Inspector Green Tag: I-I’ve been tagged!

Maybe because it’s still early 2015, bloggers are bored or they have too much free time waiting for school to resume that they have begun spreading yet another chain-letter type of questionnaires. No, they’re not as threatening as they sound. In fact, I was delighted to know that frog-kun of Fantastic Memes tagged me (with Novasylum of Paragraph Plague and SirCalvin of On The Move) to respond to the same set of questions which several other anime bloggers have already answered. (Of course, I’ve done my stalking sessions!)This is called the Inspector Green Tag anime questionnaire. Who started this? Who named this? I absolutely have no idea regarding its origin nor how it ended with that name. And I don’t feel compelled to do some research to shed light on this matter. Is this some kind of secret interrogation that would, in the end, trace some sort of genealogy of anime consumers who have (not much) free time to scribble and publish their endless thoughts on the medium in the hopes of finding people who agree or argue with them? Whatever its true intention is, I don’t mind being interrogated, but being caught by the anime protection police is a no-no.

To be honest, I find such questions fun because, at least, I’m expected to give the reactions to meet the objectives of the inquiry. If you’d like to know more you can always drop a question or more on my ask, which is too quiet as of late that it’s making me sad somehow. I-It’s not like I’ll be overjoyed if you happen to throw a question at me, no matter how random it would be!

Enough of the babbling. As per frog-kun‘s bidding, I’ll try to give some actually serious (obviously, not lazy) answers!

1. When was the last time you went to a store containing anime?

If we’re talking about the original anime DVDs/Blu-rays, I don’t think we even have a shop for those stuff in our place. Otherwise, there are plenty of those shady shops that I used to frequent to several years ago. And these shops should be under local government’s watch but they’re all well, alive and selling what shouldn’t be sold!

Oddly enough, we do have a few shops that sell anime-related merchandise. The last time went to one of them was about 2 years ago. That particular shop of a nation-wide franchise was the first in our city. As if possessed by some animu spirit, I entered the store in full glee mode with some friends who weren’t as excited as I was. NARUTO’s chuunin uniform  or flak jacket was (not exactly) getto daze!–as I was later reprimanded by the store clerk and got told off to return the costume. Talk about foolishness. Oh, such idiocy of my past self. (But it was fun, believe it!)

Also, we could have summoned the wish-granting dragon with these!

2. Do you usually watch anime online? On what website?

I would’ve probably stopped purchasing those illegal anime DVDs much later if it weren’t for an advice from a friend to try streaming. Well, it was still the illegal type of streaming and I don’t have the guts the name these sites. But I do remember streaming for a short while on Crunchyroll.

But I had also stopped streaming anime a long time ago, since I discovered another way to enjoy anime–downloading. Given the slooooooow internet speed in our country, obtaining anime with the best tools for downloading (i.e. torrent client and some DDL software) is the better way to maintain a calmer state of mind. It also helps avoid getting stressed over buffering videos of low resolution. With this method, I can watch anime any time I want, whether or not the connection is doing okay. For years, I’ve resolved myself to say “NO TO EYE CANCER.” A few exceptions to the rule exists–anime shorts such as Miss Monochrome and Chii’s New Address.

Someday I want to buy my own anime and finally show some support to the industry.

3. First Japanese word you learned from an anime?

I’m sure the first Japanese word I knew was…

… but I’m also sure I didn’t learn that from anime! I remember saying this word a lot when I was still a kindergarten kid, but by no means did I ever hear Japanese from anime being shown locally back then, not even Pokemon! No, I didn’t know the meaning of it, but I and my childhood friend always mockingly uttered arigatou when we were playing around, bowing to some invisible king of our little, childish game.

So I’ll just randomly pick a word.

Okay, I’ve just decided that it’s still arigatou, which could have been the first word I recognized when I started watching anime in Japanese dub. I knew the real meaning of it only by then.

4. Best animation style in your opinion?

I was thinking of saving this question for my 30-Day Anime Challenge post, but I might as well give a succinct opinion:

Pretty much everything KyoAni made since 2008. They all look beautiful for me, despite the fact that their character design art styles tend to appear all the same–to the point of almost looking like exact replica of each other. But if one will look closely, there are subtle differences between the styles, so they’re still basically different. I also crave for their backgrounds and layouts, which never fail to exude enchanting atmosphere and paint emotions on the important scenes. Their consistent art style, particularly on the overall character anatomy, is also one of the things I love about KyoAni. Plus points, too, for the camera effects like blurring of details on off-focus objects, which give their works the feel that they’re shot with a real camera. (Not that I’m an expert in judging cinematography, but in any case I ought to mention that merit.)

 

Also, they drew my mascot, Sun-chan!

 

Runners-up: ufotable (I especially love the Kara no Kyoukai movies. Gorgeous.) and P.A. Works (Nagi no Asukara was really beautiful to look at, thanks to the bewitching setting. Also, like ufotable, P.A. Works seems to have improved in handling their CGI animation to blend well with hand-drawn animation.)

5. Best anime pet?

Same with #4, I was supposed to give my answer only when I publish that 30-Day Anime Challenge Post. Well, whatever.

It’s Yamada Chii from Chii’s Sweet Home. He really is a pet in the anime, you know. Thank you, Japan.

6. What is the longest anime you’ve ever watched?

Picking among the completed shows, I’d say it’s BLEACH. Yes, I watched the fillers (except for the last one). While my MAL says I also watched Naruto and have been watching Shippuuden, I got to admit that I didn’t put up with those fillers. I had enough of them in BLEACH. “Where’s One Piece?” you ask? I’m actually putting it on-hold at episode 49.

7. What is the shortest anime you’ve ever watched?

Shortest in terms of what? Duration per episode? Or the number of episodes?

If it’s in terms of duration, I watched a lot of specials and a good number of anime shorts, both of which are usually of the same length per episode, so I have a lot to pick from. According to my MAL, I have watched a whopping 800+ anime, soon to reach 900 title mark, but that was mostly thanks to these incessant specials, shorts, and animated music videos. MAL seems to list almost everything, huh.

Among the TV series I’ve watched, Thermae Romae is the shortest with three 24-minute episodes. Go watch it if you haven’t yet. It’s a steaming hot anime with a nude ancient Roman guy time-traveling to modern day Japan!

But with the strict definition of length, taking into consideration both the number of episodes and duration, these two anime had made it to my list (maybe you’ve seen them, too):

Anyway, these two above here were pretty teasers to what would later be disappointing, sub-par shows from KyoAni.

8: What is your Favorite anime couple?

Ichiruki (BLEACH) has been my favorite, but not totally romantic, anime couple from the time I was stepping up my anime-consumption game. They didn’t really show that lovey dovey intimacy on-screen that I usually fangirl over and push me to ship couples, but I was always happy whenever I see them together.

From the recent anime, Usa x Ritsu (BokuKawai) and Ei-chan x Nacchan (Baby Steps) pairings always made me smile from their cuteness and innocence!

 

And done!

Fully surrendering to the tradition of tagging 3 bloggers, I should act as the ‘oni‘ this time to play onigokko with:

• cladinblue / Kawaranai Mono Aniburogu – The Inspector Green Tag Questionnaire
• mochirochi / Mocorochi – Anime Questions from Inspector Green Tag
• ArriaCross / Fujinsei

… or so you thought, but I’m fairly notorious for breaking rules of these questions or challenges. Taking my liberty to my grave, I shall have to witness first the replies from these creatures:

• Lehzalee / Zyrogate Faine – Inspector Green Tag
• n4gaiyume / God Save The College Girl – Inspector Green Tag
• mahouidol / Nendoroid Cuties – Inspector Green Tag: 「ペッパー警部よ」

I’ll be linking their responses here as soon as they’re published and I have checked them. For those whom I tagged here are the questions that you can copy and paste so it should be easier for you to start writing. And for anyone who just stumbled upon this blog post, feel free to comment! I’m looking forward to your answers!

1. When was the last time you went to a store containing anime?
2. Do you usually watch anime online? On what website?
3. First Japanese word you learned from an anime?
4. Best animation style in your opinion?
5. Best anime pet?
6. What is the longest anime you’ve ever watched?
7. What is the shortest anime you’ve ever watched?
8: What is your Favorite anime couple?