New Spring Anime
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 02:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forchancookieAnime 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.
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.
