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The standard version of Kite arrived this morning. (The Special Edition I watched previously was a fansub.)

It has a much better flow than uncut version except the it's missing the scene where Obari is tormented by Akai. It goes straight from the railway lavatory scene to a shot in Akai's apartment showing Kanie dragging Obari away to be executed. It then switches to a conversation between Sawa and Akai who are naked on the bed. It screams "missing footage". The narrative flow is badly disrupted.

Obviously, the director's cut is the one to get. Confused

There are three things I dislike in entertainment:
-The use of children in an adult capacity (Home Alone, any 80s sitcom)
-Talking animals
-Both of the above

There has to be a very fine balance in order to keep me invested in the show. For example, I'll forgive "human intelligence" in an animal even though they'll not speak.

This balance is not easy, and I'll be the first to admit this. Too crass, and it's eye-rolling time. Too adult, and it becomes insulting, especially with sexual innuendo.

Mitsudomoe, although starting off rough, has found this balance and I haven't laughed this hard since Ramen Fighter Miki (which, if you haven't seen/bought, shame on you!).

Remember, comedy is subjective, so elements I found funny may differ with you, but given it's a free stream on Crunchyroll, it wouldn't hurt to check out a few episodes.

It takes off after episode 4, so forgive the very vulgar and crude "going for laughs" the first 3 episodes deliver. Somewhere along the way, someone figured out this recipe wasn't going to sustain the rest of the episodes, and it shows.

While still using crass humor, the turn of events comes when they're applied through misunderstandings rather than direct assault. This change turned this series into comedic gold because of it, and I'm very thankful for it.

The first thing viewers will note are the elementary school girls, but don't let this dissuade you from a viewing. So far, up through episode 8, there has been no blatant fanservice/pantsu shots, though the series uses these elements to its advantage. It has also not gone toward the "sleep with me, teacher" other series have gone aside from those listening in on conversations without context.

These are the moments where the series shines. For example, a conversation between Hitoha and Yabe, who both like the Power Rangers-like show, have a discussion when a gust of wind immediately changes the entire context by asking the question "Did you see?".

Each episode is made up of shorts, and this is another blessing in disguise as writers didn't have to make things up to keep things moving along. This made the "nympho" episode hilarious while having it wrap up nicely. It also allows other episodes to reference these moments in the future without having to repeat the joke for viewers to "catch up".

I will admit I had a Kodomo no Jikan fear applied to this series, and I strayed because of it, but a few reviews piqued my curiosity and I'm definitely one who will recommend this to anyone who can deal with jokes kids use while remaining pretty clean fanservice-wise.

In other words: If you enjoyed Panty & Stocking, try this one. You'll find yourself smiling before you know it (well, once you get past episode 3, that is).

One thing's for sure: anyone lucky enough to distribute it on DVD will find themselves a buyer in me.

im into Sci-fi thrillers because of Steins Gate. I need more now.
This anime right now is fantastic. It has time-travel phenomena and more.
NIce music to top it off and intense solemn build-ups.

If some1 can recommend me scif-fi thrillers that i have not watched... please tell me.
I truly will appreciate it.
I've seen a lot. New titles are highly needed for me since i have not watched anime for quite some while now. thanks for those who decide to help. inbox me pls

^^^^^
Sci-fi recommendations:
animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=42736
Thrillers (needs more work) :
animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=86927

thanks so much friend.

So I've been watching Magic Knight Rayearth lately. I was an anime fan in the 90s, but I somehow passed this show by. I'm enjoying it, but obviously it's by-the-numbers JRPG storytelling that's carried by its distinctive character designs and naive charm. However, I started thinking about a bunch of things while watching it.

First, I remembered that Rayearth was being strongly considered for U.S. television back in the 90s. Going strictly by the content, Rayearth probably would have been easier to adapt for U.S. TV than Sailor Moon was. It takes place in another world so it's not culturally specific, and there are no real "controversial" gender/sex issues in the show. Violence is no more or less heavy than Sailor Moon. It's not an extremely visually "girly" show either, which gives it better cross-gender appeal than Sailor Moon. In fact, I couldn't think of any reason the show never made it to TV aside from the fact that it has a low episode count that does not fit the standard requirements of a syndicated package (which I believe is 65 episodes min).

When I got to the episode where a supporting character died, I started thinking up how the American adaptation writers would have written around it, LOL.

It was at this point that I started thinking about why I became an anime fan in the first place. The fact is, it always feels like anime characters play for keeps. Characters CAN die. Every once in a while, an anime will even have a major character die. And as much as people harp on anime cliches, the fact is the fate of anime characters are always slightly in doubt, even in the most mediocre shows. Even if anime characters get revived it seems like a miracle happened rather than a standard comic book practice.

As superb as the best American cartoons are, you're usually fairly sure that at the end of the day, all the good guys will figure it out and stay alive, and the bad guy will be repelled but won't be killed.

Take Gargoyles. Excellent show. But you know at the end of the day, Goliath and gang will live on, and guys like Xanatos will keep sticking around. And the game will go on and on. Same with Batman TAS. The bad guys will never die. The fate of the good guys is never in real doubt.

But in anime, you're never quite sure if the good guys will all survive. They usually still will, but there is always some doubt. You're not even sure if they'll accomplish their ultimate goal. And if they don't die, you're not sure that things will always end up well for them.

Rayearth reminded me of all that. Maybe not intentionally, but I guess I have to appreciate that the show reminded me of what made me an anime fan in the first place.

Thanks, Magic Knight Rayearth! Laughing

I watched Corpse Princess and Murder Princess on Hulu, in English, this week. So I might as well consider it Meh-Fest. I suppose that I could have gone with Princess-fest, but my beard forbids it.

Both of these ultimately amounted to reminding me of what mediocrity felt like, although for slightly different reasons and I can't say that I particularly minded having watched either, I even enjoyed some of both, but neither was on balance really affecting or compelling.

Corpse Princess was more aggravating because it was both the longer of the two and had some very promising ideas and concepts, but little of it worked very well. The chief problem was that the protagonist wasn't the titular Corpse Princess, Makina Hoshimora, but instead some dull person named Ouri Kagami. He isn't quite a mindless milquetoast and he has what should be an interesting character hook, but he never behaves or feels very interesting. He was beige incarnate. His personality and mannerisms were roughly as exciting as a color scheme chosen by a timid Midwestern housewife. There were several characters whom I would have preferred to follow rather than him. One was the titular Corpse Princess, who was fierce, exciting and interesting and sometimes actually behaved in way that expressed the depths that she was described as having. She also benefited from being excellently portrayed in English by Luci Christian, who mustered an fearsome, commanding tone throughout, whereas Aaron Dismuke was left giving Ouri a voice that sounded almost like it was some generic template generated for testing purposes.

This show had a lot of good ideas for things that could happen to the characters and a pretty good mythology for the Shikabane, including what was in concept a very good twist on the nature of Shikabane Hime that should have been been stunning when ultimately revealed, but couldn't in fact triumph over the indifference that the series had thus far inculcated. The same thing happened just at the close of the first season when a notionally tragic moment evoked barely any emotional response. There were a few cases like that. The only one that I felt any emotional response at all to was the fate of a Shikabane Hime who finds her sense of purpose, but loses any chance to act upon it to petty cruelty, and even that, even having caught my sentiments, was slightly muted in the end by a too unceremonious conclusion to her story.

There were some background characters and they seemed perhaps promising, but were given too little to do, which was a shame, because I had become so uninterested in Ouri that I kept wanting to spend more time with them. As it stands, they were mostly just more disappointments and even a moment when they should be able to partake in an emotional triumph mostly encourages malaise because the show lacked the budget to properly portray a grand melee and the emotional moment felt mostly like just awkward exposition. More than a few things that should have relied upon feeling and sentiment were handled that way. Then there was the regular exposition. The antagonists rattled on at length about their, "nature," several times, but it never made very good sense. What was worse is that in the early episodes, Makina shouts the premise of Shikabane Hime being Shikabane who kill other Shikabane out several times, possibly twice in the same episode. It was like the flashbacks in Noir, except whereas I found so much else to like that I didn't mind those, I was damned sick of the word Shikabane by halfway through the first season, but the characters just kept on saying it. A drinking game based upon that could be used as a creative alternative to lethal injection!

I often found myself curious as to what might happen next, but never feeling that I would be bothered for more than an instant if I somehow couldn't. It was a few good ideas, some fun action and Luci Christian being engaging to listen to all burdened by a lead with the energy and charisma of a cubicle farm and inelegant execution.

I will, however, go out on a limb and say that I liked the ending. It was burdened by the series' problems of execution, but it gave closure to many of the threads of the story and I didn't see its final scenes as narratively open, thus suggesting further episodes, as some seem to have, but as a fitting way to indicate that the relationship between Makina and Ouri had settled and its development had largely concluded, but their life together hadn't. It just seemed fitting.

I'll omit any quotations from the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 this time, even though I really wanted to quote the section about the Council of Censors.

Whereas Corpse Princess was drug down by its execution, Murder Princess was mostly just very ordinary. The setting was a rather typical feeling anime fantasy setting where mysterious 'lost technology' appears from time to time. There is a powerful secret that acts as a macguffin. a looming villain(ess, in this case), a betrayal that nobody not ordered so by the plot would be surprised by and a silly nihilistic rationale for the villians' attempt to end the world. It was mostly executed in a way a unremarkable as the content. I didn't mind watching it, but it was really rather other than special.

I must admit to having enjoyed some of the characters. The titular Murder Princess, Alita, is the protagonist in this case, even if she doesn't become murdery until an arbitrary even that happens mercifully early in the story, and she's fun to watch. She's aggressive, violent and lively. She's never particularly emotionally intense in any way, but she isn't boring or annoying. her English voice is Monica Rial, who gives her a strong, energetic tone that fits well. There is a character who is meeker, Alita's maid Milano (my favorite are the double chocolate variety), but were never forced to tolerate that for very long and that meekness serves as something for her to mature past, so it works out well enough. There's also the Princess' henchman Dominikov, who is cool, although his strange appearance and unclear nature, as well as that of his typically gentle (except in battle) giant companion Pete, go unquestioned and unexplored for implausibly long. There are also two girl-androids who do some killing as antagonists, then get a slightly satisfying, but mostly unconvincing pardon to become 'good guys'. Most everybody else was adequate, but not very memorable.

It looks nice enough for the most part. The character designs are largely unremarkable, although some of the 'monsters' are slightly interesting to look at and nothing is unpleasant to the eye. The animation is unremarkable and it isn't too hard to note the short-cuts taken in animating the action scenes.

I almost wish that this had been a thirteen episode series rather than a six episode OVA, because I feel that part of the reason that it failed to have much effect, other than the rather ordinary nature of much of it, was that there was too little time to build to events and develop relationships among the characters. There series makes much of a growing bond between the Murder Princess and her maid, Milano (best dunked in milk), which is something that I expect from a Bee Train series, but it doesn't have enough time to emerge anything like naturally or get enough attention to really invest the watcher in it. Then again, at greater length, its ordinariness might have overwhelmed everything else, to the series' great detriment.

I didn't mind watching Murder Princess at all. I just don't feel any great enthusiasm for it and probably won't ever revisit it. I probably liked it better than Corpse Princess since it let its most compelling character be the protagonist and didn't last long enough for its faults to become real nuisances.

I'm kind of miffed about Dennou Coil.
It started off as a beautiful marriage of Ghibli and Augmented Reality. The characters were likeable enough, and acted quite maturely for their age, even. Foreshadowing of the greater plot surrounding the existence of Illegals was well done, but even more fun was the exploration of different aspects of this AR space they're operating in.
Then came episode 12, which was a charming deviation from the rest, and even if it would've worked better as an OVA showed at some animation festival, it was still very enjoyable.
And then... I don't know what happened. Someone's brain got fried, or maybe they didn't know what to do with the story from the start. After the absolutely dreadful episode where we're supposed to care about Denpa crying over a computer virus (which seemed like the deviation in episode 12, only done completely wrong), we get a return to the main plot. And it all frustratingly falls short of the first half. Suddenly, the characters start acting like usual, cliched anime characters with not even half a brain; at some point around episode 15 or 16 I think Yasako says "...Obsolete Space?" with an expression like she has never heard of it before, while the logic of that particular plot line would be obvious to just about anyone; furthermore, the interactions between characters often fall back to the stupid old anime non-communication (making them unable to correct misunderstandings and share information properly). It's even illustrated by Haraken's seiyuu, Romi Park, going from simply quiet boy to her typical dramatic shounen voice (that said, I found the voice acting quality overall to be excellent).
Also, as I said, they suddenly start connecting plot points really slowly, as if the series was trying to explain stuff that already happened in the first part to latecomers. Why this useless exposition and characters being reminded of important plot points only by TV shows on urban legends? Why the shovelfuls of exposition that actually matter later? They could've easily cut about six-eight episodes off this, make the story leaner, the characters more genre aware, and it would've been so much better.
Now, continuing my complaints... the wonder of exploration is also gone; they try to replace it by making us care about the tragedy of the people whose consciousness supposedly drifted to the other side, and by taking a new direction (towards making those 'urban legends' come true). It simply does not work, because they a) spend episodes drawing out completely obvious conclusions, and b) transform their lively, proactive protagonists into some characters from a childish horror movie, complete with extra-slow reaction time and reactive behaviour (mostly). It was almost painful to watch, and the only thing that kept me hooked was the hope of a twist, or a miracle that would reinvigorate the series (and the characters who retained their likeability to some extent).
There were a couple of quite cool moments later on (especially the 'other side' with the creepy pedestrian crossing music that I'm tempted to put on my phone now), and the overall story is actually quite good; but its slow pace is a curse, and its conclusion was split into a series of disconnected crises over something like eight episodes, which was another pacing mistake - almost no tension build-up and no proper climax as a result (furthermore, the whole thing is powered by accidental revelations and piecing together of some bits of the past, which are handed out conveniently before these 'crises', and so feel disjointed again).
The 'romance' is a joke, too. I wasn't looking for or even expecting it, but suddenly, without any development whatsoever, she blushes a couple times and says "I love you, Haraken"? What?..
Also, they hadn't answered the most basic question of all: why can't they just turn off their glasses when in danger? This would have easily saved them from everything (except when the cyberbody was already shifted).

I thought of giving this show an Excellent, I really did. It's got great ideas, premise, and first half. However, what comes afterwards... I'm not one to complain usually about slow pacing, but this series shot itself in both feet with a riot shotgun. It dropped to Good.

I have been watching Kenichi, The Mightiest Disciple this month as part of Toon Zone's Anime forum's "Anime of the Month" feature. It's not the type of show I'd normally stick with and I guess it says something good about the show that I was able to get through all 50 episodes.

I hate bad guys like the ones in the show, the art and animation was frequently weak, the story telling was repetitive and clumsy- especially awkward when they went into melodramatic back stories, and during every fight they did the stupid thing I've gotten so sick of where everyone comments on everything they just did- or in the case of Kenichi, flashbacks to earlier where he was taught the move he's about to use.

Yet it was consistently funny, not hilarious, but funny. And the good guys were likable (with the obvious exception of the sociopath Nijima- who I usually wanted beaten to a pulp more than the actual villains). And the Japanese version gave me a Tomoko Kawakami voiced character to appreciate. I ended up watching the last 20 dubbed though, because that was the only option for them on Hulu- and though I preferred the Japanese voices I appreciated that I didn't have to pay such close attention. Other than fights and visual gags there is much where you really barely have to pay attention to whats on screen as they are very often only static shots with lip flap animation.

Just finished Darker Than BLACK, rated it as Very Good.

Is this a solid Anime? Yes. Was this made by some very talented people working at a decent and well-known Studio? Yes. Does this show constantly teeter on the edge of oblivion with bad pacing and lacklustre writing only to be ultimately rescued by the pure reputation of its makers rather than its own actual qualities? Hell yes.

Despite the confusing start I was upbeat. I was sure that the creators had an overarching plan and that pretty much every mystery that cropped up would be explained in due time. Yeah, well, twenty-five broadcast episodes later and nothing got resolved. I really do mean nothing; the ending was not rushed so much as not even attempted. Gah. Of course, the writers had so often written themselves into holes - especially with regards to the Contractors, their powers and their prices, not to mention Pai - that it probably would have been impossible anyway to give a sufficient explanation at the end.

Darker Than BLACK is often considered as being in a state of gestalt, whereupon the whole is greater than its parts. But in reality, it is the opposite. Considering the talent and ideas that went into this, what we got is a shocker. A disappointing show which could have easily scored a negative grade due to its craptastic writing.

As I said before, it is a solid show, as Anime shows go. It is far, far better than most Anime, and yet it is deeply flawed and totally incomplete. I know I cannot demand perfection, but I expect something as close as humanly possible, especially from these people.

YGO Zexal to continue with the tradition of watching the series

just watched Karigurashi no Arrietty. 8.5/10. The family of borrowers are great chars. Art and animation are beautiful.

dtm42, have you watched the Gaiden yet (4 eps of it)? They explain a bit more, though it's their trademark move, to leave things unexplained and oftentimes simply screwed up.

Finished Mouryou no Hako. I'll be short - if you're patient and have a taste for mystery, this should be a priority series, something up there with Moribito (in a more general ranking, not in that genre). It is an intelligent and very multi-faceted murder mystery, very well condensed into such a short series (or at least seems so, which is good enough). Appropriately creepy and disturbing at times; and yet you can watch people talk for an episode or two about something only remotely related to (but which later comes to be relevant for) the storyline - and it'll be fun, if you're into these things. Basically like a book that came to life (and indeed, it's adapted from a novel, not an LN).
Needless to say, the art and music are quite excellent, and this is one of the best works of the studio. The only downside is the pace, which is, again... a matter of taste. You might also have some complaints about the character design that makes it look like fujoshi bait (and indeed, it's Clamp).

Ugh, I gave up on Mouryou no Hako after the episode that was basically just three guys sitting around a table talking. Also, it was a fansub that I suspect wasn't doing a great job of translation because it was sort of hard to understand what the point of their whole boring conversation was. There was good stuff in the show, but ultimately it simply tested my patience too often (not to mention dangle strands that were then left for long periods of time - I'm assuming they may have eventually been resolved or gathered together but I didn't get past episode 7 so I can't really say).

Yeah, that's what I was talking about - the pacing can be difficult to stomach; and those dangling strands were basically tied in the last two episodes only. I enjoy this kind of delayed climax, with an almost inhumanly smart detective that ties it all up, like in good old mystery novels. Smile

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