[Anime of the Year 2001-III Summer - Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no Tobira]

Spirited Away - There's no denying that this is a very popular anime movie in that it won several awards (Including Oscar 2003 in category Best Animation Movie), although whether it can be as good as, say, Mononoke, for some people or not, well up to each of their own.

Nono-chan - Speaking of Ghibli, turned out that I'd watch Yamada family movie (That Ghibli adapted) through Nono-chan that was broadcasted in Indonesia, although I didn't realize it until now (And honestly speaking before I read this blogpost I already forgot about Nono-chan here).

FF Spirit Within - It is said to be one of the cause that Squaresoft need to merger with Enix to save the company, because apparently the staffs did spent a lot of money on the movie.

Shaman King - The manga ending can be said to be controversial, with TV Trope did list the ending as the cause along with says that the author is a misanthropic one (Whether it's true or not I don't know). Oh yes it has the Reboot, although with the Reboot following the manga until the ending let's just say that some people prefer 2001 anime here.

Fruit Basket - It's quite dark, and the reason is because of the curse that inflict a big family which cause many misfortune. Our heroine Honda did her best to help the family thanks to one of it's member kindness to her. It has two anime series, although the 2001 series may be more nostalgic and it definitely help that the opening song is quite nice (My condolence to the composer).

That's all for what I can write in regard of Summer 2001 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2001-II Spring - Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu]

Quite a storm indeed, so let's see what I can comment in regard of this season here.

Super Gals - From what I read apparently it was broadcasted in Indonesia, and I find out about the anime from the article about the danger of television for children. I did try to read the manga of it, but I lost interest quickly so I dropped it. I doubt that I have the chance to revisit the manga later. Anyway, other than gyaru culture this anime is more or less classic shoujo manga to a degree.

Pretear - Another anime that was broadcasted in Indonesia that I find out from the aforementioned article, and let's just say that with Junichi Sato did direct the first season of Sailor Moon with dark finale Pretear here is definitely not for children even with some nice moral, especially when TV Trope page did mention that it's Junichi Sato's prototype for Princess Tutu (Another dark magical girl anime) later. From what I see, it's like the girl going to transform into the magical girl after engaging with each heroes, so in a way we can say that this is like Princess Waltz. Also it has proper villainess, so at least it has the parallel with otome VN (Although Pretear is obviously classified as shoujo instead of otome VN for the obvious reason).

Let's Go Quintuplet - Another anime that was broadcasted in Indonesia, and I did dub it as the anime with five naughty children. I did remember that it has some episodes did cut short near the end when I watched it, and that each episodes has two segments like in Doraemon. As for the sibling, the first son is like the shonen MC with he called himself as the leader, the first daughter who like to be pretty, the second son is very smart so much that he manage to make some Doraemon-like gadget even in 1st grade (His equivalent would be Jimmy Neutron), the third son is sort of aloof, and the second daughter is like to eat a lot so much that she has the biggest body among the quintuplet.

Dr. Rin - Another magical girl anime, and this time it revolving around Rin who regularly fight the bad spirit that inhabit the objects by using her feng shui power. Some times later, Rin find herself got the companion in form of the Four Gods (Seiryu, Suzaku, Byakko, and Genbu) and she'll find herself confronting the one behind the bad spirit. I still remember that I watched it up to when the final boss summoning his lair, and that I need to watch the final battle elsewhere because for some reason the last episode is not broadcasted.

Princess Comet - Another magical girl anime (And yes there's three in this season) that has titular Comet searching for the missing prince, and she did stay on Earth in order to accomplish the mission. The main theme of this anime is the light (ie star children), in that it can manifested among the daily activities which Comet will shown to the characters in the series.

Louie - I did watch it, although I don't exactly remember about this. At least I know that it's like Konosuba, with the titular character here is the magician that use fist to fight because he's too inept to learn magic (Or rather he's too lazy to learn it).

Digimon Tamers - Let's just say that there's a reason on why MAL didn't tag this as kid show, because there's some darker element that showing up in the middle to the finale. So yeah, out of all Digimon media, I can say that both Tamers here and Survive are the darkest one so far (With Survive even involved the death of at least two main characters which in unavoidable in the first run). While there's Cyber Sleuth and Savers that has older MC, ironically enough those two are not quite dark despite featuring some setting that is fitting for the older audience.

Star Ocean EX2 - The reason I still remember this is because of Celine who wore the sexy dress, and yes I'm not joking. For the info, this obviously is the adaptation for Disc 1 of Star Ocean 2 games, and it ended with the message 'Please Insert Disc 2' which mirroring the game entering the new arc in the second disc. I myself did play the game up to the certain point in disc 2, and after that I dropped it. Oh yes you can get the very strong weapon in the Disc 1 (And make Celine become useless seeing that she's a mage, and in SO2 mage are only useful to interrupt enemy attack because all of their damaging spell are only hit once), if you know how.

Galaxy Angel - Broccoli did want to adapt the game up to the second part, although back then they're still not finished with it so they decided to make the anime as gag anime. Obviously they decided to just put the focus on the Angel Squad, so no Tact (The VN MC), Lester, and the other Elsior crews. You should just watch it as the alternative version of the Galaxy Angel instead of the straight up adaptation. Oh yes I did watch it on Animax at Saturday morning, and my impression is that the Angel Squad uniform is like magical girl anime lol. Which apparently I'm not the only one who think this, because my favorite Precure reviewer thought that Kawamura may did design her Precure based on Galaxy Angel heroines.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Spring 2021 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2001-I Winter - Animation Seisaku Shinkou Kuromi-chan]

Arjuna - It's magical girl with less cute outfit and that it has environmental message, and that it's broadcasted in Animax (I didn't watch it though).

Motto Doremi - Toei decided to mix up baking theme into Doremi, and in 2017 later Toei would tried to do so with KKPC resulted in some mixed feelings among the fans (The main cause is because Toei did try to remove the hand-to-hand fighting that Precure are famous for in KKPC though). Anyway no much to say other than it has the new main character Momoko who is from the overseas.

Tales of Eternia - The PS1 game is known as Tales of Destiny 2 because Namco was decided to play safe seeing that there's a brand called Eternia that was owned by Mattel, caused some confusion because there's no older playable characters from Tales of Destiny and more importantly Namco released the real sequel for Tales of Destiny in Japan only. From what I can see, the anime decided to write the original plot, which contrast to what we have in the later Tales of the Abyss anime in that it's relatively faithful to the game plot.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Winter 2001 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2000-IV Fall - Hajime no Ippo]

Blood the Last Vampire - I only know that it's been promoted in Animax and that it has spiritual successor Blood+ (Which also promoted in Animax), and both MCs are the female named Saya that need to deal with vampire like creature in one way or another.

Ghost at School - For the info it also broadcasted in Indonesia, and it's the one that I watch regularly among the other short length anime that were broadcasted back then (Yes back then I thought that 20 episodes are quite short because back then the anime series had more or less 50 episodes). Anyway the five children here is more or less like five main students in Nube, although with the gender changed. It help that both has evil supernatural creature that ended up helped the party, which in this case is possessed the black cat. One last thing to mention is that Satsuki's late mother had a lot of experiences exorcising the ghosts, in which she manage to help her daughter from the beyond thanks to her diary that contain the way to exorcise ghost of the week.

Hajime no Ippo - The very lengthy manga (That even beat Conan at that) that tell us the story about on how Ippo going to become the best boxer, and until now it's still not finished yet.

Inuyasha - This is the first anime series, and said series had a lot of filler (Not as bad as Naruto Shippuden though) which obviously set so that the author can catch up with her manga, although turned out that it's still not enough because the anime is ended before the author finished her story. Anyway if you describe it as Dragonball with female MC (Kagome) and jokes from Urusei Yatsura, you're not wrong because both of that and Inuyasha are written by Takahashi Rumiko (So you can expect on a lot of bickering between Kagome and the titular character). Oh yes it also should be mentioned that this is another isekai anime, although obviously Kagome didn't have cheat power so she need to rely on Inuyasha to get through the danger.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Fall 2000 anime.

[Anime of the Year 2000-III Summer - Strange Dawn]

I can only comment on the Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2, in that it's the epilogue of the anime series and the last anime for Cardcaptor Sakura itself, until 2018 in that CLAMP made the Clear Card arc. As for the movie, it did what the movie set up, bring a closure to a certain event from the last episode of TV series. Obviously it also bring a new menace, and said menace is the Nothing card in which my sister asked on why there's a card of it with that effect, with I just nonchalantly answer with 'Just ask Clow (The creator of the magic card in the series)'.

Other than Sakura second movie and that Strange Dawn opening song sounds good, no much what I can say in regard of Summer 2000 anime so that's all for my comment on this season.

[Anime of the Year 2000-II Spring - FLCL]

Quite a number of series that I recognize here, so let's try to comment on those.

Saiyuki - Well the priest did become more action oriented compared to the one that I watched in Hong Kong TV series, and that I watch the ad for it on Animax. After that I only remember I did check one of the episode and then dropped it altogether.

Kiramekiman - It's like Persona 5, except with the Phantom Thief are the less interesting Yatterman duo and the detective against them are the iconic Doronjo trio. I did watch it because it was broadcasted in Indonesia (Not through Animax), and apparently it'll have sequel when the detective become evil, although until now I still didn't watch it yet (Nor I have the interest to check on it).

Yu-Gi-Oh - Unlike 1998 series, this series is really put the focus on the card game very much, although it's still not as much as the latter series seeing that the late author still add some non card game in his manga that the series also adapted (It help that one of the said game is the part of the final arc). Anyway you can clearly see on how influential the game is, especially with the meta game that keep evolving (Although in this series the card effects are not as complicated as we have nowadays).

UFO Baby - I prefer the English name of it, and it's also broadcasted with that title in Indonesia. As you can see the premise is simple enough with the alien baby come into the Earth, and the only one who can take care of it are the junior high school couple who keep bickering. I did watch it on each Saturday morning, and honestly other than the premise I'm not exactly remember what happened in each of the episodes, but at least I still remember the Indonesian dub version of the ending song (Only the melody, and obviously not with the lyric).

Sakura Wars - It's obviously the adaptation of the game, and at least the staffs adapted the anime closer to the original material, unlike Galaxy Angel in that it turned to become the gag series. While the game is quite famous in Japan, we only got the 5th games and the remake available in English, with both games are have long wait between the release. At least there's fan translation project for the series, with the first game is already translated and currently the translator working on the second game.

Love Hina - It has GBA game that was fan translated. Other than that, it's about the male MC Keitarou who encounter Naru in the female dormitory with her turned out to be a very harsh tsundere who like to punch Keitarou in case she caught him watch her naked (Which to say quite a lot). By the way while the premise looks like harem anime, actually it's more like Keitarou already has someone in mind, so he didn't like show his affection to any other women, although of course it didn't stop the anime writers to make the girls personalities based on Love Hina, with the most notable one is Naru which inspire several tsundere heroines.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Spring 2000 anime.

[Anime of the Year 2000-I Winter - Miami Guns]

If you want some recap for One Piece, may as well visit TV Trope page of it instead of watching the movie because it's pretty clear that the movie here is the standalone media separated from the main series. Tsukikage Ran here is about handsome female samurai with her cheery companion, and I only remember that I watch it in Animax.

I see that you decided to add Doremi here, so may as well try to comment on it. I did read the manga that basically bring some TV episodes into the book form, and after the aftermath of the first season Doremi and friends (Including Onpu who in the first season has bad inital relationship with the cast) come to the Witch world to search their witch's mentor, and after some events they assigned to take care of the magical baby that they found in the flower. The writer also to continuing the subplot of a bad wizard from the previous season, and in here said bad wizard hired four handsome boy who will become the obstacle for Doremi.

Well no much to comment here other than Doremi in the first season of third millennium here, so that's all for my comment on Winter 2000 anime.

[Anime of the Year 1999-IV Fall - Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku]

Trouble Chocolate - It's broadcasted in Indonesia, and obviously it's the gag series. By the way it's also quite memorable if only for Murakata and Deborah who keep calling each other name, although obviously it's exaggerated seeing that this is parody series and all (Not that it stop them for being cheesy in regard of it). Also now that I think of it, perhaps this series may be as well another Excel Saga but instead with romance anime parody.

The Big O - Well it has divisive ending, and that it's setting based on New York city. That's all for what I know in regard of this anime.

Hunter x Hunter - Also know as Hiatus x Hiatus because the constant backpain that the author suffer, and the recent hiatus is happen very recently after he did comeback after his very long hiatus since 2018 by writing around 10 chapter. Hiatus aside, the series is about Gon who want to be the best hunter like his dad. I see that the author made the cast like Yu Yu Hakusho, and also deconstruct several shonen tropes. For 1999 series, it did extend the Hunter Exam arc compared to 2011 series. 1999 series is stopped at time when the cast is in Yorknew City (ie Phantom Brigade arc) with Kurapika's past did catch up to him, and by the way he looks like female compared to Kurama.

One Piece - Well you know that this series is very famous when even the possibility of someone joined Straw Hat can become a very hot debate, with the recent case is with Yamato in that Oda (One Piece's writer) finally had Yamato not join at all (I assume that Toei pressure Oda to not do it so that they didn't need to deal with the bothersome procedure to have Saori Hayami (Yamato's VA) as one of the regular cast). By the way if you want to glance on One Piece you better check the manga, because the anime did going on with a very glacial pace thanks to Toei decided to adapt one chapter into one episode. Currently One Piece here is starting to wrapping up the plot thread because it's already enter the endgame, so at least it's almost close to the ending.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Fall 1999 anime.

[VN of the Month December 2022]

Death Mark 2 - I only remember it as one of AX announcements after saw the VNDB entry on that, and after I search my comment on it back in last July (Because I already forgot about it) I'd comment that I'm neutral about it so I should say that my feeling on it is not changed at all.

13th Month - It has same graphic like Fata Morgana along with interesting if not cryptic premise, although the Steam version of it has a big list of problems. Well whatever.

Napoleon VN - Has cute Napoleon (What else) along with that it's the first part of the serial VN, and also it has two Marie Antoniette. If anything else, the graphic are cute enough.

Detective Nosuri - I'm not exactly need another Utawarerumono 2 spin-off with Nosuri being detective, but maybe some hardcore fans need one of those. Also I like on how ironic that Osthor's VA need to carry over Haku's role from his late VA while in-story Haku need to carry on Oshthor's last wish, and Kentarou Tone is obviously voicing Haku here.

Hoshi ga Otome - Rosetta definitely started to establishes themselves as GL and trap MC company, although so far they only focused on short route. I don't know on how long the game it is, but if it's still the same story then obviously having five characters is wasted opportunity unless they want to make another VN featuring the characters in this VN. That aside, I definitely want to see more of their works seeing that the arts so fare at quite good.

Asuka-san - Single heroine VN from Azarashi-soft, so obviously it has beautiful graphic. Interesting to note that the writer did write several eushully VNs in the past, although obviously there won't be things like demon or angel.

Girl Frantic Clan - Both of this and Prekano's VN are the Swan Song for GIGA (For the reminder Prekano is from the same group as GIGA) with them will closing down on March later. As for Frantic Clan, it's more like usual SAO except with the MC keep dying at the end of each day and then pulled out at each time when the school end. He did his best to fight his cursed situation by asking the help from the heroines, although it's easier said than done because of his situation. Other than that, apparently the game is getting harder and that the ending is quite lackluster. Oh, the artist here is Yaegashi Nan, who as we know did the design work for Senran Kagura along with Evenicle duology.

Lackgirl - The writer is the one who wrote Misaki's route of Aokana along with wrote EXTRA2, so at least we know that some of his works are quite good. That said, I don't exactly know what to expect here other than it's a VN about magical girl, it'll be all age because they use the anime VA (And also Hasegawa Ikumi use her real name instead of her alias Akabane Kyouko), and that it's serial VN. Other thing that I know is that apparently there'll be English release later, although it's just the plan that can be cancelled for now.

Arcana Alchemia - Lump of Sugar most recent VN with them decided to go with alchemy like Atelier series, and that they also has usual animal eared heroine with the excuse that said heroine is the homunculus. Other than it's obviously will have light story, I'll just say that hopefully Nekonyan will localize this in the future.

For VN of the Month, I would give it to Arcana Alchemia because technically it's the only complete VN along with that it has good production value. Well you definitely know on how plain the month it is when a borderline moege from Lump of Sugar is simply the most interesting VN here, although admittedly Lackgirl may have interesting story in the later installment. That said, here's hoping that there'll be more interesting Japanese release in 2023 later, so that's all for my comment on December 2022 releases.

[BIG BREAKING NEWS Visual Novel Developer Mages from SciADV Series is Broke]

Well it's quite worrying news there, although my feeling is more complicated in that while I know it's supposed to be sad event, on the other hand I can finally free from the conspiracy plot thread that the creator made just to satisfy his own appeal. By the way even with the title Science Adventure, calling it as chuunige would be more fitting seeing that one of the syndrome of chuunibyou is like to imagine a conspiration, in which it's what Okabe did. It definitely help that there are several fighting in the series, which as we know is the one element that usually present in a chuunige.

My ramble on chuunige aside, actually it's not exactly the end yet, seeing that one of Discord user compiled on the exact detail behind the announcement.

Quote

COLOPL in their latest financial report stated that they plan on having MAGES. release 9 new games next year.
COLOPL fully expected MAGES. to lose money this year.
COLOPL had WAY more than enough profit this year to make the loss negligible.
MAGES. isn’t going anywhere.
They also seem to be planning to do something relating to Ever17, since they delisted it from all online stores.
Probably a rerelease or remaster of some sort.

So yeah MAGES is probably still exist in some form, although as for Science Adventure series, well we'll see. If anything else, at least Anonymous Code should be good VN to end Science Adventure series (According to one of the people) if the worst comes to worst.

[Anime of the Year 1999-III Summer - Great Teacher Onizuka]

Yamada-kun is the first Ghibli anime that I came across (Through the review of it), I only know Medabots because I took a glance of it, GTO is the one that started cool teacher in troubled classroom trend (With some of those are Gokusen and Assassination Classroom), I did learn about Journey to the West through a Hong Kong TV serial instead of anime, and lastly Cardcaptor Sakura movie is about Sakura and friends doing the trip to (Coincidentally) Hong Kong with her need to face another problem related to magic.

No much I can say in regard of this season to be honest, so that's all for my comment on Summer 1999 anime.

[Anime of the Year 1999-II Spring - Taiho Shichau zo The Movie]

Monster Farm (Dub name Monster Rancher) - I did watch the anime, and I don't remember much of it other than it has female companion (Holly) and blue wolf (Rygar). The game itself has unique gimmick, in which you must insert another disc to summon a monster, so it's kind of fun trying many other disc in order to find out which summon that you can find with a certain disc (I'd remember on how I search several discs for my brother when he tried to summon the monster). By the way the game has been released on Steam, although seeing that almost nobody use disc the developer change the way to summon the monsters.

Jubei-chan - It has interesting premise with old Yagyu Jubei want to inherit his technique to his successor through the lovey eyepatch, and said successor must have big breast in which unfortunately Nanohana Jiiyu possesses (Because she keep refusing the eyepatch and didn't want to fight). Other than that, it's episodic anime with Jiiyu must keep fighting the enemy who want the eyepatch, and that it's more like magical girl but instead with samurai costume.

Marco - I only take a note on this because it's apparently inspired Harukaze to make their own version of it with several changes, and other than that no much that I can say in regard of it.

I'm Gonna Be an Angel - Well the opening is definitely shown on Noel character is, and that it has some fanservice. From what I read on TV Trope, apparently it's quite good so much it call reverse Utena or something like that, then again I only watch it briefly at night on Animax befre I'm going to sleep, so it's not like I can understand much even with I'd manage to watch all of it somehow (Neither I'm willing to watch this again). At least it seems that it has interesting moral in that you should be careful on what you're wish for.

Angel Link - Curiously it's been written by the same writer as Outlaw Star, and from what I see in they synopsis apparently it's set before Outlaw Star although I can't say if it's true or not. I did watch it in Animax, although the reason to watch it admittedly quite shallow because of the sexy MC (Li Meifon). Other than that, I can only say that it's like Outlaw Star (If we based on the same author) with Meifon's group the titular Angel Link solve the problem with space pirate, and along her mission she'll find out about her past in which it may be better to be not known by her.

Corrector Yui - The creator did write this for his daughter, so at least it's quite sweet of him. It's obviously another magical girl series, although in here we'll going to have the titular Yui enter the internet to fight the virus, so in a way it's resembled Code Lyoko much closer (In which Code Lyoko creator was also inspired by Corrector Yui with the exact same story). I did watch this, and compared to Lyoko here Yui didn't have the overarching main villain but instead it literally divided into two big arcs with different main villains, which may cause new viewers if someone just watch episode one and then directly skip to the last episode. Oh yes it has two openings to emphasize two big arcs, and I think I prefer the second opening even though both opening are equally good.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Spring 1999 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 1999-I Winter - Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan - Tsuioku-hen]

I know that Samurai X here is very famous franchise, although I didn't comment much on it because the premise is straightforward enough with Kenshin try to not kill his enemy after his past tragedy, in which it described in the OVA here. I also remember that Jeanne here is one of two manga by Tanemura Arima that has adapted into anime, and the premise is that we have a high school girl selected into phantom thief, so in a way we can say that Tanemura tried to write something like Kaitou Saint Tail with her adding some heavier drama in there (By the way the manga has some difference compared to the anime).

For Doremi, in case you want the more info while it's obviously far more lighthearted than Madoka, the writer here didn't hesitate to add some story that can be considered mature for the age target, although yeah it didn't offer much difference compared to the other magical girl anime at that time. Doremi here is very successful, so much that Toei can keep airing for more than four seasons following with Nadja (My avatar for the info), and finally Precure. Anyway, if I may say something, you may skip those anime since all of those are for children, although if you want to try list those in here then I should try my best to comment on those as much as I can. Oh yes, for the info Doremi and it's subsquent anime will be airing at each Winter season.

That's all for what I can say in regard of Winter 1999 anime.

[Anime of the Year 1998-IV Fall - Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou]

Devilman Lady - It's very clear that the author (Or maybe the executive) took the idea on how American like to have gender bender of the popular superhero (ie Supergirl, She-hulk, Batgirl), so of course they decided to make Devilan Lady. No much that I can say other than Devilman Lady is obviously the Distaff Counterpart of Devilman.

His and Her Circumstances/Karekano- I see this anime on the list that contain 10 anime that has disappointing ending in a magazine, and after I browse the TV Trope page of it I can say that Anno like to struck with trouble when making the anime in 1990's. Said trouble caused the anime second half to be like what it is, and after this anime Anno didn't work with TVTokyo anymore. Anyway the problem with the anime aside, Karekano here definitely has some dark storyline (Which ironically Anno want the anime of this to be has more comedy), especially if one read the manga of it.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Fall 1998 anime.

[Anime of the Year 1998-III Summer - Serial Experiments Lain]

Lain is definitely ahead of time when it talk about on the culture of the internet, in which it's what we experienced in these recent years. Apparently the director want to make it very bad for American viewer so that they can discuss about culture difference between them and Japanese, although turned out he's failed because turned out that American people also appreciate Lain from the same way as Japanese did. That said, I only know about this from TV Trope and that it wasn't broadcasted in Indonesia, so I don't know much about it. If anything else, at least it inspired Code Lyoko (French animation series) with both Lain and Lyoko deal with the internet stuffs.

That's all for what I can comment on Summer 1998 anime here, and yes I can only comment on Lain.

[vnts 2022-12-18]

I feel indifferent towards the new Fate translation, but I at least it give the reader more choice in regard of the translation (Yay for democracy). EXTRA2 here is admittedly a nice release, although in the end it's just a fandisc while personally I prefer main game release. Lastly, now that Daybreak announced they'll release the partial patch for Ginharu (Mizuha's patch) on 26th later, I'll look forward to it. Overall this week is just below average like I said beforehand, especially with Mangagamer's release (I expected them to release Rance IX in December, but turned out that I was asked too much).

[Anime of the Year 1998-II Spring - Cowboy Bebop]

I don't know Cowboy Bebop much other than I watch an episode on Animax and then forget about it, but apparently it's more well known in the Western if TV Trope keep listing it in several tropes is any indication. For Silent Mobius, it's the same as Cowboy Bebop but at least I sort of remember the opening vaguely. Fancy Lala here is the last attempt of Pierrot to revive their 1980's magical girl series and failed, and I only glanced it at Saturday morning on Animax only to promptly drop it because it hasn't Indonesian sub.

Yu-Gi-Oh - I can say that the card game in 1998 anime is as confusing as modern day card game, although it's not because on the player need to memorized a lot of combo and the strategy that each archetype have (Or which deck that would be good for competitive duel), but because the ruling is so different compared to what we have nowadays. Anyway to save your time, I may as well tell you to just skip future Yu-Gi-Oh anime seeing that all of those are have more than a hundred episodes and most of the time it focused on the filler card game, with the latest finished Yu-Gi-Oh (SEVEN) has the least number of episodes, at 92 episodes. Oh yes 1998 anime here still has some non card game focus, although it change as soon as the card game become very popular, in which it happen thanks to the late author did Magic reference only to have that reference to be very popular.

Cardcaptor Sakura - There's a lot to talk about this one, with one of those is on how the Nelvana dub version screwed this a lot. I can say that Sakura here is the lightest CLAMP work (And the most popular), although it didn't mean that they can't be daring, in which they wrote a love story that make so-called most forbidden love in Damekoi look tame (Understandably the TV version cut that story). Anyway Sakura here is the magical girl series, although unlike usual series Sakura here didn't have magical girl costume, but instead the costumes was provided by her best friend/fans/second cousin Tomoyo. While there are some story happening in here, ultimately the series is an episodic one with Sakura need to deal with the trouble in the neighborhood by using her ability to invoke the magic through the cards. Also since there's no K-ON in 1998, understandably they go with the cutest girl at that time in which it's obviously Sakura. Oh yes, I like the third opening here courtesy of Sakamoto Maaya as the singer.

That's all for my comment on Spring 1998 anime, and it's funny that two anime that I talked about a lot here are about card lol.

[NVL VS. ADV – An Anatomy of Visual Novels]

ADV here is obviously the more prominent format, seeing that it allow the player to see the visual in which it's obviously the main selling point of the VN (Duh), so I never consider it as the way to allow faster narrative. Anyway, obviously ADV here would allow the people to enjoy the visual, so the drawings should be good if one want to use ADV. Of course seeing that nukige here is specialized in the visual excitement, almost if not all nukige would use ADV, although maybe one can use NVL format if they want to describe on what's going inside the people mind when they have sex. By the way I don't know which nukige that had NVL format here, so I may be wrong on this.

NVL will obstruct the visual, so obviously the art is put in the second after the narrative, with the main example is When They Cry in which it seems Ryukishi realized that as well if Rose Guns Days is any indication (He decided to use ADV there and he decided to hire several other artists with better drawing to drew several characters). That said, just because the format is NVL didn't mean that it can't have good visual, as Mahoyo (And obviously Fate) shown us, although evidently Nasu here put more focus on the narrative if his 400 pages of proto-Mahoyo here is any indication.

Well if I want to summarize it, it's kind of funny that ADV and NVL here is basically put the emphasize on the two words of 'Visual Novel' itself, with ADV put more focus on the 'Visual' part and NVL put more focus on the 'Novel' part. Whichever is the best, well it's up to each person, although looking from how 19,000 VN are using VNDB easy to say people prefer to put the focus on the visual (Which to be fair is easier to promote compared to the narration).

[Anime of the Year 1998-I Winter - Seihou Bukyou Outlaw Star]

From what I read in TV Trope, at least I can say that Outlaw Star protagonist team is an interesting one. For Perfect Blue, let's just say that the movie's story is still relevant even after a quarter century passed, especially with on how dark can be when it come to entertainment industry in Japan (Doubly so when we know that there's the recent manga Oshi no Ko which depict the similar situation).

By the way none of Winter 1998 anime here are broadcasted in Indonesia, so that's all for my comment on it.

[Anime of the Year 1997-IV Fall - Kenpuu Denki Berserk]

I don't know Miyu much, so I can't comment much of it. For Battle Athlete, I only know that it also has the reboot version in 2021.

1997 Berserk anime here is obviously the best one, with 2016 version has a lot of trouble behind production and thus can't deliver enough quality, and it didn't help that Berserk is quite hard to adapt in the first place seeing that it's still ongoing and that it has very nice drawings that the late mangaka work very hard on it. For the info the manga is still unfinished yet, so you may wait for a very long time if you want to see the conclusion of it.

That's all for my comment in regard of Fall 1997 anime.

[Anime of the Year 1997-III Summer - Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion]

Flame of Recca - Like you say it's more or less like Yu Yu Hakusho, although at least the manga here is ended nicely unlike Yu Yu Hakusho one. Of course though things goes differently for the anime in that it's only adapt halfway of the manga with the last episodes here are obviously rushed. By the way while I know that it's also broadcasted in Indonesia, I did watch this fully through Animax.

Princess Mononoke - Out of all Ghibli anime movie, this is one of the movie that was very successful up to 1997. There's a lot of interesting things to discuss, with the most obvious things is man vs. nature in which it's not all black and white here seeing that both sides obviously have some things that they want to convey no matter what, and sometimes it can be resulted in a conflict even with both sides initially have good intentions. In the end, whether you want to see it as intellectual or not is up to each of their own.

End of Evangelion - According to Anno (Or so that's what I'd read), this is on how he envisioned the real ending of Evangelion, and well let's just say that not everyone on board with the ending for the obvious reason, especially Anno's protege Tsurumaki Kazuya who said that the original finale is fine enough. If anything else, at least I can say that it definitely have fans, so much that it can cause some debate between the fans in regard on which Evangelion ending that was the most fitting (ie the best ending).

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Summer 1997 anime.

[Anime of the Year 1997-II Spring - Hyper Police]

Utena - From what I understand it gather a lot of GL fans thanks to the premise with the female become the knight in order to rescue the girl. The director himself is the main director of Sailor Moon from R onward, although he quit because he felt the lack of creative control in Toei. Another thing that I understand from Utena is that apparently it's sort of deconstruction work for several tropes, which help that the director is being friend of Evangelion director so there's some Evangelion influence in Utena or something like that. This work is obviously quite influential, so much that people still remember it by calling the newest Gundam premise being influenced by Utena to a degree.

Kindaichi - I definitely can say that just glance the first three episodes here should be more than enough to get the idea of what the series will offer, especially where the anime did slightly loosely adapt the manga (In fact I notice that some manga cases are not adapted in 1997 series). Like I mention beforehand, Kindaichi here is dealing with serial murder and locked room, and of course airtight alibi here is very common as well. Unlike Conan here Kindaichi obviously has no overarching plot, in which I can say that it's for the best after seeing a lot of times where Gosho keep teasing the main plot progression in Conan. Kindaichi here is the source of inspiration for Aoyama Gosho on writing Conan, and yet here we are have Conan far more popular compared to Kindaichi (At least in the overseas).

Cooking Master Boy - It's the English name for Chuuka Ichiban, and yes it's the anime about cooking show in 19th century of China. As for the anime itself, the first 23 episodes here can still be realistic to a degree (Although having best chef as someone equal to the General rank in military is definitely not), and it start to become less realistic where the stuffs such as Legendary Cooking Utensils and Dark Cooking Society introduced in which the latter is copied in Shokugeki no Souma finale (And cause the last arc to become infamous). The anime itself is cut short with only three out of eight utensils found out, and seeing that the manga is rushed perhaps it's for the best. There's also 2019 anime of this as well, although compared to 1997 anime I seen that not much people cares for the newer version.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Spring 1997 anime.

[Anime of the Year 1997-I Winter - Eat-Man]

Dog of Flanders (Which I mistakenly wrote it as Flandre in the past lol) here is quite popular in Japan so much that it caused Japanese tourism boom to Antwerp (The main setting), and that obviously the town government welcome them with the open hand. It should be mentioned there's a reference of it in Bocchi the Rock episode 8 in that it parodied the famous ending of 1975 anime (The one when the angels descend to the lifeless boy and his dog). For Mach Go Go, the one that I watched first is 1997 version in which it's obviously has better graphic compared to 1960's version. By the way both version are aired in Indonesia, and I only glance 1960's version a bit. Oh yes Mach Go Go itself is about the driver that has the car with several cool gadgets, and the driver obviously will use it to solve the problem that he face in the car.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Winter 1997 anime.

[VNTS commentary 2022-12-11-27]

Obviously it would be very awkward to post the link to my VNTS Review here, so may as well just straight up comment on some opinion here.

For December When There is No Angel VN (What a coincidence that we have two VNs based on December announced on when it's about to be December with another one is obviously Eve of December (Or 12th Month if you prefer consistency)), it's a deal darker than White Album 2 with one of the heroine want to be useful, and her step is to had sex with the MC which obviously very messed up. Interesting to note that there's a difference of the average scores between Erogamescape and VNDB, so perhaps this might be an example on how two regions have different taste.

Mahoyo is another VN that has time setting on December (Again), and yes it's only available for console. Although seeing on how fans quickly patch English text of Eiyuu Senki to PC version as soon as the PS3 version of it released in 2015, it should be more than possible to have Mahoyo fans port the translation into PC version (Assuming that they're satisfied with the translation). By the way 4chan here is quite late to report that Mahoyo release date will be on 8th later.

Overall I guess saying that last week is quite slow is not wrong here, and so does for this week even with Tsukihime Remake finally fully translated. I just hope that by Christmas we may see some nice releases and update, although I'm not putting much hope into it.

[VN of the Month November 2022]

Considering that Zwei Trigger response here is pretty much lukewarm (Even though it has Nine and Nanairo Reincarnation writer) and that Akuma to Yoru is somewhat unknown, I would say that Same to Ikiru Nanonakan here is the only sensible candidate for VN of the Month in November 2022, although of course you may say otherwise. Anyway as far as CUBE VN goes it's the most bloody one because of the shark, and one of the review mention that it's like the shark movie. Seeing that both of Shiravune and Nekonyan now hold the number of licenses for CUBE VNs (Or rather the VNs from the same company group), it may be possible that one of them will license Same to Ikiru in the future, although then again it's just my wishful thinking.

No much to say here other than what I did write above, so that's all for my comment on November 2022 releases.