This Weekend: Madoka returns with Magic, Economics, and...*insert spoiler here*

Anime of the Week: Guilty Crown

Announcement: PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA'S IS BEING SHOWN THIS WEEKEND

Email Content:

• This Weekend's Meetings
• Officer Positions (IMPORTANT!)
  
• Blog Updates
• Anime of the Week

  This Weekend:
Time: Friday and Saturday 7pm
Location: Maryland 110

Friday March 2, 2012
Spice and Wolf
Episodes 1-6.5
Based on a light novel of the same name and set in Middle Ages. Kraft Lawrence is a peddler who travels the world selling all kinds of goods. One day, after visiting a village, he finds a sleeping girl with wolf ears and a tail in his cart. The girl claims she is a 600 year old pagan harvest deity, whose name is Holo. After hearing her tale, Kraft is moved and decides to accompany Holo on her journey north. During their journey, Holo helps increase Kraft's profits through her wisdom and occasionally get the two into trouble and other mischief. On the other hand, such experiences only begins to strengthen the bond between the two. Kraft and Holo are voiced by Jun Fukuyama (Lelouch Lamperouge in Code Geass, Kimihiro Watanuki in xxxHolic) and Ami Koshimizu (Kallen Stadtfeld in Code Geass, Caren Ortensia in Carnival Phantasm/Fate/Hollow Ataraxia), respectively. Spice and Wolf is directed by Takeo Takahashi (Yosuga no Sora, Rizelmine) with first season screenplay and animation done by Naruhisa Arakawa (Erementar Gerad, D.N. Angel) and Imagin (Rizelmine).

Saturday March 10, 2012
Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica
Episodes 7-12
Also known as Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the 2011 hit anime title will be the first of two major titles shown at JHAC this semester! While the show includes the name "magical girl" we encourage as many people to come as this may not be the "ordinary" type of magical girl show you may be thinking of (e.g. Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura, etc... toss all of that out the window). In 2011, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica received the awards for Best Television, Best Anime Series, Director, Screenplay, and Design.
Madoka Kaname is an ordinary second-year middle school student. This normal life only holds until a mysterious encounter. Whether this encounter is a coincidence or because of fate is unknown. However, this encounter does result in two events: 1) the changing of her destiny and 2) the start of a new magical girl story! Madoka will be voiced by Aoi Yuuki (Victorique de Blois in GOSICK, Murasaki Kuhouin in Kure-nai) with Akiyuki Shinbou (Bakemonogatari, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha) as director, Gen Urobuchi (Fate/Zero, Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~) as screenwriter, Yuki Kajiura (Tsubasa Chronicle, Kara no Kyoukai ~The Garden of Sinners~) as music composer, and SHAFT (Bakemonogatari, ef ~A Tale of Memories/Melodies~) as the animation studio.


Officer Positions
As May approaches closer and closer, JHAC is looking for at least 2 undergraduates who will be willing to take on the President and Treasurer positions of the JHAC board for next year. While elections will not be held until the end of the semester, if you are interested or would like to learn more please email waw2@jhu.edu or come to one of our regular meetings to inquire. Do note, that if no one takes on these two positions, JHAC will lose its ability to fund our regular convention trips and other activities in the future and it will be difficult to regain status that has been lost.


Blog Updates
For those who are unaware, our website can be found at: http://jhu-anime.blogspot.com/
Comments are open to all for suggestions, recommendations and the like. We encourage members to share their thoughts on topics regarding the posts as well as anything anime, manga, visual novel, light novel, and video game related. Thoughts on current titles or past titles are also welcome. As usual, any suggestions for the blog itself or how meetings are run are greatly appreciated.

Anime of the Week
To make this section more useful, Image of the Week has been changed to Anime of the Week where a different anime title will be featured in each week's email. The point of this is to discover what may be lost gems, obscure titles, underrated titles, or buried treasure in the anime world. These titles may or may not necessarily be shown at future meetings. Each title will come with a brief background. 

With the Code Geass duo of Jun Fukuyama and Ami Koshimizu being mentioned in this week's email, I believe it would be appropriate to now introduce a show that has been constantly compared with Code Geass these past two anime seasons. That title is Guilty Crown, which some of you may remember from our Fall 2011 preview night. Guilty Crown is an odd show and while it may not be fair to critique the show seeing as it still has three episodes to go, it would be a safe assumption at this point to say it's a show that definitely tries too hard to be like Code Geass. Of course with Tetsurou Araki (Death Note, High School of the Dead) on-board as director and Hiroyuki Yoshino (Macross Frontier, Code Geass R2) as the series composer, that's probably enough evidence to justify the previous statement. So why bring this title up? It's got a killer soundtrack worth mentioning with themes done by supercell (Bakemonogatari/Nisemonogatari, Black Rock Shooter) and their two new performers as well as Hiroyuki Sawano (Sengoku Basara, Blue Exorcist), who is responsible for the background music. While Hiroyuki's experience seems to be limited and while I personally only found his previous works average at best, Guilty Crown easily takes the cake and is worth a watch just to listen to the music. As for the plot, it's literally a lot of fun just laughing at it with all the Code Geass cliches popping up one after another. It may not be as big of a thriller as a Code Geass was, but some fans of the series may actually enjoy this one as well due to the vastly similar premise and elements along with the dark atmosphere of the series. Also a good way to kill time if you're waiting for the new Code Geass titles coming out later this year.
Guilty Crown is an original anime project that is currently ongoing and airing in Japan's noitaminA anime block. It is set in a post apocalyptic Japan where a foreign virus had broken out an devastated the country, leaving it in a state of total anarchy. This event became known as "Lost Christmas," due to the event taking place on December 24, 2029 and the after effects of the virus continue to be widespread. The international organization, GHQ, is currently attempting to use force to restore order to Japan at the cost of its independence. Ten years later in 2039, Shuu Ouma meets Inori Yuzuriha, who invites Shuu to join the fight against tyrannical government with a group known as the Undertakers. Unbeknownst to Shuu, the struggle not only involves robotic forces but also a secret society who's goals remain a mystery.