Well, the other night I finally watched the Black Rock Shooter movie/OVA/thing. You know, I liked it! I really liked the parallels that were drawn between the two worlds. It was also pretty.

I think probably one of the most enjoyable aspects of the look/style of the show were all the star details. Granted, many of them are there as product placement for future/current merchandise that people can order. But, I still thought all the stars on things were adorable.

The other highlight of the drawings was the epic awesomeness of the main character, Mato’s hair. It was awesome from the first moment I saw it on this show. I’m not exactly sure what it is about her hair that makes it so adorable to me, but it makes me smile every time!

I also liked the battle scenes, but I expected them to be awesome already due to what I had seen in the previews. I did notice that nearly all of the scenes from the previews were shown, and sometimes they seemed like an exact copy of the scenes from the preview. It wasn’t terrible or anything, just something that I noticed.

One unique thing about the style of this show was all the texture effects that were superimposed on top of the drawings to make some scenes look foggy, or otherwise gritty and atmospheric. I liked it but sometimes it was a little distracting because I could tell where some parts of the “clouds” were moving and other parts were not.

All in all, I liked the story. The two school girls had a sweet relationship, and when Yomi disappeared they did a good job of illustrating the emotion of the situation. I was definitely worried about Yomi! When Mato finds Yomi’s star phone charm, I felt like it comfirmed that she ran away, wasn’t kidnapped, but then I wasn’t so sure. In the end the explanation was left up to the viewer to decide. After some thought, I have decided that what happened was that Yomi’s jealousy and/or anger at Mato because of the change in thier relationship is what led to her possession and being “spirited away” to another world. Mato is then similarly possessed by a spirit which fights against the evil one and is likewise spirited away to save her.

It’s neat that they paralleled the other world stuff with the “real life” they way that they did, as it makes the whole of the story clear at the end, without having to go into explanations. In the end you realize that the rescue you see actually happens after Mato merges with the Black Rock Shooter and is only shown before. I suppose it could be argued that what happened in the spirit world happened outside of the bounds of time. I’m not too worried about it, as the main conflict of the story was resolved to my satisfaction, so the details of the lore involved aren’t as crucial.

The possessed forms of the girls were awesome. I really liked the greusome scars/stitching on Mato’s body after the first fight, and I loved the chains and the scythe Yomi used. It lended itself well to the wasteland post-apocalyspe spirit workd that they were in.

There was one terrible moment of this show, and sadly, it was right at the climax of the show and it literally made me groan at the awfulness of this one liner. I just hated it! Part of the reason it was so bad was that is was in “engrish” (something in english that’s barely recognizable due to the japanese accent and is somewhat humorous sounding). Wait for it: “I am…”

Sigh. I mean, how predictable can it get, lol, plus the engrish, made it just unbearably awful to me. Luckily, the rest of the show was good so I was able to get over it, but it definitely ruined the moment for me.

I think I would recommend this to most any anime viewer, it’s short and actually does live up to the hype that it generated. I mean, it’s not the most amazing anime ever created, but it’s certainly well done, and enjoyable. I think people who like slice of life  anime will like it, as well as people who like fantasy and action anime. The show has a nice balance of the two genres, so it’s worth a look at least, and it’s only the one episode so it’s not a huge investment either way.

Well, I had intended to write some reviews for the second and third episodes last week, but alas I didn’t have the time! Happily, I have found the time this week, and even better, the fourth episode has come out since then so I can write about all three at once.

I was skeptical of the show at first due to the hatred of some of the cliche-ridden characters who are so well endowed, or who so well fit into stereotypes. Honestly, I have been more than won over by the this show. I love it! It’s fantastic. I have really wanted a bloody, scary show to watch! So many have disappointed me lately, but this one was even better than I expected.

The other nice surprise is the style of the drawings. It’s really nice, and I did hear that the manga has a really cool style to the drawings, which I imagine are the basis for the style of the anime. As to whether it’s been adequately captured, I have no idea. I just like it. I wish more shows had a unique feel to the drawings like that. Whenever they do, I tend to enjoy the show more because of my appreciation for artistic style!

As for the actual plot and everything, it’s too early to tell. So far, it’s fairly good, but not at all complicated. I find the characters to be fairly enjoyable, though not because of the ecchi, lol. I like them for the bits and pieces of their personality that I have seen so far. The ecchi, I tolerate because of the rest of it.

In the second and third episodes, a lot happens, and the whole gang ends up together. It’s really cool to see the teamwork fight scenes and the interaction between them when they aren’t fighting for their lives, too. I was definitely sucked right in to the show during these episodes. It helps that I watched them together, but they really were excellent.

The second and third episodes were awesome, but this fourth one was a bit full of filler. So many flashbacks and so little movement of the plot! The only action that wasn’t a repeat was the part at that gas station, and I mean, that was pretty tame for this show. I was actually surprised to see the ending credits, and I was kinda annoyed too. How dare they deprive us of the awesomeness of the show! Grr to that laziness. Oh well, but I hope that they do better with it this week!

Last night I watched the first episodes of three of the new shows I have started watching, and I’m sure you can guess them from the title, but they were High School of the Dead, Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin, and Nurarihyon no Mago.

I was trying to decide which of them is my favorite, and it really is hard to decide! I keep going back and forth between Occult Gakuin and High School of the Dead. I am slightly leaning towards High School of the Dead because I like the style of it. The drawings are cool, and the zombies are gross and scary, as they should be! I also like that it pays homage to all the awesome zombies shows out there.

I really need some of my non-anime watching friends to watch this show, as they would be really impressed by it I think. We always watch horror and gore movies, and love them, so it’s likely they would find all the different lines, music and other different things they use.

At any rate, I am definitely going to keep watching it, despite the blood curdling screeches of the main girl. I don’t hate the acting, I did think it was appropriate, and I don’t think they did a bad job with the girl, honestly that exactly how it is in all of the zombie movies out there. The girl has to have her boyfriend be turned into one, that’s how she learns to be all badass and strong and kill zombies ruthlessly. It’s like a lesson that has to be learned to survive.

Though Occult Gakuin lost out as my favorite of the week, it’s still a pretty cool show. The main girl Maya reminds me so much of Natsuki from the Mai-Hime/Mai-Otome series, by her attitude mostly. The stubbornness and yet easily cracked composure is what does it I think. I love characters like that, so this show could easily become my favorite, as I like Maya way better than the main girl in High School of the Dead.

Part of the reason why Occult Gakuin didn’t win out was that I didn’t like the drawings as well too. I’m an artist so that stuff matters a lot to me. A bunch of the drawings of Maya are sloppy and actually make her look odd and distorted. Also, my god, the sock drawings. There were these close up shots of some girls’ feet with socks bunched up, and the socks looked really lumpy and odd. They were so bad it really bothered me! So that turned me off on the show too, the monsterously poor drawings of the characters. The rest of the drawings (background, buildings, etc.) seemed good, which made it all the more noticeable.

Nurarihyon no Mago was my least favorite of the three, but at the same time, it’s still not totally awful. Okay, it somewhat is, lol. But for some reason I still like it. At first, my enjoyment was completely because of the epic hair. I noticed in the opening and when you see his youkai form at the beginning of the show, that the hair is so huge and pointy that it doesn’t even fit on the screen! That is serious.

As I said in the forums, the hair is clearly a preemptive combover, as his grandfather confirmed at the end of the episode, I beleive in the preview dialogue? The hair is just so hilariously over the top.

One thing that is also a bit strange about the show was that most of the characters seemed like copies of other characters from other animes. The snow girl looked like Kuro from KuroKami, who is actually a copy of Shana, I think, so it’s like a copy of a copy! Though she does look more like Kuro than Shana. There’s the main human girl who he seems to be in love with, who looks just like Yuki from Vampire Knight. The grayish curly haired human friend looks like Makoto from Ghost Hound. I’m sure there’s more that I’m forgetting even. It’s kinda funny to see so many familiar faces.

Somehow, that show grew on me, so I’m keeping it for now, maybe just because of the hair. It’s a guilty pleasure show for sure!

Note: I will add pics to this post later if I get time, I wanted to get some good screenies, especially of the really bad socks!

I already posted on the forums, so I will just expand a little about these shows, based on what I have read or heard about them.

Nurarihyon no Mago – The plot to this show, as described in the preview information I have read, seems interesting. If the show does have a deep plot with some great characters, I will be happy! The dude’s white hair is legendary by itself, lol!

High School of the Dead – They had me at zombies. Seriously, I really love sci-fi stuff like zombies. The corny ones are awesome, but this one does look like it may be a serious one, and it’s probably really gory. I also think it might be scary, which would be fun!

Kuroshitsuji 2 – I am going to give this one a chance, simply because I enjoyed the first season. Sadly, it is unlikely that there will be much of the characters from the first season in this, it’s really more of a spin-off than a second season. I don’t know if this will be good because the characters seem like copies of the first pair, but clearly copies aren’t as good as the original!

Shiki - Lots of people are excited about this show, and I am too. I have only read a small amount about it, so it’s mostly just the idea of the show, and the cool art for it that make me want to watch it. Anytime there’s mystery, horror and supernatural things involved, I feel like it’s a least worth a look. 

Seikimatsu Occult Academy – This one looks like it could be funny. I may or may not keep it around, because these types of shows can be really hit or miss with me, it depends on how funny it is, and how well I like the characters.

Black Rock Shooter OVA DVD thingie – I haven’t been able to track this down online yet, and I think I saw somewhere the streaming release was delayed to some time in July. Well, it’s July so maybe it will be available soon. I watched the music video/preview thing for it and I really liked the instrumental version. I’m not a fan of the vocaloid, it just sounds so high pitched and odd to me. But the girl’s hair is totally awesome. Normally I don’t just watch something because I like the style of the character, but oh well! I have seen a ton of signatures, wallpapers and etc. made of her so I’m clearly not alone in this.

So, I have started watching Rainbow as it looks like it might be pretty well done and meaningful. I have only watched the first episode, so I can’t really draw too many conclusions yet, though I am already liking it pretty well.

I really liked the part with the cigarette, it was awesome. I am generally intrigued by the brotherhood bond men seem to develop. This show is definitely a show about that. It’s probably because I don’t really know what that is like, since I am a girl and girls are just different I think. Hopefully that doesn’t cause me to be confused by parts of the show, lol.

At any rate, I found the boys to all be interesting characters, I loved the intro part for each one, it was a great way to do it I think. And the prison guard and pedophile doctor are also really excellent antagonists. The way they are both evil for different reasons is great, and will make for a varied range of conflicts for the boys I’m sure.

One thing I’m concerned about is that the show might be too sad and depressing, but generally if it’s well done and not done just to pull your heart strings and make up for other failings in a show, I generally like it anyway.

Anyhow, I am looking forward to watching more of this show!

Sorry for the lack of blog posting lately, but I have been sick for quite a while, and I am finally starting to feel better, so I am going to make a little post here to give an update on what I have been watching.

I am almost finished with Kemono No Souja Erin. I love this show. It’s absolutely awesome. It seems like every episode I laugh, cry, and feel joy. That’s really a mark of a show that is well done, when you can go through that many emotions because you are that emotionally invested in the characters. I also really like the animation style. The colored pencil outline look is really cool, and some of the landscapes are so beautiful that they feel like artistic masterpeices on thier own.

I think I have like 3 or 4 episodes left before I finish it, and I am looking forward to it! I have kinda been savoring it, watching only one episode at a time because it’s so good I don’t want it to be over!

I attempted to finish watching Dance in the Vampire Bund on hulu, but I only got about halfway and I watched the episode where the princess and the werewolf dude fight and you see her true form. While this episode was pretty cool, I am still too bothered by the weird audio and video filters/distortions they use in this show to really enjoy it.

Wondering what other watchers thought, I decided to read the thread about it even though I usually don’t unless I am caught up as I dont want to read spoilers by accident. Turns out it was a good idea to check because what I read convinced me not to watch the show anymore. Some people said that the best episode is the one I just watched, and that one was only beginning to win me over, so if that’s the highlight, I don’t need to see the rest. I also read that the ending is disappointing, which I would also not care to see, so I was pretty strongly convinced not to watch anymore, so consider this show dropped!

I have also been watching some “American” anime, the Nickelodeon show Avatar: The Last Airbender. I have finished watching all three seasons of this show, and it was totally awesome! It is a bit childish, especially the jokes, but for some reason I still find them hilarious. I guess I’m immature enough to appreciate them lol. I also pretty much ended up with a crush on Prince Zuko. He’s the bad boy gone good! Needless to say, the third book was my favorite even though there were a couple filler episodes! I actually liked all the characters, they were very well done so it was easy to get attached to them. All in all, that show is really great, and I recommend it!

I also finally watched the last couple of episodes of Shikabane Hime, and boy, am I unhappy that I did. What a waste of time, lol. That show never actually ended! In addition to that, it was so ridiculous by the end that at first when I watched the second to last episode, I wasn’t sure if I had finished it or if there was one more to watch, that’s how convoluted it is. I just felt like there was so little explanation and so many complicated ideas that they never had much of a chance of getting to a resolution of the plot, and sure enough, the last episode is completely ridiculous, and ends at a point you would expect it to for a commercial break, not the end of the series! Sheesh, I don’t even want to type anything more about this show, it’s not worth it!

Another anime I have been watching is Shakugan no Shana. I have been watching season 2 for the first time, after re-watching season because my fiance really wanted to watch it. When I first started watchign season 2, like 2 years ago, I stopped after just a couple of episodes because I was getting frustrated with the show and I didn’t know if I wanted to keep watching it. This time around I ahve made it about halfway so far. It’s okay, but it’s really not as awesome as I would like it to be.

I remember watching the first season and absolutely loving it, I am such a sucker for epic girls with swords and flames (see Kaze no Stigma, rofl). But then by the time I watched the second season I think I had more sophisticated tastes or something. Either way, I am going to finish it, even though I have given up hope that the love triangle will ever be resolved. I am liking the new plot that I have seen so far, it was fairly interesting and did seem to make sense. It didn’t feel to me like they are just filling the time with meaningless battles with tomogara, at least!

Anyways, wow this post got pretty long there, I guess I have been watching a good amount of anime the last fews months, even though I have been sick! I will make another post later listing off what I’m watching for the summer season too.

I have been able to do some catching up on my anime watching lately, so here is my review of Railgun for the whole series. As most of you know I did a review of the first half for the sugoi-desu webzine.

For the most part, that review holds true for the second half as well. Though honestly it didn’t really feel like the show actually ended. The last episode felt like just another episode to me, which does make one wonder if there will be more anime to come, whether it be a second season of Index or Railgun, or yet another spin-off series. And then I of course try to guess which character deserves a spin-off! Personally I really liked the shrine maiden girl, the one who really likes hamburgers, but the loli teacher is also a good candidate!

Anyways, I definitely enjoyed the show. I would watch another series if they make one. I didn’t find it to be very original, or very clever or deep, but it was funny, exciting, and cute. It was enough for me, this time around. I think maybe with Index I just had my standards too high, also in that one they tried to address the underlying conspiracy more, and failed to do so in a way that adds something meaningful to the story. The fact that they were able to make a spin-off that was more enjoyable than the first series impresses me.

For these last few episodes, since my last review of this series, I liked that the loose ends of the major story arcs all seemed to tie together in the end. It wasn’t the most surprising ending, and in fact that may have been part of the appeal. I knew everything would turn out happy in the end, so I wasn’t worried or even really paying much attention to that. I was just watching for the next cool fight scene, or funny line from the characters. It’s a feel good show, and they stuck to that to the end.

One thing that I hated was the drawings of that lady who was always wearing a robo-suit of some kind. She looks awful! Especially her lips. Not that she was a very good villain either, I mean, how is she some super-esper when she’s never outside of that suit?!

Now that this show is done, I am *gasp* almost out of animes to watch! Luckily, I can find some more, though I was sad to find that Vampire Bund is licensed now so I am going to have to do some hunting if I want to keep watching it. I haven’t checked for it at all streaming yet, maybe they will have it on my iPhone! Oh man that would be cool.

I love this part, that was seriously cool looking!

Well, last weekend I finally finished up the first season of Umineko no Naku koro ni. I was pretty entertained throughout this series, and in some cases, I even liked it better than I did Higurashi. Sadly though, as the series wound down, I was starting to feel a bit bored by the repetition in the way the story is presented. I also began to lose the details of each of the arcs because there were so many similar ends to the characters. I would lose track of which one that Battler and Beato were talking about.

That said, the show is extremely well done, the music is awesome, and I am a bit disappointed that they didn’t really resolve anything at the end! I know there is going to be another season of the show, and supposedly even based on parts of the games that haven’t even been released yet. Which of course means that the date of release is not clear, though JCD says that it will most likely be in 2011. I know I will for sure be wathing it!!

Also the violence in the series was sometimes really gross to me, and unlike Higurashi, where I was actually upset by it (a good thing, it means I am getting into the story), I was feeling detached and unfeeling. Possibly because I already knew there was going to be violence that was graphic and was already prepared, or I just wasn’t as attached to the characters in this anime as I was Higurashi. I think it’s partly that in this one the characters aren’t just ordinary people (as a first impression) and instead are mostly rich, powerful people, who I have a harder time identifying with, and who I don’t have much sympathy for. They did go in to the troubles of the characters well enough that you would think I would be able to see that they have at least as many tragic circumstances as any other person, but I didn’t really care about them anyway.

Though I did like Ange, she is pretty cool. I liked most of the parts of the anime with her in them, especially right at the end with Battler.

At any rate, the anime itself is awesome, and I would recommend watching it, especially if you like anime that is dark and has lots of mystery to it. This one is a bit different in format than Higurashi, but I think it’s a good thing, at least for someone who hasn’t played the games, because they do a better job transitioning between the different arcs. I have no idea at all about whether they have stuck to the story from the games, but I suppose it must be fairly close since they are so specific about which games they are based on.

I am going to make a few more posts today about some other anime I have been watching lately, I thought it would be better since there are a few and I didn’t want to make one huge post!

Last night I watched episodes 16 and 17 of Railgun, and then the first episode of Vampire Bund after that! It was a good time for sure.

Episode 16 of Railgun is the continuation of the Big Spider arc and it was really fun to watch because of Mii, the girl who was one in Big Spider and now works with the gang at Judgement. I love when you get to know a new character and see their ability, it’s fun.

Also, Misaka cracked me up during the raid on the hideout because she went so overboard disabling their van that played that noise which keeps people from using their esper abilities. She blew away a whole wall of the building! Totally overboard, lol. Plus she had a one liner or something that went with it. I don’t remember it now but I remember thinking the whole thing was ridiculous. Because I don’t really take this show all that seriously, I tend to find enjoyment in absurd stuff like that, and also in all the inside joke stuff that they do, especially in the preview for the next episode.

Index finally makes a cameo appearance in episode 17, which is the episode that follows the Anti-Skill officer and sensei, Tessou. She is really cool as a character, I love when she is playing that old school video game, her expressions are so funny! A few other people from Index also made cameo appearances in this episode, so it was also pretty fun to see them. The hamburger part was awesome. And seriously, those burgers must be really good.

So far this half on Railgun has been pretty fun to watch, though of course that’s assuming that you don’t care whether the show is actually going somewhere. I had resigned myself to the fact that it wasn’t going to have anything meaningful long before starting to watch it (when watching Index) so I’m good.

Dance in the Vampire Bund started out interesting. I was like… what the heck am I watching? I felt like it was the Japanese version of the people’s court, lol. It definitely felt like a People’s Court knockoff. I wonder if they actually have a show like that in Japan? I also obviously noticed all the Twilight series references and such in there too, though I don’t know if there is actually a manga like the one they refer to in the tv show, but either way, the show turned out to be really really awesome! I am super excited to watch more. I might even watch it tonight!

My favorite part was probably when the princess or whatever (the little blonde girl) is talking to the audience of the tv show and she’s got those creepy glowy eyes like an animal would. She looked sooooo awesome! This show has really cool animation, an interesting story so far, plus the creators obviously like to do things in a non-traditional way. I have never seen an anime where the very first episode starts out as a different tv show and introduces the characters, setting and story that way. It was neat and also, even though I was a bit bewildered at first, easy to understand. It was cool to see something different, especially with all the vampire related stuff out there right now. I am psyched about this show!

Hopefully tonight I can also watch the other new one I picked, Ookami Kakushi!

I couldn’t help myself and had to put in a pic of Tessou-sensei making a cute face!

Ok, I am at a point now where I really want to get some new shows to watch, as there are a few that are finishing up soon. After doing some reading, I have selected the following:

Ookami kakushi – I saw this photo, and read the genres: Magic, Mystery. I was immediately attracted to the anime. I think it sounds like a neat show, and it definitely looks like a neat show. I intend to download it tonight, so this weekend I should have some good anime watching to do!

Dance in the Vampire Bund – I admit it, I love vampire anime. It’s probably one of my favorite genres. And this one looks really pretty as well, which makes it even more awesome! It also appears to have a complicated story and characters. These are just guesses based on what I read in the synopsis in the most recent sugoi webzine issue.

So, those are the two I have picked. I think I will just go with two for now because I don’t have enough time these days to watch much more than that.  So, as I said before, I got the info I used to pick these out from the sugoi webzine’s Issue 2. I wrote an article on Railgun in there, and there’s also one about Mushi-shi, another really awesome anime. I haven’t finished watching it yet but I watched about half of it on hulu. Anyways, I just wanted to put something in here about the webzine, because it’s really been a fun project so I hope people like it! ^^