Anime post.
Nov. 29th, 2009 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elwenI guess the season is almost over now, huh. ^^;; Well, at least I've been keeping up with two whole series this time (the first two below), even if I haven't found the time to post about them.
Sacred Blacksmith - A nice little swords-and-sorcery series that has yet to spin out of control (although there have been hints that it is coming). Sometimes a bit gratuitous with the fanservice -- are you really telling me that Cecily wears nothing underneath her breastplate? -- but generally knows what to focus on. It's only slated for 12 episodes, so I kind of hope it stays with its current slice-of-life and sinister-plot-of-the-day format. I mean, the novels are out to 7, so maybe they'll never get to the end-of-the-world part.
Darker Than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini - The first DtB was very cool and stylish and totally awesome, but in a slow, non-compelling kind of way -- much like Cowboy Bebop. The new DtB is a little less cool and stylish, but still totally awesome, and now in a riveting, I-need-the-next-episode-now way. I liked the old, ice-cold Hei better than the new, prickly Hei, but underneath he is still as tormented and a little bit of a softie, which is still fun to watch. There is a bit of a Geass R2 feel to the show, in that both were original anime series not initially intended to be multiple seasons and now they have to make up new plot devices to carry it forward. But... we'll see.
Miracle Train ~Ooedo-sen e Youkoso~ - Legend has it that there is a train full of at-your-service bishounen that appears only to women in distress. ...well, at least we're dropping all the pretenses. I've only seen two episodes so far, but it looks like each episode is a self-contained drama between a woman and one of the guys -- pretty platonic, but enough to get the josei fangirls' hearts thumping. I'm saving this series for laundry-folding and other such activities -- I don't need to keep my eyes on the screen, just my ear on the seiyuu. [Hey, it's hard to find series with a flirty Okiayu as opposed to an evil Okiayu.] The other saving feature is the random trivia about the train line. It's kind of like reliving my Japan trip. Especially the time Tsukishima started making monja-yaki on the train. :D
Kampfer - A guy turns into a girl with superpowers in order to fight against and alongside other girls at his school. It's actually pretty amusing to watch in a variety of ways.
Shin Koihime Musou - Yay, more yuritastic fluff. I've only watched the first episode so far, but I have no doubts it will be the same kind of fun as the first season. And maybe we'll get to see the real Liu Bei this time.
Kiddy Girl-and - I'm not sure I want to watch this series so much as I want to rewatch the original series. The first episode was cool for the nostalgia, but the new characters were super-annoying.
Tegami Bachi (Letter Bee) - Couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters by the end of the first episode, so dropped.
Tatakau Shisho: Book of Bantorra - More fighting librarians! Except the books are actually stone tablets that form from your body after you're dead and contain your personality and memories, or something like that. It seemed like an okay series, but too dark for my liking. It did have a very sexy evil Okiayu in it, though.
On the older series front, I've been trying to rewatch KareKano again (I must have watched the first episode like 10 times now) and to pick Kaleido Star back up. Also maybe getting back into Prince of Tennis. Back around episode 101, I was so sure that the match with Rikkaidai was just around the corner, so I got demoralized when I realized that there was a bunch of training first, with some filler, and now a random rematch with Hyotei first. The Hyotei episodes are okay so far, but I suspect there will be yet more filler after that before Rikkaidai, which makes me want to tear my hair out. Also, I've already forgotten who all these Hyotei people are and what their backstories are and all. Like the guy who cut his hair -- but I guess the producers kind of realize that and helpfully provide flashbacks.
And the stuff from last season that I actually finished:
Shangri-La - Kind of a blah ending... a little like Geass R2's in some ways. Like, there was a huge climax, but then... nothing really. I think the series needed more stable underpinnings (harhar) than its barely-explained mix of occult and science.
07-Ghost - Still one of the best series in a long while. I love Teito's friendships with Mikage and then Hakuren -- though I shudder to think of the amount of slash they must generate. And Frau is awesome, of course. I hope they come out with a sequel. And I am debating with myself whether to pick up the manga. The problem is that whenever I pick up gensaku, I always want to start at the beginning, no matter how faithful the adaptation was -- and it appears that 07-Ghost was pretty faithful -- but the plot is still too familiar for it to keep my attention. So I have to wait a bit, or suck it up and skip to where the anime left off. Haven't decided which to do here -- probably wait, and hope for an anime sequel in the meantime. The other problem is that I don't really like the manga's art style, and it seems to move too quickly through the moments I really liked in the anime.
Pandora Hearts - It seems like there are a lot of Alice in Wonderland variations lately. Pandora Hearts borrows a few characters, and the warped reality feel, but not much more, really. I don't know how to explain what makes this series good. And it's not just Ishida Akira as Break, I promise. [But OMG, Break. It's very hard to decide whether he or Xellos is more awesome.] I am having the same dilemma as with 07-Ghost above about whether to pick up the manga.
Sacred Blacksmith - A nice little swords-and-sorcery series that has yet to spin out of control (although there have been hints that it is coming). Sometimes a bit gratuitous with the fanservice -- are you really telling me that Cecily wears nothing underneath her breastplate? -- but generally knows what to focus on. It's only slated for 12 episodes, so I kind of hope it stays with its current slice-of-life and sinister-plot-of-the-day format. I mean, the novels are out to 7, so maybe they'll never get to the end-of-the-world part.
Darker Than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini - The first DtB was very cool and stylish and totally awesome, but in a slow, non-compelling kind of way -- much like Cowboy Bebop. The new DtB is a little less cool and stylish, but still totally awesome, and now in a riveting, I-need-the-next-episode-now way. I liked the old, ice-cold Hei better than the new, prickly Hei, but underneath he is still as tormented and a little bit of a softie, which is still fun to watch. There is a bit of a Geass R2 feel to the show, in that both were original anime series not initially intended to be multiple seasons and now they have to make up new plot devices to carry it forward. But... we'll see.
Miracle Train ~Ooedo-sen e Youkoso~ - Legend has it that there is a train full of at-your-service bishounen that appears only to women in distress. ...well, at least we're dropping all the pretenses. I've only seen two episodes so far, but it looks like each episode is a self-contained drama between a woman and one of the guys -- pretty platonic, but enough to get the josei fangirls' hearts thumping. I'm saving this series for laundry-folding and other such activities -- I don't need to keep my eyes on the screen, just my ear on the seiyuu. [Hey, it's hard to find series with a flirty Okiayu as opposed to an evil Okiayu.] The other saving feature is the random trivia about the train line. It's kind of like reliving my Japan trip. Especially the time Tsukishima started making monja-yaki on the train. :D
Kampfer - A guy turns into a girl with superpowers in order to fight against and alongside other girls at his school. It's actually pretty amusing to watch in a variety of ways.
Shin Koihime Musou - Yay, more yuritastic fluff. I've only watched the first episode so far, but I have no doubts it will be the same kind of fun as the first season. And maybe we'll get to see the real Liu Bei this time.
Kiddy Girl-and - I'm not sure I want to watch this series so much as I want to rewatch the original series. The first episode was cool for the nostalgia, but the new characters were super-annoying.
Tegami Bachi (Letter Bee) - Couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters by the end of the first episode, so dropped.
Tatakau Shisho: Book of Bantorra - More fighting librarians! Except the books are actually stone tablets that form from your body after you're dead and contain your personality and memories, or something like that. It seemed like an okay series, but too dark for my liking. It did have a very sexy evil Okiayu in it, though.
On the older series front, I've been trying to rewatch KareKano again (I must have watched the first episode like 10 times now) and to pick Kaleido Star back up. Also maybe getting back into Prince of Tennis. Back around episode 101, I was so sure that the match with Rikkaidai was just around the corner, so I got demoralized when I realized that there was a bunch of training first, with some filler, and now a random rematch with Hyotei first. The Hyotei episodes are okay so far, but I suspect there will be yet more filler after that before Rikkaidai, which makes me want to tear my hair out. Also, I've already forgotten who all these Hyotei people are and what their backstories are and all. Like the guy who cut his hair -- but I guess the producers kind of realize that and helpfully provide flashbacks.
And the stuff from last season that I actually finished:
Shangri-La - Kind of a blah ending... a little like Geass R2's in some ways. Like, there was a huge climax, but then... nothing really. I think the series needed more stable underpinnings (harhar) than its barely-explained mix of occult and science.
07-Ghost - Still one of the best series in a long while. I love Teito's friendships with Mikage and then Hakuren -- though I shudder to think of the amount of slash they must generate. And Frau is awesome, of course. I hope they come out with a sequel. And I am debating with myself whether to pick up the manga. The problem is that whenever I pick up gensaku, I always want to start at the beginning, no matter how faithful the adaptation was -- and it appears that 07-Ghost was pretty faithful -- but the plot is still too familiar for it to keep my attention. So I have to wait a bit, or suck it up and skip to where the anime left off. Haven't decided which to do here -- probably wait, and hope for an anime sequel in the meantime. The other problem is that I don't really like the manga's art style, and it seems to move too quickly through the moments I really liked in the anime.
Pandora Hearts - It seems like there are a lot of Alice in Wonderland variations lately. Pandora Hearts borrows a few characters, and the warped reality feel, but not much more, really. I don't know how to explain what makes this series good. And it's not just Ishida Akira as Break, I promise. [But OMG, Break. It's very hard to decide whether he or Xellos is more awesome.] I am having the same dilemma as with 07-Ghost above about whether to pick up the manga.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-17 08:32 pm (UTC)Kämpfer: Watched, it was awful. Well, a bit enjoyable if you don't take it seriously, at all, but the end was a huge letdown.
Kiddy Girl-and: It gets better around episode 10, when the characters mature a bit, as well (and finally Eclair and Lumiere are mentioned).
07-Ghost: I can only hope that there will be a 2nd season [well, wiki says so, but anyone can edit the article (~~"). The anime actually did the manga justice, but if you're interested in how it all turns out, I guess you should read it. I'm also the type who starts reading it from chapter 1, even if's nothing new, but there are, at least, some tidbits of information which were skipped during the anime.
Pandora Hearts: Watching it now. It looks quite good, and everyone has been going on about what a masterpiece it is, so I'm interested. But yeah, Ishida Akira rules. <3 [It's kind of wierd how he got two >>really<< similar roles with Break and Xellos, not like I'm complaining. ~]
no subject
Date: 2010-01-17 09:43 pm (UTC)