Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Top Ten Anime Format

After sitting down and trying to picture how I would write this project, I soon realized that trying to release this as one post would be excrutiatingly time consuming since I want to present each series in some detail surrounding characters, plot and presentation. Instead of releasing it as one post I will countdown to #1 by posting them in increments. This way I can build drama, anticipation and rivalry about my eventual top dog. Here are the rules I am putting in to limit my choices:

------> I will not include series that are still in production. Exceptions may be made to series that have been going on forever since I probably already have an accurate picture of what they entail.

------> Since I never watch dubbed anime, due to the fact that I abhor it and find Japanese voice acting infinitely better and more pleasant, I will obviously not take into account how bad or good the english dub is on any of these series.

------> The quality of the subbing or of the fansub release may differ from series to series and fangroup to fangroup. In light of this, I will not take the quality of the fansub into consideration when establishing rank. However, the overall impression a series leaves on me can be affected by the quality of its release or even the mood I was in when I watched it. I apologize in advance for any series that may have soured on me thru no fault of their own.

------> The positioning I assign to series is not meant to objectively rate anime. They are my favorite series TONIGHT and THAT I CAN REMEMBER. After watching hundreds of series some have left less of an impression on me despite being probably better than some of my selections. I wrote a list tonight and I will be faithful to it for the rest of the countdown for the sake of boundaries. Having said all that, I can guarantee that all the featured series were immensely enjoyable and you cannot go wrong by watching any of them.

Ok, so that's the format. Expect #10 to be posted in the next 48 hours. Start placing your bets!

Monday, November 13, 2006

For the sake of updating

I guess a post is in order since it's been over a week. I guess I'll start with a series that I don't believed I've mentionned yet (mostly because of its slow releases by the mendoi and shinsen joint team), INUKAMI, probably because it's not very good. Anyway, it has no real plot, so it's a episode by episode type filler series. The whole idea is that inukami's are guardian dog-god-people who serve their masters to defeat evil spirits and the like. Well, it's a ecchi-comedy series, which is the only reason I would watch something with the preceding plot. Anyway, the story centers on a womanizing master who couldn't get an inukami to serve him until he falls upon a powerful, yet disobedient inukami.

Ok, now that the introduction is out of the way, I will probably never review this anime again unless it starts developing a plot. Because reviewing filler episodes is an exercise in pointlessness. I only mentioned it because I watched an episode for the first time since I started the blog and I thought I would let you see that I don't watch simply good to great series, but that I filter out a lot of my weeklies before regurgitating them back at you.

Anyways back to the regular fare, Black Lagoon had an above-average release this week, one that probably showed the most Rock so far (though that's not saying lots). Anyways, the episode showed our party having their harbour offices sieged by the island's diverse and entertaining band of bountyhunters/freaks. Expect a marine rescue by Dutch in the next episode because the Rock and Levy team looked cooked at this point. Literally.

Bokura ga ita had a pretty boring episode. It's kinda obvious they milked the whole reconciliation by trying to stretch it into a whole episode. However, our protaganists are now officially back together so let's see how the series culminates. I found this whole breakup arc knocked the series down a few pegs and the whole love triangle was a wasted attempt since we never felt their getting back together was not an eventuality. Hopefully the series will finally get over Yano's late girlfriend and the show can finish with something fresh, possibly by introducing a new character to genuinely threaten the relationship, or at least eliminate the serie's stagnant feel by progressing the relationship.

Welcome to the NHK progressed on the pyramid triangle plotline to hilarious results. After realizing he was tricked, Satou and his friends confronted the class pres, only to get more deeply involved in the scheme. A second confrontation at the old classmate's home lets us discover she is working to support herself and her brother, who is a hikokomori that makes Satou pale in comparison.

There was no release for Tokimeki Memorial this week (probably for the best) so wait till next week for more news on that series. If you have stopped watching bleach because of its slow pace it might be worth your wild to watch the last few episodes since they featured conclusive fights between the lesser known shinegami and their enemies. Naruto is still all filler, with no sign of letting up soon, so stay far away from this series, at least until part two begins, whenever that is.

About the top ten anime list, I can't say I've put more then the occasional thought into it, but I've got a few days off coming up so I'm hopeful I can have it done by next week's reviews, no promises though. Till next time, this was fefifofum. (I promise I'll never sign off like that again)

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Two more episode reviews

Welcome to the NHK hits back with a hilarious episode that begins with Satou meeting his old class president. To make a long story short, she screws him into getting involved in some pyramid scheme and now an already cash-straped Satou finds himself burdened with a huge debt. I can't wait to see how (or if) he gets himself out of this one.

Bokura ga ita also faired better than it has as of late, highlighted by a partial reconciliation between our couple. This episode probably featured more character development of Yano than any other one so far, which is good because the female lead is kind of a bore. Especially interesting to learn !!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!! was that Yano was the illigitimate son of his mother and a married man, which partly explains his distrust of women.

Two better than expected episodes, lets hope it's a trend the rest of the week will follow.

By the by, I'm presently working on my top ten all time anime series so look forward and expect it to feature a healthy dose of school life anime series since I am particularly weak for them. ( If you haven't already noticed. Also, I'll try to feature more screenshots, I know I've been kind of lazy in that regard as of late.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

This week in anime!

Well this was not a particurlarly exciting week in anime. Two of my favorite shows Black Lagoon and Welcome to the NHK!, featured bland episodes though they both ended on cliffhangers. BL looks like it setting up a battle royal between the island's eccentric headhunters, so hopefully next week's episode will be enthralling. One thing about the new season I find grating is the overexposure of sister Eda while we have barely seen any of the BL crew besides Levy. I wish they would go back to their exciting boat chases and smuggling jobs.

Welcome to the NHK! ended with a call to our protaganist from his estranged class president after an episode of Satou reaching new levels of patheticness. Overall, I thought the MMORPG arc unoriginal and the Kaoru/Mia double identity contrived. Hopefully this new character will freshen up a great show.

After a surprisingly good first couple of shows, Tokimeki Memorial finally lived up to its low expectations with a boring o-bento related episode. After a start that was mostly interesting because of its off-the-wallness, TM goes with the most overused and irrelevant school romance anime mould theme, a o-bento related episode. On top of that, next episode looks to even top this one in ennuie with the introduction of a uber-boring character. This is what I get for getting optimistic about this series. Here's to hoping this series can be resuccitated with the promising upcoming sports-fest which is hopefully in the works sooner rather than later. The void left a month ago with the finale of the 2nd season of School Rumble is really felt when you watch a show like this.

Other than the new One Piece episodes are still running clip shows so that's pretty unwatchable at the moment. Well, let's pack it up for the week and hope for better in the future.