case649's Blog

Anime Relations: Taiho Shichau zo: Second Season

Nakajima and Kobayakawa are the worst adults ever. Not only did they just abandon the kid without a second thought at the sight of a purse snatcher, she's literally right there and they don't have a clue. Easily the most contrived "searching for lost (thing)" episode I've ever seen.

I mean jeez, the kid had to have heard them shouting from that distance for pete sake...

Anime Relations: Rental Magica

Well waddaya know? Rental Magica did it before Pirates of the Caribbean did. (2007 vs. 2011)



Cap'n Jack never got to club 'em with an oar, though. I have a feeling that's not allowed in Hollywood.

Anime Relations: Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

As if episode 20, something has gone very wrong with the Phantom TV series. The natural order has been shaken up; the Earth's axis has been tilted. Is this the same show I've been watching for the past 3 weeks? The setting and the characters' behavior have changed so much, and the nature of the story is so different with its focus shifted outside Inferno into civilian life, that it almost feels like I'm watching some kind of gag parody ala Evangelion episode 26.



The early episodes of this series were very Fight Club-esque. Ein and Zwei had none of the style or sex appeal of the Inferno bosses. The game was all about the fitness of the body, the sharpness of the wits, the will to survive; the directorial role went to impressive lengths to depict the breakdown of Zwei's civilian persona to augment his instincts and program him with the lethal skills he needed to become the Phantom.



Now we have buxom Phantom Drei, who has seemingly aged 10 years in the span of 2, tearing up the street on her motorcycle in a red leather catsuit and long blond hair, seemingly able to teleport from one place to another to escape machinegun fire.



Is this really the same show I've been watching all these weeks? Why would they do this to such a carefully developed story?

Anime Relations: Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

(Seemingly a bland name replacement for Whyte & Mackay Thirty Years Old Scotch Whiskey.)

Anime Relations: Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

This is the most douche-tastic thing I've seen anyone do in anime in a long time. These guys trained you, you have to know that he'll use Ein as a meat shield and one bullet's not going to be even close to enough.

In context this is actually a good thing. Most of the anime I've been watching lately is so divorced from reality that the viewer really has no intuitive sense of how the protagonist should even begin to overcome the obstacles facing them. Such as escaping from a high-security vault four stories underground. Or disabling a series of warp gates that are spreading virulent data "World"-wide. There's that extra element of tension when you understand exactly what's going on and have a sense for when the protagonist is screwing up.

Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ is available streaming from FUNimation

Anime Relations: Lupin III vs. Meitantei Conan

Gotta love face-palmingly bad off-key animation.


I realize that despite appearances Fujiko Mine is hardly what you'd call a lady, but you gotta be pretty hardcore to strip down almost completely naked in an elevator on your way to the parking garage.


You know the Lupin schtick has crossed into cliche territory when Goemon can just slice through four floors of a building into a high-security underground vault in a single attack and walk away only slightly winded.

Anime Relations: Shinseiki Evangelion, Phantom The Animation, Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

Although the animation element is undeniably much better than the original OVA, the Requiem for the Phantom character designs have become so genericized and lose the distinctive qualities of the ones used in the original (and the game I assume).



That being said, the mindless blank stare the TV series animators perfected for this character makes Rei Ayanami look like she's just hung over.

Anime Relations: Asatte no Houkou.

So it seems somebody on the creative staff behind Asatte no Hokou AKA Living For The Day After Tomorrow is a bigtime Americophile...

Anime Relations: .hack//Tasogare no Udewa Densetsu

What the fuck kind of ending was that Bandai? Since when does anyone in The World have anything remotely similar to this kind of ability? Is this some kind of failed homage to Gundam or something?



Remember this thing, kids? It has the power to HACK GATES. Just point it at the ones funneling the corrupted data and CLOSE THEM, the end. No need for cheesy and completely over the top last minute theatrics.

Anime Relations: .hack//Tasogare no Udewa Densetsu

Some people just can't stay with the program. A little nudge here and there usually keeps them in line though.