The Results of a Rewatch

I recently finished rewatching Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, to see if my opinion on it had changed after nearly a year.  Long story short: it didn't, even though there were a bunch of things I noticed in the show that I disliked.  This post will not contain major spoilers.

Also, as far as I know, the light novels are crap.  At least, that's what everyone says.  I think there's an unofficial translation for the first four, I should probably read those at least.  In any case, what do I like about Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo?  Well, I really like most of the characters and their relationships.  I'd like to think that the characters really are good and it isn't just inexperience talking, because a fairly large number of people have expressed hate for any given character in the series.  "Kanda is whiny, Nanami is a tsundere bitch, Misaki is annoying," etc.  I can see where these are coming from, but I feel like the characters are indeed well-written.  I think.

I mean, it's not like it's as bad as having all the main characters be static.  That's the worst kind of show. (and to be honest most shounen are like this)  But that's besides the point.  Most of the main characters change, and most of the characters have purposes.  Yuuko doesn't.  Seriously, Yuuko isn't a needed character.

Useless.

I suck at this.  Anyway, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo is about the residents of the Sakurasou dormitory, their aspirations, and their relationships.  The main character, Kanda Sorata, is kicked out of the school dormitory for illegally owning a cat.  He gets transferred to the eponymic Sakurasou, a dormitory whose inhabitants are generally regarded as problem children.  And, well, they kind of are weirdos.  One of them is Misaki Kamiigusa, a ridiculous hyperactive animator; she is always positively bouncing off the walls.  Another one is the resident playboy Jin Mitaka, who has six girlfriends or something, including a married woman.  There's also the hikikomori programmer Ryuunosuke Akasaka, and the (probably)autistic cute kuudere girl Shiina Mashiro.  I forgot about the obligatory tsundere romantic rival Nanami Aoyama, she's an important character too.

The series is weak at some points, and introduces a couple of pointless characters like Kanda's little sister, who fulfills absolutely no purpose whatsoever, and there's a lot of filler bits.  But generally, the great thing about the show is the characters' relationships and the like.  There's an evident theme of ambition throughout the series' 24 episodes, and it's quite enjoyable to watch the characters of the show experience the ups and downs of trying to fulfill their dreams.  The romantic relationship between Kanda and Shiina that sort of unfolds throughout the story is at some points quite lacking, and sometimes Nanami's part in it(she has an unrequited crush on Kanda) borders on ridiculous, and the developments seem quite painfully slow.  To be honest, the dreams and aspirations part is more interesting to watch, though plenty of fans manage to enjoy the romantic aspect.

The voice acting is quite good, there are several seiyuu in the series that I am somewhat familar with.  Kanda is voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, who also voiced the lead of several shows including but not limited to, Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka, Eromanga-sensei, No Game No Life, and Sword Art Online.  He also voiced that crazy fucker Petelgeuse in Re:Zero.  Mashiro is voiced by a personal favorite of mine, Ai Kayano.  She voices Menma in AnoHana, Mayaka in Hyouka, Darkness in KonoSuba, and notably, Shiro in No Game No Life.  That last one is notable because it forms part of one of the most evident weird similarities between Sakurasou and NGNL.  Shiro and Sora are voiced by Ai Kayano and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, respectively, and Mashiro and Sorata are voiced by Ai Kayano and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, respectively.  Coincidence?  I think not!  Or something.

Yui Horie is in Sakurasou, too, she voices (the male character) Ryuunosuke, as well as his AI, Maid-chan.  Yui Horie is notable for voicing Hanekawa in the Monogatari Series(which I love), that one girl Kisara in Black Bullet, the (male) lead of Little Busters, Naru in Love Hina, Felix in Re:Zero, and plenty of more main characters in a lot of anime.

Takahiro Sakurai is in it as well, and I know he's in a lot, but the only character besides Jin who he voiced who I can think of at the moment is Meme Oshino.

The last one I'll mention(what?  I like seiyuu), Yui Ogura, also voices that useless imouto I mentioned.  She voiced Hinata in Ro-Kyu-Bu, and, errr, actually, that's the only other character voiced by her I think I know.  I don't know why I mentioned her, but I like her voice.

Anyway, enough about seiyuu.  I've seen that people hate the humor in Sakurasou, but it's not really terrible.  It doesn't exactly leave anything to be desired or anything, but I wouldn't watch the show just for the comedy.  It made me laugh probably only 50 or so times. (Compare to shows like Nichijou, which surely made me laugh over 400 times)  So, basically, the comedy isn't the central point, for me at least.  It might be for you, who knows.

Overall, I really enjoy the series and wholeheartedly recommend it, I guess.  It's not so recommendable to be "everyone should watch it!" nor even recommendable enough for me to insist "if the synopsis catches your interest, you should totally watch it!" but it is a good show, in my opinion.  If you feel like it, watch it.

Some kind of thing

I don't really have the motivation for more blog posts.  I started working on the opening chapter of a story I was going to post on here, but, again, I have no motivation.  It's not like anyone's waiting anyway, I figure. It'd be easy if I were capable of decently reviewing anime.

Quick Reflection

I wanted to do a post about my thoughts on the Summer season's anime I picked up now that they've ended, but I couldn't really find enough to say about them to do a full detailed post, so here's a little one explaining my thoughts on each one I watched.  (it's in alphabetical order)  Numerical ratings are based on enjoyment.

Aho Girl - 8/10 - Aho Girl was hilarious, and not an episode passed where I didn't laugh.  There's not much else to say about it, though.

Centaur no Nayami - 7/10 - I really liked this, but the political stuff wasn't expected, so it kind of surprised me.  It was honestly really weird, and it inspired me to create the "Passive Absurdity" classification.

Fate/Apocrypha - -/10 - Not finished as of writing, but I can talk about it.  As a Fate adaptation it's absolute trash.  It makes zero sense and has absurd twists.  What's with series with constructed rules breaking them?

Gamers - 3/10 - This series wasn't about gaming.  It was about... romance and retarded misunderstandings or some shit.  Annoying as all hell, and it can't even stick to its themes.

Isekai Shokudou - 5/10 - I dropped this one because it got boring.  Art was beautiful though, and it was an interesting idea.  It was just hard to watch every week.

Koi to Uso - 1/10 - Worst of the season.  I only finished watching it because it got to be entertaining to pick out all the mistakes.  There's really NOTHING good about this show at all.  Might talk more about how much of a failure it is later.

Made in Abyss - 9/10 - Best non-sequel of the season.  Possibly AOTY.  Absolutely amazing, really.  The manga's just as good - the anime is a great adaptation.  Everyone should watch this one.  Don't expect it to be fluffy and cute though, you'd be in for an unpleasant surprise.

Netsuzou TRap - 2/10 - Dropped.  Failure of a show, for obvious reasons.

Neko to Oujo to Noraneko Heart - 2/10 - Low budget shitshow.  I don't think the creators even tried.  I guess it made me laugh once or twice though.

Owarimonogatari Second Season - 10/10 - Amazing.  Show of the season.  I can't talk more about it without going in depth about the rest of the series.

Princess Principal - 7/10 - Very interesting, but executed kind of confusingly.  Doesn't approach Flip Flappers, but  I've definitely got my eye on the studio now.

Sakurada Reset - 9/10 - Quite the underrated show.  Loved it from beginning to end.  An excellent CasPsych anime.

Tenshi no 3P - 6/10 - Just some dumb shit.  One of those shows I can enjoy if I don't think about it.  Honestly it was a crappy show, though.

Tsurezure Children - 7/10 - Surprisingly good.  The art was shit, but it was a weirdly enjoyable show.  Still trashy, but surprisingly enjoyable.

About a Work of Mine

So, this blog doesn't have a very specific purpose, and I've previously resolved to talk about my writing on here, even with a lack of readers.  So, I'm going to talk about what I consider to be my 'primary work'.  I've been working on it for around nine months, and it's called Element Unlocked.  This title will not remain to completion; it's more of a prototype name.  In fact, the title doesn't even fit anymore because the original vision has evolved to an unrecognizable state.

All of my attempted works follow that pattern, really.  They develop over the years, and my writing improves to a point where I hate what I wrote four months ago, so I have to continually rewrite everything over and over, and I never get anywhere.  The same thing's already happened twice in the past nine months for this story, but I'm really happy with how the idea developed, so I'm hoping I can continue on this layout for awhile.

Anyway, the story opens by introducing you to a heroine - you could debate about whether she's the heroine - by the name of Savannah Briar.  She doesn't have very much in the way of aspirations, or friends, or anything, really.  She doesn't excel at much, and she just kind of hops through the days without paying much attention to her surroundings - it took her all day to remember that it was her last school day - and she's often unhappy.  The thing about this story is that it focuses on characters' thoughts a lot.  That's one of the main points of the story - to provide insight into the minds of its characters - but I think it might come across as somewhat boring.  So, Savannah meets another girl named Sierra (no last name is provided) while 'lamenting the sky.'  Sierra is obviously an odd girl, she doesn't display much emotion - if any at all - but Savannah becomes interested in her somewhat.  The reasoning for this isn't outright stated, but I can tell you that the reasoning is because Sierra approached her first, and no one had ever approached Savannah with such friendly intentions before.

Savannah and her younger sister Lily end up running from their home after their mother disappears - presumed suicide - with no following change in their father's behavior.  Savannah and Lily are at a loss for where to turn, but Sierra's guardian Doctor Blakeman - Blakeman refers to Sierra as his assistant - extends a hand to them, offering to provide them a place to stay if they'll help him with his work.  Savannah is suspicious of this at first, but Sierra trusts Blakeman wholeheartedly, so she agrees.  Blakeman, Sierra, Lily, and Savannah leave the town and arrive at Angstrom City, and the 'work' in question is never explained.

Blakeman and Sierra's 'work' seems to be along the lines of solving the odd problems that crop up in the city, usually with a good measure of deductive work, but by and by it comes out that the two have some kind of more far-reaching goal - and Savannah is tied up in it.

I don't want to reveal any more of the plot than that; but if you're interested you can ask to read the current iteration of Chapter One and wait for me to publish the book in its entirety, whenever it is that it gets finished.

I'll talk about Iceta Alefa next, that's another idea in-development.

A Matter of Spoiler Policy

I expect to be doing two different types of reviews on here.  Some reviews will have copious spoilers, and will be a complete review.  Do not read them unless you've already consumed the media; the purpose of these reviews will not be to convince people to become a fan of them, nor the opposite.  If I do a 'general praise/condemnation' it will be more like a true recommendation/nonrecommendation, with only contain spoilers concerning the subject matter, and will likely be written in a way that is entertaining to both people who have already consumed the media and people who have not.  These will be marked respectively.

A Grahamic Number: Graham's Number

This probably seems more or less out of place, but have you ever heard of Graham's number?  It's huge, but that's an understatement.  It's big enough of a number that there's a somewhat infamous (at least among anyone who has tried to write or talk about it) linguistic problem that occurs whenever it pops up.  This problem is pretty simple; it's just really hard to explain how big it is.  People like to use 'unimaginable' with it a lot, but the thing is, most people can't really imagine comparatively insignificant numbers in exactitude, either.  Can you picture a million of anything?  Probably not accurately.  So anyway, there's a pretty easy solution to this.  Just call it "Grahamic," with slight explanation, and you're good to go.  There's no way to explain how big the number really is without outlining the impossibilities in calculating it in its entirety, or explaining how it works, of course.  But "Grahamic" is the only way to refer to the size of Graham's Number.  Using this colloquially would never fail to get me a laugh, like "Ah, man, I just took a Grahamic shit," or "Dude, your dad is a Grahamic fatass."

Interestingly enough, unless you defined the word as 'describing anything that is so extensive in size or other measurement that it is inherently difficult to explain,' there really isn't anything besides Graham's number itself that you could literally call Grahamic.  I suppose you could say that numbers close to Graham's number are Grahamic, but there isn't really much reason to talk about those numbers anyway.  And every bigger number of any importance is so much bigger than even Graham's number that it puts our newly formed adjective to shame.  Nah, it puts putting the number to shame to shame, and that's an understatement of an understatement.

But I haven't even explained the thing yet, so it doesn't quite do to start talking about even more massive numbers.  Graham's number isn't the hardest concept to grasp, even if its application might be.  So, anyway, the number's sheer size makes it necessary to talk about it with extensive notations.  There is a system known as Knuth's up-arrow notation, which is often used for this purpose.  I'd like to explain it concisely, but since I have no idea who will read this, I'll have to explain some other things first.  This is going to sound pretty stupid, but to explain Knuth's up-arrow notation by explaining addition.

So what is addition?  Addition is an iteration of the successor function, of course!  Wait, what?  Okay, so this might sound kind of out there to anyone who isn't already familiar with this, but it's simple.  The successor function adds 1 to whatever number is applied to the function, in layman's terms.  It's S(n) = n+1.  How does this apply to Knuth's up-arrow notation?  We'll get there.  See, addition is an iteration of the successor function (that is, it is iterated zeration), in that a + b = S(S(S(...S(a)...))), with b copies of S.  All that means is that, say, 6 + 3 = S(S(S(6))).  Not hard to grasp.  And you surely already know that multiplication is iterated addition.  6 x 3 = 6 + 6 + 6.  And if you've ever done any algebra, you'll know that exponentiation is iterated multiplication, so 6 ^ 3 = 6 x 6 x 6.  Many people aren't aware that this continues.  Tetration is iterated exponentiation, and pentation is iterated tetration.  

Now, Knuth's notation uses arrows.  Lots of them.  But it uses them in a simple way.  Saying a↑b is the same as saying a^b.  Saying a↑↑b is the same as tetrating b by a.  ↑↑↑ is pentation, and so on.  With arrows beyond a small number, you can just put the number of arrows in a superscript above the arrow (unfortunately I cannot figure how to type superscripts in this editor, so I'll just write it out), so a↑(superscript 4)b would be hexation.  Now, I can tell you how Graham's number is written in this notation.

I screencapped this from WP because I'm lazy, but whatever.  You can ignore most of this, I'll explain how to form the number.  g subscript 1 is the starting term here, and it is 3 hexated to itself.  g sub 1 is a really, really, really massive number in itself.  The number of digits in g sub 1 alone is in the trillions.  So, G, which is Graham's number, is equal to g sub 64.  g sub 2 is 3↑↑↑...↑3, with g sub 1 arrows, and g sub 3 is 3↑↑↑...↑3 with g sub 2 arrows.  That's how fucking massive this thing gets.  G is g sub sixty-four.  That's 64 iterations of this crazy explosive mutation of a number scheme, when g sub 1 is already huge as hell.

In fact, Graham's number, written out normally, can't even fit in the universe, even with the smallest possible writing(even if one digit took up the space of a Planck volume).  In fact, the number of digits of Graham's number can't fit in the universe.  Or the number of digits of that number, or the number of digits of that one.  This repeats so many times that the number of digits of the number of repetitions cannot fit inside the universe.

Quick Recommendation

If any anime fan stumbles upon this, I'd suggest to watch Gakkougurashi(School-Live) if you haven't yet.  But don't look up ANYTHING about it.  Don't read the synopsis on MyAnimeList or anything. Just watch the first episode completely blind, trust me.  And don't make the decision whether you dislike it or not until you finish the first episode.

Or don't.  It's just a suggestion, after all.

Trigun: My thoughts

This review contains copious spoilers; please don't read it if you haven't seen the show

I finished Trigun a little bit ago, and I thought I'd post my thoughts on the show here.  Now, about me, I'm a pretty new otaku (started watching anime in the summer of 2016), and I haven't seen the biggest sample of 90s anime.  I've really only seen, say, 3 or 4 essential 90s-era anime at this point in time.  I haven't honestly watched many anime at all; I think there's 150 or so titles on the list.  There's your idea of my anime experience.  I'm not the least experienced, I've seen enough to be able to make connections and the like, but I'm nowhere near being well-versed in anime.

Anyway, before I start, I really liked Trigun.  I've liked all of the 90s anime (series) I've finished, actually.  I'm quite excited to get into the era more, and watch more examples of shows from this time, because the ones I've seen deserve to be called classics.

Now, appearances are important.  Does Trigun fall flat with its appearance, its art and animation? Well, no, it doesn't.  The art is dated, but it isn't anything near bad.  It's well detailed, and fulfilling.  However, I have noticed that the colors are often less vibrant in older titles, but it gives them a certain charm.  Trigun's color palette is somewhat interesting because of the often very boring and monochrome background (the setting being on a drought-ridden planet) contrasting with the vibrant outfit of our main character (and I'll talk about character design if I return to talking about the series later).  The majority of the villains, at least, contrast with the dull, dusty world as well.  The artstyle, aside from the color palette, is nice, but has a sometimes infuriating inconsistency. I'm not a big fan of switching artstyles for humor in most cases - some shows do it well - but Trigun's use of the trope fits well with its dual tone.

Yes, let's talk about that dual tone.  This is probably the reason that most haters of the series hate the series.  Trigun really gives vastly different promises in the first half than in the second.  The series has all the appearance of a goofy action show, and you expect the qualities the show sets up in the first half to last longer.  The rather misleading 'character of the day' setup is abandoned fairly quickly, and it kind of comes as a delayed shock.  However, the assumptions that can be made about the first half of the show are important to the second half.  The laid-back, humorous - if violent - tone of the first five or six episodes, and the fact that the tone does not stick with the series, is a perfect parallel to Vash's own character.  Vash is a pretty goofy guy.  He's got that big silver gun, and he spends his time trying not to hit people with his bullets.  Even when he goes badass and puts on those glasses, he hasn't changed.

But when Vash's fake arm comes into play, you as the watcher realize that his attitude isn't going to work out in this world.  If you watched diligently during the previous episodes, they hint at that too.  But when the first Gung-Ho Gun shows up, and Vash's second gun does the same, that's the real turning point.  When Monev the Gale kills all those people, you realize: 'this really isn't going to work out'.  And then, that's the whole idea.  Really, everything that happens from then till the ending follows that idea.  Vash tries desperately to save both the spider and the butterfly, and it's only at the end half where he's forced to realize that his ideal is a lot easier said than done.  The first half of the series is a good buildup to this.  Those watchers who did not expect the series to change are just like Vash; you think his strategy will always work out.

So, like I mentioned, that's why the ending happens as it does.  It's not accompanied by a whole lot of fanfare, but that's how you know Vash has changed.  Now, some of you are probably thinking (if anyone is reading this at all) "But wait, Aiko, Vash didn't kill Knives!"   And you'd be right.  I don't think he does.  But here's the thing.  I don't think Vash was sure he could save both the butterfly and the spider as he goes to confront Knives.  Vash killed Legato of his own will, he was not forced to pull the trigger.  He was forced to kill the spider to save the butterfly, and that shook his beliefs.  Vash may very well have been prepared to murder his brother, and he may very well have been prepared to die.  But he sticks with his beliefs.  He doesn't kill Knives.  He sees a way to save both the butterfly and the spider, and takes it.

But the anime doesn't let us know whether Vash's ideal works out in the end.  It closes the curtains without telling us.  The reason for that?  Trigun's purpose was never to say that killing is wrong, or that everyone can be saved, or even that everyone can't.  Its purpose is to make you think.  It wants to make you ask: "Would that really work out in the end?"  Then again, I could be wrong, this is just an opinion.

So, there's the meaning of the ending sorted out.  Overall, Trigun was a great series from beginning to end.  The characters, while some had rocky starts, were all fleshed out well, and displayed their due amount of development.  I don't like that the initial character-of-the-day layout left out a lot of explanation for some characters, though, but this is a minor problem.

There's one more thing to tackle - the meaning of the series' title.  Everyone says that it's about Vash's three guns: his Colt, his fake arm, and his real arm, which combines with the Colt to make the Angel Arm.  That makes a lot of sense, and is probably the reasoning behind the series' title.  However, when applied to only the final battle of the series, there's another meaning.  Three guns: Vash's Angel Arm, Knives' Angel Arm, and Wolfwood's Punisher, which helps Vash get the edge over Knives when he cannot with only the Angel Arm.

First post.

So, I decided to finally get around to making a blog after wanting to do it for a while.  I don't expect anyone to ever stumble upon it, but if you do, expect anime/manga stuff, gaming stuff, and writing/conlanging stuff.  I'll share my thoughts on things here, so stay tuned, or something.