It’s fun to analyze trends in anime names and the signals they send. When I checked out the anime Masou Gakuen HxH, I knew it’d be “ecchi” because of the “x” in its name, which seemed a reference to High School DxD, and whenever I see a show with a really long title like Anime With a Really Long Title Probably Involving a Younger Sister and Ending an Exclamation Point!, I know it will be based on a light novel, which brings with it certain expectations about what kind of story it will have. When I checked out Occultic;Nine, the ； character in the title made me expect a high-budget series with excellent voice acting and an opening theme sung by Ito Kanako, who did all the other “Science Adventure” shows including Steins;Gate.
Occultic;Nine is hard to pin down. It’s about nine slightly odd individuals, including Yuta, a blogger, his voluptuous friend Ryoka, and several other strange but-interesting-characters. Things you might like about the show include the design sense of the world (very nice), the animation, and the pleasant darkness of the story. Things you might not like: a random plot that jumps around and rapid-fire Monogatari-esque dialogue that’s somewhat tiring. Also, while I love her charm, some might be put off by the gravity-defying nature of Ryoka’s oppai.
I like the way anime can help us understand Japan better. In the seiyu anime Girlish Number, Chitose is an up-and-coming voice actress trying to make in Japan’s tough seiyu industry, though she’s kind of lazy and sloppy. In one episode, she learns the importance of doing proper aisatsu (greeting) with the more experienced actresses she works with, which is an involved process in which a kohai goes out of their way to greet their senpai as a sign of respect, and also (in the competitive seiyu world) as an opportunity to make sure her name and affiliated talent agency are remembered. The custom of formal greeting is very important, and each J-List employee does a similar greeting to me (as the boss) in the morning and as they leave for the day.
Our new monthly J-List Box snack, toy and ecchi boxes are a huge hit, and were happy to announce that we’ve got the boxes for December up on the site now! This month’s boxes are great, with two delicious snack boxes, a limited Studio Ghibli box, plus an awesome error box for everyone. These boxes ship out December 7th. Order yours now!
