Absolute Fanboy

The second episode of Kemeko Deluxe looks so good. The animation is clean and smooth, the joke timing and expression is perfect, make me laugh a few times (the first episode didn’t), it’s almost on par with the first episode of Kannagi. Well, things becomes obvious once one looks at the ending credits.

This episode was written/directed by Yamamoto Yutaka and animation by his team at Ordet. He even poke fun with the fact that he was planned to do the opening animation of Kemeko. (“Hey, about the opening-”, “Shut up and work!”)

Hey, about the opening...

That looks familiar...

Yamakan has left me in despair!

Geez, even this.

Rin, the most annoying character in the anime version of Yozakura Quartet, is one of my most favorite character in the manga, second only to Ao. The anime replaced her heart-warming story and make her shouting “I hate humans” every 3 minutes or so. Even Akina couldn’t keep up with her. She’s way too annoying I even consider dropping the series if this continues for another episode. Good thing it’s not.

In the manga, our poor Rin were brought to Akina’s office in Sakurashin two years ago, Hime told her living in society isn’t easy and forced her to sign a contract since she still cannot trust her enough. She doesn’t really want to accept it at first but in order to live in this town, she have to. Hime then explains the contents of the contract that, to Rin’s surprise, she’ll have to go to school, and have to find a part-time job. Hime then give her a name badge to replace her talisman.

Not sounds so interesting, but believe me, it’s better than going “人間が嫌いです” in every damn scene. Why my cute Rin turns that way is mysterious. Possibly because Hanada Jukki’s writing I’m not really fond of.

Reading Japanese light novel is harder than I expected, especially with Nishio Ishin’s writing, who’s the master of wordplay, with a lot of dictionary and patience I somehow managed to read Bakemonogatari for at least half of the first chapter.

Bakemonogatari is a supernatural comedy series Nishio claims being written as a hobby. The story involves around Araragi Koyomi, an ex-vampire who accidentally know Senjougahara Hitagi’s secret about having almost no weight when she fell off a staircase. Hitagi, whom Koyomi thought she was a modest girl, threaten him to keep his mouth shut and to ignore her during classes.

Well, our protagonist simply can’t leave the girl alone, even though he was threaten with a box cutter and a staple wound in his mouth. He tries to offer her a help only to got her declare “being nice to me is a hostile action.” Then he shows her the staple wound has been completely healed.

I admit I never heard of Bakemonogatari before it announces anime adaption, nor is Nisio Isin. (Possibly because publisher in my country simply sucks.) (Oh wait, there’re some Nisio Isin’s books being published here, I suck.) The only reason I’m reading this is because Shaft is going to animate it. Unexpectedly, at my first attempt reading light novel in Japanese, it was very fun.

One chapter of Bakemonogatari is very long compared to other light novels. The story mainly focus on conversation between Koyomi and other main characters for most part of the chapter, a lot of jokes in the series seems to be impossible to put into the anime, like Koyomi speaking in Katakana and Hitagi tell him not to. Every chapter also feature a different character Koyomi is going to involve with. This makes me wonder how the anime will look like.

Either way, the character design by Watanabe Akio is awesome. It’s my most expecting show of 2009 yet!