| Gotta agree with Jyn and Xannieh. Psycho Pass was a really surprising gem for me. I loved it!! Got my daughter to watch it, and she loved it!! She is currently getting her "anime club" to watch it. And I'm trying to get my other daughter's boyfriend to watch it. |
| In regards to the previous comments about Psycho Pass. |
| I just watched my first anime in a movie theater. It was Hayao Miyazaki's last film, The Wind Rises. Saw the Dubbed version. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a historical drama about the inventor of the Zero fighter plane. It was showing at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Kalamazoo, MI. Beautiful movie and an historical event for me. Normally I wait for the anime to come out on DVD or Blu-Ray. |
| Finished off Golden Time and Wake Up, Girls!. I think WUG dropped some hints that there will be a second season. |
| What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about? |
| Just finished two unusual Winter series... World Conquest Zvezda Plot is a story about a cute little girl loli who rides a pink bicycle with training wheels who conquers the world, starting with Japan. The art is very good and if this one isn't unusual, I don't know what is. :-) 2. Witty and funny is Hoozuki no Reitetsu (Cool-headed Hoozuki). This dark comedy revolves around the fierce god aide to the Great King Yama who rules part of Hell. What makes this one unusual is the use of old classic Japanese and Chinese art in the background. Well worth the watch. |
| Just finished Magi: The Kingdom of Magic. I do hope there is a 3rd season. The manga is still going strong. |
| What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about? |
| Just watched a Gem of an anime movie called Kappa no Coo to Natsuyasumi. It takes place in modern Tokyo. It is the touching story of a boy who finds a young Kappa inside a large rock by a riverbank, and the problems that go with trying to keep it a secret from his friends. The characters are great and portrayed very well and the Kappa is so loveable. The story is a very realistic depiction of what it would be like to discover a young, mythical God/Demon in the modern age. This is a Special slice of life for everyone except small children. Stands up to or surpasses anything by Ghibli. |
| Just finished Girls und Panzer, just another happy-go-luckily little ambassador of the 'Cute girls are doing cute things' genre that takes place in a world in which girls, as a part of the maturing process, partake in (non-lethal!) round-based tank battles. In fact, everything in this world is themed & centered around militaria otakudom and warfare, with not only the battle parqurs but actually ENTIRE CITIES with shops, parks, schools up to patisseries & cafes serving tank-shaped sweets being located on giant swimming fortresses/carriers which obviously are usually out on the ocean. And as if that wouln't already be enough, the OST is made up almost entirely of marching-music anthems with earworm potential, among them are world famous classics like 'British Grenadiers' or the German 'Panzer Song' some of you might know from the movie 'Battle of the Bulge'. It seems that as a person who grew up with Grandpa's Marching Vinyl Records and his stories about his experiences from Stalingrad et al. and has an affinity for military things in general, this little underestimated gem just hit the right spot. Definitely earned its predicted perfect score. If you liked Upotte! and/or Strike Witches which in parts was made by the same people maybe you should risk a look or two. |
HapposamaApr 8, 2014 4:27 AM
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| Finished JoJo's Bizzare Adventure. Loved it. It's so camp and completely over the top. And using Yes' "Roundabout" as the ED just oozes class and refinemente. And luckily for me the second season just started. Yeah. |
| "Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov |
| Do you ever wish you could be immortal? Unable to die, living forever? If you think about it, it would be pretty horrible, outliving every living thing, only to exist for eternity. Well, I enjoy stories about different approaches involving immortality, one of my favorites was Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, so I was searching for more shows with immortality as a theme. I came up with an unusual show called Popotan – 3 un-ageing sisters, Ai, Mai, Mii, their android maid Mea and pet ferret Unagi, time jump around Japan in their supernatural house decorated in Christmas ornaments. Each stop they make new friends and then abruptly have to leave them for a new location about 5 years in the future. Each jump brings them closer to finding the meaning of their existence. On first look this show looks like a children’s magical girl show, but you start to see the pain and sadness that affects the sisters as they have to suddenly leave the friends they have made as the house they live in abruptly time jumps with little warning. Each jump the girls look for Popotans, which are dandelion-like flowers that they communicate with which gives them clues about their quest to find a woman who may tell them about why they are forced to travel thru time. The most unusual aspect of this anime is that the sisters get naked in each episode, mostly because they take lots of baths, but sometimes they just feel like it. Like, whats the big deal? So if you take offense at cartoon boobies, you probably can skip this. Overall, I found this anime very touching and likeable with interesting characters and a blend of humor and suspense and a few tear inducing scenes. Another show about immortality that was interesting is Kurozuka. This one is a different take on the Vampire theme and is probably the most depressing and violent. A young prince, Kurou, 1000 years ago is escaping assassins and finds a beautiful woman, Kuromitsu, in her mountain hermitage. They fall in love but the Prince is mortally wounded. To save him, the woman tells him to bite her neck and drink some of her blood and he will get better. She tells him that he will be unable to die and they can be together forever. Things get complicated after that. He gets his head cut off by a friend, later wakes up in a dystopian future with no memory of his past except for violent dreams where he is with Kuromitsu and was captured. Now it gets really confusing but lots of action and suspense. Give it a try, it will make you think. |
| Just finished Rosario to Vampire II manga. There was a hint in chapter 66.6 there might be a new R+V sometime in the future. We'll just keep a look out for it. I wouldn't expect it any time soon (soon meaning 2-4 years). |
| What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about? |
sbyrstall said: Just finished Rosario to Vampire II manga. There was a hint in chapter 66.6 there might be a new R+V sometime in the future. We'll just keep a look out for it. I wouldn't expect it any time soon (soon meaning 2-4 years). After the way if finished, I have my doubts on it continuing it. I got the feeling that the author rushed the ending, like if he was kind of tired with R&V and just wanted to get it over with. |
| "Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov |
| A lot of mangakas are going this way. Negima was the exact same way, and yet Negi has made a cameo and Evangeline is a semi-regular in UQ Holder. |
| What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about? |
| Just finished watching Time of Eve. A wonderful, short little series. Can warmly recommend it. |
| "Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov |
| In the author notes for R+V he planned on ending the series anyway. Hopefully he's got some new ideas to try out. It looks like Kosuke Fujishima's started his new series though! :) |
| The episode I liked in Popotan was when the middle sister was left behind and had to live as a teenage high schooler for a while. A lot of the other ones I could do without. |
Chelle said: Gotta agree with Jyn and Xannieh. Psycho Pass was a really surprising gem for me. I loved it!! Got my daughter to watch it, and she loved it!! She is currently getting her "anime club" to watch it. And I'm trying to get my other daughter's boyfriend to watch it. What's the age range for Psycho Pass? I haven't had my pups watch anime since Princess Tutu |
Angus said: Chelle said: Gotta agree with Jyn and Xannieh. Psycho Pass was a really surprising gem for me. I loved it!! Got my daughter to watch it, and she loved it!! She is currently getting her "anime club" to watch it. And I'm trying to get my other daughter's boyfriend to watch it. What's the age range for Psycho Pass? I haven't had my pups watch anime since Princess Tutu There's some very graphic (gore) and violent images so I would tag this one as clearly in the adult category. Or at least being there in a supervisory role. |
| "Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov |
| I just watched an interesting and unique Fantasy drama romance called Nagi no Asukara (Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea). This Winter season anime captured me enough to watch all 26 eps. In 3 sittings. Basic story from the synopsis... “Long ago, all humans lived in the ocean. But some who longed for the land abandoned the ocean, casting off the special raiments granted to them by the sea god to adapt them to life under the sea... Though mankind was divided into sea dwellers and land dwellers, each with different ways of thinking, they were all still fellow humans, and they continued to maintain contact as time went on. “ The story starts when the middle-school sea dwellers have their school closed and are invited to attend the land dwellers school. Things haven’t been going well between the sea people and the land people because of arguments over the fishing rights in the surrounding area, so the sea kids are picked on by the surface students, but not everyone feels this way and budding romance occurs between the two groups. A little of this story is borrowed from The Little Mermaid in that the sea people tell their kids that they are forbidden from dating the land people because the Sea God forbids it, and, if they break the rule the can never return to the sea village. That’s the basic plot but there are some surprises and potential tragedies in store. One of the first things I noticed about this beautiful story was that the sea people and the underwater village were the same as the land village and people. Even though underwater, people walked and talked normally. People wore normal clothes, had normal houses, cooked in regular kitchens, although with blue “Gods Fire”. The main difference was that birds flew in the sky on land and fish flew/swam through the ‘sky’ underwater. This took a little time to get used to and may turn some people off. Remember, this is a total fantasy. I loved this story, although it was a little slow in parts. It had a very “slice-of-life” feel to it and it takes place in modern times with cars and trains etc. If you haven’t seen it yet, give it a try and please, let me or the group know how you liked it. |
GChan said: Just finished World Conquest Zveda Plot. This was cute....though it got quite dark in the end for a second. I love Kate though....Tiny and cute with the ego of Kanye West! Also, finished Poyopoyo: a three minute 52 episode series about a weird round shape kitty, his owners and his friends. Including a male kitty who wants to hump the MC. Thanks GChan, I was beginning to think I was the only one who thought Zveda Plot was cute and fun (and slightly kinky) :-) Here's another one for you "cute" lovers with a dark edge to it. Check out Potemayo for some "UberCute" with a touch of danger. |
| Fear not, Zveda is much loved indeed....made me feel all warm inside. Kinda happy they gave Kate a better suit last ep too.....eek !! |
| Stay Young and Watch Anime......el psy congroo |
| Oh yeah and Shinsekai yori - From the New World blew my mind. Most satisfying ending in years. Not surprised the novel won awards... |
| Stay Young and Watch Anime......el psy congroo |
| Watching an fun, unusual show called Cuticle Detective Inaba. This 2013 release features a half human, half werewolf who used to work as a police dog for the police but now runs the Cuticle Detective Agency with his two assistants. He has a hair fetish and can extract critical information just by examining or tasting a sample of someone's hair! He is trying to capture the crime boss, Don Valentino, who is a talking goat. |
| Just watched a classic oldie from the 80's, Megazone 23. Part of the Robotech series as it was known in the U.S. Check it out if you like old school. |
| Finished Is This A Zombie of the Dead? last night. Goofy and stupid as sin but enjoyable anyway. |
 May the DESU be with you! Always! |
Jym said: Just watched a classic oldie from the 80's, Megazone 23. Part of the Robotech series as it was known in the U.S. Check it out if you like old school. Jym - Megazone 23 wasn't part of the Robotech series - was just 3 OVAs, with the 2nd one being awesome and way ahead of its time. The relation you're thinking of is that Harmony Gold distributed them, and my late friend Carl Macek used the 1st Megazone as the basis of that ill fated Robotech movie abortion. I just finished Mahou Sensou. The first half was really good - had two majorly cute girls and the story, while not necessarily original, was still entertaining. The second half and the ending, however, were so terrible that I was majorly disappointed. |
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| Long time no see! I've been getting ready to move. Recently, my bf and I started watching anime again. Out of the animes I've recently watched, here are the ones I would recommend: Psycho-Pass- highly recommended. This anime is by the same production company as Ghost in the Shell. It does have some of the philosophical conversations and intelligence of GITS. The subject matter is Psycho-Pass is darker since it's about psychopaths in a utopian society. I almost stopped watching this anime because of the weird almost alien look of one of the main female characters. I'm glad I didn't because this anime kept me guessing and anticipating the next episode. Season 2 comes out this fall! Noragami- recommended. I loved the comedic elements. I wish this show was longer than 12 episodes because I wanted to see what would happen to the delivery god and his friends. Sword Art Online - recommended. As someone who occasionally plays online games, this anime was a treat. I liked that it has action and romance. |
| Completed last night: Vividred Operation: A nice, though formalaic show with four teen girls wearing superhero suits to battle evil, other dimensional invaders. Yuru Yuri 2: Akari continues looking for presence while the laughs keep coming in this loopy slice of life show. AKB0048: IDOLS IN SPAAAAAAAAAACE! Man, I love this show! And it's second season is in my queue on Crunchyroll! |
| May the DESU be with you! Always! |
| Just finished Najica Blitz Tactics... http://myanimelist.net/anime/321/Najica_Blitz_Tactics I thought it was great and deserves a better rating, sure the panty shots are just over the top, though for me that was part of it's charm, must be a record breaker in that regard..though it really has a solid storyline. This was a dual audio version and I watched the dub which I thought was great. |
| Thanks StevOz, I'll check it out. Speaking of the Japanese obsession with panties, watch Agent Aika. This action comedy may hold the record for number of panty shots per episode. It has been estimated at over 4 separate panty shots per minute, plus numerous bare boob scenes. For maximum fun be sure to watch the crappy dub version. |
Jym said: Thanks StevOz, I'll check it out. Speaking of the Japanese obsession with panties, watch Agent Aika. This action comedy may hold the record for number of panty shots per episode. It has been estimated at over 4 separate panty shots per minute, plus numerous bare boob scenes. For maximum fun be sure to watch the crappy dub version. Ahh! Agent Aika! What a fantastic show! Despite the tissue paper thin ripoff of the plot from the old James Bond movie Moonraker, it was all about the pantyflashing! I once tried to count the number of times panties were shown and lost track after around 250 or so, pretty darn impressive for just a two-hour long OVA! Maybe I'll watch it again and take another shot at counting! HA! |
| May the DESU be with you! Always! |
| Onto it..;) http://i59.tinypic.com/a175t.jpg Gunsmith Cats rather good also just on the last episode now.. |
| Finished last night: Penguindrum I've watched some pretty darn trippy anime in my day, but man, this show tops the list! The last four episodes were so insanely surreal, it made the ending of Neon Genesis Evangelion look perfectly logical! I mean, this was some seriously headscratching stuff! |
| May the DESU be with you! Always! |
| Just finished a great, but obscure 2001 series called Figure 17: Tsubasa & Hikaru. It’s about a 10 year old girl named Tsubasa who is a shy girl who lacks self confidence. She just moved from Tokyo to a smaller town with her father and is having a hard time adjusting. She sees a UFO that crashes nearby and goes to investigate. She finds the injured pilot and is attacked by an alien monster called a Maguar. As the Maguar is close to taking Tsubasa's life, an alien lifeform fuses with her body to form the Riberus battle armor Figure 17, which shortly destroys the alien threat. The life form takes the name Hikaru and turns into an identical twin of Tsubasa sharing all of Tsubasa’s memories. The show is split between a slow paced slice of life with Hikaru supporting Tsubasa and helping her become more self confident, making friends and scenes of life on a farm and at school. The other aspect of the show deals with Hikaru and Tsubasa merging into Figure 17 and helping two other aliens fight the Maguar which keep multiplying and getting stronger. If you can handle the slow pacing of the 45 min episodes, you will find this a very well written, charming and exciting show with a good, somewhat bittersweet ending. |
| I’ve finished quite a few shows lately but few of them were really worth mentioning here. One does however stand out: [url=http://myanimelist.net/anime/1592/Hataraki_Man]Hataraki Man[/url] At first glance, Hataraki Man is an office sit-com and a pretty great one at that. It’s smart, fast-paced, mature, realistic and often times very funny. Best of all, there isn’t a single teenager in sight and the lead is a woman. For that alone, it is well worth a watch if you’re looking for a change of pace. But Hataraki Man is first and foremost an anime with a mission. The original work by famed shoujo mangaka Anno Moyoco was serialized in Morning, a magazine whose demographics is adult men. Her purpose was quite simple yet pretty unique. She wanted to help the average salaryman better understand one of the most rare and confounding creatures around: a female professional who harbors the same drive and ambition as her male colleagues. If you keep that in mind, Hataraki Man becomes a fascinating journey through the Japanese workplace and the social codes which define it. It is also heartfelt and universal in its study of the contradicting expectations that many working women struggle with. I wish there were more shows like this. |
| Seeing as how I reached my first programmed countdown hold in Space Brothers, I went ahead and took a little break... and watched Spice And Wolf II. And honestly, it wasn't as good as the first season. While the characters remained the same (as well as the awesome background music), there was something about it that felt off. Really off. It might have been because they changed production companies or something, but things weren't nearly as crisp as they were in the first season. That and they ended the series on a cliff-hanger in anticipation of a third season that will never come. I hate shows that do that. Plus I finally identified something that had been bugging me since the middle of the first season. Watch Holo as she strokes her tail. Watch the way her hand moves... From the tip to the base. From the tip to the base. From the tip to the base. Over and over and over again, it is always the same pattern. And that's just damn unnatural. You stroke fur WITH the direction of the hair, and never AGAINST it. And there's no way that Holo The Wise Wolf would ever subject herself to something that horribly unnatural. Although it might be that "the sage wolf Horo" might be dumb enough to pull that trick... Once I saw that, I could never unsee it. And with that, the disbelief was broken and so was my mild enjoyment of the show. |
on | Welp. Another week, another series! And after all of these serious and intense anime that I've been watching, it was definitely time for something cheap and trashy. And nothing says cheap and trashy to me than a harem eroge anime! Yes, kids. I watched Hoshizora e Kakeru Hashi! http://myanimelist.net/anime/10079/Hoshizora_e_Kakaru_Hashi And, incredibly enough, it was actually fairly well done. Sure, it was oppai to the left and hentai to the right, but that's why we watch this kind of thing. (Or, at least, why we watch this kind of thing while absolutely no one else is awake to see us. Right, guys?) Yet the characters weren't just one-dimensional PLOT carriers even though all of the standard tropes are in full representation. The animation was fairly well done, the background music clean and subtle, and (probably the most telling aspect of them all) absolutely none of the VAs wanted to make me crosswire my speakers! And for a harem, that's high praise indeed. And, even better, this one actually had a resolution. Yup. The whole confession scene and everything, all in the middle of a non-school festival and in front of the whole town. And to have a full-stop ending like that is so refreshing these days. Score: 8/10. Will highly recommend for any fan of the genre. |
| I've finished Space Bros and what a pleasure it's been to follow these characters: 9/10 and its MC comfortably sitting in 5th place in my list of favorites. Bonus: the hubby loved it as well. |
| I can't possibly be the only one around here adding to my Completed list. Come on people, share! Anyway, I finished a couple of movies recently. First up is Tamako Love Story which is as sweet and cute as a budding romance between two teenagers who've known each other forever can get. I highly recommend it, even if you haven't seen the original series. Then, there's Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise. I'm pretty sure most people here have already seen it but if not, I cannot recommend it enough. |
| See, grif... If I start typing about everything that I finish watching, I end up with posts like this all over the place. Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GiG: Just another ho-hum bunch of awesomeness. You know how it goes. You show up to work every day, throw in a bunch of cyborgs and a few AIs into a pot, season them with a little philosophy, cook well over 24 episodes, and you wind up with one series that will probably even stand the test of time. Although I have to say that The Individual Eleven case felt like it was a bit heavy-handed. Unlike The Laughing Man before it, this plotline touched on every single episode in the season and I was more happy to see it be over with than I was sad to see it end. Perhaps I'm still used to USian cop shows where the main case gets put on a back-burner because a particularly brutal murder just occurred at 15th and K, but I still like it when there's an episode or two when cops just have to be cops. It's still a good show that earned the 9/10 score. It's just on the low side of 9 rather than an almost-10 like the first season. ----- Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka: Amazingly enough, I had already seen it a few years ago on my old Hulu account that I had completely forgotten about. I had merely completely forgotten that I had already seen it and so put it on my list of stuff to watch. But that's okay, as this really is a forgettable harem so filled to the brim with tropes that I had to wonder if I had actually seen it before or if I had merely watched far too many fundamentally awful harem anime over the years. Nope. I had remembered every twist and turn. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. Even then, I was still partly convinced that there would be something unique and memorable about this title that would set it completely apart from the others... Yet aside from the incest-route ending, there was nothing. And even the incest was blah, with OreImo being more convincing than Akane-Iro and with Aki-Sora being a fundamentally better anime than this. There really is no reason to watch Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka. Even if you like incest anime, there is no reason to watch it. Ever. ----- Top no Nerae! Gunbuster: After forcing myself to sit through Generic Incest Harem Anime Number 592 like that, I needed something mindless and brainless to sooth my psyche for a little bit. Fortunately, Gunbuster was waiting in the wings. A 6-episode OVA from 1988, this show was very... Hmmm... What's the right word for this... Oh, yeah. It was very Japan In The Eighties: awful science, seiyuu hyped up on cocaine, weird alien things, topless women for the sake of topless women (which, mind you, isn't exactly an awful thing in and of itself), MC that is suddenly OP after one training montage, excessively large spacecraft... Again, it was just like they threw together every single available trope and hoped for the best. At least it worked in this case. (Or at least worked better than Akane-Iro...) If you don't mind turning off your logic centers for a while, sitting back and watching Gunbuster is a decent way of spending a drunken evening stuck inside while winter just does its thing outside. Also, too: If there had been no Gunbuster, then there might have been no Evangelion series. People constantly say that Eva is a deconstruction of the mecha genre, yet they never explain exactly which mecha anime are being deconstructed. One of those titles is definitely Gunbuster, which has a number of scenes that were directly deconstructed just for NGE. Also, also too: You can see early evidence of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in the cels of Gunbuster, so die-hard fans of TTGL that want to see its inspirations can knock out another piece of their wishlist with this. ----- And ain't nobody around here got time to read something like that. You people have *lives*, for frak's sake. |
OffColfax said: And ain't nobody around here got time to read something like that. You people have *lives*, for frak's sake. I read it. I read all of it. I love reading reviews. Even when I was a kid I always grabbed the weekly entertainment section in our Friday newspaper and read every single movie, book, and CD review for that week. Nowadays I get paid to read book reviews as one of my job duties. So keep 'em coming...I'll read every word you write, even if no one else does. Now, back to my recent viewing endeavors... I began the month watching Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha and its sequel Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s. I saw the first Nanoha in 2006 and found it pretty average back then, but somehow whether it’s experience or changing tastes I enjoyed it much more this time – gave it 8/10 where on my first viewing I probably would have given it a 5 or 6. The flaws are still there, but I was able to appreciate its strengths a lot more this time. I hadn’t seen Nanoha A’s before, but I get why a lot of fans like it better. A’s opening two episodes were an instant attention-grabber, and it only got more exciting from there. Lyrical Nanoha may lack the pure shock value of Madoka or the delicious subversiveness of Revolutionary Girl Utena, but both seasons still rank among the top tier of magical girl anime that I’ve seen. I also re-watched Rec last weekend, which was another show like Nanoha that I first saw several years ago and liked even better this time. I think I found Rec more enjoyable for the same reason I enjoyed Toradora more on second viewing – since they're character-driven romances, knowing the story frees you up to pay more attention to the characters themselves and to appreciate the nuances of their personalities and how they interact with each other. Rec doesn’t have nearly as much time to flesh out its characters as Toradora, since its total running time not counting openings and endings is only about 90 minutes (100 with the DVD bonus episode), but for what it has to work with it gives both leads a surprising amount of character development and still packs a solid emotional punch at the climax. Finally, this weekend I went back to the 90s vault and dug out Natsuki Crisis. It’s probably because I spent so much of my teenage years playing them, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the 90s OVAs and movies that spun out of the street-fighting video game craze, from the Fatal Fury franchise to the Street Fighter II movie that fans my age remember mostly for the Chun Li shower scene. Even the worst examples are usually at least highly entertaining if nothing else, like anime’s version of B-grade martial arts movies. And while it’s terribly dated nowadays (especially the soundtrack), Natsuki Crisis is actually still a cut above the majority of its peers in this genre. For a two-episode OVA the characters are solidly written, and the animation (by Madhouse) is pretty decent by early 90s standards. The story’s a pile of clichés, and like many old OVAs it ends right when it’s starting to get interesting (how many years now have I been waiting for new episodes of Bastard? Grumble, grumble…). Even so, if you feel like spending a short hour enjoying some 90s-style anime fighting goodness, you could definitely do a lot worse. |
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| Well... In that case, I'll just start doing a copy-paste of my Sunday backcatalog week-in-review comments that I write up on a different site, then. Although I have to say that I usually don't read many reviews myself. Far too many people use spoilers in their reviews, sometimes even me, and I prefer to go into things mostly blind. If I get any more than a brief synopsis and general like/dislike from the reviewer, I'll just sit here and think "Oooooh! I just *love* this scene!" while watching a brand-new show. And I should never be able to anticipate something brand new. It feels wrong to me. Then again, I'm also the kind of person that leaves the room during the "Stay tuned for scenes from our next episode." bits that come after everything on television. And if it's something extremely important to me (Doctor Who, for example), I can even go so far as to plug my ears and close my eyes whenever the commercial comes on during the rest of the week. And yes. I actually *do* have an effective age of 8. Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional. So. With that out of the way... ----- R.O.D. the OVA Oh yeah. I liked this one. A cute glasses girl as the MC? That alone is enough to pull me in to any given anime. And the fact that it was actually pretty damn fun to watch didn't hurt any at all. And Yomiko Readman has probably the most OP ability of them all: to make anything with paper. And not just origami cranes like we normally see in anime. Paper airplane? It flies. Paper sword? Can parry a metal sword. Huge explosion about to happen? Throws up a gigantic shield made of paper. Her codename? Agent friggin' PAPER. This is a worthy anime, and I'm going to catch the full series relatively soon. Score: 8/10 Recommendation level: Read Or Die Freedom I'm almost in shock. Here I went an entire week without watching a single anime that was shit. Because Freedom was far from shit. Freedom was friggin' awesome. Take a story idea that is part Pale Cocoon and part Redline, plus mix in a small part of Space Brothers. Set it in a society that is part Psycho-Pass and part Akira. Get the director of Akira to do the storyboards and the character design. Drag in some amazing seiyuu and let them do their thing. And you get something awesome. It was just almost perfect. If it hadn't been for the exceptionally weak 4th episode, it would have been a masterpiece. Unfortunately, that was just too much of a downside to me to be able to make a twelfth perfect-10 on my List. Still beyond excellent, however. Score: 9/10 Recommendation level: Watch it. Now. No excuses. Now. |
OffColfax said: While i found the OAV to be a fun trip for bibliophiles, the series, while enjoyable, was something of a disappointment in the shortage of Agent Paper appearances (and even fewer Miss Deep). Great action scenes, confusing story the first time through. Still, it wound up on my PTB list, so there are redeeming qualities to it. Enjoy the TV series. It's a heck of a ride!----- R.O.D. the OVA Oh yeah. I liked this one. A cute glasses girl as the MC? That alone is enough to pull me in to any given anime. And the fact that it was actually pretty damn fun to watch didn't hurt any at all. And Yomiko Readman has probably the most OP ability of them all: to make anything with paper. And not just origami cranes like we normally see in anime. Paper airplane? It flies. Paper sword? Can parry a metal sword. Huge explosion about to happen? Throws up a gigantic shield made of paper. Her codename? Agent friggin' PAPER. This is a worthy anime, and I'm going to catch the full series relatively soon. Score: 8/10 Recommendation level: Read Or Die |
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OffColfax said: Well... In that case, I'll just start doing a copy-paste of my Sunday backcatalog week-in-review comments that I write up on a different site, then. Although I have to say that I usually don't read many reviews myself. Far too many people use spoilers in their reviews, sometimes even me, and I prefer to go into things mostly blind. If I get any more than a brief synopsis and general like/dislike from the reviewer, I'll just sit here and think "Oooooh! I just *love* this scene!" while watching a brand-new show. Yeah, I know what you mean. I don't mind knowing a little bit about what I'm getting into, but I had most of Madoka's twists spoiled for me by overenthusiastic fans before I had a chance to see it, and ever since then I've tried to be more careful about what I read in advance, especially if it's not a professional review (since pro reviews are generally much better about not giving things away than armchair blog critics). I don't plan on putting any plot details into any of my posts in this thread anyway, just some general impressions and why a show appealed to me or didn't. OffColfax said: R.O.D. the OVA Oh yeah. I liked this one. A cute glasses girl as the MC? That alone is enough to pull me in to any given anime. And the fact that it was actually pretty damn fun to watch didn't hurt any at all. And Yomiko Readman has probably the most OP ability of them all: to make anything with paper. And not just origami cranes like we normally see in anime. Paper airplane? It flies. Paper sword? Can parry a metal sword. Huge explosion about to happen? Throws up a gigantic shield made of paper. Her codename? Agent friggin' PAPER. This is a worthy anime, and I'm going to catch the full series relatively soon. Score: 8/10 Recommendation level: Read Or Die Now that's an OVA I've always enjoyed quite a lot, ever since one my friends introduced it to me several years ago, and unlike so many OVAs, it actually tells a complete story! Also gotta say that while I tend to watch subs the majority of the time (although I'm not hardcore about it), I actually prefer R.O.D.'s dub - Kimberly Yates is hilarious as Yomiko, and she makes a good combo with Amanda "Rei Ayanami" Winn-Lee as Nancy. I remember this series was also the one that introduced me to Crispin Freeman (playing Joker, with a fairly convincing British accent too). I haven't watched the TV series, primarily for the first reason that Orlah mentioned, so if you do I'll be interested to hear your take. |
WingKingNov 25, 2014 6:31 PM
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| Finished No Game No Life. Didn't do too much for me I'm afraid. Pretty to look at and with some exciting gags, but I'm clearly the wrong demographic for it. The recent tendency for characters that do not lose, no matter what in certain shows, seems to me to take the drama out of the series I'm watching. |
| "Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov |
| Watched two things worth commenting on this week, both from 2001. First was the surrealistic short film Cat Soup. One reviewer I follow mentioned that this was the single weirdest anime he’d ever seen, so naturally I had to try it, because I’m weird that way. Now that I’ve seen it, I really can’t figure out how to grade it. Not because of how bizarre it is (and it is VERY bizarre), but because it barely felt like anime. I’d compare it more to the experience of watching one of Rene Laloux’s movies (like Fantastic Planet), which are all bursting with strange/fascinating/allegorical animation that often tells more of the story than the actual dialogue. Cat Soup takes that style to its logical conclusion by having no dialogue at all; the characters make a few noises at each other, but that’s it. I don’t know if “enjoy” is the right word for something like this, but I’m comfortable saying that it was very well done and I definitely found it interesting, even compelling in its own way. Second was the series Angelic Layer. A friend gave me a used DVD set of this as a gift a few months ago, and I'm glad they did because I probably wouldn't have tried it otherwise, and it was a lot of fun. It’s a shōnen-style tournament battle series a-la Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh, with the combatants fighting battles between animatronic dolls that they control with their minds, and the added novelty (in 2001, at least) of a female lead character. The characters are interesting and likeable, and the battles are scripted and animated well – some of them get really tense and even had me on the edge of my seat at times. The voice cast is also super-strong; the Japanese version in particular is a virtual all-star lineup, featuring everyone from the voices of Belldandy, Sailor Moon, and Saber to Vash, Ranma, and Lelouch. Unfortunately Angelic Layer’s biggest problem is the story, which has a few bad plotholes and also ended up frustrating me in a couple of different ways. Because of that I can’t give it more than a 7/10, although if I threw out the story and rated it on sheer entertainment value alone it would be closer to a 9. Some of the very best fights are just that good, and despite the story problems I really did enjoy watching it. |
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