OWARINAKI TABIBITO - No Make Girl’s Endless Journey

Ghost in the Shell SAC Trilogy on Blu Ray

Bandai and Production IG have release GitS SAC, 2nd GIG, and Solid State Society in one Blu Ray pack that includes English subtitles, for ¥28,000. This is great news. EXCEPT, I bought SAC and 2nd GIG less than a year ago for like ¥65,000, under the (mistaken) impression it has English subs. Dude, I am feeling somewhat screwed.

Well, so I have 2 expensive paperweights on my bookshelf, and now I just placed an order for the Blu Ray pack. Happy, joy. Bah. Ugh, this media upgrading shit is killing now. Now that all my favourite anime are finally coming out on remastered DVD box sets, I have to worry about whether they will rerelease on Blu Ray in a couple years?!?! WTF?!!

*sigh* It’s a good thing, but not a happy thing, know what I mean?

EDIT: Oh, sorry, my bad, even more screw. It’s not the whole thing, it’s just the recompiled versions of Laughing Man and Individual Eleven. Okay, total piss off. At least I don’t feel bad for having fansubs of these. Duh. Bah, humbug.

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Xam’d Lost Memories ep 1

Wow.

All I can say is, wow. Words fail me in conveying the awe I feel upon watching this episode. My first taste of this new Bones series conjures up images of Miyazaki’s Nausicaa mixed with Simoun. An unfair comparison, perhaps, but just the combination to leave me giddily happy. This is the sort of anime I live for.

Bones has always been on my radar, for they do good series fantasy/sci-fi anime, and they do them with strong female characters. I confess I haven’t watched much, but I do love their original (just before leaving Sunrise) Escaflowne, and Kurau. Looks like they have another potential winner with Xam’d. I dunno what it’s about, but the first episode introduced an fine cast of intriguing characters and an imaginative world, which is good enough to hook me. On the technical side, I love the feel of the art and the character designs, which yes harken to Ghibli, but feel terribly refreshing in this action packed scenario.

My favourite so far is the motley crew of the ship in the opening, especially the captain who wins me over with her unorthodox character design and willful attitude. The strange girl who pilot their one-man craft is a close second, because hey, she’s just a reborn Nausicaa on a bigger Mehve :D Well, shades of Miyazaki aside, hints of weird technology and war tension have wet my appetite considerably.

On a another note, I find the BGM impressive and atmospheric. It’s mid-eastern and tribal in nature, especially in the “modern” setting part of the story, which only enhances the deliberate “like our world, but not quite” feel. The OP and ED are catchy, and surprisingly not out of place despite the fact that the OP is by BOOM BOOM SATELLITES, heh. Well, the OP definitely left an impression on me, since “slice of life” scenes shown contrasted so much with the “Nausicaa” portion before. Another plus to Bones for creating this sort of smart dichotomy.

At only one ep, it’s hard to say if Zam’d is bust or boom. Certainly it’s a very ambitious undertaking, judging by the complexity of the world and the large cast of characters; there’s plenty of rope with which Bones could hang themselves by. If they pull it off though, with a coherent story and sufficient attention to key characters, this could well be a strong contender for top anime of the year.

Its times like this when I am reminded to be incredibly grateful to be an anime fan. God, I love anime.

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Kara no Kyoukai ep 2, 3

After the disappointment of Mnemosyne, it’s been a rather slow month as I rummage through the new season for something that will satisfy my craving for cool, strong female characters in a dark violent setting. Yeah, I know that sounds so wrong, but that’s what floats my boat. I love well-made anime such as Mushishi and Seirei no Moribito and Patlabor and Escaflowne etc etc, but I will always crave straightforward kickass female noir action.

With Kara no Kyoukai ep 3, it seems that I have found my new pick. I saw ep 1 about a month ago, and it was okay. I was more impressed with ep 2, which features Shiki’s back story (part of it anyway) and sets out the series as a mix of “monster of the week” coupled with non-linear plot advancement. Well, not so much plot, as the telling of the story of Shiki and Kokutou.

The only problem with ep 2 was that I still wasn’t terribly interested in Shiki nor her relationship with Kokotou. It appears that Shiki is a split personality and one of them is a killer who harbours a sort of affection, as far as a sociopath can, for Kokutou. We don’t know why Shiki kills, or who Shiki is, really, but the ep ends with Shiki about to stab Kokutou.

Ep 3, the one which I found the best of the lot, is set between ep 2 and ep 1. Now we see the connections lining up, and Shiki and Kokutou both start feeling more real, less 2-dimensional. The focus of this episode is a girl named Fujino who has been killing members of a gang. Shiki immediately identifies her as “of the same cloth” as herself, ie a killer with an unstable mind, and is quite vehement in her hatred of the girl as Fujino appears to be an indiscriminate murderer; as Touko says, Shiki herself still holds on to certain codes of morality.

This fleshing out of Shiki’s personality makes her more intriguing to me, and the revelation of how she got the puppet arm in ep 1 is also a nice tidbit that I eagerly devoured, as was the nature of her psychic abilities. However, perhaps the best part of this story is Fujino herself, who is a very interesting victim. Her actions are murder, and Kokutou, ever the idealist, still considers it wrong, but he adds that he feels nothing for the men she murdered. Fujino could have been a flat character acting out her brand of insanity, but we are made to feel both sympathy, in that her pain is caused by something out of her control, as well as condemnation, for she is a murderer who denies her own guilt. My favourite part was the very end, when she cries that she wants to live, a sequence which suddenly restores to her a modicum of humanity. Although there seems little chance, for me the ultimate fanservice would be Fujino appearing in later eps to seriously massively kick some bad guy ass, heh.

I liked this part also because I liked the character design for Fujino, and I was very very drawn to her voice. At the end, I noted with pleasant surprise that her VA was Noto Mamiko. That’s just ridiculously good casting :) And again, I had forgotten that Shiki was played by Sakamoto Maaya. Yes, she’s that good.

All in all, I’m very happy with this series, and hope the remaining parts will be as good or better. As long as there’s no romance between Shiki and Kokutou, I think I’ll be well satisfied.

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Updates and new season

Macross Frontier on hold because I can’t be bothered to watch it. It just doesn’t feel very exciting. Until someone comes out and says the story progresses really well to its conclusion, it will stay in limbo.

Watched one ep of Koihime Musou, because it was supposed to be yuri. I think it will be the only ep I see. *shudders at chara designs*

Blade of the Immortal looked pretty good from the first ep. Production quality is high, probably because Bee Train had help from Production IG. I think Bee Train still lacks finesse in the more upfront sort of action scenes, and the ep felt awkward at moments. I wish they would make another surreal girls-with-guns anime featuring Kajiura Yuki, it’s what they are good for :P

Might try Ultraviolet. Started watching Utena again, this show is absolute genius.

Ugh, finger hurts from too much Monster Hunter.

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Mnemosyne ep 5, 6

It’s rather sad, but Mnemosyne, an anime that started out with quite a bit of potential to be a nostalgic throwback to the 80’s girls and guns era, has wound up a muddled mess.

Although the series, up till ep 4, was rife with plot holes, extraneous service, and middling art quality, it was still watchable if you took it at face value. After seeing ep 5, and especially the finale of ep 6, I cannot be so kind. It was a train wreck, plain and simple.

Ep 4 jumps 20 or so years into the future. Rin is gone; in her place is a woman who looks like her but has no memories. Rin-who-is-not-Rin lives a normal corporate life, has a lover who wants her to marry him. Mimi is a now a Buddhist nun. Teru cleaned up his act as is now boss of a very high profile conglomerate. The latest generation of Maeno is a pretty young thing who’s gutsy, great at manipulation, and forever pining to her boyfriend that there are no good men in her life. I like her :)

I thought the setup of this episode was quite good. It was cool to see Rin be given a normal life, and then to see her reaction on regaining her memory. She says, “It’s been centuries since I’ve had a lover. It was like living in a fairytale”. That’s pretty deep, to me anyway. Rin, who has no innocence left, was given a chance to taste it again. The plot also unfolded decently, although Apos’ use of Laura is getting old. Apos himself is shown to be the worst kind of villain, the one who personifies the trope “Rape the Dog“.

So far so good… The part I have beef with is just the gratuitous scene in the middle of nowhere. You know the one I’m talking about. The one with Mimi and the other immortals, in the monastery, which served zero plot value, and negative service value, because it was so bizarrely placed anyway. I’d have given this ep 3 1/2 stars without the scene, and 1/2 a star with. Bleh, I say.

And as for ep 6. Well, all’s well that ends well, Rin saves the universe and becomes God, literally, Apos is banished to eternal suffering (I think, I couldn’t tell), Mimi lives on, alone, and Mishio becomes yet another follower of the cult of Rin… and I don’t care one whit. Ah, you see, obviously they tried to tie it up into a whole with now loose ends. You know, leave no mysteries, explain it all, etc. Well, it sucked. Badly. This sounds like something a 4th grader would come up with. It’s horrible. It’s so bad, Mnemosyne will have the dubious honour of being the only anime series in which I, out of protest, refuse to buy the final DVD.

Now that I think about it, perhaps they also intended to follow in the old 80s tradition, showcasing an anime that sucks just as well as some of our other terrible classics did. Begone.

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Baccano! ep 1-13

Wow! What a pleasant surprise! Just finished this series, over the course of a few months, and while Baccano! isn’t one of my favourite anime by a long shot, it’s something I’m really really impressed with.

This is a show with a huge cast of characters, but each and every one of them are individual and important. In fact, this show is built upon these characters, and gives as much time to their idiosyncrasies as to the plot. The show doesn’t take itself seriously at all and everyone’s just kinda whacked, but that’s the beauty of this sort of show on anime - it works. Over-the-top psychos, more than a couple screws loose clowns, nasty mafia guys, superhuman deadly assassins, heroes with a heart of gold, and pure evil baddies, all done to glorious fun.

Baccano! is three stories all cut up and mashed together in a non-linear jumble. It takes more than half of this 13 episode series before you even get a vague clue of what is going on, and then finally it all wraps up in the last episode in a grand finale that is both what we have come to expect in natural conclusion, yet with still a surprise or two thrown in! Brilliant writing and setup! You could have told these stories separately and straightforwardly and they would still been quite good, but thanks to this mishmash gimmick, suddenly the series becomes in itself a fun show that also makes you think.

Of course, there are many ways in which this storytelling style could have failed. Luckily it’s based on a series of light novels and each story was firmly established. Of course, how the writers chose to cut it up was also crucial, because you have to give just enough to keep the audience watching and curious, yet be careful not to give it away before the end. The care with which this was done shows that the writers have not compromised for the lowest common denominator, ie they assume the viewer is pretty darn sophisticated, intelligent and patient. That’s good.

Of course, it’s not some kind of intellectual exercise. What was great about Baccano!, other than the well-handled execution of the story, was how each character was treated exactly how we, the audience, wanted it. Have you seen a show and gone, man I can’t believe the writers did that to a character, what a waste. Sometimes likable side characters are sacrificed as plot points, or kick-ass dudes get taken down in some utterly pitiful manner, or the punk kid is suddenly all powerful… Those shows can be frustrating no matter how good a story otherwise. Well, luckily, or perhaps miraculously, in Baccano!, each got what he or she deserved and more, either good or bad. That shows remarkable consistency in writing and interpreting the characters. You don’t jerk the viewer around.

Anyway, very good show and a stellar example of what creative talent can come up with even in this age of formulaic plotlines. The only problem is you have to go back and watch at least the first episode to get the whole story! In fact, I imagine a full rewatch would be very enjoyable indeed.

BTW, my favourite characters were Firo and Chane. What were yours?

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Kara no Kyoukai 1

Okay, it was a tossup between MacF 11 and Kara no Kyoukai. Didn’t know anything about Kara no Kyoukai except it was Type-Moon and hence very hype and probably undeliverable (I got burned by Fate/Stay Night anime), but it was Kajiura Yuki’s latest work and so I bit.

I’ll say off the bat that, still knowing nothing about the series other than what little backstory is miserly scattered to us in this first of seven episodes, I think I like it. It reminds me of Miyu; the obvious reasons are the supernatural horror flavour and the setup that we, the audience, are given little introduction to the situation and background, thus creating a mystery that is to be revealed in the following parts.

I like these types of mysteries because I like fantasy, dream-like worlds that are not our reality. The first key to making this succeed is to insert plenty of atmosphere and little details that keep you grounded even when you don’t know what the “real reasons” are. The other key is having at least one well-developed, sympathetic character so you, the viewer, can concentrate on their reactions and personality as the focal point, thus allowing you to view a world that may not make sense to you, via a character who is part of that world.

I think the Miyu OVAs are an excellent example of this. (Forgive the Miyu focus, I just watched ep 1 again the other day, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it has stood the test of years and years and more than a bit of my own idolatry.) Anyway, Kara no Kyoukai isn’t quite as mysterious and otherworldly, lacks properly developed characters for us to sympathize with, and in the end wasn’t a terribly imaginative story, but it had enough to hook me.

First of all the animation and art is gorgeous. It is sophisticated spending and beautifully detailed in cases; for instance, my favourite parts are how Shiki’s shadow is blurred on the edges when she entered the building, and how when she walks inside they show her as a shadow and then as a brightly lit figure as she passes from window to window. Granted well-animated and directed action is always a joy, but nowadays I find myself being delighted by all these tiny little bits of care that the director lavishes on the show. In something which relies on atmosphere, all the more so.

Next, I am always partial to kick-ass female main characters. Shiki is kick-ass. She’s also pretty damn cold and empty and unfortunately seems to have a weakness for the nominal male romantic interest, but if she continues to kick ass I will continue to watch. Okay, so the puppeteer thing was like super piquing my interest as well. Human body augmentation, in all its various cybernetic and spiritual forms, is a fascination of mine.

Last, Kajiura is there. It may not be as overwhelming as say Yoko Kanno’s GitS soundtrack, but I like her stuff and it makes everything better. Hell, I ordered the limited box of this ep without even seeing the show, just to get the soundtrack. So there.

The bad part of Kara no Kyoukai was that too little was explained. Not enough background folks. Actually, rich background isn’t really needed. As I said before, what you do need is one character to ground you. We had something, with Shiki eating the ice cream, but we didn’t get inside her head at all so that may as well have been nothing.

Hopefully the next episode will give something, but actually I don’t want it to be Shiki. I like Shiki, and I like Shiki as the mystery, so I want Shiki to be revealed to me via someone else. This is what made Miyu good, and I think it would be a great way to handle this situation as well. Somehow I doubt it’s gonna be though, but hey one can hope.

Oh, and I was really surprised that it was Sakamoto Maaya who played Shiki. Wow… loks like she’s reviving her seiyuu career. This is another woman I highly respect for her abilities. Go Maaya!

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Out of boredom…

As I wait for Mac F…

And so all is well.

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South of Nowhere - Save Spashley!

We take a break from our regular anime programming to bring you a little bit of a real-life TV series called South of Nowhere.

South of Nowhere is a teen series that deals with the usual angsty teen issues. Y’know, pregnancy, drugs, abuse, homosexuality…

It’d be another over-the-top show that I ignore, if not for one thing. Spencer and Ashley. Spashley. Y’know, the two girls who fall in love and out of love and then back in love…

I have to say right now that I hate soaps and dramas. That’s why I don’t usually watch ero-ge anime either; I just hate seeing people fall in love and then suffer by making stupid decisions and being selfish and oblivious and scared and… very human, in many ways. So I’m a romantic fool, so sue me.

But Spencer and Ashley are good, because halfway through the first season you realize both are broken in their own ways, and you can’t help but hope that they can mend each other, even just a little.

Oh, and Ashley (Mandy Musgrave) is like super uber hot. But that’s like, y’know, just a really small reason why.

Seriously though, SoN has been a really really important show, and not just for teens coming to grips with their own sexuality and battling fears of rejection from their own families and community. SoN, together with its fanbase and creator and the two actresses who continue to support it, is a symbol of how America (and hence a large portion of the world) is slowly coming to accept the idea of freedom to choose who you love. God, I almost want to cry. Watching SoN, I do wish I had some show like this in my teen years, or even some girl like Ashley. Ashley, who was messed up and confused and outrageous and outspoken, but also someone who wasn’t afraid to like girls that way.

But, although I would have liked to find Spashley sooner, it’s never too late. I’m glad I found them, and I hope that we will remember what they stood for.

PS, Mandy Musgrave and Gabrielle Christian interview on AfterEllen.com. Ashley and Spencer are cute, but their actresses are way way cooler. Makes me so glad to be alive in this day and age.

http://www.afterellen.com/blog/karman/brunch-with-bridget-video-blog-23

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Macross Frontier ep 10

Wow, this episode gave me a lot to think about. Once again the series does the action/nonaction flip, and yes the art and animation are subpar, but I ended the episode liking and being interested in our main characters a lot more. I felt as if a whole lot more happened in this episode than the last three put together. BTW, all I know about Macross Zero I read in Wiki, so I just took those parts at face value.

First let’s get through the bad parts, of which there were quite a few. Case in point, the fight scene with the monster; I can see what they were trying to achieve with speed lines and angles and stuff, but this was just horribly executed. Note to ye ol’ studio: don’t do action scenes unless they are CG. Next, the monster itself was a really awful cartoony design. I also felt that the setup was very hard to swallow because it takes almost a year to make a movie even if you rush it, and of course that’s not the sense of time you get here.

On the other hand, personally those weren’t fatal problems. The art and animation I can forgive because a badly done action sequence doesn’t detract from all the character exposition that was brought in in this episode. The unrealistic nature of this plotline I just have to waive as a necessary evil.

So taking into account all that, well, I think I really liked this episode. Why? Because the characters are no longer 2-dimensional (it would be cruel to call them 1-dimensional as we did get some back story).

Alto isn’t a total ass or a whipping boy or the butt of jokes… He’s a decent guy who helps Ranka out, with some prodding and a bit of wriggling to save his pride (but, landing himself in even hotter water!).

Ranka’s been rather pathetic as of late, but here she gets a chance to show us that charisma and good nature that made us cheer for her in the first couple eps of the series. Spunky, bright, really cute when embarrassed, and a great singer when no one is looking, this is the heroine we want.

And Sheryl, finally Sheryl gets a chance to shine again. I’ve hated her childish-mixed-with-diva antics in the last few episodes and I was losing a large part of my interest in this show. Luckily we are treated to a fascinatingly complex character in these 24 minutes. Well, other people my see different, but that’s what she was to me. Her teasing of Alto is of course her natural way of showing interest and having fun, but her kiss with Alto reveals that 1) she actually does like Alto a lot, and 2) she is willing to sacrifice herself to push Ranka along.

I love the tug-of-war of desires in Sheryl that we are suddenly shown. Of the three, Sheryl is the one who probably thinks the deepest and widest, and hence is the most conflicted. That kiss was definitely no whimsical snatch of fun - that was absolute calculation to jerk Alto’s strings and also drive Ranka into a more aggressive stance concerning her career. Unfortunately, it had the unwanted, unexpected result of affecting Sheryl herself. Until now Alto’s been a game, a good fun game, easy to tease and get a rise out. This kiss changed that, and Sheryl can’t deceive herself anymore. The question is whether or not she can cope with managing her personal feelings for Alto while trying to keep Ranka’s interests in priority.

I’m not going to speculate on the Vajra or on the mysterious informant or on Brera. All that is just plot details and will be revealed in due time. So no wasting my brain CPU cycles on it ^^ Although I would take a guess and say that Brera is a survivor of a Vajra attack who’s been cyborg’d up. And Mao is now Doctor Mao who’s someone important. And Sheryl’s earrings are some kinda amplifier so she’s related?! Uh… wait, on second thought, scratch speculation :P

I will give kudos though to the creative episode formats. I like how they incorporate the ED here and there, and this time’s was also a very nice. It’s gimmicky but it shows that the studio and creators care about the show and want to do something special to make it memorable.

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Lucky Star

Okay okay, I know, I keep putting off my comments on Mnemosyne ep 5. I started it, but I couldn’t get far because now Apos stirs such feelings of hate that I have to take a break. God he’s like the ultimate Rape The Dog villain.

Um, so to provide much needed break, I went and finished off the last two eps of Lucky Star. Which, overall, was a series that to my surprise grew on me despite its KyoAni and otaku roots. I’m not a raving fan, I didn’t marathon it, I’m not obsessed with any characters, I don’t think it’s like a super anime… but I really really enjoyed it like you would a nice cup of milk tea. You drink one cup at a time, and not every day, but when you drink it it mellows you out and leaves you with a smile.

My favourite part of Lucky Star is the dialog and writing. I love how they talk about all these really mundane everyday things which, really, I know for sure that I think and wonder about every now and then. Like seriously, the choice of eating a cream cone bun from the top or bottom really is significant to me, disproportionately so. I mean, I consider many different things when making that decision! Such as if you eat from the big end, you save yourself the trouble of having the filling plop out as you go along, but if you eat from the small end, your final bite has the highest filling to bun ratio… and so on. So, Lucky Star is like the ultimate mirror to my non-work-related brain.

The antics between the girls are also admittedly fun. All the otaku stereotypes are here, but it doesn’t feel exploitative or “made up” at all. I don’t know why, but when you put all these stereotypical character types together in this show, it’s totally natural! And funny. In a non-slapstick way. Which is the way I like my comedy. Non-slapstick that is :P

When watching this I wondered if non-anime fans would find it as amusing as I did. I really should run a test with some friends of mine… But the only problem is that the first 4 eps are really not that good (you know I never noticed the change in directors, but I just thought ep 5 and onwards a lot more fun) so it’s kinda hard to conduct the experiment. Ah well.

I guess I should watch Haruhi. So I know what 50% of the world is talking about. Like how I should watch End of Evangelion, or something.

Or, I think I will go watch Wolf’s Rain first. Must support Bones!

Image from anime.com. It was too cute! I had to use it! ToT

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Utena DVD Box Set

Before my comments on Mnemosyne ep 5, I just gotta tell the world…

UTENA DVD BOX SET is finally being released!!

http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/utena/

Man I have soooo been waiting for this. I watched this in real-time. It felt like a bizarre acid trip at times, and the Black Rose arc was pretty messed up, but it was not until those fateful episode near the end that I truly understood the mad, twisted genius of Ikuhara.

Utena was a good show. I started watching because it was Sailor Moon’s Ikuhara and it sounded a bit interesting. I finished this series with a profound respect for his creativity and excellent storytelling. A world utterly divorced from reality where characters act because of their extreme, but definitely real, emotions. I’m a sucker for that kind of story, and I think Utena was the one to show me the enormous potential of the genre.

To be honest, I don’t consider this a yuri or shoujoai anime, even though it does contain elements of such. It’s a fairytale, a dark, grim, confusing, hilarious, tragic, touching, stomach-churning, wondrous, sad and hopeful fairytale.

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Mnemosyne ep 1

As I was waiting for episode 5, to kill time I broke out the Vol1 DVD and watched the first episode. The Japanese release actually contains English subs, which although not unheard of is a bit of a surprise still. Anyway, I’m glad I rewatched it because I had forgotten a lot of things between Ep 1 and Ep 4 ^^;;

Because of the way this series progresses through time, the sub characters change appearance, and the relationships are different too. Some like Maeno and the assassin are obvious, but then I guess I hadn’t been paying much attention to the others as I had not realized who the old policeman geezer was in ep 4… Doh, it was the young totally shy guy whom Rin was twirling around her little finger. Another interesting tidbit I forgot was how Rin was totally hitting on Mimi after her “bad day at work” :P Kinda weird to see the tables turned, and makes you wonder what Rin is about, aside from her strong sense of justice, habit of picking up stray boys and having one-night stands with policemen, and talking in loving tones on the phone to a mysterious man.

The art in this episode is, of course, stellar. I wish the rest of the series could be like this, but although it is an OVA it seems to be done TV series style, ie where production teams alternate between the “real” studio and the “farm-out” studio. Too bad, since that’s the one place this series could shine. It’s not like I can advocate its intelligent plot or deep philosophical themes…

Rin’s expression when her butt sets off the laser is hilarious. And seriously, although I’m not a seiyuu fan much, Noto Mamiko is really quite dang awesome.

Unfortunately after watching this I felt rather sad because Rin was so kickass here what with the ninja chains and stuff, and as the series goes on she just becomes not-so-kickass cannon-fodder, or jet-engine fodder as the case may be. This episode also had some sophistication that was missing in the later episodes, like the attention to detail with Rin’s glasses. Ah well, time to move on to Ep 5!

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Macross Frontier ep 9

This was an excellent episode. Is it just me or have the last few eps been coming as bad-good pairs? For every episode with good art and writing, you have a farmed-out-to-foreign-substudio one. Watching this show on a weekly basis with other stuff in between (and being only casually into the show itself in the first place) probably lessens the dichotomy, but I can see this being really annoying if one were to marathon it. I think I can just wait for the US release for this series… not worth plonking down for the R2s. Unless it comes with a massive poster of Sheryl.

I liked this episode being it focused on a sub-character, namely Michel (Mikhail? what’s the real pronunciation? I guess it’s Michel to his “close friends”, and Mikhail to, um, his other friends, like Alto). Michel’s secret is a little undramatic compared to all the other stuff that’s been happening in this show; his sister was a sniper, and she killed herself after a fatal friendly fire incident. Michel’s been living in that shadow since, and I guess we can attribute some of his suave playboy persona to this personal demon.

We also find out a bit more about his relationship with Kulan. To be honest, I really like these two together, and that has nothing to do with Kulan’s loli form. Kulan’s a childhood friend and they have a long history. It shows up in their interactions which aren’t flirtatious but definitely far more familiar than friendship. That’s a real nice change compared to the Sheryl/Ranka/Alto new love triangle dynamic, or the highschool friends dynamic. And heck, Kulan’s interesting because she’s awesome in Zentradi form, and actually passably tolerable in Micron form :P

The best, but slightly weird part, is Michel talking to Kulan in his VF - that thing just moved so much like a human it was bizarre. Even held its head when Kulan (completely justifiably) slapped him. And you control those things with pedals and joysticks, ya know…

On a non-Michel note, Grace is moving up my books too. Anyone with cybernetic implants who can hack into military systems without batting an eye, and is voiced by cool-voice Inoue Kikuko rocks! Heheh.

So, what I want to know, and the episode hasn’t answered, is:-
1) Is Michel Zentradi? He’s got the ears for it, but he was Micron-sized when playing with Kulan. This doesn’t discount the possibility that he is a permanently Micronized Zentradi.
2) Where does the “Michel” pronunciation come from, since “Mi-ha-el” is the official?
3) Why on earth does Kulan still have her hair band on in the Micron chamber?! Geh -_-

I think where this episode succeeded was that it had a good amount of action thrown in with character development. I guess this one was meant to deal with “people’s reasons for fighting”, and offers Michel as the central character while touching upon Alto and Sheryl, emphasizing that everyone “has their own circumstances”. Ideally I would prefer this sort of thing to be covered slowly across a few episodes instead of crammed into one, but Macross F is a highly episodic format so I guess they are constrained to going through their checklist of plot points one at a time.

Posted in ANIME, Macross Frontier | No Comments »

Strawberry Panic - Kaname and Momomi may actually be hot

As I wait for the next episode of Macross Frontier and the next chapter of Windows of the Soul, I settled to reading Lestaki’s previous fic Astraea Lake. It’s a Strawberry Panic fic of massive proportions featuring our favourite evil lesbian duo would-be rapists, Kaname and Momomi.

Now, although I watched this series, and believe I did watch it to the end because I still bear the scars from frantically trying to claw my eyes out during that unintentionally traumatic Amane/Hikari hawt secks scene in the barn, I honestly don’t remember much except that Miyuki was awesome and deserved better, and Chikaru was awesome and probably some IQ 500 alien disguised as an innocent cute girl.

Oh, I also vaguely remember these two evil lesbian schoolgirls plotting to.. um.. plotting something, in between vaguely disturbing scenes of making out and bathing together - vaguely disturbing because the two most irredeemably despicable characters in the show were shown to have the most functional and normal relationship of the lot. That’s Strawberry Panic for you, I guess.

Now, Astraea Lake is just over 410,000 words of getting inside the head of Kaname and Momomi, our favourite evil lesbian duo of the conniving, plotting, dirty no-holds-barred variety. And while it is as dense and slow-moving as treacle, it is actually a highly addictive, fascinating read. One of the few fics in which OCs positioned nigh-perfectly - interesting enough that you would never skip any scenes in which they appear, but not so center-stage that you lose sight of the main plot. The story tells of Kaname and Momomi’s beginnings as friends in their second year and develops both their characters and relationships, plus shedding light on Amane (whom the author seems dislike as much as I do). It was a surprising delight, because in the TV series Kaname and Momomi just kinda struck me as rather creepy, and at the end of this fic I was sorry to part ways with their marvelously atypical lives.

So, if you have time to kill before the next episode of whatever it is you are watching, go and read this fic.

Posted in ANIME, Fanfiction, Strawberry Panic | 2 Comments »