Sunday January 30, 2005

After a long time of waiting I finished watching R.O.D the TV (aka Read or Die/Read or Dream TV). It's a sequel to the very memorable Read or Die OAV focusing this time on different main characters, although old ones do make a return. Overall, it was a good series, although with some notable deficits in plot. I have a full review here:

R.O.D the TV (2003) - 26 Episodes.

Poor Sayako chased by a dog!	Okay not so poor... that's her car!

In other news I saw episode 4 of Ah! My Goddess. This time around the cohersive force acts upon poor Sayoko. Okay well she's rich, beautiful and all the guys like her and she's somewhat of a manipulative bitch, but poor Sayoko none the less. If there's one show I can compare this with for animation, it would have to be Onegai Teacher.

I also managed to see the second episode of Jinki: Extend. Unlike the excellent first episode, I don't quite know what to think of this show after seeing the second. Certainly the characters are interesting, but I can't seem to get into the fights. Also I don't like the mecha design. I guess time will tell if I like this show or not. At least the production values remain quite high.

Kurau gets her Rynax powers	Apperently they ride Segways 100 years in the future

Finally, I've managed to get all of Kurau: Phantom Memory on sub. I'm actually going to rewatch the first 17 episodes so that I can get completely into this amazing show before sub delays forced me to wait two months to get the rest. I can't stop raving about how great show this is, I just hope it ends well! For those who don't know, this excellent show just recently ended in Japan. It was produced by BONES and is about a girl named Kurau 100 years in the future who one day becomes posessed by a Rynax during a science experiment gone wrong by her father's lab. Although she is now in control by the Rynax, it is a benevolent being and retains her traits and memories and bestows her with super powers. The show is about the world trying to capture her and her Rynax partner - who appears 10 years later from within herself and looks like the younger Kurau - and how the world wants to figure out their secrets. It is also about the love of her father who has to accept the apperently 'death' of her daughter who was replaced by the Rynax. I highly recommend this show so far as I've seen it for anyone who can get their hands on it.

Thursday January 27, 2005

I finished seeing Kiddy Grade for the second time the other day. This time I had DVD Rips which were absolutely spectacular. What a great show. Although I know all the plot twists, it's interesting to see again and realize how much stuff I've already forgotten. I wrote up a review about it:

Kiddy Grade (2002) - 24 Episodes.

Kyosuke (left) and Azuma (right) talk bread	mmm... crossiant

In other news, I started watching Yakitate!! Japan. You know how there's French Bread and Italian bread? Well this anime is about a teenager Azuma Kazuma who dreams of making a bread unique to Japan, called... 'Japan'. It's a play on words as 'pan' means bread in Japanese. This anime is as fun as watching bread rise... literally. Seriously though, it's a pretty funny comedy and makes me want to go out now and bake some bread. Well episode 3 was about croissants, so I want to go make those too! Nothing like an anime that keeps making you really hungry.

A glowing Belldandy in the middle of a busy restaurant

I also managed to see episode 3 of Ah! My Goddess TV. So someone finally managed to notice that Belldandy is wearing weird clothes. So guess what she does? She uses her magic to instantly change her clothes in a middle of a busy restaurant... and no one seems to really care! I guess they oogle for a bit, but that's about it.

Tuesday January 25, 2005

Great animation, hard to find a screenshot that does it justice	Here's Aoba standing on the robot's hand

I saw the first episode of yet another new anime last night called Jinki: Extend. It seems like an old school giant robot anime (at one point the guy actually calls out the name of his attack while doing it), mixed in with some schoolgirl action as well. The main character is Aoba, a schoolgirl voiced by Fumiko Orikasa. The animation so far is superb with very high framerates, although the robot designs are a bit too 'bright' for my tastes. It has the same 'bright' type of atmosphere as My-Hime. I wonder if the same quality will pervade throughout the series. The music so far is quite good, apperently they got an accomplished composer to do it Kenji Kawai. The ending is sung by Angela of Stellvia and FaFner fame. So far it seems quite interesting, I think I will follow this one for this season.

Gundam SEED: Destiny - fanservice at last!

In other news, episode 15 of Gundam SEED: Destiny finally came out. Here's a silly series of screenshots from the episode. Lucky Athrun, and of course Shinn trying to sneak a peak too! Unfortunately next week's episode is a recap so I will have to wait a while to see what happens. This episode solidifies Lunamaria as an Athrun 'fangirl' as she can't stop flirting with him. Lucky bastard, gets all the good looking girls in this show!

Monday January 24, 2005

I'm back from my weekend of fun, and back into watching some new anime yet again. In the last two days I've seen the recently released episode 2 for Starship Operators and episode 10 for Genshiken.

These spaceship hallways are awesome. Cooler than those in almost all space animes, even the particularily well designed Gundam SEED. Note the guiderails much like GS.	Here's the navigation room. More amazing design goodness.

First off is Starship Operators. This series started off badly, and thus I had some harsh critism of the first episode, but thankfully the second episode was much better. In episode one we were led to believe that a group of military academy students would easily come to a decision to wage a guerilla war/reality show based on very little discussion and even less enthusiasm. The reasons for this were more firmly explored in episode two though and many things were cleared up. As well I managed to clear up some basic facts from the animesuki forums. For those watching, AFI is apperently a massive conglomerate which produces spaceships and is independent of Kibi or the Kingdom. In fact both Kibi and the Kingdom are nothing-small-fry outer regions compared to Earth. While the Kingdom only has a handful of battleship spaceships (like the one the kids have bought of AFI), Earth has tons. I guess the analogy would be Lockheed-Martin selling a few F15s to some warring African countries. Either way this was a great episode, and it showed off more of the absolutely splendid design that his series has which I've shown on my screenshots.

Genshiken episode 10 has been long awaited, with episode 9 being released a long while ago on fansub. This one featured more on the hilarious love-struck character of Keiko, Kanji Sasahara's little sister and her huge crush on Kohsaka. The episode started with a bit of fan service (although not really, as it was more realistic than pure fan service) of the club going to the beach. This is followed by yet another journey to Comifes/Comiket/Comic Market, the second time they do it (I guess a year has passed since the beginning of the series). Actually it makes me want to visit Comifes now. The episode wasn't that special, but it was great to just see more Genshiken.

Finally here's February's Newtype USA. They never did send me my free DVDs as promised if I renewed my subscription. I've complained about 5 times now. Their customer service is useless!

Still in the original plastic wrapper!

Link of the day:
Comic Market cosplay!

Thursday January 20, 2005

I'll be away for the next three days so this will be the last update for the next three days!

I finished Soukyuu no FaFner last night. I'll have a review up after the weekend when I have time. All in all it was an alright series. Although it started off as an Evangelion clone, it really came into it's own in the final few episodes. Unfortunately it was plagued by inconstant writing or else it could have been a lot better.

An interesting note - Kurau: Phantom Memory has finally been completely subbed! That means I can finally finish this amazing series. I can't wait.

AnimeReactor is back online after a month hiatus. I guess they finally fixed the problems. Either way it's great news for all who know about it.

Finally, a link for the weekend:
Silly Gundam Seed: Destiny flash fighting game

Wednesday January 19, 2005

It's been a few days since I've updated this site, but in fact I haven't watched that much anime in the past few days. I spent quite a lot of time playing Half Life 2 which I have to admit is incredibly addictive and incredibly amazing. Still I've seen enough anime, so I'll attempt to update my viewings in the past few days.

I wonder what a glowing girl would look like in real life?	I can't get over how no one cares that Belldandy's dressed so funny and has wierd marks on her face. Is the Japanese cosplay world really THAT big?

The 2nd episode of Ah! My Goddess (TV) came out. Yet again we rehash five minutes of the original OAV in an entire episode. In this fuller explanation, Keiichi doesn't almost immediately wish for Belldandy to remain forever. In fact he even contemplates taking over the world with his one wish. Anyhow we're finally at the 10 minute mark of the first episode of the original OAV.

Episode 14 of Gundam SEED: Destiny also came out. The old crew is back and out again, and now everything is set. The highlights of this episode include Yuuna's pathetic squeal of a scream, and of course the return of Arnold Neumann... the Porkins of the Gundam SEED world juding from Arnold's near cult following.

Left to Right: Ayako Kawasumi as Rio and Shizuka Itou as Sinon	Shot of the bridge. Actually the insides look pretty detailed and nice for this series, although the outsides of mecha is nothing special

I also started a new series called Starship Operators, a new out put out by J.C. Staff. Basically it's about a group of space cadets who belong to a world that's just surrendered to the "Kingdom" a collection of planets bent on conquest. They decided to secretly fight their own gueurilla war using a top of the line battleship funded by the Galaxy Network, the galaxy's premier television network. So far the only good things going for this series is Ayako Kawasumi (although Shizuka Itou who plays Sinon has a good voice too), and that it has space battles. Everything else is a bit weird so far, and the story seems quite convoluted. Apperently there's a good backstory to all of this that I found out on anime forums, but you'd never know just from watching the episode. I'll have to see how this turns out.

Our hero Ryo and his harem (the blue haired girl is his... sister!)

Finally, my review of Final Approach. I finally finished this series and well, it was nothing special. In fact the last episode was more of a side-story OAV type episode than actually pertaining to the show. In reality the show ended at episode 12. Either way here's my full review:

Final Approach (2004) - 13 episodes
Final Approach is based on some hentai game (or maybe it was just a dating game) as many new shows are increasingly following this trend since To Heart and the hugely popular Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien. Unlike KGNE, Final Approach is a very typical high school love anime with some comedic elements. It's basically the story of a high school student Ryo who lives alone with his cute younger sister Akane. Suddenly one day, a crazy (but beautiful) girl name Shizuka bursts into his apartment claiming that he and her are to be married by order of a secret government program. Aided by a large battalion of men in black, Shizuka spends the series trying to win the love of Ryo. As beautiful and talented as Shizuka is, Ryo is strangely not attracted to her and actually wants her out of his life (sounds exactly like every other high school love anime). The rest of the anime deals with the other girls at school who also all love Ryo and deals with his relationship with Shizuka.

I was a bit dissapointed with this anime actually, because I really liked the first episode. From the first episode I thought this would be a wacky and hilarious comedy at least on par with Midori no Hibi, but it quickly fizzled. The story, like all high school harem animes was quite predicable and the ending was known from the onset. The episodes more or less went through the motions of any harem comedy, with high school hijinks,onsen (hot springs) and all. The episodes were only 12 minutes long though so it never got boring, but then you wonder why with so little overall screentime was there so little actual story. As for the funny parts, they were funny at times, but too forced at other times. The OP was pretty good though so it wasn't all bad. Still I can't think of any other word than mediocre to describe this completely forgetable series.

Animation: 5/10 - nothing special, pretty low quality compared to other new anime
Characters: 6/10 - some standard characters, although Shizuka was good, and I liked Akane (the sister) too. The character designs were decent
Sound: 5/10 - nothing special
Music: 6/10 - pretty good OP, but very generic ED and background music
Story: 4/10 - unoriginal and unpredictable
Overall Enjoyment: 6/10

Final Approach was a small distraction that I could look forward to while watching this as it came out. Otherwise it wasn't anything that I ever thought about after I finished each episode and will likely be completely forgotten aside from the fact that it is the first review I've made for this website.


**Explanation of ratings**

Friday January 14, 2005

Another few days another few more episodes of anime. I caught up on more FaFner with the next two episodes (21 and 22). The show is nearing the final battle at the end, but I can't help but feel that it is just lacking. There's something about this show that never seemed quite right. I don't know if it was the fact that it was trying to be a RahXephon clone (which in turn was an Eva clone), or not. I just know that what appears to be the final battle of the show doesn't seem that epic or important at all for some reason (mostly because of things said in previous episodes rather than the actual content of the battle). Still the show has really changed into a character-centered show. The battles aren't even shown anymore, as we pan directly from the battle beginning to the pilots talking to eachother afterwards.

I read somewhere that after episode 7 of FaFner, they actually changed the lead writer for the show. I always felt that the show felt different after episode 7 (no more poems at the end of each episodes, characters better presented, story more coherent) but never really gave it much thought. Still the 2nd writer hasn't made the show much better. I still wonder why I'm still watching this, but I guess I started it so I should finish it right?

In website news, I managed to archive all of the entires from December 2004. You can find them here.

Finally, today's link of the day:
Not really anime, but pretty funny. Probably photoshopped though.

Tuesday January 11, 2005

So it's finally the start of a new season in Japan, and with that many new shows. Of all the new shows this season, the two most hyped have to be Ah! My Goddess (TV) and Air (TV). In the last two days I managed to see both of the first episodes for them.

Hey look it's Keiichi	Belldandy new for 2005

Ah! My Goddess is a classic manga in Japan, which is apperently still running after a decade and a half. In that time, the manga was made into a 5-episode OAV in 1993 and then a movie was made in 2000. As I understand it, the new series will go over many of the things which were already seen in the original OAV, except this time it will be 26 episodes long. The character designs have changed somewhat from the OAV and movie, favoring more round heads from what I hear are the newest designs from the still-running manga (whose designs have changed over the years). The first episode was basically a long version of the first few minutes of the OAV with the episode ending with Keiichi meeting Belldandy. I was afraid that Kikuko Inoue would be a little too old to reprise her role as Belldandy but her voice is sounding as great as ever. The animation in this show is simple, but very clean and very smooth. The acting which reprises the cast from the movie and OAV is excellent. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season for sure.

It's young girl Misuzu	And her mom Haruko	And the guy that lives with them... Yukito

The other series I saw was Air (TV). Apperently this was based on some dating game from the company that made Kanon, voted the best game in japan in 2000 and 2001. The episode starts out with Yukito being introduced as a homeless, pennyless traveller who has only one trick, a doll that seems to move on it's own. Showing that doll in street theatre is how he makes his living. One day he meets a strange girl named Misuzu, who suddenly wants to be his friend and invites him to her house. There he meets her mom Haruko, and is eventually invited to live with the two. As Yukito explores the town he's in, he meets many more girls, all pretty weird. So far I don't know what to make of this anime. The animation is top notch, as every scene is animation in full motion, and is beautifully drawn. The plot meanwhile, isn't screaming at me just yet. I think I'll wait until this is all out before I'll actually start watching this one.

In Gundam news, episode 13 of Gundam SEED: Destiny finally came out after a two week interval from episode 12. The story is progressing nicely, and I think I'm starting to become a hopefully Gundam SEED fanboy as I find myself more often than not reading the SEED forums on AnimeSuki.

Finally, today's link of the day:
Topic title - "Is Downloading Anime still worth it?". Read this guy's reply, I thought it was funny.

Thursday January 6, 2005

I'll be away for the next three days so this will be the last update for the next three days!

I saw another episode of Samurai Champloo. One episode featured a samurai-guy rapper in ancient Japan, and another featured a bunch of wacked out samurai on too many drugs. I still have no idea what to make of this series, but one thing's for sure, it's entertaining!

I also managed to see episode 11 of Final Approach. This is a series based on a harem ero-game (aka hentai game), and started off super silly and really funny but has turned somewhat flat as the series has progressed. With the series nearing an end, we reach the long awaited confession and crying of the main characters which we've been expecting from day one. Here's some pictures:

Yes Virginia, it's yet another sunset over the classroom as seen in an anime	Shizuka crying her heart out!

In other non-anime-related news, I saw the season opener for Alias last night. Jennifer Garner... what more do I need to say? I can't wait for more.

Finally, some links for the weekend:
Sounds like a fun new anime
Happy birthday Kira and Cagalli! (original flash animation about Gundam SEED characters)

Wednesday January 5, 2005

I haven't had too much time to watch anime or update in a few days thanks to school starting again but I shall start anew.

I recently saw the next episode of Genshiken, episode 9 which was just released on fansub recently. What an amazing series. I can't get over how great this series is. Episode 9 only featured two of the main characters, and really the entire episode was based on the inner thoughts of one of the characters. I don't think I can recall seeing an episode of anime like this before since the psycho-ending for Evangelion (although that was hardly just one person), and it was quite amazing. The comedy was as always in this series, very subtle but powerful. I found myself laughing all the way, as the pacing and timing were just perfect.

I also managed to see the next two episodes of Samurai Champloo, numbers 6 and 7. The series is shaping up to be quite good and I'm looking forward to the rest of it. Episode 6 featured a Dutch person in Japan speaking with a bad American-trying-to-speak-Japanese accent with English words included. That made things somewhat weird, although I guess in Japan everyone who's white is given the same accent, just as over here, everyone who's Asian is given the same accent. The end of episode 6 suggested some sort of small story arc sequel part 2 for episode 7, but nothing of the sort was see in episode 7. Samurai Champloo continues being very episodic and I wonder when the real story will actually develop.

I also saw the first episode of Bleach. I've heard a lot of talk about this series, and I decided to check it out. It's not bad at all, and seems quite promising, but I'm watching way too much right now so I think I'll wait until this is finished before I will start it for real.

Finally, today's links of the day:
It's Haro!
Awesome Asuka (from Evangelion) figurine

Saturday January 1, 2005

Happy new year!

It's 2005, and a brand new year has set upon us. What will 2005 bring for us in anime? What will be the new series to watch in 2005? Only time will tell.

The other night I saw the Kenshin OVA Reminiscence. It's ranked #1 on animenfo.com, anidb.net and animenewsnetwork.com. Basically you can say it's rated to be the best anime of all time. But was it really that good? I've been asking myself that question for a while now and I'm happy I finally got to see the OVA. I've never seen the Kenshin series or read the manga before, but was told that I wouldn't need any previous Kenshin knowledge as this was a prequel. I would only be missing the 'extra' bits that one gets, but nothing more.

I went into this OVA expecting the greatest anime of all time, and amazingly I was not dissapointed. Although it isn't my personal favorite of all time, it's certainly one that has left a lasting impression on me. I waited a few days to talk about this for the specific reason of seeing if I would still be thinking about it a few days later, and amazingly I still am. Technically the anime was extremely impressive with excellent animation, perfectly suited music, great characters, and top notch voice acting as well. As far as the story goes, it's an incredibly deep and rich romanace story, littered with a very dark overtone with very deep characters. This is definately a series I'd recommend to anyone, and in fact this OVA has made me really want to watch Kenshin itself. Now if only I can find the free time to watch it all.

In other news, I read on animenewsnetwork that there's officially going to be a fourth installment in the Seikai (Seikai no Monshou/Senki) series! This is great news for one of my absolutely favorite animes of all time.

Finally, here's a fun link that I found today for your enjoyment:
Burning Gundam