So I already talked about the
New FMA and some other titles in
Part One so here's the rest of the titles I was waiting for. Let's look at more new anime!
Guin SagaOh, this one was nice. A lot of great animation. I think they were going for epic. This one is based on some light novel series that has over a hundred novels. 123 volumes! I think they're off to a good start though. Very nice character designs. You don't feel like you're tossed too badly into the story. There's an invasion, people die, the heirs to the throne are sent off in some sort of magical transporty thing but oh noes! It goes haywire and lands them in a forest where the boy whines incessantly!
Then they're captured by soldiers, but hey, there's a man with a leopard's head that kicks ass and saves them. You get to know a little about the characters and enough happens to keep it from getting boring, but not so much that you're totally lost. If they play their cards right, I think they can get Epic out of this. But with only 13 episodes, who knows how much story we'll actually get, how condensed it will be. The ending theme is great though. It left me feeling positive. I hope it's good.
07 GhostI'll be honest, I picked this one cause the promo pics I saw of it were pretty. One of the characters reminded me of Tamaki from Ouran Host Club. And the description just sounded ripe for BL. I am happy to report that I was right on the mark! This has loads of pretty character designs. It has a very close friendship/love complete with cheesy vows and mention of "leaving the one he loves" in the preview for the next episode. Yay!
As far as the story goes, it starts out in a military academy just before their graduation tests. We meet two boys who are best friends. One has amnesia and can't remember his life from before, but he considers his friend to be family. They go on to survive their last round of testing but the military arrives and jogs the boy's memories. He tries to attack an important guy and gets thrown in the slammer. His friend won't stand for that and busts him out. It ends with him on the run.
It's going to be one of those shows with a gazillion characters, I can already tell. We've met most of the military, but apparently we have an entire church to meet next. There's magic and fighting and mystery. So, I started for the pretty boys. I'm staying for the pretty boys, but there's other things that make me want to keep watching.
Ristorante ParadisoThis is eye candy. The creator obviously has a thing for Italy and distinguished gentlemen. I've browsed some of her translated manga and that seems to be her staple. I have no idea how this is considered a seinen show. It definitely feels like it's catering to the older female population.
The story is of a girl who was pretty much abandoned by her mother. Mom wanted to marry a new man, but he didn't want a divorcee, so she lied about having been previously married and dumped her kid with her parents. Years later, the daughter is determined to inform the new husband what a lying liar her mom is. She goes to the restaurant he owns and it's full of handsome older men in glasses. She becomes quite charmed by one of them. Her mom finds her and lies to her hubby, saying her daughter is actually a friend's daughter.
It's all pretty slow, but that's ok because as I said, it's eye candy. If you like the art style that it. If you don't like the art style, then you won't stick around for the story. The anime art is a step up from the manga art though. It's a bit lanky and loose with a distinctive take on facial features. Definitely not for everyone, but I like it. It reminds me of Tarako Kotobuki's style, though I find hers cleaner than this. Either way, things look to step on the gas on the next episode and I'll be there for the ride.
Basquash!This one had hype and I was curious. It's about basketball playing robots that wear Nike shoes. How can you not be curious about such weirdness? So I watched. The main character, Dan, hates Big Foots, which are mecha. He hates basketball playing Bigfoots the most, because they somehow crippled his basketball playing sister. He takes out some revenge by destroying television screens across the city and stealing their components, which he sells for cash. He uses the money to buy things for his sister to try and cheer her up.
Then a big boobed girl appears in his life and takes him in a ride on a Bigfoot and suddenly he doesn't hate them as much. There's a lot of heavy sexual innuendo in the scene, even though not a damn thing happens, it's just like "dude, that sounds wrong!" Then she gives him tickets to a live Bigfoot Basketball match. It turns out it's boring as hell. On tv they add all sorts of crazy special effects, but live, it's just a bunch of slow robots fumbling with a ball. Big boob girl turns out to be a childhood friend. She reappears and gives him the Bigfoot and tells him to show everyone what basketball is about. So he does and everyone gets excited. Yay! And then he goes to jail for a year. Boo. And when he gets out, thinking that he's destroyed Bigfoot Basketball, he is sorely mistaken. Turns out, he's a legend, a martyr! Uh oh. Then the episode ends.
It's a silly premise, but the art is bright and lively and the character designs are pretty colorful and interesting. I hadn't planned on watching it, but it is doing something that's fun, so I think I'll continue.
Phantom - The AnimationSince I found out that
Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ is based on an OVA, I decided to watch it. The copy I got a hold of was dubbed, so that upped the cheese level for me. It wasn't bad, but the English just made it all seem sillier. Being a three episode OVA, you get a lot more info on what's going on. You meet Zwei before he gets caught up in the whole assassin mess. You see that Ein has some sort of past and that the doctor that made them killers is a real creep. Well, you already knew that. The love element of the OVA upped the cheese factor. I get that it makes cold blooded killers more human, but sometimes it's more humane to let them remain as cold and unfeeling as possible. Imagine how you'd feel if you went through life killing uncounted numbers of people without remorse and then suddenly, some boy comes along and gives you the "gift" of feelings and suddenly your whole life is the biggest crime against the universe and you feel regret and remorse and you hate yourself and want to die. I don't know why they insisted on making female assassins and then making them fall in love.
Anyway, there are hints of this love element in the beginning of the Requiem series, but both characters seem more calm, more distantly affectionate about it. I think it could work there as it didn't work here. This OVA wasn't bad, it just wasn't that great. It was predictable and silly. The end was pretty ambiguous and it left itself open for a series, but the series actually begins somewhere in the beginning to middle of the OVA. I'll be interested to see if they can steer the series clear of the silly trappings that gummed up the OVA.
Lastly, I was cleaning up stuff on my external harddrive and I came across the weirdest title in my anime folder.
Delinquent in Drag. I went "What?" So I watched it. Oh man! It was sooooooooooooo ridiculously stupid! So stupid! A funny stupid, but dumb none the less. The story is about some crazy violent family that gets kicked out of town after being, well crazy and violent. The moronic father signs his son up for a new school, as a girl. Now, the son is a violent delinquent of a boy and he looks it. He's one of those saru-type characters, so how nobody notices is just retarded. Anyway, he goes to school and falls in love with a girl whose name means "Boy." Ouch. Then there's some fights and it has a very open ending.
It's based on a seven volume manga series and after watching it I found out that it's a Go Nagai creation. So then I couldn't be surprised by the supreme retarded eechi weirdness. That's the guy's trademark. I am in no way recommending this. It was pretty dumb and it went nowhere. At one point, the mom was running around in her see through underwear and grabbing her son's package while he's wearing his female school uniform. Then the dad busts in and proclaims that he knew all along mother and son were having an affair (which they aren't, mom's just insane) and then mom and dad rumble and destroy everything in the apartment. Then they make out. Did I mention it was retarded? This cannot be stressed enough. Don't watch it. Save your brains! If you want Go Nagai, I'm sure Daeva can recommend a much better one than this piece of crap.
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