Top Ten Anime of 2009

I got an early present for y’all – the final anime list is one day early.  YAY consider it a present for those of you who read this blog daily.  And after a long year of anime, we finally come to the final list.  The best anime of the year can only go to the best, meaning all qualities of the anime must be good.  Are you ready for the ultimate list?

Honorable Mentions (meaning they did not make the list but they’re worth trying out):

Canaan

Incredible graphics, yet disappointing storyline.  This could’ve easily won the best anime had it not been for the standing plot.

Shangri-La!

Good aspects all around, but the others were better.

Zan Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei

Comedy with random facts of society, life, and people – you either love this or hate this.  And I personally love it.

Summer 2009 Anime Season Preview

I was sitting down by my computer, wondering what I should have for lunch, when my phone went off. ‘Err, Juiz? I know there are a bunch of anime airing this summer but I don’t know much about any of them. Could you possibly write up a season preview for me, with pictures and your opinion as to whether they’ll be any good or not?’

With Eden coming to a close, we are going to need something new to fill the void

Order received. Noblesse Oblige. Please continue to be a Messiah. 

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Episode 4)

I have decided to drop Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei from my review. It’s not that the anime is not good. In fact, it is too hilarious. The problem is that I am not getting enough time these days to do some decent review. Given that I’ve been following Darker Than Black and Romeo x Juliet since episode 1, it is fair for me to drop this anime title.

To be frank, I did not enjoy the previous episode as compared to this one. This episode of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is just damn hilarious. I like the part when Fuura actually looked onto the positive side when a tiger was about to attack her. Even in the verge of death, she was being so optimistic. At least she accepts death better than Nozomu who tried to commit suicide numerous times but cowered in the end. Also, in case you did not notice, each episode of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei consists of two parts, of which each part introduces a character from the story. And trust me, each character has a wacky story to tell. Probably this wackiness craves me for more for this anime. So people, indulge yourselves.

Rumours goes around about a student from Nozomu’s class; Kobushi Abiru, that she is always injured from the parental abuse – in short, domestic violence (DV). Because of that, Arai asked Nozomu to meet Abiru’s father. Guided with a photo of Abiru’s father, he never thought of him as a violent judging from him appearance. Coincidentally he found Abiru’s father at the shopping district and decided to tail him. As Abiru’s dad stop over a few stores to buy some products, Nozomu immediately warned the shop owners about the man’s alleged violent nature. The poor fellow was not able to buy anything as he was chased out whenever he wanted to make a purchase. The initial problem is Nozomu jumped to a conclusion about the man’s DV towards Abiru without any probing.

Kobushi Abiru

Domestic violence in SZS!

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Episode 3)

I am trying my best to catch up with all the anime reviews since I have assignments needing my attention for the coming days. With this reason, I may consider on dropping one of an anime title to make up time for my hectic schedule.

I know that Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is one crazy anime but the opening scene this time is just mindless. Not ridiculous but mindless. So, we have a fugitive appeared to be running away from the police. After that she found herself a TV and she switched it on. I was lost while watching it. Furthermore Nozomu is easily depressed on many matter including petty ones and those that do not concern him. Most of the time when he feels depressed, he intended to commit suicide. Despite of this, all of his attempts are a failure and this makes me wonder if he truly is a great failure. Even suicide is such a hassle for him. To the least, his antics never fail to amuse me. Yet the episode this time did not punch up much laughters compared to the last two episodes. But what the heck anyway, it’s a great show to watch.

Remember this guy?

Days later Nozomu announced to the class that a test will be held next week. Accustomed to the class’ antics – from a stalker and a girl paying his license for naming him “Pink Supervisor”, he continued on to convey his zero-expectation to his class for the test. Not much a motivation you need from a teacher. However Chiri protested his remark, saying that he will be removed from his job if his class fared badly. Nozomu was confident as the oversea student is returning, having the believe of a higher standard overseas will make the student smarter and is able to raise the class average. That is his usual stereotypic thinking. However when a student said that a student is not enough to raise the class average, Nozomu gotten depressed and intended to kill himself – again. Then Kafuka suggested that the student from the oversea class would be a returnee. Hearing this, Nozomu gotten depressed as the student might be correcting him all the time and again he resorted to suicide.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Episode 2)

The story begins to become repetitive. Take the opening scene for an instance. Here is the scenario: Once again, Fuura is embracing life – speaking of the wonders of morning. And yet again, she came across Zetsubou Sensei Nozomu trying to kill himself by jumping into the track of the running train. Thankfully a traffic officer tried to stop him and Fuura too came to stop Nozomu from suicide. Well she’s not helping. She accidentally pushed Nozomu over the automatic gate and he fell over, nearly missed being hit by the train. Nozomu scolded back, “What if I’d die?” Familiar, isn’t it? Not to the least, the jokes made it enjoyable and of course Nozomu’s futile attempt of suicide. Also this episode reminds me of NHK ni Youkoso as Nozomu began to have some paranoid ideas about the corporate scams and so on.

Nozomu is having his daily suicide attempt.

Kafuka is only trying to help to grant his wish.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Preview)

The PIKOM PC Fair has begun with the opening scenes in KL, Penang, and Sabah. Unfortunately I would be missing most of the action this year as I am occupied with the ongoing convocation exposition (CONVEX) and this made my schedule throughout the month quite packed.

Lets get literal about Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Translated as Goodbye, Despair Teacher, it is obvious to expect a teacher in despair and running desperate of a way out. In the end, the teacher becomes suicidal. However I was expecting for a dark theme in this story and that the story would revolves around the misery of this poor teacher and his final living days. I might be right about the plot but I was dead wrong about the theme. I had never thought such a storyline would be so funny as this one. I must say this is as wacky as you get to Suzumiya Haruhi, I mean the jokes. The enjoyable nature of the story is definitely addictive but the underlying question is how much would you love to see the characters in this story as much as we love the cast of the SOS Brigade. I am not comparing how good or bad Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei to Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu but rather having Suzumiya Haruhi as the benchmark, I wonder how unique is this story by comparison. And also there comes another question, will I follow up with this series later on or not?

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Spring is scenic, adorned with the cherry blossom trees (sakura) and a girl named Fuura Kafuka is embracing the season’s beauty – until he saw a man attempting suicide by hanging himself from a tree. Seeing this, Kafuka tried to stop and save him. Somehow her attempt would be in favour of the suicidal man as she grabbed hold of him, trying to pull him down. Isn’t that would strangle him more? Anyway she pulled him so hard, he snapped off from the noose. The guy lying on the ground, unconscious. But later he coughed off from the strangulation and indeed, he was pretty much alive. And sarcastically he said to her, “What if I’d died?” This is wrong. I thought he was considering suicide already. Eventually he came back to his senses, saying that his life is worthless and he should have died. From my point of view, he is not ready to die yet and still have some doubts about suicide. Yet Kafuka did not consider him suicidal as the beautiful springtime is not a proper setting for such grim attempt. Attempting so would offend the Pink Gabriel, said Kafuka. Pink Gabriel is the cherry blossom which she had named – on the spot. Then she began to name all the cherry blossoms at the park. And because he tried to hang himself from a tree she named the Pink Young CEO, she named the man as the Pink Supervisor. The man began to ramble about naming rights and because of this, she was willing to pay him 50 yen to call him the Pink Supervisor. Then the man began to talk about his despair about the world that revolves on money. So he turned to his suicide attempt.