Overlooking the facts that Adult Swim seems to be running both a 2003 Calendar remarked for 2007 events and time-line accurate calendar that claims they were running Blood+ episodes 111-125 over the course of weeknights on the second and third week of September, it appears at present that they'll be replacing Bleach with Death Note after the end of the second "season" chronologically, though Bleach originally actually ran 52-53 as a double episode and this sorta cuts right before the good stuff of the Soul Society so I wonder what it is they're actually doing, or if they genuinely only have the first 2 sets of 26 at their disposal, which would be sad.
So, in the realm of anime here it goes.
I still haven't watched Hayate nor RxJ, I've decided that I'm totally dropping the former but likely to grab and watch the full series batch of the later from Umai.
With Black Order's staff vacations and A.F.K. doing, well, I have no idea what, my progress in Sayonara, Lucky Star, and Gurren Lagann have all ground to a painful halt. I'm eagerly anticipating all 3, but only LS really has any progression outside A.F.K. (Guerrand to completion, though 3 groups have all done the next episode of SZS). Also, I'm kinda curious exactly what the rest of Doujin Work looks like, I didn't think your-mom dropped series.
Darker than Black and Idolm@ster Xenoglossia are both headed towards their respective ends, and the screens for both look promising. I'm holding a bit of hope that DtB'll get picked up again at another date as Hei x Misaki was a fun pairing, or even the more fanart-beloved Hei x Ying.
Someone has taken up the chalice of School Rumble Season 2, which is great news for as much as I detest an unhealthy portion of the cast, it's still amusing enough to counterbalance. I just have to look at it not as romantic comedy/drama but instead as pure school comedy with a bit of Eri service.
Zombie Loan
Somewhere between the random philosophical musings on the nature of existence, the random allies, the shounen-ai, the yuri, the less than stellar production quality, anticlimactic battles, and the numerous major story lines completely left unfinished (Grim Reaper, the Yakuza, Ferryman, and the other Zombie organization, not to mention everything involving the Headmistress and the wolf-spirit) there just isn't much good that I can say about the show. There was certainly potential but all they managed to do was laying characters atop characters, alluding to other events and people, and resolving none of it.
Verdict - It's not getting licensed, I don't see why it would since it'd be nothing either than a waste of money, but save yourself the trouble and skip this one.
Claymore
Okay, so the death of Flora makes me very sad, as she outshone pretty much all the other Claymores in terms of looks and style in her short time amongst the cast. Raki is at least thankfully coming across less like the whiny, lonely, over-entitled brat I grew to hate his as. I'm not overly concerned with the remainder of the Claymore force stationed at Pieta, but I am curious as to what it was that Galatea destroyed in that Church. As an aside, the jumping between falling fragments of the chunk of earth portion of the battle was amazing.
Verdict - Too many pieces still left up in the air so here's hoping for another 26 in a year or two when there's more manga to support it. Also hoping that those 26 involve more than just Claire, I don't think a single Claymore can defeat a Dweller, I think teamwork really is and should be key, both in terms of telling a good story and in terms of logic.
Blood+
Took me what, 3 weeks to eventually pour through all of this? There was a ton less fighting that I hoped for, loss of all the good Sif, Mao accomplishes little since she's essentially encouraging a love that isn't meant to be (and on some levels ticks that "related but not by blood" nerve) but there's just something about cameramen I guess (direct Speed Grapher reference, I admit). Too much of the fighting isn't Saya, and a lot of that isn't even Haji either, too many battles end when Diva's Chevalier's cancel each other out.
Still a few pieces left at the end, namely the origin, purpose, and end of Nathan, given the events after his supposed death.
From the Wiki, did I just miss this part in one of the flashbacks somewhere?
- 1945 James becomes a Chevalier in Berlin. Acting on orders from Amshel, Solomon kills Martin Bormann, another Chevalier and a high-ranking Nazi. End of the Second World War.
Bleach Movie : Memories of Nobody
Senna > Rukia & Inoue. But that's from a perspective that stopped when Soul Society did. Takes a bit of time, and plenty of oddness to get to the actual meat of the story (the last 20 minutes of warfare) but at least it's a decent trip. Being someone who stopped before even the wind-down of Soul Society I was pleased to just watch the old crew go to town against some fresh blood. Kenpachi's fight was too ridiculously over-the-top one-sided to keep a straight face at. Nice to see Rukia's "Blue Moon" since obviously she didn't do any fighting in the series through the course of Soul Society.
Verdict - Didn't quite inspire me to pick Bleach up again yet, but came close. Will probably have to pick up the manga though (yet I've been saying this about a ton of other series as well, and while I did DL Claymore's I haven't yet gotten to it.)
-- Since starting this both Lucky Star and Doujin Work have seen some loving, so I'll get to those, Jeanne, and the new season's pickings whenever I find the time to post again.
