July 2007 Toss-away: Shigurui

Shigurui

Reason: Sloooooooooow, and I'm not very interested extremely detailed Feudal Japan history

Last episode I watched: episode 2

Comments: Man, this ought to be the slowest anime I've ever seen. Maybe people that know more about feudal Japan history would be more interested in it, not me. Plus the tone is bit too dark and colorless. Everything has a dark shade on it that sometime it feels it's rendered in black and white. While I don't have a thing for it, nonetheless it is still a very fine piece of art work with extremely fine details. I'm sure somebody would appreciate this kind of art. Oh, and did I mention everything in this anime is moving very slowly? When I'm watching an episode of an anime, if I couldn't wait to see the ending credit, this anime is for sure a toss-away.

Final rating: 2.5 out of 5

July 2007 New Anime: Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpucho: Tou 2nd Act

Link: (Official) http://www.majin.tv/ (No English sub available yet)

Genres: Drama/Martial Art/Super Natural

I've watched: 1 episode

Art style: Common

Recommended to: People like this genes and liked first season of this show

Recommendation level: Top of the list

Summary: It seems to pick up right after the first series ended. The end of first series ending clearly indicated that it is far from over and the second series is coming. The villain of the first series had died, but the force behind it was still alive. Now it's stirring up trouble in Tokyo again.

Rating - first impression: 4.5 out of 5

Richard's pick award: Best Drama in July 2007 Season based on Early Impression

Personal comments: Early in the episode, it feels pretty light hearted, but soon it jumps into very fast paced main plot. The plot is very tight. There's almost no waste of time in the episode, reminds me much of how its first season started. What did surprise me is that they did not hesitate at all to kill off one of the main character in the first episode. I guess with the girl's power, it's possible to bring him back alive later. But it's still a big "wow" when one of the main character just dies (well, whether he's really dead is still debatable at this point, nonetheless) in the first episode.

July 2007 New Anime: Shigurui

Link: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1064.html

Genres: Action/Samurai
I've watched: 1 episode
Art style: Traditional Japanese/Cinematic

Recommended to: People liked serious samurai stories, and don't mind a little blood
Recommendation level: Not sure yet

Summary: Another historical anime that is related to the Tokugawa family. So far all I understood from it is that despite all opposing voice, lord Tokugawa decide to host a samurai competition with real sword in peace time.

Rating - first impression: 3.7 out of 5

Personal comments: The art, the action, the bloodiness, and the fact it's a story has to do with Tokugawa family all reminds me Basilisk. One word of warning though, episode 1 felt extreeeeeemly slow. It might pick up speed later but so far it's just slow.

July 2007 New Anime Update: Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei

I'm currently at: Episode 2

Comments: Man, it's just getting better and better. Although we only see a brief clash between the ultra optimism and ultra pessimism, the whole episode is still funny as hell. This time, it's caused mostly by the teacher's pessimism and his suicidal nature. This is definately the No. 1 comedy of this season.

Award: Best Comedy of the July 2007 Season (Early impression)

Rating: 4.8 out of 5 (net gain: 0.6)

July 2007 New Anime Update: Zombie Loan

I'm currently at: Episode 3

Comments: The story got really interesting. I think at this point, it's still introducing character. The anime itself is very rich on personalities - the lead characters all have very distinct and interesting traits. Comedic elements are inserted into the right place, making it very interesting to watch.

Rating: 4.4 out of 5 (net gain: 0.3)

July 2007 New Anime Update: Code-E

Status: English sub available http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1061.html

I'm currently at: Episode 3

Comments: It's getting a little more interesting. Mostly due to the clumsiness of the lead female character, I think. The plot is moving on at a normal pace. We still don't know anything about the grant plot yet (if there is any). For now, I'd say follow along.

Rating: 3.7 out of 5 (net gain: 0.2)

July 2007 New Anime: Another one that not worth to watch - Potemayo

Link: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1060.html

Genres: Children's
I've watched: 0.05 episode
Art style: Childish

Recommended to: Children under 6
Recommendation level: Unless you're younger than 6 years old, you probably don't want to watch it

Summary: Err....

Rating - first impression: No, I'm not rating this one either

Personal comments: wha...

Update: AIKa R-16: Virgin Mission

Fan service, fan service, and more fan service. That's the impression of the second episode of AIKa R-16: Virgin Mission.

Last time, I've mistaken it as a TV series, and thought either no fansub is doing it or it's hard to get hold of the source. The fact is, it's an OVA. That explains all the partial nudity in the show.

In the first episode, I've noticed that towards the end of the episode, it was almost drenched with fan service. The second episode, well, almost every scene has some fan service. However, the fan service here is a bit different than the ones from Ikkitousen. The occurrence of Ikkitousen's fan service is a bit strange and unusual (mostly the way forces acts on human body), AIKa on the other hand, has a bit more... um... "normal" fan service, camera angle (very perverted) is the one making the fan service shots (compare to the weird physics cause clothes to rip apart in Ikkitousen).

Without the fan service, there is really not much to the episode itself. However it does make the plot line move forward a little.

Overall value? Not much. Fun to watch, maybe, depending on how perverted you are. Here are some fan service screenshots:

July 2007 New Anime: Mononoke

Link: (official) http://www.fujitv.co.jp/b_hp/mononoke/ (No English sub available yet)

Genres: Horror/Suspense

I've watched: 1 episode

Art style: ***Crazy***

Recommended to: People can accept this art style and like horror mysteries
Recommendation level: Anticipating

Summary: It seems that the story occurred after the last segment of Ayakashi - Japanese Classic Horror. It got the same crazy art style, and method for suspense. Story occurs in the same building (I think) as in the last segment of Ayakashi. The medicine sales man is back here once again to get rid of the daemons from the house.

Rating - first impression: 4 out of 5 (it's just so......unusual, gotta give a good rating for it's creativity)

Personal comments: Once I got over the crazy art style, weird conversion style, strange story telling style, I start to like it. Put it this way, there is nothing in this anime is "normal". It is produced by the noitaminA (Nodame Cantabile, Honey and Clover, Paradise Kiss, Ayakashi, etc), who is famous for its amazing innovations in both art, story telling, and comedy. This is one of the highly anticipated series of this season. For those that have not seen Ayakashi - Japanese Classic Horror, you can try to download them from http://www.baka-updates.com/ or rent it from netflix http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Ayakashi_Samurai_Horror_Tales/70066032?trkid=189530&strkid=1592090341_0_0

July 2007 New Anime that really not worth to mention: Moetan

Link: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1056.html

Genres: Magical girl
I've watched: 0.2 episode

Art style: Magical girl

Recommended to: Nobody

Recommendation level: sincerely recommend you not to watch it

Summary: Another magical girl anime, except this one is even worse (for English speakers at least). It seems to be an anime that help Japanese kids to learn English, but the English spoken in the anime is just unbarable.

Rating - first impression: No, I'm not giving it a rating

Personal comments: Some f**ked up s**t.

April 2007 New Anime - Short season wrap up: Sisters of Wellber

Sisters of Wellber

Comments: Yeah, it the grand finale. Good defeats evil, everybody is happy, and um... nothing. That sums it up pretty good. What?! Did I just spend 13 episode worthed time watching some fairy tale story has been used over and over and over again? Man, this is such a waste of time. I enjoyed watching it alright, but the plot line is just too... straight forward. There is someone having a mental breakdown, and a psycho serial killer, a thief, a princess, etc. But none of it helps the plot to stand out. Such a waste of time. Although, I did see it coming, but I chose to stay with it.

Final Rating:

Drama: 3 out of 5

Comedy: N/A

Action: 2 out of 5 (cheesy!)

Art/Animation: 3 out of 5 (not the art style I like)

Sound/Music: 3.75 out of 5 (I did enjoy it's theme songs and music)

Character: 3.5 out of 5 (little bit character development)

Plot: 1.5 out of 5 (only a few twists in the plot, everything else is predictable)

Re-watch value: 1 out of 5 (I won't be able to watch it again at all)

Overall (not average): 2.5 out of 5

Recomendation: Don't bother, you'll find better stuff to watch.

April 2007 New Anime - Short season wrap up: Sola

Sola

Comments: I've finished watching Sola about a week ago. Because I was too busy sorting through (and watching) new July releases, I have put off writing wrap-up reviews. Now I'm ready to write the wrap up for Sola, but...I can't seem to remember clearly what happened in the last episode. If I have forgotten the ending of an anime within a week, that can only mean one thing: the ending really didn't impress me at all. To write this review, I refreshed myself with the last episode of Sola. While watching it, the ending seemed somewhat significant. The reason it didn't leave a lasting impression, I think is because it had a too long of the follow up after the final conflict. The final conflict resolved about half way through the episode, then the rest of the episode is a very slow follow up to show what happened afterwards. By the end of the episode, the significance of the resolution of the final conflict is almost completely washed away. I kind of understand why they did it this way, but I think there ought to be a better way.

I somewhat enjoyed the show, but the ending impression (or the lack of) makes me not wanting to tag it as recommended to watch.

Final Rating:

Drama: 3.25 out of 5
Comedy: N/A

Action: 3.25 out of 5

Art/Animation: 4 out of 5 (I really liked the character design)

Sound/Music: 3.5 out of 5

Character: 4 out of 5 (good in-depth character development)

Re-watch value: 2 out of 5

Overall (not average): 3.5 out of 5

Recommendation: If you haven't started it, don't bother.