#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!