Archive for the “BU Anime Club” Category
BU Anime 10/29 — Trinity Blood 1-3, Perfect Blue, Blood+ 1-3
October 29, 2005, 7:30 amIn a case that rarely happens, I had actually only seen a tiny bit of one of the things we showed at anime club this past week (Trinity Blood episode 1, subbed and shown by Funi after they announced it at AX).
The first time I saw Trinity Blood, I thought it was pretty cool. Abel was a really awesome (and hawt) character, even though the similarities to both Vash and Alucard were pretty apparent. From the first episode, I figured that there could be a pretty interesting story in which Abel goes around fighting vampires with help from Jessica and probably a few other allies. I mean, Jessica wasn’t a great character, but she seemed like the type that would stick around.
So imagine my surprise when the second episode made a shift to a completely different incident, having nothing to do with the first whatsoever except that Abel was in it. Ditto to the third. The worst part about this show is the derivative character designs. While watching it, it almost became a game to say who looked like who (Esther = Lucy/Nyu + Rosette, enemy from episode 2 = Envy + Lust, Gunslinger = robot!Sousuke, Gyula = Count of Monte Cristo, the list goes on…). It’s not that the show was unwatchable because of that, but it was very distracting to me, and I’m usually not that picking about things like that.
I can’t say I’d never ever ever watch Trinity Blood, but now I’d just be less likely to.
After that we watched Perfect Blue, which I had somehow managed to not see after this many years as an anime fan. While I can see why so many people worship this movie, for me it’s firmly going into the Grave of the Fireflies pile of Never Watching Again. For me, it was just a little too much. I didn’t need to see people getting graphically stabbed in the eye, thank you. If someone wanted to watch it with me, I’d probably do it, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it by myself. And definitely never in the dark again.
Finally, Blood+, which was pretty much the highlight of the night. I don’t remember the plot of Blood: The Last Vampire very well, but I do remember it being pretty badass, and this series is also so. The animation for this show is just incredible; I heard it compared to OVA-level quality when it first came out, and they weren’t kidding. It almost seems a shame to be watching this on fansubs and not DVDs.
The plot is shaping up pretty well, too. The juxtaposition between the opening bit and the school bit was interesting, and there hasn’t been a glut of action right at the start, which I think is a good change from most other shows nowadays. The most important part, though, was that we got to the last episode and I was absolutely starved for more. So definitely expect more Blood+ posts in the future. (:
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, BU Anime Club, Blood+, Perfect Blue, Trinity Blood category)
Basilisk — Episodes 1-3
October 7, 2005, 11:23 pm[For the record, I’ve started a new category called BU Anime Club, where I’ll stick posts about things we watch in my anime club that I’ve not yet seen before. Obviously no caps, since I don’t have the episodes myself most of the time.]
Tonight in anime club, we watched the first three eps of Basilisk, which I was quite excited about, since it was the only Spring 2005 Gonzo series that I’d not yet seen. I dunno, I guess you could say I was disappointed? This show didn’t really grab me in the same way that Speed Grapher and Trinity Blood did. I found the main female character to be extremely annoying, mostly because she’s such a whiny brat who apparently sucks at being a ninja. Her only redeeming quality is that she has some kind of magical eye thing. Sorry, no sale.
What I was totally sold on in this show were the variety of weird, random powers that all of the characters had. I’ve seen quite a few ninja/shounen shows, but this one was really quite creative with its ninja powers. Sure, none of them were plausible at all, but hey. Who doesn’t love ultra-sticky phlegm, right?
My absolute favorite character was the ninja who had no limbs. Yes, that’s right, this show features a ninja who is just a torso. He crawls around with some kind of device on his stomach, and uses his ultra-long tongue and ability to keep a spear in his throat to kill people. Spoiler: Unfortunately, the Ninja Torso dies in episode 3. He pretty much gets sliced in half. I was majorly bummed about it, because he was the thing I enjoyed the most, just because he was so fucking random and awesome. If he hadn’t died, I probably could have been enticed to watch more of the show. As it is, while the show had some pretty cool fight sequences, I can’t say that I would go out and buy it when Funimation releases it. I’d rather buy Speed Grapher or Trinity Blood. I might be enticed to pick up the manga, though…
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Basilisk, BU Anime Club category)
Speed Grapher — Episodes 1-8
October 1, 2005, 10:29 pmWe started watching this show in my school’s anime club, and my roommate and I were so enthralled that we decided to keep watching. When Gonzo does a show right, they do it right.
I went into this show knowing absolutely nothing about it, besides the fact that there was a girl with guns and large breasts (who ended up playing a much smaller role in the show that I thought she did, based on how often I saw her image associated with the show), and that photography was involved somehow. What I didn’t expect was a complete fucking head trip. It’s like tamer Paranoia Agent weirdness mixed with the mysteriousness of Monster. And for me to compare something to those two shows, it’s really saying something. Let’s hope it doesn’t go downhill any time soon.
[spoiler paragraphs - highlight to read]:
One of the interesting things about this show is that the superpowers they possess seem very Americanized. I can imagine any of these characters existing in a comic book-style universe and fitting right in. The dentist, especially, gave me a bit of a Doc Ock vibe, with the arms that came out of his back (only Doc Ock didn’t have dental equipment attached to his; that part was quite creepy, by the way, and had me squirming quite a bit). My favorite was probably the dancer with the elastic body; I hold on to this vague hope that he might somehow come back, but his head was kind of blown off, so… probably not going to happen.
I am trying really, really hard to like Kagura as a character, but her naivete is starting to get a little old. At this point, the best I can manage is feeling sorry for her, as well as being curious about the mysterious aspects of her. But genuinely liking her? Not yet. She’s still a bit too annoying to me for that.
Suitengu is my favorite character. He’s so deliciously evil, and his power(?) is extremely interesting (at least, what we know about it). Tsujidou is really interesting, as well, although it’s hard to take him seriously sometimes. He has a nose patch. Plus his shirt is like pirates gone wrong, and is really… cleavage-y for a man. And how the heck do you get the power to smell things really well? “Yes, my secret desire… well, it’d be nice to blow stuff up or be practically invincible, but what I’d really like to smell stuff good.”
[end of spoiler paragraphs]
It will really be quite interesting to see how this all plays out. There are far too many mysteries at this point that just need to be revealed, and I’m quite addicted.
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Speed Grapher, BU Anime Club category)
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