February 6th, 2010
Profile page text
My profile shows a picture of Mist from "Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance" with text next to it as part of the image. Here's what it says:
Lymsleia is...
... a gamer, as if that wasn't super obvious already.
... sometimes just looking for some adorkable entertainment. Hello, silly RPG soccer anime!
... sometimes blessed with the attention span of an eccentric sponge.
... entirely too fond of overanalysing character motivations and worldbuilding even for the aforementioned type of silly adorkable entertainment.
... really just here to enjoy whatever she wants, whether it's Sora no woto or Blade of the Immortal, Digimon or xxxholic, Naruto or Ergo Proxy. Vinland Saga and Skip Beat and Real? Count me in!
... not really terribly active in the MAL community but certainly not averse to meeting new people. Hi!
... listening to video game or anime OSTs or stations that play them.
... so not interested in shipping wars and would rather just ship het and slash and femmeslash equally while also squeeing at asexual characters. Variety, how I love thee!
... forever fiddling around with lists. Obviously.
Lymsleia is...
... a gamer, as if that wasn't super obvious already.
... sometimes just looking for some adorkable entertainment. Hello, silly RPG soccer anime!
... sometimes blessed with the attention span of an eccentric sponge.
... entirely too fond of overanalysing character motivations and worldbuilding even for the aforementioned type of silly adorkable entertainment.
... really just here to enjoy whatever she wants, whether it's Sora no woto or Blade of the Immortal, Digimon or xxxholic, Naruto or Ergo Proxy. Vinland Saga and Skip Beat and Real? Count me in!
... not really terribly active in the MAL community but certainly not averse to meeting new people. Hi!
... listening to video game or anime OSTs or stations that play them.
... so not interested in shipping wars and would rather just ship het and slash and femmeslash equally while also squeeing at asexual characters. Variety, how I love thee!
... forever fiddling around with lists. Obviously.
Posted by Lymsleia | Feb 6, 2010 2:40 AM | 0 comments
July 15th, 2008
Spring Season Roundup + Summer Season First Impressions (2008)
Anime Relations: Druaga no Tou: The Aegis of Uruk, Kure-nai, Amatsuki, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, Nabari no Ou, Natsume Yuujinchou, Koihime†Musou, World Destruction: Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin, Mahoutsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora
First, let me do a little review of the spring anime season:
Crystal Blaze, Vampire Knight and Wagaya no Oinari-sama are all shows that I dropped after one episode for reasons that I mentioned in my first spring anime post.
Amatsuki started out great and seemed to include some pretty nice ideas. I liked the characters and their dynamic but somehow that changed and by episode five I found myself looking at the remaining play time every other minute. I was bored and don't even know why. Maybe I just would've liked a show that's more about adapting to life in Edo period Japan and less mythological beings. Normally I find them very interesting and it's strange that I mind them here when they have been present from the very beginning, but in Amatsuki they seemed surprisingly bland.
I also dropped Nabari no Ou, the ninjas-in-modern-Japan story. It was cute and amusing at first, but for some reason I always got the feeling that the show was trying to hard to be something it isn't. (Or maybe I just got sick of the fans going on and on about how it's supposedly "so much more mature than that kiddie show Naruto". If anything (judging from the presentation of various issues), I think Nabari addresses a younger audience than Naruto...) What finally made me stop was probably the fact that the character's personalities changed from scene to scene, depending on what the plot needed at that time. It was okay (and not done all that often) in the beginning, but it got more and more obvious and... well. *drops show*
I'm still undecided about The Tower of Druaga. The first episode was a brilliant parody of High Fantasy and RPG clichés while the rest of the series tells a pretty straightforward adventure right out of an old-school game. It's still entertaining and humorous in its own way (and I'd really like to support the animation studio because it releases the episodes to the net as streams that even feature (good) English subtitles), but with so many other things to watch Druaga might not get the attention it maybe deserves from me.
The one spring show I finished is Kure-nai and I really loved the series. Thing is, I loath the ending. I mean it, it's hideous. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and makes me feel sick. (If you're wondering what provoked such an intense reaction and don't mind the spoiler, click the cut: I can still recommend the first half of the series that presents us with one of the most endearing, most well-acted slice of life stories I've ever seen. Just stay away from the main plot.
I'm still following Chii's Sweet Home (cutest show ever, three minute episodes that follow the live of a kitten living with a well-meaning but somewhat dense family that knows nothing about cats), RD Sennou Chosashitsu (Real Drive, still very intriguing sci-fi and far less confusing than the first episodes. I need to catch up though...), Library Wars (What if... the state had an armed force to enforce censorship, and what if libraries armed themselves to stop them?) and Code Geass R2 (Still fun, but I'm pretty underwhelmed so far. Needs more Suzaku. ^.~) as well as Macross Frontier (excellent animation alternates with very sloppy one, but it has great music and some good potential plot-wise. The love triangle drives me up walls, mainly because it seems OOC for at least two of the three participants.), and Himitsu - The Revelation (good potential but most of it's wasted when I can figure out the riddle three minutes in while the characters, who are supposed to be investigation geniuses, stumble over very obvious hints and still figure it out far too late.)
A show I really want to start watching is Soul Eater, because the art style is quirky and apparently the same goes for the story.
On to the summer 2008 shows! Once again I'm ignoring the ones whose initial descriptions already bore me, but I might pick up a show I've missed later on. (Watching first episodes is fun, no matter what my bitching about some shows might make it sound like. It's just that this season seems to be filled with moe blobs and only two good shows.)
- Koihime Muso
I only knew that this show was somewhat based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Had I known that it's actually based on an adult visual novel based on Romance, I wouldn't have bothered watching it, and I wouldn't have missed anything: Looks like I'm growing more and more intolerant of mindless fanservice that comes in the form of panty-shots and really big-breasted girls. Not that a show that has both can't be any good, but this one's not for me.
The heroine is a bandit hunter who comes to a village where a little girl without any relatives lives and plays bandits with the village children every day. Kannu is send by the local authorities to deal with the girl and after and "epic" fight that goes on well into the night, they talk about their tragic pasts. After they go bath together, Chouun decides that Kannu is her older sister from now on and the two of them travel together from now on.
This could be light entertainment, but the fanservice, Chouun ending too many sentences with -nanoda, and the fact that the anime has nothing to offer that would outweigh these downsides make the decision easy: Dropped. (When the best about a show are the little girl's hairclip that always has the same facial expression she has and a bunch of random chibis, that should be your warning.)
♥ Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto - Natsu no Sora (Things That Are Precious To A Mage - Summer Sky)
Sora, a sixteen-year-old girl living in the beautiful countryside moves to Tokyo to begin her training at the Bureau of Magic. There isn't much to say about the plot of this show so far: The first two episodes live through their very calm, relaxing atmosphere, especially the first one. There's no suspense whatsoever but Sora's story makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The second episode introduces more characters, like her new best friend and the rude but ultimately gentle boy she lives with at their teacher's house. None of them is anything special, but they, like the rest of the series, are just... heart-warming. The magic itself is nicely understated too and definitely doesn't get in the way of the atmosphere.
The background images used in this series are for the most part photos of real life locations that are just slightly animefied. This works great for Sora's home and some locations such as the teacher's house and garden (the countryside looks stunningly beautiful) but clashes awkwardly with the simple character designs at other times, especially in Tokyo, where it just seems cheap/lazy. This is an issue I can definitely look past and enjoy this show. I really hope that the lack of any kind of suspense doesn't make it boring after more than a few episodes but since it's just a one season show anyway, it might just work. Oh, and the music is beautiful, especially the ending song. ♥
♥ Natsume Yuujinchou (Natsume's Book of Friends)
Natsume Takashi has always been able to see spirits, but people tend not to believe him and after the early death of his parents he has lived with various relatives. When he accidentally breaks the seal of a cat spirit, he learns that his grandmother Natsume Reiko had the same ability back when she was alive: She encountered many spirits and made them write their names down in her "Book of Friends" so they would have to come help her if she ever called them. Takashi decides to return the spirit's names to their rightful owners, always accompanied by the Cat who really looks more like a wolf spiritin his true form...
This is easily my favourite show out of the new season: Natsume spirits have everything that Oinari-sama and Amatsuki's lacked, most of all distinct, likeable personalities. There's a good mix of humour and a bit of drama mixed with flashbacks to the time when Reiko first encountered the various spirits and made friends with them. This could easily be an action-heavy series but it isn't and instead features heart-warming little stories. (Or so I say after just one episode...) I also really like the spirit's designs.
- Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (Nogizaka Haruka's Secret)
Ordinary student Yuto is surprised when he finds out that the pretty, talented, cute and popular Haruka, who seems to be the perfect girl, is a die-hard fan of anime and manga. You bored yet? Because I know I am. I went into this expecting something as charming as Genshiken and stumbled into an average, by-the-numbers otaku fantasy. *sighs*
Haruka's clumsiness is stupid rather than endearing and she's sadly one of those girls who can't do anything on their own, who rely on the main boy to help them out, smile a tiny little smile, end all their sentences with -desu and hog all the animation budget. ^^; Yuto is a viewer's avatar if I've ever seen one and the other characters that showed up are just as bland: The bitchy woman and the woman who hits on Yuto, the annoying fanboy friend, the maids (judging from the opening, they haven't actually shown up yet).
Thanks, but no thanks. It might look pretty in a very standard/average way and the voice actors aren't horrible, but I know someone here who's dropping this show right now.
+ World Destruction
In a world where anthropomorphic animals rule over humans, the boy Kilie holds a part-time job in an animal restaurant only because he pretends to be a catboy. His calm live comes to an end when Morte, a human girl who wants to destroy the world and who is therefore hunted by the animals accidentally gives him away. They flee, help out a village who's supposed to sacrifice a little girl to the resident kitten overlord and go on travelling together, accompanied by a tiny yellow bear...
This show has a very cartoonish feel and probably works better as the DS game its adapted from. It's cute & light entertainment and I debated dropping or keeping this show for a while, because it's really not bad. In the end though, I decided to drop it because there are too many more intriguing shows out there and even the mystery of "why does the female lead wants to destroy the world?" can't keep me that interested.
Crystal Blaze, Vampire Knight and Wagaya no Oinari-sama are all shows that I dropped after one episode for reasons that I mentioned in my first spring anime post.
Amatsuki started out great and seemed to include some pretty nice ideas. I liked the characters and their dynamic but somehow that changed and by episode five I found myself looking at the remaining play time every other minute. I was bored and don't even know why. Maybe I just would've liked a show that's more about adapting to life in Edo period Japan and less mythological beings. Normally I find them very interesting and it's strange that I mind them here when they have been present from the very beginning, but in Amatsuki they seemed surprisingly bland.
I also dropped Nabari no Ou, the ninjas-in-modern-Japan story. It was cute and amusing at first, but for some reason I always got the feeling that the show was trying to hard to be something it isn't. (Or maybe I just got sick of the fans going on and on about how it's supposedly "so much more mature than that kiddie show Naruto". If anything (judging from the presentation of various issues), I think Nabari addresses a younger audience than Naruto...) What finally made me stop was probably the fact that the character's personalities changed from scene to scene, depending on what the plot needed at that time. It was okay (and not done all that often) in the beginning, but it got more and more obvious and... well. *drops show*
I'm still undecided about The Tower of Druaga. The first episode was a brilliant parody of High Fantasy and RPG clichés while the rest of the series tells a pretty straightforward adventure right out of an old-school game. It's still entertaining and humorous in its own way (and I'd really like to support the animation studio because it releases the episodes to the net as streams that even feature (good) English subtitles), but with so many other things to watch Druaga might not get the attention it maybe deserves from me.
The one spring show I finished is Kure-nai and I really loved the series. Thing is, I loath the ending. I mean it, it's hideous. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and makes me feel sick. (If you're wondering what provoked such an intense reaction and don't mind the spoiler, click the cut:
I'm still following Chii's Sweet Home (cutest show ever, three minute episodes that follow the live of a kitten living with a well-meaning but somewhat dense family that knows nothing about cats), RD Sennou Chosashitsu (Real Drive, still very intriguing sci-fi and far less confusing than the first episodes. I need to catch up though...), Library Wars (What if... the state had an armed force to enforce censorship, and what if libraries armed themselves to stop them?) and Code Geass R2 (Still fun, but I'm pretty underwhelmed so far. Needs more Suzaku. ^.~) as well as Macross Frontier (excellent animation alternates with very sloppy one, but it has great music and some good potential plot-wise. The love triangle drives me up walls, mainly because it seems OOC for at least two of the three participants.), and Himitsu - The Revelation (good potential but most of it's wasted when I can figure out the riddle three minutes in while the characters, who are supposed to be investigation geniuses, stumble over very obvious hints and still figure it out far too late.)
A show I really want to start watching is Soul Eater, because the art style is quirky and apparently the same goes for the story.
On to the summer 2008 shows! Once again I'm ignoring the ones whose initial descriptions already bore me, but I might pick up a show I've missed later on. (Watching first episodes is fun, no matter what my bitching about some shows might make it sound like. It's just that this season seems to be filled with moe blobs and only two good shows.)
- Koihime Muso
I only knew that this show was somewhat based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Had I known that it's actually based on an adult visual novel based on Romance, I wouldn't have bothered watching it, and I wouldn't have missed anything: Looks like I'm growing more and more intolerant of mindless fanservice that comes in the form of panty-shots and really big-breasted girls. Not that a show that has both can't be any good, but this one's not for me.
The heroine is a bandit hunter who comes to a village where a little girl without any relatives lives and plays bandits with the village children every day. Kannu is send by the local authorities to deal with the girl and after and "epic" fight that goes on well into the night, they talk about their tragic pasts. After they go bath together, Chouun decides that Kannu is her older sister from now on and the two of them travel together from now on.
This could be light entertainment, but the fanservice, Chouun ending too many sentences with -nanoda, and the fact that the anime has nothing to offer that would outweigh these downsides make the decision easy: Dropped. (When the best about a show are the little girl's hairclip that always has the same facial expression she has and a bunch of random chibis, that should be your warning.)
♥ Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto - Natsu no Sora (Things That Are Precious To A Mage - Summer Sky)
Sora, a sixteen-year-old girl living in the beautiful countryside moves to Tokyo to begin her training at the Bureau of Magic. There isn't much to say about the plot of this show so far: The first two episodes live through their very calm, relaxing atmosphere, especially the first one. There's no suspense whatsoever but Sora's story makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The second episode introduces more characters, like her new best friend and the rude but ultimately gentle boy she lives with at their teacher's house. None of them is anything special, but they, like the rest of the series, are just... heart-warming. The magic itself is nicely understated too and definitely doesn't get in the way of the atmosphere.
The background images used in this series are for the most part photos of real life locations that are just slightly animefied. This works great for Sora's home and some locations such as the teacher's house and garden (the countryside looks stunningly beautiful) but clashes awkwardly with the simple character designs at other times, especially in Tokyo, where it just seems cheap/lazy. This is an issue I can definitely look past and enjoy this show. I really hope that the lack of any kind of suspense doesn't make it boring after more than a few episodes but since it's just a one season show anyway, it might just work. Oh, and the music is beautiful, especially the ending song. ♥
♥ Natsume Yuujinchou (Natsume's Book of Friends)
Natsume Takashi has always been able to see spirits, but people tend not to believe him and after the early death of his parents he has lived with various relatives. When he accidentally breaks the seal of a cat spirit, he learns that his grandmother Natsume Reiko had the same ability back when she was alive: She encountered many spirits and made them write their names down in her "Book of Friends" so they would have to come help her if she ever called them. Takashi decides to return the spirit's names to their rightful owners, always accompanied by the Cat who really looks more like a wolf spiritin his true form...
This is easily my favourite show out of the new season: Natsume spirits have everything that Oinari-sama and Amatsuki's lacked, most of all distinct, likeable personalities. There's a good mix of humour and a bit of drama mixed with flashbacks to the time when Reiko first encountered the various spirits and made friends with them. This could easily be an action-heavy series but it isn't and instead features heart-warming little stories. (Or so I say after just one episode...) I also really like the spirit's designs.
- Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (Nogizaka Haruka's Secret)
Ordinary student Yuto is surprised when he finds out that the pretty, talented, cute and popular Haruka, who seems to be the perfect girl, is a die-hard fan of anime and manga. You bored yet? Because I know I am. I went into this expecting something as charming as Genshiken and stumbled into an average, by-the-numbers otaku fantasy. *sighs*
Haruka's clumsiness is stupid rather than endearing and she's sadly one of those girls who can't do anything on their own, who rely on the main boy to help them out, smile a tiny little smile, end all their sentences with -desu and hog all the animation budget. ^^; Yuto is a viewer's avatar if I've ever seen one and the other characters that showed up are just as bland: The bitchy woman and the woman who hits on Yuto, the annoying fanboy friend, the maids (judging from the opening, they haven't actually shown up yet).
Thanks, but no thanks. It might look pretty in a very standard/average way and the voice actors aren't horrible, but I know someone here who's dropping this show right now.
+ World Destruction
In a world where anthropomorphic animals rule over humans, the boy Kilie holds a part-time job in an animal restaurant only because he pretends to be a catboy. His calm live comes to an end when Morte, a human girl who wants to destroy the world and who is therefore hunted by the animals accidentally gives him away. They flee, help out a village who's supposed to sacrifice a little girl to the resident kitten overlord and go on travelling together, accompanied by a tiny yellow bear...
This show has a very cartoonish feel and probably works better as the DS game its adapted from. It's cute & light entertainment and I debated dropping or keeping this show for a while, because it's really not bad. In the end though, I decided to drop it because there are too many more intriguing shows out there and even the mystery of "why does the female lead wants to destroy the world?" can't keep me that interested.
Posted by Lymsleia | Jul 15, 2008 8:10 AM | 2 comments