I’m giving Simoun a try after all. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far, but the show has some serious problems. In particular, the direction and voice acting lacks energy. The show promises tension, but never really delivers. The phrase “going through the motions” comes to mind, unfortunately. That said, I still dig the art direction. The “sketchy” backgrounds are especially nice and reminiscent of Figure 17, which features some of my favorite background work of all time.
The character designs are starting to bug me, however. There’s an unusual amount of variation in style, and it can be a little upsetting when the entire cast is on screen at the same time. There have been some character model issues from episode to episode as well. In particular, the studio hasn’t managed to nail down Limone’s design. Speaking of which, I don’t care for teh Mamiko in this particular role. When Limone opens her mouth and Mamiko’s voice comes out, my brain produces some sort of instant “DOES NOT COMPUTE” response and shuts down for a moment. The voice doesn’t match the character.
Reports of the death of Ouran High School Host Club have been greatly exaggerated. After some thought, I realize there’s only been a couple of “bad” episodes - relatively speaking, that is. The only episode that really bugged me was the first “beach” episode, partially because it promised to be a Honey/Mori episode, yet never amounted to much, and partially because it was followed by yet another, more superior beach episode. Other than that, I’ve been absolutely delighted with the show. There have been enough “ROFLMAO” episodes to make up for the occasional “meh” episode, I think.
I’m going to skip the recap episode for Nana and give Madhouse a freebie by pretending it never existed in the first place. I really like that the story is starting to move along (at whatever glacial pace one could expect from a 50 episode TV series), but I have to admit: anime Hachi annoys me far more than movie Hachi or what-I-read-of-the-manga Hachi ever did. I think I understand now why her character ruins the whole thing for some people.
Oh, and the most recent chapter of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni has actually been kind of interesting. Probably because stuff actually… you know… happens.
What a novel idea.
2006 is the year of “Stuff happens and there were lesbians.”
I’m dreading Simoun, too, sort of in the same boat as you are (minus the Mamiko pigeonhole). Why are you bothering with it again? Maybe I’ll just skip that and catch up on the Funky Wizard of Oz Spinoff anime.
Hurrah for Figure 17!
“Reports of the death of Ouran High School Host Club”
Who reported that? Come on! With this kind of comedy, it is fated to have some less stellar episodes…
Even with my extremely lowered standards, I found those episodes to be gut-bustingly funny.
Simoun… I need to try that as well.
Ouran does have it’s highs and lows, but for now, it still hasn’t been knocked off my top three spring anime list.
Nana… seems to emo, and Higurashi is awesome as usual.
Actually Aeru and Neviril have been continously drop dead gorgeous for me and served good incentive to stay with the series until later on (yeah im a raw watcher…sorry) where two more uber hot bishoujos with awesome character designs join the team. I have officially become a Yun fanboy, although thankfully other stuff in the show (like, um, plot), pick up as well.
For a straightforward ladygirl who talks like a man, Yun is indeed all kinds of of hot, though she ought to get more screentime than just a line or two per episode =/
I also initally agreed with Jeff’s opionion on Rimone and the Mamiko, though now halfway down the show I think I’ve grown accustomated to it since it’s no longer poking me in the eye, err, ears.
I don’t really get the complaint about the designs though, sans if you mean main cast Vs. rest of people. The art quality’s somewhat incosistent though, and episode 9 is probably the worst in terms of malinged-looking characters. Which is a pity, because It was otherwise a decent episode :/.
Yeah, show’s kind of wishy-washy at times, but I enjoy it none the less. Sans episode 11, I think they’ve been on a decent track ever since they dropped the bomb. Things are moving, and they’ve started to build up the two mains towards some sort of character conflict & resolution(?).
…Though I’d wager to say that episode 13 with Neville’s reactions and expressions took things a bit over from the dramatic to the comedic side of thing. Drama’s good, but, eh, yeah, know your scope and how you present it ;-P
And while on the subject, there’s been released a somewhat… different version of episode 12 subtitled. Link can be found on TT…