In an average anime season, I only keep up with seven or eight new shows on a weekly basis. So, essentially, this means I watch about two to three hours of new anime per week. I probably spend the same amount of time in the shower every week. Or cooking dinner. Or staring at the wall, trying to figure out WHAT to cook for dinner.
In other words, it’s not a huge time commitment.
Of course, I do watch more than new anime. I raid my DVD collection fairly often, rewatching old favorites from years past. And I do occasionally rewatch fansubs of unlicensed shows. For example, in the past few weeks, I’ve rewatched Planetes, Koi Kaze, Zettai Shounen, and a couple of random OAV series. However, rewatching a show is rarely as fulfilling an experience as watching something new for the first time. I scratch the itch, but I’m never really satisfied.
What to do?
Well, I had a bit of a “Eureka!” moment over breakfast this morning. As I said before, in an average anime season I only keep up with seven or eight new shows on a weekly basis. However, anymore, the average anime season offers twenty to thirty new shows from which a viewer can choose. Of course, the bulk of these shows are pure crap, but it’s safe to assume that there are three or four decent shows from each season that, for whatever reason, I neglect to watch. Keep this up for multiple seasons, and guess what happens? I end up with a huge pile of anime that I probably should’ve watched, would like to watch, and yet haven’t watched. I’m talking about hours upon hours of anime. It’s probably enough to keep me busy for a few months.
So, I guess I should get busy scratching that itch.
What’s batting lead-off, you might ask? I’ll give you a few hints. Josei. Lengthy. Pretty art. Period piece. Has been suggested to me by multiple people on multiple occasions. It’s not my favorite genre, but it looks interesting nonetheless.
First person to figure it out gets last night’s leftover curry.
Juuni Kokki?
Wait, I take that back, Saiunkoku Monogatari is my guess. I don’t know that I would want to win leftover curry though.
That was quick. Indeed, it’s Saiunkoku Monogatari. I’ll spare you the curry… it was pretty bland.
you are going to tell us someday what you thought of Zettai Shounen, aren’t you? It’s an oddball favourite of mine…
I’ve found a couple series I’ve really liked that way–Lamune’s a good example, for whatever reason when I watched the first episode I just couldn’t get into it, and the rest of the series stayed unwatched until a year later when I decided to give it another shot. On the second attempt I got hooked, I marathoned it, and now Lamune is one of my favorite bishoujo anime. Although the caveat is for every Lamune or Crest of the Stars, there are five other series that I try to pick up later only to discover it was just as well I’d skipped them the first time…
Victorian Romance Emma? I haven’t seen that yet either if that’s the case, and I’ve been meaning to get around to it ^.^;;
“Indeed, it’s Saiunkoku Monogatari.”
Oooooooh, it’s good. Too bad I’m a bit too late to get the curry (guess you couldn’t e-mail it to me, like I suggested)…
lol i opened the window before there were any comments and thus my comment was hella late ^.^;; doesn’t matter though, i had passed over the “lengthy” bit and thus my answer is hella wrong :-p
I hope Saiunkoku Monogatari scratches your itch, because it’s probably coming out on DVD very soon.
And it’s mad long. LONG. LONGASS. So there’s a lot of scratching potential.
For me, it scratches the wrong spot. It’s not just a spot that I don’t mind being scratched, it’s one of those spots that shouldn’t be scratched. Still it’s a solid show if you can enjoy it.
I hadn’t realized it had been licensed when I first decided to watch it (I honestly don’t recall the announcement), and when I did, I questioned whether I should go ahead and download it or not. After all, I typically don’t like to download fansubs of licensed material. However, when I considered the length and the fact that I wasn’t sure if I’d like it or not, I figured that, if I didn’t watch if fansubbed, I probably wouldn’t watch it at all. If it’s good enough for a rewatch, I’ll buy the DVDs. That’s my standard DVD-buying criteria, anyway. Most everything I buy on DVD is something I’ve already watched fansubbed in the first place.
And, besides, I figure I can make up for it by buying some other Geneon titles in the mean time. Like the new Tenchi bricks. I was on the fence before, but I think I’ll go ahead and buy them now.
Anyway, after the first seven episodes, I’m inclined to give the show a thumb’s up. I could go for a little more subtly in the narrative, but the hokiness of it all is charming in its own way. Just because it induces eye rolling doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it. It seems like the sort of show you keep watching not necessarily because you feel the need to do so, but rather because you can’t think of a good reason to stop. In that regard, I suppose it’s like most long-ass josei/shoujo series.
And what’s more, the second season just started, wonder if it will be another 30+ episodes long o.o;
PS: Concerning the first guess. I really hope you’ve watched Juuni Kokki already, at least ;)
Mmmm…Is that curry?? Spare it with all of us “Curry addicted” please!!!
^_^
I hadn’t realized it had been licensed when I first decided to watch it (I honestly don’t recall the announcement)
I don’t know that there has been an official announcement, beyond the title showing up on release calendars. Saiunkoku Monogatari was one of a bunch of titles for which Geneon registered a bunch of domain names (Higurashi was another). The registration was noted on AnimeonDVD, which was followed that week by an announcement that Geneon had licensed Higurashi, and not too long after that they’d licensed a second title from that list. I never heard an announcement about Saiunkoku, but suddenly it was scheduled for release.
As I recall, Maria-sama ga Miteiru was also on that list, but hasn’t been announced (or scheduled) yet.
My guess to your original question would have been Emma.
Actually, dm, Saiunkoku Monogatari WAS the show I was referring to. Kabitzin guessed it in the second comment.
However, I do need to catch up with Emma.
Right, that’s why I said “would have been”.
I need to catch up with Emma, too. The manga, even — I have a stack of volumes in my “to be read” pile, bought on the basis of the first series.
Props to Kabitzin for making the quick recovery. Emma would have been immediately ruled out because Jeff specified “lengthy”, which is most certainly is not. 12K and Saiunkoku would obviously both fit the bill, but chances are that Jeff’s already seen 12K (or people assumes he has, and thus don’t recommend it to him). I suspect that Kabitzin dug back into all the comments in the past month or two to find out what people *have* been recommending to Jeff, and homed in on the correct answer. Amirite?
Cheh, for a minute I was gonna guess Seirei no Moribito. I cant quite grasp the concept of Josei though.
I thought there was an announcement for Saiunkoku, at some con…?