×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
What are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)


Goto page Previous    Next

Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Anime
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
moonie92



Joined: 15 Nov 2011
Posts: 167
PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 2:33 pm Reply with quote
Just finished Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino OVA. The first episode focuses on one of my favorite characters, Rico. I loved spoiler[her nightmare. She fears becoming useless again. ] It was really touching. The action was kind of weak but I'm not a big action fan anyway.

The second episode was a little disturbing. spoiler[Henrietta is named after a dead girl named Henrica. And then Henrietta is wearing her clothes, not to mention the ghost scene.] When did this show get supernatural elements? That was jarring to say the least. I just keep noticing how shiny and pretty the characters look. I like season one's designs better. There eyes are too big, I think.

Overall it wasn't a bad experience, just strange. I sure do love the ending theme though.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail My Anime
dandelion_rose



Joined: 12 May 2012
Posts: 657
Location: Kuala Lumpur
PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:42 am Reply with quote
Chilling to some episodes of Shakugan no Shana before continuing to read Steve Jobs's biography.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Dalvyn



Joined: 28 May 2012
Posts: 86
PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 2:26 am Reply with quote
It has been a long time since I have watched shows on a weekly basis instead of just marathoning old shows with high ratings and reviews.

This furom is partly to blame for that. Haha.

On a weekly basis I am watching, Hyouka, Humanity has Declined, and Binbougami ga!

I am currently marathoning Eureka 7 as well, because i heard it was good. So far not disappointed.

Tried watching Valkyia Chronicles, got half way through but I just lost interest.

I was watching Sword art online, but I think i'll just wait to marathon it. Just seems to me like a show that would be better that way.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Botan24



Joined: 30 Apr 2011
Posts: 684
Location: Northern Michigan
PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 12:00 pm Reply with quote
Started watching Ōkami-san and Her Seven Companions (dubbed version) yesterday. Reached episode four, and I have to say, I find it cute. There isn't much going on here, besides the usual nonsense involving high school students. The Otogi bank club memebers are all precious. I think I would cosplay as Majolica given the opportunity. Love that hat she wears! However, what I'm enjoying most so far are: the two leads, Ōkami-san and Ryoushi. They are somewhat typcial tough girl and helpless boy, but at the same time not. Ōkami-san is able to admit she likes cute/girly things without punching a bystander (most of the time). And Ryoushi spoiler[confessed that he loves Ōkami-san in the very first episode. Plus he's got some serious skills with a sling-shot] and obviously has hidden strength. Also, the narrator. When I previewed the first two episodes via hulu, I didn't care for the way she talks over the character dialogue. However, this time around I'm much more tolerant, probably because the characters aren't saying anything all that important.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Errinundra
Moderator


Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 3:03 pm Reply with quote
What I've been watching since the previous update.

Kaiba

“The only thing that’s truly big and wide is the vastness of the human heart.”

So says the grandmother in episode 4 as she joins her beloved husband. It's this wonderful human capacity that Kaiba so memorably explores.

I watched Kaiba partly because of the recent best first episode tournament but more because JB Hi Fi in the city were selling the Siren Visual release for only $29. The shorter by one episode but more popular Eden of the East is going for $59. It's a big difference and I know which one I preferred, irrespective of price.

The synopsis for the anime is provided nicely in the introduction to some of the early episodes.

Quote:
Are memories one’s soul, or one’s spirit? It is a world where memories can be turned into data and stored. Even if the body is destroyed, the memories can be transferred into an even better body, making one immortal. Bad memories are deleted, while fun memories are downloaded. However, this is limited to the upper-class. Our main character, Kaiba, has lost his memories in this world, transferred to another body, and is continuing on his journey.


For all intents and purposes in the Kaiba world memories are immortal, while bodies aren't. This means that there is a desperate struggle for good bodies. Amidst these struggles two separated lovers, Neyro and Kaiba (aka Warp), in unfamiliar bodies and missing memories, try to find each other, to understand the nature of their world and to bring about some sort of justice.


Neyro and Kaiba

The achingly sad, yearning opening theme sets the tone beautifully for this tale of memory and love and how each nourishes the other. Indeed I haven't seen another anime where the OP so powerfully dictates the mood of story. It's nicely complemented by the various renditions of The Tree Song that accompanies the more poignant moments.

While the music is exceptional the artwork is more dubious. It seems Masaaki Yuasa didn't have a huge budget to play with and it shows. Ever resourceful, however, he has adopted a bubbly, seemingly sloppy style that suits the emotive themes while softening the emotional and physical violence. In a way, it constantly reassures the viewer that things can only end well. There's heaps of irony here, so watch out, though. Nevertheless the artwork can be annoying, reaching a nadir in episode 5. Now it might be argued that the extremely fluid artwork and animation in that episode reflects the tale of Patch and his pet dog Quilt, each with bodies made from discarded parts from other bodies, but that would be generous. Fortunately the emotive story telling makes up for the sometimes visual shortcomings.

As the synopsis above suggests, and despite its eccentric visual style, the story of Kaiba is most akin to cyberpunk science fiction in the tradition of Serial Experiments Lain, Ghost in the Shell or even Dennou Coil. Like them it relies on the Cartesian conceit of the separation of mind and body. That's fine - like much of anime, if you accept the premise the development is often exceptional. Oddly enough, Kaiba subverts this distinction at one point: the main character, a male, spends much of the series in a female body and discovers that his male mind is being affected by the female bodily rhythms and also finds his female body reacting to males in ways that surprise (and alarm) him.

The series also has some structural issues. It begins immediately after some unexplained catastrophic event that has left the Kaiba / Warp character with amnesia. For, as yet, unknown reasons a feisty young man, Popo, stows him aboard a space ship. For the next eight episodes Kaiba travels the universe - a la Galaxy Express 999 - as director Masaaki Yuasa explores the implications of body and memory swapping. Episode 10 shows, via flashback, what originally happened, leaving only two episodes to resolve the, now apparent, multiple threads to the tale. You get nine episodes of languid development followed by three episodes of rushed resolution.

But it's kind of understandable why things turned out this way. At their best the early episodes are more interesting than the final two and you can see why Yuasa has spent so much time on them. If episode 5 is the series nadir in terms of visual quality then episode 3 - Cronico's Boots - is quite simply one of the most magnificent episodes you may ever see in anime, approaching the field of flowers episode of Clannad After Story in its emotional impact but exceeding it in its savage irony. A lonely and impoverished woman sells her musical and literary memories to buy some red boots for the greatest joy of her life, her niece whom she adopted when her sister died. Diminished by the loss of her memories she eventually sells her niece's body to retrieve her memories. What she experiences when she reinserts them is best described as shattering. And it's not just that excoriating moment. Cronico's own attitude to being sold willl have you transfixed. Still it doesn't just stop there - the episode heaps irony upon irony. If you don't feel inclined to watch the entire series at least check out this particular episode.


Cronico's aunt remembers.

Another problem with the back to front plot structure is that numerous significant things happen in the first half of the series with the viewer having no inkling of their import. For instance, in episode 6, Kaiba / Warp, now in Cronico's body, pours tea with a flourish, startling Gell, a character introduced that episode. The reaction is very easy to miss but it can only be understood after watching the final three episodes. This problem isn't just restricted to events. Two characters - Pal, the bubble-headed bird, and Kichi, the wheelchair-bound and button-eyed memory merchant - keep popping up unexpectedly with their seeming deus ex machina interventions. Their connection to Kaiba / Warp becomes clear late in the series. In particular, the big reveal on who and what Pal is had me pausing the DVD to catch my breath.


Action and reaction.

What all this does mean is that a second viewing is highly rewarding. Not only is the story much clearer but there is much pleasure in observing and noting the many things that seemed inconsequential or confusing first time around but whose import is now apparent.

Rating: very good tending towards excellent. Really, it's a masterpiece with flaws.

Durarara!!

I watched this over a year ago on Crunchyroll (my report is here) and since then I've been waiting for Siren Visual to release the complete collection. My patience has been rewarded finally and I've now re-watched the series both subtitled and dubbed. Since my original comments I've downgraded its rating to from excellent to very good although, following these re-watches, I am tempted to upgrade it again.

Durarara!! is such a densely woven set of stories that it can withstand mulitple viewings. Like Kaiba above there's much pleasure to be had watching Mikado, Anri and Masaomi doing what they do and knowing that each is much more than they appear to be. I found Anri to be especially entertaining second and third time around whereas I thought she was ever so dull originally. Amongst her other attributes she comes across as quite a comic character.


Anri: funny, crazy.

Shizuo Heiwajima and Shinra Kishitani continue to amuse me. Like Anri they're sort of crazy saints. Anri is the kind (if violent) mother, Shizuo the purveyor of rough justice on a crusade against Izaya, and Shinra the epitome of boundless love (even if he has an obsession for cutting up bodies).

Another of the pleasures I had was exploring the Ikebukuro on Google Maps while watching the series. The anime's fidelity to the actual setting is extraordinary, down to some of the finest details.

Eden of the East

Like Kaiba I watched this partly because of the best first episode tournament. The main reason, though, was that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has been streaming on its iview service. The resolution of the stream is very poor, which may be partly responsible for why I enjoyed it less than I had expected and less than I feel I should have when considering it in hindsight. That said, while I believe the series has a sensational premise I think its execution is prosaic. It relies heavily on an air of mystery and a straightforward race against time to give it momentum. Too often, it is the premise, rather than the characters, that drives the plot. I also suspect that, being a thriller, I may have enjoyed it more had I marathoned it, rather than watching two episodes per week as it became available on line.

The protagonist - the amnesiac Akira Takizawa - has a charismatic personality, although it takes a couple of episodes to grasp his worthy intentions and a little longer to appreciate his strength of character. The point of view character - cutesy Saki Morimi - has little bearing on the story, other than to speak glowingly of the protagonist and express her faith in his trustworthiness when everyone else doubts him. She could be written out of the story without any significant change to the central premise and plot. Her role seems little more than ornamental but it fails even on that count because of her drab character design. Hers is not the only unappealing design. Director Kenji Kamiyama collaborated with Honey and Clover mangaka Chika Umino and the result is the unwelcome face faults and sentimental designs of the very first noitaminA series. You may think I'm being harsh on Eden of the East compared with Kaiba but Kenji Kamiyama has set a high standard with his realistic visual style. Chika Umino's character designs sit uncomfortably in Kenji Kamiyama's world.


I expect better than this from a Kenji Kamiyama production.

In the tradition of Kamiyama’s Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex productions, the plot thrives on unexpected developments and astounding reveals. Kamiyama isn’t afraid to think big – the future of Japan is at stake here – but the villains aren’t your typical fare and the heroes – including 20,000 naked NEETS – even less so. The big bad, Mr Outside, even has the grace to refrain from making an appearance – he may even be dead – a sure way to make him seem especially sinister. The series ends with the immediate threat defused but leaves plenty of mysteries to be dealt with in the subsequent movies.

Rating: good. I may rank it higher if I get around to watching it with a decent resolution.


Last edited by Errinundra on Wed Nov 08, 2017 9:15 pm; edited 4 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Animerican14



Joined: 19 Aug 2006
Posts: 963
Location: Saint Louis, MO
PostPosted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 3:34 pm Reply with quote
Well, errinundra, can't say I've ever followed your posts, but if all of your "What are you watching" posts like this past one are any indication, you could make a decent blog with that amount, if you don't have one already. Heck, many posters' writings are worthy and lengthy enough for the blog..

Erm, anyway, I've decided to experiment and try viewing anime in a bit of different fashion than I have for many of the past several weeks. That is, rather than just keep up with multiple shows at once week-by-week like I did during the past spring season of simulcasts, I've gone for the pseudo-marathon angle of seeing stuff in three-to-five episode chunks. And I must say, this has worked rather quite well with Witchblade.

Ooh, that show! I've known that it was streaming on Netflix for quite a while now-- in fact, I saw the first four episodes of it last summer at a friend's house-- but haven't seriously thought of coming back to it until just recently (no doubt because there are only a few weeks left until my fourth year of college + communal campus living, and thus, a self-imposed gagging order on more-risque viewing habits on the big HD screen). More than that, though, I was genuinely interested in seeing how the relationship between the mother (Masane) and daughter (Rihoko) would hold up in an anime with those kinds of costume/character designs. And, uh, I was in the mood for show with those kinds of costume/character designs, heh.

Gotta, say it's definitely exceeded my expectations, even considering that general praise that I had heard in regards to the mother/daughter relationship. The bond shared between Masane & Rihoko feels really genuine, or at least sweetly cute and endearing, and the themes that the relationships and the story involving them invoke are quite touching. The cast overall is interesting to watch, and even quite fun, as is the case with the other residents at Mariko's Cafe (even considering their somewhat one-note personalities). Witchblade's English dub only contributes to the enjoyment of it; everyone sounds perfectly casted to me. I just got done with episode 20 last night, and I'm excited to see what happens with these last four soon. (Wish it had some better technical merits, though. And jeeze, that's a lazily handled second OP.)

Oh yeah, and special mention ought to be made of Director Takayama. He is a Pretty Cool Guy.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Errinundra
Moderator


Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 9:05 pm Reply with quote
Animerican14 wrote:
Well, errinundra, can't say I've ever followed your posts, but if all of your "What are you watching" posts like this past one are any indication, you could make a decent blog with that amount, if you don't have one already. Heck, many posters' writings are worthy and lengthy enough for the blog...


I love anime and I love writing. That's a dangerous mixture.

On another note, last night I watched episode 82 of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. It's the episode where IT happens. Mmm... kinda killed half my reason for watching the series. I guess I'll perservere to the end.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Ggultra2764
Subscriber



Joined: 21 Jan 2004
Posts: 3862
Location: New York state.
PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:56 am Reply with quote
Started up on Brigadoon just today. Not sure what to make of it thus far as the first episode looked like a manic comedy at first with the antics of Marin and her tenants before the various robots entered the picture and there are hints that things could get more darker and serious later on which I got a sampling of in episode 3 when spoiler[Marin got confronted with bullying and hazing from her classmates.]
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
anigu



Joined: 14 Jul 2012
Posts: 38
PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 5:50 am Reply with quote
I'm watching a Xenosaga compiled cutscene someone put up on Youtube. For some reason, I wanted to replay the game but then I thought what I wanted to see was the story so that's when I got to Youtube...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Tris8



Joined: 30 Oct 2009
Posts: 2114
Location: Where the rain is.
PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:49 pm Reply with quote
I watched Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. It was very good, one of the best shows with consistent fanservice that I've seen. But the ending. They did such an excellent job until spoiler[the last 3 minutes. The emotion of Yuuko slowly fading away, and how it was tearing Teiichi apart really got to me. Then she vanishes. And then they had to go and bring her back, just like almost every other show I've seen has done in that situation. If there was a stronger reason than just the kiss, I may have bought it.]
spoiler[It's not that I don't want them to be together; I actually really like them as a couple. I just hate when shows string us along, tug our heartstrings only to go 'just kidding, everything is hunky-dory'. It cheapens their parting and kills the re-watch value. I guess they wanted to leave themselves opportunity for a sequel.]

Despite my above spite, I really enjoyed this series. They did an excellent job with the fanservice. Yuuko (main girl) is sexy and flirty with large, but realistic looking proportions. They were also aware of good fanservice timing, not interrupting the darker and more serious parts, allowing the atmosphere to fully deliver. They recognized that fanservice is more than just boobs, and gave us shots of Yuuko's beautifully long legs and graceful arms, and it never felt forced to me. In many series, the fanservice feels like it is degrading the girls providing it. In Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, they respected their heroine. Yuuko may be, as is typical, obsessed with the main boy, but if only 2 people in the entire world could see or hear me I'd follow them everywhere too.

It is mostly serious in its 2nd half, but the first half of this show has some pretty good comedy. The way they set up the first episode was a bit of a risk but I thought it was done well. I find it quite entertaining that the president of the Paranormal Research Club is actually the ghost haunting their club room. Anime hyper And Yuuko's unexpected reaction to spoiler[Teiichi seeing her remains below. Anger, Sadness, Fear, possibly even indifference considering how long she's been a ghost. All those would be unsurprising reactions, but instead she calls Teiichi a pervert for seeing her innermost secret areas (her bones).] Anime hyper Was definitely not expecting that.

And then the reason for the title. spoiler[Yuuko being unable to deal with her pain and casting off her memories.] That was very well done. They weren't afraid to change the status quo and progress the plot, with developments in every episode. spoiler[Yuuko's past of being a human sacrifice wasn't shocking or surprising,] but the slow piecing together of the how and the why kept me wanting more and more as it slowly marched toward the inevitable. Excellent atmosphere, not much actual horror, a good balance of comedy, and spoiler[we get to see the two leads as a couple for 1/3 of the show.] A very good watch.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
OldCharlieStoletheHandle



Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Posts: 1288
Location: Mastic Beach, NY
PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 3:05 pm Reply with quote
I finally watched Princess Tutu, which has only been sitting in my collection for 3-1/2 years. Having heard so much praise for it, I guess I was thinking it might be a disappointment but it turned out not to be the case. Of course, it didn’t hurt that, although I’m not a big ballet fan I do love classical music, and the makers did not limit themselves to ballet music, using a number of well-known works as well as a few more obscure pieces.

I guess I was delaying this a bit because, while I have seen a couple of very good magical girl shows (like Magic Knight Rayearth and Puella Magi Madoka Magica), they are not really my thing, and a show about a magical ballerina sounded a bit strange. I’ve been trying lately though to get through the stuff in my backlog that’s been there the longest.

The plot: A writer named Drosselmeyer dies before finishing his story of a prince who seals away an evil raven by shattering his own heart. In order to finish the story, he gives a magic pendant to a duck which transforms the duck into a clumsy girl (Ahiru) who can also make a further transformation into Princess Tutu, who can dance any ballet perfectly. Ahiru becomes a ballet student at an academy where she discovers the star dancer, a boy named Mytho, is the prince from the story. The show starts out establishing a sort of formula: Ahiru finds one of the prince’s heart shards, transforms into Princess Tutu to get it (solving the problems of the person who has it in the process), and returns it to Mytho. It doesn’t take long for the writers to twist things around, as Tutu finds that returning the shards means returning emotions, some of which are negative and bring pain and suffering. Everyone is being manipulated by a writer named Drosselmeyer who, although dead, continues to pull the strings from some other dimension.

The show is divided into two 13-episode main arcs, the Egg Chapter and the Chick Chapter. The second arc was broadcast in half-episodes until the final episode, which was shown complete. In the ADV release, the second arc episodes are put back together (information on the DVDs indicates this was the creators intention) and the extra “bumpers” are included as extras. The show also had 3 recap episodes which ADV includes as extras (unlike Geneon which made people buy another DVD to get the Chobits “digest” episodes). In fact, I have to give ADV credit for doing a fine job on the on-disc extras for this show, which include a few elementary lessons on ballet terminology and a video file called “etude” on each DVD which goes over some of the major classical works used on the soundtrack created using clips from the show with the English voice actors narrating in character (unfortunately, this makes the first “Etude” almost incomprehensible, as the VAs for Pike and Lilie use such weird high-pitched voices).

I rated this show as excellent, I think it's one of the best-written shows I've seen-which is important since, ultimately, this is a show about spoiler[the art of storytelling itself]. There were a few things which kept me from rating it as a masterpiece though. The business about spoiler[possessed Mytho trying to steal someone's "pure" heart to feed to the evil raven sounds like a steal from Sailor Moon (wasn't there a storyline about some scientist stealing "pure" hearts to keep his daughter alive, or something like that?)] and Drosselmeyer is really annoying at times. The biggest flaw for me however was that there was one really lame episode where spoiler[some fop wanders into town and Krahe tries to steal his heart. At the end of the episode Ahiru tells Fakir something like "nothing happened...well, I guess something happened...but, no, nothing happened" which pretty much sums up this time-waster of an episode].

I must say though, I though this show had one of the best endings of any anime I've seen. So many shows try to manipulate the viewer's emotions with threats of tragic endings only for the writers to pull some sort of last-minute happy ending out of their asses (Chobits, Demonbane and Shakugan no Shana come to mind-don't get me started on My-Hime), so I was glad to see, for once, a show that followed through on it's own internal logic, yet finds a way for the ending to still be an uplifting one. Having spoiler[Rue be the one who declares her love for Mytho and saving him was a twist that made sense (I also thought it was a nice middle-finger to Drosselmeyer), while Ahiru/Tutu must accept her destiny to return to her original form in order to complete the story. I guess some people were upset that Tutu doesn't end up with the Prince, but I thought that would have been a cheat ending. And it's not like she's dead, or even disappeared; the denoument seems to make it clear that Fakir would look after her (for some time during the second season I had been getting the idea the writers were setting up the possibility that Ahiru would wind up with Fakir rather then with Mytho).]

The animation in this show is quite good, with the ballet sequences looking quite authentic. Not only is the music outstanding, but the way individual pieces are used in the show is great. All in all, this is a great show that even those who don't normally watch magical girl shows should try (episodes can be streamed right here on ANN and it's still in print).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
magmalord



Joined: 14 Jun 2012
Posts: 37
PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 5:16 pm Reply with quote
I finshed watching Blue Submarine No. 6 OVA, due to so many people praising it, yet it got a mosty good rating on ANN. I saw it and I have to say it's one of those animes that makes you wonder and amaze. Don't understand why people rated it so low here.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
OldCharlieStoletheHandle



Joined: 12 Dec 2009
Posts: 1288
Location: Mastic Beach, NY
PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:34 pm Reply with quote
I watched Yukiikaze recently. Why? Mainly because it has been in my collection for 4-1/2 years; also because I was looking for something shorter. I was also curious due to the range of reactions to this anime. I had seen/heard some really bad reviews for this, while at the same time seeing people falling all over themselves to pay huge amounts of money to get BVUSA’s BD version even though this show was animated in standard definition and in 4:3 aspect ratio. I had picked up the Bandai complete collection brick at NY Anime Festival in Dec. 2007 (overpaying a bit based on what I could have gotten it for online) which apparently actually has more extra content than the expensive BD version.

Unfortunately, I have to say this show is a big disappointment, especially considering Gonzo spent 5 years and a ton of money on this exercise in boredom. Yes, the futuristic plane designs are cool, and the flight scenes are very well animated, but when the most interesting character in a show is an airplane something is really wrong. According to the AWO podcast review (which really ripped this show a new one) the studio hired an inexperienced manga artist known for Yaoi to do the character designs, then decided to let her write the script as well. I really don’t get the logic of this; were they aiming this show at Yaoi fangirls? The result is we get seemingly endless shots of pretty boys staring at each other longingly. I’d sit there thinking, “OK, I get it, Jack wants Rei, Rei wants Yukikaze…can we move on to something important now?”. The plot, such as it is, is that after decades of war against invading aliens (called “The Jam”), Earth military forces have driven the enemy back through their portal and are now taking the fight to them on their own planet (code named “Fairy”-um, yeah, right). Sounds interesting enough, right? Wrong. We never learn anything about the enemy, or about just what our military is trying to actually accomplish. None of this matters, I guess, since, in the end, facing defeat, Earth’s military spoiler[bails out and blows up the portal. Well, if we could always close the portal, why didn’t we just do that in the first place? The show never gave me the impression that some sort of complete victory over the Jam was possible, nor was there any indication we were getting hold of any of their technology-rather, they seem to be learning more about us. So, what is the point of all this?]

I suppose one might say the point of this show is not the battle with the Jam, but the battle between man and machine, and how the relationship between Rei and Yukikaze (the super-sophisticated AI of his plane) develops. While this did pique my interest a bit, I couldn’t help thinking how much better this idea was handled in Macross Plus, another OVA lauded (rightfully) for its visuals. The thing is, it also had interesting characters and a coherent script. At times Yukikaze comes off as if someone wrote a Yaoi fan-fiction of Macross Plus and Gonzo decided to animate it.

In the end, I rated this anime as “decent”, mainly because of the visuals. In fairness, I have to say the on-disc extras on Bandai’s DVD version are pretty good also. There seems to be a real problem, not just in anime but in all media, where projects spend so much time and money on visuals then neglect the script. That definitely seems to be the case here, unfortunately.

Being a completist, I also watched Rescue Me, Mave-chan. Knowing that this was based on some doodles someone did when their computer was down I didn’t expect much from this, thinking it would be some lightweight fluff that might be good for a mild chuckle or two. If only. After starting out looking like it might be mildly amusing it decides to get serious, a big mistake. I wouldn’t mind so much if it were included as an extra on the Yukikaze release; as it is, I’m just glad I didn’t pay too much for this drek. There are almost no extras on the DVD either. I rated this anime as “weak”, and sometimes feel I’m being a bit generous. Maybe I can get some use out of this as a start for a set of anime-themed coasters (with my copy of Debutante Detective Corps).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
moonie92



Joined: 15 Nov 2011
Posts: 167
PostPosted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 10:43 pm Reply with quote
I went to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston yesterday which was very pleasent. I know your thinking what on earth does this have to do with anime. Well not only are they having Ghibli month (not that I can make any of the screenings) but down stairs, through the tunnel of light, in front of the cafe are five tv screens.

City Glow was playing. On all five. It's about 7 minutes long and the images are stretched out so it plays on all five screens. For the first five minutes it was a city scape, with cute buildings with flashing lights and faces. Then... uh we go to a spoiler[grave yard? Yeah, not real cohesive. There are ghost women (who are naked) and then one of them spits moths, or is it bees?] It scared a bunch of little kids. Then it was over. Very strange indeed..
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail My Anime
Mesonoxian Eve



Joined: 10 Jan 2012
Posts: 1858
PostPosted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 11:19 pm Reply with quote
Continuing with my "Gee, I've got lots of DVDs, so perhaps I should start re-watching them" goal, I just finished up both Negima series. I'm kind of glad I did because the second watch of Negima!? (stupidly referred to as season 2) actually provided me a better appreciation for it, especially the character designs, which are much better than the "first" season.

I had forgotten how the second version turned Asuna into a blithering idiot, chasing after the Chupacabra or making her appear dumb in two episodes, then flash a moment of brilliance, and turn her dumb again.

Still, this version did have a continuing story, unlike the first version, which abruptly changed plots for no apparent reason (to us viewers, anyway).

There were a couple of elements I enjoyed in the first version, such as Ayako's little brother and bringing Sayo back into the world of the living I wish were done in the second version but I suppose they still do well in their own versions.

I will say this, though: I won't marathon these to versions back-to-back ever again. Ugh... going from one to the other was like going from season 1 to 2 of Gunslinger Girl. Too much change to adapt to quickly.

I think my next visit will go to Rozen Maiden. I bought the OVAs when they came out last year, but I've yet to watch them. Now's a great reason to.

Plus... Suiseiseki. kawaii!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Anime All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous    Next
Page 711 of 1060

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group