| Nabari no Ou |
[Oct. 7th, 2009|07:20 pm] |
I like to call this one Teenage Mutant Ninja Slacker.
At least that’s how FUNinmation is selling it. More or less, that’s true. Miharu is an apathetic guy who happens to have some super-secret ninja technique/power/forbidden book fused into his body. Yeah, it’s a tad confusing. So that there’s a plot, one of the main ninja clans is trying to get his power for themselves - along the way trying to steal each clan’s book of super-secret forbidden techniques.
Unsurprisingly, it turns out the Miharu’s apathy is a pose that he takes on to keep from hurting other people (yeah, like that works). At least he does occasionally show a devilish streak that’s entertaining. And being as this is aimed at teens, he has an accompaniment: another ninja, a girl samurai, and a teacher who is also secretly a ninja (and clearly has his own secret relating to Miharu).
It all feels pretty familiar and formulaic. It’s entertaining but not memorable because it is such familiar territory. The only unique element in the mix is Yoite. Yoite works for the bad guys more or less, but he really wants Miharu to use his power to grant a special favor: he wants his entire existence erased, as if he never existed. Now, whether he’s clinically depressed or altruistic has yet to be determined. Yoite is at least one element that piques my curiosity.
Grade wise: animation B; story C; music C. Overall C. |
|
|
| Baccano! |
[Mar. 24th, 2009|12:57 pm] |
It’s the 1930’s. Gangsters, guns, trains, dames, hoods small and big time, and immortals.
Yes, that’s pretty much it, all mixed together. And yes, I did say immortals. The first hint we get that this isn’t the 1930’s gangster-land we know is when one of the young capo’s has his fingers cut off in an attack and a few seconds later, fingers and blood return to him and he’s as he was before. Something is definitely going on here, but the explanation isn’t given just yet.
The story isn’t told in a linear fashion. Instead, it juggles among three years, 1930-1932. We see characters after and before they meet; scenes before, after and during the events on a train called the Flying Pussyfoot. It confused me in the first viewing because, frankly, I wasn’t paying enough attention. I watched it a second time through and it fell into place. And it charmed me.
It’s clearly a lovingly crafted series. The settings look fairly authentic for animation, as if there was some real research done to get the setting just right. The over all artwork is just beautiful.
There’s a large but intriguing cast, all with unique personalities (quite a feat) and nicely character design. Four characters stand out. First is the capo with the magic returning fingers, Firo. There’s two charming but idiots thieves (and lovers), Isaac and Miria. And there’s Ladd, a man who just has too much fun killing people. He skips like a kid when going to a gun battle.
I have no idea where this story is ultimately going, but so far, the ride is fun. I’m really looking forward to the next disc. |
|
|
| Best Buy is closing out anime at some of it's stores. |
[Mar. 5th, 2009|03:05 pm] |
I wish I'd heard about it sooner, but here's the deal...They're not removing anime from all their stores, just certain locations which by their determination the anime doesn't sell. Those stores will no longer carry anime. And those locataions are having an anime close-out sale: 50% off all anime titles. The sale started Mar. 1 and is supposed to run through the 21st. I hit during my lunch break and though it was picked over (or perhaps understocked to begin with), I still got some good deals.
If you are interested, here's list of the Best Buys stores doing the close-out.
I'm just hoping this isn't the start of a trend and that ultimately Best Buy will stop handling anime altogether. It's not just a question of the convience of shopping but of the larger market. If Best Buy stops selling anime, it will be that much harder for companies to market their shows, and could easily put some them out of business. The number of new releases has already started to noticably shrink, so there's no question that there's a downtrend going on. |
|
|
| Mai Hime |
[Feb. 17th, 2009|05:04 pm] |
My goodness, it's been a while since I posted. And her I am with a longish post. It's rather spoilerish, so look behind the lj-cut if you dare...
( Mai Hime ) |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Nov. 10th, 2008|01:02 pm] |
Yes, it's been ages since I posted anything. Not that I haven't been watching anime when I can, I just haven't had much time to think, let alone comment. So, in brief, here's some of my opinions:
Ouran High School Host Club The silliest thing I've seen in ages. But so damn funny. I have a low tolerance for "too silly", but I adored this. More, please.
Red Garden I'm not sure I'm going to watch more of this. If I do, it's just to find out what the hell is going on. The show moves verrrrryyy slowly. And it strikes me more than a little as being an all-female Gantz - they've all died and involuntary are picked to fight unexplained monsters. Sounds like Gantz to me.
Black Blood Brothers Tolerable but utterly forgetable vampire anime. Supports my contention that in general, the Japanese can not do vampire stories right.
Phoenix Incredible Tezuka anime. It doesn't hold together perfectly, but that may be because Tezuka never finished the original story and the animators picked and chose what to tell. Never the less, it's fine storytelling. I did find the stories that took place in the mythic past more effective than those in the "future".
Straitjacket Forgettable and derrivative. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Jul. 30th, 2008|07:36 pm] |
I finished watch the first disc of Zegapain and I'm sure that's all I'll bother with. It's never a good sign when watching anything that you keep checking the clock to see how much time as passed.
I got more or less what was going on. Everyday life as Kyo knows it - going to school swimming, etc. - isn't real. It's on the net. Real life is fighting to protect the servers in a devasted world from...who ever the heck it is trying to destroy them. Everybody he knows, everyday life, exists only on the servers - presumably to save them. Despite all the giant mecha fights scenes - one or more per episode, the actual story moves slower than molasses. Beyond that, what bothers me more is why it isn't until the fifth episode that Kyo even bothers to wonder why: why him, why he is pulled into the fighting and back to his "world" without effort, why he's so good at fighting, and why and who are they fighting anyway. It bothers me that he is so dense and so incurious.
Overall, the disc was a real yawn. I'd give it a C+ for visuals and a D- for story. I shoudl count off more for the obvious Matrix rip-off. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Jul. 28th, 2008|12:47 pm] |
Now, I also watched the first three episodes of Zegapain this weekend. I've got two more episodes to go on the disc, but so far, I'm not impressed. I'm interested in most mecha, war or game anime - all of which are mixed around here. To be fair, or at least clear, it's not an anime based on a game, but the main character seems to be under the impression that his experiences are just in an online game world.
The only interesting aspect of this is the growing concept that the everyday high school world of the main character is not actually the real world and the "computer game" world where he fights in a mecha is actually the real world. But the presentation is pretty ho-hum and the idea isn't all that original. Unless the last two episodes on the disc pick up, I'm not going to bother with the rest of the series. I do however like the opening and closing sequences, but, alas, that's not enough. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Jul. 28th, 2008|12:28 pm] |
It's been a while, hasn't it?
Anyway, I finished watching Planetes this weekend. Yes, the anime has been around for at least a year or two, but I just now got around to seeing it. It was so much better than I thought it would be. For those who are unfamiliar with Planetes, it's a fairly realistic science fiction series. The two main characters are "Hachimaki" Hoshina and Ai Tanabe, two members of the Space Debris Section. It's the near future, debris (space junk) had become a serious problem. The debris section isn't glamorous or respected, but it's a needed job. Hachimaki is the old hand, who dreams of having a spaceship of his own. Ai is the new, naive girl assigned to the section who thinks love conquers all.
Now that may not sound so promising, but the mix of characters does grow on you. What makes it all work is that as much as possible, the series tries to present realistically what life and work in space could be like. It also strives to present the real social and political side of space work. Space travel and exploration is a commercial venture, and because of that, the benefits, like all earth bound commerce, is tired to the have and have-nots. The rich countries who can afford space reap the financial benefits, and the poor countries are out in the cold, again. The friction that causes is is background in the first episodic part of the series, but later fuels the over arching plot of the last half of the series. Without saying too much, let me say that it is a plausible scenerio.
I'm not as much a fan of science fiction has I once was, which is why I just now saw the serious. I'm impressed by the quality of the story and recommend it highly. The only negative I can say is that Ai's naivity and optimism get on my nerves, but I have to admit, it ulimately has it's place. |
|
|
| At last some news about Geneon titles! |
[Jul. 3rd, 2008|12:27 pm] |
I've been thinking that new anime titles seemed a little slim. Than, duh! Remember Geneon has folded, that's why. Some days, I'm a little slow rembering stuff. Anyway....
Finally some news!
Funimation Agrees to Distribute Select Geneon Titles
posted on 2008-07-03 11:46 EDT
Ergo Proxy, Hellsing Ultimate, Black Lagoon, Elemental Gelade, Fate/stay night, more
The North American anime distributor FUNimation Entertainment has announced that it signed a deal with Geneon Entertainment to manufacture, sell, and distribute "select" DVD titles in North America. Those titles include Ergo Proxy, Hellsing Ultimate, Black Lagoon, Black Lagoon Second Barrage, Karin, Kyo kara Maoh! Season 2, Lyrical Nanoha, Elemental Gelade, Fate/stay night, Kamichu, the live-action Ninja Vixens work, Paradise Kiss, Rozen Maiden, Rozen Maiden - Träumend, Shana, Shonen Onmyouji, The Familiar of Zero, The Story of Saiunkoku, When They Cry - Higurashi, and The Law of Ueki. |
|
|
| "What girl doesn't like gay men?!" |
[May. 12th, 2008|01:11 pm] |
|
Though Netflix kindly sent me the first disc of Kujibiki Unbalance this weekend, I was too busy to watch more than one episode. And actually, what I watched was the bonus OVA, ep. 13 of Genshiken. Oh, Genshiken, how I love you. It's been so long since I'd last watched Genshiken, and I now must dig out my discs again. I cannot tell you how much I loved this one episode. For that I alone, I may have to go out and buy a copy of this disc - even without having seen the rest. Ohno was the delightful star of the show! ("I think we may be witnessing the birth of Evil Ohno.") It is her outburst that titles this entry. Thank you, Ohno. |
|
|
| Xxxholic: Midsummer Night's Dream |
[Apr. 2nd, 2008|07:59 pm] |
It's one of the two Clamp movies just released as a set, "Clamp Double Feature" from Funimation. The other is "Tsubasa: the Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom". (I haven't seen that one yet.)
So, for Xxxholic: Midsummer Night's Dream: It's very much a disappointment. It's long on concept, short on content. I can't decide if that's because it's too short (56 minutes) to explore the story throughly or that the writers didn't have enough story too expound. I lean toward the latter. It's one of those films leaves me with the impression that the creators kept coming up with what they thought were cool visuals by never gave too much consideration into how to connect them together into a coherent narrative. And sadly, once on screen the visuals weren't all that cool either.
Normally, one of the things I love about Clamp's work is the art. Even if the story doesn't amount to much, the art usually is visually appealling. And Clamp's art work transformed into animation usually has the same effect. (X/1999 may be the thinnest of stories, but it sure looks fabulous on screen.) This is the first time their art hasn't really transferred well to animation. There are times when the animation looks like a bad cross between Clamp's style and a very bad imitation of Jhonen Vasquez. (Please note, I love Vasquez. I'm talking about a very bad imitation of his work.)
Back to the story. The adventure involves Yuko taking Watanuki and Domeki with her on a job/invitation to a creepy mansion were they find a gathering of collectors. A collection of collectors, as it were. Yes the story and visuals involve collectors and their collections. Collections of mundane things, like wire and buttons or what have you. *yawn* Not exactly compelling. And the mansion has a almost-but-not-quite Escher layout inside: endless maze of tunnels, rooms, hallways, etc. Domeki and Watanuki get split up for no reason other than "look how the room changed while Watanuki slept" since they only get back together in a few minutes - more of that "cool concept" that's actually pointless. Without giving anything away, the plot such as it is does get resolved, though it doesn't make a lot of sense, but we never get told what the relationship between the two "collectors" are to each other.
I'm glad I saw it, but I'm glad I didn't buy the DVD to do so. |
|
|
| Blood +, the manga |
[Mar. 19th, 2008|07:50 pm] |
Blood+ 1, manga. While I’ve really grown to love the anime, this will be the only volume of the manga I’ll buy. Why? It’s not because the story differs from the series, that’s not uncommon even when, as in this case, it’s based on the anime as opposed to the anime base on the manga. No, it’s because just a poor comparison to the anime. For starts, the art is, to be quite blunt, ugly. Not everything, but enough that it’s the general impression. Along with the bad drawing is the bad choices in characterization and story.
I particularly loathe the way Julia is drawn. In the anime, Dr. Julia is understatedly sexy, in a professional way. In the manga, she suddenly has eye-poppingly huge breasts that her slender frame couldn’t reasonably support without falling forward and she reveals much more exposed cleavage than her anime version would have dared (let alone a professional doctor). That sexism alone is enough to piss me off. And then there’s a more significant - and stupid - change: the addition of a new character that appears for all the world like Count Chocula in short-pants. No, I’m not kidding, wish that I were. It’s a child-vampire in a clichéd Dracula outfit trying to give orders to military men. It’s just too bizarrely stupid when compared to the considered intelligence of the anime.
Needless to say, I hated this manga. |
|
|
| Pumkin Scissors 3 |
[Mar. 19th, 2008|07:49 pm] |
Pumpkin Scissors Disc 3. This series continues to not quite live up to its potential. The first episode on this disc is a major exception. In that episode, Oreldo becomes involved with a young woman who works at an escort club. The young woman has let herself become a hollow shell, refusing to believe her boyfriend died in the war three years ago and refusing to move on. The way Oreldo finally helps her isn’t what you might expect but it is indeed what she needs.
The next episode is a rather forgettable background store to the Pumpkin Scissors unit. The latter half of the disc is devoted to a two-parter on the Invisible 9 plot-thread. The Invisible 9 being the unit that Oland originally belonged to. It’s been allude through the series that the Invisible 9 was involved in human experimentation, Oland being the result of, and other sinister machinations. These two episodes bring that to the fore without giving away very much. Mainly, they serve evidence that the powers involved really want those secrets to remain secret. (Which all leads me to wonder why they let Oland join Pumpkin Scissors, let alone let him live.)
Still, the series remains entertaining if not great. It hints at deeper things to come, but the material in the meantime doesn’t live up to the hints. |
|
|
| Strawberry Panic |
[Mar. 12th, 2008|07:19 pm] |
Watched the first disc (first 5 episodes) of Strawberry Panic this week. It seemed to take forever to watch the disc because, well, each episode seemed to drag on forever. And yet, no episode was longer than the usual 22-26 minutes. They just seemed longer. All this to say that it was a very dull show to me.
I was curious about the show since it's one of the few yuri titles release in the minstream U.S. market. It's really "yuri-lite". In almost every episode, the main "couple" come as close as possible to kissing without any actual lip contact. And that's about as much as it gets. There's no plot to speak of, just girl crushes and embarressment. *yawn*
Perhaps my problem with it is that I don't care one way or the other about yuri or yaoi, I just want a story, and that's seriously lacking in Strawberry Panic. |
|
|
| Geneon again |
[Feb. 28th, 2008|02:13 pm] |
And speaking of Geneon, there's this article that mentions that Funamation may be in negotiations to acquire some of Geneon's title - new, compete or ongoing not mentioned. (Can we vague that up for you?):
During a conference call with analysts discussing the Navarre financial report for the quarter that ended on December 31st, Navarre Corporation CEO Cary Deacon declared that Navarre (through its wholly owned subsidiary, the anime market share leader FUNimation) was "in very early stages of negotiations to acquire some of the Geneon library of titles." |
|
|
| Newtype USA, RIP |
[Feb. 28th, 2008|02:07 pm] |
Newtype ceases publication with it's February issue, for those who hadn't already heard it.
From their website:
As has been reported elsewhere, the February 2008 issue of Newtype USA will indeed be our last.
What's next?:
The good news in all of this is that the team behind Newtype USA is now starting up a new magazine called PiQ. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way people were led to believe that this new magazine is simply a renamed Newtype USA clone or what have you. That's not the case. PiQ is an entirely new magazine, with a new voice and covering a wider range of entertainment, while still revolving around anime and fan culture. And let's be clear, PiQ is its own entity, operating outside the bounds of both Newtype publisher Kadokawa Shoten and Newtype USA parent company ADV.
The rumour is, and frankly this makes a lot of sense, is that Newtype's folding is a result of Geneon's folding. Open any issue and you could see that most of their advertising revenue had to come from Geneon, so it does seem that Newtype was toppled in a domino effect. |
|
|
| Briefly... |
[Feb. 19th, 2008|01:24 pm] |
Death Note - watching what I have of the animated series has made me loathe Death Note whereas I previously just disliked it. Animated, it's blairingly obvious how contrived it is and how stock the characters are. And especially how loathesome Light is and how much he must DIE A HORRIBLE AND VIOLENT DEATH NOW.
I really hate this show.
Tsubase Reservoir Chronicles Typical Clamp pretty, but I realize what's missing: tension. There's no tension in the anime - it feels fluffy and no one gets hurt. That's not the case in the manga, especially in the later volumes. |
|
|
| Well fuck. |
[Feb. 7th, 2008|12:55 pm] |
I just discovered that Tofu Records is out of business. Admitedly, I'm late learning this news, as they died off in the spring of last year. (Tofu was a label under Sony). Well, damn. They were at least a source of reasonably priced jpop and jrock - import prices being double and triple what an average U.S. album costs.
I discovered this when trying to find out info on L'Arc En Ciel's new album. Apparently, I'll have to pay $43 for the imported disc. |
|
|
| Emma |
[Feb. 6th, 2008|07:31 pm] |
Also last night, in avoiding watching the Super Tuesday reporting, I watched the preview episode of Emma that came with Newtype. It was only one episode, but I’m pretty sure watching paint dry would be more engaging. I get that it’s all about the interior emotions of the characters, but anime is visual medium. I understand Victorian restraint and all but those implacable blank faces tell nothing - and the lack of action or plot doesn’t help. It was a long half hour show.
I have another peeve about the show. While I appreciate the loving detail given to London background art, it really disliked the blandness of the character design, especially those bland faces. Having glanced at the manga (and not bother to read them), I know this was the way the characters originally appeared, so I can’t fault the anime for following the original design. I can say that regardless of which medium, they don’t appeal to me. |
|
|
| Pumkin scissors disc 2 |
[Feb. 6th, 2008|07:22 pm] |
Back in October I reviewed the first disc in this series. At the time I was surprisingly pleased with what I saw. The show had potential. Well, with disc two, it drops the ball in to big puddle of mediocrity. Each episode on this disc is predictably and formulaic. In the first disc, they laid the groundwork for the mystery of Oland and the human engineering that created him. Here, they quickly brush everything aside because it’s “being nosey” and they should “have trust in the big guy”. Really? Why? Oland is supposed to be one of the two main characters, yet in these four episodes he’s mostly just a hulking background presence that occasionally becomes handy. The other main character, Alice now seems shrill than idealistic.
This is supposed to be a 24 episode series. I can’t imagine how it’s going to pull up from this rut. |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
otakunita's journal