It's almost Halloween, ghouls and gals! What scary tales has Uncle Pachi whipped up for you on this wicked week? Prepare yourself for a shocker, a chilling collection of craft that will send your spirit straight to the crypt! For tonight......I am reviewing......A FANSERVICE ANIME.
That's right. And not the good kind of fanservice anime like Kill la Kill, oh no. This is raked straight up out of the bottom-feeders, the craptastic, insulting series that objectify women for a complacent male audience. I've gone on record about lowest common denominator fanservice in my Free review, but what if we were to accurately examine one of these monsters? Let's see how that goes as I review Daimidaler the Sound Robot! Enjoy, if you dare~!
I'll admit, I partially decided to write this review because I wanted to draw the Penguin Empire commandos. Ridiculous front tails and all. And of course I had to show how #2 feels about these 'penguin brethren'. I deliberately didn't apply shading to this one as a postmodern commentary on how fanservice for a male audience is often morally cheap. I'm deep, man.
Happy October! The leaves are beginning to change, the air starts to chill, and in lieu of fall-related posts you'll just have to settle for more anime reviews from me! I have three currently cooking in the boiler, the first of which is what you're reading right now. These will most likely be my last three reviews of the year before my annual end-of-year recollection where I take several shows I skipped talking about and review them all at once. I'm planning on including a few less shows this year than last as I was a bit overwhelmed by all the writing, we'll see!
If you know anything about me, you probably know I'm not a sports guy. Likewise, I'm not the biggest fan of sports in anime. The draw is that you hold some interest in the sport in question, but my interest in sports is practically zero. I do swim, which made enjoyment of Free all the sweeter. But even in Free, the thematic point isn't really the sport, but the togetherness and friendship. That's what I'm looking for in sports anime - a serial with a message that can say something to me and not feel like a waste of time only intended strictly for people who play sports. I found such a message in today's review: Masaaki Yuasa's Ping Pong! The pedigree of talent in this show is rather high, so I don't feel properly qualified to talk about it, but I tried anyway. Enjoy! ^^;
My angle for this drawing was to draw #2 in the style of a Ping Pong character, particularly with a disposition Peco might take when 'the hero appears'. I went minimalist in color as the show in question takes much the same approach. I have discovered it's harder to imitate Yuasa's style than I first thought. There's skill to be had in making something look deliberately fluid and free-form.
