I have a lot of stuff going on right now (more on that later), but since you guys miss me and all, I figure I should try blogging a bit.
Anyway, with the new anime season continuing to mature, I thought I’d share some thoughts on the shows I’m watching…
Sola - If you ask me, Matsuri is Mamiko Noto’s best performance since Rescue Wings. Other than that, this show is very much up my alley, given it’s slow, slice-of-life atmosphere and subdued direction. Boring for some, but exciting for me. I haven’t a clue where the story is going, but with so few episodes to work with and such a small cast present, I expect something tight and carefully plotted. My only complaint, really, is that Yorito is more of a dork than the first episode led me to believe.
Hayate the Combat Butler - This show is weird. Seriously. Occasionally, there’ll be an obvious joke, and I won’t react in the slightest. Other times, I’ll be rolling in the floor. There’s nothing in between. I’m not entirely sure what to make of the inside jokes and references, either. Sometimes, I laugh. Other times, I think, “Gee, that’s kind of gratuitous.” Sometimes, I even wonder if that’s WHY the references are funny. I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that, when I sit down to watch anime, Hayate always comes first. I guess I like it?
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Strikers - As much a fan of this franchise as I am, I’m having a difficult time getting into the third installment. I don’t necessarily want to go so far as to say the magic from the first two seasons is gone, but it sure feels that way at times. Plus, I still can’t get used to an adult Nanoha… she’s always had a gentle personality, but now she acts like she’s on Valium all the time. And Fate is pretty much missing in action (when she got the emergency call in her car near the end of Episode 4, I half expected her to respond with, “I’m on my way… as soon as I pick up Nanoha’s dry cleaning!”). That said, I do like the new characters (Teana, especially), and the training sequences have been a bit more fun than I expected. Still, I hope the pace picks up soon. Also, I hope the animation quality improves. Nanoha deserves better!
Lovely Complex - Haven’t started yet. It’s in the queue.
Idol Master Xenoglossia - I don’t know what this show intends to be. But, I suppose that’s really not all that important at the moment. Of all of the season’s new shows, Xenoglossia still remains my favorite, even as it settles into its formulaic Sunrise groove. I’m tempted to describe it as “comfort anime”. Not too hot. Not too cold. Just right. For now, all the show demands of me is that I shut my brain off and pay attention for a half hour. I’m happy to oblige.
Hitohira - Stuck in fansub limbo, so I haven’t watched past the first episode. I figure this will be corrected eventually, but for now, I’m giving serious consideration to watching the show raw. I’d really like to continue.
Lucky Star - It’s getting better. A lot better. I’m not yet sure what to make of the recent staff change brouhaha - Yamamoto-san was doing a perfectly fine job, in my opinion - but my general feeling is that the show can only improve with time. While watching the most recent episode, I had an interesting thought: since the humor in the show relies so much on the personality quirks of its characters, I wonder if the jokes have more punch now that we’ve had the opportunity to get to know everyone. Perhaps that’s one of the myriad reasons the first couple of episodes fell flat for so many people?
Romeo x Juliet - Despite all the noise I made about the first episode, I’ve neglected to keep up with the show. I’ll try to do something about that this week.
Bokurano - I haven’t read the manga, but I can tell GONZO is making changes. And it makes me worry. Given what I’ve heard about the story, the first few episodes haven’t had the sort of impact I hoped for. I’m sure it’ll get better, but… well, I’m worried. When it comes to GONZO shows, what else can I do? That said, the OP is definitely the best of the season.
Emma: Second Act - Still need to finish the first season before I can get my Victorian meido fix.
Kamichama Karin - The direction in the first episode freaked me out so much that I haven’t worked up the nerve to continue. I’m not hearing good things, either. As much as like Koge Donbo’s work, and as much as I was looking forward to this show, I might just drop it. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Shades of Tsubasa Chronicle there.
Well, if you don’t mind physical comedy, there is Seto no Hanayome as well.
MSLN StrikerS, sola, Lucky Star, and Seto no Hanayome are the main four animes I am watching from this season.
Tengan Toppa Gurren-Lagann is great too, in that it puts back the fun in what is a growing-up-of-age show (as opposed to ladling globs of angst onto it).
Cheers.
I am also rather saddened at Hitohira being in sub limbo. :-/ Sadly my japanese isn’t good enough to watch raws.
If you like period style anime, Seirei no Moribito might be up your alley as well. Brilliantly animated fight scenes with Balsa, the bodyguard woman, along with a surprisingly endearing young prince. I’m not entirely sure if it’s a ‘true’ period anime though, considering there are two moons in the sky at some point, among other discrepancies, so it probably also classifies as fantasy. It’s actually quickly become my favorite of the new season.
“Emma: Second Act - Still need to finish the first season before I can get my Victorian meido fix.”
Same here. But Emma would probably remain on my backlog for a little bit longer while I force through what I already have.
>>If you ask me, Matsuri is Mamiko Noto’s best performance since Rescue Wings.
Seconded.
>>Sometimes, I even wonder if that’s WHY the references are funny
Get the manga. The mangaka is an expert in making parody references. I’ve reread the manga at least 20 times and I still manage to laugh out loud everytime. The anime isn’t bad too, but I don’t like the the way they are messing around with the continuity of the story.
>>I don’t necessarily want to go so far as to say the magic from the first two seasons is gone, but it sure feels that way at times.
I actually felt the same way too.
I’m still on Idolm@ster too, but Sunrise needs to give a clear direction of where the show is going soon. But then, Mai HiME had its first 10 episodes of filler before starting up the real action, so I guess we’ll have to wait.
And get Hitohira raw. It’s worth watching for Ayako Kawasumi’s excellent performance.
Gosh, I feel so influential. And a little guilty at interrupting your break. Welcome back!
Maminoto’s Matsuri in Sola is incredibly charming, impish, and sweet. I can’t wait for her to meet Aono, and wonder what will come of it. Why did I wait two weeks to watch episode three?
I was never much of a Nanoha fan, but this new incarnation felt deflated to me from the very beginning. With so much available and so little time, it’s already slipped off my queue.
Personally, Sola has been one of the hilights for me this season.
Hayate, well I prefer the manga version.
Nanoha StrikerS, I’ve been waiting on that one for almost a year now, so I may have had rather high expectations going in. And outside of scenes with the giant bed, nothing else has lived up to those expectations as of yet. But I still hold out hope.
Btw, there is a really awesome doujin that just might help out poeple who are dissapointed with the current Nanoha.
http://kurogane.animeblogger.net/2007/04/29/strikers-nano-01-fths-rival-appears/
http://kurogane.animeblogger.net/2007/04/30/strikers-nano-02-09/
http://kurogane.animeblogger.net/2007/05/01/strikers-nano-10-14/
http://kurogane.animeblogger.net/2007/05/01/strikers-nano-15-21/
Hitoira, the suprise hit for me just one of the many first eps I downloaded to see what was going on this spring and just absolutly loved it. -_- it’s rather sad the fansubs have dissapeared.
>> That said, the OP is definitely the best of the season.
I agree that “Uninstall” is a pretty good song
I cam to realize that I’m the partisan of watching raw. In most instances, I don’t even need to know all that much Japanese. Since Manabi was stuck as well, I armed myself with an open browser pointing to http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/, Kodancha’s Hiragana (it’s actually a dictionary, don’t ask why it’s called “hiragana”), and Nelson (it has an extremely comprehensive Ok/Kun section in the back which I use to look up), and pretty much forced my way through by pausing every now and then and writing down fragments for translation. The liberation from fansubber’s chokehold is exhilarating. We are talking about a C student and 3 terms of Japanese in a community college. The investment necessary is well within means of every serious fan.
BTW, I remember that a few years ago I was fixing an Very Important Bug for our OEM partners. I think it was NEC, or maybe Fujitsu, if not Hitachi. I don’t remember now. Anyway, I sat on it for a couple of weeks, and just when I completed something and sent them a test kernel, our rep in Tokyo replied, “you know, it’s Golden Week here, so there’s nobody to test your kernel”. At first I wanted to write, “Tell them that THEY wanted the damn bug fixed, and THEY created stop-ship condition”, but on second thought, I wrote something like, “Dear Hasegawa-san [made-up name -- P3], I’m very sorry to destroy someone’s Golden Week, yak yak yak, and I’m very sorry that our software had the bug in the first place, orz orz orz, but would you PLEASE communicate to someone where they can find the test set and then we’ll see what they say.” The OEM actually found someone to run the tests and verify the fix. Maybe someone was whisked out of an onsen, I dunno.
Lucky Star seems a funny serie. I havent watched yet but im planning to do it. And good luck Jeff in the stuff you are into now, lets hope your next week be better.
^_^
Sola is - even four episodes into it - still an above average show. Although it is not (afaik) based on a dating sim, it is still pretty obvious it comes from people who have done lot of adaptations. A sigh or relief for not having an array of token fetish girls, though we do have the Rei mk III, the genki main girl, the main girl’s rival, and two lolis - though only the other is accessible to the player. The vampire girl’s obsession with clouds felt very strange and out of place; it’s not like she’s never seen them - but the Everyman camera guy’s obsession is similarly >__>;;;. Though it is leaning bit too much into two-dimensional cast, seems I’m still looking forwards to seeing more.
Hayate - well, it’s a light comedy, and so far it has been working reasonably well. I’m sure I’m missing some of the in-jokes though, because at times it feels like dragging its feet a little bit. Vastly superior to Nagasarete however, which I could take only two episodes before deciding they weren’t doing the manga any favours.
Lucky Star I agree is getting better. After the first episode, I was sitting on the fence, wondering where it would go from there. Comedies tend to be hit or miss with me, either I dig the brand of humor or I don’t. After a shaky start, LS seems a keeper.
And Bokurano, whoah. I’ve heard a little bit about the manga. This one seems a very interesting show, looking forwards to more. UNINSTALL, UNINSTALL. Ditto for Romeo & Juliet, seems some of Gonzo’s finest hours are when doing adaptations, as with the massively successful (in my eyes at least) Gankutsuou.
Others shows that I’ve found very much worth my while are Seirei no Moribito (Balsa sounded very much like Motoko, but seems I was mistaken), Darker than Black and the completely over-the-tops craziness Gainax offering, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (I’m sure veryone’s already heard of the huuuge brouhaha & controversy over it after episode 4).
“But then, Mai HiME had its first 10 episodes of filler before starting up the real action, so I guess we’ll have to wait.”
It was enjoyable filler though, and it did a good job of throwing bits of the main story into what seemed like silly nonsense. Is Idol Master doing the same thing?
I think so… then again, my mantra is, “One man’s filler is another man’s character development.” So, lack of immediate plot movement in a show doesn’t bother me as much as it bothers a lot of anime fans. With this sort of show, it’s a feature, not a bug.
I see why you must like Kamichu, then.
I adore Kamichu. I fanboy Aria. I like Mai Hime very much and even am fond of the lesser popular Otome.
So far, Maidolmaster has done nothing to me. I just don’t ‘feel’ it :(
Kamichu is godly… and so is stuff like YKK or the slice of life parts of series like Haibane Renmei or Cardcaptor Sakura and so forth (well, not only the slice of life parts are good, but you get my point ;))… but somehow i’ve never managed to like Aria… I tried hard, watched the whole first season… sigh - I don’t know… they always spell everything out, everything is conveyed / explained by words… and it’s so predictable… eh, anyway, I’m getting off topic, ^^
I just watched the Bokurano EP - that really is a great song! I should give the series a try ;)
I think I’ve come to my conclusions about what Nanoha StrikerS is missing. First, it doesn’t seem to be a magical girl series anymore. One of the good things about the first series was that it took a formulaic genre and put a different spin on the whole thing while still maintaining the conventions of the genre. Second, the magic has almost literally gone out of the series; most of the artifact devices seem lifeless technological toys. Third, the antagonists so far have been generic constructs. The good thing about MSLN A’s (and the orignal after the setting was established) was that the antagonists were human, and interesting characters in their own right, and the antagonists always started out stronger than the good guys. The last problem was unavoidable; there are simply too many major characters. You have Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Reinforce, the four Knights, and the four new characters, all competing for screen time.
As for other series, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan was a random download for me that has turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. Murder Princess is interesting; I think it lacks some good points that the manga has, but it adds a few good points to compensate. I’m still downloading Idolmaster Xenoglossia fansubs, but the original charm it had is wearing thin. I’ll check out Sola when I have a chance.
Idolmaster is my fave too. I could talk about how cute Haruka is all day long. I think.
Welcome back!!!! You should take a peek at Lovely Complex….the animation may not be the fanciest but the show is really funny and i find sorta poignant. I really look forward to this series every week and always end up laughing about how dense the two main characters are when it comes to their compatibility because of all their hang-ups. Risa’a facial expressions are the best and you find yourself really rooting for them to get together. The opening tune is very catchy and overall I think you would probably end up enjoying it. It’s a shoujo series with some slice’o life realism that we have all gone through when navigating the dating scene in high school.
I’ve caught up with Lovely Complex… initially, I found the show tiring (even for shoujo, it seemed over the top), but the more I watched, the more it grew on me. Now, I’m pretty much hooked.