Winter 2015 Reviews - Shirobako, Durarara 2 and Kuroko’s Basketball 3

I watched the final episodes of three series in one day.

Actually – it wasn’t the end end for Kuroko’s Basketball 3 (just the end of the first cour of S3), or for Durarara 2 (which will have two more cours to round out its bizarrely drawn-out S2). But it was definitely the end for Shirobako.

The last two episodes of Shirobako more than lived up to the episodes that preceded it. This was just a wonderful series from start to finish. Watching the adventures of Aoi and her four friends from college in Tokyo’s anime industry made me feel like I was living it myself – the long work hours, the scrambling to find freelance artists, sitting in the recording studio listening to seiyuu audition. Helping director Kinoshita make his dream come true on the screen. Celebrating Third Aerial Girls Squad and the fact that all of them – even Shizuka! – finally did work on it.

I think I read at ANN that Sentai has the license for this. It’s already on my beta to-buy list and I may move it to the alpha list.

The first 12 episodes of Kuroko’s Basketball 3 went by so quickly. I have to say that this cour didn’t engage me as much as the previous two seasons. I think the fact that Seirin is clearly no longer the underdog, and is about to play the final match-up with Rakuzan, made the action less than edge-of-your-seat suspenseful. You could see, after all, that this was what the entire series was leading to.

And now we’re at the finals… almost. Next up is a flashback arc, but it’s one that many of us have been waiting to see. For two and a half seasons now we’ve been teased with hints about how the Generation of Miracles team formed at Teiko Middle School, how Kuroko joined the team as sixth man, and what made him leave the team.

Hints and glimpses and knowing looks, but no explanations. Well, now we’ll find out the whole truth. I’ve waited years to see the next six episodes. Finally! I am geeked for Kuroko's next six weeks. =D

Durarara 2’s first cour was good anime watching. The story universe has matured and developed into a world that still holds your interest and intrigues you.

I was hoping that Celty would finally get her head back. I think at the end of S1 we saw her head in a jar on Izaya’s shelf. But alas, no action regarding her head in this cour.

But speaking of Izaya… wow. This cour had Izaya setting up (who else) Shizuo to take a major fall, but then the tables turned on Izaya in a really shocking twist in the last minute of the final episode. I’ll be waiting with interest to watch the next cour, which I think begins in July.

Finally… I actually wanted to watch four animes come to an end in one day, but I forgot that Death Parade streams one week behind for free viewers at Funimation, so I’ll have to wait till Friday to see the final episode.

I wrote before about Death Parade and my issues with it, but the last three episodes have been very strong, enough to redeem the whole series in my view. So I’m really looking forward to seeing the final episode. I’ll post about it when I do.

Seiyuu Appreciation Day - The Other Guys

In the current endless run of flashback fillers in Naruto Shippuuden, we're seeing more of Neji now than ever before.

I miss Neji. :-(

Look at Neji's picture above. Now imagine you hear his voice.

...

Were you able to hear him? Neji's seiyuu, Kouichi Toochika, has a very distinctive voice - soft-spoken with a certain husky timbre.

Neji is only one supporting character in the Naruto universe and he even got killed off - but I can still hear Neji's voice if I call up the character in my mind.

Most of the time in these seiyuu posts I talk about the big-name seiyuus, the stars, because they're the ones I see most in anime. But sometimes you'll hear a voice in a supporting role that really catches your attention.

One such supporting character was Kensuke Fukui, the point guard for Yosen in Kuroko's Basketball.

Fukui only has a few lines in several episodes when Yosen battles the main team Seirin in the semi-finals. I didn't even know the character's name until I looked him up for this post - I only thought of him as "the point guard from Yosen with dishwater blond hair and a nice voice." Since that's a mouthful, it's good that I know the character's name now. ;-)

The seiyuu voicing Fukui just had a really nice voice and I noticed it. Warm, masculine, sexy. I looked up the seiyuu and found to my surprise that Kaito Ishikawa has played two main roles in series that I watched, and I didn't recognize him.

First, he was Tobio Kageyama, the second main character in the volleyball anime Haikyuu.

Kageyama is one of the best male tsunderes I've seen in a while. ;-) I mean, look at that expression. XD I couldn't believe Ishikawa played Kageyama and I didn't recognize him as Fukui, but the next surprised me even more:

Ishikawa was Ledo in Gargantia! I didn't recognize him from that role either! And Ledo was a difficult role. You'll recall that the character comes from a different universe and has to learn the language, speaking it hesitantly and with an odd cadence at first.

Ishikawa also played Nine in Zankyou no Terror and has done main roles in other series. So even though I didn't remember his voice from the two big roles I'd heard him in, I heard Ishikawa's voice in this small role as Fukui in Kuroko's Basketball and enjoyed it enough to notice and look up who the seiyuu was.

Often you'll see big-name seiyuu playing special characters in an anime, like in the last Shirobako episode when the director finally comes face to face with the elusive mangaka whose manga MusaAni is adapting. I didn't have to look it up to know it was Takahiro Sakurai playing the mangaka, since I can recognize his voice. =D

But seiyuu who play big roles will also play smaller roles without any fuss or fanfare, like Kaito Ishikawa playing Fukui. Actors love to ply their trade, after all, and every role is another chance to do what they love best.

Thinking of warm and distinctive masculine voices makes me think of Kenji Hamada, who plays Teppei Kiyoshi in Kuroko's Basketball.

Hamada's voice is so distinctive, I've recognized him in two small roles in other series since I first heard him in Kuroko's Basketball.

And then there's Hasumi Itou, whom I've mentioned before, who played Kaoru in Hakuouki, Chizuru's cross-dressing long-lost brother who we see in makeup and a kimono for many episodes until he finally reveals his evil little male self. ;-) Itou is the seiyuu who did that weird, unforgettable scene where her voice slid from fake-female to low-male without a hitch, just a pure slide from one to the other.

Aside from Hakuouki, Itou only has one other credit, as Aoi Toosaka in Fate/Zero. She is definitely a seiyuu to keep one's eye on.

Of course, one of my favorite seiyuu who never gets a main role but is always one of the other guys in a series, is Nobuo Tobita.

Tobita was the star of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam decades ago, and since then has only done supporting roles. But his beautiful gentle voice remains one of my favorites and hearing him is always a treat.

Finally, talking about supporting seiyuu and being one of the other guys wouldn't be complete without mentioning Shizuka, who finally got a voice acting job in last week's Shirobako episode. Shizuka, you'll remember, was the only one among her college friends who hadn't succeeded in the anime industry yet.

In honor of Shizuka getting her first role, here's a photo of Shizuka's seiyuu, Haruka Chigusa.

In the episode, Aoi Miyamori is in the recording studio when Shizuka walks in to record her role. Miyamori is shocked to see her friend, then nervous for her as she reads her lines, and then finally cries in relief and happiness when Shizuka finishes the acting job without a hitch and to the director's approval.

It was all done without words and was beautiful to watch. Ah well, might as well show you Miyamori's seiyuu's picture as well. Here's Juri Kimura. :-)

Again, if you're not watching Shirobako, you're missing a gem. =D

Notes on Winter Season 2015

My work schedule has stepped up again, and I realized I haven't discussed the winter season shows much if at all. So this is a belated, almost at the end of winter season recap before the spring shows start.

First, I've been impressed by Durarara's second season so far. All the main and supporting characters are back, and the show has gone through several mini-arcs already.

It's hard to believe that the first season was five years ago. Durarara's first season was very stylish and cool (and unpleasantly violent toward the end), with a great ensemble cast. The anime's second season is more serious in feel than the first but still exhibits the same quirky off-center humor. The only real complaint I have is that there hasn't been a direct confrontation between Shizuo and Izaya yet. The producers have to know that's what most of us are waiting to see. ;-)

Wow, did this one ever fall off my schedule. I watched the first few episodes of Sengoku Musou (Samurai Warriors) and then life happened or something because I simply forgot to keep watching it. It's actually pretty good if you're in that want-to-watch-samurais-doing-anything sort of mood, which sometimes I am.

What's interesting about Sengoku Musou is that it has the same wildly anachronistic fantasy costuming as Sengoku Basara, where the out-of-place over the top crazy outfits were part of the joke, but - I think Sengoku Musou is actually meant to be serious.

I may go back at some point and finish the series. I should probably brush up on my Warring States history before I do, because I was getting lost trying to remember who was on who's side and who was who's enemy.

Another one I stopped watching is a series that's very popular.

Parasyte was a quality show that just didn't hook me in (and yes, I got to the point where the big surprise happens with the main character's mother). Sometimes shows that others get into don't attract me the same way - different strokes.

I'm enjoying Kuroko's Basketball's third season, though the suspense is not quite the same as in the first two seasons. It's obvious who the final two teams will be in the Winter Cup tournament, so it's a matter of waiting until the last semi-final opponent is eliminated and the two finalists can get down to it. I've heard there's a lengthy flashback arc coming involving the Generation of Miracles back in their Teiko days, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing that. :-)

And speaking of lengthy flashbacks...

I don't mind filler episodes as much as most people do, so long as I enjoy the characters and the universe. But Naruto Shippuuden is pushing it at the moment.

The filler arc we're in now is actually very decent: it's a flashback to the second Chuunin exam, which took place while Naruto was off training with Jiraiya. All of his classmates who didn't get to advance to Chuunin level (since Konoha was invaded by Orochimaru during the first Chuunin exam) are participating in this second exam, which takes place in the Sand Village under the authority of the new Kazekage, our old friend Gaara.

The episodes in this filler arc have varied between very good to rather boring, depending on which Konoha team is being featured in the episode. And not to mention - this entire multi-episode flashback arc is taking place in the middle of the final huge showdown battle between Naruto and Madara, so one can't help but be impatient for it to be over sooner rather than later.

I have no idea why I'm still watching Death Parade.

After you die, in the Death Parade universe, you wind up at a bar where a white-haired bartender makes you play a deadly game with another person who just died. Depending on how you do in this game, you either get a second chance via reincarnation (leaving the bar through the elevator to the left), or you're sent to the void and given no second chances (the elevator on the right).

The games are all sadistic and everybody's story is sad. The characters selected to play the game were usually as much victims when they were alive as they were perpetrators. Plus, even when they're made to realize what mistakes they made in their lives, they're dead now and can't do anything to change it or make amends. And then one of them gets a do-over and the other gets nothingness.

It's one of those series where the cool production design and premise engage you, before you realize how much of a downer each story is going to be.

Actually, I know why I'm still watching the show. I find it hard to resist series that have a creepy premise and where each week's episode is a separate self-contained little story. Yamishibai is a good example of this, a better example than Death Parade. Still, there aren't many episodes left of Death Parade, so I will probably watch it to the end.

The final two series are really my favorites of the winter season.

Shirobako, the show about four college classmates who go on to careers in the anime industry, is just quality and class all the way. Each episode has been excellent, with two being particularly memorable - dealing with the contributions of older artists and waxing poetic about the rewards of a life spent in anime.

I can't say enough about Shirobako. If you're not watching it, you really should give it a chance.

The last show may come as a surprise.

I've finally read up on everybody's disappointment with Sailor Moon Crystal: the poor animation quality, the changes from the manga, etc.

I really hadn't noticed the animation quality until one episode where the Legendary Silver Crystal or whatever it is, the jewel that's supposed to be the key to everything, literally disappeared in one shot and then reappeared again. I thought I imagined it, and then I read the comments afterward and everyone noticed it. What's weird is that Toei Animation has twice the amount of time to do each episode, two weeks instead of the usual one, and yet apparently this keeps happening.

No matter. Usagi's huge red bow could disappear and reappear and it wouldn't faze me. I've fallen in love with the Sailor Moon story.

Unlike most who are watching Sailor Moon Crystal and getting disgruntled, I didn't grow up watching the original Sailor Moon. So I'm not comparing the new adaptation with fond memories of watching the original series after school with cookies and milk, or with my friends; it's completely new to me.

I am charmed by the premise of magical girls with superpowers, who are still girls that can fall in love. I was enchanted when I found out Usagi's and Tuxedo Mask's history of being lovers, one from the moon and one from earth.

It's about friendship and love and adventure, and beautiful jewels and magic wands, supernatural cats that can talk, and a mysterious handsome boy who is gentle and caring. It's a wonderful story to watch, animation glitches and all.

People are sniffing and saying they'll go back to the original, that that's "their" Sailor Moon. For me, I'm happy to claim Sailor Moon Crystal as my Sailor Moon. =D

Seiyuu Appreciation Day - All Paired Up!

February is Valentine's Day month, so what better frame of reference for Seiyuu Appreciation Day? XD

Relationships are among the most fascinating things in life, and anime frequently gives us pairings in various ways that make us think... well, of things maybe we shouldn't be thinking.

For example, Naruto and Sasuke. One of the most enduring, admittedly imaginary yaoi pairings in anime. What if...

...Naruto and Sasuke fell in love in real life?

Of course, there's no hint that this has ever happened with Junko Takeuchi and Noriaki Sugiyama, or will happen in the future. But what if? Wouldn't that leave countless fans awestruck? Just imagine the reaction. An added bonus is that it actually could happen, since one is male and the other is female. (As opposed to most imagined yaoi pairings where both seiyuu are men.)

Putting this aside - and I understand the squick factor when it comes to involving real-life people in speculations like this and confusing actors with their roles, so I'll stop with that and go on to just plain old friendships. Seiyuu who are friends in real life often pair up to do radio shows and perform as singing duos and the like.

Junichi Suwabe and Kousuke Toriume, for example, hosted a radio show together in the past. Currently, in Kuroko's Basketball, they play two teammates who constantly fight with each other, Aomine and Wakamatsu.

Fans who know that two seiyuu are friends in real life get jazzed when they play roles in the same anime, especially two characters who are at odds with each other.

A case in point: real-life best friends Tomokazu Sugita and Yuuichi Nakamura.

These two have hosted a radio show together for years, but if I'm correct in this, they've only been in the same anime playing major roles, characters who are enemies, once:

In one of the later seasons of Gintama, a suspicious character named Kintoki Sakata tries to take Gintoki Sakata's place. Gintoki wakes up and realizes that this interloper Kintoki has somehow wiped Kagura's and Shinpachi's memories of him, to the point where the opening and ending credits actually feature Kintoki instead of Gintoki(!) and with the name of the anime now Kintama in bold letters. (An added bonus and snark factor was the fact that "kintama" is apparently Japanese slang for... balls. XD)

The storyline only ran for a mini-arc, but it was funny as hell and one has to imagine the Japanese fans, who know the close relationship between them, really appreciated the in-jokiness of having Sugita's best friend Nakamura playing the evil Kintoki.

But the best example I've seen so far of two seiyuu who are friends in real life, who host a successful radio show together, and who have played memorable roles in which their characters are at odds is...

"IZAYA-KUN..." Who could forget Daisuke Ono's Shizuo Heiwajima roaring Hiroshi Kamiya/Izaya Orihara's name in Durarara!!?

Hiroshi Kamiya and Daisuke Ono have always seemed an odd couple to me. Kamiya is Ono's senpai (if that even matters when both of you are in your thirties), but both are at the top of the seiyuu ranks, pretty much equally up there. I mean, personality-wise, they just seem very different. Kamiya feels cerebral to me and Ono is more earthy... or something like that. XD

They've each got long lists of credits, so I'm sure Izaya/Shizuo isn't the first time they've been paired in major roles in an anime together. Right now, they're playing opposite each other in Kuroko's Basketball as Seijuro Akashi and Shintaro Midorima.

Akashi is the former captain of the Teiko Middle School award-winning basketball team that featured the "Kiseki no Sedi" or "Generation of Miracles" players that included Midorima.

Now in high school, all the Generation of Miracles members are battling each other with their various high school teams. As it turns out, Midorima is no match for his old captain Akashi. Akashi has the "Emperor's Eye" that can predict your future moves in the game, and there's basically no way to beat a trick like that.

Kamiya plays coolly superior, left-brained characters very well. My favorite role of his is Tieria Erde from Gundam 00. Not only does Tieria have a cold personality, but it turns out he's not actually human and was grown in a lab, which accounts for said coldness I would say. XD

I've seen (heard?) Ono in a lot of roles over the years, and he doesn't seem to be typecasted as any one kind of character. He plays a lot of tough guys, yes, but not all the time. I can sometimes recognize his voice right off the bat, but usually not. He's a good actor, but I have to say that maybe a large part of his appeal is his looks. After all, they are performers in the public eye, even if as voice actors they aren't actually seen when they do their roles.

I wonder if someday we'll get a manga or anime about seiyuu and their lives and relationships. The closest we've come to that is the excellent Shirobako, but so far at least the series hasn't gone in-depth in that direction. I can't complain since what the series has shown is a fascinating look behind the scenes of the anime industry. And maybe acting in such an anime - an anime about seiyuu - might hit too close to home for the seiyuu performing in it. Still, I would absolutely love a story like that, whether in manga or anime form.

Maybe a story about two seiyuu who play ninjas... who fall in love behind the scenes... and both seiyuu are bishonen males...

Dang, I think my alarm clock just went off. XD

Seiyuu Appreciation Day - Casting Decisions

Something I've wondered about seiyuu: exactly how do they get cast in their anime roles?

Obviously, I know they audition, and that the famous ones command high hourly rates. But until I watched "The Ruthless Audition Meeting," episode 14 of Shirobako, I'd assumed the director of the anime series had the final say over casting.

Maybe on some series they do. But apparently sometimes it's decided by committee.

Shirobako is about five college friends who graduate and get jobs in Tokyo's anime industry. The main character Aoi Miyamori starts as a production assistant at Musashino Animation but later is promoted to be "production desk," in charge of coordinating production on the company's upcoming series, "Third Aerial Girls Squad."

The director at Musashino is Seiichi Kinoshita, who - despite his prosaic nerdy appearance - is an impractical dreamer and pure artist who somehow manages to inspire others to go along with his vision, even if it means changing things at the last minute and forcing extra work on them.

A favorite character of mine is Masahito Marukawa, the president of Musashino Animation. Endlessly cheerful, he cooks special food for the staff, including chicken karaage for director Kinoshita.

Shizuka Sakaki is the seiyuu of the five young women protagonists. While the other four get regular jobs in the industry, Shizuka is a barmaid who goes to auditions in her spare time.

At the beginning of episode 14, we see Shizuka auditioning in the studio while being watched by director Kinoshita and others from the animation company. Kinoshita is taken with her voice and asks her on the spot to read for a different role in addition to the one she prepared for. Shizuka does so, and later in the episode she is being considered for this second role, Catherine.

The bulk of the episode is taken up by an extraordinary scene - the meeting at which the seiyuu cast is decided on. In the room are director Kinoshita and several of his high-level production staff. Kinoshita states that a majority vote will decide the seiyuu casting.

However... it's not just Musashino personnel who are present. Several outsiders, including the advertising firm producer, and the producer from "Bukkomi Games," Sugesuki Enjou, are in the room...

... as well as Takumi Yarase, the "Gorioshi Music" producer...

... and finally Tsuyoshi Makurada, the "DK Race Creative" producer.

Just who are all these people?! Shouldn't the seiyuu cast be decided solely by the animation company?

It's not explained in the episode, but my guess is that the video game company, the company that produces the music CDs, and the event production company all contributed funds to the anime production and thus have a say in who will be cast in the show.

Enjou, the game producer, is conservative and argues for the safe choice in seiyuu to play the lead character, while the music producer Yarase wants a seiyuu who is a good singer so his company can release character song CDs.

The event producer, Makurada, says he needs a seiyuu with big breasts and a great figure since his company will be putting on the fan events based on the show.

The three outside producers are loud and combative and director Kinoshita and the other Musashino staff look on open-mouthed as they argue for seiyuu choices based on everything except actual fitness for the role. Enjou is afraid a newcomer won't be up to the challenge of carrying a series, while Yarase cares nothing for the seiyuu's acting ability - only their singing talents. Makurada is obsessed with the seiyuu's sexiness and popularity since he'll be producing the series-related events. He needs big-name seiyuu with good looks to draw in the fans.

The scene is obviously played for laughs and entertainment value, but nonetheless I can see the validity of the out-of-house producers' opinions in light of who they are and what their goals are. I'm not certain they should have that much say over casting though. >.<

The meeting runs for fourteen hours, through pizza deliveries and President Marukawa cooking trays of gyoza, until finally they come to the last major role - Catherine.

Director Kinoshita rather shyly brings up Shizuka Sakaki's name. They play an audio clip of her audition and though others in the room agree she has a pretty voice, the consensus is that she's not ready yet. So they go with a more established voice actress.

Later when Shizuka meets with Aoi and the other young women, it turns out they're all working on "Third Aerial Girls Squad" except her. The rub is that Shizuka doesn't know how close she came to getting the part of Catherine and is unaware that Kinoshita, a major anime director, has now taken notice of her.

The unfortunate thing is that Shirobako could end with Shizuka never having been cast in a series, though I doubt they'll do that. But it would be realistic. There are so many aspiring seiyuu with talent and a dream and most of them won't make it. Shirobako is about making it in the industry though, so I'm sure we'll see Shizuka getting her first role before the series ends. If only all of the aspiring seiyuu in Tokyo could be that fortunate. :/

A last note on Shirobako: whoever is doing the English subtitles at Crunchyroll deserves a pay raise. Shirobako features a lot of fast-moving dialogue with numerous technical production terms, and the translation not only seems accurate but the subs are in clear well-phrased English with no typos. Really excellent work.