I just noticed searching isn't working right. I'll work on having that fixed in the next day or so.
Got a few things to post later today. Specificly some thoughts on shows I'm watching now.
mm... i probly shouldn't mention that the second dvd of X TV is out now :D
and in a pretty black slipcover case with blue foil X logo.
~drools~ gimme my Yuzuriha. i happy ^^
personally, i like the tv series a lot. and it does have a definite ending
even though the manga hasn't ended in japan, yet. it is close though,
seeing as they only have 3 more tarot cards to go through if i recall
correctly. the story is supposed to end there, and it is drawing together
like it's preparing for the final climax.
if Viz hadn't dawdle so much on the X manga, more of the tv series
would make sense. the only character beef i have is with Hinoto.
goddess knows i admire and luv Hisakawa-san's seiyuu ability, and she
is excellent for Hinoto, but damnit, her lips SHOULDN'T BE MOVING!!
augh!! >.<
she's deaf, blind, and mute damnit because she is so old and such a
powerful seer. being d, b, and m gives her powers of seeing full potential.
she can communicate psychically which more than makes up for her not
being able to physically see, hear, and speak. but they have her talking
in the TV series. augh!!! >.<
ok. rant over.
hehe... poor Hinoto has issues too }:D
something Pioneer did for the r1 X dvd release is what they did for
the Hellsing release. i don't approve of it in both cases as it messes
with the original video source, but they used a sort of softening program
to soften the overall image. having seen the r2 Hellsing the difference is
very apparent; though i grudgingly admit on a level that it helps the overall
smoothness of Hellsing's presentation. i still wish they hadn't done it. for
the X tv series though, it makes an already soft picture too soft in areas,
especially when it comes to somewhat distant shots of characters and
detailed images.
*sighs* i doubt they'll change methods now, but i hope they don't use
it for Snow Sugar.
mm... X vol. 2 is in my box awaiting my droolage, er, watching ^_^
Well, I finally broke down and ordered the first volume of the X TV series... several months ago. However, a slight backorder, long shipping times and a messed up order mean that I only got the thing about a week ago. Here's some impressions:
I already know far more about X chronology than I particularly want to (although I don't know how most people die or how it ends (has it even ended yet? I know the TV show has, but I'm not sure about the manga... help, anyone?)) thanks to curiousity (the kind that killed the cat) and Lyn (well, mostly Lyn), but there's not much plot development this early anyway, so it doesn't hurt or help. In general I thought it was pretty good, especially as a warmup for the real meat of the series, but not spectacular. Not that I really expect it to be groundbreaking by the third episode, especially since it needs one whole episode just to introduce the (massive) cast.
In the surprise category, TV Kamui is an even bigger jerk than movie Kamui (or what I was led to believe manga Kamui is like, since I haven't actually read the manga). For some reason though, I don't feel the need to rip TV Kamui's head off though. I'm not sure why, but here's some posibilities:
1) TV Kamui is more badass. I'm not sure how to quantify this, but it's true: not only has TV Kamui kicked more ass in the first three episodes than movie Kamui did during the whole movie, movie Kamui kept crying over trying to help Fuuma and Kotori, and that hurt his badassness. If you're going to be an apathetic badass, you have to be apathetic to everyone, you can't pick and choose. Speaking of which...
2) TV Kamui is more apathetic. Movie Kamui made himself look like a big idiot by saying "I wanna protect these two specific people but if I have to protect the rest of the world while I'm at it, I don't wanna." On the other hand, TV Kamui is satisfyingly apathetic to everyone, even Fuuma and Kotori. He wants his sword and he wants out, and everyone else can kill each other for all he cares. Just give him his sword. It's still annoying, but it's much less annoying.
3) I've been told that TV Kamui (or at least manga Kamui) turns into someone far more likable after he gets a metaphorical slap-in-the-face-and-stern-talking-to during the infamous glass-impaling scene. I dunno if it's true, but it would sure be better than movie Kamui, who got better for about... the last sixty seconds. If it is true, then it would make this asshole Kamui a lot more tolerable.
4) It doesn't matter so much what Kamui is like, since the main character is, of course, Sorata. Really. He gets the first real Dragon-to-Dragon fight and a female love interest who intitially dislikes him and everything else a main character needs, not to mention coolness oozing out of every pore, which is what every main character wishes they had. Silly people, thinking that Kamui's the main character. Silly, silly people. La la la la la, I can't hear you silly people! Stop disagreeing with me! LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!
I've been a bit quiet lately so I figured I'd write a little about one of the new shows I've been watching. Spiral is a mystery series about Ayumu Narumi as he solves mysteries with the help of the school reporter. This is another show that I started watching knowing nothing about and that I've found quite fun to watch. The mysteries are for the most part pretty interesting and original. As with most series these days there seems to be a bit of an ongoing mystery with the main character. It seems his brother disappeared a while back and now people are showing up who are familiar with him.
I'd give the show about a 7 or 8 (after five episodes). With potential for that to go up.
this web site sucks so much ass. I think its a big waste of fucking time< whose ever dumbass made this webpage is a fucking homo. You guys can go lick balls and fuck each other in the ass like the fucking dogs you guys are. fuk all of you fucks who made this stupid page.
i think that one of my favorite aspects/points about anime is
its rewatchability, especially after completing a series or a large
revelation is revealed.
everything in my collection, which is a lot, i have watched at least
twice. there may be a few exceptions, but that's just cause i haven't
gotten there yet :D going back and rewatching each anime, no matter
how many times, i always find myself discovering something new
which i hadn't noticed or realized before. it really is something special
to see how from the very beginning plans were set into motion that
don't happen until later.
also, the older i get and the more anime i watch, as the years move
on by i find myself understanding more during the first watching then
i might have a year or two earlier. i like that, being able to get references
or innuendos that beforehand left me puzzled or just flew right over
my head.
does it make me more of a geek? yes, and i'm damn pleased and proud of it ^_^
a fangirl for life, yes i am.
and muchos thanx for the tapes greg-chan. you'll have to email me
sometime so we can work out some kind of trade deal or something.
i guess i should buy a vcr ^_-
good thing i still have store credit at Hoyt's :)
is it bad when you have a credit card for a HiFi Home Theater store?
In doing some taping for k-chan I've been watching a few different shows and found it quite interesting how I'm looking at the beginning of shows like Witch Hunter Robin. While it's taken a number of episodes to really start to get into what the real story is, there are definite hints of it going back to even the first episode. Even if I wasn't aware of it at the time. It's nice seeing shows with that amount of attention to detail.
Now, onto my quest to download Hoshi no Koe. A friend of mine has been screaming at me that I must see it.
Millenium Actress is coming out in two versions
-limited edition with box and a slore of goods, and regular edition-
and both will have english subtitles. w00t!! :D
considering the high quality consistancy of r2 anime dvds, i'll
most definitely be getting this baby used as soon as i get off the
import wagon.
DD 5.1
anamorphic widescreen
english subtitles
*excellent* anime. i highly recommend ^_^
I think my favorite new show is now Haibane Renmei. This is the latest show by the person responsible for things like Neia_7 and Lain. So far it is wonderful. The show is about this group of kids with wings, focusing on one girl who has recently hatched. So far you are really just learning about the world through her experiences. I'm still trying to figure out if they are supposed to be something like junior angels.
On Friday I watched the latest CCS DVD which finishes out the end of the 2nd season and gives us the first episode of the 3rd. This DVD also marks the end of the first major story arc.
Overall I enjoyed it. It felt a little rushed, but that may have just been because I watched the episodes all one after another. I'm still loving the show though. I just wish the discs would come out a tiny bit more often.
I've been avoiding the new Gundam series (Seed) for a while, mostly due to the fact that, from what little I know about it (five young male pilots, another Char wannabe, obvious shounen-ai subtext between main character and an enemy pilot), it seemed like it was going to be another dissaster (see also: Gundam Wing), further bringing into question why I continue to love the Gundam series (see also: 08th MS Team, 0083 Stardust Memory). Well, after watching the first four episodes, I have to say that it's actually... quite... good.
The setup so far has been (more or less) ripped whole out of the original TV show, which is not a bad idea (you could do a lot worse for inspiration, after all). We have a neutral colony, a main character who wants to stay out of the war but is dragged into piloting the Gundam in order to save his friends. We also have the top-secret new ship White Ba- er, Archangel, which has lost most of its crew and ends up being partly staffed by the friends of the main character. We also have the Char wannabe, although this one is doing a much better job so far than Zechs ever did.
As for what's different, we have Coordinators instead of Newtypes, whose ability is genetic modification rather than ESP. In addition, there's now only two pilots, including one with a type of bits system (standard Gundam says only Newtypes, or in this case Coordinators, can control those, but I'll let it go, partly because it seems likely that the pilot is actually a coordinator himself and possibly the brother of the Char wannabe (yet another similarity to the original, if it pans out)). Of course, we also have the five gundams instead of one, and the fact that his best friend is on the other side, and he has his powers from the beginning rather than slowly developing them.
It's a little early to say how the whole series will turn out, but so far it's been pretty nice. The only real problem for me is the return of Gundam Invincibility Syndrome (also known as the Wing phenomenon). Damnit, gundams survive because they have slightly better armor, exceptional maneuverablity, better accuracy, and more powerful weapons (the one-hit-kill-even-against-a-gundam beam cannons) than their enemies, not because they can absorb infinite amounts of bullets! Attacks are wildly innacurate across the board, as they're all small machines flying around a really big space really fast. The original gundam lost arms and legs all the time before Amuro started to get really good, and Uraki had his gundam completely dismantled by only a couple of shots because he decided to be an idiot and take the thing out before it could move right. And now I'm going to stop before I rant even more about old Gundam shows. Anyway, Seeds invulnerability isn't quite as bad as Wings, so I'm willing to forgive it for now. Of course, like wing, the invulnerability is a bit hazily defined, so I'm not entirely sure how good it is. Oh well, we'll see as the show goes on.
Besides, the whole thing is done digitally and the fights are extremely well done so far, so at least that part beats Wings stock-o-vision fights hands down. And I can forgive a lot of flaws if a series has nice, pretty mech fights (see also: Full Metal Panic).
Grr, I just realized two things. First, I spent most of this post complaining about Gundam Invulnerability Syndrome, which I promised myself I would STOP DOING ALREADY! Second, my first paragraph has more words in parenthesis than not. Neither is a very good sign.
star trek & babylon 5, eat your heart out :P
Crest of the Stars is... wonderfully beautiful. what space opera, imnsho, is supposed to be. i also highly highly recommend this anime series to anyone and everyone looking for a classic, classy, space opera and love story. truly, for all the multiple layers of intrigue, story, depth, and persona, lafiel & jinto are the heart of it all :)
the next season is set to start release beginning of next year, either january or february.
much like 12 Kokki, the CotS anime series are all based off a fiction series. i would like to see both translated and available in english. for amazingly complex stories, the transition from novel to anime has been extremely well done ^_^
mm... Lafiel }:D
Spoor is a h00t; love those red eyes ^^
I had a much longer post written about this show, but my browser crashed and I lost it. So here's the shortened version. I just finished watching this series and loved it. I'd seen a few previews before and hadn't really gotten much of a feel for it from them, or at least an accurate feel. It's a wonderful bit of space opera based on a series of books that I now wish would be translated to english. And I believe the next series based on them is due to start coming out beginning of next year.
Here's a review of the first DVD for those interested in reading about it.
someone obviously had a much dire need for my two
passenger side hubcaps because they're not there anymore.
of course, the driver's side ones are still there.
~shakes head~
so, when i get new ones, i'll have one pair shiny and one
pair old and dull -.-;
the GiTS anime didn't do much for me, which wasn't all that
surprising as i just can't get into much of anything that is
directed by Oshii. it's not to say he is a bad director; in fact, he's
very good at what he does. i just don't find it all that interesting
or relateable. the manga was ok.
my fave shirow anime is Black Magic M-66 :D
my fave shirow manga is the new Dominion Conflict. leona is just way
too much fun and way too {glompable} for her own good.
!mreow! =^^=
too bad she already has bonaparte ;P
Hellsing vol. 3 with ltd. ed. Alucard figure better be in my box
when i go to the comic store tomorrow...
I finally saw the movie Ghost in the Shell. Should I now feel like a real anime fan? I thought it was pretty good actually, but not really close to the hype I'd heard for it. I did enjoy it more than I did Akira though.
I'm also enjoying the TV series a bit more. Though I've only seen two episodes. I'll report on later episodes in a few days.
mm.... mac n cheese :D
for 1 whole week ^^ (maybe more)
an a/v/ht-phile fangirl has to have priorities after all.
{{glomples dvds, cds, & electronics}}
i must wallow in pitiable gloom as you all get to watch Robin
and Saikano and i gotta wait for either the eventual r1 release,
or get the r2s.
given that SaiKano r2 will have english subs, i am so there :D
if Robin gets a progressive r2 release, i am so there.
12 Kokki is progressive so of course i gotta get it.
too bad i'm on the import wagon for about a year ;_;
well, yuri has been OS updated to 9.1
can't go any higher at the moment do to compatability
issues with my cd burner and external hard drive.
hehe... soon i'll have two 45gb firewire hds linked together ^^
Domestic Poll: Who Likes To Do Laundry?
k-chan: i do ^^
bloggers: *silence*
k-chan: ~sweatdrop~
i shouldn't mention then that i also like to iron, cook, clean,
and other various domestic activities :P
for a different anime, albeit still not finished being released in
the US, i recommend Strange Dawn. also soon to come, Brigadoon.
for weird crack: Super Milk-chan
for hyper-fun crack: Super GALS!
go Ran!!! :D
At our local anime club, one of the best shows this semester is Boogiepop Phantom. It's a lot like Lain, only with more blood, the weirdness turned up five times, and the timeline put through a blender. In short, it's awesome.
It's extremely dark and depressing, with suicide and death and killing all over the place. In one story, a kinda nice loser who likes dating games is given a drug that screws up his mind until he starts confusing reality (specifically, a girl who works with him) and his games. It ends with his mind being totally destroyed. And this is one of the less depressing stories (don't even get me started on what they do with the Pied Piper arc). With all this emphasis on messed up mental problems, I figure that I just have to get this series and put it to some grossly innapropriate music. I'm thinking that if I get all the footage of deranged smiles, I can make a really nasty AMV to "Happy Boys and Girls."
I was just IMing with Lyn about this and was going to post something I just said to her about Robin. So here goes.
Robin's been a very interesting show for me. Because it was looking like just an episodic show with a little bit of mysterious stuff going on. And I think that was really more serving to just fully set the scene. This is one of the things that has appealed to me in a lot of anime I've seen. I like that they don't always feel the need to give you the whole plot right upfront. Some people complain that shows are too slow (and in some cases they are, .hack//SIGN for instance), but I don't mind at all when there is a good story being told.
Now if they'll just hurry up and get the latest episode out.
And after finishing episode fourteen, I have verily been smacked over the head with plot.
Yay!
I've been using this laaazy Saturday to eat goldfish crackers and catch up on my Witch Hunter Robin. I haven't watched it in about a month, and with a show like Robin -- in which the over-arcing plot and general purposes is so subtle, relying on a few enigmatic clues each episodes and some wistful but signficant exchanges of looks -- it's hard to get quite back on top of it when all you can really remember is that Robin's a pyrokinetic with cute hair and Amon and Sakaki have probably groped each other on a drunken night of which they never speak.
But it's still a good show, even if it does consider itself to be Very Serious Anime. The atmosphere is, of course, perfect -- dark and gloomy and soft in the way approaching footsteps can be soft, and the characters are intriguing and real, if only because the series lets us watch what they do rather than actively explore them. I'm on episode fourteen now, and I'm getting the suspicion that The Plot is encroaching or has encroached. I'm looking forward to seeing where it's going, and what the secrets will be. I only hope that Robin doesn't consider itself above letting us in on what the deal with witches and hunters really is. I could very easily imagine it ending much too vaguely for my tastes. Not that I have much against vagueness in general, it just shouldn't be a substitute for good writing and plotting, and it also shouldn't be a cheap ploy to make internet geeks hypothosize (i.e. wank) about what really happened and therefore talk about it months after the series ends. (coughEvangelioncough)
Not as much stuff lately. I got sucked into GTA:Vice City for a few days, but I got stuck on a mission and have tried it around 50 times and can't get past it. The game has lost some of its charm to be because of it.
I also needed a small break after powering through RahXephon. This morning though I watched episode 9 of Azumanga Daioh, which was insanely sweet and funny and made me worship Sakaki all the more. She's definitely one of my favorite anime characters. Something about her quiet reactions to anything cute is just wonderful. I also took in the second episode of Kiddy Grade. The first episode was really kind of dull. One of those shows that feels like it could be good, but something just wasn't working. Well, the second episode was a little bit better. I'll probably watch one more and if it doesn't make a big improvement will stop downloading.
On queue is GetBackers 4, which I'm getting into more and more, and Spiral 5, which I'm finding to falter a little (it's still good, but not AS good), and GitS #3 when it finishes downloading.
I had a nice long post ready and it was really good! But then I accidentally did that thing where you click on the background and hit delete and IE goes back. This deleted my post, since it was long and didn't cache. So, instead of retyping it, I'm asking if anyone knows how to turn that particular shortcut off. Please?
and i owe finally being able to read and speak it to
the beloved & ROTFLMAO hilarious MegaTokyo.
go now. be l337. and buy the graphic novel come december ^_^
wow. such bloggage over the last few days. i'm overwhelmed ;P
i shall have to bore you all some more with my random musings
and ramblings, brought to you this morning by 3.6667 hours of
sleep. that's what going to bed at 1:20am and getting up at 5am
will do to you >.<
watched YYH vol. 5 the other day.
{{glomples}} i wuuuuv my ogata-sama, that i do =^^=
kurama was her very first seiyuu role, the start of a living
legend, imnsho. ahh... too bad she doesn't accept gaijin in her
fan club ;_;
~bops to YYH music, ogata style~
awaiting my viewing are Excel Saga vol. 2 & SMJ-X vol. 3
~geppu~ "i'm Sexy! :D"
i love my mitsuishi-san ^____^
and scott better have em in when i got to BCC (my local
comic store) to stock up on anime dvds, manga, and the random
figure. gotta get my order fix in ^^
a debtqueen has to have her debt, after all ~winks~
as for the bit about bad fanfiction, that comes from years of
ficage perusal, it takes many a kowai close encounter to find
the few gems amidst the fields of crap.
what's bad is when you start catagorizing the crap :P because,
you know, there is crap and then there is the creme-de-la-crap.
the random pron is much fun that can be found at my blog.
just look at the links on the side, clik on the random pron link,
and have fun ~cackles evilly~ i even got greg-chan hooked ^^
thanx for the welcomes :)
So I finally got done watching RahXephon. I'll admit to being a bit overwhelmed by the series. Overall I will say I really enjoyed the show. It definitely reminded me a little of Evangelion at the beginning, but I think it told a much more cohesive story. I'd read a number of different posts on message boards about it where people were saying it was a cheap Eva knockoff, but I really don't see it. There are giant robots and everything, and mysterious going ons, but that's kind of where the similarities stop.
So now it's time to delve back into the other shows I'm watching. I'm ready to see how Witch Hunter Robin ties everything up next.
I've watched eight episodes of Saikano so far, and I can't watch the next one because I'm so damn terrified of how everyone's lives will be wrecked further. My mind is absolutely pregnant with possibilities (which is itself one of the stranger possibilities I've considered), each darker than the last, and the worst part is that I know the show will trump anything I can think of. Somehow, I doubt anything that calls itself "The Last Love Song on this Little Planet" is going to have a happy ending.
Damn, I love it!
In other news, belated happy birthday to Greg and welcome K-chan! And if that random pron of the day is what caused your comment about bad fanfiction, I am both disgusted and intrigued (although the latter emotion is not entirely welcome).
I will go one step further than k-chan and say that most fanfic shouldn't be written, but this may be just because it is morning and I am cranky.
there are some fanfics that just shouldn't be written, period >.< thank
the goddess for the backspace button ~shudders~
drops in animation quality for tv series, especially if it's just for an episode
or two, is usually a result of getting too close to the airing date. in that
case, the episode is rushed and steps are taken to ensure it is completed in
time, but often resulting in a noticeable drop in overall animation quality.
thankfully though, the music and voice acting hardly never if ever suffers
from this affliction. i'll (begrudgingly) accept it if the overall series is of
g00d-above average calibur, though i'd like for it to never happen, ideally ^_^
randome pron of the day:
seme - genma, panda form (ranma 1/2)
uke - K (gravitation)
kinda... hairy o_O
so wrong and yet so much fun }:D
When TV shows that have had really nice animation suddenly noticably drop in quality around episode 20 (in some cases earlier). It is sad because it really affects my viewing pleasure (dammit).
(oh, and welcome k-chan!)
~peeks around the corner~
yo ^_^ k-chan here. at the invite of gregory, i'm here to cause
mischief and share in the all-around g00d otaku and fangirl vibes.
i thank you all for your kind regards from here on in ~bows~
current anime & manga obsessions:
fruits basket, noir, fancy lala, hellsing, all things CLAMP all the time :D,
eX-Driver, berserk, gto...
that should cover it for now considering the actual complete obssession
list is rather, well, long :P
i have a blog - surprise surprise, which is how gregory and i met.
i apologize in advance for any posting mistakes; this format is a bit new to me.
please, be gentle ^_-
I just got through watching episode 19 of RahXephon and I think this show is going to end up quite high on my list of shows. It just backhanded me with something that I didn't even see coming until I was right in the middle of it. Hopefully I'll finish watching this within the next few days.
I just got done watching the OVA of Happy Lesson. It is basicly a harem show twisted about some. Instead of a guy surrounded by women who want to be his girlfriend, he's surrounded by women who want to be his mom. Oh, and they are also all teachers at his school. All i can say is, five moms are MORE than enough. Overall I'd say the show was soso, with some really funny moments. My favorite mom was the science teacher, who is pretty insane and fairly Rei-like. I'm planning on checking out a bit of the TV series too, just to see how it compares. One thing I did like about the show though, was that it was a harem show that kind of turned the harem concept upside down. Where in most cases it would be every guy's fantasy, this was more like a nightmare.
Oh, and the opening theme is pretty good too.