forchancookie: (Plot Bunny)
I watched episode 6 of Tiger and Bunny earlier and had this horrible terrible plot bunny that I'll mention later. I don't want to stop my progress on it by talking about it yet. Suffice it to say that this plot bunny send me to youtube watching clips of 80s cartoons on youtube. I ended up watching a bunch of Jem and the Hologram clips. Man, I loved the hell out of that show as a child. I should probably make some icons. I ended up watching interviews with Jem's speaking voice and Jem's singing voice. I didn't realize she had two voices, but then I've never really looked it up before.

Jem's speaking voice, Samantha Newark, actually is a singer, but she only did the speaking role. Britta Philips did the singing voice. But I started looking at Samantha Newark's stuff and she sang In Your Eyes, not the Peter Gabriel song, but a song from the Project A-Ko movie. Project A-ko was one of my first ever anime and my love for it eclipsed my love for Sailor Moon for a time. I recorded it off of SciFi channel's Saturday morning anime. I recorded a bunch of others but Project A-Ko was the one I was obsessed with. I'd pause scenes, tape tracing paper to the tv and then trace over A-Ko and C-Ko. As if that wasn't dorky enough, then I'd go outside and paint them onto the sidewalk with chalk paint!

I got some of the comic books and I was really disappointed. Not with the comic books, but because you needed to collect all of them to be able to mail in to buy the soundtrack or something like that. I really loved the song In Your Eyes! And now, learning that Jem's speaking voice sang the song, it makes me realize why I liked it. Despite the fact that a different woman sang Jem's songs, you can still clearly hear the Jem in this one.



Now I have the urge to drag out my Project A-Ko box set and watch it! But I won't. I'm going to finish the plot bunny and post it.

Also, I think I'll add icons to my to-do list. I need some old 80s icons like Jem and She-Ra. :D

ETA: The plot bunny has been completed! Of course it only spawned more plot bunnies, but it's done. You can see it over here.

I also made a Jem icon. :D
forchancookie: (Default)
It’s that time of year again! New Anime for spring! Here’s what I’ve watched so far and what I thought. I’ve also tossed in what I’ve carried through the previous season and older stuff I’ve watched. Under this cut you'll find my thoughts on Tiger and Bunny, Hana-Saku Iroha, X-Men, Dog Days, Steins;Gate, Star Driver, Kimi Ni Todoke, the Ore No Imouto Ga Konna Ni Kawaii Wake Ga Nai OVA eps, Initial D, Nyan Koi, Tokyo Majin, Devil May Cry, Damekko Doubutsu, Prince of Tennis, Inazuma Eleven, and Summer Wars! Phew!

Click me! )
forchancookie: (Ginga Bishounen)
Star Driver was my favorite anime of the recent seasons and now it's over! I don't know what I'm going to do without it. It was just so fun and silly and awesome. And the ending! *flails* As with most endings, I wish there were more to it. You know there's more to it, but it's left open. Not in the "no resolution" way but in the way they gave you the resolution and then ended it but you know there's more happy ending to come. Ah well. Now I need to go back and rewatch it. :D I should also download it since I've only been streaming anime lately, not downloading.

Anyway, Minecraft is still nibbling away at my brain. I finally posted a video of me playing. Though, this is more like me getting blown up. Enjoy my pain.

forchancookie: (OMG What?!)
I finished watching the Initial D anime and was surprised to find the manga on Mangafox. It was licensed by Tokyopop, but they dropped it some time ago. Anyway, I am now reading through the manga and Mach 5 by The Presidents of the United States of America just started playing. I just had to stop and appreciate the dorkyness.

My Anime List

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 09:22 pm
forchancookie: (Hikikomori)
Last night, I remembered that I had a My Anime List account and started poking at it. It's hard to remember everything that I've watched. But it's easier to remember the anime than the manga. I read a looooooooooooot of one shots and then promptly forget them. Looks like I drop a lot of anime after the first or second episode. But some of them really don't need to be delved into much farther than that. They're just that bad.

Also, all this cold weather is gonna give my frostbite! My feet are so damn cold!

And finally, I can't stop watching this Star Trek AMV! )
forchancookie: (Hardcore Bubbles)
It’s Fall, time for new anime! I’ve already watched a bunch. I’m going to have to split this thing up. So here’s the titles coming at you in part one:
- Iron Man, the Anime
- Bakuman
- MM!
- Star Driver Kagayaki No Takuto
- Otome Youkai Zakuro
- Shinrei Tantei Yakumo
- Samurai Girls
- Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai
- Yosuga No Sora
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt


There will be some spoilers, click if you dare! )
forchancookie: (Hikikomori)
I have a review of new anime coming up later, but I thought I'd follow up with the stuff I watched last season. There will be some spoilers, I'll keep them mild.

Kuroshituji 2, Occult Academy, Nurarihyon No Mago, Live Action Moyashimon, Ookamisan, Durarara, Baccano, and Initial D )

And now, a bit of a rant. A trend that’s bugging me lately is anime being made from light novels. It’s not that they’re bad, it’s that there are often very broad stories to tell in an abbreviated amount of time. If it’s a manga, someone has probably translated it and I can go read the full story later on. If it’s a light novel series, the chances of someone translating it are slim to none. Even if it does get translated, I’ve discovered that I hate most Japanese prose. It’s very simple. It’s been a while since I’ve read the few novels that I did read, but I didn’t enjoy them. At any rate, you’re left wanting more of those characters and you’re sort of adrift.

Durarara is based on a light novel. Somewhere down the road, one of my favorite characters, Mikado, stabs someone in the hand with a pen. That’s not something you’d see him do in the anime, even in some of his more intense moments, but somehow, he develops into someone that does. There are a few scattered translations of the novels, but only one volume has been completely translated and that’s the sixth one.

Ookamisan is also based on a light novel series. There seems to be a large plot at play and they poke at it but ultimately, the series ends far too soon for it to go anywhere because there were only 12 episodes.

Ghost Hunt is a series of light novels that was never finished. The anime just sort of ended and there were quite a few things that weren’t addressed such as the nice version of Naru that kept popping up in dreams. I guessed that he was the Naru’s dead twin brother and only by reading the wiki entry did I learn that I was right.

It’s just frustrating. The animes rarely dives into the stories properly. There's so much more to what you get but it's inaccessible. At least try to do it properly. There are so many loose ends that it's been bugging me a lot lately. I'm fine with making anime based off of light novels, but quit dropping the ball anime companies!

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll be posting about the new Fall anime soon.

Anime Times!

Sunday, July 25th, 2010 07:21 pm
forchancookie: (Interesting...)
A new season of anime is here. I sort of skipped last season, but I'm back on the boat. I'm gonna talk about what I've been watching under this cut because there will be some spoilers, mostly for Kuroshitsuji.

I'm a big spoiler cut! Click me! )
forchancookie: (Hikikomori)
So, a bunch of second episodes are up and I've watched them throughout the day. I also tossed a new anime in. Here's my thoughts!

Eden of The East
OMG! I think they got some actual native/fluent speakers for the English in this one! Not all of them, but there are a few that aren't speaking Engrish! YAY! Now if only other anime companies would take the hint.

Moving along, a girl is trying to throw a coin into the White House fountain, but it's way too far away from the front gates and the police come and stop her. Then some naked dude holding a cell phone and a hand gun comes and interrupts and they chase after him. But he fooled them and goes up to the girl, who hands over her coat so he's not running around completely naked. Only after he's gone does she realize that she left her passport and wallet in her coat pocket and she ditches her suitcase to run after him. He gets some clothes and finds out that he's a terrorist of some sort, but he has no memories and ends up heading back to Japan with the girl. Having him run around naked was pretty funny. I think it's a promising start.

FMA Ep 2
Better. It seemed longer than it should have been. There was a lot of info stuffed into that one episode. As always happens with FMA you have that sinking feeling when the boys get onto the human transmutation thing. I'm kind of annoyed with the Ed at the gate thing. His arm and leg dissolved and reappeared and dissolved again multiple times. Wat? And Riza continues to have a case of the stupid expressions. I know that they're trying to make the art look more like the manga this time around too, but I don't remember Riza looking this vapid in the manga. She's always been pretty severe. And she needs to be to keep Roy in line XD

Anyway, like I said, this episode is better. It does hold to the manga better. There's still some liberties here and there, but I'm not expecting a line for line panel for panel translation here.

07 Ghost Ep 2
Did I mention that I picked this one up for the pretty boys? Yeah, because there's a lot of pretty boys. I've not been disappointed! There's a few girls this time around and a robo-nun librarian. After fleeing from the military, Teito is miraculously not killed by a fall from his little plane thing and is instead rescued by some priests who bring him back to their sanctuary strong hold. In the meantime, his friend is being threatened by the evil military guy. This episode is really just another introduction to characters episode with a little info on the history of the countries, war, and the seven ghosts that protect the church and give the series its names. If you feel that you need some pretty boys in your life, this is your show. Start watching. I feel my fujoshi heart going into overdrive as I start to draw pairing lines between all the pretties.

Ristorante Paradiso Ep 2
And this one, I picked up for the older men. This episode really revolves around Nicoletta and her crush on Claudio, who she thinks is married. She's left wondering if it's real or if any of the restaurant staff will do as long as they're nice to her. And they're all nice to her, even the grumpy one. Anyway, she corners Claudio and paws at him and he does a really dramatic "I mustn't!" Then irresponsible mom pops in after ignoring her daughter all this time. I really don't like the mom. I get the feeling they're going to justify her behavior later on and they've been hinting that all the restaurant guys like her, but I just can't sympathize with her selfish behavior. Once she finds out that Nicoletta is crushing on Claudio, she even tries to send her away. What the hell woman?

While I've mentioned the art style already, I really have to say that the backgrounds in this episode bugged me a bit. In Nicoletta's apartment, you get this strange vertigo feeling because everything's crooked! It's annoying. I don't get that crooked feel from all the other backgrounds, but it's really obvious in her apartment, which is why I noticed and why it just bugged me. Don't throw in that wacky perspective at random. I understand that it probably fits in with the mangaka's messy art style, but no. Just no. That aside, it looks like we're finally going somewhere. Nicoletta's decided to apprentice at the restaurant and she might be spilling the beans about her mother being her mother.

Shangri-La Ep 2
I'm still not sure what's going on. Momoka is my favorite character though :D There's a lot of groups that are being introduced and used, but not really explained. They were all in the first episode and they reappear here but you still don't know what they're all about. You have some little computer chick that's manipulating carbon markets. Her scenes are long, incomprehensible and boring. There's some little miko kid who kills people with her mind or something. There's the military. There's some crazy bitchy lady who tortures bishounen and then there's the pink haired girl and her crew. This episode is less awesome than the first because there's less fighting and more apparent plot work happening with little info cluing you in as to waht's going on. They'd better give us some answers in the next episode or else!

Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ Ep 2
Training montage time! The male assassin, Zwei, must be trained, so it is time for a training montage as his humanity slowly dies. We actually get some info on the organization that pulls the strings. That's a nice change considering how many anime seem to be leaving us in the dark lately. There's really not much more to say. His humanity is wavering, not just going out all at once. I like that. I have to say though, Zwei in his training gear strongly resembles Heero Yuy. This guy has more emotions than Heero though, for now.

Pandora Hearts Ep 2
This episode is better than the first one. The first episode was a little incoherent. At this point, things at least have a flow and while you don't know what's going on, it's not as frustrating as it was in the first episode. This anime is definitely trying to fill the void of Kuroshitsuji and it has a dark sort of Alice in Wonderland vibe that I suspect will only get stronger from here on out. While the first episode had me iffy on this one, the second episode did a better job of drawing me in. Now we're getting somewhere. Now there's a story forming that has me curious about what happens next.

Sengoku Basara Ep 2
Horses running up a wall! Those are some badass horses! Anyway, this episode forges on. It tosses out a little plot (which is mostly this side versus that side) and throws in some awesome battles. While it's got lots of characters in it, the could easily call it the Date Masumune Vs. Sanada Yukimura show. Date is blue and Sanada is red and when they clash their energies go boom. Lots of UST there guys! And in their rumble this episode it seems that they've taken a page form Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's book of style for their epic head ot head. Mostly, this episode is all about the fighting. There's some talk about...something or other. I wasn't paying attention because Kenshin wears something stupid on his head and there's this big boobed ninja chick fawning over him and asking him a million questions. I totally zoned out. But really, if you're watching this show it's not for the plot. It's for the battles. It really is like watching Samurai Warriors animated. It's the same thing. The Basara games seem to have the same fighting style, just different character designs. So you still have one guy charging into a crowd of soldiers charged up with energy and just blowing them away. It's awesome XD

Valkyria Chronicles Ep 2
How can something with a bunch of tank battles be so damn boring? And the textures on the colors annoy the crap out of me. It's like when someone does an epic scene and they do crosshatching, but everything has the weird textured hatching like it's all so profound. Well it isn't. It's boring. And then the female main goes off to join the army and switches from a cute militia outfit to a cute mini skirted military uniform. *sighs* I don't know if I can watch this anymore. The opening shows that they're going to introduce an bunch more characters, but it's all so stupid and boring so far, I don't want to stick it out. Also, I think it's worth noting that they did an Kuroshitsuji-like chibiful ending with some flying pig mascot wandering across a slide show of the chibi characters going through their day. It's not as good as the Kuroshitsuji one and the ending song has this peppy electronic sounding voice singing their ending song. I don't really care for it. So again, I don't think I'll be sticking with this one.

In not new anime news, I have to say that for something that only kids should be able to see, Shugo Chara sure is fuuuuuuuullll of adults who can see/know about chara eggs and crap and are trying to take advantage of them. That's always bugged me. They're not a very well kept secret. Every other person seems to be able to see them. And there's an entire company devoted to stealing the hopes and dreams of children? Really? That's all they do? Those types of "evil organizations" are always the weirdest and obviously weakest ones since every other magical girl has to fight against one. I guess it's jut an old standard, a tired old standard. Can we get some new badguy juice please?
forchancookie: (Brainsplosion)
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 Saga

Oh, 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 Ghost

I'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 Paradiso

This 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 Animation

Since 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.

New Spring Anime

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 02:57 am
forchancookie: (Interesting...)
Anime is a good distraction when trying to not think about pain. Here's a few thoughts on the new Spring season anime that I've been watching.

Shangri-La
This one was pretty interesting. The art and animation were pretty slick. You're not given a lot of information off the bat, but what you do get is interesting and enough to string you along. You follow a pink haired girl as she gets out of jail for unexplained reasons. Two transvestites and a gruff old guy are there to pick her up and bring her back to some post apocalyptic Tokyo where jungle has pretty much taken over the entire city except for a small island of civilization in the middle. There's something complicated about carbon taxes and then the military comes to blow things up and our heroine and her fabulous cross dressing mentor kick some ass. It's definitely going to be a small fry with a big destiny will overcome great odds and become a leader type shows. It will be interesting to see the tidbits we're given come together. This is on my watch list for now.

Sengoku Basara
This one is based off a series of video games called Basara, the English version is Devil Kings. It's similar to Samurai Warriors and uses a bunch of Japanese historical figures. If you'd played Samurai Warriors, most of the names will be familiar and it's a similar gameplay style so there's all these big flashy attacks. With all these men running around fighting and filling the screen with tension, this one has a lot of slashy potential. Yeah, it's probably not the greatest anime out this season, but it's a silly action filled romp if you just want a distraction and something to day dream about later.

Valkyria Chronicles
This one is based on some PS3 RPG. There's some war. Some guy gets mistaken as a spy. There's a competent female city guard and an incompetent one that faints a lot. The competent one jumps the gun a lot, accusing the spy guy of being a spy simply because he's standing around sketching fish and she doesn't recognize him. Come to find out he's some famous town hero's son. There's some gun shooting and there will be a tank battle in the future. As you can tell from my description, this one didn't really catch me. The art is pretty and soft and they do something interesting with the textures on the colors. In the end I really just watched it to pass the time and not because I really enjoyed it.

It could go places, but so far, I don't seem to care too much. It's a bit silly really. The episode ended on a dramatic cliffhanger with an entire army circling one house after some scouts chased a mere two people to said house. Because those two people were sooooo important. They don't even know who they're chasing and they send the whole army after them? And then they don't just destroy the house, they give them a fighting chance. You have like a half dozen tanks! Just level the house and move on. Geez!

Pandora Hearts
I get the feeling that this is supposed to be a Kuroshitsuji replacement. It just has a similar feel. Young master, Victorian style setting and clothing. The only problem is you have no idea what the hell is going on. Amidst a story about a boy coming of age and running away from his servants, there's all sorts of disjointed things that you just know will spell disaster. On the one hand, the lack of explanation annoyed me. On the other hand, I feel like I can't make a judgment on it because I have no idea what it's about or what's really going on other than flirting with disaster of some sort.

Phantom: Requiem For The Phantom
This is the girl assassin show. If you watched Kite or Gunslinger Girl, you've seen it before. Don't hold it against it though, because so far it actually focuses on a boy. It seems that he accidentally got tangled up in an assassination and he has some 1337 assassin skills, so they train him to be the girl assassin's partner. The episode is half flash back (not too far back) and half display of his hitman skills. This follows an OVA simply called Phantom the Animation, which I'm currently downloading. It was interesting enough. It promises a complicated story to come. I'll be trying out the next episode.

The things still on my list to watch are:
Guin Saga
07 Ghost
Ristorante Paradiso

I might also give Souten Kouro a try. It's based on the Three Kingdoms, that would be the Dynasty Warriors era for those of you who've played it. It kind of amuses me that, while not based off them specifically, we still get a Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors anime this season. The only problem being that the character designs are different from those you already are familiar with fromt he games. Ah well.
forchancookie: (Hosheep!)
The new Fullmetal Alchemist is out and...I don't love it. I'm not even sure I like it. I was under the impression that this reboot was supposed to be more faithful to the manga and yet it seems even farther away with the introduction of a new alchemist. It seems like the original anime at least started out pretty close to the manga before diverging into an alternate universe. This one just plunges us into one head first. Oh noes! Beware the ice alchemist! He's full of ham handed foreshadowing. Just beat us over the head with it why don't you? You get re-introduced to a bunch of characters you already know and yet you don't know them because they sound different. Oh, and the opening song? MEH! Compared to the previous season's opening and ending songs, this one is pretty crappy.

It's only one episode, so who knows what could happen from here, but for me, they didn't start out on a very good foot. It seems like they jammed a bunch of stuff into an episode and hoped we'd love it. And I didn't. I don't love the first anime either, but it's still ahead on my book.

On the upside, the new anime is pretty. Although, some of the characters just seem to have a dumb look on their face. Riza seems to be a victim of the dumb look. Nooooooo!

Oh hell, who am I kidding? I'm trying to find nice things to say, but I'm just flat out disappointed. I'll keep watching and hope that it gets better, but I'm not holding out for any miracles. =P
forchancookie: (Thpppppt)
Let's talk anime, because I haven't talked about it enough lately. But so many of my shows are ending! No more Kuroshitsuji, Mitchiko to Hatchin, Skip Beat, or Toradora. I also just finished off Ride Back and Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou.

Ride Back surprised me, after initially making fun of the robots and ballet connection it managed to get quite interesting in its 12 ep run. There was a whole slew of stuff crammed into those episodes. There was the whole friend making thing. Learning to ride the Ride Back. Political uprisings, terrorist attacks, kidnappings, arrests, deaths. It was crazy. And it all ended with a ballet performance on a Ride Back. If you like interesting mech designs and fighting back against the man, you might like this one.

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou also surprised me. I liked it from the get go, but I was skeptical of their ability to wrap it up in 13 episodes. But they managed to show growth and tie a bow on it. There's still plenty of room for them to make more, but if they don't they still managed to give a satisfying end to the anime. And there's always the manga to read. I would like more though. It's pretty and low key and the music is nice and have I mentioned that it's pretty? I'm not being shallow. Really!

Looks like I'll still get about 13 more episodes of Shugo Chara Doki. Though I wonder if I'll get an ending out of that one. Lately the characters have all been residing in Misunderstanding Land, where they manage to not communicate to each other or when they do they screw it up and misunderstand each other. Those kinds of situations can breed interesting results (most often some lovely angst) but continuing to use the same trick over and over gets boring and frustrating. Talk to each other people!

Now that some of the series I was following have slipped away, it looks like I'll have to find a few new ones to poke at. I found a Spring Anime Preview and read through it. I already know that I'm going to watch the new Fullmetal Alchemist. It will be interesting to see how they handle it. Will we get bored since we've already seen the first anime? In the very beginning, it followed the manga closely enough before breaking off. Time will tell, either way I'm interested. I'm not eagerly holding my breath, but I am curious.

A lot of the titles simply failed to catch my interest. Despite my enjoyment of Toradora I'm not really into the whole high school rabu rabu genre. Really. Ristorante Paradiso caught my eye because it's full of handsome older men! That's right, not a restaurant full of pretty bishounen, it's full of biseinen. Wow. So I will have to check that out. 07-Ghost looks pretty. There are a few actiony things that look promising, but it's hard to tell without watching anything. I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled.

And here's the preview for Ristorante Paradiso:


I think I just spent the last three hours looking for pictures from Toradora and Shugo Chara so I could make icons. And in the end, I ended up using screenshots that I took to make them. ^_^; Next I have to hunt down some pretty Natsume pics, but now now. Now I'm going to leave little Yoru blowing raspberries and head off.
forchancookie: (Ryuji)
Wai! Finally an anime ending that I'm happy with! After 25 episodes of adorableness, Toradora has come to a close. The last two episodes were so cute! I put off watching for a while, I didn't want it to end! But it has ended and now I can dream of all the things these cute people will do in the future. I think Minorin and Ami are definitely definitely going to get together. And it's made pretty obvious that Ryuji is going to marry his Taiga. Awwww ♥ Ryuji will make a great housewife XD He will fanatically make sure there is no mold in the shower and that all of Taiga's socks have their mate. I bet he'll even iron her underwear. Oh Ryuji.

If you're looking for sweet characters with lots of high school romantic entanglements and cuteness, Toradora must be on your list.

Note to self: Make Toradora icon.

Gimme More!

Sunday, March 29th, 2009 10:25 pm
forchancookie: (Angry Chibi Viral)
What? Noooooooooooooooooo! Only 25 episodes of Skip Beat anime?! Noooooooooooooooooo! How cruel! How can we get seventy billion episodes of Naruto or Bleach but right when Skip Beat gets somewhere, they end the anime. They cut it off right where the manga really starts to pick up! And sure, the manga is still going, but dammit, so are the above mentioned shounen series and that never stopped them from pumping it out! Dammit! Gimme more Skip Beat you cheapskate bastards! *stomps feet* This sucks. I'm going to go sulk now.

Different Ends

Saturday, March 28th, 2009 06:18 pm
forchancookie: (Interesting...)
Oh Oreos, you are so good no matter what color you come in. I'm finishing up the last of some vanilla oreos. So yummy. I have a weakness for vanilla sandwich cookies with icing in them. When I was really little, we lived in an old rent house in Houma. It was the one with the floor heater that burned my feet and gave me nightmares for life. I think I've mentioned it before. Anyway, next door, lived an older couple and they became my Muhmaw and PuPaw. Man, trying to figure out how to write their names how we say them is weird. They were from New Jersey but had settled in Louisiana, so it's not your typical Southern pronunciation. Anyway, even long after we moved across town and the rent house burned down due to afore mentioned floor heater, we always visited them and they always had vanilla sandwich cookies on hand. We always sat down at the kitchen counter and ate vanilla sandwich cookies and milk and then went out back to hunt for pecans and play on the cement slab of where the old house used to be. Pupaw died a few years ago. I haven't been to Houma in a long time, so I don't know how Muhmaw is. I'll be going there next Saturday to go to a dress appointment with Jill. That'll be interesting. Mom heard dress and her eyes lit up. Guess I'll be dragging her along too.

And now I'm full of cookies and waxing on nostalgic. Oh boy. Brian's here's for the weekend. Apparently, Opie has been misbehaving a lot since the last time he was here. I had him for two weeks, but since he's gone back to Brian, he's been destroying a lot of things out of boredom. He tears up bags, ate Brian's expensive boots, destroyed six rolls of paper towels and who knows what else. Poor thing. He has too much goofy energy to be locked up in the house for eight hours a day. Brian needs to find a doggy daycare for the poor guy.

Anyway, some of the anime that I've been watching has come to an end. I finished watching Mitchiko to Hatchin. It's different. It's set in South America (though there's still a lot of Japanese names like Hiroshi and Satoshi) and people actually have skin color! Yes, that's write, tanned people, black people, white people, all sorts of different colors of people. It's great to see in an anime, which can be so generic and bland. I wouldn't say that all anime is outright xenophobic, it's just that it's so self-focused that the outside world doesn't tend to exist unless they're throwing in a foreigner for a gag. So, Mitchiko to Hatchin has people with color, and that's nice. The plot is a basic jailbird on the run/chase scenario, but that's sort of inconsequential to the character development. While the animation and music are vibrant and there's plenty of action, when it all boils down it's about character development. You're watching Mitchiko and Hatchin and the people around them grow and change. It can be a little slow though. Even with the action and music and colors, if you're not big on watching characters bloom, this can be a bit boring. It's worth giving a try for the very least just because it's so different. The ending was no exception. Although, it was one of those wide open endings that bug me. It's sort of fitting. You pretty much know what happens next, but you can't know for sure.

Now onto the other anime that's ended. Kuroshitsuji has sadly come to an end. It's so pretty, so very pretty. And so darn suggestive too! I went into it saying "I will not ship Ciel and Sebastian just because they are pretty." And then they went and made me! There's just too much subtext there. It's just so beautifully wrong. Sebastian wants to eat Ciel's bittersweet little soul, but in the end he seems reluctant. So much affection has built between them. It's impossible not to ship. The anime also ended with quite an open ending. It pretty much tells you what is going to happen next but doesn't show you, leaving it open. I know what I think happens next. Bow wow chika bow wow! XD Srsly though. If Ciel thought it was just as simple as getting his soul sucked out by a demon, he's still a cute naive little boy and Sebastian is totally going to take advantage of that. The ending just fit though. Another bittersweet glimpse into the tragic life of Ciel Phantomhive. I wish it weren't over, but it ended so well. Ah well, there's always fanfiction. :D I'm itching to get my grubby fingers on the soundtrack too. *grabby hands*

I also started watching Heroic Age. Standard "Find the key that will save humanity from extinction at the hands of enemy" type anime, but it's nice. The animation is pretty. I like the characters, so even though the story is familiar, you want to follow them to see how it turns out for them. There are a few characters I want to keelhaul, but they're supposed to be that way. Ugh. Nasty princes! Anyway, I'm a bit more than half way, but after watching Kuroshitsuji, I feel like I need a break to let its bittersweet end sink in. I should probably read the manga too. Later though, I should probably bring the dogs outside.

It got chilly! We had a bunch of rain and it was hot and muggy and now all of a sudden it's chilly. My toes are cold. Oh Louisiana, you have such weird and uncomfortable weather. Usually, I'd just slip into my flipflops or sandals and take them out, but today calls for shoes. And that means socks. And that means work. I dun wanna. ^_^;; Ok, I'm going.
forchancookie: (Genius at Work)
Some evil shadowy guy is planting a new virus on computers, intent on creating a computer zombie army! Oh noes! It's set to go off on April Fool's Day. Oh ha ha. Jerk. Anyway, read up on it. You don't want your computer to become one of the slobbering zombie masses!

In other geekery, I've downloaded the Venus Wars Soundtrack. I saw it well over ten years ago when the SciFi Channel (it will never by SyFy dammit!) had their Saturday morning anime block. I recorded it on an old VHS that's sitting in my closet right now. It also has Project A-Ko, which I was in love with, and Odin, which was ok, on it. So nostalgic. I want to watch it now....heck more than that now I want to find the A-Ko soundtrack. I'm such a geek.

Anyway, some things I really remember about Venus Wars are that in the dub the female love interest's cat was named Andrew. My brother was amused by this as a child. They had a shot of the main character in his tighty whities that my younger self thought was hawt. XD In one of the op/end songs, the female singer uses Engrish and says "crash and burn". When I heard that I was all "Woah! It's the same! Now I know Japanese!" Ah younger self, you were so cute! *pinches own cheeks* And that's enough geekery from me.

Crunchyroll

Thursday, February 12th, 2009 07:34 am
forchancookie: (Fangirl Zone)
I know there was a lot of bitching when Crunchyroll went from a den of illicit fansubs to a legal streaming anime site with little or no fan uploads. But I have to say I think the new product is much improved from what it was! I signed up for CR ages ago, but I never watched anything there because I hated the layout and the search and just a bunch of things. I could get my anime fix elsewhere with less frustration. The few times I did watch something on CR, I found the sub quality to be shitty. It was like just anyone would stumble through and post their sub for recognition points. No thanks.

I ended up wandering onto CR aimlessly the other night and I haven't left since. I like the new layout and how the videos are showed. I watched some Skip Beat and then took a browse through what else they have up. I randomly started watching Kaleido Star and I just zoomed through 8 episodes! I'm such a junkie! But it's a pretty fun shoujo. And there's a cute little seal mascot!

So, if you want to stream anime, I am recommending Crunchroll. Legal streaming is not a bad thing. Heck, if I had money at the moment, I'd give them a bit because I am behind this idea 100%! How can anyone hate quick access to legal quality content? Brats, that's who. And since I don't know any brats (other than myself) go forth I say! Go forth and consume more anime!

And now, do I go for episode 9 or go to bed? Decisions decisions ^_^;
forchancookie: (Genius at Work)
Anne Elise was mourning the fact that nobody is really talking about the new anime yet. I poked at Anime News Network and found it to be true....honestly, I'm too lazy to poke anywhere else. I decided to just poke at the new anime without the aid of anyone else's guides. So here's my thoughts on what I've watched so far. More will be added the more I watch.

Ride Back )

Akikan )

Fall Anime Time!

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 06:30 pm
forchancookie: (Fangirl Moment)
Oh boy! It's new anime time again! Anime News Network has put up their Fall 2008 Preview Guide and I went rooting around to see what might be worth watching. Here's what I went ahead and watched and what I thought. I even included screenshots this time!

Follow me to some anime goodness! )

I'll most likely update this post as more comes out that I watch...if I watch.

September 2011

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