Not dirt.
I can’t remember the last series that left me in tears as much as Toradora is doing right now. I think only the “she’s flying” scene in Azumanga Daioh can compare to the brilliance that was episode 5 of Toradora. It’s pure gold, I tell you!
Though I feel sorry for Ga-Rei Zero. Also a very good series (and much like one of my old favourites, Jinki:Extend in more than a few ways) but it just gets overshadowed this season. Such a shame.
Ok, after a short downtime, we’re back up and running on a new server. Much more bandwidth allowance on the new one.
In the meantime, another new show came to my attention. It’s called EVE no Jikan, or “The Time of EVE”. It revolves around androids in the future, which most people treat as tools, but some others are attracted to them. At first I thought this is just blatantly ripping off Chobits, and didn’t expect much at all. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Continue reading ‘Are you enjoying the time of EVE?’
I believe I may have been a little hasty and somewhat jumping the gun when, in my last post, I said most of the upcoming anime was ‘meh’. The first one to appear (albeit a little early for the fall season) is Bounen no Xamdou, or “Xam’d: Lost Memories” as it’s known in English. This one as I mentioned is being released on the Playstation Network as a rental download, but ironically it’s already hit the ‘net in full force and full quality.
Back to the topic at hand though: I was probably also not correct in comparing Xam’d to The Incredible Hulk. The best way to think of this series is to imagine Evangelion, Last Exile and FLCL getting together in a broom closet somewhere. Xam’d would be the resulting illegitimate child, and I can proudly say that the result is just incredibly freaking awesome.
Trust me when I say that if you enjoyed FLCL at all, then Bounen no Xandou is a must see. Even if you don’t like FLCL, give this a shot anyway, and if you still don’t like it I’ll try not to hate you too much. No promises though.
…Yet another season of “meh”. There’s not a lot worth watching this season if you don’t have a thing for being screwed over by Sunrise’s ridiculous Code Geass stunts, and there’s even less next season. Hit the jump to see what’s on anyway.
Ok, first thing’s first, there’s a new season coming up, and that means summer anime. Usually a good thing. Only nearly everything this upcoming season is guaranteed to suck. It’s either mystery/supernatural genres, or stonking great tits and a plot if you’re lucky. So I’ll be more focused on clearing my backlog of stuff.
That said, there are some gems this season. Continue reading ‘Upcoming Summer Stuff, and Lucky Star - wait, what?’
So I guess with the new season a few weeks in, I should post some thoughts on what I’ve seen so far. Let’s get the regular Studio DEEN abortion out of the way first.
Vampire Knight: I think I said this one would be a hit and a miss. Turns out whoever was shooting was blind, deaf and dumb, because it was a huge miss. The animation isn’t bad, and the hair is way too detailed (DEEN seem to have a habit of this, see Shion no Ou), but I think this says it best:
[it’s] aimed squarely at the creepy yaoi fangirl demographic
Now, with that out of the way, the stuff that doesn’t suck. And I’m pleased to report that if you steer clear of the obvious bad shows (To-LOVE-Ru and Kanokon, I’m looking at you!) there’s a lot of good coming out of this season.
Continue reading ‘Spring 08: The Good, The Bad and the DEEN’
So I’ve created my own variation on /b/’s rule 34. Mine goes something like this: if it exists, there’s a caramelldansen of it.
The final subbed episodes of Spice and Wolf and Shigofumi being released overnight reminded me that it’s about time for another anime-related post. And that is what’s coming up next season. And it’s a biggun!
Update: I’ve dug up a few of the PV’s on Youtube and added them to the post.
Continue reading ‘Spring ‘08 Anime’
Edit: I should clarify that the Bandai I refer to in this post is Bandai Visual USA Inc., whose American division basically produces subtitled-only R1 DVDs. There’s also Bandai Entertainment Inc., owned by the same group, but they usually do a full English dub as well, and occasionally license shows from studios other than Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. Talk about confusing.
Bandai were one of the few US anime licensees that I actually respected. Their DVDs have always been pretty good quality, so I wasn’t too dissapointed when I heard that Shigofumi had been licenced by Bandai. Then I read into it a little more. The first R1 disc comes out in May, subtitled only. I was thinking to myself, finally a US licensee has gotten the point.
Then I saw the price. 45 Australian dollars per disc with two episodes per disc, with the seventh disc at 33 Australian dollars for one episode. At this point something else went through my head. Something more along the lines of:
I don’t know who they expect will pay three fucking hundred Australian dollars for a twelve episode series. I love the series, sure, but I couldn’t justify that bullshit. And that’s only me. I know the reception for the show elsewhere has only been lukewarm.
And these fucking companies wonder why people continue to download the fansubs. Take a goddamn hint already, most of us aren’t made of money.
There’s some series I knew would suck this season. As I’ve already said, H2O was pretty much horrible in every aspect, and so I’ve dropped that already. Rosario + Vampire, well I reluctantly got through the first episode of that. I didn’t even get halfway through the second episode though before I decided I’d rather roll around on hot coals than watch that garbage any longer. It’s now joining H2O.
On to the stuff that doesn’t suck now. And I’m actually happy to say that two series in particular are well and truly making up for the shortcomings of H2O and Rosario.
Continue reading ‘Letters from the Dead’