LOL Nice Boat

I ran into an entry on Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/). Supposedly, it's a wikipedia-like online dictionary that specialize in slangs. I happened to run into the "Nice Boat" entry on this dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nice+boat.

January 2008 New Anime: They Are My Noble Masters

Ahhh, Australian Open is finally over, now I'm back on track with animes. For some reason I forgot to review this new anime. Oh well, it's still January, it's not too late to write it.

Link: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1162.html

Genres: Comedy / More Comedy / More Comedy

I've watched: 3 Episodes

Art style: Mostly common, but something about the main guy's look is odd

Summary: A brother and a sister are running away from home and desperately in need for a job that provides boarding. One day, they run into a girl seems to be from a rich family. Now they're on the way to become servants of a very rich family.

Audience: For starter, you ought to like outrageous comedy. If you watch a lot of anime, you'll catch more jokes. Oh, and wouldn't mind some hint of hentai.

Richard's rating (of 5) - first impression: 3.9 - Interesting enough

Personal comments: First two episodes are just mostly blah. The third episode, in my opinion, brings a lot more liveliness into the series. It has lots of reference of other animes. That's why I say you'll catch more jokes if you watch lots of animes.

Lagging a little + Music video

I haven't been watching much anime this week because I spent all my free time watching Australian Open. To me, tennis is equally as important as animes. So I'll probably be a bit behind on animes until the Australian Open is over.

In the meanwhile, I found an anime music video I made long time ago (I think it was 2002) while I was cleaning out my harddrive. I went ahead uploaded to youtube. I'm also thinking of making another anime music video, probably using Darker Than Black. Haven't decide what song to use yet. Let me know if you have a suggestion on songs.

January 2008 New Anime: Gunslinger Girl ~ Il Teatrino ~

Link: (official) http://www.gunslingergirl.com/ (English sub available through http://www.baka-updates.com/)

Genres: Drama

I've watched: 1 episode

Art style: Common

Audience: Needs to be tolerable of the concept, tolerance to graphical violence to some degree

Richard's rating (of 5) - first impression: 3.5 - Not as good as first one

Personal comment: Instead of Madhouse Studios, the animation production is done by Artland. I can definitely see lots of traces of Bokura ga Ita (also produced by Artland). Though I didn't mind Bokura go Ita, I liked the original Gunslinger Girl's art work better. Also, just a hunch, I feel that the overall theme is much much lighter, not nearly as heavy as the first series. I very much prefer the heavier theme because of its concept.

One other thing I'm not quite comfortable with, is that it does not try to conceal them as much as the first series does. There are things like showing up as agents in front of normal roit police and chasing the criminals with the girl carrying a P90 on a public street.

January 2008 New Anime: Spice and Wolf

Link: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1159.html

Genres: Supernatural / Medieval / Fantasy

I've watched: 1 episode

Art style: Common

Audience: Everybody

Summary: In a village that believes in the "wolf god" who protects and help the locals there, a travelling sales man one day actually ran into this "wolf god" (actually, she is a "goddesss"). She appears to be like a human girl except for the ears and tail she possess. They set off to travel together.

Richard's rating (of 5) - first impression: 4.25 - Unique

Personal comments: It's not something normal. But I couldn't really call it strange because I've seen far more strange animes than this. This anime is, quoting Yuki Nagato, "Unique". It has a very interesting concept and very good presentation. On top of that, its art style is one of my favorite type. The wolf goddess, somewhat reminds me of Amber from Darker Than Black in her teens.

January 2008 New Anime: True Tears

Link: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1142.html

Genres: School Drama / School Comedy (light) / Supernatural (maybe)

I've watched: 1 episode

Art style: Common

Audience: Everybody

Summary: A high school boy dreams to be come a novelist (I think). There is a girl living in the his house who is adopted by his father who is close friend of her parents. Her parents had passed away a while back.

Richard's rating (of 5) - first impression: 3.75 - Little strange, but interesting

Personal comments: So far there are some unknown strangeness going on, but I can't quite tell what. The strangeness feels somewhat similar to Ef ~ A tale of memories.

January 2008 New Anime: Shigofumi

Link: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1146.html

Genres: Supernatural / suspense

I've watched: 1 episode

Art style: Round corner / Slightly simplified / Slightly low contrast

Audience: People like supernatural suspense low action series involve death

Summary: The straight translation of the title, "Shigofumi", means "After Death Mail". It talk about a mailman (in this case, a "mailgirl")that carries mail for people that just died.

Richard's rating (of 5) - first impression: 3.75 - Interesting but needs improvement

Personal comments: The setup reminds me of Jigoku Shoujo (a.k.a. Hell Girl). Episode one ended in a cliffhanger, but I have a feeling it's going to be like Jigoku Shoujo, where the whole seires are made of many unrelated short stories. Episode one had some really interesting last minute twists in plot. If they keep doing that, I think it has potential to be an excellent series.

January 2008 New Anime: Persona - trinity soul -

Link: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1141.html

Genres: Supernatural

I've watched: 1 episode

Art style: Close to realistic

Recommended to: People like supernatural spirit fight stuff...

Recommendation level: Somewhat, got to warn you it's a very slow start

Summary: There are something weird supernatural...thing someone possess. Some try to eat other... That's what I got so far...

Richard's rating (of 5) - first impression: 3 - Slooooooow

Personal comments: I'm sure the conversations are supposed to build characters. But there are just waaaaaay to much, and they didn't help on understanding the plot. It is definitely a slow start. Hopefully, it'll speed up later.

January 2008 New Anime: Hatenko Yugi

Link: (Official) http://deen.co.jp/works/hatenko/ (No English sub available yet)

Genres: Supernatural / ???

I've watched: 1 episode

Art style: Common / Round eye (some people are bothered by it)

Recommended to: ...Wait till I figure out what this anime is about...

Recommendation level: Interesting enough, so follow along for now

Summary: Not quite sure what's going. So far it seems to be a girl that got kicked out of her house and was told to "go see the world" by her father. Then...she meets one guy, and anothe guy, together they are out to..."see the world" and make some money along the way.

Richard's rating (of 5) - first impression: 4 - Not sure what's going on, but interesting, and I like its art work

Personal comments: Introduction is a bit too brief. Have no clue about anybody's background yet. The girl seems to be a bit naive and bossy, but not the spoiled brat type. It got some dark humor in it. So far it's quite enjoyable. Probably just need more time to get to know the characters.

January 2008 New Anime: H2O ~ Footprints in the Sand

Link: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1158.html

Genres: School Comedy / School Drama / School Violence

I've watched: 1 Episode

Art style: Common / Cute

Recommende for: Well, this is a difficult one, let's just say, everybody for now

Recommendation level: I think this one has some potential

Summary: Takuma is a blind boy that just transfered to a rural high school. He meets several girls from the school. Life seems to be all happy, but there's something unusual going on at the school.

Richard's rating (of 5) - first impression: 4 + 0.25 for excessive display of violence = 4.25 - Something...unexpected

Personal comments: This is an anime that is mostly charming and light hearted. But man, the dark side of this anime is just so rough. 95% of the anime is light and even somewhat comedic. Then there's the other 5% (the pre-opening scene is part of it), which involves guys beating up a girl senselessly in the rain and in the classroom. I mean how do you put these into the same anime? This reminds me the just finished Myself; Yourself, which doesn't have these excessive display of violence, but with a very very evil plot.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love plots that are unusual. This is definitely some unusual plot. It was just so unexpected that it caught me by surprise. Here is some cut scenes, judge it yourself whether I'm right calling it "rough".

January 2008 New Anime: Rosario + Vampire

Link: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1148.html

Genres: Vampire / School Drama

I've watched: 1 episode

Art style: Common

Recommended to: ...

Recommendation level: follow along

Summary: A normal human high school student somehow end up in a high school that is not for human. More specifically, it's for monsters that disguised as human. First day to school, he met a beautiful girl who is a vampire. Things start to get messed up from there on...

Richard's rating (of 5) - first impression: 3.5 - Interesting, but I really don't like the extra stuff they put in

Personal Comments: Lots of unnecessary fan service and prolonged transformation scenes, just as they did in Kaze no Stigma. Gonzo is walking a dangerous path. Lately, they've been producing animes that are filled with repetitive nonsense jokes and lots of fan services. It's not the Gonzo I used to like any more.

January 2008 (Not so) New Anime: Sisters of Wellber Zwei

Link: (Official)http://www.avexmovie.jp/lineup/wellber/index.html No English sub available yet

Genres: Fantasy
I've watched: 1 episode
Art style: Common/Fantasy

Recommended to: You got to really like the first series to want to pick this one up

Recommendation level: Depends...

Summary: Princess Rita finally reached her destination, but Tina's journey just began. To help Tina find the person who killed her family, princess Rita set off to another journey with Tina.

Richard's rating( of 5) - first impression: 3 - Average, average, average...

Personal comments: One thing I'm not quite understanding is why princess Rita should go with Tina on the journey. She's never useful and always cause extra trouble.