What are you watching?
I was starting to think they had given up on it, but AnimeYoshi finally released a new episode of Allison and Lillia. Yay! Go get it.
…lol. I was originally going to comment on the Hidamari Sketch recommendation, but decided not to.
Honestly, I put it in the same category as shows like “Ichigo Marshmallow,” “Maria-sama ga Miteru,” and “Strawberry Panic.” Without watching it, or with watching very little it looks slow, boring, and pointless. I personally can’t figure out what people like about it, but I figure it’s probably marketed towards two audiences: 1. young kids who watch it as a young kids cartoon, and 2. older people who watch it for the watered down hints at “service.” (loli, yuri, etc.)
That said, Hidamari Sketch is directed by Akiyuki Shinbo and produced by SHAFT… a team that usually can’t serve up anything “normal,” with Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei as an example. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something that attracted people to it…
And I guess I’ve found myself watching sorta similar pointless shows, like “Gakuen Alice.”
On a related note, Maria+Holic is the Shaft show of the season. It uses a lot of the Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei VAs as cast and pulls some of the same visual tricks as SZS as well. It’s sorta of parody of “yuri” anime like Maria-sama ga Miteru and Starberry Panic.
I have only seen the first episode of Maria+Holic and I’m teetering on the fence. It’s got me a bit weirded out but it could turn out to be really good. I didn’t get many lolz out of it but it may be a lot funnier after I get used to it. Does that make any sense?
Actually, KJI, I find fan service in cute moe girls to be somewhat disturbing and distasteful. I haven’t noticed anything that I would call service in Hidamari Sketch, watered down or otherwise. I think maybe I like moe anime so much because it stirs paternal instincts in me and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside since I don’t have any daughters of my own to feel that way about. Does that make any sense?
Albright:
Maria+Holic: Is it lulzworthy? Whose releases are you watching?
“Maria Holic revolves around a high school girl, Kanako Miyamae, who is scared of boys and breaks out in rash if a boy touches her. During her second year of high school, she enrolls in an all-girls school hoping to find a female romantic partner. However, her ideal candidate, Mariya Shidō, turns out to be a crossdressing boy.”
I found it somewhat funny, at least. It’s not often that the lead character is a perverted lesbien. The inner dialog reminds me a lot of Kare Kano if you’ve seen that, and like I said before the visual/style is occasionally SZS-ish.
Might not be for everyone, but I think it’s worth checking out a few episodes at least. I’m getting mine from gg, as they’re the only trustworthy group doing it.
GrinfilledCelt:
Actually, KJI, I find fan service in cute moe girls to be somewhat disturbing and distasteful. I haven’t noticed anything that I would call service in Hidamari Sketch, watered down or otherwise. I think maybe I like moe anime so much because it stirs paternal instincts in me and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside since I don’t have any daughters of my own to feel that way about. Does that make any sense?
Maybe I shouldn’t have used to term “service.” I didn’t necessarily mean of the “suggestive” sort, as few or none of the shows I named have that to my knowledge. I meant it more as targeting a specific interest some people might have, though not necessarily in a sexual way. Which is why I said watered down. People read Yotsuba for the loli, even though it’s not suggestive in any way.
And yes, it does make sense. That’s what moe is supposed to do. That’s one of the reasons people like it. :p
I still can’t stand boring moe shows, though. For example, Clannad is moe enough… and actually has somewhat of an engrossing plot. But I rarely even feel like watching new episodes of that.
…I just remembered to mentioned this awesome, manly butchering of the Hidamari Sketch opening. Sung by the same dude who sang Cowboy Bebop’s Live In Baghdad. This guy is seriously one of my idols.
I’m very surprised at this but the hidden gold in this season seems to be Toradora. At first it seems to be just another High School romantic comedy * yawn! * full of funny characters * yawn again! * and love trinagles * huge yawn! * but it’s very well written with a lot of depth. The latest episode #16 just blew me away. That was quite powerful. It would have made a very good ending to the series -
SPOILER: Kanou in America laughing at Tiaga’s “letter of apology” containing one word, “Idiot!” =0D /SPOILER
There doesn’t seem to be any reason to continue from there but they are. scratches head
Albright:
I finally got around to watching the first two episodes of Maria-Holic. Meh, the animation’s cheap and it’s the same joke over and over. I probably won’t continue with it.
Yeah, I didn’t like the fact the animation was normal most of the time either. I guess Shinbo is trying to hold himself back. :p
Even though nothing has really happened yet, I’m hoping it’s because so far everything has pretty much just been introduction. I’ll probably give it at least 2 or 3 more.
GrinfilledCelt:
I’m very surprised at this but the hidden gold in this season seems to be Toradora. At first it seems to be just another High School romantic comedy * yawn! * full of funny characters * yawn again! * and love trinagles * huge yawn! * but it’s very well written with a lot of depth. The latest episode #16 just blew me away. That was quite powerful. It would have made a very good ending to the series -
Toradora was probably one of my 3 favorite anime last season, and will probably stay one of my favorites this season. Animation, writing, soundtrack, pacing, characters… each is quite well done.
I’m actually surprised it didn’t end at episode 13.
Frostii has released two eps of a series called “RideBack.” It’s basically your standard mecha anime where the teenaged boy accidentally finds out he’s a phenom mecha pilot, except that teenaged boy is a college-aged girl; a former ballet star who puts her dancing skills into piloting a RideBack, a motorcycle that can transform into a bipedal robot (or is it a bipedal robot which can transform into a motorcycle?). It takes place in the near future under a totalitarian world government where it just so happens that RideBacks are the vehicles of choice of guerilla rebel groups, so even though she’s just the newest member of her school’s RideBack school so far, there’s hints that she’s going to get caught up in that mess soon. It’s kinda corny but the race scenes are definitely fun. This is something that would have felt right at home in Toonami’s better years. Check it out.
I’m sorry… Did you just try to fault a mecha aminu for being unrealistic? Lulz.
I just finished watching Persepolis, a film based on an autobiographical comic by an Iranian French woman about her childhood during the bloodshed of the Iranian Revolution and the Iran/Iraq War, then her coming-of-age abroad in Vienna, and finally her return to Iran as a young woman. It’s kind of a sad story in that she doesn’t feel at home in Europe, but she doesn’t feel at home at home, either. It ran the risk of being too artsy and pretentious, but the story was compelling enough to keep me entertained throughout. Look for it on DVD.
Sebastian’s Voodoo is a genuinely freaky short about sentient voodoo dolls. Watch it with the lights off.
So, I saw the fansub of Sword of the Stranger six months ago and liked it. I saw the English dubs last night at the theater and liked it a whole lot. This is one of those that is best seen at the theater. So if you didn’t go, too bad! =0p I saw it at one with nice, big, cushy seats; an excellent sound system that was a bit out of balance; a huge screen and a large audience capacity which was depressingly no where near half full. The most unpleasant thing about the whole evening was the $12.50 admission price. I almost walked out, but then I figured that I owe the industry a lot more than that so, armed with this excuse, I paid up.
Most of the criticisms I’ve heard about it are just nit picking. Some people just have to find fault with everything, I guess. Sure the plot wasn’t fresh and new but then I haven’t seen anything I’d call a ‘new plot’ in a very long time.
I thought that they mostly did an excellent job with the dubs. They weren’t perfect but I wasn’t expecting perfection. The thought of coming up with a translation that follows the original dialogue and then speaking them in a believable way so that they come even close to matching the already animated flapping lips is quite enough to make me admire anyone who even makes the attempt. Kudos to all involved!
I thought the musical score was excellent. The use of uilleann pipes and penny whistles was a bit surprising though. They fit, but they are hardly anything you would have heard in Japan at the time. Then again, you wouldn’t have heard a symphony orchestra either.
I believe that the $12.50 price tag was universal. Odd that they never mentioned that in any of the promos. You can thank Bandai for that, the industry’s price gouger (Don’t get me started. That’s a whole ‘nother rant).
heh, well I gave my view on it in the other thread. Everything was pretty good except the plot… it was just too cliché. It was like they just threw in every samurai fight cliche they could think of, because they thought they could do a better job with them. (And they did, but still…)
The dub was pretty good. No complaints from me on it.
And I paid the $12.50 as well… sucks because I can get movies tickets at about 1/2 price through my university, but they just happened to be moving and closed this week. This was another option, but by the time I knew I was going it would be too late to receive them by mail.
Oh well, at least it was money spent to help promote animu.
GrinfilledCelt:
No, I haven’t seen more than a few episodes of Avatar yet. You have managed to convince me that it is worth a closer look, AB, and eventually I will get a round tuit so you can lighten up now. Okay? =0D
Any tuits yet?
I just watched episode 15 (I’ve been making slow progress, pretty much just watching an ep or two on the weekends…) and I’d have to say that this episode has really the first great WOAH HOLY SHIT fight scene of the series. Please at least make it this far.
Albright:
Any tuits yet?
Oh, hell no. Lately I haven’t even been able to keep up with the stuff I have been watching (Bleach, Naruto, etc). I have a three page backup of stuff I have downloaded and that doesn’t even count the stuff I move out of there that I’m not even trying to watch. There is so much stuff out there this season. I did find a site that streams Avatar and bookmarked it, so the next time I run across one of those tuits…
I went to see a movie yesterday called The Spirit. Based on the comic book and directed by Frank Miller, the Spirit can take abuse that would kill anyone else except his nemesis, The Octopus, played by Sam Jackson who has the same abilities.
I had never heard of this movie before and I wonder why. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad either. It also amuses me that Frank Miller is now directing such movies when a few years ago they had to drag him, kicking and screaming, into the movie business.
The Crisis of Credit Visualized. Interesting and informative. Is there a word for this type of animation - a lot of words popping and moving about on screen with relatively simple diagram-like graphics?
ANN recently put the last episode of Ramen Fighter Miki up on their video section. If you’re looking for a good comedy anime, check it out.
Still watching Michiko e Hatchin… Fun series. I can see it getting a decent dub job and ending up on Adult Swim (a couple years ago, maybe).
I’m noticing that both Monster and Skip Beat seem to be kaput…
Check out this review of this trippy early ’80s aminu: The Aptly Named “Noel’s Fantastic Trip.”
RFM was quite enjoyable with a good/funny ending. It was really nothing special but just fun. Check out the Origin movie there if you haven’t already seen it.
I’d say that MeH suffers from being a bit too slow in the plot department but otherwise is full of goodness.
No new episodes of Monster have been re-released since January eighth. I checked with Anime Keep and they don’t even acknowledge the recent collaboration - not listing releases after their original completion of the series in 2007 - and they no longer offer any torrents for the show. Over at Moo-Shi, their last post was on Jan 9 - the day after episode 9 was released - saying that they were having production difficulties. Apparently their encoder is experiencing some sort of real life problems. So I guess you’ll have to get clever and find old copies of A-Keep’s releases or continue waiting for a US release. Pretty mean of them to leave you hanging like that, eh?
It hasn’t been that long since the last release of Skip Beat. I have through episode 23 which came out within the last couple of weeks.
You didn’t mention Ride Back which just keeps getting better.
Check out this review of this trippy early ’80s aminu: The Aptly Named “Noel’s Fantastic Trip.”
Once out of Earth’s atmosphere, Noel encounters the Space Shuttle, a 2001 style ring space station, and in some sort of fanfic writer dream scenario, is passed by the Space Cruiser Yamato, or at least a reasonable facsimilie thereof.
Funny that that gets brought up. They just had an article at ANN about how they are making a sequel to Space Cruiser Yamato after twenty some odd years. I’d link to it but ANN is down for maintenance at the moment.
There’s a Ramen Fighter Miki movie? It doesn’t seem to be up at ANN… Where did you find it?
Whose Skip Beat releases are you watching, then?
I actually think Ride Back is in a bit of a slump where the exhibition to action ratio is a bit too high, but I’m still anticipating it.
Which reminds me, let’s check my feed reader and see if anyone released anything today… Nope. Oh well.
I keep forgetting to mention that I’ve been rewatching Haruhi on DVD via Netflix. It’s kind of a more staid experience watching the episodes in chronological order, but still entertaining. And the dub cast is genuinely waeome… Mad props, Bandai.
Albright:
There’s a Ramen Fighter Miki movie? It doesn’t seem to be up at ANN… Where did you find it?Whose Skip Beat releases are you watching, then?
ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS, GFC
I just finished ep 22, the last one, of Michiko. The ending was a bit abrupt, but as a whole… Man, what a success. Kinda makes me wish I ran an animoo licensing company so I could make sure gems like this and Lillia don’t fall through the cracks.
I got the first disc of Lucky Star through Netflix so I could try to see what the fuss was all about. After two episodes, it’s still not apparent to me. Unless something more interesting happens in the next couple episodes, I’ll probably take the rest of the discs out of my queue.
It’s not animated, but I’m also Netflixing the Showtime sitcom Dead Like Me, about an apathetic college dropout who only really starts living after she dies and becomes a grim reaper. It’s entertaining if unspectacular. The whole “main character is also the omniscient and overly verbose narrator” gimmick is getting old…
Such impatience, Grasshopper. I had missed that post somehow.
You misunderstood, there is no RFM movie. I was talking about an unrelated movie whose name is “Origin” which is available for viewing at ANN. It’s a few years old and has been available here on dvd for some time, hence my words about the possibility of your already having seen it.
Crustyroll has just released Skip Beat #25 today through Baka-Updates.
Suture self.
One other thing that is well worth seeing at ANN is Shigurui: Death Frenzy. It’s probably the best thing they have there. I’ve spoken about it before. If someone says they don’t watch anime because it’s kid stuff, show them this. Ain’t nuthin’ cute about it.
Okay, I can’t keep this to myself. I downloaded it last night and just finished watching it. It’s big though, just over two gigs for a one hour video.
Joe Hisaishi in Nippon Budokan - From Nausicaa to Ponyo, 25 years with Hayao Miyazaki’s animation
It’s a concert and documentary about the music of Miyazaki’s films with the guy who did them. There’s no English subs, but it really doesn’t need them.
I also found a decent copy of Ponyo. It’s the same theater cam video I found before with hardsubs added. Not only do these subs sync up with the video they are more detailed, but the grammar is awful. Still, the charm comes through.
Eclipse is releasing season two of Hayate. I’m not sure what the difference is between those two first torrents - guess I’ll find out when they’re done dee-ellin’.
Or maybe GFC can tell me because I’m sure he’s seen them already.
