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Just finished Angel Beats!, and I gotta say I was disappointed. I actually liked spoiler[the explanation behind the malevolent shadows, as the idea of being falling in love and then becoming trapped at the school seemed really clever to me. The ending was charming, and while I wasn't bothered by what others call a paradox I just didn't like the Kanade x Otonashi pairing.] I enjoyed the action and the comedy, but I felt that the characters, especially Yuri, Kanade, and Naoi, just weren't explored enough. Overall, I didn't "get" the series the way a lot of fans seemed to, which is unfortunate.

Just started watching Paranoia Agent, having seem 3 or 4 episodes back when it was airing on adult swim. I'm absolutely loving it so far, and I feel like knowing the general theme of the series (including the ending) might help me appreciate it a bit more. I'm also watching Nyarko-san on and off, because while I do enjoy it I'm never terribly pumped for the next episode.

I finally managed to plow through all 36 episodes of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross; it took me a week because after watching the first 14 episodes I felt into a depression. Lynn Minmay constantly appeared in my thoughts and it bothered my motivation to finish the series -- I had encountered spoilers for the series's ending so I couldn't get through the show with my state of mind. I found the show to be very enjoyable up until the 24th episode; afterwards, the remaining 12 episodes felt like a stretch of the Zentradi conflict though it works well by showing the struggles of living on Earth after it has been destroyed. The characters were great for the most part, my favorites being Max and Milia, but the love triangle was annoying. I was shipping spoiler[Minmay and Hikaru] the whole time and thought their encounters were far more superior than spoiler[the Hikaru and Misa relationship.] I felt really empty as I continued watching the show because of how the romance played out; it was frustrating to see that spoiler[Hikaru couldn't be with Minmay because of their lack of communication and misunderstandings.] The songs were good; I enjoyed "Love Drifts Away" the most. The animation wasn't terrible being that it is from the early 80s. I noticed reused animation, many erroneous scenes, and goofy quality but it wasn't detrimental to my enjoyment of the series.

I'm not sure if I can handle much more Macross for this week. I had planned to go through every series (except Frontier which I already watched) but college starts again on Monday.

Last edited by Errinundra on Wed Nov 08, 2017 11:16 pm; edited 1 time in total

Since my previous update here not quite three weeks ago I've been watching the other two series I bought with my Christmas money - Claymore and Kurau Phantom Memory. Both are favourites that I've been intending to purchase from when I first watched them via fansubs. I won't write at length because I've already bored you to tears with them previously.

Claymore

I first saw this just under couple of years ago (posted here). I find it a curious mixture of shonen and seinen elements that have a tendency to work against each other. On the shonen side you have the fight commentaries replete with exposition, the powering-up of the combatants, the steady threat escalation of the adversaries to be defeated, and the development of the potential locked within the heroine, Clare. On the seinen side there's a deliberately and carefully constructed story of grief, revenge and how violence destroys our humanity. The resolution of the tale discards the expected shonen outcome of the hero triumphing against the odds in favour of a more thoughtful rejection of violence. First time around, expecting a grand apotheosis, it kind of fell flat for me. This time around, knowing better what it was all about, I noticed how the major plot elements were constantly pushing Clare towards her ultimate decision. The roles of Teresa, Irene, Jean and Raki are pivotal to the outcome - an outcome that is moving and satisfying.

Clare: a great anime heroine in an anime loaded with powerful female characters.

Rating: downgraded to the high end of very good, largely because of the sillier shonen elements.

Kurau Phantom Memory

In this instance it's only been a couple of months since I first watched it (posted here). Like Claymore, revisiting it doesn't reduce its effectiveness one iota. In fact, being a series that slowly reveals it secrets there were many, many things I missed or where I had failed to understand their significance. For example, I didn't rate the first episode all that highly in the Best First Episode Tournament because I thought it was rushed and confusing thereby reducing its emotional impact. (It was good enough, though, to get me to later watch the rest of the series.) On the re-watch, the first episode is very powerful. I also understood what Doctor Amami and Kurau had released into the world and how important Christmas's appearance was to Kurau. I guess you could say it's a great first episode second time around, not a great first episode first time around.

Knowing how characters like Ayaka Steiger, Inspector Wong and Doug end up, made their development through the series all the more fascinating. Watching how everyone - Commissioner Saito excepted and he never meets them face to face - is profoundly changed by the central duo of Kurau and Christmas, who make perhaps the most amazing couple I've seen in anime, is just one of the series' many pleasures.

Kurau and Christmas in one of their less hunted moments.

That pleasure I got so soon after my first viewing has prompted me to upgrade its rating to excellent.

I saw the following stuff this week-end
Afro Samurai: Resurrection - lots of blood, violence, strange plot-twists at the end and no clear reason why Sio hates Afro so much. Conclusion: mediocre.
Ranma 1/2 live-action mvoie - perfect example why anime series should remain an anime en don't need a translation to live-action.
Naruto Shippuuden 197-198-199 - after a break from NS, I startd rewatching it.

I am watching (first time) and loving The Vision of Escaflowne at the moment. Almost through. There were some minor issues around the middle, but now it's back to being really awesome. The pacing is really tight, they balance serious plot elements well with romance, and after it took me a couple of minutes to get used to those unusual noses, I'm very much in love the characters and designs by now. I don't suspect the ending to be too surprising, but who knows. Definitely happy I checked it out.

Just finished Ef: A Tale of Memories and it was really good. It starts out slow, but even from the start you can tell this show will be different. The biggest thing that impressed me was the art/animation techniques/points of view/creativity... I don't even know how to describe it really. The way each scene was presented was full of thought and original. The only thing close I can compare the style to is Bakemonogatari, but I liked the way it was done here in Ef much better. The use of writing on the screen and a plethora of unusual 'camera angles' really conveyed character's thoughts and moods. It knew just when and how to use still frames and shots of landscape to its advantage without overstaying its welcome (as many shows do when they are trying to save money). Whoever is responsible for that unusual style did a superb job. This show would have been nothing without it, as the plot itself was mediocre.

The whole set-up is very typical; it was the amazing execution that makes this show great. When we first find out Chihiro spoiler[has a memory problem] I couldn't help but roll my eyes. But the way they approach all the twists, mirrored in spoiler[Chihiro's novel] was fantastic. When Renji spoiler[finished reading her novel, I thought Chihiro was going to kill herself. And although she didn't throw herself off the roof, destroying her diary was killing herself in a way. Her diary is herself, so getting rid of the pages is as good as committing suicide in front of Renji.] The power of that scene really hit me.

I didn't care for spoiler[Miya and Hiro as a couple, and even if they hadn't gotten together their story was the less interesting one to me. They only knew each other for what, like 2 weeks before they decided to be together forever? I could buy it in Chihiro and Renji's case but didn't buy it between Miya and Hiro.]

Overall, a great show and I can't wait to start Ef: A Tale of Melodies. If they keep up the same awesomeness with the animation techniques but pick up their game with the plot this could become a favorite of all time.

While Ef is from SHAFT, it's visual style is tied to Shin Oonuma, who is nowadays closely associated with the Silver Link studio, so the closest comparison is probably shows like Dusk Maiden of Amnesia and C3.

I haven't seen C3, but I think Baka and Test is a better example of "looks like SHAFT" than Dusk Maiden. Probably because it's the first show Shin directed when he left.

Sure, but I'm talking "looks like Ef," in terms of using artwork to communicate mood, perception, etc. BakaTest is a comedy, and the artwork is used very differently.

well, I have been trying (completely unsuccessfully) to cut down the shear number of shows I am watching at the same time. To that means, I powered through the last season of Phi Brain, only to get to the end and see them say "it isn't over! We will be returning in 2013!" so while there isn't more for me to watch at the moment, I know I can't remove it from my seem some either.

Anyway, the first season was much better than the second, but either way, this is a show that is only moderately interesting to me. The bizarre puzzle brainiacs in this show which is such an odd concept to me were plentiful. While it wasn't bad, it was also only mediocre, telling a decent enough story through the first season, but they clearly weren't prepped for more. Second season "oh my! we defeated the evil organization already, so we need a bigger more powerful one in the second nobody has ever heard of before" which felt really tacked on. Also, the other stories felt pieced together poorly and like they weren't very well thought out. I don't hold out hope that the third season will be more amazing. Over all, decent.

I also just watched Catblue Dynamite which I actually liked quite a bit. It's rough and ganster-ish with plenty of vulgar language, nice different animation and an interesting story.

Since I was looking at "c" anime, or maybe just sticking with the cat vein, I then watched Dark Side Cat, which I can't find listed in the encyclopedia here anywhere, but definitely should be. 6 episode short (6 min each) about a cat who inadvertently or intentionally goes around doing good while doing bad as well...or something like that. Cool punk kitty, nothing too much to think about, not bad.

I also watched Kacho no Koi, which is a BL title, so not everyone will be interested, but I thought I had seen most titles that fit this category, somehow this one had escaped me. I am so glad I found it! Hysterical is the best word for this one...especially the 4th short episode where the president needs a prostrate exam from the dr and asks if he can moan to make it go better...or maybe he'll cry. this who exchange had me about in tears laughing. If you can take titles like this at all, this is much more a comedy about yaoi than a yaoi with comedy.

Been watching Gate Keepers since Sunday and my perceptions of it are a bit mixed. It looks the series gets by on its camp humor related to the time period the characters live in (1969 Japan), many of the antics of the Invaders and light-hearted romps with the cast. However, the humor for it has been hit-or-miss for me and while the characters are reasonably fleshed out, I'm not really finding myself caring for them too much considering they seem a bit flat and archetypal with their personalities, with the only exception being Yukino's character thanks to her mysterious origins. I only have six episodes left to plow through of the show and should be able to get it done tomorrow. But I'm not having much optimism over the later episodes.

I took a "sick" day to get some things done and also ended up finishing off my Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu/ Haruka Nogizaka's Secret marathon with Finale. Funny, touching, and also completely stupid with chiches, hackneyed story-telling and stock characters.

I am absolutely stunned this was never licensed in the US. It really is everything US fans love and or hate about shonen quasi-harem, wish fulfillment, romantic comedies. This is a show where the two main characters constantly pledge loyalty to each other in the sweetest of terms... but can never bring themselves to confess to each other. They are constantly getting into situations where they almost kiss but are interrupted at the last second, get embarrassed, and act like nothing happens. You can put these two alone in a cabin, spoiler[in front of a roaring fireplace, take off their clothes (wet clothes cause the killer Japanese colds), put the guy on top of the moaning and cooperating girl, have him go in for a kiss,] and when they're interrupted still insist to everyone there and themselves that it "isn't what it looks like!"

And Haruka is such a hilariously contradictory mix of otaku fantasies. She is an otaku. Anime, manga and games are her main hobbies, but she is also the most pure, chaste and blind and surprised by any ecchi content girl you'll ever meet. A complete wet dream of shy subservience and hobby-sharing.

Yuuto starts off kind of cool as a guy who has no interest in girls because he lives alone with his outrageous sexy sister who is always in the company of her best friend (his busty Homeroom teacher) who are constantly half-dressed, over-sexed, completely disreputable alcoholic (funny drunk) women who constantly assault him with their breasts, make him do what they want (he's adept at sensual massage thanks to them) but is also, somehow, ready to blush when asked if he and Haruka are "hugging and kissing" and insistent that he's too young for that sort of thing.

Girls flash their panties, a host of tsunderes (including one voiced by Rie Kugimiya), lolitas, a lolita sister, a bevy of maids, and a lolita maid all inhabit the edges.

Ridiculous circumstances, forced "dramatic" situations, hot springs visits, bathing suit try-outs, yukata girls, amusement park dates, school pool openings, all this and more happen in this show.

It really is perfect and a perfect mess. You've seen it all but have you seen it all packaged so neatly? I like it because it is comfort food, I laugh and and can be heard to exclaim "Oh, this is so stupid" repeatedly because it's absolutely nothing special.

This conglomeration of nothing original and everything safe and familiar seems to scream out as a possible monster hit for someone. Especially now that it's all done and given the most cliched, comfortable and expected happy ending you can think of.

Not that I'd buy it personally, but sell this to the people that made Kamisama Kiss the most watched streamed show on Funimation.com and you're in the money.

Note: when searching for the Finale files, search for ones labeled "BD". The first I downloaded were labeled just "720" but were censored for some reason. doubly confusing as what is censored with half-screen white bars is extremely tame fan-service AND I don't think this show was ever broadcast, only released on DVD and BD... it's possible that the DVD releases were nonsensically censored and the BD's weren't. I don't know what to think.

--------

Okay, off to do the laundry and clean house

I've just finished And Yet the Town Moves and starting on Our Home's Fox Deity.
A poor transition, in that And Yet the Town Moves is intelligent, original, genuinely droll and beautifully animated, has good music, and for all these and other reasons is a top-notch show.
While Our Home's Fox Deity basically is none of the above. After three episodes, I'll admit that (as I now see the ANN review suggested) the show is slightly more likeable than it seems at first. But I doubt it will be one that ever gets a second viewing...

The best things tend to show a sense of balance, dedication and care that can manifest in many different forms, but invariably shine through when present. Although it's a tad frayed at the ends, Planetes shows those traits very clearly. It has idealism and heart, but does not spare the audience challenges and bracing anguish. It might take its time too much with that and goes a little soft once and a while, but it is often at its best and what it accomplishes then is remarkable.

Planetes takes some time to unfold. The earliest episodes have an unpleasant assaultive quality. The first few are a barrage of broad characters shouting through an unrelenting stream of barely meaningful events. They bode ill for what it is to come, yet something in the maturity of the characters and premise soon enough asserts itself, so everybody settles down and what happens begins mattering. If the first few episodes are trying, just search out any good you can find and hold on to that, because no matter how scarce it might seem at first, the famine does end. The light and episodic comedy-drama that Planetes introduces itself as is not who it really is. The English dub follows a similar arc: loud and rough at first, but very well done by the end, though sometimes marred by that 'conspicuously anime' tone that sometimes afflicts Los Angeles actors.

Planetes has rare seriousness and accuracy about our future in space. It surely must elide certain difficulties and gently wave a few implausibilities away, but ultimately shows us a future with a sense of reality. Its premise relies upon the very real problem of debris from past adventures far above Earth careening about at the horrific velocities that an absence of inertia licenses. Movement from point to point is not easy, gravity is a luxury and one can become very alone way out there. The men and women of Planetes often love space, but it is not a convenient place and they often pay a price for it, just as ancient mariners suffered much for the sea. At the same time, it also shows that once it had become routine for so many, the sheen has come off of outer space. Even so, there's a certain idealism innate in the idea of conquering that frontier that Planetes keeps very close to its heart.

The boldest, most chillingly honest realism that Planetes gives its future is that the triumph of space comes at a cost. The mastery of space is part-and-parcel with its exploitation. Planetes projects the growing inequality that comes as new technologies amplify the value of the already fortunate, who can use and develop them, forward with great consequence. Poor nations are trapped on the Earth, thus all but abandoned, while a club of rich nations rapaciously monopolize the new frontier, exercising their errant best intentions and licensing their worst greed through a UN-alike called INTO. Planetes shows that even the widespread use of fusion, powered by helium-3 mined on the moon, carries a price as the end of dependence on oil means that the countries rich in it collapse into poverty and civil war. Rising wealth can raise standards of living and license great achievements, but it also has a way of making humanity drift apart and leaving some far behind.
The strength of this complex future is complemented by equally strong characters whose fates are wrapped tightly up with it. The main cast are all employed by one of the first-world corporations that have thrived in space, but their roles and origins are very meaningfully different. The leads, Ai Tanabe and Hachirota 'Hachimaki' Hoshino, are from Japan, one of the beneficiaries of having reached into space. Those whom they work in the little-loved, little-funded debris section mostly also come from privileged nations, although the assistant director is an Indian divorcee with a gaggle of children back on Earth. There is also a handsome pilot, blessed with excellent fortune, but the most interesting supporting characters come from less commodious circumstances. Claire is a pretty, smart, ambitious and hard-working operations supervisor born in a poor African nation, but raised in America. Hakim is a handsome, skilled and similarly ambitious security agent from a middle-eastern state cast into destitution when the world stopped coming for its oil.

The series is a drama, but always keeps a certain lightheartedness. One episode deals with a rather grave series of events, but also chronicles debris section Fee Carmichael's hard-nosed dedication her relentless quest for a smoke. The section chief and assistant chief are mostly shown as kindly, but bumbling middle-aged bureaucrats, mostly playing for comic effect, such as their exuberant, but chintzy celebratory displays, which usually involve the assistant chief dancing around with some strange gizmo that makes noise or puts a light show on strapped to his back. This all sits on contrast, sometimes striking a dissonant note, to more serious things, which ultimately entangle all of the characters at least once. Even the goofy assistant chief is granted one of the series' most momentous and touching moments.

The more serious matters have a wide reach. Ai and Hachimaki fall on the path to love, although it isn't even quite clear why they should walk it together. Still, it serves as something to become fraught as Hachimaki's dream of having his own spaceship twists into obsession and toward the series' climax. Ai is not, regrettably, given her own dream to wrestle with, instead being Hachimaki's sometimes struggling beau and burdened with being the bearer of indomitable optimism and ceaseless cheerleader for love. Planetes doesn't mislike Ai, but it doesn't think that she's quite as important as whom she loves. At least Hachimaki's travails are eminently suitable for concentration; seeing a good thing that drives him forward be corrupted into warped one that claws his spirit down is genuinely wrenching.

The most interesting paths, however, are taken by Claire and Hakim. At first they seem like the children of misfortunate thriving in hard-won success, but it's not so simple. Neither is allowed to lose sight of the hardships that they were born from or the unfairness that underlies their own success. Both are deeply, compellingly sympathetic and the decent viewer from a wealth nation cannot help but feel a certain important discomfort at seeing them confront of their countrymen who weren't able to fly free.

There is a splendid frustration in being deprived of moral surety and seeing conflict without easy villains. It's not as easy, but is far more powerful and memorable when our sympathies are not used to make us root for the heroes and hate the villains, but instead to twist us up into not quite knowing what those words even mean, leaving us almost helpless as we realize how far from simple people, right, wrong and the future really are. There is no stronger grip that anything can have us in than that which shakes us about in the storm rather than guides us through it.

It's a shame then that for all its boldness and fearsomeness, Planetes still flinches back a little. Throughout there are instances when a subtle, powerful emotional note is overplayed and made too clear; they still have meaning, but the weight of it is unduly lightened by taking too much of the effort of understanding it away from the audience. A starker misstep is how it raises the stakes and makes its characters crash together, but puts a cap on bets and lets everybody have a little cushioning. Perhaps the creators fell too much into the trap that they set for the audience and couldn't let it be as ruthless as its design allows. More insidiously, perhaps it couldn't resist reassuring the prosperous nation that birthed it and those where it might find an audience that the inequality that they're on the fortunate side of that we can all have happiness and prosperity without giving much up. Human beings fear darkness and will always turn on the lights on if they can.

The things that Planetes achieves are too rare and excellent to refuse it forgiveness for an unremarkable start and not showing inhuman resolve. It shows us a thoroughly-imagined, shining future whose light doesn't blind us to its costs and satisfies our desire to like its characters without merely letting us sit comfortably upon that. Its imperfections are understandable and perhaps appropriate, because they are the same ones that it so ably employs to do its best work, which is very good indeed.

I also watched Infinite Ryvius, which I have recently been apprised was directed by the same man, the week after, but I don't want to talk about Infinite Ryvius. It's a nasty, sexist overstuffed hot pocket pinched by a smug fifteen-year-old from Nietzsche's dime store of a show. Infinite Ryvius made me mad.

[EDIT: No listing or one-liners. Put reasons. And go here for recommendations. -TK]

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