Archive for October 2005
Paradise Kiss 02 — Illumination
October 31, 2005, 9:11 pm
This show is moving along at a very comfortable pace, which is nice considering that a lot of shows coming out recently have had really poor pacing. I suppose that, in the grand scheme of things, these first two episodes have been a little slow, but it works for character development, something that I feel is severely lacking in shows like Mai Otome.
George? Really hot. But George in a cowboy hat? Really really hot. Rowr. George and Yukari are pretty cute together (come on, it’s so obvious that that’s coming…).
I still do like the way this show is directed. I’m getting to be a fan of Kobayashi Osamu’s style; he did a great job in Beck, and he’s doing a great job here. Again, I can’t really make comparisons to the manga in any way, but even if I could I feel like I would still enjoy it on its own merits.
This is definitely one of my favorite shows of the season so far, and I can’t wait for the next episode. Shame that it’ll only be 12 episodes.
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Paradise Kiss category)
Mai Otome 03 — First Ex•pe•ri•ence
October 29, 2005, 10:13 pm
Ah, much improvement from the last episode. Things were a little slow to get going, and the fight between Arika and Nina wasn’t great or anything, but it’s only to be expected since Arika doesn’t have any actual training or anything. Ended on a bit of a cliffhanger as well, but I’m not exactly chomping at the bit to find out what happens. I mean, it’s pretty damn obvious for the most part. I keep having to remind myself that it took a little while for Mai HiME to get off the ground, too…
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Mai Otome category)
Monster 52 — Lawyer
October 29, 2005, 9:54 am
Psychological thrillers hurt my head. A lot. And I like it.
[spoiler paragraphs - highlight to read]:
I like this new character, the lawyer guy, and what he brings to the table. He seems like a pretty sincere guy, and I’m glad that Tenma is gonna have a good lawyer on his side (even though I’m still in disbelief that he was captured in the first place, goddammit).
But the big surprises of this episode were learning that Eva knows about Johan and that Roberto didn’t die in that big fire. I barely remembered who Roberto was at first, but knew that it was definitely Not Good that he was not dead. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out, what with Eva being able to clear Tenma’s name but not wanting to, and Roberto wanting to kill Eva… I have to admit, I’ve wanted Eva dead for a good long time now, but I’m pretty conflicted about it now. Rrrrr… show, I hate you and love you.
[end of spoiler paragraphs]
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Monster category)
Monster 51 — Monster’s Love Letter
October 29, 2005, 8:19 am
[spoiler paragraphs - highlight to read]:
The show’s dynamic has changed entirely since Tenma’s arrest, and it’s taking a little while to get used to. The focus of this episode was entirey on people whose lives have been affected by Tenma, and their reactions to his arrest. What strikes me about all of them is their sincerity and loyalty to Tenma, which doesn’t seem contrived or anything. It’s all portrayed in a very genuine way.
The matter of what Runge found hidden behind the portrait in the secret room in the mansion of roses is quite an interesting development. And the fact that he gave Tenma advise after finding it was also interesting. Apparently this document must somehow clear Tenma of guilt in Runge’s mind, which is another change that was rather unexpected.
[end of spoiler paragraphs]
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Monster 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)
Mai Otome 02 — Gust of Wind that Blows Through the Eden of the Otome!?
October 28, 2005, 3:24 pm
Can’t say I really enjoyed this episode. It seemed like Arika running around the school was just an excuse to introduce the audience to all the characters from before. Episode 3 looks like it will shape up to be interesting, but… we shall see, I suppose.
I can’t goddamn believe that Mikoto is a cat. I also can’t believe how lesbian this show is becoming. But that seemed to be all that Mai-HiME was about for some people.
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Mai Otome category)
Paradise Kiss 01 — Atelier
October 27, 2005, 7:57 pm
I’ve never read the Paradise Kiss manga, but I’m getting to be a big fan of Nana (I’m reading it in Viz’s Shojo Beat), so I thought I’d give the ParaKiss anime a try. After this first episode, I can already see that I’m going to love this show. It’s animated by Madhouse, who is second only to Bones in my opinion, and they did and incredible job of capturing Ai Yazawa’s style (which I assume is similar to the style of Nana).
Not a whole lot really happened in this episode, which was to be expected. A bit of setup had to be done to get things rolling, after all. I’m really liking how the story is shaping up, though, and can’t wait for the next episode. I might have to pick up the manga soon, as well (assuming I can ever find volumes that all match…).
But, um… why do they call Yukari “Caroline”? I’m confused…
—Erika | 1 comment
(posted in the Anime, Paradise Kiss category)
Speed Grapher — Episodes 14-24
October 27, 2005, 6:47 pmYeah, sitting and watching 11 episodes of this in a row was a little much. (So yeah, no caps… I don’t have the stamina to go back and cap 11 episodes. ^^;;) Overall it was a pretty good end to a better-than-average series.
[spoiler paragraphs - highlight to read]:
I failed to see why there was a recap episode (episode 16) in a 24-episode series. While the theme behind the recap of the accountant typing up the Tennouzu Group’s expense sheet was clever, it just seemed extremely unneccessary. The fact that that episode was then directly followed by a flashback episode really rubbed me the wrong way. The few episodes after that seemed to drag a little bit, but things picked up towards the end, thankfully. The latter-middle half of this series just didn’t live up to the rest of it, unfortunately.
That said, the flashback episode was very good at tying up a lot of the loose ends in the show. I have to admit that Saiga and Suitengu knowing each other and the whole music box thing kind of came out of left field, and seemed a little bit gimmicky. I did appreciate the tragic nature of Suitengu’s past, and I think his character was really developed well. He’s a guy who started out with good intentions, wanting to correct the wrongs that he felt were in the world, but became mixed up as he went along and became less and less discerning until his true goal was finally lost. He had a few errors in logic along the way as well, namely letting the Prime Minister become a Euphoria. What was he thinking there? You want to kill this person, so don’t give him a superpower!! Logical missteps aside, Suitengu was definitely my favorite character in this show. He was very complex and interesting, especially compared to the one-dimensional characters like Kagura.
Was not expecting Tsujidou to turn into a wolfthing. That was pretty badass.
And wtf, the doctor and Ginza got together?! Talk about fucking random. I mean, I know five years had passed, but even so…
In general, though, I felt the ending was a little bit hackneyed and predictable. I knew that Saiga was going to go blind before he could finish his fight with Suitengu, and my roommate knew that Suitengu was going to ultimately rescue Saiga. It was pretty obvious as well that Kagura would live and get together with Saiga in the end. But that didn’t really make the whole thing any less enjoyable. The best thing about this show was the dynamic aspects of characters like Suitengu and, to a lesser extent, Saiga, as well as people having really cool superpowers. I can’t say that the story itself was super-original, but at least it tried to do a few things differently from other shows, and I liked that about it.
[end of spoiler paragraphs]
I can’t say that I would buy this show for sure when it comes out in the States, but I definitely enjoyed it and would probably watch it again if I were to buy it. It wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever watched by a long shot (watching it almost immediately after watching Sutepri didn’t help much), but it was quite good and I’d recommend it, so long as you don’t have a weak stomach.
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Speed Grapher category)
Scrapped Princess DVD 4 — Episodes 15-16
October 27, 2005, 1:05 pmYeah, it’s gonna be a long wait until December.
[spoiler paragraphs - highlight to read]:
It’s a Bones trademark to really take things to the places you don’t want them to go. When the wizards started chanting the big evil spell thing, I figured that something would happen to prevent it. But then… it happened. And everything got all fucked up, another trademark of Bones. Oh Bones, so mean to your characters…
Shannon’s true dragoon form was hawt.
In episode 16, it was interesting how Pacifica’s character changed from the beginning of the episode to the end. At the beginning, she was pretty interested in finding people who knew her, but when they finally showed up and admitted who they were, she didn’t want anything to do with them. I’m pretty sure that some part of her, at least subconsciously, knows what’s going on and doesn’t want to have to deal with it anymore. The escapism must be nice.
[end of spoiler paragraphs]
I’ve pretty much given up on trying to guess what will happen next, because it seems like it will be an exercise in futility. I can only wait and wonder and surely be happily surprised.
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Scrapped Princess category)
Scrapped Princess DVD 3-4 — Episodes 9-14
October 26, 2005, 9:13 pmAlright, so I’m not done watching the fourth disc just yet, but I have to jot down some thoughts. Because this show is all I heard and hoped it would be and more.
[spoiler paragraphs - highlight to read]:
While it’s one of those things you can look back at in retrospect and go “Oh yeah, I totally should have seen that coming,” the true nature of Pacifica’s power was quite a surprise to me. I’m very glad that I managed to not get myself spoiled about this series (unlike a couple of episodes of FMA…), because I don’t think I would have enjoyed these episodes nearly as much without the shock value.
Speaking of shock value, the thing about Sutepri that reminds me of FMA the most is the fact that everything that happens in the show is important. Things happen in the beginning that you don’t think are incredibly important, but then they come back and kick you in the ass. The thing about that girl from the lake being a Dragoon actually made me say “No way!” out loud, making me rather glad that no one else was in the apartment at the time…
I have this great respect for the writers of this show in setting up Pacifica’s character, because they managed to give her all these amazing powers and be super nice and awesome and still not be at all Mary Sue-ish. Props, props. The end of episode 14, where Pacifica dives into Shannon’s head to reverse Natalie’s brainwashing was especially well-done in this respect. That scene freaked me out, though, because I didn’t realize what was going on at first and was really disoriented by the fact that Shannon was so much older than he should have been. ^^;;
[end of spoiler paragraphs]
I am going to be pushing really hard to get this shown at anime club as a semester series. I think people will love it. Plus, I need the excuse to watch it again. If it stays as good as it is now, it will definitely become one of my favorite shows.
Once I finish disc 4, I anticipate that the wait for disc 5 will be really hard…
—Erika | Comments Off
(posted in the Anime, Scrapped Princess category)
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