bingerama

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=7382

I’m not sure why the ‘BLACK’ in the title is capitalised, like it’s supposed to have any meaning aside from just the colour. Maybe it is a reference to the fact that the main character’s name is Hei (black in Mandarin) and he wears black when he’s in ass kicking mode, in which case the ‘Darker than’ doesn’t quite make sense. Perhaps this is something that will come to light later in the series and justify the ridiculously poser title?

The show is set in futuristic Japan, where some kind of mysterious field called Hell’s Gate has appeared and reduced the area around it to a toxic wasteland, which the government has built a wall around to contain. The appearance of this field has also created a race of beings called ‘Contractors’, who have assorted super powers, and who have to pay some form of obeisance after they used their powers (a little twist that I found quite interesting). These Contractors are also somehow linked to stars (maybe not real stars, but lights generated by Hell’s Gate that look like stars? no clue) and so can be studied and analyzed by the Astronomy department according to the way their stars move, which is another plot piece that I think is rather fascinating.

I’m currently totally hooked on this and I don’t know why. It’s one of those things that you can’t put down to any one concrete element of the show. It’s a combination of the soundtrack, the animation, the story, the script and just the general feeling you get that makes you want to keep watching. It’s weird cos this anime isn’t exactly the happy happy feel good kinda thing – in the first 5 minutes of the first episode you see this guy breaking his own fingers with his bare hands, which is pretty damn disturbing in my opinion. But I’m totally hooked. I really like Hei’s character, maybe because he’s so adorable when he’s acting like a normal human being that he’s extra hot when he’s playing the assassin dude.

The only thing that I’ve found unsatisfactory so far is that Miki Shinichiro is playing a character that is not incredibly charming. Boo.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6200

Last night I watched another episode of Saiunkoku Monogatari Season 2 after a long break (I’ve been saving them since I’m close to running out), and was reminded of how much I adore every bit of this anime.

Because my immense adoration of this anime cannot be easily contained within one entry (along with the immense number of screenshots I would like to put up), today I will content myself with talking about a small part of it – the audio.

The cast is pretty star-studded, or what I would consider to be pretty star-studded anyway, in that it features a lot of prominent characters from the 20+ anime I’m currently watching. =p The thing is, somehow every actor manages to sound better in this show than in any other role I’ve seen them in. Take for example Kouyuu and Ensei, who share the same voices as Ikkaku and Renji respectively. They sound almost exactly the same in both roles, except that they’re oh so endearing in SM, and are pretty much morons in Bleach. A lot of it probably has to do with the script. All the dialogue is very calm and intelligent sounding, with very little panicked or angry yelling (no, for example, BANKAIIIIIs). Which also has a lot to do with how the story is presented and what the characters are like, but I’ll have to get into those another day…

The soundtrack is another thing I really like. The pieces are pretty varied, and the Chinese orchestra ones fit the mood of the show really well, especially compared to some of the other pseudo-Chinese animes I’ve seen. My favourite tracks are Ryuuki, Nukumori and Namida no Pavane; coincidentally (or not) they’re played during my 3 favourite scenes in Season 1, which I still tear up when watching even though I’ve already re-watched them 91423555 times (free lunch if you guess what they are!) I’m a huge sucker for sad quiet piano pieces, and these hit just the spot.

I started on this anime a few months back, when I hadn’t really immersed myself in uberotaku-ness yet, so I thought I was impressionable and that there were plenty of other shows out there of similar quality. Having sampled a lot more anime now, it still feels like everything else I’ve seen so far seems to fall short somehow. I know a lot of people are wary of Saiunkoku cos it seems totally girlish, but it’s really not what it looks like. More convincing arguments will follow, but in the meantime, give it a shot if you haven’t! O.o-b

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6733

My eyes get really puffy after I cry, so it was a really bad idea to watch this movie the night before I had to conduct internship interviews. Thankfully these college kids will never guess that under my professional exterior lies a total sucker for sappy anime, hah.

I’m generally very wary of stories that deal with time travel, because it’s so easy to screw up. It’s practically impossible to come up with a completely logical plot, unless you make an assumption that some kind of theory (like parallel universes) holds. Plus these things always end up dealing with the same issues (see The Butterfly Effect). This one held up fairly well however, because it kept things simple, so it was pretty much acceptable if you didn’t try to be too anal about it.

I really enjoyed the characters. The relationships didn’t exactly pan out like I expected, and I liked that. The main character, Makoto, was pretty endearing at some points, and whenever her heart was in something I felt like mine was too. The sense of regret was very convincingly conveyed, there’s just something about the way her face looks when she’s sad that’s so heartbreaking. She does sound pretty weird when she cries; but then again, I was too busy crying myself to really care.

I did think the ending was a bit unrealistically optimistic. If you watch it you’ll know what I mean, it kinda defies logic just to be a bit happier. But that’s ok. After bawling my eyes out a little gratification is nice. The soundtrack is also really really pretty. I particularly liked the insert song (Kawaranai Mono by Oku Hanako), but then again they did play it at the best part of the movie so I might be a bit biased.

Man I just went through some scenes to take screenshots for this entry, and I totally cried all over again. Oh how easily my emotions are subject to animated manipulation. I love it!

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6466

Honoka is a bandana sporting, sword wielding person-for-hire (I don’t know what else you’d call her) who travels around the desert with her AI-controlled tank, fighting giant insects and the occasional robot. One day she meets what appears to be an alien person, who goes by the appropriately alien name of Iks, and whose intentions are completely obscure, evidenced by the fact that he has done absolutely nothing since he appeared in the show 6 episodes ago, except get chased down by evil robots. Honoka develops an unexplainable crush on Iks so that girls will watch the show.

The story has been pretty shruggorific so far, but I have some hopes that it’ll improve. At least the main character is somewhat cute. The most annoying thing about this anime is the completely extraneous narrator they have that has to make a comment on every little event in the series. Any moments that might have been suitably poignant and touching are shattered by his need to over-explain. Byebye subtlety.

On the bright side, Koyasu Takehito reprises his role as the unemotional character with mysterious intents (a role which he alternates with that of the strangely feminine character with mysterious intents). I guess he just has that kinda voice. Not that I’m complaining /swoon!

This was another of Ian’s recommendations, so I had really high hopes for it. Pretty bleah so far but we’ll see. My favourite parts are when the characters try to say ‘The Third’ – ‘Za Sado’. … So fail. (See previous post about consonants.)

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=348

The name of this anime bugs the hell out of me. Fruits Basket. Fruit Basket. FruitSSSS Basket. As TJ observed, these people need to stop trying to speak English until the Japanese language develops more consonants.

A family cursed with turning into animals whenever they’re hugged by a member of the opposite sex. Sounds like a completely fluffy anime? It is. Up till episode 11 it’s been pretty insubstantial, barring a few ominous hints of possible disaster (which I’m sure Tohru will successfully avert with her winning personality and incredible cuteness). It’s ok though, because this anime never makes pretenses at anything but fluff. And it is very good at being fluffy.

One thing I really don’t get is how they make such a big deal out of Kyo being a cat and thus not part of the Zodiac, then they introduce, of all things, a fricking SEAHORSE. Like huh?!!? A seahorse?!?! How random is that I ask you. Also bewildering is why Yuki looks like a girl and sounds like a girl. He sounds exactly like Youko from The Twelve Kingdoms. In fact, he is Youko from The Twelve Kingdoms. I like Hisakawa Aya’s voice a lot (recently I discovered that she also plays Haruka in RahXephon, which I’m currently trying to re-watch), so it kinda pains me to watch (listen to?) her play the primary (or part there of) love interest of a high school girl. I always feel a bit sorry for these female seiyuus who play young male characters. How would you feel if all of Japan agreed that you sounded like a prepubescent boy? Definitely not the most flattering thing you could tell a woman…

I really like Kyo’s character, but then I’m a bit biased because he’s played by Seki Tomokazu, who probably has the best main-character-of-anime voice I’ve ever heard (even if he ends up playing essentially the same guy in every one lawl). Whenever he softens up it’s soooo cuuuuuute. There are some scenes where you just gotta go awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww /warm fuzzy feeling. This show is excellent at producing warm fuzzy feelings. Which is why I don’t understand why guys enjoy it. It makes me laugh sometimes but it’s not that funny. Then again, I don’t really understand why guys enjoy most anime.

The opening theme is pretty warm and fuzzy too, although the singer’s voice is a bit too saccharine sweet for my liking. It has a nice wistful tone to it that suits the story well, as does the rest of the soundtrack, which is suitably happy and/or sappy depending on the situation.

One of the biggest things that determine how much I like an anime is how good I feel about it, and I have to say, this one gives out damn good vibes. I try to keep happy shows for the pre-bedtime slot (the one time I didn’t do that I ended up dreaming about Shinji having conversations with himself while sitting in LCL), but it’s kinda hard to find a happy show that isn’t completely stupid. Definitely dragging this one out as long as I can. =p

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koutetsu_Sangokushi

I got suckered into watching this because of the cast. That was before I found out that they took characters from all my favourite anime and made them gay. Gawd. I’ve never felt so cheated in my life.

Because the story is loosely based on Romance of Three Kingdoms, all the characters have to be male. Even if they look and sound 100% female, THEY’RE NOT. And they couldn’t have left it at brotherly love, they had to inject all this homoerotic stuff into it. I don’t understand what kinda audience this is supposed to appeal to. I know guys are supposed to find girl on girl action a big turn on, but the same thing just doesn’t apply to girls. Why couldn’t they have thrown a couple of concubines in there? Or they could’ve just made the Sun Quan character a female (JUST LIKE SHE LOOKS AND SOUNDS), it’s not like they’re taking anything from the story aside from the character names. And then in episode 4 (I don’t consider this a spoiler because the plot is non-existent at this point anyway), they kill off one of the extremely few non-gay characters in the show. Urghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

And the Liu Bei character is this freaky little twerp with curly pink hair who seems to have a crush on Zhuge Liang (who likes gathering flowers). WTF!!! I don’t know much of the original Three Kingdoms, but I did hear a few of the stories when I was a kid, plus I played the Sango fighting game, and all this is just violating my sensibilities.

Maybe it’ll get better later, maaaaybe…

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=14

One thing I like about aznV.TV is that the home page has a ‘What’s Popular’ section that occasionally recommends random anime that I’ve never heard of (I don’t believe they’re actually Popular per se, but I won’t fault them). Sometimes when the synopsis sounds mildly interesting, I figure, why not? And I watch a couple of episodes. Before I know it I’m already 20% through the series and I’m committed to finishing it. Like with this one.

I actually kinda like it so far. I can’t quite figure out what it’s trying to do, but there’s a trilogy that comes after it so this may just be some kind of prologue. It seems that way anyway. I’m already on episode 5 out of 14 and it doesn’t feel like a whole lot has happened. I do like the way they’re portraying the relationship between the main characters. It’s pretty mild and understated, but I think it’s very endearing. The protagonist is a pleasant surprise – he’s a little confused and bewildered but he seems pretty self-possessed (rare for anime teenagers). PLUS he is not a moron (also rare).

The captain of the patrol ship they’re on really bugs me because she keeps referring to her crew as ‘her precious crew’ (kawaii kimitachi or something to that effect). The first time it was sorta cute I guess, but after the 3rd time it was just weird. And she carries this sword around that she waves like some kind of baton when they’re in battle. I don’t know if there’s a point to that. I like swords and all, but it’s just awkward when you try to force it into a spaceship fight sequence. Speaking of which, I don’t really like spaceship fight sequences. Even less than I like mecha fights. It’s just things exploding here and there, the grandeur of it all escapes me.

I don’t really like the soundtrack either. The opening theme aspires to be Stars Warsy, and it’s very un-anime like. Urgh. I don’t care what you do with the anime itself, but the opening theme should sound like an opening theme. Totally fail. Oh and every episode starts with this guy talking in some strange language. It sounds so strange I can’t even tell if it’s a language that actually exists but I’ve never heard of, or if they totally made it up. So damn poser.

Not going to end it on that note cos I still think this is a decent anime so far. I think in future I should structure my posts by talking about the things I don’t like first…

Huge ass picture, but doesn’t it look so nice and colourful??

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=49

I was really scared about watching Evangelion. I put it off for the longest time, but the boyfriend won out eventually. I’d seen RahXephon (supposedly a rip off of NGE) a few years back, and I didn’t understand it at all, so I was pretty sure the same thing would happen here.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the first 20+ episodes of this anime are actually fairly normal (barring some psychological issue scenes that were really more boring than disturbing). I watched the first half of the series in trepidation because I was so sure it was going to go crazy on me any moment now. Strictly speaking, I don’t think it turned terribly bizzaro until the last two episodes. I didn’t actually watch episode 25 and 26 from the series, because TJ warned me off them. I haven’t seen Death and Rebirth either, although I read on Wikipedia that they’re mostly the same thing. I might go back and watch it for completeness because I’m compulsive like that, but anyway…

I don’t think there’s any real point trying to describe the plot, because the finer points are just way too complex to summarise, and I’m sure my readership of 5 either (a) have seen it or (b) have no intention of doing so. Philosophy aside, I really enjoyed the story for the story itself. The show doesn’t do a very good job describing some parts of the plot – there’s only so much you can do in 26 episodes – but Wikipedia and TJ (with his wealth of internet research) took care of that. More importantly I think the story telling was absolutely excellent. I’m a huge sucker for good story telling. It is one thing to have something meaningful to say, but most anime fail to put any thought into how it is said. In this respect I think FMA, Ergo Proxy and Saiunkoku are the only other ones that managed to do this to some extent, but they’re not my favourites for nothing.

The main character is ok, he got pretty annoying at some points, and he’s in pain for most of the last few episodes so there’s a lot of yelling and crying. He’s your typical confused kid who spends most of his screen time berating his own incompetence and his inability to sleep with any of the girls in the show. But it’s ok. I sympathise with him. If I had to watch all these crazy alien things tearing other alien things apart I’d flip out too. The character I liked most was probably Misato. Partly because her little love story was so sweet *sniff*, but mostly because she’s just about the only person in the show who isn’t really screwed up. She’s proof that not everyone with an effed up childhood has to be emo. o.o-b

Being not a philosophy major like dear TJ and not having gone through clinical depression, I guess I failed to appreciate all the really esoteric stuff. But I definitely liked the overall message of the story (even if I still think they could’ve done better at connecting it with the earlier episodes in the series). I thought the ending was really well done (another differentiator from most anime). The very last scene was so poignant. I almost cried. I like!

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=7028

Been watching this on and off the last few months and finally finished it tonight. It was one of those shows where you get to the end and you wonder why it took 26 episodes.

I mean, it starts out decently enough. The problem is it just never gets any better. The only part I thought was moderately interesting was the Teresa and Priscilla arc. Speaking of which, POSSIBLE SPOILER!!, Priscilla must be one of the most annoying villains I’ve ever seen. What’s her excuse for being a total b****?? Was she just born psycho? Is she a very very extreme case of sore loserism?

Then in keeping with the tradition that anime writers are incapable of independent thought, the story doesn’t even attempt to be coherent after episode 20 where the manga runs out. Every 5 minutes Clare dings a level with no apparent explanation aside from sheer willpower, a la every other anime that features the protagonist valiantly overcoming increasingly insurmountable odds. And of course by the end of the series absolutely nothing has been resolved and everyone kinda just goes back the way they came, all set for a sequel.

Anyway, it was still pretty enjoyable on the whole I guess. A big plus was that Clare and Teresa are played by Kuwashima Houko and Romi Paku, who played the main characters in my very favourite anime, and so are my very favourite voice actresses by association. Also, I have to commend the writers on coming up with a seemingly endless stream of generic female names. And hairstyles. Unlike other anime where the 20513 characters can be differentiated by the most improbable shades of hair and eye colour, all the Claymores have to be blonde and silver-eyed, which means the only differentiator here is hairstyle – long/short, straight/wavy, fringe/no fringe, braids etc. It still got pretty confusing after a while, but A+ for effort.

Hopefully in the manga (I think it’s still ongoing?) Raki grows a bit taller before he meets Clare again. The whole relationship thing is a bit awkward when she’s 1.5 times his height.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=7213

Fifteen children attending a summer camp wander into a cave improbably filled with computers and are invited to take part in a game by a suspicious looking man going by the name ‘Kokopelli’ (!! I was trying to figure out why that name sounded so familiar and thanks to Wikipedia now I know – it was the name of a smoothie chain I used to go to in Singapore that had really good mango smoothies! Apparently it’s also the name of a fertility deity…wtf? Who names a smoothie store after a fertility god???). Um. So as I was saying, totally sounds like a trap but thirteen year olds are not too bright I guess, so they enter a contract to pilot a huge robot and protect Earth against foreign invaders. They are guided by a diabolical flying stuffed toy looking thing voiced by Ishida Akira (Gaara), who does an impressive job at sounding like a maniac.

Aznv.tv had this classified as, I quote, ‘Action, Angst, Mecha, Piloted Robots, SciFi, Tragedy’. I didn’t know ‘angst’ was a genre of anime! Although all anime arguably falls in this category haha. Anyway, from the genres quoted you can kinda figure out what’s going to happen…but I really like the story so far. Little pieces of information are revealed every few episodes, and I can’t say that I saw everything coming. The plot is interesting without getting too weird (not by episode 16 anyway). I like that they didn’t try to make it so that every one of the 15 kids had some kind of screwed up issue (though a disproportionately large number of them still do).

I also like that this isn’t your typical mecha type anime; the robots aren’t particularly cool looking and the fights are usually over very fast, plus there is actually some attention paid to the fact that when 2 huge machines are ramming at each other many many many buildings tend to get destroyed (which is one of the reasons I prefer watching anime of people fighting rather than robots!).

Things I don’t like are: (1) The very first time I watched this I had my volume turned up a bit too much, and the opening bit of the theme song consists of a chorus of female voices which sounds kinda freaky, and it literally made me jump. The song itself is pretty nice though, except its chorus starts with ‘uninstall, uninstall’, which are really, really strange words to be using in a song if you ask me. (2) The clip they play for ad breaks has this mechanical voice sorta whispering ‘bokurano’ which hella creeps me out.

Definitely one of the best anime I’ve seen so far. This was another one of Ian’s recommendations – Ian is 2 for 2 now, which is leading me to the inevitable conclusion that he actually has good taste in anime…