C3

Cube x cursed x curious is one of the new series of the Fall 2011 season.  Does it ever disappoint.  The show's plot can be summed up with a list of genre tropes: a mysterious girl with mysterious powers, a young man living by himself, a doting childhood friend, uninspired character designs, an annoying catch phrase ("Noroizo!"  [I'll curse you]), and so on and so forth.

Said mysterious girl (named Fear) is left all alone to her own devices and manages to destroy a good portion of the house before the boy returns from school.  But somehow the boy ends up apologizing to her for all of the destruction SHE wrought. 

All in all the show is nonsensical when it isn't boring, and it is boring about 95% of the time since everything in it is derived from other equally trite series.

The only redeeming quality is has is Fear's hair.  It is a beautiful opalescent blue that seems to have its own inner luminescence.  It is sad to see such gorgeous hair on a character in a show that I will never watch again.  The production values were wasted on C3.

Blood-C

I just finished watching the latter 6 episodes of Blood-C all in a row.  The first part of the series was standard monster-of-the-week fare, and I almost gave up on watching the rest because of that.  But after reading somewhere that the series had a complete shift in tone with episode 5, I decided to give it one last shot.  I really can't say much about the series without giving things away, but it had so many "OH!" moments throughout that I am in an emotional turmoil.  I swear I spent most of the last two episodes with my mouth hanging open.  Whether that was from awe or sheer terror I cannot really say.  If only the movie were coming out this month instead of in June.


Let me warn my extremely small audience (if I even have one) that it is an extremely gory series.  Nico Nico Douga censored out the worst of it (which I found distracting) but thanks to Gestalt, my brain was able to fill in the blanks with ease.  While I abhor censorship, I am hesitant to watch the uncensored version, as Blood-C has to be one of the most brutal anime series I have ever seen, and I have seen plenty of 1980s OAVs so I am no stranger to anime gore.

I hesitate to say more as I do not wish to ruin the experience for anyone.  Literally every detail is significant.

Fall Anime Season 2011

So tomorrow the new anime season starts!  I am most looking forward to the revamp of Hunter X Hunter (which airs tomorrow and is streaming on Crunchyroll) but there are some other interesting series in the works.  Fate/Zero also starts tomorrow, as does Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!.  I am eagerly anticipating a new Fate Series, not so sure about MWKS though.  I try to watch at least one episode of every new series, but sometimes that means I force myself to watch shows I know will be awful such as Manyuu Hikenchou.  But in the spirit of not judging a book by its cover, I felt I had to watch it before I formed an opinion on it.  This has led me to be pleasantly surprised by some series, such as Asobi ni Ikyo (renamed Cat Planet Cuties), which I had written off as another harem series when I took a look at the official website.  But I was wrong and it ended up being a favorite of mine.

Gundam Wing

I first saw this anime on the Cartoon Network many, many years ago.  I only caught an episode here and there so it didn't make much sense to me the first time, but now that I'm watching the series on DVD in order it's plain what a great series it is.  Even though I'm not much of a Gundam fan (I've only ever watched Gundam Seed and the first half of Gundam 00) it's quite clear that Sunrise went all out with this title.  Even though he is an antagonist, I have a lot of respect for Zechs.  He seems like a good person all things considered.  Granted, I haven't seen the entire anime yet so things could easily change, but so far I really like him.  The fact that he's voiced by Takehito Koyasu probably helps to sway my opinion.

No. 6

After watching Manyu Hikenchou anything would seem like a masterpiece, however No. 6 truly has the potential to be one of the best series starting this season.  The first episode introduces us to one of six seemingly utopian cities, where one of our heroes attends a very prestigious school and the other hero is an escaped convict trying to flee his pursuers.  The first hero is most definitely going to have his life turned upside-down on him, because in the opening and closing sequences his hair is white, whereas in the show itself it is a tawny brown. 

There are many mysteries so far, as we have only gotten a glimpse of the current status of the world and its hidden, dark underbelly.  Yet the suspense isn't distracting or confusing.  All in all, I am eager to see the next episode.

Manyuu Hikenchou

Don't watch this show.  That's really all I can say about it.  If I tried to say more this would quickly become a rant.

YuruYuri

I've been busy sampling the new shows of the Japanese summer anime season.  The first series I took in was one called YuruYuri.  It's about four girls in middle school who form a club that exists mainly as an excuse to goof off while fulfilling their school's requirement that they join a club.  It is based on a 4 panel manga by the same name.  It isn't a bad little show, it's just sort of lackluster.  If I had never seen K-ON, A Channel or Softenni (which aren't exactly amazing shows by themselves) maybe YuruYuri wouldn't have seemed as unoriginal.  The aforementioned shows all have four girls in a club or group of some sort who do cute or silly things that are supposed to amuse the viewer.  This formula is successful in that it's lighthearted with little to no plot, and the viewer does not have to invest themselves emotionally in the characters since they tend to echo common genre tropes.  As a result, this would probably be a show to watch when unwinding from a stressful day at work, but not one to watch if you are more inclined to like thought provoking series.

I didn't hate YuruYuri, nor did I think it was bad.  It's just not exceptional.  And since there are quite a few potential exceptional anime series airing this season, I feel my time is better served watching those.

Evangelion 2.22

Evangelion, whether it is the original series or the re-imagining, is not the kind of thing to watch when you're sick.  But that it what I found myself doing this evening, against my better judgment.  I am not going to review the title here, as I expect many other sites with writers far better than I will do just that.  There is no point in clogging up the internet more than is necessary.  The following are a few of my fever-muddled thoughts.

All in all the experience was a good one, with many "oh my gosh" and "nooooo!" moments scattered throughout.  Mari turned out to be a much better character than I expected her to be (when I first saw the character design for her I wasn't sure I could take a girl in a pink plugsuit seriously) but that just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its cover.  Rei also gets a personality overhaul, making her much more likeable, although die-hard fans of the original Rei may not take kindly to this change.

This movie differs much more from the original series than 1.11 did.  If only the third movie was finished.  It's going to be a long wait for me.  That's all for tonight, gotta sleep this cold thing off.


P.S  <SPOILERS>  

Shinji ends up threatening Nerv with destruction after the dummy plug override in 2.22, and my husband says Shinji does that in the original series as well.  I don't remember that happening in the original series.  Can anyone shed light on this?  I want to tell him he's wrong, heheheheh.

X Marks the Spot

For starters, I would like to start out with X (titled as X/1999 in America).  It is a manga written by CLAMP from 1992 to about 2002.  Alas, it remains unfinished, but more on that later.

The series focuses on two groups of powerful psychics and/or mages:  the Dragons of Heaven, who fight for humanity, and the Dragons of Earth, who wish to see humanity purged from the world.  CLAMP uses primarily Judeo-Christian symbols, but references to other faiths and beliefs (with an emphasis on dualism) can also be found.

Those familiar with CLAMP's works know to expect top-notch artwork and attractive character design.  X certainly delivers in this regard; there are many double page spreads that really allow the artwork to reach epic proportions.  This series is one of the best examples of how movement should be drawn. Whether it is a battle scene or feathers floating through the air, movement is gracefully detailed.  Manga sometimes rely too heavily on speed lines or multiple panels to trick the reader into seeing motion where there is none.  In X, however, characters leap across building tops blasting one another with energy or elemental spells in such a way that it is hard to believe that one is looking at a still image instead of watching an anime.

It is immeasurably frustrating that such a high quality work remains unfinished.  Reportedly, the increasing violence of the material caused the magazine it was originally serialized in to pull the plug.  CLAMP went on to pen other works while looking for another publisher willing to adopt the series.

Viz originally published all 18 volumes of X.  Those volumes are hard to find nowadays, but despair not!  Viz will republish the series in an omnibus edition. 

Volume 18.5 was included as an extra in the Japanese version of Newtype magazine in 2006.  It contains almost 100 pages of manga that was published before the series was cancelled.

If you have yet to read X, I urge you to do so.  Even though the story has not concluded it is still a worthy addition to any manga fan's library.

What have I gotten myself into?

Greetings!

I have finally decided to take the plunge and start blogging.  Opportunities to hone my writing skills have been few and far between, so I have decided to create opportunities instead of passively waiting for them to come along. 

To all two of you poor souls who happened to stumble across this shameless excuse for a blog, you will be subjected to my not so humble opinions on anime, manga and video games.  I may even review the occasional book if the fancy strikes me. 

Thanks for stopping by!