A Lifetime of Anime to Watch on Crunchyroll

Classic Super Robot Toys. I remember really wanting the Great Mazinger in my youth!

It looks like Crunchyroll has taken off with full afterburners after cruising around for a few years.  They have been a completely legitimate web portal for anime for years now and they even turned a good profit this year with a growing subscriber base.  While I'm writing this post I have it open in another window and I'm looking at all of the available shows to watch for free.  I just did a count and there are just over 300 series to watch now (that's right, 300!).  This 2013 spring anime season had them pick up a huge number of first rate mecha and other anime shows to broadcast only an hour after they air in Japan for subscribers.  If you're not a subscriber for the $7 / month you get to watch them 1 week after they air without HD.  I'm watching the stuff on an iPAD without the subscription and pretty darn satisfied overall.  Even three or four years ago this would have been unthinkable.  Even now, a number of other Japanese animation companies are starting up other web portals for online distribution to combat piracy and to reach broader audiences.  Who knows how all this will play out?  I just hope it'll work out for everyone's best interests.

In the top twenty anime series right now on Crunchyroll (as I write) we have:

1. Naruto Shnippuden
2. Oreimo
3. Attack on Titan
4. Hunter x Hunter
5. Valvrave the Liberator
6. My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
7. Devil Survivor 2
8. Sword Art Online
9. Muromi-san
10. Bleach
11. Samurai Bride
12. Shugo Chara
13. Chihayafuru
14. Reborn!
15. Space Brothers
16. Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet
17. Majestic Prince
18. Zettai Boei Leviatan
19. Uta no Prince Sama
20. Gintama

That is a lot of good anime for both new and long running series.  If you were to watch all that it is an easy 20 x 20 minutes of anime (skipping credits / commercials / end titles) for 400 minutes a week or almost 7 hours a week!  I think a lot of people are just being drowned in a flood of goodness.  And then there are complete series to watch too - so you can grab the popcorn, a coke, have a cup noodle, and binge on all the episodes.


Myself, I'm just watching a few shows as I just don't have the time to watch all this stuff.  I still buy the dvds of series I really like if they're available and not being sold at an obscene price, but all of this free stuff must mean that DVD sales must be hurting.

I'm currently watching a number of new series, mainly mecha related, and here are a few observations.

• Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet - I think this is the best sci fi and mecha anime this season and it'll rank up there with the classics.   Interesting characters, good world building, interesting politics and it happens on long lost Earth!
• Valvarave the Liberator - from the Gundam folks (but not Gundam).  Seems okay so far after two episodes, but it sure starts out in a manner similar to Gundam with space colonies, and sneak attacks.
• Majestic Prince - another mecha anime.  Entertaining so far, but it is mech academy type fare with the misfits leading the charge against a previously unbeatable enemy.
• Attack on Titan - actually I haven't seen it yet, but its in the queue.  I'm hoping it'll be good.  I hear good things about it.

Other good series if your time is limited and you want to binge:

• Durarara - I never thought I would like this show so much - but what a great plot and set of characters.  Even the Celtic spirit Celty (go figure) works pretty good. It shows a seamier side of Ikebukuro in Tokyo where I stayed on my last trip there and it was a good show with otaku, crazed strongmen, gangs, spirits, and manipulators.
• Sword Art Online - About people who get trapped in an MMORPG video game and live there until they escape.  Overcome the technical believability hurdles and you have a pretty good story all the way to the end.  Like .HACK, but different!
• Space Brothers - this is pretty good character driven anime about two bothers.  One is an astronaut and the other wants to be one.  Lots of astronaut selection and training drama.
•  R.O.D the Series.  -  This is a good action series where you have three wonderful sisters who are paper masters fighting against an unseen enemy that is manipulating the world.  A paper master is a person with "magical powers" to control paper as a weapon or tool (think origami on steroids or actually being able to make giant paper animals come to life).
• Fate Zero - a magical / combat dueling series.  I like Fate / Stay Night but I found this series a little too much over the top.  Awesome animation with many fans though.
• Muv Luv Total Eclipse.  I enjoyed the mecha action, but the story could have been better.
• Angel Beats - I found this show to be way better than I thought and I actually quite like it.  Imagine a high school as purgatory in the afterlife.  What happens next?
• Hanasaku Iroha - A girl moves to a hot springs inn to live with her grandmother.  Wonderful characters and setting for her to make new friends and resolve her feelings towards her boyfriend.  You want to kick her in the right direction after awhile but I like the show.
• Bakemonogatari - A boy ends up meeting various people with supernatural problems and save them.  Very stylized animation.
• Girls & Panzer - There actually isn't much fan service in this show - so it didn't get ruined - and it is about an alternate world where girls drive classic WWII tanks in competitions.  Lots of fun to watch, especially if you like tanks.
• Wagnaria! - Comedy at a Japanese family restaurant (like a Denny's) and it was fun to watch.
• Xamd: Lost Memories - really good biomechanical weapon and good SF series.  Kind of reminded me a bit of Miyazaki world building.
• Vividred Operation - Magical Technology Girls!  Fun to watch, but edging towards too much fanservice.  Has all the classical magical girl tropes including the girl that never gives up and tries to save all her friends.
• Tsuritama - I didn't get far into this but it looked pretty cool with fishing and aliens?
• Love Live - School Idol - High school idols.  This was a pretty fun show about girls that band together to sing and dance their way to fame so they can attract more students to their school and not have it close.  The show had a good heart.
• Kids on the Slope - A high school jazz anime set in the 60s about three kids who are bonded together by the music.  Had a good ending too, but it seemed rushed.  More of your serious anime.
• Anohana - You need a premium membership to see this series - I got the DVDs instead.  A girls spirit returns to help her friends settle out of her tragic death years before when she was a little girl.  A bit Stand by Me with heavy anime overtones.  Very good show. 
• Soranowoto - This is a slice of life at a military outpost in a post-devastation earth.  A young girl joins the army to learn how to bugle and zany adventures follow.  There is a dark side to this series that is quite serious and I really enjoyed it.  An original story too!
• Puella Madoka Magica - the show that turned the magical girl genre on its head.  With innovative animation and a very cool twist, it is a must view if you can tolerate magical girls in any form.
• Gosick - Mysterious girl and a Japanese boy solve mysteries in an early 20th century setting in Europe.  The girl dresses like she is out of Rozen Maiden with the lolita look too. Some mystical mumbo jumbo elements involved, but this series had a good ending and was quite good.  Would love to see a DVD release of this.
• Plenty of mecha shows like Mazinkaiser SKL,Go Lion, Linebarrels of Iron, Star Driver, and Super Robot Wars OG The Inspector  too.

Crunchyroll is also a pretty good goldmine to watch a number of more classic series too:

• Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumia (high school girl surrounded by Espers, Aliens, and Time Travelers). Lots of play on other anime.
• Lucky Star (for mindless high school comedy that plays on otakudom and other anime including Haruhi)
• Pretty Cure - the original series.  I still really like this magical girl anime and it wasn't heavy on fan service!
• Gurren Lagaan - new anime in the classical super robot style.  If you like super robots you have to catch it for free!
• Galaxy Express - space trains. A classic journey about a boy to the stars and vengeance.
• Some of these are such long running shows they are classics like Naruto and Bleach.

There are tons more shows so start watching!

Tasty Nissin Instant Ramen

Instant ramen is something that I have been eating for a very long time.  My earliest recollection is in the 1970s with the Doll brand ramen out of Hong Kong.  It is a food product that might not be the healthiest for you, but I do like it a great deal.  Freshly made ramen from a good shop is always better, but if there isn't a shop handy then instant is the next best thing.  For my instant ramen eating I am predisposed towards Nissin brand products as their noodles have the best texture and the soup bases are good.  If anyone from Nissin is reading this, give me a buzz if you want me to try one of your products :)  I also think the Japanese paper cup for the cup noodles is very well designed with the insulating sleeve on the outside.

A few years ago they were running Gundam Cup Noodle promos.

A nicely detailed little model of a Gundam RX78-2 was included as a bonus.

Lots of ingredients for their basic soy flavoured ramen that was in the Gundam cup.

 In particular, the Nissin products from the Asian region are my favourites as they have the best flavours.  I also rarely just eat the noodles by themselves and add veggies, meat, and eggs whenever possible to the noodles.  Ramen that is ready in 3 minutes after adding the old boiling water seems to always hit the spot.  I've been to Japan twice now and both times I've hunted down their higher end instant ramen products that are not available in Canada.

On my last trip to Tokyo in February of 2013 I managed to find their new Nissin Raoh noodles that I read about in the news.  If you read the article you find out that these noodles are pretty high tech to produce the texture as they go through several production processes.  These noodles are actually pretty good for taste and texture and I tried both their bowl noodle and packet versions.

Nissin Raoh deluxe bowl noodles

 These are not two hundred yen products ($2) as they cost up to double that, but they are yummy!  The one pictured above is a soy sauce flavour.

Plenty of ingredients and flavour packets.

 There are powder ingredients, sauce packets, green onion, onion, a freeze dried piece of pork, bamboo shoots, etc.  It was actually a really nice bowl of noodles when it was done with a very flavourful soup and I enjoyed it all very much.

The noodles were good!

Some of the other Nissin products from Japan I have tried are pictured below. I'll post about some the easier to find products from their Hong Kong subsidiary and other Cup Noodle products in other posts.

The packet form of the Raoh noodles.

Tasty Shoyu!

Their Goota brand of deluxe bowl noodle.

Again, there are plenty of ingredients to add that included a piece of pork.

I only ever had this once years ago and it was a very tasty, savoury bowl of ramen in my memory.

Canned Bread and Other Interesting Japanese Souvenirs

I thought I would show a few of the interesting souvenirs the group of us picked up in Tokyo on our recent February 2013 trip.  We bought a wide range of stuff, ranging from CDs to clothes, but these are some of the more interesting items.  Many of these are anime related as I'm an anime fan.

All types of candy and chocolate including these cute little dwarf pocky that are twice as thick as the regular ones.  Chocolate and other types of candy or gum are always a nice souvenir you can enjoy later to remind you of your trip.  The sad part is always about running out of treats.

Exclusive T-shirt and other items from the Evangelion Store in Harajuku.  I really like the designs on some the coffee mugs there.

Catbus and Jiji from the Ghibli Store.

A set of tempura food models from Kitchen Town or Kappenbashi.  We bought individual tempura and assembled them into the set displayed in the photo.

Yamanote Line coin bank found at Yodobashi Camera in the Toys.  This bank plays three different train station tunes and lights up when money is deposited.

Sushi Candy set where you make the candy from mix.  Looks cool and tastes good.

A Mei and a super extended catbus from the Ghibli museum.  The Ghibli museum shops have some exclusive merchandise.

Ramen noodles that you cannot buy here.  I'll actually be doing a post on instant ramen in the future. This Raoh ramen from Nissin is a pretty deluxe bowl of ramen with real meat, bamboo shoots, and veggies.

Evangelion canned bread from the Anime Center in Akihabara.  The plastic lids on top also have markings on them so you can cut a slit in them and use the can as a coin bank afterwards!

Close up of the can. Rei and Unit 00.

After you pull the top off.  You see dessicant and a nicely wrapped bread.  Has a very bready smell.

The bread - I think they actually bake it in the can.

You pull the bread out of the can by the paper.

You unwrap the bread.

Closeup of the bread. 

I was kind of skeptical about this bread myself.  The Rei one was a strawberry flavoured bread and the other Unit 00 themed can was a plain bread flavour.  The stuff has a shelf life of about 6 months and actually tastes pretty good.  The texture of this bread is kind of like the cheaper / non-flakey croissants you can buy at the supermarket with a nice similar bready, croissant flavour.  It was okay to eat and I'll pop the other one open before its expiry and chow down on it too.

A whole set of 10 cm high Evangelion Figures.  You buy these in sealed boxes so it is kind of random getting what you want.  I bought an entire box that will contain two sets in some random packing order.  There are shops where you can buy opened boxes or a set that has already been opened.  These were nicely detailed and run about $6 each.

Link to another post I did about Japanese Souvenirs.

Calgary Comic Expo 2013 Impressions

I just returned from Calgary Comic Expo 2013 after a weekend trip down to Cowtown.   While I'm not a big convention attendee I've been down to Comic Expo three years in a row now for just a portion of the Saturday.  The convention organizers really picked up their game this year it was like way better organized this year and way bigger in terms of square footage.  There was a bit of walking, but even exchanging our prepaid tickets for badges and wristbands was easy.

Horses and a lineup for the 10 AM opening on the walkway.

They expected some 60,000 people to attend over the 2.5 days and they've managed to make it a much more pleasant experience.  There were the crowds, but you didn't feel squashed like last year.  Last year with the complete assemblage of the Star Trek casts was just nuts for attendance.

Lego Star Wars

Awesome Iron Man, but it came out blurry (figures).

The crowds

There was an abundance of cosplayers in attendance and you saw them prepping outside of the convention halls and I always wonder what the Stampede staff thinks of this stuff compared with the old wild west persona of the city.  The mayor helped kick off the event in a cosplay parade and that is one of the aspects of Calgary that I like the most.  The city gets behind their major events like the Stampede, the Winter Olympics, and now Comic Expo.  I saw some awesome Batman, Iron Man, Mass Effect, and even Jessica Rabbit cosplayers amongst the many folks who dressed up.

Comics for sale

I checked out a whack of booths on the floor and met a few of the shop keepers who I know from their actual stores in Calgary like the Sentry Box and Phoenix Comics down there.  I didn't realize that you pay for the booth and then you can also pay extra for power and for wi-fi.  There is always a nice mix of collectibles and comics from east and west there and I'm sure that plenty of people go home richer in assets and poorer in cash.

Art Books

I was actually interested in talking to some of the artists with booths there and trying to figure out if anyone did art that was good for a book cover for my Exocrisis Blue series of books.  I made a few contacts and hopefully I'll be able to commission some fancier cover art for my mecha science fiction ebooks.  I can write but I sure cannot draw like these guys and girls.  I met people who were just starting out and trying their hand at manga, students from Alberta College of Arts, to some commercial graphics artists who have graphic novels as a passion.

Bumblebee with Autobot logos to boot!

All in all, it was pretty fun and it is always fun seeing the great costumes and cool things to get.  Crazy thing is that even after leaving the expo, I ran into Bumblebee in the parking lot for a Shanghai restaurant across town.  Transformers are rolling!