Kolkata Anime Club: December 2011

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The Ninth Kolkata Anime Club meet.

Location: Chayan's place, Behala.
Date: 17th December, 2011.

(Chayan Chakrabarty, at the front- who was our host)

The September Meet of KAC had been the first meet where we had over 15 people attending. The next major meet was kept on 17^th December, and Chayan had generously agreed to host the meet at his home. The initial timing was decided to be from 11:30 AM till 5PM. On the due date, most of us reached Tollygunj Metro station between 11 and noon, and then we took autos to reach Behala. Kritika and Ajitabh joined us there. Eighteen of us were already present and we all somehow managed to fit into the living room.

(From left- Sourajit, Hindol & Riddhidev)

After the customary introductions by members, we began with the anime screening (which was done on laptops since there wasn’t a bigger screen). A medley consisting of Fate/Zero’s summoning scene, Rider’s noble phantasm and Saber vs Archer was shown. Dream Port – Sand Dream was played and Sprinter- Kalafina was the other anime shown.

(During the screening - 1)

(During the anime screening - 2)

Aditi had made a really amazing video for this meet, encompassing the journey of KAC right from its inception till now. It was a massive hit with the members, and it also gave the new members an idea of what KAC had been up to all this time.

(KAC recap video)

All that good anime had made us hungry (and it was conveniently lunchtime). Sayantan, Nia & Shriya went out to search for food which was a bit of a hassle as there were no food stalls nearby. Anyhow, a food-stall was found and their joint bargaining and negotiating skills ensured that our stomachs were sated before we continued. It was around that time that Promit, Ayush, Deepraj, Kashyap and Kaushik arrived. With 23 people present, The meet had officially become the one with the highest number of attendees so far!

(From left: Hindol, Chayan, Shriya, Ayanti, Sayanee, Aditi, Bibhas, Ayush)

Next on our agenda was the drawing contest. Members had brought along (or sent, in some cases) their artwork on which all the others voted to select the best entry. Abhyam and Roopkatha ended up taking first and second prizes, respectively. (More details regarding the Contest here).

(The drawing contest entries)

All then important work done, everyone got to the most important part of the day – the photo shoot. We had our usual share of fun, crazy posing and all that. As the meet came to our end, we behaved like responsible otakus and cleaned up the mess we had made over the last few hours before heading back to our homes, glad to be part of the best and most awesome KAC meet so far.

(From left: Chayan, Riddhiman, Ajitabh, Roopkatha, Aesha, Sourajit)

(From Left: Ayush, Deepraj, Kashyap, Kritika, Ayanti, Aditi,
Abhishek, Sunny, Shriya, Kaushik, Sayanee)
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Highlights:
• The entire event was delayed by an hour, as some of the members took quite a while to gather at the decided spot.
• 23 people attended in total, a new high. There were members dropping out at the last moment, and members dropping in unexpectedly.
• Kritika Gupta, Ajitabh Chowdhury, Roopkatha and Riddhidev Banerjee, Sourajit Karmakar, Ayush Gupta were the new members we had the pleasure of meeting.
• Nia, Sunny and Shriya managed the food requirements, leaving ADG and Sayanee to control quite a wild group.

• The members were escorted home by the mods and admins. Casualties: 0.

9th Meet Special Video(Yet again, made by Aditi!)

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Attendees:

Abhishek Dasgupta, Nia Dutta, Sayantan Bhattacharjee, Sayanee Das, Aesha Dey, Shriya Banerjee, Promit Nath Chatterjee, Bibhas C Debnath, Suplab Debnath, Xavier Das, Chayan Chakrabarty, Roopkatha & Riddhidev Banerjee, Hindol Dey, Sourajit Karmakar, Deepraj, Kashyap, Pari, Kaushik, Kritika, Aditi & Ayanti Mullick, Ajitabh Chaudhuri and Ayush Gupta.

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Special mention:
• Reetam Majumdar for getting us the manga.
• Aditi Mullick for her tear jerking AMV depicting KAC's meets spanning from the first to the eighth. Brilliant would be an understatement for something that got us all emotional in public, though I'm not sure if that was in general or just me.
• The admins and the mods for managing the event.

KAC Drawing Contest, 17.12.2011

KAC’s first contest (the Anime FanArt Contest) was held during the Anniversary meet on 17th December, 2011

Members were informed beforehand that they’ll need to draw anything anime/manga related & the result will be announced on 17th December, on the meet.

The winner and the runner up were to be gifted the first volume of Naruto and Bleach, respectively.

The rest of the participants were to win chocolates :)

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The participants and their entries were:

1. Abhyam Shukla - (who didn’t attend physically, but sent his drawing through Aesha Dey)

2. Roopkatha Banerjee -

3. Pratyay Mullick - (who could also not attend and so sent his drawing via his sisters)

4. Aditi Mullick -

5. Hindol Dey -

6. Shriya Banerjee(Senbonzakura Shriya Kageyoshi) -

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Winners were decided by voting. All the members except the contestants were to vote for their favourite drawing and then the entry with the most number of votes would win.

Abhyam Sukla won the first place & Roopkatha Banerjee won the second place! Both winners were gifted the mangas alongside special certificates made by Nia Dutta!

(From left: Abhyam's drawing with his prize and Roopkatha with her drawing & prize)

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Ano Hana - Anime Review

Main Title : Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai.
Type : TV Series, 11 episodes.
Synopsis : Once, there was a group of close childhood friends. However, by the time they entered high school, they had grown apart from each other. These are:

Jin-tan - The hikikomori.
Anaru - She just wants to hang out with her girlfriends.
Yukiatsu and Tsuruko - These two are proper school-going students.
Poppo - Rather than enter high school, he had opted to do some travelling.
Menma - The one unchanging constant of the group.

One day, Menma meets Jin-tan and asks him to fulfil her wish. For this, these widely separated companions gather once more.

(Source: AniDB)

Plot: A very close group of friends have drifted apart over the years. All currently in high school, they have their own lives, disjoint from each others'. Until Menma, the only one who has not changed, asks Jin-tan to help fulfil her wish. The only problem being that she does not remember what that wish was, just that it involved all of them. Sounds kinda odd, but any more details about the wish and why all of a sudden will lead only to spoilers. The rest of the story deals with the six friends and how they come together, one by one, just because they want to fulfill Menma's wish. But it is not like a happy-hour-football-recruitment-scenario. Each friend comes with history and with baggage that involves all of them. There are tensions and unsaid words. The story unravels at just the right pace, so that its never too fast and never too slow either. There are not too many loopholes and a decent enough ending. It even has a few twists near its end as well. The story is not edge-of-the-seat material but it is not bland and rehashed either. Overall, an enjoyable experience.

Rating - 7/10

Characters: Under normal circumstances, one wouldn't expect much in depth character building in the span of 11 episodes, but AnoHana concentrates on these six friends (and a few more supporting members) and fleshes them out surprisingly well. The power dynamics, the tension and the friction, as well as the bonds of friendship binding them together are shown quite well. Of course its melodramatic a lot of the time, but never irritatingly so. Characters behave like real people mostly do. The driving point of the story is actually how different the characters seem initially and how the threads connecting them slowly come to light. I have seen better characterization, but this one comes close, especially considering the number of episodes. An added bonus is that neither Jin-tan nor Menma (both of whom share maximum screen time) are particularly emo. You can relate to the characters, appreciate them, and grow fond of them too by the time the anime ends.

Rating - 8/10

Animation: Gorgeous, to say the least. A lot of the scenes are outdoors, in towns and trains and forests, and even Makoto Shinkai would be proud of the sparkling clean scenes. They are beautiful, and the amount of work that has been put into it shows right from frame one. Plus, no two characters look the same (well, mostly). Ano Hana is a visual treat whichever way you think of it.

Rating - 8.5/10

Music: For me, this is where the anime aces. Soft piano based music used as an OST (reminiscent again of Makoto Shinkai movies) which never demands your attention. It is there and it is lovely. It's like the summer breeze. On the other hand, The OP and ED are awesome. Like, awesome. The music perfectly compliments the animation and raises AnoHana far above the average into something special.

Rating - 9.5/10

Overall - This anime is a tearfest. There are funny moments here and there (including right in the beginning), but they are never slapstick cliches. They are sprinkled like seasoning on an otherwise serious story, which makes them all the more heartwarming. Boosted by a decent storyline which (successfully) tries to avoid stereoptypes, AnoHana's will hook you in right from the beginning, which is quite important for a series this short. It is an anime about love, about promises, about growing up, about changing with time, about losing someone you love and about finding people again. But lastly and most importantly, it is about friendship.

Overall Rating - 8.25/10

AniDB Rating: 8.86

P.S. Do check out the OP and ED. They are epic.