Why am I watching this much?
Posted by kacpyApr 11
What a promising season this turns out to be! Below are some comments on the shows I started watching - quite a few compared to the last 6 months when I only finished RED GARDEN (and am still waiting for subs of another 3…).
Still waiting for subs of Terra e…, Seto no Hanayome and Romeo x Juliet. Triad’s Bokurano #01 is still leeching…
Darker than Black
Seen: 01(sub by sudo);
Continue? Oh yes.
Comment: Quality.
Read Cinamon Ass as that post pretty much nailed what I feel about this first episode.
Claymore
Seen: 01-02(sub by Eclipse)
Continue? When I’m bored.
Comment: Even music got better in the 2nd episode. 0_0
I was ready to ditch this after the first episode (those Yomas look like first season Sailor Moon enemies), but I enjoyed the 2nd one more… The art and animation are still nothing to write about, but learning more about Claymores was good. Surprisingly, even the music got better, but I still hate that weird BGM they play around the 14th minute mark. I still hate Raki, too.
El Cazador de la Bruja
Seen: 01(sub by B-I), 02(raw);
Continue? Of course.
Comment: El Noirlax.
I liked NOIR, I loved MADLAX. El Cazador has the best animation of that bunch ATM, it has that ‘classic’ BeeTrain storytelling (like it or not) and I’m loving it so far. The characters seem to have different personalities than the other 2 shows and I can’t wait to see how they are all connected, what their goals are, etc… The thing I don’t like is Moondoggie/Tamaki/Light as the butler following Ellis around…
Yuki Kajiura’s score is a mix of old and new that satisfies my apetite greatly - I’m also quite happy that Yuriko Kaida (at least I think it’s her from ep2 vocals :P) returns for vocal BGMs and Yuuka Nanri - for songs.
Gurren-Lagann
Seen: 01(sub by AiA I-Z);
Continue? OH YES.
Comment: “The drill is your soul!”
A fantastic cross of Abenobashi and Dead Leaves art styles. Great animation. Great Taku Iwasaki music. Great (cliche) characters and voice acting. GREAT FUN. Oh yea, the mech design is awesome, too. Wonder when SimonxKamina yaoi appear? What about Yoko doujinshi? “Penetrate the heavens with your drill!”
Hayate no Gotoku
Seen: 01-02(by Eclipse);
Continue? OH HELL NO.
Comment: A comedy? I don’t think so.
Shakugan no Shana III is IMHO the most overrated show of the season. Of course part of my dislike for the show comes from my dislike for Shana, but that’s not really why I will not bother with more.
The reason is much more simple - it didn’t make me laugh out loud even once - I smiled 3 times in the first episode and twice in the second. Pretty pathetic for a comedy when it’s unbelievably easy to make me laugh.
I’m also against the “we’re only anime” tone of this show. “Hey, we’re not even half done yet!”, “Hey, it’s not the end of the second part yet!”, “We can’t show such things on air.”, “Hey, narrator, you’re talking too fast!”. FUCK NO! Not even Rie Tanaka and Norio Wakamoto can make me sit through more of this. The characters look like they all share the same head with different wigs.
Note: I did like the (overdramatic for this show) music though.
Kami-chama Karin
Seen: 01(sub by HnK);
Continue? Probably not.
Comment: If only it wasn’t a mahou shoujo show…
Even Sailor Moon had better sense of style and direction than the first 3 minutes of this show. As retarded as it was, after those 3 minutes we get to the real meat of the episode… and it was a really good shoujo show until the last 30 seconds. I’d kind of like to watch more, but there’s really no guarantee that it won’t return to being as shitty as the first 3 minutes…
Lucky Star
Seen: 01(sub by SF-S);
Continue? Yes, for now.
Comment: Shoot me, I liked it.
After the incredibly annoying OP seeing the girls talk about food somehow kept a smile on my face for those 10 minutes. The moe explanation was a stupid and unenjoyable bit again, but then the visit at Hiiragi’s household was cool and I swear I heard Kikuko Inoue as the girls’ mother(?). When I got to the gaming part I kept smiling while thinking of a certain gamer and then at the idol bit I finally cracked and laughed out loud. Great? NO. Enjoyable? Bring on episode 2, I say.
Murder Princess OVA
Seen: 01(sub by Ayako);
Continue? Yes, for now.
Comment: Murder Princess.
Seriously, I knew there was a twist coming, but I didn’t expect it to be like this! The idea is unoriginal, yes, but the execution is quite cool and I am very curious to see how the next episodes work with it. -I- do have two problems with the show though - rock music is not my cup of tea and the characters change of voices makes no sense. But still, highly enjoyable and I like the ending theme, too. ;)
Nagasarete Airantou
Seen: 01(sub by Illusion);
Continue? Oh yes.
Comment: A funny comedy!
The opening 6 minutes had me thinking how generic the main character looks, but then few moments later I realized that I’ve not seen such shameless fanservice since Girls Bravo and that I was laughing out loud at those faces they kept making! Not to mention Yui Horie, Saeko Chiba and few more known seiyuus appear… To sum ep1 up: hilarious face deformations, fanservice. I wonder how much of the budget they have left for the next episodes…
Seirei no Moribito
Seen: 01(sub by A-Kraze);
Continue? Certainly.
Comment: Quality.
I’m not very much into period features, but episode 1 of Moribito got me hooked with its quality of art and animation - EVERY single background character I noticed (and there was a lot of them) was moving here. It’s great to have a mature show once in a while - zero ‘moe’ visuals, no super deformed faces, mature themes, mature seiyuus (with some obvious exceptions :P).
With Kenji Kawai composing, Kamiyama and other GITS SAC writers behind this show I am seriously expecting great things to come.
sola
Seen: 01(by Lunar);
Continue? Yes.
Comment: Slice of life with vampires…? Loli in a box? I’ve no idea…
The art is annoyingly inconsistent for the guy’s head shape, while the animation itself is nice - they should pay more attention to consistency than animation IMHO. I enjoyed this whole episode quite a bit (not just the WTF ending) and do want to know what’s going on… so one more episode at the very least…
Hey great round of up shows. I really like the site you have up here. now here is my big question: If you were to choose one of these shows, which do you think will end up the bvest?
Comment by Nat — April 11, 2007 @ 9:20 pm
One other thing, any chance you could clean up the comment area here? You can’t see what you are typing after a little while.
Comment by Nat — April 11, 2007 @ 9:21 pm
I have to agree with a lot of your assessments so far - especially with regard to Hayate. It may be hard to believe, but the manga is actually funny (for a start it doesn’t provide the loli-imagery without mentioning the word ‘pedo’, and it doesn’t break the fourth wall with anything like the regularity of the anime).
I like Claymore a little better than you do, as the artwork is relatively unusual in anime. The only other thing I won’t be following any more apart from Karin and Hayate is ‘murder princess’. For me it defines the word ‘derivative’. It’s the pinnacle of unoriginality (is that even a word?) and mind-numbing cliche. It needs to be taken outside and shot.
Comment by Babel — April 11, 2007 @ 10:08 pm
Edit…. I’ve just watched the first episode of ‘lucky star’ (as subbed by the great a.f.k.) and have to say that I’m having a hard time understanding how anyone could apply the word ‘entertaining’ to it. You know when you’re on a bus that’s stuck in traffic, or a train that’s been delayed from going into a station, and there’s a bunch of schoolkids behind you having a really annoying retarded conversation that you can’t shut out? Lucky star brings that to your screen in the name of anime. Definitely dropped for me.
Comment by Babel — April 12, 2007 @ 4:36 am
To be honest, as long as they are not talking about boyfriends, “bitches” at school or periods…
Comment by kacpy — April 12, 2007 @ 6:45 am
Dear Kacpy,
May I also recommend you Heroic Age? I’m not really into mecha, but the beginning of this story makes me want to watch the rest of it!
As for Murder Princess, Why is the change of voice no sense? :) I think it’s clear why it hapenned :p
*Still waiting for a sub for El cazador 2*
Thumbs up for a true kajiuran lover! Long live Bee-Train
Comment by Allexiel — April 12, 2007 @ 7:43 am
I’ve seen HA1, waiting for episode 2 to make my mind up if I really want to see more…
The voice change makes no sense! AFAICS they didnt change internal organs of the original bodies, they only seem to have switched their ’souls’ so there’s no biological reason for the voice changes. :P
Comment by kacpy — April 12, 2007 @ 8:34 am
I’m not really seeing the link between Hayate no Gotoku and Shana. If anything, Hayate strikes me as being closer to Excel Saga, what with the fourth wall being all but non-existent and all the references to other shows being thrown out right and left. It’s not quite my taste, but I don’t think it’s unfunny.
As for Cazador… meh. I’m not sure I want to watch Noir III. :P
Comment by Brent — April 12, 2007 @ 5:44 pm
I think I agree with most of your choices except for maybe Hayate and Claymore. This season really turned out to have a lot of high quality anime and I guess I’m quite pleased and quite sad cuz exam time is coming up and I will probably spend most of my summer in Korea studying -_-;; but yes, great season. About El Cazador, I watched the second episode. I think quality dropped a bit and action needs to get better but I’m still quite interested how story will unfold. So I’ll probably watch the show sooner or later.
Comment by muhootsaver — April 15, 2007 @ 6:28 am
You know, if you’re expecting “action” (as in action) from El Cazador (or any other BeeTrain girls with guns shows), you might as well stop expecting it now… :P
Comment by kacpy — April 15, 2007 @ 4:07 pm
0_0 really? I always thought Noir’s first few episode had nice action scenes. Well, too bad. Still, I’ll probably keep my eyes on El Cazador.
Comment by muhootsaver — April 16, 2007 @ 12:34 am