Never have I felt such a strange mix of inspiration and depression.
I need to give that a try, but I just can't manage to make myself do it.
I'm not really sure what I'm going to watch next. I was thinking either Honey and Clover or Toradora!
I loved the ef series. Good stuff. Romance, mystery, drama and the artwork was absolutely astounding. Right up there with Clannad as my favorite anime. XD
Apologies in advance for a tl;dr post.
Winter 2009 is over, time for a recap/preview:
Definitely watch:Clannad After Story, RideBack, Munto AKA "Insanely-long-title-about-a-girl-watching-the-sky" (though I should warn that they copped out Munto by putting its conclusion in a theatrical edition. Which means it'll be 1.5 years before it reaches here, given how glacial the pace of licensing is after the debacle with ADV).
Watch if you feel like it: Akikan!, White Album, Minami-ke season 3 Akikan! at first glance is a physical comedy, but it's like Hayate the Combat Butler in its shameless spoofing of itself. The main character, Kakeru, acts like a creepy lech frequently, spewing hilarious and absurd dialogue that inevitably gets him blasted by Melon's super powers.
As predicted, Asu no Yoichi! channeled Ranma 1/2, except only in the relationship between the leading boy and the heroine, and the rivals. Other than that, the action, comedy, and development was... rather dull. I don't know if they ripped off Takahashi, but if it was a really bad rip, this is one example. White Album... is kind of like School Days, except only one of the characters is psychotic (in the latter's case, everyone was either psychotic or became psychotic). They went with the ambiguous ending, which leaves them room for a sequel I don't especially feel inclined to watch. Minami-ke has become eerily similar to Frasier, if the writers ran out of material.
Okay, now for spring season previews. Some episodes are already out, so there may be fansubs up already.
(Continuing from past season(s): Sora Kake Girl (which has much more in common with the Mai-HiME series than Girl Who Leapt Through Time...), Chrome Shelled Regios, Kadokawa's Youtube channel) Will watch:Hayate season 2 (unless it gets more boring than the end of season 1), Natsu no Arashi!, K-On!, BaSquash!, Shangri-La.
Tryouts: Hatsukoi Limited, Higashi no Eden, Guin Saga, Pandora Hearts, Asura Cryin', Saki, Queens Blade (maybe-- see below).
Notable: The director's cut of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has started airing, but using the DVD's order of the episodes, not the original broadcast's. Personally, I'm waiting for new installments to the story, not re-edited versions of the same stuff they're milking for all it's worth. Quick warning to Kimiko: Do not watch Queens Blade, it is fanservice to the point of softcore porn. I'm very serious-- apart from the 'epic' battles between women, their... assets may be the entire point of the show. I'm not sure if I'll continue watching past the first episode; if there's no point to the show beyond getting the animators to draw topless women, well, I'm dropping it like roadkill. Natsu no Arashi is SHAFT's latest creation, based on a GanGan Wing manga. Details are a bit light, but there's a time-travel element, which would mean that plot elements from Girl Who Leapt Through Time or InuYasha can come into play. It might be amazing, it might be mediocre (depends on how much the crew lets SHAFT have fun). K-On! is Kyoto Animation's new anime, and the consistent, high-quality animation still is
their trademark. "K-On!" is short for "Kei-Ongaku-bu", or "Light/Casual Music Club". That's a diplomatic way of allowing a school to host a garage band. The comedy is promising, and the characters are reminiscent to Yoshimizu's Lucky Star. Good: all-girl band-- many such bands, real or fictional, that were featured in anime were quite good. Bad (depending on preference): "dojikko" main character and lead guitarist-- who, incidentally, never played any instrument other than castanets before. I'm thinking the next episode or two will be comedic gold, in a MythBusters sort of way.
Now for Satelight (apparently that's how they spell it out) and Shoji Kawamori: BaSquash!. Mecha, basketball, hip-hop (?), and some good laughs. I was surprised to see that Yoko Kanno isn't doing the music this time around. Still, it's off to a good start. Shangri-La is GONZO's new work, featuring a Japan that became a tropical rainforest due to global warming. There's a bit of a political bent to the trailer, in a similar vein to Code Geass (which apparently I underestimated-- but then, the beginning of R2 was utter bollocks after the way they ended season 1). Hatsukoi (edit) Limited is a J.C.STAFF production (a relative newcomer, I think, but the character design looks really good), based on a Shonen Jump title. There have been shojo-like manga that were published in Shonen Jump-- anything by Masakazu Katsura comes to mind. This one isn't one of his, but it has a similar art style. Details are light on this one, but there's a possibility the show will have a very episodic feel, sort of like Boys Be. Higashi no Eden (Eden of the East) will air on the Noitamina slot, and follows Honey and Clover's tradition of having an interestingly-designed but frustratingly-cumbersome website. Interesting plot start, to say the least-- the story talks about a missile strike that hurts no one, and a violent incident in Washington, DC. Guin Saga is another Satelight production, with a decidedly fantasy/medieval ring to the plot, so maybe something like Utawareru Mono. Pandora Hearts looks like a supernatural thriller; a lot of angst being foreshadowed by the prologue and the credits animation. Along a similar vein, Asura Cryin', only this one's set in modern Japan rather than a facsimile of Victorian England. Saki is like K-On!, only the girls play Mahjongg. Might be worth a look.
Completely forgot: Tayutama, which is yet another modern Shinto comedy. Sounds rather promising, but it could end up as yet another "B" anime.
Final note: Bleach just finished an interesting arc on the Visored (Vizards??), Urahara, and Aizen. Refreshing change from the demigod one-upmanship that the Arrancar fights rapidly turned into.
Last edited by Magus_Melchior on Wed Apr 08, 2009 7:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
Tsurayu wrote:And hurray for mentioning Clannad ~After Story~ which now totally my favorite anime. XD
The first season is halfway available as a complete set; the second half is on preorder (at Amazon at least) with the expected release date of early May.
As for season two, it'll probably take at least half a year before DVDs start to come out (but that's a wild guess).
I preordered the Kanon collection as well, meaning I don't have to spend $130 or so for 6 discs. Funimation apparently crammed everything onto 4 discs instead, though, so no extras for me, which I can live with-- hopefully Funimation didn't mess with the credits animation sequences too much.
I watched the last episode of Natsume yuujin-cho season 2.... I reaaaallly hope it wasnt the very last episode of the series. Thatshow is just to good!
I watched FMA Brotherhood episode 1
anddd I just finidhed episode 7 of Juushin Enbu, which was rather sad...... Need a new series to watch..... gao....
Picked up Honey and Clover. First episode got me pretty interested, so I imagine it'll be a keeper. I'm also thinking of picking up White Album and Honey and Clover 2 assuming the first season keeps me.
Currently watching Read or Die: The TV. Surprisingly I hadn't seen this yet, and I'm really enjoying it so far. Very interesting in that it doesn't seem to have decided, yet, what genre it is trying to fall in to, and seems to include a mix of just about everything. Things getting curiouser and curiouser.
Lovin' Honey and Clover although I'm finding it hard to watch more than a few episodes a day, but I guess a lot of slice-of-life animes do that to me. I also picked up K-On!, which is kind of like Lucky Star but with music instruments. XD
Picked up K-On, very entertaining first couple of episodes. Just working out who does the best sub before committing to a particular group. Early days and all that. So for more consistent watching, Shikabane Hime. I'm wondering how many times they're going to use the line at the end of the episode "that's my job, ra ra ra, for I'm Shikabane Hime", or words to that effect, but at the same time it's horribly nostalgic of how comics/manga tend to do exactly the same thing. It just feels far more forced somehow...
Oh, and checking out 07 Ghost, though not sure how hopeful to be with this one.
Kassidy wrote:Currently watching Read or Die: The TV. Surprisingly I hadn't seen this yet, and I'm really enjoying it so far. Very interesting in that it doesn't seem to have decided, yet, what genre it is trying to fall in to, and seems to include a mix of just about everything. Things getting curiouser and curiouser.
To get a better understanding of the series, you need to have watched to ROD OAV first.
Kassidy wrote:Picked up K-On, very entertaining first couple of episodes. Just working out who does the best sub before committing to a particular group. Early days and all that. So for more consistent watching, Shikabane Hime. I'm wondering how many times they're going to use the line at the end of the episode "that's my job, ra ra ra, for I'm Shikabane Hime", or words to that effect, but at the same time it's horribly nostalgic of how comics/manga tend to do exactly the same thing. It just feels far more forced somehow...
Oh, and checking out 07 Ghost, though not sure how hopeful to be with this one.
I think most would agree that Frostii is doing the best K-On! subs, but unfortunately they are doing too much at once and are really slow about releasing. They haven't even released episode 4 yet, and episode 5 aired today. CoalGuys are really fast, but it shows, they have a lot of typos and simple grammatical mistakes. Chihiro used to be good, but I don't know what happened to them, they are just plain horrible now with their Babel Fish like translations. <.<
Anyway, I finished all of Honey & Clover and Honey & Clover 2. It was definitely a great example of a slice-of-life at it's best with some romance thrown in. It has made my top anime list for sure. Aside from that, I'm still watching K-On! and I picked up watching Kodomo no Jikan. I went to watch it before, but that was before Loli-Pop finished the uncensored DVD versions. XD
Besides all of the obvious controversies related to the title (i.e. the ecchi reference to lolicon girls) The title actually has a pretty good, consistant story, and some decent comedy.
Last edited by Tsurayu on Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Duran wrote:To get a better understanding of the series, you need to have watched to ROD OAV first.
Yeah, I finished the series now, all kinda makes sense. I'm going to see if I can find the OAV.
Tsurayu wrote:I think most would agree that Frostii is doing the best K-On! subs, but unfortunately they are doing too much at once and are really slow about releasing. They haven't even released episode 4 yet, and episode 5 aired today. CoalGuys are really fast, but it shows, they have a lot of typos and simple grammatical mistakes. Chihiro used to be good, but I don't know what happened to them, they are just plain horrible now with their Babel Fish like translations. <.<
That's the thing. I'm sure I have series that Chihiro did which were great, but all I keep hearing when I look into who's doing series lately is that they're being a pike of smeg... *shrugs*
I watched Gundam X 2 months back recently. The series was not to bad. The storyline was alright and Jamil was a cool character. In March the last anime series I watched was Lucky Star. And finally Xenosaga in April I gotta start playing it again. I finally saw what one of the attacks KOS-MOS does when she absorbs all the Gnosis. And that pistol she has as well. I forgot what the name was :/
Duran wrote:To get a better understanding of the series, you need to have watched to ROD OAV first.
Yeah, I finished the series now, all kinda makes sense. I'm going to see if I can find the OAV.
You might want to check out both manga series while you're at it. The first one goes into Yomiko's ties to Nenene (it takes place before the OAV), and the other follows the adventures of the Paper Sisters (takes place after ROD the TV)
