For-Chan Cookie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
forchancookie) wrote2010-07-25 07:21 pm
forchancookie) wrote2010-07-25 07:21 pm
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Anime Times!
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.
Kuroshitsuji is back. The first season ended with a pretty final ending. I loved that ending. So this season, everyone was sure that the anime couldn't be the same and sure enough, they introduced a new demon butler, Claude, with a new young charge, Alois. I liked the butler, didn't like the kid. And then the twist! Sebastian shows up with Ciel all curled up in a box like a Rozen Maiden doll! After stealing a tea tin, which contains the Phantomheive family ring, Sebastian revived Ciel.
It's a great twist! They had everyone fooled but then I don't know what's going on. The second episode is some stupid drivel with Ciel and Lizzy on the river. Lao shows up, but we're pretty sure he died in the first season. At the very least, he's Ciel's enemy at this point and shouldn't be so friendly with Ciel.
In the third episode, we have Ciel going back to solving cases for the Queen. But wait, isn't she dead? And Ciel makes reference to his aunt Madame Red, who is also dead. On the case, they meet Grell, the shinigami who disguised himself as Madame Red's butler and later goes on a few of their adventures with them. Ciel doesn't recognize him. So when does this second season take place? Did we go back in time? Have we moved forward in time? Does Ciel have memory issues now? I'm not really sure.
The season so far is a mixed bag of good and bad. Hopefully, we'll get more good and get to the bottom of this.
Kuroshitsuji 2 is streaming at Funimation.
They've made a Moyashimon live action dorama. I loved the anime, so I decided to give it a try. The microbes are all computer generated and look pretty much identical to how they are in the anime. Very cute. They're always drifting around. And then you have the people... I'm sorry, but they ruin everything. It's all ridiculously cheesy and overacted and awful! Sometimes the cheesiness works, but mostly, it's just terrible and awkward and not fun.
They've made a lot of story changes. Most notably, Kei is stripped from his place at Sawaki's side. You hear his voice saying that he's withdrawn, which doesn't happen till much later on in the anime. The opening sequences show that we'll see him later on in his loli form, but still. The story is completely changed. There are some familiar scenes but mostly, it's like someone took Moyashimon, stuck it in a blender and then extracted bits and pieces to stick together in the first episode.
I said that I was going to stick around until Kei showed up, but after episode three with the "Bentora bentora space people" UFO Club, I'm seriously having my doubts. It's just really really bad! I was pretty sure going in that it would be bad because it's a dorama, but it could have surprised me! Well, it did surprise me...with its badness!!
Moyashimon is streaming at Funimation
Next up, there's Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi. This one gives me a Tora Dora vibe and since I loved Tora Dora, I enjoy this one. This is sort of a mash up of fairy tale characters. The main character, Ookami-san is the "Wolf" while her best friend is "Little Red Riding Hood" and the guy with a crush on Ookami is the "hunter". There are some bits that mirror fairy tales, but it's hardly a modern day retelling.
Ookami works for a student organization, the Otogi Bank, which does jobs for students in return for favors. She's a fierce boxer and uses two cat boxing gloves to beat people up. They leave amusing neko faces on people's faces after they're punched. In the first episode, they're trying to prevent the tennis star from resigning from the tennis club in a fit of frustration after an injury. At the end there's a little Cinderella spoof. The second episode is very Tortoise and the Hare while the third is...nothing really.
Then there's Ryoushi, who has a crush on Ookami and also has a phobia of being looked at, making him shrink in on himself and cry when someone stares at him. But being the hunter, from the far away mountains, as long as no one's looking her can be quite efficient. And for all Ookami's toughness, she's still just a girly girl on the inside, so she alternates between blushing and flattered and her tough girl front.
Little Red Riding Hood is like a shrunken Minorin form Tora Dora while Ookami is a taller Taiga and Ryoushi is totally Ryuji, but less scary and more shy. I'm sure we'll see the love story growing. I hope it's cute. That's what I'm watching for. :D
Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi is streaming on Funimation.
I started watching Occult Academy. It's interesting enough. The daughter of the recently deceased principle of a school for the Occult, returns to the school in order to destroy the thing that took her father from her. He went mad with the occult, pushing his family away and now that he's dead, she hates the school and the occult. Only, she's really quite the expert so when her father's corpse re-animates, she knows just what to do to fix it. Throw in a naked guy from the future, prophecies, potential alien invasions and a murder plot and it's definitely interesting.
Occult Academy is streaming at Crunchyroll
Shiki on the other hand is sooooooooooo baaaaaaaaaaaad! I've noticed it getting a lot fo good reviews and *crosses arms in an X* NO! First of all, the story doesn't go anywhere. It relies completely on not telling you anything to get you hooked. So then you say "Oh, a mystery!" and you watch more. Sorry! I am not buying that crap. It's not a mystery. It's just a bunch of stuff that happens inexplicably. Yeah yeah, it's linked, but it's all put together so badly, I don't care!
The art is tragic. TRAGIC! The main characters have faces so pointy they could poke your eye out, odd (even for an anime) eyes with double irises and awful anime hair stuck in shapes even more unnatural than usual. Ponytails that end in star shapes? And all of this is slammed in your face because all of the minor characters are drawn semi-realistically! They all look quite nice actually! And then bam! Back to a creepy monk with a super shota face, white hair and all black super uber uke eyes. *shudders* There are other characters in the show with purposely creepy all black eyes, his are not supposed to be that way.
Shiki is streaming at Funimation.
And finally, the official, WORST THING I WATCHED THIS SEASON! Yebisu Celebrities! It's yaoi. I remember Be Beautiful licensing it back in the day, so I don't know if it ever got scanlated...and I don't really care. The plot was pretty standard really. Uke works for mysterious handsome guy. Uke looks up to mysterious handsome guy. Mysterious handsome guy has hots for uke and they fall in love. It's not bad. But it's not good. What makes this show the worst thing that I've seen this season is the animation! Or the complete and utter lack thereof!
In the opening bit, there's a scene with the main character running. I kid you not when I say that this is the most animation that you will see in this anime! After that, it's like a slide show. There's a still image of a character and the camera pans in and out, up and down, but that's about it. The characters don't move....except for their mouths. Occasionally, a mouth will move, but otherwise it's just static images like you're watching a dating simulation game over which you have absolutely zero control! It's awful!
Since the story is only so so and predictable and there's hardly any animation at all, that makes it officially, the worst thing that I've seen this season! It really doesn't deserve to be called an anime. It's little more than a slide show set to a radio drama. And there's these pauses between "scenes" where there's nothing more than a big black screen. I thought maybe those signaled switching to another character's story, but it doesn't. It's weird. It's awful. It's just really really bad. Don't even waste your time on it.
New stuff isn't all that I've been watching. Funimation and other companies have put quite a bit of anime up on Hulu.
I watched Full Metal Panic. It was all right. Definite Gundam Wing/Heero Yuy vibes going on. It's Heero's alternate universe form. One where he gets to have feelings, even if he sucks at it. It took me a few episodes to get into it. It's a bit too over the top at first. It takes weird dips and turns from uber serious to wacky.
I also watched Ghost Hunt. Now, usually supernatural ghost and monster stuff scares me. Not while I'm watching it, but later on when I'm walking up the stairs I get terrified of what's behind me. I make things up in the dark. My brain is just too hyperactive to deal with that sort of stuff! That said, Ghost Hunt moves at a very slow pace. It takes a few episodes to complete an story so it's not all BAM! In your face ghoulishness. It's slow, paced out ghosts and horror. It's at a pace that I can deal with, digest and keep watching.
I like the fact that despite being an odd collection of supernatural specialists, none of them is really super powered. Their exorcisms don't always work the first time or even the second time. They have to keep working at it as the mystery builds up. I enjoyed the interaction between the characters. The series is based on a series of light novels, so you know there's a lot more to the characterizations than you see. One of my pet theories about the series is never talked about, but is apparently revealed to be true in the light novels. Too bad there's only one season of the anime. But then, the author never finished the light novels either. Not that I'd read them. I find that I don't care for Japanese prose.
Kuroshitsuji is back. The first season ended with a pretty final ending. I loved that ending. So this season, everyone was sure that the anime couldn't be the same and sure enough, they introduced a new demon butler, Claude, with a new young charge, Alois. I liked the butler, didn't like the kid. And then the twist! Sebastian shows up with Ciel all curled up in a box like a Rozen Maiden doll! After stealing a tea tin, which contains the Phantomheive family ring, Sebastian revived Ciel.
It's a great twist! They had everyone fooled but then I don't know what's going on. The second episode is some stupid drivel with Ciel and Lizzy on the river. Lao shows up, but we're pretty sure he died in the first season. At the very least, he's Ciel's enemy at this point and shouldn't be so friendly with Ciel.
In the third episode, we have Ciel going back to solving cases for the Queen. But wait, isn't she dead? And Ciel makes reference to his aunt Madame Red, who is also dead. On the case, they meet Grell, the shinigami who disguised himself as Madame Red's butler and later goes on a few of their adventures with them. Ciel doesn't recognize him. So when does this second season take place? Did we go back in time? Have we moved forward in time? Does Ciel have memory issues now? I'm not really sure.
The season so far is a mixed bag of good and bad. Hopefully, we'll get more good and get to the bottom of this.
Kuroshitsuji 2 is streaming at Funimation.
They've made a Moyashimon live action dorama. I loved the anime, so I decided to give it a try. The microbes are all computer generated and look pretty much identical to how they are in the anime. Very cute. They're always drifting around. And then you have the people... I'm sorry, but they ruin everything. It's all ridiculously cheesy and overacted and awful! Sometimes the cheesiness works, but mostly, it's just terrible and awkward and not fun.
They've made a lot of story changes. Most notably, Kei is stripped from his place at Sawaki's side. You hear his voice saying that he's withdrawn, which doesn't happen till much later on in the anime. The opening sequences show that we'll see him later on in his loli form, but still. The story is completely changed. There are some familiar scenes but mostly, it's like someone took Moyashimon, stuck it in a blender and then extracted bits and pieces to stick together in the first episode.
I said that I was going to stick around until Kei showed up, but after episode three with the "Bentora bentora space people" UFO Club, I'm seriously having my doubts. It's just really really bad! I was pretty sure going in that it would be bad because it's a dorama, but it could have surprised me! Well, it did surprise me...with its badness!!
Moyashimon is streaming at Funimation
Next up, there's Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi. This one gives me a Tora Dora vibe and since I loved Tora Dora, I enjoy this one. This is sort of a mash up of fairy tale characters. The main character, Ookami-san is the "Wolf" while her best friend is "Little Red Riding Hood" and the guy with a crush on Ookami is the "hunter". There are some bits that mirror fairy tales, but it's hardly a modern day retelling.
Ookami works for a student organization, the Otogi Bank, which does jobs for students in return for favors. She's a fierce boxer and uses two cat boxing gloves to beat people up. They leave amusing neko faces on people's faces after they're punched. In the first episode, they're trying to prevent the tennis star from resigning from the tennis club in a fit of frustration after an injury. At the end there's a little Cinderella spoof. The second episode is very Tortoise and the Hare while the third is...nothing really.
Then there's Ryoushi, who has a crush on Ookami and also has a phobia of being looked at, making him shrink in on himself and cry when someone stares at him. But being the hunter, from the far away mountains, as long as no one's looking her can be quite efficient. And for all Ookami's toughness, she's still just a girly girl on the inside, so she alternates between blushing and flattered and her tough girl front.
Little Red Riding Hood is like a shrunken Minorin form Tora Dora while Ookami is a taller Taiga and Ryoushi is totally Ryuji, but less scary and more shy. I'm sure we'll see the love story growing. I hope it's cute. That's what I'm watching for. :D
Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi is streaming on Funimation.
I started watching Occult Academy. It's interesting enough. The daughter of the recently deceased principle of a school for the Occult, returns to the school in order to destroy the thing that took her father from her. He went mad with the occult, pushing his family away and now that he's dead, she hates the school and the occult. Only, she's really quite the expert so when her father's corpse re-animates, she knows just what to do to fix it. Throw in a naked guy from the future, prophecies, potential alien invasions and a murder plot and it's definitely interesting.
Occult Academy is streaming at Crunchyroll
Shiki on the other hand is sooooooooooo baaaaaaaaaaaad! I've noticed it getting a lot fo good reviews and *crosses arms in an X* NO! First of all, the story doesn't go anywhere. It relies completely on not telling you anything to get you hooked. So then you say "Oh, a mystery!" and you watch more. Sorry! I am not buying that crap. It's not a mystery. It's just a bunch of stuff that happens inexplicably. Yeah yeah, it's linked, but it's all put together so badly, I don't care!
The art is tragic. TRAGIC! The main characters have faces so pointy they could poke your eye out, odd (even for an anime) eyes with double irises and awful anime hair stuck in shapes even more unnatural than usual. Ponytails that end in star shapes? And all of this is slammed in your face because all of the minor characters are drawn semi-realistically! They all look quite nice actually! And then bam! Back to a creepy monk with a super shota face, white hair and all black super uber uke eyes. *shudders* There are other characters in the show with purposely creepy all black eyes, his are not supposed to be that way.
Shiki is streaming at Funimation.
And finally, the official, WORST THING I WATCHED THIS SEASON! Yebisu Celebrities! It's yaoi. I remember Be Beautiful licensing it back in the day, so I don't know if it ever got scanlated...and I don't really care. The plot was pretty standard really. Uke works for mysterious handsome guy. Uke looks up to mysterious handsome guy. Mysterious handsome guy has hots for uke and they fall in love. It's not bad. But it's not good. What makes this show the worst thing that I've seen this season is the animation! Or the complete and utter lack thereof!
In the opening bit, there's a scene with the main character running. I kid you not when I say that this is the most animation that you will see in this anime! After that, it's like a slide show. There's a still image of a character and the camera pans in and out, up and down, but that's about it. The characters don't move....except for their mouths. Occasionally, a mouth will move, but otherwise it's just static images like you're watching a dating simulation game over which you have absolutely zero control! It's awful!
Since the story is only so so and predictable and there's hardly any animation at all, that makes it officially, the worst thing that I've seen this season! It really doesn't deserve to be called an anime. It's little more than a slide show set to a radio drama. And there's these pauses between "scenes" where there's nothing more than a big black screen. I thought maybe those signaled switching to another character's story, but it doesn't. It's weird. It's awful. It's just really really bad. Don't even waste your time on it.
New stuff isn't all that I've been watching. Funimation and other companies have put quite a bit of anime up on Hulu.
I watched Full Metal Panic. It was all right. Definite Gundam Wing/Heero Yuy vibes going on. It's Heero's alternate universe form. One where he gets to have feelings, even if he sucks at it. It took me a few episodes to get into it. It's a bit too over the top at first. It takes weird dips and turns from uber serious to wacky.
I also watched Ghost Hunt. Now, usually supernatural ghost and monster stuff scares me. Not while I'm watching it, but later on when I'm walking up the stairs I get terrified of what's behind me. I make things up in the dark. My brain is just too hyperactive to deal with that sort of stuff! That said, Ghost Hunt moves at a very slow pace. It takes a few episodes to complete an story so it's not all BAM! In your face ghoulishness. It's slow, paced out ghosts and horror. It's at a pace that I can deal with, digest and keep watching.
I like the fact that despite being an odd collection of supernatural specialists, none of them is really super powered. Their exorcisms don't always work the first time or even the second time. They have to keep working at it as the mystery builds up. I enjoyed the interaction between the characters. The series is based on a series of light novels, so you know there's a lot more to the characterizations than you see. One of my pet theories about the series is never talked about, but is apparently revealed to be true in the light novels. Too bad there's only one season of the anime. But then, the author never finished the light novels either. Not that I'd read them. I find that I don't care for Japanese prose.