bingerama

If not for StatPress, I’d have assumed that my readership amounted to a grand total of 3 people. As it turns out, I actually get a fairly significant amount of traffic on this site! No doubt many people get directed here by Google, find out that there is nothing here but insubstantial ramblings (and some very nice screenshots!), and leave never to return. Anyway, I figure I should post something new every once in a while so that people keep coming and Google doesn’t drop me.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=4591

A bunch of people travel across dimensions to different worlds in search of feathers. Kind of like Sliders, except with feathers. They get teleported around by a cutesy ball of white fur who makes funny cutesy noises whenever it does its interdimensional-portal-creating thing. Sounds stupid? It kind of is. When I first started watching this on my PSP in the gym, I was somewhat embarrassed.

I stuck to it because Fat Cat assured me that the OVA is much much better than the series itself. Thankfully, 52 episodes and 1 bad movie later, I find out that it really does all pay off. The OVA is done by a different studio, with different director/writer/producer etc. The story gets 20 times more intense, everything is suddenly all serious and there is blood all over the place. Fat Cat warned me that it was more violent than the series, but even that didn’t quite prepare me.  (Doesn’t that sound ominous?? Don’t you feel the need to go watch this RIGHT NOW??)

Not that the series was all that terrible. There were a couple of arcs that I really enjoyed. The whole Sakura and Syaoran affair is rather cute. But it was just kinda mediocre overall, with lots of promise that didn’t quite fulfill itself. Until the OVA!

This is where I’ll interrupt myself with an aside and mention that all the screenshots above are from the OVA, because (1) it was better (2) it looked better (3) I was too damn lazy to go over 52 episodes and try to remember where all the good screenshot moments were. I hope I didn’t give anything away up there! Let’s take a moment and admire the intense looks of concentration/anger/other strong emotions that I have captured above.

The OVA is only 3 episodes and the story did feel kind of rushed. It was a bit of information overload, and I think they skipped some fairly important bits (where is Fai’s back story? Am I going to have to read the manga for this??) But I really like the turn the story took, and the way the dynamics within the group had changed by the end of the arc. My favourite part of course, is the relationship between Kurogane and Fai. It’s kinda cliched I’ll admit – the taciturn warrior guy who’s more perceptive than he lets on and the happy-go-lucky fellow with a dark past – but there is something about it that is so endearing.

So I was reading up about the OVA on Wikipedia, which led me to discover X. I’m about halfway through the series now and it’s pretty interesting. I didn’t notice it until I went back for the screenshots, but it turns out that all the characters in the Tsubasa OVA are actually from X! Even the ones that didn’t have any speaking lines and just stood around looking cool! Now isn’t that fascinating!

…

Gawd I’m such a geek. ._.

Anyway, the good news is you don’t have to watch all 52 episodes of the series to get to the OVA. The last 10 episodes are filler material, and the OVA picks right up from the end of episode 42. Only 42 episodes of mediocrity to get to an awesome story! Totally worth it.

This entries has had way too many exclamation marks.

I’ve been semi-following some of this season’s anime, so I figured I’d do one big update with general impressions of what I’ve seen so far. So for the effort of one click you get 4 posts and – yes, you guessed it! – 4 sets of screenshots!

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10216

We begin with the long awaited sequel to/retelling of the original FMA series. What a bloody disappointment. First of all, the animation somehow looks crappier than it used to. Rose looks even more vacuous than she did before. I thought that kinda stuff was supposed to get better with time!  Second, Ookawa Tohu was the definitive Roy Mustang. I love Miki Shinichiro, but he just doesn’t cut it here! How could they do this to my first anime crush. At least they managed to preserve the other voices that matter and I doubt I’ll notice any of the other changes.

Story wise I’m not sure what they’re trying to do. They rushed through the Lior arc and got from failed human transmutation to Ed becoming state alchemist in a single episode. If it’s because they’ve done it before and don’t want to waste time rehashing it, I don’t see why they included those parts at all, especially when they did such a poor job at reproducing them. Certain scenes that left a deep impression in the original (like the part where Ed recites the ingredients for human transmutation to Rose) were redone in a completely flippant manner that didn’t do them justice.

Sorry for the verbal barrage, but this was my first real anime series and still one of my favourites. Pooey! Will continue watching in hopes of improvement.

Hanasakeru Seishounen

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10510

This must be the lamest premise ever invented to create an excuse for a reverse harem. I still don’t know what the point to this ‘game’ is supposed to be (there probably isn’t one). The main character is kind of annoying. She’s obsessed with a white leopard. Seriously dude. Growing up on a deserted tropical island doesn’t give you the right to be absolutely ridiculous. Also, the guys are just not good looking enough. If they’re not going to be good looking enough I’d rather you just have one very very good looking guy (in the spirit of quality >>> quantity).

To be quite honest the real reason I’m watching this is because Namikawa Daisuke plays one of the characters. I think this guy is crazy good because he voices both Eigetsu and Yougetsu in Saiunkoku Monogatari, and if you listen to the two characters back to back it’s inconceivable that they’re the same person. He also does Ulquiorra (had to look up how to spell that, jeez) from Bleach, Michael Trinity from Gundam 00 and Rock from Black Lagoon, all of which sound pretty damn different to me.

Anyway it’s getting late so I must be moving on to the next one. Will update if plotline progresses beyond 0.

07-Ghost

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10468

Another pretty meh anime. I’m not digging the religious theme and the nuns. I hope they go somewhere with that. By episode 4 the storyline has yet to get its act together. It could potentially get interesting and the fight scenes could turn out pretty nice, so I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. What is with the mermaid? Quite baffling indeed.

Again, I’m only watching this because Namikawa Daisuke is in it. Just like how I’m going to watch Terminator Salvation only because of Christian Bale. In any case, I think this is an appropriate time to insert a random screenshot of Fye from Tsubasa Chronicle (also played by Namikawa Daisuke, in case you couldn’t see the connection), because he is one of my favourite characters and because I am making plans to watch the OVAs in the near future.

Higashi no Eden

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10474

And now we conclude this momentous blog posting with what I think is the best anime of the season, in fact possibly one of the best anime of any season. I’ll reserve judgement until it actually ends, which is unfortunately soon at 11 episodes (with a theatrical release following). On the bright side, I don’t think this originates from any manga, which means it’s not going to have a lame anime ending just because it caught up (although it could very well have a lame ending just because).

The story is super intriguing so far. Takizawa is a great main character – you don’t know wtf he’s up to, he’s adorable and he shows up naked waving a gun in front of the White House in episode 1. Just brilliant. Saki looked like she might be annoying at first but she became increasingly endearing (except I don’t like how she has pink cheeks sometimes). From the trailers I didn’t think I’d like the animation, but I’m totally in love with it now (see the great sunset on boat scene as screenshotted above).

I find it really weird how they had real Americans (or maybe not) speaking American English for the American characters. It sounded completely unnatural, but I’m probably just not used to hearing it in anime (death to dubs!) Aside from that I have zero complaints. A must-see!

This makes it two nights in a row that I’ve stayed up past 1 for this blog. I hope you’re moved to tears by my dedication.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=5943

The good thing about this anime is it’s so easy to take screenshots, cos there’re a lot of thoughtful looks and flying around fighting with no dialogue. As you can see I am pretty obsessed with this screenshot thing. Every time I’m done with a set it’s so exhausting that I don’t think I could do it again.

Anyway, I’ve been watching this series over the last year or so. Still not sure what to do about the movie and the specials,  but I’m not feeling particularly motivated to watch them since I didn’t particularly like the series. Season 1 started out with an interesting premise but whittled out into too much slice of life mediocrity. Season 2 showed vast improvements in the form of: (a) more exciting things happen (although as expected, none of the mysteries get resolved by the end of the series) (b) Yuji becomes slightly less useless (c) Shana’s ‘urusai urusai urusai!!!’ thing only occurs twice in the whole 24 episodes.

And what is up with Margery Daw’s bearform? If I were a hot blonde chick I would not turn into a bear when I fight. So uncool.

The bad guys are uninteresting but somehow just never die. The plot is not very coherent and kinda pointless – it showed signs of improving then plummeted again when nothing ended up getting connected or explained. The show’s saving grace is the somewhat cute love triangle (although Yoshida Kazumi really gets on my nerves, and all the ‘watashi mo makenai! we will both be very fair and fight for his love and be best friends!’ bullshit. Sorry girls, things don’t work like that IRL.)

What I’m really upset about is that I finished Skip Beat! last night and I don’t see any imminent signs of season 2. I’m inconsolable. Tsuruga-san! Kaettekure!

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=883

Took these screenshots months ago and finally decided to put them to some use. I don’t even remember when I actually finished the series, so this is clearly going to be a shitty review. But it’s ok, cos the screenshots still look awesome as usual. I’m also pretty far into Gundam Seed Destiny (to be accurate, I’ve been on episode 42 or so for at least 5 months now), so my opinion on the whole is very much influenced by the sequel.

This was my first foray into the land of Gundam and had the life changing effect of converting me into a huge mecha fan. I don’t know what I was thinking before! Now I can see why it is every little boy’s dream to be a mecha pilot.

Two things I found really disturbing about this anime: 1) the way Kira screams when he’s having one of his anguished moments – I pretty much hated Soichiro Hoshi before I watched this, and the screaming really didn’t help. Thankfully Kira becomes 2,000 times cooler when he stops crying and I promptly became a fan thereafter 2) the fact that Kira actually slept with someone in the show??!!? WTF dude aren’t they 15 or something? It’s just wrong. What are they teaching all those youngsters who’re hoping to grow up to be mecha pilots??

Things I really liked: 1) the way Kira falls out of the sky and kicks everyone’s ass (not sure but I think he does this on multiple occasions)  2) Koyasu Takehito as super charming big brother type character 3) Marrue Ramius, because it’s practically like they transplanted Katsuragi wholesale from NGE 4) nice shiny robots.

I really liked the story too (minus all the drama emo parts). I think they did a pretty good job with the whole conflict such that you could convincingly sympathise with both sides. It was rehashed a little too many times, but it did manage to be somewhat thought provoking wrt the whole why do people fight issue (tbqh it has long been a personal belief of mine that if more people in the world read more books and watched more anime there’d be less people blowing themselves up etc.) Oh and the whole childhood friends turned enemies thing was much more plausible than a certain other anime I reviewed 8 months ago.

In conclusion, not as good as 00, but still fun to watch (especially the shiny robots!) Plus the OST is quite catchy (although I’m not happy with how they use stills for the OP and ED, cheaters).

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6704

This site has been dormant for so long that even I almost thought it was done for. Luckily for all of us I have been drawn back by my love for colourful screenshots and babbling. You will be pleased to know that although it has been a constant struggle the last four months to get enough sleep, I have found time during my precious non-working weekends and dinner breaks to keep up with some anime.

I finished this series a while ago, which is why my reaction to it is muted by now. I still wanted to write about it because it was a pretty decent anime. For one, it was really exciting right up to the very last scene. Knowing that there’s a sequel kinda kills it by establishing certain expectations (and I probably just killed it for anyone who didn’t know there was a sequel lawl), but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

I was really impressed by the mecha fight scenes. Not that I’ve had a lot of exposure (swords + magic >>> robots!), but these were the first mecha fights that I thought actually looked good and unclunky. Since then I’ve seen a bunch of Eureka 7 and Gundam Seed fights, so I’m not so impressionable now, but credit’s still due, especially since this isn’t primarily a mecha type anime.

I thought the little plot twist was executed fairly well and elicited all the right emotions, but (pardon the crypticism but I’m too lazy to create a spoiler section) you gotta admit it was so convenient it ended up just being kinda cheesy. It was so stupid that I fumed over it for a long time. Granted, that’s probably the intended effect, but it’s still cheap. The one part I really liked was the bit about Shirley. I went back to that one scene last night just to take a screenshot, and I almost cried all over again! (By now you may have surmised that, as I told TJ the other day, there’s more anime I’ve cried at than there is that I haven’t =p)

One problem I have with this series is that the characters aren’t particularly likable. The whole Lelouch-Suzaku relationship is too much like Death Note, except with too many lofty principles involved and a lot less cleverness. Lelouch is too smug and Suzaku is just plain annoying after a while. It is hard to sympathise with a friendship in jeopardy when you care little for the parties involved. And the Zero costume is just retarded. He looks like a ten year old trying to play dress up, kinda like when Peter Parker shows up for his first wrestling match in the Spiderman movie. I don’t know how you’re supposed to take it seriously.

To end on a positive note, the first OP by Flow is great!

The torrent of work is not going to abate for a while, but hopefully it won’t be another four month hiatus before my next entry. Now that I’ve adopted the practice of keeping an eye out for good screenshot opportunities while I’m watching a series, it’ll probably cut my blogging time by 80%! Can’t remember if I’ve ever mentioned this, but taking these screenshots takes a seriously ludicrous amount of time. You have to find the right scenes with purposeful expressions on representative characters, AND WITH NO SUBS. You cannot imagine. If there’s a way to get rid of the subs (short of downloading the raws) please please please let me know.

Got around to finishing this last night. After the semi-boring evil corporation arc, it all went by pretty fast. I don’t think it ever got back to being as good as it was in the first 17/18 episodes, but the ending was pretty satisfactory, even if I wasn’t completely happy with it.

The bads – I think they may have overdone things a teensy bit, in terms of Light’s psychopathic tendencies, L’s weirdness, and the stunning accuracy with which they (almost) always predicted the enemy’s next move. Some parts were a little bit too convenient; I gave up trying to follow the whole notebook swapping who could see what business after a while. And some things about the ending didn’t sit quite right with me, even though I think there was very little else they could have done, except maybe end the story 10 episodes early similar to what the movie did. And I haaaaaaate the 2nd OP. Gawd. I hate swearing for the sake of swearing. I hate lyrics that don’t make sense. I hate death metal. Can’t say it didn’t go with the anime in general, but urghhhh.

Now that’s out of the way, there were a lot a lot of things I liked. For one, despite the nitpicking observed above, I thought the main characters were excellently done. The interaction between them was probably my favourite part of the series. The tension created by the story telling was arguably the best I’ve seen so far. I was actually pretty nervous at some points, thanks to the way the action sequences were put together. Unlike many other shows that attempt to have complex plotlines, it managed to tie things up coherently without losing its way. It succeeded in using a supernatural concept as a platform for intense drama and psychological warfare without over-relying on it as a crutch to escape explaining the finer points of the plot.

Most importantly, I like that the story was so intelligent without being pretentious. It didn’t try to explore moral issues or inspire any philosophical debates, it didn’t try to be deeply meaningful and profound. Which is good, because most anime that try suffer most ignominious failures. While there are occasional references to the fact that Kira’s world may not be such a bad idea, it is used more as a plot device rather than belaboured as some new and interesting concept. In the end it’s not even about inherent rights and wrongs anymore, it is about winning and losing, which I far prefer to having the characters hide behind some pompous sense of justice.

I quote Wiki, re: the author and artist who created the manga – ‘The two reiterated that the “deep philosophical themes” such as debates about whether Light is good or evil, “life and death,” and the “merits of our Internet society” differed from the intention to entertain’. Ding ding ding! Finally someone gets it right. Forget the ideological discussions – all they wanted to do was tell a good story, and they did a hell of a job with that.

Now for spoilers!

Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6764

Excuse the profusion of pictures, but this was just a screenshot taker’s paradise. So many freezing of scenes upon drawing out of cool weapons amidst lots of kaleidoscopic laser light. How could one resist?

This is my current Anime of the Moment. The story is straight forward enough and none too unique to be honest, but it is decently done. I didn’t really like some of the arcs, but the crappier ones were over in 2 episodes or so and the longer arcs were actually pretty good. The fillers were also ok, at least they weren’t absolutely excruciating to watch, which is all I ask for.

Since this is one of those currently-ongoing-no-end-in-sight shows, I can’t help but draw comparisons to Bleach, Naruto and One Piece. I’m well aware that each of those have their own merits and maybe I’m enjoying D.Gray-Man more out of novelty than anything, but seriously I don’t know why it is so much less popular than its counterparts. (And before I get hammered to death by One Piece fans I can only say that if after 46 episodes I still find it mediocre and only vaguely watchable, I don’t see why anyone should stick around to the parts where it actually gets good…Which I will eventually, just not while I have something better to do =p)

If nothing else, the characters are hands down a billion times more likeable than anything I’ve seen so far in the other 3 anime put together. For one, I’m a big fan of Allen Walker. Admittedly a large part is due to the fact that he reminds me a lot of Ed Elric, but he is a likeable character in his own right, and isn’t as painfully one dimensional as many other main characters. I like that Lenalee is a competent female lead – not too useless, not too cute, not too in your frickin face. And she has nice legs (you have to admit that it is aesthetically pleasing).

The OP is quite nice, albeit a bit emo. It’s done by Abingdon Boys School (pretentious name yes/no), who also did the Darker Than Black OP, which explains why the same emo-ness pervades.

I hear that it gets pretty boring in the 20s until you hit episode 40ish, so we’ll see if my opinion changes. Maybe I’m just not at the point yet where the anime catches up to the manga and everything goes to shit. But it’s ok, if I got through 155 episodes of Naruto and the entire bloody Usopp arc, I’m sure I can handle this.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=844

I actually don’t have much to say about this anime, but I finished it (and we all know how rare it is that I finish anything) and took screenshots so I figured I might as well.

I might get in trouble for saying this, but this was such a mediocre anime. I mean, the story was just not very interesting. The whole Sousuke in school situation has a lot of potential for hilarity of course, but that’s explored in Fumoffu (which, as an attempt at redemption, I shall state that I have found very enjoyable so far) rather than here. I still don’t get who the bad guy was working for, what he was trying to do, and WHY HIS ROBOT HAS HAIR. WHY?? I also don’t get why Sousuke and Kaname have lines on their cheeks. No one else has them. What are they supposed to signify?

I do like the opening theme though. And I definitely like that the main character is played by the ever endearing Seki Tomokazu. Aside from that, this is why I don’t watch mecha animes. Pfft.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6430

Finally got round to watching this after hearing about all the rave reviews. But first, please take an extra moment to appreciate the nice screenshots. It took me a whole hour to take and edit those thanks to the wordy narration (too many subs in the way) and because I had such a hard time choosing only 3 Yuki shots out of her plethora of cuteness.

Like everyone else, I thought the story telling was pretty well done. I liked the random insertion of nothingey episodes in absolutely no order. I even liked the heater episode where nothing happened at all. It was just so entertaining to watch, regardless of content. The only thing is that, like TJ commented, this anime had so much potential to be hilarious, and it didn’t quite get there. It was funny for sure, but not as funny as it could have been. And what was up with all the fan service? Was that supposed to be a parody? If it was, why was there so much of it? Or was it because it was meant to be a parody that there was so much? In any case, if it was meant to be a parody it clearly failed to present itself as so, and if it wasn’t meant to be a parody, that’s just outright failness.

Kyon was by far the best thing about this show. I’ve always thought Sugita Tomokazu was just so-so, but he did a singularly outstanding job here. I’ve never been as impressed with the portrayal of a character as much as I am with this. Haruhi didn’t strike me as particularly interesting, and she gets kinda grating sometimes. Mikuru just hellllllllla gets on my nerves. But this is all made up by Yuki’s incredible cuteness, which I am very partial to (as evidenced by aforementioned screenshots). So so so so so so so cute!

Also like everyone else, I really enjoyed the 2 insert songs Haruhi played, especially when I manage to ignore the parts with bad English (remind me again why they do that?). And I currently have Kyon’s version of Hare Hare Yukai stuck in my head. If you haven’t heard it you should check it out, I think it’s pretty cute in a lol-poor-dude kinda way.

I didn’t rate this very high, just cos (a) I only REALLY REALLY like a story when it provokes enough emotion to make me cry and (b) I didn’t really get the sense that there was an overarching message (although I know this is not necessarily what an anime like this one would seek to convey). But it was still hugely enjoyable. Definitely looking forward to season 2!

I made TJ watch this and we finished it over the weekend, with me re-watching 18 episodes in the process. Sadly, most of these episodes were not as moving the second time around. Plus TJ has a heart of stone so he was quite unimpressed with most of the tear-jerking moments in the anime, which kinda spoiled the mood for me. =/

This would have ranked as one of my all time favourites, except that the ending was quite a let down. It felt like nothing was really resolved in the greater scheme of things, and no ultimate enemy was finally triumphed over. I would have let the lack of an explanation pass, if they hadn’t slipped in that little bit about the ‘Masterminds’, which seemed to imply that we would be getting a bit more information about the whole affair. But nope, 30 hour long fight and zip, ending credits. And what was with the half hearted flashbacks in the last episode that seemed to accidentally leave out half the cast?

I was also disappointed by the weak stories that Jun and Kanji ended up with, especially since they’d managed to groom Kanji into such a likeable character without giving him a real focus. He almost made my list of favourite anime characters, but his story turned out to be entirely pointless. Pfft. Thankfully, all these faults can be conveniently blamed on the fact that the manga is still ongoing.

I still really liked the individual stories. I think the anime did an excellent job getting you attached to the characters (some of them anyway) when there were so many sharing limited screentime. The general premise of the story is sad to begin with, and the way the characters were presented made it downright heartbreaking in some cases. Even the ending was quite poignant, despite its insufficiencies. I probably would have cried if TJ hadn’t been around making snide remarks.

What I liked best about this anime was the fact that it didn’t try to be anything more than it was. It wasn’t pretentious, it didn’t try to be different or unique just for the sake of novelty, it didn’t try to get you to like the characters by applying all the usual techniques. It told its story without fillers or fanfare and still managed to be entertaining and, in my opinion anyway, genuinely touching.