For the first time, for the last time....

I am terrible at these challenges I set for myself.

Really, really terrible.

Its kind of pathetic and sad really. All I needed to do was watch one little anime a day and blog about it for a year. One year out of dozens of years. And I didn't even make it a whole month.

Pathetic.

Really. Pa-the-tic!

But I am still determined to accomplish my goal of an anime every day for a year. I thought about cheating and counting what I've already posted, but in the end I determined that would be wrong. It wouldn't be honest. And I'm old enough at this point to want to be honest (at least for the most part).

So I'm starting this challenge over. As of January 1st, I will be attempting ONCE AGAIN to watch an anime (or animated series or film or whatever) every day for 365 days in a row.

I'm a big girl, I can handle this. I will learn self discipline and control this year.

Watch me.

UPDATE: Okay, January 1st didn't work out for several reasons, so I'm starting on February 1st instead. It is only a month behind. I'm sure it will still be awesome. ;)

#28: BraveStar

Why don't I remember this cartoon?

This is one badass cartoon.

It has hill billy aliens smoking cigarettes and carrying laser guns.

It has an anthropomorphic horse cracking bad jokes and carrying a laser gun.

It has this crazy creepy bad guy who looks like John Blye from Brisco County Jr which doesn't even make sense as that show came way later but it is still the reference that popped into my head. Not surprisingly he also carries a laser gun.

And it has derelict space ships that look like sunken old skool sea ships, rotting away in the dim lighting of the backwoods planet that serves as the main setting of the show. I'm pretty sure even they have laser guns, and they are all dripping with veiny wiring stuff and leaning precariously to the side.

You'd think I'd be able to remember something this awesome. I can remember all of the crap cartoons I used to watch, and even the cartoons that I thought were brilliant at the time and now can see that they were really crap.

But I don't remember BraveStar. I guess its possible I didn't watch it when I was little. But that seems kind of preposterous really.

Anyways, so yeah, there is all this badass stuff going on with aliens and gun fights and talking horses and concerts with magical life ending guitars and this whole Texas theme thats kinda cute really in how stereotypical it is. This cartoon is fun to watch, even now that I'm all adult and cynical and find She-Ra kind of annoying (my 5 year old self weeps but my 30 year old self doesn't care and just tells her to shut the eff up).

#27: Voltron

Here is another show with so much potential to be awesome, but somehow it doesn't manage to live up to that potential. I think its the horrible voices. Like He-Man, this show suffers from some of the worst American dubbing I have EVER heard. Sven and Pidge and that other guy are all main characters and talk all the time and they sound horrible and I want to scream and hit them whenever they open their mouths.

Also, no one hooks up with the princess properly. Why not? She's pretty hot all things considered. And kinda tough. She even gets her own robot lion and her own seat in the Voltron after a while. So with all this girl power going on, shouldn't someone be trying to hook up with her? Maybe the red team leader guy? He has dumb hair but he looks like he could otherwise be a handsome love interest.

Maybe I'm watching this show the wrong way. I know I liked it when I was little. And the giant robot made up of smaller robots and piloted by a team of perky young heroes has become something of a ubiquitous cultural reference, so lots of someone else's must have liked it too.

But watching it now it kinda sorta stinks. And not just because its so old skool looking. I love old skool animation. I would have nothing against it for that.

Its the story that sucks. Its dragged out ridiculously long and there is too much action and not enough dialogue or tone. The characters are basically the same people when the series starts as they are when it ends, which means the character development is practically nonexistent.

And those voices are really, REALLY, annoying.

I hate seeing things from my youth that I've built up to legendary status come crashing down in my adulthood. It makes me sad and it makes me feel old and cynical and no fun.

#26: Darker Than Black

I don't remember anything about this show.

I remember watching it with TheBoyfriend. It shows up as Recently Watched on Netflix. The pictures looked vaguely familiar when I went searching for an image to include with this post.

So I know I watched it.

But I don't remember anything about it.

What does that say about me? What does that say about this show?

Is it so generic and boring that it isn't memorable? No, that can't be right. I always remember the really boring ones, so that (hopefully) I don't make the mistake of watching them again.

Was I watching while drunk? Medicated? Concussed?

This is the craziest dang thing. I don't know why I can't remember what this anime was about. I'm looking at pictures trying to figure out what happened in the episode I watched ...

... there was a guy ... and a girl ... and a telescope ... and a creepy No-Face mask ... but not at the same time, and I'm not remembering those things in the proper sequence ...

Dammit.

Think think think think brain. Hrm.

Soooo, I think there was some mutanty type people with special powers doing not nice things, and the No-Face mask guy was fighting them, and then there was a kid renting an apartment where this chick lived and she was a target of some secret organization because she was associated with some bad people, but not necessarily the bad mutants. The kid with the apartment also had a telescope and weird blank eyes and I think he was the No-Face guy but I'm not totally sure.

And that's all I got. I'm not sure I could recommend this to anyone as I'm still not sure why I don't remember most of it. But as I only watched one episode and I'm not sure I'm operating with a full deck these days, don't take my word for it.

#25: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Oh. My. God.

I am not an OMG kind of girl. I find that rather annoying really.

But I can't help it. This show kind of deserves the annoying OMG treatment.

Because seriously - SERIOUSLY - the voices are ATROCIOUS.

Cringer has to have one of the top ten most irritating voices in all of animation. Every time he goes to open his mouth I want to poke something sharp into my ears just to put myself out of my misery.

I'm not joking. It is really that bad.

And He-Man's voice is way way WAY too high pitched. He is supposed to be this big brutish barbarian (haha, alliteration makes me laugh) and his voice sounds like some jackass d-bag from the white collar modern world. I don't buy it, I don't believe it, and I don't like it.

At all.

No sir, I don't like it (thank you Mr. Horse from Ren and Stimpy, that quote comes in so handy so often).

I can't believe I ever watched and liked this show, even if I was a little kid when I did. But to be honest I'm not sure I ever really DID watch He-Man. I think I might have been a She-Ra only kind of girl. And even She-Ra pissed me off, cause they did that lame thing where she was He-Man's sister so they couldn't hook up (though I've read fanfic where that whole being twins thing didn't cause any hinderance in the hooking up department, and there was even this one where Swiftwind and BattleCat....but I digress). The stories are silly and the animation is so old skool and the characters are hokey and the bad guy just doesn't scare me.

But this was a part of my childhood (I think sort of) and its fun to watch it again and re-experience it and discuss the toys and other merchandise with The Boyfriend. He had the Grayskull playset. I want the Grayskull playset right now. I could act out the cartoon, with ALOT better voices.

Its Been Forever...

I haven't blogged in forever but I HAVE been watching anime.

I'm at least a good girl 50% of the time. Not that it matters in the world of blogging. But I'm making a point of it anyways because it makes me feel better.

Anyways, the point is that I haven't forgotten my (self-given) mission. I'm still determined to watch a year's worth of anime - within a year. I just have to get back in the habit of blogging after I've watched stuff. And of course get caught up on blogging all of the stuff I've already watched that I haven't blogged about yet.

Which includes lots of anime.

But also includes lots of cartoons from my childhood that have suddenly become available on Netflix. Like He-Man and Brave Starr and Voltron. They may not really be ANIME and I may have seen them before when I was little (waaaaay too young to remember) but I'm watching and blogging about them anyways.

Cause I can. Its my blog and I'll write/watch what I want too.

So there.

#24: Hell Girl

This show is addictive.

I picked it to watch kind of randomly from Netflix, not really intending to watch more than one episode.

But then I got sucked in.

By the story, by the setting, by the characters, by the music.

Next thing I'm eight episodes in and I didn't even realize it. Boyfriend came in and asked what I was watching and I was explaining it to him and realized that I had become so absorbed I hadn't even noticed nearly four hours passing by.

I had things to do around the house - lawn to mow and dishes to clean and garbage to take out and carpet to vacuum.

And I did none of that because I was watching Hell Girl instead.

Stinking addictive show. With its haunting music and mysterious mythology and dark stories and well-cast voice actors. Even the episodic nature of it was fascinating. Each episode had a new character who was dealing with someone who was abusing them or stalking them or had wronged them in some horrible fashion. Because of this the main character would call on Ai, the Hell Girl, to take their souls directly to hell.

The premise should have gotten old pretty fast, as it sounded like just another type of morality play.

But it wasn't, and it didn't.

Each episode was different in not only the characters but in how the good guys moved on, how the bad guys got their comeuppance, and even whether any kind of moral was learned at all.

In the space of one afternoon Hell Girl has become one of my favorite anime series. Impressive when that list contains the likes of Ghost in the Shell and Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I hope the next episodes hold up to the awesomeness of the first eight. Though that may mean I never leave my television again.

#23: King of the Hill

Hank Hill sounds like Anderson from Beavis and Butthead.

I had forgotten that over the years. I watched King of the Hill much more consistently than I did Beavis and Butthead (probably because it was on basic television) and things about it stuck in my mind alot better.

Partly because it was such a well written show. Consistently funny but able to throw in some more serious and mature themes once in a while.

And partly because I grew up in Texas and felt like I really knew the people that populated the town of Arlen. I met them at the store, spent weekends with them out at our cabin in the boonies, and even lived with them when my mom married herself a good ol' Texas boy.

Watching King of the Hill was like watching little bits and pieces of lives that I knew - but skewed toward the much more ridiculous and fun.

Mike Judge was almost the Seth McFarlane of my generation. He created shows that were controversial, remarkable, quotable, and memorable. Watching them is fun and easy and you can do it over and over again without getting bored.

Watching King of the Hill from the beginning is a great opportunity to see the evolution of animation in the 90's and 2000's, but you don't watch it just because its animated. You watch because its a great television show - animated or otherwise.

And because Hank Hill sounds like Anderson. But I doubt he would ever be stupid enough to let Beavis and Butthead paint his house, or mow his yard, or "hang out" in his trailer.

#22: Girls Bravo

Sometimes my boyfriend makes no sense to me.

I know what kinds of anime he likes to watch. Usually they include lots of action, sword-fighting, guns, things going BOOM!

His favorites are Bleach and Black Lagoon and Hellsing Ultimate and Afro Samurai.

They are full of bloodshed and cursing and adult situations and graphic everything.

They are not full of moe chicks and fan service and boys with allergies to girls. They are not super cute. They do not contain overusage of the color pink. And they do not make your teeth ache with how saccharin sweet they are.

Which Girls Bravo DOES.

Girls Bravo is full of all of the things that the anime my boyfriend usually watches excludes. There is cutesy nudity (its an anime thing) and a guy who gets rashes from contact with girls and exceptionally violent girls who beat up every guy they see and frequent fan service and high-pitched voices saying sugary sweet things.

So why the heck my boyfriend picked this from the wide selection of anime titles available from Netflix is beyond my comprehensive abilities.

Of course neither of us could manage more than one episode per sitting, so at least I don't have to worry about him having completely lost his mind yet.

But if I come home to find him watching it again I might have to call the guys with the straight jackets to come over.

#21: Beavis and Butthead

"Butt munch" is still a part of my vocabulary. Especially when I'm feeling particularly snarky and immature.

When I have too much sugar and am feeling hyped up, I will be sure to throw a few "I am Cornholio! I need teepee for my bunghole"s into the conversation. I do not pull the back of my underwear up over my head, but I will put my hands up in fists.

And when I am in a position to laugh at something that only a high school boy would laugh at, I do it in a very "huh huh, huh huh" kind of way. Especially if I'm laughing at something that involves boobs.

Because no matter how old I get or mature I become or learned I like to pretend I am, deep down I am now and will always be a product of my generation. A generation that grew up on Saved by the Bell, MTV with music videos, The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and Beavis and Butthead.

We didn't have cable most of the time while I was growing up, and when we did it was usually during periods where my mother would restrict our television watching. So I didn't see Beavis and Butthead consistently. But I did see it. Whenever I had control of the TV and my mom or stepdad weren't around I'd flip to an episode. When the feature film came out I saw it in the theater. And when re-runs played in later years I'd tune in for "old times sake."

Watching now from the very beginning has been fun and sad at the same time. Its great to see the crappy hand drawn animation, and hear those obnoxious and inapproriate laughs, and remember what it was like back in the day when this show was the most controversial and awesome thing on television. Its also awful to think of how many years ago it was when I was young and impressionable enough for someone to get upset that I was watching it in the first place.

I hate being old.

#20: Toy Story 3

There is a rule, an unwritten one at least, that says the third movie in a series shouldn't be anywhere near as good as the first. It should lack plot development, or character development, or production values, or authenticity. It should be direct-to-DVD or pay-per-view. It should only be talked about to be laughed at and scorned for not living up to the greatness of its predecessors.

A few third films break this rule - Star Wars: Return of the Jedi comes immediately to mind. But many don't (Jaws 3-D, Star Trek: Search for Spock, A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Warriors to name a few). Especially when they have a Disney logo plastered on them somewhere (Aladdin 3 anyone?).

So by all accounts, Toy Story 3 should be bad. Awful even.

And yet it isn't. Because its Pixar and they don't release bad films. It means something to them to work their butts off producing the best quality animated movies they can.

Toy Story 2 was better than an sequel had a right to be, and Toy Story 3 (in my opinion) was even better.

I laughed. I cried. I apologized profusely to all of the toys I left alone and forgotten over the years of my growing up.

Sure some of the elements were the same as elements from the last film. And sure the plot was relatively predictable in its intentions.

It was still a beautiful, touching, bittersweet, hilarious, gorgeous film. It was the perfect send-off to the Toy Story franchise. And a heart-wrenching but honest end to the story of Woody the toy cowboy doll and Andy the kid who loved him.

It may have been a third installment in a franchise, but Toy Story 3 managed to be its own wonderful and watchable film.

19: Gurren Lagann

Yoko of Gurren Lagann is one of those popular cosplays you see at anime conventions that you hope will only be worn by women of a certain body type. It basically consists of a bikini top, short shorts, and a big gun. It was one of the first really skin baring costumes I saw at a convention, and one I've seen over a dozen times since. But it wasn't until after Sakuracon this year that I took the time to a) find out what anime the cosplay was from, and 2) watch an episode to see if it was any good.

And even though I really hoped Gurren Lagann would turn out to be one of those horrible, stupid shows that the "kids today" are into for no good reason except to look cool, in the end it turned out to be alot better than expected.

In fact it was pretty funny. I even laughed more than once, and not that "this is so horrible I must laugh or lose my mind" laugh like when I watched 2010: Moby Dick (not an anime, just a really REALLY bad live-action scifi/fantasy movie). But an honest laugh for something that I honestly found funny.

Besides moments of humor there were also big guns and monsters and mech-type things and interesting characters. The setting was unique for the most part (like I said, there were mech-type things which aren't really very unique at all) and the dubbed voices weren't super awful.

I could actually see why the characters (or at least the scantily clad one) were so popular with the cosplaying crowd. It might hurt me (and my deep down adult anime fan snobbish heart) a little to admit it, but there you go.

#18: Code Monkeys

Another American animation series, Code Monkeys is designed to look more like an old skool 8-bit video game than a cartoon. It has life and health bars, giant pipes for passing between levels, and even Pause menus.

But unlike most old skool 8-bit video games (at least that I can remember) Code Monkeys is absolutely filthy and completely offensive and hysterically funny.

Characters sleep in dead donkeys, they pee on their office carpeting, they shoot at each other with automatic weapons, they have intimate naked relationships with dolls, they kidnap small Asian children and force them to test prototype video games, they spend company team building exercises in state prisons.

If you can think of something people probably shouldn't do if they want to stay on the moral/inoffensive/societally acceptable high ground, it has probably appeared on this show.

And it was funny. And viewers laughed. And somewhere far-right conservatives were shocked and appalled.

And that was probably funny too.

And I'm Back!!!

I hate when personal and/or family and/or financial drama happens at the same time as vacation. It makes it difficult to have fun without feeling guilty.

It also makes time seem to pass by more quickly than you realize, until suddenly its been three weeks since you updated your blog and you can't remember how that happened.

But I'm back now and ready to get caught up. I'm about a million anime behind now in my goal for the year, but I won't let that stop me.

At least I saw lots of anime characters at Sakuracon in Seattle.

I'm Still Here!

I've been on vacation for the last week and a half.

Whenever I'm on vacation I find myself losing track of time so badly that eventually I'm not even sure what day it is anymore.

Such has been the case this time. I've been around and I've watched some anime and some animated movies and some animated shows, but I haven't gotten around to posting about them because I can't really remember what has happened from one hour to the next.

But I'm working on a list of stuff I've watched recently so I can update as soon as I get back home next week.

Right now I'm in Seattle for Sakuracon, the PREMIER anime convention in Washington state. :)

Yes, I have a cosplay costume to wear. Whether or not I'll have the guts to wear it is another thing.

Yes, I'll be watching some anime in the viewing rooms. Whether or not it will be anything new and exciting or just something to fill the time, has yet to be determined.

Yes, I've been drinking today. And yesterday. And most of last weekend.

So what, I'm on vacation. Its awesome. The end.

#17: The Princess and the Frog

I realize this is American animation, not Japanese anime, and that its geared toward children and family viewers instead of more mature audiences like most stuff I watch. But I LOVED this movie. So it counts.

It was beautifully animated and brilliantly written. In fact it was one of the best films to come out of Disney in a long time.

And it was old skool hand drawn style. I miss hand drawn animation.

And I've missed watching and falling madly in love with Disney movies. I was raised on them. I saw them in the theaters, owned all the toys from them, reenacted scenes from them in my living room, knew all the songs from them, read all the storybook tie-ins of them.

I believed in them. Even though they gave an unrealistic view of women and men and princesses and princes and the roles that each play in the world. Even though they were mostly fantasy fairy tales that all ended in happily ever afters, and seemed to say that girls would only live that happily ever after if they found their Prince Charmings and married them, I still believed in them.

They were bright and shiny and happy and musical and fantastical and wonderful and I loved them.

But I grew up and became more cynical and analytical and stopped believing so much in fairy tales. I didn't lose my love for Disney altogether. But my views on them changed. Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and Snow White were out because the main female leads were weak and dependent. Mulan and Beauty and the Beast were in because their heroines were strong and intelligent and did what they needed to do.

Like the heroine of The Princess and the Frog.

She is strong minded. She is hard working. She isn't wishing on stars, she is holding two jobs to earn the money to make her dreams come true. She is realistic and still sweet and beautiful and drawn in Disney princess style.

I liked her alot. Almost as much as Mulan (though the Chinese soldier girl is still my ultimate Disney heroine). I liked her world and her music and her goofy, useless Prince Charming, and her Cajun firefly friend and her Jazz playing alligator friend and everything.

I laughed. I cried. I laughed some more. I cried again. I gushed about it online. Other people gushed back online. It was lovely.

The whole experience watching it was lovely.

#16: Basilisk

I liked the manga better.

The anime was drawn okay but the voices were annoying and the story was different.

This is one of my fave manga ever so I was disappointed that the anime had been changed. It wasn't necessary. The story was already deep and complex and dark and intense and beautiful and sad.

It didn't need anything added to it or tweaked. It was already one of the best re-imaginings of the "Romeo and Juliet" story I've ever read. It had all the familiar elements - a boy and girl in love though they come from dueling families, a world torn apart by the bloody brutality the dueling families cause. Then it had added in the whole rival ninja clans fighting for the future of their country element. So there was nothing really that needed to be changed.

But I guess that is what happens when manga become anime, or anime become manga. Things change.

I do have to say that, in its favor, Basilisk had the grossest "death" faces of any show I've watched. And considering how many people die in this show, it was a point brought home again and again. Every time someone was strangled or stabbed or beaten they would make these really horrible, distorted, ugly faces.

Violent deaths shouldn't be pretty, but good grief. This show takes them to a whole new level of disturbing.

#15: Casshern Sins

Casshern has a particularly silly looking super suit. It's skin tight and spacey looking, with a crest on the head and a funky "C" on his chest. It reminds me of Gatchaman actually, only without the fancy cape.

I'm not sure how seriously I can take someone when they are wearing an outfit that goofy.

But this series obviously wants me to take it seriously. It starts off with a ruined world and a bunch of robot/armor guys trying to kill the main character because he killed someone else and caused all the bad stuff in this world. His name gets said ALOT and fighting happens ALOT and wind blows ALOT and its all very dark and moody and serious.

And then the world changes and things are bright - too bright - and the music is cute and there are little girls with giant eyes running around being anime adorable (which is halfway between cute and annoying) and Casshern has hair even sillier than his costume. And its still all moody and serious but with this fuzzy warm undercurrent.

At least until things get all fighting action serious again.

This show is weird.

I'm kinda surprised really at how weird it is. Its been a while since I've watched anything I would label that way.

But I will for Casshern Sins.

From the rocky/mushroom landscapes to the giant spiky hair and the abundance of robots, to the silly super suit and the inability of any character to make a straightforward answer to his questions, this show is really, really weird.

I think I like it.

#14: Heroic Age

Is Funimation the only anime production company left in the world?

Nothing against them really, but they are the only name I'm seeing on the anime I've been watching lately.

Whatever happened to Manga, or AnimeEgo, or AnimeWorks?

I'm not crazy, I know those production companies existed at one point. I've got a bunch of Manga videos on my shelves.

So where did all those other companies go? Did Funimation eat them? That wasn't very nice if they did.

Oh well, so yeah, this show had animation in it and stuff. There was a glowing princess floating around and a guy with silly hair fighting desert squid and epic narrating giving some backstory. The silly hair kid talked to a computer and thanked trees and an old fella growled alot and there was some mobile suits cause there was spaceships and for some reason in anime those are usually synonymous. There was also something that looked alot like an Eva, though of course it couldn't be an Eva because this is the wrong show. But it certainly LOOKED and even sounded like an Eva.

Basically, this didn't seem like anything new and exciting and different and it didn't exactly hold my interest, but it wasn't bad. Just kinda .... boring. A mish-mash of stuff I'd seen before done slightly (or more then slightly) better.

And there was alot of CGI stuff that I found unappealing. I miss hand drawn animation. I really do.

Sometimes CGI is woven rather seamlessly with the more traditional looking animation, but not always. And this was a show where it didn't flow together so well. And it bothered me.

But maybe it gets better. May as well try another episode or two to see.

Its probably a good idea to get along with Funimation and its anime, since they look like they are taking over the world and everything.

Oh Crap

I did it again. I put off watching something until the middle of the night and then I fell asleep without thinking about it again.

So I'm behind.

I'm always behind. Story of my life.

I think it might be best to change the Ultimate and Most Important Goal of my Anime 365 mission. Instead of watching anime every day for a year, I'll spend a year trying to watch anime every day, ultimately make sure I see 365 new things, and talk about anime as often as possible.

So its still a year of anime, just not ... what I originally planned.

Now without all of the pressure (THE PRESSURE!!!) I should have no problems.

Right?

Right. Yay!

Somehow, I get the feeling I may have just totally jinxed myself.

Crap.

Another Weekend Down

This weekend was spent mostly watching episodes of Afro Samurai and Last Exile. Nothing new to report, but those shows were really good. Finished out the Afro Samurai series but still have the movie to watch. Last Exile is a bit longer so it will be a while before I've finished it. Its good though so I'll keep watching.

Been watching alot of MST3K movies this weekend. Its a thing with me and the boyfriend. Part of how he woo'd me in the beginning was showing me MST3K. This time we saw A Touch of Satan ("This is where the fish lives!"), Warrior of the Lost World ("Megaweapon!"), and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (I can't even begin to comment on this one). All awesome, as usual.

#13: Last Exile

A million and a half years ago (around 2003 I think) my BFF gave me a mixed CD of anime songs that she liked. At the time she was watching several series online including Berserk, 12 Kingdoms, and Last Exile. The CD had no labels on it and did not come with a listing of what songs went with what anime, so I had to guess or hope that I would see something they were on, or try to get my wonderful, amazing, awesome, but sometimes rather forgetful BFF to remember what was what. I loved that CD and I loved pretty much every song on it, even though I never did find out (at the time) what shows they were associated with. And over the years since then I've gotten to be surprised and excited while watching anime because every once in a while a series will pop up that just happens to have one or more of those songs as their opening/ending themes.

Such was the case with Last Exile. Both the opening and ending themes were on that CD, and were in fact two of my favorite songs from that CD. I must have listened to them thousands of times, and used them in more anime-themed mix CDs over the years. I like to make soundtracks for novels that I'm writing - to help get me in the right frame of mind/mood - and I know those songs were on several of those soundtracks as well.

So when I heard them on the anime I was thrilled. Beyond thrilled, super bouncy excited even. The boyfriend kept staring at me like I'd grown a second head. I tried to explain why those songs had such an effect on me, but he seemed to still think I was crazy.

Oh well.

He's been obsessing over making a giant, paper mache teddy bear head that he can wear, ever since he watched Afro Samurai.

I'm the crazy one? Pffft.

Anyways, so the music for Last Exile is fabulous and worth watching for almost on its own. Oh yeah, speaking of crazy, lately the boyfriend has become disillusioned with his fave series, Bleach, and has taken to watching just the opening and closing credits for the theme songs, and skipping the rest of the episodes.

Seriously, I'm crazy? Me?

Whatever. Its obvious he's really the one with mental issues.

But moving on.

Last Exile has a pretty cool look to it - lots of flying ships that look more like flying engines than planes (there are no wings or propellers or anything you would normally associate with a flying vessel). Its reminiscent of steam punk without the ... steam. The story is complex and serious for the most part, though a bit of humor shines through during moments between the two main characters.

It certainly isn't a dark and graphically violent show like Afro Samurai. But it isn't bizarrely silly amidst creepy and serious like Corpse Princess either. It rests more in the middle, with a serious story set amidst warring nations, chivalric gun battles, and honor among children and pilots, that also happens to include some light-hearted teasing between heroic characters who have to live real lives along with their fantasy ones.

And it has great music. It totally gets points for that.

#12: Afro Samurai

I've become complacent in my anime viewing.

I've watched so many soft, cute, funny, and pretty anime lately that I've forgotten what anime has the potential to be.

Anime can be bloody, and ugly, and mean.

It can be graphically violent and epically nasty and brutally dark.

It can be Afro Samurai, the tale of a badass swordsman cutting an extremely bloody path towards vengeance.

And when I say extremely bloody, I mean EXTREMELY bloody. When heads and arms and fingers and knees get sliced and diced, the bloody spray from the wounds is immediate and obvious and brilliantly red so you can't possibly miss it.

This isn't a show that pulls punches or pretends that sword fighting isn't extremely violent and bloody. Characters don't get hacked and slashed and then pop back up again, wrapped in tight white bandages and ready to fight another day.

Characters here get their bits cut off and then they are dead dead dead.

Well, for the most part.

There are a couple of characters that drag themselves back up and are basically put back together. One becomes a living (sort of) doll - fully articulated and wearing a giant, googly-eyed teddy bear head (which is creepy and much scarier than it sounds). The other is basically one step away from being a god anyways, so its no big deal for him to just pop his almost-chopped-off head back on.

But for the most part, when someone gets hacked at by a sword, it kills them and they stay dead and its bloody and gross and hardcore.

This whole show is hardcore. From the chain-smoking, lemonade-drinking, revenge seeking titular main character, to the gun-slinging, heads-taking, creepy lisping main bad guy. The language is hard, the fighting is harder, and the characters are hardest of all.

Its awesome and unique and nasty and definitely not for children and one of the best things I've seen in a while. Even if it did make me want to vomit a little after watching it.

#11: Golgo 13

I picked this show because my boyfriend was sitting on the couch next to me and it seemed like something he might like. It had guys in suits and naked chicks and guns.

Definite win, right.

Right?

Not exactly.

Because apparently the guns were not realistic enough for him. The bad guys had bad aim because they weren't utilizing the "collapsible stock on the Uzi properly" and the scope on the sniper rifle that the main character used was "much too small to see two kilometers away with."

Yep, the boyfriend was nit-picking.

He said the Japanese are always so "super anal about getting the exact details of their guns correct" that he wasn't going to accept an anime where the guns weren't .... perfect.

He was so nit-picking.

I'll nit-pick about things, but usually they are details in the plot or the voices of the characters or, you know .... something that seems important.

Not the details of the guns, or the details of the way the characters are using the guns.

It was kind of irritating really.

I didn't much enjoy the episode. It may have been because the boyfriend didn't like it and was picking at it. It may have been because it was just guys and guns and naked chicks and that isn't usually my bag.

I'll try another episode to make my final decision.

But I won't be doing it while the boyfriend is around to nit-pick.

#10: Corpse Princess

(I actually watched this last night but got into a marathon game of Tetris right after so never got around to blogging it. Damn you, Tetris, with your evil, addictive ways! I wish I could quit you!)

It never ceases to amaze me that some anime series can have such dark concepts, and such icky scenes, and then also have characters who act completely silly.

It seems like that shouldn't work. The dark stuff and the silly stuff should cancel each other out.

But they don't. Take Corpse Princess for example. Here you have dead people/demon things known as shikabane running around killing people, and a dead person/demon thing girly girl in a sailor suit running around killing them. And at the same time you have a boy with silly hair arguing with a monk about nekked girl magazines.

Two very different plot elements, thrown together and shaken up.

They should slide against each other like oil and water.

Instead they melt into a large glob of intense bizarreness that actually works.

This show is GOOD. Surprisingly so. The dubbing on the Funimation version isn't always great (a running problem with Funimation releases, I've noticed) but the story is solid and the characters are fascinating.

Just one episode in and I'm already hooked.

I shouldn't be, but I am.

Strange.

A Brief Update...

Just a little update to report what I've finished watching of the shows I started watching for this blog (that makes sense, right?):

Venture Brothers, Season 4-Volume 2. Watched all episodes the night I got the DVD. Couldn't help myself. Love it so much. I wanna take it behind the school building and get it pregnant.* Seriously, everyone should be watching and loving Venture Brothers as much as I do. I can't wait for the next season. Might have to suck it up and get cable back just to watch it in first run.

Hetalia-Axis Powers, Season 1. This show is insane but adorable, ADD but highly-watchable, intelligent but downright ridiculous. I want to cosplay as Italy now. I spent part of the weekend trying to find a costume place that could make me the outfit by Sakuracon. It looks like a no go this year unless I want to piece something together that probably won't look exactly right. But next year definitely. I just need someone to play Germany for me and its on.


*Joke courtesy of Tracy Jordan and 30 Rock.

#9: Popotan

Remember when I said Hetalia wasn't at all like I expected?

Well I didn't have the same experience with Popotan. It was, in fact, exactly what I expected.

It was crazy girls with big boobs and puffy-thing obsessions. It was sudden nudity and embarrassed boys with bright red cheeks. It was robots in maid outfits and cute ambiguous animal companions. It was brightly colored and cutely voiced and hyperactive and adorable.

It also had random moments of seriousness that were unexpected and more profound than they might have been otherwise, but still wrapped up in a candy colored package of sweetness and popotan (dandelions).

I'm not sure I understood what the point was, or saw any direction in the story line, but I'm not sure it matters.

There were rainbows, and sparkly things, and flower petals, and Xmas trees, and giant breasts, and a DDR style theme song, and puffy cheeks, and a girl in love with a cow udder and myriad other things to distract me from the lack of a real plot.

And sometimes that is all you really need in an anime.

Nothing New to See Here

Its the weekend and I'm feeling lazy. I'm in the mood to watch more episodes of anime series I've already started instead of starting entirely new ones.

I'm still watching anime every day, just not anything completely new.

Instead I'm catching up on Season 1 of Hetalia. That show remains bizarre and crazy but awesome and fun. If I was going to cosplay a character it would probably be Italy. I think I could be that annoying. I just need to get the boyfriend to agree to go as Germany.

I'm also catching up on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd Gig. I need to work on my Kusanagi personality, as I AM cosplaying her at Sakuracon this year. Well, if my costume ever shows up that is.

A little Gunslinger Girl and Baccano are rounding out my viewing sessions. Boyfriend loves Gunslinger Girl because of how accurate they are with the guns. I love Baccano because Isaac and Miria are hilarious and cute. Its a win-win for both of us, I guess.

Haven't decided if I'll watch anything else yet, as I'm currently addicted to the BBC series Coupling so am devoting some of TV time to that. And I downloaded Super Mario Kart and Tetris Party to the Wii and I'm pretty sure Tetris is the most addictive thing in the universe.

#8: Venture Brothers

Venture Brothers Season 4 was released onto DVD in two volumes.

Volume 1 was released months and months ago. We bought it, watched it, loved it, watched some episodes again, and watched Seasons 1-3 in our Venture Brothers fervor.

Then we waited. And waited. And waited for Volume 2 to come out.

My boyfriend handled the waiting better than I did. He has patience when it comes to these kinds of things.

I really don't. But I managed to survive until Volume 2 release day with my sanity basically in tact.

And then I went out in all my Venture Brothers buying excitement to finally own those last episodes of Season 4 and I couldn't find it.

I. COULDN'T. FIND. IT.

I went to Fred Meyer and no luck. I tried Best Buy and came up empty handed. I scoured the shelves at Borders and found nothing.

This was about the point in the day when I started to go a little crazy. I had waited months - MONTHS - for this DVD to come out and now it couldn't be found. I wanted it, NEEDED IT, and it was a no show.

That was unacceptable. I was going to find it and watch it and love it DAMMIT and no lack of purchasing apptitude by retail outlets was going to deny me that.

So at midnight I made my way into Wal-Mart and marched to the DVD section and demanded of the first employee that I saw to locate my cartoon for me. And he found it!

YES!!!

It was mine! Mine! MINE!!!

Finally finally I was able to take home those last awesome episodes of Season 4 and the boyfriend and I watched them all back-to-back in one sitting. We were amused, we were shocked, we were amazed. It was awesome.

And then it was over. All of that waiting. All of that searching and hunting and failing and finally finding. And it was over.

It was worth the headache and heartache. Totally worth it.

But still .... my life feels kind of empty now.

#7: Gunslinger Girl

There is something incredibly disturbing and creepy about little girls shooting giant guns.

Little girls should be playing with dolls and eating sweets and talking about how they'll talk about boys one day.

They should not be whipping giant machine guns out of guitar cases and annihilating rooms full of fully grown men. They should not be assassinating people with expressionless faces and a lack of guilt.

Even if they are some kind of cyborgs trained as ultimate killing tools, it is still wrong.

Disturbing.

Creepy.

Not okay.

Which is probably why the basic plot of Gunslinger Girl includes just that: little girls in cute little girl outfits shooting giant guns and blowing people's heads off.

Because the idea is creepy but also fascinating. And it is presented well. This anime is drawn in a much more realistic fashion than most of the other shows I've been watching lately. There aren't bizarre hairdos or giant boobs or super powered shape-shifting dragon girls. There are just little girls with cute faces and sad pasts who kill people with big guns.

Its so so wrong, but .... also somehow right.

#6: Strike Witches

If I was fighting against evil alien attackers, I would want to wear pants.

Call me crazy, that is just how I feel.

If someone is going to be shooting laser canons at me, I want to be wearing as much protective covering as possible. And that includes pants. Maybe even jeans, or khakis, though leggings would be a last resort.

But definitely some kind of leg coverings.

So I obviously couldn't be a member of the 501st Strike Witches unit, because while they do wear flying canon rocket boot things, they don't wear pants. It is just all panties, all the time. Except when they are wearing bikini bottoms, which are basically underpants.

Maybe they should have called this Fan Service Witches, or Strike Panties, or the Magical Cat-Girl Panty Brigade. Cause its alot of panties, and for some reason whenever the characters use their witch powers, they all sprout cat ears and little tails. I'm sure that strikes fear into the hearts of the bad guys when the Panty Brigade attacks, panties on display and cat tails swishing.

Really?

Really.

Good grief.

#5: Dragonaut-The Resonance

In the Dragonaut future, everyone has silly hair.

Black, red, pink, orange, grey, fluffy, flowy, pointy, spiky, with bangs, with horns, with antenna.

Its all just ridiculous. It waves to the sides, it curls through the air.

It gets sillier as the show progresses.

In the Dragonaut future, women have big boobs and silly hair and wear a progression of bizarre outfits.

Actually, the men do to. Well, not the big boobs, but definitely the silly hear and progression of bizarre outfits.

Theoretically they also have dragons, but I haven't really seen proof of that yet. There are some hot chicks who bounce around saving people and hot naked chicks developing in bubbles and hot chicks driving around in cars. And there are demon things eating people and guys in uniforms plotting things and teenagers mouthing off.

But no dragons. Unless dragons are something other than what I'm thinking they are. And I was obsessed with dragons for years, so I'm pretty sure I know what they are. And I don't remember them having silly hair.

Oh well. This series isn't bad for what it is. Whatever it is.

Though I was excited about the dragons. I hope they show up soon.

Ooops - Where Do the Days Go?

I think weekends are out to get me.

I get sucked into long nights of watching Netflix and days of shopping and cooking and sometimes cleaning and playing and not being responsible.

The next thing I know its Monday again and I don't remember the time passing and I've missed entire days in a haze of being irresponsible and lazy.

Now I find that it is late Sunday night and I missed watching some anime on one of my weekend days so I'm behind.

I guess I'll have to make it up. Or maybe I'll just continue on from here and try not to miss another day.

Maybe I'll figure it out next weekend.

#4: Baccano

The music in this series reminds me alot of the music in Cowboy Bebop. Jazzy and smart and catchy. I loved Cowboy Bebop. It was one of my fave anime, and remains so to this day. Even though it made me cry like a little baby at the end, I still have warm fuzzy feelings for it.

So a series with music reminiscent one of my favorite series immediately gets affection from me.

But it needs to earn my love by its own merits.

Luckily Baccano starts off with blood, guts, graphic violence, and a presentation of characters both quick and titillating. There is some good stuff here within the first 20 minutes. I'm interested, I'll keep watching.

Unfortunately there are some bad points too. Some of the dubbed voices are really irritating.

But I'm still interested. I'll still keep watching.

At least for another episode or two.

#3: Ghost in the Shell-Stand Alone Complex, 2nd Gig

I just cried a little as the first episode of this series ended.

I cried a little and it was all over some goofy blue robots with cutesy voices who were excited to be given jobs with Section 9.

Yep, I cried for robots. I am just that much of a softy.

In my defense, they are very special robots, from a very special anime.

One of my very favorite anime, as a matter of fact. Starring one of my favorite anime characters.

Actually, Major Motoko Kusanagi is my absolute favorite anime character. My fave character period, really. She is my goddess, my ideal, my hero. She is everything I wish I could have grown up to be. She is strong, tough, smart, noble, ambitious, passionate, and gorgeous. She does not let others push her around, she makes her own rules about right and wrong, and she looks dang good in tight spandex outfits. It doesn't matter that she is animated and make-believe. I love her anyways.

And I love her series. It looks grown-up and slickly animated and dark enough for the subject matter. It works on alot of different levels.

And it made me cry. Which is points in its favor. Because I'm impressed when something can make me cry. Especially over happy robots.

#2: Black Butler

When did all anime become so .... pretty?

When did the colors become so shiny, and the characters so soft looking, and the style so .... pretty?

I don't remember ever thinking Ninja Scroll or Twilight of the Dark Master or Wicked City were pretty. Even girly anime like Sailor Moon and Fushigi Yugi had their rough edges.

You don't see a whole lot of rough edges in Black Butler. Character features are smooth and small, hair is artfully messy, eyes are luminous and sparkly. Flowers decorate monologues, stars accentuate bright ideas, and everything seems slightly .... soft.

Yep, soft. Pretty and soft.

As for the story of Black Butler, so far there was a butler with super ninja butler powers, a bunch of idiot servants, and a precocious but snotty rich kid who made some kind of deal with a devil. Aside from a creepy board game and business with throwing darts, there hasn't been a whole lot to catch my interest. I'll give it until the end of the second episode before I fully make up my mind whether I'm going to try the whole series though.

#1: Hetalia-Axis Powers

This series....is not what I expected.

Last year while attending Sakuracon I was introduced to "Hetalia." It was hard not to be, when it seemed to be the most popular costuming choice among cosplayers. After running into the sixth or seventh Germany character, I had a friend explain the basic idea behind the series and determined that at some point I would see it.

Then I didn't get around to it and didn't get around to it.

But today I found it on Netflix and decided that must be a sign that it is finally time to watch it.

And it has turned to not be what I expected. The episodes are only about five minutes long each, the colors are ultra bright and cheery, the characters are super cutesy, and the story is really silly. I think I might have learned something about history, but I'm not entirely sure because it was really, really silly.

Germany is friends with a stick, Italy is obsessed with pasta, and Japan wants to win WWII with the use of a giant robot (yep, a giant robot, of course, cause its Japan).

I like funny anime, really I do. But this might be a little much for me. It is just so bright and so cute and so ridiculous.

Then again, the episodes are only five minutes. I've seen four at this point, I suppose a few more won't hurt. I may cute overload though.

AnimeMia's One Year Mission

The plan is simple: I will watch a different anime every day for one year.

The follow-through is not so simple. I have tried this challenge before and only lasted about 30 days before I got behind. Then I tried to make it up by watching multiple anime a day and that became even more of a problem.

But I'm determined to try again. I love anime, I have access to tons of it through Netflix, the Internet, and the movie store. I have time and determination and I love to sit on my couch all day watching TV. This should, theoretically, be a breeze.

How can I call myself an anime fan if I can't manage such a simple (in theory) task? And I do call myself an anime fan. Since the dark ages when I had to scour hidden import stores in the shady corners of the city to find $30, poorly dubbed, VHS copies of "Ghost in the Shell" and "Akira," to the not-so-dark ages when I would record poorly dubbed episodes of "Sailor Moon" off early morning cable, to the not-even-close-to-dark ages when I could walk into any video store in town and find multiple shelves of anime on DVD, I have been a fan.

I love the artwork, the storylines, the long series and the sort films and the out of sync OAVs.

But I have gotten behind in the times. I don't even recognize most of the latest anime that have been released. The series that I fell in love with so long ago aren't even around anymore. It is time to get back into the fold and see what there is to see in this new and exciting world of anime where everything is accessible and where new stories are being told every day.

So here I go, ready and willing to be an ultimate fangirl fan once again. Ready or not, Anime, here I come!