Extended weekend fuuuuuuuu~!

Finished Vampire Knight season one, which was crap (started out well enough, but didn’t go anywhere interesting, and moved too slowly). Finished Library Wars which was okay, but a little lukewarm. Finished Reaper’s Gale, the 7th volume in Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. If you like brick-sized epic fantasy novels, you need to check this series out. The books each take about 100 pages or so to get rolling, but they do pretty well after that (and they’re all like 1000 pages long). One of the things I like about this series is how Olde Things From The Lost Age etc aren’t necessarily better than Modern Day Things. In fact, the Malazan army’s munitions tend to blow up lots of Resurrected Immortal God-like Beings From Fell Barrows Of The Time Before Man, who wonder briefly why the hell some idiot is throwing a clay ball at them, before exploding all over the place.

From the Spring I’m still watching Code Geass R2 (fuck yeah), Itazura na Kiss, Special A (which got a LOT better after 8 episodes or so), Zettai Karen Children (because…I don’t know), Allison and Lillia (where the hell is Lillia, btw?), Daughter of 20 Faces (needs second-half plot to pick up faster), and Wagaya no Oinari-sama (which continues to be unexpectedly entertaining to me; sleeper hit?).

The Summer is bringing in a couple of shows that are sort of interesting like Antique Bakery (which I failed to incite a complete flamewar over by glossing over the fact that it is Not Actually Yaoi etc), Telepathy Shoujo Ran which is starting out alright, a new Someday’s Dreamers series that uses minimal animation on top of very nice photography background art (predict this will go over quite well with fans of Healing genre), another episode of Mai Opwne SifR (about fucking time), Blade of the Immortal, and of course MORE FUCKING SCHOOL RUMBLE GUYZ. I am pretty excited about that. The only reason I’m not falling out of my chair with excitement is that I’ve been reading the manga because I got tired of waiting for them to make more anime. Which doesn’t change the fact that School Rumble is the best comedy anime not named Ouran Highschool Host Club or Azumanga Daioh EVAR.

Also, I only watched about five minutes of Strike Witches, but I lol’d at how they basically combined the idea of Hardsuits and Thigh-highs.

A: They are the only two anime in anidb that have the “white devil” tag

Some point in recent history, anidb added a tags system for anime. In my experience, these kinds of things are usually hilarious. The ones on IMDB are pretty amusing, because you can search for all the movies that have a tag like “killer robots”, “eye gouging”, “experiment gone wrong”, or, one of my personal favorites, “run through plate glass window” (these are all tags for Bladerunner).

Turn-A Gundam also has the tags: “UNIVERSE” “cool shades” “epic” “mecha” “nanomachines” and “trap”

Things I have learned about Antique Bakery (this summer’s Noitamina-slot anime):

1. The manga release was shrink-wrapped, not due to sexual content, but because the cover had scratch-and-sniff pastries on it.

2. It is full of food porn. And not the Tampopo kind where a yakuza licks whipped cream off his mistress’s breasts, but the kind where they really hammer on the Pavlov with titillating pictures of cakes and pies and so forth.

3. It is about gay bakers. Witness:

I forgot I’m also watching Toshokon Sensou. It needs to develop a plot right now even worse than Daughter of 20 Faces did when I posted the spring shows update thing (subsequent to which like fifty people in D20F got murdered).

Episode 6 of Wagaya no Oinari-sama is actually quite watchable as a stand-alone episode. It focuses on Sakura, who is previously a side character, trying to become closer to her boycrush, one of the main characters. If you like the basic joke of highschool romance comedy, I’d expect this episode to entertain.

Basically the whole episode is Sakura’s internal dialogue (and excellent reaction faces). Sizing up the competition (so, she’s a quiet mysterious girl who dresses like a shrine maiden, and she’s a blonde tsundere with big breasts…how can I compete!), being incredibly confused, screwing up, fantasizing, wondering if she’s accidentally fallen in love with Kuu, ending up in the arms of her boycrush anyway, and so on.

Also she’s voiced by Yui Kano, a la Sumomomomomomomomo. And if you thought she was funny in that, well, she’s pretty much bringing it back to the table here.

I’m watching too much anime this Spring, but it seems to be really good.

I particularly look forward to:
Code Geass, Vampire Knight, Daughter of 20 Faces

I am also watching the somewhat entertaining:
Oinari-sama, Zettai Karen Children, Allison and Lilia, Itazura na Kiss

And for some fucking reason also:
Kurenai, Special A, Soul Eater

Starting from the bottom…

Because negative criticism is easier than positive criticism

I think the only reason I have watched any more Soul Eater was because I just got a new computer and can finally watch HD anime (*gush*). I like the art a lot, but the story just…absolutely doesn’t interest me at all. I flipped through some of the manga and it doesn’t look like it gets any more interesting.

Actually Special A, which had been kind of craptacular, may have turned up a bit at episode 6. I feel like Special A is not taking advantage of its huge supporting cast to their full potential. Also I really hate the mentality of the male lead where he has to protect her from everything. Also the I WILL MAKE YOU A BENTO episode made me want to hurl. I think I have maybe watched too much shoujo romance, and have too strong a contextualization of their genre conventions (which is probably why I like josei anime so much). But episode 6 made it seem like there might actually be character development, and it also made me laugh for once (the measurements-taking scene).

Kurenai could be the best show this season. It appears to be bursting with latent creativity. However, in my opinion, it is very poorly executed. After six episodes the pacing hasn’t gotten any better, and that just ruins it for me. I don’t know what the director is trying to do, but they need to get this beast under control so it can live up to its potential. It’s all…unwieldy.

In the middle

Oinari-sama is holding my interest somehow. It is a lot less fan-service pandery than I’d expected, and has had pretty good comedic characterization. Good cast charisma I think. And I also enjoy shinto mythos stuff.

Zettai Karen Chlidren…because my id is…a super-powered nekketsu magical school girl ? I don’t know.

Allison and Lillia. Possibly the best show this season if you are not an otaku. The first arc was good. The second arc is confusing me; I hope it makes sense at the end.

Itazura na Kiss. Sticking to its guns, an enjoyable if not outstanding shoujo romcom.

The good shit
Code Geass - IT IS FUCKING CODE GEASS. WATCH IT GODDAMMIT. YOU WILL CRY TEARS OF SEX AND JUSTICE.

Vampire Knight - I find this strangely compelling. I like Yuki (Yuuki? I suck at Japanese transliteration). And obviously am on-board the Zero X Yuki train. I think Vampire Knight strikes the right balance for me between drama/romance and activity (rather than ten minute long scenes of sitting on a park bench alone wondering how your love interest will ever forgive you the sin of liking him/her). Also I like vampires.

Daughter of 20 Faces - Light-hearted (so far) and enjoyable. I don’t actually see too many adventure-genre shows in anime these days. Do20F is delivering there, although it needs to pick up some more extended plot action here before too long or it will get stale. Though with the last episode ending in an OMINOUS EXPRESSION, that is maybe about to happen.

Some of the pieces are much better rendered than others.

I grew up with the NES and its legion of very difficult platformers.

This game is like those, but different:

You Have To Burn The Rope

By which I mean this is a pretty good video representation of what work is like at my office lately:

It’s about time there was a season not dominated by The Latest Ero/Sim/etc Game Adaptation.

Here we go!

ACTION
Soul Eater
Would-be shinigami try to capture souls to power-up their companion weapons/love interests. Or something. More interesting than it sounds. Bones animation looks better with every show of theirs I watch. Apparently the lead female seiyuu has taken some flak for her performance here, but I guess I just lack the discerning ear for Japanese voice-acting, cuz she sounded alright to me. I’ll probably watch this until I get bored just to look at the pretty pictures, but it is apparently slated to run for a while.

Nabari no Ou
Boy contains Ninja McGuffin. If you are seriously into ninja action shows, this seemed watchable. I didn’t think it had much to offer though. Except good scoring. And occasionally creative action choreography. And bizarrely placed homosexual innuendo (unless the main character is actually a reverse trap). Oh he’s voiced by Kugimiya Rie…maybe that…explains it?

ROMANCE (with comedy, action, etc)
Itazura no Kiss
Energetic stupid-but-hard-working girl chases after stoic cold-hearted-but-actually-good-deep-down genius boy. Good times if you like this genre. My discerning taste is not terribly discerning with these shows, as long as they are a little funny. I’ll probably watch all of this.

Special A
Girl is always coming in 2nd after her childhood friend / love interest. A little more lukewarm than Itazura no Kiss, but still has potential. I’ll give it a few more episodes at least. I like the girl with the signs.

Vampire Knight
Girl involved in love triangle with calm and genteel bishounen vampire she knows is a vampire and angry distant bishounen vampire she thinks is a human; her adoptive father wants peace between humans and blood-suckers. Technically she isn’t involved in this love triangle yet, but probably headed that way. Surprisingly watchable. Has a bit of action, romance, intrigue.

SOFTCORE PORN COMEDY (with porn, porn, etc)
Kanokon
Nympomaniac Fox Spirit possesses the shouta of her desires, then comes back out of his body and tries to hump him. I really hate this over-glossed style of character design. It looks like somebody has gone over them with Turtle Wax or something. Also this is not my genre. I would rather watch actual porn.

Kamen no Maid GUY
Burly ninja-maid-man does not understand why his young mistress is so resentful of his watchful service. I watched exactly the right number of episodes of Kamen no Maid Guy. It was good for about one episode’s worth of lulz and eye-rolling. And I’m spent. I have filed this away as something to inflict on fragile psyches I intend to break down and rebuild to my liking.

ADVENTURE
Allison and Lillia
I could not get into Kino’s Journey, which makes me in some tiny majority of people I think. I think this had the same author? It has some nice political background of two warring countries, and so forth, and a sort of Indiana Jones feel about it. The first episode was quite good, and this is the kind of thing that I would generally recommend to people who have only a tangential or vague interest in anime, but I expect it may fall prey to my abbreviated attention span after a bit. Not enough nekketsu tsundere moe moe gattai hissatsu. *PRESSURIZED WEEABOO NOSEBLEED-FOUNTAIN SENDS SETH FLYING BACKWARDS*

SIMULCAST GONZO ENGLISH SUBS
Tower of Druaga
It’s like a fantasy MMO or something. The first episode was a somewhat amusing parody. Not bothering to watch anymore since it looked it had spent its comedy potential.

Blassreiter
Motorcycle racers assaulted by Gonzo’s animation team. At least that seemed to be the general reaction. I actually kind of liked it. The pacing felt correct. The more TV I watch the more respect I gain for good pacing. It’s a fairly well addressed problem, I think, for movies (though people still fuck it up IAMLOOKINGATYOUMICHAELBAY), but hasn’t quite been nailed down for story-arc’d TV shows. And anime adaptations in particular seem to screw up pacing, probably because you can’t just directly transfer the pacing of a novel or manga onto the screen. Anyway, if I remember to look for this on the streaming sites, I’ll give it at least a few more episodes. Even a fairly luke-warm story can be engaging with good pacing and tension control. If you don’t believe me, find a professional oral storyteller and listen to them.

OTHER STUFF
Wagaya no Oinari-sama
I like the Japanese fox-spirit archetype usually, and my hope here is that this one will grow as bored with the plot of this show as I already am, and invent new forms of entertainment. This is probably not going to be very good, but I’m not sure where it’s going yet. Needs a few more episodes to die peacefully or get interesting.

Kurenai
Lots of assassins this season. This one has to take care of a loli. I like the premise (even if it is nothing like The Jackal which is what I thought of when I first read the description) and the background art, but the pacing in the first episode was terrible. I had trouble following what was going on in the first half. Give it about two more episodes to fall into some kind of stride.

CODE GEASS
Code Geass Season 2
I had some doubts after the first episode; felt very awkward and rushed. The second episode removed all doubt and fear. The overwhelming JUSTICE caused my prehistoric blood to boil over into tears of nekketsu excitement. If I had not recently exercised my AWESOMENESS sphincter with the Mai Otome manga, I might have fucking strained something. It took me over an hour to calm down.

HAVEN’T WATCHED YET
Library Wars (but there’s good money on this, since it’s in the Noitamina slot)
Kaiba
Golgo 13
Kyoran Kazoku Nikki
Real Drive
The new Macross thing