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: (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.

New Anime on my Plate

Saturday, April 26th, 2008 04:28 am
forchancookie: (Join Us...We have Cookie!)
I can't stop talking about anime. At this point, it's the only thing remotely interesting in my life. I've watched a few new things this week and here's my take on things.

Armed librarians, crazy sensation stealing monsters, creepy shadow guys in lipstick and more. )

More Spring Anime

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 02:51 am
forchancookie: (Sarara Froggie)
I've watched two new ones and a few second episodes of others.

Worth coming back for? )

New Anime

Monday, April 14th, 2008 04:49 am
forchancookie: (Pierce the Heavens)
Spring is here and a lot of new anime are coming out. So here's a list of what I've watched so far and what I think of them. ^_^

To Watch, or Not to Watch? )

September 2011

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