Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Blassreiter: So Close...


Currently finished: Episode 19

Blassreiter has been somewhat unique because of its ability to kill off the lead characters. In recent episodes, it seems that they're going to try to kill another major character. But to my disappointment, they didn't pull the trigger. Instead, they killed off some very minor characters. Even their death are not a sure deal yet. But, it does kind of throw a tragic cover on top of the recent run of enraged redemption.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Itazura na Kiss: Too Easy, Too Quick


Currently finished: Episode 15

Alright, it was pretty frustrating in the early episodes of the series because of the amount of wasted effort by the main female character. Recently, it took a 180 degree turn. Everything seems to become so...easy. There are some slight ups and downs, but overall, everything is just going towards the ideal direction.

Though I don't have a problem with it, over time, I tend to get bored with this kind of plot.

Telepathy Girl Ran: Transformed...

Currently finished: Episode 7

Telepathy Girl Ran, it started off as a supernatural good vs. evil kind of story. Slowly, it became a somewhat a paranormal investigation and detective story.

However, the major villain is still out on the loose. So it probably eventually will return to the good vs. evil story again.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Koihime Musou: Errrr, The Hell?



Currently finished: Episode 4

Koihime Musou
was originally a hentai game. It didn't take long before it was made clear of that. While I don't have problem with near hentai content and some weird Japanese fetishes, I think lots of other people do. The content in the episode 4 alone is enough to prevent this series to be released in US for any rating below "R".

So be warned, don't show this one to kids :-)

Allison and Lillia: Aerodynamically Wrong


Currently finished: episode 17

There are something very wrong occurs in recent episodes, not the plot itself, rather the aerodynamics and physics in this world. It seems that certain elements of physics and aerodynamics in this fantasy world works conveniently different than the reality. Knowing this is more of a fairy tale anime, I probably shouldn't be commenting on the feasibility of certain things in the story. But something are just way way way out of wack here.

Also, on a completely random unrelated note, I do like Lillia much better as a main character than Allison. :-)

Blassreiter: Religous Recharge


Currently finished: Episode 17

First half of the story wrapped up around episode 14. The second half, dramatically different from the first half, uses a parity that had appeared in countless animes: religious holy war. Though this time is not quite a parity, it's more of a real holy war brought upon by those involved themselves.

Because a religious entity is actually behind the core plot, names with religious reference, like paladin, triple-6, start to pop out. Me, being very ignorant about religion, have to rely heavily on the translators' note to understand the significance about the religious reference it's making.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: Exposed, already?


Currently finished: Episode 3

The name of this anime, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, translates "Nogizaka Haruka's secret". However, the secret, is no more by episode 3 (before you make any smart comments, make sure you finished watching the entire episode).

I thought the whole series is going to be evolved around the whole "secret" thing. Now it doesn't look like it any more, unless episode 4 make used of some smart (or lame) plot device so that the secret is still a secret.

Another thing worth mention, is that the background of this anime portraits a soeciety where anime and manga is considered childish. Realistically speaking, I'd say Japan is probably the last one that would become a society like that.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Mission-E: Missing Something Important


An anime usually attract me by having either a interesting overall plot, or some interesting subplots, or some outrageous actions, or a big question mark that is in need for answer. Mission-E along with Code-E seem to have none. The only reason I thought the first episode of this new series is interesting is because it had a somewhat interesting subplot in that episode. After that episode, it just fell back to the boring, repetitive format. It's slightly better than Code-E in my opinion, but not enough for me to keep spending time on it.

Ultraviolet Code 044: Slow, Not Attractive


Ultraviolet Code 044 feels more like a western comic book cartoon rather than anime. Maybe that's what they're trying to create. However, the plot construction followed more of a drama anime's format: rather than taking the approach of the traditional western comic cartoon of having a relatively independent story in each episode, it uses the standard slowly-drawn-out plot approach that is used in most drama animes. The result? Incredibly slow and uninteresting.

On top of that, because most of the events are happening at night, most of the episode are in a low-light low-contrast mode; accopanying with a slow plot and overly subtle dialogs, it just put me to sleep.

New episodes of far better animes from this season is piling up, I'm not going to waste time on this one any more.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Special A: Nice Touch



Currently finished: Episode 16

Gonzo is one of my highly praised anime production studios. However, that is only limited to their drama animes. Their comedy animes, in my opinion, are substantially sub-par -- that is until now.

With Special A, Gonzo's comedy division finally manage to put out a comedy in my opinion is at the same level of their drama works. The biggest differece between Special A and their past comedy works is the depth of the individual characters. Many people think that depth in character is not necessary for comedies, I completely disgree. Even though you could make a comedy anime with no character depth, it wouldn't be long before its contents get very repetitive.

Ok, enough about my theories on anime :-) Let's talk about Special A. What I really like about it is the subtleness and some added twists you often see in their dramas. On top of that, certain character's insensitivity of certain issue is just a non-stop source of laughters.

New Rating (out of 5): 4.5 (net gain: +0.4) ~ Comedy + Depth