With only a little over a month until the release of last chapter of Umineko no Naku Koro ni I have to say I am giddy with anticipation to see the answers to the questions we have had since 2007. But recently 07th Expansion has released a slew of announcements that are equally exciting. They are obviously striking while the iron is hot and cashing in on the finale of the game but that is fine by me.
Even America’s Next Top Models know what anime is.
While watching a recent episode of America’s Next Top Model, something unexpected occurred. “Ann drew the last supper, anime version, on a napkin that we taped to the wall.”
Talk about words I never thought I’d hear on this show. This means that not just one, but two of the girls know what anime is; the girl who drew it, Ann (below, bottom), and the girl making the comment, Jane (below, top).
When thinking about what I’ve learned about these two over the course of the show, I am less surprised. Ann is a self-proclaimed shy nerd, who is slowly coming out of her shell, so I find it easy to believe she might be an anime fan. As for Jane, she is probably the most worldly of the bunch having attended Princeton, so again perhaps not too shocking that she has an idea of what anime is. But that it was brought up on a widely popular show, even for a brief moment, must say something.
So is this another instance of anime having come into the mainstream and making itself known, at least on a basic level? I’m not sure, but damned if that short moment between Ann and Jane didn’t surprise me.
L: Consulting Detective and Other Great Anime Spin-offs
A common complaint I hear about series is that the main characters are bland but the side characters are far more interesting and nuanced. It seems almost epidemic in shonen fighting. In fact Shonen Jump just started a spin-off magazine whose whole purpose is to put the spot light on some of the more popular minor characters in their magazine. The announcement of Super Strong Jump was just the catalyst we needed to bring out one of our post ideas from the back burner about our favorite side characters who would do just as good if not better in their own feature title. Remember that Gunsmith Cats’ Rally Vincent is a spin-off from the original Riding Bean series and look how far she has come.
This post has been brewing for a while, and is by no means a complete listing. But before it got totally out of hand, we had to think of which characters could really use their own stories beyond the fact that we just like them a hell of a lot. This is mere sampling of some of the great side characters that we’re pretty sure could hold their own in a series. Eventhough the title of this post mentions L, he already has a spin-off albeit a bad one, so we’ve come up with a list of other great spin-off options! Oh, yeah, 1/3 of our picks are still detectives though!
Reverse Thieves 