*cough* major new series binge! *cough*
Series: Darker than Black (1&2), Bokurano (1), Seirei no moribito (1), Romeo & Juliet (1), Lovely Complex (1), Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan (1), El Cazador (1&2), Sisters of Wellber (1), Lucky Star (1), and Genshiken OAV 2.
With the new season coming out and my most recent exam out of the way, I went on a major anime binge in the past few days...
THE GOOD
Darker than Black
Plot: Tokyo is surrounded by a wall for unknown reasons and some people have developed superpowers but lost their conscience. Worse, some others have no soul. The government is keeping the truth about these weird developments from the people--that is, assuming they know the truth in the first place.
Positives: Relatively realistic world setting with a disturbing/mysterious twist, cool characters/character design, occasional comedic moments that don't go over the top, decent talking:action ratio, and a plot that moves at a reasonable pace and keeps you guessing. Most of all, BONES. The studio behind Wolf's Rain, Host Club, Rah Xephon. Ahh... I missed their pretty, pretty animation.
Negatives: (slightly spoilery)--Initially, I had some doubts about the decency of the main character (he keeps claiming he's immoral, anyway), but by the end of the first two episodes, he seems to be, essentially, a good guy. On some levels, this is to be expected, but I wish that they could have held out a little longer, made him a bit more morally ambiguous. I think the series would have benefitted from keeping up the uncertainty.
Bokurano
Plot: 15 kids go by the sea side. 15 kids go into a cave and meet sketchy older dude. 14 kids agree to play dude's game, 14 kids unwittingly become pilots (each in his/her turn) of giant robot and must engage alien robots in potentially deadly battle. Cruel game.
Positives: Despite the mecha thematic material, there seems to be a simple, clean, (dare I say) sentimental aura to this anime, which seems to indicate complexity and potential for realism. Although the 15 kids are a little difficult to keep straight, the first episode does a very good job of highlighting some of the kids' different personalities. I'm very much looking forward to getting to know them as the episodes progress. The premise of the storyline, though highly artificial, is a rather interesting one (Ender's Game, anybody?), and I have faith that it will be handled maturely by the series.
Negatives: The mecha scenes were SLOW! and repetitive!
Seirei no Moribito
Plot: 29 yr old female bodyguard gets herself a job protecting the child prince of a prosperous country (resembling ancient China) from his own father. Prince may have superpowers and the father thinks he's cursed as a result. Heroine's darker backstory is hinted at with the notion that she had to kill 8 friends in the past, and therefore must save 8 people to redeem herself.
Positives: pretty, pretty series with very nice animation. Though the plot of this series seems a bit less thought-provoking than the first two, the scene choices are well considered and seem to indicate high potential. Yes, I am curious about the main character's past; no, I'm not happy that they made the angstiness so obvious in the first episode. I look forward to the evolving relationship between bodyguard and prince, who, hopefully, will not be too whiny. I also hope that a, uh, complex doesn't come out of the relationship. That would just be disturbing.
Negatives: concerns about depth...
Genshiken
Continues to be good--I've written quite a bit about this show... just go watch it.
THE MAYBE
Romeo and Juliet
Plot: seriously? Though they did change the settings a bit. Old Montague staged a coup, killing Old Capulet when Juliet was young. Now Juliet is in hiding (with a foppish playwright named William, no less), disguised as a boy. Oh, the whole story also takes place on a floating island a la Laputa.
The gist: Beautiful GONZO production that can turn out very well, or very disappointly (as Gankutsuou ultimately did, which was also produced by GONZO, btw). When it comes to classics, it's hard to draw the line between originality and gimmickery. Will keep watching for the time being.
Lovely Complex
Plot: Tall girl, short boy. They are extraodinarily similar in many ways, but are they going to end up together? Do you have to ask? At this point, though, they're on a bet to see who will find a significant other first.
The gist: Um, nothing special. This show is your typical schoolhouse romance. The interactions are cute though, and the height difference is such a superficial complex but sometimes, it's so true. May turn out to be a cute slice-of-life, may turn out to be bland and annoying. We shall see.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan
Plot: People live underground. Young boy drills around to expand village and runs into weird giant head robot. A vicious head mecha falls through the "roof" and starts attacking village. Teaming up with an older, rebellious teen and barely-dressed girl from the next village, boy marshalls robot to battle head mecha and breaks though to barren surface of earth, where there are more head robots.
The gist: In some ways, this show totally belongs to the WTF category (I mean, just the plot!!! WTF?). I don't feel strongly for it--in fact, I find the main male characters pretty annoying. However, the show doesn't take itself seriously at all, and it's a Gainax production. For now, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
THE WTF?
El Cazador
Plot: Dead physics professor. Innocent girl with a bounty on her head, who may be a special governmental project with superpowers and who claims she killed the professor. Pretty bounty hunter who ends up bodyguarding girl to some mysterious destination though a land that resembles Tex/Mex. LOTS of other people from mysterious groups trying to get girl.
The gist: El Cazador would have ended up in THE MAYBE category if it didn't have the odd bits of annoying and disturbing fanservice. I might still watch it for a few more episodes since it is a pretty show and there are some interesting side characters. However, the general lack of depth, the gratuitous use of teary eyes, and the utterly unnecessary orgasm mimicked by the preteen girl as she tried to use her superpowers push the show towards unwatchable. Also, can I just say, the ending credits with the masked guy doing various things with the two main female characters--totally freakish.
Sisters of Wellber
Plot: Princess girl stabs nasty prince from neighboring country who comes to marry her and tries to sleep with her. Thief girl ends up saving Princess girl from palace and is now responsible for accompanying her to a different country. The hope is that by some miraculous interventiion, they can avoid an all out war with the dead prince's country. Does Thief girl have a traumatic past? You bet. Is their pursuer a hot, but unscrupulous knight? Oh yeah. By the way, both girls can kick ass.
The gist: Okay, so there is an annoying little faery. Okay, so the plot seems contrived and the "emotional depth," if any, seems artificial. Still, everything was going well enough until the show broke out the talking armoured tank. WTF?!!!! WTF??!!!!!! Are we in disneyland here?!
Lucky Star
Plot: Girls in high school who look like they're 5, talking about how to eat chocolate cones, eroge, and being sick.
The Gist: The MOE! IT HURTS! Um, so this show's done by Kyoto Animation, who evidently does a very good job (the OP dance scene was amazing) animating their shows but could do a better job picking good shows. I mean, Haruhi was pretty enjoyable, but this show is just... WOW. Tongue-in-cheek humor can only do so much for a show, and I don't care if the characters ARE in high school. They look like they're five and... um... maybe I just have a dirty mind, but some of the things hinted at are so inappropriate for a five year old.
Despite the run down, it's likely that I'll watch another episode or two of all of the series before deciding to drop any for sure. It's just that the ones in the WTF list has a very small chance of really staying...
With the new season coming out and my most recent exam out of the way, I went on a major anime binge in the past few days...
THE GOOD
Darker than Black
Plot: Tokyo is surrounded by a wall for unknown reasons and some people have developed superpowers but lost their conscience. Worse, some others have no soul. The government is keeping the truth about these weird developments from the people--that is, assuming they know the truth in the first place.
Positives: Relatively realistic world setting with a disturbing/mysterious twist, cool characters/character design, occasional comedic moments that don't go over the top, decent talking:action ratio, and a plot that moves at a reasonable pace and keeps you guessing. Most of all, BONES. The studio behind Wolf's Rain, Host Club, Rah Xephon. Ahh... I missed their pretty, pretty animation.
Negatives: (slightly spoilery)--Initially, I had some doubts about the decency of the main character (he keeps claiming he's immoral, anyway), but by the end of the first two episodes, he seems to be, essentially, a good guy. On some levels, this is to be expected, but I wish that they could have held out a little longer, made him a bit more morally ambiguous. I think the series would have benefitted from keeping up the uncertainty.
Bokurano
Plot: 15 kids go by the sea side. 15 kids go into a cave and meet sketchy older dude. 14 kids agree to play dude's game, 14 kids unwittingly become pilots (each in his/her turn) of giant robot and must engage alien robots in potentially deadly battle. Cruel game.
Positives: Despite the mecha thematic material, there seems to be a simple, clean, (dare I say) sentimental aura to this anime, which seems to indicate complexity and potential for realism. Although the 15 kids are a little difficult to keep straight, the first episode does a very good job of highlighting some of the kids' different personalities. I'm very much looking forward to getting to know them as the episodes progress. The premise of the storyline, though highly artificial, is a rather interesting one (Ender's Game, anybody?), and I have faith that it will be handled maturely by the series.
Negatives: The mecha scenes were SLOW! and repetitive!
Seirei no Moribito
Plot: 29 yr old female bodyguard gets herself a job protecting the child prince of a prosperous country (resembling ancient China) from his own father. Prince may have superpowers and the father thinks he's cursed as a result. Heroine's darker backstory is hinted at with the notion that she had to kill 8 friends in the past, and therefore must save 8 people to redeem herself.
Positives: pretty, pretty series with very nice animation. Though the plot of this series seems a bit less thought-provoking than the first two, the scene choices are well considered and seem to indicate high potential. Yes, I am curious about the main character's past; no, I'm not happy that they made the angstiness so obvious in the first episode. I look forward to the evolving relationship between bodyguard and prince, who, hopefully, will not be too whiny. I also hope that a, uh, complex doesn't come out of the relationship. That would just be disturbing.
Negatives: concerns about depth...
Genshiken
Continues to be good--I've written quite a bit about this show... just go watch it.
THE MAYBE
Romeo and Juliet
Plot: seriously? Though they did change the settings a bit. Old Montague staged a coup, killing Old Capulet when Juliet was young. Now Juliet is in hiding (with a foppish playwright named William, no less), disguised as a boy. Oh, the whole story also takes place on a floating island a la Laputa.
The gist: Beautiful GONZO production that can turn out very well, or very disappointly (as Gankutsuou ultimately did, which was also produced by GONZO, btw). When it comes to classics, it's hard to draw the line between originality and gimmickery. Will keep watching for the time being.
Lovely Complex
Plot: Tall girl, short boy. They are extraodinarily similar in many ways, but are they going to end up together? Do you have to ask? At this point, though, they're on a bet to see who will find a significant other first.
The gist: Um, nothing special. This show is your typical schoolhouse romance. The interactions are cute though, and the height difference is such a superficial complex but sometimes, it's so true. May turn out to be a cute slice-of-life, may turn out to be bland and annoying. We shall see.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan
Plot: People live underground. Young boy drills around to expand village and runs into weird giant head robot. A vicious head mecha falls through the "roof" and starts attacking village. Teaming up with an older, rebellious teen and barely-dressed girl from the next village, boy marshalls robot to battle head mecha and breaks though to barren surface of earth, where there are more head robots.
The gist: In some ways, this show totally belongs to the WTF category (I mean, just the plot!!! WTF?). I don't feel strongly for it--in fact, I find the main male characters pretty annoying. However, the show doesn't take itself seriously at all, and it's a Gainax production. For now, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
THE WTF?
El Cazador
Plot: Dead physics professor. Innocent girl with a bounty on her head, who may be a special governmental project with superpowers and who claims she killed the professor. Pretty bounty hunter who ends up bodyguarding girl to some mysterious destination though a land that resembles Tex/Mex. LOTS of other people from mysterious groups trying to get girl.
The gist: El Cazador would have ended up in THE MAYBE category if it didn't have the odd bits of annoying and disturbing fanservice. I might still watch it for a few more episodes since it is a pretty show and there are some interesting side characters. However, the general lack of depth, the gratuitous use of teary eyes, and the utterly unnecessary orgasm mimicked by the preteen girl as she tried to use her superpowers push the show towards unwatchable. Also, can I just say, the ending credits with the masked guy doing various things with the two main female characters--totally freakish.
Sisters of Wellber
Plot: Princess girl stabs nasty prince from neighboring country who comes to marry her and tries to sleep with her. Thief girl ends up saving Princess girl from palace and is now responsible for accompanying her to a different country. The hope is that by some miraculous interventiion, they can avoid an all out war with the dead prince's country. Does Thief girl have a traumatic past? You bet. Is their pursuer a hot, but unscrupulous knight? Oh yeah. By the way, both girls can kick ass.
The gist: Okay, so there is an annoying little faery. Okay, so the plot seems contrived and the "emotional depth," if any, seems artificial. Still, everything was going well enough until the show broke out the talking armoured tank. WTF?!!!! WTF??!!!!!! Are we in disneyland here?!
Lucky Star
Plot: Girls in high school who look like they're 5, talking about how to eat chocolate cones, eroge, and being sick.
The Gist: The MOE! IT HURTS! Um, so this show's done by Kyoto Animation, who evidently does a very good job (the OP dance scene was amazing) animating their shows but could do a better job picking good shows. I mean, Haruhi was pretty enjoyable, but this show is just... WOW. Tongue-in-cheek humor can only do so much for a show, and I don't care if the characters ARE in high school. They look like they're five and... um... maybe I just have a dirty mind, but some of the things hinted at are so inappropriate for a five year old.
Despite the run down, it's likely that I'll watch another episode or two of all of the series before deciding to drop any for sure. It's just that the ones in the WTF list has a very small chance of really staying...