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Just binged out on My Daemon, a CGI gig on Netflix from a Thai studio, written by Hirotaka Adachi. I wasn't all that enthusiastic going in, due to the art/cgi, but was hooked after the first episode (of 8). They sure knew how to end on cliffhangers, hence the bingewatch!

It's about an 11 year old kid named Kento, living in a post-apocalyptic era of roaming monsters called "daemons," who finds a daemon in the forest he takes home and raises. Named Anna for the sound she makes (never has an actor gotten so much mileage out of a single word since Groot), she kinda looks like a pinkish pug with eyes all over her body and a slightly tentacled muzzle. She has the ability to store things in a space where time doesn't pass. She also has a huge bounty on her head from a quasi-religious NGO devoted to exterminating all daemons or capturing them for experiments, or shock-collaring them to work with Daemon Users to hunt other daemons. But Kento is on a journey across Japan to find a rumored time-reversing daemon who he hopes can spoiler[bring his mother back to life (guess where she's hanging out).] (that's a spoiler that's in every synopsis I've read, so peek accordingly)

I adored Kento's naive goodness and kindness. He simply can't conceive of people having darker motives and the only reason he can come up with why people want Anna is because she's so cute. He's always amazed when people find her disgusting. But all daemons are wonderful and beautiful to Kento. So he gets betrayed, disappointed and horrified a lot about how humans can actually be. But he meets some helpers too. Smile

I was really delighted by the multitude of imaginative daemon designs and the variety and weirdness of their powers. And I thought they took good advantage of the cgi format with the action scenes. The daemons had a lot of personality although each different species only makes one sound and many don't have any sort of face, so their characterization was almost entirely in their body language. That's pretty impressive.

Even if you dislike cgi, the story will draw you in quickly enough that you stop noticing (unless you're mainly into anime for the animation alone, I guess). So give it a look if you have Netflix (or, you know.).

Looking at Adachi's other works led me to Summer Ghost, about three high schoolers who meet up to find out if a rumored ghost is real. She is. It's a very low-key and leisurely story of how meeting this ghost and each other changes their lives. Very poignant, and may bring a tear to your eye at the end. 40 min well spent. My only beef was that the spoiler[closure for her mother didn't seem like it would offer any closure at all.]

1/6 Just watched Kaina of the Great Snow Sea movie and actually liked it better than the series. What the fabled Ocean Trench turned out to be was interesting (shades of spoiler[the Knock Up Stream]!). Lol at Olinoga's smooth lines to Amelothée. And she handled it perfectly without going all blushy maiden on him.

Code Geass episode 11 - How anyone enjoys this series and thinks it's worth more than a 6/10 is beyond me, boring and predictable

Instead of a new thread....

Winter 2024

I tend to wait on new action shows. Binge them later if they sound right. It's possible a couple just fell under the radar, especially if they're not on CR.
(all in caps because that's how they're listed on the calendar I'm copying from

Monday:
HOKKAIDO GALS ARE SUPER ADORABLE!
TSUKIMICHI

Tuesday:
VILLAINESS LEVEL 99.....

Wednesday:
DOCTOR ELISE: THE ROYAL LADY WITH THE LAMP

Thursday:
(catch up)

Friday:
SASAKI AND PEEPS
THE UNWANTED UNDEAD ADVENTURER
THE WEAKEST TAMER BEGAN A JOURNEY TO PICK UP TRASH
THE WRONG WAY TO USE HEALING MAGIC
FRIEREN

Saturday:
A SIGN OF AFFECTION
THE STRONGEST TANK....
THE DANGERS IN MY HEART
CASE CLOSED
THE APOTHECARY DIARIES

Sunday:
7TH TIME LOOP VILLAINESS....
FLUFFY PARADISE
SHANGRI-LA FRONTIER
BANISHED FROM THE HEROES PARTY...

Currently watching the second season of Shadows House. Seen the first season of it last year and was interested enough in it to purchase and watch this second one. For now, only up to the first episode since I just started it yesterday.

Couple of things. It took me a criminally long time but I finally got around to watching Blue Exorcist The Movie, the UK release that I bought recently. Loved it, of course. Damn, what an awesome franchise. I really put it up there with other titles I love like Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, Golden Kamuy, Made in Abyss, Dr. Stone, The Ancient Magus' Bride, etc. True Cross Academy (the whole city, I mean) looked absolutely stunning on a movie budget as you would expect and the story was great. Highly recommend if you are a Blue Exorcist fan and for some bizarre reason have not seen it yet.

Also just finished Cannonbusters which is a Netflix Original Anime that came out in 2019, I believe. Really enjoyed that one too. It's unusual in that it's an anime created by a dude from the Bronx of all places. My only beef with it is that there is clearly more story to be told but as we all know that doesn't necessarily means it will be. Really hope there's a second season (and more, if needed). I watched the limited edition set that I bought not too long ago.

Finally got through what I hope are just the first 8 episodes of Blue Eye Samurai. I'm not sure of its pedigree - on Netflix, lots of both Western and Asian names throughout the credits (incl. Kenneth Branagh and George Takei). But it probably isn't considered anime, like Avatar isn't.

Anyway, it's pretty good! Violent, bloody revenge story, full frontal nudity of both sexes, evil perverted characters, comic relief, plots against the shogun, blazing - literally - action and katana-fu, some pretty decent swordsmithing and it's well-acted and nice to look at, cgi notwithstanding. I'd recommend it if you're not squeamish about the things I mentioned.

Netflix has the first episode (and I think the 6th?) up on YouTube, so check it out and see if it's your thing.

I watched Blue Eye Samurai a few months ago or something. And I think I had some thoughts about that show... a few months ago. Now I don't remember anymore. I remember the flabby dongs, the violence and the pretty cool animation. I do remember liking it well enough to watch it all the way through, but it didn't leave me with a strong enough impression to wanna watch another season of it. I would still back up Gina though and recommend folk to check it out if they haven't already. It's cool enough to be worthy of that.

"LIZARDOON!" - Minami Yamamoto

Joshi Kōsei no Mudazukai (Wasteful Days of High School Girls)

Off-color and juvenile high school girls, which ends up being hilarious (if low brow). Most likely those who appreciated Asobi Asobase will like this, others not.

Ah, good old Asobi Asobase - one of my favourite anime comedies. I don't think I've ever read an ANN Enyclopedia summary that does as little justice to a show than that one. I watched Wasteful Days and obviously liked it enough to rate it Good but damn if I remember much about it.

I actually really liked Wasteful Days of High School Girls, but couldn't get into Asobi Asobase at all. I think I watched like 2 episodes and didn't find it funny at all. Maybe that's weird, but that's just the way the cookie crumbled for me. I can't really remember the specifics of either anime so I can't really point out what I liked about one and disliked about the other. It is what it is, I guess.

I find humour to be one of the most subjective forms of entertainment out there. You can have two people watching the same thing: one of them is busting a gut, rolling on the floor, tears streaming down their cheeks... and the person beside them is stone faced. It seems easier to get a consensus on, say, what constitutes good drama. Most people agree that Meryl Streep is a talented actress, for example. Music is pretty subjective too but I would argue that humour is more so. If you aren't on the same wavelength of the comedy, you ain't gonna find it funny. I was totally on Asobi's wavelength. Hell, I rated it a Masterpiece. So the fact Cam0 couldn't make it past the first two episodes once again shows the wild subjectivity of humour.

Started up Citrus just today. Got the series on Blu-Ray months ago since I'm aware of the trashy rep it has for having elements of a toxic relationship with its main yuri couple and wanted to amuse myself to see how much of a trainwreck it is in the same way titles like Domestic Girlfriend are.

Decided to try watching My Love Story again. I got through the first two earlier but I had the misunderstanding that they were going to draw out the confession for more episodes. I'm 8 or so in now.

I still have the same problem with it. I don't like the characters too much. They're like a cast of supporting characters. 1. Too stupid 2. too sweet 3. too "kuu." I don't hate them though; they're funny exaggerations and I can get laughs out of the ridiculousness of Takeo and his reactions to everything. I might like the sister the most.
And the stories are fun.

I just know that I'll never rate it too high as a romance. Romances need to have a little more relatability for me to appreciate more.

A weekend of the new shows hit and I stalled on My Love Story again, halfway through. I'll get back to it.

But I decided to rewatch Mushoku Tensei before the continuation starts. I had only watched the first season once, as a binge before the last season began, so its fun seeing some of the things I missed the first time (Rudeus praying to the hovering sphere to "make girls rain from the sky"). Whatever the show's faults, it's a propulsive watch that makes you want to continue (except for, maybe, the spoiler[impotence] episode) and has led me to pause on the lesser season shows instead of the other way around. Yeah, I'll finish Strongest Tank, Banished From Hero's Party, and Tsukimichi, but I think I'll wait for the climaxes, which will hopefully make them a little more enjoyable.

I've been working my way through the unwatched blu-rays and dvds in my collection.

I started March with the first season of Galaxy Angel. Total fluff and I've already forgotten the plot, if there was one. But it was consistently fun across the entire 26 15-minute episodes.

I followed that up with my third watch of Bocchi the Rock! when the blu-ray arrived in the mail.

Awesome Bocchi!

Next came Blue Seed. Despite the dated 1994 character designs and the dreadful resolution of the Discotek SD release - all 26 TV episodes and the 3 OVA episodes on one blu-ray should give you some idea - the plot is intricate, steadily evolves yet remains compelling throughout. A well-paced 26 episode series is something we don't get so often these days.

The first 2 episodes of the OVA from 1996 are a short sequel to the TV series that doesn't add much at all. The final episode - from 1998 - is from a different studio and different director. By moving from Production IG to Xebec you may guess it's a fanservice treat and you wouldn't be wrong. It turned out to be the most memorable episode of the entire franchise - the women are enjoying a remote outdoor hot spring when they learn it's booby-trapped (so to speak) with a bomb that'll be triggered by a change in the water level. Things get complicated when a troop of monkeys decides to join them.

It doesn't hurt that it's the only episode with half decent resolution.

Staying with the same director - Jun Kamiya (except that last OVA episode, that is) - I'm currently watching The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye. There's something about mid-2000s anime that appeals to me that I can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps I've finally turned into one of those curmudgeonly "anime was better in the day" types. I'm 8 episodes in and it's a treat.

Despite being on DVD, Nozomi have only put 4 episodes on each disk, so the image quality is terrific for the format. Later, when DVDs became less profitable and distributors started cramming on more episodes per disk, the quality dropped significantly.

I really miss Right Stuf and Nozomi.

The only currently airing show I've been watching is Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, which (along with Bocchi) is the perfect riposte to my earlier comments. I love shows that put intelligent character exploration above spectacle.

Compare Fern and Frieren with Kanne and Lawine bottom right.

Oh, and I've been checking out Fairy Princess Minky Momo on Crunchyroll & updating my old low resolution screen shots. They've added artificial graininess to the release, which is annoying. The raw torrented version I had, although at a lower resolution and with less vibrant colours, doesn't have it, so why add it? Using noise reduction via paint.net improves the screen shots overall but introduces its own distortion.

It's amazing how consistently good anime has been over the 40 years these six shows cover: 1982 (Minky Momo), 1994 (Blue Seed), 2001 (Galaxy Angel), 2006 (The Third), 2022 (Bocchi) and 2023 (Frieren).

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