Endings
So, World Series of Pop Culture ended, but was fun to watch, hopefully there'll be one more weekend rerun of the second half of the competition. Not my cup of tea as I'm only redeemed in partial comic knowledge and music, but the show itself isn't totally overdone like certain other shows in that style (*Cough* Is that your Final Answer? *Cough*).
Best Series Ever also wrapped up with Legend of Zelda taking top billing (no suprise to me, it was my pick) and while I can call the winner of the end game, I wouldn't have been near the top spot with some of my picks.
Haruhi ended, and overlooking the "You were my chosen one! How could you betray me like this!" moment it was all awesome. Actually, the chosen one bit was awesome as well, except for me thinking of Episode 3 when it occured, which soured the moment. Episode 14 is awesome, 13 is well suited to have come before it and thus the ordering of episodes before that pair is mostly irrelevant, though the cliffhanger of island syndrome was pretty brutal. Quick spoiler-lite series highlights include Hairstyles, Yuki's Battle and the aftermath, Searching for the Shadowy Figure + Fall + Cave, The Band (The full version of Lost my Music is brutally awesome but the singer has to hit a few "yeah!"s that are in a register and tone I'm not comfortable hearing for Haruhi's demeanor), and Kyon's decision plus actions in 14.
I finished up Sousei no Aquarion over the past weekend, enjoyable down to the last moments. The truth of Sirius's memories was creative, if not to my tastes, as was Toma's love of the Solar Wing being . Series highlights, spoilers, still stand at
- First usage of the OP -- Apollo taking control of the Aquarion Jet to form Solar Aquarion.
- First Gattai -- And the total WTF O.o reaction.
- Everything Fudo does -- And the total OMG moment when his connection to Aquarion/Apollo/Toma is revealed.
- Rena-vision -- Especially the final one we see, of Apollo and Silvia in the garden before Sirius reclaims his sister.
- Military Aquarion -- Angelic Glen is so-so badass, but black Aquarion with a Rifle? Total badass.
- About 70% of the attack registrations -- Especially any of Pierre's.
- Rena in Aquarion -- I prefer the ep where they fight the reflecting mirror Mystical Beast for the Moon Phase-esce drinking of Apollo's blood, but the final ep with Rena fighting is equally good.
- Lastly, the Cosplay Ep -- I don't really think I have to say anything more about that.
All my eggs in one basket
So it seems that divesting all my faith for the current anime season (note: I use CAS extremely loosely, incorporating all series I'm watching which haven't presently been subbed to completion into its folds. To extrapolate on this looseness: given those parameters, Kaleido Star is current season) into the hands of only a small number of groups combined with my stalwant railing against no-name startups or groups of questionable capability (Read: YuGiOh, have you seen their site? In fairness though I don't actually know if that indicates how well they sub, and sooner or later I might not have an alternative but to find out) has resulted in a disappointing stagnation over the past week+ in terms of growth in anime (which isn't all bad, as I'm low on Drive Space, but nothing that can't be aided by clearing up some of the clutter on the old drive). Worse yet is the fact that I'm actually up to date on all of this stuff as well, making the delay that much more crushing.
Before I delve too much into how I feel about what I am watching, I do want to remark on what I'm not watching but perhaps should be.
- Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles - I'd love to be watching this, damn real life for tripping up Tofusensi and the quality subbing subsiquentially falling completely to shambles.
- Blood+ - Actually, this is being done by two groups that I enjoy, so it's not that it's not being subbed, but that I'm roughly a season+ behind and catching up on other stuff first.
- Kamisama Kazoku - I'm hoping for a batch now that this is finished, it looks interesting enough to have watched.
- Utawarerumuno - Shadow Warrior Chronicles!, err... I mean, I think I could do with some furry harem, but you're never allowed to quote me on that.
- Innocent Venus - Jury is still out on this one, it seems sorta down my alley, but I'm not totally grooving on the art style from what I've seen. If no other group with a name I recoignize shows up with this one I'll take one of the present offerings and see how the first few play out.
- Shakugan no Shana - I've got it all, I just haven't found myself the initative to watch through it. Perhaps I'll flip coins or draw cards to decide what series (Blood+, Shana, Otome, Honey and Clover, School Rumble, or get and watch FMP TSR) to play catchup on next.
Speaking of things I can watch, Anime Network On Demand has the entire series of Ikko Tousen, however the ANN info wasn't particularly decisive as to whether or not it was worth the watch. I might check it out were the On-Demand not on the same TV as the 360, which has a bit more weight at the moment for reasons to be discussed later.
Anyways, the current anime season:
- Honey and Clover -- Actually, this belongs in the previous category, however with Aquarion finished the first season of this is next to be completed and then I'll be digging through the second season. And thankfully Solar and Ideology are doing very nicely at keeping the pace.
- GunXSword -- That 17th episode was pretty damn good, exceptional for not including Van except to the bare minimum (Not that Van's all bad, but there are stretches where you have to wonder if they couldn't have included more Spike and less Vash in his influences), and amusing despite (or with the aid of, your call) the best efforts of the censorship donkey. Plus, the hints at Faerlina's Armor control schema (pole-dancing) which should be amusing to watch. Carmen 99 and her make great epic opponents, especially the way their weapons interact.
- Ouran Host Club -- Excellent music, fantastic art, great characters. I'm not certain I want any sort of relationship development past what stands here. Kyouga is awesome in all his dealings, the "rape" scene as well as the entirity of episode 17 being the core moments of it. Tamaki isn't really my alley, neither is Honey nor Mori's self-created servitude. Just give me more of the Twin's goodness, Kyouga's schemeing and innocent drama-free Mori x Haruhi and I'll be happy.
- Coyote Ragtime Show -- The first 10 seconds of the OP are all I watch. Just the "Coyote Ragtime Show" bit. The rest is alright, but it just doesn't stack up. The ED is, of course, always worth watching, being UFOTable's claymation expertise on display (really, it's damn impressive). Mostly I'm just hoping I don't have this go Speed Grapher on me before my eyes as the little girl falls completely in love with her father's friend and her protector/caregiver, cause honestly, that just annoys me. My preferences for Ginza (aka: Adult Jo (Bakuretsu Tenshi fame)) aside, that's just not something I need, it's just awkward and annoying all at once. I'm not certain that I like the growing mass principle of the group gathering up to go after the treasure since I think things work perfectly fine in smaller numbers, makes for better fluidity in fights and more hero-time (aka sheer WTF-Awesomeness!) for the each individual. I'm disappointed to have Sister's down and out before they even really get personalities, though I guess if you're gonna off one, Sept was probably the one I'd least object to, unless you're getting a 3 for 1 and wiping out the annoyance that is the Winter Trio, little children have no place in this war, grotesque strength or not. More May screentime please, especially angry May.
- Black Lagoon -- I think that Levy plus Shenhua plus Legarch is reason enough for a second season. I want that interplay for another two or three episodes solid. I'm hoping I get to see what skills Legarch possesses to set him in a position of equal standing with Shenhua. I also wouldn't mind sleeping-Levy again, that was adorable and an excellent addition to the Rock plus Levy development, even if it didn't add to anything. The new villians are freaking awesome, though I think they might have too many resources at their disposal, not that numbers work at stopping our heroes. Chan and Levy's shootout was amusing but not overkill awesome. Their lack of taking cover was definately a few extra marks in the badass book though. For next season give me Levy, Shenhua, and the Sister's of Battle girl, the Bloodhound can take a break with her charge, oh, and tons of the Russians, though I don't need extra Porn in the background, and less Nazi's.
- Ergo Proxy -- I actually give Shinsen lieniency on the next few eps, as they're apparently ridicu-fucking-liciously complicated. I'm not totally on board with the artstyle of this still, but between kickass OP and ED and a story that has me interested mixed with a partial relationship drive, a ton of scheming and backstabbing and misdirection by everyone involved and an unhealthy level of randomness. All of which falls in the shadow of the awesomeness that is Pino.
- N.H.K. -- Speaking of randomness...NHK really worries me at times. It's a delve into the side of Otaku-Hikkomori-dom (there's gotta be an abbreviation for this redundancy) that I wasn't particularly interested in seeing, but am utter intrigued by anyways. It doesn't hurt that his sempai for the lit club is easy on the eyes, however I think the overall draw is the totally madness (and I kinda wanna watch him get redeemed, lessons for the rest of us down in our own traps of our own making). I'm not 100% as to where this one is going, but I can say that the full version of the ED is roughly 3x as frightening as the Tv-Size and I'm thankful that I can't picture the little creatures to accompany it. The OP also has the Ergo-Proxy lure, where I feel there's a lot to be learned by studying it, but I'm not about to.
- School Rumble -- Can we just have Flag Faction? Please? That's all I really want. Harima x Yakumo would be alright as well. Just take Tenma and let her be happy and cute off in a corner and not cause any trouble. This is far more Harem-troubled than I'd originally anticipated, but the complete cool-random that flares up more than balances it, not to mention the utter-cute moments (Eri holding the giraffe in 18...sweet merciful heavens is that adorable).
- Zero no Tsukaima -- You might rally that by not watching Shana I shouldn't be watching this. But honestly giving the magic to the girl and the sword to the guy I feel alot better about the show. Plus it's not such blatent loli-bait which is one of those things that just isn't in my preferences (corrolary - NHK is getting harder to watch for this reason). The idea of "real world" things being exceptionally valuable and mysterious in a medieval Harry Potter setting is a delightful thing to me. It's an avenue that's often been considered, but never with quite so much excellence. I'm not certain that the over-the-top nature of everyone will bode well, but I do like that obvious pair who are obviously not together as a genre as well as the powerful Sorceress who is still learning to use her powers (So long as it doesn't become some mushy love unlocks my power blah blah blah routine), I just worry that ZnT might have too many interfering characters to trouble things up. I'm not fully up on the 'eye'dea (Typo turned pun, apologies) of a floating eyeball being a "bugbear" and the quiet Yuki-clone is quick becoming an archtypical character, and as much as I'd like to see Saito cause her to warm up, I think there's enough Harem atm. Hell, Kirsche is a harem on her own (I swear, if we get another pun about being "in heat" heads may roll, or at least my eyes). The talking sword is kinda cool though, I like his attitude, and mostly I just wanna see where all of this leads, so here's hoping this nice twist on a common theme can make the most of it.
- Eureka Seven -- With all the pieces set into place for the final match we're in a string of episodes building relationships and ties. Which means that I'm bored stiff so I'm holding off until something gets put out with a at least a few more explosions than just exchanges of covering fire of Anemone rampaging ineffectually. Once we get a hearty episode I'll actually suffer through Renton learning the importance of teamwork to win a Soccer match and all of the learning about Coralian episodes. Plus-side, Eureka looks normal again! Down-side, kids are still effing everywhere.
Holy crap, writing in Compose mode makes the core HTML appearance really pretty cluttered. Unconverted paragraph tags be damned. Other half (gaming) hopefully later today/tomorrow.
