Comparison of Light Yagami & Lelouch Lamperougue - A Difference in the Mind

Foolishly people will claim that Light Yagami and Lelouch Lamperouge are the same character, but they are not. It is an easy mistake to make, only upon close analysis can you identify the differences in their character. You must strip away the verbosity of their circumstances and look at their actions to see who they truly are. In the end, it is a difference of the mind with these two. In accordance to Freudian Psychoanalysis, my preferred method of analysis, Lelouch is a superego-dominated character and Light is an id-dominated character. One dominated by concern and the other by self-interest, both on the trail for world peace.

Quick Review - The angel is the superego, the id is the devil.

Light Yagami - A God-in-Progress

A brilliant child, one of the top students in all of Japan and on course to follow his father into detective work. Light spends the better hours of his nights studying locked up in his room, his focus entirely on school. As well as being dastardly intelligent, he is noted to be handsome, while not important to the series but contributing to his confidence. To top it off, he has the drive to accomplish his goals no matter the cost or effort it may take.

Where Light goes bad is his outlook on life. He is shockingly over-confident in himself because of his intelligence, but not to the point that it blinds him from reality. His own ability to predict every possible outcome keeps himself in check, but even that will not keep his God-complex under control. He is cynical and believes that the world is a rotten place because of it, he only places his trust in himself. Light is self-centered, too confident in his intelligence, and pessimistic about the world he sees.

Once the Death Note—a book allowing the writer to kill anybody as long as they know the name and face—falls into Light’s hand, his drive is channeled into his unyielding resolve to cleanse this rotten world. He trusts only himself and believes only in himself, allowing himself to wage justice on the world, claiming the name of God. Light’s claim to the name God is the first instance of his confidence blocking him from his goal, it is his incentive to be justice, to be a God. Out of his own interest he cleanses the world to become a being recognized as greatness, but he justifies his wrongful cleansing by doing so in the name of justice.

Light’s actions are wrong, but he avoids guilt by targeting criminals and those who really deserve judgement. Then, as he is more invested in becoming a savior, he starts to judge those who stand in his way, even his family. He is Kira, the savior of the world, not the Light Yagami that would slowly but legally penalized criminals as a detective.

Light Yagami was a child gifted with an intelligence matched by few. But his ability to reach greatness in life was skewed by his cynical nature and the Death Note that dropped into his lap. The Death Note brought about his change in personality, his overbearing self-confidence morphing into a claim to the title of God, the highest title of greatness he could grasp. He served his own interest in waging justice, not the world’s best interest.

Lelouch Lamperouge - A Light that became a Martyr

Lelouch was a former Britannian Prince, but was casted from the line of succession after the murder of his mother. Like Light, he is extremely intelligent and thinks of all possible outcomes to any given situation. Unlike Light, he spends his mind on the game of chess instead of schoolwork, which he calls trivial. Because of an aristocratic upbringing, he is somewhat arrogant, finding himself to be above others. Because of everything that happens to him and his sister, he has a deep hatred for the Britannian Empire and drive to back it up that will later bring his plans to fruition.

While ruthless in battle—like a game of chess against nobility—he is also a compassionate person. He makes daily visits to his sister Nunnally, blinded from special circumstances, and spends a lot of time with his friends. It was not until later in the series he recognized a love for his friend Shirley, but it was too late by that point in time. Lelouch’s ability to love is not bound to just Shirley, at moments he shows acts of compassion for C.C., Euphemia, and Kallen. His ambitions are fueled by compassion.

However, worldly-compassion was not his first incentive to change the world. It was personal revenge and to create a peaceful world for his own sister that fueled his drive, a smaller act of compassion. Soon after, with the gain of his geass, he changed his motives to encompass world peace, as he had an obligation. Lelouch felt a guilt, or rather a duty to those who died in his cause, because he vowed that his efforts would not be in vain. Very quickly Lelouch got rid of his id-fueled mentality to embrace the superego.

That superego, combined with his drive, pushed Lelouch to make the ultimate sacrifice. Lelouch sacrificed himself for world peace, achieving his goal. His life was the equivalent of world peace. While Lelouch held such a powerful position, we do not witness a slip into the arrogant behavior he knew well as a aristocrat. The only moments his arrogance showed were when his public appearances required it. Otherwise, he is a being powered by the superego, an unyielding desire for world peace.

Light vs Lelouch - Comparison & Clarification

To clarify, Light is the id and Lelouch is the superego. While characters are not predominantly one or the other but a combination, these two can be called as such with certainty. This is where Lelouch and Light are different, it is their mentality on the world.

Light, id-dominated, wanted to become a God, saying so himself. He walked along a path of supposed justice, but was rather the path to self-satisfaction. Criminal after criminal he killed with the Death Note, eventually killing anybody who stood in his way. Ultimately, Light did what he did to satisfy his bored and complacent mind.

Lelouch, superego-dominated, reached for world peace so that he could free the world of Britannia's iron death grip. He wanted a peaceful world so much that he sacrificed his own life. He knew the extent of what he did, the lives he ruined and that alone sent him into turmoil, but he pressed on so that his cause was not in vain. Instead of his id, the superego shines and dutifully he gave the world what it deserved.

The two are very similar and it is understandable that comparisons be drawn, but they are not the same character. One is self-centered while the other is outward-centered. One is a God, the other is a martyr.

Now this is the question. Which one was right?

Free! Review - Missing the Point

Kyoto Animation quickly made its way into my heart with stellar animation and a tenacity that most other animation companies seem to lack. However, that same tenacity is a double-edged sword. They have produced works that are greatly loved by many and then there are those which are not loved for their various reasons. With Free, Kyoto Animation managed to cut themselves with this double-edged sword while still providing their amazing animation. Their tenacity allowed them to create controversial fanservice aimed at the female audience, which I believe deserves a standing ovation, though many would say otherwise.

Before I get started I would like to say that I am not here to cry about what Kyoto Animation has done, I support what they have produced here. Free is not the death of anime. Free is not a god awful series. Free is not the spawn of Satan. Just as Free is not the best anime out there. It has faults like every other series out there. If you thought Free was any of those I mentioned, then I suspect you did not watch past episode one and failed to see the greater point of the entire series. Yes, there is a point you can take away from Free. If you claim there is not, then read what I have to say here.

This is an in-depth look at Free which has spoilers, be warned.

What is Free?

Produced during the summer anime season of 2013, it had little competition besides Attack on Titan, which took the anime industry by storm. The first look at Free was a short thirty second Kyoto Animation called Suiei-hen. In that short thirty second clip, we see Kyoto once again at work with amazing animation and colors that pop off of your screen. It gives a quick look at the characters that would later take up names. It was only a precursor of what we could expect in Free.

Then July came around and the first episode of Free aired, followed by many complaints of fanservice from the male audience. Through out the entirety of its airing and yet, several months after it finished, we still hear too much about this death blow to anime. I want to come back to this point later.

It follows Haruka Nanase, a swimmer with a genuine love for water, and the rest of the swimming team. Haruka’s closest friend and the kindest man on camera is Makoto Tachibana, who surprising has a fear of the ocean. Nagisa Hazuki is the youngest of their original swimming team and also brought on the newest member, Rei Ryuugazaki. Rei, who has quite a bit of the serious surrounding him, was a replacement and not a replacement for Rin Matsuoka. Rin was a very close friend to Haruka in their childhood, but hastily left when something went down between the two of them.

Rei Ryuugazaki, Nagisa Hazuki, Haruka Nanase, Makoto Tachibana, & Rin Matsuoka(Left to Right)

We start off as Nagisa has finally become old enough to join high school with Haruka and Makoto. Nagisa serves as the driving factor of starting up the swimming club at their school. Which only comes to fruition because Haruka cannot swim in the ocean all year and the stunning revelation of Rin’s return. They stumble upon him when they visit their old swimming club, which was due for demolition. They are surprised to see that Rin is nothing like what he use to be. He is mean and is enamored with Haruka, caring little for Makoto and Nagisa.

Immediately they challenge each other to a race, but unfortunately it is not until another night they can hold that race at the swimming school Rin is attending, upon request by Rin’s sister Gou, who serves as the club’s manager. To Rin’s disappointment, he beats Haruka without an issue. What has him angry is that Haruka was not at his best, that he was only doing it to be submerged in water.

As Makoto is speaking with their former coach, Gorou, he discovers that he transformed Rin was because of a race Rin and Haruka had one summer when he returned from Australia. Haruka beat Rin than and that is what created this rift between them. Rin saw that all of his hard work could never compare to Haruka’s natural talent, causing Rin to leave again as pushing Haruka to give up on competitive swimming, only ever swimming freestyle. Rin’s reason for attending a swimming school in Australia is that he wishes to complete his father’s goal in life, to become an Olympic swimmer.

In order to become an official club, they need another member. Nagisa sets his eye on Rei and keeps bantering him until he finally accepts to join, only after witnessing the beauty of Haruka’s swimming style. Rei is an oddball, he is obsessed with calculations and the beauty of a fluent movement in pole vaulting. He joins the club not even knowing how to swim, so a good portion of time is spent getting him up to speed as well as changing his character. I felt a great deal of hostility between Rei and Haruka at first. Haruka saw the error in Rei’s way and it was a while until he reluctantly gave some pointers to Rei on how to be free. After all, Rei really just wants to swim with the rest of the team.

His desire to swim with the team is one of the later moments that held much power in his character. He is one of the best developed characters because his role is the odd man out. He saw himself as a replacement for Rin and that was only reinforced when his club talked about Rin all the time. It was not until Rei confronted Rin and asked him a few questions that he was able to sort through everything and finally acknowledge himself as a member of the team. It is at that same moment of confrontation we see Rin has a jealousy of Rei, that he is allowed to swim with his team when he is clearly lacking the necessary skill. Once again showing that Rin’s attitude is still about winning and not about being with your friends.

Taking a step back in time, Makoto has planned a swimming camp for the club which consists of swimming from island to island. He manages to pull together enough funding that they can go, but Haruka expresses a concern for Makoto. At a young age Makoto was friends with a local fisher, one day that fisher died at sea during a storm, the same storm that claimed the life of Rin’s father. From then on Makoto has a fear of the ocean and the ocean is nothing to be afraid of.

One night Rei slipped out of his tent to practice at night, so that he would not hold the team back. A storm came rolling in fast and Rei was in danger, which Makoto attempted to save him, but also go pulled in. Haruka and Nagisa then save the both of them and stay at an abandoned building on one of the islands until morning, when they swim back. It was also during that night we see Rin’s slow acceptance into the club.

This all builds up to the point they enter a swimming competition and only progress to the next level in the relay race, failing in their individual competitions. In that relay, Rin witnesses what he has missed out on years and that throws him off, making him lose his race. Rin then storms out of the building in what was the greatest heart wrenching episode of this series.

Rin claims that he is going to quit swimming, which Haruka hears and reminds him of the very same thing he went through years ago. This spurs what would be the greatest amount of emotion I have ever seen on Haruka’s face, the man is apathetic expect when it comes to this moment. Haruka and the rest of the swimming team search for Rin after they came to the conclusion that all Rin wanted was to swim with them again, like old times.

The climax of the series is when Haruka faces Rin in the street where he had earlier scribbled a very important message on the ground. Rin, clearly upset, tells Haruka to laugh at him and the failure that he is. Haruka attempts reasoning and says that it is really his team he wants to swim for. Rin then gets physical, grabbing Haruka by the collar, and the two fight it out for a quick moment. It is then, once they have fallen to the ground, that Rin sees the message Haruka had scribbled on the ground. “For the Team,” the phrase that Rin had inscribed at their childhood swimming club.

Rin now breaks down into tears and admits that all he wanted to do was to swim with his team. Rei then gives up his position in the relay, allowing Rin to fill it in and swim with his team. Such action is illegal and got their team disqualified, but they all accepted it without regret.

Even a man as jacked as Rin can cry, you heartless monster.

The final scenes of the show involve Haruka asking Rin if he intends on following his father’s dream. He says with clear confidence that he is following his own dreams.

It is a great story that actually affected me more than I thought. The climax about brought me to tears, not an easy accomplishment. It was this story of broken friendship, competition, and holding onto the past. Rin, because he still clung to the memory of his father, desperately tried to be the best he could be. That meant being better than Haruka who had more talent than he had seen in any other swimmer. Rin, as a child, was not the obsessive man he was later on. He was carefree and wanted to have a good time. As time went on when his father’s death occurred, that is what began this adventure to being the best. It pushed him to do things he was conflicted about. He wanted to make his father proud, while still swimming with his friends. Rin is a great character, I daresay the best in the series.

Rin works with Haruka very well, just as Makoto works well with Haruka. I have grown tired of the apathetic, cold, and stoic stereotypes that are common. While this character types does serve a good purpose, the show of emotion. When Haruka shows concern for Makoto during his endeavor with the ocean, we see more through his voice that he is caring. When confronting Rin and his conflicts, he has visual looks of surprise. Those moments of surprise really show the gravity of the events to Haruka, which is the purpose of creating these jaded characters. The are stunned after some traumatic event, like shoving Rin away, and only a event of equal drama could spur that same emotion. Haruka is that character. Though he doesn’t show it, he does care for his friends.

Makoto was one of my favorite characters in the beginning, but he fell into a formula I got bored with. He is a nice guy and Kyoto capitalized on that fact. His signature feature is smiling, closing his eyes, and tilting his head slightly to the side. It is a sincere and kind gesture, representing who he is. But they used it too much, I got tired of seeing it. I wanted something more from Makoto and I just did not get it. His interaction with his siblings is endearing, shows that all around he is a nice guy as well as the guy that lets himself get trampled on by people who abuse that kindness. I know, been there done that, I can relate personally to the type of character Makoto is. However, I might of liked Makoto getting angry and showing us he has a setting other than kind. We see more of his other emotions when on the island hopping trip, but it was yet a small amount of the potential he had. In the end, he was still one of my favorite characters of the series, falling right behind Rin.

Rei, while highly developed, I really did not like. I felt sorry for him in the end. His fight was one of acceptance and value. Was he just a replacement or was he just a standin? This is important in many sport situations because there are times position are joining to have to be filled and those people filling them are not going to live up to expectations. His character, as expected, was relatable to a nerd with a love for numbers and algorithms. A habit that was broken to become free.

Nagisa, I would say, is the least developed character there is of the main ones. While his peppy attitude is a breath of fresh air, he lacked something to go for besides starting the swim team and getting Rin back. His emotions were not much besides that. He was very much one dimensional and needed something, just something. I could have missed something with his character, but nothing else stands out about him to me.

There was this extended metaphor that the series used which I believed was unnecessary, but I saw the point they were trying to make. Haruka was compared to a Mackerel and Rin was compared to a shark. This explains why Rin has sharp teeth as well as Haruka's hunger for fish. Each of the other characters has a reference to a sea creature, but it is of little importance to the overall series.

If we look at the ending and opening, they are weird at first. But we see the ending is another representation of the series overall points, swimming with your friends. It does so by placing them in a desert and then having Haruka meet up with everybody else in a desert oasis. It also includes some odd dancing scenes which was just Kyoto Animation doing what Kyoto Animation does.

This show, at many levels, is about becoming free from guilt, self-imposed limitations, and the past. Rei built limitations for himself which he needed to break. Haruka had guilt about shoving Rin away. Makoto and Rin both stranded themselves in the past. Makoto holding a fear for the ocean and Rin living the dream of his deceased father. This is what you can take away from Free. The ability to let go of something and to acknowledge the truth. To not let competition tear you and your friends apart. Upon this close analysis of Free, many will see that is a lot more than just fanservice for the women.

Missing the Point

If you watched Free, you likely missed these points I mentioned. That is because you were too busy watching the eye candy on screen. Many males criticized Kyoto Animation for making fanservice for the women, but I think it is nice a company is daring enough to do this. It shows somebody is willing to step out of the comfort zone, even in an industry that is constantly bordering the line of bankruptcy. It was a nice breath of fresh air.

Apparently women can't have fanservice, sorry gals.

This also destroyed the point of the series. This fanservice was blown so out of proportion by the community that it was missed. Kyoto Animation missed its point by doing what it did best, fantastic animation. But the blame is not on them, it is the community. Why are we blowing this out of proportion? The amount of fanservice for the guys deserves ten times the ridicule Free has received. This is not the coming of the Anti-Christ, its just another show. So as long as fanservice normally continues within anime, I see no point in complaining about what Kyoto has done.

Now I want to talk about the character interactions that could be said was tailored for the female audience. I am not going to criticize the somewhat homosexual interactions the characters had. I have spoken with swimmers and I have witnessed a lot of what athletes in general do. I am not a basement dweller, I have some first hand accounts of how things go down here in America. One of my friends, a swimmer and just as jacked as Haruka was, has repeatedly mentioned other swimmers doing naked jumping jacks. Let that sink in. Here is an instance of something you could consider homosexual in nature, certainly not as far as Free went. But it is not a homosexual action, the viewer is sexualizing these occurrences. In a gym class people will take showers together, does not mean they are doing homosexual things. So I fail to see why everybody is getting so angry about this, it happens in real life and much less censored as Free kept it.

In Retrospect

In the end, Free was an anime with very many good points and fanservice that did exactly as it was suppose to do. Nothing more and nothing less, let the fanfiction writers take it from here. I would suggest Free to anybody who wants a story and pays a close eye to it. It was hard for me to finish this, I had to force my hand, but I enjoyed it. There are definitely anime out there better worth your time, but it is only twelve episodes and not a great loss for the experience you gain.

The Fanservice of Winter 2014

As a consumer we hold a lot of power in the product we view every day. This applies to anime as much as every other form of media. The products we receive are because they are what sell. In anime, what sells is fanservice. It is a fair assumption that a majority of anime viewers are males and around the age where hormones take control and sway judgement. This is the marketed audience and fanservice is what will sell to them.

I'd laugh, but it is strangely true.

However, the rest of us have a duty as consumers to make it obvious that we want more than just this. The industry has stalemated even with the fanservice by churning out comedic school anime and the common ecchi which is nothing more than the same cookie cutter being used over and over again. I want to make it apparent that I want something more than this. I want a show that will make me awe without abusing the human body in some gratuitous manner. Is this really too much to ask for?

I think not. So I am going to take a look at the anime currently on the Winter 2014 anime chart at AniChart.net, which is a great sight, and evaluate how much is fanservice at first glance. This is my biased opinion on the matter and what I think is fanservice may not qualify for you, so keep that in mind before you start spewing defensive slanders for what was your favorite anime this season. Also keep in mind that I have not seen a single episode of any of these on the list, this is my first assumption.

D-Frag: Let’s jump into the air, then care about our short skirts.

Mahou Sensou: Am I imagining that glimmer of light near her skirt? Frankly, they drew attention to that area and is enough for me to be put off. Is there a need to do it? I think not.

Maken-Ki! Two: Do I even need my reasoning for this one? I will say, I noticed she had beautiful eyes...after ogling her in-your-face bosom for five minutes.

Mikakunin de Shinkoukei: This was a difficult decision, but after a quick look at the preview I had put it on here. This one will likely keep it tame and not in your face about it.

Noragami: I like the effects of wind and keenly placed legs. It really goes a long way in concealing a woman’s more private areas, but looking at her face, she looks as if she is enjoying the exposure. But when you look at the preview, it is actually pretty well reserved. Then why place the woman on her knees with a high flying skirt?

Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga: I think by now you all know the pattern I used to determine all of these. Why is there a need to show what is under the skirt? You don’t need to tease me, I can go watch pornography if I want under it that bad.

Saki: Zenkoku-han: Upon closer inspection, her skirt is a little too high for my liking. Child pornography?

SoniAni: Super Sonico the Animation: A boob shot now and then I will not complain about, but making it your cover image is really making it look like a cry for economic help. Unless you are faced with dire bankruptcy, I really don’t need unnecessary things such as these.

Space Dandy: I am a hypocrite at times and Space Dandy is a show I will overlook in this conversation. If it is pivotal to character design and the such, I can understand. If it is out of the line, then no. At least they kept their cover image awesome and meaningful to the series.

'brestaurants'

Strange+: I think you know why.

Wizzard Barristers: Benmashi Cecil: Do my eyes deceive me? Is that another glimmer of light near the hem of the skirt?

There may have been some I should have mentioned and maybe some not meant for this list, but I will move on.

It is clear that when fanservice becomes unnecessary it only becomes a deterrent to an anime, for me at least. Then when using it with a show about middle schoolers, it will only make me cringe. Have some class, have some honor, have some decency. Unless vital to the show, as I believe it will be to Space Dandy, fanservice could be easily cut in half.

This is awesome without flashing something at you.

I want to give Hamatora a standing ovation because they did something all of these managed not to do. Have a cover image which is not provocative or draws attention to one area of the human body. I am looking forward to watching this, do not let me down Hamatora, I have put my faith in you. As well as Nobunaga the Fool and Hoozuki no Reitetsu.

What is Anime?

There are a lot of people who are not familiar with anime and know nothing about it. Then there are those who know about anime and believe it is only cartoons. Anime is much more than just cartoons. It is not just something for your child on Saturday mornings. It is much bigger than that. It is a medium. A medium of entertainment.

This is how far I have been pushed...

Anime, at its root, is a Japanese animated product. The word itself comes from the word animated(Why I had no idea, Alexander!). Since it is a Japanese product, it has likely been written, directed, and produced through Japan. The rest of the animated productions are then called anime-influenced animation, but I hate calling it that. I don’t want to have that conversation now, but most anime I view is made in Japan.

Commonly anime will begin as a manga or light novel, then be produced as an animated product. A manga is a Japanese comic book that follows the Japanese style of writing. Meaning that you read it from the back cover to the front, reading the panels on the inside left to right. It is confusing at first, but now it is second nature for me to read a manga. That does not mean an anime can’t be an original production as well, because there have been some very popular original productions.

If you have a plot, you can then move onto making the anime itself. Hand-drawn and computer-generated imagery(CGI) have been the two common methods of animating a series. Each has it pros as well as cons. Hand-drawn anime can have more attention to detail and it is marvelous if done correctly. Where as CGI can provide you with more options you have to be weary of choppy and unrealistic renders with them.

Is this not beautiful?

If it helps to understand. Iron Man’s suit was created with CGI and was done very well. High quality CGI is very expensive and that is why the anime industry has turned away from it and continued producing anime the traditional way. Walt Disney was a company built on hand-drawn animation, but has discontinued it as of currently. The last hand-drawn anime by Disney was The Princess and The Frog.

Perhaps the most discerning feature of anime is the sound. I am not talking about the soundtracks, but the voicings. It is produced in Japan and it only makes sense that the voices are first done in Japanese. It then takes up to a few years for an anime to be produced by another company with English voices. Not everybody can sit down and watch subtitles, so this is where the industry has one of its biggest bottlenecks. Then again, a great anime will be worth it if you have to wait any amount of time.

Rarely will an anime be produced in English as it is being produced in Japanese. The soon-to-be released Space Dandy will be produced in both languages and available for viewing on normal television broadcasting. On a side note, I am looking forward to Space Dandy.

I think this looks like a lot fun.

So how can we say anime is more than just a cartoon? All I have done so far is tell you the jist of how the industry functions and that it is centered around Japan. There is this false charade surrounding animated products. Just because it is not real, it does not mean it is not for adults. Iron Man was not real and I know plenty of adults who enjoyed it. Of course, Iron Man is a terrible example for this because the animation seemed real to me. But my point is, animated products are not only for a childish audience.

We have seinen and josei anime aimed at adult men and women. These shows are usually sexual, violent, and mature in how they handle themselves. I watched Dogs: Bullets & Carnage which is part of the seinen genre. It had nudity and lots of violence. It was made for an adult audience, not your child. The animation and comedy was dark, the habits of characters were foul, and the impression it would give a child is not a good one.

Let’s look at ecchi anime. Personally, I don’t like the genre, I think it has become mindless fanservice that abuses hormonal teenagers who lack self-control. Ecchi is usually an anime that includes sexual innuendos, but never nudity. That way it can be classified as PG-13. Often it will also be comedy or a harem show, which I don’t like harems either. I think it is bad overall to endorse harems, what kind of society would we be if harems were everywhere? A sleazy one is what we would be.

There is anime made for adults. There is anime for teenagers. There is also anime made for kids, which can be called cartoons. In America, most anime you will see broadcasted on television will be a cartoon. Because that is the audience that will watch it. Anime does not appeal to American adults. It hardly even sells to a majority of Japanese adults. So it is understandable that anime seen as nothing more than cartoons.

Naruto, a very popular anime that I would consider a cartoon.
This is what got me started.

It does irk me to death when it is called a cartoon, because would you not find it irritating that your favorite form of media is compared to that of a child’s show? I doubt in my time it will become accepted as an appropriate form of entertainment, but that will not stop me from watching it. The main reason I watch anime is because I can find stories that I cannot find elsewhere.

Death Note, a well known anime, is the story of an intelligent high school student who finds a book that can kill anybody just by writing their name. He then goes through the process of making himself into a god, where else can I find this? Fullmetal Alchemist, an young alchemist who is a born natural fights against homunculi while dealing with the troubles of the government and attempting to retrieve his brother’s lost body. Code Geass, very similar feeling to Death Note, is the show of a Prince who obtains the power of complete obedience and fights against an entire empire with unfathomable resources and technology that can produce giant fighting robots. He then takes down that empire and creates world peace in what I would describe as the greatest anime ending ever created, where else can I find a show like this?

Lelouch, the main character of Code Geass, as seen in the preview of Akito the Exiled 2.
I am so excited to see this with the subtitles. Does anybody else get chills from this?

My point is clear. I watch anime because it is something different. It is more than just reality television and game shows. It is an experience that has yet to be matched.

Explore. Find what will interest you. There is a genre for everything and for every audience. Use the last three I mentioned, they are great. Start somewhere, just don't miss out on something that has been fantastic.

Winter Anime 2014 - My Impressions

January is coming soon and so is the new anime season. There are few I am looking forward to and just as many I expect to be repeats of what we have all seen in the past.

Winter Anime Chart V4 by Zana

Double Circle: The first episode of this has already come out and it is only six minutes in length. But in that six minutes I got lost and confused. I thought this was about some futuristic society, not magical mechas and monsters. I'll stay tuned for more. It is only six minute episodes and not the greatest waste of my time.

Seitokai Yakuindomo S2: The first season was hilarious as I expect the second to be. It is no easy task to make twelve episodes of pure perverted jokes. However a second season may push them over the edge and all we can expect is repeats of the first. I have faith it is not.

Space Dandy: I watched a preview of this and I may be hooked. I am not a fan of blatant fanservice, but Space Dandy may be so hilarious that I can overlook it as just fanservice. An alien hunter who travels throughout space, while stopping at every 'brestaurant' he can find. No doubt funny and it is coming out in English as it is coming out in Japanese.

Who could not laugh at this guy?

Noragami: I have seen too much of students in middle schools who mess around in the affairs of gods, but it is what sells to everyone else. Though I can always give another one a chance.

Nobunaga the Fool: This show caught my eye. First off, it doesn't take place in a middle or high school from what I can tell. I am interested to find out more about this fool Oda Nobunaga and what he will do. This show has mystery around it and I want to keep it that way until I can watch it.

Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta: I have an interest in the finesse of aristocracy from the Victorian Era, something of the like from Black Butler. This may or may not have it, but a prince in this aerial world interests me. Likely because I have been writing of a similar story that takes a steampunk approach to the ordeals of a prince in a war-ridden world.

Hamatora: I don't know what 'Minimum Holders' are or what it entails, but Darker than Black is what comes to mind. Maybe these people have special powers that are interesting. What I do know, is that some bandages draw the eye's attention and interest. Already this colorful and varied cast has me hooked. The nerd girl who has a tail. The serious rich guy(Girl? I can't tell). The fabulous, laid-back, and suave man which has me intrigued. The intelligent, observant, and stoic genius. Finally, the girl who doesn't care and isn't afraid to get mean. Each unique, but I can't forget they might be from the cookie cutter.

Fabulous, right?

Pupa: We have all been waiting for this collection of incest and cannibalism. I am no fan of disgusting things, but this show has collected so much hype even I am excited. It was suppose to come out last season, but it was pushed back due to the graphic content. Now this show is certain to become a must watch this season, all because of the hype it has generated. Not to mention cannibalism incest. 

Houzuki no Reitetsu: This show, though the preview image may not appease my eyes, could easily be the best this season. A clam and sadistic servant to a fierce god, he then has to resolve all the problems that occur in Hell. Most original I have heard this season.

Nisekoi: Fanserivce? Probably. Interesting? Maybe. A romantic comedy where the man is an air to the Yakuza. Original, right? He then has to pretend to be somebody's girlfriend. I see where this is going. He hates the girl he pretends to be girlfriends with. Clearly I did not see that coming. This is what happens when I let eye candy make my decisions.

This season will be another one over ridden with absurd fanservice and nothing but the usual plot lines. My faith lies with Hozuki no Reitetsu, Pupa, Hamatora, Nobunaga the Fool, and Space Dandy. I'm just tired of this abuse of simple minds who are intrigued by a few high flying skirts. I doubt these select few will be on par with Death Note and the like who have made their name known in the industry. Next season, I hope I can see a show that will struck awe in me. For I am sorry to say so soon, most of these will not.

If you wish to see me criticize the rampant fanservice in this season, wait for my piece where I talk about fanservice. It is funny and nothing makes you feel better than judging fanservice.