| Seen some▲▼ | Rating▲▼ | Comment▲▼ |
| Black Lagoon (TV) | Good | Terrific production values, and a great feeling of adventure. There isn't an overriding story, as I understand it, just a series of arcs, which makes it feel a little odd structurally. Also, I have a problem with any story that glamourises piracy - just you try sailing around SE Asia, and see how glamourous it feels if you get raided! |
| Case Closed (TV) | Good | AKA Detective Conan. I've watched the first two seasons of this long-running murder mystery show. It's compulsive viewing, but in the second season the formula becomes repetitive (it feels like half the episodes were set in remote country mansions). As usual with this genre, the murders are crazily elaborate, in a way which makes the killer much easier to catch! Unlike most modern mysteries, the endings are highly moralistic - murder is ALWAYS wrong, even if the victim has deliberately destroyed countless lives. I enjoyed the mix of old school art and gruesome killings. I recommend the first season; the second season isn't quite on that level. I don't know how the series proceeds after that. (The DVDs are stupidly programmed without a chapter stop after the end credits, so if you cue forward during the credits, you'll miss the post-credits epilogue section.) |
| Hamtaro (TV) | Good | If only they'd release a sub version. |
| Kyo kara Maoh! (TV) | Decent | |
| Sonic X (TV) | Decent | |
| Buso Renkin (TV) | So-so | I've seen the first half of this, as it has occasionally been mentioned in the same breath as S-Cry-Ed. While that show has an original premise, generating additional interest by making the landscape a part of the story, Buso Renkin is a very generic shonen story. There are dozens, possibly hundreds of mangas with nearly identical high-school-student-fights-monsters plots. The first episode generates interest with an outlandish battle and some nifty action animation. Within a few episodes, the fights, opponents and animation have become much more generic. Some interest persists because of the characters Tokiko (mysterious fighting girl with cool scar) and Papillon (freakily pervy gay villain), but the rest of the show is dull, including the hero, who lacks any interesting qualities. For the supposed hero, his fights are uninteresting, a real mistake on the part of the anime makers. I also found the writing during the school-under-seige arc painfully cliched: "Oh no, the students think we are the enemy and hate us!" "Yay, now they like us again!" It really was that simplistic. At the moment, I'm torn as to whether I should bother with the second half of the series. I've heard it improves, but I doubt it could be by much. |
| Dragon Ball (TV) | So-so | I really liked this at the start, but eventually lost interest, and had to drop the rating a notch. Probably works best as a weekly broadcast, not a marathon. |
| Gilgamesh (TV) | So-so | |
| Hellsing Ultimate (OAV) | So-so | I prefer the TV for its grimmer horror atmosphere. OAV is closer to the manga (apparently), which means more flashy "cool" fights, plus chibi humour which isn't very funny. The flashbacks to Integra meeting Alucard didn't seem to have a point. The blood too often looked like day-glo goo. When Alucard wasn't in battle-mode he looked disappointingly normal, even bishonen. I also missed the detail the TV went into (due to having only the beginning of the manga to work with). Background music for the 1st episode was really awful; I didn't notice it in the 2nd, so I guess it improved. The choral ED theme is very good. For all the problems, it was pretty good overall, and reviews say it gets better. I'll be glad to see the origin of the fake freaks animated at last, which was the biggest problem with the TV (when they ran out of manga to work with). Edit: just watched IV and must say I don't think it's improved: the episode was poorly structured, the fights were really stretched out with not much happening, and the Major's ending speech was much too long. |
| Maburaho (TV) | So-so | |
| Best Student Council (TV) | Not really good | So far, this is pretty lame cookie cutter stuff. Lots of "gags" which aren't funny, lots of stereotyped characters, some fairly predictable "secrets" in the mix. I can't rule out it getting better, but so far I'd say you're better off watching My-Hime (which I didn't like much either, but it's better than this). |
| Ninja Robots (TV) | Not really good | |
| Armored Trooper Votoms (TV) | Weak | I'm watching this to further my knowledge of the landmarks of anime history, and because some mecha fans have called this one of the all-time great shows. Sadly, it confirms my experience that most of the older shows really aren't very good compared even to the mediocre shows of today. In every respect - animation, story & dialog, action choreography - this show is primitive, and the sensibility behind it appears to be adolescent at best. Macross got better as it went on, but I'm not sure Votoms has a similar potential. |
| BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad (TV) | Weak | |
| CANAAN (TV) | Weak | Flashy junk. |
| Honey and Clover (TV) | Weak | Good grief. Despite the slightly offbeat art-style, and regular moments of "we are so wacky!?!", this show is relentlessly nice and normal, or to put it more bluntly, bland and ordinary. |
| (The) Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (TV) | Weak | Very disappointing. Haruhi is just a tsundere bitch, and the three episodes I
saw didn't make me laugh once. Just shallow trash for trendy teens. |
| Ouran High School Host Club (TV) | Weak | I've seen the first seven episodes. This series has been much hyped. The look of the show is certainly interesting, and I like how they consciously address and parody the moe points of the various boys. However, underneath this is a very generic gag show, with no believable characters to keep us engaged. The central romance is a point of interest, but it's too rarely touched upon. There are a few genuine (mild) laughs, but so sporadic that I really can't recommend this show. |
| Red Garden (TV) | Weak | I think there may be an enjoyable story at the heart of this show, but several factors work against it: the characters spend far, far too much time bickering, crying and complaining, some of the character art is grotesque (is this really how Westerners look to the Japanese?), and the songs are badly sung, irrelevant to the story, and not musically strong enough to make up for stalling the action. Also, the quality of the DVD issue is very poor, with edge enhancement making the linework look ugly, and colours always shifting due to poor compression techniques. |
| Sasami: Magical Girls Club (TV) | Weak | |
| Silent Möbius (TV) | Weak | |
| Stellvia (TV) | Weak | |
| Tenchi Muyo! (OAV 1/1992) | Weak | Old school fans call this a classic, but they are viewing it through rose-tinted glasses. In comparison with modern shows, even cookie-cutter harem comedies, the characters are underdeveloped and shallow. Oh, and the comedy isn't funny at all. The art is pretty good, but the female character designs are unattractively sharp. I will update this review when I finish the series, but at the moment I can't recommend this at all. |
| Fushigi Yugi (TV) | Bad | One of the most mediocre shows I've seen in ages. I'm usually forgiving as far as limited animation is concerned, but too much of this show is still frames, for my tolerance. Frame composition is banal, and it looks like they've just copied the manga panels with no attempt to convert for the animated format. The story is generic, the characters are all flat and boring, and the music is bland and second-rate too. It might impress newbies, but everyone else should really not waste their time and money on this. |
| Girl's High (TV) | Bad | I was expecting an earthily realistic comedy, but the characters and jokes are extremely generic. The series starts with some "girls being gross" moments, combined with a ridiculous abundance of panty shots. Both these elements die down after a while, but the forgettable characters and cliched writing never improve. |
| Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water (TV) | Bad | First episode has promise of Miyazaki-esque steam punk story, but quickly devolves into unfunny Japanese schtick humour. Plus the title character is really unlikable, always complaining and trying to tell people what to do. |
| Pani Poni Dash! (TV) | Bad | Tons of "crazy" gags, but NOT FUNNY. |
| Princess Resurrection (TV) | Bad | Seen the first episode: A bunch of unimaginative anime cliches, sub-par animation, no interesting characters or dramatic moments, and zero laughs (it's supposed to be a comedy). |
| Nightwalker (TV) | Awful | |
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