In memory of 2010 part 8: so I have a Voice Fetish…

Well, Happy New Year!! And to start the year off, a look back on the vocal performances of yesteryear.

It’s probably not so obvious here, but my vice in anime is actually…the seiyuu. Specifically, the male seiyuu – I can quite reliably pick out my five or so favourite seiyuu just by voice alone. That I’m buying so many DVDs and sharing bits and pieces from commentaries and radio shows can be attributed to in ever-increasing interest in what goes on behind the microphone. But I’ll keep it to their voicework here.

Overall, I’d say that 2010 wasn’t a great year for stand-out performances, at least in the shows I’ve caught, although the range of roles that certain seiyuu got more than made me happy. On the other hand, that it finally threw up shows that tuned me in to some of the ladies was arguably the most important development for 2010.

In memory of 2010 part 7: Anisong and Fanworks

Music is by far the most subjective aspect of any show. I’ve already read several reviews noting that 2010 hasn’t been a particularly strong year for theme songs. Whilst I agree that there probably isn’t a future classic like Cruel Angel’s Thesis or Sobakasu (last year’s Kimi no shiranai monogatari is probably the most recent one), I have more ‘favourites’ from this year than any year before.

In no particular order, there was
Uragiri no Yuuyake (Theatre Brook) Durarara!! 1st OP
Complication (ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D) – Durarara!! 2nd OP
Sign of Love (immi) – Saraiya Goyou OP
SOMEONE ELSE (eto…WORKING!! gals)
Heart Edge ni idomou -Go to Heart Edge- (WORKING!! guys)
Kuchizuke (BUCK-TICK) – Shiki 1st OP

Strangely enough though, most of the theme sequences I liked watching differ:
Uragiri no Yuuyake, Complication and SOMEONE ELSE again
Kuragehime OP
Otomo Youkai Zakuro OP
Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru OP and ED (although the live action one is the most entertaining)

However, I personally think that 2010 should be known as the year for theme fanworks. From the numerous MADs produced for the Durarara!! endings to the myriad of fan dubs. The following DRRR!!xCode Geass offering caught my eye because it doesn’t just follow the “Trust Me” ED sequence, but also adds its own touches.

However, I’d like to end with my absolute favourite from the past year, a favourite that was reflected in a Joysound karaoke survey: without further ado, I present Rimone-sensei’s Orihara Izaya, singing Ren’ai Circulation.

Year Review 2009, part 1

i.e. the stuff I can decide without seeing the ending to my two favourites from yesteryear.

As with every such list ever made, these are just personal opinions of this paticular blogger. I don’t expect anyone to have the same tastes as me, much less to have watched the same range of series. But one thing that is different from a number of other lists is that I’m including Bakemonogatari and Higashi no Eden here as complete stories (i.e. webcast episodes and movies included). Which is why this list is so late – they’d both been scheduled to end by January when I first decided how I would deal with them. It possibly wasn’t such a bad idea, as it gave me a lot of time to wrap up my thoughts on everything I watched, and even get a few more series in *coughSoraKakecough*

Anyways, I’ve never been good at watching stuff for production categories like animation or editing, so I’ll just go with what I want to talk about.

Review: Genji Monogatari Sennenki (源氏物語千年紀）

Based on the classic Japanese novel, The Tale of Genji (源氏物語), this series follows the life and (some of the loves) of the second son of a emperor, known to readers/viewers as Hikaru Genji. As the second son born to a lowly concubine, Genji cannot succeed the throne, but is loved deeply by his father and thus granted education and assets befitting his place in royalty. However, none of this can give him that which he most desires…love.

2008 Year Review

Yes, I know, it’s incredibly late. But I had a few series that I really wanted to praise, so here it is (though I will backlog it in about a week or so done). I also have yet to review one major series that I’ve included, but I will get there.

And a warning, there is at least one major spoiler this time (Code Geass), so don’t click unless you don’t care.

2007 Year Review

After all those hours over the last half a week, I’m not entirely sure about doing this wrap-up anymore. Especially given that it’s been over a month since the end of a year that didn’t yield anything quite as enjoyable as Ouran or Suzumiya Haruhi. However, it was a year in which I watched more than I ever have before, and there were a few gems in all the craziness.

Reviews: various anime

Reviews: Beautiful Life and Nodame Cantabile

Reviews: Gokusen (special) and One Litre of Tears

On to the dramas/live-action before I try tackling the film or anime reviews…

2006 reflections

Reflections on 2006 – what I’ve seen anyway – based on series that ENDED in 2006 except where openings and endings are concerned. Sadly for me, I decided to try and lessen my anime addiction at the start of what has turned out to be a stellar year after disappointment of 2005, and regretted it, of course. (I refrained from adding the adjective ‘huge’, as the first season of H&C belongs to 2005, if I’m not mistaken.) Nevertheless, I have gotten rid of one thing: my propensity to collect anime- another 10 series or thereabouts (all burnt on CD) to get rid of and I’m done. If only I could bring this across to the other collections… But on to the year in (brief) review…

Judging from my entries this year, Ouran takes the cake…but atm, I can’t decide between that and Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, which has the draw of a wonderfully snarky Kyon to balance the insane titular character. I suspect that Blood+ and Honey & Clover (I’m treating it as one series here) will be joining the list once I’ve completed them. For personal enjoyment value, I also looked forward to Black Blood Brothers every week, but to be honest, that wasn’t a spectacular series. A major disappointment was Innocent Venus, for all it’s wasted potential. The others were what I expected (xxxHOLiC, Gakuen Heaven, .hack//ROOTS - which I’ll be finishing soon), or I simply didn’t continue watching them (Princess Princess). Ineligible for the list are some series I’m still watching, as well as NANA, Saiunkoku Monogatari, Bleach, Death Note and D.Gray-man…of which only DN will probably be continued from here on (if I can be bothered – I’ve never regretted reading a manga series more). Not that Kokumono and NANA are all that bad themselves, just that following the original sources is much more interesting.

Favourite seiyuu roles this year: Sugitan as Kyon (Haruhi), Kamiyan as Queen Saionji (Gakuen Heaven) and Takemoto (Hachikuro), Fujita Yoshinori as Kaoru (Ouran) and Ishida Akira as Shin-chan (NANA) whilst Hirano Aya as Haruhi (Haruhi) and Paku Romi as Osaki Nana (NANA) are the female standouts for me. Perhaps it’s strange that none of the three seiyuu I’m interested in (see sidebar) are on this list, but I still like them anyway…

Favourite opening are Haruhi’s “Bouken deshou deshou?,” xxxHOLiC’s “19 Sai” and Bakumatsu…’s “Kouya Ruten” whilst endings are more difficult – but I’ve loved BBB’s “Shinkirou,” NANA’s “A little pain” and Ouran’s “Shisshou,” whilst Haruhi’s “Hare Hare Yukai” takes the cake for a credit sequence/song combination (gotta love Kyon’s ‘what the hell am I doing’ expression).

In terms of drama series…I think I’ll be watching Nodame Cantabile ASAP, but I’ll never follow enough of these yearly to select any favourites in time. Live action films…of what I’ve seen from this year’s release, Casino Royale (because it was damn realistic this time around), but again, I haven’t got much to choose from (Batman Begins, The Constant Gardener and Russian Dolls were all from yesteryear).

edit: editing this has been a bit of a pain because once you start using HTML, going back to rich text just doesn’t work…I’m not going to be bothering with screenshots…