diary of infinity

OK here is my doubtless premature list of anime series I liked during 2006.
In no particular order (other than chronological), I seem to have settled on four series this year. Maybe I’ll get round to watching some others people suggested, but in the meantime we have—

Karin

Continued over from 2005 I have a lot of affection for this story. I think of it as a vampire To Heart—there are several subtle references and similarities, from the watercolour style backdrops to Karin’s turn of phrase. Apart from the obvious Karin=Akari and Kenta=Hiroyuki, it’s entertaining to try and match up the other characters: Maki=Shiho, and what about Boogie=Multi? A rather perverse yet poignant match when you recall the scene where Multi collapses when her energy cell runs out, and contrast it with the similar scene of Boogie when his own lifeline is severed by Anju leaving her childhood behind.

Next we have 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 i.e.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

You knew I was going to say that didn’t you!
Let’s not get blogged down with all the stuff about 世界を大いに盛り上げるための涼宮ハルヒの団 or Haruhi Suzumiya’s Party for Overly Stirring Up The World as I prefer to call it. No I’m not going to pontificate on the rendering of 団 as “Party” at this point other than to observe that it nicely gives us “Party Leader” for 団長. Suffice it to say that the experience of seeing Haruhi’s rousing performance of God Knows in episode 12 completely lifted me out of a low in which I was contemplating the relative merits of catching the train to work versus simply jumping under it.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

or When The (Higurashi) Cicadas Cry, or When Daily Existence Cries Out, depending on how you read the deliberate ambiguity of the all-kana title. I don’t normally seek out scary stuff but this was simply billed on fansub.tv as a mystery story. It is that, but it’s also that rarity, a genuinely scary animated thriller, done in the classic thriller mould, building up the tension repeatedly with many false leads. At first I was dismayed by the superdeformed character styles, the first episode (apart from the chilling prologue) is deceptively and sickeningly twee like some cute kids show, but then it starts to bite... Want to stop the government building a dam in your valley? Simple, just kidnap the Minister of Public Works' grandson, oh and for good measure hack the construction works manager to pieces with an axe and the blessing of your local Shinto shrine...

Which leaves us with the much needed light relief of

Kamisama Kazoku

or The God Family, with its fresh style and fresh characters too, and catchy theme tunes that amazingly don’t seem to have been released as CD singles, only as extras on the DVD. The son of God (Samatarou) is going to a local high school to find out what it’s like to be human, accompanied by his guardian angel Tenko, who wears her heart on her sleeve and lets her feelings for him get jumbled up with her duties to help him become a better god. She got my sympathy from the start as being a mere angel living with a family of gods, she’s basically their skivvy doing the cooking and cleaning, occasionally mooning over the depressing fact that she has no family of her own, having been created to serve Samatarou. Anyhow it’s a great story, not too shallow and not too deep.

Well that’s my 2006 roundup. At some point I’ll probably expand on these things a bit more on the anime section of my website when I get it going again.

Dunk your face in a tray of flour.