Biiiig anime update.
Apr. 25th, 2005 04:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elwenSo I've been playing around with AniDB, and realized just how depressingly long a list of unwatched anime I have. Stuff that I might even have in completion, but just haven't gotten the chance to watch. So, um, I guess I'll go through some of that list now.
For the new season, we have Basilisk, Erementar Gerad, Loveless, Speed Grapher, and Tsubasa Chronicle.
Basilisk is about a battle between two ninja clans to decide the Tokugawa succession. There's also some Shakespeare-esque business about star-crossed lovers fated to kill each other or somesuch. It's not really my genre, but it's dark and has lots of badass martial arts, so I think I'll give it a few more episodes at least. The art style is really not to my taste. Most of the people just look gross. Even the people who are supposed to look handsome or beautiful are still drawn in too much of a shounen/seinen manner for me, but I'll deal. I really dislike the girls' eyes, though.
Erementar Gerad is a fantasy about this sky pirate and these things that merge with humans to fight. (That's all I got out of the first episode, sorry.) It's like Last Exile with a brighter palette and more magic. Which is to say it's not like Last Exile at all, really, but I watch few enough series with airships that I lump them all together. Except for Arc the Lad. Anyway, the music is by Kajiura Yuki, and the art's really nice, so I'll probably stick with it. Might pick up the manga, too.
Loveless is like a more extreme successor to Sukisyo (see below). It's . . . hard to describe. It's shounen-ai, everyone has cat-ears until they come of age (in some sense of the word that probably has to do with sex), and there are fighters for certain people who have secret names. I'm guessing the fansubbers are drawing a lot of background information from the game, but I sure don't have any idea what's going on yet. It's a good shounen-ai fix, anyhow.
Speed Grapher is about a photographer who takes pictures in a lot of high-risk situations -- it starts off with him taking pictures of a soldier, who was about to kill him, being torn apart by American fire. Now he's in Tokyo, where there's some weird secret society of rich, powerful people, and he ends up sneaking into their meeting and trying to take a picture of their "goddess". That's as far as the first episode gets, but from the preview and from summaries I've read, it sounds like the "goddess" is actually some school girl, and he ends up with some special power from her. Again, it's somewhat not my genre, but I tend to like these cynical shows for "art value" in a sense, the same way I like PLANETES.
Tsubasa Chronicle is CLAMP's AU crossover bonanza that is preventing them from finishing X. *mutter* I figure I should find out what it's all about at some point, and I'm too lazy to bother with the manga, so I'll give the anime a try. Haven't watched it yet, though.
So continuing from last season are Bleach, Mahou Sensei Negima, Kyou Kara Maou, Meine Liebe, and Mahoraba.
Bleach is Bleach. Everyone loves it. It's the only big-name series (like Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist) that I watch. However, I was following A-Keep's releases because I trusted their quality, and they went slow enough for me to keep up. With their recent split into Keep and Conclave, I'm not sure if they've dropped the project. If I end up having to switch groups, this will create an instant backlog of 10 episodes or so. Then again, I'm told there are pretty nasty cliffhangers in those episodes, so maybe it's better for me to watch them all at once. And it'll be good to be caught up, I suppose.
I haven't watched that much of Mahou Sensei Negima. I've been watching them raw, and I intend to continue to do so, but it looks like they're starting to get into more complicated plot issues that I'm afraid I might not understand. Anyway, it's a fairly fluffy series, so I'm not that worried about it, I guess.
I still adore Kyou Kara Maou. I finished the first season, which didn't really end at all, not even pseudo end like Fushigi Yuugi. I had actually thought that 26 was the end of the first season, because episode 27 started a new arc that was much darker than before, and it hasn't really resolved yet. I have raws of the first few episodes of the second season, but I might wait and see if AonE decides to stick with the project.
I guess Meine Liebe isn't dead after all. I had thought it was going to get into something big, but two episodes later, it's still fairly episodic. (And there are only 5 out of 13 episodes left.) I still find it a pretty satisfying series, though, even if they end up not getting anywhere.
Mahoraba is my cute, fluffy romanticomedy, and it's serving its purpose fine, but not much more than that.
I did manage to finish a series from last season, which was Sukisyo. Sukisyo was shounen-ai, about these two childhood friends, one who lost his memory, both of whom have second personalities dwelling inside them. There was a lot of fluff, but the actual story was pretty dark. Sadly, my favorite character from the first episode became successively less cool as the series progressed, but it was still pretty fun, I guess.
And then we have my unwatched backlog: Mahoujin Guru Guru, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Maria-sama ga Miteru ~Haru~, PLANETES, Tactics.
Mahoujin Guru Guru is a kids series that's very fantasy RPG-based (to the point that they flash the stats of new characters). But it's really cute and funny, so I'm trying to watch it. Blame Sarah for showing the movie/OVA/something-or-other as an anime club feature.
I really do like PLANETES a whole lot, but I just haven't been in the mood to watch it lately. I think I'll probably collect the DVDs as they're relased though -- they even held interviews with NASA people about space debris, which sounds really cool -- and I'm going to push for showing it in club next year. Going by AniDB's rating scale, I really think PLANETES is one of those series that makes anime fans. (The gateway drug, if you will.)
I've been plodding through Tactics. It's a neat series, and I prefer it over the manga, although I've heard bad things about the way they ended it. I don't like it nearly as much as I do Matantei Loki, though.
Not much to say about PGSM or Marimite since, well, I haven't watched any more of it. ^^;;
For the new season, we have Basilisk, Erementar Gerad, Loveless, Speed Grapher, and Tsubasa Chronicle.
Basilisk is about a battle between two ninja clans to decide the Tokugawa succession. There's also some Shakespeare-esque business about star-crossed lovers fated to kill each other or somesuch. It's not really my genre, but it's dark and has lots of badass martial arts, so I think I'll give it a few more episodes at least. The art style is really not to my taste. Most of the people just look gross. Even the people who are supposed to look handsome or beautiful are still drawn in too much of a shounen/seinen manner for me, but I'll deal. I really dislike the girls' eyes, though.
Erementar Gerad is a fantasy about this sky pirate and these things that merge with humans to fight. (That's all I got out of the first episode, sorry.) It's like Last Exile with a brighter palette and more magic. Which is to say it's not like Last Exile at all, really, but I watch few enough series with airships that I lump them all together. Except for Arc the Lad. Anyway, the music is by Kajiura Yuki, and the art's really nice, so I'll probably stick with it. Might pick up the manga, too.
Loveless is like a more extreme successor to Sukisyo (see below). It's . . . hard to describe. It's shounen-ai, everyone has cat-ears until they come of age (in some sense of the word that probably has to do with sex), and there are fighters for certain people who have secret names. I'm guessing the fansubbers are drawing a lot of background information from the game, but I sure don't have any idea what's going on yet. It's a good shounen-ai fix, anyhow.
Speed Grapher is about a photographer who takes pictures in a lot of high-risk situations -- it starts off with him taking pictures of a soldier, who was about to kill him, being torn apart by American fire. Now he's in Tokyo, where there's some weird secret society of rich, powerful people, and he ends up sneaking into their meeting and trying to take a picture of their "goddess". That's as far as the first episode gets, but from the preview and from summaries I've read, it sounds like the "goddess" is actually some school girl, and he ends up with some special power from her. Again, it's somewhat not my genre, but I tend to like these cynical shows for "art value" in a sense, the same way I like PLANETES.
Tsubasa Chronicle is CLAMP's AU crossover bonanza that is preventing them from finishing X. *mutter* I figure I should find out what it's all about at some point, and I'm too lazy to bother with the manga, so I'll give the anime a try. Haven't watched it yet, though.
So continuing from last season are Bleach, Mahou Sensei Negima, Kyou Kara Maou, Meine Liebe, and Mahoraba.
Bleach is Bleach. Everyone loves it. It's the only big-name series (like Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist) that I watch. However, I was following A-Keep's releases because I trusted their quality, and they went slow enough for me to keep up. With their recent split into Keep and Conclave, I'm not sure if they've dropped the project. If I end up having to switch groups, this will create an instant backlog of 10 episodes or so. Then again, I'm told there are pretty nasty cliffhangers in those episodes, so maybe it's better for me to watch them all at once. And it'll be good to be caught up, I suppose.
I haven't watched that much of Mahou Sensei Negima. I've been watching them raw, and I intend to continue to do so, but it looks like they're starting to get into more complicated plot issues that I'm afraid I might not understand. Anyway, it's a fairly fluffy series, so I'm not that worried about it, I guess.
I still adore Kyou Kara Maou. I finished the first season, which didn't really end at all, not even pseudo end like Fushigi Yuugi. I had actually thought that 26 was the end of the first season, because episode 27 started a new arc that was much darker than before, and it hasn't really resolved yet. I have raws of the first few episodes of the second season, but I might wait and see if AonE decides to stick with the project.
I guess Meine Liebe isn't dead after all. I had thought it was going to get into something big, but two episodes later, it's still fairly episodic. (And there are only 5 out of 13 episodes left.) I still find it a pretty satisfying series, though, even if they end up not getting anywhere.
Mahoraba is my cute, fluffy romanticomedy, and it's serving its purpose fine, but not much more than that.
I did manage to finish a series from last season, which was Sukisyo. Sukisyo was shounen-ai, about these two childhood friends, one who lost his memory, both of whom have second personalities dwelling inside them. There was a lot of fluff, but the actual story was pretty dark. Sadly, my favorite character from the first episode became successively less cool as the series progressed, but it was still pretty fun, I guess.
And then we have my unwatched backlog: Mahoujin Guru Guru, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Maria-sama ga Miteru ~Haru~, PLANETES, Tactics.
Mahoujin Guru Guru is a kids series that's very fantasy RPG-based (to the point that they flash the stats of new characters). But it's really cute and funny, so I'm trying to watch it. Blame Sarah for showing the movie/OVA/something-or-other as an anime club feature.
I really do like PLANETES a whole lot, but I just haven't been in the mood to watch it lately. I think I'll probably collect the DVDs as they're relased though -- they even held interviews with NASA people about space debris, which sounds really cool -- and I'm going to push for showing it in club next year. Going by AniDB's rating scale, I really think PLANETES is one of those series that makes anime fans. (The gateway drug, if you will.)
I've been plodding through Tactics. It's a neat series, and I prefer it over the manga, although I've heard bad things about the way they ended it. I don't like it nearly as much as I do Matantei Loki, though.
Not much to say about PGSM or Marimite since, well, I haven't watched any more of it. ^^;;
