Fall Anime Time!
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forchancookieOh 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!
Kuroshitsuji
First up is Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler. I have to say, this one is gorgeous. Set in Victorian times, it's going for that Gothic edge and while I don't usually care much for such overly done visuals, this one keeps things nice and even. It's not frills everywhere, nor is it all black. It is decidedly dark but it throws in some humor and color in the form of some super incompetant servants. The story follows Ciel Phantomhive and his butler Sebastion. Ciel is a sullen and overly mature young lord and Sebastion is infinitely competent and takes care of everything the young lord should need.
In the story, a man in charge of one of the Phantomhive toy factories comes for a visit. Ciel has him play a creepy boardgame with him while the guy tries to weasel money out of him. In the meantime, the incompetent servants are making Sebastion's life difficult by being incompetent. This one jumps around from dark humor to slapstick to eye candy a lot. That's not to say that it's frantic or ill handled, it just has a lot packed into it. It all takes a decidedly dark turn at the end blossoming into a chilly gothic horror.
What really amuses me is that the ending sequence is chibified as everyone goes about their day. It's adorable and quite at odds with the dark and pretty opening. I'm really just a sucker for Chibis. With it's pretty art, chibis, darkness, random humor and everything else combined, I say give it a try, there's a lot to offer. Or if you're shallow, just watch it because it's pretty XD
To Aru Majutsu no Index
To Aru Majutsu no Index is about an unlucky guy. Not only does he have bad luck, but he has almost supernatural bad luck as some weird power that nulls power around it, including any sort of divine blessings that might protect him from his bad luck. The episode starts off with Touma Kamijou on the run from a bunch of thugs after trying to get them to leave a girl alone. As it turns out, he was trying to save the thugs from the girl who has some crazy electric powers. Interesting.
The next morning, Kamijou finds a nun hanging from his balcony railing. Her name is Index and she is apparently a walking library of magical books. But Kamijou doesn't believe in magic and Index doesn't believe in Kamijou's null effect. So they test it out, to humorous effect.
Some other stuff happens. There's this obnoxious super moe blob teacher....yes, teacher.
And then this badguy who looks like Goyjo shows up.
Let's just say that the opening sequence makes me think we'll have a lot of characters to learn about, but it does seem that it will be an interesting ride. It feels like it could go in two different directions. It's either going to throw a standard shounen at us, or it's going to give us a shounen with a few twists. I'm hoping for the latter. I'm going to keep an eye on it to see what it decides to do.
Toradora!
Ryūji Takasu is a hard working neat freak. He likes things in order. He cooks and cleans. He takes care of his mom and he just so happened to inherit his father's mean yakuza face. When people bump into him on the street they automatically fork over their wallets in apology. Poor Ryūji is constantly turning them in as lost property and continually mourning his looks. All he wants is to be a nice guy and confess to the girl that he likes!
On the first day of class, he accidentally runs into Taiga Aisaka, the infamous "Palmtop Tiger". She's a little slip of a girl who knocks Ryūji flat on his ass with her punch. Later, through a mistake and Aisaka's inability to not react without incoherent violence, Ryūji ends up in possession of a love letter...sort of. And Aisaka pays him a midnight visit with a boken in hand. In trying to get her to leave, Ryūji ends up agreeing to essentially be Aisaka's dog/servant.
We definitely have a typical romantic comedy on our hands with this one, but I enjoyed it. The female is not too violent or abusive, which I freaking HATE in this genre, but it could always head downhill later on. Regardless, Ryūji is quite endearing. If you sympathized with Cassanoda in Ouran, then Ryūji is right up your alley. Perhaps not as severe looking as the red head, but all the same he's got his issues. As long as this continues to be fairly light hearted and funny, I'm on board for the ride. If Aisaka takes a turn into Akane-ville, I'm getting off though.
Ga-Rei –Zero–
What's going on?! No really, what's going on? We're introduced to a world where supernatural beings that wreak havoc on the public are dealt with by a Supernatural Disaster Prevention Agency. We meet an angsty hero with an angsty past. He and his pretty partner save the butts of their comrades who are getting their asses eaten by supernatural ghoulies. It's pretty ridiculous watching the guy stand up and shoot things on the pegs of a motorcycle in constant motion.
Anyway, we're introduced to a crack team of SDPA ghostie exterminators, we get some more hints of angst and the overall evil guy who is very fond of blue butterflies that turn up constantly as a calling card. Names are taken, asses are kicked and then rocks fall and everybody dies. *headtilt* What? Yes, that's about the equivalent of what happens here. To make things even better, there is no ending song or sequences. The credits are rolled over a black screen full of silences leaving you plenty of time to wonder "What the hell just happened here?"
Don't get me wrong, there were some kick ass moments, like the chick beating up a bunch of baddies with her motorcycle that had protective runes etched into the tires. But the end it just...whaaaa? I really have no idea where they're going with all this now. I was honestly so annoyed with this that I didn't really bother getting any more screenshots ^_^;;
Yozakura Quartet
I really enjoyed this one! I think you can guage my enjoyment by how many screenshots I take of these shows XD The show takes place in Sakurashin, a sort of safe haven town for Yokai and humans alike. The quartet is the Mayor/main protector of said town who just happens to be some kind of a dragon incarnation, a cat eared mind reader, a spell user and a normal human, who is not so normal and actually expells youkai in a process called tuning. In addition to the quartet, the mayor has a handsome oni aide guy who is constantly trying to protect her, not like she needs it.
The whole premise is nothing new. We've all seen a team of super powered teens protecting towns before. My enjoyment of this show is more character driven. Everyone is competant! As of yet, I haven't run into that goofy incompetant, but somehow still lovable character yet. The team functions well as a team, nobody's ego is too over the top (yet). The loan male (human) in the group is laid back, yet quietly confident. He's not one of those whimps with powers that's afraid to use them, nor is he a guy with little to go on but brute force and determination. I like that!
The story is your typical find the badguy and defeat him deal with the more shadowy and sinister baddy introduced at the end. But still, I liked it. I liked the characters and I want to see where they're going. And now here's all the fun screenshots I took!
Pics to follow.
Shikabane Hime: Aka
Shikabane Hime means corpse princess. So as you can imagine, it's about a dead girl, Makina, who is reanimated to fight other evil walking corpses. But for some reason that's yet to be made clear, we seem to focus more on an orphan boy, Ouri. You see, he lives in a temple orphanage and one night a spirit cat wakes him up and he goes wandering around the temple only to stumble on the corpse of a girl. That's when his brother, a temple monk, stumbles in, injured and worried about the corpse. He then, reanimates it. This seems to be a weird and traumatic moment in the kid's life as soon after he decides to leave the temple and strike out on his own. Only, that's not so easy as his deadbeat friends won't help him move!
In the meantime, a badguy is on the loose. He kept a harem of girls, which he killed and subsequently he turned into a Shikabane. So our local Shikabane Hime is on the case. Only in her first confrontation with him, she gets carried off. After freeing herself from his grasp she falls into a park where she fatefully meets up with Ouri again. Ouri, who seems pretty indifferent to her zombie state, hugs her as he'd seen his brother do to get her to come around. She does, she smacks him and runs off to kick the badguy's ass. Ouri collects his things, that have now rolled down a hill and crashed and takes forever to move into his apartment where is deadbeat friends had a party for him whiel he wasn't even there.
I don't know, I'm having a hard time feeling anything but indifferent to this one. It just...is. If it's about a corpse princess, why don't we focus on her? Why are we focusing on the boy? Is he going to become more important as it seems he shares some of his brother's abilities? I like the fact that Ouri and his brother are insistent that Makina is alive and not an object as some of the other characters seem to think. Makina's heavy eyebrows bother me for some reason. They make her seem more masculine. I'm a bit curious to see where they might take this, but still, I'm not excited about it and I can't really say that I enjoyed it. AGain, it just is. I guess I'll have to wait and see what it turns into.
Pics to follow.
I'll most likely update this post as more comes out that I watch...if I watch.
Kuroshitsuji
First up is Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler. I have to say, this one is gorgeous. Set in Victorian times, it's going for that Gothic edge and while I don't usually care much for such overly done visuals, this one keeps things nice and even. It's not frills everywhere, nor is it all black. It is decidedly dark but it throws in some humor and color in the form of some super incompetant servants. The story follows Ciel Phantomhive and his butler Sebastion. Ciel is a sullen and overly mature young lord and Sebastion is infinitely competent and takes care of everything the young lord should need.
In the story, a man in charge of one of the Phantomhive toy factories comes for a visit. Ciel has him play a creepy boardgame with him while the guy tries to weasel money out of him. In the meantime, the incompetent servants are making Sebastion's life difficult by being incompetent. This one jumps around from dark humor to slapstick to eye candy a lot. That's not to say that it's frantic or ill handled, it just has a lot packed into it. It all takes a decidedly dark turn at the end blossoming into a chilly gothic horror.
What really amuses me is that the ending sequence is chibified as everyone goes about their day. It's adorable and quite at odds with the dark and pretty opening. I'm really just a sucker for Chibis. With it's pretty art, chibis, darkness, random humor and everything else combined, I say give it a try, there's a lot to offer. Or if you're shallow, just watch it because it's pretty XD
To Aru Majutsu no Index
To Aru Majutsu no Index is about an unlucky guy. Not only does he have bad luck, but he has almost supernatural bad luck as some weird power that nulls power around it, including any sort of divine blessings that might protect him from his bad luck. The episode starts off with Touma Kamijou on the run from a bunch of thugs after trying to get them to leave a girl alone. As it turns out, he was trying to save the thugs from the girl who has some crazy electric powers. Interesting.
The next morning, Kamijou finds a nun hanging from his balcony railing. Her name is Index and she is apparently a walking library of magical books. But Kamijou doesn't believe in magic and Index doesn't believe in Kamijou's null effect. So they test it out, to humorous effect.
Some other stuff happens. There's this obnoxious super moe blob teacher....yes, teacher.
And then this badguy who looks like Goyjo shows up.
Let's just say that the opening sequence makes me think we'll have a lot of characters to learn about, but it does seem that it will be an interesting ride. It feels like it could go in two different directions. It's either going to throw a standard shounen at us, or it's going to give us a shounen with a few twists. I'm hoping for the latter. I'm going to keep an eye on it to see what it decides to do.
Toradora!
Ryūji Takasu is a hard working neat freak. He likes things in order. He cooks and cleans. He takes care of his mom and he just so happened to inherit his father's mean yakuza face. When people bump into him on the street they automatically fork over their wallets in apology. Poor Ryūji is constantly turning them in as lost property and continually mourning his looks. All he wants is to be a nice guy and confess to the girl that he likes!
On the first day of class, he accidentally runs into Taiga Aisaka, the infamous "Palmtop Tiger". She's a little slip of a girl who knocks Ryūji flat on his ass with her punch. Later, through a mistake and Aisaka's inability to not react without incoherent violence, Ryūji ends up in possession of a love letter...sort of. And Aisaka pays him a midnight visit with a boken in hand. In trying to get her to leave, Ryūji ends up agreeing to essentially be Aisaka's dog/servant.
We definitely have a typical romantic comedy on our hands with this one, but I enjoyed it. The female is not too violent or abusive, which I freaking HATE in this genre, but it could always head downhill later on. Regardless, Ryūji is quite endearing. If you sympathized with Cassanoda in Ouran, then Ryūji is right up your alley. Perhaps not as severe looking as the red head, but all the same he's got his issues. As long as this continues to be fairly light hearted and funny, I'm on board for the ride. If Aisaka takes a turn into Akane-ville, I'm getting off though.
Ga-Rei –Zero–
What's going on?! No really, what's going on? We're introduced to a world where supernatural beings that wreak havoc on the public are dealt with by a Supernatural Disaster Prevention Agency. We meet an angsty hero with an angsty past. He and his pretty partner save the butts of their comrades who are getting their asses eaten by supernatural ghoulies. It's pretty ridiculous watching the guy stand up and shoot things on the pegs of a motorcycle in constant motion.
Anyway, we're introduced to a crack team of SDPA ghostie exterminators, we get some more hints of angst and the overall evil guy who is very fond of blue butterflies that turn up constantly as a calling card. Names are taken, asses are kicked and then rocks fall and everybody dies. *headtilt* What? Yes, that's about the equivalent of what happens here. To make things even better, there is no ending song or sequences. The credits are rolled over a black screen full of silences leaving you plenty of time to wonder "What the hell just happened here?"
Don't get me wrong, there were some kick ass moments, like the chick beating up a bunch of baddies with her motorcycle that had protective runes etched into the tires. But the end it just...whaaaa? I really have no idea where they're going with all this now. I was honestly so annoyed with this that I didn't really bother getting any more screenshots ^_^;;
Yozakura Quartet
I really enjoyed this one! I think you can guage my enjoyment by how many screenshots I take of these shows XD The show takes place in Sakurashin, a sort of safe haven town for Yokai and humans alike. The quartet is the Mayor/main protector of said town who just happens to be some kind of a dragon incarnation, a cat eared mind reader, a spell user and a normal human, who is not so normal and actually expells youkai in a process called tuning. In addition to the quartet, the mayor has a handsome oni aide guy who is constantly trying to protect her, not like she needs it.
The whole premise is nothing new. We've all seen a team of super powered teens protecting towns before. My enjoyment of this show is more character driven. Everyone is competant! As of yet, I haven't run into that goofy incompetant, but somehow still lovable character yet. The team functions well as a team, nobody's ego is too over the top (yet). The loan male (human) in the group is laid back, yet quietly confident. He's not one of those whimps with powers that's afraid to use them, nor is he a guy with little to go on but brute force and determination. I like that!
The story is your typical find the badguy and defeat him deal with the more shadowy and sinister baddy introduced at the end. But still, I liked it. I liked the characters and I want to see where they're going. And now here's all the fun screenshots I took!
Pics to follow.
Shikabane Hime: Aka
Shikabane Hime means corpse princess. So as you can imagine, it's about a dead girl, Makina, who is reanimated to fight other evil walking corpses. But for some reason that's yet to be made clear, we seem to focus more on an orphan boy, Ouri. You see, he lives in a temple orphanage and one night a spirit cat wakes him up and he goes wandering around the temple only to stumble on the corpse of a girl. That's when his brother, a temple monk, stumbles in, injured and worried about the corpse. He then, reanimates it. This seems to be a weird and traumatic moment in the kid's life as soon after he decides to leave the temple and strike out on his own. Only, that's not so easy as his deadbeat friends won't help him move!
In the meantime, a badguy is on the loose. He kept a harem of girls, which he killed and subsequently he turned into a Shikabane. So our local Shikabane Hime is on the case. Only in her first confrontation with him, she gets carried off. After freeing herself from his grasp she falls into a park where she fatefully meets up with Ouri again. Ouri, who seems pretty indifferent to her zombie state, hugs her as he'd seen his brother do to get her to come around. She does, she smacks him and runs off to kick the badguy's ass. Ouri collects his things, that have now rolled down a hill and crashed and takes forever to move into his apartment where is deadbeat friends had a party for him whiel he wasn't even there.
I don't know, I'm having a hard time feeling anything but indifferent to this one. It just...is. If it's about a corpse princess, why don't we focus on her? Why are we focusing on the boy? Is he going to become more important as it seems he shares some of his brother's abilities? I like the fact that Ouri and his brother are insistent that Makina is alive and not an object as some of the other characters seem to think. Makina's heavy eyebrows bother me for some reason. They make her seem more masculine. I'm a bit curious to see where they might take this, but still, I'm not excited about it and I can't really say that I enjoyed it. AGain, it just is. I guess I'll have to wait and see what it turns into.
Pics to follow.
I'll most likely update this post as more comes out that I watch...if I watch.
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Date: 2008-10-11 07:39 pm (UTC)That's the new Gainax series, ne?