Friday I was just spacing out looking at some AMV on Youtube when I noticed a shot from Dragon Maid. It’s been a while since I last (re-)watched that, so I decided to enjoy some delicious slice-of-life sakuga.

By the time I realized what’s happening I’d speedrun both seasons of Dragon Maid and it was time for more. Mahoushoujo ni Akogarete has been on my to-watch list for a while, and I took this opportunity to actually watch it end to end. It was… well, a not exactly safe-for-work experience, but especially the close-ups of Baiser’s face are absolute cinema.

Time again to watch some anime. I’ve had a pretty offensive gif from the 4chan /a/ era based on the idol dance bit, and since this weekend I felt drained to the bone I watched Kyoukai no Kanata instead of going to the mountains. Not sure if it was worth though. Obviously spoilers galore follows.

I haven’t read the manga of En-en no Shouboutai, only enjoyed some of the anime, but here’s one idea. In episode 10 there’s a scene of the sun setting… except we know with maps that the camera is located in Tokyo.

Now give it a thought. A sunset from Tokyo with Tanzawa in that direction (a point of view familiar to anyone who’s driven out on the Chuo highway) means that there should be Mt Fuji in front of the sun there. Except there isn’t. Maybe it’s a cloudy day? Doesn’t look so bad really.

So then… If there’s no Mt Fuji, where did it go? In a world of “fire everywhere” I wonder where a volcano could possibly go. Maybe a small little eruption? Marginally cataclysmic?

I can’t not wonder how the Japanese anime industry is going to change in the years to come. I look at the Animator Expo videos, and half of them are basically full CGI. Sometimes it takes minutes to finally get a giveaway hint that it’s not hand-drawn animation. High-polygon models, refined cell-shading, and good direction can disguise CGI really well.

Needless to say, CGI allows much smoother animation much cheaper, since you don’t need people to draw each and every tween, nor worry about the number of tween frames (tweeners are paid by frames drawn usually). People argue that hand-drawn animation still looks better, but how long is that going to hold true?

Honestly, I don’t remember what was the first anime I watched. Classics like Digimon, Dragon Ball, Case Closed and Sailor Moon were on German channels when I was in elementary school. Digimon got me all right, I still remember all the “öffne dich, Tor zur Digiwelt!” cries (and later ran a Digimon fansite for years). That formed a foundation. I guess if I had to I could say Digimon is what got me hooked.

Last night one of the trends on Japanese Twitter caught my eye: a new series of Digimon! After a short investigation, I found the source of the uproar, a video from the Toei Youtube channel. That in turn led me to the official site of the new project.

My senpai at work noticed me let me borrow his Gatchaman Crowds BD box, so I finally got to see the final episode’s director’s cut version in its full beauty.