The Mike Toole Show

2012: Well, That Happened, I Guess

The trouble is, this new Berserk movie adapts the exact same arc that the TV series did. (In fairness, it's the best part of the original manga, which is never bad but goes to some pretty weird places later on.) And they don't pull a radically different spin on things, with some chronological tweaks and new perspectives; nope, it's pretty much the exact same dialogue and situations. I'd rate the experience as going to see a new Star Wars film, and having it turn out to be a fairly decent CG redux of the first movie. Yeah, it's pretty good, but shouldn't they have done something differently? A buddy on twitter pointed out that new movies like this would be great at attracting new fans-- that's a fine point, but a lot of the commentary I've seen from Japan has been existing fans of the Amazon's bluray charts, and the second one just hit home video in Japan. I hope it brings more to the table than the first one, because Berserk is awesome.

Not long after Berserk made its way through Japanese theatres, Mary Norton's The Borrowers, seemed like a good bet anyway. Turns out they were right-- a fairly wide release for the niche family animated movie raked in almost $20 million, and it's gone on to do a tidy business on home video. I'd be shocked if it wasn't submitted for Oscar contention, as well.

One thing about the release grinds my gears a bit, however, and that's the simple fact that we had to wait almost two years to get it. That's two years of Japanese theatrical release, home video, UK and European release and home video, and then finally North America. It just seems weird to have to wait that long, considering that Japan gets Pixar movies a few weeks after their American release. I think that if a fairly average Ghibli movie can pull $20m (in fairness, I liked Arrietty a lot, but it was safe as houses), a really good one with a decent ad campaign and an expedient release could do way, way better. I hope we find out eventually, because we're not gonna find out with Isao Takahata readying films for Japanese release in 2013, it'll be interesting to see if those go to GKIDS or Disney.

As the saying goes, spring showers bring... polar bears?! Apparently, they do. mecha nerds to idol singer worshippers, got something really good to watch in the spring. That's pretty rare these days, and set the bar awfully high for the rest of the year. Best of all, both Polar Bear Café and Space Brothers are still going, and they're still very good shows.

AKB0048 isn't still going, but its second season is imminent. I'm sure some (most?) of you are raising your eyebrow at me even mentioning this series, a high-gloss affair from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure!

It's been building up for years by now, but 2012 was definitely the year that legal streaming of anime hit the mainstream hard. Crunchyroll are masters of the game and improve their offering every season, but both Netflix has a large, popular anime catalog too. I have plenty of friends who've quietly resisted the allure of streaming anime and doggedly hung on to their DVD releases, but it's getting harder to resist the trend when you can literally go to the store and buy a tiny $60 box that pumps anime straight to your TV. Is anyone out there still staying away from these services entirely?

The other side of this coin is that, in 2012, it seems, physical media has continued its slow, lazy decline. Actually, that's kinda unfair-- the DVD business hit the skids hard between 2007 and 2010, and it really seems to have stabilized. The market isn't as flooded as it used to be, but each month still brings several new DVDs and blu-rays from a variety of publishers. Hell, we even got a new player in 2012, albeit a weird one-- Oreimo

Speaking of TV stuff, fall of 2012 brought us Neon Alley, Viz's peculiar online-streaming content channel. When I first heard about Neon Alley, I was fairly enthusiastic-- it had marquee titles that were both boomingly popular and in need of some more exposure (Tiger & Bunny, Berserk, Blue Exorcist). But then the details came out-- Neon Alley would only be available on the VOD services and PVRs have killed the idea of appointment TV, here was... more appointment TV. Neon Alley's now available on the Xbox 360 as well, but I still think it's a lousy idea. Fortunately, I'll be able to get Tiger & Bunny on blu-ray soon enough.

Back in Japan, Studio Khara and Funimation!

Another piece of nostalgia that came back for good in 2012 was Tim Eldred, who's set up a new Star Blazers fansiteof his own.  Needless to say, I'll be watching that story with great interest.

But what's been the biggest new hit among anime fans around the world in 2012? In the first half of the year, maybe it was Fate/Zero. Lately, though, it's hard to argue against Studio A-1's Sword Art Online. Despite thin plotting and some weird imouto baggage in the second half, SAO really seems to be the show that everyone's watching-- I grew tired of it myself after the first half, but the show's got a simple yet intriguing concept (an MMORPG that can kill you in real life! ...wait a minute, can't World of Warcraft do that if you play it too much anyway?) accessible stories, and a romantic pair of heroes in Kirito and Asuna. I really doubt that the franchise is done for-- there's more light novels, after all, which means more grist for the anime mill-- so it'll be interesting to see what Aniplex USA decides to do with the series. I hope it involves an inexpensive box set and a dubbed airing on Neon Alley, at least. Did you like Sword Art Online?

Despite the fact that it aired in Japan in 2011, one series really stands alone in of its visible impact in North America, and that's cosplay targets at conventions, Aniplex USA's lavish, almost-actually-worth-it collectors sets drew raves from fans and critics alike, the manga adaptation has appeared regularly on the New York Times bestseller list, and perhaps most tellingly, a series of roadshow screenings of the new Madoka Magica digest movies has enjoyed an almost freakishly high rate of tickets sold per screen-- almost every screening is a sellout or near-sellout, despite the fact that audiences are acutely aware that much of what they'll see isn't new material. I look at a lot of trendy shows with a cynical eye, but I think Madoka (, call it “dokes” for short!) is completely deserving of the hype, an artful series that both embraces visual and story archetypes of beloved magical girl stories and smashes them to little itty bitty pieces. Evangelion has influenced mecha shows that came after it to this day-- expect dokes to have a similar effect on magical girl stuff.

For me, the last big story of 2012 starts with Kick, and ends with Heart... or Starter, if you prefer. After the popular crowdfunding service launched an avalanche of video games, books, films, and consumer products, an anime studio finally jumped into the ring when MADHOUSE?! WRITE THAT DOWN!)

So, what does that leave us with? Manga, that's what. The manga boom is behind us, but like anime, manga has carved out its own niche in the American pop culture landscape, and it ain't going anywhere. Manga's big story of 2012 is definitely Yen Press beat them to the computer, but they didn't make the same kind of splash that Shonen Jump did.

Let's not discount books, either. Unico was really that necessary. Either way, we're getting it in the spring!

What's ahead in 2013? Actually, the real question is, what's ahead in 2013... besides Dragon Ball Z stuff. I'm pretty happy about that. But I'm more happy about the new stuff that we'll be getting that isn't based on decades-old properties. Just think: before the springtime, did anyone really rate Polar Bear Café? Or Space Brothers? Yeah, they had popular manga, but look how good the anime turned out! More than anything else, what keeps me stoked about Japanese animation year after year is the new shows. They show up every season, and wash away all the fatigue and cynicism for the medium that builds up. Keep ‘em coming, Japan. And happy new year!