of the entire Railgun/Index universe so far. The TouMAN-punch against Accelerator was the single most awesome moment in Railgun S2. And then, after the sisters arc, JC Staff suddenly decided to shit on us viewers and gave us a super boring “original story” aka filler episodes. *sighs* JC staff, why don’t you even try anymore…

Oh well, at least we got to see Frenda in a super sexy swimsuit in the filler.

  #8:    Kyousougiga

Kyousougiga is in every aspect unique: experimental animation, extensive soundtrack, ghibli-like atmosphere, and it tells us a heart-warming story about an eccentric family and it’s adventurous life. Unfortunately it loses it’s “magic” after episode 6. They rushed expositions, the story developed into nowhere and they didn’t focus enough on the other characters and didn’t utilize enough proper world building . It could have been much better if the storyline has been better polished. But nonetheless, it’s still one of the most aesthetic series I’ve seen for a long time. Also, Kyousougiga has the best OP of the year 2013.

I’d totally watch a spin-off of Shouko and the men in white

  #7:   Suisei no Gargantia

After watching the first episode, I immediately thought “this is going to be the best anime of the year”. The idea of “civilisation clash” was very interesting to watch, the makers put in a lot of details to make the setting credible (like the language barrier, or Ledo getting more and more tanned with each episode). Adding an astonishing oceanic scenery and exotic character designs, this show was also a feast for the eyes. It loses a bit of steam in the middle part, because the story didn’t progressed at all, but the last few episodes picked up the pacing again, and the finale had a really great conclusion. Overall, a really enjoyable series and I’m really happy a second season has been green lit for 2014!

Am I the only one, who didn’t mind the belly dancing?

  #6:   Kill la Kill

Kill la Kill marks the official TV anime debut of Studio Trigger, aka former GAINAX, and it’s probably the most hyped anime series aside from Attack on Titan. Did it live up to the hype? After watching episode 1 for the first time, I can only say one thing:

Studio trigger didn’t LOSE THEIR WAAAYYYYYY~ *guitar riff*

This show is just full of batshit insane action scenes combined with animators on crack and adrenaline pumping music. But one of the most important factors, why I like this show so much is its simplicity: It’s not trying to be too deep or anything like that. It’s just … FUN, simply by making a mundane setting (girls fighting girls in super powered uniforms) AWESOME. Not everyone can deal with the borderline ecchi fanservice shots of Ryouko though, but I loved every second of it.

So, is Anime SAVED? It’s still too early to tell which direction this anime will be going but I like what I have seen so far and I am confident that Studio Trigger will surprise us again in the second half of Kill la Kill.

Forget what I said above, Anime is definitely SAVED!

  #5:   Gatchaman Crowds

This was one of the surprise hits of the summer season and probably one of the smartest anime series of this year. The entire anime is basically a metaphor about the dangers and benefit of the social network in the future. Imagine a group of post-modern Power Rangers are rescuing the world from a huge alien troll, who just want to watch the world burn. Add a bit social network elements, a color palette like having an acid trip, a crossplaying pervert who is actually a pretty nice guy and an eargasmic-fantastic soundtrack. It also has one of the smartest main Heroine and at the same time, the most cunning villain of this year. Combine all these ingredients and you’ll get a unique series like none other, called Gatchaman Crowds. This is definitely one of the highlights of this year.

Biiiiird – GO!

  #4:   AKB0048 NEXT STAGE

Probably one of my most anticipated continuations, AKB0048 NEXT STAGE has thankfully  tied almost all loose ends from the first season and delivered another spectacular ride, full of emotions, idol space fights, many FEELS, new catchy insert songs and awesome moments. And the best of all: they didn’t even screw up the final episode! In fact, episode 13 of AKB0048 NEXT STAGE was one of the most grandiose finale I’ve ever seen.

*sighs* I will miss my weekly dose of AKB0048 because I had so much fun watching it, and with the conclusion of NEXT STAGE, AKB0048 has officially ascended into my “immortal” top 5 favorite anime series of all time. I just love this series so much.

I want to protect that smile.

And now, we have reached my top three anime series of the year 2013, which deserves a special mention, because they have made a huge impact on me. They made me tremble because of the excitement, they made me feel relaxed, and they made me cry like bitch.

   #3:   Shingeki no Kyojin

This anime took the entire anime community by storm and created a global hype I’ve never seen before. Thousands of cosplays, fanarts and fanfics were made, new memes were born, everything associated with Shingeki no Kyojin was instantly awesome, and merchandise of Shingeki no Kyojin became a bestseller in every anime conventions. The question is, why is this anime so successful and became that popular? Is it the fact, that the “enemies” are not ninjas, nor vampires, nor mechas this time, but 20 meter tall humanoid behemoths? Or is it the fact, that the 3D maneuver gear is the most awesome anime invention ever made since the introduction of pokeballs? Or is it simply the incredibly atmospheric animation and the bombastic soundtrack by Hiroyuki Sawano? Maybe all of them combined. Either way, I, for once, joined the hype-train and I have to tip off my hat to the makers of Attack on Titan for delivering one of the most spectacular actions series of the year 2013. It does have some pacing issues, yes, and it ended with a cliffhanger and many questions left unanswered (which is a bit frustrating), but I would be lying if I didn’t enjoy the TENSION in every episode. I really hope there is a second season announcement in 2014.

Also, the first opening “Guren no Yumiya”, triggered an internet sensation on youtube and thousands of parody videos has been made. I have never seen something like this before.
(I still like Jiyuu no Tsubasa more though.)

Looks like Hanji can also master the “gendo” pose

   #2:   Non Non Biyori

The polar opposite of Attack on Titan, Non Non Biyori is slice-of-life anime in its purest form and is one of the most relaxing anime series of the year 2013. The very first thing I do on Mondays, after I arrive home after a tiring day of practising the piano is watching the newest episode of Non Non Biyori. After finishing the episode, my bad mood is instantly gone and I was “healed” from any negative thoughts. Every time, when I was watching Non Non Biyori, I couldn’t help but smile the entire time, and whenever a heart-warming scene happened, I left out a quiet “d’awwww~”. Sometimes, the time passed so fast while watching Non non Biyori, I didn’t even realize that the episode is already over. Every time when I hear the ending song, a sad shadow is hanging over me and-

-I’m sorry, this reads like a sappy diary now. Anyway, Non non Biyori is a genuinely good Slice-of-life series with a setting in the countryside and it features a loveable quartet of girls. Recommended for every slice of life fan.

one of the most heartwarming moments in non non Biyori

   #1:   Little Busters! ~Refrain~

My personal number one may surprise some people, but Little Busters Refrain just totally  deserved to be my favorite anime of this year.

First off, the technical aspects has improved vastly compared to the first season. The animation was more vibrant and fluent, the direction was more creative and utilized more symbolism. The atmosphere has also changed drastically into a darker, more dramatic tone and – finally – the five main Little Busters characters get tons of character development. We are basically getting to the “essence” of Little Busters. I have played the Visual Novel before and therefore knew the entire story, but I was still anticipating the legendary “truth of the world” revealing scene. And then episode 11 happened. As soon as Faraway began to play, I prepared for the incoming feels, but when I heard the voice acting of Kyousuke… during that scene…. it was …. just absolutely phenomenal, and I cried bitch tears. I cried for several minutes, until the episode has completely ended. This really, really, really rarely happens, and this shows that Little Busters is capable to deeply affect our hearts and is therefore on par with other key works like Clannad or Angel Beats!.

For once, I have to congratulate JC Staff’s for doing a really solid adaption of a super complex visual novel, which was impossible to adapt for a long time. They did a good job in combining all heroine routes into one route without feeling too much out-of-place. And after watching the final episode, I got the dreaded “after-anime-blues”: It’s the empty feeling inside your head after watching an unforgettable series, that probably affected in some way or other your life. I will miss every member of Little Busters. It feels like I’ve known them for a long time, as if we have always been good friends, Kud, Mio, Kurugaya, Haruka, Komari, Masato, Kengo, Kyousuke, Rin and Riki, all of them. And it’s hard to let it go.

Little Busters ~ Refrain has won my heart in 2013 and therefore is the clear winner of this year!

“The Little busters… will never die”

Now, after getting this out, here are my other favorites in different categories. Let’s start with the

Top three anime soundtracks of this year

   #3:    Shingeki no Kyojin OST

Hiroyuki Sawano strikes again after his Guilty Crown OST. Many memorable tracks like “The reluctant Heroes” or “Vogel in Käfig” has made into my anime playlist, and since I am a sucker for the usage of vocal choirs in soundtracks, I enjoyed many tracks to the fullest. Most of the tracks have a really “bombastic” feeling, perfect for a action-packed series like Shingeki no Kyojin.

   #2:    Kyousougiga OST

I never heard about the composer Go Shiina, before, but after listening to the Kyousougiga Soundtrack, I immediately want to hear more from him. The soundtrack has a fantastic instrumentation (the japanese Flute Shakuhachi for example) and some of the tracks sounds straight from a Disney movie.  Also, notice how he brilliantly quoted the main motif (c-f-e-f-g) in the other tracks of the OST. And the “secret of my life” is such a hauntingly beautiful track, that everyone MUST listen to it at least once, to feel it’s incredible intensity.

   #1:    Gatchaman Crowds OST

My personal favorite Soundtrack of this year. Ranging from Dubstep-heavy electronic beats to melodic warm strings, this soundtrack has it all and shows once again, what Iwasaki Taku is capable of: mixing many different musical genres and still blending together perfectly. Especially the track “Ziel der hydra” with the unique mix of Soprano and Dubstep was utterly brilliant. Definitely another milestone of Iwasaki Taku and another must-have in any anime soundtrack collection!

G-G-G-G-G-G-GATCHAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

 Top three Movies / OVA’s of this year

   #3   Evangelion 3.33

Alright, this movie left a big question mark around all evangelion fans of the world. Retconned almost everything and explained next to nothing, plus adding a 14 year timeskip out of nowhere, this movie is basically Anno Hideaki’s idea to troll the Evangelion fandom again. Oh well, at least the animation and the soundtrack were really great, especially the ED theme, Sakura Nagashi, which is one of my favorite ending themes of this year.

I hope they don’t need another 2 years to deliver the next (and final) movie…

   #2   Little Witch Academia

This small OVA was a smash hit among all the OVAs that got released this year. Take a Harry Potter setting, replace the MC with a cute girl, and crank it up to eleven with awesome animations and fabulous soundtrack. Little Witch Academia is only 25 minutes long, but many people (including me) liked it so much, they cried for more. And Studio Trigger actually listened! They started a kickstarter campaign to finance a potential second season, and it exceeded its goal by 417%! This is why we CAN have nice things.

   #1   Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki

One of my favorite movies this year is definitely “The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki”.

Absolutely heartwarming story about a single mother raising up two children who were part human, part wolf. Despite all the troubles she has to deal with her daily life, she still carried on and raised the two troublesome children. She never gave up and always did her best to survive on her own in the rough countryside. A truly inspirational movie. One of the few anime movies I would rewatch anytime. Go and watch this fantastic movie if you still haven’t!

Hana is the best mom ever.

Top three favorite characters of the year

   #3   Levi

I know, Levi is mostly a favorite character among female anime fans, but in all modesty: He just kicks some serious ass in combat. Surprisingly he also share a same trait with me, – being a clean freak. Always having himself in control even in the most dire moments of danger; that itself deserves real respect. One of his most awesome moments was his battle against the female titan. He just totally massacred the same female titan who killed countless elite Survey Corps without any effort. He is -without a doubt- “humanitiy’s strongest soldier”.

   #2   Naoe Riki

Starting as an ordinary boy, who was neither very athletic, nor super intelligent in season one of Little Busters, Riki has developed in season two into a strong leader, who was capable to bring together the shattered members of Little Busters with his own power. He became stronger and finally surpassed Kyousuke, his role model. In the end, it was thanks to his and Rin’s help, that everyone could be saved. Naoe Riki definitely deserved a medal for his character development.

   #1   Ichinose Hajime~ssu

Hajime is probably the most eccentric protagonist of this year, and at the same time the most inspirational character for me. Optimistic, intuitive, energetic, friendly, courageous, sometimes very bold, despite having a goofy appearance, she’s more intelligent than you think and you’ll never know what she is doing next. Sometimes her dangerous actions seems careless, but if you look closer, she always have a certain intention in her mind beforehand. Either you just love her or hate her exaggerated behavior. For me, she is one of the most interesting characters of the year 2013. And I especially love her verbal tic of adding “ssu~” at the end of each sentence.

… and that’s how you solve a Rubik’s Cube~ssu!

Top three potentially great anime series I’ve missed this year due to time constraints

This basically means, that these series are added to my backlog and I’ll watch it if I have found some time. These are Bakemonogatari S2, Chihayafuru S2 and Silver Spoon.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Alright, my anime summary for the year 2013 is almost over, but wait, I got more! For the first time I will give another 7 anime series a special award. The first special award is

The “cocktease” award for having the most misleading first 10 minutes of the entire anime series

Kotoura-san

Anyone still remember the 180° mood shift in after the first 10 minutes of episode 1? I still feel like I have been totally trolled. I expected Kotoura-san to be a grimdark, cynical series, but then it developed into a bland highschool romantic comedy series. Meh.

Kotoura’s mom is a real monster though.

The “Sunrise”-award for having the most stupid case of “character-revival”

Kyoukai no Kanata

I don’t want to spoil too much, but seriously, I hate “last-minute” asspulls in final episodes. Why are you always pulling this crappy plot-device, japan. You’re toying with our feelings, man. Not cool.

This is the only good episode in the entire goddamn series.

The “Fujoshi-bait” award for having the most blatant manservice

Free!

I still can’t believe I actually watched the whole thing, despite being in the wrong audience target. But hey, at least the manservice was spectacularly animated. Also, Gou-chan is waifu of the year.

So many ***** around me… I want to **** them all~

The “Trainwreck” award for having the most “wtf-am-i-watching” moments:

Kakumeiki no Valvrave (S1 + S2)

 Valvrave is a show with immortal body-hijacking vampire highschool students piloting overpowered demoniac self-stabbing mechs instructed by an unexplainably white-haired young psychopath prophet rambo genius revolutionary against goddammed space nazis where the good boy can randomly rape the bad girl and then marry her after abandoning his childhood soulmate that became the prime minister with jingle bells.

Seriously, Sunrise has outdone themselves once again in terms of sheer craziness and stupidity, but damn, it was so entertaining to watch. Still, I am still quite sad, that certain characters have passed away in Valvrave in the end… ;_;

DAT rape scene

The “Fail” award for having the most disappointing closure of this year:

Infinite Stratos S2

So why the hell are we still watching this harem lunacy? “Oh hey, let’s introduce two new characters we couldn’t care less about and let’s throw in some stupid forced drama plot!” Seriously, Infinite Stratos should stay away from SUPER SERIOUS PLOT, because we are watching Infinite Stratos for the delicious fanservice and potential waifu-battles and NOT for the story. Because Harem series + serious plot = fucking stupid.

Also, too much time were wasted on Houki and we still didn’t get a charlotte end. Why.jpg

I can fap to this.

The “Shitstorm” award for creating the biggest controversy of this year:

Aku no Hana

Alright, nobody really expected THAT abomination. Soon after the first episode of Aku no Hana has been aired, it was immediately universally loathed and mocked in the entire anime community, because of the atrocious rotoscoping animation. Still, I wanted to give this series a chance and kept watching it and I slowly get more and more interested with the inner conflict of the MC. After a while I even got used to the rotoscoping animation. Probably worth a watch if you can deal with the rotoscoping animation and if you appreciate deep psychological themes or artsy animation styles.

The classroom scene was absolutely amazing btw.

The “faggot”-award for being the most annoying Harem Protagonist of this year:

Kodaka from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

Even Ichika from Infinite Stratos is a better Harem protagonist than this useless piece of shit. I want to self insert myself as a little girl in the series and kick Kodaka in the balls, because he is fucking stupid. The end.

Jesus fucking christ, Kodaka.

And now, AFTER THE SEVEN SPECIAL AWARDS, IT’S FINALLY TIME FOR THE MAIN EVENT.
IT’S TIME TO ANNOUNCE THE “worst anime of this year“.

AND IT goes tooooooooo-

Ore no Imouto S2!

fucking Kyousuke finally got what he deserved

Alright, what do we got here:

-Kyousuke rejected Kuroneko, and therefore ruined the chance of having a perfect normal life with a poorfag – I mean humble – girlfriend, who is geniunely in love with him.

-Kyousuke rejected Ayase, and therefore ruined the chance of having a perfect normal life with a model-girlfriend, who, albeit detested him initially, now has deep feelings for him

– Kyousuke rejected Kanako, which was kinda random, because why the fuck would Kanako suddenly confess to Kyousuke, but oh well, it’s anime after all, so yeah, Kyousuke ruined the chance of having a perfect normal life with an idol-girlfriend.

– Kyousuke rejected Manami, and therefore- wait, Manami is a shit.

– Kyousuke finally admitted his true love is Kirino and decided to go for the incest route (wait, WHAT)

I still couldn’t believe what I saw, but since Kyousuke is actually dead serious about his decision, I just promptly told my reason to fuck off and prepared my body for the “full incest menu”. I mean, why the hell not, incest is not uncommon in anime and at least they both are happy and-

– “jk, we were only pretending, lololol”

………………………………….

§$%/RT/§&WTRWGRZF)T/WRGWEFGTRW(/IR(§(/%§&$”$

FUCK THIS SHIT I’M OUTTA HERE.

(And Manami still a shit.)

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

And that’s it, everyone! That was my anime summary for this year!
This turned out a bit longer than initially planned, but nonetheless, I had my share of fun writing my anime summary for 2013! Thank you for reading so far and I wish you a successful new year!

Now, let’s see what exciting anime series 2014 will deliv-

Sword Art Online II announced to air in 2014

…. oh boy.

Animenz

Probably the biggest Blog Update ever

Hello everyone!

It’s been while since my last update, I apologize, but don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten my blog. I was just a bit lazy in the last few weeks, and updating my activity status on my facebook page was a lot less work, than creating new posts here on wordpress.

A lot of thing has happened in january, so let’s start chronologically with my first Transcriptions for the winter anime season 2013 so far,  AKB0048‘s insert song Niji no Ressha (Rainbow Train)

Chieri X Nagisa are my OTP

Prominently featured in the first episode of the second season of AKB0048, (dat concert scene) this is still one of my favorite series of this winter season so far. I think I went a littlbe bit overboard with the difficulty of this transcription, (especially the last run of the right hand) but I simply wanted to express the high spirit of the original song.

My second sheet is AKB0048 again (because there is still not enough love for AKB0048, seriously, why is this series so unbeknownst among anime fans) featuring the new ending of the second season: Kono Namida wo Kimi ni Sasagu (I dedicated this to you, my tears)

And surprise! It’s my first collaboration video with none other than TehIshter!

It was a lot of fun to record the piano duet, even the creation of the sheet went very smoothly, despite being my first time scoring a piano duet. In fact, this sheet was written by both of us, me and Tehishter. He scored the draft, while I finished the rest. The sync is not 100% yet, but there will always be room to improve. On our next collab maybe, you will never know. Well anyway, it was really fun, and I want to thank TehIshter again, for realizing the duet, we both have dreamed of. Also, many many thanks to Castlevaniapro, who mastered the audio track for us. Check out his blog too, he is doing really awesome anime remix tracks!

Following next is the transcription of my favoriteEnding song of this winter season 2013 so far: Kibou no Hana (Flower of hope) from the anime Koutora-san

DAT ending ;___;

A hauntingly beautiful ED song I instantly fell in love with. Naturally, this is a must-do in my transcribing list. I kept the sheet difficulty rather simple, to express the calm atmosphere of the song. However, there are some parts of the sheet (in bar 12 for example),  where you have to play a 10th span chord. You can simply play an octave instead.

The fourth and most important of the transcription is my Angel Beats! Opening Transcription: My Soul, Your Beats.

everyone loves kanade ;_;

Before you go and listen to this, let me tell you a little story behind the creation of this sheet:

Only a few of you may remember, but three years ago, when Angel Beats! was airing, I wanted to transcribe the Opening at any cost, because the music was practically MADE to be played on the piano. But I tried and struggled with the sheet for a week, and ultimatiely, I dropped the sheet.
I failed miserably because I couldn’t met everyone’s huge expectation. I wanted to made the most epic piano transcription ever, but back then I was lacking ideas and almost went insane due to the pressure.
So instead, I made the sheet Brave song and I sweared to never touch a finger on the sheet My Soul, your Beats! again.
The original sheet remained unfinished at 40 % progress until today.

Now.. three years (and several transcriptions) later, I’ve gained enough confidence to transcribe it again, not only because I have more experience with sheet arrangements by now, but I also wanted to redeem my past failure.
While arranging this, I remembered the hard days back then when I couldn’t make any progress for days, and therefore I’ve put all my heart and soul in this transcription, trying to express all those frustration and sorrowful moments back then. This is especially audible in the last third of the transcription, where I included an excerpt of Ichiban no Takaramono (My most Precious Treasure).

This sheet is dedicated for all those people, who have waited years for my arrangement of the Angel Beats! Opening, and their patience should be rewarded with a full version special transcription.

Well then, that would be my status update for the year 2013 so far, and in a few days or so, I’ll announce something really really special. Stay tuned!

Me on the left

Animenz

The year 2012

Whew, guess we are lucky enough to witness the new years eve of 2012 at all, because according to the mayan calendar the world is supposed to end on 21st december – well, maybe we got a second chance, who knows.

Anyway – hello and welcome to my annual Anime retrospective view. Tonight, I will summarize the Anime highlights of the year 2012, both the good stuff and the bad stuff.

This year was unfortunately a year full of disappointments and wasted potentials. There was ONE particular anime which caused both a massive hype and massive hate and thus have created a civil war among fans like we never have seen before. The never ending flaming between the fanbase and the hatebase was probably one of the most polarizing incidents in the anime community of this year.

But before we get to the main dish, I shall start chronologically from the spring Anime season.

Let’s start with awarding the anime series, who had really good potential at the beginning but failed to live up its expectation in the end.

The Losers of 2012

Mouretsu Pirates

Ah, Mouretsu pirates. I really really wish I could appreciate you more. Because the premise sounded awesome (at least on the paper): Cute girls in space doing motherfucking space pirating with epic spaceship fights and badass action scenes? HELL YEAH! Unfortunately, Mouretsu had none of that in the first 7 episodes. The build-up took way too long time and the awful slow pacing turned the beginning of this series into a borefest. And there were way too much slice-of-life shenaningans instead of some… actual “piracy action” like… boarding a cargo ship or just engaging in some space fights. I liked the characters though, but my patience grew thin during episode 6 since NOTHING happens, and eventually, I ragequit in episode 7. Too bad, space pirates, you could have been awesome.

Nisemonogatari

Alright, at this point I just realized I grew tired of Nisioisin’s nonsense dialogues which drags on and on with no actual content. Nisemonogatari is basically pure fanservice pandering under the disguise of being “artsy” and “innovative”. It didn’t even pretended to have a plot, but still, I expected a bit more as a “sequel” of Bakemonogtari, (which was okay in my book) Instead, I got a  pure fanservice spinoff, which I quickly grew tired of. And no, the tooth-brushing scene was not “hot”, it was disgusting.

Another

Another also got the award for “most stupid plot resolving” and most hillarious unintentional comedy. Basically, it could have been the first good horror series for years, but the more the story progresses, the more stupid the characters behave. Still, one of my favorite female character of this year is Misaki Mei. This is a prime example of “really cool character stuck in an awful show”. What a pity. And hasn’t it been for the hillarious pie threads on /a/, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the series as much as now.

Sankarea

Fuck the final eipsode. Fuck that stupid bunny costume scene. Fuck this anime. Next.

Eureka Seven AO

Why are you doing this to me, Studio bones. Why do you always fail in sequels. Eureka Seven AO basically defiled the good reputation of the original Eureka Seven. The plot was going nowhere, everything was unneccessary complicated and the monster of the week episodes was a real turn-off. But the final nail on the coffin was Truth. I hate him. I hate hate hate hate hate this stupid character, he is overpowered, annoying, arrogant, and basically served no other purpose than being the designated asshole villain, and annoying us viewers with his stupid hax powers. Way to go to ruin a well established series, Bones.

Tari Tari

I love slice of life, but Tari tari was the most forgettable slice of life series I’ve ever watched. If I had to choose a word to summarize Tari Tari, it would be “bland”. Yes, that’s it. Tari Tari was just average, none of the characters really stood out, and their background story was not really engaging. All in all, it was really forgettable.

Kokoro Connect

Kokoro Connect had a really strong start with solid characters but unfortunately it developed into one of the worst examples of forced drama this year. The body transfer arc in the beginning was quite amusing to watch, but then, that scene happened, where Iori jumped from that bridge. NO THAT’S JUST A CHEAP PLOT DEVICE TO INTRODUCE DRAMA. The worst part was, when everyone was crying about Iori, because she is going to die soon and suddenly – the master puppeteer appeared and said “lol just joking, hope u lernd ur lesson, lel”. FUCK YOU, that’s predictable, ridiculous and manipulative. Just… NO.

Chuunibyou demo koi ga shitai!

Unfortunately, I also have to include Chuunibyou in this list. My main complaint about this series is the direction it went. If it would stay a light hearted comedy like in the beginning, I’d liked it more. But the drama part in the latter four episodes never worked with me, and the final episode was really bad. I mean, everything was leading the conclusion, that Rikka would finally accept the reality and stop with the chuuni antics but then – they decided to disregard everything with a “nope, let’s return to status quo” and finished the story with a bland “you are what you are” afterword. Meh. It could have been so much better. Basically, read this post, because he has pointed out most of my complaints.

K

K get the award for “greatest wasted potential of year 2012” because both the characterisation and the (non-existing) plot was a clusterfuck. I am still crying about all those wasted animations and the wasted awesome soundtrack on this piece of pretentious crap.

With that, we’ll proceed to award the highlights of this year. The Anime series, who have delivered many enjoyable moments, here are

The Winners of 2012

Danshi koukosei no Nichijou

The spiritual successor of nichijou. The antics of the four teenage boys and their (mis)adventures are really hillarious, and it never got boring. This is a truly good example of a well made comedy AND parody, where it don’t pander the audience too much.

Natsuiro Kiseki

I still don’t understand why this series is so underappreciated among the anime community. It has a really solid cast, and the episodes are really entertaining. It even has a bittersweet conclusion. Definitely one of the most underrated series this year.

Accel World

Many people were turned off by the fat and BETA protagonist Harayuki (it doesn’t help either he was voiced by the same VA than Ouma Shu), but I still kept watching Accel World to see how it will develop. And boy, it delivered. The second half was really good, with many exciting battles and plottwists, especially Scarlet Rain and Ash BROller were very cool side characters. Along with the very good soundtrack, this is one of the series, I’d love to have a sequel.

Hyouka

This is one of the most pleasant surprises this year. It had a really really slow start, but in the end, the series has fleshed out the four main characters perfectly. I especially liked the subtle progression of the relationship between Oreki and Chitanda. Everything felt really natural. In fact, I think Hyouka is Kyoani’s most mature work, with excellent characterisation, absolute beautiful animation and next to zero pandering. If you are watching this series for the bland “mysteries” and not for the character development between Oreki and Chitanda, then you’re missing the point of the entire series.

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun

I initially ignored this series because I despise the shoujo and romance genre, since it’s always a mix of misunderstandings, love triangles, comic relief characters, BUBBLES AND SPARKLES, overused blushing, internal conflicts with annoying monologues, NTR bullshit etc etc… which always lead to frustration. But I gave it a chance, since many people recommended me this series and surprisingly, I really liked Tonari. The main reason was why I liked it so much was the self-confident and strong female lead character Mizutani. My only concern is the question whether it will get a second season since the anime ended without any conclusion. Anyway, with this series, I have regained some faith in the shoujo genre again.

Still, Yamaken >>> Haru.

Girls und Panzer

Cute girls doing cute things: Tank edition, but done right. I am not a tank expert, but you really have to admire the effort the makers have put into the show. Authentic tank models, really exciting Tank battles with actualy use of strategy, tank cafe’s, tank-themed bentos, the sterotypes of the different countries presenting the tanks, the katyusha song, basically, the entire anime revolves around tanks. If you have dismissed this show because of the silly premise, then you’re missing out one of the most entertaining shows this year. PANZER VOR!

And now, the special award, for creating the biggest shitstorm, the loudest debates in the anime community, the anime who made the word “hatebase” popular again, the award for

EPIC FAIL of 2012

goes toooooo…

Sword Art Online!

Holy shit dude. Sword art online. I am loss of words. I mean, how can a series fuck up that badly in story telling and characterisation? How can a series waste so much potential? How can this awful series even have fans?

[warning, incoming flaming and foul language, and yes, I took Sword Art Online way too seriously. Regard this as an emotional outburst of a really frustrated watcher. You have been warned.]

This Anime has one of the worst writing I’ve ever seen. Kirito is an painfully obvious self-insert and wish fullfillment character, who is overpowered as fuck and constantly have plot H4x powers pulled out of his ass to save the day, while Asuna is an annoying Tsundere, who is also perfect and has no flaws, and serving no other purpose than pandering to all those lonely basement dwellers, who are looking for a perfect and pure Waifu.

And these two are the main characters. Goddamnit.

Anyway, here are 10 reasons why Sword Art Online sucks. (I dropped SAO in episode 14 and I heard, it even get worse from there)

1. The constant use of deus ex machina and the huge amount of logical flaws in the series. But the worst case of all occured in episode 14. Why was Kirito able to stab Heathcliff despite being dead, why can Asuna free herself from the paralysis, what was the fucking reason Kayaba implanted a death mechanism in a virtual reality game? Because he was BORED? Why can Kirito defy logic? Oh, that’s right, it’s shitty writing and because he has PLOT armor and because he is JESUS. Fuck this episode 14.

2. The pacing. What the fuck. So, in the first episode, the player were still in level 1 and one episode later they are already in level 46, what the hell? How can you skip so much time? Also, we have 6 episodes of side stories in the 14 episode aincrad arc, and they served NOTHING for the plot progression. Also: “Oh hi, my name’s Kirito, I am badass” “Hi, i am Asuna and I am a useless slut” *later* “you saved my life, I love you kirito” “yeah.. let’s marry”” “okay” – that’s NOT how romance work, it needs progression and exploration you dumb fucks.

3. Every girl Kirito meets for the first time want to suck his dick because Kirito is SO badass. Well done, SAO for including a genre I really hate: A shitty Harem. Oh and before they fall in love in him, Kirito always have to save their sorry ass, because all women characters are FUCKING USELESS – talk about misogyny here.

4. The really blatant asshots and forced fanservice like constantly showing off characters in their undergarments. Including a ridiculous tentacle rape scene. VERY TASTEFUL INDEED.

5. The annoying cliches like “Asuna jumping in front of the person she wanted to protect and take the killing blow instead” – FUCK NO, THIS IS OUTDATED AS FUCK, YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS.

6. The extremely boring fights. Every time when I thought “Ooooh, now that’s going to be an interesting battle”, Kirito always curbstomp battle the enemy, because he ALWAYS conveniently has a skill which will defeat the enemy in seconds. HOW EXCITING.

7. Actually having a decent 1st episode and tricking us viewers to believe it’s going to be good. Fuck you for crushing my high hopes.

8. The “bad guys” (Kuradeel) are ridiculous and stupid as fuck. “HURR I AM EVIL BECAUSE I AM EVIL. LOOK AT ME TORTURING YOUR FAVORITE WAIFU, YES HATE ME BWAHAHAHA BECAUSE I SERVE NO OTHER PURPOSE THAN BEING A SCAPEGOAT” Seriously, what the actual fuck was the author thinking. It’s like a fanfiction written by an 15 year old.

9. Two years worth of semen made a glopping noise as it flowed endlessly into Asuna.

10. The obnoxious fanbase, who constantly claims that “the Light novel explained it better” – well FUCK YOU, because I don’t want to read the shitty Light Novel to have me explain why there’s so much bullshit going on.

I can rage on and on, but I have enough of this shit. I hate this anime and it fucking sucks and it sucking fucks and I don’t wanna talk about it.

Worst of all, Sword art online attracted an extreme amount of “casual” anime fans including many video gamers, and they all jumped on the bandwagon to worship this anime as the second coming of jesus, because they can “relate to the characters and its MMORPG setting and because Kirito is soooo badass”.

This is the new Twilight of Anime. Hyped by blind fanboys beyond hell, and panned by critics, who believes in their superior anime taste.

And now, after letting out some steam, the time has come, for the most important event.

Ladies and Gentleman,

the award for the

Best Anime of the year 2012

goes toooooo…

AKB0048!

Now, before everyone of you scream “wait, what is this series? I never heard of it” – I can assure you, I have also neglected the series back then in the spring anime season.

But AKB0048 has ended up as the greatest surprise of the year. I expected absolutely nothing from this, because everyone thought it would only serve as a cheap device to promote the real life idol group AKB48.

Instead, AKB0048 turned out to be everything I love about anime: It was entertainment at its finest. It didn’t try to be thought provoking, it didn’t try to be a brainless comedy, it didn’t try to be too overdramatic, but instead, it gave us a perfect blend of space opera, music, mecha, slice of life and drama in a really imaginative sci-fi setting with a ridiculous premise (entertainment is FORBIDDEN in the whole galaxy) – and it actually worked. I mean, Hypergalactic space Idols fighting Space nazis with the power of MUSIC and FRIENDSHIP on flying platforms with MICSABERS, how awesome is that? Yes, it’s a bit silly sometimes, but its brilliant cast of characters, its awesome insert songs, its colorful sci-fi setting and it’s perfect balance of action and drama delivered one of the most FUN experiences this year.

Hell, after watching this series, I even got interested into the real life AKB48 and listened to their music, and watched their videos (AKBINGO!) and also became a fan of them. (my Oshimen is Takamina btw). It’s really amazing, how much I grew to love AKB48 through this anime.

This anime also wins the award for best insert song (BEGINNER in episode 3), best background art (just look at those artworks), best episode (ep. 13 and the epic concert) , best Opening (Kibou ni tsuite),  best soundtrack (the medley is awesome) best side-character (Takamina) and the most badass moment (see pic). If you still haven’t watched this series yet – then go and watch it now or you’ll miss all the FUN. Besides, the second season is starting in only a few days.

Allright, this would wrap up my year with the Anime in 2012, and there are still many potentially good series left, I haven’t watched yet (Jinrui, Fate zero), but I am glad, that I haven’t lost interest in Anime yet despite being busy in the music conservatorium.

Anyway I am really excited for the year 2013, since it will deliver many long-awaited sequels and continuations.

Last but not least, here are my Youtube Stats for the year 2012.

For the year 2012, I got:

2,598,940 video views with a total of 4,144,489 views

316,265 views on my most popular video, Bios (Guilty Crown)

11,502 new subscribers with a total of 17,678 subscribers

22 new sheets

1 new fanpage on facebook,

1 major audio upgrade and finally

ONE BIG THANK YOU

for your support this year. I wouldn’t have come this far, without your feedback.

Thank you for every comment,

thank you for every like/dislike, and

thank you for watching my videos and downloading my sheet.

I also want to thank Tehishter for being a fellow Anime piano transcriber (we really should talk more about Anime, lol) and also CastlevaniaPro93, for convincing me watching AKB0048 and mastering the audio tracks.

With that said, I wish you, my dear readers, a really happy and successfull new year and let’s hope, our love for Anime will never fade.

See you in year 2013!

Animenz

[ EDIT: ]

https://animenz.wordpress.com/2012/annual-report/

Why can’t it be fall already? (Hyouka OP 2 – Mikansei Stride)

At least, Hyouka still remains good

Alright, I’ll cut right to the chase: This summer anime season is extremely boring. Not a single show has catched my attention yet, and the only good show continuing from the last season is Hyouka at the moment. (Accel World has dropped in quality lately)

Let’s just start with my summer anime 2012 first impressions post.

Now, before everyone come at me and shout “wait, did you even watched these shows?”

– yes, I did. All of them. Albeit only the first three episodes, but that’s usually enough to judge the shows.

The only series, who survived the three-episodes-test are Swort art online, Tari tari, Kokoro Connect and Jinrui,

Swort art online has started with a very impressive first episode, and everybody was hyped up, but from the second episode onwards, it began to crumble under it’s huge premise. The biggest problem I have with the series is the main character Kirito. After 4 episodes, he still doesn’t have any interesting personality besides being “badass” and most of the time “emo”. Another problem is the horrible pacing. In the second episode, one month has passed and no one even cleared floor 1, and two episodes later, they have suddenly reached floor 30. Seriously? How can you skip that much time in only TWO episodes? But the drama in episode 3 annoyed me the most. Why – tell me, why should I care about a character, who died a “tragically death”, when it’s has been barely introduced in the beginning of the same episode? That’s just wrong, there’s no build up, no real emotion involved, only a cheap plot device to force a tear-jerker for the viewers. And don’t forget to mention the introduction of your obligatory loli fanservice character in episode 4.

(；￢_￢)

Well, let’s hope it will improve with the time.

Tari Tari is slightly enjoyable for the most of the time, but it still haven’t set apart from your average slice of life anime series and its characters still remains pretty bland. Well, it does get some bonus points from me because of the focus on music.

Jinrui wa sutai Shimashita or Humanity has declined is the oddball of this season. It’s a very cynical series with a interesting premise but I still don’t feel any motivation to watch the next episode. Maybe it’s just not my cup of tea.

Kokoro Connect… well I still have to watch it (mostly because Tehishter has recommended this series), but it’s a bit irritating that the character design resemble K-ON! so much.

Now, let’s move on to the transcription itself:

Fun fact: I have added a (hidden) third voice in the Hyouka transcriptoin. If you pay closely attention you can follow it through the whole piece. The jumps in the right hand in the beginning is a bit tricky, so you can just omit these if you want.

-= Download the sheet and midi file here =-

[Mikansei Stride]     (difficulty: challenging)

This will probably be my only update for this summer season because none of the OP/ED have really intrigued me.

Fall anime season can’t come soon enough.

Animenz

A lame excuse why I haven’t been updating my blog lately (filler post)

Yeah, I know, I said there will be more updates for the summer season and I still haven’t uploaded a sheet yet.

AND

there is a reason for that:

I finally found it.

After all these years.

My new all-time favorite anime.

Ladies and gentleman: Let me present you, AKB0048, the first anime since years who made it into my top 5 anime list!!!

Welcome, AKB0048, to my personal “Hall of fame”

Now, many of you will probably ask yourself: “What, AKB0048? Never heard of it, and besides, it’s not even popular”

Yeah, I know. I was also very sceptical about AKB0048, which purpose is basically promoting the real life idol group AKB48.

I mean, the basic setting is: entertainment is entirely forbidden in the whole galaxy and some space idols are going to give guerilla concerts on the planets and fight the no-fun-allowed-police with some silly mechs and micsabers? (yes, you heard it right, micsabers). Seriously?

Yes, of course, and it’s fun!

I cannot say enough good things about AKB0048, because it was just that good.

I never have fanboy’d that hard for a series before. I rewatched every episode at least twice, I have collected every fanart available on the internet about AKB0048, I have told everyone of my (otaku) friends, they should watch AKB0048.

AKB0048 was the biggest surprise of the spring anime season 2012, maybe the biggest surprise of the year. My expectation was initially extremely low, but what I got in the end was by far the most exciting, awesome, dramatic and entertaining anime I have watched – for years.

Takamina is my favorite character btw.

Is this because of the awesome characters? The awesome insert songs? The awesome background arts? The awesome concert scenes? The awesome soundtrack?

Hell, it even converted me to a AKB48 fan, despite the fact, that I have nothing to do with the idol business in japan before. I have downloaded every single of them now, and I even watch those silly AKBingo videos – and I am enjoying every minute of it.

I watched AKB0048 together with Castlevaniapro93, and he even made an awesome fan musicvideo.

I still can’t believe how much I liked this series in the end. Even I can’t fully explain why AKB0048 was so enjoyable, so much fun to watch.

I cannot put into words what I experienced.

But one thing I’m for sure about.

AKB0048 is a masterpiece.

And I will never forget the fun I had while watching AKB0048.

Thank you Kawamori and Satelight for delivering this epic Space Opera Action series!

Because this is a show, I will remember (and cherish) for years.

And the best thing of all is:

SECOND SEASON IS ANNOUNCED FOR 2013!!!1111

FUCK YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Fuck, 2013 can’t come soon enough.

Oh yeah, since AKB0048 last episode aired a few days ago, I can finally concentrate on making some sheets again. So expect an update in the weekend.

See you in 2013 again!

So why the hell are you even reading this now, when you should have been watching the first episode of AKB0048 already?

Seriously, go and watch AKB0048. You don’t know how much fun you are missing out, if you neglect this awesome series. Go and watch it – NOW ^_^

Animenz

It’s Summer time! (Hyouka ED 2 – Kimi ni Matsuwaru Mystery)

Hi everyone, I’m back again for the summer season.

But before we start, let me express my thanks to everyone who have donated so far for my new microphone. Currently I have already received €244,35, that’s really amazing, and some people even donated 50€. Therefore,

thank you very much for your support ^^

I’m currently aiming to get the Rode NT5 Matched Pair for 315€, a pair of tripod and as well as an audio interface (120€). I have calculated everything and this one seems to have the best price-performance ratio.

Alright, here is the first transcription for the summer season: The Second Hyouka ED, Kimi ni Matsuwaru Mystery.
I am really happy that Hyouka has improved a lot recently and the episodes have become much more interesting to watch. Not forget to mention the animation is still god-tier.

As usual, I extended the TV-size Ending a little bit and added an alternative ending.

-= Download the sheet and the midi file here =-

[Kimi ni Matsuwaru Mystery]       (difficulty: challenging)

why is Oreki so awesome?