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Spring Season's Second Episodes
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 10:34 pmSo, 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?
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?
