Archive for the “Anime” Category
Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid — Episodes 2-13
June 18, 2006, 12:27 pmGonna start this off with a minor squeefit. Spoiler: Kyaaaaa she cut his hair for him! And she gave him a bandaid!!!!! So freaking cuuuuute mweeeeeee~
Now that that’s over with… when I first started watching this show, with episode 1, I was pretty disappointed, to be honest. I really like the Kaname/Sousuke interactions in FMP, not the mecha battles, so when 95% of episode one was military stuff and mecha, I was none too pleased. Episode 2 was better, more of the wacky antics I liked from Fumoffu and that occasionally came up in the first season, but then episode 3 was, quite honestly, the pits for me. Cliched twin bullshit (I tried watching Futakoi Alternative and that just turned me off on all twin characters forever, I think), more mecha, more military stuff, ultra-violent and completely unneccesary throat-cutting… I do understand that an aspect of FMP is going to be the mecha stuff, but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it. After they devoted three episodes in a row to military antics, I was really starting to despair for any great Kaname/Sousuke interaction like we got in Fumoffu.
Then I watched episode 6. And I was sated for all time. Spoiler: Like I said above, SHE CUT HIS HAIR FOR HIM. Through that entire scene, I kept expecting her to say something and then came the wonderful wonderful “You’re the only person I trust” line, and I just wanted to die inside of happiness. Finally even a tiny bit of progression in the Kaname/Sousuke relationship! Even though it 100% went over Sousuke’s head, poor guy. Which of course made the ending of this episode a complete smack in the face, with Sousuke forced to abandon Kaname, and her reaction to his not showing up to class in episode 7 was just heartbreaking. After that, I was pretty happy to see that the show didn’t go back to All Mech, All The Time, and kept things pretty balanced between Sousuke and Kaname’s stories, while still giving the highlight to the mecha stuff that this season was clearly focusing on.
[spoiler paragraphs - highlight to read]
As the end neared, I feared that the ending would be a bit too rushed, and to some degree I think it might have been. I never really got a sense of how Kaname ended up in Hong Kong, although her showing up there was definitely a nice twist and seeing Sousuke completely thrown off by that turn of events was just adorable. Kaname’s almost-but-not-quite love confession was a bit infuriating, but I have to admit it was completely in character for her. And in the final scene, where Sousuke asks her what she was trying to say in Hong Kong… I have a very distinct feeling that, while first season Sousuke would have asked that question honestly, TSR Sousuke is a little less clueless than he lets on. He’s just a little bit evil and wanted to make her actually say it. But really, Sousuke and Kaname are both so freaking silly about their feelings for each other that they’ll never just come right out and say it. Dorks.
Was pissed that Gauln was alive, of course. Really big cliche. But the way Sousuke just opened up on him after Gauln told him that Kaname was dead was just… well it was kinda hot, actually. Heh. Sousuke is such a puppy for Kaname that he’ll even rip someone for shreds on account of his loyalty to her, and that’s the aspect of their relationship that I just adore. And actually? I gotta admit that the 5-vs-1 mech battle at the end was wicked cool, partly because it didn’t mess around and was over quickly for a change. And she gave him a bandaid!!! Every time they showed a shot of Sousuke’s face, it was just another happy moment for me.
Tessa… didn’t irk me as much as she has in the past. Probably because now she has a personality and does something besides fawn on Sousuke. And she recognizes that Sousuke is NOT FOR YOU BITCH. While watching it, I didn’t really care for that scene where she gets all emotional and starts crying and being a little whiny bitch, but in retrospect it was actually a pretty good scene. And I have to admit that scene at the end where she and Sousuke talk as “friends” and then she has a squeefit about how he called her “Tessa” was very cute. But Sousuke’s reaction to what he said was even cuter, silly puppy.
[end spoiler paragraphs]
Overall, I’d say I liked this season better than the first, just because it had a much better balance between the mecha aspect and the Kaname/Sousuke relationship, as well as a good deal more character development. Very excited that this is licensed and I hope that FUNimation can get the entire ADV dub cast back, mostly because I think some of the actors would have a lot of fun with some of the material in here. Can’t wait to buy this on DVD.
—Erika | 1 comment
(posted in the Anime, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid category)
Gakuen Alice — Episodes 13-15
June 18, 2006, 11:54 amThese three episodes of Gakuen Alice are a miniarc, and actually reveal a lot of information about the Alice Academy as well as what exactly the deal was with Natsume and the Dangerous Alice class, at least to some extent. The fact that Alice Academy has a secret organization and all that isn’t too far-fetched, since it’s fairly standard stuff for this kind of anime, unfortunately. And of course, every organization with a secret organization must have a super evil bunch of guys who have turned against them and are now fighting for “good”! And naturally one of the members of the super evil organization must have some kind of tie to someone in the current organization! And the main female lead, as usual, is “special”.
Yeah, basically I feel like this show is pretty cliched, when you come right down to it. It’s enjoyable enough to watch, and Mikan is still really cute (it is pretty awesome to have a main female character who speaks in Kansai-ben), and Natsume is still pretty cool (even though he spent the majority of these episodes either in the hospital or tied up). Still, I can’t get over the fact that there’s just… not much substance there.
At least Narumi-sensei has stopped creeping me out. Well, he creeps me out less. In fact, in these episodes, he was actually pretty cool. And Hotaru is still one of the most nifty characters in the show.
—Erika | 2 comments
(posted in the Anime, Gakuen Alice category)
Nana 02 - Love? Friendship? Nana and Shouji
May 6, 2006, 1:22 pm
After watching this second episode, I’ve decided that I really do hate the way that the anime version of Nana started with the meeting of the two Nanas. When I first read the manga version, Hachi’s story had a bit of suspense involved in it. Will she be able to only make Shouji a friend, or will she end up going back to her old ways and just fall for him? Since the anime version started out with the two Nanas meeting, the draw to seeing Nana’s story as it unfolds is completely gone. We know she’s going to end up with Shouji, so there isn’t much point in giving us a cliffhanger as she goes into the club to hook up with other guys. It’s been laid out for us, so we know it’s going to happen.
I do have to admit that part of the draw I have to the anime version is that Hachi is much more adorable and puppy-dog when she’s animated. The anime does a great job of retaining all of the characters’ silly facial expressions, same as in Paradise Kiss. I just don’t like the way they’ve decided to change the storytelling, since it makes Hachi’s story pretty anticlimactic. Oosaki Nana’s story should still make the same kind of impact that it did in the manga, since we know next to nothing about her from the first episode of the anime, but there’s still one more episode of Hachi’s story to go.
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime category)
xxxHOLiC 01 - Hitsuzen
April 18, 2006, 8:23 pm
I read the first few books of the xxxHOLiC manga last summer, and it seemed like a pretty decent story. I’d been reading Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles since it came out, so it was neat how the two stories wove together, but didn’t overshadow one another. I watched the first episode of the Tsubasa Chronicle anime back when it first came out, and while it seemed pretty interesting, I didn’t keep watching and I heard that it wasn’t as high-quality as the manga (not that the manga is any great work of art or anything, but it is a pretty fun little story), so when the xxxHOLiC anime came out I decided I’d at least give the first episode a try.
It’s been a while and I read them quickly, so I don’t really remember how the first volume of the manga starts out, but this anime version seemed to be pretty true to it. One problem I do have with the anime is the animation style; the characters, Watanuki especially, is just disturbingly long and lanky, and while I realize that’s part of his original character design, I just find it unnerving to see that style of character moving around. The voice casting seems to be pretty solid; the voices aren’t too unlike the ones I came up with in my head when reading the manga. Maru and Moro are suitably irritating, and Mokona’s… okay. I guess that’s the one weird voice out of the bunch for me, since I heard the black Mokona in my head as sounding much like the original Mokona from Magic Knight Rayearth, so it was kind of different from what I expected.
Overall, I was neither impressed nor underwhelmed; seems just like the usual CLAMP anime adaptation fare, which could be seen as either good or bad.
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, xxxHOLiC category)
Nana 01 - Prologue: Nana and Nana
April 15, 2006, 2:22 pm
It’s been a while since I used this blog, since I’ve been watching most of my anime lately at anime club, and blogging all those new episodes at once is kind of a chore. Since the new season of anime just started with some things I want to watch, I decided to pick this back up again.
I’ve been reading Nana in Shojo Beat, and I really enjoy the manga version, so I probably watched the first episode of the anime with too many expectations. I was surprised that they decided to jump right into the story of the two Nanas meeting, since I felt that going into their backstories right from the start really gave me a better feel for the characters. It’s pretty clear how centered the anime is going to be on Hachiko (that is, Komatsu Nana), and I suppose to an extent the manga version is as well. In the anime, for people who haven’t read the manga, Oosaki Nana is such a vague and mysterious figure, just as she is to Hachi at the beginning. I think the anime did a good job of portraying Oosaki Nana’s mystique, but I really feel like we’ve missed something by completely skipping both of their backstories. It seems as though episode 2 will be about Hachi’s backstory, but there wasn’t much of a preview at the end of the episode, so it’s hard to tell.
The animation was pretty decent, but I thought that Paradise Kiss (a series I still have to finish watching) was a bit higher quality in comparison. It’s pretty rare for me to complain about Madhouse’s animation quality, but there you have it. The director is the same one who did Chobits, which I’m a bit skeptical about, but it doesn’t seem too bad so far. I’m pretty interested to see how the anime version is going to handle the story as a whole, but as of the first episode I have to admit I have mixed feelings.
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Nana category)
Scrapped Princess DVD 5 — Episodes 17-20
January 7, 2006, 4:45 pmAnother long wait ahead of me… not as long as last time, but still quite long. The cliffhanger at the end of this disc was absolutely killer, one of the worst cliffhangers I’ve ever experienced on an anime DVD. Of course, this is one of the first times I’m buying a show completely blind and watching as it comes out, which is certainly interesting…
[spoiler paragraphs - highlight to read]
I cried twice in this episode, once when Furet died, and once when Pacifica’s mother died. Furet… well, I’d been spoiled by the soundtrack song titles, so I knew he would die, but I didn’t know how or the circumstances. The way that he died, remembering Pacifica, made his death really poignant and sad. And how Pacifica found out, with Leo crying… that whole episode was very well done. I didn’t know about Pacifica’s mother’s death, though. The worst part about that was how she died and Pacifica didn’t realize that it was her mother, and wouldn’t call her okaasan before she died. It was pretty in character for Pacifica, so I can’t really fault her for it, but it was really heartbreaking nonetheless. I hope that she realizes the situation in the last disc now that she has her memory back and gets to deal with it in her own way, although I doubt that there will be much time for even further character development among all the craziness that’s going on.
And boy is there a lot of craziness. The Peacemakers wanting to pwn the world pretty much sucks, but the Peacemakers pretty much suck anyway. No big surprise that Shannon and Zefiris are merged completely now, although episode 20 ended before we could really see how that would affect everything. This is all coming to a head in really interesting and unexpected ways, which is why I can’t wait for that last disc. I’m kind of thinking that the prince is going to come back and do something awesome, or at least I hope so. I’d like to see more of his character, at any rate.
[end spoiler paragraphs]
January 24th is the street date for the last disc. Here’s hoping I can find it sooner.
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Scrapped Princess category)
Kyou Kara Maou 47 — The Proof of Life
January 3, 2006, 1:43 pm
A flashback episode! Usually those words strike fear into the hearts of anime fans, but this was a really neat little episode which detailed some of the events in the lives of Gwendal, Conrad, and Wolfram when they were kids. So cute! Tiny Wolfram is so freaking adorable, I want to die.
The episode mostly focused on Gwendal and his relationship with Conrad’s human father, Dan Hiri. The way that they faked us out by showing Gwendal’s idealized view of Dan Hiri rather than showing him in his old age was really interesting, and it made Gwendal’s realization that human lives are much shorter than those of Mazoku all the more poignant.
It was really neat that we got to not only see the three half-brothers at a young age, but young Anissina and young Yozak, too. It’s kinda neat that the origin of Conrad and Yozak’s friendship was hinted at here. Gwendal was the best, though; it’s very cool to see different sides to his character, and see how he became the character we’re familiar with. Really good episode.
—Erika | 1 comment
(posted in the Anime, Kyou Kara Maou category)
Kyou Kara Maou 46 — The Forest Priestess
January 3, 2006, 1:43 pm
Story episodes are always interesting, and this one was particularly so. Strangely enough, it managed to shed some light on some general backstory issues, such as why Yuri was able to use his Mazoku powers so soon, and why his Mazoku element is water. These are things that I wouldn’t necessarily have cared one way or another about, but are pretty cool facts now that we have them.
The story for this episode was pretty standard, but tightly written and pretty enjoyable, so it didn’t feel cliche at all. The plot twist that the box of the Mirror at the Bottom of the Sea might exist in the human world is pretty interesting. Not enough Muraken in this ep for my tastes, but I always think that; he can’t be in every single shot like I’d prefer, after all.
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Kyou Kara Maou category)
Sugar Sugar Rune 01 — Chocolat, Hearts, and the Shooting Star
November 29, 2005, 3:41 pm
I’d been waiting and waiting for someone to fansub this, and someone finally did! I’d heard good things about this series, and bought the first volume of the manga based on word of mouth (the fact that it’s published by Del Rey helped, too). I really enjoyed the manga, even though it’s your fairly typical shoujo fare, and the anime is even more typical to the point of being stereotypical.
One thing I didn’t care for in the anime was the way that the girls’ wands are prominently featured right from the start, as if they’re blatantly trying to merchandise the inevitable toy version. In the manga, the girls didn’t even get their wands until near the end of the first book. Now they just have them, and merchandising is the only reason why I can think they would make that change.
I did appreciate the fact that the animation style attempts to retain the fancy borders and things that are present in the manga, although I could see them as being weird and grating to people who didn’t know why they were there.
I love that Rockin’ Robin calls the girls “mademoiselle-tachi.” And that the word translated as “wand” is actually “sutikku.” As in “stick.” Teehee, Japan.
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Sugar Sugar Rune category)
Paradise Kiss 03 — Kiss
November 29, 2005, 3:15 pm
I watched this quite a while ago, but never got around to blogging it. Another very nice, beautifully animated episode. I wasn’t really expecting the connection between Arashi, Miwako, and Yukari’s crush, but it was an interesting twist in that it was actually a twist, unlike something that you completely see coming from a mile away. And, as usual, Miwako is goddamned adorable.
The way that George’s relationship with Caroline is developing is very fun. George is such a goddamn pimp, but he’s also really sincere and awesome, which is a great juxtaposition with Caroline’s personality. They’re pretty different, but that’s what makes them so great together.
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Paradise Kiss category)
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