sound rat

With 2020 around the corner, I wanted to do something that every other hack anime blogger is doing — write about the last decade of anime. The key difference is that my series of articles is named after an emo song, which makes them objectively better.

Before I get started I want to make something abundantly clear: this is not meant to be a comprehensive portrait of the 2010s. This is how I experienced anime over the decade; not the fandom as a whole.

I will also not be covering every major news story that happened. If I remember something, I’ll bring it up. But this will mostly be about the titles that came out and my reaction to them. You can skim the Anime News Network archive on your own time.

In 2010, I had already been podcasting about anime for two years. Before 2008, I had never attempted criticism outside of homework assignments. After a few years of poor audio quality and awkward pauses, I was finally getting comfortable.

Nothing demonstrated this more than my jump into written content in 2009. I primarily wrote content for my own website, but I also contributed to three now-defunct blogs — Anime 3000, Pop-Droid, and Geek Party.

Anime 3000 is going to come up a lot.

Anime started out strong in 2010. Probably. Durarara!! had it’s first season. I wrote a positive episode one review for Anime 3000, but never continued watching because that’s what I do.

I did the same thing for Cobra The Animation, a show where a man with a gun arm smokes a cigar underwater.

Dance in the Vampire Bund also came out that season. When it was streamed online for the American audience, some underage girl in thong underwear shots were censored. This made a lot of nerds mad. I wrote an article for my site making fun of them that no one read until years later when they commented that I was a moron.

Arguably the best thing to come out of the controversy was the Urban Dictionary definition submitted by Dave Riley of Fast Karate for the Gentlemen which states that to Dance in the Vampire Bund means to “perform anal sex without sufficient lubrication, thus causing bleeding.”

Ladies verus Butlers is a show that I’ve never seen, but my friend Ryan has. I still make fun of him for this fact.

Seikon no Qwaser was first aired on January 10, 2010. That’s four years before January 10, 2014, which is a song from The World is a Beautiful Place & I’m No Longer Afraid to Die about Diana, Hunter of Bus Drivers. Seikon no Qwaser has nothing to do with her. After all, Diana didn’t execute her first bus driver until 2013. Instead it’s a show where people need to drink breast milk to use super powers.

Close enough.

Chris Beveridge gave the series a B-, which makes him a bad person. Theron Martin gave it a C+, which makes him a slightly better person, but still suspicious.

Fans of Seikon no Qwaser seem to dance around the breastmilk part by calling it Soma. This is a made up word that means breastmilk. Nevertheless, the Seikon no Qwaser fanwiki has a painstakingly crafted page on the art of breastfeeding.

Did I just write three paragraphs about a show I’ve never seen? Yes. This is going to be a long ride, kids. You should have packed a lunch.

Have you ever wanted to watch an anime girl sleep for 40-minutes? No? Well, someone did, because in February 2010 we got Sleeping With Hinako. This is one of the strangest OVAs I’ve ever seen, and I’m including Apocalypse Zero in that count.

Sure, Apocalypse Zero features a geriatric man attacking someone with his dick — his dick turns into a dragon, by the way — but jerking off to someone while they sleep is a line that should never be crossed (I’m looking at you Evangelion fans). Wha0’ts that you say? You didn’t jerk off when you watched Sleeping with Hinako. That makes you even weirder, buddy.

The Spring 2010 Anime Season had a lot going on. The biggest title for me was Trigun: Badlands Rumble. I don’t know how this got made. When Trigun aired in Japan in 1998, it didn’t hit. It was much more popular in America when it ran on Adult Swim, but that was back in 2003. Anime Insider published an article about a movie being in production in 2004.

I enjoyed the movie, but I’m confused as to why it was made. Why didn’t this get released during the height of Trigun’s popularity in America? Why wait seven years to make what amounts to a throwaway film?

For everyone else, the big title was the K-ON! sequel. The most impact K-ON! ever had in my life was that time I started an internet fight with some kid in Funimation’s blog comment section. I purported that Basquash was better than K-ON! We argued publicly for an hour before taking it private via email.

What’s more ridiculous than the fact that I did this, is that Anime 3000 published the transcript of our fight in its entirety.

Stan Lee made an anime! Bet you didn’t know that. I watched the first episode of Heroman on the same day that I watched Demon King Daimao. They both left a similar impression on me.

Did anyone watch Nightraid 1931? I sure didn’t. I bought the Bluray when it came out because I liked the cover. It sat on my shelf for years next to all of the other shows I would “eventually get around to.”

Rainbow is another show like that, but it never received a home video release. To this day I tell myself that I will watch Rainbow because the description reminds me of the movie Sleepers, a film about torturing children that I watched sight-unseen when I was 13.

If there was an award for Best Movie About Torturing Children, Sleepers would be a top contender.

Tatami Galaxy first aired April 23, 2010. Tony Bowe would spend the next nine years of his life asking why it never got released on Bluray.

House of Five Leaves also came out in Spring. It’s a very slow show about samurai. I think. I reviewed it for Anime 3000, but the only things I remember are that the characters had scary eyes and the opening slapped.

Finally, the second Eden of the East movie was released. I watched the show and the first film with my girlfriend at the time. I watched the second film without her because I’m an asshole.

In the Summer, we got High School of the Dead. This was maybe a good show, but it will forever be remembered as having a slow-motion sequence where an anime girl’s breast dodge a bullet. The only thing that tops that is the slow-motion sequence from Drive Angry where Nicholas Cage kills a group of assassins while having sex with a waitress he met that night.

You know what else came out in the Summer? Fucking Shiki! I’ve been riding the Shiki Hate Train since day one. I got my first taste of Shiki when it was streaming. Why did I watch it? I’m sure somebody that hates me told me it was good. It’s not.

You can imagine my delight when Anime 3000 sent me the boxset to review years later.

A big reason why I hate Shiki is because it’s ugly. Is that petty? Yes. But fuck me if that doctor doesn’t shave his stupid beard. Who let him into medical school with facial hair like that? Maybe that’s why it takes him so long to realize that VAMPIRES are killing all the villagers and not some mysterious disease. You fucking asshole!

In 2011, Funimation went on record saying that sales for When They Cry – Higurashi were so bad that they’d never again release a series “that bears even a minor resemblance.” I still laugh about that quote because it was already too late for them to backtrack on their Shiki responsibilities.

Something that was good — Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail. At least, I assume it was good. I still haven’t watched it. I bought the Bluray when it came out and never opened it. This is a reoccurring problem in my life.

The last thing worth mentioning from Summer is an anime I did watch called Colorful. No, not the sex comedy that the late Ryutara Nakamura directed. That’s show is also awesome. This Colorful is kind of like a super serious feature length version of the first episode of Yu Yu Hakusho.

The Fall 2010 Anime Season gave us another show that I never watched but always meant to. Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt was the last thing that Hiroyuki Imaishi for Gainax before leaving to start Studio Trigger.

It took longer than usual for Panty and Stocking to sit on my shelf. The Bluray release was delayed in America because of Japan’s reverse importation fears. You know what else is scary? Japanese anime prices.

Star Driver gave me a case of Acute Anime Burnout. The person that told me to watch Star Driver had the audacity to compare it to Gurren Lagann. This was probably the same asshole that told me Shiki was good. I’ve erased all memories of this show from my mind, but I know that it was months before I was ready to watch anime again.

Mazinkaiser SKL was my Anime Secret Santa pick for 2011. I have a surprise for you — I never finished watching it. Inexplicably, because I fucking loved the original Mazinkaiser.

You wanna know something I did watch that came out in 2010? It wasn’t until 2012, but I watched the fuck out of it. And I liked it.

Motherfucking Oreimo!

That’s right! I watched Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai, a title sometimes tranlated as My Little Sister Can’t Possibly Be This Cute. I wonder why they opted to go with Oreimo when it came out in America.

I don’t have an excuse for this. I was alone. It was unprovoked. No one told me to watch it. I just did. And I’m not sorry.

2010 was a special time. Podcasting and writing was still new to me, so everything I produced had a weight to it. In a few years, I would find my voice, but I would also become jaded. The content I produce now is of a higher quality, but god damn if I wasn’t having more fun back then.

In an attempt to force myself to write about anime again, I chose to participate in Anime Secret Santa for the first time since 2011. For the uninitiated, it’s the same thing you play at work but with anime recommendations instead of gifts. It was started by The Reverse Thieves in 2009, but it’s current incarnation is run by All Geeks Considered.

The anime I was tasked with reviewing back then was Now and Then, Here and There. If there was an award for Best Anime About Torturing Children, Now and Then would be a top contender. I had so much fun with my review that I returned for a second dance with Anime Santa in 2012, but I gave up before the deadline.

Halfway through Sarazanmai, I considered doing this again.

Sarazanmai is an 11-episode series that aired during this years spring season on the Noitamina block. It was created by a fucking lunatic named Kunihiko Ikuhara, who’s best known for directing Revolutionary Girl Utena. I read somewhere that he lied during his initial pitch for this show. Considering the plot, that would not surprise me.

Sarazanmai is kind of like if you combined Inuyasha and Gantz, but there’s no tits, nothing is at stake, and every time our heroes locate a shard of the sacred jewel, they have to pull it out of someones ass. Also, Kagome is a frog demon.

Okay, so that’s not entirely true. I just wanted to make an absurd comparison. I’ll try my best to actually explain the plot, but you’re going to think I’m making it up.

The protagonists are three high schoolers — Used to Play Soccer, Glasses Kid, and AnimeWeedLord420. It’s unclear why they hang out. They’re kind of friends, but kind of not. Used to Play Soccer and Glasses Kid were best friends at one point, but they stopped hanging out when Used to Play Soccer stopped playing soccer. Glasses Kid is still upset about this.

AnimeWeedLord420 doesn’t like either of them, but continues to hang out with them everyday after school because the plot demands it.

For reasons I don’t remember, the three are enlisted to fight in a war between kappa and otters. Kappa are kind of like demon frog turtles. According to Wikipedia, kappas “are often accused of assaulting humans in water and removing a mythical organ called the shirikodama from their victim’s anus.”

That Kagome joke is funny now, isn’t it? Still no. Fuck.

Anyway, they meet a kappa that turns them into kappas by way of aggressive rimjobs and sends them to fight kappa zombies, which are controlled by otters because…well, they just do.

They defeat each kappa zombie by pulling a jewel out of its ass. This is animated in great detail with nothing being left to the imagination. If they do this five times, the kappa will grant any wish they desire. Except the first time he just does it, probably to demonstrate that he can.

It’s sort of implied that a Monkey’s Paw situation could happen if they aren’t careful with their wishes, but that’s dropped when it’s not longer convenient to the plot.

If I wasn’t making it obvious enough, I did not have a good time with this show. The first half was painfully formulaic. I could have watched the same episode five times in a row and I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

A big part of this is because of the obnoxious level of recycled animation. I’m told that this is Ikuhara’s thing. But why? It makes senses when you have to make a thousand episodes of Sailor Moon on a tight budget, but this show wasn’t even the normal 13 episodes.

For what it’s worth, the recycled sequences are spectacular. They’re two song and dance numbers with highly fluid animation and brilliant color schemes, but they comprise nearly half the runtime of each episode, so their impressiveness wears off quickly. The songs are dumb, but you’ll hear them so many times they’ll be stuck in your head by the end of the show whether you like it or not.

One reviewer said this show was particularly noteworthy because of it’s positive portrayal of gay people. We must have been watching different shows. The main gay relationship explored is between two police officers who spend the entire series killing [mostly] innocent people and trying to take over the city.

There is a boy/boy kiss between Used to Play Soccer and Glasses Kid, but one of them is unconscious and the romantic subplot is never revisited after the second episode.

And that’s one of the biggest problems I had with Sarazanmai. They failed to explore the more interesting elements of the plot. I wanna know what happens between Used to Play Soccer and Glasses Kid after the kiss. Glasses Kid does a full blown love confession but after the episode ends it’s like it never happened.

There was also a subplot where Used to Play Soccer would dress up as a popular lady celebrity and pretend he was her. He would text his little brother in character, making his brother think he was friends with the lady. There are zero consequences when he’s finally caught. They just move on to the next plot point.

The show also expected me to like the murderous cop characters at the end. Like, what? I just spent ten episode watching these assholes murder people in cold blood. Why should I care that being a murder cop is putting a strain on their relationship?

It wasn’t all bad, though. Things pick up around episode six. The singing and dancing is put on hold and we start to focus more on what makes our characters interesting. Sort of. We don’t learn much about Glasses Kid beyond that he’s in love with Used to Play Soccer, but the rest of the cast gets better treatment.

The problem is that this took too long. When your show is only 11 episodes, you can’t afford to waste anytime fucking around. The only reason I got to the good parts is because I agreed to review this for Anime Secret Santa. Otherwise, I would have given up after three episodes.

It’s also very pretty. Sarazanmai looks better than most shows that I like. But that only takes you so far. The Tree of Life was really interesting to look at, but I still fell asleep 20 minutes in.

A lot of people liked Sarazanmai when it came out, so maybe I just don’t get it. That’s okay. Ten years ago, I think I would have had a better time. The absurdity of the plot would have carried me through some of the weaker points in the narrative. But watching it now in my 30’s reminds me of that goth kid in high school that was always trying too hard to be weird.

Wait, that kid was me. Fuck!

Who is Sound Devices?

Sound Devices is a Wisconsin-based company that specializes in audio equipment for film and TV production. Their first product was the MP-1 Portable Microphone Preamp, which is still in use today. Along with rival company, Zaxcom, they are leaders in their industry.

Their new MixPre series is significant because it’s the first time they’re created a product with the prosumer market in mind. The line was first launched in 2017 with the MixPre-3 and MixPre-6, and has since been expanded to four more products.

The MixPre has always been aimed towards podcasters and musicians, but what makes the MixPre-3M and MixPre-6M special is the price point. With the MSRP at $549 and $799 respectively, they are the most affordable industry standard audio recorders on the market.

It’s true that even at it’s lower price, the average anime podcaster will be unwilling or unable to pay for a MixPre. However, for people like Conrad Collins (DigiBro) and Geoff Thew (Mother’s Basement) who make a living creating audio/visual content, investing $600 into equipment that improves their product makes sense.

So what the hell is this thing anyway?

The simplest explanation for the MixPre is that it’s a standalone multitrack audio recorder. What that means is that you don’t need a computer or recording software to use it. You can be use it as an audio-interface, but the beauty of a device like this is that it allows you to record anywhere.

The number or inputs, tracks, and features depends on which one you’re using, but most podcasters won’t need anything larger than the MixPre-3M. You can find a comparison chart of the entire MixPre product line here.

Why do I use Sound Devices for my podcast?

I’ve been creating content with Sound Devices products for the last four years. I started in 2014 with a 633, which I used to record thousands of hours of podcasts. In 2018, I made the switch to a MixPre-3 (not to be confused with the MixPre-3M). Technically this was a downgrade, but I no longer needed the additional features and inputs the 633 offered.

Occasionally people would ask me what equipment I used to record. I always had to qualify my answer with, “I use this, but it would be ridiculous for you to buy one.” The only reason I had a 633 was because of my job in the film industry.

Before I made a career in sound, I was using a combination of Behringer equipment and recording software to produce content. It got the job done, but I was never satisfied with the limitations it put on my creativity. The high noise floor and risk of losing my audio due to a technical problem was also frustrating.

When I use Sound Devices equipment, I’m able to focus on what matters — the content. With the help of software like Audio Hijack, I’m able to recording my microphone, Skype/Discord, and sound effects/music on separate tracks, allowing me total control in post-production.

The only way I’m going to lose my files is if I forget to press record or if the device somehow loses power. And in the event that it does lose power, my files will still be there when I turn it back on.

Conclusion

The MixPre-3M and MixPre-6M will hit the stores on June 21, 2018. Do I think anime podcasters will rush to buy them? No. But I wanted to make people aware of their options for taking their audio quality to the next level.

This was not a paid endorsement, and I won’t make money even if you do purchase a MixPre. I’m just a happy customer that found a way to combine my love of audio with my love of anime when the new product was announced.