[Zyl] OPS DEMONLORD After Action Review

This post is not actually about Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou but about my catching up with watching Daimaou.

OPS DEMONLORD Overview

Kabitzin, CINC SS!AB:

I know first-hand that backlogs are demoralizing and lead to fear, hate, suffering, the Dark Side, etc.

With an ever increasing backlog of unwatched anime episodes, OPS DEMONLORD was executed over the weekend of 10-11 July 2010 to stop the rot, maintain Summer 2010 offensive momentum and pave the way for watching series on the medium and long term lists.

The logistics were already been put in place - the relevant episodes for targeted series had been downloaded close to the sub release dates while torrent seed strengths and trackers were in optimal condition. What remained was to actually watch them.

OPS DEMONLORD Objectives

Three series were targeted for watching, within the allotted time, in the following order:

• A Certain Scientific Railgun (RAILGUN: 16-24)
• Arakawa Under The Bridge (ARAKAWA: 07-13)
• Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou (DAIMAOU: 02-12)

Secondary objectives included screencapping and notetaking for possible Series Reviews or future thematic posts but these were not to interfere with achieving the primary objectives.

Despite much positive feedback from trusted sources, expeditionary foray failed to even survive the first episode of B Gata H Kei despite not one, not two but three attempts and thus was not included within the scope of this operation.

Analysis of OPS DEMONLORD Outcomes

RAILGUN

OPS DEMONLORD was conducted with revised Standard Operating Procedures which were based on re-visiting fundamental assumptions. The immediate cause was a common one - the loss of momentum due to incursions from Real Life into the 2D sphere. However the root cause was identified as an Aniblogging Wall which had formed around the RAILGUN front.

Previous SOP had followed the "I Download, I Watch, I Blog" pattern on an episodic, weekly basis but could not be sustained. As the backlog of episodes piled up in quantity and languished longer and longer from the broadcast date, it was belatedly realized that the thought of having to blog an episode was itself an impediment to watching it.

RAILGUN was being blogged using Kuroko's voice and perspective; the filler arc which focused on Mii, Tsuzuri and the Dorm Mistress as well as the nastiness between Kuroko and Kazari in the final arc made blogging these episodes a lot more difficult and less enjoyable even with the return of Harumi was welcome and Mitsuko shed her victimhood and turned out to be full of love and win. In addition to this loss of intrinsic motivation, there was much less chance of extrinsic motivation, in terms of comments, given that the posts would now be far from timely. The decision was, thus, made - in the teeth of my Completionist tendencies -  to drop the blogging of RAILGUN so that watching could be completed.

ARAKAWA

Blogging backlog did not lead to Watching backlog in the case of ARAKAWA. There was a cumulative element of the RAILGUN backlog causing ARAKAWA to get backlogged, with the feeling that I should tackle the earlier series first before watching this latter one. Nonetheless Aroduc's words proved prescient:

I guess it’s okay if you can’t get enough of Shaft, but these characters are nowhere near as charming as SZS’s cast and I was sick of hearing Hiroshi Kamiya shout

(And he still watched and blogged the series to completion regardless.)  I had picked up the series because Maaya Sakamoto was the lead female but her character was not half as interesting or captivating as Sakamoto's other major role in Spring 2010, Yojohan's Akashi. My enthusiasm wore thin by the fifth episode and, for the purposes of this catchup operation, I eventually had to content myself with Miyuki Sawashiro's Maria and Chiwa Saito's Stella.  Reinforcements for watching motivation were also supplied by wanting to read Halfadeckshort's summaries and reactions of this series.

DAIMAOU

Likewise, there was no blogging backlog to stymie the watching of this series which was picked up on the basis of the Shizu-sama Doctrine (Shizuka Itou voiced Fujiko Etoh). This turned out to be the biggest holdout (at 11 episodes) from the Spring 2010 offensive but once the marathon session got underway, the momentum of back-to-back episode watching overcame minor obstacles and irritations that could have felt less minor with one week gaps in between viewing. An average series that could have been so much more engaging and interesting.

Conclusion

The operation was successfully concluded due to sufficient logistics preparation and blocking off enough time for the marathoning. It did not go completely smoothly due to obstacles like the filler arc in RAILGUN, frustration with the slow pace of Recruit and Nino's development in ARAKAWA as well as the awkward transition from misunderstanding comedy to the more serious contentions re: the conflicting views about the role of the Demon King in Daimaou. Nonetheless it is a relief that they've finally been watched.

A positive externality - also created the momentum for significant gains against a medium term target series - MANABI STRAIGHT (01-07) - which is expected to fall to the advance of OPS FORWARD GO and be completely watched within the next one to two days.

Related posts:

1. AFA09 After Action Review: Seven Lessons from Photographing Danny Choo
2. 2007 in review
3. Watching Arakawa for Maaya Sakamoto