Archive for the ‘ANIME’ Category
February 11, 2007 – 9:50 pm
Finished Simoun this morning. Bittersweet. Been running through the AnimeSuki forums and various blogs, and I feel emotionally exhausted. Feel cheated because a lot was left unexplained, feel sad because it’s the end, feel a bit like crying because the final scene of the Arcus Prima was just so ephemeral. Overall, the anime had its flaws, but it was still really good and a big emotional connector. Seishun…
I can’t imagine how the director must’ve felt at the end. This anime really tried to pull together themes of hanging on to childhood, accepting life, the reality of change and the human desire to never change. It sounds like Peter Pan but balance with hope. But, we will always have the memories…
God, remembering Paraietta’s sketch makes me feel like crying again. This was a good show.
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February 10, 2007 – 11:50 am
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a good anime, aside from Ghost in the Shell SAC. I think the last time I tried something new and liked it enough to post, it was Strawberry Panic. Which, with the lifting of the veil of insanity, is kinda like enjoying garbage scraps because you happen to be sitting in the alleyway. Well, scratch that travesty off the list.
Simoun is another yuri anime, but that can be considered a pity because it’s actually not about yuri, even though it technically has (romantic or platonic emotional) female-female relationships. It’s more about a group of characters and their interactions, based in quite a creative fantasy world, the premise of which is that all humans are born female and are considered children until the age of 17, at which point they go to a sacred spring to choose the sex they wish to be for the rest of their lives and hence become adults. The story follows a group of priestesses, children who have not yet gone to the spring, who have traditionally taken the roles of worship to their God by singing to sacred “chariots” – the flying machines known as Simoun – and offering prayers by tracing lines in the sky.
However, war has broken out as the surrounding countries covet the mysterious technology of the Holy Land. The Simoun are now used as a fighting force and the lines they draw wreak destruction on thousands of enemy targets. Oh, and there’s some political plotting and hidden agendas too, otherwise it wouldn’t be a Bandai Visual anime.
Seriously however, Simoun sounds kinda bleh, but it looks really nice. The production values are very high, the art is generally of high quality (you couldn’t do this in OVA even 8 years ago, much less a 26 ep TV series), and the music is really good while being really weird (orchestra and tango, anyone?). I don’t mind the CG; it seems to add to the ethereal quality of the world. The only thing that really bugged me at the beginning, and still does now sometimes, is the voice-acting of some of the characters. Very flat and dissonant from the images on screen, which leads me to wonder if they took the take first then did the animation after.
I basically mini-marathoned Simoun, hitting about 7 eps in one night, 2 the next, 5 the next, and 1 this morning when I woke up. I discovered last night that eps 24-26 are not yet out, UGH!! And so I try to exercise some restraint.
I’d seen this series when it first came out, and dropped it after the first ep. I guess I watched because it was supposed to be yuri, but I didn’t like the character designs, the story was really weird, and I really didn’t like the yuri fanservice at all. Pointless kissing, bleh. The reason I decided to give it another try was because some blogs had called it the best series of the year (and in a good, story-centric, well-executed etc etc kind of way, not in the ZOMG!! Shizuka pwns Nagisa!! kind of way). Also, I was seriously sick with a cold. :P
Well, now that I’ve seen 15 eps, I thought I’d try to put down what I find so addictive about this show. I think it’s the characters. 12 characters was pretty overwhelming at the beginning, but they’ve each got their little bit, I’d assume. Some have their backgrounds covered, others are fascinating because of how they are depicted in their reactions to the current situation. I have to say I really like Paraetta, not because she is likeable, but because she is so flawed and insecure and painfully inadequate – just a child even though she looks the oldest. The two “main characters” Aeru and Nevriril, I’m not too sympathetic about, but they are the focus for Paraetta’s helplessness and a fulcrum for the cohesion of the team, and hence they become relevant too. The others aren’t terribly interesting in their own right, you just want to know what happens, you just want to see all the complex human dynamic unfold and crisscross and tear through.
There’s not much about the outside world, as most of the focus is on Simoun girls, so it’s a rather narrow focused view of the progression of the war from their point of view. With all that angsting going on, usually I’d drop this like a hot potato, but this time it’s not annoying and whiney. Overdramatic, perhaps, but I never detest a character, just feel pity. Some of the dialog is actually really good too. It’s like Gundam, done the right way. Perhaps if Amuro Rei had been a girl I might have been more accepting. Or maybe not.
In ep 2 or 3, when Nevriril goes to the Spring with her friend. The aftermath was one of the most emotionally shocking and memorable scenes I’d seen in anime. I think this was when I decided whoever was writing this thing had something down right.
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October 28, 2006 – 12:58 am
Halfway through ep21..
Screw Yaya!!! Miyuki all the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
God, Miyuki rocks. Absolutely.
Actually I thought she was freakin’ awesome back in the play ep, when she disected the Student Council politics shit in one swipe. God, this girl is incredible.
Yet, she’s the most tragic character. In love with Shizuma, so much so she is utterly self-sacrificial.
Brilliant, beautiful, tragic, flawed, doomed. Amazing.
Posted in Strawberry Panic | No Comments »
October 21, 2006 – 9:50 pm
Um…. so.
Who knew summer vacation could be so yuri-conducive? In ep 13, everything kinda hit the fan.
Didn’t much care for Amane and Hikari. Raised an eyebrow when Shizuma made her move on Nagisa (and two eyebrows when they hit first base, in the pool no less, and moved a jaw when Shizuma started working her way down Nagisa’s, um, chest). But damn, it was when Yaya-chan grabbed Hikari that I went, “Holy sh!t I can’t believe she finally did it!!”
Then in ep 14, I was completely floored when ye ol’ flashback showed that Yaya-chan not only sprinted for first, she made a dive a for second too. Unfortunately, she got royally booted off by Hikari.
Noooo!!!!
But, of course, totally to be expected. Man, Yaya-chan gets no justice. She even had a stare-down with Amane! Guts girl! You rule!! Too bad it’s awfully clear Hikari is meant to be with Amane. God, all that foreshadowing in the previous parts, hinting Hikari knew of Yaya’s feelings and wasn’t exactly comfortable… Geh. Life sucks.
I have to vote for Yaya-chan just because she’s in the school of tall, dark ‘n’ long, and spitfire. So sue me, my first anime chara obsession was Hino Rei. God, the hair…
Nagisa is soooooooooo clueless! I don’t get it!! Obviously she wasn’t terribly unhappy with Shizuma lessons in yurification, but then she’s like, “Tamao-chan, the ribbon will keep us together!” type thingy… Dude, are you just blind? And Tamao-chan, this girl is frickin’ scary coz any sane human being woulda gone postal by now. I think Tamao-chan needs to execute on Nagisa because otherwise she’d go down in history as most screwed over female yuri anime character (most screwed over yuri anime character because Souma, of course).
WTF. Kenjou and Momomi FTW!!
Posted in ANIME, Strawberry Panic | No Comments »
October 19, 2006 – 9:49 pm
I just finished watching Strawberry Panic ep 8.
Oh my god, this show is soooooooo cute!!
I saw the first ep way long ago, when it first came out. Heck, I had to, it was billed at the yuri show of the year, borrowing shamelessly from Marimite and a gaggle of other works. Mediaworks at their plagaristic best, ya know?
First ep = some oneesama girl like practically assaulting some kohai girl.
Okay, pass. Neither character appealed, and I only go for shows where I like the characters, or the plot or atmosphere is extremely good, such as in GitS.
But last week, I went to London on vacation and suddenly found myself with time to kill. Like, I’m not working frickin’ 80-90 hour weeks anymore. And on blogsuki people were raving about the ending to Stopa… I had to see it.
And so I did. Up till ep 6. It was hard going. I found it boring. I don’t like Nagisa. I keep getting her mixed up with Shizuma (coz Nagisa just sounds like such a seme name) and I don’t care for Nagisa and I think Tamao is kinda freaky…
But… I figured, what the hey. Coz I have time to kill and 50 billion people worship Yaya so there’s gotta be something about this show, right?
Yeah… I watched ep 7 on the plane. Back from London. Feeling miserable that I had left a bunch of good friends for Hell On Earth.
Ep 7 is the one with the psycho duo from Spica. And suddenly, SP wasn’t so innocently anymore. Almost kisses my @ss, those two Spica girls are like… … … ahem, excuse while I wipe my fogged glasses. Holy shit, this is not something you watch out of the safe confine of your room, girls. This is pretty damn hardcore.
Um. I thought it was pretty frickin’ awesome :D
Geh, so sue me, I’m a dirty ol’ anime fan.
Excuse me. “A bee always goes for honey.” Dude, those girls are underaged and highly dangerous. And all that weird ass psycho ‘I’m so awesome’ shit when trying to practically rape some 14 year old? Um… yeah. Needless to say I had to see more of this show ^^;;;;;;;
Okay I’m a sicko. Actually no. I was very much disturbed by that scene with Kaname. Kaname should be like neutralized. And nuetured. Yah. And icky as Akio, and that’s saying a lot.
But hey, that brings us to ep 8. Which is the cutest ep in the world. Who knew a lost umbrella would be sooooo cute?! Absolutely awesome. And I hate ‘cute’.
So, I guess I’ll be stickin’ with this one all the way. Even if I don’t give much more than a rat’s behind for Nagisa and Shizuma. Go Yaya! I know you’ll get shafted in the end because you have that aura of tragedy, but dammit… dammit! Go Yaya!! But, I also like Hikari. And Amane. Dammit! Threesome!
Excuse me, I’m high on jetlag.
Posted in ANIME, FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH | No Comments »
July 3, 2006 – 2:05 am
Still don’t care much for Bleach, but this video is pretty cool. YouTube is a godsend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48qryJku1Zw
Now someone needs to start taping old video games, heheh.
Posted in FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH, Misc anime | No Comments »
June 24, 2006 – 10:55 pm
From Bleach. Haven’t seen much Bleach but got taken by these two. They’re cool, and there’s angst too.
Also awesome Thunder Force III music, and Japanese swords at the Seikado Museum.
Hmm, need to get a life.
Posted in ANIME, Misc anime | No Comments »
April 14, 2006 – 7:52 pm
Um, SPOILERS.
If you haven’t seen, don’t read.
NOOOOOOOOOO! Archer! Archer bit the dust!
Dammit! I don’t rave much about anime anymore, especially not with male characters, but I have to make an exception for Archer.
The guy was cool. The guy was awesome. The guy was frickin’ amazing!!! Best male anime character ever! He didn’t even need to be androgynous to take the prize! Loved his hair, his outfit, his coat, the way he looks from the back, his voice (although he could stand some work on his Engrish), the way he kicked ass… And now he’s dead. *sigh*
Dear Archer, we will miss you.
In fact, Rin is so upset by your departure she’s wasted no time revving up the hawt girl-on-girl action with Saber :P
Posted in ANIME, Fate/stay night | 1 Comment »
February 9, 2006 – 12:55 am
For some reason, domestication perhaps, these two weren’t terribly exciting in Mai Otome. Natsuki, the somber Headmaster of Garderobe, and Shizuru, her loyal second-in-command.
Then came ep 17, when the brown stuff hit the fan, we incur much destruction and, yes, death, betrayal, angst, fury, tragedy… blah blah… But you know, I only had eyes for Shizuru and Natsuki :D
Shizuru – cool and collected and competent as ever, she’s apparently an excellent fighter even without her robes. And dang, they stuck the good artist on her for this ep, she looked awesome oozing ultra kyoto style as she tells Natsuki to beat it while she handles the riffraff.
Natsuki – much talk, no action for 16 eps, and sadly not much here either (it’s hilarious to hear her complaining in the voice over for the ep 18 preview!). All the same, I really like this Natsuki a lot. Probably has to do with the fact that she’s no longer a 16-year-old kid with some messed up emotional baggage and attitude to match, heh.
In any case, these two rule, and have waaaaay too little screen time.
On a plot-related note, I guess the writers are trying to match the emotional whammy of Mai-HiME, but it’s not doing much for me. I was shocked when Kazu-kun bit the dust, flabberghasted when Mai’s Child went ballistic, and completely, completely postal when Shizuru pulled the nasty. I have no idea what it would take to equal that in Mai Otome. It’s just not quite serious enough, even when it’s being serious, if you know what I mean.
Enough, just give me more of Shizuru and Natsuki being cool.
Not too excited by Natsuki’s transformation, Shizuru’s “Materialize!” was much cooler :D
I want a poster of Shizuru…
Posted in ANIME, Mai-Otome | No Comments »
January 15, 2006 – 9:01 pm
A new year, a new anime season. Having nothing better to do while waiting for my GitS SAC 2nd GIG (doncha love abbreviations?) DVDs to arrive from Amazon, I decided to abuse^H^H^H^H^H test my office’s bandwidth with some questionable – but having minute potential to be mildly entertaining in a mindless sort of way – new series.
Of the bunch, this is what I got:-
Fate/stay night
This was very hyped, and although I didn’t have much expectation at first, eps 1&2 lead me to believe this could be THE show for me to watch over the next 4 months.
- High production values (even if I find the characters generic looking, they are nicely generic, and the art and animation is top-rank TV)
- Very attractive female characters (well, to be honest only Rin for me, as Saber looks a bit too cute for my tastes, but she’s got plate mail and a big sword and is really powerful, so 3 out of 4 ain’t bad)
- A male lead that isn’t annoying (whom I am in fact cheering on… the guy is the best anime male protaganist for this sort of series as far as I can remember)
- Nice detail on the characterizations, such as Rin’s reactions to Archer, and Archer’s corresponding manipulations of her ego
- Music by Kawai Kenji who sounds like he’s trying to pull a Kajiura Yuki, heh.
Not hot on the story, or the weird interspersed SD humour, but the series is looking very good. Now, if only Rin would start hitting on Saber!!! :D~~~~~
Kagihime Monogatari Eikyu Alice Rondo
*phew* what a mouthful. Grabbed it because I was bored and desperate and this was the only anime out at the time that looked like it might fall in my line (didn’t want to watch no weeper about some dude with hepatitis falling in love with some girl with a terminal disease, and babes on battleships, puhlease, that’s so 80′s…). Thought maybe since it was a Kaishaku anime it’d be whacked but have some redeeming factor for us ancient otaku. Hmm… now I can say (to quote a friend) that whatever made Kannaduki great, it wasn’t Kaishaku. Toss, don’t touch this with a 10 foot pole. Too bad, since the animation quality is nice and the voice acting, while annoying as hell, is actually good. Someone grab Miki and stuff him back into Utena. Or replace him with Kozue and we can talk.
Lemon Angel Project
Ugh, I remember some hentai anime from the 80′s called this… or something similar. That’s not why I bt’ed this. Okay, I have to admit the word “yuri” somewhere in the middle of the bt listing page caught my eye. But honestly, I checked it out for the premise of an idol group and j-pop songs, and the character designs looked nice, okay? Unfortunately, the music was shit, the voice acting was really subpar (I liked the voice, and I thought the flatness was refreshing, until I realized it was a 14-year old who really didn’t know how to inject a modicum of variation into script-reading), and the execution is sadly sadly mediocre. What a waste, if Avex had hit this with any level of enthusiasm and inspiration, instead of tossing a budget and what was obviously some clueless exec’s idea of cashing in on the moe/idol boom, it might have been something I would follow. Hmm, then again I didn’t get past ep 2 of Fancy Lala, and that was much better overall. Ah well.
Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~
You think with a title like that, and the setup of a 3 girl (or to be more exact, 2 girls and 1 guy-turned-girl) I’d be jumping over this right? Wrong. I knew about this from before, and the manga just never caught my imagination even after flipping through a chapter. I think it’s the overly cute chara designs. Nice and pretty, but not really my thing. Or perhaps it’s that love triangles don’t sound terribly appealing when you don’t like how any of the characters look. Gee I sound so shallow right. So to rectify, and to find out why every anime blogger worth his mpeg decoders was hyping this, or really just to hear exactly what it was that was making every english speaker howl in laughter, I grab ep 1.
- On the plus side, it’s really pretty looking, it’s got a 3 girl triangle (@_@), the VAing is decent (ahem), and Hazumu looks cute as a girl, and goddamn that was the funniest thing I’ve heard in years, since, “You, the master of unlocking…”
- On the minus side, everyone looks cute enough to rot my teeth, it’s really love-triangly, and… I dunno, too nice and fluffy and feelly and … ugh … teeth … rotting…
So I may watch more, I may not.
More (dubious?) stuff to look forward to, coming soon:
Ergo Proxy which just looks cool dudes
Strawberry Panic! with brilliant slapstick Yuri Humour by … not, wait, that’s the Strawberry Shake manga, which changed it’s name to Strawberry Panic!, which is not this anime! No! This is the team that brought out such travesties as Futakoi (a bunch of moe cute twins pining after some loser sap), and Futakoi Alternative, the brilliant sequel that spawned that term, “twincest” *shudders*.
For a good roundup, read anime on my mind’s post. Then again, with this title splash, I may have to bt one ep, just to, um, validate my disdain, yeah…
No, honestly, that last anime was there because I had really thought it was said manga adaptation, and it was only halfway through writing my post and hunting for a synopsis that I realized my mistake.
Hey is it just me or has this season turned into some massive moe fest? I swear 90% of the shows feature an almost female cast in various incarnations of cuteness. I need my GitS DVDs quick, or I may succumb to the hawt yuri twincest of Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid. Yeah, Kurogane is hilarious, and he’s a fellow Malaysian! If I am forced to go back home, at least I have the comfort of knowing there’s one more hawt yuri fan in the vicinity.
Okay dudes, enough fun. Love Sundays, time to watch Mai-Otome 14.
Posted in ANIME | 4 Comments »
December 24, 2005 – 8:33 pm
Everyone’s talking about this. It’s originally a game made by TYPE MOON, a doujin group who made it massively big with what many are saying is one of the most magnificently crafted games of its genre, Tsukihime.
I’m not into visual storybook games, they take time to play and reading takes a ton of concentration. You also have to identify with the main character, who, as far as most visual storybooks go, solves the story and gets the girl (well, one of ‘em anyway). Anyway I’m too lazy… still haven’t gotten far with Akai Ito.
Fate/stay night is getting made into an anime, and it’s highly anticipated within the “in the know” anime circles. Honestly I wouldn’t have had a clue if I wasn’t trawling blogs for Mai Otome analyses. What I’ve seen doesn’t terribly excite me, so I guess the actual game plot and execution must be subliminary.
What I do like, however, is Tohsaka Rin, one of the secondary characters. Damn, this girl is hot! Must be the long black hair and bad ass attitude. I played the demo and she was the main character in that. If the anime doesn’t satisfy my fix for 2006, I may have to start doing games.
Posted in ANIME, Fate/stay night | 2 Comments »
December 18, 2005 – 8:04 pm
Character roundup on Mai Otome! (up to ep 11)
First of all, it’s great to see all the old faces back. The cast is growing and growing by the episode, and while some – like John Smith – are pretty much the same, others – like Midori and Akira – are very different! Mai Otome, as an anime in and of itself, isn’t terribly appealing to me. I don’t much care for the plot nor for Arika as the lead (although she definitely wins over Mai… maybe). But, as a full-budget AU fan-anime, woo boy does it rock!
Anyway, the reason I’m writing this up is because, for some reason, in the preview of ep 12, Akira rocks! Midori’s kinda interesting as a whack Sentai ninja leader (so what’s the connection with Youko, eh? smirk, nudge), Shizuru kicks ass when she fights but is boring in her interaction with Natsuki, except for that teeny wheeny really hentai scene, Nao is awesome as the ultra competent bad girl. Wow, who woulda thunk…
Posted in ANIME, Mai-Otome | No Comments »
December 11, 2005 – 9:25 pm
Remember I have a prechant for long-haired girls with swords who are really really competent? Caving into boredom, I checked out Shagaku no Shana, a new series this season which looked as if it would have the appropriate character.
After ep1, my mind is reeling. Okay, yes there’s the girl with really long dark hair, a really long katana, whoopass attitude from hell. There’s only one problem. She has massive eyes, and she looks frickin’ 10 years old. With breasts.
Actually, all the female characters look like kids. The male fare slightly better, but only just. They are all supposed to be in high school I think, which puts them at 15 or 16. It’s wrong. All that eye candy and half hidden panty shots and half nekkid posing girls in the opening and closing, its all wrong!! God, help me. You can’t go around drawing little girls as sex objects and pass it off as saying they’re in high school. Moe has gone out of hand.
You know what’s really scary? The generation of otaku grown up on this crap, and Mai Otome, and whatever else… how twisted would that be??!
Then again, I grew up on Sailor Moon. Hmm. Guess we’re all messed up.
Posted in ANIME | No Comments »
December 4, 2005 – 11:52 am
The anime season has been particularly dry for me, even considering Mai Otome which is cute and fun but not really stuff I get into as a series. I prefer my anime a bit more serious, dark and mysterious and cool. That’s just not happening. Speed Grapher got mired in mediocre execution after a promising start.
When the new stuff doesn’t quite cut it, it’s time to poke through the old. I have to admit, overlooking GitS SAC was a rather massive failure on my part as an anime fan. It’s one of the most highly regarded series in the last couple years, production values and storywise. I guess I didn’t really take it seriously when I was in Ann Arbor last year, because there were no subs at the time. And I knew too well that even for my level of Japanese, Shirow is simply beyond my grasp. Add in the fact that I didn’t consider the movies that good (too much philosophical mumbo jumbo as opposed to say Patlabor), and so I just let it sit and forgot about the whole deal.
Now, faced with the risk of brain decay, I finally decided to correct this. 5 days for the torrent, and I was happily in possession of the first series.
I’ve seen the first 7 eps, and it’s definitely living up to its reputation. No, it surpasses my expectations completely. The art and animation is excellent for a TV series, even given Production IG’s pedigree. The direction is brilliant at times. Some of the stand-alone stories may not be all that original or deep, but the overall quality is beyond what you might expect of any long-running series or movie, much less anime.
Most of the credit goes to the background setting. The world of GitS SAC is fascinatingly cyber, so alien and half fantasy, yet so very plausible because of the way the characters have been portrayed. They are all larger than life, badasses who are the best of the bunch, recruited from the military mostly, I think, although all their interactions hint that they walk the other side of the law with little guilt. Cyber hacking and roughing up people to make them talk, all in a day’s work. And the tools they use could be exactly the way the lone sheriff looked after his six-shooter and horse. No fuss, no special awe about the melding of digital and human.
Everyone in SAC treats ghost hacking and cyber inplants as just another fact of life, the way we got on using our computers to buy things online, despite the possibility of identity theft, hacked credit cards, paper trails on our activities… The world of SAC is our world, just a little more techy. It makes for a compelling draw, it becomes so easy to immerse yourself into Shirow’s creation.
Because for all its connotations about the nature of personality as a tangible, changeable, hackable “thing”, for some reason life is still fine and normal. It’s not that different, not really bleak or full of despair. This sets it apart from other superbly grim cyberpunk stories like Blade Runner, The Matrix, take your pick, where you don’t really want to live there, and you really don’t want to imagine humanity falling there either.
Next: The best part about SAC – The Major and the end credits
Posted in ANIME | No Comments »
November 18, 2005 – 10:49 pm
Dude, last week I laughed my head off on the pure whacked hentai fan service, this week, I am in awe with the creators for making cutesy girls in battle as cool as transforming robots.
After all my previous bashing of Sunrise, I must grudgingly admit that these guys are damn fast learners. Or, you may simply attribute this to the power of the creators when they are finally given free reign with story and budget. In any case, brilliant episode. Great action, great character dev (I actually like Arika and Mashiro now!) and nice tidbits of Shizuru and Natsuki.
The best part must be Arika powering up in her Blue Sky Sapphire otome suit, and then materializing a massive double-ended spear and launching a lightning attack complete with countdown sequence! Awesome, simply awesome! I loved the Masami Obari anime fight choreography of the 80′s, Detonator Orgun to be precise, and this just tickled my fancy just right. Good thing I don’t already have a predisposition for jailbait ala Arika, otherwise I would be head over heels after that fight!
Too much coolness, and just the right smidgeon of Natsuki/Shizuru domesticity, and some feelgood bonding with Arika and Mashiro. And, toss in Miyu’s cameo, dang, I think this is shaping up to be one of the better series in the last couple of years.
Posted in ANIME, Mai-Otome | No Comments »
