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.
I just finished watching Satoyama II Japan’s Secret Watergarden. (2.18 gb) It’s one of those nature documentaries narrated by David Attenborough. It’s about how the rural Japanese have a long established system of living with the nature around them. It’s quite remarkable how, in fairly densely populated areas, their streams and ecosystems are kept quite healthy if not completely natural. Interesting stuff if you’re into that kind of thing.
Right now I’m downloading part one from 2006. (639 mb)
Edit: Never mind that second torrent from 2006. It’s the same show - probably from the first time it aired.
It’s quite remarkable how, in fairly densely populated areas, their streams and ecosystems are kept quite healthy if not completely natural.
Ho, brother. Hate to break it to you, but the whole “the Japanese are so in touch with the Earth” thing is nothing less than bullshit. I mean, I know that only white male Americans pollute, but…
I finished the second disc of Bubblegum Crash last night. Having so much fun watching it. The plots are goofy and/or cheesy as all hell, but the animation is just so much fun. Just about the right amount of gratuitous violence and nudity, and everything’s hand drawn. Everything. The special effects with their blurry glow; vehicles and race scenes where they’d just use cel-shaded 3D models today; hell, even the text on computer screens was clearly done by hand instead of computers. Glorious! Will we ever see cartoons made this way again?
Eden of the East ends at eleven episodes; not a round number. The last two episodes have been kind of odd, because they’re very heavy on exposition; in this last one, Saki pretty much monologues away the remaining plot questions. But how does she know the answers? It smelled a bit like, “Oh, crap, out of episodes! Better wrap everything up.” Maybe this should have been a two-seasoner show after all; we still haven’t met half of the selecao, or Mr Outside, or figured out who the cleaner (or whatever the “killer” selecao was called) is. Hmm.
Saki herself seemed like kind of a lame character overall. She doesn’t really do much throughout the series. You couldn’t even say that she’s a damsel in distress because she’s never really in distress or anything. Despite some promise near the beginning when she shows concerns for Japan’s geopolitical position, or the interesting choice made by making the female lead rather plain-looking in aminu female lead terms (whatshername who had programmed Eden was far more moe, and moe sells like toilet paper in Japan nowadays and I have just about as much use for it), in the end she’s just kind of there. And what’s up with ZOMJ SPOILERS…
…Takizawa erasing his memories again at the end of the episode (assuming that’s what he did)? Why did he need to do that? I don’t even think the reason given for him doing it the first time was all that satisfactory. And we still don’t know how or why he ended up in Washington in the first episode…
Argh. Not bad, but all told, it felt like it fell short of potential.
Albright:
Two movies, yes. They pimp them at the end of the closing credits. I can’t really imagine what they’ll do with them, though, seeing as what happens at the end of ep 11…(Edited my post above with more rants, BTW.)
Gee. You don’t suppose that maybe they just might answer some of the plot holes you mentioned in your rant above? =0D
I have started to watch Bakemonogatari lately. There are two episodes out so far from gg subs.
Bakemonogatari centers on Koyomi Araragi, a third year high school student who is almost human again after briefly becoming a vampire. One day, a classmate named Hitagi Senjōgahara, who infamously never talks to anyone, falls down the stairs into Koyomi’s arms. He discovers that Hitagi weighs next to nothing, in defiance of physics. After being threatened by her, Koyomi offers her help, and introduces her to Meme Oshino, a middle-aged homeless man who helped him stop being a vampire.
It’s well done with an interesting style similar to Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. It’s humorous but not a comedy. Here is a Japanese trailer for the show.
Shazam! Eden has been licensed by Funi.
I’ve been watching Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, released by Frostii. It’s a disaster aminu much along the lines of American disaster movies. The premise is rather simple; a big-ass earthquake has hit Tokyo (8.0 on the Richter scale, as you may have guessed; for comparison, the big-assesed one I’ve been in was a 7.2, and the Richter is a logarithmic scale). In the aftermath, two preteen siblings have joined up with a woman who’s always upbeat despite being a young widow, and together they’re trying to make their way back home among aftershocks and crowds of stressed people. It’s a bit melodramatic, and much like your standard disaster movie it kind of seems like everything that could possibly go wrong is happening (aftershocks are comically frequent…), and the animation isn’t a whole lot to write home about… But at the very least it’s an interesting story, and an example of a genre which isn’t much represented in animation, Japanese or otherwise.
fil:
Ah, yes, Outlaw Star. The steps I took into watching anime went Pokemon -> Dragonball Z -> Outlaw Star -> Cowboy Bebop -> and so on. I should try finding it on DVD.
Wow. My progression is the same. Although I would throw in Pokemon the game in before the show, not really liking the show until playing the game. Oh shit, and Digimon. I watched the hell out of that shit. Holy Fuck I miss those Digimon days.
aRF:
Oh, and this is THX.
You sure spelled it wrong, THX, but it’s good to see you anyway.
I went through a similar progression into anime myself, Fil, except I never liked Pokemon and DBZ and Digimon came later during a time of no cable or internet (and still didn’t like Pokemon, maybe I should have played the game). You shouldn’t have too much trouble finding Outlaw Star dvds. Best Buy still has the boxed set for around $40 but you still have to take the Psychic cactus episode.
The one I should have picked up when I could was Trigun.
Hell yeah, Digimon. I have the Digimon movie soundtrack CD somewhere around here. If you take out all the songs which actually have the word “Digimon” in the lyrics, it’s a great collection of late-’90s music. Unfortunately, it got a scratch I haven’t been able to Disc Doctor out, so I haven’t been able to rip it in years. =[ Maybe I’ll try again one of these days.
aRF:
Oh, and this is THX.
Wow. Long time no see.
@fil: Yeah, I got into anime in pretty much the same order. I loved Digimon Tamers, but never really cared for the other Digimon series.
@GrinfilledCelt: Bakemonogatari is probably the show of the season. I’m currently watching that, Spicy Wolf II, Hayate II, Haruhi II, and Fullmetal Alchemist II. So many sequels the season.
Albright:
Hell yeah, Digimon. I have the Digimon movie soundtrack CD somewhere around here. If you take out all the songs which actually have the word “Digimon” in the lyrics, it’s a great collection of late-’90s music. Unfortunately, it got a scratch I haven’t been able to Disc Doctor out, so I haven’t been able to rip it in years. =[ Maybe I’ll try again one of these days.
Hell yeah “Kids in America”.
Also: Nostalgia, you lose; currently watching Digimon Season 1
A coworker loaned me Johnny Quest on DVD. I didn’t really watch it much as a kid; the Harvey Birdman ep was my first real exposure to it. But no joke, Race and Dr Quest are totally gay for each other. It’s canonical. Those sideways glances they give each other in the opening sequence; the way they never hesitate to strip down to skimpy bathing shorts (and, worringly, at least don’t seem to stop the boys from doing likewise)… it all adds up to gay!
But at least they fight the stereotypes by also being strong, brave, masculine and smart. We’ll just have to forgive their periodic racist outbursts. You go, guys!
EDIT: Also, Hadji looks like Barack Obama.
OH MY GOD IF THERE ARE ANY MORE AFTERSHOCKS IN TOKYO MAGNITUDE 8.0 IMMA STAB SOMEONE. Less than 36 hours have passed in real-time, and they’re having noticeable aftershocks at a rate of one or two per episode. THAT. DOESN’T. HAPPEN. If you need Tokyo Tower to fall down (total ROTFL when that happened, by the way - poor Tokyo Tower can’t stay standing for nothing), then just let it fall down. Water pipes break and wash away the soil beneath it or something. There you go. You don’t need to have an aftershock to make something fall down.
I just got back from finally seeing the English dub of Ponyo. Life has perspired to keep me from going earlier and I had seen enough from the English dub, which I didn’t like, to make me wary of it. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared. The picture quality was so much better it was like I was seeing it for the first time. There are some very gorgeous scenes in this movie. Some of the dialogue was better because it explained some things better but at other points they changed it for no apparent purpose.
Of course, I have no clue about what was said in the original Japanese, all I have to compare it to is the fansub I have which was full of Engrish. Betty White and Lilly Tomlin weren’t nearly as good at playing the Grannies as I had expected. The Japanese VAs were much better. The others were alright. I noticed a few points where the original VAs were still there. For instance, at one point Sauce-Kay cries very hard and they use the original instead of having Frankie Jonahs do it. It’s quite heartfelt and I suppose Frankie wasn’t up to it.
My biggest gripe is that the original Japanese Ponyo song at the end isn’t even there but they do a fairly good hetero version of it in English before breaking out into a techno/hip-hop version that clashes violently with every second of the movie. Even taken out of the context of the film, it still sucks hard enough to turn you inside out with revulsion. The original Joe Hisaishi music is wonderful. He has done most of the scores for Miyazaki’s films.
All in all, I thought that they did a pretty good job of it.
Last weekend, Anime Network was showing all of it’s online anime streams for free to celebrate their seventh anniversary. There were some good titles in there. I wish they had done it for more than one day. I did manage to see one and a half shows that had been on my to-watch list for a long time.
The first was Gilgamesh. Good show, but it’s beginning to look a bit old school compared to newer stuff. That’s not really a bad thing when you consider that the past few seasons haven’t really had anything worth looking at.
The other half of a show I saw was Cromartie High School. This thing is hilarious in a Bobobobobobobbobobobobobo sort of way. For a story about a high school full of delinquents it is curiously nearly devoid of violence or criminal activity.
So anyway, one thing went well for me today. I wandered into Best Buy and was doing my usual which-anime-would-I-buy-if-I-had-a-huge-pile-of-money thing, when I noticed that they had the complete Cromartie High School set from ADV for only fifteen bucks. That got snapped up. Later, I thought, “Crap. I’ll bet it’s just subs - no dubs.” Checked. Nope, full dubs & subs and all twenty-six episodes. Score!
I just finished watching Frostii’s fansub of Lupin III vs Detective Conan (Case Closed), a made-for-TV movie which crosses over the two series. Very entertaining and lots of fun - I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Fun action and some good yuks thrown in for good measure. You don’t have to know much about the respective series to enjoy it, but it helps - as I knew a lot more about the former series than the latter, I had to read up a bit on Wikipedia to find out who some of the characters were.
Thanks for the tip, AB. I already had Lupin III vs Detective Conan and it was headed toward getting burned without my viewing it, so I made the time to watch it today. Not bad at all. The two shows blended well graphically and the story was good. I’ve been humming the Lupin III theme all day.
I have also been reading the Gantz manga. It has caught my attention just like the anime originally did. I was trapped for the whole thing right from the first chapter. It’s much the same as the anime but goes on a lot longer.
I don’t remember if I mentioned it here, but a while back I acquired and read both of the Moribito novels that have been translated into English. They’re very good. The first one covers the story from the anime and the second one is right after that where Balsa goes back to her home country for the first time since she was a kid. I hope the other eight books get translated.
I have a question for those of you who are reading the Bleach manga. It’s been bugging me for a while now. The anime is currently dealing with the Zanpakutou rebellion where all of the Shinigami’s Zanpakutou have acquired independent bodies and are fighting for their freedom. All through this I keep wondering about Kenpachi and his totally unused Zanpakutou but they have yet to put in an appearance. I’d think that this is an obvious and interesting sub-plot for this arc, but they seem determined to ignore it entirely. My question is does this ever come up? No details or spoilers, please. I just want to know if it comes up at all.
GrinfilledCelt:
I have a question for those of you who are reading the Bleach manga. It’s been bugging me for a while now. The anime is currently dealing with the Zanpakutou rebellion where all of the Shinigami’s Zanpakutou have acquired independent bodies and are fighting for their freedom. All through this I keep wondering about Kenpachi and his totally unused Zanpakutou but they have yet to put in an appearance. I’d think that this is an obvious and interesting sub-plot for this arc, but they seem determined to ignore it entirely. My question is does this ever come up? No details or spoilers, please. I just want to know if it comes up at all.
They somewhat addressed this very early on in the arc by saying “Oh and Kenpachi and his Vice-Captain arent back from their trip to wherever the fuck”
Also, I wish that Muramasa would end up being Kenpachi’s Zanpakutou. Doubt its going to happen, but it would be interesting. Either way, Im enjoying this story. I just wish it wasnt being put in as filler.
espyes:
They somewhat addressed this very early on in the arc by saying “Oh and Kenpachi and his Vice-Captain arent back from their trip to wherever the fuck”
Ah, you’re right. I vaguely remember that. What a cop out.
espyes: Also, I wish that Muramasa would end up being Kenpachi’s Zanpakutou. Doubt its going to happen, but it would be interesting. Either way, Im enjoying this story. I just wish it wasnt being put in as filler.
That is an interesting idea. I looked up Muramasa just now and found a Bleach forum thread on just that. I must have missed something because everyone there assumes that Muramasa is, himself, a Zanpakutou. I thought he was a Shinigami whose Zanpaxutou had the ability to win over other Zanpakutou. I’ve been thinking that Kenpachi’s Zanpakutou would be weak and sickly from disuse and psychotic from isolation.
I also found that Muramasa is the name of a famous sixteenth century swordsmith.
Now that I think about it, I surprised that no one had said anything about Tim Burton’s latest, 9. I liked it a lot but the ending was very dissatisfying.
