lunatic’s blog V2

So while washi is having a writers block, writing upcoming shows previews and refusing to watch shows I keep suggesting, I figured I’d write something unoriginal too… just a few backlog comments and thoughts on upcoming stuff.

I’m actually writing this post because I got excited after finally watching Genshiken #13 (OVA #1) which gg released overnight. I think I should start by saying that I didn’t think I missed Genshiken THIS much prior to watching this OVA. I really feel like watching the original TV series (yet again).

The old characters are as awesome as ever - save for Kohsaka who didn’t get a single spoken line in here or anything to do (no games even!). As for the ‘new’ characters… I honestly hated Kucchi in the original series - he was uber annoying for what short screentime he got but, surprisingly, in this OVA he’s a really great comedy character - I never pictured Akira Ishida in this kind of role yet he is perfect here! Ogiue might be an interesting character, as opposed to being comedy relief only, but one episode was not enough for me to say if I like her or not. Did I already mention Saki/Yukino and Tohno/Kawasumi rocked? There aren’t any girls who hate homos!

Many people seem to be complaining about 2 things: the new OP song and the new art style/animation. I’m happy to say that I am enjoying the OP and loving the new art. Can’t wait episode 2.

My-Otome Zwei #1 was slightly weird and I don’t really know why. I think I’m the only one who thinks framing of shots looked odd - like it was made in 4x3 but cropped to 16x9. Surely part of my disappointment was the lack of new music in it, but those 2 things couldn’t be it… I dunno…

Black Valley suddenly became a tourist spot, Windbloom is still not satisfied with their Queen, Mashiro is acting more like an adult than Arika ever will… Speaking of Arika - she can materialize her Blue Sky Sapphire robe (Materialize Zwei) whenever her synchronization ratio with Mashiro is high, so in true Eva fashion once you start going emo, the ratio goes down. There’s also this alien (?) attacking all the powerful Otome, which get pwned without us seeing the action - Sunrise showing off their budget saving skillz instead of animation. No tension, no excitement - I’m not really looking forward to more.

As for my anime backlog for the past month:

• Red Garden still is the show I wait for each week.
• Yamanade got back to being uber funny with the last few subbed episodes.
• I somehow lost interest in following Negima!?, but I’ll resume with the DVDs release starting later this month.
• Code Geass continues being great comedy.
• Stopped watching Death Note as it was boring me (maybe if I haven’t read the manga…). Stopped watching Kanon as it failed at making me care for any of the characters. I never watched more than 2 episodes of D-Gray Man and Pumpkin Scissors.
• From oldies, I watched Earth Defense Family - a pretty cool and serious show, although I guess most people will pass on it after seeing artwork and not knowing how it really is.

I’m not excited about any of the shows starting this January - most of the lot seems to be lolilicious mediocrity, but who knows - maybe when I watch the first episode, I’ll continue following the show. I am looking forward to 2 shows later this year though, I believe they are both coming in April:

• El Cazador is the 3rd (and final?) part of Koichi Mashimo’s “girls with guns” series. I liked Noir, loved MADLAX, so I’m hoping I’ll enjoy this new one as we- oh what am I talking about, of course I’ll enjoy it - Kajiura is responsible for BGMs again.
• The other show is Darker than BLACK. I know nothing about it other than its production studio and director/creator - BONES and Tensai Okamura (Wolfs Rain). It’s enough to make me interested.

So I guess that’s it. Cya later.

Edit: I remembered few things. ;)

The AIR Blu-Ray box turned out to be an utter disappointment - the episode transfers are just upscales and it just doesn’t look good enough to be worth that price. I know AnimeonDVD reported that would be the case earlier, but they were wrong about the “even though it originally aired in HD” part (a lie, it did not air in HD on BS-i) so I was still hoping for the best. Oh well, guess I should trust their news more (cause noone should trust their DVD reviews).

There’s a new RahXephon box set coming out in Japan in March. It’s supposed to have:

• 7 DVDs for the TV series (the original R2 release was 9 discs, so they could be new video masters!)
• 1 disc for the OVA (originally came with the PS2 game)
• 1 HD-DVD for the sucky movie (couldn’t care less)
• 5.1 audio mix for the whole thing according to some sites (as opposed to the series original stereo)

Now if this is all true (new masters + 5.1), hell, or even 5.1 audio part only, then I am seriously considering giving this release a go…

The seventh character drama CD for Rozen Maiden traumend will feature a new ALI PROJECT song and a bonus disc with new BGMs according to CDJapan - exciting. The Rozen Maiden ouverture DVD is also supposed to come with a CD, although I’ve no idea what the content is. Speaking of ouverture I haven’t seen it yet, waiting for widescreen versions. :)